The following excerpt comes from William Cavanagh’s The Myth of Religious Violence. We covered this book as part of the 2018 booklist at Al-Andalus Book Club. I found myself thinking about this book recently as I go through Syed Naquib al-Attas’ Prolegomena to the Metaphysics of Islam for this year’s booklist. Cavanaugh’s remarks on the historical development […]
Tag Archives: Religion
03
Apr
Apr
The Egyptian scholar Mohammed al-Ghazali (1917-1996) said: “إن نصف الكفر في العالم يحمل وزره متدينون بغضوا الله إلى عباده” “Verily, the weight of half of the disbelief in the world is carried by religious people who made God detestable to His servants.” God is not Great by Christopher Hitchens should be assigned reading for all […]
12
Oct
Oct
“My ancestors were Brahmins. They spent their lives in search of god. I am spending my life in search of man.” – Muhammad Iqbal The following is a transcript of an address Muhammad Iqbal gave on January 1st, 1938 to mark the beginning of the new year, and it was broadcast over the All India […]
08
Oct
Oct
On September 15th, 2017 I was invited by the Muslim Student Association at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia to participate in a discussion panel the Peter Slezak, a philosopher of science. The general theme was the question “If God Exists, Where is He?” We spoke for close to 3 hours on […]
16
Jul
Jul
What makes something true and a belief about a proposition a valid one? The philosophical literature is rich with discussions and theories about the nature of Truth, much of which may appear to be more of an exercise in intellectual musings. However, there is a real personal impact one will experience when they have to […]
09
Jul
Jul
The idea of being religious often conjures up to the mind the image of one being divorced from the material world to engage in ritual practice with the purpose of attaining nearness to God. However, from an Islamic point of view this is an extremely narrow understanding that limits the scope of what Islam is […]
21
May
May
Our modern age is one purported to elevate rationality above everything and everyone. Religious belief is considered a deficiency in reasoning capacity, and the education system promotes this idea most strongly at the college/university level. It is practically taken for granted that for one to have an objective about a religion, they must be an […]
23
Apr
Apr
The Muslim nostalgia for the past and feelings of inferiority in the presence can sometimes lead one to project modern understandings and presuppositions about what is considered rational and intellectually respectable onto past scholars living during what is known as the Golden Age of Islam. However, a reading of works by those scholars, such as […]
16
Dec
Dec
The spectrum of human experience entails different modes of examination to gain an understanding of what makes us human and how to lead and live a life worth living. Appreciating this point sheds light on the essential futility of the debate between science and religion, which assumes a fundamental incommensurability between them. However, rather than an either/or dichotomy, recognizing what type of […]
07
Dec
Dec
Note: This vignette originally appeared as a topic of discussion in Andalus Book Club. The Western mind has been intellectually conditioned through the education system to by and large equate science with rationality and religion with mythology and superstition. The appeal of this set up lies in the idea that science deals with tangible material objects, whereas religion […]
05
Oct
Oct
One of the most often cited reasons for leaving religion appeals to science. More specifically, Pew Research Center reports that many American “nones” lost their faith after they went away to college and learned about evolution. Contrary to the fields of physics and chemistry, biology stands apart in its impact on religious belief. This may […]
11
Aug
Aug
The following is an excerpt from Islam Between East and West by ‘Alija ‘Ali Izetbegović (1925–2003), which was first published in 1984. I shared a previous excerpt here titled The Meaning of Humanism. The best remark that can be made about this book is one that I came across in a review posted on Amazon in 2011 by Julia Simpson: […]
27
Jul
Jul
The following is an excerpt from Islam Between East and West by ‘Alija ‘Ali Izetbegović (1925–2003), which was first published in 1984. The best remark that can be made about this book is one that I came across in a review posted on Amazon in 2011 by Julia Simpson: “This is a heady distillation of intellectual Muslim thought, demonstrating […]
18
Apr
Apr
This article originally appeared in ImanWire One of the most profound experiences I have ever had was participating in the Deen Intensive’s Rihla program that took place in Spain in the summer of 2010. I had the blessing of attending the Rihla for two more years after that in Turkey. But the impact of my time in […]
Our modern culture has embraced mockery of anything and everything to the extent that nothing is off-limits as the idea of the Sacred has by and large been discarded. The elders, parents, teachers, religion, prophets, and even God Himself have all become regulars on comedy sketches on television and many comedy acts. Mockery has become […]
19
Mar
Mar
I have to say I’m not quite surprised that the average rating of this book on Goodreads was below 4 stars. Neil Postman launches a precise and exposing assault on the foundations that make up the modern mind. I’ve always had an intuitive sense that the impact of modern technological advancements was not restricted to […]
17
Mar
Mar
Neil Postman’s book Technopoly remains as relevant today as it was when he published it in 1992. I’ve been contemplating and reading for a while now about the impact of the public’s reception of technoogy on their perception of science. It appears, at least to me, that it’s often the case that when those who are […]
27
Oct
Oct
CJ Werleman’s latest book The New Atheist Threat: The Dangerous Rise of Secular Extremists acts as a nice companion to Chris Hedges’ 2008 book I Don’t Believe in Atheists. In his latest treatise, Werleman takes the reader on an account of his emotional transformation from an atheist with a “live and let live” attitude about religion to a […]
21
Sep
Sep
The following is a translation of an Arabic article written by Dr. Ahmed Al Raissouni and published in December 1, 2014 on his official website. Originally from Morocco, Dr. Al Raissouni is a Maliki jurist having attained his undergraduate degree in Sharia from the University of Al Qarawiyyin in 1978, a Masters degree in the Higher Objectives of Sharia from Muhammad V University in 1989, […]
10
May
May
After a slow start, Fuller does a very good job of taking down the facile “Islam is the problem” charge when it comes to addressing terrorism. Bringing together a history of social and political developments from across the globe was a good strategy to show with evidence how violence and geopolitical struggles can’t be reduced […]