Assignment #1: Annotated Bibliography

DUE: Feb 23, 2020 11:55 PM

Grade Details

Grade	N/A
Gradebook Comments	None

Assignment Details

Open Date	Feb 3, 2020 12:05 AM
Graded?	Yes
Points Possible	100.0
Resubmissions Allowed?	Yes
Remaining Submissions	5
Attachments checked for originality?	Yes

Assignment Instructions

Assignment 1: The Annotated Bibliography

Objective: Assess sources for your research for your final presentation (for credibility, reliability, and relevance) and list references in proper APA format. That means the sources you use for this assignment should be directly related to the species that you chose in Forum 1 of the class.

Assignment Instructions: The Research Project/Presentation for this class is divided into three major Assignments, 1) annotated bibliography, 2) outline and 3) final presentation. The first part is the annotated bibliography. An annotation is a summary and evaluation, and your annotated bibliography will include a summary and evaluation of some of the sources (or references) you will use for your presentation.

To prepare for this assignment, I recommend that you do the following:

• Read these directions carefully.
• Review the sample annotated bibliography provided to you below.
• Read the grading criteria below. The grading criteria is a detailed evaluation that I will use to assess your performance. It will also help you understand what is expected of you as you prepare your assignment.
• Message me with any questions!

The reason the annotated bibliography is included as part of the research project is that writing an annotated bibliography is important in that it provides excellent preparation for the final presentation. One of the issues regarding any type of research, especially in biology, is the credibility of the sources used, particularly those obtained from various websites. By forcing you to evaluate each of your potential sources carefully, the annotated bibliography helps you determine if in fact the source you chose is credible and helps you determine how relevant it is to your topic and understand the topic better which will help you develop your presentation.

For this project, you will assess three sources to include:

1) a complete citation for each source,

2) a summary of each source, and

3) an evaluation of each source.

Three sources are required for this assignment (i.e., you are to write an annotation for each source). However, you must use five or more sources in your final presentation.

Use this TEMPLATE to summarize and evaluate each of your three sources.

1. Citation:

Written in APA reference list format. For more help with formatting, see APA handout.

1. Summary:

What is the purpose of the source, review article, original research? What topics are covered? This section is generally 4-6 sentences that summarize the author’s main point. (Please note that less than 10% of your annotated bibliography should contain direct quotes. For more help, see this link on paraphrasing sources.)

1. Evaluation:

After summarizing the article (or research paper or book), it is necessary to evaluate it and state where you found it – its source (e.g., journal, website, etc.). Briefly answer the following questions in 4-6 sentences:

What is the format or type of source (e.g., peer-reviewed journal paper, website, book)? How reliable is the information in the article, and how credible is the source (e.g., website’s sponsoring organization, journal or book publisher) and the author(s)?

For more help, see this handout on evaluating resources.

(Please note that less than 10% of your annotated bibliography should contain direct quotes. For more help, see this link on paraphrasing sources.)

Additional Resources:

• Sample Annotated Bibliography
• Also, please see the resources below at The Owl at Purdue site for more information on how to write an annotated bibliography as well as other pages on the site to assist you with the other parts of the research paper:

Annotated Bibliographies

[ [Annotated Bibliography Example] ]

[ [Annotated Bibliography Samples] ]

Evaluation: Please review the Annotated Bibliography Grading Criteria that describes how your annotated bibliography will be graded.

Submission Instructions:

1. You must submit your Annotated Bibliography as a “Microsoft Word” document using the template provided (rather than a Word Pad, Works, etc. document) AND title your file name as FirstnameLastname_BIOL180_Assg1.doc. Otherwise, you will not receive credit for your assignment.
2. Upload your assignment for grading by clicking on the “Add Attachment” button at the bottom of the page.
3. The new screen will prompt you to click the “Browse” button so you can locate the MS Word document of your Annotated Bibliography on your computer.
4. Find the file and double-click on it.
5. Click “Continue”.
6. Double check to ensure that your annotated bibliography was successfully uploaded as an attachment.
7. When you have completed this assignment, type “Completed” in the rich text editor box below.
8. Check the “Honor Pledge: I have neither given nor received aid on this assignment.” checkbox.
9. Click the “Submit” button.
10. Your annotated bibliography is automatically submitted to Turnitin with your submission:

Annotated bibliographies will be automatically added to and checked against the standard Turnitin repositories. Originality reports will be returned to the faculty and student in roughly 15 minutes of the submission. Multiple submissions are allowed before the due date. If you wish to learn more about and how to access Turnitin.com, a plagiarism detection website, these are available from the APUS Online Library. APUS Writing Center.

MUST OWN INTERVENTION & REFLECTION: BASIC ISSUES IN BIOETHICS. DO NOT BID IF YOU DON’T OWN THIS BOOK!

You will submit a 5-page essay synthesizing course readings and outside research into an articulate and cogent response to the following question: are there occasions in the delivery of health care when deception is warranted?

Must read:

• Munson: Chapter 3, pages 253 – 296

Based on your reading of the textbook, Scripture, and additional sources:

• Review the following scenarios of medical deception provided and rank them with commentary regarding appropriate behavior (most appropriate to least appropriate):
  1. A physician intentionally submits faulty information to an insurance company in an attempt to help a sick patient pay for needed healthcare services.
  2. A physician recognizes the patient has psychosomatic symptoms and prescribes a placebo pill in hopes that the emotional relief of the placebo will help the patient recover (thus saving the patient from possible treatments which would be more invasive and/or extensive).
  3. A physician does not provide full disclosure of a surgical procedure because he/she suspects the patient is not emotionally stable enough to handling all the details of the surgery, treatment and recovery.
• Review the following scenarios and rank them with commentary regarding a physician’s ethics (most ethical to least ethical):
  1. Physicians accept pharmaceutical perks if they recommend a specific drug for treatment.
  2. When prescribing pain medication, some physicians may “undertreat” a patient if they sense their patient may have a propensity for addiction.
  3. A physician treating a patient with a terminal illness fails to disclose secondary ailments/diseases which may arise (in an attempt to protect the patient’s emotional stability and will to fight).
• Recount occasions from your personal life experiences of being lied to/misled by a health care clinician and, in retrospect, comment on the correctness of this decision.
• Provide a rationale (in terms of biblical commandments, guidelines, or inferences) on whether or not a Christian clinician should deceive a patient.

Assignment Details

Open Date	Feb 3, 2020 12:05 AM
Graded?	Yes
Points Possible	100.0
Resubmissions Allowed?	Yes
Remaining Submissions	2
Attachments checked for originality?	Yes

Assignment Instructions

Goal: The goal of this assignment is to research your topic, evaluate selected sources, and organize your sources.

Course Objective(s):

• CO2 Locate, access, and choose information that aligns to the scope of the intended research while using a well-planned strategy.
• CO5 Analyze the quality of sources: assumptions, currency, and authority, and evaluate the context of when to use information.

---

Description:
During the Week 2 Assignment, Project Plan, you chose a topic and created your project plan. In the Week 3 Lesson, you read about location and access and in Week 4, you learned about organizing your digital information and storing that information responsibly. Now it is time to take the work you did in the Week 2 Assignment, Project Plan, and locate and evaluate sources that that will lead to your Week Week 7 Assignment, Field of Study Project.

Please follow these instructions:
– Download the Source Organization Worksheet Template (in Word).
– Complete Parts I and II in the Template.
– Find a minimum of three (3) sources. One (1) source must be an academic source and from the APUS Trefrey Library and the other sources must be credible and appropriate for college research.
– Please include robust source summaries that explain the contents of the source and the relevance of the source to your topic.

Consider the following:
– Once you complete the Source Organization Worksheet Template, please submit the completed Worksheet.
– See the attached rubric for grading guidelines.

Note : This is interlink to previous work which i have already submitted if you can make sure that every assignment is interlink to this assignment

• Study the assigned curriculum — both Parts 1 and 2.
• Submit your essay (or your contracted alternative), which must include thoughts on both parts of each module.
• Your peer exchanges are due two days after your essay is due.

The essays are designed to be meaningful exercises of self-exploration (reflections) rather than busy work (summaries).

The practice of philosophy is a major goal of your essays and exchanges. This practice promotes and supports independent, creative and original thinking.

Essays Due by 11:00 PM on Mondays and Thursdays.

• Your essays need to be a thoughtful “journal-like” reflections.
• Essays must address both part 1 and part 2 of each module’s curriculum.
• A good reflection is one that I could not have read before. This is because it is the essay that only you could have written — due to your unique set of life experiences.

Minimum Requirements

• Essays are not summaries. That is busy work.
• Summaries do not receive credit because they do not require serious thought — simply the ability to record information.
• Your essays must be more than 700 words to receive credit and be eligible for a C, more than 800 words to be eligible for a B, and more than 900 words to be eligible for an A.
• Your assignments are not eligible for A’s if they require proofreading.
• Assignments that are partial (not meeting minimum requirements) do not receive partial credit.
• Late assignments are not eligible for credit.

Essay Prompts

You are not required to use the following prompts, but they may help you think about what you are studying:

• What did you learn? What surprised you and/or caused enough doubt that you were inspired to do a little research and fact checking?
• Did you find any specific ideas confusing or difficult?
• Did you have an emotional response, negative or positive? Do you know why?
• Have you had any experiences you are willing to share with our class that help you relate to and understand any of the material in this module?
• Did this assignment contain any “awakening” ideas, those that inspire you rather than depress you?
• Did you find any of the ideas surprising? Why?

Final Assessment Prompts

You do not need to use these final assessment prompts either, but they may help you put what you are studying this semester into a larger perspective.

• Can you give an example or two in your essay that demonstrates you were engaging with, and thinking about, our curriculum in a serious way?
• Did you study everything required or did you rush and skim?
• Did you find yourself thinking about class content when you did not have to, such as finding yourself discussing ideas with friends or family?
• Did you seek clarification about class material that confused you? If not, why not?
• Have your studies contributed to any increase in self-knowledge (how you understand the world and your place in it) or a deeper understanding of one’s current world view?

The Middle East

The Samaritans

Early History According to Samaritan Sources

“The Samaritans assert that Mount Gerizim was the original Holy Place of Israel from the time that Joshua conquered Israel and the ten tribes settled the land. According to the Bible, the story of Mount Gerizim takes us back to the story of the time when Moses ordered Joshua to take the Twelve Tribes of Israel to the mountains by Shechem and place half of the tribes, six in number, on the top of Mount Gerizim, the Mount of the Blessing, and the other half in Mount Ebal, the Mount of the Curse. The two mountains were used to symbolize the significance of the commandments and serve as a warning to whoever disobeyed them.”

“The Samaritans have insisted that they are direct descendants of the Northern Israelite tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, who survived the destruction of the Northern kingdom of Israel by the Assyrians in 722 BC. The inscription of Sargon II records the deportation of a relatively small proportion of the Israelites (27,290, according to the annals), so it is quite possible that a sizable population remained that could identify themselves as Israelites, the term that the Samaritans prefer for themselves.

Samaritan historiography would place the basic schism from the remaining part of Israel after the twelve tribes conquered the land of Canaan, led by Joshua. After Joshua’s death, Eli the priest left the tabernacle which Moses erected in the desert and established on Mount Gerizim, and built another one under his own rule in the hills of Shiloh (1 Sam 1:1-3; 2:12-17). Thus, he established both an illegitimate priesthood and an illegitimate place of worship.”

“Further, the Samaritan Chronicle Adler, or New Chronicle, believed to have been composed in the 18th century C.E. using earlier chronicles as sources states:

And the children of Israel in his days divided into three groups. One did according to the abominations of the Gentiles and served other Gods; another followed Eli, although many of them turned away from him after he had revealed his intentions; and a third remained with the High Priest, the chosen place, Mount Gerizim, in the holy city of Shechem.

“According to the Samaritans this marked the end of the Age of Divine Favor, which began with Moses. Thus began the Era of Divine Disfavor when God looks away from the people. According to the Samaritans the age of divine favor will only return with the coming of the Messiah.”

“The Samaritans claim that there are three periods of the deviation of Jews from Israel. The first was during the time of Elijah the Priest. Elijah decided on his own to relocate the Holy Place to Shiloh, but this point was rejected from the beginning by the nation. The second controversy started during the split of the ten tribes of Israel from the tribe of Judea due to a dispute about tax payments in the year 928 BC. The third controversy was during the Return to Zion by the Jews from Babylon in the year 538 BC. In that time there was physical fighting between the two sects, with the Jews claiming that the Samaritans informed the Persian King about their intention to build the Second Temple.”

“The Samaritans never deny that the Assyrians assimilated with them, but they claim that other nations have assimilated into Judaism as well. The fact is that the Assyrian exile was a long process and took many years. The Assyrians who came to Samaria were few in number and most of them have assimilated with the locals. The Samaritans themselves make a clear distinction between their own ancestors and the inhabitants of Samaria.”

Non-Samaritan View of Origins

“The emergence of the Samaritans as an ethnic and religious community distinct from other Levant peoples appears to have occurred at some point after the Assyrian conquest of the Israelite Kingdom of Israel. In approximately 721 BC, the Assyrians conquered the Northern Kingdom and captured its capital city of Samaria.”

Some date their split with the Jews to the time of Nehemiah, Ezra, and the rebuilding of the Second Temple in Jerusalem after the Babylonian exile. Returning exiles considered the Samaritans to be non-Jews and, thus, not fit for this religious work.

The Encyclopedia Judaica (under “Samaritans”) summarizes both past and the present views on the Samaritans’ origins. It says:

Until the middle of the 20th Century it was customary to believe that the Samaritans originated from a mixture of the people living in Samaria and other peoples at the time of the conquest of Samaria by Assyria (722/1 BC). The Biblical account in II Kings 17 had long been the decisive source for the formulation of historical accounts of Samaritan origins. Reconsideration of this passage, however, has led to more attention being paid to the Chronicles of the Samaritans themselves. With the publication of Chronicle II, the fullest Samaritan version of their own history became available.”

“According to the former, the Samaritans are the direct descendants of the Joseph tribes, Ephraim and Manasseh, and until the 17th century C.E. they possessed a high priesthood descending directly from Aaron through Eleazar and Phinehas. They claim to have continuously occupied their ancient territory and to have been at peace with other Israelite tribes until the time when Eli disrupted the Northern cult by moving from Shechem to Shiloh and attracting some northern Israelites to his new followers there. For the Samaritans, this was the ‘schism’ par excellence.”

End of the Judean exile

“When the exile ended in 538 BC and the exiles returned home again, they found that their former homeland was now populated by other people who had claimed this land as their own and that their former glorious capital still lay in ruins.

According to 2 Chronicles 36.22–23, the Persian Emperor Cyrus, who returned the exiles to their homeland, explicitly ordered the people to rebuild the temple. The prophet Isaiah identified Cyrus as “The Lord’s anointed” (see Isaiah 45.1). The temple was rebuilt over a period of several decades.

“Ezra 4 tells us how the local inhabitants of the land offered to assist with the building of the new temple during the time of Zerubbabel, but their offer was rejected. According to Ezra, this rejection precipitated a further interference not only with the rebuilding of the temple but also with the reconstruction of Jerusalem.”

The text is not clear on this matter, but one possibility is that these “people of the land” were thought of as Samaritans. We do know that Samaritan and Jewish antagonism continued to increase, and that the Samaritans eventually built their own temple on Mount Gerizim, perhaps around 330 B.C.”

Samaritan temple on Mount Gerizim

“The precise date of the schism between Samaritans and Jews is unknown, but was certainly complete by the end of the fourth century BCE. Archaeological excavations at Mount Gerizim suggest that a Samaritan temple was built there about c. 330 BC.” This temple was destroyed only about 200 years later by the Jews when they were trying to reestablish their kingdom.”

“The Torah mentions the place where God shall choose to establish His name (Deut 12:5), and Judaism takes this to refer to Jerusalem. However, the Samaritan text speaks of the place where God has chosen to establish His name, and Samaritans identify it as Mount Gerizim, making it the focus of their spiritual values. The Gospel of John relates an encounter between a Samaritan woman and Jesus in which she asserts that the mountain was the center of their worship John 4:20.”

Antiochus IV Epiphanes and hellenization

“In the second century BC a particularly bitter series of events eventually led to a revolution. Antiochus IV Epiphanes was on the throne of the Seleucid Empire from 175 to 163 BC. His determined policy was to Hellenize his entire kingdom and standardize religious observance. He proclaimed himself the incarnation of the Greek god Zeus and mandated death to anyone who refused to worship him (1 Maccabees 1:41-50). A major obstacle to his ambition was the fidelity of the Jews to their historic religion.”

Some Jews believe that the universal peril led the Samaritans, eager for safety, to repudiate all connection and kinship with the Jews, but we simply do not know if this is true or not. (Christianity may also have become its own religion partially by trying to distinguish itself from the Jewish rebellion against the Romans in the year 70.)

“In 167 BC the Seleucid ruler Antiochus Epiphanes set up an altar to Zeus over the altar of burnt offerings in the Jewish temple in Jerusalem. He also sacrificed a pig on the altar in the Temple in Jerusalem. This event is known as the “abomination of desolation”. The authority of the high priesthood was severely damaged when first Jason and then others bought their office from Antiochus. The persecution and death of faithful Jewish persons who refused to worship and kiss Antiochus’ image eventually led to a revolt led by Judas Maccabeus and his family. Judas’s priestly family, the Hasmoneans, introduced a dynasty that ruled during a period of conflict, with tensions arising both from within the family as well as from external enemies.”

“During the Hellenistic period, Samaria (like Judea) was largely divided between a Hellenizing faction based in Samaria and a pious faction, led by the High Priest and based largely around Shechem and the rural areas. Samaria was a largely autonomous state nominally dependent on the Seleucid empire until around 129 BC, when the Jewish Hasmonean king destroyed the Samaritan temple and devastated Samaria.”

The Hasmonean dynasty lasted less than 100 years, until the Romans replaced the Greeks as the rulers of Palestine. While Samaritans were not able to have true independence under the Romans, they were able to reestablish themselves as a distinct people and even rebuilt their Temple once the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and the Jewish rebellions.

“Later, under the Christian Byzantine Emperor Zeno in the late fifth century, Samaritans and Jews were massacred, and the Temple on Mt. Gerizim was again destroyed. This period is considered the worst for Samaritans. Under a charismatic, messianic figure Julianus, the Samaritans launched a war to create their own independent state in 529 AD. With the help of the Arabs, Emperor Justinian I crushed the revolt; tens of thousands of Samaritans died or were enslaved. The Samaritan faith was virtually outlawed thereafter by the Christian Byzantine Empire; from a population once at least in the hundreds of thousands, the Samaritan community dwindled to near extinction.”

Under Islam

By the onset of Islamic rule, Samaritans were living in an area stretching between Egypt and Syria. Like other non-Muslim “people of the Book” in the empire, they had protected status and were expected to pay special taxes. Conversions to Islam to avoid these and other pressures occurred during that period. During the Crusades, Samaritans, like others in the region, were persecuted by the Crusaders. In 1624, the last Samaritan high priest of the line of Eleazar, son of Aaron, died without issue, but descendants of Aaron’s other son, Ithamar, remained and took over the office.

“In the past, the Samaritans are believed to have numbered several hundred thousand, but persecution and assimilation have reduced their numbers drastically. In 1919, an illustrated National Geographic report on the community stated that their numbers were less than 150.”

Modern Times

“According to their tally, Samaritans now number a total of 705, half of whom reside in their modern homes on Mount Gerizim, which is sacred to them, and the rest in the city of Holon, just outside Tel Aviv.”

“Until the 1980s, most of the Samaritans resided in the Palestinian town of Nablus below Mount Gerizim. They relocated to the mountain itself near the Israeli settlement of Har Brakha as a result of the first Palestinian uprising (1987-1990), and all that is left of the community in Nablus itself is an abandoned synagogue. The Israeli army maintains a constant presence in the area to monitor activity in Nablus and secure Har Brakha.”

“Relations of Samaritans with Jewish Israelis and Palestinians in neighboring areas have been mixed. In 1954, the Israeli President created a Samaritan enclave in Holon. Those living in Israel have Israeli citizenship. Samaritans in the Palestinian Authority territories are a recognized minority; they had a reserved seat in the Palestinian Legislative Council in the election of 1996, but they no longer have one. Palestinian Samaritans have been granted passports by both Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

As a small community divided between two mutually hostile neighbors, the Samaritans are generally unwilling to take sides in the conflict, fearing that whatever side they take could lead to repercussions from the other. However, perhaps in part due to the fact those who are Israeli citizens are drafted into the military, both communities tend to be more politically aligned with Israel.

One of the biggest problems facing the community today is the issue of continuity. With such a small population, divided into only four families and a general refusal to accept converts, there has been a history of genetic disease within the group due to the small gene pool. To counter this, the Samaritan community has recently agreed that men from the community may marry non-Samaritan (primarily, Israeli Jewish) women, provided that the women agree to follow Samaritan religious practices.”

Religion

“The Samaritan religion is based on some of the same books used as the basis of mainstream Judaism, but differs from the latter. Samaritan scriptures include the Samaritan version of the Torah, the Samaritan liturgy, and Samaritan law codes and biblical commentaries. Samaritans appear to have texts of the Torah as old as the Masoretic Text and the Septuagint; scholars have various theories concerning the actual relationships between these three texts.

There is one God, the same God recognized by the Hebrew prophets;

Their view of God is the same as the Jewish biblical view of God;

The Torah was given by God to Moses;

Mount Gerizim, not Jerusalem, is the one true sanctuary chosen by Israel’s God;

Many Samaritans believe that at the end of days, the dead will be resurrected by Taheb, a restorer (possibly a prophet, some say Moses);

They possess a belief in Paradise (heaven);

The priests are the interpreters of the law and the keepers of tradition; unlike Judaism, there is no distinction between the priesthood and the scholars;

The authority of classical Jewish rabbinical works, the Mishnah, and the Talmud are rejected;

Samaritans reject Jewish codes of law;

They have a significantly different version of the Ten Commandments (for example, their 10th commandment is about the sanctity of Mt. Gerizim).”

“The Samaritans retained the Ancient Hebrew script, the high priesthood, animal sacrifices, the eating of lambs at Passover, and the celebration of Aviv in spring as the New Year. Their main Torah text differs from the Masoretic Text, as well. Some differences are doctrinal: for example, their Torah explicitly mentions that “the place that God will choose” is Mount Gerizim. Other differences seem more or less accidental.”

The Druze

The Druze reside primarily in Syria (country with the largest population), Lebanon (country with highest percentage), and Israel, with a smaller community in Jordan. The Institute of Druze Studies estimates that 40%-50% of Druze live in Syria, 30%-40% in Lebanon, 6%-7% in Israel, and 1%-2% in Jordan. Large communities of expatriate Druze also live outside the Middle East, in the United States, Canada, Latin America, West Africa, Australia and Europe. They use the Arabic language and follow a social pattern very similar to the East Mediterranean people of the region. There are thought to be as many as 1 million Druze worldwide, the vast majority in the Levant or East Mediterranean. However, some estimates of the total Druze population have been as low as 450,000.

History

Druze history goes back to the Middle Ages, when the Druze sect began to develop. A noted traveler, Benjamin of Tudela, wrote about the Druze in his diary in 1167. He describes the Druze as “Mountain dwellers, monotheists, [who] believe in soul eternity and are good friends with the Jews” and other religions as well.

In the 11th century CE, Druze religious thought further developed through the Ismaili sect, a sub group of Shi’a Islam. The Druze did not attempt to change basic principles in the Islamic religion, but tried to create a united country of Muslims from different sects. Druze tried to concentrate on principles that all Muslim sects share in common, and give for each sect the freedom of opinion in minor branches in Islam that don’t affect the principles. It is known that they believe in one God and seven prophets — Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Muhammad, and Muhammad bin Ismaili Nashtakin ad-Darazi. They believe that Muhammad is the last prophet and that the holy “Qur’an” is the law by which they abide. However, they have the freedom to interpret the unclear Qur’anic phrases without altering any of the Islamic principles or beliefs.

The Druze religion has its roots in Ismailism, a religio-philosophical movement that founded the Fatimid Caliphate in Egypt in the tenth century. During the reign of al-Hakim (996 – 1021), the Druze creed came into being, blending Islamic monotheism with Greek philosophy and Hindu influences. Active proselytizing of the new creed was brief; since about 1050 the community has been closed to outsiders.

The first Druze settled in what is now southern Lebanon and northern Israel, and then eventually in Syria and Jordan as well. Until the end of Ottoman rule (1918), the Druze were governed by emirs, as a semi-autonomous community. In 1921 the French tried to set up a Druze state under the French Mandate, but the attempt failed.

The Druze in Galilee and on Mount Carmel have always kept in contact with the other branches of the community, especially with those of Mt. Hermon and Lebanon. During the British Mandate over Palestine they refrained from taking part in the Arab-Jewish conflict, and during Israel’s War of Independence (1948) became active participants on Israel’s side.

The Druze have played major roles in the history of the Levant. They were mostly scattered in Mount Lebanon (known for some time as the Mount of the Druzes), and later in Syria, which had an autonomous Druze state in the French Mandate of Syria from 1921 to 1936. The Druze also played a major role in the Lebanese Civil War (1975–1990). A peace treaty was then signed between the Druze and Maronite Christian leaders, which has enabled them to live peacefully together and later, become allies.

The Druze today

In Lebanon, Syria and Israel, the Druze have official recognition as a separate religious community with its own religious court system. Their symbol is an array of five colors: green, red, yellow, blue and white. Each color pertains to a symbol defining its principles: green for “the Universal Mind,” red for “the Universal Soul,” yellow for “the Truth/Word,” blue for “the Antagonist/Cause,” and white for “the Protagonist/Effect”. These principles are why the number five has special considerations among the religious community; it is usually represented symbolically as a five-pointed star.

In Israel, where the Druze enjoy prominence in the military and in politics greatly surpassing their proportion of the general population, the majority of Druze do not identify themselves as Arabs. Since 1957 the Israeli government has officially considered the Druze to be a distinct ethnic community, at the request of the community’s leaders.

Israeli Druze served in the Israeli army voluntarily during 1948-1956, and, at the community’s request, compulsorily ever since. Their privileges and responsibilities are the same as those of Israeli Jews; thus, all Druze are drafted, but exemptions are given for religious students and for various other reasons, as in the majority Jewish population. Israeli Druze have achieved high positions of command in the Israeli military, far beyond their proportion in the general population of Israel. Most recently in the 2006 Lebanon War, the all-Druze sword Battalion, through their knowledge of the Lebanese terrain, suffered no casualties and are reported to have killed 20 Hezbollah fighters, triggering suggestions that the battalion be transformed into an elite unit. In 1996, Azzam Azzam, a Druze Israeli businessman, was accused by Egypt of spying for Israel and was imprisoned for eight years, an accusation denied by the Israeli government.

In January 2004, the spiritual leader of the Druze community in Israel, Shaykh Mowafak Tarif, signed a declaration calling on all non-Jews in Israel to observe the Seven Noahide Laws as laid down in the Bible and expounded upon in Jewish tradition. The mayor of the Galilean city of Shfaram also signed the document. The declaration includes the commitment to make a “…better humane world based on the Seven Noahide Commandments and the values they represent commanded by the Creator to all mankind through Moses on Mount Sinai.”

Support for the spread of the Seven Noahide Commandments by the Druze leaders reflects the biblical narrative itself. The Druze community reveres the non-Jewish father-in-law of Moses, Jethro. According to the biblical narrative, Jethro joined and assisted the Jewish people in the desert during the Exodus, accepted monotheism, but ultimately rejoined his own people. In fact, the tomb of Jethro near Tiberias is the most important religious site for the Druze community. It has been claimed that the Druze are actually descendents of Jethro.

The relationship between Israeli Jews and Druze since Israel’s independence in 1948 is no less emotional than practical, partly because of the considerable number of Israeli Druze soldiers that have fallen in Israel’s wars, and is commonly known by the term “covenant of blood”. This expression has however been criticized in recent years as being evident of a narrow context which does not provide enough opportunity for Israeli Druze youth beyond the traditional military relationship.

Beliefs of the Druze

The Druze faith abides by Islamic principles, but with some unique interpretations and different emphases. The Druze believe in the unity of God, hence their preference for the name “People of Monotheism” or “Monotheists.” Their theology has a Neo-Platonic view about how God interacts with the world through emanations, and is similar to some gnostic and other esoteric sects including the Sufi philosophy. Some Druze sheikhs interpret Qur’anic phrases that they believe talk about reincarnation. Druze religion does not allow them to intermarry with Christians, Jews, or members of any other religions since they have different beliefs and different traditions.

As stated above, the Druze have a five-colored flag, which was made to identify this Islamic sect from others. Many interpretations were made to that flag but the main one is: Fatima, her father (Muhammad), her husband, and her two sons. Others translate these colors to others religious people and prophets and meaning. The Druze believe in prophets like Adam, Muhammad, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Jacob, Moses, Solomon, John the Baptist, and Jesus and Jethro. They also believe in the wisdom of classical Greek philosophers such as Plato and Pythagoras, who have a lower stature as other prophets. In addition, they have an array of “wise men” who founded the religion in the 11th century. Other interpretations of the five colors in the flag are as follows: Red stands for courage, bravery and love. Yellow is knowledge, wisdom, enlightenment, or wheat. Green is nature and earth. Blue for patience, forgiveness, sky and water. White is purity, peace and conciliation.

Druze places of worship are usually modest and the Druze are expected to lead very modest lifestyles. Prayer is usually conducted discreetly, among family and friends. The heart is considered to be the place that needs to be clean first to pray and be close to God. Druze practice praying the same way other Muslim sects do. There is little official hierarchy in the religious community. A religious figure is admired for his wisdom and lifestyle. The Druze, as a sect of Islam, follow the same traditions of fasting as Muslims in the month of Ramadan. In addition to that, they consider fasting from committing sins and saying bad things should be applied every second; not just in Ramadan.

Beliefs and Traditions

The Druze consider their faith to be a new interpretation of the three monotheistic religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. For them, the traditional story of the Creation is a parable, which describes Adam not as the first human being, but as the first person to believe in one god. Since then, “emissaries” or prophets, guided by “mentors” who embody the spirit of monotheism, have disseminated the idea of monotheism. The mentors and prophets come from all three religions, and include Jethro and Moses, John the Baptist and Jesus of Nazareth, and Salman the Persian and Mohammed – all reincarnations of the same monotheistic idea. In addition, the Druze hold other influential people – regardless of their religion – in great esteem, as the advocates of justice and belief in one god. These include the Egyptian Akhenaton, the Greek philosophers Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, and Alexander the Great.

Although the Druze recognize all three monotheistic religions, they believe that rituals and ceremonies have caused Jews, Christians, and Muslims to turn aside from “pure faith.” They argue that individuals who believe that God will forgive them if they fast and pray, will commit transgressions in the expectation of being forgiven – and then repeat their sins. The Druze thus eliminated all elements of ritual and ceremony; there is no fixed daily liturgy, no defined holy days, and no pilgrimage obligations. The Druze perform their spiritual reckoning with God at all times, and consequently need no special days of fasting or atonement.

The Druze religion is secret and closed to converts. From the theological perspective, the secrecy derives from the tenet that the gates of the religion were open to new believers for the space of a generation when it was first revealed and everyone was invited to join. Since in their belief everyone alive today is the reincarnation of someone who lived at that time, there is no reason to allow him or her to join today. Therefore, the Druze refrain from missionizing, and no member of another religion can become Druze.

Druze religious books are accessible only to the initiates, the uqqal (“knowers”). The juhal (“ignorant ones”) accept the faith on the basis of the tradition handed down from generation to generation.

Tenets and Precepts

The Druze religion has no ceremonies or rituals, and no obligation to perform precepts in public. The main tenets that obligate all Druze, both uqqal and juhal, are their own version of the five pillars:

Speaking the truth (instead of prayer) Supporting your brethren (instead of charity) Abandoning the old creeds (instead of fasting) Purification from heresy (instead of pilgrimage) Accepting the unity of God and submitting to the will of God (instead of holy war)

Druze are forbidden to eat pork, smoke, or drink alcohol.

Druze Women

Druze women can attain positions of religious significance, and some have indeed achieved high rank. Regarding personal status, their rights are almost identical to those of men; actually, Druze women are preferred over men in joining the uqqal, because they are considered to be better “spiritually prepared”. Consequently, there are more women than men among the uqqal. Female uqqal take part in the religious assemblies in the (prayer house), but sit separately from the men.

Uqqal men and women usually intermarry. If a juhal wishes to marry a member of the uqqal, the former is expected to declare in advance his/her intention to join in the near future. Druze men, both uqqal and juhal, may not have more than one wife, nor may they remarry their divorced wife, or even be under the same roof with her. Also, a male uqqal may not be alone with a woman who is not a close relative (spouse, daughter, sister, mother) nor even respond to her greeting unless a third person is present. Both men and women are encouraged to guard themselves against immodest or impulsive behavior.

The Druze faith is a path to the understanding of Tawhid, a unist concept that combines the absolute oneness of God and the unity of all creatures and creation in the oneness of the creator. Tawhid itself, according to the Druze, is a process of acquisition of knowledge and growth in wisdom through which human beings evolve spiritually, ever closer to the divine. The process began in the dim twilight of existence and will continue until the end of time. Evolution and progress are obligatory features of this cyclical process” (Obeid). Perhaps now that the Druze do not have to fear persecution as much as they did in the past, we will be able to learn more about their faith and way of viewing the world. It certainly gives us yet another lens through which we can view the Islamic world and the Muslim experience.

The Baha’i Religion

Baha’i literature proclaims the following:

“National rivalries, hatreds, and intrigues will cease, and racial animosity and prejudice will be replaced by racial amity, understanding and cooperation. The causes of religious strife will be permanently removed, economic barriers and restrictions will be completely abolished, and the inordinate distinction between classes will be obliterated. Destitution on the one hand, and gross accumulation of ownership on the other, will disappear.”

The Bahá’í Faith is the youngest of the world’s independent religions. Its founder, Bahá’u’lláh (1817-1892), is regarded by Bahá’ís as the most recent in the line of Messengers of God that stretches back beyond recorded time and includes Abraham, Moses, Buddha, Krishna, Zoroaster, Christ and Muhammad.

The central theme of Bahá’u’lláh’s message is that humanity is one single race and that the day has come for its unification in one global society. God, Bahá’u’lláh said, has set in motion historical forces that are breaking down traditional barriers of race, class, creed, and nation and that will, in time, give birth to a universal civilization. The principal challenge facing the peoples of the Earth is to accept the fact of their oneness and to assist the processes of unification.

Baha’i springs out of Islam, but it claims to be the fulfillment of expectations in any number of religions of a Promised One. In other words, most Christians are expecting the return of Christ to Earth sometime in the future. What is not as well known is that Muslim and Jewish prophecies also look to a future figure to usher in the last days. Baha’i claims to be the fulfillment of these expectations.

We live in a day and age when many people currently believe that we are in the last days of the Earth. There have been other times of high expectations as well, and the middle of the nineteenth century was one of those times. “In North America and Europe many believed that the return of Christ was at hand. A number of well-known religious leaders and scholars went so far as to predict the precise year that Jesus would come again to inaugurate the Kingdom of God on Earth. A well-known example is that of Reverend William Miller. Careful study of Biblical prophecy led him to the conclusion that the long-awaited day would come in 1843 or 1844. Tens of thousands in America believed this interpretation. Of course, Christ did not appear in the heavens, and so future generations would remember the episode as “the Great Disappointment.” The Millerites were but one example of a number of millennial movements that were born and flourished in those years” (Bowers, p. 12). It was during these years of high expectations that the Baha’i faith was revealed in Iran.

Introduction

The Baha’i faith has become a popular religion in an environment of ecumenism, inclusiveness and political correctness. Embraced eagerly by the United Nations and other interfaith organizations, Baha’i is a growing humanist influence on our world. There are currently 17,148 Local Spiritual Assemblies of the Baha’i faith in the world and 4,515 in the United States alone. Members claim a presence in 235 countries and their literature is translated into 700 languages, with a total world membership estimated at 5,000,000. The following introduction is meant to be a brief overview Baha’i history, and is by no means an exhaustive history of Baha’i.

The popularity of Baha’i can largely be attributed to its attempts to unify all faiths, prophets and the entire human race. It embraces the humanist philosophy that all religions should be embraced equally because they are not contradictory, and are merely successively updated versions of the same basic religious beliefs. They teach that all religions are the result of the same God and the differences stem only from the age in which they were revealed. They promote gender, racial, and economic equality; universal education; harmony between science and religion; balance between nature and technology; and the development of a world Federal system. Those who believe in absolute truths, such as those found in the Bible and the Koran, are dismissed as intolerant and an obstacle to world peace.

Baha’i grew out of Islam, and is in fact a stepchild of the Islamic faith, albeit a despised one. Rather than naming Muhammad as the greatest of the prophets as the Muslims do, Baha’is hold Baha’u’llah to be the greatest of the prophets.

Baha’i was started in 1844 when Mizra Ali Muhammad (“the Bab” or gate) proclaimed he was the greatest manifestation of God yet to appear. The Bab is purported to be a direct descendant of Muhammad and he claimed to be the fulfillment of the scriptures of all of the world’s religions. During his brief 6-year ministry, he taught of another manifestation that would follow (similar to the role of John the Baptist). This manifestation would be even greater than he, and in 1863 Mirza Husayn Ali proclaimed that he was the Great prophet the Bab had spoken of.

Mirza Husayn Ali took the title of “Baha’u’llah” (the Glory of God) and his followers were thereafter called Baha’is. In addition to claiming most favored prophet status, Baha’u’llah also claimed to be the second coming of Christ and the spirit of truth recorded in John 14:16. He viewed himself as the fulfillment of the coming of Maitreya, the Buddha of compassion from the Buddhist scriptures, Krishna from the Hindu scriptures, and a fulfillment of “the Day of God” from the Muslim Qur’an. In fact, the Baha’is believe the entire world’s religions have pointed to the coming of Baha’u’llah, and that during his era, a promised reign of peace will be established.

Thirty years after proclaiming himself to be the fulfillment of all religions, Baha’u’llah died and leadership was passed to his son Abbas Effendi (also known as Abdul-Baha and “the Master”) who worked as an interpreter for his father’s many writings. He is responsible for bringing the Baha’i faith to the U.S.

His grandson succeeded Abbas Effendi, Shoghi Effendi became the “Guardian of the Cause,” and during his lifetime, Baha’is agreed there would perpetually be such a guardian. However, Effendi died before appointing a successor. Consequently, six years after he died, the first Baha’i Universal House of Justice was elected to serve as the Guardian. It has since been the governing body of the Baha’i faith. The Universal House of Justice is a nine-person board that applies the laws of Baha’u’llah and is made up of elected representatives. The first UHJ was comprised of Baha’i who represented Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and came from 4 continents and several ethnic backgrounds. The Baha’i temple in Wilmette, Illinois is a nine-sided building representing the world’s nine living religions and is a combination of synagogue, mosque, and cathedral, symbolizing the unity of all religions.

History

“To assert that a religion is independent of other faiths is not to argue that it began in a religious vacuum. Buddhism emerged from a traditional Hindu background, and only after it had crossed the Himalayas did it assume its full character as a separate faith destined to become a major cultural force in China, Japan, and the lands of Southeast Asia. Similarly, Jesus Christ and his immediate followers began their mission within the context of Judaism and for some two centuries neighboring peoples regarded the movement as a reformed branch of the parent religion. Christianity did not appear as a separate religion with its own scriptures, laws, and institutional and ritual forms until it had begun to attract large numbers of adherents from the many non-Semitic races in the Mediterranean world.

The religious matrix of the Bahá’í Faith was Islam. Much as Christianity was born out of the messianic expectations of Judaism, the religion that was to become the Bahá’í Faith arose from eschatological tensions within Islam. In the same way, however, the Bahá’í Faith is entirely independent of its parent religion.

The new faith first appeared in Persia, a predominantly Muslim country. It then spread to neighboring Muslim lands in the Ottoman and Russian Empires and to northern India. Though some early followers were of Jewish, Christian, or Zoroastrian background, the vast majority had been followers of Islam. Their religious ideas were drawn from the Qur’an, and they were primarily interested in those aspects of their new belief system that represented the fulfillment of Islamic prophecies and the interpretation of Muslim teaching. Similarly, the Islamic clergy initially saw those who followed the new faith as Muslim heretics.

Because of the Bahá’í Faith’s Islamic background, it is important to give consideration to the Islamic matrix out of which it arose. Such an examination is important for a second reason as well: Islam fits into a concept of both religious history and the relationship between religions that is central to Bahá’í teaching. The Bahá’í Faith is perhaps unique in that it unreservedly accepts the validity of the other great faiths. Bahá’ís believe that Abraham, Moses, Zoroaster, Buddha, Krishna, Jesus, and Muhammad are all equally authentic messengers of one God. The teachings of these divine messengers are seen as paths to salvation which contribute to the “carrying forward of an ever-advancing civilization.”

Bahá’ís believe that this series of interventions by God in human history has been progressive, each revelation from God more complete than those that preceded it, and each preparing the way for the next. In this view, Islam, as the most recent of the prior religions, constituted the immediate historical preparation for the Bahá’í Faith. Not surprisingly, therefore, one finds in the Bahá’í writings a great many Qur’anic terms and concepts.

Some tenets of Islam are especially important to a clear understanding of the Bahá’í Faith. Like Muslims, Bahá’ís believe that God is One and utterly transcendent in His essence. He “manifests” His will to humanity through the series of messengers whom Bahá’ís call “Manifestations of God.” The purpose of the Manifestation is to provide perfect guidance, not only for the spiritual progress of the individual believer, but also to mold society as a whole. An important difference between the two faiths in this respect is that while, among the existing religions, the Qur’an designates only Judaism, Christianity, and Islam itself as divinely inspired, Bahá’ís believe that all religions are integral parts of one divine plan.

There is yet another aspect of Islam that influenced the development of the new religion and dictated Muslim reaction to it. Like Christianity before it, Islam gradually divided into a number of major sects. One of the most significant of these is the Shiah sect, which believes that it was Muhammad’s intention that his descendants inherit the spiritual and temporal leadership of the faithful. These chosen ones, called Imams, or “leaders,” were believed to be endowed with unqualified infallibility in the discharge of their related responsibilities. However, the great majority of Muslims rejected such claims believing that the Sunna–the “way” or mode of conduct attributed by tradition to the Prophet Muhammad–was a sufficient guide. Those who subscribed to this latter belief became known as Sunni. Although Sunni Muslims vastly outnumber the Shiah today, and are usually referred to by Western scholars as “orthodox,” as opposed to the “heterodoxy” of the Shiah, Shiah Islam has a long and respected tradition, a tradition that only recently has become the object of serious study among a growing group of non-Muslim scholars.

By A.D. 661, only 29 years after Muhammad’s death, power in the Muslim world fell into the hands of the first of a series of dynastic rulers, theoretically elected by the faithful, but in fact representing the dominance of various powerful families. The first two of these Sunni dynasties, the Umayyads and the Abbasids, saw the Imams as a challenge to their own legitimacy. Consequently, according to Shiah accounts, one Imam after another was put to death, beginning with Hasan and Husayn, grandsons of Muhammad. These Imams, or descendants of the Prophet, came in time to be regarded by Shiah Islam as saints and martyrs.

Although Shiah Islam began among the Arabs, it reached its greatest influence in Persia. From the beginning, the Persian converts to Islam were attracted by the idea of the Imam as a divinely appointed leader. Unlike the Arabs, the Persians possessed a long heritage of government by a divinely appointed monarch, and the devotion that gathered around this figure in time came to focus on the person of the Prophet’s descendants and appointed successors. After centuries of oppression by Sunni caliphs, the tradition of the Imamate eventually triumphed in Persia through the rise of a strongly Shiah dynasty, the Safavids, in the sixteenth century.

By this time, however, the line of Imams had ended. One of the features of Iranian Shiah tradition is that, in the year 873, the twelfth and last appointed Imam–only a child at the time–withdrew into “concealment” in order to escape the fate of his predecessors. It is believed that he will emerge “at the time of the end” to usher in a reign of justice throughout the world. This eschatological tradition (doctrine of “last things”) has much in common with the Christian expectation of the return of Christ and Mahayana Buddhism’s promise of the advent of Maitreya Buddha, “the Buddha of universal righteousness.” Among other titles Muslims have assigned to this promised deliverer, the “Hidden Imam,” are Mahdi (the Guided One) and Qa’im (He Who Will Arise i.e., from the family of the Prophet).

The refusal of either the Imam or the final Báb to name a successor implied that the matter was to be left by the faithful entirely in the hands of God. In time, a messenger or messengers of God would appear, one of whom would be the Imam Mahdi, or Qa’im, and who would again provide a direct channel for the Divine Will to human affairs. It was out of this tradition that the Bahá’í religion appeared in the mid-nineteenth century” (http://info.bahai.org/babi-and-bahai.html).

The Concept of God

The Bahá’í belief in one God means that a single supernatural Being has created the universe and all creatures and forces within it. This Being, Whom we call God, has absolute control over His creation (omnipotence) as well as perfect and complete knowledge of it (omniscience). Although we may have different concepts of God’s nature, although we may pray to Him in different languages and call Him by different names–Allah or Yahweh, God or Brahma–nevertheless, we are speaking about the same unique Being.

Bahá’u’lláh taught that God is too great and too subtle a Being for the finite human mind ever to understand Him adequately or to construct an accurate image of Him. According to Bahá’í teachings, God is so far beyond His creation that, throughout all eternity, human beings will never be able to formulate any clear image of Him or attain to anything but the most remote appreciation of His superior nature. Even if we say that God is the All-Powerful, the All-Loving, the Infinitely Just, such terms are derived from a very limited human experience of power, love, or justice.

Indeed, our knowledge of anything is limited to our knowledge of those attributes or qualities perceptible to us. Thus for human beings, the knowledge of God means the knowledge of the attributes and qualities of God, not a direct knowledge of His essence. But how are we to attain the knowledge of the attributes of God? Bahá’u’lláh wrote that everything in creation is God’s handiwork and therefore reflects something of His attributes. For example, even in the intimate structure of a rock or a crystal can be seen the order of God’s creation. However, the more refined the object, the more completely is it capable of reflecting God’s attributes. Since the Messenger of God or Manifestation of God is the highest form of creation known to us, the Manifestation affords the most complete knowledge of God available to us.

To summarize: the Bahá’í view of God is that His essence is eternally transcendent, but that His attributes and qualities are completely immanent in the Manifestations. Since our knowledge of anything is limited to our knowledge of the perceptible attributes of that thing, knowledge of the Manifestations is (for ordinary humans) equivalent to knowledge of God. In practical terms, this knowledge is gained through study, prayer, meditation, and practical application based on the revealed Word of God (i.e., the sacred scriptures of the Manifestations).

Summary

“Samaritans refer to themselves as “Children of Israel”) which is a term used by all Jewish denominations as a name for the Jewish people as a whole. They however do not refer to themselves as Jews, considering the latter to denote only mainstream Jews.

The Talmudic attitude is that they are to be treated as Jews in matters where their practice coincides with the mainstream but are treated as non-Jews where their practice differs. Since the 19th century mainstream Judaism has regarded the Samaritans as a Jewish sect.

In this case they remind me of small groups of Christians who are like the Amish. Most Christians accept them as Christian and as good people, even if most do not understand why they keep themselves separate. From within, however, it seems obvious that they are not trying to keep themselves separate so much as they are trying to keep the tradition that has been handed down to them alive. It is for the same reason that Samaritans see themselves as Keepers of the Tradition.

The Druze faith is a path to the understanding of Tawhid, a unist concept that combines the absolute oneness of God and the unity of all creatures and creation in the oneness of the creator. Tawhid itself, according to the Druze, is a process of acquisition of knowledge and growth in wisdom through which human beings evolve spiritually, ever closer to the divine. The process began in the dim twilight of existence and will continue until the end of time. Evolution and progress are obligatory features of this cyclical process” (Obeid). Perhaps now that the Druze do not have to fear persecution so much as they did in the past we will be able to learn more about their faith and way of viewing the world. It certainly gives us yet another lens in which we can view the Islamic world and the Muslim experience.

“Bahá’u’lláh taught that there is one God whose successive revelations of His will to humanity have been the chief civilizing force in history. The agents of this process have been the Divine Messengers whom people have seen chiefly as the founders of separate religious systems but whose common purpose has been to bring the human race to spiritual and moral maturity.

Humanity is now coming of age. It is this that makes possible the unification of the human family and the building of a peaceful, global society. Among the principles which the Bahá’í Faith promotes as vital to the achievement of this goal are: the abandonment of all forms of prejudice, assurance to women of full equality of opportunity with men, recognition of the unity and relativity of religious truth, the elimination of extremes of poverty and wealth, the realization of universal education, the responsibility of each person to independently search for truth, the establishment of a global commonwealth of nations, recognition that true religion is in harmony with reason and the pursuit of scientific knowledge” (http://info.bahai.org/bahaullah-basic-teachings.html).

Baha’u’llah taught that each human being is “a mine rich in gems” unknown even to the owner, let alone to others, and inexhaustible in its wealth. The purpose of life is to develop these capacities both for one’s own life and for the service of humanity. Life in this world, as Bahá’u’lláh presents it, is like the life of a child in the womb of its mother: the moral, intellectual, and spiritual powers which a human being develops here, with the help of God, will be the “limbs” and “organs” needed for the soul’s progress in the worlds beyond this earthly one.