(noun) The capacity to assess situations or circumstances shrewdly and to draw sound conclusions.
I just like the meaning of this word and how pompous it would sound to actually use it in normal conversation.
Blog
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Frosty the Snowman perpetuates The Man’s myth. What they don’t tell you is that the first snowman was black!
Martin Show. (via nonchalante)
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Sighting versus Calculating the New Moon
It might be a bit premature for a post like this given that Ramadaan is still a few months away, but this issue has been playing on my mind for a long time now. I was reminded about it again just now when I was delayed in my performance of my Dhuhr salaah, which nearly overlapped with the time for Asr. How did I know it almost overlapped? Not through measuring the length of the shadow of an object relative to the object itself, or from going out to try to determine the angle of the sun. I identified the overlap like almost every other Muslim these days, and that is that I looked at a perpetual salaah timetable that has been published by various Islamic bodies throughout the world, and that is available on the internet, on my mobile phone and in various printed formats.
So we’ve got access to this amazing wealth of knowledge that we know only stems from Allah because Allah has established this universe in due proportion with an order about everything. It makes everything predictable if we only apply our minds. Everything except the weather of course. And women. But I digress. 🙂
Despite knowing the exact minute when the moon will be born, and despite knowing exactly how old it has to be before it is possible to be seen with the naked eye, we still insist on the physical sighting of the moon to establish the beginning of a new lunar month, when we go from day to day and establish our salaah according to a calculated timetable! Is it just me or is there a distinct contradiction in that? The moon sighting sagas has not only made the Muslims a laughing stock of the world on more than one occasion, but it has driven divisions in communities because of the ridiculous debates that rage around it.
So in our collective wisdom, in South Africa for example, we agree that if the moon is not sighted in Johannesburg, but it is sighted in Cape Town, then the Muslims in Johannesburg are allowed to commence fasting in line with the people in Cape Town. So I ask myself this simple question; during the time of Rasulullah (SAW), how would it have been possible for a message to be sent in a single night from one town to another town to confirm the sighting of the moon when those towns were in fact days of travel apart? So is this then yet another contradiction in the practice of insisting on the sighting of the moon for Ramadaan?
It simply doesn’t make sense. All it does is it confirms yet again the ridiculous gap in knowledge of those that perpetuate such logic because once again we fail to note the difference between ritual and principle. Ritual would be the sighting of the moon. Principle would be the changing of the month based on the birth of the new moon. Both of which is clearly guided by the measurements defined by the Sunnah. If these measurements can be accurately confirmed without the use of the naked eye, then the same way that we don’t look for the distinction between a black and white thread at the time of dawn to commence Fajr salaah, we should not be looking for the crescent of the new moon to confirm the commencement of a new Islamic month. When we get this right, the ridicule in the below image can finally be put behind us, so that as an Ummah we can stop being distracted with such ridiculous pettiness and instead focus on the real issues that face the Muslims today.
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Writer’s block sucks. So does the feeling of being philosophically constipated. I’m not even sure what that means, but I have this urge to want to write something meaningful about all the changes in my life recently, how it impacts me, and how it’s turned out relative to what I expected, but nothing. I’m anaemic. I sit here at my keyboard waiting to bleed and nothing trickles out.
I’m an impatient man. I’m constantly contemplating the consequences of what we’re contemplating now, and instead of accepting that a long term goal is in fact a long term goal, the moment it takes a shape or form in my head, I feel compelled to realise it now against some ridiculous self-imposed deadline.
At least I can still ramble nonsensically without much effort, so perhaps not all is lost yet. It still sucks though.
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think…think…think…think…think…think…
I think till it pales me, and then I observe how my thinking pales me, and then I observe how my observation of my thinking pales me. And the cycle continues until I have no energy nor inclination to think, at which point my brain switches off, my emotions go into neutral, I quite unconsciously assume a detached disposition and I appear as cold and insensitive as a sociopath. Worse still, thoughts that can only be entertained by a sociopath start trickling through my head until suddenly I realise how detached I am, how sullen I appear, and how fatigued my body is, and it prompts a burst of consciousness that jolts me out of that stupor and into a flurry of thoughts and passion and creativity that manifests itself in flirtatious and endearing behaviour that leaves most bewildered at the sudden change in temperament.
I’m not moody. Sometimes I just succumb to the weight of life. The gentle souls that touch my life in my later years inevitably bear the brunt of the lessons learnt at the hands of the despicable souls in my earlier years. What didn’t kill me didn’t make me stronger, it only made me more jaded, but progressively more impatient. I keep lying to myself thinking that survival implies strength, when in fact it simply implies adaptability. Knowing how to dodge the bullet doesn’t make me bullet proof. It simply makes me smart enough to know when to duck. But eventually, I get tired of ducking and instead, I stand square-shouldered facing the onslaught with eyes wide open, my heart gently ticking away in my chest, waiting for what I always knew was inevitable, knowing that it will hit me hard, but defiantly standing there waiting to see exactly how hard it’s going to hit.
I look at life and envy those that can live in the moment without a concern for the consequences. It must be so comforting being so numb to what may come next. But I can’t help but look at life and see what came before and what will come next without ever allowing myself enough time to savour what is. The present moment continues to elude me. Silence. Now there’s a nice idea!
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Is there really only one ONE straight path?
More often than not, references to this ‘straight path’ is made in arrogant and condescending tones denoting that only a single interpretation of Islam is possibly acceptable and that everyone else are misguided deviants. This is like saying that there is only black and white and every colour in between doesn’t exist. I’ve seen this and many other similar sentiments appear on Tumblr, and the only emotions it stirs in me is the same frustration I experience when I sit in the masjid and listen to the condescension and rhetoric flowing thick and fast from the tongues of so many self-righteous imams that barely represent the sunnah in their physique, manner or disposition.
Islam is not a monolithic structure with a hierarchy that has only a single route to the top. There is only One Allah. This is indisputable and is also the only unforgivable sin. There are a million ways to achieve Allah’s pleasure and mercy, so assuming that there is only one interpretation or practice of what ‘THE straight path’ is, is a fallacy most often grounded in self-indulgent piety.
This same inflexible thinking is what gives rise to sects and madhabs and so many other deviations that are hardly ever the teachings of the true pious scholars but instead are excessive interpretations by their over zealous followers. Those sects that were formed through the self-proclamation of its founders are blatantly misguided, and those that were formed through the proclamations of its followers have always been questionable.
The lazy ones insist on labels. The arrogant ones judge without true knowledge. The fools pronounce takfir on others without concern for their own standing with Allah. The same way that there is a million ways to give charity, and each way earns Allah’s pleasure, there is a million ways to be a Muslim without deviating from the principles that Islam has established through the example set by Rasulullah (SAW). Anyone that insists otherwise is at risk of judging others from a position of religious arrogance rather than true concern.
Sahih Bukhari ~ Vol 3, Book 49. Peacemaking. Hadith 861.
Narrated By ‘Aisha : Allah’s Apostle said, “If somebody innovates something which is not in harmony with the principles of our religion, that thing is rejected.”
Principles, not traditions. Far too often we confuse the two and end up hopelessly refuting people on the basis of arrogant affiliations rather than true contradictions or innovations that violate the principles of Islam. May Allah protect us all from such ignorance and arrogance, the combination of which is fatal to our iman.
