A Prayer by Dave Sim

[Greg Shantz]

Sim wrote this prayer and says it aloud five times daily while on his knees. I'm posting it here because I think it is interesting.

A Prayer

In the Name of God, the Most Gracious, the
Most Merciful:
There is no God but God
& Muhammad is His last messenger and seal
of prophets.
Almighty God
One God having One Name, One Face and One
Aspect which is God:
Glory to God in the Highest, Glory to God Most
High
God Who is the Most Gracious and the Most
Merciful.
Great is God and there is no other god but He.

Almighty God, I thank You for having revealed
Yourself to men.
I thank you for Your Presence in the world
and Your presence in my life
through Your Living Word, preserved for all
time within Your Sacred Scriptures;
Your Living Word which is like unto a shining
beacon, illuminating the path You have made
straight before me.

Almighty God, I thank You for the book of
Genesis,
I thank You for the book of Exodus,
I thank You for the book of Leviticus,
I thank You for the book of Numbers,
I thank You for the book of Deuteronomy.
I thank You for these books and revelations
which
You imparted to Your great prophet, Moshe
Peace be upon him.

I thank You for the book of Joshua,
I thank You for the book of Judges,
I thank You for the book of Samuel,
I thank You for the book of Kings,
I thank You for the book of Isaiah,
I thank You for the book of Jeremiah,
I thank You for the book of Ezekiel,
I thank You for the book of Hosea,
I thank You for the book of Joel,
I thank You for the book of Amos,
I thank You for the book of Obadiah,
I thank You for the book of Jonah,
I thank You for the book of Micah,
I thank You for the book of Nahum,
I thank You for the book of Habakkuk,
I thank You for the book of Zephaniah,
I thank You for the book of Haggai,
I thank You for the book of Zechariah,
I thank You for the book of Malachi,

I thank You for the testimony and the records
of these prophets and messengers to
Your Chosen People,
Israel.
Peace be upon them.

I thank You for the Gospel according to Matthew,
I thank You for the Gospel according to Mark,
I thank You for the Gospel according to Luke,
I thank You for the Gospel according to John,
Peace be upon them

I thank you for the testimonies and the records
of Jesus, the Lamb of God,
Peace be upon him.

I thank You for the Acts of the Apostles,
I thank You for the Epistles of Paul,
I thank You for the testimony of the disciples,
I thank You for the Revelation of John.
Peace be upon them.

And I thank you for your glorious Koran.

Almighty God, after the instruction of Your
last messenger and seal of prophets,
Muhammad, peace be upon him,
who counselled that a man must submit
himself
to the Will of God, wilfully and peacefully, I
renew my vow (this morning) that I do so: that
I submit myself to You and I submit myself to
Your Will. If it be Your Will, please grant that
I might be brought to the fulfillment which
You intended for me from before my birth.

Glory to God in the highest, Glory to God
Most High, God who is the Most Gracious and
the Most Merciful, Great is God and there is
no other God but He. God Who created all
the worlds and all the heavens, God Who is
the only Source of salvation, God Who is the
only Hope of redemption, God Who is the only
good, God Who is my only sanctuary, God
Who is my only safe harbour from the storm.
Glory to God in the highest, glory to God most
high,
In excelsis Deo.

Almighty God, I thank you for allowing me to
be born in Canada in the last half of the
twentieth century: pampered, coddled,
insulated, sheltered and protected
from so much of the world's genuine hardship
& pain, misery & strife, famine & poverty,
disease & despair, hunger & need, want &
dread, fear & violence, suppression &
oppression which are the yoke & the burden
under which so much of the world's
population yet labours.

Though these sufferings are the dust of this
earth -- from dust they came and to dust they
will return -- still I know that I have been
spared them, only by Your Grace and by Your
Mercy, and I am profoundly grateful to You
for that.

May God's will be done in the earth, and on
the earth, as it is in all the worlds and all the
heavens.

Glory to God in the highest, Glory to God
Most High, God who is the Most Gracious
and Most Merciful, Great is God and there is
no other god but He. God Who created all the
worlds and all the heavens, God Who is the
only Source of salvation, God Who is the
only Hope of redemption, God Who is the only
good, God Who is my only sanctuary, God
who is my only safe harbour from the storm.
Glory to God in the highest, glory to God
most high,
In excelsis Deo.

Almighty God, if I am worthy of forgiveness
in Your Eyes, I ask forgiveness of my many
sins, transgressions, iniquities and vanities
which are abominations before your Eternal
Laws, Morals and Ethics. If I am worthy
of forgiveness in Your Eyes, I ask forgiveness
for all my sins of commission and of
omission: those sins which I have
committed and which I commit, out of
wilfulness, out of ignorance,
out of spite, out of misery, out of
self-absorption, out of self-pity,
out of self-destructiveness or out of
misunderstanding or
misconstruing Your Living Word.

Almighty God, I accept all consequences and
repercussions of my own choices, decisions,
self-imposed inadequacies, actions, deeds,
words and works. For God is the Sure Judge
over all the earth and all the worlds and all
the heavens, slow to anger, measured and
temperate in Your Judgements, sparing and
merciful in Your chastisements.

Glory to God in the highest, Glory to God
Most High, God who is the Most Gracious and
the Most Merciful, Great is God and there is
no other God but He. God Who created all
the worlds and all the heavens, God Who is
the only Source of salvation, God Who is the
only Hope of redemption, God Who is the only
good, God Who is my only sanctuary, God
Who is my only safe harbour from the storm.
Glory to God in the highest, glory to God most
high,
In excelsis Deo.

Almighty God, I commend into Your Care and
Your Custody, my soul, my mind and my
heart, knowing as I do so that free will is
God's greatest gift to man. And while I
entrust myself only to You and while I trust
only You, still I know that there are choices
and decisions which lie before me in my life
which are mine alone to make. If it be Your
Will, please grant that those choices and
decisions might be informed by the common
sense, the good judgement and what wisdom
You have seen fit to bestow upon me, by Your
Grace and by Your Mercy.

Glory to God in the highest, Glory to God
Most High, God who is the Most Gracious
and Most Merciful, Great is God and there is
no other god but He. God Who created all the
worlds and all the heavens, God Who is the
only source of salvation, God Who is the only
hope of redemption, God Who is the only
good, God Who is my only sanctuary, God
who is my only safe harbour from the storm.
Glory to God in the highest, glory to God
most high,
In excelsis Deo.

Almighty God, I also renew my vow (this
morning) that I will never again marry and I
will never again cohabit with a woman. I vow
further to exercise all caution, all restraint, all
common sense, all good judgement and what
wisdom You have seen fit to bestow upon me,
by Your Grace and by Your Mercy and to
exercise all these to the utmost in all of my
dealings with womankind.

Glory to God in the highest, Glory to God
most High, God who is the Most Gracious and
the Most Merciful, Great is God and there is
no other God but He. God Who created all the
worlds and all the heavens, God who is the
only Source of salvation, God who is the only
Hope of redemption, God who is the only
good, God Who is my only sanctuary, God
who is my only safe harbour from the storm.
Glory to God in the highest, glory to God
most high,
In excelsis Deo.

Amen.

[Kevin Solway]

Yes, it was interesting. And earnest. But I worry that he might be wandering down a sidetrack and not confronting the important issues.

[Greg Shantz]

Which important issues?

[Dan Rowden]

It strike me as a self-indulgent piece of poor satirical crap. Maybe I'm missing something.

[Greg Shantz]

Satirical?!

[Dan Rowden]

Yeah, it's College level satire to me. Sorry. He's making a "duh" point as far as I can tell. Maybe I've just seen too much of that level of "cleverness" to be impressed by it anymore.

[Kevin Solway]

Which important issues?

What is "God"?, for example.

Does Sim write anywhere about that? I'm not sure that he understands what God is.

He doesn't thank God for any of the spiritual writings other than those in his chosen tradition - which are very poor in comparison to many other spiritual writings.

[Kevin Solway]

Yeah, it's College level satire to me.

It's not satire Dan, Dave Sim is a real-life Muslim.

[Greg Shantz]

I think this bit from Kierkegaard says something good w/r/t Islam:

No prophet, no historian could find a more descriptive expression for Mohammedanism than the one Mohammed himself has given in the suspension of his sacred tomb between two magnets, that is, between the divine which did not become human (incarnation) and the human which did not become divine (brothers and coheirs in Christ"), Here there is neither individualized polytheism nor concretized monotheism (Jehovah), but abstract monotheism -- "God is one" -- in which it is specifically the number which must be affirmed, not like the Jewish God who to a certain degree was unpredicated, yet still more concretized: "I am who I am." It is not incarnation (the Messiah), not merely prophet (Moses), for there were many prophets among the Jews without any difference in power even though with a difference in degree; but Mohammed demanded a specific superiority (approximating an incarnation, but, of course, like everything else in Mohammedanism, stopping at the halfway point).

[Greg Shantz]

Which important issues?

What is "God"?, for example.

Does Sim write anywhere about that? I'm not sure that he understands what God is.

As far as I can tell from my understanding at this point, he views God as a sort of intelligent creative force, I think.

[Kevin Solway]

As far as I can tell from my understanding at this point, he views God as a sort of intelligent creative force, I think.

That doesn't tell us very much. I'll give him a ring and see if he will do a podcast with us. Even if he doesn't want to do that I'll ask him what he is referring to when he talks about "God" - provided I can get him on the phone.

[Greg Shantz]

For what it's worth, here is a letter I sent to Sim on 7 September:

Hi Dave,

When you said in your response to the 'Guys' questions that God percieves accurately, do you know this because you have seen with God's eyes, so to speak?

Sincerely,
[signature]

And Sim's response:

Greg - Hi - Not at all. I'm just a man the same as you. However God is, by definition omniscent (all knowing) ergo his perceptions are unfailingly accurate. Thanks for writing [signature]

[Kevin Solway]

What I really want to know is whether Sim regards God to be "the All", absolutely everything there is, and therefore not an intelligence like ourselves. Or whether he regards God so to be some kind of a person like ourselves, with a conscious will. Or, whether he is vague about the whole thing, in which case he is having henids about the issue. I suspect it is the latter.

[Greg Shantz]

Bear in mind that he could be using poetic language, à la Kierkegaard. [edit] Or offering an exoteric teaching.

[Kevin Solway]

Bear in mind that he could be using poetic language, à la Kierkegaard. Or offering an exoteric teaching.

Yes, but what words does he offer for people who are in need of a more esoteric teaching, and need a different kind of poetry? If he is flexible this will be a sign that he has an understanding of God.

Otherwise, I think he is grasping at a "thing". Something apart from himself.

[Dan Rowden]

I obviously need to re-investigate Sim. If I waste my time doing so I'll blame someone in this thread!

[Greg Shantz]

...!

[Greg Shantz]

I think Kevin may be correct.

[David Quinn]

The earnestness of his prayer suggests insincerity. That he feels a need to say it to himself five times a day suggests that he is still trying to convince himself. And as Kevin says, that he pays little or no effort towards understanding God directly suggests that he is more intent upon drowning out a society-driven, guilt-induced conscience.

While his writings on women were pretty good, the same can't be said of his religious writings. If it was someone else's prayer, I doubt that any of us would give it a single thought.

-

[Pincho Paxton]

I read it as an insane chimp that has learned to speak for the first time. The world is now very different for the chimp, and he cannot grasp it.

[Greg Shantz]

What is "God"?, for example.

Does Sim write anywhere about that?

From Sim's Torah commentaries in Latter Days, p. 306:

"God is a Spirit."

[Kevin Solway]

From Sim's Torah commentaries in Latter Days, p. 306:

"God is a Spirit."

But what is a "spirit".

And what kind of a spirit is God, as compared to other spirits?

It all sounds very vague and evasive to me.

[Jamesh]

I think Dam Sim has become mentally ill. I regard everyone who converts to religion as mentally ill.

Greg Shantz just has a fixation on Dave Sim, and is also not quite all there either.

[Greg Shantz]

Sim answers a letter I wrote to him on his weblog: http://davesim.blogspot.com/2007/11/dav ... -11th.html

[kingdomofgod123]

Your prayer is very good that gob bless the devotee and I hope your prayer will get the right fruits and praying to god is a very wonderful thing that we are in touch with god with our sole. Thanks for praying for the devotees.http://www.gvelc.com