Owner: irshaad.net URL:http://www.irshaad.net/ Join Date: Fri, 30 Mar 2007 14:16:29 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: Looking at Islam from inside Islam. Site statistics:Click here
Like palm fronds in a shifting breeze 2007-05-03 15:12:30 Those whose actions arise from truly profound readings of the Qur’an are in every age in the minority. Those who play at politics or play with ideological interpretations of religion are in vast abundance. In between are many who stand confused - without firm knowledge we are sometimes swayed this way, sometimes that - waving [...]
Tongues of God, the Prophets 2007-05-02 15:17:28 They were the tongues of God…speaking, through their actions, His words.
Here is the path of approach, here the markers, the signposts, here the guide - so strive - we came to lead you to the goal, not to ourselves - wipe the sweat of effort from your eyes and follow the ascending way - this [...] Read more:Tongues
The human representation of the writing of the Divine pen 2007-05-06 16:11:32 Symbols, texts, iconic personages, and rituals are the architecture, the geometry, the symbolic worldly aspect, the formalized representation of metaphysical realities and of the human
connection to these realities. For Muslims, the Prophet is the human representation of the writing
of the Divine
pen. He is the one on whose heart God wrote His revelation [...]
Travel - a visit to the qutub minar 2007-05-05 15:12:13 I have vague childhood memories of visit
ing the Qutub minar in Delhi at a very young age. I remember a long and claustrophobic climb up steep curving stone steps and a dizzying view from a high and windy balcony. It is no longer open for climbing - a truly terrible 1979 incident in which a [...] Read more:Travel
it becomes his qiblah… 2007-05-09 14:47:38 “Man is compounded of form and meaning, of satanic and divine; every instant the houris of paradise and the devils of hell show their faces from his inward reality, so that it may be seen which vein and which attribute dominate over him. His desire takes him to that form with which he has [...] Read more:hellip
Islam 101 - argument by definition 2007-05-08 14:50:06 Here is Mutahhari’s condensed presentation of the “argument from attributes” - the definition of Divinity and its properties leads to recognition of the necessity for God’s unity and uniqueness and the impossibility of multiple divinities. I’ve edited it down to a few lines - the full text can be found in “Fundamentals of Islam
ic Thought“.
From [...]
Islam 101 - necessary being 2007-05-07 14:53:26 I was recently re-reading my heavily underlined and dog-eared copy of Murtaza Mutahhari’s excellent “Fundamentals of Islam
ic Thought: God, Man, and the Universe” (a book which should be more widely used as a fundamental primer text on Islam) and thought I ‘d post a few bits and pieces taken from its contents. This particular section [...]
jump free of your own embrace 2007-05-11 15:01:18 “As long as you cannot jump free of your own embrace
Your worship is bound to a temple of devilish idols…
Do not trade on (a show of) piety - the coin is debased.
How long will you stand dry - lipped on the shore of desire?
Hurl yourself - now! - into the infinite sea….
And behold the secret [...]
Islam 101 - science and faith 2007-05-10 14:49:53 Again, a condensed excerpt from Murtaza Mutahhari’s “Fundamentals of Islam
ic Thought: God, Man, and the universe”. This is taken from the section on science and faith:
“Does our science carry us in one direction and faith in another? Or do science and faith fulfill and complement one another?…. Science shows what is; faith inspires insight into [...]
the intoxication of self existence 2007-05-14 15:11:54 “Lying in ambush, the intoxication of self existence has waylaid a hundred thousand prior generations. Through it a servant like Azazil became Iblis (Satan), saying, “Why should Adam be lord over me?”….All ears and eyes are shut, except for the eyes and ears of those who have escaped from themselves.”
(Rumi - Mathnavi, tr. by William [...]
He named man ‘insan’ 2007-05-13 16:09:36 “He named
man ‘insan’ (from the Arabic word…whose root implies intimacy and friendship) because of the possibility of intimacy between him and the rest of creation. He also placed within him…an inner reality and an outward form which… enables him to act in both the earthly and spiritual worlds. His inner reality is the Greater [...] Read more:lsquo
illuminate the clay 2007-05-12 15:07:20 “He connected the body to dark clay and the spirit to the breath of His own Spirit, so that the light and divine Breath would make the dark clay its instrument for… guarding God’s Trust; so that it might be a means of …elevation, and high degrees. The purpose was not that the dark clay, [...]
The means by which we see 2007-05-17 15:26:33 We can witness the light of the sun only by means of the light of the sun…. so God says, “When My servant draws near to me, I become the means by which he sees….” (Sayyid Haydar Amuli)
For every one of you, a path 2007-05-16 14:50:22 “…there has never been any dispute amongst the prophets and messengers with regard to the foundations and pillars of religion, then one should realize too that if differences do occur in the details and branches of the law, then these differences are of quality or quantity and do not indicate any difference in the essence [...] Read more:every
Do not abandon what is easy…. 2007-05-15 15:29:46 “Even if one does not attain everything, one does not abandon everything….Do not abandon what is easy because you have not been able to achieve what is difficult.” (Ali ibn Abu Talib) Read more:hellip
in the darknesses of the land and sea 2007-05-20 15:14:18 All truths in this world are partial truths since as limited beings we are (through our limitations) restricted to seeing things from one perspective or the other. We have trouble reconciling opposites and differences since our perspective is limited by the ever-present reality of our many limitations. Total illumination in which there is no error [...]
a guard and a guide 2007-05-19 15:07:43 “And Who regulates the affairs (the systems)? Then they will say: Allah. Say then: Will you not then guard (against evil)?” (Qur’an 10:31)
This verse is a statement of man’s limitations and God’s absolute encompassing of all affairs. He encompasses man’s faculties – they exist only through what God has created – they operate only through [...]
Divine attractors…Divine authorities 2007-05-18 16:00:04 “Say…Who encompasses the hearing and the sight?…” (Qur’an 10:31)
Man rises to knowledge only through the faculties given to him by God, that is, the various senses, the ability to think and reason, and the potential for subtle and deep insight. Even the ability for these senses, such as the sense of sight, to function, is [...] Read more:Divine
, hellip
, authorities
The template of their fiction 2007-05-23 08:49:06 When there is no connecting thread that ties information together the way is opened for someone to overlay a story (a way of viewing the information) onto events and in this way to color and shape perceptions. Rather than looking for patterns which naturally emerge from events and which best explains all the information, a [...] Read more:template
One glance 2007-05-22 09:05:21 “A single attraction from God outbalances all the efforts of men and jinn” (Prophetic hadith)
One glance
….
On a straight path 2007-05-21 08:42:07 “I put my trust in God, My Lord and your Lord! There is not a moving creature, but He has grasp of its forelock. Verily, it is my Lord that is on a straight Path.” (Qur’an 11:56)
There is no one that God has not taken by the forelock. The forelock was sometimes used as an [...]
their labor is lost…. 2007-05-26 08:33:38 Their energy and effort, their time and the bulk of their thought, inventiveness, and mental energy goes towards their worldly pursuits. That is the portion of their life they act upon with utmost seriousness (as it is the (apparent) source of their wealth and influence) - they allow its fluctuations, its ups and downs to [...] Read more:labor
, hellip
Our knowledge 2007-05-25 08:07:21 Our knowledge creates the patterns which delineate our actions and reactions - it becomes the filter through which we accept, reject, and judge - it becomes the lens through which we view the world and through which we project our own image upon the world. We are demarcated and circumscribed by it. So the types [...]
Reinforcing the inner with the outer 2007-05-24 07:50:22 It’s important to follow up an inner decision by some positive concrete action to cement and reinforce the inner by the outer. Often this only happens in a negative manner - we grow angry and make a negative inner determination and then don’t hesitate to follow this up by words of anger or actions demonstrating [...]
dispense mercy 2007-05-30 00:34:02 “The dispensing of mercy
brings down divine mercy….I am astounded by the person who hopes for mercy from One above him, while he is not merciful to those beneath him.” (hadith qudsi)
facing outwards 2007-05-29 08:24:46 We cannot be fully human if we touch upon our humanity when looking inward (to our own peoples) but place it aside when we turn to face outwards.
Who answers the distressed 2007-05-28 08:27:29 The Qur’an places the responsibility and moral burden of sadaqa (and of compassion towards those who suffer) upon individual Muslims - it makes each of us responsible for acting to relieve the suffering of those in difficulty. This is perhaps because it does not want to transfer such duties entirely to institutions, to lock it [...] Read more:answers
Look deeply 2007-05-27 11:15:18 “Use the intellect that examines, that penetrates into matters…and not just the intellect that repeats what it hears, for surely there are many that repeat the knowledge that they hear, and there are precious few who examine it deeply.” (Imam Ali - Nahjul Balagha)
key to ignorance 2007-06-01 07:54:43 Any turning away from something also involves a turning towards something else. In the hadith describing the creation of aql (divinely connected intellect) and ignorance
, God commands the aql and it responds by turning towards Him, He then commands ignorance and it turns away from Him. So any turning away or any arrogance towards His [...]
embark on the road 2007-05-31 08:04:26 Many follow religion as a formula, a series of ceremonies that have been handed down to them and which are followed without full depth of understanding. There is comfort (and a benefit) in performing rituals but the goal of a ritual is not the ritual itself. Ceremonies and rituals are symbols, they are indicators, or [...]
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