Category Archives: Spiritual Practice

Comparative Religion, Islam, Modern Living, Spiritual Practice

Super-egoic Distortions in Islamic Fiqh

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Super-egoic Distortions in Islamic Fiqh

Yes, that’s a mouthful lol. Let’s break down the vocabulary before we get started! Freud separated consciousness of human beings into three parts-ego, id and superego. (We will not address his lack of understanding of spirituality and religion at this point. But his psychological understanding was ground-breaking.) So, for him, the ego was our rational aspect, the id was our desires (“hawa’ in Arabic) and the superego was our conscience. Then he went further and saw that in some people the conscience, which although deficient in some, like psychopaths, could also be overactive in others- those we are going to address in this article. He then labelled those superegos as “punitive” or “sadistic”. And that-the sadistic superego- is one of the major toxins in all religious communities and one of the many reasons why people reject religion!

Now let’s be clear. The founders of our religion-the true Prophets and saints had no need for this overactive superego. They were universally energized, uplifted, even ecstatic beings by definition. That’s why they were appointed to those high positions in the spiritual hierarchy. But amongst their followers and often amongst the priestly class were people of lesser upliftment and less transcendent motivations. We can consider them as the religion’s bureaucrats and like all bureaucrats they get bored and unmotivated. So they need some “juice”. And the juice they get is from making other adherents guilty and miserable and afraid. In that way they are manifesting their “sadistic superegos”.

And don’t be fooled! All religions have them-not only Islam. I remember as a Jewish secularist, seeing young boys at their Bar Mitzvahs going up to the altar to recite the Torah from memory and being harassed by elderly parishioners for mistakes they made in the recitations! In Islam we could call these “tajweed” lessons lol! They are all fine and good if carried out with wisdom and kindness. I remember literally losing it with my tajweed teacher in Jordan when, after reciting two ayats perfectly, I tripped up on the third and he pounced on me -as was his habit! “You have no idea of pedagogy “ I said to him in my weak Arabic. ”At least the Western teachers know how to congratulate you when you do something right”. He was dumbstruck-because that is the way he was taught. My father told me that, in his days if you got something wrong, the rabbis would twist your ear until it really hurt. And we wonder why the conflict in the Middle East persists lol. In these two anecdotes, you have the entire story. But let’s not deviate into politics for now! It’s too tempting and too controversial!

Christians, of course, are not immune from this phenomenon. Catholic sisters used to whip their thighs, much like the Shia do on Ashura, until they bled. Priests would go around their neighbourhood,  threatening women if they had not had a child that year, with the hellfires. And God only knows what went on in the Missionary schools as expressions of the teachers and administrators “sadistic superegos”.

For the sake of brevity ,I am not going into details about the Hindu-Buddhist lineage .More of the same I am certain. We all know about Zen masters and their nasty bamboo sticks. The Chinese showed us pictures of the Tibetan Buddhist cages where they kept their prisoners(not that the Chinese do any better1 The atheists are just as cruel. Often more so. And the Hindus have some of the most painful ascetic practices as well. While visiting a guru in Kerala I was told that one of her German disciples was living in a hole underground for the last several months. That was considered a high-level spiritual practice!

Ok. That’s the intro. I think by now you get the point. But what I really wanted to do here is give more ordinary examples of this phenomenon-things that we may encounter on a regular basis in the practice of our religion. What triggered my reflection on this subject was something I noticed every year during Ramadan. Towards the end of the fast the Imam would almost inevitably say something like the following. ”Ok It’s all fine and good that you have now been fasting for 25 days. But many of you will slip after Ramadan into your previous behaviours and it will all be for naught. If you don’t continue with your Ramadan level of piety, all is lost” That all seemed to me cruel and heartless! How about instead  “Congratulations for all your efforts -fasting for three and a half weeks. You will certainly be rewarded for it. And I hope you keep it up”. Never heard it in 48 years of Ramadan. No the superego has to chime in and say “it’s still not enough. You could be doing better.”!

Now, the second term that may be unclear in the title is “Fiqh”. Usually translated as Jurisprudence-the rules of the religion and how to apply them. Let us take three examples of how the superego surreptitiously creeps into the equation.

  • The Niqab(face-covering) .(We will not discuss the issue of the hijab at this point. Almost all religions, Buddhism may be a notable exception, require head covering-both for males and females!) But the niqab is special. And many of the shuyukh recommend it or even require it. Yet if we go back to the two most important scriptural references on the question Quran 24;31 and the Asma hadith ,in both cases the face is excepted from the covering .In 24:31 it says: ”They should not display their adornments except what ordinarily appears( (most of the traditional scholars said that refers to the face and hands).The Asma hadith is even more clear! The Prophet tells the older sister of his wife Ayesha to cover everything except(again!) and then he points to the face and hands.
  • So where does the niqab idea come from. A strange twist of logic, where A becomes not-A lol. And I thought “mantiq”(logic was one of the Islamic sciences that scholars were supposed to study! One of the possibilities is the “more of the same” logical error. If something, like covering the head is good, then more, covering the Face, must be even better. That is patently bad logic. Ask a toxicologist if you need more proof lol P.S. I once had a patient who almost died from an overdose of water which gave her cerebral edema1 even too much water can be dangerous.

The other explanation I have heard from Taliban sources. That “zinat” the word in the ayat for ornaments also can refer to beauty. And the beauty of the woman is in her face. Interesting twist, no doubt, but a twist nevertheless. That is not what the ayat says!. So more misery for the l,adies from the superegos of male scholars.

 

2– The Time of Fajr prayer.

N.B. I was put onto this problem by none other than the somewhat unorthodox Trinidadian sheikh Imran Hossein. I am not very impressed by his politics and his eschatological theories where Russia saves the world?! But he does have other more valid theories and an interesting way of approaching studying the Quran. I think this insight about Fajr came from his studying what the Quran and hadith actually said rather than how the ulema have interpreted it!

 

Nowadays most Muslims use a printed or online calendar to determine their prayer times. And these times are mostly generated by astronomical calculations. It appears that for fajr there is some debate about 15 degrees and 18 degrees. I haven’t got into the minutiae because I disagree with the premise of using science when we have clear-cut sunnat to follow.

When the ayats appeared about prayer time and the beginning of fasting the Sahhabbas were not clear. The Quran stipulated 2:187  that it was the time when you could see the difference between a white and black thread. Still it was not clear how to use that directive so the Sahhabbas asked the Prophet saws. Then the Prophet saws explained that it was at the appearance of the first light on the horizon (the scholars call that the second dawn).

Now, if you use the calendars that are provided to us , you will never see that light at the given times. The scientists got it wrong again! Any surprise after Covid?! A friend of mine claimed that was due to light pollution in the city. Possible? But I have now verified it in the countryside on several occasions and in Third World countries-like the Tunisian villages. And it remains true in each of those contexts. The light is never there at the times on the calendar! For the ulema, this should be a serious concern. After all, it means that many Muslims are praying fajr during the time of Tahhajjud. Personally, I am not such a stickler for details but many of them are.      On a sidenote here, but one that gives us some context, Western meteorologists also try to determine the time of dawn and their definition is similar to ours-“the first appearance of light”. However if you look it up in your local area, you will be shocked. It is often at least an hour later than our calendars say about fajr. So twice the time gap that Imran Hosein is claiming. Much to reflect on!

 

3-Miscellaneous issues-all involving the operation of the punitive superego

 

  1. a) The Habashi sect have their own qibla calculations. According to them if you are off by a few degrees your prayer is not accepted. So go back and do your last thirty years of prayers?!
  2. b) One of the scholars from the Sheikh Nuh community went to Pakistan to study Islamic finance. He was shocked by the rigidity of the students around him. They were more or less condemning him to the hellfires for his pants going down beneath the ankle. He came back quickly to Jordan lol
  3. c) Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen bank. The economist Muhammad Yunus won the Nobel Prize for the development of microcredits with the Grameen Bank. (Yes, I know he has become a controversial figure in his own country but that is not germane to our present discussion) With this tool many of the poor citizens of Bangladesh and India were helped out of poverty. This did not prevent him from being severely chastised by the Islamic scholars of Bangladesh as interest is considered by most of them to be prohibited in Islam. They couldn’t factor in all the benefit people were getting. Fortunately the Bangladeshi people are of a mild temperament. If this had happened in an Arab or Afghani context ,he may well have been assassinated!

The list goes on and on…I hope the overall message is loud and clear. As Sheikh Nazim used to tell us: ”Wear your religion lightly-not like a heavy cloak that burdens you” Otherwise you may become one of those religious malcontents whose only real plaesaue is in making other people miserable.

Joy and Happiness and Upliftment to you all, Sufi Ibrahim

Islam, Spiritual Practice

The Grozny Conference

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The conference was dedicated to the 65th anniversary of the birth of Kadyrov’s father, Akhmad Kadyrov, the first President of Chechnya.

The conference was notable for excluding representatives of Wahhabi and Salafi movements, and for its definition of Sunni Muslims in the final communiqué of the conference that included Sufis, Ash’aris and Maturidis, but not Wahhabis or Salafis. It condemned Salafism and Wahhabism as “misguided” sects, along with extremist groups such as ISIS, Hizb ut-Tahrir, the Muslim Brotherhood and others.

The conference definition stated:

“Ahl al-Sunnah wa al-Jama’ah are the Ash’aris and Maturidis (adherents of the theological systems of Imam Abu Mansur al-Maturidi and Imam Abu al-Hasan al-Ash’ari). In matters of belief, they are followers of any of the four schools of thought (Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi’i or Hanbali) and are also the followers of the Sufism of Imam Junaid al-Baghdadi in doctrines, manners and [spiritual] purification.”

Metaphysics, Modern Living, Psychology, Spiritual Practice

The Good, The Bad and the Conundrum of Activism

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The Good, the Bad and

The Conundrum of Activism

The Trigger: This article was triggered by an interview of Francis A. Boyle, Human Rights Activist and Professor of International Law on CHD TV. What we learn in this interview is that the U.N. banned the use of biological weapons in an International Convention adopted in 1971.The United States signed on in 1972 with both bodies of Congress voting for it. In 1989 the U.S. added to the International Law its own prohibition with the U.S. Code 175-an addition to the Terrorism Act! Code 175 says “whoever knowingly develops, produces, stockpiles, transfers, acquires, retains or possesses any biological agent toxin, or delivery system for use as a weapon shall be fined or imprisoned for life or any term of years”

So, it is a criminal offense to be developing these weapons with a maximum sentence of life imprisonment (the lawyers and politicians who drew up the act didn’t like capital punishment lol) And yet since at least the 80’s under Ronald Reagan American scientists have been doing exactly that and keeping it undercover! We can understand their justifications: ”The Russians and the Chinese are doing it so we musn’t get behind”. Excuses, excuses! This is VERY dangerous stuff. And at this point ,I am convinced that Covid-19 Sars 2 is a product of that research! And it could get worse!

The thought immediately came to mind:  ”How could people be so evil, so reckless, so self-serving? I guess I am still naïve! This kind of evil has been going on for a long, long time. The Romans crucifying people and throwing them to the lions. The medieval tortures like the Iron Maiden. The Jews led into the gas chambers. The list goes on and on!

I still remember Sheikh Nazim in Peckham , London during one Ramadan in the 80’s saying “We are now under the hegemony of shaytan” and thinking “I think he’s going too far”! And hegemony was a word that should have been outside of his TurkEnglish vocabulaty lol. But, no, he was absolutely right. And those wooly-minded thinkers like Steven Pinker (“The Better Angels of our Nature”) and their data-analysis approach are sorely out of touch. No news there lol!

So…can it really be that bad?! And the simple answer is “Yes!”. Besides the usual human rights abuses like those of the Uighurs in China, the Chinese harvesting organs from Falum Dung members(that’s a new one but not dissimilar to the Nazis doing “scientific” experiments on Jews and not so long ago the Japanese torturing Chinese and Korean opposition forces, we now have a new slew of evil habits.

Let us name a few. So we have researchers in the U.S. and then in China doing “gain of function” research and calling it vaccine research which it clearly wasn’t. We have American pharma companies, exempt from all legal liabilities, having public health authorities mandating their ”safe and effective” vaccines (which were neither) to the entire population. We have large institutions- private and public- including universities (no surprise there .New and critical thinking left those premises a long time ago.)We have prestigious medical journals blocking the publication of useful research into repurposed medications for treatment and instead publishing misleading research some of which was so bad they had to retract the articles themselves. We have decades of vaccine mandates for children without any placebo-controlled studies and no long-term research on their overall effects on children. The list goes on and on! Man’s creativity in the field of mischief is truly astounding! No lack of new ideas there.

Once our inner vision begins to see all this, we may well feel overwhelmed and hopeless. How could this be and what can we do about it?” we may well ask. In Islam we were recommended to go to the hills with our sheep when the Last Days were approaching! Are we there yet?! We may well be but before we all become forest dwellers and hermits ( but btw the forests are no longer safe either nor the water in remote areas. In the forests we now have a plethora of ticks and Lyme disease and some of the most remote lakes are so contaminated with heavy metals that there are no fish left!) So there is no real refuge left!

There may however be a simpler answer. We need to seriously remember that, in any case, we are only here for a temporary period. As I like to remind myself and others from time to time, “the fatality rate of Earthly existence is 100%!” Sorry for the bad news, but none of us is going to survive anyway! So perhaps we should be thinking of the after-life and how best to be right with our Creator. Nothing else will do and nothing else can be so beneficial. All the religions teach that more or less! As say the A.A. people: ” Let go and let God”. He (the Light of the Heavens and the Earth) is the only trustworthy protector. All the others are destined to fail.

But what I really wanted to address in this article ,since good and evil have been contemplated from the beginning of time, is the question of activism. This question emerges out of the observation of endemic evil and what do we do about. Many times in history social activism and political theories have tried to address and redress the problem. Perhaps the most obvious in recent history was and still is Marxism. According to that philosophy, the problem is the exploitation of the working class and the solution is “The dictatorship of the proletariat”. We see where that got us when we look at Russia and China and North Korea to name but a few examples.

But nowadays we have newer and more limited actors in the field of activism-like “Doctors without Borders” trying to help people in war zones and “Amnesty International” trying to protect political prisoners, and Greenpeace and other environmental groups trying to protect the planet. One thing that surprized me in my practice as a psychiatrist was that the clients I saw who were in intimate relationships with these N.G.O. types were some of the people who were most disappointed by their relationships. It made no sense! Good people, no? Amnesty International, Médecins sans Frontières-how could these be bad people! As I contemplated this conundrum, I realized what was going on. These N.G.O. types were ideologues-people of principle! Often their hearts were dead. In fact they were so insensitive that it took really gross abuses in their environment to be able to fell anything! It sort of made sense!

Btw, I have my own personal history with activism! It started with student newspapers in high school and university, continued with protests against Canadian complicity in the Vietnam war and ended with Marxist medical services in a Community Clinic. It is a long story that I will only be able to tell it adequately when I eventually write my autobiography. Inshallah. But let me highlight a few episodes that eventually led to my disillusionment with this approach.

While I was at the community Clinic in East End Montreal I participated in a legitimate strike at a company called Carter White Lead. Many of the  workers there   were actually suffering from documented lead poisoning. We had a toxicologist on board who confirmed the diagnosis. In my mind I still held the slogan of “the dictatorship of the proletariat”lol. That was our salvation!.Boy can we be delusional at times! As an example it took Sartre, admittedly a brilliant man, more than a decade after being made aware of it  to denounce what was going on in Russia at the time of Stalin . In the meantime he had denounced Camus who was his informant in this matter as “intellectually not up to the task of analyzing the subtleties of the Russian Revolution ”(paraphrasing here).I still know very intelligent scholars who are unwilling to denounce Stalin. Their names will remain anonymous lol

 

When I saw this “proletariat” at Carter White Lead, my gut reaction was: ”These people in charge of our government?! No, thanks!” I had my first breakthrough!

Then I went to China with a group of community workers. That was 1973 and the Cultural Revolution was still going on but well-hidden from our view. We went to a school and when one of my companions, a College teacher at the time, realized that the principal of the school was earning much more than the workers and he confronted the workers about this inequality (which went against all Marxist principle) they said it was alright. He literally had a melt-down and a few hours later had to be rushed to the hospital with acute pneumonia! If you ever needed a clear example of a psycho-somatic reaction, this was a spectacular one. This fellow’s entire world had fallen apart Many people lost their faith in Marxism after that trip! Some melted into the “soft left” like the N.D. P. in Canada . Others, like myself, left activism and politics for good!

The third event that closed the chapter on Marxism for me was a large meeting of leftists, unionists and hard-core Marxist Leninists under the umbrella of a Marxist Group called “En Lutte” . At the head table were all the major leaders of the left wing. And when I saw them, it was obvious. ”No way, José” This group would be far worse than the current government under Robert Bourassa at the time. That was the last straw .Bye-bye Marx.

Another paradoxical thing I realized during these events, and I believe it is still true nowadays, is that the left-wing leaders treated their intimate partners much worse than their conservative homologues! Doesn’t make sense, right?! They are humanists and progressives and yet in their relationships they are egotistical, unfaithful and hedonistic.

You can see the same phenomena in American politics! Compare how the Bush’s and Reagan were with their wives to the string of philandering Kennedy’s all the way down to the present iteration. Yes there were exceptions like Carter and Obama on the Democrat side and Trump for the Republicans. But “the exception confirms the rule” as they say. If you are a woman, I would stay away from progressives lol

There is so much more I could say but the two major points I really wanted to raise in this article were the state of the world -where evil reigns forcing us to adapt to it and the particular conundrum posed by the latest iteration of a Kennedy, in the person of RFKjr,

The latter has presented a particular dilemma for Truth-seekers like myself. On the one hand, I agree with almost everything he says. It is all well-documented and referenced and he is very careful to get the facts right. I agree with almost everything he proposes to do in getting rid of the “captured” health agencies and government institutions. Perhaps the only thing I disagree with is trying to run for the Democratic party. I am convinced they will run him out of the primary as they did with Bernie Sanders in a previous election . But RFKjr. is a very strategic person and may well be using the Democratic platform to gain visibility and then planning to run for a third or fourth party once the Democrats succeed in running him out of town as they are almost sure to do.

None of this is problematic for me! But what is seriously problematic is his “ghoulish” presence! There is something deeply wrong with this man and it has nothing whatsoever to do with his voice. I have tried to come to some convincing conclusion about what that is but for now it evades me. Could it be what he calls “the lust demons” which have been haunting his family including his father and two of his uncles going all the way back to his grandfather?! Or could it be unresolved substance use which he has apparently conquered (Btw I saw a similar thing in the famous Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers and then learnt that he uses Ayahuasca as a means of spiritual upliftment. Ok. Case closed there!)

But there may be another explanation-at least a partial one- which applies to many, many people-Activism!? You see the real problem of activism is that it focuses on the negative. Even though it is attempting to resolve the problems, it can easily become obsessed with them. I saw that in medicine and psychiatry as well. My first wife, a true California Spiritual seeker nlol, confronted me with that: ” That’s the problem with you psychiatrists” she said in a moment of fury. You are in love with neurosis” She had a point.

My own Dad, who was by no means an intellectual, had the same issue. Although he had some dyslexia, I believe, he was so interested in history and politics that he worked his way through the entire set of volumes by Will and Ariel Durant called “The History of Civilization”! His conclusion: “Man is worse than animals ”. That was his final statement about Reality! And despite the fact that his argument is well-taken, it ultimately led him in the wrong direction. My own direction is the opposite! I go, rather, by the statement of Sheikh Hashimi of Damascus. ”Fi kooli shay khairan”(in everything there is good)What a revelation?! God created us, He knows more than anyone else our foibles and our defects. He created us that way. And he will lead us to the right path, if we trust in Him and follow His guidance. If, on the other hand, we follow the god of our own minds we are doomed to failure and disappointment. I am still working on it. And I hope you will be inspired to do likewise. 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

Psychology, Spiritual Practice, Sufism

The Four Klesas

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The Four Klesas and the Four Responses

The Buddhists have a lot of interesting classifications for states of mind. Most of them are completely consistent with Sufi Islamic principles and in some sense provide a unique and clear formulation that is “actionable” on the spiritual path. One of these formulations is  the 5 klesas.

The 5 klesas (obstacles to Enlightenment) are Attachment/desire, Aversion, laziness,agitation and doubt.For the sake of clarity I have reduced the list to four.I consider both laziness and agitation to be a derivatives of the others-laziness being a product of doubt and desire and agitation being a derivative of fear and anger.I  have also divided Aversion into its two distinct components of Anger and Fear.

So we are left with 4 klesas that we need to struggle against-Desire; Anger/upsetness; Fear/worry and Doubt. So here are the responses we can use as we come up against these four states on a daily basis. This is a formula for serious and effective spiritual struggle that can be done by anyone serious about their path.

1-Desire:

Response: This thought is a lie, a trick of my mind .Even if I managed to obtain the object I am wishing for,I would still not get the ultimate satisfaction it is promising!

2- Anger (upsetness):

This too is from God and has a purpose. How could this have been worse?Allah will bring this matter to its proper conclusion!

3-Fear/worry:

Allah is aware of everything that is happening including this. Do your “due diligence”, follow your inspirations in managing it and trust in God.Tawakultu aleyhi wa hua rabbal Arsh al Atheem.(Trust in god and He is the Best of Managers)

4-Doubt:

There is no Doubt. God Exists, He is aware of everything ,He is Just and He will bring it all to the right conclusion.

So try it out and see how much you can shift your consciousness with this simple formula!

Salaams, Sufi Ibrahim

 

 

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Psychology, Spiritual Practice, Sufism

The “work” trap

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Notes on the Spiritual Process

Asalamu aleykum,brothers and sisters. . It is so easy to slip in this way! Once we are solidly set in our goals, we may well be free from major sins like zina and alcohol and drug addiction. However the four klesas of desire, anger, fear and doubt are never far away and we have to be vigilant! That is arguably the biggest part of our work!

However, there is another danger that may be greater than either of the two aforementioned ones! And that is “ghafflat” ((negligence, unawareness) and ironically that “ghafflat” may be about what is perfectly halal or even obligatory! Like doing our work or our studies or taking care of our family . Good works, no?! Yes, but only within proper limits.

When I reflect on North American society ,and this is probably true in all “developed “ countries, there is only one virtue left! All the classic ones of piety and modesty and humility and obedience have been put aside. And all that is left is hard work. An excess of that is called “workaholism” in modern psychology. But it is much more common than many people think. For now, my definition is “any productive activity that sucks up all your energy(which may include getting to work and recuperating from work and preparing for work) and leaves your energy tank empty for your relationship with your Creator. More than 100 years ago the sociologist Max Weber wrote about this subject in a famous book called “The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism”. However this problem now applies to all religions- not just Protestantism. In fact, because of the hegemony of the Anglophone culture first via Great Britain and now via the U.S.A. we could say we are all Protestants lol

So what do I propose here? We must certainly be vigilant. But I will go further and suggest a potential structural solution to this-in two parts. The first being basic Islam and the second being Sufi practices.

1) We have the salat five times daily. However, I would like to reframe this practice -less about obligation and more about opportunity-the opportunity to take a break from work and refocus on our relationship with our Creator (the spiritual project!). Forget about everything else-your worries, your deadlines, your finances) and at five points during the day commune with your Creator. And watch the effects!

2) Dhikr (Sufi practice).Set aside two time periods  in  24 hours  to do your dhikr practices. One of them  should be tahhajjud time and the other a time of your choosing. Some of the Sufis have suggested the time between Asr and Maghrib but that might not work for your schedule. So it could be in the evening-if you have the energy(remember we need to be honest with ourselves as well!).Or after your siesta in the early afternoon. Whatever works for you. The time interval could be anything from one-half hour(least amount to get benefit) to one and a half-half  hours(a total of 3 hours as recommended by the Tijani people and Kundalini Yoga alike).See what you can manage .Build this two-faceted structure into your daily schedule and commit to it -as you commit to your work deadlinesJust don’t slip into ghafflat because your ‘hal’ will definitely suffer for it.

Salaams, keepimg you AND me on our toes lol. 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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