SUFISM
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THE CHAIN REACTION OF THE CHAIN REACTION Christopher Nolan's new "chillingly brilliant" movie, Oppenheimer (2023), provides the opportunity to reconsider the Doomsday Machine on the 78th anniversary of Hiroshima. A plea in the name of Islam and of Sufism. |
FROM UTOPIA TO DYSTOPIA — AND THE WAY OUT On utopias, population, John Calhoun, Mousetopia, John Vallentyne, the Sorcerer and the Base Self... |
REFORMATION OF THE REFORMATION A book review about the Reformation: “this article is at once a book review, an extended commentary, and a meditation.” |
A friend asked what Salafism was. There is a lot of confusion on this subject, and rightly so. Thinking about the matter, I came up with two answers ... |
THE SNOWPIERCER CONUNDRUM RESOLVED Imagine a train, exactly 1,001 cars long (shades of the 1,001 Nights!) traversing the great land masses of the Earth on a closed railroad loop... |
THE BLIND MEN AND THE ELEPHANT In that great tale for people of all ages, The Little Prince, the French author and pilot Antoine de Saint-Exupéry says ... |
Lust is a very powerful and dangerous drive. Like nitroglycerin, it is unstable and liable to explode if not handled with the utmost care... |
FROM SANTA CLAUS TO SUFISM: A CHRISTMAS SPECIAL I’ve been wanting to write about Santa Claus for a long time. Though many people may not know it, the original St. ... |
MASTER KAYHAN MEMORIAL DAY SPEECH I have been asked to tell you about Master Ahmet Kayhan. This is an impossible prospect... |
Marriage is not just about sex. It is a lifelong commitment to a significant other, it is being a “friend for life” ... |
FROM MODERN PHILOSOPHY TO SUFISM: MERLEAU-PONTY, CORBIN What Corbin realized was this: Modern philosophy, in the person of Heidegger, was struggling to rediscover concepts and categories used by Islamic sages hundreds of years ago... |
FROM MODERN PHILOSOPHY TO SUFISM: HEIDEGGER Quite unawares, Heidegger is groping towards a rediscovery of the Divine Names and Attributes... |
A BRIEF NOTE ON THE PROPHET'S WIVES This short note is intended to shed light on the controversies surrounding two of the Prophet’s wives... |
...the “lost world” is actually an allegory for our own world. Here are wonders and dangers galore... |
SECRETS OF THE JAPANESE TEA CEREMONY The purpose of the tea ceremony is to cultivate beauty and harmony in the activities of everyday life. Every motion... |
THE INFINITY STONES AND SUFISM With the movie Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (2018) coming up, this seems like a good time to take a closer look... |
BLACK PANTHER, AFROFUTURISM, AND ISLAMIC SUFISM The movie Black Panther (2018) has been a tremendous box office success. It grossed an astonishing... |
THE THRONE VERSE AND DIVINE PROTECTION/INTERVENTION It is known that certain utterances or formulaic expressions have the power of the presence of God within them... |
The 2017 Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to the Geneva-based International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN)... |
I’ve been intending to do an update on Gurdjieff. He may not be as renowned today as he once was... |
THE PROMISE OF THE PROPHET: UNIVERSAL MAN Hence, all human beings belong to Mohammed: they are his constituents, whether they realize it or not... |
THE SOURCE OF SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE (ILM AL-LADUN) “The discoveries of modern science are all ‘Hidden Knowledge/Knowledge from God's side’ (ilm al-ladun)”... |
... In Sufi courtesy, you treat everything in the universe as a “Thou.” You could not, would not, even kick a can or a stone. You would treat the lowliest ant... |
... Jungian psychology as well as Sufi psychology would agree that some parts of the Pinocchio saga resemble an initiation ritual: the collapse and disintegration of the former self, prior to rebirth as a new self. ... |
... A spate of new movies and TV series has given expression to the (sometimes bizarre!) humanization of automatons. Among them are... |
GOD DESPISES ILLICIT SEX: RUMI AND SHAMS Sufism and Illicit Lust are two sets do not overlap, that is, they are disjoint. A clearer way to put this is: Sufism excludes Illicit Sex. ... |
INTERVIEW WITH ANQA PUBLISHING Anqa Publishing, which is the publisher of my book, The Teachings of a Perfect Master (2012), conducted an interview with me about the book...
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It’s happened, folks. Disney, the unofficial nanny and teacher of our very own children, has placed the stamp of approval on... |
An interview with me conducted by Muhammad Ashraf Thachar for CafeDissensus.com regarding my book The Secret of Islam...
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THE IMPORTANCE OF THE PROPHETS Lewis Mumford (1895-1990) was a cultural historian whose interests ranged from the evolution of cities to the adverse effects of technology on society... |
Our worst enemy is not the devil. The devil’s powers are limited, mainly to those of suggestion (“whispering”). No, our greatest enemy is an ally of the devil, and it is all the more dangerous because...
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THE FOUR BOOKS AND THEIR MEANING The Four Books are, of course, the Torah of Moses, the Psalms of David, the Gospel of Jesus, and the Koran of Mohammed... |
ECOLOGICAL ETHICS: AN ISLAMIC/SUFI RESPONSE TO POPE FRANCIS On June 18, 2015, Pope Francis issued a Papal Encyclical on climate change. An encyclical is considered to be the highest teaching of the Catholic Church, so it was met with...
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SUPERWEAPONS AGAINST HUMANITY: August 6, 2015 marks the 70th anniversary of Hiroshima, in which 150 thousand human beings were killed or wounded, followed by 70 thousand casualties in Nagasaki on August 9... |
A DASH OF SUFISM IN GAME OF THRONES George R. R. Martin's epic fantasy series, A Song of Ice and Fire, has won wide acclaim, both in book format and in its TV adaptation...
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What would be a Sufic approach to ethics? Let us start by reviewing a recent movie: Noah (2014)...
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ETHICS: SOME PRELIMINARY REMARKS We shall be concerned with ethics for a while. Prior to that, however, I find it necessary to deal with some matters... |
I saw the Prophet of God in a vision during mid-December 1229, in the city of Damascus. He had a book in his hand and he said to me...
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CONTENT ASSESSMENT OF TRADITIONS God says in the Koran (speaking in the first-person majestic plural, or “royal we”): “It is We who have sent down the Koran, and it is We who are going to protect it”... |
When I was a child, my uncle gave me a book as a birthday present. It was Our Friend the Atom...
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In the beginning was the Monolith. There it stood, at the dawn of mankind, entrancing Moon-Watcher and his fellow... |
2001, 3001, AND THE CUBE The Pilgrimage signifies the return to the Origin—not only the origin of Islam, of monotheism and of humanity, but the Source of all that is, namely, God. ... |
Forgive me, but it is no longer possible to remain silent. |
THE DIVINE LAW: A CONTROVERSIAL SUBJECT Sharia, the Divine Law of Islam, is frequently misunderstood. It is accused of many ills, without regard to a deeper understanding of what it really is... |
Luc Besson’s film Lucy (2014) has captured the imagination of audiences worldwide. Hailed as the director’s most significant movie after The Fifth Element (1997), Lucy explores the possibilities that might unfold if a person’s hidden mental potentials... |
It is known that alchemy originated from Hermeti(ci)sm. Some have even considered the two synonymous. We have also seen that Sufism is the contemporary form of Hermeticism. This suggests... |
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