Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Light...
Allah is the Light of the heavens and the earth. The similitude of His Light is as a niche wherein is a lamp. The lamp is in a glass. The glass is as a shining star. [This lamp is] kindled from a blessed tree, an olive neither of the East nor of the West, whose oil would almost glow forth [of itself] though no fire touched it. Light upon light. Allah guideth unto His light whom He will. Allah speaketh to mankind in allegories, for Allah is Knower of all things. [ Surah al Nur , 24 : 35 ]
Such splendour, such beauty. Allah's description of Himself.
Scholars,very few of them, with sufic bent, such as the eleventh century philosopher Abu Hamid al Ghazali [ and of late ,that famous Scottish convert, Abdal Qadir as Sufi , and Prof Muhamad al Mahdi ] understood this "light" or nur to be the true quintessential light or the definitive source of all light in the universe. Others, more commonly, interpret 'light' here, rather figuratively, as the guidance God infuses into the hearts of believers that give them the ability to discern right from wrong, good from evil, and give them a strong belief and confidence in their faith and what they profess to be true.
In the light of recent scientific development and progress, al Ghazali's literal take of Nur may indeed be the true meaning and interpretation of the 'ayat'. If that is the case, in 11th century AD , the sufis were the originator of what the likes of Einstein et al discovered some 9 centuries later with 'hardcore science'. That could only come through 'divine' inspiration.! Allahualam.
[see The Big Bang and a Century of Science: The True Nature of Reality, June 24th,2009, under "Personalities"........Prof Muhd al Mahdi]
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Ramadan in Kota Bharu,1960....
Friends,
1960. Ramadan in Kota Bharu as I remember it.
The old pair of Second World War howitzers at Padang Bank opposite the Old Istana come to mind for us 7-year-old kids growing up in 'laid back' Kota Bharu. Really not that 'laid back' because 'we' had that tallest building in the world: The famous Zain Building [ 4 storey], near the biggest and busiest roundabout ever infront of 'Palm Manor', [Tengku Razaleigh father's house].
My late father[ he died of perforated ulcer 2 years later, no effective antibiotics then except penicillin ] used to take myself and my younger brother, Mansoor, to Padang Bank just to watch members of the Askar Melayu go through the intricate motion of firing the guns to herald the beginning of 'berbuka puasa'. The rest of the Wan Abdullah clan were already too grown up to enjoy such simple pleasures in life , I supposed. We would then drive to our kampong Teliput home for breaking fast.
Home refrigerators then were a rarity, though we had ours. Bigger boys, my 'playing-marble' and 'police and thieves' friends,10 to 13 year-old, would try earning some extra pocket money,line up along Jalan Teliput and Jalan Kampong Puteh, selling big blocks of ice, at 10 to 20 cent 'a piece', for the mandatory 'ice syrup ' without which any 'berbuka puasa' will not be complete. One or two of them are now in KL, self made millionaires. Not the NEP type though because "we are,damnit,KELANTANESE!!". Not qualified for NEP help.[ even years of potential oil revenue and more importantly uch needed development around Tok Bali has been robbed from us! We will always remember you Dr M , for being so 'small minded', even when you are no longer here!]
The 'guns' would reverbrate again at sahur time to indicate 'imsak' and more often than not we young fellas would be wokened up by the guns., not by our parents who deemed us more of a nuisance,still too young to start serious fasting .Some 'ulamaks' amongst us 'young punks' maintained that one could still drink one or two glasses of water, and if 'quick' enough, can even finish one plate of rice, after the 'gun' and still ''halal' to fast . Up till today, at 57, I still follow that particular 'advisory.[ Thank you TS Ani Arope for sending me that email today confirming that infact 'this is superior practice' as compared to Sahur ,say at 3, and even though not missing the suboh prayer! Or for some ,no sahor and no suboh, but ironically ,fasting!]
1960. Ramadan in Kota Bharu then. Life was very simple and carefree. We can 'jalan' everywhere without being worried for our safety.Daytime spent in looking for kingfishers and mynahs to practice our 'lastik' technique and accuracy, Magrib and isyak time socialising cum 'terawek' and playing 'hide and seek' and 'Malay or Chinese hopscotch' with the girls,at the kampong surau. Post 'teraweh', we young boys occasionally were allowed by our parents to join the 'bigger boys' horning their skills at seeing whose 'bedil buloh' give the loudest 'bang': bamboo contraption with a small hole bored into one of its compartment, adding a bit of carbide to water ,would result in a big bang comparable to the howitzers at Padang Bank.Need to foray deeper into the kampong to see real action, since even then 'bedil buloh' was already illegal. Fantastic bang it gave, using carbide and water and the trick is to doubly stengthened the 'bedil' with steel wires carefully wrapped around the bamboo.
That was Ramadan as I could remember in 1960. Those were also the short time I had and could recollect about my late father, Wan Abdullah. By 1962, I had to grow up 'pretty quickly'.......
"Rabbir-firli-waliwalidayya' wal mukmini wal mukminat"
My Lord, grant forgiveness and blessing to both my parents and all Muslims!
May your Ramadan and mine be a blessed one, insyaallah.
Dr Nik Howk
1960. Ramadan in Kota Bharu as I remember it.
The old pair of Second World War howitzers at Padang Bank opposite the Old Istana come to mind for us 7-year-old kids growing up in 'laid back' Kota Bharu. Really not that 'laid back' because 'we' had that tallest building in the world: The famous Zain Building [ 4 storey], near the biggest and busiest roundabout ever infront of 'Palm Manor', [Tengku Razaleigh father's house].
My late father[ he died of perforated ulcer 2 years later, no effective antibiotics then except penicillin ] used to take myself and my younger brother, Mansoor, to Padang Bank just to watch members of the Askar Melayu go through the intricate motion of firing the guns to herald the beginning of 'berbuka puasa'. The rest of the Wan Abdullah clan were already too grown up to enjoy such simple pleasures in life , I supposed. We would then drive to our kampong Teliput home for breaking fast.
Home refrigerators then were a rarity, though we had ours. Bigger boys, my 'playing-marble' and 'police and thieves' friends,10 to 13 year-old, would try earning some extra pocket money,line up along Jalan Teliput and Jalan Kampong Puteh, selling big blocks of ice, at 10 to 20 cent 'a piece', for the mandatory 'ice syrup ' without which any 'berbuka puasa' will not be complete. One or two of them are now in KL, self made millionaires. Not the NEP type though because "we are,damnit,KELANTANESE!!". Not qualified for NEP help.[ even years of potential oil revenue and more importantly uch needed development around Tok Bali has been robbed from us! We will always remember you Dr M , for being so 'small minded', even when you are no longer here!]
The 'guns' would reverbrate again at sahur time to indicate 'imsak' and more often than not we young fellas would be wokened up by the guns., not by our parents who deemed us more of a nuisance,still too young to start serious fasting .Some 'ulamaks' amongst us 'young punks' maintained that one could still drink one or two glasses of water, and if 'quick' enough, can even finish one plate of rice, after the 'gun' and still ''halal' to fast . Up till today, at 57, I still follow that particular 'advisory.[ Thank you TS Ani Arope for sending me that email today confirming that infact 'this is superior practice' as compared to Sahur ,say at 3, and even though not missing the suboh prayer! Or for some ,no sahor and no suboh, but ironically ,fasting!]
1960. Ramadan in Kota Bharu then. Life was very simple and carefree. We can 'jalan' everywhere without being worried for our safety.Daytime spent in looking for kingfishers and mynahs to practice our 'lastik' technique and accuracy, Magrib and isyak time socialising cum 'terawek' and playing 'hide and seek' and 'Malay or Chinese hopscotch' with the girls,at the kampong surau. Post 'teraweh', we young boys occasionally were allowed by our parents to join the 'bigger boys' horning their skills at seeing whose 'bedil buloh' give the loudest 'bang': bamboo contraption with a small hole bored into one of its compartment, adding a bit of carbide to water ,would result in a big bang comparable to the howitzers at Padang Bank.Need to foray deeper into the kampong to see real action, since even then 'bedil buloh' was already illegal. Fantastic bang it gave, using carbide and water and the trick is to doubly stengthened the 'bedil' with steel wires carefully wrapped around the bamboo.
That was Ramadan as I could remember in 1960. Those were also the short time I had and could recollect about my late father, Wan Abdullah. By 1962, I had to grow up 'pretty quickly'.......
"Rabbir-firli-waliwalidayya' wal mukmini wal mukminat"
My Lord, grant forgiveness and blessing to both my parents and all Muslims!
May your Ramadan and mine be a blessed one, insyaallah.
Dr Nik Howk
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Conversations on Islam : Abu Hamid al Ghazali [1058-1111]
[ Prof Abdel Wahab El Messeri in conversation on Imam AlGhazali ]
Biodata :
Abdel-Wahab Elmessiri (Arabic: عبد الوهاب المسيري, 1938-July 2, 2008) was an Egyptian scholar, author and general coordinator of the opposition organization Kefaya.[1]
Elmessiri was born in Damanhur, Egypt, graduated with a BA in English literature from Alexandria University in 1959. He received a MA in English and comparative literature from Columbia University in 1964 and a PhD in the same field from Rutgers University in 1969. He was professor emeritus of English and comparative literature at Ain Shams University, Egypt since 1988. He was also a University Professor at King Saud University, Saudi Arabia (1983–1988) and at Kuwait University, Kuwait (1988–1989) and a visiting Professor at the International Islamic University Malaysia. He is considered as one of Egypt's most famous thinkers and very well-known among Arab scholars.
Elmessiri's major areas of research included: Jews, Judaism and Zionism; secularism and prejudice; Western culture and contemporaneity; modernism and postmodernism; literary theory and comparative literature. Over the course of his life his outlook moved from western secularism to a modern islamic vision. Elmessiri wrote several articles about his ideas, including "Chosen Community, an Exceptional Burden".
On July 2, 2008 he died after a very long battle against cancer at the Palestine Hospital, Cairo.
....................................
Question: Mohamed Islam:
One of the leading Islamic Philosophers was Al-Ghazali. Who was he? Can you tell us about him?
Answer: Prof Emeritus Abdel Wahab El Messeri:
He was, like most Islamic thinkers or philosophers of the time, quite versatile, well rounded: He was a lawyer, a scientist, a jurist, a judge. Non of the Islamic thinkers were confined to the discipline of philosophy. They had comprehensive knowledge (alchemists. Scientists, literary critics, mystics, etc.). This well-roundedness and comprehensiveness occurred in the west only during the renaissance.
He was born in Tus, near the Iranian border in 1058, during the time of the last florescence in Islamic Philosophy. He went to the Nazamia School in Baghdad, where he made quite an impression. He was preceded by Al-Farabi and Ibn Sina. The philosophical outlook before him was quite impressive.
Later in Baghdad he underwent a change, he started suspecting every thing he had learned. The radical skepticism of Descartes. He is always compared to Descartes. But differences between them are much more than resemblances. Descartes fell back on the Ego to resolve the crises of meaning. ‘ I think therefore I am’. This was the beginning of modern rationalism which resulted in the absolute polarity of man versus nature. Now we know that nature conquered man.
Al-Ghazali left school and went on a quest. When he returned, he came with a world outlook which represented a synthesis of the best in Islam. It was based on a critique of all the trends in Islamic thought during his time. He pointed out:
.......The limitations of the mystics ( Sufis ) The tendency to contemplation and esoteric knowledge. Religion has to express itself in exoteric learning. This was quite a shift in mysticism. He pointed out that action is part of mysticism. You know then you act. Just to know is not enough. He said mystics try to get some kind of union with God, but there has to be a gap between man and God. This sets him apart from those who tended toward heresy. They wanted to bridge that gap between the created and the Creator, but the Islamic World Outlook depends on that gap. Man should not try to bridge that gap, to have union with God, but he must strive to get closer to God. The Muslim learns to recognize the gap. This is of the essence in Islam. Those who want to bridge the gap, and reach God, and have union with Him, are Pantheists. Islam is very much opposed to Pantheism.
......He addressed himself to the Mukalimun (Theologians) They served Islam by solving some problems, but really did not solve most problems.
......As for the Philosophers, he criticized them most severely. Firstly, they believed in eternity of the world, co-eternal with God ( They were believers but erred on certain points). Secondly they made God very distant from man. Thirdly they believed in a world controlled by cause and effect. He refuted these and other points in a book: Incoherence of the Philosophers.
The Cosmology of Al-Ghazali: man is here, God is there. In between is the world of norms, both ontological and psychological, Moral and axiological. In other words, it is not a an arid world, or abyss. It is a field. One can interact with god in that field. If man fulfills some of these norms, and man recognizes his separateness, he can get closer to God. There is a great role for mysticism. Not leading to unity with God, but simply spiritual exercises. The mind for Al-Ghazali is not , like for other philosophers, absolute. It can not be. Otherwise, whence would it derive its norms.
Causality: This is his real contribution to philosophy. Philosophers say: cause lead to effect. Al-Ghazali says : to follow after does not mean to follow from. He says : the power is not the cause. The power is God. God has imposed the pattern. The cause is God. Not like ‘natura naturans’ of Spinoza/ Descartes, they make this latent in nature. This is Pantheism. The patterning force in nature is eminent in it, but transcendental at the same time. This is the essence of Islamic Epistemology, which means: we can know nature but not completely because of the power that is there, both latent and transcendental. Unlike the modern Secular Concept, where you have to know nature completely, and you control it, and harness it to your service. Of course, since modern western man has failed, now you have Materialist Irrationalism, where they claim there is no causality at all. We go from absolute causality of the Cartesian or Hegelian variety, to the Post-modern denial of causality completely.
Ghazali's Islam assures us a level of certainty, enough to go along, but it does not promise us absolute certainty and absolute control of the universe.
MI: The other contribution of Al-Ghazali was the revival of the science of religion?
AWM: He wanted to define the sciences of religion and at the same time infuse spirit into them. The essence of Al-Ghazali’s Epistemology was this attempt to bring in the full complexity of man. With science there had to be emotion. The heart had to be operative, not just the mind. He then moved on to Miskat un Anwar (the mystical: the Niche of Light) where he talks about certain mystical exercises .
He also had educational books to fulfill the function of a well rounded, versatile philosopher: Educator, thinker, psychologist, mystic.
MI: What kind of following did he have?
AWM: I understand that Al-Ghazali dominated the Islamic world from that time on. There was opposition who rejected his view. Saying that it would subvert the mind completely. The Philosophers saw man in the form of polarity: it is either the heart or the mind. Whereas Al-Ghazali says man operated in a complex integrated duality. That is why he said there was a field and not a gap between man and God.
MI: How were the philosophers viewed or received by the ruling elite of the time.
AWM: There were ups and downs. For example : the Mu’tazilites or pure rationalist : if the ruler was of the same persuasion, they would be supported, if not they were persecuted.
Al-Ghazali: he had no problem, because he had ideas of order. He tried to harness the mystical impulse, which sometimes ran amok.
MI: Al-Ghazali as a jurist, what role did he play?
AWM: The same interplay of mind and heart. Between the attempt to apply the idea of law inspired by Divine Revelation. He did not believe in empirical law, but did not reject it. It is all encapsulated in Divine dictates.
MI: How was the world after Al-Ghazali?
AWM: The Mongol invasion of the Islamic world occurred, and then the Crusades. The Islamic World withdrew inwards. Al-Ghazali is sometimes blamed for this withdrawal. But it was a result of these historical forces which were much more powerful in determining the future developments.
[ Prof Abdel Wahab El Messeri is Professor Emeritus on English Literature, Ain Sham University, Cairo]
Biodata :
Abdel-Wahab Elmessiri (Arabic: عبد الوهاب المسيري, 1938-July 2, 2008) was an Egyptian scholar, author and general coordinator of the opposition organization Kefaya.[1]
Elmessiri was born in Damanhur, Egypt, graduated with a BA in English literature from Alexandria University in 1959. He received a MA in English and comparative literature from Columbia University in 1964 and a PhD in the same field from Rutgers University in 1969. He was professor emeritus of English and comparative literature at Ain Shams University, Egypt since 1988. He was also a University Professor at King Saud University, Saudi Arabia (1983–1988) and at Kuwait University, Kuwait (1988–1989) and a visiting Professor at the International Islamic University Malaysia. He is considered as one of Egypt's most famous thinkers and very well-known among Arab scholars.
Elmessiri's major areas of research included: Jews, Judaism and Zionism; secularism and prejudice; Western culture and contemporaneity; modernism and postmodernism; literary theory and comparative literature. Over the course of his life his outlook moved from western secularism to a modern islamic vision. Elmessiri wrote several articles about his ideas, including "Chosen Community, an Exceptional Burden".
On July 2, 2008 he died after a very long battle against cancer at the Palestine Hospital, Cairo.
....................................
Question: Mohamed Islam:
One of the leading Islamic Philosophers was Al-Ghazali. Who was he? Can you tell us about him?
Answer: Prof Emeritus Abdel Wahab El Messeri:
He was, like most Islamic thinkers or philosophers of the time, quite versatile, well rounded: He was a lawyer, a scientist, a jurist, a judge. Non of the Islamic thinkers were confined to the discipline of philosophy. They had comprehensive knowledge (alchemists. Scientists, literary critics, mystics, etc.). This well-roundedness and comprehensiveness occurred in the west only during the renaissance.
He was born in Tus, near the Iranian border in 1058, during the time of the last florescence in Islamic Philosophy. He went to the Nazamia School in Baghdad, where he made quite an impression. He was preceded by Al-Farabi and Ibn Sina. The philosophical outlook before him was quite impressive.
Later in Baghdad he underwent a change, he started suspecting every thing he had learned. The radical skepticism of Descartes. He is always compared to Descartes. But differences between them are much more than resemblances. Descartes fell back on the Ego to resolve the crises of meaning. ‘ I think therefore I am’. This was the beginning of modern rationalism which resulted in the absolute polarity of man versus nature. Now we know that nature conquered man.
Al-Ghazali left school and went on a quest. When he returned, he came with a world outlook which represented a synthesis of the best in Islam. It was based on a critique of all the trends in Islamic thought during his time. He pointed out:
.......The limitations of the mystics ( Sufis ) The tendency to contemplation and esoteric knowledge. Religion has to express itself in exoteric learning. This was quite a shift in mysticism. He pointed out that action is part of mysticism. You know then you act. Just to know is not enough. He said mystics try to get some kind of union with God, but there has to be a gap between man and God. This sets him apart from those who tended toward heresy. They wanted to bridge that gap between the created and the Creator, but the Islamic World Outlook depends on that gap. Man should not try to bridge that gap, to have union with God, but he must strive to get closer to God. The Muslim learns to recognize the gap. This is of the essence in Islam. Those who want to bridge the gap, and reach God, and have union with Him, are Pantheists. Islam is very much opposed to Pantheism.
......He addressed himself to the Mukalimun (Theologians) They served Islam by solving some problems, but really did not solve most problems.
......As for the Philosophers, he criticized them most severely. Firstly, they believed in eternity of the world, co-eternal with God ( They were believers but erred on certain points). Secondly they made God very distant from man. Thirdly they believed in a world controlled by cause and effect. He refuted these and other points in a book: Incoherence of the Philosophers.
The Cosmology of Al-Ghazali: man is here, God is there. In between is the world of norms, both ontological and psychological, Moral and axiological. In other words, it is not a an arid world, or abyss. It is a field. One can interact with god in that field. If man fulfills some of these norms, and man recognizes his separateness, he can get closer to God. There is a great role for mysticism. Not leading to unity with God, but simply spiritual exercises. The mind for Al-Ghazali is not , like for other philosophers, absolute. It can not be. Otherwise, whence would it derive its norms.
Causality: This is his real contribution to philosophy. Philosophers say: cause lead to effect. Al-Ghazali says : to follow after does not mean to follow from. He says : the power is not the cause. The power is God. God has imposed the pattern. The cause is God. Not like ‘natura naturans’ of Spinoza/ Descartes, they make this latent in nature. This is Pantheism. The patterning force in nature is eminent in it, but transcendental at the same time. This is the essence of Islamic Epistemology, which means: we can know nature but not completely because of the power that is there, both latent and transcendental. Unlike the modern Secular Concept, where you have to know nature completely, and you control it, and harness it to your service. Of course, since modern western man has failed, now you have Materialist Irrationalism, where they claim there is no causality at all. We go from absolute causality of the Cartesian or Hegelian variety, to the Post-modern denial of causality completely.
Ghazali's Islam assures us a level of certainty, enough to go along, but it does not promise us absolute certainty and absolute control of the universe.
MI: The other contribution of Al-Ghazali was the revival of the science of religion?
AWM: He wanted to define the sciences of religion and at the same time infuse spirit into them. The essence of Al-Ghazali’s Epistemology was this attempt to bring in the full complexity of man. With science there had to be emotion. The heart had to be operative, not just the mind. He then moved on to Miskat un Anwar (the mystical: the Niche of Light) where he talks about certain mystical exercises .
He also had educational books to fulfill the function of a well rounded, versatile philosopher: Educator, thinker, psychologist, mystic.
MI: What kind of following did he have?
AWM: I understand that Al-Ghazali dominated the Islamic world from that time on. There was opposition who rejected his view. Saying that it would subvert the mind completely. The Philosophers saw man in the form of polarity: it is either the heart or the mind. Whereas Al-Ghazali says man operated in a complex integrated duality. That is why he said there was a field and not a gap between man and God.
MI: How were the philosophers viewed or received by the ruling elite of the time.
AWM: There were ups and downs. For example : the Mu’tazilites or pure rationalist : if the ruler was of the same persuasion, they would be supported, if not they were persecuted.
Al-Ghazali: he had no problem, because he had ideas of order. He tried to harness the mystical impulse, which sometimes ran amok.
MI: Al-Ghazali as a jurist, what role did he play?
AWM: The same interplay of mind and heart. Between the attempt to apply the idea of law inspired by Divine Revelation. He did not believe in empirical law, but did not reject it. It is all encapsulated in Divine dictates.
MI: How was the world after Al-Ghazali?
AWM: The Mongol invasion of the Islamic world occurred, and then the Crusades. The Islamic World withdrew inwards. Al-Ghazali is sometimes blamed for this withdrawal. But it was a result of these historical forces which were much more powerful in determining the future developments.
[ Prof Abdel Wahab El Messeri is Professor Emeritus on English Literature, Ain Sham University, Cairo]
Sunday, August 16, 2009
A Thematic Commentary On The Qu'ran: Al Ikhlas [Purity of Faith ]
Friends,
....If you guys have not got your own copy of Shaykh Muhammad al Ghazali's seminal work, "A Thematic Commentary On The Quran" , yet, perhaps this short thematic commentary by him on Surah Al Ikhlas [ 112 : 1-4 ] could persuade you to grab yours from www.ibtbooks.com ...
GOD IS ONE. He is neither two or three. He has no spouse or offspring. He is Supreme and Omnipotent. The Qur'an tells us: " God says, 'Do not take two gods; He is the One God, so fear Me "[al-Nahl: 51] Elsewhere in the Qur'an, we read: "Do not say 'three gods.' Refrain from saying so for your own good. God is but One God; far too highly glorified is He to have a son" [al- Nisa: 171]
The principle of tawhid is the very soul of Islam. In comparision to God, as we come to know Him through the Qur'an, everything and everyone else is utterly powerless and helpless. The Qur'an abounds with strong arguments supporting this principle:
Never has God begotten a son, nor has there ever been any other god besides Him. Were the opposite to be true, each god would govern his own creation, and some would have overwhelmed others. Exalted be God above their falsehood. He knows the unknown as well as the manifest.[al-Mu'minun: 91-92]
Were there other gods in the heavens and earth besides God, both heavens and earth would have been ruined. None shall question Him regarding His works, but all else shall be questioned.[al-Anbiya: 22-23]
Advocates of the doctrine of Trinity believe in three coequal partners in the godhead, who are in fact one: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, existing in total harmony.
They also believe in the crucifixion of Jesus, which raises the question: who was actually crucified: one of the three or all three? If the three are one, and the 'one' was crucified, does that mean that God was out of existence for a time before He came back to the world? But if the Son only was crucified, how could he be 'God'?
People are, of course, free to believe what they wish to believe, and this surah, which is said to be equivalent to'one third' of the Qur'an, gives a most concise definition of the essence of Islamic belief. "Say, God is one.The Eternal God. He begot none, nor was He begotten. None is equal to Him."[112: 1-4] God is unique, and there is nothing that can be likened to Him. There is nothing that can be equal to Him. He could, therefore, have neither been a father nor a son. He is the Eternal to whom all creation refers and will return.
The very nature of the cosmic structure does not allow for multiple gods. It is nonsensical to believe that there is an independent god for the sun and another for the earth, or one for the animal kingdom and another for the plants, or one for the African continent and another for Europe. The cosmic order is an integrated whole, set up, designed, run, and controlled by a single self-sufficient power. This power regulates the operation of the human digestive system and the orbiting of planets and stars in the infinite universe. The plants grow out of the ground, the dawn breaks every day, and the sun and the moon move in their charted courses in accordance with His will.
Rational and sensible contemplation of these issues could only lead us to believe that there is only the one God, without a partner, the Sovereign, to Whom belongs all the praise, the All-Powerful and Omnipotent.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
An Idea Whose Time Has Come : Patrick J. Buchanan
An Idea Whose Time Has Come?
by Patrick J. Buchanan
In 1938, the year of Anschluss and Munich, a perceptive British Catholic looked beyond the continent over which war clouds hung and saw another cloud forming.
"It has always seemed to me … probable," wrote Hilaire Belloc, "that there would be a resurrection of Islam and that our sons or our grandsons would see the renewal of that tremendous struggle between the Christian culture and what has been for more than a thousand years its greatest opponent."
Belloc was prophetic. Even as Christianity seems to be dying in Europe, Islam is rising to shake the 21st century as it did so many previous centuries.
Indeed, as one watches U.S. armed forces struggle against Sunni insurgents, Shia militias, and jihadists in Iraq, and a resurgent Taliban, all invoking Allah, Victor Hugo's words return to mind: No army is so powerful as an idea whose time has come.
The idea for which our many of our adversaries fight is a compelling one. They believe there is but one God, Allah; that Muhammad is his prophet; that Islam, or submission to the Koran, is the only path to paradise; and that a Godly society should be governed according to the Shariah, the law of Islam. Having tried other ways and failed, they are coming home to Islam.
What idea do we have to offer? Americans believe that freedom comports with human dignity, that only a democratic and free-market system can ensure the good life for all, as it has done in the West and is doing in Asia.
From Ataturk on, millions of Islamic peoples have embraced this Western alternative. But today, tens of millions of Muslims appear to be rejecting it, returning to their roots in a more pure Islam.
Indeed, the endurance of the Islamic faith is astonishing.
Islam survived two centuries of defeats and humiliations of the Ottoman Empire and Ataturk's abolition of the caliphate. It endured generations of Western rule. It outlasted the pro-Western monarchs in Egypt, Iraq, Libya, Ethiopia and Iran. Islam easily fended off communism, survived the rout of Nasserism in 1967, and has proven more enduring than the nationalism of Arafat or Saddam. Now, it is resisting the world's last superpower.
What occasioned this column was a jolting report in the June 20Washington Times, by James Brandon, alerting us to a new front.
"Arrests Spark Fear of Armed Islamist Takeover" headlined the story about the arrest, since May, of 500 militants who had allegedly plotted the overthrow of the king of Morocco and establishment of an Islamic state that would sever all ties to the infidel West – to end the poverty and corruption they blame on the West.
The arrests raised fears that al-Adl wa al-Ihsane, or Justice and Charity, was preparing to take up arms to fulfill the predictions of the group's mystics that the monarchy would fall in 2006. Though illegal, al-Adl wa al-Ihsane is Morocco's largest Islamic movement, which boycotts elections, but has hundreds of thousands of followers and has taken over the universities and is radicalizing the young.
Its founder is Sheik Abdessalam Yassine, who has declared its purpose is to reunite mosque and state: "Politics and spirituality have been kept apart by the Arab elites. And we have been able to reconnect these two aspects of Islam – and that is why people fear us."
And, one might add, why people embrace them.
If Morocco is now in play in the struggle between militant Islam and the West, how looks the correlation of forces in June 2006?
Islamists are taking over in Somalia. They are in power in Sudan. The Muslim Brotherhood won 60 percent of the races it contested in Egypt. Hezbollah swept the board in southern Lebanon. Hamas seized power from Fatah on the West Bank and Gaza. The Shia parties who hearken to Ayatollah Sistani brushed aside our favorites, Chalabi and Iyad Allawi, in the Iraqi elections. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is the most admired Iranian leader since Khomeini. In Afghanistan, the Taliban is staging a comeback.
This has all happened in the last year. And where are we winning?
What is the appeal of militant Islam? It is, first, its message: As all else has failed us, why not live the faith and law God gave us?
Second, it is the Muslim rage at the present condition where pro-Western regimes are seen as corruptly enriching themselves, while the poor suffer.
Third, it is a vast U.S. presence that Islamic peoples are taught is designed to steal their God-given resources and assist the Israelis in humiliating them and persecuting the Palestinians.
Lastly, Islamic militants are gaining credibility because they show a willingness to share the poverty of the poor and fight the Americans.
What America needs to understand is something unusual for us: From Morocco to Pakistan, we are no longer seen by the majority as the good guys.
If Islamic rule is an idea taking hold among the Islamic masses, how does even the best army on earth stop it? Do we not need a new policy?
"It has always seemed to me … probable," wrote Hilaire Belloc, "that there would be a resurrection of Islam and that our sons or our grandsons would see the renewal of that tremendous struggle between the Christian culture and what has been for more than a thousand years its greatest opponent."
Belloc was prophetic. Even as Christianity seems to be dying in Europe, Islam is rising to shake the 21st century as it did so many previous centuries.
Indeed, as one watches U.S. armed forces struggle against Sunni insurgents, Shia militias, and jihadists in Iraq, and a resurgent Taliban, all invoking Allah, Victor Hugo's words return to mind: No army is so powerful as an idea whose time has come.
The idea for which our many of our adversaries fight is a compelling one. They believe there is but one God, Allah; that Muhammad is his prophet; that Islam, or submission to the Koran, is the only path to paradise; and that a Godly society should be governed according to the Shariah, the law of Islam. Having tried other ways and failed, they are coming home to Islam.
What idea do we have to offer? Americans believe that freedom comports with human dignity, that only a democratic and free-market system can ensure the good life for all, as it has done in the West and is doing in Asia.
From Ataturk on, millions of Islamic peoples have embraced this Western alternative. But today, tens of millions of Muslims appear to be rejecting it, returning to their roots in a more pure Islam.
Indeed, the endurance of the Islamic faith is astonishing.
Islam survived two centuries of defeats and humiliations of the Ottoman Empire and Ataturk's abolition of the caliphate. It endured generations of Western rule. It outlasted the pro-Western monarchs in Egypt, Iraq, Libya, Ethiopia and Iran. Islam easily fended off communism, survived the rout of Nasserism in 1967, and has proven more enduring than the nationalism of Arafat or Saddam. Now, it is resisting the world's last superpower.
What occasioned this column was a jolting report in the June 20Washington Times, by James Brandon, alerting us to a new front.
"Arrests Spark Fear of Armed Islamist Takeover" headlined the story about the arrest, since May, of 500 militants who had allegedly plotted the overthrow of the king of Morocco and establishment of an Islamic state that would sever all ties to the infidel West – to end the poverty and corruption they blame on the West.
The arrests raised fears that al-Adl wa al-Ihsane, or Justice and Charity, was preparing to take up arms to fulfill the predictions of the group's mystics that the monarchy would fall in 2006. Though illegal, al-Adl wa al-Ihsane is Morocco's largest Islamic movement, which boycotts elections, but has hundreds of thousands of followers and has taken over the universities and is radicalizing the young.
Its founder is Sheik Abdessalam Yassine, who has declared its purpose is to reunite mosque and state: "Politics and spirituality have been kept apart by the Arab elites. And we have been able to reconnect these two aspects of Islam – and that is why people fear us."
And, one might add, why people embrace them.
If Morocco is now in play in the struggle between militant Islam and the West, how looks the correlation of forces in June 2006?
Islamists are taking over in Somalia. They are in power in Sudan. The Muslim Brotherhood won 60 percent of the races it contested in Egypt. Hezbollah swept the board in southern Lebanon. Hamas seized power from Fatah on the West Bank and Gaza. The Shia parties who hearken to Ayatollah Sistani brushed aside our favorites, Chalabi and Iyad Allawi, in the Iraqi elections. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is the most admired Iranian leader since Khomeini. In Afghanistan, the Taliban is staging a comeback.
This has all happened in the last year. And where are we winning?
What is the appeal of militant Islam? It is, first, its message: As all else has failed us, why not live the faith and law God gave us?
Second, it is the Muslim rage at the present condition where pro-Western regimes are seen as corruptly enriching themselves, while the poor suffer.
Third, it is a vast U.S. presence that Islamic peoples are taught is designed to steal their God-given resources and assist the Israelis in humiliating them and persecuting the Palestinians.
Lastly, Islamic militants are gaining credibility because they show a willingness to share the poverty of the poor and fight the Americans.
What America needs to understand is something unusual for us: From Morocco to Pakistan, we are no longer seen by the majority as the good guys.
If Islamic rule is an idea taking hold among the Islamic masses, how does even the best army on earth stop it? Do we not need a new policy?
On The Other Side Of The Coin..........Dr Nik's rebuttal:
Pat ,
I am very tempted to chip in and go straight for the jugular and say that ' that clash of civilisation need not be' if Obama [ let us forget that chap Bush Junior who cannot be one of the brightest US President you guys have ever had ! ] wakes up in the middle of some of his nights and listen carefully to the lilting and haunting rendition of The Glorious Qu'ran by qari Abdul-Baasit and ,yes, go through the old English transliteration by Picthal. Listen to Surah Maryam [ Divine letter 19 : 1-98 ] for instance. Forget about what the likes of John Esposito and his misguided orientalist friends had to say and advice for a moment.
[ http://www.quranexplorer.com/ ].......see Link
But then Obama is a 'murtad' so how can he ever has the spirit or the generosity to see things through the prism of a Muslim pacifist. The West psyche is all about political, cultural and ideological subjugation, and economic plunder, and 'our ways are holier than thou' and thus we have the divine duty to liberate you guys approach....for centuries. It is now so deeply ingrained in the Western genes,to the point some of our thinkers think, that the rest of the world has to think and live like you do, otherwise they are just considered as some'yellow' or coloured 'bastards', non entities and non human, that can be dispensed with, just like your cats and dogs. Probably your cats and dogs get treated more humanely than these 'Muslim non entities. We see that everywhere: Lebanon, forget about Palestine they are no longer humans, Iraq ,Afghanistan, those simple folks in Northern Pakistan who for decades have been living under Syariah until recently you guys decided they should be part of the equation in your now ' infamous war agianst terror' [ whatever it mean] , Sudan, Somalia, just to name a few.. Please do not come to this part of the world we do not need your 'dirty hands' meddling in our affairs. We are enjoying our peaceful coexistence with ourselves and neighbours.
Let me put it in simple terms that you guys can understand. World peace is about Fairness and Justice, whatever colour ,language or religious or non religious persuasions you happened to be. The 1.4 billion Muslims all across the globe do not give a hoot whether Sarkozy, Obama or Blair become Muslim tomorrow, or remain , in our opinion, 'spiritially confused souls', because we believe that are their own funerals, both figuratively and literally. The Muslim rulers in 7th century Spain thought so as well because, unlike you guys we lived by this principle : "Say: Disbelievers ! I do not worship what you worship nor do you worship what I worship. I shall never worship what you worship. You have your own religion and I have mine " [Surah al-kafirun, 109 ]. Your 'religious persuasions' are your divine right.
But we care that world Super Powers in a position to impose, exercise due care to insist on justice and fairness in this planet of ours. You guys can burn the Qur'an tomorrow if you like, you can even 'fornicate' openly in the park if that is your choice, and that is not our concern, you can remain God-less untill Doomsday, that are your indomitable rights! We do not question your rights to free expression.
But history has taught us over centuries that you guys are bad news.Very bad news. When Muslims brought light ,science and civility to Europe through Islamic Spain in the Middle Ages, you guys gave the world it's first inquisition, a hundred years later after Cordoba. And for centuries that followed: slavery, plunder and outright massacres and total subjugation of Muslim populations in the Middle East and the Far East and wherever they were. Your guys even want to determine how we think.
Well you may say that was history. But is now any better?
Palestinians being hunted like dogs in their homeland, the long arm of Uncle Sam destabilizing Muslim countries in North Africa, Central Asia and everywhere there are huge reservoirs of the black gold and etc etc and etc, supporting 'puppet governments here and there and suppresing and not recognising popular elected administrations elsewhere.The mind boggling CIA games in Pakistan to finally subjugate a sovereign nation in order to' denuclearize' it, the 'pariah'rizsation and 'talibanization of anything Islamic the world over. What games are you guys playing in cohort with the impotent United Nations and the blank cheques of the Western and Zionist controlled Security Council?
How can millions of pacifist like me counter intellectuals like Osama Ben Laden, Ayman aL Zawathir, Dr Azahari et al who would continue to inspire and motivate thousands of 'jihadists' ,that indeed, the West really had not declared war on Islam years ago and now,when all across the globe Muslims had suffered direct and 'collateral damage' by the millions. Countless lives lost,and endless misery and a sense of hopelessness, depravation and injustice.
Don't you think Pat that it is high time people like Obama and Sarkozy address the bigger issue of justice and fairness on this increasingly small planet of ours. Your young men in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere in the globe can go home and see their parents, enjoy their young and productive lives rather than being shot at and maimed, if people like Obama can look beyond the narrow confine of nationalism and bigotry, into the realm of justice and fairness! We are confident he can if he tries hard enough and allow himself to listen to his very soul and conscience!
You guys have no choice. Who is imbecile enough to fight against 1.4 billion Muslims? That chap we believe who thought so, hopefully, is fully retired somewhere on his farm in Texas enjoying his beer!
Obama has to start afresh and give this world of ours, a new hope: Justice and fairness for all.
To paraphrase Robert Fisk, the celebrated English journalist, who is any time better and more sincere than all your BBC and CNN journalists all added up together, we Muslims wanted freedom from 'you guys'. Please leave us, and our lands, in peace.Islam is an idea whose time has come, not even the might of all the West can beat what is jutting out increasingly like a sore thumb now: The Absolute Truth.
The [faithful] slaves of the Beneficient are they who walk upon the earth modestly, and when the foolish ones address them answer: Peace.[63] And who spend the night before their Lord, prostrate and standing;[64] And who say: Our Lord! Avert from us the doom of hell; Lo! the doom thereof is anguish;[65] Lo! it is wretched as abode and station;[66] And those who, when they spend, are neither prodigal nor grudging; and there is ever a firm station between the two.[67]........[Surah al-Furqan, 25 : 63-67 ]
Dr Nik Howk
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Surah Al-Anaam [ 6 : 56-61 ]
And with Him are the keys of the Invisible. None but He knoweth them. And He knoweth what is in the land and the sea. Not a leaf falleth but He knoweth it, not a grain amid the darkness of the earth, naught of wet or dry but [it is noted] in a clear record.[59] He it is Who gathereth you at night and knoweth that which you commit by day. Then He raiseth you again to life therein, that the term appointed [for you] may be accomplished. And afterward unto Him is your return. Then He proclaim unto you what ye used to do.[60] He is theOmnipotent over His slaves. He sendeth guardians over you until, when death cometh unto one of you, Our messengers[angels] receive him, and they neglect not.[61]
Very succinct, clear and precise. These ayats from Surah Al-Anaam, 165 of them, all given to Muhammad, in the early Mekkan days, at one sitting, according to most muffasirun. Early days of fledgling Islam, when only the poor, the dissaffected and the displaced were attracted, while the rest of 'corporate' Mekkah [including his uncles] stood back in disdain while not a few, adopted a hostile stance. Status quo, 1400 years ago, as of now, seemed more important than the salvation of one's soul itself.
God gave us two "Qur'ans". The official one via His messenger Muhammad, while the second , open for all of us to contemplate.Of course to the 'purists' from amongst us, not two 'Quran' but rather two 'Ayats', Ayat Quraaniyah and Ayat Qauniyah as exemplified by Al Baqarah , 2 : 164 below.
Lo ! In the creation of the heavens and the earth, and the difference of night and day, and the ships which run upon the sea with that which is of use to man, and the water which Allah sendeth from the sky, thereby reviving the earth after its death, and dispersing all kind of beasts therein and in the ordinance of the winds and the clouds obedient between heaven and earth: are signs of Allah's sovereignty for people who have sense.[Al-Baqarah, 2 : 164 ]
Ponder some of us did. Einstein came up with his famous formullae[ e=mc squared ] and that is the nearest one could ever get to putting into equation the 'invisible and the visible'. But did he get to see God there. No !Sadly , like many of us, he missed the trunk and was lost in the branches,twigs and the leaves!
Dr Nik Howk
Related topics:
Surah Abasa [ 80 : 40-42 ], Wednesday May 14th 2008...'Religion/Philosophy'
The Big Bang and a Century of Science[ Part 2 ]: The True Nature of Reality..June 24th 2009,...'Personalities'
Very succinct, clear and precise. These ayats from Surah Al-Anaam, 165 of them, all given to Muhammad, in the early Mekkan days, at one sitting, according to most muffasirun. Early days of fledgling Islam, when only the poor, the dissaffected and the displaced were attracted, while the rest of 'corporate' Mekkah [including his uncles] stood back in disdain while not a few, adopted a hostile stance. Status quo, 1400 years ago, as of now, seemed more important than the salvation of one's soul itself.
God gave us two "Qur'ans". The official one via His messenger Muhammad, while the second , open for all of us to contemplate.Of course to the 'purists' from amongst us, not two 'Quran' but rather two 'Ayats', Ayat Quraaniyah and Ayat Qauniyah as exemplified by Al Baqarah , 2 : 164 below.
Lo ! In the creation of the heavens and the earth, and the difference of night and day, and the ships which run upon the sea with that which is of use to man, and the water which Allah sendeth from the sky, thereby reviving the earth after its death, and dispersing all kind of beasts therein and in the ordinance of the winds and the clouds obedient between heaven and earth: are signs of Allah's sovereignty for people who have sense.[Al-Baqarah, 2 : 164 ]
Ponder some of us did. Einstein came up with his famous formullae[ e=mc squared ] and that is the nearest one could ever get to putting into equation the 'invisible and the visible'. But did he get to see God there. No !Sadly , like many of us, he missed the trunk and was lost in the branches,twigs and the leaves!
Dr Nik Howk
Related topics:
Surah Abasa [ 80 : 40-42 ], Wednesday May 14th 2008...'Religion/Philosophy'
The Big Bang and a Century of Science[ Part 2 ]: The True Nature of Reality..June 24th 2009,...'Personalities'
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