buddha and buddhism in the quran?

With the release of the new Dune film I've been thinking a bit more about the connections between Islam and Buddhism. (For those who don't know,  in the Dune universe, many of the dominant religious movements are broadly "Budhislamic", and most of the characters are Zensunni.

For a while now, I've known that the Ahmadiyya specifically claim that the Buddha was a prophet, and they identify specific references to the Buddha and Buddhism in the Quran. And the Bahais also recognize both Muhammad (saaws) and Siddhartha Gautama as Manifestations of God. But recently I've found examples of more orthodox Islamic voices who make similar claims: 

From Muslim scholar’s discourse on Buddhism: aliterature on Buddha’s position by Ahmad Faizuddin Ramli, , Jaffary Awang , and Zaizul Ab Rahman:

In terms of philology, it is based on three verses in the Holy Quran, the first two verses refer Siddhartha as the prophet Dhu al-Kifl:

و ِۖ ۡ ِكف ِ ِر ا ٱل ي َن ۡ ب ِّم َن ٱل ص َٰ ُك ٨٥ [ األنبياء:85-85 ]

“And (mention) Ishmael, and Idris, and Dhu al-Kifl. All were of the steadfast.” (85) [Quran al-Anbiyā’ 21: 85]

و ِۖ ۡ ِكف ۡ ِر ا ٱل ۡألَۡخيَا ِّم َن ٱ َو ٤٨ [ ص:48-48ُ ]

“And make mention of Ishmael and Elisha and Dhu al-Kifl. All are of the chosen” (48) [Quran Ṣad 38: 48]

As a guide to all mankind, the Quran describes the Prophets, either directly or indirectly. There are 24,000 of prophets sent by Allah to all mankind, and only 25 of them were selected as an apostle, while five of them were selected as the ulul azmi – the higher ranking of apostle. Among the apostle is prophet Dhu al-Kifl as stated in two verses above. The history of prophets Dhu al-Kifl is not discussed in many Islamic narrations. With regards to the founder of Buddhism, Siddharta Gautama, Muslims scholar like Muhammad Hamidullah (1974) and Hamid Abdul Qadir (1957) stated that the Buddha was Prophet Dhu al-Kifl in the Qur'an. Justification for this was made based on the word kifli, which means 'someone from Kifli'. The word of kifl is Arabicized from the Kapila phrase, is the short name for Kapilavastu. Kapilavastu is the birthplace of the Buddha, hence it is named by Dhu al-Kifl (Berzin, 1994; Imtiyaz Yusuf, 2013; Obuse, 2010; Perry Schmidt-Leukel, 2010).

Instead the terms of kifl, the word of tīn was regarded by Muhammad Hamidullah and supported by Hamza Yusuf (2010), Reza Kazemi (2010), Imtiyaz Yusuf (2003), al-Qasimi (2002) as a Bodhi tree where the Siddhartha mediated and attained the enlightenment (nirvana). Thus, only Gautama Buddha is the only closest figure in the Quran with the fig (tīn) tree. Allah said in the Holy Quran:

 و ١ ٱلتِّي ِمي ۡألَ ِد ٱ بَلَ ۡ َذا ٱل َٰ ]

“I swear by the fig and the olive (1), And mount Sinai (2), And this city made secure (3)” [Quran al-Tīn 95: 1-3]

The four symbols in the surah at-Tīn are ironically symbolic to the Prophet. Muslim scholars have different views on the tīn (fig) while they agreed with other terms such as alZaytūn as a symbol of Jerusalem the birthplace of the Prophet Isa., Sinīn (Mount Thursina) as a symbol for the place of Moses a.s., and al-Balad al-Amīn is symbolized as the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). Early Muslims Exegesis scholars in the like of Ibn Abi Hatim (811- 890 M) quotes the view of Qatadah that the tīn is the name of a hill in Damascus, the blessed hill in Sham and contained a tree, while Muhammad bin Ka’ab interpreted the tīn as the Companions of the Cave (Aṣḥabul Kahfi) as Al-Qurtubi. Ibn Abbas and Mujahid hold same view by regarding it as a fruit that is ate by people (Ibn Abi Hatim, 1997), later followed by al-Tabari (2001), Ibn Kathir (2000) and Abdul Razzaq (1999) quoted Ibn Abbas views, it is a mosque built by Noah on the Mount of Judi besides repeating the al-Qurtubi’s view.

If observed, Muslims mufassirin differ in their views on the true meaning of the word tiin. Some interpret it as a fruit (Ibn Abbas and Mujahid), while some interpret it symbolical to some places (Qatadah & Muhammad bin Ka’ab). However, by using philological argument, Imtiyaz Yusuf (2017) suggests the precise interpretation is symbolical for a place in the Middle East. Using scientific argument, Imtiyaz Yusuf (2017) suggests the tīn (ficus religiose) refers to the Bodhi tree, due to the tree growing much in the Indian subcontinent and in Indo-China rather in the Middle east. Contrarily, the species of the Bodhi tree is from the ficus carica, not ficus religiose which only grows in the Middle East and West Asia. But the argument can be accepted since both are originated from the same family of Moraceae. Moreover, the Bodhi tree also known with seven names in Sanskrit tradition as Patala (Bignonia), Pundrika (Lotus), Sala (Shoria Rabusta), Saresha (Accaciassirisa), Udambra, Nyagrodha, and Asvatha (ficus religiousa). On the other hand, the Buddhist scholars define the Bodhi tree with different species like Dragon Flower tree, Champac tree, Dragon tree, Kesser Dragon tree, and Iron wood tree. In fact, not just in Buddhism, the species of ficus religiose is also considered as a sacred tree in the texts of Hindu and Jain, as in the Bhagavad Gita (Abdul Haq Vidyarthi & Abdul Ahad Dawud 2013). The claim to regard Buddha as a prophet, eventually recognized by contemporary Muslims mufassirin as one of the views (Al-Qasimi, 2002).

The Bodhi tree that related with Siddhartha’s history, on the other hand, was compared by H.O.K Rahmat (1984) with the story of Prophet Moses during receiving revelation. When Siddhartha was under the Bodhi tree, he decided not to move until he had the great truth and knowledge. For forty-nine days he meditated and eventually the 'light' came to him. While Moses was mentioned in the Qur'an (Ṭāha 20: 9-13): "And has come to you the story of Moses. When he saw the fire then said to his family: Wait! I have seen fire, may I bring you a flame from it, or I can guide you from it. When he came to him, he was summoned: O Moses! Behold, I am your Lord, open your two shoes, indeed you are now in the valley of Ṭuwa; and I have chosen you, then consider what is revealed”. So the ‘light’ for Siddhartha also can be symbolized as a ‘fire’ to Prophet Moses.

what is the zabur?

وَرَبُّكَ أَعْلَمُ بِمَنْ فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ ۗ وَلَقَدْ فَضَّلْنَا بَعْضَ النَّبِيِّينَ عَلَىٰ بَعْضٍ ۖ وَآتَيْنَا دَاوُودَ زَبُورًا 

And it is your Lord that knoweth best all beings that are in the heavens and on earth: We did bestow on some prophets more (and other) gifts than on others: and We gave to David (the gift of) the Psalms. (17:55)

I've been thinking about ways to respond to Christians who want to insist that the Quran is telling Muslims to essentially affirm the Bible as valid with little to no qualification or criticism. InshaAllah, I will make a series of posts containing some modest reflections on the subject. The current post is on the Zabur.

As we can see above, the Quran describes the Zabur as a revelation which was given to David (as). But as we will see, we cannot simplistically identify the Zabur with the book of Psalms in the Bible. First of all, by its own admission, only some of the Psalms in the Bible are attributed to David, while others are attributed to other people (Asaph, the sons of Korah, Solomon, Korah, Moses, Ethan the Ezrahite, Herman the Ezrahite, Haggai, Zechariah, Ezekiel and Jeremiah).

Secondly, most modern Biblical scholarship assigns very late dates to final completion of the Biblical book of Psalms. Parts of the book were not even written until after Solomon's Temple was destroyed and rebuilt. So the Biblical book was only arranged in its final form hundreds of years after David (as) lived. So even if there is a Davidic core, other layers of text have certainly been added to it.

And finally there seems to have been some significant variations in the text over the years. For example as part of the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls near Qumran, archeologists found The Great Psalms Scroll or 11Q5.

The reason this manuscript is of such great interest to scholars is due to its major deviance from the Masoretic Psalter. Its textual makeup is that of “apocryphal compositions interspersed with canonical psalms in a radically different order”. It contains approximately fifty compositions, forty of which are found in the Masoretic text. While some maintain the masoretic order, such as some of the Psalms of Ascent, others are scattered throughout in a different order.

11Q5 has generated a lot of interest in scholars due to its large difference from the Masoretic Psalter, “both in ordering of contents and in the presence of additional compositions.”[ It contains several compositions that are not present in the Masoretic Psalter of 150 hymns and prayers and therefore, “challenges traditional ideas concerning the shape and finalization of the book of Psalms.” There are eight non-Masoretic compositions with an additional prose composition that is not formatted like a psalm. Three highlighted compositions include “The Apostrophe to Zion”, “Plea for Deliverance”, and Psalm 151; in addition, the prose composition is researched to be known as “David’s Compositions.” While these are non-Masoretic, some of them, Psalm 151, was known in the Septuagint.

[...]

The additional prose composition is also known as David's Compositions. It references many Psalms associated with David, including 364 songs for each day of the year, conforming to calendars found in distinctively sectarian texts among the Dead Sea Scrolls. These songs were hymns attributed to King David, praising him for composing the Psalms, classifying the hymns and prayers he wrote. According to this list, David composed 3,600 psalms, 364 songs to be performed each day of the year during regular sacrifices, another 52 songs for the weekly Sabbath sacrifice, 30 songs for sacrifices of annual festivals and the new moon, and 4 songs for the sick. Therefore, 11Q5 concludes with the bold statement that David was an avid sage and hymnist, crafting upwards of 4,050 psalms.

In other words, the Dead Sea Scrolls seems to show at least one "book of Psalms" with a great number of non-trivial differences from the Masoretic Psalter found in the the Western Bible. Perhaps this is the true Zabur? Furthermore, if there are thousands of Psalms written by David, then perhaps those texts, not found in the Bible is where we might identify the Zabur of David to which the Quran refers.

Bottom line, while its certainly possible that the original Zabur of David overlap a great deal with the Biblical book of Psalms, it would be a mistake to claim the two were perfectly identical. Allahu alim.

mos def, ya sin, and "government names"

Mos Def is changing his name to Yasiin! The name is actually old news to some of his fans. A few years ago on The Ecstatic album he said clearly (in Spanish) on the track No Hay Nada Mas: "Mi primero nombre es Yasiin Dante" (sic). So I suppose the real news is at the end of the year he is retiring the name "Mos Def":

Get More: Sucker Free

Coincidentally I've been thinking about names a lot recently. Earlier this week I started to write down ideas for a spoken word piece riffing on the concept of "government name" and was intrigued by the different kinds of names and ideas about names which are out there.

For a large mass of people, there is a simple identification between their "real" name and their "government name" but not everyone takes that identification for granted. Many Jews will have a Hebrew name given at circumcision which is different from their public/government names. Similarly, there are Asians in America who might use an Anglo name as their public name but their "real" name used with family is different.

Obviously many rappers and performance poets adopt flashy and distinctive stage names. Also actors and comedians choose names which hide or obscure their ethnic origins or emphasize/de-emphasize their connections to show business dynasties (list of stage names). But if you look at the full range of naming practices, people change their names for all sorts of reasons (religious, spiritual, cultural, personal and familial, social, economic, idiosyncratic, etc.)

An interesting distinction between the Nation of Islam and more orthodox Islam lies in their attitudes towards names. For example, the Quran (33:5) says "Call them by the names of their fathers" and orthodox Islam puts a certain amount of emphasis on acknowledging ones lineage and not denying paternity. So there are many converts who, even when they adopt a "Muslim" name, they will keep the surnames they were born with. (e.g. Abdul-Hakim Jackson, Nuh Ha Mim Keller). For the Nation, on the other hand, most African-American surnames are treated as European-derived "slave names" and replaced with an X, but there is a tendency to keep ones given name. (e.g. Malcolm X, Clarence 13X, etc.)

For Muslims, Ya Sin is a fairly common name which comes from the name of a surah known as the heart of the Quran.


Heart of the Qur'an: A Commentary to Sura al Yasin by Ayatullah Dastghaib Shirazi
The Heart of the Qur’an: Reflections from Surah Ya-Sin by Hamza Yusuf Hanson

more from imam zaid

Imam Zaid Shakir delivers a one-two punch against Islam-haters and extremist Muslims in a pair of his recent articles.

In Qur’an defeats Muslim Barbarism Imam Zaid exhorts towards the importance of reading the Quran holistically and guided by the highest ideals:

Like all other scriptures, it is easy to take a Qur’anic verse out of context and distort its meaning to fit an ideologically defined agenda. However, such an approach not only results in semantic violence towards the text, its can become the basis of physical violence against innocent adherents of a particular religion.

The time has come for members of all faith communities to begin a push towards a higher ground that leads to a common ground. The hard work of fostering understanding will require honest and enlightened scholarship and leadership, coupled with a deep quest for truth, peace and justice. If we stop short of that, we are only cheating ourselves and jeopardising our collective security.

In Letter to a Would-be Mujahid Imam Zaid writes to a hypothetical terrorist, Muslim to Muslim, explaining why becoming a terrorist is not just contrary to basic Earthling morality, and a violation of Islamic principles, but also really really stupid.

aside from the whole quran-burning issue, some other reasons why afghans might be less than totally pro-american...

Huffington Post: U.S. Soldiers Allegedly Killed Afghan Civilians, Kept Body Parts As Trophies

"none but the purified shall touch it"

This has been rattling in my head for the past month (and longer actually) but now that the month of the Quran is over it seems a little bit late.

I.
One of the more controversial debates in Islamic theology has to do with the nature of the Quran and whether it is created or uncreated. The dominant orthodox position is that "it" is uncreated. But what does it mean to say that "the Quran is uncreated"? The physical Quran made of paper and ink is obviously created. When the Quran is recited, the sound waves of the recitation are similarly created. The letters and sounds of human language, Arabic included, are arguably created as well. (although some schools of thought might begin to disagree with this point).

One of the most satisfying explanations I've found on this topic comes from Belief and Islam (I'tiqad-nama) by Mawlana Diya ad-din Khalid al-Baghdadi. Some of the linguistic and psychological claims may be controversial but, I would argue, they still work for the purposes of analogy (also note that Syriac is a form of Aramaic):

When a person wants to give an order, to forbid something, to ask something or to give some news, first he thinks about and prepares it in his mind. These meanings in mind are called “kalâm nafsî,” which cannot be said to be Arabic, Persian or English. Their being expressed in various languages does not cause these meanings to change. Words expressing these meanings are called “kalâm lafzî.” Kalâm lafzî can be said in different languages. So, kalâm nafsî of a person is a pure, unchangeable, distinct attribute that exists in its possessor like other attributes such as knowledge, will, discernment, etc., and kalâm lafzî is a group of letters that express kalâm nafsî and that come out of the mouth of the person uttering them and that come to the ear. Thus, the Word of Allâhu ta’âlâ is the eternal, everlasting, non-silent and non-creature Word existent with His Person. It is an attribute distinct from the as-Sifât adh-Dhâtiyya and from as-Sifât ath-Thubûtiyya of Allâhu ta’âlâ, such as Knowledge and Will. The attribute Kalâm (Speech, Word) never changes and is pure. It is not in letters or sounds. It cannot be differentiated or classified as command, prohibition, narration or as Arabic, Persian, Hebrew, Turkish or Syriac. It does not take such forms. It cannot be written. It does not need such apparatuses or media as intelligence, ear or tongue. Nevertheless, it can be understood through them as a being distinct from all beings we know; it can be told in any language wished. Thus, if it is told in Arabic it is called the Qur’ân al-kerîm. If it is told in Hebrew it is the Tawrât. If it is told in Syriac it is the Injîl.

So one of the more interesting corrolaries of the above is that from "God's perspective", from the view of kalam nafsi, the Quran, the Torah, the Gospel and the Psalms (at least in their original forms) are actually the same book! Al-Baghdadi goes on to write:

The ’ulamâ’ of the right path unanimously say that al-Kalâm an-nafsî is not a creature but it is qadîm (eternal). There is no unanimity on whether al-Kalâm al-lafzî is hâdith (created) or qadîm. Some who regarded al-Kalâm al-lafzî as hâdith said that it was better not to say that it is hâdith for it might be misunderstood and come to mean that al-Kalâm an-nafsî is hâdith. This is the best comment about it. When the human mind hears something that denotes something else, it simultaneously remembers the denoted thing. When one of the ’ulamâ’ of the right path is heard to have said that the Qur’ân al-kerîm was hâdith, we must understand that he referred to sounds and words which we read with our mouth. The ’ulamâ’ of the right path have unanimously said that both al-Kalâm an-nafsî and al-Kalâm al-lafzî are the Word of Allâhu ta’âlâ. Though some ’ulamâ’ considered this word metaphoric, they all agreed that it was the Divine Word. That al-Kalâm an-nafsî is the Word of Allâhu ta’âlâ means that it is Allâhu ta’âlâ’s Attribute of Speech, and that al-Kalâm al-lafzî is the Word of Allâhu ta’âlâ means that it is created by Allâhu ta’âlâ.

II.
When I try to contemplate what it means to say that the Quran, Gospel and Torah are the "same" in their pre-eternal forms, the concept which comes to mind is what I would call the "telescopic" aspect of different Abrahamic scriptures.

For example, there is the famous story about the time the great rabbi Hillel was asked by a prospective convert to teach him the entire Torah while he standing on one leg and Hillel said "What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor. That is the whole Torah; the rest is the explanation of this--go and study it!" (An interesting side note: Ludwig Zamenhof, more famously known as the inventor of the language Esperanto also tried to develop and promote his own religion/ethical philosophy which he called Hillelism)

Using similar language, the New Testament attributes to following to Jesus (as):
So whatever you wish that men would do to you, do so to them; for this is the Law and the Prophets (i.e. the Tanakh). (Matthew 7:13)

In Islam there are many texts (both authentic and authoritative texts and secondary writings as well) which vividly describe the merits, the significance, the oceans of meaning associated with "La ilaha illa Allah" (no god but God) and some would even argue that the entire Quran is merely a commentary on this phrase.

Alternatively, according to one of the Naqshbandi saints:
All of the knowledge which God gave to humanity is contained in the four heavenly books (the Quran, the Torah, the Gospel and the Psalms). All the knowledge of the four books is found in the Quran. All the knowledge of the Quran is found in Al-Fatiha (the first surah). All the knowledge of Al-Fatiha is contained in the Bismillah (the first verse). All the knowledge of the Bismillah is found in the Ba (the first letter). And all the knowledge of the Ba is found in the dot underneath it.

III.
The above reminds me of an argument I had with a Christian friend of mine a few years ago. He claimed that the Bible was a "good" size, but that the Quran was too short a book to be a suitable guide to life. I had to explain to him that if length was the important yardstick, that if you add the hadith collections to the Quran the Islamic scriptures are actually several times longer than the Bible. But I also tried to make the more important point that length of scripture is a really bad yardstick. Religious language is uniquely capable of packing large amounts of meaning in a few words. Hillel's Golden Rule or "La ilaha illa Allah" could fit on a sheet of fortune cookie paper and that would be "sufficient". Everything else is just commentary.

IV.
Of course, if you are Muslim you will be more "at home" with the distinctive features of the written Quran. It's structure will be more understandable. It's stories more familiar. It's verses more comforting and inspiring. But I'm still intrigued by the possibility that in a "telescopic" sense different religions can "contain" one another. I might have to wait for another post to develop that idea further.

V.
Finally, I've been thinking about all of the above while following the news about the Dove "World" Outreach Church and Pastor Terry Jones' Quran-burning stunt., especially in the context of the ayat "None but the purified shall touch it [the Quran]". On one level it is a proscriptive statement which alludes to the requirement that one be ritually clean before handling the physical text of the book. On another level it is a metaphysical statement that only the angels will have access to the copy of the book in heaven. On a spiritual/intellectual level it suggests that only the person of pure intention can truly understand the book. And so in the end, regardless of whether or not Jones decides to burn copies of the Quran made of paper and ink, on multiple levels he has no "grasp" of the real Quran which is safe from his ignorance and bigotry.

conversations with history: abdullahi ahmed an-naim

An interesting hour of conversation between Abdullah Ahmed An-Naim and Harry Kreisler on the subject of Islam and the secular state. I still haven't made up my mind about An-Naim. I have too many books on my reading list at the moment and haven't gotten to his yet. However his website is pretty well-stocked with articles and video clips expressing his ideas.

two folks getting ready for burn-a-quran day

h/t to islamicate

imam zaid beyond petroleum

In Beyond Petroleum Imam Zaid Shakir writes:

[T]he Qur’an not only encourages a large degree of ecological consciousness and enlightened practices, it also warns us of the consequences of our neglect. We read:

Corruption has appeared in the land and sea because of what the hands of humans have wrought. Thus, that He may give them a taste of what they have perpetrated, in order that they return.
(Q. 30:41)

The eminent companion, Ibn ‘Abbas, mentioned that one of the meanings of this verse is that the sea would cease yielding its harvest because of the sins of humans. We live in a time when we have already seen a precipitous decline in the yield of the sea. The evolving crisis in the Gulf of Mexico threatens to destroy the seafood industry of that region. This decline can be attributed to our sins in both the metaphysical and physical sense.

the book of eli

I recently saw The Book of Eli on the Friday it opened. Personally, I really liked the setting and look of the film. The filmmakers managed to depict a really intriguing vision of a post-apocalyptic (some might even say post-Rapture) world. And Washington's character, Eli, is compelling as a sort of Christian Samurai who has been entrusted with a mission to take the last copy of the King James Bible out to the "West" in order to catalyze the rebirth of civilization.

One hole in the plot lies in the motivations of Gary Oldman's character, Carnegie (named perhaps after Dale Carnegie, author of the bestselling How to Win Friends and Influence People?) Carnegie is in charge of an unnamed desert town and is looking for the Bible as a tool and a weapon which will allow him greater control over the people around him. But what is surprising is that given Carnegie is so cynical, and given the widespread illiteracy, blindness and lack of memory in this post-apocalyptic world, why couldn't Carnegie simply make up a new religion? Or why wouldn't we see new religions fill-in the void left behind by the absence of the older faiths (along the lines of Octavia Butler's Parable of the Talents or Parable of the Sower)?

The other feature of the film which detracted from me enjoying it fully was the fact that it was ultimately too preachy. The film takes place in a world where some form of Christianity is evidently true. What is ironic is that the narrowness and exclusiveness of the film's perspective is actually most evident in a scene which was probably intended to be a PC "fig leaf" on the movie. At the end of the film we see a Bible being placed on a bookshelf among copies of the Tanakh and Torah (which are essentially already contained in the Old Testament or Hebrew Bible) and a Yusuf Ali translation of the Quran. On the surface this seems to suggest that the Bible is one great book among other great books. But on further reflection a subtle criticism is implied; after all those other books were apparently not sufficient to properly restart civilization. Which is why God found it necessary to supernaturally guide and protect Eli on his mission to preserve the King James version of the Bible.

Interview with Denzel Washington, Gary Oldman, Mila Kunis by Sara Shereen Bakhshian
Is Book of Eli A Christian Movie? An Interview with the Hughes Brothers

more assorted bits

1. I think it is not just surprising but sad that out of all the members of Public Enemy, Flavor Flav seems to be the most successful and the one who is still in the public eye in a big way... from the Surreal Life, to Strange Love, to 3 seasons of Flavor of Love and a Comedy Central Roast, to a new sitcom. Why can't Chuck D get that much exposure? I would love to see Chuck D replace Colmes on Fox News' Hannity and Colmes, for instance. The situation isn't all bad. Chuck D is actually still doing alot of positive projects, he's just not as visible as before.

2. I realized that the Rumi poetry event I went to the other day had the highest concentration of white people of almost any event I've been to since moving to Miami.

3. I don't think I'm going to come up with anything deep or new on this issue, but I'll just say that the doctrine of Quranic abbrogation has often stuck me as odd. It is bizzare to think that there are verses in the Quran which are meant to be read, studied and recited for the past 1400 years, from the time they were revealed to now, and from now until Judgement Day, but they are only legally valid for a period of 20 years or so. Maybe more on this later.

4. I recently picked up the book Jesus for President: politics for ordinary radicals by Shane Claiborne and Chris Haw. It is a pretty good read so far. The authors seem to be advocating a kind of hippie liberation theology. The book takes many of its visual cues from the 'zines while the text highlights many of the ways in which the Jewish and Christian writings take a critical stance towards conventional secular ideals of kingdom and empire.

5. I just went to a Borders and discovered a new Boondocks book which I hadn't known about before: All the Rage: The Boondocks Past and Present (nice).

See also:
second things second
"armageddon has been in effect... go get a late pass!" (part one)
what has hip-hop really done for racism?
Sunni Forum: Hanafi Doctrine of Naskh (Abrogation)
www.jesusforpresident.org

beware the beast man

The post about Iblis' decision to not bow down before Adam got me thinking about Islamic anthropology (see only human) and how when God announced He was going to place humanity on the earth the angels skeptically asked: What! wilt Thou place in it such as shall make mischief in it and shed blood, and we celebrate Thy praise and extol Thy holiness? (2:30) It also reminded me of another memorable scene from the Planet of the Apes movies:

quranic eucharist?

Behold! the disciples, said: "O Jesus the son of Mary! can thy Lord send down to us a table set (with viands) from heaven?" Said Jesus: "Fear Allah, if ye have faith."

They said: "We only wish to eat thereof and satisfy our hearts, and to know that thou hast indeed told us the truth; and that we ourselves may be witnesses to the miracle."

Said Jesus the son of Mary: "O Allah our Lord! Send us from heaven a table set (with viands), that there may be for us - for the first and the last of us - a solemn festival and a sign from thee; and provide for our sustenance, for thou art the best Sustainer (of our needs)."
[Quran 5:112-114]

Sometimes the above-described event is identified as a kind of feeding of the multitudes but when I get to the part where the disciples of Jesus (as) describe it as a solemn festival "for the first and the last of us" I can't help but wonder if it is a reference to some sort of Eucharist. The Didache, one of the most ancient Christian texts, contains a Eucharistic prayer which includes the words: "You gavest food and drink to men for enjoyment, that they might give thanks to Thee; but to us You didst freely give spiritual food and drink and life eternal through Thy Servant." but without any kind of association to the the Last Supper or the crucifixion. Perhaps this is the spiritual meal being referred to in the Quran.

the cross and the lynching tree

In the wake of the last post on Jeremiah Wright and in anticipation of Good Friday, I thought it would be interesting to look at some of James Cone's ideas apart from their role as ammunition in the current political "horse race".

First is A Conversation with James Cone facilitated by the Trinity Institute's Bob Scott:


and secondly there is a conversation between James Cone and Bill Moyers entitled The Cross and the Lynching Tree. In both talks Cone connects the sufferings of Jesus with the sufferings of Black people in America.

James Cone obviously identifies himself as a Christian theologian but I think it is possible to connect some of his ideas to Islam in at least two ways.

Firstly, he is willing to cite Malcolm X as one of the basic sources and inspirations of his theology (suggesting that Islam, at least as articulated by Malcolm, provides some important elements lacking in conventional Christianity).

Secondly, although Islam has a different understanding of what happened at the cross (see Good Friday) I wonder if there is a similar value in connecting Black suffering with examples of martyrdom and persecution out of the Islamic tradition. The two examples which stand out for me are the "lynching" of Hussein (ra) and the multiple Quranic allusions to the prophets being murdered unjustly (although by my recollection, only the murder of Abel is mentioned specifically).

But finally, we can also ask the broader question of whether there is another figure or moment in Islam which provides a more suitable lens with which to view the Black experience in America? Yusef who was a slave and then freed? Bilal, one of several black companions of the Prophet (saaws) ? Luqman, who is sometimes identified with the Ethiopian Aesop?