About this blog

In recent times a plethora of misconceptions, misrepresentation and myths have been forged about Islam
and Muslims. Many western influentials from politicians, policymakers to judges have taken it upon
themselves to undermine the Islamic beliefs, values and rules so to make it palatable to their
egotistic minds and the secular liberal thoughts.

This blog is dedicated:-

1. To argue the point for Islam in its belief and systems and to refute the misconceptions.
2. To expose the weakness and contradictions of all forms of secularism.

18 Feb 2009

Part 1: Thinking



Mankind progresses through thought. The most important factor affecting our actions in life is the thoughts we believe in and carry. Without thought man drifts aimlessly from situation to situation, waiting for things to happen, rather than initiating action and progressing.

Man needs to take a comprehensive view of what we are, and how we should fit into the scheme of life in its entirety. Man not only is interested in finding a solution to these basic questions, but needs to take a view in order to have a reference point for all problems he faces. In short man needs an ideology or complete way of life to believe in and to regulate his affairs.

There are answers available to these most fundamental of questions of who we are, why we are here and how do we relate to life not only now but life before us and life in the future. The challenge facing us is to exercise our minds to their full capability in finding the correct solution, a solution that can be tested against reality, and ration, and will be comprehensive for all circumstances.

Only in the adoption of a comprehensive thought and ideology will mankind both individually and collectively have peace of mind and a solid foundation upon which he is freed up to truly progress. Society needs a way of life to which all problems can be referred and solutions readily given. It is not acceptable to let life pass, without contemplating and deciding the basis upon which life itself is built and organised.

The Thinking Person

As our thoughts greatly dominate or decide our actions we should be aware of how the process of thought works. Through our five senses of Sight, Touch, Hearing, Smell and Taste man is able to receive information. The mind once it has received the reality or information can then distinguish it, provided it has previous information about it to link with what it has received. So four elements are required for thought:

1. The reality (word, information, etc)
2. The sensing or feeling transmitted to the mind
3. A distinguishing mind
4. Previous information about the reality to link with the other three.

So a person may come across a plant which he recognises as a plant from his previous information about what plants look like. Through sight, touch and smell he will perceive the reality of the plant, but without previous information about the type of plant he cannot decide if it is poisonous or edible. We should always keep these elements in mind when thinking, as without correct previous information we cannot make correct informed decisions. Just receiving information is not enough, people receiving information become educated not thinkers, the process of linking to previous information and distinguishing it is the process of thought. The search for comprehensive and truthful previous information to relate to todays reality is critical to man's success.

The Importance of Enlightened Thought

Just as the need for thought is important, the way one undertakes thought has an affect upon the quality of our problem solving and behaviour. Mankind has certain instincts and organic needs, and is constantly striving to satisfy these needs. Man will die if the organic need for food and water is not satisfied, and non satisfaction of the instincts of survival or procreation leads to misery.

Animals too have instincts and organic needs, but what differentiates man from the animal is the ability to think, man progresses and satisfies his needs after thought. Society implements rules, so we see that the survival instinct should not be satisfied by stealing from others, or that the sexual desire cannot be satisfied in any way we wish.

The way man approaches thought differs, thought can be relatively superficial, deep, or enlightened. The superficial thinker tends to judge based upon a brief look and makes decisions without understanding. Deep thought, on the other hand, examines the reality in great detail; once it is understood it is then judged. Through enlightened thought man not only understands the reality, but also all that relates to it, and only then does he judge it. So the person that buys the first colourful table that appeals to his sense of fashion is thinking superficially, whereas the man that studies the type of wood, veneer and construction of the table thinks deeply. It is only the man that takes into account these factors and his use of the table, the size of room it will fit, and his budget that uses enlightened thought.

Man will satisfy his needs and instincts through use of any of the three types of thought, but it is use of enlightened thought that takes into account the reality, previous information and all that relate to them that holds the future success for us. The view that any man holds all answers and can decide all for himself is shallow in that it does not recognise man's limitations, or does not take into account all in man's environment or links with the past and future. Similarly to look deeply and categorise man merely as flesh and bone and observe how the environment or nature has changed does not address the beginning of man, and his relationship to the rest of life. Only enlightened thought can provide a comprehensive answer and we should spare nothing in looking for the answers we need.

The Bridge from Thought to Action

When we become convinced of the correctness of a thought, that thought or idea becomes a concept which we carry, and as such it affects our behaviour. If we carry a concept of dislike about a person, that will affect our behaviour towards that person. If we feel responsible towards our husband/wife or family that will motivate us to support them. Concepts are important in that they can be changed to change degenerative behaviour.

Man should constantly challenge the concepts that he carries. Any error in accepting the truth of an idea which is wrong has a serious implication not only for the individual, but also for society, especially if the false ideas are carried widely.

Man cannot progress at all unless he carries a comprehensive concept which explains fully our situation. Such a concept must explain the relationship between man, life and the universe, and all that was before this and all that is after it. Without previous knowledge covering this most important question and enlightened thought we are in no position to deal with the questions and challenges we constantly face in life. The man that does not know who he is, where he is from and where he is going is in a sorry state.

Mankinds Greatest Question

Where did I come from, and where am I going? is the question on every child's lips at some stage. What is the relationship between man, life and the universe? What is the link between life and what was before life, and what is after life? These are all the most natural of questions which man wants an answer to, and indeed needs an answer to, to form a basis for all actions. Without an answer, we are simply running with a limited view of life, i.e. what is here and now with no regard to the past and future. Such a view of life is comparable to applying for a job without asking the interviewer what the history of the company is, who they will be working for, why the previous person left, what the job is, how the job is likely to develop, what the prospects for promotion are and so on. To simply ask for the job without any reference to the past and the future and how they are related is superficial and naive.

Should a person be drugged and wake up in a darkened room, he will naturally ask:
who put me here?, why am I here? and what will happen next ? (or what is outside the room ?).

Questions of what happens after death evoke in many an uneasy feeling, a feeling that many shy away from if they do not have a convincing answer. If we look upon existence before our birth as unknown, one might say is doesn't concern us, but we all return to a situation of seeming uncertainty after death.

The truth of the matter is that we want and need answers, and we want answers with absolute clarity and certainty.

Solving the Great Question

A comprehensive answer to the question of man, life and the universe and their interrelationships through enlightened thought will provide the solution to all problems. This greater problem will act as a base or point of reference to any matter or problem relating to man and life . This is so because all problems are either partial problems related to the main problem or an outcome of the main problem. Armed with an answer to this most basic question mankind individually and collectively is in a position to progress, freed up from the constant worry of finding a correct reference point for any problem.

We are looking for the basis or creed of the ideology (way of life) for our lives. The basis or comprehensive answer must agree with reality and be categorically proven as correct, otherwise any answer stemming from the basis could be false.

Before solving the question we should set some ground rules.

1. Firstly; any answer should be comprehensive. We must have the answer to the whole question of man, life and the universe. Without this any related questions or problems stemming from life, may be left unanswered.

2. Any answer must agree with the reality and be a verifiable fact, to meet this criteria the answer must agree with man's nature and satisfy our mind or intellect.

3. To answer a question rationally requires that we limit ourselves to what we can perceive and sense. We cannot rationally assess something which is hypothetical or beyond our capacity to perceive it. With these criteria in mind, we can proceed to challenge ourselves in this most important of questions. A challenge which can solve this issue with 100% certainty, or else we remain in the dark, and with the constant inefficiency and worry that doubt brings.

[Excerpts from the book ‘Faith & Progress’ by Jamal Harward]
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What they said...

“Islam represented the greatest military power on earth…It was the foremost economic power in the world…It had achieved the highest level so far in human history, in the arts and sciences of civilization...Islam in contrast created a world civilization, poly-ethnic, multiracial, international, one might even say intercontinental.”





[Bernard Lewis, Professor of Near Eastern Studies, Orientalist and Historian, 2001]





"There was once a civilization that was the greatest in the world. It was able to create a continental super-state that stretched from ocean to ocean, and from northern climes to tropics and deserts…the civilization I'm talking about was the Islamic world from the year 800 to 1600… Although we are often unaware of our indebtedness to this other civilization, its gifts are very much a part of our heritage"





[Carly Fiorina, ex-CEO of Hewlett-Packard, 2001]





"For the first three centuries of its existence (circ. A.D 650-1000) the realm of Islam was the most civilized and progressive portion of the world. Studded with splendid cities, gracious mosques and quiet universities where the wisdom of the ancient world was preserved and appreciated, the Moslem world offered a striking contrast to the Christian West, then sunk in the night of the Dark Ages."





[Lothrop Stoddard, Ph.D (Harvard), American political theorist and historian, 1932]





"Medieval Islam was technologically advanced and open to innovation. It achieved far higher literacy rates than in contemporary Europe;it assimilated the legacy of classical Greek civilization to such a degree that many classical books are now known to us only through Arabic copies. It invented windmills ,trigonometry, lateen sails and made major advances in metallurgy, mechanical and chemical engineering and irrigation methods. In the middle-ages the flow of technology was overwhelmingly from Islam to Europe rather from Europe to Islam. Only after the 1500's did the net direction of flow begin to reverse."





[Jared Diamond, UCLA sociologist and Author, 1997]



"No other society has such a record of success in uniting in an equality of status, of opportunity and endeavour so many and so varied races of mankind. The great Muslim communities of Africa, India and Indonesia, perhaps also the small community in Japan, show that Islam has still the power to reconcile apparently irreconcilable elements of race and tradition. If ever the opposition of the great societies of the East and west is to be replaced by cooperation, the mediation of Islam is an indispensable condition."





[Hamilton Alexander Rosskeen Gibb, Professor at Harvard University, 1932]





“The Muhammadan Law which is binding on all -- from the crowned head to the meanest subject is a law interwoven with a system of the wisest, the most learned and the most enlightened jurisprudence that ever existed in the world.”





[Edmund Burke, British Statesman and Philosopher, 1789]





"The Exile here is not like in our homeland. The Turks hold respectable Jews in esteem. Here and in Alexandria, Egypt, Jews are the chief officers and administrators of the customs, and the king’s revenues. No injuries are perpetuated against them in all the empire. Only this year, in consequence of the extraordinary expenditure caused by the war against Shah Tahmsap al-Sufi, were the Jews required to make advances of loans to the princes."





[David dei Rossi, Jewish Traveller 17CE, quoted by Norman A. Stillman, The Jews of Arab Lands]





"The notable religious tolerance towards Christians and Jew under Muslim rule had given way to the uncompromising zealotry of Spanish Inquisition. Jews and Muslims thus fled Spain with large numbers of Jews immigrating to the Ottoman Empire which was known for its tolerance to the Jews."





[Graham Fuller, Author and former CIA, 1995]





“If there is much misunderstanding in the West about the nature of Islam, there is also much ignorance about the debt our own culture and civilization owe to the Islamic world. It is a failure, which stems, I think, from the straightjacket of history, which we have inherited. The medieval Islamic world, from central Asia to the shores of the Atlantic, was a world where scholars and men of learning flourished. But because we have tended to see Islam as the enemy of the West, as an alien culture, society, and systems of beliefs, we have tended to ignore or erase its great relevance to our own history”





[Charles Philip Arthur George, HRH The Prince of Wales, 1993]





"...Not being subject to the Sharia, Jews and Christians were free to go to their own religious authorities for adjudication of disputes; but in many cases they went instead to the [Muslim] Qadi"





[Richard W. Bulliet, Professor of History and Author, 2004]





"Here in the land of the Turks we have nothing to complain of. We possess great fortunes; much gold and silver are in our hands. We are not oppressed by heavy taxes and our commerce is free and unhindered. Rich are the fruits of the earth. Everything is cheap and each one of us lives in freedom. Here a Jew is not compelled to wear a yellow star as a badge of shame as is the case in Germany where even wealth and great fortune is a curse for a Jew because he therewith arouses jealousy among the Christians and they devise all kinds of slander against him to rob him of his gold. Arise my brethren, gird up your loins, collect up your forces and come to us."





[In his book 'Constantinople', Philip Mansel quotes a rabbi in Turkey writing to his brethren in Europe where they were facing increasing persecution after 1453]





"Praise be to the beneficent God for his mercy towards me! Kings of the earth, to whom his [the Caliph’s] magnificence and power are known, bring gifts to him, conciliating his favour by costly presents, such as the king of the Germans, the king of the Gebalim, the king of Constantinople, and others. All their gifts pass through my hands, and I am charged with making gifts in return. (Let my lips express praise to the God in heaven who so far extends his loving kindness towards me without any merit of my own, but in the fullness of his mercies.) I always ask the ambassadors of these monarchs about our brethren the Jews, the remnant of the captivity, whether they have heard anything concerning the deliverance of those who have pined in bondage and had found no rest."





[Hasdai Ibn Shaprut (915-990 CE) Jewish physician, chief minister of Islamic Caliphate in Cordova, 'The Jewish Caravan']





"In Baghdad there are about forty thousand Jews, and they dwell in security, prosperity, and honour under the great Caliph [al-Mustanjid, 1160-70 CE], and amongst them are great sages, the Heads of the Academies engaged in the study of the Law…’"





[Benjamin of Tudela, Rabbi in Baghdad in the year 1168 CE, 'The Jew in the Medieval World']





"Those Eastern thinkers of the ninth century laid down, on the basis of their theology, the principle of the Rights of Man, in those very terms, comprehending the rights of individual liberty, and of inviolability of person and property; described the supreme power in Islam, or Califate, as based on a contract, implying conditions of capacity and performance, and subject to cancellation if the conditions under the contract were not fulfilled; elaborated a Law of War of which the humane, chivalrous prescriptions would have put to the blush certain belligerents in the Great War; expounded a doctrine of toleration of non-Moslem creeds so liberal that our West had to wait a thousand years before seeing equivalent principles adopted.





[Leon Ostorog, French Jurist]





"The debt of our science to that of the Arabs does not consist in startling discoveries or revolutionary theories; science owes a great deal more to Arab culture, it owes its existence"





[Robert Briffault, Novelist and Historian, 1928]





"The only effective link between the old and the new science is afforded by the Arabs. The dark ages come as an utter gap in the scientific history of Europe, and for more than a thousand years there was not a scientific man of note except in Arabia"





[Oliver Joseph Lodge, Writer and Professor of Physics, 1893]





“Thus, when Muslims crossed the straits of Gibraltar from North Africa in 711 and invaded the Iberian Peninsula, Jews welcomed them as liberators from Christian Persecution.”





[Zion Zohar, Jewish scholar at Florida International University, 2005]







“Throughout much of the period in question, Arabic served as the global language of scholarship, and learned men of all stripes could travel widely and hold serious and nuanced discussions in this lingua franca. Medieval Western scholars who wanted access to the latest findings also needed to master the Arabic Tongue or work from translations by those who had done so.”





[Jonathan Lyons, Author, Writer and Lecturer, 2009]