Thread by @joebradford

While this article on #Dune only scratches the surface of the book and it's themes, the author rightfully frames it as a personal reflection on the book by a Muslim, rather than an analysis of what Herbert was trying to achieve by mentioning religion in it.
A few observations:

https://twitter.com/TraversingTrad/status/1450135572803063816

One thing that stood out from the article is the idea of offense. That the use of some "Islamic" terms may be contentious if not condescending and insulting to Muslims, such as Auliya, and I'm imagining many others as well.

I feel this contention is a bit shortsighted; many of these concepts are not exclusive to Islam.Auliya is abtemr used in Arabic Christian workz. Phonetically it's a familiar term, in Dune it's used for something entirely different.

In Dune Auliya is a proper name, one used for the mother-god in the Zensunni religion's trinity of male-female-neuter. It has nothing to do with Islam, because for Herbert there has already been thousands of religions and prophets (Islams, Buddhisms, etc) that have come and gone.

Another is the use of the term Muadd'ib. To me it has a double meaning. In the Fremen language it's the kangaroo mouse, a very resourceful desert animal. So not every word that sounds Arabic is used as such, as this animal in Arabic is the Yarbū'.

Perhaps the foriegn terms are intended, Muadd'ib sounds close to the Arabic مؤدب, a teacher instructing in the ways of the world, correcting his subjects for their mistakes. Part of this was through language and literature, thus "Adab" as literature.

Linguistically it comes from the idea to coalesce and gather, being one who gathers good character in his pupils, which for Paul Atreides is interesting, as he is resourceful like the desert mouse, natural in his environment despite his diminutive stature and perceived weakness.

Paul also gathers the Fremen, and they coalesce around him, taking the "Peace of Muadd'ib" to countless worlds, punishing millions through Muadd'ib's Jihad. Although Paul is opposed to this and attempts to prevent it, he is unable.

Interesting as well is Paul being labeled Mahdi. (Herbert modeled this on the Sudanese Mahdi, Muhammad b. Ahmad Abdallah). The religious & historical parallels show the shortsightedness of some painting Dune as a "White Savior narrative" when Paul is no where near a savior.

Paul refuses to do what's necessary to avoid the path to extinction, something that his son Leto II accepts his *Golden Path" (apparently from ancient Egyptian). This made Leto II the true "Kwisatz Haderach" (a Hebrew term) who shorten the way to "new age of greatness."

Interesting as well is that the Kwisatz Haderach, the Mahdi, Etc are all narratives planted in people's minds by the Bene Gesserit sisterhood for the purpose of control by them that leads to peace, saving humanity from itself.

Other terms and concepts are universal, and like the people of Dune universe are an amalgam of an evolved human race (10k years+ into future), the religious concepts are as well.

End of the Day, Herbert weaves a cautionary tale about abuse of religious narrative, aggrandizing messianic figures, the over/ under reliance on technology, interactions btw politics, ecology, and power; this is less about one religion and more about "Religion" in general.

So if you're person of faith watching the new #DuneMovie or reading the books for the first time, take notice of the metanarratives the books try to convey, using familiar words and concepts as proxies for that narrative. /end