2) Four years ago in a conversation with one of the best cardiovascular surgeons I have ever known, while we were debating the publication of my book (sword and seizure; Mohammad's epilepsy and creation on Islam) he wanted me to believe that they have found the body of the prophet's uncle who was killed in one of the earlier battles of Islam. He wanted me to believe that the body is totally intact and beautifully preserved (human ignorance has no limits or boundaries).
Sufism
Sufism is the mystical aspect of Islam. It has its roots in Buddhism and was covered in part two of this article. The story that I am about to report is what I witnessed. However, this behavior and similar variations of it have been documented by others.
My father was a good business man and had several different businesses. However, what helped him to become a multi millionaire was the fact that he had a large construction company in Iran. He had the knowledge and the guts to build military roads and installations for the army in the Zagross Mountains next to the border of Iraq. At that time there was a fear that the war with Iraq was inevitable. Also in preparation for an invasion of Soviet Union General Bradley had set up the strategic redeployment of Iranian army in to Zagross Mountains. This redeployment would have created enough time for the Americans to arrive. Those territories of Iran are referred to as Kurdistan (Kurdish) and Lorestan. The mountains are high, environment is rough and the local people were infiltrated by Kurdish communist forces, making the work extraordinarily hard. The roads that we made were for military purposes and had little value for the population. Most of the work was done during the summer. During the winter even horses and mules could not carry the necessary equipment to those areas .In summer of 1971 my father permitted me to accompany him to one of those construction sites. He had built one of those military roads and by coincidence had provided the people of a remote Kurdish village with reasonable access to a larger highway which eventually would get them to a city (Baneh) with modern hospitals. The elders of that village had complained to my father that they did not have a clinic and that if an actual clinic was built in the village the government would have been obligated to provide them with a doctor and a couple of nurses. My father as a measure of gratitude for the protection that the people of that village had provided for him and his workers built a small modern clinic for them at his own expense .He used his political power to get the villagers a doctor, nurses and reasonable medical equipment. The elders of the village as a measure of their gratitude invited my father, his assistant and me, to one of their Sufi gatherings. This honor was not bestowed on others unless they were worthy of it. . Before our arrival my father had made it very clear that I was not permitted to exhibit my obnoxious curiosity, big mouth and unruly behavior (Sit down and shut up). We arrived at the elders house after the evening prayers, after much extremely polite interactions they began their Sufi rituals which consisted of some reciting of the Quran, beautiful Sufi poetry and some Kurdish chanting that I could not understand. Several members of the group left the room and came back with a large, wide cloth that they spread on the floor. The cloth had some religious words sewn on it. Then another member of the group came in with a large container type tray full of red burning wood charcoal. I thought that this is the beginning of the smoking of opium which is done in similar container. I was badly mistaken. The chanting exhilarated and turned into some type of ritualistic dancing and music that I simply cannot explain. Then I noticed one of the members of the group put his head in the container, right in the middle of the fire, he chewed on one of those pieces of burning wood. When he raised his face there were no signs of any burn.His hair, moustache and beard were not touched neither. Other members of the group repeated similar types of behavior. Meanwhile, those pieces of charcoal scattered on the white cloth without causing any fire. Watching charcoal not burning the cloth I was quite curious and went against my promise to my father and raised my hand and touched the burning charcoal, it was not that it just burned , I had a big welt on my hand. I guess that took care of my unruly behavior.
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*I would like to apologize to the readers of this article for my references to the Holocaust. Please forgive me for bringing up such awful topic. My intention was to quote a dear professor who had a significant impact on my life.
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