Is Qaramite/Karmatians an earlier branch of Ismailis?

The book I am currently reading was published a hundred years ago. A lot of information is outdated and may no longer be very accurate. I'm definitely interested to read something new about all the sects that have been written so far.

But as of now, I am just going to simply read and not make a judgement about the content.


Is Qaramite/Karmatians an earlier branch of Ismailis?

Here's a quote from the book, given by D'Herbelot (in Article on Karmatians, Bib. Orient) about Hamdan Karmat (founder of the sect).

"Their founder taught his disciples to make fifty prayers a day and allowed them to eat things forbidden by Mussulmans. He allegorized the precepts of the Koran, giving
out prayer to be the symbol of obedience to the Imaum; fasting to be merely the symbol of silence and secrecy with respect to strangers who were not of their sect ; and that fidelity to the Imaum was figured by the precept which forbids fornication, so that those who reveal the precepts of their religion, and who do not obey their Sheikh blindly fall into the crime called ' zinah/ Instead of the tenth part of their property which Mussulmans gave to the poor, they were to set apart the fifth part for the Imaum."

Another quote from the book about Hamdan Karmat, this one by Von Hammer (History of the Assassins)

"His doctrine, in addition to the circumstances of its forbidding nothing, and declaring everything allowable and indifferent, meriting neither reward nor punishment, undermined more particularly the basis of Mohammedanism, by declaring that all its commands were allegorical, and merely a disguise of political precepts and maxims. Moreover, all was to be referred to the blameless and irreproachable Imaum Maassum, (preserved from error) as the model of a prince whom, though he had occupied no existing throne, they pretended to seek, and declared war against bad and good princes, without distinction, in order that, under the pretext of contending for a better, they might be able to unravel at once the thickly interwoven web of religion and government. The injunction of prayer meant nothing but obedience to the Imaum Maassum ; alms, the tithes to be given to him ; fasting, the preservation of the political secret regarding the Imaum of the family of Ismael. Everything depended on the interpretation 'Terwil' without which the whole word of the Koran, ' Tensil,' had neither meaning nor value. Religion did not consist in external observances, ' Iz-Zahir,' but in the internal feeling,' il-Batin/"

The begining of Ismailis

According to De Sacy, proto-Ismailis didn't begin until after year 863 AD, to coincide with lifetime of Abdullah son of Maimoun, who by now was a fugitive in Syria. His son, Ahmed become the chief/leader of the Ismailis after his demise.

The author stressed that the link between the Ismailis and the Qaramite is the fact that Ahmed sent emissary to Kufa, Iraq who met with Hamdan Karmat

The family of Maimoun Kaddah were glorifying their own household and were in no way promoting the Imamah of Ismail ibn Jaffar as-Sadiq. Hamdan, the leader of the Qaramite, was also promoting his own set of beliefs and doctrines.

Briefly, here's the belief system created by Abdullah Maimoun
He divided his system into seven degrees after the pythagorean and Indian philosophers. Members are initiated gradually.

He appointed emissaries to enlist disciples.

He used the names of the descendants of Muhammad ibn Ismail son of Jaffar as-Sadiq to further his own political agenda.

Following are the seven degrees (part of the teaching)

- First Degree: Initiation. Taking a solemn oath to bound a person to the secret doctrine with blind faith and unconditional obedience.

- Second Degree: Establishing the faith of the divinely appointed Imams.

- Third Degree: Recognizing the seven Imams of Ismailis. Their names are Ali, Hassan, Hussein, Zayn al Abidin, Muhammad al-Baqir, Jaffar as-Sadiq and Ismail as the last and the seventh Imam.

- Fourth Degree: Belief in the seven law-giving Prophets or speaking Prophets (Natiq). They were each succeeded by non-speaking prophets/mutes (Samit). The seven speaking prophets were Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Mohammed and Ismael (son of Jaffar who was also know as Sahib ez-Zaman (Lord of time)). Their seven assistants were Seth, Shem, Ishmael son of Abraham, Aaron and afterwards Joshua, Simeon/Shamoun or Simon Peter, Ali and Mohammed son of Ismael.

- Fifth Degree: Each of the seven mute prophets had twelve apostles for the extension of the true faith.

- Sixth Degree: All precepts of Islam/legislation must be subordinate to the general and philosophical using the dogmas of Plato, Aristotle and Pythagoras.

- Seventh Degree: similar to the doctrine of Unity as the Sufis.

These two degrees were added on top of the seven by certain group of Ismailis (not by all)

- Eight Degree: The rules of religion were no longer deemed important. The pupil no longer hold prior religious dogmas.

- Ninth Degree: Rejecting every principle of religion and morality. Nothing that appeared sinful was forbidden.

Qaramite

I am still reading chapter eleven "The Ismailis and their various branches"

Qaramite were followers of a man named Karmat (a labourer).

The source used by the author is from the work of De Sacy, a French Orientalist. De Sacy referred to the work of Ibn al-Athir, the Arab/Kurd historian.

Here's a brief narration.

A man from Khorassan came and established himself in Kufa. He led an ascetic life, teaching that prayers should be said fifty times a day. When he was ill, he was attended by a man named Hamdan Karamita. Hamdan Karamita spread the teaching of his own sect. He was briefly imprisoned. When he got out, he fled into Syria and assumed the identity of his teacher.

Please see one of my old posts about the Qaramite/Karamatian.

Then the book mentioned Abdullah son of Maimon Kaddah, another man who appeared at the same time with Baber and al-Mokannah. Learning from the failure of earlier heretics, he proceeded in a secret manner. The author of the book stressed that the narration about Abdullah ibn Maimon Kaddah is very doubtful and is not to be believed. And this in due part because of some disagreements between the doctrines of the Qaramite and Ismailis.

ShiaChat Internal Error

ShiaChat website is down today with Internal Server Error - The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.

The site was up yesterday when I went to bed, about 11pm.

Don't really know when the issue would be fixed.

The Ismailis and their various branches

I am back to reading the book Secret Sects of Syria.

Chapter eleven is about Ismailis.

The chapter started by pointing out the Persian city of Khorassan as the hot-bed of the heresies, such as

Ravendi - doctrines of the transmigration of soul, and the successive incarnations of the Deity

Zendics - whose principle it was to believe nothing.

Hakim ibn-Hashem who was the under-secretary to the Governor of Khorassan, also known as "The Veiled Prophet" or al-Mokanna was active in the year 778 AD (timeline of the Abbasid caliphate).

He amassed a large army, influencing people by supposedly causing a number of miracles (moon to rise out of a well for several nights in succession). When he was besieged, he poisoned his army, his family and then committed suicide.

In the time of al-Mamoon (an Abassid caliph), another rebel and a heretic named Baber appeared in Iraq who went on to kill two hundred and fifty thousands Muslims in cold blood.

In the year 891 AD, the founder of the Karamatian (Qaramite) sect appeared. His name was Karmat.

I tried to find out more about Ravendi or Ibn al-Rawandi. According to the Wikipedia

He was an early skeptic of Islam and a critic of religion in general. In his early days he was a Mutazilite scholar, but after rejecting the Mutazilite doctrine he adhered to Shia Islam for a brief period and later became a freethinker who repudiated Islam and revealed religion.

He joined the Mu'tazili of Baghdad, and gained prominence among them. But then he became estranged from his fellow Mutazilites, and formed close alliances with Shia Muslims and then with non-Muslims (Manichaeans, Jews and perhaps also Christians). He then became a follower of the Manichaean heretic, Muhammad al Warraq in which he wrote several books that criticized revealed religion.

And I am not sure what or who zendic is. Under the wikipedia entry Zindiq, I get a few names.

Maybe Muhammad al-Waraq?

or Bashar ibn Burd?

The local Sunni mosque got its date wrong!

The closest Sunni mosque got its starting date for the month of Ramadhan wrong.

The note on the website (on Thursday) stated that the first of the month is on Friday (today) and this will be taken as the beginning of the month of Ramadhan. They even posted a blatant lie on the website saying that they have observed the hilal/crescent or taken the news of other reports.

How on earth do people see the crescent when it was not visible at all from planet earth (not even with optical aids). The moon sighting website reported that the earliest sighting was Friday on Fiji Island. And then they are other reported observation of the hilal in other countries. I'm seeing that many of the Sunni Muslim countries taking Saturday as the first of the month of Ramadhan.

But many mosques are also sticking by the Saudi mythical claim of the moon sighting.

This reminds me of the following famous Sunni hadith.

"Verily Allah will not make my community agree on error"

Surprise! Surprise! There's so much agreement on errors that I think the hadith (above) must be a hoax.

The month of Ramadhan is starting

This message was posted on the najaf.org website

The Office of His Eminence Ayatullah Al-Udhma Seestani (long may he live) – in Najaf has issued a statement informing Momineen that the sighting of the Ramadhan moon crescent has been ascertained by His Eminence (long may he live) and that tomorrow Saturday is the first day of Ramadhan in Iraq and all Arab and nearby Islamic countries as well as African countries, Australia, New Zealand and North and South America.

As for the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy and related European countries the first day of the blessed month of Ramadhan will be Sunday.
We ask Allah Almighty to let this be a month of goodness and blessings upon all Muslims for ‘He is All hearing and answers prayers.’

Not a good idea

I'm abandoning the moon sighting mission. It wasn't a good idea. Maghrib is late because it's summer now. So, the sunset is pretty late. I can't really do moon sighting from home. The trees are blocking my line of sight.

I guess the best place to view the crescent would probably be on a beach or the top of the mountain.

Anyway, I just found out that the Saudis are again doing the moon sighting wrongly or they probably don't care anymore. Some are taking Friday as the first of the month of Ramadhan. There's no way you can ever see the crescent today. It's astronomical impossible except for a few places in South America and Africa.

Still waiting to see some official anouncement.

Do it yourself moon sighting

I'm going to try to see if I can sight the new crescent myself.

I'll be looking for it later in the evening, today and tomorrow. I doubt I would be seeing anything today since the crescent would not be visible today. But tomorrow, it would most certainly be visible.

I wont be using any optical aid.

The birth of the new moon is on Thursday

Based on the astronomical calculation, the birth of the new moon is on Thursday July 19th, 2012. However, the new crescent (hilal) would not be seen/sighted with naked eyes. With the help of optical aids, the possibility of sighting it on Thursday would be very slim. Based on the visibility map, displayed prominently on the moon sighting site, there are few places in South America and Africa where the moon might be seen using the optical aids.

So, the first of the month of Ramadhan would be unlikely on Friday July 20th.

The earliest to start the month would be Saturday for some people. While for others it could be Sunday.

I'll update when I hear something new.

Away!

Blog will not be updated until further notice.

Chapter Nine and Ten

Chapter Nine is about a non-Muslim sect, Essenes and their tenets. This could either be a Christian or a Jewish Sect. Just skimmed the chapter. Not reading much.

Chapter Ten is about Pythogoras, the Mathematician.

Everything written in this chapter is mostly based on Greek or Egyptian philosophies.

The Pythagorean system embraced three degrees, with a fourth as a supreme entrance into the highest knowledge.

The Pythagorean Sect had their own initiation ceremony and teaching. They were pretty obsessed with the number three. They saw everything in terms of three or trinity.

The Triad, or ternary law, is accordingly the constitutive life of things, and the real key to life, the corner stone of esoteric science, which Pythagoras made the foundation of his system.

Pythagorean could be connected to the Druids. See the quote below

amblichus also tells us that a visitor to Pythagoras was Abaris the Hyperborean, who came to Crotona from a distant land in order that he might collect gold for his temple, and that Pythagoras learned much from him. Now this Abaris is considered by many distinguished writers on the Druids to have been identical with Abhras, who, according to ancient Irish legendary history, is stated to have travelled from Ireland to distant countries, and after a long time to have returned by way of Scotland, where he remained for seven years, bringing a new system of religion. From this Godfrey Higgins concludes 2 that the Druids were Pythagoreans.

Here's an interesting saying from Pythagoras about the God

Pythagoras has left us the following beautiful conception of the Deity: 'GOD is neither the object of sense, nor subject to passions ; but invisible, only intelligible, and supremely intelligent. In His Body he is like the Light, and in His Soul He resembles Truth. He is the Universal Spirit that pervades and diffuses itself over all Nature. All things receive their life from Him. There is but One, Only GOD, Who is not, as some are apt to imagine, seated above the World beyond the Orb of the Universe ; but being Himself All in All, He sees all the beings that fill His immensity : the Only Principle, the Light of Heaven, the Father of all. He produces everything, He orders and disposes everything. He is the Reason, the Life and the Motion of all things."

Chapter Eight - Metawileh

Chapter Eight is about the Metawileh.

I don't have a clue about Metawileh. The book stated that they are the Syrian Shiites.

Google doesn't return good results for this search term. It points back to the book I am currently reading.

Their belief system is not really controversial. Everything mentioned in the book seems to be based on the belief of the Shia Ithna Ashari (twelver).

Their leader is a mujtahid, a kind of doctor of divinity, who has completed his studies in Irak, and has returned with satisfactory testimonials of his having attained a high degree of learning and piety.

The Metawileh rejected the doctrines of the Trinity and the divinity of Jesus. They believe Jesus to be a mere man, a prophet, like Muhammad, sent by the God to teach men the knowledge of God.

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.

Discovery of a Higgslike Particle

Too soon to tell but this was the news yesterday


The researchers at CERN discovered Higgslike Particle (or the God Particle)

According to the Standard Model, the Higgs boson is the only manifestation of an invisible force field, a cosmic molasses that permeates space and imbues elementary particles with mass. Particles wading through the field gain heft the way a bill going through Congress attracts riders and amendments, becoming ever more ponderous.

Without the Higgs field, as it is known, or something like it, all elementary forms of matter would zoom around at the speed of light, flowing through our hands like moonlight. There would be neither atoms nor life.


Ten things you may want to know about Higgs Boson

7. Standard particle theory will be incomplete even if the Higgs particle is discovered.

The Higgs boson is the last undiscovered particle predicted by the Standard Model, a beautiful mathematical framework physicists use to describe the smallest bits of matter and how they interact. Experimental results have time and again validated the model's other predictions. But finding the Higgs boson would not close the book on particle physics. While the Standard Model accounts for fundamental forces such as electromagnetism and the strong nuclear force, it cannot make sense of gravity, which is disproportionately weak compared to the other forces. One possible explanation is that we experience only a fraction of the force of gravity because most of it acts in hidden extra dimensions.

Interesting Documentary about Qatar

Qatar: A tiny country asserts powerful influence

Bob Simon: I think Americans are going to be shocked about a few things here: That there are no taxes. That electricity is free. Health care is free. Education is free. Sounds like a paradise.

The work is being done by a million man army of immigrants: 94 percent of Qatar's labor force is foreign; Filipinos, Indians, Nepalese mainly - creating a home for a mere 250,000 Qataris. Paying for it? No problem. Qatar sits on top of the third largest natural gas reserves on the planet.

Sheik Hamid bin Jasim: Everything is free. That become, like, a part of our culture.
Sheik Hamid bin Jasim is Qatar's prime minister.
Bin Jasim: Even when the-- people died, they were-- we take care of them.
Simon: Free funerals.
Bin Jasim: Yes.
Simon: From cradle to grave--
Bin Jasim: Yes, yes.
Simon:--everything's taken care of.

Those "problems" - the chaos, violence and killings throughout the Middle East are not cooling down at all - and many Arab leaders say, to a large extent, it is the emir's fault.

That's because of the television network he created 15 years ago. It's called Al Jazeera and it does something unprecedented in the Arab world. It covers the news. It's on the air 24 hours a day, broadcasts in Arabic and English and is widely considered to be the engine of the Arab Spring.

Simon: This was the first and the only network in the Arab world that was independent. Everyone else was just doing what their government told them to do.

Bin Khalifa: Of course, it caused us a lot of problem with the top people in the Arab countries.

Simon: You say that Al Jazeera created problems for some leaders in the Middle East. It created big problems. It got them overthrown.

Faisal al Qasim: We Arabs have been fond over the years of hiding our dirt under the carpet.

Faisal al Qasim is the host of one of Al Jazeera's most popular talk shows.

Al Qasim: We are here to reveal everything, to cover everything. That's why they don't like us. We are talking here about Arab governments, Arab regimes. I'm not talking about the Arab people. The Arab people love Al Jazeera.

Egyptians sure loved it last year. Thousands of protesters in Tahrir Square watched themselves and their own revolution "live" on Al Jazeera.

Al Qasim: And nobody can negate the fact that Al Jazeera played a big role in what happened in Egypt at the time.

Simon: Here at Al Jazeera, are you covering the news or do you have an agenda?

Al Qasim: What is wrong with transforming the Arab world from tyranny and despotism into a democracy? What's wrong with that? If there is an agenda, it's a very good agenda.

I Don't Like the First Cause Argument

Wikipedia states the Kalām cosmological argument as

Everything that has a beginning of its existence has a cause of its existence;
The universe has a beginning of its existence;
Therefore:

The universe has a cause of its existence.

I know that a lot of Christians and Muslims believe in the cosmological argument but I don't really believe in it. I think it is just created by religious people to justify the existence of God.