A spiritual Ishmaelite

Category: Dialogues with secularists/modernists

  • Why Tahajjud and Tarawih vigils improve intimacy in prayers.

    ISHMAEL ABRAHAM·THURSDAY, 3 NOVEMBER 2016

    2 reads

    كيف يزيد الخشوع باالتهجد في ضوء العلوم العصبية
    Just one night without sleep can increase the amount of the chemical dopamine in the human brain, according to new imaging research in the August 20 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience. Because drugs that increase dopamine, like amphetamines, promote wakefulness, the findings offer a potential mechanism explaining how the brain helps people stay awake despite the urge to sleep.

  • Halal earning is not secularism 

    ISHMAEL ABRAHAM·MONDAY, 31 OCTOBER 2016

    2 reads

    Hussain Murtaza

    A man said to Imam Ja`far as-Sadiq [a], “By Allah! We seek after this world, and we love to attain it.”So the Imam asked, “What would you like to do with it?”The man said, “Use it to improve myself and my family, maintain relationships, give in charity, and perform Hajj and `Umrah.”The Imam said, “This is not seeking the world. This is seeking the Hereafter.”علي بن إبراهيم ، عن أبيه ، عن ابن أبي عمير ، عن هشام بن سالم ، عن عبد الله بن أبي يعفور قال قال رجل لأبي عبد الله عليه‌السلام والله إنا لنطلب الدنيا ونحب أن نؤتاها فقال تحب أن تصنع بها ما ذا قال أعود بها على نفسي وعيالي وأصل بها وأتصدق بها وأحج وأعتمر فقال عليه‌السلام ليس هذا طلب الدنيا هذا طلب الآخرة(al-Kafi)

  • Hadith prophecy about a future western world order 

    ISHMAEL ABRAHAM·SATURDAY, 8 OCTOBER 2016

    7 reads

    Amr ibn Al-As reported: The Quraish importer said to him that he heard the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, say, “The Hour will be established and the Romans will be a majority of the people.” Amr said, “Be careful what you say.” The man said, “I have said what I heard from the Messenger of Allah.” Amr said, “If the Prophet said that, indeed, there are four qualities in them: they are the most judicious of people during a tribulation, they are the quickest to recover after a calamity, they are the quickest to return to battle after a retreat, and they behave well with the poor and weak. Their fifth quality is good and beautiful: they are best at preventing the oppression of their kings.”
    Ibn Kathir interprets it to mean that Romans will convert to Islam. الحافظ ابن كثير رحمه الله: هذا يدل على أن الروم يسلمون في آخر الزمان،
    But Munawi interprets it to mean that Romans will become atheists. وقال عبد الرءوف المناوي: (تقوم الساعة) أي القيامة. (والروم أكثر الناس) ومن عداهم بالنسبة إليهم قليل، وثبت في الصحيح: ) أنه لا يبقى مسلم وقت قيام الساعة ( لكن يكون الروم وهم قوم معروفون وهم أكثر الكفرة ذلك الوقت.
    Qurtubi a Spanish Muslim scholar says that Amr found those qualities in his contemporary Romans but they were absent in Romans of his time.

  • Adele is a voice of sanity in the ocean of western sexual madness 

    ISHMAEL ABRAHAM·FRIDAY, 7 OCTOBER 2016

    5 reads

    Since Muslims are not immune to western music due to globalization and cultural imperialism, I find Adele a voice of sanity in an ocean of sexual madness. May God bless her and guide her to the Truth sent by One God. Adele said:“I have never seen magazine covers and music videos and thought: ‘I need to look like that to be a success.’ To sell more records, I don’t even need to do that. I just stand there and sing. No matter what you look like, the key is to be happy with yourself.”
    Joanne Zaahidah Sijka-Shaikh The Prophet s.a.w. had made mention of the good qualities of the people of Rum and in the last days they will come to the faith in large numbers, like we see today. this is why tolerance and mercy should always be shown to everyone.

  • Finding the name of one of the greatest bridges between science and religion in history along with cats

    ISHMAEL ABRAHAM·TUESDAY, 4 OCTOBER 2016

    Divine peace or shalom in hebrew be upon those who seek and acknowledge truth. One of the asteroids 8318 Averroes is named after a Spanish Muslim thinker who is one of the greatest bridges between religion and science in human history. I think it is insulting and an injustice to find his name along with cats.

  • How an authentic unitarian paradigm can break ground in Cult Studies to offer tools of religious de-radicalization

    ISHMAEL ABRAHAM·THURSDAY, 15 SEPTEMBER 2016

    6 reads

    Ishmael Abraham
    To Natacha Tormey a victim of western sex cult: Sociologists classify David Berg as having charismatic authority, but western Scripture apparently lacks intellectual tools to challenge such authority due to history of saint-worship and deification of Christ peace be upon him . For example, a old woman challenged the charismatic authority of the second caliph of Islam on the issue of austerity in dowry, and he acknowledged that she knew Quran more than him. Even in the most revered personality of the divine Ishmaelite Messenger(p), Scripture emphasizes that he is not divine and can sometimes forget or in fact Scripture mentions that the Messenger(p) should have given more attention to truth seeking under-privileged than truth-indifferent elites.
    Ishmael Abraham
    Sister Natacha is accurate when she says that one is more at risk when one feels one is safe which echoes Quran that fitna or temptation which attracts you into doing something unethical is more harmful than physical harm. Cults or heresies are called fitna in Islamic heresiology

  • Dr. Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, faithful Queen of Sheba in Quran and female defenders of truth

    ISHMAEL ABRAHAM·THURSDAY, 15 SEPTEMBER 2016

    6 reads

    “Although over sixty years have passed since the Movement emerged into existence, no women leaders have appeared that can confront secular and Marxist trends single-handedly and efficiently. This has come about as a result of men’s unrelenting attempts to control women’s movement, as men have never allowed women a real chance to express themselves and show special leadership talents and abilities that demonstrate their capability of taking command of their work without men’s dominance. I believe that women’s Islamic work will succeed and prove itself in the arena of the Islamic Movement only when it gives birth to female Islamic leaders in the fields of Call, thought, science, literature and education. Accordingly, women as well as men can dedicate themselves to Allah, and play a role in jihad. I do not think that this is impossible or even difficult. There are genius women just as there are genius men. Ingenuity is not a monopoly for men. It is not in vain that the Holy Quran tells us the story of a woman who led men wisely and bravely and made her people fare the best end: it is the Queen of Sheba, whose story with Solomon is told in Surat Al Naml. I have observed in the University of Qatar that girls make better students than boys.
    Dr Yousuf Al qardawi views about women’s role in society
    May Allah bless our educated sisters with humility of the Queen of Sheba to embrace truth when it is presented to them.

  • Conversation with Seandor Szeles about free will 

    ISHMAEL ABRAHAM·WEDNESDAY, 31 AUGUST 2016

    3 reads

    The approach of Islam about free will is intermediate between absolute fatalism called jabariya in Arabic (having same etymology as determinism of Algebra) as of some Christian sects and absolute self-deifying affirmation of free will in Zoroastrianism called qadariya in Arabic. The latter was adopted by heterodox Mutazila sects in Islam, and it was prophesied in Hadith sacred texts that unipolar Antichrist world order and its supporters will embrace it. The orthodox approach in Islam is between two extremes. Western thought tends to think in a reductionist way in discrete binary terms while ignoring the continuum. For example, a Muslim saint said: We can lift one foot which is our free will, and we cannot lift both feet which is our determinism. We can jump, but even rockets cannot escape gravity as long as they have mass.

  • A food of thought to Times of Israel for progress in the mission of first Ishmaelite Nobel prize winner 

    ISHMAEL ABRAHAM·MONDAY, 29 AUGUST 2016

    9 reads

    He talked about rights of Palestinians while receiving Wolf prize. He also talked about how Islamic civilization brought humanity out of dark ages. Reformation preceded Enlightenment and since he was no atheist so a monotheistic reformation is required to produce his vision of monotheistic enlightenment. He also thought positively about Arab Spring which is a movement of freedom and freedom includes anticolonialism. Sola Scriptura orthodox Jews should become more vocal in terms of science and politics in order to make modern Zionism more receptive to sacred texts of Tafsir, Hadith and Ahlulbayt which we consider the universal Ark of Salvation in the global flood and firestorm of promiscuity, materialism and bloodshed.

  • Islamic epistemology, Hindu pro-traditionalism/pantheism and western philosophy

    ISHMAEL ABRAHAM·FRIDAY, 26 AUGUST 2016

    1 read

    Ron William

    · “WHAT IS TRUTH?” Truth, like knowledge, is surprisingly difficult to define. We seem to rely on it almost every moment of every day and it’s very “close” to us. Yet it’s difficult to define because as soon as you think you have it pinned down, some case or counterexample immediately shows deficiencies. Ironically, every definition of truth that philosophers have developed falls prey to the question, “Is it true?”Simply, we can define truth as: a statement about the way the world actually is. We’ll look at various theories below that philosophers have considered but that’s an adequate rough-and-ready definition to get us started. Coming up with a definition of truth falls under the discipline of epistemology or the study of knowledge though some philosophers categorize it as a study in metaphysics–the study of what is real.
     Siva Chetty
    Ron,,you are digging deep into Hinduism…..The truth is Maya…..
    Saroj Hkg
    maya is the “ever changing nature of universe and the physical world and its sutiations”..thus,”illusion”…he fact that physical/materialistic world is maya is a truth.
     Ishmael Abraham
    The word used in Holy Hadith for maya is batil(falsehood). The Prophet (ﷺ) said, “The truest poetic verse ever said by a poet, is: Indeed! Everything except Allah, is batil (perishable) “
    http://sunnah.com/bukhari/81/78
    So whatever is not both pre-eternal and does not have eternal future without death and annihilation is the real Truth or Al-Haqq. Allah’s Messenger (ﷺ) said: The truest word uttered by a poet is this verse of Labid: “Behold! apart from Allah everything is vain,” and Umayya b. Abu Salt was almost a Muslim.
    http://sunnah.com/muslim/41/4
    Rene Guenon a Sufi convert to Islam has shown how pro-traditionalism of Islam and Hinduism can work together against Godless modernity.
    Ishmael Abraham
    Ibn Arabi has explored this in such depth that orthodox scholars accuse him of degenerating into idolatrous hindu pantheism which leads to Hell fire according to 4:116 48:13 3:85 25:1. This shows that every human being has a moral/spiritual obligation to seek and acknowledge truths and the Truth.
    Leon Garcia
    The Sankhya Philosophy system is designed to afford understanding of the real Truth. What is that real truth? The real truth is knowledge of how to get out of the material body, which is the source of all trouble. Lord Kapila’s incarnation, or descent, is especially meant for this purpose. HARE KRSNA, HARE KRSNA, KRSNA KRSNA, HARE HARE, HARE RAMA, HARE RAMA, RAMA RAMA, HARE HARE,
    Ishmael Abraham
    Material body can become trouble free if its rights are fulfilled in halal ways. And, halal and haram is determined by revelation. Buddhist and Hindu negation of material body leads to practical hypocrisy because being an absolute monk is called schizophrenia according to modern standards. So, Islamic paradigm is the ideal balance between body and spirit.