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Christian Churches of God
No. B7_5
Mysticism Chapter 5
Islam
(Edition 2.5 19900810-20050209-20170610)
Islam is a logical extension of Judeo-Christianity and it arose as a result of the influence of the Mystery Cults on Christianity.
Christian Churches of God
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(Copyright ©1990, 2000, 2005, 2017 Wade Cox)
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Islam
IslamPage 1
Religious History to the Birth of Islam
Arab Beliefs
The very forces which caused the Prophet(incorrectly called Muhammad)to begin his mission and forge a unified Islamic expansion were ultimately to affect its theology.
The worship of the Arabs at the time of the Prophet was Animistic, involving numerous gods and two or three goddesses.
"These deities had their several holy places, whither man resorted on occasion to seek their aid, fulfil a vow, or consult the oracle. The sacred precincts were marked off by boundary stones. The object of worship, or, to speak more exactly, the object in which the divinity lodged, was most commonly of stone, sometimes a tree or a group of trees. In Mecca there was a small square temple; into one corner of which the sacred stone was built. Idols, like the image of Hubal in this temple, were rare and recent importation." (G.F. Moore - History of Religions, vol. 2, T & T Clark. Edinburgh 1965 impression - p.388).
The stone of the Ka'bah is, in fact, a remnant of this animistic past. The priests were not a sacrificial priesthood, but were diviners and sometimes custodians of the holy places. (ibid.).
The annual religious festivals in Mecca and the concourse of strangers to it, preceded Islam and was:
"The most frequented of these festivals in all that part of Arabia. Suspension of tribal wars and blood feuds during the sacred months, a kind of truce of God, insured the safety of visitors at the festival and on the journey" (ibid., p.389).
The ritual circumambulations of the Ka'bah are the seven ascents of the shamanistic ladder, around the axis mundi, or cult object, of the Arabian Animists. This is a direct derivation of the earlier Magian Shamanistic Animism based on Chaldean theology. Christianity and Judaism were widely known to the Arabs. The forms however, were quite divergent. Later, Talmudic Judaism had been penetrated by this same mysticism. Christianity had become significantly ascetic and monastic.
The forms of Jewish Mysticism and occultism as Kabbalistic mysticism was expounded in the Greater Hekhloth; details of which were published (1982) as Meditation and Kabbalah by Aryeh Kaplan. Drury refers to this in his Dictionary of Mysticism and the Occult (pp. 104 and 113). These forms are developments of the mystery cults in post exilic Judaism, finding a formal expression, after destruction of the Temple from the extreme Hellenistic influence up to the 1st century CE, culminating in the works of Philo and then becoming secret works on Mysticism. These works were to penetrate most of the east and find expression in Islam. Even the prophet used this cosmology at Surah 2:29:
"it is He who created for you all that is in the earth, then He rose up the Heavens and ordered them into seven heavens; and He has knowledge of everything."
The Commentary on the Qur'an, vol. 1 by Al Tabari (pp. 192-205. Oxford, 1987), shows that the prophet was not understood to be advocating mystical ascent, but rather, two lives, one consequent to the resurrection. (Quatada separates them by distances of 500 years apart). The use of the word, Sama, is held to be singular. Tabari draws attention to the interpretation of Ha-Huwa-Bi-Kulli shai'in 'Alimun (pp. 203-204) where the then Christians and the Rabbis were being castigated in this section for secret interpretation and denial of the resurrection. However, he seems to have used this shamanistic structure to illustrate the point.
Eliade records that Islamic Mysticism received its shamanistic elements after the propagation of Islam among the Turks of Central Asia, although he does note (as previously observed) that the ability of Amed Yesevi and some of his dervishes, to change into birds and so have the power to fly (and similar legends concerning the Bekteshite saints) are common to shamanism generally, not only the Turko-Mongol, but also the Arctic, American, Indian and Oceanian. The presence of the Ostrich legend of Barak Baba, where he appeared in public with a "two horned headdress", (which became the ritual sign of the order he founded) riding an ostrich, which "flew a little way under his influence." (From Kopruluzade - Influence du chamanisne turco-Mongol sur les ordres mystiques musulmans; pp.16-17 as quoted by Eliade - Shamanism, pp. 402-403). Eliade says, "One wonders if it does not rather indicate a southern origin." (ibid.). This solution is far more likely as the shamanistic influences were general throughout Arabia and the Levant from the 6th century BCE at least with a highly developed Greek form.
There is no doubt that idolatry and the Mystery Religions preceded and influenced Islam and Talmudic Judaism. The use of narcotics such as hashish and opium did become discernible in certain Persian mystical orders of Islam from the 12th century onwards. Eliade refers to the work of Massignon in his note 118 to page 402 on the ecstatic states and the induced "Platonic gaze." He states that:
These elementary recipes for ecstasy can be connected with both pre-islamic mystical techniques and with certain aberrant Indian techniques that may have influenced Sufism.
One of the methods of inducing the ecstatic states was by erotic inhibition, which induced "a highly suspect form of ecstasy." (ibid). The prevalent duality of monasticism and mysticism, which according to Wolpert was spread from Buddhist monasticism (A New History Of India, p. 52), is apparently not accidental, but rather the erotic inhibition of monasticism appears facilitative to mysticism.
It would appear that the ceremonial ascent to the world of the gods found in shamanistic mysticism, has found expression in the Brahmanic ritual. The ecstatic techniques are common there.
However, as we have seen, the Mystery Religions induced trances from the use of ergot rather than these later developments of Sufism, and long preceded them. The Persian God of Light, who (according to the Avesta) appeared before sunrise in a chariot drawn by four white horses, was Mithra. He was the All-knowing God and deity of fertility and abundance. After the conquests of Alexander the Great, a fusion of religious beliefs occurred which saw Mithras associated with Helios. We have seen elsewhere the extensive similarity with Mithras and Apollo Hyperborios and the mystery/fertility deities.
Mithras became the mediator with the unknowable demiurge. He was always linked to astrology and Taurus, as the constellation entered by the sun at the beginning of spring. The bull slaying deity was common to the entire east and was a symbol of the Persians, as the first animal created by Ormazd.
The Mystery cults can be seen to extend from Europe and Egypt to the Far East. All involve a shamanistic cosmology of the ascent of the seven heavens or levels and have penetrated Talmudic Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
To restate the position according to Eliade:
A ladder (klimax) with seven rungs is documented in the Mithraic mysteries and that the prophet-king Kosingas threatened his subjects that he would go up to the goddess Hera by a ladder. (This also probably formed part of the Orphic initiation.) (Eliade ibid. p.488).
Eliade notes that:
W Bousset long ago compared the Mithraic ladder with similar Oriental conceptions and demonstrated their common cosmological symbolism. (ibid. p.488).
Eliade also notes the use of the ladder by Jacob in his dream symbolism and that Mohammed saw a ladder rising from the temple in Jerusalem to heaven with angels to the right and left. He says, "The mystical ladder is abundantly documented in Christian tradition; the martyrdom of St. Perpetua and the legend of St. Olaf are but two examples. St. John Climacus uses the symbolism of the ladder to express the various phases of spiritual ascent. A remarkably similar symbolism is found in Islamic mysticism; to ascend to God, the soul must mount seven successive steps - repentance, abstinence, renunciation, poverty, patience, trust in God, satisfaction. The symbolism of the 'stair' of 'ladders' and of ascensions was constantly employed by Christian Mysticism." (ibid., p.489).
Drury, in his article 'Fana', at page 85, shows the development of the stages of becoming absorbed in God practised in Sufism.
This may be three stages: the act of seeking forgiveness from God: the request for blessings from the prophet Muhammed; and finally of merging with the Divine Oneness. The Islamic mystic Abu Hamid Ghezali wrote: When the worshipper no longer thinks of his worship or himself but is altogether absorbed in Him whom he worships, that state is called Fana.
John Bagot Glubb (A Short History of the Arab Peoples – Quartet, 1978 pp. 25-26) mentions that the nomadic tribes of Arabs at the beginning of the 7th century were worshippers of native spirits and he suggests that this worship
may have been influenced by the Chaldeans of the lower Tigris and Euphrates Valley, who were famous as astronomers. Thus, before Islam, we find Arabs with the name of Abid Shems, servant of the sun. The temple of Mecca, a small cubicle stone building called the Kaiaba, was said to contain three hundred and sixty-five idols.
Glubb mentions the establishment of Christianity replacing this 'idolatry', or animistic shamanism of the Magi, which was being influenced from India on a continual basis with Hindu and Buddhist concepts.
Tribal Dispositions and Power
From another chapter concerning the eastern divisions in Christianity and the penetration of the Mystery Religions, it was seen that the frontiers of Syria and Iraq had become Christian and the Syrian tribes were Christians. On the borders of Persia the Nestorians had made many converts. There were Christian communities in the Yemen and Nejran (ibid.). There were also large quantities of people professing the Jewish faith, i.e. converted to Talmudic Judaism at Kheibar, Medina (then called Yathrib) and in the Yemen. Thus, while the nomadic tribes were all animists and shamanists, the
more civilised Arab communities along the fringes of the desert had already been penetrated by Judaism and Christianity.
Mecca was the site of an important idol temple and an important caravan post. The annual pilgrimage to Mecca was an animistic festival which was combined with a trade fair for the disposal of piece goods from Damascus. (ibid., p. 26).
In the 6th century most of the inhabitants of Syria and Palestine were of the Christian Monophysite sect, which had been pronounced heretical by the Orthodox or established church of the Empire. In 581 AD, as a result of these religious differences, the Prince of the Beni Ghassan was arrested and conveyed to Constantinople. Thereafter the Arab tribes of Eastern Syria remained in anarchy and semi-rebellion.
In 605 AD, Naaman ibn al Mundhir, the Lakhmid prince, quarrelled with the Great King, who abolished the privileged position hitherto enjoyed by the family as defenders of the desert frontier, with the result that the Arab tribes along the Euphrates revolted against Persia.
In 628 AD, therefore, when both empires being exhausted after twenty-six years of war against one another, their Arab satellites along the desert frontiers were everywhere disaffected or in open revolt." (ibid., p. 24).
Moore refers to the kingdoms in North Arabia by their names of Palmyra and Hira as vassal buffer-states of the Roman and Persian Empires respectively (Moore, vol. 2, p. 389). The powerful Parthian Empire, separating the eastern Roman Empire at Constantinople and Persia, had removed into West Europe from the 2nd century.
The Rise of Islam
What is not fully appreciated is that the Christian faith was seen by Arabs as being divided between "Christian" (as the Orthodox and so called Monophysite churches were termed) and the "people of the gospel" (which the Paulicians and part of the Monophysite Church appear to have been termed within Arab vernacular). The distinction in terminology in the Koran is not fully understood, even by modern day Islam.
From chapter 4 we saw the Trinitarian position, and the adoption of Easter over the quarto-decimal Passover, (commencing from as early as Anicetus and opposed by Polycarp, Apostle of John, and Polycrates, his successor, and Bishops of Smyrna). The introduction of Easter from the mystery and sun cults was the first major schism (see the paper The Quartodeciman Disputes (No. 277), CCG). The Trinitarian faction, which became the Roman Catholic Church, was securely in the Roman Empire from 381 CE, after the Council of Constantinople consolidated the Athanasian or Cappadocian Trinitarians. This sect and the changes were opposed in the east by the groups later known as Monophysite and Paulicians. Some Athanasian sects erroneously referred to the Paulicians as Manichaean. Trinitarians were opposed in the west by the Unitarian Christians termed Arian Christians. The destruction of numerous statues in Rome by the Vandals was, contrary to popular belief, on ideological grounds, as the Vandals and Goths were Unitarian iconoclasts, who opposed the erection of statues in Rome, on the basis of the violation of the second commandment against graven images.
As noted, these Unitarian wars in the West lasted until 586 CE when the Arian conversion to Catholicism in Spain occurred. Unitarianism ceased on a national basis with the conversion to Catholicism of the Thuringians by Boniface in approximately 742 CE. They then became progressively absorbed by the Franks in the South and the Saxons in the North. [Articles - Thuringia and Arianism, Catholic Encyclopedia, vols. 1 and 14 (p. 712).] Look also at the paper The Unitarian/Trinitarian Wars (No. 268),CCG).
The Christian church in the East included one of the original churches founded by the Apostles, that of John at Ephesus and Smyrna. There were also, later, quasi-heretical offshoots, including the Nestorians and various elements. They were later called Monophysite.
The Koran is talking about three separate Christianities, with two irreconcilable concepts of God. Monophysitism, however, had later heretical divergences from the original sect of the Apostles. It was the doctrine of both the Unitarians (often also termed Arians) and the Asians. Confusion over the concept of the nature of Christ caused by the Mysteries and Trinitarianism also resulted in a division of the nature of Christ, as both divine and man, based on the erroneous Chaldean doctrine of the soul. These resulted in the disputes referred in the chapter on the Unitarian Wars.
The Athanasians finally secured control of the "Mother Church Areas" of Alexandria, Corinth and Rome. The other Mother Churches were Jerusalem, Antioch and Ephesus (cf. Schaff, History of the Christian Church, vol. II, p. 153) and the Metropolitan Bishopric of Constantinople. However, the Trinitarians could not stamp out the sects, as the eastern provinces were under Persian dominion and Syria was virtually autonomous. In a last ditch effort to eliminate them, the Prince of the Beni Ghassan was arrested and taken to Constantinople. From this act as we noted, the province was in open revolt which led to the Arab conquests. In practice it led to the Monophysite fusions with Islam, or their protection with the Paulicians in Mesopotamia, until the reconquest by Constantine Capronymous (741-775) C 750 CE. (He was possibly a Paulician). On this reconquest, the Paulicians as they were termed, were relocated to Thrace, where other non-Athanasian sects had been earlier located. This history is examined in the papers General Distribution of the Sabbath-keeping Churches (No. 122); and The Role of the Fourth Commandment in the Historical Sabbath-keeping Churches of God (No. 170), CCG).
Constantine had reorganised the Roman chair as the supreme tribunal of the church. Thus he established for the first time, Papal authority. The persecution and restoration of the Monophysites, or Arians, saw the emperors establish Unitarian systems in the empire. The Trinitarians were established from 381. The actions commencing with Epiphanius of Constantinople were to be counter-productive. The repressions admittedly subjugated large areas of the church under the Athanasians. Justinian was thus allowed to concentrate on the defeat of the Unitarians (Arians) in the west by the army under Belisarius. They, however, saw the reverses of the Goths.
It was by the power of the Franks and the Angles that led up to the final defeat and subsequent conversion of the Unitarians in Spain in 586 CE. The wars were counter- productive, in that they did not reconcile the east. Justinian died in 565 CE and under his successors, the Monophysites were harshly persecuted, as the Monophysite John of Ephesus records. These conditions gave rise to a disaffected Christianity in the East, which was not only Monophysite, but also much of it non-Trinitarian. Byzantium would not surrender the political alliance with Rome and the Eastern churches regarded Rome as evil.