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Reading the Kaballah
Rabia
08/09/01 at 12:24:42
As Salaamu Alailkum, I've always been one to read and learn about other religions. Not because I'm not content with Islam, but because I like to know what makes other people think the way they do, and because when someone ignorantly speaks ill of Islam I like to be able to explain the good in our way of life as opposed to theirs. Not to mention it's good for dawah purposes. Anyways, I've had an interest in reading the Kaballah for a few years now, and was wondering if anyone knows if this is haram. I hadn't thought about it until just the other day. Since the Kaballah is a book of Jewish mysticsm and magic, would it be like going to see a fortune-teller or soothsayer? I know that in committing this shirk one is required to make salah for 40 days and nights as they normally would, even though the salah won't be accepted. If reading this book is a form of shirk or haram in any way, I won't even touch it. I do intend to seek the council of a mufti and/or Imam, but it'll be a while before that's possible. I just wanted some input from the board. MaSalaam, ~AminaR.

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Re: Reading the Kaballah
Arsalan
08/09/01 at 14:58:53
[slm] Sr. Rabia, it's always good to be safe.  In this case, because reading the Kaballah is not something that is urgent for you, why don't you wait until you get a ruling on it from a mufti?  Don't indulge yourself in something unless you know the hukm [ruling] for it.  Just a little piece of advice to everyone out there, including myself. As far as whether it's ok to read the Kaballah or not, I don't know.  Allah knows best. Wassalamu alaikum.

Re: Reading the Kaballah
Rabia
08/09/01 at 15:40:41
Arsalan, thank you so much for your input. I appreciate your time.                    !!! :)  :)  :) !!! Many years have gone by since I first had an interest in reading the Kaballah and I do need to speak with a mufti first; I just kinda' wanted to put it out there incase someone else had thoughts along the same lines. There is definitely enough literature on the din to keep me occupied.

Re: Reading the Kaballah
Sabr
08/09/01 at 17:33:49
Assalamu 'alaikum! I just completed a unit in Jewish Mysticism for my World Religions course.  Now...I think that both your initial feeling as well as Arsalan’s, to talk to a Mufti first before furthering into any research, is definately a good idea. The Kabbalah is not exactly magic...it’s just mysticism...and mysticism is pretty much just an ascetic way to *communicate* with God. Like Jain monks will indulge in self-mortification: a strict regiment of fasting and meditation to achieve a higher and more sublime acknowledgement with God.  Sufis will do the same.  In *basic* Sufism, a practitioner will perform dhikr (remembrance of God) in order to attain this.  i.e.: They will take the shahada literally. 1)"There is no God..." - falling into the deepest of despairs...emptying the self of Self and of God. 2)  "...BUT God" - and emerging into a higher level of awareness...filling the self with the most absolute awareness of God.  Kind of like the ultimate taqwaa. But like in Islamic mysticism...there is no magic in Jewish mysticism :) Greek philosophy (when translated by the Arabs in Damascus and shared with the Jews..around 10th century I think...) impacted a strong mystical element to medieval Judaism, and became centered on a mystical teaching known as Kabbalah. The Jewish mystic sought to evolve a pattern of life centered on interior experience and contemplation. The Kabbalist literature gave a new esoteric account of the relationship between God and creation.  The main book is the Zohar, complied by Moses de Leon in the 12th Century. The Zohar (meaning "splendor") depicts God as the En Sof (the Endless or Infinite). The En Sof is essentially without qualities - but emanates 10 ideal qualities that are called the Sefiroth (including wisdom, intelligence, mercy, justice. Etc).   An Islamic example of this: Jeffery Lang in his book "Even Angels Ask" explains how we kind of  "participate" within God’s most wonderful attributes.  God is the Creator, the Most-Merciful, the Protector of humankind, etc.  Likewise, women are creators, all humans have the ability to bestow mercy, and men are the protectors of women, etc... Jewish mysticism is HUGE (there is so much more: nature of evil, predestination, etc).  And there are probably some interesting books out there describing it.  But if you do decide to do research into it, I suggest that you pick up a book that delves into the historical account.  Jumping straight into the Zohar might just confuse you if you don’t have the appropriate Jewish explanations to back it up (I know it would confuse me! :). Of course...Islamic Mysticism is just as interesting...and naturally, even more interesting is just reading the Qur’an.   And Allah (subhanna wa ta’ala) knows best. I don't know for sure about the nature or the intention of Jewish Mysticism (I just learned enough to pass the course, insha'Allah)...so stick with what you already know, and wait for a mufti's ruling :)   All things good in this post are from Allah, subhanna wa ta a'la, and all things misleading and bad are from my own failings and from shaitan. fee amanillah, ~Sabr.

Re: Reading the Kaballah
Saleema
08/10/01 at 17:10:58
[slm] If you read the Kabbalah and not a "commentary" on it, you will be shocked by the perverted things in there. And i mean, this goes further than the Bible. It has lewd descriptions of sex that will horrify you and you will want to put away the book on the shelf far away from anyone's reach. It also has a lot of blasephemous stuff against God which will utterly make you just as sick to your stomach. However, I'm not saying that it's haram or halal not to read it. I am just warning you about some of the shocking stuff in there.  :) I'm pretty sure that they only tell nice things about the Kabbalah in College textbooks and gloss over the other stuff if you study it further in depth. [wlm]

Re: Reading the Kaballah
Sabr
08/10/01 at 08:05:07
Assalamu 'alaikum! hmmm...you are so right!  I do remember my "Prof" (it's a correspondence course...so, the "notes") saying that some parts liken the relationship that one can have with God to sexual relations :( hmmm...but then again, I also heard that Rumi does the same in his poetry....except with the idea of intoxication and with the love of a woman... but an entire movement that impacts and influences an entire people is a little more dangerous than a good poet :) ....why is *mysticism* so influential in some traditions (or is it?)anyway???     fee amanillah, ~Sabr:-)

Re: Reading the Kaballah
Rabia
08/10/01 at 12:50:12
[slm] [quote]        ...you will be shocked by the perverted things in there. And i mean, this goes farther than the Bible. It has lewd descriptions of sex that will horrify you and you will want to put away the book on the shelf far away from anyone's reach. It also has a lot of blasephemous stuff against God which will utterly make you just as sick to your stomach. [/quote] That's just it! I remember trying to read some parts of it and couldn't really understand it. I knew that I couldn't just jump into it so I got a few books that might help me understand the Kabbalah a little better. These books freaked me out! I was like :0 [i]Whoa![/i] One book had a picture where they had given Allah(SWT) a face. Astaghfiru'allah! Sexual pictures...all kinds of perversion. I'm just thinking, "If this is just the intro, then what's the actual book saying?" It was wild. I just put it down for the moment and decided to read something else, something dealing with the din. It didn't frighten me, but I just didin't feel the time was right. Now I working with so many yahuds (I'm the one Muslim ):() and I'm just wonderin'... MaSalaam, ~Amina

Re: Reading the Kaballah
Kashif
08/10/01 at 14:29:30
assalaamu alaikum The comments above i think, are certainly enough to make any Muslim turn away from reading the Cabbala. I found another useful quote about it in one of my books: "In his first book in English about Jewish Mysticism, 'Major trends in Jewish Mysticism', based upon a previous set of lectures delivered in New York City, first published in 1941 and reprinted many times, Scholem questioned whether Jews who believed in Cabbala had preserved the belief in monotheism that had been previously so characteristic of Judaism. In his seventh lecture towards the end of section five of the book, Scholem, after describing the process, which according to the Lurianic Cabbala takes place by Jewish initiative within God, wrote: "To reconcile this process with the monotheistic doctrine, which was dear to the Kabbalists as it was to every Jew, became the task of the theorists of Kabbalistic theosoply. Although they applied themselves bravely to it, [color=black]it cannot be said that they were completely successful[/color]." These two convoluted sentences implied that the most popular form of Cabbala, still believed by many Jewsin Israel and in the diaspora, [color=black]is not monotheisic[/color]. Actually Scholem refrained fromm mentioning that many Jewish opponents of Cabbala, before it became dominant around 1550 and during Jewish enlightenment, asked the same question more clearly and expressed more sharply their opposition to the predominant Lurianic form on the ground that [color=black]it denied monotheism[/color]. [Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel, pg. 163] Insha'llah all of thepoints raised in this thread are answer enough as to whether it should be studied. Kashif Wa Salaam
NS

Re: Reading the Kaballah
Saleema
08/17/01 at 22:52:17
"As for the American networks, their coverage continues to be consistent.  They market the Israeli line without hesitation.  That is why we shall revisit the details of the strange, already forgotten story of the cornerstone. This was not your average Israeli provocation. It brought to mind the black magic incantations of Pulsa diNura, the cabbalistic formula used on the Prime Minister, Yitzhak Rabin. In 1995, the Israeli media covered a gathering of the important Cabbalists who invoked evil spirits and beseeched them to extinguish the Prime Minister’s life. Soon afterwards, Rabin was assassinated by a Jewish religious fanatic. An organizer of the Pulsa diNura ceremony was tried by Israeli court of law and sent to jail, for incitement to murder. You do not have to believe in black magic in order to understand the logic of the judge." Read more interesting stuff in his article. Quite scary that people actually think that way. This is from the following link : http://www.iviews.com/scripts/articles/stories/default.cfm?id=12529&category_id=39 By Israel Shamir an Israeli Journalist.
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