Raising Children
Added January 31, 2006
Some time back I was involved in a series of internet discussions on raising children in which Christian scripture was quoted to emphasize the importance of using discipline and training to rigorously mold a child to a particular mindset. The concern in the discussion was with the use and application of Christian scripture in a way that did a disservice to the scripture itself by putting it to uses that limited interpretation or misapplied the scripture to inappropriate circumstances (something that can and does happen on both Christian and Muslim sides of a discussion). The discussion began with an outline of a belief that the relationship between children and the parents should be modeled after the relationship between humans and God, with the parents being in the position of God and the children in the position of humans who are punished if they disobey God and rewarded if they are obedient to Him. Schools, corporate institutions, even governments have been modeled on a similar hierarchy – on a type of acquiescence or submission to the mindset of institutional authority and many different systems of reward and punishment to ensure compliance. With this context in mind it was suggested that children need to be trained through a process of reward and punishment into the proper behaviors and the proper mode of thinking.
My own thoughts on this subject are rooted in the descriptions Muslims have of the Prophet and his relationship to his household (his ahl al-bait [Ali, Fatima, Hasan, and Husayn] and descriptions of how the Imams taught and guided their children) although, in this discussion, the focus remained entirely on a particular (fairly stern) interpretation of Christian scripture (Muslim equivalents of such sterness also abound).
The quoted Biblical verse which touched off the discussion was:
"Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it." (Proverbs 22:6)
It was quoted in the context of providing a firm and uncompromising upbringing, one that would train children in all aspects of behavior in order that children would be able to avoid the negative pitfalls of modern Western society. What follows are my comments gathered during and following the resultant discussion on raising children.
Note: On internet discussions there is a tendency to conceptualize and crystallize a viewpoint into a rigidity that is not at all mirrored by the reality and flexibility required by day to day life and our own personalities and individual circumstances. Turning a position into a rigid ideology can be counterproductive, especially when people begin to attempt to transform the world to fit into the straitjacket of their manufactured ideology. It is also counterproductive in that scripture (revelation) itself, is deeper and more comprehensive than any single meaning forced onto it.
In the course of the discussion I responded to the following (paraphrased) points (which although they may represent a particular Christian view, are certainly not representative of Christian views in general - however, such discussions do provide an opening and an opportunity to look into the issue of raising children in general and the issue of scriptural interpretation in particular):
- Training a child must begin at a very early age and should direct and cover every aspect of the child's behavior.
- Statistics show a rapid rise in serious crimes committed by young children (sometimes very young children) - more children than ever before are in detention centers and jails - violent crimes are even being committed by children under 10 - these statistics are indicators of behaviors in children that we have to sternly counteract.
- Children have to honor their father and mother - the commandment is clear "Thou shalt honor thy father and thy mother. Honor signifies respect - respect signifies following and obeying.
- To our young children we are like gods. Their behavior towards us is an indicator of the way they will one day behave toward the one true God. If we insist on 100% compliance and do not allow things to slip when they are young they will transfer that obedience when older to God.
- Punishing children, though not pleasant, is necessary for their guidance. God and the Prophets set the example for us. The Bible is full of instances when God had to enact a punishment against a people (the people of Noah, the people of Egypt and many others).
- When Jesus said "Unless ye become like children, ye cannot enter the kingdom of heaven" he was referring to the fact that we must become obedient like children and innocent of our shame.
- Little children have an unbridled nature - they are born with the instinct to be selfish and self-centered - Their natural urge is, "I want it so I must get it... it's mine."
- Our aim is not to judge - we don't really judge children, we recognize their nature and then teach them God's ways.
Note: The points to which I responded are >>italicized and indented in red text below.
>>"Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it." (Proverbs 22:6) Training a child must begin at a very early age and should direct and cover every aspect of the child's behavior.
But think carefully how it is you want him to go. - merciful, kind, honorable, noble, intelligent, aware, conscious, loving.... Children have an endless curiosity, innocence, and an experiential approach to understanding, grappling with, and attempting to comprehend and gain some level of proficiency at interacting with the world around them. They approach life with purity and clarity and with a remarkable openeness in observing their surroundings. The mental world young children occupy is an intense, busy one - their mental landscape is not fixed but shifts and changes while they observe and interact and search for meaning in the external world that is around them. They also have extraordinarily pure intentions and give their whole heart into that which they love or love doing.
Not too many adults have these kind of exceptional qualities - the reason is that in imagining that we are "training" children, we often train all these good qualities right out of them so that they reach adulthood as flat, uni-dimensional creatures - well trained but not necessarily for worthwhile things. When we "train" a child, we are trying to conform him to our mental outlook, to our view of the world. Each of us has a configuration in personality, outlook, understanding, knowledge that has been shaped and contoured by numerous internal and external factors and influences. Each of us has been shaped and delimited in numerous ways. When we train a child we try and conform the child according to our limited perception and knowledge - we try and conform the mental world of the child based on our own often dim understandings. As adults we see the world through so many accumulated filters that it is rare for us to see things as they truly are - to see them with an unfiltered perception. When we look at circumstances, incidences, events, interactions we interpret them and re-image them (according to our preconceived opinions and ideologies) so that by the time they enter our minds they have been substantially altered by the layers of mental lenses that accompany our perceptions. Children are comparatively free of these filters - they have not yet been shaped, contoured and stamped by external influences. Possibly that's why Jesus says: "Unless you turn around and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 8:3) He meant something far deeper by these and other similar statements than is perhaps commonly interpreted.
Training a child is to leave intact all the wonderful qualities in them and to attract them in the proper direction - so they can use these extraordinary qualities for uplifted and profoundly good aims and ends. More often than not the good qualities are trained right out of the children and then on top of that all spiritual direction is removed so the children are totally defenseless against the world around them - one largely dominated by institutions and political structures which maintain focus on human beings as resources to be managed and used, whether economically or politically. Surrounded, shaped, and limited by the interacting systems dominating our times, it becomes more necessary than ever to create a haven. Rather than prepare children to fit into and strengthen the dominant structures, they should be nourished in a beneficient spiritual environment so that there is some hope, some possibility that they will grow to have the knowledge and spiritual "hima" to re-create the world in new forms. If we have children who are encouraged to keep their inborn qualities intact then we will perhaps have adults emerge who can truly achieve much good and who are not confined by the limitations of our times.
Note: We should also note that "Train up a child...." is a proverb and not a commandment.
>>Statistics show a rapid rise in serious crimes committed by young children (sometimes very young children) - more children than ever before are in detention centers and jails - violent crimes are even being committed by kids under 10 - these statistics are indicators of behavior in children that we have to sternly counteract....
Statistics provide numbers but not causes - they highlight the fact that there are deeply disturbing trends manifesting in society but don't expose underlying causes, at least not with any depth. If anything these are indicators of gross missteps and failures within the society that adults have created. Don't raise your kids by fearing the worst in society, but by looking towards the best in all history. See how the Prophets were with their children. With what an admirable combination of freedom and responsibility Daoud (David) was raised. With what love and trust Yusuf (Joseph) was brought up and thus he and his father were able to weather all the hardship and separation they went through and in the end still be forgiving to others and in possession of an expanded love and knowledge. For Muslims, the relationship between the Prophet and his ahl-al-bait (his close family) provides a beautiful example of how to raise children.
>>Children have to honor their father and mother - the commandment is clear "Thou shalt honor thy father and thy mother." Honor signifies respect - respect signifies following and obeying....
The way to inspire someone to listen and follow is by example. This commandment is a directive to the CHILD - not to the parents to force their children to obey their every word. As children of our parents, we have the obligation to honor our parents and to listen to them (so long as what they command is not in direct opposition to what God commands) and to treat them with love, kindness, and compassion. When our children are at the age of understanding and comprehension, they too will be responsible for fulfilling this commandment - but it is addressed to the children, NOT to the parents. One directive to the parents is rather, "Do not provoke or exasperate your children (when raising them), or they will become discouraged and lose heart." (Colossians 3)
>>To our young children we are like gods. Their behavior towards us is an indicator of the way they will one day behave toward the true God. If we insist on 100% compliance and do not allow things to slip when they are young they will transfer that obedience when older to God....
Yes, children when very young do have an exaggerated view of their parent's status. And we should treat them as we would hope God will treat us. With mercy, compassion, love, guidance, and direction. Remember that the Christian prayer to God is "Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us." (Luke 11:3) So we look towards His forgiveness and mercy. And we have no right to look towards his mercy unless we show mercy to those who slip, make errors, and don't show 100% compliance. The necessary attitude is evident in the folowing quote:
"Then he will say to those at his left hand; 'Depart from me....for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me." (Matthew 25:41)
These verses have many deep meanings but one meaning we can infer from them is that it refers to those in this world whom we have the power to affect and impact - and our children are those upon whom we can have the greatest impact. They are born to us hungry, a stranger, naked, and many times their bodies go through childhood illnesses, and they are our prisoners since they cannot look after themselves. Parents fulfill all these needs of children, but as they grow they also have a spiritual hunger that needs to be fed with the healthiest food, a thirst for purity and truth that must be quenched. They will initially be strangers in the world so home must be their haven where they can gather strength and where they are always welcome and at ease, they must be given tender care and useful intellectual and spiritual remedies so the spiritual sicknesses of the world will not weaken them, and then they must be given freedom so that they will bring their own unique approach and their own unique personality to bear upon the condition of the world. Their lives must never be a prison for prisons will distort and eventually kill the spirit.
>>Punishing children, though not pleasant, is necessary for their guidance. God and the Prophets set the example for us. The Bible is full of instances when God had to enact a punishment against a people (the people of Noah, the people of Egypt and many others).
We have to make a distinction between discipline and punishment. The law and the punishments for breaking the law have little to do with the small mischiefs or misbehavior of little children. And it is unfair to project God's prescriptions for serious crimes in a minaturized way onto small children.
These were Divine punishments for a people who had gone so far astray and had earned God's wrath to such an extent that they obstinately and knowingly put themselves out of the ambit of God's mercy - they chose His Wrath. They went past the point of no return. There is no connection, no parallel, between the punishment of such peoples and the raising of children. In fact, it is dangerous to create such parallels as it causes us to see things from the perspective of retribution, and wrath, rather than from the perspective of mercy. "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy." (Matthew 5:7) The dealing out of wrath is God's prerogative and the prerogative of His Prophets who had a comprehensive and Divinely granted perspective by which they made true and correct judgments - not judgments from narrow understanding or ego. Unless we have true knowledge and a higher perspective than that of this world our wrath is of no benefit to anyone - least of all our children. We have to tread carefully when interpreting scripture and the actions of Prophet's and of God. Too glib an understanding sometimes leads to misunderstanding. We should not imagine that we have any more than a shard of understanding from the myriad facets to be found in each and every verse of the various scriptures.
>>When Jesus said "Unless ye become like children, ye cannot enter the kingdom of heaven" he was referring to the fact that we must become obedient like children and innocent of our shame.
What he was talking about was purity of heart and purity of intention, and humility, and the pure, undiluted human impulses as yet relatively untainted by the filters of our own mental constructions which we impose on revelation and on understanding the world. The scribes and pharisees saw all revelation through their mental constructs, they were blind to everything but the narrowest interpretation of their theology, their self-interest (in the matter of their social status and their religious authority) and the manner of interpretation that they had constructed. They "trained" all others in this manner of viewing and filtering the world. "You traverse sea and land to get a single student (a convert), and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves." (Matt: 23.15) Today our institutions and corporations and media train us to view and interact with the world and with each other in certain delimited ways. Jesus is issuing a warning to those who are "training" others that perhaps they have more to learn from the child's nature than they imagine.
Unlike the scribes and pharisees we have to reach deeper into scripture to gain any real lasting benefit from it. Sometimes this necessitates a throwing off of the many filters and blinders we wear. We need to contemplate, not superficially, but as deeply as our own being allows us to reach. And the deeper we reach the more the depths will open up to us. But to partake of that knowledge we need to do more than just stand upon the shore or listen to someone else’s description of of it.
Jesus says that someone who hears the word but doesn't understand it loses to the world whatever little of the word he has in his heart. One who hears it and receives it but doesn't comprehend it with any depth will endure for a short time but there is no depth and so no permanent root of knowledge and wisdom can take hold in him. One who receives it but who dilutes that knowledge with his own prejudices and filters (thorns) will not receive the fruits of the word - the knowledge will not reach fruition and true understanding. But the one who hears and contemplates and understands with depth, will gain the true fruits of understanding which is knowledge and wisdom exploded a hundredfold - a Divine harvest of knowledge (see the parable of the sowers). What better analogy for the hidden spiritual potential that lies in each new generation but which an “institution” and "training" obsessed society often wastes away or diverts towards harmful or low purposes.
Note: "A sower went out to sow his seed: and as he sowed, some fell by the way side; and it was trodden down, and the fowls of the air devoured it. And some fell upon a rock; and as soon as it was sprung up, it withered away, because it lacked moisture. And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprang up with it, and choked it. And other fell on good ground, and sprang up, and bare fruit a hundredfold."(Luke 8:4-8)
>>Little children have an unbridled nature - they are born with the instinct to be selfish and self-centered - Their natural urge is, "I want it so I must get it... it's mine."
Children go through a stage of realizing their individuality, their sense of “ I ”. They go through the process of discovering the boundaries of the external world and their own selves. This is not selfishness or self-centeredness. If they did not experience this stage there would be no sense of self or at best a distorted one. Selfishness comes later when we have knowledge and understanding of ourselves and the world and in spite of knowing better, put ourselves first at others expense, or deprive others so our ego may be fed.
When children are born they are free of any teaching, any particular view of reality, any prejudice, any coloring of thought, any bias of opinion. God has placed within them certain potentials and capabilities and traits and certain strengths and weaknesses, but they have no acquired, human-filtered knowledge. They are blank slates (as far as societally learned teachings are concerned) - unlettered - they are like clear calm water, receptive to light and learning, whereas the mind immersed in the world is like water in turmoil, it's surface darkened and opaque.
In Islam it is said that a soul can receive God's word only when it is in a state of virginal purity, original simplicity, and not distracted, entangled, or immersed in worldly matters – the analogy is Mary, the pure, who was chosen to receive God's word (Jesus) in her womb. Our souls must also be in such a state, or as close as possible to such a state to receive correct, undistorted (by the convolutions of our own mind) teaching. The more our being is contoured and filtered with unrooted opinions, preconceived notions not based on true understanding and knowledge, the less we are able to be like those children, who are far closer to that state of purity. This is why Christians are told to be "born anew", and Muslims to "die before you die" to return to that pure state, that childlike state (not childish state) and then advance from there. Children don't have all those distorting filters, we do.
>>Our aim is not to judge - we don't really judge children, we recognize their nature and then teach them God's ways.
We teach them an interpretation of what we believe to be God's ways. And we do judge them - when we say that children have such and such a wrong nature, we have judged their very being, their very essence, as something that needs to be punished or disciplined or trained out of them.
Jesus says, about following him, about religion - he says that there are two supreme commandments which contain all of the law and the prophets. Total love and consciousness (taqwa) of God - and love your neighbor as yourself. These are the two underlying principles of all religion - from which all law and ethics emerge (Matthew 22:37). Both of these are things which must be experienced and struggled towards - academic, theoretical knowledge of them is not sufficient. We often have difficulty lifting ourselves above the minor and petty annoyances and trials of daily life, of our jobs, of raising children - how can we hope to achieve two goals such as these, or to teach them to those in our care? Those aspects of religion which move us in this direction, are of course good, if not essential. And of course children need direction and guidance, and in time must learn self-discipline. But we should be careful of the lens through which we view these matters - it is too easy to distort our outlook, and then what we call following the apostles or prophets (or whomever) may actually be a dis-service to their teachings.
When we plant a flower in a garden we take care to ensure that the soil is good, that it receives water and sunshine, that we weed the garden and shelter it from what may harm the flowers. But even as we tend the garden in this manner we trust the flower's own innate capacity to take it to full bloom, to disclose the potential that was contained in the kernel of the seed, and to become what it was capable of becoming. We do not try to change the nature of the flower, but rather protect and nurture it and provide what it needs so it may attain the best possible fruition. So with children – so with their education.
By contrast, this age's approach is not only to train but to alter the basic nature of things – the ability to alter genetically, to recombine and reshape is a modern analogy for a level of control and interference practiced by modern institutional society that is unparalleled in history - to seek to shape humans to fit constructed institutional /corporate/political/societal moulds. Even education can get subverted to this end. It’s truly sad if religious misinterpretations might cause us to transform even the refuge of home and family into a miniature reward and punishment based training ground – turning the sanctity and beauty of "home" into a place where children have their own individual reality trained and engineered right out of them.
Doshiza
Doshiza
Saturday, 25 June 2011
Power and Hegemony
Power and Hegemony
Added Nov 30, 2005
"Then leading him to a height, Satan showed him in a moment of time all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor and said to him, 'I will give you all this power and glory of all these kingdoms....worship me then and it shall be all yours.' Then Jesus replied, 'Be off, Satan! For scripture says: You must worship your Lord, your God and serve Him alone.' (Matthew 4:8-10)
This beautifully evocative passage from Matthew contains a succinct spiritual statement concerning the worldly history of mankind – a history replete with ambition, desire, conquest, hegemony, and empire building. Satan's offer to Jesus represents the ultimate profane offer - every kingdom of the world with all the accompanying power, glory and wealth - a naked appeal to the ego and to the avaricious aspects of the nafs (soul) in its lowest state of being. We have to wonder whether Satan was so deluded as to believe that Jesus would actually succumb to such transparent bribery - perhaps it is indicative of the limits within which Satan is forced to operate - when faced with a faithful servant of God he can only increase the magnitude of his offer, not alter its nature. "Surely the strategy of the Shaitan is weak...." (Qur'an 4:76) Of course, Jesus easily saw the crux of the matter, and banished Satan away. The passage concludes with the statement, "Then Satan left him and angels came and attended Jesus."
This is the case for Jesus. But this offer of Satan's - this deal with the devil is one that we can imagine has been offered again and again (in more limited but endlessly varied ways) throughout the history of mankind. Satan's offer is always present. 'I will give you power, glory, and empire in your time - just bend towards me - a little bow, a small acknowledgement through casting aside of truth, compassion, and principle and I'll assist you on your way to conquest, hegemony, wealth, power, glory. All your ambitions realized at the expense of others.'
It is as if this offer has remained on the table from the beginning of human history, and every era has had its takers - snatching the bargain greedily off the table before it falls into other's hands. A history of conquests, of monopolies, of dominance, of political, military, and economic manipulation and sovereignty - that's how we're taught history - as an endless parade of pharaohs, dynasties, kingdoms, fiefdoms, sultanates, empires, dictatorships, republics, or democracies all engaged in an increasingly vicious, brutish, and nasty game of King of the Hill.
Somehow, when we come to our own time, to our own nations, we're ideologically caught up in the game and must struggle to view it with the historical perspective through which we viewed the previous scrambles for the top of the hill. Too often, we'll defend our own nation's scramble to the top, no matter how much devastation is caused while taking the hill, no matter what principles are shattered or what brazen lies are promulgated. Such measures are simply considered to be part of a realistic worldview – one in which geopolitical realities must be understood and acknowledged and a certain amount of violence and ruthlessness is considered as necessary to achieve security and deal with the harsh truths of a ruthless world.
Jesus wasn't just offered the position of King of the Hill, but that of King of the mother of all hills - a kingdom encompassing all other kingdoms past, present, and future - and he cast it aside as worthless dross. While he saw the whole of this dance of worldly dominance as inconsequential, how is it that so many others have struck the devil's bargain even for small specks of power, seeking dominion over any hillock, no matter how small or insignificant. The lure of the game is powerful, almost irresistible, it seems. And as the world shrinks with the increasingly speedy growth of technology and the advent of an age of scientific miracles, the stakes of the game become great. Technology is a vast and immensely powerful lever that extends and strengthens potential human reach and brings the possibility of control, surveillance, and dominion into jurisdictions that were previously free of interference. The stakes for those of us who live on this hill (that is, the earth) are considerable. We're arriving at an age in which everyone is affected by the game - whether we cast aside the devil's bargain or accept it, we're going to suffer the effects of the battle for the summit – there will be precious few places of refuge remaining.
The devil's contract is already laid out - the offer is on the table (it’s perpetually present in every era although it becomes increasingly tempting at certain critical historical junctures or following historically precipitous events) - a tantalizing lure to those nations whose ambitions already lean in that direction. From the perspective of a long and bloody human history, it's an elementary deduction to ascertain that someone is always eager to take the bait even if getting the prize involves a de-facto deal with the devil – “'I will give you all this power and glory …worship me then and it shall be all yours….” (Matthew 4:8,9) Of course, this is not a literal deal. After all, what one values...what one worships, is indicated not solely by words that come from the mouth but by the character and spirit that determines intentions, animates purpose, and manifests in deeds. As the qur'an says of those whose intentions and actions and hidden aims are bonded powerfully to opportunistic, temporal, acquisitive, mercenary, uncompassionate ends: "Did I not charge you, O children of Adam! that you should not worship the Shaitan?" (Qur'an 36:60) A corrupted worship - seeking what the ego desires (an individual ego, a nation's ego, an economic, military, or ideological ego) in disregard of truth and heedless of the welfare of others, while falsely propagandizing what is sought as if it is born of a pure worship, true intention, or noble aims - this is like associating Satan with God.
"And the Shaitan (Satan) shall say after the affair is decided: Surely Allah promised you the Promise of truth, and I gave you alluring promises, then failed to keep them to you, and I had no authority over you, except that I called you and you obeyed me, therefore do not blame me but blame yourselves: I cannot be your helper (now) nor can you be my helpers; surely I disbelieved in your associating me with Allah before; surely it is the unjust that shall have the painful punishment." (Qur'an 14:22)
Iblis (Satan) indicates that he simply lays out the temptation - it is that which is in one's own character and makeup that causes them to respond to (or reject) the offer. As Rumi says:
"Iblis said, 'Solve this mystery! I am the touchstone of the false coin and the true. God made me the test of lion and cur. He made me the test of genuine and counterfeit. When did I ever blacken the counterfeit coin's face? I am the assayer. I only declare its worth....Severity and gentleness were married and a world of good and evil was born from the two....Display the food of the spirit and the food of the ego! If he seeks the food of the ego, he is defective, but if he seeks the food of the spirit, he is a chief. If he serves the body, he is an ass, but if he enters the ocean of the spirit, he will find a pearl. Although these two - good and evil - are different, both perform a single task.... How can I make good into bad? I am not God. I invite them, I am not their Creator." (Rumi - Mathnavi)
The invitation is perpetually present - so that every era faces weak facsimiles of the temptation faced by Christ – but the temptation is a means to unearth the true character of nations as well as individuals – to see what glittery prizes they stumble after and who joins with them. The history of each generation is a complex map of how the diverse elements of that generation faced the alluring seduction of Shaitan’s offer.
“Let it not deceive you that those who misbelieve go (arrogantly) to and fro in the land. It is a slight and fading possession….” (Qur'an 3:196)
Added Nov 30, 2005
"Then leading him to a height, Satan showed him in a moment of time all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor and said to him, 'I will give you all this power and glory of all these kingdoms....worship me then and it shall be all yours.' Then Jesus replied, 'Be off, Satan! For scripture says: You must worship your Lord, your God and serve Him alone.' (Matthew 4:8-10)
This beautifully evocative passage from Matthew contains a succinct spiritual statement concerning the worldly history of mankind – a history replete with ambition, desire, conquest, hegemony, and empire building. Satan's offer to Jesus represents the ultimate profane offer - every kingdom of the world with all the accompanying power, glory and wealth - a naked appeal to the ego and to the avaricious aspects of the nafs (soul) in its lowest state of being. We have to wonder whether Satan was so deluded as to believe that Jesus would actually succumb to such transparent bribery - perhaps it is indicative of the limits within which Satan is forced to operate - when faced with a faithful servant of God he can only increase the magnitude of his offer, not alter its nature. "Surely the strategy of the Shaitan is weak...." (Qur'an 4:76) Of course, Jesus easily saw the crux of the matter, and banished Satan away. The passage concludes with the statement, "Then Satan left him and angels came and attended Jesus."
This is the case for Jesus. But this offer of Satan's - this deal with the devil is one that we can imagine has been offered again and again (in more limited but endlessly varied ways) throughout the history of mankind. Satan's offer is always present. 'I will give you power, glory, and empire in your time - just bend towards me - a little bow, a small acknowledgement through casting aside of truth, compassion, and principle and I'll assist you on your way to conquest, hegemony, wealth, power, glory. All your ambitions realized at the expense of others.'
It is as if this offer has remained on the table from the beginning of human history, and every era has had its takers - snatching the bargain greedily off the table before it falls into other's hands. A history of conquests, of monopolies, of dominance, of political, military, and economic manipulation and sovereignty - that's how we're taught history - as an endless parade of pharaohs, dynasties, kingdoms, fiefdoms, sultanates, empires, dictatorships, republics, or democracies all engaged in an increasingly vicious, brutish, and nasty game of King of the Hill.
Somehow, when we come to our own time, to our own nations, we're ideologically caught up in the game and must struggle to view it with the historical perspective through which we viewed the previous scrambles for the top of the hill. Too often, we'll defend our own nation's scramble to the top, no matter how much devastation is caused while taking the hill, no matter what principles are shattered or what brazen lies are promulgated. Such measures are simply considered to be part of a realistic worldview – one in which geopolitical realities must be understood and acknowledged and a certain amount of violence and ruthlessness is considered as necessary to achieve security and deal with the harsh truths of a ruthless world.
Jesus wasn't just offered the position of King of the Hill, but that of King of the mother of all hills - a kingdom encompassing all other kingdoms past, present, and future - and he cast it aside as worthless dross. While he saw the whole of this dance of worldly dominance as inconsequential, how is it that so many others have struck the devil's bargain even for small specks of power, seeking dominion over any hillock, no matter how small or insignificant. The lure of the game is powerful, almost irresistible, it seems. And as the world shrinks with the increasingly speedy growth of technology and the advent of an age of scientific miracles, the stakes of the game become great. Technology is a vast and immensely powerful lever that extends and strengthens potential human reach and brings the possibility of control, surveillance, and dominion into jurisdictions that were previously free of interference. The stakes for those of us who live on this hill (that is, the earth) are considerable. We're arriving at an age in which everyone is affected by the game - whether we cast aside the devil's bargain or accept it, we're going to suffer the effects of the battle for the summit – there will be precious few places of refuge remaining.
The devil's contract is already laid out - the offer is on the table (it’s perpetually present in every era although it becomes increasingly tempting at certain critical historical junctures or following historically precipitous events) - a tantalizing lure to those nations whose ambitions already lean in that direction. From the perspective of a long and bloody human history, it's an elementary deduction to ascertain that someone is always eager to take the bait even if getting the prize involves a de-facto deal with the devil – “'I will give you all this power and glory …worship me then and it shall be all yours….” (Matthew 4:8,9) Of course, this is not a literal deal. After all, what one values...what one worships, is indicated not solely by words that come from the mouth but by the character and spirit that determines intentions, animates purpose, and manifests in deeds. As the qur'an says of those whose intentions and actions and hidden aims are bonded powerfully to opportunistic, temporal, acquisitive, mercenary, uncompassionate ends: "Did I not charge you, O children of Adam! that you should not worship the Shaitan?" (Qur'an 36:60) A corrupted worship - seeking what the ego desires (an individual ego, a nation's ego, an economic, military, or ideological ego) in disregard of truth and heedless of the welfare of others, while falsely propagandizing what is sought as if it is born of a pure worship, true intention, or noble aims - this is like associating Satan with God.
"And the Shaitan (Satan) shall say after the affair is decided: Surely Allah promised you the Promise of truth, and I gave you alluring promises, then failed to keep them to you, and I had no authority over you, except that I called you and you obeyed me, therefore do not blame me but blame yourselves: I cannot be your helper (now) nor can you be my helpers; surely I disbelieved in your associating me with Allah before; surely it is the unjust that shall have the painful punishment." (Qur'an 14:22)
Iblis (Satan) indicates that he simply lays out the temptation - it is that which is in one's own character and makeup that causes them to respond to (or reject) the offer. As Rumi says:
"Iblis said, 'Solve this mystery! I am the touchstone of the false coin and the true. God made me the test of lion and cur. He made me the test of genuine and counterfeit. When did I ever blacken the counterfeit coin's face? I am the assayer. I only declare its worth....Severity and gentleness were married and a world of good and evil was born from the two....Display the food of the spirit and the food of the ego! If he seeks the food of the ego, he is defective, but if he seeks the food of the spirit, he is a chief. If he serves the body, he is an ass, but if he enters the ocean of the spirit, he will find a pearl. Although these two - good and evil - are different, both perform a single task.... How can I make good into bad? I am not God. I invite them, I am not their Creator." (Rumi - Mathnavi)
The invitation is perpetually present - so that every era faces weak facsimiles of the temptation faced by Christ – but the temptation is a means to unearth the true character of nations as well as individuals – to see what glittery prizes they stumble after and who joins with them. The history of each generation is a complex map of how the diverse elements of that generation faced the alluring seduction of Shaitan’s offer.
“Let it not deceive you that those who misbelieve go (arrogantly) to and fro in the land. It is a slight and fading possession….” (Qur'an 3:196)
Power and Hegemony
Power and Hegemony
Added Nov 30, 2005
"Then leading him to a height, Satan showed him in a moment of time all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor and said to him, 'I will give you all this power and glory of all these kingdoms....worship me then and it shall be all yours.' Then Jesus replied, 'Be off, Satan! For scripture says: You must worship your Lord, your God and serve Him alone.' (Matthew 4:8-10)
This beautifully evocative passage from Matthew contains a succinct spiritual statement concerning the worldly history of mankind – a history replete with ambition, desire, conquest, hegemony, and empire building. Satan's offer to Jesus represents the ultimate profane offer - every kingdom of the world with all the accompanying power, glory and wealth - a naked appeal to the ego and to the avaricious aspects of the nafs (soul) in its lowest state of being. We have to wonder whether Satan was so deluded as to believe that Jesus would actually succumb to such transparent bribery - perhaps it is indicative of the limits within which Satan is forced to operate - when faced with a faithful servant of God he can only increase the magnitude of his offer, not alter its nature. "Surely the strategy of the Shaitan is weak...." (Qur'an 4:76) Of course, Jesus easily saw the crux of the matter, and banished Satan away. The passage concludes with the statement, "Then Satan left him and angels came and attended Jesus."
This is the case for Jesus. But this offer of Satan's - this deal with the devil is one that we can imagine has been offered again and again (in more limited but endlessly varied ways) throughout the history of mankind. Satan's offer is always present. 'I will give you power, glory, and empire in your time - just bend towards me - a little bow, a small acknowledgement through casting aside of truth, compassion, and principle and I'll assist you on your way to conquest, hegemony, wealth, power, glory. All your ambitions realized at the expense of others.'
It is as if this offer has remained on the table from the beginning of human history, and every era has had its takers - snatching the bargain greedily off the table before it falls into other's hands. A history of conquests, of monopolies, of dominance, of political, military, and economic manipulation and sovereignty - that's how we're taught history - as an endless parade of pharaohs, dynasties, kingdoms, fiefdoms, sultanates, empires, dictatorships, republics, or democracies all engaged in an increasingly vicious, brutish, and nasty game of King of the Hill.
Somehow, when we come to our own time, to our own nations, we're ideologically caught up in the game and must struggle to view it with the historical perspective through which we viewed the previous scrambles for the top of the hill. Too often, we'll defend our own nation's scramble to the top, no matter how much devastation is caused while taking the hill, no matter what principles are shattered or what brazen lies are promulgated. Such measures are simply considered to be part of a realistic worldview – one in which geopolitical realities must be understood and acknowledged and a certain amount of violence and ruthlessness is considered as necessary to achieve security and deal with the harsh truths of a ruthless world.
Jesus wasn't just offered the position of King of the Hill, but that of King of the mother of all hills - a kingdom encompassing all other kingdoms past, present, and future - and he cast it aside as worthless dross. While he saw the whole of this dance of worldly dominance as inconsequential, how is it that so many others have struck the devil's bargain even for small specks of power, seeking dominion over any hillock, no matter how small or insignificant. The lure of the game is powerful, almost irresistible, it seems. And as the world shrinks with the increasingly speedy growth of technology and the advent of an age of scientific miracles, the stakes of the game become great. Technology is a vast and immensely powerful lever that extends and strengthens potential human reach and brings the possibility of control, surveillance, and dominion into jurisdictions that were previously free of interference. The stakes for those of us who live on this hill (that is, the earth) are considerable. We're arriving at an age in which everyone is affected by the game - whether we cast aside the devil's bargain or accept it, we're going to suffer the effects of the battle for the summit – there will be precious few places of refuge remaining.
The devil's contract is already laid out - the offer is on the table (it’s perpetually present in every era although it becomes increasingly tempting at certain critical historical junctures or following historically precipitous events) - a tantalizing lure to those nations whose ambitions already lean in that direction. From the perspective of a long and bloody human history, it's an elementary deduction to ascertain that someone is always eager to take the bait even if getting the prize involves a de-facto deal with the devil – “'I will give you all this power and glory …worship me then and it shall be all yours….” (Matthew 4:8,9) Of course, this is not a literal deal. After all, what one values...what one worships, is indicated not solely by words that come from the mouth but by the character and spirit that determines intentions, animates purpose, and manifests in deeds. As the qur'an says of those whose intentions and actions and hidden aims are bonded powerfully to opportunistic, temporal, acquisitive, mercenary, uncompassionate ends: "Did I not charge you, O children of Adam! that you should not worship the Shaitan?" (Qur'an 36:60) A corrupted worship - seeking what the ego desires (an individual ego, a nation's ego, an economic, military, or ideological ego) in disregard of truth and heedless of the welfare of others, while falsely propagandizing what is sought as if it is born of a pure worship, true intention, or noble aims - this is like associating Satan with God.
"And the Shaitan (Satan) shall say after the affair is decided: Surely Allah promised you the Promise of truth, and I gave you alluring promises, then failed to keep them to you, and I had no authority over you, except that I called you and you obeyed me, therefore do not blame me but blame yourselves: I cannot be your helper (now) nor can you be my helpers; surely I disbelieved in your associating me with Allah before; surely it is the unjust that shall have the painful punishment." (Qur'an 14:22)
Iblis (Satan) indicates that he simply lays out the temptation - it is that which is in one's own character and makeup that causes them to respond to (or reject) the offer. As Rumi says:
"Iblis said, 'Solve this mystery! I am the touchstone of the false coin and the true. God made me the test of lion and cur. He made me the test of genuine and counterfeit. When did I ever blacken the counterfeit coin's face? I am the assayer. I only declare its worth....Severity and gentleness were married and a world of good and evil was born from the two....Display the food of the spirit and the food of the ego! If he seeks the food of the ego, he is defective, but if he seeks the food of the spirit, he is a chief. If he serves the body, he is an ass, but if he enters the ocean of the spirit, he will find a pearl. Although these two - good and evil - are different, both perform a single task.... How can I make good into bad? I am not God. I invite them, I am not their Creator." (Rumi - Mathnavi)
The invitation is perpetually present - so that every era faces weak facsimiles of the temptation faced by Christ – but the temptation is a means to unearth the true character of nations as well as individuals – to see what glittery prizes they stumble after and who joins with them. The history of each generation is a complex map of how the diverse elements of that generation faced the alluring seduction of Shaitan’s offer.
“Let it not deceive you that those who misbelieve go (arrogantly) to and fro in the land. It is a slight and fading possession….” (Qur'an 3:196)
Added Nov 30, 2005
"Then leading him to a height, Satan showed him in a moment of time all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor and said to him, 'I will give you all this power and glory of all these kingdoms....worship me then and it shall be all yours.' Then Jesus replied, 'Be off, Satan! For scripture says: You must worship your Lord, your God and serve Him alone.' (Matthew 4:8-10)
This beautifully evocative passage from Matthew contains a succinct spiritual statement concerning the worldly history of mankind – a history replete with ambition, desire, conquest, hegemony, and empire building. Satan's offer to Jesus represents the ultimate profane offer - every kingdom of the world with all the accompanying power, glory and wealth - a naked appeal to the ego and to the avaricious aspects of the nafs (soul) in its lowest state of being. We have to wonder whether Satan was so deluded as to believe that Jesus would actually succumb to such transparent bribery - perhaps it is indicative of the limits within which Satan is forced to operate - when faced with a faithful servant of God he can only increase the magnitude of his offer, not alter its nature. "Surely the strategy of the Shaitan is weak...." (Qur'an 4:76) Of course, Jesus easily saw the crux of the matter, and banished Satan away. The passage concludes with the statement, "Then Satan left him and angels came and attended Jesus."
This is the case for Jesus. But this offer of Satan's - this deal with the devil is one that we can imagine has been offered again and again (in more limited but endlessly varied ways) throughout the history of mankind. Satan's offer is always present. 'I will give you power, glory, and empire in your time - just bend towards me - a little bow, a small acknowledgement through casting aside of truth, compassion, and principle and I'll assist you on your way to conquest, hegemony, wealth, power, glory. All your ambitions realized at the expense of others.'
It is as if this offer has remained on the table from the beginning of human history, and every era has had its takers - snatching the bargain greedily off the table before it falls into other's hands. A history of conquests, of monopolies, of dominance, of political, military, and economic manipulation and sovereignty - that's how we're taught history - as an endless parade of pharaohs, dynasties, kingdoms, fiefdoms, sultanates, empires, dictatorships, republics, or democracies all engaged in an increasingly vicious, brutish, and nasty game of King of the Hill.
Somehow, when we come to our own time, to our own nations, we're ideologically caught up in the game and must struggle to view it with the historical perspective through which we viewed the previous scrambles for the top of the hill. Too often, we'll defend our own nation's scramble to the top, no matter how much devastation is caused while taking the hill, no matter what principles are shattered or what brazen lies are promulgated. Such measures are simply considered to be part of a realistic worldview – one in which geopolitical realities must be understood and acknowledged and a certain amount of violence and ruthlessness is considered as necessary to achieve security and deal with the harsh truths of a ruthless world.
Jesus wasn't just offered the position of King of the Hill, but that of King of the mother of all hills - a kingdom encompassing all other kingdoms past, present, and future - and he cast it aside as worthless dross. While he saw the whole of this dance of worldly dominance as inconsequential, how is it that so many others have struck the devil's bargain even for small specks of power, seeking dominion over any hillock, no matter how small or insignificant. The lure of the game is powerful, almost irresistible, it seems. And as the world shrinks with the increasingly speedy growth of technology and the advent of an age of scientific miracles, the stakes of the game become great. Technology is a vast and immensely powerful lever that extends and strengthens potential human reach and brings the possibility of control, surveillance, and dominion into jurisdictions that were previously free of interference. The stakes for those of us who live on this hill (that is, the earth) are considerable. We're arriving at an age in which everyone is affected by the game - whether we cast aside the devil's bargain or accept it, we're going to suffer the effects of the battle for the summit – there will be precious few places of refuge remaining.
The devil's contract is already laid out - the offer is on the table (it’s perpetually present in every era although it becomes increasingly tempting at certain critical historical junctures or following historically precipitous events) - a tantalizing lure to those nations whose ambitions already lean in that direction. From the perspective of a long and bloody human history, it's an elementary deduction to ascertain that someone is always eager to take the bait even if getting the prize involves a de-facto deal with the devil – “'I will give you all this power and glory …worship me then and it shall be all yours….” (Matthew 4:8,9) Of course, this is not a literal deal. After all, what one values...what one worships, is indicated not solely by words that come from the mouth but by the character and spirit that determines intentions, animates purpose, and manifests in deeds. As the qur'an says of those whose intentions and actions and hidden aims are bonded powerfully to opportunistic, temporal, acquisitive, mercenary, uncompassionate ends: "Did I not charge you, O children of Adam! that you should not worship the Shaitan?" (Qur'an 36:60) A corrupted worship - seeking what the ego desires (an individual ego, a nation's ego, an economic, military, or ideological ego) in disregard of truth and heedless of the welfare of others, while falsely propagandizing what is sought as if it is born of a pure worship, true intention, or noble aims - this is like associating Satan with God.
"And the Shaitan (Satan) shall say after the affair is decided: Surely Allah promised you the Promise of truth, and I gave you alluring promises, then failed to keep them to you, and I had no authority over you, except that I called you and you obeyed me, therefore do not blame me but blame yourselves: I cannot be your helper (now) nor can you be my helpers; surely I disbelieved in your associating me with Allah before; surely it is the unjust that shall have the painful punishment." (Qur'an 14:22)
Iblis (Satan) indicates that he simply lays out the temptation - it is that which is in one's own character and makeup that causes them to respond to (or reject) the offer. As Rumi says:
"Iblis said, 'Solve this mystery! I am the touchstone of the false coin and the true. God made me the test of lion and cur. He made me the test of genuine and counterfeit. When did I ever blacken the counterfeit coin's face? I am the assayer. I only declare its worth....Severity and gentleness were married and a world of good and evil was born from the two....Display the food of the spirit and the food of the ego! If he seeks the food of the ego, he is defective, but if he seeks the food of the spirit, he is a chief. If he serves the body, he is an ass, but if he enters the ocean of the spirit, he will find a pearl. Although these two - good and evil - are different, both perform a single task.... How can I make good into bad? I am not God. I invite them, I am not their Creator." (Rumi - Mathnavi)
The invitation is perpetually present - so that every era faces weak facsimiles of the temptation faced by Christ – but the temptation is a means to unearth the true character of nations as well as individuals – to see what glittery prizes they stumble after and who joins with them. The history of each generation is a complex map of how the diverse elements of that generation faced the alluring seduction of Shaitan’s offer.
“Let it not deceive you that those who misbelieve go (arrogantly) to and fro in the land. It is a slight and fading possession….” (Qur'an 3:196)
Shards of Knowledge
Shards of Knowledge
Added Nov 15, 2005
Knowledge shapes and defines - it lays some limits and demolishes others - it provides a template, an unfolding genome from which both individual understandings and societal forms emerge. We as individuals have control over knowledge, but so also does knowledge have a powerful control over us - impacting our consciousness and unconsciousness, affecting us both overtly and subtly. Our knowledge is not a thing apart from our selves but rather a complex ocean of interactions in motion within us - simultaneously defined by us and defining us.
Information enters into us in so many diverse ways - education, friends, culture, media, family, thoughts, anxieties, fears, hopes, aspirations, beliefs - in this way the sum total of what we encounter and of how we process that information leaves its imprints upon us - it mixes within us in ways that are often below the threshold of conscious deliberation.
Information is both internal and external - we receive input from the outside world - through the senses - we take in facts and opinions on myriad issues and process this to form views on the world around us - and we receive input from the internal world, from internal senses and impulses - hunger, thirst, anxiety, fears, hopes, desires, loves, ambitions, thoughts, fantasies, moods - the internal and the external mix and meld to produce a complex interaction which creates an ever shifting world of knowledge within. This in turn affects how we act and react, how we interact with the society and world around us - it shapes and defines our personalities and character.
This is key - the information we take into ourselves, the information that surrounds us and which becomes part of our internal world of knowledge, shapes us - it profoundly impacts what we become. Knowledge, in this sense, is the "familiarity, awareness, or understanding gained through experience - it is the sum or range of what has been perceived, discovered, or learned."
Our knowledge creates the patterns which delineate our actions and reactions - it becomes the filter through which we accept, reject, and judge - it becomes the lens through which we view the world and through which we project our own image upon the world. We are demarcated and circumscribed by it. So the types of knowledge we seek out and imbibe, and the quality of the sources of knowledge is important since, whether we intend it or not, it is our knowledge that shapes us - we are not separate from it. To the extent that we surround and open ourselves to base knowledge, to degraded modes of behavior, actions and interactions, images, and philosophies, we are in danger of becoming complacent towards and comfortable with a diluted and diminished view of the world. A shrunken, inferior reality becomes the acceptable, convenient, desirable norm and the character, form, and substance of society dwindles to fit the deformed contours of an incapacious, deflated, attenuated humanity.
The knowledge to which we attach ourselves is key.
Since the Prophets received knowledge from elevated sources, so also their character and their personalities were elevated, so that they simultaneously transcended and powerfully impacted the mundane world in which they lived. They brought a deeper/higher knowledge which reshaped, reordered, and guided the worldly knowledges of their time. The source and the types of knowledge one plugs into, the quality and character of the source of that knowledge, and the caliber of the derived, received, and imbibed knowledge has a profound impact on the essence of the individual personality and such an individual can have a profound effect on the world around them.
We are not Prophets and we have no revelation except the Qur'an brought by our Prophet - but this revelation has a profound interior, a penetrating ability to awaken those who are receptive and not averse to what it contains. "We reveal of the Qur’an that which is a healing and a mercy to the believers, but it adds only to the perdition of the unjust." (Qur'an 17:82) Among the unjust are those who give their mundane knowledge, desires, and ambitions priority, precedence, and dominance over revelatory knowledge, while the believers are said to be those who shepherd and safeguard the value of the mundane through the guidance of the higher knowledges and through using that knowledge as a corrective guide for their own souls. Without this hierarchy of priority, knowledge will fail - even as it conveys worldly benefits it will lower human stature. "Have you then considered him who takes his mundane desire for his god, and Allah has made him err having knowledge and has set a seal upon his ear and his heart and put a covering upon his eye." (Qur'an 45:23) The sources which we draw upon for our fundamental knowledges are of crucial importance.
When God created Adam He wove into his being knowledge of the names of all things.
"And He taught Adam all the names, then presented them to the angels; then He said: Tell me the names of those if you are right. They said: Glory be to Thee! we have no knowledge but that which Thou hast taught us; surely Thou art the Knowing, the Wise. He said: O Adam! inform them of the names. Then when he had informed them of the names, He said: Did I not say to you that I surely know what is ghaib [hidden] in the heavens and the earth and (that) I know what you manifest and what you hide?" (Qur'an 2:31-33)
God created Adam in a very high station - so elevated that the Angels prostrated before Adam - then he sent man down to a low station "Then We sent him to the lowest of the low" (Qur'an 95:5) The sending down was a veil, a concealment of the potential stature residing within man. Adam's stature derives in part from his knowledge and ability - the angels are asked to name the names but they can't and Adam can. Then they are asked to prostrate before Adam. His superiority was in the realm of the knowledge which was etched within his being, within his makeup. In our time, our potential superiority is in our ability to awaken, even if only to a small extent, that nature which is now cloaked and concealed by a lower, mundane nature. The higher nature never vanished or disappeared - "we created him of a high stature" - it became shrouded and concealed by other lower aspects - "then we reduced him to the lowest of the low".
Adam contained etched within himself the template of the names - a pure and high form of knowledge and ability. Like a laser-etched holographic image, that knowledge was burned into his nature. Adam's descendants are shards and slivers created from his original image - they are his seed scattered across time and space, across history.
If you break the glass plate on which a holographic image is etched, each resultant piece contains the entire image since a hologram is a way of recording information in such a way that each component of the hologram contains the image of the entire system. Each component has the possibility of reflecting the whole and information about the original image is accessible by studying just a shard or sliver of the original.
Adam's descendants are like those shards and slivers. The Qur'an is a light which, through the illuminating power of its knowledge, can reveal the beauty of the original image concealed within the shards of a fragmented and scattered humanity.
Added Nov 15, 2005
Knowledge shapes and defines - it lays some limits and demolishes others - it provides a template, an unfolding genome from which both individual understandings and societal forms emerge. We as individuals have control over knowledge, but so also does knowledge have a powerful control over us - impacting our consciousness and unconsciousness, affecting us both overtly and subtly. Our knowledge is not a thing apart from our selves but rather a complex ocean of interactions in motion within us - simultaneously defined by us and defining us.
Information enters into us in so many diverse ways - education, friends, culture, media, family, thoughts, anxieties, fears, hopes, aspirations, beliefs - in this way the sum total of what we encounter and of how we process that information leaves its imprints upon us - it mixes within us in ways that are often below the threshold of conscious deliberation.
Information is both internal and external - we receive input from the outside world - through the senses - we take in facts and opinions on myriad issues and process this to form views on the world around us - and we receive input from the internal world, from internal senses and impulses - hunger, thirst, anxiety, fears, hopes, desires, loves, ambitions, thoughts, fantasies, moods - the internal and the external mix and meld to produce a complex interaction which creates an ever shifting world of knowledge within. This in turn affects how we act and react, how we interact with the society and world around us - it shapes and defines our personalities and character.
This is key - the information we take into ourselves, the information that surrounds us and which becomes part of our internal world of knowledge, shapes us - it profoundly impacts what we become. Knowledge, in this sense, is the "familiarity, awareness, or understanding gained through experience - it is the sum or range of what has been perceived, discovered, or learned."
Our knowledge creates the patterns which delineate our actions and reactions - it becomes the filter through which we accept, reject, and judge - it becomes the lens through which we view the world and through which we project our own image upon the world. We are demarcated and circumscribed by it. So the types of knowledge we seek out and imbibe, and the quality of the sources of knowledge is important since, whether we intend it or not, it is our knowledge that shapes us - we are not separate from it. To the extent that we surround and open ourselves to base knowledge, to degraded modes of behavior, actions and interactions, images, and philosophies, we are in danger of becoming complacent towards and comfortable with a diluted and diminished view of the world. A shrunken, inferior reality becomes the acceptable, convenient, desirable norm and the character, form, and substance of society dwindles to fit the deformed contours of an incapacious, deflated, attenuated humanity.
The knowledge to which we attach ourselves is key.
Since the Prophets received knowledge from elevated sources, so also their character and their personalities were elevated, so that they simultaneously transcended and powerfully impacted the mundane world in which they lived. They brought a deeper/higher knowledge which reshaped, reordered, and guided the worldly knowledges of their time. The source and the types of knowledge one plugs into, the quality and character of the source of that knowledge, and the caliber of the derived, received, and imbibed knowledge has a profound impact on the essence of the individual personality and such an individual can have a profound effect on the world around them.
We are not Prophets and we have no revelation except the Qur'an brought by our Prophet - but this revelation has a profound interior, a penetrating ability to awaken those who are receptive and not averse to what it contains. "We reveal of the Qur’an that which is a healing and a mercy to the believers, but it adds only to the perdition of the unjust." (Qur'an 17:82) Among the unjust are those who give their mundane knowledge, desires, and ambitions priority, precedence, and dominance over revelatory knowledge, while the believers are said to be those who shepherd and safeguard the value of the mundane through the guidance of the higher knowledges and through using that knowledge as a corrective guide for their own souls. Without this hierarchy of priority, knowledge will fail - even as it conveys worldly benefits it will lower human stature. "Have you then considered him who takes his mundane desire for his god, and Allah has made him err having knowledge and has set a seal upon his ear and his heart and put a covering upon his eye." (Qur'an 45:23) The sources which we draw upon for our fundamental knowledges are of crucial importance.
When God created Adam He wove into his being knowledge of the names of all things.
"And He taught Adam all the names, then presented them to the angels; then He said: Tell me the names of those if you are right. They said: Glory be to Thee! we have no knowledge but that which Thou hast taught us; surely Thou art the Knowing, the Wise. He said: O Adam! inform them of the names. Then when he had informed them of the names, He said: Did I not say to you that I surely know what is ghaib [hidden] in the heavens and the earth and (that) I know what you manifest and what you hide?" (Qur'an 2:31-33)
God created Adam in a very high station - so elevated that the Angels prostrated before Adam - then he sent man down to a low station "Then We sent him to the lowest of the low" (Qur'an 95:5) The sending down was a veil, a concealment of the potential stature residing within man. Adam's stature derives in part from his knowledge and ability - the angels are asked to name the names but they can't and Adam can. Then they are asked to prostrate before Adam. His superiority was in the realm of the knowledge which was etched within his being, within his makeup. In our time, our potential superiority is in our ability to awaken, even if only to a small extent, that nature which is now cloaked and concealed by a lower, mundane nature. The higher nature never vanished or disappeared - "we created him of a high stature" - it became shrouded and concealed by other lower aspects - "then we reduced him to the lowest of the low".
Adam contained etched within himself the template of the names - a pure and high form of knowledge and ability. Like a laser-etched holographic image, that knowledge was burned into his nature. Adam's descendants are shards and slivers created from his original image - they are his seed scattered across time and space, across history.
If you break the glass plate on which a holographic image is etched, each resultant piece contains the entire image since a hologram is a way of recording information in such a way that each component of the hologram contains the image of the entire system. Each component has the possibility of reflecting the whole and information about the original image is accessible by studying just a shard or sliver of the original.
Adam's descendants are like those shards and slivers. The Qur'an is a light which, through the illuminating power of its knowledge, can reveal the beauty of the original image concealed within the shards of a fragmented and scattered humanity.
What do we know?
What do we know?
Added September 07, 2005
"O You who are enwrapped in your mantle...." (74:1,2)
Each person carries within themselves their own reality-distortion field - this consists of all the layerings of experience, opinion, tendencies, habits, desires, genetic dispositions, physical structure, psychological structure, societal and parental imprintings, media influences, educational influences, religious background, information and mis-information, knowledge and ignorance, proclivities, traditions, interpretations, encounters, and internalized worldviews that have accumulated within the individual and have over time left their traces and marks and given a shape and contour to that person's outlook - this is their internal landscape and it is one that may shift and change and assume new contours over time as an interactive feedback loop occurs between the individual and all the varying layers and levels active in the societal worlds with which they interact and in the complex interworkings of their internal world.
This interaction happens as a matter of course - our internal landscape is an ever-present invisible background which filters, organizes, rearranges and interprets that which reaches us - so our acceptance or rejection, our adoption or casting aside, our understanding of what reaches us is colored by myriad factors. The shimmering wall of our thoughts, our ongoing internal dialogue (of thought, image, emotion, mood) is like a wavefront which creates an interference pattern that simultaneously receives and reshapes, however subtle that re-contouring may be. So each person is, in a sense, a relativity - each contains a unique internal universe, that generates distortions, alterations, and relative re-shapings in understandings of the many relative realities that surround us.
The interference pattern generated by the interaction between the individual and the world is that person's self-generated reality - a complex combination of external information and internal state - each acting on the other in a feedback loop that generates our filtered perception.
For the most part these filters, these shapers of thought are invisible. Most of them operate on the fringes of, if not below, the threshold of consciousness - subtle but pervasive. How can you know the shape of your thoughts without examining the very thoughts themselves? How can you know how the contents of your mind affect the way you perceive the world through which you move, unless those contents are altered, changed - and then the sudden shift in perception may bring home the extent to which we modify reality as it filters into our minds - even though the shift may simply take us to a new set of filters, an altered interference pattern - a slightly different curtain.
That ever-present curtain accompanies us wherever we go, whatever we do - it hangs, heavy, between a person and their experiences. It is wrapped around us, enveloping and cloaking, veiling us from direct perception and direct understanding. We are creatures wrapped in mantles of limitation and boundary.
In the external, material world, what we know, we know through the faculties available to us - that is, through the various senses, the ability to think and reason, to discern patterns and connections. Even the ability for these senses, such as the sense of sight, to function, is dependent on the system and laws through which the world operates. Sight is dependant on the existence of light, and vision is limited to a narrow range of the full spectrum of light. All our information derived in this world is severely restricted and incomplete, just as our senses provide us only a limited and incomplete view of the material world we live in and our reason can carry us only so far in overcoming these limitations. Even when we expand the range and sensitivity of these senses through technology, limits apply through the restrictions inherent in the technology and through our ability to use, interpret, and understand the information gathered. We are limitation wrapped in limitation.
Knowledge and information in this world is partial knowledge, since as limited beings we are restricted to seeing things from one perspective or the other. We have trouble reconciling opposites as our perspective is circumscribed by the fact that we ourselves are delimited in so many ways. No one has complete knowledge of anything, and if they were able to gain it, their ability to process and completely and perfectly inter-relate that knowledge would face inherent limits.
Total illumination in which there is no error, and in which all seeming opposites are reconciled is only with God. "God embraces all things in knowledge...God is knower of all things...." (6:59, 4:176) Creation only experiences a limited light – it is a night in which created beings stumble about in the darkness of their own boundaries and their own finite knowledge. To the extent that we rely solely upon what we create and what we invent, we will be in error since our inventions, ideologies, and systems are suffused with the same constraints which we have – they are the product and reflection of limited creatures drawing upon their own fenced-in understandings.
“...the created things encompass nothing of His knowledge, except what He pleases….” God’s knowledge alone is perfect and complete and no one knows a thing in every respect except God “...who encompasses everything….” (65:12).
The qur’an says: “Nothing is like Him.” (42:11) After God there is nothing but creation. Since only God is absolute knowledge, everything created, everything at a level other than God, is to some extent, error. "Say...Who encompasses the hearing and the sight....And Who regulates the systems....and what is there after the Real but error...." (10:31, 32)
If everything at a level other than God is, to some extent, error, so also does it, to some extent (since the existence and sustenance of all things is from God and so points towards God), direct towards truth. Through virtue of their connection and dependance on God, and inasmuch as they are signs of God, the things of this world can direct towards God. To the extent that things are taken as completely independent and unconnected with anything but this world, they can lead to delusion and error concerning the full depth of reality. The human task is to discern between the two - through means of the two forms of guidance, the two types of guiding signposts, the two forms of error correction provided to humans - the external and the internal guidance. "We shall manifest our signs on the horizons and within the souls, until the truth becomes clear to them...." (41:53)
"....surely there will come to you a guidance from Me, then whoever follows My guidance, no fear shall come upon them, nor shall they grieve...." (2:38)
The curtain between our minds and the world, between our existence and the invisible realities that support our existence, is a cloak, a mantle that limits and conceals. It is also an invitation to recognition of our limitations, a movement toward humility through acknowledgment of them, and a turning towards the possibility of correct guidance from the unlimited Being within Whom all knowledges coincide and unite - the possibility of a partial unwrapping of the cloak which shrouds us.
"....You who are enwrapped in your mantle...arise." (74:1,2)
Added September 07, 2005
"O You who are enwrapped in your mantle...." (74:1,2)
Each person carries within themselves their own reality-distortion field - this consists of all the layerings of experience, opinion, tendencies, habits, desires, genetic dispositions, physical structure, psychological structure, societal and parental imprintings, media influences, educational influences, religious background, information and mis-information, knowledge and ignorance, proclivities, traditions, interpretations, encounters, and internalized worldviews that have accumulated within the individual and have over time left their traces and marks and given a shape and contour to that person's outlook - this is their internal landscape and it is one that may shift and change and assume new contours over time as an interactive feedback loop occurs between the individual and all the varying layers and levels active in the societal worlds with which they interact and in the complex interworkings of their internal world.
This interaction happens as a matter of course - our internal landscape is an ever-present invisible background which filters, organizes, rearranges and interprets that which reaches us - so our acceptance or rejection, our adoption or casting aside, our understanding of what reaches us is colored by myriad factors. The shimmering wall of our thoughts, our ongoing internal dialogue (of thought, image, emotion, mood) is like a wavefront which creates an interference pattern that simultaneously receives and reshapes, however subtle that re-contouring may be. So each person is, in a sense, a relativity - each contains a unique internal universe, that generates distortions, alterations, and relative re-shapings in understandings of the many relative realities that surround us.
The interference pattern generated by the interaction between the individual and the world is that person's self-generated reality - a complex combination of external information and internal state - each acting on the other in a feedback loop that generates our filtered perception.
For the most part these filters, these shapers of thought are invisible. Most of them operate on the fringes of, if not below, the threshold of consciousness - subtle but pervasive. How can you know the shape of your thoughts without examining the very thoughts themselves? How can you know how the contents of your mind affect the way you perceive the world through which you move, unless those contents are altered, changed - and then the sudden shift in perception may bring home the extent to which we modify reality as it filters into our minds - even though the shift may simply take us to a new set of filters, an altered interference pattern - a slightly different curtain.
That ever-present curtain accompanies us wherever we go, whatever we do - it hangs, heavy, between a person and their experiences. It is wrapped around us, enveloping and cloaking, veiling us from direct perception and direct understanding. We are creatures wrapped in mantles of limitation and boundary.
In the external, material world, what we know, we know through the faculties available to us - that is, through the various senses, the ability to think and reason, to discern patterns and connections. Even the ability for these senses, such as the sense of sight, to function, is dependent on the system and laws through which the world operates. Sight is dependant on the existence of light, and vision is limited to a narrow range of the full spectrum of light. All our information derived in this world is severely restricted and incomplete, just as our senses provide us only a limited and incomplete view of the material world we live in and our reason can carry us only so far in overcoming these limitations. Even when we expand the range and sensitivity of these senses through technology, limits apply through the restrictions inherent in the technology and through our ability to use, interpret, and understand the information gathered. We are limitation wrapped in limitation.
Knowledge and information in this world is partial knowledge, since as limited beings we are restricted to seeing things from one perspective or the other. We have trouble reconciling opposites as our perspective is circumscribed by the fact that we ourselves are delimited in so many ways. No one has complete knowledge of anything, and if they were able to gain it, their ability to process and completely and perfectly inter-relate that knowledge would face inherent limits.
Total illumination in which there is no error, and in which all seeming opposites are reconciled is only with God. "God embraces all things in knowledge...God is knower of all things...." (6:59, 4:176) Creation only experiences a limited light – it is a night in which created beings stumble about in the darkness of their own boundaries and their own finite knowledge. To the extent that we rely solely upon what we create and what we invent, we will be in error since our inventions, ideologies, and systems are suffused with the same constraints which we have – they are the product and reflection of limited creatures drawing upon their own fenced-in understandings.
“...the created things encompass nothing of His knowledge, except what He pleases….” God’s knowledge alone is perfect and complete and no one knows a thing in every respect except God “...who encompasses everything….” (65:12).
The qur’an says: “Nothing is like Him.” (42:11) After God there is nothing but creation. Since only God is absolute knowledge, everything created, everything at a level other than God, is to some extent, error. "Say...Who encompasses the hearing and the sight....And Who regulates the systems....and what is there after the Real but error...." (10:31, 32)
If everything at a level other than God is, to some extent, error, so also does it, to some extent (since the existence and sustenance of all things is from God and so points towards God), direct towards truth. Through virtue of their connection and dependance on God, and inasmuch as they are signs of God, the things of this world can direct towards God. To the extent that things are taken as completely independent and unconnected with anything but this world, they can lead to delusion and error concerning the full depth of reality. The human task is to discern between the two - through means of the two forms of guidance, the two types of guiding signposts, the two forms of error correction provided to humans - the external and the internal guidance. "We shall manifest our signs on the horizons and within the souls, until the truth becomes clear to them...." (41:53)
"....surely there will come to you a guidance from Me, then whoever follows My guidance, no fear shall come upon them, nor shall they grieve...." (2:38)
The curtain between our minds and the world, between our existence and the invisible realities that support our existence, is a cloak, a mantle that limits and conceals. It is also an invitation to recognition of our limitations, a movement toward humility through acknowledgment of them, and a turning towards the possibility of correct guidance from the unlimited Being within Whom all knowledges coincide and unite - the possibility of a partial unwrapping of the cloak which shrouds us.
"....You who are enwrapped in your mantle...arise." (74:1,2)
A Children's Story
A Children's Story
Added February 09, 2005
There was once a King with a vast kingdom. He was a very great King, good, fair, just, merciful, loved deeply by all his subjects, by all the creatures in His kingdom.
His was not an ordinary kingdom. He ruled over all of nature, the mountains, streams, skies, and the wide earth whose strength supported all of these.
The King was loved deeply by all his subjects who knew well his continuous kindness and mercy.
One day the King called all of His subjects to come before Him. They all came willingly and from among their numbers each group chose a representative to stand before the King. The mountains chose the firmest and mightiest among them to go forward as their representative. The skies chose the strongest wind and in like manner each group sent forward their chosen representative.
The King said He had a task, a test, "a trust", a difficult undertaking, and He wanted to see who among His subjects would undertake this task.
The task was to journey through a faraway land known as the land of forgetfulness.
Anyone who entered this land forgot who they were, where they came from, even why they came to that land.
And even though that land was also part of the kingdom, the visible signs of the King were concealed and disguised in that land. Those who entered there became so forgetful and distracted that they forgot their beloved King and forgot that He had set them a task.
Only those who were able to look deep into their hearts would be able to remember their King and their task, because the forgetfulness was like a thick fog that clouded their minds.
And only those with a firm and deep love for the King would be able to journey safely through the midst of this land of forgetfulness.
The King asked the mighty mountains if they would accept but the mountains trembled and said they would accept any other task but this task was too difficult – how could they bear the separation.
The King asked the skies which enveloped the mountains and rose high above them, but the skies refused, sighing fearfully at the thought of such forgetfulness and what it might lead to.
The King asked the ground, the firm earth which supported the mountains and the sky, but the ground shook with a "mighty shaking" for it feared that if it was able to forget the King, then it may even forget its own self.
Amidst all the creatures who refused this task, only one came forward. The other creatures turned…and looked at the human being. It was insignificant compared to the mountains, the sky, and the earth but on its face was the look of one who was consumed with a burning love for the King. I will undertake this task, he said.
The King said this task is so difficult that it is not enough that you alone agree to it but that all human beings must agree to it. And he ordered all the humans brought before him. As far as could be discerned, there were rows upon rows of people, covering all the land in unimaginably vast numbers.
Then He made a covenant (a pledge) with them, asking them, "Am I not your Lord?" In one voice they answered, "Yes!"
As the King knew the difficulty they would face, He told them a secret before they began their journey....
And then he caused them to descend into the land of forgetfulness, a few at a time, for their numbers were vast. And as they entered the land it was as if they became newborn babies who did not remember where they came from, why they were there, or that they even had a King.
Now some have finished with this journey in the land of forgetfulness, and some are still on the journey, and others have not yet entered the land. Some few remember their King, many have forgotten, some have forgotten so completely that they do not believe there even is a King.
Those who are still on the journey are those who are alive today, and the story which you have heard is one which is true. It is our story - a story which begins with our birth and ends with our death.
The King is God. The land of forgetfulness is this world we live in. The journey is our life from birth to death.
The trust that was offered is the trust spoken of in the Qur'an:
"We did indeed offer the Trust to the Heavens and the Earth and the Mountains; but they refused to undertake it, being afraid thereof: but man undertook it..." (33:72)
The covenant is the covenant spoken of in the Qur’an, which God made with all the descendants of Adam - all of us.
When thy Lord drew forth from the Children of Adam all their descendants, and asked them to bear witness concerning themselves (concerning their own souls): "Am I not your Lord (who cherishes and sustains you)?"- They responded: "Yes! To this we bear witness!" (This), lest you say on the Day of Return: "Of this we were ignorant" (Qur'an 7:172)
The King’s secret is "He (Allah) is with you wherever you are." (Qur'an 57:4) He is not absent, He is not missing, rather our consciousness, our awareness of Him is absent, missing, lost in a fog of distraction. He is with us but we are blind to this fact. "Remember your Lord within Yourself humbly...." (Qur'an 7:205)
And for those who fulfill the trust and awaken within themselves the remembrance of the covenant, for them is the exalted station of “He loves them and they love Him...for this is Allah's Face, He gives of it to whom He pleases....” (5:54)....
Added February 09, 2005
There was once a King with a vast kingdom. He was a very great King, good, fair, just, merciful, loved deeply by all his subjects, by all the creatures in His kingdom.
His was not an ordinary kingdom. He ruled over all of nature, the mountains, streams, skies, and the wide earth whose strength supported all of these.
The King was loved deeply by all his subjects who knew well his continuous kindness and mercy.
One day the King called all of His subjects to come before Him. They all came willingly and from among their numbers each group chose a representative to stand before the King. The mountains chose the firmest and mightiest among them to go forward as their representative. The skies chose the strongest wind and in like manner each group sent forward their chosen representative.
The King said He had a task, a test, "a trust", a difficult undertaking, and He wanted to see who among His subjects would undertake this task.
The task was to journey through a faraway land known as the land of forgetfulness.
Anyone who entered this land forgot who they were, where they came from, even why they came to that land.
And even though that land was also part of the kingdom, the visible signs of the King were concealed and disguised in that land. Those who entered there became so forgetful and distracted that they forgot their beloved King and forgot that He had set them a task.
Only those who were able to look deep into their hearts would be able to remember their King and their task, because the forgetfulness was like a thick fog that clouded their minds.
And only those with a firm and deep love for the King would be able to journey safely through the midst of this land of forgetfulness.
The King asked the mighty mountains if they would accept but the mountains trembled and said they would accept any other task but this task was too difficult – how could they bear the separation.
The King asked the skies which enveloped the mountains and rose high above them, but the skies refused, sighing fearfully at the thought of such forgetfulness and what it might lead to.
The King asked the ground, the firm earth which supported the mountains and the sky, but the ground shook with a "mighty shaking" for it feared that if it was able to forget the King, then it may even forget its own self.
Amidst all the creatures who refused this task, only one came forward. The other creatures turned…and looked at the human being. It was insignificant compared to the mountains, the sky, and the earth but on its face was the look of one who was consumed with a burning love for the King. I will undertake this task, he said.
The King said this task is so difficult that it is not enough that you alone agree to it but that all human beings must agree to it. And he ordered all the humans brought before him. As far as could be discerned, there were rows upon rows of people, covering all the land in unimaginably vast numbers.
Then He made a covenant (a pledge) with them, asking them, "Am I not your Lord?" In one voice they answered, "Yes!"
As the King knew the difficulty they would face, He told them a secret before they began their journey....
And then he caused them to descend into the land of forgetfulness, a few at a time, for their numbers were vast. And as they entered the land it was as if they became newborn babies who did not remember where they came from, why they were there, or that they even had a King.
Now some have finished with this journey in the land of forgetfulness, and some are still on the journey, and others have not yet entered the land. Some few remember their King, many have forgotten, some have forgotten so completely that they do not believe there even is a King.
Those who are still on the journey are those who are alive today, and the story which you have heard is one which is true. It is our story - a story which begins with our birth and ends with our death.
The King is God. The land of forgetfulness is this world we live in. The journey is our life from birth to death.
The trust that was offered is the trust spoken of in the Qur'an:
"We did indeed offer the Trust to the Heavens and the Earth and the Mountains; but they refused to undertake it, being afraid thereof: but man undertook it..." (33:72)
The covenant is the covenant spoken of in the Qur’an, which God made with all the descendants of Adam - all of us.
When thy Lord drew forth from the Children of Adam all their descendants, and asked them to bear witness concerning themselves (concerning their own souls): "Am I not your Lord (who cherishes and sustains you)?"- They responded: "Yes! To this we bear witness!" (This), lest you say on the Day of Return: "Of this we were ignorant" (Qur'an 7:172)
The King’s secret is "He (Allah) is with you wherever you are." (Qur'an 57:4) He is not absent, He is not missing, rather our consciousness, our awareness of Him is absent, missing, lost in a fog of distraction. He is with us but we are blind to this fact. "Remember your Lord within Yourself humbly...." (Qur'an 7:205)
And for those who fulfill the trust and awaken within themselves the remembrance of the covenant, for them is the exalted station of “He loves them and they love Him...for this is Allah's Face, He gives of it to whom He pleases....” (5:54)....
History and Perception
History and Perception
Added December 23, 2004
When two mirrors are held facing each other a regression of reflections results. A corridor of mirrors dwindling away into miniscule images beyond the range of vision is created. But each time the reflections repeat themselves the quality of the reflection degrades ever so slightly. At first this change is hardly noticeable, but as we look deeper into the never-ending well of repeating images the degradation becomes obvious and long before the vanishing point it becomes a blurred, hazy, jumble of indistinct fuzziness. So it is when we look along the tunnel of time, past and future.
There the degradation exists in our minds, our conciousness. It is not the image which is lacking in clarity but the mirror of our perception...the clouded glass through which all our seeing is done - the past is what it was but the relics and stories of what remains of it in our time do not often allow us a clear perception. And our own immersion in our present affects our viewpoint so that we interpret from the standpoint of our era and all it's own myriad biases and foibles.
At its best, our era is not graced with serenity. These are event driven times, full of motion, movement, turmoil - an antithesis to contemplation and careful consideration. For us, for our time, the future rarely extends its horizon beyond the next month, or week, or day. And so we tend to hang on every oscillation in stock prices, anticipate the turn of fortune that the next market update may herald, and, in troubled times, diligently follow the ever-shifting state of the world. We watch incessantly, intently, so focused on each advancing tick of the event-clock that past and future are seemingly banished to the cloudy, unfocused edges of peripheral vision. The principle of cause and effect in human affairs recedes into irrelevancy, and like an amnesiac we dwell in a disconnected, decoupled, never-ending present. There is no degradation of image in our view of past events, since there is hardly any image existing to consider. If the past is referred to it is often a revisionist past or a fragment mentioned only to bolster the acceptance of some present day agenda or policy. In other words the past is of interest primarily inasmuch as it can be shown to mirror or support present day desires and objectives - it becomes little more than an extension of the collective modern ego.
And so we are in danger of being left with no point of reference with which to judge events and insufficient context with which to understand them. With vast amounts of knowledge at our fingertips, with technology that borders on magic at our daily command, with mountains of information at our disposal, we seem nevertheless destined to repeatedly encounter disaster and horror around the world and to meet it by dealing out the same. Over time, as the never-ending present we dwell in grows increasingly nightmarish, increasingly brutal, we will shake our heads in confusion and wonder how all this could come to be - and we will never truly know since we cut ourselves adrift from the sources which could help us to understand and seek solutions for our problems. Past and future - cause and effect - continuity and coherence.
Only the noise and clamour of the present remains - the cold horror of sudden death by terror, the hollow rhetoric and tiresome lies of leaders, the moment by moment media reports, the faulty and destructive strategies of war, the crushing blows of armies, the transformation of economics, trade, diplomacy, business, aid, information, and culture into strategic weapons. The energy of events overrides all historical perspectives except those that pertain to policy, tactics and propaganda, and a corporatized and generally cowardly media becomes an active component in this process. Our society's signal to noise ratio has become so feeble that little that is truly meaningful or coherent can be discerned. Reflection and thoughtfulness are drowned in a sea of "white noise".
Yet between the din of conflict and the clatter of a media that vacillates between producing mind-numbing entertainment and engaging in vacuous and selective reporting of current events and crises, there are present among every religion, every culture, every language, those who struggle to raise their level of awareness and understanding and that of their society. They do not deal with weapons of terror or have the power of empire at their disposal - their efforts occur in the interspaces between events, often drowned out by the incessant shouting of the powerful and the connected. They do not cover over, conceal, or shrug off what has gone before, they are not swayed by the biases, fashions, trends and propaganda of their time. They seek to illuminate the present with the light of the past and with an understanding that cuts deeply through the vertical axis of this world and through this show the possibilities of hope for the future. They do not cause suffering - they relieve it. They act as witnesses for their era and their societies (We bring forth from every people a witness" (Qur'an. 4:41)). Their simple and quiet traces are of greater worth than the posturing and clamoring of this era's demagogues....
"....what they used to forge shall depart from them....We will raise up in every people a witness over them from among themselves.... Surely Allah enjoins the doing of justice and the doing of good (to others)...and He admonishes you that you may be deeply mindful." (Qur'an 16:87-90)
Added December 23, 2004
When two mirrors are held facing each other a regression of reflections results. A corridor of mirrors dwindling away into miniscule images beyond the range of vision is created. But each time the reflections repeat themselves the quality of the reflection degrades ever so slightly. At first this change is hardly noticeable, but as we look deeper into the never-ending well of repeating images the degradation becomes obvious and long before the vanishing point it becomes a blurred, hazy, jumble of indistinct fuzziness. So it is when we look along the tunnel of time, past and future.
There the degradation exists in our minds, our conciousness. It is not the image which is lacking in clarity but the mirror of our perception...the clouded glass through which all our seeing is done - the past is what it was but the relics and stories of what remains of it in our time do not often allow us a clear perception. And our own immersion in our present affects our viewpoint so that we interpret from the standpoint of our era and all it's own myriad biases and foibles.
At its best, our era is not graced with serenity. These are event driven times, full of motion, movement, turmoil - an antithesis to contemplation and careful consideration. For us, for our time, the future rarely extends its horizon beyond the next month, or week, or day. And so we tend to hang on every oscillation in stock prices, anticipate the turn of fortune that the next market update may herald, and, in troubled times, diligently follow the ever-shifting state of the world. We watch incessantly, intently, so focused on each advancing tick of the event-clock that past and future are seemingly banished to the cloudy, unfocused edges of peripheral vision. The principle of cause and effect in human affairs recedes into irrelevancy, and like an amnesiac we dwell in a disconnected, decoupled, never-ending present. There is no degradation of image in our view of past events, since there is hardly any image existing to consider. If the past is referred to it is often a revisionist past or a fragment mentioned only to bolster the acceptance of some present day agenda or policy. In other words the past is of interest primarily inasmuch as it can be shown to mirror or support present day desires and objectives - it becomes little more than an extension of the collective modern ego.
And so we are in danger of being left with no point of reference with which to judge events and insufficient context with which to understand them. With vast amounts of knowledge at our fingertips, with technology that borders on magic at our daily command, with mountains of information at our disposal, we seem nevertheless destined to repeatedly encounter disaster and horror around the world and to meet it by dealing out the same. Over time, as the never-ending present we dwell in grows increasingly nightmarish, increasingly brutal, we will shake our heads in confusion and wonder how all this could come to be - and we will never truly know since we cut ourselves adrift from the sources which could help us to understand and seek solutions for our problems. Past and future - cause and effect - continuity and coherence.
Only the noise and clamour of the present remains - the cold horror of sudden death by terror, the hollow rhetoric and tiresome lies of leaders, the moment by moment media reports, the faulty and destructive strategies of war, the crushing blows of armies, the transformation of economics, trade, diplomacy, business, aid, information, and culture into strategic weapons. The energy of events overrides all historical perspectives except those that pertain to policy, tactics and propaganda, and a corporatized and generally cowardly media becomes an active component in this process. Our society's signal to noise ratio has become so feeble that little that is truly meaningful or coherent can be discerned. Reflection and thoughtfulness are drowned in a sea of "white noise".
Yet between the din of conflict and the clatter of a media that vacillates between producing mind-numbing entertainment and engaging in vacuous and selective reporting of current events and crises, there are present among every religion, every culture, every language, those who struggle to raise their level of awareness and understanding and that of their society. They do not deal with weapons of terror or have the power of empire at their disposal - their efforts occur in the interspaces between events, often drowned out by the incessant shouting of the powerful and the connected. They do not cover over, conceal, or shrug off what has gone before, they are not swayed by the biases, fashions, trends and propaganda of their time. They seek to illuminate the present with the light of the past and with an understanding that cuts deeply through the vertical axis of this world and through this show the possibilities of hope for the future. They do not cause suffering - they relieve it. They act as witnesses for their era and their societies (We bring forth from every people a witness" (Qur'an. 4:41)). Their simple and quiet traces are of greater worth than the posturing and clamoring of this era's demagogues....
"....what they used to forge shall depart from them....We will raise up in every people a witness over them from among themselves.... Surely Allah enjoins the doing of justice and the doing of good (to others)...and He admonishes you that you may be deeply mindful." (Qur'an 16:87-90)
Man and Ecology: An Islamic Perspective
Man and Ecology: An Islamic Perspective
Added October 20, 2004
Environmental Crisis
"When the earth is shaken with a (violent) shaking,
And the earth reveals what burdens her,
And man says: What has befallen her?
On that day she shall tell her story...." (Qur'an 99:1-4)
In light of today’s environmental crises, many secular and religious scholars have begun to look into underlying philosophical causes for man's rapacious attitude towards his environment. Part of this search involves a look at root philosophies affecting the human outlook and interaction with the world and the responsibility religion shares in creating the attitudes and philosophies that have led to the desecration of nature that has occurred in the past few centuries and which seems to be accelerating in our times. As Ziauddin Sardar writes;
“The roots of our ecological crises are axiomatic: they lie in our belief and value structures which shape our relationship with nature, with each other and the lifestyles we lead.” (Sardar, Ziauddin. Islamic Futures. New York; Mensell Publishing Limited. 1985. pg.218)
For this reason traditional religions like Christianity, Judaism and Islam are held accountable as they supposedly espouse an anthropocentric (human-centered) reality. Writers like Lynn White Jr. see this as being the root cause for the ecological/environmental problems of today. He decries not only the dualistic nature of man’s relationship with nature but also the idea “that it is God’s will that man exploit nature for his proper end...” as “Man shares, in great measure, God’s transcendence over nature.” (White, Lynn. The Historical Roots of our Ecological Crises. Science, 155. 1967)
Note: Lynn White refers specifically to the problem inherent in the Christian tradition, but in a general sense extends it to all the monotheistic religions, as opposed to the pantheistic ones. About blaming Christianity, Parvez Manzoor, in The Touch Of Midas, writes: “...Christianity does not bear the blame for our environmental problems. It is the divorce of Christian ethics from the pursuit of knowledge, in fact what is known to be the age of ‘rationalism’ that ushered us into the era of environmental degradation.”
This short essay is a sincere effort to investigate the validity of White’s view that the disrespect for nature is inherent in the very nature of these religions. Dealing only with the Islamic tradition, it will take into consideration the nature of man, his place in relation to God, his rights and responsibilities before God, and his relationship to the rest of the world with regard to his rights over it. In other words the world-view of Islam is to be the starting point for the examination of man’s relation to the world of external nature.
“All religions, customs, schools of thought, and social philosophies rest on a world view. A school’s aims, methods, musts and must nots all result necessarily from its world view... A world view can become the basis of an ideology when it has attained the firmness and breadth of philosophical thought as well as the...sanctity of religious principles.” (Mutahhari, M. Fundamentals of Islamic Thought. Berkeley; Mizan Press. 1985)
The primary basis of an Islamic world view is the idea of Tauhid, or the oneness of God. A world view based on tauhid sees this universe as originating from God, returning to Him, and centered around Him. It is a world created and sustained by God with a purpose, and a design. As this entire universe is a product of His divine wish, it is a universe unfolding with a divine purpose. The reference point, the center of all things is God.
“...Tauhid is the matrix for human thought and action, it is all pervasive and penetrates every aspect of our endeavour.” (Sardar, Ziauddin. Islamic Futures. New York; Mensell Publishing Limited. 1985. pg.225)
The essential prerequisite, in Islam, is the belief in this absolute oneness and unity of God.
"God the Ultimate reality is One, and everything other than God comes from God and is related to Him. No true understanding of anything is possible unless the object in view is defined in relationship to the divine. All things are centered on God." (Chittick, William. Article, 'The Concept of Human Perfection.' from, The World & I. New York; News World Communications. Feb. 1991. pg. 500)
Tauhid is the point of origin of a theological doctrine of ecology. All things seen or unseen are God’s signs (ayat) and act as witnesses to His existence. All things in the universe are manifestations of Him, all are from Him.
Human nature is the other key facet of the world-view of Islam. Man fulfills a very important role in this cosmos. Although all things are made by God and identified with God in as much as their being created by Him, man enjoys a role as God's vicegerent (his representative) having a freedom and far-reaching power latent within him. In the Qur'an God says He has breathed His spirit into man.
"When thy Lord said unto the angels: lo! I am about to create a mortal out of mire, And when I have fashioned him and breathed into him of My Spirit, then fall down before him prostrate." (Qur'an. Ch 38- vrs 72, 73)
This verse provides essential insights into man's position and nature in this universe. Although he is a creation of God he is superior to the rest of God’s creation as he has within him the Spirit of God. In this way he is unique among the creations of God. It is only man to whom the angels are commanded to prostrate themselves.
Another aspect that separates him from the rest of creation is his acceptance of the trust offered by God. This trust was offered to all of creation and man was the only one who accepted it.
“We did indeed offer the trust to the heavens and the earth and the mountains; but they refused to undertake it, being afraid thereof. But man undertook it (the trust);...” ( Qur’an. Ch.33 vr.72)
In a matter of trust and trusteeship, the giver of the trust is giving a responsibility to the trustee. In other words the guardian of the trust has a high degree of freedom and accompanying responsibility in the use (or misuse) of the given trust.
The trustee is expected to fulfill the trust in the manner that the giver of the trust would expect of him. If man did not have the power to either use or misuse this trust given to him by God, then the whole idea of offering the trust, in the first place, would be futile. Abdullah Yusuf Ali, a commentator of the Qur’an says of this verse;
“There is no trust if the trustee has no power, and the trust implies that the giver of the trust believes and expects that the trustee would use it according to the wish of the creator of the trust, and not otherwise.” (Ali, A.Y. The Holy Qur’an; Text, Translation and Commentary. Maryland; Amana Corporation. 1989. pg. 1080)
Note: This is not an attitude that is unique to Islam as can be seen in the following quote from the Bible “When a man has had a great deal given him, a great deal will be demanded of him; when a man has had a great deal given him on trust, even more will be expected of him.” (Luke: 12:48). It is, however, an attitude that is all pervasive in the Islamic world-view.
Thus man has the freedom to do what he wills with the power invested in him through these two means. One is his closeness to God in spirit and second is his acceptance of the trust. Man’s superiority, control and power over nature and the rest of creation was thus a part of this trust. After having taken the responsibility man had to show that he was indeed worthy of keeping it. If he forgets about the responsibility of the trust and instead takes full and destructive advantage of the power conferred upon him, the other side of his superiority takes over. Because he has the spirit of God within him, he now deems to set himself up in rivalry to God. He wishes to take control of the destiny of the world not as a trustee but as a demi god.
“...He was indeed unjust and foolish. " (Qur’an. Ch.33 vr.75 & 76)
When the power of his relationship to God is applied without the temperance of the responsibility of the trust, man misuses and abuses the abilities, potentials, and rights given to him by God. Nature has been given to man as a trust and nothing more. His right of domination over it (is) only by virtue of his theomorphic make up, not as a rebel against nature.’ (Nasr. S.H. The Encounter of Man and Nature. London; George Allen and Unwin Ltd. 1968. pg.96) God has given revelation, and the law (shariah) derived from the revelation to assist and guide man in fulfilling this trust. Ziauddin Sardar writes:
“The ultimate consequence of man’s acceptance of trusteeship is the arbitration of his conduct by divine judgment. To be a Muslim is to accept and practice the injunctions of the Shariah. Thus the Shariah is both a consequence of one’s acceptance of Tauhid and it is a path.” (Sardar, Ziauddin. Islamic Futures. New York; Mensell Publishing Limited. 1985. pg.228)
The Shariah gives practical shape to the ethical norms in Islam. No moral or ethical issue is only an abstract idea in Islam. They are codified in the Shariah to be preached, practiced and incorporated into the laws of the land. The Shariah seeks to provide a framework, an environment within which men as individuals and as a society can fulfill the role of trustee. This Shariah sets the limits and parameters and the practical guidelines for giving shape to an ethical principle and when ignored causes the kind of disruption in human life, which can now be seen in the form of severe ecological crises. This is because that part of the Shariah pertaining to nature has been completely ignored. Instead of working in subservience to God as his vicegerent, man has developed an axiology that invites him to dominate nature rather than act as a protector over this aspect of God’s trust. Rather than fulfill a trust, man elevates himself to the status of dominator - deciding the fate of nature without reference to revelation. He has set himself on par with God and about this type of an action the Qur’an says:
“Indeed you have put forth a thing most monstrous! As if the skies are ready to burst, the earth to split asunder and the mountains to fall down in utter ruin.” (Qur’an. Ch.19. vr.88-89. This verse actually deals with the attribution of Jesus, son of Mary, to be the son of God. In this context it is being used to demonstrate the abhorrence of any equal being set up with God.)
In the Islamic world-view the relationship of man with nature should be like that of a just ruler with his subjects. Although the ruler has power over his subjects, his subjects are a trust over which he stands guards. He is expected to act in a responsible way (as defined by the revelation) toward them. Misuse and abuse of his power would shift him from being a leader to being a tyrant. The end result of tyranny is nothing but a revolt against the tyrant. This is precisely what is happening between man the tyrant and nature the tyrannized. Tyranny is effective only in the short term.
Among the works of Zain-al-Abideen (the fourth Imam of the Shi’ites), is his “Treatise on Rights”. Among the many types of rights described he puts forward the rights of the subjects over their ruler. In this context they can be extended to form a value system for the formation of an ethic toward the environment or any other aspect of the world over which man has power or dominion.
All acts towards the ruled should be imbued with mercy and justice; the ruler’s disposition should be like a father toward his child.
“The right of your subjects through authority is that you should know that they have been made subjects through their weakness and your strength. Hence it is incumbent on you to act with justice toward them and to be like a compassionate father toward them....” (Zain al Abideen. The Psalms of Islam. London; Mohammadi Trust. 1988. pg.286.)
Man, being above material nature due to his theomorphic make-up and the burden of the trust, must deal in a similar way with the environment. The “Treatise on Rights” also describes the rights a subject enjoys over his ruler through the aspect of the ruler’s knowledge. Taking knowledge to be synonymous with intelligence, man is endowed with a higher intelligence than the rest of creation. Because of this he must assume a role of guardianship over the rest of creation and interact with nature in a way that is worthy of this intelligence. If man does what is befitting of his high station, then God will increase His bounties toward man. If he does not, then whatever he was blessed with is withheld or taken back. Imam Zain-al-Abideen states it as follows:
“The right of your subjects through knowledge is that you should know that God has made you a caretaker over them only through the knowledge He has given you and His storehouses which He has opened up to you. If you do well..., not treating them roughly or annoying them, then God will increase His bounty toward you. But if you ... treat them roughly..., then it will be God’s right to deprive you of knowledge and its splendor and make you fall from your place...” (Zain al Abideen. The Psalms of Islam. London; Mohammadi Trust. 1988. pg.286.)
Zain-al-Abideen then goes on to talk of the rights of those over whom you are in a position of mastership, such as a servant.
“...you should know that he is the creature of your Lord....You did not create any of his limbs, nor do you provide him with his sustenance; on the contrary, God gave you the sufficiency for that...and deposited him with you so that you may be safeguarded by the good you give to him. So act well toward him, just as God has acted well toward you.” (Zain al Abideen. The Psalms of Islam. London; Mohammadi Trust. 1988. pg.286.)
Nature has been made subservient to man, but it is as much a creature of God as man is. Neither has man created nature nor is he in any way able to sustain it. It is only because God has given him the sufficiency and capacity can he in any way do so. If he is able to plant a tree and administer its growth or manipulate its genetic characteristics, it is only because of the intelligence placed within him by God. Just as God has been good to man so also man must act with the same beneficence toward nature so that he may safeguard himself when facing God.
Another key aspect of the Islamic world view is its immense stress on eschatology. Belief in a day of judgment is essential to the faith of an adherent. It creates an action guide arising from an awareness that actions have consequences far beyond their immediately apparent effects. Since man will be called to account for how he looked after the trust bestowed upon him, he is forced to not only consider present gains but to plan for the future in order to fulfill the responsibility with which he has been invested. His acts have repurcussions that ripple out horizontally from himself affecting what surrounds him in this world as well as vertically since his substance has a presence in the higher worlds. So the consequences of his actions accumulate within his substance and after his death he faces the reality of what he has done and what he has become.
“Then on that Day, Not a soul will be wronged in the least, And ye shall but be repaid the meeds of your past deeds” (Qur’an. Ch.36 vr.54)
Eschatology is the policing force within Islam which guides the believer to fulfill the trust that he had taken on. The thought of an impending judgment stops him from taking actions according to his own whims and fancies. It puts a brake on self-centered aspirations.
Man’s role of vicegerency, his mantle of superiority and his responsibility of trust are laid bare before him in the Qur’an, it is then his decision to choose which path to take. On the one hand he has before him all the treasures of nature to use and exploit as he wishes through the fulcrum of his knowledge. On the other hand is the temperance of the responsibility which coexists with the trust and intelligence given to him by God. The world-view of man and the conceptual foundations which underlie that world-view decide which course man will take.
“Can we...check this threat to our planet simply by introducing stricter legislation against pollution, industrial waste and nuclear spill? Can we reverse the degradation of our environment by adopting conservationist policies on both national and international levels? Or could it be that the whole ecological imbalance betokens the spiritual and teleological crisis of modern civilization itself? Does it require fundamental revision of our own way of life, our cherished goals, indeed our very conception of ourselves and the world?” (Parvez Manzoor, Touch of Midas)
It has been the contention of this brief essay that the roots of the man made environmental crises, and therefore their resolution, lie in man’s conception of his role in the overall scheme of creation. The crises that are being faced today are approaching a point of critical mass such that man is forced to confront certain basic questions about his relationship to the environment. These are not questions of technology, but questions about the fundamental nature of man, the nature of the universe he exists in, and of the ultimate nature of Reality
Added October 20, 2004
Environmental Crisis
"When the earth is shaken with a (violent) shaking,
And the earth reveals what burdens her,
And man says: What has befallen her?
On that day she shall tell her story...." (Qur'an 99:1-4)
In light of today’s environmental crises, many secular and religious scholars have begun to look into underlying philosophical causes for man's rapacious attitude towards his environment. Part of this search involves a look at root philosophies affecting the human outlook and interaction with the world and the responsibility religion shares in creating the attitudes and philosophies that have led to the desecration of nature that has occurred in the past few centuries and which seems to be accelerating in our times. As Ziauddin Sardar writes;
“The roots of our ecological crises are axiomatic: they lie in our belief and value structures which shape our relationship with nature, with each other and the lifestyles we lead.” (Sardar, Ziauddin. Islamic Futures. New York; Mensell Publishing Limited. 1985. pg.218)
For this reason traditional religions like Christianity, Judaism and Islam are held accountable as they supposedly espouse an anthropocentric (human-centered) reality. Writers like Lynn White Jr. see this as being the root cause for the ecological/environmental problems of today. He decries not only the dualistic nature of man’s relationship with nature but also the idea “that it is God’s will that man exploit nature for his proper end...” as “Man shares, in great measure, God’s transcendence over nature.” (White, Lynn. The Historical Roots of our Ecological Crises. Science, 155. 1967)
Note: Lynn White refers specifically to the problem inherent in the Christian tradition, but in a general sense extends it to all the monotheistic religions, as opposed to the pantheistic ones. About blaming Christianity, Parvez Manzoor, in The Touch Of Midas, writes: “...Christianity does not bear the blame for our environmental problems. It is the divorce of Christian ethics from the pursuit of knowledge, in fact what is known to be the age of ‘rationalism’ that ushered us into the era of environmental degradation.”
This short essay is a sincere effort to investigate the validity of White’s view that the disrespect for nature is inherent in the very nature of these religions. Dealing only with the Islamic tradition, it will take into consideration the nature of man, his place in relation to God, his rights and responsibilities before God, and his relationship to the rest of the world with regard to his rights over it. In other words the world-view of Islam is to be the starting point for the examination of man’s relation to the world of external nature.
“All religions, customs, schools of thought, and social philosophies rest on a world view. A school’s aims, methods, musts and must nots all result necessarily from its world view... A world view can become the basis of an ideology when it has attained the firmness and breadth of philosophical thought as well as the...sanctity of religious principles.” (Mutahhari, M. Fundamentals of Islamic Thought. Berkeley; Mizan Press. 1985)
The primary basis of an Islamic world view is the idea of Tauhid, or the oneness of God. A world view based on tauhid sees this universe as originating from God, returning to Him, and centered around Him. It is a world created and sustained by God with a purpose, and a design. As this entire universe is a product of His divine wish, it is a universe unfolding with a divine purpose. The reference point, the center of all things is God.
“...Tauhid is the matrix for human thought and action, it is all pervasive and penetrates every aspect of our endeavour.” (Sardar, Ziauddin. Islamic Futures. New York; Mensell Publishing Limited. 1985. pg.225)
The essential prerequisite, in Islam, is the belief in this absolute oneness and unity of God.
"God the Ultimate reality is One, and everything other than God comes from God and is related to Him. No true understanding of anything is possible unless the object in view is defined in relationship to the divine. All things are centered on God." (Chittick, William. Article, 'The Concept of Human Perfection.' from, The World & I. New York; News World Communications. Feb. 1991. pg. 500)
Tauhid is the point of origin of a theological doctrine of ecology. All things seen or unseen are God’s signs (ayat) and act as witnesses to His existence. All things in the universe are manifestations of Him, all are from Him.
Human nature is the other key facet of the world-view of Islam. Man fulfills a very important role in this cosmos. Although all things are made by God and identified with God in as much as their being created by Him, man enjoys a role as God's vicegerent (his representative) having a freedom and far-reaching power latent within him. In the Qur'an God says He has breathed His spirit into man.
"When thy Lord said unto the angels: lo! I am about to create a mortal out of mire, And when I have fashioned him and breathed into him of My Spirit, then fall down before him prostrate." (Qur'an. Ch 38- vrs 72, 73)
This verse provides essential insights into man's position and nature in this universe. Although he is a creation of God he is superior to the rest of God’s creation as he has within him the Spirit of God. In this way he is unique among the creations of God. It is only man to whom the angels are commanded to prostrate themselves.
Another aspect that separates him from the rest of creation is his acceptance of the trust offered by God. This trust was offered to all of creation and man was the only one who accepted it.
“We did indeed offer the trust to the heavens and the earth and the mountains; but they refused to undertake it, being afraid thereof. But man undertook it (the trust);...” ( Qur’an. Ch.33 vr.72)
In a matter of trust and trusteeship, the giver of the trust is giving a responsibility to the trustee. In other words the guardian of the trust has a high degree of freedom and accompanying responsibility in the use (or misuse) of the given trust.
The trustee is expected to fulfill the trust in the manner that the giver of the trust would expect of him. If man did not have the power to either use or misuse this trust given to him by God, then the whole idea of offering the trust, in the first place, would be futile. Abdullah Yusuf Ali, a commentator of the Qur’an says of this verse;
“There is no trust if the trustee has no power, and the trust implies that the giver of the trust believes and expects that the trustee would use it according to the wish of the creator of the trust, and not otherwise.” (Ali, A.Y. The Holy Qur’an; Text, Translation and Commentary. Maryland; Amana Corporation. 1989. pg. 1080)
Note: This is not an attitude that is unique to Islam as can be seen in the following quote from the Bible “When a man has had a great deal given him, a great deal will be demanded of him; when a man has had a great deal given him on trust, even more will be expected of him.” (Luke: 12:48). It is, however, an attitude that is all pervasive in the Islamic world-view.
Thus man has the freedom to do what he wills with the power invested in him through these two means. One is his closeness to God in spirit and second is his acceptance of the trust. Man’s superiority, control and power over nature and the rest of creation was thus a part of this trust. After having taken the responsibility man had to show that he was indeed worthy of keeping it. If he forgets about the responsibility of the trust and instead takes full and destructive advantage of the power conferred upon him, the other side of his superiority takes over. Because he has the spirit of God within him, he now deems to set himself up in rivalry to God. He wishes to take control of the destiny of the world not as a trustee but as a demi god.
“...He was indeed unjust and foolish. " (Qur’an. Ch.33 vr.75 & 76)
When the power of his relationship to God is applied without the temperance of the responsibility of the trust, man misuses and abuses the abilities, potentials, and rights given to him by God. Nature has been given to man as a trust and nothing more. His right of domination over it (is) only by virtue of his theomorphic make up, not as a rebel against nature.’ (Nasr. S.H. The Encounter of Man and Nature. London; George Allen and Unwin Ltd. 1968. pg.96) God has given revelation, and the law (shariah) derived from the revelation to assist and guide man in fulfilling this trust. Ziauddin Sardar writes:
“The ultimate consequence of man’s acceptance of trusteeship is the arbitration of his conduct by divine judgment. To be a Muslim is to accept and practice the injunctions of the Shariah. Thus the Shariah is both a consequence of one’s acceptance of Tauhid and it is a path.” (Sardar, Ziauddin. Islamic Futures. New York; Mensell Publishing Limited. 1985. pg.228)
The Shariah gives practical shape to the ethical norms in Islam. No moral or ethical issue is only an abstract idea in Islam. They are codified in the Shariah to be preached, practiced and incorporated into the laws of the land. The Shariah seeks to provide a framework, an environment within which men as individuals and as a society can fulfill the role of trustee. This Shariah sets the limits and parameters and the practical guidelines for giving shape to an ethical principle and when ignored causes the kind of disruption in human life, which can now be seen in the form of severe ecological crises. This is because that part of the Shariah pertaining to nature has been completely ignored. Instead of working in subservience to God as his vicegerent, man has developed an axiology that invites him to dominate nature rather than act as a protector over this aspect of God’s trust. Rather than fulfill a trust, man elevates himself to the status of dominator - deciding the fate of nature without reference to revelation. He has set himself on par with God and about this type of an action the Qur’an says:
“Indeed you have put forth a thing most monstrous! As if the skies are ready to burst, the earth to split asunder and the mountains to fall down in utter ruin.” (Qur’an. Ch.19. vr.88-89. This verse actually deals with the attribution of Jesus, son of Mary, to be the son of God. In this context it is being used to demonstrate the abhorrence of any equal being set up with God.)
In the Islamic world-view the relationship of man with nature should be like that of a just ruler with his subjects. Although the ruler has power over his subjects, his subjects are a trust over which he stands guards. He is expected to act in a responsible way (as defined by the revelation) toward them. Misuse and abuse of his power would shift him from being a leader to being a tyrant. The end result of tyranny is nothing but a revolt against the tyrant. This is precisely what is happening between man the tyrant and nature the tyrannized. Tyranny is effective only in the short term.
Among the works of Zain-al-Abideen (the fourth Imam of the Shi’ites), is his “Treatise on Rights”. Among the many types of rights described he puts forward the rights of the subjects over their ruler. In this context they can be extended to form a value system for the formation of an ethic toward the environment or any other aspect of the world over which man has power or dominion.
All acts towards the ruled should be imbued with mercy and justice; the ruler’s disposition should be like a father toward his child.
“The right of your subjects through authority is that you should know that they have been made subjects through their weakness and your strength. Hence it is incumbent on you to act with justice toward them and to be like a compassionate father toward them....” (Zain al Abideen. The Psalms of Islam. London; Mohammadi Trust. 1988. pg.286.)
Man, being above material nature due to his theomorphic make-up and the burden of the trust, must deal in a similar way with the environment. The “Treatise on Rights” also describes the rights a subject enjoys over his ruler through the aspect of the ruler’s knowledge. Taking knowledge to be synonymous with intelligence, man is endowed with a higher intelligence than the rest of creation. Because of this he must assume a role of guardianship over the rest of creation and interact with nature in a way that is worthy of this intelligence. If man does what is befitting of his high station, then God will increase His bounties toward man. If he does not, then whatever he was blessed with is withheld or taken back. Imam Zain-al-Abideen states it as follows:
“The right of your subjects through knowledge is that you should know that God has made you a caretaker over them only through the knowledge He has given you and His storehouses which He has opened up to you. If you do well..., not treating them roughly or annoying them, then God will increase His bounty toward you. But if you ... treat them roughly..., then it will be God’s right to deprive you of knowledge and its splendor and make you fall from your place...” (Zain al Abideen. The Psalms of Islam. London; Mohammadi Trust. 1988. pg.286.)
Zain-al-Abideen then goes on to talk of the rights of those over whom you are in a position of mastership, such as a servant.
“...you should know that he is the creature of your Lord....You did not create any of his limbs, nor do you provide him with his sustenance; on the contrary, God gave you the sufficiency for that...and deposited him with you so that you may be safeguarded by the good you give to him. So act well toward him, just as God has acted well toward you.” (Zain al Abideen. The Psalms of Islam. London; Mohammadi Trust. 1988. pg.286.)
Nature has been made subservient to man, but it is as much a creature of God as man is. Neither has man created nature nor is he in any way able to sustain it. It is only because God has given him the sufficiency and capacity can he in any way do so. If he is able to plant a tree and administer its growth or manipulate its genetic characteristics, it is only because of the intelligence placed within him by God. Just as God has been good to man so also man must act with the same beneficence toward nature so that he may safeguard himself when facing God.
Another key aspect of the Islamic world view is its immense stress on eschatology. Belief in a day of judgment is essential to the faith of an adherent. It creates an action guide arising from an awareness that actions have consequences far beyond their immediately apparent effects. Since man will be called to account for how he looked after the trust bestowed upon him, he is forced to not only consider present gains but to plan for the future in order to fulfill the responsibility with which he has been invested. His acts have repurcussions that ripple out horizontally from himself affecting what surrounds him in this world as well as vertically since his substance has a presence in the higher worlds. So the consequences of his actions accumulate within his substance and after his death he faces the reality of what he has done and what he has become.
“Then on that Day, Not a soul will be wronged in the least, And ye shall but be repaid the meeds of your past deeds” (Qur’an. Ch.36 vr.54)
Eschatology is the policing force within Islam which guides the believer to fulfill the trust that he had taken on. The thought of an impending judgment stops him from taking actions according to his own whims and fancies. It puts a brake on self-centered aspirations.
Man’s role of vicegerency, his mantle of superiority and his responsibility of trust are laid bare before him in the Qur’an, it is then his decision to choose which path to take. On the one hand he has before him all the treasures of nature to use and exploit as he wishes through the fulcrum of his knowledge. On the other hand is the temperance of the responsibility which coexists with the trust and intelligence given to him by God. The world-view of man and the conceptual foundations which underlie that world-view decide which course man will take.
“Can we...check this threat to our planet simply by introducing stricter legislation against pollution, industrial waste and nuclear spill? Can we reverse the degradation of our environment by adopting conservationist policies on both national and international levels? Or could it be that the whole ecological imbalance betokens the spiritual and teleological crisis of modern civilization itself? Does it require fundamental revision of our own way of life, our cherished goals, indeed our very conception of ourselves and the world?” (Parvez Manzoor, Touch of Midas)
It has been the contention of this brief essay that the roots of the man made environmental crises, and therefore their resolution, lie in man’s conception of his role in the overall scheme of creation. The crises that are being faced today are approaching a point of critical mass such that man is forced to confront certain basic questions about his relationship to the environment. These are not questions of technology, but questions about the fundamental nature of man, the nature of the universe he exists in, and of the ultimate nature of Reality
Jesus: An Islamic Perspective
Jesus: An Islamic Perspective
Added Dec 25, 2003
Many Muslim writers when writing about Jesus (a.s.) inevitably deal with him in negative terminology (as in 'he is not the son of God'). Muslims and Christians have spent a good deal of time debating these aspects of Jesus always using Christian theology as a starting point. Due to this the Christian community does not know how Christ is percieved in purely Islamic terms.
Note: The Arabic name for Jesus (a.s.) is Isa. He represents the pure Adamic man - Adam before the fall. "The similitude of Jesus before Allah is that of Adam..." (Qur'an 3:59). The letters "(a.s.)" are an abbreviation for a term of respect "alai-is-salaam" which means (Peace be upon him/her). This term is used when the name of a prophet or a respected personality is mentioned. The term "Christ" is from the greek "Christos" (anointed). The Arabic and Qur'anic form of this word is "Masih" (Messiah) and this is the title used for Jesus in the Qur'an.
Without an understanding of the "positive" side of the Islamic perspective on Jesus (a.s.), the Islamic rejection of certain ideas concerning him can never be understood. Without knowing "who" and "what" he IS, we can never know "who" or "what" he isn't.
A principal factor underlying this misapprehension is the fact that these two faiths take different approaches to some of the most fundamental questions of religion.
Note: "Faiths" is used here to denote a complete religious system, a comprehensive world view that provides for and takes into account all the dimensions of humanity (spiritual, social, personal etc.) and that provides a framework of guidance within which human beings can attain their potential.
For example, the question of the essential nature of man, the nature of God, and how the salvation of mankind and his reconcilement with God is to be achieved.
The Islamic position on Jesus can never be understood through attempts to disprove the Christian claims concerning Jesus - this method will only give one a picture of what Jesus is not. Only by placing him within the theological, ontological, and spiritual context of Islam is it possible to gain some insight into the place of Jesus in Islam.
Note: Ontological refers to the metaphysics of the nature of being (of existence). The nature of God, His Being and the consequences of this nature for humans. The nature of the being of all existing things. And "spiritual" is taken to mean the inner life and the inner capacities inherent in the nature of man and how these interact with "unseen" realities that are spoken of in the various scriptures. These inner capacities are qualities which lie potentially within everyone but which must be drawn out through living in accord with spiritual realities.
The point of departure, and the point of orientation, the point against which all things are measured in Islam, is God (who is One and Indivisible). The Qur'an says:
"Say, He is God, the One and Only, The Eternal, Absolute; He begets not, Nor is He begotten; And there is none like unto Him." (Qur'an. Ch 112)
The foundation of Islamic belief then, is the belief in the absolute oneness, unity, and uniqueness of God. One of the terms used in the above quoted sura is "samad". Samad is something that is so seamless and whole that one cannot even conceptualize it as divided or in parts. It has such an integral unity that it is absolutely without seam or fissure - completely unified.
"God the Ultimate reality is One, and everything other than God comes from God and is related to Him. No true understanding of anything is possible unless the object in view is defined in relationship to the Divine. All things are centered on God." (Chittick, William. Article, 'The Concept of Human Perfection.')
All other things, seen or unseen, are his signs (ayat) and act as witnesses to His existence. All things in the universe are manifestations of His, all are from Him. God is "the Reality that is dependant upon no other reality, but upon Whom all realities depend, through Whose Will all realities have come into being, and Who has not Himself come into being through any other principle." (Mutahhari) God is One and it is not logically conceivable that there is more than one God. Since God is an absolute, unlimited being it is inconceivable that there is more than one such being. If there were more than one then the adjectives absolute and unlimited could no longer apply. (Mutahhari)
Man enjoys a very important role in this cosmos. Although all things are made by God and identified with God in as much as their being created by Him, man is one who houses an aspect of God within him. In the Qur'an God says He has breathed His spirit into man.
"When thy Lord said unto the angels: lo! I am about to create a mortal out of mire, And when I have fashioned him and breathed into him of My Spirit, then fall down before him prostrate." (Qur'an. Ch 38- vrs 71&72)
This verse provides essential insights into man's position and nature in this universe. Firstly it says that man is made of a dual nature. He is part earth and part divine spirit. Of the portion that is earth, the Qur'an calls it a stinking clay. There are two opposing forces within man, one which is totally animal, material, carnal (clay) and the other is the purest essence - the spirit of God.
"Hence human beings represent a mixture of clay and spirit, darkness and light, ignorance and knowledge, activity and passivity ... all divine attributes are present in man, but they are obscured by those dimensions of existence that manifest a lack of the same divine attributes." (Chittick, William. Article, 'The Concept of Human Perfection.' from)
A lack of divinity would mean a lack of understanding and knowing what is divine. It is the innermost spirit that is the only part of a human that can in some sense perceive that divine Reality, as it is essentially a part of it. The rest of man is a curtain between him and God. It is a partition, a covering, a veil of separation cast between man and God. It is with these tensions within his nature that the first man (Adam) was created.
The "clay" aspect causes him to "incline towards the earth" (qur'an). The spirit aspect draws him towards God. For this reason the Qur'an says that Adam was created with the two hands of God's power. One hand represents the attributes (or names) of God that draw man near to God (e.g., mercy, love, compassion etc.). The other hand represents the attributes of distance and wrath (e.g., Majesty, Wrath, etc.), those qualities which separate man from God.
"The most invisible dimension of the human being reflects the divine light directly, while the bodily or visible dimension reflects it only dimly or not at all." (Chittick, William. Article, 'The Concept of Human Perfection.')
Man has to pull aside this veil of the corporeal or material self. Shunning it he is able to let his invisible dimension reflect the light that it so wants to see. This spirit of God which resides in man longs for a reunion with its original, it reaches out and makes man's soul restless to cleanse itself of all that is not God. As man lays away his corporeal vestments his inner being sees more clearly. It gains a vision which sees what was previously unseen. Gates of knowledge are opened up to it and before such a person will be laid out the secrets of the realities underlying the Universe. The distance between man and God has been bridged by such people.
"My servant continues drawing near to Me ... until I love him, and when I love him, I am the Hearing through which he hears, the Sight through which he sees, the Hand through which he grasps, and the Foot through which he walks." (Hadith Qudsi)
Such men have been chosen to represent God in every way, they see through Him, hear through Him, walk, grasp, think, love ... their every faculty has been captured and they have shackled themselves to the 'robe of His Majesty'.
"My God I have fixed the fingers of my love to the ends of thy cords ... My God these are the reins of my soul-I have bound them with the ties of Thy will." (Ali ibn Abi Talib. Supplications. London; Mohammadi Trust. pgs. 10 & 12)
One who has achieved this proximity to God is known in Islamic terminology as 'Insaan al-Kamil' or the perfect (or perfected) man. It is in this context that Jesus must be viewed. He is called in the Qur'an, a sign (ayat) of God. The Prophets of God are generally all given this designation. They are all (from Adam to Muhammad) signposts marking the path to God, each one addressing both the universal nature of man and the specific contingencies of his time.
Jesus is a signpost who links man back to his original ancestor (Adam). The Qur'an says:
"The similitude of Jesus before Allah is as that of Adam; He created him from dust, then said to him: 'Be' and he was." (Qur'an. Ch. 3 v.59)
So in the very act of his creation, a link is forged with the origins of mankind. The Qur'an also says of Jesus that:
"The Messiah, Jesus, son of Mary, is the apostle of God, and His Word, which He projected unto Mary, and a Spirit proceeding from Him" (Qur'an. Ch. 4 v.170)
The "Word" is God's creative Word (with which He also created Adam), the "Spirit" is the Divine Spirit (which he also breathed into Adam). Thus Jesus is created according to the mould of Adam - but he is as Adam was before the fall from Paradise, before Adam was put into this world, where God's presence is veiled and must be sought through signs. Thus Jesus, from the moment of his miraculous conception to the time he is taken up to God, is one who was "Insaan al-Kamil".
He has seen with the perfection of his inner eye the secrets of this Universe. When he tells man of Paradise he has seen it, when he talks of God he knows Him. His every word is spoken from knowledge. He sees and hears and moves through God. The Spirit of Allah is his guide. Furthermore, he is an apostle of God, that is, one charged by God to provide guidance for mankind and to bring man towards the path of perfection and salvation - and to be a sign which hints at the heights to which man is capable of rising.
It is a fundamental principle in Islam that one who is not guided cannot guide. Thus Jesus is a fully realized man and an apostle of God. Jesus thus becomes, in Islam, a symbol (or sign) of the immense potential that exists within man's fundamental nature. The Prophet's of God are sent to guide man and to show man how to actualize this potential within him.
But even one who actualizes this potential and attains a type of union with God, does not become God. God remains God. The Qur'an rejects with absolute vehemence the insinuation that Jesus is God or the son of God. It says of those who make such assertions that:
"Indeed ye have put forth a thing most monstrous! As if the skies are ready to burst, the earth to split asunder, and the mountains to fall down in utter ruin." (Qur'an. Ch. 19 v. 88)
The reason for such a strong rejection is that those who put forth such claims have fundamentally misunderstood the basic nature of God, His creation, and the miraculous nature with which He created man. God's aim is to uplift man, to redeem him through the unique nature with which he created man. In the above quote from the Qur'an, the heavens (skies), the earth, and the mountains are reacting to the attribution of divinity to Jesus. This is because before the creation of Adam, the Divine "Trust" was offered to these creations of God and they refused to undertake the responsibility. Man, however, undertook the responsibility.
"We did indeed offer the Trust to the Heavens and the Earth and the Mountains; but they refused to undertake it, being afraid thereof: But man undertook it...." (Qur'an. Ch. 33 v. 72, 73)
Conferring divinity upon any of God's servants or creatures, even one as exalted as Jesus, is characterized as a betrayal of this Trust which God bestowed upon man.
Jesus and the unique method of his creation, his "perfected" status, and his apostleship to God, combine to create, within the Islamic context, a picture of a man who was both a servant and a friend (awliya) of God. He is also seen as a man who was a sign, a symbol granted to mankind by God, and a guide who awakens man to his nature, potential and relation to God.
Added Dec 25, 2003
Many Muslim writers when writing about Jesus (a.s.) inevitably deal with him in negative terminology (as in 'he is not the son of God'). Muslims and Christians have spent a good deal of time debating these aspects of Jesus always using Christian theology as a starting point. Due to this the Christian community does not know how Christ is percieved in purely Islamic terms.
Note: The Arabic name for Jesus (a.s.) is Isa. He represents the pure Adamic man - Adam before the fall. "The similitude of Jesus before Allah is that of Adam..." (Qur'an 3:59). The letters "(a.s.)" are an abbreviation for a term of respect "alai-is-salaam" which means (Peace be upon him/her). This term is used when the name of a prophet or a respected personality is mentioned. The term "Christ" is from the greek "Christos" (anointed). The Arabic and Qur'anic form of this word is "Masih" (Messiah) and this is the title used for Jesus in the Qur'an.
Without an understanding of the "positive" side of the Islamic perspective on Jesus (a.s.), the Islamic rejection of certain ideas concerning him can never be understood. Without knowing "who" and "what" he IS, we can never know "who" or "what" he isn't.
A principal factor underlying this misapprehension is the fact that these two faiths take different approaches to some of the most fundamental questions of religion.
Note: "Faiths" is used here to denote a complete religious system, a comprehensive world view that provides for and takes into account all the dimensions of humanity (spiritual, social, personal etc.) and that provides a framework of guidance within which human beings can attain their potential.
For example, the question of the essential nature of man, the nature of God, and how the salvation of mankind and his reconcilement with God is to be achieved.
The Islamic position on Jesus can never be understood through attempts to disprove the Christian claims concerning Jesus - this method will only give one a picture of what Jesus is not. Only by placing him within the theological, ontological, and spiritual context of Islam is it possible to gain some insight into the place of Jesus in Islam.
Note: Ontological refers to the metaphysics of the nature of being (of existence). The nature of God, His Being and the consequences of this nature for humans. The nature of the being of all existing things. And "spiritual" is taken to mean the inner life and the inner capacities inherent in the nature of man and how these interact with "unseen" realities that are spoken of in the various scriptures. These inner capacities are qualities which lie potentially within everyone but which must be drawn out through living in accord with spiritual realities.
The point of departure, and the point of orientation, the point against which all things are measured in Islam, is God (who is One and Indivisible). The Qur'an says:
"Say, He is God, the One and Only, The Eternal, Absolute; He begets not, Nor is He begotten; And there is none like unto Him." (Qur'an. Ch 112)
The foundation of Islamic belief then, is the belief in the absolute oneness, unity, and uniqueness of God. One of the terms used in the above quoted sura is "samad". Samad is something that is so seamless and whole that one cannot even conceptualize it as divided or in parts. It has such an integral unity that it is absolutely without seam or fissure - completely unified.
"God the Ultimate reality is One, and everything other than God comes from God and is related to Him. No true understanding of anything is possible unless the object in view is defined in relationship to the Divine. All things are centered on God." (Chittick, William. Article, 'The Concept of Human Perfection.')
All other things, seen or unseen, are his signs (ayat) and act as witnesses to His existence. All things in the universe are manifestations of His, all are from Him. God is "the Reality that is dependant upon no other reality, but upon Whom all realities depend, through Whose Will all realities have come into being, and Who has not Himself come into being through any other principle." (Mutahhari) God is One and it is not logically conceivable that there is more than one God. Since God is an absolute, unlimited being it is inconceivable that there is more than one such being. If there were more than one then the adjectives absolute and unlimited could no longer apply. (Mutahhari)
Man enjoys a very important role in this cosmos. Although all things are made by God and identified with God in as much as their being created by Him, man is one who houses an aspect of God within him. In the Qur'an God says He has breathed His spirit into man.
"When thy Lord said unto the angels: lo! I am about to create a mortal out of mire, And when I have fashioned him and breathed into him of My Spirit, then fall down before him prostrate." (Qur'an. Ch 38- vrs 71&72)
This verse provides essential insights into man's position and nature in this universe. Firstly it says that man is made of a dual nature. He is part earth and part divine spirit. Of the portion that is earth, the Qur'an calls it a stinking clay. There are two opposing forces within man, one which is totally animal, material, carnal (clay) and the other is the purest essence - the spirit of God.
"Hence human beings represent a mixture of clay and spirit, darkness and light, ignorance and knowledge, activity and passivity ... all divine attributes are present in man, but they are obscured by those dimensions of existence that manifest a lack of the same divine attributes." (Chittick, William. Article, 'The Concept of Human Perfection.' from)
A lack of divinity would mean a lack of understanding and knowing what is divine. It is the innermost spirit that is the only part of a human that can in some sense perceive that divine Reality, as it is essentially a part of it. The rest of man is a curtain between him and God. It is a partition, a covering, a veil of separation cast between man and God. It is with these tensions within his nature that the first man (Adam) was created.
The "clay" aspect causes him to "incline towards the earth" (qur'an). The spirit aspect draws him towards God. For this reason the Qur'an says that Adam was created with the two hands of God's power. One hand represents the attributes (or names) of God that draw man near to God (e.g., mercy, love, compassion etc.). The other hand represents the attributes of distance and wrath (e.g., Majesty, Wrath, etc.), those qualities which separate man from God.
"The most invisible dimension of the human being reflects the divine light directly, while the bodily or visible dimension reflects it only dimly or not at all." (Chittick, William. Article, 'The Concept of Human Perfection.')
Man has to pull aside this veil of the corporeal or material self. Shunning it he is able to let his invisible dimension reflect the light that it so wants to see. This spirit of God which resides in man longs for a reunion with its original, it reaches out and makes man's soul restless to cleanse itself of all that is not God. As man lays away his corporeal vestments his inner being sees more clearly. It gains a vision which sees what was previously unseen. Gates of knowledge are opened up to it and before such a person will be laid out the secrets of the realities underlying the Universe. The distance between man and God has been bridged by such people.
"My servant continues drawing near to Me ... until I love him, and when I love him, I am the Hearing through which he hears, the Sight through which he sees, the Hand through which he grasps, and the Foot through which he walks." (Hadith Qudsi)
Such men have been chosen to represent God in every way, they see through Him, hear through Him, walk, grasp, think, love ... their every faculty has been captured and they have shackled themselves to the 'robe of His Majesty'.
"My God I have fixed the fingers of my love to the ends of thy cords ... My God these are the reins of my soul-I have bound them with the ties of Thy will." (Ali ibn Abi Talib. Supplications. London; Mohammadi Trust. pgs. 10 & 12)
One who has achieved this proximity to God is known in Islamic terminology as 'Insaan al-Kamil' or the perfect (or perfected) man. It is in this context that Jesus must be viewed. He is called in the Qur'an, a sign (ayat) of God. The Prophets of God are generally all given this designation. They are all (from Adam to Muhammad) signposts marking the path to God, each one addressing both the universal nature of man and the specific contingencies of his time.
Jesus is a signpost who links man back to his original ancestor (Adam). The Qur'an says:
"The similitude of Jesus before Allah is as that of Adam; He created him from dust, then said to him: 'Be' and he was." (Qur'an. Ch. 3 v.59)
So in the very act of his creation, a link is forged with the origins of mankind. The Qur'an also says of Jesus that:
"The Messiah, Jesus, son of Mary, is the apostle of God, and His Word, which He projected unto Mary, and a Spirit proceeding from Him" (Qur'an. Ch. 4 v.170)
The "Word" is God's creative Word (with which He also created Adam), the "Spirit" is the Divine Spirit (which he also breathed into Adam). Thus Jesus is created according to the mould of Adam - but he is as Adam was before the fall from Paradise, before Adam was put into this world, where God's presence is veiled and must be sought through signs. Thus Jesus, from the moment of his miraculous conception to the time he is taken up to God, is one who was "Insaan al-Kamil".
He has seen with the perfection of his inner eye the secrets of this Universe. When he tells man of Paradise he has seen it, when he talks of God he knows Him. His every word is spoken from knowledge. He sees and hears and moves through God. The Spirit of Allah is his guide. Furthermore, he is an apostle of God, that is, one charged by God to provide guidance for mankind and to bring man towards the path of perfection and salvation - and to be a sign which hints at the heights to which man is capable of rising.
It is a fundamental principle in Islam that one who is not guided cannot guide. Thus Jesus is a fully realized man and an apostle of God. Jesus thus becomes, in Islam, a symbol (or sign) of the immense potential that exists within man's fundamental nature. The Prophet's of God are sent to guide man and to show man how to actualize this potential within him.
But even one who actualizes this potential and attains a type of union with God, does not become God. God remains God. The Qur'an rejects with absolute vehemence the insinuation that Jesus is God or the son of God. It says of those who make such assertions that:
"Indeed ye have put forth a thing most monstrous! As if the skies are ready to burst, the earth to split asunder, and the mountains to fall down in utter ruin." (Qur'an. Ch. 19 v. 88)
The reason for such a strong rejection is that those who put forth such claims have fundamentally misunderstood the basic nature of God, His creation, and the miraculous nature with which He created man. God's aim is to uplift man, to redeem him through the unique nature with which he created man. In the above quote from the Qur'an, the heavens (skies), the earth, and the mountains are reacting to the attribution of divinity to Jesus. This is because before the creation of Adam, the Divine "Trust" was offered to these creations of God and they refused to undertake the responsibility. Man, however, undertook the responsibility.
"We did indeed offer the Trust to the Heavens and the Earth and the Mountains; but they refused to undertake it, being afraid thereof: But man undertook it...." (Qur'an. Ch. 33 v. 72, 73)
Conferring divinity upon any of God's servants or creatures, even one as exalted as Jesus, is characterized as a betrayal of this Trust which God bestowed upon man.
Jesus and the unique method of his creation, his "perfected" status, and his apostleship to God, combine to create, within the Islamic context, a picture of a man who was both a servant and a friend (awliya) of God. He is also seen as a man who was a sign, a symbol granted to mankind by God, and a guide who awakens man to his nature, potential and relation to God.
The Concept of Intellect in Islam
The Concept of Intellect in Islam
Added Dec 01, 2003
"The first thing created by God was the Intellect" (Prophetic hadith)
In the following discussion on the place of intellect in Islam, the analogy of a computer may help clarify some of the points made. This is an analogy used only to provoke some thought and is not meant to be carried too far. There is, after all, no such thing as a perfect analogy. A perfect analogy would, in fact, BE the thing described.
Imagine that the computer screen and all activity on the screen represents the world of material existence. The screen is considered as the horizontal dimension of the computer. A program is running that simulates a small universe complete with simulated beings (with senses that let them interact with other objects on the screen) and simulated laws (much like some computer games) - the attempts of the beings to understand the environment (on the screen) represents science and all its branches (physics, chemistry etc.). This science can give these simulated beings an understanding and control over this HORIZONTAL (screen) dimension of their simulated universe - just as our science and technology gives us control over the material world.
Now in order to create this onscreen world, complex processes are occuring within the computer. The images on the screen are generated by rays tracing pixel by pixel across the screen. There is a program (or perhaps many interacting programs) running in the RAM. At another level there are patterns of electricity (of information) flowing and tracing complex paths through the chips on the motherboard. There is the static storage of the uninitialized program stored on a disk. All these represent levels of realities (the Universe on the screen exists on all these levels). The projection on the screen is the visual (material) manifestation of these other levels of existence. These other levels of existence are the foundation, or the substratum of the universe on the screen. They represent the VERTICAL dimension of the simulated universe.
A creature in the simulated universe relying upon the senses given to it by the program could achieve a good understanding of the simulated universe, but it would not necessarily be even aware of the huge edifice which exists as a support to its very existence (the program itself, the patterns of electricity flowing through chips, the RAM, the actual hardware which supports the software, etc.). It would be restricted to understanding the horizontal world - the world on the screen. All the other planes of its existence would be invisible to it, they would be "unseen" levels.
Using this analogy only as a starting point, let us briefly examine the concept of intellect in Islam.
Science is a horizontal undertaking since it expands our knowledge outwards. It brodens our understanding but does not necessarily deepen it. Science is unstable from a theoretical view point - it is based on hypotheses, experiment, and discovery, not on self-evident principles.
Science can provide a model of the world as it is (albeit an ever changing model), it describes aspects of the world for us but it cannot tell us anything about the foundations or the underpinnings of the world and of the purposes behind it. It describes our horizontal existence and gives us a power over this aspect of our existence but is incapable (at least in the currently dominant form) of telling us anything about our vertical existence.
Science and reason have width and length but lack depth. They are missing this third dimension so that those who see the world only through the glass of science are like a one-eyed man. He perceives the world in great detail, but it is a flat uni-dimensional world having vast extent and breadth, but no depth, no firm solidity.
If humanity is shaped predominantly by science, the result is a humankind with vast horizontal knowledge, a large body of knowledge about the workings of the physical universe but little comprehension of what the purpose(s) of it is - the "why" of existence. It is like understanding exactly how a car works, "how all the parts mesh together, how to drive it in an efficient manner, But having no place, no destination to drive to." Science can shape a humanity "with capacity, but no attainment". (Mutahhari, "Fundamentals of Islamic Thought", Mizan Press). It can give man an "instrumental power and ability", a power that is dependent on man's will and command.
Man has an end in view when he uses these instruments. "Man is animal by nature and human by acquisition." (Mutahhari, Fundamentals) He must strive to realise his 'human' potential, otherwise by nature "...he moves towards his natural, animal, individual, material, self-interested ends...." (Mutahhari, Fundamentals) and uses the instruments given to him by science to achieve these ends. Through science he can subjugate the horizontal world. But he only attains his humanity when he becomes aware of the vertical aspect of existence. A complete understanding is only attained when one's knowledge encompasses both the horizontal and vertical dimensions of knowledge. ("Faith, without the light of reason and science, degenerates into mere superstition.")
There is a modern tendency to attach the word Islamic to existing secular ideologies (whether conservative or liberal ideologies). The wholesale adoption of these secular ideologies or methodologies (and all their cultural adjuncts) is justified by making cosmetic Islamic changes to them. This is perhaps done in order to demonstrate Islam's relevance to in the modern political/cultural context and power structures and to make Islam seem "up-to-date" and appealing to secularized Muslims or palatable to the proponents of secular ideologies. (The extreme side of this is that some relegate the Islamic aspect to an essentially inconsequential position in that they speak of a secular Islam or secular Muslims)
What actually happens is that Islam is reduced to the status of an adjective modifying a noun (i.e. rationalism, secularism etc.). It can no longer be seen as a total body of principles from which can emerge a comprehensive and unique system (Syyed Hossein Nasr, Living Sufism) - a system which may well (if it emerges) display parallels to many of the compelling and invaluable traits found in the modern world, but which achieves its total structure through an emergent process which is suffused throughout with a unity of the vertical and horizontal aspects of existence - a unity born of fidelity to the core Islamic concept of Tauhid. Instead, the presently existing (but ever mutating and changing) secular systems become the acknowledged systems, and Islam is implicitly seen as an adjunct, a subculture, a subsystem that is no longer a comprehensive way of life (deen), no longer the path of unity, but merely a historical artifact which is subordinate to the secular culture. As the secular system changes and morphs over time, such a subordinate version of Islam will be forced into an ever changing dance of adaptation - a dance that will, over time, only demonstrate the growing irrelevancy of such a vision of Islam. (The other equally unpalatable end of this spectrum is an extremist political interpretation of Islam in which the politics of conflict results in the subversion of Islamic ethics, theology, and Qur'anic interpretation). In the end the Islam that remains will perhaps be such a faded and faint shadow of its original self that whether one remains a Muslim or not in such a system will be of little or no consequence.
Making reason or the scientific method the sole means of attaining knowledge and the only criterion of truth and of right and wrong was a tendency of the modernistic outlook. "This outlook had its origins in Descarte's philosophical formulations.... For Descartes the ultimate criterion of reality was the human ego.... His 'cogito ergo sum' - I think therefore I am - places a limitation on human knowledge by binding it to the level of individual reason and to the consciousness of the individual ego." (Nasr, Living Sufism). Rationalistic trends sought to define all reality, but instead they limited understanding of reality. And the post-modern outlook (at least in the political arena) has even put aside Descartes' reason and logic and reduced the criterion of right and wrong simply to the desires and demands of the ego (not the individual ego, but the national ego, the corporate ego, or the politics of state power - although this in the end is likely to filter down to the individual level). This is not an ego that struggles and seeks to understand it's own existence like the ego that formulated Descarte's 'cogito ergo sum' - rather it is one that has no wish to understand it's own nature, which purposely turns away from self-reflection and taking stock of it's own self. Reason, logic, the scientific method - all become subservient to this ego and so lose their tinge of truthfullness. They mutate instead, into a delusional propaganda designed to limit opposition and interference, to maximize power and profit, and to allow this national, political ego to fulfill its appetites, no matter how voracious these appetites may be.
In Islam "...logic is an aspect of truth and Truth (Al-Haqq) is a name of God." (Nasr, Living Sufism). The use of logic is like the use of a rung in a ladder - properly used it can help man move upward along the vertical axis of his being. Reason is an innate ability within man which encompasses logic and which can propel him rapidly upwards along the vertical dimension. But in order to do this reason must be free of the taint of man's animal, material propensities. Otherwise reason can be subverted to provide suprious justification for man to attain his desires in whatever realm his desires may fall. Reason and correct knowledge must go hand in hand. "....one who has no reason secures no success. He who has no (correct) knowledge has no (correct) reasoning....A person devoid of reason cannot be conceived of except as a corpse." (Al-Kafi, The Book of Reason and Ignorance)
Aql (Intellect) in Islam is something which exists at two levels, on two planes of existence. There is the level of "reason and logic" which is available as an instrument to all mankind, and there is the level of the "universal intellect" to which only a few have reached. It exists at a higher level than the material world and encompasses and comprehends the lower worlds. Aql is that which connects man to the truth, not the evolving truths of science but the truth that flows from God and provides the key to all knowledge and all truth.
So the intellect (Aql) is the highest plane of man - it is the noblest part of man - it encompasses reason and logic and it stands above the ego. The Qur'an equates those who go astray with those who cannot (or will not) use their intellect - it uses the phrase 'wa la ya'qilun' (they do not use their intellect) or the phrase 'la yafaqahun' (they comprehend not). Those who do not use their intellect are those who have denied themselves access to one of the highest aspects of their humanity.
Reason is an aspect or reflection of the universal intellect on the psyche of the individual. Reason on the level of individual conciousness is not, however, free of the passions or the ego. It can be an instrument or means to attaining the universal intellect or it can be a veil (when mixed with the passions) that hides one from the Divine truths.
Revelation provides a guiding and regulating framework within which reason and logic can find firm footholds to convey man up to the plane of the universal intellect. The verses of the Qur'an become doors to this intellect, and once this intellect is accessed the knowledge of the "Mother of the Book" can be achieved. The storehouses of this knowledge are opened in varying degrees. The person who rises to this level has made the vertical journey and attained to the level of the pure universal intellect and can then become a guide to the people.
This level of intellect is addressed in the following hadith: "....God created Intellect out of His own Light...and it was the first creation among the spirits. After its creation Almighty God commanded it to go back (to this world) the Intellect obeyed the order. Then God commanded it to come forward (towards) Him. The Intellect did accordingly. Upon this, God addressed it with the words, I have created you in all your glory and bestowed upon you honour and preference over all My creatures." (Al-Kafi, The Book of Reason and Ignorance).
Note: This hadith makes it clear that the Universal intellect is not to be confused with God (as some have done) as it is a creation of God, albeit his noblest creation.
The Qur'an states that God taught the names (all of them) to Adam - that is the names or realities of all things. This knowledge was placed within Adam and, by extension, within all human beings. Those who practise 'irfan' speak of an inward journey through which the mystic uncovers the knowledge of some of these names.
Mulla Sadra speaks of this inward journey as being one through which one can break through to the true 'outside'. (Using the analogy of a computer, it is as if a being on the screen is able to find a key parameter within its own subroutine that would give it access to the governing program that controls and regulates the universe on the computer screen - with all the attendant possibilities implicit in that access. A complete understanding of the basis and workings of its own subroutine, and its place and function within the overall program could then be achieved).
In order to have access to the true depth of existence, in order to make the vertical journey (the "ascent of Islam"), in order to achieve understanding of the realities of existence (of all things) one goes inward and thus reaches a plane outside of and above the material plane. (In the computer analogy, they become aware of all the levels of processing which comprise their true existence and which make possible their projected existence on the level of the computer screen.)
The human intellect is a microcosmic reflection of the universal intellect. When man attains to proper use of his own intellect he is able to move from the level of his own individual intellect to swim in the ocean of the universal (macrocosmic) intellect. Through going inward, He is conveyed upwards and outwards to dizzying heights.
(first published March 1993)
Added Dec 01, 2003
"The first thing created by God was the Intellect" (Prophetic hadith)
In the following discussion on the place of intellect in Islam, the analogy of a computer may help clarify some of the points made. This is an analogy used only to provoke some thought and is not meant to be carried too far. There is, after all, no such thing as a perfect analogy. A perfect analogy would, in fact, BE the thing described.
Imagine that the computer screen and all activity on the screen represents the world of material existence. The screen is considered as the horizontal dimension of the computer. A program is running that simulates a small universe complete with simulated beings (with senses that let them interact with other objects on the screen) and simulated laws (much like some computer games) - the attempts of the beings to understand the environment (on the screen) represents science and all its branches (physics, chemistry etc.). This science can give these simulated beings an understanding and control over this HORIZONTAL (screen) dimension of their simulated universe - just as our science and technology gives us control over the material world.
Now in order to create this onscreen world, complex processes are occuring within the computer. The images on the screen are generated by rays tracing pixel by pixel across the screen. There is a program (or perhaps many interacting programs) running in the RAM. At another level there are patterns of electricity (of information) flowing and tracing complex paths through the chips on the motherboard. There is the static storage of the uninitialized program stored on a disk. All these represent levels of realities (the Universe on the screen exists on all these levels). The projection on the screen is the visual (material) manifestation of these other levels of existence. These other levels of existence are the foundation, or the substratum of the universe on the screen. They represent the VERTICAL dimension of the simulated universe.
A creature in the simulated universe relying upon the senses given to it by the program could achieve a good understanding of the simulated universe, but it would not necessarily be even aware of the huge edifice which exists as a support to its very existence (the program itself, the patterns of electricity flowing through chips, the RAM, the actual hardware which supports the software, etc.). It would be restricted to understanding the horizontal world - the world on the screen. All the other planes of its existence would be invisible to it, they would be "unseen" levels.
Using this analogy only as a starting point, let us briefly examine the concept of intellect in Islam.
Science is a horizontal undertaking since it expands our knowledge outwards. It brodens our understanding but does not necessarily deepen it. Science is unstable from a theoretical view point - it is based on hypotheses, experiment, and discovery, not on self-evident principles.
Science can provide a model of the world as it is (albeit an ever changing model), it describes aspects of the world for us but it cannot tell us anything about the foundations or the underpinnings of the world and of the purposes behind it. It describes our horizontal existence and gives us a power over this aspect of our existence but is incapable (at least in the currently dominant form) of telling us anything about our vertical existence.
Science and reason have width and length but lack depth. They are missing this third dimension so that those who see the world only through the glass of science are like a one-eyed man. He perceives the world in great detail, but it is a flat uni-dimensional world having vast extent and breadth, but no depth, no firm solidity.
If humanity is shaped predominantly by science, the result is a humankind with vast horizontal knowledge, a large body of knowledge about the workings of the physical universe but little comprehension of what the purpose(s) of it is - the "why" of existence. It is like understanding exactly how a car works, "how all the parts mesh together, how to drive it in an efficient manner, But having no place, no destination to drive to." Science can shape a humanity "with capacity, but no attainment". (Mutahhari, "Fundamentals of Islamic Thought", Mizan Press). It can give man an "instrumental power and ability", a power that is dependent on man's will and command.
Man has an end in view when he uses these instruments. "Man is animal by nature and human by acquisition." (Mutahhari, Fundamentals) He must strive to realise his 'human' potential, otherwise by nature "...he moves towards his natural, animal, individual, material, self-interested ends...." (Mutahhari, Fundamentals) and uses the instruments given to him by science to achieve these ends. Through science he can subjugate the horizontal world. But he only attains his humanity when he becomes aware of the vertical aspect of existence. A complete understanding is only attained when one's knowledge encompasses both the horizontal and vertical dimensions of knowledge. ("Faith, without the light of reason and science, degenerates into mere superstition.")
There is a modern tendency to attach the word Islamic to existing secular ideologies (whether conservative or liberal ideologies). The wholesale adoption of these secular ideologies or methodologies (and all their cultural adjuncts) is justified by making cosmetic Islamic changes to them. This is perhaps done in order to demonstrate Islam's relevance to in the modern political/cultural context and power structures and to make Islam seem "up-to-date" and appealing to secularized Muslims or palatable to the proponents of secular ideologies. (The extreme side of this is that some relegate the Islamic aspect to an essentially inconsequential position in that they speak of a secular Islam or secular Muslims)
What actually happens is that Islam is reduced to the status of an adjective modifying a noun (i.e. rationalism, secularism etc.). It can no longer be seen as a total body of principles from which can emerge a comprehensive and unique system (Syyed Hossein Nasr, Living Sufism) - a system which may well (if it emerges) display parallels to many of the compelling and invaluable traits found in the modern world, but which achieves its total structure through an emergent process which is suffused throughout with a unity of the vertical and horizontal aspects of existence - a unity born of fidelity to the core Islamic concept of Tauhid. Instead, the presently existing (but ever mutating and changing) secular systems become the acknowledged systems, and Islam is implicitly seen as an adjunct, a subculture, a subsystem that is no longer a comprehensive way of life (deen), no longer the path of unity, but merely a historical artifact which is subordinate to the secular culture. As the secular system changes and morphs over time, such a subordinate version of Islam will be forced into an ever changing dance of adaptation - a dance that will, over time, only demonstrate the growing irrelevancy of such a vision of Islam. (The other equally unpalatable end of this spectrum is an extremist political interpretation of Islam in which the politics of conflict results in the subversion of Islamic ethics, theology, and Qur'anic interpretation). In the end the Islam that remains will perhaps be such a faded and faint shadow of its original self that whether one remains a Muslim or not in such a system will be of little or no consequence.
Making reason or the scientific method the sole means of attaining knowledge and the only criterion of truth and of right and wrong was a tendency of the modernistic outlook. "This outlook had its origins in Descarte's philosophical formulations.... For Descartes the ultimate criterion of reality was the human ego.... His 'cogito ergo sum' - I think therefore I am - places a limitation on human knowledge by binding it to the level of individual reason and to the consciousness of the individual ego." (Nasr, Living Sufism). Rationalistic trends sought to define all reality, but instead they limited understanding of reality. And the post-modern outlook (at least in the political arena) has even put aside Descartes' reason and logic and reduced the criterion of right and wrong simply to the desires and demands of the ego (not the individual ego, but the national ego, the corporate ego, or the politics of state power - although this in the end is likely to filter down to the individual level). This is not an ego that struggles and seeks to understand it's own existence like the ego that formulated Descarte's 'cogito ergo sum' - rather it is one that has no wish to understand it's own nature, which purposely turns away from self-reflection and taking stock of it's own self. Reason, logic, the scientific method - all become subservient to this ego and so lose their tinge of truthfullness. They mutate instead, into a delusional propaganda designed to limit opposition and interference, to maximize power and profit, and to allow this national, political ego to fulfill its appetites, no matter how voracious these appetites may be.
In Islam "...logic is an aspect of truth and Truth (Al-Haqq) is a name of God." (Nasr, Living Sufism). The use of logic is like the use of a rung in a ladder - properly used it can help man move upward along the vertical axis of his being. Reason is an innate ability within man which encompasses logic and which can propel him rapidly upwards along the vertical dimension. But in order to do this reason must be free of the taint of man's animal, material propensities. Otherwise reason can be subverted to provide suprious justification for man to attain his desires in whatever realm his desires may fall. Reason and correct knowledge must go hand in hand. "....one who has no reason secures no success. He who has no (correct) knowledge has no (correct) reasoning....A person devoid of reason cannot be conceived of except as a corpse." (Al-Kafi, The Book of Reason and Ignorance)
Aql (Intellect) in Islam is something which exists at two levels, on two planes of existence. There is the level of "reason and logic" which is available as an instrument to all mankind, and there is the level of the "universal intellect" to which only a few have reached. It exists at a higher level than the material world and encompasses and comprehends the lower worlds. Aql is that which connects man to the truth, not the evolving truths of science but the truth that flows from God and provides the key to all knowledge and all truth.
So the intellect (Aql) is the highest plane of man - it is the noblest part of man - it encompasses reason and logic and it stands above the ego. The Qur'an equates those who go astray with those who cannot (or will not) use their intellect - it uses the phrase 'wa la ya'qilun' (they do not use their intellect) or the phrase 'la yafaqahun' (they comprehend not). Those who do not use their intellect are those who have denied themselves access to one of the highest aspects of their humanity.
Reason is an aspect or reflection of the universal intellect on the psyche of the individual. Reason on the level of individual conciousness is not, however, free of the passions or the ego. It can be an instrument or means to attaining the universal intellect or it can be a veil (when mixed with the passions) that hides one from the Divine truths.
Revelation provides a guiding and regulating framework within which reason and logic can find firm footholds to convey man up to the plane of the universal intellect. The verses of the Qur'an become doors to this intellect, and once this intellect is accessed the knowledge of the "Mother of the Book" can be achieved. The storehouses of this knowledge are opened in varying degrees. The person who rises to this level has made the vertical journey and attained to the level of the pure universal intellect and can then become a guide to the people.
This level of intellect is addressed in the following hadith: "....God created Intellect out of His own Light...and it was the first creation among the spirits. After its creation Almighty God commanded it to go back (to this world) the Intellect obeyed the order. Then God commanded it to come forward (towards) Him. The Intellect did accordingly. Upon this, God addressed it with the words, I have created you in all your glory and bestowed upon you honour and preference over all My creatures." (Al-Kafi, The Book of Reason and Ignorance).
Note: This hadith makes it clear that the Universal intellect is not to be confused with God (as some have done) as it is a creation of God, albeit his noblest creation.
The Qur'an states that God taught the names (all of them) to Adam - that is the names or realities of all things. This knowledge was placed within Adam and, by extension, within all human beings. Those who practise 'irfan' speak of an inward journey through which the mystic uncovers the knowledge of some of these names.
Mulla Sadra speaks of this inward journey as being one through which one can break through to the true 'outside'. (Using the analogy of a computer, it is as if a being on the screen is able to find a key parameter within its own subroutine that would give it access to the governing program that controls and regulates the universe on the computer screen - with all the attendant possibilities implicit in that access. A complete understanding of the basis and workings of its own subroutine, and its place and function within the overall program could then be achieved).
In order to have access to the true depth of existence, in order to make the vertical journey (the "ascent of Islam"), in order to achieve understanding of the realities of existence (of all things) one goes inward and thus reaches a plane outside of and above the material plane. (In the computer analogy, they become aware of all the levels of processing which comprise their true existence and which make possible their projected existence on the level of the computer screen.)
The human intellect is a microcosmic reflection of the universal intellect. When man attains to proper use of his own intellect he is able to move from the level of his own individual intellect to swim in the ocean of the universal (macrocosmic) intellect. Through going inward, He is conveyed upwards and outwards to dizzying heights.
(first published March 1993)
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