It's All Good In Hyderbad!

Shalom my friends – this update is coming at you from the city of Hyderabad in Central India. This is the first leg in a religious epic that will take us to some grand places in Northern India. After we leave here, we will be going to Delhi and the Taj Mahal, then setting sail for Varanasi on the Ganges, I’ll be in Mumbai for my 21st birthday, and Udaipur in the desert state of Rajasthan will be our capstone. It’s outrageous that when we get back to Visthar on December 8th, there will be only 10 more days to absorb India before jetting off to the USA – whoa, we still have so much to learn!

Here are my feelings on the Religion and Culture course; this entire semester has sort of been preparation for these final weeks. Religious dialogue has kind of just been a typical thing for us ever since our first few plane rides together. So now that we are starting an intense course on faith and people, we kind of have this semi-foundation (at least a comfortable place for all of us students to have conversations on, say, Islam or Hinduism, more or less new territory for everyone). The class started first in Sharavanabellagolla and continues now to Hyderabad, a city where we are diving into Islam. Throughout my life, I have been introduced to this faith in a variety of locales. Here are some highlights from lectures:

* The holy text of Islam is the Koran – it is written in Arabic and is considered 100% valid only when read in that language. Reason for that is scriptural interpretation, interpolation, speculation is not tolerated. I remember when my mom came home from a Community Education class armed with an English version of the Koran. Pretty cool, huh? - she’s my hero!
The Koran was given to the prophet Muhammed from Allah (aka God) – this God is the same God that made the covenant with Abraham and sent Jesus of Nazareth to be another prophet for the religion. But Jesus isn’t salvation for Muslims – they believe in the life and teachings of this prophet. So as it has been explained to us, Muslims acknowledge both Judaism and Christianity as valid religions. It’s just that Muhammed came along later as the final prophet to create a spiritual seal. Fun Fact: “Jesus” is mentioned 72 times in the Koran; Muhammed is not featured there once.
-> And another thing: In the Bible, Jesus talks about how there will be a guide sent to the people to lead them spiritually (John 16). Christians believe that this guide is the Holy Spirit; Muslims believe that Muhammed is the one Jesus is talking about.

* The ultimate end in Islam is very similar Christianity. This is how it will go down: God will come for the Last Judgement on that day; Jesus will be there. So will another messenger named Mahdi. Jesus is going to be on the throne; Mahdi is going to be reunited with God as he has been wandering around since he was sent to earth (he is a short messenger who got apparently got lost among the melee of tall people; I really don’t have much to relay to y’all on this Lego-sized man – things were covered pretty quickly. Perhaps a link may help… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahdi

* God (aka Allah) is with us yet no one can define God. God is unfathomable, nameless, and formless. Once you begin defining God, God escapes you. God is absolute and is beyond your capacity to comprehend. (whoa, pronouns are clutch. Can’t really use a “he” or “she” when talking about God. And “it” seems just insulting – so that’s it.)

*The color of Islam is GREEN – it symbolizes fertility, hope, and peace. The doors of the mosques where we visited were painted a vivid shade. It’s hard to discriminate, but green would have been my choice if I were coming up with color schemes for faith.

*In Islam, Adam and Eve are created together. Adam wasn’t lonely; Eve wasn’t ever an afterthought of creation.

*Sufism – this is the mystical dimension of Islam. Rumi the poet was a Islamic mystic. It integrates elements of smoke (insense), drums, and dancing. Of mysticism: when they get to a certain level, mystics don’t belong to a religion anymore. They are spiritually undefined.

*One day, we watched as our lecturer prepared for his afternoon prayer. Muslims pray 5 times/day, facing Mecca. The prayer has a certain motion of bows, kneels, and arms movements coupled with petitions in Arabic. It was kind of hypnotic – watching it all put me in a temporary trance.

Look out for some pictures!

peace and love