OutSyed The Box |
- Mali : Another Islamic Country Bites The Dust
- Part 3 Religious Intellectuals - Al Ghazali
- Saudi Clerics To Labor Minister:Stop Women Employment Or You Will Get Cancer
| Mali : Another Islamic Country Bites The Dust Posted: 28 Dec 2012 11:00 PM PST Looking at the number of strange religious programs on our TV, listening to the Friday sermons which preach so much hatred, looking at the PAS in Kelantan plus the funny ostat preachers who preach to entertain and make money, I think Malaysia is headed in the same direction - the Club of Doom. The people who cannot think - from all strata of society - are getting intoxicated by these false beliefs. There are some really cruel things going on in a far away Islamic country called Mali. Where is Mali? It is in Africa. Here is a map:  It is sandwiched between Mauritania, Algeria, Niger, Burkina Faso, Cote D'Voire (Ivory Coast), Guinea and Senegal. These are part of the Francophone countries of West Africa. There is a world famous town called Timbuktu in Mali (Tombouctou on the map). The English phrase 'Go to Timbuktu' which indicates a really far away and remote place has made it world famous. When someone says 'Go to Timbuktu' it is like saying 'get lost'. Or as a test of some great sacrifice. Mali has now been taken over by a fanatic jihadist terror group called the Ansar Dine (Ansar-udeen). This is a mixed batch of extremist Saudi Arabians, Pakistanis, Afghans, other Arabs and African jihadists who came out of nowhere and have imposed their religious laws on Mali. Here is some news :
 Arab, Afghan, Pakistani, Saudi jihadists flock to Mali. Kat hujung tu Melayu ke?
 The satans always pick on the women first
 Under the complete control of satan
  Destroying their own history and their source of income : tourism. Now they can eat grass Well its just another Islamic country that has entered the lowest pit of the Club of Doom. Folks, there is no bottom for these people. Just when you thought they had reached the bottom, they will dig another hole at the bottom of the pit and sink themselves even lower. Lets see now for how many years Mali will remain in the news. To make it easy lets mark the calendar from January 1st, 2013. This is just the beginning. In the old days the French conducted their own foreign policy in Francophone Africa - almost at will. They would send in the French Foreign Legion. Now they are more discerning. They would not want to become targets for every crazy fundo suicide bomber from Malaysia to Morrocco. Very soon the jihadists will be recruiting suicide bombers for action in Mali. Facebook and the jihadi Blogs are the usual recruitment sites. Lets see if any confused Malaysian jihadists end up in Mali. I hope our security apparatus will keep their ears wide open.  |
| Part 3 Religious Intellectuals - Al Ghazali Posted: 28 Dec 2012 04:00 PM PST This is the second part on Al Ghazali's book Ihya Ulumudeen. Ok lets now look at the Ihya. I have the three volume set translated by Maulana Fazlul Karim and published by Kitab Bhavan, New Delhi. Here is a picture :  In the Introduction, Imam Ghazali quotes this from the Quran : 'Take whatever the Apostle gave you and keep away from whatever he forbade you..' 59:7 Quran. Over the years I have come to realise that these old Persian scholars like Imam Ghazali often quote only portions of a verse from the Quran to justify entire concepts. This type of partial quote can easily go unchallenged when the writer is a non Arab speaker or non native Arab speaker who writes for a mainly non Arab audience. Even everyday Arabs do not know what is in the Quran what more Persians who cannot speak Arabic? Here is the full quote of the verse : "Whatever Allah restored to His messenger from the communities shall go to Allah and His messenger. You shall give it to the relatives, the orphans, the poor, and the traveling alien. Thus, it will not remain monopolized by the wealthy from among you. You may keep the spoils given to you by the messenger, but do not take what he enjoins you from taking. You shall reverence Allah. Allah is strict in enforcing retribution" Surah 59:7. This verse talks specifically about the distribution of the spoils of war. Do not let the wealth circulate only among the rich and powerful people. That would be unfair. Make sure the wealth gets to everyone, especially those in need and the poor. (This is a perfectly sensible economic statement too - which we must bear in mind when we formulate our economic policies as well). This theme of distributing wealth fairly continues into the next verse Surah 59:8 : '.. to the needy who immigrated. They were evicted from their homes and deprived of their properties, because they sought Allah's grace and pleasure, and because they supported Allah and His messenger. They are the truthful.' Surah 59:8. Then in Section 2, The Book of Worship (pg 29 of Volume 1) Ghazali makes a statement which is reflective of the limitations of knowledge in the 11th century Persia. He says, "There is a difference of opinion among the learned as to which branch of knowledge is obligatory on an individual'. Well to begin with, he says there was already a difference of opinion - they were arguing. But in the 21st century today such a question does not arise. You can do a really serious PhD in Mayan Mythology, the mating habits of imaginary pet unicorns and even the physics of magical flying horses. You can argue if it is useful knowledge or not. Well if you can write a Hollywood script based on your research and make a million bucks from the movie (or fool a billion people with a magical flying horse) then of course it is useful to you. But how can knowledge be "not obligatory" on an individual? These types of arguments just seek to split hairs - over nothing. Here is a question to ponder : is acquiring knowledge about magical flying horses obligatory? Not obligatory? Please feel free to argue endlessly. Then in Section 3, Ghazali talks about the 'Blameworthy Sciences' (pg 47 of Vol 1). The phrase 'Blameworthy Science' itself comes across as a classic oxymoron. Science or ilm (in Arabic) means knowledge. Today there are classifications of sciences like life sciences, natural sciences, social sciences, pure science etc. (Feel free to add or delete). But how can any science (knowledge) by itself be blameworthy? A nuclear bomb certainly can be blameworthy but not the science of nuclear physics. Ghazali did not know physics. He was actually referring to black magic !! He believed that black magic and sorcery had powers. Again this is even more reflective of Ghazali's limited 11th century knowledge base. He believed that hocus pocus had power. About sorcery he says "it becomes blameworthy, such as magic, talismans, sorcery. These sciences are true no doubt as the Quran testifies." Note Ghazali's words "magic, talismans, sorcery. These sciences are true no doubt as the Quran testifies.." Where exactly does the Quran say that sorcery, talismans and magic are true? There is no such thing. In the Quran the arabic word for sorcery is 'sihir' - from which the Malay word sihir is also derived. Here is a line from that famous fight scene in the Quran between the Pharaoh's sorcerers and Moses. Lets focus on the sihir word which appears twice in this verse. Surah 7:116 He said, "You throw." When they threw, they tricked (sihir) the people's eyes, intimidated them, and produced a great magic (sihir). Their sihir was just trickery. A sleight of hand. They tricked the peoples' eyes to believe their 'magic'. Although the word used is 'sihir' it was all fake. Surah 20:69 "Throw what you hold in your right hand, and it will swallow what they fabricated (sanaa'u). What they fabricated (sanaa'u) is no more than the scheming of a magician (sihir). The magician's (sihir's) work will not succeed" So 'sihir' cannot succeed, it cannot work. Which is why in the Quran there is no real magical 'sihir'. They are just fabrications, tricks and sleights of hand. (There are many more verses we can dwell on, including Harut & Marut (2:102) but this is sufficient) However in the seventh century Arabia - and until 21st century Malaysia - millions of people want to believe in magic. Al Ghazali was one of them. He even created a classification called 'blameworthy science' for sihir. In the text of the Ihya, Ghazali gives clear examples of black magic - he believed they existed. Ghazali says (pg 39), "philosophy is not a single branch of science but comprises four subjects..the first subject includes geometry, arithmetic. ..the second subject includes Logic..the third subject is the science of sufism. The fourth subject is Physics of which some portions contradict Shariah and true religion and are therefore not right." Ghazali is totally off here. You can see how limited was his knowledge base back in the 11th century. He believed in black magic, he said Sufism was a branch of science and he condemns portions of Physics as not being right (when it contradicts shariah). I am wondering how can Physics contradict shariah? I dont know if that muka tin sadin fellow - he claims to be an expert on shariah - can explain this. And how can sufism be a branch of any science? What is sufism? Spirituality? What is spirituality? Has anyone seen a spirit yet? If you have, please say hi for me ok. Interestingly Ghazali also condemns fiqh (fikah) or jurisprudence. He says, 'the people have changed the original meanings of the words fiqh, ilm, tauhid, tazkir and hikmah and have given them meanings of their own. As a result they have now become blameworthy (pg 49). So ilmu fikah is now blameworthy. Here I agree with Ghazali completely. Muslims all around the world are screwed up because of the ilmu fikah (jurisprudence or law). About fiqh or jurisprudence Ghazali says, "Fiqh (religious learning) : It has now the meaning of the science of unusual legal cases, mystery of the minutest details of jurisprudence and excessive debates on them." Then on pg. 183 Ghazali also says things like the prayer of three persons will not go up beyond their heads i. a fugitive slave ii. a woman whose husband is displeased with her iii. an imam with whom his people are dissatisfied There is absolutely no slavery in the Quran. The Quran commands the freeing of all slaves. "Righteousness is not turning your faces towards the east or the west. Righteous are those who believe in Allah, the last day .. to free the slaves... keep their word whenever they make a promise .. . These are the truthful; these are the righteous" (2:177) But Ghazali says the prayers of a fugitive slave will not 'go up beyond their heads'. Ghazali lived about 500 years after the Prophet. One would think that 500 years after the Quran was revealed the Muslim intellectuals would have read Surah 2:177 and completely abolished slavery. They did not. He also says, "Paradise becomes sure for one without account who is Imam for seven years" (pg 183). There is no such thing stated anywhere in the Quran. There is more but it would take too much time. These are the religious people who wrote what they wrote a thousand years ago. Their knowledge was extremely limited. They had strange ideas about philosophy, black magic, sufism, physics and so on which was all mixed up inside one bag. None of this can be traced back to the Quran. And they honestly believed that they could solve all the world's problems with the limited knowledge that they had. They could not. But most unfortunately the Muslims came to hold these writers in great regard - even until today. Many people today will say that Ghazali's views and findings are still current. This is another reason for the Muslims current predicament - they uphold ideas that are a thousand years old, that are far removed from the Quran and which never worked. Today even the suicide bombers are prepared to blow themselves up to blindly defend some of these thousand year old teachings of these so called scholars. Their writings have become written in stone. In conclusion I repeat what Ibn Taymiyyah said about Ghazali : "This Abu Hamid al-Ghazali, despite his brilliance, his devotion to Allah, his knowledge of kalam and philosophy, his asceticism and spiritual practices and his Sufism, ended up in a state of confusion and resorted to the path of those who claim to find out things through dreams and spiritual methods."  |
| Saudi Clerics To Labor Minister:Stop Women Employment Or You Will Get Cancer Posted: 28 Dec 2012 05:00 AM PST Someone posted this in the comments earlier. "Clerics who oppose gender mixing at the workplace have given an ultimatum to Saudi Minister of Labor Adel Fakieh: he has one month to roll back on the policy allowing women to work in retail or they will pray to God to give him cancer. Local media reported that more than 200 clerics from around the Kingdom had come to Riyadh and held a meeting Tuesday afternoon at the Ministry with Fakieh to complain about gender mixing in retail stores, accusing him of challenging religious authorities in the country like the Council of Senior Ulema. "Stop women employment or we will pray against you like we have done with the previous Labor Minister," a cleric named Abdulrahman Aba-Nemai reportedly told Fakieh. The cleric was referring to the late Ghazi al-Gosaibi who passed away in August 2010 and had to face similar opposition from conservatives over women employment. A video uploaded to YouTube showed some attendees cheer with the sounds of takbeer as Aba-Nemai talked to Fakieh."  |
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