The Prophetic Advice to Desist from Ethiopia

دَعُوا الْحَبَشَةَ مَا وَدَعُوكُم، وَاتْرُكُوا التّرْكَ مَا تَرَكُوكُم
“Leave the Ethiopians so long as they leave you, and desist from the Turkic nations, so long as they desist from you.”
[Abû Dâwud's Sunan, an-Nasâ'î's Sunan, and others]

Failure to follow the aforementioned advice of the Prophet Muhammad (صلى الله عليه وسلم) has had devestating consequences in Islamic history. If one observes the map of largely Muslim North Africa, one can’t help but notice that in a solid belt of Muslim nations one finds the Christian nation of Ethiopia sticking out like a sore thumb. This is because the Arabs of the Arabian Peninsula remembered well the advice of their resident and Prophet who had shown great tolerance and respect for the Christians of Ethiopia, then called Abyssinia or “Habasha” in Arabic.

Tribute to Tolkien: Postulating a Proto-Semitic Language

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, popularly known simply as J.R.R. Tolkien, created the languages of Quenya and Sindarin for his mythical realm of Middle-earth. Quenya was largely based on Finnish, Latin and Greek while Sindarin was based on Brythonic and Welsh linguistics and phonology. Aside from these, there were also other languages which were created for the Lord of the Rings epic.

I have been writing a work of fiction which draws greatly from my interest in the language, religion and history of the Semitic tradition. Thus, in what could be considered my encomium to Tolkien, I have engaged in somewhat of an experiment in Semitic philology and attempted to create a primordial Proto-Semitic language based upon carefully assumed etymon’s of early Hebrew, Aramaic, Syriac and Nabataean.

In the “Bowels” of Jesus Christ?

“For God is my record, how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ.”
[Philippians 1:8]

Here I will share some of my observations regarding this strange terminology found in the Greek and later English translations of the New Testament text.