Two Holy Lungs Spreading The One God’s Holy Spirit – OpEd
Western intelligence sources told Sky News Arabia that they had evidence Iran plans to attack Israel on Tisha B’Av (August 12 eve to August 13 eve). Iran’s attack will reportedly be coordinated with Hezbollah, an Iran-backed terror group embedded in Lebanon.
On Tisha B’Av, Jews lament the destruction of the first and second Jerusalem Temples by fasting, mourning and the practice of self-denial. If this is true it would start an Armageddon style war that would lead to terrible destruction.
The Greek word Armageddon is a transliteration of the Hebrew har məgiddô which means a mountain near Megiddo, a hilltop fortification built by King Ahab, that dominated the Plain of Jezreel.
Har Magedon is the symbol of a battle in which, when the need is greatest and believers are most oppressed, God suddenly reveals His power to His distressed people and the evil enemies are destroyed. But Armageddon is also a warning that humanity needs to greatly change to avoid Armageddon.
For more than one hundred thousand years Homo Sapiens’s worshiped nature Gods (sun, moon, rain Gods etc) and super-human shaped Gods like Zeus, or local rulers: “Do not give up your gods; do not give up Wadd, nor Souwa, nor Yaghoos, and Yaooq, and Nassr” (Qur’an 71:23-27).
Adam in his childhood may have lived near Göbekli Tepe before he traveled south to Jerusalem and Arabia.
Göbekli Tepe is in southern Turkey close to the Syrian border. It is an ancient complex of temple-like enclosures adorned with intricately carved symbols that may record an astronomical event that triggered a key shift in human civilization, some researchers say.
Markings on a stone pillar at this 12,000-year-old archaeological site may represent the world’s oldest solar calendar, created as a memorial to a devastating comet strike, some experts suggest.
The research, published in Time and Mind, suggests ancient people were able to record their observations of the sun, moon and constellations in the form of a solar calendar, created to keep track of time and mark the change of seasons.
Fresh analysis of V-shaped symbols carved onto pillars at the site has found that each V could represent a single day. This interpretation allowed researchers to count a solar calendar of 365 days on one of the pillars, consisting of 12 lunar months plus 11 extra days.
The summer solstice appears as a separate, special day, represented by a V worn around the neck of a bird-like beast thought to represent the summer solstice constellation at the time. Other statues nearby, representing other deities, have been found with similar V-markings at their necks.
Ancient people may have created these carvings at Göbekli Tepe to record the date a swarm of comet fragments hit Earth nearly 13,000 years ago—or 10,850 BCE, with some of them falling in Arabia. The comet strike may have ushered in a mini ice age lasting over 1,200 years, wiping out many species of large animals.
It could also have triggered changes in lifestyle and agriculture thought to be linked to the birth of civilization afterwards in the fertile crescent of West Asia.
The carvings appear to have remained important to the people of Göbekli Tepe for millennia, suggesting the impact event may have triggered a new cult or religion that influenced the development of civilization.
However, a place is never holy just through the choice of humans, but because it has also been chosen by God, and revealed by God’s prophets. Believers in God’s Prophets can see the site’s holiness. Unbelievers are blind to it.
But why does Islam have two sacred sites rather than one? Because even before he left the rejection of the idol-worshipping Arabs of Makkah, for the future promise of Medina, Prophet Muhammad had already visited the other holy site in Jerusalem (Isra Qur’an 17:1-2), to personally experience Allah’s signs.
Thus, both sacred scriptures use similar words to describe the two sanctuaries: Beitullah-BeitEl, Bayt al-Maqdis and Beit HaMikdash to illustrate how they fit together like a pair of lungs.
This narration, transmitted orally in both Arabic and Hebrew for many centuries, and finally written down in several different versions in the 19th century; explains what some say happened in the time of Adam, and others say happened in the year that Abraham was born.
Two brothers who inherited a ‘valley to hilltop’ farm from their father, divided the land in half so each one could farm his own section. Over time, the older brother married and had four children, while the younger brother was still not married. One year there was very little rain, and the crop was very meager. This was at the beginning of a long term drought that would turn the whole valley into an arid, treeless, desert where even grain did not grow, and all the springs dried up.
The younger brother lay awake one night praying and thought. “My brother has a wife and four children to feed and I have no children. He needs more grain than I do; especially now when grain is scarce.”
So that night the younger brother went to his barn, gathered a large sack of wheat, and left his wheat in his brother’s barn. Then he returned home, feeling pleased with himself.
Earlier that very same night, the older brother was also lying awake praying for rain when he thought: “In my old age my wife and I will have our grown children to take care of us, as well as grandchildren to enjoy, while my brother may have no children.
He should at least sell more grain from his fields now, so he can provide for himself in his old age.” So that night, the older brother also gathered a large sack of wheat, and left it in his brother’s barn, and returned home, feeling pleased with himself.
The next morning, the younger brother, surprised to see the amount of grain in his barn seemed unchanged said “I did not take as much wheat as I thought. Tonight I’ll take more.” That same morning, the older brother standing in his barn, was thinking the same thoughts.
After night fell, each brother gathered a greater amount of wheat from his barn and in the dark, secretly delivered it to his brother’s barn.
The next morning, the brothers were again puzzled and perplexed. “How can I be mistaken?” each one thought. “There’s the same amount of grain here as there was before. This is impossible! Tonight I’ll make no mistake – I’ll take two large sacks.”
The third night, more determined than ever, each brother gathered two large sacks of wheat from his barn, loaded them onto a cart, and slowly pulled his cart toward his brother’s barn. In the moonlight, each brother noticed a figure in the distance. When the two brothers got closer, each recognized the form of the other and the load he was pulling, and they both realized what had happened.
Without a word, they dropped the ropes of their carts, ran to each other and embraced.
Religious leaders know that a place is never holy just through the choice of humans, but because it has been chosen in Heaven. However, God can choose a place of brotherly love and concern; and make it holy for their descendants to build a center of worship in this valley and on that hill. Then, like one pair of lungs, the two places breathe the spirit of God into the world’s atmosphere, so that all humans may submit to the will and love of God.
When all those, both near and far, who revere this place as a worldwide standard, and share it in love with everyone else who reveres it, then God does as Abraham requests: “Make this a land of Peace, and provide its people with the produce of the land”. (Qur’an 2:126). Then will the children of Abraham live in Holiness, Peace and Prosperity.
Jews and Christians believe the hill is Jerusalem. Muslims believe the valley is Makka
Both Islamic, Christian and Jewish traditions teach that their holy sanctuary is at the center of the world. But how can the world possibly have more than one religious center?
Because religious centers are not the same as geometric centers. After all, the qiblah is the central direction of worship in every mosque; although it is not at the geometric center of any of them.
As the Qur’an states: “For every nation there is a direction to which they face (in prayer). So hasten towards all that is good. Wherever you may be, Allâh will bring you together (on the Day of Resurrection). Truly, Allâh is Able to do all things.” (2:148)
And Tafsir al-Jalalayn comments: Every person, of every community, has his direction (wijha), [his] qibla to which he turns (muwallīhā) in his prayers, so vie with one another in good works, strive with acts of obedience and acceptance of these [two different qiblas]. Wherever you may be, God will bring you all together, gathering you on the Day of Resurrection and requiting you for your deeds; surely God has power over all things.
In the Jewish tradition there is also a helpful midrash that describes Jerusalem’s central place in the world: Abba Hanan said in the name of Samuel the Small, “This world is like a person’s eyeball. The white of the eye is the ocean surrounding the world; the iris is the inhabited world; the pupil of the eye is Jerusalem; and the face [the reflection] in the pupil is the Holy Temple.” (Derekh Eretz Zuta 9, end)
Of course, one person has two lungs to breath [spirit] and two eyes to see [sacredness]; and therefore two pupils to reflect the One God’s holy light. God willing, someday both religion’s leaders will be inspired to see how the two holy qiblas function as a pair of lungs recycling Allah’s holy spirit throughout the world.
If all Arabs and Jews can live up to the ideal that ‘the descendants of Abraham’s sons should never make war against each other’ is the will of God; we will help fulfill the 2700 year old vision of Prophet Isaiah: “On that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria. The Assyrians will go to Egypt, and the Egyptians to Assyria. The Egyptians and Assyrians will worship together.
On that day Israel will join a three-party alliance with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing upon the heart. The LORD of Hosts will bless them saying, “Blessed be Egypt My people, Assyria My handiwork, and Israel My inheritance.”…(Isaiah 19:23-5)
