This was left as a comment (by Shuja Mirza) on the article “Danish cartoons and the sacred” at Islam from inside. However, being such a comprehensive (traditionalist) comment and conveying so expressively the fall away from metaphysical connectedness that the article only touches upon, I felt it deserved to be highlighted in a separate forum. […]
“Surely the people are two sorts with regard to wisdom. One makes it firm by his word, and spoils it by his bad work, and one makes it firm by his word and confirms it by his work. What a difference between them! Blessed are those who are scholars in their actions, and woe to […]
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 […]
“…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 […]
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 […]
This was my response (in a discussion forum) to a statement claiming Christianity’s exclusive access to truth and the negation of all other alternative religious paths as indicated by Jesus’ apparently “clear and unequivocal” statement that he is the only way to God: “No one approaches the Father but through me.” (John 14:6)
For Muslims, the […]
When I wrote the post “Jesus - I and the father are one“, Yunis from the website Katib raised an interesting question concerning the use of the word “Father” in the text of the Gospels. He wanted to know the original Aramaic term which is translated as father. The ensuing discussion in turn led […]
The Qur’an is composed of words and some approach it as words like other words - but some approach it as “a revelation from the Lord of all worlds” (Qur’an 26:192) - as God’s commanding and guiding words that entered in substance into the heart of the Prophet, expressed themselves encoded into the form of […]
“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 […]
Since the dominant paradigms of our time are scientific, rationalist, technology based ones, it is natural for us to seek out the how of any process, to seek to learn the technology behind it, the mechanics which govern it. But with metaphysical realities we can only attempt to align the mechanisms and observable processes glimpsed […]
This was in response to a question from a Christian (writing in a comments forum) on how Islam could possibly deal with Jesus’ claim that he is God as manifested in the statement “I and the Father are one.”
It’s a fair question because it is a feature of every religion, every set of doctrinal beliefs, […]
The Prophet’s internal reality is connected to the source from which the revelation descended - to seek him only in history and circumstance is to neglect his metaphysical nature, to give little weight to his “sublime character”. (Qur’an 68:4) The revelation is the indicator, both clear and encoded, that points to the source. It is […]
The Qur’an’s verses contain open, apparent meanings and simultaneous inner, deeper meanings - the inner allusions layer one upon the other all simultaneously combined and concealed in the external arrangement of words upon a page. The words enter the mind and begin to come to life, displaying refractions of nuance and purport, showing the concealed […]
Islam from inside (recent posts)