"The second great historical lesson to be learnt is that the Muslim world has always been wide open to every aspect of human existence. The sciences, society, art, the oceans, the environment and the cosmos have all contributed to the great moments in the history of Muslim civilisations. The Qur’an itself repeatedly recommends Muslims to become better educated in order better to understand God’s creation"(Closing Address by His Highness Aga Khan IV at the "Musée-Musées" Round Table Louvre Museum, Paris, France, October 17th 2007)
"......The Quran tells us that signs of Allah’s Sovereignty are found in the contemplation of His Creation - in the heavens and the earth, the night and the day, the clouds and the seas, the winds and the waters...."(Aga Khan IV, Kampala, Uganda, August 22 2007)
"....in Islam, but particularly Shia Islam, the role of the intellect is part of faith. That intellect is what seperates man from the rest of the physical world in which he lives.....This notion of the capacity of the human intellect to understand and to admire the creation of Allah will bring you happiness in your everyday lives. Of that I am certain"(Aga Khan IV, Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania, August 17th 2007)
"Education has been important to my family for a long time. My forefathers founded al-Azhar University in Cairo some 1000 years ago, at the time of the Fatimid Caliphate in Egypt. Discovery of knowledge was seen by those founders as an embodiment of religious faith, and faith as reinforced by knowledge of workings of the Creator's physical world. The form of universities has changed over those 1000 years, but that reciprocity between faith and knowledge remains a source of strength"(Aga Khan IV, 27th May1994, Cambridge, Massachusets, U.S.A.)
"An institution dedicated to proceeding beyond known limits must be committed to independent thinking. In a university scholars engage both orthodox and unorthodox ideas, seeking truth and understanding wherever they may be found. That process is often facilitated by an independent governance structure, which serves to ensure that the university adheres to its fundamental mission and is not pressured to compromise its work for short-term advantage. For a Muslim university it is appropriate to see learning and knowledge as a continuing acknowledgement of Allah's magnificence"(Aga Khan IV, Speech, 1993, Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan)
"Science is a wonderful, powerful tool and research budgets are essential. But Science is only the beginning in the new age we are entering. Islam does not perceive the world as two seperate domains of mind and spirit, science and belief. Science and the search for knowledge are an expression of man's designated role in the universe, but they do not define that role totally....."(Aga Khan IV, McMaster University Convocation, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, May 15th 1987)
“Muslims believe in an all-encompassing unit of man and nature. To them there is no fundamental division between the spiritual and the material while the whole world, whether it be the earth, sea or air, or the living creatures that inhabit them, is an expression of God’s creation.”(Aga Khan IV, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA, 13 April 1984)
Indeed, one strength of Islam has always lain in its belief that creation is not static but continuous, that through scientific and other endeavours, God has opened and continues to open new windows for us to see the marvels of His creation"(Aga Khan IV, Aga Khan University, 16 March 1983, Karachi, Pakistan)
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/09/400blogpost-four-hundred-knowledge.html
By KENNETH CHANG
Published: August 26, 2010
Scientists working with NASA’s Kepler satellite reported Thursday that they might have spotted a planet just 1.5 times the diameter of Earth around a Sun-like star 2,000 light-years away.
“We’re still in the process of confirming this candidate is a planet,” said Matthew Holman, of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, at a NASA-sponsored news conference on Thursday. Dr. Holman is the lead author of an article describing the discoveries that the journal Science published on its Web site.
This is the first announcement of a candidate Earth-size planet by the Kepler mission, which in March 2009 launched a one-ton spacecraft to search for planets like ours that just might harbor life. The planet was among more than 700 candidate planets that the team announced in June. If it is made of similar stuff as Earth, its mass would be three to four times as much.
Astronomers are quickly closing in on Earth-size planets elsewhere in the galaxy as they find planetary systems that look more and more like our solar system.
“This represents a significant step toward Kepler’s goal of determining the frequency of Earth-size planets in the habitable zones of Sun-like stars,” Dr. Holman said. Earth-size planets in orbits that are not too hot or too cold are considered the most likely places to look for life elsewhere in the universe.
The Kepler team also observed, more definitively, two giant, Saturn-size gas planets around the same star, known as Kepler-9.
On Tuesday, a European team reported what may be a smaller planet, with mass as little as 1.4 times that of Earth, around a star 127 light-years away.
In the 15 years since the first extrasolar planet orbiting a Sun-like star was discovered, astronomers have found close to 500 more. The first were huge gas planets — composed mostly of hydrogen, similar to Jupiter — that orbited extremely close to their stars.
But as detection methods improved, astronomers began to find planets closer in size to Earth and planetary systems that contain nearly as many planets as our solar system.
The Earth-size planet seen by the European astronomers appears to be one of seven circling the star, HD 10180, located in the constellation Hydrus. Christophe Lovis of the University of Geneva, who led the observations, said the group was certain about the existence of five of the planets, all about the mass of Neptune, but squeezed into orbits closer to the star than Mars is to the Sun.
They are less certain about the smallest planet. “For this one, we have about 1 percent false alarm possibility,” Dr. Lovis said. “For us, 99 percent is just not enough to be completely sure.”
The team also tentatively detected a larger, Saturn-size planet farther from the star.
Neither of the slightly-bigger-than-Earth planets is Earth-like or has much chance for anything to live there. Both have orbits very close to their stars that would sear the surfaces. The small Kepler-9 planet completes an orbit in just over a day and a half at a distance of 2.5 million miles from the star. The small HD 10180 planet is even closer and faster, less than two million miles from the star and completing an orbit in about 28 hours. Earth, by contrast, is 93 million miles from the Sun, and its orbit takes 365 days to complete.
“If one particular word can describe planetary systems today, it’s ‘diverse,’ ” said Douglas N. C. Lin, a professor of astronomy and astrophysics at the University of California, Santa Cruz, who was not involved with either team. “Planets are common, and their properties are diverse.”
To date, most of the extrasolar planets have been found using the technique of the European team, by looking for wobbles in the wavelength of light from the star caused by the back-and-forth gravitational tugging of unseen planets. The discovery of the HD 10180 planets results from six years of observations at the European Southern Observatory’s 3.6-meter telescope in Chile.
If the orbits of planets are not edge-on to observers on Earth, the technique underestimates the masses of the planets. Dr. Lovis said that for HD 10180, computer simulations show that for the orbits to be stable, the planets cannot be more than three times the minimum masses calculated.
Some planets have been detected when a star dims momentarily as a planet passes in front. The duration of the dip tells the size of the planet, and the time between the light dips tells the length of the planet’s orbit.
The Kepler mission takes that notion and applies it on a grand scale by staring at a patch of sky in the Cygnus and Lyra constellations to continuously observe the brightness of 156,000 stars.
A Kepler scientist, Dimitar Sasselov of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, created a stir last month when he said in a lecture that Kepler had discovered many Earth-like planets. He later said that the candidates had not been confirmed and that he should have said Earth-size, not Earth-like. The Kepler instruments cannot measure atmospheric or geological properties.
So far, the astronomers have seven months of data, and Kepler is scheduled to operate for 3.5 years. Astronomers will soon be able to identify smaller planets farther out, including truly Earth-size planets in orbits that would impart Earth-like temperatures.
“Come back in a couple of years,” said William J. Borucki, Kepler’s principal investigator, “and we’ll give you an answer.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/27/science/space/27planet.html?_r=2&ref=science
Easy Nash http://apps.facebook.com/blognetworks/blog/science_and_religion_in_islam_the_link/ http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/08/500blogpost-five-hundred-is-blogpost.html http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/03/453a-blog-constructed-within.html
In Shia Islam, intellect is a key component of faith. Intellect allows us to understand the creation of God: Aga Khan IV(2008)
The Qur'an itself repeatedly recommends Muslims to become better educated in order better to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
The Quran tells us that signs of Allah's Sovereignty are found in the contemplation of His Creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
This notion of the capacity of the human intellect to understand and to admire the creation of Allah will bring you happiness in your everyday lives: Aga Khan IV(2007)
Islam, eminently logical, placing the greatest emphasis on knowledge, purports to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2006)
The Holy Qu'ran's encouragement to study nature and the physical world around us gave the original impetus to scientific enquiry among Muslims: Aga Khan IV(1985)
The first and only thing created by God was the Intellect(Aql): Prophet Muhammad(circa 632CE)
Monday, August 30, 2010
644)Biochip Weds Brain Cells And Electronics; Marvel Of Science; Quotes From Blogpost Four Hundred.
"An institution dedicated to proceeding beyond known limits must be committed to independent thinking. In a university scholars engage both orthodox and unorthodox ideas, seeking truth and understanding wherever they may be found. That process is often facilitated by an independent governance structure, which serves to ensure that the university adheres to its fundamental mission and is not pressured to compromise its work for short-term advantage. For a Muslim university it is appropriate to see learning and knowledge as a continuing acknowledgement of Allah's magnificence"(Aga Khan IV, Speech, 1993, Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan)
"The Holy Qu'ran's encouragement to study nature and the physical world around us gave the original impetus to scientific enquiry among Muslims. Exchanges of knowledge between institutions and nations and the widening of man's intellectual horizons are essentially Islamic concepts. The Faith urges freedom of intellectual enquiry and this freedom does not mean that knowledge will lose its spiritual dimension. That dimension is indeed itself a field for intellectual enquiry. I can not illustrate this interdependence of spiritual inspiration and learning better than by recounting a dialogue between Ibn Sina, the philosopher, and Abu Said Abu -Khyar, the Sufi mystic. Ibn Sina remarked, "Whatever I know, he sees". To which Abu Said replied," Whatever I see, he knows"."(Aga Khan IV, Aga Khan University Inauguration Speech, Karachi, Pakistan, November 11th 1985)
"In Islamic belief, knowledge is two-fold. There is that revealed through the Holy Prophet (s.a.s.) and that which man discovers by virtue of his own intellect. Nor do these two involve any contradiction, provided man remembers that his own mind is itself the creation of God. Without this humility, no balance is possible. With it, there are no barriers. Indeed, one strength of Islam has always lain in its belief that creation is not static but continuous, that through scientific and other endeavours, God has opened and continues to open new windows for us to see the marvels of His creation"(Aga Khan IV, Aga Khan University, 16 March 1983, Karachi, Pakistan)
"In Shia Islam, intellect is a key component of faith. Intellect allows us to understand the creation of God"(Aga Khan IV, July 23rd 2008, Lisbon, Portugal)
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/09/400blogpost-four-hundred-knowledge.html
Biochip weds brain cells and electronics
The Canadian Press
Updated: Wed. Aug. 11 2010 9:14 AM ET
TORONTO — It seems like the stuff of science fiction, but Canadian researchers have created a microchip embedded with brain cells that allows them to "listen in" as the neurons communicate with each other.
This brain-on-a-chip will make it possible to test drugs for a number of neurological conditions in a much quicker, efficient and accurate way, said principal researcher Naweed Syed, head of cell biology and anatomy at the University of Calgary.
The so-called neurochip -- a millimetre-square marriage of the electronic and organic -- is a big step forward on a previous chip produced by Syed's group that used brain cells from snails, which are four to 10 times larger than human neurons.
"This particular idea originates from our earlier finding a few years ago whereby we were the first team in the world to develop the first bionic hybrid," he said Tuesday from Calgary. "And what it meant was that you could now have brain cells that could talk to an electronic device and then the electronic device could talk back to the brain cells."
While this prototype biochip allowed the researchers to pick up the "talking bit," it wasn't refined enough to let them tune in to the underlying "chatter" that went on among brain cells.
"So now we can detect it," said Syed, explaining that "talk" and "chatter" are metaphors for the electrical signals that pass between neurons.
Brain cells communicate with each other through electrical and chemical messages that cause them to either be excited or to relax. Electrical messages, for instance, take a pathway on the neuron's surface known as an ion channel -- a component of the brain cell that is critical when it comes to drug testing.
In the next few months, the team plans to begin drug testing using their tiny device embedded with a network of brain cells surgically removed from patients with epilepsy.
"Now when we can get this cell, we can put it on our chip and then we can record ion-channel activity, but also find the best drug that will block seizures in that particular individual's cells," he said.
The research, conducted with the National Research Council and published online in the journal Biomedical Devices, could also speed up the search for drugs to treat such neurological diseases as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.
The brain-on-a-chip could also help drug companies more easily isolate compounds that would provide the next generation of pain killers or medications that could control addictions, Syed suggested.
"So I think it opens up the possibility of exploring brain cell function at a much higher resolution than has ever been done before."
http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Health/20100811/brain-cell-chip-100811/
Easy Nash http://apps.facebook.com/blognetworks/blog/science_and_religion_in_islam_the_link/ http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/08/500blogpost-five-hundred-is-blogpost.html http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/03/453a-blog-constructed-within.html
In Shia Islam, intellect is a key component of faith. Intellect allows us to understand the creation of God: Aga Khan IV(2008)
The Qur'an itself repeatedly recommends Muslims to become better educated in order better to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
The Quran tells us that signs of Allah's Sovereignty are found in the contemplation of His Creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
This notion of the capacity of the human intellect to understand and to admire the creation of Allah will bring you happiness in your everyday lives: Aga Khan IV(2007)
Islam, eminently logical, placing the greatest emphasis on knowledge, purports to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2006)
The Holy Qu'ran's encouragement to study nature and the physical world around us gave the original impetus to scientific enquiry among Muslims: Aga Khan IV(1985)
The first and only thing created by God was the Intellect(Aql): Prophet Muhammad(circa 632CE)
"The Holy Qu'ran's encouragement to study nature and the physical world around us gave the original impetus to scientific enquiry among Muslims. Exchanges of knowledge between institutions and nations and the widening of man's intellectual horizons are essentially Islamic concepts. The Faith urges freedom of intellectual enquiry and this freedom does not mean that knowledge will lose its spiritual dimension. That dimension is indeed itself a field for intellectual enquiry. I can not illustrate this interdependence of spiritual inspiration and learning better than by recounting a dialogue between Ibn Sina, the philosopher, and Abu Said Abu -Khyar, the Sufi mystic. Ibn Sina remarked, "Whatever I know, he sees". To which Abu Said replied," Whatever I see, he knows"."(Aga Khan IV, Aga Khan University Inauguration Speech, Karachi, Pakistan, November 11th 1985)
"In Islamic belief, knowledge is two-fold. There is that revealed through the Holy Prophet (s.a.s.) and that which man discovers by virtue of his own intellect. Nor do these two involve any contradiction, provided man remembers that his own mind is itself the creation of God. Without this humility, no balance is possible. With it, there are no barriers. Indeed, one strength of Islam has always lain in its belief that creation is not static but continuous, that through scientific and other endeavours, God has opened and continues to open new windows for us to see the marvels of His creation"(Aga Khan IV, Aga Khan University, 16 March 1983, Karachi, Pakistan)
"In Shia Islam, intellect is a key component of faith. Intellect allows us to understand the creation of God"(Aga Khan IV, July 23rd 2008, Lisbon, Portugal)
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/09/400blogpost-four-hundred-knowledge.html
Biochip weds brain cells and electronics
The Canadian Press
Updated: Wed. Aug. 11 2010 9:14 AM ET
TORONTO — It seems like the stuff of science fiction, but Canadian researchers have created a microchip embedded with brain cells that allows them to "listen in" as the neurons communicate with each other.
This brain-on-a-chip will make it possible to test drugs for a number of neurological conditions in a much quicker, efficient and accurate way, said principal researcher Naweed Syed, head of cell biology and anatomy at the University of Calgary.
The so-called neurochip -- a millimetre-square marriage of the electronic and organic -- is a big step forward on a previous chip produced by Syed's group that used brain cells from snails, which are four to 10 times larger than human neurons.
"This particular idea originates from our earlier finding a few years ago whereby we were the first team in the world to develop the first bionic hybrid," he said Tuesday from Calgary. "And what it meant was that you could now have brain cells that could talk to an electronic device and then the electronic device could talk back to the brain cells."
While this prototype biochip allowed the researchers to pick up the "talking bit," it wasn't refined enough to let them tune in to the underlying "chatter" that went on among brain cells.
"So now we can detect it," said Syed, explaining that "talk" and "chatter" are metaphors for the electrical signals that pass between neurons.
Brain cells communicate with each other through electrical and chemical messages that cause them to either be excited or to relax. Electrical messages, for instance, take a pathway on the neuron's surface known as an ion channel -- a component of the brain cell that is critical when it comes to drug testing.
In the next few months, the team plans to begin drug testing using their tiny device embedded with a network of brain cells surgically removed from patients with epilepsy.
"Now when we can get this cell, we can put it on our chip and then we can record ion-channel activity, but also find the best drug that will block seizures in that particular individual's cells," he said.
The research, conducted with the National Research Council and published online in the journal Biomedical Devices, could also speed up the search for drugs to treat such neurological diseases as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.
The brain-on-a-chip could also help drug companies more easily isolate compounds that would provide the next generation of pain killers or medications that could control addictions, Syed suggested.
"So I think it opens up the possibility of exploring brain cell function at a much higher resolution than has ever been done before."
http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Health/20100811/brain-cell-chip-100811/
Easy Nash http://apps.facebook.com/blognetworks/blog/science_and_religion_in_islam_the_link/ http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/08/500blogpost-five-hundred-is-blogpost.html http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/03/453a-blog-constructed-within.html
In Shia Islam, intellect is a key component of faith. Intellect allows us to understand the creation of God: Aga Khan IV(2008)
The Qur'an itself repeatedly recommends Muslims to become better educated in order better to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
The Quran tells us that signs of Allah's Sovereignty are found in the contemplation of His Creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
This notion of the capacity of the human intellect to understand and to admire the creation of Allah will bring you happiness in your everyday lives: Aga Khan IV(2007)
Islam, eminently logical, placing the greatest emphasis on knowledge, purports to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2006)
The Holy Qu'ran's encouragement to study nature and the physical world around us gave the original impetus to scientific enquiry among Muslims: Aga Khan IV(1985)
The first and only thing created by God was the Intellect(Aql): Prophet Muhammad(circa 632CE)
643)Laylat Al-Qadr-The Night Of Power: Stirring And Inspiring Poetry By Jalaluddin Rumi; Explanation Of This Night; Quotes From Blogpost Four Hundred.
Here, Sunlight offers Rumi's Ghazal (Ode) 258, in two forms -- a poetic translation from Nader Khalili, and a version by Coleman Barks:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1)
if you stay awake
for an entire night
watch out for a treasure
trying to arrive
you can keep warm
by the secret sun of the night
keeping your eyes open
for the softness of dawn
try it for tonight
challenge your sleepy eyes
do not lay your head down
wait for heavenly alms
night is the bringer of gifts
Moses went on a ten-year journey
during a single night
invited by a tree
to watch the fire and light
Mohammed too made his passage
during that holy night
when he heard the glorious voice
when he ascended to the sky
day is to make a living
night is only for love
commoners sleep fast
lovers whisper to God all night
all night long
a voice calls upon you
to wake up
in the precious hours
if you miss your chance now
when your body is left behind
your soul will lament
death is a life of no return
-- Translation by Nader Khalili: "Rumi, Fountain of Fire" Cal-Earth Press, 1994
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2)
THE VIGIL
Don't go to sleep one night.
What you most want will come to you then.
Warmed by a sun inside, you'll see wonders.
Tonight, don't put your head down.
Be tough, and strength will come.
That which adoration adores
appears at night. Those asleep
may miss it. One night Moses stayed awake
and asked, and saw a light in a tree.
Then he walked at night for ten years,
until finally he saw the whole tree
illuminated. Muhammad rode his horse
through the night sky. The day is for work.
The night for love. Don't let someone
bewitch you. Some people sleep at night.
But not lovers. They sit in the dark
and talk to God, who told David,
"Those who sleep all night every night
and claim to be connected to us, they lie."
Lovers can't sleep when they feel the privacy
of the beloved all around them. Someone
who's thirsty may sleep for a little while,
but he or she will dream of water, a full jar
beside a creek, or the spiritual water you get
from another person. All night, listen
to the conversation. Stay up.
This moment is all there is.
Death will take it away soon enough.
You'll be gone, and this earth will be left
without a sweetheart, nothing but weeds
growing inside thorns.
I'm through. Read the rest of this poem
in the dark tonight.Do I have a head? And feet?
Shams, so loved by Tabrizians, I close my lips.
I wait for you to come and open them.
-- Version by Coleman Barks: "The Essential Rumi" Harper, San Francisco, 1995.
Above two translations sent to me by my good friend Rosie(Thank You!)
Laylat Al-Qadr from ISMAILIMAIL:
لیلة القدر (Arabic) Laylat al-Qadr, (also known as Shab-e-Qadr) is significant event in Muslim history as not only did Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) receive his first revelation that culminated in the Holy Quran, but this day marks the anniversary of his Prophethood on earth. Muslims all over the world spend this night in prayers as it holds special Barakah for those in prayer.
“In the name of God, the Beneficent the Merciful
“Indeed We sent it [the Holy Quran] down on the Night of Power. What will convey to you what the Night of Power is? Better is the Night of Power than a thousand months. In that Night the angels and the Spirit descend by the permission of their Lord for every errand. Peace it is, until the break of dawn."
Quran, Chapter 97 Al-Qadr
Many interpreters of this verse in the Holy Qur’an state that thousand months is Allah’s way of defining eternal time as it cannot be described in worldly time. A single moment of enlightenment of the Noor of Allah is better than a thousand months and such a moment of recognition converts the night into a period of Spiritual glory and majesty, and every one of us should try to work towards this.
When the night of spiritual darkness is removed by the Noor of Allah, a wonderful peace and sense of security arises in the soul which lasts until this physical life ends and the glorious day of the spiritual world dawns, when everything will be on a different plane and the nights and days of this world will seem less than a dream. This is the meaning of “until the rise of dawn” and not the literal interpretation as many may construe or understand it. Surely, Allah’s realm/time span is larger.
Allah has says in the Quran: Rise to pray in the night except a little (73:1)
Allah ordered Prophet Muhammad (salwaat) to spend most of the night in worship in order that his Lord may lift him to a higher elevation. Hazrat Ali (salwaat) and others would join him for the nightly meditation (Baitul Khayal) and would be rising up in station and spirituality: Surely We will make to descend on you a weighty Word. Surely the rising by night is the firmest way to tread and the best corrective of speech. (73, 1-5).
http://ismailimail.wordpress.com/2008/09/23/laylat-al-qadr-the-night-of-power/
Earlier related post:
Laylat Al-Qadr-The Night of Power: Stirring and Inspiring Poetry by Jalaluddin Rumi; Whither Science and Religion? Quotes of Aga Khans and others.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/09/407laylat-al-qadr-night-of-power.html
Quotes From Blogpost Four Hundred:
"The Divine Intellect, Aql-i Kull, both transcends and informs the human intellect. It is this Intellect which enables man to strive towards two aims dictated by the faith: that he should reflect upon the environment Allah has given him and that he should know himself. It is the Light of the Intellect which distinguishes the complete human being from the human animal, and developing that intellect requires free inquiry. The man of faith, who fails to pursue intellectual search is likely to have only a limited comprehension of Allah's creation. Indeed, it is man's intellect that enables him to expand his vision of that creation"(Aga Khan IV, Aga Khan University Inauguration Speech, Karachi, Pakistan, November 11, 1985)
"The Intellect is the substance of (God's) unity and it is the one (al-wahid), both cause and caused, the act of origination (al-ibda) and the first originated being (al-mubda al-awwal); it is perfection and perfect, eternity and eternal, existence and that which exists all in a single substance"( Hamid al-Din al-Kirmani, 11th centuryFatimid Ismaili cosmologist (Kitab al-Riyad, pp. 221-222))
"God – may He be Glorified and Exalted – created Intellect ('aql) first among the spiritual entities; He drew it forth from the right of His Throne, making it proceed from His own Light. Then he commanded it to retreat, and it retreated, to advance, and it advanced; then God proclaimed: 'I created you glorious, and I gave you pre-eminence over all my creatures.'"(Imam Jafar as-Sadiq, Circa 765CE)
"The beginning of all things, their origin, their force and their prosperity, is that intellect ('aql), without which one can profit from nothing. God created it to adorn His creatures, and as a light for them. It is through intellect ('aql) that the servants recognize God is their Creator and that they themselves are created beings …It is thanks to intellect ('aql) that they can distinguish what is beautiful from what is ugly, that they realize that darkness is in ignorance and that light is in Knowledge"( Imam Jafar as-Sadiq, (al-Kulayni, Usul al-Kafi, Vol. 1, pp. 34), circa 765CE)
"Here is a relevant verse from the Noble Qur'an, cited by Nasir-i Khusraw, hujjat-i Khurasan in his Khawaan al-Ikhwaan : "It is He who created you from dust, then from a sperm drop, then from a blood clot, then He brings you forth as a child, then lets you reach your age of full strength, then lets you become old - though some of you die before - and then lets you reach the appointed term; and that haply you may find the intellect (la'allakum ta'qilun)."(Nasir Khusraw, 11th century Fatimid Ismaili cosmologist-philosopher-poet)
Easy Nash http://apps.facebook.com/blognetworks/blog/science_and_religion_in_islam_the_link/ http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/08/500blogpost-five-hundred-is-blogpost.html http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/03/453a-blog-constructed-within.html
In Shia Islam, intellect is a key component of faith. Intellect allows us to understand the creation of God: Aga Khan IV(2008)
The Qur'an itself repeatedly recommends Muslims to become better educated in order better to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
The Quran tells us that signs of Allah's Sovereignty are found in the contemplation of His Creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
This notion of the capacity of the human intellect to understand and to admire the creation of Allah will bring you happiness in your everyday lives: Aga Khan IV(2007)
Islam, eminently logical, placing the greatest emphasis on knowledge, purports to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2006)
The Holy Qu'ran's encouragement to study nature and the physical world around us gave the original impetus to scientific enquiry among Muslims: Aga Khan IV(1985)
The first and only thing created by God was the Intellect(Aql): Prophet Muhammad(circa 632CE)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1)
if you stay awake
for an entire night
watch out for a treasure
trying to arrive
you can keep warm
by the secret sun of the night
keeping your eyes open
for the softness of dawn
try it for tonight
challenge your sleepy eyes
do not lay your head down
wait for heavenly alms
night is the bringer of gifts
Moses went on a ten-year journey
during a single night
invited by a tree
to watch the fire and light
Mohammed too made his passage
during that holy night
when he heard the glorious voice
when he ascended to the sky
day is to make a living
night is only for love
commoners sleep fast
lovers whisper to God all night
all night long
a voice calls upon you
to wake up
in the precious hours
if you miss your chance now
when your body is left behind
your soul will lament
death is a life of no return
-- Translation by Nader Khalili: "Rumi, Fountain of Fire" Cal-Earth Press, 1994
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
2)
THE VIGIL
Don't go to sleep one night.
What you most want will come to you then.
Warmed by a sun inside, you'll see wonders.
Tonight, don't put your head down.
Be tough, and strength will come.
That which adoration adores
appears at night. Those asleep
may miss it. One night Moses stayed awake
and asked, and saw a light in a tree.
Then he walked at night for ten years,
until finally he saw the whole tree
illuminated. Muhammad rode his horse
through the night sky. The day is for work.
The night for love. Don't let someone
bewitch you. Some people sleep at night.
But not lovers. They sit in the dark
and talk to God, who told David,
"Those who sleep all night every night
and claim to be connected to us, they lie."
Lovers can't sleep when they feel the privacy
of the beloved all around them. Someone
who's thirsty may sleep for a little while,
but he or she will dream of water, a full jar
beside a creek, or the spiritual water you get
from another person. All night, listen
to the conversation. Stay up.
This moment is all there is.
Death will take it away soon enough.
You'll be gone, and this earth will be left
without a sweetheart, nothing but weeds
growing inside thorns.
I'm through. Read the rest of this poem
in the dark tonight.Do I have a head? And feet?
Shams, so loved by Tabrizians, I close my lips.
I wait for you to come and open them.
-- Version by Coleman Barks: "The Essential Rumi" Harper, San Francisco, 1995.
Above two translations sent to me by my good friend Rosie(Thank You!)
Laylat Al-Qadr from ISMAILIMAIL:
لیلة القدر (Arabic) Laylat al-Qadr, (also known as Shab-e-Qadr) is significant event in Muslim history as not only did Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) receive his first revelation that culminated in the Holy Quran, but this day marks the anniversary of his Prophethood on earth. Muslims all over the world spend this night in prayers as it holds special Barakah for those in prayer.
“In the name of God, the Beneficent the Merciful
“Indeed We sent it [the Holy Quran] down on the Night of Power. What will convey to you what the Night of Power is? Better is the Night of Power than a thousand months. In that Night the angels and the Spirit descend by the permission of their Lord for every errand. Peace it is, until the break of dawn."
Quran, Chapter 97 Al-Qadr
Many interpreters of this verse in the Holy Qur’an state that thousand months is Allah’s way of defining eternal time as it cannot be described in worldly time. A single moment of enlightenment of the Noor of Allah is better than a thousand months and such a moment of recognition converts the night into a period of Spiritual glory and majesty, and every one of us should try to work towards this.
When the night of spiritual darkness is removed by the Noor of Allah, a wonderful peace and sense of security arises in the soul which lasts until this physical life ends and the glorious day of the spiritual world dawns, when everything will be on a different plane and the nights and days of this world will seem less than a dream. This is the meaning of “until the rise of dawn” and not the literal interpretation as many may construe or understand it. Surely, Allah’s realm/time span is larger.
Allah has says in the Quran: Rise to pray in the night except a little (73:1)
Allah ordered Prophet Muhammad (salwaat) to spend most of the night in worship in order that his Lord may lift him to a higher elevation. Hazrat Ali (salwaat) and others would join him for the nightly meditation (Baitul Khayal) and would be rising up in station and spirituality: Surely We will make to descend on you a weighty Word. Surely the rising by night is the firmest way to tread and the best corrective of speech. (73, 1-5).
http://ismailimail.wordpress.com/2008/09/23/laylat-al-qadr-the-night-of-power/
Earlier related post:
Laylat Al-Qadr-The Night of Power: Stirring and Inspiring Poetry by Jalaluddin Rumi; Whither Science and Religion? Quotes of Aga Khans and others.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/09/407laylat-al-qadr-night-of-power.html
Quotes From Blogpost Four Hundred:
"The Divine Intellect, Aql-i Kull, both transcends and informs the human intellect. It is this Intellect which enables man to strive towards two aims dictated by the faith: that he should reflect upon the environment Allah has given him and that he should know himself. It is the Light of the Intellect which distinguishes the complete human being from the human animal, and developing that intellect requires free inquiry. The man of faith, who fails to pursue intellectual search is likely to have only a limited comprehension of Allah's creation. Indeed, it is man's intellect that enables him to expand his vision of that creation"(Aga Khan IV, Aga Khan University Inauguration Speech, Karachi, Pakistan, November 11, 1985)
"The Intellect is the substance of (God's) unity and it is the one (al-wahid), both cause and caused, the act of origination (al-ibda) and the first originated being (al-mubda al-awwal); it is perfection and perfect, eternity and eternal, existence and that which exists all in a single substance"( Hamid al-Din al-Kirmani, 11th centuryFatimid Ismaili cosmologist (Kitab al-Riyad, pp. 221-222))
"God – may He be Glorified and Exalted – created Intellect ('aql) first among the spiritual entities; He drew it forth from the right of His Throne, making it proceed from His own Light. Then he commanded it to retreat, and it retreated, to advance, and it advanced; then God proclaimed: 'I created you glorious, and I gave you pre-eminence over all my creatures.'"(Imam Jafar as-Sadiq, Circa 765CE)
"The beginning of all things, their origin, their force and their prosperity, is that intellect ('aql), without which one can profit from nothing. God created it to adorn His creatures, and as a light for them. It is through intellect ('aql) that the servants recognize God is their Creator and that they themselves are created beings …It is thanks to intellect ('aql) that they can distinguish what is beautiful from what is ugly, that they realize that darkness is in ignorance and that light is in Knowledge"( Imam Jafar as-Sadiq, (al-Kulayni, Usul al-Kafi, Vol. 1, pp. 34), circa 765CE)
"Here is a relevant verse from the Noble Qur'an, cited by Nasir-i Khusraw, hujjat-i Khurasan in his Khawaan al-Ikhwaan : "It is He who created you from dust, then from a sperm drop, then from a blood clot, then He brings you forth as a child, then lets you reach your age of full strength, then lets you become old - though some of you die before - and then lets you reach the appointed term; and that haply you may find the intellect (la'allakum ta'qilun)."(Nasir Khusraw, 11th century Fatimid Ismaili cosmologist-philosopher-poet)
Easy Nash http://apps.facebook.com/blognetworks/blog/science_and_religion_in_islam_the_link/ http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/08/500blogpost-five-hundred-is-blogpost.html http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/03/453a-blog-constructed-within.html
In Shia Islam, intellect is a key component of faith. Intellect allows us to understand the creation of God: Aga Khan IV(2008)
The Qur'an itself repeatedly recommends Muslims to become better educated in order better to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
The Quran tells us that signs of Allah's Sovereignty are found in the contemplation of His Creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
This notion of the capacity of the human intellect to understand and to admire the creation of Allah will bring you happiness in your everyday lives: Aga Khan IV(2007)
Islam, eminently logical, placing the greatest emphasis on knowledge, purports to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2006)
The Holy Qu'ran's encouragement to study nature and the physical world around us gave the original impetus to scientific enquiry among Muslims: Aga Khan IV(1985)
The first and only thing created by God was the Intellect(Aql): Prophet Muhammad(circa 632CE)
Saturday, August 21, 2010
642)Am I The Only Person In The World Who Remembers That the World Trade Center Was A Work Of Islamic Architecture?
Quote of Professor Oleg Grabar on the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center:
"The shimmering filigree is the mark of the holy. According to Oleg Grabar, the great American scholar of Islamic art and architecture, the dense filigree of complex geometries alludes to ...a higher spiritual reality in Islam, and the shimmering quality of Islamic patterning relates to the veil that wraps the Qa'ba at Mecca. After the attack, Grabar spoke of how these towers related to the architecture of Islam, where "the entire surface is meaningful" and "every part is both construction and ornament." A number of designers from the Middle East agreed, describing the entire façade as a giant "mashrabiya," the tracery that fills the windows of mosques......Having rejected modernism and the Saudi royal family, it's no surprise that Bin Laden would turn against Yamasaki's work in particular. He must have seen how Yamasaki had clothed the World Trade Center, a monument of Western capitalism, in the raiment of Islamic spirituality."
Am I the Only Person in the World Who Remembers That the World Trade Center Was a Work of Islamic Architecture?
http://www.slate.com/id/2060207: by Laurie Kerr
The Mosque to Commerce: Bin Laden's special complaint with the World Trade Center: We all know the basic reasons why Osama Bin Laden chose to attack the World Trade Center, out of all the buildings in New York. Its towers were the two tallest in the city, synonymous with its skyline. They were richly stocked with potential victims. And as the complex's name declared, it was designed to be a center of American and global commerce. But Bin Laden may have had another, more personal motivation. The World Trade Center's architect, Minoru Yamasaki, was a favorite designer of the Binladin family's patrons—the Saudi royal family—and a leading practitioner of an architectural style that merged modernism with Islamic influences.
The story starts in the late 1950s, when Yamasaki, a second-generation Japanese-American, won the commission to design the King Fahd Dhahran Air Terminal in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. His design had a rectilinear, modular plan with pointed arches, interweaving tracery of prefabricated concrete, and even a minaret of a flight tower. In other words, it was an impressive melding of modern technology and traditional Islamic form. The Saudis admired it so much that they put a picture of it on one of their banknotes.
For Yamasaki, an architect with a keen mathematical mind and a taste for ornamental pattern-work, this brush with the intricate geometries of Islamic architecture was inspiring, and he began to incorporate arabesques and arches into his work. For the next 12 to 15 years he played with Islamic forms in projects as diverse as the Federal Science Pavilion at the Seattle World's Fair, the Eastern Airlines Terminal at Logan Airport, and even the North Shore Congregation Israel in Glencoe, Ill.
Yamasaki received the World Trade Center commission the year after the Dhahran Airport was completed. Yamasaki described its plaza as "a mecca, a great relief from the narrow streets and sidewalks of the surrounding Wall Street area." True to his word, Yamasaki replicated the plan of Mecca's courtyard by creating a vast delineated square, isolated from the city's bustle by low colonnaded structures and capped by two enormous, perfectly square towers—minarets, really. Yamasaki's courtyard mimicked Mecca's assemblage of holy sites—the Qa'ba (a cube) containing the sacred stone, what some believe is the burial site of Hagar and Ishmael, and the holy spring—by including several sculptural features, including a fountain, and he anchored the composition in a radial circular pattern, similar to Mecca's.
At the base of the towers, Yamasaki used implied pointed arches—derived from the characteristically pointed arches of Islam—as a transition between the wide column spacing below and the dense structural mesh above. (Europe imported pointed arches from Islam during the Middle Ages, and so non-Muslims have come to think of them as innovations of the Gothic period.) Above soared the pure geometry of the towers, swathed in a shimmering skin, which doubled as a structural web—a giant truss. Here Yamasaki was following the Islamic tradition of wrapping a powerful geometric form in a dense filigree, as in the inlaid marble pattern work of the Taj Mahal or the ornate carvings of the courtyard and domes of the Alhambra.
The shimmering filigree is the mark of the holy. According to Oleg Grabar, the great American scholar of Islamic art and architecture, the dense filigree of complex geometries alludes to a higher spiritual reality in Islam, and the shimmering quality of Islamic patterning relates to the veil that wraps the Qa'ba at Mecca. After the attack, Grabar spoke of how these towers related to the architecture of Islam, where "the entire surface is meaningful" and "every part is both construction and ornament." A number of designers from the Middle East agreed, describing the entire façade as a giant "mashrabiya," the tracery that fills the windows of mosques.
In the early '70s, as the trade towers were nearing completion, Saudi Arabia was awash in oil revenues, and the state embarked on a massive modernization and building campaign. Yamasaki was premier among the many foreign architects hired during this period. Unwilling to take on too much work, Yamasaki decided to accept just three choice projects in Saudi Arabia: the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency head office, the Eastern Province International Airport, and the King Fahd Royal Reception Pavilion at Jeddah Airport. In all three projects he continued his explorations in melding traditional Islamic form with modern materials, methods, and functions.
As a scion of the Binladin contracting firm, destined to inherit some portion of its vast operations, Osama Bin Laden would certainly have been aware of Yamasaki's Saudi Arabian projects.
Indeed, his family may have built them. (Minoru Yamasaki Associates won't say, but the Binladens were involved with almost all royal construction.) While Osama was in college in the mid-'70s, Yamasaki was designing his second generation of Saudi work, and the World Trade Center—then the tallest building in the world times two—came to completion in New York. This period was the high-water mark both for Yamasaki's world reputation and for the Saudis' national construction plan—which in Saudi Arabia must have brought a heightened sense of importance to the World Trade Center.
Having rejected modernism and the Saudi royal family, it's no surprise that Bin Laden would turn against Yamasaki's work in particular. He must have seen how Yamasaki had clothed the World Trade Center, a monument of Western capitalism, in the raiment of Islamic spirituality. Such mixing of the sacred and the profane is old hat to us—after all, Cass Gilbert's classic Woolworth Building, dubbed the Cathedral to Commerce, is decked out in extravagant Gothic regalia. But to someone who wants to purify Islam from commercialism, Yamasaki's implicit Mosque to Commerce would be anathema. To Bin Laden, the World Trade Center was probably not only an international landmark but also a false idol.
http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2010/08/am-i-the-only-person-in-the-world-who-remembers-that-the-world-trade-center-was-a-work-of-islamic-ar.html
Professor Oleg Grabar on the IIS website:
http://www.iis.ac.uk/searchResults.asp?cx=005462578309701098770%3A_qygld4lghm&cof=FORID%3A10&ie=UTF-8&q=oleg+grabar&x=9&y=7#1120
Easy Nash http://apps.facebook.com/blognetworks/blog/science_and_religion_in_islam_the_link/ http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/08/500blogpost-five-hundred-is-blogpost.html http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/03/453a-blog-constructed-within.html
In Shia Islam, intellect is a key component of faith. Intellect allows us to understand the creation of God: Aga Khan IV(2008)
The Qur'an itself repeatedly recommends Muslims to become better educated in order better to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
The Quran tells us that signs of Allah's Sovereignty are found in the contemplation of His Creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
This notion of the capacity of the human intellect to understand and to admire the creation of Allah will bring you happiness in your everyday lives: Aga Khan IV(2007)
Islam, eminently logical, placing the greatest emphasis on knowledge, purports to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2006)
The Holy Qu'ran's encouragement to study nature and the physical world around us gave the original impetus to scientific enquiry among Muslims: Aga Khan IV(1985)
The first and only thing created by God was the Intellect(Aql): Prophet Muhammad(circa 632CE)
"The shimmering filigree is the mark of the holy. According to Oleg Grabar, the great American scholar of Islamic art and architecture, the dense filigree of complex geometries alludes to ...a higher spiritual reality in Islam, and the shimmering quality of Islamic patterning relates to the veil that wraps the Qa'ba at Mecca. After the attack, Grabar spoke of how these towers related to the architecture of Islam, where "the entire surface is meaningful" and "every part is both construction and ornament." A number of designers from the Middle East agreed, describing the entire façade as a giant "mashrabiya," the tracery that fills the windows of mosques......Having rejected modernism and the Saudi royal family, it's no surprise that Bin Laden would turn against Yamasaki's work in particular. He must have seen how Yamasaki had clothed the World Trade Center, a monument of Western capitalism, in the raiment of Islamic spirituality."
Am I the Only Person in the World Who Remembers That the World Trade Center Was a Work of Islamic Architecture?
http://www.slate.com/id/2060207: by Laurie Kerr
The Mosque to Commerce: Bin Laden's special complaint with the World Trade Center: We all know the basic reasons why Osama Bin Laden chose to attack the World Trade Center, out of all the buildings in New York. Its towers were the two tallest in the city, synonymous with its skyline. They were richly stocked with potential victims. And as the complex's name declared, it was designed to be a center of American and global commerce. But Bin Laden may have had another, more personal motivation. The World Trade Center's architect, Minoru Yamasaki, was a favorite designer of the Binladin family's patrons—the Saudi royal family—and a leading practitioner of an architectural style that merged modernism with Islamic influences.
The story starts in the late 1950s, when Yamasaki, a second-generation Japanese-American, won the commission to design the King Fahd Dhahran Air Terminal in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. His design had a rectilinear, modular plan with pointed arches, interweaving tracery of prefabricated concrete, and even a minaret of a flight tower. In other words, it was an impressive melding of modern technology and traditional Islamic form. The Saudis admired it so much that they put a picture of it on one of their banknotes.
For Yamasaki, an architect with a keen mathematical mind and a taste for ornamental pattern-work, this brush with the intricate geometries of Islamic architecture was inspiring, and he began to incorporate arabesques and arches into his work. For the next 12 to 15 years he played with Islamic forms in projects as diverse as the Federal Science Pavilion at the Seattle World's Fair, the Eastern Airlines Terminal at Logan Airport, and even the North Shore Congregation Israel in Glencoe, Ill.
Yamasaki received the World Trade Center commission the year after the Dhahran Airport was completed. Yamasaki described its plaza as "a mecca, a great relief from the narrow streets and sidewalks of the surrounding Wall Street area." True to his word, Yamasaki replicated the plan of Mecca's courtyard by creating a vast delineated square, isolated from the city's bustle by low colonnaded structures and capped by two enormous, perfectly square towers—minarets, really. Yamasaki's courtyard mimicked Mecca's assemblage of holy sites—the Qa'ba (a cube) containing the sacred stone, what some believe is the burial site of Hagar and Ishmael, and the holy spring—by including several sculptural features, including a fountain, and he anchored the composition in a radial circular pattern, similar to Mecca's.
At the base of the towers, Yamasaki used implied pointed arches—derived from the characteristically pointed arches of Islam—as a transition between the wide column spacing below and the dense structural mesh above. (Europe imported pointed arches from Islam during the Middle Ages, and so non-Muslims have come to think of them as innovations of the Gothic period.) Above soared the pure geometry of the towers, swathed in a shimmering skin, which doubled as a structural web—a giant truss. Here Yamasaki was following the Islamic tradition of wrapping a powerful geometric form in a dense filigree, as in the inlaid marble pattern work of the Taj Mahal or the ornate carvings of the courtyard and domes of the Alhambra.
The shimmering filigree is the mark of the holy. According to Oleg Grabar, the great American scholar of Islamic art and architecture, the dense filigree of complex geometries alludes to a higher spiritual reality in Islam, and the shimmering quality of Islamic patterning relates to the veil that wraps the Qa'ba at Mecca. After the attack, Grabar spoke of how these towers related to the architecture of Islam, where "the entire surface is meaningful" and "every part is both construction and ornament." A number of designers from the Middle East agreed, describing the entire façade as a giant "mashrabiya," the tracery that fills the windows of mosques.
In the early '70s, as the trade towers were nearing completion, Saudi Arabia was awash in oil revenues, and the state embarked on a massive modernization and building campaign. Yamasaki was premier among the many foreign architects hired during this period. Unwilling to take on too much work, Yamasaki decided to accept just three choice projects in Saudi Arabia: the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency head office, the Eastern Province International Airport, and the King Fahd Royal Reception Pavilion at Jeddah Airport. In all three projects he continued his explorations in melding traditional Islamic form with modern materials, methods, and functions.
As a scion of the Binladin contracting firm, destined to inherit some portion of its vast operations, Osama Bin Laden would certainly have been aware of Yamasaki's Saudi Arabian projects.
Indeed, his family may have built them. (Minoru Yamasaki Associates won't say, but the Binladens were involved with almost all royal construction.) While Osama was in college in the mid-'70s, Yamasaki was designing his second generation of Saudi work, and the World Trade Center—then the tallest building in the world times two—came to completion in New York. This period was the high-water mark both for Yamasaki's world reputation and for the Saudis' national construction plan—which in Saudi Arabia must have brought a heightened sense of importance to the World Trade Center.
Having rejected modernism and the Saudi royal family, it's no surprise that Bin Laden would turn against Yamasaki's work in particular. He must have seen how Yamasaki had clothed the World Trade Center, a monument of Western capitalism, in the raiment of Islamic spirituality. Such mixing of the sacred and the profane is old hat to us—after all, Cass Gilbert's classic Woolworth Building, dubbed the Cathedral to Commerce, is decked out in extravagant Gothic regalia. But to someone who wants to purify Islam from commercialism, Yamasaki's implicit Mosque to Commerce would be anathema. To Bin Laden, the World Trade Center was probably not only an international landmark but also a false idol.
http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2010/08/am-i-the-only-person-in-the-world-who-remembers-that-the-world-trade-center-was-a-work-of-islamic-ar.html
Professor Oleg Grabar on the IIS website:
http://www.iis.ac.uk/searchResults.asp?cx=005462578309701098770%3A_qygld4lghm&cof=FORID%3A10&ie=UTF-8&q=oleg+grabar&x=9&y=7#1120
Easy Nash http://apps.facebook.com/blognetworks/blog/science_and_religion_in_islam_the_link/ http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/08/500blogpost-five-hundred-is-blogpost.html http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/03/453a-blog-constructed-within.html
In Shia Islam, intellect is a key component of faith. Intellect allows us to understand the creation of God: Aga Khan IV(2008)
The Qur'an itself repeatedly recommends Muslims to become better educated in order better to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
The Quran tells us that signs of Allah's Sovereignty are found in the contemplation of His Creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
This notion of the capacity of the human intellect to understand and to admire the creation of Allah will bring you happiness in your everyday lives: Aga Khan IV(2007)
Islam, eminently logical, placing the greatest emphasis on knowledge, purports to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2006)
The Holy Qu'ran's encouragement to study nature and the physical world around us gave the original impetus to scientific enquiry among Muslims: Aga Khan IV(1985)
The first and only thing created by God was the Intellect(Aql): Prophet Muhammad(circa 632CE)
641)Harvard University Professor Ali Asani Discusses A New Course On Ismaili History And Thought; Quotes From Blogpost Four Hundred.
Quotes relating to the Fatimid philosophical traditions in Egypt and North Africa and the Nasir Khusraw tradition in Central Asia:
"In Shia Islam, intellect is a key component of faith. Intellect allows us to understand the creation of God"(Aga Khan IV, July 23rd 2008, Lisbon, Portugal)
"The Divine Intellect, Aql-i Kull, both transcends and informs the human intellect. It is this Intellect which enables man to strive towards two aims dictated by the faith: that he should reflect upon the environment Allah has given him and that he should know himself. It is the Light of the Intellect which distinguishes the complete human being from the human animal, and developing that intellect requires free inquiry. The man of faith, who fails to pursue intellectual search is likely to have only a limited comprehension of Allah's creation. Indeed, it is man's intellect that enables him to expand his vision of that creation"(Aga Khan IV, Aga Khan University Inauguration Speech, Karachi, Pakistan, November 11, 1985)
"Islamic doctrine goes further than the other great religions, for it proclaims the presence of the soul, perhaps minute but nevertheless existing in an embryonic state, in all existence in matter, in animals, trees, and space itself. Every individual, every molecule, every atom has its own spiritual relationship with the All-Powerful Soul of God"(Memoirs of Aga Khan III, 1954)
"In fact this world is a book in which you see inscribed the writings of God the Almighty"(Nasir Khusraw, 11th century Fatimid Ismaili cosmologist-philosopher-poet)
"O brother! You asked: What is the [meaning of] `alam [world] and what is that entity to which this name applies? How should we describe the world in its entirety? And how many worlds are there? Explain so that we may recognize. Know, O brother, that the name `alam is derived from [the word] `ilm(knowledge), because the traces of knowledge are evident in [all] parts of the physical world. Thus, we say that the very constitution (nihad) of the world is based on a profound wisdom"(Nasir Khusraw, 11th century Fatimid Ismaili cosmologist-philosopher-poet, from his book "Knowledge and Liberation")
"The Intellect is the substance of (God's) unity and it is the one (al-wahid), both cause and caused, the act of origination (al-ibda) and the first originated being (al-mubda al-awwal); it is perfection and perfect, eternity and eternal, existence and that which exists all in a single substance"( Hamid al-Din al-Kirmani, 11th centuryFatimid Ismaili cosmologist (Kitab al-Riyad, pp. 221-222))
"Tarkib' is composition as in the compounding of elements in the process of making more complex things, that is, of adding together two things to form a synthesis, a compound. Soul composes in the sense of 'tarkib'; it is the animating force that combines the physical elements of the natural universe into beings that move and act. Incorporating is an especially apt word in this instance. It means to turn something into a body, as in 'composing'. But it is actually the conversion of an intellectual object, a thought, into a physical thing. Soul acts by incorporating reason into physical objects, the natural matter of the universe and all the things composed of it"(Abu Yakub Al-Sijistani,10th century Fatimid Ismaili cosmologist, d971CE, from the book, 'Abu Yakub Al-Sijistani: Intellectual Missionary', by Paul Walker)
"Every particle of the Creation has a share of the Command of God, because every creature shares a part of the Command of God through which it has come to be there and by virtue of which it remains in being and the light of the Command ofGod shines in it. Understand this!"(Abu Yakub Al Sijistani, 10th century Fatimid Ismaili cosmologist, d971, Kashf al-Mahjub("Unveiling of the Hidden"))
"God – may He be Glorified and Exalted – created Intellect ('aql) first among the spiritual entities; He drew it forth from the right of His Throne, making it proceed from His own Light. Then he commanded it to retreat, and it retreated, to advance, and it advanced; then God proclaimed: 'I created you glorious, and I gave you pre-eminence over all my creatures.'"(Imam Jafar as-Sadiq, Circa 765CE)
"The beginning of all things, their origin, their force and their prosperity, is that intellect ('aql), without which one can profit from nothing. God created it to adorn His creatures, and as a light for them. It is through intellect ('aql) that the servants recognize God is their Creator and that they themselves are created beings …It is thanks to intellect ('aql) that they can distinguish what is beautiful from what is ugly, that they realize that darkness is in ignorance and that light is in Knowledge"( Imam Jafar as-Sadiq, (al-Kulayni, Usul al-Kafi, Vol. 1, pp. 34), circa 765CE)
"Here is a relevant verse from the Noble Qur'an, cited by Nasir-i Khusraw, hujjat-i Khurasan in his Khawaan al-Ikhwaan : "It is He who created you from dust, then from a sperm drop, then from a blood clot, then He brings you forth as a child, then lets you reach your age of full strength, then lets you become old - though some of you die before - and then lets you reach the appointed term; and that haply you may find the intellect (la'allakum ta'qilun)."(Nasir Khusraw, 11th century Fatimid Ismaili cosmologist-philosopher-poet)
"According to a famous hadith of the Prophet Muhammad: The first(and only) thing created by God was the Intellect ('aql)(circa 632CE)
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/09/400blogpost-four-hundred-knowledge.html
Quote of Professor Ali Asani from interview below:
"I tried to accommodate the regional diversity by ensuring that I had enough representation of materials from different geographic regions in the three parts of the course. For example, in the modules on thought as well as literature and practice, we incorporated material from the Fatimid philosophical and legal traditions in Egypt and North Africa, the Nasir Khusraw tradition in Central Asia, the South Asian ginan traditions and so on. In this regard, the Anthology of Ismaili Literature that the IIS recently published was very helpful."
Harvard University Professor Ali Asani discusses a new course on Ismaili history and thought
In the spring of 2010, Harvard University, for the first time in its history, offered a course on Ismaili History and Thought. Shenila S. Khoja-Moolji had the opportunity to take the course, and spoke with Professor Ali Asani, Professor of Indo-Muslim and Islamic Religion and Cultures at Harvard, about his experience designing and teaching it. Professor Asani is also Chair of the University’s Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations and Associate Director of the Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Islamic Studies Program. The following is an excerpt of her conversation with him.
Shenila S. Khoja-Moolji (SKM): Within academia, certain discourses on Islam receive greater prominence than others. Your course Ismaili History and Thought, in some ways sought to highlight a minority interpretation of Islam that has historically been marginalised. What made you decide to offer this course? What was your inspiration and motivation?
Professor Ali Asani (AA): For too long, Islam has been taught in the western academy through discourses that primarily represent the religion as a religion of empire and power. The story of Islam is framed solely as the history of Muslim empires, dynasties and their political fortunes. This has had serious implications on how students understand the tradition: certain perspectives are privileged and others marginalised; notions of orthodoxies and heresies are created; understandings of the nature of religious experience are severely curtailed; Islam is perceived in political and monolithic terms with students developing very little awareness of the lived religious experiences of Muslims, the rich diversity of their devotional life and its expression through artistic and literary traditions.
To counter these highly problematic discourses, I have opted to frame the courses I teach about Islam and Muslim cultures at Harvard through the Cultural Studies approach. This approach is premised on the notion that as a cultural phenomenon, Islam, like any religion, is intricately tied to a web of contexts: political, social, economic, literary, artistic and so on. It emphasises that these contexts both influence and are influenced by religion. In this regard, the study of religion is essentially a multidisciplinary enterprise and not just about theology and religious doctrines. I have found the cultural studies approach to be very effective in helping students appreciate the diversity of interpretations of Islam. I have also found this approach to be an effective way for students to become literate in their thinking about religion and culture.
My decision to offer a course on Ismaili history and thought was first and foremost motivated by the urgent need I felt to broaden the Islamic Studies curriculum at Harvard so that it reflects the plurality of Muslim experiences and the multiple ways in which Muslims understand and practice Islam today. In this regard, the absence of courses at Harvard representing Shii perspectives was also an important factor. Naturally, my own research on and familiarity with Ismaili traditions of South Asia, and Ismaili history in general, were also critical.
Photo:
Professor Asani’s use of the arts as a teaching tool is just part of his broader effort to eradicate what he calls “religious illiteracy.” For more than 30 years, he has dedicated himself to helping others better understand the rich subtext and diverse influences that make religion — in particular Islam — a complex cultural touchstone.
Photo: Kris Snibbe/Harvard Staff Photographer
SKM: How did you go about formulating this course and designing the curriculum, given the scarcity of written materials on this interpretation of Islam?
AA: In terms of putting together the course, there were several challenges. The first was how to represent the many different ways of being Ismaili. When we talk about Ismailis today, we have a tendency to confine our definition to just the Nizari Ismailis; but we must not forget that there are other groups such as the Bohras who are also Ismailis. Historically speaking, even the Druze in Syria, Lebanon and Israel, are Ismaili as well.
A second challenge was being careful not to project contemporary formulations and understandings on to the past as this would inevitably distort our knowledge. For instance, some communities which we today identify as Ismaili did not use this label of identity when referring to themselves until very recently.
A third challenge was the sheer amount of material to be covered extending over at least ten centuries and many different geographical regions. Organising the topics and readings so that the course did not become too unwieldy was definitely a daunting task. Eventually I did manage to organise the course into three parts so that it had some sort of thematic coherence: in the first part, we surveyed history, in the second we explored thought, and in the third we focused on devotional literature and practice.
SKM: It must have been difficult to provide a representative voice to all the various Ismaili traditions. How did you manage that?
AA: Putting together a course like this, which has not been taught before, is difficult, especially with regard to compiling reading material. Thanks to the active publication programme of The Institute of Ismaili Studies (IIS), I had a fair amount of material representing Nizari Ismaili perspectives, but identifying and accessing materials for Bohra and Druze traditions was not easy. Fortunately, I was awarded an innovation grant from the University to design the course, so I was able to hire a research assistant to help with this time consuming task. Although we were able to include material from different traditions, I feel, however, that there is a need to identify more material to make the readings truly representative in their view points.
Comparing the experiences of different Ismaili communities was for me an exciting part of the course. For example, while studying the modern period, it became clear that the Nizaris, Bohras and Druze have had to deal with similar issues with regard to identity, pluralism, and relations with the nation-state. This kind of comparative study across Ismaili communities representing different branches is certainly an area that needs to be developed.
SKM: And how did you deal with the geographic diversity of the Ismaili communities?
AA: I tried to accommodate the regional diversity by ensuring that I had enough representation of materials from different geographic regions in the three parts of the course. For example, in the modules on thought as well as literature and practice, we incorporated material from the Fatimid philosophical and legal traditions in Egypt and North Africa, the Nasir Khusraw tradition in Central Asia, the South Asian ginan traditions and so on. In this regard, the Anthology of Ismaili Literature that the IIS recently published was very helpful.
SKM: During your career as a Professor at Harvard, have you observed a change in the approach to the study of religion? Can we expect more courses that focus on specific religious interpretations within the broader religious traditions?
AA: Definitely, there have been changes. There are more course offerings on specialised topics in Islamic studies such as Islamic law, Sufism, Islam in local or regional contexts (Central Asia, South Asia, sub-Saharan Africa), religion and gender, religion and the modern state, etc. In this regard, the course on Ismaili History and Thought is a welcome addition.
Although the old paradigm of teaching Islam as a religion of empire is still strong, Islamic Studies is increasingly being perceived as an interdisciplinary field. For example, students can pursue Islamic Studies through many different disciplines such as anthropology, women’s studies, art history and so on. Such interdisciplinarity will inevitably lead to students being exposed to broader perspectives. Today, the study of Islam is not simply the study of Islamic history as many people mistakenly assume. We are definitely seeing this change in graduate education. I am particularly keen to introduce and promote this interdisciplinary perspective at an undergraduate level as well, especially among students who are taking courses related to Islam or Muslim societies as part of their liberal arts education.
SKM: In your view, how was the course received by the students?
AA: Students were really engaged as demonstrated through the broad range of topics they chose for their final projects. One student wrote an essay on the Ismaili novelist M.G. Vassanji’s book, No New Land, which concerns the experiences of Khoja Ismaili families from East Africa living in an apartment complex in Toronto. The student discussed Ismaili identity in the Canadian context as depicted in the novel, noting that this kind of portrayal of the Ismaili experience through literature is far more humanising than an anthropological study. This paper underscored the need to incorporate modern fiction and popular literature in courses on religion.
Another student wrote a paper on the use of the crescent as symbolic of the Imam in Fatimid architecture. Yet another student focused on the Ta’alim curriculum and its articulation of Ismaili concepts and ideas. Comparing Ismaili Neoplatonic thought with Ibn Arabi’s mystical philosophy; improving the status of Ismaili women; Fatimid treatises on Imamat; the phenomenology of Ismaili poetics; reinterpreting the figure of Fatima — these were some of the other papers.
SKM: It sounds like students took a personalised approach to these materials and came at it from a variety of perspectives, ranging from art and history to literature and educational theory.
AA: Yes, that was a particularly interesting outcome for the course. On reflection, this result is perhaps not so unexpected given that approach of the course itself was interdisciplinary and that it encouraged students to think about religion as a cultural phenomenon, particularly the Ismaili tradition, in interdisciplinary ways.
Photo:
Shenila Khoja-Moolji interviewing Professor Ali Asani for this article. Photo: Courtesy of Shenila S. Khoja-Moolji
SKM: My understanding is that the course was oversubscribed in terms of students who were interested in taking part. Did you expect such a response?
AA: When I first began designing the course, I assumed that due to the specialised nature of the subject, it would probably attract a very small number of students with a background in Islamic Studies. To my surprise, the course attracted students from a variety of fields and educational training: from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, The Graduate School of Education, The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the Harvard Divinity school, the Harvard Business School, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In addition, a postdoctoral anthropologist from Uzbekistan and a former officer from the British Foreign Service also attended the course occasionally.
Teaching a course with students coming from such varied backgrounds and interests was definitely daunting. Some had no knowledge of Ismaili history at all while others were already familiar with some of the materials. Some were acquainted with the frameworks of studying religion while others weren’t.
SKM: This was the first time that a course of this magnitude was offered at a prestigious institution such as Harvard. What does this mean for the Ismaili community?
AA: We live in a rapidly globalising world in which there is a growing appreciation for respecting and embracing diversity as a necessary condition for democracy and world peace. Although we are far from attaining this as a universal ideal, once oppressed communities are increasingly able to express their views without the fear of persecution, as evident in the case of many Ismaili communities.
The Shia in Iraq are another example. This development has, of course, challenged traditional paradigms of knowledge and authority. Not everybody is comfortable with the challenges posed by voices and perspectives that have long been silenced. Some are, indeed, threatened by this newly emergent plurality of voices and seek to suppress it. One of the strengths of a university such as Harvard is that it encourages its faculty and students to engage in free inquiry and consider a diversity of viewpoints on any given subject. It is thus able to provide opportunities for students to access knowledge from all kinds of sources, making it possible for courses like the one on Ismaili thought to be part of a diverse curriculum.
Increasingly, western universities are becoming institutions where the plurality of interpretations of Islam can be studied within geographic contexts ranging from sub-Saharan Africa and China to South Asia. In this sense, these universities are able to expose their students to the rich diversity of thought and practice within Islam, something that is sadly impossible in most universities of Muslim majority countries where the state and religious authorities exercise ideological control of the curriculum, especially as it pertains to Islam. Inshallah, one day when Muslim societies become more comfortable with intra-Muslim pluralism we may see courses on Ismaili Thought being offered in these universities as well.
Khoja-Moolji also spoke with some of her fellow students who were enrolled in the course to understand how it informed their views of Ismaili Muslims.
“It is really unique to see a community that is open to embracing and engaging with the various cultural influences that have shaped its thought and practice,” said Ailya Vajid, a graduate student of Islamic Studies at the Harvard Divinity School. Expressing her excitement at the opportunity to learn about the Ismaili community, she added that she was impressed with the community’s values of pluralism and its engagement with it.
Another student, Michael Muhammad Knight, who is also a prominent novelist, journalist, and performance artist, noted that he did not have much familiarity with Ismaili history and took special interest in the issues of identity: “The course definitely expanded my knowledge of Islam. Apart from enlightening me about the origins and development of the Ismaili tradition, the course helped me to look at bigger questions of religious identity and how it’s formulated.”-->
Vanessa Beary, a doctoral candidate at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, noted that she took Professor Asani's class due to her interest in the various educational initiatives of the Aga Khan Development Network in Tajikistan. For her final paper, she examined how the Nizari Ismaili community presents the purposes of learning and the pursuit of knowledge in Tal'im, their international religious education curriculum. She appreciated that “both the historical and contemporary Ismaili approaches to knowledge and learning reinforce a pluralistic worldview”.
Overall the course provided space for students to take a personalised approach to learning Ismaili history and thought. As an Ismaili student, I was particularly happy to see the interest that this course generated in the study of Shia Ismaili Islam. Personally, the course afforded me the opportunity to further my research in Ismaili women’s history by studying the role of our forty-eighth Imam, Mawlana Sultan Mahomed Shah Aga Khan III, in improving the status of Muslim women. The course will no doubt continue to inspire many more students at Harvard in the years ahead.
Recommended course readings
Photo:
The Institute of Ismaili Studies publications provide a good source of reading materials on Nizari Ismailism for Professor Asani’s course. Photo: Shenila Khoja-Moolji-->
The Institute of Ismaili Studies publications provide a good source of reading materials on Nizari Ismailism for Professor Asani’s course. Photo: Shenila Khoja-Moolji
Abu-Izzeddin, Nejla M. The Druzes. A new study of their history, faith and society. Leiden – E.J. Brill, 1984.
Asani, Ali S. Ecstasy and Enlightenment: The Ismaili Devotional Literature of South Asia. London; New York: I.B. Tauris, 2002.
Blank, Jonah. Mullahs on the Mainframe: Islam and Modernity among the Daudi Bohras. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001.
Cortese, Delia and Simonetta Calderini. Women and the Fatimids in the World of Islam. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2006.
Daftary, Farhad. A Short History of the Ismailis: Traditions of a Muslim Community. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1998.
Landolt, H., Shaikh. S., and Kassam, K. (ed.) An Anthology of Ismaili Literature: a Shi'i Vision of Islam. London: I.B. Tauris, 2008.
Lawson, Todd. (ed.) Reason and Inspiration in Islam: Theology, Philosophy and Mysticism in Islamic Thought. Essays in Honour of Hermann Landolt. London: I.B. Tauris in association with The Institute of Ismaili Studies, 2005.
Sanders, Paula. Ritual, Politics, and the City in Fatimid Cairo. Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press, 1994.
http://www.theismaili.org/cms/1067/Harvard-University-Professor-Ali-Asani-discusses-a-new-course-on-Ismaili-history-and-thought
Also published by ISMAILIMAIL:
http://ismailimail.wordpress.com/2010/08/19/the-ismaili-harvard-university-professor-ali-asani-discusses-a-new-course-on-ismaili-history-and-thought-2/
Easy Nash http://apps.facebook.com/blognetworks/blog/science_and_religion_in_islam_the_link/ http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/08/500blogpost-five-hundred-is-blogpost.html http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/03/453a-blog-constructed-within.html
In Shia Islam, intellect is a key component of faith. Intellect allows us to understand the creation of God: Aga Khan IV(2008)
The Qur'an itself repeatedly recommends Muslims to become better educated in order better to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
The Quran tells us that signs of Allah's Sovereignty are found in the contemplation of His Creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
This notion of the capacity of the human intellect to understand and to admire the creation of Allah will bring you happiness in your everyday lives: Aga Khan IV(2007)
Islam, eminently logical, placing the greatest emphasis on knowledge, purports to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2006)
The Holy Qu'ran's encouragement to study nature and the physical world around us gave the original impetus to scientific enquiry among Muslims: Aga Khan IV(1985)
The first and only thing created by God was the Intellect(Aql): Prophet Muhammad(circa 632CE)
"In Shia Islam, intellect is a key component of faith. Intellect allows us to understand the creation of God"(Aga Khan IV, July 23rd 2008, Lisbon, Portugal)
"The Divine Intellect, Aql-i Kull, both transcends and informs the human intellect. It is this Intellect which enables man to strive towards two aims dictated by the faith: that he should reflect upon the environment Allah has given him and that he should know himself. It is the Light of the Intellect which distinguishes the complete human being from the human animal, and developing that intellect requires free inquiry. The man of faith, who fails to pursue intellectual search is likely to have only a limited comprehension of Allah's creation. Indeed, it is man's intellect that enables him to expand his vision of that creation"(Aga Khan IV, Aga Khan University Inauguration Speech, Karachi, Pakistan, November 11, 1985)
"Islamic doctrine goes further than the other great religions, for it proclaims the presence of the soul, perhaps minute but nevertheless existing in an embryonic state, in all existence in matter, in animals, trees, and space itself. Every individual, every molecule, every atom has its own spiritual relationship with the All-Powerful Soul of God"(Memoirs of Aga Khan III, 1954)
"In fact this world is a book in which you see inscribed the writings of God the Almighty"(Nasir Khusraw, 11th century Fatimid Ismaili cosmologist-philosopher-poet)
"O brother! You asked: What is the [meaning of] `alam [world] and what is that entity to which this name applies? How should we describe the world in its entirety? And how many worlds are there? Explain so that we may recognize. Know, O brother, that the name `alam is derived from [the word] `ilm(knowledge), because the traces of knowledge are evident in [all] parts of the physical world. Thus, we say that the very constitution (nihad) of the world is based on a profound wisdom"(Nasir Khusraw, 11th century Fatimid Ismaili cosmologist-philosopher-poet, from his book "Knowledge and Liberation")
"The Intellect is the substance of (God's) unity and it is the one (al-wahid), both cause and caused, the act of origination (al-ibda) and the first originated being (al-mubda al-awwal); it is perfection and perfect, eternity and eternal, existence and that which exists all in a single substance"( Hamid al-Din al-Kirmani, 11th centuryFatimid Ismaili cosmologist (Kitab al-Riyad, pp. 221-222))
"Tarkib' is composition as in the compounding of elements in the process of making more complex things, that is, of adding together two things to form a synthesis, a compound. Soul composes in the sense of 'tarkib'; it is the animating force that combines the physical elements of the natural universe into beings that move and act. Incorporating is an especially apt word in this instance. It means to turn something into a body, as in 'composing'. But it is actually the conversion of an intellectual object, a thought, into a physical thing. Soul acts by incorporating reason into physical objects, the natural matter of the universe and all the things composed of it"(Abu Yakub Al-Sijistani,10th century Fatimid Ismaili cosmologist, d971CE, from the book, 'Abu Yakub Al-Sijistani: Intellectual Missionary', by Paul Walker)
"Every particle of the Creation has a share of the Command of God, because every creature shares a part of the Command of God through which it has come to be there and by virtue of which it remains in being and the light of the Command ofGod shines in it. Understand this!"(Abu Yakub Al Sijistani, 10th century Fatimid Ismaili cosmologist, d971, Kashf al-Mahjub("Unveiling of the Hidden"))
"God – may He be Glorified and Exalted – created Intellect ('aql) first among the spiritual entities; He drew it forth from the right of His Throne, making it proceed from His own Light. Then he commanded it to retreat, and it retreated, to advance, and it advanced; then God proclaimed: 'I created you glorious, and I gave you pre-eminence over all my creatures.'"(Imam Jafar as-Sadiq, Circa 765CE)
"The beginning of all things, their origin, their force and their prosperity, is that intellect ('aql), without which one can profit from nothing. God created it to adorn His creatures, and as a light for them. It is through intellect ('aql) that the servants recognize God is their Creator and that they themselves are created beings …It is thanks to intellect ('aql) that they can distinguish what is beautiful from what is ugly, that they realize that darkness is in ignorance and that light is in Knowledge"( Imam Jafar as-Sadiq, (al-Kulayni, Usul al-Kafi, Vol. 1, pp. 34), circa 765CE)
"Here is a relevant verse from the Noble Qur'an, cited by Nasir-i Khusraw, hujjat-i Khurasan in his Khawaan al-Ikhwaan : "It is He who created you from dust, then from a sperm drop, then from a blood clot, then He brings you forth as a child, then lets you reach your age of full strength, then lets you become old - though some of you die before - and then lets you reach the appointed term; and that haply you may find the intellect (la'allakum ta'qilun)."(Nasir Khusraw, 11th century Fatimid Ismaili cosmologist-philosopher-poet)
"According to a famous hadith of the Prophet Muhammad: The first(and only) thing created by God was the Intellect ('aql)(circa 632CE)
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/09/400blogpost-four-hundred-knowledge.html
Quote of Professor Ali Asani from interview below:
"I tried to accommodate the regional diversity by ensuring that I had enough representation of materials from different geographic regions in the three parts of the course. For example, in the modules on thought as well as literature and practice, we incorporated material from the Fatimid philosophical and legal traditions in Egypt and North Africa, the Nasir Khusraw tradition in Central Asia, the South Asian ginan traditions and so on. In this regard, the Anthology of Ismaili Literature that the IIS recently published was very helpful."
Harvard University Professor Ali Asani discusses a new course on Ismaili history and thought
In the spring of 2010, Harvard University, for the first time in its history, offered a course on Ismaili History and Thought. Shenila S. Khoja-Moolji had the opportunity to take the course, and spoke with Professor Ali Asani, Professor of Indo-Muslim and Islamic Religion and Cultures at Harvard, about his experience designing and teaching it. Professor Asani is also Chair of the University’s Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations and Associate Director of the Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Islamic Studies Program. The following is an excerpt of her conversation with him.
Shenila S. Khoja-Moolji (SKM): Within academia, certain discourses on Islam receive greater prominence than others. Your course Ismaili History and Thought, in some ways sought to highlight a minority interpretation of Islam that has historically been marginalised. What made you decide to offer this course? What was your inspiration and motivation?
Professor Ali Asani (AA): For too long, Islam has been taught in the western academy through discourses that primarily represent the religion as a religion of empire and power. The story of Islam is framed solely as the history of Muslim empires, dynasties and their political fortunes. This has had serious implications on how students understand the tradition: certain perspectives are privileged and others marginalised; notions of orthodoxies and heresies are created; understandings of the nature of religious experience are severely curtailed; Islam is perceived in political and monolithic terms with students developing very little awareness of the lived religious experiences of Muslims, the rich diversity of their devotional life and its expression through artistic and literary traditions.
To counter these highly problematic discourses, I have opted to frame the courses I teach about Islam and Muslim cultures at Harvard through the Cultural Studies approach. This approach is premised on the notion that as a cultural phenomenon, Islam, like any religion, is intricately tied to a web of contexts: political, social, economic, literary, artistic and so on. It emphasises that these contexts both influence and are influenced by religion. In this regard, the study of religion is essentially a multidisciplinary enterprise and not just about theology and religious doctrines. I have found the cultural studies approach to be very effective in helping students appreciate the diversity of interpretations of Islam. I have also found this approach to be an effective way for students to become literate in their thinking about religion and culture.
My decision to offer a course on Ismaili history and thought was first and foremost motivated by the urgent need I felt to broaden the Islamic Studies curriculum at Harvard so that it reflects the plurality of Muslim experiences and the multiple ways in which Muslims understand and practice Islam today. In this regard, the absence of courses at Harvard representing Shii perspectives was also an important factor. Naturally, my own research on and familiarity with Ismaili traditions of South Asia, and Ismaili history in general, were also critical.
Photo:
Professor Asani’s use of the arts as a teaching tool is just part of his broader effort to eradicate what he calls “religious illiteracy.” For more than 30 years, he has dedicated himself to helping others better understand the rich subtext and diverse influences that make religion — in particular Islam — a complex cultural touchstone.
Photo: Kris Snibbe/Harvard Staff Photographer
SKM: How did you go about formulating this course and designing the curriculum, given the scarcity of written materials on this interpretation of Islam?
AA: In terms of putting together the course, there were several challenges. The first was how to represent the many different ways of being Ismaili. When we talk about Ismailis today, we have a tendency to confine our definition to just the Nizari Ismailis; but we must not forget that there are other groups such as the Bohras who are also Ismailis. Historically speaking, even the Druze in Syria, Lebanon and Israel, are Ismaili as well.
A second challenge was being careful not to project contemporary formulations and understandings on to the past as this would inevitably distort our knowledge. For instance, some communities which we today identify as Ismaili did not use this label of identity when referring to themselves until very recently.
A third challenge was the sheer amount of material to be covered extending over at least ten centuries and many different geographical regions. Organising the topics and readings so that the course did not become too unwieldy was definitely a daunting task. Eventually I did manage to organise the course into three parts so that it had some sort of thematic coherence: in the first part, we surveyed history, in the second we explored thought, and in the third we focused on devotional literature and practice.
SKM: It must have been difficult to provide a representative voice to all the various Ismaili traditions. How did you manage that?
AA: Putting together a course like this, which has not been taught before, is difficult, especially with regard to compiling reading material. Thanks to the active publication programme of The Institute of Ismaili Studies (IIS), I had a fair amount of material representing Nizari Ismaili perspectives, but identifying and accessing materials for Bohra and Druze traditions was not easy. Fortunately, I was awarded an innovation grant from the University to design the course, so I was able to hire a research assistant to help with this time consuming task. Although we were able to include material from different traditions, I feel, however, that there is a need to identify more material to make the readings truly representative in their view points.
Comparing the experiences of different Ismaili communities was for me an exciting part of the course. For example, while studying the modern period, it became clear that the Nizaris, Bohras and Druze have had to deal with similar issues with regard to identity, pluralism, and relations with the nation-state. This kind of comparative study across Ismaili communities representing different branches is certainly an area that needs to be developed.
SKM: And how did you deal with the geographic diversity of the Ismaili communities?
AA: I tried to accommodate the regional diversity by ensuring that I had enough representation of materials from different geographic regions in the three parts of the course. For example, in the modules on thought as well as literature and practice, we incorporated material from the Fatimid philosophical and legal traditions in Egypt and North Africa, the Nasir Khusraw tradition in Central Asia, the South Asian ginan traditions and so on. In this regard, the Anthology of Ismaili Literature that the IIS recently published was very helpful.
SKM: During your career as a Professor at Harvard, have you observed a change in the approach to the study of religion? Can we expect more courses that focus on specific religious interpretations within the broader religious traditions?
AA: Definitely, there have been changes. There are more course offerings on specialised topics in Islamic studies such as Islamic law, Sufism, Islam in local or regional contexts (Central Asia, South Asia, sub-Saharan Africa), religion and gender, religion and the modern state, etc. In this regard, the course on Ismaili History and Thought is a welcome addition.
Although the old paradigm of teaching Islam as a religion of empire is still strong, Islamic Studies is increasingly being perceived as an interdisciplinary field. For example, students can pursue Islamic Studies through many different disciplines such as anthropology, women’s studies, art history and so on. Such interdisciplinarity will inevitably lead to students being exposed to broader perspectives. Today, the study of Islam is not simply the study of Islamic history as many people mistakenly assume. We are definitely seeing this change in graduate education. I am particularly keen to introduce and promote this interdisciplinary perspective at an undergraduate level as well, especially among students who are taking courses related to Islam or Muslim societies as part of their liberal arts education.
SKM: In your view, how was the course received by the students?
AA: Students were really engaged as demonstrated through the broad range of topics they chose for their final projects. One student wrote an essay on the Ismaili novelist M.G. Vassanji’s book, No New Land, which concerns the experiences of Khoja Ismaili families from East Africa living in an apartment complex in Toronto. The student discussed Ismaili identity in the Canadian context as depicted in the novel, noting that this kind of portrayal of the Ismaili experience through literature is far more humanising than an anthropological study. This paper underscored the need to incorporate modern fiction and popular literature in courses on religion.
Another student wrote a paper on the use of the crescent as symbolic of the Imam in Fatimid architecture. Yet another student focused on the Ta’alim curriculum and its articulation of Ismaili concepts and ideas. Comparing Ismaili Neoplatonic thought with Ibn Arabi’s mystical philosophy; improving the status of Ismaili women; Fatimid treatises on Imamat; the phenomenology of Ismaili poetics; reinterpreting the figure of Fatima — these were some of the other papers.
SKM: It sounds like students took a personalised approach to these materials and came at it from a variety of perspectives, ranging from art and history to literature and educational theory.
AA: Yes, that was a particularly interesting outcome for the course. On reflection, this result is perhaps not so unexpected given that approach of the course itself was interdisciplinary and that it encouraged students to think about religion as a cultural phenomenon, particularly the Ismaili tradition, in interdisciplinary ways.
Photo:
Shenila Khoja-Moolji interviewing Professor Ali Asani for this article. Photo: Courtesy of Shenila S. Khoja-Moolji
SKM: My understanding is that the course was oversubscribed in terms of students who were interested in taking part. Did you expect such a response?
AA: When I first began designing the course, I assumed that due to the specialised nature of the subject, it would probably attract a very small number of students with a background in Islamic Studies. To my surprise, the course attracted students from a variety of fields and educational training: from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, The Graduate School of Education, The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the Harvard Divinity school, the Harvard Business School, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In addition, a postdoctoral anthropologist from Uzbekistan and a former officer from the British Foreign Service also attended the course occasionally.
Teaching a course with students coming from such varied backgrounds and interests was definitely daunting. Some had no knowledge of Ismaili history at all while others were already familiar with some of the materials. Some were acquainted with the frameworks of studying religion while others weren’t.
SKM: This was the first time that a course of this magnitude was offered at a prestigious institution such as Harvard. What does this mean for the Ismaili community?
AA: We live in a rapidly globalising world in which there is a growing appreciation for respecting and embracing diversity as a necessary condition for democracy and world peace. Although we are far from attaining this as a universal ideal, once oppressed communities are increasingly able to express their views without the fear of persecution, as evident in the case of many Ismaili communities.
The Shia in Iraq are another example. This development has, of course, challenged traditional paradigms of knowledge and authority. Not everybody is comfortable with the challenges posed by voices and perspectives that have long been silenced. Some are, indeed, threatened by this newly emergent plurality of voices and seek to suppress it. One of the strengths of a university such as Harvard is that it encourages its faculty and students to engage in free inquiry and consider a diversity of viewpoints on any given subject. It is thus able to provide opportunities for students to access knowledge from all kinds of sources, making it possible for courses like the one on Ismaili thought to be part of a diverse curriculum.
Increasingly, western universities are becoming institutions where the plurality of interpretations of Islam can be studied within geographic contexts ranging from sub-Saharan Africa and China to South Asia. In this sense, these universities are able to expose their students to the rich diversity of thought and practice within Islam, something that is sadly impossible in most universities of Muslim majority countries where the state and religious authorities exercise ideological control of the curriculum, especially as it pertains to Islam. Inshallah, one day when Muslim societies become more comfortable with intra-Muslim pluralism we may see courses on Ismaili Thought being offered in these universities as well.
Khoja-Moolji also spoke with some of her fellow students who were enrolled in the course to understand how it informed their views of Ismaili Muslims.
“It is really unique to see a community that is open to embracing and engaging with the various cultural influences that have shaped its thought and practice,” said Ailya Vajid, a graduate student of Islamic Studies at the Harvard Divinity School. Expressing her excitement at the opportunity to learn about the Ismaili community, she added that she was impressed with the community’s values of pluralism and its engagement with it.
Another student, Michael Muhammad Knight, who is also a prominent novelist, journalist, and performance artist, noted that he did not have much familiarity with Ismaili history and took special interest in the issues of identity: “The course definitely expanded my knowledge of Islam. Apart from enlightening me about the origins and development of the Ismaili tradition, the course helped me to look at bigger questions of religious identity and how it’s formulated.”-->
Vanessa Beary, a doctoral candidate at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, noted that she took Professor Asani's class due to her interest in the various educational initiatives of the Aga Khan Development Network in Tajikistan. For her final paper, she examined how the Nizari Ismaili community presents the purposes of learning and the pursuit of knowledge in Tal'im, their international religious education curriculum. She appreciated that “both the historical and contemporary Ismaili approaches to knowledge and learning reinforce a pluralistic worldview”.
Overall the course provided space for students to take a personalised approach to learning Ismaili history and thought. As an Ismaili student, I was particularly happy to see the interest that this course generated in the study of Shia Ismaili Islam. Personally, the course afforded me the opportunity to further my research in Ismaili women’s history by studying the role of our forty-eighth Imam, Mawlana Sultan Mahomed Shah Aga Khan III, in improving the status of Muslim women. The course will no doubt continue to inspire many more students at Harvard in the years ahead.
Recommended course readings
Photo:
The Institute of Ismaili Studies publications provide a good source of reading materials on Nizari Ismailism for Professor Asani’s course. Photo: Shenila Khoja-Moolji-->
The Institute of Ismaili Studies publications provide a good source of reading materials on Nizari Ismailism for Professor Asani’s course. Photo: Shenila Khoja-Moolji
Abu-Izzeddin, Nejla M. The Druzes. A new study of their history, faith and society. Leiden – E.J. Brill, 1984.
Asani, Ali S. Ecstasy and Enlightenment: The Ismaili Devotional Literature of South Asia. London; New York: I.B. Tauris, 2002.
Blank, Jonah. Mullahs on the Mainframe: Islam and Modernity among the Daudi Bohras. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001.
Cortese, Delia and Simonetta Calderini. Women and the Fatimids in the World of Islam. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2006.
Daftary, Farhad. A Short History of the Ismailis: Traditions of a Muslim Community. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1998.
Landolt, H., Shaikh. S., and Kassam, K. (ed.) An Anthology of Ismaili Literature: a Shi'i Vision of Islam. London: I.B. Tauris, 2008.
Lawson, Todd. (ed.) Reason and Inspiration in Islam: Theology, Philosophy and Mysticism in Islamic Thought. Essays in Honour of Hermann Landolt. London: I.B. Tauris in association with The Institute of Ismaili Studies, 2005.
Sanders, Paula. Ritual, Politics, and the City in Fatimid Cairo. Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press, 1994.
http://www.theismaili.org/cms/1067/Harvard-University-Professor-Ali-Asani-discusses-a-new-course-on-Ismaili-history-and-thought
Also published by ISMAILIMAIL:
http://ismailimail.wordpress.com/2010/08/19/the-ismaili-harvard-university-professor-ali-asani-discusses-a-new-course-on-ismaili-history-and-thought-2/
Easy Nash http://apps.facebook.com/blognetworks/blog/science_and_religion_in_islam_the_link/ http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/08/500blogpost-five-hundred-is-blogpost.html http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/03/453a-blog-constructed-within.html
In Shia Islam, intellect is a key component of faith. Intellect allows us to understand the creation of God: Aga Khan IV(2008)
The Qur'an itself repeatedly recommends Muslims to become better educated in order better to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
The Quran tells us that signs of Allah's Sovereignty are found in the contemplation of His Creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
This notion of the capacity of the human intellect to understand and to admire the creation of Allah will bring you happiness in your everyday lives: Aga Khan IV(2007)
Islam, eminently logical, placing the greatest emphasis on knowledge, purports to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2006)
The Holy Qu'ran's encouragement to study nature and the physical world around us gave the original impetus to scientific enquiry among Muslims: Aga Khan IV(1985)
The first and only thing created by God was the Intellect(Aql): Prophet Muhammad(circa 632CE)
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
640)Dr Shaf Keshavjee, Master Surgeon, Brilliant Scientist: A Collection Of Posts; Quotes From Blogpost Four Hundred
"Here is a relevant verse from the Noble Qur'an, cited by Nasir-i Khusraw, hujjat-i Khurasan in his Khawaan al-Ikhwaan : "It is He who created you from dust, then from a sperm drop, then from a blood clot, then He brings you forth as a child, then lets you reach your age of full strength, then lets you become old - though some of you die before - and then lets you reach the appointed term; and that haply you may find the intellect (la'allakum ta'qilun)."(Nasir Khusraw, 11th century Fatimid Ismaili cosmologist-philosopher-poet)
"In Shia Islam, intellect is a key component of faith. Intellect allows us to understand the creation of God"(Aga Khan IV, July 23rd 2008, Lisbon, Portugal)
"A thousand years ago, my forefathers, the Fatimid imam-caliphs of Egypt, founded al-Azhar University and the Academy of Knowledge in Cairo. In the Islamic tradition, they viewed the discovery of knowledge as a way to understand, so as to serve better God's creation, to apply knowledge and reason to build society and shape human aspirations"(Aga Khan IV, Speech, 25th June 2004, Matola, Mozambique.)
"Education has been important to my family for a long time. My forefathers founded al-Azhar University in Cairo some 1000 years ago, at the time of the Fatimid Caliphate in Egypt. Discovery of knowledge was seen by those founders as an embodiment of religious faith, and faith as reinforced by knowledge of workings of the Creator's physical world. The form of universities has changed over those 1000 years, but that reciprocity between faith and knowledge remains a source of strength"(Aga Khan IV, 27th May1994, Cambridge, Massachusets, U.S.A.)
"Nature is the great daily book of God whose secrets must be found and used for the well-being of humanity"(Aga Khan III, Radio Pakistan, Karachi, Pakistan, February 19th 1950)
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/09/400blogpost-four-hundred-knowledge.html
1)Dr. Shaf Keshavjee Appointed University Health Network’s Surgeon-In-Chief(UHN=Toronto General, Toronto Western And Princess Margaret Hospitals; Each Of These 3 Hospitals is World-Renowned In It's Own Right)
http://ismailimail.wordpress.com/2010/07/25/dr-shaf-keshavjee-appointed-uhn%e2%80%99s-surgeon-in-chief/
2)The Full Story; Dr Shaf Keshavjee, Master Surgeon, Brilliant Scientist: The Man Who Gives The Gift Of Breath
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2010/02/569the-full-story-dr-shaf-keshavjee.htmlhttp://ismailimail.wordpress.com/2010/02/26/dr-shaf-keshavjee-the-man-who-gives-the-gift-of-breath/
3)Dr Shaf Keshavjee, Master Surgeon, Brilliant Scientist: A Newspaper Survey; Quotes of Aga Khan IV And Others.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/11/503dr-shaf-keshavjee-master-surgeon.html
http://ismailimail.wordpress.com/2007/02/15/pioneering-ismaili-transplant-surgeon-from-toronto/
http://ismailimail.wordpress.com/2008/12/20/organs-can-be-repaired-outside-the-body-new-technique-pioneered-by-dr-shaf-keshavjee/
4)Dr Shaf Keshavjee, Lung Transplant And Cancer Innovator, Urges Citizenry To Step Up To The Plate And Donate Lungs And Other Organs To Save Lives.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2010/10/662dr-shaf-keshavjee-lung-transplant.html
Related:
5)Weaving Together The KESHAVJEE Family Story From The Accounts of Mamdoo Keshavjee, Lella Umedaly, Muthal Naidoo and Easy Nash; Quote Of Aristotle.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/12/534weaving-together-keshavjee-family.html
Easy Nash http://apps.facebook.com/blognetworks/blog/science_and_religion_in_islam_the_link/ http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/08/500blogpost-five-hundred-is-blogpost.html http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/03/453a-blog-constructed-within.html
In Shia Islam, intellect is a key component of faith. Intellect allows us to understand the creation of God: Aga Khan IV(2008)
The Qur'an itself repeatedly recommends Muslims to become better educated in order better to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
The Quran tells us that signs of Allah's Sovereignty are found in the contemplation of His Creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
This notion of the capacity of the human intellect to understand and to admire the creation of Allah will bring you happiness in your everyday lives: Aga Khan IV(2007)
Islam, eminently logical, placing the greatest emphasis on knowledge, purports to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2006)
The Holy Qu'ran's encouragement to study nature and the physical world around us gave the original impetus to scientific enquiry among Muslims: Aga Khan IV(1985)
The first and only thing created by God was the Intellect(Aql): Prophet Muhammad(circa 632CE)
"In Shia Islam, intellect is a key component of faith. Intellect allows us to understand the creation of God"(Aga Khan IV, July 23rd 2008, Lisbon, Portugal)
"A thousand years ago, my forefathers, the Fatimid imam-caliphs of Egypt, founded al-Azhar University and the Academy of Knowledge in Cairo. In the Islamic tradition, they viewed the discovery of knowledge as a way to understand, so as to serve better God's creation, to apply knowledge and reason to build society and shape human aspirations"(Aga Khan IV, Speech, 25th June 2004, Matola, Mozambique.)
"Education has been important to my family for a long time. My forefathers founded al-Azhar University in Cairo some 1000 years ago, at the time of the Fatimid Caliphate in Egypt. Discovery of knowledge was seen by those founders as an embodiment of religious faith, and faith as reinforced by knowledge of workings of the Creator's physical world. The form of universities has changed over those 1000 years, but that reciprocity between faith and knowledge remains a source of strength"(Aga Khan IV, 27th May1994, Cambridge, Massachusets, U.S.A.)
"Nature is the great daily book of God whose secrets must be found and used for the well-being of humanity"(Aga Khan III, Radio Pakistan, Karachi, Pakistan, February 19th 1950)
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/09/400blogpost-four-hundred-knowledge.html
1)Dr. Shaf Keshavjee Appointed University Health Network’s Surgeon-In-Chief(UHN=Toronto General, Toronto Western And Princess Margaret Hospitals; Each Of These 3 Hospitals is World-Renowned In It's Own Right)
http://ismailimail.wordpress.com/2010/07/25/dr-shaf-keshavjee-appointed-uhn%e2%80%99s-surgeon-in-chief/
2)The Full Story; Dr Shaf Keshavjee, Master Surgeon, Brilliant Scientist: The Man Who Gives The Gift Of Breath
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2010/02/569the-full-story-dr-shaf-keshavjee.htmlhttp://ismailimail.wordpress.com/2010/02/26/dr-shaf-keshavjee-the-man-who-gives-the-gift-of-breath/
3)Dr Shaf Keshavjee, Master Surgeon, Brilliant Scientist: A Newspaper Survey; Quotes of Aga Khan IV And Others.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/11/503dr-shaf-keshavjee-master-surgeon.html
http://ismailimail.wordpress.com/2007/02/15/pioneering-ismaili-transplant-surgeon-from-toronto/
http://ismailimail.wordpress.com/2008/12/20/organs-can-be-repaired-outside-the-body-new-technique-pioneered-by-dr-shaf-keshavjee/
4)Dr Shaf Keshavjee, Lung Transplant And Cancer Innovator, Urges Citizenry To Step Up To The Plate And Donate Lungs And Other Organs To Save Lives.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2010/10/662dr-shaf-keshavjee-lung-transplant.html
Related:
5)Weaving Together The KESHAVJEE Family Story From The Accounts of Mamdoo Keshavjee, Lella Umedaly, Muthal Naidoo and Easy Nash; Quote Of Aristotle.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/12/534weaving-together-keshavjee-family.html
Easy Nash http://apps.facebook.com/blognetworks/blog/science_and_religion_in_islam_the_link/ http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/08/500blogpost-five-hundred-is-blogpost.html http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/03/453a-blog-constructed-within.html
In Shia Islam, intellect is a key component of faith. Intellect allows us to understand the creation of God: Aga Khan IV(2008)
The Qur'an itself repeatedly recommends Muslims to become better educated in order better to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
The Quran tells us that signs of Allah's Sovereignty are found in the contemplation of His Creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
This notion of the capacity of the human intellect to understand and to admire the creation of Allah will bring you happiness in your everyday lives: Aga Khan IV(2007)
Islam, eminently logical, placing the greatest emphasis on knowledge, purports to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2006)
The Holy Qu'ran's encouragement to study nature and the physical world around us gave the original impetus to scientific enquiry among Muslims: Aga Khan IV(1985)
The first and only thing created by God was the Intellect(Aql): Prophet Muhammad(circa 632CE)
639)Arctic Rocks Reveal Earth's Recipe: Volcanic Rocks Made Of 4.5-Billion-Year-Old Material From The Inner Earth Discovered; Quotes Of Blogpost 400.
"...As we use our intellect to gain new knowledge about Creation, we come to see even more profoundly the depth and breadth of its mysteries. We explore unknown regions beneath the seas – and in outer space. We reach back over hundreds of millions of years in time. Extra-ordinary fossilised geological specimens seize our imagination – palm leaves, amethyst flowers, hedgehog quartz, sea lilies, chrysanthemum and a rich panoply of shells. Indeed, these wonders are found beneath the very soil on which we tread – in every corner of the world – and they connect us with far distant epochs and environments.
And the more we discover, the more we know, the more we penetrate just below the surface of our normal lives – the more our imagination staggers. Just think for example what might lie below the surfaces of celestial bodies all across the far flung reaches of our universe. What we feel, even as we learn, is an ever-renewed sense of wonder, indeed, a powerful sense of awe – and of Divine inspiration"(Aga Khan IV, Delegation of the Ismaili Imamat, Ottawa, Canada, December 6th 2008)For the full version of this quote see:http://ismailimail.wordpress.com/2008/12/21/easy-nashs-blogpost-four-hundred-updated-with-quotes-from-the-opening-of-the-delegation-of-the-ismaili-imamat/
"An institution dedicated to proceeding beyond known limits must be committed to independent thinking. In a university scholars engage both orthodox and unorthodox ideas, seeking truth and understanding wherever they may be found. That process is often facilitated by an independent governance structure, which serves to ensure that the university adheres to its fundamental mission and is not pressured to compromise its work for short-term advantage. For a Muslim university it is appropriate to see learning and knowledge as a continuing acknowledgement of Allah's magnificence"(Aga Khan IV, Speech, 1993, Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan)
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/09/400blogpost-four-hundred-knowledge.html
Arctic rocks reveal Earth's recipe
August 11 2010
Emily Chung
Volcanic rocks made of 4.5-billion-year-old material from the inner Earth have been found on Baffin Island in Nunavut.
The discovery, published online Wednesday in Nature, suggests previous theories about exactly what the Earth was originally made of aren't quite right.
Aside:
[Dating rocks with isotopes
Isotopes are forms of the same element that have different atomic masses. Some isotopes, like helium-4, are created when radioactive elements such as uranium decay. Others, such as helium-3, are not.
When a volcano erupts and releases a molten mixture from the Earth's mantle, both helium-3 and helium-4 escape into the air. Rocks form when the lava cools. Their helium-4 is replenished by radioactive decay, but their helium-3 is not.
Later, the rock may be pushed back under the Earth's crust, and the process may repeat itself. Rocks that have avoided that kind of process for billions of years will have a higher proportion of helium-3.
Similarly, the ratios of isotopes of other elements can also be used for complementary dating estimates.]
Scientists have theorized for decades that the Earth's mantle — the hot, viscous material that makes up most of the inside of the Earth — originally had the same composition as meteorites, said Richard Carlson, a staff scientist at the Carnegie Institution in Washington, D.C., who co-wrote the paper.
The Baffin Island rocks are a remarkable find because their materials were dated to be between 4.55 billion and 4.45 billion years old — only slightly younger than the Earth itself. And yet the proportions of their ingredients differ from those found in meteorites, reported the study led by Matthew Jackson at Boston University.
Carlson said this suggests researchers should change what they're looking for when they search for ancient rocks.
"You shouldn't be looking for something that's exactly like meteorites," he said Wednesday. "You should be looking for something like Baffin Island rock. It sort of changes your target parameters."
The findings suggest there is far less uranium and thorium inside the Earth than expected. The decay of those radioactive materials inside the Earth produces the heat that drives processes like the movement of tectonic plates on the surface. That means scientists might have to adjust their models of such phenomena, Carlson said.
Collected by Montreal researcher
The rocks were originally collected by Don Francis, a researcher at McGill University in Montreal, more than a decade ago in the Canadian Arctic.
Francis shares his rock finds with other researchers, Carlson said.
"Don does a lots of field work, a lot of collecting. He's also very free with his samples."
These rocks were part of the North Atlantic flood basalt — the result of a volcanic eruption 60 million years ago. It spewed material from the Earth's mantle that ended up covering the area from Baffin Island to the coasts of Britain and Iceland, which were close at the time.
Researchers in Scotland noticed the rocks contained the highest proportion ever found on Earth of a special helium isotope, Carlson said. This is the signature of very, very ancient rocks.
'It's just our expectation … based on the meteorite model, is wrong'— Richard Carlson
Carlson and other researchers measured the ratios of isotopes of other elements, such as lead and uranium, confirming that the material in the rocks was around 4.5 billion years old.
There was only one problem — they didn't have the expected recipe for "primitive mantle" from the ancient Earth, based on comparisons with meteorites. In particular, researchers were puzzled by differences in the ratio of two rare elements call samarium and neodymium.
However, Carlson had discovered a few years ago that that the ratio of those two elements is always different on Earth than in meteorites, helping confirm the Baffin Island rocks were made from the primitive mantle after all.
"It's just our expectation for primitive, based on the meteorite model, is wrong."
Rocks made of primitive mantle are expected to be rare because the contents of the mantle, which are solid but so hot that they behave like a viscous liquid, are constantly moving within the Earth through convection.
Sometimes they partially melt, separating out some elements with different melting points the way distillation separates alcohol from water. The melted material, which floats toward the crust, and the mantle it came from, end up with different compositions. That effect can be seen in most rocks on the Earth's surface.
1st melt
Carlson said the Baffin Island rocks are unique because the volcanic eruption 60 million years ago was the first opportunity they had to undergo a process like that.
"Once the Earth was thoroughly mixed after formation, this stuff just ran around in the mantle and never made it towards the Earth's surface to be melted."
The Earth's crust, which we live on, has quite a different composition from the mantle, with a lot more silicon, aluminum, calcium and potassium, for example.
The Baffin Island rocks had lower amounts of those types of elements than expected for primitive mantle.
Carlson said it's not clear why, although there are some theories. He favours a theory that there could have been a melting event right at the very beginning of Earth's history that created a different crust, now buried far inside the Earth.
http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2010/08/11/baffin-island-rocks-mantle.html
Related:
No. 3, 'Ayats'(Signs) in the Universe series: The dynamic, roiling, rumbling surface of the earth.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/01/276no-3-ayatssigns-in-universe-series.html
Easy Nash http://apps.facebook.com/blognetworks/blog/science_and_religion_in_islam_the_link/ http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/08/500blogpost-five-hundred-is-blogpost.html http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/03/453a-blog-constructed-within.html
In Shia Islam, intellect is a key component of faith. Intellect allows us to understand the creation of God: Aga Khan IV(2008)
The Qur'an itself repeatedly recommends Muslims to become better educated in order better to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
The Quran tells us that signs of Allah's Sovereignty are found in the contemplation of His Creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
This notion of the capacity of the human intellect to understand and to admire the creation of Allah will bring you happiness in your everyday lives: Aga Khan IV(2007)
Islam, eminently logical, placing the greatest emphasis on knowledge, purports to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2006)
The Holy Qu'ran's encouragement to study nature and the physical world around us gave the original impetus to scientific enquiry among Muslims: Aga Khan IV(1985)
The first and only thing created by God was the Intellect(Aql): Prophet Muhammad(circa 632CE)
And the more we discover, the more we know, the more we penetrate just below the surface of our normal lives – the more our imagination staggers. Just think for example what might lie below the surfaces of celestial bodies all across the far flung reaches of our universe. What we feel, even as we learn, is an ever-renewed sense of wonder, indeed, a powerful sense of awe – and of Divine inspiration"(Aga Khan IV, Delegation of the Ismaili Imamat, Ottawa, Canada, December 6th 2008)For the full version of this quote see:http://ismailimail.wordpress.com/2008/12/21/easy-nashs-blogpost-four-hundred-updated-with-quotes-from-the-opening-of-the-delegation-of-the-ismaili-imamat/
"An institution dedicated to proceeding beyond known limits must be committed to independent thinking. In a university scholars engage both orthodox and unorthodox ideas, seeking truth and understanding wherever they may be found. That process is often facilitated by an independent governance structure, which serves to ensure that the university adheres to its fundamental mission and is not pressured to compromise its work for short-term advantage. For a Muslim university it is appropriate to see learning and knowledge as a continuing acknowledgement of Allah's magnificence"(Aga Khan IV, Speech, 1993, Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan)
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/09/400blogpost-four-hundred-knowledge.html
Arctic rocks reveal Earth's recipe
August 11 2010
Emily Chung
Volcanic rocks made of 4.5-billion-year-old material from the inner Earth have been found on Baffin Island in Nunavut.
The discovery, published online Wednesday in Nature, suggests previous theories about exactly what the Earth was originally made of aren't quite right.
Aside:
[Dating rocks with isotopes
Isotopes are forms of the same element that have different atomic masses. Some isotopes, like helium-4, are created when radioactive elements such as uranium decay. Others, such as helium-3, are not.
When a volcano erupts and releases a molten mixture from the Earth's mantle, both helium-3 and helium-4 escape into the air. Rocks form when the lava cools. Their helium-4 is replenished by radioactive decay, but their helium-3 is not.
Later, the rock may be pushed back under the Earth's crust, and the process may repeat itself. Rocks that have avoided that kind of process for billions of years will have a higher proportion of helium-3.
Similarly, the ratios of isotopes of other elements can also be used for complementary dating estimates.]
Scientists have theorized for decades that the Earth's mantle — the hot, viscous material that makes up most of the inside of the Earth — originally had the same composition as meteorites, said Richard Carlson, a staff scientist at the Carnegie Institution in Washington, D.C., who co-wrote the paper.
The Baffin Island rocks are a remarkable find because their materials were dated to be between 4.55 billion and 4.45 billion years old — only slightly younger than the Earth itself. And yet the proportions of their ingredients differ from those found in meteorites, reported the study led by Matthew Jackson at Boston University.
Carlson said this suggests researchers should change what they're looking for when they search for ancient rocks.
"You shouldn't be looking for something that's exactly like meteorites," he said Wednesday. "You should be looking for something like Baffin Island rock. It sort of changes your target parameters."
The findings suggest there is far less uranium and thorium inside the Earth than expected. The decay of those radioactive materials inside the Earth produces the heat that drives processes like the movement of tectonic plates on the surface. That means scientists might have to adjust their models of such phenomena, Carlson said.
Collected by Montreal researcher
The rocks were originally collected by Don Francis, a researcher at McGill University in Montreal, more than a decade ago in the Canadian Arctic.
Francis shares his rock finds with other researchers, Carlson said.
"Don does a lots of field work, a lot of collecting. He's also very free with his samples."
These rocks were part of the North Atlantic flood basalt — the result of a volcanic eruption 60 million years ago. It spewed material from the Earth's mantle that ended up covering the area from Baffin Island to the coasts of Britain and Iceland, which were close at the time.
Researchers in Scotland noticed the rocks contained the highest proportion ever found on Earth of a special helium isotope, Carlson said. This is the signature of very, very ancient rocks.
'It's just our expectation … based on the meteorite model, is wrong'— Richard Carlson
Carlson and other researchers measured the ratios of isotopes of other elements, such as lead and uranium, confirming that the material in the rocks was around 4.5 billion years old.
There was only one problem — they didn't have the expected recipe for "primitive mantle" from the ancient Earth, based on comparisons with meteorites. In particular, researchers were puzzled by differences in the ratio of two rare elements call samarium and neodymium.
However, Carlson had discovered a few years ago that that the ratio of those two elements is always different on Earth than in meteorites, helping confirm the Baffin Island rocks were made from the primitive mantle after all.
"It's just our expectation for primitive, based on the meteorite model, is wrong."
Rocks made of primitive mantle are expected to be rare because the contents of the mantle, which are solid but so hot that they behave like a viscous liquid, are constantly moving within the Earth through convection.
Sometimes they partially melt, separating out some elements with different melting points the way distillation separates alcohol from water. The melted material, which floats toward the crust, and the mantle it came from, end up with different compositions. That effect can be seen in most rocks on the Earth's surface.
1st melt
Carlson said the Baffin Island rocks are unique because the volcanic eruption 60 million years ago was the first opportunity they had to undergo a process like that.
"Once the Earth was thoroughly mixed after formation, this stuff just ran around in the mantle and never made it towards the Earth's surface to be melted."
The Earth's crust, which we live on, has quite a different composition from the mantle, with a lot more silicon, aluminum, calcium and potassium, for example.
The Baffin Island rocks had lower amounts of those types of elements than expected for primitive mantle.
Carlson said it's not clear why, although there are some theories. He favours a theory that there could have been a melting event right at the very beginning of Earth's history that created a different crust, now buried far inside the Earth.
http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2010/08/11/baffin-island-rocks-mantle.html
Related:
No. 3, 'Ayats'(Signs) in the Universe series: The dynamic, roiling, rumbling surface of the earth.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/01/276no-3-ayatssigns-in-universe-series.html
Easy Nash http://apps.facebook.com/blognetworks/blog/science_and_religion_in_islam_the_link/ http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/08/500blogpost-five-hundred-is-blogpost.html http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/03/453a-blog-constructed-within.html
In Shia Islam, intellect is a key component of faith. Intellect allows us to understand the creation of God: Aga Khan IV(2008)
The Qur'an itself repeatedly recommends Muslims to become better educated in order better to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
The Quran tells us that signs of Allah's Sovereignty are found in the contemplation of His Creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
This notion of the capacity of the human intellect to understand and to admire the creation of Allah will bring you happiness in your everyday lives: Aga Khan IV(2007)
Islam, eminently logical, placing the greatest emphasis on knowledge, purports to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2006)
The Holy Qu'ran's encouragement to study nature and the physical world around us gave the original impetus to scientific enquiry among Muslims: Aga Khan IV(1985)
The first and only thing created by God was the Intellect(Aql): Prophet Muhammad(circa 632CE)
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
638)Discover Canada: The Rights And Responsibilities Of Citizenship – Audio Guide; Quotes Of Minister Jason Kenney, Canadian Minister Of Citizenship..
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/department/media/multimedia/audio/discover/index.asp
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Discover Canada: the Rights and Responsibilities of Citizenship
Duration: 2 hour 27 min
Listen to the entire citizenship study guide. Or see below to listen by chapter. The audio may take a moment to load.
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Audio guide chapters:
The Oath of Citizenship
Message to Our Readers
Applying for Citizenship
Rights and Responsibilities of Citizenship
Who We Are
Canada’s History
Modern Canada
How Canadians Govern Themselves
Federal Elections
The Justice System
Canadian Symbols
Canada’s Economy
Canada’s Regions
For More Information
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Related Links :
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Read Discover Canada online
View Discover Canada in PDF format
Order a print copy of Discover Canada
Becoming a citizen – Who can apply
Becoming a citizen – How to apply
Frequently asked questions: New citizenship study guide and test
Discover Canada: Sample study questions
The Citizenship test
The citizenship ceremony
Help us serve you better! Tell us what you think of this publication at http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/feedback.asp.
© Minister of Public Works and Government Services Canada, 2009 Catalogue No. Ci1-11/2009EISBN 978-1-100-12739-2C&I 1049-09-09
Related Posts:
A Collection Of Posts Describing The Stephen Harper Conservative Government's Magnificent New Citizenship Guide; Quotes Of Minister Jason Kenney.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/12/526a-collection-of-posts-describing.html
The Canadian Conservative Government Featured On Easy Nash's Blog: Rt Hon Stephen Harper, Hon Jason Kenney Et Al; A Collection Of Posts
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2010/03/592the-canadian-conservative-government.html
Quotes Of Canadian Minister Of Citizenship, Immigration And Multiculturalism Hon. Jason Kenney(2009):
1)When you become a citizen, you're not just getting a travel document into Hotel Canada.
2)I think it's scandalous that someone could become a Canadian not knowing what the poppy represents, or never having heard of Vimy Ridge, Passchendaele, Dieppe or Juno Beach.
3)We mention freedom of conscience and freedom of religion as important rights but we also make it very clear that our laws prohibit barbaric cultural practices, they will not be tolerated, whether or not someone claims that such practices are protected by reference to religion.
4)I think we need to reclaim a deeper sense of citizenship, a sense of shared obligations to one another, to our past, as well as to the future, a kind of civic nationalism where people understand the institutions, values and symbols that are rooted in our history.
5)New Canadians are naturally conservative in the way they live their lives: they are entrepreneurial; they have a remarkable work ethic; they are an aspirational class; they want stability; they are intolerant of crime and disorder; they have a profound devotion to family and tradition, including institutions of faith; that whole spectrum of values is conservative.
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Discover Canada: the Rights and Responsibilities of Citizenship
Duration: 2 hour 27 min
Listen to the entire citizenship study guide. Or see below to listen by chapter. The audio may take a moment to load.
Transcript QuickTime Windows Media MP3 Help
Audio guide chapters:
The Oath of Citizenship
Message to Our Readers
Applying for Citizenship
Rights and Responsibilities of Citizenship
Who We Are
Canada’s History
Modern Canada
How Canadians Govern Themselves
Federal Elections
The Justice System
Canadian Symbols
Canada’s Economy
Canada’s Regions
For More Information
How to listen
To listen to the audio guide, select:
the “Play” icon (black triangle) on the left hand side of the grey player bar, or
an alternate file format (QuickTime, Windows Media, or MP3) to play the file in the media player of your choice.
How to download
You can download (save) your own copy of the audio guide. This way, you can listen to the citizenship guide on the electronic device of your choice (computer, cellular phone, or MP3 player), without having to access this website.
See the How do I download (save) an audio file?
Order a CD or a print copy
You can order your own CD or printed copy of Discover Canada. Your order will be mailed to you.
Submit an order
Related Links :
Audio help
Read Discover Canada online
View Discover Canada in PDF format
Order a print copy of Discover Canada
Becoming a citizen – Who can apply
Becoming a citizen – How to apply
Frequently asked questions: New citizenship study guide and test
Discover Canada: Sample study questions
The Citizenship test
The citizenship ceremony
Help us serve you better! Tell us what you think of this publication at http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/feedback.asp.
© Minister of Public Works and Government Services Canada, 2009 Catalogue No. Ci1-11/2009EISBN 978-1-100-12739-2C&I 1049-09-09
Related Posts:
A Collection Of Posts Describing The Stephen Harper Conservative Government's Magnificent New Citizenship Guide; Quotes Of Minister Jason Kenney.
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/12/526a-collection-of-posts-describing.html
The Canadian Conservative Government Featured On Easy Nash's Blog: Rt Hon Stephen Harper, Hon Jason Kenney Et Al; A Collection Of Posts
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2010/03/592the-canadian-conservative-government.html
Quotes Of Canadian Minister Of Citizenship, Immigration And Multiculturalism Hon. Jason Kenney(2009):
1)When you become a citizen, you're not just getting a travel document into Hotel Canada.
2)I think it's scandalous that someone could become a Canadian not knowing what the poppy represents, or never having heard of Vimy Ridge, Passchendaele, Dieppe or Juno Beach.
3)We mention freedom of conscience and freedom of religion as important rights but we also make it very clear that our laws prohibit barbaric cultural practices, they will not be tolerated, whether or not someone claims that such practices are protected by reference to religion.
4)I think we need to reclaim a deeper sense of citizenship, a sense of shared obligations to one another, to our past, as well as to the future, a kind of civic nationalism where people understand the institutions, values and symbols that are rooted in our history.
5)New Canadians are naturally conservative in the way they live their lives: they are entrepreneurial; they have a remarkable work ethic; they are an aspirational class; they want stability; they are intolerant of crime and disorder; they have a profound devotion to family and tradition, including institutions of faith; that whole spectrum of values is conservative.
637)Intellect and Faith in Shia Ismaili Islam As Described On The Preamble To The AKDN Website; Quotes From Blogpost Four Hundred.
"....in Islam, but particularly Shia Islam, the role of the intellect is part of faith. That intellect is what seperates man from the rest of the physical world in which he lives.....This notion of the capacity of the human intellect to understand and to admire the creation of Allah will bring you happiness in your everyday lives. Of that I am certain"(Aga Khan IV, Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania, August 17th 2007)
"In Shia Islam, intellect is a key component of faith. Intellect allows us to understand the creation of God"(Aga Khan IV, July 23rd 2008, Lisbon, Portugal)
"Of the Abrahamic faiths, Islam is probably the one that places the greatest emphasis on knowledge. The purpose is to understand God's creation, and therefore it is a faith which is eminently logical. Islam is a faith of reason"(Aga Khan IV, Spiegel Magazine interview, Germany, Oct 9th 2006)
"Our interpretation of Islam places enormous value on knowledge. Knowledge is the reflection of faith if it is used properly. Seek out that knowledge and use it properly"(Aga Khan IV, Toronto, Canada, 8th June 2005)
"An institution dedicated to proceeding beyond known limits must be committed to independent thinking. In a university scholars engage both orthodox and unorthodox ideas, seeking truth and understanding wherever they may be found. That process is often facilitated by an independent governance structure, which serves to ensure that the university adheres to its fundamental mission and is not pressured to compromise its work for short-term advantage. For a Muslim university it is appropriate to see learning and knowledge as a continuing acknowledgement of Allah's magnificence"(Aga Khan IV, Speech, 1993, Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan)
"Science is a wonderful, powerful tool and research budgets are essential. But Science is only the beginning in the new age we are entering. Islam does not perceive the world as two seperate domains of mind and spirit, science and belief. Science and the search for knowledge are an expression of man's designated role in the universe, but they do not define that role totally....."(Aga Khan IV, McMaster University Convocation, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, May 15th 1987)
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/09/400blogpost-four-hundred-knowledge.html
Intellect and Faith:
The intellect plays a central role in Shia tradition. Indeed, the principle of submission to the Imam's guidance, explicitly derived from the revelation, is considered essential for nurturing and developing the gift of intellect whose role in Shiism is elevated as an important facet of the faith. Consonant with the role of the intellect is the responsibility of individual conscience, both of which inform the Ismaili tradition of tolerance embedded in the injunction of the Quran: There is no compulsion in religion.
In Shia Islam, the role of the intellect has never been perceived within a confrontational mode of revelation versus reason, the context which enlivened the debate, during the classical age of Islam, between the rationalists who gave primacy to reason, and the traditionalists who opposed such primacy without, however, denying a subordinate role for reason in matters of faith.
The Shia tradition, rooted in the teachings of Imams Ali and Jafar as-Sadiq, emphasizes the complementarity between revelation and intellectual reflection, each substantiating the other. This is the message that the Prophet conveys in a reported tradition: "We (the Prophets) speak to people in the measure of their intelligences". The Imams Ali and Jafar as-Sadiq expounded the doctrine that the Quran addresses different levels of meaning: the literal, the alluded esoteric purport, the limit as to what is permitted and what is forbidden, and the ethical vision which God intends to realise through man, with Divine support, for an integral moral society. The Quran thus offers the believers the possibility, in accordance with their own inner capacities, to derive newer insights to address the needs of time.
An unwavering belief in God combined with trust in the liberty of human will finds a recurring echo in the sermons and sayings of the Imams. Believers are asked to weigh their actions with their own conscience. None other can direct a person who fails to guide and warn himself, while there is Divine help for those who exert themselves on the right path. In the modern period, this Alid view of Islam as a thinking, spiritual faith continues to find resonance in the guidance of the present Imam and his immediate predecessor. Aga Khan III describes Islam as a natural religion, which values intellect, logic and empirical experience. Religion and science are both endeavours to understand, in their own ways, the mystery of God's creation. A man of faith who strives after truth, without forsaking his worldly obligations, is potentially capable of rising to the level of the company of the Prophet's family.
The present Imam has often spoken about the role of the intellect in the realm of the faith. Appropriately, he made the theme a centrepiece of his two inaugural addresses at the Aga Khan University (AKU): "In Islamic belief, knowledge is two-fold. There is that revealed through the Holy Prophet and that which man discovers by virtue of his own intellect. Nor do these two involve any contradiction, provided man remembers that his own mind is itself the creation of God. Without this humility, no balance is possible. With it, there are no barriers. Indeed, one strength of Islam has always lain in its belief that creation is not static but continuous, that through scientific and other endeavours, God has opened, and continues to open, new windows for us to see the marvels of His creation".
Muslims need not be apprehensive, he said, of these continuing journeys of the mind to comprehend the universe of God's creation, including one's own self. The tendency to restrict academic inquiry to the study of past accomplishments was at variance with the belief in the timeless relevance of the Islamic message. "Our faith has never been restricted to one place or one time. Ever since its revelation, the fundamental concept of Islam has been its universality and the fact that this is the last revelation, constantly valid, and not petrified into one period of man's history or confined to one area of the world."
Crossing the frontiers of knowledge through scientific and other endeavours, and facing up to the challenges of ethics posed by an evolving world is, thus, seen as a requirement of the faith. The Imam's authoritative guidance provides a liberating, enabling framework for an individual's quest for meaning and for solutions to the problems of life. An honest believer accepts the norms and ethics of the faith which guide his quest, recognises his own inner capacities and knows that when in doubt he should seek the guidance of the one vested with authority who, in Shia tradition, is the Alid imam of the time from the Prophet's progeny.
http://www.akdn.org/about_imamat.asp#intellect
Other related topics from the same preamble:
Islam: General Introduction
http://www.akdn.org/about_imamat.asp
Shia Islam: Historical Origins
http://www.akdn.org/about_imamat.asp#origins
Evolution of Communities of Interpretation
http://www.akdn.org/about_imamat.asp#evolution
Principles of Shiism
http://www.akdn.org/about_imamat.asp#shiism
The entire preamble:
http://www.akdn.org/about_imamat.asp
Further related quotes and speech excerpts on the subjects of knowledge, intellect, creation, education, science and religion:
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/09/400blogpost-four-hundred-knowledge.html
Easy Nash http://apps.facebook.com/blognetworks/blog/science_and_religion_in_islam_the_link/ http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/08/500blogpost-five-hundred-is-blogpost.html http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/03/453a-blog-constructed-within.html
In Shia Islam, intellect is a key component of faith. Intellect allows us to understand the creation of God: Aga Khan IV(2008)
The Qur'an itself repeatedly recommends Muslims to become better educated in order better to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
The Quran tells us that signs of Allah's Sovereignty are found in the contemplation of His Creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
This notion of the capacity of the human intellect to understand and to admire the creation of Allah will bring you happiness in your everyday lives: Aga Khan IV(2007)
Islam, eminently logical, placing the greatest emphasis on knowledge, purports to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2006)
The Holy Qu'ran's encouragement to study nature and the physical world around us gave the original impetus to scientific enquiry among Muslims: Aga Khan IV(1985)
The first and only thing created by God was the Intellect(Aql): Prophet Muhammad(circa 632CE)
"In Shia Islam, intellect is a key component of faith. Intellect allows us to understand the creation of God"(Aga Khan IV, July 23rd 2008, Lisbon, Portugal)
"Of the Abrahamic faiths, Islam is probably the one that places the greatest emphasis on knowledge. The purpose is to understand God's creation, and therefore it is a faith which is eminently logical. Islam is a faith of reason"(Aga Khan IV, Spiegel Magazine interview, Germany, Oct 9th 2006)
"Our interpretation of Islam places enormous value on knowledge. Knowledge is the reflection of faith if it is used properly. Seek out that knowledge and use it properly"(Aga Khan IV, Toronto, Canada, 8th June 2005)
"An institution dedicated to proceeding beyond known limits must be committed to independent thinking. In a university scholars engage both orthodox and unorthodox ideas, seeking truth and understanding wherever they may be found. That process is often facilitated by an independent governance structure, which serves to ensure that the university adheres to its fundamental mission and is not pressured to compromise its work for short-term advantage. For a Muslim university it is appropriate to see learning and knowledge as a continuing acknowledgement of Allah's magnificence"(Aga Khan IV, Speech, 1993, Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan)
"Science is a wonderful, powerful tool and research budgets are essential. But Science is only the beginning in the new age we are entering. Islam does not perceive the world as two seperate domains of mind and spirit, science and belief. Science and the search for knowledge are an expression of man's designated role in the universe, but they do not define that role totally....."(Aga Khan IV, McMaster University Convocation, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, May 15th 1987)
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/09/400blogpost-four-hundred-knowledge.html
Intellect and Faith:
The intellect plays a central role in Shia tradition. Indeed, the principle of submission to the Imam's guidance, explicitly derived from the revelation, is considered essential for nurturing and developing the gift of intellect whose role in Shiism is elevated as an important facet of the faith. Consonant with the role of the intellect is the responsibility of individual conscience, both of which inform the Ismaili tradition of tolerance embedded in the injunction of the Quran: There is no compulsion in religion.
In Shia Islam, the role of the intellect has never been perceived within a confrontational mode of revelation versus reason, the context which enlivened the debate, during the classical age of Islam, between the rationalists who gave primacy to reason, and the traditionalists who opposed such primacy without, however, denying a subordinate role for reason in matters of faith.
The Shia tradition, rooted in the teachings of Imams Ali and Jafar as-Sadiq, emphasizes the complementarity between revelation and intellectual reflection, each substantiating the other. This is the message that the Prophet conveys in a reported tradition: "We (the Prophets) speak to people in the measure of their intelligences". The Imams Ali and Jafar as-Sadiq expounded the doctrine that the Quran addresses different levels of meaning: the literal, the alluded esoteric purport, the limit as to what is permitted and what is forbidden, and the ethical vision which God intends to realise through man, with Divine support, for an integral moral society. The Quran thus offers the believers the possibility, in accordance with their own inner capacities, to derive newer insights to address the needs of time.
An unwavering belief in God combined with trust in the liberty of human will finds a recurring echo in the sermons and sayings of the Imams. Believers are asked to weigh their actions with their own conscience. None other can direct a person who fails to guide and warn himself, while there is Divine help for those who exert themselves on the right path. In the modern period, this Alid view of Islam as a thinking, spiritual faith continues to find resonance in the guidance of the present Imam and his immediate predecessor. Aga Khan III describes Islam as a natural religion, which values intellect, logic and empirical experience. Religion and science are both endeavours to understand, in their own ways, the mystery of God's creation. A man of faith who strives after truth, without forsaking his worldly obligations, is potentially capable of rising to the level of the company of the Prophet's family.
The present Imam has often spoken about the role of the intellect in the realm of the faith. Appropriately, he made the theme a centrepiece of his two inaugural addresses at the Aga Khan University (AKU): "In Islamic belief, knowledge is two-fold. There is that revealed through the Holy Prophet and that which man discovers by virtue of his own intellect. Nor do these two involve any contradiction, provided man remembers that his own mind is itself the creation of God. Without this humility, no balance is possible. With it, there are no barriers. Indeed, one strength of Islam has always lain in its belief that creation is not static but continuous, that through scientific and other endeavours, God has opened, and continues to open, new windows for us to see the marvels of His creation".
Muslims need not be apprehensive, he said, of these continuing journeys of the mind to comprehend the universe of God's creation, including one's own self. The tendency to restrict academic inquiry to the study of past accomplishments was at variance with the belief in the timeless relevance of the Islamic message. "Our faith has never been restricted to one place or one time. Ever since its revelation, the fundamental concept of Islam has been its universality and the fact that this is the last revelation, constantly valid, and not petrified into one period of man's history or confined to one area of the world."
Crossing the frontiers of knowledge through scientific and other endeavours, and facing up to the challenges of ethics posed by an evolving world is, thus, seen as a requirement of the faith. The Imam's authoritative guidance provides a liberating, enabling framework for an individual's quest for meaning and for solutions to the problems of life. An honest believer accepts the norms and ethics of the faith which guide his quest, recognises his own inner capacities and knows that when in doubt he should seek the guidance of the one vested with authority who, in Shia tradition, is the Alid imam of the time from the Prophet's progeny.
http://www.akdn.org/about_imamat.asp#intellect
Other related topics from the same preamble:
Islam: General Introduction
http://www.akdn.org/about_imamat.asp
Shia Islam: Historical Origins
http://www.akdn.org/about_imamat.asp#origins
Evolution of Communities of Interpretation
http://www.akdn.org/about_imamat.asp#evolution
Principles of Shiism
http://www.akdn.org/about_imamat.asp#shiism
The entire preamble:
http://www.akdn.org/about_imamat.asp
Further related quotes and speech excerpts on the subjects of knowledge, intellect, creation, education, science and religion:
http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/09/400blogpost-four-hundred-knowledge.html
Easy Nash http://apps.facebook.com/blognetworks/blog/science_and_religion_in_islam_the_link/ http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/08/500blogpost-five-hundred-is-blogpost.html http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/03/453a-blog-constructed-within.html
In Shia Islam, intellect is a key component of faith. Intellect allows us to understand the creation of God: Aga Khan IV(2008)
The Qur'an itself repeatedly recommends Muslims to become better educated in order better to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
The Quran tells us that signs of Allah's Sovereignty are found in the contemplation of His Creation: Aga Khan IV(2007)
This notion of the capacity of the human intellect to understand and to admire the creation of Allah will bring you happiness in your everyday lives: Aga Khan IV(2007)
Islam, eminently logical, placing the greatest emphasis on knowledge, purports to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2006)
The Holy Qu'ran's encouragement to study nature and the physical world around us gave the original impetus to scientific enquiry among Muslims: Aga Khan IV(1985)
The first and only thing created by God was the Intellect(Aql): Prophet Muhammad(circa 632CE)
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