Arabic Legend About Ifa

The myth of Ifa being the Arabic equivalent of "Setiyu" was popularized by the Fuji exponent, Ayinde Barrister. In his signature style of mixing Quranic narratives with Yoruba philosophy, Barrister treated his listeners to the story of "Anabi Setiyu," which goes like this: "I know the name of Setiyu......the name of Setiyu is the name of Ifa."

It's plausible that Ayinde Barrister, like many Yoruba Muslims, constructed Ifa-Setiyu parallelism out of the Arabic legend that links the origin of Ifa or divinatory geomancy to their famous prophet, Idris (aka Djehuti the Egyptian; Enoch the Hebrew and Hermes Trismegistus the Greek).

There are only two verses dedicated to Idris in the Quran; they're vague at best and had nothing to do with Ifa. Although, the Quran is silent about Ifa, but somehow it found its way into the Hadith. In the Hadith, Arab pseudo-scholars, in their usual style of mixing Greek mythology and Egyptian mysteries to interpret Quranic verses, constructed a legend around Idris, linking him to Ifa.

According to this legend, Idris received the science of divinatory geomancy (I.e. Ilm al-Raml or Ifa) from Jubril in a dream, and he subsequently passed the story to a learned King of India, Tumtum al-Hindi, who documented the story in detail for Idris. Other legends abound!

Let me separate the truth from the legends and set the story straight. The Quran is essentially the Torah or the book of the upright ones. And as I've previously mentioned, the Hadith is a compendium of Arabic narratives outside of the Quran, which itself is an odd attempt by Arab pseudo-scholars to use Greek mythology and Egyptian mysteries to interpret the Torah. Consequently, the Hadith must be taken with a grain of salt.

It suffices to note that Ifa has nothing to do with Setiyu, nor does it have anything to do with Idris. Ifa is the totality of Yoruba's spiritual, moral and natural philosophies.

THREE TYPES OF HISTORY

To those who are interested in history and philosophy; particularly history, it's imperative to know that there are three types of history. 

1. Theological or biblical history

2. Scaligerian or mainstream history

3. New "chronology" history

Theological history is basically history according to the "holy" books. This is the type of history that's taught in seminary and Islamic schools, and the only type of history that most religious people accept to be true.

Scaligerian history or mainstream history is nothing but history according to the Western narratives. This is the type of history that's taught in most colleges around the world; more specifically, in the West.

New "chronology" history is history that's formulated based on statistical analysis of historical texts and epochs. This is perhaps the closet history to real history.

It suffices to say that nobody really knows what happened in antiquity, for the ancients didn't write their own history. However, using archeological, epigraphic, and numismatic evidentiary facts, one can attempt to reconstruct what happened in antiquity.

So, from all available evidentiary facts, theological history (I.e. Judeo-Christian and Islamic histories) can be dismissed as being fictitious and a work of myth. Having said that, Scaligerian or mainstream history is perhaps just as fictitious as the theological history, for they're both formulated by the same Jesuits scholars out of the Vatican. Unbeknownst to many out there, mainstream history was formulated and developed based on theological or biblical chronology.

All in all, I implore every student of history and philosophy to be mindful of what he or she espouses as true history.

THE METAPHYSICS OF ESU, A YORUBA ORISA.

I cannot overemphasize that to fully understand what or who Eshu is, it's paramount for one to fully understand the metaphysical concept of Ori and freewill. 

According to the Yoruba pantheon, Ori or the immaterial head is the initial condition that determines the outcome of human activities.

Human activities are ever complex and random, for humans exist in a chaos dynamic world (Aye loja). And while the outcome of the ever complex human activities is totally deterministic, free will or human's ability to randomly choose makes this outcome rather unpredictable.

It suffices to say that freewill or choice is a binary process (I.e. Digital process), which, intrinsically, is the nature of reality itself and the nature of Eshu Lalu - Tibi Tire!

Consequently, it's no surprise that Eshu is a neutral force that represents the transitional or center point of the crossroad where one must make a decision. In other words, Eshu symbolizes binary choice, perfect balance, and the dualistic nature of reality (I.e. Male and female principles, yin and yang, zeros and ones, negative and positive, good and evil etc). 

Unfortunately, Bishop Ajayi Crowther, as a useful tool of the missionary propaganda, had taken away the inherent, dualistic nature of Eshu, reducing Eshu to a negative principle (I.e. Devil or Satan). Again, Eshu is not Satan; rather, Eshu embodies both negative and positive principles.

ZABAD STONE & ISLAM

Zabad stone is a pre-Islamic stone tablet found at Zabad in Syria with a bold trilingual inscription. In other words, Zabad stone is the Arabic Rosseta stone. But unlike Rosseta stone, which is a bilingual dedication in Egyptian Hieroglyphs, Egyptian demotic script and Greek, the Zabad stone is a trilingual dedication in Greek, Syriac and Arabic.

Godfrey Higgins in his book, Anacalypsis, contended that Greek, Aramaic/Hebrew, Syriac and Arabic were all connected, perhaps, to the same root. Be that as it may, the Zabad tablet further highlights this connection. While the root of pre-Islamic Arabic script can be traced back to Southern Arabia or Yemen, scholars believe that the root of Quranic Arabic can be traced back to the orthodox-Christian provinces of Al Hira and Al Anbar, in the present day South-Central and Western Iraq.

Now that we have some knowledge about the root of Quranic Arabic, let us look at some Quranic words and names; popularly, thought to be of Arabic origin but that aren't.

1. Quran

2. Allah

3. Hadith

4. Hira

5. Sura

6. Muhammed

The word QUR'AN came out of the triconsonantal Judeo-Christian Syriac root "QRN," meaning to read the Pentateuch or the Bible.

The name ALLAH can be traced back to its Syriac root "ALAHA," which can further be traced back to its Egyptian root "UR RA," meaning the great one, the SUN.  

The word HADITH, according to the traditional Islamic narrative, stands for the compendium of literary work outside the Qur'an. However, Haditha was a historical Christian stronghold just outside the Al Anbar province, present day Iraq, where the Kufic Arabic script was formulated (I.e. "Al Bariac" script).

HIRA is the name of the cave where Muhammed supposedly received his first revelations from Allah through Jubril or Gabriel. However, Al Hira was actually an ancient Christian province, present day South-Central Iraq, where Qur'anic Arabic script was partially formulated (I.e. Al Hiraic script).

The word SURA, according to the traditional Islamic narrative, means a chapter of the Quran. However, "SURA" was a historical Jewish city state in ancient Mesopotamia, present day Iraq. It was the seat of the popular Jewish academy, the Sura Yeshiva Academy.

The name Hammed can be traced back to its triconsonantal Judeo-Christian Syriac root "HMD," meaning praiseworthy. The question is: what's praiseworthy? Well what's praiseworthy is "MU," the Egyptian word for water. Thus, the name Muhammed came from the combination of Syriac and Egyptian words. 

Now if Muhammed supposedly received the Quran at cave Hira from god, how is it that the key words in the Quran are not even of Arabic origin. Is Islam another form of Christianity?

* Culled from Shakka Ahmose lectures "Christian/Judeo Reality of Islam*

WHERE IS AFRICAN PHILOSOPHY AND SCIENCE?

Frustrated African youths often ask me: "Where are our philosophy and science?" This is a good question that I wish African intellectuals would answer, but they cannot, for majority of African intellectuals seem to think that scientific and philosophical thought processes are universal. According to them, developing an African scientific thought process that's grounded on African epistemological framework is a waste of time since one can be expatriated "ready made" into Africa from Europe - this is what I call "ready made" pathology. Ironically, it's these same intellectuals, who constantly lament the lack of scientific and technological development in Africa, not realizing that Africa cannot develop in these areas using "ready made" or imported epistemological and philosophical frameworks. However, Africa can only develop scientifically and technologically when Africans endeavor to formulate their scientific thought processes based on African epistemology and philosophy.

I respectfully submit that while science, as an objective knowledge of nature, is universal, the thought processes that go into the formulation of scientific principles are totally relative to one's environment. In fact, in the sequential order of the evolution of knowledge, the environment is anterior to everything else. That is, it's the environment that shapes people's psychology. People's psychology, in turn, shapes their ecology. Their ecology goes on to shape their mythology and spirituality. Their mythology and spirituality shape their epistemology. Their epistemology goes on to shape their metaphysics and philosophy. And lastly, their metaphysics and philosophy shape their scientific knowledge - this is the natural sequential order of the evolution of knowledge anywhere on this planet.

So, if the environment plays a major role in the evolution of knowledge, and if no two environments are quite alike, then it is counterproductive to import European philosophy into Africa to help develop African scientific thought process. I contend that African philosophical and scientific thought processes can only be developed through the development and promotion of African-centered curriculum.

African-centered curriculum must be premised on two areas: African moral philosophy and African natural philosophy. The moral philosophy curriculum must cover African customs and customary laws, ethics, value system and African moral principles such as the moral principles of IFA and MAAT. Conversely, the natural philosophy curriculum must cover African arts, history, psychology, metaphysics, philosophy, herbology, medicine and economics.

All in all, it is through the development of an African-centered curriculum that African youths can begin to engage in philosophical and scientific thought processes of their own.

THE ORIGIN OF THE NAME "PALESTINE."

The origin of the name "PALESTINE" is almost lost in another matrix of lies. 

According to the biblical and some traditional scholars, the name Palestine is an Anglicized corruption of the name Philistine. This is how the lie goes: the Philistines were said to be non-Semitic enemies of the Israelites in "Ancient Judaea." But for one reason or another, the name Israel was abruptly changed to Philistia or Philistine, now Palestine.

There is circumstantial evidence linking Roman emperor Hadrian with the name change, but the precise date is not certain and the assertion of the scholars above that the name change was invented by emperor Hadrian to blot out Israel from history, and to complete the dissociation of the Israelites with Judaea is strongly disputed by serious scholars, for the name Philistine is not even mentioned once in the SEPTUAGINT (i.e. the first Bible).

Now, let's move from the realm of history to the realm of common sense. The word "philistine" is neither an ancient word nor a Semitic word. The word "Philistine" is an English word! The question now is: why would an ancient people of the so-called Judaea bear, as a collective, an English name (Philistine) when England was non-existed at this time? 

Anyway, the name Palaistine(Greek), Anglicized Palestine, is a corruption of the original name Palistan. Etymologically, the word Pali is of Dravidian origin, meaning Shepherds, and the word Stan of the same origin means: house, space or land. Consequently, the word Palistan simply means the Shepherd house or land. Is this why the "Isrealites" were said to be Shepherds?

According to a number of esoteric scholars (Godfrey Higgins et al), Ancient Palestine was a colony of Egypt, and was originally inhabited by a group of Ethiopians from the Western Cush (Chaldeans), and was later inhabited by the immigrants from the Eastern Cush or the Ethiopia of the East (the hyksos, Palis or the Brahmins). Could this be why it's said that the progenitor of the Israelites was Abraham? Abraham or Brahma?

Pay attention!!!

DID HISTORICAL MUHAMMED EXIST?

The mainstream historical narratives of most religions are replete with tall tales and mythologies, which are revised and reinterpreted by later generations. Regarding Islam, Karl Heinz and Gerd Puin used overwhelming epigraphic and numismatic evidentiary facts to challenge mainstream Islamic narratives - facts so compelling that no critical opposition has been able to refute them with comparable and linguistic evidence.

In their book, "The Hidden Origins of Islam," Karl and Gerd make the following claims:

1. The most reliable literary sources about the life of Muhammed were written nearly 200 years after the event they describe.

2. Muhammed and the first four Caliphs, in Islamic narratives, are characters of myth.

3. The name "Muhammed" first appeared on Arab coins during the reign of Abd Al-Malik and not prior.

4. The name "Muhammed" was originally a title like "Christ."

5. The inscription on the Dome of the Rock, "Muhammad Abdu Llahi wa-rasuluhu": "praised be the Servant of God and his messenger," is a Christian statement and not Islamic.

6. The Dome of the Rock built in i.692 by Abd Al-Malik was not originally a mosque but a Byzantine-Syrian church.

7. Classical Arabic can be traced back to Syria. However, Quranic Arabic is a rework and intentional vowelization of the Syriac triconsonantal root systems of Classical Arabic.

So, who's the historical Muhammed.....did he even exist?