'Adam al-wujdaan la yadallu 'ala 'adam al-wujud'

That is, 'the non-existence of knowledge of something is not proof of its non-existence' - the famous principle of Islamic philosophy.

(Quoted from, Traditional Islam in the Modern World, by Seyyed H. Nasr.)

'Terrified, Mortified, Petrified and Stupified'

I have always been terrorized by mathematics. I ain't any simpleton, though. i like beauty. Yes I can even talk about it. I stretch matters to no-useful extent everyone may not be capable of doing. I fought wars in my backyard. Build sedentary morchas (bunkers) of mud and brick, bombed them through distant catapults - *boom*. I did calligraphy; compiled huge registers filled with extracts on various subjects, as a sort of a haphazard, passionate encyclopedias; I even led many a times a hard-ball cricket team when I was not even about 14 (a feat my physical manifestations definitely contradict, this shows how many brains I have)!

But mathematics. I had no clue if I could ever relate it to the norms and mentalities of a certain species known as "humans" the way I knew, saw and sensed them. How could a person commit the mistake of initiating into mathematical madness? Where did it come from, in the first place? i had no clue, I still lack a point. To talk about its practitioners: Mathematicians to me have always been like those mythical creatures who are willing to suffer so many dilemmas of their own systems. That's why I revere them, even if they are of the worst sort of characters. I'm in an inferiority complex, generated by maths, to plainly tell you the 'sordid state of affairs'. But I don't want to get into a superiority complex either, the worst form of the former.

To settle the dust and to lift myself above it. i have made my plans. Want to listen to them? I'll stick to it, I'll stick to it, until everything sticks to my mind. Good-bye. 'Where has gone that God Created the Integers?'

__________________________
Please email your kind suggestions as to how to handle this demon safely without my major causalities at: final.human.battle.against.complexnumbers@extremesurvivalseries.com. Pray for my safe journey, as well. Thank you.

The true intellectuality: Why 'The Way'?

Within our deepest center dwells the Self;
And so they say: you ought to realize
Your own divinity. But they forget
Without God's help we never can be wise
Ignoring this, too many astray.

With Heaven's Grace alone we find the Way.

-Frithjof Schuon

I wrote this poem by Frithjof Schuon on an entry page of a book Traditional Islam in the Modern World (by Seyyed H. Nasr), which I especially picked up from the dusty shelf to re-learn about the legacy of 14 century of Islamic education and its systems, seemingly forgotten by young Muslims. The poem much plainer, but not any more direct and penetrating as an Eagle, than Schuon's absolutist prose writings, made many doubts of mine vanish into the air! So to act. The strength-to-act is a quality many of my young fellows and modern day Muslims lack 'when it comes to point'. Nonetheless, it is a beautiful poem which you cannot commodify but burn and melt many iced up candles! As my master says, "Life like candle is burning and melting."

Islam

Islam is a great web! You can never divide it into little, discrete pieces. And it's a strange kind of web as well.

"You Belong to One Community": The Call of Swati Refugees

I ain't any good writer, nor do I wish to "paint the pictures" of the unbearable pain our brothers and sisters of Swat - forced to flee as being torn out between the mortars and air-shelling of Pakistan Army and bullets and killings of Taliban from their homes - are subjected to. I simply don't have any imagination or quality to do so. But. I was moved to feel about, think about and do something, anything, about the Swati Refugees after I read the following two plain stories told by the victims themselves in plain language. I hope it affects and moves your hearts as well. I see hope.

__________________________________________________

"Here are the stories of two internally displaced people who were forced to leave everything behind and start a new life full of uncertainties.

FARHAN, 23, STUDENT, NOW IN ISLAMABAD

"We left Mingora three days ago. The situation had become very dangerous. We were caught up in the brutalities between the Pakistani army and the Taleban.

We were trapped inside our homes for a week, while there was constant shelling. A mortar demolished a house just a few yards from our home.

There was no water, no power, everything was destroyed.

Swat is empty now and we don't want to go back ever

To add to that, the Taleban threatened to kill young people if they didn't join them in their so-called 'jihad'. There have been personal threats to our family too, as my father is an outspoken critic of the Taleban.

We had to leave. We left everything we had and went on foot to Malakand. There was no transport available. We were walking with thousands of people.

It was a difficult journey. There was no food or water, but most importantly we were going through a war zone and we were scared that we'd encounter Taleban militants.

Once in Malakand we hired a truck and drove to Islamabad. We are relatively safe here but I don't know for how long.

We left everything and now we are with empty hands trying to start our lives again.

We are trying to leave the country. Swat is empty now and we don't want to go back ever.

-------

MAJID, 24, STUDENT, NOW IN PESHAWAR

"We fled Mingora last Friday, together with much of the population of the city. Our life had become very difficult: we were trapped in curfews, electricity was cut, there was no water or food.

A makeshift school for girls in a refugee camp in Swabi
School lessons have resumed for these girls at a refugee camp in Swabi
In the early hours on Friday morning we were under attack from gunship helicopters. Later the army told us we had to leave Mingora.

We got up, put clothes on and rushed out of the door. We didn't have time to pack anything. We didn't even prepare food for the journey. We just shut the door and left.

People were running, everyone was so scared. We didn't know what was going to happen next.

I feel depressed. Swat has been brought back to the Stone Age. There's no life there any more

We decided to go to Peshawar. The first part of our journey was on foot, until we reached Malakand. The road was packed with people, thousands of them. My grandfather is old, he couldn't walk for long and needed regular breaks. And it was a hot day.

Then we hired a truck and drove to Peshawar. Many people stayed behind, as not everyone could afford to hire a vehicle.

I am staying at a university hostel with friends. My family is at some relatives' house. Many joined refugee camps, but those must be full, because I see lots of people lying on the roads, people for whom there's no accommodation or help.

The nearby park is full of people from Swat. There are Swat people all over the city, everyone with their own story.

Everyone is deeply disturbed by this experience. We left everything and our life here is uncertain.

I am thinking of leaving the country to study abroad. My dad says that he'll try to set up his own business and open a shop in Peshawar.

I feel depressed. Swat has been brought back to the Stone Age. Each and every individual has left. There's no life there any more. I am not hopeful that things will get better any time soon - they can't clear this mess up in a hundred years. "

Source.

The Love of Woman

If you rule your wife outwardly, yet inwardly you are ruled by her whom you desire,

This is characteristic of Man: in other animals love is lacking, and that shows their inferiority. [1]

The Prophet said that woman prevails over the wise, while ignorant men prevail over her; for in them the fierceness of the animal is immanent.

Love and tenderness are human qualities, anger and lust are animal qualities. Woman is a ray of God: she is not the earthly beloved. She is creative: you might say she is not created. [2]

Rumi, Mathnavi. I, 2431.

To this beautiful and intelligent poem must be added a few notes by R.A. Nicholson, the translator.

[1]. Although animals relatively to man are deficient in love, they "know what love is" and "he that is blind to love is inferior to a dog" (Math. V, 2008).

[2]. Sweeping aside the veil of form, the poet beholds in woman the eternal Beauty, the inspirer and object of all love, and regards her, in her essential nature, as the medium through which that Beauty reveals itself and excercises creative activity. Ibun'l-'Arabi went so far as to say that the most perfect vision of God is enjoyed by those who contemplate Him in woman.

We can be unconscious of the existence of things when they actually do to our faculties of intelligence, why and how?

Sometimes, we turn blind to some things that actually exist, and have a cause for living or being there, manifesting themselves. It mostly happens when we avoid experiencing or, in simple terms, do not allow ourselves to know the causality of those things.

I, for instance, since my childhood, had been hearing, as though in a dream, voice of perhaps an insect - a voice very sharp, pinching and loud. How can I believe now that I denied any existence of that voice and its source then, as today, when I came out of the dream, really identified it, without doing, or conceptualizing, anything? How come can I believe myself?

The answer, partial maybe, is: Only because I avoided it, and didn't even try to identify and know it completely and objectively. I thought that I couldn't know it that easily. Therefore, with the passage of time it became my habit to deny the source of that voice and to avoid any contact with it through observation or meditation. Or, perhaps, it isn't that easy to know some things completely and objectively.

What do you think?

What is Perennial Philosophy?

According to Aldous Huxley Perennial Philosophy stands for:

"the metaphysic that recognizes a divine Reality substantial to the world of things and lives and minds; the psychology that finds in the soul something similar to, or even identical with, divine Reality; the ethic that places man's final end in the knowledge of the immanent and transcendent Ground of all being; the thing is immemorial and universal. Rudiments of the perennial philosophy may be found among the traditional lore of primitive peoples in every region of the world, and in its fully developed forms it has a place in every one of the higher religions
The Perennial Philosophy, p. vii)."

That Truth is Truth and Transcends Space-and-Time; And that Truth is not Systematic

Ibn Ata Illah in his Kitab al-Hikam says:

"He who is illuminated at the beginning is illuminated at the end."

And this is Truth. Yes, it exists.

Experience the Transformation of Sound into Visual-Patterns

Magnetosphere revisited (audio by Tosca) from flight404 on Vimeo.

I don't know what's the phenomena is called and how to create it, but people learning interactive media study it and create such things - wonderful things. You can read all about it here.

‘You cannot be fighting against God while trying to have peace on earth’

Today's Zaman: Recently there has been a trend in Europe and America among certain writers, such as Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens, of very direct criticism -- and even hostility -- toward religion. What do you see as the significance of this trend?

Seyyed Hossein Nasr: Many think this is the swan song of Western atheism. That is, now with religion becoming stronger, these secularists never imagined that. Everyone was taught at school that the flow of history is away from religion and toward secularism, and the secularists believed that they had already won the day. But then you have this tremendous revival of interest in religion in the second half of the 20th century. … So these people come along, who are usually very haughty people and they're not really that intelligent, but what they're attacking is the simple faith of people that is coming back, what they call fundamentalism. Therefore, they posit their own intelligence against a sort of "simpleton faith," considering their opponents to be stupid -- with themselves being the "brights," which is what Dawkins calls himself. I think it's an unfortunate phenomenon. I don't think that it's going to be very long lasting, but it will have a role in polarizing more and more the landscape of Western thought.

Today's Zaman: One of the common objections that these authors voice is the idea that religion is the prime, if not only, cause of violence in the world. All conflict, they argue, can be reduced to some matter of religious disagreement. Similarly, others have argued that the main conflict in the world is being fought by the West against Islam, which is perceived as a fundamentally violent religion. What is the connection or relationship between religion and violence?

Seyyed Hossein Nasr: To be human is to be placed in a world of violence. Every time you inject your child with an injection against the flu, you are committing violence against the germs, if you look at it from their point of view. Let's not talk about sentimentality. Violence in that sense is part and parcel of life. Life, in order to grow, has to face violence. It's remarkable that, amidst this violence, there's so much beauty and peace and harmony in the world. That's what's really remarkable. Now, whatever distinguishes a human being from other human beings is a source of violence. First of all, two human beings: If there is only a certain amount of food, one will become violent against the other. There needs to be a higher principle to bring peace to them. …

Now, throughout history, what has defined the identity of the human being, from the individual to larger aggregates of societies, has been religion, with no exception. ... In every case, therefore, those religious identifications have, in a sense, been both the cause of what would have been there anyway -- that is, violence within the various groups -- and the force that tried to overcome that. That's why you have both. …However, there is something deeper involved. Religion can be destroyed, but man cannot live in a vacuum. So what took the place of religion for these people was an ideology that played the role of religion. That is, communism on the one hand and Nazism and fascism on the other. And so we are already witness to what happens -- that is, tremendous violence -- without religion in the traditional sense, but with pseudo-religion that takes the place of religion.

As for Islam, the calling of Islam the religion of violence by a civilization that has killed hundreds of times more Muslims than Muslims have killed Christians is really hypocrisy of the worst kind. … This is very obvious. … No society wants to be in prison. No society wants to be colonized. When the movement against the colonial powers began in the Islamic world, different things were tried, such as nationalism and liberalism, and none of them really fully succeeded. … What instrument was left with which to fight against Western domination, including that of the so-called elites in society who had the same Arabic names but were also Western in the deeper sense of the term? What was left? It was religion. And so, from the early 20th century … movements began that tried to make use of Islam in order to face the situation.

Obviously, having done that, Islam becomes identified by those who do not want to leave the Islamic world, those who do not want to be defeated, with violence. And this is a very powerful form of propaganda to use against Islam and people use it all the time. Look, for example, at the tremendous amount of violence done in Gaza. You never hear people talk about Jewish violence, or Judaism as a source of violence. I have respect for Judaism as a religion of God -- or Christianity -- so I'm not happy that people should call it that, but Islam has the privilege of being the only religion in the world about which you can say anything negative you want and nobody says anything.

Read complete interview here.

Biography of Fakhr Al-Din Razi by S. Hossein Nasr

Who's 'Razi' thought to be, and how does he find his place in the mainstream traditional intellectual life of Islam? A little introduction goes as:

"The intellectual life of Islam after the attacks of Ash'ari and Ghazali upon rationalistic philosophy can be largely described as the gradual transition from the rationalism of Aristotelian philosophy toward the intuitive and illuminative wisdom of the Ishraqis and Sufis. Although Islam began to weaken politically and culturally during the later part of the 'Abbasid Caliphate, Muslim thought especially in the Shi'ah world continued the process of divorcing itself from the categories of Peripatetic philosophy. One of the most influential and colourful figures in this movement, who played a major role in the attack against the rationalists, was Fakhr al-Din Razi, who is considered to be the reviver of Islam in the sixth/twelfth century as Ghazali was in the fifth/eleventh. Razi is in many ways a second Ghazali; in fact, he may without exaggeration be considered to be one of the greatest Muslim theologians."

Complete biography of Farkr Al-Din Razi by Seyyed Hossein Nasr.

For whole of Muslim Philosophy check out the electronic version of the book History of Muslim Philosophy here. (I also saw this book in 2 vol in the office/study of famous Pakistani lawyer Ch. Aitzaz Ahsan.)

The Demons of Work

Now-a-days I am preparing a paper sort of a ‘report’ (a dubious name to such a title which I will reveal just then after just now) on ‘Cultural Globalization’. I always tend to take long routes, taking more pain and not allowing my self the luxury of direct access to facts; this show how dim my perspectives are on things so real. But I can’t help myself avoid doing that. So I have started reading The Reign of Quantity and the Signs of Times to analyze the patterns of globalization in our world culture, rather to critique on the new spirits of time and et cetera, et cetera. This tendency of taking a long route by delving too deep in one concept only, thinking that if the nature of that single concept may be found the knowledge of others will show up like rays of sunlight do on a sunny day, has only contributed to low grades and low grades. In words of our liberal economics professor: 'God knows why'. What else should I do when I find, for instance, so-called scholarly books on subject globalization so biased that tinges of scholarly language seem to be only suicidal for ‘some inexplicit reasons’. They propound everything in favor of their theses ‘in the manner of jurists’ that one starts to believe in the relativity of truth. They start with premises and take them as absolute, so that all that follows must only under any circumstances conform to their personal likings and biases. But they do sound, somewhat, scholarly - 'depressingly so'.

I chose this book I already mentioned to write on the subject of modernism, hoping, as usual, to find an application on the culture the latter gave birth to, so as to reveal its actual roots, no matter how non-cultural the language of the paper or my ‘thesis’ (another dubious title), may sound. Knowledge is for its own sake. Unity is not uniformity; it is far more profound than the latter. And, this is the difference I can make here. What follows now is an introduction to this book, which I picked up to clear my mind of the illusions of the modern times:

“The Reign of Quantity is an attack on the scientism of modern World. In these beautiful and profound pages Rene Guenon looks back to an ancient Wisdom, once common to both East and West but now almost entirely lost. Contemporary civilization itself – with its industrial societies and illusory notions of progress – is his target. In particular, he shows that today’s sciences are dominated by a quantitative approach, that they neglect that idea of quality. To this “reign of quantity” he opposes the sacred metaphysics of the ancients, which he sees as rooted in Divine Truth. His book is ultimately a warning against the real danger that humanity faces today – a warning all the more urgent because that danger is unperceived by those from whom guidance is sought and expected.”

This is how Shaikh ‘Abdul Wahid Yahya, the author, describes the purpose of his book:

“Among the features characteristic of the modern mentality the tendency to bring everything down to an exclusively quantitative point of view will be taken from now on as the central theme of this treatise. This tendency is most marked in the scientific conceptions of recent centuries but it is almost as conspicuous in other domains, notably in that of social organization; so much so that with one reservation the nature and necessity of which will appear hereafter, our period could almost be defined as being essentially and primarily the “reign of quantity”. This characteristic is chosen in preference to any other not solely nor even principally because it is one of the most evident and least contestable but above all because of its truly fundamental nature for reduction to the quantitative is strictly in conformity with the conditions of the cyclic phase at which humanity has now arrived.”

Moreover, my instructor once told me that to know capitalism is to know globalization. Understand the former; you’ll get what the latter is, he meant to say. I hope this conforms to my personal likings.

No Earthly Voice, No Earthly Formula

This recitation of Qur'an by Qari Abdul Basit Abdul Samad is one of those that awoke in me a repose. Repose to surrender before the Truth. Surrender to elevate from the lower self, so to say to become nearer to the Truth - the source of all, the One, the Absolute, Allah. The voice, the message is penetrating. It captures the heart of men; it piercers them directly, takes no long routes - so spontaneous. Softens this uncontrollable, incomprehensible device called heart, tames it.

On ‘Proof’ & Knowledge of the Nature of Things

I should let the philosopher speak, and for what gems he has carved, shine in the "Dark Age"* of ours:

"A proof is not convincing because it is absolute – which it could not be – but because it actualizes in the mind an evident truth.

"Proof is possible only on the basis of some pre-existing knowledge. Only the artificiality of a way of thinking that is cut off from its transcendent Principle could seek to graft a proof on to mere emptiness. That is like seeking in time for the origin of eternity.

"It is wrong to reject a 'proof of God' just because one is ignorant of the premises that are implicit in it and which are clear to the author of the proof."

* * *

"Every truth can assuredly be proved, but not every proof is acceptable to every mind. Nothing is more arbitrary than a rejection of the classical proofs of God, each of which is valid in relation to a certain need for logical satisfaction. This need for logical satisfaction increases in proportion, not to knowledge, but to ignorance. For the sage every star, every flower, is metaphysically a proof of the Infinite."

* * *

"Men of rationalizing disposition are obsessed with 'thoughts'; they see concepts and not 'things'; hence their inept criticisms of inspired and traditional doctrines. Such men perceive neither the realities of which these doctrines treat, nor the unexpressed things that are taken for granted. They criticize after the manner of jurists whatever is shocking to their habits of mind; unable to attain to 'things' they make play with words. It is characteristic of philosophers to objectivize their own limitations."

* * *

"A concept is a 'problem' only in the context of a particular ignorance."

* * *

Frithjof Schoun,

Chap # 1, Spiritual perspectives and Human Facts

__________________________________________________________________________________
Notes:
* See "The Crisis of Modern World", by Rene guenon.

The Concept of God & Western Philosophy

Umer: Having read the concept of God among great philosophers, I'm intrigued to know how Platonic "philo" approached this problem. Did they divorce intellect from reason? Did they too solve the problem through rationalism?

Master Agha: Purpose and design behind the creation of universe and life are missing in Western philosophy. Western philosophy deals with such issues on the basis of speculations and imperfect intellect. While we believe that revelation is essential to understand such questions.

Colonialism Is Pathetic

I find the following points about colonialism (pre-World War 2) as quite accurate salient summary features of this term, more or less; all of which forces me to abhor it from the very core of my inner being, just for its being manifesting a true downfall of human intellect. And as the worst form of human monstrosity and beastliness. Here they are:

1) Colonialism imposed alien and authoritarian regimes on subordinate societies. These regimes tended to train a few of their subjects in bureaucratic management [according to Altaf Ghuar they're called intermediaries] and requires passive acquiescence from the remainder.

2) Although for long periods passive acquiescence was indeed largely attained, as colonialism advanced it also stimulated nationalist agitation and organization and came to be more and more passionately detested, particularly by those among the colonial people who came into closest contact with the European superiors.

3) Some features of the "colonial situation" are: domination of an alien minority, asserting racial and cultural superiority, over a materially inferior native majority; contact between a machine-oriented civilization with Christian origins, a powerful economy, and a rapid rhythm of life and a non-Christian civilization that lacks machines and is marked by a backward economy and a slow rhythm of life; and the imposition of the first civilization upon the second (Balandier 1951, p. 75). ["Political Colonialism: Colonialism", International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, Vol 3 & 4]

Number 3 point is but a sign of the total reign of quantity which is being advanced by the concepts of democracy and gender equality, driving the whole world, as if it was not already passing through the darkest periods of human history, "Kali-Yuga" according to Hindu traditional data, towards utter doom. Moreover, I often lament on the mentality of anti-colonial forces, who "have derived their inspirations and ideas primarily from the teachings of the colonial powers, have for the most part adopted Western forms of organization and action..." [Same source as quoted already.]

What You Lost & Found?

Image source.

Intellectus

A beautiful poem by a beautiful man (remember in Arabic word "man" does not differentiate between male or female gender, rather it refers to the true human being).

"Intellectus"

Man, so it is said, can never know God;
God alone knows Himself. This is to forget:
God knows Himself also within the sage;
Pure Intellect can measure all enigmas -

From God down to the creature. Yet what It knows
Is a thousand times greater than what It says.

-Frithjof Schoun

Wisdom and Profane Philosophy

Philosophy is an art. This word is quite amusing. The 6th century civilizations, for example, are termed as "Legendary" ones by moderns, whereas the recently discovered archeological data leaves no doubt about its being a true and concrete civilization as the Graeco-Latin or any other is, the former to which the moderns claim their present civilization as nothing but a continuation. Whereas, on the other hand, this term philosophy has retained its name throughout the Western history starting from the time it was first expressed, perhaps by the Pythagorian traditionalists. And more amusingly, even when this term has exerted so much harmful influence on the Western mind and still continues by threatening the intellectual health of East, as well, it plays the same profane role it began to play centuries ago with the emergence of skepticism, a true downfall of intellectus. Having said that, in the following passage Rene Guenon, a Tradtionalist and Perennialist, gives proper treatment to the term philosophy, the origins of "profane philosophy" and of what is associated with both of it.

"[T]he word philosophy can, in itself, be taken in quite a legitimate sense, one which it doubtless bore originally, especially if it be a fact, as is commonly believed, that Pythagoras was the first to make use of the expression. Etymologically it simply means "love of wisdom"; in the first, therefore, it implies the prerequisite disposition for the attainment of wisdom and, by a natural extension, it comes to mean also the quest which is born of this disposition and which will presently lead to knowledge. It therefore denotes a preliminary and preparatory stage, a step, as it were, in the direction of wisdom ore a degree corresponding to a state inferior to that of wisdom; the perversion of meaning which occured later consisted in maistaking this transitional stage for an end in itself and in attempting to substitute phislosophy for wisdom, a process which implied forgetting or failing to recognize the true nature of the latter. It was in this way that what may be described as "profane" philosophy came into existence, an alleged wisdom, that is to say, purely human in character and therefore pertaining merely to the rational order, which became substituted for the genuine supra-rational and non-human traditional wisdom.However, something of this genuine wisdom persisted throughout the whole of antiquity; the proof is to be seen in the continuation of the "mysteries" with their undeniably initiatic character, and also in the fact that the teaching of the philosophers themselves usually possessed both an "exoteric" and an "esoteric" side, the latter providing the possibility of connection with a higher point of view, as we see revealed very clearly, if in certain respects incompletely, some centuries later among the Alexandrians. For "profane" philosophy to be definitely constituted as such it was necessary that exotericism alone should survive and that esotericism should be repudiated altogether; this was precisely what the movement started by the Greeks was to lead to in the modern world; the tendencies which had already found expression among the Greeks were destined to be driven to their logical conclusion and the excessive importance which they had attached to rational thought was to prepare the way for the development of "rationalism", a specifically modern attitude of mind which no longer merely consists in just ignoring everything belonging to the supra-rational order, but deliberately disavows it..."

"The Crisis of the Modern World", Ch # 1,
by René Guénon.

I would profess anyone to read this lengthy paragraph without dividing it, and I tried to present the background of it in the introductory passage of this post. Writings of René Guénon are no way "analysis", but "synthesis" which makes his articles too excellent. And they should be looked and understood as "whole" in order to penetrate their so-called density.