I glanced at the news and saw that Fatima Rifka Bary is to be sentenced to go back home. If you recall she was the 16 year old who discovered Christianity. A big no no in a Muslim home. Worthy of a beheading!
But the courts, ignorant to the ways of Islam, ordered Fatima back to her parents house.
If this was a Jewish home, I wonder if Rifka would even be wanted back to the home? I would guess not. But at least there is no mitzvot (religious duty) to behead the kafir (non-believer).
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This also makes me think of Ayaan Hirsi Ali. From being exposed to and reading alot of philosophical works, it led her to leave her religion -which was Islam. According to many rabbis, such readings would take anyone out of their religion!
How does that work?
That's hard to explain. Suffice it to say that in the scheme of things, we gather wisdoms and funnel them through understanding and from that we get knowledge.
For example: wisdom = numbers
understanding = algebra
knowledge = what a variable would be
here's a graph:
I suspect that reading all the philosophical writings brings us maybe to wisdom, understanding, and knowledge -a downwards pointing triangle. And I think the focus of religion or spirituality is to make a different triangle; the keter (crown), wisdom, and understanding triad.
Keter means crown. It is like the border of where wisdom ends. We ought to learn as much as we can about our world, but once we've reached the borders, then we get to faith. The part that we don't know, but we rely on the idea that God is running the show, that He created everything and is all knowing.
In the wisdom, understanding, and knowledge triad, we are beholden to the various laws of physics, biology, etc. In other words, we don't walk on water, we get hit by a bullet, etc. However, in the keter, wisdom, and understanding triad the world and its rules are beholden to us (assuming we make God's will our will)! ....I don't know if the world is ready for that yet.
Did Ayaan lose her faith? Her keter? Her crown? I suppose some would argue yes. But at the same time listening to her, she seems very caring and fights --one of the few lone voices-- for the rights of Muslim women. That confounds me. I once learned that prayer is like a sword. One must learn to wield it properly -neither flinching to the right (overdone kindness) nor to the left (too severe). And to learn how to wield this "sword" on must practice justice. Ayaan, in her way, is boldly fighting for justice. If she has faith in the Creator, would she have the power of effective prayer?
Sometimes I wonder if she simply rejected Islam, and just replaced it with a more humanitarian belief --but she calls it athiesm. She also introduces the heavy question of which way is God's will.
Anyway, I worry for Fatima Rifka Bary. She doesn't have the mobility and freedom to search and discover freely. Then again if she looks too much will she too fall into atheism?
6 comments:
Part 1
Shalom--
The Medieval Jewish philosophers, including the Rambam (Maimonides), would say that there's a mitzvah to understand God to the best of our ability, and this is where (proper) philosophy comes in. In other words, philosophy should be founded upon faith. What the Rambam did, in several places, is take aspects of Aristotelian philosophy (doing what's called in Kabbalistic terminology a birur, or sifting process to rectify what remains) and plug it into this framework. On the other hand, the sort of speculative philosophy most people refer to when they say "philosophy" very often does act as a catalyst to defile one's relationship to God, faith, and spirituality.
Torah law does actually mandate the death penalty for idolatry. However, capital punishment, as the Jewish sages make clear, is not something carried out, in general, unless certain very rigorous requirements are in place, such as two witnesses and proper warning.
As far as Islam is concerned, one can see a hint of things to come, I believe, in the passage which says that Isaac and Yishmael (in that order), buried their father Avraham. That is, Yishmael gave precedence to Isaac. Similarly, one day I believe Muslims themselves will renounce Muhammad and Islam, and only then can the real tikun (rectification) take place, which will involve connecting to Torah.
"For example: wisdom = numbers
understanding = algebra
knowledge = what a variable would be"
I love this analogy.
Part II
As things stand now, most of the time Muslims leave Islam they often go to Christianity, which I doubt they embrace for any deep theological reasons but rather because Christian doctrine (at least on the face of things) talks about love and Divine grace, things which these people (rightly) saw so utterly lacking in Islam. So, I imagine to them that it feels like coming into a warm room from the cold. Or, they leave religion entirely. Because, when one leaves a certain system, if the societal conditions (the "vessels") are not firmly in place for a more rectified system, the whole thing is thrown out, including those aspects which are more readily integrate-able into this more rectified system.
On a larger scale, this sometimes is part of a breakdown for the purpose to building. In fact, every meaningful act of building involves first breaking down and removing, such as digging into the earth for the foundations, or even dissolving matter for the bricks. I wonder how many millions of Muslims are, personally, ready to reject Islam, and when the societal conditions are in place (the vessels) it will happen smoothly.
I don't think anyone, even the greatest sage alive can know these things, but Rabbi Avraham Yitzhak HaKohen Kook said that one day the Arabs themselves will feel such shame that they built buildings on the Temple Mount that they'll take them apart themselves. Now, I don't know if it will happen this way, but ultimately I do believe it possible that Islam will be renounced through a fundamental shift in consciousness. And when that happens we will see just how far things have been breaking down from within to allow the right lights to come into the right vessels.
Shalom Anonymous,
Thank you. I've often wondered about Jewish philosophy. I actually heard that that was also included in the prohibition.
Re:Muslims renouncing Islam. That is very much intune with what Wafa Sultan is saying.
Shalom Tertiaryanna,
Thanks!
to be honest, this post and comments left me feeling upset and disappointed. i just don't understand how anyone can actually view a religion that has been practiced by millions of people for thousands of years as being intrinsically evil. if it was, would it not have died out already? why are people not willing to accept that Islam has evolved/devolved and changed over time?
i really don't have much to say as my head hurts. i hadn't visited this blog in a while due to my moving, i was waiting eagerly to read more posts but i was not really expecting this level of Islamophobia. this post was written 8 days ago, is Rifka back with her family? how is she faring?
and i find it interesting that one can talk about the people leaving Islam but not about the people accepting Islam. are they sadists then? you know, since Islam does not offer any love or Divine grace or basically anything positive according to what i've read here? things should never be taken without considering their environment, Christians do a lot of missionary work so it makes sense that in any region Christianity will be the fastest growing religion as they are doing a lot of work.
i really don't know. seeing/reading stuff like this is what makes me seriously doubt religion and religious folks. i'm not feeling any love or even worry at all. the only emotion that i felt after reading this was sadness and maybe pity. oh well, this world wouldn't be fun if we all thought the same right?
Miriam, i forgot to add that several Muslim women DO NOT view Ayan Hirsi Ali as caring and fighting for the rights of Muslim women. of course there are Muslim women who identify with her experiences but it seems most of her supporters are overwhelmingly non-Muslims. really what does this say? there are several and i mean SEVERAL Muslim feminists who follow different thoughts of Islam. these women exist but they hardly get any attention from Western media. i suggest you head over to Muslimah Media Watch just to, perhaps discover more about the opinion of Muslim women. i don't know if you care about Muslim women but if you do, it just makes sense to actually listen to what Muslim women have to say...
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