Views About Religion In The Media

Notes about some views on Religion in the Media:

The Pilgrim and the WC - A Sufi Story

This story happened about a couple of generations back. It is about a Pilgrim in Makkah Grand Mosque who needed to go to a WC.

The Invisible Painter - A Sufi Story

A story about a young man and his experience with reading about Wars in History books.

Ibn Arabi's Al-Salat Al-Akbariah - Translation and Notes

This is an attempt to translate the text of Ibn Arabi's Al-Salat Al-Akbariah, which presents a summary of his view of Prophet Muhammad peace be upon him, and how that view relates to a view of the spiritual nature of Existence.

Please note that, regarding Sufism, I am an outsider both to Academic communities and Sufi fellowships.

Familiarity with concepts of Aqeedah (Elements of Faith) and Oneness of Being is expected.

 

Programming Languages Are Useful But Not Perfect

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A friend back in college enjoyed solving math problems. He once told me about a lengthy assignment his class was given. He solved all the problems and was certain that all the solutions were correct. He got the highest mark in class, but not the full mark. He quickly went through the pages and spotted the professor's remark on the side of one page. It said (translated): "It's not what you think". And there was a line under a phrase that my friend wrote, that said something like: "If so and so information about x is available, y can be measured with absolute precision". He did not ask the professor for an explanation. He understood that, in college, saying 'absolute precision' can get you less marks.

His fascination with math and logic was great. Even after college, in his spare time, he would read books about math and logic, including books about the philosophy of math. What caught my attention was that he said that, in his twenties, the biggest shock was losing a parent, and the next biggest shock was realizing that mathematics was not absolutely solid.

The shock was probably inevitable since my friend was like many people who would see math as the last solid ground that eventually can explain everything.

Late Teen Philosophy - A Sufi Story

This is a story about a 19 years old college student.

The Girl Who Married An Unsuitable Man - A Sufi Story

I recall a story that happened about two or three generations ago.

Al-Ghazali - Ehyaa - Outer and Inner Purity

In Ehya' Ulum Al-Deen, Imam Al-Ghazali says, while talking about Wadu' - Ablution :

ومهما فرغ من وضوئه وأقبل على الصلاة فينبغي أن يخطر بباله أنه طهر ظاهره، وهو موضع نظر الخلق، أن يستحي من مناجاة الله تعالى من غير تطهير قلبه وهو موضع نظر الرب سبحانه وليحقق طهارة القلب بالتوبة، والخلو عن الأخلاق المذمومة والتخلق بالأخلاق الحميدة أولى. وأن من يقتصر على طهارة الظاهر كمن يدعو ملكا إلى بيته فتركه مشحونا بالقاذورات واشتغل بتجصيص ظاهر الباب البراني من الدار.

As one finishes his ablution and goes to prayer, one would believe that his outer appearance is clean and pure, and that is what [the aspect that] other people see. But one should feel ashamed to have a discourse with Allah [Prayer is essentially and in its finest practice, a deep experience of having a kind of communication with God] without having cleaned and purified his Heart [one’s Essence], and that is what Allah SWT sees [probably pointing to the Hadith that “Allah does not look at your (physical) faces but at your hearts.”].

So, one should aspire to have a clean and pure heart by repentance [assuming that one might have behaved or said something that might have ‘stained the heart’, since the last prayer]. Although, not having bad/negative traits and having fine manners is better and should be one’s priority [in an attempt to reach a state of sustained purity of the heart].

Whoever is [going to prayer] content with having a clean outer appearance, is like someone inviting a king to his house, and he is busy with beautifying the outer part / the entrance to the house, while the house is full of garbage.

Notes :

المنطق بين الرؤية العلمية المعاصرة والآراء الإسلامية التقليدية

أقسام المقالة:

- المحدوديات في المنطق طبقا للعلوم المعاصرة
- الآراء الإسلامية التقليدية حول المنطق
- المحدوديات في المنطق طبقا للصوفية
- ما بعد المنطق عند الصوفية

Logic: Modern View Compared To Traditional Islamic Views

This article is divided into the following sections:

- Limits in Logic According to Modern Science
- Views of Logic in Islamic History
- Limits In Logic According to Sufis
- The Sufi Way Forward