Sufis & Change-science

"Changing souls is the ikstisaas/specialization of Sufis."

-Abdal-Hakim Murad

Rene Guenon on "Tolerance And Freedom Of Thought"

"Let our meaning be quite clear; we have no intention of blaming practical tolerance as applied to individuals, but only theoretic tolerance, which claims to be applied to ideas as well and to recognise the same rights for them all, which if taken logically can only imply a rooted scepticism. Moreover we cannot help noticing that, like all propagandists, the apostles of tolerance, truth to tell, are very often the most intolerant of men. This is what has in fact happened, and it is strangely ironical : those who wished to overthrow all dogma have created for their own use, we will not say a new dogma, but a caricature of dogma, which they have succeeded in imposing on the western world in general; in this way there have been established, under the pretext of "freedom of thought," the most chimerical beliefs that have ever been seen at any time, under the form of these different idols, of which we have just singled out some of the more important.

Of all the superstitions preached by those very people who profess that they never stop inveighing against "superstition," that of "science " and "reason", is the only one which does not seem, at first sight, to be based on sentiment; but there is a kind of rationalism which is nothing more than sentimentalism disguised, as is shown only too well by the passion with which its champions uphold it, and by the hatred which they evince for whatever goes against their inclinations or passes their comprehension, Besides, since rationalism, in any case, corresponds to a lessening of intellectuality, it is natural that its development should go hand in hand with that of sentimentalism..."

- East and West, p.48

What thoughts do you have?

"No time, no time" by Haris Gulzar

I wish all Believers could read this poem, especially those who mistakenly think dunya is their real life; and they can't be blamed for such a misunderstanding. Anyways, here's the poem

Courtesy: Ambar Bail: The Plant of Eternity.

"I knelt to pray but not for long

I had too much to do

I had to hurry and get to work

For the bills would soon be due

So I knelt and said a hurried prayer

And jumped up of my knees

My Muslim duty was now done

My soul could rest at ease

All day long I had no time

To spread a word of cheer

No time to speak of Allah to friends

They’d laugh at me was my fear

No time, no time, too much to do

That was my constant cry

No time to give to souls in need

But at last the time came, the time to die

I went before my lord, with hope

I stood there with downcast eyes

And there was an angel holding a book

It was a book of blessed lives

He looked into his book and said

“Your name I cannot find”

I once was going to write it down

But unfortunately never found time"

Forgetfulness

Dunya nay teri yaad say baygana kar dia

Tujh say bhi dilfareeb hain gham roozgar k

-Faiz Ahmed Faiz

Correct me if there's an error. I've to write a post - reflections on 2009... May I be blessed some focus...

S. Z.

Mr. Shoaib Zafar passed away.

Ah! 'Death the leveler'. Lesson: “The world is a magician greater than Harut and Marut, and you should avoid it.”

Karachi Burning

Courtesy: Musaafir-e-Dasht.

"So, it did feel like hell broke loose yet again on Karachi when hundreds of shops were burnt as a supposed aftermath to the Ashura blasts. Families ruined. Businesses lost. And death prevailed. No, those who burnt the shops and markets were not those who were in the procession. Rather they had nothing to do with those were busy mourning the deaths of their dear ones. They were quite 'known' people. People who had planned it all before hand. People who made sure that they use chemicals when putting the markets to flame. People who claim to own the city. And let us not go very far - those who remember hearing the video I posted on my blog sometime back, regarding the surreptitious Blackwater activities in the city, would also remember who was aiding them establish a stronghold here...

Ironically, not a single person had the courage to take names - names of the people, names of the organistaions involved. Media - what to say of it but et tu, Brute (As always!)? All they had to tell us were the same immaculately woven tales regarding the 'taliban' and the 'religious extremists' (by the way, nowadays anyone who practices religion is an 'extremist'). So, all in all, what followed the highly unfortunate incident was a heap of falsehood struck right into teh face of the avaam who are being constantly 'requested' to be on their guard against any dehshatgard that they might find amongst them!

How truly and beautifully some poet said:

دامن پہ کوئی داغ نہ خنجر پہ کوئی چھینٹ

"تم قتل کرو ہو کہ کرامات کرو ہو

I also ponder: Why is that in this age a religious person, the religion in question must always be Islam, is an extremist, when the West has gone to extremes, not us? Why people around call be a bare 'fanatic' for I do not approve of sitting before this 'plug-in drug' called TV, although I approve of all monitors, nonetheless?

Shahpar

My dear readers, I was reading this post on Social Action & Reaction by someone in Occidental Exile (this is his blog), and then happened to watch a few second clip of a PAF F-16 A taking off in winter weather at steep angle, thus I couldn't resist the temptation of thrilling you with extraordinary combat aerobatics of Pakistan's bride, F-16 - verify this later fact from a 2-yr child even, in Pak! Well, the quote that triggered this 'impulse' to 'thrill' you - in a moment - is quoted here:

"Your first question presupposes that Rene Guenon desired either to return society to a previous state or otherwise cause a radical change within its present structure but this is incompatible with the traditional teachings concerning cyclic laws. In the context of these laws the decadence of humanity as with their social institutions is an inevitable outcome of the progression of the ages leading from a Golden Age or Satya Yuga to the present Iron Age or Kali Yuga. This process can be represented as that of a winding-down or solidification of the world prior to a renewal." (Read the rest of post here.)

First, we go "maximum vertical":

Then we can't wait for a Paki Viper to go blasting over the perverted buildings of Islamabad.

At last, we can allow Europeans to show off their uniqueness (don't miss the point where it literally wheels in the air, i bet young, teenage Pakistani stunt-motor-bikers would feel heavily envious!):

"December"

I read a beautiful, pair of couplets on December, and I cannot help but share it with my Urdu-speaking audience (and I dare not translate, so to say deform it!).

By poet Raaji,

Abhi hijr ka kayam hai aur december aan pohancha hai

Yeh khabar shehr mein aam hai, december aan pohancha hai

Aangan mein utar ayi hai phir manoos si khusboo

Yaado'n ka Azdhaam hai, december aan pohancha hai.

Is disorder is more efficient than order

Have you ever observed that many bsuy, working people, who are really competent and intelligent, have their study rooms, offices, etc., full of disorder, almost as chaotic as Pakistani society? Do you think it is negative and inefficient to have disorder rule over one's living place(s)? i feel this, others may relate to it, that disorder is a good friend of mine. It does not bother me, rather it helps me by saving my time which would have been consumed in establishing the order, which never stops to diminish. Disorder is natural to happen, it'd take place, look what entropy says, but can it be really more productive than having order in 'working places'? But, on the other hand, our environment shapes very much what we do, it affects our 'actual' behavior profoundly. As per Shaykh Abdal-Hakim Murad, a Muslim's soul has to be at ease with its environment. Secondly, if you want not to be distracted with other things while studying a book, for example, you should not have other books lying open on the same table, other distractions (except drugs in this case) must not be easily accessible to you so that you may read the book with focus. I've posted this little post on some other places as well, but I've not been much satisfied with the comments.

I picked up this idea from a review published in DAWN Books & Authors on a book written in praise of disorder.

Let's go Diamond!

And sleep... (2:56 AM)

Some vehicles of American Imperialism in Pakistan

NGOs, without any shadow of doubts, see Encyclopedia of Sociology, p. ??? . American schools, colleges. Forman Christian College, Lahore, the best example that suffices. What do you reckon what 'missing' vehicles can be, (of which yours truly is only ignorant of it, while they're operating at their best)?

Children of Iran

It's so sad to know that much of Europeans and Americans have been fed with this strange notion that Islam and Muslims are Bedouin Arabs who are up to destroying Western civilizations (when a part of it is influenced historically by Islamic culture as well), and are terrorists, never miss that designation, more than anything else. I do not blame any European and American for that or any other (including modernist/secularist Muslims!), for I blame their environment and age we live in. Many who have converted to Islam, a large majority has been affect deeply by some or any aspect of Islam that which involves some kind of beauty and serenity either in Islamic tenets or in Muslims, or in Islamic architecture. Despite that people have gross misconceptions, that's what I can say, even about the very outlook of Muslims. A German-Russian convert was telling people that Muslims don't look like dark skinned, dark eyes, black hairy people, b'cause a Muslim can be anyone. Yet here's a little photo-presentation of the children of the so-called 'fanatic' and 'isolated' Iranians, BBC and American media propaganda machinery is so obsessed with.

Courtesy: Flickr.

Vacation Note

Hi,

My dear and conscious readers, I value you a lot. Therefore I wish to inform that yours truly is going away not-so uncharted waters on a dual-role mission, balacned, the way of a Muslim. Soon I'll depart toMultan tostudy an industry only to understanding concepts of a course that everyone treads. Then, if Allah wills it, I along with a teacher and some students would be visiting and staying in khankah somewhere in Punjab for self-purification.

If you have an habit of praying, pray for the success of these little 'missions'. I'll be back soon, God willing. Don't go away. And meanwhile, watch this video and try to guess why would Pakistani media brainwashing machinery would like to make an imaginary video of india attacking it; and correlate this prejudices of past decades with what is happening in Pakistan. It shows some kids swimming in a pond being bombed by Indian artillery, how do you view it with bombs killing many people in the same way.

Thanks.

We can live without facts

Winter is getting more cold day by day, night by night, with all its enjoyable mysterious beauties, sometimes quite stern. And as it is becoming difficult for a frail being like me to survive sitting on my desk well outside the warm and charming blanket-shell, late at night, I am getting on with my little 'research' project (although nothing is that unknown) on the TV-consumption-patterns and life priorities of early teen school kids. So naturally, being a victim of university conditioning, I's inclined to consume a term called 'fact' obsessively. Amidst this escalating 'faith' of an immature mind in the soundness of statistical data to know what 'current climate' is, and to make future decisions, comes an almost rescuing 'revelation' once again by my one of favorite writers, philosophers and thinkers Seyyed Hossein Nasr, he says to the effect, just making adding detail to his advanced argument (not mentioned here):

"(As per modern science) Phenomenon are facts, and not ayats or signs of Allah. ... One of the fundamental doctrines of Islam is that all phenomenon are ayat ullah, signs of God. ... There is no word for fact in major Islamic language, Arabic or Persian. So we can live without facts. (Smiles)"

From his lecture, Islam, Science and Cultural Values, delivered at the Library of Congress. See free video here.

'Eye for an eye': "Pakistan court orders ears and noses to be cut off "

Topping 2nd as today's most read story at one point in time today, here comes a chilling decision by Pakistan court against two anti-women creatures (men, of course), amidst bombs exploding in my homeland:

'A Pakistani court has ordered that two men have their ears and noses cut off, as punishment for doing the same to a woman who refused to marry one of them.

The two brothers were found guilty of kidnapping 20-year-old Fazeelat Bibi, one of their cousins, in September.

Government prosecutor Ehtisham Qadir said the punishment had been awarded in accordance with the Islamic principle of "an eye for an eye".' [Source.]

Certain dubious human right activists said they approve very much of rights of women, but could not approve of this order of the honourable court. What does this reflect?In my fragile opinion (dhann), it reflects westernization of the brown people. Had this rule be made by Westerners (so as to be be changed after a 'reform', perhaps), they'd have protested against courts for not using 'this rarely invoked Islamic law'. Islamic law, or fiqh, which transcends this thing westerners are obsessed with, 'opinion', does not need any comparison from West, it'd have needed a comparison had West produced a personality like the second caliph of Islam, Umar ibn e Khatab, ra, the source of Islamic law, although many people including Believers much basic education about their imperishable heritage,

'When I grow up I want to be a (little) boy'!

A very basic truth about argumentation and debate

Gai Eaton expresses a simple, yet often forgotten principle about debate and argument:

"Argument and discussion pre-supposes some common ground shared by those involved. When no common ground exists, confusion and misunderstanding are unavoidable, if not anger."

Sorrowfully, much of our discussions become victim to this common neglect about knowing what our basic assumptions are, and it happens in universities as well, no surprise...

However, here's a beautiful recitation of some part of Quran, God's direct conversation with man, do open it sometime, especially during breaks from work or study:

'Word verification for comments'

i excuse my readers, who are declining day by day :), for putting this verification amal to prove that you are one of human beings. Its just to stop spams. I personally have a contempt for it. But that should not stop you from commenting, though.

An idiot's guide to the Credit System

I fanatically hate and abhor the credit system, although I don't understand it fully, neither do I want to. Some day I'll have to learn economics of it, so that I may contribute a verse, or two. Charles Dickens has got a good way of introducing the generally laymen species to what credit system is all about, and I'll leave you to love it or hate it:

Credit is a system whereby a person who can not pay gets another person who can not pay to guarantee that he can pay.

Futurism? We're already 'doomed'

Gai Eaton (Hasan 'Abdul Hakim) writes in his King of the Castle: Choice & Responsibility in the Modern World, "...Obsessive concern with the future of the human race is a uniquely modern phenomenon. ... The Muslim does not easily forget that, as men and women, we are all 'doomed' since we must surely die, and that societies, civilisations and worlds are equally mortal: 'Everything that is upon the earth passes away, and there remains only the Face of thy Lord, infinite in Glory and infinite in Bounty.' Eternity is One; and One alone is eternal."

Yet the absurdity that has befallen on Muslim, for which he struggles now-a-days, makes the very idea of death unlikable to him.