Azadi

Azadi is a monotheistic faith that reveres the One True God, called Annur by the faithful, and considers the prophet al-Azad to be God's final messenger to humankind. It is chiefly worshiped in the lands of the Sirdabi Caliphate, where it is the official religion, but adherents of the Azadi faith can also be found in places such as Jalanjhur, Cadenza, Yalanbari, and even further abroad.

Azadi

Deity	The One True God ("Annur")
Texts	The Song of God, the Remembrances
Founder	Fadil al-Azad
Community	the Redeemed
Symbols	Key with a six-pointed star in the bow, Key constellation
Origin	Rahoum
Language	Sirdabi
Most Sacred Site	The Sirdab

Scripture

The Perfected Song of God

The fundamental holy scripture of Azadi is the Song of God; more accurately, the Perfected Song of God. This distinguishes it from the Song of God as followed by the Yehani and the Kalentoi, which Azadi dogma judges incomplete and marred by error. While Azadi consider much of what is in the Yehani and Kalentoi Song of God to be correct, they believe that the One True God revealed Its true and perfect Song to the Rahoumi prophet al-Azad, who is therefore the last of the God's several prophets. The Perfected Song of God is not only God's message completed, but also freed from the error of past scripture as followed by the Yehani and Kalentoi.

Remembrances

The Remembrances are a set of traditions, stories, and sayings through which the life and words of the prophet al-Azad are remembered. By describing al-Azad's deeds and manner of living, as well as his commentary on a host of topics, they provide additional guidance for the Azadi community beyond that which is furnished by the Song of God. The Remembrances are not only an aid to help people know how to live well in their daily lives, but have also been used to draw up codes of law and right behavior for the faithful.

Practices & Beliefs

Fundamentals: The Six-Pointed Star

There are six fundamental practices which are expected of all Azadi, and which together make one a member of the Azadi faith:

1. Affirming the Faith: Believing and affirming that the God is One and the Song is of God, and that Fadil al-Azad is the bringer of the Song's final verses.
2. Incantation of Prayer: Prayers should be chanted to the One God three times a day: the Prayer of Promise at daybreak, the Prayer of Full Song at noon, and the Prayer of Dreaming at dusk.
3. Seeking the Song: As Azadi go through life, they must always strive to Seek the Song of God both outwardly and inwardly. Outwardly, they are encouraged to seek it through knowledge of other people and places, and imparting what they have learned to others in the community. Inwardly, they should strive through prayer and Tending the Garden for a better understanding of the Song as manifested through their own lives and experiences.
4. Charity & Redemption: Almsgiving is mandated by the faith, with a strong emphasis on providing both material support and compassion for the poor, the weak, the sick, and all those who find themselves isolated and alone. The regular visitation of prisoners is strongly encouraged, as well as other people physically or socially isolated by their current circumstances such as widows and those confined to their homes through illness. The offer of redemption for those imprisoned or in bondage is equally important, with freeing of prisoners and slaves occurring on certain holy days.
5. Solitary Retreat: During the week and a half of Solitary, all Azadi faithful should isolate themselves from others from dawn to dusk, and may speak only by sign or gesture during these hours. The only sustenance allowed during this time is water and a plain, crusty kind of flatbread called gaolbread. Solitary retreat is balanced out by the commitment of charity to the community and the reaffirmation that those in bondage still belong to the Sirdab.
6. Tending the Garden: At least once in their lifetime, each adult who is able should travel to the Sirdab to tend the garden there. This may take the form of actually physically tending the Sirdab, through trimming, weeding, planting, and other tasks, or it may consist of a purely spiritual tending consisting of praying while walking the garden paths according to the proper formulae. Both the physical and spiritual tending involve prescribed prayers and recitations. "Tending the garden" is also used to refer to perfecting one's internal spiritual state and tending one's relation with the God.

The first three tenets are known as the Trivium of the Key, and the second three as the Trivium of the Bolt. To faithfully follow all six tenets unlocks the door to spiritual freedom and redemption.

Practices

Incantation of Prayer

Although a central part of the Azadi faith, prayer at its most fundamental is a relatively simple affair. The faithful are encouraged to pray three times a day, at daybreak, noon, and evening, each of these hours being sung out with a call to prayer. Regardless of the hour, the same short verse is sung or chanted, this being the central prayer of Azadi:

The Surah of Oneness

By the Song of the One, Dreamer of all Dreams,
Breaker of bondage, master supreme

To you alone we give service and praise
Your name alone is on our lips, to you alone our song is raised

Send us the dreams of the righteous and the songs of sweet accord
And steer us clear of dark nightmare and discord.

In the light of your great name, we sing
O Annur, Dreamer of the Dream.

Prayer is offered while seated crosslegged on the ground, holding a prayer stone cupped in both hands. This stone is generally a pebble selected and carried about by the person in question, and is often chosen for the pleasing noise it makes, whether that is simply a pleasant plinking or the chiming hum of phonolite. The prayer begins wordlessly, with a drawn out hum, the al-ansijam, whose key varies according to the hour of prayer. If praying alone, the worshiper will continue this hum until they feel themselves suitably attuned to the Song, which may take as little as several seconds or as long as several minutes. They then sing the Surah of Oneness. Occasionally a few additional verses may be sung, according to the hour, the prompting of the imam leading the prayer, or the worshiper's own concerns or sentiments if they are alone. If praying aloud in the company of others, it is expected that all will coordinate al-ansijam and the singing of the Surah of Oneness, as to do otherwise would lead to dissonance. After completing the surah, each worshiper will kiss the stone while silently praising the Song. The prayer is then complete.

This constitutes the fullest elaboration of prayer, but it is not considered necessary to perform the full ritual each time. A person may simply bow their head and silently offer up the surah at the appropriate hour, praising Annur in their heart. If a prayer is entirely missed for whatever reason, it is enough to make up for it at the next hour of prayer by doubling (or if two prayers are missed, tripling) the usual incantation of the Surah of Oneness. One prayer a day is the minimum needed, but this one prayer at least must be given with full attention and with the mind, heart, and will fully fixed on the Song and the Dreamer of Dreams.

Prayer	Hour	Key	Focus
Prayer of Promise	Promise	A	This is the hour to give thanks for Annur's forgiveness of past errors, to make vows of personal betterment, and to ask Annur's help for the future, whether in the hours or years ahead.
Prayer of Full Song	Scales	C	This is the hour to give great thanks and celebration, and to focus on unity and matters of the community.
Prayer of Dreaming	Respite	G	This is the hour for expressing gratitude for having been dreamt safely through the day, to seek divine wisdom and guidance, and to deeply contemplate the nature of God and the Dream.

Seeking the Song

It is believed that through al-Azad the One God has revealed all the fundamental components of the Song, so that people can live according to them and thereby create a harmonious life in tune with God's creation and wishes. However, humanity's knowledge of the whole Song is incomplete so long as peoples exist who have not learned and accepted the true fundamentals of the Song. Each individual and each people in the world is believed to have their own personal arrangement of the Song's fundamentals, creating a melody unique to itself, but they are deaf to it without first accepting and understanding the Song of God.

It is the duty of Azadi to bring knowledge of the Song to the other peoples of Avaria, so that each people and individual in turn may discover the true harmony by which it is meant to live. It is generally accepted that people cannot be made to hear by force, though the idea of more easily exposing all people to the Song has been used as a justification (often sincerely, sometimes not) for the conquest of other peoples in the past. Regardless, Azadi are encouraged to learn more about other people and cultures of the world in order to add to the faith's knowledge of the Song, as something of benefit is thought to be gained by the Azadi community even without the full understanding that can only come through the conversion of an individual or a people.

Solitary Retreat

The most important time for solitary retreat is during the holy days of Solitary, the chief religious observance of the Azadi faith. Although considered essential to achieving a fuller understanding of the One God's wishes, retreat is not strictly governed outside the holy days of Solitary. It is expected that the believer will retreat from time to time as their own spiritual needs or those of their community demand. Some people may spend time every week in retreat, contemplating the God and Its Song or seeking self-knowledge through Tending the Garden, while others may retreat only occasionally when confronted with significant trials in their life or faith.

Tending the Garden

Azadi are also encouraged to to discover a fuller understanding of the Song through prayer and the practice known as Tending the Garden. Tending the Garden involves meditation and self-conscious reflection, whereby the believer achieves a fuller awareness of their own song and its place within the greater Song of God. Some ascetic sects of Azadi exist, collectively referred to as Hadiqi, which have refined Tending the Garden to a way of life by which they hope to achieve perfect resonance with the Song.

General Beliefs & Ideals

Those who have embraced the Azadi faith are considered to be redeemed from the bondage of error by the One God. Although now freed from living in error, they are not free in the sense of now being able to do whatever they like, but rather have been redeemed by God to labor honestly and faithfully as servants within Its house, striving to carry out Its will through the essential tenets of the faith.

Living in the Song

The Song of God dwells in the world, waiting to be heard by mortalkind. All people can hear it, and all may attune their hearts and souls to resonate with it. They may hear those parts of it that resonate most strongly with them more clearly than others, but most will hear the whole imperfectly. The community of faithful together can hear the Song far better than any one woman or man, and therefore what the community as a whole believes the Song to be is correct. Prophets are those who are privileged to receive fuller revelations of the Song from God Itself, and the prophet al-Azad is he who has received the final movement of the full composition which is meant for all God's children.

However, it is important for all the faithful to seek their own personal connection to and resonance with the Song, and in certain places in the world they may hear a part of the Song which they are individually meant to hear. However, whatever an individual hears in the Song may not conflict with the Song as it dwells within the whole community of faithful; if it conflicts with the community's Song -- if it is discordant with it -- the individual's song must be incorrectly heard. An individual's song is meant to provide pleasing accents and variations on the overall theme but remain within the limits defined by the Song itself, just as a unique musical improvisation must still follow the rules of the style of music to which it belongs.

To one who is pure and well attuned to the will of God, the Song will always resonate within him, as music resonates within the instrument that then broadcasts it upon the air. An individual should submit himself gladly to the playing out of God's Song, as an instrument submits to playing the music devised by the musician; that is their purpose in life. It honors the God to sing Its song, and it pleases the God to hear it, as it pleases God that Its children create their own songs and poems -- though never mistaking these, pleasing but pale echoes that they are, for the Song itself. The world itself may be cultivated to make hearing parts of the Song easier, and therefore gardens and fountains (sirdab) are typically part of Azadi places of worship.

Community

Azadi has a strong emphasis on community, which privileges both the overarching community of faith as well as the local community of those who must live and work together over narrower allegiances to kin or tribe. Members of a community are all bound to care for one another as equals in the estimation of God, regardless of wealth or connections. Thus the ideals of Azadi are not only communitarian but egalitarian, emphasized by the practice of charity and the aid of those in bondage. The egalitarian nature of the Azadi community has lapsed since its early days, in part due to the absorption of the culture of conquered peoples, particularly Irzali and Kalentoi communities, and in part simply due to the growing size and sophistication of the caliphate over generations. Nevertheless, this remains the ideal.

Compassion

Compassion and generosity are considered key virtues of Azadi, and are meant particularly to encompass the weak, the poor, the ill, the infirm, the elderly, and those in bondage. This last includes slaves and servants as well as prisoners, and also animals that are used for their labor. Compassion towards all animals is important to Azadi, who believe that all living things have souls that are known and cared for by the One God. Just as humans labor as willing servants doing God's work, and thereby merit God's compassion and kindness, so animals laboring in the service of humans merit kindness and compassion from them. One must give gladly of one's wealth and possessions, sharing them with the community and those less fortunate. Hospitality is a highly valued form of generosity.

Organization

Azadi is faith in which it is felt that all believers are able to personally draw close to the God, understand Its word, and strive to live in harmony with the Song without need of special mediation. As a result there is no true priestly class responsible for carrying out complicated religious rituals or serving as intermediaries between the God and Its people. Most formal religious roles are based more on scholarship or leadership than any idea of a special relationship with the divine.

Prayer Leaders & Scholars

Imams are responsible for leading the weekly prayers at community mosques, and are also often respected leaders or elders in local communities. Other clerical roles are based on interpreting both the Song of God and the Remembrances for use in daily life, including in various legal situations. These interpretations, though considered authoritative once agreed upon by a wide section of the community, are not accorded the reverence due the Song itself and may evolve over time; there are also multiple schools of such thought which wax and wane in influence. The construction of practical interpretations of the Song is the work of individuals of special training called mufti, while qadi make judgments based upon the mufti's work. The formal name for this divinely inspired social law is al-ansijam (the Harmony), sharing its name with the resonant hum that begins the Azadi prayer.

The Caliph

At the head of the entire faith is the caliph, who functions as the secular head of state but is also considered to be the successor to the prophet al-Azad and therefore the leader of the entire faith community. As such, the caliph is ideally supposed to be a man of great virtue, piety, and wisdom, who is to be selected for these traits by a special council of all the great tribal chiefs known as the Sirdabi Convocation. Although the first few caliphs were chosen and appointed in this manner, in most cases the appointment of a new caliph falls along hereditary lines or else is accompanied by a large amount of chaos, intrigue, and occasional outright assassination as those who consider themselves candidates jockey for supremacy. Opinion among scholars is split over whether it is one's duty to obey even a corrupt caliph simply because he is caliph and therefore evidently the candidate of God's choosing, or whether it is instead one's duty to oppose the caliph's will wherever it conflicts with true virtue, being a test upon the faithful likewise sent by God.

Structures & Sites

Mosques

The chief place of worship for Azadi is the mosque. Different types of mosque exist based on the size of the community they serve and the frequency with which services are held. Within larger towns and cities, every enclave of size will have their own local mosque, or masjid, used for daily prayers. In addition to these mosques serving a local community each day, there will typically be at least one larger mosque where the weekly prayer is held and several neighborhoods or sections of the town gather together to hear it. The largest cities and pilgrimage sites will additionally have a congregational mosque meant to host hundreds of people at once. These are typically very simple spaces consisting of a spacious courtyard surrounded by walls or arcades.

Sirdabs

Each mosque, however large or small, has its own sirdab, a garden with a central fountain which usually lies above a cistern. These are modelled conceptually if not materially upon the Sirdab in Rahoum, and are meant to create a medley of sights, sounds, scents, and other physical sensations to draw the visitor nearer to harmony with the Song of God. A sirdab will typically include a combination of shade trees, flowering plants, scented shrubbery, fountains or pools, rocks, flagstone and gravel paths, windchimes, waterwheels, and other components calculated to soothe and captivate all the senses. These gardens are a place for contemplation and prayer, but also for physical labor, communal gatherings, and simple repose.

History

Beginnings

The Azadi faith began with the Rahoumi prophet called al-Azad, the Redeemed. Al-Azad was born Fadil bin Ahmad of the Banu Shirayd, a tribe of the southern deserts. His childhood and youth were originally recorded as unexceptional, as he was raised by a merchant family of middling means and was trained in the business of his mother. From an early age Fadil was remarked upon for his honesty, intelligence, and diligence, but also for his explosive temper. He was both curious and literate, reading when he had the opportunity, and conversing with many people with a wisdom beyond his years. Fadil was entrusted with overseeing his mother's business interests while still in his teens, and for twenty years traveled widely across Rahoum to trade and settle accounts in distant market towns.

It was one of these commonplace business trips that took Fadil to Bargha, the largest and oldest city of Rahoum and home to the Banu Ghourib, one of the most powerful and influential families of the land. Angered by the insults and petty hassles inflicted on him by an arrogant youth in the street, Fadil lost his temper and gave the young man a sound thrashing. Very shortly afterwards he was arrested and thrown into the prison known as the Black Cloud for assaulting one of the scions of the Ghourib family, where he was further accused of being part of a known conspiracy against the elites of the city. Fadil was imprisoned for many months and subjected to great privation, but in his darkest hour he found himself singing the Surah of Oneness as if something of impossible divinity and harmony were speaking through him. This was the first of the Perfect Verses which he was to receive from the One True God.

Nearly a year passed before Fadil was brought out of his cell, at which point he fully expected to be taken to the infamous al-Barzum Square for execution. He felt at peace with the God and all Its creation, and no longer had any fear of dying or the future. But he was greatly surprised when he was led to al-Azad Square instead, where prisoners were pardoned and freed. There he was told that all charges against him had been expressly dismissed by the Banu Ghourib, and that he was now free to go.

Rather than rejoicing, Fadil was suddenly filled with a sense of disorientation and doubt, and entered into another dark period in which he questioned everything which he had experienced during his imprisonment. He was reunited with his mother and told her of his revelations, but although she listened with attention and was moved by his experiences she could offer him little advice. A period of wandering followed, now called the Seeking, in which Fadil wandered without purpose, questioning himself and all things and hoping to find the Song again.

It was during this time that Fadil was able to contact a mysterious correspondent who had sent him several letters during his imprisonment (none of which had been delivered to him by his guards until his release). The wisdom of the writer, as well as her belief in Fadil's revelations, helped to renew his confidence in himself, and shortly after the beginning of their correspondence Fadil was sent another verse of the Song as he lay in a reverie upon a hillside above the spring of Murid Suruq. Inspired and energized by receiving this new verse, the Song of the Sunbeam, Fadil took the name of al-Azad, the Redeemed, and began finally to preach the perfected message of the God to all who would listen. And there were many who listened, drawn by the inspired Song and by its message of justice, equality, and compassion for those who suffered and were alone.