“To tell the truth is useful to those to whom it is spoken,
but disadvantageous to those who tell it,
because it makes them disliked.”
~ Blaise Pascal, Pensées.
Related:
- Fr. Daniil Sysoev: Special Resource Page
- 'To Make the Whole World Love Christ' - Seraphim Maamdi's memories of Fr. Daniel Sysoev
- 'The Light of Christ will also shine over Kurdistan' - An Interview with Seraphim Maamdi, an Orthodox Kurd
- Fr. Daniel Sysoev's Posthumous Mission: Three Stories
PRAVOSLAVIE — May 11, 2015
This English translation of an interview by the Russian correspondent for the “Rûdaw” newspaper with Monk Madai, an Orthodox Kurd, was sent to OrthoChristian.com for publication.
Monk Madai (Maamdi) was born in Tbilisi, Georgia, to a Kurdish-Yezidi family. In 2002, he and his family moved to Moscow, where in 2007 he was baptized in the Orthodox Church with the name Seraphim.
In 2009 Seraphim finished the “School of Orthodox Mission”, which was established by priest Daniel Sysoev. That same year, Fr. Daniel was killed in his own church by a Muslim extremist.
In 2012, Seraphim went to Greece, to live in one of the Greek monasteries. In 2014 he became a monk with the name Madai (in honor of the grandson of Noah, the son of Japheth, Medes’ grandparent, one of the descendant nations of whom are the Kurds). In the same year he entered the Theological Department of the University of Athens. He is a monk of the Georgian Orthodox Church, in the Patriarchal Stavropegic Monastery of Holy Queen Sunniva, Norway.
Hoshavi Muhammad: We would like to welcome our honored guest, monk Madai. Monk Madai, in your first interview you said that the majority of Kurds confess the Islamic faith, while the minority belong to a closed religion, known as Yezidism. Why do you think that Yezidism is a false religion?
Monk Madai: I say that as a Christian, speaking from the point of view of Divine Revelation. A religion that is closed to other people and that is held by a small number of people cannot be the truth for all people. Neither can a faith come from God that only acknowledges one language, here I am speaking about Islam.
In and of itself Yezidism arose as a result of the compilation of various religious teachings. It is a natural phenomenon when in the context of Christianity, Judaism or Islam religious leaders appear who, on the basis of traditional religious teachings, add something new and create their own “true path”.
H.M.: In your opinion the founder of Yezidism is the Arab Sufi Sheikh Adi. He radically changed the worldview of Kurdish society. He united ideas from heretical Christianity, Islam, Judaism and Paganism to form Yezidism. For the Yezidis, is Sheikh Adi God or a messenger of God?
M.M.: That is not merely my opinion; it is a well-known and credible fact that the Arab Sheikh Adi descended from the Arabic Umayyad Caliphs. The testimonies of his contemporaries tell us that he was a Muslim of the Sufi doctrine and studied under well-known Sufis of the time. He later settled in a Christian monastery (now called Lalish) and wrote his Tariqa (path). His followers began to be called “Adavis” (followers of Adi) among the locals. Today they are known as Yezidis.
Unfortunately, modern Sheikhs and Pirs, and the clerics of Lalish as a whole, react very negatively to the historical facts which show that Yezidism is an offshoot of Islam. This is related to the fact that Yezidis have always been persecuted by Muslims. Any contact with Muslims is, therefore, categorically rejected by Yezidis.
