Ali Shariati

Similar to the prophets, the enlightened souls also neither belongs to the community or scientists nor to the camp of unaware and stagnant masses. They are aware and responsible individuals whose most important objective and responsibility is to bestow the great God-given gift of “self- awareness” (khod-agahi) to the general public. Only self-awareness transforms static and corrupt masses into a dynamic and creative cantor, which fosters great genius and gives rise to great leaps, which in turn become the springboard for the emergence of civilization, culture and great heroes. For ruining a fact, do not attack it, defend it badly!

Read On My Behalf Please!

A lot of things we can do through this crazy time. Please read to make that world bearable. Covid19 is a lesson, and history is full of many lessons, but we never heed intentionally or unintentionally! Those are 100 books, so read and fathom well.

The link;

https://1drv.ms/u/s!AsbOT8tkbgZ9gUske4ow_YjNeRiA?e=eZJ6pk

 

 

The Meaning Of Religion As A Religious Woman

       Before the internet, the gap was wider as each community was well-versed in its traditional lore only. Now, you can make friendship with people overseas while you are plopping down on your sofa through your cellphone. Nonetheless, we are suffering from those trolls behind their keyboards!

      Two years ago, an Egyptian cook has decided to take her hijab off. I could not make out people’s demeanor when they scorned and understated her. She was called a spinster looking for a groom, they suspected her faith without any deference! Her decision was personal, but trolls insisted on making it a religious matter!

      Mo Salah, the Egyptian football player posted a picture of his daughter while she was playing on the piano. The comments revolved around religion and Islamic nurture. Their comments exuded their ignorance of religion and its essence.

      Dina Tokio has decided to take her hijab off as well. As a Muslim blogger, her decision was not her own. Therefore, people have decided to threaten, insult, and send their pernicious messages to her.

      A month ago, I read the news and there was a survey of British people’s acceptance of Muslims and hijab as compatriots like anyone else there. The majority claimed that hijab symbolised backwardness, and this would never represent their country, especially after its long-term battle to spread freedom and justice.

      For me, all these scenes have ignited an important question about religion, and whether we preserve it, or it protects us from that ingrained brutality. It was profound as I always thought of religion away from any tales or fecund imagination.

     In 2019, I was eager to read religious books away from any tales or prejudice. I have found some books and thankfully the riddle got unraveled. Every religious rifle was a result of a political conflict and a paranoid ruler. Religions are based on the same pillars of mercy, care, worshipping, fasting, alms, and the afterlife. The last messenger is our debate. There is another life in another realm and we all want to experience it as human beings, and monotheists with different hue, physiognomy, and religions. God wants us to be different, so we have to coexist with each other.

    After I read some books, I came up  with some conclusions;

• First and foremost, Everyone is held accountable for their deeds here and in the hereafter. This message is an allusion to dissuade those trolls as accountability is sole!

 

• The first cosmic covenant what matters the most. Allah enjoined Adam to worship, supplicate, and befriend all human beings.

 

• If religiosity does not better you, so you definitely misunderstand it.

 

• I have to neither witness your ugliness, nor make my phone kosher to stave off such things. Therefore, I have decided to give up using my Facebook  account.   

 

• Read the study Quran book. It is the best Quranic commentary I read, especially for those who have some ambivalence towards Islam.

 

• Read Reza Aslan’s books, no god but God, Zealot, and god; a human history. This author helped me fathom how we have disfigured religions with our chauvinism and bigotry. He is a Shiite Muslim who was Christian before. His books are page turners and enlightening, especially for a sunni woman who has never mingled with Shiites.

 

• As a feminist, kecia Ali and her books about sexual ethics in Islam. Some thorny issues such as the dowry, concubinage, and slavery. Kecia did answer a lot of profound questions as a Muslim woman.

 

• Good Muslim, bad Muslim book astounded me. The cold war, opium industry, the socio-economic mutation of Islam from a mere religion to a political identity, and the Middle East has become an arena. The inception of militant groups, explosions, and fundamentalism are expressed in detail in this book.

 

• Finally, who witnesses wars and survives, will suffer from its dregs until they pass away.

Thanks for your embrace and time!

We Are The Scum Of The Earth

That beautiful woman with curly hair has been deserted for more than sixty years. She is sitting on the floor, pent-up, bare with consternation. Before her eyes, there is a slaughtered sheep. It was brutally killed as it was, reportedly, rabid. There are two dogs. Ostensibly, they are making love but this is far away from the truth! They are two males; one of them is indigent, afraid, and straight. While the other one is powerful, bloodsucker, and homosexual. Therefore, the indigent has nothing to do but lying down with bile. It is everyday practice with humiliation and utter submission.

The military guardian looks stern and vigilant. His paunch elucidates how satiating his diet is. We are perplexed if he is standing for dignity, or watching spoils. The scene is full of gory details and gloom.

That woman is voluble, but she is not allowed to have a say. When she wants to open up, she gets scorned and understated. She is sterile, they always covet everything she owns albeit. A suspicion of having precious gems or mere trinkets!

Hopefully, you will understand my point as I can not explicate any further. We are still watching that farce.

This is Walid Ebeid’s painting

Hocus Pocus

Before the Arab Spring, we thought there were no individuals in the Middle East.

This was the prologue of a book about the Middle East before and after revolutions. This sentence was nothing but the reality. We are not the luckiest on earth, except those in North Korea, as we can emigrate to another country. Ironically, North Koreans are more welcome than Arabs and receive more sympathy. There are a lot of similarities between both of them; tyranny, isolation, and the tainted blood. The more you grow up, the better you learn how to shoo to not get caught. Blurting a word out may cost you a soul.

Isolation does not require fences because ignorance is a great castle to cram those who do not understand what is different. It is a win-win situation for both sides. One side can easily have the upper hand, whilst the other one gets satisfied with pennies as their world is limited.

My people do not know that word “ambition“. They always say “little is better than nothing”. They are not aware of moving up the ladder because they were born poor, therefore they have to be so until they pass away. The same theory of ranking in North Korea.

Once I had a conversation with a friend talking about harassment in Egypt. Egyptians have a good ranking in watching pornography. I replied that human beings always look for catharsis. The majority are unemployed, and if you are jobless, so you will be unable to marry. Job is your dignity, your own crutch, and manhood. Even though, salaries are meagre in Egypt, they represent safety as they are permanent even after the provider’s death.

We are not individuals. I mean not as humanistic as you are. You are first class citizens and we are Scapegoats. You have been invaded once, then you have decided to avenge and invade many countries as you would never forget! We are mere statistics getting used to witnessing gory details firsthand.

I am not trying to justify anything. I am another scapegoat belonging to the grassroots without any privilege. There is neither robust education, nor extraordinary talent. I only want to fly away. Maybe I want to be a predator to be able to fare well in this society.

Sorry for disturbing you, but it is only a glimpse and I want to share it with you. Someday, I will have my walled garden, and I promise you that I will share it too!

I highly recommend reading The New Middle East: The World After The Arab Spring book.

For me parliament is a circus, it’s big beard versus small beard, who can be more right-wing than the other, who can be more obsessed with sex and moral values than the other, and who can waste all this time talking about Internet porn and not teaching English in school, whereas the majority of Egyptians’ concerns are unemployment, poverty and security on the streets,’ said the writer and activist Mona Eltahawy.

One of the sentences that described the scene after the Egyptian revolution and encapsulated how Egyptians think and prioritize things. Sex comes first, then we can discuss science and education.

I have a say please!

Educate me well. Therefore, you will be able to curb my animalistic instinct when your actions rage me.

Restoration Of Saudi Women’s Entitlement

Saudi women are finally allowed to travel on their own. In a place where relics and traditions overshadow religions and its essence. Before Islam, women were goods and chattels inherited after their master’s death. They were concubines, dispossessed, dependants,etc, until Islam came down. However, it sounds nomadic lifestyle outstrips even holy scriptures.

Can I travel alone with no mahram?

It is permissible for a woman to travel without a mahram “guardian” provided the way, destination, and return journey are safe and provided she does not meet with any harassments jeopardizing both her safety and religion. It has been narrated through Aidy Ibn Hatem that the prophet told him, “And if you live a long life, you will surely see women traveling from Hira till they circumambulate the Ka’ba, fearing no one except Allah“.

Imam Ahmed’s report of the hadith includes: ” By He in whose hands is my soul, verily Allah will bring this mattar (Islam) into completion till women travel from Hira and circumambulate the Ka’ba without being accompanied by anyone”. From this hadith with its different chains of narration, some scholars have derived the permissibility of a woman traveling alone if her safety is guaranteed. Moreover, they have used this hadith to restrict other prohibiting hadiths which, according to them, referred to the lack of security associated with travel in the distant past.

The majority of scholars have permitted a woman to travel for obligatory hajj without a mahram if accompanied by trustworthy females or company. They based their opinion on the precedence of the Mothers of Believers (may Allah be pleased with them) who went on hajj after the prophet’s death and the caliphate of Umar was accompanied by Uthman Bin Affan.

Allah create us different to know each other and witness his phenomenal creation on earth. I am so glad and looking forward to hearing more pleasant news about Saudis and others!

WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY, IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH

The ousted Egyptian President has died. I believe that he was not our representative, but he was the elect. As we know the now- banned Muslims brotherhood and our former president’s affiliation with them. It reminds me of good Muslims and bad Muslims book when Mahmoud Mamdani illustrated the conversion of Islam from a religion to a political identity.

A devastating war between the United States of America and the Soviet Union, and the arena is the Middle East. You may say Islam commands Muslims to fight non Muslims. Well, you are mistaken, my friend! We believe in the first cosmic covenant between God and Adam when Allah enjoined him to worship, supplicate, and befriend all human beings. There were neither massacres nor brutality.

Muslims are enjoined to seek jihad. Ironically there are no crusaders as jihad is divided into two parts. The first one, the lesser, commands Muslims to seek knowledge wherever it is “أطلبوا العلم من مكانه”. The greater struggle enjoins Muslims to fight poverty until we get rid of it. Therefore, Al-Qaida, Taliban,ISIS, and Muslims brotherhood are intruders as we are not allowed to prosecute nor judge others as long as we do not witness ourselves nor they confess. We are not held accountable for other’s deeds. Everyone will deal with the consequences of their own behaviour in this life and will be accountable to God on the Day Of Judgement.

“Did Israel’s army, using dozens of tanks and armored personnel carriers, along with hundreds of missile strikes from US-supplied Apache helicopter gunships, besiege Jenin’s refugee camp for over a week, a one-square-kilometer patch of shacks housing 15,000 refugees and a few dozen men armed with automatic rifles and no missiles or tanks, and call it a response to terrorist violence and a threat to Israel’s survival?” It was Mahmoud’s question about Palestine and Israel.

That book encapsulates what is going on now, and describes terror as a political and sociological mutation. Hopefully, we are going to bridge the gap someday. Our planet is oval with no dimensions and our intellect should do so. Homogeneity is gruesome and irrelevant to the first cosmic covenant!

Inner peace.