Category Archives: Uncategorized

Metaphysics, Modern Living, Psychology, Uncategorized

The Contemporary Zeitgeist

Leave a comment

People nowadays( the good ones lol) are so concerned about expressing themselves,about being heard, about having their opinions respected( all progressive,humanistic,democratic principles) that they have a lot of trouble hearing the Truth.It is all well and good to be respected and heard but this is NOT the way the deepest truths are transmitted!

Think of how the Prophets taught.Did our holy Prophet Mohammed go around saying;”What did you think about my latest revelation.I want to hear your opinion” lol.Did Jesus say to his apostles”Let’s have a vote.How many of you think we should confront the Pharisees?” Did Moses say”O.k. guys.The majority of you don’t want to enter Palestine.Let’s wait on this for awhile”.Ok.You get the gist of it.

The same is true with the saints and awliya and gurus.They don’t wait to do polls on their students as  to how to proceed.They rather call on their own inspirations or that of their teachers and everyone follows from there.Sometimes they get it wrong,in which case if they are sincere,they backtrack and look for a better way to proceed.If they asked for everyone’s opinion ,they would be paralyzed and the entire movement forward would come to a halt.

Even in the domain of science,the democratic.Empirical way doesn’t work.Science advances through geniuses like Archimedes and Galileo and Newton and Einstein not through a consensus of mediocrity.

One of my favourite science-oriented people these days is Chris Martenson of peakprosperity.com(forget the financial stuff,for now.Look at the science) Especially look at the Epistemology.He looks around at all reports and emails sniffing around for the Truth.He has developed what I call “The Ear of Truth”-in science! Then he puts it all together and he is very often right.As opposed to the bureaucratic W.H.O and CDC who,despite their billions of dollars of resources, seem to get it wrong more often than not.I really like his epistemology.Check it out.

And why can we not use a similar epistemology in spiritual matters? We can, I believe!That is precisely what I am trying to do-look at the other religions,look at  psychology, sociology,the n.d.e experiences and put it all together in a coherent package.

But then there is the delivery.Then you come up against the “But what about my opinion? Does it not matter what I think” Actually not! l remember   my first  spiritual seminar with EST in California.The trainer at the front held up a pencil and dropped it on the floor.”That’s gravity” he said.It doesn’t matter what you think.The pencil drops anyway.A law of nature” And a lot of reality is exactly like that.It doesn’t matter what you think! Put that in your democratic peace pipe and smoke it lol.

And then there is the diplomacy of it all-the relationship aspect.Most people have trouble with the Truth.They react-from personal offense,from social-conditioning,from prior mindset.And they get upset and angry.So the message needs to be diluted and sugar-coated in order to pass.The danger there is that ,like a lot of sellers and marketers,you lose the essential truth of the product.In any case,that is what I am working on.Wiser people than me have “failed” at this project.( Think John the Baptist.Of course”failure” is a very relative term.His apparent “failure”-being beheaded- may well have been ultimately a great success!)So I am trying to remain humble and maintain my bodily integrity lol.Salaams.And pray for the success of Truth over falsehood.

Uncategorized

Why It is Important to Watch the Impeachment Hearings!

Leave a comment

Asalamu aleykum or Bonjour/Hi (now illegal in Quebec lol).This may sound very odd for a spiritual teacher to state but”I think it is important to watch the Impeachment hearings” and here is why. As people who know my overall thinking are aware I promote a bio-psycho-socio-spiritual understanding of our human existence.In recent years the socio (read sociological) dimension has become more and more salient in my overall understanding. This is because each of us,whether we know it or not, are deeply conditioned in our thinking and behaviour by the societies that we grew up in and are now living in.And nothing i know of can give you a better understanding of contemporary Epistemology ,M.O. (modus operandi) and assumptions about how to get to Truth than these senate hearings.Sitting on a high-level government committee might be equivalent but few of us have that opportunity.So this is a live television demonstration of The Sociology of Leadership in our current societies!Yes, it is boring,tedious,obsessional and often irrelevant but that is the way it works! At the end of this article I will provide an example of an alternative approach from another epoch-the exchange between the Byzantine emperor and Abu Sufyan about the reality of our Prophet saws,so that you can see that there are other options that are arguably better and certainly more efficient for getting to the Truth.

Epistemology;the science of knowledge-how you get to the Truth.You will notice that the contemporary idea of getting to the Truth of a matter is via an adversarial process.So there are two sides-in this case the Democrats and the Republicans.They each choose the smartest,most eloquent spokesman able to ask the most pointed questions and the game begins.The art of the game is to get the witness,whoever that may be, to say what you want them to say that will most advantage your particular point of view.You will notice the cleverness,the slyness,the manipulations in that direction in every question and statement by the lawyers and the politicians.You should also notice that stating ‘the truth .the whole truth and nothing but the Truth” is a total sham an d a coverup.If such were the case there would be no need for lawyers or politicians.So the notion of ‘The Truth,the whole Truth and nothing but the Truth” is just as much a sham as “Due Process of the Law” and “Equal Justice before the Law’ and”Equality of Opportunity”(see my writings on the Democratic Illusions‘)

After you hear the statements,the questioning and the cross-examinations,you are now supposed to understand what really went on! Really?! If you are not completely confused by now,it is because you have already taken sides or you have an extraordinary capacity for discernment -something very rare  -at least in contemporary society.

Obsessionality and Hypercerebrality.Another characteristic of societal leadership is its obsessionality and its attempt to figure everything out rationally.The appetite for details and cognitive elaboration of those details seems to be infinite.On and on.The same questions posed over and over again in slightly different ways.Everyone(almost lol) is smart and alert.Everyone is determined to cross the t’s and dot the i’s and yet things get cloudier and cloudier if you are listening carefully.Actually ,one should be able to arrive at a conclusion after an hour or two of testimony-max.But ‘no’ that doesn’t satisfy the modern decision-making protocol .If we did it that way we would be accused of being”impulsive” or “impatient’ or worst of all”unscientific”(horror of horrors!)

Boredom: By hour two ,if you are normal and these people are not!, you should be bored out of your mind! Not these people.They can go on and on and worst of all think that is necessary.They are doing their “due diligence” no?

An interesting personal anecdote.While I was in medical school, I went with my friend Alan,to see a play by one of the authors of the Theatre of the Absurd(The Existentialists)- I believe it was by Harold Pinter.The play went on and on…By the time we were 11/2 hours into the performance the theatre was 2/3 empty but me and Alan were still sitting there dutifully!i looked at him and said:”medical school is making us insane,Alan! This is unbearable.Let’s get out of here” And we did.So I know well how we can train ourselves to endure boredom.Luckily I never became a politician or lawyer.

This may sound amusing but irrelevant.But it is not! These same people,the lawyers and politicians,our leaders!,are actively involved in a deep-seated training process of becoming insensitive! How well does that bode for their future empathy and leadership capacities?.Not well I would argue.And btw,the same is true often with doctors! They desensitize themselves to the point of deafnesss and blindness!

An Alternative Approach-We can call it Leadership,Listening and intelligence. Cesar examines Abu Sufyan.

Read this and tell me what is more efficient-a clever,sincere-hearted individual like Cesar questioning a relevant person ,Abu Sufyan or a committee,of clever,befuddled at least partially compromised individuals holding  an “objective” enquiry?!

How Heraclius examined the Prophet

By: Thomas Cleary

When God had relieved him of the Persian armies, Caesar walked from Emesa [in central Syria] to Jerusalem, out of gratitude to God for having inured him to trial. So when the letter of the Prophet reached him, Caesar read it and said, “Look for someone from his people around here, so that I may ask about this Messenger of God.”

Now, it happened that Abu Sufyan was then in Syria with some men from the Quraish tribe who had come on business during the truce that then existed between the Prophet and the disbelievers of the Quraish.

Abu Sufyan later said, “The emissary of Caesar found us in a part of Syria, and he took me and my companions to Jerusalem. There we were brought to Caesar, who was sitting at his royal court, his crown on his head, around him the grandees of Byzantium.”

Now, Caesar said to his interpreter, “Ask them who among them is closest in kinship to this man who claims to be a prophet.”

Abu Sufyan [who was not a Muslim at the time] responded that he was nearest of them in kinship.

Caesar asked, “And what is the relationship between you and him?”

Abu Sufyan said, “He is a son of my paternal uncle.” Then Caesar said, “Bring him closer,” and had Abu Sufyan’s companions placed behind him, at his shoulders. Then he told his interpreter, “Tell his companions that I am going to question him about this man who claims to be a prophet; so if he tells a lie, immediately repudiate it as a lie.”

Later Abu Sufyan admitted that he would have lied when asked about the Prophet, if not for the fact that he would have been shamed to have others spreading reports that he was a liar. So he told the truth.

Now, Caesar asked through his interpreter, “How is the lineage of this man among you?”

Abu Sufyan replied, “He is of noble descent among us.” Caesar asked, “And has any one of your people previously said what he has said?”

Abu Sufyan said, “No.”

Caesar asked, “Had you found him a liar before he said what he has now said?”

Abu Sufyan said, “No.”

Caesar asked, “Was any among his ancestors a king?”

Abu Sufyan replied, “No.”

Caesar asked, “And do the highborn people listen to him, or the powerless among them?”

Abu Sufyan answered, “Rather the powerless.”

Caesar asked, “And are they increasing or decreasing?”

Abu Sufyan replied, “Increasing.”

Caesar asked, “And does anyone turn away discontent with his religion after having gone into it?”

Abu Sufyan said, “No.”

Caesar asked, “Is he treacherous?”

Abu Sufyan replied, “No, but we are in a truce with him now, and we fear he may betray us.” Later on, Abu Sufyan admitted that this was the closest he was able to come to putting in a bad word against Muhammad.

Caesar went on, “Then have you fought each other?”

Abu Sufyan said, “Yes.”

Caesar asked, “And how did your wars turn out?”

Abu Sufyan said, “Our contests have had alternating results; sometimes he wins over us, and other times we win over him.”

Caesar asked, “What does he enjoin upon you?”

Abu Sufyan replied, “He enjoins us to worship God alone, not associating anything with the sole divinity. And he enjoins us not to worship the fetishes of our ancestors. He also enjoins us to pray, to give charity, and to be chaste; and to fulfill promises and discharge trusts.”

When Abu Sufyan had said this, Caesar told his interpreter to say to him, “I asked you about his lineage among you, and you stated that he is of a sound lineage. And so were all prophets called forth from sound lineages of their people.

“Then I asked if anyone had said what he said before him, and you stated that none had. I would have said, if someone had said this before, that he was a man following something that had been said before him.

“And I asked you if you had found him a liar before he had said what he has said, and you stated that you had not. So I knew he would not lie about God if he did not lie about humans.

“And I asked you if any of his ancestors was a king, and you stated that none had been. I would have said, if any of his ancestors had been a king, that he was seeking the kingdom of his ancestors.

“And I asked you if the highborn people followed him, or the powerless ones; and you stated that it is the powerless. And they are the followers of the Messengers.

“And I asked you if they were increasing or decreasing, and you stated that they were increasing. And so it is with Faith, until it is complete.

“And I asked you if anyone turns away disaffected with his religion after having gone into it, and you stated that none did; and so it is with Faith, with which no one is displeased when its cheerfulness mixes into hearts.

“And I asked you if he acts treacherously, and you stated that he does not. And so it is with all Messengers; they do not act treacherously.

“And I asked you if you fight with each other, and you stated that you did, and that your fortunes in war alternated, now in his favor, now in yours. And so are all Messengers tried, and final victory will be his.

“And I asked you what he enjoins upon you, and you stated that he enjoins you to worship God, and not to associate anything with God, and not to worship the fetishes of your ancestors. And he enjoins you to pray, to give charity, to be chaste, to keep promises, and to fulfill trusts. And this is the description of a prophet.

“I knew he would appear, but I did not know he would be from among you. If what you have said is true, he will soon rule the ground beneath these two feet of mine. If I could expect to reach him, I would take it upon myself to go and meet him; and if I were with him, I would wash his feet.”

Then Caesar called for the letter of the Prophet, and it was read aloud. In it was this:

 

In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful. From Muhammad, slave and messenger of God, to Heraclius, ruler of Byzantium. Peace upon all who follow Guidance.Now then, I call you with the call to submission to God. Surrender to God, and you will be safe. Surrender to God, and God will give you a double reward. If you turn away, then the misdeeds of the peasants will be your fault.And, people of the Book, come to a Word common to both of us, that we worship only God and do not associate anything with God, and that none of us takes any for lords but God. And if they turn away, then say, “Witness that we have surrendered to God.”

 

 

Now, when Heraclius Caesar finished his speech, a cry arose from the grandees of Byzantium around him. So great was their uproar that Abu Sufyan did not understand what they said; but he and his companions were ejected. When the men of the Quraish had left the court of the Byzantine emperor and were alone, Abu Sufyan said to them, “The affair of Muhammad has grown powerful; even the king of the pale people fears him!”

Later, Abu Sufyan related, “I lay low, by God, certain that the affair of Muhammad would emerge triumphant, until God brought my heart into Islam in spite of my aversion to it.”

 

Excerpted from “The Wisdom of the Prophet” by Thomas Cleary.

PS So even the Byzantine Emperor had to deal with his own political opposition.But not before determining definitively the truth of the matter!

 

Uncategorized

Evidence-Based Medicine:An Alternative

3 Comments

People who have been following my writings over the years know that I have been very critical of the concept of “Evidence-Based Medicine”. In fact,in my first book,”Snakes and Ladders“,I made the following provocative statement:”There is no Evidence for Evidence -Based Medicine”.You will have to purchase the book to see the argument laid out there lol. I will not go into the details of this critique in this article but suffice it to say that if one applied this principle whole-heartedly one would become a victim of what my mentor in psychiatry ,Dr. Heinz Lehmann,called “cook-book medicine’ something that is all too common in current medical practice-doctors blindly following algorithms and principles that they heard at the last medical conference they attended or the last peer-reviewed journal article they read.

Let me begin this exposé by saying clearly that I am not recommending that one ignore the evidence. That would be irresponsible.Rather one should include the evidence as one of the factors in one’s decision-making process but only one of them.Remember also that the evidence is invariably statistical so it may not apply to the particular individual case you are treating.

So what are the other factors one needs to consider?This is by no means an exhaustive list but highlights some of the important modalities one should consider:

1) Clinical Experience.What have you seen (we will fashion this teaching as one designed for a medical practitioner-for the sake of clarity only.Patients and their relatives can adjust the formulation to their own needs and vantage points) to date in your clinical practice in similar cases.This assumes, of course, that the medical practitioner is treating each case as a scientific,learning process rather than a process of applying robotically what he learnt theoretically in medical school.” Medicine is an experimental process” I repeated to my own students.Obviously here,the advantage is to those practitioners with more experience-provided they have been able to learn from their own experience! This leads directly to the second modality:

2) Wisdom gained in clinical experience by more senior colleagues.This of course happens on a regular basis in clinical rounds and conferences at hospitals and clinics around the nation.Surprisingly,however, it is rarely included in the pedagogical concepts taught to medical personnel.The evidence-base that is emphasized  almost universally refers to formal research studies.

3) What the patients say and describe! Shocking idea to most medical scientists.The patients experience is relevant-often that is what should predominate rather than the medical literature.How many patients have I heard say:”The doctor wasn’t listening to me”. Of course not! Besides the over-ambitious caseload he is carrying he also has the ideological back-drop of “Evidence-Based Medicine”.What can the ‘subjective comments” of patients be worth in that context?!

Btw I could give clinical examples of each of these modalities but for the sake of brevity I will have to forego those examples for now.

4) Intuition.After all medicine is as much of an art as a science.Needless to say,as far as I know, there is not a single medical school giving a course to doctors on developing their intution.Just like there is not a single course in law school teaching human psychology to lawyers.Reality is indeed stranger than fiction!

5) The “scientifically plausible hypotheses”.This is something I heard only once in all my CME courses but it immediately caught my attention.What it means is that one should go back to basic scientific knowledge like physiology,anatomy,histology and biochemistry in trying to analyze what is really going on.This is one case where I will give a clinical example as the idea might not be clear otherwise.

I am at a passover dinner many years ago at my parents place.One of their friends is coughing intensely.”What’s going on ,George?”I asked.”i have this intense cough and the doctors don’t know what to do about it”.”So what did they propose” I asked.”They said there were studies to show that sometimes the cough is related to hiatus hernia.So they did a four-hour painful operation on me for that! ” Did it help?” .”Not at all” he responded.” I haven’t studied basic sciences in a long time” I mused”But if I remember correctly a cough is a symptom in the respiratory tract”.Did anyone refer you to a Respiratory Disease specialist?” No,not at all” So I did. There was a very good specialty clinic at the time called the Royal Edward Chest Hospital in Montreal.He was assessed there.The doctors concluded that he had asthma! And with asthmatic medications his problem was solved! All a question of basic anatomy!

There may well be other considerations in clinical decision-making like cultural and economic ones but the point here is that you cannot solely rely on the peer-reviewed scientific literature in order to be a competent physician.That would be doing a disservice to your patients and yourselves. Salaams,Joel Ibrahim Kreps

Uncategorized

Adab (continued)

1 Comment

I am once again forced to question the cultures of Adab and politeness. When people don’t tell you what they are feeling and thinking it often leads to bad communication and increased conflict. So neither the”always be polite” nor the”say it all like it is” mottos work universally. Each situation needs to be assessed on its own merits and specificities. The ”one size fits all” reflexes simply don’t work in the world of reality!

Comparative Religion, Metaphysics, Modern Living, Uncategorized

More ‘Bubbameises'(Grandmothers’ tales) from the Buddhists

2 Comments

Despite all the controversy around it ,I like the term “fake news”. However,there is not only political fake news.There is also medical and spiritual fake news as well.This article addresses the latter type.We may well address the other types and many more in future articles.

Since Buddhism, especially the Mindfulness type, has become the lingua franca of  “progressive” spiritual seekers -many of whom refuse to entertain the notion of a Creator-I think it is especially important to underline the mythology that accompanies it-what we are referring to here as “bubbameises’-the tales of grandmothers- in our title.

Now,the first myth promulgated by the Buddhists in the last century was that Buddhism is not a religion.One of the primary culprits in this marketing scheme was the Dalai Lama himself. The Buddhists being”clever ones’ no doubt,understand that much of the West has turned against its religious authorities and institutions and therefore are adverse to any notion of religion.There is an interesting precedent for this kind of salesmanship in the history of religion and that is the approach of Paul of Tarsus.He understood that the Romans and Greeks all around them would never accept Mosaic law ,which was the religion being practiced by Jesus and his apostles.So he declared that it was enough to accept Jesus Christ as saviour and thereby threw overboard the entire Judaic legal tradition.I will allow the reader to draw the appropriate conclusions as to what that might mean for Christianity and its relationship to the tradition of Judaism from which it sprang.

So the Dalai Lama and many other Buddhists tell us that Buddhism is not a religion and the progressive liberals, liking the sound of this atheistic statement, swallow it “hook,line and sinker’. But is it true?!

Even without a degree in theology or Comparative Religion it is easy to understand that religion is not only a belief in God.Religion has institutions,beliefs,a hierarchy, a set of practices,moral teachings,people who self-identify as Buddhists. etc.,etc.So Buddhism,in fact,has ALL the characteristics of a religion-its particular theology aside.Even at the level of concepts there are several that come very close to the idea of God.Enlightenment itself-‘nibbana’ as the Buddhists call it can be translated as God-consciousness as can Boddhicitta(Buddha-Consciousness).So they do frequently refer to an Ultimate Reality but do not like calling it God. With a little reflection, there should be little doubt in peoples’ minds that Buddhism is a religion by any sensible definition of the term and has always been considered as such.

The second mythology is that Buddhists are universally gentle people who do not harm anyone.I think the current situation in Burma and the treatment of the Rohingya Muslims should disabuse anyone of that notion quickly.It always seemed to me impossible that one group of people,religious or otherwise,could remain consistently non-violent.It doesn’t correspond to any historical evidence about humanity anywhere.In fact,the violence and murders perpetrated in the Sri Lankan civil war were mostly done by the Singhalese who are also uniformly Buddhists.But somehow that passed under the radar and the Tamil tigers got most of the blame.Another good marketing job!

This being said,my real purpose and the trigger that provoked this article was a conference I attended this week given by a monk in the Kadampa tradition of Tibetan Buddhism entitled “Meditation and Anxiety”. The ‘hal’ (spiritual state) in the conference room was pleasant and peaceful.The people involved appeared sincere and had a certain luminosity about them.And I generally enjoyed the presentation.The only thing I felt called upon  to pursue with the presenters was the translation of the word ‘mind’ in English to ‘esprit’ in French =-a translation I thought somehow inadequate.So I talked about it with one of the organizers-an intelligent fellow with a good command of both languages.The discussion was civil but not really clarifying.In any case,this is a point of semantics and not that relevant.

However,as the week drew on, I began thinking.”One minute,here”. There was almost nothing in the presentation about anxiety.Yes they talked a lot about inner peace and the importance of the inner state for happiness but the question of anxiety was never raised directly.I happen to know that there are specific teachings about this by Buddhist teachers like Jack Kornfield and Jon Kabat-Zinn but nothing was said about that.(These were Tibetan teachings and the other mentioned authors are more in the Vipassana lineage so perhaps there is a sectarian divide-even within the Buddhist tradition itself.)

So one moment,here.If the talk is entitled “Meditation and Anxiety” but there is no mention of anxiety ,what is going on?There is only one possible answer I believe to that question.More marketing! Many,many people are struggling with anxiety in modern times so anything suggesting a possible solution would be attractive.In fact one of my motivations to attend the conference was to help out a neighbour’s boyfriend who was struggling with anxiety but there was no material in the conference which would have been of help to him unless he wanted to become a Buddhist monk-highly unlikely I figured!

There was another bit of bit of “fake spiritual news”in the conference that was working on my Truth detector.They repeated on several occasions the idea that”happiness can only come from a peaceful mind”. That sounded very obvious and unobjectionable until I thought about it some more.One minute here! That’s not true either!Happiness is one thing and ‘peace of mind’ is another.I think for the moment of those tennis players whether Federer or Djokovic or Serena Williams and how absolutely tense and anxious they look during the game and then how happy they are if they win.No correlation between peace and happiness.I,myself,when I examine my own experience, have been happy at times while feeling agitated and I have been peaceful but bored at other times .Happiness is one thing and peace is another.

So why are they making this statement? Because they know that Westerners are obsessed with “being happy.”There are even              University departments like at Harvard devoted totally to studying happiness( The Happiness Project).The marketers are hot on our trail once again!

But there is an even deeper problem in Buddhism and that involves the relationship between the inner and the outer.The theme repeated over and over again in the conference was that what really counts is the inner state.There is an irreconcilable cleavage between the two in Buddhist philosophy-an absolute dichotomy.This involves an incomplete conception of reality which does not acknowledge the interaction between the two and therefore the need to act in both dimensions not just one.Interestingly ,we can see a connection here between the lack of a Creator-God and this disconnect.If there is no Creator-God,then there is no Creation or created things per se.In fact the Buddhists claim there IS no reality to this world .It is only sets of aggregates like sensory perception and physical sensation and thoughts.For them ,the reality of this world is an illusion of the mind.In this way, there is no interaction,no dialectic between the outer and the inner.A truly bad place to begin if we want to manage our lives properly!

So the Buddhists who are so proud to claim The Middle Way,the Way of Balance, are actually in a state of serious imbalance.And you can see the manifestation of this all the way back to the beginning of the tradition when the Buddha left his family, never to return, to do intense meditative practices.Is that a balanced example for all of us?! If we think it’s all about the internal,we might accept that.But if we are truly aiming for balance in our lives,this cannot be the way, Think about it in your contemplations. Not in your meditations- where thought is dismissed lol.Salaams,Sufi Ibrahim

Modern Living, Psychology, Spiritual Practice, Uncategorized

Husn al-Dhann(Having a Good Opinion)

1 Comment

This article is actually an extension of a previous article I wrote for this blog entitled Refining the notion of Ghiba’(back-biting).It is part of my own spiritual work on jihad-a-nafs and particularly the jihad against excessive and negative speech.I feel deeply that one needs to be realistic about what speech is actually haram and what is both necessary and permissible to manage in the world in which we live.Giving oneself unrealizable goals- like never saying anything negative about anyone- is a sure-fire way to feeling discouraged and defeated in one’s search.As an interesting side-note Sheikh Nuh who gives an exercise to his murids on avoiding backbiting entirely for two consecutive weeks said that the only murid ever to be able to do that on the first try was a prisoner in solitary confinement! That indicates what we are up against in this battle.

On this subject,we are taught by our Islamic scholars to “have a good opinion of our Lord and of our fellow men”.Some of them go on to say that this is from the command of our Lord.However if we look at the ayats involved,which we will do shortly, this is not an accurate portrayal of their contents.As often happens unfortunately in the field of Quranic interpretation,things are taken out of context and elaborations and extensions of the actual texts are made without consideration of the totality of the revelation. In this case,the particular danger is to produce namby-pamby, pie-in -the-sky, “seeing the world through rose-colored glasses” Muslims who are unable to navigate in the modern world and as well are off-putting in their artificially positive attitude.

Now,some shuyukh are aware of this problem.Sheikh Hamza Yusuf,for example,a careful scholar not prone to wayward opinions usually, warns people that in the modern world,there are so many scammers and defrauders and shysters (he should know ,being from California the #2 state in rates of psychopathy in the U.S.!) that one should be wary immediately of what the other may have up his sleeve.Sounds like good advice! But he is rare amongst the ulema in being aware of this problem.

So let’s see where this teaching comes from.The ayat most referred to on this question is from 49:12.It says the following””O ye who believe! Avoid suspicion as much as possible;for suspicion In some cases is a sin:And spy not on each other,nor speak ill of each other behind their backs”It then goes on to compare back-biting to eating the flesh of a dead brother(powerful analogy no doubt).

The problem in interpreting such a text is manifested quickly in the translation.Most of the translators translate the Arabic word ‘dhann” as suspicion but none of the dictionnaries agree.The best dictionnaries prefer “opinion” or “doubt “.So already the translators are slanting the meaning to their own beliefs.So, essentially,we are being told to avoid unnecessary doubting of the people we are dealing with.Fair enough.Actually this goes even deeper as doubt itself can be a big problem spiritually.In fact it is the basis of one of the epidemics  of modern times- atheism!In the Buddhist model,it is one of the five ‘klesas'(obstacles to obtaining Enlightenment) so it goes far and deep in its negative effects-even beyond it’s effect on our human relationships.

Notice that nowhere here does our Lord tell us to have a good opinion of our fellow man.It just suggests we avoid excessive doubt. Most of the relevant hadith about this issue reaffirm Allah’s interdiction of excessive doubt and hostility and malice towards fellow-Muslims.There is one hadith in Abu Dawood that says that to have a good opinion(husn al-dhann) is from the attributes of good worship.Since we do not worship man,I would assume this involves a good opinion of our Lord which should pose no problem for a believer.

Now,in an effort to be more comprehensive, let’s look at the other side of the coin- the debit column of the human CV.And it is far from brilliant! Very early in the Quran 2:30 the angels are bringing up the fact that man will make mischief and create bloodshed on Earth! Allah does not deny it as the angels are clairvoyant and can see clearly what is coming.Then there is one denunciation of man after another.Various groups are described as being blind and deaf and dumb”,as having their hearts hardened, as spreading mischief,as being hypocrites and unbelievers, etc.etc. In one ayat man is denounced for being in most affairs disputatious/contentious(Surat 18:54).As well,whole civilizations are denounced for their sinful ways.

Allah mentions the people of Nuh who were sent the flood,the people of Thamud who refused to follow their Prophet Salih a.s. and were swallowed up by an earthquake;the people of Ad who were strong and tall and given fertile lands but refused the advice of their Prophrt Hud and continued worshiping idols for which they were buried under sand driven by the winds;and the people of Lut of whom we all know the story of Sodom and Gomorrha it being detailed in the Bible itself,etc. etc.

Then we have the sahih hadith of our Prophet saws in al -Bukhari telling us that 99/100 or 999/1000 people will be in the hellfires.He saws also told us that”If you knew what I know, you would be weeping much and laughing little”. All in all not a glorious picture of mankind!

So what are we to make of all this- to act as best we can and not be living in some kind of delusional mind-set? We do not want to live in la-la land but nor do we want to become cynical and bitter either.So here are a few suggestions that may be helpful;

1)Approach every situation with an open mind.Ask questions if you need to (See “The Fabulous Fours” on the blog)

2) Do not become a compulsive doubter ,something our modern society pushes us towards in many ways,including the scientific model of the null hypothesis.

3) Do not become a chronic,reflexive fault-finder( Watch the CNN journalists if you want to see what not to do lol.They are not alone,however, in that attitude amongst journalists.The BBC for example gives them some worthy competition!)

4) Give people, generally, the benefit of the doubt and try as best you can to find excuses for their apparently bad behaviour.

5) Be aware of the good behaviour and positive  qualities of people. Affirm these qualities to them and compliment them on them when appropriate.We all need encouragement, at times.Towards the end of my work as a psychiatrist I used to repeat to my clients often:”Give me the good news also” lol We can easily get too focused on the negative.

6)Once confronted with the repeated evidence of the bad character or unethical behaviour of an individual or group,do not deny it.Take note of it, factor it into your decisions and warn others who may be affected by it.Defend yourself in appropriate ways against the ill effects of this behaviour.This may involve seeking counsel,leaving an abusive relationship,changing jobs-the list is endless but your inner state and your relationship with your Creator have to be the top priorities.

7) Remember what Allah said to the angels after they objected to the creation of man”I know what you know not”.So remember that behind the evil and hidden within it is the plan of our Lord.So even  ‘evil’ has a hidden positive purpose.According to the highest Sufis,the shaytan, himself, is a servant of Allah.But a  servant that you should not take lightly because he is a serious opponent (“adoo mubin” in the Quran- a clear-cut enemy) .

8) And deepest of all –Do spiritual practice to develop ‘basirat’(inner vision/discernment).(Sheikh Hamza says that this is a reward for piety.) Then act according to what you are shown.And share your vision sparingly- only with those who can benefit from it. Allah be with you!

 

Islam, Psychology, Spiritual Practice, Uncategorized

Myths about Ramadan

Leave a comment

Ramadan, the month of fasting in Islam, is indeed a great month- full of spiritual effort, patience, devotion and great rewards!The spiritual  atmosphere can be felt in the air as we start and reaches a peak in the last ten days.None of this is in doubt  in the present text..
However, due to the human need to idealize and to use what I call “black-and-white thinking” certain myths have crept into the community about what Ramadan can and can’t do-myths I would like to dispel here, in order for people to benefit properly from this holy practice.
1)Ramadan is easy:This idea is especially common in the Arab world but I have run into it in many communities.I have heard young Arab men saying”I just lead my life as I normally do without eating.I don’t notice the difference”. Really?! I would like to ask their bosses and especially their spouses lol The Pakistani Imams at our local mosques love saying, at day 15 for example,”Ramadan is now half-over and we hardly noticed it”. Are you kidding me?! I don’t know what world they are living in but I surely noticed it and more.And I noticed the many difficulties people were having with it around me -from people with high-stress jobs who couldn’t operate as efficiently as usual to those whose health problems were acting up to people who simply couldn’t do it for health reasons-physical and psychological!

Ramadan is not easy!If it were easy the Prophet saws would not have called it”The month of patience”. Patience is required for difficult things, not easy ones.When I first started doing Ramadan, after my conversion, I had trouble believing that a whole community had been ordered to do this practice .It seemed like an advanced ascetic practice designed for the most zealous of spiritual seekers.To the credit of the Muslim community,they take it on gracefully without complaints.

Despite their denial of the difficulty of the endeavour ,it shows in their behaviour, however..Visitors and non-Muslim workers in Muslim countries have told me about how the people around them became more irritable and impatient.This is actually just as common as the bad-breath, beloved of Allah, mentioned in the hadith.And there is nothing worse than denial.It just makes everything worse.Also,the benefit is hidden in the difficulty, n’est-ce pas?If it were “a piece of cake” as they say ,there would only be no benefit to it- just hypoglycemia as a consequence.

2) Ramadan is a health food fast.Wrong! The health fasts,per se,recommended by certain naturopathic professionals, invariably  involve lots of fluid intake- sometimes natural juices, other times distilled water fortified with electrolyes and nutrients.The Old Testament/Islamic fasts are exercises in abstinence-good for our spiritual development and probably our long-term emotional one as well(learning self-control) but difficult on our physical bodies and our psyches..

I can always remember the first Ramadan when I attended the Tarawih prayer in Montreal and the Imam fell down in the middle of the prayer,writhing in pain.We had to accompany him to the hospital where they diagnosed him with kidney stones.There was little doubt in my mind that it was due to or worsened at least by the dehydration of the fasting process.I did not know enough of his medical history to be able to establish whether he should have been fasting at all.For some people it is a too risky endeavour.

Over the years I have had to proscribe fasting for a number patients.They were not in good enough health to do it.In a few cases ,this was  due to intense depression or bipolar disorder.They were not getting better,in fact they were getting worse, and the medications were not working.In most cases ,the next year they were fine.Alhumdulillah.

A number of pious people I have met were not able to fast because of diabetes.And then there was the epileptic convert who I counselled to fast intermittently instead of every day but wouldn’t listen to sound medical advice.Because of that he had a grand-mal seizure in the mosque which triggered an intense ‘fitna'( conflict)in the mosque between those who considered it to be jinn and those who wanted to rush him to the E.R. to see a neurologist(I was obviously of the latter group).A fight ensued and the British police had to be brought in when one of the jinn believers pulled a knife!

So Ramadan is a health challenge.Consult with your own Muslim doctor to see if it is advisable for you,if you have a concern.

3)It is advisable to sleep as little as possible during Ramadan to increase the benefits.Another bit of bad advice.Some people may be able to do it but we should keep in mind that sleep-deprivation is another stressor. So if you are already “on the edge” it could put you over either into some unwanted psychological state like excessive anxiety or even psychosis or into some physical condition  like a re-currence of a previous medical condition or a worsening of an already existing one( like in the case of the previously mentioned epileptic) of even something new.

4) People will behave better because they are fasting and “the shayateen are chained up”. This one the ulema have dealt with in various ways since many have noticed considerable bad behaviour even during Ramadan.The bottom line here may be that even if the devils are chained up the nafs (human ego) is enough of a trouble-maker on its own and can raise its hoary head even when fasting-even without the promptings of the demons!

5) Ramadan is a good way to lose weight.Wrong!Some people do lose weight during Ramadan but most do not.I have participated twice in a successful Weight Watchers program .Ramadan was the only month in which I didn’t lose weight! The scientific evidence indicates that if you feed guinea pigs the same amount of calories in one dose as opposed to dividing it up in three(more or less the equivalent of what most fasters do during Ramadan lol) they get obese and sick! It is ,in terms of physical health, better to eat several small meals scattered throughout the day.I believe that is the scientific consensus and at times for certain conditions like hypoglycemia doctors prescribe that very formula.

All this being said,Ramadan is a great and holy month and we thank our Lord for His gift.We just need to be a little wiser about how we manage it it.Ramadan Mubarak and Ramadan Karim. Salaams,Ibrahim As -Sufi

Modern Living, Psychology, Spiritual Practice, Uncategorized

Travel- the new god!

Leave a comment

People have traveled throughout the ages,for many reasons,but never to the extent of nowadays.Now one might think this is just because the technology(specifically airplanes) has gotten so much better but actually the reason is much more insidious than that.Travel has become a cult-a form of worship, the highest order of activity that man can aspire to.So when I say,i am retiring a lot of people say”Are you going to be traveling?” My answer is  emphatic on that point: “No! Only if there is a good reason.I did that when I was younger and had the time to apply whatever learning I got from the travel.As an exercise in entertainment, I will take a pass”

Allan Bloom,the American philosopher from the University of Chicago, wrote a book in the eighties called”The Closing of the American Mind”.In it was a chapter entitled “From Travel to Tourism”. This title summarizes the whole problem.Traveling, that used to have a specific purpose to it, had now become a consumer item. It is promoted by”The Tourism Industry” that is one of the largest industries in many countries.This encourages people to travel as a form of entertainment, much as they go to the cinema or perhaps even more aptly as they go to the circus.I remember my own parents,may Allah forgive them for their misdeeds and reward them for their good ones, caught up in this maelstrom.”So what did you learn ,Dad?” I would ask him after his trip to Mexico.”Oh there were beautiful ruins and ,even better,the price of food was so much cheaper”.I see” I thought.”So you spent $2000.00 to save $1 on a loaf of bread” I thought, without saying it out loud.

I am ,of course,oversimplifying but the point is well taken,nevertheless.I remember the young Americans in Europe “doing” countries’! “Wow,we did 12 countries in 13 days” they would say .Impressive!The most ” impressive’ travellers I met were the Australians and New Zealanders.They would go traveling for years( ‘chronic travellers’ I called them) with the justification that they were so far away that they might never get the chance again.I had never seen people in such a deplorable state(outside of U.S. slums) in my entire life!They looked haggard,miserable,alienated.And they seemed completely unaware of their state! They were convinced,like the proverbial donkey chasing the carrot, that their next destination would bring them happiness! Rome,that’s not where it’s at. But Florence,that’s where I’ll discover glory.Italy, pfff! Greece is the place to be etc.,etc.Hedonism,all over again and doomed to failure as always.

Of course,there are valid reasons to travel.Visiting family members(although the reason relatives are often so far away is part of the modern dysfunction),studying a subject one needs to know about,spending time with a spiritual teacher,helping refugees,peace-keeping missions,pilgrimage etc.Yes,there are valid forms of travel.But they need to be purposeful not spurious.And much travel nowadays is of the latter sort.

I remember one of the first forms of the traveling bug that I found interesting.They were Québecois people(we called them French Canadians in those days lol).Instead of ‘doing’ as many countries as they could or catching some rays of sunshine in a southern destination for a week to escape from the doldrums of their life in Canada,they would take off the winter and spend it in one place-like Mexico for example.They would then rent an apartment(this was before Airbnb!) and learn the local cooking,study the language and try to mix with the people there.They came away with some real learning and expansion of consciousness.Far different from The American Tourist.

My first trip overseas was to Europe.I was conceiving of the ’10 countries in 5 weeks’ kind of imbroglio when the absurdity of it dawned on me.It started as a vague sense of alienation.I looked at my friend Alan(we were both taking a break from med school at the time) and said:”This is not the right way to do it,Alan.Let’s make this into a learning experience.”We were quite compulsive at the time. So we decided we were going to make it into a history of art course.And it worked! I immediately felt a sense of relief. Our trip had become purposeful.And I never forgot the art I learnt about on that trip.

In the spiritual tradition that I practice,Islamic Sufism,wasting time(‘lawh’ in Arabic) is prohibited.We are here for a purpose and that is our contract on Earth.We have the right ,even the obligation,to rest and relax,But we do not have the right, which has now become a social norm, to waste time and frame our lives around good times and recreation.That is the way of “loss” in our tradition.Think about it! Salaams,Ibrahim

 

Uncategorized

Respect

1 Comment

(We’re working on it!) Fascinating therapy session about respect.A young woman was telling me,with tears in her eyes, how she hated men because they don’t respect her from the git-go.She has to earn their respect.And it makes her really tired and angry to have to do that.

Got me thinking about the different levels of respect-hierarchical and human.For example, yesterday I saw a young Arab man who was very respectful of his father.But his father was completely contemptuous of him for his ADD.The father kept accusing him of being lazy and stupid, Nevertheless,the son maintained his decorum.But there’s a problem here.The father owes him a basic human respect even if it’s his son.As does a boss or a teacher-a basic human respect which is complementary to the hierarchical respect that we learn about in traditional culture.The formula ,for example, of “Respect your parents and respect your teachers” is true.But it needs to be complemented by basic human respect regardless of the hierarchical relationship.

Fascinating subject really.I believe our Prophet Muhammad understood this well even if many of his followers don’t.I’ve got some  work to do on this myself.