Reflections upon Reflections

This morning, I sat and listened to a great explanation of Surah ar-Rahman by Nouman Ali Khan. My mind feels like a sieve; the fine details slip away, leaving only a few grains. This blog post is a bowl, and I'm holding my mind over it, hoping to catch everything that's falling as fast as I can. Hopefully there's something left in it for you.

[Full Text of the Surah can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ar-Rahman#Translation]

The following is paraphrased from Nouman Ali Khan himself. [My opinions in quotes]

So ar-Rahman is the name of the 55th chapter of the Qur'an, and it was revealed in the late Makkan period. That is, Muhammad was facing increased opposition to his message, and increased persecution against himself and his followers. The Makkans had hardened, grown stubborn against the Prophet's ideas, and how does one deliver a message to a stubborn person? With force, and with repetition.

A fight breaks out on the basketball court, and these two guys are about to knock each others brains out. What do the others say? "Calm down, bro" once and just leave it at that? No. It's, "Dude, dude, dude calm down bro, calm down, come one dude calm down!" And the two guys probably won't even register what their friends are saying until about the 15th "calm down!". Emotions are running high, and they are as stubborn as donkeys.

So what is repeated in this Surah? "Then which of the favours of your Lord will ye deny?" This is the central characteristic of disbelief: ingratitude. It's not a philosophical problem for most people, just a manifestation of hard-hearted ingratitude.

The Qur'an is indeed a timeless revelation, but it was revealed in phases. Interpreting it with a good understanding of the causes of revelation and the time period of Muhammad is essential in Islam, both in jurisprudence and to a lesser degree in any personal interpretation.

Thus it helps to know that at this time, the general Makkan argument to the Qur'an and the concept of a Day of Judgment was this: "I'll believe it when I see it." The once called him a madman, then a liar, then a magician, and then they tried to bribe him, and finally they settle for this. Bring it, basically.

It's like if there was a fire in a room of the house, and in another room a party was going on. The host finds the fire and tells the guests to leave through the back door. They trust the host, and words are enough to convince them. They leave and wait in the backyard. But the cat, snoozing in a corner, cannot understand its owner, and only when it feels the fire singe its whiskers does it jump up with a yowl and bolt across the room, out the cat door, across the lawn, and over the fence. [Added description]

For humans, words should be enough! That's the idea of the Qur'an. Bring it? Why should I, says God. You're humans, I made you to think about these things, not react to them when it's too late, like it nearly was for that poor cat. But if you have trouble believing in Heaven and Hell and Judgment just by thinking, let me help you "see" it in your mind's eye. And we shall "see" Heaven and Hell quite vividly as we continue.

So, the first word. Ar-Rahman. The Compassionate. Literally, the one who is being extremely merciful right now. If you think about it, in this very instant we are experiencing so many blessings. You and I, whoever you are. Our health, our sight, our family, our friends, our experiences, our mental abilities, our society, our income, it just goes on and on. But just stating the word "The Compassionate" is not a complete sentence. What did The Compassionate do, that might display his compassion?

"He taught the Qur'an." None of those material blessings even compare to the fact that we have this source of guidance to live with in the world. But is the Qur'an for any creation of God? No, it is for mankind. So, "He created mankind." It's interesting that one of the possible origins for the word "mankind" in Arabic is the verb, "He forgot." And those who forget, how are they reminded? Repetition, of course! "Then which of the favours of your Lord will ye deny?" If we were any other creation, we would not have the chance to experience the word of God, first because we would not need the reminder, second because we would not have the rational faculties and the complexity of human language with which to understand it! Thus, "He has taught him speech (and intelligence)." It all flows.

And then, crash! The sun and the moon? What? Where did they come from? Where's the connection? Well, human beings are nothing like the sun or moon in any way, except that they are made of stuff. They're all creations. So here we have human beings compared to the rest of creation, a common theme of the Qur'an. These celestial bodies follow God's orders, why don't you? [You are the best of creation, and those below you are so grand and so obedient to God, so shine even brighter than the sun in your obedience!]

Furthermore, the word for "follow courses (exactly) computed" is also a word that implies future termination. Think of a computer program; it does what it should, but eventually it will reach the "return(0);" statement, and it's over. The universe program will terminate, in other words, as enduring as the sun and moon may seem to the outdoor Arabs.

The stars fall down, either when they collapse on the Day of Judgment, or in this time as meteors streak across the sky. Either way is a valid interpretation; in essence, the rest of creation does what they are written to do. The trees fall down, either on the Day of Judgment or they "bow down" with fruit.

Trees, when God gives them fruit, are bowed in humility and prayer. Man, when God gives him blessings, holds his head high and thinks, "I deserve this. I earned this. I don't need God's help to succeed in life."

And now we come to the Mizan. Balance. It's kind of Zen. God put the sky and the universe in balance, equilibrium, so YOU be balanced! The universe follows the laws of physics, now don't YOU cheat a customer out of a fair deal! Where's the connection? Again, creations of God. If the universe was designed by a God, you've got to admit that his signature artistic trait would be balance. Everything is in equilibrium, and the universe has a sort of mathematical elegance.

[Why? a person might ask. Why did God make such a reliable, balanced universe, one that seems to not need Him to run it? Simple. That's his style. And as his creations, you should adhere to his style. He made us to follow the rules of balance, justice, and logic, just like the sky above us.]

More to come.

Riyadh-us-Saleheen

Filler while I work on a longer project. But, probably deeper than anything I'm writing myself.

Authentic narrations from the life of Muhammad, peace be upon him, compiled by the great Imam an-Nawawi. I mention the previous compilers (Muslim, Bukhari, etc) for accuracy; neither is superior to the other.

These are a few I found interesting. But there are hundreds of sayings like these. It would just take too long to type.

Hisham bin Hakim ibn Hazam says: once I passed by a group of non-Muslim peasants in Damascus who had been made to stand in the sun, and over their heads olive oil had been poured. I inquired as to why they were being subjected to such treatment and was told, They are being tortured for the recovery of tax. (In another narration the tax in question is the jizya', or jihad exemption tax upon non-Muslims.) I bear witness that the Holy Prophet said: Allah will chastise those who torment people in the world. Then I went to the Governor, and apprised him of this tradition and consequently he ordered the peasants to be released. (narrated through Imam Muslim)

Ibn Abbas reports that the Holy Prophet said: The person who retracts a gift is like the dog which devours its vomited stuff. (narrated through Imam Bukhari and Imam Muslim)

Abu Hurairah relates that the Prophet said: A man commits adultery with his eyes when he looks at a strange woman, the adultery of the ears is listening to sexual dialogue, adultery of the tongue is takling about sex, the adultery of the hand is to touch that which is unlawful, and the adultery of the feet is going towards a strange woman, the heart ardently desires adultery, and the sexual organs confirm or contradict the act. (Muslim)
*"strange" here means unrelated, hence potential lover.

Ibn Abbas said that the Holy Prophet cursed males imitating females and females imitating males.
*The Prophet cursed many groups of people: the thief, the wig-maker, the artist, the one who curses individuals, the innovator in religious matters, the usurer, the saint-worshippers, BUT made a point never to curse any person in particular who he observed doing any of the above. In fact he prohibited it on one occasion, involving a habitual drunk. Also, he didn't curse them with anything in particular, thus not giving a specific weight to any of these peoples' problems. So, wig-makers might be making money off of peoples' vanity (unless they do chemo patients' wigs), but they can not be at the same level as a thief or slanderer.

Abu Hurairah reports that the Prophet said: guard against suspicion, for suspicion is the greatest falsehood. Do not be inquisitive about other peoples' faults, nor spy against others, nor hanker after a think which others have, nor envy nor entertain ill-will nor indifference with each other, and O God's servants! Be like brethren to each other as you have been commanded. A Muslim is the brother of another Muslim; he is not cruel towards him, nor should he humiliate him nor look down upon him. Here lies piety; here lies piety: he said, pointing towards his chest. (Muslim)

Abu Musa al-Ash'ari relates: the Prophet heard a man exaggerating in prase of another person, to his face, whereupon he said: "You have killed him, you have broken his back." (Bukhari and Muslim)

Abdullah bin Mas'ud relates that the Prophet said that a perfect Muslim is neither a taunter, a curser, nor an abuser nor one having a long tongue. (Tirmizi)
(whether "long tongue" means someone is a gossip or long-winded, I'm not sure. No explanation was given, nonetheless, neither quality is desirable in my own opinion)

Abu Hurairah relates that the Prophet said: if two persons exchange abuses, the one who started it is to be blamed, unless the other party might have transgressed.
*Similarly, a man asked the Prophet what to do if a man tried to break into his home. He said, stop him. And what if he tries to kill me? Then fight him. And what if he kills me? Then you will be a martyr. And if I kill him? He will be in Hell. (In 21st century suburban U.S.A. this may not be necessary, but I think it is extremely practical advice for humanity as a whole.)

Abdullah bin Umar relates that the Prophet said: a woman was punished (by God) because she shut up a cat till it died. On account of this she was doomed to hell. She had not given the cat anything to eat or drink when she confined it, nor did she free it to enable it to pick up its food from among the insects and similar other creatures of the earth. (Bukhari and Muslim)

Hazrat Abu Hurairah relates that the Prophet said, treat women kindly. Woman has been created from a rib, and the most crooked part of the rib is in the upper region. If you try to make it straight, you will break it, and if you leave it as it is, it will remain curved. So treat women kindly. (Bukhari and Muslim)

Abu Hurairah relates that the Prophet said: the most perfect Muslim in faith is one who has an excellent behavior, and the best among you are those who behave best towards their wives.

Hazrat Abu Hurairah says that he heard the Prophet say: Allah, the Master of Honor says: Who can be a worse tyrant than a person who although himself being a creation, attempts to imitate and become a creator like Me. Let him make an ant or a grain of barley. (Bukhari and Muslim)
*While this and other sayings have been used to forbid art as a form of self-worship or idolatry, I think it has to do with whether one's art or intellectual creation enters one's heart, and one becomes arrogant about it. After all, piety is here. Piety is here.

The History of Azeca

The trouble with writing parallel universe or speculative fiction is that everything is influenced by everything. With Azeca's semi-equatorial climate, how have northern cultures changed? Russia's no longer snowy --> Napoleon and Hitler would not have fallen in their march to the East...New England's pretty warm --> the North AND the South would have had slaves, perhaps eliminating the Civil War.

Suspend your disbelief. It's a story. The Coin shape is but for effect, to illustrate the otherworldly feeling of being displaced from one's culture or home.

Thus, the history of the world will remain as it is, on the Obverse at least. World War 1, World War 2 (minus Japan), the Cold War.

But then comes the Discovery. No Age of Exploration where one side colonizes the other; each side is far too strong. Instead, a sort of second Cold War, where the First, Second, and Third Worlds correspond to the Obverse, Canto, and Reverse respectively. That's the time where I'd start writing my story. After our own history, and into something new.

It's tough to imagine what Africa and Asia would look like without centuries of Western dominance. But I'll do my best. My guess is far more unique cultural expression (poetry, cinema, art), more conservative yet less autocratic, lingua franca would be Hindi, I suppose, or Chinese. More unique architecture, more wars, more history.

Something like that.

Worldbuilding -- Azeca

from Arabic "as-Sikkah" or "coin"

The planet is coin-shaped. Like a coin, it has an Obverse (heads) and a Reverse (tails). It also has an edge, known as the Canto.

The geography of this planet is Earth's. Basically this setting is simply an answer to the question, "What would life be like if Earth were flat?"

One thing, climate would be different. The heads and tails face the sun head-on, like we do at the equator, but they're further away, which makes it slightly cooler. So, semi-equatorial weather. On the Canto, it being just a cross-section of Earth, there's snow on the north and sunshine in the center. Go figure.

What's it like moving from face to face? Weird. Basically, the atmosphere extends straight up from the faces, as the atmosphere only exists wherever gravity holds it together. This means there's a sort of gap in the atmosphere at the edge of two perpendicular faces. No gravity, no oxygen. Early inhabitants found this out the hard way, floating away to their deaths in space, and the Edge has become part of horrifying myth ever since.

At sea it is even worse. The gravity field only works along the sea floor, so as you can imagine, there's a chunk of the sea at the Edge that's inside that "atmosphere gap" I mentioned before. With no atmospheric pressure, that chunk of the sea completely evaporates and doesn't exist. So while on land you could cross into the Canto with a deep breath and a well-tied rope, you need rockets to cross the edge from the sea.

No surprise, long after people astronomically figured out that their world was shaped like a coin, cultural exchange only occurred in today's sort of age. Rockets are kind of new. Also, in this world, space and air travel are closely related, as technically if you're going on a cross-face flight, you are traveling through a chunk of outer space as well. The zero-grav zone. Space-sickness ensues. Then you hit the new atmosphere, and then you've made it. You're on the other side.

Now, for the Canto. It's a thin circular strip, the "edge" of the coin. It's basically a cross-section of a sphere. It's barely ever night on the Canto, because there's very little of the planet shielding it from sunlight. Instead of night, they have really, really long dawns and dusks, and they're a yellow/green/blue color due to having much less atmosphere to cut through. (Our dawn/dusk sky is red because long-wavelength light is the only thing left after filtering through so much atmospheric dust.)

The opposite happens on an Obverssian/Reverssian sunset. It's a deep red-brown because so much *more* atmospheric dust is in the way between the sun and the observer.

Now, for the cultures.

OBVERSE
N. America
Europe
Central and northern S. America
-mass consumer culture
-nuclear family
-democracy
-technology buffs, science hugely important
-secular

CANTO
North Africa
Amazon
Middle East
Central Asia
-spiritual, mystic religions
-isolationist but on occasion wildly influential (rise of Islam, Genghis Khan, etc)
-cultural exchange between the two, lots of wars/intermarriages in this region

REVERSE
South Asia
East Asia
Africa
Australia (but since it's in the east, it's Eostralia)
Antarctica (but it's in the center, so it's Centralia)
southern South America
-stick to tradition, norms
-old cultures, been done the same way for centuries
-extended family
-etiquette important
-ritualistic religion
-kings/dictatorships mostly
-"backward" technologically
-raw materials, manual labor

A note on Centralia: mountainous jungle, inhabited only by natives coming from African and Patagonia until this era. My opportunity to invent here, new creatures, new trees, a mini-Pandora if you will.

Aaand that's enough for now.

notes

The previous post will be rewritten in terms of Sri Lanka (as opposed to Algeria) because I've just been to Hambantota, my mom's old village and there's tons of stuff I can say about this country that I could never say about North Africa (having never been there).

Won't get around to the rewrite today, but notes from my trip / random notes to self:

MOST OF THIS WILL NOT MAKE ANY SENSE, DON'T WORRY

what goes through an ant's head as it walks across your hand

don't be silly, girls don't go to the mosque

guys singing vs girls singing (effect on other gender)...consider the adhan or the Buddhist chants. What makes it different from, say, Katy Perry or something? something about performing, and expectations upon the performer.

piano crashing like a waterfall

life like a race, beginning middle end

Here they dont grapple with the big questions, they just accept things; they can be light-hearted yet so traditional/conservative at the same time

she walks upon the balcony, following the shadows of the clothes on the clothesline so she doesn't cook her feet on the sun-fried tiles

at least the mosquitoes were company

no imagination could fantasize in this dingy (but practical) bath tub

you haven't seen real dirt until you've come to the Reverse...ants everywhere, cow pats, frogs in the bathroom, but everything's..strangely...beautiful.

Face north, look down and slightly to your right, you're looking at me! Wave

roommate vs spouse choosing method

"the colossal scale of the world"

smelled of campfire and good cologne

salatu khayrun min an-nawm, vs. nawmu khayran min allah (wordplay)

"i don't even know" as if knowing is the first step, rather than guessing or imagining

"dirty and dangerous and different"

they shut down a charity organization here because of a stance on the number of units of prayer for Tarawih. Sin, aney?

if nation is language, then if you're fluent in the language are you of that nation? Or vice versa, do you know a language if you can't communicate in that nation?

even the straightest of guys could probably fare decently well on rating other guys least to most hot. Why? Simple: empathy, if not sympathy. Evolutionarily, a guy with an understanding of what girls want would do better than a dude's dude type of dude. But too much of it and, well...

"just visiting"

real vs fake etiquette, don't be honest and say you like that but don't really want it, it makes no sense to them; just say, illay, vaana

here, language is topical: Tamil for family things, Sinhala for outside affairs, English for any big word or concept that doesn't exist in the other two

we came hoping for fresh-caught seafood, hosts serve chicken b/c it's "guest food". Grass is always greener...

life skills: fasting, feasting, standing in lines, eating spicy food, sleeping in a car, keeping down car sickness, pulling all-nighters, carrying luggage, quick sums, driving, killing spiders, haggling, getting over jet lag, singing, dancing, walking long distances, sprinting short distances, card/video/word games, foreign languages

Sri Lankan driving - completely ridiculous. Continuous passing. All roads are two-lane, two-way. Some pass three cars at a time, squeezing between the cars and oncoming traffic. Ambulance stuck in traffic jam. Strays everywhere, no road kill. 60km/hr is good. takes 5 to 7 hours to go the equivalent of probly Noblesville to Bloomington.

So many white people on billboards in this country, probably enough for every actual white person in Sri Lanka

Pola is just as packed as day before tsunami. What else can people do?

The Freedom to Fall

This is in response to Michael Goodwin’s essay in the book New Threats to Freedom, compiled by Adam Bellow. Goodwin discussed his essay on Templeton Press’s YouTube channel:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJLCbv5K0WU

Over the millenia, the successes of human society have limited the individual freedom to fail. It's like the evolution of flight; for thousands of years, the predecessors to birds would have fallen to their deaths as they chased insects along rocky cliffs. But creatures with wider forelimbs would have a greater drag force, and died less often. Through competition, wider forelimbs became wings, bones became hollow, cold blood became warm. Now, birds have barely any freedom to fall.

Does that mean birds do not succeed when they fly? Surely not. The same goes for human society: if universal health care or free public schools limit the individual's freedom to fail, does that diminish the individual's success?

It is difficult to tell. Unlike evolution, which perfects by eliminating failed designs, human society attempts to perfect by adding its own designs. And these designs can be flawed, artificial, or downright harmful. Bad medicine, polluting technologies, bank failures, weak schools...the list goes on.

If getting a high school diploma would ensure someone's success in life the way that having joints does, then it would be a noble act of charity to pass along a failed student. But, as Goodwin points out, a high school diploma would be worthless if it didn't stand for a high school education, no more than a dollar bill would mean anything if you didn't have to work for it.

In reality, the freedom to fail can never disappear; the individual can only lose it if the entire society takes it on. Then, if a "failure-free" society should fail, the repercussions would be far more destructive than if a few individuals failed. When the banks failed in the Great Recession, our deficit blossomed, because the government had taken upon itself the failures of the banks. A healthier goal for our government than a "failure-free" society would be a "failure-proof" society.

Surely, old workers do not deserve to die in abject poverty after their service -- that is why we have Social Security. And surely, the dirt poor never had the freedom to succeed in the first place -- that is why we have food stamps.

And surely, in our personal lives, we we buffer each other against failure all the time: loaning a pencil during an exam, returning a misplaced wallet to a stranger, and so on.

But people operate on guidelines, while governments can only operate on rules. And in the domain of ethics, guidelines are much safer than rules.

The Freedom to Fall

This is in response to Michael Goodwin’s essay in the book New Threats to Freedom, compiled by Adam Bellow. Goodwin discussed his essay on Templeton Press’s YouTube channel:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJLCbv5K0WU

Over the millenia, the successes of human society have limited the individual freedom to fail. It's like the evolution of flight; for thousands of years, the predecessors to birds would have fallen to their deaths as they chased insects along rocky cliffs. But creatures with wider forelimbs would have a greater drag force, and died less often. Through competition, wider forelimbs became wings, bones became hollow, cold blood became warm. Now, birds have barely any freedom to fall.

Does that mean birds do not succeed when they fly? Surely not. The same goes for human society: if universal health care or free public schools limit the individual's freedom to fail, does that diminish the individual's success?

It is difficult to tell. Unlike evolution, which perfects by eliminating failed designs, human society attempts to perfect by adding its own designs. And these designs can be flawed, artificial, or downright harmful. Bad medicine, polluting technologies, bank failures, weak schools...the list goes on.

If getting a high school diploma would ensure someone's success in life the way that having joints does, then it would be a noble act of charity to pass along a failed student. But, as Goodwin points out, a high school diploma would be worthless if it didn't stand for a high school education, no more than a dollar bill would mean anything if you didn't have to work for it.

In reality, the freedom to fail can never disappear; the individual can only lose it if the entire society takes it on. Then, if a "failure-free" society should fail, the repercussions would be far more destructive than if a few individuals failed. When the banks failed in the Great Recession, our deficit blossomed, because the government had taken upon itself the failures of the banks. A healthier goal for our government than a "failure-free" society would be a "failure-proof" society.

Surely, old workers do not deserve to die in abject poverty after their service -- that is why we have Social Security. And surely, the dirt poor never had the freedom to succeed in the first place -- that is why we have food stamps.

And surely, in our personal lives, we we buffer each other against failure all the time: loaning a pencil during an exam, returning a misplaced wallet to a stranger, and so on.

But people operate on guidelines, while governments can only operate on rules. And in the domain of ethics, guidelines are much safer than rules.