Regardless of the fake news, may this message reach Rowan Atkins. The post was written assuming he has died: Quran talks about exploring commonalities with your audience. I vividly remember the day of my youth when my orthodox father called us to his bedroom during the unexpected sunnah time of afternoon nap to share with us something important: Mr Beans. But what appealed to him in this century when political scientists with imperial mindsets declare a clash of civilizations. It was ethical humour which I think is a universal value as effective in outreach as interfaith and intercultural dialogue. Although on close scrutiny an ultra orthodox Muslim would find the naked Mr Beans at the pool objectionable like the angry face he made towards the sky at a funeral but his humour did not habitually employ modern sexual revolution or modern atheist blasphemy. Although he appeared to be a secular person but I would blame it on intellectual and moral failures of Christianity.
Psychology and Philosophy
Did God know Himself before big bang?
I asked the Prophetic descendant (p) , ‘Did God, the Majestic, the Glorious, know
Himself before He created the creation?’” He replied, “Yes, He knew Himself.” I
further asked, “Did He see and hear His Own Self?” He replied, “God did not need
such things because He did not ask or demand it. He is His Own self and His Own self is He. His power is dominant and He does not need to name His Own self. He chose His Own name for the sake of others so they can call Him. Until one is not called by means of his names he is not recognized. The fist name He chose for His Own self was the Most
High, the Great because He is above all things. It then means that Allah and His name al-‘Ali al-‘Azim is His first name. The Most High, He is above all things.
-Al-Kafi
Islam and sex positive religions
Sex positive religions end up sexualising spirituality instead of spiritualising intimacy. I think Islam achieves that without sexualising spirituality. Hadith teaches that the best transient happiness in this world is being intimate with a spiritual wife. Even the infinite bliss in the next world is sensual in nature which western Christians criticize because they believe in an asexual heaven.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/out-the-darkness/201201/transcendent-sex
Jinns may be a traditional allusion to psychosis
أبه جِنَّة؟
Is he possessed by demons/jinn?
فأخبر أنه ليس بمجنون
They said: He is not mad/majnun.
It means that jinns may be a traditional allusion to psychosis, or at least psychosis is a natural subset of supernatural possession.
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
Islam and feminism: Two tangible goals
I would like to incorporate feminism into the traditional world to empower my sisters in faith without importing sexual revolution. So, I would like to ask if a chaste feminism is possible? By chaste I do not mean catholic celibacy, but sexual intimacy within marriage. So, I have two goals: Increase sexual intimacy in the traditional world and to decrease abuse of power whether traditional patriarchal or modern misandrist. Can someone here be open-minded enough to support intelligent orthodox Muslims in planning to achieve those goals?
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.
Sex deprivation and orthodox Muslim communities
Sex deprivation before marriage in orthodox Muslim communities inspires real spiritual creativity. I reached out to so many wonderful fellow faithful through this shared sense of abstinence. But those children raised within sexual revolution may never have an opportunity to experience an alternative worldview. Many might think there are no intelligent people in the orthodox and traditional communities. There are actually a lot. I am an electrical engineer from a prestigious university but many of us choose forms of spiritual art and literature as what Freud called sublimation. And, I have read about established research that abstinence has no adverse physiological effect. Facing the anxiety of abstinence actually makes you more brave, but according to psychology when we have other anxieties like anxieties of industrial revolution, we tend not to leave our comfort zones.
Future of earth and Hadith
Even according to rational standards, we do not have an infinite future. In Hadith the proximity of the end is compared to two adjacent fingers, and if we have ten fingers, compared to 13.8 billion years, it makes sense that life on earth will become extinct in the next billion years due to evaporation of all water as predicted by science.
A spiritual Ishmaelite 