Dessert Island Discs- My Choice

If you were stranded, alone and on a dessert island with little to no hope of rescue, would you be concerned with questions of what is moral, and what not?

More pertinent to the question that I want to bring to your attention, "if you had never known the society of men, would you ever have the capacity to know what is moral and what is not?"

Succinctly, "Is morality a social construct?"

In the first case having known the society of men, you would have been versed in that type of morality which is a social construct and could therefore choose to ignore it, by virtue of your having known it. So your choice of ignoring it, is part answer to the question that I posed above. For choosing to ignore it, is proof enough that you had, even if ever so remotely, considered it.

In the second case, each person is born to this World, weak, vulnerable and alone, without exception. And if it is not the society of men that is to raise them to maturity then it must be another society or agency that must perform the same duty. And all societies, and agencies, harbour within them order, and order is maintained by rules of acceptable behaviour and sanction for breaches. It is these rules of behaviour that many consider to be moral.

But what is most tantalising in the whole deliberation is the persistence of the question of morality. That it is the kernel about which so much turns. 

That people in general want to lead a moral life, and by this they do not understand that which is socially acceptable, but that which is virtuous.

So many treatises have been written about this from Marcus Aurelius's "Meditations" to the famous Greek Philosophers and their works, and indeed it the central theme of the whole of Philosophy- "what is the best way to live life?"

And it is God's speech which, first off, directly answers this defining, very human, need and dilemma with in the first instance a method that points to each our aspiritations-

“For this is the book. Without doubt a guide to the Muttaqqun.”

Before following it with a sure method. 

We do not get to the defining verses of who the Muttaqun are until much later at verse 177:

It is not righteousness the you turn your (plural) faces to the East and the West. 

Is this not a clear indictment of socially constructed morality?

Notice the plural possessive form of “your”, which symbolises a collective decision. 

And then the conjunction between East and West, here it is not said East or West. East and West looks again like a procedural form without any basis, that you cannot choose or have no compass through which to choose your direction. 

So it is as if here the one being addressed is the one seeking a virtuous, moral and upright life and they are being told that do not follow these man made conventions that will have you turning this way and then that way, rather …

The virtuous one is the one who believes in Allah, in the Day to come, in the Angels and the verse continues and ends with 

These are the Muttaqun. 

Belief is first profession and then action. 

And the Quran is our guide. 

Knowledge is sought through study and contemplation. Not lectures, nor this above. 

The Persistence of Errors

Errors permeate the story of humanity. 

From Fleming’s discovery of penicillin, to the many miscarriages of justice that destroy peoples’ lives. 

*1

And thus a thoughtful understanding of the nature of errors is something that everyone should undertake. 

For whilst we might think that errors occur randomly on every timeline, when we examine them then we would realise that their occurrence  rather than occasioning us to reign in actually makes it more likely than not to cause yet more errors. 

These are of two types 

1- Compounding errors, which occur when we do not hold ourselves to a higher account, as in when we allow our allegiance to a “family” to determine our outlook and our choice of ignorance, over scrutiny. 

2- Concomitant errors. These occur when our attention to all other factors waivers in the anxious search for the cause of the first. 

The first type of error is the more pernicious, causing the greater harm because we are unwilling to cast aspersions against those on whose loyalty we likewise rely, just as they rely on us. 

The worst of these occur behind a black impenetrable box of obfuscation and obscuration that is our Criminal Justice System, where no one except the most foolhardy can call our Police to question. 

For it is clear to many of our public that they rather than keeping the Law are above it, and furthermore are above common human decency, and the moral behaviour of what we should expect from our model citizens. 

The second type of concomitant errors occur when our mind’s eye is distracted in the anxious search to avoid the first, and we fall prey to yet another. 

Worryingly when we “find” the source of the first error, even when it is not the real cause, this second type of error diminishes giving us the wrongful impression that our presumption was correct. 

In normal life the impact of concomitant errors may be small. But in policing the impact of this confirmation bias can be devastating. 

When both types come together we have what happens most of the time within our Criminal Justice System:

A Police Force that reigns in its investigation in order to secure a conviction. Solicitors and Judges that do not demand any proofs but rely on sentiment as judge, jury and executioner. 

And then a Police Force that rewards itself for securing a conviction no matter how convenient, or flawed. 

And a society that continues to think that the mantra “hard on crime” rings true, whilst pumping more money into a failed concept of Policing does nothing except increase crime, whilst securing yet more unsafe convictions. 

Like occurrences do also happen within our Medical Fraternity, but at the very least there each Clinician is at pains to take their each own patient histories, and draw each their own salient points from that. 

But once a treatment regime begins then these types of errors do still occur the more, and confirmation bias rules. 

These errors compound within our institutions, and are natural within them unless they each make conscious efforts to avoid them. And every institution is made up of people, just like you and me. 

The problem is the more insidious when human prejudice is added into the mixture, for then once the “culprit” is found confirmation bias proves their “guilt” irrespective of evidence, sometimes missing but more often then not just simply ignored.  

The first type can be solved by us each holding ourselves to a higher account, and not allowing ourselves to be cowed by the flavour of the day or other peoples sentiments. 

The second when we recognise that errors will occur, and then take them in our stride and do not cast around for blame. “Yes it has happened, but let that not stop us part stride”. 

*1 How can a person be convicted of the heinous crime of murder based upon purely circumstantial evidence. To me this irks full of errors that the CJS plainly encourages. 

 

Modus Operandi

The modus operandi of the Christian is to evangelise. 

But the Muslim knows that it is God, the Most Gracious, that guides whom He will. And God, the Most Gracious, who favours whom He will with true belief. 

And when he reads the story of Musa (as) in his book, he realises that his first mission was not to be a Messenger to the Children of Israel. 

The fire on the mountain top was a beacon that drew him close and brought him near. And then God spoke with him. *1

And sent him onward to Pharaoh. 

That his first mission was to confront Pharoah’s tyranny with kind, and wise, words. 

And indeed even before that, in the same conversation, we learn that God regarded him as an enemy and placed Musa (as) within his household for that very reason.  

So for the Muslim from the portent of each and every story of every Messenger that the Most Gracious sent to mankind, he knows his duty, his calling and his end. 

That we are to confront tyranny and oppression in all its forms. 

From the Political Hypocrisy of the Western Nations, that brands whole people as being undeserved of justice and peace. 

To their disfigured morality which equates every discernment with discrimination. 

To the oppression of their own people by their taxing the poor to give to the rich. 

To their Criminal Justice System hell bent on destroying people’s souls, and the Nations’ families. 

That belief in the Most Merciful God comes after we have freed people from the fetters of one tyrannising another. 

Where they are both the losers. 

And once free who cannot recognise that a universal and true justice amongst all Nations, that a morality based upon man’s natural order, that a just society can only be conceived and maintained with a true and complete submission to the Lord, Sustainer of all of the Worlds. 

That is our Islam. 

Knowledge is sought through study and contemplation. Not lectures and talks. Nor this above. 

*1 read the discourse in S Taha 

Musa (as) is here commanded first to worship Allah t’ala and then go to Pharoah. 

Not Forgot

I hope I’m not of those, so soon forgot 

What would let me know that I’m not?

Not forgot 

For what I have given 

My heart bleeds, and is shriven

The feeling is raw. 

And yet it keeps giving more. 

For hope never dies 

When belief is by its side 

And this anxiety 

Is but a prelude for certainty

The certainty of what 

Is that which galls me to know. 

The self made vulnerable man, 

who calls to prayer 

In the depths of the cold lonely dessert. 

For that is my part I shall never forget 

The warm friendship kindled within me

The medley smiles, and the banter of a friendship that will never meant to rot 

That day I asked you for eternity 

But never would I have ventured  

What then didst enfold.  

A trial of mammoth proportions 

Separation and heartaches

But never any doubt 

My heart crashes a thousand times 

Would I venture that again?

If it proves my truth, 

And yours too, to boot. 

Then I would, 

Most definitely would. 

again and again. 

 

The In-Between

In God’s speech we find the Arabic word “ayah” simultaneously used to mean the signs that point to the Most Gracious within the Cosmos, and then also the constituent verses of the Speech itself. 

Indeed when the Messenger (saw) recited the Qur’an it is said that he paused after each Ayah. That the Qur’an therefore is a collection of signs, much like the Cosmos itself. *1

In Surah Rahman, like many other Surahs, God draws our attention to the Cosmos and our place within it. 

And it is as if a similitude is being drawn for us between it and the Quran. 

“Ar-Rahman”

The Most Merciful. 

Quraysh complained that there was no such word, because they rightly thought that the true nature of Mercy is weakness, and that Ar-Rahman makes something strong out of something which is essentially weak. 

And that was precisely the point. 

That this nature of God, is unlike anything else. That His Mercy here is powerful. 

Indeed if anyone of us, including the greatest king *2, is merciful to someone then that mercy can easily be thwarted by another with malicious intent. 

That our mercy cannot guarantee anything because of its essentially weak character. 

But God’s true Mercy, here, can never be thwarted. That is the Mercy of Ar-Rahman. It is powerful and all encompassing and can never be thwarted, nor eclipsed. 

“taught the Quran”

This is a phenomenal verse that follows on from drawing our attention to God’s powerful mercy. 

Referencing the powerful ongoing miracle of the Quran -this I had explained on a recent Instagram video- constantly collected within the hearts of the believers, and explained by God when those that deliberate think deeply *3. 

 

But the deep thought here has much to do with the unfolding similitude. 

“Created Mankind”

And the defining characteristic of our nature that is being drawn to us here is…

“He taught clear intelligible speech”

Follows then the verses that draw our attention to the Cosmos. 

Indeed the Cosmos is marked by great distances of void. And it is in the spaces of our speech that meaning exists. 

What is it that causes the stars and the trees to bow in humility?

*************think deeply about this before reading further*************

And even as God expands the Heavens exerts a break and pulls them back. 

And Cosmologists know that the gravitational constant is too precise. 

That an infinitesimal movement either way means the non-existence of existence itself. *4

And it is a power that exerts within the great voids of space. *5

Indeed Physicists now know that reality is mostly space. Even my hand, and this screen that I write on is also mostly space. 

Indeed it is the power that exists within even those minuscule space that is the most telling. 

And that too is the miracle of the Quran. 

It is the meaning that exists within and more importantly between the verses that is the most telling. 

For that is where its power lies. 

In the connections between the verses, and at times within a single verse, and what is ostensibly left unsaid, but is implied. 

Knowledge is sought through study and contemplation. Not lectures, nor talks, nor this above. 

*1 When we do that, and follow his example, then something extraordinary happens. See for example the layers of depth of meaning that can be found in Al-Fathihah, the opener and the mother of the book. 

*2 that even the greatest king is subject to convention, and the vagaries of heresay. 

*4 This dilemma they call *The Cosmological Problem*. 

*5 it is likewise the same force that makes the Moon punctual. 

See Pickthall translation.  

*3 not that is by ruminating on the intricacies of the Arabic language, for the Quran was relayed in simple Arabic to make it easy for the people. But rather it is in the spaces of what is left unsaid that it’s power lies.  

The Ants

In Surah Naml we find the speech of the ants and of the hoopoe bird, both mentioned, and juxtaposed. 

The Surah is itself surrounded by The Poets on one side and Stories on the other, and they are all three clearly related because of their beginning letters. 

We are presented with the speech of the ant, who says,  Oh you ants, get into your dwellings lest the army of Solomon tramples you unknowingly. 

This sentence reveals a subject - predicate structure. 

That the ant is conscious of itself, the other ants and their surroundings, first from looking at the Arabic*1, and then when we deliberate on it, from the ant recognising a threat to himself and then to his fellow ants. 

The story of the speech of the hoopoe bird is even more intriguing. 

Here we have an exchange between King Solomon (as) and the bird. 

Whereas with the ant Suleiman (as) “heard” the speech and simply smiled in gratitude and responded with humility. 

The hoopoe spies a land where the people do not worship the Most Gracious and this shocks him, so he goes to investigate further. 

When he returns to the army of Suleman (as), he is scolded and warned that if he has lied then he would have a severe punishment. 

This is intriguing on two points-

1- since Nabi Suleman (as) insinuated that the hoopoe might be lying, we must believe that it had the capacity to lie. 

But lying as an act only occurs when we have either something to lose in order to prevent its loss, or something to gain in order to effect its gain.  

This suggests that the hoopoe owns or possesses something, or can own or possess something and therefore does. 

When you see a lion in its natural habitat, then you notice how slow it is to act and aggression. And you realise that it is it’s pride, and status, that make it so slow to wake. But once woken then it is a force to contend with. 

If you take a look at the hoopoe, it by design of the Most Gracious is made to wear a crown on its head. 

In the animal kingdom in general the male of a species looks the more beautiful and startling*2, 

But with the hoopoe, both the male and female wear that distinctive crown. 

So it is as if here the hoopoe possess at the very least pride, and that by God’s Grace. 

Contrasting this with the speech of the ant is intriguing. 

For when we consider how bees communicate the direction in which to fly to gather nectar *3, it is clear that their language is laborious. 

So in a like manner we would expect the same of the ant, but even with the time consuming nature of his communication his own safety is of little concern to him, but what is of more concern are the fellows in his community. 

So the ant is selfless in contrast to the hoopoe. 

It is as God here is evidencing to us the sheer variety of His creation. 

2- We know that the hoopoe recognised the Most Gracious, and would then have known thus that Suleman (as) was His true prophet. 

So how can we reconcile the statement of Suleman (as) when he accused him of potentially lying?

Once again with the Quranic speech we need regard for context. 

The hoopoe was part of Suleman’s (as) army. When he returned is when the speech between them occurs. 

However when Suleman (as) noted his absence it would have been when the ranks of his army were arraigned. 

And so his absence would have been noted by everyone in that army of Men, Jinn and birds. 

That is why the speech then must have occurred in the presence of the army, for the hoopoe to give an account of himself. 

For the fundamental defining characteristic of all armies is discipline. 

And moreover within his army are the generally rebellious Jinn, who are moreover very sensitive. 

Indeed the Most Gracious is sustainer off all of these Worlds and maintains them in harmony with one another, no one eclipsing the other.

Alhamdolillah. 

Indeed knowledge is sought through contemplation and study. 

Nor speeches, nor this above. 

*1 Arabic grammar differentiates between subject, object and indirect object by the vowel sounding off its last consonant letter. 

*2 consider simply peacocks and peahens. 

*3 known as the bee dance. 

For that Son will Shine the Brightest

Blessed. 

My errors only reveal my sincerity. 

Alhamdolillah 

More Information

It’s counterintuitive to think that the more information that is present within a string of symbols*1, the less meaning it carries. 

That is why Allah t’ala finely balances them within His Speech and refers to them both in V7 of Al-Imran. 

That we take instruction from that which is clear, and these the Most Gracious calls the mother of the book, and only those endowed with understanding they say “All of it is from Allah”, and they seek the meaning within it. And they do this with regards to the instructions carried within it, and then they deliberate and struggle with those things that He puts there for you to struggle with. 

Because it is in the struggle that the meaning exists. 

Most people would say the opposite: that information conveys meaning and therefore the more information that is present will naturally make you think that it would carry more meaning. 

Consider simply:

1- The boy sat on the wall. 

2- The green eyed boy sat on the red brick wall. 

Is there really more meaning contained within proposition 2 than 1?

There is clearly more information. 

And then, consider 

3- The scared boy sat on the silent wall. 

Clearly proposition 3 has more meaning, but also less proportionate information because it opens up more questions to us, when compared to Proposition 2. 

And both proposition 2 and 3 would appear to have the same amount of information. 

Indeed in proposition 3 our brains scream out for more information and suddenly entertain many possibilities. *2

We suddenly consider scenarios that could “explain” the information, and are eager for it to be explained. 

But because of the lack of information that we desire, proportionally 3 contains less information than either 1 or 2. 

Whereas in 1 and 2 we have complete information and feel a measure of satisfaction, in 3 there is no satisfaction, but there is plenty more meaning. 

Indeed when we say “Shafi means …” such and such, that statement only makes sense when we are clearing up ambiguity. So therefore meaning is intractably linked to ambiguity and not information, for “meaning” only has meaning within that context. 

When it is self evident what I mean, then the word meaning losses it’s meaning within that context. 

And when we talk about “the meaning of life” what we really mean is that we are searching for a reason, and a purpose. 

Once again it is the ambiguity as to that reason , and purpose of our lives, that gives “the search for meaning” it’s meaning within this context. 

Very often the Muhaddith way of addressing v7 of Al-Imran is to completely airbrush out of existence the “wa” of conjunction:

And none knows it’s meaning (taw’il) *3 except Allah, *and* those who are deeply rooted in knowledge, they say “we believe in it, and all it is from Allah”. 

That this statement includes the conjunction “and” that precedes it, is a problem for them because when they remove it from their discourses and their tafseers they fall outside of the category of those that are mentioned within that same verse: “those deeply rooted in knowledge”. This because they ignore the conjunction of ‘wa’. 

Because the Muhaddith way is that they do not want you to think and deliberate. 

The basis of their knowledge is justification and not speculation. 

For whilst the religion has been made clear, the upward paths beyond that are fraught with trials and tribulations. 

Interpretations and yes, speculation. 

Because interpretation is speculative in essence. It requires for you to consider more than one possible way of reading and understanding it. 

And then the Most Gracious finishes the  verse with ..

“And none considers this (contemplates this) except the doors (to understanding)”

So here the Most Gracious is recommending for you to contemplate it, and deliberate on His words… all of them and not just the former portion that refers to those that follow only the allegorical and leave off from the Mother of the Book. *4

Within this schematic of information and meaning, where then does knowledge fit?

Traditionally knowledge is said to be joined up information, that is that knowledge is gained from “knowing” the interconnectedness between things. 

But within this schematic*5 it takes on a completely different hue. 

You can say that you have knowledge when you “know” how to act, and this only becomes apparent when you do act. 

For knowledge should bring clarity, and clarity is a pre-requisite to cogent- that is wilful and deliberate- action. 

And once you know how to act, then how can not fail to act?

We can see this clearly in verse 7…

“And they say: “We believe in it; the whole of it is from our Lord”. 

Is not the greatest of actions the Kalimah Shahadah?

That our first fundamental action is the testimony of faith. 

Indeed when the purpose of your life becomes clearer to you then you would recognise that our great forbears, the renowned Companions of the Messenger (saw), as they grew closer to the Most Gracious realised the necessity of action even more. That closeness makes of you a man with a mission to accomplish. 

And I bear witness that none is worthy of worship and sincere devotion save Allah, without partner or helper, and that Muhammad (saw) is His servant and Messenger who fulfilled His trust and delivered His message in truth. 

May I be a door for you to become of those brought close. Aameen. 

Knowledge is sought through study and contemplation. Not lectures, nor this above. 

*1 whether these be verbal, or written, the same is true for both. 

*2 So for example if he’s scared why is he sitting in plain sight on the wall?

Could it possibly be happening at night?

But then why isn’t he cowering under a blanket like most boys when the nightmares are upon them?

*3 sometimes also translated as explanation which is only another word for meaning. 

*4 So think deeply and do not be of those shallow thinkers who worry about authenticity, and forget that Allah t’ala Himself has said that He would protect His religion. 

*5 where meaning is defined as an active principle in how and when it is used in our discourses.