SPENTA MAINYU
"Ignorance is a shame. Get rid of it!"
	YOU ARE IN DARKNESS.
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1. The Mandaeans who are a Gnostic sect still existing in Iraq, may have developed out of a Jewish sect under the influence of Syrian Gnosticism in the 3rd century. Surviving in Southern Iraq and Khuzistan, Mandaeans are known to Arab and Iranian neighbours as Subba ('dippers'). Their priests are called 'tarmidia' (disciples) and those priests initiated into secret doctrine are Nazuraiia (Nasoreans - 'Nasranis' in Arabic) The religion as taught to the laymen is syncretistic, and personifications of qualities, aspects and emanations of the 'Great Life', as they call their 'supreme being', appear in a number of myths, which are often self contradictory. The religion survives chiefly through its insistence on cult, baptism particularly, which is looked upon as necessary for all kinds of pollution and essential for salvation. Some personifications are saviour-figures such as Manda-d-Hiia (Knowledge of life), Hibil-Ziwa (a light bearer), Yawar-Ziwa (Awaking or 'Arousing light') and kushta ('good faith' 'truth' also a personification of the ritual handshake which symbolizes pact and alliance). Beneficient spirits (utria) and demons are innumerable. Illness is caused by possession by disease-demons. Devout prefer exorcism to medicine (Beneficient spirits, demons, illnesses caused by disease-demons, devout preferring exorcism to medicine, still exist in the region among the peoples whether they are Jewish, Christian, Islam or of another belief of a local character). Baptism is followed by the administration of simple sacraments of water (mambuha) and bread (pihta) and this rite is one of a series of razia (mysteries) of which the most important is the 'masiqta,' a solemn ritual meal celebrated by priests only for the raising up (or resurrection) of the dead. Other ritual meals are 'lofani,' a lay meal eaten in commemoration of and for the benefit of the dead, and the blessed oblation (offering) at marriage and burial. As in other gnostic religions, the body is called 'the tomb of the soul' and death is looked upon as a release from prison. The name 'Christians of St. John' was given to the Mandaeans by medieval travelers based on a claim by their priests that John the Baptist was a member of their sect (the Nasoreans), but Jesus to them is a false Messiah. Mandaean tradition, supported by internal evidence and scholarly research, claims the west as the original home of the sect, although the language of their texts is an eastern dialect of Aramaic. References in the Mandaean literature to a flight from Judaea and persecution there point to a connection with early jewish Gnosticism.

Present day Islamic reference books note that Sabians are described as the 'people of the book' or 'people who have a book' in Qoran. The word 'Sabian' is a derivative of the Hebrew word 'sab' ('dippers') which is used in the context of 'those who baptize.' Beside these half Christian half Jewish 'baptists' there are also those star-worshipping Sabians of Haran. They have prophets named Agathodaimon (Azimûn, the good Satan, Şit - third son of Adam), Orpheus (Orpheus, a poet and musician of Greek mythology.), and Hermes (the ancient Greek god, prophet Idris). Moslems called these peoples 'hunefa'='hanifs,' which means 'people turning away from heathenism and adopting the right path.' It is a Jewish sect according to some. Also there are those who insist that they were of the Abraham's religion and their doctrine is called Mandaeism. According to the historical records those living in the Al-Jazirah region are called Mandaeans; and those living in the Haran region are called Sabians. Both agree on baptism. Mandaeans seem to be closer to Judaism, and Sabians to Christianity. Their belief in baptism is related to John the Baptist, and the belief in the spirit. They believe that the purity of the body and spirit is fundamental to reaching the 'Godly spirit' via the 'humanly spirit.' They maintain that the universe is governed by many spirits in addition to the exalted spirit and that these spirits reside on seven planets. The founder of Manichaeism is said to have been from this sect in the beginning. The belief that the God may be reached via the spirits makes Moses and Jesus useless. It necessitates a disbelief in the prophethood. Keeping all these points in mind, it would seem right to consider the Sabian belief system, like Manichaeism, as a mixture of various belifes, and an eclectic and independent religion. Sabians are mentioned in Qoran as the 'people of the book - people with the book' in 2:62; 5:69; and 22:17.

Attempts to find the origins of the God and the 'law' we find in the 'sacred books' necessitates the study not only of the sun cult, but the moon cult as well.. As Spenta Mainyu pointed out earlier we see the moon cult mostly and mainly among the Chaldeans. It is accepted generally that the ancient astrology and the religious belief in the celestial beings started among the Chaldeans and spread to other communities from there. Star, planet and mainly sun and moon worship was widespread among the commuinities of early ages. One of the renowned Islamic historians Masudi (d. 957) makes an interesting quote according to which there are 'seven temples' all of which are described as 'very big.' These temples were built for the worship of sun, the moon and the five planets. One of them is Ka'ba in Mecca. Three of them are in Esfahan and Khorasan, in Iran. Fourth is in Sa'na in Yemen. Sixth in India and the seventh in China. In Khorasan we have two temples; one of them the sun-temple in Fergana and the other is the moon-temple in Balkh.

Some scholars who are the followers of the three 'belief systems of the book' made claims to the effect that the Sabian belief system has taken its basic dogmas from these belief systems. This seems impossible. Why? Because Sabian belief system is earlier than all these 'belief systems of the book.' When one studies the story of prophet Abraham one finds traces of him being a 'Sabian.' Since Abraham, being the Patriarch, predates the Judaism, his faith which is most likely to be the Sabian belief system could not be later than the 'belief systems of the book' but on the contrary, earlier than all of them. Sabian belief system has given its dogmas to Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Moslem scholars acknowledge this fact. 'Belief system of the Sabians is the oldest faith in ages and their language is the most widespread among the world languages' writes Ibn Hazm (994?). In some Islamic sources it is written that the 'Syriac community is the oldest among others and, Adam's and his sons' language was Syriac, and the religion of this community was the Sabian faith.' In a book written by a Syriac patriarch on Syriac history and literature we read the following: ".Aramaic-Syriac is one of the Semitic languages. A section of the divine book was revealed in this laguage. Like Daniel in the Old Testament and the Matthew's Gospel. Some scholars claim Aramaic-Syriac to be the oldest language in the world. And there are those who are more moderate and accept it as one of the oldest ones."

'..If we elaborate we learn that the language of Adam was Aramaic-Syriac' writes still another Syriac clergy and historian in his book titled History of the Turkish Syriacs, and tries hard to base his claims on Genesis 10:31 and 11:1 of the Old Testament. Although, based on the interpretations of the Old Testament, it could be said that the Syriac community is the oldest in history and their language the oldest on earth, this is unacceptable within scientific criteria. The Sabian belief system of the Syriacs could not be the oldest religion on earth. The prerequisites of 'being the first religion' are 1. It has to be the religion of the most primitive people on earth. 2. It should not have taken over anything from any other religion predating it. Sabian belief system is short of both conditions. Sabians had left their 'primitive stage' long before. They knew writing. They had works of civilization. Sabian belief system was not the first one, because there was animism and totemism before, and the Sabian belief system had adopted many aspects of them. The Sabian faith could only be the oldest among the 'belief systems of the book.'

 THE SABIANS' CONCEPT GOD

This is what the Sabians think of their God: 'The universe has an eternal reason (the first cause - God). It is the only one with no other. It does not proliferate. It does not take any character of the things it caused (created). It made compulsory the recognition of its Godhood for the ones - among the creatures it brought into being - who attained the ability to choose good from the bad (persons having wisdom). It has shown everybody the right way and sent them prophets to show them the right way. Prophets are under the obligation of showing the evidence of the God. God commanded the prophets to call everybody to the right way which would make them happy; and to announce that everybody should save themselves from his wrath; those who heed his warnings would reach an endless blessing (paradise); those who do not heed his edicts would be penalized in proportion with what they deserved.'

 SABIANS' 'ADDRESS TO GOD'

Omar Ibn'ul-Verdi - an Islamic historian - says he has seen a page which he claims to have belonged to the Sabians. This page is said to have contained the 'address to God' of the Sabians: 'You are such an eternal being that all the chiefs and chairmanships depend on you. You are the God of all the creatures who are thought of and who exist in the region of senses. You are the chief of the worlds and the shepherd of 'realms.' You are the 'Rabb' of all the angels and their superiors. Wisdom originate from you and reach the governor of the earth. Because you are the first cause. Your might envelops all those who exist. You are a boundless 'oneness.' You are the unfathomable 'one.' You are the supervisor of the celestial sovereigns and the sources of light whose lights are eternal. You are the sovereign of sovereigns who dictates all the good and who forewarns everything via revelations and signs. The creation and development of all the creatures is caused by you. The order takes the right path with your signal. The lights emanate only from you. You are the oldest cause existing before everything. We request you purify our selves (spirits). We wish to succeed in winning your blessings. Now and always. Till eternity. O! God who is pure of all kinds of pollution make our reason sound, and give us health free of all kinds of ailments. Turn our worries into joy. We take refuge in you only, and fear only you. We beg of you to let us succeed in expressing your immensity which could only be expressed by manifestations. This immensity cannot be expressed by words. Everybody and everything comes from you; everything and realization of every success depends on you. You are the desire and hope of the worlds. And you are the supporter of all mankind.'

There are echoes here of the ancient Greek thought, because the Syriac community which included the Sabians, was familiar with the ancient Greece as early as Antiquity. During the caliphate of the Abbasids. When the Arabs/Moslems were under the dark cover of ignorance and bigotry the Syriac community including the Sabians established the ties between the Arabs and the west which ended up in softening the Arab/Moslem thought.

While we are on the subject of the Sabian God Spenta Mainyu cannot help but establishing a parallel. The birthday of the Sabian God, 'Rabb', is celebrated in January. The christmas is used to be celebrated in January as well, on January 6 th. to be exact. Some scholars suggest that this January birthday of the Christian God was taken over from Egypt and belonged to the Egyptian God Aeon. So here is another story of adoption for you. Let us refresh our memories? Christmas of our day was originally the birthday of Mithra. It was taken over from the Romans who were celebrating this date as the birthday of Mithras (For Mithraic belief system refer to page on Mithraism). Romans worshipped Mithras as the saviour of the mankind, and these celebrations were for 'Dies Natalis Invicti' ('Birthdate of the Unconquered'). In short, when the Romans were converted to Christianity they just simply converted the Mithra festival into a Christian festival. This date was arbitrarily fixed by a Scythian monk - Dionysius Exiguus ('Dennis the Little' or 'Dwarf Dennis') in the year 533. Furthermore he moved 1 BC to 1 AD. Prior to Exiguus, Jesus' birthday was fixed as 6 th January, which is still celebrated in the Orthodox church, in the Balkans and Mexico. So where did this birthday come from in the first place? The Christian feast of the Epiphany gives us a clue: The choice of date was January 6 th., This is presumably an adaptation of rival pagan feasts. This birthday was used to be celebrated in Egypt and Asia Minor. So according to these scholars this 'January birthday' may have been taken over from Aeon's birthday. In Egypt, the waters of the Nile were reputed to acquire special powers during the night of Jaunary 5-6, the festival of the God Aeon. The stories about all these 'elected' ones being born of virgins(!) makkes a reminder imperative: Aeon was also born of the virgin Kore. Why, all these deities and the prophets of a major status seem to be mothered exclusively by virgins? To cut a long story short; the end-result of the creation - the mankind - is 'bad', 'evil', 'full of sin' etc. at the root of which is the sexual relations. Sex and all the matters related to it are lowly, downgrading; they take people away from the road to the 'supreme being'; sexual relations make mankind indulge in self satisfaction, etc. So the natural outcome of this is that 'supreme beings' cannot be begotten by a lowly act, but by a 'heavenly'(!) 'union'(!) between a vague 'holy ghost / divine spirit' and a clean / pure(!) virgin. Well! virgins, as the description denotes, are the ones who did not have any union with any man... Aren't they?

That's enough! Let us go back to the Sabian belief system and look at it in detail:

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