"'How do I know I'm saved' is perhaps the central question of Christian life. Each tradition & sect finds different answers.

Most end up engaging in some flavor of works righteousness. For someone it is straight-up synergism. For others, it's the more subtle "fruit checking." /1

One key element of the Islamic intellectual tradition is the commentary. Commentaries on the Qurʼan (tafsīr) began early in Islamic history, but from about the 12th or 13th century, well into the 19th, commentaries on other scholarly texts became extremely common. -jm

Usually a commentary is called a sharḥ, and a supercommentary (i.e. a commentary on a commentary) is called a ḥāshiyah. Sometimes you get all the way up to a fourth- or fifth-level supercommentary. -jm

Sometimes it's hard to even tell what the "core text" is, because even a very famous text that's the core of many commentaries might present itself as an abridgement or comment on something even earlier. -jm

Commentaries might serve multiple purposes: to explain obscure grammar or vocabulary, to dig into particular legal cases, etc. Even to show why the core text is wrong. Eventually you get some Ottoman Turkish commentaries that translate Persian poems and then comment on them. -jm

Authors of commentaries often mark quotes from the core text by key words like "qawluhu" ("what he said") and manuscripts often emphasize this by writing these words in red or putting a line over the quoted text, so you can figure out who is talking. -jm

1. Father God, it is our declaration and our stance that we will not fear bc You r w us. We thank You that You strengthen God-fearing Americans and harden us to the current and coming difficulties. You help us! You hold us in Your righteous right hand of justice. We appropriate

Animal Sacrifice in Yajñas

Read this thread to know how animal sacrifice got started in Yajñas and what Rishis thought about it.

Once Upon a time, Great and Powerful Indra decided to do Yajña, there were large scale preparations, Rishis were chanting mantras, then Indra decided to SIay animals there

Rishis stopped him, Rishis clearly told him that There is NO mention of K!lling animals in Yajñas in shastras,

K!lling animals in Yajñas is against Dharma, hence please allow Brahmins to perform it according to shastras

Rishis said, Yajña must be done with seeds, this is what Dharma says.
But Imdra had a Big ego, he refused to follow Dharma

So they went to King Vasu and asked him, who is correct, King lied that you can do yajña with anything, because if this he was punished.

(Mahabharata AshwamedhikaParva adhyay 91)