Islam
In 830 CE, a group of Hermetic pagans in Harran needed protection by being either Muslim, Christian, Jewish, or Sabian. They took the Corpus Hermeticum as their scripture and Hermes Trismegistus as their prophet, and decided to call themselves Sabians. As no one was sure what the Qur'an meant by Sabian, they were accepted as being such having a monotheistic scripture and a prophet. This group played a large role in Baghdad's intellectual life from 856-1050.
The most famous of the Harranian Sabians was Thabit ibn Qurra, who made great advances in alchemy, astronomy, and mathematics, citing his paganism as the reason for his ability. The author Antoine Faivre theorizes that Hermes Trismegistus is mentioned in the Qu'ran as well, under the name of Idris. (19:56, 19:57) Idris is also identified with Enoch, who is also identified with Hermes. He is called "Thrice Wise," relating to Hermes' title "Thrice Great."
Read more about this topic: Hermetism And Other Religions
Famous quotes containing the word islam:
“The exact objectives of Islam Inc. are obscure. Needless to say everyone involved has a different angle, and they all intend to cross each other up somewhere along the line.”
—William Burroughs (b. 1914)
“Awareness of the stars and their light pervades the Koran, which reflects the brightness of the heavenly bodies in many verses. The blossoming of mathematics and astronomy was a natural consequence of this awareness. Understanding the cosmos and the movements of the stars means understanding the marvels created by Allah. There would be no persecuted Galileo in Islam, because Islam, unlike Christianity, did not force people to believe in a “fixed” heaven.”
—Fatima Mernissi, Moroccan sociologist. Islam and Democracy, ch. 9, Addison-Wesley Publishing Co. (Trans. 1992)
“During the first formative centuries of its existence, Christianity was separated from and indeed antagonistic to the state, with which it only later became involved. From the lifetime of its founder, Islam was the state, and the identity of religion and government is indelibly stamped on the memories and awareness of the faithful from their own sacred writings, history, and experience.”
—Bernard Lewis, U.S. Middle Eastern specialist. Islam and the West, ch. 8, Oxford University Press (1993)