Abu Hamid Ghazali, in his work, Mizanal Amal (The Scales of Action) commented on the place of madhhabs (of differing schools of Islamic thought) within the larger context of religious belief and knowledge. In it Ghazali outlines three levels of madhhab which, in a sense, parallel the three primary levels which the human soul (nafs) […]
I recently read an article titled “New Information Agency Winning Support For Israel” (Globe and Mail). It described how Israel was skillfully managing the propaganda front of it’s attack on Gaza by effectively swaying the nature of news and opinion coverage on all media fronts. Even YouTube was being flooded with video that portrayed Israeli […]
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 […]
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 […]
“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” […]
“Modernity is characterized by the questioning of everything, of all that we once held dear and inviolable. It opens the way to plurality and diversity, but it can also be seen as a challenge to the worldview of the past.” (AbdolKarim Soroush)
I wish there were some truth in this definition - if there truly were […]
Relationships of political and economic expediency, hierarchies of power and dominance dominate international relationships. Tensions exist because injustice, imbalance, and unfair advantage are the natural outcome of such relationships. Conflict occurs when players in this game seek to strengthen their positions and undermine others - expansion and gain for one often spells loss, instability, and […]
In times of conflict, language and image are spun to shape perceptions of reality and it is through the characterizations and emotional coloring of the media’s visual language and their choice of terminology that events are interpreted, explained, and experienced. Just as symbolic religious language gives meaning and an interpretation to the world, so also […]
“Alas for the servants! there comes not to them an apostle but they mock at him.” (Qur’an 36:30)
According to the Christian gospels, when Jesus was arrested the Roman soldiers charged with his capture were at once amused by and spiteful towards him. Their spite was tinged with a sense of the superiority they felt through […]
A while back, a right-wing Christian blog featured several posts which purported to be an attempt to understand Muslims and the Muslim “mindset” by linking to videos depicting a fundamentalist, extremist, political interpretation of Islam. Then the “extremist Islam” interpretive net was cast over Muslims in general - if it wasn’t Muslims’ actions (as depicted […]
By it’s nature an ideological approach is a reductionist approach since the wide sweeping panorama of reality is reduced to fit set ideological directions. The ideology becomes the filter through which reality is viewed and it reduces vastly complex interactions to simplified statements and judgments that are more reflective of the mental state of the […]
The Qur’an is a transformative document - its power evident in the fact that it impacts significantly all who come across it - whether they consider it in a negative or positive light, whether they are hostile to it or devoted to it. And so it also becomes a battlefield, it’s words a vast, expansive […]
We quote verses to display the Qur’an’s relevance to what we do, to how we see the world, and in defense of the specific direction of our particular beliefs, our leanings, our ways and methods - and we quote to justify to ourselves and to justify ourselves to others. We take our own limited perspectives […]
Some quote Qur’anic verses to correct or inspire or admonish. Some quote them as ammunition for their viewpoints, as support for cherished philosophies, some as adornments for vague sentiments, as buttresses for ideological perspectives, or as crutches on which to hang ferocious politics. Some wield verses as weapons to counter disliked viewpoints, to punish or […]
Like flotsam in a flood we are too frequently carried along by the overpowering flow of ideological currents, modalities of thought and expression of our times. Those who play at politics with deadly earnest, act, and the rest of us only react. Without firm and deep knowledge and connection with higher principles, our environments will […]
Political instability and turmoil, war, conflict, oppression - all contribute to shape individuals who act and react in desperate ways and who in that desperation are susceptible to the manipulation and influence of those who see, in conflict, an excuse and opportunity to pursue suppressed ambitions - sometimes through unbalanced (one-sided), tilted, slanted interpretations […]
Wrapping oneself snugly in the garments of a particular ideology allows one to be uncritical of their own assumptions. While a person, group, or nation may be enviably efficient and rational about process and instrumental, technical knowledge and methods, they could simultaneously be blind and unreasoning about inhuman ideological methods and goals. Witness the holocaust, […]
Whether we adhere to a religious tradition or a secular one, it is possible to fall prey to the allure of raising political ideology (and doctrine based on that ideology) to a position and level that is hierarchically above the truths encoded into the source documents of the tradition. Such a situation is most likely […]
Islam from inside (recent posts)