RENAISSANCE SEPTEMBER 2020

Faith & Beliefs 30 Monthly Renaissance September 2020 would go to the sacred centre of the tent of worship, where a chest had been placed behind a curtain. This place was believed to the centre of revelations by the Lord. There, he apparently received instructions by Jehovah (God) through revelation. He would then inform people of these instructions and they were bound to implement them. Bluntschli, in his book The Theory of State writes in the chapter on theocracy: The law of God was placed within a box painted in gold. Two workers were assigned to protect it and it was worshipped as a place occupying the centre of divine instructions. The box was placed in the sacred place behind a curtain and the soothsayers would make great efforts to protect it. Here, the chief soothsayer would obtain instructions from God and inform people. The q ā dh ī s who were assigned to promulgate the shar ī ‘ah would do so under the name of God. Since law making was the right of God, if any matter that was difficult for them to resolve would be addressed by finding the wish of God through the Levites. This is an exact imitation of idol worshippers and the Jews had adopted this during their period of downfall. Just as priests and pundits in the idol-temples of Egypt, Iraq and Nineveh etc would approach their idols when the need arose and attempt to gain information about their wishes from their guardian angels, or just as Arabs used to determine the instructions and decisions of their idols through use of spears, the Jews had similarly made this box their idol. Whatever difficulty they faced, their Chief Priest would find instructions and wishes of God from this box. To come near the box was enough to obtain revelation. These priests were considered innocent and free of all sin. The natural consequence of this method was that they were taken to be Lords other than God: “They take their priests and their anchorites to be their lords in derogation of Allah” (9:31) and all their statements and superstitions assumed the status of shar ī ‘ah . The situation among the Christians was even more ridiculous than the Jews. Christians were initially a reformed group of the Jews; not a separate, permanent religious sect. Jesus had himself said that he had come not to revoke the Torah, but to complete it.