Friday, May 27, 2016

"Tony Costa Sent Me To The Hospital" A Close Call for Ijaz Ahmad and the Allat Syndrome



That's right folks, you read that correctly! I sent Ijaz Ahmad to the hospital! No, I did not engage in any physical altercation with Ijaz to send him to the hospital. Apparently it was based on something I never said that caused Ijaz to convulse with laughter which triggered symptoms of a severe chronic illness which he has that landed him in a hospital.  What was it that I said that caused Ijaz such convulsions?
In a commentary piece where I was reviewing a debate I had with my good friend Sadat Anwar I spoke about the daughters of Allah in the Qur'an 53:19-20. I then made this statement, "Al-Lat is actually the feminine form of ‘Al-ilah’ or ‘Allah’". You can find the source in my commentary on paragraph 7 if you go here. I invite all my readers, including our Muslim friends to see my exact quotation for yourselves. With my statement a massive firestorm erupted with Ijaz with an incredible array of accusations which you can find in Ijaz's blog here. Some of Ijaz's accusations against me includes the following:

1) "Over the course of last night and this morning, I had the unfortunate experience of seeing Dr. Costa pretend to know the Arabic language...So basic was his error, everyone knew that he was pretending to know the Arabic language... Dr. Tony Costa pretending to know Arabic and failing at it, sent me to the hospital. Thank you Tony, thank you."


I have never pretended to know the Arabic language, nor did I make such a claim. In fact I openly admitted in my debate with Sadat Anwar that I am presently learning and studying Arabic. See my own comments at the debate video here (at 1:36:00). Please see my commentary and check if I ever made such a claim.


2) "To settle the matter, I simply asked Dr. Tony if he could kindly give me the morphology of the term آله. For anyone who has done more than one week of Arabic, you’d know how to derive the female from this root word. He was unable to do so, in fact, he outright refused to do so. Tony insisted that his finding the female of آله had nothing to do with using the root of the word."


Notice again that Ijaz is asking me to provide something I never said in my blog commentary.Why would I give the morphology of the term آله when I never addressed the forms of words in Arabic? I simply made the statement that Al-Lat [a pre-Islamic Arabian goddess pictured on the right corner above; picture from Ba‘alshamîn temple in Palmyra, first century A.D.] was the feminine form of Allah, and I will shortly provide the academic backing for this claim below. In fact, as we shall see, I am not the one who made up this statement nor am I the first to make it! Ijaz goes on to assert, "Tony insisted that his finding the female of آله had nothing to do with using the root of the word." Again, we shall see what the academics in the field have said. You will notice Ijaz is advancing arguments that have gone far beyond what I actually stated in blog article.


3) "Apparently Tony studied sarf (morphology) to the point where he does not use the root of words to derive their sexes and numerical forms. Considering you need to use root words to derive any other form of the word, I’m not sure what planet he believed he was on."


Again, where in my blog article did I say I studied "sarf (morphology)"? Ijaz is accusing me of something I never claimed or said.


So, what is the source for my claim that "Al-Lat is actually the feminine form of ‘Al-ilah’ or ‘Allah’"? Was I actually in error as Ijaz suggests for making this claim? Let's see what scholars have said on Al-Lat and Allah whether Al-Lat is the feminine form of Allah. All bold italics below are my own:


"The name Allah, as the Qur'an itself is witness, was well known in pre-Islamic Arabia. Indeed, both it and its feminine form, Allat, are found not infrequently among the theophorous names in inscriptions from North Arabia." - Arthur Jeffrey, Islam: Muhammad and His Religion (The Library of Religion; Volume 6; New York, N.Y.: Merrill, 1958), p. 85 


"The word vul'hiduna is used in the later Arabic for any form of atheism. The expression in the text means the perversion, as Muhammad called it, of the name Allah in the names of other allahs, such as Allat, the feminine form of the same word." - R. A. Nicholson, The Koran: The Holy Book of Islam with Introduction and Notes (trans. E. H. Palmer; Sacred Texts; London, U.K.: Watkins Publishing, 2012), Chap. VII n23.


"More important were the three goddesses of central Arabia: Manat ("Destiny"), Allat (feminine form of Allah), and Al' Uzza ("the Powerful"). Regarded as 'the daughters of Allah'". - Mircea Eliade, A History of Religious Ideas (trans. Alf Hiltebeitel and Diane Apostolos-Cappadona; Volume 3: From Muhammad to the Age of Reforms; Chicago, Ill / London: U.K.: University of Chicago Press, 1985),  p. 64


"a triple GODDESS associated with Arabian star-worship of Venus as the morning-evening star who is named briefly (Q 53:20) in the Qur'an as Allat (fem.[inine] of Allah, lit.[erally] "the Goddess") - Juan E. Campo, Encyclopedia of Islam (Encyclopedia of World Religions; New York, N.Y.: Facts on File, 2009), p. 343


"The second, treating al-Lāt as consort of Allāh or of his prototype II or El, simplifies the problem, taking al-Lāt to be a feminine form of Allāh or al-Ilāh, unnamed god of the pre-Islamic Arab pantheon." - Fahd, T.. "al-Lāt," in Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. Edited  by: P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel,  W.P.  Heinrichs. Brill Online, 2016. 

"Allat, the feminine of Allah, an idol mentioned in the Qur'an". - Friedrich Max Müller, Natural Religion  (London / New York: Longmans, Green, and Co.; 1889), p. 527 n1 


"Allat ('Goddess', the female counterpart of Allah)." - Kevin Butcher, Roman Syria and the Near East (Los Angeles, CA: Getty Publications, 2003), p. 340


Finally, Ibn Kathir in his Tafsir admits that Allat is the feminine form or Allah,

"<Have you then considered Al-Lat,> Al-Lat was a white stone with inscriptions on. There was a house built around Al-Lat in At-Ta'if with curtains, servants and a sacred courtyard around it. The people of At-Ta'if, the tribe of Thaqif and their allies, worshipped Al-Lat. They would boast to Arabs, except the Quraysh, that they had Al-Lat. Ibn Jarir said, "They derived Al-Lat’s name from Allah’s Name, and made it feminine. Allah is far removed from what they ascribe to Him. It was reported that Al-Lat is pronounced Al-Lat because, according to `Abdullah bin `Abbas, Mujahid, and Ar-Rabi` bin Anas, Al-Lat was a man who used to mix Sawiq (a kind of barley mash) with water for the pilgrims during the time of Jahiliyyah. When he died, they remained next to his grave and worshipped him." Al-Bukhari recorded that Ibn `Abbas said about Allah’s statement, …

Notice as well, that the name of the second goddess, al-Uzza, was also derived from one of Allah's names, i.e., al-Aziz:

"Ibn Jarir said, "They also derived the name for their idol Al-`Uzza from Allah’s Name Al-`Aziz. Al-`Uzza was a tree on which the idolators placed a monument and curtains, in the area of Nakhlah, between Makkah and At-Ta'if. The Quraysh revered Al-`Uzza.'' During the battle of Uhud, Abu Sufyan said, "We have Al-`Uzza, but you do not have Al-`Uzza." (Tafsir Source)

You will notice that Ijaz engaged in two well known fallacies. The first is known as ignoratio elenchi or as it is better known, a red herring argument. This fallacy is committed when one changes the subject or argues a point of irrelevance. All I did was make a statement which as noted above is supported by academic sources. Instead of engaging the sources, Ijaz charged me personally with not knowing Arabic (another fallacy known as argumentum ad hominem, attacking the person rather than the argument), and then veering off into Arabic morphology and root words, issues which I did not even raise or address in my article. In other words, Ijaz was arguing rom irrelevant material. 

The second fallacy is that of the straw man argument. This fallacy is committed when you attribute something false either by way of a position or belief to your opponent that he / she does not believe and then proceed to deconstruct the argument and claim you have won the debate. Ijaz argued I did not know Arabic, which I never claimed I did, and then he argued about Arabic morphology, issues again that I never raised. Once again I invite the careful reader to read my blog article and see where I claimed to know Arabic or Arabic morphology. When we engage with one another we should endeavor to represent each other accurately based on what has been published or written by either side and not by attributing or putting words in the other person's mouth. That is a gross misrepresentation. We don't win an argument by changing the subject, or by false characterization of one's opponent.

I call on all my Christian brothers and sisters to pray for Ijaz, that God may be merciful and bring healing to him, and most of all, that God will open his heart and draw him to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, that he may go from being a brother in Adam, to being a brother in Christ. That is my prayer and I trust it will be your as well.




13 comments:

CallingChristians.com said...

Hi Tony,

https://callingchristians.com/2016/05/27/tony-costa-syndrome/

Members of both the Maronite and Coptic Churches are willing to educate you on why you are wrong and to inform you that you are embarrassing Christians by pretending to understand basic Arabic.

I have also contacted the American Bible Society and they are willing to let you get in contact with their translation committees to help them fix the error you found in their Bibles going back to over 100 years in publication.

Regards,
Br. Ijaz Ahmad

Prasanna said...

Dear brother Tony,

Thanks for your honest and sincere efforts and desire to help Muslims like Ijaz whose expertise is in committing fallacies and wallowing in falsity. Perhaps it's because they are like blind following blind. May the true God open their yes and bring light to their path so that they can follow someone who knew where he was going.

By the way, both you and Ijaz cannot agree on the current issue for you follow scholars and Ijaz follows an illiterate poet!

Your brother in Christ

Nakdimon said...

Ijaz, while you are accusing Dr Costa of not knowing Arabic, you are demonstrating you have a hard time understanding English. After an entire blog post explaining himself, that he doesn't know and never has claimed to know Arabic, you are still accusing dr Costa of pretending to understand Arabic!

This is the modus operandi of Ijaz Ahmad. He just simply WILL NOT accept correction. I figured this out a long time ago when he was on the DL and dr White tried to show him his inconsistency about him claiming dr White doesn't know Greek because he once stumbled over recitung John 1:1 from memory, all the while refusing to hold Yasir Qadhi to the same standard when he fumbled an Arabic recitation of the Quran.

This guy is a sheer waste of time. And obviously I had some time to waste.

Unknown said...

Why does anyone continue to play with this admitted liar? Seriously why give what is sacred to dogs and continue to cast pearls at swine?

Reg Singh said...

Ijaz Ahmad may well be able to refute the evidence that Tony Costa has posted, but thus far this he has failed to do.

TPaul said...

There is a strong putrid smell of burning in Br.Ijaz's comment above.

Ironically instead of debunking Tony's meticulous refutation of his bogus claim that the obvious feminine counterpart of Allah in the personality of Allat is an invention of Costa's ignorance of the Arabic language, he goes on a different tangent to derail the a very impressive argument put forth by Tony.

Don't Islamic apologist have even a shred of integrity left within them to admit once in a while that they are wrong?

Reg Singh said...

Most Muslims are actually incapable of accepting correction. Muhammad's gruesome and insane depictions of the tortures of Allah's hell has frightened the excrement out of them. The result - SUBMISSION.

TAREK said...

Hi Ijaz!
I am glad to understand that you speak Arabic well perhaps very well. Since you have confident I would to challenge for a debate about islam between you and brother Christian Prince. Do not tell me that you did not see this post. I am waiting for and answer from you. It could take place on paltalk or Skype. This Challenge will go on you tube as well as Google. I am openly challenging you so that we can silence once and for all. If you say no to this challenge the whole world will hear about it and if you agree the world will get ready to watch the debate. So get ready Mr. Ijaz

Osama Abdallah said...

@Tarek,

I speak Arabic fluently, and I have refuted CP several times before. I accept your challenge under one condition. He can not be the Admin of the room. Every time he feels he's about to be exposed, red dots. This happened to me many times and it's on tape too.

So, if he accepts, name me the date and time and I'll be there to school him in public. His section on the website is:

http://www.answering-christianity.com/christian_prince_rebuttals.htm

Osama Abdallah

Osama Abdallah said...

@Tony Costa,

Anthony (Tony LOL) Rogers and Sam Shampoo tried to send me to the hospital. I ended up devastating both of them. It was caught on camera too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1D1z4oun6hc

See my fight with Shampoo inside the room. It was dramatic! LOL

Osama Abdallah said...

Actually it was me and Anthony in the cave. That's what I meant to say. Shampoo was like the book of Revelation's beast, with seven heads! LOOOOLLLLLL

chosenfaithful said...

There's no way Muslims can admit to the embarrassing errors, anachronisms, frauds and falsehood of Islam. Not unless they're honest and ready for the saving Truth. Islam and its prophet are such a calamitous sham, and Muslims are the unfortunate pitiable victims. May the Lord who died and rose for them too, have mercy and bring them into His saving light. In Jesus' precious peerless Name. Amen.

Foolster41 said...

"I speak Arabic fluently, and I have refuted CP several times before"

Says the guy who makes obviously false claims he can't back up about the bible (among others, claiming 1 Cor 5:5 means to kill unbelievers) and then runs away whenever confronted with the facts! Ha!