How can they possibly get it right?!(Directed to the majority of humanity lol)
1) They have no basirat (inner sight)
2) They have no trust in the real people of basirat
3) Their emotional reactions of attachment and aversion make it so that they cannot even properly register the facts that could allow them to perform a rational analysis and
4)no one has taught them the proper art of dream interpretation
How can they possibly get it right?! It would veritably be a miracle!
Salaams,Ibrahim
The New Sheikh
Asalamu aleykum,brothers and sisters.In the early 2000’s I met with one of the great Shuyukh of Islam – Sheikh Mahshur al Haddad r.a.- the sheikh of Sheikh Omar Ibn Hafiz and Sheikh Ali Jeffri ,in Jeddah shortly before his passing.
Although in a weakened state ,he managed to tell us, through his interpreter, that the days of tariqat, as we knew it, were over as people were no longer able to bear the rigour of the sheikh/murid relationship
At the time,I believed he was only referring to his own tariqat, but over the years I have been able to see the general applicability of his statement!
We are no longer in the era of the Insan al Kamil( the perfect man) and the murid with total surrender and perfect adab( if ever that actually existed in reality!).The new sheikh has to be ready to “mix it up”. He has to be ready to be challenged and to be able to assert what is True and to step back if he is in error.And he has to have some understanding of the psychological dynamics in any relationship- including his relationship with his students! Welcome.to the modern world! We should not lament the changes but rather should embrace them.There is something salutary in all of this as there was something problematic in the previous formalism that existed.Long live the Truth.
Salaams,Ibrahim
Podcast – Medical Fake News
Podcast – Thought and Reality
Podcast – The Wisal Practice
Podcast – Love
High and Low Part 2
Podcast High and Low – Part 1
State of the Nation- Lies, Damn Lies And Statistics
Another author expert on MSNBC citing the bogus statistic that 90% of the drugs in America come through legal ports of entry! There is no way on Earth that they could know that with any degree of certitude! He then goes on to say that the trial of El Chapo confirms that- which is not at all what I read about the trial. El Chapo was talking about tunnels and private airplanes and boats and even catapults! None of that sounds like “ legal ports of entry”!So Trump is not the only liar-by no means! No wonder so many people distrust the media and voted for Trump. The media are just as biased as the right and left extremes in promoting their agendas! Anyone having direct experience with an event covered by the media knows that just as anyone having direct experience with our so-called justice system knows how unjust it is. Our society is based on a whole tissue of lies. Now admittedly the lies are not as bad as those of North Korea or Iran or China. But that is a very low bar for acceptance!
Democratic Illusions-Always Respecting Other Peoples’ Wishes
( A piece of copyrighted material from my upcoming book called: Understanding Life)
I had an experience with a similar-themed experience in Mecca when I made my hajj(pilgrimage) in 1984. Fortunately that one turned out well,but not because of me.Let us continue and you will see why.As I was preparing to do my tawaf(circumambulation of the Kaaba)I noticed a man in the second balcony a few hundetred meters away struggling to breathe.Fresh out of my latest residency medical training,I rushed up,Dr. Wellby-style, to see what I could do.Not having even a stethoscope with me I began by examining the man for dehydration which sure enough was complicating his problem.There was a wiry Bedouin man standing 50 meters away with a full container of Zemzem water(holy water from the well of Zemzem).It should be noted here that, at the time, the well was open to all visitors so it would have been no problem for him to refill his jug if we emptied it.
Instead, he refused to give us any.I tried through several translators to convince him-to no avail .Finally a Saudi soldier who I had not even noticed but had surely noticed us, was watching the event unfold.At one point, out of the blue,he entered the scene,took the back side of his bayonet and gave the Bedouin man a shove that sent him flying for a short distance.He then took the jug, gave it to me and said”Dr. Give your patient what he needs”(I feel moved recounting this story more than 30 years later).
The story ended well! An ambulance arrived,we went to the local emergency room,and he was seen by some well-trained(I believe in America,actually) Saudi doctors.They diagnosed asthma(his first episode I believe) ,gave him the necessary meds and he left the emergrency room feeling fine! This was truly the best-case scenario as I had been suspecting a heart-attack or pulmonary embolus which would have been much more problematic.
For a long time I reflected on this incident doing some serious self-reflection and serious self-reproaching”You’re the fool,Ibrahim,I told myself.You always believe you can talk people into the truth.(Still do lol)The Saudi soldier was the clever one” A dose of humility and Reality once again. Alhumdulillah.