What is Kabbalah? Will you give detailed information about Kabbalah?

Dear Brother / Sister,

Even when Hz. Musa (Moses) was alive, Sons of Israel started to make idols similar to those they saw in ancient Egypt and to worship them; it was not difficult for them to deviate further after the death of Hz. Musa. Doubtlessly, it is not possible to say the same thing for all Jews but some of them maintained the idolatrous culture of Egypt; furthermore, they continued the teachings of the Egyptian priests (magicians of Pharaoh); they distorted the religion of Judaism by including those teachings in it.  

The teaching transferred from ancient Egypt to Judaism is Kabbalah. Kabbalah spread as an esoteric teaching like the system of the Egyptian priests and it was mainly interested in magic like the Egyptian priests. The famous Jewish researcher, Shimon Halevi describes Kabbalah in his book called "Kabbalah, Tradition of Hidden Knowledge" as follows:

" Practical Kabbalah is one way of dealing with evil. It is a form of magic, the dangerous art of gaining power over the psychological world through the use of symbols."

The most important characteristic of Kabbalah is its close interest in magic. Von Papus emphasizes the relationship between Kabbalah and magic in the book called "Die Kabbalah", which is one of the best known books introducing Kabbalah, as follows:

"Kabbalah's theory is linked with the general theory of magic."

A remarkable aspect of Kabbalah is that it includes a very different narration from the narration of creation in the Torah; it maintains the materialistic view based on the continuation of matter in ancient Egypt.

The Jews took over the esoteric teachings of the ancient Egypt based on magic, ignored all of the prohibitions imposed by the Torah regarding the issue and adopted the rituals of magic of the other idolatrous tribes; thus, Kabbalah flourished as a mystical teaching within Judaism but as contrary to the Torah. 

There is a verse indicating this issue in the Quran. Allah informs us that Sons of Israel learned devilish magic from the resources outside their own religion as follows:

"They followed what the evil ones gave out (falsely) against the power of Solomon: the blasphemers Were, not Solomon, but the evil ones, teaching men Magic, and such things as came down at Babylon to the angels Harut and Marut. But neither of these taught anyone (Such things) without saying: "We are only for trial; so do not blaspheme." They learned from them the means to sow discord between man and wife. But they could not thus harm anyone except by Allah´s permission. And they learned what harmed them, not what profited them. And they knew that the buyers of (magic) would have no share in the happiness of the Hereafter. And vile was the price for which they did sell their souls, if they but knew!" (al-Baqara, 2/102)

It is stated in the verse that some Jews learned and practiced magic though they knew that they would be harmed in the hereafter. As it is also stated in the verse, those Jews deviated from the shariah that Allah had sent down to them and "sold their souls", that is, renounced their faith by imitating the culture (doctrine of magic) of the pagans.

The truth expressed in this verse also shows the outlines of an important struggle in Jewish history. This struggle is between the prophets that Allah sent to the Jews and the believing Jews who obeyed these prophets, and the deviant Jews who rebelled against the commandments of Allah and tended toward the beliefs and cultures of the pagan tribes around them instead of the sharia of Allah.

What is interesting is that some non-Jews also participated in this struggle. Kabbalah and the pagan doctrines based on it spread not only among the Jews but also among non-Jews.

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