Theos-Talk Archives (September 2006 Message tt00453)

Mark,
Too bad that isn't required reading in the madrassahs, isn't it? Was it by a Sufi? They were the highest form of Islam. They were practically exterminated by the Wahabbis and other such types.
Scribe

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Mark Jaqua 
  To: theos-talk@yahoogroups.com 
  Sent: Thursday, September 21, 2006 10:56 AM
  Subject: Theos-World Rats! to Ratzinger!


  Re Joe Ratzinger

  Maybe Joe Ratzinger (the pope) quoted 
  that stupid comment from the medeival 
  Islamic writer because he wanted to divert 
  attention from some of the genuinely 
  advanced Islamic thinking of the same 
  time-period. The Islamic countries were 
  the most advanced and only cultured 
  western areas and center of the intellectual 
  western world for a long period when 
  Europe was plunged into the dark ages 
  from the Catholic influence. Take for 
  instance the 14th century Islamic Ibn 
  Khaldun and his "The Muqaddimah - 'An 
  Introduction to History," (Princeton 
  University Press) which is full of 
  scientific and gnostic attitude and 
  that of Reason over blind religious 
  dogmatism. Here's an excerpt: 

  "Human souls are of three kinds. 
  One is by nature too weak to arrive at 
  spiritual perception..... a (second) kind 
  (of soul), through thinking moves in 
  the direction of spiritual intellection 
  and (a type of) perception that does 
  not need the organs of the body, because 
  of its innate preparedness for it. The 
  perceptions of this kind of soul extend 
  beyond the primary (intelligibilia) to 
  which primary human perception is restricted, 
  and cover the ground of inward observations, 
  which are all intuitive..... A (third) 
  kind is by nature suited to exchange 
  humanity altogether, both corporeal and 
  spiritual humanity, for angelicality of 
  the highest stage, so that it may actually 
  become an angel in the flash of a moment, 
  glimpse the highest group within their 
  own stage, and listen to essential speech 
  and divine address during that moment. 
  (Individuals possessing this kind of soul) 
  are prophets....) (p. 77)

  ===============



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