Category: Religion

“Why do you believe in a foreign religion?”

Let’s modify this question and ask as follows:

Is a religion that is not alien to human nature really foreign?

And, likewise:

How a religion or a metaphysical/pagan/heathen system etc. that is alien to human nature can still be counted as “local” or “indigenous”?

Human nature contains certain universalities and particularities. And both are deeply sacred.

If a religion or way of life assists a man or a woman to achieve a perfect balance between the two then that system is in alignment with human nature.

On the contrary, if there is disequilibrium then howsoever local or native a tradition(s) is, it shall still be regarded as unfit and foreign to a folk.

Now, who defines the contours of human nature?

A philosopher? A scientist? A priest? or none of them?

Is Man [implied both sexes here] competent enough to define himself/herself as well?

If yes, then, how does he/she do that? Moreover, how does he/she know that that method is correct?

If no, then, where should we be looking to get the clearest picture of ourselves?

Islam Extols Arabic NOT Arabs

There is a perception that Islam is the glorification of Arabs and their culture and customs.

Well, it is not.

It is neither Arabism nor worship of Arabs.

Never once does the Noble Word exhort its reciters to follow the Arabs and their manner of living.

The Noble Quran makes a clear and decisive distinction between the dynamics of language and race. The former cuts through racial, ethnic, tribal, and national differences. However, the latter is fixed and cannot be appropriated.

I can possess native fluency in English, but that does not mean I can also physically become an Anglo-Saxon.

In extolling the Arabic language* and admonishing** the Bedouin conduct, Islam states a fascinating feature embedded within human beings, which is as follows:

Anyone can master any language.

Therefore, one sees a non-Arab of ANY race/ethnicity reciting the Quranic verses as beautifully and effortlessly as an Arab.

It can be said that Islam is the only system that balances the particularity and universality of human existence.

It prevents a particularity from eating its own self. Also, it stops a universality from enveloping and destroying a particularity.

 “Indeed in that is a lesson for those of vision.” [3:13]

*: see Quran 12:2, 13:37, 16:103, 41:3
**: see Quran 9:97, 9:98, 49:14

Some Pearls of Wisdom by Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib (Peace be Upon him)

“The tongue is a beast; if it is let loose, it devours.”

 “As intelligence increases, speech decreases.”

“Take wise points from wherever they may be, because if a wise saying is in the bosom of a hypocrite it flutters in his bosom till it comes out and settles with others of its own category in the bosom of the believer.”

“The worth of every man is in his attainments.”

“Whoever abandons saying, “I do not know” meets his destruction.”

“I love the opinion of an old man more than the determination of a young man.”

“The hearts get weary as bodies get weary; so look for beautiful wise sayings for them (to dispel their weariness).”

“The lowest form of knowledge is that which remains on the tongue and the most superior form is that which manifests itself through (the action of) the limbs and the organs of the body.”

“When you hear a tradition test it according to the criterion of intelligence not that of mere hearing, because relaters of knowledge are numerous but those who guard it are few.”

“He who acts solely according to his own opinion gets ruined, and he who consults other people shares in their understanding.”

Source: Nahj al-Balagha [The Path of Eloquence]

Islam’s Account of Man: A Short Sketch

أَفَحَسِبْتُمْ أَنَّمَا خَلَقْنَـٰكُمْ عَبَثًۭا وَأَنَّكُمْ إِلَيْنَا لَا تُرْجَعُونَ

Deemed ye then that We had created you for naught, and that ye would not be returned unto Us?

[Surah Al-Mu’minun: 115] Translation: Muhammad William Marmaduke Pickthall

The Noble Qur’an uses the terms In-saan [انسان] and bash’ar [بشر] to refer to a human being [man and woman].

They are often used interchangeably but they, nevertheless, have differences.

Bash’ar is a more empirical description. It is concerned with the outward appearance. It is the superficial and material account of a human being.

Now, as far as In-saan is concerned, it signifies a more profound and higher state.

The word shares its roots with the word Nisyaan [نسيان] which means forgetfulness and amnesia.

It is said that In-saan is a being who is in a state of forgetfulness with regards to its purpose.

So, when a Bash’ar is aware of his/her lack of knowledge and forgetfulness and strives to overcome it, he/she attains the rank of In-saan.

The Self is called Nafs (نفس).

It has three categories:

Nafs Ammarrah [نفس أمارة] : The part of self that entices Man to follow his lust and baser instincts.

Nafs Luvammah [نفس  اللوامة] : The part of self that admonishes Man to review, repent, and mend his ways.

Nafs Mutma’innah [نفس المطمئنة] : The highest level of self whose bearer finds satisfaction and bliss in absolute submission to the Ultimate Reality [الحق].

The primordial condition on which every human being is born is called Fitrah [فطرة]. It is a kind of operating system, a software which in its uncorrupted and undefiled form helps Man to establish a connection with Allah Almighty.

As Rumi says,

Or (suppose that) a mother cries to her suckling babe, “Come, I am mother: hark, my child!”—

Will the babe say?—“O mother, bring the proof (of it), so that I may take comfort in thy milk.”

When in the heart of any community there is savour (spiritual perception) from God, the face and voice of the prophet are (as) an evidentiary miracle.

When the prophet utters a cry from without, the soul of the community falls to worship within,

Because never in the world will the soul’s ear have heard from any one a cry of the same kind as his.

That stranger (the soul), by immediate perception of the strange (wondrous) voice, has heard from God’s tongue (the words), “Verily I am near.”

The Sheer Modernism of Perennialism

“The Perennialists claim to be saving religion from the onslaught of modernity, but by adopting a pluralist epistemology, and especially one that is applied to the truths at the core of a given religion, they are sacrificing its most essential element: sacrality; for if religion is deprived of its exclusive claim to absolute truth, then it is deprived of its sacrality and sacrosanctity and can no longer claim to be sacred. This, of course, is precisely the loss that the Perennialists claim to be avoiding. Ultimately, the whole movement is a modernist reaction which is supposedly against modernity. Again, you can’t make this stuff up!”

Arash Najaf-Zadeh (The European New Right – A Shi’a Response: A Radical Critique of Alexander Dugin, E. Michael Jones, and Alain de Benoist, pg. 131)

Christianity and Paganism(s) & Their Structural Weaknesses

Following is the comment I posted on Counter-Currents under the title Christianity is a Vast Reservoir of Potential White Allies:

Both Christianity and Paganism(s) have serious structural deficiencies. They can’t challenge let alone overturn the totalitarian marketization of the society.

They do not have a comprehensive way of life. They are made to adjust themselves to the prevailing or developing value system.

The erroneous splitting of the social existence into “secular” and “godly” sectors leaves the latter part at the mercy of the former.

It happened to Pagan traditions when they came into contact with Christianity. The erstwhile pagan royalty and nobility switched towards the new system and overcame the pagan masses and their traditions by granting Christianity a privileged status in society.

This favored status persisted as long as the “secular” world was suffering from administrative weaknesses.

However, once the “secular” domain regained its strength, it outmuscled Christianity socially as well as ideologically.

Now, the “secular” bureaucratic state machinery negotiates from the position of strength. It behaves condescendingly.

Liberal ontology is abominable but formidable.

P.S.: Today, Hinduism too is suffering the same fate Christianity suffered in Europe. The “Hindu revival” (Hindutva) under the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is the market regimentalization of the Hindu portion of the society, which is a corporate-driven effort to decimate the rural strongholds (a potential threat to the liberal urban value system) and force the rural man to migrate towards the big commercial centers in search of “jobs”. His ancestral land will be used to “industrialize” India.

The Sanctity of Lunar cycles in Islam and Pagan Germania

Tacitus writes in chapter 11 of his Germania, and it is a fascinating observation:

“About minor matters the chiefs deliberate, about the more important the whole tribe. Yet even when the final decision rests with the people, the affair is always thoroughly discussed by the chiefs. They assemble, except in the case of a sudden emergency, on certain fixed days, either at new or at full moon; for this they consider the most auspicious season for the transaction of business. Instead of reckoning by days as we do, they reckon by nights, and in this manner fix both their ordinary and their legal appointments. Night they regard as bringing on day.”

Islam too recognizes not the solar but lunar cycles as the primary source for temporal management for Man. The waxing moon, the full moon, and the waning moon, carry deep signification.

The month can be either 29 or 30 days long. A lunar period runs from sunset to sunset. The date changes as the Sun sets.

The ambiguity at the end of the month is deliberate and when we combine this feature with the fact that the lunar months float throughout the seasons, we find with ourselves a way to frustrate the totalitarian imposition of fixed time, which has been one of the most glaring characteristics of the marketization of human societies.

And for the moon We have appointed mansions till she return like an old shrivelled palm-leaf.

Surah Ya Seen Verse 39

Lo! the vigil of the night is (a time) when impression is more keen and speech more certain.

Surah Muzzammil, Verse 6.

Translations: William Muhammad Marmaduke Pickthall