Page 287 - Islam and Far Eastern Religions

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-The person who can establish this dialogue is
the “Shaman” who communicates with these objects

in nature through trance inducing rhythms, burning
incense and dancing. He tries to convince them in
order to heal. (Surely Allah is beyond that.)
The belief in nature’s soul and will is central to
Shamanism. For instance, it holds the irrational and
illogical belief that rain is caused by a spirit living in

clouds, or that fire is lit and maintained by the “fire
spirit”.
This superstitious belief is contained in many
ancient pagan religions and is otherwise known as
“animism”, which is the belief that every single
thing in nature is a spirit or supposed deity. The su-
perstitious Shaman religion is a form of animism
specific to Central Asia. The famous anthropologist

Ivar Paulson sums it up by saying: “Shamanism is
an animistic ideology”. 123
N. A. Alekseev, who researched various
branches of Shamanism in Siberia and central Asia,
published a book in 1980 and describes their strange
ways of belief in the chapter titled: “The Idolization

of Natural Powers and Phenomena” (Surely Allah is
beyond that.):

There are various shamanist communities around
the world, especially in Asia and America. The non-
sensical spells caste and the heretical rites and
ceremonies performed never change, however.