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.

Post-Colonial Muslim Mind & Qur’an

When Islamic ummah encountered modernity in 19th-20th century, it fragmented into disunited pieces, with profound and far-reaching consequences for their relation with Islam as a world-view, affecting all aspects of traditional Islamic societies, from education to politics, from governance to family systems. According to Burhan Ahmed Farooqi [1], this created two classes of mind-sets with distinct world-views: a Traditional Islamic mindset that traced its roots to divine revelation of Islam; and, a modernized mindset, trained in modern educational systems, which felt more at home with all things with Western. Modernized Muslims ascended to the ranks of power and rule Muslims masses with aspirations to westernize their countries in totality. Traditional Islam, and its political elite, lost its sway with the replacement of Shariah Law with Roman or English or French law; although cultural aspects of Muslim societies continued to survive, albeit with constant losing battles with the monoculture of West.

Leadership was transferred to modernized-Muslims who were completely hopeless of Quran as a source of minhaaj, a way of solving problems both at individual and societal levels [2]. With their utter hopelessness in Qur’anic worldview, modernized Muslims looked up to knowledge produced by human capacity as a way of solving all of their problems. The root cause of this hopelessness may be explained as a result of trauma that Muslims went through after their political subjugation at the hands of West that resulted in disbelief in the power of their own Tradition. During this process, Muslims developed deep sense of inferiority complex, which according to many scholars is the root problem of Muslims which stops them from realizing potential of being a Muslim and final revelation from Allah.

What led to this state of affairs? Syed Abu Hassan Nadvi (r.a.) argues [3] that following were main reasons that led to Westernization of many Muslim countries, especially India, Egypt and Turkey:

- Western educational system which indoctrinated in a more subtle way superiority of Western civilization as a poison that led to death of authentic worldview of Islam

- Orientalism modernized Muslim scholars relied a lot upon research and analysis done by Orientalists to understand Islam and its history – those eyeglasses were also contaminated that blurred the vision of Muslims

- Decline of Muslim Intellectuality Muslims, largely, failed to respond proactively to the change in their surroundings and could not respond to challenge of modernity.

We can understand that these factors are pertinent and relevant today, since these at work creating more hopelessness in Muslims from Qur’an, as being a way of solving our problems. We only need to reverse this process through a (maybe unending) intellectual struggle, and to take Qur’an as a minhaaj to solve our individual and societal diseases and challenges of modernity.

[Challenges ahead]

- Asad Zaman: empirical, rationalistic vs revelation. superiority of later. Intellect and reason can't be limited to rationalism
- hamid algar
- nasr


_______________________________________
Notes
[1] See, Minhaaj-ul-Quran, by Dr. Burhan Ahmed Farooqi
[2] Ibid
[3] Nadvi, Syed Abu Hassan. Muslim Mumalik mein Islamiat aur Maghribiat ki Kashmakash (1980) – "The struggle between Islamization and Westernization in Muslim Countries." Karachi: Majlis-e-Nashriyate Islam

An Old Debate: Islamic & Western Imperialism

My friend Bilal Zubair had a debate with his friend on Facebook. I am reproducing verbatim the debate here. His answers/arguments are still in vogue and require detailed additions, editings and expansions from various perspectives, if applicable. The arguments, which are basically that of orientalists, he is up against are not new; and i believe muslim scholars would have replied in detail of voluminous books. Please do give references to books and scholarly articles on these historical, political and theological questions from Islamic point of view.

Focus on bold and italic sentences. Plus, words in brackets '[ ]' are mine.
________________________

Friend's comment: The wars they fought in order to take some river in possession, or take same agrarian lands. And this was done most in his time, The 1st khalifa was not that violent. Hazrat umar ki to personality ke baray main documented hai ke wo violent thay. Ab ye na kehna i am making this up. Ye har superpower karti hai theek hai na? imperialism musalmano ne bhe kiya tha. Aaj america imperial hai. UK buhat ziada imperial raha wa hai. USSR has remained imperial. Power is exploitative. And if you really need a justification for imperialism. Musalmano ki directions on war. 1) accept islam. No? 2) Pay jizya No? 3) war. If you talk about USA breaking UN resolutions when attacking in gaza, you policy of jizya and accept islam, if applied today breaks more than half of UN resolutions i guess. And one fundamental law, the freedom of religion, which interestingly is a part of islam as well. [Bold & italics mine]


Bilal ZubairViolent? To me violence lies in transgressing Divine Laws and Hadud. If you agree with this definition, by God there wasn't more god-conscious, just, believer of equality of men and women before Law and God, upright, soft than Umar I. If you mean to say that revealed Islamic Law is violence, I'm done with you. For you've lost any Sacred perspective on the nature of things, and you alone are required to re-consider your world-view. It is clear your source of these otherwise discredited pesudo-intellectual arguments come from centuries old Isalmophobes, who to this day spare no arrow, no missile to kill innocent Muslims; whereas, a birds-eye-view of medival and current history is enough to prove who benevolent and just Muslims have been on battlefield. For instance, Jersulam was captured with spilling how many drops of blood? None.

And as for other wars on Persia and Rome, I recently started to read up on these, and what serious historical documentation shows is only 180 degrees opposite to the Islamophobic propaganda you're spouting without any sense of decency and sanity, with at most hatred, haughtiness and sheer ignorance. In 20th century, it was for Amir Abdl Qadir who saved thousands of French, including those with whom he was fighting for decades in Algeria. and he saved them from irrational Muslims, who in the garb of Islam, were acting in treason to Prophet, s.a.w. Oh, and ever heard about the conduct of Hazrat Umar bin Abdal Aziz, who's known as Second Umar? Probably not.

I've read the kind of fictiotious pseudo-historical interpretations you're reproducing without any serious reflection, out of mere sentimental reactionism, many times refuted in scholarly books. Time for me to read up again, and probably you should hear the other of the story. Maybe you don't have time to find books from Islamic point of view. And nothing is more heinous, laughable, mistaken, horrible and ad hoc than comparing medival history with present day extreme war of terror being unleashed on little children. It shows where your allegiance lies. A child is attacked by alleged taliban and it is enough to arouse whole nation, but dead bodies of innocent infants, doesn't even stimulate a goose-pump. Why? Your heart lies our Colonial Masters.

Superpower? Please take an online course in comparing and contrast simple ideas. How dare you compare a mere force of 50,000 simplest, sincerest, and extraordinary human beings with agents of an Empire that believes in no Divine Power, cares not an iota about sanctity of human life. Perhaps, reading up on modern Imperial powers would do some good to you.

Produce one incident where Sahaba engaged in collateral damage, and attacked civilian buildings killing infants. Produce one incident where took jizya and didn't protect the populace from tyrants. In fact, in one case, they gave jizya back to people when they left the area, and people lamented. The jizya sahaba charged was way too less the taxes their tyrants charged.

 And as your over-simplifications about Islam threatening then Superpowers (Rome, persians, byzantines), try reading an impartial account before assaulting Sacred personalities and Sacred history of a civilization with your childish, orientalist fiction. But if you feel you're a mr know-all and Islam is deen of indiscriminate violence, don't bother.

Friend's reply:  I do get that you are an amazing intellectual. Lets lay some of ironies in all that you just stated with alot of emotional element and ofcourse acrimony and fury. Because you are ''done with me''. here goes. There are some terrible generalizations in all these accounts you put up. And some ironies too. Now that you question my knowledge i question yours. Look how you call it a mere force of 50,000 and then go on to say they CANNOT be compared with those who do not believe in divine power. [He failed to understand B's point here, which was bit confusing though.] Here the implication is ke jo divine power main believe karta hai wo koi buhat aalim faazil aur superior cheez hai. [He didn't imply that. He meant they don't care about hadood Allah, which in case of Islam do not have any room for collateral damage, and killing of non-combatants.] Talk about muslims of cordoba, was that a mere force of 50k they send into Europe? And captured alot of it we know that. Wasnt that imperialism? You say muslims were people who were not imperial, you say jizya was justified. Here you make another generalization. ''Their tyrants'' you say. As if each of these tribes were under tyrants. The tribes from whom you took jizya and went to war, you call them the mischief makers which is one of the stupidest terms ever created.

Now lets think about it. You live in an area, open. And someone comes and says 1) accept islam. You impose on someone, you IMPOSE on them by denying them the freedom to follow their own religion, i am sorry this is not preaching, you asked them to follow islam. But no? 2) Pay jizya. [Please share any articles that explain Islamic point of view.] haha. Yes they protected them right. Tell me something, if they turned Muslims, they wont pay jizya, but would be given protection, both of the protections are at a cost. One is giving up your religion and two is paying money. And if you dont pay the price. You die. You go on war and die. They might not kill women and children(which has not always been the case in muslim dynasties) but they do kill men. Men who refuse to pay them money in exchange of protection and refuse to give up their religion. If i come to you and say pay me and i will give you protection. will you accept? what if the other party does not want protection? Ajeeb log ho. We used to use their lands, have them pay jizya and use the surplus of their lands to our own use, that how the pre industrial societies have worked all along before the industrial revolution. Now the biggest piece of induction you did ''Why?your heart lies and is in love with zio-nazi terrorists of the diesease known as western civilization.'' These are your sugar coated words. See how my criticism of some behavior of past muslims turns out to be a supporter of westernization. You induced that information, created a narrative and then put it all in front of me trying to portray it as a fact. What is this ''disease'' you say is ''westernization''. I am sorry. facebook is a western product. Stop using it. You read your books in light, a light which a western scientist made, you travel in cars, use androids. Put a display picture which is made on a western software. You call westernization a disease? then to hell with half the things you do everyday. Stop doing them. You induce things and call me a supporter of something just because i criticize some behavior. Your wonderfully sensitive heart bleeds for muslims does it? it bleeds for infants of gaza. Well look at this place you sit it, the one you call islamic republic of pak. Thousands of muslims die here, everyday. Their infants get devoid of their own parents. If your heart is that much in solidarity with infants have some for these too. You all sit there with displays when america does something, shout against drones and never do you raise your voice on what goes in pakistan. Mukhtara Mai case, aap sab so rahay thay. Murder of the Governor, people called it islamic. Jeez man look at your stupidity i mean uff. 1 lac Shia's killed in pak in the last 2 years. Some fear a slow genocide. Yesterday we had blasts killing people just because they were Shia and you sit here and tell me if i ask people like you to raise a voice for your own country i am a westerner. Well good. Look at your pre programmed mind. Inter sectarian wars started in khalifa periods. Not all the khalifa's were angels. They were human beings and they did make some mistakes. If you hate the west that much, then stop all this crap, say no to half the technology you use. Its a disease known as westernization. You think you can bring US under the control? seriously? The country gave alone 580 million dollars of aid in the reign of Ghulam muhammad. they are not conspiring against muslims, they have helped alot of them too. But stop criticizing US, thats easy to do, pinpoint others. FOR F***'s SAKE. POINT THE NEEDLE ON YOUR OWN COUNTRY AND ONCE IT Is FIXED. ONLY THEN DO YOU GET ANY RIGHT TO CRITICIZE SOMEONE ELSE.

Bilal Zubair:  1. Leaving childish, you’re-so-stupid-and-I’m-the-only-logical-luminary, slutty, toilet-humor kind of mumbo-jumbo aside: I had restrained myself to the period of Khulafa-e-Rashideen. And you attacked the person of Hazrat per se. I've nothing more to say here. Suffice to quote my own words: "Time for me to read up again and probably you should hear the other of the story." So the debate isn’t over here. And for other sultans coming after 4 caliphs till Hazrat Umer bin Abdal Aziz, there is certainly division of opinion amongst Traditional Muslim historians, who fully subscribe to Islamic point of view, their conquests have been questioned. One such scholar is Khalid Blankinship, who in his book “The End of Global Jihad,” mentions how Hazrat Umar bin Abdal Aziz himself stopped wars on all fronts and recalled people back, and encouraged people to engage in commerce. To assert that there’s no difference of opinion amongst Muslim scholars is being childish, over the conquests and details of which are purely a historical matter NOT A THEOLOGICAL ONE. And please spare me from the vulgar conclusion that all my opinions are crystallized. I’ve just embarked on re-reading Islamic history, but from Sacred point of view. So I’m gonna read in detail the causes, factors and consequences of these conquests, Allah willing.

2. Yes, I dare make statements about your state of mind, which is purely evident from your attacks on our right to go out Muslims all over the world, to which you objected. And a big hahahahaha! for the Euro-centric and now American-centric propaganda lines you are spouting: leave this and that. Thanks for taking the pain, it was very entertaining. One day our native-Brown-sahib-orientalists’ll conclude that we poor, worthless, ignorant Muslims – who aren’t zio-nazi bootlickers/admirers of Dajjalic armies* – should stop breathing air cause it’s being cleaned and provided by the West. In fact much of the environmental crises third world is facing are directly a consequence of indefinite economic progress in America and the West. And mind you, without the massive import of the intellect, US would not have achieved all of this, including too-massive imports of enslaved Africans (on whom the enlightened scientists performed experiments by injecting viruses of worst sorts). Perhaps reading this article would help you realize really how “Eurocentric/Americo-centric” an Amerikanos’ and Europeans’ days are: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2009/974/op5.htm

3. How did you assume that I am not troubled by the madness being done in Pakistan against my shiah brothers, or in other parts? Why is that not mentioning one thing at a time leads you to conclude that I’m totally against it? And besides, there’s no difference in principle here. Nobody suggested we should send Pak Army to Gaza. Nobody objects to Pak soldiers serving in UN. Why shouldn’t they serve in Muslim lands as contingents?

 4. And your equating westernization with TECHNOLOGY which is neither western nor eastern is way too hilarious and saddening at the same time. This is purely a philosophical, sociological, political and intellectual issue, an idea and a process. I’ll try finding articles and books and paste links here. Perhaps reading an Iranian thinker’s book may help one understand the disease: “Occidentiosis,” by Jamal Al e Ahmed. PDF book here: http://multiworldindia.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/occidentosis.pdf

Note.
* Dajjalic: evidence is corner-stone of any field of knowledge. Please leave your pre-conceived notions about the ‘way things are’ and re-read the Prophecies of Prophet about the End of Times and Dajjal. However, if you are going to label these FACTs as religious, hence unscientific: you’re plain wrong. Rather the hard evidence provided by ahadith of Prophet is termed by legal experts as Prophecies and nothing else.

'Mercenary Elites of Pakistan': Join the Bandwagon O Pakis!

In this article, i propose a simple, human resources solution to all ills of backward, savagic, extremist, poverty-ridden, illeterate, un-enlightened populace of Pakistan. (Its in the last para.)

In the US and NATO initiated war of terror - generously complemented with haughtiness, ignorance and pre-meditation - the mercenary elites of Pakistan under the leadership of that dictator (codename: you-know-who-only-lacked-sanity) championed the cause of humanity, justice and freedom (read: to kill innocents, be unjust & snatch freedom, esp. political freedom to choose govts they liked*). The "mercenary elites" of Pakistan composed of most educated and professional ones: military, bureacracy, hired politicians, US-sponsored or westernized journalists and academics. So it's not difficult to understand why they stress so much on (secular, wordly-only) education and on destroying indeginious madrassahs from the face of earth, which have always been independent, and inshaAllah will remain so.

However, our populace - the common believing men & women - have acted in “wrong faith”, against their own human nature by not imitating their leaders, aka killer mercenary elites. Why only should our liberal elite class have the privilege of working on ground for this project of "best last hope of the world" = USA?! Why do not "these" illeterate, radicalized, extremist 16 billion deluded Pakis mend themselves by their bootstraps? Do they not look at "ground realities" - the most logical argument? Perhaps these are the side-effects of malnourishment.

I failed to understand why our liberal elite is losing ground ever since they started licking imperialist powers' boots, starting with the treachary of Mir Jafir-o-Sadiq in 1800s. But, after years of contemplation, i've hint upon the true cause and its cure. Despite all treacheries and efforts to impose their infra-level ideologies on "deluded, extremist believers," little progress has been made due to little high-handedness of our elites. They should come few steps down, and pick the mike for the first time, for they've never explained their virtuous Dajjalic (aka, all goodness) schemes to the masses in the language the savages understand, no matter how vernacular, disgusting and lowly their local tongue may be. Make that amendment and you'll lo-and-behold and see how masses would flock to their destiny.

What's the destiny? What's the solution? What should the sub-human populace of Pakistan do to becomes acceptable to West and be happy and be Successful? Very simple. Em. US and NATO is on the move to enlighten 3rd world lately. They-who-don't-understand-or-believe-in-democracy need to be destroyed, even if it means destroying whole country, as in 99.99% of cases. For that soldiers are needed. Unfortunately, an American life is much more valuable (and costly too) than a non-Western. So all Pakis should join the battle against ignorance called anti-Americanism be America's boots on grounds. A-BOGS! Few dollars guaranteed with all perks a homeless American enjoys.

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* Some lunatic in state deptt was asked about the fate of new political system in Iraq. He however was categorical to rule out any possibility of a democractically elected Islamic govt. alhamdulilah.

These days...

(Although in Punjab we don't such luxuries. Source)

This year, winter has invaded plains of Punjab like real gurrelia force: conserving during the day, letting sun reign whilst at its cyclical twilight; and, attacking with fury at night, knocking out anyone who dares takes his head out of burdensome blankets. 

However. Weather is romantic at afternoon. While the greenry hasn't left the corridors of trees, the breeze magnify its beauty, inviting people to come out and enjoy the few gardens and parks Lahorites are blessed with. 

It seems that the winter sends open invitation to everyone to come and walk with it, as if to warm it and reduce its own harshness, as if to hug it... inviting people to let loose their consumption of tea and coffee, again to relish in the warm glory of preceding summer, teaching us the importance of complementing with the 'other'...

Throughout the year, i anticipate the lonely walks i'll walk during the cold of the day and at the night, with few around... It is a kind of spiritual retreat after so much meddling with humans in summer nights...

Heavenly Roots: Eternal Unworldiness of Islam & the Individual

From which 'modern' and 'post-modern' (i assume there are) angles we can approach this passage from Gai Eaton's autobiographical essay? I do not mean to disrespect French or Englishmen by means of opinions of this particular writer, but my soul gains fire from the message of it.

"Even so, I might at least have had a homeland. I had none. Although born in Switzerland, I was not Swiss. My mother had grown up in France and loved the French above all others, but I was not French. Was I English? I never felt so. My mother never tired of reminding me that the English were cold, stupid, sexless without intellect and without culture. I did not want to be like them. So where-if anywhere-did I belong? It seems to me in retrospect, that this strange childhood was a good preparation for adherence to Islam. Wherever he may have been born and whatever his race, the Muslim's homeland is the Dar-ul-islam, the House of Islam. His passport, here and in the Hereafter, is the simple confession of Faith, La ilaha illa 'Llah. He does not expect - or should not expect - security or stability in this world and must always keep in mind the fact that death may take him tomorrow. He has no firm roots here in this fragile earth. His roots are above in That which alone endures."

Story Of Early Life Of H. Gai Eaton (b. 1921) Sh. Hassan Abdul Hakeem

NF Paracha - A Square All-Rounder

(I was looking for this blog for long! Without further ado...! In praise of Hazrat Nadeem F Paracha prophet of absurdity, slang and no-bodiness...)

By: Syed Aal-e-Imran

Source : http://tajzia.wordpress.com/ 

Nadeem Farooq Paracha is one of the most widely respected intellectual giants of the country. Throughout his life, he has dedicated himself to contribute towards the betterment of the society on issues of critical importance.

During the 1990s, when The News ran its ‘Vibes’ section in its weekend supplement, NFP, as he is affectionately known, made priceless contribution by highlighting some of the most critical issues relevant to the masses some of which are as follows:

1. Top Ten Songs of All-Time in Pakistani Pop Music (revisited and updated at least thrice with Sar Kiye Yeh Pahar by Strings always coming out on top)
2. Top Ten Albums of All-Time in Pakistani Pop Music (again, revisited and updated a number of times Vital Signs Vol. 2 featuring Junaid Junaid Pakistan was always up there)
3. Precursors of Psychedelic Rock
4. The Earth, Wind, Fire and Water in Rock Music
5. The fact that Pepsi destroyed Vital Signs and other bands
6. Perils of Bubblegum Pop
7. Musicians and why they had no right to have sponsorships
8. Dinosaur Acts
9. Aatish Raj and how to sit and mindlessly roll a coke bottle on guitar strings and record it noise and release it as music
10. Several literary masterpieces that should have been acted out – they were proper dramas with heroes such as ‘Junaid Junaid Pakistan’

Thereafter, he disappeared till a millennium went away and another came our way.

He then resurfaced and started writing for Dawn and has increasingly become more focused on politics. Such has been his dedication that he exposes Jamaat-e-Islami, Maududi and at times, Tableeghi Jamaat as well, everytime he writes. Imran Khan too always gets the limelight he deserves. There are occasional references to Junaid Jamshed as well – very few people remember that in 1995, in his Vibes column, NFP had written an exposition of Junaid for supporting Imran Khan. Junaid had written that ‘Imran Khan remains the only Pakistani who promised his nation something and then actually delivered it’.

NFP is an expert on Jihadi outfits as well and has actually read Amir Mir’s book himself. Similarly, his very statement that ‘the 2008 Mumbai attacks’ that were ‘undertaken by Pakistani Jihadis’ is the final word – Pakistanis never budge to American or Indian Pressure. You have to believe him when he implies that ‘The Dawah’ and Taliban have the same agenda. He is also correct when he clarifies the retro-Maududi’ist and Tablighi notions of ‘Islamic Society’ which have no difference. Very few have had better grips of Syed Qutb and Maududi that he has. Not many realize, for example, the death of Mustafa Akkad was actually an admission of failure from the proponent of Maududified Qutubi ideologies.

NFP’s expertise is not limited to politics, music – he is the ultimate (read square) all-rounder and can write and talk endlessly on any issue till kingdom come. He knows more about cricket and its management than Imran Khan and others ever did. It is extremely saddening to realize that Pakistani cricket team was humiliated in the 2007 World Cup which was lost because Tableeghi Jamaat exists as testified by NFP.  P. J. Mir also said that and Bob Woolmer would have done the same had he been alive. It is unfortunate that two important members of the team, Shoaib Akhtar and Muhammad Asif, could not deliver at the time because they could not get the NFP recipe for getting things right. Because he is an expert on cricket, you have to believe him that Waqar was appointed captain in 1999 even if he only played two tests and two one-dayers that year. That is because Khalid Hassan said so too. Munir Hussain, that old sadist, was entirely wrong when he mentioned in his World Cup 1992 account that Khalid Hassan spread lies about the Pakistan Team. His eyes lied. Nadeem’s pen didn’t.

If we were to follow Nadeem Farooq Paracha’s thought, the world would be diarrhea-free, conspiracy-theory-free. Everyone would be applying Aafia Beauty and Bleach Cream all the time made from the flesh of that terrorist criminal, the Amazon-like Dr. Aafia Siddiqui who can easily tackle half a dozen American Marines on her own and snatch a gun from them. Everyone would ensure that Farhat Hashmi is bashed every time anything is discussed. In fact, every discussion should start with an exposition of Farhat Hashmi.

Nadeem Farooq Paracha can read between the lines. He knows that these silly SMSs, despite the fact that they are at times actually contain fabricated Hadiths, are actually aiming to make people respect Hadiths. So he has done a great service to humanity byexposing this grand conspiracy. In fact, it is not a conspiracy but a fact because Nadeem Farooq Paracha doesn’t believe in conspiracies and because he doesn’t believe in conspiracies, they do not exist.

We love Nadeem Farooq Paracha for his humble, honest, well-informed, anarchic, Marxist, non-fascist and any-other-prefix-that-he-loves opinions and his highly ethically, completely-in-line-with-journalistic ethics, his ethically and humble ethical personality.

What would we have done without him? Our limited knowledge is nothing compared to the encyclopedia that Nadeem Farooq Paracha is. Hence, we do not know if he believes in Paradise. But if he did, he would be the first to enter it.

Social Progress & Dissent

We argued in a class on the following topic (in affirmation and bit of negation of any excesses the dictum might invoke): 'civilized dissent leads to social progress'.

Instantly, what popped in my mind was the (on-going) war of terror on weak Islamicate by Imperial West, and internal dissent within intellectuals of West and external dissent of the Eastern writers and thinkers. On the journalistic platform, two of the most effective publications, with more online presence (perhaps), that i've encountered are: Counterpunch.org and dissidentvoice.org. However, I'd be guilty of short-sightedness to reduce the discussion of such over-arching terms coupled together as social progress and dissident to two publications and content produced therein (by established, respected thinkers, journalists and writers who're shunned from mainstream, corporate, state-control (or influenced) news outlets, print or TV). In fact, invoking history and common philosophy would only give insight into the taste and horizon of the one thinking on these topics*.

I would begin with the tragic part of the conversation that took place emanating from the very lips of the professor. He flawlessly repeated the dogma of progressivism which professes that constant revision of guiding principles should take precedence by the sword of dissent so as to keep up with the times. The argument is presented in a capsule for young minds in the backdrop of historic achievements of Western society of freedom, emancipation and enlightenment. To restore sanity, one should pause here and go through confessions and testaments of brilliant minds of West and secondary research as to how 'glorious' the 'achievements' have been: read Western Civilization Condemned by Itself, (part 2, 3, 4 & 5). 

I might have been guilty of putting words into his mouth by inserting 'guiding principles', as I don't remember him exactly saying that. What i do remember having understood clearly was that he advocated social evolutionism which is a vicious cycle of skeptical revision and dismantling of principles** so as to adjust to the changing times so as to achieve progress. If that is so, then progress (or social progress) is the most unstable, elusive and unattainable goal in the world. The only critique that came to my mind, when this dogma was infused with evangelical zeal, was the question put forward by Dr Seyyed Hossein Nasr in 1960s in India, when whole 'ummah' was urged to change the immutable shariah Personal Laws of Islam to 'keep up with the times', he asked:

If Principles have to keep up with times, what do the times keep up with?

Given my own failure to fully absorb this historic critique (which prevented a bunch of modernised, times-worshipping, sentimental minds from molesting and changing Personal Laws of Islam) I dared not put forward this question to the professor.

However, if one means dissent as keeping check on the powerful who're always prone to abuse it given their human nature, than this is a noble cause, which is termed as jihad when one dares speak before a ruthless ruler; CIA, FBI being new Pharaohs hunting down and killing tomorrow's Musas/Moses.

However, dissent against oneself should precede dissent against rest of the world, later being the unavoidable habit of moderns to critique and critique and learn nothing, because learning implies in such cases spiritual uplift or at least maintenance.

_________________________

* I did not use the word meditation (fikr in Arabic), for this has 'vertical aspect' which begins with invocation of God proceeding towards meditation and ending with blossoming of 'thousand virgin thoughts / andishahs'. See following short essay, 'Reflections on Islam & Modern Thought', by Dr Seyyed Hossein Nasr.

** By principles, may have meant man-made principles/customs/conventions, but no distinction was made b/w Sacred and profane. Fatal skip.

What New?

What, why and how do we need to change when the needs of the soul, psychology of being, rights of God and perennial needs of society have not changed and do not change?

A Masterpiece: 'No difference b/w Barelwis & Deobandis'

Blogger's note: Here is a brilliant fatwa by a Lebanese ex-Christian and Islamic scholar, Shaykh Gibril F Haddad, on the pointless sectarian strife that has been going on for more than a century pointlessly. It does not mean that these two groups need to abolish their identities. Nay, they only need to rise above it, without giving in for every position one considers wide off the mark.

No Difference between Barelwis and Deobandis 
(Source embedded) 

Question: What exactly is the difference between the school of thought that follows Ala Hadrath Ahmed Rida Khan RA and those that follow the school of thought of Rashid Ahmed Gangohi against whom i understand Ala Hadrath had said that there is inherent kufr in the nature of thought expressed but did not issue a fatwa of Kufr, as Maulana Rashid Gangohi had passed on. (may Allah Ta'laa forgive me if i have made a mistake ) there is a lot of ikhtiflaaf in the Indian subcontinent on this issue and I do understand that it is extremely volatile - but, I would request you to kindly spare sometime and answer me. 

[Faraz Rabbani notes: I agree wholeheartedly with the content of Shaykh Gibril’s comments.] 

Answer: Bismillah al-Rahman al-Rahim: 

 There is no difference in the generalities of `Aqida and Fiqh between Barelwis and Deobandis. They are both Sunni Hanafis, Sufis, Ash`aris or Maturidis. One stands in need of the best each school has to offer, as indeed hold many of the living prestigious teachers known to both sides.

Among the best commentaries on Sahih Muslim and the Sunan of al-Tirmidhi and Abu Dawud are works by the Deobandis. The Lives of the Sahaba by al-Kandihlawi is a masterpiece. I`la'al-Sunan and Aathaar al-Sunan are very valuable. As for Imam Ahmad Rida Khan and his works, whoever does not recognize their worth as one of the treasures of this Umma is a blasted nincompoop who should wear a dunce cap until he learns. 

 Both sides are strict Hanafis and mainstream Sufis. We do not endorse the mistakes that anyone might have made, such as uttering words rightly perceived to lack adab in matters of `Aqida or contesting the legality of celebrating Mawlid. 

Nor do we endorse Takfir. Demonization of the other, saying they are munafiq is unacceptable. We leave extremism to Najd and its minions. Come together. Sayyid Muhammad `Alawi al-Maliki advised you to do so, Sayyid Yusuf al-Rifa`i advised you, Shaykh `Abd al-Hadi Kharsa advised you, Sayyid Ya`qubi, Dr. al-Nass, others... Do you think you stand for the honor of Allah and His Prophet more than such as these? Think again. 

When the situation is such that there is mutual avoidance at mosques, gatherings, etc. then it becomes wajib for every true and sincere Deobandi should seek out his counterparts among Barelwis and for every true and sincere Barelwi to seek out his counterparts among Deobandis, pray together, learn from one another, give salam, and increase love. Disunity is sin. Or are you afraid you will lose reputation or funding? Shame. 

 Here is the resting-place of Shaykh `Abd al-Qadir Gilani and Imam Abu Hanifa bracing for another Mongoloid onslaught. Will you Sunnis still be debating and anathematizing one another because of who said what as the Hour rises? Stressing ikhtilaf and schism is from Shaytan. If this is what the general public chooses to follow, it is their loss even as they shout ALLAHU AKBAR and YA RASULALLAH from God's dawn to the wee hours. Salam. 

 Hajj Gibril Shawwal 1423/December 2002 -- 
GF Haddad

Delusions of Progressive Muslims: Critique of Shaykh GF Haddad

Introduction - first draft :P - to a paper by Shyakh Gibril Haddad, "Amina Wadud's Innovation of Misguidance"



There are two ways to shake, challenge or try destroying the Pillars of Islam: from outside without using any argument from Islamic Tradition, and the second is to manipulate arguments, evidences from within to make a caricature out of the religion to meet a given ideological, political or cultural agenda. 

I've no problem with the first mode or type of critique on Islam. The proponents of that type are usually academic in their style, many of them are honest in their critical statements which are in congruence with their own world-view, and are not usually stimulated externally to attack Islam. I cannot pass the judgment of these type of critics as being truly intellectual, although the challenge is intellectual in its appearance, because rationalism is not Intellectuality (see works of Rene Guenon, Seyyed Hossein Nasr and other 'traditionalist' writers).

The second type of critique of Islam is not critique or critical at all, but a set of cacophonies - usually by pro-regressive Muslims & Islamophobics - aimed at twisting, modifying, and changing the rituals, practices, doctrines and overall world-view of Islam as such. I also include world-view because they hardly understand the genius of Islamic world-view and since they are purely sentimental, reactionary or politically motivated in their approach, it has nothing to do with any sort of systematic world-view. This explains their utter contradictions and huge blunders. This is the lowest of all kinds of attacks on any religion, because these stem from the stimulation to surrender a divinely revealed religion to one's whims or to satisfy others. And it is exactly in this category that the Progressive Muslim movements fall. 

The beginnings of these movements can easily be traced to post-establishment of colonial rule in Muslim world, when 'spirited' "thinkers" of the ummah relegated to themselves the task of defining the orientation of the efforts, inclinations, thoughts and inspirations of all Muslims: namely, to reform, modernize, and colonize Islam so as to catch-up with more "advanced" nations. One wonders what has reforming a Divinely revealed religion to do with gaining expertise at man made things we call technology. The contradiction was evident. The self-proclaimed reformists were not moved by the ideals and philosophies of Islam to present the world with alternatives to atheistic and man-made ideologies/discourses, but by their unchangeable inferiority complexes vis-a-vis the glitter of Western world. Many of them, even today, also in West, mistake the success of profane physical sciences with Western social sciences (see, 'Origin of Western Social Science', by Dr Asad Zaman).

Come 2004, post-9/11, Muslims needed to go many steps further to please New Colonial/Imperial masters of West. It was America's turn to launch war of ignorance coupled with that of terror to neutralize once for all the 'edges' in Muslim - intellectual, cultural and political - that threatened for centuries the Europeans. American academia may not have been fervent at all about taking the propaganda of Orientalists of reformation or an Islamic renaissance a step further - of the sympathetic ones perhaps. The urgency was felt more in westernized circles of pro-regressive Muslims who are the lowest of lowest in character than their predecessors in British and post-British Raj.

And this brings us to Amina Wadud. I would not like  to spoil the show for you with my incoherent, non-scholarly ramblings about such an "esteemed liberator" and her "magnanimous movement," namely, that of Progressive Muslims. Please read and benefit from this scholarly paper by Shaykh Gibril F Haddad, a Lebanese Islamic scholar. It's in PDF format with beautiful type-font and 2-column format that makes it more readable.

Amina Wadud's Innovation of Misguidance

__________________________
Further reading: 

1. Quran-only Feminists by Shaykh GF Haddad

2. For forensic and direct exposition of treacheries and lies of Islam-sellers in USA and West, visit the archives of: Dr Maxtor's Blog

American Exceptionalism & Neo-Neocons: Fukuyama's Assessment

In After the Neocons: America at the Crossroads, author Francis Fukuyama, an ex-Neocon, details his reasons for quitting the movement of neo-cons because it has been baptised in the image of policies of Bush's administration - a derivative operation with which he can no longer associate himself.

My concern today is with a chapter on American Exceptionalism in post-Iraq scenario. He not only shows how Amerika came to this point, but also traces roots to resentfulness of world - European & Asian (needless to highlight Islamic world here) - towards this self-perceived wise course of action. Looking at how America came to believe in the illusion that it was wise enough to exercise unilateral action without any external check or permissions (as to where to bomb and where to not, as per Powell), smacks of haughtiness, because once they came to know that Russia won't intercept to stop them, they accepted the license to bully anyone they wanted.

Briefly, as per FF, there are two main reasons that can explain American exceptionalism and associated resentfulness and new wave of anti-Amerikanism in both Muslims world and Europe:

1. Winning cold war and victorious ventures in Middle East

2. Imposing dogmatic policies of American economic liberalization programs that severely backfired and destroyed economies in many places

3. Unilateral action against Iraq in 2004

4. Poor communication in conveying following dictum: Either you're with us or against us. This wasn't against European audience, "independent nations." Rather. Against "irresponsible," terrorist-harboring states like Pakistan and Yemen.

******

In any case, haughtiness of Amerikan regime reached it climax in Iraq war. Pakistan had nothing to gain except losses from following Amerikan economic advice (IMF loans, structural adjustments, etc.) and going into war of terror. I do need to study much more about those critical days of 2001 to arrive at a more or less scholarly judgement.

Plan of Action: Religious Academic Orientation (RAO)

This memo is to myself for personal consumption. You are more than welcome to question, add, or edit this memo.

Scene/course of action: orthodoxy in action and thought. learning Quran to know more about human nature, psychology, society, history and world from Traditional point of view, i.e., as per the interpretation of Prophet, sahaba, scholars, saints. Careful use of the superior knowledge of Quran complemented with: firstly, various mental and spiritual abilities, methodologies & perspectives - of tasawwuf,  logic, philosophy [various branches], theology, law, social sciences [line of action of Imam Ghazzali]; secondly, open-ended reflection; thirdly (& simultaneously), constant back and forth exchange of academic bullets & bombs with more knowledgeable; and above all constant prayer to Allah to shows us the true nature of things, lest we are misguided... And Allah knows best!

Post-Script: Most important thing that I clearly missed here was pointed out by a dear friend Dr Usama Abubakar: Eemaan. Only this produces a nur in a believer which sets him apart from the rest when it comes to analyzing and discerning things. To borrow Seyyed Hossein: "the Sword of Furqan/discernment [with which to] destroy the idols of western ideologies ..."

Maryam Jameelah (ra): Authenticity, Revival, Rain & Victory

'Thematic Approach'

There are things which i believe are peculiar to Jews. They all seem to be crazy readers and seekers of knowledge. Leaving aside the conduct of Zionists, whose founder i believe was atheist (?); but what i'm certain of as a fact is that the founder professed conversion of Jews to Christianity for their assimilation into European culture! How "befitting" for a "Jew" to proclaim that who for centuries kept things to themselves - notwithstanding the conspiring and warring elements, whose archetype may be those leaving in Madeena who relentlessly fought against Prophet of Islam. And i'm really fond of Jews fond of Arabs! Maryam Jameelah (formerly, Margret Marcus) was one such Jew (who later converted to Islam), fascinated with Arabs and a crazy reader. Other example in your mind is obviously Muhammad Asad; this obviousness creates a curiosity of knowing no less profound "Jewish souls" who might have accepted Islam as the Seal of Religions. Knowing Jeemlah and Asad is very critical for Muslims, who in their honest opposition of Israel go to another extreme of imaging all Jews as those Zio-Nazis who take Hitler as their educational, moral and state-level godfather.

It is very moving to read a American-Jew, now a muslim, in exile in a country alien to her, meticulously analyzing clinically the wretched unIslamic state of Muslims; her compelling diagnosis that any layman reader can grasp, absorb and assimilate; her wholehearted passion for inner re-orientation of Muslims; her call for de-westernization of psyche, for it is that inner, hidden element that is the source, and all the outward diseases are merely its manifestations. Dobrah Baker can go to any length to prove she might have been totally disillusioned, disenchanted with her beliefs and passions, but i doubt that more than she can doubt anything else. More of that later. Don't miss this part.

Biography

A brief biographical-literary sketch of her life & works by John L Esposito: Makers of Contemporary Islam, chapter on M Jameelah. I found a factual fallacy in the account by John: Ameer Ali wasn't a Shiah as he mentions, but an Ahmadi. I'd love to read chapter by Jameelah on Ameer's books; the name of chapter tells all: "The Spirit of Unbelief." Although I consider John to my sympathetic to Islam, but he seems more sympathetic to Islamic modernists. I like what Seyyed Hossein Nasr used to describe one of her books in his book Ideals & Realities of Islam: "an uncompromising" defense of traditional Islam (or something to that effect).

How sharp was her criticism of secular fundamentalists and "Islamic" modernists/reformists, who shared a lot common that the ordinary eye could discern:

pioneers of westernization in the Muslims world - Sir Sayyid Ahmad Khan, Shaikh Muhammad Abduh, Qassim Amin, Shaikh Ali Abd ar-Raziq, Dr. Taha Hussein, Ziya Gokalp, and Mustafa Kamel Ataturk. ... [All] of these men were merely the mediocre end-product of their circumstances and more specifically, the result of an over-whelming sense of inferiority which engulfed the East after its humiliating capitulation under the feet of the imperialist West. [Emphasis mine]

*********
Psychological Analysis of 'Story told' by Dobrah Baker, a western writer

Dobrah Baker

My question:

Here's a review of a book by an American writer on her which shows her teenage mental instability, and her later "ultimate disillusionment in a search for impossible certainties about life and death" - basically with Islam. Source of the quotes.

However here's a comment that critiques the logic of the book:

"using the story of this mentally unstable woman as somehow anything but a peek into insanity is absurd. There are thousands of examples of people just as crazy who cut off body parts and other acts of self-abuse and to highlight a story like this because she "converted" to a religion that thought her crazy enough to have her committed to the hell of a lunatic asylum is equally crazy.this film is a sick as the people who made it or watch it."

Want your psychological analysis on the intentions of the writer? And whether her assertions are justified? Sure she would have been critical of Maulana Moudodi, but can "disillusionment" with Islam - in which she sought meaning and justice - because she used to be mentally unstable sometime or as an "old woman full of fears" be a mere polemic by the author? 

Reply by Rhodara online [link it]

"I certainly expect no objectivity on two highly charged topics (religion and mental illness) from these authors. Confusing the emotional turmoils of a person with psychological troubles with an ordinary course of discovering one's true calling in Islam is also not advisable. Her later disillusionment with the negative aspects of the overall Islamic culture as it stands today (inclusive of terrorism, disregarding the whole debate on the topic) won't be too surprising in any given person. But they will be of huge importance and of turmoil to a person who not only has a history but probably a personal tendency of being extremely passionate with things. "filled with fears" could mean anything. Was she merely expressing her 'muttaqi' fears of forgiveness for sins and acceptance of good deeds in the afterlife like we all do, plus expressing fears for the future of Muslims and the practice of their religion, again, like we all entertain? It could be a fact that she never gained a mental state of peace and contentment which might be not too unexpected given her nature. Let us pray that Allah ta'ala disregards all her weaknesses (and ours when our time comes) and highlight her faith and good deeds, Amen. Many converts that were 'disillusioned' in their ways have 'reverted' happily one example being in my own family; why did she not? That is all I have to say." [italics mine]

******

Read her illuminating and thought-provoking articles that can only leave an open minded one changed by her moving prose that operates with the Sword of Furqan/Discernment: Maryam Jameelah.

"Even before i formally embraced Islam, i found the integrity of the faith in the contemporary world greatly threatened by the so-called modernist movement which aimed at adulterating its teachings with man-made philosophies and reforms. I was convinced that had these modernizes had their way , nothing of the original would be left ! As a child I had witnessed with my own eyes in my own family how the liberals had mutilated what had once been a Divinely revealed faith." -- Maryam Jameelah.

Learning 2 Languages: German & Persian

Is a person supposed to learn two languages at the same time? This "supposition" is not a question of possibility for "sanity" :D The line between sanity & insanity - any psychiatrist would tell you - is very thing, or bareek, as we say in Urdu. I wonder why we don't like to where we stand :P Nonetheless, i'm learning German & Persian at the same time. Persian for CSS competitive exams, more on that later. And German for more studies in Germany, i guess :P Switzerland has Swiss German, but they've molested too much with it, as we say: mat maar di hai. I'm on A1 level. I've to prove to myself that i can excel on both.

Any tips?

            

Occidentiosis: A Summary of Introduction of Hamid Algar (I)

This is part one of two blog posts I'm writing to introduced an old book of post-mid 20th century, produced right before Islamic revolution of Iran. The link between the two is a reality hard to deny, in fact, too important to be mentioned. In this first part I will introduce the writer of the biographical introduction to the book and its themes by Hamid Algar, a renowned, majestic scholar of Islamic studies, history and languages. In the second part I will try to summarize the introduction which is not a piece of reflection, but a piece of historical information and a lucid narrative of author's (Jalal Al-i Ahmed) unstable intellectual, literary and political life. The book might have created many doubts as to exact summation of author's views that were amended after author penned the books. But more of that in part 2.

******

One of the few Muslim scholars of Islam that i'm fascinated these days is Hamid Algar. I should mention that my fascination with him is not newly born. It is only that he falls into that category of few luminaries who have the immense capacity to critique Western modernism from Islamic point of view, and write with no apologetic tinges on Islamic subjects that can be well understood by a modern reader and someone trained in classic thought, I believe.

More on Hamid Algar is necessary before , as the deliberate mentioning of his name in the title necessitates (with premediatation) a personal introduction to him. It is going to be personal, as you can look up his credentials online.

First time I ever saw the name of Hamid Algar and his books in a bookstore was 3-4 years backs. Two books I encountered were two printed lectures: Sufism and Al-Fatiha. In those days i every somewhat aware of the disease of Occidentiosis, secular fundamentalism and reformist literature by the books of Seyyed Hossein Nasr, most important being Nasr's collection of essays Islmaic Life & Thought. However, i wasn't able to critically discern an authentic one from the rest - although i doubt i can critically evaluate even now.

Hence, the very first reading of his books conveyed a hidden message that here is a scholar with high level of objectivity, understanding and depth that i hardly encountered in DAWN's book reviews or few books by westernized muslims or non-muslims on Islam. For instance, in Al-Fatiha he advocated the transcendent roots of word Allah, challenging the scholarship of Orientalists. I didn't understand much of the high-level semantic discussions; although most of the discussion in Al-Fatiha can't be termed semantic, it was on another plane altogether. Here I must apologize that this recollection is 3-4 years old, and new after reading fully the book is due.

Another example of author's independent, non-apologetic and scholarly attitude, stemming from an Islamic worldview from within: in the book Sufism, he rejected the modernistic/western notions of Sufism, and even refused to discuss subject further with this very Sufism, and preferred traditional term of tasawwuf, as it lacked the secularized connotations attached by westerners and modernized muslims with this traditional, integral part of a religion who principles are Immutable and which always resisted Reformist kind of change.

The most clear and sharpest critique on modern western intellectual thought to come in the form of an essay in a monographic book, The Challenge of Islam. His essay was about intellectual challenges that modernism presents to Islam. He was conscious to mention that in reality modernism cannot present a challenge to Divinely Revealed religion of Islam as such; in fact, it is Islam that presents a challenge to idols of western ideologies. I will inshaAllah write a summary of arguments presented in the essay.

Please do look forward to introduction to Occidentiosis by Jamal Al-i Ahmed.