WALAYAH

MILAD E MOULANA ALI (SA) MUBARAK AND MOHANNA TO OUR BELOVED AQA MOULA (TUS) WHOSE 100TH MILAD MUBARAK WE LOOK FORWARD TO CELEBRATE.
MILAD E MOULANA ALI (SA) MUBARAK TO MUMINEEN

I am sharing with readers, in particular students of Islamic Philosophy and
mumineen who are attending 'sabaks' the excerpts from the Book:

HISTORY OF ISLAMIC PHILOSOPHY : HENRY CORBIN

This Book primarily deals with literary expression of Shi'ism in general and Ismailism in particular.


The cycle of Walayah is thus a cycle of Imam (Vasi) succeeding the Prophet; that is to say the batin succeeding the zahir, the Haqiqah succeeding the Shariah

Walayah is the esoteric dimension of the eternal prophecy(Nubuwah) it is the realization of all its perfection, according to the esoteric dimensions, before the beginning of Time, and its eternal perpetuation.

The two persons of the Prophet ( Nabi Muhammad S.A.) and the IMAM (Vasi Moulana Ali S.A.) prior to their earthly kinship, share a spiritual relationship (nisbah ma'naviyah ) which is established in their pre-existence.

Muhammad (SA) ' I and Ali are the one and the same Light'

Moulana Ali (SA) ' I was already a Wali, when Adam (the earthly Adam) was still between 'water and clay'

Their pre-existence as a Pleroma of beings of Light had already been affirmed by Imam Jafar us Sadik (SA) : ' God (Allah) created us out of the LIGHT Of His sublimity, and from the clay (of our Light) HE created the Spirit of our Shi'ites.'

IMAM : Their knowledge encompasses the totality of all times. They are muhaddathun (those to whom the Angels speak)

MUHAMMAD (SA) is the epiphany of all the eternal prophetic Reality, the Supreme Spirit, the celestial Anthropos.

This is why he can say " I am the first of the prophets with respect to creation (the Supreme Spirit pre-exists the Universe) and the last one in respect of mission and Manifestation. "

One of the Prophet's most famous Companions, 'Abd Allah ibn 'Abbas, relates how profoundly impressed were those who listened to (Moulana) 'All's commentary
on the Fatihah (the first Surah of the Quran).

The first Imam (VASI) himself gives this testimony: 'Not a single verse of the Quran descended upon (was revealed to) the Messenger of God which he did not proceed
to dictate to me and make me recite.

I would write it with my own hand, and he would instruct me as to its tafsir (the literal explanation) and the ta'wil (the spiritual exegesis), the nasikh (the verse which abrogates) and the mansukh (the abrogated verse), the muhkam and the mutashabih (the fixed and the ambiguous), the particular and
the general. And he would pray to God to increase my understanding
and my memory. Then he would lay his hand on my breast and ask
God to fill my heart with knowledge and understanding, with judgment
and illumination.

Moulana Ali (SA) : ' there is no Quranic verse, which does not possess four types of meanings :

exoteric - zahir

esoteric - batin

limit - hadd

divine plan - muttalla

Imam Jafar al Sadik (SA) " The Book of God (Allah) comprises of four things -

the statement set down - 'ibarah

the implied purport - ishara

the hidden meanings to the
supra sensible world - lataif

and the exalted Spiritual
doctrines - haqaiq "

The exoteric is for oral recitation, the esoteric is for inner understanding.

Philosophical understanding of a few important terms, we regularly hear in Vaaz and sabaks.

tafsir strictly speaking is the literal exegesis of the letter.

tawil (etymologically speaking, this means to lead back or 'bring back' something to its origin (to its asl )

tafhim literally to enable to understand the highest hermeneutic of all.

tanzil designates positive religion - it means to cause this Revelation to descent from the higher world.

Conversely tawil means to cause to return, to lead back to the origin, and thus to return to the true and original meaning of the written (Revealed ) text. It is to cause something to arrive at its original.

The word 'tawil' together with the word 'tanzil' constitute a pair of terms and concepts, which are complementary and contrasting.

Literal Meanings of some other terms:

tahqiq - Philosophical enquiery

mithal symbol

mamthul - that which is symbolized

salah canonical prayer

ma'rifah knowledge

mahabbah love. Both are essential for Walayah.

ulu al 'azam the men of decision.

ilham inspiration

alamat - signs

lahut - divinity

nasut - humanity

kashf - mystical unveiling

tajalli - ephiphanized

matbu' priori - the knowledge of the first principles.

istibsar - observation

i'tibar - inference

idrak - perception

ru'yah 'aqliyah -Spiritual vision

sama' aqli - Spiritual hearing

'ulum ksablyah rasmiyah - 'the official sciences' acquired from the external world by means of effort and human teachings.

'ulum irthiyah haqiqah - knowledge in the true sense received by Spiritual heritage obtained gradually or all at once through divine instructions.

ta'til agnosticism

tasbih the assimilation of that which is manifested in its Manifestation

'alam al ibda / 'alam al amr The Pleroma

'alam al Khalq which is the created world, the object of Creation

inbi'ath - emanation

A very thought provoking video on Universal Consciousness :

Suggested viewing for better understanding of how haqiqat truths and science are converging into a unified source of Enlightenment.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrcWntw9juM&feature=browch

An Ex-MSB -Kolkata student falls in LOVE - An Exclusive MM scoop

Such a feeling's coming over me!

So, she is gonna be here again.and she has already got me irreversibly crazy. My love affair began way back in 1998 at France. The first crush of nascent adolescence occurred while playing Fifa 98 on the PC. First high graphics quality football game I had ever played and it was love at first sight. I began to flirt with the game in reality at a local football camp and fell for her intense charms and deft moves. The crush had turned into strong feelings.

France 98 was her first visit that I had ever witnessed. It was hard to keep all her match dates. A schoolboy still, I was not allowed to go out and stay up till midnight. I could only catch her in the evenings and though it was a well known fact that she was her charming best at late nights, I was thankful of the time I spent with her. She played expectantly true to most of her traits, giving me my first joyful Ronaldo and Brazilian moments. She made me familiar with her famed Italian relatives, namely Roberto Baggio, about whom I had heard so much about and was in awe. She also threw a few surprises. Namely Croatia in the semis and France the eventual champions. I was not allowed to go and watch the tragic English play, depicting their dramatic loss to Argentina. I was very angry with myself for having missed watching performances of David Beckham and the young promising Micheal Owen. I only could catch the reruns of the play and read newspaper clippings. I fell in love with the English performers and even parted my hair from the center, like Beckham, even though I was teased at school for it. She left after a full month, but it seemed very little time, as lovers will tell you. For the first time in my life I suffered from withdrawal symptoms and pined for her to come back soon. I was in love with her. But it was too early to tell.

She decided to arrive in Korea and Japan after four years and I decided to follow her keenly. Still in the last year of high school, peaking in my teens and passion pimples showing, I was allowed spend more time with her. Guys at school were doing the same. It happens at that age. She was kind in spending time with us from afternoons till evenings. She was not going to make us chase her, or sneak out with her late at nights. She got us a bag full of surprises consisting of South Korea, Turkey, Senegal and USA. She shocked us by her behavior with France and Argentina. I began to understand that she demanded the best, reputations not withstanding. The only vivid memory I have of her visit is sitting in the school's biology lab, fiddling with a small plant and chemicals and glancing at my watch every single minute and predicting with a classmate proceedings of the Brazil-England quarterfinal. I had requested for a leave that day, but it had been shot down. I rushed home, climbing the stairs mad like a hero in search of his long lost princess. Alas! Another epic English tragedy had been missed. She had given us the amazing gift of a curling Ronaldinho freekick, I had been a fool to miss it. She gave us her famous Brazilan champions this time too. It was my first time to see them being crowned champions. I wish I had been born a generation earlier to have seen more of them. As she left this time, I confessed my love to her. She promised to be back soon.

This time Germany caught her fancy and mine too. I vowed to myself to spend every single day of her month long visit with her. I was 19 then, an adult and fully capable of making such decisions. I stayed up late at night every single day partying with her. But I learnt that too much football caused a bad hangover the next morning. I couldn't think straight, couldn't work, couldn't study. But I was hopelessly obsessed with her. I suffered splitting headaches on some mornings, yet I partied with her every night till the wee hours. Hell, I wasn't going to be a teen again. I witnessed my first World cup English tragedy involving Portugal and was left utterly heartbroken. The pain felt evaporated a taste for dramatic tragedies. I was thoroughly impressed by the youthfulness of Germany and Spain, though I didn't like the final Italian opera played out. The experience of being in an intense relationship gave a heady feeling but maintaining it cost a fatigued price.

June 2010 marks the 12th year of our relationship. I've begun to understand her better, can predict her moods and sense when she is about to spring a few surprises. I've become older and mature and seek to spend quality time with her rather than every single minute. We are beginning to respect each others space and time. During this visit of hers, I am going to receive her with open arms, will decorate my home to celebrate her homecoming and party the African way, complete with plastic trumpets. But we won't stay up every night, instead choosing to party late on weekends and big match days only. We'll spend time with friends and relatives and enjoy the togetherness feeling rather than spending time alone by ourselves. I've asked her to get certain particular gifts for me, primarily because we share that kind of a relationship now. I've asked her to give me a Messi with the coolest trick accessories, A second round qualification for at least 2 African teams, one of them being South Africa. I've also asked for a pack of the best Oranje and German performances. But the most pleading requests have been made for a brand new Spanish world champions.

She is expected to arrive with a lot of African verve and I can't wait to meet her. And the moment she pulls out the gifts from her month long trip bag, I am going to wait my turn like a 13 year old schoolboy again. I know that is what she will do to me. She will make me a young, energetic, enthusiastic, joyful child again!

P.S: World cup, I love you.

SHABBIR MULLA MOHAMMAD BHAI LOKHANDWALA - PUNE

A Brief History of Everything - KEN WILBER

KEN WILBER at the age of 23 left his graduation in Biochemistry to pursue the wisdom of unraveling the mysteries. Excerpts from his book :

Arthur Koestler coined the term HOLON to refer to any entity that is itself whole and simultaneously a part of the whole. For instance a whole atom is a part of a whole molecule, the whole molecule is a part of of a whole cell, and the whole cell is part of a whole organism and so on.

The point basically is everything created is a 'holon' of some sort or another.

Even the 'whole' KOSMOS is simply a part of the next moment's whole - indefinitely. At no point we have a whole, there are only whole/parts for ever and for ever.

(On reading this I thought it as a wonderful way of TAWHEED - only ALLAH - mubde - haq - subhanahu ) is complete ALL IN HIMSELF )

It was Pythagoras who introduced the term KOSMOS. It contains

1. Cosmos - the physio sphere

2. Bios - biosphere

3. Nous - nooshere

4. Theos - the theosphere or divine domains.

There are 'holons' in all the above spheres. Every 'holon' is a whole and a part. Every 'holon' has two twendencies or 'two drives' that is to maintain both its 'wholeness' and 'partness'

Maintaining its wholeness means it has to preserve its own identity, itw own autonomy, its own agency.

The self transcending drive produces life out of matter, the mind out of life and towards higher stages - the Spiritual stages.

The KOSMOS unfolds in quantum leaps of creative emergence.

Each 'holon' has four basic capacities : 1. Agency 2. Communion 3. Self dissolution 4. Self transcendence.

The Example of a thousand Monkeys and Shakespeare Play.

A scientific calculation showed that a chance for a thousand monkeys to produce a single Shakespeare Play was one in ten thousand million - million - million - million - million, so may be it can happen in a billion - billion years.

But the Universe is only twelve billion years old.

Calculations done by scientists from Fred Hoyle to F.B. Salisbury consistently showed that 12 billion years is not enough time to produce a single enzyme by chance. In other words, something other than chance is pushing the Universe.

SPIRIT is unfolding itself in each new transcendence, which it also enfolds into its own being at the new stage.

PHILOSOPHY - Part 2

Sharing nuggets from a very interesting and readable book ' The Story of Philosophy'
- Will Durant (contd:) Book pages 696

From Aristotle to the Renaissance.

Roman Stoic Seneca : ' The secret of peace is not to make our achievements equal to our desires, but to lower our desires to the level of our achievements. If what you have seems insufficient to you, then though you possess the world, you will yet be miserable.'

EPICURUS: We must not avoid pleasures, but we must select them.

FRANCIS BACON : In the essay 'Of Youth and Age he puts a book into a paragraph - "Young men are fitter to invent than to judge, fitter for execution than to counsel, and fitter for new projects than for settled business ........... Men of age object too much, consult too long, adventure too little, repent too soon, and seldom drive business to the full period, but content themselves with the mediocrity of success.
Certainly it is good compel employments of both......... because the virtue of either may correct the defects of both'

SPINOZA : " to inquire whether I might discover and attain the faculty of enjoying throughout eternity continual supreme happiness........ love towards a thing eternal and infinite alone feeds the mind with a pleasure secure from all pain. Only knowledge, then, is power and freedom; and the only permanent happiness is the pursuit of knowledge and the joy of understanding.

As for the terms good and bad, they indicate nothing positive in themselves ... for one and the same thing can at the same time be good, bad and indifferent. For example,music is good to the melancholy, bad to mourners, and indifferent to the dead.

Men think themselves free because they are conscious of their volition and desires, but ignorant of the causes by which they are led to wish and desire. Spinoza compares the feeling of free will to a stone's thinking, as it travels through space, that it determines its own trajectory, and selects the place of time of its fall !!

Spinoza knows that as passion without reason is blind, reason without passion is dead. Thought should not lack the heat of desire, nor desire the light of thought.
By imagination and reason we turn experience into foresight; we become the creators of our future, and cease to be the slaves of our past.

Spinoza rises from the fitful pleasures of passion to the high serenity of contemplation, which sees all things as part of an eternal order and development; he learns to smile in the face of the inevitable, and 'whether he comes into his own now, or in a thousand years , he sits content. (this is hikmat)

VOLTAIRE : He was 'sheer intelligence transmuting anger into fun, fire and light - a creature of air and flame, the most excitable that ever lived ... Was he, perhaps, the greatest intellectual energy in all history ?"

Not to be occupied, and not to exist, amount to the same thing.

The further I advance in age, the more I find work necessary. It becomes in the long run the greatest of pleasures, and takes the place of the illusions of life.

I am a puny part of the great whole...
All born for torment and for mutual death...
Man is a stranger to his own research;
He knows not whence he comes, nor whither goes.
Tormented atoms in a bed of mud,
Devoured by death, a mockery of fate;
But thinking atoms, whose far seeing eyes,
Guided by thoughts, have measured the faint stars;
Our being mingles with the infinite
Ourselves we never see, or come to know...

To be free is to be subject to nothing but the laws.

PHILOSOPHY - Part 1

Sharing nuggets from a very interesting and readable book ' The Story of Philosophy'
- Will Durant

** There is a pleasure in philosophy, and a lure even in the mirages of metaphysics, which very student feels until the coarse necessities of physical existence draf him from the heights of thought into the mart of economic strife and gain.

SOCRATES : The modesty of his wisdom was the most likable trait. He did not claim to have wisdom, but only to seek it lovingly; he was wisdom's amateur, not its professional.

The Oracle of Delphi had pronounced him as the wisest of Greek of his time. But the starting point of his philosophy was : ONE THING ONLY I KNOW, AND THAT IS I KNOW NOTHING !

He had his own religious faith, he believed in One God, and in his modest way believed that death would not quiet destroy him.

PLATO: Plato's meeting with Socrates had been a turning point in his life.

When asked why is it that such simple paradise as he has described - the Utopias never arrive upon the map ?
He answers, because of greed and luxury. Men are not contained with simple life: they are acquisitive, ambitious, competitive, and jealous; they soon tire of what they have, and pine for what they have not; and they seldom disre anything unless it belongs to others.

( after many centuries, nothing has changed, we have not learnt )

The elements of instruction..... should be presented to the mind in childhood, but not with any compulsion, for a freeman should be a freeman too in the acquisition of knowledge.. Knowledge which is acquired under compulsion has no hold on the mind. therefore do not use compulsion, but let early education be rather a sprt of amusement; this will better enable you to find out the natural bent of the child.

(It took us more than 2300 years to put this idea into effective practice and vouchsafe of its merit!)

Every individual is a cosmos or chaos of desires, emotions and ideas, let this fall into harmony; and the individual survives and succeeds; let them loose their proper place and function, let emotions try to become the light of action as well as its heat (as in a fanatic) or let thought try to become the heat of action as well as its light (as in an intellectual) and disintegration of personality begins, failure advances like the inevitable light

ARISTOTLE : Logic means, simply, the art and method of correct thinking.
He led the foundation of Biology. At the bottom of the scale, we can scarcely divide the living from the 'dead', nature makes so gradual a transition from the inanimate to the animate kingdom, that the boundary lines which separate them are are indistinct and doubtful, and perhaps a degree of life exists even in the inorganic. ( how so true)

He rejects Empedocles' doctrine that all organs and organism are a survival of the fittest.

Everything in the world moves naturally to a specific fullfillemnt. Of the varies causes which determine and event, the final cause, which determines the purpos, is the most decisive and important.

The mistakes and futilities of nature are due to the inertia of matter resisting the forming force of purpose ....(gem of haqiqat)everything is guided in a certain direction from within, by its nature, structure and entelechy; the egg of the hen is internally designed or destined to become not a duck but a chick, the acorn becomes not a willow but an oak.

Aristotle's favorite example of matter and form are woman and man; the man is the active, formative principle; the female is passive clay , waiting to be formed.

In plants the soul is merely a nutritive power; in plants it is also a sensitive and locomotive power; in man it is as well the power of reason and thought.

Economics : The most hated sort of such exchange is usury, which makes gain out of money itself, and not from its natural use. For money was intended as an instrument of exchange, and not as the mother of interest. This usury (tokos) which means the birth of money from money...... is of all modes of gain, the most unnatural.

Note: The Philosophy of Aristotle exerted a great influence on Muslim thinkers.

The spreading of Islamic Science and Philosophy

In the 11th century TOLEDO was the greatest Muslim center of learning founded in the West. In 1085 Toledo fell to the Spanish Christians. A Spanish Jew baptized under the name of Petrus Alphonsi became physician of King Henry I and thus he became the first to spread Muslim Science in the West.

The most prominent and prolific translator at TOLEDO was the Italian Gerad of Cremone who had a Christian and a Jewish assistant (Intereting !!) He occupies same position in the Western World as HUNAIN held in the Islamic World of Bagdad. Gerad was rightly called the the father of Arabism in Europe.

By the time of his death in 1187 he had produced 80 translations, amongst authors he translated into Latin were KINDI - FARABI _ AVICENNA ( Bu Ali Sina)

Latin versions of Arabic books immediately became the subject of study in the 12th Century at centres such as Bologna - Montpellier - Paris - Oxford.

The translations of Avicenna, whether medical or philosophical works were received with great enthusiasm all over Europe. when the manuscripts were finally printed mostly at Strasburg and Venice, they ran into innumerable editions, sometimes separately, and at times together with the works of Farabi and Kindi. There is evidence of their widespread use at various centers of learning.

BOOK REFERENCE : AVICENNA - HIS LIFE AND WORKS - Soheil M. Afnan (Phd Cent:)

Personal Note: It feels sad to note that in the 21st Century Islam is being misunderstood and maligned, largely on account of of a few misguided elements. When spread of knowledge is put on the back burner, humanity suffers.

HIKMAAH - MAW'IZAH - KHITABAH

We mumineen frequently hear the terms in vaaz and bayans. I came across a very in depth article by a renowned Islamic scholar : Murtada Muthari ' Spiritual Teachings of Nahj -al Balaghah' in which he has brought out the subtle meanings and the difference between the three terms. Hope readers of my blog will surely derive insight and knowledge.

HIKMAAH - WISDOM
MAW'IZAH - SPIRITUAL AND MORAL ADVICE AND ADMONITION
KHITABAH - EXHORTATION AND ORATORY

Excerpts from the article:

Hikmaah is the struggle against ignorance and maw'izah is the struggle against negligence and indifference.

Hikmaah deals with the intellect and maw'izah appeals to the heart.

Hikmaah educates while maw'izah prepares the intellect for employment of its reserves

Hikmaah is a lamp and maw'izah is an eye opener.

Hikmaah is the language of the intellect, while maw'izah is the message for the spirit.

Accordingly, the personality of the speaker, plays an essential role in maw'izah, which is not the case with hikmaah. In hikmaah two minds communicate in an impersonal manner, but in maw'izah the situation is like the passage of an electric charge, that flows from the speaker, who is at the higher potential than the listener.

The speech which originates from the heart enters another heart and the words which originates from the tongue, do not go beyond the ears.

MAW'IZAH AND KHITABAH

Maw'izah and Khitabah :

Maw'izah differs from Khitabah (Oratory) Although Khitabah also deals with emotions, but it seeks to stir and agitate them. Maw'izah on the other hand is intended to pacify emotions and seeks to bring them under control.

Khitabah is effective when emotions are inert and stagnant. Maw'izah is required when lusts and passions become unmanageable.

Rhetoric and oratory snatch control from the hands of calculating reason, and hand it over to tempestuous passion, but maw'izah appeases the tempestuous passions an prepares the ground for calculation and foresight.