KARBALA: THE VOICE OF ISLAMIC CONSCIENCE

In his famous speech, On the Plight of the Oppressed People, Dr. Ali Shariati argues that Islam came as a challenge to the oppressive status quo of the time. But, after the death of the Prophet Mohammad (s), Islam suffered distortion and corruption like the messages of the previous Prophets. Islam was used to enslave [...]

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PAIN IS YOUR BEGINNING…

O’ Wanderer!
Pain is your beginning…
If it were not for the pain, life would be so meaningless and absurd. The first pain is that of other hearts that you feel in your own heart. The second pain is the ‘wahshat’ (vacuum and agony) in your soul.
The first pain realizes the suffering of human beings around you [...]

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MATERIALISM AS ZEITGEIST

What is this ‘Matrix’, this ‘Hegemony’ (or ‘dominance without hegemony,’ if you prefer), this ‘Totalizing System’ of Materialism that I refer to in my previous posts?
The phenomenon of Materialism that I have in mind is the resultant of a particular historical development in the West, which is generally referred to as ‘Modernity‘. Materialism is one [...]

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THANKSGIVING OR THANKS-TAKING: THE LESSONS

The impulse for writing today is the occasion of Thanksgiving which is observed in the US on the fourth Thursday of November each year.

Thanksgiving is a celebration. It is a national holiday. It is one of those few times in the year when American families make it a point to come together, to unite, no [...]

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THE WORLD IS THE BOOK OF GOD ALMIGHTY

I hope the readers were able to follow the ruminations in the previous six posts. The discussion started with the problem of ascertaining knowledge and culminated at outlining the Realistic Islamic Worldview.

Below I want to look at how this Realistic Islamic Worldview is presented by the Quran and how it may be applied to a [...]

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