Earlier quoted context omitted.
Islam generally has a prohibiton on representational art. Most of the artistic skills were pulled into calligraphy and tesselations. It's why these show up in almost all Islamic artifacts.
Can you please elaborate on 'representational art' in this context?
Prayer, Placement, and Absolution: Peter Hristoff on Islamic Prayer Rugs (2015)
61–70 of 94 posts
Re: Prayer, Placement, and Absolution: Peter Hristoff on Islamic Prayer Rugs (2015)
#62Earlier quoted context omitted.
I didn't know Orthodox Christians prostrated in their prayer much less use prayer rugs. Curious where this practice remains today.
Especially monks and nuns do prostrations as part of their prayer rule. Some do hunderds, some do even thousands prostrations during their prayers. We use prayer rope when recitating Jesus Prayer[1]. Prayer rope helps count the prayers but also it gives your hands something to do while praying, so it's easier to focus. I usually have one in my pocket and I roll it in my hands secretly while in meetings or sometimes e…
The widespread use of the prayer rope with jesus prayer in orthodoxy is very recent, like second half of 20th century. Both things are ancient but the rope was more associated with monastics and some specific balkan regions where they were popular. The jesus prayer has been common but the modern hesychastic application of it was basically practiced only by monks until JD salinger made the way of the pilgrim popular.
You hear about this practice a lot on the internet and it is very familiar to english-speaking converts but this practice is not typical among for example greeks christians in greece, or even most russians I don't think but I'm less clear on that.
Re: Prayer, Placement, and Absolution: Peter Hristoff on Islamic Prayer Rugs (2015)
#63Earlier quoted context omitted.
Even Muslims do not claim their religion is completely novel. The rituals may differ, but the creed preached by Muhammad (peace and blessings upon him) is the same preached by Adam, Noah, Abraham, Ismail, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Aaron, David, Solomon, John, Jesus, and countless other prophets (peace be upon them all): worship The One True God (Allah, Yahweh) with no partners. As far as prayer rugs and other acce…
Muslims say that Islam _was_ the religion of all the prophets you've mentioned. Because of this they also believe that Islam is the _oldest_ religion, since Adam, the first man, followed Islam.
“Islam” as a named religion with its own prescribed rituals and laws is specific to the message preached in Arabia in the 7th century.
“Muslim” is a more transcendent term that encompasses all the prophets mentioned in the Quran, as well as those not mentioned. Their creed and state of mind (absolute submission to God’s will) is the same, but they did not follow a religion called “Islam”. Earlier prophets and their followers prayed, fasted, and gave charity. Some even made the pilgrimage to Makkah. However, certain details of these rituals may have differed between them and today’s Islam, and between one another.
Re: Prayer, Placement, and Absolution: Peter Hristoff on Islamic Prayer Rugs (2015)
#64Earlier quoted context omitted.
In Sunni Islam, the Hadith is essentially a companion source to the Quran - in particular, Sahih Bukhari and Sahih Muslim. But I should have been more specific. I think Shia art has the same restrictions though - could be wrong.
Only the Quran is guaranteed to be unchanged (but the interpretations and translations are not so guaranteed), the Hadiths are not. The proper perspective is that if the Hadith and Quran are in conflict, the Quran is the authoratative source. From our Sufi perspective, the Hadiths are a lot of game of telephone. And if the Quran is difficult to apply, remember that compassion is the entire purpose of all God's religi…
>And if the Quran is difficult to apply, remember that compassion is the entire purpose of all God's religions.
Clearly a few of gods prophets dropped the ball pretty hard on this one. To bad he isn't interested in correcting the record.
Re: Prayer, Placement, and Absolution: Peter Hristoff on Islamic Prayer Rugs (2015)
#65[dead]
Re: Prayer, Placement, and Absolution: Peter Hristoff on Islamic Prayer Rugs (2015)
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
That whole bundle of traditions - prayer times, prayer directions, prayer accessories, etc predates Islam if for no other reason than that Islam is comparatively new. But the cross-pollination could have easily happened more than once and in both directions.
Even Muslims do not claim their religion is completely novel. The rituals may differ, but the creed preached by Muhammad (peace and blessings upon him) is the same preached by Adam, Noah, Abraham, Ismail, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Aaron, David, Solomon, John, Jesus, and countless other prophets (peace be upon them all): worship The One True God (Allah, Yahweh) with no partners. As far as prayer rugs and other acce…
For completeness to the reader, the creed preached by Jesus is historically very different.
Rejection of Jesus’s Divinity: • Islam acknowledges Jesus (Isa) as a prophet but explicitly denies His divinity or status as the Son of God. The Qur’an states: “He [Jesus] was no more than a servant: We granted Our favor to him” (Qur’an 43:59). • The Qur’an emphasizes that Jesus did not die on the cross but was raised to heaven by God (Qur’an 4:157-158).
Etc., etc.
Islam historically reinterpreted Jesus and rejects the accounts of the first followers of Christ (the Church Fathers circa 100-300 AD).
Re: Prayer, Placement, and Absolution: Peter Hristoff on Islamic Prayer Rugs (2015)
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
I didn't know Orthodox Christians prostrated in their prayer much less use prayer rugs. Curious where this practice remains today.
Every Orthodox service I've been to we stood the entire time, though I never went on special holidays. My inner ex-Catholic wondered is it really church if I don't kneel and stand, kneel and stand, kneel and stand all through the service? My Ukrainian ex had a worship space in a corner. It didn't have any rugs but had hauntingly beautiful hand painted icons. Maybe rugs are more of a thing in the old countries?
As a rule, Orthodox don't kneel on Sundays. Usually, weeknights during Lent you will see kneeling and prostrations. On a weekday liturgy (mass, always done in the morning) people will usually kneel at least for the Lord's Prayer (this is in the US)
Re: Prayer, Placement, and Absolution: Peter Hristoff on Islamic Prayer Rugs (2015)
#68Am I on a tech site?
Re: Prayer, Placement, and Absolution: Peter Hristoff on Islamic Prayer Rugs (2015)
#69[flagged]
Re: Prayer, Placement, and Absolution: Peter Hristoff on Islamic Prayer Rugs (2015)
#70Earlier quoted context omitted.
In Sunni Islam, the Hadith is essentially a companion source to the Quran - in particular, Sahih Bukhari and Sahih Muslim. But I should have been more specific. I think Shia art has the same restrictions though - could be wrong.
Only the Quran is guaranteed to be unchanged (but the interpretations and translations are not so guaranteed), the Hadiths are not. The proper perspective is that if the Hadith and Quran are in conflict, the Quran is the authoratative source. From our Sufi perspective, the Hadiths are a lot of game of telephone. And if the Quran is difficult to apply, remember that compassion is the entire purpose of all God's religi…
> And if the Quran is difficult to apply, remember that compassion is the entire purpose of all God's religions.
Or, in practice, the opposite