Psychology and Philosophy

Sacred ink of the Recited Logos and the sacred tears of five prayers

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To an American sister marrying a Pakistani guy: I met the American converts in interfaith fb discussion groups. I think Pakistani men never cheat unless they are too secular. So, it is a good choice for a life partner. I have also offered Sufi counseling to couples in past so if you feel the need to understand traditional psychology, I will help. Islam is a life long journey in the ocean of sacred ink and sacred tears. Quran the Ishmaelite Logos is sacred ink and five daily prayers are the sacred tears. You can start from weekly Friday prayers or bi annual Eid prayers. In America, they have Sunday although Jesus prayed on Saturday. Then God changed it to Friday with easier rules. We take a bath before Friday prayers because the feeling of purity makes us feel holy.

 

Great I like small steps. Cheating is a problem but my approach has been to address it with the individual rather than addressing the issue in general.
What is Sufi counseling?

 

Psychology is a modern invention by a secular but Abrahamic scholar Freud, but before psychology, Sufi saints used to give advice to couples in our cultures.

 

Anthropology of HRM (Human resource management) and traditional cultures

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Ishmael Abraham · 

Works at Digital Communications and Networks
 My father did MBA from US so I am familiar with the concept of human resource management which is a very underdeveloped area in traditional cultures. A local university has initiated a course on anthropology of HRM so that led me to arrive here. My orthodox cousin is an anthropologist but we are still unable to apply western concepts to indigenous contexts. Thanks for this contribution.
Dr. Saif abbasi

  International Islamic University Islamabad
  Faculty Member, Sociology Department
Peace. I am happy that you started a course on anthropology of HRM. Can we introduce in theory and practice the concept of organizational justice in indigenous cultures? Because even the highly qualified bosses have a tunnel vision and ignore ethics of management in indigenous cultures.

Islam has a more social and universal approach compared to celibate Catholicism, monastic Buddhism and tribal forms of Protestantism

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To a sister who admires Muslim families and societies: This is because previous religions were oriented towards personal development(tazkiya) or at most tribal supremacy(asabiyyah) while Islam also includes social engineering through focus on congregation(jamat).

Peter Bell This is a fine thing wherever it is consistently true in practice. Of course, tazkiya and jamat go together and reinforce each other — overemphasis on either one produces a society (and individuals) in imbalance and disorder. But your description here is accurate in that it is quite possible for a religious group to focus on the individual development and fall short of the logical progression of the tazkiya into jamat. Fully functioning jamat will not happen unless the individuals are spiritually strong and healthy.

Egoistic or curious questioning: Is God masculine or feminine?

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To a modern critic of supposed masculinity of Abrahamic God: Interestingly, the Ishmaelite theology talks about the hebrew word rachum/compassion which has etymolgical roots in the word for a mother’s womb. So, Islam while criticizng the concepts of fatherhood and sonship, emphasizes the feminine dimensions of divinity. I have a personal and fallible conjecture that the divine attributes of beauty(jamal) express feminine tenderness ( absent in modern feminism) and the divine attributes of awe-inspriation(jalal) express masculine charisma ( absent is modern males especially the clean shaven males resembling lions with manes)

An American secularist asks me about Reza Aslan

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ISHMAEL ABRAHAM·SATURDAY, 9 DECEMBER 2017
When he ate human flesh with Aghoris, I thought that he was antitheistic, but when I learnt more I learnt that he emotionally converted to Christianity and then after becoming a Bible scholar he intellectually converted to Islam. Bible scholar Bart Ehrman has quoted him which shows that Reza is a popular figure. I value non-conformist piety more than Templeton prize winners, but still I pray that he starts loving faith and commandments on a psychological level rather than only at Platonic level. His Persian background also resonates with me because the philosopher-poet of Pakistan, Iqbal did most of his poetry in Persian.
I am also happy that he has discussed the tendency of Simon and Donatists within Christianity and Maccabees within Judaism which is directly antithetical to secular versions of Christianity and Judaism.

Lost virginity, peer pressure and explicit music

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Jerry Sexton I was virgin until my 20s, and never cursed. My friends pressured me to curse on high school graduation night, they had never heard me say objectionable words. My point is that I don’t think music plays a role nearly as much as peer pressure.

Ishmael Abraham I was forced to eat Indian sweets last week while being the co-bridegroom of my cousin on his marriage, and when I became angry, they said that the fun lies in the pressure. But my introvert personality has helped me to avoid conformism through reduced social circle.

Is transcendental love like romance?

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Is transcendental love like romance? Ibn Arabi thought so, and Ibn Taymiya disagreed. The founder of Ahmadism declared apostate by legal scholars, went to the extent of comparing orgasm to mystic tears. The transcendental love is very ineffable and female mystic Rabia Basri would have found the romantic comparison contrary to what she felt. The first phase of my life was like Rabia and Ibn Taymiya, and I also underwent a phase like Ibn Arabi, but now I am in an intermediate or indeterminate spiritual state. 🙂 It’s not confusion, rather a stage cautious transition into marital bliss. May Allah bless me with a qanitah partner.

Islam and reformative/unjust gheerah: Narcissism and traditional/liberal Pharisees

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I have low IQ and relatively secular family members who have immigrated to Australia due to higher income there. Since I have family members who suffer from NPD, I enjoyed your articles about economic and violent forms of narcissism. Since, I am involved a lot in intrafaith Scriptural dialogue so I understand the Scriptural ignorance and psychological weaknesses of the violent faithful. There has been some research on NPD and marital infidelity which is more common in West. Psychologists have also talked about healthy self-love. I think being happy if your spouse is sexually faithful is healthy self-love. But since the global impact of sexual revolution, this healthy self love is hurt although in controlled amounts in East, so Pharisees of our culture are guilty of violently reacting to narcissistic mortification. To overcome that I have a vision of a psyche- sensitive pronomianism to overcome both traditional Phariseeism and modern liberal Phariseeism. Thanks for being though provoking. 🙂

https://www.theguardian.com/profile/anne-manne

Quora: Islam, existential anxiety and thanatophobia

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Daniel Fawcett
May 2, 2014 · 1 upvote

Ishmael Abraham
Just now

Quran talks about misotheistic/angry non-faith as well as how faith inspires existential anxiety and awakens the moral anxiety, and we tend to feel euphoric rather than dealing with existential dysphoria. So, one can call it euphoria-seeking escapism than a phobia. People have talked about thanatophobia. Phobia is an intense form of anxiety. The more we do not deal with existential anxiety in daily life due to being more involved in temporal affairs after the industrial and sexual revolutions, there is high probability of this developing into full fledged thanatophobia or Islamophobia.

Ishmael Abraham
Just now

Although Islam is more life-affirming than Christianity, but since as a reaction to historical life denial in Christianity, the modern culture takes life affirmation to higher levels, so even Islamic moderate life affirmation seems as primitive leading to a form of anti-traditionalist xenophobia which can be seen from the economic lens of class conflict. Knietzsche understood how Islam is more life affirming than Christianity but modern atheism has lack of empathy due to cultural narcissism their classical predecessors tried to overcome.