Will Not Be Updating This Blog for a While

Assalamualikum all,
A personal crisis has just popped up and so I will not be updating this blog for a while. Please feel free to subscribe to this blog (enter your email in the bloglet box to the right -->) so that you are informed of the next entry.

Ward the Pirate

Were they pirates, or were they warriors for Islam? For centuries, historians have debated the significance of one of the most stirring episodes in the history of Britain’s Muslim minority. Men such as Captain John Ward of Kent astounded their compatriots by proudly adopting Islam to fight the Inquisition and the expansionist powers of Europe. Contemporaries called such men ‘corsairs’; they themselves considered themselves mujahidin. Some were among the most pious Muslims this country has yet produced. Others were famous drunkards and lechers.

Read the rest of this interesting article: http://masud.co.uk/ISLAM/ahm/ward.htm

True Love

Dhu’l Nun al Masri was asked about love. He responded:
“It is to love that which Allah loves,
to hate that which Allah hates,
to perform all good,
to reject everything that busies you from Allah,
and not to fear any blame for the sake of Allah,
while being gentle with believers, stern with disbelievers,
and to follow the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him and give him peace) in matters of religion.”

From: http://www.Sunnipath.com

The Game of Life

'Tis all a Chequer-board of Nights and Days
Where Destiny with Men for Pieces plays:
Hither and thither moves, and mates, and slays,
And one by one back in the Closet lays.

[Omar Khayyum]

Wealth has no permanence ...

Wealth has no permanence: it comes in the morning,and at night it is scattered to the winds.Physical beauty too has no importance,for a rosy face is made pale by the scratch of a single thorn.Noble birth also is of small account,for many become fools of money and horses.Many a nobleman's son has disgraced his father by his wicked deeds.Don't court a person full of talent either,even if he seems exquisite in that respect:take warning from the example of Iblis.Iblis had knowledge, but since his love was not pure,he saw in Adam nothing but a figure of clay.

[Mawlana Jalaluddin Rumi]

From: http://faizee.blogspot.com/2004_05_01_faizee_archive.html

Rumi's Supplication

O All-Knowing, you opened my heart to the way of supplication. Yearning for Your love is glorious and grand; lust for other love is disgraceful and corrupt. Your divine court is the infinite plane. I leave behind the throne of honor, for the real throne of honor is Your way.

[Rumi]

From: http://faizee.blogspot.com/

Rabia's Prayer

Lord, the night is gone. The dawn has lighted the sky. How I long to know if You accepted or rejected my prayers. Comfort me, Lord, for only you can comfort this state of mine. You gave me life and nurtured me; Yours is all the praise. If You would ever drive me away from Your door, I would never abandon it for the sake of Your love, which I carry in my heart.

[Rabi'a]

Fronm: http://faizee.blogspot.com/

The Folly of Man-Made Laws - 5

Since 1952 it has been illegal to land a flying saucer or other UFO in the vineyards of Chateauneuf du Pape in France.

A Real-Life Sherlock Holmes

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of the world-famous detective, Sherlock Holmes, was not above telling tales about himself in which he was the laughing-stock. Here is one of those stories. As he tells it, he was waiting at a taxi stand outside the railway station in Paris. When a taxi pulled up. He put his suitcase in it and got in himself. As he was about to tell the taxi-driver where he wanted to go, the driver asked him: "Where can I take you, Mr. Doyle?"
Doyle was flabbergasted. He asked the driver whether he knew him by sight. The driver said: "No Sir, I have never seen you before." The puzzled Doyle asked him what made him think that he was Conan Doyle. The driver replied:
"This morning's paper had a story about you being on vacation in Marseilles. This is the taxi-stand where people who return from Marseilles always come to. Your skin colour tells me you have been on vacation. The ink-spot on your right index finger suggests to me that you are a writer. Your clothing is very English, and not French. Adding up all those pieces of information, I deduced that you are Sir Arthur Conan Doyle."
Doyle said: "This is truly amazing. You are a real-life counter-part to my fictional creation, Sherlock Holmes."
"There is one other thing," the driver said.
"What is that?"
"Your name is on the front of your suitcase."

Germans to pay by fingerprint at supermarkets

Customers of a German supermarket chain will soon be able to pay for their shopping by placing their finger on a scanner at the check-out, saving up to 40 seconds spent scrabbling for coins or cards, bosses say.
An Edeka store in the south-west German town of Ruelzheim has piloted the technology since November and now the company plans to equip its stores across the region.
"All customers need do is register once with their identity card and bank details, then they can shop straight away," store manager Roland Fitterer said.
The scanner compares the shopper's fingerprint with those stored in its database along with account details.
Edeka bosses said they were confident the system can not be abused.
The chance of two people having the same fingerprint is about one-in-220-million.
- Reuters

Al-Ghazali's Treatise on Direct Knowledge from God (al-Risala al-Laduniya)

Know that one of my friends told me about a certain scholar who rejected [the existence] of "direct knowledge from God, knowledge of the unmanifest world" (al-'ilm al-ghaybi al-laduni), upon which knowledge the elect of the Sufis rely and to which the folk of the Way (tariqa) are connected--such Sufis stating that "knowledge from God" is more powerful and rigorous (ahkam) than the forms of knowledge acquired through study and attained by learning.
My friend told me that this so-called scholar (mudda'i) states, "Since I am not able to conceive of the knowledge of the Sufis, I do not think that anyone in the world can speak of 'true knowledge' (al-'ilm al-haqiqi) by way of a contemplative act and an intuitive vision (fikr wa-ru'ya), instead of through learning and studious effort (ta'allum wa-kasb)."
So I said, "He does not seem to be cognizant of the paths of attaining [such knowledge] and is not aware of the matter of the human self (al-nafs), its qualities, and how it receives traces of the unmanifest world (al-ghayb) and knowledge of the 'suprasensible world' (al-malakut)."
My friend replied, "Yes, indeed this man says that knowlege consists only of jurisprudence (fiqh), Qur'anic exegesis (tafsir), and dogmatic theology (kalam), beyond which there is no knowledge, and that these forms of knowledge are only attainable through learning and disciplined study (al-ta'allum wa-al-tafaqquh)."
Then I said, "Yes, but how does one learn the science of exegesis, since the Qur'an is the vast ocean encompassing all things, and all of its meanings and the truths of its exegesis are not mentioned in these [exegetical] compositions well-known among the masses?! Rather, exegesis is something other than what this so-called scholar knows." Then that man replied, "He only considers to be [legitimate] exegesesthe well-known exegeses written by Qushayri, Tha'labi, Mawardi, and the like."
So I said, "He is far from the path of the Truth (manhaj al-haqiqa). In fact, Sulami has compiled an exegesis consisting of the sayings of those who realize truth (muhaqqiqin), an exegesis that is virtually the realization of truth (shibh al-tahqiq). And these sayings are not mentioned in other exegeses. Yet that man who only considers valid knowledge to be jurisprudence, theology, and exegesis of mass appeal, it is as if he does not know the various kinds of knowledge, their elaborations, levels, truths, and their outer and inner dimensions. It is customary, however, that one who is ignorant of something rejects it. And that so-called scholar has not tasted the wine of the Truth and is not cognizant of direct knowledge from God (al-'ilm al-laduni), so how can he accept it?! And I would not be satisfied with his acceptance, out of imitation or conjecture, of what he does not know."
Then my friend said, "I would like you to note down something about of the stages of knowledge and the attestation of this [direct] knowledge [of God], since you attribute it to yourself and accept its affirmation." I replied, "Indeed the elucidation of what you are seeking is very difficult, but I will begin an introduction to it according to my state and in harmony with my experience of the moment and with whatever appears in my consciousness."

The Folly of Man-Made Laws - 4

In Devon, Connecticut, it is unlawful to walk backwards after sunset.

Values ...

"The relations with, uhh — Europe are important relations, and they've, uhh — because, we do share values. And, they're universal values, they're not American values or, you know — European values, they're universal values. And those values — uhh — being universal, ought to be applied everywhere." —George W. Bush, at a press conference with European Union dignitaries, Washington, D.C., June 20, 2005

Posts

Assalamualaikum brothers and sisters,
I have added new posts to this blog. This may not be immediately noticable as they are amongst my previous posts. So to read them, please browse below.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Q A

Some excerpts from Malfoozat e Arifi

Things that Change dust to Gold

I tell you the synopsis of my (80 years of) life: the catalyst for changing dust to gold;

1. As much as possible get prayers (dua) from the pious (awliya)
2. Respect the elderly
3. Be thankful for each and every gift (of Allah swt)

Malfoozat e Arifi 168

Love of Allah swt from Heart of Awliya

The Love of Allah swt is an entity which is transferred from the heart of Awliya when one is in their company. If one try’s to acquire it in solitude he will become mentally sick and never attain true love.

Malfoozat e Arifi 170

Secret of Repetition

Reading or discussing something repeatedly usually results in recalling it when its need arises. At that moment one needs spiritual determination to act according to it. Doing such for some time eventually leads to the creation of an instinctive inclination for acting so without effort.

Malfoozar e Arifi 167

Accompanying the Pious

Means;

1. To visit them often. And if they are far away to correspond with them via mail.
3. Asking them about religious information and act accordingly.
4. Telling them one’s spiritual deficiencies and acting on the treatment they prescribe.
5. Asking them to make prayers (dua) for you, in all circumstances.
6. Asking them (especially) how to get rid of the unlawful (non-shariah) items in your daily activities and acting on their advice with special consideration

(Malfoozat e Arifi Page 167-8)

Tastefulness of "Ilm

Arif-billah Hazrat Dr. Abdul Hayy Arifi ra said;

The physical form(surat) of knowledge (‘ilm) is found in books,
its reality in practicing it and
its tastefulness is experienced by accompanying the pious (awliya).”

(Malfoozat e Arifi 108)

Alchemy

Arif-billah Hazrat Dr. Abdul Hayy Arifi ra said;
‘For two minutes talk to Allah swt any time during the day telling Him,
“O Allah! I am inept, weak, unworthy, and unable to do any thing significant. Please, do have Your special benevolence for me.”
Say this all. Can’t you even do this?
You certainly have the power to articulate this. (And if you do so), Then you will see how your (spiritual) condition changes (for the better).
This is an alchemy prescription by our Hazrat Hakeemul Ummat ra.’

(Malfoozat e Arifi 58)

From : http://ashrafiya.blogspot.com/

Khidr (PBUH) and an Awlya

Moulana Zakariyah mentions in Fazaail-e-Hajj, “Once one of the Abdaal met Khidr and inquired from him whether he had ever met anyone among the saints whom he considered higher in rank than himself. To this he replied, ‘Yes, I have. I was present once in the Masjid in Medina, where I saw Hazrat Shaikh Abdur Razzak directing Hadeeth to his students. On one side was a young man sitting with his head bent on his knees. I went to him and addressed him thus, ‘do you not see the gathering listening to the words of Rasoolullah. Why do you not join them?’ Without lifting up his head or turning in my direction the youth answered: “Over there you see those who listen to the Hadeeth from the mouth of Abdur-Razzak (the slave of the sustainer), while over here you see him who listens to Hadeeth directly from Ar-Razzak (Allah).” Khidr said to him, “If what you say is true then you should be able to tell me who I am. Who am I?” He lifted up his head and said, ‘If my intuition does not fail me then you are Khidr.’ Hazrat Khidr said, “From that I realized that among the saints of Allah there are such who are so exalted in rank that I cannot recognize them.”

Roads Blocks and Road Maps

"Security is the essential roadblock to achieving the road map to peace." —George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., July 25, 2003

Abul `Abbas, al-Khidr On him be Allah's Blessings and Peace

"Whoever enters the Way without a guide will take a hundred years to travel a two-day journey.The Prophet said, 'In this Way, you have no more faithful companions than your works.'How can these works and this earning in the way of righteousness be accomplished without a master, O father?Can you practice the meanest profession in the world without a master's guidance?Whoever undertakes a profession without a master becomes the laughingstock of city and town."
Rumi, Mathnavi.

Abul `Abbas is Khidr , whom Allah mentioned in the Holy Qur'an [18:65f.] as the servant of Allah who met with the Prophet Musa . He preserved and maintained the Reality of the Golden Chain until the next link in the Chain, `Abdul Khalik, could assume his destined station.
Imam Bukhari relates in the Book of Prophets that the Prophet said, "Al-Khidr ('the Green Man') was so named because he sat on a barren white land once, after which it turned luxuriantly green with vegetation."
The important role of Khidr as the murshid (initiator) of saints may be illustrated by the importance of his role as the murshid of prophets, particularly of the Prophet Musa . Moses was a highly powerful prophet, one of the five greatest ones whom Allah sent to this world: Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad, Peace and blessings be upon them. Yet despite Moses' elevated knowledge, Allah caused him to be in need of Khidr, even though Khidr was not a prophet. This is to teach us, as Allah said in the Holy Qur'an, that "Above every knower there is a greater knower" (Yusuf, 76).
The story of Moses' encounter with Khidr is related in Surat al-Kahf (65-82) and goes thus: Moses and his servant found one of Allah's servants whom Allah had honored uniquely and had taught knowledge from His Own Presence. Moses said to him, "I would like to accompany you." He answered him: "You cannot bear to accompany me." Moses was surprised and insisted he was able to do so. Khidr said: "You cannot, but if you do, do not ask about what I am doing no matter what you see me do. On that condition alone you may follow; but if you wish to ask questions, don't follow me." This meant that Khidr was going to do something that Moses would not understand, although he was the Messenger of a great religion. He was in need of Khidr to teach him something.
They took a boat and crossed the Tiberias River in Palestine. When they had reached the middle of the river, Khidr made a hole in the boat in order for it to sink. Moses was unable to keep silent, saying: "Why are you doing this childish act? Those people gave you the boat, are you now scuttling it?" Khidr replied: "Did I not tell you you would be unable to keep company with me?" Moses had not yet understood, even though he was a prophet and could read hearts, that there was something taking place that he did not know. They continued and found a young boy. As soon as they saw him, Khidr killed him. Moses said: "What are you doing? You sank a boat, and now you kill a child? This is against all laws!" Again Khidr said: "Did I not tell you you could not keep company with me? The third time you ask me, we will part ways." Then they reached a city where they asked for food. No one gave them any food, and they threw them out. On their way, they found a wall on the verge of collapse. Khidr rebuilt that wall and made it straight. Moses asked: "Why are you doing this? No one accepted us as their guests in this city, and yet you are building their wall for them?" Khidr said: "This is the point where we separate, for you did not understand the wisdom of what I am doing."
"O Moses, what we do is what Allah tells us to do. First I caused this boat to sink because there is a tyrant who is seizing every boat from the poor people on this side of the city. In order for these people not to lose their boat, I made it sink. That tyrant is going to die tomorrow, and tomorrow they can retrieve their boat and use it safely. I killed the child because Allah did not want that child to cause his parents, who believe in you, to leave and run away from your religion. Allah will give them better children than him. I built the wall which belonged to a man who was in life very generous to the poor. When he passed away, he left a treasure buried under the wall for his two orphans. Were that wall to come down, people would see the treasure and take it. I restored it in order for the two children to receive their treasure later. You did not understand God's wisdom."
That was Moses who, with all the honor bestowed on him by God, found himself ignorant before Khidr. How can we, who know so little in comparison to Moses, consider ourselves knowledgeable if Moses himself, with all his knowledge in the Divine Presence, was unable to understand certain things? This is a lesson in humility for human beings, and particularly for scholars and religious leaders: "Your knowledge is not worth mentioning. There are others more and highly more knowledgeable than you. As high or deep as you travel into knowledge, there is deeper depth and higher height than where you stand."
That is why, when someone sits to give advice, he must sit with complete humbleness and complete respect for the listener. He cannot consider himself higher than them, otherwise that light will never reach their hearts. That is also why each is in need of a guide, as was shown by the Guide of guides himself, the Prophet , when he took Jibril as a guide for Revelation, and when he took a guide in traveling to Madina.
This is how Ibn `Arabi (q) in Fusus al-hikam explains the three acts of Khidr witnessed by Musa :
"Moses was tested 'by many ordeals' [20:41] the first of which was the murder of the Egyptian [28:14-15], an act which he committed by Divine impulsion and with the approbation of God deep inside him, without however, his perceiving it; nevertheless he felt no affliction in his soul for having killed the Egyptian, although he himself was not acquitted until he had received a Divine revelation on the subject. For all prophets are interiorly preserved from sin without their being conscious of it, even before they are warned by inspiration.
"It is for that reason that al-Khidr showed him the putting to death of the boy, an action for which Moses reproached him, without remembering his murder of the Egyptian, upon which al-Khidr said to him: 'I have not done it of my own initiative,' recalling thus to Moses the state in which he, the latter, found himself when he did not yet know that he was essentially preserved from all action contrary to the Divine Order.
"He showed him also the perforation of the boat, apparently made to destroy the people, but which has, however, the hidden sense of saving them from the hand of a 'violent man.' He showed this to him as an analogy to the ark which hid Moses when he was thrown into the Nile; according to appearances, this act was equally to destroy him, but according to the hidden sense, it was to save him. Again his mother had done that for fear of the 'violent man,' in this case Pharaoh, so that he would not cruelly kill the child...
"Moses arrived then at Madyan, there met the two girls and for them drew water from the well, without asking from them a salary. Then he 'withdrew to the shade,' that is to say to the Divine shadow, and said: 'O my Lord, I am poor with regard to the blessings Thou bestowest on Me'; he attributed, then, to God alone the essence of the good that he did and qualified himself as poor (faqir) towards God. It was for that reason that al-Khidr reconstructed before him the crumbling wall without asking a salary for his work, for which Moses reprimanded him, until Khidr reminded him of his action of drawing water without asking for reward, and other things too, of which there is no mention in the Koran; so that the Messenger of God -- may God bless him and give him Peace! -- regretted that Moses did not keep quiet and did not remain with al-Khidr, so that God could tell him more of their actions."
Of Khidr's sayings to Sahl at-Tustari (q) according to Ibn `Arabi:
"Allah created the Light of Muhammad from His Light... This Light stayed before Allah for 100,000 years. Allah directed His Gaze upon it 70,000 times every day and night, adding to it a new light from His Light every time. Then, from that Light, He created all creations."
When the Prophet left this world and condolence came, they heard a voice from the corner of the house saying, "Peace, God's mercy and blessings be upon you, members of the Family of the Prophet !" `Ali (r) then asked if they knew who this was, and he said it was Khidr . Bayhaqi transmitted it in Dala'il an-Nubuwwa.

From: http://www.naqshbandi.org/chain/10.htm

Dhikr of the Heart

Destiny

The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,

Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit

Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line

[Omar Khayyam]

Did You Know? ...

1. A rat can last longer without water than a camel.
2. Your stomach has to produce a new layer of mucus every two weeks or it
will digest itself.
3. The dot over the letter "i" is called a tittle.
4. A raisin dropped in a glass of fresh champagne will bounce up and down
continuously from the bottom of the glass to the top.
5. A female ferret will die if it goes into heat and cannot find a
mate.
6. A duck's quack doesn't echo. No one knows why.
7. A 2x4 is really 1-1/2 by 3-1/2.
8. During the chariot scene in "Ben Hur", a small red car can be seen in
the distance.
9. On average, 12 newborns will be given to the wrong parents daily
world
wide!
10. Donald Duck comics were banned from Finland because he doesn't wear
pants.
11. Because metal was scarce, the Oscars given out during World War II
were
made of wood.
12. The number of possible ways of playing the first four moves per
side in
a game of chess is 318,979,564,000.
13. There are no words in the dictionary that rhyme with orange, purple
and
silver.
14. The name Wendy was made up for the book "Peter Pan". There was
never a
recorded Wendy before.
15. The very first bomb dropped by the Allies on Berlin in World War II
killed the only elephant in the Berlin Zoo.
16. If one places a tiny amount of liquor on a scorpion, it will
instantly
go mad and sting itself to death.
17. Bruce Lee was so fast that they actually had to s-l-o-w film down
so
you could see his moves. That's the opposite of the norm.
18. The first CD pressed in the US was Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the
USA".
19. The original name for butterfly was flutterby.
20. The phrase "rule of thumb" is derived from an old English law which
stated that you couldn't beat your wife with anything wider than your thumb.

21. The first product Motorola started to develop was a record player for
automobiles. At that time, the most known player on the market was Victrola,
so they called themselves Motorola.
22. Roses may be red, but violets are indeed violet.
23. By raising your legs slowly and laying on your back, you cannot sink
into quicksand.
24. Celery has negative calories. It takes more calories to eat a piece of
celery than the celery has in it to begin with.
25. For fun, Charlie Chaplin once entered anonymously a "Charlie Chaplin
look-alike contest", and won third prize.
26. Chewing gum while peeling onions will keep you from crying.
27. Sherlock Holmes NEVER said "Elementary, my dear Watson".
28. An old law in Bellingham,Washington, made it illegal for a woman to
take more than 3 steps backwards while dancing.
29. The glue on Israeli postage is certified kosher.
30. The Guinness Book of Records holds the record for being the book most
often stolen from Public Libraries.
31. Astronauts are not allowed to eat beans before they go into space
because passing wind in a space suit damages them.
32. In the movie Casablanca, Humphrey Bogart never said "Play it again
Sam". What he said was "If you can play it for her you can play it for me,
so play it".
33. It is impossible to lick your elbow.
34. A crocodile can't stick its tongue out.
35. A shrimp's heart is in its head.
36. In a study of 200,000 ostriches over a period of 80 years, no one
reported a single case where an ostrich buried its head in the sand.
37. It is physically impossible for pigs to look up into the sky.
38. A pregnant goldfish is called a twit.
39. More than 50% of the people in the world have never made or received a
telephone call.
40. Horses can't vomit.
41. The "sixth sick sheik's sixth sheep's sick" is said to be the toughest
tongue twister in the English language.
42. If you sneeze too hard, you can fracture a rib. If you try to suppress
a sneeze, you can rupture a blood vessel in your head or neck and die. If
you keep your eyes open by force, they can pop out.
43. Rats multiply so quickly that in 18 months, two rats could have over a
million descendants.
44. Wearing headphones for just an hour will increase the bacteria in your
ear by 700 times.
45. If the government has no knowledge of aliens, then why does Title 14,
Section 1211 of the Code of Federal Regulations, implemented on July 16,
1969, make it illegal for US citizens to have any contact with
extraterrestrials or their vehicles?
46. In every episode of Seinfeld there is a Superman somewhere.
47. 23% of all photocopier faults worldwide are caused by people sitting on
them and photocopying their butts.
48. Most lipstick contains fish scales.
49. Like fingerprints, everyone's tongue print is different.
and lastly...
50. Over 75% of people who read this will try to lick their elbow.

A Touching Story of an African Sahaba

Bismillah hir Rahman nir Raheem

... At the time of RasulAllah salAllahu 'alayhi wasallam, there was a sahaba radiAllahu 'anh and he was African. He knew that RasulAllah salAllahu 'alayhi wasallam's blessed hair would sometimes fall and create a part down the center of his perfect head. Now this sahaba's hair radiAllah 'anh was like any African's hair, so it wasn't the kind that could part. This pained him so much... he would look with sad yearning at the hair of his beloved master salAllahu 'alayhi wasallam and would lament deeply that he could not be like him... that he could not do what Allah subhaanahu wa ta 'aala had shown was beloved to Him through His Habib salAllahu 'alayhi wasallam. One day, he couldn't take it any longer- he grabbed hold of the thin, metal stick used to cook meat over a fire, pulled it out of the burning fire, red hot, placed it down the center of his scalp, and burned away a line of hair, creating a part. The other sahaba radiAllahu 'anhum, upon seeing the blood and burning skin on his head, cried, "what are you doing!! Doesn't it hurt?!" to which he replied, "I swear that the pain I felt upon knowing that I could not fulfill this one sunnah was more intolerable than the pain of the burning of my scalp." ... Ameen

From: http://qalbkhaalis.blogspot.com/

More Definitions of Tasawwuf

When asked about Sufism, Muhammad ibn 'Ali al-Qassab--the master of Junayd--said, "Sufism consists of noble behavior (akhlaq karima) that is made manifest at a noble time on the part of a noble person in the presence of a noble people."

When he was asked about Sufism, Junayd said, "Sufism is that you should be with God--without any attachment."

With regard to Sufism, Ruwaym ibn Ahmad said, "Sufism consists of abandoning oneself to God in accordance with what God wills."

On one occasion when he was asked about Sufism, Samnun said, "Sufism is that you should not possess anything nor should anything possess you."

Concerning Sufism, Abu Muhammad al-Jariri said, "Sufism consists of entering every exalted quality (khulq) and leaving behind every despicable quality."

When he was asked about Sufism, 'Amr ibn 'Uthman al-Makki said, "Sufism is that at each moment the servant should be in accord with what is most appropriate (awla) at that moment."

Regarding Sufism, 'Ali ibn 'Abd al-Rahim al-Qannad said, "Sufism consists of extending a 'spiritual station' (nashr maqam) and being in constant union (ittisal bi-dawam)."

All of these definitions of Sufism given by Sufis who lived in the 9th and 10th centuries (CE) are provided by al-Sarraj (d. 378 AH/ 988 CE) in the earliest comprehensive book on Sufism, the Kitab al-Luma' (The Book of Flashes)

Definitions of Tasawwuf

Al-Qushayri relates from al-Junayd the following definitions of tasawwuf:

• "Not the profusion of prayer and fasting, but wholeness of the breast and selflessness."
• "Tasawwuf means that Allah causes you to die to your self and gives you life in Him."
• "It means that you be solely with Allah with no attachments."
• "It is a war in which there is no peace."
• "It is supplication together with inward concentration, ecstasy together with attentive hearing, and action combined with compliance [with the Sunna]."
• "It is the upholding of every high manner and the repudiation of every low one."

Numerical Miracles of the Quran

The word number of times mentioned in Arabic Quran:

• Dunia (one name for life) 115 Aakhirat (one name for the life after)
• 115Malaikat (angels) 88 Shaytan (satan) 88
• Life 145 Death 145
• Benefit 50 Corrupt 50
• People 50 Messengers 50
• Eblees (king of devils) 11 Seek refuge from eblees 11
• Museebah (calamity) 75 Thanks 75
• Spending (sadaqah) 73 Satisfaction 73
• people who are Mislead 17 Dead people 17
• Muslimeen 41 Jihad 41
• Gold 8 Easy life 8
• Magic 60 Fitnah (dissuasion, misleading) 60
• Zakat (taxes Muslims pay for the poor) 32 Barakah (increasing or blessings of a wealth) 32
• Mind 49 Noor (light) 49
• Tongue 25 Sermon 25
• Desire 8 Fear 8
• Speaking publicly 18 Publicising 18
• Hardship 114 Patience 114
• Muhammad 4 Sharee*ah (Muhammad's teachings) 4
• Man 24 Woman 24

And amazingly enough have a look how many times the following words appear:-

• Month 12
• Day 365
• sea 32
• Land 13

Sea + land = 32 + 13 = 45%
sea = 32/45 * 100 % = 71.11111111%
land= 13 / 45 * 100 % = 28.88888889 = 100.00

Modern Science has only recently proven that the water covers 71.111 % of the earth, while the land covers 28.889 %.

Questions on Islamic Science

I have come across many websites on Islamic science that say something similar to:

• Abul Hasan is distinguished as the inventor of the Telescope, which he described to be a "Tube, to the extremities of which were attached diopters".
• Al Haytham used parabolic mirrors to observe the sky in more detail

Does anyone have more information on these topics? If you have, please leave a comment with the information.

Developing Love for Allaah

Abu Bakr al-Kattaanee (d.322H) said:

‘A discussion about mahabbah took place in Makkah during the Pilgrimage month. The shaykhs who were present spoke about this matter and al-Junayd was the youngest of them. They said to him: O ‘Iraaqee, what do you have to say? So he bowed his head and tears were flowing from his eyes and he said:

“A servant should overcome his soul; And be continuous in the remembrance of his Lord; Establishing the Rights of his Lord; Focusing upon Him with his heart; The late of fear setting a blaze upon his heart; Whilst drinking from the vessel of true love; And certain realities become unveiled to him; So when he talks, it is due to Allaah; When he speaks, it is from Allaah; When he moves, it is by the command of Allaah; And when he is serene, then it is from Allaah; He belongs to Allaah, is for Allaah, and is with Allaah.”

So the shaykhs began to weep and said: How can that be increased upon? May Allaah reward you with good, O crown of the knowledgeable ones!’”

Urban Rumours

An interesting website with a list of urban rumours and their explanations: http://www.snopes.com/

Cool FT (Financial Times) desktop news ticker

http://globalelements.ft.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Ticker/tools.ticker.html

The Folly of Man-Made Laws - 3

In New York (USA) citizens may not greet each other by "putting one's thumb to the nose and wiggling the fingers".

The Folly of Man-Made Laws - 2

In Alabama (USA) It is illegal to wear a fake moustache that causes laughter in church.

The Folly of Man-Made Laws - 1

In Los Angeles, you cannot bathe two babies in the same tub at the same time.

Shrine

A graveyard in the Afghan city of Khost, where the bodies of Taleban killed (while they were praying) by US bombing in 2001 were laid to rest has become a shrine to local people.

Photos: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_pictures/4740872.stm

What is the meaning of Al-Ghazzali's following allegory? Leave comments

"Once upon a time the Chinese having challenged the Greeks to a trial of skill in painting, the Sultan summoned them both into edifices built for the purpose directly facing each other, and commanded them to show proof of their art. The painters of the two nations immediately applied themselves with diligence to their work. The Chinese sought and obtained of the king every day a great quantity of colours, but the Greeks not the least particle. Both worked in profound silence, until the Chinese with a clangor of cymbals and of trumpets, announced the end of their labours. Immediately the king, with his courtiers, hastened to their temple, and there stood amazed at the wonderful splendour of the Chinese painting and the exquisite beauty of the colours. But meanwhile the Greeks, who had not sought to adorn the walls with paints, but laboured rather to erase every colour, drew aside the veil which concealed their work. Then, wonderful to tell, the manifold variety of the Chinese colours was seen still more delicately and beautifully reflected from the walls of the Grecian temple, as it stood illuminated by the rays of the midday sun."

Food Mmmmmm....

On Sunday morning, I went to Bricklane's Sunday market where I heard a woman (who had just bought a burger) say "Ewww ... There's a fly on this Burger" immediately after which the burger-stand owner replied "Would you like some ketchup wiv that luv?"

Nasruddin's Friendly Neighbour - Islamic Joke

One day, for one some reason or another, Mullah Nasruddin goes around to Rabbi Moishe's house and asks if he can borrow a pot for a day or two. His neighbour knowing Mullah Nasruddin is reluctant, but eventually agrees as they've been close friends for many years. The very next day, Mullah Nasruddin returns two pots and explains to the over-delighted Rabbi Moishe that the first pot gave birth to the second pot.A week later, Mullah Nasruddin asks Rabbi Moishe if he can borrow two pots. Rabbi Moishe immediately agrees – for the obvious reason.But to Rabbi Moishe's dismay, Mullah Nasruddin never returns the pots, so he asks Mullah Nasruddin if he can have his pots back, but the Mullah Nasruddin explains that tragically both pots have died. Rabbi Moishe is incensed. "How can a pot die?" he demands. "You believed it when a pot gave birth," said Mullah Nasruddin. "Why should you not believe that a pot dies?"

The Order of Caliphate-An excellent inference from the Qur'an

Hazrat Sayyid Mehr Ali Shah (May Allah shower mercy on him) once made the following fine derivation about the sequential order of caliphate of the Four Righteous Caliphs (i.e., Sayyiduna Abu Bakr, Sayyiduna Umar, Sayyiduna Usman and Sayyiduna Ali) from the Qur'anic ayah, "Muhammad (May Allah send peace and blessings upon him) is the Messenger of Allah. And 'those with him' are 'hard against disbelievers' and 'merciful among themselves'. Thou (O Muhammad) seest them 'bowing and falling prostrate in worship' (XLVIII, 29).

The words ...

• “those with him”, he said, referred to Sayyiduna Abu Bakr (R.A)
• “ hard against disbelievers” to referred to Sayyiduna Umar (R.A)
• “merciful among themselves” to Sayyiduna Usman (R.A)
• and “bowing and falling prostrate” to Sayyiduna Ali (R.A).

Walhamdulillah.

From http://scholarspen.blogspot.com/

Throwaway email addresses and Mail forwarding

Afraid of receiving spam in your regular email account when you use it to sign up for anything on the web? If all you require is a temporary email address where you receive some website activation codes after you register, then use a throwaway email address. There are many, but I have used two so far:

• Mailinator
• DodgeIt

Ever wondered how to keep track of all your email accounts especially when you have to setup multiple accounts to use to sign up for forums because all you ever get from signing up is spam and more spam? Fret no more! Sign up here for a mail forwarding service that lets you forward mail using a disposable email address that will last anywhere from 1 hour to 1 month!Spam begone!

The Place of Tasawwuf in Traditional Islam

Perhaps the biggest challenge in learning Islam correctly today is the scarcity of traditional ‘ulama. In this meaning, Bukhari relates the sahih, rigorously authenticated hadith that the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) said,
"Truly, Allah does not remove Sacred Knowedge by taking it out of servants, but rather by taking back the souls of Islamic scholars [in death], until, when He has not left a single scholar, the people take the ignorant as leaders, who are asked for and who give Islamic legal opinion without knowledge, misguided and misguiding" (Fath al-Bari, 1.194, hadith 100).
The process described by the hadith is not yet completed, but has certainly begun, and in our times, the lack of traditional scholars—whether in Islamic law, in hadith, in tafsir ‘Qur'anic exegesis’—has given rise to an understanding of the religion that is far from scholarly, and sometimes far from the truth. For example, in the course of my own studies in Islamic law, my first impression from orientalist and Muslim-reformer literature, was that the Imams of the madhhabs or ‘schools of jurisprudence’ had brought a set of rules from completely outside the Islamic tradition and somehow imposed them upon the Muslims. But when I sat with traditional scholars in the Middle East and asked them about the details, I came away with a different point of view, having learned the bases for deriving the law from the Qur'an and sunna.
And similarly with Tasawwuf—which is the word I will use tonight for the English Sufism, since our context is traditional Islam—quite a different picture emerged from talking with scholars of Tasawwuf than what I had been exposed to in the West. My talk tonight, In Sha’ Allah, will present knowledge taken from the Qur'an and sahih hadith, and from actual teachers of Tasawwuf in Syria and Jordan, in view of the need for all of us to get beyond clichés, the need for factual information from Islamic sources, the need to answer such questions as: Where did Tasawwuf come from? What role does it play in the din or religion of Islam? and most importantly, What is the command of Allah about it?
As for the origin of the term Tasawwuf, like many other Islamic discliplines, its name was not known to the first generation of Muslims. The historian Ibn Khaldun notes in his Muqaddima:
This knowledge is a branch of the sciences of Sacred Law that originated within the Umma. From the first, the way of such people had also been considered the path of truth and guidance by the early Muslim community and its notables, of the Companions of the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace), those who were taught by them, and those who came after them.
It basically consists of dedication to worship, total dedication to Allah Most High, disregard for the finery and ornament of the world, abstinence from the pleasure, wealth, and prestige sought by most men, and retiring from others to worship alone. This was the general rule among the Companions of the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) and the early Muslims, but when involvement in this-worldly things became widespread from the second Islamic century onwards and people became absorbed in worldliness, those devoted to worship came to be called Sufiyya or People of Tasawwuf (Ibn Khaldun, al-Muqaddima [N.d. Reprint. Mecca: Dar al-Baz, 1397/1978], 467).
In Ibn Khaldun’s words, the content of Tasawwuf, "total dedication to Allah Most High," was, "the general rule among the Companions of the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) and the early Muslims." So if the word did not exist in earliest times, we should not forget that this is also the case with many other Islamic disciplines, such as tafsir, ‘Qur'anic exegesis,’ or ‘ilm al-jarh wa ta‘dil, ‘the science of the positive and negative factors that affect hadith narrators acceptability,’ or ‘ilm al-tawhid, the science of belief in Islamic tenets of faith,’ all of which proved to be of the utmost importance to the correct preservation and transmission of the religion.
As for the origin of the word Tasawwuf, it may well be from Sufi, the person who does Tasawwuf, which seems to be etymologically prior to it, for the earliest mention of either term was by Hasan al-Basri who died 110 years after the Hijra, and is reported to have said, "I saw a Sufi circumambulating the Kaaba, and offered him a dirham, but he would not accept it." It therefore seems better to understand Tasawwuf by first asking what a Sufi is; and perhaps the best definition of both the Sufi and his way, certainly one of the most frequently quoted by masters of the discipline, is from the sunna of the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) who said:
Allah Most High says: "He who is hostile to a friend of Mine I declare war against. My slave approaches Me with nothing more beloved to Me than what I have made obligatory upon him, and My slave keeps drawing nearer to Me with voluntary works until I love him. And when I love him, I am his hearing with which he hears, his sight with which he sees, his hand with which he seizes, and his foot with which he walks. If he asks me, I will surely give to him, and if he seeks refuge in Me, I will surely protect him" (Fath al-Bari, 11.340–41, hadith 6502);
This hadith was related by Imam Bukhari, Ahmad ibn Hanbal, al-Bayhaqi, and others with multiple contiguous chains of transmission, and is sahih. It discloses the central reality of Tasawwuf, which is precisely change, while describing the path to this change, in conformity with a traditional definition used by masters in the Middle East, who define a Sufi as Faqihun ‘amila bi ‘ilmihi fa awrathahu Llahu ‘ilma ma lam ya‘lam,‘A man of religious learning who applied what he knew, so Allah bequeathed him knowledge of what he did not know.’
To clarify, a Sufi is a man of religious learning,because the hadith says, "My slave approaches Me with nothing more beloved to Me than what I have made obligatory upon him," and only through learning can the Sufi know the command of Allah, or what has been made obligatory for him. He has applied what he knew, because the hadith says he not only approaches Allah with the obligatory, but "keeps drawing nearer to Me with voluntary works until I love him." And in turn, Allah bequeathed him knowledge of what he did not know, because the hadith says, "And when I love him, I am his hearing with which he hears, his sight with which he sees, his hand with which he seizes, and his foot with which he walks," which is a metaphor for the consummate awareness of tawhid, or the ‘unity of Allah,’ which in the context of human actions such as hearing, sight, seizing, and walking, consists of realizing the words of the Qur'an about Allah that,
"It is He who created you and what you do" (Qur'an 37:96).
The origin of the way of the Sufi thus lies in the prophetic sunna. The sincerity to Allah that it entails was the rule among the earliest Muslims, to whom this was simply a state of being without a name, while it only became a distinct discipline when the majority of the Community had drifted away and changed from this state. Muslims of subsequent generations required systematic effort to attain it, and it was because of the change in the Islamic environment after the earliest generations, that a discipline by the name of Tasawwuf came to exist.
But if this is true of origins, the more significant question is: How central is Tasawwuf to the religion, and: Where does it fit into Islam as a whole? Perhaps the best answer is the hadith of Muslim, that ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab said:
As we sat one day with the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him and give him peace), a man in pure white clothing and jet black hair came to us, without a trace of travelling upon him, though none of us knew him.
He sat down before the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) bracing his knees against his, resting his hands on his legs, and said: "Muhammad, tell me about Islam." The Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him and give him peace) said: "Islam is to testify that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, and to perform the prayer, give zakat, fast in Ramadan, and perform the pilgrimage to the House if you can find a way."
He said: "You have spoken the truth," and we were surprised that he should ask and then confirm the answer. Then he said: "Tell me about true faith (iman)," and the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) answered: "It is to believe in Allah, His angels, His inspired Books, His messengers, the Last Day, and in destiny, its good and evil."
"You have spoken the truth," he said, "Now tell me about the perfection of faith (ihsan)," and the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) answered: "It is to worship Allah as if you see Him, and if you see Him not, He nevertheless sees you."
The hadith continues to where ‘Umar said:
Then the visitor left. I waited a long while, and the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) said to me, "Do you know, ‘Umar, who was the questioner?" and I replied, "Allah and His messenger know best." He said,
"It was Gabriel, who came to you to teach you your religion" (Sahih Muslim, 1.37: hadith 8).
This is a sahih hadith, described by Imam Nawawi as one of the hadiths upon which the Islamic religion turns. The use of din in the last words of it, Atakum yu‘allimukum dinakum, "came to you to teach you your religion" entails that the religion of Islam is composed of the three fundamentals mentioned in the hadith: Islam, or external compliance with what Allah asks of us; Iman, or the belief in the unseen that the prophets have informed us of; and Ihsan, or to worship Allah as though one sees Him. The Qur'an says, in Surat Maryam,
"Surely We have revealed the Remembrance, and surely We shall preserve it" (Qur'an 15:9),
and if we reflect how Allah, in His wisdom, has accomplished this, we see that it is by human beings, the traditional scholars He has sent at each level of the religion. The level of Islam has been preserved and conveyed to us by the Imams of Shari‘a or ‘Sacred Law’ and its ancillary disciplines; the level of Iman, by the Imams of ‘Aqida or ‘tenets of faith’; and the level of Ihsan, "to worship Allah as though you see Him," by the Imams of Tasawwuf.
The hadith’s very words "to worship Allah" show us the interrelation of these three fundamentals, for the how of "worship" is only known through the external prescriptions of Islam, while the validity of this worship in turn presupposes Iman or faith in Allah and the Islamic revelation, without which worship would be but empty motions; while the words, "as if you see Him," show that Ihsan implies a human change, for it entails the experience of what, for most of us, is not experienced. So to understand Tasawwuf, we must look at the nature of this change in relation to both Islam and Iman, and this is the main focus of my talk tonight.
At the level of Islam, we said that Tasawwuf requires Islam,through ‘submission to the rules of Sacred Law.’ But Islam, for its part, equally requires Tasawwuf. Why? For the very good reason that the sunna which Muslims have been commanded to follow is not just the words and actions of the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace), but also his states, states of the heart such as taqwa ‘godfearingness,’ ikhlas ‘sincerity,’ tawakkul ‘reliance on Allah,’ rahma ‘mercy,’ tawadu‘ ‘humility,’ and so on.
Now, it is characteristic of the Islamic ethic that human actions are not simply divided into two shades of morality, right or wrong; but rather five, arranged in order of their consequences in the next world. The obligatory (wajib) is that whose performance is rewarded by Allah in the next life and whose nonperformance is punished. The recommended (mandub) is that whose performance is rewarded, but whose nonperformance is not punished. The permissible (mubah) is indifferent, unconnected with either reward or punishment. The offensive (makruh) is that whose nonperformance is rewarded but whose performance is not punished. The unlawful (haram) is that whose nonperformance is rewarded and whose performance is punished, if one dies unrepentant.
Human states of the heart, the Qur'an and sunna make plain to us, come under each of these headings. Yet they are not dealt with in books of fiqh or ‘Islamic jurisprudence,’ because unlike the prayer, zakat, or fasting, they are not quantifiable in terms of the specific amount of them that must be done. But though they are not countable, they are of the utmost importance to every Muslim. Let’s look at a few examples.
(1) Love of Allah. In Surat al-Baqara of the Qur'an, Allah blames those who ascribe associates to Allah whom they love as much as they love Allah. Then He says,
"And those who believe are greater in love for Allah" (Qur'an 2:165), making being a believer conditional upon having greater love for Allah than any other.
(2) Mercy. Bukhari and Muslim relate that the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) said, "Whomever is not merciful to people, Allah will show no mercy" (Sahih Muslim, 4.1809: hadith 2319), and Tirmidhi relates the well authenticated (hasan) hadith "Mercy is not taken out of anyone except the damned" (al-Jami‘ al-sahih, 4.323: hadith 1923).
(3) Love of each other. Muslim relates in his Sahih that the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) said, "By Him in whose hand is my soul, none of you shall enter paradise until you believe, and none of you shall believe until you love one another . . . ." (Sahih Muslim, 1.74: hadith 54).
(4) Presence of mind in the prayer (salat). Abu Dawud relates in his Sunan that ‘Ammar ibn Yasir heard the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) say, "Truly, a man leaves, and none of his prayer has been recorded for him except a tenth of it, a ninth of it, eighth of it, seventh of it, sixth of it, fifth of it, fourth of it, third of it, a half of it" (Sunan Abi Dawud, 1.211: hadith 796)—meaning that none of a person’s prayer counts for him except that in which he is present in his heart with Allah.
(5) Love of the Prophet. Bukhari relates in his Sahih that the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) said, "None of you believes until I am more beloved to him than his father, his son, and all people" (Fath al-Bari, 1.58, hadith 15).
It is plain from these texts that none of the states mentioned—whether mercy, love, or presence of heart—are quantifiable, for the Shari‘a cannot specify that one must "do two units of mercy" or "have three units of presence of mind" in the way that the number of rak‘as of prayer can be specified, yet each of them is personally obligatory for the Muslim. Let us complete the picture by looking at a few examples of states that are haram or ‘strictly unlawful’:
(1) Fear of anyone besides Allah. Allah Most High says in Surat al-Baqara of the Qur'an,
"And fulfill My covenant: I will fulfill your covenant—And fear Me alone" (Qur'an 2:40), the last phrase of which, according to Imam Fakhr al-Din al-Razi, "establishes that a human being is obliged to fear no one besides Allah Most High" (Tafsir al-Fakhr al-Razi, 3.42).
(2) Despair. Allah Most High says,
"None despairs of Allah’s mercy except the people who disbelieve" (Qur'an 12:87), indicating the unlawfulness of this inward state by coupling it with the worst human condition possible, that of unbelief.
(3) Arrogance. Muslim relates in his Sahih that the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) said, "No one shall enter paradise who has a particle of arrogance in his heart" (Sahih Muslim, 1.93: hadith 91).
(4) Envy,meaning to wish for another to lose the blessings he enjoys. Abu Dawud relates that the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) said, "Beware of envy, for envy consumes good works as flames consume firewood" (Sunan Abi Dawud, 4.276: hadith 4903).
(5) Showing off in acts of worship. Al-Hakim relates with a sahih chain of transmission that the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) said, "The slightest bit of showing off in good works is as if worshipping others with Allah . . . ." (al-Mustadrak ‘ala al-Sahihayn, 1.4).
These and similar haram inward states are not found in books of fiqh or ‘jurisprudence,’ because fiqh can only deal with quantifiable descriptions of rulings. Rather, they are examined in their causes and remedies by the scholars of the ‘inner fiqh’ of Tasawwuf, men such as Imam al-Ghazali in his Ihya’ ‘ulum al-din [The reviving of the religious sciences], Imam al-Rabbani in his Maktubat [Letters], al-Suhrawardi in his ‘Awarif al-Ma‘arif [The knowledges of the illuminates], Abu Talib al-Makki in Qut al-qulub [The sustenance of hearts], and similar classic works, which discuss and solve hundreds of ethical questions about the inner life. These are books of Shari‘a and their questions are questions of Sacred Law, of how it is lawful or unlawful for a Muslim to be; and they preserve the part of the prophetic sunna dealing with states.
Who needs such information? All Muslims, for the Qur'anic verses and authenticated hadiths all point to the fact that a Muslim must not only do certain things and say certain things, but also must be something, must attain certain states of the heart and eliminate others. Do we ever fear someone besides Allah? Do we have a particle of arrogance in our hearts? Is our love for the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) greater than our love for any other human being? Is there the slightest bit of showing off in our good works?
Half a minute’s reflection will show the Muslim where he stands on these aspects of his din, and why in classical times, helping Muslims to attain these states was not left to amateurs, but rather delegated to ‘ulama of the heart, the scholars of Islamic Tasawwuf. For most people, these are not easy transformations to make, because of the force of habit, because of the subtlety with which we can deceive ourselves, but most of all because each of us has an ego, the self, the Me, which is called in Arabic al-nafs, about which Allah testifies in Surat Yusuf:
"Verily the self ever commands to do evil" (Qur'an 12:53).
If you do not believe it, consider the hadith related by Muslim in his Sahih, that:
The first person judged on Resurrection Day will be a man martyred in battle.
He will be brought forth, Allah will reacquaint him with His blessings upon him and the man will acknowledge them, whereupon Allah will say, "What have you done with them?" to which the man will respond, "I fought to the death for You."
Allah will reply, "You lie. You fought in order to be called a hero, and it has already been said." Then he will be sentenced and dragged away on his face and flung into the fire.
Then a man will be brought forward who learned Sacred Knowledge, taught it to others, and who recited the Qur'an. Allah will remind him of His gifts to him and the man will acknowledge them, and then Allah will say, "What have you done with them?" The man will answer, "I acquired Sacred Knowledge, taught it, and recited the Qur'an, for Your sake."
Allah will say, "You lie. You learned so as to be called a scholar, and read the Qur'an so as to be called a reciter, and it has already been said." Then the man will be sentenced and dragged away on his face to be flung into the fire.
Then a man will be brought forward whom Allah generously provided for, giving him various kinds of wealth, and Allah will recall to him the benefits given, and the man will acknowledge them, to which Allah will say, "And what have you done with them?" The man will answer, "I have not left a single kind of expenditure You love to see made, except that I have spent on it for Your sake."
Allah will say, "You lie. You did it so as to be called generous, and it has already been said." Then he will be sentenced and dragged away on his face to be flung into the fire (Sahih Muslim, 3.1514: hadith 1905).
We should not fool ourselves about this, because our fate depends on it: in our childhood, our parents taught us how to behave through praise or blame, and for most of us, this permeated and colored our whole motivation for doing things. But when childhood ends, and we come of age in Islam, the religion makes it clear to us, both by the above hadith and by the words of the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) "The slightest bit of showing off in good works is as if worshipping others with Allah" that being motivated by what others think is no longer good enough, and that we must change our motives entirely, and henceforth be motivated by nothing but desire for Allah Himself. The Islamic revelation thus tells the Muslim that it is obligatory to break his habits of thinking and motivation, but it does not tell him how. For that, he must go to the scholars of these states, in accordance with the Qur'anic imperative,
"Ask those who know if you know not" (Qur'an 16:43),
There is no doubt that bringing about this change, purifying the Muslims by bringing them to spiritual sincerity, was one of the central duties of the Prophet Muhammad (Allah bless him and give him peace), for Allah says in the Surat Al ‘Imran of the Qur'an,
"Allah has truly blessed the believers, for He has sent them a messenger of themselves, who recites His signs to them and purifies them, and teaches them the Book and the Wisdom" (Qur'an 3:164),
which explicitly lists four tasks of the prophetic mission, the second of which, yuzakkihim means precisely to ‘purify them’ and has no other lexical sense. Now, it is plain that this teaching function cannot, as part of an eternal revelation, have ended with the passing of the first generation, a fact that Allah explictly confirms in His injunction in Surat Luqman,
"And follow the path of him who turns unto Me" (Qur'an 31:15).
These verses indicate the teaching and transformative role of those who convey the Islamic revelation to Muslims, and the choice of the word ittiba‘ in the second verse, which is more general, implies both keeping the company of and following the example of a teacher. This is why in the history of Tasawwuf, we find that though there were many methods and schools of thought, these two things never changed: keeping the company of a teacher, and following his example—in exactly the same way that the Sahaba were uplifted and purified by keeping the company of the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) and following his example.
And this is why the discipline of Tasawwuf has been preserved and transmitted by Tariqas or groups of students under a particular master. First, because this was the sunna of the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) in his purifying function described by the Qur'an. Secondly, Islamic knowledge has never been transmitted by writings alone, but rather from ‘ulama to students. Thirdly, the nature of the knowledge in question is of hal or ‘state of being,’ not just knowing, and hence requires it be taken from a succession of living masters back to the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace), for the sheer range and number of the states of heart required by the revelation effectively make imitation of the personal example of a teacher the only effective means of transmission.
So far we have spoken about Tasawwuf in respect to Islam, as a Shari‘a science necessary to fully realize the Sacred Law in one’s life, to attain the states of the heart demanded by the Qur'an and hadith. This close connection between Shari‘a and Tasawwuf is expressed by the statement of Imam Malik, founder of the Maliki school, that "he who practices Tasawwuf without learning Sacred Law corrupts his faith, while he who learns Sacred Law without practicing Tasawwuf corrupts himself. Only he who combines the two proves true." This is why Tasawwuf was taught as part of the traditional curriculum in madrasas across the Muslim world from Malaysia to Morocco, why many of the greatest Shari‘a scholars of this Umma have been Sufis, and why until the end of the Islamic caliphate at the beginning of this century and the subsequent Western control and cultural dominance of Muslim lands, there were teachers of Tasawwuf in Islamic institutions of higher learning from Lucknow to Istanbul to Cairo.
But there is a second aspect of Tasawwuf that we have not yet talked about; namely, its relation to Iman or ‘True Faith,’ the second pillar of the Islamic religion, which in the context of the Islamic sciences consists of ‘Aqida or ‘orthodox belief.’
All Muslims believe in Allah, and that He is transcendently beyond anything conceivable to the minds of men, for the human intellect is imprisoned within its own sense impressions and the categories of thought derived from them, such as number, directionality, spatial extention, place, time, and so forth. Allah is beyond all of that; in His own words,
"There is nothing whatesover like unto Him" (Qur'an 42:11)
If we reflect for a moment on this verse, in the light of the hadith of Muslim about Ihsan that "it is to worship Allah as though you see Him," we realize that the means of seeing here is not the eye, which can only behold physical things like itself; nor yet the mind, which cannot transcend its own impressions to reach the Divine, but rather certitude, the light of Iman, whose locus is not the eye or the brain, but rather the ruh, a subtle faculty Allah has created within each of us called the soul, whose knowledge is unobstructed by the bounds of the created universe. Allah Most High says, by way of exalting the nature of this faculty by leaving it a mystery,
"Say: ‘The soul is of the affair of my Lord’" (Qur'an 17:85).
The food of this ruh is dhikr or the ‘remembrance of Allah.’ Why? Because acts of obedience increase the light of certainty and Iman in the soul, and dhikr is among the greatest of them, as is attested to by the sahih hadith related by al-Hakim that the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) said,
"Shall I not tell you of the best of your works, the purest of them in the eyes of your Master, the highest in raising your rank, better than giving gold and silver, and better for you than to meet your enemy and smite their necks, and they smite yours?" They said, "This—what is it, O Messenger of Allah?" and he said: Dhikru Llahi ‘azza wa jall, "The remembrance of Allah Mighty and Majestic." (al-Mustadrak ‘ala al-Sahihayn, 1.496).
Increasing the strength of Iman through good actions, and particularly through the medium of dhikr has tremendous implications for the Islamic religion and traditional spirituality. A non-Muslim once asked me, "If God exists, then why all this beating around the bush? Why doesn’t He just come out and say so?"
The answer is that taklif or ‘moral responsibility’ in this life is not only concerned with outward actions, but with what we believe, our ‘Aqida—and the strength with which we believe it. If belief in God and other eternal truths were effortless in this world, there would be no point in Allah making us responsible for it, it would be automatic, involuntary, like our belief, say, that London is in England. There would no point in making someone responsible for something impossible not to believe.
But the responsibility Allah has place upon us is belief in the Unseen, as a test for us in this world to choose between kufr and Iman, to distinguish believer from unbeliever, and some believers above others.
This why strengthening Iman through dhikr is of such methodological importance for Tasawwuf: we have not only been commanded as Muslims to believe in certain things, but have been commanded to have absolute certainty in them. The world we see around us is composed of veils of light and darkness: events come that knock the Iman out of some of us, and Allah tests each of us as to the degree of certainty with which we believe the eternal truths of the religion. It was in this sense that ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab said, "If the Iman of Abu Bakr were weighed against the Iman of the entire Umma, it would outweigh it."
Now, in traditional ‘Aqida one of the most important tenets is the wahdaniyya or ‘oneness and uniqueness’ of Allah Most High. This means He is without any sharik or associate in His being, in His attributes, or in His acts. But the ability to hold this insight in mind in the rough and tumble of daily life is a function of the strength of certainty (yaqin) in one’s heart. Allah tells the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) in Surat al-A‘raf of the Qur'an,
"Say: ‘I do not possess benefit for myself or harm, except as Allah wills’" (Qur'an 7:188),
yet we tend to rely on ourselves and our plans, in obliviousness to the facts of ‘Aqida that ourselves and our plans have no effect, that Allah alone brings about effects.
If you want to test yourself on this, the next time you contact someone with good connections whose help is critical to you, take a look at your heart at the moment you ask him to put in a good word for you with someone, and see whom you are relying upon. If you are like most of us, Allah is not at the forefront of your thoughts, despite the fact that He alone is controlling the outcome. Isn’t this a lapse in your ‘Aqida, or, at the very least, in your certainty?
Tasawwuf corrects such shortcomings by step-by-step increasing the Muslim’s certainty in Allah. The two central means of Tasawwuf in attaining the conviction demanded by ‘Aqida are mudhakara, or learning the traditional tenets of Islamic faith, and dhikr, deepening one’s certainty in them by remembrance of Allah. It is part of our faith that, in the words of the Qur'an in Surat al-Saffat,
"Allah has created you and what you do" (Qur'an 37:96);
yet for how many of us is this day to day experience? Because Tasawwuf remedies this and other shortcomings of Iman, by increasing the Muslim’s certainty through a systematic way of teaching and dhikr, it has traditionally been regarded as personally obligatory to this pillar of the religion also, and from the earliest centuries of Islam, has proved its worth.
The last question we will deal with tonight is: What about the bad Sufis we read about, who contravene the teachings of Islam?
The answer is that there are two meanings of Sufi: the first is "Anyone who considers himself a Sufi," which is the rule of thumb of orientalist historians of Sufism and popular writers, who would oppose the "Sufis" to the "Ulama." I think the Qur'anic verses and hadiths we have mentioned tonight about the scope and method of true Tasawwuf show why we must insist on the primacy of the definition of a Sufi as "a man of religious learning who applied what he knew, so Allah bequeathed him knowledge of what he did not know."
The very first thing a Sufi, as a man of religious learning knows is that the Shari‘a and ‘Aqida of Islam are above every human being. Whoever does not know this will never be a Sufi, except in the orientalist sense of the word—like someone standing in front of the stock exchange in an expensive suit with a briefcase to convince people he is a stockbroker. A real stockbroker is something else.
Because this distinction is ignored today by otherwise well-meaning Muslims, it is often forgotten that the ‘ulama who have criticized Sufis, such as Ibn al-Jawzi in his Talbis Iblis [The Devil’s deception], or Ibn Taymiya in places in his Fatawa, or Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyya, were not criticizing Tasawwuf as an ancillary discipline to the Shari‘a. The proof of this is Ibn al-Jawzi’s five-volume Sifat al-safwa, which contains the biographies of the very same Sufis mentioned in al-Qushayri’s famous Tasawwuf manual al-Risala al-Qushayriyya. Ibn Taymiya considered himself a Sufi of the Qadiri order, and volumes ten and eleven of his thirty-seven-volume Majmu‘ al-fatawa are devoted to Tasawwuf. And Ibn al-Qayyim al-Jawziyya wrote his three-volume Madarij al-salikin, a detailed commentary on ‘Abdullah al-Ansari al-Harawi’s tract on the spiritual stations of the Sufi path, Manazil al-sa’irin. These works show that their authors’ criticisms were not directed at Tasawwuf as such, but rather at specific groups of their times, and they should be understood for what they are.
As in other Islamic sciences, mistakes historically did occur in Tasawwuf, most of them stemming from not recognizing the primacy of Shari‘a and ‘Aqida above all else. But these mistakes were not different in principle from, for example, the Isra’iliyyat (baseless tales of Bani Isra’il) that crept into tafsir literature, or the mawdu‘at (hadith forgeries) that crept into the hadith. These were not taken as proof that tafsir was bad, or hadith was deviance, but rather, in each discipline, the errors were identified and warned against by Imams of the field, because the Umma needed the rest. And such corrections are precisely what we find in books like Qushayri’s Risala,Ghazali’s Ihya’ and other works of Sufism.
For all of the reasons we have mentioned, Tasawwuf was accepted as an essential part of the Islamic religion by the ‘ulama of this Umma. The proof of this is all the famous scholars of Shari‘a sciences who had the higher education of Tasawwuf, among them Ibn ‘Abidin, al-Razi, Ahmad Sirhindi, Zakariyya al-Ansari, al-‘Izz ibn ‘Abd al-Salam, Ibn Daqiq al-‘Eid, Ibn Hajar al-Haytami, Shah Wali Allah, Ahmad Dardir, Ibrahim al-Bajuri, ‘Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulsi, Imam al-Nawawi, Taqi al-Din al-Subki, and al-Suyuti.
Among the Sufis who aided Islam with the sword as well as the pen, to quote Reliance of the Traveller, were:
such men as the Naqshbandi sheikh Shamil al-Daghestani, who fought a prolonged war against the Russians in the Caucasus in the nineteenth century; Sayyid Muhammad ‘Abdullah al-Somali, a sheikh of the Salihiyya order who led Muslims against the British and Italians in Somalia from 1899 to 1920; the Qadiri sheikh ‘Uthman ibn Fodi, who led jihad in Northern Nigeria from 1804 to 1808 to establish Islamic rule; the Qadiri sheikh ‘Abd al-Qadir al-Jaza’iri, who led the Algerians against the French from 1832 to 1847; the Darqawi faqir al-Hajj Muhammad al-Ahrash, who fought the French in Egypt in 1799; the Tijani sheikh al-Hajj ‘Umar Tal, who led Islamic Jihad in Guinea, Senegal, and Mali from 1852 to 1864; and the Qadiri sheikh Ma’ al-‘Aynayn al-Qalqami, who helped marshal Muslim resistance to the French in northern Mauritania and southern Morocco from 1905 to 1909.
Among the Sufis whose missionary work Islamized entire regions are such men as the founder of the Sanusiyya order, Muhammad ‘Ali Sanusi, whose efforts and jihad from 1807 to 1859 consolidated Islam as the religion of peoples from the Libyan Desert to sub-Saharan Africa; [and] the Shadhili sheikh Muhammad Ma‘ruf and Qadiri sheikh Uways al-Barawi, whose efforts spread Islam westward and inland from the East African Coast . . . . (Reliance of the Traveller,863).
It is plain from the examples of such men what kind of Muslims have been Sufis; namely, all kinds, right across the board—and that Tasawwuf did not prevent them from serving Islam in any way they could.
To summarize everything I have said tonight: In looking first at Tasawwuf and Shari‘a, we found that many Qur'anic verses and sahih hadiths oblige the Muslim to eliminate haram inner states as arrogance, envy, and fear of anyone besides Allah; and on the other hand, to acquire such obligatory inner states as mercy, love of one’s fellow Muslims, presence of mind in prayer, and love of the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace). We found that these inward states could not be dealt with in books of fiqh, whose purpose is to specify the outward, quantifiable aspects of the Shari‘a. The knowledge of these states is nevertheless of the utmost importance to every Muslim, and this is why it was studied under the ‘ulama of Ihsan, the teachers of Tasawwuf, in all periods of Islamic history until the beginning of the present century.
We then turned to the level of Iman, and found that though the ‘Aqida of Muslims is that Allah alone has any effect in this world, keeping this in mind in everhday life is not a given of human consciousness, but rather a function of a Muslim’s yaqin, his certainty. And we found that Tasawwuf, as an ancillary discipline to ‘Aqida, emphasizes the systematic increase of this certainty through both mudhakara, ‘teaching tenets of faith’ and dhikr, ‘the remembrance of Allah,’ in accordance with the words of the Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) about Ihsan that "it is worship Allah as though you see Him."
Lastly, we found that accusations against Tasawwuf made by scholars such as Ibn al-Jawzi, and Ibn Taymiya were not directed against Tasawwuf in principle, but to specific groups and individuals in the times of these authors, the proof for which is the other books by the same authors that showed their understanding of Tasawwuf as a Shari‘a science.
To return to the starting point of my talk this evening, with the disappearance of traditional Islamic scholars from the Umma, two very different pictures of Tasawwuf emerge today. If we read books written after the dismantling of the traditional fabric of Islam by colonial powers in the last century, we find the big hoax: Islam without spirituality and Shari‘a without Tasawwuf. But if we read the classical works of Islamic scholarship, we learn that Tasawwuf has been a Shari‘a science like tafsir, hadith, or any other, throughout the history of Islam. The Prophet (Allah bless him and give him peace) said,
"Truly, Allah does not look at your outward forms and wealth, but rather at your hearts and your works" (Sahih Muslim, 4.1389: hadith 2564).
And this is the brightest hope that Islam can offer a modern world darkened by materialism and nihilism: Islam as it truly is; the hope of eternal salvation through a religion of brotherhood and social and economic justice outwardly, and the direct experience of divine love and illumination inwardly.

From http://masud.co.uk

Money

Here is the story of an Imam who got up after Friday prayers and announced to the people: "I have good news and bad news. The good news is, we have enough money to pay for our new building program. The bad news is, it's still out there in your pockets."

Microsoft Repackages the iPod

The Burda

http://www.burda.blogspot.com/

Newspaper Headlines

A man is taking a walk in Central park in New York. Suddenly he sees a little girl being attacked by a pit bull dog . He runs over and starts fighting with the dog. He succeeds in killing the dog and saving the girl's life. A policeman who was watching the scene walks over and says: "You are a hero, tomorrow you can read it in all the newspapers: "Brave New Yorker saves the life of little girl" The man says: - "But I am not a New Yorker!" "Oh ,then it will say in newspapers in the morning: 'Brave American saves life of little girl'" – the policeman answers. "But I am not an American!" – says the man. "Oh, what are you then? " The man says: - "I am a Saudi !" The next day the newspapers says: "Islamic extremist kills innocent American dog.

Sovereign Entities ...

Read the following ...

Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.
Or rather...

Learn the science behind this ...

The Kalam Cosmological Argument - Definitive Proof of the Existence of God

The cosmological argument for God's existence began with Plato and ever since has been defended--and attacked--by many of the greatest philosophers in history. Most people know the argument only its Thomistic or Leibnizian form, but a lesser-known Arabic version of it has received recent attention from scholars since the 1979 publication of The Kalam Cosmological Argument by philosopher William Lane Craig. Most of what follows comes from Craig's defense of the argument, though I will use my own words and sometimes my own examples and comments.
The kalam argument has its roots in medieval Arabic philosophy and theology. The Arabic word kalam means "speech," but more broadly it means "natural theology" or "philosophical theism" (Craig, Kalam, 4). The distinctive feature of kalam-style cosmology is its stress on the impossibility of the actual infinite. Put simply, kalam arguments try to demonstrate (1) that the existence of an actual infinite (a concept from modern set theory to be discussed shortly) is impossible and (2) that even if it were possible, the universe itself is not actually infinite and hence must have had a beginning.
Here is an outline of the argument:
1. The universe either had (a) a beginning or (b) no beginning.2. If it had a beginning, the beginning was either (a) caused or (b) uncaused.3. If it had a cause, the cause was either (a) personal or (b) not personal. The KCA works by supporting the (a) option of each premise and then using it in the following premise. Hence the KCA is actually a series of connected arguments. To be successful each of these arguments must be logically valid and have true premises. Since the KCA is a series of arguments that take the form of a valid argument known as a disjunctive syllogism, the KCA's formal validity is beyond dispute. To be a sound argument, however, the KCA must have true premises, and thus the bulk of this presentation will attempt to support the premises.
Let's begin with (1): the universe either had a beginning or did not have a beginning. Craig offers three arguments in support of a universe with a beginning. Two are philosophical; one is scientific. Here is the first philosophical argument:
1. An actual infinite cannot exist.2. A beginningless series of events in time is an actual infinite.3. Therefore, a beginningless series of events in time cannot exist. Premise One
In contemporary set theory, an actual infinite is a collection of things with an infinite number of members, for example, a library with an actually infinite set of books or a museum with an actually infinite set of paintings. One of the unique traits of an actual infinite is that part of an actually infinite set is equal to whole set. For example, in an actually infinite set of numbers, the number of even numbers in the set is equal to all of the numbers in the set. This follows because an infinite set of numbers contains an infinite number of even numbers as well as an infinite number of all numbers; hence a part of the set is equal to the whole of the set. Another trait of the actual infinite is that nothing can be added to it. Not one book can be added to an actually infinite library or one painting to an actually infinite museum.
By contrast, a potential infinite is a set of things that can be added to. The collection of paintings in a real museum is a potentially infinite set; one can always add another painting to the collection (given enough space), but there will always be a finite number of paintings in the museum. Another way of stating the difference between an actually infinite set and a potentially infinite set is that the latter has identical ordinal and cardinal numbers, but the former has a cardinal number known as the aleph zero or aleph null and an ordinal number which designates the entire series of natural numbers.
A common objection at this point is that if an actual infinite cannot exist, and God is infinite, then God cannot exist. This objection is based on a confusion of the terms "infinite" and "actual infinite." An actual infinite is a technical concept found in set theory that refers to sets and collections, not to single beings. To deny that an actual infinite can exist is to deny that a library with an actually infinite set of books or a museum with an actually infinite number of paintings can exist. God, on the other hand, is a being, not a set or collection of things, and hence God is not an actual infinite. It should be noted that kalam defenders do not dispute the legitimacy of the actual infinite as a mathematical concept. Craig writes that what kalam defenders argue "is that an actual infinite cannot exist in the real world of stars and planets and rocks and men" (Craig, The Existence of God, 42). In fact, until Gregor Cantor's work in set theory, mathematicians rejected the existence of an actual infinite as a mathematical concept. But Cantor himself denied the existential possibility of the actual infinite. In correspondence with the Pope, he even suggested that the existential impossibility of the actual infinite could be used in a mathematical-metaphysical proof for the existence of God.
Another famous mathematician and expert in set theory, David Hilbert, writes:
... the [actual] infinite is nowhere to be found in reality. It neither exists in nature nor provides a legitimate basis for rational thought--a remarkable harmony between being and thought....
The role that remains for the [actual] infinite to play is solely that of an idea ... (Craig, Kalam, 87) But why can't an actual infinite exist in the real world of rocks and trees? Hilbert explains why by using an argument known as "Hilbert's Hotel":
Let us imagine a hotel with a finite number of rooms, and let us assume that all the rooms are occupied. When a new guest arrives and requests a room, the proprietor apologises, 'Sorry--all the rooms are full.' Now let us imagine a hotel with an infinite number of rooms, and let us assume that again all the rooms are occupied. But this time, when a new guest arrives and asks for a room, the proprietor exclaims, 'But of course!' and shifts the person in room 1 to room 2, the person in room 2 to room 3, the person in room 3 to room 4, and so on... The new guest then moves into room 1, which has now become vacant as a result of these transpositions. But now let us suppose an infinite number of new guests arrive, asking for rooms. 'Certainly, certainly!' says the proprietor, and he proceeds to move the person in room 1 into room 2, the person in room 2 into room 4, the person in room 3 into room 6, the person in room 4 into 8, and so on... . In this way, all the odd-numbered rooms become free, and the infinity of new guests can easily be accommodated in them.
In this story the proprietor thinks that he can get away with his clever business move because he has forgotten that his hotel has an actually infinite number of rooms, and that all the rooms are occupied. The proprietor's action can only work if the hotel is a potential infinite, such that new rooms are created to absorb the influx of guests. For if the hotel has an actually infinite collection of determinate rooms and all the rooms are full, then there is no more room. (Craig, Kalam, 84-85) Craig uses the example of a library to illustrate this same point. Imagine an actually infinite library of books that come in two colors: black and red. The books are placed on a shelf in an alternating pattern of black and red. It is obvious that there are an equal number of black books and red books. But if this library is actually infinite, the number of black books is equal to the number of all the books, i.e., the number of black books is equal to the number of red books plus the number of black books. While these counter-intuitive paradoxes might make sense at the level of mathematical theory, they do not make much sense in the real world of books and libraries.
Premise Two
A beginningless series of events in time is an actual infinite. In other words, if the series of past events had no beginning, it is actually infinite. If premise one is correct, however, it follows that a beginningless series of events in time cannot exist. Consider the following example. The Battle of Hastings took place in 1066. The Declaration of Independence was adopted in 1776, 710 years after the Battle of Hastings. If the series of past events in the universe is actually infinite, we can say that the Battle of Hastings was preceded by an infinite number of events. We can say the same about the Declaration of Independence. In fact we can say that the set of past events before the Battle of Hastings is equal to the set of past events before the Declaration of Independence, because part of an actually infinite set is equal to the whole set, as noted above. But how can that be? 710 years separate these two events, i.e., 710 years were added to the set of past events before the Battle of Hastings to get to the Declaration of Independence. By definition, however, nothing can be added to an actual infinite. Hence the series of past events before the Battle of Hastings cannot be actually infinite. Craig thus draws the conclusion to the first philosophical argument as follows: "[s]o the series of all past events must be finite and have a beginning. But the universe is the series of all events, so the universe must have had a beginning" (Craig, The Existence of God, 47).
The second philosophical argument for the beginning of the universe does not dispute the existence of the actual infinite, but instead points out that an actual infinite is not attained by adding new members to a potential infinite:
1. The series of events in time is a collection formed by adding one member after another.2. A collection formed by adding one member after another cannot be actually infinite.3. Therefore, the series of events in time cannot be actually infinite. Premise One
Returning to the example of the Battle of Hastings and the Declaration of Independence, it is obvious that the 710 years between them came about by adding one year after the other. History is the continual addition of new events, one event being added after another.
Premise Two
Remember that nothing can be added to an infinite set. Any set to which can be added another member is not infinite, simply because another member could always be added. Infinity could never be reached by addition. This is called the impossibility of traversing an infinite. Craig asks us to "Imagine a man running up a flight of stairs and every time his foot strikes the top step, another step appears above it. It is clear that the man could run forever, but he would never cross all the steps because you could always add one more step" (Craig, The Existence of God, 50).
It follows from this that the series of events in time cannot be actually infinite. 1993 would never have arrived had it been preceded by a infinite number of years, because one cannot cross an infinite number of years to reach 1993 anymore than the man running up the stairs can cross an infinity of steps. Thus the number of years before 1993 must be finite and potentially infinite, but not actually infinite.
The scientific argument for a finite universe is by far the most controversial. Cosmologists constantly gather new evidence and refine theories accordingly. Skeptics often object that cosmology is too tentative of a discipline from which to draw absolute conclusions and thus does not provide good evidence for theistic arguments, and they further object that supporting theistic beliefs with tentative scientific arguments means that such beliefs run the risk of being falsified. These objections fail to grasp three important points. First, scientific arguments for theism do not intend to draw absolute conclusions, but to establish the likely probability that God exists. Second, the same risk that theism runs in using tentative scientific arguments is exactly the same risk that atheism runs. Third, a universe with an absolute beginning is well supported by scientific findings, and classical big bang theory is currently the best cosmological theory.
These findings include the following (consult the works cited for a more comprehensive explanation of these findings). First, earlier this century, Edwin Hubble discovered that light from distant galaxies is red-shifted, implying that the universe is expanding from an initial explosion which took place a finite time ago. Although a few scientists have challenged this interpretation of the red-shift, it has been supported by observation and successful prediction and has an explanatory power unmatched by other theories (Craig, Kalam, 160). Second, the big bang theory predicted the discovery of three-degree blackbody radiation, a discovery which surprised other cosmological theories. Third, astrophysicist Robert C. Newman writes "If there is any process which causes our universe to lose energy at a non zero rate, then an oscillating universe would have run out of energy (and so ceased to oscillate) long ago" (Newman, "The Evidence of Cosmology," 85). This means that it is all but improbable that the universe as we know it is one universe in an infinite series of expanding and contracting universes. Fourth, there is no explanation for why a contracting universe would "bounce" and begin expanding again. Recent evidence confirms that galaxies are moving too quickly away from one another for gravity to pull them back into a compressed point. Fifth, in April 1992, American scientists discovered ripples of matter at the edge of the universe. These ripples are evidence that the universe was given its structure very early in its history and further confirm that the universe had a definite beginning.
Having given three arguments to show that the universe had a beginning, we can move on to the second dilemma posed by the KCA: if the universe had a beginning, the beginning was either (a) caused or (b) uncaused. Before discussing the (a) option, we should consider what is becoming a common response to this dilemma from those critical of the cosmological argument. Some theorists speculate that before Plank's time (10 to the negative 43 seconds after the universe began) the universe came into existence out of a quantum mechanical fluctuation. Hence some argue that the universe came out of nothing. Moreland, however, rightly points out that identifying nothingness with something, in this case a mechanical fluctuation, is a mistake; nothingness does not cause anything, let alone fluctuate or bring a universe into existence. Astronomer Hugh Ross notes that one of these theorists, Alan Guth, remarked that "such ideas are speculation squared." Put more concretely, there are three main problems with the quantum fluctuation speculation: it is based upon (1) a non existent theory of quantum gravity, (2) the use of imaginary numbers, and (3) the assumption that the universe was in a quantum state in its early beginning and thus had an indeterminate beginning.
Problem (1) could be solved by the discovery of a quantum theory of gravity, but such a discovery has not been forthcoming and should not be taken for granted. (2) puts the argument that the universe came from quantum fluctuation on non-realist grounds. Renowned physicist Stephen Hawking writes:
If the universe really is in such a quantum state, there would be no singularities in the history of the universe in imaginary time.... The universe could be finite in imaginary time but without boundaries or singularities. When one goes back to the real time in which we live, however, there will still appear to be singularities.... In real time, the universe has a beginning and an end at singularities that form a boundary to space-time and at which the laws of science break down" (Ross, 114). Note especially the phrase "when one goes back to the real time in which we live." This is a remarkable scientific confirmation of what kalam philosophers have been saying for a long time and what mathematicians such as Cantor and Hilbert confirm: the actual infinite cannot exist. When the imaginary transfinite mathematics of the actual infinite is translated into real finite terms, the results are nonsensical.
This leads to problem (3). If the universe was in a quantum state at its beginning, then one could speculatively circumvent the problem of switching between imaginary and real time, but this brings up a further problem. Under the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum physics, there needs to be someone to observe the quantum fluctuation that produced the universe. Since, of course, no human beings were present at the inception of the universe, it is obvious who the best candidate is for being the observer of the alleged quantum fluctuation that brought forth the universe. To avoid the theistic implications of this interpretation, some theorists have argued that our universe fluctuated out of superspace in which an infinite number of universes were physically possible. However, this is another example of "speculation squared." Craig writes of this: "It hardly needs to be said that this is a piece of speculative metaphysics no less objectionable than theism; indeed, I should argue, more objectionable because the reality of time is ultimately denied as all dimensions, temporal as well as spatial, are subsumed into superspace" (Craig, "In Defense of Rational Theism," 148). Moreover, it posits the existence of an actually infinite number of universes--and since an actual infinite cannot exist, this speculation is at odds with reality.
Finally, the concept of quantum indeterminacy only tells us that measurements at the atomic level cannot be taken with precision; it is not a metaphysical or ontological principle. Applied to the beginning of the universe, if the universe was in a quantum state, quantum indeterminacy simply means that we cannot know with Newtonian precision what happened before Plank's time. It does not mean that the universe popped into existence uncaused or that the ultimate cause of the universe is indeterminate. On the contrary, it was the work of Hawking et. al. that established the singularity theorem, i.e., a theorem which affirms that space and time had a definite beginning--regardless of whether scientists can measure with certainty what happened before Plank's time.
Since the appeal to quantum indeterminacy does not support the (b) option, what can be said in favor of the (a) disjunct? Consider the principle of sufficient reason as formulated by the German philosopher Leibniz: "no fact can be real or existing and no statement true unless it has a sufficient reason why it should be thus and not otherwise" (Leibniz, 198). This principle is often stated as "everything that begins to exist has a cause of its existence" or "every event has a cause." It is hard to overestimate how essential this principle is to rational enquiry. Biologists who seek to explain the origin of life depend upon it. So do detectives solving a crime, meteorologists forecasting the weather, and doctors diagnosing a patient. In commenting on Leibniz's cosmological argument, one philosopher writes "... if one were to reject it [i.e. the principle of sufficient reason], the argument would fail. But this is a principle Leibniz contends it would be absurd to reject. And it is also one of the most fundamental principles of rational thought" (Schacht, 54-55).
Moreover, the principle of sufficient reason has never been falsified in the history of rational thought. Hence the principle can amply be defended upon empirical grounds as well as philosophical grounds. Why, then, should one balk at the principle of sufficient reason in regards to the beginning of the universe? Why arbitrarily set aside a fundamental principle of rational thought to avoid the implications of a universe with a beginning? Thus unless someone can give a good reason for waiving the principle at this point, we can conclude that a universe that began to exist had a cause of its existence.
This leads us to the final dilemma: if the universe had a cause, the cause was either (a) personal or (b) not personal. Even if one should accept the (a) option of the first two dilemmas, why should one believe that the cause of the universe is a personal being? Some argue, for example, that even if the universe had a cause, its cause could have been a natural one. Presumably this means that the universe could be the product of an impersonal physical cause. The problem with this is twofold. First, what does it mean to say that the cause of the universe is a natural one? Natural causes exist within the universe, not outside of it. If something preceded the universe, then by definition it is not a natural cause, because the laws of nature came into existence after whatever preceded the universe.
Second, if the cause of the universe is a sufficient cause, meaning that the existence of the cause alone guarantees the existence of the universe, the universe would always have existed. To make this clear consider the sufficient cause of lighting a match. When a match is struck against the proper surface, it ignites, and thus striking the match is the sufficient cause of an ignited match. Note that as soon as a sufficient cause exists, the effect follows immediately; there is no gap between the cause and the effect. This raises a question: if the sufficient cause of the universe has always existed, then why has the universe not always existed?
The answer to this question is that the cause of the universe is a personal agent who willed the creation of a finite universe. To use the match example, once the match is struck the effect immediately follows, but if a personal agent does not strike the match, the effect does not have to follow. Likewise, if the cause of the universe is personal, the universe does not have to be eternal like its sufficient cause. Instead, the universe could have been willed into existence much like a person wills to light a match. Once the cause is set into motion the effect follows, but only after the cause is set into motion; and a personal agent has the power not to set the cause in motion. Thus we can conclude that the cause of the universe is personal.
Conclusion
Now that we have supported the (a) option of each dilemma, we can draw this conclusion: the universe was brought into existence by a personal agent. Now this conclusion might startle some people. Many of us believe that the existence of God cannot be proven or cannot be proven with any strong certainty. But if the three main premises of the KCA are sound and adequately supported, then the conclusion is true regardless of the remarkable and startling implications of such a conclusion.