Psychology and Philosophy

Celibate philosophers and theologians in western and Islamic traditions

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ISHMAEL ABRAHAM·FRIDAY, 20 OCTOBER 2017 
الفلاسفة والعلماء العزاب في التقاليد الغربية والإسلامية
Abu Ghuddah has written a book with the title: The celibate knowers who gave preference to sacred knowledge over marriage. He lists Ibn Taymia, Nawawi, Tabari, Razi and Zamakhshari.
Plato, as far as we know, never married.
St Augustine (“grant me chastity, but not yet”) fathered an illegitimate child, but then became a celibate priest.
Schopenhauer, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Sartre and Wittgenstein were all unmarried and childless.
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2016/mar/15/why-philosophers-make-unsuitable-life-partners
However, God rejects celibacy/rahbaniya as a Christian heresy in Quran 57:27 and invites philosophers and theologians towards a Prophetic balance between the extremes of celibacy and sexual revolution called the sacred praxis of sunnah.
Jerry Sexton There are verses both in support and against celebacy in the Bible. Catholics like to reference this one.
Matthew 19:9-12:

“And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for unchastity, and marries another commits adultery; and he who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.” The disciples said to him, “If such is the case of a man with his wife, it is not expedient to marry.” But he said to them, “Not all men can receive this saying, but only those to whom it is given. For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. He who is able to receive this, let him receive it.”

There is one problem. Priests, as far as I know, are not castrated. The hormones cloud thinking, children and women are often the victims of abuse. Here is a verse against celebacy

Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by giving heed to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, through the pretensions of liars whose consciences are seared, who forbid marriage and enjoin abstinence from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth (1 Tim. 4:1-4).

In my view, Jesus didn’t seek out virgins to be his disciples, (although he told them to abandon their families) so why should a preacher be celibate?
Celibacy only leads to temptations driven by hormones.

Ishmael Abraham In tribal and rural culture of Israelites, the temptations were limited, so there could have been a possibility of being able to sustain celibacy. But as humanity evolved, with the possibility of a global urban culture, God ruled out that possibility in Quran.In Quran 7:157 God talks about relieving humanity of certain burdens and liberating them from certain shackles, which includes celibacy. Abandoning families is called hijrah in Islam and the father of saint and legal scholar Rabia Ar- Rai (r) returned to his wife after 27 years. Islam teaches fasting to control the production of hormones. Medical researchers have proven that abstinence does not pose any risk to our physiological health. Learning to deal with the anxiety of abstinence can make us more emotionally intelligent and this emotional intelligence can become an effective part of our personality through the idea of self-directed neuroplasticity.

Liberal Phariseeism: Character assassination of Nouman Ali Khan by liberals like Atif Choudhury

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ISHMAEL ABRAHAM·SUNDAY, 15 OCTOBER 20173 reads
Message to Atif Choudhary who calls Nouman Ali Khan a Quran scholar an abuser. You sound like a salafi( sola scriptura legalist) against taqlid( hero worship of scholars) but to call sending private marriage proposals abuse is extreme. The sinful aspect is having private conversations. And, liberals are far more guilty of it so they do not have moral credentials of criticism. This phenomenon is called liberal Phariseeism.
Atif Choudhury‏ @SultanOfSmiles
Neither. I am just against preachers and religious figures having secret, predatory relationships with their students and employees. Sue me
@SultanOfSmiles To be consistent you should expose the sexual scandals of secular dictators of the Muslim world too. We prefer forgiveness to lawsuits.

@SultanOfSmiles

How is it my job to expose anyone? And who is this “we”? I simply condemn scumbags once they are exposed. All scumbags.

Replying to 

We means orthodox Muslim scholars and saints. I am a student of school of Shah Waliullah an Indian scholar of Hadith and mysticism.

 @SultanOfSmiles 

Also speaking of lawsuits, nobody has been firing off more than Nouman Ali Khan. Maybe stop being an equivocating centrist and call him out

Replying to 

I loved your article about counter extremism in Bangladesh.

Replying to 

I am not a centrist. I am a moderate right winger.

Replying to 

Traditional scholars are not like this.

Replying to 

That reflects the Americanism of NAK. His Americanism is what made him have lenient standards regarding segregation.

Cult studies, Dave Marash and imperfections of secularists

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I have tried to engage with experts of cult studies about definition of cult like Alexandra Stein but she ignored that. Many people see my faith as a cult but I think if you are open-minded to dialogue it is intellectually dishonest to describe such a person as a cult member. I think neglect or self-neglect is an issue related to mystic forms of religion and Quran 57:27 criticizes monastic mysticism and encourages social and intellectual participation. Religious people being humans are imperfect like secular humans but western culture condones the imperfections of secularists and disproportionately highlights the imperfections of the religious. However, there are secular intellectuals who empathetically analyze the fundamentalist movements. For example Martin Seligman a psychologist describes fundamentalists as the most optimistic people in the world. I do not know much about the theology or abuses of Aggressive Christianity but your distinction between anti- Semitism and anti-Zionism made me want to talk to you.

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

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ISHMAEL ABRAHAM·THURSDAY, 15 SEPTEMBER 2016

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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

Quran, Dunning-Kruger effect and the analogy of a donkey carrying books

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ISHMAEL ABRAHAM·SUNDAY, 13 DECEMBER 2015

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Many uninformed atheists suffer from Dunning-Kruger effect while assessing their religious knowledge about Islam. Also, many knowledgeable atheists suffer from Dunning-Kruger effect, while assessing their moral abilities, because an informed person has more moral duties which many fail to fulfill. That’s why Quran 62:5 calls Jews who believe in their intellectual and religious superiority, as donkeys carrying books because ignorant among them are not much informed about the relationship between Torah and Islam, while the smarter ones fail to fulfill their moral duties of following truth with respect to Islam. The same holds true about Christians and atheists who believe in their religious and intellectual superiority, respectively.

Bridges TV, Ali A. Rizvi, musician Zameer, bullying of American extremists and Islam

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ISHMAEL ABRAHAM·SATURDAY, 30 SEPTEMBER 2017
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

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Ishmael Abraham·Saturday, January 23, 2016

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Ishmael Abraham
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 Nietzsche
Ishmael 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.

Did Prophet Muhammad peace and blessings be upon him use to laugh?

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Ishmael Abraham·Sunday, January 24, 2016

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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.'”
http://sunnah.com/urn/1251800
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.”
http://sunnah.com/urn/637050
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.
http://sunnah.com/abudawud/15/126
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?
http://sunnah.com/abudawud/43/1
Ishmael Abraham When all laughed for something, he would laugh too.
 http://sunnah.com/urn/1803330
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.

Is caligynephobia for real? What are the symptoms and a cure? 

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ISHMAEL ABRAHAM·SUNDAY, 20 NOVEMBER 2016

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Is caligynephobia for real? What are the symptoms and a cure?

Caligynephobia is fear of beautiful women.
As an orthodox Muslim, I experience that and it is real. I think it is a spiritual defense mechanism in our worldview to resist unholy thoughts. But since it is not something debilitating so one can tolerate that and live with it. So, the cure taught in our worldview is to start thinking about beauty and merits of the love and partner of your life and afterlife God willing 🙂

Why Tahajjud and Tarawih vigils improve intimacy in prayers.

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ISHMAEL ABRAHAM·THURSDAY, 3 NOVEMBER 2016

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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.