Ahanu
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Hello, I was reading late last night from Farid Esak's interview inside a book called Taking Back Islam. Farid Esak said:
"Shortly after the bombing happened, as I was teaching a class and talking about Muhammad's life in Mecca and Medina, it ocurred to me that it is a problem for us Muslims that we have only two theological paradigms and precedents on which to base our lives, and that that limitation is in part responsible for the mess that we are in. The one is the paradigm of a community of oppressed people in Mecca, and the other is of a Muslim community that is in control of Medina. What we don't have is a model for existing with other people in equality.
But there is a third way, what I call the Abyssinian paradigm, which refers to the time when the Prophet sent a group of his followers from Mecca to go and live in Abyssinia. They lived there peacefully for many years, and some of them did not return, even after Muslims were in power in Mecca. They did not make any attempts to turn Abyssinia into an Islamic state. They sent good reports back about the king under whom they were living and how happy they were living there.
This is the third paradigm that Muslims today more than ever need to revive because it is crucial for the sake of human survival and coexistence. Until recently, the notion of coexistence and cultural tolerance was pretty controversial for mainstream Islamic thinkers, but I was surprised at a recent Muslim conference to hear more and more people talking about the need to revive the Abyssinian paradigm. Mainstream Islam is beginning to listen to what we are saying."
Currently, I have been on my own personal investigation of what Jihad is. Is it the meaning that the terroist give to Jihad, or is it the meaning that progressive Muslim scholars and moderate Muslims give to Jihad? This is just what I was thinking, so it is a discussion question that I really am not posting to discuss right now. At the same time, I have been reading from a book called Jihad on us all: the roots and branches of militant Islam. I am hoping that I will learn more about how terroists use the passages of the Koran to justify their acts. I learned that leaders like Siyyid Qutb, Osama bin Laden, and Muhammad bin Wahhab all have the same thing in common. They do not have that mentality of "my religion for me and your religion for you" mentality that that Prophet's followers who were sent to Abyssinia had, for instance. I do have to ask something: Where can I find the Abyssinian paradigm in the Koran? Quotes from some passages in the Koran would be great.But there is a third way, what I call the Abyssinian paradigm, which refers to the time when the Prophet sent a group of his followers from Mecca to go and live in Abyssinia. They lived there peacefully for many years, and some of them did not return, even after Muslims were in power in Mecca. They did not make any attempts to turn Abyssinia into an Islamic state. They sent good reports back about the king under whom they were living and how happy they were living there.
This is the third paradigm that Muslims today more than ever need to revive because it is crucial for the sake of human survival and coexistence. Until recently, the notion of coexistence and cultural tolerance was pretty controversial for mainstream Islamic thinkers, but I was surprised at a recent Muslim conference to hear more and more people talking about the need to revive the Abyssinian paradigm. Mainstream Islam is beginning to listen to what we are saying."