There will be no discourse about Idol in this post

Anyway, someone irked me at work this morning while I was busy. A colleague emailed me to draft an email that says sorry, we don't have the info & can't help. Well duh ! He coulda just done it himself by saying the same thing in his email to me. It was a two liner cos there wasn't any other info to include. And I told him so. But it was amusing in the roll your eyes kind of way after I got over the initial annoyance.

I've been doing research work on religions in relation to some work stuff I am preparing. Its been intriguing.

Most of us know that the Christian, Jewish & Islam faiths are all connected. Its sometimes called the Abrahamic religions. The Koran & Bible share many similarities. But just how so. Abram whom God later renamed Abraham meaning "father of many" was the founding father of the prophets of the Christian & Islamic religions.

Abraham was married to Sarah & for many years she could not conceive. So she gave her Egyptian maidservant Hagar to Abraham who sired a son, Ishmael, through her. Accounts differ, some say he took Hagar as wife & some say mistress.

Then God blessed Abraham with a son from Sarah, Isaac.

Sarah was displeased with Hagar, jealousy I guess & had Abraham banish Hagar & Ishmael into the widerness. Or perhaps it was in God's plan.

At one point, Abraham's faith was tested when God told him to sacrifice his son Isaac. The deed was just about to be done when God stopped him. His devotion had God blessing him with the continuance of his lineage through both Isaac & Ishmael. Abraham also took another wife Keturah after Sarah's death. Not much on this wife & the children he had with her.

Seems like he had mainly sons & just one daughter. She doesn't figure very much at all in the future developments.

Hagar & Ishmael survived their banishment & from their lineage was borne the Islam faith through their descendant, the Prophet Muhammad. Many of the rituals during the Haj reflect circumstances of how they survived by God providing them with water, the sacrifice & Abraham's encounter with Satan. In Islamic faith Abrahim is Ibrahim, Ishmael is Ismail, Hagar is Hajre & Isaac is Ishak.

Isacc's son Jacob had 12 sons who established the 12 Tribes of Israel. From their descendants, Judaism & Christianity.

So Islam & Judaism came about from the Semitics (mainly Jews & Arabs) & Christianity from Judaism.

I think I have the gist of it right. Many online articles available for the full story. And you'll need to read both on Abraham & Ibrahim.

By the way, Aryan is a term which the ancients Persians used to describe their lineage. Ironic the Nazis considered their Aryans as a white master race. Someone should have told Hitler that the original Aryans were the opposite of white, blonde & blue-eyed. LOL.

Lament for the day : I wonder what else is in my mum's store.