Muslims call upon Allah by the name of Mother

[johanna_hypatia]

Mother, return us to your breast: Toward a thealogy of Islam
Johanna-Hypatia Cybeleia

What happened in the encounter between Islam and Goddess religion?

Comments

[america_divine]

Yay! thanks for posting this... I enjoyed reading it and probably will do so again.

[dulcimergoddess]

i really enjoyed this. in my spare moments, i've been trying to research Arbaic Paganism, and haven't made much headway; the source material doesn't seem to be out there, and modern Muslims (especially those of the more radical bent) seem hellbent on erasing the shreds of their matriarchal past.

Do you have any books/sources and whatnot to recommend for those of us interested in pre-Islamic Paganism?

[johanna_hypatia]

The classical sources are Ibn Ishaq and Ibn al-Kalbi.

I recommend Women and Gender in Islam by Leila Ahmed, and The Veil and the Male Elite by Fatema Mernissi, for a start.

[mysticactive]

Some very interesting and novel analysis. I would add a few thoughts: Mainly, in terms of your querying of the results of Islamic gender reform, I understand your questioning whether the experiment worked from a sociological view. From a more esoteric view, its my understanding that the grat Prophets and teachers have tried, in their own way, to seed certain ideas into human consciousness and, often, that gets trampled in the easier and less nuanced views of the outer religious authorities. So, for example, many Islamic movements either no longer encourage women to cover their heads or outright forbid it because of the way in which the practice has been so radically twisted. These are often movements that have a lineage of living teachers (rather than just dated texts), in which the teacher has the authroity to survey the current situation and make an updated judgement, respecting the text. So, for example, Ismaili women are strongly discouraged from covering their heads by the current Agha Khan. In my community, women are given

[johanna_hypatia]

That's good to know.

[mysanal]

Wow! I wish you hadn't locked this - I have a friend who teaches religious studies and he would *love* this!

"Comparing the Black Stone of Mecca with the description of the sacred cultic stone of the Mother Goddess Cybele"

Thank you! I have often wondered about the possible connection.

[johanna_hypatia]

OK, I've set it to public view. Give your friend this link http://johanna-hypatia.livejournal.com/103047.html and I'll leave it public for 48 hours or until he gets a chance to download it. (Probably long enough for Google to cache it...)

[mysanal]

Thank you! I've sent him the link.

[dimension_view]

I don't know how I missed this. A very insightful read.

[johanna_hypatia]

Thank you so much, girlfriend! I was preparing myself for a possible offended reaction from my fellow Muslims...