¶ Door Number Twenty-Six
¶ Maskh and the Wonders of the Animal Kingdom
¶ “So, when they were insolent about that which they had been forbidden, We said to them, ‘Be apes, despised.’”
Maskh is a concept which is known in Islam and is mentioned in the Holy Qur’an and in the narrations of Prophet Mohammed and His Family (From Them is Peace). Maskh is the transformation of a human being from human to animal. In the Holy Qur’an it states,
“So when they were insolent about that which they had been forbidden, We said to them, ‘Be apes, despised.’ ”
The majority of Muslims consider this to be an instant literal transformation which occurs, whereby the human being shapeshifts into an animal due to a curse from God. However, some Shiite groups believe it to be the transmigration of the soul of the human being from a human body to an animal body after death. In short, reincarnation as an animal. Imam Ahmed Al-Hassan (From Him is Peace) said that Maskh takes place after death.
One day I asked Imam Ahmed Al-Hassan (From Him is Peace), “Are all animals Maskh?”
The Imam (From Him is Peace) said, “No son.”
¶ All Animals Sacrificed are Maskh
One day our sister Ailia Hallal came to me with a question that she said her father always had. He was a representative of Sistani in Pakistan. She asked me to raise the question to Imam Ahmed Al-Hassan (From Him is Peace) hoping that perhaps her father becomes a believer.
I said to the Imam (From Him is Peace), “There is a Shiite doctor who is a representative of Sistani in Pakistan. He is saying that he has a question which he has wondered about for a very long time, and no one has been able to answer it adequately. The question is, why does God need us to slaughter and sacrifice animals to Him?”
The Imam (From Him is Peace) said, “I shall answer this question, the reason is because these animals were in the past human beings. And they were disbelievers in God and God turned them into Maskh, turning them into animals such as sheep and cows and calves and other than that. And slaughtering them as sacrifices to God is vengeance against them in the name of the Great Avenger, and on the other hand, it is a great mercy to them. The slaughtering washes away its sins in the name of God, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful, and the believer comes closer to God by this act. And you find many times the animal is in a state of submission during the slaughtering process, especially the sheep, when you place the knife on its throat it submits because it knows that the time has come for judgment, and all praises are due to God, Lord of the Worlds.”
I said, “How do we know the animal which is a Maskh from an animal which is not?”
The Imam (From Him is Peace) said, “Through the way the animal has intercourse. Any animal which you see having intercourse in ways that are similar to humans is a Maskh.”
I asked Imam Ahmed Al-Hassan (From Him is Peace), “Does the Maskh remember its previous incarnations and lives as a human?”
The Imam (From Him is Peace) said, “When the human incarnates as a Maskh, let’s say a sheep or a cat, when the human incarnates as an animal, nothing is erased from its memory, it remembers so that it is a punishment upon it. If they didn’t remember, then it wouldn’t be a punishment. This is the punishment. Is there a tougher punishment than this? It is extremely painful (to live as an animal, knowing and remembering your life as a human).”
¶ Can a Believer Go Into Maskh?
One day in the beginning of this Call, I received some guests to my house in Egypt. They had traveled to Egypt from Iraq to visit me, and they were some of the first believers in the Call. The Imam (From Him is Peace) had told me that they were the reincarnations of Adam (PBUH), Hamza (PBUH), Ja’far (PBUH) and Ammar (PBUH). I was very excited to meet them and host them in our humble building. I wanted to honor them properly, but I was nervous about their arrival, for at the time I did not have much money. I did however manage to save enough money before they arrived to purchase a calf, and when they arrived I took them to the butcher’s shop and had Hamza (PBUH) honor me by sacrificing the calf. He was, after all, my brother in the time of Abdul-Muttalib (PBUH).
The Imam (From Him is Peace) said to me, “Do you know who that was?”
I said, “The calf?”
The Imam (From Him is Peace) said, “Yes.”
I said, “No, please tell me, may I be your ransom.”
The Imam (From Him is Peace) said, “He is Wahshi, the slave of Hind who killed Hamza son of Abdul-Muttalib. This was his last incarnation as an animal and in the next he shall return as a human.”
I said, “He has been incarnating as an animal since the time of the Prophet (PBUH & His Family)?”
The Imam (From Him is Peace) said, “Yes, he had a thousand incarnations in which he was slaughtered over what he did to Hamza.”
I said, “Didn’t he accept Islam?”
The Imam (From Him is Peace) said, “Even though he accepted Islam, he had to pay in this life for killing Hamza and hurting the Prophet (PBUH & His Family). Accepting Islam saved him from hellfire, but didn’t save him from Karma.”
I said, “Is consuming Maskh a good thing, my Father?”
The Imam (From Him is Peace) said, “Always try to stay away from red meats for it is not good.”
I said, “So it is best to never eat it?”
The Imam (From Him is Peace) said, “My son, vegetables are the best.”
I said to the Imam (From Him is Peace), “My Father, do all the animals that are upon the earth have a benefit (besides the pig)?”
The Imam (From Him is Peace) said, “Absolutely, my son.”
I said, “So from its teeth to its skin to anything on it?”
The Imam (From Him is Peace) said, “Yes, for each is a benefit.”
I said, “So for example, what about the tiger which I have, its skin or its teeth or its head, or the monkeys?”
The Imam (From Him is Peace) said, “These are mummified so they don’t work.”
¶ Chameleons
I said, “Well, what about this chameleon that I have, it is alive.”
The Imam (From Him is Peace) said, “This works for sickle cell anemia.”
I said, “How does it work?”
The Imam (From Him is Peace) said, “The patient lies down naked and you let the chameleon walk upon its body. They will be cured.”
¶ Tigers
I said, “Glory be to God. What about the tiger if it was not mummified?”
Imam Ahmed Al-Hassan (From Him is Peace) said, “If the patient with epilepsy eats its liver and heart, they shall be cured. This is for patients with epilepsy that was a result of trauma or a psychological condition. It will lessen the frequency of the seizures.”
¶ Birds of Paradise
I asked Imam Ahmed Al-Hassan (From Him is Peace), “What about the person born with epilepsy?”
The Imam (From Him is Peace) said, “There is a cure for that so long as the patient is not mentally challenged or handicapped.”
I said, “What is the cure, my Father?”
The Imam (From Him is Peace) said, “The birds of paradise.”
I said, “I know these dancing birds.”
The Imam (From Him is Peace) said, “You place the anus of the bird over the vagina if the patient is a female, and if it is a male, then the anus of the bird is put over the anus of the male patient.”
I said, “And it is just placed like that for a minute or what?”
The Imam (From Him is Peace) said, “It is placed between three and five minutes and the procedure is repeated daily until they are cured. The amount of time required for the patient to be cured differs from case to case and it depends also on the severity of the case.”
¶ Fish
I said, “My Father, one of the brothers is asking for a cure for low sexual drive in males?”
He (From Him is Peace) said to me, “My son, get a male fish but make sure it is a male fish and not a female. Cook it with nothing else but salt, do not add anything else to the fish and feed it to the person suffering from the problem.”
On another occasion, a believer caught some small fish from the lake, and when Imam Ahmed Al-Hassan (From Him is Peace) saw that he said, “If the fish that you caught is so small that it cannot be used as food, you must return it to the lake.”
¶ Serpents
I said to the Imam (From Him is Peace) one day, “Some of the people here are asking me about a cure for baldness.”
Imam Ahmed Al-Hassan (From Him is Peace) said, “Natural baldness occurs when the hair follicles die, as it is known. The oil or fat of the serpent is the cure, but this will not yield results with everyone. The one who begins this treatment early on will have a greater chance of their hair returning, but the ones who lost their hair many years ago, shall not benefit from this treatment. If the serpent is cooked in a certain way, there shall emerge from it fat or oil. It is this that is extremely beneficial for the hair. There is another method and that is to bring forth a serpent and cut open its belly and then plant within it wheat and barley, then you wait until it grows. After it grows, you grind it in a blender turning the wheat and barley into juice, and then you leave it to dry completely. Afterwards, you rub the head with it several times, once every three days, and new hair shall grow, and the follicles will come back to life. But before you rub the substance, make sure that you wash the head very well so that the substance may pass through to the pores.”
I asked him (From Him is Peace), “Does any serpent work?”
The Imam (From Him is Peace) said, “Yes.”
I said, “Shall it be killed first or is the belly opened while it is alive?”
The Imam (From Him is Peace) said, “The belly is opened, then it is killed, but do not cut off the head. Leave the head, for it shall not die except if it is struck on the head, and you can open it from its mouth all the way to its belly with a knife, then place wheat and barley and after a while, depending on the weather you can water it and give it the right environment to grow.”
And so, we did as the Imam (From Him is Peace) told us and after one week we showed the Imam (From Him is Peace) the results and I said, “Some of it grew from inside the serpent and other wheat and barley seeds fell outside of the belly into the mud and it grew outside of the serpent. The seeds that grew from inside the serpent are a dark green while the ones that grew outside are light green.”
The Imam (From Him is Peace) said, “Leave it for another week and take the dark ones that grow from inside of the serpent.”
And after a week passed, the Imam (From Him is Peace) said, “Yes, now take it out from its place, uplift it from its roots, it has now fed on the serpents good enough, and now its medicinal value is high. You can now blend it in the blender or dry it, then make a powder out of it and mix it with some serpent oil. You may also bring forth the serpent carcass and dry it, then grind it and put it with the extract, but it will have a very putrid smell.”
Figure 1: Real Image of the Seeds after Sprouting
¶ Bats
Imam Ahmed Al-Hassan (From Him is Peace) said concerning the benefits of bats, “You may also capture a bat and let him dry out in the sun, then grind him and place him with the serpent extract. This will make the hair grow long and give it shine and make it beautiful. It gives extra special beauty to the hair when used with henna, just mix the high-quality henna with the bat extract. The bats and henna for women elongate the hair and make it beautiful.”
¶ Bees
Imam Ahmed Al-Hassan (From Him is Peace) said, “The bees have some similarities or similar abilities to the Prophets, for example, bees can foretell the future.”
¶ Dogs
I asked Imam Ahmed Al-Hassan (From Him is Peace), “Are Huskies impure?”
He (From Him is Peace) said, “It is a canine, so it is impure, but only its saliva is impure and not the entire dog. Dogs have many great qualities, as for its impurity, the saliva of the dog is what is impure. It is permissible to keep a dog for security purposes, as for hunting, they will do you no good, as whatever it carries in its mouth will become impure. As for raising dogs for fun, that is not permissible.”
¶ Caged Birds
Someone asked Imam Ahmed Al-Hassan (From Him is Peace), “I have caged birds in the house, is this permissible? Are the bird droppings an impurity?”
Imam Ahmed Al-Hassan (From Him is Peace) said, “I do not like that people keep birds caged, as for the droppings of the bird, it is not impure and there is no harm in it.”
¶ Pigs
Imam Ahmed Al-Hassan (From Him is Peace) said, “The pig is the only animal that has no benefit at all.”
¶ Geckos
Imam Ahmed Al-Hassan (From Him is Peace) said, “If you look at the gecko and pay attention to how they stare at women you would be amazed. Notice how the gecko stares at a woman when she is in the bathroom or whilst she is changing or naked. You shall see that it stares at her in a very strange manner. That is because the gecko is sexually attracted to human beings.”
I said, “Is it because they are (as a species) Maskh?”
The Imam (From Him is Peace) said, “No my son, that is just how they are created.”
I said, “Should I kill them if I see them?”
The Imam (From Him is Peace) said, “Yes do so, for they are extremely impure.”
¶ Two Monkeys
One day the heads of two mummified baboons fell into my hand. I had traveled with my brother Alireza all over Germany until we stumbled into an old shop. It was there that we found these two heads and I recognized them and so I took them, and I left with them. Later, I spoke to my Father and told him what had happened.
I said to my Father (From Him is Peace), “My Father, is this Harmala and Omar ibn Saad, may God curse them?”
He (From Him is Peace) said, “Without a shadow of a doubt they are, may God curse them.”
And so, I place their picture here for future generations to see.
Figure 2: Real Images of the two Baboon Heads
¶ Every Disease Has a Cure
¶ By Dr. Irfan Alamgir
In this fascinating Door, Imam Ahmed Al-Hassan (From Him is Peace) gives humanity cures to a number of medical ailments including two debilitating ones, namely Epilepsy and Sickle Cell Disease. Unfortunately, despite recent advances, modern medicine still offers no definitive cure for either.
Take Epilepsy, for instance, a disease characterized by repeated seizures following an abnormal burst of electrical activity in the brain. Epilepsy can result in unconsciousness, brain damage as well as serious injuries. It also carries a significant social and psychological burden for both patients and their loved ones. Treatment is mainly in the form of anti-epileptic drugs (AEDs), which are unfortunately ineffective in about 1/3 of patients, with 20 percent of patients not responding to any kind of treatment at all.
In cases where AEDs reduce seizure frequency, they come with a slew of side effects. Some of the more common ones include (but are not limited to): nausea, diarrhea, blurred or double vision, dizziness, headaches, drowsiness, weakness, co-ordination and balance problems, weight gain, shaking, hair loss, irregular periods, swollen gums, rashes, dry mouth, etc. In terms of the more serious side effects, which are thankfully less common, AEDs can result in suicidal thoughts, liver problems, as well as some life-threatening conditions such as acute pancreatitis, Stevens-Johnson syndrome, bleeding disorders and anaphylaxis. I could go on and on, but the point is simply this: if there are less harmful and more effective ways to treat conditions like epilepsy, do we not have a duty to at least investigate the alternatives? Hippocrates, referred to as the “Father of Medicine” wrote in Of the Epidemics:
The physician must be able to tell the antecedents, know the present, and foretell the future - must mediate these things, and have two special objectives in view with regard to disease, namely, to do good or to do no harm.
The treatments prescribed by Imam Ahmed Al-Hassan (From Him is Peace) come from his perfect knowledge of all sciences and are a proof of his divine authority. Some cures may seem bizarre and even unsettling, but is this sufficient reason to dismiss them out of hand? Each year pharmaceutical companies spend billions and billions of dollars to bring new drugs to market. Most of these never reach our medicine cabinets because they carry an unacceptable degree of risk. When they are approved for public use, many of them require life-long adherence and careful monitoring for the more acceptable side effects. The cures of Imam Ahmed Al-Hassan (From Him is Peace) are safe, do not require life-long compliance or monitoring, and are invariably inexpensive. We, therefore, encourage all those interested, to call for further research into the treatments of the Holy Imam (From Him is Peace) and let the results speak for themselves.
On the issue of animal-derived treatments, ancient healing traditions including Chinese and Ayurvedic medicine have, and still use ingredients from a variety of different animals to treat a host of medical problems. Modern western medicine too has benefitted appreciably from molecules extracted from animals, with some of the most unlikely substances, like venoms and poisons, providing some of the biggest breakthroughs. As far as animal welfare goes, we do not advocate the hunting to extinction of endangered animals nor do we promote animal cruelty of any kind. We believe that through the tool of modern science, it is possible to study and humanely extract active substances from animals, in order to cure some of the most troublesome diseases afflicting humanity.
Finally, let there be no doubt that God and His vicegerents have the cures for all diseases. All major world religions are infused with examples of miraculous healings performed by the men of God. As a medical doctor, it is my sincere wish to see humanity rid itself of the scourge of diseases like cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer’s and the countless infections, of which COVID-19 is just the latest installment. All we have to do is humble ourselves before God and seek the cures from His generous repositories of knowledge, who are present in this time in the form of the Mahdis – divine guides appointed by God for the salvation of mankind.
“And when I am ill, it is He who cures me.”
(Qur’an 26:80)
“The news about Him spread throughout all Syria; and they brought to Him all who were ill, those suffering with various diseases and pains, demon-possessed, epileptics, paralytics; and He healed them.”
(Matthew 4:24)
¶ Sources
- The Holy Qur’an, Chapter 7 (Al-Araf), Verse 166
- This section is a contribution by Dr. Irfan Alamgir, MBBS, BSc, MRCGP.