GLOBAL FREEMASONRY-2nd Part

Today Freemasons use the name Mac Benach with respect. Scottish Masons, who inherited the Templars' heritage, returned it to France many years later and established there the basis of the rite known as the Scottish Rite."8

Again, Mimar Sinan presents a lot of information about the relationship between the Templars and Freemasonry. In an article entitled, "Templars and Freemasons," it states that "the rituals of the initiation ceremony of the Order of Templars are similar to those of present-day Freemasonry."9 According to the same article, as in Masonry, the members of the Order of the Templars called each other "brother."10 Towards the end of the article, we read:

The Order of the Templars and the Masonic organization have influenced each other to a noticeable extent. Even the rituals of the corporations are so similar as to have been copied from the Templars. In this respect, Masons have to a great extent identified themselves with the Templars and it can be said that what is viewed as original Masonic esoterism (secrecy) is to an important extent an inheritance from the Templars. To summarize, as we said in the title of this essay, we can say that the starting point of Freemasonry's royal art and initiatic-esoteric line belonged to Templars and its end-point belonged to Freemasons.11

Finally, we say, it is clear that the roots of Freemasonry stretch back to the Order of Templars, and that the Masons have adopted the philosophy of this order. Masons themselves accept this. But certainly, the important matter for our consideration is the nature of this philosophy. Why did the Templars abandon Christianity and become a heretical order? What led them to this? Why did they undergo such a change in Jerusalem? Through the agency of Masonry, what has been the effect on the world of this philosophy adopted by the Templars?

THE TEMPLARS AND THE KABBALAH

A book written by two Masons, Christopher Knight and Robert Lomas, entitled The Hiram Key reveals some important facts about the roots of Freemasonry. According to these authors, it is evident that Masonry is a continuation of the Templars. Though, in addition to this, the authors also examined the origins of the Templars.

According to their thesis, the Templars underwent a great change while they were in Jerusalem. In the place of Christianity, they adopted other doctrines. At the root of this lies a secret that they discovered in the temple of Solomon in Jerusalem, whose ruins they had set out to investigate. The writers explain that the Templars used their purported role as protectors of Christian pilgrims visiting Palestine as a pretense, but that their real aim was quite different:

…There is no evidence that these founding Templars ever gave protection to pilgrims, but on the other hand we were soon to find that there is conclusive proof that they did conduct extensive excavations under the ruins of Herod's Temple…12

The authors of The Hiram Key were not the only ones who found evidences of this. French historian Gaetan Delaforge makes this similar contention:

The real task of the nine knights was to carry out research in the area in order to obtain certain relics and manuscripts which contain the essence of the secret traditions of Judaism and ancient Egypt.13

At the end of the nineteenth century, Charles Wilson of the Royal Engineers, began conducting archeological research in Jerusalem. He arrived at the opinion that the Templars had gone to Jerusalem to study the ruins of the temple. Wilson found traces of digging and excavation under the foundations of the temple, and concluded that these were done by tools that belonged to the Templars. These items are still in the collection of Robert Brydon, who possesses an extensive archive of information concerning the Templars.14

The writers of the Hiram Key argue that these excavations of the Templars were not without result; that the order discovered in Jerusalem certain relics that changed the way they saw the world. In addition, many researchers are of the same opinion. There must have been something that led the Templars, despite the fact that they had previously been Christian and came from a Christian part of the world, to adopt a system of beliefs and a philosophy so completely different from that of Christianity, celebrate heretical masses, and perform rituals of black magic.

According to the common views of many researchers, this "something" was the Kabbalah.

Encyclopedias and dictionaries define the Kabbalah as an esoteric, mystical branch of Jewish religion. According to this definition, the Kabbalah investigates the hidden meaning of the Torah and other Jewish religious writings. But, when we examine the matter more closely, we discover that the facts are quite something else. These facts lead us to the conclusion that teachings rooted in pagan idolatry, that existed before the Torah, and became widespread within Judaism after the Torah was revealed, were included in the Kabbalah.

This interesting fact about the Kabbalah, is explained by just as interesting a source. Murat Ozgen, a Turkish Freemason, maintains the following in his book, Masonluk Nedir ve Nasildir? (What is Freemasonry and What is it Like?):

We don't know clearly where the Kabbalah came from or how it developed. It is the general name for a unique, metaphysically constituted, esoteric and mystical philosophy particularly connected with Jewish religion. It is accepted as Jewish mysticism, but some of the elements it contains show that it was composed much earlier than the Torah.15

The French historian, Gougenot des Mousseaux, explains that some beliefs set out in the Kabbalah are actually much older than Judaism.16

The Jewish historian, Theodore Reinach, says that the Kabbalah is "a subtle poison which enters into the veins of Judaism and wholly infests it."17 Salomon Reinach defines the Kabbalah as "one of the worst aberrations of the human mind."18

The reason for Reinach's contention that the Kabbalah is "one of the worst aberrations of the human mind" is that some of its doctrine is used by some people connected with magic. For thousands of years, the Kabbalah has been one of the foundation-stones of every kind of magic ritual. It is believed that some rabbis who study the Kabbalah possess great magical power. Also, many non-Jews have been influenced by the Kabbalah, and have tried to practice magic by employing its doctrines. The esoteric tendencies that took hold in Europe during the late Middle Ages, especially as practiced by alchemists, have their roots, to a great extent, in the Kabbalah.

The strange thing is that Judaism is a monotheistic religion, incepted with the revelation of the Torah to the Prophet Moses (peace be upon him). But some have attempted to include in this religion a system that adopts the basic practices of magic which are in fact opposed to religious morality. This substantiates what we have presented above, and demonstrates that some statements in the Kabbalah are actually elements that have entered Judaism from the outside.

But, what is the source of this element?

The Jewish historian Fabre d'Olivet says that it came from Ancient Egypt. According to this writer, the roots of some statements in the Kabbalah stretch back to Ancient Egypt. Some part of the Kabbalah’s teaching is a tradition learned by some of the leaders of the Israelites in Ancient Egypt, and passed down as a tradition by word of mouth from generation to generation.19

For this reason, we must look to Ancient Egypt in order to find the basic origins of the Kabbalah-Templars-Freemasonry chain.

THE MAGICIANS OF ANCIENT EGYPT

The Ancient Egypt of the pharaohs was one of the most ancient civilizations of the world. It was also one of the most oppressive. The magnificent monuments that still remain from Ancient Egypt—the pyramids, sphinxes and obelisks—were constructed by hundreds of thousands of slaves, worked to the point of death, under the whip and threat of starvation. The pharaohs, the absolute rulers of Egypt, wanted themselves to be represented as supposed deities and to be worshipped by the people. (Surely Allah is beyond that.)

One of our sources of knowledge about Ancient Egypt is their own inscriptions. These were discovered in the nineteenth century and, after intense labor, the Egyptian alphabet was deciphered, bringing to light much information about the country. But, because these inscriptions were written by official state historians, they are filled with biased accounts designed to praise the state.

For us, of course, the best source of knowledge about this matter is the Qur'an.

In the Qur'an, in the story of the Prophet Moses (pbuh), we are given important information about the Egyptian system. The verses reveal that there were two important focal points of power in Egypt: pharaoh and his inner-council. This council tended to exercise an important influence over pharaoh; Pharaoh would often consult them and, from time to time, follow their suggestions. The verses quoted below show the influence that this council had on Pharaoh and Allah knows the truth:

Moses said, "Pharaoh! I am truly a Messenger from the Lord of all the worlds, duty bound to say nothing about Allah except the truth. I have come to you with a Clear Sign from your Lord. So send the tribe of Israel away with me."

He said, "If you have come with a Clear Sign produce it if you are telling the truth."

So he threw down his staff and there it was, unmistakably a snake.

And he drew out his hand and there it was, pure white to those who looked.

The ruling circle of Pharaoh's people said, "This is certainly a skilled magician who desires to expel you from your land, so what do you recommend?"

They said, "Detain him and his brother and send out marshals to the cities,

to bring you all the skilled magicians." (Surat al-A‘raf: 104-112)

It should be noticed that mention here is made of a council that advises Pharaoh, that incites him against the Prophet Moses (pbuh), and recommends to him certain methods. If we look at the records of Egyptian history, we see that the two basic components of this council were the Egyptian army of the time and the priests.

The position occupied by the priesthood, one of these two main power blocs, in the social order of Egypt at the time is of great importance. We should look more closely at the role of the priests. The priests of Ancient Egypt were a class referred to in the Qur'an as magicians. They represented the cult which supported the regime. It was believed that they had special powers and possessed secret knowledge. By this authority they influenced the Egyptian people, and ensured their position within the administration of the pharaohs. This class, known from Egyptian records as the "Priests of Amon," focused their attention on practicing magic and administering their pagan cult; in addition, they also studied various sciences such as astronomy, mathematics and geometry.

This class of priests was a closed order possessed (so they thought) of a special knowledge. Such orders are commonly known as esoteric organizations. In a magazine called Mason Dergisi (Masonic Journal), a publication distributed among Turkish Masons, the roots of Freemasonry are stated as going back to this kind of esoteric order, and special mention is made of the Ancient Egyptian priests:

As thought develops in human beings, science advances and as science advances, the number of secrets increases within the lore of an esoteric system. In this development, this esoteric enterprise, which began first in the East, in China and Tibet, and then spread to India, Mesopotamia and Egypt, formed the basis of a priestly knowledge that had been practiced for thousands of years and formed the basis of the power of the priests in Egypt.20

How can there be a relationship between the esoteric philosophy of the priests of Ancient Egypt and present-day Freemasons? Ancient Egypt—a classic example in the Qur'an of a godless political system—disappeared thousands of years ago. Can it have any influence today?

To find the answer to these questions, we must look at the Ancient Egyptian priests' beliefs with regards to the origin of the Universe and of life.

THE ANCIENT EGYPTIAN BELIEF IN

MATERIALIST EVOLUTION

In their book The Hiram Key, the English Masonic authors Christopher Knight and Robert Lomas argue that Ancient Egypt has a very important place in regards to the origins of Masonry. According to these authors, the most important idea that has transpired to modern Masonry, from Ancient Egypt, is the mistaken idea of a universe existing by and of itself, and evolving by chance. The false Egyptian belief is described as follows in that book:

The Egyptians believed that matter had always existed; to them it was illogical to think of a god making something out of absolutely nothing. Their view was that the world began when order came out of chaos, and that ever since there has been a battle between the forces of organization and disorder…This chaotic state was called Nun, and like the Sumerian …description …, all was a dark, sunless watery abyss with a power, a creative force within it that commanded order to begin. This latent power which was within the substance of the chaos did not know it existed; it was a probability, a potential that was intertwined within the randomness of disorder.21

It will be noticed that the beliefs described here are in harmony with the erroneous assertions of the present-day materialist establishment, which are promoted by the agenda of the scientific community with such terms as "the theory of evolution," "chaos theory," and the "essential organization of matter." Knight and Lomas continue their foregoing discussion by saying:

Amazingly, this description of creation perfectly describes the view held by modern science, particularly "chaos theory" which has shown intricate designs which evolve and mathematically repeat within completely unstructured events.22

Knight and Lomas claim that there is a harmony between Ancient Egyptian false beliefs and modern science, but what they mean by modern science is mistaken materialist concepts, such as the theory of evolution or chaos theory. Despite the fact that these erroneous theories have no scientific basis, they have been forcibly imposed on the field of science over the past two centuries, and are presented as scientifically justified. (In the following sections we will examine those who have imposed these theories on the scientific world.)

Now, we have come to an important point in this stage of the book. Let us summarize what we have discovered so far:

1.            We began the discussion by discussing the Order of Templars which is thought to be the origin of Masonry. We have seen that, although the Templars were founded as a Christian order, they were affected by some secret doctrines that they discovered in Jerusalem, totally abandoned Christianity and became an anti-religious organization practicing heretical rites.

2.            When we asked what this doctrine was that influenced the Templars, we found that it was basically the Kabbalah.

3.            When we examined the Kabbalah, we found proof that, however much it may resemble Jewish mysticism, it contained traces of a pagan doctrines older than Judaism, that later entered the religion, and that their true roots are found in Ancient Egypt.

4.            Ancient Egypt was governed by the pagan system of Pharaoh, and there we found an erroneous idea that forms the basis of the modern atheistic philosophy: that of a universe existing of its own accord, and evolving by chance.

 All this surely paints an interesting picture. Is it by chance that the philosophy of the priests of Ancient Egypt still thrives, and that there exist traces of a chain (Kabbalah-Templars-Masonry) that has been responsible for maintaining the supremacy of this philosophy to the present day?

Is it possible Masons, who have made their mark on the world's history since the eighteenth century, fomenting revolutions, promoting philosophies and political systems, can be the inheritors of the magicians of Ancient Egypt?         

In order to make the answer to this question clearer, we must first examine more closely the historical events that we have now only briefly outlined.

-II-

the INSIDE story on THE KABBALAH

Exodus" is the title of the second book of the Torah. This book describes how the Israelites, under the leadership of the Prophet Moses (pbuh), left Egypt and escaped the tyranny of Pharaoh. Pharaoh made the Israelites work as slaves and would not consent to set them free. But, when confronted by the miracles Allah performed through the Prophet Moses (pbuh), and the disasters He inflicted on his people, Pharaoh relented. And so, one night the Israelites gathered en masse, and began their emigration from Egypt. Later, Pharaoh attacked the Israelites, but Allah saved them through a further miracle He performed through the Prophet Moses (pbuh).

But, it is in the Qur'an that we find the most accurate account of the exodus from Egypt, because the Torah underwent much textual corruption after it was originally revealed to the Prophet Moses (pbuh). An important proof of this is that in the five books of the Torah—Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy—there are many contradictions. The fact that the book of Deuteronomy ends with an account of the death and burial of the Prophet Moses (pbuh) is indisputable proof that this portion would have to have been added after the Prophet Moses' (pbuh) death.

In the Qur'an, the account of the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt is recounted in detail and most accurately. As with all other stories related in the Qur’an, Allah reveals much wisdom and many secrets in the course of what is related. For this reason, when believers examine these stories closely, they can extract a number of lessons from them.

THE GOLDEN CALF

One of the important facts concerning the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt, as related in the Qur'an, is that some of them rebelled against the religion revealed to them by Allah in spite of the fact that Allah had rescued them through the Prophet Moses (pbuh) from the tyranny of Pharaoh. Some of the Israelites were not able to comprehend the monotheism that the Prophet Moses (pbuh) communicated to them, but tended continually toward idolatry.

The Qur'an describes this immoral tendency here:

We conveyed the tribe of Israel across the sea and they came upon some people who were devoting themselves to some idols which they had. They said, "Moses, give us a god just as these people have gods." He said, "You are indeed an ignorant people.

What these people are doing is destined for destruction. What they are doing is purposeless." (Surat al-A‘raf: 138-139)

Despite the Prophet Moses' (pbuh) warnings, some Israelites continued in such perversion, and when the Prophet Moses (pbuh) left them, to ascend to Mt. Sinai, it manifested itself fully. Taking advantage of the Prophet Moses' (pbuh) absence, a man by the name of Samiri came forth. He fanned the sparks of some Israelites' inclination towards idolatry, and persuaded them to fabricate the statue of a calf and worship it.

Moses returned to his people in anger and great sorrow. He said, "My people, did not your Lord make you a handsome promise? Did the fulfilment of the contract seem too long to you or did you want to unleash your Lord's anger upon yourselves, so you broke your promise to me?"

They said, "We did not break our promise to you of our own volition. But we were weighed down with the heavy loads of the people's jewellery and we threw them in, for that is what the Samaritan did."

Then he produced a calf for them, a physical form which made a lowing sound. So they said, "This is your god—and Moses' god as well, but he forgot." (Surah Ta Ha: 86-88)

Why was there such a deviant tendency among some Israelites to erect idols and worship them? What was the source of this inclination?

Clearly, a society that had never before believed in idols would not suddenly adopt such inane behavior as to construct an idol and begin to worship it. Only those for whom idolatry was natural inclination could have believed in such nonsense.

However, the Israelites were a people that had believed in one Allah since the days of their ancestor the Prophet Abraham (pbuh). The name "Israelites" or "the Sons of Israel" was given first to the sons of the Prophet Jacob, the Prophet Abraham's grandson (peace be upon them both), and afterwards to the whole Jewish people who derived from him. The Israelites had safeguarded the monotheistic faith that they had inherited from their ancestors the Prophets Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, peace be upon them. Together with Joseph, peace be upon him, they went into Egypt and preserved their monotheism for a long period of time, despite the fact that they had lived amidst Egyptian idolatry. It is clear from the stories related in the Qur'an that, when the Prophet Moses (pbuh) came to them, the Israelites were a people that believed in one Allah.

The only explanation for this is that although the Israelites adhered to a monotheistic belief, some of them were influenced by the pagan peoples among whom them lived, and began to imitate them, replacing the religion chosen for them by Allah with the idolatry of foreign nations.

When we investigate this matter in light of historical records, we see that the pagan cult that influenced the Israelites was that of Ancient Egypt. An important evidence in support of this conclusion is that the golden calf the Israelites worshipped, while the Prophet Moses (pbuh) was on Mt. Sinai, was actually a replica of the Egyptian idols Hathor and Aphis. In his book, Too Long in the Sun, the Christian author Richard Rives writes:

Hathor and Aphis, the cow and bull gods of Egypt, were representatives of sun worship. Their worship was just one stage in the long Egyptian history of solar veneration. The golden calf at Mount Sinai is more than sufficient evidence to prove that the feast proclaimed was related to sun worship…23

The influence of the Egyptian pagan religion on some Israelites occurred in many different stages. As soon as they had encountered a pagan people, this leaning towards heretical belief appeared and, as the verse maintains, they said "Moses, give us a god just as these people have gods." (Surat al-A‘raf: 138) What they unwisely said to their Prophet, "Moses, we will not believe in you until we see Allah with our own eyes." (Surat al-Baqara: 55) reveals that they were inclined to worship a material being that they could see, as their pagan religion provided the Egyptians with.

The tendency of some Israelites to the paganism of Ancient Egypt, that we have here outlined, is important to understand and gives us some insight into the corruption of the text of the Torah and the origins of the Kabbalah. When we consider these two topics carefully, we will see that, at their source, is found Ancient Egyptian paganism and the materialist philosophy.

FROM ANCIENT EGYPT TO THE KABBALAH

While the Prophet Moses (pbuh) was still alive, some Israelites began to create likenesses of the idols they had seen in Egypt and to worship them. After the Prophet Moses (pbuh) died, some among them backslid farther into perversity. Of course, the same thing cannot be said of all Jews, but some of them did adopt Egyptian paganism. Indeed, they carried on the false doctrines of Pharaoh's magicians, that lay at the foundation of that society's beliefs, and corrupted their own faith by introducing these doctrines into it.

The false doctrine that was introduced into Judaism from Ancient Egypt was also introduced into the Kabbalah. Like the system of the Egyptian priests, it was an esoteric system, and its basis was the practice of magic. Interestingly, the Kabbalah provides an account of creation quite perverted from that found in the Torah. It is a materialist account, based on the Ancient Egyptian mistaken idea of the eternal existence of matter. Murat Ozgen, a Turkish Freemason, has this to say on this topic:

It is evident that the Kabbalah was composed many years before the Torah came into existence. The most important section of the Kabbalah is a theory about the formation of the universe. This theory is very different from the story of creation accepted by theist religions. According to the Kabbalah, at the beginning of creation, things called Sefiroth, meaning "circles" or "orbits," with both material and spiritual characteristics came into being. The total number of these things was 32. The first ten represented the solar system and the others represented the masses of stars in space. This particularity of the Kabbalah shows that it is closely connected to ancient astrological systems of belief... So, the Kabbalah is far removed from Jewish religion and much more closely related to the ancient mystery religions of the East.24

The Jews, by adopting these Ancient Egyptian materialist and esoteric doctrines that were founded on magic, ignored the related prohibitions in the Torah. They took on the magic rituals of other pagan peoples, and thus, the Kabbalah became a mystical doctrine within Judaism, but contrary to the Torah. In her book entitled Secret Societies and Subversive Movements, the English writer Nesta H. Webster says:

Sorcery, as we know, had been practised by the Canaanites before the occupation of Palestine by the Israelites; Egypt, India, and Greece also had their soothsayers and diviners. In spite of the imprecations against sorcery contained in the Law of Moses, the Jews, disregarding these warnings, caught the contagion and mingled the sacred tradition they had inherited with magical ideas partly borrowed from other races partly of their own devising. At the same time the speculative side of the Jewish Cabala borrowed from the philosophy of the Persian Magi, of the Neo-Platonists, and of the Neo-Pythagoreans. There is, then, some justification for the anti-Cabalists' contention that what we know to-day as the Cabala is not of purely Jewish origin.25

There is a verse in the Qur'an that refers to this topic. Allah says that some Israelites learned satanic sorcery rituals from sources outside their own religion:

They follow what the satans recited in the reign of Solomon. Solomon did not become unbeliever, but the satans did, teaching people sorcery and what had been sent down to Harut and Marut, the two angels in Babylon, who taught no one without first saying to him, "We are merely a trial and temptation, so do not become unbeliever." People learned from them how to separate a man and his wife but they cannot harm anyone by it, except with Allah's permission. They have learned what will harm them and will not benefit them. They know that any who deal in it will have no share in the hereafter. What an evil thing they have sold themselves for if they only knew! (Surat al-Baqara: 102)

This verse maintains that certain Jews, although they knew that they would lose out in the hereafter, learned and adopted the practices of magic. Thus, they strayed away from the Law that Allah had sent them and, having sold their own souls, fell into paganism (magic doctrines). "They have sold themselves" for an evil thing, in other words, they abandoned their faith.

The facts related in this verse demonstrate the main features of an important conflict in Jewish history. This struggle was, on the one hand, between the prophets that Allah sent to the Jews and those believing Jews who obeyed them, and on the other hand, those perverse Jews who rebelled against Allah's commandments, imitated the pagan culture of the peoples around them, and followed their cultural practices rather than the Law of Allah.

PAGAN DOCTRINES ADDED TO THE TORAH

The errors of those Jews departing from the true path are often reported in the holy book of the Jews itself—the Old Testament. In the book of Nehemiah, a kind of history book within the Old Testament, the Jews confess their sins and repent:

Then those of Israelite lineage separated themselves from all foreigners; and they stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers. And they stood up in their place and read from the Book of the Law of the LORD their God [for one-fourth] of the day; and [for another] fourth they confessed and worshiped the LORD their God. Then Jeshua, Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani, [and] Chenani stood on the stairs of the Levites and cried out with a loud voice to the LORD their God.

...[They said:] "...they [our fathers] were disobedient and rebelled against You, cast Your law behind their backs and killed Your prophets, who testified against them to turn them to Yourself; And they worked great provocations. Therefore You delivered them into the hand of their enemies, who oppressed them; And in the time of their trouble, when they cried to You, You heard from heaven; And according to Your abundant mercies You gave them deliverers who saved them from the hand of their enemies.But after they had rest, They again did evil before You. Therefore You left them in the hand of their enemies, so that they had dominion over them; Yet when they returned and cried out to You, You heard from heaven; And many times You delivered them according to Your mercies, and testified against them, that You might bring them back to Your law. Yet they acted proudly, and did not heed Your commandments, but sinned against Your judgments, which if a man does, he shall live by them. And they shrugged their shoulders, stiffened their necks, and would not hear.

...Nevertheless in Your great mercy You did not utterly consume them nor forsake them; For You [are] God, gracious and merciful.

Now therefore, our God, The great, the mighty, and awesome God, ...You [are] just in all that has befallen us; For You have dealt faithfully, but we have done wickedly. Neither our kings nor our princes, our priests nor our fathers, have kept Your law, nor heeded Your commandments and Your testimonies, with which You testified against them. For they have not served You in their kingdom, or in the many good [things] that You gave them, or in the large and rich land which You set before them; Nor did they turn from their wicked works." (Nehemiah 9: 2-4, 26-29, 31-35)

This passage expresses the desire that a number of Jews had in returning to their faith in Allah, but in the course of Jewish history sometimes a different segment gained strength, and came to dominate the Jews and later partly altered the religion itself. For this reason, in the Torah and the other books of the Old Testament, there are elements that derive from heretical pagan doctrines, as well as those mentioned above which accord with the true religion. For example (Allah is surely beyond all these expressions):

• In the first book of the Torah, it is said that Allah created the entire universe in six days from nothing. This is correct and derives from the original revelation. But, then it maintains that Allah rested on the seventh day, though it is a completely fabricated assertion. It is a perverse idea derived from paganism which attributes human qualities to Allah. In a verse of the Qur'an, Allah says:

We created the heavens and the earth and all between them in six days, nor did any sense of weariness touch Us. (Surah Qaf: 38)

• In other parts of the Torah, there is a style of writing that is not respectful of the honor of Allah, especially in those places where human weakness is falsely attributed to Him. (Allah is surely beyond that) These anthropomorphisms are made to resemble the human weaknesses that pagans applied to their own fictitious gods.

• One such blasphemous assertion is another that claims that Jacob, ancestor of the Israelites, wrestled with Allah, and won. This is clearly a story invented to confer the Israelites with racial superiority, in emulation of the racial feelings widespread among pagan peoples. (or, in the words of the Qur'an: "fanatical rage")

• There is a tendency in the Old Testament to present Allah as a national deity—that He is God of the Isrealites only. However, Allah is the Lord and God of the universe and of all human beings. This notion of national religion, in the Old Testament, corresponds to tendencies of paganism, in which every tribe worships its own god.

• In some books of the Old Testament (for example, Joshua) commandments are given to commit horrible violence against non-Jewish peoples. Mass murder is commanded, with no regard for women, children or the elderly. This merciless savagery is totally against Allah's justice, and recalls the barbarism of pagan cultures, who worshipped a mythical god of war.

These pagan ideas that were introduced into the Torah must have an origin. There must have been Jews who adopted, honored and cherished a tradition foreign to the Torah, and changed the latter by adding into it ideas derived from the tradition they espoused. The origin of this tradition stretches back to the priests of Ancient Egypt (the magicians of Pharaoh's regime). It is, in fact, the Kabbalah which was passed on from there by a number of Jews. The Kabbalah assumed a form that enabled Ancient Egyptian and other pagan doctrines to insinuate themselves into Judaism and develop within it. Kabbalists, of course, assert that the Kabbalah simply explains in more detail the hidden secrets of the Torah, but, in reality, as Jewish historian of the Kabbalah, Theodore Reinach, says, the Kabbalah contains "a subtle poison which enters into the veins of Judaism and wholly infests it."26

It is possible, then, to find in the Kabbalah clear traces of the materialist ideology of the Ancient Egyptians.

THE KABBALAH’S FALSE DOCTRINE

THAT IGNORES THE FACT OF CREATION

Allah reveals in the Qur'an that the original Torah is a Divine book that was sent as a light to humanity:

We sent down the Torah containing guidance and light, and the Prophets who had submitted themselves gave judgment by it for the Jews—as did their scholars and their rabbis—by what they had been allowed to preserve of Allah's Book to which they were witnesses…(Surat al-Ma’ida: 44)

Therefore, the Torah, like the Qur'an, contains knowledge and commands related to such topics as the existence of Allah, His unity, His qualities, the Creation of the universe, the purpose of human creation, and Allah's moral laws for humanity. (But, the original Torah is not extant today. What we possess today is an altered and corrupted version of the Torah.)

There is an important point that both the true Torah and the Qur'an share in common: Allah is recognized as Creator. Allah is absolute, and has existed since the beginning of time. Everything other than Allah is His creation, created by Him from nothing. He has created and formed the whole universe, the heavenly bodies, lifeless matter, human beings and all living things. Allah is One; He exists alone.

While this is the truth, there is a quite different interpretation found in the Kabbalah, that "subtle poison which enters into the veins of Judaism and wholly infests it." Its doctrine of Allah is totally opposed to the "fact of Creation," found in the real Torah and the Qur'an. In one of his works on the Kabbalah, the American researcher, Lance S. Owens, presents his view on the possible origins of this doctrine (Allah is surely beyond all the expressions in the extract below):

Kabbalistic experience engendered several perceptions about the Divine, many of which departured from the orthodox view. The most central tenet of Israel's faith had been the proclamation that "our God is One." But Kabbalah asserted that while God exists in highest form as a totally ineffable unity—called by Kabbalah Ein Sof, the infinite—this unknowable singularity had necessarily emanated into a great number of Divine forms: a plurality of Gods. These the Kabbalist called Sefiroth, the vessels or faces of God. The manner by which God descended from incomprehensible unity into plurality was a mystery to which Kabbalists devoted a great deal of meditation and speculation. Obviously, this multifaceted God image admits to accusations of being polytheistic, a charge which was vehemently, if never entirely successfully, rebutted by the Kabbalists.

Not only was the Divine plural in Kabbalistic theosophy, but in its first subtle emanation from unknowable unity God had taken on a dual form as Male and Female; a supernal Father and Mother, Hokhmah and Binah, were God's first emanated forms. Kabbalists used frankly sexual metaphors to explain how the creative intercourse of Hokhmah and Binah generated further creation...27

An interesting feature of this mystical theology is that, according to it, human beings are not created, but are in some way divine. Owens describes this myth:

The complex Divine image …was also visualized by Kabbalah as having a unitary, anthropomorphic form. God was, by one Kabbalistic recension, Adam Kadmon: the first primordial or archetypal Man. Man shared with God both an intrinsic, uncreated divine spark and a complex, organic form. This strange equation of Adam as God was supported by a Kabbalistic cipher: the numerical value in Hebrew of the names Adam and Jehovah (the Tetragrammaton, Yod he vav he) was both 45. Thus in Kabbalistic exegesis Jehovah equaled Adam: Adam was God. With this affirmation went the assertion that all humankind in highest realization was like God.28

This perverted theology comprises of a mythology of paganism, and formed the basis of the degeneration of Judaism. Some Jewish Kabbalists breached the limits of common sense to such an extent that they even tried to make human beings into supposed deities. In addition, according to this false theology, not only was humanity divine, but it consisted only of Jews; other races were not considered human. As a result, faith in the one Almighty Allah and serving Him began to be replaced by pagan beliefs and practices. These false beliefs then led to the corruption of the Torah and the inclusion within it of various ideas incompatible with true religious moral values.

Another interesting point about the corrupt doctrines in the Kabbalah is its similarity to the pagan ideas of Ancient Egypt. As we have discussed in earlier pages, the Ancient Egyptians erroneously believed that matter had always existed; in other words, they rejected the idea that matter was created from nothing. Some sections of the Kabbalah assert the same thing in relation to human beings; it falsely claims that human beings were not created, and that they are responsible for their own existence.

To state it in modern terms: the Ancient Egyptians were materialists, and the doctrine of some sections in the Kabbalah can be called secular humanism.

It is interesting to note that these two erroneous concepts—materialism and secular humanism—describe the ideology that has dominated the majority of the world over the last two centuries.

It is tempting to ask if there are forces who have carried the doctrines of Ancient Egypt and the Kabbalah from the midst of ancient history to the present day.