Islam for Dummies by Malcolm Clark – reading A Short History of Myth by Fabulous Karen Armstrong also helps understand this and other religions – my note on it is at https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2024/03/a-short-history-of-myth-by-karen.html along with other reviews - 8 out of 10

 

Islam for Dummies by Malcolm Clark – reading A Short History of Myth by Fabulous Karen Armstrong also helps understand this and other religions – my note on it is at https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/2024/03/a-short-history-of-myth-by-karen.html along with other reviews

 

8 out of 10

 

The under signed is not religious, hence his skepticism towards Islam and almost any other faith, except perhaps Buddhism, which seems more palatable, and then stoicism would be a favorite, over there we have a philosophy, but we could see that dogma as close to some of the Christian precepts, indeed, it was popular with Christians

 

Islam has strong connections with Judaism and Christianism, it has been inspired by them, and there is this view that it is in fact a deviation from the former, Jesus, moses are prophets for the Muslims, Virgin Mary is also a saint there (I think I remember that, but I may be wrong, she could be something else, have another status)

Another fantastic read on this subject is Islam – A Short History by the ultimate expert on religion, Karen Armstrong https://realini.blogspot.com/2023/10/islam-short-history-by-karen-armstrong.html and the rapid rise of this new faith makes for a captivating read, I am hooked, if I must also insist I will not convert, ever

 

The fundamentalists, Taliban, ayatollahs are distorting the original message, Islam means peace, however, it does not help that there are so many doing cruel, abject acts in the name of that faith – true, you have Christians and others doing equally horrendous things, one that comes to mind is voting for Orange Jesus

One of the fundamental laws of Islam is that ‘There is only one God, and Mohamed is his prophet’, that is the main thing, if I am not blaspheming – by the way, that is another taboo subject, something I hate about this, and other strict faiths, the fact that if you make a cartoon, then they throw an anathema, and often even worse

 

Allahu Akbar aka God is great, or the greatest, one other very attractive aspect for yours truly is the prayer, not the substance of it alas, I am not redeemed, no epiphany yet – maybe someday, Insha’ Allah – but the very sound, the way they do it has magic, I like it very much, just like I listen to (some) Arabic music

I have had some connections with that world, I have had a pupil, back in university, he was a student in Geology, just like myself, and some decades back I was a virtuoso in Math and Physics, where he was quite ignorant, and then I agreed to be his tutor, he passed the math exam, but it was very close, I could have trouble as well…

 

Because I gave him my papers to copy, cheat in other words, and then he passed them along, and at the end of the allotted time, I had nothing to give, because they were at the back of the room, so it was a close call…later, the fellow would become a doctor in geology, and then he asked me an exorbitant price for coffee-

Back in the Ceausescu days, you had almost nothing, one had to stay in a queue for bread, and anything, so the dollar shops had what was absent elsewhere, and this pupil of mine, instead of showing gratitude, he used his arithmetic for extortion, nevertheless, I took part in the 1989 revolution and you have a link at the end for that

 

I also worked with tourists from the Arab world, I remember one particular group from Jordan – let me put a belated spoiler alert in, since I am off the subject – in the same communist period, one showed photos of his wife to my girlfriend, but not to me, because the spouse had some hair showing under the scarf, maybe the hijab

There was another pupil, I was teaching him about hospitality – now he is in the food business, and he is one of the fifty richest in this land, maybe even higher up, I have not checked for the last years – and we took the Jordanians to a beano, then we split, 60% for me and the rest for this would be tycoon, who was not happy with the arrangement

 

So, we had to talk this through – ‘look, when I started, nobody said anything to me about taking the clients on these side shows, never mind give me any percentage, so you, with your 40%, should be more than grateful’…we were friends though, I was going to say, but I am not so sure about that, especially now

Thomas Mann https://realini.blogspot.com/2021/09/the-magic-mountain-is-classic-that.html was one of the gods of literature, one of his characters is appalled to hear around ‘I love you so much, there are no words to express it’, which was more than gratuitous, disingenuous to him, and he explains why, so brilliantly

 

Words like love, friend, mean much more than we generally give them credit for, so it is the opposite, love implies a feeling that is so deep, solid, generous and so much more that it needs to be used seldom, if at all, today you find that ‘love’ is for all the mundane, ludicrous things, they love this chair, bottle, everything

Returning for a little, the last lines of this note to Islam, some other features that I like would be about munificence, the zakat is one of the five principles, then there would be the trip to Mecca, which is overwhelming for many, interesting that the year zero is 622 for them, and the years are not of the same length

Christians have imposed their time on the rest of the world, we are in 2024, because we use a s reference Jesus, not Mohamed, or Judaism, Buddhism - “Time. What is time? Swiss manufacture it. French hoard it. Italians squander it. Americans say it is money. Hindus say it does not exist. Do you know what I say? I say time is a crook.”

 

 Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/unique-in-world.html?q=unique+in+the+world – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se

 

 There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know

 

As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html

 

Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works

 

‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’

 

‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’

 

“From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.”