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Your True Love! What is it?

What is it that you hold most dear in this world?

We have fires inside us, burning and sweltering, the fire of want and desire, of lust and passion, of virtue and wickedness. These fires have fuels, nations and religions, family and friends, ambitions and fame. How long these fires remain ablaze inside us depends on our faith, the unwavering faith on what we hold most dear in this temporary, delusional world of ours. You can see on people’s face when they talk about it, the excitement and glory on their faces, you can see how possessive they are of what they hold dear, unadulterated love, their true ambition, they don’t know it themselves sometimes.

It is not that these fires don’t have a grandeur effect on the happenings of this world, rather our innermost reactions, innermost eruptions of lust and desire are one of the defining things that govern what happens in magnum opus of the Creator. The sparks of loves, the hatreds and all that goes inside our heart is how this visible world is formed by humans. Nature on the contrary remains a steady audience of all the mischief of man always reminding, always standing ironic and still, mocking humans of what they have truly lost.

There are all kinds of people, all kinds of dreams and adventures, virtuous and wicked, which are embedded in our souls, to choose is our destiny and to lull into a willow uproots every moral ground of being.  Acting on what your heart points out is not only difficult it requires sacrifice of what you truly love and what you value most in the visible world. But once you give heed to what your heart says you will be free, you will be free from its scorns and the mourning forever. But to do so requires courage and acceptance of who you truly are.

What is it that you hold most dear in this world?

Morals – An arbitrator of humanity

“And as a single leaf turns not yellow but with the silent knowledge of the whole tree, so the wrong-doer cannot do wrong without the hidden will of you all.”

The Prophet, Khalil Jibran

Uprisings, war, insecurity and injustice these are some of the most critical issues that concern humanity. The injustices of imperial monarchies of the past, today’s corporatocracy, endless wars between Nations and recent uprisings leave every soul in turmoil. It is in human nature to yearn for a utopia, the same was center of Platonic philosophy. The premise of finding this utopia was inspired by deliverance of justice and that humanity can flourish. The search however, didn’t conclude in the annals of arguments of Socrates and Plato and humanity. Instead, it slowly evolved into very different philosophies, owing to the contrast present in human intellect. So, there were Mazdak and Karl Marx, Francis Bacon and Plato, there was Russian Revolution and there was French Revolution, every individual and every major event in history was more or less based on the inability of humans to deal with different economic, social and foreign threats. The result of these great men and revolutions is that there are today, many –isms, ¬¬¬but humanity is still in the abyss of despair.

In this perspective, the endeavor in this article is to highlight how morals can be given the place of a judge to measure how well a social structure is working. This would give an insight of how humanity really works.

For something to be a parameter, it needs to have authenticity and universality. The question arises; how morals can be the parameter to judge humanity? What do we mean by humanity? Answer to the first question lies in belief system of humans. We believe something to be that way because our senses tell us to think that way, after senses we have power of reasoning that comes from experience and tells us how things are. So, if we disregard religion for a while, although it is an inseparable existing reality, we will come to the conclusion that there are certain acts and certain beliefs that no one on this earth would want to do no matter what. Disregarding exceptions we can agree to certain aspects of human behavior that are good and some are bad. Again, from experience our reason can guide us to judge what qualities of an individual help flourish the society and what deteriorates it. So, by experience and priori we have an understanding that virtues like truth, fairness, honesty, nobility, charity and many others are some of the popular and known morals that result in the benefit of whole.

Now the second question; what do we mean by humanity? A society in which corruption is rampant, dishonesty, deceit and apathy, hedonism and vanity are norms, people get frustrated and the coherence of the communion is lost. When lust rules over morality, result is nothing but chaos. Similarly, virtue, pity and goodness are synchronous in every culture. Whether it is Papua Guinea or Australia, Malta or Ethiopia, Pakistan or India, morality has a transcendent nature in every soul. It is not in the confines of culture rather it defines a universality of culture.

“Caesar carried off the treasures of Egypt, Greece, Gaul and Rome. Napoleon looted the money vaults of Venice, Vienna, Madrid, Berlin and Moscow. London only escaped him. Nebuchadnezzar plundered the Temple of Zion, where the Jews kept all their deposits and drank his beer and wine out of Jehovah’s pots of gold.”

(Might is right by Ragnar Redbeard)

Wickedness cannot culminate into justice for the wronged and aid for the poor, it will result in Barbarism and cruelty that will further ignite war that is the most inhumane act. The belief of survival of the fittest is in itself an act of injustice for the weak and is against the innate morality of humans. Now, consider a society where individuals practice sympathy for others, empathy for the distressed and sincerity in their jobs. What would the results be? Will it improve the social harmony or will it disapprove such acts?

Definitely, it will result in a symphony of coherent rhymes of beautiful synchronization of actions depicting the true capacity of humans in the form of morality. Coherence, harmony, stability and prosperity can only be materialized in a society when every individual works within the confines of what is virtuous and what is moral. Immorality on the contrary would ultimately lead to injustice, chaos and destruction. The persistence of people to do well is therefore, known as humanity.

“Our ignorance of the few things that really matter is as prodigious as our knowledge of trivialities.”

(Gai Eaton)

In order for humanity to be considered universal, it is argued that humanity is not a depiction of behavior and beliefs of an individual. The influence of morality spans from individuals to Nations. When individuals practice it they become good individuals and same applies to countries. Although likes of Machiavelli have tried to prove that there are no rules of morality for the government but only for the ruled, the fact remains and we observe acts of pure injustice by those who are in power for those who are weak. It means they are mistaken somehow and there is a need to overhaul thoughts about morality. It is from that judge of experience that human conscience acknowledges injustices that are constantly engulfing our moralities. The search of man is for beauty and absence of morality spoils it.

“A heart which, when exposed to temptation, absorbs it like a sponge that soaks up water, leaving a black stain in it, will continue to absorb each temptation that is offered to it until it is darkened and corrupted."

(Imam Ghazali)

Morality is even the basis of law. Therefore, what else can be the arbitrator for humanity? The reality of crime and punishment is based on what is considered immoral and or that causes material or spiritual harm to other people or a community. Some of these extreme acts are considered to be punishable. What than would suspension of law result in? Can it be the beauty that every soul searches for? Can it help cultivate harmony among humans? Will existence be possible without it? Certainly it cannot be. Morality ensures that Law is upheld and law further ensures that justice is provided to all without discrimination of race or gender or Nationality. It ensures smooth trading, it ensures complementary communion of husband and wife. It provides leverage to every business and every profession the people choose to adopt. It ensures smooth trading and mercantile exchange. In short, it helps every individual to explore his/her abilities and utilize them for the best of humanity. This gives not only a purpose but the innate satisfaction and kindles love for fellow beings and forms a society that is coherent.
The source of law however, is not the law itself but the conscious ability of man to identify those innate feelings of good and bad, right and wrong, moral and immoral. It is through these beliefs and reasoning, innate in humans, that law exists. If there was no priori how can be there a posteriori.

It is a difficult question to answer the question; how can we measure morality? For our parameter to be effective as an arbitrator it has to be measurable, otherwise our purpose is lost. One measure of morality can be the crime reports of different countries tabulated by law enforcement agencies depicting statistics of different crimes being committed by individuals. The other measure can be the happiness factor of countries. We have seen in our discussion that morality helps in promoting cohesion and love of beauty that results in satisfaction of individuals and finally it results in making individuals satisfied and happy, having zeal and zest of life.

Another measure can be friction present in society. Presence of friction means that morality eludes the society and that malevolent forces are at play. Friction can be measured by tabulating the number of people that are present in different classes of the society. Class differences can give us clues to how well the morality is embedded in the society.
Morals are what make humans human. In the course of our discussion we have seen that morality can help clarify the delusions of present era and can sit as a judge of what is right and what wrong. It requires a lot of study to know the foundations of morality, its perfection and how to achieve this end by justifying the means as well.

Morality however, plays the pivotal role in the construct of a society. We have seen that morals are not confined to cultures countries rather they are innate in every human being. The inseparable relationship of law and morality makes it an object of further curiosity. Some of the proposed parameters to measure morality can be crime reports, happiness index, class differences and extensive studies can help us to validate the thesis presented in this essay.
The essay is hoped to ignite our passions to serve humanity and to make it more susceptible to love and beauty, for that is the aspiration of humanity.

“You will not attain true goodness until you give of what you love."

(Quran: Ale-Imran-92)

Noah Feldman - The Fall and Rise of the Islamic State

For long I wanted to express my belief that Islamic era, especially the golden age of Muslims in the world, was different (being closest to the natural social order)then the golden age of other empires. The reason for this belief was its Islamic nature in the form of governance of Allah’s rule on earth. To express this belief I didn’t know of any solid reason or argument until now. I have been reading Noah Feldman’s The Fall and Rise of Islamic State, and in this book the author has deliberated on the constitutional and legislative system of Muslim Empire in the time of Ottomans.

He has explained it by explaining the balance of power in Islamic state. It is natural that authority is always rampant and leads to injustice in a society, the autocratic and monarchial rules indicate towards this reality. But in case of Muslim empire, although the power of caliph rose and fell in the form of hereditary magnificence of different lineages of royal families, still government required legitimacy from the scholars of eminent authority and prominent stature in public. The legitimacy of every caliph, until the reforms period of Ottomans, was issued by the people of the book. Even the bureaucratic and administrative orders of the government were to be legitimized by scholars.

This provided the necessary balance required for the government to be under Shari’a guided laws and decrees. The authoritative power resided in the hands of caliph through the famous and authoritative scholars of that time and they constantly provided the necessary balance required for justice in the society. The scholars were bearers of God’s law on earth and it was there task to interpret the shari’a to provide legal solutions. Legal was what God demanded and illegal was what God prohibited. Every ruler had to affirm this oath that he would abide by God’s law and the source of that law rested in the scholars.

In the early Islamic period rulers were the most pious of the people. They were not only learned scholars of deen but were also administrators and leaders of exceptional quality. The administrative body of Islamic state was founded by these Khulafa e Rashidun and presumably it became a norm to expect both of these qualities in caliph in the subsequent periods of Muslim Empire. After khulafa e Rashidun, highest in stature were sahabas and their opinion was of high regard in the society. After sahaba there were tabaeens and taba tabaeens these people were also of prominent religious cadre as well as performed there task as a check on rulers as their opinion was popular among the general public. This practice of constant check provided a counter weight in the Islamic state and shari’a was never abandoned.

The physical role of this check was performed by Qazis. These were appointed by state and were from amongst the best of the scholars. The Qazi was a state position and he administered orders according to different fatawas issued by different schools and applied them appropriately to different requirements. This enabled a plurality in law that gave each school of Islamic jurisprudence to play its role in interpreting and implementing God-Law.
Muftis were not part of the state and therefore free from any bias. From time to time muftis adhered to the wishes of the rulers, but they never compromised the place of shari’a in view of general public and it was always shari’a that upheld the legal and administrative requirements of the society.

It follows from above discussion that the bureaucratic requirements of Muslim state were also governed by the laws of shari’a. Whenever any order or law clashed with shari’a public resisted against it and ulema were the rallying points for public. This is the hallmark of Muslim era; this is the reason for a just rule for so long, that simply cannot be exemplified anywhere else in the history of mankind.

Noah Feldman then endeavors to explain the ultimate decline of Islamic state of Ottoman Empire vis-à-vis its constitutional and legislative decline. However, following a natural rule of decline this hereditary claim and position of scholars and ulema met a steady decline over the centuries and gained extraordinary momentum during the final century of Ottoman rule. These scholars were once the torch bearers of Islamic civilization and development. When moral corruption did encroach edifices of mosques in the time of Ottoman’s, the structure of Islamic civilization came crumbling down.

It is necessary to expound here the historical perspective of this argument taking into consideration both periods of rule of Umayyads and Abbasids as they were the models of rule available for the Ottoman’s.

The questions I seek an answer to here is what was the form and process of legitimization of caliph by scholars in the early period of Islamic era? How scholars pragmatically held shari’a based law in order, despite of near absolute rule of different lineages? What was the state apparatus in place to ensure uplifting of shari’a, when government was in transition?
These answers will to some extent clarify the difference between Islamic state and other world civilizations.

As Feldman says that before Islamic civilization the world had never seen this way of governance where the authority laid in the hands of learned religious scholars.

The Biggest Smallest Question?

It simply is What do I want?

To some the answer might be very simple. For others it might be difficult. The real difficulty is when you cannot figure out what you truly desire and you get infatuated with every other thing around you. For desire to truly stick with you, must has to solely reside within you and it must not be a mere projection of you identifying yourself with any idea or a personality alone.

Most of us are passing our days of lives in a very superficial way. Not caring about what really matters, spending time in activities that don't add up to anything life and most of all we are not content from inside, because if we were 'happy' we would have been living a completely different life. Why? Because happiness demands authenticity and originality. It is not a mere shadow of someone else's thoughts and ideas. It is free like a bird, like a thought that dazzles your mind, a euphoria that stays for infinity.

This state of contention consumes on one's desires, it is in the way of its fulfillment, it is in the strive of its achievement and it is something that provides the impetus to move forward. The strength and density of this happiness lies within the infatuation itself. It is not ephemeral ecstasy that just passes once and leaves your soul empty and wandering again in search. It becomes part of your soul and it gives you reason to live.

The smile on your loved ones, you comforting your parents, helping someone with sheer altruism and not telling anyone about it, it is in solitude, quietness, in the shadows of self and in the ruins of past, this state is a glowing ball inside you that keeps your spirits high and compels you to push your limits to infinity, to achieve that special place of yours, your purpose. It is this satisfaction, a holy ritual, a satisfaction that is related to the divine that is not physical in any form, that is completely spiritual.

The only unique, expensive and rare thing to find today is such a passion. Conceiving it can make miracles to happen right in front of our bare eyes.

Islam

Below is a draft of somethings that came in to my mind rushing. Read it today after a long time. This is a rough draft that I want to make into several articles that are based on understanding threats that Islam faces today and their possible solutions. It would be of great help if you please share your thoughts, suggestions, critics and any resources here.
I finally found my muse in the article I just read by Robert and an article written by khawaja ahsan-ul-haq and a reheard lecture of Dr. Asad Zaman.
Economics is talked about like there is nothing else matters. What any country country needs to prosper is a healthy growth rate of GDP, a well accumulated pool of foreign reserves and a peaceful environment to sustain this development. Any country that needs to cater the rampant corruption or that needs to take care of governance has to yield to the conclusion that economic growth means everything for mankind and all else stays behind. Some might say this out of their empathy and pity for the poor and they would say ‘roti k bgair insaan khuda ko yaad nhi kr skta’. This is the zeitgeist of modern world that Islam is in contrast with in totality.
To analyze this argument we need to delve into what ideology rules the modern man and what is it that nature actually calls on man to do. Simply put, a duel between the modern ideology and the ideology of Islam. The economy of today rests on consumerism. The idea of eat, drink and enjoy. The idea that there is no higher purpose of humans as they, are, a mere accident and there is nothing other than what they can feel through their five senses. There is no soul and there is no afterlife. There is no morality except of what is offensive to any other human being. The idea that religion is a very personal matter and no one can tell anybody to believe in anything one doesn’t want to believe in. That everyone has the right of freedom of speech and freedom of expression. The idea that everything primitive is bad and everything new is good.
The idea that happiness is something that resides in the material world and there is no spiritual side to it. That man can himself be the master of his own destiny and can conceive universal human values, while science can develop a methodology probabilistic or deterministic that would eventually explain everything and anything there is in the universe. The idea that women are equally obliged to earn and there are no limits to what they can do. There is no room to think of a selfless act in this world as people are essentially selfish. The idea that world is in chaos and that ‘might is always right’ and so is the majority of people.
These ideas represent a specific class of people that is rapidly growing in the world and in fact they are growing at a rate that is faster today, even, from the spread of Islam. These atheistic and secular ideas rule today and Islam addresses these issues in a very balanced and wholesome manner. It takes into account the nature of lust and tells us to not be spendthrift. It takes into account the needs of humans like food but tells us to be modest. It tells us to control ourselves. It is not void of any aim, it gives a higher perception of the creation of humans and directs humans to spread peace by making people believe in oneness of Allah and takes away from humans the burden of making laws that they could never perfect without what has been revealed divinely. The idea that man will ever reach to the conception of these universal laws that could eventually help prevail peace without taking into account the divinely is impossible, because evil is always there and it will always conspire against good, no matter what.
Islam gives a purpose to the creation of humans that they are created for nothing except to please Allah through actions that are higher in ranks in eyes of Allah. Islam guides humans to a unity that nothing else could ever create between humans. It opens the bounties of Allah through which everybody could quench their thirst on earth. It guides of fairness in dealings. It tells to be honest and to be truthful. It tells to leave no stone unturned to help your neighbors and fellow humans. It tells all this not to have more customer satisfaction but to succeed in the hereafter. It creates inside humans the fear of biblical pursuits.
It takes off fear from people of everything except their creator. It frees them of worries of building their lifestyle and of building homes, and owning clothes that they might never wear. It dresses women in modesty of being the ones who could standby in their homes as the protectors of the future generations and to instill character in them for a brighter and a more harmonious future.
Revivalists of Islam always point to the fact that we have forgotten what we have and are blindly following West in everything that they have including education, development and science. There are many things that we could consider to better our society that does not involve ideologies of the West. It is very simple to say but hard to implement but I want to say it and will not hold back. We need to see the threats first that are today being faced by Muslims and Islam all over the world and then to come up with the solutions that are completely indigenous to Islam and Muslims.
After we have seen the threats we could move on to find their solutions. According to me the biggest threat to Muslims is ignorance. The second threat is their massacre that is happening in different parts of the world. The third is the absence of will to act. The fourth is the absence of unity. The fifth is the incapacity of there being able to support themselves economically.
The ignorance has multiple levels and is the most dangerous threat for Muslims. We don’t know our religion, our history, our purpose, our role in today’s world, the complete ignorance of the hidden motives that west has, the ignorance of understanding what is happening in the world and who is who really.
The solution is to think of a society where Islamic principles are implemented in their purest form. Then we have to see what kind of needs would come about and how would we have to cater these needs. In this way we could glimpse of what is necessary and what needs to be done.

On rationale!

Rationale of logic is based on the perception of the sensory world. The rationale of Islam is beyond the world of senses. Logic has yielded chaos, religion promises peace. The questions that are causing confusion in our faith today is because of our inability to appreciate what religion offers and our incapacity to understand the grim realities that rationale of logic has brought to humans. Islam offers conciliation between the visible and the invisible. It does not deny the visible reality of universe but in fact, supports the material wellness of human being. But the difference between sole material development and the rationale of religion is that religion puts supreme authority in Allah, while materialism considers 'itself' the end.