Category Archives: Comparative Religion

Comparative Religion, Islam, Politics, Psychology

Middle East Oct.2023

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Middle East Statement

This should hopefully be the last of three statements on the Middle East (the others are on the Sufi Ibrahim Kreps Youtube channel) and the most concrete one. I would advise people against taking sides in this conflict! There is more than enough blame to go around-including the faults of America, of the U.N., of England and Turkey historically -let alone what the two parties involved have been up to!

Taking a strong position on one side or the other thus becomes a manifestation of ignorance! Now I understand that Muslims feel the need to be loyal to the Palestinians. And loyalty IS an Islamic virtue. But the true loyalty is to the Truth not to the tribe!

Feeling the pain is one thing. It is human. But assigning blame and acting from that analysis requires wisdom and discernment and unfortunately that is in short supply nowadays.

Salaams, Sufi Ibrahim

Comparative Religion, Modern Living, Politics, Psychology

Nationalism Re-Examined

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Nationalism Re-Examined

Nationalism is a very sensitive subject. As soon as you start generalizing about national traits you are accused of “racial profiling” and racism. -especially if you talk about negative traits. Yet nations are really quite distinct- just as genders are quite distinct- despite current narratives.

People generally have a lot of emotional investment in their nation. Some are unduly proud like the Americans who keep repeating in their discourse on public media that they are “the greatest nation ever on Earth”. There are a few discounting facts to that narrative- like the fact that they rank the lowest on almost every social variable amongst the developed nations. But who cares about facts when you have pride lol.

There is also an even more sensitive area which has to do with shame about our national characteristics. So, for example, Jews will regularly give their children gentile -sounding names like Tiffany and Elizabeth for example lol. Some will shorten their last name so it sounds less Jewish. So Bergman becomes Berry and Glouberman becomes Glidden. Muslims, as well, will shorten their name from Mohammed (a truly honorable name) to Moe so they sound like the owner of a delicatessen. Black people, most obviously athletes, will shave their heads as if there is something wrong with God-given curly hair. I don’t get it! Two of my childhood heroes were Angela Davis and Jimmy Hendriks. I really admired their natural Afro hairdos!

Then there was one of my clients-an indigenous man from the north of Quebec- who pretended to be a Québecois pure laine and hid his identity for years in therapy. It ended up catching up with him in his relationships- because his Québecois partners didn’t appreciate his taciturnness-an indigenous characterstic (OOPs! Is that “racial profiling?) It might have been easier for him if he had stated in advance that he doesn’t talk too much lol

In my first book: “Snakes and Ladders:Aphorisms for Modern Living” I make the following statement:” We are each caricatures of our national origins” ! That may sound extreme especially for those with a serious dose of Western education lol. We were taught over and over again the nature/nurture hypothesis. And even there the emphasis was on the individual and the family genetics as opposed to the collective national ones. Yet, over and over again, travelling all around the world and interacting with many different societies, I could see the national characteristics so clearly!

I remember my first trip to Europe with a fellow medical student named Alan. We first came to London. It was cold and rainy. Everything was really expensive. We could not find a hotel within our budget and we ended up sleeping on the floor of a YMCA with a large group of German tourists. It was less than twenty years from WWII and the idea of sleeping in a room of Germans was still an intimidating prospect-especially being raised in a secular Jewish family.

So we decided to move to France. There was an immediate change in the environment. The hotels were a lot cheaper (this was before the European Common Market!) It was sunny and the charcuteries allowed us to eat easily within our budget . We sat out in the beautiful groomed parks and felt like we were almost in paradise ( France has since gone downhill considerably and when I visit it now it feels more like pre-Civil War Syria -but that is a whole other subject! )

When we got tired of the hedonism of Paris, we moved on to Germany. As we got to the border, I immediately noticed the militaristic aspect of the Germans ( btw we had a great time as well in that country).But that militarism of the customs agents triggered something in me. I then looked at my friend Alan and said: ’You know Alan we have been sold a crock. A bunch of B.S. Our educational system, liberal as it was at the time, taught us that all peoples are essentially alike. Only individuals are different.That is clearly not what we are seeing”  And on top of that, these were three ”advanced” Western peoples. Imagine the differences if we compare them to Asian and African nations?!That may have been one of my earliest Aha experiences. The liberal viewpoint was misleading at best-at worst more ideological denial from the bleeding-heart liberals lol

On a personal note, I have always been adamantly opposed to nationalism-seeing it simply as a collective form of egotism and selfishness. Which it is! But there is another side to all of this. Just as we must come to terms with our individual ego (nafs in Arabic) we need to come to terms with our national origins-in all its dimensions. Each nation has its strengths and its weaknesses. Yet most people can only see the good qualities of their national origins and have difficulty imagining its shadowy aspects.

A case in point. In the early 2000’s I was studying Arabic in Amman and living with a few other students in a shared apartment. One of the students I got close to was of Palestinian descent-with all of the baggage that entails! One day I was discoursing  on religion and made the statement that each religion had its particular strengths and weakness. Now, just from a theological point of view, this is difficult for any religious nationalist (and yes, there is nationalism based on religious practice as well!) to hear. The vast majority of people are convinced that their religion is best and there is a large percentage of those who believe that their religion is the only means of salvation-even if their scriptures, properly interpreted, say the opposite!

So when I got to the issue of the good qualities of each religion, I was somewhat surprised , which I shouldn’t have been because actually it was quite predictable, to hear my Palestian friend ask: ”So where does Judaism excel, in that vein”. His bias was clearly obvious. But after getting over the initial shock, I responded from an inspiration that I get from time to me in these situation. ” In its humanism”

Now, I can see that if you identify Judaism with how the Israeli government behaves, you could hardly be blamed for concluding otherwise. But if you look at Jewish history, if you study the Arts and Sciences and philosophy produced by Jewish people, you can see what I was getting at. I have a particular fondness these days for remembering vocabulary in the Yiddish language from my youth-vocabulary that highlights the inevitable foibles of humanity both on an individual and collective level. Actually identifying these foibles helps us accept them! Much more so than those coming from a mindset of nobility and dignity! (I’ll let you guess who those may be lol)

So when I see what is going on in American politics,”kurveshe”(whoorishness) is the most precise term I can find to describe it. When I listen to overly abstract woke intellectuals I think: ”mishegene”(literally crazy) and when I hear my clients stories of intrusive mother-in-laws the word “schvigger” comes to mind – a word that literally means mother-in-law but in Yiddish becomes almost a swear word! Much more on this at a later time. But for now, I feel proud to dredge out some of this ancient vocabulary from my past that helps me identify and deal with what is going on nowadays.

The troubling aspects of nationalism and racism goes back a long way. I still remember an episode where I was asked to give the sermon at the youth sabbath at our local synagogue. I don’t even think I was 13 at the time. Being my usual controversial self, I took on the subject of Jews’ bias towards others. There were two dépanneurs(  handy stores) near us. One was Jewish owned. The other was owned by a Greek man. But all the Jews bought from the Jewish store. So I brought this out and told them” You complain about antisemitism but you are acting in the same manner towards this Greek shopkeeper”. Somehow the message got through. The next time I met the Greek man, he thanked me profusely. His business picked up in the weeks following my talk! Sometimes, people DO listen lol!

Ok So let’s get back to the central point here. How do we deal properly with nationalism. There are many improper ways, as we have seen throughout history but managing this domain ethically and responsibly is a whole other matter! In one of the visitations of the Virgin Mary (I believe it may be the one at Medugorge) she said to the young girls who saw her: “Mankind is on the wrong track. If they don’t change their ways of materialism and nationalism, there will be more and more natural disasters”. So when I see the floods and fires and heatwaves of climate change I don’t think “carbon imprint”. Rather I think “man’s misbehaviour around deeper issues than carbon use”!

The initial trigger for writing this article was an interview on Epoch TVof an author named Rick Richman (forgot to change his last name to Rich lol). He wrote a recent book called: ”And None Should Make Them Afraid” about eight people who contributed to the Zionist project, Clearly not a popular topic in my current Muslim community lol And the first person he talked about was Theodore Herzl. Not usually my cup of tea! If I wanted to talk about great Jewish personalities I would start with the Ball Shem Tov, Reb Nahman of Bratislava and Maimonides. Perhaps Martin Buber. But this was about a person I really didn’t have much sympathy for. And I am sure there are people around, especially in the Arab world, who dislike him much more than I do,

Nevertheless, Richman painted a relatively positive picture of a man committed to an ideal that he spent his life on. But most interesting, only towards the end of his life, did he reveal that at 12 years old, he had a dream/vision of Moses bringing him up into the presence of God! Now in the Islamic tradition, we are taught that if a Prophet appears in a dream it is really him. The devil cannot take the form of a Prophet. So…the founder of Zionism was Divinely instructed to work towards a state of Israel.Ajib!

Now for many pious Christians, this a a no-brainer. They believe that the Jews had to return to the Holy Land in order to set the stage for the return of Jesus! And after all Jesus and all of his Apostles were all Jews, something it has taken Christians a long time to swallow! But for Muslims this is anathema.

And yet, the deeper thinkers amongst Muslims, realize that nothing happens in this world without Divine permission. I have even heard Jordanians thinking that Israel was a punishment for Muslims not holding tightly enough to their own religion. However, this story line is more positive I would say. The Jews returning to Israel is part of the unfoldment of Divine destiny. As said the great Sheikh Hashimi of Damascus “fi kooli shay khayran”(in everything is goodness).Even in Zionism lol!

As to Muslims- concerning the question of nationalism- Allah has told us in the Quran 49;13 “O mankind. We created you from a male and a female. and made you into peoples (shououb) and tribes so that you may get to know each other. “There are a lot of meanings in this short ayat but for our current purposes, it is enough to point out that nations are not an invention of man as some sociologists and anthropologists might like to postulate. They are natural creations of our Lord. Besides this Quranic quote, we have the well-known hadith of our Prophet saws which says” The love of the homeland comes from Faith” Another support for the positive aspects of nationalism. So it is incumbent upon us to accept that reality.

Thus we realize that we have to come to terms with our own nationhood and that of others-no mean feat actually. Because this is deep in our coding, yes even in our genetic coding. And much of it is unconscious.

I will proceed to highlight one case where these differences have created an enormous amount of conflict. Then we will go on to some final general conclusions.

Let’s start with the Middle East- a problem that has defeated many politicians and diplomats. I have no pretensions about solving this problem! But I, may be able to shed some light on the psychological aspects involved. Jews and Arabs. Why are they unable to come to terms and make a peace treaty. This is a very difficult and complex problem. But let us start at the base-their different psychological makeups. The defining fault of the Jewish nation is “doubt”. Some of the rabbis I met in Jerusalem were well aware of this! One of them said to me;” If you are committed to doubt, and most doubters are lol, Ashem (God) will supply you with all the data you need to keep doubting. So the Jews who doubted Moses in the dessert, the Apostles who doubted Jesus, the Jews in the Quran who couldn’t decide what kind of cow to sacrifice, were all true to form-they were Jewish doubters. When the Muslims run into these stories they react saying: ”You see. They are really unbelievers”. They don’t factor in the Jewish mind-set.

The Arabs, on the other hand, have no such problem. They are sure they are right-always lol. The equivalent to Jewish doubt is Arab pride! And both are problematic.  ”My way or the highway” think the Arabs. .There is no room for second opinions. They are invalid by definition. So how do people with such different approaches get together to negotiate. They have clearly not been able to do so, so far!

Early on, during my stay in Jerusalem, and just before accepting Islam, I was introduced to the holy book of Islam-the Quran. I immediately recognized its authenticity! And yes, in English translation lol I then looked around me at the behaviour of the people in East Jerusalem and the West Bank and thought: “Why would God send this authentic Revelation to these people?! “My Sufi teacher-who was a highly knowledgeable Hafiz Quran and Qadi (judge in the Islamic court) at the time had warned me about this. He told us not to go to the famous al Aqsa mosque for 6 months after conversion. He was afraid we would lose our faith!

So, sitting on the side of the road going up to the Mount of Olives, I asked Allah again why these people (the Arabs) had received this book. And the answer came back loud and clear: ”They are the ones who will hold it most tightly”! And so it has been throughout history! So Allah himself is NOT a black and white thinker!  He could and can see that these people, as faulty as was and is their behaviour, also had a particular quality of perseverance and tenacity ( the deniers would say “stubbornness” lol) that was uniquely suited to this purpose!

On the other hand the Jews who had been the previous recipient were not as perseverant in holding to their way. But their doubt and reflection has led them to be great scientists, musicians and artists.” To each his own” as they say. And ALL of it is from our Lord!

So what do we do with this conundrum? The answer is the same as in many other situations- “Develop Awareness”. We, all, need to be aware of how much we conform to our national characteristics. Then we have to learn to affirm and express our strengths and fight against our weaknesses-on an individual and a collective level. This is the jihad-a-nafs of Sufism (the struggle with the ego) but, in this case, we are struggling with the collective ego. No mean feat given that all the like-minded people around us (our nation) are telling us we are fine just the way we are. But we aren’t!

Once we accept our tribal limitations and work against the weaknesses, it is then incumbent upon us to accept these limitations and strengths of other nations and treat them with dignity and respect- rather than “othering them” to use a current Americanism.

May God help us in this sacred enterprise because it is a holy work! Salaams, Sufi Ibrahim

 

Comparative Religion, Metaphysics, Spiritual Practice, Uncategorized

Theology?!

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Theology is the entry of the philosophical mind-set (i.e “mind productions”) into the domain of religion. It’s cost /benefit ratio is probably nil i.e. the costs( over-riding the need for actual spiritual experience and mysticism in favour of mental gymnastics) is at least as onerous as its benefits- at least when well-done (providing clarity in one’s formulation of beliefs- on which to base one’s behaviour.) Much unnecessary confusion and conflict has been generated by this form of activity!For best effect, it needs to be detoxified by actual spiritual experience-of one sort or another. Salaams,Sufi Ibrahim

Comparative Religion, Metaphysics, Spiritual Practice

Bullet-Points: from Swedenborg

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Emmanuel Swedenborg was a philosopher and Christian esotericist (that’s the way I would describe him)of the 18th century. With the current revival of interest in the after-life, at least in part stimulated by the copious literature of n.d.e.(near-death experience) accounts, the interest in his works has dramatically increased. He claims to have easily travelled into the heaven and hell worlds and had discussions with angels and spirits over a thirty-year period. You can make up your own mind as to the relative validity of these experiences, but I will present here some of the Truths he uncovered that as far as I am concerned are indisputable.

N.B. We will exclude, for the sake of brevity and usefulness, all the areas in which Swedenborg got it wrong( for example that heaven and hell are simply states of mind?!) due to his copious “mind-productions”. Oy, those European intellectuals?! They have contaminated the entire planet with their hyper-cerebrality. Instead we will focus in this brief article on his valid contributions to spiritual clarity. 

♦ God is Love AND Wisdom. (N.B. Not love alone which would move us into the ‘”Peace and Love” movement which was basically a disaster!.We need the wisdom/discernment as well!)

♦All who do good in accordance with the Truth of their religion will be accepted into heaven (Take that on the chin all narrow-minded Muslims and Evangelical and other fanatical Christians! Our Quran says as much Surat2:62 and elsewhere but many scholars choose to distort the  meaning to promote Muslim nationalism!)

♦Suffering is necessary for transformation. Ultimately God will bring good out of it! God is optimizing things for your benefit. It’s better than you think! God is working things out for the best! 

♦Religious teachings have to make sense(i.e. have to agree with your intuitive sense of how things must be. Nicean-creed Christians may have a problem here lol)

♦Free will is a God-given right. More good, in terms of personal transformation, will come out of it than evil.

♦Spiritual crises help free you from your ego. 

♦It is in this world that we can do the best spiritual work. That is why we are here!

♦In the after-life there is nothing you can hide. Your good and your evil are apparent to all. Islam says more or less the same thing in numerous ways, talking about how your limbs and your tongue will betray you.

♦The theory of Reincarnation represents a misunderstanding. In fact,our consciousness is both permeable and moveable in time and space.So we can occupy someone else’s consciousness without that being us. Hazrat Inayat Khan said more or less the same thing. The Advaita Vedantists, some schools of Buddhism  and Krishnamurti go even further, stating that individual consciousness itself, is a myth!

There is an important corollary to this point about the permeability and displacement of consciousness. And that is around the troublesome theological issue of Divine Incarnation. We see this in Christian theology where many Christians believe that Jesus IS God; we see it in the Hindu idea of the avatar(a Divine incarnation) and we see it in the story of Mansur al-Hallaj in Sufism.The confusion is in the “dimensional” area-for lack of a better term. We can assume that Jesus a.s. and the authentic Hindu avatars  as well as Mansur al Hallaj had the experience of Divine Consciousness. That is in the experiential (the philosophers call this the “phenomenological” area).However they do not therefore become God in the “ontological” dimension-the dimension of “being”. So for Muslims, who are very adamant on this point, and rightfully so, Mansur al Hallaj was not God. He just experienced himself as such. His confusion cost him his life. Yes, the stakes are very high! Sorry for all the Greek terms but they do help us to avoid confusion in these theologically important areas. I hope that is helpful!

♦We should be working to be in the stream of providence (i.e consistent with the will of God. “Thy Will be done” The secularists would call this “being in the flow” but it is actually more holy than that!)

♦The Bible is about correspondences. Everything in this world has correspondences in the other world and vice-versa. Think Garden and gardens. Think the Divine Light, in the other world, and the light of the sun in this world! But don’t get confused and worship the sun! That is heresy!.

♦Philosophy is a discipline that” darkens the mind, blinds us and wholly rejects faith”. Amen! 

♦God chooses our life( and Islam tells us we agreed on the Day of Promises!) not us- as many modern occultists would have us believe.

♦Swedeborg disputes 1).the Nicean doctrine of Trinity(as do Muslims).He states that God is One( tawhid) not three personalities..He calls that Apostolic Christianity ( i.e. the Christianity of the early Church before the theologian bishops gained dominance over basic Christian  beliefs.) He also rejects Vicarious Redemption( Jesus took on all of man’s sins on the cross) in favour of individual repentance and redemption. Again Muslims would concur .Remember, religion has to make sense, in his viewpoint!

Comparative Religion, Metaphysics, Modern Living, Spiritual Practice

The Mechanics of False Epistemology!

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Once again, don’t get scared by the Greek term epistemology lol.It just means how you get to the Truth or Reality of a situation-“The Theory Of Knowledge “according to the Philosophers.

In an “ordinary” conversation, when someone hears a statement made by another person, they immediately compare it to what is already in their head and respond accordingly. If it conforms to what is in their mind, they say: “You are right” and if it doesn’t they say: “You are wrong” or “I disagree”. Sometimes they don’t say it out-loud   out of politeness and diplomacy. Wrong, wrong and wrong! This is the totally wrong epistemology! Unfortunately the most popular type lol. It can go quite far. The more clever, sophisticated people will then go do some research to cherry-pick the literature or the media to prove the point that is in their heads. They then claim not only are they right but science is on their side. Tsk,tsk,tsk. Dishonest brokers of the Truth?!

“So what is the right way?” you may and should ask. Remember the triad of perception-hearing, seeing and feeling .That is hearing with the Ear of Truth, seeing with the inner eye and feeling with the subtle heart. Doesn’t matter what is in your mind. It is all “batil”(falsehood-either untrue or so theoretical that it is detached from Reality.)Once you learn to use and develop the three tools of Epistemology, the world starts looking very different! The people you thought were good begin to manifest their evil, the people you criticized now seem to be speaking the Truth and the people you admired are now creating discomfort in your heart. Welcome to the world of reality! Salaams, Sufi Ibrahim

Comparative Religion, Islam, Metaphysics, Spiritual Practice, Uncategorized

Husn Al Dhann and Radical Positivity!

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Husn Al Dhann (having a good opinion) is a much vaunted Islamic virtue. It is based mostly on the Quranic ayat 49:12 where we are encouraged to “avoid suspicion” and to not back bite. However, most of the scholars go well beyond the text and encourage us to have a good opinion both of our Lord and our fellow man. Noble aspiration, no doubt! In this article, we will go into the idea of Husn Al Dhann regarding our Lord. As I mentioned in my previous article on this subject having universally and systematically a good opinion of man seems to fly in the face of much life experience and even of the Quran and hadith themselves. So let’s stick to our Creator for now.If we return again to the Quran 2:30 we find the angels, who are created to be obedient, objecting to Allah’s creation of man. “Wilt thou place therein one who will make mischief therein and shed blood?’ They are truly clairvoyant! Ever noticed the veracity of their prediction lol?! They see what is going to happen on Earth, as we also can now see it, and protest! So what does Allah respond? “I know what you know not”. And as opposed to most people they do not argue back lol. They submit! Wouldn’t it be nice if men wee like that-submitting immediately to the Truth?! But don’t hold your breath. For the Quran itself tells us that ‘insan’ is disputatious. He keeps arguing his opinion no matter what Truth is put forward-most of the time anyway.

Most of us, unfortunately, are still in the state of the angels before Allah’s clarification. So there is a serious level of hypocrisy going on-even in the hearts of the believers?! They say they have a good opinion of Allah and His creation but as soon as things go wrong, they assume that Allah has made a mistake! Estagfirullah. The examples of this are legion: “This child should not have died so early”; “This car accident should never have happened”; “This war is a mistake”. The examples in our minds and hearts are multiple. We want to be the correctors of Allah. WE know better! Allah should conform to our beliefs rather than to HIS Wisdom. The believers, at least, don’t formulate it that way since it sounds wrong but once you get into the nitty-gritty you will see that is what they are thinking!.

So what is the opposite point of view? It is that Allah is in charge. Everything is happening from  His Will and with His permission. No exceptions! Then we must submit. But instead our nafs rebels “This( (the war in Ukraine, the killing of American children in their schools, the establishment of the state of Israel, the American invasion of Iraq-take your choice. It’s all a big mistake! It shouldn’t be” it screams mostly inside our heads.

Btw one of the groups that understands this point well are the Advaita Vedantists. We do not agree with most of their theology but on this point they are spot on. Here is a quote from one of their great teachers, the American Robert Adams -who was a direct disciple of Ramana Maharshi, a remarkable Hindu saint “Nothing is wrong. Everything is right just the way it is.(“I know what you know not” says Allah) Do not try to figure it out Leave it alone(tawakuul in our language) And also.” Be aware of yourself, always(muraqaba).The world goes through its own karma(the Divine plan) It has absolutely nothing to do with you. You belong to God( ina lillahi) Everything you see is God (wahadat al wujud).What a ‘hal’ this man possessed. We need to learn from this!

So let me begin to lay out an alternative approach beginning with a few anecdotes. The first involves a defrocked psychoanalyst who gave up on his practice, finding that the results were few and far between. Instead he developed a very successful program for schizophrenics called “Case Management” In that program instead of using expensive, over-trained mental health professionals, people with a simple university bachelor’s degree were hired to be available(read humans as opposed to the professionals lol) on a  full-time basis, a bit like parents)and to respond as needed instead of during office hours with long-delayed appointments-the usual M.O. of health care systems. They were assigned to have 6-8 people to watch over and help in a practical way over a period of time. The results were so remarkable that this program became the standard of care in most mental health systems-at least those that were front-line and competent!

But the real point of this story is what the psychoanalyst responded when asked by a member of the audience whether his psychoanalytic experience had been of any use whatsoever. And he responded: “What I learnt from my psychoanalytic therapy was to be brutally honest with myself” Can we, as believers, say the same thing? Do we have the same capacity for self-observation as this psychiatrist. If we do, then we will acknowledge that we are regularly opposing the actions of Allah .i.e. Reality!

Before we address some possible remedies to this situation let me tell you another story-the story of Sheikh Hashimi. Before he passed on the great sheikh and Sufi Ahmad Al Alawi named muqaddams(representatives) to be assigned to most of the surrounding Arab countries. Representatives were sent to Morocco and Tunisia a nd Syria amongst others. And the representative he sent to Syria was an Algerian  man named Muhammad al Hashimi. For those who are cognizant of the world of Sufi silsilas(chains of transmission) Sheikh Hashimi was the sheikh of Abdur Rahman Shaghouri who was the sheikh of Sheikh Nuh.

Sheikh Hashimi was well beloved of the Syrians. When he died after 40 years of teaching them and serving them, they were missing him and so they went to his “khadim*(servant) and asked him what he remembered of Sheikh Hashimi’s teachings. He responded: “I only learnt one thing from the sheikh but it sufficed me for my entire Life”! “Only one thing .During fourty years of service?!” They were astounded but asked the inevitable follow-up question: “Alright, So what was that one thing?” “Fi kooli shay khareen”(In every thing there is goodness).A fitting explanation if not a complete one, to the ayat where Allah tells us that He knows what we do not. That there is goodness in everything-A Divine Plan and Divine Wisdom!

Before we get to the solution to this dilemma, let me tell you one more story-from my pre-Islamic days. I got into my real spiritual search somewhere in the early seventies while I was still a Marxist -albeit an unconvinced one(discernment even then lol).I read a lot and visited where I could. One of my earliest visits(1973 I believe) was to Ojai ,California to see Krishnamurti, I was hoping to connect with a fellow psychiatrist named Shainberg I believe but Allah had other, more relevant plans in mind.

Instead, I met with an “ordinary Joe” American. I asked him what he was doin g there (seemed so out of place) and then he told me his story .He was a Korean war veteran.(It is 1973 so the Korean war had finished 20 years earlier.)It was the worst possible situation. In the trenches- filled with mud and dead bodies and blood and gore. You can just imagine or maybe you can’t! And then he was hit by an artillery shell of the Communists. At that moment the sky opened up and he saw another scene of battle but that one was Luminous and Glorious and Ecstatic! In that dimension everything made sense and more. Then he lost consciousness.

When he awoke, he was in intense pain from the wound he had incurred. He required constant pulmonary drainage and opiates and round the clock nursing! But he survived. It was now 20 years later and he was still looking to retrieve his “hal”(spiritual state) that he had experienced in Korea. That is why he came to see Krishnamurti. Amazing, eh?

So now, after all that preamble ,we get to the heart of the matter. How do we stop disputing with our Lord and begin accepting His Will- not in theory but in actual practice. I have a few recommendations and perhaps together we can discover more. Inshallah. So this is the program I propose for arriving at Husn Al Dhann which is also “rida” (acceptance) and “tawakuul” (trust in Allah.

1- First let us remember the famous statement of Ali Jemal r.a. of Fes “Everything to you is from you” i.e. it is a specific response to your situation, your actions, your educational needs, your merits and defects. Nothing is random! Everything is purposeful! That is what Allah is saying when he states that He knows what the angels do not!

When the horrible tsunami hit East Asia in 2004 I saw an Islamic scholar on public television saying: “this is just a geological event(tectonic plates moving) not a theological one”! I couldn’t believe my ears! Does he not understand in any way the workings of our Lord?! Clearly not.

As is my habit, I then started researching what was going on in those areas.The worst hit places turned out to be Aceh province in Indonesia and the Tamil areas of Sri Lanka. Aha! In both places there were civil wars going on. Clearly not pleasing to Allah who encourages us in the Quran itself to accept all peoples and nations. Then the Earthquake hit Pakistan in Muzaffarabad and Belokot in 2005.What do you know?! Al Qaida was organizing in those areas. According to the Indian army sources, they still are! Could that be the reason for these disasters? Only Allah knows but it would be reasonable to arrive at those conclusions. Just remember, nothing is random.

The same is true on a personal level. But most people don’t want to go there. The “bala”(misfortune) is either a consequence of some bad behaviour or a stimulus to growth through the purification effect of suffering. Admittedly not always obvious which of the two it is!

When Muhammad Ali may Allah be pleased with his efforts and sincerity was asked if he thought his Parkinsonism was a consequence of his boxing career he answered humbly: “No. I made a grave mistake in saying ‘I am the Greatest’ when the only great One is my Lord. This is the consequence!” Humble man. Mashallah. So whenever something “negative” occurs to you, look deeply into yourself. Is there anything you did wrong? If so, ask forgiveness and  begin correcting it. If not, praise the Lord for elevating you still higher.

2-Ask yourself “What is good in this apparent evil?” What is the silver lining in the cloud?” How can I see this as the glass half-full rather than half-empty?” Hamza Yusuf tells the story of a Moroccan man who had a stroke and was paralyzed on one side of his body. When people would meet him, he would point to the side that was still working and say something like: “Look how merciful is Allah. He left me with this entire side that works” Or the story of the great wali of the Tablighi people, Maulana Zakariah, who was dying of terminal stage 4 cancer and saying on his deathbed: “Ya Karim’, Ya Karim” These are very high levels of faith but we can take learnings from these examples.

3-Think about how it could have been worse. A few years ago, I had a knee injury. When I finally got to a competent orthopedist, he diagnosed me with an “insufficiency fracture”- something I had never heard of in medical school. He told me I had to take all pressure of the knee(i.e. I needed to sit for salat) and it would cure itself over several months .Which is exactly what happened! I thought to myself: “Thank God it wasn’t progressive osteoarthritis as the G.P. had thought because then I would be looking at a knee-replacement(very painful!) down the road. Don’t feel too bad! I am not always that good about my Husn Al Dhann  lol.

My father when he was still alive would taunt people with the statement:” We have the best weather in the world here in Montreal”. People would think he was crazy! “What?! – the terrible cold and snowstorms in the winter and the hot ,muggy days of the summer! How could you say that?” He would answer” We don’t have hurricanes, we don’t have volcanoes. Tornadoes are very rare and we have almost no earthquakes. What’s a blizzard in the winter. You hunker down for a day. Then you take out your shovel the next day and you’re good to go”.

As you watch the weather trends nowadays, you can’t help thinking that he had a point. The massive heat waves in southern USA, the hurricanes in Florida and the West Coast, the drought in the mid-West and the wildfires in California and the West Coast! We are doing pretty well in Montreal lol.( For the nit-pickers and naysayers and contradiction detectors -the people I love to hate lol-yes there was an ice-storm in 1998 that did considerable damage-not many deaths however. The exception that proves the rule.

So my father was practicing Husn Al Dhann about the weather. He would have been shocked to learn that he was performing  an act of piety lol. Like the time I caught him resonating with the Hare Krishna crowd at Philip’s Square! “But Dad I thought you don’t believe in religion” I said. “I Know. But I like this music. It gets to me” Too bad he didn’t go further in his spiritual quest!

4- Seeing the compassion in the pain. You have a chronic pain condition. But it comes and goes. Your skin is burning and itching. But then it disappears enough for you to get a decent sleep. Your money is running out. And suddenly a source of ‘risq’ occurs. None of this was predictable. None of it even makes sense! If you have no cartiledge at the knee joint or between the vertebrae why does the pain come and go?! Shouldn’t it be there all the time. No doctor can explain that. It is from the Mercy of Allah. And He is micromanaging our experience on a moment by moment basis. See if you can observe it!

5-What is this difficult experience designed to teach you. There is almost always a heuristic component to every hardship. I remember a social worker who told me about ending up in the hospital with acute appendicitis. Only then did she realize she was in an abusive relationship and needed to get out. Or the Kashmiri businessman from Sri Nagar who found out that his partner was emptying the cash register every night which led to the bankrupcy of their enterprise. He came running to the Naqshbandi Mujaddid sheikh in Gutlibagh(Mir Alam) and said that was the best decision of his life.

So “hold your horses” before saying “this shouldn’t be”, exercise self -restraint and above all remeber:”fi kulli shay khairin(in everything is goodness) and praise the Lord. Alhumdulillah Rabbil Alamin. May Allah help us all in this challenging task of having a good opinion of His actions-always!

Addendum: The “elephant in the room” here is doubt! “Shakk”-the fifth klesa if you wish. The doubt comes from us believing in what is in our minds rather than in what Allah is doing. It is the cause of much of our errors and most of our anxiety! The only way to deal with it is to become acutely aware of it and to defuse it with tawakuul as soon as it comes up.

As Muslims we know the story of our Prophet saws with Abu Bakr Siddiq in the cave as they are fleeing to Madina. Abu Bakr r.a. is worrying(i.e. doubting), for one of the few times, about the safety of our Prophet saws who responds;” Are you not aware that Allah is with us on this journey” the Noble One explains. If Abu Bakr.one of the great ones, the Siddiq has doubts ,what about us.

The opposite of doubt is certitude -“Yaqin” but that is a very high state in Reality. As mentionned in the article most believers have that certainty in theory. But in Reality ,especially when being tested, that is another matter.So let us continue working on it.! Inshallah. Sufi Ibrahim

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Comparative Religion, Metaphysics, Spiritual Practice, Sufism

The Greeks, Oy!

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Someone else*(first ever!) has understood the limitations and potential harm of the adoption of Greek Philosophy by the Muslims! Mashallah. There is hope in the Universe lol!
Aanand Krishnan posts:
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Vedānta, and the Advaita kind in particular, is a fountain of wisdom and looks at reality from within and offers an alternative to the Greek way of philosophy, which focuses on the study of the external universe primarily.
Islamic metaphysics developed under the light of Greek Philosophy primarily due to historical factors. If Islam had conquered the lands to the east before turning westward, things might have been different.
There is no particular reason why an Islamic metaphysics guided by Vedānta could not be developed more fully. And I think it could provide an even more comprehensive system of metaphysics that is consistent with the Qur’ān and the Sunnah of the holy prophet.
He is after all not just al-Zāhir but also al-Bātin. The Greek system enabled Muslims to develop a metaphysics of external manifestation but layers about what lies inside of us perhaps haven’t been fully developed.

P.S. The author goes on to say that the Vedanata makes a distinction between pramata(what I call Epistemology!) and prameya(logical proof).Finally someone else is getting it!

Comparative Religion, Metaphysics, Modern Living, Psychology, Uncategorized

Challenging Elements of Jewish Law

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Asalamu aleykum, i.e wishing peace to everyone lol.All religions begin with a noble,highly evolved spiritual being like Moses or Jesus or Mohammed saws who delivers a message from the Divine! Then the scholars get to work to operationalize and theorize about the religion and that’s where the problems begin! As an  end result of this process, we find ourselves,in Islam, with burqas and extremists who find justification for killing innocent people;in Christianity with God depicted as an old man with a white beard or as a dead body on a cross or in Judaism wearing paiess(sidecurls) and being careful not to mix dairy with meat! It is the latter aberration that I wish to address here! It has actually been bugging me for decades lol and I decided to look into it this morning at Fajr time! It may seem somewhat banal relative to the two previous mentionned aberations but there is the same corrupting intellectual problem involved.It all comes from “mind-productions” -a very different entity from Revelation and inspiration!

1-So let’s take them one-by-one.Firstly , the issue of not mixing milk and meat.I always sensed there was something quirky and unnecessary  about this rule. And that is usually where I start-my initial reaction.Here is the official version if you want to check it out!

https://www.thetorah.com/article/prohibition-of-meat-and-milk-its-origins-in-the-text?fbclid=IwAR3RRlnmwhiGO5_pevoYv-Ua4As5Jfnq9mD2uiZ3mU6Wcp_32gKdPGxF1tI

So we find in the Torah three times the phrase: ” Do not seethe(cook) a kid in its mother’s milk”.Unfortunately the rabbis and scholars who interpreted this did not have the benefit of certain Quranic teachings that came later.But Allah tells us in the Quran that He speaks to us in two ways-either literally (muhakamat) or metaphorically(mutashabihat).Ajib! So in this case, it seems very likely that this is a metaphor of some kind.Even if it were literal all it tells us is to not cook a child animal in its mother’s milk.This is a far cry from having an obsessive need to keep dairy and meat separate-to have two sets of dishes and two sets of electrical appliances in every Jewish kitchen! In fact if you take this statement literally you could cook the kid in the milk of another similar specied mother or in that of another species- like cooking a goat kid in cow’s milk.No problem.Then why can you not have cheese in your meat lasagna lol or milk in your coffee after a satisfying kosher steak lol.This all smacks of obsessionalism-a well-known Jewish characteristic!

On the level of metaphor there may be a few interesting possibilities.One of the things that came to mind was the famous Zidane incident in World Cup Soccer.The Italian player insulted the mother or sister of this Algerian French soccer player who proceeded to head-butt him and get kicked out of the game.So could this statement be a warning not to insult someone about their origins(their mother, their tribe,their nation) because it could cause them to seethe-to boil over.Or could this be a precursor of the psychoanalytic understandinfg of parental internalizations(soaked in the mother’s milk) that cause so much grief in this world?!If you have ever been married,you would know what I mean lol.Or then again we could say it would incite us as children to seek out other inputs beyond the nuclear family environment(the mother’s milk) in order to grow and develop.

The possibilities here are almost endless.However, one of the least likely of all is that God wanted us to have two sets of dishes and two sets of electrical appliances and above all not to put milk in our coffee after dinner  lol

2-The wearing of paiess or peiot in Hebrew.That always seemed ugly and ridiculous! And I am convinced that anything that is ugly and unnatural cannot be from God!

Here is the official version:

Why Do Orthodox Jewish Men Have Sidecurls?

Again,this weird practice comes from a Biblical reference.Leveticus 19:27 says”Do not round the corners of your head”.So how do we get from “rounding the corners of your head” to paiess?Well,the first change is to have men with really short hair-not the custom of any of the Old Testament Prophets btw.So first you Westernize Jews as they have done with Muslims.Then you decide that below a certain level the hair is not to be cut.And voila,you have these odd paieseem! You will not find these odd curls in any of the pictures of Jesus or the Apostles all of whom were practising Jews! so it must be a modernist innovation.

Actually I suspect that this prohibition is the same one as we have in Islam-not to shave the sides of our head-because that is a pagan practice.In any case,this unnecessary oddity of grooming is only essential in the minds of its creators lol.I am totally convinced that this was not nor could have been ordained by God.

So there we are.All religions have a tendency to corrupt their original sources.We need to be vigilant at all times and go to the root of the matter-what is essential to our piety,rather than what is arbitrary.

Salaams,Ibrahim

Comparative Religion, Modern Living, Politics

American Politics in a Nutshell

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Jan. 6/2021(Right after the Senate runoffs in Georgia):America is clearly a divided country! On one side we have the so-called liberal,progressive Democrats.On the other side we have the right-leaning Republicans-pro and anti-Trump.No viable third-party alternative has emerged,mostly because all parties and their supporters are strategizing and manipulating to avoid that option-an option offered in almost every other democratic country,

So( the newly forbidden word from the liberal grammarians lol) the liberal/progressives believe the right-wingers are foolish,backward or to use a Clintonian expression “deplorables” and the Republicans believe that the liberals are immoral,atheistic and radical Socialists.Now,(the next word for the grammarians to prohibit lol) this might look like a black and white issue for many.I would have been in that camp in my early years of political activism.But(another dubious word lol?) I no longer see it quite the same way- since I embarked on a spiritual path many,long years ago.Btw one of the turning points on my path was attending a meeting of left-wing activists in Quebec and clearly “seeing” the evil on their faces! That was the end of my Marxist phase!

Given my past ,it is easy to see the point of view of the leftists.It took a longer time to be more sympathetic to the right-wing-especially with their morally corrupt leadership under Trump.Please note that it wasn’t always that way.I was struck,even as a left-wing activist,how the marriages of the Republicans (think both Bushs and Reagan) seemed so much better than the marriages of the liberals(think Kennedy,Clinton and all the way back to F.D.R.!)Already,in the local left-wing groups, I could see that evidence of relationship corruption and promiscuity amongst my colleagues.So the nuances were already there in the back of my mind.

So(there we go again)how can I defend these backward Republicans.Well,they are often simple folk.The “salt of the Earth” so to speak.They are believers,they are God-fearing, go to Church sincerely(unlike some of their politicians),they support traditional values like heterosexual marriages,no abortions,fidelity in marriage and honesty.They hate the half-truths and manipulations of the left-wingers and they hate political correctness.So do I! One example comes to mind,here.As a “progressive” you were not allowed to criticize Obama.He was sanctified.Whenever you opposed his actions,like I did in the Syria issue,you were labelled”racist”. That is ideological Fascism and there is plenty of it to go around.

Now(oops!) as a Muslim,I believe we have a lot in common with these “fundamentalist” Christians.We are both believing,God-fearing people of a book(whether it is the Quran or the Bible).The major issue that divides us is the state of Israel-a thorny issue no doubt.The evangelicals see the Zionist state as a prelude to the second coming of Jesus.The Muslims see Israel as an oppressor of the Arabs of Palestine.Both may well be right.But,we have a lot in common.And,I have been thinking for a long-time that we should join forces.This is the real”Clash of Civilizations” Mr. Huntington aside. The oldest clash we know of-believers vs. non-believers.There are no national and racial issues here. All religions have had to clash with opposition to their Revelations.

The bottom line:(to use an American expression). The political schism in America is not as black and white as most Americans would like to think.I am sympathetic to the progressive wing’s attempt to be well-informed and think through the issues in an intelligent way.I am not sympathetic to their hypocrisy,their “political correctness” and their clever attempts to cover-up their biases.I am sympathetic to the right-wingers attachment to their religion and their traditional values and their attempts to be straight-forward in their communications.I am not happy with their lack of knowledge,their knee-jerk reactions and their lack of understanding nuances.

So there it is-go figure! Salaams,Ibrahim

 

Comparative Religion, Spiritual Practice, Sufism

The Five Klesas: A Complete program for Islamic ‘Tarbiya”(Training)

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People ask me why I think Comparative Religion is an important subject for all to learn.Here is a wonderful example!

Today, as I was doing my morning walk,on the fasting day of Arafat,I came upon the usual challenges that Muslims are confronted with during the summer months in North America.The Quran tells us to “lower our gaze” and yet we are challenged with lovely-looking, skimpily clad females all around us! Yes,even during the pandemic lol.

And then I had an inspiration(‘ilham’ in Arabic).Why this ruling of loweing the gaze?! These rulings are not just capricious or arbitary as some may think.Hasha,abadan,never! They come from wisdom.

And the wisdom is the following.If we do as Westerners are inclined,even urged to do,and “check out” the members of the opposite sex,then we are generating desire .And desire gets in the way of our path to Allah.It is a big distraction.

This thinking led me to reflect on the Buddhist teaching of the Five Klesas(Obstacles on our path to Enlightenment,in their way of thinking.) And what are these five obstacles?

1) Desire/Attachment

2) Aversion(Anger and Fear)

3) Laziness(and its sister procrastination)

4) Agitation(goals and ambitions) and finally

5) doubt( something often promoted by the scientific mind-set)

“What a wonderful formula for Islamic”tarbiya” I thought-succinct and comprehensive and even “actionable” as American politicians like to say lol.

Let us take them one by one;

1) Desire. Ramakrishna called them “women and gold”(There I go.More Comparative Religion lol).Yes,Sexual attraction to the opposite sex,or even,dare I say in this age of political-correctness, to the same sex.And greed-the love of money(and material possessions) symbolized by gold.

2) Aversion– a) Anger.Did the Prophet of Islam saws not warn us?! “Don’t be angry” he repeated three times to the man asking advice.And b) Fear– which comes from lack of Trust in our Lord(tawakuul.”Everything is in good hands,the hands of Allah”.He is the Controller,He is the Determiner of Affairs,He is the all-Powerful,He is the Provider.What is there to fear?!

3) Laziness-which is from the ‘nafs’ ego.Sheikh Nazim used to say: “The ideal of the nafs is to lie under a fruit tree and wait,without any effort whatsoever,for the fruit to fall into our mouths”lol. So instead,as seekers,we do “jihad-al-nafs”-the great struggle against our ego and its laziness.

4) Agitation; Which usually comes from self-will and self-direction;from thinking we can control things ,that we are in charge.That is a recipe for anxiety and stress and misery.If you don’t believe me, just look around you lol.It is every where-because we have been trained to think WE can control matters when mostly we can’t and we are better off surrendering to What is rather than shaping it.This leads us inevitably to the issue of the Will of God but that is a discussion for another time.

5) Doubt. Another Biggie! Doubt is cultivated from the first day we enter our schooling system.We are conditioned to trust our mind and our mind productions and the mind productions of our so-called experts but we are not conditioned to trust in the Only Truly Trustworthy one-the Divine,God,Allah.So most of us modern people have our work cut out for us on this one.Big struggle.(See my article”The Process of Deprogramming from the Cult of the Intellect” on this same blogsite)

How elegant and sublime?! Buddhism provides us with a road-map to become true Muslims.Put that in your pipes and smoke it O Wahhabbis ,Salafis and Ikhwanis.As Sufis,we have less of a problem with this as we have in common with the Buddhists the mystical quest-that is the quest for Ultimate Reality.(If you are concerned that I am losing my Islamic identity lol,you can read the Chapter in my last book  Understanding Life called”Unpacking Buddhism” to see where I disagree with the Buddhists).

After I shared this understanding with one of my students who has a knack for calling me out on my slips and my omissions,he said to me”What about ‘shirk'(idolatry).The Buddhists don’t have that ,do they.”At first,I just let it pass and then it came to me.Yes,there is plenty about “shirk’ in this model of Five Klesas.Let me explain.”Shirk” (idolatry) is the cardinal sin in Islam just as Pride is the cardinal sin in Christianity.Literally it means partnership.So Muslims are taught not to make partners with Allah.The idols of Mecca can be seen as partners as can all the gods of the polytheist pantheon.

But mostly,we no longer have concrete idols, in the Western world at least.But we do have many “idols of the heart”.What are these idols?! They are all there in the five klesas.The idol of money,the idol of sexual pleasure,in fact the idols of all sorts of pleasures.Anything that takes priority over our concern with our relationship with our Lord,becomes an idol.Laziness can refer to the “idol of recreation”for example.There are many,many people who believe that the purpose of life is to have as many good times as possible.A current tragic consequence of that mentality can be seen in the surge of Covid cases in the southern U.S.- linked to beaches and parties and bars.So these are not just abstract ideas.They have very serious consequences.

And lastly there is doubt! Broken down to its essence,doubt means that we trust too much in our own mind-productions.It is the opposite of Faith (Iman) and Trust in God(Tawakuul.)

There you have it .A complete Program for spiritual hygiene.Time to get to work,n’est-ce pas?! Salaams,Ibrahim