A Perennial Fact

Muslims who want to live as authentic Muslims - rooted in Traditional Islam, as not defined by RAND though - and do not want to betray their Tradition to the whims and shallow slagons of secular fundamentalism, must keep in mind the Qur'anic message to enhance their confidence: Non-Muslims would never, ever like you unless you become like them.

Think about it... Every time you leave a meeting for prayer, or do not listen to certain sounds, or do not do various unIslamic or unnatural things - hypocrites and disbelievers are going to frown. You're mocking them, they think. Well, they should realize that hubris and arrogance.

Unfortunately this is an age of one-eyed vision. People always take one thing and forget the other part. The statement above - i hate making disclaimers - in no way means we've to hide ourselves in a closet, or become rude to non-Muslims, because that's against sunnah or way of Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him. Arab non-Muslims were rude to him; but he never returned their rudeness with rudeness. He used to give back something good and better to eliminate evil. That's our Tradition.

We're saying, "You follow your way; we follow ours." This doesn't mean you have to necessarily frown at us and be divided amongst ourselves. Our tradition teach us that are all people are children (in purely metaphorical sense) of Allah, and we've to be kind to them. We'd always praise and enjoin if a disbeliever or whoever does a good deed. This is how we operate. Is this way of life not worth living?

Liberation for what?

"Proof that girls/women of today are better than yesterday's is that only today girls (who are sitting in the hall) are free to hear what we've said (read: totally vulgar and third-rate slang, dirty jokes, and explicit words); had it been 70s, it won't have been possible for them to listen (=enjoy) to all this and yet not go out of the room."

That was a worthy student who walks proudly on the earth reasoning that he is getting an undergrad degree, although he may devoid of any skill other than speaking on stage. It means that this liberation of women is totally wrong from the Islamic ethical standpoint. If our education has developed an instinct of acceptance of what is out rightly vulgar, and even girls, symbol of bashfulness and chastity, have come to copy men in this regard - shame on it!

Everyone - including opposition or in the audience - had assumed certain premises, like, progress is the epitome of man/woman, that if someone is not progressing, s/he's evil; that all that all education that is being given in Pakistan is good; that goodness lies in awareness, literacy rates, with the number of cars, cemented buildings, hygienic environment, etc. I'm not saying all of this is totally bad, at least many of these things can be wrong to a large extent. However, the government (team which was in favor of the topic) declared that all values are relative! What can most erroneous than that! To say the least, it seems to me that they're contradicting themselves. As it was pointed out that they need to talk about the word better... Wrong assumptions and notions too prevalent in modern world to a fatal degree...

This is what Prof Hassan Askari wrote about in his, Maghrib ya Jadeediyat ki Gumrahiyoon Ka Naqsha ("An Outline of the Fallacies of West/Modernity" - loose trans.).

Vending Machines: A Dream Gone Sour

Dawn Lahore, FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2010. See page # 10, read an article by Miwa Suzuki.

Now, i bought this book on starting up a business of vending machine, which i didn't know about the time i bought it. Since it was published by a magazine called Entrepreneur and was about entrepreneurship, so i bought it blindly, also it was quite cheap. "People respond to incentives."

Today I read this article (see top) about flourishing and much saturated vending machine market in Japan, with only 2.5 million drink-selling machines generating 27 billion dollars last year. They've placed it everywhere from streets to the 'icy summits of Mount Fuji'.

So, this seems like a dream business idea. Pakistan's is filled with the absence of these machines. We can do reverse engineering and reinvent and redefine what a vending machine is, and spread it everywhere!

There's one little problem, and difference b/w how things work in Japan and Pakistan. In Japan, people are not the likely to crime than in Pakistan. That's why they've spread it everywhere.

I talked about this v machine to the cook at home. I surprised him how they're selling chilled bananas with mind-reading devices (that can tell with 75% success rate what you'd like most to purchase), and he said, "Yahan tou banday nahi miltay, machine kya bachay gi!" ('Here people are missing from home, who cares about a vending machine.')

I stopped day-dreaming and went back to my Philosopher's Corner in search of a billion dollar idea!

Extreme Sun, Extreme Man

Sunspot.

For past one century, for past one decade, humanity has seen such crises bigger than any crisis in civilizational history, other than the flood of Nuh or such incidents. Conditions in world have become extreme producing extreme reactions by people of any world-view. One important 'out of control factor' is the catalytic effect of Sun's energy on human mind, just as sun plays a predominant - which is too small a word - in every physical happening and variation; just as sun can destroy space satellites, annihilate electricity in Canada, nullify semiconductors - it also tinkers with sensitive electric currents of human brain.

If we see past 250 years of history of sun's activity - its storms, its 'sunspots' (which emit electro-magnetic rays and flares out of it) - it has reached its peak in 20th century (see photo below in which timeline is given along with sunspot cycles). Its heat and energy emissions have become more intense than anytime before. Sultan B. Mehmood, a Pakistani atomic scientist, could not understand why the effects of sun and its magnanimous variations should not be studied on human mind and behavior. This led him to study human history and sun's history, side-by-side, of past 250 years. He penned the book, in 1997-8 (?) and came out with startling predictions which turned out to be remarkably true.

The core prediction was about the rise of agitation, restlessness, aggression and terrorism in next decade; about the physical, earthly disasters we'd see from 2008-2017 along with political turmoil and violence. Studying the 'cosmic effects' of sun spots and sun storms on human mind and moods, he said back then that next decade would manifest extreme human behaviour which if not controlled will create havoc and crises. The bottom line is: if you can have control on your charged emotions, it turns into positivity - creativity, productivity, life, thought and civilization. He adds, "Make the hay while sun shines." Hence, extremism in behavior and outlook, is a major human problem everywhere.

When the attacks of 9/11 took place, intelligence agencies arrested Mr. Method and interrogated, "What you wrote in your book has turned out to be remarkably true. Maybe you are the master-mind behind these attacks." The author only had to say, "When i wrote the book (in '98) I also sent its copies to President Bill Clinton, PM Tony Blair and other heads of state urging them to show leadership to ensure peace." (These are not exact quotes as I am relying on memory.)

The book is written in a very acute scientific manner which is, nonetheless, highly readable by laymen. It is also punctuated by such sections on Sun's role in 'the choice of marriage and children', etc. It has useful advices for people from all walks of life from politicians to entrepreneurs It is very statistically and methodically written with case histories of events occurring in past 250 years both on sun and earth.

Sunspot cycles and timeline

Alpha and Omega: Why Muslims must excel in Scientific Research

Copyright/write - Dr. M. Zaman Khan,
Tranlsated (& notes) by, Yours Truly.

Many Pakistani professors, with the exception of few noble souls, follow this line of pattern: They come, they teach Western science, glorify it, make pupils memorize it, and then criticize their students of their impotence, as concluding remarks. However, rarely they are self-critical of the fact that they do very little research at their own, locally. If they do so, only then they can have the moral authority of criticizing young students about their lack of interest in scientific research. This matter of doing research locally is first and the last thing Pakistani and Muslim teachers and students should be aware of.

Why it is so? According to a Prophetic tradition of Prophet Muhammad (may peace be upon him), a non-believing man once came to him and challenged him a match of wrestling. He said he could beat ten persons at a time. Prophet accepted the challenge and beat him three times in a row. Impressed by his physical strength, the non-believer could not resist believing his religious message. Therefore, he accepted Islam.

The example illustrates that if you are impressed by one aspect or part of a person or a thing, you are also prone to be impressed by its whole. One reason for studying science and doing independent research lies in this psychological aspect of human being to preserve one’s own identity, world-view and civilization. If we go back it time and explore Muslim history, there was a time when Greek philosophy and sciences were encountered by Muslims. When Muslim youth experienced the brilliance of Greek science (mathematics, physics, etc.) they could not avoid taking Greek metaphysics and religious knowledge as sound as its physical sciences. It was a grave mistake from Islamic point of view. They could not decide what to take, and what to reject.

The very same problem is being encountered by contemporary Muslim youth getting education based on Western models and content. Today, as then, they study Western science and research, which is of top quality, and they cannot remain unimpressed by its vitality. But, they mistakenly consider that Western social sciences and their views on religion would be as accurate and sound as their physical sciences. Truth is that the results of their social sciences and views on religion have been disastrous for humanity, completely opposite to their success in physical sciences*. Their religious world-views need to be studied at all as a source of guidance by Muslim youth blessed with the gift of Islam.

Our future needs in science are not being met due a lack of interest in research. Due to this gap and inferiority complex generated by this very reason vis-à-vis Western science, we also observe that contemporary Muslim universities teaching non-religious sciences don’t value much their religious educational institutions. Having seen the importance of ‘innovation’, ‘change’ and ‘evolution’ in scientific theories and experimentation, they come to fancy that religion (i.e., of Islam) would be something similar to a laboratory experiment or a science text-book which needs to be updated regularly. Nothing can be farther from truth than this, due to the ‘eclipse of intellect and soul’, in words of Seyyed Hossein Nasr**.

To avoid this clash and to bridge this gap, it is indispensable to meet the need of scientific research in Muslim world. If this cannot be done, then it is safe to fear that our future generations cannot overcome the inferiority complex vis-à-vis west; and they may end up depriving themselves, and humanity, of treasures of religious knowledge of Islam and also a sense of Sacred, to which we owe our existence, which is supreme science.

________________________
* Prof. Dr. Asad Zaman, International Islamic University, has written a research paper discussing this very fact. He compares the tragic consequences of Western social sciences for humanity. See, The Origins of Western Social Science, Dr Asad Zaman available on his personal website: http://sites.google.com/site/asaduzaman. Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Ph.D. Harvard in history and philosophy of science, has also shown the tragic consequence of Western humanism for environment, see his book, Religion and the Order of the Nature, Suhail Academy, Lahore.

** For a refutation of this and similar modern mental fashions and erratic views on religion, see The Reign of Quantity; The Crisis of Modern World; East and West, by Rene Guenon, Islam and the Plight of Modern Man; Knowledge and Sacred; Islamic Life and Thought; Science, Civilization and Islam, by Dr. Seyyed Hossein Nasr.

SMS Conversation: History and Relgion, 'Policy Lessons' for Each Ego

Umer: One must have a basement in a house especially if he wants t0 launch a business. Shams and Nirwani, founders of Telezoo.com, invested $1 million in this start-up of theirs. To keep it low-cost in the beginning, the office of Telezoo was located in the basement of their home.

Bahawal: As far as the basement idea is concerned, I'd rather prefer to have an underground air-conditioned gym or a cozy library/study then 'waste' it for entrepreneurial purposes :-) :P

... We scholars usually don't like to talk much this money making business. Just give us a little respect, a bit of fame and acknowledgement and a few fat books to analyze. That's all you want. Lols...

Umer: (After critizing on fame part with a Urdu couplet, asks) And what books and articles are you reading these days?

Bahawal: Hmmm... I'm reading but haven't fully understood a book by Dr. Sayed Abdul Latif, The Mind that Al-Quran Builds. (Also) I'm reading a book History of the Saracens by Syed Ameer Ali. Then I'm also reading, History of the Arab Peoples. Apart from that, I've been reading some articles on internet on Babylonia, its culture, the city of Ur, etc. And, the major points of conflicts b/w the three Abrahamic religions, and the list goes on.

Umer: Please keep telling as long as you can comfortably. Its so informative foe me.

B: (Smiles, through a gesture) ... To sum up its been all history and religion (that I am studying). And, I realize that we need badly to turn back to Allah, repent asap, understand the balanced path, and start hating in ourselves what we hate in others. We stupid and idotic people have already cost ourselves a lot through petty egos and pathetically limited reserves of knowledge, which we assume to be too much but which actually is too little. What do you say?

U: Yar! Excellent analysis! That's what many top pious scholars (more or less) are saying! SubhanAllah! May Allah guide us to the right path and give us taufiq (power) to realize and act upon these useful insights.

B: May it be so! I wish we all see the right path.

Facebook: Consumer or Consumed?

Recently I made a dubious act of creating my friend's facebook account. I deactivated my own facebook account a year ago or so, out of utter frustation. I was frustrated with how much it consumed me, when i was supposed to consumer it. It was no good. I had to write two posts to debunk the myth of usefulness of it. But I failed it in a single phrase:: I consumes you...

This I experienced when i used a bit of his account to set it up. Soon an urge was sweeply mildly to get into this mass culture of verbosity, futility, empty socializing which is deviod of pure human-interaction, all of which backfires what facebook is for: connecting people. Surely, it helps one to find anyone. But that is only the beginning point beyond which it can never go. And 90% or more people are involved in absolute things even beyond non-essential, bordering on insanity (shooting people by pressing a button without even seeing him, clicking mouse 74 times in a minutes, and list never ends).

As far as the recent attack on FB from Islamic quarters and the counter-attack from modernized Pakistani media writing sentimental poetry about it, writing editorials (showing their ideological slavery to profane Western ideologies), etc., though mild - I wish to say only this: Priorities determine how you view this. Those whose live revolve around a person, their Prophet, whom they love above everything else, their priority is to defend their freedom to free their Beloved, their Supreme Asset from any insult. It went counter to the right of a (disturbing) civilization, and its perpeterators in East, to insult.

When I entered his account, I felt an urge, as I said, to come back to FB. To join the mass culture, in culture. And do away with my identity and my immediate enviornment. To shameless ads on left, right, top and bottom . . . I did not feel at home. This proves the point Shaykh Hamza Yusuf made about TV which fits 100% for FB: Those who leave it, ifthey find themselves wasting their time on it, their quality of life improves. And. They don't wish to use it again.

Indiscriminate Violence: A Prophetic Tradition

Toward the latter days of indiscriminate violence, be like the first and better of the two sons of Adam who said, “If you raise your hand to kill me, I will not raise mine to kill you; surely I fear God, the Lord of the worlds.”

- From a sound tradition of the Prophet Muhammad

narrated by Imam Tirmidhi.

Yin-Yang: "No Tyranny of the OR"

In Built to Last, authors argue that visionary firms that last and endure all phases a firm can endure and pass the tset of time, don't settle for half-half, for either this OR that. Rather. They're inspired by "Glory of the AND". Like, they give many examples for that and I'll just quote one:: "a relatively fixed core ideology AND vigorous change and movement" (p.44).

They also claim that their principles, glory of the AND just being one, extracted after a 6-year research on 36 different companies, applies well beyond the boundaries of business institutions, rather to all kinds of institutions. They didn't realize this when they authored the book, but by the feedback from all over the book.

In our society we see the shadows of the "Tyranny of the OR" pervading over the hearts and minds of I don't know how many people. Even genuinely good people at heart say, "You can't do a business without playing foul, or in (negatively) clever manner in Pakistan, we'll be doomed if you do that," "People are so mean, they don't even change, You're living in an ideal world." Idealism, that's good, given the evidence the authors of the book, although they call it pragmatic idealism.

Seyyed Hossein Nasr on Rushdie Affair

Going through karen armstrong's books these days for 'special purpose', i encountered the representation of moderns' point of view on Rushdie affair. West was in uproar on that issue. They all were ablaze with sentimentalism on an issue that concerned life of one person, declaring that (hopelessly) it was attack on freedom of speech. And Mr. Rushdie emerged as a hero, on whom later were showered endless distinguished honors. And many Muslims, especially those living in west or affected by modernity, failed to sympathize with people of strong faith. Nonetheless, following short audio clip by Seyyed Hossein Nasr explains the Muslim reaction to Rushdie affair philosophically. I recommend it as very important for it'd also clarify many other issues raised by moderns now and then - the core idea/concept-as-a-living-force is SACREDNESS, right of God is the highest value & non-compartmentalization of religion from various vistas of life::

http://mac.abc.se/home/onesr/af/_audio/A065e_SH.Nasr_Sh.Tantawi_19.mp3

Fast Food & Haste

I have always been suspicious of nasty old fast food that caused trouble in my stomach when I used to have a liking of it. But since when i have left eating this un-nurturing, little morsels of suspicious meat, cooked in utter 'hastiness', believe me not, my quality of life has increased mani-fold, saving my pocket as well ;) What follows here is research done on the behaviors of fast-food consumers by Toronto University, namely: Fast Food and Impatience; moreover, i received the following summary in an email by Harvard Business Review, The Daily Stat:

Does Fast Food Make People Hasty Well as Hungry?


20% speedier reading. People who had been subliminally exposed to fast-food logos read a 349-word passage in an average of 69 seconds, compared with a control group's 84 seconds, though there was no time pressure, according to a study of 57 undergraduates. Researchers Chen-Bo Zhong and Sanford E. DeVoe of the University of Toronto suggest that the time-saving principle embodied by fast food unconsciously induces haste.

Read research here (pdf).

A pleasant experience

I was relived to see a mosque open after 10 PM. I entered it and saw two children filling the mosque with the fragrance of their eccentric patrolling, dancing in front of a someone performing salah. "Light, space and silence" - so characteristic of any mosque, universally, I experienced again, and enjoyed the prayer of solitude. May we have mosques that are open to human creatures 24/7; while TV, cricket matches, dance parties, restaurants, and other inventions of moderns destroy the sacredness of late night, it also can serve as a antidote to this profanity.

9 Tips for Surviving School

Praise be to Allah, whose praise should precede every writing and speech,

And may blessings be upon Prophet (S.A.W) and his family.

I received a mail today. It read:

Although this is for the Western school going youth but some of us might find it applicable in some contexts within our society.

What followed was an article, 9 Tips for Surviving School. I have produced excerpt of it. Read the whole article here. I found it very useful, and I wish if schools publish such articles in their magazine.

******

"Surviving school as a Muslim youth in the West is not easy. The social requirement upon youth to not only excel in studies but also to exhibit ideal, Islamic behavior outside and inside the home makes leading a healthy student life a truly daunting task. With the combined social pressures of school, family, and friends many youth wonder if it is even possible to balance school and Islam. Sadly, the question is now being increasingly asked: “Is it even feasible to practice Islam in the West?”

It is important to remember that today’s problems are not new nor are their solutions impossible to find. While admittedly the situation of students in the West is far from ideal, all hope is not lost. Here are some quick and simple tips to help the average Muslim student survive school:

1. Find a good social circle: The most driving influence in the life of a student is his social circle, upon which he depends for fulfilling his social and recreational needs. Depending on one’s group of friends, a person is likely to make strikingly different choices in life. A good friend is one who can entertain you and at the same time bring you closer to Allah. If you cannot discuss serious, personal, or religious issues with a colleague, it is likely that your relationship with him is shallow and improvident. Pick friends whose company will improve your character and provide you focus and direction in life. Do not be afraid to lose friends in pursuit of saving your iman. In the end, it is your religion that has priority.

2. Halal-ify your home: Half of a successful student life involves improving the environment outside the house, while the other half depends on having a healthy and Islamically-conducive home. In order to make your home free from distractions, create a quiet and comfortable workspace for yourself. Avoid at all costs the proximity of a television and the internet. Limit your useless activities on the computer by placing it in a high-traffic room. Try to spend as less time alone as possible. Study with someone nearby who will not distract you from your work but will also prevent your mind from wandering and engaging in harmful activities.

3. Spend quality time with family: An important aspect of improving the home environment is improving one’s relationship with family. Avoid domestic quarrels and familial disputes by spending quality time with parents, siblings, uncles, aunts, etc… Take out a half-hour daily to sit and converse with parents. Let them know what you do outside the home and you will gain their trust. Talk to them about your problems and personal dilemmas even if the solutions they provide seem wrong. If individuals inside the home seem unapproachable, look for counsel outside the direct family. Most importantly, if you yourself are an older sibling, make the effort to be a good adviser and counselor for your younger brothers and sisters.

4. Guard your gaze: The most common cause for loss of focus and poor memory is negligence in guarding the gaze. When a student’s mind wants to concentrate on reading, lectures, or work, his evil gaze forces it to daydream about sports, movies, cars, the opposite gender, etc… Avoid these distractions by looking down in the hallways at school and spending as little time as possible in mixed settings. Free yourself from television and internet addiction by simply ridding yourself of access to them. Have a parent regulate and supervise your internet usage through parental control software. Share your passwords with family members to avoid the possibility of engaging in illicit relationships." [Cont'd]

Competitive re-branding

We have this tendency of over-praising our products and services. And the limited extent to which you can do that is absent in books by marketers (originally of West and their copy-cats in east). I's listening to a lecture on Ethics of Trade in Islam, in which Abdal-Hakim Murad was telling that Allah on the day of judgement would look upon a man who took oaths while buying and selling. That's a little bit complex to understand. Applied to bragging we do on our trade, it fits the paradigm. Billions are spent by Coca-Cola on "re-branding", they talk about "brand loyalty" and brand this and brand that . . .  Human and natural resources are slaughtered blindly in this mania of over-advertising. How despicable and ugly the practices of moderns who are cut off from revelation . . .