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OT: To Study Islamic History...is to Study Black History
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[QUOTE]Originally posted by Doug M: [QB] Actually there are aspects of ancient Egyptian religion in Islam. Prostrating oneself in worship is one example(down on the hands and knees). Look at Islam as basically a large helping of theology based around Ptah or the word. In ancient Egypt, the word was law and symbolic of the divine creation of the universe and the laws that established the ordering of things in it. This is what Ptah represents. This "divine mind" then allocates part of his power to the Pharaoh who's word becomes law and the ancient Egyptians often spoke of Ptah granting this power to the king. Islam means submission to the power and authority of 'the word' of the prophet, as symbolic of the power and authority of God. Within Islam, the tradition is that Mohamed, being illiterate, passed his ideas verbally to his lieutenants. These lieutenants then went forth and passed them on. In turn others then others then passed them on further. Eventually these things got written down and called Hadith. There are hundreds of thousands of Hadith or "laws" that have been written and there is a whole branch of Islamic law that deals with validating whether a specific Hadith is valid. The key here is that various Islamic rulers came along and modeled themselves as the prophet bringing the truth to the unbelievers and began making up THEIR OWN rules as Hadith. THAT is why there hundreds of thousands of such rules on record and MOST of them are bogus (have nothing to do with Mohamed). This only symbolizes the word as the law and the followers having to obey these "rules". Most of the divisions and conflict in Islam boils down to the fact people were battling over who's word was "the law" (who was the prophet) and had to be followed (along with the wealth and power that went with it.) Watch this video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FS9YU1HmapU [QUOTE] The basic theological principle of Islam is tawhid, the oneness or unicity of God. In the Qur'an, this concept is summarized in Sura (discourse) 112, the "Sura of Sincere Belief" (Surat al-Ikhlas), and its text is commonly recited in the Islamic prayer: Say: He is Allah, the Unique, Allah the Perfect, beyond compare. He gives not birth, nor is He begotten, And He is not, in Himself, dependent on anything. The idea that God is one, unique and transcendent, constitutes the fundamental message of the Qur'an. Indeed, one can go so far as to say that tawhid is what the Qur'an is "really" about. Nearly every Qur'anic discourse, in one way or another, serves to demonstrate the existence of Allah-- the One God, absolutely independent, absolutely transcendent, and immanent yet utterly beyond compare. Tawhid is also what Islam is "really" about. The Arabic word, Islam, connotes surrender, submission, or giving oneself up to another's disposal. A full understanding of tawhid implies that universal or primordial Islam submission to God as the sole master of destiny and ultimate Reality- is an ontological state that pertains to all created beings. Unlike animals, angels, and jinn, the other sentient beings mentioned in the Qur'an, humans are endowed with the capacity of choice. Because humans are endowed with choice, it is incumbent upon them that their acknowledgement of tawhid be a matter of choice. The most important sign or token of this acknowledgement is the conscious submission of a person's individual will or ego to The One who manifestly is. This act of submission is what the Qur'an means by Islam. Only when both the faith and practice of one's Islam are in accord with a full understanding of tawhid can a person truly be called a Muslim, "one who submits to God." Similarly, a formal act of submission and a reaffirmation of tawhid through symbolic gestures constitute the "meaning" of the Islamic prayer. At its most basic level, prayer is a form of remembrance. From the perspective of the individual Muslim believer, prayer constitutes one's remembrance of the essential reality of tawhid, one's remembrance of human contingency before the Divine Absolute, and one's remembrance of human weakness before the manifestation of Divine power and potency. In Understanding Islam (Comprendre l'Islam), Frithjof Schuon, the noted esoterist and specialist on comparative religion, sums up the Islamic God-man relation in the following terms: Islam is the meeting between God as such and man as such. God as such: that is to say God envisaged, not as He manifested Himself in a particular way at a particular time, but independently of history and inasmuch as He is what He is and also as He creates and reveals by His nature. Man as such: that is to say man envisaged, not as a fallen being needing a miracle to save him, but as man, a theomorphic being endowed with an intelligence capable of conceiving of the Absolute and with a will capable of choosing what leads to the Absolute . [2] In Islam, fundamental error consists in rejecting or misunderstanding the concept of tawhid-- in holding that the Absolute is not absolute, or that it is relative, or that there is more than one Absolute, or that the relative itself is absolute. Sin consists in actualizing this error on the level of human behavior. In the Qur'an, Pharaoh personifies fundamental error and sin through his denial of the uniqueness of the Absolute and by his hubris in considering himself more than a mortal man. It often comes as a surprise to the non-Muslim to discover that the most widely mentioned prophet in the Qur'an is Moses. In a number of Qur'anic narratives, Moses is depicted as a Messenger (rasul) and bearer of divine authority (sultan). In these passages, Moses wields the signs and credentials of authority that God has bestowed on him as part of a campaign for spiritual, moral, and social purification (tazkiya), justice ('adl), and prosperity (thawba Allah). [3] More than the just the political liberator of his people, the Qur'anic Moses is a Messenger of the divine word and liberator of the human soul. In the course of the Qur'anic narrative he transforms the tribe of Israel (Banu Isra'il), the oppressed and lowly slaves of the lordly Pharaoh, into a paradigmatic community of divine guidance (umma)-- a community whose servitude now belongs only to God. In the Qur'anic narrative, Pharaoh appears as Moses' foil: his grandeur, limitless worldly authority, and pretended divinity contrast sharply with Moses' simplicity, lack of rhetorical fluency (Moses is depicted as a stutterer in the Qur'an), and complete dependence on guidance from above. Yet despite his personal shortcomings, the Qur'an mentions time and again that Moses, not Pharaoh, is the one who possesses true authority (sultan). [4] In Arabic, the word sultan means "holder of power." Depending on its context, this word can mean a divinely guided leader, a ruler, or even a dictator, whose authority is based on the force of arms alone. Unlike the truly authoritative leadership of Moses, which is described in the Qur'an as a divine mission (risala) to carry God's word (kalam) to Israel and the people of Egypt, the leadership of Pharaoh is depicted as completely illegitimate, based as it is on power, oppression, and vanity. The most conclusive proof of Pharaoh's illegitimacy lies in his outrageous claim of divinity-- an act of hubris unparalleled by any other in the Qur'anic narrative: Pharaoh said: "O Chiefs! I know of no God for you but myself. Therefore, O Haman! Light me [a kiln] out of clay, and build me a lofty palace that I may mount up to the god of Moses. For verily I believe that Moses is a liar!" [Qur'an 28:38] And [Pharaoh] was arrogant and insolent in the land-- beyond reason, he and his hosts. They thought that they would not have to return to Us! [Qur'an 28:39] Has the story of Moses come to you? Behold, his Lord called to him in the sacred valley of Tuwa: "Go to Pharaoh, for he has transgressed all bounds, "And say to him: Do you wish to be purified? And should I guide you to your Lord so that you may fear him?'" Then Moses showed [Pharaoh] the Great Sign (al-aya al-kubra). But he rejected it and disobeyed. Then he turned his back, striving hard [against God]. And he collected [his hosts] and made a proclamation, Saying: "I am your lord most high!" (ana rabbukum al-a'la) [Qur'an 79:15-24] The belief in the divinity of Pharaoh in New Kingdom Egypt (when the term, "Pharaoh" was first used as a royal title) is well attested. The Egyptian people identified Pharaoh with the sky god Horus and with the sun gods Ra and Amon. After death Pharaoh was transformed into Osiris, god of the dead and father of Horus, and passed on his sacred powers to his son, the new Pharaoh and the new Horus. Pharaoh's divine status was also believed to endow him with magical powers. His uraeus (the serpent on his crown) was believed to spit flames at his enemies. In addition, Pharaoh was all-powerful, knowing everything and controlling nature and fertility. As a divine ruler, he was believed to preserve the divine order, called ma'at. He was responsible for his people's economic and spiritual welfare, and dispensed justice to his subjects. [5] These historical tokens of Pharaoh's divinity provide striking contrasts to the divinely bestowed "signs" (ayat) of authority ascribed to Moses in the Qur'an. Pharaoh was associated with the gods of the sun and the sky. Moses was sent as a Messenger by the One God (Allah or al-Ilah, "The God"), who reigns above both sun and sky. (Moses said: "Oh Pharaoh! I am a Messenger from the Lord of the Worlds. It is my duty to say nothing but the truth about God." [Qur'an 7:104-5]) Pharaoh gave birth to a new god, Horus, by delegating his powers to his son. In the Qur'an, Moses delegates (awzara) the duties of prophethood (but not his custodianship of the divine message) to his brother Aaron. The magical powers believed to be controlled by Pharaoh are contrasted in the Qur'an with the divine miracles given as tokens of grace to Moses by Allah. Moses' transformation of his shepherd's staff into a serpent may well be an ironic echo of the Egyptian belief in the fire-spitting cobra of Pharaoh's uraeus. ("Then Moses threw down his staff, and behold, it was a serpent! And he drew out his hand, and behold, it appeared white to the onlookers!" [Qur'an 7:107-8]. And we inspired unto Moses: "Throw down your staff! For it will swallow all of the falsehoods that they may devise!" [7:117]) Finally, the Egyptians believed that Pharaoh controlled the divine order. Moses, along with the other Islamic prophets, exhibited an intuitive knowledge of the divine order and governed the affairs of his people through the Law of Divine Command (shari'ah min al-amr) [Qur'an 45:18]. This latter term refers to more than just the divine governance of human affairs. It also carries the connotation of the "way of the world" or the natural order, analogous to the Egyptian concept of ma'at, and the Vedic concept of rta. [/QUOTE]From: http://etext.virginia.edu/journals/ssr/issues/volume2/number2/ssr02-02-e03.html Note that the highest expression of the oneness ideal of Islam is found in the African Ibn Tumart. Ibn Tumart was one of the leaders of the Almohades. Again, this is another example of the powerful force African theology played on the creation of Islam. [QUOTE] But it was while preaching around Tunisia, that he came to formulate the core of his reform program, which stated: The one who sees anything wrong, should act to change it by his hand. If he cannot do it with his hand, he shall do it with his tongue. If he cannot do it with his tongue, he shall do it in his own heart. This is what the religion demands you to do. Ibn Tumart would not make new friends with this doctrine, and the local rulers felt their authority threatened. As a result, Ibn Tumart had to seek refuge with a Berber tribe in the region. While hiding, Ibn Tumart met the man who came to be his foremost disciple, Abd al-Mu'min. [/QUOTE]from: http://looklex.com/e.o/i_tumart.htm [QUOTE] Ibn Tumart started in life as a reformer of the corruptions of his day, and seems to have slipped from that into the belief that he had been appointed by God as the great reformer for all time. As happens with reformers, from exhortation it came to force; from preaching at the abuses of the government to rebellion against the government. That government, the Murabit, went down before Ibn Tumart and his successors, and the pontifical rule of the Muwahhids, the asserters of God's tawhid or unity, rose in its place. The doctrine which he preached bears evident marks of the influence of al-Ghazzali and of Ibn Hazm. Tawhid, for him, meant a complete spiritualizing of the conception of God. Opposed to tawhid, he set tajsim, the assigning to God of a jism or body having bulk. Thus, when the theologians of the West took the anthropomorphic passages of the Qur’an literally, he applied to them the method of ta’wil, or interpretation, which he had learned in the East, and explained away these stumbling-blocks. Ibn Hazm, it will be remembered, resorted to grammatical and lexicographical devices to attain the same end, and had regarded ta’wil with abhorrence. To Ibn Tumart, then, this tajsim was flat unbelief and, as Mahdi, it was his duty to oppose it by force of arms, to lead a jihad against its maintainers. Further, with Ibn Hazm, he agreed in rejecting taqlid. There was only one truth, and it was man's duty to find it for himself by going to the original sources. [/QUOTE]From: http://www.sacred-texts.com/isl/dmt/dmt14.htm Or, the word is a vehicle to transmit symbolic meaning about the nature of the divine and his creation. This is fundamentally the same as the core principle of the neters and the systems of Egyptian cosmology, which was heavily based on symbolism and the concept of "one in all". It is from the interaction with older mystical traditions of Africa, Persia, Babylon and India that forms the core of many of the esoteric writings of Islam and most of them are from the "golden age" and some of the most powerful are from Islamic Spain and North and West Africa. [/QB][/QUOTE]
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