# Druze



## truth_seeker (Jul 23, 2004)

Druze    

(drooz) or Druse , religious community of Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and Jordan, with important overseas branches in the Americas and Australia. The religious leadership prefers the name Muwahhidun (Unitarians). While preserving many Islamic symbols, the Druze religion also incorporates Gnostic and neo-Platonic tenets. In the 10th cent. Cairo Hamza ibn Ali, a Persian dai (preacher, propagandist) and Muhammad al-Darazi, a Turkish dai who gave his name to the sect, pronounced the sixth Fatimid caliph and Ismaili imam, al-Hakim, as Divine. After al-Darazi's death (1020), Hamza declared himself to be the true manifestation of the Divine reality of al-Hakim. Hamza was successful in greater Syria, and a series of pastoral letters written at that time form the Druze scripture, the Kitab al-hikma, or Rasail al-Hakim. Since the Druze religion was seen as an abrogation of Islam, the concealment of the substance of the faith is a religious obligation, marriages outside the faith are forbidden, and initiation from lay status ( jahil, ignorant) to clerical ( aqil, knower) is restricted. The Druze formed principalities that fought the Crusaders and secured considerable independence under nominal Mamluk and Ottoman rule. In the 19th cent. the rise of the Christian Maronites undermined Druze power in the Mount Lebanon region. The ensuing conflict scarred relations between the two communities and provided an opportunity for European intervention. After the dissolution of the Ottoman sultanate and the establishment of the French mandate in Syria (1920), the Druze leadership played a crucial role in launching and sustaining the anti-French revolt (1925-27), after which an autonomous Druze state was created by the French in southern Syria. In 1944 the Druze agreed to surrender their autonomous rights in the Jebel Druz [ jebel =mountain], as their section of Syria is called. Since then the Druze have been active in the political life of Syria, Lebanon, and Israel. Druze officers were noticeable in the history of Syria in the 1950s and 1960s. Walid Jumblatt and other Druze leaders took active roles during the Lebanese civil war. In Israel, the Druze were granted a “nationality” status distinct from the Arabic-speaking population, and are expected to serve in the Israeli army. 

Bibliography: See R. B. Betts, The Druze (1988). 

From http://www.druzenet.org/dnenglish.html
read more there. Very interesting, emphasis is mine.

The Adamic Message

Druze is not a religion, it is a faith; and while the historical identity of the Druze as a community brought together by language, land or tradition, may date back 1000 yrs to Fatimid Egypt, the Spiritual Identity of El-Mowahideen El-Druze as Preservers of the Ancient Wisdom is as old as the creation of time. 

If anything, this testimony should, once and for all, answer the 1000-year old question, "who are the Druze?", because most of the accounts written on the Druze yet, some of which (unfortunately) written by Druze themselves for non-authentic objectives, do not represent the Druze Identity.

And if the Ancient Wisdom has truly survived the test of time and has successfully maintained a brotherhood of authentic descendants for 1000 years in one of the most politically tense areas of the world and throughout the most critical times of Middle East's religious history, it has done so, not in virtue of the Druze's historical identity, but through the ability of the Druze Mind to rise above the facade of man-made identities and trace the differences among those identities (including the religious one) into their ancient origins in the Behavioral Self of Man. 

Believe then what you read in this testimony about Man's Truth or fiercely defy it. Do not assume the behavioral stance of a pragmatist (which when measured to the Truth-in-Finality amounts to a form or ignorance disguised by a mask of compassion). What you read in this page is not a nostalgic effort to revive the ancient gnostic spirit or to celebrate the rediscovery of the Qumran scriptures. This is the testimony of El-Mowahideen El-Druze - real people who have carried the Five-Colored Flag of the Ancient Wisdom on earth for 1000 years after they had carried it in their souls for thousands and thousands of years prior to that, and have sacrificed their blood, children and all their possessions in all their lives to preserve its doctrines, not through secret orders, mysterious rites, or hidden organizations, but through conscious actions. 

Yes, the Spiritual Identity of the Druze has survived the test of time, not because of the mystery that shielded the Druze people as a historical sect, but because of real choices which El-Mowahideen El-Druze took on the level of Adamic thought and action - it has survived through their continuous investment in the Sacred Doctrines of the Ancient Wisdom, life after the other; and, thanks to a Divine Doctrine of Brotherhood and a Divine Law of Transmigration (Reincarnation), the Unity of their Spiritual Identity is unchallengeable. No religion or race, no history or geography, no nation or civilization, no government or law can ever stand in the way of the hidden path of the Soul as it shapes its destiny across time and throughout its countless reincarnations.

*It may shake you to imagine that every human soul is as ancient as existence and that every human soul has experienced on earth incalculable lives and have clothed itself with thousands of man-made identities - millions of years worth of EVE-ENDS, all in the hope that one day the soul may recollect its sacred ADAMIC-BEGINNING. It may shake you to imagine that you may be a Christian fighting a war against Moslems in one life only to be born to a Moslem family in another - or a soldier killing your enemy (in the name of defending a nationality), while your pregnant wife back home is delivering birth to the very enemy that you have just killed - all in the service of a much higher identity and a much deeper Wisdom than what identites are designed to serve. * 

What this may imply on the level of Power & Politics on earth? To imagine the answer to this question can help you understand why traces of most doctrines of the Ancient Wisdom were repelled and removed from all the sacred texts, not only by the political but also by the religious. It may also help you to understand why so much controversy surrounds the Faith of the Druze of the Levant.


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## anders (Jul 25, 2004)

"Druze is not a religion, it is a faith" -- so what is their religion? And what is the difference between a faith and a religion?

I regard "druze" as more of an ethnic label, but would not hesitate to speak of a Druze "religion". One reason to avoid the word "religion" might be that Muslims would regard the Druze as apostates from Islam and so deserving the ultimate punishment. Many encyclopedias regard the Druze as an Islamic sect, but I think that this is unfounded, considering the Druze perception of the divine nature of the Caliph al-Hakim.

According to the Encyclopaedia of the Orient, "the moral system of Druze *religion* consists of seven principles:

love of truth 
take care of one another 
renounce all *other* religions 
avoid the demon (the calf?) and all wrongdoers 
accept divine unity in humanity 
accept all of al-Hakim's acts 
act in total accordance to al-Hakim's will 

Central in the the Druze world system is the belief in reincarnation, where all souls are reborn as humans, good as well as bad."
(my emphases)


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## Neutral Singh (Jul 26, 2004)

A very dumb question... under which category should should I move this faith ? please excuse me for my ignorance... thanks


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