AcidBlog

Read, speak, teach

What is written on the majestic tapestries of our hearts

Silent wisdom through words long forgotten entranced in a perpetual coma of uncertainty

The words: I love you

Resonate in the desert sands scorched by the wind of defeat

Paradise lies in the shadows cast by the illuminated being who created me from

Rahm رحم (Womb/Mercy)

My mother

My soul is an ocean eternally raging with hurricanes destroying the cities of anger and desire

And leaving the eye of the storm untouched

Balad al-Amīn بلد الأمين (City of Security)

Children martyred in infancy reunited with their parents in the Garden of Bliss

Mountains of azure with cavernous chambers echoing the song within our fitrah فتره (nature) like eucalyptus music

Yā abatī يا أبتي (oh my dear father), my dear father is a king ruling over the Glass Palace with concealed streams of grace flowing beneath where my mother, a Queen of a forgotten realm stands

My mother is shams شمس (sun), my father is qamar قمر (moon), my brother is tāriq طارق  (morning star), my grandma is najm نجم (star), my grandpa is kawkab كوكب (planet)

In harmony I revolve around the celestial objects of my solar system

Our eyes tell a manuscript of struggles and happiness

On the mystic field our tears grow the Garden and take out ravaging forest fires

I tell myself I must cry to the Beloved to convert nār نار (fire) into nūr نور (light) and jān جان (life) into jannah جنة (Paradise-Garden) 

Am I a good gardener?

Like the Messiah we garden, ripping weeds from the firmament and cultivating flowers of melancholy joy

A meeting of birds sing of future, past, and present

What is present but a dream and a dream but death and the future but uncertainty?

Unveiling of the 70,000 veils that keep my soul gloomy as a stormy sea with murky nimbus clouds like castles too shadowy to see my hand stretched out

Mukāshifah مكاشفة (Unveiling)

There is no “I” or “You” within “We”

Awlād أولاد (Children)

We are but a single body; when one limb hurts the rest of it is saddened

Ahad أحد (One)

In the beginning it was “alastu bi rabbikum?” ألست بربكم (Am I not your Lord?)

In the middle it is “be”

In the end it will be “peace”

One of the most comprehensive, in-depth, and beautiful biographies of the Life and Character (Sirah) of the Prophet Muhammad, Seal of the Prophets and Best of all creation صلي الله عليه و سلم.

Contains an introduction to the Works of Geography of Arabia, Classical Arabic Literature (Adab), Exegesis of the Qur'an (Tafsir), Compilations of Narrations of the Prophet (sa) (Hadith), Historiographies of the Battles of the Prophet (sa) (Maghazi), and Biography of the Prophet (sa) (Sirah). Also includes an in-depth summary of Hadith Science ('Ilm al-Hadith) and how to sift through fabricated and true narrations of the life of the Prophet (sa).

Then contains an exposition on the history, climate, geography, language, culture etc. of Arabia and its inhabitants, and the state of the 'Arabs before the advent of Islam.

Then it contains a section on the history leading up to the birth of the Prophet (sa) including an exposition on Abraham (as) leaving Hagar (as) and Ishmael (as) in the desert of Arabia, the finding of the spring of Zamzam in the valley of Becca (Makkah) by Hagar (as) near the mountains of Saffa and Marwah, the rebuilding of the Ka'bah (Cube) by Abraham (as) and his son Ishmael (as) in Makkah, the history of the Quraysh tribes in Arabia, and an exposition on the mother of the Prophet and his immediate family (as). Also contains a map of the Ka'bah and its vicinity and a history of the caretakers and rebuilding of the Ka'bah in history.

Then talks about the tribal quarrels amongst the Quraysh and the events leading up to the birth of the Prophet (sa) including the siege of the Ka'bah by the As'hab al-Fil (People of the Elephant) and the marrying of 'Abd al-Muttalib's (real name Shaibah) son 'Abd Allah to Aminah bint Wahb. 'Abd Allah and Aminah were the parents of the Prophet (sa) who died while he was in infancy so he was left as an orphan.

Then contains an amazing and extremely well-written section on the life of the Prophet (sa) starting from his birth and life in Makkah.

http://www.alislam.org/holyprophet/Seal-of-Prophets-Vol-1.pdf

                  يا ربي صلي على نبيك دائما

في هذه الدنيا و بعث ثاني

 Oh my Lord perpetually bless your Prophet

Neither capitalist systems nor scientific socialist systems work in the long run. 

Problems with Capitalist Sytem:

- High interest rates enslave the masses economically. Ie. when buying a mortgage and interest rates are high, the cost of borrowing money is the interest rate, and you are unable to pay the banks back due to increasing interest rates. Also, the value of your house goes down, so you can't even sell your house. YOU CAN'T PAY 'EM BACK, AND YOU CAN'T SELL YOUR HOUSE. That's just one example. I'm sure students struggling to pay back OSAP loans feel me on this.

- Low interest rates result in government usually to borrow more money and spend more. While this is economic growth and funds many social services, there is a crowding out effect by the government, and demand for a larger money supply/interest rates increase. This, although increasing GDP, also increases the rate of inflation, which is a persistent rise in prices over time. It means...A CHOCOLATE BAR WILL BE WORTH 20 DOLLARS, AND DON'T EVEN GET ME STARTED ON GASOLINE FOR YO' CAR.

  Problems with Communist/Socialist System:

- Lack of interest rates means no incentive for people to go to work and earn profit higher than the interest rate. Also, no incentive because everyone gets the same amount of money in an ideal communist state, meaning a Ph.D professor, doctor, engineer, astrophysicist, and chartered accountant all get the same money as a...factory worker. So what's the point of higher education then? Therefore interventionist supply-side policies also become futile.

- In past communist states, what really happened is that the government just owned all the money and lived lavish lives of luxury while everyone else suffered. Kind of like Ghadafi, Hosni Mubarak, Bashar al-Assad, Zardari, and others.

  THE ISLAMIC SYSTEM:

1.) Environmentally sustainable (ALL natural resources are collectively owned by humanity, and there is no price on them, similar to the Native Americans' view).

2.) Eliminates interest completely from the economy. However even with a 0-interest economy, hyperinflation and loss of the value of the currency does NOT occur (as it did in Zimbabwe under Robert Mugabe). This is because the banks (acting as firms) offset inflationary pressures, and there is no inflationary spiral. The banks also mitigate the effects of the tax of Zakat if it is increased due to a person's income and if the economy is experiencing a boom in the business cycle.  3.) Decreases inflation rate to low and steady (because of increased aggregate supply) 4.) Levies a tax on accumulated capital (that is not used as expenditure) based on one's income and how the economy's doing called Zakat, which is used for social welfare. This money is given to: the poor, those employed as Zakat collectors, those whose hearts need to be comforted, for the freeing of slaves (economic slaves ones too), those burdened with debt, orphans, people in need of housing, people in need of bursaries for education, travellers, and those striving in the way of God (this includes but is not limited to missionaries, Imams, priests, rabbis, and other religious teachers). This is neither a direct (on income) nor indirect (on goods/services) tax, but on accumulated unused capital after 1 year. 5.) Increases employment, as the banks act as firms which have gains/losses in the money you put in them because they do business (kind of like stocks but with no regulation by the government or stock market; free-market). 6.) Eliminates need for wars for natural resources (ie. Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya).

7.) Reduces corruption, due to auditing board. 8.) Eliminates mortgages and replaces them with leases. Zakat also ensures everyone has a house, so homelessness is history.

  P.S. This was only ever implemented in history by the 4 Caliphs after the Prophet Muhammad (sallAllahu ‘alayhi wa sallam), namely Abu Bakr, ‘Umar, ‘Uthman, and ‘Ali (radiAllahu ‘anhum). The current so-called ‘Islamic’ nations of the world have completely different economic systems. For example, Pakistan takes money from NGO’s and puts it in the coffers of politicians.

And, the Father of Modern Economics was Ibn Khaldun, an ancient Islamic sociologist/economist/historian, and not Adam Smith as is widely believed.

The strongest form of speaking out against systematic oppression and struggle is to wear it on your shirt for all to see.

Freedom Designs reflect the truth, in all cultural/political/religious applications of that. Wear The Truth.

Takfir (the practise of calling others professing to be Muslims as non-Muslims) is categorically rejected by the Qur’an, Sunnah (Way of the Prophet Muhammad [sa]), and pious Friends of God (saints) of early Islam.

(al-Qur’an al-Kareem, Surah al-Nisaa’ [The Women], Ayah 95 [4:95]):

“O ye who believe! when you go forth in the cause of Allah, make proper investigation and say not to anyone who greets you with the greeting of peace (as-Salamu ‘Alaykum), “Thou art not a believer.”

Narrated Abu Huraira: Allah’s Apostle said, “If a man says to his brother, O kafir (disbeliever)!’ Then surely one of them is such (i.e., a Kafir). ” (Sahih al-Bukhari, Book #73, Hadith #125)

The Prophet (sallAllahu ‘alayhi wa sallam) mentioned 2 types of ‘Ulemah fi’l-Ummah (Scholars in the Body of Muslims). The righteous ones who are those who will be “like the Prophets of Bani Isra’eel (Jewish Prophets)”, and also those that are “the worst creatures under as-Samaa’ (the heavens)”.

If you believe in mental freedom then surely you have to use your own mind for interpretation too? This is a prevalent problem I personally see among most Orthodox Muslims today. The stronghold grip that Taqlid (non-questioning belief of whatever the present-day scholars say) has on the Muslims; shockingly especially among the youth.

Wikipedia’s definition of Taqlid: “an Arabic term in Islamic legal terminology connoting “imitation”, that is; following the decisions of a religious authority without necessarily examining the scriptural basis or reasoning of that decision, such as accepting and following the verdict of scholars of jurisprudence (fiqh) without demanding an explanation of the processes by which they arrive at it, hence adherence to one of the classical schools (madhhab) of jurisprudence.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taqlid)

It cannot be the scholars acting as your brain 100%; they are humans too. Even the Mujjadideen (Reformers) of Islam like Imam Ghazali, Imam Alif Thani, made minor mistakes on certain theological things.

And who would you trust more? The scholars of today, some of which may fall under the category of those who are “the worst creatures under the canopy of heaven” according to Rasul Allah (sallAllahu ‘alayhi wa sallam) himself, or the pious saintly Wali’ Allah scholars of the past?

Of course each and every Mujjadid (Reformer) and pious saint of Islam was insulted by the “orthodox” clergy of the time, and many even received fatwas of apostasy upon them.

Most people don’t know that Imam Abu Hanifah (rahmatAllahu ‘alayh), founder of the Hanafi madhhab (school of thought) was considered a heretic and kafir by the ‘Ulemah of his time, and put into jail because he wouldn’t submit to the “not-so” righteous “Caliph” of the time. In jail he died while he was in Sajdah (prostration during prayer). The torment didn’t even stop there. After he died, his body was taken out of his grave and replaced with that of a dog. And later on that place was converted into a lavatory. This is one of the greatest saints of Islam.

In this book is a list of all the torments and fatwas of apostasy that the righteous saints and scholars of Islam had to face, from every century since Islam’s inception:

http://www.alislam.org/library/books/muslims/with-love-to-Muslims.pdf

So now, what did the classical righteous scholars have to say about Takfir?

It is put no better than by the Mujjadid (Reformer) and Hujjah al-Islam (Proof of Islam), Imam Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (rahmatAllahu ‘alayh) in his book “Faysal al-Tafriqa Bayna al-Islam wa’l-Zandaqa” or “The Decisive Criterion for Distinguishing Islam from Masked Infidelity”):

“those who rush to condemn people who go against any school as Unbelievers are reckless ignoramuses. For, how could the jurist, purely on the basis of his mastery of Islamic law (fiqh), assume this enormous task? In what branch of the law does he encounter the (aforementioned) skills and sciences? So when you see the jurist who knows nothing but law plunging into matters of branding people Unbelievers or condemning them as misguided, turn away from him and occupy neither your heart nor your tongue with him. For, challenging others with one’s knowledge is a deeply ingrained human instinct over which the ignorant are able to exercise no control” (pg. 120)

So I just showed you an Ayah (Verse/Sign) of the Noble Qur’an, Hadith (Saying of the Prophet Muhammad [sa]; there are many others against Takfir), and interpetration by a saintly classical scholar and Wali’ Allah (Saint).

If you are a mainstream Muslim subscribing to either the Sunni or Shi’ah stream of thought, this does indeed concern you because the present-day scholars you look up to (some of them) condemn millions of Muslims following the Ahmadi madhab to be kuffar based on their own ideas. I just showed you classical fundamental Islamic sources proving that is haraam (unlawful).

We don’t want to commit haraam deeds right?

The scholars today are unfortunately in error when dismissing Ahmadi Muslims as kuffar (non-believers) without property researching the madhab which is their duty as scholars (may Allah forgive and preserve them).

And if you believe in the argument that the majority must be right, you are commiting a philosophical “Argumentum Ad Populum” (appeal to the people), a fallacious argument that concludes a proposition to be true because many or most people believe it; it alleges: “If many believe so, it is so.” The world’s majority population at one point believed the earth was flat, Did this make it true? They also believed that the speed of light was the fastest constant in the Universe, while recently scientists have found that neutrinos are faster than the speed of light, conducting over 16,000 trials with an uncertainty of +- 6 sigma (really, really certain).

So just because most of the Muslims today believe that Jesus ascended to the heavens and has lived for over 2,000 years (something completely scientifically impossible) and will one day come down, or that there cannot be an Ummati Nabi without a law or new religion within Islam, or that Ahmadi Muslims are kuffar, does not make it true.

However the Qur’an is never wrong. It says the earth is indeed round as contrary to the opinions of the Jahilliyyah ‘Arabs of the time, and that “make proper investigation and say not to anyone who greets you with the greeting of peace (as-Salamu ‘Alaykum), “Thou art not a believer.”

Make proper investigation.

The Qur’an instructs you to do that. It doesn’t say “ask a scholar.”

Rasul Allah (sallAllahu ‘alayhi wa sallam) once said “The Jews made their scholars into gods besides Allah.”