Download the Book - Islam and Science Fiction

goal: peer approval. I was ready to destroy the world for a pat on the
back.
Among the warnings most often repeated in the Koran is the
admonition not to sell your soul for a little price.
Oh, I am repentant enough now. But religious scholars say
deathbed conversions are unlikely to make up for a lifetime of
hideous wrongs. God is All-Powerful. He can forgive whomever He
chooses. He could certainly forgive me. I doubt He will. I say
without reservation that if I were God I would condemn one such as
myself to the lowest level of Gehenna. Had I been deemed worthy of
saving, surely He would have changed my course, as He no doubt did
for Zeid.
I do not expect to save myself from eternal damnation by making
this confession, but perhaps the fires of Hell will be just a few degrees
cooler for me. Certainly, compounded over eternity, that would
amount to a sizeable savings.
I will also draw a scant bit of comfort in knowing that a specially
constructed and especially horrible place, in a realm of unimaginable
agony, awaits the one who now calls himself "Mahdi." It is not for a
prophet to be fraudulent. He was warned in the Koran that pretending
to write its like assures him no better a fate. Apart from that, he was
prepared to destroy one of God's grander works, and with it the true
followers of the Faith. We are warned that Hell is guaranteed for one
who willfully slays a believer.
And so I also welcome the delay in my sentencing because I now
fear what comes after death as never before. If I could make amends,
undo the wrongs I have done, and thus escape eternal torment, by
dying, I would do so gladly. But such are my crimes that there is
hardly anything meaningful I can offer but my warnings.
While on the subject, let me say I have followed with some
amusement the argument that divides you now, on whether you should
impose the penalty of capital punishment. Of course you should. I
should be hung, drawn, and quartered. I should be boiled in oil. I
should be burned at the stake. Simultaneously, if at all possible. It is
nothing compared to what awaits me afterwards. When I go, you can
expect that it will be kicking and screaming. You may put it off as
long as possible, if you please.
To my wayward comrades, I implore you to mend your ways.
Should any of you be considering another such foolish act of piracy,
forget it. One way or another, you will certainly fail. Open your eyes,
and find the Path, plain as day to those who will look.
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