This Blog has been online for almost 20 years, on different platforms.
The total number of visitors, so far, is very limited. I talk about Religion and Science. Maybe it is not a popular combination. Or maybe I am not good at it. None of that bothers me. Since, when I started the blog, I had no intention to be known or to publish anything at all.
A Programming Project
It all started in late 2004, when I thought I would like to learn PHP. Whenever I start learning a new language I think of a project and build it with that language. So, I thought about designing an online blog. All initial developments were on a PC. Two thirds of the way, I felt confident to test it online, and instead of filling the pages with random texts, I thought about posting some notes and articles I had written, some were on computer files and others on paper. And in 2005, I got a domain name and a hosting plan and posted some articles. I was satisfied with what I have learned and with how the site worked.
However, slowly, I became interested in expanding the contents of the site. So I gathered scattered old notes and later started writing new articles. I moved the articles to Blogger in 2010. By the way, some posts and parts of several posts on my account on twitter/x.com platform are direct excerpts from the blog.
What about the Notes?
- Since a very long time in Islamic scholarly culture, there were (a) Major Scholarly works, (b) the Matn المتن. A sort of very short text usually in a form of a poem. It works like a table of contents, on a specific subject. (c) Summaries of scholarly works (Mukhtasar مختصر ) , (e) Explanations of the summaries (Sharh Al-Mukhtasar شرح المختصر ) . (f) Extended explanations of the original scholarly works. Students would typically go through Mutoon متون (plural of Matn. Usually memorized) and Summaries, while studying main books on a subject. Many would write their own summaries.
I recall reading that a well-known north African Sufi (I think it was Shiekh Ahmad Zarroq), wrote about fifty summaries of Imam Al-Ghazali's Aqeedah (Creed, or a list of elements of faith). And, Sheikh Nematullah (born in Halab, met his Yemeni Sufi Shiekh in Makkah, and his tomb is in Kerman. I think his mother was Persian) wrote about a dozen summary on Ibn Arabi's Fusus.
The ideas of Matn and Mukhtasar were the ones I adopted since high school years, and then the university. That worked for me, to get as clear an understanding of a subject as possible.
Outside of formal studies, those were the same ideas applied to different subjects I would be very interested to clearly understand (Theology and Sufism for instance), as much as I could, on my own.
- The notes I referred to above, as what I based this blog on, were those hand written or typed texts.
- Beside the Matn and Mukhtasar, I also found that translating texts to another language, adds another layer of depth of understanding a subject. So, translating Arabic contents to English, might actually have been, originally, for my own benefit. :)
Lessons learned- Trying to express one's understanding of a subject using one's own words and style is indeed a powerful tool to absorb a subject. Matn, Muhkhtasar and Translation are very interesting in this regard, as far as I can tell, and I think it should be common in any culture and any language.
However, learning from books or computer generated content alone, without having a living human expert, is bound to be limited. There is a sort of unquantifiable aspect to receiving knowledge from experts in any field of knowledge. And should not underestimated in my view. I have tried both ways.
- I have lived a good part of my life using paper and pen, then gradually moving to typing on typewriters then moving to computers. I can say that there is a noticeable difference in favor of pen and paper. Somehow, thoughts are clearer and better organized. Handwriting can actually become a relaxing activity too.
- What about creativity? It is not about understanding available information, but about thinking of something new, or solving a problem. I'd give it a walk. Just visualize a picture of what I want to think about, no concentration or focus is needed, and start walking. Again, somehow, new ideas or solutions might pop up on their own. And another thing: literally to sleep one it. I don't know what's that about or how common it is, but I did find solutions to problems, in dreams, usually after a long walk.
In programming projects, I did find walking, and dreaming to be helpful, to reach solutions. Then there is the fun part of expressing the ideas with paper and pen. I used to have a set of Pens and Pencils. Personally, I found that new ideas are best expressed on paper using a calligraphy pen. Then implementation is almost automatic. I don't know, but it appears that there are artistic and deeply psychological, and God knows what else is involved, in human learning and creative work.
It is not a 'mechanical' process. I don't think that a rational model can capture it. I don't think Computers can ever mimic that.
