Decisive Treatise:Averroes:Prescribed Fatwas Of Islamic Law

It's important we be God of every world because God is God.

In the first 10 pages of the Decisive Treatise, puts forward several arguments to demonstrate the necessary harmony between religion and philosophy (or rational knowledge). In light of your reading give answers to the followings questions.

I. Give two of the arguments through which Averroes tries to establish this harmonious relationship. How do you think this establishes a solid ground for rationalizing religion and hence overcoming the gap, often assumed between religion as a revealed system of dogma and science and philosophy as product of human rationality on the other hand?
 

   *That the Law calls for ‘the consideration of existing things’ by means of intellect and for pursuing cognizance of them by means of it is ‘evident’… (pg 2, line 4), (While perusing pg 2 line 5 of the Arabic portion of the Decisive Treatise I noticed the word ‘mathala’ but wasn’t sure if it was ‘mashala’ as I was unable to distinguish whether the middle letter was a ‘sheen’ or a ‘tha’, providing that the middle letter was a ‘tha’ and the word was indeed ‘mathala’ ‘mim’,  ‘th’ and ‘lam’ I realized that I’ve seen this word in the verse of ‘light’ in which the variant ‘mathalu’ is present, denoted by the harukat dhumma/pesh diacritical mark above the lam. I’ve also seen the word in Surah Baqara, Ayah 26: “Allah is not ashamed to set forth the parable of a mosquito or anything bigger than it. Those who believe they know that it is the truth from their Lord. But those who disbelieve say, “What did Allah intend from this ‘example’ ‘Mathala’/mim-th-lam)?” This ayah of the Quran and innumerable ayahs like them are from which Averroes draws.  The Quran being a preeminent cornerstone of Islamic Law, Averroes establishes a syllogistic process of rationalizing the idea of reflection (philosophy) as obligatory, petitioning to his fellow jurist via Decisive Treatise that Allah has made it both implicit and explicit to consider creation. In the Quran Allah asks the human being to consider the creation of camels (pg 2, line 18); and also further prompts the human being to consider the creation of ‘Earth’ (Ard/Arabic portion of text) and the heavens (Samaau);  and how it has been ‘raised up’(kayfa-rafiat) (page.2, line19).  Averroes’ syllogistic reasoning asks, should not these commands from Allah in the Quran lead to syllogistic juridical reflection upon the law, just as we are commanded to reflect upon God’s creation? “The Jurist has only a syllogism based upon supposition, whereas the one who is cognizant has a syllogism based on certainty (Page 9, Line 21). Averroes’ legal mind is absolutely sound in this regard further explaining that the nature of inference is to draw out the unknown from that which is known (Page 2, Line 25).

     Law is based on ‘a priori’ or ‘posterior truths’ and legal principles such as a cognizance of God represent the basis of Averroes’ syllogistic procession of thinking, holding to the idea that the prescribed laws of Islam urge an ‘a priori’ cognizance of God and a further awareness that all things exist through Him by means of demonstrations (Page 3, Line 4). The Quran does not rehearse ayahs (signs) to the human being as if the human being is ignorant. (Page 3 Line 24):’ …to infer from the command to reflect upon the beings the obligation to become cognizant of intellectual syllogistic reasoning and it’s kinds.’ in the human being an implicit syllogistic responsibility to infer into existence of posterior truths, self evident truths and empirical truths are inherent, e.g., though the Quran specifically mentions ‘Camel’, this is not in any way to suggest that Allah wants human beings to solely consider camels, instead the reader of the Quran is assumed to be inferring that God wants man to consider the entire animal kingdom (Zoology). Nor should the human being exclusively consider the Earth but all planets that the naked eye or the human being’s technological eye (Hubble telescope etc.) can detect to establish sciences like Astronomy (Page 5, Line 21).

     The mention of Allah as ‘Rabil Alamin’ (Lord of all Worlds and or all ‘existing systems of knowledge’) is proof that the human being should seek closeness to his Lord by way of investigating all worlds hence to contemplate the nature of the universe, and/or multi-verse as suggested by ideas like M-theory.

     Averroes proves, using his syllogistic style of reasoning that philosophy is not only obligatory as evidenced by certain ayahs in the Quran but that the human being is further obligated to uncover the ideals of all societies  predating the religion of Islam by using their corpus of knowledge as a tool (page 4 line 27).  Ultimately, knowledge is a cumulative effort, forever growing and proceeding forward as the result of every human idea stemming from religion to philosophy; to every Earth science in to the study of the invisibility of the quantum realm which incidentally correlates directly with one of the first words in Surah Al-Baqarah which is ‘Ghyb’ (unseen’). A syllogistic argument could be made that if a Muslim believes in the ‘unseen’ should not he/she then explore it? Not that Averroes asked this question directly or knew specifically of the subject of quantum mechanics but the legal provisions for such endeavors are valid by way of his argumentation.  The first 10 pages of Decisive Treatise are partly epistemic, not in that Averroes is asking what is knowledge, but instead how the human being acquires ‘ilm’ (knowledge).

       To what extent do you think Averroes's position echoes the call of Muhammad to renew religion? In this same vein, what does this say about the relation between the sacred and the secular from the Islamic perspective? If rational knowledge as Averroes seems to be arguing is essentially the ultimate interpretation of religion, to what extent does this overcome the relation between sacred revealed knowledge and secular, rationally attained knowledge? From a different perspective, to what extent could this reconciliation of religion and rationality completely dilute any specificity or sanctity of religion? In other words would not this simply subordinate religion to science and philosophy?

      Averroes’ is making a case that the Quran urges man to seek knowledge, in making such a case his ideas reflect Muhammad’s call that Islam be a religion that is ever renewing itself with progressive ideas.     

       Sacred and secular ideas conflict and are in a state of communicative gridlock with one another. Averroes’ rational argument does not overcome the gap or separation between the two diametrically opposed ideologies, not because Averroes was not rational in his reasoning but because his ideas are positioned and set against a very conservative ulama, vigilante against the Shaitan (Satan), the Shaiteen (devils), fitna (confusion) and potential sources of bidda (heretical innovation).  On page five line five Averroes mentions, “…if there is anything not correct in it ‘we’ will alert people to it.”  ‘We’, means those who are trained in Islamic reasoning and law who’d be researching these canonical works from various past non-Muslim societies. I’m sure Averroes’ naysayers who themselves were trained in Islamic law and subjects such as Qiyas cited Ayahs like Surah 2, Ayah 59: ‘But those who were unjust changed it for a saying other than that which had been spoken to them, so We sent upon those who were unjust a pestilence from heaven, because they transgressed.”, easily, countering Averroes’ syllogistic reasoning with syllogistic logic of their own. The idea that this climate of liberal ‘reflection’ Averroes is attempting to bring forward could potentially lead to gross transgression of the Law as well as his clash with the Hanblite literalist (Page 10 Line 11) of his era are nothing in comparison to the conflicting thesis of sacred ideas and the diametrically opposed anti-thesis of secular ideas, least of all a hope of deriving a tolerant synthesis given the cynical tone of modernism toward Islamic fundamentalism present day, and or even ‘moderate’ positions in Islam.

     Averroes mentions throughout the ‘Decisive Treatise’ of a cognizance of ‘God’ and that the religious are ever mindful of God goes contrary to secular thinking which is a thought process that excludes God as a sound premise to initiate a productive meaningful discourse or dialogue of any sort. Secular thought does however demonstrate mild tolerance for religion or the ‘sacred’, usually making provisions for God and faith politically positioned as constitutional freedoms expressing no compulsion to necessarily believe or disbelieve and thus ‘Right’ of faith becomes a legal article of indifference toward God. This social indifference on behalf of the secular world does its best at minimum to respect the ‘sacred’, conversely an Islamic view holds less tolerance for secular values. To my last sentence belongs a crucial qualification: embracing the secular community without having the secular stench of that which has been labeled ‘haram’ (forbidden) on one’s garments is much more difficult than enacting a constitutional provision. The rate of the exchange of values and the willingness to be tolerant is grossly disproportionate and consequently Muhammad’s call to renew Islam fails in the face of modernity; and those Muslims who do adjust to the secular reality run the risk of falling into what in Islamic jurisprudence would be classified in many cases as kuf or disbelief. 

   Finally, I don’t think it is a question of religion’s sanctity being diluted or somehow made subordinate to science or philosophy. The concept of ‘subornation’ or ‘elevation’ of one- above-the other only reinforces a hierarchical paradigm pervasive in both secular ideas and religious ideas alike. That, “I am somehow better than you because I am an Islamic cleric and you’re a kafir (disbeliever)”, or “I work at C.E.R.N and I can’t believe ‘you people’ still believe in this idea that a ‘God’ is really keeping score” are both harsh and cynical in tone and rich in arrogance-an arrogance ironically at the root of Iblis’ refusal to make sajud to Adam in the Quran. The physical body is a working whole as science, philosophy and religion should be, each part should move in concert. Let my lips (religion) curse my thumb (philosophy) if my thumb desires to pluck out my eye (science) is anatomical insanity.

Peace 

Emblem

The Unconscious Root Of A Movafucka

The Unconscious Root Of A Movafucka

     I won’t attempt to pass off the following writing as an absolute truth. I will however express a deeply held personal belief that relates to reality and how all movafuckuz relate to reality at their root.  Conscious awareness is a temporary hot air bubble on the surface of a seething pot of boiling unconscious water. The unconscious is the heat below the surface that causes this volcanic like eruption we have come to know as reality. Every single conscious event in reality is perceived via our own individuated awareness which has been projected from a subsurface dynamic traditionally deemed the collective unconscious. What we know as ‘sleep’ is a state in which our present state of awareness ceases to filter the information from the daily reality in which we dwell. Whatever the pillars are that are holding consciousness up it is these pillars of cognition that enable us to process multiple sequences within our waking experience. We drift off into this state of sleep as if this state of ‘unconsciousness’ is a state that somehow beckons the portion of our consciousness that is anchored to reality. Why would an awareness based on a state of wakefulness need to close down in nightly intervals? Is it for the sole purpose of resting the body or does consciousness need to take refuge in some native existential state of origin?

     This writing is not intended to act as a discourse or study of sleeping, instead it takes the position that reality as a whole is a symbolic state, in which all things mean something. This writing is a brief declaration of symbolism’s underlying connection to reality. Language and Mathematics initially come to mind when the mention of symbolism finds itself a topic of discussion. Language allows human beings to communicate with each other, sounds molded into words that act as vessels carrying meaning with the intention of being received and understood. In the vessels of words meanings are present-meanings agreed upon by both the transmitter and the receiver. The cipher is deciphered when an encoded transmission is decoded to produce a state of comprehension in the communicant receiving the message from the transmitting communicant. All of the above is an example of what God and Earth define ‘Knowledge, Wisdom and Understanding to be.   

     “When Yacob was six years old while ‘playing’…” In a state of play, the seriousness with which the conscious mind engages reality is relaxed, and thus entrenches itself in a broader state having greater freedom-freedom of imagination, and a more powerful freedom of expression.  In this state of play and lesser restriction this playful expression yields the definitive purpose in the form of a determined idea-an idea in which we are all born with. The ‘mathology’ of Yacob represents a determined idea regarding an individual’s entire life purpose revealing itself in a child while that child is in an innocent state of play. This is hinting to the possibility that either something more profound is happening than play-or that our psychological perceptions enjoy creating interesting conspiratorial plots. As human beings we need theme, order, purpose, and reason proving rationalism is a unique part of our species. As human beings we designate meaning, we make life mean something. A dog pisses on a fire plug with no consideration of the purpose of the fire plug. As humans we know that the fire-plug facilitates the acquisition of water in the event of a fire in an urban setting. Dogs don’t create intricate plans that indicate higher intelligence. The level of the conceptual reality of human beings indicates theme and deliberation in our intellectual process. The ability to act on a multitude of levels is a distinct part of human intelligence. This intelligence runs consistent through the conscious and the unconscious.

Why call it the unconscious?

      Maybe the prefix ‘un’ is not completely accurate, it does however indicate that there is more to ‘Self’ and ‘human awareness’ that act in an abstract way in order to approximate both the idea of position, and directionality of consciousness, i.e., ‘sub’, an ‘un’. ‘Subconscious’ is consciousness below a waking state of awareness. ‘Sub’ and ‘Un’ as they relate to the general notion of ‘unconsciousness’ abstractly refers to a vast part of consciousness yet to be discovered, mapped and fully explained or understood. When I’ve used terminology like the ‘Black Mind’ it has been with the expressed purpose to relate a subjective quasi religious notion of the ‘divine’. ‘Unconscious’ efficiently ushers forth the point I am attempting to make in its relationship to psychology and conscious behaviors on an appropriate landscape that better describes social symbolism.

       From the moment the physical reality was set into motion by way of an initial force of causation, events appear to fall in order like dominoes, and as we look back on these past events as a a path of fallen dominoes, a question begs to be asked: Could past events appear to be anything else than a well laid path of fallen dominoes?  As humans we find and analyze available patterns. This innate inclination has uncovered whole systems and branches of mathematics that quantify the empirical and behaviors in the natural world.  Language and mathematics: both inbuilt sciences of human biology construct definition of purpose to events that could just as easily be chaotic, random arrangements-as random as grains of sand.  Yet we give each grain of sand meaning in retrospect; we give it meaning in the present; and we give it meaning as we move forward into the future. Gods call this path Zig Zag Zig. This path in history according to what we know is the result of a prescribed law or an essential pre-written law in human nature. Incidentally, within the corpus of 120 the word ‘predicted’ is used, implying that all of us have been predicted as if the dates of our birth and expiration are written like chapters in a book in which the author’s pen has spilt ink from a fifth dimension on to the page of our four dimensional reality.   

What is this ink?

      The Human genome project undertaken by the U.S. Department of Energy in conjunction with France, Germany, China, Japan and others have identified approximately 25,000 genes and determined the sequence of 3 billion chemical based pairs. This genetic ink causes you to be, and in your ‘beingness’ you have emerged from a pair of 23 chromosomes each from your mother and father all being born to the 46 chromosomes that define where you physically begin and where you physically end in this dimensionality of length, width, height and time/space.

The Horny Hankerings That Led To A Divine Nut

   Your father had been trying to get at your mom, he wanted to fuck, and your mom said to herself, “I think I’m going to give dude some pussy.” Pops got up in those guts and released five hundred million to potentially billions of sperm cells depending on how virile he was. This explosion literally thrust you into a hostile womb of sperm on sperm violence-a war in which you fought to get to the next level of existence. Pops could have easily jacked you off into a sock, or a tissue or he could have decided to fuck that next bitch down the street who lets men cum in her mouth, but instead, on that night he kicked it with your ma dukes.  She was fertile, and an egg was present. You won, and you made it to the egg.  Nigga you hit the Mega Billions Vaginal lottery, and pushed into the realm of life. 

     Could another sperm cell have won that race to get to Ma Duke’s egg? The prescribed law of Islam is a Rreality that fell like dominoes set up prior to the original nut being bust, indicating that no other sperm cell could have won that Mega Billions Vaginal Lottery. You were predicted! Once I was watching ‘Through The Wormhole’ and Morgan Freeman was building on Sub-Atomic particles and how in one experiment scientist were shooting sub-atomic particles through solid objects, and in one case they demonstrated that the particles borrowed energy from a future state in order to successfully make it through the object. The experiment spoke to the fact that the future exists now. If the day of your birth and death are predicted prior to conception and act as a prescribed statute of Islamic law, and hold an over-riding determined idea that seemingly lay underneath general consciousness then the three syllables of ‘Zig Zag Zig’ represent a three dimensional path that has been previously paved and ultimately preset for you to be here now. We each are a portion of universal consciousness that is reading and processing the symbols, signs and emblems that act as indicators of reality and more so than are brains merely learning-our individuated consciousness is contributing data to the entire bank and store of the undifferentiated collective consciousness pervasive in the entire Universe and/or multi-verse.

Peace

Emblem

     

       

Distinctions Between Scholarly Writing, And Just Being An Emblematic Smart Ass

Distinctions Between Scholarly Writing, And Just Being An Emblematic Smart Ass

“Roar! Movafucka, I am the Movafuckin’ Emblematic One. I will break your movafuckin’ eye socket with a right hook quicker than Pacquiao could, flow through the Quran like a nigga was born in Mecca Arabia, and write with a freshness that unsettles those who may have a problem with a nigga. Yes! Yes! Bravo-‘Bra-mova-fuck-in-O’ to me’! Since the inception of this blog I think I’ve maintained a rather consistent voice-a voice strangely cocky, somewhat abrasive and yet at the same time humble, refined and collegial. Generally in the ink that I’ve spilt a mural of Bronx-like graffiti art emerges, carrying in its colors an ever prevailing egalitarian spirit.

    On those occasions that I go off on my God tangent I very rarely if ever express a Mystery God complex. A nigga is True and Living with my feet so far down to Earth that a movafucka has bunions. Maybe at times I may go a little too hard at those goodie two shoe pussy type Gods who nauseatingly ‘Will Smithenize’ the Culture-a Culture that at one time was known for whoopin’ yo’ ass for misquoting a degree. I suppose such behavior would constitute as poor citizenship and a lack of civilization nowadays. Allah is one reality that manifest in a multitude of forms, it has taken me a while to both accept and realize that I am no gate-keeper of forms, nor do I represent a standard etched in stone as it pertains to how ‘Self Styled’ wisdom should be made manifest in I-God Culture.  I have no right whatsoever to deny those few pussy niggaz amongst us the right to make knowledge born, not everyone was born to fight as if a pit set lose by Vick. Softer voices must also be heard. Taking lessons from the ‘softer types’, I realize that a path of the least resistance must at times be traveled, continuing to mature I seek a path with less fare-ones, and though I’m proud of my ability to be comfortable squared-up and to both bark and bite when need be, I’ve learned to pick my spots with the forethought of one before moving a chess piece. Speaking of spots, a Ph.D. recently punched me in the face, academically of course and no, it wasn’t Dr. Supreme Understanding Allah, it was my professor for my class: Islam And The Modern World. He hit me with what I think was the hardest academic punch of my life, a punch that didn’t knock me out but instead woke me the fuck up, and let me know that I was indeed in a boxing ring of sorts. While on all fours, I clumsily tried to pick up my mouth- piece like Tyson in the Douglas fight.   

This is how he ‘Mayweathered’ me in front of the entire class:

“Thank you for your lengthy response. However, I am afraid it is totally irrelevant. The main point of these discussion questions is to make you think about the readings assigned and deal with them critically. So kindly stick to the content of the readings from now onwards.

Now let me comment on your response. You chose a specific narrative of a specific incident of debate between a Muslim and a Christian theologian. Hundreds of these debates exist in the medieval period particularly during the flourishing of Islamic Civilization particularly under the early Abbasid rule in Baghdad. This attests to a very progressive spirit of intellectual and academic freedom which was never paralleled in medieval Europe during the dark ages. There were debates about the unity of God in Islam and Judaism versus the concept of Trinity in Christianity among many figures in theologians in Baghdad and later the great Andalusian philosopher Averroes made a long critique of it in his Grand Commentary on Aristotle's Metaphysics. As for the positions taken in the debate you mentioned they are highly reductive of how medieval Muslim theologians proved the prophecy of Prophet Muhammad. If you are interested in such debates please email me or come and see me in my office and I will happily direct you to sources on these debates and also happily discuss them with you if you are interested. I specialize in Philosophy so this is at the core of my interests. However, as I explained above, you have to stick to the text in choosing your examples to allow your colleagues to participate and engage with you on a common ground.

As for the second question, I agree with you that all religions have a transcendent dimension to them but the presence of a belief in transcendent notions does not necessarily contradict rationalism. Muslim as well as Christian thinkers found many ways to ground their metaphysical systems even the belief in Angels on rational basis. Take the attempts of Averroes and al-Ghazali in Islam or Aquinas or late Kant in Christianity.

Your claim  about al-Khwarizmi, which is also completely irrelevant to the subject matter of the question, is contradicted by his own statements in his original works which I am not sure you read or not let alone in their original language if you want to have a proper scholarly position. As we will see when we get to Islam and Science, Muslims were the first to develop the experimental method vis-a-vis Aristotelian biological naturalism that tended to conflate theology with physics. This was partly due to the call to think and reason that is most recurrent in the Qur'an. Hence, I would say yes it is true that al-Khawarizmi is a genius in his own right but the methods and the nature of his scientific discourse was definitely colored by the Islamic worldview. Mozart of whom I am a great fan by the way is a product of 18th century European enlightenment. Enlightenment and particularly German Enlightenment is my other specialization in Philosophy by the way. There is no question that he was an artistic genius in his own right but if you look at Mozart's music especially the rupture in his tempos versus Hayden before him or the romantics after him you will find that he articulated a specific worldview that was inspired by a rational and moral reconstruction of science and metaphysics that all Enlightenment thinkers were intent on in response to the medieval world and its theology.”

I find the last comment utterly unacceptable morally, intellectually and academically. We will discuss Islam and Politics later in the semester. If you want to make comments about Islam or Muslim scholars you have to be specific, that is tell me whom you are talking about and what they were talking about. Uttering generous claims and charges is by no means acceptable in this class nor is conducive to the spirit of learning”

When I first received his response the first thing I thought was to come back at ‘em, Instead I sat back, reflected and thought it would be best to not allow my ego out of the cage, and he was right, I didn’t come out of the reading he had assigned, instead I came off the top of my Power Hill Five Percent dome, sassed around in the writing with that off the cuff smart ass blogging type of wit and he let it be  known that that type of shit won’t fly in his class.  He flexed his academic ego as well as his credentials. Instead of loading up and firing back with academic bullets of my own it’s best I learn to take a punch. I’m going to study the things that I found interesting in his critique of my writing, namely, Aristotelian Biological Naturalism; Al Khawarizmi’s alleged contradiction in the original Arabic text; undertake a study of ‘Averroes’. He quoted Al-Ghazzali and just so happened that I’m presently reading a work of Al-Ghazzalli entitled: ‘Tahafut Al-Falasifah. So yeah, no barking or biting back, instead I’ll absorb and learn from criticism. The following is my latest submission, and unlike before it reflects the reading, it is succinct, and to the point. No sense in beefing when I have an opportunity to be made better. Feel me! And Yo, on the real God learns and learns and learns, mostly about Him Self!

___________________________________________________ ___________________________

 The verse of light: Yusuf Ali: Allah is the Light of the heavens and the earth. The Parable of His Light is as if there were a Niche and within it a Lamp: the Lamp enclosed in Glass: the glass as it were a brilliant star: Lit from a blessed Tree, an Olive, neither of the east nor of the west, whose oil is well-nigh luminous, though fire scarce touched it: Light upon Light! Allah doth guide whom He will to His Light: Allah doth set forth Parables (symbols) for men: and Allah doth know all things.

“1:The verse of light is considered one of the key verses in the Qur’an that determines the relation between the human being and God. The degrees of the manifestation of God are often understood as a metaphor referring to the levels of consciousness different people may hold and experience of divine nature. To what extent do you think this is in line with the first verses that were revealed to Muhammad and the emphasis they lay on reading and seeking knowledge?

I think the passage refers to various levels of faith in human beings, generally those who have no faith; those who have faith, and those who have strong faith. The portion of the verse of light that says, “God citeth symbols /parables for men”, relates directly to Muhammad’s command to read.  While in the act of reading an individual cognitively processes symbols.  Muhammad’s command to, “’Read’ in the name of thy Lord who created-created thee from a clot; Read and your lord is Most Honorable. Who taught man to write with a pen, and taught man what he knew not” these ayahs of surah Iqra correlate with the ayah of light, affirming that the human being grows closer to God’s light via earnest educational pursuit.

    2:What do you think of Prophet Muhammad’s statement regarding the renewal of Islam on page 330? We often think of any religion as a system of dogma that is, a well-defined canon of convictions and maxims. So what do you think this call for renewing reflect about the nature of Islam as a religion and its humanistic nature, that is, the way it is connected with the historical consciousness and understanding of those who embrace it rather than being a fixed corpus to which its followers are expected to subscribe and accept as it is.

From what I’ve gathered from the reading, it appears that Muhammad prophesied the coming of future Muslims who will have a high level of’ spiritual eminence’ and their spiritual eminence will provide the insights necessary to renew the religion of Islam in a responsible way,  not deviating from its historical context, nor the foundational teachings of Muhammad or the Quran. ‘Renewal’ indicates that a progressive spiritual understanding in Islam avails itself to Muslims, preventing Islam from becoming arcane and dogmatic. As a humanistic force Islam provides ‘right guidance’ for humanity. Muhammad said, “Islam began as a stranger and will become once more a stranger.” and promised that God would not abandon them and that a caliphat will be appointed every hundred years to lead the community in this process of ‘renewal’.   

   3:The speech Abu Bakr gave after being chosen as the first successor of the prophet is often taken as one of the earliest discourses on Islamic political thought. What do you think are the main theses Abu Bakr’s advances? What do you think these theses imply for the relation between religious belief and political power in Islamic thought?

 Abu Bakr’s acceptance speech demonstrates humility, accepting the authority bestowed upon him he humbly recognizes that he is not the best amongst them. He declares, “…if I am wrong, set me right.” letting his new constituency know that he is not exempt from their reproof. Further, his speech implies that he will make himself available to the community to listen to their concerns and their suggestions as they pertain to the common good. “The strong amongst you shall be weak until I have wrestled from them the rights of others.” This statement speaks to his preparedness to fight for the rights of those who may have been socially disadvantaged during this time. Abu Bakr’s tone reflects Islam in the light of a religion championing the interest of the weak and poor within the community. His acceptance speech advances the thesis that social benevolence and political power in Islam are interwoven and essentially inextricable with one another. Ultimately, Abu Bakr asks to be obeyed, providing that he himself follows the example of Muhammad and maintains a devotion to God.”

Peace,

Emblem

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Identity Crisis: Confusing The Mystery God With The True And Living God

Identity Crisis

    There is no Mystery God and for your information, you are not that Mystery God. It took me a while to put my finger on the pulse of the problem of what I think to be a severe neurosis occurring in many Gods.  I’ve written a few pieces about ‘co-opting the identity of the Mystery God’ and though that was my main ideal in the pieces I walked away from them with a feeling that I had not fully conveyed my idea to the point that understanding had been made understood. The co-opted identity of the so-called Mystery God is to confuse the Mystery God with The true and Living God. This should be thoroughly understood by those who study and live-out I-God Culture that the Black Man is not the Judeo-Christian God, nor the God of the Muslims referred to in The Holy Quran.

     The mathematical confusion of this begins in the Nation of Islam, and is solved by the life of The Father. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad proclaimed that Allah came in the person of Master Wallace Fard Muhammad. Elijah made no distinctions between the ideas of the True and Living God and The Mystery God, instead he said Fard was Thee One spoken of in the Bible, and Quran which directly associated Fard’s personage with the Monotheistic entity found in all three major religions. This clouded the understanding of the true nature of the True and Living God. Judaism, Christianity and Islam are the three prominent monotheistic religions of the Earth-all three religions are ‘Abrahamic’ in origin deriving the essence of their theology from a singular patriarch: Abraham.  

    Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad compose the lineage of prophets, extending from the root of Abraham and these Prophets establish the religious variants of monotheistic expression. This single monotheistic God is the Mystery God that the degrees in knowledge wisdom cipher refer to, however, The ‘True and Living God, also mentioned in knowledge wisdom cipher is the Supreme Being, Black Man from Asia’, and not that Mystery God.  “Duhh! I knew that Emblem!”, many will claim, and at first glance it appears quite obvious, yet the fact remains that many amongst us haven’t made this distinction or fully understand the repercussions of this distinction’s failure to resonate fully in an individual’s wakening state of awareness.  This subtle distinction is of great consequence and not at all passé.  

     Many of those we have come into contact with throughout our  lives have often mentioned in casual passing,  in one way or the other this Judeo-Christian God in statements like “…Oh My God!..., God Bless you…Goddamn it…God help me…God help you…God please!...God this…and God that!”. It is my position that these seemingly innocuous phrases throughout our personal history and Quran have taken root as harmful psychological weeds growing in the unconscious. This plethora of phrases, are all referring to the Mystery God-he who allegedly gave Moses the Ten Commandments, raised Jesus from the dead, and revealed the Quran to Muhammad. Knowledge Wisdom Cipher doesn’t announce directly or specifically mention the distinction between the True and Living God and the Mystery God, it does however imply it. It is actually the life of ‘The Father’ that serves as an example of the distinction between these two very different ideas of God. The Father was a man in Harlem who was actually in the ‘Streets’, meaning he was accessible and readily available to his partisans, where as Master Fard is painted in a mysterious divine glowing, florescent blue light, and Elijah made him utterly foreign to the common man’s naked eye, and at present he is said to be piloting a very large spaceship. The misty blue light of mystery shrouding Fard carries with it a cloak of inaccessibility and consequently an inability to relate on a practical human level. ‘The Father’ was flesh, blood, bone, and balls. He slept; he went to the bathroom; he made love; he drank a little; maybe he even smoked a joint or two; had arguments I’m sure and maybe he even shed a tear once or twice. His emotional content as a human being is tangible and Gods and Earths feel him. The Father was also incarcerated for a time and is rumored to have even gambled a bit. The accounts are in no way spooky: no spaceships, no embellished stories of never sleeping, or rarely eating as is the case with Fard. The Father’s life is a very human story of a man-not a mythological figure shrouded in mystery. He was flesh and blood, and yet he was God, not the Mystery God reported in the Torah, Bible or Quran. Being a Man is what the Father’s life exemplifies, and also what it means to be a True and Living God, which is a pragmatic commonality in a shared reality with others that are also made of flesh and blood. No spaceships.

    The unconscious eruptions of the Mystery God in the psyche of those who claim I-God Culture can become a severe neurosis, confusing themselves with the God of Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad. You are not that Movafuckin’ Mystery God! He does not exist!

     We allow that Mystery God to live in us and when we do, this Mystery God like the grafted snake in the tenth degree stings someone else when we take on those’ snoody booty’ Mystery God like postures. They usually manifest themselves as either a severe complex of Self Righteousness; a bold unbeatable bullet proof ego, as if a nigga can’t die; a lack of humility; a need to constantly demonstrate a superiority over women; and a narcissistic need to be seen and heard not for the sake of authentically making knowledge born but instead an insecure need for popularity-much like that of a blond white bitch in a rich suburban high school who will just die if she is not voted Homecoming Queen.

    Unfortunately it is not the life of The Father that shows us that the True and Living God is not bullet proof but it is his death that reminds us of the fact that are Supreme Consciousness is temporarily dwelling in a relatively fragile form. To acknowledge yourself as the True and Living God means that you realize that you are a fallible human being who’s shit does stink , and also that you have no mysterious supernatural abilities whatsoever. We each possess one or two natural gifts at best but none of the super powers of the Mystery God that he allegedly has mentioned in the religious books like the Bible or Quran. The initial acceptance that the Blackman is God is like a syringe full of steroids being injected into the psyche of a nigga.  The ego turns green and begins to expand to Incredible Hulk like proportions. You are high on the natural Heroin  of endorphins-a neurotransmitter similar to heroin in molecular structure. You are high off of every unconscious pre conceived notion of the Judeo-Christian God buried  in your psyche and it’s bubbling up to the surface of your conscious mind, everything you’ve ever heard, all the “Oh My Gods” and “God Bless yous” roar. It is the Incredible Hulk of your Ego, erratically engaging and attempting to process the paradox of the Mystery God and your understanding of yourself as the True and Living God.    

     After the first 10 minutes of accepting yourself as God you are still correlating and equating every past Mystery God notion with this new radical psychological paradigm of who you have in a split second become: The Maker, The Owner, The Cream of The Planet Earth, Father of Civilization and God of the Universe and your unconscious mind quips to your conscious mind, “Hey dude, maybe you were the one who actually parted the Red Sea for the Israelites?” and just as quick as your enlightener or educator sparked you into the Asiatic World a psychological neurotic complex begins shortly thereafter.  

    If you are not careful and address this in your own psyche the Mystery God complex will grow out of your neck, diluting, mixing and tampering with your perceptions. The True and Living God is not as shiny as the Mystery God at first glance, elements of reality tend to never be.  Trick-knowledge has a tendency to embellish much like Hollywood makes things appear much more glamorous and exciting than they actually are. The knowledge knowledge degree in the one to forty brings the essence of my point full circle, succinctly asking, “Will you set up a home and wait for a Mystery God to bring you food?” As emphatic as the idea of ‘No’ would appear to be, it is an emphasis that is not completely fail-safe, and thus in many of our unconscious minds we are still patently awaiting this Mystery God. This ‘wait’ is a confusion in cognition and perceptions as if one were wandering in a desert thirsty, witnessing a vision of  their own self in the heat wave of a mirage. The futile ‘wait’ for this Mystery God has been processed, and  memorized and we know better than to continue to wait, yet and still our unconscious keeps waiting-waiting on our personal potential to arrive from a social reality that has psychologically construed a prison house and a nurse’s pin delimiting our full potentiality in our own minds.

     To be made other than yourself is to be turned around and turned-out of your own mind, and thus the acceptance of yourself as God after being made other than your self is not as easy or as simple as it is generally assumed to be. You’re hard time civilizing is much harder than Musa’s hard time.  The confusion present in the forefront of your consciousness has failed to process the information of the True and Living God properly, and to fully transform your ideas as they pertain to the nature of ‘God’. This is the fault of educators and enlighteners prior to the student being cognitively impacted by KOS. A necessary course on the humanness of the True and Living God as opposed to changing your name and assuming the identity and putting on the costume of the Mystery God should be required.

   The Asiatic Black Man who has been fully enlightened to SELF understands that the Mystery God is in no way associated with the True and Living God in his day to day reality and is not at home in anyway waiting for food.

Peace,

Emblem

Philly Muslim vs. Philly God

When I learned of Amar Self Allah’s murder, mistakenly I thought that the war between the Gods and Sunnis in Philly had finally popped off. On my behalf it was a rather negative way of analyzing and examining such a tragic event, however the fact remains that an irreconcilable difference vehemently pits the two ideologies against one another. To the Sunnis a man calling himself God represents the most blasphemous idea in Islam.  The phrase, “…otherwise known as civilized people, Muslims and Muslim Sons…” in the knowledge equality degree clearly categorizes Muslims as a part of the 5 percent, however the Ulamah (Islamic Scholars) don’t consider themselves in anyway a part of the 5 percent. Any association with the 5 percent constitutes as haram, or that which is forbidden and does not fit into any known Madhabs(Islamic Schools of Thought). Some Gods like myself have made technical errors while striving to formulate a link between Suffis and I-God culture. According to the Madhabs of Jafari, Hanafi, Maliki, Hanbali, Zaidi and Ismaeli they have concurred that as long as a practicing Suffi does not deviate from the Sunnah(way of Muhammad-SAW) they’re practice falls under the Sunni umbrella, but calling themselves Allah out right is the highest shirk regardless of an outsiders attempt to interpret the various mystical practices of Tasawuf.  From a religious standpoint the 5 Percent have no relationship to the religion of Islam in terms of traditional Islamic scholarship. The fact that traditional Islam doesn’t acknowledge the principles of I-God does not bother me because I was taught that the Five Percent Nation of Islam studied the science of Islam which was head and shoulders above any religious idealistic constructs of Islam.  As God we are to approach things as scientist, such was my understanding of I-God culture and that we are non- religious. Never did I consider the vast intricacies of disputations between the religion of Islam, and the non-religious creed of the 5 percent. I consider myself scientifically ‘Islamic’, and solely focused on the reality of what exists so I identify the underlying and incongruent elements that distinguished ‘I-God culture’ (‘Science of Islam’) from the religion of Islam.  Regardless of my ontological position regarding consciousness and existence the subject at hand, for me, has always been ‘Islam’, never Ausar Auset, never the Yoruba culture or other traditional African religions. Islam has no beginning nor ending. Ausar Auset and traditional African cultures place little emphasis on mathematics. Yes, Egyptians elevated high in Mathematics but the Libraries in Alexander were pillaged and stolen by the Greeks and higher order rationalism as it pertains to math is not recovered until the Islamic Golden age from the seventh to the eleventh century.  To learn and continue to grow is what Islam means in my life. I never discard any form of Islam, it’s variety of forms are all related, and for me it is Supreme Mathematics and I-God culture which fuels my ever increasing drive toward a higher Islamic IQ.

       Knowledge is to know, and I truly desire to learn and understand more of how every tool in the Islamic tool box relates to me and how it can be used to constructively build a better me. Islam is personal, it shows how the mathematics and sciences within the Universe relate to the inner-personal Universe of the SELF. ‘Group shit’ will pretty much always be bullshit. I am God first and a member of the ‘NGE’ second-a distant second.  Flagwaivers focus on posturing, judging others and public displays of philanthropic acts. It’s an insecure need to be ‘seen of men’ and is a psychological manifestation of narcissism. Eat a dick! Boasting Resumes of Self Righteousness is ‘Real Devil’ and such grafted snake like behavior will inevitably sting someone else.

       The distinction between ‘NGE’ and the ‘The Five Percent Nation of Islam’ is a political one. ‘NGE’ distances itself from Islam.  I ride with ‘NGE’ because I’m mature enough to understand that it’s denoting in a very succinct fashion a colloquial description of a National body of men and women advocated for a common cause.  Unconsciously ‘NGE’ is a political embodiment more so than just an innocuous title indicating National identity. Since Islam was removed from the title the connection between Islam and I-God culture has become a rather tenuous one. It took me six years to realize that ‘Islam’ was removed from the title of our advocated group. Interestingly enough ‘Allah’ resonates in our last name which will light the fuse to ignite any potential beefs that may erupt in Power Hill between Sunnis and Gods.  

     As a teenager ‘I Self Lord And Master’ sounded cool, and for some reason in my immature mind before I was somewhat literate in Arabic, ‘Arm, Leg, Leg, Arm, Head’ made a ton of sense and with a healthy and strong young ego, accepting myself as God was a no-brainer, particularly since my mother had been imparting the idea that I was the micro of the macro which was an early aspect of Warith Deen Muhammad’s transitional teaching after Elijah’s death. Naim Akbar built extensively on the micro of the macro concept and I read a few of his books as a preteen and the concept stuck.

     After I capped 120, debating Sunnis was a big part of my early development in I-God Culture, back then I could not see how anyone could believe in a Mystery God and not see themselves as God. So, I brashly debated pious imams in a tone reminiscent of a young Cassius Clay, loudly, and with an enormous amount of energy asking them to show and prove their mystery God, and often mocking them with questions like, “Can your God bring you food?” I did this in front of college audiences, coming out of 120 like a flame thrower. These debates took place on the campus of the historically black college campus of Central State University in Wilberforce Ohio between the years of 1988-1992.  For exactly four years I took part in nearly every debate and panel discussion that pertained to Islam. The panel consisted of Myself, Imam Sayeed Yasin, and a representative from the Nation of Islam, Evan X. Each of us presented our respective understandings of Islam. The fact that this was a historically black college during the time of hip hop’s hay day of consciousness caused droves of people to attend these debates, young minds curious as to who’s brand of Islam was right and exact.

     Gifted with a sharp tongue, and a quick 20 year old wit, I made these older guys look bad. Reflecting back, my delivery demonstrated more of  a ‘hipness’ than it did  sound Islamic scholarship, many of the students related to me more so than they did the Sunni Imam or Farrakhan’s local representative. The Imam would cite ayah’s from the Holy Quran in Arabic, and I’d cleverly use rhetoric and the lessons to rebut whatever point he was attempting to get across. Imam Yasin brought a Mufti from Pakistan to build with me. I questioned  him through a translator, and we discussed a subject in Fiqh called ‘Bidah’, also known as innovation. When I spoke of Supreme Mathematics, he took it to an Islamic subject called ‘Minhaj’ known as methodology and another subject ‘Qiyas’ which is analogical reasoning,  so I listened intently to the translator. It was an informative discussion and from that moment forward, I began to actively attempt to relate as many sciences in the religion of Islam to I-God culture. I read a tremendous amount in a vain attempt to somehow show and prove that those who study I-God culture were not Kafirun (disbelievers). My theory was that Islam was one, and I explained this by saying that Tawheed (oneness of Allah) was the reality of God. The Gods knew that we were all One Self in a variation of physical forms and that knowledge of the essential nature of Allah was Oneness. In my mind I had reconciled these two fragmented ideas.

     Maybe in my mind I could see a connection but the fact remained that to the Gods a Mystery God was a Mystery God and to the Muslim a Kafir was a Kafir.  To the Muslims the Gods were Kafirs (disbelievers) and to the Gods, Muslims were searching for that that did not exist. Ultimately, I accepted that neither the Gods, nor Muslims would find a place of mutual understanding, too many ideas were lost in translation and immovable religious boundaries stood in the way. By then I had studied Arabic to the point that I began to read. Having grown quite fond of the Quran I’d go through 120 and filter it through the Quran, correlating the two diametrically opposed schools of Islamic thought. This formed a unique understanding in me and to this day I refuse to budge from the Quran, or 120.  To have an understanding of two methodologies of Islamic thought is a luxury and not a requirement-Gods don’t give a fuck about the Quran and Muslims could care less about Supreme Math. It took me 23 years to arrive at a personal peace with Islam proving that the minds of individuals expand faster than groups-groups as a whole progress at a slower rate in terms of a collective social understanding.

     The declaration that the Black Man is Almighty God Allah in Philly will speak to the fact that the Gods in Power Hill are amongst the bravest in our Nation. When I screamed that the Black Man is God to the mountain top I was in the safe confines of the hallowed halls of higher learning where the healthy exchange of ideas were fostered, encouraged and revered. Philly is not a college campus nor is Philly like New York City. God is everywhere in New York, and the New York cultural scene invites a diversity of thought, and religious expression, so Gods and Earths in Now Why can Be Free to Be who they are, expressing I-God culture freely. In Power Hill a Hanabli Sunni and Selafi Sunni will exchange gun fire at the drop of a Kufi.  

    The push to get Allah School in Power Hill is a noble cause.  As that God and Earth community grows they will indeed catch the attention of the Uhmah (Muslim brotherhood) as well as the Ulamah (Islamic Scholars) in Philly.  The ‘African American’ Sunni population in Philly is estimated at 100,000 to 300,000 and I’d go so far as to say that 5 percent of this community are of the Ulamah (scholars); 10 percent represent that gun-toting criminal jail-house element, and 85 percent of the Muslims in Philly represent those that just perform salat or prayer like it’s a mindless aerobic exercise.

    The Ulamah in Philly controls the general understanding of Islam in the entire Pennsylvania department of corrections.  I wrote my cousin while he was locked up, and told him about the Gods and he wrote me back and explained in no uncertain terms that, “That 5 percent shit is for kafirs” He’s home now and still fervent about Islam.

     Honestly Gods and Earths civilizing in Power Hill have a harder job than Gods attempting to civilize in the Bible belt. The reason the Quran belt is tougher is because the scholarship in Islam is at a high level nowadays. Philly has quality black Quaris, Hufuz and Alams. Getting this Muslim community to revert back to what Fard initially taught, and accept how the Father taught will be a complex Math problem indeed and sure to take a couple of decades, however I have every confidence that the Gods will show and prove over time.