“The Slave-Girl Will Give Birth to Her Master” as Understood via “Temple Symbolism”

Document Type : Research Paper

Author

PhD Graduate in Mathematics, the University of Nottingham, UK

10.22034/ri.2019.100717

Abstract

The so-called Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) used the hadith mentioning that “the slave-girl will give birth to her master” to justify its renewal of sexual slavery. This hadith is talking about signs before the end of the world, so it could be interpreted by the same Temple theology technique that has been used in the biblical book of Revelation, which is also about the end of the world. “Temple theology” refers to the fact that many obscure and bizarre texts symbolically describe the rituals and politics of the Temple in Jerusalem. Thus, it will be argued that the whole hadith is talking about events that happened prior to the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem in 70 CE (the Temple symbolized the world, so the end of the world refers to this incident). In particular, it will be shown that slave-girl refers to the Virgin Mary giving birth to Christ. The hadith is then linked to the start date of the building the Dome of the Rock in 688 CE, which is the year 999/1000 according to the “Seleucid Era” calendar, implying a nearness to a symbolic end of the world. As such, the “Islamic State” has no Islamic basis to use sexual slavery. As an appendix, the Dabiq hadith concerning the conquest of Constantinople is briefly discussed with reference to the possibility that Constantinople did fall to the Muslims before another symbolic end of the world, the year 7000 according to the Byzantine Calendar.

Keywords

References

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Religious Inquiries
Volume 8, Issue 16 - Serial Number 16
December 2019
Pages 101-126

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