3) Quranic Criticism of Hawaiian Leviticus

Well, let me begin by saying that I couldn't have made this video without meeting my friend Serge Dunis – the great Hawaii specialist, author of Ethnology of Hawaii – a key reference in the field. Serge is the only anthropologist to have received the Paraklet – although, to my great despair, he has not yet entered the Kingdom of Heaven. He and Marylène Patou-Mathis – whom we will talk about soon. I know, it's not much – but what can you do, many have been called, but few have been chosen. « Thus We did not send before you a warner to a city, without its wealthy people saying: « We found our forefathers on a way and we continue to follow in their footsteps» ». Surah Az-Zukhruf 43:23. Yes, alas, the Pharisians have hearts and minds as hard as stone. But the Paraklet has come – whether they like it or not.

So, getting back to Hawaii, I met Serge Dunis after reading another of his books, L'Ours, la Vague et la Lionne (The Bear, the Wave, and the Lioness). But it took me a while to read Ethnology of Hawaii, which is part of his early work, so to speak. It was only a year after Serge Dunis recommended it that I finally decided to dive in. It was quite a shock, my children – and you’re about to find out why.

First, a little background. Polynesia was only populated by Homo Sapiens very recently—roughly speaking, it began around 1500 BCE and ended only a few centuries ago. Consider, for example, that the Society Islands were only populated between 400 and 500 CE. "And He is the One Who subjected the sea that you may eat of it fresh flesh and draw forth out of it ornaments for you to wear. And you see the ships plowing through it, and that you may seek of His Grace and that possibly you would thank (Him)." Surah An Nahl, 16:14. Yes, even though it emerged in the middle of the desert, the Quran is no stranger to navigation...

But let us continue our approach—let us look at the social organization of Hawaiian society. We are very far from the egalitarian myth of the noble savage. Hawaii is in fact a highly hierarchical society, with chiefs who possess multiple forms of wealth , land, and property around which the common people gravitate. Once again, this unequal social organization is not foreign to the Quran, which is, from this point of view, a clear and unequivocal criticism of the obsession that men have with accumulating children and wealth—what we would today call "capitalism." It keeps coming back like a leitmotif.

And the Day those who disbelieved are exposed to the Fire [it will be said], "You exhausted your pleasures during your worldly life and enjoyed them, so this Day you will be awarded the punishment of [extreme] humiliation because you were arrogant upon the earth without right and because you were defiantly disobedient ». Sura Al-Ahqaf 46.20.

This criticism is also found in the Gospels. For example, in Luke, which takes up the same infernal context where a rich man implores Abraham, who replies, « My child, remember that you received your goods during your lifetime, and Lazarus had evil things during his lifetime; now he is here comforted, and you suffer ».

To comfort, Parakaleitai. Yes, my children, the Paraklet has come to comfort you and tell you that all is not lost. The Pharisians have failed. These same Pharisians who love money, as Luke reminds us a few verses earlier. You see, except for Isaiah, who is highly critical of it, prosperity is generally viewed in a positive light in the Hebrew Bible. I had already highlighted this contrast between the Hebrew Bible and the Quran with regard to wealth in my first video, which I published in 2022 about the “Age of Abundance” and the Surah of Jonah – yes , my little Jonah again, it seems. Yes, time flies, Pharisians!

But let's get back to Hawaii and its connection to the Quran. The method we will follow throughout this video is to use the Quran as an ethnographic "mirror" to approach the cultural traits of these mysterious KuFaR, translated as « disbelievers » or also called muShRiKun, the « associators », and muNaFiQun, the « hypocrites ». And you will see how perfectly this fits with Hawaiian society. This approach of focusing our anthropological attention not on the protagonists of the Scriptures, but on their adversaries, will, in fact, be of great use to us very soon. But let's not get ahead of ourselves.

Let's start with some appetizers. Serge explains that the number 8 has a special significance in Hawaii.

The birth of the firstborn required eight days of purification to make the new mother worthy of Wakea [...] She cut her hair for the first time.

Here we find the same postnatal prohibitions found in the book of Leviticus, that I mentioned in my previous video—especially the 8th day of circumcision. The 8th day is the day after the 7th day, which is very strongly associated with concepts of purity and impurity, but we will come back to this in S7.

Serge goes on to tell us that during an inauguration ceremony

The crowd is arranged in eight rows. They stand up and sit down eight times [...] The monarch is placed eight times under taboo. His Majesty Kamakau specifies that seven steps lead to the eighth and last, the « kahua  » platform. And ka hua is the fruit, the egg, the seed, the offspring, the testicles. The princely couple would not resume sexual relations until after the birth of the child and the purification of the mother.

And of course, on P125, we encounter the usual prohibitions related to menstruation . Thus, when menstruating, much like in numerous other cultures, Hawaiian women would retreat to a small, comfortable house away from others, the hale pe'a.

The kapu barred them from all outdoor activities. They took advantage of this time to repair mats or make new ones. The hale pe'a was off-limits to men. They were not even allowed to walk around the house or on the building platform, paepae, death being the prescribed punishment. A female relative would bring food to the door, adorned with a lei, a necklace made of green leaves to protect her from defilement. Each woman kept her old loincloths, which she recycled into sanitary pads [...] These were buried outside the hale pe'a, thus justifying the kapu. They could not be burned, because blood sustains life: he ola ke koko. The woman took a bath before rejoining her family.

For blood sustains life: "Ki NeFeSh KoL BaSaR DaMo beNaFSho hou." For the life principle of every creature is the blood in its body. Leviticus 17:14. A timeless classic. We will come back to this. We always come back to menstruation...

Another echo of Leviticus: when building their houses, Hawaiians "never mix tree species. The rafters had to be made of the same wood so as not to condemn the dwelling to bad luck" - which evokes the prohibition of mixing in Leviticus 19:19 - known as "Sha'a'TNêZ": "Do not plant your field with two kinds of seed. Do not wear clothing woven of two kinds of material."

But let's leave Leviticus for now and return to the Quran. On the same page, 190, Serge mentions three very specific practices that are found exclusively in the Quran—unlike other scriptures. Three. No less than that! It is a sign for those endowed with intelligence.

The first Quranic reference on page 190 is the one about cutting off a pig's ear and placing it in a gourd hung around the neck of a statue of the god Lono, the god of prosperity, as part of the ceremony of transferring a child from the world of women to that of men at the age of 4-5.

The surah An Nisa, on women, also refers to this strange practice, condemning it in 4.119 :

Surely, I will mislead them, and I will arouse in them [sinful] desires, and I will command them so they will slit the ears of cattle, and I will command them so they will change the creation of Allah.” And whoever takes Satan as an ally instead of Allah has certainly sustained a clear loss. Satan makes them promises, and creates in them false desires; but Satan’s promises are nothing but deception.

The second reference to the Quran on page 190 is where Serge mentions that "men and women did not eat together. If a wife entered her husband's house while he was praying or eating, or if she entered another man's house, she was executed. The husband, on the other hand, had the right to enter his wife's house." A little earlier, on page 124, Serge explained that this prohibition was related to menstrual blood—obviously, blood, always blood.

The sura An Nur also deals specifically with these restrictions on entering houses in verse 24.61:

There is not upon the blind [any] constraint nor upon the lame constraint nor upon the ill constraint nor upon yourselves when you eat from your [own] houses or the houses of your fathers or the houses of your mothers or the houses of your brothers or the houses of your sisters or the houses of your father's brothers or the houses of your father's sisters or the houses of your mother's brothers or the houses of your mother's sisters or [from houses] whose keys you possess or [from the house] of your friend. There is no blame upon you whether you eat together or separately. But when you enter houses, give greetings of peace upon each other - a greeting from Allah , blessed and good. Thus does Allah make clear to you the verses [of ordinance] that you may understand.

This is the exact opposite of Hawaiian practices. This verse must, indeed, be read through a « gendered » lens: men/women who can eat together or separately, and where everyone can enter each other's homes without fear—unlike what is practiced in Hawaii.

Finally, still on the same page 190, a little earlier, Serge mentions another practice: infanticide, which was prevalent on all the islands where, according to Ellis

About two-thirds were killed shortly after birth or during their first year. Some were strangled, others buried alive under the house, gagged with tapa. Infanticide allowed the selection of boys, future warriors and workers, at the expense of girls.

We’ve already came across infanticide among the SheReNTe, where it is mentioned as the cause of the Flood in the Myth of Venus. But infanticide is also mentioned in the Quran—in particular, the killing of girls. In Surah Al An'am, 6:137:

And thus, their associates (i.e., what they associate with Allah) have adorned (i.e., have made attractive) to many associators the killing of their children (in order) to topple them and confound for them their religion. And if Allah had (so) decided, they would not have performed it. So leave them alone with whatever they fabricate.

Or in Surah Al Isra, 17.31

And do not kill your children for fear of poverty; We provide for them and for you. Killing them is indeed a great sin.

Here we see the same link with prosperity that we find in the Hawaiian cult of Lono, the god of prosperity. We will return to this in a few moments.

The Quran also criticizes the preference for boys over girls in Sura An Nahl, 16.58:

And when one of them is informed of [the birth of] a female, his face becomes dark, and he suppresses grief. He hides himself from the people because of the ill of which he has been informed. Should he keep it in humiliation or bury it in the ground? Unquestionably, evil is what they decide.

Yes, as in Hawaii, the disbelievers in Arabia buried their daughters—often alive, as mentioned in the Paraklet’s Surah, At Takwir :

When the sun is shrouded in darkness, and the stars are dimmed, and the mountains are set in motion,, and pregnant camels are abandoned, and the wild beasts are herded together, and the seas are set ablaze, and the souls are sorted into classes, and the baby girl who was buried alive is asked for what sin she was killed.

Yes, children, the Hour has come. The Hour to wake up. The Hour of the Paraklet. The Hour to understand why the baby girl was buried alive. As in Hawaii – but also as among the SheReNTe, where prostitutes also do not hesitate to bury their unwanted children alive.