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This is a story I recently encountered about the Ethiopian running legend Mamo Wolde, 1968 Olympic Gold Medallist, and a pioneer of Ethiopia's long line of great long distance athletes. It is written by a contemporary of his, who became a journalist for Sports Illustrated. I found it deeply moving.Edit: It is not a short article, and I could have summarised it. I did not because in this world of soundbites, an article such as this, unfolding without haste with passion, insight and integrity, is something I felt unqualified to edit.The Ordeal of Mamo WoldeBy Kenny MooreMamo Wolde, 1968 Olympic Gold Medalist in the MarathonThere's a story all Ethiopia treasures, in which I now learn I had a bit part. It's how their primal champion, Abebe Bikila, having won the 1960 Rome Olympic marathon barefoot (symbolically avenging Mussolini's invasion of Ethiopia in the 1930's), and having won the 1964 Tokyo Olympic marathon in a world record, then set out in the thin air of Mexico City in 1968 to win three Olympics in a row.Your narrator, then 24, green and idolatrous, ran at Bikila's side in the early miles, through a claustrophobic gantlet of screaming, clutching Mejicanos locos. Once, Bikila, protecting his line before a turn, even gave me an elbow. I wanted to say there was no way I'd ever drive him into that crowd, but knew no Amharic. He had tape above one knee.Any Ethiopian child can tell you too that Bikila was running hurt. After ten miles, he turned and beckoned to an ebony wraith of a teammate, Mamo Wolde, the 10,000-meter silver medalist and a fellow officer in Emperor Haile Selassie's palace guard. Wolde wove through the pack to Bikila's side. I wouldn't know for 34 years what they said, but it was:"Lieutenant Wolde.""Captain Bikila.""I'm not finishing this race.""Sorry, sir.""But Lieutenant, you will win this race.""Sir, yes sir.""Don't let me down."Wolde, thinking some runners were out of sight ahead, took off. None was, but until the tape touched his chest, he couldn't be sure. He won relieved, by a masterful three minutes.I got blisters. I'd wrapped our trainer's new "breathable" adhesive tape around the balls of my feet, where it breathed in the lanolin I'd dabbed on my toes, came unstuck and rolled up until I was running on ridges of fire. I sat down in Chapultapec Park and took off my shoes. A crowd of campesinos surrounded me. I ripped the tape off one foot. The white canvas of their pants was instantly spattered with scarlet. The skin had come away with the tape. I did the other one, got my shoes back on, hobbled until I bled out and went numb, passed people the rest of the way and finished 14th. You had to ask.Thus I was in the stadium tunnel, a weeping nurse spraying my feet with merthiolate, when Abebe Bikila emerged from an ambulance. He caught Wolde's eye, came to attention and saluted. Wolde, mission accomplished, crisply returned it. Wolde's victory meant his country hadn't produced a lone prodigy, but a succession. Wolde had made the marathon Ethiopia's own. Not that I remember caring. The next Olympics would be at sea level in Munich and Wolde would be pushing 40.Wolde went home, had his portrait enshrined among the Olympic rings atop his national stadium and eventually would inspire Olympic champions Miruts ("Yifter the Shifter") Yifter, Derartu Tulu, Fatuma Roba, Gezahegne Abera and Haile Gebreselassie. The tale of Captain Bikila's order to the good soldier Wolde became legend in Ethiopia, but I didn't hear about it until last April, when Wolde recalled I was one of the runners he passed to reach Bikila's ear. What took so long? A little matter of the revered champion being made to rot in the Ethiopian Central Prison for nine years.You are quick to ask why. Join the club. We'll get to that, to Wolde's great purgation, but let's linger with him as long as we can back before the fall, before he was overtaken by the monumental anguish of his nation.Wolde and I ran almost stride for stride in the Munich marathon in 1972. With five miles to go we were dueling for second, a minute behind Frank Shorter. Wolde was as soft of foot and breath as an Abyssinian cat. The only way I knew he was even there was that distinguished widow's peak bobbing at my shoulder. Occasionally our shoes brushed. "Sorry," Wolde said each time.On a rough path in the English Garden, a dehydration cramp shot up the back of my right thigh. Wolde watched me slow and grab my hamstring. He ran on. Then he turned and gave me a look I would never forget. His face filled with regret. It was as if he were saying this is all wrong, we were supposed to race in together and the stronger take the silver and the other the bronze. In fact, Belgium's Karel Lismont caught us both and finished second. Wolde took the bronze. I followed in fourth, 30 seconds behind.Shorter, stunned at his triumph, embraced me. "I thought at least I had bronze," I croaked. "Wolde took my bronze."Then Wolde and I shook hands, departed the terror-stricken Munich Olympics and returned to absurdly opposite worlds.He went home to Addis Ababa, was promoted to captain himself and promised a nice house. He never got it, because in November of 1974, his Emperor, Haile Selassie, the former Ras Tafari, The Lion of Judah, age 83, was suffocated in his bedchamber and his 59 top ministers, admirals and generals lined up against a prison wall and machine-gunned. For the next seventeen years, a fanatic paranoid named Mengistu Haile Mariam changed Ethiopia from a feudal empire to a Marxist dictatorship known as The Derg. (Amharic for committee)"The Derg, with Soviet backing, ran with a ruthlessness unsurpassed in Africa," wrote John Ryle in The New Yorker in 1995. Regional governors were known as "The Butcher of Tigray" or "The Butcher of Gondar." Revolutionary Guards killed tens of thousands suspected of disloyalty. Derg morgues turned a profit. To claim the body of a loved one, a family had to reimburse the government for the bullets used in the execution. More holes meant more revenue, so death squads observed a two-bullet minimum.Wolde, being Imperial staff, seemed in mortal danger. His medals saved him. He was ordered to take a lowly position in a local kebele, a sort of neighborhood council that Derg officials also used to spy on, detain or torture counter-revolutionaries. Wolde was allowed to coach a few runners in return for being trotted out in uniform with his gold medal to impress dignitaries. He married Aymalem Beru and in 1976 they had a son, Samuel. When kebele staff meetings were ordered for Sunday mornings to keep party members from going to church, Wolde slipped out at dawn to attend Ethiopian Orthodox services. Aymalem died in 1987. Two years later, Wolde married young, adoring Aberash Semhate. They had two more children, Adiss Alem Mamo and Tabor Mamo.None of this I knew. Distant, xenophobic Ethiopia was perpetual mystery, strife-torn and impoverished on the news, but there was effervescent little Yifter winning the 5,000 and 10,000 in the Moscow Olympics in 1980. I happened to do stories from Idi Amin's Uganda, from Somalia before the Marines went in, and from Algeria at the beginning of the radical Islamic terror that has now killed 120,000. People in all of them said Ethiopia was worse.In 1984, rural Ethiopians were dying by tens of thousands from famine. Mengistu concealed it. When relief agencies finally discovered the starvation and aid poured in, Mengistu kept it from needy rebel areas and sold Ethiopia's grain to buy Soviet arms. He was responsible for roughly one million deaths.Yet by 1989, things were stable enough for Wolde to take a trip out to Houston to be honored by the Ethiopian Sports Federation of North America, a soccer and cultural group. His host was Mengesha Beyene, who now lives in Washington D.C. "He was a great storyteller," says Beyene. "He said a fan had come up to him and said, "I love you!' And he'd said, "Lady, 'love' means 'sweat' in Amharic. Don't say 'love.' Don't put your 'love' on me.' He had us roaring."I never heard of that visit, or of Wolde's wit and presence. I never knew him at all. Our only conversation had been our silent struggle in Munich.In 1991, the Derg was finally overthrown by the forces of the Tigrayan-dominated Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Party (EPRP). A week before Addis fell, Mengistu fled to Zimbabwe. He has never been brought to justice.But the new government caught 2,000 suspected authors of the Red Terror and created a special prosecutor's office to try them. In 1992, Wolde, too, was locked in the Ethiopian Central Prison. Word, however, was slow to escape.Mamo Wolde prior to his incarceration in 1989In 1995, I was jerked to my feet by an Amnesty International report that Wolde had been imprisoned for three years without even being charged with a crime. Amnesty had seen no evidence he was involved in any human rights abuses, and appealed to the prosecutor to either charge or release him and all others in his situation. Ethiopia did neither, refusing even to say what he was suspected of. When the International Olympic Committee demanded an explanation, it was told to back off and "await the verdict of the court."I wanted to go to Ethiopia. I remember Shorter, a lawyer and a friend, wondering, uh, just how well we knew Wolde. I felt we knew enough. A gold medal doesn't guarantee perfection, but what is more basic to the Olympics than forsaking violence? Besides, marathoners don't burn others. We burn ourselves. Ideals were involved here. If this guy was a stone killer, it would kill ME. But the only way to know was to go find out.An indispensable ally was 1972 Olympic 800-meter bronze medalist Mike Boit, who was then Kenya's sports commissioner. He urged me to come down to Nairobi, where he got me an Ethiopian tourist visa. He said the Kenyan government would love to hear what I learned about Wolde's plight.And so, on a rainy day in August, 1995, the stalwart photographer Antonin Kratochvil and I landed in Addis Ababa for Sports Illustrated. Kratochvil is a combative soul, but shooting the genocide in Rwanda had sensitized him to the risk of violence. I said I trusted him not to take too many chances."Give me your little plastic camera," he said. "I can hide it in my scarf when we go to the prison."Maybe trust is too strong a word.First, we called the Special Prosecutor's office. Spokesman Abraham Tsegaye blandly said Wolde was going to be charged with, "taking part in a criminal act, a killing. "I went queasy. I had come all that way on the strength of a backward glance. Suddenly it seemed childishly sentimental."Did Mamo Wolde have access to a lawyer?""Not now. Not until he is charged.""If I was detained for three years without charge, I'd sure have a lawyer.""Well, in your country, every time you shake hands with someone, you need a lawyer. In Ethiopia it's not such a way."He said he had no authority to let me visit Wolde, and hung up. Kratochvil took a look at my waxen face and asked a question that turned everything around. "Does Mamo have a wife?"Did he ever. Slender, doe-eyed and resolute, Aberash Wolde-Semhate, then 24, welcomed us into their mud and stick home off a rocky lane, behind a sheet metal wall. Son Tabor, then three, gave me a brave, cold, trembling little handshake. Adiss Alem, five, showed us Wolde's gold and silver medals from Mexico City.The wood floors were smooth and clean. Frankincense was in the air. Aberash poured us glasses of talla, home-brewed beer, and solemnly apologized for Wolde not being able to welcome us himself. When I admitted I didn't really know him, we looked at a photo album and she sketched his history. He was born in 1932 in Ada, south of Addis Ababa, and was of the Oromo tribe. She had met him when she was 17, after his first wife died. "When I was in school, I ran a little, not seriously," she said. "But I read about and I loved them both, our heroes, Abebe Bikila and Mamo."She dropped her eyes, a little embarrassed. The simple, rustic room and Aberash's tender loyalty hardly suggested a totalitarian absentee master. I took heart and asked her about the case. She said Wolde was being framed."Here is what happened," she said. "It was 1978, at the height of the terror. Mamo said one night he was ordered (by a top kebele official) to put on his uniform, with his pistol, and go to a nightclub. Mamo thought this was protocol, that he was to meet an important visitor. When he got there, he saw the official and some others had a boy with his hands tied. He was about 15. He might have been in some youth group, fighting against the Derg. [Reuters reported his name to be Samuel Alemo] The official took the boy out and shot him. Then they told Mamo to go to the body of the boy. At first he refused, but at that time to refuse an official was to be dead yourself, so finally he went. The boy was dead. The official told Mamo to shoot the body again, because there had to be two holes. The policy. Mamo said he went to ten feet away and shot and purposely missed. Lots of people saw him miss. In 1992, [when the court took testimony] many witnesses said Mamo didn't kill anybody. Only one accused him. The official who shot the boy wants to blame Mamo to save himself. The prosecutors say they have to keep him in detention until they bring charges, but they never do. He just waits."The Wolde Aberash described had acted as I imagined I might if plunged into such grotesque choices. I began to revive.Wolde had been briefly allowed out of prison twice, once when he was ill. Each time he stayed right in Addis Ababa with his family. This was infuriating, because it proved he was no risk to flee. "He wants to go to trial," said Aberash. "He wants to clear his name."Meanwhile, he'd had bronchitis, hearing loss and liver problems. Prison meals were terrible, but families were allowed to bring in food. "We are lined up in a field, six feet apart, with two fences in between," said Aberash. "I think Sunday you should come along."The End of The World Prison was ten blocks of post-apocalyptic depression. Rusty, corrugated metal walls surrounded cement barns. It seemed you could level the whole thing with a D-9 Cat in half an hour. In the shelter of a crumbling plaster watchtower, guards lounged in thin blue overcoats, their eyes locking instantly on us, the faranjoch, the foreigners. We joined perhaps 200 visitors in an open shed. Twenty at a time were being allowed in. Kratochvil did have my camera in his scarf and was blazing away at prison and people. I felt a wild hope. We just might waltz in here.But when we moved with Aberash toward the gate, we were cut out as if we were hyenas among goats. Kratochvil's camera was seen, and we were encircled by guards yelling that foreigners were never allowed in a prison. It was a national security offense. "Everybody in every country," they repeated, "HAD to know taking pictures of prisons was FORBIDDEN."One guard, a wasted man with crippled hand, kept shouting we were cunning foreigners and it was their duty to ignore everything we said and arrest us. Finding himself in the minority, he held out for summoning higher authority. So we were ordered through the gate and put on a bench in the courtyard. "Now WE are detained," said Kratochvil.We waited, watching the visiting family members being searched. The female guards going over female visitors ran a hand up under skirts and deep into crotches. A pair of eagles wheeled overhead. Never have they seemed so free. We could see the wall against which Haile Selassie's government ministers were executed. A familiar question arose. What the hell was I doing here? The answer came more easily than on the road. I was trying to let Wolde know he wasn't forgotten. Besides, how brutal could a night in an Ethiopian prison be if Mamo had done a thousand of them?As if in answer, a guard slammed a magazine into his AK-47 and watched our reaction. The mechanism sounded glossily ancient. Surely it had a hair trigger. A certain calm was required. I sought it by concentrating on Wolde, and I was back running with him in Munich. This time, when my cramp hit and he turned, I imagined him saying, "Hold on. Hold on."A major Neguesse roared in in a pickup. All deferred to him. The whites of his eyes were the color of strawberry freezer jam, presumably from chewing khat. He heard our story and called his boss.We waited four more hours, the man with the crippled hand whining ever more hysterically for our heads. They kept asking for our passports, to prove who we were. We'd left them at our hotel. Finally, we were given an escort there, a huge armored vehicle with six guards. You should have seen the face of the Hilton doorman when we all pulled in. While I diverted the officers, Kratochvil flushed his film of the prison. The major confiscated our passports, and said, ominously, we would talk the next day.The next day, we didn't wait. We went to the top. We went to the dreaded Ministry of Internal Affairs and threw ourselves on the mercy of its chief, a Ms. Mahete, a sour, angular, Tigrayan woman in a red dress. At the moment our interpreter said I had run against Wolde in the Olympics, her expression softened. She held up a hand, made a call and dictated a letter. In a stroke of impossible luck, we had permission to visit Wolde.At the prison we held up the letter like a cross before a vampire. The gate rolled open. The guards who had terrified us before shrank back against the walls, terrified. Major Neguesse bowed us in and begged to be forgiven. He was."Well, then," he said. "Let us see your friend."We were led down a rocky path toward a two-story building. Guards were coming down a staircase. Among them was a slender man in a green and white sweater, with a distinguished widow's peak.I threw aside my guards. He fought through his. We embraced on the steps. He was bony but warm, strong and excited."It all comes back," he said. "You had a goatee. Oh, THANK you from my family for this! Remember me to the Olympic brothers.""You ARE remembered!" I said, and poured out the good wishes of the IOC and friends, including a standing invitation to run or be grand marshal of the Honolulu Marathon.Wolde, thunderstruck, said, "These are words from God.""Well, Jim Barahal and Jon Cross. Now what do you NEED?""All I need is to get out, re-make my mud house in stone and live with my children in safety."We had maybe eight minutes together. Then he grabbed my forearms. "It restores my soul," he said. "It is something I can feel in my body, that people outside the country remember." They led him back upstairs.Watching him go, I thought of what a slender thread had brought me there. But this time it was my turn to look back and cry out that this was wrong, this isn't the way things should be happening.I poured all that into my SI article. As a result, the Christmas season of 1995 cemented my faith in human nature. Every mail brought copies of letters people had sent to the prosecutor, reminding him that justice delayed is justice denied. One was from an Indiana prison administrator, Thomas D. Hanlon, who said all 7,000 of HIS prisoners had been charged, tried, convicted and sentenced. Until Ethiopia did the same for Wolde, "You are committing an injustice toward the individual and a disservice to those of us charged with operating prisons in a humane manner."Schools and churches adopted Wolde in letter-writing campaigns. Athletes United for Peace, headed by Olympic long jumper Dr. Phil Shinnick and ex-49ers quarterback Guy Benjamin, flooded the U.N. Human Rights Commission with appeals, as did the National Council of Churches.Mike Boit had made a stab at high level diplomacy, having me brief an advisor to Kenyan president Daniel Arap Moi on Wolde's situation, in the hope Moi might nudge Ethiopian prime minister Meles Zenawi to free him because of his age and ill health. It didn't happen, maybe because Moi was then defiantly harboring some Hutu ringleaders of the genocide in Rwanda. Wolde sat.Many Olympic brothers weren't content to write. The most unexpectedly galvanized was Bill Toomey, the 1968 Olympic decathlon champion. Toomey, a great salesman and raconteur, has never been accused of taking life too seriously. But something clicked. As president of the Association of U.S. Olympians, Toomey recruited two-time 800-meter champion Mal Whitfield (who had coached Wolde in Ethiopia) and former Assistant Commerce Secretary Carlos Campbell to urge our State Department to press for Wolde's release on bail.Toomey then postponed his honeymoon, went to Switzerland and hit up IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch for help. Samaranch, touched, made Toomey the IOC point man on the Wolde case, gave him a check to take to Aberash, and wrote a letter appealing for Wolde's freedom and inviting him to be a guest of the IOC at the Atlanta Olympics.Toomey ran with it, stopping in Nairobi to pick up 1968 Olympic 1500-meter champion Kip Keino, inarguably Africa's greatest sporting ambassador. In May of 1996, they descended upon Addis Ababa. Toomey called to report."My life has changed!" he yelled. "I'm finally doing something important! On the way to the special prosecutor's office, I'm in a new, thousand-dollar Brooks Brothers suit and a passing car hits a puddle and I'm SOAKED through the window! Kip howled and took over. God, he's the man there. The minister of justice was almost in tears at the sight of Kip Keino in his office. And Kip set it up beautifully. He said, "In three months, three billion people are going to watch the Atlanta Olympics. It's the 100th anniversary of the modern marathon, and they're going to see the great contributions Ethiopian runners have made. And then they're GOING TO SEE THE MISERY OF MAMO WOLDE.' That had an effect. They said they'd try to let him out for a day or two. I said, "The Olympics are 16 days.'"We got 35 minutes with Mamo in prison. What a nice, humble person! Kip was re-living races with Mamo in Europe and Mexico. Everyone there was moved. We're getting him medicine, food, clothes, a good lawyer."Toomey was amazed at himself. "I just jumped in! I kept going! I felt in the airport the way we did in Russia in the "60's, that they might not let us out! They say they'll at least CHARGE him soon. Our embassy human rights person took note of that."Unfortunately, the minister of justice Keino had so thrilled wouldn't make the call. That power lay with the Kenneth Starr of Ethiopia, the independent prosecutor, Girma Wakjira. In theory, that was fine. The current government was the best in Ethiopian history. Trying the Derg barbarians was an attempt at an African Nuremberg, a demonstration that the nation was now one of laws not murderers. Toomey was not insensitive to that."We want to PROTECT their process," he said. "We have to show Wakjira that Mamo is a special case, both humanitarian and heroic. If he goes to Atlanta, we'll guarantee he'll come back to face his accusers. But the world wants to see him there, carrying the flame, the connecting flame."Over the next few months, the IOC reaffirmed its invitation and the reigning Olympic women's 10,000 meter champion, Derartu Tulu, and the rest of the Ethiopian team bravely asked for his release. Wolde began to allow himself to really hope. The Olympic offer seemed to resurrect ekecheiria, the ancient Greek Olympic truce, under which warriors lay down their arms on battlefields and traveled to the sacred contests of Olympia for 1200 years.That cut no ice with Wakjira. "We know Mamo is a hero of the land," he said. "But how would authorities say, "O.K. Mamo, we shall prosecute the rest of the people but because you are a hero you can go to Atlanta?"' Wakjira said he would prove Wolde was "head of the revolutionary guard in Addis Ababa's Area 16," and involved with the execution of 14 young people in late 1978 or early 1979.Wolde, in an interview with Reuters, said, "I was not a member of the revolutionary guard. I was head of the development committee of that area, maintaining houses."Wolde neared despair. "My lowest point," he would say, "was when the prosecutor threw all the Olympic appeals in the dump." He told his interviewer, "I'm a penniless hero. I have not been rewarded for everything I've done for Ethiopia and the youth." He was 64, in a country where male life expectancy is 48. "My days are numbered. I hope the world will educate my children."The Atlanta Games took place without him. And it was all as Keino had predicted. Ethiopia's Haile Gebrselassie won the 10,000 and Fatuma Roba the women's marathon. And a powerful NBC report showed Wolde and me racing in Munich and my trek to his home. The last images were of Aberash and the children waiting outside that dismal, decaying prison.Tokyo Olympic 10,000-meter champion Billy Mills suggested we sign an Olympic flag for Wolde. So he, Toomey, Shorter, Whitfield, Ralph Boston, Willie Davenport, Rafer Johnson, John Naber, Andrea Mead Lawrence, Wyomia Tyus and I, among many others, covered the white cloth with brotherhood. When Aberash and the U.S. ambassador to Ethiopia, David Shinn, took it to the prison, the wardens were so impressed they set up a tea party in the yard for the presentation. "It was ecstasy, it was rejoicing," Wolde would recall. "There were 500 other detainees there, many who'd been government dignitaries and university presidents. When Mr. Shinn held up that flag, there was a cheer from them all."When asked whether he'd been jailed with any real monsters, Wolde said, "I can speak only for me. But of the rest of them, I cannot." To endure their eternal wait, the prisoners seem to set aside their putative sins and develop a live-and-let-live civility. That year, 1700 suspects were still detained. Only 46, all top Derg officials, had been charged. Wolde, of course, had not.About this time, Wolde and Aberash entered into a pact. When she was visiting the prison one Sunday, he took her hand through the fence and whispered that the only reason he was alive to receive such things as flags and invitations to marathons was her tireless, capable struggle to visit him with food and support and the sight of his kids growing up safe and strong and loving. "So," he said, "I am going to make a vow. When I finally get out of here--and I am going to get out of here--and when I receive another invitation to go out of the country and be celebrated, I'm not going to go, not unless I can take you too, because you are the marathoner here. You are enduring as much as I."Aberash was overwhelmed. She wet her fingers with her tears and touched Wolde's hand with them in acceptance, because greater love no Ethiopian can show than by escorting his wife out into the wider world, by proudly introducing her to other peoples, other cultures. She had often said that being able to visit the places Mamo had run and meet the people he'd run with, "is my greatest possible dream." Now it was their sacred promise.Ethiopia having proven immune to world opinion, Olympians began to explore other options. My files, of things done and not done, are two feet high.Peter Montgomery of Australia, president of the 70,000-strong World Olympians Association, wrote to the World Bank, suggesting it use its debt-cancellation leverage to press for action on Wolde's behalf.1960 water polo Olympian Chuck Bittick, who'd been in intelligence in the service, sent around a letter seeking support for a plan whereby "the most ethical, reliable and active asset operating effectively in the region" would be funded to meet with the President of Ethiopia, buy Wolde's release and spirit him out of the country. "The President of Gabon [Omar Bongo] offered visas and his personal plane to move Mamo and his family when his release is secured," wrote Bittick, on behalf of the Southern California Olympians. The letter didn't mention expense, but a figure of $200,000 was later bruited about.The secret ops route wasn't taken. Surely it cost too much. Wolde was never asked whether he wanted to live the rest of his life as an expatriate. He did take comfort in knowing he was welcome to live and coach at Keino's orphanage in Eldoret, Kenya.In February, 1997, I got a call from Sally Field. She'd been affected by the NBC piece during Atlanta, and wondered whether the story was one her production company, Fogwood Films, could develop. We had a nice lunch. She turned out to be a no-nonsense, 25-mile-per-week runner contemplating the marathon. We agreed that a film, as much as it might help Wolde, had to have a dramatic structure. Mamo's ordeal was without an ending, happy or tragic. Yet.A month later, after five years of imprisonment, Wolde was finally indicted. He was one of 72 detainees arraigned on charges of "participating in mass killings and torture." Prosecutor Wakjira said, "The trials should take less than three years."Wolde's attorney, Atanafu Bogale, hired by the IOC, objected that the charges didn't even include the place and date of the offense, or what weapons were used, as the law required. It took a year for the prosecutor to respond. In 1998, the court let the vague charges stand.As the years went by, I couldn't stop remembering how all Ethiopian bureaucracy grinds up time. Eight different, power-tripping bank clerks have to sign off before you can cash a check. Wolde seemed to have so little time. If he did clear his name, would he have any life left to live?The baton, in our Olympian relay, was seized by an old friend and Oregon track teammate, the indefatigable Jere Van Dyk. A sub-four-minute miler and Sorbonne graduate, Van Dyk had been the first journalist to go into Afghanistan with the mujahideen warlords fighting the Russians in the early 80's. In November, 1998, he went to Addis Ababa to cover Wolde's trial for the New York Times.Typically, Van Dyk spent a month in a second class hotel and explored all the factors of history, grudge, culture and tribe that bore upon Wolde's fate. He patiently struck up a relationship with the special prosecutor, and convinced prison authorities to let him not only interview Wolde but photograph him. The story and picture ran in March of 1999, three and a half years after I'd seen Wolde. He looked like he'd aged ten."He was small and thin," wrote Van Dyk, "his forehead deeply lined and his eyes watery. He has bronchitis and throughout a 90-minute interview exhibited a deep cough." Nonetheless, Wolde walked every day around the courtyard.When the government's first witnesses testified, it was front page news in Addis Ababa. "Complete with a picture of Wolde receiving an award many years ago from Emperor Haile Selassie," Van Dyk wrote to me, "a figure despised by many, most importantly Prime Minister Meles Zenawi and his fellow Tigrayans who are running the government."But Bogale, Wolde's attorney, cross examined to devastating effect. No accuser had actually seen Wolde commit any of the alleged acts. "It was hearsay, hearsay, hearsay," said Wolde. "The government case was futile. No one came to testify who had witnessed me do anything wrong."Before a western judge, that would mean case dismissed. But the prosecutor begged the Ethiopian court for more time to dig up the eyewitnesses he'd promised. The delay was granted. In early 2000, the same thing happened. The prosecution received yet another delay. Wolde, now 68, kept rotting. This wasn't double jeopardy. It was infinite jeopardy.In my 1995 story, I had written that Wolde, in being Oromo, was not of a rebellious tribe. But I learned the Oromo Liberation Front had withdrawn from Meles's government coalition and taken to the hills in opposition in 1992, the year Wolde was arrested.In 1997, Ambo Bati, an Oromo runner at Augustana College in Illinois, was quoted thus in Amnesty Action: "I know that Oromo people have been arrested, tortured and killed by the government. There are secret detention centers all over the country." Bati's brother, Yosef, had spent weeks in one before being kidnapped, also in 1992.So Prime Minister Meles had no political or tribal reason to lift a finger for Wolde, unless forced. Van Dyk, who also had been an aide to Sen. Henry Jackson, canvassed Washington D.C. for such a force. He found none. "Ethiopia is just not that important to the U.S.," he wrote me in May of 2000, "especially now that Eritrea, not Ethiopia, borders the Red Sea."Reading that, hope drained away. Ethiopia, I knew then, was too unreachable, too destitute, too tribal, too proud, too callous to ever let Mamo Wolde walk free. I said as much to a friend, Kip Leonard, an Oregon circuit court judge. "Let them save face," he said. "Go for a lesser plea. Go for time served." That became my mantra from then on. Time served. But I couldn't believe Ethiopia would ever accept it. Thank goodness Wolde wasn't as faint-hearted as I.The secret of endurance isn't so much a lesson as an imperative. You obey the dictates of the marathon. You cut your losses and keep on. You go numb, bleed out and keep on. You fall, get up and keep on. You go from rock to rock, from tree to tree, and keep on. You take strength in knowing others care about your effort and keep on.Mamo Wolde and Aberash after his release from prison in early 2002Wolde kept on. The great, uncrackable marathoner physically outlasted Ethiopia. This January a judge convicted him of a lesser charge, sentenced him to six years and released him because he'd already served nine. Time served. Time and a half. That evening he was home with Aberash and his children. "Thank God, I am free at last," he said. "I hold no malice toward anyone."The news reached me at home in Hawaii on Martin Luther King Day. "Free at last!" I echoed, and celebrated with a dizzy, whooping run. But even as I imagined Mamo finally drinking in Aberash's perfect coffee, a fear knifed me. He must be really sick. Maybe they just didn't want him dying in their cell.Not long afterward, a lyrically articulate man called and introduced himself as Mr. Mengesha Beyene of the Ethiopian Sports Federation. He had been moved by the old piece in SI, and just wanted to make sure I knew Wolde was free. I said I knew, but desperately wanted to talk with him. Could Beyene get his number? He not only could, he translated during a three-way call.Wolde's first words were, "I feel like we are embracing!"I said he was a true marathoner."Thanks, thanks. Except for the separation from family and isolation of prison, I haven't felt ABANDONED. Thanks to the Olympic community."I asked the big one. "How's your health?""Hey, " he said, "give me a couple of months to recuperate and I'll race you anywhere you want, any distance you want!"His voice was electric, his Amharic a flood. He seemed about 30. "He speaks like a diplomat," Beyene said later. "Great command of his language."Wolde said he wanted to stay in Addis "and establish an institute to perpetuate the legacy of Abebe Bikila." Generations of champions had welcomed him home. Haile Gebrselassie had raised money to help pay off his "prison debts."Wolde is served an Ethiopian coffee ceremony by his 9-year-old daughter Tabor Mamo. Note Olympic medals and race trophies and in background."It's re-incarnation for me to join my family," Wolde said. "People visit every day and say, "We recognize you as a great Ethiopian hero.'"Things were hardly idyllic. "Prices are staggering, and my son is losing his eyesight," he said. "But for now, it's bliss. The children hug me all the time. If I go around the corner to the store, we all have to go together, kids and Aberash and me, all tangled in a group. In the capable hands of my wife, we have made it safely through."Aberash said, "We miss you! Your coffee is on! But with the grace of God, we can come visit you and your culture. It's a dream to be anticipated."Wolde ended with, "You've shared my perseverance in life. I cherish that. Thanks, thanks again for remembering me."When he hung up, I was weightless. Beyene filled the silence with ridiculously apt lines from Tennyson's Ulysses, which he learned in Emperor Haile Selassie's secondary school."And thoughWe are not now that strength which in old daysMoved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are;One equal temper of heroic hearts,Made weak by time and fate, but strong in willTo strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield."I couldn't get Wolde's unexpected fire out of my mind. So I called Dr. Jon Cross of the Honolulu Marathon Association, and asked whether the old invitation to Mamo still stood.Did it ever.He called back and said, "Get training, buddy! We're not only inviting Mamo and Aberash, but you, Shorter and Lismont, the top four from Munich 30 years ago, to run here in December."We all accepted, none of us sure we could actually make the distance. I had a sore tendon. Frank had just had shoulder surgery. He said, "This isn't fair. Mamo has been safe in prison. We free citizens have crippled ourselves."I threw myself into drafting this story, even to the point of imagining how it might end in December, with the four of us old Olympians, perhaps in our Munich uniforms, striding barefoot down my Kailua Beach, the turquoise sea breaking upon the level white sand. On the dunes, watching, would be Aberash Wolde and Beyene and our choked-up families.Mr. Beyene would declaim more Tennyson into the wind:..Some work of noble note, may yet be done,Not unbecoming men that strove with gods;It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles.And see the great Achilles, whom we knew...And every palm tree, every face, every drop splashed up by our feet would glow with perfect clarity as we ran, in the Happy Isles, with the great Achilles, whom we knew.So it was that I refused to absorb it, in May, when Beyene called and forced himself to tell me Wolde had died. Jon Cross was equally shocked. "We just talked to him," he said. "When he accepted our invitation he said his liver condition was flaring up. I said to fax me his prescription and I'd shoot him what he needed. But he never did." Ten days later he was dead.Thousands wept as an honor guard of Ethiopian Olympic champions escorted his casket three miles from his home through Addis Ababa to St, Joseph's Cemetery. He now lies beside his inspiration and friend, Abebe Bikila, the man who ordered him to win the Olympic gold medal in Mexico.But what had claimed Wolde, who was so alive so recently? Had his jailers discovered he was dying?I didn't know until Aberash's twelfth day of mourning, the day in Ethiopian custom when friends call and bring pot luck, to assure the bereaved that they're not forgotten, that we're all still in this together. Beyene suggested it was a good time to phone. It was. Aberash Wolde thanked us, and took us back to May 15, the day of Cross's call."My husband and I had a pact," she began, and described how it had sustained them that Mamo had vowed in prison not to accept an invitation out of the country if he couldn"t take her. "And so, when Dr. Cross called and invited Mamo to Honolulu in December, Mamo didn't accept. He asked if I might come. And Dr. Cross said I MUST come. They couldn't invite a man to visit paradise and not bring along his love. So Mamo jubilantly accepted. He was so happy. This was the culmination of our dream. This was what we had prayed for for seven years."Yes," said Aberash, "Mamo's liver hurt but that was completely wiped away by the joy that at last we would keep his promise. And we would do it in Hawaii. It was unimaginable."Aberash's tears had flowed and flowed, she finally said, because Mamo was so happy and because she knew he was dying, and they would never actually hold hands on my beach.The liver pains had intensified a month before. Mamo had looked a little jaundiced, but he blew it off as he blew off all discomforts. "My husband lived and died a STRONG man," she said. But she got him to a clinic for a checkup and the doctor told her it was cancer and Mamo had only weeks left. The clinic did what it could to make him comfortable, then sent him home to be with friends and family.Wolde was peaceful at the end, but I doubt he was as accepting as the Buddha. I'll bet he was perfectly willing to wake up and find himself on the mend.So now it will be Aberash coming in Mamo's place to Honolulu in December. "From here on out," she said with a fitting formality. "I duly represent the legend."And how do I leave this account? With a vow of my own, of course, a promise to strive, to seek, to find and not to yield, and to do it all in the spirit of the great old uncrackable marathoner, whom I never knew.Kenny Moore, Aberash Wolde, Karel Lismont, and Frank Shorterreunited on Kailua Beach, Windward Oahu, Hawaii, Decmber 2002.Aberash arrived in Honolulu the Friday before the race, escorted, deferentially, by two Olympic marathon champions, Fatuma Roba (Atlanta in 1996) and Gezahegne Abera (Sydney in 2000). Aberash wore a navy suit, and seemed unaffected by 28 hours aloft. We draped her with leis of tuberose and ilima, the latter a flower reserved for royalty in ancient Hawaii. She in turn presented Jon Cross (Honolulu Marathon race director) and me with airily soft, white, embroidered Dashikis, Ethiopian dress for special occasions. "Christmas," she whispered, "or the coffee ceremony."We sat in a hospitality suite, blinking, not knowing what to say now that the moment had arrived. Aberash brought out photos showing how fragile Mamo had been--paper and sticks, glue and grit--during the four months of honor and bliss before he died.Asking how we could be good hosts, we began to unfold a map of Oahu. Had she and Mamo had something they especially wanted to do? Aberash quietly began to cry, while we writhed at our lameness, our ignorant presumption. Recovering, she politely made it clear that her mission had little to do with mooning over waterfalls."Life in Ethiopia," she began, "is very difficult." Neither she nor Mamo has any remaining family, so she is the sole support for Adiss Alem, 12, and Tabor, 10. Mamo's oldest son, Simon, 26, can't work because of vision problems. Their only income is a small stipend from the IOC. The public schools are dead ends and she can't afford to put the children in private ones. Famine is once again looming in parts of the country. Abera and Roba confirmed all this, and said the assistance other Ethiopian athletes can offer is more emotional than financial. The government, of course, has always treated her as persona non grata.I pledged to seek and find some help.We adjourned to let Aberash rest. I sought out the other two men of Munich. Karel Lismont of Belgium is still only 53. He'd finished second in 1972 at 22, and run in four Olympics in all, taking the bronze in Montreal in 1976, three seconds ahead of Don Kardong of the U.S. As Shorter put it, "He's kept more Americans from medals than any other runner."Lismont turned out to be a man of strict pronouncements. He said running 30 minutes three times a week was all men of our age should do, and so didn't enter the marathon. He and his wife did take a quick trip to the island of Molokai to visit the church of Father Damien, the heroic Belgian priest who'd diedCaring for the leper colony at Kalaupapa. Lismont then ran the mule trail up the 2,000-foot cliff.Shorter was delighted to find Lismont is the Belgian equivalent of an IRS agent. "He was always the pale little demon you did NOT want to see gaining on you," cackled Frank. "Now he's the pale little demon you do NOT want going over your taxes."Let me explain Shorter's glee. It rises out of brotherhood. There is no greater, more dogged force for justice in American sport than Frank Shorter, he being the director of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency.I had developed a sore hip in training ("See. See!" said Lismont), so didn't run the marathon either. But Shorter did, and beautifully, covering each mile in exactly seven and a half minutes to finish in 3:23. It was his first marathon in seven years. Afterward, the old Olympians were of one equal temper. We wanted to help Aberash.Things came together over a lunch table in my town of Kailua the day before Aberash had to leave. Jon Cross reported that the Honolulu Marathon Association was contributing a grant. Shorter and I had taken up collections at runners' gatherings. All told, we presented Aberash with enough for a year of schooling and support for the kids. Moreover, Mike Long of the Rock and Roll Marathon had pledged to do a fund raiser in the Ethiopian community of San Diego. And Mr. Mengesha Beyene--whose initiative and eloquence had led to this reunion--called from Washington D.C. to say the Ethiopian Sports Federation of North America would surely do the same at its annual soccer tournament and sports festival in Houston in June.Beyene translated Aberash's response, not that he needed to, given the Relief on her face. "Thank you from my children," she said gravely. "Thank you from my husband, your friend."Serious matters concluded, the sentimental Jon Cross, who'd never been able to shake the image of us all striding together on my beach, proposed that we actually do it.Kailua's sands were windswept and gray as Frank arranged us in the order we'd finished 30 years before. He was on the high side, then Karel, then Aberash--a yard ahead, as she was representing our Achilles here--then me, with my toes in the Pacific foam. We walked along tentatively for a while, feeling odd, with Aberash looking back occasionally to see if she was doing what was wished. At last we just clumped together and walked on in each other's arms.Cross, backpedaling with his camera, shouted and pointed. A rainbow was arching down, pouring upon us all the colors of the Olympic rings. Aberash turned and saw it. Her flinch was as electric as Wolde's embrace had been in prison. I looked down. She too has a faint widow's peak.Her jolt passed through us all, and the circle of 30 years was at last closed. It was so perfect that we hesitated to speak of it. As we drew apart, all the talk was of the future, of safe travel, of hopes for the children, even as we stared up at Mamo's rainbow, strengthening in the sky, signifying that it was all right to go on, that the bond is as strong as ever.THE ENDThe Honolulu Marathon

Facts speak for themselves!Though there are many, Some I mention here…As shown above Dr.Zakir brought a person who claimed himself to be “Devanand Saraswati – The Jagadguru Shankaracharya” but still praises Islam a lot. One will definitely wonder if this guy is so fond of Islam then why is he still not converted to it.Again any person with common sense will ask who is this Shankarachrya and to which Peetham or Mutt he belongs to, but the truth is he is not at all a "Shankaracharya".To understand how Dr.Zakir Naik faked him as Shankaracharya of of Puri, the head of Govardhan Peetham, the following informations will help.For the Hindus who follow Advaita school of philosophy Shankaracharyas are like the Pope for Roman Catholic Christians or like the Islamic Kalifa for Sunni Muslims.There are totally 5 Shankara Peethams(centers) and these 5 Peethams are headed by 4 Shankaracharyas.1.Sri Govardhan Peetham Puri (orissa) His Holyness Nischalananda SaraswatiThe above is the True Jadadguru Shankaracharya of Puri whom Dr.Zakir Naik faked with a false ShankaracharyaThe following are the list of other Shankara Mutts or Peethams along with the names & photos of respective current heads of the Peethams.2.Sri Sharada Peetham, Sringeri (Karnataka) His Holyness Bharati Teertha3.Sri Sharada Peetham, Dwaraka (Gujarat) His Holyness Swaroopananda Saraswati *4.Sri Jyotish Peetham (Uttaranchal) His Holyness Swaroopananda Saraswati ** ( Both the Peethams at Gujarat & Uttranchal are headed by the same Swami ji )5.Sri Kaamakooti Peetham, Kanchipurm (Tamil Nadu) His Holyness Jayendra SaraswatiWhen there is no such Jagadguru Shankaracharya with the name "Devanand Saraswati" then who is he? No one except Dr.Zakir Naik knows this.Why Zakir Naik does this?The reason is so simple, he wants to spread Islam either by hook or crook. There are observations that Islam was spread by sword , force and allurements in the past and present. Fake claims and lies are part of this kind of spreading Islam. It makes us to ask that why Islam approves this?Additionally if Dr.Zakir Naik makes the Muslims happy by claiming that he countered a Hindu Guru it will in turn fill his pocket in a much better way than his doctor profession.This just reminds us what is said in Mahabharata 5000 years back that "Fools seek to injure the wise by false reproaches and evil speeches"Now Muslims have to think about the reliability of his other claims like Hindus converting into Islam. And the other fake claims of Zakir on Hindu Scriptures.Time to think.Source:- Dr.Zakir Naik Exposed Series 1Also Zakir Naik claims that “the concept of reincarnation is nowhere to be found anywhere in the Vedas”. Now this statement is either a blatant lie or he doesn't have idea what he is talking about. And the former is likely to be true.His example of the rising rate of crimes along with human population compared to law of karma is damn hilarious!! lolEven if one is born on a lower level (i.e an insect or an animal), that too is temporary and he/she can be reborn again as a human being. It’s not like once an animal, then forever an animal. Even they have their own lifespans.And we cannot generalize all those who do some bad deeds to be specifically reborn as a lower species, because first of all a sinner might be doing harm for most of his life but we can never accurately account for what they deserve, they can also be reborn as a human being but in a very miserable condition which they deserve. Today you can see many such cases in India and especially in the terror-prone areas. So even if the population is increasing, we can see that many people are living miserable lives if not financially but still physically or mentally within themselves.Shame on the intelligence of his audience and all those who applaud him!Anyways here are some verses that clearly state the concept of reincarnation..Source:- Full text of "Rigveda Brahmanas: the Aitareya and Kausītaki Brāhmanas of the Rigveda"Forget these rarely read Vedas, when the most widely read Bhagavad Gita states clearly about rebirth, why shouldn’t a Hindu believe in it? Just because Zakir Naik gives excuse that they belong to Smritis (Not originated directly from God)?The same excuse is not used when he quotes the Puranas which also belong to the category of the Smritis.Bhagavad Gita: Chapter 2, Verse 22वासांसि जीर्णानि यथा विहायनवानि गृह्णाति नरोऽपराणि |तथा शरीराणि विहाय जीर्णान्यन्यानि संयाति नवानि देही || 22||vāsānsi jīrṇāni yathā vihāyanavāni gṛihṇāti naro ’parāṇitathā śharīrāṇi vihāya jīrṇānyanyāni sanyāti navāni dehīvāsānsi—garments; jīrṇāni—worn-out; yathā—as; vihāya—sheds; navāni—new; gṛihṇāti—accepts; naraḥ—a person; aparāṇi—others; tathā—likewise; śharīrāṇi—bodies; vihāya—casting off; jirṇāni—worn-out; anyāni—other; sanyāti—enters; navāni—new; dehī—the embodied soulTranslation“As a person sheds worn-out garments and wears new ones, likewise, at the time of death, the soul casts off its worn-out body and enters a new one.”Continuing to explain the nature of the soul, Shree Krishna reiterates the concept of rebirth, comparing it to an everyday activity. When garments become torn and useless, we discard them in favor of new ones, but in doing so we do not change ourselves. In the same manner, the soul remains unchanged, when it discards its worn-out body and takes birth in a new body elsewhere.The Nyāya Darśhan gives the following argument to prove the existence of rebirth:jātasya harṣhabhayaśhoka sampratipatteḥ (3.1.18) [v27]It states that if you observe a little baby, you will find it sometimes becomes happy, sometimes sad, and sometimes fearful, without any apparent reason. According to the Nyāya Darśhan, the little baby is remembering its past life, and hence experiencing these emotions. However, as it grows up, the impressions of the present life are imprinted so strongly upon its mind, that they erase most past memories. Besides, the processes of death and birth are also so painful to the soul that they erase a substantial portion of the past life’s memories.The Nyāya Darśhan gives another argument in support of rebirth: stanyābhilāṣhāt (3.1.21) [v28] It says that a newborn baby has no knowledge of language. How then can a mother teach her baby to suckle her breast when she inserts it in the baby’s mouth? However, the newborn child has drunk milk in infinite past lifetimes, even in animal forms, from the breasts, teats, and udders of innumerable mothers. Hence, when the mother puts her breast in the baby’s mouth, it automatically starts suckling based on past practice.Without accepting the concept of rebirth, the disparity between human beings becomes inexplicable and irrational. For example, let us suppose one man is blind from birth. If that person asks why he was punished in this way, what logical answer can be given to him? If we say it was a result of his karmas, he may argue that the present life is the only life he has, and therefore, there are no past karmas at the time of birth that should afflict him. If we say it was the will of God, it would also seem implausible, since God is all-merciful and would not unnecessarily want anyone to be blind. The only logical explanation is that the person was born blind as a consequence of karmas from past lives. Thus, from common sense and on the authority of the scriptures we are obliged to believe in the concept of rebirthDr. Zakir Naik’s popular claim about the prediction of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) in Hindu scriptures is indeed an insult to the Prophet!! His followers need to realize the man that they’re praising is indirectly committing a blasphemy.I repeat Yes it’s a grave blasphemy to misquote the Demon as a Prophet!Check it out for yourself, you can also download a PDF of these mentioned scriptures to verify these words.Prophet Mohammed: Is He Really Predicted in the Bhavishya Purana?The Bhavishya Purana has a reference regarding someone named Mahamada, which some people are very eager to make the claim that it means Prophet Mohammed, thus saying that the Prophet is predicted in the Vedic literature. But before we come to that conclusion, with additional research, let us take a closer look to see what the full reference to Mahamada really says.It is explained in the Bhavishya Purana (Parva 3, Khand 3, Adhya 3, verses 5-6) that "An illiterate mleccha [foreigner] teacher will appear, Mahamada is his name, and he will give religion to his fifth-class companions." This does not describe much in regard to his life, but it does mention someone by the name of Mahamada, and what he was expected to do, which was to give his own form of religion to the lower classes of his region. Some people suggest this person to be Prophet Mohammed, and are, thus, most willing to accept that Prophet Mohammed was predicted in the Bhavishya Purana. Some Muslims then suggest that if he was predicted in this way by a Vedic text, then Hindus should all accept Mohammed and become Muslims. However, on the other hand, it would seem odd that Muslims would accept a Vedic text to try to convince Hindus to become Muslims. But if we look at the full translation of this story, they may not want to jump to the conclusion that this story represents Prophet Mohammed.So here is the Roman transliteration of the Sanskrit in the Bhavishya Purana, however accurate it may be (Prati Sarga: Part III, 3.3.5-27).mahamadh ithi khayat, shishya-sakha-samniviyath 5....... mahadev marusthal nivasinam.mahadevthe snanya-pya punch-gavua samnivithyatripurarsur-nashav bahu-maya pravathiney 7malech-dharma shav shudhaya sat-chit-anandaya swarupye,thva ma hei kinkare vidhii sharanaghatham 8suta uvacha: ithi shurthiya sthav deva shabadh-mah nupaya tam,gath-vaya bhojraj-ney mahakhaleshwar-sthale 9malech-shu dhushita bhumi-vahika nam-vishrithaarya dharma hi nav-vathra vahike desh-darunya 10vamu-vatra maha-mayi yo-sav dagdho myaa puratripuro bali-daithyane proshith punaragath 11ayoni sa varo math prasava daithyo-vrudhanmahamadh ithi khayath , paishacha-kruthi thathpar 12nagathvaya thvya bhup paisachae desh-vartakemath prasadhayane bhupal tav shudhii prajayathe 13thi shruthva nupshav svadesha-napu maragmathmahamadh toi sdhav sindhu-thir mupaye-yav 14uchav bhupati premane mahamadh-virshadtva deva maharaja das-tva magath 15mamo-chit sabhu jiya-dhatha tatpashya bho nupithi shruthya ththa hata para vismaya-magath16malechdhano mathi-shasi-tatsaya bhupasaya darutho17tucha tva kalidas-sthu rusha praah mahamadhammaya-thei nirmithi dhutharya nush-mohan-hethvei 18hanishyami-duravara vahik purusha-dhamumityak va sa jidh shrimanava-raja-tathpar 19japthya dush-sah-trayach tah-sahansh juhav sabhasm mutva sa mayavi malech-dev-tva-magath 20maybhithashtu tachya-shyaa desh vahii-kamayuuahguhitva svaguro-bhasm madaheen tva-magatham 21swapiit tav bhu-ghyot-thro-shrumadh-tathparamadaheen puro jath thosha trith sayam smurthaum 22rathri sa dev-roop-shav bahu-maya-virshadpaisacha deha-marathaya bhojraj hi so trivith 23arya-dharmo hei to raja-sarvoutham smurthishapraya karinayami paishacha dharma darunbhu 24linga-chedri shikhaheen shamshu dhaari sa dhushakyukhalapi sarva bhakshi bhavishyat jano maum 25vina kaul cha pashav-thosha bhakshava matha maummuslanav sanskar kushariv bhavishyat 26tasman-musal-vanto hi jathiyo dharma dhushikaithi pishacha-dharma mya kruth 27To set the scene, in this section of the Bhavishya Purana, Shri Suta Gosvami first explained that previously, in the dynasty of King Shalivahana, there were ten kings who went to the heavenly planets after ruling for over 500 years. [This gives these kings roughly 50 years of rule for each one.] Then gradually the morality declined on the planet. At that time, Bhojaraja was the tenth of the kings on the earth [who would have ruled about 450 years after King Shalivahana]. When he saw that the moral law of conduct was declining, he went to conquer all the directions of his country with ten-thousand soldiers commanded by Kalidasa. He crossed the river Sindhu [modern Indus River] going northward and conquered over the gandharas [the area of Afghanistan], mlecchas [present-day region of Turkey], shakas, Kashmiris [Kashmir and present-day Pakistan], naravas, and sathas. Crossing the Sindhu, he conquered the mlecchas in Gandhar and the shaths in Kashmir. King Bhoj grabbed their treasure and then punished them.Then, as verses 7-8 relate, the Aryan King Bhojaraja, who had already left India for the lands across the Sindhu River and to the west, meets Mahamada [some say this is Mohammed], the preceptor of the mleccha-dharma [religion of the mlecchas], who had arrived with his followers. Thereafter, however, the King went to worship the image of Lord Mahadev, the great god Shiva, situated in the marusthal, desert. King Bhoj bathed the image of Shiva with Ganges water and worshiped him in his mind with panchagavya (the five purificatory elements from the cow, consisting of milk, ghee, yogurt, cow dung, and cow urine), along with sandalwood paste, etc., and offered him, the image of Shiva, sincere prayers and devotion. King Bhoj prayed to Lord Mahadev, "O Girijanath who stays in the marusthal (land of deserts), I offer my prayers to you. You have forced maya [the illusory energy] to destroy Tripurasur [the demon Tripura]; but the mlecchas are now worshiping you. You are pure and sat-chit-anand swaroop [eternal knowledge and bliss]. I am your sevak [servant]. I have come under your protection."Verses 10-27 relates next that Suta Goswami explained: After hearing the king’s prayers and being pleased with him, Lord Shiva said: "Let the King go to Mahakaleshwar (Ujjain) in the land of Vahika, which is now contaminated by mlecchas. O King, the land where you are standing, that is popular by the name of Bahik, has been polluted by the mlecchas. In that terrible country there no longer exists Dharma. There was a mystic demon named Tripura (Tripurasura), whom I have already burnt to ashes once before, he has come again by the order of Bali. He has no origin but he achieved a benediction from me. His name is Mahamada and his deeds are like that of a ghost. Therefore, O king, you should not go to this land of the evil ghost. By my mercy your intelligence will be purified." [This would seem to indicate that this Mahamada was an incarnation of the demon Tripura.] So hearing this, the king came back to his country and Mahamada came with them, but only to the bank of the river Sindhu. He was expert in expanding illusion, so he said to the king very pleasingly, "O great king, your god has become my servant. Just see, as he eats my remnants, so I will show you."The king became surprised when he saw this happening before them. Then in anger Kalidasa, the king’s commander, rebuked Mahamada, "O rascal, you have created an illusion to bewilder the king, I will kill you, you are the lowest..." Then the king left that area.Later, in the form of a ghostly presence, the expert illusionist Mahamada appeared at night in front of King Bhojaraja and said: "O King, your religion is of course known as the best religion among all. Still, by the order of the Lord, I am going to establish a terrible and demoniac religion and enforce a strong creed over the meat-eaters [mlecchas]. My followers will be known by their cut [circumcised] genitals, they will have no shikha [tuft of hair on their head, like Brahmanas], but will have a beard, make noise loudly, and eat all kinds of animals except swine without observing any rituals. They will perform purificatory acts with the musala, and thus be called musalman, and not purify their things with kusha grass [one of the Vedic customs]. Thus, I will be the originator of this adharmic [opposed to Vedic or Aryan Dharma] and demoniac religion of the meat-eating nations." After having heard all this, the Bhavishya Purana goes on to relate that King Bhojaraja returned to his land and palace, and that ghost of the man also went back to his own place.It is lastly described how the intelligent king, Bhojaraja, established the language of Sanskrit amongst the three varnas -- the Brahmanas, Kshatriyas and Vaisyas -- and for the Shudras he established prakrita-bhasha, the ordinary language spoken by common men. After ruling his kingdom for another 50 years, he went to the heavenly planets. The moral laws established by him were honored even by the demigods. The arya-varta, the pious land is situated between Vindhyachala and Himachala, or the mountains known as Vindhya and Himalaya. The Aryans reside there, but the varna-sankaras reside on the lower part of Vindhya. The musalman people were kept on the other [northwestern] side of the river Sindhu.* * *Thus, from the interpretations of the present editions of the Bhavishya Purana that are available, it seems to say there was someone named Mahamada that King Bhojaraja met in the desert, who was supposedly a reappearance of the Tripura demon, who would start his own religion for those mlecchas who are unable to follow the spiritual codes of the deeper aspects of spiritual culture, or Vedic Dharma, and who would also spread adharma, or that religion that would be opposed to Vedic Dharma. Plus, Mahamada knew and accepted the depth of the Vedic spiritual path and admitted to its superiority. But is Mahamada really Prophet Mohammed?Let me assure everyone that this section is not a commentary on Prophet Mohammed, and is only an explanation of what is said in the Bhavishya Purana. But since some people accept this to be a prediction, we need to take a closer look at it.So, the first few lines of this translation does seem to hold a possibility of referring to the Prophet. But after that, it could be questionable whether a person would really want to accept this story to be about Prophet Mohammed or not.Historically, however, we know that Prophet Mohammed was born between 570-580 CE, became interested in religion at age 40, preached in Mecca for 10 years, and then went to Medina in 621 CE at age 51 when he finally established a following. He started engaging in armed conflict in 624 CE, gained possession of Mecca in 630, and died in 632 CE at age 62. So, he would have had to have met King Bhojaraja only after he had a following, between the years of 621 and 632. That is an extremely narrow eleven-year window of time. However, herein it also says that Mahamada went with King Bhojaraja to the Sindhu River, but there is never any historical record that Prophet Mohammed personally went to that area, which establishes another doubt of whether this could have been the Prophet.Furthermore, even though it is described how King Bhojaraja conquered over the gandharas [the area of Afghanistan], mlecchas [present-day region of Turkey], shakas, Kashmiris [Kashmir and present-day Pakistan], naravas, and sathas, it never mentions that he went into the area of central Saudi Arabia where he would have had to go in order to meet the Prophet at the particular time when the Prophet had a following.Plus, if King Bhojaraja was the tenth king after Shalivahana, who was supposed to have existed about the time of Jesus Christ, according to the evidence provided in the previous section, that would mean that this king lived about 450 to 500 CE. This is too early to allow for a possibility to have met the Prophet. However, there are a few King Bhojaraja’s that are recorded in history. The one in the Bhavishya Purana is noted as intelligent, and who "established the language of Sanskrit amongst the three varnas -- the Brahmanas, Kshatriyas and Vaisyas -- and for the Shudras he established prakrita-bhasha, the ordinary language spoken by common men." The King Bhojaraja who was known for being a Sanskrit scholar is credited with being the author of two books, the Saraswatikanthabharana, and the Shringaraprakasha. Of these, the first is a compendious volume in five chapters, dealing with the merits and defects of poetry, figures of speech, language, etc. However, this scholar King Bhojaraja is said to have lived from 1018 to 1054 CE. This is way too late to have enabled him to personally have met the Prophet.Therefore, at least with the present information that is available, we are left to conclude that, though King Bhojaraja may have indeed met a person named Mahamada, the meeting between the king and Prophet Mohammed as an accurate historical event is extremely unlikely. Thus, in this description from the Bhavishya Purana, Mahamada is not the Prophet. Beyond this point of view, is this a later interpolation? Who can say? Or is this is a prophecy in an allegorical form? That would be left to one’s own opinions or sentiments.* * *Was Prophet Muhammad in the Vedas?Starting With the Rig-VedaIn this article we will take a look at some of the verses in the Vedas that some people, such as Dr. Zakir Naik, say that Mohammed is mentioned or foretold in them. This is a summary based on the research by Dr Radhasyam Brahmachari and others, and shows that these verses in fact do not speak of Prophet Mohammed, but are used in a way that is based on mistranslations to justify that idea.First of all, the Rig-Veda is globally recognized and accepted as the oldest book created by man and hence if it could be shown that there is mentioning of Prophet Mohammed in that text, it will be immensely helpful to paint the Arabian Prophet as a divine personality. Not only that, it will be helpful to deceive the Hindus and convert them to Islam. So, it does not become difficult to understand what has inspired Dr Zakir Naik and others to discover the mentioning of Mohammed in the Rig-Veda and in other Vedic texts. But as his investigation culminated into a failure, he had no other way but to apply stupid arguments to befool the kafirs and infidels but to twist the meanings and translations into something different, all the while acting most scholarly and convincing.First of all, we should see what the Rig-Veda actually says about Prophet Muhammad. It should also be mentioned at the outset that two Sanskrit words śaṃsata and narāśaṃsa play the central role in these arguments of such people as Zakir Naik. According to him, the word śaṃsata stands for an individual who praises. In Arabic, such an individual is called Ahammad, the other name of Prophet Muhammad. Therefore, wherever he could find the word śaṃsata, he took it as the mentioning of their Prophet.According to him, the second word narāśaṃsa means an individual who is to be praised or who is praiseworthy. The Arabic word Muhammad means a man who is praiseworthy. So, wherever he could have found the word narāśaṃsa in any Sanskrit texts, he took it to be a mentioning of Muhammad.In fact, both the Sanskrit words śaṃsata and narāśaṃsa stand for a deity or God, who is praiseworthy. According to Sāyana, the most reputed commentator of the Vedas, the wordnarāśaṃsa means a deity or a respectable entity (not a man) that deserves to be praised by man.However, we should have a closer look to see what Zakir Naik has to say. According to him, the verses (1/13/3), (1/18/9), (1/106/4), (1/142/3), (2/3/2), (5/5/2), (7/2/2), (10/64/3) and (10/182/2) of the Rig-Veda contain the word narāśaṃsa, and hence mention Muhammad, and the verse (8/1/1) of the Rig-Veda contains the word śaṃsata (Ahmmad), or the other name of Muhammad. So here he begins with another blatant lie and says that the word śaṃsata stands for a man who praises, the Arabic equivalent of Ahammad and hence mentions Muhammad. The said verse (8/1/1) of the Rig-Veda reads:Mā cidanyadvi śaṃsata sakhāyo mā riṣṇyata lIndramitstot ā vṛṣaṇaṃ sacā sute muhurukthā ca śaṃsata ll (8/1/1)“Glorify naught besides, O friends; so shall no sorrow trouble you. Praise only mighty Indra when the juice is shed, and say your lauds repeatedly.” (Translation: R T H Griffith; The Hymns of the Ṛgveda, Motilal Banarsidass Publishers, Delhi; 1995, p-388). So the word śaṃsata (praiseworthy) in the above verse refers to deity Indra, and not a man who praises (Ahammad) as claimed by Dr Zakir Naik.We shall now see what the verses containing the word narāśaṃsa say. In Rig-Veda, a verse is refered as (x/y/z), where x stands for Mandala, y stands for Sukta and z stands for the Verse or Ṛk. The verse (1/13/3) of Rig-Veda, as mentioned above, belongs to 13th Sukta of the 1st Mandala. It should also be noted here that every Sukta of the Rig-Veda is dedicated to a deity. The presiding deity of the 13th Sukta of the 1st Mandala is Agni (the God of Fire). The verse says:Narāśaṃsamiha priyamasminajña upahvaye lMadhujihvat haviṣkṛtam ll (1/13/3)“Dear Narāśaṃsa, sweet of tongue, the giver of oblations, I invoke to this our sacrifice.” (tr: ibid, p-7)As Agni is the deity of the entire 13th Sukta, there is no doubt that the word narāśaṃsa (praiseworthy to man) in the verse refers to Agni. One should also note that the word narāśaṃsadoes not signify a man who is praiseworthy, as some people claim.The verse (1/18/9) of the Rig-Veda says:Narāśaṃsaṃ sudhṛṣṭamamapaśyam saprathastam lDivo na sadmakhasam ll (1/18/9)“I have seen Narāśaṃsa, him most resolute, most widely famed, as ‘twere the Household Priest of heaven.” (tr: ibid, p-11)The 18th Sukta, to which the verse belongs, is dedicated to Brahmaṇaspati, the Priest of heaven and hence the word narāśaṃsa (praiseworthy to man) in this verse refers to Brahmaṇaspati, the Priest of heaven.The verse (1/106/4) of the Rig-Veda says:Narāśaṃsaṃ vajinṃ vajayinniha kṣayadvīraṃ pūṣaṇaṃ summairī mahe lRathaṃ na durgādvasava sudānavo viśvasmānno ahaṃso niṣpipartana ll (1/106/4)“To mighty Narāśaṃsa, strengthening his might, to Pūṣaṇa, ruler over men, we pray with hymns. Even as a chariot from a difficult ravine, bountiful Vasus, rescue us from all distress.” (tr: ibid, p-69)The 106th Sukta of 1st Mandala, to which the verse belongs, is dedicated to the Viśvadevas, and hence the word narāśaṃsa (praiseworthy to man) in this verse refers to the Viśvadevas, again not to Mohammed.The verse (1/142/3) of the Rig-Veda says:śuci pāvako adbhuto madhvā yajñaṃ mimikṣati lnarāśaṃsasthrirā divo devo deveṣu yajñiyaḥ ll (1/142/3)“He wondrous, sanctifying, bright, sprinkles the sacrifice with mead, thrice, Narāśaṃsa from the heavens, a God amid Gods adorable.” (tr: ibid, p-98)The 142nd Sukta, to which the verse belongs, is dedicated to the deity Āprī, and hence the word narāśaṃsa in this verse refers to Āprī. Most of the scholars agree that Āprī is the other name of Agni and hence the word narāśaṃsa in this verse refers to Agni, the god of fire.The verse (2/3/2) of the Rig-Veda says:Narāśaṃsaḥ prati dhāmānyañjan tisro div prati mahṇā svarciḥ lGhṛtapruṣā manasā havyamundanmūrdhanyajñasya sanamaktu devān ll (2/3/2)“May Narāśaṃsa lighting up the chambers, bright in his majesty through threefold heaven, steeping the gift with oil diffusing purpose, bedew the Gods at chiefest time of worship.” (tr: ibid, p- 132)Like the earlier one, 142nd Sukta of 1st Mandal, this present 3rd Sukta of 2nd Mandala, is dedicated to the deity Āprī or Agni and hence the word narāśaṃsa in this verse refers to Agni the Fire God.The Verse (5/5/2) of Rig-Veda says:Narāśaṃsaḥ suṣūdatīmṃ yajñamadābhyaḥ lKavirhi madhūhastāḥ ll (5/5/2)“He, Narāśaṃsa, ne’er beguiled, inspireth this sacrifice; for sage is he, with sweets in hand.” (tr: ibid, p- 240)This 5th Sukta of 5th Mandala is also dedicated to Āprī or Agni and hence the word narāśaṃsa in this verse refers to Agni the Fire God.The verse (7/2/2) of Rig-Veda says:Narāśaṃsasya mahimānameṣamupa stoṣāma yajatasya yajñaiḥ lYe sukratavaḥ śucayo dhiyandhāḥ svadanti devā ubhayāni havyā ll (7/2/2)“With sacrifice to these we men will honor the majesty of holy Narāśaṃsa – to these the pure, most wise, the thought-inspires, Gods who enjoy both sorts of our oblations.” (tr: ibid, p- 334)Again this 2nd Sukta of 7th Mandala is dedicated to Āprī or Agni, and hence the word narāśaṃsa in this verse refers to Agni the Fire God.The verse (10/64/3) of the Rig-Veda says:Narā vā śaṃsaṃ pūṣṇamagohyamagni deveddhamabhyarcase girā lSūryāmāsā candramasā yamaṃ divi tritaṃ vātamuṣasamaktumaśvinā ll (10/64/3)“To Narāśaṃsa and Pūṣaṇ I sing forth, unconcealable Agni kindled by the Gods. To Sun and Moon, two Moons, to Yama in the heaven, to Trita, Vāta, Dawn, Night and Aśvins Twain.” (tr: ibid, p- 578)This 64th Sukta of 10th Mandala is dedicated to the Viśvadevas, and the word narāśaṃsa in this verse refers to the Viśvadevas.The verse (10/182/2) of Rig-Veda says:Narāśaṃso na avatu prayāje śaṃ no astvanuyajo habeṣu lKṣipadaśtimapa durmati hannathā karadyajamānāya śam ṣoḥ ll (10/182/2).“May Narāśaṃsa aid us at Prayāja; blest be out Anuyāja at invokings. May he repel the curse, and chase ill-feeling, and give the sacrificer peace and comfort.” (tr: ibid, p- 650)The 182nd Sukta of 10th Mandala, to which the above verse belongs, is dedicated to Vṛhaspati, and hence the word narāśaṃsa refers to Vṛhaspati, the Priest of the Gods.Another verse (1/53/9) of the Rig-Veda says,Tvametāñjanarājño dvirdaśābandhunā suśravasopajagmaṣaḥ lṣaṣtiṃ sahasrā navatiṃ nava śruto ni cakreṇa rathyā duṣpadā vṛṇak ll (1/53/9)“With all-outstripping chariot-wheel, O Indra, thou far-famed, hast overthrown the twice ten Kings of men, with sixty thousand nine-and-ninety followers, who came in arms to fight with friendless Suśravas.” (tr: ibid, p-36)To narrate the incident, Sayana, the renowned commentator of the Rig-Veda, says that twenty kings with a force, 60,099 strong, attacked the King Suśrava (Prajapati) and Indra alone defeated them and frustrated their ambition (the Vayu-Purana also narrates the incident).Most of the scholars agree that the Rig-Veda was composed more than 5000 years BCE, and hence the incident narrated in the verse (1/53/9) took place more than 7000 years ago. And Muhammad conquered Mecca in 630 AD. But Zakir Naik has proceeded to link the incident with Muhammad’s capturing Mecca, which any sane man, except a Muslim, would feel shy to undertake. To give his mischief a shape, he has, firstly replaced the word Suśrava with Suśrama and says that the word Suśrama stands for one who praises, and hence equivalent to Ahammad in Arabic, the other name of Muhammad. And he claims that the verse narrates Muhammad’s conquering Mecca, as the then population of the city was about 60,000 and Muhammad had invaded Mecca with 20 of his closest followers. It is not difficult for the reader to discover the absurdity of this claim and the deceit involved with making it.The verse (8/6/10) of the Rig-Veda says,Ahamiddhi pituṣpari medhamṛtasya jagrabha lAhaṃ sūrya ivājrani ll (8/6/10)“I from my Father have received deep knowledge of the Holy Law: I was born like unto the Sun.” (Tr: ibid, p- 396).In this verse the word ahamiddhi stands for “I have received.” But as the word spells like Ahammad, the other name of Muhammad, Zakir Naik claims that the verse mentions Muhammad, which shows how he is prone to error on account of his Islamic bias.Thus we have studied all the verses of the Rig-Veda which, according to Naik, mention Muhammad. It has been said above that the Sanskrit word narāśaṃsa stands for a deity or God who is praiseworthy to man, but not a man who is praiseworthy to other men, which is what Naik claims. So, according to this kind of childish logic, whenever someone uses the word “praiseworthy,” it should be taken granted that he mentions Prophet Muhammad. But that is far from the truth.However, the intellectual level of those who try to use these techniques of mistranslations are revealed when they try to do the same thing with the word narāśaṃsa in other Vedas, like Atharva-Veda and Yajur-Veda and is again projecting them to be mentioning Prophet Muhammad. Though it is sheer wastage of time to deal with the utterances of such insane people as this, we may discuss these matters more thoroughly in the future. In the meantime, many are those who are realizing the confusing and inaccurate conclusions such as these and are losing confidence in such people who depend on this kind of tactic, as they also become an embarrassment to the religion they represent.Debunking the Atharva-Veda ConnectionAtharva-Veda, HYMN CXXVIIA hymn in praise of the good Government of King Kaurama1 Listen to this, ye men, a laud of glorious bounty shall be sung. Thousands sixty, and ninety we, O Kaurama, among the Rusamas have received.2 Camels twice-ten that draw the car, with females by their side, he gave.Fain would the chariot's top bow down escaping from the stroke of heaven.3 A hundred chains of gold, ten wreaths, upon thee Rishi he bestowed,And thrice-a-hundred mettled steeds, ten-times-a-thousand cows he gave.4 Glut thee, O Singer, glut thee like a bird on a ripe-fruited tree.Thy lips and tongue move swiftly like the sharp blades of a pair of shears.5 Quickly and willingly like kine forth come the singers and their hymns:Their little maidens are at home, at home they wait upon the cows.6 O Singer, bring thou forth the hymn that findeth cattle, findeth wealth. p. 364Even as an archer aims his shaft address this prayer unto the Gods.7 List to Pariksit’s eulogy, the sovran whom all people love,The King who ruleth over all, excelling mortals as a God.8 'Mounting his throne, Pariksit, best of all, hath given us peace and rest,'Saith a Kauravya to his wife as he is ordering his house.9 'Which shall I set before thee, curds, gruel of milk, or barley-brew?'Thus the wife asks her husband in the realm which King Pariksit rules.10 Up as it were to heavenly light springs the ripe corn above the cleft.Happily thrive the people in the land where King Pariksit reigns.11 Indra hath waked the bard and said, Rise, wander singing here and there.Praise me, the strong: each pious man will give thee riches in return,12 Here, cows! increase and multiply, here ye, O horses, here, O men.Here, with a thousand rich rewards, doth Pūshan also seat him-self.13 O Indra, let these cows be safe, their master free from injury.Let not the hostile-hearted or the robber have control of them.14 Oft and again we glorify the hero with our hymn of praise, with prayer, with our auspicious prayer.Take pleasure in the songs we sing: let evil never fall on us.This hymn is merely a praise of King Kaurama (probably of Rajasthani origin). Some people, like Zakir Naik, have tried to twist this to mean that the first 13 verses tell the story of Mohammed! “Kaurama” actually means “born of a noble family” and has nothing to do with referring to Mohammed. It is closely related with the term Kaurava. And “Kuntapa” merely means the internal organs in the belly and has no alternate meaning as “safe journey” or as such. Sanskrit words aren’t as multi-layered as Arab words. All the verses in the Atharva-Veda from 126-133 are considered Kuntapa, but only one mentions a desert.The Sama-Veda ConnectionSome people (and you can guess who) think that the Sama-Veda, Book II, Hymn 6, verse 8, refers to Mohammed.The verse -1. Indra whose jaws are strong hath drunk of worshipping Sudaksha’s draught,The Soma juice with barley brew.2. O Lord of ample wealth, these songs of praise have called aloud to thee,Like milch-kine lowing to their calves!3. Then straight they recognized the mystic name of the creative Steer,There in the mansion of the Moon.4. When Indra, strongest hero, brought the streams, the mighty waters down,Pushan was standing by his side.5. The Cow, the streaming mother of the liberal Maruts, pours her milk,Harnessed to draw their chariots on.6. Come, Lord of rapturous joys, to our libation with thy bay steeds, comeWith bay steeds to the flowing juice7. Presented strengthening gifts have sent Indra away at sacrifice,With night, unto the cleansing bath.8. I from my Father have received deep knowledge of eternal Law:I was born like unto the Sun.9. With Indra splendid feasts be ours, rich in all strengthening things, wherewith,Wealthy in food, we may rejoice10. Soma and Pushan, kind to him who travels to the Gods, provideDwellings all happy and secure.So some people say that verse eight says “Ahmed acquired from his Lord the knowledge of eternal law. I received light from him just as from the sun.” Then they associate the word as Ahmed to be Mohammed. But let us understand the verse accurately.In these verses, Indra is strengthened with Soma sacrifice and the Priests cry out for Indra’s arrival. The priests recognize the name of the creative Seer - the personification Soma, there in the mansion of the moon - which in Vedic symbolism, resembles a drop of Soma. Next, Indra’s legendary battle with Viritra the dragon who holds back the waters of the Earth is reflected and it is seen how Indra brings the streams towards Earth with Pushan by his side. The description of a cow pouring forth her milk is also given and is thought akin to Indra’s action. Then, the priests once again call to Indra as the lord of joy to give his strengthening gifts to Soma and Indra doing so, fades away. The Priests partake in the Soma and receive knowledge of the eternal law - the law that governs nature (no Law in the ‘Jurisdiction’ sense) and share a feeling of warmth as if they were born unto the Sun. Once again, the Soma is praised for its strengthening qualities. Soma the personification and Pushan thus travel to the Gods.Soma is a non-intoxicant juice from a certain vine that is burnt in Vedic rituals and the leftover remnants are eaten. This is not done anymore because nobody knows what the Soma plant is (presumed extinct). The Soma plant is renown for its strengthening properties and is drunk before war. Indra is a deity especially fond of Soma.So the conclusion for this verse from the Sama-Veda is that there is no place for any “Ahmed” in this verse either storywise or literarywise. Adding “Ahmed” here is saying the grammatically incorrect (the Veda is gramatically perfect) – “Ahmed have received.” And besides, it is akin to saying Mohammed himself did the ritual to Indra’s glory, and partook in the leftovers and knew the Sharia - which is once again akin to idolatry for Muslims. The phrase “I from my father” seems second most likely (it refers to the Priests receiving knowledge from “Soma” about the Eternal Law) but the most likely seems to be Aham + Atha. It would translate the sentence to – “I now have received the eternal law.”* * *We could go on like this, and other people have, and compare additional verses from the Vedas to show how by mistranslations, people have tried to place references to Prophet Mohammed in them, thus misleading the public into thinking that the Vedic literature was advocating and giving credence or even prophecies to the Prophet Mohammed, but no such honest references can be found therein. It is another trick, the type of which is becoming increasingly common in order to persuade people to drop out of the Dharmic spiritual path and to convert to something else.Such trickery is only successful with those who are under-educated in the Vedic philosophy, and are used by those who still lack genuine spiritual depth that can itself attract people. When that is missing, then they have to resort to all kinds of deceit and trickery, or worse, such as types of violence and attacks, to show the superiority of their religion. This is a pathetic technique but seems to be the last resort of those religions who especially want to gain popularity without showing a truly deep and sacred and enlightening spiritual path that is meant solely for the upliftment of the individual and society in general, rather than control through dogma and peer pressure and status from a growing congregation.Source: - Is He Really Predicted in Bhavishya Purana[Edit: I have removed Nouman Ali Khan’s photo and deleted my previous comment over here because I no longer consider Islam by any possibility a religion of “peace”]And I hope you know by now what I think about Zakir Naik. This pack of cigarette sums it up :) :P