First off, we have the coranic schools, which I mentioned briefly yesterday. A religious education means that one leaves his family, lives with and studies under a marabout (religious leader, teacher; students are called talibes), and memorizes the Khoran (for which there are a number of different spellings, but this is the one our Islam professor uses most often). They do not, however, learn to read Arabic or what the text means, it's pure rote memorization. If they continue on, they will learn these things, but most do not. One aspect of this religious education is dependence on God. No matter how wealthy their families are, they are made to beg in the street for money in order to buy food for the day, or food itself. It really breaks my heart to see all these little boys out in the street like that, because it's not their choice. I give small change just about every day, and I'm glad to be able to do it, but I also know that it's just one day, and one or two boys. Just because it's a little good doesn't mean we shouldn't do it right?
Next, we have fasting. It's Lent, so it's something on my mind. I'm fasting from chocolate this year, which I realized had become a comfort food of mine. So far, it's messed with daily habits, but I like that because it reminds me why I'm doing it. It inspired me to do research on fasting for my Islam class, because they have the month of Ramadan. I've really enjoyed the articles I've been reading, and even just talking to my host family about it.
In class today, we talked about the Islamic version of sainthood. From what I understand, it's an experience of God in some way, like a dream or a vision. It sounded to me more akin to the baptism of the Holy Spirit than what we in the US would think of as sainthood. Our prof said that he'd had a vision of Jesus, which I've read in books on evangelism is pretty common. I always pray for Jesus to reveal Himself to non believers...interesting.
Last night, when my friend said goodnight to me, instead of the normal "pass the night in peace, may the angels protect you", he said, "may the angles forsake me to protect you". I wanted to ask more about that in class today, but didn't get the chance. Next time.
When I tell Mamy I'm not coming home for lunch, and will see her in the evening, she is very serious about saying inshallah (God willing). Today, she also gave me a lecture on being very careful with the young men, because most of them just want money or to go to the US. She told me maybe 1 in 10 were good, which she then changed to a 1/2. She said she'd pray that my friend was the good one.
Today, I found it interesting that our prof said Jesus was divine, but it was more so in relation to Mary than in Him actually being God. I see why Muslims and Catholics can live together so well here.
Our prof often says he likes the Protestants because they lobbied for language translations of the Bible, services held in not Latin, and music - "I love that Gospel music"
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I'm putting a warning on this last segment. Some people may be offended by this, but it's coming from what I know and believe about the Lord. I am not a pastor - I have not spent years studying these things, and I do not claim that I have all the answers. For the sake of simplicity, I included just one reference; please know that there are more for each point brought up. Now, if you still want to read it, please continue.
Our Islam professor said once in passing that Muslims and Christians worship the same God. I disagree, because of the doctrine of the Trinity. The Christian God is of three essences: Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit. These essences are worshiped as one unique God, so without the belief in Jesus as the Son of God, I don't think we can say that we worship the same God. Not to mention that the attributes of Allah and the attributes of Yahweh are very different. Many of the names of Allah are more suited to the Christian view of Satan: capable of evil (God is incapable of evil, James 1:13), liar (God does not lie, Numbers 23:19), deceiver (that's Satan - Revelation 12:9), humiliator (God works for our benefit, Romans 8:28), destroyer (God destroys the wicked only 1 Corinthians 3:17), bringer of death (Satan again, Revelation 20), harmer (God does not work for our harm, Jeremiah 29:11), creator of the harmful (God looked at what He made, and said it was GOOD, Genesis 1), and the proud one (God is love, 1 John 4:8. Love is not proud, 1 Corinthians 13:4). There are more names, more attributes, and far more reasons than I have the expertise to understand and explain, but I think you get the idea. And while I don't claim to be a theological expert, I'm not the only one who thinks this way. If you're interested, check out this book review as well. I don't usually suggest listening to others' reviews of books before reading it, especially theological ones, but in this case, the reviewer makes some strong, biblical arguments, so I think it's worth our time.
I think that's about it for now. Jamm ag jamm
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