The beauty of Islam is more than what meets the eye and what we currently perceive.Islam is more than asking people to pray,zikr, giving alms,fasting and circumbulating the Kaaba during Haj.If it is ,we are taking a very narrow view of the Quran, prophet's seerah and Sunnah. Without ilm.ilm and ilm,we are going to miss the true beauty and splendour of being a Muslim.
This universe is an indivisible cosmic whole...Only Allah is Absolute and there is NOTHING, absolutely nothing, except Allah.That is a sufic viewpoint conceived around the time of Al Ghazali by the likes of ibnu Arabi and Shaykh Abdul Qadir al Jilani et al.Modern,quantum physics tempered with faiths and 'sublime' inspiration are just now beginning to come to term and telling us what the sufis had been telling the world one thousand years ago that, this IS THE CASE.
Enjoy the late Prof Muhammad Al Mahdi, American, psychologist, theoretical physicist, in his broad reaching explanation of Allah's cosmic plan which include a scientific overview of His physical universe, combined with our first glimpse of the spiritual world and the afterlife from the perspective of quantum physics and ' sublime' thought gathered through ,50 over years of soul-searching. Science without faith is like sailing in an uncharted ocean without compass. Faith without science is very safe for the sailor, but alas he never get out to sea at all and missed the pleasure of new lands and sailing itself.
Muhammad Al Mahdi, is not Einstein but what is a thousand Einsteins without faith?....They all got lost in the twigs and the branches,and missed the tree! Interestingly he started as an agnostic/atheist, typical among people delving in theoretical physics. A paradox which never fail to surprise me to the point whenever I have the opportunity to come in contact with them in my UK postgraduate days[ and that is rare because they are a rare breed] I never fail to ask them: " Do you not see God in your work?". They are in the business of going around 'looking at God's fingerprint in the universe. But 99.9 % of them are either atheists or agnostics. I consider myself blessed , in my nature of work, I get reminded of Him all the time.
This presentation will give us an unprecedented understanding of the exquisite magnificence of what it actually mean to be a Muslim in today's world. With enlightenment come empowerment.....followed by passion. It is passion that make our world go round!
Insyaallah.
Click Here for Video Link
Related articles:
1. Surah al Anbiya, Ayat 30 ,Big Bang and a Century of Science 1
2. Big Bang and a Century of science 2
May your Ramadan and mine be a blessed one!
Dr Nik Howk
11 comments:
Pak Ani has been sending the link to this blog, thus this week where all the students had gone back for celebration, here I am reading...
Sometime, we feel the solution is so obvious and yet so often we asked,"Why he or she like that?"
You wrote about clogged heart vessels in your profile, and yet they are doctors running around suffocated with undesirable depositions, and the more we asked such question like "Why la...bla...bla...bla.." And these doctors have the cheeks to scold patients for not taking their medications!
The book of God has the answer, the part that sounds like "som bom buk bom omm yong...hemmm ...like only now I realised why orang Terengganu so fond of saying "Bodoh sombong." May I confess that I was such bodoh sombong once, though still a lot of bodoh hopefully very much less sombong. Prognosis is poor when the sombong is still attached.
Selamat Hari Raya...do I know you?
Drive safely ..wherever you are heading for your Hari Raya ,Doc!
I have been postponing listening to the good Prof since I come across his website.Today I took the opportunity, and Lo! and behold..it is beautiful
Have been searching for this kind of 'sublime' explanation for over 35 years seriously since i came across Heisenburg Uncertainty Principle in my Year One science/medicine some 35 years ago...bloody ancient.
Then in my early Medical Consultant days read Abdal Qadir As Sufi's very difficult[ small book just over 200 pages] book "The Way of Muhammad", 1st time came across the connection E=MC squared has a much higher meaning than just that 'white fluffy mushroom' in the sky. Abdal Qadir is Scottish. Met him once during my post graduate training in London in early 80's. He then already had a big following amongthe young Mat Salleh converts of that time.Cat Steven was bilal at Regent's Mosque also around that time.
In my latter years came across the concept again when going thru Shaykh Abdul Qadir Jilani's 'Sublime Revelations' and 'Utterances' and Ibn Arabi's " What The Seeker Seek".
Just stumble on Prof Muhammad Al Mahdi's website this year.He was operating somewhere near Gombak area I think. Sadly i think he has passed on to meet his Maker last year.
It has been a fairly long 'scientific'journey, Doc Hasanah, that is why I cannot hide my excitement and wish to share my exhilaration with others!
I must say I am blessed that a big chunk of my profesional work also contribute to that process of enlightenment.When oftentimes you yourself have to pray and doa alot to get the desired result in your very ill patients whom you can send "upstairs" over a wrong move on your part, it is fairly easy for me to get those 'pangs' of enlightenment. Some profession does have that already in built ,like mine. Others probably need more imagination and harder work.But having said that I feel it is important to find meaning in whatever that we do so that we can become more 'wholesome ' Muslim.
This is possible even if you are a jet test pilot or even as lowly a job as a road sweeper.A jet test pilot who 'faces' death daily and does not get enligtened in is job is totally missing the point!Just an example...A road sweeper from his viewpoint of seeing all high and mighty passing him by daily with all their proud 'nuances', and still missed Allah is again quite sad.Sudah lah miskin di dunia,miskin juga dia di akhirat.
On the other hand if you are a sultan or in a position of power, your trails and tribulations and the propensity to get things wrong would probably be much much higher. We should not envy them. It is difficult.Why people fight and literaly slaughter each other to be PM I cannot comprehend.Beyond me.
As Prof Muhammad Al Mahdi here exemplifies, it is back to ilm ,ilm and ilm.He could just be another Einstein, without faith...but faith without ilm, would be like honey without sugar!
How huge is our universe?
Minimum it contains 10 billion billion stars.Mininmum diameter from one horizon of light to the next horizon of light is 30 billion billion light years. This is not taking into consideration that beyond the horizon of light, there are stars too far away to indicate its presence.
And the periphery is ever expanding at faster than the speed of light per second!
All started from a single point[ singularity point] with no mass, nor volume,nor space!
Scientists,Physicists,materialists and atheists, when they cannot explain that this universe cannot occur by chance they just choose a stance of'deafeaning silence'.
" Have not those who believe known that the heavens and the earth were joined together as one united piece, then we parted them? And we made from water every thing living- will they not believe?" [surah Al Anbiya, 'The prophet', 21: 30]
Mashaallah!
Correction: ...".Has not those who disbelieve..."
Dear Dr Nick,
Salam Ramadhan and Selamat Hari Raya.
My question: Is spirituality hard-wired?
Salam
I do not get your meaning...but if you mean we have to work hard at it certainly yes!
Majority of us are givenIslam on a silver plate...We are born in it..We tend to be less appreciative...Without hard work with ilm and ilm, we may be Muslim but less in the spiritual 'dept'
Guys like The Prof Muhammad al Mahdi, Cat Steven ,Abdal Qadir As sufi etc etc who were born in a culture alien to Islam, finally were divinely inspired to Islam,they work very hard at it and thru ilm,become what they are now...more spiritually inclined.It must also be a total summation of the life experience and innate character,with a template that they are originally people who were searching for life's meaning as well.
At a higher level we have people like Al Ghazali, already well entrenched in religious orthodoxy..then found himself in crisis of meanings ...disappeared from public for a few years and came back more spiritually entrenched.Otherwise he would just be another Kadi or Jurist of that time.
We have to work at it and the bottomline ,in my humble opinion, still is back to ilm,ilm and ilm.We should debunk this concept that we have in our culture that ilm must only be obtained directly one to one from an Ustaz...Not if one has an IQ of 90 to 120. Our ustazs are there in the electronic media ,IT ,books ,tafseer etc etc . This is the age of information.
If by been 'hard wired' to you mean genetically predisposed or controlled by some gene somewhere and determined by neurotransmitters in the brain: NO , I dont think so.
It is both hard work and 'Inspired'.
Lewis Bernard , John Esposito et al may know a lot about Islam but when you are "Deaf, Dumb and Blind" and obstinately want to remain 'Deaf, Dumb,and Blind" no amount of 'information' will turn out to be Wisdom to you.
Information will remain as information...Allahualam
I got your meaning..
Mat Salleh always has a propensity to blame providence when things go wrong.Genetic connection.Neurotransmiter or hormonal imbalance[ eg homosexuality and lesbianism and herion addiction] etc etc . Take away the environmental, bad parenting, built-in factors encouraged by a lax culture,100% emphasis on human right and total disregard for 'God's right' etc etc.
Every where now the emphasis is on political correctness even when the values and norms are all totally well screwed up .
I had some time last night and had an opportunity to listen to Prof Mahdi's tape on " World Wide Islamic States " proposal.Shed a couple of tears, actually was quite 'sebak' listening to him: A voice from the grave, A Mat Salleh, an atheist who discovered Islam on an intellectual ground,telling us, 'hardened Muslim souls'how to lead the way out of this man made global quigmire.
His proposal sounds 'dowable' and practical.If you have time ,please do listen to this voice from the grave.Prof died last year from advance cancer of the liver. When he was conducting the seminar, he already knew his time was already up...
May his soul be accepted by Allah among those He blessed! Al Fatihah..
Dear Dr Nick,
An identical twin separated at birth, brought up thousands KM apart, one in a secular Christian family dan the other was raised in agnostic family. Besides, other similarities, though apart, both are extremely religous and chosed the same 'mazhab' of Christianity. Family environment and attitudes toward religon have no effect on the twin. Theirs' phenotype manifestation is a good example of hard-wiring of their's genetic hard-ware.
This could be one of the reasons, why some are more spiritual and religous than others.
I come a across, a person who was brought up in a minority Shiah in Malaysia, when ever he went to school, he was in contact with the majority of Sunnah population. The dilemma developed in choosing his faith. How are we going to counsel such a person if he is at lost speaking about religion?
Wassalam.
C'mon Rachmat...It is cultural!
If this twin happen to read Surah Mariam or listen to Prof Mahdi's tape[ provided they also has a little bit of science background]...would be surprised , given their inclination , they may take the syuhada.
It is high time we Muslims lead the way in the realm of spirituality!....and we cannot do that without arming ourselves with ilm ,ilm and ilm.
It is great to have Faith.It is God's pleasure to be given Faith denovo without the need to 'intellectualise', just reading the Quran, listening to the Seerah and the hadith and be strengtened future in one's faith.
Prof Mahdi belong to the second group of people, a bigger group actually, that finds true faith via 'intellectualization.Some via their life experience. Him ,most probably I reckoned via 'reading' the 'physical ayats' out there in this ever expanding universe, the 2nd 'Quran' I would term.A biochemist par exceleence, if he is sincere with himself , will find Islam,via the myriad of biochemical reactions and equations that he come across in his 'intellectual' world of interacting molecules and atoms.
It is only hardened souls like Lewis Bernard and John Esposito et al who after knowing so much about Islam than the likes of you and me ,mere mortals , would ever know in our lifetime, could still missed the trunk, and work against Islam,in one way or another.
They are what God,in surah Al Baqarah term as " Deaf, Dumb, and Blind". Allahualam.
Faith is God's mercy to us.
Assalamualaikum. I just stumbled across your blog. I wanted to say 'thank you, may Allah bless you!' for sharing Prof Dr Muhammad al'Mahdi's work.
I was his student and his life's work made such an incredible impact on my life that today, I am driven to continue his legacy, to the best of my ability.
He was a very special person, in that he wanted only good for the ummah and made sacrifices to this purpose. Allah knows best.
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