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.

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* 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

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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.

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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]

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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]

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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.

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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.

Food Crisis in West Africa

Sahel in West Africa is a long belt north of Africa, between Red Sea and Atlantic Ocean. It comprises of many countries, including Mali, some part of Mauritania, southern part of Algeria, Senegal, southern part of Sudan, etc. It has suffered from hunger and food crisis for many decades in which thousands of people have died due to malnutrition, due to droughts, conflicts, erratic rains, and pest infections damaging crops. UNICEF estimates that 1.5 million children in Niger alone are near to starvation. 


International complacency is the final nail in the coffin. It was hoped that intervention of rich countries with surplus food would save Sahel from upcoming crisis, which now seem very imminent. Millions of lives are at stake. "The damage control mechanism of WFP needs $789m and still in short of #361m to reach all crying destitutes," writes Zafar Haider Jappa in today's Business Recorder.