al Burāq as Amanita muscaria

The Mi’raj-Nameh is a text written in the 15th century in Khorasan, commissioned by Shah Rukh, the son of Timur. The text draws inspiration from the 17th sura of the Quran and describes the night journey of Muhammad (hence its name, Mi’raj. The name of the night journey is Isra and Mi’raj). According to tradition, Muhammad arrived at the farthest mosque on a miraculous creature named Al-Buraq (البراق) and, accompanied by the angel Gabriel, ascended to the seventh heaven. This is the first time ever that the Prophet Muhammad is connected with this farthest mosque on the Temple Mount, which is called today Al-Aqsa. The manuscript is written in the eastern Turkic dialect of the Chagatai Khanate and in its writing style, it contains artistic Uyghur calligraphy and is filled with illustrations, some of which are influenced by Buddhist visual traditions. Therefore, it is not surprising, or perhaps it is, that Al-Buraq is illustrated as a red horse with white spots, resembling an Amanita muscaria mushroom, which belongs to Central Asian folklore. Carl Ruck also claims that the Uyghur Manichaeans were known for their fondness for red mushrooms, including Amanita.

Narco Jihad

Although unlike drinking wine, there is no explicit prohibition in Islam to consume opium, but this thing is considered immoral in Islam. So supposedly the Muslims do not consume opium because it is immoral, but they encourage the production and distribution of opium, and perhaps precisely because it is immoral. The absolute majority of the world’s opium is grown and produced in Muslim countries such as Pakistan and Afghanistan, and this cultivation is sometimes given a moral religious foundation, as if it is a “commandment” to provide this drug to unbelievers in Islam.

By supplying the drug to the unbelievers, they are God’s messengers in honoring their hearts and causing them to behave immorally, such that would justify punishment from the hands of heaven. By undermining the moral fabric of Western society through drug addiction, the Western enemy is weakened, and Islam is promoted. This thing also crumbles the social cohesion and economic stability of the West, and it also has an indirect benefit: it creates dependency, and provides a fixed income whose profits can be redirected to other horizons – such as, for example, for the purchase and development of weapons.

This thing does return to the Muslim countries like a boomerang, because it turns out that even in countries where opium is grown, there is a huge proportion of addicts. As for example in Iran and Afghanistan where there are millions of addicts, in double digit rates. But this is what happens when the end justifies the means.

on the footnotes:

1. Now the philosophical question arises. Is it because drugs are a way to finance terrorism, drugs are a prohibited and immoral thing, or precisely because drugs are illegal, terrorism has taken over this ex-territory, while if it is legalized it will lose its sources of income?

2. In the 1980s, the US governments nurtured Pakistan in order to strengthen the opposition to the Soviet Union, which invaded Afghanistan in those days. This is how they also nurtured the Taliban. These two political entities have become the largest opium suppliers in the world, and a book published last year called “The Bomb, The Bank, The Mullah and The Poppies“, claims that this trade is actually the basis of Pakistan’s nuclear armament. Therefore, it is understandable that Iran as a terrorist supporter has also become rich through mediation in the network the smuggling of drugs to the West, and diverted its profits to nuclear development.