ভূমিকা

Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Humanitarian Rights in the Time of Appearance of the Mahdi (pbuh) Or World Promised Saviour Horizentalization of Vertical Eschatology As Recipe For Planetary Survival Twelve years ago, while we were sitting in front of a college in Mindanao State University-Main Campus, Philippines, a Seventh-Day Adventist friend of mine from Bukidnon, Mindanao, told me, "Everything can serve any purpose.

You see, if I position this horizontally (referring to a blue ballpen he was holding), it serves as a bridge, but if I put it this way (that is, vertically), it becomes a wall." Accordingly, 'horizontal' God is He who is viewed as the Creator and Lord of the universe and all mankind.

"Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord." (Deuteronomy 6:4 and Mark 12:29) "I, even I, am the Lord; and beside me there is no savior." (Isaiah 43:11) "I am the Lord, and there is none else, there is no God beside me." (Isaiah 45:5) "I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me." (Isaiah 46:9) "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." (Exodus 20:3-5) "And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou has sent." (John 17:3) "Say, 'He is Allah, the One.

Allah is the All-embracing. He neither begat, nor was begotten, nor has He any equal." (Surah al-Ikhlas, 1-4) This Supreme Being becomes 'vertical' when He is thought to have certain few 'favorites' at the expense of a 'damned' majority. Religions also function as a bridge if the common elements among them such as spirituality, moral principles and a notion of Judgment Day are more emphasized.

This function was illustrated by la convivencia ('coexistence' or 'living together') put into practice in Toledo in particular during the Moorish rule of Spain. As a microcosm of the atmosphere of religious tolerance then prevalent in the city, Jews, Christians and Muslims were working together in the city's libraries, translating books from Arabic into Castilian Spanish and then into Latin. This scientific collaboration continued for sometime after the end of the Moorish rule.

Jane Smith thus observes: Transmission of knowledge from Arabic to Latin came close on the heels of the Christian reconquest of Sicily and of large areas of Muslim Spain. When Toledo was taken in 1085, a major step in the Christian reconquest of Spain, a large number of Arabic manuscripts were made available to Christian scholars.