Universe and us!

 

On Science

 

On What is Haram?

 

Science and Religion

 I don't agree with him many times. I think he is overrated. But I liked this statement.

 

No Gare Hira? - What!

 This video came as a shock to me

On Quran

جسٹس امیر علی کی کتابوں میں اسپراٹ آف اسلام بہت مشہور ہے-وه پہلی بار 1891 میں لندن سے شائع هوئی- مصنف نے اس کتاب میں صفحہ 395 پر پروفیسر جانسن کا ایک اقتباس نقل کیا ہے، یہ اقتباس قرآن کے باره میں ہے- پروفیسر جانسن لکهتے ہیں:

قرآن اگر شاعری نہیں ہے، اور یہ کہنا مشکل ہے کہ وه شاعری ہے یا نہیں ہے، تب بهی وه شاعری سے زیاده ہے- وه تاریخ نہیں ہے اور نہ وه سوانح عمری ہے- وه انجیل کے پہاڑی کے وعظ کی طرح مجموعہ امثال نہیں ہے- وه مابعد الطیعاتی مکالمہ نہیں ہے جیسا کہ بدها کے سوتر میں پایا جاتا ہے- وه موعظت بهی نہیں ہے جیسا کہ افلاطون کے یہاں عاقل اور نادان کی مجلسوں میں پایا جاتا ہے- وه ایک پیغمبر کی پکار ہے- وه آخری حد تک سامی اور عربی ہے، اس کے باوجود اس میں ایسی معنویت ہے جو انتہائی آفاقی ہے اور وه اتنا مطابق وقت ہے کہ ہر زمانہ کی آوازیں اس کو ماننے پر مجبور ہیں، خواه وه اس کو چاہیں یا نہ چاہیں- اس کی آواز کی بازگشت محلوں اور صحراوں میں، شہروں اور بادشاہتوں میں سنائی دیتی ہے- پہلے وه اپنے منتخب دلوں میں عالمی فتح کی آگ سلگاتا ہے- اس کے بعد وه ایک ایسی تعمیری طاقت بن جاتا ہے جیسے کہ یونان اور ایشیا کی تمام تخلیقی روشنی مسیحی یورپ کی گہری تاریکیوں میں داخل هو جائے، اس وقت جب کہ مسیحیت صرف رات کی ملکہ کی حیثیت رکهتی تهی- 

Tolstoy says

 

Surah Kahaf, Time-Travel aur Stephen Hawkins

 (I may not agree completely, but a pretty strong argument)

"Surah Kahaf ka khulasa ye hai ke agar khuda chahta to insaan ko waqt pe ikhtiyaar de deta 

- time-travel ki quwwat ata ker deta. 

Magar insaan apne waqt main hi mar jaaye to us ke liye asani hai. 

Stephen Hawkins ka bhi yahi kehna tha: Time-travel pe insaan ka akhtiyaar nahi, werna mustaqbil ke insaan hamare paas aa chuke hote"

An Advice

You may not need to agree, but I heard this at an Iftar party. 

 "In this country, sometimes it is tough to give all the religious values to our children. But if you ask me to pick only one value, I will teach them to say Bismillah (in the name of God) at the start of any meal and shukar-alhamdulliah (thank God) at the end of any meal. I believe this will put a lot of things in line. It is easy to teach from an early age by practicing ourselves and asking them to follow."

Practical and non-miraculous aspect of Muhammad's life

 Following is the write-up from a Pakistani physician Dr. Rao Kamran Ali. It created some waves on Facebook and lot of flakes were send his way. I am not trying to take a side but I do think his thoughts make sense. Read and make your own judgement.

عمل اور عشق

رسول کریم صل الله عليه وسلم نے چالیس سال کی عمر میں اسلام کی تبلیغ شروع کی اور تریسٹھ سال کی عمر میں مکمل فرما دیا۔ یہ تیئس سال کا عرصہ ہے جس میں کوئی معجزہ نہیں، کوئی عقل سے بالاتر کام نہیں (معراج کے واقعہ کے حوالے سے میں غامدی صاحب کی رائے سے متفق ہوں) کوئی لمحہ عشق کے نام پر ضائع نہیں۔عمل ہے، محنت ہے، مشقت ہے، جنگیں ہیں، بھوک پیاس ہے، چوٹیں ہیں تکلیفیں ہیں۔جدائیاں ہیں۔

ایک بچہ جو نبی کریم کی سنت کی مطابق لوگوں کے درد دور کرنا چاہتا ہے، مدد کرنا چاہتا ہے، شفا دینا چاہتا ہے؛ بارہ سال مسلسل محنت کرکے اسکول اور کالج میں بہترین کارکردگی دکھا کر پانچ سال میں ایم بی بی ایس اور چھ سال میں اسپیشلائزیشن مثلاً کارڈیالوجسٹ یا سرجن بنتا ہے۔ اس راستے میں بہت سے مسائل آتے ہیں، فیس کی کمی ہے، تکلیفیں ہیں، نروس بریک ڈاؤن ہے، مقصد کے حصول کے لئے چھوڑی گئیں ادھوری محبتیں ہیں; لیکن تیئس سال میں بننے والا شاہکار عملیت کی سنت کی راہ پر چلتا اپنی زندگی میں ہزاروں جانیں بچاتا ہے۔

دوسری جانب، عمل کی مشکل سنت سے بے پرواہ ؛ خود ساختہ عشق کے نام پر داڑھی بڑھا کر، شلوار ٹخنوں سے اونچی کرکے کوئی کلونجی کی بوری لیکر بیٹھ جاتا ہے اور دوکان کے اوپر (ضعیف ) حدیث لکھ دیتا ہے، “کلونجی میں موت کے سوا ہر مرض کا علاج ہے”!!!!

Modern Medicine and the Shadow of Illness

 This is a cross-post from another physician. This is an interesting essay from Aasim Hasany, a physician at McMaster University.  It is an interesting read for physicians who struggled to put science in the broader context of spirituality. The link is at the end. It is part of a magazine, which itself deserved to be bookmarked.

"When we set aside the lens of the mechanistic worldview and open our “inward eye,” we begin to see the human body as a spiritual theophany (tajallī) rather than a complex earthly machine. The organs of our bodies and our physiological processes reveal themselves as more than impersonal instantiations of “laws of nature,” for they are existential symbols that teach us about our journey from God and return back to Him. 

 When we move beyond mechanism, the cell is no longer a factory processing the code of DNA into various proteins but a symbol of how “divine writ” (kalām Allāh) is transcribed, translated, and concretized in specific formulations in the universe. The lungs are more than bellows moving air in and out of the body; they are a symbol of the soul, which expands and contracts with the coming and going of divine inspiration (nafas al-raĥmān). Likewise, the heart and the blood circulating through its network of arteries and veins represent the spiritual center (qiblah) and the pilgrims who travel to and from this center in order to transmit and receive the blessing of God (barakah)."

Link: https://renovatio.zaytuna.edu/article/modern-medicine-and-the-shadow-illness

At the moment of death

(A conversation with a COVID-19 patient who survived)

 "You almost died that day. If you remember, you asked me to make sure to inform your family. How did you feel before I put you on a ventilator, and we all knew this might be your last conscious moment?"

"It was interesting. At that given moment, there was a massive surge of acceptance to death. There was no fear. I was even devoid of any faith or religion. I didn't care if God exists. Suppose there is anything after death, well and good. If it is all over, let it be. Interestingly, I was still worried about my youngest child, who is still not grown up. Otherwise, no possession mattered".

Islamic Sexology

(I always believed that out of all organized religions Islam is the most liberal in terms of sexual permissibility. Following is a serious discussion on sexual pluralism, diversity, evolution and different thoughts in Islam. The article itself has links to other related articles.)


"Numerous hadith suggest that new Muslims often asked the prophet what their conversions would mean for their sex lives. Muhammad responded with lectures on, among other things, consent, foreplay, and the value of maintaining compassion and playfulness in bed. A man, he stresses in at least one tradition, ought to make sure his female partner is satisfied before himself. That’s just part of being a good Muslim. He also held forth to his followers on things such as the merits of the withdrawal method, and even declares good sex sadaqa, an act of holy merit.................

.........From medieval to modern times, Islamic scholars have felt obligated to dissect, debate and rule on the fine details of every single sexual act or dynamic to figure out how god and his prophet would have dealt with it. And not just obscure scholars. The founders of every madhhab, or major Islamic jurisprudential school of thought, working in the 9th and 10th centuries and their successors explored the fine details of sex and sexuality in depth in their works. The prominent 15th-century Egyptian religious scholar Al-Suyuti wrote at least 23 tomes on sex and sexuality. ‘Matter-of-fact, explicit descriptions of, and recommendations on, sexual techniques are always included in [Islamic] law and ethics manuals’ to this day, says Winter.."

Full article link: https://aeon.co/essays/islam-has-a-long-tradition-of-explicit-sexual-discussion?utm_source=Aeon+Newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=AD_HTLGI_HAY_2020

A Death on Christmas

One of my patients died today on Christmas day. He was from Lebanon. He was a hospice patient. At his death, he was reciting this Dua. This is the first time I have heard this. Now, thinking back, it is so deep. This is in context to Jesus Christ in the Quran. I wonder if he recited this because of Christmas or if he would have done it irrespective of it. I guess, though recited by Jesus, it implies to every human.

Indeed, he died peacefully.

*

Obsessed by Rituals

For some reason, I decided to go on the path of doing a doctorate. It is an interesting experience knowing and interacting with so many intellectuals. They all are good and sincere people. I am learning a lot about humans, their instincts and actions and reactions, and the so-called horizons of the human mind. In the process, I attended many defenses of many theses at various levels. The committees rejected some remarkable ideas (asked to come back with corrections) only because the one written paragraph was not indented at the same margin. One thesis was delayed because out of many references, one reference deviated by one comma from the suggested style. And there were so many other examples.

I learned: that it is not only religious people who get obsessed with rituals but any human mind - no matter how enlightened it is - over time, in any organized form, can quickly get consumed by rituals. The human mind has difficulty finding a fine line between discipline and rituals.

As Iqbal said in Saqi-nama of Bale-Jibril:

Byan Iss Ka Mantaq Se Suljha Huwa 
Lughat Ke Bakheron Mein Uljha Huwa

And

Haqeeqat kharafat main kho gai
ye ummat riwayat main kho gai

*

On 'Muslims & Dogs'

(Thanks to uncle for sharing this article with me from Ingrid Mattson)

"...I have long felt badly that many Muslims fear dogs as a result of negative experiences and that they resort to confused religious reasoning to shun them.....Whatever the implications of this report, there is no doubt that the Qur’an is positive about dogs. The Qur’an allows the use of hunting dogs, which is one of the reasons the Maliki school makes a distinction between domestic and wild dogs – since we can eat game that has been in a retriever’s mouth. But most compelling is the Qur’anic description of a dog who kept company with righteous youths escaping religious persecution. The party finds shelter in a cave where God places them in a deep sleep; the Qur’an (18:18) says:

 You would have thought them awake, but they were asleep And [God] turned them on their right sides then on their left sides And their dog stretched his forelegs across the threshold

This tender description of the dog guarding the cave makes it clear that the animal is good company for believers...."

Link here: http://ingridmattson.org/article/whats-up-with-muslims-and-dogs/

Article 15

I was very impressed by how this movie was made!

From the title song (first scene) to end of the movie, the director kept the grip on the movie and never let it fall or stray away. This movie was a classic example of how people in rural areas of any third world country are at the mercy of the police,  politician and religious leaders mafia.

Kiya India, kiya Pakistan, Kiya Africa aur kiya shumali amrika

Poor men suffer at the hand of the class system - religious, cultural, social or economical

How courageously director addresses the religious class system in today's nationalist and unfortunately Hindutva India - made me actually surprised! It gives me hope for India. She is such a great country but unfortunately, it's fast turning into a fascist and a nonsecular democracy. Sometimes it makes me sad. I have witnessed religious extremism destroying the whole fabric of Pakistani society and mindset. I say in my heart - not again!

MulkoN ke batware hote rehte hain 
sarkarain badlti rehti hain 
samaj ke rang badalte rehte hain 
chehre badlte rehte hain 

bus nahi badalti to - gareeb ki qismat! 

Trailer with closed captions

Dheeme mizaj ke log

Haji Sahab, 35 saal se America main hain. Aksar mulaqat ho jaati hai. Kam-go hain. Eid milan party pe phir mulaqat hui. Kisi baat pe discussion ho rahi thi. UnhoN ne baRi khubsurat baat kahi:

"Main ne Quran ko, Bible ko, Torah ko, Veda ko aur kai ilhami kitaboN ko paRa hai - aur kaii baar paRha hai - main ne seekha hai ke - Khuda kisi bhi mazhab ka ho, use dheeme mizaj ke log pasand hain".

A different view on Lailtul Qadar

This post is in no way to question anyone's belief. This is just another view on Lailtul Qadar (LQ) from a Sufi perspective. This came up quite a few times in discussion with friends.

Lailtul Qadar is not a given night in the month of Ramadhan. Instead, it is a dynamic moment where and when a single soul unites with the universal soul. Whenever that special spiritual moment occurs to a soul, it becomes Lailtul Qadar.

Surah Qadar neither clarifies what was revealed on LQ nor it mentions the month of Ramadhan. But it does speak of universal soul (Ruh) along with angels (malaik) to arrive with the absolute order (kule amar) of All Mighty. When it happens, time becomes relative, as it says: it is better than 1000 nights.

Such experience of spiritual unity has been described by many mystics from all sorts of religions and beliefs and all across the history of humankind. Restricting it to the revelation of the Quran would be a very narrow explanation, as the Quran was revealed over 23 years.

Someone put another interesting perspective. When God says: What you know about LQ (wa ma adraka ma lailtul qadar), we can put forward all kind of explanations and scratch our head, but will never know the actual meaning of it.

On - History of Sikh Turban

"Aurangzeb attempted to prevent non-Muslims from wearing turbans, decreeing that only the Islamic ruling class had the authority to wear them. But this, along with forced conversions and other fundamentalist policies, sat uncomfortably with the growing Sikh population. When their leader Guru Tegh Bahadur was executed by Aurangzeb in Delhi, his son Gobind founded a warrior group known as the Khalsa, before insisting that all Sikhs wear turbans to cover their uncut hair. The turban had become an act of defiance against the emperor. It was the Sikhs' sign of freedom, a symbol of equality and a way to end caste distinctions."

Interesting article at CNN: click at From Mesopotamia to West London, a 4,000-year history of the turban


Link url: https://www.cnn.com/style/article/turbans-tales-history/index.html