Issue #7
Jun.14th 2002
The Meditations of Zara Yacob Pt.2
...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."
II. Human Nature
Human beings are exceptional beings in that—should they exercise their will power to its fullest capacity—they can decipher truth from falsehood and unfailingly choose truth over falsehood. However, the nature of humans, when they resort to themselves only, is not sufficiently adequate to be enabling. Under their own direction, they cannot know the difference between truth and falsehood. God's direction, in the secular form of the possession of intelligence, is that power which enables individuals to judge and choose correctly. Note that the stress is less on blind faith, and more on a faith that is guided by God's reason. Humans, when unaided by God's reason, are weak—so weak that they cannot choose truth over falsehood. They get easily lured by the trappings of falsehood; wealth, status, power.
There are two kinds of laws, Zara Yacob contends, (1) The Law of God, and (2) The Law of humans. In order for humans to be self-governing in the realm of moral life, they must at all times, consult the Law of God. It is the Law of God which completes the incomplete and deficient Law of man. An exclusive use of (2) leads to falsehood; the use of the (1) by contrast enables humans— in a fashion that the (2) does not, to recognize truth as truth, but truth as a semblance of falsity. It is only God who knows " the right way to act "(13) and that when persons want to act rightly, they ought to consult the Law of God, which is in the heart of each person. It is crucial Zara Yacob adds, that one knows the humbling fact that everything that is of and by humans is of limited use and duration, whereas that which comes from the original source, God's doctrine as such, is illuminated by a total intelligence. Ultimately Truth cannot be reached by the affairs of humans only. Humans are liars, and that which comes from them is falsehood and false glory. True, the lies of humans does not affect the solid structure of the world in which they live. Lies, are effective only in the defilement of human character. Thus, when we lie, it is our souls that we destroy. The world, created by the original source, remains the same. Because, " the order of God is stronger than the order of men".(14)
Humans are not merely liars. They are also easy to tempt to errors and evil choices. It is God who sets up his children to the test of choosing evil over good. This test is God's way of separating the virtuous from, the non-virtuous. In a manner reminiscent of Aristotle's Nichomachean Ethics, Zara Yacob argues that it is during the various agonizing moments of choice, that we reveal to the observing world who we are. Evil choices are made not because we don't know what the good is, but because we choose evil even when we know that we should not. Human nature is revealed precisely at the crucial moment of choosing. Here on his own, he lands upon a similar insight as Aristotle, although there is no direct evidence that he has studied Aristotle as systematically as the Bible.
In a spiritually comforting passage, he observes that when we feel unjustly treated by God, we should not be tempted to give up our faith in him. For God has his own mystical way of judging. What one considers just when measured by human Law, is unjust according to God's Law. We will be rewarded for it in the other life. We live in two worlds, the material one and the spiritual one; or as Kant would have it: the phenomenal and noumenal worlds. These two worlds are governed by two different laws, and that what is unjust in one is quite just in the other. As Zara Yacob put the matter "In this world complete justice is not achieved: wicked people are in possession of the goods of this world in a satisfying degree, the humble starve; some wicked men are happy, some good men are sad, some evil men exult with joy, some righteous men weep. Therefore, after our death there must needs be another life and another justice, a perfect one, in which retribution will be made to all according to their needs and those who have fulfilled the will of the creator through the light of reason and have observed the law of their nature will be rewarded."(15)
ETHIOPIA TIMES Vol.1
