FOOD FOR THOUGHT: "Ignorance is an affront."
YOU ARE IN DARKNESS.
god of islam 2FOOD FOR THOUGHT: "Ignorance is an affront." |
YOU ARE IN DARKNESS. |
| god of islam 2 |
GOD IN ASSYRIA-BABYLONIA - SHAMASH - SHAMS - SUN Assyria-Babylonia is our next stop.
Babylonian god Shamash has the supreme authority.
Each and every Assyrian and Babylonian had his/her own god. The relationship between the believer and the personal god was direct, and there were no intercessors/intermediaries. People would present their problems to their personal gods, and would become a headache for this personal god if they decided that they were given the cold shoulder.
Babylonians were the first to take a step towards monotheism but the operation involved only the names. They gave the names of 50 Sumerian gods to their god Marduk. The god of Islam in a like manner has 99 names.
THE 'SOL INVICTUS' MITHRA - THE UNCONQUERABLE SUN MITHRA
The cult of Mithra took its final shape in the eastern Asia Minor (Anatolia) where the Persian traditions survived the longest.
Mithra was probably subordinate both to the first principle Zurvan Akarana/Zeroana Akerne (infinite time) and to Ahura Mazda.
Mithra as the creator and mediator between man and the higher gods was clearly the chief deity of the cult as practised.
Mithra became the creator of life, and by his other exploits he was its protector against evil.
Mithraism professed to explain the origins of the Universe and also its end; and Mithra who had created once and was now man’s defender and helper, would in those final days inaugurate a new order in which the faithful would enjoy forever a blessed immortality (This story appears in Christianity as the coming of the messiah, and in Islam as the appearance of mahdi).
Mithra like other oriental supreme beings offered man deliverance, but unlike such others as Attis and Osiris, has also served as an ideal, an heroic leader for man to follow and be more successful in the struggle against evil.
Mithra is not mentioned in the Gathas. Which shows that he was deliberately ignored in the monotheistic reforms of Zoroaster-Zarathustra. Later Zoroastrianism found room for him but only as a subordinate to the ‘supreme god’ Ohrmazd-Ahura Mazda-Hormuz.
The Avestan hymns, the scriptures of Zoroastrianism, depict Mithra as;
The god of the heavenly light
Vedic India has worshipped Mithras (the Indian version of Mithra) as;
In Persia;
Mithra was the messenger of Ahura Mazda, the god of light, he appeared in the sky at dawn and then crossed the firmament in a chariot drawn by four white horses (this is Sun),
Mithra was visualized as a mediator between the worlds of light and darkness, as humanity’s ally in the struggle against evil and as the soul’s guide in its ascent to eternal life,
Mithra was soon identified as the redeemer prophesied by Zarathustra as the Sun-god who would appear as a human being at the end of time (Here is another source of the messiah concept in Christianity and the mahdi in Islam).
Mithra has finally became the supreme godhead and started his triumphal progress across the Greco-Roman world in the west and with the Buddhist saviour Maitreya in the east.
According to Buddhism Maitreya (the Buddhist version of Mithra);
Is the saviour of the Buddhists whose future coming was promised by Sakyamuni.
As a name is related to the Aramaic meshia, the messiah that Jews continue to hope for as their saviour. Both Maitreya and meshia-messiah are expected to come in the future to save the mankind and establish the ‘divine’ rule. Used as a personal name Maitreya means ‘son of Mithra’. Like Maitreya, Mithras is said to be waiting in heaven for the end of time, when he will descend to Earth to awaken the dead and pass judgment. The legend does not specify whether this birth is a past or a future event.
GOD OF AV'RAM - EL, RABB, EL SHADDAY, HAY, YHVH, AL-LAH OR ALLAH?
In Mesopotamia and Sumer everyone had a personal god. Every family had a special god (Please check the pages on the SUMERIANMYTHS, MESOPOTAMIAN MYTHS, SABIANS, and PROPHET ABRAHAM in this site). This rule must have applied also to Av'ram-Abraham the patriarch, and he must have had a ‘personal supreme overseer ’ when he arrived in the land of Canaan to whom his supposed children referred to as ‘Our father’s god’ and/or ‘Abraham’s god’. Now let us look into this personal supreme overseer of Av'ram:
This supreme overseer shows himself either in a human form or in a dream. He is an anthropomorphic god, in other words he is a human-like entity.
Tribes and individuals in the pre-Islamic era in the region have reportedly established a blood tie with their supreme overseers by making sacrificial offerings.
Tribes wished to worship and made that supreme entity either the ancestor or the supreme overseer of their tribe. Each tribal supreme overseer stayed in its place as the tribe moved to another site. All the tribes have worshipped their supreme overseers and also those belonging to other tribes.
People had the habit of putting the statue or image of that supreme overseer in a special place in their homes and used it as an intermediary in their prayers (This practice continues in Christianity with the cross, and the icons, statues, and images of Yshua and Miryam).
When a tribe moved to another site, they adopted the supreme overseer of that site. And the tribe which has moved to another place used to come back once a year at their festivals to visit their previous supreme overseer. (Keeping in mind the connection between Av'ram and Islam as claimed by the Hagarene Messenger, the yearly ‘hac’/hajj of the Muslims could be the continuation of this practice, established long ago when people came back periodically to Ka’ba to visit the stone, ‘Al-Hadjar Al-Aswad’). The most peculiar thing is that, this concept of a ‘personal supreme overseer’ continues even in the monotheist Kuran, in the form of all kinds of angels but the prominent ones are as follows:
‘Guardian angels’ (Kuran 6:61; 13:11; 72:8; especially 82:10 is very expressive where it is written: “There is no doubt that there are guardians and sentries on you.” But the best is 86:4: “There does not exist a being upon whom there does not exist a guardian.”);
‘Guiding and helping angels’ (Kuran 3:124-125; 9:26,40; 33:9,43; 41:30; 66:4);
‘Recording angels’ (Kuran - 3:18; 4:166; 34:40-41; 43:80; 50:17-18; 70:4);
‘Killer angels’ (Kuran 4:97; 6:61, 93; 7:37; 8:50; 16:28-33; 32:11; 47:27).
This personal god of Av'ram calls himself “I am the Almighty god, walk before me and be perfect” in Genesis 17. Genesis 28:2 has I'zak say this about the god of Av'ram: “..And god Almighty bless you..” If we have to go by what is written in Genesis 28:12-22, Ya'kub has a dream where Lord calls himself “I am the Lord god of Abraham your father, and the god of I'zak”. Ya'kub rises early in the morning, sets a stone for a pillar, pours oil on top of it, and calls the name of that place Beth-EL ('house of EL', 'house of god').. But the alleged god of Av'ram is jealous of other gods, especially the local gods, of which EL is the most famous one. So, EL must have been the god of Ya'kub. When we reach Genesis 31:11 we read that Ya'kub was dreaming again and the ‘angel of god’ speaks to him. In 31:13 this ‘angel of god’ calls himself the “god of Beth-EL, where you anointed the pillar” Would you believe this story of this jealous god giving his arch rival’s name as his? In Genesis 35:9-14 god appears to Ya'kub again, calling himself the ‘god Almighty’ and changes Ya'kub’s name to Israel etc. and Ya'kub calls the name of the place where god had spoken to him, Beth-EL. In Genesis 32:9 Ya'kub calls the supreme being as the “god of my father Abraham, and god of my father I'zak”. In Genesis 33:18-20 Ya'kub comes to Shalem, buys a plot of land, pitches his tent, and erects an altar there, and calls it ‘EL-elohe-Israel’ (Israel’s lord EL). One would have thought this name would be infuriating for YHVH and Israel, but apparently it is not, because all these stories are invented and the editors of the Old Testament were not attentive even to the fundamental points. Here, the Canaanite god EL (Baal/Bel) becomes Isra-el’s god. In Genesis 35:1 god commands Ya'kub to go to Beth-EL and dwell there and “make an altar there unto god that appeared to you when you fled from Esau your brother.” Here the supreme being is the one which showed itself to Ya'kub.
There were personal gods, family gods, tribal gods, national gods, regional gods, and the gods of the nations living in the lands around this region. Genesis 46:1 and 48:15 also refer the the god of I'zak and Abraham. Rachel’s story in Genesis 31:34 also tell that there were personal and family gods around.
We cannot be sure of the name Av'ram has given to his supreme overseer but we may look into the attributes of this god. If Av'ram was a Sabian then his god could have been called Rabb with the attributes cited in relation to what the Sabians have visualized their god according to Ibn Nadim.
According to the Sabians’ address to their god, He is,
An eternal being,
These are almost exactly the attributes of the god of Islam.
Sometimes another name confronts us: ‘hay ’. This name appears also in Islam. According to Islamic reference books hay/hayy means, alive, living, everliving, robust, vigorous. When Av'ram took his female slave Hagar and her son out to the desert and left them there, the son was thirsty, Hagar found water in a well there and called that well ‘Beer la-hay’ or ‘hay’s well ’. The ideology of Islam transpositioned this well to Ka'ba and called the 'Zemzem well’. In I Samuel 14:39 we see the expression, “for the sake of the ever-living god’ which indicates that this supreme entity is ‘hay’. In Hosea 1:10 we read: “You are the sons of the living god.” Here the ‘living god’ gives the meaning of ‘hay’. In Hosea 4:15 god orders: “Do not swear on the name of god who is hay.” According to Hosea 1:10 god has become a tribal god, and he is trying to stop the believers from swearing on the name of Av'ram’s personal god. Muslim's have the same practice: Swearing on the name of Allah or the casual usage of his name is forbidden. Is ‘hay’ a name or an attribute? Don’t forget, Israel’s god is Islam’s god. The god of the the Old Testament is also the god of Kuran. The names are different: Rabb, YHVH, Elohim, el Lah, Allah.. That’s all!
So let us check Kuran. The name/attribute ‘hay’ appears also in Kuran as ‘Hayy’ in 2:255: “There is no other god accept Allah.. He is Hayy, ever-living. He is Kayyum, source of unlimited authority.” According to this expression ‘hayy’ is an attribute and means ‘alive-vigorous’. There is another name in the Old Testament: ‘Shadday ’ (El Shadday means ‘EL of the Mountain’). It means ‘of the mountains’. This must be an Akkadian name brought by Av'ram’s family from Mesopotamia. The Av'ram family brought with them, their local Moon-god Sin’s wife Ningal and this name has deteriorated to Nikkal at their destination. Sin does not exist in Canaan, because there is another Moon-god there: Yarih.
Exodus 6:2 relates the story of how the writers of the Old Testament has transformed Av'ram’s personal god to a ‘god of the nation’. This god declares elsewhere in the Old Testament that he was the god of Abraham, Ya'kub and I'zak. So the authors of the Old Testament seem to be in an effort to link YHVH with Abraham’s god to establish a continuity in time. Desert Arabs behaved similarly. Their god, which addressed the Kureysh tribe entered the scene as a tribal god, but was raised to the level of a Universal sole god.
CANAANITE GODS - IL, EL, BEL, BAAL, ETC. A MULTITUDE..
Now we are in Palestine in the land of Canaan. The first and foremost supreme deities we meet there are EL and Baal which are the prototypes of YHVH.
Ugarit lay within the sphere of influence of both Assyrian and Egyptian civilizations, and these north Canaanite myths show clear signs of both the Akkadian-Babylonian and Egyptian mythologies. But the Babylonian mythologies have a dominant influence. The Canaanite mythology also has left distinct traces in the Hebrew poetry and mythology. The Ugaritic texts were instrumental in our understanding of the Canaanite faiths and cults. The people living in the land of Canaan were western Semites. They had numerous supreme beings.
El (Canaanite version of the Sumerian Enlil) is the chief god. He is called ‘bull EL’, the father of the gods..
Elohim of the Old Testament is a parallel entity to Ilani in the Nuzi texts, and means the figure of the ‘god of the household’ or teraphim. El is ILU in Akkadian. IL in Canaan is also El and ILU. El is; El/Elohim in Hebrew, El/Elah in Aramaic, IL among southern Arabs, el Lah among classic Arabs (in the later periods it was changed to Allah of our day).
El married his three sisters, one of whom was Astarte/Ashtoreth, the wife of El and mother of gods, she is frequently referred to in the Old Testament as Ashtaroth.
El has not only killed his brother but also his own son: He has cut off his daughter’s head, castrated his father, castrated himself and compelled his confederates to do the same.
In Canaan in those days the cult of sensuality was regarded as the worship of the gods, men and women prostitutes were accepted as sacred by the followers of the religion, the rewards for their ‘services’ went into the temple treasuries as ‘offerings for the god’. It was only natural for the Old Testament gods and later on for YHVH to come out against the fertility cults and the general sensual indulgence of the peoples of the region. The despised and accursed religion of the ancient Canaan has helped us reach a new understanding of the Biblical statements about the religion of the patriarchs. The Biblical fathers, on various occasions have called upon, El-Elyon (the ‘all highest’), El-Olam (the ‘ancient of ancients’ - the ‘eternal’), El-Roy (‘he who appears’, ‘he who sees me’ ) El-Shadday (‘the highest’ or ‘the almighty’ - the ‘god of the mountain’ )
But in actual fact, their prayers were directed, as many scholars believe, to the chief Canaanite god El’s local variants.
El and Baal were the divine kings of the Canaanite pantheon. They were later replaced by YHVH, the god of the chosen people of the Old Testament. Yet there were certain differences. EL was static, at rest, unapproachable, while Baal in contrast was dynamic, active, actual. It is obvious that the god of the Old and New Testaments, beside whom there was no place for another god, even in a subservient role, was naturally incompatible with the myth which had numerous other gods.
Baal is equal of the sky-god whose name is An in Sumer and Anu in Akkad. Baal has three daughters. Piday (light), Arsal (earth and ground), Talay (humidity and ground). These three daughters are thought to have been borrowed by the pre-Islamic Arabs as Lat, Manat, and Uzza - daughters of the god.
As the god of lightning and thunder
According to a myth castrated priests clothed like a woman used to serve Hadad and the fertility goddess Atargathey (Astarte) accompanying him in the temple built over a rift into which flowed the waters of the global flood.
Baal’s wife is Anath the goddess of war (She is called Inanna in Sumer, Ishtar in Akkad, Anat or Astarte in Canaan, Athar in southern Arabia, and Astar in Abyssinia (present day Ethiopia).
Athar and Astar are male and the rest are female This must be due to the character of the societies. The Arab and Abyssinian societies are patriarchal. Canaanite societies were matriarchal, and fertility cult is very important, like Sumer.
There is the god of seas and rivers, Yam-Nahar. There is a feud between Baal and Yam-Nahar. El favors Yam-Nahar and Baal revolts against his father El. Other figures are, the craftsman-god Kothar-u-Khasis; the Sun-goddess often called the torch of the gods Shapash (the Ugaritic form of the Akkadian Shamash); This Baal myth is thought to have taken over by the Hebrew mythology and Baal was transformed in to YHVH, when they settled in Canaan. Yam-Nahar represents the hostile aspect of the sea and rivers, while Baal is the beneficent aspect as rain.
In another form of the myth Baal’s victory over the forces of disorder and chaos is depicted as the killing of the seven-headed dragon Lotan (Lotan is the Leviathan of the Old Testament). Baal declares his supremacy and announces that he will not send tribute to EL’s new favourite, the god Mot, the god of sterility and the underworld. The next episodes of this myth are all about the conflict between Baal and Mot. Baal is the god of life, Mot is the god of death. They are in perpetual conflict. When Baal dies Mot is born; when Baal is born Mot dies. This repeats itself every seven years. With Baal there is abundance, with Mot there is famine. This new conflict also symbolizes the threat posed by the encroachment of the barren steppe - personified by Mot - to the fertile earth. So the underlying theme was nature, fertility, and agriculture.
There is another god, Sheol the god of underworld. We meet his name again in the Old Testament as the name of the Jewish ‘nether-world’.
All the Canaanite faiths are based on the fertility cult. Prostitutes dedicated to the fertility goddess were working at the temples of the fertility goddess in Canaan. There were also male priests wearing woman’s clothes in these temples. Priestesses working as prostitutes, and homosexual males were present in the temples in Sumer. These prostitutes had to cover their heads. It is known also that in the earlier periods there were whores among the Jews, some of whom were having sexual intercourse in the name of god. (Hence the orders in Deuteronomy 23:17: “There shall be no whore of the daughters of Israel, nor a sodomite of the sons of Israel”; and 23:18: “You shall not bring the hire of a whore (..) into the house of the Lord your god.”) These Jewish prostitutes used to cover their faces and their bodies with a veil/vail.
So this is the Canaanite stew of gods and their names. It looks complicated, but it is not. Look around yourself, follow the seasons, watch the rain, thunderbolts and storms, experience abundance and famine, add the sexual urges to that mixture, assign each of them a character, put yourself right in the middle of this stage, and begin producing scenarios. You’ll definitely end up with something like the Canaanite cults.
