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Sunday, February 11, 2007

Should

The operative word in yesterday's question was "should." And it's an operative word in the messages from the various prophets mentioned yesterday.

"Should." Believe this, not that. Do this way, not that. The "should" is emphatically explicit in that stone monument they wanted to leave standing at the courthouse in Gainesville, Georgia: "Thou shalt not...." Children want such explicit direction, such guidance. Should I fold the toilet paper, Papa?

The toilet paper question, of course, is one of those mundane ones, not one of Gauguin's big three, "D'où venons-nous? Que sommes-nous? Où allons-nous?"* But you may have noticed that the prophets' various messages include, and may even emphasize by the relative number of words they use to convey, what to do in many and sundry mundane situations. They have to do, for example, with how to select and prepare food, how many times a day to pray and what bodily position to assume to do so, or how to punish people who transgress about this, that, or the other thing. I believe, but haven't verified yet, that Muhammad even prescribed which hand to use to administer the toilet paper.

Do you need that?

[the unfolding may only have begun...]

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* "Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going?"

12 comments:

  1. Peace Moristotle,
    The "shoulds" are many in all religions, but where did the source of that come from?

    Prophet Muhammad was sent to an illiterate people, who bombarded him with questions on all the mundane/sundry stuff. He also managed to live to a ripe 63 years old, and people could observe and take note on everything he did and more.

    What level of guidance do you need? To what extent do you want to seek? That's your personal unfolding; and each person's needs vary to the point that he would even answer two questioners with the same question (and give them two different answers).

    May your unfolding be full of wonder and wisdom (amin).

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  2. Peace Maliha, Very nice unfolding of the post's concluding question! I particularly like your emphasis on a spiritual quest's being centric to the seeker. It fits in well with my observation that people seem to believe more or less what they want to believe.

    Your comment is also an insightful explanation of why so much of the text of the Quran (and also of the Judaic Talmud and the Old Testament especially of the Christian Bible) addresses "mundane matters." That is, as I further interpret your explanation, those passages were addressed to people who were essentially children, even if adults. Is that fair?

    If so, I fear that so much of Islam seems to be in the hands of people who wish to enforce the mundane in an autocratic (theocratic) style.

    I had hoped (without saying so) that you might be able to say whether Muhammad actually did "prescribe which hand to use to administer the toilet paper"? I have googled and found some material that at least implies so (on a website titled "Islamic Laws of Ayatullah Khoei," whoever he is or was).

    See my belated comment back to you on your comment on yesterday's post.

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  3. Peace Fellow M,
    Contextualizing the answer to your question, I have to posit this: he addressed desert dwellers, who used their hands to eat, in a place that didn't have too much water and personal cleanliness was subject to priortization. So again, reserving one hand for your bathroom business and the other to eat was suggested; as well as other basic prescription on personal hygiene.

    That Islam might be in the hands of people who want to emphasize the mundane, it's a fair statement to make; but I've met so many like-spirited-minded scholars and seekers; to grant me hope.

    As far as Revelation addressing adults who are children like; i think spiritually we might all fall into an infant like state unless and until we take our spiritual growth seriously and actually "walk the walk" (my favorite phrase.) Then we grow into our humanity and expand our potentiality.

    I hope that makes sense?

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  4. Moristotle

    Your post gives one the clear choice of taking the high road or the low road. Of course, I'll take the low. What about the toilet paper? is what we all want to know.

    Yes, toilet paper didn't always exist, and as Maliha points out, desert people used one hand for eating and the other for hygiene. Thus, the ancient punishment of cutting off one's right hand was even harsher than it at first appears. It made one a social pariah. Would you shake hands with such a person? Where had that hand been?

    It's in one of Michener's books, Caravans, or perhaps Iberia.

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  5. Dear Maliha, Your explanation of the likely reason for Muhammad's advice about which hand to use to wipe seems very cogent to me. And it even underscores my point that how many times to fold is an "important question of life." I thought I was being ironic.

    But now I have this very interesting historic comparison facing me: in the seventh century a desert prophet was advising illiterate shepherds which hand to wipe with; in the twentieth a success coach was advising upwardly mobile young women how many times to fold!

    I guess what's really striking (besides the fact that we're all still concerned about this basic bodily function) is that thirteen centuries ago the advice came from a "messenger of God," and today it comes from a secular woman. I wish, now, that I knew more about what the success coach told her audience that day. Was there any advice about being "spiritually successful," or was it all about success in the marketplace? (I suspect that there were both, for I've heard a lot of "motivational speeches," and the best ones address their audience as "whole men and women.")

    Maybe times haven't changed so much as we imagine?

    At any rate, you have helped me a great deal to more effectively read the Quran, which I am just beginning to study. (A dear friend whom I haven't even met has sent me a fine copy of Muhammad Asad's The Message of the Quran.)

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  6. Dear Tom, thanks for taking the left hand/right hand a step further. In fact, now that you mention it, I think I'd already become familiar with the connection but forgotten it.

    Were you saying, in your remark that my "post gives one the clear choice of taking the high road or the low road," that I was setting up a straw man or something? Asking a question that tried to force the respondent to "go my way" (which you of course refused to do)?

    Just the suggestion (which I obviously "got") gives me pause to look inward at my motives. Thanks for that. It's one very useful thing that friends do for one another.

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  7. Moristotle

    Oh, no, no, no. You give me too much credit!

    I just have a fascination with toilet paper, that's all.

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  8. Ha! Tom, I guess my automatic look inward was hardly more than a neurotic's tic! Anyway, I wasn't seeing that I could have had any very devious motives for writing the post the way I did.

    Now, the psychoanalysis of your toilet paper fascination, that might be interesting...<smile>.

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  9. Hi Moristotle,

    Do you remember my comments about being Christian but not ever religious? I thought you might be amused to hear that I have found myself in a blogroll that seems to consist largely of American Christian women. It's the sort of thing I have nightmares about. (Sorry, now I think of it, you're probably American!)

    As a matter of interest, Jesus said the path to eternal life could be summed up like this: Love God and your neighbour as yourself. Can be incredibly hard to do but not very prescriptive?

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  10. Liz, I certainly take no offense at your having had nightmares about such an association with American...women. Think nothing of it. Though I have been an American for 64+ years, I agree with the Dixie Chicks about many things American. (Forgive me if you don't need that reference explained, but a member of that singing group got into trouble by stating that she was ashamed to be from the same state as George W. Bush.)

    What's not prescriptive about Jesus's advice? How could he have said more? How could he have known any better than we how we would love ourselves? I think he did know, however, that thinking about that advice deeply can teach us something about how we should love ourselves.

    And I'm already wondering how following Jesus's advice might help me feel differently about the aforementioned "president"....

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  11. Thank you for explaining about the Dixie Chicks; I had seen a reference to them on a blog and how they were a disgrace but I didn't know why. Now I know!

    Yes, I suppose Jesus' advice was prescriptive. I meant more that he didn't specify little petty rules. Two big rules, but keep those and the rest falls into place. That's the theory anyway.

    I'm not sure it works in regard to said president though!

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  12. Ah, Liz, I'm glad that I explained about the Dixie Chicks!

    Jesus's usually omitting to specify "little petty rules" is one of the most admirable things about his teachings, along with his parables, which require us to search within ourselves for their potential meaning. I'm feeling all the more this way as I get into my reading of the Quran, which seems to be going to get very prescriptive indeed (in your sense). And, of course, the Old Testament is very much that way.

    Perhaps Jesus's asking us to "go within" for guidance is part of what is meant by his coming to replace the letter of the law with its spirit (or something like that—help me out; I can't think of the words for this at the moment). It also hooks up, for me, with his saying that "the kingdom of heaven is within," and that, in turn, hooks up with our being, with Jesus, "sons of God." Having got that, we don't need anyone to get revelation for us.

    Please offer some criticism for these whacky and wildly leaping connections. Thanks, Liz.

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