In this article, as the title shows, I shall try to give an
exposition of the ancient Hebrew Cult of Stone, which they
inherited from Abraham, their great progenitor, and to show
that this Stone-Cult was instituted at Mecca by that Patriarch
and his son Ishmael; in the land of Canaan by Isaac and
Jacob; and in Moab and elsewhere by the other descendants
of Abraham.
By the term "Stone-Cult," let it be understood, I do not
mean stone-worship, which is idolatry; by it I understand
the worship of God at a specially consecrated stone meant
for that purpose. In those days, when the chosen family
were leading a nomadic and pastoral life, it had no
settled habitation where to build a house, especially dedicated
to the worship of God; they used to erect a particular stone
around which they used to make a hajj; that is to say, to turn
round seven times in the form of a dancing-ring. The word
hajj might frighten the Christian readers and they might
shrink at its sight because of its Arabic form and because of its being at present a Muslim religious performance. The word hajj is exactly identical in meaning
and etymology with the same in the Hebrew and
other Semitic languages. The Hebrew verb hagag is the
same as the Arabic hajaj, the difference being only in the
pronunciation of the third letter of the Semitic alphabet
gamal, which the Arabs pronounce as j. The Law of Moses
uses this very word hagag or haghagh (1) when it orders
the festival ceremonies to be performed. The word signifies
to compass a building, an altar or a stone by running round
it at a regular and trained pace with the purpose of performing a religious festival of rejoicing and chanting. In
the East the Christians still practice what they call higga
either during their festival days or at weddings. Consequently,
this word has nothing to do with pilgrimage, which is derived
from the Italian pellegrino, and this also from the Latin peregrinus - meaning a "foreigner."
------------- Footnotes: (1) Unlilke the Arabs, both the Hebrew as well
as the Aramaic peoples have no j sound in their alphabet; their third letter,
gamal, when hard has a g sound and when soft or aspirate becomes guttural and
sounds gh. ------------End of footnote
Abraham during his sojourns frequently used to build
an altar for worship and sacrifice at different places and on
particular occasions. When Jacob was on his way to Padan
Aram and saw the vision of that wonderful ladder, he erected
a stone there, upon which he poured oil and called it Bethel,
i.e. "The House of God"; and twenty years later he again
visited that stone, upon which he poured oil and "pure wine,"
as recorded in Genesis xxviii. 10-22; xxxv. A special
stone was erected as a monument by Jacob and his fatherin-law upon a heap of stones called Gal'ead in Hebrew, and
Yaghar sahdutha by Laban in his Aramaic language, which
means "a heap of witness." But the proper noun they gave
to the erected stone was Mispa (Gen. xxxi. 45-55), which I
prefer to write in its exact Arabic form, Mispha, and this
I do for the benefit of my Muslim readers.
Now this Mispha became later on the most important
place of worship, and a center of the national assemblies in
the history of the people of Israel. It was here that Naphthah
- a Jewish hero - made a vow "before the Lord," and after
beating the Ammonites, he is supposed to have offered his
only daughter as a burnt offering (Judges xi). It was at
Mispha that four hundred thousand swordsmen from the
eleven tribes of Israel assembled and "swore before the Lord"
to exterminate the tribe of Benjamin for an abominable crime
committed by the Benjamites of Geba' and succeeded
(Judges xx. xxi.). At Mispha all the people were summoned by the Prophet Samuel, where they "swore before the
Lord" to destroy all their idols and images, and then were
saved from the hands of the Philistines (I Sam. vii). It
was here that the nation assembled and Saul was appointed
king over Israel (1 Sam. x) . In short, every national
question of great moment was decided at this Mispha or at
Bethel. It seems that these shrines were built upon high
places or upon a raised platform, often called Ramoth, which
signifies a "high place." Even after the building of the
gorgeous Temple of Solomon, the Misphas were held in great
reverence. But, like the Ka'aba at Mecca, these Misphas
were often filled with idols and images. After the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple by the Chaldeans, the
Mispha still maintained its sacred character as late as the
time of the Maccabees during the reign of King Antiochus (l).
Now, what does the word Mispa mean? It is generally
translated into a "watch-tower." It belongs to that class of
Semitic nouns - Asma Zarf - which take or drive their
name from the thing that they enclose or contain. Mispa
is the place or building which derives its name from sapha, an
archaic word for "stone." The usual word for stone in
Hebrew is iben, and in Arabic hajar. The Syriac for stone
is kipa. But safa or sapha seems to be common to them all
for some particular object or person when designated as a
"stone." Hence the real meaning of Mispa is the locality
or place in which a sapha or stone is set and fixed. It will
be seen that when this name, Mispa, was first given to the
stone erected upon a heap of stone blocks, there was no
edifice built around it. It is the spot upon which a sapha
rests, that is called Mispa.
Before explaining the signification of the noun sapha I have to tax again the
patience of those of my readers who are not acquainted with the Hebrew. The
Arabic language lacks the p sound in its alphabet just as much as do the Hebrew
and other Semitic languages, in which the letter p, like g, is sometimes soft
and is pronounced like f or ph. In English, as a rule, the Semitic and Greek
words containing f sound are transliterated and written by the insertion of
"ph" instead of "f," e.g. Seraph, Mustapha, and Philosophy. It is in accordance
with this rule that I prefer to write this word sapha to safa.
------------- Footnote: (1) The Bible which I consult does not contain
the so-called deutro- canonical or Apocryphal books of the Old Testament. This
Bible is published by the American Bible Society (New York 1893 ) . The title
runs thus Kthahhi Qaddishi Dadiathiqi Wadiathiqi Khadatt An Shad-wath Poushaqa
dmin lishani qdimaqi. Matha 'ta d'dasta. Biblioneta d' America [The Holy Books
of the Old Testament and of the New Covenant (Testament), with the concordance
or witnesses. Translated from the ancient languages. Published at the Press
of the American Bible Society]. ------------- End of footnote
When Easa Al-Messih(Jesus the Christ) surnamed his first disciple Shim'on
(Simon) with the significant title of "Petros" (Peter), he
must evidently have had in his mind this ancient sacred
Sapha which had been lost long ago! But, alas! we cannot
positively set out the exact word which he expressed in his
own language. The Greek form Petros in the masculine
gender - Petra in the feminine - is so unclassical and unGreek, that one is astonished at its being ever adopted by
the Churches. Did Jesus or any other Jew ever dream of
calling the fisherman Bar Yona, Petros? Decidedly not. The
Syriac version called Pshitta has frequently rendered this
Greek form into Kipha (Kipa). And the very fact that even
the Greek text has preserved the original name "Kephas,"
which the English versions have reproduced in the shape of
"Cephas," shows that Easa (the Christ) spoke the Aramaic language
and gave the surname "Kipha" to his principal disciple.
The old Arabic versions of the New Testament have
frequently written St. Peter's name as "Sham'un' as-Sapha";
that is to say, "Simon the Stone." The words of Easa (the Christ):
"Thou art Peter," etc., have their equivalent in the Arabic
version in the form of "Antas-Sapha" (Matt. xvi. 18; John i.
42, etc.).
It follows, therefore, that if Simon is the Sapha, the
Church which was to be built on it would naturally be the
Mispha. That Christ should liken Simon to Sapha and the
Church to Mispha is very remarkable; but when I come to
divulge the mystery hidden in this similitude and the wisdom
embodied in the Sapha, then it must be accepted as the most
marvelous truth of Prophet Muhammad's merit to his glorious title:
'THE MUSTAPHA'!
From what has been stated above, our curiosity would
naturally lead one to ask the following questions: -
(a) Why did the Muslims and Unitarian descendants
of Abraham choose a stone to perform their religious service
on or around it?
(b) Why should this particular stone be named sapha?
(c) What is the writer driving at? And so on - perhaps several others.
The stone was selected as the best suitable material
upon which a traveling devotee offered his sacrifice, poured
his pure oil and wine, (1) and performed his religious services
around it. It was more than this; this stone was erected to
commemorate the vows and certain promises which a prophet
or righteous man made to his Creator, and the revelation
he received from God. Consequently, it was a sacred monument to perpetuate the memory and the sacred character of
a great religious event. For such a purpose no other material
could surpass the stone. Not only does the solidity and durability of the stone make it suitable for that purpose, but
its mere simplicity, cheapness, worthlessness in a lonely place
would guarantee it against any attraction of human avarice
or enmity to steal or destroy it. As is well known, the Law
of Moses strictly forbids to hew or carve the stones of the
altar. The stone called Sapha was to be absolutely left
natural; no images, inscriptions, or engravings were to be
wrought upon it, lest any one of these should be worshipped
in time to come by the ignorant people. Gold, iron silver, or
any other metal, could not answer all these qualities required in the simple stone. It will be understood, therefore,
that the purest, the most durable, eligible, and the safest material for a religious and sacred monument could be none
other than the stone.
------------ Footnote: 1. Wine was not forbidden to the people of Israel.
------------end of footnote
The molten bronze statue of the Jupiter worshipped by
the heathen Roman Pontifex Maximus, was taken away from
the Pantheon and recast into the image of St. Peter by order
of a Christian Sovereign Pontiff; and indeed, the wisdom embodied in the Sapha is admirable and worthy of all those who
worship no other object besides God.
It should also be remembered that not only is the erected
Sapha a sacred monument, but the very spot and the circuit
in which it is situated as well. And it is for this reason that
the Muslim hajj, like the Hebrew higga, is performed round
the building where the Sacred Stone is fixed. It is known fact
that the Karamatians who carried the Black Stone from the
Ka'aba and kept it in their own country for some twenty
years, were obliged to bring and put it back in its former place
because they could not draw the pilgrims from Mecca. If
it had been gold or other precious object, it could not have
existed, at least, for some five thousand years; or even if it
had had on it some carvings or images of art, it would have
been destroyed by the Prophet Muhammad himself.
As to the meaning - or rather meanings - of the
Sapha, I have already referred to them as qualities of the
stone.
The word consists of the consonants "sadi" and "pi"
ending with the vowel "hi" both as a verb and noun. It
means, in its qal form, "to purify, to watch, to gaze from
distance, and to choose." It also has the meanings of "to be
firm and sound"; in its pi'el paradigm, which is causative, it
simply means "to make a choice, to cause to elect," and so on.
A man who watched from a tower was called Sophi
(2 Kings ix. 17, etc.). In ancient times - that is, before
the building of the Temple of Solomon - the Prophet or the
"Man of God" was called Roi or Hozi, which means the
"seer" ( 1 Sam. ix. 9). The Hebrew scholars are, of course,
familiar with the word Msaphpi, or rather Msappi, which
is equivalent in orthography to the Arabic musaphphi, which
signifies "one who endeavors to elect that which is pure,
sound, firm," and so forth. The watchman on the Tower of
Yizrael, as quoted above, was gazing and watching sharply
from a great distance to distinguish a company of persons
coming on towards the town. He saw the first messenger of
the King who arrived and joined the group but did not return. The same was the case with the second and the third
envoy. It was later on that the Sophi could distinguish the
chief of the group as Jehu. Now, what then was the business
and the office of that watchman? It was to look out sharply
from some distance to distinguish one among the others with
a view to understanding his identity and his movements, if
at all possible, and then to inform his king. If you ask:
What was the business and the office of the solitary Sophi of
the Mispa? the answer - which would merely be that he used
to watch from the minaret of the Misppha (Mispa) in order
to distinguish the identity of the pilgrims in the desert, or that
he used to keep watch against some danger - could not
satisfy an eager inquirer. If so, the Mispha would lose its
religious and sacred character, and would rather seem to
assume that of a military watchtower. But the case with the
Sophi of the Mispha was quite different. Originally the
Mispha was only a simple shrine on a solitary high place in
Gal'ead where the Sophi with his family or attendants used
to live. After the conquest and occupation of the land of
Canaan by Israel, the number of the Misphas increases, and
they soon become great religious centers and develop into
institutions of learning and confraternities. They seem to
be like the Islamic Mevlevi, Bektashi, Neqshbendi, and other
religious confraternities, each one of them being under its
own Sheikh and Murshid. They had schools attached to the
Mispha, where the Law, the religion, the Hebrew literature
and other branches of knowledge were taught. But over and
above this educational work, the Sophi was the supreme
head of a community of initiates whom he used to instruct and
teach the esoteric or mystic religion which we know under
the name of Sophia. Indeed, what we term to-day Sufis
were then called nbiyim or "prophets," and what is called, in
Islamic takkas, zikr or invocation in prayer, they used to term
"prophesying." In the time of the Prophet Samuel, who was the
head of the State as well as that of the Mispha institutions,
these disciples and initiates had become very numerous; and
when Saul was anointed and crowned, he joined the zikr or
religious practice of invocation with the initiates and was
announced everywhere: "Behold Saul also among the Prophets."
And this saying became a proverb; for he was also "prophesying"
with the group of prophets (1 Sam. x 9-13). The Sufism among the
Hebrews continued to be an esoteric religious confraternity under
the supremacy of the Prophet of the time until the death of King
Solomon. After the division of the kingdom into two, it
appears that a great schism had taken place among the Sufis
too. In the time of the Prophet Elias, about 900 B.C., we
are told that he was the only true Prophet left and that all
others were killed; and that there were eight hundred and
fifty prophets of the Baal and Ishra who "ate at the table of
Queen Izabel" (1 Kings xviii. 19). But only a few years
later, Elias's disciple and successor, the Prophet Elisha, at
Bethel and at Jericho is met by scores of the "sons of Prophets" who foretell him about the imminent ascension of his
master Elias (2 Kings ii.).
Whatever may have been the real position of the Hebrew
Sufis (or Sophees) after the great religious and national
schism, one thing is certain, namely, that the true knowledge
of God and the esoteric science of religion was preserved until
the appearance of Easa Al-Messih(Jesus the Christ), who built his Community of
the Initiates in the Inner Religion upon Simon the Sapha, and
that the true Sophis or seers of the Christian Mispha perpetuated this knowledge and watched over it until the appearance of the Elect of Allah, Prophet Muhammad al-Mustapha -
the Hebrew "Mustaphi"!
The Bible mentions - as I said above - numerous
prophets attached to the Misphas; but we must well understand that, as the Qur'an clearly declares, "God best knows
whom He shall appoint for His Messenger" that He does
not bestow the gift of prophecy on a person on account of
his nobility, riches, or even piety, but for His own pleasure.
The faith and all works of piety, meditations, spiritual exercises, prayers, fasting, and divine knowledge may raise a
novice to become a spiritual murshid or guide, or to the rank
of a saint, but never to the status of a prophet; for prophecy
is not procured by effort, but is a gift of God. Even among
the Prophets there are only a few who were Messengers
favored with a special book and commissioned
to direct a certain people or with a particular mission. Therefore the term "prophets" as used in the Hebrew Scriptures is
often ambiguous.
I must also remark in this connection that probably the
majority of the material of the Bible was the work or production of these Misphas before the Babylonian Captivity
or even earlier, but afterwards has been revised by unknown
hands until it has taken the shape which we nowadays have.
It now remains to say few words about the Muslim Sufism and
the Greek word Sophia (wisdom or love of wisdom); and a
discussion of these two systems of high knowledge does lie outside
the scope of this article. Philosophy, in the wider sense of
the term, is the study or science of the first principles of
being; in other words, it transcends the limits of physics to
study the pure being, and leaves behind the study of causes
or laws of that which happens or is seen in nature trying to
reach the metaphysics which deals with faith, ethics and law
known now as the spiritual aspects of civilization, while
the physic is considered the material aspects of civilization.
Thereby it takes the greatest pains to find the truth.
The difference between the Greek Sophia and the Muslim Sufi
is that the Greek have mixed between the materialistic and
spiritual areanas and at the same time, they failed to
received revelation as their top philosophers i.e. Aristotle
and Socrates admitted that dealing in the metaphysics without receiving revelation from the Creator is like crossing
the ocean on a piece of wood! Whereas the lucky Muslim
Sufis concentrated on the area of ethics and following the
footsteps of Prophet Muhammad and his companions in disciplining
one's heart and self in sailing to reach the High Assembly
of the Angels and so forth.
Muslim Sufism is the contemplation on the deeds of Allah
and His Creation and ones self and avoiding the contemplation
on Allah Himself because the human is made of his environment
and sooner use their five senses to describe Allah which
becomes exceedingly dangerous as it happened with the
Egyptians when they imagined the Sphinx that has head,
paws, body etc.
The superiority of the Islamic Sophia to the Greek philosophy is manifest
from the object it views at. And it is decidedly superior to
the Christian celibacy and monasticism in its indifference
towards the consciences and the beliefs of other people. A
Muslim Sophi (Sufi) always entertains respect for other religions, laughs at the idea of "heresy" and abhors all persecutions and oppressions. Most of the Christian Saints were
either persecutors of or the persecuted by heretics, and their
celebrity consists in their excess of intolerance. This is, alas
but only too true.
It is also worthy noting that in the time of the first era of
Islam, Muslim Sufis were referred to as "Zahid" or "Zohad"
and at that time they had no methodology, but they had
a complete fellowship of faith and jurisprudence to their
respective school. They concentrated on the ethics and
thinking. The following generation established the methodology
of courses to be taken by beginners, the intermediate and
the advanced based on the Qur'an and Prophetic Quotations.
It is very clear that the daily rectition of Qur'an, the
remembrance of the Names of Allah and the prayer on Prophet
Muhammad together with asking Allah for forgiveness and
praying at night, fasting during the day are some of the
important characteristics. On the other hand, the authentic
Muslim Sufi reject any insincere members who fail to keep
the way of Prophet Muhammad. Admittedly, many ignorant people
were exposed, thinking that these insincere cases are
representative of Muslim Sufism. They fail to understand
that the (Ihsan) which is one third of the Religion, as
demonstrated in the answer of Prophet Muhammad to the
question "What is Islam?, What Is Iman, and What is Ihsan?
when Prophet Muhammad commented that the one who asked
the questioner was the angel Gabriel and that he had
come to teach you the Religion. Also, Islam was served
by the four schools of jurisprudence while iman was
served by faith schools such as Salaf and Asharia and
of course Sufi served Ihsan. If some one doubts this
let him name the scholars of Ihsan, because if you
go to an Islamic Court which belongs to the section
of Islam, or go to a Faith school and admit that he
has jeouslousy and malice in his heart etc. of the
disease of the soul both schools will admit that
they have nothing to do with this aspect and refer
him to an Abid, worshiper, or Sufi, Shaykh.
As a secondary remark I should like to add that the
Muslim authors have always written the Greek word "philosophy" in the form of Phelsepha with sin instead of sadi or
tzadi, which is one of the constituent letters in the Hebrew
and Arabic words Sapha and Sophi. I think this form was
introduced into the Arabic literature by the Assyrian translators who formerly belonged to the Nestorian sect. The
Turks write the name St. Sophia of Constantinople with sadi,
but philosophy with sin, like the samekh of the Hebrews. I
believe that the Greek Sophia is to be identified etymologically
with the Hebrew word; and the idea that the Muslim word
sophia (sowfiya) is derived from the soph, which means
"wool," ought to be abandoned.
The true Sophia - or wisdom - the true knowledge of
God, the true science of religion and morality, and the infallible selection of the Last Messenger of Allah from among
all His Messengers, belonged to the ancient institution of
Israel called Mispha, until it was transformed into the Mispha
of the Nassara or Christian. It is indeed marvelous to see
how complete is the analogy and how the economy of God
concerning His dealings with man is carried on with absolute
uniformity and order. The Mispha is the filter where all the
data and persons are filtered and strained by the Musaphphi
(Hebrew, Mosappi) as by a colander (for such is the meaning of the word); so that the genuine is distinguished and
separated from the false, and the pure from the impure; yet
centuries succeed each other, myriads of Prophets come and
go, still the Mustapha, the Elected One, does not appear.
Then comes the Holy Jesus; but he is rejected and persecuted,
because there existed no longer in Israel that official Mispha
which would have recognized and announced him as a true
Messenger of God who was sent to bear witness to the
Mustapha that was the Last Prophet to follow him. The
"Grand Assembly of the Synagogue" convoked and instituted
by Ezra and Nehemiah, the last member of which was
"Simeon the Just" (ob 310 B.C.), was succeeded by the
Supreme Tribunal of Jerusalem, called the "Sahedrin"; but
this latter Assembly, whose President was the Nassi or the
"Prince," condemned Jesus to death because it did not recognize his person and the nature of his divine mission. A
few Sophis, however, knew Jesus and believed in his prophetical mission; but the crowds at one time mistook him
for the Mustapha or the "elected" Messenger of Allah, and
seized and acclaimed him king, but he vanished and disappeared from among them. He was not the Mustaplta, otherwise it would be ridiculous to make Simon the Sapha and his
Church the Mispha; for the office and the duty of the Mispha
was to watch and look for the Last Messenger, so that when he
came he would be proclaimed as the Elected and Chosen One
- the Mustapha. If Jesus were the Mustapha, there would
be no need for the institution of the Mispha any longer. This
is a very deep and interesting subject; it deserves patient study.
Prophet Muhammad al-Mustapha is the mystery of the Mispha, and
the treasure of the Sophia.
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