Title: Blind Men and the Elephant

Period: Meiji period (1868–1912)

 

prayer and fasting

I'm amazed at how close the ancient Christian traditions (and the Ethiopian Orthodox Church in particular) are so similar in form to Islam. They include regular prayers at specified times a day with given postures and a qibla and fasting much of the year. 

Manner of Prayer

The Fetha Negest, or Law of the Kings, reminds us that prayer is man’s way of communicating with Almighty God. In prayer, man thanks God, praises Him and recognizes His domain, confessing hid sin and seeking on his part the way of pleasing Him. The following precepts are laid down for one who prays. Firstly, he should stand up, as enjoined on the words of the Lord; “When you rise up for prayer; you shall stand up.” Secondly, he should gird himself with girdle; as the Lord has said “Let your loins be girt.” Thirdly, he should turn towards the east, for that is the direction from which Christ will appear in His second coming. Fourthly he should make the sign of the cross from the forehead downward and from left to right. Fifthly he should recite the prayer in fear and trembling. Sixthly he should kneel down and prostrate himself, since the gospel tells us that on the night of his passion, our lord prayed prostrating himself and kneeling.

Times of Prayer

The faithful should pray seven times each day. First upon arising from bed in the morning and before beginning work. Secondly at the third hour; thirdly, at the sixth hour; fourthly, at the ninth hour; fifthly, the evening prayer; sixthly, the prayer before sleep and lastly, the midnight prayer

Fasting
In the Fetha Negest* fasting is defined as follows:
“ Fasting is abstinence from food, and is observed by man at certain times determined by law, to attain forgiveness of sins and much reward, obeying thus the one who fixed the law. Fasting (also) serves to weaken the force of concupiscence so that (the body) may obey the rational soul.”

Fasting is strictly observed by all faithful members of the church. There are approximately 250 fast days in the year, although not all of these are compulsory for everyone. The average person may fast about 180 days in the year. There are seven official fasting periods for Ethiopian Christians.
1. All Wednesday and Fridays, except for the 50 days after Easter.
2. The Lenten fast of 55 days.
3. The Nineveh fast of 3 days.
4. The vigils, or gahad of Christmas and epiphany.
5. The fast of the apostles; this varies in length, depending upon the date of Easter, and maybe a minimum of 14 days and maximum of 44. This fast commemorates St. peter and St. Paul.
6. The fast of the prophets of 43 days.
7. The fast of the assumption, 15 days in august.
Of these fasts, the fast of the apostles and the fast of the prophets are compulsory for clergy only, although they are also observed by many of the faithful. All the other fasts are considered obligatory for all devout Christians, except children under seven. During fasting periods, Christians abstain from meat and all animal products: meat, milk, butter and eggs. No food or drink is taken before noon, at the earliest: even then only a simple repast should be taken. Pregnant women, the seriously sick and travelers are exempted from fasting. In Holy Week no food is taken before 1 p.m. or later. The really devout fast completely from Good Friday till Easter Sunday, while others eat only the evening meal on these days. The Lenten fast is traditionally broken by a joyful feast that takes place after midnight mass, at about 3 a.m., or the first cock- crow or Easter Sunday morn. (source)

 

The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church Faith and Order

The Order of Fasts in the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church

can black peter be redeemed / reimagined?

For a while now I've been thinking about writing a children's book where Black Peter leads a revolution against Saint Nick and replaces Santa's sweatshops with a socialist gift-giving cooperative based out of Palmares in  Brazil (or maybe Mondragon, Spain). Somehow it will probably connect to kwanzaa and the black wise men too. Hopefully saying it out loud will help light a fire under my behind.... we'll see...

I still haven't seen the film Santa and Pete but I just found out that it it is free on Tubi so maybe I'll get around to it this "holiday season". Apparently Ishmael Reed has also played with Black Peter in some of his recent fiction. 

Planet Grenada:

so apparently the elves are black... and muslim

the wise men

the adventures of black jesus

past posts on Kwanzaa

NPR: So Long, Black Pete

WSJ: Ishmael Reed on "The Terrible Twos" and "The Terrible Threes"

"no thicker than this line"

For a while now I've been really curious about Oriental Orthodoxy, and especially Ethiopian Orthodoxy. It is amazing that Christianity starts off as an African / Middle Eastern religion but that the forms of Christianity which originate in MENA cultures (Coptic, Ethiopian Orthodox, Syriac Orthodox, Armenian Orthodox, etc.) are considered heretical by the majority. Ostensibly, this is because these churches rejected to Council of Chalcedon of 451 CE and developed a subtly different Christology.

In particular, I have started to wonder if, from an Islamic perspective,  the Ethiopian Orthodox Church should be thought of as having a special status among the People of the Book. 

One of the main inspirations for this notion is the story of the Muslim emigrants who sought asylum in Ethiopia from the Negus Ashama. Muhammad (saaws) himself called this Christian Negus a righteous king, had the  Negus represent him in a marriage and even led his funeral prayer. 

(Scene from the film "The Messenger")

 Al Hakam: King Negus: The Holy Prophet’s representative and true follower
An Ethiopian Journal: First Hijra

Planet Grenada
"i've seen ethiopians knocking out rome"
"i've seen ethiopians knocking out rome" (part 2)
ideology and temperament (the habashis)

To be continued...

khalil andani on the injil

This is a fascinating conversation between Dr. Khalil Andani and Paul Williams.  (Although they both go to great pains to say that Dr. Andani is there as an academic expert and not any kind of religious authority. I found it to be a little excessive. It seemed like Williams is worried to death that he will be accused of giving an endorsement to an Ismai'li). 

Adani has some interesting ideas of what the Quranic "Injil" is. He argues that there is a parallelism in the Quran / Islam between "Quran and sunnah" , "Kitab and Hikmat" and "Torah and Injil". And specifically he argues that the Injil isn't really a separate independent scripture in its own right. It should primarily be seen as the "wise application of the Torah" as taught by Jesus (as) and not a stand-alone text. In particular, it can't possibly be the New Testament or Biblical gospels. 

Finally, Andani points to some research which (contrary to what many Christian missionaries tend to say) there is a very long history of Muslim scholars accusing the Christian Bible of textual corruption. One claim which you might see Christians make is that Ibn Hazm (is it anachronistic to call him Hispanic?) of the 11th century was the first Muslim to accuse the Bible of textual corruption. But in fact, Al Jahiz  , the black Iraqi scholar, was accusing the Bible of textual corruption several centuries earlier. 

I've mentioned al-Jahiz in this blog before. I feel like I need to be more familiar with him. Many years ago, I read a translation of his Al-Fakhar al-Sudan min al-Abyadh. He is also famous for having foreshadowed the theory of evolution. A real polymath.