It seems that the world is currently at a dangerous phase with war being (partly) motivated by the desire of hastening the end times. Recently, there was even a crusader-like call, (almost) demonizing Muslims perhaps in justifying the current war. There was also a podcast that questions which of the Abrahamic faiths is the most violent and the interviewee answered Islam. He went on to say something disrespectful about the Prophet and the Companions. He even questioned that the Prophet Muhammad pbuh can't even be traced back to Prophet Abraham pbuh. I guess the ignorant audience might be bought in with this claim. I'm no religious scholar but this is indeed false since the ancestral tree of the Prophet is known (see pic below) and this is further backed up with the strong science of chain of narrators in Islam.
In a way, the interviewee is either uninformed (ignorance) or simply disbelieve in the given literature (usually out of arrogance). The former is perhaps more acceptable because to be informed, one has to invest some time and energy to dig up and read existing literature. In a way, many fall in this category since the commitment is not there. Even Prof. Jiang is guilty of this when I heard in one of hs lectures, he claimed that not much is known about the early life of Prophet Muhammad pbuh. While the primary literature is in Arabic, much of these has been translated.
At this juncture, one could raise the point of one's predisposition from one's upbringing and environment in deciding whether one should further invest time in digging up the needed literature to realise one's thought is faulty or not. I certainly agree to this but with the additional reminder that thoughts are dynamical. Just like Prof. Jiang's belief has changed from an atheistic position to the position he is taking now. Note that the discussion here is about one's predisposition in deciding to check one's thought is faulty or not and not about faith itself. On faith, Prof. Jiang's position on Islam is that it is too simple and maybe he will reexamine this in the future. In Islam, there is no compulsion in religion (see Al-Baqarah verse 256) and Allah guides whom He pleases (see Al-Qasas verse 56). To show even for muslims, the faith itself is dynamical and we are recommended to recite the prayer as mentioned in Yusuf verse 101. Again, by stating all these, I am merely reminding my own self and those who wish to listen.
When I started to listen to more of Prof. Jiang's lectures, I was surprised to hear him touch upon secret societies. In normal (innocent) times, the default reaction would be dismissed as conspiracy theorist. But then came the release of the E*stein files that would make some of the conspiracies seem mild. I have not bothered to look at those (don't have the stomach for it) but one can find them in jmail (probably need a vpn, I think) or an AI-driven website which I personally have not tried using it. For me, it is enough for me to listen to some podcast of others who had gone through some of the files (there are 3.5 million files that have been released and God knows how many more that have yet to be released). Why should one be interested in them is partly to understand the alluded shadowy world by Prof. Jiang.
Through his lectures, I get to know about some faith (not of the Eastern ones or of the materialistic beliefs) do not have the idea of the hereafter and that everything is being played out in the present world. This was indeed considered as an 'interesting' question itself by the scholar Dr. Ali Ataei who also cautioned us not to generalize. This takes me back to the years before I go to Cambridge. Having some overseas experience in Adelaide, I thought I should prepare myself for the trip to Cambridge. I started to read and listen to comparative religion; one of the persons I listened to is Gary Miller. From him, I learned about the Red Letter Bible and after a while I was there, I bought the bible just for keeps. No, I'm not going to be a scholar in any sense (I decided that way before arriving in Cambridge, having not known Arabic) but I would like to be in the know. I still have the bible at home somewhere. During the stay there, subject of religion sometimes is brought up in conversation. I remember at the time, the world is prepping up for the Iraq-Kuwait war and I had a Part III friend making somewhat derogatory statement on religion. Later, he came to my room in Darwin College and had told me I'm a Muslim and read the Qur'an. He asked for me to open up a random page in the Qur'an and it so happened to be Surah An-Naml describing ants communicating with each other. I can't remember what discussions happened thereafter but I think it took him by surprise.
Back to my newly found knowledge of a faith (derived from an Abrahamic faith) that has no hereafter, it is 'no wonder' that there are efforts to hasten the end times. Indeed some even belief in the idea of redemption through sinning. Some transgressed into forms of sex rituals that I would in the past attribute to devil worshipping. Deep diving into some of the stuff 'led me' to existing literature in black magic. It got me scared even to see these materials; the same feeling when I bought a locally written book of the known names of djinns (bought mainly to be careful not to invoke such names but in the end I did not 'read' it). I rather not write any references to these to save readers from jumping into the rabbit hole. I'm reminded of the Qur'anic ayat
وَٱتَّبَعُوا۟ مَا تَتْلُوا۟ ٱلشَّيَـٰطِينُ عَلَىٰ مُلْكِ سُلَيْمَـٰنَ ۖ وَمَا كَفَرَ سُلَيْمَـٰنُ وَلَـٰكِنَّ ٱلشَّيَـٰطِينَ كَفَرُوا۟ يُعَلِّمُونَ ٱلنَّاسَ ٱلسِّحْرَ وَمَآ أُنزِلَ عَلَى ٱلْمَلَكَيْنِ بِبَابِلَ هَـٰرُوتَ وَمَـٰرُوتَ ۚ وَمَا يُعَلِّمَانِ مِنْ أَحَدٍ حَتَّىٰ يَقُولَآ إِنَّمَا نَحْنُ فِتْنَةٌۭ فَلَا تَكْفُرْ ۖ فَيَتَعَلَّمُونَ مِنْهُمَا مَا يُفَرِّقُونَ بِهِۦ بَيْنَ ٱلْمَرْءِ وَزَوْجِهِۦ ۚ وَمَا هُم بِضَآرِّينَ بِهِۦ مِنْ أَحَدٍ إِلَّا بِإِذْنِ ٱللَّهِ ۚ وَيَتَعَلَّمُونَ مَا يَضُرُّهُمْ وَلَا يَنفَعُهُمْ ۚ وَلَقَدْ عَلِمُوا۟ لَمَنِ ٱشْتَرَىٰهُ مَا لَهُۥ فِى ٱلْـَٔاخِرَةِ مِنْ خَلَـٰقٍۢ ۚ وَلَبِئْسَ مَا شَرَوْا۟ بِهِۦٓ أَنفُسَهُمْ ۚ لَوْ كَانُوا۟ يَعْلَمُونَ ١٠٢
They ˹instead˺ followed the magic promoted by the devils during the reign of Solomon. Never did Solomon disbelieve, rather the devils disbelieved. They taught magic to the people, along with what had been revealed to the two angels, Hârût and Mârût, in Babylon. The two angels never taught anyone without saying, “We are only a test ˹for you˺, so do not abandon ˹your˺ faith.” Yet people learned ˹magic˺ that caused a rift ˹even˺ between husband and wife; although their magic could not harm anyone except by Allah’s Will. They learned what harmed them and did not benefit them—although they already knew that whoever buys into magic would have no share in the Hereafter. Miserable indeed was the price for which they sold their souls, if only they knew!
— Dr. Mustafa Khattab, The Clear Quran
Thus, I refrained from reading too much on these (at the time it was almost Ramadhan) and limit myself to Prof. Jiang's lectures and other commentaries. Besides these, videos of commentaries on E*stein files and interviews of ex-intelligentsia agents keep popping up on my feed. Now, some may say why bother with these (commentaries on) E*stein files. For me, some of these have bearing on major world events and learning from these commentaries is like learning on how some things in the world works (just like physics). Is it something definitive? To muslims, God is the Best of all planners and evil is NOT as powerful as some might perceived them to be. Allah knows best.
I end this post with praying that we be protected from all forms of calamities that may befall upon the world due to all these fasadists.
No comments:
Post a Comment