Not Knowing God

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Humans have great potential but they are still pulled down by a series of factors. This text should be read and understood by all of you, regardless of religion, nationality, wealth, and so on. I put an emphasis on the understanding of the text, if one does not try to see himself he will not accomplish anything apart from wasting a couple of minutes.

We have one life and most of us waste it knowingly or unknowingly, I know I did, and maybe still do. I present to you a fragment from Corpus Hermeticum entitled "The Greatest Harm for Man is not Knowing God", God stands for a state of mind and as you will see, there is an emphasis on Ignorance as being the basis for all evil and enveloping the entire Earth. The first thing somebody must do is to break through this ignorance.

In the fifth paragraph, the one you need to search for in order to guide you to the gateway of Truth and Knowledge could be understood either as a master, or as your mind. Do not forget the beauty of Truth and Goodness and try to move towards these and slowly you will have a clearer mind. This is not a New Age text, and also not a dogmatic one, it is only a philosophy of becoming human.

1. Whither are you carried, o, Men, drunk with the strong Wine of Ignorance? Which seeing you cannot tolerate, why do you spew it forth?
2. Rise, wake up and look to the sky with the Eyes of your heart, and if not all of you can do this, let there be as many of you who can.
3. For the wickedness of ignorance envelopes the entire Earth and corrupts the Soul, it chains it in the Body and so its rise to the Heavens of Salvation is not permitted.
4. Do not let yourselves carried by the Great Stream, but endure its torrent with all your strength, in this way you will be able to gain the Blessed Heaven.
5. Search for the one who can guide you to the gateway of Truth and Knowledge, where the Light is pure, undefiled by Darkness, where nobody is drunk, instead all are awake and in their hearts, look upwards to him, for his pleasure is to be seen.
6. For he can not be heard with the ears, nor seen with the eyes, nor expressed with words, only in the mind and the heart.
7. But first you must tear to pieces and break through the garment you wear, through the fabric of ignorance; this is the basis for all Evil, the bond of Corruption, the dark Veil, the living Death, a Corpse with senses, the Grave we carry with us, the Thief from within, which, through what he loves in us, hates us, envies us.
8. These are the painful garments with which you are covered, and that pull you down, you look up less and less to the beauty of Truth and Goodness; you should hate the wickedness of this Garment and understand the traps it lays for you.
9. That is why he works to make good the things that only seem and are perceived by the senses, while the true things he hides them and covers them in matter, filling what he shows you with hostile pleasure so you can not hear what you should hear and see what you should see.

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You can read this chapter in AWIL Magazine, issue 5. An error occurred in the final paragraph, read "That is why he works" not "That is why the works".

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Qur'an

I would like to start the "Religion" category with a short introduction about the Qur'an.  As you may know, this is the central religious text of Islam, the final revelation of God and divine guidance for mankind. The key phrase is "sent down by God", for God speaks directly in the Qur'an.

Historians agree that the first revelation dates back to 610 CE, when Muhammad was engaged in a spiritual retreat in a cave outside Mecca and the Archangel Gabriel approached him. So the first words of the Qur'an were heard:

"Read: In the name of your Lord Who created,

Created man from clots.

Read: And your Lord is The Most Honorable,

Who taught by the pen..

He thought man what he did not know."

(96: 1-5 / Dr. Ghali translation)

Qur'anic revelations are believed to have come to the Prophet over a period of twenty-three years. The scriptures are divided into 114 suras and each verse is known in Arabic as "aya". The material is not in a chronological or thematic order but as it is to be read by the believers (and also by how big the Suras are, the second being the longest).

The key to Islamic art could lie in the Qur'an. Hossein Nasr thinks that the verses influenced artistic thought, some of them being poetic while others direct in this way, leading to the floral and geometric motifs.

Before Abu Bakr, the first caliph, decided to write down and organize the scriptures, these were preserved by oral tradition. Also, a great part of the Qur'an was written down during the lifetime of Muhammad, but the content was not united in a single corpus. Abu Bakr managed to preserve the teachings which after the battle of Yamama were in danger of being lost.

The Qur'an contains three types of messages for humans. The first is the doctrinal message which includes moral and judiciary recommendations which is at the base of the Holy Muslim Law, the Shari'ah. It also contains metaphysical elements, a cosmology about the structure of the universe, and subjects like eschatology and the Afterlife.

In the second place, at least on the surface, the Qur'an is a vast history book, a commentary about the terrestrial existence of man. And last, it can be described as possessing "divine magic" (do not take it literally). The words from God have a special power just like the cross for the Christians.

We can see an emphasis on praying for protection against evil and the Qur'an helps man overcome difficulty with patience.