Category Archives: Modern Living

Holistic Medicine, Metaphysics, Modern Living, Politics

Contemporary “Science”

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So the Amazon is burning?! Good! A beautiful natural experiment on the carbon imprint theory of global warming! What can send more carbon into the atmosphere than a huge burning forest?!So if the human-caused theory of global warming is correct there should be a direct,measurable correlation between the amount of forest burning and the earth’s temperature.

That is, if we are dealing with testable, disprovable hypotheses -the basis of all real science.Instead we are dealing with theological postulates-untestable convicvtions.So I assume they will not do the studies!

Like I could find no real studies on another natural experiment- what happened in Cuba to cancer rates and autoimmunie diseases when they were forced to go organic because of the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Or no studies about the long-term effects of multiple vaccinations because the theological principle is”Vaccines are safe” ! Right?

Or the long-term effects of eating food raised with pesticides(Theological principle”The level of pesticides is below the level of toxicity” Ya right.)

So science has been converted from testing observable hypotheses to massive data gathering,statistical analysis and economic manipulations by wealthy corporations like pharmaceutical companies and chemical producers who fund the “science”.If the scientists find something uncomfortable to these large corporations,they are often gagged or fired as happened clearly in Canada under the Harper administration and happens a lot more than we believe behind closed doors.

Look what has happened recently with glyphosate.Institutional,conservative by nature,judges have found the link between glyphosate and non-Hodgkins Lymphoma credible and have approved very large settlements the last one of $2 biliion dollars.And yet you find a whole-window display of this product at Home Depot! Why? The government has not acted on the evidence.”More research needed?” .No!This is pure economic manipulation..

And Westerners think only Marxist countries perverted the teachings of the Master.Francis Bacon( founder of the principles of modern science) must be turning over in his grave lol And it ain’t funny!

Let me be clear here.I am not a climate-change denier.That is the current term for a heretic! Remember those from the Middle ages?!! Well the concept is back! They just don’t use the term anymore as it sounds too “unscientific”.The Earth is warming! It is an observable fact.

As far as I can make out there are only two possible explanations( of course the Ultimate cause is the Will of God but we will not go there as this is too inflammatory for the fundamentalist secularists lol).So getting back to the intermediary causes ..It is either due to human activity( the consensus position now) or due to the sun’s activity.(C.F. Henrik Svensmark and others.) Personally at this point ,I favour the latter theory.Ever noticed the sun’s effect on your daily temperatures and seasonal temperatures?! In Canada that can be up to 60 degrees Celsius! No one,even the hard-core “scientific”types, doubts that is an effect of the position relative to the sun! So the one or two degrees they are talking about seems like a pittance for the sun.BUT I could be wrong(the scientific position lol).I have looked at some of the evidence( i am supposed to say here that I am not a climatologist.That is the current protocol but people who know me know that I am not a big believer in experts.They get things wrong on a regular basis in my observations .So citing climatologists just doesn’t do it for me)..It seems to me that once you understand the scientific principle that “association does not mean causation” most of the carbon theory falls apart.But I am, in true scientific fashion, still willing to be convinced otherwise.

Metaphysics, Modern Living, Psychology

Learning from the Existentialists-“Bad Faith”

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This is a citation from the Existentialists-most particularly Jean-Paul Sartre.As you know,I think we need to learn from everyone and every situation.Muslims, particularly, need to reflect on this phenomenon as it is endemic in our community.It does have a parallel concept in Islam-nifaq(hypocrisy) but that concept has a more specific meaning around those who don’t really believe in the religion.The concept of”bad faith” has a more general application and can apply to believing Muslims and Christians as well.Thus it has a more general applicability.See if you can spot it in or around you.This is a very important matter for Muslims who are more susceptible to social and family pressure than most and often use the terms of the religion -‘adab’, ‘bir walideyn’,avoiding ‘ghiba’ etc. to prevent themselves from being authentic.Think about it.

Bad faith (French: mauvaise foi) is a philosophical concept utilized by existentialist philosophers Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre to describe the phenomenon in which human beings, under pressure from social forces, adopt false values and disown their innate freedom, hence acting inauthentically.[1] It is closely related to the concepts of self-deception and ressentiment.

Metaphysics, Modern Living, Psychology

Dealing With the Other

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I am not a great fan of the Existentialists,to be sure.A group of hyper- cerebral atheists is not my cup of tea,so to speak, But one thing Jean-Paul Sartre said has stuck with me through all the years since I read it. “L’enfer,c’est les autres”(Hell is the Others)I am sure you know what he means,if you look honestly at your life.

Now ethically,in all the religions and even amongst secularists we are supposed to “treat our neighbour as ourselves”.But, what if that neighbour,that friend,that family member is a proverbial “pain in the butt”.What if that neighbour continually causes us pain or frustrates and annoys us to the point we can no longer bear it.Repressing and containing our reactions often doesn’t work.We end up either exploding on the other person or avoiding them altogether.”Ghosting” is a new and ugly way of doing just that!What do we do then?That is one of the great arts of living.

Now,theoretically ,we are supposed to show patience and tolerance and compassion.But that can be very difficult at times-read impossible.So are there other methods? I think there are but don’t expect them to work all the time.Two terms that I like to use are “calling people out” and “mixing it up.”Calling them out” implies expressing your observations and your feelings -but in a way that is not assaultive (although the aggression you feel cannot be hidden totally)but that highlights their bad behaviour and your feelings about it.”Mixing it up” implies going back and forth again with a maximum of objectivity and a minimum of rancor until your point is made or at least until you have made your best possible effort to do so.None of this is easy but it is certainly better than being emotionally bullied and building up resentment.

So try it out and tell me how it works for you.Don’t be a victim .Be an intervenor instead.Salaams,Ibrahim

Comparative Religion, Metaphysics, Modern Living

Spirituality vs. Religion-a Modernist Delusion

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Religion cannot be separated from spirituality any more than the body can be separated out from worldly experience.All spirituality comes from the bedrock of religion and is intimately tied up with it.Yes,even Buddhism and Advaita Vedanta- both of which are variants and updates of the Hindu religion just like Christianity is a variant and update of Judaism.So all the marketers of the trendy slogan:”Spirituality is good;religion is bad” should seriously re-examine their conclusions.This is another modernist delusion!

Islam, Metaphysics, Modern Living

The Talibanization of the Muslim Community

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The psychoanalysts learnt relatively quickly,  in their work with people, that it was more effective to begin their interpretative work by analyzing the defenses rather than go directly to the “Truth ” of the matter.In a way the first part of the Islamic testification of Faith “laillaha ilallah” says something similar(There is no god besides the One True God) So first you denounce the falsehood and then you affirm the truth.

When there is an entire Community, or at least large sections of it, involved in this kind of defensiveness the problem becomes even more complex.This is because a large-scale social consensus then is involved in  supporting the falsehood-or at least in promoting an incomplete version of the Truth.This is what I have been coming up against frequently for a long time but particularly in the last couple of years as I try to promote authentic Sufism as the best possible spiritual path and the most noble form of Islam itself.The Community pushes back!

In order to give you some concrete examples of what I am talking about, let me cite the following episodes-all occurring recently in the space of a few weeks.1) I message a Facebook friend to describe an event in the endodentist’s office(read root canal) .Although being one of the most skilled people in this specialty,he was unable to find the root canal for what seemed like a long period of time”i don’t understand it”he said”.Usually, especially after a clear Xray like the one I did on you,I hit it in a few minutes.This one seems to be calcified and very difficult to locate”. I tell my friend that I then made dua to Faqih Muqaddam the saint of lost objects –a practice I was taught in Yemen amongst the Habaib. Less than 30 seconds after the prayer the dentist announced with obvious relief in his voice that he found it.”I cant understand why it was so difficult “he said.God isn’t in his equation obviously lol.

My friend then chastised me” I will never make dua to a saint “she said adamantly.It is shirk to do so.We must only make dua to Allah.Please note that this is not someone who self-identifies as a Salafi or even a Dedobandi.The next day I did a little research and found a fatwa on Seekers Hub by Faraz Rabbani(may Allah raise his rank) that stated that ‘Tawwasul'(the name of this kind of practice) to awliya is permitted in all four madhabs of traditional Islam.I sent the fatwa to my friend and I did not receive any response or acknowledgment.It is quite possible that she doesn’t believe either me or Faraz lol

2) Two young Muslim females ‘freeze’ when we do Dhikr with some simple movements from Chigong added to the ritual.They obviously felt there was something wrong or even haram in doing so.One of my most shariah-strict shuyukh,Sheikh Nuh, had used Chigong himself to recover from a post-hajj respiratory infection that had been resistant to all the standard treatments.He did warn us not to pay attention to the Aqida (beliefs)of Taoism but had no problem with their healing movements.And did the Prophet sal not advise us“Seek Ye wisdom even if you have to go to China.”The only reason the Muslims would go to China nowadays would be on a business venture lol.In all fairness, the wisdom traditions in China have more or less been erased by the rampant materialism there..We could,however, say the same,to a lessor degree,about the Wisdom traditions in Islam including Sufism.So what’s the problem of adding in some health-inducing Chigong movements?!The Buddha did say that”habit-energy” is one of the biggest impediments to Enlightenment .Another potential source of wisdom for the Muslims!

3)I go to visit a Sheikh who claims to have been and still be a disciple of Bawa Muhayyideen, one of my earliest sheikhs.I can feel the ‘Bawa hal'(powerful energy force) coming through him but all he talks about to his audience and in his writings is about Shariah.When I confront him with the fact that his discourse sounds nothing like B awa’s he pridefully responds”Excuse-me!” obviously irritated by my statement.He then goes on to say” You have to adjust the talk to the audience” -a plausible explanation but completely unconvincing.Something else is going on here.You see there was a serious problem with the teachings of Bawa which only looked at the inner process and didn’t seem to be concerned about the outer practices of Islam.A serious problem-ironically the opposite one to the one we are addressing here which is the overemphasis on the external.But the sheikh didn’t seem to want to address that.Instead,he seems to have gone into denial- a common ploy in a state of cognitive dissonance but a mistake nevertheless.

So what is going on here?! Why are the internal processes of the Islamic practice being given so little importance and so much energy is devoted to the outer sciences.Where is the Islam of the Middle Ages when Muslims preserved the science of the Greeks in medicine and philosophy and translated their texts into Arabic thus preserving the knowledge?Where is the Islam of the Ottomans where people of all the nations and religious affiliations were able to use their talents for the futherance of the needs of the people?Where is the Islam of the great Sufis like Jellalludin Rumi and Ibn Arabi and Fariduddin Attar. Mostly gone! Instead, we have narrow-mindedness ,rigidity,obsessive rule-following,”cook-book” religion .I call this  process the “Talibanization” of our religion.Follow the rule-book closely and all will be well. Clearly it is not working!

If we go further still, in terms of psychological and sociological analysis,we will see that contemporary Muslims are often more like the Quraysh than like the Sahhabba. Shocking,yes!The Quraysh are the foils for the Muslims-showing them how not to be and yet they have become like them.The Sahhabbas, on the other hand, had to be open-minded people.They adapted a system of thought and behaviour that was radically different from that in which they had been raised.Their lives were turned upside-down both conceptually and concretely and yet they accepted it enthusiastically.Admittedly they had an excellent teacher but that is another matter.Many of their Qurayshi cohorts rejected that same teacher in no uncertain terms as we know from studying the seerat of the Prophet.The Sahhabbas heard the Truth and followed it regardless of the risks involved.Can contemporary Muslims say the same?

Then to continue our historical analogies there was Jesus a.s. and the Pharisees, the believers in the letter of the law but not the spirit..Unlike the Qurash ,they had a proper legal code,a proper shariah.But they misapplied it by losing its life-force. Are contemporary Muslims not somewhat similar to these Jewish Pharisees? Can they hear the Truth beyond  the texts as the apostles of Jesus a.s. had to do? Or are they more like the Pharissees who got stuck on a literalist view of the Revelation?

Now the so-called practical people amongst you, unsatisfied by just being conscious of the problem,will ask what to do to change this.Believe me,it is no easy matter.I have been struggling with this issue for decades and the situation seems to be getting worse rather than better!The simple answer is that we need to bring back and support and disseminate the teachings of the authentic uncorrupted Sufis.But as soon as we try doing this we come up against the defenses.”This is shirk”. This is bida.This is kujfr” the opponents will exclaim.Answering their protestations is usually of no avail.The opponents are”deaf,dumb and blind” as the Quran describes unbelievers of all sorts.Another possible venue for development is learning about psychology and Comparative Religion,something I consider vital for my own students.Both of those disciplines point the way to interiority and away from literalism.Both,understood properly, can have salutary effects on the soul Otherwise,if we continue on the same path,a calamity,an Apocalypse, is certainly on the way.Nothing less seems able to shift peoples’ consciousness.In the meantime it is incumbent on us to try. our best to warn people.That is the purpose of this writing.May Allah give us tawfiq in these efforts,Salaams,Joel Ibrahim Kreps

Modern Living, Psychology

The Great Hack

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Here we go again! The proverbial dark black pot(the regular media including Netflix which is essentially a Hollywood variant)) calling the electric kettle(Facebook,Twiiter and Instagram ) black lol

Ok. The latest in vogue Netflix production”The Great Hack”. You know what?! Netflix is hacking your brain as are all the regular media,with hyped, mildly paranoid propaganda.Cambridge Analytica and all the data-sharing is manipulative but IT IS NOT THE REAL PROBLEM,by any means! Even Trump and his election are not the real problem .Nor is Google or Facebook or Amazon! There ARE very real and deep problems and they have nothing to do with data-sharing and manipulation.Here are are just a few of them.

1) Our educational system does not teach people how to think.Instead it is a propaganda machine for politically correct ideology and Scientific Materialism

2) People are taught to respect the experts who are just as often wrong as right and often supremely impractical and out of touch

3) Our politicians are in the pockets of the corporations big-time and therefore are no longer acting for the public good.That was true long before Trump!

4) Schools of Business Administration are teaching current and future administrators to put maximum emphasis on efficiency and productivity and profits to the detriment of everyone else including their clients and their employees who are increasingly stressed out.

5) People are educated to use their reason but not to develop their inner sight,their ear of Truth and their subtle heart.This despite decades of Research trying to highlight the importance of Emotional Intelligence.Still not operationalized in any official educational system I know of and

5) Doubt and Cynicism as well as the accompanying relativism and atheism and agnosticism are endemic in our societies so that morality has been severely compromised in much of the modern world.

The list goes on and on You will notice that none of this has anything to do with data-sharing.in fact if anything,data-sharing is a consequence of this lack of values rather than its cause..

Comparative Religion, Metaphysics, Modern Living

“Fake Spiritual News”

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This world is NOT an illusion as the Advaita Vedanta people and the Buddhists would like us to believe.It is a concrete reality! The illusion is that obtaining things we wish for, like academic degrees and money and status and partners will bring us complete and lasting satisfaction.That is the illusion.That is our mind lying to us!The Buddhists are proud of their eight-fold path ,one of the folds being”Right Thinking”. Well,the idea that this world is simply a creation of our deluded mind is “wrong thinking”.I believe that wrong thinking contributes significantly to human suffering as it leads to misunderstanding of the meaning of the joys and sorrows of this world So we have “fake political news”(courtesy of Trump),fake medical news(courtesy of our narrow-minded medical scientific establishment) and now we have “fake spiritual news” courtesy of Mother India lol

Modern Living, Psychology

Millenials,Oy Vey!

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One of the major problems of the millenials is what I call “The Enthusiasm Deficit”! Whether it is because they were given too much or disappointed too often or taught too many times to be rational and systematic,the fact remains,they have a hard time getting excited- about anything.Now if Jesus is right,and I believe he is,that we have to become like children to enter the kingdom of heaven,they have a BIG problem.My daughter was telling me how enthusiastic her 3-month old baby was when he saw a big bottle of milk lol.The milennials have to recover that kind of excitement if they wish to succeed in life.May Allah grant them His Mercy in this matter.