Advertisements

Anti-Knoweldgism of East & West

Deep down our society has become perverted due to the historical process called colonization, and colonial education that stripped away elements of sacredness from the very business of instruction and education. In Mirror and the Lamp, economic historian Atiyab Sultan with illuminating and ground breaking research from earliest and contemporary scholarly sources show how Britishers in the name of reform actually deformed everything.


Our society has developed a materialistic mindset. A pursuit of knowledge for personal ilmi consumption that is not related to something "practical", (say the professional degree) is frowned upon as a toxic waste that will rust one's mind, especially if it serves no monetary purposes. Our muslim forefathers, a philosopher and a polymath scholar told us, would sell everything for ilm, and not sell their knowledge for money. (Surely stipends were given to teachers, scholars and their those who reflected on deen.) Their love for knowledge was unearthly - starting with the First Principles of Prophecy which influenced all other fields like a canopy over earth. I too want to drink from that cup. For Iqbal, taking the sip from modern west is a big no-no (perhaps because their 'intellect is atrophied'), for the method in the recipe of Hashmites is unique. As Frithoj Schuon put it: West thinks too much and thinks wrongly; east is sleeping over treasures and doesn't think much.

Biggest Idol


Imam Al-Ghazzali considered the greatest idol to be the idol of the Self. This was his starting point."

- Hamza Yusuf in a speech: Critical Importance of Imam Ghazzali in our Times.

Counting Probabilities in Movies



My tiny brain cannot comprehend the delusions perpetrated by movies. I was perplexed and doubtful - but never sure - of these delusions.

Have the screen play writers ever wondered what they are producing? How would people perceive the writers?

They do mention here and there the odds a hero is up against. But. Take into (some level of) free will of so many people and things surrounding the heroes. That hardly seems to count. Occasionally, one or two things won't go according to the plan and that's it. That's just not enough to even remotely satisfy or honor randomness at work in the world of chaos in which the plots are set.

Do they have anything else but "escapism" as an excuse for fooling themselves and their audience? Probably not. Maybe that's the point that even if the possibility of doing a feat is 1 in a million times - it's doable. However, the process of getting there is brutally by passed in the name of Greece's self-delusional fantasies..

We mistake high definition graphics and few moments of breathtaking actions as a recipe for stretching beyond the limits. Not even a chance. Censorship is required by those with deep introspection into these matters.

Fooled by Singularities

Source. Its no physics' singularity theory i'm talking about :P
By singularity here i mean a single explanation or a theory about something which is not fully understood to a person. The person fooled is the one who is trying to fully understand something. This problem seems to be most relevant in history, philosophy and like social sciences, and even for mathematical thinking. When presenting our explanations, we can be a victim of confirmation bias. Latter is all about looking at data that fits our narrative, and not looking for what go against it (see The Black Swan). This is what Iqbal protested in his PhD against the singular explanation of scholars of historical events. IT seemed egoistic to me why they'd stick to just their unique proposition, when even in their minds other explanations would be as helpful as theirs.

In econometrics, people have gone madder than that. They take two data set and run tests to see correlation between the two - without thinking about any causal relation between the two. They do so because of their adherence to logical positivism which is nominalistic and denies the study of unseen/unobservable. Hence, they look at data and not what lying beneath it, the 'reality', the unseen. (See Methodological Mistakes and Econometric Consequences.)

Perhaps that's why we say: No god but God. Denying everything else first to confirm the Unity of God.

I just had a flash of intuition that above 2 paras imply in some way the latter.

Pursuit of Satisfaction

For some time recently, I've been perplexed by self-projections and how i should judge my myself. Should i judge myself from my professional (ie academic) achievements, or the quantitative influence of my work (though I'm yet to produce a single thing)? This all sounded egoistic afterwards, as soon as i tried to reduce the anxiety by little introspection from a spiritual point of view. But. Even this spiritual understanding of my ambitions didn't solve the conundrum. I got the answer from iqbal's persian poem.

(English trans by me from Urdu)

Laazt e sair ast maqsood e safar.
Gar nigah bar aashiyan dari mapar.

Purpose of journey is in its pleasure.
If you aim at your destination/home, don't fly.

***

Zindagi juz lazzat e parwaz neest
Ashiyan ba fitrat e Oo saaz neest

Life is nothing but taste of flight.
Ashiyana (home) is not nourishing for his nature

Comments on 'Lambs to the Slaughter': On Alif, Bay, Pay Education


Comments/response by Hassan Habib to the previous post: 'Lambs to the Slaughter': Reflections on Geo Network's New Educational Campaign.


1
First of all, bravos on this try of presenting the truth. It denounces wickedness behind this despicable slogan of GEO. The thing that I found in the piece of writing was that it presupposes that the reader knows about the deep routes of concepts of Tawheed.

The world-view of Islam is in total opposition of what we believe today. For example, the industrial revolution, the revolution itself identifies the height of ignorance of humans. Why? Because it provided the seed of materialistic endeavor and attitude towards life, it replaces everything with regards to morality on the sentiment of material and material alone.

The modern theories of quality and obsession of companies to achieve it is just a futile endeavor from Islamic perspective. Islam views the world as a temporary abode while the real wealth and real life is the life of hereafter. It focuses on the principles of purifying one’s self from this worldly glitter. While, the whole idea of education today is revolving around this idea, that, we have to satisfy the ‘customer’. Customer’s needs are not the ones that are necessary for its survival rather these are the voluptuous desires that the companies have to ‘satisfy’. The engineers, scientists and managers work to ‘make a winning team’ that fulfils this task of providing the ‘best quality’ with ‘agility’.

The concepts of Total Quality Management, Computer Integrated Manufacturing and Just in Time have evolved into the defining techniques of development today and are being taught with awe in Pakistani institutions. If you go through these in detail you would know that the basic idea is to increase profits and make more customers by attending to their needs. There is no morality and no values that these people follow.

Jack Welch in his book ‘winnings’, describes the idea of values that the leaders should define and the employees should follow. The values are the ones that have ‘competitive advantage’ and are aural for the company itself.

Today all the specializations and modern subjects are catering the needs of these business giant companies that are just robbing people off by selling them things they don’t really need.

When I reflect on this I am left unanswered about how things will change or how can people realize that instead of selling these luxury items to elite, these should be rather sent to areas where still people remain without food for days.

With these words we conclude that the education is nothing but a way for the rich to continue to increase their wealth while their counterparts continue to suffer.

2
What should replace this idea of education? What should be the foundations of building up the moralities of men? How knowledge should be used to create harmony among people? What is the concept of wealth? How this challenge of defining Islamic education be met? What has the researches in modern technologies given humanity? What do we have to do while standing on the brink of this destruction? What does Islam say about this? I think that the utopian debate of Socrates must follow these questions and answers should be sought.

It should be noted that the development that has happened in some of the Islamic countries in the past few decades have followed the same pattern that is being followed by the West. Entrepreneurship and elevation of industrial sector has been the foundations for the development of Turkey and Indonesia.

The subjects that really add to our good character are the ones that we stop studying after our matriculation. Like history, Geography, Social Science and Islamiat. These subjects are always given the second priority while the ones that add nothing to our character are given the first priority. There are no regular subjects that teach us Quran or Hadith. The history being taught to children is itself modified and does not align with the true ideals of Islam.

All the education that follows after our college supports the idea of materialism and inculcates an egoistic approach towards life. That destroys the moralities of humans. Whether it is commerce or management, engineering or life sciences all are void of any sensuality and spirituality.

What is the need then?

First is the idea of realizing that we are the servants of Allah and we cannot spend lives according to our own wishes. Based on this fact we have to rethink our priorities.

Secondly we should recognize what are the major problems being faced by humanity today. How can we practically free people from modern idols of Nationalism and materialism? It is that dawah that prophet S.A.W did and freed people from idols and made them the servants of Allah.

Thirdly we must provide the solutions to these problems that can really solve these problems. We should analyze how different professions interlink with our Islamic needs. (By Islamic I mean the ones that are a necessity and not a luxury). Then we would have to separate the ones which are contributing up to a critical amount to the Islamic ideals and we have to finish those that are opposing those ideals in totality.

Fourthly we must practice and promulgate the true Islamic character. For this the thinking, dedication and sincerity has to be induced in people that makes them to work so hard that they not only become good managers or doctors or engineers but they become a true Muslim. It is also necessary then to abolish those technologies or inventions that directly act in corrupting the character.

Extensive debate and discussion with authentic resources is needed to elaborate further all these needs.
There are many people who can really add to these struggles but they are trapped in the vicious circles of life. There is this need of freeing them from these circles so that they can contribute their part.

Media is using tools that quickly adhere to the brains of people, while it is needed to present people with truth with more passion and enthuse. We are still not doing enough I think so as to reverberate in the minds and hearts of people for that we need a strong synchronization and unity.

These are just the thoughts of an ignorant mind that were reflected on the article you wrote. These are just words while action is rather much needed. I would like to hear from you further on refuting the idea of GEO and presenting the truth. It is very much needed that we debate on practical models of change so that we can meet the aspired end.

‘Lambs to the Slaughter’: Reflections on Geo's New Educational Campaign

Image source.
Edited version by and at Mybitforchange.org
Authors
Hira Shamim | Muhammad Umer Toor

1
“Sticks and drones may break our bones, but ftina really hurts”

Few months back, Geo aired different kinds of ads of success stories in education. We were having very heated discussions with our friends on Facebook about those one-sided educational promos, in which only one type of education was being glorified: materialistic that helped people gain jobs, and not ethical and spiritual training. Then, nothing was too startling or alarming about it. With a very smooth transition, the message has been stepped up to a whole new level. Now they’ve come up with a very bold, exclusivist and provocative message: Taleem k siwa Paksitan ka matlab kaya? (‘Except education, what can be the meaning of Pakistan?’ No god but education?) [Emphasis ours.] The message is known to at least 44% of Pakistanis in a survey conducted by Gallup Pakistan. Alarms have been raised in conscious minds.

If we forget about Pakistan’s history and the concept of Tawheed, we cannot raise serious objections over this slogan. However, if we view this innovative slogan by Geo – logically – in the context of history and meaning of Pakistan, it has disastrous connotations, and justifiably the cause of infuriation to many.

Pakistan, we believe, was forged in the liberating fire of Tawheed, and any attempt to replace this meta-historical basis is to bring a new idol back into the Kaaba of Muslim consciousness. Pakistan was gained in the name of Allah, apart from other factors, such as economic freedom, etc. Saleena Karim in her thoroughly researched and seminal book, Secular Jinnah & Pakistan: What the Nation Doesn’t Know (2005), has exposed multiple myths of secular academia. Some of these textbook myths paraded as facts are: “Jinnah never used the word ‘Ideology of Pakistan’,” or, “Jinnah vetoed the proposals for an Islamic state,” or, “Jinnah wanted a homeland for Muslims, not an Islamic state,” or, “Islam was just a propaganda tool.” Suffice to say that Pakistan’s soul is Islam and its supra-identity is Islamic identity, as formulated by Quaid in following words: “The Pakistan Movement started when the first Muslim put his foot on the soil of Sindh, the Gateway of Islam in India.” Of course our history goes beyond this period, and we do not seek to disown or forget our national heritage; but, we do not believe in the modernist, nationalist notions of nationality/identity based solely on geography or race. Rather, our nationalism is based on a direct link with Heaven and the Final Revelation of Islam.

In this light, is this campaign not a philosophical and intellectual ‘crime’ towards the collectivity of Muslims of Pakistan? Is it not an act of Sacrelizing the profane and worldly? What can replace the formula of Oneness of God? By education, they hopefully cannot mean that which leads back to La ilaha ill Allah which they seem to be replacing. This can be a very logical indicator of their true intentions, but may not be the accurate one. They're generalizing a ‘particular’ beyond its proportions; generalizing worldly education as a new world-view which is as confused as enslaved animals of Animal Farm and as materialist as Pigs of Animal Farm.

2

What has to be understood is that formal education cannot be a complete world-view or meaning for and of a nation. It is part of the world-view. Education is a means to an end, and not an end in itself. Unfortunately, modern man is obsessed with ‘means’ so much that he cannot see ends today, due to a loss of Sacred, Unifying Principles of Revelation of Islam.

Then there is also this danger of destroying our Tradition by emulating Western educational systems, when in fact we should be working towards integrating modern forms of knowledge within Islamic framework, stresses Dr. Seyyed H. Nasr

“There is always a relationship between every form of knowledge and a worldview within which that knowledge is accepted as knowledge. There is no doubt about that. The worldview in all civilizations before modern times came from religion. This is true for every civilization. Hindu universities, Chinese universities, Islamic universities — but as Western influence spreads all over the world, we will begin to emulate Western forms of knowledge, which claim to now be independent of religion. But it was not independent of the Christian worldview. The secularist paradigm which was created in the 17th century is itself a pseudo-religion in that it is a view of the nature of reality. There is no abstract knowledge; knowledge is always within the framework of a worldview, of a way of looking at the nature of reality.”

3

“All education is useless until it teaches you the splendors of yourself.”

The present education system of our country is exactly opposite to this phenomenon. We gloat over the Golden Period of Muslims yet don’t acknowledge the reasons behind that epitome. List all the Muslim scientists, scholars of that time and you will notice a common thread running through all of them. They studied history and nature, in addition to inner experience. Their basis for education was Quran. They took the spirit and matter hand in hand. Fresh avenues of research and studies kept on coming forth, unlike our rote-learning culture. What is the basis of our current education system? What does it teach us? What does it tell us about our world, our history as humanity, our collective future? Except slavery, materialism, inferiority complex, blind following, selfishness and hording a lot money, nada! And that’s just one platform.

Dr Muhammad Iqbal raised serious doubts about the colonial educational system prevalent in his time; and, we have many reasons to believe that the ghosts of that period are still living realities. Ironically, credentials of Iqbal are used to convince us about the benefits of an alien system of education, whereas his severe critiques are not incorporated. In his paper ‘Islam as a Moral and Political Ideal’ (1909), he argues:

“Education, we are told, will work the required transformation. I may say at once that I do not put much faith in education as a means of ethical training—I mean education as understood in this country … I venture to say that the present system of education in this country is not at all suited to us as a people. It is not true to our genius as a nation, it tends to produce an un-Muslim type of character, it is not determined by our national requirements, it breaks entirely with our past and appears to proceed on the false assumption that the idea of education is the training of human intellect rather than human will.”

We venture to say that not much has changed, at least at higher levels of education. Secular Western world-view continues to dominate Muslim thought, especially in social sciences and even in the philosophy of science; from psychology to economics to, from pure philosophy to governance systems; although many positive developments have been taking place in modern fields of knowledge for past fifty years.

Education in Pakistan should be subservient to the genius of Pakistanis and their aspirations; it should be subordinate to the operating Principle of Tawheed. He further inquires:

“But what sort of education? … A form of education which has no direct bearing on the particular type of character which you want to develop is absolutely worthless. I grant that the present system of education in India gives us bread and butter. Well, if we succeed in securing a few appointments in the higher branches of service, what then? It is the masses who constitute the backbone of the nation; they ought to be better fed, better housed and properly educated. Life is not bread and butter alone; it is something more; it is a healthy character reflecting the national ideal in all its aspects.” [Emphasis added]

Coming back to Iqbal’s skepticism regarding the presumed “magic” of education: how can we put so much trust in (a more or less) materialistic, job-oriented educational system, and announce it as the purpose of Pakistan, as the solution for all of our ills?

We believe that present educational system has many, many resemblances with the colonial setup of Iqbal’s era. Even the authors find themselves guilty of giving more thought to bread and butter than pursuit of pure knowledge, which was the hallmark of madrassah system before the colonial invasion, according to educationist Dr Tariq Rehman. Summing up, Iqbal takes a very brief quiz in basic intellectual, moral and practical life of Islamic history – I miserably failed:

“… [H]ow many of us know that Muhammad II conquered Constantinople at the age of twenty-two? How many of us have even the faintest notion of the influence of our Muslim civilization over the civilization of modern Europe? How many of us are familiar with the wonderful historical productions of Ibn Khaldun or the extraordinarily noble character of the great Amir Abdul Qadir of Algeria [20th century hero]?”

4

Our media, like its global mentors, is very expert at propaganda psychology: repeat a lie 1000 times, and it will transform itself into a truth. Perhaps this is what they hope to achieve with this campaign of ignorance, devoid of illumination. We thank Geo for creating this controversy which has led many into serious introspection about the purpose of Pakistan, basis for education, and our comprehensive world-view, including the authors. It seems to be a blessing in disguise! This introspection is more than needed ever, given that we are far from achieving various educational goals: high literacy rate while at the same time integrating modern education within Islamic framework, and creating alternative to discourses based on a-religious and secular worldview.

Initial Book Review: The Black Swan



Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Although the primary subject of the book - distillation of a life-long personal, academic and professional inquiry - may sound technical being related to finance and econometrics, the book interests all. Its not just that the application of the subject is universal, it's also that the cross-disciplinary approach and wealth of examples makes it a much more interesting book. Too enjoyable for escapists and hedonists. Psychology and philosophy have this aspect being accessible and relate-able to many, if not all, as their interests revolve around humans and their various problems, theoretical and practical.

It's 1970s. Lebanon (or the old Levant) enjoyed centuires of societal harmony despite as a hub of diverse cultures, ethnicity, religions, and sects of all sorts; as a meeting place of East and West, although more European than Eastern. (Fact that Europe exlcuded it from itself just gives a clue about their "openness" and the yearning to be in there by those relegated to East points to their "authenticity" and "independence".) Any prediction of a sudden, unnoticable, rare and catastrophic breakdown and dissolution of this harmony was beyond "imagination." It was not to be.

It was to be. Sudden. Unpredictable by conventional thinking, which was based on empirical data of centuries that only predicted more cohesion and unity in diversity than a bloody, long civil war between Muslims and Christians. The prime minister, relative of Taleb, had as reliable a clue about the situation as PM's car driver.

This is what Taleb calls a Black Swan. "All swans are white," was a belief paraded as a scientific truth by many who did not get dose of humility in school. It only took sighting of 1 black swan in Australia (perhaps) to demolish this "fact." Hence the idiom: as rare as a Black Swan.

The book is a decent dose for those who're too cocky about their expert-ness, especially of financial and mathematical models. At another level, it is also a critique of those obsessed with trying to fit things into neat and clean forms, types and categories, ignoring nuances and not-so-apparent distinguishing elements. At another level, it also questions our temptations to "explain things away" and find causes and motives to every fact or happening as immature babbling of an untrained mind.

Author belongs to the large pool of profane minded thinkers, intellectuals and writers, i must add. They are skeptic about everything else, but not about their value-judgments and exclusivist  mechanistic view of the world and creation, and their rejection of transcendence and fate. They believe in accidents as if accident is god or gods? They don't explain that. They're not skeptic about dogmas of modernity, and very unequivocal about their rejection of any "chance" of transcendence.

Overall, interesting book to read before sleeping.

"BUFFALO BUFFALO BUFFALO": Your Guess?

I'm taking an online: Think Again. It has introductory lectures on various kinds of arguments. Today i listened to lecture on linguistic acts, defining meaningful sentences. It has to be grammatically correct and meaningful. We'll be exploring, i guess, deeply what's meaningful and what's not. Of course, it's advanced.

Nonetheless, there was a very interesting sentence. BUFFALO BUFFALO BUFFALO.

Buffalo is also a verb which means, to trick or fool. So a nice and fat buffalo fooled a buffalo.

Think about this:

BUFFALO BUFFALO BUFFALO BUFFALO BUFFALO.

Buffalo is a town in New York. So a NY Buffalo did it to a NY Buffalo.

How about?

BUFFALO BUFFALO BUFFALO BUFFALO BUFFALO BUFFALO BUFFALO BUFFALO BUFFALO BUFFALO BUFFALO.

I still have to figure this out. Gotta check multiple meanings of Buffalo on net. What's your guess?

Gloomy state of self-affairs

Self-destruction caused by slavery of lower self (or satanic part of man) combined brilliantly with this lack of self-awareness and worth of being an Adamic being and a follower-speck of the celestial nation of Allah's Beloved (s.a.w.s) has led to this state of passivity, fear, non-action, complexes, narcissism, egoism, pursuit of a trouble-free and introvert life without any higher purpose.

The blog is back & alive

I have recovered this blog, lost in Jan 2012.

Umer Toor

Get smarter & better effortlessely

Interact with those who're smarter than you are, who're don't have any feelings of adulation for you, and who're ruthless in giving critical feedback to you.

Why Hope is like Hair or Nails?

I friend of mine sent an SMS, "Our hopes are like hair and nails. No matter how many time you cut it, they grow up again." Provided a person is not suffering from some kind of biological disease that don't allow these to grow at all.

What can justify such an analogy? Freedom movements. Our rising up from falls or failures. Seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Night's being darkest just before the sunrise. Yes the last 2 sentences are merely poetic and not arguments, but no matter what they do testify that humans do not fail to be hopeful. Perhaps only this explains existence and constant invocation of such idioms.

What do Modern Muslims Love?

Of Levantines' historical roles and professions, son of Levant/Lebanon Nassim Nicholas Taleb writes in The Black Swan:
"The Arabs, who seemed interested only in warfare (and poetry) and, later, the Ottomon Turks, who seemed only concerned with warfare (and pleasures), left to us the uninteresting pursuit of commerce and the less dangerous one of scholarship (like the translation of the Aramaic and Greek texts)."
Source.
History remembers the Arabs, the Turks, and Levantines for their individual, independent and original pursuits. They were true to themselves and realized their own potentials without imitating anyone. History remembers those with a vocation and an essence. What about those who are too dazzled by the enslaving, ruling 'decepticons'? Despite the fact that modern Muslims belong to warrior races, they turn their backs on political and territorial independence, succumbing to the pressures to every bullying new super power. And above all, in all aspects of life and thought, only love to be second-best copies of "enlightened" Western men. For what will history remember them, for being parrots trying to mimic voice of a superior species?

What do Pakistanis love? They love to be front-line foot soldiers of Amerikanos with all F 16s and a mercenary Army, for sure... And few franchises of junk food chains, few concrete roads, few ugly huge plazas, few modernized educational instituitions, few mass destructive gadgets, and a an English accent that puts Englishmen to shame.

Old Blog: Very Near to Get it!

My older beloved blog: Umer Toor Blog. was hacked in Jan 2010.

I'm very near recovering it from the original hacker, who despite everything didn't change a word of it!

I'll be exporting this back and redirecting it to the older blog inshaAllah! If you're following this blog, please follow Umer Toor Blog too.

Colonists Bluffed Us, the Mozlems! Still Do!


That's a euraka! post that i want to share. I would rather allow Gai Eaton to shed a new light on the Muslim perception of West and ensuing self-pity and reactionism that harms Muslims alone:
The Muslims´ lack of self-confidence may be attributed in part to the experience of colonialism, but it still endures chiefly, I think, because the West has bluffed the Muslims into accepting it at its own valuation and has succeeded in hiding its weaknesses, its vulnerability. It seems to me that this was exemplified in the early 1970s, during the so called "oil crisis." The oil producers — the Saudis in particular — had what amounted to a stranglehold on the Western world; they had very great power, which might have been put to use to their own advantage and to the advantage of the Ummah. What they lacked was the self-confidence which would have enabled them to use that power wisely and effectively. They lacked also that spirit of daring which encourages the powerful to make full use of their power. The opportunity was missed and may not come again... When I talk with my fellow Muslims about the nature of Western dominance, one of my principal aims is to persuade them that this power rests upon very shaky foundations.
These shaky foundations and bogus pshyco-propaganda has to be exposed with so much academic sources available at our disposal. All these academic sources provide logical foundations to the truths already to be found in Islam. Dr Asad Zaman is doing a seminal job by persuading his research graduate students through lectures in this regard by making us realize that we've been bluffed by self-deception (freely available online here). His analyses draw from variety of sources: Islamic reasoning, "subaltern" history, empirical evidences, economics, philosophy, etc. One such introduction to his lectures asserts:
Mostly people believed that history is objective, factual but in fact history is always biased. West claim that they feel the white man burden that’s why they attack other nations to make them civilized but its not true, in this lecture we have tried to show the true picture of why west attack other nations.
Its the game of confidence which Muslims lack at individual level and societal level vis a vis West. The point is: Muslims/easterners are not inferior in any sense to Western men; guess is that they are more advanced. The latter guess has to be induced in the minds to arrive at the former truth, because the confidence level is abysmally low.

What do i envy?

I envy:

  • people who know nature of things
  • people in love with Allah and his Prophet
  • people who are bay-niyaz, i.e., to whom nothing matters except will of God
  • non-mercenary, really patriotic and morally aware FIGHTER PILOTS! [My only janoon/extreme passion-obsession-love: a realm beyond that of love/ishq and anything else you know; pure passion: in which one personifies his target job/field/role and behaves like one everyday; only such janoonis as per psychiatrists outperform the rest and do miracles no one else can dare imagine doing]
  • productive people, especially academically 
  • people with expertise
  • people with encyclopedic knowledge of fields that really matter, like philosophy, medicine, fiqh, history, mathematics, physics, metaphysics, etc., not fluff being taught in universities - the outliers in non-outliers
  • people with indomitable courage
  • with vision, wisdom, perseverance, people knowledge
  • bloggers who get lot of comments
  • people who can theorize and explain through essays and even books with lot of evidence (either factual or mental/logical/metaphysical/philosophical)
  • people on the right track! fixated please...
  • people with cute children [can i adopt one being single?] and devout wives (hoors later)

Disbelievers are mad, mad, mad


Mad not in the sense being suffering from some mental or biological disorder but not being reasonable and logical, and being contradictory. There are many living concepts, so to speak part of the world, which we recognize to be existent but we don't observe them, or know them by seeing, or, even, fully understand them. We don't know how such things as gravity, unconscious, invisible rays, etc., as work. We don't know how they make things behave, and on and on and on. We don't know their inner processes or reality through our senses, but know that these exist through their manifestations. Gravity exists because we its effects. Unconscious exists because we see its effects. Although these forces and entities are hidden and beyond our observations, their behavior, their 'products' are however observable.

Take the Freud's unconscious. Despite all criticisms made against him on purely scientific grounds (not that i believe in absolute truthiness of scientific methods), his idea of the "unconscious is intact," as per professor Bloom of Yale. Unconscious is fascinating. All the slip tongues, memory gaps, and other crazy stuff comes from unconscious of which we have no conscious trace or understanding. Still its there. A better example than this is gravity that we can feel but don't observe the way we want to observe God, which is impossible for our perceptions.

The simple logic behind believing in these unobservables is their fruits, to be poetic. Then how we deny the Creator? Dr Asad Zaman in his lecture on logical positivism [lecture # 7] shows how these atheistic scientific theories are so grounded and motivated by this urge of non-believing communities to deny the Maker of the Universe. This logically explains their consistent efforts to deny Allah despite their admission about existence of life and universe being nothing short of a miracle. Allah shows the disbelieving miracles but they deny, as their predecessors did. Allah knows best.

Sidi (late) Charles Gai Eaton shows difference between a Muslim-believer and modern agnostic/atheist western's approach towards faith:

"Formerly, this confrontation [b/w Muslims and Christians in middle ages] was between men of faith who had more in common than they could ever have acknowledged. That likeness, that shared devotion to an almighty and unseen God, no longer exists. The gulf has become infinitely wider and mutual comprehension has become far more difficult. The believer to whom the transcendent reality of God is the most compelling fact known to him cannot really understand unbelief or imagine its sterility. The unbeliever, try as he may, cannot even guess what the experience of faith is; his imagination is baffled by this strange, other-worldly phenomenon."

Sum-total of Modern Man's Efforts

i think sum-total of modern man's efforts to satisfy his "polymorphous perversity," i.e., total pursuit of pleasure, where suppression of it occurs only as a mean to get to something more pleasurable. The real disappointing part is his instance on being called being civilized, whereas as per their own modern prophets this is the animal part, the most stupid part of human being, the id. God knows best...

A Psycho-Experiment

Image source.
I'm performing a psychological experiment mentioned in a slide on Freud. It consists of two activities: writing 3 positive features of someone i love. And then: writing 10 positive features. Here it goes.

List 1: 3 features of a person a love: my mother

- caring
- hardworking
- loving

List 2: 10 positive features of my mother

- good at budgetary regulations
- perfectionist
- educated and literary
- good at social relations
- disciplined
- ethical
- helper of poor people
- emotional about positive things [where feelings are necessary]
- traditional in approach towards life; archetypal eastern
- was very obedient to her parents

___________

What was i supposed to feel: The reading asserted: Liking goes up in 3 group. Liking goes down in 10 group.

What i actually felt: Not much change. I totally disagree with the above assertion. My emotions remained same; although writing the traits was exhaustive.

1 timer: When Simple Invaders Converted Advanced People

The so-called barbarian conquest of Rome led the invaders to convert to the religions of the conquered. The Mongols, who butchered millions of people, second in Barbarity to Westerners only perhaps. There're clear proofs that Westerners cooperated so much with Mongols to destroy Muslims that Mongol leaders were expected to convert to Christianity. Unfortunately, they converted to islam and never repeated their history of  barbarity in cooperation of West.

Abdal Hakim Murad, while mentioning these two conquests, mentions how simple, unsophisticated noblemen of Arab in a blink of eye spread through most cultured and sophisticated lands of their times and instead of getting converted led the conquered to convert, although over centuries because they didn't point swords at their throats. It's nothing short of a miracle, he adds.

"Newsflash": Pakistanis are far more advanced


In Pakistan, by grace of Allah, population of villages is still much greater than of cities, although with much less basic necessities, health-care being top priority. This or few other deficiencies don't have to be part and parcel of villages at all. Nonetheless, overall village life and even of semi-Urbanite non-cosmopolitan city-dwellers in Pakistan is liberating. People like me, younger age with cell phones and internet, are becoming slaves of technology day by day, but we're still much more advanced in our human relations, in living a meaningful life devoid of avoidance & superficiality, and in being at ease with nature. Something Westerners - those who're baby-sit by tv and other visual and auditory devices - are very backward at. In the end, it's all about freedom to be Archetypical, Primordial Human, true to our nature forged in the image of God.

The realization of this backwardness is not limited to outward observers - i.e., Asians or Africans or those few in West who still adore nature and rawness. First, the movie Mr Lorax debunked the sterility of anti-nature and artificial living style of Western capitalism. Now, a high school in America is doing something about it: taking students on a 3 month term in a country-side region with no cell-phones, no Facebook and little internet. Please watch the video [click on the link pls] to feel how precious and advanced Eastern way of life really is.

Liberty Books' Home-service: Awesome

I ordered a book online yesterday for the first time and in 24 hours, it's here all the way from Karachi with no TCS courier charges. Above all, with payment upon delivery!

Here's a book for record... Nassim Nicolas Taleb's much renowned The Black Swan.


Picture taken by yours truly

A heart-rending post: Inferiority complex vis-a-vis English

Update: It's under bold heading, end para.

I'm too shocked to read this post on a blog and want to share these sickening words and my stammering reply.Please add to it from psychological and other perspectives and the cure to this ugliest disease of self-hatred. Of course the author here doesn't seem to personally hold these views.
"It was in one of the short stories back in the O-level's syllabus that a guy tells a girl (or perhaps it was the other way round) that he loves her and the girl replies that if you had said that in Urdu, it would have sound so bazaari (vulgar) ... or something similar to that ... English does have this intellectualizing, legalizing and toning down effect over here. I have seen people happily bearing abuses hurled at them in English but usually they are not so comfortable with Urdu or Punjabi. Similarly when the Pakistani stage dramas were gaining notoriety with their abundant double entendres; English sitcoms were usually let off scot-free with their sexual innuendos."
My reply:

"I believe, with plenty of evidence, that this is merely because of inferiority complex and hatred of our own culture, and one of the greatest triumphs of our Devilish Egoism. We can ruthlessly mock our own brethren, our friends, our countrymen who can't speak English well grammatically or are too vernacular. Go out of Pakistan and these self-haters would be bootlicking Gori Chamri [whiteman's skin] with no respect from their meaning-masters (or meaningless-masters) - cause they have no self-respect of their own."

"Intellectualizing, legalizing and toning down effect" of English in Pakistan

There's nothing intellectual, "legalizing" effect inherent in this language of Anglophones. If one comes to know about the history of rise of Euro barbarians, s/he would get disenchanted to a considerable degree. Nonetheless, it is modern education that creates this sense of cultural and civilizational inferiority, although in reality this isn't the situation. Shaykh Gibril F Haddad talks about anti-tradition modernists and purists which explains at certain lower level such disastrous cultural infections "excellently" summed up in the 1st quote:
In complete contrast, today, many purportedly educated Muslims – both purists and anti-traditionists – revere bookish knowledge and non-Muslim institutions of learning over and even at the exclusion of Islamic ones. They accredit Western titles and disciplines above the Islamic offices of learning and mashyakhas. They speak, write, read, study, teach, debate after the fashion of non-Muslims just as they may also eat, dress, marry, divorce, and die as Westerners, without a second thought other than implicit or expressed hostility at the heritage of the forerunners in the Religion of Truth (although purists have managed to trumpet the art of lip service to “The Salaf” into a full-fledged ideology). Their approach to learning in our time is to orphan themselves of the principles of the learned Muslims of previous generations – their spiritual foreparents as Imam al-NawawÏ defined one’s Muslim teachers in al-TaqrÏb wal-TaysÏr ila Sunan al-BashÏr al-NadhÏr. They still have isnad – not so much to the people of the Prophetic Way and the Muslim Congregation as to the culture of the non-Muslim world and the ideas of “progressive” journalists, activists, news analysts, social scientists, and, at the other end of the spectrum, Marxist-Leninists and anarchists born-again as purists. Such are the manufactured imqms that have infiltrated the ranks of Muslim leadership and pose as the very Ulema they and their followers desert and belie. The Seal and Last of all Prophets said:  
“There will be, towards the end of time, Anti-Christs and arch-liars who shall say to you what neither you nor your foreparents ever heard before. Beware of them and keep away from them! Do not allow them to lead you astray nor sow discord among you.”

Reminds of eclipse only! of reasoning faculties.

Poll: See Right top

There's a poll going on right now for a year! Please help me by knowing which topics you like on this blog. Feel free to crtiticize and give your feedback no matter how personal and critical. I love it.

It'd me much appreciated if you give feedback here (comment section) about my writing and topics discussed or what you might like me to be focusing on and what not.

Hilarious: of moderate mozlems

"The Moderate Muslim: ‘Islam is against mass murder! Deep down, we’re just as lovely as you! er … Where’s the buffet?’"

- Shaykh Abdal Hakim Murad. Source. # 26 of Contentions 15.

Moderate Islam is that of extreme apologeticism, forged in the fire of Protestantism. It is being shaped by the policy makers of Imperial Power of America through funding of "moderate voices." This is the greatest of pitfalls of terms because Muslim ummah is that of middle path, who always strives to be moderate in its actions and even in theory. We can no more use this currency anymore. Seyyed Hossein Nasr i believe came  with a better solution who is opposed both to modernism and fundamentalism. He places mainstream, orthodox Sunni-Shia dimension of Islam at the Centre, and judges all other sects or interpretations from their proximity to the Centre, to the Orthodoxy. Those interpretation which seek to by-pass 1400 years of orthodoxy, a diverse yet unified systematized development of an understanding of Islam, are extremists. It is so because they're away from the centre. This is both evident in the wrongdoings of Al-Qaeda and Progressive/Modernists/Re-formulationist (or Deformists) movements. There's at least one monograph dedicated to this very topic but which limited its scope to fundamentalism alone, edited by Joseph Lumbard (a Muslim scholar of Islam) entitled, Islam, Fundamentalism and the Betrayal of Tradition. There's now greater need of a detailed surgical analysis of modernist Islam as well.

Presumed Innocent & Punishment for adultery

Presumed Innocent (1990). In the end of the movie, the adulterer blames in absolute terms her wife for murdering someone he slept with. The women committed fornication; the man, adultery. The wife made the plan of killing the women her husband had slept with like a water-tight mathematical equation with best results for her, being a doctoral mathematics student. The plan is irrelevant here.

In Islam, with 4 witnesses the adulterer(s) are stoned to death; fornicators are treated differently. In the presence of circumstantial evidence - around which the fate of accused in the movie rested - the guilty goes to jail for whole lot of years, as per religious scholars of Pakistan (at least).

One can ponder over the wisdom behind this divine injunction in many ways. One logic the movie provided is the rage, disintegration and destruction adultery brings to family which makes its punishment - in the presence of such strict condition - much more severe and applicable. Surely as Deterrence to say the least. Deterrence is something Islam so much professes in theory and practice from national defense to self-matters.

Image source.

Sentimentalism vs Lack of it: Pakistan's "Liberals" vs Reality Checkers

Word liberal is disgraced when used with pesudo-liberals of Pakistan who worry most about the vested interests of their spiritual masters in the West, then Britishers now Amerikanos. They occupy the English public discourse not through their scholarship, but pure sentimentalism; and as for the books, their credibility as scholars ranks much lower than Orientalists as perceived by Edward Said. One of my academic goals to write books debunking their self-esteem in their very own eyes and those they lead astray, inshaAllah.

Here's a uni-phase 'debate' between a fiery-some response to a column by Orya Maqbool by an aspiring Native-orientalist, followed by a response who upholds the views of Orya with no sensationalism as such. Orya is Islamic-minded and anti-imperialist (hence much closer to western liberals).

Source: The Difference? Mosaafir e Dasht


  1. Mr Native Orientalist: Well...ISI helps Haqqani network and for obvious reasons, given the fact that Pakistan army is 'concerned' about Kabul's future after US leaves. The likes of Orya Maqbool Jan who apologize for the army and ISI more than they themselves would do so, need a reality check. I come from a family hosting a number of military officials (and I take no pride in that) and all of them very frankly admit that army has always been in bed with Haqqanis and a number of other Afghan militant factions.

    Oh and our Afghan brothers did 'defeat' three super-powers within a century - only, they lost just millions of life, life is no longer normal there, peace and tranquillity is a forsaken dream and we, the proud Muslim neighbours (alhamdulillah) have reaped the benefits in the form of terrorist bombings within our lands, the millions of Afghan immigrants and a culture of arms and drugs. The kind of intellectuals who want to brand this as a great 'fatah' are as deluded as they love to brand those who called US the 'saviour' when it attacked Iraq and Afghanistan. Critical eye and a knack for not 'adjusting' facts to suit one's ideology are pertinent for a rational discourse - sadly, the author of the article cited merits none of these qualifications.
    Reply
  2. Jehanzeb Idrees10:35 PM
    Realpolitik cannot be adjudged by personal accounts it always has a historical perspective without which the understanding of an issue can always fall short. Giving opinions and making judgments are expressions crafted carefully by nuanced words which can either be based on emotional inclination or factual deliberation. However, the subtleties of logic shouldn’t be irresistible enough to end up resisting the very grounds which form a sound judgment or a safe opinion.

    After reading the article and the comments I have a few questions to ask from Mr. Salman to learn exactly where his objections actually lie: -

    1. ISI helping Haqqani networks OR not helping Americans against Haqqani networks?

    2. Pakistan’s concerns about Kabul’s future in US absence OR Kabul’s future with complete absence of anyone?

    3. Demands for the likes of Orya Maqbool Jan for the need of reality check OR for the pay cheques of Ahmed Rashids, Hassan Askaris, Hoodbhoys, Aisha Jilanis or Marvi Sirmeds?

    4. Army being in bed with the Haqqanis OR not in bed with the Yankees?

    5. That Afghan brother did ‘defeat’ 3 super powers within a century OR that they were thrice occupied by 3 different arrogant powers?

    6. Or that Afghan brothers’ victory came after losing millions of lives OR those millions of lives were lost under a foreign occupation?

    7. Afghan immigrants (along with their culture of arms and drugs) coming to Pakistan because WE invited them OR we invited the Russians to occupy Afghanistan and send all those immigrants to our lands?

    8. On the intellectuals who want to brand a certain kind of ‘fatah’ OR the pseudo-intellectuals who drum it as the ‘freedom for democracy’ when Iraq and Afghanistan went into occupation?

    9. Does a critical eye need to adjust on ‘known facts’ OR the critical eye needs to adjust on ‘hidden facts’?

    10. And finally how a rational discourse should base upon?

    i. Personal opinions based on certain ideologies.
    ii. An original analysis based on historical facts.

Experiencing Higher Realms through Books

I too have felt that when you read and reflect on certain books, especially of religious, philosophical and metaphysical nature and even about science, astronomy or social sciences, you feel yourself to be in a different world. The mind seems to have escaped from the worldly surroundings and transferred into a much more beautiful and pure world... Its an amazing feeling that is a fruit of piety. For if i'm not in a good spiritual state, my heart would block the soul from "passing out"!

It takes a thinking mind to be Indecisive

Part of being conscious means when one has to choose (with or without painful deliberation) between choices, consciously. Only a conscious person would be troubled by the choices, because he values his time and is careful; because he recognizes the trade offs involved and opportunity costs he might have to incur. He might end up doing the futile things impulsively, but he has more chances of gaining control over his impulses.

Part of being slave of nafs can be mindlessly floating in the flow of neuorotic impulses. I was careful to use modal verb 'can' because one might be very intuitive in one's approach towards doing things, yet free of base impulses that hate focus. I'd like to be that (latter) person though :D

"Extremism is not the Problem"


"Extremism is as American as Apple Pie." Shaykh Hamza Yusuf

"Violence is." Argues Hamza Yusuf, especially when talking to Amerikanos about Muslims. He points out that Amerikano culture is based on all kinds of extremism. If you think that's true, be sure you don't know basic facts about Amerikanos :P

He's not arguing about 100% elimination of violence, rather persecution of dissenting voices, and dominance of one strand of thought over the other.

Without being apologetic about anything, one founder of a school of Law Imam Shafi or perhaps Imam Malik was asked by Khalifa Mansoor: i want to implement your interpretation on all of my dominion. To this Imam replied in an emphatic nay. In the presence of other towering luminaries and in the light of one's legitimate right to recourse to a differing expert opinion, he refused this historical choice that could've influenced heavily the religious and legal history of Muslims, perhaps. It is exactly the betrayal of tradition that sects have taken up arms against each other while we dialogue non-Muslims with such civility that bewilders a local who had the nightmare of watching sectarian strife. Of course, honorable, respectable academic intra-dialogue is only necessary and perhaps sufficient if executed.

"Quran Connections": Western Scholars Uphold Tradition

Concerned Muslims in the east who are doubtful about Western scholars of Islam, Muslim and non-Muslim, as these academians are used to betray the Tradition just like their counterparts in the shape of puritan reformists, the extreme example of which is al-Qaeda and their sympathisers: Think again about western scholars of islam!

Here's a verbatim synopsis of a project by a number of top muslim and non-muslim scholars, who were tasked with studying and exploring Qur'an again for western audience. The result is production of a DVD, watch trailer here. And please don't take their instance on Islam being peace as surrender to imperial threats, or as being America's moderate interpretators of an emasculated, marginalized religion; Muslims ought to bow before Allah only. However, i've not watched the DVD, hence can't claim conclusively.

 Here's a description of this mission impossible by the producers, with the findings summarized in 1 para about the 'mysteries of islam'.
"A group of American professors is asked to probe deep into the minds of more than a billion Muslims. To find out what drives them to suicide bombings, multiple wives and religious fanaticism .
The team:
Mark Juergensmeyer: International expert on terrorism in religion and President, American Academy of Religion. Hossein Nasr, Harvard alumni, author of fifty books on Islam and science, and Professor at Washington University. Bruce Lawrence, Abrahamic Pluralist and bestselling author of From  Hajj to  Hip Hop. Maria Dakake, Editor Harper Collins Study Quran Encyclopedia and Professor, George Mason University. Jonathan A Brown, Omer Mozaffar, and Joseph Lumbard: all fine scholars of comparative religious traditions in prestigious universities of the United States. 
The team is asked to find out if The Quran is out of step with modern times. It is directed to disregard traditional clergy, if need be.

Unaware of each other’s assignments, the panel delves deep into the fountainhead of this most enigmatic Faith: The Quran. 
It uncovers shocking facts, astonishing revelations and intriguing results about Islam. The findings raise as many questions as they answer.

The panel’s no- holds- barred, hard hitting findings include: 
“In Islam, sex is a good thing. Allah is not a Muslim specific God; even Arabic speaking Jews and Christians use the word Allah in their liturgies. Polygamy is a blessing. We are not God and God is not us. It is mandatory for Muslims to revere all the Prophets of Judaism and Christianity. Muslims do not worship Muhammad. Everybody is a born Muslim!” [Emphasis mine]
If you thought you knew about Islam, you better think afresh."

So if you thought you knew about islamic scholars in the west, think afresh about this small, powerful minority, which isn't restricted to these scholars of course!

Self-love

my nafs abhors admonition and strikes that tarnish the idol of self-love, although belief in one's being blessed and honorable are only part of our eemaan. This is an age of self-love and self-indulgence... The realization is the step towards the cure which lies in detachment and suppressing nafs through mental and physical exertion.

Academic Wish-List: Path i want to tread

i've wasted a lot of time in relation to my quest. wasted 4 years as such in a degree that is hardly of any worldly utility and nor for my stammering, scholarly ambitions. having failed to fulfill the janoon to become a fighter pilot, i'm lost!!! thoughtlessly going into a job field seems a cowardly act. i've one more chance to re-boot and pursue a dedicated, no matter how inter-disciplinary field that fits my grand non-monetary, unworldly, intellectual quests.

My quest is ultimately search for Absolute at personal and academic level. For that i've to master many disciplines including logic, grammar, philosophy, metaphysics, irfan, methods of analysis & description, mathematical thinking at deep levels, jurisprudence, legal theories, and above all knowledge and understanding of the Revelation. These are the fields our Muslim forefathers would have mastered at 17 or 18 as in case of many. I know none!

Rumors of worthlessness of Social Sciences

This post is only in regard to Pakistan.

Social sciences (SS) include as you know from pure philosophy, literature to techno-economics. I've not given any time trying to understand what differentiates it from physical sciences, after all psychology today take great pains to present itself as scientific, i can't pass a judgement over it having no working knowledge of it even.

The concern of this post is not to reflect on the definition of it, of which all of us considerable intuitive understanding. The concern is concerning the lack of concern about it in Pakistan. And given the fact that nobody reads this blog (except few special nobles), i face a dead end: i've to talk to myself. Talk to Pakistan's faux-liberal-elitists in academia and newspapers and they'd lament over Pakis not getting themselves trained in Western social sciences. Its not that concern i'm concerned about here, rather what Dr Asad Zaman, primarily a math-stats-economist from Ivy Leagues, argued in his paper Improving Social Sciences in Pakistan that in a post-positivist world Muslims have a great opportunity to offer world a perspective in nearly all major SS fields from economics to education. The reason for this is that we've not committed and invested in building SS based on rationalism and logical positivism, and that our religious tradition is still intact which is the fountain of all sciences concerning humanity, man, society, law and afterlife.

i just reiterated his position without adding anything to it, simply because this viewpoint is least heard in academic circles, and certainly doesn't resonate well with those trained in Western thought who cannot see anything beyond it. The second-hand commitment to falsehood of slaves can be more enduring than those of the leaders. This is exactly why muslims have to be at the fore-fronts of all supposedly "secular/profane" fields of knowledge. (Its only the perspective and the methodology (perhaps) that make it profane. For more clarification i should read S Hossein Nasr's Need for a Sacred Sciences, and chapter, "Profane and Sacred Science," in rene guenon's Crisis of the Modern World.)

On low perceptions about SS in Pakistan. Those who don't see anything more worthy that fruits of modern technology deny the importance of less or non-productive fields of knowledge like philosophy, literature, etc. They do not know that they themselves are the very product of some world-view and a combination (perhaps) of various SS ideas, ideologies, etc., of which they've no khabar (news). This is not to deny what Hamza Yusuf said that these modern universities are teaching many programs that are just fluff and cut from the cheapest cloth. This is a misery too. Nonetheless, one should not comment on something one has not understood, let alone mastered. I cannot express how often times i've been shook by power of SS world-view or even, to be modest, a set of  ideas that shape and carve whole societies in a given direction when adaptation of a different world-view or set of ideas could have driven them somewhere else. Where are you going? We must invoke this Qur'anic verse, i.e. sign, every time we do something, or even think.

And as for the greatest myth that hard social sciences (as opposed to some time-pass programs, if any) require less exertion and utilization of brain cells and hardship of soul: it's just plain wrong! Give them a 100 page scholarly book and see how they sweat...

What i need to be doing is to articulate in laymen terms the importance of major fields of SS of which i've little acquaintance...

And Allah knows best.

The Grand Task of Modern Homo Islamicus

As a scholar of Islamic and modern sciences, what is the task a writer, researcher and academic face in spreading the message of islam, without any tinge of self-imposed reformation, rather with complete conformity to the Tradition as passed down and developed throughout generations? Seyyed Hossein Nasr eloquently explains what the Guardians of pen should be up to:

"Today in the West, as well as in the Islamic world itself, there is an ever greater need to study both the principles and manifestations of Islam from its own authentic point of view and a manner comprehensible to sufficient intelligence and good intentions. Moreover, this needs to be achieved by using methods of analysis and description which are at once logical and in conformity with the Islamic perspective; for this later places the highest value upon intelligence (al-'aql) and logic, which is inseparable from it, although of course the transcendent realities cannot be reduced to logical categories. This type of writing which can 'translate' Islamic teachings into a contemporary idiom without betraying it is very important not only for non-Muslims who wish to learn about Islam but most of all for your Muslims, who are now mainly products of modern educational systems." [Italics mine; although each phrase of these 3 sentences is important and comprehensive]

Introduction to Islamic Life and Thought.

The Philosopher's Corner

The place where yours truly finds solace, i've to be honest. I don't get lazy here, slumber in odd times doesn't take over. It has 3 windows, two coverd and one parallel with neighbour's wall, so doesn't open in street and faces the wall like a dead-end ahead; while 10% of the top opens to the sky, like a sign of hope and freedom. The dead end is good, for it doesn't let too many visual stimulation get into my tender head. It's cool because a blank wall one has to glance through transparent window-glass helps keep reflections on track; one has to focus more on beauty to avoid its ugliness taking over.

i like my books, my laptop, my work, writing here, talking here. like a very sedentary person. and am 'always in agony of coming back' here... may Allah add barakah and purity to this place, from where i can serve ummah and humanity... (this 1st sentence is adaptied from Norman Finkelstein's description for himself.)

the seat shown here is my cousin's who shares the room. i wonder why i'm sharing this. maybe for myself. to document, document, document (something i enjoy in later days)


Another view

To do list of a lost wanderer

Inspired by this: http://spotlesssoul.wordpress.com/2010/12/31/to-do-list/
  • to know myself
  • to learn how to argue and think razor sharp
  • to learn to read
  • to learn ahadith
  • to learn Qur'an
  • to master urdu, english, german, persian, arabic, french
  • to become a multi-disciplinary social scientist
  • to achieve highest stages of spiritual path (am i sure?)
  • to become a historiographer
  • to become an expert on modernism and post-colonialsim and post-modernity
  • to become a mureed of Rumi (ra)
  • to take care of my health
  • to jog and excercise regularly
  • to learn to focus by spiritual and psycho-therapatic practices
  • to learn to write books (not not just another book)
  • to not to be a mere book-worm
  • to wage jihad against forces of disruption, injustice and oppressors with heart, mind and life
  • to reflect constantly
  • to fulfill my obligations to attain my shariah granted rights
  • to be faithful to my country and ummah
  • to not to back bite
  • to take care of presentation of my physical being
  • to be near to nature all the time
  • to make a home in a mountaineous regions and work there
  • to be an academic in the service of deen and humanity
  • to love and be loved
  • to take care of my parents and family
  • to marry a devout woman
  • and on and on and on

Modern European Dominance of World

How barbarian, savagic nations of Europe dominanted whole world? While the east was in relatively very peaceful, the intra-warring nations of europes gained expertise at killing humans, thanks to their incessant wars of hatred with each other. East failed to keep up with developing tech to kill humans. 2nd, Western people - consisting of pirates, thieves, etc. - didn't consider humans human, and hence killed with no less ferocity as Mongols. With 1 goal: loot-maar aam shaad baad.

Source and for deeper analysis: go to Lecture # 3: 15 mins onwards i guess

Miracles: To be or not to be?

Why should miracles be important to prove, or to serve as an evidence for the truthfulness of a Prophet?

Miracles did take place in the time of Last Prophet, as per sound narrations and consensus of ulema. Miracles did take in the times of Prophet Moses and Isa. It's very curious to know how the magicians/illusionists of Firoun's responded to Prophet Moses' miracle that was granted to him by Allah: they accepted Prophet Moses as Messenger of Allah and recongized his miracle to out of this world! That was nothing short of an experimental testimony.

However, i was puzzled by this statement of Imam Ghazzali in his autobiography: if a person was come to me and say 2+1 = 10; and he'll prove the truth of this statement by turning a stick into a snake - i should never lose certitude in my knowledge that 2 + 1 = 3 and not 10.

Hence, can a rational person [not rationalist per se] demand miracles? The miracle we need to believe in today is: "... Islamic view of a universe created by God, where the trees and the stars worship their Creator, and the sun and the moon follow exquisitely designed laws." And the only time when veils were removed from the people, as public, was the time of Prophets, when trees and stone would talk to Prophet.

We should also know that the nations which self-abdicated themselves, like that of Saleh, requested miracles of their choice. When those miracles were performed, even then they didn't accept Islam. This is true for the scientists of today. Dr Asad Zaman in his brief essay Big Bang writes:
"Sometimes, the evidence is so strong that it breaks through the barriers of unbelief. For example, one of the discoverers of the genetic basis of human life, Crick was quoted as saying, ‘An honest man, armed with all the knowledge available to us now, could only state that in some sense, the origin of life appears at the moment to be almost a miracle, so many are the conditions which would have had to have been satisfied to get it going.” Very unwillingly, against his atheistic beliefs, Crick gave testimony to what the Quran (Surah Al-Waqi’ah 57-58) asserts as challenge: In the creation of man and the seed from which man is created are signs which cannot be denied by those who reflect. Just like many nations mentioned in the Quran, Crick continued to deny God even after witnessing the miracles of creation."
Apart from the so-called supernatural miracles, the evidences regarding the coming of the last Prophet is of utmost importance. Please read the chapter on Bahira the Monk in Martin Lings Muhammad. 

For me, miracles are an important testimony and evidence. They happen today with the righteous ones. Moreover, it is hard evidence for a very strong alternative view of physical world. It is anti-dote to a mechanistic view of things, which 'cuts the hand of God his creation'. However, with the very miracle of life, my own being and the tree that grows out of the earth naturally, is enough a proof for me. One should also know that Dajjal will use real life CG effects to show miracles to people and claim to be Divine.

Disclaimer: Allah knows best. These thoughts are still very pre-mature and at least some parts are doubtful to me too.

Most Informal Post: Positive feedback needed

hey i'm feeling abysmally dull... i need critical feedback on my writing and intellectual abilities. positive feedback is very important that's not flattering. negative feedback is only much more needed for improvement. but it's positive feedback i need more for some encouragement... :P

feeling very, very low, i will be honest with you. having done a worthless bsc mindlessely, i now want a "real" rigorous one that makes me good at 'something'. i don't care about dollars, as you don't too i hope. job is just a mean, and not an end. Allah doesn't leave his abd hungry to die out there, as there's nothing out there out of His reach. but it's intellectual abilities i yearn most for. it's making contribution to human ideas and projects at academic and societal-action level i care about... and it's exactly in this domain i'm despondent about my own very self... can't even focus at critical academic task at hand. i'm learning german to take advantage of free education system of Germany with its strong social and physical sciences. but first: what do i possess to take on a challenge????????????????????????????????????

never been that informal on any blog................... and am gonna regret this when i wake up :D

Why am I not perplexed? Ignorance.

Well crises are coming ahead, for sure. An ignorant person is hardly perplexed. When i go into realm of philosophy, political philosophy, and specific issues as well, I'll have to take years to resolve, integrate or critique ideas, philosophies and methodologies... Because i'm not a thinking man with no vocation for knowing things with curosity, i'm floating on the surface and content with it. Isn't this what Iqbal prayed for:

khuda tujhay kisi tofaan say ashna kar day, 
k teray behar ki mujoon mein iztarab nahi. 

(my very bad translation)
May Allah send a storm your way, (or) May Allah familirize you with a storm
for there's no movement in waves of your water

This reminds me of the intro lines of dark knight rises' trailer: "a storm is coming." The defeated Batman was defeated by his victory. External peace rusted him and destroyed his inner peace. As Seyyed Hossein Nasr describes a momin, true Muslim: "peace inside and always at war outside" to destroy forces of disintegration (or something to that effect). Without feeling the agony, the angst of intellectual crises, i do not know any major Islamic contemporary thinker who could overcome the 'challenges of modernity' that easily. Although for the 'initiated ones', the illusions don't really matter.


i'm in search of a cohesive serenity of mind, action and body, both at metaphysical level and at academic and societal action level. and surely, turning things around for the sake of deen of Allah has been a major aspiration, goal of which is to increase faiz in akhrat, in words of Roomi (ra).

Modern Muslim Scholars with Strong Islamic World-view

Our college going youth needs to be exposed to real intellectuals rooted in Islamic tradition, side-by-side with scholars of pure islamic studies and 'rapid modernists'. The most important link or player in this game between Westernized pesudo-intellectuals and Islam-loving masses is this middle-of-the-road class of learned muslims in Western languages and thought - religious scholars, writers, poets, social scientists, economists, doctors, engineers, etc. - who see things from Islamic perspective. Survival and growth of this class - to me - will decide whether an Islam modeled on the character of Prophet emerge, i.e., justice, faith, wisdom and mercy; or, an Islam of "sang dil" (who a people who are traitors of Prophet (s.a.w.); or, Protestant Islam; or, total secularism. Allah knows best.

Divorcing Iqbal from Pakistan: Secular, Nationalist Fundamentalism

Please go through following poem of Allama poet-philosopher Muhammad Iqbal on relation of nationalism and islam, may Allah bless his soul and spread his message in all corners of the world: Nationalism (courtesy Uni-aza blog) 

Alhamdulilah, secular-fundamentalist elites in academia and corridors of power are doing well to separate Iqbal from Quaid, Quaid's Pakistan and rest of the world, as if he didn't exist, as if he didn't and doesn't matter. A full-fledge study is needed to expose this myth. Saleena Karim struck well at the root of Jst Munir's hoaxes about "dream" of a "modern, secular democractic state" of Pakistan in her book: Secular Jinnah & Pakistan: What the Nation doesn't Know.

 Nonetheless, they keep on progressing in "revolutionizing" young minds, who're going to take the baton of leadership tomorrow. They're doing good at professing the following dictums blantly in the garb of reasonableness & scholarship: "Pakistan wasn't created as an Islamic state. But at least as a Muslim state. At best a modern, secular state. And you can't pass the exam without praying janaza over Objectives Resolution, at least theoratically before its actually dismantled." Not to speak of historical fallacies in their claims, the later have been well exposed as pure myths in Saleena Karim's book. Review of the book is highly due. PS: I do admit that term Islamic State is vague, and needs 'razor sharp' exposition from traditional Islamic quarters.

This caricature of Pakistan history is being created in more "open" and "modern" centers of learning such as LUMS, FC College Lahore [being run by Americans], and other places. Their victims are students who must take Pakistan Studies 100 course. Students, who don't have enough time to take their heads out of their specializations, are asked to relax, listen and argue using the information provided in the lengthy course readings. The course readings are the key. Readings are haphazard compilations. It's very selective and cleverly organized. It does much less to provide braod historical data from all point of views, so that students can swim through the history themselves; and do much more to provide interpretations of modernist, secular nationalists. Exam questions i experience were loaded, and do not allow any room for critique on the slanted questions. The claims of openness are back-fired. However, students are allowed to argue any point of view. One wonders, what instructors are there for?

Students are not the only victims. Some teachers are just forced to "inform" students the pre-ordained "agenda," whether they wish it or not. Certainly in FCC, where those minds having different perspective on Pak history were ex-coummincated [maybe not literally] from a new band of cohesive  ideological rockstar historians. One is appalled from same line of action, same arguments toed and uttered by half a dozen "scholars"! So much for their scholarship which argues about projecting marginal perspecives! Such is their obsesseion with newness and marginal viewpoints that mainstream views are thrown in the garbage, just because they're no more fresh and new. How true was Martin Lings when he said that there isn't much new to say in his profound work Ancient Beliefs & Modern Superstitions. I don't know whether LUMS tolerates dissent; certainly they're leaders in a more blatant anti-independence movement. This is a serious problem. And it needs to be addressed and i hope is being in scholarly journals, newspapers, certainly at PhD level.

Coming back to the relationship between iqbal and Pakistan, i'd like to mention that Muhammad Asad, the famous Jewish convert to Islam, in his autobiography's introduction mentions how Iqbal forced him to stay in India and work for a "future Islamic state" [Asad's verbatim words] ! How visionary. One wonders how the link between one of the greatest son of Brahamins, Muslims and Indians can be cut off from the dream which was actualized in the state of Pakistan; how can his voice be marginalized from the affairs of the nation begotten in his very 'poetic heart'. In reality, Iqbal's pertinence only increases by the day, much to the annoyance of worshippers of a mythical Secular Jinnah. Hence, divorcing him from something (aka Pakistan) that was born in his very heart - such is an example of just another modern, secular-nationalist fundamentalism of the worst sort... And i believe Allah shows the enemies of a nation with clear signs...

 And as for those ulema who opposed Pakistan, whom secularists never get tired of quoting - certainly their arguments were reasonable too in certain ways, but those arguments are history and were time-specific. But certainly it's high time to end this invokation of dead matters whose janaza was prayed even by many of those opponents of Pakistan in 1947.

Time to say 4 takbeerat for the the janaza of this recurrent, resurgent secular-nationalist fundamentalism by the 'sword of Furqan'. Before Iqbal is deleted from our collective memory. That will be the last attack to divorce Pakistan, Pakistanis and Muslims from creation of an Islamic polity.
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...

Advertisement

MuddleHead Signs Off!!

MuddleHead Signs Off!!
free counters