Preparing for Eid with my Zoroastrian roommate
Zoroastrian.....What does that mean?
My roommate from Russia, that's all I know about her, she is working here, seems to be a hard worker, devoted to her work and we had several conversations all were commenting on movies we watch together or food that we cook differently but all what I can see was a nice Russian lady, funny and amusing to talk to.
Today, I was tired, so I asked her to accompany me to an Arabic store as I wanted to get some sweets for Eid (كحك). At the store, she recognized lots of the food there, she told me she was originally form Georgia, raised there before moving to Moscow. In Georgia they have lots of food from Turkey and that they were under Ottoman rule for a long time.
We kept on talking on our way back home, she then told me that she was from a place that was non-Muslim, non-Christian, because they lived up high in the mountains, no one could reach them, so they could keep their religion away from the "new" religions. I wondered what was that religion, she said a word I totally couldn't understand... Zaratustra, at least that's the best I could pronounce. I asked her to explain as I don't know the meaning of the word. From what she said, the first thing that came to my mind was على الزبيق and how Delilah (Lila Fouzee) was a worshiper of fire, wanted to take over the country from the weak Wali (viceroy). So I looked it up, Wow, this is really an old religion, and they don't worship fire,... how ignorant I am.
Zoroastrianism....زردشتية
Founded way back in 1800 BC by prophet Zoroaster,who lived in Persia. After reading about it for a while, the part I liked was: "Good Thoughts, Good Words, Good Deeds", simple way of living, who would say any different words. He called God "Ahura Mazda" honestly I don't know what that means, but it's like the beginning and end as far as I read about it. Another concept or principle they have that I really liked was that humans are responsible for all situations they are in and in the way they act to one another, although I still believe in destiny and God's Will over our actions, this is more into that we are free to choose as God gave us minds to choose, either we do this or that is our choice, otherwise it would be as if we are part of a play us being the puppets! (at least that was my impression as a kid at school when the religion teacher was saying God knows every action you are about to make, well yeah and no, yes because He created me, yet no because He gave me choice, and finally I don't know والله أعلم) I don't think I am capable of talking about this interesting Old religion in one post, may be I can try to write again soon.
more on Zoroastrianism or Mazdaism
1 Comments:
Your post on Zoroastrianism was interesting- I didnt know that there were Zoroastrians in Georgia (I know there are neo-Zoroastrians in Russia, who were former Christians). A lot of Muslim people in Tajikistan and Central Asia are becoming interested in their Zoroastrian heritage from thousands of years ago.
You may want to know that Nowruz (known by slightly different names by different cultures), the ancient Zoroastrian and pre-Zoroastrian New Years in March, is also celebrated by Iranians and Afghans and Kurds of ALL religions, as a cultural holiday.
Another group of Zoroastrians (besides Iranian ones) are Parsis, who fled the ancient Persian empire over 1000 years ago and settled in India. A GREAT book on the Parsi Zoroastrians is written by a famous screenwriter, Sooni Taraporevala (who works with director Mira Nair). Its called PARSIS: the Zoroastrians of India - a Photographic Journey . Check out
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4223182
and
http://www.iranian.com/Arts/2004/November/Parsi/
and
http://webadmin.stltoday.com/stltoday/entertainment/reviews.nsf/book/story/E474DA9FDDED9FD286256FD400521032?OpenDocument
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