Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Blinders: Prelude to the reply to Rooneys question.

Pointing to a tree close at hand Arahat Mahinda asked King Devanampiyatissa for its name. The King replied that it was a mango tree.
"Are there any other mango trees besides this?"
"There are many mango trees" replied the King.
"And are there any other trees besides this mango tree and other mango trees?"
"There are many other trees" replied the King "but they are not mango trees".
"And are there besides these mango trees and those which are not mango, yet other trees?"
"There is this mango tree", said the king.
"Thou hast shrewd wit, O Ruler of Men" said Arahat Mahinda




Blinders are a set of leather straps attached to the bridle of a horse to prevent it from seeing to its side. They are used to keep horses from being distracted or spooked. The constraints of our awareness act like a horse's blinders, which cut the overall scene into small sections, each telling a different story, and none reflecting the view as a whole.In many societies, the horizens of people's vision is restricted brutally through rigid ideology and abject fear; these function like blinders on a horse to channel people's energies into socially desirable activities.



Leonardo da Vinci, Italian painter, draftsman, sculptor, architect, and engineer whose genius, perhaps more than that of any figure, epitomized the Renaissance humanist ideal. Against speculative book knowledge, which he scorned, he set irrefutable facts gained from experience. Saper vedere ("knowing how to see") became the great theme of his studies of man's works and nature's creations.

If you do not know that life is dear to all, and putting yourself in the place of the other you should not kill nor cause to kill, you may not see the killing of the men of an entire tribe and selling the women and children as slaves as a horrendous act.

22 comments:

  1. Anonymous10:20 PM

    In the Encyclopedia Britanica Vol. II p. 779 under "Slavery" one reads: "Catching slaves from their villages which were surrounded by jungle happened this way: Fire was started in the dry hedges surrounding the huts and when the residents fled away into the jungle the Englishmen caught them in devices prepared for that purpose. Some of the people died during this human hunt on their way to the coast to the ships of the British and other companies. A third of the remaining captives died because of climate alteration and during the shipping 4.5 % died and 19 % died during the journey. Those who died in the colonies were uncountable."

    In 1502, about eight hundred thousand slaves entered the colony of Jamaica alone, and only three hundred and forty thousand were alive at the end of the same year.

    Queen Elizabeth I was partner in the slave trade. Her partner was John Hawkins the greatest slave dealer in history. She made him a knight because she admired his courage and made a coat of arms a slave in chains and handcuffs. It is really ironic to read that ship which the queen prepared for Hawkins was called "Jesus" and the ships made for the slave trade numbered 192 and each ship could hold 47,146 slaves. England asked the clergy to find documents to justify this trade and they readily enough found the text from the Old Testament which were mentioned above under Slavery and Jews.

    The Bible, unlike the Holy Quran, widely promoted the institution of Slavery...

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  2. Anonymous1:27 AM

    Adam Moses, I like the way u've associated blinders with societal forces designed to shape up its members. And yes, fear is the root of it. Like you said, abject fear.

    Yusuf Abdul Shunan, I highly doubt if the purpose of the author was to promote christianity here. The problem lies in the very idea of a religion, as somthing to be followed strictly without question, without doubt and without giving it a second thought; a lot of which, if you stop to think rationally about it, is plain nonsense.

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  3. Anonymous1:58 AM

    Adam, I'm disappointed. Ismail Rasheed, u oughta fire ur teammate.

    I asked for proof from Quran and Prophet's hadhees allowing slavery n this is the best u cud do?

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  4. Anonymous9:51 AM

    mr. rooney, all muslims are slaves of allah. which demonstrates that slavery is a fundamental precept of islam. conversion to islam is enslavement and worship is called "alhukan" which means slaving around.

    may allah-ta-aalaa forgive u for ur ignorance.

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  5. Anonymous10:21 AM

    hey dude,
    we're talkin about slavery amongs humans.
    if u donno the topic, pls stay out of it. thanx :-)

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  6. Anonymous1:30 PM

    slavery is practiced by allah-ta aalaa. we must emulate it and try to promote slavery to increase our Sawaab points.

    anonymous, may allah bless you.

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  7. Anonymous2:01 PM

    You see, ALL human beings are slaves of Allah; not only Muslims.

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  8. Anonymous3:32 PM

    vainrooney: So you're saying islam is slavery?

    may allah curse you for this accursed exposition.

    Your brother in islam,
    Zareena

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  9. Anonymous5:08 PM

    I have lot to say will try to make them short!

    Adam Moses: Very few can function in a world of paradox, as such majority expect others to guide them and enlighten them. If those majority abuse their powers so to control it is nothing to do with the religion. It is everything to do with politic. I am just wondering why this site try to talk about the crazies of Islam, abuse of Women and slavery in Islam and ignore that fact that these are not religion duties but human actions which are practices the same alike in other religions... Why do you want to use the so called BLINDERS on Muslims? Why such a double standard?

    Nadha: If have not been following, this post is a response to the question to prove if Islam promotes slavery! However it end up talking about their own actions and intentions...

    Anonymous: If God have wanted you and I will all be slaves if we like it or not. For God created us in the first place! Out of God's mercy God has given us freedom and will. We are given freedom so we can enjoy the pleasure and desires of the world, while observing the limits set by God, to finally to appreciate the favors of God. God do not need you, and in the end even if you believe or not, the loss is yours not to God. In the presence of God we all have to obey, that is the reason why we do not see God. In Almighty God's presence you cannot open your mouth like you are doing now, it is not fear, it is the truth... Hence, we are given this world to prove our worthy of such a freedom of will... So in a way we are all slaves of Allah, but bestowed with freedom of will...

    I am just a free thinker, and individual and without any doubt after decades of research and meditation I believe in Islam to be the only religion of God Almighty... Check this blog entry for how I found God! If you look and work hard enough you shall find God, question is are you really willing to toil for that?

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  10. Anonymous6:35 PM

    Shunan,
    You are presuming to know know Allah's intentions. You are murtaddhu now. Do you want another tsunami?
    And get this straight. Allah prohibited slavery in Judaism and Christianity. Then he made them corrupt the books and allow slavery. See, its all Allahs work.
    And if he wanted to abolish slavery in Islam things would have gone like this:-
    Allah(SWT): Jibureel!!! Get over here..
    Jibureel: Yes Sir, Most merciful and Compassionate.
    Allah(SWT): Get down to Hudaibiyya and tell Mohomma to free all those slaves he is selling.
    Jibureel: Yes Sir, Most merciful and Compassionate.
    Allah(SWT): And tell him to free Safiyah and those other women he keeps in his tent.
    Jibureel: Yes Sir, Most merciful and Compassionate.
    Allah(SWT) in a very loud voice: Tell Mohomma to tell all mankind slavery is HARAAM!!!!
    Jibureel: Yes Sir, Most merciful and Compassionate.
    Allah(SWT): and don't come back here. You are free.

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  11. Anonymous6:48 PM

    :-)

    1st of all, do u have any proof that slavery is prohibited in Judaism n Christianity?

    how about these verses from the bible then?

    "Let all who are under the yoke of slavery regard their masters as worthy of all honor, so that the name of God and the teaching may not be defamed." (Timothy I 6:1)

    "As for your male and female slaves whom you may have: you may buy male and female slaves from among the nations that are round about you." (Leviticus 25:44)

    "When a man strikes his slave, male or female, with a rod and the slave dies under his hand, he shall be punished. But if the slave survives a day or two, he is not to be punished; for the slave is his money." (Exodus 21:20-21)

    And the Lord said, "When you draw near to a city to fight against it, offer terms of peace to it. And if its answer to you is peace and it opens to you, then all the people who are found in it shall do forced labor for you and shall serve you..." (Deuteronomy 20:10-11)

    "And he said, Blessed be the Lord God of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant. God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant" (Genesis 9:26)

    "So the Canaanites have dwelt in the midst of Ephraim to this day, but become slaves to do forced labor." (Josh 16:10)

    "And all the people that were left of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, which were not the children of Israel; their children that were left after them in the land, whom the children of Israel also were not able utterly to destroy, upon those did Solomon levy a tribute of bondservice unto this day."(I Kings 9:20-21)

    "but every slave that is bought for money may eat of it after you have circumcised him." (Exodus 12:44)

    "When you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall serve six years, and in the seventh he shall go out free, for nothing." (Exodus 21:2)

    ========================

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  12. Anonymous7:14 PM

    You get lost with your god yusuf, leave others to say what they want. Even about your god.

    I dont need a god.

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  13. Anonymous7:16 PM

    This yusuf will be happy as long as he can hav a wife who bows to him and is burugaa clad. Submissiveness is in him and want it to be in others. What a loser in life.

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  14. Anonymous11:20 PM

    4:140
    "And it has already been revealed to you in the Book (Quran) that when you hear the Verses of Allah being denied and mocked at, then sit not with them, until they engage in a talk other than that; (but if you stayed with them) certainly in that case you would be like them. Surly, Allah will collect the hypocrites and disbelievers all together in Hell".

    Adios!

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  15. Anonymous4:55 AM

    Hey some dude has made a comment in the artical "Maldives continues to discriminate against women" on how Mohamma divorced a wife because she was fat ugly and old. Hahaha.. "talaq, talaq, talaq, hey you are divorced because you are overweight". Was that what Mohamma said?

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  16. Thanks Nadha,
    and
    "If a fool be associated with a wise man even all his life, he will perceive the truth as little as a spoon perceives the taste of soup.
    If an intelligent man be associated for one minute only with a wise man, he will soon perceive the truth, as the tongue perceives the taste of soup". - The Dhammapada

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  17. Anonymous12:16 AM

    The fool who thinks he is wise is just a fool. The fool who knows he is a fool is wise indeed. — Buddha, Source: The Dhammapada

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  18. Anonymous2:58 PM

    Shunan,
    I assume from your writing s that you have read the bible, torah, Kabbala, the words of the Buddha ...all that you say you have in your blog. After that if you continue to prostate towards Mecca and Allah, you surely must be a spoon. You have tasted nothing and you are only an ignorant fool of Allah.

    Adam, your the man. Keep it up.

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  19. Anonymous3:10 PM

    this article is made up of copy-pasted materials from a lot of websites.

    proof of this: http://dhivehistan.blogspot.com/2007/01/beyzaaru.html

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  20. Anonymous4:25 AM

    I can see you have deleted one of my post defending mohammed!

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  21. Anonymous3:30 PM

    there he is! hahaha...

    hey issey... where r ya these days? no new posts? no asnwers to VainRooney's questions either....

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  22. So you all are now messing around with comments too!
    tusk! tusk!

    ReplyDelete