In the Satanic verses, it seems that no relationship is a relationship between equals. Each is associated with an opposite: dominant and submissive, god and worshiper, angel and devil, faithful and adulterous. This inequality creates toxic, even dangerous situations, in which a person sacrifices a lot for the good of others or for that of religion, without anything in return. Salman Rushdie plays with the notions of faith and loyalty to criticize the concept of sacrifice both in religion and in personal relationships. By turning the idea of ​​blood sacrifice on its head and depicting toxic relationships, Rushdie suggests that religion itself can be a toxic relationship, when a person gives up everything for the promise of a future they have no reason to to believe. This idea is embodied by “the promise of the magic lamp,” and so I will begin with that, part of the story of the character of Saladin Chamcha. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay When Saladin was growing up, his father was a tremendous presence in his life. He is described as always spying on him or coming right behind him, even ripping off Saladin's sheet in the middle of the night to "reveal the shameful penis in the red, grasping hand (36)." The father is omniscient, omnipresent and seemingly omnipotent to young Saladin, almost like a god. In fact, he is described as "more divine to his infant son than any Allah" and as a "profane deity (49)." When Saladin finds a wallet full of British money, his father, of course, is there to collect it. To add to the father's cruel nature, on a shelf in his office is a "magic lamp", just like something from the Arabian Nights. But of course he doesn't allow his son to rub it in the hopes of letting out a genie. He promises, however, that one day Saladin will possess it for himself. This “promise of the magic lamp” convinces the young Saladin that “one day his troubles would end and his most intimate desires would be satisfied, and that all he would have to do was wait (37)”. This presents a structure that is found repeatedly throughout the novel: someone wants something, but is unable to obtain it. In the meantime, they suffer and are punished. They hold out hope that they will ultimately get what they want. This pattern, found in many different scenarios in the novel, is a critique of the faith that Rushdie is trying to make. Saladin isn't the only character who believes in something that may or may not end all of his problems. Apart from this father-son relationship, the novel is full of romantic relationships and other interpersonal relationships that follow the same pattern, a pattern that is clearly toxic, even abusive. Religion also follows a similar structure in the novel. The "promise of the magic lamp" is described as similar to the "promise of the afterlife". Characters place their faith in something that may or may not happen after they die, and that faith becomes detrimental to the life they have. Rushdie's criticism of blind faith in religion, particularly Islamic extremism, is apparent even in the word he chooses to call it. Rather than calling it "Islam" in the Jahilia sections of the book, which feature the life of Mahound, or Muhammad, and the founding of the religion, Rushdie calls it by its literal English translation: Submission. This is a conscious choice on his part, intended to emphasize the fact that Islam, one of the world's dominant religions, literally means submission, a word which suggests that its followers must let themselvesto dominate, to abandon oneself to the will of something or someone. other. Of course, submitting to something isn't always a bad thing: it encourages humility and can remind someone that they're only human. But taken to the extreme, submission can be deadly. At the time Rushdie was writing this book, Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khomeini (coincidentally the same man who issued the fatwa against him), said: "What is better, in the service of Islam and of the noble Islamic nation, than to drink the drink of Islam? martyrdom and proudly meeting God (Hatina 123)? With powerful religious leaders so accepting of the notion of martyrdom and suicide, it is no wonder that suicide bombings in radical Islam have been, and still are, such a problem. Submission means giving up something to someone else, and when a person has faith in an afterlife that is guaranteed to them, if they become a martyr, they might then give up their life and/or that others to do this. The concept of self-sacrifice in the name of religious faith is an extreme version of the idea of ​​the magic lamp, a magic lamp worth dying for. This is seen several times in The Satanic Verses. “Martyrdom is a privilege,” says Tavleen, the woman who hijacks the plane and blows it up in mid-flight. “We will be like stars; like the sun (88). This is an example of faith becoming toxic. Tavleen has no proof that murder and suicide will get her to heaven, but she firmly believes it. What she said at that moment certainly echoed Khomeini's words above. When she kills the first hostage, she uses the word “sacrifice,” and Rushdie emphasizes the use of this particular word (87). To sacrifice is to give something to a god in the hope of getting something in return. But it's not exactly a fair exchange: someone makes a sacrifice and then waits for their reward, hoping it will come. They “wait for the end”, like Saladin for the magic lamp. The word evokes ancient rituals on temple stairs, blood being shed for a good harvest. But this example is completely modern, intended to show that the concept of blood sacrifice is not obsolete. This is done with a gun to the head rather than a dagger to the heart, but the idea is the same. Later, Tavleen sacrifices herself to her god, taking her fellow hijackers and the plane's passengers with her. Rushdie includes another example of a kind of blood sacrifice involving many people in the sections of the novel about Ayesha, whose rhetoric, like that used by Tavleen and Khomeini and often found in religious texts, advocates the martyrdom. “Everything will be asked of us and everything will be given to us too (232)” becomes his refrain. She repeats it often until an entire village follows her on a pilgrimage to the bottom of the Arabian Sea. Rushdie here complicates the concept of blind faith: it is not entirely blind. The villagers have good reason to trust Ayesha. Her presence seems holy: wherever she goes, she is followed by a mass of butterflies, the insects so attracted to her that they clothe her naked body. She also correctly diagnoses Mishal Saeed's breast cancer (240). These are both valid reasons why the villagers think she is some sort of prophet. However, when she promises that the sea will part for them as it did for the Israelites fleeing Egypt, the villagers drown. By providing an example of faith that is not entirely unjustified, Rushdie shows that his critique is not faith itself, but the willingness to sacrifice everything for it. The fact that they believe in Ayesha as a prophet is not the issue here; in fact, it turns outas a positive thing when Mishal first finds out she has cancer. The problem is the complete submission of oneself to this faith. As Frans Ilkka Mäyrä writes, “Rushdie's text… is not aimed at the complete opposite of religious faith, it is not indifferent or antipathetic towards religious tradition. Instead, it articulates a middle ground between secularism and religiosity by exploring religious elements with an involved but critical attitude. When the villagers enter the water, “none of them reappears…not a single panting head nor a single flailing arm (517).” To get far enough into the ocean after her unwillingness to part and people to drown, without even putting up a fight, is the most shocking part of Ayesha's story. It should be noted that Rushdie does not describe Islam exclusively as a dangerous form of faith; his criticism is of any extreme sacrifice to any extreme religion. As Meir Hatina and Meir Litvak write in their book Martyrdom and Sacrifice in Islam, "the idea and ideal of martyrdom in the name of one's beliefs has been considered in most religions as the embodiment of devotion to God (3)”. They then explain the evolution of the concept of martyrdom in Islam, which finds its roots in the two other Abrahamic religions; the three religions have always been pushed too far. Rushdie also illustrates that martyrdom is not exclusive to religious faith. The novel depicts a number of martyrs in their personal relationships. Toxic relationships run rampant throughout The Satanic Verses, presenting inequalities of divine proportions. Notable examples are the relationships the women have with Gibreel. It's not insignificant that Gibreel had no luck with women until he started playing the role of deities. Until he did so, in fact, he “failed to kiss a single woman on the mouth (23).” However, as soon as he is introduced as an elephant-headed god, he begins having sex with so many women that he cannot keep track of their names. Many of these women even want him to keep the elephant mask on while they have sex (25). This is problematic, especially in a patriarchal religious culture, as it shows that women want to give themselves to a divine figure. Gibreel becomes their religion. Although he is violent, unfaithful and indifferent, they still love him and remain loyal to him. As Gibreel falls from the plane, he has a vision of one of his lovers, Rekha, who committed suicide out of grief by falling from a skyscraper, evoking a fall from God. In the vision, Rekha says, “but then you punished, you used it as an excuse to leave, as your cloud to hide behind… now that I'm dead, I've forgotten how to forgive. I curse you, my Gibreel, may your life be hell. Damn, because that's where you sent me (8). This quote requires in-depth analysis. First, by describing him as "punishing" and hiding in a cloud, it cements the idea that Gibreel is like a god to her and that she is his worshiper. As long as she was alive, her faith was in him. She always had hope that he would come back to her, until he fell in love with Alleluia Cone: Gibreel's version of a divine lover. It is then that she begins to doubt the power of her love for him, of the idea that he will one day return simply because she continually gives herself for him. Doubt, as Rushdie points out, is the opposite of faith (94). It's only when she dies and no longer has any hope of having a future with him that she can confront him and stop forgiving him. She is in hell, not heaven, which is significant. She chose hell over life, 1988.