The Bible vs (the anomaly of) The Qur'an

I continually find myself amazed (after struggle and struggle with Christian polemicists) that the Qur'an is the only oral tradition of it's kind, unchanged, memorized routinely by millions of people over the past 1400 years. 

That it itself calls out Christians and Jews over the lack of preservation and corruption of their own texts and their false doctrines (like Jesus being God or Jews being the chosen ones etc). 

And I find it increasingly astounding how little academic textual integrity any of the Bible actually has in and of itself. There are billions of variants in the Bible, there is no authoritative Bible, it was a textual tradition not an oral one. Christians don't read their texts in the original language and have no authoritative version of any language of the New Testament (even though the earliest fragments are in Greek, which Jesus didn't even speak). 

Then we have Jews with their 'official' Tanakh known as the Masoretic Text, which is a 8th century thing, not a 8th century BCE thing. The earliest fragments of the Tanakh are all in Greek, which makes it mightily ironic. 

Secular scholarship has because of this (and more), major problems with the Bible. It has no credibility by itself. In fact the very concept of "The Bible" doesn't exist. There is no "The Bible", there are only thousands of manuscripts and many endless attempts at creating a critical edition, which has no authority because there are no originals to begin with  :D

It's a mess.

The Bible is a fuucking mess, and the Qur'an scolds them harshly over this multiple times. 

One such passage in the fifth Surah of the Qur'an (Surah al-Maidah) it says the following: 

Then, because of their breaking their covenant We cursed them and made their hearts hard: they pervert words from their meanings, and have forgotten a part of what they were reminded. You will not cease to learn of some of their treachery, excepting a few of them. Yet excuse them and forbear. Indeed Allah loves the virtuous. Also from those who say, ‘We are Christians,’ We took their pledge; but they forgot a part of what they were reminded. So We stirred up enmity and hatred among them until the Day of Resurrection, and soon Allah will inform them concerning what they had been doing. 

O People of the Book! Certainly Our Apostle has come to you, clarifying for you much of what you used to hide of the Book, and excusing many [an offense of yours]. Certainly, there has come to you a light from Allah, and a manifest Book................................................O Apostle! Do not grieve for those who are active in [promoting] unfaith, such as those who say, ‘We believe’ with their mouths, but whose hearts have no faith, and the Jews who eavesdrop with the aim of [telling] lies [against you] and eavesdrop for other people who do not come to you. They pervert words from their meanings, [and] say, ‘If you are given this, take it, but if you are not given this, beware!’ Yet whomever Allah wishes to mislead, you cannot avail him anything against Allah. They are the ones whose hearts Allah did not desire to purify. For them is disgrace in this world, and there is a great punishment for them in the Hereafter. Eavesdroppers with the aim of [telling] lies, eaters of the unlawful—if they come to you, judge between them, or disregard them. If you disregard them, they will not harm you in any way. But if you judge, judge between them with justice. Indeed Allah loves the just. And how should they make you a judge, while with them is the Torah, in which is Allah’s judgement? Yet in spite of that, they turn their backs [on Him] and they are not believers. We sent down the Torah containing guidance and light. The prophets, who had submitted, judged by it for the Jews, and so did the rabbis and the scribes, as they were charged to preserve the Book of Allah and were witnesses to it. So do not fear the people, but fear Me, and do not sell My signs for a paltry gain. Those who do not judge by what Allah has sent down—it is they who are the faithless.

I just continue to find it utterly baffling that such a text/scripture as the Qur'an even exists. 

Like, while we know that many religions claim their sacred texts are "divinely inspired" inspired denoting that it was guided by God but not God speaking, the only text which claims to be only God speaking is the Qur'an. 

Even the Vedas, which have quite a profound status in the early period of Sanatan Dharma ("Hinduism") does not contain anything resembling the Qur'an. 

As in the Qur'an's style, it's format, it contents is self-purported to be God speaking through an angel (Gabriel) to Muhammad, not by Muhammad, he is one of the subjects that the Qur'an addresses. 

I just find it completely incredible that such a text as the Qur'an even exists, it seems to defy logic. No other religion has anything resembling the Qur'an. 

The Qur'an itself both confirming aspects of the Bible and also vehemently opposing and refuting other aspects of the Bible (many things from 'original sin' to Solomon's betrayal to David's deceptiveness to Jesus' deity to the whole Christian salvation narrative, all refuted in the Qur'an). I find that remarkable. Even taking it from a non-Muslim, secular even atheist point of view. It boggles the mind that such a text as the Qur'an exists. 

I should re-mention again that the Qur'an as it was received by Muhammad, was not a "book" in a written form (though Imam Ali Ibn Abi Talib did write a codex of the entire Qur'an), it is what it's title says it is - a 'recitation' (literally what "Qur'an" means).

Anyway, looking through Biblical scholarship really shows that Christians and Jews, but Christians especially (as their case is much weaker than Jews, which have a feasibility, but not in their texts) have a glass house. Nothing to stand on, complete charlatanism. 

There is no fuuckng Bible, it doesn't exist. 

Any english Bible you would find, is a translation based upon a critical edition which is an assembling of different manuscripts chosen by a particular person or group of people. All the manuscripts in question all radically differing from each other from small to massive differences. 

Qur'an didn't originate as a manuscript tradition, so it has zero issues over manuscripts. Qur'an was passed down orally through a thing known as Mushaf, Qira'at to be precise, which were taught by Prophet Muhammad himself (as are well attested to). Things which were standardized early on, which according to secular scholarship have not changed, period. 

Anyway, the whole case is completely incredibly IMHO. For a wide variety of reasons (which you've heard many before), the Qur'an still remains the most important text I've ever read. And to use the very easily misinterpretable term, I have "faith" in it.

Anyway, Christians are starting to see their religion decline in popularity because of how problematic their beliefs and texts are. Within like 20 years, Islam will take over from Christianity. 

Unfortunately though, as you will remember me saying, the Islamic world has gone to sh1t over the past 300 years. It thrived the best during the middle ages though, in which Islam was the leaders of science and philosophy. 

Islam over the past 300 years has through various means (including the growth of the Salafi heresy, which is a school of revisionist literalist fundamentalist Sunnism) has fallen from grace but is deserving of a return to glory. The current way that the western world sees Muslims though, and the current way Muslims see themselves is in dire need of repair, as it has no resemblance at all to the Islam of Muhammad, nor of the first 500 years of Islam. 

As salaam alaikum

Sobering musings; mortality, empathy and The Absolute

As infinitely complex as things (as in 'all-things') are, it's ultimately down to very basic principles. 

Comparative studies of different systems of thought (whether psychological, biological, philosophical, politics or religious) show that all knowledge kind of can be condensed. 

Many mystical systems are perhaps the most experimented with in providing different patterns of the interactions of different "energies" which represent all of these things in different sequences. 

I do think, even though my own experience and study is limited, that it ultimately does come down to the emanations of the Tao from the Trigrams, or as better known as Qi's intersecting complimentary opposites of Yin and Yang. Or the Abrahamic YHWH - the interactions of the Yod with the He with the Vav (the name of God as a cosmological model), or alternatively the seferiot of the tree of life.

The Hermetic law of correspondences "As above so Below" is absolutely true.

But besides that, the nature of archetypes as expressions of the variations of these fundamental aspects of reality manifest, reflected literally and metaphorically (such as politics as a reflection of metaphysics and psychology/biology as a reflection of metaphysics etc).

But despite that, we as a human culture, or even the potential robotic future, will never know everything despite even having all of the central pieces, because we are part of that equation. Unless we were removed as an observer out of time/space, then we are part of the thing we are trying to solve. Hence also the problem of consciousness itself. The great irony of the science of today. 

Anyway, what motivates all people comes down to the same very basic principles. For us as conscious beings, it is a rat race, the desperation and hopelessness can be very real, very heavy, very harsh and unbearable. I think it is true that we are here for other people and not just ourselves. The selfish "me-only" existence I don't think is really rooted in nature, whether evolutionary or not. Both the most fundamentalist interpretation of creationism and the most vehement interpretation of evolution affirm the social needs of humans, we fall apart without other people. They are there for us and we're there for them. All of the same old maxims and proverbs apply. Money doesn't buy happiness, the pleasures of the outside world are not where happiness is, it comes from inside firstly and from the act of being there for other people, giving other people hope. 

Irreligious or not. 

The most difficult part though is that some people are so wrecked inside that they become near impossible to help, psychopaths for instance are very difficult. Such people have a lot of deep-seated trauma that it takes a very special kind of person to help them to see the light, to see hope and their purpose. Same applies to a lot of other situations. 

Here I am reminded of two things, Thelema (Will) and Wetiko. Will is obviously, in the Thelemic system, the thing that binds reality together and the reason we exist, as an expression of it and born to discover then fulfill it. 

We for Wetiko, it is the dualistic delusion of "the other", it is the virus of the mind that cases war after war, fight after fight, argument after argument, pain after pain. It is fear itself. What fear doesn't realize is that it fears itself, as all things are one thing. If I kill someone, I kill myself. If I marry someone, I marry myself. If I hate someone, I hate myself. If it rob someone, I rob myself. 

That nondualistic vision is where Thelema (Will) and Wetiko cross over very clearly, as well as many philosophies and religious views. 

Even Jesus said (quoting an obscure verse in Leviticus) "Love your neighbor as you love yourself". 

I still have my demons to overcome, I still have a world ahead of me (as you to do). I hope that things become better, life cannot stay the same for too long, it's like a law of time, nothing stays the same. The less optimistic side of that is also a cause of existential dread, which is itself a form of Wetiko.