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Salams,

I was very shocked at this respected sheikh defending the book and author who insulted the Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) and Sayyidina Ali (RA):


Sheikh defends insulter

Here is part of the article:
Dante Alighieri. A thirteenth century Christian philosopher, poet and supposed literary theorist. The case is that often a literary genius’ brilliance is misunderstood and is perceived as being politically incorrect or incoherent with the social and religious ideals of the time. However, in said individual’s case his works are often laden with pure sacrilegious ‘humour’, hence the reason one of his most prominent works is entitled Divina Commedia ‘The Divine Comedy.’ Dante, apart from being a staunch critic of Islam (as will become clear soon), was also criticised by ‘men of the cloth’ of his own tradition, of having committed blasphemy and treachery.

More demanding of our attention however; is Dante’s despicable portrayal of the Messenger of Allah (Peace be upon him) & Mawla Ali (May Allah ennoble his noble face) as being denizens of the inferno. Wal Iyadhu bi Allah! His ‘Inferno’ is an account of his symbolic journey into the depths of hell, where he encounters several prominent figures each being tormented for immoral crimes they committed whilst in the material world. Each circle which Dante explores brings forth an individual who was committed for indulging in a particular vice. Upon entering the circle of the fraudsters and schismatics, Dante falsely asserts that he encountered the Messenger of Allah (Peace be upon him) & Mawla Ali (May Allah ennoble his noble face). Regarding the two he writes:

“No barrel, not even one where the hoops and staves go every which way, was ever split open like

one frayed Sinner I saw, ripped from chin to where we fart below.

His guts hung between his legs and displayed His vital organs, including that wretched sack Which

converts to **** whatever gets conveyed down the gullet.

As I stared at him he looked back And with his hands pulled his chest open, Saying, “See how I

split open the crack in myself! See how twisted and broken Mohammed is! Before me walks Ali, his

face Cleft from chin to crown, grief–stricken.”

The above has been taken from Seth Zimmerman’s contemporary translation of Dante’s Inferno.

However, even more doctrinally problematic is Hamza Yusuf’s self proclaimed defence of Dante’s blasphemous portrayal of the Messenger of Allah (Peace be upon him):

“[Speaking of the eighth circle] and then soars of scandals and schism. This is where unfortunately

for Muslims he has the Prophet Muhammad with Ali…now I want to… and I… you know… It is

difficult for me but I would like to defend a little bit Dante. Dante… Dante put him in… in… among

the schismatics, there is another group in the heritage world where the false prophets were he is

not… I’m sorry not in the uh… not in the uh… the false prophets are in the…uh… they’re in the

eight circle, I think they’re in the first bolgia. He does not put them in with the false prophets, he

puts him with the schismatics. Now the schismatics are the Eastern churches, and this in essence

acknowledging that these are believers, but they saw schism was actually… because it created

violence and rupture in society. It’s also not a disease of fraud, and this is pointed out by the

commentators in Dante, he puts him here because the fraud is in their own misperception of the

world…this…this is how he does it. And I also want to say that these people that he puts here are

not the people, and that’s why people say ‘He put his enemies in Hell and he was just cruel’… no

these are personifications, he is personifying the idea of schism and that was something very close

to a deeply divided world between Christians and Muslims, who were fighting then as

unfortunately we are know. And then he puts the falsifiers…” [09:00 onwards]