In one of his acts of leveling of all that preceded him the Prophet Muhammad destroyed 360 idols in what is now known as Mecca. A singular act that altered all that was to follow and embed this religion in a deeply patriarchal mindset, at the expense of women.
What he leveled and tried to erase was the deep rooted faith that the pre-Islamic people had in the Goddess. Al -Uzza was one of the images destroyed.
This is highly ironic to me as Al-Uzza, a chief goddess for the Arabian peoples, was also known as one of the three daughters of Allah. A sacred Being of the highest order. We may know her in other guises, as Isis or as Aphrodite. I saw images of this goddess in the Treasury on my relatively recent trip to Petra, Jordan, in the Wadi Musa or Valley or Moses, thus named as this was the route that Moses took as he led the Israelites out of captivity in Egypt.
What is even more ironic is that Mary, of the Christian tradition, is honored and loved by the Islamic peoples. She is mentioned 14 times in the Koran, more than any other woman. Jeshua is also mentioned as a great prophet and a messenger, and I have seen statues of both in the "Institut du Monde Arabe" in Paris.
It gives one pause to speculate on how Islam may have emerged differently if love and honor towards the Sacred Feminine had held sway.
One doubts that the marginalization and brutality towards woman that we see in some sectors would have prevailed, at all. And that this energy of the feminine, in correct balance with the masculine would, indeed, have led to greatness. To compassion and humaneness.
What he leveled and tried to erase was the deep rooted faith that the pre-Islamic people had in the Goddess. Al -Uzza was one of the images destroyed.
This is highly ironic to me as Al-Uzza, a chief goddess for the Arabian peoples, was also known as one of the three daughters of Allah. A sacred Being of the highest order. We may know her in other guises, as Isis or as Aphrodite. I saw images of this goddess in the Treasury on my relatively recent trip to Petra, Jordan, in the Wadi Musa or Valley or Moses, thus named as this was the route that Moses took as he led the Israelites out of captivity in Egypt.
What is even more ironic is that Mary, of the Christian tradition, is honored and loved by the Islamic peoples. She is mentioned 14 times in the Koran, more than any other woman. Jeshua is also mentioned as a great prophet and a messenger, and I have seen statues of both in the "Institut du Monde Arabe" in Paris.
It gives one pause to speculate on how Islam may have emerged differently if love and honor towards the Sacred Feminine had held sway.
One doubts that the marginalization and brutality towards woman that we see in some sectors would have prevailed, at all. And that this energy of the feminine, in correct balance with the masculine would, indeed, have led to greatness. To compassion and humaneness.