My Testimony

I recently read a well-sourced article about a group seeking to wage “spiritual warfare” to gain world domination that has a lot of influence on American politics.  The beliefs and activities of this group are all the more shocking to me because I grew up being taught them.

This is my testimony:

I grew up in a church who taught its members to ‘wage spiritual warfare’, such as ‘loosing angels’ or ‘casting hedges of protection.’  We were even promised that we would rule, as gods, like God, over our own realms in heaven.  Nowhere, not even in the Bible, does Allah a/k/a God command these activities, grant the powers to conduct them, or promise such powers.  The angels are only under his command.  It is only he who can protect, though our requests for it may be a factor in His doing so.

So where does this idea, these supposed powers, come from?  Not from the known revealed books (the scrolls of Abraham, the Taurah of Moses, the Psalms of David, or the Gospel of Jesus), the little of them that is preserved in the Bible, or what has been added to them.  The fixation on Satan- even as an adversary- is both telling and ironic:  they deviate from revelation and/or scripture because of him, so it is him that they truly follow.

This is not an accusation.  It’s not a manipulation of logic.  It’s scriptural. 

Turn to Genesis 3.5.  There, the serpent promises Eve is that “ye shall be as gods.”  The Qur-an confirms this event in several places:  7.20, 20.120.  That is not Allah’s promise, it is Satan’s promise.  It is his promise that they are walking in.  Even if some mystical powers are mentioned elsewhere in the Bible, it is not claimed that a prophet under revelation from Allah, is saying that the people will have them.  Even if such a claim is made, there is no way to prove it to people who don’t already believe it.  So that leaves us with only one available conclusion.

The belief in having divine powers is a belief based on a promise from Satan.  In Arabic, and most likely it’s fellow Semitic colleagues Hebrew and Aramaic, the word for Satan means “perverter”.  Here, in my church and the larger NAR movement, divine powers and roles are being claimed by humans.

Many people, of course, do not follow a religion or scripture.  Nonetheless, it is clear that claims to have (and intent to somehow exercise) magical-esoteric-spiritual powers and the quest for world domination are problematic in any setting, particularly politics.

America's own Taliban

The use of biblical rhetorical in both the case of the church I grew up in and the NAR is a disguise.   The Bible and certainly not the books revealed to Abraham, Moses, David, and Jesus are not to blame.  In fact, the same thing has been done to many scriptures.  Read Paramahamsa Yogananda’s autobiography.  In it, scripture is discarded in man’s quest to achieve divinity, and he claims that his guru attained it upon his death and explained it to him in a vision.  There are mystical-esoteric-cryptic movements riding the back of every revealed religion that all have striking similarities and parallels.  I picked up on this at the least religious point in my life and even made a presentation about it in a comparative religions class.  The similarities of these many means that they are in fact one, approaching the same goal of godhood and dominion from many paths.   E pluribus unum.  Write this off as “conspiracy theory” if you want to, but not before you read the research.

He said: My Lord! because Thou hast made life evil to me, I will certainly make (evil) fair-seeming to them on earth, and I will certainly cause them all to deviate

“Except Thy servants among them, sincere and purified

(Allah) said: “This (way of My sincere servants) is indeed a way that leads straight to Me.

Surely. as regards My servants, you have no authority ,over them except those among the deviators who follow you.

(Qur-an 15.39-42)

Behold! We said to the angels: “Bow down unto Adam”: They bowed down except Iblis: He said, “Shall I bow down to one whom You Created from clay?”

He said: “Do you see this (creature) who You Have Honored above me?! If You Give me time until the Day of Judgment, I will surely bring his descendants under my influence – all but a few!”

(Qur-an 17.61-2)
YUSUFALI: When they do aught that is shameful, they say: “We found our fathers doing so”; and “Allah commanded us thus”: Say: “Nay, Allah never commands what is shameful: do ye say of Allah what ye know not?”

(Qur-an 7.28)

to Sufi, with love

dear sufi and tasawwuf-orientated,

if sufi means wool-clad and tasawwuf means the wearing of wool, then i am a sufi…

…in the winter…

if it means getting close to Allah, then i say Islam is surrender; not unity, and Allah is one, with no partner; and He said “the most beloved things with which my slaves comes nearer to me is what I have enjoined upon him”, and “I did not create man and jinns except to worship Me”

if it means searching for hidden meanings, then i refer you to Qur-an 3.7

if they mean approaching Islam like a greek school of philosophy, then i say Islam is its own methodology

if they mean assimilating into the yogic guru tradition, then i say mysticism is a lie wrapped in a thousand scented silk veils

if they mean performing no end of philosophical theatrics to make Islam consistent with modern western (greco-roman judeo-christian) standards, then i say Allah’s Word is superior.  if some Muslims fail to live up to it, it is they, not Islam, who are in need of correction

if they mean every religion is one, or that all people are saved, or that everybody is a Muslim, i say Qur-an 98, and 4.48, and 2.161-2

if they mean no end of apologetics and abrogation to make Islam UN- & Ivy League-compliant, i say check the human rights record of the people who sign these treaties, and, either way, nobody believes you

if they mean being kind, generous and good, i say these traits are present in the Islamic texts without being associated with wool

if they mean hating and mocking salafis & wahhabis, then i say it means hating and mocking Muslims who are no more misguided than yourselves

if they mean k-mart shopping with the Deen, fabricating, accepting or leaving whatever makes life amongst kuffaar the easiest, i say they will never be pleased with you until you leave your religion (Qur-an 2.120), & even then they will hate you, because you’re a traitor and a wannabe

if they mean there is no such thing as military Jihaad, i ask them why it is only Islam that must abandon this, and how Islam stood in the first place

if they mean seeing al-Khidr, i say that he and everyone greater than him is obligated to obey Muhammad, Allah’s Messenger, SAA&s

if it means seeing men in dreams that you’ve never seen before, i ask how you can be sure who you are seeing, if you’ve never seen them before (i’d like to ask paul, who founded christianity, the same question)

if it means revering holy men, i say revere the One who they revered, who had power over their life and death

if it means numerology, symbols and magic, i ask if they trade that which is worse for that which is better, and whether you can prove these are not pre-Islamic holdovers, or outside customs

if it means celebrating every holiday and festival, i ask when Islam became a culture

if they mean we are free from the Sharee’ah, i ask which verses of the Qur-an are invalid, & when & how they became so, & who decides this.  for verily, if the kuffaar declare a shar’ee law to be good tomorrow that you are not following today, you would declare that it has always been part of Islam, and if they change their minds the next day, you would swear that it had never been part of Islam, without even opening the Qur-an

if they mean that anyone’s interpretation of Islam is valid, i ask them to try that in any academic subject, and when Islam became any fool’s game

if they mean anything besides being a Muslim, i say they are not Islam

if they mean anything more than being a Muslim, i say they are not Islam

if they mean being a Muslim, then i say what a salafi said to me:  just be a Muslim then

love,

your label-defying brother

p.s. “and be not of the polytheists, of those who split up their religion and became sects, each rejoicing in what was with it…” – Qur-an 30.31-32

what Islam is

It is your Guardian-Cherisher, Allah

It is the Life of Muhammad

It is the Recitation, full of Wisdom

It is Those arranged in Ranks, and Those who repulse, and Those who read out the Remembrance

It is the Recitation, full of Warnings

It is the manifest Book

It is the Book that makes things clear

It is the glorious Recitation

It is the Those that scatter, and the Those heavily burdened, and Those floating with gentle ease, and Those that distribute by Command

It is the Sky with its numerous Paths

It is the Lord of the Sky and the Earth

It is the Mount, and a Book inscribed, and a Scroll unfolded, and the House much frequented, and the Canopy upraised, and the Sea filled with swell

It is the Star when It sets

It is the Setting of the Stars

It is the Pen and what They write

It is Whatsoever you see, and Whatsoever you see not

It is the Lord of the Points of Sunrise in the East and Sunset in the West

It is the Moon, and the Night when It withdraws, and the Dawn

It s the day of Resurrection, and the self-critical Soul

It is those who are sent one after another, then blow violently

It is those that scatter things far and wide, then separate them one from another, then bring the Reminder that excuses or warns

It is Those who tear out violently, and Those who pull out gently, Those who swim along, and Those who race forward, and those who arrange to complete Commands

It is when the Sun is wound around Itself

It is when the Stars have fallen

It is when the Mountains have vanished

It is when the She-Camels about to deliver are neglected

It is when the wild Beasts are herded together

It is when the Seas blaze and overflow

It is when the Souls are joined

It is when the female infant (buried alive) is asked for what sin she was killed

It is when the Pages are laid open

It is when the Sky is unveiled

It is when Hell is set ablaze

It is when the Garden is brought near

It is when the Sky is torn apart, and the Planets are scattered from their Orbits, and the Seas are surged forth, and the Graves are overturned

It is when the Sky is split, and obeys its Lord- for It must

It is when the Earth is stretched forth, and has cast out All that was in It, becoming empty, and obeys its Lord- for It must

It is the Redness of Sunset, the Night and whatever it Enshrouds, and the Moon when it is Full

It is the Heaven, full of Constellations

It is the Day Promised

It is the Witness and the Witnessed

It is the Heaven and the  Star of piercing Brightness

It is the Dawn It is the ten Nights

It is the Even and the Odd

It is the Night when It departs

It is this City of Makkah

It is the Progenitor and all whom he’s begotten

It is the Sun and its Brightness, the Moon that follows It, the Day that shows up Its Brightness, and the Night that conceals It

It is the Sky and Him who Built It, and the Earth and Him who Spread It

It is the Soul, and Him who Proportioned It, then Showed It what is right and wrong for It

It is the Night as It envelops, and the Day as It emerges in Brilliance

It is Him who Created Male and Female

It is the Forenoon, and the Night when It darkens and stills

It is the Fig, the Olive, Mount Sinai, and this City of Security, Makkah

It is the Steeds that run panting, striking Sparks with by their Hooves, scouring to the Dawn raid, raising Clouds of Dust, penetrating en Masse to the Midst of their Foe

It is the Time, by which Humanity is in Loss