The Gothic interior of Florence Cathedral is vast and gives an empty impression. The relative bareness of the church corresponds with the austerity of religious life, as preached by Girolamo Savonarola. In the unfinished treatise he left behind, later called “De contemptu mundi,” or “On Contempt for the World,” he calls upon readers to fly from this world of adultery, sodomy, murder and envy. Savonarola and two of his supporting friars were imprisoned. On 23 May 1498, Church and civil authorities condemned, hanged, and burned the three friars in the main square of Florence. Ishmaelite Prophetic descendant Imam Jafar As-Sadiq(as) interprets Quran 26:89 to mean that the only thing that will benefit in the next life is a clean heart which is not corrupted by love of the world. Most of his biographers reject or ignore the account of his younger brother and follower, Maurelio (later fra Mauro), that in his youth Girolamo had been spurned by a neighbour, Laudomia Strozzi, to whom he proposed marriage.
Author: ishmaelabraham
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Diophantus’ Arithemtica at the shrine of Imam Ali Al Ridha(as)
In 1968, Sezgin found four previously unknown books of Diophantus’ Arithmetica at the shrine of Imam Rezā in the holy Islamic city of Mashad in northeastern Iran. -
Advice to an American secularist regarding synthesis of civilizations
I think US is comparatively better than Middle East. For example, due to laws made by Bush as known as ideological exclusion act Tariq Ramadan could not enter US. But activists like you helped him enter US and then he had a dialogue with Hitchens. In the Middle East people get executed simply for supporting democratic brotherhood due to Israeli pressure. You once told me that my optimism and activism will not bear fruits until I die but you are my fruit and I am your fruit. Your open mindedness makes me hopeful about synthesis of civilizations through dialogue. They promote clash of civilizations. They cannot kill truthful ideas. Our ideas will inspire future generations and finally the humanity will wake up. We should work on developing intercultural ideas. For example I am working on promoting science and psychology in the traditional world. You can explore Middle eastern ideas which resonate with you and promote them in the modern world. In this way, we overcome xenophobia and war cannot work when xenophobia is gone. When people start to see foreigners as humans like them, imperialist propaganda cannot work anymore. Even if one candle is alive darkness cannot prevail and if that candle lights at least one another candle before dying the cycle will continue. -
Bridges TV, Ali A. Rizvi, musician Zameer, bullying of American extremists and Islam
I was introduced to Bridges TV by a Christian extremist who said Islam motivated the murder of wife by the CEO of Bridges TV. He neither prayed nor fasted. Her wife was more conscious about her identity than him because she was the one who insisted to launch the TV so that her children grow up as self-confident Muslims the self-confidence of American Muslims is shattered by perpetual bullying of Christian and secular extremists because Islam causes existential anxiety to both identities. As far as the music is concerned, once a jurist(qadi) of Madina was asked why do you accept the testimony of musicians/music listeners in religious courts? So he said: May God forgive us and you, which one of us does not sing (ayyuna la yataghanna). -
My perspective on Knietzsche
The most stupid Christians are spiritually more enlightened than the smartest arrogant atheists.Jason Douglas Holford IDK. Nietzsche, whom most people describe as an athiest, seems way more spiritually enlighted than most Christians I’ve met.“The most spiritual men, as the strongest, find their happiness where others would find their destruction: in the labyrinth, in hardness against themselves and others, in experiments. Their joy is self-conquest: asceticism becomes in them nature, need, and instinct. Difficult tasks are a privilege to them; to play with burdens that crush others, a recreation. Knowledge-a form of asceticism. They are the most venerable kind of man: that does not preclude their being the most cheerful and the kindliest.”Friedrich NietzscheIshmael Abraham The problem with secular ideologies and pseudo-religions is that they fail to be consistent. For example, he uses the words happiness and knowledge here, but he advocated nihilism, meaninglessness and hopelessness as well. If by saying that God is deadhe meant Christianity is dead because he was the most familiar with this religion he was truthful because Islam also predicts the fall of all pseudo-religions including the secular ideologies, but if he was certain ( which nihilists are not) that God the Creator doesn’t exist then he was an apostate and spiritually dead from Islamic perspective. But I also know he admired Islam and he criticized Church for keeping West in xenophobic ignorance towards Islam. If he met a Muslim scholar like Imam Al-Ghazali(ra) or Ibn Rushd(ra) who was genetically European like him he could possibly die a Muslim. The idea expressed in this quote is similar to Sufi idea to achieving enlightenment through not doing what you like and doing what you do not like which according to Sufis is achieved through keeping the commandments. The word for that concept is called mujahadah(struggle). God says in Quran: Those who struggle(mujahadah) in Us, We will show them our paths. Sufis prefer righteous actions for true enlightenment to eloquent words and they also adopt intellectual humility in order to reach out to masses and shun the temptation of artificial verbosity. -
The relationship of Muslim scholars and money
Muslim scholars do not receive any taxes. In fact they are the poorest and the most altruistic volunteers in the worldDonna Smith Islam was spread using taxation of non Muslims as a coercion to become Muslim. You did not understand what I said.Ishmael Abraham That freedom and protection tax was nominal and it’s purpose was to exempt non-Muslims from military service. Muslims in West pay taxes to Godless government which are even spent on killing Muslims. So, at least try to know what you hate rather than your blind xenophobic ignorance. That’s why Christians of Spain used to say: Thank heaven for 711 when Muslims conquered it and established peace, justice and freedom of religion. -
Merriam-Webster:What made you want to look up hoard?
What made you want to look up hoard? Please tell us where you read or heard it (including the quote, if possible).
Quran 10:57-58 Tafsir Jalalayn O MANKIND there has come to you an admonition from your Lord, a Book which contains [mention] of that which is [permissible] for you and that which is enjoined on you, and this [Book] is the Qur’ān; and a healing, a cure, for what is in the breasts, of corrupt beliefs and uncertainties, and a guidance, from error, and a mercy for those who believe, in it. Say: “In the bounty of God [that is] Islam, and in His mercy, the Qur’ān, in that, bounty and mercy, then, let them rejoice: it is better than all [the worldly wealth] that they hoard. altafsir.com -
A response to Krauss: Quran does not teach that earth is 6000 years old
Transcript — It amazes me that people have pre-existing notions that defy the evidence of reality. But that they hold onto them so dearly. And one of them is the notion of creationism, or. in fact, Senator Marco Rubio, who’s presumably a reasonably intelligent man and maybe even educated, was asked what’s the age of the Earth, and ultimately, either because he actually believed it or he was trying to appeal to some constituency, had to argue that it’s a big mystery, that somehow we should teach kids both ideas, that the Earth is 6,000 years old and that it’s 4.55 billion years old, which is what it is.If you think about that, somehow saying that, well, anything goes, we shouldn’t offend religious beliefs by requiring kids to know – to understand reality; that’s child abuse. And if you think about it, teaching kids – or allowing the notion that the earth is 6,000 years old to be promulgated in schools is like teaching kids that the distance across the United States is 17 feet. That’s how big an error it is.Now you might say, look, a lot of people believe that, so don’t we owe it to them to allow their views to be present in school? Well, as I’ve often said, the purpose of education is not to validate ignorance but to overcome it. Fifty percent of the people in the United States, when we probe them each year with the National Science Foundation, think that the sun goes around the Earth, not that the Earth goes around the sun. When we asked the question – we provide the question: The Earth goes around the sun and takes a year to do it; true or false? Almost every year, 50 percent of the people get that wrong.Now, does that mean in schools we should allow the anti-Galilean and Copernican idea that the sun goes around the Earth to be taught? Absolutely not. If, in fact, the very fact that people don’t know that, and the very fact that enough people are willing to somehow believe that Earth is 6,000 years old, means we have to do a better job of teaching physics and biology, not a worse job.The last thing we want to do is water down the teaching of biology because some people don’t recognize that evolution happened. Evolution is the basis of modern biology and, in fact, if a lot of people don’t believe it, it only means we have to do a better job teaching it. So once again, I repeat, the purpose of education is not to validate ignorance, but to overcome it. And to overcome a situation where a United States Senator can speak such manifest nonsense with impunity is vitally important to the healthy future of our society.Technology and biotechnology will be the basis of our economic future. And if we allow nonsense to be promulgated in the schools, we do a disservice to our students, a disservice to our children, and we’re guaranteeing that they will fall behind in a competitive world that depends upon a skilled workforce able to understand and manipulate technology and science.]The Islamic response: Quran does not teach that. According to Quran, the word yawm means an age or era or epoch, which means universe underwent different phases during its creation. For example, Quran says a day can be 1000 years long or 50,000 years long so it is a relative concept which varies according to the context. For example the word ayyam is translated as vicissitudes in Quran 3:140 {Tafsir Ibn Abbas: (These are (only) the vicissitudes) the days of the life of this world (which We cause to follow one another for mankind) sometimes the believers have the upper hand over the unbelievers and sometimes it is the unbelievers who have the upper hand over the believers} altafsir.comThe idea that abandoning religion will lead to economic prosperity is also wrong and spiritually self-destructive and is called istidraj(imperceptible destruction) in Quran. Quran 6:44 { Tafsir Ibn Abbas (Then, when they forgot that whereof they had been reminded) when they turned their backs on that which they had been commanded with in the Scripture, (We opened unto them the gates of all things) (till, even as they were rejoicing in that which they were given) (We seized them unawares) with punishment, (and lo! they were dumbfounded) despairing of any good. } -
Did Prophet Muhammad peace and blessings be upon him use to laugh?
Although Hadith discourages excessive laughing like worldly people, but modest laughing is a blessed Sunnah.Ishmael Abraham “The Messenger of Allah said: ‘Allah laughs at the despair of His slaves although He soon changes it.’ I said: ‘O Messenger of Allah, does the Lord laugh?’ He said: ‘Yes.’ I said: ‘We shall never be deprived of good by a Lord Who laughs.’”Ishmael Abraham Narrated Jarir bin ‘Abdullah:“The Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) never screened me ( meaning forbade my entry in his presence) since I accepted Islam, nor did he look at me except that he laughed.”Ishmael Abraham He was asked: At what did you laugh? He replied: I saw the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) do as I have done, and laugh after that. I asked: Messenger of Allah , at what are you laughing? He replied: Your Lord, Most High, is pleased with His servant when he says: “Forgive me my sins.” He know that no one forgives sins except Him.Ishmael Abraham All of a sudden the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) who had come up behind caught me by the back of the neck, and when I looked at him he was laughing. He said: Go where I ordered you, little Anas. I replied: Yes, I am going, Apostle of Allah! Anas said: I swear by Allah, I served him for seven or nine years, and he never said to me about a thing which I had done: Why did you do such and such? Nor about a thing which I left: why did not do such and such?Ishmael Abraham When all laughed for something, he would laugh too.So, we should not excessively laugh at pornographic, blasphemous, backbiting and untruthful jokes like worldly people but we should revive the blessed practice of modest laughing. -
God praises those who restrain their anger in Quran 3:134
That’s why Quran tells the enemies of truth to die in their anger. And we will be punished for anger if we commit forbidden acts due to it.Scott Ladoucier Anger is a natural human emotion. You cannot control whether you become angry. Only how you act it out.I’m a lot smarter than the writers of the Koran. You should worship me.Ishmael Abraham That’s why Quran 3:134 does not deny it nor forbids feeling it but urges us to restrain and control it and not to commit a forbidden act due to that. A person who restrains his anger is called Kadhim in Islam. Imam Musa Al-Kadhim(ra) from Prophetic progeny was famous for his self-restraint towards his haters and cursers.Ishmael Abraham He was called al-Kazim meaning, one who holds his temper and controls his anger, because he used to face all persecution and harm with tolerance and even with being good and charitable to those who mistreated him.The Imam(ra) was known for his tolerance, prudence, the spirit of forgiveness and a tight control of his temper, even against those who hurt him. He was like his grandfather, the Messenger (p.), of great morals. He had a soft heart and a soft tongue; he was a role model in his ethics just as he was a model for others in belief.As-Sheik Al-Mufeid narrated that there was a man in Medina who used to curse the Imam, and distort his image, to the extent that the companions of the Imam asked for permission to kill him, but the Imam used to forbid them from hurting him. Then one day the Imam(ra) went to the man’s garden. When the man saw him, he said: Do not step on my plants, for he was so hateful that he did not even have the courtesy of welcoming him. The Imam continued to move towards him. And when he reached the man the Imam asked him: How much did you pay for your plants, and how much do you expect to gain? Adding the two sums together the Imam gave him the money and said:Take this money and you still can sell your corps, and he started talking to him in a very pleasant and kind manner. The man felt guilty and changed his attitude towards the Imam. The next day the man went to the mosque. When he saw the Imam(ra) coming he said: “God knows where he puts His Message”. Asked what made him change his mind, he said that it was the way the Imam dealt with him. The Imam then asked his companions: which is better the way you wanted to deal with this man using violence or my way?
A spiritual Ishmaelite 