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History and Religion

2026-02-08T05:48:05-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

How the Caliphate Warped Muhammad’s Verbal Islam Into a Noun

Last updated on: February 8, 2026 at 5:48 am By Dr. Micah Ben David Naziri

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What the Qurʾān designates as “Islām” is not, in its own discursive register, a newly inaugurated religion, but a mode of action and orientation: submission, alignment, or covenantal surrender enacted by those addressed by revelation in the career of Muḥammad (c. 570–632 CE). Alongside the higher grade of faith or īmān, the Qurʾānic islām functions as a verbal noun describing an activity rather than a bounded confessional identity. One of the central interpretive problems in Qurʾānic studies is therefore semantic... Read more

Muslim

Politics and Religion

2026-01-31T19:19:35-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The Rejected Rabbi Nachman, His Legacy and Predicted Return

Last updated on: January 31, 2026 at 7:19 pm By Dr. Micah Ben David Naziri

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If Breslov Chasidism today can fill stadiums, inspire global pilgrimage, and shape the devotional vocabulary of contemporary Judaism, its origins remain almost willfully counterintuitive: Rabbi Nachman’s lived fellowship was not a “court” but a micro-community, an embattled handful whose cohesion mattered more than its headcount. This article argues that the most durable religious revolutions are often born in precisely that kind of marginality, where a principled minority persists under ridicule, suspicion, and institutional pressure, and where the founder’s apparent “failure”... Read more

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Breslov Hasidism; Rabbi Nachman of Breslov; Persistent Minority Influence; minority influence; prophetic rejection; rabbinic proverbs; Semitic proverb traditions; Gospel of Thomas 31; Near Eastern wis

chasid

Chasidic

Chasidut

2026-01-31T19:22:11-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The Jewish Origins of Ḥajj and the Caliphate’s Appropriation

Last updated on: January 31, 2026 at 7:22 pm By Dr. Micah Ben David Naziri

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If the historical personage behind the title Muḥammad (ca. 570–632 CE) could behold what was wrought in his name—how the Caliphal dynasties embalmed his living daʿwah into the lifeless orthodoxy of an imperial cult—he would surely weep. There is no question, to anyone who has placed the finger of their consciousness upon the historical Muḥammad, that the last thing he would have wished to see was the islām of Qurʾānic aslama turned from a syncretic verb of universalist unity into a brand... Read more

Quest for the Historical Muhammad

2026-01-31T19:23:46-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The Secret of Kabbalah: The ‘World to Come’ Is Already Here!

Last updated on: January 31, 2026 at 7:23 pm By Dr. Micah Ben David Naziri

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Classical Jewish eschatology never envisioned an “end of the world,” but rather its transfiguration through divine revelation. The Hebrew expressions Aḥarīt ha-Yamim (אַחֲרִית הַיָּמִים, “afterward of days”) and Yemot ha-Mashiaḥ (יִמוֹת הַמָּשִׁיחַ, “days of the Messiah”) denote not finality but fulfillment—the descent of ʿOlam ha-Ba (עוֹלָם הַבָּא, “world to come”) into ʿOlam ha-Zeh (עוֹלָם הַזֶּה, “this world”). Drawing from the Zohar, the Ari, and the Ḥasidic masters, this vision presents gilgul (גִּלְגּוּל, “reincarnation”) as the mechanism by which the divine... Read more

2026-01-31T19:25:25-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The Talmud Never Mentions Any Jesus Figure—Here’s the Proof

Last updated on: January 31, 2026 at 7:25 pm By Dr. Micah Ben David Naziri

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Scattered rabbinic texts mention multiple figures designated by the acronymic curse of Yeshu. But this name, commonly assumed to be synonymous with the Christian Gospel protagonist, is applied to numerous figures, differentiated and distinguished by their patronymics. We see examples such as Ben Stada, or Ben Pandira, which Christian polemicists from the Middle Ages onward seized upon as covert references to the Gospel character of Jesus of Nazareth. In some editions of the Talmud these names are substituted for one Bilʿam... Read more

General Christian

2026-01-31T19:26:09-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Yes, the Bible Really Talks About (and Allows) Cannabis

Last updated on: January 31, 2026 at 7:26 pm By Dr. Micah Ben David Naziri

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From the dawn of human culture, psychoactive plants have mediated between the human and the sacred. Mircea Eliade (1907–1986) argued in his classic Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy that ecstatic journeys and altered states, often induced by plant allies, formed the foundational layer of religion itself.¹ Recent research on the Eleusinian Mysteries has confirmed that Greek initiates likely ingested a psychoactive kykeon as part of their encounter with Demeter and Persephone.² Ethnographies of Native American traditions reveal similar dynamics: Diné... Read more

New Visions

Health, Fitness and Religion

2026-01-31T23:36:33-05:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The Parable of the Pirate King and the Obnoxious Beggar

Last updated on: January 31, 2026 at 11:36 pm By Dr. Micah Ben David Naziri

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The following is the first part of a mashal, parabolic story, spoken recently by Rabbi `Oseh of Gaza — a maternal descendant of the Chasidic Rabbi Nachman of Breslov (1772–1810), the Maharal of Prague (1512–1609) and the Ba`al Shem Tov (1698–1760), a great-grandson of the Baal Shem Tov, who was the founder of the Modern Chasidic movement in Judaism. This story is told in the vein and style of Alter Zeidy, Rabbi Nachman. It is penned in the style which... Read more

2025-08-22T10:51:01-04:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Are Tattoos Really Forbidden by the Torah?

Last updated on: August 22, 2025 at 10:51 am By Dr. Micah Ben David Naziri

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Many of us grew up being told by our families or congregations that the Torah absolutely, unequivocally prohibits Jews from having tattoos. It turns out, there’s a bit more to the story than that. As well, there is a popular misconception that one cannot be buried in a Jewish cemetery if they have tattoos. Despite this popular myth, there is no truth whatsoever to that claim. So what is the proverbial “deal” with tattoos in Judaism? Furthermore, why can’t halakhah—Jewish... Read more

General Christian

Style and Religion

2025-06-30T13:55:05-04:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Art of the Double Cross: Trump’s Betrayal of Israel and Iran

Last updated on: June 30, 2025 at 1:55 pm By Dr. Micah Ben David Naziri

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This morning, headlines such as “Trump Goes Absolutely Berserk on Iran and Israel as Ceasefire Deal Crumbles: ‘They Don’t Know What the F*ck They’re Doing’” filled news feeds of anyone following the war against the Iranian regime. Yes, Trump turned on Israel almost faster than he turned on Zelensky and the Ukraine. But why? The Art of the Double-Cross: Trump’s Simultaneous Betrayal of Israel and Iran Why did Trump give the Khomeinist regime advanced warning of the strike? Was it... Read more

Muslim

2025-05-16T13:01:47-04:00

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

An Essene Midrash on the Wisdom and Compassion of King David

Last updated on: May 16, 2025 at 1:01 pm By Dr. Micah Ben David Naziri

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When most hear the term “Essene,” they think of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Qumran Community Yachad, and the various Hellenists writing in Greek on the Jewish Second Temple Era sect. Catching the reader up on the post-Second Temple Era Diaspora forms of Essenic Judaism is far beyond the limited scope of the work at hand. For those sincerely interested, however, I know of no extant source which better documents even a limited amount of this history than my first master’s... Read more

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