Ali Shariati

While reading one of Ali Shariati’s past lectures, he made a lot of references to loneliness and the alienation that results from loneliness. He said that loneliness is the result of people not being satisfied with what they have in front of them. It led me to think about myself and how appreciative I am for what I have in my life. I realized I wasn’t the most appreciative person and complained more than anything else. At one point, I used to not pray to be  rebellious toward God. I felt like he wasn’t worth giving time to since he didn’t solve my problems.  It’s funny how our greed takes over us very quickly and makes us forget about everything we have. It’s even more funny how we’re ready to make religion a scapegoat the second something doesn’t go right. It’s important for us to make the most of our time and learn self-restraint. It’s only through self restraint and patience that we’ll be able to survive in life.

Re: Partition

From my Grandfather’s perspective, partition was a necessity because Muslims and Hindus reached a point where they can no longer coexist with one another on a political front. Both sides didn’t trust each other and were no longer willing to work with one another to attain independence. Political mistrust started as early as 1906 with the establishment of the All India Muslim League. This party was formed because Muslim members of the Congress Party felt they did not have the same rights as Hindu members. Another significant event was the rejection of the Fourteen Points (reform plan proposed by Jinnah to safeguard the political rights of Muslims in India) . As a result, Muhammad Iqbal calls for an autonomous state in India for Indian Muslims. Basically, the partition took place to avoid sectarian violence and give Muslims and Hindus their own political structure to work with. Unfortunately, it didn’t serve its purpose since more bloodshed took place as a result of the partition. To this day, Muslims are not safer in the region with the establishment of Pakistan. Muslims suffer in Pakistan while they suffer in India. To conclude, the partition made no difference whatsoever. Instead, its divided Muslims on the subcontinent via Pakistani nationalism, Indian nationalism, and Bengali nationalism.

Re: Anger is shrouded in secrecy

 What needs to be remembered is that anger is an emotion and the idea is to manage anger, not control it. So, anger is not an enemy but rather a reminder to you that you take action to calm yourself. According to Islamic teachings, outbursts of anger are supposed to never occur. Our role model is the best of creation and the beloved of Allah the Almighty, Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him). Prophet Muhammad says, “The strong is not the one who overcomes the people by his strength, but the strong is the one who controls himself while in anger. (Sahih Bukhari) ”  Throughout his life, the Prophet encouraged his followers to control their anger and say greetings of peace. He constantly warned his companions not to be angry. One companion asked him, Give me some short advice by virtue of which I hope for prosperity both in this life and in the Hereafter, and he said, “Don’t be angry.” Another person asked, what will save me from the Wrath of Allah, and he said, “Do not express your anger.” A third person asked three times, O Prophet of Allah, give me an order to do a short good deed, and he said, “Don’t be angry.”  Sure, his face became red and he became upset. Nevertheless, he never let his anger get the best of him to the point that he did something bad because of it. It’s sad that these days many Muslims, including myself, fail to control their anger. One of the ways  we are told to control our anger is to recite “I seek in Allah from Satan.” It’s only through self-restraint and Allah’s help that one can control their anger.

Re:Iqbal, Reformer or Radicalist?

I don’t see how advocating for an Islamic State is being radical. Then again, I guess it depends on the context of the word. If you use it as an adjective then yeah he is being radical since he’s saying we need to go back to the root of Islam to taste success again. On the other hand, if you use it as a noun then you’re off because he is in no way a person who follows strong convictions or extreme principles. I believe he is a reformer because he is calling for more use of ijtihad and states that religion and science do not have to be in opposition to one another. The guy spent a good amount of his life trying to bring a change to a group of people dejected and demoralized from the calamities that struck them. Thus, he’s a reformer since he tried to amend the wrong amongst the Muslims of the Indian Subcontinent.

Re: Fort Hood Maniac Killer

Yeah I understand where you are coming from. The whole situation is sad and unfortunate. To make the situation worse, media stations decide to resort to old tactics by saying that he is a Muslim psychiatrist as if psychiatrist is not enough. Bernie Madoff ruins hundreds of lives and not one media station described him as a Jewish stock broker and starts exploiting stereotypes about Jewish people being greedy or whatever they say about them. It’s ridiculous that people are going to start up again with stereotypes over one incident. There are good people and bad people in every group. You can’t expect everyone to be perfect and not commit any crimes. That’s totally unrealistic. A Muslim committing this crime is no different than a Hindu, Jew, Christian, etc. Sane people of ALL FAITHS will be repulsed by the actions Nidal Hasan took. Enough is enough. An individual’s faith has nothing to do with whatever crime he or she commits.

Factory Farming vs. Islamic deitary laws

I was reading an article about a rise in Muslim vegetarians. The main reason behind this is because of the things that take place within factory farms. For example, they feed the animals hormones, lipids, and animal remains. In addition to this, animals are killed using electric shocks and a second method called “captive bolt stunning”, where a gun is placed against the temple of the animal’s head and a metal rod goes into the brain. By now, I’m sure you guys know that this goes against the dietary laws of Islam. Islam states that it is haram (unlawful) to beat, mutilate, or brand animals. It also states that the name of Allah must be invoked over the animal before it is killed. Moreover, an animal must be killed by slitting its throat with a knife, severing the windpipe, gullet, and the two jugular veins in one swift motion. If the animal dies before the slitting of the throat the meat is invalid. I know that slitting ones throat sounds gruesome but believe it or not it is the least painful way to die. I brought up this topic because I thought it’d be interesting to share with you guys the Islamic perspective on how to handle the slaughtering of meat. Out of curiosity, how is meat slaughtered according to Judaism, Christianity, etc?