At 6:38 AM +0000 9/14/05, Brent Poirier wrote:
It is said they "are clothed in sackcloth," meaning that they,
apparently, were to be clothed in old raiment, not in new raiment;
in other words, in the beginning they would possess no splendor in
the eyes of the people, nor would their Cause appear new; for
Muhammad's spiritual Law corresponds to that of Christ in the
Gospel, and most of His laws relating to material things correspond
to those of the Pentateuch. This is the meaning of the old raiment.
(Abdu'l-Baha, Some Answered Questions, p. 48)
Possibly, but sackcloth has other meanings and implications - ask the
Penetente is you know any, Brent.
The basic meaning is, I believe, very inexpensive, rough clothing.
In relatively recent times, sackcloth was typically tho't of as
feedsack material. My grandmother did not have a store bought dress
and was not planning on attending my Uncle Don's H.S. graduation in
1939. He and my Uncle Glenn, tho' had been farming on their own for
several years, and splurged and got her a new dress. His was the
only graduation of her three children's she attended.
Some think of the Biblical sackcloth as burlap, and this is closer.
But the truth is that traditionally, including at the time of the
translation of the Authorized Version of the Bible, that sack cloth
was made of a mix of the cheapest fibers available, including the
poorest grades of wool and horse hair. In the Biblical levant,
instead of horse hair, camel's hair dominated. The result is not
only very coarse, but very itchy. As a result, during the middle
ages it was worn as a sign of penance or mourning, and certain cults,
such as the Penetente, and some monastics, adapted it a their garb.
From this, the meaning could be that the wearers would be poor and
possibly outcast, not permitted to earn enough money for better
quality clothing. The other possibility is that they would be in
mourning for the people having fallen away from the religion of God.
As I remember, some of the Old Testament prophets adopted sack cloth
garb.
Don C
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