SACRED NUMBERS IN CHRISTIANITY, ISLAM, JUDAISM AND YORUBA RELIGION

The Muslim month of Ramadan has arrived. The announcement shall be made anytime, very soon, when
the new month moon has been sighted by the authorities of the Sokoto Caliphate in Nigeria. The last
time when the Nigerian Meteorological Agency attempted to use its technology to provide scientific
precision to the announcement of moon sighting by announcing the date of the arrival of the new
moon, it was sharply rebuffed by the Sokoto authorities who told the faithfuls to disregard the agency's
date.

In spite of their advertised differences which had led to rancour, acrimony and deaths of many people,
the foundational similarities between the Jewish, Islamic and Christian religion are many. These
similarities made them to be easily differentiated from other religions in the world. For the moment, the
concern is the examination of the mystery dimensions of the ABRAHAMIC faiths of Judaism, Christianity
and Islam and contrast them with the Yoruba Ifa religion.

It is saying the obvious to state that every religion has a mystery dimension. This is because if not for the
mysterious, what is the basis of religion in the first instance? There are many mysterious aspects of the
ABRAHAMIC faiths and the Yoruba religion but the focus here, again, is on the sacred numbers of the
two categories of religious tradition. It is probable that an understanding of the sacred numbers might
explain the uniqueness of the Yoruba religious experience in the whole of Africa and even why many
hausa-fulani Muslims usually dismiss Yoruba Muslims as being not 'authentic Muslims'.

Sacred numbers, the numerological or mathematical aspect of a religion goes back to the antiquity.
From the grand temples of Memphis in ancient Egypt even farther back in time to the Sumerian
civilization, sacred numbers are part of the mystery or esoteric knowledge of the schools which existed
in the temples. We must not forget that the number system that we use today in mathematics,
especially the number '0' was discovered by Hindu religious mathematicians and passed on to the world
by the Arabs.

An examination of the Jewish and Christian bibles shows that the most recurring numbers which have
mysterious significance are numbers '7'and '12'. The three ABRAHAMIC religions agree that God created
heaven and earth in six days and rested on the seventh day. Furthermore, in the case of Judaism and
Christianity, there is the 7 times ritual birth of the leprous Syrian General Naman in the river Jordan, the
7 times movement around the wall of Jericho by the Armies of Israel which led to the crumbling of that
wall. Further more the golden lamp in the temple had 7 candlesticks. In the book of Revelation in the
Christian Bible, we see apostle John being instructed to write to the '7'churches of Asia minor. Indeed
'7'is sacred number in Jewish and Christian religion. Now let us examine the number '12'.

The number '12' is significant in the ABRAHAMIC faiths too. The children of Jacob are '12', the tribes of
Israel are '12', the disciples of Jesus are '12', in a parable we have '12'virgins going to meet the
bridegroom. In situations where there is no outright mention of number '12', we still have a number
where 12 is the least common factor. For example, 120 persons gathered in the upper room on the day
of Pentecost; 24 elders bowed in the book of revelation and 144,000 persons wore white and were
counted worthy in the same book. In the Catholic Christian faith, there are '12' stations of the cross. All
these examples can only lead to the safe conclusion that, like '7', 12 is a sacred number in Christianity
and Judaism. It is now time to examine the Yoruba religion.

Unlike the ABRAHAMIC faiths, 7 and 12 does not feature and are not sacred in Yoruba religion.
Observation and research into this religion shows that the numbers '2'and '16' are the sacred numbers
of this ancient religion. In the Ifa corpus, which was originated by his Lordship, Orunmila of Oke-itase
mystery school in Ile ife, 2 and 16 are the sacred numbers. 2 or 'eji' featured in all aspects of the points
of divination. Secondly the number of pointS on the divination tray 'oju Odu', is 16 (merindinlogun).
There is another divination system in yoruba religion said to be founded by the river goddess Osun
called 'dinlogun' or '16'. Further more during Osun oshogbo festival, one of the Priestess always carry a
lamp stand that has 16 candlesticks (atupa Oloju merindinlogun). Finally before the arrival of Adimula as
king of ife, there were sixteen crowned heads in pristine Ile ife. 2, 16 and its mulples up to 256 are the
same sacred numbers of Yoruba religion.

What explanations or interpretations can we extract from the mystery number traditions that we have
noticed? How are they significant for shaping our today's reality? It appears that 7 and 12 are oriented
towards celestial events. Remember that there are 7 marks of zodiac. 7 coincide with number of earth's
rotation that make up the seven days of the week and 12 coincide with 12 lunar cycles which make a
year. The crescent and the star is the symbol of Islam and the significant month of Ramadan is heralded
by arrival of the new moon. Mind you if some Muslims say that number '7'is not sacred in their faith, tell
them the 28 days of fasting which is full lunar cycle has 7 as its least common factor. Moreover and we
must not forget that the Three Wise Men were led by a bright star to the birth place of baby Jesus. Thus
we can conclusivey say that the ABRAHAMIC faiths are aligned with celestial events. What of the Yoruba
religion?

Well, it appears that Orunmila and his acolytes were not really concerned about celestial issues. They
were really concerned with practical problem of information storage and retrieval. This may explain why
there were no star-gazers, astronomers and astrologers in Yoruba country prior to the arrival of Islam
and christianity. Thus they discovered the binary number system. Remember that in modern computer
system, information is stored in bits. A bit is 2 and eight bits make a byte. 1000 bytes is one kilobyte and
1000 kilobyte makes 1 megabyte. 1000 megabytes makes 1 Gigabyte or 1 Gig. 1000 gigs make one 1
terabyte. 16 in Yoruba religion represent 2 bytes. It is on the basis of this system that, without writing
materials, the first African Professor of Information and Computer Science, Orunmila was able to store
more than 4000 texts of Ifa corpus. We were able to receive the texts intact, retrieved from human
memory in the 20th century.

Today the Silicon Valley has dominated the computer and information industry based on binary system.
Now that industry is evolving towards a more complex binary system called qubit. It shall be the basis of
complex calculations and much more advanced artificial intelligence.
Which one is superior between the two religious traditions? I will say none because each has secret
messages and codes that is meant for human advancement. As to ABRAHAMIC faiths, they must climb
down from their high horses and become humble for once because God talked to all humanity at the
same time in different codes and based on different needs of the different peoples of the world.