The clash

of Manichaeism with contradictory beliefs

The Persian Magians chose fire to worship it, admiring its brightness. Houses were built for fire worship in various directions, including Tus and Sijistan. This phenomenon extended to the country of the Romans, that was close to Constantinople and continued until the days of Al-Mahdi at the time of the Abbasid era. At the same time, the followers of Mani ibn Fatak appeared. Mani had appeared at the time of Sabur ibn Ardashir and had developed a religion that mixed between Magianism and Christianity. He used to acknowledge the prophecy of Jesus, peace be upon him, but not the prophecy of Moses, peace be upon him, as mentioned by Al-Shahristani in his book “Al-Milal wa Al-Nihal”.

As for Manichaeism, which is attributed to “Mani”, who was born in Babylon, it is a mixture of ancient Babylonian, Buddhist, Zoroastrian and Christian beliefs. This religion states that man was created from a divine origin and that his salvation from harm and evil depends on his understanding of himself and the world around him, and that he can approach complete humanity and reach its peak if he is able to free himself from defects and evils.

Manichaeism also believes in reincarnation and believes that when a person reaches that status of complete humanity, his fate will be heaven if he dies, but if he submits to his lusts and submits to evil, his soul will move after his death into other bodies and will continue to move from one body to another until it is purified. This is the catastrophe of the perverse thought that continues to this day regarding the matter of reincarnation. Accordingly, they reincarnate what their whims tend to in order to offer it according to the change of time and place because they believe that this enables them to control minds and they also believe that the shortest way to desecrate beliefs and obliterate identity is to adopt different methods in the name of religions.

Manichaeism also called for a kind of gratitude, asceticism, and a desire to know the truth. Its philosophy aims to search for the truth of man, how he came to this world, his origin, what he is and where he ends up! It divides existence into three periods:

  1. The determined time, in which good and evil are separated.
  2. The middle time, the present, in which good and evil have been mixed.
  3. The next time, the future, and it is the last of times, where the contradiction returns to separation again.

 

The fate of the world, according to Mani’s vision, is annihilation, due to the presence of the powers of good and evil, light and darkness, and the end of the world will be with the outbreak of a global war or the occurrence of a catastrophe that will destroy the world and undermine its pillars. Those beliefs are the ones that they take turns to achieve in order to seize states and minds and to cause destruction. Those are their policies at the sanctuary.

It is the philosophy and doctrine of Manichaeism, which has been included in several books decorated with pictures. The most important of these books are what were known as (Arzhang) and (Shabuhragan), which is the only book written by Mani in the Pahlavi language, and this was mentioned by Ibn Al-Nadim in his book “Al-Fihrist”.

The Persians inherited these perverted ideas and hid a deep hatred against Islam and the conquering Muslims who had a role in the entry and spread of Islam in their lands. This hatred is only against the Arabs, from whom Allah Almighty chose the last messenger and prophet. Therefore, cases (and I will not say figures) appeared who placed themselves in the category of sanctification, and their followers offered them the rituals of deification.

 

History is repeating itself…