Anonymity: A Way of Life

Qairouan (about 800AD)

One of the characteristics of this age is that people no more want to live a secluded and anonymous life. Social networking sites have dissolved this spirit completely even for those who lack the 'genius' to engage in relationship with others in the real world. If you read the Sufis of Anduslia by Shaykh Ibn e Arabi, r.a., you'd come across many stories of men and women who're very successful, because Allah noticed them, and disdained worldly pomp, caprice and self-projections.

i've been on holidays for a while and been cut off from distant friends after deactivating my Facebook account during ramadan. Some of my closest friends complained where had i been for so long?! Why am i leading a gumnaam (anonymous or secluded) life? May be i wanted them to say so, thanks to the whisperings of my carnal soul. I confess i had not been on a spiritual quest seeking the company of Allah that i've confined myself to the home, but such a lifestyle is very enjoyable to say the least... i've not really practised khalwa (seclusion) at all - i've spent lot of time on internet, watching videos and playing an online strategy game while ending up spending negligible time on reading books...

Nonetheless, like all others i want to have a certain way of life when i start earning inshaAllah. i wish to be economically independent. i like to be like one of my neighbors, a reporter - (about whose house i'd talk about in the next post inshaAllah) - who's living a seemingly comfortable yet a simple life with beautiful and intelligent kids... A life dedicated to travelling to gain knowledge for the sake of Allah and to quench the thirst of curiosity, may it never die. A life of seclusion with least mixing with people. A life of least activity and most reflection, study, chores, and routine cyclical daily activities that keep adding more and more spiritual light to my home and its dwellers in a mosque-like environment... A life not dedicated to competition with people in riches but in knowledge; not dedicated to piling gold and worldly things, but spreading excessive wealth to those in need... A life of labour and hardship yet peace and serenity in close proximity with natural things, like mud. A life of least acceleration yet tiresome...

Imperial Hubris

"We cannot leave wild beasts [Haqqani Network / Afghan freedom fighter] in the backyard of a the neighbour [Pakistan]."

- Hilary Clinton

How vile... Jon Stewart makes a fine point about US establishment that they're not really imperial colonists but imperial puppeteers: they don't like to rule people, but rule them through people who are like them. That's exactly what Britishers left as intermediaries or brown colonists amidst their independent colonies who carried forward their agenda to this day.

my biggest problem

i live in the world of fantasies not realities.

Now according to psychologists, fantasies that can't just happen are notthe same as positive high expectations. The latter fuel success; former failure.

But they don't know or don't mention that this is a symptom of spiritual illness. What's my cure?

Universality & Internal Diversity of Islamic Jurisprudence

Islamophobic politicians, intellectuals and all sort of people in Europe/West think that Islam needs to pass through the same phase Christianity did in medieval period with its enlightenment and reformation to really 'inhabit the West'. Well, it only proves, as an initial note, the reality revealed by Qur'an that these kuffar would never like Muslims until we become like them. Nonetheless, Shaykh Abdal Hakim Murad in his speech in islamabad talks about these 'absent-minded claims' as simply being products of lack of knowledge of Islam and their own history. Westerns, generally, have always tried to view islam and its ideals from the eyes of their philosophies and mindset, unfortunately modernized muslims are committing the same error. Shaykh Murad talks about a Dutch politician's onslaught on Islam in West who thinks that Islam must be reformed or marginalized:

Fortuyn’s error was to impose a Christian squint on Islam. As a practising Catholic, he imported assumptions about the nature of religious authority that ignore the multi-centred reality of Islam. On doctrine, we try to be united - but he is not interested in our doctrine. On fiqh, we are substantially diverse. Even in the medieval period, one of the great moral and methodological triumphs of the Muslim mind was the confidence that a variety of madhhabs could conflict formally, but could all be acceptable to God. In fact, we could propose as the key distinction between a great religion and a sect the ability of the former to accommodate and respect substantial diversity. Fortuyn, and other European politicians, seek to build a new Iron Curtain between Islam and Christendom, on the assumption that Islam is an ideology functionally akin to communism, or to the traditional churches of Europe.

Faith in the Future,

A talk by Shaykh in islambad, 2002. 

To Bark or To Bite

i entered a home. No one was in the porch. i headed to the main door but the sight of the dog (i's familiar with) stopped me to think before leaping. A motorbike stood like destiny between the two - me and the ferocious German Sheppard dog. The dog turned on the other side, i though it was leaving. It only took a second to realize that it was trying to come over to get my calcium deprived bones. Terrain was such that if i tried to run towards the main door, i'd be in trouble. Hence, i turned back towards the gate. I didn't just turn my back - i ran like an athlete starts a 100m sprint in Olympics. Just before reaching the doorknob i looked back to be aware of the situation and to my vehshat (fear) the dog was madly jumping and running towards me. Those moments between my opening the knob, getting out and sighting the vicious dog were very . . . dreamlike exciting xD because i knew i'd make it...

Pitrus Bukhari, an Urdu writer and MA English, makes a point about this assertion that barking dogs don't bite: how do you know when they stop barking and start biting?

Fear of Enemy

i, compared to my father and elder brother, am a bit coward a person, always diffident when it comes to clashes. Not that i'm a peace loving, hit me on the other cheek guy as well. But, i fear an enemy or oppressor who overpowers me by large proportion, and do not find myself really willing to challenge openly that person or party with shuja or courage. Nonetheless, a single person can overcome many if he fears Allah. i read this translation of a verse of Qur'an that just opened my eyes. It also points to the fact that a  Muslim is never powerless!

Surah # 9. Ayat # 13

13. Would you, perchance, fail to fight against people who have broken their solemn pledges, and have done all that they could to drive the Apostle away,[1207] and have been first to attack you? Do you hold them in awe? Nay, it is God alone of whom you ought to stand in awe,^[1208] if you are [truly] believers!

Translation: Muhammad Asad. 

'Recreate, Don't watch people recreating'

People spend hours watching sports, even missing their prayers during live matches. This is totally absurd. Experience recreation, not watch people experiencing it. Playing outdoor games is a serious business. If you're playing football or cricket, there's much more than playing the game. You've to organize people, develop strategies, deal with emotions, conflicts, disagreements and what not. You've keep yourself fit. I've improved my diet playing daily. Major obvious benefit is the health bonus one gets.

But, for a Muslim, he has to purify his intentions even when it comes to recreation. We do not recreate for no good, but are conscious that its a useful activity for human life and can even uplift our eemaan if we follow the morals of Prophets, such as not cheating, not loosing one's control over his emotions, as we often witness huge conflicts resulting from games.

Comforting our Women

Those women who live in their houses and do domestic work, when as per Islamic fiqh they've no obligation to do so, are doing jihad in the way of Allah that is Equal to the jihad of men in the battlefield. SubhanAllah. And, how do cultural Muslims behave? They treat them like domesticated animals, in fact i've seen many taking more care of their dogs than their wives. This may sound like exaggeration, but by care i do not mean they beat them, or do not fulfill their health or other needs, but in terms of love, intimacy, and kindness. So this mistreatment of women is all cultural thing whereever it is. Yet, i deny that muslims have monoploy over domestic violence which is another subject; Shaykh Hamza Yusuf mentions that killings or violence against women in US alone is cause most by their boy friends or husbands, and they're not Muslims. Moreover, many convert women to Islam talk about a different kind of respect they receive in Muslim societies which is absent in west and that is of bashfulness in Muslim men, which we're losing thanks to the onslaught of westernized media that commoditizes women.

I'm insipred by Prophet Muhammad, s.a.w, hence i take honor in serving my mother and other women with tea or stuff like that. Muslim men have a very hard time understanding that women should be treated well if one wants to be a good, in fact, best Muslim. Its all in Prophetic sunnah and teachings. But, at the same time, in this age we see this tendency that men become slaves of their wives and supersede the instructions of their wives to that of their mother or father. It's happening all around us. It's a dark age we're living in. May Allah protect us from these evils... wa ma taufiqi illa billah

Reflections on my Faith Islam & how Muslims Encounter Faith Today

In the Name of Allah; I seek refuge in Allah from the evil of Satan

[Forgive v poor sentence structures & grammar.]

Like Imam Ghazzali (r.a.) i've immutable belief on 3 things:

- In the Existence of Allah (swt) - is there any doubt about Allah?
- The Day of Judgement
- Truth of the institution of Prophethood

With these beliefs, one may presume that there is no room for skepticism, not that kind which doubts one's own existence. But, that is not the case- one can still have doubts about one's religion with these beliefs. When we're born we become Muslims, Christians, Atheists, etc., if we were born in that particular family. But, its only with the dawn of consciousness, if you might call it, that we're sometimes forced to reexamine our acquired belief, perhaps due to external stimuli or even due to one's own disposition to question things. In this age, former is more true than the later. Nonetheless. Having watched videos/stories of so many converts to Islam - be them atheists, Christians, etc. - it was either of the two, while predominantly external stimuli played a greater role, thanks to 9/11, terrible news about Muslims, new Biblical scholarship that proves almost all the stances of Islam on Christianity such as tehreef or human interference in Bible, etc.

Muslims rarely venture into uncomfortable waters of examination and use of intellect, especially those who're not well trained in traditional Islam, because the students of Qur'an and Sunnah know the proofs, evidences, and narrations of the truth of Islam. Nonetheless, overall atmosphere is that of fear when it comes to talking to people of other belief and to those having no faith at all, except, perhaps, in the desires of their nafs. (I'm not proposing that their kufr is due to following their desires of soul, merely, but perhaps a historical process that led to 'the eclipse of soul and intellect', namely modernity or renaissance, which has very well defined features, that really closed their eyes to Divine Realities.)

This is not how our great scholars of the past behaved. Imam Abu Hanifa used to debate (in most beautiful manner) with atheists in the masjid saying to the effect, "Let's see what you've got." Imam Ghazzali wrote in his autobiography that he had (so deeply) analyzed the skeptics and atheists that they could not hide their real reasons for disbelief. This is very interesting.

It is high time we see/question things logically - because logic can even give us life through Islam or kill us with disbelief. It is only those confused people who're afraid of not talking to other. We've to start from understanding the hidden assumptions of this deen and that of disbelief. Our assumption is that there is an Unseen, and we believe in it, we believe in the ghaib. Why we believe in it and we humanity cannot risk not believing in it - this is the point from where the discussion may start. And, everything that is Islamic worldview is very logical and is very clear. Most of the rational people in US or West who came to Islam came to it because they could not bring an argument against islam that Qur'an or Muslims could not refute or at least provide an equally logical perspective on that.

In the end, i'd like to say that because of our heedlessness in acquiring both Islamic worldview and modern sciences, our own brothers and sisters are becoming mental victim of a Dajjalic civilization that is based on the idea and force of deception and deceiving people from seeing things the way they actually are. Biggest enemies of Islam are living within us, and they just like us, but it's logical fallacies they're really a victim of; a lack of clear understanding of world, matter and soul.

wa ma taufiqi illa billah

Writer's Block: Need ideas for new blog posts

I'm facing writer's block these days. I need cool ideas for short or medium range blog posts. Tags would be welcoming too...

Looking forward to your cool ideas in the comments section.