Many follow religion as a formula, a series of ceremonies that have been handed down to them and which are followed without full depth of understanding. There is comfort (and a benefit) in performing rituals but the goal of a ritual is not the ritual itself. Ceremonies and rituals are symbols, they are indicators, or […]
“The dispensing of mercy brings down divine mercy….I am astounded by the person who hopes for mercy from One above him, while he is not merciful to those beneath him.” (hadith qudsi)
We cannot be fully human if we touch upon our humanity when looking inward (to our own peoples) but place it aside when we turn to face outwards.
The Qur’an places the responsibility and moral burden of sadaqa (and of compassion towards those who suffer) upon individual Muslims - it makes each of us responsible for acting to relieve the suffering of those in difficulty. This is perhaps because it does not want to transfer such duties entirely to institutions, to lock it […]
“Use the intellect that examines, that penetrates into matters…and not just the intellect that repeats what it hears, for surely there are many that repeat the knowledge that they hear, and there are precious few who examine it deeply.” (Imam Ali - Nahjul Balagha)
Their energy and effort, their time and the bulk of their thought, inventiveness, and mental energy goes towards their worldly pursuits. That is the portion of their life they act upon with utmost seriousness (as it is the (apparent) source of their wealth and influence) - they allow its fluctuations, its ups and downs to […]
When there is no connecting thread that ties information together the way is opened for someone to overlay a story (a way of viewing the information) onto events and in this way to color and shape perceptions. Rather than looking for patterns which naturally emerge from events and which best explains all the information, a […]
“A single attraction from God outbalances all the efforts of men and jinn” (Prophetic hadith)
One glance….
“I put my trust in God, My Lord and your Lord! There is not a moving creature, but He has grasp of its forelock. Verily, it is my Lord that is on a straight Path.” (Qur’an 11:56)
There is no one that God has not taken by the forelock. The forelock was sometimes used as an […]
All truths in this world are partial truths since as limited beings we are (through our limitations) restricted to seeing things from one perspective or the other. We have trouble reconciling opposites and differences since our perspective is limited by the ever-present reality of our many limitations. Total illumination in which there is no error […]
“Say…Who encompasses the hearing and the sight?…” (Qur’an 10:31)
Man rises to knowledge only through the faculties given to him by God, that is, the various senses, the ability to think and reason, and the potential for subtle and deep insight. Even the ability for these senses, such as the sense of sight, to function, is […]
We can witness the light of the sun only by means of the light of the sun…. so God says, “When My servant draws near to me, I become the means by which he sees….” (Sayyid Haydar Amuli)
“…there has never been any dispute amongst the prophets and messengers with regard to the foundations and pillars of religion, then one should realize too that if differences do occur in the details and branches of the law, then these differences are of quality or quantity and do not indicate any difference in the essence […]
“Even if one does not attain everything, one does not abandon everything….Do not abandon what is easy because you have not been able to achieve what is difficult.” (Ali ibn Abu Talib)
“He named man ‘insan’ (from the Arabic word…whose root implies intimacy and friendship) because of the possibility of intimacy between him and the rest of creation. He also placed within him…an inner reality and an outward form which… enables him to act in both the earthly and spiritual worlds. His inner reality is the Greater […]
“He connected the body to dark clay and the spirit to the breath of His own Spirit, so that the light and divine Breath would make the dark clay its instrument for… guarding God’s Trust; so that it might be a means of …elevation, and high degrees. The purpose was not that the dark clay, […]
“As long as you cannot jump free of your own embrace
Your worship is bound to a temple of devilish idols…
Do not trade on (a show of) piety - the coin is debased.
How long will you stand dry - lipped on the shore of desire?
Hurl yourself - now! - into the infinite sea….
And behold the secret […]
Again, a condensed excerpt from Murtaza Mutahhari’s “Fundamentals of Islamic Thought: God, Man, and the universe”. This is taken from the section on science and faith:
“Does our science carry us in one direction and faith in another? Or do science and faith fulfill and complement one another?…. Science shows what is; faith inspires insight into […]
“Man is compounded of form and meaning, of satanic and divine; every instant the houris of paradise and the devils of hell show their faces from his inward reality, so that it may be seen which vein and which attribute dominate over him. His desire takes him to that form with which he has […]
Here is Mutahhari’s condensed presentation of the “argument from attributes” - the definition of Divinity and its properties leads to recognition of the necessity for God’s unity and uniqueness and the impossibility of multiple divinities. I’ve edited it down to a few lines - the full text can be found in “Fundamentals of Islamic Thought“.
From […]
I was recently re-reading my heavily underlined and dog-eared copy of Murtaza Mutahhari’s excellent “Fundamentals of Islamic Thought: God, Man, and the Universe” (a book which should be more widely used as a fundamental primer text on Islam) and thought I ‘d post a few bits and pieces taken from its contents. This particular section […]
Symbols, texts, iconic personages, and rituals are the architecture, the geometry, the symbolic worldly aspect, the formalized representation of metaphysical realities and of the human connection to these realities. For Muslims, the Prophet is the human representation of the writing of the Divine pen. He is the one on whose heart God wrote His revelation […]
Those whose actions arise from truly profound readings of the Qur’an are in every age in the minority. Those who play at politics or play with ideological interpretations of religion are in vast abundance. In between are many who stand confused - without firm knowledge we are sometimes swayed this way, sometimes that - waving […]
They were the tongues of God…speaking, through their actions, His words.
Here is the path of approach, here the markers, the signposts, here the guide - so strive - we came to lead you to the goal, not to ourselves - wipe the sweat of effort from your eyes and follow the ascending way - this […]
“Unlike the traditional ulama, who never go beyond the texts that they read, the modern intellectual will be able to read deeper into the text in a critical, imaginative manner.” (AbdolKarim Soroush)
Actually, among the traditional ulama there are many who “read deeper into the text” albeit more cautiously and using different tools than “modern intellectuals” […]
Islam from inside (recent posts)