Rushdie Haunted by his unholy Ghosts — Page 105
Rushdie: Haunted By His Unholy Ghosts 105 Farsi should assist. This was put to the Holy Prophet(sa), who ob- served with a smile: ‘Salman is neither Emigrant nor Ansar; he is a member of my family and is one of us. ’ From that time onwards Salman was always known as a mem- ber of the Holy Prophet’s family. This clearly shows the lofty posi- tion of Salman Farsi in the history of Islam, yet in Rushdie’s mind this doesn’t have the slightest effect, for it is the very pearls of Islam that he seeks to defile. The worst treatment is meted out to the Holy Prophet(sa) himself and his wives. Islamic teachings are ridiculed, and Islamic personalities are trashed. In his crusade for freedom of expression, Rushdie has left common courtesy by the wayside, showing not even the slightest concern for the feelings of his fellow beings. F U RT H E R ALLEGAT IONS AGA I NST T H E PROP H E T Going back to the Satanic Verses, matters relating to polygamy and the alleged licentiousness of the Holy Prophet(sa) have also been treated with the most potent poison: ‘In spite of the ditch of Yathrib, the faithful lost a good many men in the war against Jahilia. . . And after the end of the war, hey presto, there was the Archangel Gibreel instructing the surviving males to marry the widowed women. . . . . Salman cried, we were even told it didn’t matter if we were already married, we could have up to four marriages if we could afford it, well, you can imagine, the lads really went for that. What finally fi nished Salman with Mahound: the question of the women; and of the Satanic verses. Listen, I’m no gossip, Salman drunkenly confided, but after his wife’s death Mahound was no angel, you understand my meaning. . . . Those women up there: they turned his beard half-white in a year. . . . he went for mothers and daughters, think of his first wife and then Ayesha: too old and too young, his two loves. ’ (p. 366).