ReligionForBreakfast
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Last summary: Apr 17, 2026
How to Become Immortal According to Daoism (in 5 not-so-easy steps)
In 1222, Genghis Khan met with the Daoist Master Chongqen, who, despite his name meaning "eternal spring," did not possess an elixir of immortality. Instead, Chongqen suggested a long process of transformation to extend life and achieve transcendence, known as becoming a Daoist "Shien." Shien are supernatural beings in Daoism, capable of traversing realms, possessing extended lifespans, and exhibiting superhuman abilities like flight or teleportation. The term is often translated as "immortal," but this can be misleading. Shien escape ordinary death but do not necessarily exist forever in an absolute sense. Scholar Robert Campany notes that Daoist thought views human and divine, or mortal and immortal, on a spectrum, allowing beings to become more or less refined and long-lived. Translating Shien as "transcendent" better captures this idea, as they operate on a higher level within the same cosmos, rather than escaping it entirely. Daoist texts distinguish between merely avoiding death and transforming into an entirely different being.
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Who Was Allah Before Islam?
The Quran describes Mecca during Muhammad's time as a city populated by "mushri," often translated as pagans or polytheists. These individuals were Muhammad's primary adversaries, resisting his message, ridiculing his claims, and refusing to worship Allah exclusively. However, the Quran makes a surprising assertion about their beliefs, stating that if asked who created the heavens and the earth, or humans, they would unequivocally say "Allah." They also credited Allah with controlling the sun and moon and sending rain. This seemingly contradictory belief system, where polytheists already acknowledge Allah as a creator god, can be clarified by understanding the term "mushri" more literally as "those who associated others with God." This implies they believed in and worshipped Allah, but also assigned partners or associates to him, praying to lesser deities and invoking intermediaries within a broader polytheistic framework. Some venerated the sun and moon, while others worshipped pre-Islamic Arabian gods like Allat and Manat, yet Allah remained supreme as the creator. This raises the question of how the mushri already knew about Allah. The answer lies in the pre-existence of a god named Allah in pre-Islamic Arabia. Inscriptions from the deserts of Jordan, dating hundreds of years before Muhammad, show Arab nomads invoking multiple gods, including "ba al-samine" (a storm god), "shakam" (a protective deity), and "Allah." This indicates that long before the Quran, ancient Arabs carved Allah's name into stone, used it in prayers, incorporated it into personal names, and, according to recent discoveries, conceived of him as a high god connected to light and creation.
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