yiu cao

Tentative grasp of winter
touching all, coating with frost,
loaded with cruel air.

THE NEW RELIGION

I had a vision several weeks ago
 the stone in my garden spoke to me
Oi, tosser." it began
I fell to my knees in awe
Once I'd stood up again, I brushed the awe off my trousers
"What do you want?" I replied
"You are the chosen one." It said.
You are my leading tosser
I threw up my arms in joy
then reattached them to my shoulders when they fell back down again
"You must worship me." It said
"Stone me!" I replied
It did exactly that.
Once I regain consciousness I realised the stone
was god.
I began to write down its words:
'Kiss all snakes, be nice to rabbits,
drink only tea,
eat bread twice a day."
It then said crossly: "Anyone who does not do that,
should be shot, knifed, decapitated."

Jia Cao.=Prophets and old books.

Religion is like a storm,
powerful but ephemeral
causing destruction, bringing sadness:
distorting behaviour.
Immersed in old books full of lies and myths
people kill for pleasure.

r/p

Islam emerged directly after the dissolution of a Jewish kingdom that spread into western Saudi Arabia, and was perhaps influenced by this kingdom and by gnostic christianity. Sharia law nevertheless, although influenced by Judaic law, seems to have been a middle-eastern construct, evident in earlier middle-eastern civilisations. Except, in these earlier cultures, death was rarely the punishment for breaking rules.

Islam gains its legitimacy from historical context-believing that its ideas are from and in the past, of a mythical time that involved Abraham and Moses.  It believes time provides validity. If Abraham existed, there is little genuine evidence, even in the Torah, for monotheistic belief. It is equally difficult to find such belief in the narrative of Moses. Of course, the ten commandments were far more than ten, and even so it merely replicates Babylonian laws of the same or of an earlier period.