Beelzebub's Tales, Hasnamusses, and Islam

[PhoenixToEmber]

I've been reading Beelzebub's Tales for the past month and a half (finally almost finished with it) and I found chapter 38, "Religion", to be one of the most fascinating chapters in the whole book. After reading it last week I thought it would be worth starting a thread about eventually, considering how much discussion has been taking place regarding Islam in particular. Then I read Laura's recent post and the discussion taking place on the Jordan Peterson thread:

For those interested in deep/secret history, scholar Carlos A. Segovia has established (IMO after reading his arguments) that Paul's Abrahamic argument in Romans 4 and Galatians 3 - which he originally put forward to substantiate his core claim to the inclusion of the gentiles in God's people - was polemically reworked and reframed in a number of texts. First, by Christians who used it to EXCLUDE Jews entirely, and then, by someone working up the proto-Islamic Koran who combined those ideas with the pseudepigraphic text "The Apocalypse of Abraham" to create the core/founding myth of Islam.

He notes that it is clear that the editors of the Qur'an knew of Galatians 3 and were familiar with its Christian interpretation. He writes:

The Qur'an is surely more than an apocalypse, but if it may also be defined as an apocalypse - and I think it should be, due to the revelatory and eschatological concerns that lie at its very center - then I see it as an apocalypse entirely based upon the Apocalypse of Abraham. For all that we can find in the Qur'an (its non-negotiable monotheistic claims and polemics, which are, in fact, traced back to Abraham; its many allusions to a revelation received from above whose first witness was Abraham; the announcement of God's judgment as inevitable; and the distinction between Abraham's followers and everyone else in both the present and the future life; and so on) is already present in the Apocalypse [of Abraham]. ... The Jews are no longer God's chosen ones (as was claimed in Apoc. Ab. 22:5); they have been replaced by the "foremost" in faith and monotheism (Q 56:10). Actually, this is the only verse in the Qur'an where such a replacement explicitly takes place. Some may object that there ultimately is no supersessionism in the Qur'an; that the Qur'an accepts all prior revelations while simultaneously denouncing their intrinsic limitations and their eventual corruption by their own followers. The Quranic reuse of the Apocalypse of Abraham proves that this is not so: the new Umma is expressly said to substitute Israel. But then, it could be legitimately argued that the "sectarian milieu" out of which Islam emerged was, in fact, a Christian one.

The Apocalypse of Abraham provided the editors of the quranic text ... with the very core of the myth itself. It also provided them with its precise apocalyptical form. Once readapted, it offered them a place to inscribe their ideological construction. ...

It is fascinating to see that withing a single text of as yet unclear provenance, such as is the Qur'an, Paul's Abrahamic argument as re-framed by the church is subliminally (re)used against the Jews in a passage that puts forth a new founding myth that literally draws upon the post-Pauline Jewish discussion of that very argument in the Apocalypse of Abraham, to which the quranic myth is therefore fully indebted. The quite vexing fact that the apparent distinctiveness of such a new myth conceals a Christian reinterpretation of an intra-Jewish argument - as well as the textual corruptions of the latter - prevents us from assigning too much distinctiveness tho this myth itself. Hence, my hesitation to label it Islamic, for there is nothing specifically Islamic in such a myth. Perhaps this could help us understand though, as an aside, the reason why the quranic prophet is mentioned in the Qur'an (7:157-58; 62:2) as the "apostle/prophet to the gentiles."

Segovia has an entire book available on academia.edu
https://www.academia.edu/4218893/The_Quranic_Noah_and_the_Making_of_the_Islamic_Prophet_A_Study_of_Intertextuality_and_Religious_Identity_Formation_in_Late_Antiquity_2015_Book

And then I saw Laura's FB post from today, and all of that seemed like a good jumping off point to share this passage from Beelzebub's Tales that seems worth discussing:

"Now as regards the fourth great religion existing there now, which arose several centuries after the Christian religion, and was founded on the teaching of the full-of-hope Saint Mohammed, this religion at first spread there widely: and it might perhaps have become eventually a 'hearth of hope and reconciliation' for them all if these strange beings had not stirred this also into a hotchpotch.

"On the one hand its followers also mixed into it something from the fantastic theory of the Babylonian dualists, but, on the other hand, the 'elders of the church' of this religion, called in this case 'Sheiks-Islamists,' themselves invented and added to it many things about the blessings of the notorious 'paradise,' which as it were, existed 'in the other world,' such blessings as perhaps could never even have entered the head of the chief Governor of Purgatory, His All-Quarters-Maintainer the Archcherub Helkgematios, even if he were deliberately to try to imagine them.

"Although the followers of this religion also, from the very first, split into many different 'groups' and 'subgroups' – which, by the way, continue there even up till now – nevertheless they all subscribe to one or another of its two independent, as they are called, 'schools,' which were formed at the very beginning of its arising.

"These two schools of the Mohammedan religion are called there the 'Sunnite' and the 'Shiite.'

"It is very interesting to note that the psychic hatred of each other formed in the psyche of the beings who belong to these two independent schools of one and the same religion has, on account of their frequent clashes, now been transformed completely into an organic hate.

"Beings of certain European communities have during recent centuries greatly contributed by their incitement to the rise of this peculiar transformation of that strange being-function.

"And they have employed and continue to employ this incitement in order that the animosity between the beings who follow these two independent schools of one and the same religion, should increase and that they should never unite, since if this were to happen, there might soon be an end there for those European communities.

"The point is that nearly half of the ordinary three-brained beings there are followers of this Mohammedan teaching, and only as long as this mutual hatred exists among them will they mean nothing terrifying in the sense of 'reciprocal destruction' to European communities.

"And hence it is that accidentally arisen 'newly baked' communities always rub their hands and rejoice when sparks fly between these Sunnites and Shiites, because they then count on a long and secure existence for themselves.

This part is especially interesting in the context of Western foreign policy over the last few decades.

[..]

"I must first tell you how there on your planet, it is now desired – of course with the help of the 'Swivel-eyed General' – finally to 'dispatch' even the remnants of those two named religions still existing there, which, although they are already changed even beyond recognition, yet nevertheless have during the last centuries made the ordinary existence of the three-brained beings there, though very remotely yet all the same a tiny bit, like the ordinary existence of the three-brained beings breeding on the other corresponding planets of our Great Universe, and for certain of them their phenomenally haphazard existence somewhat tolerable objectively.

"Namely, I shall here tell you how there is just now proceeding the process of the final 'dispatch' of two of the great religions of the five mentioned, now existing, which were founded, though 'from-bits-here-and-there,' nevertheless on the teachings of genuine messengers of our ENDLESSNESS HIMSELF: one, on the teaching of Saint Jesus, and the other, on the teaching of Saint Mohammed.

"I repeat that both these great religions there were founded 'from-bits-taken-here-and-there' from the teachings of two genuine messengers of HIS ENDLESSNESS, and though the three-brained beings there of former centuries 'stripped' both these teachings much as the Russian Sidor 'stripped' his goats, yet nevertheless some even down to the present time believed in something and hoped for something owing to those teachings, and thereby made their desolate existence a little more bearable.

"But these contemporary and now archstrange three-brained beings there have taken upon themselves to sweep this also entirely from off the face of their planet.

"Although the process of the strangeness of their peculiar psyche, namely, the process of the final destruction of these two great religions, began after my departure from their solar system, yet thanks to the contents of an etherogram about the beings of that strange planet which I received just before our flight from the planet Karatas I understand how things were, and can now already say with complete conviction that they will no longer stop at stripping them, but without further ado entirely destroy even their very traces.

"In the said etherogram, by the way, it was conveyed to me that there on your planet, first of all in the city of Jerusalem a University specially for Jewish youths was being opened, and secondly that in the community Turkey an order was promulgated closing all what are called 'dervish monasteries' and prohibiting men from wearing the 'fez' and women the 'yashmak.'

"The first half of the message, namely, that a University for Jewish youths was opening in the city of Jerusalem made it clear to me that this Christian religion also had already come to an end.

I'm not quite sure what he means by a "University specially for Jewish youths" although I suspect he might be commenting on the creation of the state of Israel.

"But to understand this, you must first know that not so long ago all the communities existing there on the continent Europe, the beings of which are for the most part followers of this religion, together produced, on account of this same city Jerusalem, their great wars against those beings, followers of other religions, and these great wars of theirs they called 'Crusades.'

"They produced these 'wars' or 'crusades' only in order that this city of Jerusalem – in which this Divine Teacher Jesus Christ had existed, suffered, and died – should become exclusively Christian; and during these Crusades of theirs nearly half the beings of male sex of that continent were completely destroyed.

"And now in this same city of Jerusalem, they have opened their contemporary university for Jewish youths and almost certainly, too, with the common consent of all those same European Christian communities.

Definitely sounds like the creation of Israel.

"Just that nationality is called 'Jewish' in which the Divine Jesus appeared and existed, and the beings of which tortured and crucified Him on a cross.

"Although the present generation of 'Jews' are not direct enemies of Jesus Christ, yet they each also now have the conviction that this Jesus who appeared among their ancestors and came to be regarded as a Sacred Personality by all the followers of the Christian religion, was, quite simply, a fervent and sick 'visionary.'

"Among contemporary beings of the planet Earth a 'university' is just that 'hearth' on which everything acquired during decades and centuries by preceding beings is burned, and upon this 'hearth' one-and-a-half-day tasty lentil soup is quickly cooked to take the place of everything attained by the centuried conscious and unconscious efforts and labors of their unfortunate ancestors.

"This is quite enough to show me and to convince me with my whole Being what will eventually become of this Jerusalem, now that they have opened there their own famous university, and, moreover, for Jewish youths.

"I already see in my mind's eye that before many of their years have passed, there will be on the spot where the planetary body of the Divine Jesus was buried, a place for parking contemporary cars, that is, a parking place for those machines which for contemporary beings were just the marvel needed to drive them crazy.

"Furthermore, not only have these sacrilegious beings gradually distorted for their egoistic and political aims the teachings of this Divine Teacher, but they have now begun to destroy even the memory of it.

"But there! That also has long been in the style of your favorites.

[..]

"Now as regards the second great religion which was founded, as I have already told you, upon 'bits-here-and-bits-there' from the teaching of the full-of-hope Saint Mohammed, this religion from the very beginning of its arising began to be particularly applied and used for their egoistic and political aims by beings there with Hasnamussian properties, and hence it is the most 'stripped' of all.

"The power-possessing beings of certain communities there gradually mixed into this divine teaching, for their said Hasnamussian aims such 'spices' of their own invention, that a 'Sherakhoorian-combination' resulted, the secret of which would be the envy of all the contemporary famous European as they are called 'pastry cooks' and 'chefs.'

For those unfamiliar with the term Hasnamuss, here's an excerpt from a recent book/commentary written about Beelzebub's Tales that explains it well. It seems like a term synonymous with 'ponerization'.

"And so . . .

"Judging by the latter half of the contents of this etherogram, the process of the entire destruction of this second great religion is bound to proceed or had already proceeded there, on account of that order mentioned in the etherogram promulgated by the power-possessing beings of the community Turkey.

"The point is, that this same community of Turkey is one of the largest of all the communities there whose beings profess this religion.

"I must first tell you that from the beginning of the rise of this Mohammedan religion, certain beings of this same community took in the teaching of this religion in its primary form very well, and began gradually to incorporate it into their daily existence.

"And therefore, although the teaching of this religion was gradually changed under the influence of the power-possessing beings there, nevertheless, among these same certain beings there, this teaching of Mohammed passed from generation to generation in an unchanged form.

"Until now, therefore, there has at least been a faint hope that if sometime these strange beings should suddenly settle down, this teaching would infallibly regenerate and actualize those aims for which it was created by the full-of-hope Saint Mohammed.

"So, my boy!. . . These same certain beings there were called 'dervishes' and it was concerning the closing of just their monasteries that the order was indeed given in that contemporary community Turkey.

"Of course, by the destruction in Turkey of this 'dervishism' those last dying sparks will also be entirely extinguished there which, preserved as it were in the ashes, might sometime rekindle the hearth of those possibilities upon which Saint Mohammed counted and for which he had hoped.

As Gurdjieff seems to be indicating here, the 'original' teaching of Mohammed in its 'unchanged form' was passed down through the dervishes, through Sufism. And the suppression of Sufism in Turkey is here likened to the final destruction of that thread of knowledge. This is very much in line with what we learn through the C's and how similar it is to the teachings of Ibn al'Arabi. So it seems that some true teachings (what Gurdjieff calls "Legominisms") were passed on through Sufism, but that, as usual, a form of Cosmic COINTELPRO stepped in by means of Hasnamussian individuals (that is, pathological personality types) to do damage control and corrupt the teachings into something new through combining "bits-here-and-there".

Anyway, that's all I have for now. Figured it could initiate a fruitful discussion or at least something interesting to think about.

 

[Corvus]

Thanks for sharing, it was an interesting read.

 

[Niall]

I've been reading Beelzebub's Tales for the past month and a half (finally almost finished with it) and I found chapter 38, "Religion", to be one of the most fascinating chapters in the whole book...

Always a good idea to revisit G; I think more can be gleaned from his writings as we learn more.

"Beings of certain European communities have during recent centuries greatly contributed by their incitement to the rise of this peculiar transformation of that strange being-function.

"And they have employed and continue to employ this incitement in order that the animosity between the beings who follow these two independent schools of one and the same religion, should increase and that they should never unite, since if this were to happen, there might soon be an end there for those European communities.

"The point is that nearly half of the ordinary three-brained beings there are followers of this Mohammedan teaching, and only as long as this mutual hatred exists among them will they mean nothing terrifying in the sense of 'reciprocal destruction' to European communities.

"And hence it is that accidentally arisen 'newly baked' communities always rub their hands and rejoice when sparks fly between these Sunnites and Shiites, because they then count on a long and secure existence for themselves.

Says it all really. I used to wonder why G didn't comment much on politics/geopolitics... he did; it's just that I missed it before because I didn't know enough.

"In the said etherogram, by the way, it was conveyed to me that there on your planet, first of all in the city of Jerusalem a University specially for Jewish youths was being opened, and secondly that in the community Turkey an order was promulgated closing all what are called 'dervish monasteries' and prohibiting men from wearing the 'fez' and women the 'yashmak.'

"The first half of the message, namely, that a University for Jewish youths was opening in the city of Jerusalem made it clear to me that this Christian religion also had already come to an end.

I'm not quite sure what he means by a "University specially for Jewish youths" although I suspect he might be commenting on the creation of the state of Israel.

I think you're right; and I think the references to Turkey are about Kemal and the creation of the modern Turkish state.

"But to understand this, you must first know that not so long ago all the communities existing there on the continent Europe, the beings of which are for the most part followers of this religion, together produced, on account of this same city Jerusalem, their great wars against those beings, followers of other religions, and these great wars of theirs they called 'Crusades.'

"They produced these 'wars' or 'crusades' only in order that this city of Jerusalem – in which this Divine Teacher Jesus Christ had existed, suffered, and died – should become exclusively Christian; and during these Crusades of theirs nearly half the beings of male sex of that continent were completely destroyed.

"And now in this same city of Jerusalem, they have opened their contemporary university for Jewish youths and almost certainly, too, with the common consent of all those same European Christian communities.

Definitely sounds like the creation of Israel.

Yep, and he talks about it in the context of the Crusades, suggesting that Israel is essentially a modern European/Western Crusade.

"I must first tell you that from the beginning of the rise of this Mohammedan religion, certain beings of this same community took in the teaching of this religion in its primary form very well, and began gradually to incorporate it into their daily existence.

"And therefore, although the teaching of this religion was gradually changed under the influence of the power-possessing beings there, nevertheless, among these same certain beings there, this teaching of Mohammed passed from generation to generation in an unchanged form.

"Until now, therefore, there has at least been a faint hope that if sometime these strange beings should suddenly settle down, this teaching would infallibly regenerate and actualize those aims for which it was created by the full-of-hope Saint Mohammed.

"So, my boy!. . . These same certain beings there were called 'dervishes' and it was concerning the closing of just their monasteries that the order was indeed given in that contemporary community Turkey.

"Of course, by the destruction in Turkey of this 'dervishism' those last dying sparks will also be entirely extinguished there which, preserved as it were in the ashes, might sometime rekindle the hearth of those possibilities upon which Saint Mohammed counted and for which he had hoped.

As Gurdjieff seems to be indicating here, the 'original' teaching of Mohammed in its 'unchanged form' was passed down through the dervishes, through Sufism. And the suppression of Sufism in Turkey is here likened to the final destruction of that thread of knowledge. This is very much in line with what we learn through the C's and how similar it is to the teachings of Ibn al'Arabi. So it seems that some true teachings (what Gurdjieff calls "Legominisms") were passed on through Sufism, but that, as usual, a form of Cosmic COINTELPRO stepped in by means of Hasnamussian individuals (that is, pathological personality types) to do damage control and corrupt the teachings into something new through combining "bits-here-and-there".

Yes, perhaps something like that. A characterization of Islam I heard recently suggested by Aleksandr Dugin: 'Protestant Islam'. By this he meant that the 'modernized' version of Islam has broken in some profound way from its past; it is quasi-secular in nature, devoid of mystic roots/connections, and narrowly fundamentalist (materialist even) in nature.

G mentioned Turkey as being instrumental in this: this presumably refers to the early 20th century creation of said nation-state, which saw revolutionary ideologues ('Young Turks') come to power with the help of the "European communities". Well, not long afterwards, those same "European communities" created Saudi Arabia, guaranteed it power and oil markets, and then it became the primary funder and sponsor of what people recognize as 'Islam' today.

So this timeline might fit with G's suggestion that Islam held out from the "Hasnamussian individuals" for a long time - until his time basically.

 

[Mr. Premise]

FYI, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem was founded in 1918, so that seems to be what G is referring to, of the founding of the state of Israel. But maybe it is a metaphor for that, who know?

 

[Approaching Infinity]

FYI, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem was founded in 1918, so that seems to be what G is referring to, of the founding of the state of Israel. But maybe it is a metaphor for that, who know?

That quote was present in the 1931 manuscript, so it's unlikely to have referred to the creation of Israel per se. But he could have foreseen that and been talking in a general way, given the Zionist movement of the time, the Balfour Declaration (1917) and the 1922 British Mandate for Palestine.