Just to clarify, no, I am not a Zoroastrian and even if I were, Yeezevee, what you said there would have been quite offensive. If I, or someone else, were to somehow become a Zoroastrian tomorrow, I doubt they would take kindly to your comments.
My post, which I think most people seemed to get, was not a declaration that I had started following Zoroaster, but to demonstrate a parallel between Islam and Zoroastrianism. Their similarities are too many to be considered co-incidence. It's not just their descriptions of hell and the day of judgement that follow each other, but also, and more interestingly, the story of Zoroaster flows so well with the story of Muhammed. It, to me, lends credibility to the notion that the entire account of Muhammed (or at least a good part of it) was fabricated.
Most of what Islam touts is clearly false, but I've always been in two minds about Muhammed. It's so difficult to discern history from legend. Even the name Muhammed sounds much like a title that was given to him ad-hoc, rather than a name any child would be granted at birth. I often question his very existence. Surely someone had to start the religion, but was this person anything like the texts suggest? There are a lot of musings about this out there, some of which I lend at least a degree of credibility to, but nothing I'd consider concrete.
This, however, is a nail in the coffin for me. There are clear and obvious plagiarisms going on here. One that can't be explained away as "Oh he was just another prophet". The story of the prophet Zoroaster appears to be a template for the entire story of Muhammed.
Did anyone think I was talking about Muhammed when I wrote this thread? That was kind of the point...
Check it:
The Bridge of As-Sirat vs.
The Chinvat BridgeJibra'il (The entity that reveals god's message to Muhammed) vs. Amesha Spenta (The Entity that reveals god's message to Zoroaster)
Islamic Hell vs
Zoroastrian HellBut most of all, let's not forget general details like.
Both follow this narrative of, first converting their wives and close family, then being persecuted by their home towns and then finally being exiled from home and forced to live somewhere else.
You really need to read Tom Holland's book 'In The Shadow of the Sword'
All about how Islam rose out of the ruins of late antiquity - Rome, Byzantium and Persia empires.
A whole part of it is about Persia and Zoroastrianism and you can see echoes of Islam (and the story of Muhammad) in the narrative.
Great, great book.
Sounds like an interesting read, I shall look out for it.
And I think it's quite possible that Zoroaster could be a Prophet from Allah too, no?
It says in the Qur'an a messenger was sent to each nation, Zoroaster's message is pretty similar to the message of all the Islamic prophets, could it be that Ahura Mazda and Allah are the same? Hmmm
I'm not so sure about that. I mean, that could be an excuse, but the differences between the religions seem to be quite apparent too. Zoroastrianism isn't quite monotheistic, it's a duotheism. Ahura Mazda has a rival, Angra Mainyu, who is the evil god. Allegedly, Ahura Mazda will eventually triumph over Angra Mainyu, which is when the Day of Judgement will occur, but for the moment they oppose each other.
Also, I think there should be some consistency to the claim that one religion follows from another. One could make that claim for Islam and Christianity, because there are clear correlations with similar prophets, figures and even lexical cognates. This does not happen with the Zoroastrian religion.
Topic: The Prophet