In an indigenous culture that I'm connected with, there are seven teachings represented by seven animals. Here young people are taught these seven teachings, so that they won't go astray in the society we live in which is full of negative things. I adhere to the sayings of Rasulullah and know about the things mentioned in the seven teachings from the Qur'an and Hadith. The Qur'an cannot be changed. Not one letter can be taken out of it nor can a letter be put into it, nor can a letter be changed in it without it being noticeable as such. All people joined together as one cannot come up with a literary work equal to any part of the Qur'an. There is no doubt that the Qur'an is from the Creator, Allah Almighty as He calls Himself. For me the Qur'an and the sayings of Rasulullah are ahead of everything else. The rule is that even if a nonMuslim tells you something true, then you shouldn't turn away from the truth. For example if a nonMuslim sees a Muslim stealing and tells the Muslim not to steal, the Muslim should listen and not steal. Moral values mentioned in the seven teachings fall into that category. Further shaping our lives around them instead of shaping our lives around the Qur'an and Hadith can lead us into questionable territory are we listening to the Qur'an and Hadith or not. I'd like to share a comment regarding the seven teachings because it is something that directly affects my life and the culture I'm coming from.

The eagle represents love; it means to have unconditional love to know that when people are weak they need your love the most, that your love is given freely and that you cannot put conditions on it of your love is not true.

The buffalo represents respect; it means to respect others and respect yourself. If you cannot show respect you cannot expect respect to be given to you.

The bear represents courage; it means to have courage is to be able to do something right even if you know that it's going to hurt you. Here I accept that Allah Ta'Ala is One and that Muhammad Salallahu aleyhi was Sallam is His Messenger and I know that my bringing the Shahadah laillaha illallah MuhammadurRasulullah is doing the right thing even if all kinds of abusers Muslim and nonMuslim are going to hurt me after that.

The sabe represents honesty; it means to achieve honesty within yourself to recognize who and what you are and then you can be honest with all others. I honesty believe that Allah Ta'Ala is One and that Muhammad Salallahu aleyhi was Sallam is His Messenger and I accept to be honest with others about it.

The beaver represents wisdom; it means to have wisdom to know the difference between good and bad and to know the results of your actions

The wolf represents humility; it means to humble yourself and realize no matter how much you thing know, you know very little of all of the universe

The turtle represents truth; it means to learn the truth, live with the truth, walk with the truth, speak the truth. The truth is that there is One Creator and the truth is that Muhammad Salallahu aleyhi was Sallam is His Prophet so I would rather live with that than with a lie to myself about it that would bring me to question the honesty represented by the sabe and everything else related to that. So if I want to follow the seven teachings then there is no way I can live without accepting the Shahadah laillaha illallah MuhammadurRasulullah.

As Muslim nothing changes regarding believing in One Creator and regarding accepting His Prophets. For example church people claim that the Creator has a son. There is a small Chippewa rez near the place where I spend 5 years. Here's what one of the elders on the Red Road from that small rez commented on people saying the Creator has a son. If anyone wants to meet him I'll direct you to him. This is what he said about people who claim that the Creator has a son: The Creator is a Mistery. No one went and saw the Creator and came to tell us what the Creator looks like. You can't say what He looks like and compare him to anyone. Having a son is what people do. You can't say that about the Creator because you will be making Him look like people.

Also as Muslims we read the Qur'an and Allah Ta'Ala Said that He Created us to worship Him. We don't go worship other than Allah Ta'Ala. How ignorant about Islam some people are is notes of some European orientalists who say that we worship a stone in the Kaaba. Lets look at what the Red Road says and what the same Europeans said regarding the people on the Red Road. Joseph Riverwind wrote the following for the site www.bluecorncomics.com "We do not worship nature. Everyone seems to think we worship the sun, trees, animals, and spirits. There is one Creator, and we call him/her by different names. The first priests who set foot on this land watched as Native people raised their hands to the sun and prayed. Since they were "civilized" rather than "savage" like us, they took this to be worship of the sun. If the priests had asked, we would have told them the prayers were for the force that created the sun, not the sun itself." This is good we have something that we share here and that we can build a relationship on. The parallels between our beliefs and the treatment we received are there. After listening to the Red Road seven teachings and looking at the facts and the Truth saying the Shahada laillaha illallah MuhammadurRasulullah comes natural. About the churchers Michelle(Yaskwatut) said "The Christian Bible if left out in the wind and rain will disappear over time. Our faith is the wind and the rain."

There are many different approaches telling about the seven teachings. In my area we have the seven animals. This is an interpretation of the seven teachings according to directions and colors: east and red as the truth, south and white as honesty, west and black as bravery, north and blue as humility, up and yellow as wisdom, below and brown as respect, here and green as love. It's important to understand that people use the seven animals, colors, directions so as to easily remember the seven virtues. There's no need to get mystical and weird about it. Same with the seven virtues of the seven teachings, people living in remote places didn't have Ulema teaching the Qur'an and Sunnah but they had to live in harmony in order to survive. So they used their knowledge from their experience and they taught their children virtues such as the seven virtues. There's no need to drift into mysticism and start saying weird things. People came up with these teachings so that they could coexist not so that they get mystical and weird like the nonNatives claiming to be shamans. Take care not to fall into Bida' and Shirk.

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