Friday, 13 July 2012
Anti Reason Scienctists
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Anti Reason Scienctists Claim Reason is Anti Knowledge.
Human Logic is Declared Anti Gnosis
Our Intellect is Against Knowledge
Shocking new scientific research appreared in New York Times on 15 June 2011.
Its been placed here for seeker's information.
ARTICLE. It says Human Logic is Anti Knowledge.
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Reason Seen More as Weapon Than Path to Truth
Hugo Mercier is among the researchers now asserting that reason evolved to win arguments, not seek truth.
NEW YORK TIMES - June 15, 2011
For centuries thinkers have assumed that the uniquely human capacity for reasoning has existed to let people reach beyond mere perception and reflex in the search for truth. Rationality allowed a solitary thinker to blaze a path to philosophical, moral and scientific enlightenment.
Now some researchers are suggesting that reason evolved for a completely different purpose: to win arguments. Rationality, by this yardstick (and irrationality too, but we’ll get to that) is nothing more or less than a servant of the hard-wired compulsion to triumph in the debating arena. According to this view, bias, lack of logic and other supposed flaws that pollute the stream of reason are instead social adaptations that enable one group to persuade (and defeat) another. Certitude works, however sharply it may depart from the truth.
The idea, labeled the argumentative theory of reasoning, is the brainchild of French cognitive social scientists, and it has stirred excited discussion (and appalled dissent) among philosophers, political scientists, educators and psychologists, some of whom say it offers profound insight into the way people think and behave. The Journal of Behavioral and Brain Sciences devoted its April issue to debates over the theory, with participants challenging everything from the definition of reason to the origins of verbal communication.
“Reasoning doesn’t have this function of helping us to get better beliefs and make better decisions,” said Hugo Mercier, who is a co-author of the journal article, with Dan Sperber. “It was a purely social phenomenon. It evolved to help us convince others and to be careful when others try to convince us.” Truth and accuracy were beside the point.
Indeed, Mr. Sperber, a member of the Jean-Nicod research institute in Paris, first developed a version of the theory in 2000 to explain why evolution did not make the manifold flaws in reasoning go the way of the prehensile tail and the four-legged stride. Looking at a large body of psychological research, Mr. Sperber wanted to figure out why people persisted in picking out evidence that supported their views and ignored the rest — what is known as confirmation bias — leading them to hold on to a belief doggedly in the face of overwhelming contrary evidence.
Other scholars have previously argued that reasoning and irrationality are both products of evolution. But they usually assume that the purpose of reasoning is to help an individual arrive at the truth, and that irrationality is a kink in that process, a sort of mental myopia. Gary F. Marcus, for example, a psychology professor atNew York University
What is revolutionary about argumentative theory is that it presumes that since reason has a different purpose — to win over an opposing group — flawed reasoning is an adaptation in itself, useful for bolstering debating skills.
Mr. Mercier, a post-doctoral fellow at theUniversity of Pennsylvania
“People have been trying to reform something that works perfectly well,” he said, “as if they had decided that hands were made for walking and that everybody should be taught that.”
Think of the American judicial system, in which the prosecutors and defense lawyers each have a mission to construct the strongest possible argument. The belief is that this process will reveal the truth, just as the best idea will triumph in what John Stuart Mill called the “marketplace of ideas.”
Mr. Mercier and Mr. Sperber have skeptics as well as fans. Darcia Narvaez, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Notre Dame and a contributor to the journal debate, said this theory “fits into evolutionary psychology mainstream thinking at the moment, that everything we do is motivated by selfishness and manipulating others, which is, in my view, crazy.”
To Ms. Narvaez, “reasoning is something that develops from experience; it’s a subset of what we really know.” And much of what we know cannot be put into words, she explained, pointing out that language evolved relatively late in human development.
“The way we use our minds to navigate the social and general worlds involves a lot of things that are implicit, not explainable,” she said.
On the other side of the divide, Jonathan Haidt, a psychology professor at the University of Virginia, said of Mr. Sperber and Mr. Mercier, “Their work is important and points to some ways that the limits of reason can be overcome by putting people together in the right way, in particular to challenge people’s confirmation biases.”
This “powerful idea,”
he added, could have important real-world implications.
As some journal contributors noted, the theory would seem to predict constant deadlock. But Mr. Sperber and Mr. Mercier contend that as people became better at producing and picking apart arguments, their assessment skills evolved as well.
“At least in some cultural contexts, this results in a kind of arms race towards greater sophistication in the production and evaluation of arguments,” they write. “When people are motivated to reason, they do a better job at accepting only sound arguments, which is quite generally to their advantage.” Groups are more likely than individuals to come up with better results, they say, because they will be exposed to the best arguments.
Mr. Mercier is enthusiastic about the theory’s potential applications. He suggests, for example, that children may have an easier time learning abstract topics in mathematics or physics if they are put into a group and allowed to reason through a problem together.
He has also recently been at work applying the theory to politics. In a new paper, he and Hélène Landemore, an assistant professor of political science at Yale, propose that the arguing and assessment skills employed by groups make democratic debate the best form of government for evolutionary reasons, regardless of philosophical or moral rationales.
How, then, do the academics explain the endless stalemates in Congress? “It doesn’t seem to work in theU.S.
He and Ms. Landemore suggest that reasoned discussion works best in smaller, cooperative environments rather than inAmerica
Because “individual reasoning mechanisms work best when used to produce and evaluate arguments during a public deliberation,” Mr. Mercier and Ms. Landemore, as a practical matter, endorse the theory of deliberative democracy, an approach that arose in the 1980s, which envisions cooperative town-hall-style deliberations. Championed by the philosophers John Rawls and Jürgen Habermas, this sort of collaborative forum can overcome the tendency of groups to polarize at the extremes and deadlock, Ms. Landemore and Mr. Mercier said.
Anyone who enjoys “spending endless hours debating ideas” should appreciate their views, Mr. Mercier and Mr. Sperber write, though, as even they note, “This, of course, is not an argument for (or against) the theory.”
__________________________________________
Anti Reason Scienctists Claim Reason is Anti Knowledge.
Human Logic is Declared Anti Gnosis
Our Intellect is Against Knowledge
Shocking new scientific research appreared in New York Times on 15 June 2011.
Its been placed here for seeker's information.
ARTICLE. It says Human Logic is Anti Knowledge.
----
Reason Seen More as Weapon Than Path to Truth
Hugo Mercier is among the researchers now asserting that reason evolved to win arguments, not seek truth.
NEW YORK TIMES - June 15, 2011
For centuries thinkers have assumed that the uniquely human capacity for reasoning has existed to let people reach beyond mere perception and reflex in the search for truth. Rationality allowed a solitary thinker to blaze a path to philosophical, moral and scientific enlightenment.
Now some researchers are suggesting that reason evolved for a completely different purpose: to win arguments. Rationality, by this yardstick (and irrationality too, but we’ll get to that) is nothing more or less than a servant of the hard-wired compulsion to triumph in the debating arena. According to this view, bias, lack of logic and other supposed flaws that pollute the stream of reason are instead social adaptations that enable one group to persuade (and defeat) another. Certitude works, however sharply it may depart from the truth.
The idea, labeled the argumentative theory of reasoning, is the brainchild of French cognitive social scientists, and it has stirred excited discussion (and appalled dissent) among philosophers, political scientists, educators and psychologists, some of whom say it offers profound insight into the way people think and behave. The Journal of Behavioral and Brain Sciences devoted its April issue to debates over the theory, with participants challenging everything from the definition of reason to the origins of verbal communication.
“Reasoning doesn’t have this function of helping us to get better beliefs and make better decisions,” said Hugo Mercier, who is a co-author of the journal article, with Dan Sperber. “It was a purely social phenomenon. It evolved to help us convince others and to be careful when others try to convince us.” Truth and accuracy were beside the point.
Indeed, Mr. Sperber, a member of the Jean-Nicod research institute in Paris, first developed a version of the theory in 2000 to explain why evolution did not make the manifold flaws in reasoning go the way of the prehensile tail and the four-legged stride. Looking at a large body of psychological research, Mr. Sperber wanted to figure out why people persisted in picking out evidence that supported their views and ignored the rest — what is known as confirmation bias — leading them to hold on to a belief doggedly in the face of overwhelming contrary evidence.
Other scholars have previously argued that reasoning and irrationality are both products of evolution. But they usually assume that the purpose of reasoning is to help an individual arrive at the truth, and that irrationality is a kink in that process, a sort of mental myopia. Gary F. Marcus, for example, a psychology professor at
What is revolutionary about argumentative theory is that it presumes that since reason has a different purpose — to win over an opposing group — flawed reasoning is an adaptation in itself, useful for bolstering debating skills.
Mr. Mercier, a post-doctoral fellow at the
“People have been trying to reform something that works perfectly well,” he said, “as if they had decided that hands were made for walking and that everybody should be taught that.”
Think of the American judicial system, in which the prosecutors and defense lawyers each have a mission to construct the strongest possible argument. The belief is that this process will reveal the truth, just as the best idea will triumph in what John Stuart Mill called the “marketplace of ideas.”
Mr. Mercier and Mr. Sperber have skeptics as well as fans. Darcia Narvaez, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Notre Dame and a contributor to the journal debate, said this theory “fits into evolutionary psychology mainstream thinking at the moment, that everything we do is motivated by selfishness and manipulating others, which is, in my view, crazy.”
To Ms. Narvaez, “reasoning is something that develops from experience; it’s a subset of what we really know.” And much of what we know cannot be put into words, she explained, pointing out that language evolved relatively late in human development.
“The way we use our minds to navigate the social and general worlds involves a lot of things that are implicit, not explainable,” she said.
On the other side of the divide, Jonathan Haidt, a psychology professor at the University of Virginia, said of Mr. Sperber and Mr. Mercier, “Their work is important and points to some ways that the limits of reason can be overcome by putting people together in the right way, in particular to challenge people’s confirmation biases.”
This “powerful idea,”
he added, could have important real-world implications.
As some journal contributors noted, the theory would seem to predict constant deadlock. But Mr. Sperber and Mr. Mercier contend that as people became better at producing and picking apart arguments, their assessment skills evolved as well.
“At least in some cultural contexts, this results in a kind of arms race towards greater sophistication in the production and evaluation of arguments,” they write. “When people are motivated to reason, they do a better job at accepting only sound arguments, which is quite generally to their advantage.” Groups are more likely than individuals to come up with better results, they say, because they will be exposed to the best arguments.
Mr. Mercier is enthusiastic about the theory’s potential applications. He suggests, for example, that children may have an easier time learning abstract topics in mathematics or physics if they are put into a group and allowed to reason through a problem together.
He has also recently been at work applying the theory to politics. In a new paper, he and Hélène Landemore, an assistant professor of political science at Yale, propose that the arguing and assessment skills employed by groups make democratic debate the best form of government for evolutionary reasons, regardless of philosophical or moral rationales.
How, then, do the academics explain the endless stalemates in Congress? “It doesn’t seem to work in the
He and Ms. Landemore suggest that reasoned discussion works best in smaller, cooperative environments rather than in
Because “individual reasoning mechanisms work best when used to produce and evaluate arguments during a public deliberation,” Mr. Mercier and Ms. Landemore, as a practical matter, endorse the theory of deliberative democracy, an approach that arose in the 1980s, which envisions cooperative town-hall-style deliberations. Championed by the philosophers John Rawls and Jürgen Habermas, this sort of collaborative forum can overcome the tendency of groups to polarize at the extremes and deadlock, Ms. Landemore and Mr. Mercier said.
Anyone who enjoys “spending endless hours debating ideas” should appreciate their views, Mr. Mercier and Mr. Sperber write, though, as even they note, “This, of course, is not an argument for (or against) the theory.”
__________________________________________
Twelver Templers
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TEMPLERS TWELVER CONNECTION
Holy Blood
Research has found that the Knight Templers were Twelvers, a Sect that followed Twelve Perfect Guardians of Heaven. The members of the Twelvers Sect had arrived in ancient Britain
In 636, armies led Caliph Omar defeated the Romans at the Battle of Yermuk. Jerusalem land of High Energy Britain , land of Valayat Ireland and Germania . In 750, the Omeyas were overthrown by the Abasis of Baghdad, who are wanted to finish the Twelver doctrine. The Divine Guides of Twelvers were killed one by one. One survived. After the disappearance of the Twelfth Holy Leader, the group was instructed to begin preaching in Africa . Twelvers converted Egyptians and people in West Africa . In 969, Twelvers established Cairo North Africa . Their rule stretched to from Egypt to Morocco
Twelvers had tolerant attitudes towards other religions and faiths, especially followers of Christ. Twelvers had contacts with ancient Celtic people of the north. Celts known as Hanifs to Twelvers, followed an old natural religion Hanaf. Therefore, they did not see need to convert them. Unlike Twelvers, the Catholics considered ancient Europeans as evil and pagans. They were determined to subdue people to Vatican
Twelvers believe in Twelve Infallible Guides of Humanity. The Holy Twelve had revealed to their believers a Secret Code of Eternal Life. Gnosis of the Holy Blood results in Genesis of Immortality. The existence of Sinless Teachers was something very similar to the Catholic Creed of Infallible Authority of the Pope. The Popes in Rome Vatican Rome Rome Palestine Rome Britain Island as special. Even then Catholic agents were hunting down all those who did not accept the Popes of Rome. Twelvers had to go underground. Twelvers became Templers. Twelvers went into hiding according to their belief in Taqiyya. Templers practiced Taqiyya. Taqiyya means to keep yourself hidden and not reveal your true identity. Twelvers were not in power, and they had to hide themselves from inquisition and torture conducted by Vatican
Twelvers did not wish to convert other people. However, some Celtic people converted willing from there Primordial Faith. Others abandoned the Popes and accepted the Secret Twelver Doctrine. Twelvers welcomed converts as Knights equal in Honour and Glory. They were trained warrior arts and in true faith and just virtues.
The Twelve Guides has instructed their followers about life of nobility and beauty. Twelver Code remained secret. Twelvers had neither regret nor fear. The Knights were without anger. They did not accept lies of false religious authorities. They used reason and questioned traditional teachings. They had great patience and deep prayers. They were one faith and one brotherhood. They had no divisions. They guarded each others life and honour. They were truly free souls. Twelver beliefs made them invincible. Twelver soul had freedom that no other soul had, or could even imagine.
Examination of Twelvers’ life and behaviour reveals clues to their high moral values. Twelvers were horsemen of honour. They respected horses and swords because their first Divine Guide had the Heavenly Sword; their third Infallible had a loyal Horse. The Twelver faith forbade cowardice and running from battle. They were gallant warriors. The enemies knew of their courage and skill in fighting. Twelvers received their strength from their spiritual uplinks to the Heavenly Lights. Swordsmanship and Horsemanship were distinguishing marks of Twelvers. They used them also for hunting and competition. Heroic actions of Twelvers were well known. Honour was the central code by which the Twelvers lived. Even in battle the Twelvers were known for their extreme discipline. They did not burn homes or harassed women and children. They sided with the oppressed and the weak. Twelvers particularly loved women. In Portugal , the Twelvers founded a city of Fatima after Fatima . Twelvers held that she was the true Queen of Cosmos and the Originator of Creation.
History books tell us that in ninth century A.D. the Twelver moved to Holy City of Kom in ancient Persia Sacred City Persia Karbala in Iraq Britain
After the Battle of Karbala, the Heavenly Teachers of the Twelver Cult, known as The Holy Twelve, sent their followers to Britain Britain Britain was the Land of Valayat Rome United Kingdom
Twelvers adopted other names to hide in Britain and Scotland
Most books on the subject claim that the Templers were a secret society of Catholic freemasons who protected Holy Grail, the bloodline of the children of Jesus. Others have questioned this assertion. There were no off springs of Christ. He never married. Some historians have stated that Catholic theory of Templer origin is not true. Catholic clergy made it up to hide the real truth. Some historians say that the Templer Society was founded by the Twelvers. It is well known that the Twelver Gnosis passed into the Knights Templar Order. In later centuries the name Templer was used for Twelvers.
It is also known that the Twelver Templers were the Guardian of Holy Bloodline. Symbols and Principles of Templers reveal their Twelver origins. Twelvers Templers believed in the Sacred Lineage was created when bloodline of both sons of Abraham came together and the Holy Kingdom United. This happened in seventh century in Yasrib, the City of Diseases Arabia . He was the holy descendent of Ismael. Templers brought with them to Britain
[more information to be added soon…]
Book recommended for reading to get variety of views on the history of Twelver origins of the Templer Order:
“The Hidden History of the Knight Templars” by the Grand Master in Scotland
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BBC - Divine Women
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Fierce, powerful females were at the very roots of early faiths – and made Christianity what it is today.
'I am certain that women were thought to be creatures capable of actually creating both life and death,’ says historian Bettany Hughes: BBC
7:52PM BST 03 Apr 2012
I know the relationship between women and religion is contentious, because some of our best evidence for it is hidden, buried deep underground.
Beneath the frenetic streets of Rome twist and turn the rock-cut catacombs of Priscilla. Here, there are a series of beautiful, faded wall‑paintings. In one side chapel, women sit around a dining table breaking bread and offering wine – apparently giving communion. On the flanking walls, draped in pale cloth, they raise their arms to worship God. In another chamber, a praying woman – hands and eyes lifted to the sky – dominates the scene. To her side a bishop lays his hand on a woman’s shoulder. She is wearing an alb, the marker of an ordained priest. These catacombs were home to early Christians escaping persecution and plying their faith, when Christianity was first becoming a fully fledged religion. High on one ceiling is a picture of a young mother nursing her chubby baby. Discovered only a few years ago, it is the first extant image we have of the Virgin Mary and the Christ child. Unlike the modern world of faith, women here are conspicuous not by their absence but their presence.
And, as a historian, that seems to me to be pretty logical. Because if you investigate the back story of religion, you’ll find a tenacious and intimate relationship between the female of the species and the divine. The evidence is there, even if it has been suppressed. In the first 200 years of Christianity, over half of the churches in Rome were built by women. Headstones from the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD celebrate women who were “episcopa” – not just the wives of bishops, as has often been claimed, but bishops themselves.
However, once Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire in the 4th century, with a massive geographical territory to control, the footsoldiers of Christ took precedence over the handmaids of God. Even when 19th century archaeologists and tomb-raiders rediscovered the earliest evidence of the relationship between faith and femininity, artefacts that included hundreds of thousands of naked prehistoric female figurines and lost Christian gospels were typically considered too shocking for public consumption. This history was sidelined or actively censored; mothballed in the archives or the store rooms of museums. It’s only now that it is coming blinking back into the light.
Take the oldest man-made religious structure in the world – the incredible site of Gobekli Tepe on the Syrian-Turkish border. Still being excavated, this sophisticated temple complex, almost 12,000 years old, is completely re-writing the story of humanity. The men and women who shifted 16-tonne blocks of stone here and carved them into fantastical shapes were still nomads. Villages, towns, settlements of any kind had yet to be invented; it seems that society itself was forged by the desire to worship together. Religion made civilisation; not vice versa.
And women are right at the heart of this seismic shift. In between two pillars, carved with lions, stone-age worshippers scratched an image of a woman in the bare rock. Naked, wild-haired, with her legs apart, it is a most sexual depiction, a woman who looks as if she is making love and giving birth at the same time. It’s a shocking picture – and a reminder that the role of divine women is highly charged. When we investigate the story of women and religion, we are not looking back to a benign golden age, when majestic females ruled the heavens and all was right with the world. In fact, fear, danger and darkness are recurring themes in this narrative.
In the oldest discovered town on earth, Catal Hoyuk, also in Turkey, there is evidence of the birth of a goddess. Dating back around 9,000 years, she’s a fierce, voluptuous carved figure with huge breasts and buttocks, sitting on a throne flanked by two big cats. Found buried deep in a grain bin, her excavator, the Englishman James Mellart, described her as a pre-eminent “Mother Goddess”. Subconsciously or not, Mellart was working from the presumption of his own, largely monotheistic society. We’re used to one supreme divinity – so Mellart just changed the sex of his all-powerful God and made her a woman. But despite the significant role of women in early faiths, I don’t think God was ever a girl. Although some in the “goddess” movement wanted to interpret Mellart’s discoveries in an entirely positive way, I think there is something more complicated going on. Other examples of archaeology from Catal Hoyuk are far from cosy. Around the skulls and jaws of jackals and hyenas female breasts have been modelled; in their graves, women cradle the skulls of men painted a bright red; the dead are buried in foetal positions. Elsewhere in Eastern Mediterranean prehistory we find bodies buried in womb-shaped pithoi – earthenware pots – as if their inhabitants should end life in the way they started it. The womb becomes a tomb.
Because, of course, when real women gave birth back at the time of the origin of religion, for every child that was born alive, another would be stillborn. I am certain that women were thought to be creatures capable of actually creating both life and death. And so when the goddess proper evolves – and is given a name; Inanna, Ishtar, Aphrodite, the Magna Mater – we find she is not comfortable and comforting, but a sexually powerful creature who delights in bloodshed.
Another characteristic of divine women, from prehistory until today, has not just been a delight in bloodshed but in wisdom. And so we find virtually all deities of wisdom, and their acolytes, are female. For Hindus, the goddess of wisdom is Saraswati, Seshat was the ancient Egyptian deity of knowledge and scripture, the Greeks honoured wise Athena. Once Christianity arrives on the scene, it seems there is a natural transition for the wise priestesses of the pagan world, often educated and from high-born families, to become the priestesses of Christ. In the Bible itself we hear of the deaconess Phoebe sent by Paul to bring the news of Christ to Rome. And a fragment of a 1st century AD papyrus, now stored in the back rooms of the papyrology department of Oxford University, records Peter discussing exactly how Mary Magdalene should spread the words of Jesus. Peter calls Mary his adelphe – the word in Greek is intimate, and means “womb-companion”.
Although official histories denied this female influence, the legion protests of churchmen through history speaks volumes. Tertullian writes in the 2nd century AD of the “mad insolence of women who have dared to wish to teach”, the Council of Nimes in 394 outlawed the “priestly service of women”, Pope Gelasius rails that “everything that is exclusively entrusted to the service of men has been carried out by the sex that has no right to do it”, and as late as 829 AD the Reform Synod of Paris trumpeted “women press around the altar… indeed even dispense the body and blood of the Lord to the people. This is shameful and must not take place.”
In Islam, too, revolutionary new evidence gathered over a period of 25 years by the Islamic scholar Mohammad Akram Nadwi shows the premier roles women took in the early development of Islam and the promotion of the Word of God. In his body of work (so far stretching to 53 volumes) Nadwi has discovered more than 8,000 named women who worked as scholars and teachers – preaching, particularly in the early years of Islam, in mosques in Medina, Syria, Jerusalem and Cairo.
The story of women and religion has, for the past 1,700 years, been one of conflict and denial. But consider this. Of all the images of the human form found in sacred spots between 30,000 BC and 1,000 BC, over 90 per cent are of the female form. When our earliest ancestors tried to work out what it was to be human – in this life and the next – they turned to the female of the species for guidance. Once monotheism finally arrived, it was built upon these foundations. This year, when some women will once again take a pole position in the Church, following the Synod’s anticipated vote on female bishops, this will not be a radical departure; but a return to the very roots of religion itself.
'Divine Women’ starts on BBC2 on Wednesday April 11, 2012 at 9pm.
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Fierce, powerful females were at the very roots of early faiths – and made Christianity what it is today.
'I am certain that women were thought to be creatures capable of actually creating both life and death,’ says historian Bettany Hughes: BBC
7:52PM BST 03 Apr 2012
I know the relationship between women and religion is contentious, because some of our best evidence for it is hidden, buried deep underground.
Beneath the frenetic streets of Rome twist and turn the rock-cut catacombs of Priscilla. Here, there are a series of beautiful, faded wall‑paintings. In one side chapel, women sit around a dining table breaking bread and offering wine – apparently giving communion. On the flanking walls, draped in pale cloth, they raise their arms to worship God. In another chamber, a praying woman – hands and eyes lifted to the sky – dominates the scene. To her side a bishop lays his hand on a woman’s shoulder. She is wearing an alb, the marker of an ordained priest. These catacombs were home to early Christians escaping persecution and plying their faith, when Christianity was first becoming a fully fledged religion. High on one ceiling is a picture of a young mother nursing her chubby baby. Discovered only a few years ago, it is the first extant image we have of the Virgin Mary and the Christ child. Unlike the modern world of faith, women here are conspicuous not by their absence but their presence.
And, as a historian, that seems to me to be pretty logical. Because if you investigate the back story of religion, you’ll find a tenacious and intimate relationship between the female of the species and the divine. The evidence is there, even if it has been suppressed. In the first 200 years of Christianity, over half of the churches in Rome were built by women. Headstones from the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD celebrate women who were “episcopa” – not just the wives of bishops, as has often been claimed, but bishops themselves.
However, once Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire in the 4th century, with a massive geographical territory to control, the footsoldiers of Christ took precedence over the handmaids of God. Even when 19th century archaeologists and tomb-raiders rediscovered the earliest evidence of the relationship between faith and femininity, artefacts that included hundreds of thousands of naked prehistoric female figurines and lost Christian gospels were typically considered too shocking for public consumption. This history was sidelined or actively censored; mothballed in the archives or the store rooms of museums. It’s only now that it is coming blinking back into the light.
Take the oldest man-made religious structure in the world – the incredible site of Gobekli Tepe on the Syrian-Turkish border. Still being excavated, this sophisticated temple complex, almost 12,000 years old, is completely re-writing the story of humanity. The men and women who shifted 16-tonne blocks of stone here and carved them into fantastical shapes were still nomads. Villages, towns, settlements of any kind had yet to be invented; it seems that society itself was forged by the desire to worship together. Religion made civilisation; not vice versa.
And women are right at the heart of this seismic shift. In between two pillars, carved with lions, stone-age worshippers scratched an image of a woman in the bare rock. Naked, wild-haired, with her legs apart, it is a most sexual depiction, a woman who looks as if she is making love and giving birth at the same time. It’s a shocking picture – and a reminder that the role of divine women is highly charged. When we investigate the story of women and religion, we are not looking back to a benign golden age, when majestic females ruled the heavens and all was right with the world. In fact, fear, danger and darkness are recurring themes in this narrative.
In the oldest discovered town on earth, Catal Hoyuk, also in Turkey, there is evidence of the birth of a goddess. Dating back around 9,000 years, she’s a fierce, voluptuous carved figure with huge breasts and buttocks, sitting on a throne flanked by two big cats. Found buried deep in a grain bin, her excavator, the Englishman James Mellart, described her as a pre-eminent “Mother Goddess”. Subconsciously or not, Mellart was working from the presumption of his own, largely monotheistic society. We’re used to one supreme divinity – so Mellart just changed the sex of his all-powerful God and made her a woman. But despite the significant role of women in early faiths, I don’t think God was ever a girl. Although some in the “goddess” movement wanted to interpret Mellart’s discoveries in an entirely positive way, I think there is something more complicated going on. Other examples of archaeology from Catal Hoyuk are far from cosy. Around the skulls and jaws of jackals and hyenas female breasts have been modelled; in their graves, women cradle the skulls of men painted a bright red; the dead are buried in foetal positions. Elsewhere in Eastern Mediterranean prehistory we find bodies buried in womb-shaped pithoi – earthenware pots – as if their inhabitants should end life in the way they started it. The womb becomes a tomb.
Because, of course, when real women gave birth back at the time of the origin of religion, for every child that was born alive, another would be stillborn. I am certain that women were thought to be creatures capable of actually creating both life and death. And so when the goddess proper evolves – and is given a name; Inanna, Ishtar, Aphrodite, the Magna Mater – we find she is not comfortable and comforting, but a sexually powerful creature who delights in bloodshed.
Another characteristic of divine women, from prehistory until today, has not just been a delight in bloodshed but in wisdom. And so we find virtually all deities of wisdom, and their acolytes, are female. For Hindus, the goddess of wisdom is Saraswati, Seshat was the ancient Egyptian deity of knowledge and scripture, the Greeks honoured wise Athena. Once Christianity arrives on the scene, it seems there is a natural transition for the wise priestesses of the pagan world, often educated and from high-born families, to become the priestesses of Christ. In the Bible itself we hear of the deaconess Phoebe sent by Paul to bring the news of Christ to Rome. And a fragment of a 1st century AD papyrus, now stored in the back rooms of the papyrology department of Oxford University, records Peter discussing exactly how Mary Magdalene should spread the words of Jesus. Peter calls Mary his adelphe – the word in Greek is intimate, and means “womb-companion”.
Although official histories denied this female influence, the legion protests of churchmen through history speaks volumes. Tertullian writes in the 2nd century AD of the “mad insolence of women who have dared to wish to teach”, the Council of Nimes in 394 outlawed the “priestly service of women”, Pope Gelasius rails that “everything that is exclusively entrusted to the service of men has been carried out by the sex that has no right to do it”, and as late as 829 AD the Reform Synod of Paris trumpeted “women press around the altar… indeed even dispense the body and blood of the Lord to the people. This is shameful and must not take place.”
In Islam, too, revolutionary new evidence gathered over a period of 25 years by the Islamic scholar Mohammad Akram Nadwi shows the premier roles women took in the early development of Islam and the promotion of the Word of God. In his body of work (so far stretching to 53 volumes) Nadwi has discovered more than 8,000 named women who worked as scholars and teachers – preaching, particularly in the early years of Islam, in mosques in Medina, Syria, Jerusalem and Cairo.
The story of women and religion has, for the past 1,700 years, been one of conflict and denial. But consider this. Of all the images of the human form found in sacred spots between 30,000 BC and 1,000 BC, over 90 per cent are of the female form. When our earliest ancestors tried to work out what it was to be human – in this life and the next – they turned to the female of the species for guidance. Once monotheism finally arrived, it was built upon these foundations. This year, when some women will once again take a pole position in the Church, following the Synod’s anticipated vote on female bishops, this will not be a radical departure; but a return to the very roots of religion itself.
'Divine Women’ starts on BBC2 on Wednesday April 11, 2012 at 9pm.
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Islam Divine Feminine
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Islam and the Divine Feminine
So often has Islam been portrayed as an exclusively masculine, patriarchal faith that many have never suspected the central importance of the Feminine in Islam and would be astonished to realize that it has been there from the beginning. Perhaps in part due to the metaphysical interiority of the Feminine, this aspect of Islam has lived a largely hidden existence — but it is no less vital for that. In recent years there has been much discussion and controversy over how to reshape Christianity to include the Feminine on the divine level, but in Islam that has never been an issue, for the feminine element in Islam has always been present, especially in Sufism.
Although both masculine and feminine equally have their origin in the Divine, I would like to take a special look at the feminine in Islam to help redress the balance because the feminine side of Islam has been mostly overlooked so far. Moreover, in the sources of Islam and in the Sufi tradition growing from there, we find a distinct, explicit preference for the feminine aspect of Allah, especially the nature of ultimate Divine Reality as essentially feminine.
Although both masculine and feminine equally have their origin in the Divine, I would like to take a special look at the feminine in Islam to help redress the balance because the feminine side of Islam has been mostly overlooked so far. Moreover, in the sources of Islam and in the Sufi tradition growing from there, we find a distinct, explicit preference for the feminine aspect of Allah, especially the nature of ultimate Divine Reality as essentially feminine.
The Polarity of Divine Majesty and Beauty
The distinction between male and female is not just a biological accident but a very profound element of the human state. It goes back from the biological through the psychological and the spiritual to the Divine Reality itself. On the highest level of the Divine Reality, Allah is perfectly One. The root of the duality between the masculine and feminine is found in the divine nature itself. Allah's Essence transcends all duality, all relationality, so it is beyond male or female. But even on the level of the Divine Nature, there are the roots of the masculine and the feminine. On the highest level, Allah is at once Absolute and Infinite. These two attributes are the supreme archetypes of the masculine and the feminine. "Masculine" and "feminine" are not simply equivalents of the human male and female, since all men and women have elements of both masculinity and femininity within them. That Allah is Absolute is the principle of masculinity, and that Allah is Infinite is the principle of femininity. Allah has revealed Himself in the Qur’ân in the names of rigor and mercy, known as the names of Majesty (jalâl) and Beauty (jamâl). The Generous, the Merciful, the Forgiving are names of mercy or Beauty, while the Enumerator and the Just are names of rigor or Majesty. On the level of the names are the principles of the masculine and the feminine: the names of Majesty are the prototype of masculinity, while the names of Beauty are the prototype of femininity.
Vis-à-vis the world, Allah is Creator. This divine function is on the masculine side, representing the aspects of action force, movement, rigor; Allah as Lawgiver. But then there is the uncreating aspect of Allah. Allah is not exhausted by His creation of the world. Allah is more than the creator of the world: al-Khâliq, the Creator, is only one of the divine names. The Divine Reality did not completely participate in the act of creation. Allah is Infinite and the world is finite. The non-creating aspect of Allah corresponds to the Divine Femininity. It is this to which Sufi poetry so often refers in the feminine. The images of the beautiful Beloved are referring to the metacosmic aspect of the Divine, not the creating aspect.
That is why Ibn al-‘Arabî says Allah can be referred to as both huwa (He) and hiya (She).
The distinction between male and female is not just a biological accident but a very profound element of the human state. It goes back from the biological through the psychological and the spiritual to the Divine Reality itself. On the highest level of the Divine Reality, Allah is perfectly One. The root of the duality between the masculine and feminine is found in the divine nature itself. Allah's Essence transcends all duality, all relationality, so it is beyond male or female. But even on the level of the Divine Nature, there are the roots of the masculine and the feminine. On the highest level, Allah is at once Absolute and Infinite. These two attributes are the supreme archetypes of the masculine and the feminine. "Masculine" and "feminine" are not simply equivalents of the human male and female, since all men and women have elements of both masculinity and femininity within them. That Allah is Absolute is the principle of masculinity, and that Allah is Infinite is the principle of femininity. Allah has revealed Himself in the Qur’ân in the names of rigor and mercy, known as the names of Majesty (jalâl) and Beauty (jamâl). The Generous, the Merciful, the Forgiving are names of mercy or Beauty, while the Enumerator and the Just are names of rigor or Majesty. On the level of the names are the principles of the masculine and the feminine: the names of Majesty are the prototype of masculinity, while the names of Beauty are the prototype of femininity.
Vis-à-vis the world, Allah is Creator. This divine function is on the masculine side, representing the aspects of action force, movement, rigor; Allah as Lawgiver. But then there is the uncreating aspect of Allah. Allah is not exhausted by His creation of the world. Allah is more than the creator of the world: al-Khâliq, the Creator, is only one of the divine names. The Divine Reality did not completely participate in the act of creation. Allah is Infinite and the world is finite. The non-creating aspect of Allah corresponds to the Divine Femininity. It is this to which Sufi poetry so often refers in the feminine. The images of the beautiful Beloved are referring to the metacosmic aspect of the Divine, not the creating aspect.
That is why Ibn al-‘Arabî says Allah can be referred to as both huwa (He) and hiya (She).
Feminine Terms of Divinity
Some of the key terms associated with the Divine are in the feminine gender in Arabic. Three of them are essential to understand the feminine dimension in Islam. One of Allah's names is al-Hakîm, the Wise; Wisdom is hikmah. In Arabic to say, for example, "Wisdom is precious," you could repeat the feminine pronoun: al-hikmah hiya thamînah, literally "Wisdom, she is precious." This has resonance with the forgotten Christian mystical tradition, in which Wisdom is personified as a woman, the divine Sophia, associated with the Virgin Mary. The second term is rahmah (mercy), related to the most important name of God after Allâh: al-Rahmân, the All-Merciful, related to the word for 'womb', rahim, the source of life. The source of life is the Divine Mercy and the feminine aspect of it is very evident. The third, the most remarkable of all, is the word for the Divine Essence itself: al-Dhât, which is also feminine. In that the Divine Essence is Beyond-Being, unmanifest and transcending all qualities, it may be understood as Feminine. The renowned Sufi master Najm al-Din Kubra wrote of the Dhât as the "Mother of the divine attributes." According to a commentary on Ibn al-‘Arabî's Fusûs al-hikam, a hadith of Prophet Muhammad "gave priority to the true femininity that belongs to the Essence." Ibn al-‘Arabî himself wrote that "I sometimes employ the feminine pronoun in addressing Allah, keeping in view the Essence."
On this metaphysical plane, femininity corresponds to interiority and masculinity to manifestation. In the traditional Islamic city, beauty is interiorized. All human beings contain both elements within themselves, in their souls and bodies and psyches. The perfection of the human state, al-insân al-kâmil, means the perfection of both masculine and feminine qualities together, the prototype of both male and female. In Sufism, men and women perform exactly the same rites and worship, so the perfection of human spirituality is equally accessible to men and women—unlike in Theravada Buddhism, in which a woman must be reborn as a man to attain nirvana.
Some of the key terms associated with the Divine are in the feminine gender in Arabic. Three of them are essential to understand the feminine dimension in Islam. One of Allah's names is al-Hakîm, the Wise; Wisdom is hikmah. In Arabic to say, for example, "Wisdom is precious," you could repeat the feminine pronoun: al-hikmah hiya thamînah, literally "Wisdom, she is precious." This has resonance with the forgotten Christian mystical tradition, in which Wisdom is personified as a woman, the divine Sophia, associated with the Virgin Mary. The second term is rahmah (mercy), related to the most important name of God after Allâh: al-Rahmân, the All-Merciful, related to the word for 'womb', rahim, the source of life. The source of life is the Divine Mercy and the feminine aspect of it is very evident. The third, the most remarkable of all, is the word for the Divine Essence itself: al-Dhât, which is also feminine. In that the Divine Essence is Beyond-Being, unmanifest and transcending all qualities, it may be understood as Feminine. The renowned Sufi master Najm al-Din Kubra wrote of the Dhât as the "Mother of the divine attributes." According to a commentary on Ibn al-‘Arabî's Fusûs al-hikam, a hadith of Prophet Muhammad "gave priority to the true femininity that belongs to the Essence." Ibn al-‘Arabî himself wrote that "I sometimes employ the feminine pronoun in addressing Allah, keeping in view the Essence."
On this metaphysical plane, femininity corresponds to interiority and masculinity to manifestation. In the traditional Islamic city, beauty is interiorized. All human beings contain both elements within themselves, in their souls and bodies and psyches. The perfection of the human state, al-insân al-kâmil, means the perfection of both masculine and feminine qualities together, the prototype of both male and female. In Sufism, men and women perform exactly the same rites and worship, so the perfection of human spirituality is equally accessible to men and women—unlike in Theravada Buddhism, in which a woman must be reborn as a man to attain nirvana.
Female Imagery of the Divine Beloved in Sufi Poetry
Sufi literature has the greatest discussion of femininity in Islam. Sufi stories have transformed ordinary love stories into the most sublime levels of meaning. The love story of Layla and Majnun is the best-known of all. It originated as a simple love story inArabia , but Sufi literature elaborated it into the most beautiful love story ever put into Persian poetry. It symbolizes not only the love of man and woman in Allah, but the love of man for Allah. In these poems the heroine is elevated to symbolize the Divine Reality itself. The Divine Reality is spoken of in terms of female beauty. The hero goes in quest of the Divine, which is a masculine act. In contrast to Christian mysticism, in which God is actively masculine and the devotee is passively feminine, Sufi love stories depict the Beloved as a woman who is a Presence waiting in stillness while the hero is in quest for her.
The name Laylá comes from the word layl meaning 'night'. Night represents the Unmanifest. In theArabian desert , the night is a reality without boundaries: forms are dissolved, no sand dunes or camels or anything else visible, all is formless, nothing but darkness. This is direct symbolism of the unmanifested aspect of the Divine Nature, Allah as Unmanifest. Blackness absorbs all light, as it is above manifestation, so it symbolizes the Beyond-Being. In the poem, Layla was named for the blackness of her hair and the beauty of the night. By extension, it in fact refers to the beauty of the Divine Reality beyond this world, beyond the act of creation, and therefore the supreme goal that the Sufi seeks to reach. The name of Majnûn literally means 'crazy', but here it means someone not in an ordinary state of mind, symbolizing a person in quest of Allah. In this world in which most people forget Allah, the person who remembers Him is considered crazy. As the male figure, Majnûn symbolizes the aspect of yearning and striving, going out in quest of Layla, while she is just sitting and combing her hair. The one who undertakes the journey, longing and crying for Layla, is the soul of the Sufi.
Allah as the Beloved in Sufi literature, the ma‘shûq, is always depicted with female iconography. Although Islam is aniconic and does not make images of Allah, verbal depiction exists. Sufi literature is replete with this imagery of our experience of Allah as the vision of the Beloved and union with the Beloved. An elaborate vocabulary developed in which every part of a woman's body, especially the face, symbolizes the Divine Reality. For example, the eyebrows are likened to a bow that shoots the arrow of the eye's glance, the arrow of the love of Allah into our hearts and makes us go beyond ourselves. Like the eyes of veiled women in traditional Islamic culture, where all you can see are their beautiful dark eyes: their whole vocabulary of love has to be expressed through a single glance. The ruby-red lips with their red color symbolize wine. Wine is used in Sufi literature to symbolize going beyond our ordinary consciousness into union with the Divine. Although wine is forbidden in Islamic law, there will be pure wine to drink inParadise . Since Sufis experience Paradise here in this world by having inner experience of the higher levels of reality, the wine of Paradise is accessible symbolically through Sufism. Here, the redness of this wine is conjoined with the color of a woman's lips. At the same time, the kiss of the lips is an erotic symbol of union and intimacy.
For example, Rumi said in the Masnavi:
Kings lick the earth of which our body is made;
it is that spirit breathed into this body
that thou art kissing with a thousand ecstasies—
just imagine what it will be when it is undefiled!
Sufi literature has the greatest discussion of femininity in Islam. Sufi stories have transformed ordinary love stories into the most sublime levels of meaning. The love story of Layla and Majnun is the best-known of all. It originated as a simple love story in
The name Laylá comes from the word layl meaning 'night'. Night represents the Unmanifest. In the
Allah as the Beloved in Sufi literature, the ma‘shûq, is always depicted with female iconography. Although Islam is aniconic and does not make images of Allah, verbal depiction exists. Sufi literature is replete with this imagery of our experience of Allah as the vision of the Beloved and union with the Beloved. An elaborate vocabulary developed in which every part of a woman's body, especially the face, symbolizes the Divine Reality. For example, the eyebrows are likened to a bow that shoots the arrow of the eye's glance, the arrow of the love of Allah into our hearts and makes us go beyond ourselves. Like the eyes of veiled women in traditional Islamic culture, where all you can see are their beautiful dark eyes: their whole vocabulary of love has to be expressed through a single glance. The ruby-red lips with their red color symbolize wine. Wine is used in Sufi literature to symbolize going beyond our ordinary consciousness into union with the Divine. Although wine is forbidden in Islamic law, there will be pure wine to drink in
For example, Rumi said in the Masnavi:
Kings lick the earth of which our body is made;
it is that spirit breathed into this body
that thou art kissing with a thousand ecstasies—
just imagine what it will be when it is undefiled!
The Vision of God
There was a question long debated in Islam: can we see Allah? The Prophet said in a hadith: "InParadise the faithful will see Allah with the clarity with which you see the moon on the fourteenth night (the full moon)." Theologians debated what this could mean, but the Sufis have held that you can see Allah even in this world, through the "eye of the heart." al-Hallaj said in a poem: "ra’aytu rabbi bi-‘ayni qalbî" (I saw my Lord with the eye of my heart). The Sufis said that since you can have the experience of Paradise even in this world, you can have the vision (ru’yah) of Allah. They have always described this theophanic experience as the vision of a woman, the female figure as the object of ru’yah.
The Tarjumân al-ashwâq, Ibn al-‘Arabî's collection of love poems composed after meeting the learned and beautiful Persian woman Nizam in Mecca, is filled with images pointing to the Divine Feminine. The last chapter in his book Fusûs al-hikam relates that man's supreme witnessing of Allah is in the form of the woman during the act of sexual union. The contemplation of Allah in woman is the highest form of contemplation possible:
As the Divine Reality is inaccessible in respect of the Essence, and there is contemplation only in a substance, the contemplation of God in women is the most intense and the most perfect; and the union which is the most intense (in the sensible order, which serves as support for this contemplation) is the conjugal act.
Allah as Mother
In contrast to Christianity, Islam has never depicted God as Father. Such a comparison is completely outside the boundaries of Islamic discourse. However, Muslims have always found it easy and natural to speak of the maternal qualities of Allah.
Prophet Muhammad was the first to use the example of mothers to illustrate Allah's mercy. After a battle, the Prophet and his Companions came upon a group of women and children. One woman had lost her child and was going around looking for him, her breasts flowing with milk. When she found her child, she joyfully put him to her breast and nursed him. The Prophet asked his Companions, "Do you think that this woman could throw her son in the fire?" They answered "No." He then said: "Allah is more merciful to His servants than this woman to her son." (From the hadith collection of al-Bukhari).
Another al-Bukhari hadith describes how during the Muslim conquest ofMecca
Jalal al-Din Rumi, in an amazing passage of the Masnavi on the Return to Allah, made reference to the story of the infant Moses and addressed Allah directly as "Mother":
On Resurrection Day, the sun and moon are released from service:
and the eye beholds the Source of their radiance,
then it discerns the permanent possession from the loan,
and this passing caravan from the abiding home.
If for a while a wet nurse is needed,
Mother, return us to your breast.
I don't want a nurse; my Mother is more fair.
I am like Moses whose nurse and Mother were the same.(Masnavi, V:701)
The Ka‘bah inMecca
The Prophet's Feminine Soul
Prophet Muhammad's soul had a deeply feminine nature within. When his Companions asked him whom he loved most in the whole world, he answered it was his wife, 'Â'ishah. They were surprised to hear him announce love for a woman, as this was a new concept to them; they had been thinking in terms of the manly camaraderie between warriors. So they asked him which man he loved most. He answered Abû Bakr, 'Â'ishah's father, a gentleman who was known for his sensitivity. These answers confounded the Companions who until then had been brought up on patriarchal values. The Prophet was introducing reverence for the Feminine to them for the first time.
Surah 109 in the Qur'ân, al-Kawthar, gives an especially revealing look into the Prophet's feminine soul. It was revealed because his enemies had been taunting him that he had no sons, only daughters, while they had been given sons to perpetuate their patriarchal ways. Allah revealed this message of consolation to the Prophet: "We have given thee al-Kawthar ... surely the one who hates thee will be cut off (from progeny)." What is al-Kawthar? A sacred pool of life-giving water inParadise -a profoundly feminine symbol. It represents a heavenly exaltation of the Feminine over patriarchal society. The name of Kawthar is derived from the same root as kathîr 'abundance', a quality of the supernal Infinite, the Divine Feminine.
Woman as Creator
One of the most outright declarations of the Divine Feminine in all Sufi literature is in Rumi's Masnavi. In a passage praising the feminine qualities of kindness and gentleness, a passage that is increasingly well-known in these days of the resurgent Feminine, he says:
Woman is the radiance of God, she is not your beloved.
She is the Creator—you could say that she is not created.
There was a question long debated in Islam: can we see Allah? The Prophet said in a hadith: "In
The Tarjumân al-ashwâq, Ibn al-‘Arabî's collection of love poems composed after meeting the learned and beautiful Persian woman Nizam in Mecca, is filled with images pointing to the Divine Feminine. The last chapter in his book Fusûs al-hikam relates that man's supreme witnessing of Allah is in the form of the woman during the act of sexual union. The contemplation of Allah in woman is the highest form of contemplation possible:
As the Divine Reality is inaccessible in respect of the Essence, and there is contemplation only in a substance, the contemplation of God in women is the most intense and the most perfect; and the union which is the most intense (in the sensible order, which serves as support for this contemplation) is the conjugal act.
Allah as Mother
In contrast to Christianity, Islam has never depicted God as Father. Such a comparison is completely outside the boundaries of Islamic discourse. However, Muslims have always found it easy and natural to speak of the maternal qualities of Allah.
Prophet Muhammad was the first to use the example of mothers to illustrate Allah's mercy. After a battle, the Prophet and his Companions came upon a group of women and children. One woman had lost her child and was going around looking for him, her breasts flowing with milk. When she found her child, she joyfully put him to her breast and nursed him. The Prophet asked his Companions, "Do you think that this woman could throw her son in the fire?" They answered "No." He then said: "Allah is more merciful to His servants than this woman to her son." (From the hadith collection of al-Bukhari).
Another al-Bukhari hadith describes how during the Muslim conquest of
Jalal al-Din Rumi, in an amazing passage of the Masnavi on the Return to Allah, made reference to the story of the infant Moses and addressed Allah directly as "Mother":
On Resurrection Day, the sun and moon are released from service:
and the eye beholds the Source of their radiance,
then it discerns the permanent possession from the loan,
and this passing caravan from the abiding home.
If for a while a wet nurse is needed,
Mother, return us to your breast.
I don't want a nurse; my Mother is more fair.
I am like Moses whose nurse and Mother were the same.(Masnavi, V:701)
The Ka‘bah in
The Prophet's Feminine Soul
Prophet Muhammad's soul had a deeply feminine nature within. When his Companions asked him whom he loved most in the whole world, he answered it was his wife, 'Â'ishah. They were surprised to hear him announce love for a woman, as this was a new concept to them; they had been thinking in terms of the manly camaraderie between warriors. So they asked him which man he loved most. He answered Abû Bakr, 'Â'ishah's father, a gentleman who was known for his sensitivity. These answers confounded the Companions who until then had been brought up on patriarchal values. The Prophet was introducing reverence for the Feminine to them for the first time.
Surah 109 in the Qur'ân, al-Kawthar, gives an especially revealing look into the Prophet's feminine soul. It was revealed because his enemies had been taunting him that he had no sons, only daughters, while they had been given sons to perpetuate their patriarchal ways. Allah revealed this message of consolation to the Prophet: "We have given thee al-Kawthar ... surely the one who hates thee will be cut off (from progeny)." What is al-Kawthar? A sacred pool of life-giving water in
Woman as Creator
One of the most outright declarations of the Divine Feminine in all Sufi literature is in Rumi's Masnavi. In a passage praising the feminine qualities of kindness and gentleness, a passage that is increasingly well-known in these days of the resurgent Feminine, he says:
Woman is the radiance of God, she is not your beloved.
She is the Creator—you could say that she is not created.
(Masnavi, I:2437)
The Primacy of the Feminine in Islam
Seen from the exterior, Islam may appear as a masculine-dominated faith. That is because its external aspects, such as the sacred law that governs the social order, are a manifestation of Allah's jalâl attributes. The hidden side of Islam, little known to the outside world, lives and breathes the values of interiority, the loving, forgiving, merciful Divine Presence that draws hearts closer, the infinite jamâl aspects of Allah's Beauty. The eternal primacy of Allah's feminine nature is established in a hadith qudsi: "My mercy precedes My wrath" (rahmatî sabaqat ghadabî).
Beyond all, the infinite eternal mystery of Allah's uncreated Essence is the Divine Feminine that is the ultimate spiritual Reality, calling to the souls who love Allah to come home and find perfect peace.[Source: adishakti.org]
The Primacy of the Feminine in Islam
Seen from the exterior, Islam may appear as a masculine-dominated faith. That is because its external aspects, such as the sacred law that governs the social order, are a manifestation of Allah's jalâl attributes. The hidden side of Islam, little known to the outside world, lives and breathes the values of interiority, the loving, forgiving, merciful Divine Presence that draws hearts closer, the infinite jamâl aspects of Allah's Beauty. The eternal primacy of Allah's feminine nature is established in a hadith qudsi: "My mercy precedes My wrath" (rahmatî sabaqat ghadabî).
Beyond all, the infinite eternal mystery of Allah's uncreated Essence is the Divine Feminine that is the ultimate spiritual Reality, calling to the souls who love Allah to come home and find perfect peace.[Source: adishakti.org]
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Divine Fatima
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Divine Feminine in Islam and Fatima - Part 1
Introduction.
Born in a world of forms, pictures of "things" and appearances, mind of human being by default is always after 'form' whether its the form of the divine - crudely shaped in idols, or form of wealth and power. Even though human essence, which is his or her soul - is essentially formless, and the heart perceives the kingdom of attributes and qualities such as love, compassion, intuition which are also without form - yet unless man evolves towards spiritual kingdom, he is a prisoner in his primitives level of mind and therefore only in forms and pictures.
Shaykh Sidi Muhammad al Jamal, may Allah be pleased with him, always teach and remind his students, "DO NOT STOP at the pictures." Thats the condensed form of all the nasiha (advice) there can be for a beginner who start walking on the Path and continues to be the reminder even when a seeker is advancing in the Path. Here picture, form or veil are all points to the same phenomenon. The progress of the soul in it's striving towards the Lord is going beyond forms and pictures.
Ya ayyuhal-insanu,
innaka kadihun ila Rabbika,
kadhan famulaqeeh.
"O mankind,
indeed you are striving toward your Lord,
a (great) striving until you come to meet."
[The Quran, Chapter of the Sundering]
Ahadun. Oneness.
What does it mean to learn the knowledge of God's Unity?
To consume yourself in the presence of the One.
If you wish to shine like day,
burn up the night of self-existence.
Dissolve in the Being who is everything.
you grabbed hold of "I" and "we,"
and this dualism is your ruin.
- Jalaluddin Rumi, Kabir Helminski
The birth of monotheistic consciousness happened simultaneously in many places of the world at a cusp of a momentous era in human history. For sake of reference Abrahamic tradition of Monotheism descending through Patriarch Abraham, upon him be peace, is generally taken as a pointer to that Monotheistic consciousness rising. With this first revolution of transcending forms and moving towards formless adoration of the Divine began. For the human mind it was truly something astonishing, to move away from from to abstract transcendence, towards formless.
It was in Abrahamic tradition (pre-Judaic, as Abraham in truth was neither Jewish, nor Christian but Pure Monotheist, Hanif) and later Hebrew (Judaic) tradition discarded the grosser representation of forms by doing away with idol worship.
Islam, which is the final and natural successor of that Abrahamic lineage reaffirms the evolutionary movement and successfully establishment of formless-transcendence and beyond-form-immanence of the Divine. There are symbols or more accurately said, Signs of God (Ayatullah) which replaced forms in Islam. Thus instead of solidified, static form, Islamic consciousness revolves around Signs of God. Thus the Kaba (literally meaning cube) becomes the symbol of celestial abode of adoration, the salaat (established daily prayer) becomes the symbol of celestial adoration and so on and so forth.The muslim head covering or white turban becomes the visible symbol for aura or halo of human consciousness illuminated by divine consciousness.
In his research paper, Laurence Gailean writes: "Islam is aniconic. In other words, images, effigies, or idols of Allah are not allowed, although verbal depiction abounds. There was a question long debated in Islam: can we see Allah? The Prophet said in a hadith, “In Paradise the faithful will see Allah with the clarity with which you see the moon on the fourteenth night (the full moon).” Theologians debated what this could mean, but the Sufis have held that you can see Allah even in this world, through the “eye of the heart.” The famous Sufi martyr al-Hallaj said in a poem, “ra’aytu rabbi bi-‘ayni qalbi” (I saw my Lord with the eye of my heart)." We are clearly talking about a different reality that is not limited to physical and form-bound reality.
In Islam since Pure Divine Essence is realized as beyond any form or human imagination, form of God can not possibly be formalized in any shape or form - that is the position of all true gnostics. On the same token, for Muslims, the perfected exemplar who represented that very divine presence on earth, Muhammad Mustafa, himself also remains formless and shadowless presence. For Sufis, the batini (inward) face of a true Murshid remains unseen with zahiri (outward) eyes.
Now it is true that although ascent is in the direction of formless, man can not simply discard all forms all together in all times. But while we can be in the world of form in harmony, there is always possibility of movement towards a more perfected form. And according to Islamic cosmology, nothing in the heaven and earth is more perfected than Human form, who alone is titled, Khalifatullaah, God's representative.
To address the tendency of human mind to gravitate towards form, in Islam, specially in the understanding of Tasawwuf (Sufi Science), Divine presence is taught to be sought in the presence of an elevated human heart of a Murshid, a Sheikh, a Teacher of Truth, a Guide and divine face to be sought in the face of a True Human Being. The grace and blessing of a single living saintly soul and his face and his heart are millions time powerful than any icon or an idol made of clay even if thousands upon thousands may worship it.
Face of Divine Feminine in Islam.
Woman is the radiance of God;
Woman is the splendor of God;
She is not your beloved. She is the creator
- you could say that she is not created.
Face of Divine Feminine in Islam.
Woman is the radiance of God;
Woman is the splendor of God;
She is not your beloved. She is the creator
- you could say that she is not created.
- Rumi
I quote here from a well written article titled, Islam and Divine Feminine.
So often has Islam been portrayed as an exclusively masculine, patriarchal faith that many have never suspected the central importance of the Feminine in Islam and would be astonished to realize that it has been there from the beginning. Perhaps in part due to the metaphysical interiority of the Feminine, this aspect of Islam has lived a largely hidden existence - but it is no less vital for that. In recent years there has been much discussion and controversy over how to reshape Christianity to include the Feminine on the divine level, but in Islam that has never been an issue, for the feminine element in Islam has always been present, especially in Sufism because it was the Sufi who could understand the marriage between the spirit and body of Islam.
The Polarity of Divine Majesty and Beauty
On the highest level of the Divine Reality, Allah is perfectly One. The root of the duality between the masculine and feminine is found in the divine nature itself. Allah's Essence transcends all duality, all relationality, so it is beyond male or female. But even on the level of the Divine Nature, there are the roots of the masculine and the feminine. On the highest level, Allah is at once Absolute and Infinite. These two attributes are the supreme archetypes of the masculine and the feminine. "Masculine" and "feminine" are not simply equivalents of the human male and female, since all men and women have elements of both masculinity and femininity within them. That Allah is Absolute is the principle of masculinity, and that Allah is Infinite is the principle of femininity. Allah has revealed Himself in the Qur’ân in the names of rigor and mercy, known as the names of Majesty (jalâl) and Beauty (jamâl). The Generous, the Merciful, the Forgiving are names of mercy or Beauty, while the Enumerator and the Just are names of rigor or Majesty. On the level of the names are the principles of the masculine and the feminine: the names of Majesty are the prototype of masculinity, while the names of Beauty are the prototype of femininity.
Vis-à-vis the world, Allah is Creator. This divine function is on the masculine side, representing the aspects of action force, movement, rigor; Allah as Lawgiver. But then there is the uncreating aspect of Allah. Allah is not exhausted by His creation of the world. Allah is more than the creator of the world: al-Khâliq, the Creator, is only one of the divine names. The Divine Reality did not completely participate in the act of creation. Allah is Infinite and the world is finite. The non-creating aspect of Allah corresponds to the Divine Femininity. It is this to which Sufi poetry so often refers in the feminine. The images of the beautiful Beloved are referring to the metacosmic aspect of the Divine, not the creating aspect.
That is why Ibn al-‘Arabî says Allah can be referred to as both huwa (He) and hiya (She).
Feminine Terms of Divinity
Some of the key terms associated with the Divine are in the feminine gender in Arabic. Three of them are essential to understand the feminine dimension in Islam. One of Allah's names is al-Hakîm, the Wise; Wisdom is hikmah. In Arabic to say, for example, "Wisdom is precious," you could repeat the feminine pronoun: al-hikmah hiya thamînah, literally "Wisdom, she is precious." This has resonance with the forgotten Christian mystical tradition, in which Wisdom is personified as a woman, the divine Sophia, associated with the Virgin Mary. The second term is rahmah (mercy), related to the most important name of God after Allâh: al-Rahmân, the All-Merciful, related to the word for 'womb', rahim, the source of life. The source of life is the Divine Mercy and the feminine aspect of it is very evident. The third, the most remarkable of all, is the word for the Divine Essence itself: al-Dhât, which is also feminine. In that the Divine Essence is Beyond-Being, unmanifest and transcending all qualities, it may be understood as Feminine. The renowned Sufi master Najm al-Din Kubra wrote of the Dhât as the "Mother of the divine attributes." According to a commentary on Ibn al-‘Arabî's Fusûs al-hikam, a hadith of Prophet Muhammad "gave priority to the true femininity that belongs to the Essence." Ibn al-‘Arabî himself wrote that "I sometimes employ the feminine pronoun in addressing Allah, keeping in view the Essence."
On this metaphysical plane, femininity corresponds to interiority and masculinity to manifestation. In the traditional Islamic city, beauty is interiorized. All human beings contain both elements within themselves, in their souls and bodies and psyches. The perfection of the human state, al-insân al-kâmil, means the perfection of both masculine and feminine qualities together, the prototype of both male and female. In Sufism, men and women perform exactly the same rites and worship, so the perfection of human spirituality is equally accessible to men and women
Allah as Mother
In contrast to Christianity, Islam has never depicted God as Father. Such a comparison is completely outside the boundaries of Islamic discourse. However, Muslims have always found it easy and natural to speak of the maternal qualities of Allah.
Prophet Muhammad was the first to use the example of mothers to illustrate Allah's mercy. After a battle, the Prophet and his Companions came upon a group of women and children. One woman had lost her child and was going around looking for him, her breasts flowing with milk. When she found her child, she joyfully put him to her breast and nursed him. The Prophet asked his Companions, "Do you think that this woman could throw her son in the fire?" They answered "No." He then said: "Allah is more merciful to His servants than this woman to her son." (From the hadith collection of al-Bukhari).
Another al-Bukhari hadith describes how during the Muslim conquest of
Jalal al-Din Rumi, in an amazing passage of the Masnavi (V:701)on the Return to Allah, made reference to the story of the infant Moses and addressed Allah directly as "Mother":
On Resurrection Day, the sun and moon are released from service:
and the eye beholds the Source of their radiance,
then it discerns the permanent possession from the loan,
and this passing caravan from the abiding home.
If for a while a wet nurse is needed,
Mother, return us to your breast.
I don't want a nurse; my Mother is more fair.
I am like Moses whose nurse and Mother were the same.
The Ka‘bah in
The Prophet's Feminine Soul
Prophet Muhammad's soul had a deeply feminine nature within. When his Companions asked him whom he loved most in the whole world, he answered it was his wife, 'Â'ishah. They were surprised to hear him announce love for a woman, as this was a new concept to them; they had been thinking in terms of the manly camaraderie between warriors. So they asked him which man he loved most. He answered Abû Bakr, 'Â'ishah's father, a gentleman who was known for his sensitivity and feminine receptivity. These answers confounded the Companions who until then had been brought up on patriarchal values. The Prophet was introducing reverence for the Feminine to them for the first time.
He himself was extremely shy, except when he had to standup against injustice. Out of shyness he would turn his face away sometime, sometime he would hesitate to say something that would contradict gentleness and compassion.
Surah 109 ins the Qur'ân, al-Kawthar, gives an especially revealing look into the Prophet's feminine soul. It was revealed because his enemies had been taunting him that he had no sons, only daughters, while they had been given sons to perpetuate their patriarchal ways. Allah revealed this message of consolation to the Prophet: "We have given thee al-Kawthar ... surely the one who hates thee will be cut off (from progeny)." What is al-Kawthar? A sacred pool of life-giving water in
The Primacy of the Feminine in Islam
Seen from the exterior, Islam may appear as a masculine-dominated faith. That is because its external aspects, such as the sacred law that governs the social order, are a manifestation of Allah's jalâl attributes. The hidden side of Islam, little known to the outside world, lives and breathes the values of interiority, the loving, forgiving, merciful Divine Presence that draws hearts closer, the infinite jamâl aspects of Allah's Beauty. The eternal primacy of Allah's feminine nature is established in a hadith qudsi: "My mercy precedes My wrath" (rahmatî sabaqat ghadabî).
Beyond all, the infinite eternal mystery of Allah's uncreated Essence is the Divine Feminine that is the ultimate spiritual Reality, calling to the souls who love Allah to come home and find perfect peace.
"Muslim women were enshrouded not because they were despised, but because they were so precious - so deeply treasured. Today, the sacred shrines ofMecca
The great Shaykh Ibn Arabi maintained that women are the most potent icon of the sacred, because they inspires love in mean which must ultimately be directed to God, the only true object of love.
Seen from the exterior, Islam may appear as a masculine-dominated faith. That is because its external aspects, such as the sacred law that governs the social order, are a manifestation of Allah's jalâl attributes. The hidden side of Islam, little known to the outside world, lives and breathes the values of interiority, the loving, forgiving, merciful Divine Presence that draws hearts closer, the infinite jamâl aspects of Allah's Beauty. The eternal primacy of Allah's feminine nature is established in a hadith qudsi: "My mercy precedes My wrath" (rahmatî sabaqat ghadabî).
Beyond all, the infinite eternal mystery of Allah's uncreated Essence is the Divine Feminine that is the ultimate spiritual Reality, calling to the souls who love Allah to come home and find perfect peace.
"Muslim women were enshrouded not because they were despised, but because they were so precious - so deeply treasured. Today, the sacred shrines of
The great Shaykh Ibn Arabi maintained that women are the most potent icon of the sacred, because they inspires love in mean which must ultimately be directed to God, the only true object of love.
la Mahbooba illa Allah
la Mashooqa illa Allah
la Mashooqa illa Allah
There is no real lover or beloved, but Allah.
"The Divine Feminine has always been present in Islam. This may be surprising to many people who see Islam as a patriarchal religion. Maybe the reason for this misconception is the very nature of the feminine in Islam. The Divine Feminine in Islam manifests metaphysically and in the inner expression of the religion. The Divine Feminine is not so much a secret within Islam as She is the compassionate Heart of Islam that enables us to know Divinity. Her centrality demonstrates her necessary and life-giving role in Islam."
- Laurence Galian
In esoteric reality of Islam, there is a specific and very important Divine Feminine Face exists who is none other than the beloved daugher of our venerable Master, Fatima Zahra.
O Allah bless Ahmad, the guide to the presence of purity (ilaa hadrati t-tuhri), with all the forms of perfection. And his holy family, specially the purified ones, Ali, Fatima, Hasan and Hussein and noble companions. And O Lord! Through the compassionate guide, Muhammad, grant us sciences that will benefit us on the Day of Meeting.
Divine Feminine in Islam and Fatima - Part 2
Everything that comes into life has two sides, a masculine and feminine quality, even love. The masculine side of love is “I love you.” Longing is the feminine side of love: “I am waiting for you. I am longing for you.” Longing is the cup waiting to be filled.
The soul is feminine before God, waiting in a state of surrender for the Beloved to come. The sixteenth-century Indian princess and poet Mirabai knew this mystical truth. Mirabai was devoted to Krishna, her “Dark Lord,” and once, when she was wandering in some woodlands sacred toKrishna , a famous theologian and ascetic named Jiv Gosvami denied her access to one of her Dark Lord’s temples because she was a woman. Mirabai shamed him with the words: “Are not all souls female before God?” Jiv Gosvami bowed his head and led her into the temple.
The lover waits for her Beloved. And when He comes to us, in those moments of meeting and merging that are so intimate that one can hardly speak of them, the lover is feminine, pierced, penetrated by the tremendous bliss of His love. (Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee, Love is a Fire: The Sufi's Mystical Journey Home).
The wife of Adam was feminine,
but the first soul from which Adam was born was also feminine.
- Toshihiko Izutsu
The Archetype of Divine Feminine became effulgent and manifest more perfectly than most other human beings at certain historical point in human history. According to the Seal of Prophet, four are the brightest through four Radiant Faces, that of Asiya (Israelite wife of Pharaoh who cared for Moses at his infancy), Mary (Venerable mother of Jesus Christ), Khadija (wife of Muhammad and mother of the faithful) and Fatimah (beloved daughter of the Seal of Prophet), may Allah bless them all.
Prophet Muhammad, upon him be abundant peace and blessings, his holy blood lineage continued not by any son but only with his daughter, who was Fatimah. According to people of the house (ahlul bayat) the true line of the Imams, who act as preserver and transmiter of the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad, and comes from Fatimah.
The soul is feminine before God, waiting in a state of surrender for the Beloved to come. The sixteenth-century Indian princess and poet Mirabai knew this mystical truth. Mirabai was devoted to Krishna, her “Dark Lord,” and once, when she was wandering in some woodlands sacred to
The lover waits for her Beloved. And when He comes to us, in those moments of meeting and merging that are so intimate that one can hardly speak of them, the lover is feminine, pierced, penetrated by the tremendous bliss of His love. (Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee, Love is a Fire: The Sufi's Mystical Journey Home).
The wife of Adam was feminine,
but the first soul from which Adam was born was also feminine.
- Toshihiko Izutsu
The Archetype of Divine Feminine became effulgent and manifest more perfectly than most other human beings at certain historical point in human history. According to the Seal of Prophet, four are the brightest through four Radiant Faces, that of Asiya (Israelite wife of Pharaoh who cared for Moses at his infancy), Mary (Venerable mother of Jesus Christ), Khadija (wife of Muhammad and mother of the faithful) and Fatimah (beloved daughter of the Seal of Prophet), may Allah bless them all.
Prophet Muhammad, upon him be abundant peace and blessings, his holy blood lineage continued not by any son but only with his daughter, who was Fatimah. According to people of the house (ahlul bayat) the true line of the Imams, who act as preserver and transmiter of the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad, and comes from Fatimah.
Fatimah was born in the holy city of Medinah
Fatimah was from this venerable lady Khadija and physically Fatimah corresponded the most with her Father. Because of her special beingness of personality and beyond, Fatimah is considered by many Muslims as divine in origin and several variations of a major hadith describe how she was conceived on the night of Mi’raj (ascension).
I heard the Apostle of Allah say, 'I am a tree, Fatimah is its trunk and Ali is its pollen. Hassan and Hussein are its fruits, and our followers are its leaves. The roots of the tree are in the Garden of Eden, and its trunk, fruits and leaves are inParadise .' - Sacred tradition of Islam on the authority of 'Abdu 'r-Rahman ibn 'Awf'
Fatimah tul Zehra (Fatimah the Radiant, Fatimah the Brightest Star, Fatimah-Star of Venus, Fatimah-The Evening Star), the daughter of the Prophet, is the secret in Sufism. She is the Hujjat of ‘Ali. In other words, she establishes the esoteric sense of his knowledge and guides those who attain to it. Through her perfume, we breathe paradise. Though she was his daughter, the Prophet Muhammad called her Um Abi’ha (mother of her father). While Fatimah Zehra was Muhammad’s daughter, the Rasulallah (Prophet of God – Muhammad) understood that his gnosis was bestowed upon him from the Divine Feminine.
During his life time the Prophet showed special honor and favor to his daughter. Whenever Fatimah would go to the house of Muhammad, he would stand up out of respect for her and honour her by giving her a special place to seat herself in his house. He regarded her as a sort of primordial woman, a symbol of divine womanhood giving her many holy names, such as: Siddiqah; The Honest, The Righteous; Al-Batool, Pure Virgin; Al-Mubarakah, The Blessed One; .Al-Tahirah, The Virtuous, The Pure, Al-Zakiyah ;The Chaste, The Unblemished; Al-Radhiatul Mardhiah, She who is gratified and who shall be satisfied; Al-Muhaddathah, A person other than a Prophet, that the angels speak to; Al-Zahra, The Splendid; Al-Zahirah, The Luminous. Prophet Muhammad used to say "Allah, The Most High; is pleased when Fatimah is pleased. He is angered; whenever Fatimah is angered!"
Shia school of thought revere the person of Fatimah both as Muhammad's daughter and specially so for being mother of the line of inspired imams who embodied the divine truth for their generation. As such, Fatimah is associated with Sophia, the divine wisdom, which gives birth to all knowledge of God. She has thus become another symbolic equivalent of the Great Mother.
Fatimah was from this venerable lady Khadija and physically Fatimah corresponded the most with her Father. Because of her special beingness of personality and beyond, Fatimah is considered by many Muslims as divine in origin and several variations of a major hadith describe how she was conceived on the night of Mi’raj (ascension).
I heard the Apostle of Allah say, 'I am a tree, Fatimah is its trunk and Ali is its pollen. Hassan and Hussein are its fruits, and our followers are its leaves. The roots of the tree are in the Garden of Eden, and its trunk, fruits and leaves are in
Fatimah tul Zehra (Fatimah the Radiant, Fatimah the Brightest Star, Fatimah-Star of Venus, Fatimah-The Evening Star), the daughter of the Prophet, is the secret in Sufism. She is the Hujjat of ‘Ali. In other words, she establishes the esoteric sense of his knowledge and guides those who attain to it. Through her perfume, we breathe paradise. Though she was his daughter, the Prophet Muhammad called her Um Abi’ha (mother of her father). While Fatimah Zehra was Muhammad’s daughter, the Rasulallah (Prophet of God – Muhammad) understood that his gnosis was bestowed upon him from the Divine Feminine.
During his life time the Prophet showed special honor and favor to his daughter. Whenever Fatimah would go to the house of Muhammad, he would stand up out of respect for her and honour her by giving her a special place to seat herself in his house. He regarded her as a sort of primordial woman, a symbol of divine womanhood giving her many holy names, such as: Siddiqah; The Honest, The Righteous; Al-Batool, Pure Virgin; Al-Mubarakah, The Blessed One; .Al-Tahirah, The Virtuous, The Pure, Al-Zakiyah ;The Chaste, The Unblemished; Al-Radhiatul Mardhiah, She who is gratified and who shall be satisfied; Al-Muhaddathah, A person other than a Prophet, that the angels speak to; Al-Zahra, The Splendid; Al-Zahirah, The Luminous. Prophet Muhammad used to say "Allah, The Most High; is pleased when Fatimah is pleased. He is angered; whenever Fatimah is angered!"
Shia school of thought revere the person of Fatimah both as Muhammad's daughter and specially so for being mother of the line of inspired imams who embodied the divine truth for their generation. As such, Fatimah is associated with Sophia, the divine wisdom, which gives birth to all knowledge of God. She has thus become another symbolic equivalent of the Great Mother.
On the face of the earth there is no one more beautiful than You
Wherever I go I wear your image in my heart
Whenever I fall in a despondent mood I remember your image
And my spirit rises a thousand fold
Your advent is the blossom time of the Universe
O Mother you have showered your choicest blessings upon me
Also remember me on the Day of Judgement
I don’t know if I will go to heaven or hell
But wherever I go, please always abide in me.
~ A Sufi Ode to the Divine Mother ~
"In the Presence of the Lord, the meaning (al-murad) of the Sabbath is
Going more into esoteric veneration, the greeting by which she is addressed in special prayer is peculiar enough: “Welcome art thou, O Mother of your Father.” The Arabic form (umm abiha) is an old tribal greeting which was used when the son bore the name of the father of his mother. Here the use of the formula signifies that it is from her that the second divine principle emanates, the mīm, which manifested in her father in order to be manifest anew in her sons. In a similar vein of thought, she appears as the “source of the sun” (the red point on the western sky), from whence the sickle of the moon is born at the beginning of each month, the lunar crescent which, for the Shī’ites, symbolizes the “Imāmat.”
In a Sunni text of ‘Abul Fadl Ahmadi (942 of Hedjra), it is written that ‘Ali must be regarded as the true Tuba-tree of Paradise, for he serves as the veil through which the light of
Fatir [creatrix], the mysterious name of
“On the Day of Judgment, a caller will call out, ‘lower your gaze until
The Shī’ite traditions Fatima is also depicted as someone who is holding a sword in her hand and is also named El Zahrā, “the brilliant/effulgent,” has an essential eschatological role to play - she will restore justice through irreconcilable vengeance. She will appear at the final judgment with flowing hair to demand justice for the murder of her children; she will appear against those responsible for the premature delivery of her last son, Mohsin, whose blood drenched body she carries in her arms; she will appear against those who poisoned her eldest son Hassan and slew her second son Hossein in Karbala. In this image, then, she is essentially the embodiment of divine retribution, just as she was the embodiment of selectivity at the beginning of time; for those who love her and her successors, who are already thereby assured of paradise. [via Gnostic Fatima]
A Modern Day Dream of Initiation by Fatimah
Years before on the night of my Sufi initiation, I had dreamed of Fatima who initiated me in the Mundus Imaginalis, or the Imaginal World.
I dreamed I had entered the sacred precincts of the Ka'aba, inMecca
She bade me to sit in front of Her and then commanded me to open my mouth. Laying next to Her was the double-edged sword of 'Ali, Zu'l-Fiqar. I opened my mouth and She grabbed my tongue and pierced it with Zu'l-Fiqar. Instead of pain, however, I felt ecstasy and was transported in the next scene of the dream to a dazzling desert landscape whose sands consisted of flakes of pure lustrous gold. I stood in this desert watching the Sun rise and as the Sun roseFatima 's face shone from within it fully unveiled. The higher this Imaginal Sun rose to its meridian, the more it formed itself into various shapes and forms, until it finally became the World Tree, the Tree of Life, or the Tree of Reality as I call it, whose roots reached into every expanse of Heaven and earth. I woke up! It was such a vivid dream I can never forget it!
- Wahid Azal, Fatimiyya Sufi Order
Prophet’s transmission on Fatimah
"Say O Muhammad: 'I do not ask of you any reward for it but love for my near kin'." - The Quran 42:23
According to Islamic scholarship and also that of the people of Path (fuqara), the love of the Prophet and those whom he loved, namely his near ones among his holy family is an obligation and a sure pathway to achieve the love of God. In this regard, the love for Fatimah is divinely sanctified since she was the most loved one of the Prophet of Love.
The following are the sayings of Prophet Muhammad on her beloved daughter:
"The most beloved of my family to me is Fatimah." - Source: Al-Jami' al-Sagheer
"Whoever hurts Fatima, hurts me, and whoever hurts me, hurts Allah, exalted be His Majesty!" - Ibn Majah, Sunan
Aisha said: "I never saw a man more beloved of the Apostle of Allah than Ali, or a woman more dear to him than Fatimah."
The Commander of the Faithful said: "I asked the Messenger of Allah, 'Who is more beloved to you, Fatima or I?' He answered, 'Fatimah is more beloved to me, and you are dearer to me than she is.'" - Muslim
The Prophet having spread over Fatimah, Ali, Hassan and Hussein a khaybarite (a mantle made from the region of Khaybar) mantle and prayed saying: "O Allah, these are the People of my Household, remove all imperfections from them and keep them purified as is the right to keep them purified!"
"The Mehdi is from my family, from the sons of Fatimah." - Al-Sawaiq Al-Muhariqa
"Verily, God has weaned (fatama in Arabic) my daughter Fatimah and her children and those who love them from the Hellfire, and that is why she is namedFatima ." - Kenz Al-Omal
"The head of the women ofParadise is Fatimah."
"If I were separated from the fruits ofParadise I would kiss Fatimah."
"Fatimah is part of me, and whoever pleases her, pleases me." - Al-Sawaiq Al-Muhariqa
Prayer of Fatimah
Imam Hassan said, 'on the friday night I saw my mother (Fatima) standing in her arch of prayer. She was continuously kneeling and performing prostration till the dawn broke. I would hear her pray for the faithful men and women, but she did not at all pray for herself. I said, 'Oh mother why did you not pray for yourself like you prayed for others?' so she replied, 'Oh my son, first thy neighbour and there after your own house.'
I testify that there is no deity (Lord) except the sole and matchless Allah. And the testification of the oneness of Allah is a word that Allah has declared sincerity (as) it's reality, and made the hearts the center of it's contact and union. And has made the specifications and research of the oneness of Allah's station obvious and evident in the light of meditation. The Allah Who can not be seen by the eyes and tongues are unable and baffled to describe His virtues and attributes. And the intelligence and apprehension of man is helpless and destitute from the imagination of his howness.
Oh Allah! belittle me in my eyes and glorify and magnify Your station to me. And inspire me (about) Your obedience and the practice which may cause Your pleasure and the shunning and evading from things (matters) which are the cause of Your wrath, oh the Most Merciful of all.
I dreamed I had entered the sacred precincts of the Ka'aba, in
She bade me to sit in front of Her and then commanded me to open my mouth. Laying next to Her was the double-edged sword of 'Ali, Zu'l-Fiqar. I opened my mouth and She grabbed my tongue and pierced it with Zu'l-Fiqar. Instead of pain, however, I felt ecstasy and was transported in the next scene of the dream to a dazzling desert landscape whose sands consisted of flakes of pure lustrous gold. I stood in this desert watching the Sun rise and as the Sun rose
- Wahid Azal, Fatimiyya Sufi Order
Prophet’s transmission on Fatimah
"Say O Muhammad: 'I do not ask of you any reward for it but love for my near kin'." - The Quran 42:23
According to Islamic scholarship and also that of the people of Path (fuqara), the love of the Prophet and those whom he loved, namely his near ones among his holy family is an obligation and a sure pathway to achieve the love of God. In this regard, the love for Fatimah is divinely sanctified since she was the most loved one of the Prophet of Love.
The following are the sayings of Prophet Muhammad on her beloved daughter:
"The most beloved of my family to me is Fatimah." - Source: Al-Jami' al-Sagheer
"Whoever hurts Fatima, hurts me, and whoever hurts me, hurts Allah, exalted be His Majesty!" - Ibn Majah, Sunan
Aisha said: "I never saw a man more beloved of the Apostle of Allah than Ali, or a woman more dear to him than Fatimah."
The Commander of the Faithful said: "I asked the Messenger of Allah, 'Who is more beloved to you, Fatima or I?' He answered, 'Fatimah is more beloved to me, and you are dearer to me than she is.'" - Muslim
The Prophet having spread over Fatimah, Ali, Hassan and Hussein a khaybarite (a mantle made from the region of Khaybar) mantle and prayed saying: "O Allah, these are the People of my Household, remove all imperfections from them and keep them purified as is the right to keep them purified!"
"The Mehdi is from my family, from the sons of Fatimah." - Al-Sawaiq Al-Muhariqa
"Verily, God has weaned (fatama in Arabic) my daughter Fatimah and her children and those who love them from the Hellfire, and that is why she is named
"The head of the women of
"If I were separated from the fruits of
"Fatimah is part of me, and whoever pleases her, pleases me." - Al-Sawaiq Al-Muhariqa
Prayer of Fatimah
Imam Hassan said, 'on the friday night I saw my mother (Fatima) standing in her arch of prayer. She was continuously kneeling and performing prostration till the dawn broke. I would hear her pray for the faithful men and women, but she did not at all pray for herself. I said, 'Oh mother why did you not pray for yourself like you prayed for others?' so she replied, 'Oh my son, first thy neighbour and there after your own house.'
I testify that there is no deity (Lord) except the sole and matchless Allah. And the testification of the oneness of Allah is a word that Allah has declared sincerity (as) it's reality, and made the hearts the center of it's contact and union. And has made the specifications and research of the oneness of Allah's station obvious and evident in the light of meditation. The Allah Who can not be seen by the eyes and tongues are unable and baffled to describe His virtues and attributes. And the intelligence and apprehension of man is helpless and destitute from the imagination of his howness.
Oh Allah! belittle me in my eyes and glorify and magnify Your station to me. And inspire me (about) Your obedience and the practice which may cause Your pleasure and the shunning and evading from things (matters) which are the cause of Your wrath, oh the Most Merciful of all.
[Source: mysticsaint.info]
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Fatima and Mary
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Fatimah, Mary and the Divine Feminine in Islam
[ Sol.au ]
At the very core of Islamic philosophy there is evidence of what can be called a vision of the Motherhood of God.
In the first Sura of the Koran, the Fatiha that is recited by millions of Muslims in their daily devotions, God is called Al Rahmin, the merciful and compassionate one. “Ramin” is derived from the Arabic for “womb” or “matrix”, mercy is also a feminine attribute, and so Muslims are reminded that God can be either woman or man. Every day God is compared to a mother and woman.
While the Muslim vision is often perceived to be authoritarian and punitive the Koran, on close inspection, is filled with descriptions and vision of God’s more feminine attributes such as gentleness, providence, love, universal compassion and tender-heartedness.
Muhammad was himself a living example of the Divine’s infinite capacity for forgiveness: many times he forgave enemies who had committed unspeakable atrocities against him and his brethren.
The religious intolerance that characterises the behaviour of many Muslim communities today is inconsistent with the heritage of tolerance that is professed by the Islamic tradition. For example, the Koran clearly states in several passages that any person who lives a life of holy reverence is welcomed into paradise regardless of their religion. Muhammad openly praises both Judaism (Abraham is deeply respected within the Koran) and Christianity (Muhammad frequently praises Jesus and Mary in the Koran).
Even more surprising is the Koran’s reverence for Mary, mother of Christ. Muhammad (and also in later Islamic theological scriptures) regarded Mary as the most marvellous of all women, a high adept and living example of the pure and holy life. Later Koranic commentaries describe Mary as an intervening force between God (Allah) and humanity. This intervening force is characterised by Allah’s mercy, forgiveness, sweetness and humility- the embodiment of Allah’s love for creation.
When Muhammad retookMecca
In one of the most powerful Hadiths ( prophetic sayings of Muhammad) it is reported that Muhammad said, “Paradise is at the feet of the Mother”. Does this suggest that the feminine aspect of God is an important and essential pathway to the attainment of supreme consciousness?
Muhammad’s peak defining experience, called the Meraj, saw him elevated through the seven heavens to the realm of God Almighty at the resplendant Sidrath where he communed with God, received his divine visions and instructions and was placed on the inexorable course of his life-mission to establish Islam. Muhammad was escorted by the archangel Gabriel (a masculine force) but the vehicle upon which Muhammad rode was the beautiful “Buraq”. The Buraq was a white horse with wings and the face of a woman! Clearly suggesting that the great power by which Muhammad was elevated to the level of supreme consciousness was ultimately feminine in nature! Some scholars say that the Buraq is an Islamic symbol of the Kundalini, a force that Eastern Yogis describe as the Goddess or Divine Mother.
Fatimah is another prominent female in the Islamic tradition. Muhammad revered Fatimah as if she were a divine being, saying "Allah, The Most High; is pleased when Fatimah is pleased. He is angered; whenever Fatimah is angered!"
Whenever Fatimah would go to the house of Muhammad, he would stand up out of respect for her and honour her by giving her a special place to seat herself in his house. He regarded her as a sort of primordial woman, a symbol of divine womanhood giving her many holy names, such as: Siddiqah; The Honest, The Righteous; Al-Batool, Pure Virgin; Al-Mubarakah, The Blessed One; .Al-Tahirah, The Virtuous, The Pure, Al-Zakiyah ;The Chaste, The Unblemished ;Al-Radhiatul Mardhiah, She who is gratified and who shall be satisfied; Al-Muhaddathah, A person other than a Prophet, that the angels speak to; Al-Zahra, The Splendid; Al-Zahirah, The Luminous.
Shias revere the person of Fatimah, Muhammad's daughter and mother of the line of inspired imams who embodied the divine truth for their generation. As such, Fatimah is associated with Sophia, the divine wisdom, which gives birth to all knowledge of God. She has thus become another symbolic equivalent of the Great Mother.
Sunni Islam has also drawn inspiration from the female. The philosopher Muid ad-Din ibn al-Arabi (1165-1240) saw a young girl inMecca
In the first Sura of the Koran, the Fatiha that is recited by millions of Muslims in their daily devotions, God is called Al Rahmin, the merciful and compassionate one. “Ramin” is derived from the Arabic for “womb” or “matrix”, mercy is also a feminine attribute, and so Muslims are reminded that God can be either woman or man. Every day God is compared to a mother and woman.
While the Muslim vision is often perceived to be authoritarian and punitive the Koran, on close inspection, is filled with descriptions and vision of God’s more feminine attributes such as gentleness, providence, love, universal compassion and tender-heartedness.
Muhammad was himself a living example of the Divine’s infinite capacity for forgiveness: many times he forgave enemies who had committed unspeakable atrocities against him and his brethren.
The religious intolerance that characterises the behaviour of many Muslim communities today is inconsistent with the heritage of tolerance that is professed by the Islamic tradition. For example, the Koran clearly states in several passages that any person who lives a life of holy reverence is welcomed into paradise regardless of their religion. Muhammad openly praises both Judaism (Abraham is deeply respected within the Koran) and Christianity (Muhammad frequently praises Jesus and Mary in the Koran).
Even more surprising is the Koran’s reverence for Mary, mother of Christ. Muhammad (and also in later Islamic theological scriptures) regarded Mary as the most marvellous of all women, a high adept and living example of the pure and holy life. Later Koranic commentaries describe Mary as an intervening force between God (Allah) and humanity. This intervening force is characterised by Allah’s mercy, forgiveness, sweetness and humility- the embodiment of Allah’s love for creation.
When Muhammad retook
In one of the most powerful Hadiths ( prophetic sayings of Muhammad) it is reported that Muhammad said, “
Muhammad’s peak defining experience, called the Meraj, saw him elevated through the seven heavens to the realm of God Almighty at the resplendant Sidrath where he communed with God, received his divine visions and instructions and was placed on the inexorable course of his life-mission to establish Islam. Muhammad was escorted by the archangel Gabriel (a masculine force) but the vehicle upon which Muhammad rode was the beautiful “Buraq”. The Buraq was a white horse with wings and the face of a woman! Clearly suggesting that the great power by which Muhammad was elevated to the level of supreme consciousness was ultimately feminine in nature! Some scholars say that the Buraq is an Islamic symbol of the Kundalini, a force that Eastern Yogis describe as the Goddess or Divine Mother.
Fatimah is another prominent female in the Islamic tradition. Muhammad revered Fatimah as if she were a divine being, saying "Allah, The Most High; is pleased when Fatimah is pleased. He is angered; whenever Fatimah is angered!"
Whenever Fatimah would go to the house of Muhammad, he would stand up out of respect for her and honour her by giving her a special place to seat herself in his house. He regarded her as a sort of primordial woman, a symbol of divine womanhood giving her many holy names, such as: Siddiqah; The Honest, The Righteous; Al-Batool, Pure Virgin; Al-Mubarakah, The Blessed One; .Al-Tahirah, The Virtuous, The Pure, Al-Zakiyah ;The Chaste, The Unblemished ;Al-Radhiatul Mardhiah, She who is gratified and who shall be satisfied; Al-Muhaddathah, A person other than a Prophet, that the angels speak to; Al-Zahra, The Splendid; Al-Zahirah, The Luminous.
Shias revere the person of Fatimah, Muhammad's daughter and mother of the line of inspired imams who embodied the divine truth for their generation. As such, Fatimah is associated with Sophia, the divine wisdom, which gives birth to all knowledge of God. She has thus become another symbolic equivalent of the Great Mother.
Sunni Islam has also drawn inspiration from the female. The philosopher Muid ad-Din ibn al-Arabi (1165-1240) saw a young girl in
More generally speaking Muslims are reminded in the Koran that humans can experience and speak about God only in symbols. Everything in the world is a sign (aya) of God; so women can also be a revelation of the divine. Ibn al-Arabi argued that humans have a duty to create theophanies for themselves, by means of the creative imagination that pierces the imperfect exterior of mundane reality and glimpses the divine within. The faculty of imagination is commonly associated with the Divine Feminine.
While official Islam may not consistently describe the role of the Divine Feminine, this principle has been described and explored at length in the more esoteric Islamic tradition of Sufism. Sufism emphasises passionate, mystical adoration of God. Many Sufis (and other mystics in other religions) seek a spiritual union between themselves and the divine principle not unlike that between a child (the Sufi) and his mother (God) or a bride (Sufi) and the husband (God).
The Sufi poetry teaches the feminine qualities of joy, love, tenderness and self sacrifice on a path of true knowledge derived from the spiritual heart. The spiritual rebirth of the individual is not unlike the trial and tribulation of physical childbirth, according to the Sufis. They take the principle of divine love and use it to facilitate the process of alchemical transformation from mundane human to spiritual being.
The fanaticism that we see in modern Islam is a new development in a religion that, in its early history, was famous for its tolerance and respect for other religions. In Islam’s classical period in medievalSpain and Egypt
A Sufi Ode to the Divine Mother
The Sufi poetry teaches the feminine qualities of joy, love, tenderness and self sacrifice on a path of true knowledge derived from the spiritual heart. The spiritual rebirth of the individual is not unlike the trial and tribulation of physical childbirth, according to the Sufis. They take the principle of divine love and use it to facilitate the process of alchemical transformation from mundane human to spiritual being.
The fanaticism that we see in modern Islam is a new development in a religion that, in its early history, was famous for its tolerance and respect for other religions. In Islam’s classical period in medieval
A Sufi Ode to the Divine Mother
On the face of the earth there is no one more beautiful than You
Wherever I go I wear your image in my heart
Whenever I fall in a despondent mood I remember your image
And my spirit rises a thousand fold
Your advent is the blossom time of the Universe
O Mother you have showered your choicest blessings upon me
Also remember me on the Day of Judgement
I don’t know if I will go to heaven or hell
But wherever I go, please always abide in me.
[Source: The magazine, "Knowledge of Reality" - Issue 22.]
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Others:
FATIMA THE ETERNAL FEMALE
Fatima is the source of all wisdom.
Fatima is symbol of the Heavens.
Fatima breathes out God to the Universe.
Fatima is the Sacred Tree of Paradise.
Fatima is Creatress.
Fatima is Mother of the Eternal Book.
Fatima is Seat of Sovereignty,
Others:
FATIMA THE ETERNAL FEMALE
In the Beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with Al-LaH,
and the Word wasFatima .
and the Word was with Al-LaH,
and the Word was
She came from God’s Mouth.
She existed with God before the Creation.
She was Creator of the Word.
From Her Word came World.
She is representation of Divine Writing.
She is the Hidden Tablet [lawh mahfuz].
Upon her God had written Destiny.
She is Fatir the Creator.
Cosmos is Her Creation.
She is House of God.
The Holy Lady is the Burning Bush of Moses.
She is the Energy of the Sun.
She is Destiny and the Power to change it.
She is Night and Dawn.
She has pure Essence of Being.
She is Mysteries of Genetics.
She is creation of the physical world.
She is Seated on the High Throne.
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