Chapter Seven - Sufism and the Dervish Orders

Chapter five and six are not that interesting. Chapter seven is about Sufism and the Dervish orders.

According to the book 'The Sufis are a secret society of Persian Mystic Philosophers and Ascetics, whose original religion may have been that of the Chaldeans or Sabeans, who believed in the unity of God and the adoration of heavens/planets.

This is a direct quote from the book

The Sufees, says Sir John Malcolm, represent themselves as devoted to the search after truth, and incessantly occupied in adoring the Almighty, a union with whom they desire with all fervour of divine love. The Creator, according to their belief, is diffused over all creation. He exists everywhere, and in everything. They compare the emanations of his essence or spirit to the rays of the sun, which they conceive are continually darted forth and reabsorbed. It is for this reabsorption into the divine essence, to which their immortal part belongs, that they continually sigh. They believe that the soul of man, and the principle of life which exists through Nature, are not from GOD, but of GOD.

The rest of the chapter is full with Sufi empty meaningless crazy talk.

Chapter IV - The Sabeans

Chapter III is a short history of People in Lebanon and Syria.

Name of the people/race: Sur, Surian, Zuroi (Greek).

I am skipping over some passages from the bible because it is not very insightful nor accurate.

Chapter four is about the Sabeans or the worshipers of the Pole Star.

The Phoenicians looked upon the Pole Star as the goddess (Astroncema).

The Sun-Worshipers settled at the Euphrates Delta. Their race was known as Sumerians. They were mentioned as skilled astronomers.

The Sabean were also known as Mandaites (or Sons of the Word/Manda). Internally they referred themselves as Mandeans. They not only worship the Pole Star but also worship St John the Baptist as Yahio. Others (Muslims probably) referred to them as the Christians of the St. John.

The following Quranic verses about the story of Abraham who was living among his community that worshiped a star and the sun and the moon was mentioned.

[The Holy Quran 6:76] So when the night over-shadowed him, he saw a star; said he: Is this my Lord? So when it set, he said: I do not love the setting ones.

[The Holy Quran 6:77] Then when he saw the moon rising, he said: Is this my Lord? So when it set, he said: If my Lord had not guided me I should certainly be of the erring people.

[The Holy Quran 6:78] Then when he saw the sun rising, he said: Is this my Lord? Is this the greatest? So when it set, he said: O my people! surely I am clear of what you set up (with Allah).

[The Holy Quran 6:79] Surely I have turned myself, being upright, wholly to Him Who originated the heavens and the earth, and I am not of the polytheists.

Abraham might have been living among the Sabeans who chiefly worship the heavenly bodies - especially the Pole Star.

An Arab Historian of the tenth century, Hamzah Isfahani remarks that the Chaldeans populated the two cities, Harran and Roha. And in the time of al-Ma'moon, the Chaldeans gave up their name and took the name Sabeans. Another writer classifies the Babylonians, Chaldeans, Nabatheans, Syrians together as all descendants of the Sabeans.

The Sabeans, while worshiping the stars, believe in the God that created the world. They celebrated the festival of every planet in their chapel.

The sacred book of the Sabeans is the Book of Thammuz or The Hidden One. They had other books such as the book of the sun, the book hassearab and the book of the messenger of Hermes.

The Sabeans also worshipped twelve Messiahs.

The Nabatheans were followers of John the Baptist in Lebanon.

Religion in the Antiquity

I am reading the book about secret sects of Syria. This is an old book that was published about a hundred years ago.

Direct quote from the book

There was something to be known in religion, secrets or mysteries into which it was possible to be initiated ; that there was a gradual process of unfolding in things religious ; in fine, that there was a science of the soul, a knowledge of things unseen.

Some of the important ideas from antiquity were
- Trinity of God
- Existence of the Holy Spirit
- Secret of Birth, Life, Death, Resurrection
- Worship of Mithra (Sun Deity)

On page 22, the religion of the Magi (Old Persia) had a deep influence on many of the Eastern culture and Europe when the Asia Minor was conquered by the Romans.

In the Mithraic ceremonies, a mystic (candidate) goes through seven degrees of initiation to acquire perfect wisdom and purity, answered to the seven planetary spheres which the soul was forced to traverse in order to reach the abode of the blessed
- Raven
- Occult
- Soldier
- Lion
- Persian
- Runner of the Sun
- Father (title borrowed from Greeks, they are mostly directors of the community)

Details of the ceremony, duration and the service rendered by the candidate is mentioned on Page 22-27.

It is worth mentioning that fire was taken as the symbol of God and water as the symbol of the Holy Spirit. And the ancient Mithraic Mysteries were celebrated on the 25th of December which was called the Day of the Nativity of the Invincible.

Book - Secret Sects Of Syria And The Lebanon (1922)

Available online http://archive.org/details/secretsectsofsyr032392mbp

Book metadata:
Secret Sects Of Syria And The Lebanon (1922)
Author: Springett,Bernard H.
Subject: SOCIAL SCIENCES; Social Welfare; Social welfare
Publisher: George Allen And Unwin Limited.
Language: English
Call number: 32392
Book contributor: Osmania University
Collection: universallibrary

The Syrian Alawites - Rise to Power

There has been much interest in the Syrian Alawite/Alawi in the recent time, mainly due to the conflict in Syria.

The history of Alawite rise to power in Syria is quite interesting. It started in the early nineteen century when the French was occupying Syria.

The majority of the Syrian (Sunni Muslim) were against the French. Alawis, who were treated as the second class citizen by the Sunnis, saw a bright future for themselves and perhaps an opportunity to get rid of their leper-like-status among the Syrians.

They formed a strong alliance with French, and in return, the French provided moral and material support to the Alawis. And in a very short time, they established their autonomous state and a strong military presence.

In the next 30 to 40 years, a lot of interesting things started happening in Syria and around the Middle East. A lot of worthless ideas like Pan-Arabism/Bathism were also floating around the Middle East.

The Alawis were unwilling to see their power and influence being diminished by democracy since democracy would most certainly favor the Sunni Majority.

The rest of the history is pretty much predictable. The Alawis used their vastly superior powers (mostly military) to get rid of all their opponents and placed members of their own sects on the top of the chain (at helm).

The Alawis, under Hafeez al-Assad, who was a very brutal dictator, carried out unimaginable horrific acts against his own people to silence their political voice and aspiration.

The Alawis (and I shouldn't really be using this term loosely because they are not really a monolithic block) also exert their influence and took a number of measures to ensure that their religious sect would be more inline with the mainstream Islam.

In the next couple of posts, I am going to delve deeper into the Alawi sect.