A great similarity between Islam and Manichaeism... Did the religion of Muhammad reproduce the doctrine of Mani?
Within each of us there is darkness and light, and we must listen to the voice of the light within us so that we do not go astray, and humanity is the basis of all religions. This is how the Lebanese novelist Amin Maalouf, in his novel "The Gardens of Light", presented the Manichaean creed.
In the novel, Mani, the prophet who began his call around the year 240 AD and said that he was the last of the prophets, about 400 years before the time of the Prophet Muhammad, says: “I belong to all religions and I do not belong to any of them. They belong to a race or a tribe, and I tell them that they are lying to you, know that in every creed, in every thought, you will find the luminous substance and remove the crusts.”
Mani explains the relationship of the world and beings to darkness and light: “In the beginning of the universe there were two worlds separate from the other: the world of light and the world of darkness. In the gardens of light were all things desired, and in darkness there was lust, a raging, burning, roaring lust. Suddenly a shock occurred at the borders of the two worlds, The most intense and horrific shock the universe has ever known. At that time, the particles of 'light' mixed with 'darkness' in a thousand different forms, and thus all creatures appeared, celestial bodies and water, nature and man... In every being and in everything alike, darkness and light coexist and intertwine."
This is a novel and not a presentation of historical documents, but usually, the details of the novels of the Lebanese-French writer specialized in the historical novel are as close as possible to what he found in texts by historians.
Mani ibn Fatak or Fatq, a Persian of royal family, was born in AD 216, in the province of Babylon, in central Iraq, which at that time was part of the Persian Empire.
And he said for the first time that the revelation came to him at the age of twelve, according to Ibn al-Nadim’s book “Al-Fihrist”: “Mani, at his young age, used to speak words of wisdom. When he was twelve years old, the revelation came to him, according to his saying, from the king of Janan al-Nur, who is God.” Exalted be He above what he says. The angel who came to him with revelation was called al-Tom, which in Nabatiyeh means “al-Qareen.” He said to him: “Abandon this religion and I am not among its people, and you have to be honest and leave desires.”
Similarities in the ordinances between Manichaeism and Islam
Some historical sources report a similarity in the duties and ways of performing some acts of worship between Manichaeism and the Islamic religion. According to researcher Firas al-Sawah, in his book "Encyclopedia of the History of Religions: Book Five", the many similarities between the two religions raise questions and lead to confusion about how the obligatory ordinances are matched and performed between two religions, one of which preceded the other by more than four centuries, and his ideas were spread in the local language of Persia.
One of the similar duties is prayer. In the Manicheans, it was an obligation to be performed at known times, and with specific bodily movements such as standing, kneeling and prostrating, according to the book “The Sasanian Arab Relations during the Fifth and Sixth Centuries AD” by Salem Ahmed Mahal. It is four prayers a day, the first at noon and the second at noon. The afternoon prayer, the sunset prayer, and then the evening prayer.
In each prayer, the prostration is repeated 12 times, and it is said in the prostration and in each prayer: “Blessed be the Paraclete who guided us, the Messenger of Light, and blessed be his guardian angels, and praise be to his luminous soldiers.”
Also, Mani imposed ablution with running water before prayer, and in the event that water was not available, it was allowed to purify with sand or something similar, according to what was reported by the Danish researcher and former professor of Iranian studies at the University of Copenhagen Arthur Christensen (d. 1945), in his book “Iran in the Era of the Sassanids.” .
A Manichaean monk, fresco from the 10th or 11th century.
This is quite similar to what came in Islam about the command to perform ablution with water or tayammum.
As in prayer as well as in fasting. Islam imposed on Muslims in the second year of Hijrah (623 AD) fasting thirty days a year. Before him, Mani had imposed on his followers fasting, and the main fasting in the Manichean religion was an obligation of thirty days each year, and it takes place in the month of April of each year, as it was believed that this month is sacred, and the Manichean fast ends with the feast of “Charity of Fitr” According to Jeuwaid Negrin in his book "Mani and Maniah", if the lunar month is shortened, they fast for only 29 days, that is, they begin the fast with the appearance of the crescent and end it with the appearance of the crescent, and they end their thirtieth fast with sacrifices and alms.
Ibn al-Nadim narrated in “Al-Fihrist” that the Manichaeans “fast the month in honor of the moon, and allocate nine in it in honor of the Lord of fortune telling, and seven of it in honor of the sun, which is their Lord of goodness.” Their fasting is abstaining from all food and drinks from sunrise to sunset.
The many similarities between the Manichaean and Islamic religions raise questions and lead to confusion about how the obligatory ordinances are identical and performed between two religions, one of which preceded the other by more than four centuries, and his ideas were spread in the local language of Persia.
Also, the Manichaeans knew alms, so each Manichaean, according to Christensen, had to pay a tenth of his money annually to their priests, in addition to the ongoing alms paid on them and their children to repel the evils of demons.
In Islam, zakat was imposed in the second year of migration, and it is an obligation on every Muslim who owns money in excess of the necessary and indispensable needs such as food, clothing, and housing. or planted.
Manichaeism forbade alcohol, according to Christensen, who indicates in his book that Mani stressed the prohibition of alcohol, calling on his followers to "roam the countries of the world to preach religion and advise people to be righteous."
In turn, Islam forbade alcohol, but gradually, as it did not directly and categorically prevent it from the beginning, and the matter began by talking about its sins that outweigh its benefits without resolving the situation from it. According to some opinions, the gradual prohibition came because the followers of Islam might find it difficult to stop drinking alcohol after they had been accustomed to it for many years, as it was widespread among the Arabs before the prophethood.
The gospel of Christ
The Prophet Muhammad said about himself that he is the prophet preached by Christ, or the Prophet Jesus as Muslims call him, a saying that was repeated by Mani’s followers, according to the book “Heretics and Heretics” by Atef Abu Awad, and they added it to their prayers. Mubarak Hadi, the Paraclete, is the Messenger of Light.”
The Paraclete is a term taken from the writings of St. John, and it expresses not the nature of a person, but rather his function. He is the one who plays the role of a positive helper and a supporter, and Christ does this task as the Holy Spirit does.
As the Prophet Muhammad said about himself that he is the last of the prophets and messengers, and that the Angel Gabriel informed him of this, Mani had said about himself that he is the last of the prophets. Also, Mani required ablution with running water before prayer, and in the absence of water, tayammum was allowed, and Mani's fasted 30 days a year...
Christians consider that the Holy Spirit (Paraclete) descended on the disciples of Christ on the day of Pentecost to console them in their loss of Christ, and there “suddenly came from heaven a sound as from the blowing of a storm wind, and filled the whole house where they were sitting, and divided tongues appeared to them as if they were of fire, and settled on all one of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.”
As for Islam, it came in the Qur’an: {And when Jesus, son of Mary, said, “O Children of Israel, I am the Messenger of God to you, confirming what came before me of the Torah and bringing good tidings of a messenger to come after me, whose name is Ahmad.” (Surat As-Saff, verse 6).
And as the Prophet Muhammad said about himself that he is the last of the prophets and messengers, and that the angel Gabriel informed him of this, Mani had said about himself that he was the last of the prophets, according to what Abkar Al-Saqqaf indicated in the book “Religion in China, India and Iran.”
? Where did the similarity come from
The many similarities between the two religions raise questions and lead to confusion, as Firas al-Sawah said, as it appears as if one person is transmitting from another.
But the Saudi researcher in comparative religion and director of the Center for Muslim Minority Studies, Dr. Muhammad Safar points out in an interview with Raseef22 that the statement that Islam borrowed some of its ideas and beliefs and even its legislation and worship from previous religions such as Manichaeism is due to the author’s desire to suggest that the Prophet Muhammad’s message did not bring anything new and was not a divine revelation as much as it was his creation, compilation and distortion of those legacies .
The Egyptian researcher in Islamic affairs, Islam al-Buhairi, points out that it was not known about the Prophet Muhammad that he used to read the sacred books of the ancients and did not copy and preserve them as a form of culture. He told Raseef22: "This was not known about him, and saying that it is a possibility is not a scientific evidence for the historian, and for the fundamentalists a rule: What the possibility touched upon was lost by inference."
In its history, Manichaeism suffered from persecution, its founder Mani himself imprisoned before being executed by the Persian Emperor Bahram ibn Sapur (Bahram I). And Munir al-Baalbaki, in his book “The Encyclopedia of al-Mawred”, quoted Ibrahim Abdul-Talib’s book “Iraq - the Arab Country that Politicians gnawed at” that Mani was crucified at one of the gates of the city of the House of Games (Soldier Shapur) in Ahvas, after he was tortured and his limbs cut off, then his body was burned. And scattered his ashes.
Manichaeism received several blows at the hands of the Romans. In the year 445 AD, Pope Leo the Great declared that the activity of Manichaeism was forbidden, according to J. M. R. Stream in his book "Bishop of Rome". In 527 AD, Emperor Justin decided to sentence all followers of Manichaeism to death, according to Ian Gardner in his book "Manichaean Texts from the Roman Empire".
In the Islamic world, followers of Manichaeism were persecuted wherever they were found. Farouk Omar, in his book "Islamic History", states that despite the increasing persecution against Manichaeism in the Abbasid period in the name of combating heresy, atheism, secularism and immorality, its followers were active, especially in the intellectual field, and formed cultural circles called the "Brothers of Truth".
He adds that the Abbasid Caliph "Al-Mahdi" (775-785) was considered the first to declare war against Manichaeism and all opposition intellectual currents in the name of combating heresy, until he was called "the heretic's butcher", and for this purpose he established the "Diwan of Heretics", and the followers of Manichaeism were forced to appear Before the judge, spitting on the image of Mani and the slaughter of a bird, because Manichaeism forbids the slaughter of animals, and if they refuse to repent, they are sentenced to death.
The persecution of the Manichaeans continued and intensified with the Caliph “al-Muqtadir” (908-932). According to the “Fihrist of Ibn al-Nadim,” the number of Manichaean symbols in Baghdad fell from 300 to only five, at the end of the tenth century AD.
It is noteworthy that the continuous flight of the Manichaeans from Iraq and the East, especially during the persecutions of the Abbasid period led to their increase in Central Asia, and in the year 745 Boqi Khan, one of the kings of Northern Mongolia, embraced Manichaeism, and made it the official religion of the state, and through that Manichaeism reached China as well as to Russia And Siberia, according to Atef Abu Awad in his book “The Heresy and Heretics.”
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