RE: 2012

I have to admit that when I first heard about the issue of the kaaba in the movie 2012, I was a bit perturbed. One reason being that the director’s main motivation for not destroying it was to avoid a fatwa. However, I was also unsettled because the idea of the kaaba being destroyed would make any Muslim squirm. I started to think about how in terms of Islamic eschatology, the movie 2012 is essentially about the day of judgment, where everything on earth will be destroyed. I’m assuming that the kaaba will be destroyed as well. As Muslims, it is always good to be mindful that this life will come to an end. I wonder if such a scene ended up being included in the movie, if it wouldn’t do us good to recognize this idea in a bruising and visceral way. It was probably best to leave it out of the movie to keep the fatwa fanatics at bay, but I don’t think to include it would have been the end of the world. Ha.

East is East

Whenever there is a crossover movie with Indian people, I always feel somewhat obligated to see it, even if it looks terrible. This movie did not look that great, but I saw it at the recommendation of a friend. It is definitely worth watching. The movie East is East is about a conservative Pakistani man and his British wife living in London in the 1970s. The father tries his best to hold on to the traditions of Islam and those of his homeland. He tries to raise his kids having these ideas instilled in their heads, but to no avail. Each one of them rebels from these ideas in a different way, probably most obviously with the example of their homosexual son who runs away to be a fashion designer. The father has a horrible temper and beats his children and wife in fits of rage. Unfortunately, this kind of situation is not too far-fetched. The father struggles to scare his children into submission, to God or to himself is probably an debatable issue. Meanwhile, his children are left with a tainted conception of what Islam stands for. This is perhaps why they have run away from the faith. The mother struggles find courage to stand up to the father and show how he gives Muslims a bad name. The film is ultimately hopeful and funny at times. It serves to expose the tyranny of some people in how they treat their families, with the guise of Islam as a defense for their ways. I would recommend it to anyone.

Enough Already

I will never understand how those who commit acts of terror such as suicide bombers justify their actions to themselves. They claim to defend the name of Islam and yet they deface it. While they kill themselves and thousands of innocent people, they leave lives ruined, and the remaining Muslims around the world are left to attempt to clear up misconceptions. In my mind, there is no such thing as an Islamic extremist or radicalist because there is nothing Islamic about the abhorrent acts these people commit. They are political extremists, if anything. If one has a problem with a certain country or society, that is one thing. It is something else entirely when they prostitute the religion of Islam to achieve their political goals. I’m not saying that religion and politics are mutually exclusive. As we have seen with many of the revivalists whose work we have read, Islam and politics go hand in hand. However, no matter what, one must be sure of what Islamic principles stand for before acting so destructively and irrationally.

Qur’an Competition

Concerning our discussion of Qur’an competitions last night, it made me flash back to my childhood. I remember being in Sunday School, which is basically just a day care with halal hot dogs. I remember being in one Qur’an competition that my friend coerced me into. I didn’t think much of it back then, but now I’m bothered by how it is such a popular practice within certain Muslim communities. It seems like a misuse of the recitation of the Qur’an. It could potentially foster feelings of jealousy between children and parents alike. The Qur’an should bring people together rather than vice versa. This reminded me of Ali Shariati’s argument about how Muslims concentrate too much on the aesthetics of the Qur’an such as the beauty of its cover or recitation without learning about the meaning behind it. For a Muslim, there is much more merit in knowing what the Qur’an’s message is rather than reciting it, completely ignorant of what it means. I definitely have not taken it upon myself to learn the meaning of the surahs which I have memorized, but hopefully, taking the advice of Dr. Ahmad, I can achieve this goal.

Re: Free Will vs. Predestination

I agree with dawn89’s stance on reconciling free will and predestination. I too have come to understand that we do have a choice with every action we make, but God is aware of what we will choose. However, I think the problem that many people have with this idea is the issue of judgment. Given the fact that God knows everything, this means he created us knowing what we will do. How, then is it just for him to judge us for our actions and intentions? Even if we are not controlled by him and we are free to act how we want, this still proves to be a problem to some. This raises the question of why we were created in the first place. God doesn’t need us, he doesn’t need anything for that matter. However, in the Islamic mindset, this is part of our test as human beings. The life we live right now is a test, moreover our entire being is a test. God’s judgment is delegated to whether or not we choose to believe in him and heed his guidance. Thus, it comes back to the fact that we do have free will. There is probably much more that can be said than can be conveyed in a blog post, but overall, these are my thoughts on the matter.

Tariq Ramadan

I really appreciated most of what Tariq Ramadan had to say in the assigned reading. I noticed that there is a great disparity between my preconceived notions about each writer and what I think about their opinions after having read something by them. I had heard things about Tariq Ramadan being too controversial or liberal in his stance on certain issues, but I found him to be quite moderate. I agreed with his opinion about how Muslims should stop demonizing aspects of modernity, specifically scientific thought. As a Biology major, I found it hard to learn about the ideas inherent in Darwinian evolution while listening to different Muslim completely deny everything about it. I myself, could not completely deny or accept either side. I appreciated how a scholar such as Tariq Ramadan spelled out explicitly the point of view which I eventually came to adopt. Science should not be thought of as opposite to tenets of Islam. Progress is not in opposition to an Islamic way of life. The big bang and ideas of evolution may not be in opposition to the Islamic conception for the beginning of time and how life progressed from then on. How we interpret texts may not be exactly what Islamic explanations mean to convey. If only Ramadan had an easier time getting back into the country, perhaps we could all benefit more from this great thinker.