Category: Religion

Sometimes I think that if more Christians and muslims got together to discuss religion, the better off we’d be. Think about this, every muslim I have ever talked to is unable to comprehend the trinity. They have been taught from a very early age that the trinity is equivalent to three distinct gods. Many muslims have told me that God can only be one thing, not three. I’ve always found this silly, after all God can be whatever He wants to be. If He chooses to present Himself in three ways, what’s to stop Him? What I also found interesting was that even though they were adamant in their view of God being one thing only, they regularly think of Him in many different ways.

Curiously enough, many Christians do claim that God is only one thing. I don’t know how many times I’ve heard “God is love.” For the record, I think that anytime someone says that God is “x,” you can follow it up with “Yes, but…” Anyway, whereas many Christians say that they have a single, tripartite God that is one thing (love), muslims have a single, monotonic god that is at least 99 things!

In Islamic tradition, there are 99 names of God. Yes, “the Lover” is included in there along with “the Majestic,” “the Vast,” “the Truth,” and more. Interestingly enough, there are also names like “the Avenger,” “the Destroyer,” and “the Bringer of Death.” I really do think that muslims have a broader view of God than most Christians do. They have both the nice and frightening aspects of Him in mind.

In the Christian world, there is a split. Typically, the evangelicals and more conservative Protestant groups concentrate in the Old Testament and the Book of Revelation. This shows God as wrathful, jealous, judgmental, and lots of other scary things. On the other hand, the more moderate and liberal churches tend to concentrate on the Gospels only. That shows God as a forgiving, loving one. I find it rare to meet a Christian that can keep both views in mind at the same time.

That’s really just a long winded way of saying that people are funny when it comes to how they think about God. We swear that He is one thing, and then proceed to break HIm into three or think about Him in 99 ways. In truth, there are an endless number of attributes to God. It would be nice if we could all talk together and appreciate how the other “side” thinks.

Do you remember the story in the Bible when they were trying to trick Jesus by asking him about paying the tax from the Romans? It was illegal to shirk the Roman tax of course, but the Romans were pagans and so it could be considered blasphemy for a Jewish man to support them. It looked like Jesus was trapped, no matter how he answered, He would be in trouble with someone. Well, after asking someone who’s portrait was on the coin (it was Caesar’s), He came up with an amazing answer, the famous, “Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and render unto God what is God’s.”

That utterance has had far reaching consequences. It showed that there is the realm of man and the realm of God. Most people take it to mean that money and government are man’s doing and his affair, not God’s. If they weren’t separate, they were at least different. Islam has a very different history. Starting with the prophet Mohammed (PBUH) and running all through the various Caliphs, the belief that the temporal and spiritual leader should be the same has been a constant in Sunni circles. Of course, that belief was held in Europe for a long time, but that died out along with the concept of the divine rights of kings. Even though the Caliphate has been gone for a long time, the belief is still a very strong one here. The government is expected to be the ruler here on earth, but it should also uphold all of the laws set down by God. I have yet to meet anyone here in Yemen that questions that world view. Turkey is an exception in the Sunni dominated countries, and maybe Indonesia and Malaysia are as well, but I’m not very familiar with them.

Why is this important? There are many consequences to this world view. Chief among them is the typical limits on freedom that these countries posses. It’s one thing to outlaw murder, rape, burglary, etc. and it’s quite another to outlaw conversion, proselytizing, and limits on the press. The first group of laws is all about maintaining civil order and respecting property rights. The second set of laws are about maintaining a certain world view and keeping a grip on power. In addition, investing a government with that kind of power over freedoms will always have a negative effect on the economy. As governments are wont to do, the power to regulate can quickly degenerate into bullying and intimidation in order to maintain power. They can always claim that they are doing it for God… If you think this is silly, come to Yemen. There are official limits on the press, supposedly these are to prevent any blasphemy from making it into the papers. In reality, the publishers wouldn’t do that anyway, but the limits are now being used to quash dissenting opinions. It has now progressed to the jailing of journalists and other, more thug-like actions against journalists from certain quarters. Coincidentally, these journalists are being harassed by someone after they criticize the government… Did you know it is illegal to directly criticize the president in the paper? What would The US’ papers look like with a law like that on the books?

For me, this cultural issue of the world of God vs. the world of man explains a lot about the political economy in countries in this part of the world. In most Sunni Islam circles, it is believed that there isn’t any difference, the world of man is the world of God. That has a certain appeal in some ways, but there are some really awful consequences to holding that belief.

One thing that has impressed me in Islam is the treatment and explanation of the Devil. In Christianity, he is seem as pure evil, someone in competition with God for the souls of men. I’ve never really found this to be very convincing or inspiring. Islam has a very different view. Well, at least the Sufis seem to, I got this information from one of my books on Sufism. According to them, Satan was the one angel that refused to bow down to Adam when God created him. Satan did this not out of obstinacy, but out of his love of God. He refused to bow down before anything that had been created, he only bowed down before God. He also argued that it must have been God’s will because he was unable to disobey God. For this, he was banished from Heaven and from God’s presence.

But Satan never lost his love of God. Of all beings in the universe, he toils away without any hope of ever getting any reward. Talk about unrequited love! The Sufis understand that through his efforts, we can rise above him, to a place that he could never achieve. His trials toughen us, strengthen us, and ultimately provide us with the means to work towards God. I find this to be a much richer view than what we see in Christianity and it’s much more useful IMO…

Here’s a story from the Sufi saint Sana’i that helps explain this outlook…

“O Satan,” said Moses, “how is it that despite your cursed existence, your words are sweet?”
“My experiences,” replied Satan, “are those of one who has been tested, Moses. I worshiped God for 700,000 years, craving a better position with Him. My craving in devotion brought about my destruction, I stopped craving, and now my remembrance is keener, my devotion sweeter. O Moses, do you know why God has caused me to be separated? So that I would not mix with the sincere ones and worship Him out of passion or fear or hope or craving.”

The Sufi’s devotion to God is very similar to what I have read about in Orthodox Christianity, it’s all about love, not heaven, not hell, just love. The Sufi’s also seem to use some of the same techniques that Zen masters do in trying to get their students beyond what they see, hear, and feel. It’s quite interesting and I think is the type of Islam that has the most nuanced and the deepest conception of God. It is, of course, also the smallest sect in the Islamic world…

When I came here, I was hoping to learn some things about Islam. As time went on, I become more and more convinced that I wasn’t going to learn anything of value here. A muslim friend of mine (from Australia) assured me that was the case. She was driven nuts by the religion here and told me that I wasn’t going to learn much about it here. I have come to agree with her. I’m hoping beyond hope that most of the world’s muslims do not think like the ones here…

In general, muslims believe that the Koran is the actual word of God as revealed to Muhammad. They believe that the word became a book whereas Christians believe that the word became flesh in the person of Jesus Christ. OK, there’s some gap there between the religions, I can handle that. They believe that Jesus wasn’t divine, that he was a prophet, and that he didn’t really die. Not believing in His divinity is logical enough (although I still don’t understand how they maintain the truth of the virgin birth without him being divine, see here) and even though I can’t really understand how anyone could survive a Roman crucifixion along with the scourging He got, that’s fine. They don’t believe it, they have a lot of company in the world…

I have never questioned muslims about their faith here, but they have questioned me a bunch. The questions they ask surprise me. “How can God be three things?”, “How can God die?”, “How can God come back to life?” None of these questions would surprise me coming from an atheist, but they are all supposed to believe in God. Anyone that asks, “How can God…?” has at best a very shallow faith and probably none at all. How can God do anything? How can someone believe in a God that can’t do something? What strikes me as particularly weird is that the people here have no problem with God creating the universe, making Adam out of earth and “breathing” life into him, and any of the other miracles that are attributed to Him, but God being in three different places at the same time? That’s just crazy talk…

All of the muslims I have met are way out of their depth when they try to talk about the trinity. It’s one thing to say that you don’t believe in it, it’s quite another to tell me that it’s impossible. With God, nothing is impossible. So you can tell me that you don’t believe that Jesus was both the son and God Himself, but don’t tell me it’s impossible. All of the conversion material I have read has been ridiculous. I have been asked again and again if I was going to convert. My initial response has always been, “Why would I?” I haven’t actually said that of course, but none of them understand that I see their religion as being incredibly shallow.

If they really believed, they would never ask me how God can do anything. They would also never feel compelled to exact justice (revenge) here on earth for something that is between God and that person. I’m talking about apostates. It is considered de rigor here to kill someone that converts from Islam to something else. Why? The person that becomes an apostate or says bad things about God or His prophets has not harmed God. Nor has he harmed any one else. He may have offended some other people, but he has not harmed anyone. If you believe in God, you have to recognize the fact that he has only hurt himself. Not only has he hurt himself, but he has done something far more terrible than you could ever do to him… Surely, if they have done the wrong thing, God will punish them. Why don’t the muslims here trust God to either bring them back to the faith or to give the appropriate punishment in the afterlife? People are not perfect, and whenever they are allowed to carry out death sentences, mistakes will be made. Why not let God take care of that?

The answer of course is that a lot of Islam in this part of the world is considered not only a personal thing, but a community thing as well. To commit a sin is to commit it against not only God, but the community as well. IMO, this is one of the more obvious Arab institutions in the religion. I can’t see any reason why this has to hold true in other cultures. Arab muslims need to understand that this aspect of the religion is really unattractive to westerners if they want any hope of converting them…

Anyway, I’m not the only one to come away from here with a lower opinion of Islam. Many of the students I have talked to went from being pretty open to Islam to hating it. I have also talked to several friends that said that being in Yemen has made them go from being an agnostic to being an outright atheist. The Yemenis simply do not understand how their attitudes about their religion seem shallow and false. Most of us see Islam here as, “Do what you are told.” Things are so much richer in Christianity, why would I trade that in for a flatter, blander way of faith? I have little doubt that the reason that most people follow the religion they do here is because they have not been exposed to anything else.

I’m not writing off Islam all together, I have read enough to know that there are other, richer forms of Islam out there, but Yemen has done a lot of damage to my image of Islam…

Here are a couple of my favorite quote from the book I just finished….

“While salvation in Islam is sought by following God’s laws and decrees, in Christianity it is sought through the acceptance of Christ… Indeed, ‘love’ in Christianity is equivalent to ‘justice’ in Islam.”

While the author was talking about the concept of “shame” in the Islamic world, he pointed out that families can inflict shame on other families through marriage. Then he had the money quote, “It is not uncommon for Arabs to marry out of spite instead of love.” Ouch…

I jjust finished reading “Imams and Emirs: State, Religion, and Sects in Islam.” It’s quite a good book, if a little on the academic side of things. Ostensibly, the book talks about the Ibadis, Zaidis, Alawis, Druzes, and Maronites(!) and how they have separated themselves from the mainstream as far as religion and government goes. That’s all very interesting, but I found the explanation of the differences between the Sunni and Shi’a and their relationship to government to be the most useful.

If what this guy says is true, then it sounds like this part of the world is basically screwed. He points out that the Sunni have essentially adapted the religion so that it works hand in hand with government. Not only in how it controls people, but also in the legalistic framework of the religion itself. The Shi’a, in contrast, have, as part of their religious dogma, the idea of resistance and/or rebellion. Their basic idea is that there can be no true justice until the hidden imam returns, so they feel it is their duty to resist worldly rule. No wonder the middle east has so many problems… Between the Sunni using the power of government to control people and the Shi’a’s sense of resistance, there really isn’t much hope of lasting peace here…

Another thing that the author pointed out that really rang true to me was the importance of bloodlines in this part of the world. He talked about how the religious leaders of many sects were only ever taken from the families of other religious leaders. The Q’rish tribe (the tribe of the prophet) still enjoy special privileges in society simply by being a distant relative. I’ve seen the same thing here in Yemen, bloodlines and what family you come from will pretty much determine what your place in society will be. There is a very rigid class system here, what you do for a living and who you can marry are determined by what family you are born into. This all sounds really strange to this American… It doesn’t take too much imagination to think that this is one of the problems with the economy here. They are undoubtedly missing their best musicians, businessmen, artists, imams, ect. because of the rigidity of the class system. It’s a basic thing, but one that is overlooked too often. As Julian Simon pointed out, human beings are the most valuable resource, all they need is the freedom to use their talents as they see fit to not only benefit themselves, but the society at large. The obsession of who people’s relatives are is a big reason why places like this are so backward.

I’m going to have to read the book again to get the info about the sects straight. This first time through I absorbed the big ideas, but there’s lots of details there too. It’s a great book to read if you’re trying to figure out this part of the world…