Lebanon

Holy Lebanon

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 22:33:00 +0000

Lebanon is a fertile field for Cedars, is a Monastery for Christian Monks, the Mosque for the Muslims, the Book of life for the Druze. Prophets and Saints passed through this misterious and holy land, leaving many secrets, stories and beliefs.
The center of Love is the mirror of the Lebanese’s Heart, their faith, and the different paths that they chose towards God.
Everyone wants to be save, but we have different ways to try it. It is like when you are going to climb a mountain, some people choose one way to get to the top, others choose another way, because each one see what is better for them, or what way is more logic to be followed, some just follow their relatives or friends, few try to walk alone in the mountain. We don’t know who got to the top, but we know that we are trying to got there too.
Lebaneses are trying as many people around the World got to the top of the Mountain, they choose their faith, muslims have choosen one way, Christians another way, Druzes another way. The ways are different but the destination for sure is the same. We are going in different directions, but to achieve the same goal which is God, and God’s satisfaction.
Everyone put effords and climb this moutain step by step. We also have leaders that try to convince us that this is the only way to get to the top of the moutain. We are divided in teams, and many times those teams forget the principal rules and they fight each other or compete to show who is right or wrong. Forgetting that to climb this Mountain love is the principal thing.
Who will explain what do you feel? Can I? So can you? We don’t see love, but just the lovers’s actions, and we will try to put here, some representation of the eternal love that Lebaneses feel for God.
Your participation is a present for us, but there is no space here for religious’s judgement. It takes time and wisdom to assume certain things. When we recognize that no one is right in everything, we learn to hear more, respect more, love more, we can live in peace with people who think differently from ourselves.

This is the Spitiritual and Religious Journey in Lebanon, you are Welcome.

RERGADELESS OF RELIGION WE HAVE TO BE UNITED

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 12:30:00 +0000

RERGADELESS OF RELIGION WE HAVE TO BE UNITED

The Word ALLAH

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 00:41:00 +0000

While chatting about religion in the internet, I could recognize that non-Arabs many times think that “Allah”, is the God for muslims, but what many of them don’t know, is that even Arabs Christians refer to God calling him Allah. Because is the Arabic language, is the same to say Deus in portuguese, or Dios in spanish.

The term Allāh is derived from a contraction of the Arabic definite article al- "the" and ilāh "deity, god" to al-lāh meaning "the [sole] deity, God". Cognates of the name "Allāh" exist in other Semitic languages, including Hebrew and Aramaic. Biblical Hebrew mostly uses Elohim. The corresponding Aramaic form is Ĕlāhā .In Biblical Aramaic and Alâhâ in Syriac as used by the Assyrian Church, both meaning simply "God". In the Sikh scriptures, Guru Granth Sahib, the term Allah, is used 46 times respectively.

Arabic-speakers of all Abrahamic faiths, including Christians and Jews, use the word "Allah" to mean "God". The Christian Arabs of today have no other word for 'God' than 'Allah. Christians in Indonesia and Malaysia also use Allah to refer to God in the Malaysian language and Indonesian Language.

In Lebanon, each religious sect, and everywhere you can hear the word Allah, they say it many times, in different ways, with a diversity of Arabic expressions:

Mnechkor Allah (thanks to God)- Alhandulillah(thanks to God)- Masha’Allah(Praise to God)- Allah Yssabrak(May God give you patience)- Allah Ykaouik(May God give you strength)- Allah Yhfazak(May God keep you)- Allah ytawel bi amrak(May God give you long life)- Enchallah(GOD WILLING) – Allah yaatik hasab nytak (May God give you according to your intention), Allah Kareem( God is Generous), Allah yanaam aaleik(May God give you gifts), Allah yeftahlak attaarik(May God open your ways), Allah Maak(May God be with you), Bi aman allah(With the security of God) , Allah yehmik(May God Protect you), Allah yerda Aaleik(May God be satisfied with you), Allah Yebarik Fik(God bless you), Bismillah( In the name of God), Chucranlillah (thanks to God), Allah Yhannik(May God make you happy), Allah YebAatlak bent al halal(May God send you a virtuous woman) , Allah Wakilak(God is my witness), Tawkal Aala Allah(Our Trust in God) , Allah Ylatter men Amsalak(May God increase the number of people like you.), Allah erham ahlak(May God have mercy on your family), Allah yennajjahak (May God make you succeed)AllahYAatik Al Aafiyeh(May God give you health), Allah Ykhallik(May God make you stay in good condition), Allah YesaAdak(May God help you), etc...

Those words are a form of religious representation or faith, but using these expressions, you can not identify if he is a muslim, a druze or a christian. However some other expressions shows in each religion a person belongs, which are more specified according to the religion.

Observe this simple dialogue of a Muslim and a Christian:

George: How are you Muhammad?

Muhammad: Alhandulillah, and you?

George: Mnechkor Allah, how is your brother.

Muhammad: He is fine, but he left his fiancee.

George: Allah YebAatlo bent al halal

Muhammad: Allah Ykhallik

George: How are your parents?

Muhammad: Shukran Lillah, they are fine and yours?

George: My mother is fine, but my father is a little bit sick, Allah YesaAdouh

George: Tell me, what are you working now?

Muhammad: I start a new business, Allah Wakilak I am working a lot.

George: Allah Ykaouik, and Yaatik hasab nytak

Muhammad: Eh, Enchallah, and you, are you working in that Company?

George: I am still working in that Company, but I am tired from that, I am thinking to find a new a job, Iza Allah birid.

Muhammad: Allah yeftahlak attaarik, because you deserve the best.

George: Shucran Habib, Allah Kareem.

Muhammad: I have to go, take care.

George: Allah MAak

Muhammad: Allah Yehfazak.

As you can see the word Allah repeats many times during a simple dialogue. For some those words are an automatic behavior, but for others these words have power and essential meaning in their lives.

Many other words are used, when they start to eat, or are going to travel, or when they hear something bad or good, or when they want to wish luck, or before sleeping or after waking up, in each time of their lives, there are such expressions. In Lebanon in many ways you see, hear, live and feel the presence of God, in people’s lives.

Religion and Faith

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 20:01:00 +0000

"Religion: Human beings' relation to that which they regard as holy, sacred, spiritual, or divine."¹

People are born into families that have a certain religion or traditions. Some follow the footsteps of their parents, others seek their own way, but everyone from atheists to religious, are seeking the truth. People seek the path that leads to salvation. For some death is the end, for others is just the beginning.

The word religion is often used as a synonym for faith or belief, but the religion has a set of rituals and behaviors organized, it is different from the faith, which can be carried out in various ways, not only in the traditional form taught by religion.

In practice the religion can include various activities: festivals, sacrifices, fasting, marriage services, funeral services, meditation, dance, music, prayers, and various ceremonies.

To many thinkers religion would disappear over the years, the words of Marx (1818-1883) that religion is the opium of people is very known, but both he, and other major sociologists and the father of psychoanalysis Freud (1856-1939), were convinced that religion would disappear with the development of modern science and rationality, a stance that was already in thought, for example by Lucretius, in the first century BC.

But that did not occur, the religion continues to be lived, and lived fervently also there are also people who seek spirituality but without being part of some religion.

Spirituality refers especially to a personal matter: a response to fundamental aspects of life, relationship with the sacred, which may (or may not) lead to the development of religious rituals and the formation of communities.

Contrary to what famous sociologists say, religion and spirituality are very much present in both, East and West, but in many ways.

The development of religion, took different forms in different cultures. Some religions call over to the side of belief and faith, and others more to the side of practice. Some believe that the various activities can elevate man to the highest level of faith, and others believe that the individual spiritual experience may be what matters most, some religions seek to join the two extremes.

However only the internal cultivation of human beings is not seen as a religion, the religion itself is not just an individual phenomenon but a social phenomenon.

In philosophy and religion, essentialism is a theory which concludes that certain properties of a group do not depend on the social context, and there are universal rules for all without exception of space or time.

The other modern theory, social constructivism implies the opposite, that everything can vary according to the social context of each society.²

Some experts have divided religions in three types: world religions (which are the main religions, few in numbers but with many supporters), indigenous religions (specific smaller religious groups in every society) and new religious movements (beliefs newly developed) .

Although different, the religions have in common many similar things, issues like good and evil, the creation of the world, where we came from and where we are going to, and also the worship of a superior being. Moreover religion comes with a set of rules and norms that believers should fallow.

On another hand, there are groups of people who dont believe in a Supreme Being (atheists), and others who have doubts (agnostic), and others even believe in a Supreme being but doubt that the Supreme being revealed any message to us (Deism).

The religions that assert the existence of a deity can be classified into two types: polytheistic (belief in multiple gods or deities) and monotheism (belief in one God, a Supreme Being).

No one can hear all voices, or see all things, but the world is a rotating ball that has faith, after hundreds of years, monotheistic faith almost dominated the world, where most people even with different religions and dogmas say a same phrase: La ilaha Ila Allah. (there is no god but God).

References:

1-Encyclopædia Britannica (online, 2006)

2-Poerksen, Bernhard (2004), The Certainty of Uncertainty: Dialogues Introducing Constructivism.

-http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0102-69922008000200008

-http://www.religioustolerance.org/rel_defn.htm

-Friedrich Max Muller, Introduction to the science of Religion

-http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religi%C3%A3o

-Pascal Boyer, The Evolutionary Origins of Religious Thought