Religion of Love: The Ancient Egyptian Religion
When I was looking up the origin of دين I found a Google question
with the answer about the Hieroglyphic origin (see previous post). The
rest of the answers were nothing but insults to the person who explained
the Hieroglyphic meaning.People accused him of being too ignorant to
even know the true origin, of spreading hatred, of being a lair, of not
knowing anything about religion, almost of being an atheist and all that
because he linked the Arabic word that means religion to a word of
people who were polytheists (or so they think). They fought him with
their words for an Arabic word that even carried zero religious meaning
as if they were trying to save the pure word from the dirtiness of
Ancient Egyptians. These people were unfortunately all Egyptians, and
they probably use words from the language of our ancestors every single
day, but since the world means religion, the hatred has to come out.
Most of us carry a great deal of enmity and hatred to each other and most of it is based on ignorance, ignorance of other religions and maybe even of one's religion. Religions teach love, love of goodness, love of one's self and love of others, they teach unity, so how can we spread hatred and division and anger in the name of religion?
Those people spoke as if they're the only ones who hold the truth, as if their religion is the only religion that would lead to paradise but how can one know that for sure? How can one jump to conclusions that we have no idea about? I'll take Islam as an example, not because Muslims are the only ones who have this idea but only because I'm a Muslim and so know more about Islam than any other religion. Some Muslims say that any person who is a Muslim, either by birth or by belief, shall go to paradise sooner or later no matter what they do. On the other hand, a non-Muslim, either by birth or by belief shall never go to paradise and shall rot in hell forever. How did they reach this piece of information? Through some Quranic verses or a Hadith of Prophet Mohammad. They have never thought about the true meaning of the word Muslim in that case though, have they? Have they thought why Prophet Ibrahim, among others, was also called a Muslim? Have they thought about what all prophets have in common? That they believe in divinity and have morals, this is the true meaning of Islam, or at least one closer to the truth and makes more sense. But to think that our just God would put someone who had nothing but mere luck to be born a Muslim and did nothing in their life but crimes and wrongs in paradise and leave a person who also was born by luck with another religion and had spent their life taking their responsibilities and living by divine values to rot in hell forever, is this justice?
Also to think that any person from another religion can always change their religion, is unjust simply because it needs strong people to do this, and only a few are that courageous. And our just God wouldn't ask of a person something that is above their level of endurance, and even changing creed is above the level of endurance of the majority. Our just God is also generous and merciful, and by these thoughts you impose wrong ideas about God. So let's not go act as if we understand God so much, because he knows best and shall be just, generous and merciful to every person that has been created and shall oppress no one.
It's also not only about religions that have been brought through the family of Prophet Ibrahim; we've been told in the clearest of ways that the stories of prophets and messengers are not all in the three Holy Books, so can't assume that there was never any other prophets who came along somewhere in the world and spread their teachings and had people follow them to worship God. Let's just not assume we know everything about everything, because we only know a very small percentage of what's out there.
On this same example and the hatred toward a religion we know nothing about and hate just because it's different, if one looks just a little close to the Ancient Egyptian religion we might know that we have many reasons to love it not just be neutral about it. Ancient Egyptians were not polytheists like most of us think and they were not monotheists either, Ancient Egyptians were henotheists. Henotheism means that they believe in divinity, they believed in God, but they also believed that they can never explain what god is. Divinity is beyond what the human mind can imagine, and so they couldn't and needn't have a definition for it. They believed that God is an enigma, and one should not pretend they understand it. The many "gods" that we've been taught in schools are not actually gods, they are called Neter, a divine quality, the values that are blown into humans by the Creator, the ones that one should link with in order to live a righteous life. This is something like the 99 names of God in Islam and the Three Holy Faces in Christianity. To know how far/close this religion is to one of today's religions just see the values taught about their Neters, not how they prayed or how many days they fasted.
To be continued...
Most of us carry a great deal of enmity and hatred to each other and most of it is based on ignorance, ignorance of other religions and maybe even of one's religion. Religions teach love, love of goodness, love of one's self and love of others, they teach unity, so how can we spread hatred and division and anger in the name of religion?
Those people spoke as if they're the only ones who hold the truth, as if their religion is the only religion that would lead to paradise but how can one know that for sure? How can one jump to conclusions that we have no idea about? I'll take Islam as an example, not because Muslims are the only ones who have this idea but only because I'm a Muslim and so know more about Islam than any other religion. Some Muslims say that any person who is a Muslim, either by birth or by belief, shall go to paradise sooner or later no matter what they do. On the other hand, a non-Muslim, either by birth or by belief shall never go to paradise and shall rot in hell forever. How did they reach this piece of information? Through some Quranic verses or a Hadith of Prophet Mohammad. They have never thought about the true meaning of the word Muslim in that case though, have they? Have they thought why Prophet Ibrahim, among others, was also called a Muslim? Have they thought about what all prophets have in common? That they believe in divinity and have morals, this is the true meaning of Islam, or at least one closer to the truth and makes more sense. But to think that our just God would put someone who had nothing but mere luck to be born a Muslim and did nothing in their life but crimes and wrongs in paradise and leave a person who also was born by luck with another religion and had spent their life taking their responsibilities and living by divine values to rot in hell forever, is this justice?
Also to think that any person from another religion can always change their religion, is unjust simply because it needs strong people to do this, and only a few are that courageous. And our just God wouldn't ask of a person something that is above their level of endurance, and even changing creed is above the level of endurance of the majority. Our just God is also generous and merciful, and by these thoughts you impose wrong ideas about God. So let's not go act as if we understand God so much, because he knows best and shall be just, generous and merciful to every person that has been created and shall oppress no one.
It's also not only about religions that have been brought through the family of Prophet Ibrahim; we've been told in the clearest of ways that the stories of prophets and messengers are not all in the three Holy Books, so can't assume that there was never any other prophets who came along somewhere in the world and spread their teachings and had people follow them to worship God. Let's just not assume we know everything about everything, because we only know a very small percentage of what's out there.
On this same example and the hatred toward a religion we know nothing about and hate just because it's different, if one looks just a little close to the Ancient Egyptian religion we might know that we have many reasons to love it not just be neutral about it. Ancient Egyptians were not polytheists like most of us think and they were not monotheists either, Ancient Egyptians were henotheists. Henotheism means that they believe in divinity, they believed in God, but they also believed that they can never explain what god is. Divinity is beyond what the human mind can imagine, and so they couldn't and needn't have a definition for it. They believed that God is an enigma, and one should not pretend they understand it. The many "gods" that we've been taught in schools are not actually gods, they are called Neter, a divine quality, the values that are blown into humans by the Creator, the ones that one should link with in order to live a righteous life. This is something like the 99 names of God in Islam and the Three Holy Faces in Christianity. To know how far/close this religion is to one of today's religions just see the values taught about their Neters, not how they prayed or how many days they fasted.
To be continued...
Whatever the religion one belong to but everyone should respect and obey other religion.So what Hindu, Muslim and Christian all should try to know what is there ritual and culture.Religion of love will automatically grow.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the post....keeping sharing