Bernard Lewis has said that intrafaith violence in Christian history had been more violent than intrafaith violence within Islam. May be this is due to intersection of intrafaith schismatic debates and invention of gunpowder. While schismatic war within Islam had been early when gunpowder had not been invented. As far as Sola Scriptura- Gnostic schism is concerned, this is repeating in Muslim world in the form of Salafi-Sufi debate. Self-righteousness can be wrong on both sides but can also bring genuine reform if suffused with compassionate spirit. For example, Madkhali an apolitical Salafi scholar has admitted that our harshness has adversely affected our sola scriptura movement. While, Hudson institute has described anti-blasphemy Barelwi Sufis in Pakistan as extremists. So, this superficial and inaccurate dichotomy on western pre-conceived notions can lead to cruel foreign policies making the western anti-war movement an ethical failure like Christian humanism which is more Scriptually acceptable to orthodox Muslim due to it’s concomitant dissent of sexual revolution. May God bless all the truth seekers. I learnt about you through your healthy and courageous criticism of MEMRI and how they promoted intrafaith schisms in the Middle East through their inaccurate and zealous propaganda. Indian pro-mystic Sola Scriptura scholar Shah Waliullah has successfully resolved the Salafi-Sufi debate and Dr. Marcia Hermansen has translated his book The Conclusive Argument from God into English. Since, extremists in each denomination are not exposed to ecumenical literature due to sectarian xenophobia, intrafaith ecumenical activists should compassioantely introduce the sectarian fanatics to ecumenical ideas and I want to work on this and ecumenical Christians should work on it too to avoid secularization of their own future generations.
Category: Dialogues with secularists/modernists
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God bless Britt Nicole: Supernatural and firebrand faith in naturalist America
Walk on the water:
You look around and staring back at you
Another wave of doubt
Will it pull you under
You wonderWhat if I’m overtaken
What if I never make itWhat if no one’s there
Will you hear my prayer?
When you take that first step
Into the unknownYou know that he won’t let you go
So what are you waiting for
What do you have to lose
Your insecuritiesThey try to hold to you
But you know you’re made for moreSo don’t be afraid to move
Your faith is all it takes
And you can walk on the water too
So get out and let your fear fall to the groundNo time to waste, don’t wait
And don’t you turn around, and miss out on
Everything you were made for
Gotta be, I know you’re not sure, moreSo you play it safe, you try to run away
If you take that first step
Into the unknown
He won’t let you goSo what are you waiting for
What do you have to lose
Your insecurities
They try to hold to you
But you know you’re made for more
So don’t be afraid to move
Your faith is all it takes
And you can walk on the water too
Step out, even when it’s storming
Step out, even when you’re broken
Step out, even when your heart is telling you
Telling you to give up
Step out, when your hope is stolen
Step out, you can’t see where you’re going
You don’t have to be afraid
So what are waiting, what are you waiting for
So what are you waiting for
What do you have to lose
Your insecurities
They try to hold to you
But you know you’re made for more
So don’t be afraid to move
Your faith is all it takes
And you can walk on the water
Walk on the water tooSet The World On Fire:
I wanna set the world on fire
Until it’s burning bright for You
It’s everything that I desire
Can I be the one You use?I, I am small but
You, You are big enough
I, I am weak but
You, You are strong enough to
Take my dreams
Come and give them wings
Lord with You
Nothing I can not do
Nothing I cannot doI wanna feed the hungry children
And reach across the farthest land
And tell the broken there is healing
And mercy in the Father’s hands[CHORUS]
Take my dreams
Come and give them wings
Lord with You
Nothing I cannot do
Nothing I cannot doMy hands my feet
My everything
My life, my love
Lord, use meI wanna set the world on fire
I wanna set the world on fire, yeahTake my dreams
Come and give them wings
Lord with You
Nothing I cannot do
Take my dreams
Come and give them wings
Lord with You
There’s nothing I can’t do
Nothing I can’t doI’m gonna set the world on fire
Set the world on fireShalom the divine guidance may be upon truth seekers. God bless your remarkable faith in a faithless world. May God also bless your empathetic piece of writing. I arrived here listening to mystic music genre called qawwali and I wanted to explore modern Christian music. So, I loved Walk on the water by Britt Nicole so I ended up here. May God bless your supernatural faith in a naturalist West. -
Kamli walay Muhammad(p): The modern mystic music of the genre modern qawwali
Assalamu alaykum. I come from an orthodox family and my younger brother is a pious modernist and he was listening to this. Obviously sacred legalists disagree with the music and I read that one of the Chishti saints would request the worldly people to leave the gathering of mystic music because they could only enjoy it sensually. But how to recognize whether the impact is sensual or mystic? I think if you wake up for fajr for next day, this is a good litmus test.
http://kryptonguys.com/kamli-walay-muhammad-by-arshman-khan-farrukh-mehrvi-download/
Krypton Guys have not published my comment so far. God bless you all the lovers of One God and His Messenger(p).
http://www.islamiclyrics.net/milad-raza-qadri/kamle-wale-muhammed/
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Quran 14:4 and ex Muslims: The issue of sacred normativity and antinomianism
I have found relatively comfortable to hear secular or ex Muslims talking about Islam compared to militant ex Christians talking against religion because they have never experienced religion in its Ishmaelite pronomian manifestation. It is also good to hear about the issue of normativity from a secular point of view because the issue of antinomianism and commandments has traditionally been discussed in intrafaith or interfaith debates. I have grown up in an orthodox household of Pakistan being a son of a Scriptural father and a mystic mother. One of them won a US scholarship and another is a zoologist. I received modern education in Pakistan and now I am an electrical engineer working in the area of Nano electronics. What I have observed that it is not pronomianism/sacred normativity per se which causes dysphoria, rather it is being psyche-insensitive pronomianism which causes problems. So, I try to understand the psychology of dissenters of faith and try to reach out to them in their own linguistic and psychological terms as Quran 14:4 teaches. By the way I have read in sacred legal manuals that if someone breaks his fast due to masturbation for example, he only has to fast only for one day again. I have been sexually explicit to make a point that sacred law is not as horrible as some Scripture ignorant zealots present it to be. As far as the issue of shaming is concerned, the word tathrib in Quran 12:92 forbids shaming. For example, whatever an Islamic court decides independently does not give the believers the right to insult any sinner. Quran 2:206 teaches that some people refuse to acknowledge truth simply because their self respect has been hurt that’s why the Ishmaelite Messenger(p) stood up for a Jewish coffin stating: Did God not breathe His own soul in him.
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Discussing the linguistic and mystic definitions of bulh or the evil blind person with a mufti (a specialist of legal opinions)
Muhammad Mushrraf Well. It is very much difficult to translate “Bulh” in hadith with what was done by that guy.Brother is referring to Freddie Mercury and another hypocritical anti-gay politicianIshmael Abraham Both of these men were informed about western culture and uninformed about One God and His Messengers(as).Ishmael Abraham I love this definition: عن أبي عثمان : الأبله هو الأبله في دنياه ، الفقيه في دينهThe saint Abu Uthman An Nahdi says: Bulh means someone unaware about his worldliness and someone with deep cognitive and sentient understanding of his religion.Ishmael Abrahamعن عاصم الأحول ، قال : بلغني أن أبا عثمان النهدي كان يصلي ما بين المغرب والعشاء مائة ركعةIt is said that this saint who offers his definition used to offer 100 units of prayer between sunset prayer and night prayerIshmael Abrahamعبد القاهر بن السري : عن أبيه ، عن جده ، قال : كان أبو عثمان من قضاعة ، وسكن الكوفة ، فلما قتل الحسين ، تحول إلى البصرة وقال : لا أسكن بلدا قتل فيه ابن بنت رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلمWhen Prophetic grandson, peace be upon him, was martyred, he migrated to Basra from Kufah while saying: I will not live in the city where the son of the daughter of Messenger(s) of God was martyred.Ishmael Abrahamقال : وحج ستين مرةIt is said that the same saint performed Hajj pilgrimage 60 times. -
Quran 24:23, the evil-blind bulh and ghafilat: Freddie Mercury and fall from grace of an anti-gay politician
My father won a scholarship to study at Maryland but he chose to return due to consumerist obsession although he did not appreciate the current sexual obsession two decades ago. I stumbled here as I was researching about Parsi singer Freddie Mercury who hated his past so much that he even changed his name from Farokh which means the happy person in Persian and Persian mystic Ghazali has written Alchemy of Happiness on the concept of psychological and soteriological happiness. Modern culture is glorified by western politicians as ‘offering’ creative destruction of the traditional world. This is natural and logical because absence of spiritual light of first commandment only zoological darkness will prevail. Even a Parsi scientist of Pakistani origin ended up being pulled by the black hole of sexual revolution. His case is curious for traditionalists because he died of AIDS. This lawmaker corroborates another Hadith that majority of inhabitants of Paradise will be those who are bulh/blind in materialistic and secular sense but enlightened in the spiritual and scriptural sense. Which implies that when people acquires secular, materialistic and political awareness, but do not have spiritual enlightenment most of them end up being victims of zoological instincts themselves after being provoked by the external fire. Like a Pakistani surgeon died of Congo fever after operating a patient suffering from Congo. God praises such evil-blind women of faith in Quran 24:23. God bless my evil-blind zoologist mother who chose not to work in intermingling corporate culture and still she does not use facebook like my father. -
To Theo Hobson: How failed deism and sola scriptura leads to atheism?
I want to revive the missionary legacy of what Quran calls a hawari/disciple Thomas who was martyred in India by polytheists for his monotheism. And, today Muslims in India, especially, Kashmir continue that legacy. I have witnessed a relationship between Sola Scriptura movements and deistic movements within both West and Middle East because both dislike the religious tradition, and many apostates tend to be influenced by Sola Scriptura and deism, but not everyone has the fervour of Herbert of Cherbury to dive in the ocean of love and ocean of logos at the same time. For example, Dawud At Tai a saint threw his books in the river to focus on worship and divine remembrance but his friend Imam Zufar managed to reconcile both which requires greater faith and greater scholarship. There is a Hadith that those who understand the logos deeply are more effective against the Evil than the worshipers, however, a Prophetic descendant warns that scholarship which does not have attendant piety is worthless. So, Islamic worldview has been able to contemplate and reconcile these issues centuries ago when West was relatively ignorant about both Scripture and logic. So, I was happy to find a western affirmation of my own conclusion. Thanks and may God bless you brother Theo Hobson. -
Buddhism and Xinjiang: What orthodox Muslims do not know about Bukhari
A Buddhist scholar decodes the original language of the word Bukhari which is the second most sacred Hadith text in Islam after Quran. Bukhara in Sodgian means ‘A fortunate place’.The finding of manuscript fragments of the Sogdian language in China’s Xinjiang region sparked the study of the Sogdian language. Robert Gauthiot, (the first Buddhist Sogdian scholar) and Paul Pelliot, (who while exploring in Dunhuang, retrieved Sogdian material) began investigating the Sogdian material that Pelliot had discovered. Gauthiot published many articles based on his work with Pelliot’s material, but died during the First World War.I think Islam starting spreading in Xinjiang during Rashidun Caliphate. -
To a self-described Salafi feminist: How company of tahajjud-observant sisters can help overcoming anarchist narcissism
I think Sayyidah Nafisah, peace be upon her, is the pinnacle of female saints among the later Salaf. A woman who has memorized the Quran in 21st century would be better than a public speaker which can induce anarchist narcissism which has led to many divorces in the traditional world. Psychologists say that sign of narcissism is marrying a weak submissive man instead of an assertive scholar of Salaf. However if you develop zuhd and asecticism of Salaf through the company of tahajjud-observant sisters, along with their scholarship, you may not develop anarchist narcissism.For one of the best articles on psychology of a sensual Paradise an idea which is based on the Jewish idea of a physical Paradise of milk and honey as opposed to Christian idea of no marriage in heaven which an atheist commentator described equivalent to Hell. -
The nests of divine remembrace and obedience: Eagle’s nest and secular distrurbances
God compares attraction of a saint to remembrance and obedience like that of eagle to its nest.This is narrated by Imam Ahmad in his book about asceticism from Ata bin Yasar who describes a dialogue between Moses peace be upon him and God. Moses peace be upon him asks God, who are your Godly people whom you will grant the shade of your throne. So, God describes them as eagles of love and obedience and tigers against the forbidden.في الزهد للإمام أحمد عن عطاء بن يسار ، قال : قال موسى عليه السلام : يا رب ، من هم أهلك الذين تظلهم في ظل عرشك ؟ قال : يا موسى ، هم البريئة أيديهم ، الطاهرة قلوبهم ، الذين يتحابون بجلالي ، الذين إذا ذكرت ذكروا بي ، وإذا ذكروا ذكرت بذكرهم ، الذين يسبغون الوضوء في المكاره ، وينيبون إلى ذكري كما تنيب النسور إلى وكورها ، ويكلفون بحبي كما يكلف الصبي بحب الناس ، ويغضبون لمحارمي إذا استحلت كما يغضب النمر إذا حوربA Vermillion, Ohio nest measured 2.6 meters across its top and was 3.6 meters high and weighed nearly 1,000 kilograms! Sometimes, eagles will build more than one nest and use them alternately.An eagle nest is constructed from large sticks, which are laid together to form the outside part of the nest. The center of the nest is filled with dead weeds, stubble and other softer materials, which may be available in the area. The nest cavity where the eggs are laid is lined with grass, dry moss and feathers. Many authorities believe that some bald eagles show such a strong attraction to their nesting site that, if displaced or overly disturbed, a pair may not return to the nest the following year. This fact places great importance on protecting nesting areas from disturbances such as logging operations, land development and recreational activities.Secularism describes those disturbances.The weeping saint Ata bin Yasar due to the scorpion of seduction:
A spiritual Ishmaelite 