A practice and ritual of the Holiness; A Pharaoah's Act!!!
People around the world have been practicing circumcision - the surgical removal of the foreskin that covers the head of the penis - for centuries. Jews have been practicing it for thousands of years.
Even today, according to the World Health Organization, 98% of the American Jewish men are circumcised.
In India, religions like Hinduism and Buddhism neither endorse nor oppose circumcision. However, most Hindus view it as an Islamic practice. Among Muslims across the Middle-East, North Africa, and South Asia, the circumcision rate is close to 100%.
Almost every Muslim boy is circumcised as part of religious practice. Among Christians, most sects don’t endorse circumcision. It’s up to the family to choose if they want to circumcise their baby boys.
In some countries, boys are circumcised within days of being born. But in other countries like Malaysia, they don’t remove the foreskin until you are 10-12 years old. There are a few Muslim communities where it is performed only after the boy has recited the whole Quran.
An Obligation of Faith
Then Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a child be born unto him that is an hundred years old? And shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear?
JEWS OR ANCIENT EGYPTIANS: WHO STARTED IT?
Well, the earliest evidence comes from the ancient Egyptian mummies dating back to 2300 BC. However, Egyptian paintings depict ritual circumcision was practiced even before 2300 BC, and it was a prerequisite to entering the priesthood.
By 1800 BC, the Jews were practicing it in deference to God’s religious injunction to Abraham. According to historian David Gollaher, the author of Circumcision: A History of the World’s Most Controversial Surgery, Jews borrowed the practice of circumcision from ancient Egyptians.
But according to the Book of Genesis in the Torah, God made a covenant with the Jewish patriarch Abraham in which Abraham and all his descendants would get great wealth, lands, and success. However, they would have to make a religious sacrifice. Abraham, his descendants, and all the slaves in his household must be circumcised.
Every male child among you shall be circumcised; and you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between Me and you.
The Book of Genesis 17:10-11
The Ancient Egyptians believed that their Pharaoh was the god Horus, son of Re, the sun god. When a pharaoh died he was believed to be united with the sun and then a new Horus ruled on earth. In the Old and Middle Kingdoms (2628-1638 BC), Egyptian kings were buried in pyramids. As far as we know from the historical record, the land of the pharaohs pioneered circumcision. The earliest reference to the procedure dates back to around 2400 B.C. A bas-relief in the ancient burial ground of Saqqara depicts a series of medical scenes, including a flint-knife circumcision and a surgeon explaining, "The ointment is to make it acceptable," likely referring to some form of topical anaseptic.
Ancient Egyptian circumcisions were not done in infancy, but instead marked the transition from boyhood to adulthood. The Greeks saw their Mediterranean neighbors' tradition as rather bizarre. In the fifth century, Herodotus made his opinion known in his work "The History of Herodotus."
"They practice circumcision for the sake of cleanliness," he wrote of the Egyptians, "considering it better to be cleanly than comely."
The Book Of Genesis and the Muslim Beliefs
Genesis is basically a genealogical record covering a period of 2,500 years from the time of Adam and Eve (which means this is the story regarding the creation of humankind 4,000 years or so before the birth of Jesus Christ).
One very important point to note, though, is that Genesis was written 1,200 years after the event, which also means long before the birth of Christ.
The most important section of Genesis is the part about Abraham. And I say this because Judaism, Christianity and Islam all come under what we can call the Abrahamic faiths or the religion of Abraham. In fact, Muslims face the Kaaba (God’s house or Baitullah) when they do their prayers, which Muslims believe was built by Abraham and his son, Ishmael.
According to Genesis, Abraham had a wife named Sarah who was barren and could not give him any children. Sarah had an Egyptian slave named Hagar, so Sarah told Abraham to use Hagar as a surrogate mother since she (Sarah) could not give Abraham any children.
Hagar soon became pregnant and not long after that Sarah, too, became pregnant. So now both of them were pregnant. Hagar’s son was named Ishmael while Sarah’s son was named Isaac. But Ishmael was elder to Isaac since he was born first.
Sarah soon became jealous and told Abraham to get rid of Hagar and Hagar’s son, Ishmael. So Abraham dumped both of them in the desert and left them there. God, who called Himself, El Shaddai, then appeared and told Sarah that she will become the mother of all nations.
Now, there are two things to note here. First of all, God acknowledged Isaac (the younger brother) and not Ishmael (the elder brother) as the true successor and heir to Abraham. Secondly, according to the original and untranslated Genesis, God referred to Himself as El Shaddai and not Eloi, Ilah or Allah.
Genesis also tells us that El Shaddai asked Abraham to sacrifice (korban) Isaac at the altar. Just as Abraham was about to slit Isaac’s throat, an Angel appeared and stopped Abraham from proceeding. The angel then referred to Isaac as Abraham’s ‘only son’ even though Abraham had one more son, Ishmael, who was elder to Isaac.
A monotheist religion with differences in faith as to who is the chosen One.
Whether it was the Hebraic God who acknowledged ‘Isaac (the younger brother) and not Ishmael (the elder brother) as the true successor and heir to Abraham’ would depend on who was the Hebraic God. Between perfection & existence, Is there perfection in Existence?
Okay, that is what Genesis tells us. Islam, however, disagrees with Genesis’s version of events. Islam says that Allah asked Abraham to sacrifice (korban) Ishmael (and not Isaac) at the altar. And just as Abraham was about to slit Ishmael’s throat, an Angel appeared and stopped Abraham from proceeding and said he should instead sacrifice an animal in Ishmael’s place.
(And that is why Muslims practice animal sacrifice once a year during Hari Raya Haji).
So there is a fundamental difference between the Genesis and Quran version of events. While both agree that the incident did happen, they disagree on which son was involved. Hence the Jews regard Isaac as Abraham’s successor and heir while the Muslims regard Ishmael as this successor and heir.
Genesis does not tell us what happened after Abraham abandoned Hagar and Ishmael in the desert at the behest of a very jealous Sarah. From hereon Ishmael is out of the picture and Isaac continues with Abraham’s legacy.
Islam, however, continues this story. Islam says that many years later Abraham visited the place where he had abandoned Hagar and Ishmael and by then Ishmael had already grown into a man. Islam further says that Allah then ordered Abraham to build the Kaaba on that spot and with Ishmael’s help Abraham built God’s House or the Baitullah.
And this is the major difference in belief between the Jews and the Muslims. The Christians, however, subscribe to the Jewish version of this story as related by Genesis and not Islam’s version as related by the Quran.
The next question to ponder upon is Jews practice circumcision, an Egyptian practice at that time — and Hagar was Egyptian while Sarah was not. Does this mean the Jews follow Hagar and not Sarah?
Egyptian girl dies undergoing circumcision
(Al Arabiya) – Suhair al-Bata’a, 13, died while she was being circumcised in a village northeast of Cairo. (Photo courtesy of Egypt Independent)
“I want nothing but to hold the doctor accountable and to have justice for my daughter”
Suhair al-Bata’a, a 13-year-old Egyptian girl, has died undergoing circumcision at a village in the Daqahliya governorate northeast of Cairo, Egyptian media reported on Sunday.
“We left our daughter with the doctor and the nurse. 15 minutes later, the nurse took my daughter out of the operation room to a nearby room, along with three other girls whom the doctor was circumcising,” Mohammed Ibrahim, a farmer, told Egyptian daily al-Masry al-Youm.
“I waited half an hour, hoping that my daughter would wake up, but, unfortunately, unlike the rest of the girls, she did not,” he said.
The doctor who circumcised Suhair had previously circumcised her elder sister two years ago.
“I want nothing but to hold the doctor accountable and to have justice for my daughter,” Suhair’s mother, Hasanat Naeem Fawzy, told the newspaper.
The police ordered an autopsy and summoned the doctor to find the cause of the young girl’s death.
Read more at: http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2013/06/10/Egyptian-girl-dies-while-being-circumcised.html
Deuteronomy 21:15-17 (Between Isaac & Ishmael)
If a man has two wives, and he loves one but not the other, and both bear him sons but the firstborn is the son of the wife he does not love, when he wills his property to his sons, he must not give the rights of the firstborn to the son of the wife he loves in preference to his actual firstborn, the son of the wife he does not love.
He must acknowledge the son of his unloved wife as the firstborn by giving him a double share of all he has. That son is the first sign of his father’s strength. The right of the firstborn belongs to him.
Circumcision mishap led to Malaysian boy, 9, losing his penis
A Malaysian boy aged just 9 had to have his penis amputated due to negligence on the part of his surgeon, lawyers in Kuala Lumpur said on Friday.
The doctor accidentally cut off the head of the boy’s penis during the operation for a circumcision on December 15.
He then tried to stitch the penis head back on, but did not align it properly, the lawyer said outside the main hospital building in Kuala Lumpur. The child was referred to another hospital for immediate further surgery, but the penis head started turning black, and the whole penis later had to be amputated.
Read more at: >>> Penis Cut Off
What is Life Like without a Dig? Without a Dickhead!!!
Now the world is gone, I'm just one Oh God, help me Hold my breath as I wish for death Oh please, God, help me
The Truth and Myth of Circumcision!!! An Obligation for Perfection???
Abraham, the Father Of Nations, Genesis chapters 12:1-20
SAHIH INTERNATIONAL
And [mention, O Muhammad], when Abraham was tried by his Lord with commands and he fulfilled them. [ Allah ] said, "Indeed, I will make you a leader for the people." [Abraham] said, "And of my descendants?" [ Allah ] said, "My covenant does not include the wrongdoers."
All three religions (Judaism, Christianity & Islam) are classified as the Abrahamic faiths. And this is because all three religions accept Abraham as the patriarch. However, the Jews and Christians consider Isaac as the legitimate heir to Abraham whilst the Muslims consider Ishmael as the legitimate heir.
Now, according to Islam, Isaac, the son of Abraham’s wife Sarah, was born after Ishmael, the son of Abraham’s ‘second wife’ Hagar. Hence, although Isaac is the son of the first wife, Ishmael is the elder brother.
But then Sarah is Abraham’s ‘legitimate’ wife while Hagar is their slave. Therefore, although Ishmael may be the elder brother to Isaac, he is Abraham’s bastard or illegitimate son.
Seen in the context of today, that would most probably be true. But then seen in the context of the time of Abraham, a slave is the property of the master and sex between master and slave is legal and hence the children would also be legal and not considered bastards or illegitimate.
Today, slavery is not allowed. And if you have sex with your slave that would be sex out of wedlock and the children would be considered bastards. But that is today. We are talking about maybe 5,000 years or so ago. Values and standards then were different from that of today.
And this is where the divide between Judeo-Christianity and Islam begins. All three follow Abraham. But two follow one of the sons of Abraham and another the other son. And since the Bible tells one story and the Qur’an another, and since all consider their respective holy books the word of God, this matter can never be resolved till the end of time.
So the birth of Islam starts with a disagreement on which of the two sons of Abraham is the true ‘leader’ of the religion. And since Muslims believe that Abraham and Ishmael both built the holiest shrine in Islam, the Kaaba, there would be no way this can be resolved. To reject Ishmael would mean they would also have to reject the Kaaba.
The Holy Shrine
And upon a Wall the recite goes:-
We don't need no education We dont need no thought control No dark sarcasm in the classroom Teachers leave them kids alone Hey! Teachers! Leave them kids alone! All in all it's just another brick in the wall. All in all you're just another brick in the wall.
A World or Nation of Dick Heads or Bastards???
When entering Egypt, Abraham wanted Sarah to pretend she was his sister. The biblical reason was that he was afraid of being killed if it was known she was his wife, for he anticipated Sarah would attract lustful attention. And he was right. Pharaoh was told of her beauty, took her into his Palace and rewarded her ‘brother’ generously.
Here, some questions begged to be asked.
(1) What did the Egyptians see in a 65 year old Hebrew woman that made them acclaim she was fair (beautiful), and recommend the beauty to the Pharaoh, and why would a Pharaoh, who could have any woman in the land, want an old crone as his lover?
(2) Did the Pharaoh have his naughty ways with Sarah after taking her into the Palace?
To Lust for Beauties no matter what's the age...
(3) What was a pastoralist (shepherd) like Abraham doing in a cosmopolitan city like Ur (apart from the archaeological-historical fact that Ur existed only 1500 years later)? One would expect him to live in a tent in a rural area, but we are told by the bible he came from Ur of the Chaldees.
(4) Then, what would be the likelihood of a foreign commoner, a mere pastoralist, even allowing for him having a beautiful 65-year old wife, coming into contact with the royal house of Egypt, namely the princes and the Pharaoh? (Genesis 12:15) Can a great empire like Egypt be so small that a mere foreigner would, on entering its border, come into contact with or to the knowledge of its princes?
(5) Why is there a leitmotiv in the bible surrounding Abraham and Sarah, of the man and wife pretending to be brother and sister, of a Pharaoh or King taking (or attempting to take) the wife, of God then intervening to return the wife to the husband, and of the husband profiting greatly from the separation? The leitmotiv may be discerned in:
Abraham and the Pharaoh (Genesis 12:11-20)
Abraham and Abimelech of Gerar (Genesis 20:2-18) – Sarah was even older by then, around 90.
Isaac and Abimelech of Gerar (Genesis 26: 7-16) – we aren't too sure whether this was the same Abimelech for it was then more than 50 years later, but the King had a chief captain of the army named Phichol (Genesis 26:26) as was in the case of the earlier or Abraham’s Abimelech (Genesis 21:22). If it was the same Abimelech, then it would suggest that Abraham and Isaac could well be the same person.
(6) Why was Sarah told to change her name from the original Sarai to Sarah, the latter in Hebrew meaning Princess? (Genesis 17:15)
What were the authors (or author) of Genesis trying to say, or do?
Only God Knows for sure!!!