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The American Constitution

Why do Americans care so much about the Constitution?The Constitution is in essence a reaction(A Post-Traumatic Stress Reaction to use psychological terms) to British Tyranny.This no longer exists as a threat -unless you consider the influx of corrupt Rock stars like Mick Jagger and David Bowie as a new form of tyranny lol.So the document is largely anachronistic and inappropriate for modern times.If we absolutely need a Constitution,it be should be entirely rewritten.The new document would need to include the right to a decent job and comprehensive medical care for every citizen.(I’ll leave out university education because that’s a two-edged sword.)But they can’t do that because the constitution itself, with all its procedures and protocols, would make that impossible.So the constitution itself is now the new form of Tyranny! How wonderful and paradoxical.Meanwhile Americans are dying in the streets of its major cities every day because of this new tyranny!

Intriguing Mystical Hadith

“There is no one who sends salaams upon me but Allah will restore to me my soul so that I may return his salaams.”Sahih hadith reported by Abu Hurayrah.For those looking for the mystical teachings of our Prophet saws,this hadith is very interesting.There is really only two possible meanings here and they are not far from each other.Either the Prophet saws is immersed in his Lord(‘fana’ if you wish) and needs to be individuated in order to respond.Or he is in a very high place and needs to descend to the angelic plane(in Sufi terms from the plane of oneness(al-Lahut) to the angelic plane (al Malakut) in order to respond. Sheikh Hamza says this is a sign of his saws Istighrak(literally ‘drowned’ in the Divine Presence) which can mean either of the two.Something to contemplate.

Psychological balance

The problem with psychological formulations, although a valid form of knowledge, is that they most often emphasize the negative.Thus we diagnose people-narcissists,paranoids,psychopaths,bipolars etc.This does help to understand but can lead to a very negativistic view of the world.I suggest you try something new. Every time you diagnose a friend or colleague or family member with one of those psychopathological formulations try to find a positive diagnosis as well. (Even the term diagnosis represents a distortion as it is drawn from the realm of medical pathology!). So in the Bipolar person you could see a”force of nature” or a “spiritual visionary”. In a narcissist you might see “an acute sense of aesthetics” or”a dynamo of self-confidence”. You can already see that the terms are difficult to come-by since this form of thinking has not been well developed.The psychopath may be”fearless and full of courage” and the obsessional may be “hard-working with high standards”. Try it out and get back to me with your results.This exercise should leave you at least with a lot less cynicism than the average psychologist and social worker.

The Manifest Truth and the Hidden Misconceptions in the Various Religions

  1. Every religion contains a manifest truth and a hidden misconception.These misconceptions are not from God nor His Messengers.They are from human interpreters down the line.
  2. In Judaism,for example,the manifest Truth is the One God and His Chosen people.The hidden misconception is in the meaning of Chosen people.It certainly doesn’t mean that they are the only people that matter and it doesn’t mean either that they have been chosen forever.In fact ,I believe they lost that position a long time ago, despite the numerous favours that God bestowed on them.

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Modernism

(In response to a Facebook posting about the horrors of Wahhabism, of which I am even more critical than the author). called “fond memories of a Wahhabbi childhood” .
Joel Ibrahim Kreps:  Fond memories(actually continual observations) from the children of modernism.The children go to school and before long they are stressed out by assignments,projects and tests some of which their parents,seeing their childrens’ distress, unethically do for them.Their mother and father are regularly battling it out for who is in control(remember it always has to be equal).The adolescents are starting to have sex in their early teens.By the time they are in their twenties their hearts are broken and hardened and their view of relationships is cynical and embittered.At work, due to the wonderful ideas of MBAs and other proponents of “scientific management” the adults are stressed out in cubicles which give them no privacy and jobs that require them to do the work of two or three people etc.,etc. We are truly caught between a rock and a hard place.But usually only the rock is mentioned and the hard place is taken for granted.