In the name of Allah

Peace be upon you


Important

The following story is based on a real historical figure and real historical events as deciphered from ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics. The story is of the Pharaoh Amenhotep IV (also called Akhenaten). Amenhotep IV was a pharaoh who reigned from around [1334 BC or 1336 BC] to [1351 BC or 1353 BC]. Amenhotep/Akhenaten shown below*









His early education made him familiar with the ancient inscriptions of the temple (this is known because he had apparently stated this). He was educated in terms of ancient religious texts that the temple kept and preserved. From the very first day of his rule, Amenhotep IV was an advocate of the Egyptian god Aten. However, during the fifth year of his reign Amenhotep IV officially introduced Atenism. He announced that 'Aten' was the supreme god and excluded all other gods from being worshiped. As you can Imagine this must have been an unbelievably historical event, because throughout the history of Egypt nobody had gone against these religious policies.

Although it was established that each new pharaoh had to choose a primary god for worship over others. But there was never a mass scale exclusion preventing anybody from worshiping anyone other than one god. It has also been discovered that the relationship of Amenhotep IV with the Egyptian Priesthood had been deteriorating slowly but surely since the first day of his reign because Amenhotep IV had always had a religious policy inclined towards Aten as a favored god, even though Aten (meaning sun disk) was considered to be, just one aspect of another god 'Ra'. However, Akhenaten was aware of this conflict and wanted to make his laws clear
Below is a depiction of Aten as Sun rays








This is a depiction of the diety 'Ra'




This is a depiction of another diety 'Amun'



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5th Year of his Reign - The Start of Akhenaten's Conquest

So to make his point clear he did all the following things in the fifth year of his reign. He changed his name from Amenhotep IV to Akhenaten, meaning 'Agreeable to Aten'. Start to build a new capitol in the honor of his new religion this capitol was called Akhentaten 'The Horizon of the Aten'. However this city was officially made the capitol 2 years later, in the 7th year of his reign. The construction of this city was specifically modeled to represent the new tenets of this religion. Unlike the other gods Aten was worshiped in broad day light and and not in the dark, ritualistic manner which was previously how all gods were worshiped. Akhenaten built some of the largest temple complexes as tribute to Aten. Below is the remains today of the temple at Amarna







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When he announced Atenism in the 5th year of his reign, although he said that Aten was the supreme god he only introduced Aten as a variant of the already existing supreme deity 'Amun-Ra' (Amun-Ra was itself a deity that resulted from the uprising of the god Amun and the subsequent convergence of Amun with the already existing Ra to form Amun-Ra).l

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Akhenaten Finally Destroys Polytheism Completely

However by the Ninth year of his reign Akhenaten introduced a new radical stream of changes and finally announced that Aten was not only the supreme god but the only god and that he was not a variant of Amun-Ra. He also announced that Aten was not only the only god, but that he was also a universal deity to all nations. This religion became strictly monotheistic and the idea of oneness of God was stressed in this new Atenism. Prayers such as the 'Great Hymn to Aten', typified and expressed the nature of the religious atmosphere of the Egyptian society during this time of Atenism. An extract of the "Great Hymn" can be seen below


How manifold it is, what thou hast made"

They are hidden from the face of man

O sole god, like whom there is no other

Thou didst create the world according to thy desire

Whilst thou wert alone: All men, cattle, and wild beasts

Whatever is on earth, going upon (its) feet

And what is on high, flying with its wings

The countries of Syria and Nubia, the land of Egypt

Thou settest every man in his place

Thou suppliest their necessities

"Everyone has his food, and his time of life is reckoned

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Akhenaten subsequently ordered the defacing of all Amun's statues as well as all the other old gods. he put a strict ban on any images or depictions of Aten. And whereas before in the Hieroglyphics Aten was depicted as sun rays, Akhenaten now only allowed Aten to be spelled out phonetically and Aten was praised through out Egypt as the "Creator" and "Giver of life"l

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The Downfall of Atenism

Atenism lasted only for 20 years and after Akhenaten's death, pressures from the priesthood of Amun caused an almost immediate abandonment of Atenism, and the Egyptian people returned to their traditional polytheistic rituals and practices. Akhenaten's successor, Tutankhaten, who succeeded him at age 8 changed his name to Tutankhamun in the third year of his reign. Tutankhamun was known as a "puppet king", that is, a puppet of the priests. It is a common belief that Tutankhamun was forced (by the priesthood) to corrupt the written record of the Egyptian history deleting the Amarna revolution and Atenism. Temples Akhenaten had built for worshiping Aten, including the temple at Thebes were disassembled and the resources were recycled by the priesthood to build their own temples. Inscriptions to pharaohs were defaced and finally, Akhenaten, Smenkhkare, Tutankhamun and Ay were removed from the official list of pharaohs which instead reported that Amenhotep III was immediately succeeded by Horemheb




This is the mask of Tutankhamun


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If you want to know more about Akhenaten here are some links

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akhenaten

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atenism

Could Akhenaten have come across something in the ancient inscriptions of the temple which would have prompted him to discover the reality of how the priesthood had corrupted God's true religion? It is likely that these Ancient inscriptions would have had parts of them uncorrupted from the past and these parts may have foretold the corruption of God's religion and commands. Akhenaten may have realized this and thus he recognised the corruption around him

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Non-believers Claim that Moses (AS) Was Supporter of Akhenaten

The Renown Sigmund Freud (an atheistic Austrian neurologist) suggested that Musa (AS) was from the Egyptian Priesthood and that he was a follower of Akhenaten and that he was expelled from Egypt once Atenism was rejected. Freud then states that Musa (AS) later returned to Egypt and derived Judaism from these teachings and that Christianity and Islam are both just offshoots of Judaism and so they too can be traced back to Atenism. However this proposition is rejected by the majority of Egyptologists based on a lack of evidence. Furthermore, it doesn't answer the Question of how Akhenaten initially received his monotheistic ideologies. It is unlikely he conjured them up on his own out of thin air, and more likely that he derived them from his familiarity with ancient texts, since it is well known that he was acquainted with them and influenced by them.

So the question to ask is, "did the ancient texts that Akhenaten read, contain anything that would suggest to him that there is only one god and always has been and that mankind corrupts god's commands and creates false gods?". The answer to this question is overwhelmingly inclined to 'Yes', because similar occurrences of such texts which existed in polytheistic societies but contained fragments preaching against polytheism and stating the true tenets of monotheism, such texts are more than one in number. The Sumerians mention a very similar supreme god called An, known as "god of heaven" and the king of all gods, and the one who dwelt in the highest realms of heaven. The texts containing this information far predate Akhenaten and Egyptian texts, and this was only discovered after Sigmund Freud died. So indeed there is this 'One God' mentioned throughout history, but only the knowledgeable people are able to distinguish his name from all the corruption in the holy texts.




This is a photo of Sigmund Freud


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Isaac Newton Another Human to Have Come to the Same Conclusions

Ever heard of Isaac Newton? He is believed by many to be the greatest scientist of all time, he independently invented calculus along with Leibniz, he established the basics for all of classical physics and established the fundamental properties of light. However, what people don't know is that he wrote even more extensively on religion then he did on science. He had made himself well versed in the bible and studied it obsessively and had in his possession 30 bibles, in many languages, including Arabic and Hebrew. The point to note is that he also came to the conclusion that the Bible itself had predicted it's own inevitable corruption at the hands of men. So he didn't believe in the trinity and was secretly against the roman catholic church. At the same time he was a stern believer in God! This is another example of how knowledgeable people have found truth. These are only some of the facts we know form history, who knows how many people have actually been guided by Allah

Here is a very good documentary of Isaac Newton and his discoveries about the bible and it's corruption

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDU3q...eature=related

I hope it gives some insight

As salaamualaikum