One I think is particularly informative was this piece that Kevin entitled
Sin in Islam.
Here is what Kevin wrote about the Human make up:
As a human, Allah gave you a heart to feel with, a brain to reason with, and a nafs to battle with. The collection of all three is YOU. Allah sends messeges to your heart, your nafs denies them and your brain is where you sort out the difference, is this my ego or is it from God? Your brain looks for the outer confirmation. The heart provides the inner confirmation. The nafs provides the proper resistance inorder to prove your sincerety in all this. You need the nafs so that you can have the energy to eat, make love and defend yourself. But, it can also overstep its bounds, by being full of pride, gluttonous and mean.
Some other points to ponder is this from Mushtaq's blog titled
The origins of Kalam Al Batin
This is from the writings of Ibn Khaldun in his book Muqaddimah.Makes you wonder who originated Critical Thinking and Semantics etc:
- All information, by its very nature, is liable to error.
- The first of these errors is partisanship towards a creed or opinion.
- The second error is over‑confidence in one's sources.
- The third error is the failure to understand what is intended by to originator of the information.
- The fourth error is a mistaken presupposition about the truth.
- The fifth error is the inability to place information in its real context.
- The sixth error is the common desire to gain favor of those of high ranks, by distorting information so as to please them.
- The seventh, and the most important error, is the ignorance of the laws governing the transformations of human society.
4 comments:
I can only imagine the wealth of 'ilm to be gained if we are to really explore what the Islamic scholars themselves had studied and discovered during those times.
What Kevin has written is so CLEAR and SIMPLE, kan? Why are are we still confused? Or can it be that WE choose to confuse ourselves...in trying to shift the blame ??
It is so very, VERY important to ALWAYS remember ALL the seven errors as laid down by Ibn Khaldun. Kalau dah faham itu semua, rasanya tak ada nak sombong-sombong lagi dengan sedikit ilmu yang ada tu, kot?
Thank you SO MUCH for linking and sharing.
Valid points about the state of humanity. Collectively, humans never seem to learn from past experiences/mistakes. A wonderful and true summary by ibn Khaldun, may Allah reward him.
I think I read a slightly different viewpoint to it than was presented in Mushtaq's entry. In the version I read, Muhammad aka Abu Hamid al-Ghazali refuted the arguments of the philosophers, rationalists and batinites. And yes he was a propenent of the Ashari creed, which I understand is what most people in Malaysia subscribe to (some key features are emphasis on the 20 characteristics of Allah, believing iman/faith has its ups and downs, etc.)
I always get confused between the Mutakallimun (philosophers I think) and the Mutakzillah (rationalists). I always feel they overlap somehow. But aren't the Batinites precursors to the Assassin Sect and modern-day Ismailis?
:) Ohh boy now I remember why philosophy is not one of my strong points. I love history, but sometimes it gets rather confusing. It can be difficult to reconcile the different viewpoints/ways of looking at a certain event/era in history and trying to come up with a clear picture of what happened. History can be very much coloured by human perception I guess (cue 1st, 4th and 5th Ibn Khaldun errors).
I don t know Kenakayalan but I think Kalam al Batin does not refer to the Batinites?Not sure , will ask Mushtaq..
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