also see
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Eteraz on Sufism
Here's rebel without a pause Ali Eteraz's take on Sufism. Interesting as it's an honest outsider's look on Sufis.
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Knowledge and Action
"You should know that one can achieve great success trough a little religious knowledge. But knowledge should always be followed by practice. For the Prophet, peace be upon him, has condemned knowledge without good deeds..."
-Hazrat Ali Hujweri, may God sanctify his secret.
I know the dominant paradigm of the scholars is that there isn't enough religious knowledge today. (There never was if you ask them). But I would argue that what with printing presses, TV channels, magazines pamphlets CDs DVDs and Radio, there is actually far more knowledge or at least information then there was say in 1800, when there were just 5 copies of the Sahih of Bukhari in Delhi.
Rather as my Pirs have said, there is little putting into practice. In earlier days there was far more practice.
Many houses are full of scores of Sufi classics, when in truth all you need is ONE Sufi classic and a Punjsura to become a Wali.
That and the Grace of God :)
-Hazrat Ali Hujweri, may God sanctify his secret.
I know the dominant paradigm of the scholars is that there isn't enough religious knowledge today. (There never was if you ask them). But I would argue that what with printing presses, TV channels, magazines pamphlets CDs DVDs and Radio, there is actually far more knowledge or at least information then there was say in 1800, when there were just 5 copies of the Sahih of Bukhari in Delhi.
Rather as my Pirs have said, there is little putting into practice. In earlier days there was far more practice.
Many houses are full of scores of Sufi classics, when in truth all you need is ONE Sufi classic and a Punjsura to become a Wali.
That and the Grace of God :)
Take on Tradition
Muslims today have to take on their Tradition themselves.
Yes we need Spiritual Guides and the classical texts such as the Kashf ul Mahjub to navigate our way through the eternal moral problems.
But for many current moral problems, such as Peak Oil, the water crisis, monsanto and agribusiness in general, food miles etc etc., we simply cannot sit around and wait for the fatwa to come from Al Azhar or Qom or Deoband or Bareli or Firangi Mahal.
It's not happening.
We need to be sufficiently educated in our Tradition, in the Seera of the Holy Prophet sws. and take on Tradition ourselves... that is to say neither reject it like the Reformists & Progressives, nor be content to be just blind followers like our Traditional Sunni brethren. We should have the initiative and enough self direction, to see wrong make a judgment and act on our convictions.
Some friends asked a famous dar ul ifta about the menace of plastic bottled water, esp when there are traditions albeit week prohibiting trade and profiteering in water. The Dar ul Ifta found nothing wrong with it.
To understand the magnitude of this problem, and its imperative and categorical nature, see the videos below.
I think this complacency and ignorance cannot be accepted. It must be quietly rejected. Quietly for we don't want fitna.
For as the hippies said, if you ain't part of the solution, you're part of the problem.
Once you watch these films, I'm sure you'll agree that if we don't take Tradition upon ourselves, and realize that these ARE the great moral issues of our time, and leave it to the Ulema, Tradition may well become of limited relevance.
By the Grace of God, some of the Auliya such as Shaykh Nazim & Baba Ashfaq Ahmed have always highlighted such problems and taken a "green" approach, Molana Ilyas Qadri encourages mureeds to drink out of unglazed earthen vessels and virtually all the Murshids and Pirs insist on simplicity & lessening our belongings and cutting our consumption.
We can draw upon this. I'm not advocating a rejection of Traditional Fiqh, but rather saying yes, BUT IT IS NOT ENOUGH. It is now time to be able to abstract moral and ethical principles and apply them oneself regardless of what is the opinion of Al Azhar, Qom, Deoband or Bareli.
This is not a rejection of Tradition itself. All the answers to the current moral problems are there in the Tradition of the Holy Prophet, peace be upon him.
After all this blog also has humbly tried to show for three years how the Sunna as understood by the Sufis gives us all the green solutions to the current ecological crisis, which is ultimately the consequence of Modernity Materialism and Secularism. For when there is a denial of the spirit it means a triumph of matter; spirtual progress can only be replaced by material accumulation.
But I must reiterate that the scholars and the traditional schools have been too slow. 50 years have passed since Rachel Carson's Silent Spring launched the green movement in earnest, but the aforementioned centers of Fiqh are still asleep, rather it is Buddhists who are far more aware of the great moral challenges of our time... only a few such as Seyyed Hossein Nasr address these issues.
God knows best, and His Messenger.
Yes we need Spiritual Guides and the classical texts such as the Kashf ul Mahjub to navigate our way through the eternal moral problems.
But for many current moral problems, such as Peak Oil, the water crisis, monsanto and agribusiness in general, food miles etc etc., we simply cannot sit around and wait for the fatwa to come from Al Azhar or Qom or Deoband or Bareli or Firangi Mahal.
It's not happening.
We need to be sufficiently educated in our Tradition, in the Seera of the Holy Prophet sws. and take on Tradition ourselves... that is to say neither reject it like the Reformists & Progressives, nor be content to be just blind followers like our Traditional Sunni brethren. We should have the initiative and enough self direction, to see wrong make a judgment and act on our convictions.
Some friends asked a famous dar ul ifta about the menace of plastic bottled water, esp when there are traditions albeit week prohibiting trade and profiteering in water. The Dar ul Ifta found nothing wrong with it.
To understand the magnitude of this problem, and its imperative and categorical nature, see the videos below.
I think this complacency and ignorance cannot be accepted. It must be quietly rejected. Quietly for we don't want fitna.
For as the hippies said, if you ain't part of the solution, you're part of the problem.
Once you watch these films, I'm sure you'll agree that if we don't take Tradition upon ourselves, and realize that these ARE the great moral issues of our time, and leave it to the Ulema, Tradition may well become of limited relevance.
By the Grace of God, some of the Auliya such as Shaykh Nazim & Baba Ashfaq Ahmed have always highlighted such problems and taken a "green" approach, Molana Ilyas Qadri encourages mureeds to drink out of unglazed earthen vessels and virtually all the Murshids and Pirs insist on simplicity & lessening our belongings and cutting our consumption.
We can draw upon this. I'm not advocating a rejection of Traditional Fiqh, but rather saying yes, BUT IT IS NOT ENOUGH. It is now time to be able to abstract moral and ethical principles and apply them oneself regardless of what is the opinion of Al Azhar, Qom, Deoband or Bareli.
This is not a rejection of Tradition itself. All the answers to the current moral problems are there in the Tradition of the Holy Prophet, peace be upon him.
After all this blog also has humbly tried to show for three years how the Sunna as understood by the Sufis gives us all the green solutions to the current ecological crisis, which is ultimately the consequence of Modernity Materialism and Secularism. For when there is a denial of the spirit it means a triumph of matter; spirtual progress can only be replaced by material accumulation.
But I must reiterate that the scholars and the traditional schools have been too slow. 50 years have passed since Rachel Carson's Silent Spring launched the green movement in earnest, but the aforementioned centers of Fiqh are still asleep, rather it is Buddhists who are far more aware of the great moral challenges of our time... only a few such as Seyyed Hossein Nasr address these issues.
God knows best, and His Messenger.
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Thursday, May 5, 2011
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