Issue #6
May 3rd 2002
The Meditations of Zara Yacob Pt.1
...selected by Menelyk
"I was born in the land of the priests of Aksum. But I am the son of a poor farmer in the district of Aksum; the day of my birth is 25th of Nahase 1592 A.D., the third year of the year of [King] Yaquob. By Christian baptism I was named Zara Yacob, but people called me Warqye. When I grew up, my father sent me to school in view of my instruction. And after I had read the psalms of David my teacher said to my father: "This young son of yours is clever and has the patience to learn; if you send him to a [higher] school, he will be a master and a doctor." After hearing this, my father sent me to study zema. But my voice was coarse and my throat was grating; so my schoolmaster used to laugh at me and to tease me. I stayed there for three months, until I overcame my sadness and went to another master who taught qane and sawsaw. God gave me the talent to learn faster than my companions and thus compensated me for my previous disappointment; I stayed there 4 years. During those days, God as it were snatched me from the claws of death, for as I was playing with my friends I fell into a ravine, and I do not know how I was saved except by a miracle from God. After I was saved I measured the depth of the ravine with a long rope and found it to be twenty-five fathoms and one palm [deep]. Thanking God for saving me, I went to the house of my master. After this I left for another school to study the interpretation of the Holy Scriptures. I remained ten years in this type of study; I learned the interpretations of the Ferangi [foreigners] and of our own scholars. Oftentimes their interpretation did not agree with my reason; but I withheld my opinion and hid in my heart all the thoughts of my mind. Having returned to my native Aksum, I taught for four years. But this period was not peaceful: for in the XIX of king Susanyos, while afons, a Frang, was Abuna, two years [after his arrival] a great persecution spread over all Ethiopia. The king accepted the faith of the Ferangi, and from that time on persecuted all those who did not accept it."
For Zara Yacob, God is revealed through Natural Reason. In his own way, he believed in common sense, a vehicle of Scientific thinking in his confrontations of the dogmas of the Bible, such as the practices of fasting, marriage and sexuality.
Zara Yacob on the other hand, like a lonely star, did not have a constellation of a secular tradition, from which to draw. Surrounded by the powerful fortresses of religion, the philosopher had only his serene, and courageous mind, ready to inspect and examine everything that he thought could not withstand the analytic presences of his relentless Hatatas, which were not appreciated by a resistant and reluctant religious Ethiopian tradition, which exiled him to a cave.
I. Method of Knowing God
Zara Yacob's method could be roughly called a discursive subjection of faith, any faith, to a critical examination by intelligence or natural reason, which takes the form of honest searching or uncovering, called Hasasa or Hatata. Central to this project is the idea that reason itself is incomplete without God's guidance, yet reasonable human beings must subject their faith to critical self-examination before they believe. Faith in God must come after profound reasoning. All human perceptions, imaginations, judgments and apprehensions should be carefully subjected to his discursive method. Nothing should be accepted without getting tested by intelligence or natural reason.
Truth is clearly revealed to whoever seeks it "with the pure intelligence sat by the creator in the heart of each man"(7) Faith then is not an irrational form of giving oneself to an unknown external power called God. Faith can become a rational and reasonable activity of the mind. It is an act of the intelligence that propels thoughtful and vigilant believers to believe only after activating their intelligence to demonstratively provide the necessary and sufficient conditions for believing, in an overwhelming power, such as God. The proposition that " God exits" to Zara Yacob means " I have proven to myself beyond doubt that the power called God definitely exists and that I now believe, and further that from now onwards, I will not subject God to doubt, since God has now become to me a clear object of rational faith. I now totally believe.
For Zara Yacob, a style of existence, such as marriage is a legitimate practice whereas monastic life is not. Marriage springs from the "law of the creator",(8) monastic life does not. Put differently, by Zara Yacob's metaphysical yardstick, a practice such as marriage discloses a clear and distinct idea that originates in God's intention. When monastic life is measured against that yardstick, it proves to be inferior to married life. It does not pass the litmus test of reason. These claims could of course be unsettling to a non-believer. Even a believer may not be completely satisfied in that, one could be a devoted lover of God, and still fail to accept marriage as the only way of life. Indeed, one need not agree with Moses to disapprove of marriage. But, it is my belief that, the argument in defense of marriage was not aimed at non believers as much as members of the same religious convictions, most particularly at those ardent believers who consider marriage as the defilement of the body. He is challenging those " dogmatists" with the counter argument that the body was bestowed to humans not for repression or denial but for a moderate joy. The believers need not be deprived of joy. The body was given to us for a purpose, and that purpose is embodied in the constancy of marriage. That is the first implicit argument, which I just fleshed out. There is a second argument.
Zara Yacob the religious thinker, would not conceive of accepting children born outside the institution of marriage. To do so, would be to put God on the defensive, in that in order for the children to be blessed, marriage, "the law of the creator, is a necessary and sufficient condition. Without that message' sufficient condition, marriage would have become an incoherent and indistinct norm.
Zara Yacob also has the following things to say about Mohammed, " similarly, Mohammed said, ' the orders I pass to you are given to me by God;" and there was no lack of writers to record miracles proving Mohammed's mission, and (people) believed in him. But we know that the teachings of Mohammed could not have come from God; those who will be born both male and female are equal in number; if we count men and women living in an area, we find as many women as men; we do not find eight or ten women for every man; for the law of creation orders one man to marry one woman. If one man marries ten women, then nine men will be without wives."(9)
According to Zara Yacob, God does not order absurdities such as "Eat this, do not eat this; today eat, tomorrow do not eat, do not eat meat today, eat it tomorrow... neither did God say to the Muslims: 'eat during the night, but do not eat during the day.’"(10) For Zara Yacob, these are unreasonable laws by human beings. God could not possibly stand behind them. These absurdities could not have emanated from human intelligence. God does not subject the human body to such traumatic deprivations. God loves his children too much to create cruel laws that disfigure the body not to say the soul. God knows the power of necessity, and the difference between necessity and luxury. As Zara Yacob put the matter, " For God created man with the same necessity for food on each day and during each month. The Jews, the Christians and the Muslims did not understand the work of God when they instituted the law of fasting; they lie when they say that God imposed fasting upon us and forbade us to eat; for our creator gave us food that we supply ourselves by it, not that we abstain from it".(11) These absurd practices are guided not by truth revealed to human intelligence but by false faith, and false faith can be recognized, if one works at it , and strives to know the truth. Zara Yacob introduces a method of recognizing false faith through the following procedure.
To begin, Zara Yacob instructs, humans are all equal in the eyes of God. This equality is expressed by the fact that God created all humans with intelligence. And because humans are fated to die, they are equal. Death does not discriminate. It is the ultimate equalizer. The human body is not entitled to immortality. Also, all persons, given their intelligences, can understand God's doctrines, through revelation. These revelations constituted the moments of truth. False faith, is manifestly non-truth, and cannot be revealed to persons, who are fated to experience truth. Truth occurs only when all persons agree on a given matter or value; whereas it is possible for all to agree on truth; it is not possible for all to agree on falsity. Truth compels singular agreement, whereas falsity or false faith does not. For example, the fact of the existence of created things leads one to agree on a true proposition such as " Humans are created beings with a body and soul " The believer experiences the proposition as a true object of faith, whereas its opposite, " created things are because they created themselves" would not be true. More to the point, Zara Yacob argues that the love of others is a singularly true and compelling value, that all humans can agree on, whereas hate, any form of hate, cannot be elevated to a value without serious resistance coming from human reason. The second is effectively an example of a false faith, that cannot pass the test of reason guided by God's doctrine. The second will be a failure of human intelligence, an abortion of reason, which is caused not by God's refusal to reveal a majestic truth that commands love, but rather humans' notorious weakness which prevents from loving deeply and unconditionally. Zara Yacob put it thus. "...the Christian faith as it was founded in the days of the Gospel was not evil, since it invites all men to love one another and to practice mercy toward all," but today my countrymen have set aside the love recommended by the Gospel [ and turned away towards] hatred, violence, the poison of snakes; they teach things that are vain; they do things that are evil, so the are falsely called Christians".(12) In at attempt to address the question why do humans believe in falsities, of which false faith is a particular example, he develops the proposition, God has given reason to everyone, hoping that it will be used for the search of truth, and the avoidance of falsehood. But human nature is too sluggish and weak to withstand the challenge, and this will lead us into our next discussion of Zara Yacob's views of human nature.
ETHIOPIA TIMES Vol.1
