Ibn Khaldun noted a historical pattern. A group arises because of what he called ‘asabiyya (esprit de corps being an unsatisfying translation that will do for now), that binding force comprising various elements such as kinship and religion. With their rise, they bring about royal power from within themselves. In the case of the Muslims we think of the al-Khulafa’ ar-Rashidun and the Umayyads. Royal should be thought of here in the sense of mon-archy – rule by one person, and for us counsel (shura) can never be far away. Another party within the first group seize power but must do so by recourse to others outside the group. A good example is the Abbasids who relied first of all on Persians and later on Turks. While this is a strategy, it has a serious defect. This party become dependent on others, and can in the end become simply nominal and ceremonial figures. The later Abbasids are a clear example, with exceptions.
Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace
I det vi sang i dag, peges vi på centraliteten af Allahs Sendebud, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, og at vi må overveje ham og hans rolle i tilværelsen. Jeg ønsker at fremdrage et enkelt aspekt, som er implicit i hans sirah, men som sjældent bliver ekspliciteret: blandt sendebudene, fred være med dem, var han civilisationens profet, dvs. Madinah, byen par excellence. Madinah blev etableret under vejledning af åbenbaring. Der er en parallel til Skibet Nuh, fred være med ham, som Allah sagde om, det som betyder: “Byg skibet under vores opsyn og som Vi åbenbarer.” (23:27) Imam Malik forbandt vores tema om Madinah og Nuh-skibet med hans ord: “Sunnah er Nuhs skib: den der går om bord på den, bliver frelst, og den der holder tilbage fra den, druknes.” Således har han givet os navnet på Madinan-ordenen: Sunnah. Sunnah er ikke kun længden af skægget eller tøjstilen. Det er et sødygtigt fartøj, der kan transportere et helt samfund. Et andet ord for Sunnah er hikmah – visdom. Allah, ophøjet er Han, beskriver sin profet, fred være med ham, som “at lære dem bogen og visdommen“, og folket i Koranens kommentarer forklarer, at visdomen her er Sunnah.
Continue reading “Muhammad, may Allah bless him and grant him peace”
Mawlid Lolland 1444/2022
Der er egentlig ikke behov for en diskurs. Dette har været en aften med det, der kaldes samaa’ – som ikke er musik, men at lytte. Hele denne aften har været en undervisning. Allah talte til os i Surah Ya Sin, og store ‘ulama’ og shaykh’er talte til os i de qasidahs vi sang og tekster vi hørte læst op. Men der kan være en fordel ved at komme med et par pointer. Ledsageren Hassan ibn Thabit, må Allah være tilfreds med ham, skrev i sin berømte qasidah:
Muhammed er et menneske, men alligevel ikke som nogen anden;
nej, han er en fejlfri rubin, mens andre mennesker bare er sten.
Og al-Busayri sagde i sin qasidah al-Burdah:
Lad være med, hvad de kristne har påstået for deres profet –
Så ros ham som du vil, men gør det klogt.
Vær Hans wali
I begyndelsen En og ingen anden. Profeten, fred og nåde være med ham, sagde: “Allah var, og der var intet med ham.” Den Ene skabte alle modsætningerne: himmel og jord, mand og kvinde, positiv og negativ og så videre, eller vi kan også sige Yin og Yang. En grundlæggende modsætning er mellem slaven, altså dig og mig, og Herren. Slaven vil aldrig blive Herren eller blive forenet med ham. Det er umuligt. Omvendt bliver Herren aldrig slaven. Der er ingen avatarer.
Shaykh Dr. Abdalqadir as-Sufi – On the End of Capitalism and the Revival of Islam
Shaykh Dr. Abdalqadir as-Sufi
Shaykh Dr. Abdalqadir as-Sufi
On the End of Capitalism and the Revival of Islam1
by Dr. Riyad Asvat
The inspiration for this article came from my research for a book on the political writings of Shaykh Abdalqadir (1930-2021), may Allah be pleased with him. The article is long because it is very difficult to condense and summarize Shaykh Abdalqadir’s teaching on any issue. There are two reasons for this difficulty. Firstly he was the most important Islamic scholar of the last hundred years as well as the most important Western intellectual of this period and he was a prolific writer whose literary output spanned well over sixty years. Secondly he was able to unify the outward (physical), the inward (psychological) and hidden (spiritual) dimensions of reality whilst our education has trained us to do the opposite, that is, to divide, compartmentalize and analyze. Shaykh Abdalqadir’s greatest contributions to humanity have been: (1) his analysis of contemporary society; (2) his description of the original Islamic phenomenon; and (3) the steps he outlined for Islamic revival. He did not put a time frame for the Islamic revival. It might well take a hundred years. After all, the capitalists abolished the caliphate in 1924 through a process of modernization that began in 1789. Almost a hundred years later Islam still does not exist as a socio-economic and political reality.
Continue reading “Shaykh Dr. Abdalqadir as-Sufi – On the End of Capitalism and the Revival of Islam”Science and objectivity
‘Science’, i.e. the new mathematical physical sciences of Galileo, Descartes, and Newton et al which were to serve as the inspiration and model for all the other sciences, arose during the horrific civil strife of the Reformation during a part of which, the Thirty Years War, a third of the population of Europe died. More disturbing than the killing, ‘and fitnah is more severe than killing’, were the intense intellectual, political and theological disagreements that split Europe totally. The scientists turned away from these issues and concentrated on the motions of the planets and of objects. But those issues have never gone away.
Commerce lay at the root of the Reformation and the earlier Renaissance. The rise of banks such as the Medici caused a crisis for them and for others. Usury was a mortal sin. Troubled by this, Cosimo de Medici asked a cardinal if it was true and what he could do in that case. The cardinal said he had to stop his banking activities and make restoration of everything he had gained to those he had taken it from. Cosimo tried to square the circle. He continued to bank, but he started on the path of philanthropy on a gargantuan scale, arguably, along with others, bringing about the Renaissance. It was a descendant of his who – as pope and utilising the travelling friars on an industrial scale to sell indulgences to raise funds to satisfy his extraordinary appetites – drove Martin Luther to such fury, and the rest, as they say, is history. The scientific and philosophical tradition thrown up by the Renaissance was to regard usury not merely as something defensible but as a positive and something praiseworthy. The scientists, as usual, didn’t think it was their business.
Many Europeans fell into atheism out of disgust at the behaviour of the Protestants and Catholics and out of dismay at the complex arguments of both. Religion had been inextricably connected to politics, i.e. monarchy. Political theorising during the Reformation about the rights and limits of monarchs and the rights of man served to undermine the idea of monarchy at all culminating in the British execution of Charlies I and later the French Revolution, and to bring about the rise of the commercial class whose instrument was parliament. Thus commerce came to dominate politics. And banking continued its inexorable rise to global sovereignty.
To look at any issue today as if it is possible to separate science from politics, religion and commerce is to be the heir to all of this.
Now, at the root of these religious and political events, what was unleashed was tremendous emotion, a great deal of hatred, but also mixes of conflicting emotions: loved ones were transformed into enemies overnight. (By the way, Northern Ireland’s ‘Troubles’ were echoes of this event in Europe.) Science offered a cool, dispassionate and unemotional objectivity, which was its main attraction, even though scientists were to engage in a number of heated controversies then and ever since. Nevertheless, among the many end points that science reached, including Gödel’s work and quantum theory, the most recent was neurophysiology, where Antonio Damasio showed that there is no such thing as a thought without emotion.
Perhaps that goes some way to explaining how discussion of issues such as the pandemic and vaccines can express such dreadful animosity from those who hold different positions.
An appreciation of the life and teachings of Shaykh Dr. Abdalqadir as-Sufi
Assalamu ‘alaikum. At this difficult time I would like to share with the fuqara and faqirat some of what I learnt from our beloved Shaykh Dr. Abdalqadir as-Sufi.
With the pain of longing for Allah we came to Shaykh Abdalqadir and he healed our hearts by showing us how we can get near to Him. Distressed and confused at the injustices in the world we came to our Shaykh and his analyses cleared our confusion and gave us hope. He was a light that illuminated the world. Whilst others who diagnosed the problems of the modern world painted pictures of doom and gloom Shaykh Abdalqadir provided solutions to the problems. He lifted us out of the abyss of despair and energised us, calling us to action and bringing out from within us nobility, dignity, courage and strength that we didn’t know we possessed.
Continue reading “An appreciation of the life and teachings of Shaykh Dr. Abdalqadir as-Sufi”
Covid Passes
Acknowledgements1
‘… one of the most dangerous policy proposals ever to be made in the history of British politics.’ Statement by Church leaders.2
In the name of Allah, the All-Merciful, the Most Merciful
And may Allah bless His Noble Prophet, the Last of the Messengers,
and his family and companions and grant them peace
This article attempts to address the political implications of the UK government’s contemplated Covid-pass measures. Like many others, we are disquieted by the move towards a more authoritarian surveillance-based society. The dominant themes of the pandemic and the vaccines are thus addressed in order to investigate the scientific and philosophical bases underlying science and medicine.
Ahkam as-Suq
The Rulings of the Market
or: Oversight and Rulings with respect to all Conditions of the Market
by Imam Faqih Abu Zakariyya Yahya ibn ‘Umar ibn Yusuf al-Kinani al-Andalusi (312 /982)
IZ interview
Question: Dear Hajj Abdassamad Clarke, you are one of the selected group of European born Muslims translators who translate essential Islamic texts into a European language. What are the necessary qualifications for this task?
There is perhaps no need to repeat the obvious, the need for a good knowledge of Arabic, its idioms and usages, its grammar, the culture of the Arabs before and after Islam, and the equivalent knowledge of the language and culture into which one intends to translate.