The Satanic Verses | Salman Rushdie

The Satanic Verses is the fourth novel of British-Indian writer Salman Rushdie. First published in September 1988, the book was inspired by the life of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. As with his previous books, Rushdie used magical realism and relied on contemporary events and people to create his characters.

The Satanic Verses is an incredible novel, vibrant but complicated to read. The changing style and monstrous density of the story are the two main obstacles to smooth reading. However, if you go beyond the first few troublesome pages, you will fall under the spell of this strange novel. Alternately, the novel explores all genres and many themes in a vibrant but particularly complex way. "A masterfully orchestrated crisis of faith, inaccessible but fascinating."

Through this provocative novel described as “blasphemous,” Salman Rushdie brought to light the “unspeakable” of the Muslim religion - making a mockery of the credibility of the Prophet Muhammad - abolishing the dichotomous ideas of religion (Good and Bad mix, Angels and Demons exchange their role) - attacking Islamic fundamentalism, through his writings the author questioned of the Muslim religion and its foundations.

“Respect for freedom of expression cannot require tolerance of the intolerable. It is the ideas, when they are harmful, that we must fight.”

Saladin and Gibreel, two men who do not know each other, survive a terrorist attack after a vertiginous fall in the English Channel from a plane. Their destiny then leads them on a quest for good and evil. It would take far too long to go into more detail about this novel which accumulates shocking, absurd events and unusual characters to confuse the reader.

What should be remembered from this novel are the ideas it advocates through this burlesque comedy. The author himself said, “Novels do not break the rules but ask questions.” And the question that is central to this book is, “what kind of idea are you?“ In other words, what are your personality and your beliefs based on? Why was it called blasphemous?

“The Eternal Struggle of Good and Evil. A novel that earned him a death sentence."

The stories of Mahound and Ayesha are presented as allegories inspired by religious events. However, what do we think when fables tell us that Mahound always consulted his angel Gibreel, the voice of truth, when needed? Mahound has several wives, one in each village he wants to convert. Is it wrong? He goes to see the archangel who comforts him in his actions. He does not like them showing too much personality. Never mind, Gibreel lays down a whole set of rules about what they should or should not do.

“Language is courage: the ability to conceive a thought, to speak it, and by doing so to make it true.”

I would say that Religion is only a tool of justification. “People were looking for ethical satisfactions in the oldest of the great stories, that is, religious faith.” In other words, man easily lends responsibilities to God and History to justify his actions.

Today we denounce elitism, repression of women, intolerance, and violence. It is true that in some time and space, these acts were justified, but today the same is considered to be a criminal offence.

“Now I know what a ghost is. Unfinished business, that's what.”

For this book which highlights the confused limits between Good and Evil, Salman Rushdie was threatened with death. The “Fatwa,” a religious decree of death, was launched against him by Ayatollah Khomeini, the first supreme leader of Iran, and a huge reward was promised to whoever assassinated him. Khomeini asserted, “Rushdie must be killed.” He was accused of being responsible for the deaths of Pakistani protesters, even though the book had not even appeared in that country. Under the protection of the British secret services for more than ten years, the fatwa had finally been lifted. But now, he has been attacked. The investigation is ongoing, and as for Salman Rushdie, he is recovering slowly.

In my thought, this is a book on which it is better to form your own opinion, and, although Salma Rushdie’s style is particularly confusing, it is really interesting to dwell on all the subtleties of this novel which had the merit of saying aloud what that most people think.

“So India’s problem turns out to be the world’s problem. What happened in India has happened in God’s name. The problem’s name is God.”

“One of the most talked about books of the last ten years (on which) it seems important to form your own opinion.”-The World.