Abrahamic religions can be healing and a holistic healing approach will increase success

The Prophet Abraham is the progenitor of the Abrahamic religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam. He is revered as such by Jews and Muslims. The Quran says he is the one who named the religion Submission (22:78). It also says the disciples of Jesus were known as Submitters (3:52; 5:111). Abraham is the historical figure whose sons Ishaq and Ismail (Isaac and Ishmael) are interchanged in a case of mistaken identity. This is just one contentious aspect of his legacy. Another is his relationship to Egypt, through Hajjar (Hagar), who is said by Africanist scholars to be the daughter of Imhotep. A few Christian researchers now wish to say Imhotep is the biblical Joseph. What does this have to do with the holistic healing of people? I will discuss how these strands relate to healing the spirit as we go along.

First please know the following will not cover all the issues from all the Abrahamic religions' perspectives. There is a lot of information available and the combination of muslim religion, holistic, metaphysical and African-centered perspectives are what I present here.

THE SACRIFICED CHILD

The greatest socio-emotional legacy of Abraham is the idea of child sacrifice and how it should be handled. Clearly, when you are of sane mind, you do not wish to harm children. Who was the child that Abraham was going to sacrifice, based on a dream he had ordering him to do so? Jews and Christians call this child Isaac. Muslims say no, he was his first son Ismail by the bondwoman from Egypt, Hajjar.

Abraham’s readiness to sacrifice his child shows us clearly what NOT to do. God stopped him, saying, “You have believed the dream. (HQ 37:105).” He was then guided to do an animal sacrifice, as a way of purifying and correcting the social upheaval caused by his attempt.

We therefore have to understand this directive as the first time the human was recorded (in the West) as performing such a spiritually redemptive act. Whatever other context animals would have been killed in, this context was special. It was healing. Meat was a more rare commodity than it is now and people were much more appreciative about eating it. If it were an everyday occurrence to kill a lamb, goat, cow or camel and eat the meat, the order to do this sacrifice would not have seemed significant.

For Muslims, the Feast of the Sacrifice (Id al-Adha) celebrates this event as what we would call today a tipping point for Abraham and his descendants—they must always follow God’s guidance and beware the devil’s. Here’s how the Holy Quran tells the story:

We ransomed (Ismail) by substituting an animal sacrifice.

And we preserved his history for subsequent generations.

Peace be upon Abraham.

We thus reward the righteous.

He is one of our believing servants.

Then we gave him good news about the birth of Isaac, to be one of our righteous prophets.

We blessed him and Isaac. Among their descendants, some are righteous, and some are wicked transgressors.

--37:107-113

There are other references to this same event. Now I realize these excerpts may not convince some of you that this factually happened. One can take it as allegory, as indicated in other healing-spirit pages. From it, either way, we can conclude that no Jewish or Muslim parents should ever be confused about following dream guidance to kill their child. The Creator of us all would never recommend murder, despite fanatic interpretations to the contrary. You do NOT send your children into harm’s way or kill them yourselves. There is a commandment: “Do not kill your children out of fear of poverty. We provide for them as well as for you. Killing them is a gross offense.” (17:31, 6:137, 140)

THE SACRIFICED CHILD TODAY

The spiritual lesson here is, the Source of All Sources would not be pleased if you gave up your child. Yes, you can give up your child’s life to God to handle and set aright, and this is the kind of maturity you as a parent have to evolve into if you see that being excessively controlling backfires. The Creator of the heavens and the earth does not need our sacrifices of human life or of animal life. The animal sacrifice is designed to make us appreciative—that is its function.

This lesson also says something about abortion. Without even going into what constitutes life—how many weeks!—the attitude that taking a growing life is a good response to the “mistake” of having sex without thought of the outcome is bereft of common spiritual sense. It displays a sordid conditioning of the mind that is in need of healing to its holistic and heart-centered state.

The knowingness is missing when a mother kills a fetus she knows she was responsible for. I am not arguing for or against abortion legislated by government, as I have my own experience and other women’s to share from. We regret having had abortions across the board. We collectively seek forgiveness for having them and repent to God, and the result is mercy shown us in the way we are allowed to continue our lives. Praise is due to God, the Compassionate and Most Merciful. Men and women reading this could take a moment right here to apologize and forgive and seek tranquil resolution of conflicted feelings only available in the miracle of spiritual mercy. If you have to, cry and meditate a lot about taking the life or lives you took.

HAJJAR, THE FIRST PILGRIM

Meanwhile, the African descendants are challenged about Hajjar (Hagar) being the slave or bondwoman of Sarah. I had read a passage saying this was not true; that when the family visited Egypt, the current Pharaoh gave his daughter Hajjar to Abraham as a gift. She was not a slave. I believe it was Dr. Ben Yochanan who said this leader in Kmet was Imhotep, the African father of medicine, architecture and mathematics. Now a Christian scholar is saying there is alignment between the life of Joseph and the discovered scrolls that reveal a change in how these events were chronicled in time. Changing the years of the appearance of Joseph to match Egyptian glyphs and these scrolls has the information pointing to Joseph may have been Imhotep.

This is a huge new piece of info I cannot get into here, but it does bring more attention to who Hajjar may have been, if she was Imhotep’s daughter or the daughter of the king he worked for. It is a speculative story that will taking some sorting out, and I will remove this reference if I can’t confirm the thread (thanks for your patience!).

Bible and Quran agree that Hajjar, whoever she was, bore Abraham’s first son Ismail (Ishmael), who the Quran says was the child to be sacrificed as indicated in his dream.

The main problem is that scholars agree the event was a determining one in the beginning of Abraham’s sojourn, and occurred with his first son. Since that was Ismail, it is curious that the Bible then has Ishaq, over 14 years younger and born to Sarah, as being the child who was to be sacrificed. This could have something to do with the covenant made to Abraham and Isaac, rather than to Ismail. The Bible writers or their interpreters may have wanted the story to be consistent, whereas in truth, much like in life, it probably was not. Abraham wanted all his descendants to be successful, but again this was not promised: “We blessed him and Isaac. Among their descendants, some are righteous, and some are wicked transgressors.” (HQ 37:113)

Therefore both mothers had bragging rights; very sound reasons to be proud of their sons. When I gather more information about Hajjar’s identity I will share it with you. I do broach the subject in the Spiritual Warrior's Guide to a Proven Islam. Perhaps the following verse prompted the gift of Hajjar from the king of Egypt, though we do not know his exact identity:

Have you noted the one who argued with Abraham about his Lord, though GOD had given him kingship? Abraham said, “My Lord grants life and death.” He said, “I grant life and death.” Abraham said, “GOD brings the sun from the east, can you bring it from the west?” The disbeliever was stumped. GOD does not guide the wicked. --HQ 2:258

Hajjar’s being sent into the desert, secured only with Abraham’s prayers are evidence that she was very special. The fifth pillar of Islam, the hajj or pilgrimage, is named for her. The word haggard (Hagar) is derived from her name. She needed healing and it was sent by God in the form of a special well of water in the desert, and rituals for releasing her frustration and submitting herself totally to God. Sunni, Shi’a and Submitter-Muslims differ about what should occur on the pilgrimage, and if we revisit hajj in light of a mother’s surrender to her Creator, the differences will matter less and less. She had her son Ismail with her, and he is known as the father of the Arabs and therefore a progenitor of Prophet Muhammad, may peace be on them as well as the father of the religion and friend of God, Abraham.

All of the Abrahamic religions can take pride in the hajj to Mecca, since the notion of mecca in English also generically means a central place of very successful activity. And we have a woman to thank for this! Give thanks!

NEW ABRAHAMIC ENERGY

The healing of followers of the three legacies of Abraham is at stake, especially in Israel/Palestine, and has been for some time. As the brief survey of issues above indicates, much of what is going on is a spiritual turf war about validation and dignity and feeling violated. The collective hearts have not expanded to overrule the dis-eased minds, and, because both are slammed shut due to grief and arrogance, the two peoples cannot talk to each other. This prevents discussion about injury to a nation, apology, atonement, sharing the land and strategy for cohabiting.

There are healing peace grids for Abrahamic religions that send energy from reiki practitioners, as well as other efforts to help restore peace. I will add them to this page as they are gathered.

Adherents of the Abrahamic religions are in dire need of holistic healing, if only to appreciate the spiritual oneness of their legacy and then develop operational unity as an interfaith response to that.

For its part, the Muslim ummah (community) leadership that aspires to live the millat-ul Ibrahim, or true religion or way of life established by Prophet Abraham, is in need of surrendering to the depth of what is happening. Muslims that want peace have to want it more than we want to be right. This is a healing goal.

In the past 10 years a new Abrahamic legacy has arrived in the U.S. It is a channeled energy that calls itself Abraham, and refers to itself in the plural. Visit the homepage of Esther & Jerry Hicks for more information. Esther is the channel and her husband Jerry is her interviewer. Esther goes into something like a trance and becomes Abraham—a voice of perception and wisdom, clairvoyance and clairaudience that has been speaking before huge audiences for some years. The main message is life should be downstream (merrily merrily, life is but a dream... as in the nursery rhyme), and when it is upstream or too challenging, one needs to stop and look more closely.

This page link offers a synopsis of the Abraham teachings, which I have found basically Quranic. If you want random quotes from the teachings, choose this page.

Indeed, you are preoccupied with this first life.

Even though the Hereafter if far better and everlasting.

This is recorded in the earlier teachings.

The teachings of Abraham and Moses.

--HQ 87:16-19