Tag: Islam

“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

Dialogue Between God & Man

God:
I fashioned this world out of one and the same clay;
You made Iran; Ethiopia and Tartary.
From mere earth I made steel, pure and without alloy;
You fashioned sword and arrowhead and musketry.
You made the axe, with which you felled trees grown by me,
And fashioned cages for my singing birds, born free.

Man:
You made the night; I made the lamp that lights it up.
You fashioned clay; I made of it a drinking cup.
You made the wilderness, the mountain and the steppe;
I fashioned garden, orchard, avenue and scape.
I change dread poisons into panaceas, and
I am the one who fashions mirrors out of sand.

[ source: Muhammad Iqbal, Message from the East, پیام مشرق ]

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.”

Ghazal by Hafez e Shirazi

غلامِ نرگسِ مستِ تو تاجدارانند

خرابِ بادهٔ لعلِ تو هوشیارانند

تو را صبا و مرا آبِ دیده شد غَمّاز

و گر نه عاشق و معشوق رازدارانند

ز زیرِ زلفِ دوتا چون گذر کُنی بِنْگر

که از یَمین و یَسارت چه سوگوارانند

گذار کن چو صبا بر بنفشه زار و ببین

که از تَطاوُلِ زلفت چه بی‌قرارانند

نصیبِ ماست بهشت ای خداشناس برو

که مُستَحَقِّ کرامت گناهکارانند

نه من بر آن گُلِ عارض غزل سُرایم و بس

که عَندَلیبِ تو از هر طرف هزارانند

تو دستگیر شو ای خضرِ  پی خجسته که من

پیاده می‌روم و هَمرَهان سوارانند

بیا به میکده و چهره ارغوانی کن

مرو به صومعه کآنجا سیاه کارانند

خلاصِ حافظ از آن زلفِ تابدار مباد

که بستگانِ کمندِ تو رستگارانند

Revelation (Waḥy) and Philosophy

Philosophy is the quicksilver that revelation was sent down from on high to preclude humanity from having to touch, for touch it enough and we will surely become “as mad as a hatter”.

“A coherent philosophical footing” is an oxymoron that is bested only by the term “philosophical faith”. Philosophy is for those who have failed to attain the certainty of faith. And so the solution is to recognize the need for a stability whose only basis can be revealed knowledge concerning the world beyond the ken of human perception.

Arash Najaf-Zadeh (The European New Right – A Shi’a Response: A Radical Critique of Alexander Dugin, E. Michael Jones, and Alain de Benoist, pgs. 60-1)