Category Archives: Modern Living

Counselling, Modern Living, Psychology

Dealing With Emotions

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Dealing With Emotions-Active and Passive

In my current work as spiritual counsellor and in my previous work as a psychiatrist, I realized that one of the most common problems that people deal with is how to manage emotions- both ours and those of others. This article, as indicated by the title, will be about two subjects 1) How do we handle our emotions when they get intense and 2- how do we handle the intense emotions of others. This is what I am referring to by the terms “active” and “passive”.

The first part of the challenge is what do we do when our emotions are out of control. This part is based on the work of Marsha Linehan ,the developer of DBT (Dialectical Behavioural Therapy) -often used to treat Borderline Personality Disorder. These are people who suffer from “Emotional Dysregulation” a term Dr.Linehan developed to describe what is going on in these patients, without over pathologizing or over-medicalizing the phenomenon.

The second part which I refer to as “passive” is when we have to deal with people in our environment who themselves suffer from “Emotional Dysregulation”. Here we will rely on a formula developed and described by Lindsay Gibson in her book “Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents.” Although the title refers to parents, in fact this formula can be used with many other people as well-such as spouses, friends, colleagues at work and even children although we have less expectations of emotional self-control in this latter group.

N.B. This presentation is not meant to be a panacea for what is often a very complex phenomenon- underpinned by psychopathology, genetci predispositions, childhood trauma and actual abuse of all sorts. Nevertheless, these strategies have proved to be useful and even life-changing for many of my clients andcan be potentially for people all across the globe.

Anecdote. (People who know me know that I love anecdotes!) I once had a client who was in a relationship with a paranoid partner.Paranoid people, by definition, have very strong emotions.I felt that my simple techniques were not enough to deal with this dangerous situation. And I had an inspiration. She was in fact hostage to her partner’s emotional state.So I suggested that she get in touch with the local police hostage intervention squad. I was sure that the competent ones are really good at de-escalating emotions. Probably more expert than any psychiatrist or psychologist. Needless to say, they refused to help her.I had the same experience trying to contact the Canadian Military hospital near me for help with a trauma case.”Sorry, not our mandate” they responded. The ugliness of bureaucracy. But “that is another conversation for another time” as say the American newspeople when they don’t want to deal with something! lol

 

 

Dealing With Emotions-Your Own

The Linehan Approach

These are some of the major strategies that DBT recommends:

1-Stop!

:Do not just react. Stop! Freeze! Do not move a muscle! Do not follow the commands of your emotional state

This is probably the most difficult and the most critical step of all. First you have to be acutely aware of what is going on in your being. And then, you have to exercise self-control. Not an easy matter especially since your whole being is telling you to do otherwise .In Sufism we call that “jihad-a-nafs’( the war with the ego)

:Step back. Take a deep  breath. Let go.

: Observe. What is going on inside of you? Thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations( CF the article called “Mindfulness Practice” on the blog-a system developed by Jack Kornfield ,also based on mindfulness like DBT)

: Proceed Mindfully .  Ask “wise mind” which actions will make things better or worse.

2-Mindfulness of Current Emotions

: Experience your Emotion as a wave

:Don’t block or suppress the emotion

:Don’t hold on to it

: Be mindful of the accompanying bodily sensations (a key to getting distance from the energy and objectifying it)

: Remember that you are not the emotion

:Practice loving your emotion and radically accept it

3_ Self-soothing:

: With Vision: Look out the window at the nature or the stars or the people

With Hearing: Listen to soothing music or the sounds of nature

With Smell. Use your favourite soap or shampoo or incense

With taste-eat some of your favourite foods or drinks .Men are often fond of “having a beer” .Spiritual people will go back to their beads and prayers.

With Touch: A long bath or shower. Wrap yourself in a blanket  .Pet your dog or cat.

 

 

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4_ Distract Yourself-With Physical activities

: Take a long walk

: Go to the gym. I had one client who got triggered easily by his wife and her family. He learnt to catch himself quickly and then simply leave home for the gym It saved his marriage. In the olde days the men ran to the tavern where only males were allowed. I had an upstairs neighbour like that. The tavern saved his marriage lol

: Do some compulsive cleaning lol

: Leave the situation(often a very important strategy!)

Refuse to think about it not an easy matter)

Notice that these techniques will only work if you are conscious , humble and wise. Conscious because you have to be acutely aware that it is happening. Humble because you have to accept your own faults and emotional limitations. And wise, because then you can see the difference between what your emotion is saying and what is best for everyone concerned!

  1. B) Dealing with The Emotion of Others

This part comes from the work of the psychologist Lindsay Gibson. In most cases, when we are confronted by strong emotions in the other, either we are triggered as well and respond in kind. Or we freeze out of the fear and intimidation that is engendered by these emotions. Neither of those reactions are helpful! If we respond in kind, we are adding fuel to the fire and things that happen can be harmful in the short and long-term. Words can be as injurious as physical blows so these are precarious situations. If we freeze, we may be giving the impression to the other that their emotional outburst is justified and thus acceptable. Neither response is helpful.

What Dr. Gibson proposes is the following:( N.B. Although Dr. Gibson has some terrific insights on this matter, I found that it was not obvious to my own clients how to operationalize her writings on the subject. So I have tried to simplify her instructions and make them easy to operationalize. This is my summary)

1-Become Observational (The Buddhists like Jack Kornfield might well call this “Investigate’ or “ to become curious”) Observe both the other and your own reaction to them. Notice everything about them-the tone of voice, the body language, the vibe. And similarly notice your own reactions -your thoughts, your emotions, your bodily sensations.
:

2_Stay detached Tell yourself: ”Detach, detach, detach” as in the “Stop” part of the previous text.  Don’t react in any way. Just watch. And certainly don’t fall for “the healing fantasy”-that somehow you are going to fix them. Not going to happen. Or even that you need them to be otherwise! Radical acceptance is called for!

3- The “truth dump” Express clearly and calmly what you are seeing and release. Example” ’It looks like every time I criticize your mother, you get angry with me”. And then drop it.  You may consider the NVC approach of Non Violent Communication, in four steps.It is summarized in another article on our blog entitled: ”The Fabulous Fours” .Check it out. .They will deny, justify “yes but” you but your observation has been registered.

I learnt this particular matter from the psychoanalysts. They told us “Don’t worry if your original interpretation is refused. ”No doctor, you don’t understand at all! It’s not like that….”).Then watch the effect of your intervention over time. So don’t argue or get into a debate or even repeat your assertion .J ust let it sit there and make its own way forward.

Dr. Gibson has an interesting insight here. She says that the Emotionally Immature person cannot deal with the perseverance of the other party. So you can exercise patience and steadfastness to get to your goal-provided the goal is not personality change!

 

4) Management:

: Set a time limit(“Ok I’ll listen to your complaints but only for 10 mins. And then we have to move on to something else.”

: change the subject

: leave the situation

: change the communication media-from telephone to text to email(the least immediate of the three). The possibilities are endless, so use your creativity! And to end with a quote from the bard “And he just said- Good Luck” lol

 

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Comparative Religion, Metaphysics, Modern Living

“Judge Not, That Ye Be Not Judged”

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Judge not, that ye be not Judged”

The Heresy of Moral relativism!

Triggering Event: I was in a local commercial establishment discussing the relationship problems a faithful Christian was having with her Muslim ethnic partner. I began to describe the characteristic peculiarities of that particular ethnicity when she interrupted me with the famous:”we shouldn’t be judging and Judge not that ye be not judged” from the Sermon on the Mount of Jesus.

I knew something was wrong with that reaction but didn’t know how to frame it .And then it came to me(Despite never having been a Christian I do know a fair amount about that religion and it’s history lol).”Wait a minute. What about when Jesus knocked over the tables of the sellers at the Temple and said: “It is written, ”My house shall be called a House of prayer but you are making it into a robber’s den” “Was he not judging?! And how about when he saved the harlot from being stoned saying;” He who is without sin throw the first stone( judging all the people around).But better still in the follow-up that most people are unaware of he added” You are free to go but sin no more”! Is that not judgment?! She was stunned into silence. No one had ever questioned that statement to her before. And many, many others are in the same situation!

As I was returning home I realized there was much more. What he had said to his principal opponents the Pharisees.” “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean” (Matthew 23:25-26). Is there no judgment there.?!

We have a similar problem in Islam. People turn the Islamic idea “Husn al Dhann”(Having a good opinion ) into a prohibition of thinking bad or correcting others. But we know at the same time that a central principle of our religion is “Amr bil Maroof wa Nehi al Munkar” (enjoining the good and prohibiting evil).How can we do that if we cannot even notice and affirm the evil of something?!

So what is going on here?! On the most rudimentary level of explanations, we can say that “religious” people are cherry-picking their scriptures .So the Christians are choosing one statement of Jesus and ignoring many aspects of his behaviour. And the Muslims are ignoring all the faults of human beings that Allah underlines in the Quranitself..Allah says that man is disputatious, often corrupt, impatient,weak,  blind deaf and dumb etc., etc. Are we to ignore all of that in favour of one statement about “having a good opinion” that mostly refers to Allah himself, not man.

So contrary to that cherry-picked “judge not that ye be not judged” we MUST develop judgment and discernment. Otherwise how can we decide what is good and evil-how we must behave. Without judgment,we find ourselves in a moral wasteland-like much of the modern world!”It’s all good ,man”. ”Chill out.Don’t hassle it”. That is the language of modernisn-of moral relativism. If the person wants it and likes it, then it must be good. Everyone needs to develop their own code of ethics. Really?!

A telling anecdote.Many years ago, when dinosaurs were still roaming the Earth lol,I was a camp counsellor One of my associates who I became friendly with, let’s call him Paul for now, was a young fellow with a cheerful personality who played guitar and looked like Bob Dylan.We lost contact after camp and I didn’t hear from him for awhile .Later,I met a friend of ours who said to me: ”Did you hear, Paul is daed” I was in shock! “What happened?” I asked. He then relayed the following story.Paul got caught selling drugs and was facing trial for the offense .His father was a Superior Court Judge in Quebec so he was hugely emabarassed! At the time he was living in a Buddhist collective. I think you get the type by now.

So one day he went and bought a large knife. And in the spirit of the Samurai,I guess, he plunged it into his heart and bled to death.The father was called to the scene to witness his dead son surrounded by his own blood.One of the Buddhist students there,surely in the throes of youthful foolishness ,then said:” Don’t hassle it man .It’s only corporal existence?! Talk about misinterpreting scriptures?! I guess you can do it with any tradition!

So what is this judgment that we so are in need of? It is, in fact,the basis of ALL moral and spiritual development. It is our moral and behavioural compass.It is what Adam and Eve were taught from thev tree of the knowledge of good and evil(Biblical version).Necessary for earthly existence-but not in heaven.Without it we are reduced to the level of animals-probably worse as our sadistic and perverse elements are beyond the animals capacity.We pray that God/Allah give us good judgment and the strength to exercise it in all areas of our lives! Salaams,Sufi Ibrahim

 

 

Metaphysics, Modern Living, Politics

The Middle East-Read the Signs (Ayat)

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The Middle East -Reading the Signs (ayat)

Over the entry of the zowiyya of Sheikh Abdullah Daghestani r.a. in Damascus is a sign in Arabic that says: ”Learn to read the signs”.
During our last Quran study group, in which we were looking at Surat al Imran ayats 90-120, the word “ayat” came up at least eight times. Yet in the 60 pages of commentary in the  voluminous tafseer of “Marifatul Quran” I could not find a single comment on the significance of the term “ayat’!

Yes, we know ayats refers to verses of the Quran. But it’s meaning is far wider than that. Alternative meanings according to the Arabic dictionary are “wonder’ and “marvel”. So , yes, ayats are a form of miracle A message from our Lord as to what is really going on. But the scholars and the ummat seem to prefer to minimize their importance. I have yet to hear a Jumma khutbah in which the idea is mentioned.

Now, in the Western world, we have a different conversation. I was taught in public school (The McDonalds of education lol) that if the weather was consistent with what was going on in the plot, it was “sympathetic fallacy”.i.e it was just a literary trick and had no reality to it! So essentially the academics were ‘dissing’ the significance of signs. What else could we expect from them?! Other skeptical people would talk about “coincidence” and “superstition”-so seeing ayats becomes a form of ignorance-primitiveness.The only exception I know of, and perhaps one of the principal figures responsible for opening our minds to this idea was C.J. Jung-the famous Swiss psychoanalyst. He called this “synchronicity”- much to the dismay of his colleagues and especially his teacher-Herr Sigmund. ”Poppycock”, “magical thinking”, “superstition” all kinds of derogatory comments directed at this discovery.

Then along came James Redfield and his book “The Celestine Prophecy” and people started paying attention again.. He received these teachings, apparently, from a Shaman in Peru. And Shamanism was just gaining popularity and credibility in the Western world. So it became “cool” once again to talk about “signs”. No longer just the province of psychics, clairvoyants and astrologers.

For Muslims we have Surat 41:53: “We will show them our signs in the horizons and within themselves”- Should the Muslims not be paying attention?! What got me started on this question, once again, is the current conflict in the Middle East! The signs are everywhere! The first people that should be in a position to read them are the Muslims! Although it is highly likely that the concept exists in the Bible,. I don’t remember it being covered in Christian or Jewish teachings. It is certainly not a central theme of Sunday mass or of Rabbis speeches on the Sabbath. So where are the Muslims on this issue?! Not to be seen-especially if it involves Palestine!

Before we get into the specifics of the current signs in the Middle East, let us do what the psychoanalysts recommend and interpret the defenses first.! What prevents us from seeing the signs and then acting on them? Let us look at some examples.

1- Desire. A woman (or man for that matter) falls in love with a member of the opposite sex. She (let’s use the female example here) sees early signs of aggression in the potential mate- as well as  selfishness. Whenever she proposes an alternative idea to him, he gets easily upset. He shows up late for every date-usually he has some lame excuse like the traffic or an “important” discussion with a friend. The signs are everywhere but she goes with the desire (he turns her on)! Mistake!

2- Plans. On my first trip to Europe with my medical school friend, Alan, we met a couple of American girls in the south of Italy who looked really rattled. I asked: ’What happened?”One of the ladies said: ”we got a lift from some men in a car and they assaulted us. I knew we shouldn’t have gotten into the car, as they looked shady to begin with” said one of them.  “Then why did you accept the lift?” I asked. ’Well, we had an itinerary and we didn’t want to be late for the next stage of the journey”. Very common mistake-following the plan rather than the reality

3-Belief Systems and Ideology A Muslim man shows up for a psychotherapy session in obvious pain. ”What is going on?” I ask.” I am having very intense pain in my knee” “You shouldn’t be here” I say “You need an orthopedist, not a psychiatrist at this point. Let me see if I can locate one” “But I want a Muslim orthopedist” he says.” No, I respond sharply.” You need a competent orthopedist. If you want Muslim teaching you can go to the Imam at the mosque. But what you need now is a reliable joint and bone doctor”

4_ Excuses, excuses. When someone refuses to pay attention to the signs, they often have excuses-highly rationalized excuses.  Yes, I know this guy is irritable but perhaps he is just nervous as we are just starting to get to know each other”. “Yes, I know I am too sick to travel but I planned this trip a long time ago, so I am going ahead with it.”” Yes, everyone told me not to go ahead with this relationship (sometimes the signs are screaming at you lol) but I want to go ahead with it anyway.

P.S. Another synchronicity. As I was writing this article I heard a documentary on the radio about the Quebec city bridge collapse in 1907. 75 workers were killed, mostly indigenous people,33 from the local community in Kahnawake near Montreal. The workers had noticed that their rivets were not holding and some of them had noticed bends in the iron. ”No problem” said the engineers(the rationalists in any building project!)Who cares about the signs when the plans that appear feasible are present. The result of these “oversights” (good word lol. Looking over the Reality) can be fatal ,as in this case!!

By now, you are probably asking:” What does all of this have to do with the Middle East?! So here we go

The Jews had been returning to the Holy Land all through the 19th Century. By the mid 1800s they were the majority in Jerusalem. And this accelerated after Theodore Herzl’s call for a nation in 1897 and then again after the Balfour Declaration in 1918.. There were probably tensions already in the 19th century between Jews and Arabs but the first large-scale violent event occurred in 1921 with the Jaffa riots- where 47 Jews and 48 Arabs were killed .Interesting statistic btw.Equal numbers of death.The Palestinian cause has been so badly managed that in recent times the proportion is more like 10 times the amount of Arabs killed and in the current conflict in Gaza it is approaching 40 times .What progress?!

We are now more than 100 years into this conflict! During this 100-year period, the Arabs have lost three wars- 1948, 1967, and 1973; they have had thousands of casualties, now more or less doubled during the current conflict in Gaza, lost much territory and underwent unimaginable amounts of tragedy and misery. Yet, nowhere are there indications that they are reading the signs! Instead, they are doubling down in terms of violence and hatred. This is certainly NOT the sunnat of our Prophet saws who went from victory to victory including over the Jewish tribes in the area! Time to say: “ Our approach is not working”! Instead, what we hear is “From the river to the sea” i.e. “Get rid of them”. Hasn’t worked for 100 years but no reason to reconsider!

To keep this within the Islamic perspective, think of the trajectory of the early Muslims. As soon as they were given Divine permission to fight, they were mostly victorious. They won at Badr with the help of angelic forces and were on the verge of winning at Uhud when some of their soldiers broke rank- a painful lesson for the community but one well-taken. After that, there were mostly victories, expanding numbers of converts, expanding territory. Almost the perfect opposite of what has been happening to the Palestinians. I have yet to hear of anecdotes of angels helping out Hamas and Islamic Jihad. God forbid!

And why might this be?! My first response would be:” They are not following the signs”. Instead, they are following their mental images, their desires. ” From the river to the sea” they repeat. Then they show us maps with no Israel on it, just Palestine. Sorry guys, that is NOT the Reality-maybe in your wishful imagination but not on the ground. And on the ground is the Will of Allah, whether you like it (which clearly you don’t) or not.

Now on the Jewish side, they, too are NOT reading the signs. For them it is more difficult as they seem to be succeeding?! They have won all the wars and suppressed all the uprisings! They have built an economically prosperous, modern society. And they have largely maintained a functional democracy! Yet ,they live in constant fear (the inner signs) of terrorism, of attacks from all sides, including Hizbollah in the north. There is increasing opposition within their own country and abroad to their land grabs in East Jerusalem and the West bank and the country is becoming increasingly divided politically-except paradoxically during war time. So they are not really doing well.

So what is their excuse? They keep citing “anti-Semitism” as the reason. But that ,too, is an excuse. Why the anti-Semitism? Are they not feeding it?! Is there not more and more animosity to their cause, including amongst their allies in America? They too need to read the signs or they will be heading to their own “nakba”.

The reader would now be entitled to ask me how I read the signs lol. Ok.I will oblige. The Jews returning to the Holy Land is part of Divine Destiny. Theodore Herzl himself saw Moses in a vision approving of his mission. Many of the Christians have come to the same conclusion. Even the Islamic hadith that Hamas likes to use in a hateful way about Muslims killing Jews in the end of time, implies that the Jewish people have returned. Otherwise the Muslims would have no-one to kil! .Is this hadith prescriptive as Hamas would like to suggest? I beg to differ. Rather it is predictive, Prophetic if you wish, of exactly what is already happening. The question is :”can we prevent future death and destruction?” And I believe the answer is “yes”.

“It doesn’t take a rocket scientist” as the saying goes to conclude what the signs are indicating IMHO. All the forces outside the principal combatants have the same idea. After 4000 years of tribal conflict the Jews and Arabs have to arrive at a peace agreement that will honour the rights of both sides. We are no longer living in a world where you can wipe out the other tribe with impunity! There have been many proposed agreements in the past-1937,1947,1951,1980,2006 etc, etc. The Jews have often accepted them, the Arabs have consistently refused- preferring their wishful, nationalist agenda without accommodating the other side. But things are starting to change. First was Egypt and then Jordan who were willing to compromise for peace-despite the protestations of the Palestinians. And now there is the UAE and Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. So some Arab states are coming to their senses and realizing that peace has all kinds of advantages and war only benefits the prideful and the self-destructive. We are not that far away!

At this point, probably the greatest obstacle to peace is Iran-a country run as a cult of conflict and self-destruction ever since the advent of Ayatollah Khomeini (“Death to America. Death to Israel”) However, if the Jews and Arabs are able to arrive at an agreement that satisfies all the other parties, the Iraninas should be sidelined. They are, for now, like a parasite that feeds on the illness in the host agent. Once the agent is healthy, the parasite either leaves or dies. And perhaps the people of Iran ,most of whom dislike their own government, will end up replacing them. Inshallah.

I hope that helps open your mind and gives you hope for the future. Salaams,Sufi Ibrahim

 

Islam, Metaphysics, Modern Living

The Problem of Shirk

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The Problem of Shirk (Idolatry))

Especially relevant in the light of the current chaos at university campuses

Each of the major religions has an idea of what is the greatest sin. For Christianity it is pride. For Buddhism ( I particularly like this one!) it is ignorance. And for Islam it is “shirk”!

Now what is shirk? The official translation is “making partners with Allah”. But somehow that translation doesn’t quite work. After all ,who goes into business with God?! Maybe a few priests and rabbis and Imams lol but that is another matter. So what ‘shirk” really means is setting up other priorities in one’s life-other than God. After all, doesn’t the Bible itself tell us : ”You must love the Lord, thy God, with all thy heart and all thy mind and all thy soul”( Matthew 22:37-39) Well, most people don’t do that! -people from all the different faiths. So there is a problem!

And why is that?! Usually because they have other loves, other priorities-sometimes conscious ones and sometimes unconscious. So let us look at two categories of “shirk”.

Obvious Shirk

There are a few obvious forms of shirk-ones that are easy to detect and easy to denounce:

1-The first is love of money and material goods. This is the most commonly denounced one. I like to call it “economic paranoia”-where everything bad comes down to greed. As was said in the famous quote by president Bush, the elder: ”It’s the economy stupid”. So we get the all too common refrain ; ”Why did America go into Iraq-For the oil”. “Why have the doctors in Western countries been acting like fools during the Covid. It’s the money” Supposedly that answers everything. However ,I like to remind people, especially Christians, that greed is one of the 7 cardinal sins!  There are six others to be alert to.

Then again, for some people, it IS all about the money. And that is indeed a big problem.Now this “greed shirk” has a number of extensions which sound kosher-like “financial planning” for individuals and “GDP enhancement” for governments. They sound virtuous But scratch the surface and that too often comes down to greed!

2_ Then there is Power and Social Status. You can ask yourselves why there are so many people running for electoral office. Do they not see what a terrible job that is? And they often use the excuise that it is for “public service” which may be true-but only for a minority as far as I can see. For example, in the Covid vaccine debacle, there has only been one politician in America, Senator Ron Johnson, standing up for the Truth. All the others, many who must be aware of what is going on, are silent.They don’t want to jeopardize their position!

3_ Nationalism. It is rampant everywhere-American nationalism(“we are the greatest country ever”!)  Really?; Zionism( “only the Jewish people count”) ;.Arab nationalism(we see where that has led to in the Middle East) and locally French-Canadian nationalism( as long as you speak French, you’re good! As if lol). People with the least bit of insight and objectivity have seen through this one.

But then there are the more subtle forms of idolatry-one’s that whole swaths of people, if not the entire world, have embraced. They seem commendable, but once you scratch the surface, you see the corruption.

Hidden Forms of Shirk

1-The Cult of the Intellect– Of all the forms of idolatry ,this is probably the most potent and the most insidious one..This “cult’ is based on idealizing and idolizing the human mind. The Buddhists and Hindus have been onto this problem for a very long time and developed forms of meditation to get beyond it. But the three major Western religions have bought into it” whole hog”(pun intended!).Ever since the time of the Greek philosophers, especially Aristotle but many others, spread their unholy messages and were translated into Latin and Greek and Arabic, the scholars of the Western traditions have been imbibing this contamination -often without realizing it. Even great Talmudic scholars and Islamic ones like Al Ghazzali, have drunk the kool-aid. Al Ghazzali, despite his critique of philosophers for not believing in Revelation, then goes onto say that Logic is a valid science. They have even integrated it ( as” mantiq”) into the Isalamic sciences! Where did they get that from?! Where can you find that in the Quran and sunnat? Do they not get the wisdom in the fact that our Prophet saws was unlettered. No! They are all people of the Western Enlightenment” which is actually “Endarkment”

So we can see this cult in our Universies, in our so-called “Objective Science” , in our government institutions. And many,many people have integrated it into their personal lives-often at great expense to themselves and the people around them!

2-Relationship: No, this is definitely NOT relationship with God, but usually refers to intimate partners. P.S. I am in the midst of attending a summit on Zoom called “Healing Relationships” led by Terry Real,who I greatly respect as a psychologist- but definitely not as a spiritual teacher.

The extreme example of this cult of relationship may well be the Hollywood Romance but there are many, many more subtle variants.

So we get politicians resigning to spend more time with their families. They are probably lying as they have learnt to do in Democratic politics but that aside. It is now considered acceptable to give up your vocation, your life mission if you wish, in favour of your family and relationships. Men have been cowed into submission (ever noticed lol) and women empowere4d into tyranny-all in the name of relationships!

3 – Family. Now this is particularly noticeable in Eastern cultures -like the  Islamic ones I am currently in touch with.. How many times have I heard ”bir walidayn”(filial piety) and “Rahim Wassila”(maintaining ties to extended family))in Muslim discourse .Ironically the Quran says “ihsan walidayn” (being good to your parents ) rather than “bir walidayn” .Why? Because families can be ignorant and abusive. Because I have seen many Muslim parents marrying their daughters to nasty partners -often through the first shirk of materialism! ”He has a good career and money in the bank, so he must be a good partner” Really?! I have seen Muslims so absorbed with their family interactions that they forget to pray! Is that part of our religion?! I have seen people waste hours and hours socializing with their families with no noticeable benefit. Is that part of our religion. Certainly not! It is a hidden form of shirk!

Think about it, Sufi Ibrahim

 

 

Metaphysics, Modern Living

University-Oy!

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Universities–1 During my last decade as a practicing psychiatrist, I used to go regularly to the Harvard CME courses in Boston. I usually stayed in Cambridge- home to Harvard and MIT. I would go shopping and have a meal in Harvard Square and occasionally take a walk on the campus

I was immediately struck by the ” darkness of the vibe”( yes, I know that sounds too New-Agey for some but it’s a reality, nevertheless!) Darker than Broadway, darker than Congress and probably even darker than Wall St, If you can believe it!(At least there is the Reality of money there lol) For me, that said it all. These are places of delusion- even of evil! To be avoided whenever possible! If you can’t, because you want to be a doctor or lawyer then be aware and detox yourself, as I did, every time you get home!

God protect us!

Universities-2– more than almost any other social institutions- like Congress and the Supremely Foolish Courts and Public Health Institutions- are Palaces of Delusions! Highly competitive entrance requirements, $90 000 fees, stressed out final exams, tenured professors whose overall social contributions are most likely negative, brain-washing with CRT and Woke philosophy

And the totally unaware population that still believes in them?! It’s amazing that they haven’t fallen apart a long time ago. But as the old saying goes: “there’s none as blind as those who will not see” l

 

Universities-3 I am encouraged to see the chaos on U.S. campuses! There are much deeper issues than the Middle East at play actually. Even deeper than left-wing /right wing politics.The Universities are the Temples of the Cult of the Intellect as I have described on my blog. THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT FORM OF IDOLATRY IN THE WORLD TODAY-THE WORSHIP OF THE iNTELLECT. Until we get over that, none of our problems will be solved because this cult puts abstraction before Reality. So how can we solve problems when we are not in Reality?!

 

Comparative Religion, Modern Living, Politics

Middle East Synthesis

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The Middle East-Synthesis

As emotions are running high and opinions are rigidifying, I felt the duty to communicate what I am seeing about the current crisis in the Middle East.I hope this can contribute to peoples understanding and even to an eventual peace although at this point in time,I am not very optimistic about humanity lol

  1. Free Palestine!

1-Free Palestine from the worst governance on the planet! Even Putin’s Russia and Imperial Japan (WW2) had more concern and compassion for their own people! Not good company for sure!

2-Free Palestine from the mindset of hatred, bigotry and narrow-mindedness that has developed over the years  .None of this can lead to a good result. And none of this is from the sunnat of our Prophet saws

3-Free Palestine from the Woke attitude of victimization and return it to the Islamic attitude of accountability. Remember Sheikh Ali Jemal of Fes r.a. “Everything to you is from you”!

4_ Free Palestine from the blindness of NOT seeing the hand of God (metaphorical of course) in everything. Thinking that the only powers at play are America and Israel is a form of shirk. If Muslims need a reference from the sunnat, re-read the dua of our holy Prophet saws after the events at Taif-that he sal called the worst day of his life. In it you will find accountability and humility and NOT vengeance

PS Does this mean I am taking the Israeli side. Not at all. I can and will formulate the critique of its behaviours just as well as any Muslims-better I think lol. But if you re-read the Quran, you will see that we are only accountable for our own actions-not the actions of the other side . If the Palestinians could be free of any or all of these contaminants, my belief is that peace would occur  almost immediately! Think about it

 

Free Israel!

1-Free Israel from religious and spiritual nationalism( the reason I left Judaism in the first place)

2- Free Israel from the lack of empathy ( a characteristic of BOTH Semitic tribes!) for the suffering of the Palestinians

3- Free Israel from the arrogance of “The Chosen People” narrative

4-Free Israel from the fear of another holocaust-which leads to over-reaction!

 

PS If they did all of that or any of that, we would have Peace within short order. But it is no simple matter to achieve that, for sure.

 

 

Myths that need to be dispelled

1-That the Zionist movement is about a group of white Europeans who have occupied Arab lands in a colonialist fashion!

Actually this conflict has been going on for at least 4000 years-ever since the two partners of Abraham-Sara and Hajar separated( we will not speculate here why that may have occurred nor what the marital status of Hajar was,as this is not germane to this discussion1).Sara remained in Hebron with Isaac  while Hajar moved with her son Ismail to Mecca .The Children of Sara became the Children of Israel and the children of Hajar became the children of Ismail. And the two lineages have been fighting with each other ever since.

So David fighting with Goliath of the Philistines ( 1000 B.C.) was one instance of this conlict. And when the Israelites under Musa a.s. were ordered in the Old Testament to kill the Cananites( the ancestors of the Palestinians) on entering the promised land, this was also a manifestation of the conflict.

In 70 A.D. the Romans ordered the Jews to leave Palestine.. But after the Muslim conquest under Umar Ibn Al Khattab they came back and have been there ever since. By the mid 19th century more than half the inhabitants of Jerusalem were Jews and 300 years  before that they had established the holy city of Safed which was a centre of Jewish mysticism and Kabbala.

So, calling the return of Jews to Palestine a colonialist occupation is either  short-sighted vision or simply intellectual dishonesty!

2- Israel as an apartheid state is not really an accurate representation of Reality. This does not mean that Israel has not done and continues to do a lot of wrong and oppressive things. Like chasing Arabs out of their villages before the 1948 war.(It did not help that the Arab leadership encouraged many to leave, believing that they could return after the Arab armies had gained victory).But that doesn’t justify the behaviour. Nor is the REAL occupation by settlers in the West Bank(saying it is the ancient Jewish land of Judea and Samaria). and seizing property in East  Jerusalem correct behaviour. All of that has just added fuel to the fire.

One of the arguments against considering Israel an Aparthed state if that the Arabs that remained in Israel are doing better, economically that is, then any of the Arab states around them or those in the West Bank and Gaza. Israel has also given some autonomy to the Arab populations of Gaza and the West bank but the latter’s obsession with fighting Israel has not allowed them to benefit from this autonomy.

On the notion of apartheid ( and I credit the Imam at our local mosque for this information) when Umar Ibn Al Kattab allowed the Jews back to Jerusalem there was a condition that they could not be permanent residents nor own property! I get the reasoning. The Jewish tribes had made a lot of problems for the Muslims in Madina. But I think this was a mistake-something that commonly happens when we base our decisions on history- which never repeats itself exactly! This ruling seems to have continued in the Ottoman Empire-up to the Balfour Declaration in 1918.That explains why the founder of Zionism, Theodore Herzl, went to visit the Ottoman Emperor to buy land in Palestine. Otherwise thay could have bought it on the open commercial market. The Sultan refused citing loyaly to another Muslim community. What the consequences would have been,if he had accepted,is a whole other matter.The point here is that if the Arabs are now second rate citizens in their homeland the Jews were also such in pre-Balfour Palestine!

5- The notion in large parts of the Muslim world that the Jews have no place in this land in the first place.

This question was partially answered by point number 1 but let us continue the discussion. It appears that Theodore Herzl ,the founder of Zionism, had a childhood vision of Moses taking him up to see his Lord and saying “this man may affect a lot of people by his words”.Herzl did not reveal this information until he was close to death!- because he did not want to be seen as a religious fanatic.But for the Muslims in the audience, we have been taught that if a Prophet appears in a dream it is really him as Satan cannot take on the form of Prophethood. So there is the fulfillment of some kind of Destiny in the Jews coming back to Palestine. The Christians are convinced of this, as well, which is why there is a lot of support for Israel amongst Evangelical Chjristians!

Then there are the “signs” (referred to as “ayat” in the Quran).The 1948 victory against established armies of Arab states ,the 1967 war, the Yom Kippur war(1973) and all the skirmishes before and after. The Palestinians and the Arabs have lost every one! Is that not enough of signs?! Do the Muslims not believe that nothing happens in this world without the permission of Allah?! Read the life of the Prophet saws. He won almost every battle and the one the Muslims lost(Uhud) was because of the disobedience of the soldiers involved.

To change the orientation slightly, even the Germans and the Japanese ( No slacker peoples there lol) accepted defeat. But not the Palestinians. They negotiate as if they were victors! Wa la howla wala quwatta.

3- The argument that the bad behaviour of groups like Hamas is a reaction due to the intolerable conditions of their lives. And there is truth to this argument,no doubt ! What is rarely said is that the Israelis are also in reaction! Let me explain further.Over the years there have been many propositions from various sources for land-sharing and peace. Let me enumerate a few!

:1937 U.N. proposal of land-distribution( in favour of the Palestinians

:1947 A second land distribution proposal ( more or less 50-509).Response: Arab armies organize a war

1951 King Abdullah of Jordan and Golda Meir are on the verge of a historic agreement.Response:He is assassinated by Palestinians And btw,the Arab street still believes he was a traitor.But whayt I have seen is the opposite.The kings of Jordan are sincerely concerned with their people.But who needs the welfare of the people when you can have never-ending wars to defend your pride?!.

;1967 U.N. Resolution 242 (land for peace after the 67 war)

;1980 Camp David with president Carter (Palestinians didn’t attend)

:2000 Camp David with president Clinton…Arafat left

2003 The Geneva Initiative negotiated between Yossi Bellin, previous Minister of Justice in Israel and Yasser Abed Rabo, former Palestinian Authority Minister.A very interesting report that went into all kinds of details to cross the t’s and dot the I’s!

And these are only some of the many attempts to arrive at peace. The Jews accepted most of themat least as a basis to negotiate .The Arabs refused every one!

So Israel, as well, is in reaction-reaction to an “all or none” intransigence of the Arabs.So when they claim that they don’t have a partner in negotiation, it is not purely propaganda.

 

       

 

 

 

 

The Psychology of the Peoples Involved

Modern people don’t like us talking about Collective Psychology.T hey call it “Racial or National Profiling” and it is considered “politically incorrect”. On top of that, Muslims and religious people in general have no taste or understanding of psychology. So if you find yourself being in either of these categories lol you are going to have to bear with me.But if you listen carefully, I believe you will learn something important that will improve your understanding of the events that are unfolding!

When I first came to Islam, in East Jerusalem, in 1978, I was given a Quran translated into English to read. I recognized immediately the authenticity of the book! However, at the same time, I met the Palestinian people around me. Our sheikh, himself a Syrian/Palestinian had warned us of the people around us and prohibited us from going to the famous Al Aqsa mosque for the first six months after our shahada. He said, otherwise, that we could easily lose our faith if we did so.

Given those realities I had in mind the question: ”Why did Allah give this sacred book to these people?!” I made dua about it and one day sitting on the road of the Mount of Olives, the answer came! “Because these are the people who would most tightly hold to this book and these teachings” Hamza Yusuf likes to quote the historian ,Herodotus,I believe, that the Arabs were the people most loyal to their oaths. That is the perfect quality for the mission of preserving the religion.

However, this same quality of tenacity and intransigence, when it comes to working out a deal with another people and another way of thinking, becomes a definite liability! And we can see that playing out over the last 100 years. .( Just above we have a short list of all the peace arrangements that have been refused Case in point!)

On the other hand the Jews represent another enigma. Jackie Mason, perhaps the greatest Jewish comedian of all times puts it this way: ”I don’t understand these Israelis.They are not at all like the Jews I knew in NewYork City and Brooklyn.They are like Puerta Ricans”(known as some of the toughest gangsters in New York lol).So how did that happen?! The reasonable explanation would be that they are reacting to a rough environment. But Robert Pirsig, one of my favourite authors, in his book “Laila” has another, more intriguing answer. He claims, and I believe it wholeheartedly ,that our environmental penetrates into our psyche.So he explains how the Americans that came to America with Christian values of piety and compassion became so violent.He believes they imbibed the violence of the indigenous tribes around them. Intriguing.But once again politically incorrect.In that vein ,the Jews who came to Israel became Arabized.They were no longer the passive, shtetel Jews but refound their way back to the warriors of the Times of King David and King Saul.

And so what we have in the Middle East, in essence, is tribal warfare disguised in the terminology of human rights and national affirmation. ”How does that help?” you may ask. Well, if we understand what is really going on, we are in a better position to fix it.If we live in the world of denial and comfortable ideals we end up being impotent, which is exactly what has been happening for the last 100 years!

Conclusion: The Task at Hand

What is going on in the Middle East is horrible. What happened on October 7th was horrid. So is the Israeli response. But if we remain at the surface, as most of the activists are doing, we will go nowhere.

So ,bottom line,what is the task at hand. I believe Allah has presented a challenge to these two peoples: the Jews and the Arabs. The challenge is “How to share this land between the two of them, in a way that works for everyone”. Although our Prophet saws was up to this kind of challenge amongst the Arab tribes like the Aws and the Hazraj, no-one has ever done this in Palestine between the Jews and the Arabs. And they do not have a common leader like the Arab tribes in Madina did.The U.N. and America are both failing miserably at this task. As are the Arabs and the Jews, both trying in one way or another to maximize their advantage and their holdings without properly considering the other. As they showed up in my Istikhara prayers, they are both scavengers and it is leading to self-destruction on both sides!

There ARE examples of this being done successfully elsewhere. I believe , without prejudice lol, that Canada is one of them.The French and English, despite having fought wars in Europe for 100’s of years have managed to accommodate each other in Canada, not without certain frictions for sure, in a way that has given both communities a decent lifestyle. Now the naysayers might point out that it didn’t work out that well for the indigenous people?! But that is another matter. As I thought about it, both Islam and Judaism themselves gained prominence at the expense of the pagans and idol-worshippers in their area.so the parallel is even better than I originally thought!

In all fairness, I don’t think the Arabs and the Jews can do it on their own. But, the Abrahamic accords were a promising start. That is some of the leaders in the Arab world( the UAE, Bahrain and soon to come Saudi Arabia? and Morocco?)  are beginning to see that it would be in their interest to make peace with Israel and work together for prosperity in the region. Wouldn’t that be great?!

Obviouly, there are certain parties not pleased with that prospect-most specifically Iran with its proxies and other Islamist groups like Hamas ,Hizbollah and the Ikhwan Muslimeen(Muslim brotherhood) wherever they may be.For more explanation about this obstacle, the reader can go to my article on our blog entitled:”Islamism:The Scourge of the Muslim ummat”.In brief we can understand as Joshua Phillips of Epoch Times pointed out so perceptively,that Islamism is a form of left-wing,Marxist thinking(Remember the Dictatorship of the proletariat lol? Well in Islamism it becomes the Dictatorship of the Ulema as the Iranian principle of “Vilayat a Faqi’ points out so succinctly. And we know well how these theocracies without a proper Prophet or rightly guided one turns out?! And no, neither Ismail Hanniye nor Ayatollah Khameini fill the bill lol

So that is where we find ourselves. On the precipice! All out war or a final Peace Deal.  May God help us!

 

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Counselling, Modern Living, Psychology

The M.O. for Men

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The M.O. for Men in Relationships

A couple of months ago I published an article about “Fascinating Womanhood: The Work of Helen Andelin”. I believe there are some very interesting points in Ms. Andelin’s work that allow women to detox from some of the Feminist distortions that make relationships almost impossible for women and men. If you want to find out more, you can go to my blog at sufipilgrimsprogress.com and find the article. Well worth reading I believe.

However, towards the end of this article I realized that there was something very crucial that was missing! How are men supposed to behave?! Surely a woman can not succeed all on her own without the help of her partner. Paradoxically is that not part of the feminist myth- of the “superwoman”?! Or is that the one myth about women that the feminists denounce lol? In either case the question remains:” What is the man to do?

Honestly I didn’t know where to start! As Red/Green used to say on his TV series:”I’m a man ,but I can change, if I have to, I guess” Lol. Another put-down of the male gender! But that is to be expected. Then a client of mine sent me an article by a Dr.Audrey in an online magazine called “Illumination”. And I realized that this would be a good place to start. So this article is a résumé of that article, edited and augmented with my own observations and insights. But the basic structure, around four themes, I have kept in place . And so here it is!

1_The woman needs to feel loved and appreciated (the author says “loved and adored” but I think that is going too far!) Adoration is for the Lord in my books-no one else. Making a partner into a god is a bad place to start lol Other appropriate words could be “wanted” and “desired” and “ cherished” “Wrap her in your love-use your body, voice, words and soul to let her feel your love” says the author. “But don’t go too far,I would add.” You don’t want to sound maudlin or insincere or overly idealizing. That could have the opposite effect and destroy your credibility .So how do you go about doing it?

:Tell her about your love-when you feel it! Don’t make it into a meaningless habit however. Like in Britain where they often say ”Love” which is simply an expression of politeness or in Arab society where everyone is “Habibi” lol

:Say “you look beautiful or pretty or great in that dress or doing the gardening or when you dance to that music”.

:Bring thoughtful gifts like chocolates, a card ,a special pastry that she likes ,flowers, etc.

: Do some of the work at home ,in the yard, fixing things, putting up shelving-show your actionable love.

; Keep in touch regularly-by text, by messaging ,by phone. Remind her that you’re thinking about her.

; Kiss her, hug her-on a regular basis

; Take care of her car and do the home repairs. If you’re into cooking, do so.

: Plan a date (Gottman says once a week) where you “wine and dine” her. If you’re Muslim make that “sparkling water instead lol)

: Tell her that you chose her before all the others and that you’re happy with your choice.

 

2-Express your Leadership

This is especially true in the era of  ”equality”  and the emasculated male!  The man is still the head of the household-no matter what the feminists would like to think. And women  DO appreciate Leadership in men!

“She wants you to lead the way on things that matter to her. She needs to feel your direction, your pacing, and your certainty. She wants to be confident that you hold the map to your own life-as well as to your life together.”

So take the lead in making plans, in setting goals dealing with finances, making love or settling issues.

Plan the dinner, plan the date, plan an outing, plan a vacation i.e. take initiative-that’s your male role.

N.B. None of this is be done harshly or in an authoritarian way. Be a skillful leade-not a tyrant! And consult whenever needed.

Take the dominant role sexually but follow it up with cuddling and “pillow talk” of how much she means to you.

Organize your goal purchase- a car, a house, a new computer and then present her with choices.

“Grab her. Hold her tight, Kiss her and Lead with love”. (This will not work if there was a lot of childhood trauma as she will experience this as assault! In that case you’ll have to go much more gently!)

 

3-She needs to feel supported and encouraged and respected.

The author says: ”Some days I just want my partner to just open his eyes and notice that I’m doing all these things. I want him to tell me I’m a great mom, a great entrepreneur and a great wife -without me telling him to say that” That is , like us all, the woman needs to be acknowledged for everything she is doing.

An aside…One of my spiritual teachers used to put his students in short retreats for spiritual attainment. He was someone who highly valued knowledge. But he noticed that the people who got the most benefit from the retreats were the mothers who had spent their time taking care of their children, not the scholarly types!… Got him thinking lol..

 

So…. Express appreciation regularly. The author suggests setting up an appreciation board but that seems a bit “kitshy” to me. To each his/her own lol You can do appre3ciation without gimmicks!

Encourage her to follow her dreams (Gottman says this is essential for both partners.He claims that most of the irresolvable problems in couples  came from one partner being prevented from pursuing their dreams))I have had women in therapy whose partners refuse to have children.I generally coun- sel men not to do that! If a woman’s dream is to have a family, the man has no right to block her.And I have yet to meet a man who regretted that decision.In fact the men who are most resistant are the ones who fall madly in love with the children when they are born! lol.

:Ask her about her day(debriefing every day after work).

:Hire outside help to make her life easier.

:Schedule a surprise break for her-spa,vacation

4- She must feel safe

Wandering eyes and scattered attention create doubt.When a woman fears,she shuts down. Then she withdraws.

You need to be extra-careful if there is trauma in her history(and there is lots of that out there!)Then there is always the fear  that anything can go wrong.And then she feels “out of control” So the man has to be the bulwark ,the pillar .And not react to her emotionality!

  1. The author, being a modernist woman conditioned by feminism to not fully acknowledge gender differences, is unwilling to acknowledge the problematic emotionality of women-often hyperemotionality.Once we factor that into the equation we realize that the man has to be the bulwark ,the rudder in the stormy waters.He needs to not get swept up in the in evitable emotional storms and remain solid and unfazed.That is what ,more than anything else,will make the woman feel safe.If he reacts emotionally himself or is intimidated by the woman’s emotionality,he loses his masculine credibility and then the entire family suffers the consequences.

The author says:

“Hold her tight for a long hug.Tell her you’ll always hold her.Tell her you’ll always be there for her”All of that ,of course,is contingent on the man being in control of himself.Otherwise it will ring hollow!

The author then says (without really acknowledging female frailty):”Show her you can absorb her moods ,her swings, her occasional drama(or more than occasional lol)her doubts, her questions. Stand firm and strong and let her see you can handle and accept every part of her,the good and the not-so-good and everything in between.”

:Understand her.Observe her.Understand when she needs you to come closer and when she wants you to back off.It’s a dance.Learn the right steps and the right timing!

 So, in résumé:

  • Love and Cherish her
  • Assume your leadership role
  • Give support and Encouragement and
  • Provide an atmosphere of safety and trust

 

Then again as I mentioned about the female role in Helen Andelin, don’t become overdemanding on yourself. You’ll never be perfect all the time.A t times you will mess up-overdo it and underdo it. But, each time, come back to basic principles and accept yourself and your partner as fallible human beings. And “He just said-‘Good Luck”! (courtesy Bob Dylan who had his share of tumultuous relationships lol)

 

 

Islam, Modern Living, Politics

Year in Review-2023

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The Year in Review-2023

   Problems of the Year

To paraphrase a famous quote from Winston Churchill lol:”Never in the history of human endeavour have so many been lied to by so many others for the benefit of so few”. Really! In all my years of existence (that’s now 77!) I have never seen so much lying! Whether we call it “spinning” or “cherry-picking” or” minimizing” or “denying” or “covering up”, the mendacity is literally through the roof. My principal Sheikh-Sheikh Nazim Haqqani- told us about it in the 1980’s! He put it in spiritual terms. ”We are now under the hegemony of the shaytan” he said. I couldn’t believe his Turkenglish included the word “hegemony” lol But he had it spot on! And I recently saw an interview with Roseanne Barr who is now a born-again Jew!, saying the same thing. ”This is the work of the devil” she said about her firing on her highly rated TV show  in an interview with Joshua Phillips of Epoch TV.

So instead of “man of the year” or “woman of the year” or “athlete of the year” this article is going to be titled “Problem of the Year”. The problem, however, is probably a lot more than a year old! At least a century in my opinion and it is not likely to change much by next year. We shall see……

The Root Problem (the one that causes all the others!)

The root problem- the one that causes all the others is “Mind-productions”.  I was first introduced to this term by Sheikh Nazim himself. But it is something that has been known for a long, long time. The Hindus and Buddhists have been talking about it since the beginning of their traditions. They understood that the mind was a trap- full of illusions. It is a central concept in their theology. Less so for the Western traditions -like Christianity (possibly the ultimate offender, given its elaborate theology and and its all too numerous theologians.( In fact European intellectuals, from the Greeks to the Germans and the French are certainly at the heart of the problem. But their malady is now universal!)The Jews with their Talmudic scholarship are next in line-not chronologically but in terms of intensity. And then we have the Muslims and their Islamic Sciences-often full of mind-productions. In the Western religions, it seems to only be the mystics like the Kabbalists  in Judaism and the Sufis in Islam that recognize the problem

So where does this all come from? We could say with some justification that it is intrinsic to our nature and the  evolutionarily advanced Cerebral Cortex that we are endowed with. This cortical activity can be very useful in certain situations but very damaging in others. Much like science itself-very useful at times, very harmful at others.

Cost vs. benefit?! I will let the reader figure out that one themselves. Most people, especially so-called “intelligent ones”, have been duped on this one.! A  new cancer treatment is developed and everyone is excited. But they fail to realize that the vast majority of cancers are caused by science itself! -pesticides, heavy metals, VOCs in construction materials, additives in food, EMFs everywhere. Cost vs. benefit? In this case, highly negative. But most people’s “mind-productions” don’t go there! They think instead “science-wonderful”! Which brings us to the next form of “mind-productions”-the collective ones!

I have been talking about The Cult of The Intellect for at least seven years (see the article on my blog about it in Nov.2016!). But this year ,I have come to realize that it is not purely a matter of individual minds! In fact there are numerous “collective mind-productions”! This phenomenon goes by various names. My favourite for now is “echo-chambers”. And we have loads of them now! We have  ”the man-made climate change” echo-chamber. The “vaccines are safe and effective” echo-chamber now generally known as the “medical-scientific echo-chamber” and most recently with the Gaza-Israel war I have come across the “Muslim echo-chamber”. You know the one that says “free Palestine” ( we could discuss at length what they need to be free of?!) Or “From the River to the Sea”-a clearly genocidal echo-chamber!

One of the problems that comes up here is that people honestly believe their thoughts are their own. And generally that is NOT the case. Most of their individual thoughts are imprinted on their minds from the ethnic or national or professional communities of which they are a part. There are only a very few people who are actually doing the research and thinking for themselves! So that is a whole other dimension of the problem. One that makes it that much more difficult to solve!

And why are these mind-productions-individual and collective- so important!? Because they are almost always abstract, theoretical and biased. So they don’t correspond to Reality and lead in fact to false solutions. Take “climate change” theories for example. Clear-thinking or should I say clear-perceiving people can see that this is purely theoretical. At first, I too worried about the impending disaster. Then I started looking into it. One of the first things I discovered is that the climate has been changing all throughout Earth’s history! And even in the last two millenia there were two periods-The Medieval Warming Period and The Roman Warming period- where the climate was several degrees warmer than it is now. No catastrophe, no massive death tolls. In fact, it appears obvious to some scientists (the minority unfortunately for now!) that cooling is a much more dangerous process than warming!

Then I read some of the work of Henrik Svensmark and most recently watched a talk by the nobel Laureate in physics John Clauser. Svensmark thinks the problem comes from an increase in cosmic rays related to the strength of the energy of the sun (which always made sense to me as the most important factor!) How could it be otherwise?! And Clauser says it’s the clouds which are much more important for climate than the carbon layer. That too is most likely related to the sun. Why is this so important?! Because the governments are using this issue to scare all of us into submission and to spend trillions of dollars on “mitigation attempts” that are not working and never will. Why?! Because they have the diagnosis wrong! Who wants those electric cars anyway lol?! They are, in all likelihood more dangerous to our health than a well-maintained petroleum -based car. But that is a subject for another day!

The Three most Important Derivative Problems

  • The dysfunctionality of the American Political System:

At this point in time, what happens in America affects the whole world. Americans may be proud of that fact but for the rest of us it is frightening! The American system is also based on a number of theoretical premises. Theories like “Due Process of the Law”, ”The Adversarial Process” and “Checks and balances”.And let us not forget Lincoln’s Gettysburg address where he talked of “ Government of the people for the people by the people”. That one is particularly rich- as we watch the wealth gap increase, the machinations of monied lobbyists and Superpacs on elections and the increasing cost of living. Perhaps it should be called “government for the wealthy by the wealthy”! That would be more accurate for now!!  These ideas are built into the system as much as the American constitution is. And they are simply not working! Why should this concern us, anyway.

 

Let’s look at some recent problems.:

1-The Covid pandemic was generated by American “gain of function” research, financed by America and transferred to China after it was banned in the US.A. Then the entire pandemic was mismanaged because of Health Institutions like FDA and CDC that were basically   sold-out to the Pharmaceutical companies and their vaccine production business. Anyone experience a disruption in their lives because of the pandemic lol?! Of course you did! Effective early interventions like with Ivermectin and Hydroxychloroquine were then blocked so that vaccine manufacturers were free to profit from their vaccines. That alone probably cost millions of lives! And no-one has been held accountable. So much for “Due Process of the Law” and government for the people.?!

2-Then we have the “anthropogenic climate change” dubious theory- trying to push all of us into alternative energies and electric cars-items for which we have no evidence of their harm or harmlessness. And  they refuse to seriously study it .Climate catastrophe or not, what about those electric cars?! Are they safe (EMFs everywhere) and are they really helping the environment?!

3-Then we have world-wide inflation as America rolls out the money distributing system via the Central Reserve. As well, we have two costly and devastating wars-in Ukraine and Gaza-both of which could have been prevented by a functional America-yes even with Trump as president?! And of course, the lurking danger of Iran and its weapons systems which the U.S. has refused to confront! So….all in all, we (the entire world ) is subject to American management or mismanagement-at least for now!

And what do they offer us as reassurance? “Due Process of the Law’! Really?! Have you noticed how the Justice system is being manipulated- left, right and center? Republican committees in the House of Representatives showing how Biden and his son Hunter plus other members of the family benefitted from quid pro quo deals with foreign adversaries. And what do the Democrats say?!”There is no evidence”! Whether you are Republican, Democrat or Independent-THAT IS PURE MENDACITY. They accuse Trump of complicity with the Russians(called Russiagate).The case is more or less dismissed .It was based on a fraudulent study (the Steele dossier) to begin with! No one apologizes . No one is held accountable. Is that what they call “Due Process of the Law’?!

Then 4- there is the famous ”adversarial approach”-in Law and government. (All of these are “mind-productions” btw) Have you watched that in progress?!  The Democrats and Republicans argue for hours! No one’s opinion changes. The vote is almost tied. Even if they pass something in the House the Senate vetoes it. The adversarial process has become the “paralysis process”.If you want to watch that play out in a legal context,go back and watch the O.J. case.The defense lawyers were so clever they had the jury completely confused- a standard consequence of adversarial processes.

And 5-“ the Checks and balances in the constitution” that Americans are so proud of. Or is it cheques and bank balances lol? Recent example-President Biden wants to relieve young people of student debt. The conservatives disagree. They go to the Supreme Court which finds in their favour! So now the Biden Administration is looking for legal ways around the prohibition. And so it goes. “Analysis is paralysis”. And the entire world pays the price! God help us!

Then there is 5-Loss of Traditional Values with America leading the way forward. Or is that backward lol? Highest Divorce rate in History. LGBTQ-2S chaos and hysteria, pornography passing as sex education in primary schools, unwed people hooking-up”.Promiiscuity, S.T.D’s galore and now the autism, Cancer, autoimmune disorders and Alzheimerès disease.And America continues  leading the way!

 

The “Woke” Establishment

And what IS this “Woke”. Woke is the liberal, free-thinking progressive movement becoming more and more unhinged and autocratic. The liberals have become totalitarian. You can no longer question the mainstream narrative like the benign nature of vaccines or climate change or Transgender rights without being labeled ultra-right or MAGA, or conspiracy theorist. The world has gone mad-or so it seems. Dr. Mattias Desmet calls it “Mass Formation Psychosis” .In previous times it may have been labelled simply “Mass Hysteria” .And few people have acknowledged that this is what is going on!

Just as the Dysfunctional American Health Institutions can be broken down into “Three-Letter Monsters”-FDA, CDC, NIH,  HHS  so too when it comes to Woke, we find a whole other series of Three-Letter Monsters (FLCCC likes to call them “The Alphabet Soup” agencies lol) .In the case of Woke, we find CRT(critical race theory”-which means it’s all about racism ultimately!); LGBTQ( everyone knows that one!) And because of it’s importance it has at least 5 letters in the shortest version. I can’t keep up with all the new letters being added lol: WEF(World Economic Forum, the Davos group) and the ultimate bureaucrat Klaus Schwab- talking about “The Great Reset” where we will all be happy and own nothing?! Our beloved Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, is one of his students, I believe, as is the French President Macron); ESG(Environmental and Social Governance)-or how to make companies and the entire economy conform to Woke ideas and the Green Agenda; DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) especially in the universities. We see where that led in the recent University debacles concerning the governance of Harvard, University of Pennsylvania and MIT;WHO ( trying to gain control over all pandemic responses in the future to guarantee us that the response in the future will be as mis-managed as the Covid crisis-or worse since some of the countries that did best avoided most of the WHO protocols).And many others .Don’t let me forget the Four-Letter Word (no, it’s not what you think lol).Its the IPCC(The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) -that is working on a false theory that has been exposed clearly in the last few years ,has been wrong on nearly every prediction it has made about future changes and continues to mobilize all of the Great Powers around it’s false theories!

As you can see, we are up against a huge, well-organized enemy.! A recent book authored by Seamus Bruner published by Sentinel Press is called “Controligarchs”.On the cover, you have Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, George Soros, Klaus Schwab and Mark Zuckerberg. H-m-m. Btw when I got to Amazon.ca to order it, there seems to be only one copy left! I had the same experience with RFKs book on Fauci which was a best seller at the time. Couldn’t get a copy at the largest bookseller in Canada! It took over a month. Suspicious,eh?! The signs are everywhere. There IS a conspiracy going on but the Conspiracy Theorists ,the same ones who said Covid was a lab leak and the vaccines are dangerous are being denied their moment of Truth! That may be changing.

So how did all of this happen? How did the American and European liberals become Controligarchs- Authoritarian autocrats. Most people didn’t see this happening!

Well, there are a few elements at play here. One, of course, is hubris. Bill Gates was convinced he could solve the Health issues in Africa by vaccines Seems like that is not working out too well. It seems that is oral polio vaccines were causing more cases of polio than the actual disease itself! George Soros with all his investments in left-wing causes led to the election of Trump and the rise of right-wing movements denying his vision all over America. Mark Zuckerberg, Aspergers flashing all over his face , true to his disposition, out of touch with everything around him, wittingly or unwittingly, probably the latter, actually colluded with the government to get “disinformation” about Covid, most of which was real information, censored from Facebook. Jeff Bezos has left the CEO position at Amazon to transfer his energy to Blue Origin and space exploration. Any thinking person knows how useful that is for humanity lol And Klaus Schnab,with his dehaumanized, top-down  Prussian approach to leadership  may soon be voted “Most Disliked Man on the Planet”! Yes, even more so than Biden and Trump lol.

So what do all these men have in common? They are paternalistic. They think they know better than us what is good for us. They are in the common language “control freaks”. And they, like Bill Gates, are full of huibris! So when the pandemic started and you heard about Hydroxychloroquine and then Ivermectin, you couldn’t get it! Why? Because these people and their henchmen in the pharma industry and the Medical Institutions knew better than you. But they really didn’t! And isn’t that what democracy is all about – “Free Choice”?! Sorry, we have to rely on the experts . After all Bill Gates made billions with Microsoft! Shouldn’t he know better than you? Jeff Bezos also made billions with a way of delivering products on-line. Doesn’t that make him an expert in how you should live?! And then there is the ultimate Controligarch- not present in those pictures-Antony Fauci-responsible on several levels for the deaths of millions! But he gets to decide, not you!

And let’s not forget those hallowed halls of higher education-Harvard and Oxford and M.I.T.! Fees that can break the bank of any Middle-Class family! Indoctrinating the youth of America into “Wokeness” on a daily basis. So effective that our children will not listen to their  parents’) wisdom because they have been indoctrinated by the high priests of “Woke”. Harvard recently was rated at the bottom of all Universities in Free Speech! Rating-0!  Weren’t Universities set up to be hives of intellectual debate, new ideas and initiatives. No longer! Now they are training our youth into believing that they are either oppressors or oppressed. That is going to be a great help! And we see where that is going with the recent on-campus demonstrations.  ”The Times They are a Changing” no doubt Mr. Dylan, but not in the way you or us would have liked!

  1. C)    Islamism

Most people, especially Muslims, don’t understand what a serious problem this is. Outside of the spectacular actions of al-Qaida and Isis this movement rarely comes up on people’s radar! But, in reality, it is much vaster and more dangerous than those aforementioned marginal terrorist groups. We are beginning to hear about it more with the recent events in the Middle East. Hezbollah(a Shiite Islamist group ) and Hamas (a Sunni one) are in the news every day now. But the Western press calls them ”terrorists” and thus dismisses them as marginal. But they are not! Hamas is theologically connected with the Ikhwan Muslimeen which btw is also connected to Erdogan in Turkey who is an adherent and Qatar, which was hosting one of the leading Ikhwani scholars- Yusuf al Qardawi- and still has a strong affinity with that ideology. Then there are the Saudis with the Wahhabbi clergy in the background controlling much of the laws in the country. They too are, in another way, Islamists who have broken off  from the traditional Islamic scholars who always recommended following one the four Classical schools of jurisprudence(called Madhhabs).Iran ,the sponsor of both Hamas and Hizbollah  is also under an Islamist rulership with the  reform doctrine of Vilayat e Fiqh(The guardianship of the Scholars-may God protect us all!) Pakistan and Afghanistan have been strongly influenced by the Taliban and before that by the Jamat al Islamiya of Maududdi.(Please refer to the article on our blog entitled” Islamism-The Scourge of the Modern Muslim Community” for more explanation).Not too long ago there were two other catastrophes-one in Algeria(200,000people killed) and Egypt where the duly elected Ikhwani party was running the country into the ground(as ideologically-driven parties always do! ) under the leadership of Mohammed Morsi- so much so that the army had to take over!

So people-Muslims and non-Muslims_-need to be acutely aware of this problem-or it will destroy us all. It is now an “ideological pandemic” in the Muslim world.

Now I want to make an important point of clarification here! I am not talking about Islamic scholarship. Nor am I talking about anything in traditional Islam outside of the heresies of the Mutazilis(the Rationnalists ) or the Khwarij( the hard-core extremists).Scholarship has had its important role throughout Islamic history and through the history of all religions. The scholars study the original texts-the Quran and hadith in our case. They attempt to understand them properly, systematize them and then come out with rulings that are both prescriptive AND attitudinally consistent with the original spirit of the religion and its fundamental sources.

Islamism, on the other hand, is something very different. I have to give Joshua Phillips , a young journalist at Epoch Times, credit for making this issue crystal-clear. Ever since Sheikh Nazim taught us that Islamism was not Islam, I had always been wary. But the final nail in the coffin was understanding what it fundamentally and philosophically was. Amazing, really, that some-one like Joshua, with  a very meager knowledge of Islam and not very steeped in leftist ideology either, was able to come up with this insight! So much for “experts”?! Lol,. He realized that Syed Qutb, probably the most influential of all the Islamist thinkers, had actually studied Socialism and Communism while at University in the West. So Joshua’s contention is that Islamism is actually Marxist doctrine piggy-backed (pun intended lol) onto Islamic beliefs. When I first heard that, I got the usual shiver up my spine when I hear a Truth being enunciated! “Spot-on” I thought.

The similarity between the two (Islamism and Marxism) is actually striking on a deeper philosophical level if not so much on an outward one. They are both “materialist philosophies”. Now again most people have the wrong idea about materialism. They think it has everything to do with commercialism and making money and buying things. That is its surface level. On a deeper level, it means giving precedence to the outward! Chogyam Trungpa, the brilliant but corrupt Buddhist, wrote about this in the heydays of the New Age movement. His book ,one of the classics of New Age literature was called “Cutting through Spiritual Materialism”.

In Marxism we have the doctrine of “dialectical materialism”. In Islamism we have the doctrine of “spiritual materialism”. So, for Marx ,  the solution is to establish a Communist state called “the Dictatorship of the Proletariat.” We know where that has brought us to! For Islamists, the state they are adcocatng for is called “The Islamic Caliphate”. We have seen a few examples of that in recent history -all tragic.Note that this is not the same as the previous Caliphates in the Islamic world like the Ottoman Empire-all of which arose organically from the circumstances of the time. That Caliphate ended with the Ottoman Empire after WW1! Now what is being proposed is an ideologically-driven process. And we know well where ideology leads to! Islam is NOT an ideology.It is a religious practice, a way of Life inspired by a Revelation.Very different from human-generated agendas!

Both doctrines(Marxism and Islamism) believe that by changing the outer structure and having an authoritarian state, you can make people behave better. The true Islamic philosophy is the opposite! As Sheikh Nazim taught us, the people get the state they deserve. In the Quran it tells the Muslims that you shouldn’t impose the religion on others.. Also in our Holy Book Allah tells his Prophet saws to deliver the message-not to be a ruler or an enforcer. But who follows the holy texts when you can follow your own ideas or a collective illusion.

Said succinctly, Islamism is the opposite of Islam . Islam says: Be pious and good to others and self-controlled and Allah will reward you in this world and the next. Islamism says: “Let us rule you as we see fit and then you will be happy and virtuous” The evidence, for those who believe in evidence lol, goes totally contrary to that premise. Our choice of good or evil is between us and our Lord. Any intervenor trying to change that is more likely to do more harm than good. And that is exactly what has been happening!

       

 

Secondary Problems:

 

  1. D) Nationalism: Now, previously I would have put Nationalism at the top of the list. After all, it is so obvious! Israeli nationalism vs, Palestinian Nationalism; Russian Nationalism vs. Ukrainian Nationalism. The consequences are so obvious and in our face. And the Virgin Mary in her apparitions warned us of the danger of nationalism. Which gives it even more spiritual credence! But Remember: We are NOT Empiricists! We don’t believe that what is on the surface is the whole story. Muslims, in particular, need to be aware of this! Remember surat Al Baqara. Allah tells us the believers are those who believe in the invisible. The problem is not simply Zionism. That is a Thahiri(outward) position. The problem is much deeper than that! The only scholar I know of who suggested this recently  was Sheikh Omar Ibn Hafidh who said “If the Muslims hadn’t fallen in love with dunniya (the world) Allah never would have taken any land from them” Kudos Sheikh Ibn Hafidh. I assuime Hamza Yusuf was saying something similar when he was denounced at RIS! The crowd was hoping he would recite the group mantras and he refused. Because he, too, looks beneath the surface.

So, although nationalism remains a problem across the world, Internationalism has become a bigger problem! The pandemic was caused and spread by internationalism. Our medical freedoms are being eroded by internationalism. The surge in cases of Cancer and Alzheimers and Autoimmune disorders is being produced by local “scientific” research and spread by international cooperation.

A simple example: The management of the Covid pandemic-through lockdowns and vaccines was a disaster. Thought out by American and European Health Agencies and spread throughout the world. This, despite the fact that it should be clear that physicians and in the case of Uttar Pradesh a few, very few health authorities, had much better results by early treatment with repurposed drugs. But who needs Reality when you can rely on International Consensus?! Answer: We all do!

At this point the International authorities are more involved in covering up the Truth than in using it for our betterment!! A sad state of affairs indeed.

  1. E) The Triad of Evil

America has done many things wrong! And so have the Europeans! But let it be clear. They may have problems with Truth and corruption of Truth but they are in no ways as evil as the Triad -Russia, China and Iran Anyone who says otherwise, like our dear Sheikh Imran Hussein who ,in his Eschatology, proposes Russia as our saviour or our Sunni Muslim leaders chumming up with Iran are leading us astray.. All of these duplicitous calculations can only serve the cause of evil in the long run. This is true as well, maybe even more so, with our Western Powers cozying up to China to make more money or to Iran hoping to prevent them from getting nuclear weapons. All of this will end up backfiring just like Chamberlain’s cozying up to Hitler before WW2! Befriending evil is in the long run a very bad strategy. But politicians of all stripes think they can outwit the spiritual laws of nature. They have never been so wrong!

Btw I hope it is clear by now what one of the central attitudinal problems in the modern world is “Clever Calculation and Manipulation”. You can’t game the system that God has put in place! We need leaders of sincerity and goodwill and vision-not leaders of self-interest, ideological stubbornness and statistical manipulation. Those leaders  are the very ones that have brought us to the state we are in now. If you need more evidence for this hypothesis watch American politics for a day or two and try to see what I am saying. It should be obvious!

 

Positive Signs:

At this point you should probably be asking: ”Is there any hope” ?! And the answer is: “not a lot, but there are some hopeful signs”:

1-The insanity at the most “esteemed” Institutions of Higher Learning”!  They are being outed! I have been decrying those institutions for a long time, ever since hearing Steven Gaskin describing the bad influence of higher education .But nevertheless these “Temples of the Cult of the Intellect” as I call them, have been riding high for a long time! Employers were rushing to hire their graduates, parents were willing to mortgage their homes to finance their childrens’ education, and the fees just seemed to be going up and up! But with the recent campus demonstrations in support of Hamas and genocidal wishes towards Jews, they are finally seeing their credibility challenged! It’s about time. Personally, I think they should be transformed into trade schools! -in Medicine, Law and Dentistry for example. As to the softer sciences like Social Sciences, Political Science and Literature ,a better venue for this kind of education should be explored .Because, for now, the Universities have become hotbeds of propaganda and brain-washing as opposed to bastions of free thought and creativity

2-Due to the excesses and mismanagement of the Covid epidemic, many groups have developed to promote Freedom in Medicine and objective scientific enquiry (if that is at all possible!) I myself follow CHD (Childrens Health Defense) under the leadership of RFKjr., Epoch Times which called the lab leak while it was still being referred to as a “conspiracy theory” and FLCCC under the capable leadership of Pierre Kory and Paul Marik. But each of these organizations has been denounced and cancelled by the mainstream media.Many have been deplatformed from various social media sites. All the main health organizations like CDC and FDA and NIH (remember the three-letter monsters!) denounce them! And yet, they are the ones speaking the most Truth! What a state!

When I hear Republican representative4s saying RFKjr., who they should be siding with, is a conspiracy theorist, I know we are in deep s—t! Everything he says is backed up by references and documents and studies! What are they talking about?! They, too, with a few exceptions like Senator Ron Johnson and Senator Rand Paul, are still living in their  biased, ideological bubbles. Pierre Kory and Paul Marik are clearly amongst the most competent ,brilliant and open-minded physicians . Both lost their jobs as intensivists in their hospitals for speaking about their clinical experiences.

And then to clinch it all, I went to Wikipedia to look into other Health Freedom organizations and this is what I came up with!

“The health freedom movement is a libertarian coalition that opposes regulation of health practices[1] and advocates for increased access to “non-traditional” health care.[2]

The right-wing John Birch Society( often seen as the intellectual equivalent of the KKK!) has been a prominent advocate for health freedom since at least the 1970s, and the specific term “health freedom movement” has been used in the United States since the 1990s.”

Wow! Are you kidding?! What a cover-up?! What mischief?! This is what we are up against if we begin to fight for Truth! We have a long way to go.

 

3-The Middle East: As to the Middle East I am hopeful that “we have touched bottom” as they like to call it. In A.A. The Abrahamic accords were a good start. Removing Netanyahu’s right-wing government, which appears inevitable, will also be helpful. But we still have the evil Axis partner Iran to deal with. And only their own people can solve that. The Western powers should do everything they can to promote the uprising of the people but do it in an honest, not a CIA covert way We shall see!           In the years to come if God so wills, we will update these issues and try to see if we are making progress or regress. Happy New Year! Sufi Ibrahim

 

 

 

 

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Modern Living, Politics, Psychology

Islamism-The Scourge of the modern Islamic community

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Islamism-The Scourge of the Modern Muslim Community!

This entire article can be summarized by an interaction between my Sufi Sheikh of the time, -Sheikh Nazim Haqqani, and a small group of Ikhwanis (Muslim Brotherhood people) who were heckling  him at a public event. He looked them in the eyes and said the following:” You don’t understand our religion. We are not agreeing to any ‘ism’’ -neither Socialism, nor Communism ,nor Feminism .Especially we are not agreeing to ‘Islamism’. People get the governments they deserve (i.e. you will not be able to improve their lot by establishing an Islamic state which is one of the core belie4fs of the Islamists).

Now if you truly understand these words, you can stop here! But I doubt that to be the case. It took me about 30 years to do so and the recent tragedy in the Middle East only served to underline how important  his words are ! What the sheikh is saying in essence is that the entire Islamist narrative is flawed from the start. And it is flawed for several fundamental reasons. Firstly, it is a man-made solution-a product of human hubris  (“mind-productions”).Unfortunately a typical human mistake.. We start with a problem- in this instance let’s say the corruption of the modern world, in values and behaviour-which has spilt out into the Muslim world .Both Syed Qutb and Abul A’la Maududdi ,the two principal thinkers of the Islamist movement, are quite clear that this is their starting point. Then you develop a theory to solve the problem. In both cases, the answer is the same. We need to recreate a Muslim Caliphate. And then you figure out how to implement your theory.

Notice already the difference from the origins of our Islamic Faith! Our Prophet saws was neither a theoretician (thank God) nor a politician. He received a Revelation and then communicated that to the people around him. He did not start with an idea!  He then promulgated the Revelation  with wisdom and discernment-not with Aristotelian logic. Thank God the Greek philosophers had not yet made their way  into the Arab world. That was only to happen much later starting with the Abbasids and reaching its culmination in the Andalusian period.

Now if you think about this process, not about the contents of the Islamist discourse, but about the philosophical underpinnings, you will see an ironic and significant parallel. The Marxist movement! Marx, too, identified a problem-the exploitation of the working class- a real problem which he described very well. Btw Marx was mostly right in his critique  of Capitalism. Where he went wrong was the solution. He, too, wanted a state to solve the problem. His state was called “the Dictatorship of the Proletariat”. The Islamic State and The Dictatorship of the Proletariat . Six of one, half a dozen of the other lol.. Have you noticed the catastrophe of Marxism and the massive loss of lives involved-40 million at least under Mao and another 30 million under Stalin. Not to mention Pol Pot in Cambodia and the North Korean regime. They outdid all others- including Christians and Islamists- in their murderous ways .Is that who we want to emulate?!

Then think of the abysmal failures of the so-called Islamic states-Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Egypt under Al Morsi, And now, Turkey under the latest Ikhwani -Erdogan-all going in the wrong direction! There is no coincidence here. As long as man thinks he has a better plan than God, we are headed for disaster.

And how odd?1 This movement, that is so critical of Western society and so anti-Semitic at its core, is using the template of a European Jew(Karl Marx) to try to solve its problems. And btw there is evidence that Syed Qutb studied both Socialism and Communism in developing his ideas! How ironic?!
The secular Muslim journalist Tarek Fatah poses the dilemma this way in his book : ”Chasing a Mirage: The Tragic Illusion of an Islamic state”. “One could say there are two Islams that Muslims have introduced to the world. One peaceful, spiritual and deeply respectful of the ‘other’ an Islam that relied on the Quranic expression ‘To you your religion, to me mine” …However parallel to the spiritual Islam ,an equally militant stream of puritanism (read Wahhabbism) and supremacist philosophy(read Islamism)was evolving. It sought statehood, political power, and mastery not just over the conquered , but over competing Muslim interests as well(read the “takfiri” movement of which Algeria was the clearest example!).

Btw I used to think that the principal problem in the Islamic ummat was the Wahhabis. But they are a simple-minded, Bedouin people at heart ”Shirk”, “kufr” and “bida” Skeikh Nazim used to say.  ”Those are the only terms in their lexicon” lol.They did do the disservice of spreading a dry, lifeless, unspiritual version of Islam across the world with their petrodollars. But they are nowhere near as sophisticated and sinister in their influence as the Ikhwanis and the Jamat al Islamiya people- who claim to be reasonable and well-thought out . The latter represent  a significantly greater danger.

This article is not intended to be a comprehensive study of the recent history of Islamism. I will leave that to the academics lol. They love that kind of stuff. I am, at heart, an Essentialist-trying to get to the heart of the matter! But before getting to my “Charge Sheet” (a term I borrow from the great Quran scholar Israr Ahmad May Allah have mercy on his soul) let me say a few words about the major personalities involved. We could date the beginning of Islamism back to the 1920’s in Egypt with Hassan Banna who founded the Ikhwan Muslimun (Muslim Brotherhood). Others may predate it to Rashid Rida, the Muslim reformer, who predated Al Banna but these historical details are not really relevant to the discussion at hand. Of the 4 principal characters involved , the other three being Syed Qutb, Abul Ala Mauddudi and Ayotollah Khomeini, representing the Shia wing of the movement, he(Al Banna)  was the most moderate and probably the most likeable .He advocated a gradual, peaceful Islamization .By contrast, his successor in Egypt, Syed Qutb, was more militant ,more aggressive and later became one of the major inspirations for the Salafi Jihadists- including Ben Laden and Ayman Al Zawahiri. Both Ben Laden and Zawahiri studied with his brother,  Muhammad Qutb, at his classes in Saudi Arabia1 Anwar  Al Awlaki, ,the head of al Qaeda in Yemen, was also an avid reader and follower of Syed Qutb. So the links between the terrorists and the Ikhwanis are very clear. But  take note: All Islamists are not terrorists but all terrorists are Islamists.

The personality most linked to Islamism in the subcontinent but who had influence all over the Muslim world was Maududdi.  Like Qutb, he wrote a long tafseer of the Quran justifying his point of view and like Qutb he had a refined intellect and considerable knowledge. However, even at their time, the traditional scholars of Islam did not accept their point of view! Qutb was declared a heretic by Al Azhar University (I would totally agree with that assessment even if it is shown that Al Azhar was under political pressure to do so). The Deobandi scholars were somewhat divided about Maududdi but below you can find a typical assessment by a South African Deobandi. N.B. It takes Muslims a long time to find out the reality of a person if they speak the familiar Muslimese lol. I think the Turks will have a rude awakening with Erdogan just as the Egyptians learnt the hard way by having Mohammed Mursi (another Ikhwani) in power!

 About Maududdi:    “I admired many things about Mawdudi Saheb and detested many. For a long time I did not wish to degrade him. I felt that from his innovated style of presentation, the modern generation could benefit. Although at times such compositions appeared from his that it was not possible to endure it, but taking into consideration the Deeni well-being, I tolerated it and kept silent. I did not foresee that this Fitnah would spread worldwide and have a detrimental effect on the Arab world; that every day from his master pen new buds would keep on blossoming and indecent words would be used regarding the Sahaaba Kiraam (Radhiallaahu Anhum) and the Anbiyaa (Alayhimus salaam). Later on, such things appeared daily in the “Tafhimul Qur’aan”.(Maududdi’s Tafseer)

 

Now it has become known without doubt that his writings and publications are the greatest Fitnah of the present time, notwithstanding a few beneficial treatises that have appeared, it is the case that the sin of them is greater than their usefulness.? (Surah Baqarah 219). Now that stage has been reached where to keep silent seems to be a great crime. It is regretted that for forty years an offensive silence was kept. Now the time has dawned, where without fear of rebuttal and censure all his writings from A to Z should be thoroughly studied with a view to fulfil the demands for the preservation of the Deen with Haqq and justice.

Wallaahu Waliyyut Tawfeeq

Moulana Muhammad Yusuf Binnori

 

(under the supervision of Mufti Ebrahim Desai from South Africa).

 

Last, but not least, is the Shia version of Islamism under Ayatollah Khomeini. I had just become Muslim-in Jerusalem- in 1978 and shortly afterwards  we were all excited to see Khomeini return from France to Iran. ”Finally, a real Islamic country” we thought. It reminds me in retrospect about our enthusiasm when Mugabe came to power in Rhodesia! “Finally, an African leader with a pure left-wing agenada” Paradise was at hand lol. Well we know where that led ! And Iran is more or less on the same track! More people have left Islam in Iran because of the Mullahs than at any previous period I am aware of! That is the effect of Islamism in action! The Quran teaches: ”There is no compul.sion in Religion”.But the Islamists turn this teaching on its head! ” Compulsion leads to virtue. We need to force it upon people”. How much more un-Islamic could they be?!

 

The ”Charge Sheet” against the Islamists

 

Let me put the following figures in perspective since this article is being written during the Israel-Hamas war. The best figure I could find put Palestinian deaths between 1948 and 2020 at 31,000! With the current conflict that could easily rise to 45,000. Now 45,000 deaths is a very significant number, no doubt. And it doesn’t count the injured , the displacements and the general misery and economic consequences of war. But let us consider the following numbers-much of which is directly or indirectly caused by Islamism. And btw the excessive deaths in Gaza can also be traced to Islamism as well. That is not to negate the Israeli responsibility But think about it! 31,000 deaths in 70 years mostly under P.L.O. and Palestinian authorities and now  let’s say 15,000 deaths in six weeks with Hamas. Draw your own conclusions.

  • Iran/Iraq war: 1980-1988 One to two million killed. Islamist contribution; Saddam Hussein was no angel but he was legitimately concerned that Iran would try to infiltrate and even take over Iraq where there was a Shiite majority So, Islamism certainly played a role.
  • The Afghan Civ!il War:

Before Ben Laden and al-Qaeda.1978-1992

1.5 million  deaths

Afghanistan since 2001– 243,000 deaths !

Islamist contribution: The Taliban and other Islamic parties like Hizb Islam Gulbuddin and Hizb al Wahdat certainly played the major role let alone al Qaida and Isis in Khorasan- two Salafi Jihadist groups directly derived from Islamist ideas

  • Syrian Civil War: 500,000-600,000 deaths. Islamist contribution :No doubt the Assad family is the principal culprit but the threat of an Ikhwani uprising was always in the background-especially after their attempt to assassinate the elder Assad in Homs failed!
  • Algeria I.S. (Front Islamique de Salut1 What a strange name?! “salut” means salvation in French. Should rather be called Front Islamique de L’enfer.The Road to Hell.- 200,000 deaths!
  • India/Pakistan separation.2-3 million lives lost  Islamist contribution Muhammad Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, was not an Islamist but rather a secular Indian. However, the project of having a Muslim state can be considered  a consequence of of Political Islam even if it is not properly Islamist. Btw the traditional Deobandi Islamic scholars were not in agreement with this project The debacle of separation was followed by an unnecessary war between Pakistan and Bagladesh which claimed another million lives(estimates range from 300,000-3 million!)

This is admittedly a cherry-picked list- cherry-picked for the numbers of deaths involved. Not included are the deaths in Pakistan caused by the Pakistani Taliban, the Lebanese Civil War ,  the people murdered by the Mullah’s regime in Iran, the deaths of Iraqis due to sectarian violence after the Americans pulled out. the deaths in north Africa with the Arab uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt , the deaths from Al Qaida and Isis(the latter 33,000 -outdoing the Israelis in a few short years!), Boko Haram in Nigeria, The Al Shabbab in Somalia etc ,etc.. Many if not most of these deaths  can be traced back to Islamism.

 

At this point, the conclusion should be clear. As the formerly cited South African scholar said about Maududdi, this political current is the greatest “fitna” (civil disturbance ) that Islam has know-possibly since the Mongol Invasions in Iraq and the Crusades in the Middle Ages .It far outstrips the problem of Israel that Muslims seem to be obsessed with-as it goes to the very heart of out tradition. In reality, it should be considered a “heresy” in the same class as the Khawarij and the Mutazili heresies before it. More than destroying lives, it ends up destroying Islamic consciousness which is about being humble and peaceful and surrendering to the Divine will-NOT about showing how clever and willful and strategic we can be. Not about self-assertion , but about  self-discipline and self-control(the jihad-a -nafs thats our Prophet  saws  taught us was much greater than the jihad of War) .As Muslims we are surrendered and obedient to Allah-not to any theoretical doctrine that sounds Islamic. That is a subtle but fundamental understanding that the ummat needs to appreciate if it is to survive and thrive, May Allah protect us all.

Salaams, Sufi Ibrahim