something-2-think-about

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Tyranny of Life

Every year during Ashara, we are encouraged by Aqa Moula to break away from our worldly activities and dedicate ourselves to the remembrance of the sacrifice of Imam Husain in the fields of Karbala.

Imam Hussain did stand up to the forces of tyranny and sought to raise an army to overthrow Yazeed. Even when he was ambushed in Karbala and offered the option to give his Be’at to Yazeed for his freedom, he stood steadfast for his principles and decided he will not give in to the cop-out.

Perhaps in his call to have us put aside everything to attend Ashara, Moula is teaching us to break away from the tyranny of life.

The tyranny that compels us to follow a life routine.

The tyranny that compels us to follow the dictates of society.

The tyranny that forces us to persist in chasing that dollar for our next meal.

The tyranny that would have us believe that the best life is a life of want rather than a life of need.

The tyranny that wants us to believe that the only education is the one to be had in school and that we must run on the track given and cross all the manufactured hurdles it places for us.

The tyranny that makes us blind to the fact that we have only one life and we should be free to live it how we will. 

The tyranny that would give us a guarantee of a tomorrow for which we should give up our today.

Perhaps if we did take away this lesson from Ashara, we would gain freedom from real tyranny.

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Salaam

Salaam

Short for

As Salaam o Alaikum Wa Rahmatullahe Wa Barakato

Long for As Salaam o Alaikum

The way we spell it (in Latin script) may differ depending on how it is pronounced colloquially.

It is a greeting that infuses a dua. A prayer if you will. The greeter wishes upon the greeted an abundance of peace and the consideration and blessings of the almighty.

In certain cultures, it is the default greeting. A hello. A goodbye.

It is instinctive in those who have grown up with it and dwell in the culture.

Does a prayer that takes on the character of an instinctive greeting hold its true intent? Does the greeter actually confer upon the greeted the heart-felt resolve of the dua?

We are well taught that more than the utterance, it is the intent that takes pride of place. What value then of a prayer that is dispensed as a greeting without its core intent?

As if the dua that we dispense frivolously is not devalued enough, we dispense duas as we dispense greetings. Without effort.

If indeed we wish peace upon someone, what then do we do to effect that peace? Do we leave peace to present itself upon the wished without any effort on our part?

How have we as fellow brothers and sisters in Islam and in the human race, endeavored to step forward to make peace? Do our words and actions reflect and effect the peace that we wish upon others in our daily greetings?

Beyond not taking away the peace or imposing chaos on others, do we venture to actively bring peace to our fellow men? Peace of mind. Peace of body? Peace of soul?

If not, then what use is our greetings of salaam on others?

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Perfection

That would be an attribute we would assign to God.

Perfection is not something we can ever achieve or safely assign to any object in our known universe.

God, in all his omniscience, would perfectly fit the description of perfection. God has to be perfect for anything less would disqualify him as god. To describe him as anything less would be blasphemy.

If any one of us had a perfect life, we would not be in want. We would not be in need or in envy. We would not be happy or sad or angry or content. We would not desire or crave. These would blemish our perfection.

God in his perfection would not be desirous. Would not be wanting. Would not be curious. Perfection would not compel him to do something as any feeling of compulsion itself would negate his perfection.

In a state of perfection, God would not want or need to create anything. That he was compelled to create what we contend he created would again, negate his perfection. That we would go forth and hold such a belief would be to deny God his perfection and that in itself would be blasphemous.

Then to venture forth and accept that that which he created was imperfect would further serve to dislodge the perfection of god. It would be in effect, assigning a measure of tardiness to his handiwork.

Why would we imagine God’s 'need' or 'want' or 'desire' to create something (existence), implying a certain inherent imperfection in him and then further hammer in his imperfection by  imagining him creating a flawed existence?

If indeed God is perfect, then he would not exist as perfection is an end unto itself as it serves no purpose. Any action from a position of perfection bellies imperfection.

A perfect being (god) cannot have created the world as his perfection would negate the very existence of creation.

The options we are left with are:

God is not perfect. This would give some credence to creation but would nullify our current belief system in a perfect God.

There is no god. The universe came into existence out of a state of imperfection.

Either option points away from where we stand in the belief in God.

Something to think about

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Panadol

We have prayed many Washeks at the masjid and after each washek, we would listen to the wasilo taken by the janaab.

In most wasilas, janaab would implore Allah subhanahu wa'ta'ala to forgive us our sins.

Sins are the stuff of why we are here and, I guess, continue to be here.

So it makes sense that Janaab would lead us in seeking forgiveness so that we may be cleansed of our sins.

Please forgive us those sins that have taken away our health

Please forgive us those sins that have taken away our rozi

Please forgive us our sins that have taken away our ability to have children

Please forgive us our sins that have taken away.....you get the picture.

From what we have been taught, our worldly shortcomings are a result of our sins. But never as a direct result thereof.

When we have transgressed, we seek forgiveness for our sins. For granting us forgiveness, Allah imposes upon us a levy. This levy comes in the form of grief. A fall from grace if you may. Ill health, ill wealth etc. These levies, once paid in full, see our sins forgiven so that we may meet our maker fully cleansed.

Confusion arises when we seek to have our levies lifted. The same levies which have been imposed to cleanse us of our sins.

You done the crime (gunah) you do the time (grief). If you then want to have the time lifted, then you end up with unresolved gunahs. You meet the maker with some stains yet unwashed.

When we fall ill, we resort to medication. The irony here is that our illness is a payment for the gunahs we have committed (gunah na sabab) yet while we believe our illness cleanses us of our gunahs, we instinctively reach for relief thus putting the brakes on the process of gunah maaf.

When we take wasilo, we again ask Allah to forgive us those gunahs that make us ill, yet the illness is Allah's way of forgiving us or gunahs. There is no free lunch. You have to pay the price.

We have to pay the price here, or in the hereafter. Apparently, an illness here is worth an eternity in hell so it's a no brainer for us to just put up with a headache (for minor gunahs) once in a while and not reach for that Panadol. Perhaps diabetes, stroke, poverty, cancer and the likes for the major gunahs. I know I sound insensitive but the truth as we believe it to be can be so.

So, the next time you lay your head down in sajdo and seek of Allah, this would be something to think about.

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Absolutes

Humans are a product of evolution. Even in our scriptures, we learn of many 'Dors' and periods spanning millions of years and a little tease here and there of how we may not have been in our present form at the onset.

We have characteristics that have been shaped into us over millennia through the process of natural selection. Yes. It's a thing. 

As with any random process, the laws of probability and uncertainty dictate that while most people share similar traits, no two individuals are alike.

What faith hopes to achieve is to mould us into their societal definition of what we should be. Faith decides what are good behaviours and what are bad. Lines are drawn and these lines separate black from white and leave little room for the vast swaths of grey that exists within us. 

As we progress with biology and genetics, we discover that our behaviour is very largely dictated by our genetic makeup. How we think and how we respond to stimuli. What tendencies we exhibit, how much of those tendencies and to what extent we have control over them is very much a product of our genetic makeup.

To conform to absolute dictates of black and white is utopian at best and most certainly an exercise in futility. We only have to reflect on how much we as mumineen (don't)comply with every single idealist tenet of our faith let alone the minutia of our faith.

Society decides what are the most 'desirable' aspects of behaviour from this myriad of character traits and attempts to herd everyone into that clearly defined space, perhaps, in an attempt to create common ground where we can exist together in harmony.

This of course creates a pressure situation where we, as individuals, in keeping with our innate nature, have to constantly work against ourselves to conform to these defined norms....or burn in hell forever.

That is where faiths offer a pressure release valve. We are offered many ways and means to have our transgressions forgiven. Through prayer, confessions, penance, duas and in our case, mourning for our fallen saviours.

Faith has recognized that it is impossible to conform to its ideals and thus offered us some respite in the form of hope despite our failures. This allows the individual to remain in its fold and not leave in despair the moment of a single transgression, believing that only hell awaits him anyway. With absolution, heaven remains always within his grasp.

Ironically, it is this absolution, this pressure release valve itself that affords us the opportunity to bend or even break the rules in the knowledge that the path will always be available for our salvation.

As the famous saying goes: I asked God for a bicycle but I know that's not how it works. So I stole a bicycle and asked for forgiveness.

This line of reasoning serves two purposes. 1. It allows the believer to indulge in all that which his faith forbids him, ie, his natural tendencies lead him, yet remain within its fold and maintain his path to heaven. 2. It allows Faith to embrace human nature to 'steal the bicycle' and literally accept payment/penance to keep the defaulter in the membership of the faith.

Clearly, a win-win scenario for both the individual and the faith.

It is comforting to believe that we are well 'civilized' and fully capable of adhering to all the rules of our faith but we well know that the only reason we indulge in so many spiritual activities to absolve us of our sins is because we stray. Very regularly.

We are not perfect. Not because we are in arrears but because the process of evolution made us varied. Perfection is a societal construct and every society has its own version of perfection. There will be areas of overlap but that would be because we are inherently all homo sapiens. But just as we are unique within this genus, no individual will ever fit into an idealised perfect mould.

The field of Psychopathology throws up such gems as Kleptomania, Paedophilia, Bi-polar, Tourette, Psychopaths, Addiction, etc. Individuals suffering from these afflictions have a hard time controlling their behaviour but the things they do as a result of their 'disability' fall into the definition of sin. These are some of the major behavioural ailments that would question the very definition of right and wrong. There are also a myriad of other, sometimes more subtle psychological tendencies that dictate how each individual behaves, often subconsciously or worse, instinctively.

While Biology does give us our individual characters, society limits our acting out these characters as it inherently needs some common ground that can support all the individuals that thrive within it. 

The difference between the two is the tug of war that we tend to define as the fight between good and evil.

So, the next time you feel the urge to point a finger at someone who, in your opinion, has sinned, remember. There is no good or evil. There is only the truth.

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Calamities

The last two years have seen the world go through the calamity of a pandemic. Covid has tsunamied through the world taking with it many lives and destroying many others in the form of economic devastation and starvation. Others who have survived Covid may live through years of the after-effects of the infection, both health and economic.

Beyond just economic devastation and physical hunger, Ibadullah have had to forgo their ibadat rituals in their places of worship. They have been unable to gather as a community and fraternize. The fraternity that keeps them bound as a community and within the fold of the faith.

This loss of face-to-face contact may have made Ibadullah more solitary, seeking solace in online entertainment or if they are so inclined, online information.

Online information is a beast we cannot control. It brings the worst of conspiracy theories that destroy the best efforts to unify the world's communities to combat the pandemic with the best documentaries, education series, news videos and articles, and thought-provoking commentaries.

Will exposure to alternative views and online literature combined with a prolonged detachment from the fraternity serve to inadvertently affect the faith of ibadullah as they are confronted with options and questions they would not normally have faced? Will they continue to take faith at face value when faced with an array of alternative opinions and literature at the click of a mouse?

Even before Covid, some mumineen have had to endure much hardship. These mumineen are particularly important to us as they had played a crucial role in the preservation of dawat for hundreds of years before it reached the shores of India.

These mumineen are currently living through hell on earth with constant bombardments from those we deem to be the constant bane of a tolerant and peaceful Islam. Years of targeted bombings, embargoes and sanctions have destroyed Yemen and subjected Yemenis to starvation and disease that shows no sign of letting up.

Now we also have Mumineen in Sri Lanka suffering from the economic devastation caused by Covid

This onslaught both physical and spiritual on mumineen, brought on by war and the pandemic is extracting a huge toll and may leave the community and ibadullah at large in a state of physical, spiritual and economic emaciation for a long time to come.

As if these were not enough, we are currently in the midst of a massive shift in weather patterns brought on by global warming that threatens our future just a few years from now. There will be more starvation, war, and death brought on by a shortage of food, water and other resources.

The question that should visit us is, why is Moula not quelling the calamities that are visiting us thus? As we know, he alone is in a position to do dua to rid us of these scourges. The dua of Imam-uz-zaman's Dai has to be mustajab.

What is holding him back from imploring Allah Ta'ala to end the miseries that mumineen are currently subject to?

Are we in such a state of gunaah that these calamities have been sent as reparations? 

Have we suddenly done more gunahs than we normally indulge in that these calamities have visited us in such a short time?

Have the mumineen of Yemen come out of so many years of isolation presumably for the sins of arrogance during the reign of Syedna Mohammed Izuddin, to now face even more trials for new sins they may have committed? So much transgression that even Moula has to refrain from imploring Allah Ta'ala to deliver them from suffering lest he is compelled to grant Moula's dua?

If indeed hellfire is descending upon us as reparations for our sins, then why have we had a litany of duas sent to us to rid us of this malady? Why had the duas not seem to have any effect on the advance of Covid in its path of devastation or the onslaught of attacks on Yemen by the enemies of Dawat?

Have the duas that have been done for us and by us come to naught?

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Why do we have children?

1.      Do we have them because we want little playthings around the house?

2.      Do we have them as insurance policies to take care of us when we are old?

3.      Do we have them because our maternal instinct compels us to want to have kids?

4.      Do we have them as a submission to social/familial pressure to have kids?

5.      Do we have them because we need to continue our family name?

6.      Do we have them because we actually like making woopie and children are an unfortunate by-product?

7.      Do we have them because scripture tells us that we should have kids and that we will be doing god’s bidding and getting brownie points to heaven in the bargain?

8.      Do we have them because scripture tells us that we should have kids and that we will be bringing another soul into this world to give it a chance to have its sins processed in the grand journey of the greater life?

If you have picked any of the first 7 reasons, face it, you are selfish. There is no redemption for the selfish who would impose a lifetime of life on anyone for their selfish reasons.

If you picked reason number 6, face it, you’re just lying to yourself. No heaven for liars.

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Terms of Misaaq

Misaaq. That one time where you make a decision to accept your faith.

Misaaq. That time when you decide all other faiths are false and this faith is the true faith.

Misaaq. That time you decide that the Dai who leads the faith is the true Dai and that he is henceforth your lord and master.

Misaaq. That one time where you agree that there will be consequences for leaving the Misaaq.

That your spouse (wife) will immediately become haram.

That you will have to do 30 Haj barefoot.

That all your wealth will instantly become haram and any wealth you accumulate after leaving the Misaaq will also be haram.

The point is if you have chosen to leave the Misaaq, what does it matter to you what is deemed Haram by the custodians of the Misaaq? It's like the club you have joined and now that you have sold your membership, the club pool is now haram to you.

Why would you want to do 30 Haj?

If the Misaaqs need to be renewed multiple times a year because you may have inadvertently violated one or more of its terms, then it would seem violating the terms of Misaaq really does not have any consequences. You can just sit in at the next Misaaq and reviolate the terms as and when you feel like it again.

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When you think about it...martyrdome

Imam Husain is widely remembered as a martyr for Islam. He took on Yazid at a time when Islam was at a crossroads and in not succumbing to Yazid's demand of allegiance, he gave his life for the cause.

His death was (and is) seen as a triumph of good over evil and of Islamic principles over power and dictatorship.

As it is often said, Imam Husain saved Islam on the day of Aashura.

This would run on an assumption that Islam needed saving. The final message for all mankind forever, that Allah sent down through Rasulullah, needed saving. That Allah, in all his omnipotent glory could not secure the message and risked losing his message by relying on the decisions of Imam Husain to save it.

What if Imam Husain chose not to confront Yazeed?

What if Imam Husain relented and pledged allegiance to Yazeed

What if Imam Husain won the battle against all odds?

What if any of the events that took place had played out differently?

Are we willing to say Islam would have been lost? Are we willing to say that Allah, the omnipotent, did not have the ability to preserve the message? Does not Allah make it clear in Surah Al Fil that that which is Allah's, Allah will protect?

For anyone who insists that Imam Husain would have done what he did don't seem to understand the meaning and implications of free will.

A sacrifice or martyrdom can only be celebrated or commemorated or appreciated when the individual has the option to make choices and when there is always a chance that he makes a decision that, well, does not work out in the scheme of things.

If Indeed Imam Husain's sacrifice and shahadat had been foretold and pre-determined then there is no free will. No choice. No sacrifice. No martyrdom.

It would mean we are all pre-programmed to do the things we do and the good and evil that we supposedly do are already pre-determined.

It would mean good and evil are scripted.

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How Have We Evolved?

Rasulullah led a very humble life living with the bare minimum. Even the house he lived in consisted of only one room which served as the Hall, bedroom and kitchen. He could have easily lived in a bigger house as the leader of all mumineen in Medina and subsequently all of Arabia. Mumineen must have been tripping over themselves to provide Rasulullah with the trappings of a comfortable life befitting the Rasool of Allah and the leader of their jaan and maal.

Alisaheb continued in that mould to the point that he dressed like a darvesh and ate only jhau no aato while he fed the masses. Ali was the Caliph of all Muslimeen and had much wealth at his disposal.

Alisaheb did not even want anyone to know where he was buried. He made sure to have his grave unmarked and laid in secret by his 2 shahzaadas.

How have we evolved from that to where we are now?

We adorn ourselves with finery and live in luxurious mansions.

We are encouraged to present ourselves to the community and the world in our best clothes and footwear.

We are encouraged to wear Saya Kurtas with gold embroidery.  

Wealth is treasured over spirituality. Wealth is honoured in the service of faith.

Wealth is preached in our prosperity sermons as an earthly reward for khidmat.

We adorn the graves of those that taught us humility with opulence. We build such massive monuments over them where even monarchs would cringe with envy.

We build massive places of worship we call Khuda-nu-ghar and bejewel them with the best architecture, art and precious stones. The house of that entity which places simplicity and humility at the centre of its messages. That entity which loves us most when we present ourselves in his darbar in our lowest form.

We spend millions on building places of worship to glorify a god that needs no glorification from us.

We shower our spiritual guides in the splendours of royalty that even Rasulullah did not have nor want.

We lavish honours and glamour on the immediate servants of our spiritual guide in the face of his constant messages against, opulence and pride, while these servants expect no less.

We throw wealth at his agents such that they live like kings with immense wealth while they preach equity and care for the poor and downtrodden. They teach us to wear pomp and pageantry like them lest we catch on to the huge disparity between their wealth and ours.

The haves laugh in the face of the have-nots by not only their displays of wealth in their lifestyle but also by partaking in the purchase of sawaab with cold hard cash. An ugly parallel to the capitalist mantra of money makes money.

We deny and denounce our faith with every ounce of insolence to the message of humility, fair play and submission that we can muster.

All this complicity while we swagger with a superior air of arrogant humility.

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Selfless Act

When we are born, what is the first thing we do?

We cry. Why do we cry? Why does anyone cry? Either they are tears of joy or of sorrow. We can be sure, however, that the first sounds that escape us are prompted by grief.

Grief holds our hands at birth and does not abandon us until ultimately life abandons us.

If grief is not sufficiently inherent in the passage of life itself, we are further burdened with grief that is taught to us. We are taught to love someone who lived and died for us centuries ago and that we need to grieve his/their death.    

It is well said that the only guarantee we have in life is that we will suffer, and we will die. There is no guarantee of joy or happiness.

Life guarantees us suffering by inflicting upon us the pain of birth when we are violently expelled from our blissful cocoon into a cold world that will impose upon us the need to breathe and eat.

A life that will infuse us with hunger pangs multiple times a day. Hunger pangs which grow more violent until they are fed.

Life that will suffer us thirst over and above the hunger pangs. Thirst that will agonise every cell in our body until it is quenched, over and over and over.

Life that will see us feel the pain of loneliness, shame, guilt, loss, depression, anxiety, worry, responsibility, rejection, torment.

Life that will impose upon us the physical pain that the passage through ageing assure us.

The journey through life may give us the pain dents and bruises as part of our life experience through injury.

Why do we then cherish life? What does it give us that makes us want to keep it?

Between highs of the joys of a good meal or a great drink, we will certainly feel the pangs of hunger and thirst.

Between the hights of euphoria of love, we will certainly feel the depths of despair.

Between the periods of good health, we will suffer the indignity of disease. Perhaps even a perpetual disease by the grace of a genetic misfortune.

Why do we procreate? What compels us to impose life onto someone, knowing full well that we are imposing a guaranteed misery.

We are taught never to impose pain upon the next person as that would count as a misdeed and comes with the certainty of sin and an eternal punishment that follows. Yet we impose a lifetime of pain and suffering like clockwork. Like it is programmed into us.

Evolution has programmed animals to instinctively procreate. They likely have no thought beyond the act of procreation itself. Their instincts then compel them to nurture their young and cast them into the world to fend for themselves, suffer and die.

Faith teaches us to deny our animal instincts as we have been created above and beyond them. Our evolution empowers us with reason. To reason beyond what we would otherwise instinctively do.  

Why do we then not rise above our animal instincts and ponder the terrible consequences of our primal needs? Why do we not heed the call of our faith?

Faith then teaches us that we need to procreate to introduce life into this world. That such a deed is a selfless act which allows another tainted soul an opportunity to redeem itself. We have here a conundrum. Do we not impose pain and suffering on someone to avoid eternal damnation for ourselves? Or do we impose it so some soul can opportune itself some redemption only to impose pain and suffering again on the next generation?

While we are on the topic of this selfless act, are we indeed performing a selfless act? How is an act borne out of a purely basic carnal urge which is devoid of any motive other than pleasure, selfless? How is wanting a little plaything to occupy us, and take care of us in our old age selfless? Neither of these animal instincts involve us remotely considering the prospect of helping another soul through its journey of redemption.

As if giving life was not enough, we indulge in prolonging this life given. We feed it. We fuss over it. We educate it so it can earn a living and prolong its stay here. We provide nurturing when it is needed in times of illness. We rescue it from the jaws of death where needed.

As if all that is not enough, we pray for its longevity.

Just in case imposing misery on one life is not enough, we gleefully impose it on as many as we can, stopping these days only on the consideration of our own misery in having to provide. No more thoughts about saving more souls. Selfless indeed.

Then, we are expected to look to our neighbours. To see to their needs in time of need. Help them prolong their lives. Contribute to the food, medical and housing needs of others that they may continue in this life which only guarantees them continued pain the longer they linger.

If that is too subtle a reference, then consider the life we prolong of those near death. A life that struggles with each breath. That begs to be fed and clothed. That cannot but be suffering each moment that it remains. We selfishly deny that life a release because we ‘love’ them and cannot let them go. Selfless?

How have we come to believe that creating a life of suffering and prolonging the suffering of others is an act of kindness, of love?

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Seeming Patterns

If you line up the entire text of Moby Dick which was published in 1851, into a giant rectangle, you may notice some peculiar patterns, like words which seem to predict the assassination of Dr Martin Luther King, or references to the 1997 Death of Princess Diana. Does that mean that the author, Herman Melville, was a secret prophet?

Not likely. We know this because of a mathematical principle called Ramsey Theory.

Ramsey theory is the reason we can find geometric shapes in the night sky. It is why we can know without checking that at least two individuals in Mumbai have exactly the same number of hairs on their head. It explains why patterns can be found in just about any text….even simple texts like Vanilla Ice song lyrics!!

What IS Ramsey theory?

In a nutshell, it states that given enough elements in a set or structure, some particular, interesting pattern among them is guaranteed to emerge.

Lets take a simple example.

Imagine there are six people in a party. Amazingly enough, we can say for sure that some group of three of them either all know each other, or have never met before, without knowing a single thing about them. We can demonstrate this by graphing out all the possibilities.

With each point representing a guest, and a line indicating a pair know each other. Every pair only has two possibilities: They either know each other, or they don’t. There are a lot of possibilities, but every single one has the property that we are looking for. Six is the lowest number of guests where that’s guaranteed to be the case, which we can express like this. R(3,3)=6.

Ramsey theory gives us a guarantee that such a minimum number exists for certain patterns, but no easy way to find it.

In this case, as the total number of guests increases, the combination gets out of control. For instance, say you are trying to find out the minimum size of a party, where there is a group of five people who all know each other, or who all don’t.

Despite 5 being a small number, R(5,5), the answer is virtually impossible to discover through an exhaustive search like this. That is because of the enormous volume of the possibilities.

A party of 48 guests has 2 to the power of 1128 possible configurations. That’s more than the number of atoms in the universe!!

What this shows us is that specific patterns with seemingly astronomical odds can emerge from a relatively small set. With a large set, the possibilities are endless.

Any four stars where no three lie in a straight line will form some quadrilateral shape. Now expand that to the thousands of stars we can see in the night sky. We would be blind not to be able to find  all sorts of familiar shapes and even creatures if we care to look for them.

So, what are the chances of a text concealing a prophecy or hidden meanings?

When you factor in the number of letters, the variety of possible related words and all their abbreviations and alternate spellings, they are quite high. You can try it yourself.

Just pick your favourite text, arrange the letters in a grid, and see what you can find.

The mathematician T.S. Motzkin once remarked that while disorder is more probable in general, complete disorder is impossible.

The sheer size of the universe guarantees that some of its random elements will fall into specific arrangements, and because we have evolved to notice patterns and pick out signals among the noise, we are often tempted to find intentional meaning where there may not be any.

While we may be awed by hidden messages in everything from books to pieces of toasts or cloud formations or shape of trees and skin discolorations, the real origin is often in our minds.

The need to validate that which we already believe will tend us towards a confirmation bias where we will lean on those perceived patterns that confirm what we already believe.

The Ramsey theory could be applied to the study of literature. We tend to read into the intent of the author based on perceived patterns we find in their works. More so in literature written in the form of verse and or metaphors. The ambiguity becomes more pronounced if the author needs to fit his sentences or prose into specific structures or rhymes. This leaves the reader to imagine multiple meanings depending on his or her pre-existing confirmation bias. Because a work of literature is likely to contain hundreds of thousands of letters and words and sentences, the probability that you will find patterns that suit your search parameters or to confirm your peculiar set of beliefs are astronomical.

One can even sway an entire population by picking out seeming patterns in a revered text or ideology manifesto which the population already subscribes to. Each day, a new message can be read depending on the need of the day.

Many have done so through history to lead people to either strive towards new reaches of glory or sign away their life and hard-earned money and/or indulge in the most depraved acts of death and destruction.

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Not so Unique

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Faith Socialism

Some years back, a scheme to help mumineen in need was launched by Mukaddas Burhanuddin maula. 

Faizul Mawaid Burhaniya was to provide a decent meal to families which were struggling to get by.

This meal would provide at least one meal a day to them, freeing them the much needed time to work out a way to provide for themselves.

The way the FMB was formulated was to centralise the kitchen for all mumineen in the community and the savings accrued from the economy of scale operations would pay for meals for the financially challenged among us.

The grace in this scheme was to ensure that the contribution to the tiffin would be made on a voluntary basis. That the haves would participate in the project as a way to look out for the guy next door. There would be no need for anyone to come asking for food or favour. This would preserve the dignity of mumineen, something Burhanuddin maula had always stressed upon.

There should be no distinction between rich and poor and everyone would have an equal standing in the community of mumineen. Very noble indeed.

What we should have learnt from this scheme, its noble intent at onset, is what we should have applied to all aspects of daily life. After all, we are adherents to that faith which has humility at the centre of all its principles.

We should not require to be acknowledged, least of all publicly, when we have given to a cause. When those who have are distinguished from those that don’t, it flies in the face of the very principles of the FMB anf of humility itelf. It serves to identify the have-nots in a world which is eager to discriminate against them. 

The principles of the FMB  clearly manifest that the financially challenged should not have to beg for alms nor even ask of it as the community as a whole will provide. 

On the one hand, we have the tiffin system to allow the financially challenged to maintain their dignity yet on the flip side, we have them apply for Muwasat where those who process their application, become privy to their ‘shame’.

It presents quite the paradox where on the one hand, we choose to help those that need it without having them reveal they need it in the form of the FMB project yet, require them to ask of it in an official application for assistance.

Perhaps we have not, nor ever will, reach an equitable state of faith socialism, something perhaps Burhanuddin Maula may have envisioned where no mumin would ever have need to ask. Perhaps hidden in his duas for barakat were calls for a voluntary distribution of wealth. After all, is it not Allah who gives and nothing by our own efforts?

Our inherent human nature to consume more than we need, to display our wealth and live in luxury beyond what keeps us comfortable in the face of want of our neighbours will always present the Yang to the ideals of Ying that our faith expects of us. 

Faith expects us to constantly deny that which evolution has imprinted into us. Evolution never infused equity. Only survival. We seem to have evolved to invent the concept of equity and survive it in our faith and yet, despite that invention, we struggle to apply it to its intended end.

[something-2-think-about]

Ziarat

Have you ever sat on a masallo after namaaz and read some duas?

Have you ever done sajda and asked of the almighty for things that you hoped and wished for?

Have you ever faced a difficult moment and thought about …let’s say…Fakhruddin Shaheed maula and called out to him to resolve your difficulty?

Have you ever travelled to Galiyakot, placed your head on the turbat of Fakhruddin shaheed maula and laid forth your umeeds at his disposal?

Have you been frustrated sometimes at the crowd at the mazhaar which deprives you of your private moment with him and allow you that few minutes more to keep your head on the turbat to place your never-ending wants at his feet?

Have you ever wondered what the difference is between you sitting on your couch, or your masallo or in masjid or in a bus or standing in the mazhaar with your head on the turbat, asking your asks?

Have you ever thought that he is now passed and therefore he is not really anywhere in particular but perhaps everywhere?

Have you ever thought that his physical body is no longer in Galiyakot but has become part of the earth and has long become one with nature?

Have you ever realised that it is not his physical remains (which are no longer there) that ‘listen’ to your wasilas?

Have you given a thought about what ‘component’ of the person of Fakhruddin Shaheed actually listens to you?

Maybe, just maybe, Fakhruddin maula can hear you regardless of where you are? Maybe that’s why you refer to him on and off in your daily life?

Maybe, it does not really matter if you are there with your head touching his turbat for your duas to be heard?

It may be nice to feel that you paid him a visit but in reality, he is no longer there.

In any case, we have a living breathing Dai with us who can hear our duas. He is the appointee of Imam-uz-zaman to sit in his august office, no less. He is, as far as we are concerned, the be-all and end-all and covers all aspects of our lives and hence, any duas that come forth from our minds and mouths. Why direct your duas in so many directions? Why not direct all your duas to just him? The ultimate ‘funnel’ for our duas?

And, as we know what we already know, he already knows what is in every mumin’s heart and mind, past, present and future, so, we are pretty much covered.

[something-2-think-about]

Reconcile

Early man lived largely from hand to mouth as a hunter-gatherer. He knew only what was in his immediate vicinity.

He knew the local landscape, the flora and fauna around him, enough to pick the right foods and stay safe from danger. What sense he made, he made from what little he knew. Things were pretty black and white.

As time passed, man ventured further and discovered and settled into other continents. He understood the near celestial bodies like the moon better and realised there are things beyond the large rock that he lived on. The world was suddenly bigger. He discovered that he is a very small part of a very large world, at least between the Earth and the moon. His reasoning would now encompass much more information.

As man's discoveries expanded both outward and inward he probably realised that he knew so little and that there were things and creatures both big and small that until then, he had not known existed. That there are more planets around the sun. That there are vast oceans teeming with life. That the world we live in is made up of so many different individual units. That there are life-forms he could not see yet lived side by side both around and within him.

He also discovered over time that beyond the basic difference between him and other animals was not just consciousness but that man was made up of layers upon layers of a variety of consciousness. That the mind was such a complex creature that no two persons could be identified as identical. Each person was ruled by a massively convoluted and complex system of synapses and chemicals in his brain. Minuscule differences in each person’s brain due to subtle differences in genetic make-up, or the misalignment of such synapses or chemicals decided each person's temperament, behaviour, and character. 

There could no longer be just black and white consideration in defining man.  

 As time passed, as he discovered both newer sub and sub-sub atomic particles and quantum theories and understood that the thousands of little fairy lights he called stars are actually other solar systems just like ours, as these stars are parts of galaxies that each hold on an average about 200 billion stars like our sun and that there are hundreds of billions of such galaxies only in the stretch of the expanse, we can yet see.

He realized that as he knew more, he knew less.

Even as we have always thought of ourselves as individuals, with a mind and body we call our own, we now know that we are a collection of individuals. In fact, within us co-exist more than 100 trillion organisms at any one time, gut microbiomes, which constitute more than the sum of our own cells, which are not us yet make us who we are. These microbes co-exist with us so intimately that neither they nor we can exist without the other.  

Where we once prided ourselves in believing that we are individuals and that our achievements are of our making, we now have to acknowledge that our state of mind and body are very largely influenced by these 100 trillion organisms. How we think, react, live and pursue life is a reflection of how these organisms live, prosper and die in our body. The combined effect of these organisms is often referred to as our second brain.

We now know that we are never the same person we once were. This has more truth than we consciously realise. Almost every cell in our body is constantly renewed. They die and are replaced by new ones. Our whole life is a process of renewal. By the end of our days, we are no longer the same being we were when we were born, or when we gave misaaq or when we got married or when we did all those good or bad deeds. Even our memories are ever evolving and suggestible so much so that what we remember may not be what actually transpired in our lives. On a darker note, with some diseases, we may lose all memories we have and just be a blob of cells and molecules with no connection at all to what we once were. 

How do we then reconcile with the significance we allocate to the earth, the moon, the sun and stars in our faith when we now have the knowledge, the knowledge we did not have before, that the sun is but one in a stupendous number of stars out there. That not just the universe, but even the sun does not literally revolve around the Earth as our faith teaches us? 

How do we now reconcile with the splitting of the moon, which is not just a lantern in the sky but a whole quarter the size of the earth, without consequences to the earth as the masses of earth and moon are bound by gravitational forces which affect life on earth, or that no one else living elsewhere on earth having observed or felt the consequences of the same momentous event?

How do we now reconcile the certainty of tawakkal with the randomness of the universe right down to its basic particles which themselves only exist in a state of probability and never an absolute?

We cannot exist as one individual. We are a compilation of individuals acting as one yet sharing no common genetic material. I am not me but we. How do we now reconcile with the knowledge that each one of us is not one individual?

How do we allocate acts of goodness and evil, a soul etc to a compilation of individuals acting as one? If for example a community as a whole made a bad decision and it affected another community, does that community then qualify as having sinned? Will the community as a unit spend some quality time acquiring a tan in hell? Does that community have one soul? 

How do we reconcile with the misaaq we have given yet have not given as only one biological component of that which is 'us' remains in misaaq while a 100 trillion individuals composite within us have no understanding of what a misaaq is? They are one with us and dictate our actions which account for our deeds.

How do the laws in our Shariah play out within the complexity of the human mind? Knowing now that one can be compelled to do things or behave in certain ways depending on one’s genetic make-up and how one’s neuronal synapses and chemicals are wired or rewired (by accident or disease), or even the composition of microbial flora in our gut, how does one pass set judgement? 

One man’s wrong is another man’s genetic predisposition.

How does one definitively define man’s character or deed or anything for that matter when the indivisible quantum components of matter that we are made of refuse to be defined?

How do we allocate gender in accordance with Shariah now that we know that there is no guarantee that someone has exclusively XX or XY chromosomes? That someone may have one of a variety of combination of these chromosomes (or even three)

How do we assign good and bad deeds to the last version of us at the point of death when that version is not the version that committed those deeds? We are no longer the person that did a ziafat or robbed a bank or prayed a washeq or gossiped about our in-laws or made extra gravy to feed our starving neighbour.

Knowledge has shown us how small we are in how much we have discovered and have yet to discover. It has given us insights and shown us that what we once thought we knew no longer applies and what we now know raises questions that need to be addressed especially as we move forward with our faith in this era of rapidly expanding and accessible knowledge. Expanding knowledge constantly shifts the goalposts. The knowledge that Rasulullah (SAW) himself had charged us to amass. 

[something-2-think-about]

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