And to think we thought it was so amazing that we would become God beings as fully God as God is God though of lower rank. Turns out back in the ninth century some Sufi Muslim mystics yearned to be one with God. Is that not even more impressive then being some sort of a lesser God being?
[Abu Yazid al-Bistami] also learned the disciine of fanah (annihilation): by gradually peeling away the layers of egoism ... [he] found an enhanced self in the ground of his own being that was nothing other than Allah himself, who told al-Bistami: "I am through Thee; there is no god but Thou." ....
Husain al-Mansur (d. 922), also known as al-Hallaj, the Wool-Carder, is said to have made a similar claìm, crying: 'Ana al-Haqq!' ('I am the Truth!' or 'I am the Real!'), though some scholars have suggested that this should read: 'I see the Truth!' (Karen Armstrong, Islam: A Short History, 2000, pp. 63-64.)
Each and every religion has "hardliners", legalists, mystics (oneness with god through the senses), slackers, practical doer adherents, spiritualizers etc
ReplyDeleteSometimes it leads to schisms, mostly they are tolerated within folds. Catholicism solved part of the problem through the different orders. Some speak more to the poor others to the intellectuals.
Personally I find it interesting to look at the earliest roots of islam as pertaining to the claimed earliest roots of our former denomination.
(superseding the larger by 600 years but perhaps a commonality through the diaspora of the early church and judaism in the arabian peninsula).
But hey I discovered that honest attempts to explore that possibility from an intelectual historic perspective gets one labelled as a "malmist".
I will "submit" therefore to clear boundaries as set by scholars of the different faiths, instead of searching for commonalities, overlap or oneness.
And the pun is wholly intended.
Nck
Learn to spell nck. You look stupid.
ReplyDeleteYeah I shoot!
ReplyDeleteNck
Any strength, practiced to extreme, becomes a weakness.
ReplyDeleteSafety lies between the poles, not attainable by gravitating towards one pole or the other.
BB
Whats that BB, Rumi? A Sufi poet?
ReplyDeleteFor that nugget I wish you a visit to the paradise gardens at the Alhambra in Granada, or maybe see a documentary, or perhaps a pop up picture on your screensaver, whatever works for you.
Nck
The usual from nck. Incomprehension in everything he or she posts.
ReplyDeleteYeah O! But did you get the pun?
ReplyDeleteNck
Idiot.
ReplyDelete