Monthly Archives: January 2021

Islam and the Ancient Mystery Schools (Part 4)

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I had to take a brief hiatus from writing the Islam and Ancient Mystery Schools series in absence of some information and in light of new information. In this post, I want to share some of my findings on the practices and identity of the Hanifs.

Since I published Islam and Ancient Mystery Schools (Part 3), I hoped to find a comprehensive work specifically about the Hanifs, but I have not located such a work in English or Arabic as of yet. Perhaps the paucity of sources about the Hanifs is due to the fact that they were not written about in depth in early sources. However, there are some tertiary sources and secondary sources that touch on the topic tangentially.

The most extensive of which was W. Montgomery Watt’s treatment of Ibn Ishaq’s Sira (in English) and al-Mafassal fi Tarikh al-‘Arab Qabl al-Islam by Jawwad Ali (in Arabic). While the general consensus is that the Hanifs are a mysterious group, if they can be called that, I will summarize a few points of interest for this study.

  • There is a consensus that the Hanifs were monotheistic Arabs. No particular tribe or region had a particularly high number of hanifs in their midst. Ali compares them to reformists of our day (Ali vol. 6, 457). They observed their society and religious landscape and hoped for something better. They found solace in reclaiming the religion of Abraham.
  • In terms of their practices, they were known to make hajj and practice circumcision. They also avoided the worship of celestial bodies and idols and refused to eat meat sacrificed to pagan gods. There were those among the Hanifs who would meditate on the Universe, practice spiritual seclusion by living in caves, and abstain from alcohol and foul language. They, however, had no shari’ah i.e. systemized worship, beliefs, or scripture (Ali vol. 6, 456 and 455).
  • From what is known about them, they were not a monolith. Most classical Muslim scholars considered them to be monotheists who did not follow any of the known religions of the time. Others have named among the Hanifs Arab converts to Christianity such as Waraqa ibn Nawfal. Qays ibn Sa’ida al-Ayadi, and ‘Uthman ibn al-Huwayrith. Similarly, not all Hanifs converted to Islam upon learning about it like Abu Amir the Monk and Kinana ibn ‘Abd Yalayl al-Thaqafi (Ali vol. 6, 457-461).
  • Orientalist scholars have found that some Syrian Christian groups used to refer to monotheistic Arabs as Hanifs, especially those from Yemen. They were said to have been influenced by the surrounding Jews and Christians. They were also knowledgeable of other languages such as Syriac and Hebrew. Ali states unequivocally that all Hanifs were often well-to-do and able to read and write. They spent their surplus income purchasing books, which were expensive in those times. He also speculated that they might have been familiar with Greek books of philosophy in addition to religious scriptures (Ali vol. 6, 453 and 456).

Conclusion

Is it possible that the Hanifs were the inheritors of the defunct Ancient Mystery Schools? According to George G.M. James, the Roman emperor Justinian had closed the Mystery Schools in Egypt as well as the teaching of Greek philosophy in the 6th century (p. 31). Thus the only religions tolerated were Trinitarian Christianity and Judaism to a lesser extent. All other doctrines, whether monotheistic or not were outlawed. Therefore it is possible that non-Jewish and non-Christian monotheists from the Mystery Schools roamed the peripheries of the Roman Empire in search of a purer and more ancient religion. It is also possible that they were subsumed into non-Hellenized interpretations of Christianity to which some Hanifs converted.

As we know, the Mystery Schools was highly structured and primarily oral. It would have been difficult to maintain the teachings of the full curriculum across lands, languages, and potential harm, so only visages of their beliefs and practices would survive. Still the fact that they were literate in other languages and spent their time and money educating themselves using the available written material of the time is a sign that they were seeking to reclaim knowledge that was lost.

While the true nature of the Hanifs may never be known, we can safely assume that they were influenced by the religious milieu of their time. The abolition of the Mystery Schools in the 6th century left a spiritual void on the Earth that would not be fulfilled until the spread of Islam in the coming centuries. As soon as Justinian attempted to extinguish the light of the Mystery Schools, a new light was sparked in the Arabian desert among the Hanifs…

Sahih International: They want to extinguish the light of Allah with their mouths, but Allah refuses except to perfect His light, although the disbelievers dislike it. (Qur’an 9:32)

Bill Cooper vs. the Modern Mystery Schools

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A few days after 9/11, I remember lying in my university dorm room in the middle of the night as bright lights from a helicopter illuminated my room and I heard the hoots and hollers of frat boys returning home after a night of partying. Before I came to my senses, I wondered if this was the Illuminati’s declaration of martial law? The year 2001 caught many off-guard. The conspiracy theory literature of the ’90’s had many of us thinking that as we approached the year 2000 something big was right around the corner. After Y2K passed without a hitch many people went back to sleep until Bush Jr. stole the 2000 election. People were shocked at first, but not mobilized since he was considered an idiot and comedic fodder. However, the events of 9/11 would change everything and confirm what many conspiracy theorists already assumed… That the US government would declare war on its people.

The cover of Behold a Pale Horse by Milton William “Bill” Cooper.

One book in particular stands out as the pivotal work for conspiracy theorists of various persuasions. That book is Behold a Pale Horse (1991) by Bill Cooper, who aimed to expose the plots of the perverted modern-day Mystery Schools. Cooper was killed two months after the 9/11 attacks in front of his Arizona home under a barrage of bullets from police officers, further validating his assertions. Not only did he predict that the US government would blame a terrorist attack on Bin Laden prior to 9/11, but his book properly identified how the president would expand his powers using executive orders, how computer technology would be used in social engineering, and the evils of the Federal Reserve. Cooper preceded Alex Jones as the go-to conspiracy theorist with his radio show “The Hour of the Time.” (Of course, Cooper was not a fan of shock jock Alex Jones.)

The 500-page monograph succinctly outlined the patriot’s worldview, which expounded on a number of primary source documents (also included in the book), such as intelligence memos, newspaper clippings, correspondences, and other documents the author thought worthy of public scrutiny. Therefore, the serious reader could claim that he/she has seen proof of the conspiracies with their own eyes. Back before the worldwide web was prevalent, such documents were not easily accessed, and thus his book represented a one-stop shop for self-study of the global conspiracy.

Fast forward over 20 years, when we live our entire lives online, a large web of conspiracy theories of all kinds has been weaved, which has distorted the approach of Cooper, popularly known as QAnon. Whether it’s the Illuminati or a reptilian cabal of pedophiles, QAnon beliefs have a genealogy that can be traced back to Cooper’s work, but does not remain loyal to it. Like QAnon, Cooper’s primary constituency were white Christian, often right-wing, constitutionalists, who were generally patriotic Americans and sometimes White Nationalists.

However, their anti-establishment disposition has not saved them from being duped by Trump. Trump spent years rubbing elbows with Hollywood stars and other elites, including the Clintons and known pedophile ring leader, Jeffrey Epstein. But somehow he has convinced his QAnon followers that he is fighting against those elites. Trump’s more than suspicious relationship with Putin has never been resolved and reeks of treason, but this does not seem to bother any of his supporters. Perhaps they did not read carefully enough when Cooper wrote:

“REMEMBER—NEVER WORSHIP A LEADER. IF YOU WORSHIP A LEADER, YOU THEN NO LONGER HAVE THE ABILITY TO RECOGNIZE WHEN YOU HAVE BEEN DECEIVED!” (p.91)

In a similar vein, Black-owned bookstores, hip-hop music, and lecturers like Steve Cokely were the means by which Cooper’s ideas were disseminated into Black communities. Of course the foundation was already laid by the Nation of Islam who canonized these conspiracy theories in the early part of the 20th century.

In their respective interviews with Fat Joe, rapper Busta Rhymes and producer Dallas Austin described a scene from the early 90’s in which the legendary funk musician, George Clinton hipped a generation of hip hop artists to Behold a Pale Horse. Their recording sessions were like a book club and the book would inform the doomsday themes that led to Busta Rhymes’ album titles. Goodie Mob would release “Cell Therapy.” The D.O.C.‘s long-awaited second LP had several Cooper-inspired tracks. Prodigy from Mobb Deep would mention concepts from the book in his verses. And the list of hip-hop’s connection to the book goes on…

Busta Rhymes discusses the influence of Behold a Pale Horse (52:55 – 56:47).
Dallas Austin discusses the influence of Behold a Pale Horse (1:04:06 – 1:04:32).

However, the so-called Black conscious movement is not without its contradictions either. In contrast to white patriots, many “conscious” Blacks are Muslims, Five Percenters, Nuwaubians, Hebrew Israelites, or ascribe to non-traditional Christian beliefs. Likewise, they often embraced Black Nationalism and leftist Black activism such as the Black Panther Party, something that Cooper probably would have disapproved of. However, Black people generally saw his theories as confirmation of the anti-Blackness and pure evil of the American political establishment.

As we watch red-cap and fatigue-laden protesters riot at the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. and other capitol buildings around the US, we should know that their actions are motivated by beliefs with a genealogy that can be traced to Cooper, the Nazi Party, and even earlier in American history. The irony is that for much of American history both patriots and conscious Blacks alike thought that the fall of America would occur at the hands of Blacks and other minorities, but recent events are showing us otherwise.