Category: Interfaith dialogue

  • Prophetic praxis of sunnah and traditional/modern narcissism

    A modernist Muslim calls beating children and homophobia ignorant:

    Those who beat children represent traditional narcissism and Sunnah cures it which teaches that ideal faith is not possible without being an ideal parent.

    Those who support homosexual defiance represent modern narcissism and Sunnah also cures it through an enabling culture of self-directed neuroplasticity.

  • Worldly wife and husband and Paradise

    الطبرسي: روى العياشي بالإسناد عن أبي بصير، عن أبي عبد الله (عليه السلام)، قال: قلت له: جعلت فداك، أخبرني عن الرجل المؤمن، له امرأة مؤمنة، يدخلان الجنة، يتزوج أحدهما الآخر؟ فقال: “يا أبا محمد، إن الله حكم عدل، إذا كان هو أفضل منها خيره، فإن اختارها كانت من أزواجه، و إن كانت هي خيرا منه خيرها، فإن اختارته كان زوجا لها”.

    Tafsir Al-Bahrani Quran 55:46

    The disciple asked the Prophetic descendant(p) : If both a believing  man and woman enter Paradise will they marry each other. He said: God is just. If the husband were superior/afdal to her in piety and virtue , he will be given choice to marry her or not and if the wife were superior to him in piety and virtue , she will be given choice to marry him or not.

    امام جعفر الصادق سے پوچھا گيا اگر دونوں میاں بيوی جنت ميں جائيں تو کيا انکی شادی ھوگی آپ نے فرمایا اللہ انصاف والا ھے اگر شوھر زيادہ نيک ہوا تو اسے شادی کرنے يا نہ کرنے کا اختيار ديا جاۓ گا اور اگر بيوی زيادہ نيک ہوئی تو اسے شادی کرنے يا نہ کرنے کا اختيار ديا جاۓ گا

  • VS Naipaul, Islam and Quran 14:4

    The divisive struggle between local traditional identity and universal spiritual identity in the Indian sub-continent will pave the way for modern secular imperial globalization so intra-subcontinental harmony is important. His critique about the effect of Islam on native cultural identity is based on ambivalent attitude in Islam to native Arab culture which has given rise to secular Arab nationalism in modern times and Hindu nationalism has many alliances with it because pious Muslim identity is seen as a threat to Hindu nationalism. For example, in Islam there is an ambivalence about the poetic tradition which is the literary basis of the musical tradition. Quran critcizes poets for lack of objectivity in seeking truth. Even western Kierkegaard commented on it that he identified himself more with poetry than Prophetic truth. But there are Prophetic aphorisms about wise forms of poetry which is of course exception rather than rule. Quality reduces quantity. So, the goal of these commandments is to evolve a higher ethical and more objective form of poetry which fulfills both intellectual and psychological needs of humanity. Iqbal tried to achieve that but of course he is not a personality of consensus. So, what is needed is more objective and philosophical form of literature in the sub-continent. Or at least modern forms of Sufi poetry and music, liked by many Sikhs, Hindus and Muslims alike, show that there are Muslims who feel the need to address the native cultural identity. But it also needs intellectual underpinning to make it a part of public Indian discourse. Quran 14:4 is an important verse which tells the faithful to keep in mind the psychological and linguistic background of the intended audience.

    https://tribune.com.pk/story/463810/in-defence-of-vs-naipaul/

  • Khushwant Singh and Islam

    I respected Khushwant but this comment has discouraged me. ‘ The answer to the problem of women out-numbering men is not polygamy, it is freedom to engage in extra-marital relation ‘ He claims to admire Muhammad(p) who never taught that. And, he does not have modern educated orthodox Muslim friends who love veil, he only has modernist Muslim friends, so modern educated Sikhs like him should seek modern educated orthodox Muslim friends to have an informed perspective.

     

  • Baghyan: Odium theologicum and Quran 42:14

    وما تفرَّقوا  إلا من بعد ما جاءهم العلم  بغياً بينهم

    (Asad) And [as for the followers of earlier revelation,] they broke up their unity, out of mutual jealousy, only after they had come to know [the truth]

    The latest revelation has also been afflicted with the example of earlier faith.

     

  • Regarding Zen Buddhist Frank Herbert

    • http://www.adherents.com/people/ph/Frank_Herbert.html

      In Islamic eschatology, Jesus peace be upon him is seen as a future King which accords with Jewish expectations of a unitarian King Messiah. Buddhism has ascetic ideals like Catholicism but Catholicism is focused on afterlife and Buddhism is about nirvana here. In Islam, we have both. Sufi mysticism ensures peace and ecstasy here, while ensuring salvation in the Hereafter, but like Jewish theology, it does not ignore ethical politics.

       

      Being a Pakistani Muslim, Buddhism influences our vocabulary through Hinduism. The Urdu word dheyan is derived from Zen Buddhism.

      Modern militant atheists hate mythology but why shouldn’t they hate science fiction with the same passion if supposed mythology has no edifying value.

  • To a western Bahai who admires Ahsai

    Both Wahhabis and Ahsais are heretics. Wahhabis are pharisaic heretics and Ahsais are antinomian heretics. Antinomian West would naturally like latter while Jewish convert Muhammad Asad saw the positive aspects of the former.

  • To American Jews: Is a modern Maimonides possible?

    To American Jews about the concept of a chosen race or community: The concept of a chosen community is based on spiritual responsibility. According to primogeniture this has now shifted to Ishmaelites due to their universal mission not based simply on a chosen DNA but special spiritual responsibility. So, the question is whether Judaism can tackle the intellectual challenge of modernity? Is a modern Maimonides possible. Islam has many modern Maimonides. If we do not employ our smartness to spiritual and ethical ends, then we contribute to a cruel and hedonistic Machiavellian world rather than a blessed 21st century Zion.

     

  • Are Tawhid and trinity supra-logical or illogical?

    Response to a pedantic query about the concept of supra-logical truths: If Tawhid/unitarianism had not been intelligible, prominent scientists like Isaac Newton and George Boole would not have been unitarians. But what is supra-logical is to encompass the full nature of divinity what Hawking called the mind of God while also asserting that science will always be progressing making encompassing even created nature an endless journey. Like the vision in the Night of Ascent was a vision of truth that factually happened but not an encompassing vision. The question of encompassing vision in Hereafter is open to curiosity and Scriptural dialogue in classical Muslim scholarship.

  • What have three scientists sharing the graveyard in common with Muslims?

    Darwin married his cousin like Muslims, Newton died a unitarian like Muslims and Hawking opposed Israel like Muslims. They are buried in the same graveyard.