Zoroastrianism And Islam

[nishom]

ZOROASTRIANISM


Religion with its origin in ancient Iran, which exist even in modern times.
Zoroastrianism is perhaps the world's oldest continuing non-pantheistic religion. The founder of Zoroastrianism, Zarathustra, preached around 600 BCE a monotheistic religious message, much of which is found in the central collection of religious texts, Avesta.


Inside the History of Religion the teachings of Zarathustra has been used in order to explain the development of the three major monotheistic religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, but there has never been proven any clear examples of influence between the belief systems.


Zoroastrianism is also called Zarathustrism, Mazdaism and Parsism. Parsism is the term used today among the believers in India, the largest Zoroastrian society of today. Modern Zoroastrianism counts about 150,000 believers in India, 60,000 in Iran, and perhaps 50,000 in the rest of the world.


CULT


The cult of Zoroastrianism is focused on the battle against the evil, and the principal symbol of this is the sacred Fire. The most important place of worship is the Temple of Fire, which a fire burns as a symbol of the holiness of Ahura Mazda.

The veneration of the spirits of the dead is also important in both cult and ethics, and in the orthodox religion, believers are strongly occupied with the hereafter. The believer must beware of demons, i.e. contamination, and this is central in their consciousness and daily acts. The right behaviour is marked with having the good in mind with your thoughts, your sayings and your acts.
There are 5 daily prayers, and ablutions are performed in front of all of these.
The believer becomes religiously active from the age of 7. When a believer dies, his body is brought up to the Tower of Silence, where the corps shall be eaten by vultures, so that neither fire nor earth becomes contaminated. Still, there are graveyards for the believers in Iran, but these represent a part of the cult that is influenced by the dominant religion of the region, Islam.


THEOLOGY

Zoroastrianism is to some extent a monotheistic religion, in the sense that there is a supreme god, Ahura Mazda, that is central in all cult. Yet, the existence of lesser divine beings dilute this image. Even the power that opposes Ahura Mazda, the evil Ahriman may be seen as a deity of Zoroastrianism, since he is an important force in cosmos.
To the "pantheon" of Zoroastrianism (note that in the "pantheon" no power can compare to Ahura Mazda), belong the jazatas. The jazatas are elements that are venerable, like the sun, the moon, Haoma, as well as Mithra and the Amesha Spentas.

The cosmology of Zoroastrianism is one of dividing time into three periods. In the first of these, the original one, everything was perfect. In the second, the present one, evil is active. In the third and last, perfect goodness will be restored.

Human beings can with the help of Ahura Mazda reach the stage of total liberation from the worldly existence. In such a situation life becomes healthy, filled with power and dominated by bliss. And more, the influence of the evil is extinguished. When human beings reach such a stage the divine order has total influence on the world.

But the teachings of Zarathustra was more than just spiritual. He showed great interest in increased and bettered exploitation of the earth: forests should be opened, land cultivated and vermin exterminated.
The believers marry only within the extended family, but occasionally even with relatives as close as brother and sister.

[جوري]

Do you know how ZOROASTRIANS burry their dead?

[DaNgErOuS MiNdS]

heard it is a pretty scary process

[جوري]

yup myself included... but I wanted to learn about it from a primary source... which I guess is hard since there are none on board?

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[snakelegs]

they put out the corpse for the vultures to eat.
in india there is a problem because the vulture population is shrinking for a variety of reasons....one that they are injesting some kind of drug used by veterinarians for livestock and to the vultures it is poison.
vultures are actually fascinating creatures. when they are on the ground, they are ugly and clumsy - when they are in flight it is grace in motion.
also in india, the parsee community is shrinking - they don't accept converts and they only intermarry.

[snakelegs]

more info
http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/zoroastrian/

[Kidman]

Wow... when i went to Iran, my cousin gave me some of these types of artistic rock sculptures, and i never knew what it was, and still keep them in my house today... now i know it comes from the Zoroastrian religion, that's pretty cool. Just thought id share...

Kidman

[Ummah]

Asalaamualaikum

theres a guy in my class who is zoroastrian irani and he gave me a long graphic description of the funeral process.. freaked me out! but he was like "ya ya i have no probz being buried like that.." i thought..yeah u will when ur dead and you can feel every vultures peck on ur soul!!

he told me in the fields where they go for rememberance, near the towers of silence, u might accidentally step on an ear, or a finger..coz the birds drop thm *pukes*

i never know how to properly argue when people accuse islam of copying their religion..u know the religions like hinduism and parsi'ism coz theyre so much older, when there's a similarity.

[DaNgErOuS MiNdS]

Do they have their own religious book? Like Qu'ran, Bible or Torah.

[Ubaidah]

Never heard of this belief... interesting (and a little freaky)..

[Fishman]

i never know how to properly argue when people accuse islam of copying their religion..u know the religions like hinduism and parsi'ism coz theyre so much older, when there's a similarity.

:sl:
If their religion is a corrupted version of a true revelation, then there are bound to be a few similarities between it and Islam!
:w:

[جوري]

Asalaamualaikum



i never know how to properly argue when people accuse islam of copying their religion..u know the religions like hinduism and parsi'ism coz theyre so much older, when there's a similarity.

Ummaah read the amazing QUran by DR. Gary miller... he will teach you so many things in the quran not found in previous scriptures... very exciting since some of them are modern findings... he is a former priest who was a missionary... studied the quran for twenty years hoping to hilight exactly what people are stating of "how the quran borrows and how prophet mohammed (pbuh) is an imposter"... he ended up converting to Islam instead... and the beauty is all his twenty years of research are distilled in his book.... http://thetruereligion.org/modules/w...p?articleid=90
this is the intro... you should buy the book though it is more detailed
peace.....

[DaNgErOuS MiNdS]

^jaazak'Allah sis. That sounds intresting.

[- Qatada -]

Asalaamualaikum

theres a guy in my class who is zoroastrian irani and he gave me a long graphic description of the funeral process.. freaked me out! but he was like "ya ya i have no probz being buried like that.." i thought..yeah u will when ur dead and you can feel every vultures peck on ur soul!!

he told me in the fields where they go for rememberance, near the towers of silence, u might accidentally step on an ear, or a finger..coz the birds drop thm *pukes*

i never know how to properly argue when people accuse islam of copying their religion..u know the religions like hinduism and parsi'ism coz theyre so much older, when there's a similarity.

:salamext:


You just have to explain to them how islam is totally different and simple compared to all other faiths who say that they are the truth.



1) We believe that there is One God - Allaah, He is the Creator. And He created us so we would worship Him Alone.



2) Allaah needs to tell mankind how He want's to be worshipped, so He sends us messengers from among ourselves to tell us the difference between right and wrong. [Obviously - Allaah could show Himself to us, but He doesn't, because it's a test to see who will believe or not.]



3) Every soul shall taste death:

Say: "The Angel of Death, put in charge of you, will (duly) take your souls: then shall you be brought back to your Lord. (32:11)

Wherever you are, death will find you out, even if you are towers built up strong and high. (4:78)

In the end to Us shall you be brought back. (29:57)

We will all die, and then we will be brought back to life again to be judged on everything we did in this life. Because this life is obviously for a reason.



The one's who worshipped Allaah Alone without any partners, they will be rewarded with paradise, and those who disbelieved will be punished in hellfire for rejecting the fact that Allaah should be worshipped alone, and for their evil.



Let there be no compulsion in religion: Truth stands out clear from Error: whoever rejects evil and believes in Allah hath grasped the most trustworthy hand-hold, that never breaks. And Allah heareth and knoweth all things. (Qur'an 2:256)


Allah is the Protector of those who have faith: from the depths of darkness He will lead them forth into light. Of those who reject faith the patrons are the evil ones: from light they will lead them forth into the depths of darkness. They will be companions of the fire, to dwell therein (For ever). (Qur'an 2:257)




You can read more off this link insha'Allaah:

http://www.islamicboard.com/discover...lam-truth.html




That's how simple islam is.

"If unyone desires a religion other than Islam (Submission to Allah), Never will it be accepted of him; and in the Hereafter he will be in the ranks of those who have lost (their selves in the hell fire)."(Qur'an 3:85)

[Ummah]

Asalaamualaikum

JazakhAllah all for the tips ^_^ inshAllah will keep them in mind.

PrestAmbrosia.. never heard of that book but will get down to bookstore next week inshAllah and buy it, it sounds so interesting!

Ma'salaama

[Ummah]

Do they have their own religious book? Like Qu'ran, Bible or Torah.

yeah they have the Avesta, which is split into around 4-5 books i think