www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall Muslim Prayer Beads

My brother is on leave from Iraq and gave me some nice Muslim Prayer beads. It's neat, but I don't know what to do with them. Are there any teachings on what to do with non-Christian religious paraphernalia?

I see no problem but you could have them blessed if they bother you...

james

Get them blessed and then use them to pray for the conversion of those that created them.

You could probably put a cross on them to avoid being mistaken for a muslim or buddhist.

Nathan,My respect and prayers for your brother.

LOL - that is funny to me as it reminds me of a presumption I made once.

I wait tables a few days a week for extra spending cash. One morning I approached a table with a woman wearing what I mistook for a chotki on her wrist. I complimented her on her nice chotki and she just looked at me blankly...

I apologized saying I was a Greek Catholic and I thought that is what was looped around her wrist...

"Ohhhhh! Greek Catholic, huh? That is what our dad is... He is Ukrainian... But no, this is a Bhuddist prayer rope!"

Well ok then. (sigh)

I have a set of Islamic prayer beads that I "baptized." I put a medal with icons of Our Lord and Our Lady on the end of it.

Dave

My son's mother-in-law is Greek Orthodox.

She has a collection of prayer beads -- and I guess you could call them Muslim prayer beads, but she does not.

They are beautiful and made of various beads some of which are semi-precious stones. Each one consists of 33 beads with three coins at the ends. She calls them WORRY BEADS and said that Christians and Muslims both use them. She just has them for decorations and never carries them.

For the Christians, the three Roman or Byzantine coins at the end of the beads represent the Holy Trinity and the Holy Byzantine Empire, which they pray will return if Islam falls.

The Antiochians who had a cathedral in my hometown used to sell "worry beads" at their summer fair... (An excellent afair with the tasteist fair food to be found!)

I understand these to be different from what is sometimes called "The Moslem Rosary" of 33 or 99 beads, which a Muslim would use to recite the 99 names of Allah (Pious myth being that he has 100, but only the camel knows it, and he ain't telling.)

Yes, these are different phenomena altogether. Here's some information about komboloi [gogreece.about.com]. And more here [en.wikipedia.org]. They are sort of a cross between a chotki and a stress ball, depending on the disposition of the one holding them at the time....

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Western Orthodoxy Blog [westernorthodox.blogspot.com]

the muslim belief is that the 100th name is secret, and if a man may learn it, he will attain heaven. we christians know full well what that name is - it is the name which is above all names.