In the April, 1997 issue of Submitters Perspective, an article titled
"Pilgrimage: Hajj and Umrah" made me concerned about the direction of this community. The author, in that article repeatedly asked the reader to
REMEMBER "the duties of the Messenger of the Covenant," a messenger who repeatedly asked people to remember that accepting anything besides the Quran as a religious source was shirk. Where could a person find the duties of "the Messenger of Covenant?" Sure, the students of the Quran know well that there is no such list of duties in the Quran. The author, in his
article written on religious matters, was repeatedly asking his reader to
REMEMBER a source besides the Quran.

A messenger might have had many duties and he might have listed them
somewhere, but it is not the duty of Muslims (Submitters) to memorize or
keep remembering the list of a particular messenger's duties. Their duty is
to follow God's word alone and reject any other source or authority besides
it.  It does not matter if the associated source is in written or oral.
They are supposed to dedicate the religion to God alone (98:5).

If we keep reminding each other of the words and writings of the late
messenger, our children and grandchildren would most likely follow our
advise and would remind each other of religious authorities besides the
Quran, and as the sign of hypocrisy or ignorance, they might also be
parroting the motto, "The Quran, the whole Quran, and nothing but the
Quran."

Distinguishing their messenger's hadith from that of the previous
messenger's through pseudo differences does not change the fact that
accepting anything besides the Quran as another authority is shirk, Period.
There is no difference between orally narrated hadith that we cannot verify
and that which is transmitted in print or by video tapes, which presumably
we might be able to verify. Sayings or writings of messengers might be
treated differently regarding their authenticity, but our rejection of
Hadith and Sunnah was not based merely on their unreliability, but
primarily on the fact that messengers were  not another authority or even
teachers of God's religion.

Abusing the authority of prophets and messengers, and presenting their
words or writings as an other authority besides God's word is one of the
most common and repeated blunders of "Submitters" of many generations.
Unfortunately, our community has not been different. We have witnessed some so-called Submitters claiming the infallibility of "the Messenger of the
Covenant." We have witnessed published articles claiming that "Kitab" (The
Book) mentioned in the Quran refers to BOTH the Quran and Rashad's
translation.

We have seen people claiming that the video and audio tapes of "the Messenger of the Covenant" are necessary sources besides the Quran, in addition to his three versions of translation, footnotes, subtitles,
appendices and articles, thereby making him a "prophet" with new
revelations.  We have seen "Submitters" promoting  ridiculous
interpretations to justify clear errors and contradictions in Rashad's
translation. We have heard outrageous misinterpretations of the claim
"authorized translation" as if it meant that every word and letter of
Rashad's translation were divine, including the revised and re-revised
versions.

Attributing human errors and contradictions to our Lord, the
Omniscient, is not something to take lightly (6:21; 6:93; 6:144; 7:37;
10:17; 11:18; 29:68). We have seen people trying to freeze God's universal
message with snap-shot understanding of a human messenger. We have seen people disoriented because of their insistence on following the Sunnah of "the Messenger of the Covenant" instead of indisputable facts.

Despite all this mass reversion to shirk (associating partners to God),
sure with a different idol and a different excuse, we have yet to see a
single article in the Submitters Perspective criticizing this popular trend
in this small community.  Muhammedans who idolized Muhammad after his
departure did exactly the same. While they repeatedly reminded each other
of the duties and the words of "the Final Prophet" they focused their
criticism on Christians and Jews. In fact, they were repeating the same
great blunder with a few minor changes.

They ignored the warnings of monotheists who soon became a minority and they oppressed or suppressed their voice. Unfortunately, our community has not taken heed from this history and it is failing the divine test designed for every generation (29:2). While we criticize Muslim's addiction with mentioning Muhammad besides God in their religious articles and books, we also feel a compelling urge to insert Rashad's title "the Messenger of the Covenant" in our speeches and writings.

"Is God not sufficient for His servant?. . ." (39:36)

Well, should we remind those who follow the appendices, footnotes,
subtitles, video and audio tapes of Rashad, one of the Sunnah of their
messenger, like we remind Muhammedans of their own Hadith and Sunnah to expose their contradiction? Why not? Do you REMEMBER the only verse that was hanging on Rashad's office door for many years until  his
assassination? Wasn't it 39:36? Also remember that 39:36 was the only verse that is underlined in his translation. And should I remind them of another hadith? Remember Appendix 19 of the Messenger of Covenant; what does it say about you? Do you remember Rashad's book "Quran, Hadiths and Islam?" Have you applied it to yourself?

Besides creating modern versions of Hadith and Sunnah, some are trying
their best to distort, pervert and dilute the great mathematical miracle of
the Quran. As we know that some members of this community abused the
mathematical code of the Quran with the unforgettable May 19, 1990 doomsday prophecy and they keep abusing it with their mathematical illiteracy. Some of them did not take heed from their blunder. Now they employ the same childish numerical manipulations to find more mathematical evidence for the messengership of a dead person. One of those doomsday prophets even claimed a divine rank through his childish calculations. Incredibly, he finds followers and supporters within this community.

We have become extremely tolerant to the mushriks (those who set partners
to God) among us. Probably, because of being trapped in cult-syndrome: we share the same unifying symbol, Rashad Khalifa, or "the Messenger of
Covenant," equivalent to Muhammedans' repeated expression "Muhammad
Sallallahu Aleyhi Wasallam." This cult or sectarian syndrome is addressed
by an interesting Quranic verse:

"Are your disbelievers better than those disbelievers? Have you been
absolved by the Scripture?" (54:43).

After Rashad's death, the fallible human messenger suddenly became an
infallible messenger and all his work with all re-visions, contradictions
and errors magically became another divine revelation. The devils who
concocted or hoped such a mutation, in order to replace Rashad's
translation with the original Quran, expunged the original from the
translation. To imply an exclusive divine revelation, they also removed the
name of those whom Rashad acknowledged for their assistance and
contribution to the translation.

In brief, members of this community are replacing the Hadith and Sunnah of
Muhammad with Rashad's Appendices, footnotes, subtitles, audio and video tapes. Some of those who were addressing their messenger with his first name (Rashad) during his lifetime, soon after his departure, they developed a taboo against mentioning his first name. Muhammedans and those who repeat their blunder cannot commemorate their idols' names without words of praise or rank. Are we going to follow the footsteps of previous generations? What a miserable convergence! What a regression!:

"Surely, those who slide back, after the guidance has been manifested to
them, the devil has enticed them, and has misled them." (47:25)

We cannot standby the repetition of the worst part of the history. If we
cannot burn the new calf and throw it into the sea like Moses did, we might
be required to repeat Saleh's words (7:79) to our people soon.

This Ultimatom is endorsed by the following people:

Apameh Bashar
Mahmoud Abib
Shawki Hamdan
Milan Sulc
Saeed Talari
Sadruddin Karimboy
Ali Fazeli
Cathryn Kolton
Sanobar Tafazoli
Maryam Jenna
Barbara Jeen
Yasser Elkadi
Hamid Baghdishi
Fransisco Lay
Daniel Lay
Aisha Musa
JOHN SPOONER
Hossein Kowsary
Ramtin Ghazi
Haroon Khan
 

PS:
2. If you would like to put your name on the list above please let us know.
1. The author has decided to prepare "19 Questions For Khalifites," as a
next project, God willing.