A Muslim Convert Once Before

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Abraham ( a.s. ) was Chaldean.  Jethro ( a.s. ) was allegedly Midian.  Jonah ( a.s. ) was Assyrian.  Aside from that, they were all from the same Greater Near East geographic region.  It does not mean that there were no prophets sent elsewhere.  It just means we do not know their names, or that they have not been positively identified as such.  The reason why these were named is because they were the names most familiar to the people of the two Houses of God: Jerusalem and Makkah.   The Upanishads, which were written before the sixth century before common era had a prophet named Manu who saved his people from the great flood in an ark.  Could Noah ( a.s. ) have been Aryan?  Various Islamic scholars have proposed, based on the earliest portions of their scripture, that Gautama Siddartha Buddha, Zoroaster, Confucius and the composite characters that made up Lao Tzu were prophets.  Buddha emphasised t...

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ   Lao Tzu wrote, as found in the Tao Te Ching:   “We join spokes together in a wheel, but it is the center hole that makes the wagon move.   We shape clay into a pot, but it is the emptiness inside that holds whatever we want.   We hammer wood for a house, but it is the inner space that makes it livable. We work with being, but non-being is what we use.”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Lao Tzu is quoted, in the Tao Te Ching , “'When he is born, man is soft and weak; in death he becomes stiff and hard.  The ten thousand creatures and all plants and trees while they are alive, are supple and soft; but when they are dead, they become brittle and dry.  Truly, what is stiff and hard is a companion of death; what is soft and weak is a companion of life.  Therefore, the weapon that is too hard will be broken, the tree that has the hardest wood will be cut down.  Truly, the hard and mighty are cast down; the soft and weak set on high.”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ   It is said that Lao Tzu wrote, in the Tao Te Ching :   “Simplicity, patience, compassion. These three are your greatest treasures. Simple in actions and thoughts, you return to the source of being. Patient with both friends and enemies, You accord with the way things are. Compassionate toward yourself, You reconcile all beings in the world.”

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ Lao Tzu said, “Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom.  Mastering others is strength, mastering yourself is true power.”