THE DOGMATIC MIND, Spiritual Meditations, NewAgeIslam.com

Spiritual Meditations

THE DOGMATIC MIND

By Tariq Ramadan

Tuesday 29 December 2009

There are various ways of appropriating the universal, claiming to have a monopoly on it and then establishing a hierarchy of values, civilizations and cultures. This sometimes involves forcing it on others without further ado … ‘for their own good’, of course. In the realm of the universal, the most natural, if not the least dangerous, attitude consists in reducing the range of possibilities to one’s own point of view: my truth is everyone’s Truth, and the truth for everyone, and the values that derive from it are, a fortiori universal. In that case, order is imposed from on high and Man adopts, for himself and with confidence, the viewpoint of God or the absolute. All religions or spiritualities run the risk of being distorted in this way: because we look down the mountain from the summit, we deny the very existence of the many slopes that constitute its very essence and give it its human perspective. If we attempt to use the common faculty of reason to elaborate a universal, the phenomenon is markedly different, but the outcome is the same. As we make our way to the common good of Men, we accept, by definition, the existence of a multiplicity of viewpoints, the need for postulates, doubts and even the paradoxical contradictions of analytical reason, irrespective of whether or not we believe in the existence of a truth or meaning. We can establish the principles of immutability and change in the same way as Socrates or Aristotle, or establish a framework of reference and hierarchies of truth as we go in search of the first Reality, like al-Kindî (ninth century) and then Ibn Sîna (Avicenna: 980-1037) We can, like Descartes, determine a strictly rational method and maxims, or begin by observing the truths empiricists like Berkeley and Hume derive from what they call sense-data. We can in fact start out from a thousand philosophical postulates and theses, and construct so many truth-systems that their very number signals their relativity.

http://newageislam.com/the-dogmatic-mind/spiritual-meditations/d/2302

POLITICAL SYSTEM: PART II, Books and Documents, NewAgeIslam.com

Books and Documents

POLITICAL SYSTEM: PART II

by Allama Ghulam Ahmad Parwez

POLITICAL SYSTEM: PART II

Quranic System

I. Islamic View of Humanity

In an earlier chapter, we have given an exposition of the Islamic view of human personality. We have seen that essential worth of man lies in his self and not in his physical body. As far as the self is concerned all men are equal, however much they may differ in respects of caste, creed or race. This view gives full recognition to the dignity of man as man. The Quran has expressed this view in lucid and unambiguous language:

Verily, we have honoured every human being (17: 70).

As human beings, all men are equal; every one possesses that precious jewel, the human self. This is the basic principle of the Islamic order of society.

It necessarily follows, therefore, that personality is an end in itself. No man has the right to exploit another man or to use him as a means in furthering his personal interests.* If society were organised on this basis, there would be neither rulers nor subjects. This is the second principle on which society in Islam is based. No man is permitted to compel others to obey him. God alone is to be obeyed through the Laws revealed by Him.

* In defending slavery, Aristotle argued that some men are born slaves. They are therefore, to be treated as chattels, i.e., used as tools as a crafts-man uses his tools. The Quran, on the other hand, has categorically rejected such ideas and in restoring to man his lost dignity has struck the death blow to all forms of slavery. This point is argued further in the chapter on Woman.

It is not right for man that God should give him the Book of Law, power to judge and (even) Nabuwwah, and he should say to his fellow-beings to obey his orders rather than those of God. He should rather say: Be ye faithful servants of God by virtue of your constant teaching of the Book and your constant study of it (3: 78).

http://newageislam.com/political-system--part-ii-by-allama-ghulam-ahmad-parwez/books-and-documents/d/1854

CHAPTER THREE: ARISTOTLE and GHAZALI – Epilogue by Masarrat Husain Zuberi, Books and Documents, NewAgeIslam.com

Books and Documents

CHAPTER THREE: ARISTOTLE and GHAZALI – Epilogue by Masarrat Husain Zuberi

By Masarrat Husain Zuberi

The Greeks had a proverbs "Nothing too much" and it took a central place in Aristotle's conception of virtue. To him the moral end is "eudemonia" happiness, the final result of the moral life-an advance on Plato who did not mention the direction in which virtue should be exer­cised. Aristotelian guide is the reason in our "habit of choice," defined by him as the deliberate desire of things in our power after considera­tion of them to by the intellect. He also argues, like a true Greek, in favour of the mean or the middle course, e.g. "Courage" is the posi­tion between rashness and cowardice as "liberality" is between extra­vagance and miserliness. Aristotle, who kept the man more in mind than Plato did, gave him the conduct of a prudent man, by his acquired knowledge through personal experience. He preferred it to the knowledge acquired through the contemplation of the philosopher. The prac­tical ability of an experienced man can show ordinary man just how far each tendency - desire or wish - be allowed reasonable play in the virtuous conduct in life, though he continued to subscribe to the Socratic view that virtue is knowledge.

http://newageislam.com/chapter-three---aristotle-and-ghazali-%E2%80%93-epilogue-by-masarrat-husain-zuberi--/books-and-documents/d/947