As-Salaamu Alaikum. This is a bonus episode of the Islamic history podcast. This will give you something to listen to while I’m working on Season 5 which is about the partition of the Ottoman Empire.
If you’ve seen the title of this episode, you might be wondering why we’re discussing this topic and what does it have to do with Islamic history?
Well, as you may know, we have a premium podcast called Islamic History Exclusive which is for Patreon subscribers to the Islamic History Podcast. In this premium podcast, we’re currently going through the life of Salahuddin al-Ayyubi, also known as Saladin in the West.
While going through the life of a Salahuddeen, we have to talk about the Crusades which means we have to discuss the Knights Templars.
And since many people believe there is a connection between the Knights Templars and Freemasons, I thought, why not discuss this topic as a bonus episode.
My goal is to hopefully, explain why so many Muslims do not trust Freemasonry. In doing so, we’ll have to look at the history of Freemasonry, and its connection, if any, to the Muslim world.
Let’s begin our discussion about Freemasons and Islam with a question.
What are Freemasons?
Well the Freemasons are a fraternal order that, on its surface, is basically a social club for men.
However, it is also a secret organization and its members are sworn to secrecy regarding their rights and rituals. And interestingly, its rituals appear to be fairly uniform across the world. This is an amazing fact considering Freemasonry has existed for several hundred years.
Freemasons have pretty simple rules to follow.
Even though Freemasonry does not advocate any specific religion, members of the organization must believe in a higher power or some sort of supreme being. Its members must live a moral life and must also swear to keep its secrets.
This leads us to one of the hallmarks of Freemasonry which is that its members are said to learn secret knowledge that has been passed down through the millennia from the time of the Pharaohs. This secret knowledge, according to Freemasonic literature, will help men reach their highest potential.
This knowledge is learned in stages as the members rise through the ranks of the organization.
When it comes to Freemasonry and Islam, there is no direct evident connection between the two.
Freemasons do make use of some Islamic imagery and symbols such as the star and crescent. And there are some Freemasonic buildings that have domes and some of their members wear fezzes in their gatherings.
And from my discussions with some Freemasons, I’ve heard that the Quran is used at the highest levels of the organization. How exactly the Quran is used, I’m not really sure.
As far as the Muslim world is concerned, freemasonry is relatively rare, especially when compared to the West.
Most Muslims who are aware of Freemasonry view it with hostility or at least suspicion. Most Muslim majority nations have banned Freemasonry completely. The only two Arab nations, that I know of, that allow Freemasonry are Morocco and Lebanon.
The one place in the Muslim world where Freemasonry appears to be doing well is in Turkey. This shouldn’t come as a surprise considering Kemal Ataturk was a Freemason. If you’re not aware of who he was, Kemal Ataturk was the Turkish ruler who abolished the Caliphate after the end of World War One and then turned a Turkey into a completely secular nation.
Inshallah, we will discuss Kemal Ataturk in more depth in our series on the Partition of the Ottoman Empire.
Now let’s discuss the history of freemasonry. But before we do, there are a few things you should understand.
First, I am not a Freemason.
Even though you might think I’m giving you some pretty in-depth information, in reality, I’m limited to what the Freemasons want to share. I’m limited to the books that they have published and what their members have been willing to share with me in our personal discussions.
The second thing to understand, is that like many Muslims, I used to believe in many of the conspiracy theories about Freemasons that were prevalent in the late 90s and early 2000s.
Even though I try to approach this from a historical, fact-based perspective, as a Muslim some of my religious beliefs and my own personal biases will filter into this research.
Finally, when we talk about the history of Freemasonry, we have to divide it into two different historical timelines.
There’s the history that Freemasons believe, much of which can’t be proven. And then there’s the history that we actually can prove.
So, let’s begin with the history that Freemasons believe about themselves.
Freemasons believe that their roots began in Egypt with the builders of the pyramids. These builders, these architects, these masons, were very secretive about the knowledge they used in building the ancient wonders of Egypt, particularly the pyramids.
Eventually, this knowledge was passed on to the Israelites when they were enslaved in Egypt. As slaves in ancient Egypt, the Israelites would have been forced to build many of the famous Egyptian monuments. Therefore, they would have either passively picked up or they would have been taught, this secret knowledge.
This secret knowledge of building was combined with Egyptian pagan beliefs and the Kabala, which is a form of Jewish mysticism.
The Israelites brought this knowledge out of Egypt with them during the Exodus led by Prophet Musa.
The Israelites continued to hold on to this secret knowledge until the Kingdom of Israel was established by Prophet Dawud, or David in the Bible. When Prophet Sulayman, or Solomon, became king of Israel, he ordered his primary architect, Hiram Abiff, to construct a temple using this secret knowledge.
When Hiram Abiff was almost finished the temple, he was confronted by three men who wanted to force him to divulge this secret knowledge. When Hiram Abiff refused, they attacked and killed him
Today, this murder is acted out in the graduation ritual of Master Freemasons.
This secret knowledge was lost when the Romans conquered Judea and eventually expelled most of the Israelites from the region. This knowledge remained lost until it was rediscovered again by the Knights Templars after the Crusaders conquered Jerusalem.
After the conquest of Jerusalem, the Crusaders turned Masjid Al-Aqsa into a church. Many Jews, Christians, and Muslims believe that Masjid Al-Aqsa was built on the location of Solomon’s Temple.
The Frankish king of Jerusalem allowed the Templars to use Masjid Al-Aqsa as their headquarters. Freemasons believe the Templars discovered Hiram Abiff’s secret knowledge while excavating and exploring the ancient caverns beneath Masjid Al-Aqsa.
Now, let’s briefly discuss the history of the Knights Templars. If you want to know more about them, we go into more depth about their origins in the Salahuddeen series on Patreon.
The Templars began as knights dedicated to protecting Christian pilgrims to Jerusalem after its conquest.
In time, the Templars became a monastic order of warrior knights who participated in several battles fighting against the Muslims of the Middle East. However, as time went on the Templars also became very wealthy and very powerful and they invented the framework for the modern banking system.
The Muslims of the Middle East absolutely hated the Templars. The Templars are glorified by many people in the West as brave Christian warriors, but from a Muslim perspective, they were the true enemies of Islam. The Templars when well beyond their initial mandate of protecting Christian pilgrims to actually terrorizing Muslims.
The Knights Templars dedicated their lives to fighting Islam and Muslims. Many of them even volunteered to fight against Muslims in other parts of the world such as in Iberia.
Eventually the Muslims retook Jerusalem and the Franks and Templars were forced to return to Europe. But now that they weren’t fighting anymore, the Templars simply became a very rich and influential banking organization even though they were supposed to be monastic order.
A couple of centuries later, the Catholic Church and the French King had grown wary and jealous of the Templar’s power and wealth. Together, the Church and the King violently wiped out the Templars in France in 1307. The survivors of this French purge fled to Scotland where they established Rosslyn Chapel.
Rosslyn Chapel is a real church in Scotland; however, it is covered in very ornate, esoteric and exotic carvings. Many of these carving hint towards Templar and Masonic ideology.
Some of the most interesting carvings of Roslyn Chapel are several faces of a mythical individual known as the Green Man.
Those of you familiar the Quran are aware of a character known as Al-Khidhr, which means “The Green One.” Al-Khidhr may have been either a prophet or perhaps just a wise man.
Either way, his story in the Quran illustrates how he had secret knowledge that Prophet Moses did not have. If the Freemasons do use the Quran in their upper echelons, then perhaps they use this story to support their own mythology.
Freemasons believe that these Templars who fled to Scotland and established Rosslyn Chapel evolved into various stonemason guilds which eventually became the modern Freemasons.
So, that’s the history of the Freemasons according to Freemasons. Even though there is some truth in it, much of this is impossible to prove.
For instance, there’s no concrete evidence connecting the Templars to either Rosslyn Chapel or to the modern Freemasons.
And now for the history of Freemasonry that we can prove.
Freemasonry definitely grew from the stonemason guilds of the late 14th century. Over time, these guilds began attracting and accepting people who were not actual stonemasons. And they eventually attracted European nobility and royalty.
And as these guilds continued to grow and spread throughout Europe, there was a move to standardize their rituals and organize their efforts. This led to the first Freemason lodge to be established in England in 1717.
The British brought Freemasonry to their North American colonies, and from there it continued to spread. By the time the American Revolution broke out, there were several lodges along the eastern seaboard. In fact, many of founding fathers of the United were Freemasons including George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, John Hancock, and Marquis de Lafayette.
There are elements of Masonic influence in some American symbols and regalia. The most common one, of course is the All-seeing Eye and Pyramid on the back of the one-dollar bill. Another symbol is the Washington Monument in Washington DC, which is shaped like an obelisk and calls back to the Freemason’s supposed Egyptian origins.
Before moving on, let’s briefly discuss some of the symbols in Freemasonry. There are lots of Freemasonic symbols and we’re not going to go through all of them. We’ll just go through some of the most common ones.
The number one symbol that we are most familiar with is the all-seeing eye and this is extracted from the Egyptian mythological symbol known as the Eye of Horus.
If you ever looked at Egyptian art, you’ll see this symbol of a floating eye quite often. This was the symbol of the Egyptian deity Horus that was meant to watch over and protect mankind.
In Freemasonry, the All-seeing eye symbolizes the architect of the universe which could refer to the God of Abraham, but more broadly simply represents a supreme being.
Another common symbol of Freemasons is the square and compass and these are, of course stonemason tools. Even though most Freemasons today are not stonemasons or builders of any sort, geometry, math, and perfect angles and shapes has always played a big role in Freemasonry.
As evidence of this, I encourage you to go to Google Earth and take a look at Washington DC, perhaps one of the most perfectly geometric cities in the world. Washington DC was designed by Pierre Charles L’enfant, a Frenchman who was also a Freemason.
The final symbol is the letter G, which basically stands for God or the great architect of the universe.
So now that we understand the basic history of Freemasonry, let’s discuss why it is such a big deal for some Muslims.
To get into that, however, we’re going to have to discuss Islamic eschatology, which is the study of end times or the study of the events that will lead to the end of the world, from a religious perspective.
Most interpretations of Islamic eschatology promote the idea of an Armageddon type war where most of the world will be fighting against Muslims. The narrations that describe this period paint a picture of extreme confusion for Muslims. For instance, some narrations say a Muslim will go to sleep as a believer and wake up a disbeliever.
During this period of period of confusion, the Antichrist, known as Ad-Dajjal in Islamic eschatology, will appear. According to most interpretations of Islamic eschatology, the Dajjal will lead the world in this war against Islam and Muslims. And one of the most telling attributes of the Dajjal is that he will have one eye.
The most common interpretation of Islamic eschatology has the Dajjal finally being killed by Prophet Eesa, or Jesus, who will return to earth bringing about the ultimate victory of Islam.
So now that you have an understanding of Islamic eschatology, let’s talk about the conspiracy theories.
Freemasonry is only connected to Islamic eschatology through conspiracy theories.
And I must stress and urge and implore you to understand that these are mostly speculation and that we should be careful about taking them too seriously.
With that disclaimer out the way, let’s begin.
First there is a conspiracy theory, and this is not just with Muslims but for many other people, that the world is moving towards a one world government. Those who accept this theory, believe the Illuminati, or the Freemasons, or Hydra, or whatever, are pushing for a one-world government.
One of the supposed proofs of this is the phrase that is on almost all pieces of American currency: E Pluribus Unum, which means: “Out of many, one.”
This leads to the second conspiracy theory.
In order to achieve this one world government, religion will have to be either destroyed or marginalized to a point where it no longer really matters. And this is where Muslims come in.
Islam stands in the way as it is the final major religion that is still deeply practiced in many parts of the world and is still uncompromising in accepting many modern ideologies. Because of this, Islam has to be removed or severely weakened.
The final conspiracy theory that I want to discuss, combines first two theories.
Some Muslims believe that the Freemasons are representatives or forerunners of the Dajjal, or the Antichrist. This final conspiracy theory combines many different factors.
It combines the All-seeing Eye of Freemasonry with the Islamic belief that the Dajjal will have one eye.
It also combines the belief that Freemasonry is anti-religion and therefore anti-Islam, with the Islamic belief that the Dajjal will lead a war against Islam.
And finally, it combines the belief that Freemasons want a one-world government, with the belief that the world will unite to fight Muslims.
I’m going to end this episode by sharing some of my own personal thoughts about Freemasons and these conspiracy theories.
Honestly, I’m not sure what to believe about all of these different ideas.
However, I do know that getting too deep into these conspiracy theories can be a serious waste of time. You’ll start pulling on a thread that will never end.
I don’t necessarily believe Freemasons are the enemy of Islam per se. There are more than enough true enemies of Islam that we don’t have to invent another one. There is a cottage industry of intellectuals, writers, speakers and think tanks that generate millions, perhaps even hundreds of millions of dollars every year publishing, writing, and speaking against Islam and Muslims.
It is not a secret. They are overt about it and they come from all walks of life and many different religious backgrounds. Some of them are Atheists, some are Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jewish, and yes, some even claim to be Muslim.
With these think tanks and organizations and intellectuals who are true enemies of Islam, we don’t have to go around looking for more boogiemen; there are already more than enough out there.
With all that being said, even though I don’t necessarily believe Freemasons are the enemy I’m not inclined to trust the idea of Freemasonry either.
That’s because, generally speaking, I’m against the idea of secret knowledge which is a foundational principle of Freemasonry.
This personal bias I have against secret knowledge is why I’m dismissive of those Islamic groups that promote any such ideology.
I’m not against Sufism at all, but we find this concept in some Sufi groups where they hint at secret knowledge that you can only get by joining their Tariqa.
Also, if you go back and listen to our series on the Assassins, some of the early Ismaili scholars used to lure Sunni and Shiites into their group with promises of secret knowledge.
As far as I’m concerned, there is no such thing as secret knowledge in Islam. I base this idea on the Quran itself, in chapter 5 verse 3 where Allah says:
The meaning of which is: “This day I have perfected for you your religion.”
Any concept of secret knowledge that only an elite group of people has access to, in my opinion, goes against the principles of Islam. This is antithetical to what Prophet Muhammad, PBUH, taught us.
Beneficial knowledge is not a commodity to be hoarded and circulated among a select few. It is something that should be made available and shared with all those willing to acquire it.
There are other reasons why I warn against these conspiracy theories.
In addition to wasting time, if you focus too much on these conspiracy theories, they can lead you to becoming very pessimistic and cynical. You’ll always be looking for the evil behind every good deed or the ulterior motive behind every act of charity.
However, my biggest concern about these conspiracy theories is that they can lead us to believe that there’s no way for the Believers to be successful. They can lead us to believe the deck is stacked against us and there is no hope.
And if we believe that there’s no way for us to succeed, it will lead us to either become complacent or to become desperate.
If we become complacent, then we’re just gonna wait for a miracle or wait for a hero such as al-Mahdi to come save us.
And if we become too desperate, that can lead us to committing immoral and wicked acts, such as terrorism.
And so, with that, it’s time to wrap up this episode.
If you want to know more about the origins of the Knights Templars, subscribe to our premium podcast, Islamic History Exclusive on Patreon. Simply go to patreon.com/IslamicHistory and choose the $4 patron level.
In addition to this series on Salahuddeen, we also have a series on the life of Prophet Muhammad, Ibn Zubayr, and much more.
Stay tuned for a brief clip of the most recent episode from the Salahuddeen series.
Until next time…