The Divine Feminine?
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PEace all
Interesting read... would like to hear your thoughts
Could it be that Allah is neither male nor female because He is both? I don't mean genitals, but characteristics. Read on
http//www.sol.com.au/kor/22_02.htm
Fatimah, Mary and the Divine Feminine in Islam
At the very core of Islamic philosophy there is evidence of what can be called a vision of the Motherhood of God.
In the first Sura of the Koran, the Fatiha that is recited by millions of Muslims in their daily devotions, God is called Al Rahmin, the merciful and compassionate one. ?Ramin? is derived from the Arabic for ?womb? or ?matrix?, mercy is also a feminine attribute, and so Muslims are reminded that God can be either woman or man. Every day God is compared to a mother and woman.
While the Muslim vision is often perceived to be authoritarian and punitive the Koran, on close inspection, is filled with descriptions and vision of God?s more feminine attributes such as gentleness, providence, love, universal compassion and tender-heartedness.
Muhammad was himself a living example of the Divine?s infinite capacity for forgiveness many times he forgave enemies who had committed unspeakable atrocities against him and his brethren.
The religious intolerance that characterises the behaviour of many Muslim communities today is inconsistent with the heritage of tolerance that is professed by the Islamic tradition. For example, the Koran clearly states in several passages that any person who lives a life of holy reverence is welcomed into paradise regardless of their religion. Muhammad openly praises both Judaism (Abraham is deeply respected within the Koran) and Christianity (Muhammad frequently praises Jesus and Mary in the Koran).
Even more surprising is the Koran?s reverence for Mary, mother of Christ. Muhammad (and also in later Islamic theological scriptures) regarded Mary as the most marvellous of all women, a high adept and living example of the pure and holy life. Later Koranic commentaries describe Mary as an intervening force between God (Allah) and humanity. This intervening force is characterised by Allah?s mercy, forgiveness, sweetness and humility- the embodiment of Allah?s love for creation.
When Muhammad retook Mecca he began a programme of removing the pagan influences from the Kaaba, the most holy of Muslim sites. He removed many frescoes and images that he considered inauspicious but he specifically left on the walls a fresco of the Virgin Mary and her child.
In one of the most powerful Hadiths ( prophetic sayings of Muhammad) it is reported that Muhammad said, ?Paradise is at the feet of the Mother?. Does this suggest that the feminine aspect of God is an important and essential pathway to the attainment of supreme consciousness?
Muhammad?s peak defining experience, called the Meraj, saw him elevated through the seven heavens to the realm of God Almighty at the resplendant Sidrath where he communed with God, received his divine visions and instructions and was placed on the inexorable course of his life-mission to establish Islam. Muhammad was escorted by the archangel Gabriel (a masculine force) but the vehicle upon which Muhammad rode was the beautiful ?Buraq?. The Buraq was a white horse with wings and the face of a woman! Clearly suggesting that the great power by which Muhammad was elevated to the level of supreme consciousness was ultimately feminine in nature! Some scholars say that the Buraq is an Islamic symbol of the Kundalini, a force that Eastern Yogis describe as the Goddess or Divine Mother.
Fatimah is another prominent female in the Islamic tradition. Muhammad revered Fatimah as if she were a divine being, saying "Allah, The Most High; is pleased when Fatimah is pleased. He is angered; whenever Fatimah is angered!"
Whenever Fatimah would go to the house of Muhammad, he would stand up out of respect for her and honour her by giving her a special place to seat herself in his house. He regarded her as a sort of primordial woman, a symbol of divine womanhood giving her many holy names, such as Siddiqah; The Honest, The Righteous; Al-Batool, Pure Virgin; Al-Mubarakah, The Blessed One; .Al-Tahirah, The Virtuous, The Pure, Al-Zakiyah ;The Chaste, The Unblemished ;Al-Radhiatul Mardhiah, She who is gratified and who shall be satisfied; Al-Muhaddathah, A person other than a Prophet, that the angels speak to; Al-Zahra, The Splendid; Al-Zahirah, The Luminous.
Shias revere the person of Fatimah, Muhammad's daughter and mother of the line of inspired imams who embodied the divine truth for their generation. As such, Fatimah is associated with Sophia, the divine wisdom, which gives birth to all knowledge of God. She has thus become another symbolic equivalent of the Great Mother.
Sunni Islam has also drawn inspiration from the female. The philosopher Muid ad-Din ibn al-Arabi (1165-1240) saw a young girl in Mecca surrounded by light and realised that, for him, she was an incarnation of the divine Sophia. He believed that women were the most potent icons of the sacred, because they inspired a love in men which must ultimately be directed to God, the only true object of love.
More generally speaking Muslims are reminded in the Koran that humans can experience and speak about God only in symbols. Everything in the world is a sign (aya) of God; so women can also be a revelation of the divine. Ibn al-Arabi argued that humans have a duty to create theophanies for themselves, by means of the creative imagination that pierces the imperfect exterior of mundane reality and glimpses the divine within. The faculty of imagination is commonly associated with the Divine Feminine.
While official Islam may not consistently describe the role of the Divine Feminine, this principle has been described and explored at length in the more esoteric Islamic tradition of Sufism. Sufism emphasises passionate, mystical adoration of God. Many Sufis (and other mystics in other religions) seek a spiritual union between themselves and the divine principle not unlike that between a child (the Sufi) and his mother (God) or a bride (Sufi) and the husband (God).
The Sufi poetry teaches the feminine qualities of joy, love, tenderness and self sacrifice on a path of true knowledge derived from the spiritual heart. The spiritual rebirth of the individual is not unlike the trial and tribulation of physical childbirth, according to the Sufis. They take the principle of divine love and use it to facilitate the process of alchemical transformation from mundane human to spiritual being.
The fanaticism that we see in modern Islam is a new development in a religion that, in its early history, was famous for its tolerance and respect for other religions. In Islam?s classical period in medieval Spain and Egypt perhaps only Buddhism rivalled Islam?s tolerance. The fundamentalism that characterises the behaviour of many of today?s Muslims is in fact anti-Koranic.
A Sufi Ode to the Divine Mother
On the face of the earth there is no one more beautiful than You
Wherever I go I wear your image in my heart
Whenever I fall in a despondent mood I remember your image
And my spirit rises a thousand fold
Your advent is the blossom time of the Universe
O Mother you have showered your choicest blessings upon me
Also remember me on the Day of Judgement
I don?t know if I will go to heaven or hell
But wherever I go, please always abide in me.?Copyright Knowledge of Reality Magazine 1996-2006. All rights reserved.
Any comments, queries please email us. -
PEace
I know some of the info in the article is a bit on the shirky side but i figured instead of picking parts i'd put the whole thing. ignore the shirky mother prayer and horses with women's faces and just examine the issue
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Peace be upon you,
God is above male and female, the manifester of both )
And we were created according to God's pattern, thats why we all have both testosterone and estrogen in our bodies.
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Peace bro Idolfree
Well i didn't mean genitalia at all like God is a man or a woman. I meant more so the characteristics of Allah that encompass the best and utopian qualities of both the feminine and masculine.
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Allah-u-Abha!
I believe as well that God is the possessor of all wonderful attributes, and transcends gender. I don't believe that there are any set of personality characteristics assigned merely for women and for men.
There are men who are nurturing, loving and sweet, and there are women who are valiant, fierce and strong. Different cultures in the world attest to this, and it is just one of the many colours that God Emself brought upon Eir Creation. D Thus, such Godly attributes are merely culturally assigned, but all were created by God Emself!
Although colloquially I may call God my Father or Mother (spiritually), Ey transcends these to the greatest extent to unknowability. But I know that Ey certainly would possess traits that are stereotypical to an earthly mother or father.
But in any case, God is my Loving Parent, and I know that Ey cares for me and watches over me with smiles when people and myself strive to do Eir Will, and concern and being upset when I delve into imperfections (things contrary to God's Will). As I feel that I myself feel that I transcend gender within, God transcends all and everything.
Much love,
Kevyn. -
Peace All
Yea i'm starting to think this isn't Islamic.
I think i was just intrigued by the article because i never thought of the word rahman and its root meaning and what that all implies.
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Peace All
Yea i'm starting to think this isn't Islamic.
I think i was just intrigued by the article because i never thought of the word rahman and its root meaning and what that all implies.
Not only that, but it's also like putting limitations on God's All-Pervasiveness and as the All-Transcending.
To me anyways.
God bless!
Kevyn. -
Peace be upon you Boost,
This is very "Islamic". The God creates acording to Its pattern..and the God creates in "PAIRS". There is male and female in all things...yin and yang if you will. Do not shy away from wisdom for fear it is not what others have talked about before.
The Divine feminine...how does one give birth and remain a virgin? Mental Creation!! Thats how ;D That which you put in your nafs(feminine)..your subconcious, you give birth to. You are what you think and imagine you are. Let God impregnate your spirit/nafs(feminine) and bring forth Its righteous character.
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PEace Bro Kyle
WOW Did you know you have really original thoughts regarding Islam and the Quran? I really wish you'd write a book because it is truly novel and amazing!
I have a question When you say God is above Its creation but creates according to Its pattern... does that mean that there is a feminine and masculine side to God or am i not getting it...
That article really did open my eyes that I had a perception of God as masculine albeit not an old man in the sky so to speak but just a masculine figure... I definitely thought that thinking of God with any feminine qualities would be a big blasphemy. It made me at least realize my wrong perceptions in what God is. I'm still working on whether this all means that God is both or whether it means that God is neither but created both.
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Peace Bro AlMarhom
no I'm not saying God is like a female or like a male. I'm saying God might be the epitome of feminine as well as masculine qualities. The most virtuous and the absolute of these. And in that sense, God encompasses both feminine and masculine.
This is what I'm thinking and nothing devitating from that. I'm just not sure if that specific statement would be considered right in Islam
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Peace sis "BOOST",
Peace Bro AlMarhom
no I'm not saying God is like a female or like a male. I'm saying God might be the epitome of feminine as well as masculine qualities. The most virtuous and the absolute of these. And in that sense, God encompasses both feminine and masculine.
This is what I'm thinking and nothing devitating from that. I'm just not sure if that specific statement would be considered right in Islam
JK- The problem with this is indeed limiting to GOD to male and female attributes as GOD also posesses qualities which NEITHER man nor woman posess. So the correct understanding is Hes everything combined and Hes also the controller of evolution which cannot be said of any other being in the entire universe. GOD Bless!
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Peace Bro Johnny
I think the issue people are misunderstanding me with is not that i'm talking about God in reference to "man or woman". God is not a person to be a man or a woman. Still, the God has so many attributes found in the verses of the quran. I am of the belief that they are virtues for us to try to attain in our own lives. Those attributes encompass the best of feminine and masculine attributes. So am I limiting God if I view the attributes as a mix of both feminine and masculine?
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Peace sis "BOOST"
Peace Bro Johnny
I think the issue people are misunderstanding me with is not that i'm talking about God in reference to "man or woman". God is not a person to be a man or a woman. Still, the God has so many attributes found in the verses of the quran. I am of the belief that they are virtues for us to try to attain in our own lives. Those attributes encompass the best of feminine and masculine attributes. So am I limiting God if I view the attributes as a mix of both feminine and masculine?
JK- Yep and thts exactly my pt, not as you think tht i beleive ur viewing GOD as a person but tht your implying tht GOD's attribute are a mix of only male and female thts it. If you would have said that human male and female have attributes which are PART of GOD's infinite attributes, then it wouldve been correct but each attribute we have GOD has the same on an infinite level also. This pt must also be noted. GOD Bless!
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Salaam Aleikum,
Allah is all good Attributes combined into One. We have those attributes according to our biological needs. So for Allah it is just having an attribute, to us it may look like attributes are more female or male, but in reality they are just more compatible to male or female biological functions.
We call certain attributes as 'male' or 'female', but these attributes existed before there were any creatures created, before there was any male or female. Certain attributes were given to male and female, as these were compatible to the biological setup and functions.
So to say these Attributes are male or female is like saying a plastic bottle defines raw oil. Oil is used to define plastic, not the other way around. Same holds for the Attributes, they define human biological differences, but the our biological differences do not define the Attributes.
Also very important is that the Attributes explain what He DOES, not what He IS.
Allah is Above all we claim Him to be.
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Hi Everyone,
I hope everyone has been well since the last time I posted.
One thing that sticks out to me is the automatic assumption that "man and woman" is the same as "male and female" which is the same as "masculine and feminine"; they're being used interchangeably. I'm not sure that man/male/masculine are interchangeable at all. The same goes for woman/female/feminine. They're related however..or at least that should be the goal )
When referring to the God being "Feminine", I don't think this can be described by gender (woman) or physical (female) attributes like "giving, nurturing, kind, etc". Perhaps, Masculine and Feminine are Divine attributes that exists within and well above the physical world that we live...
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Peace All
THank you all for explaining your views. I'm still confused and I'm gonna have to contemplate this more before I comment on the posts
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Peace,
as i understand
GOD ALMIGHTY is beyond the beyond!
But Divine feminin exists!DIVINE feminin is within human heart! It is the womb! Womb of innocence! It emits blue light from it! blue light is the symbol of virgin Mary! The symbol of innocence! That womb carries the higher SELF within us! that Womb opens when we are in prayer! naked and vunerable! when we pray with passion and with deep need the DIVINE Feminin gives birth to the higher SELF. One remembers that he/ she is more tha I me mine. One remembers his premordial pledge to WITNESS and LOVE.
we will talk morre
peace,