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Archive for the ‘Capitalism’ Category

The day Biden gloated about sending $15 Billion to keep killing Palestinian Children…

Posted in Ahl al-Bayt, Capitalism, Epistemology, Layla, Other Religions, Rohingya, Spiritual Stations, The Struggle on April 24, 2024| Leave a Comment »

“In order to understand this better, you may compare the relation of the divine agent to the Divine Principle with that of the rays of the sun to the sun. This is not an exact comparison, but it is true insofar as the rays of the sun have no independence with respect to the sun, and the divine agent similarly lacks independence with respect to that principle of absolute good from which its existence is derived -that is, it cannot come into existence or remain in existence independently. If the rays of existence depart from a being for a single instant it will not be able to subsist for a single instant, for just as it depends on the principle in order to come into existence, it also depends on it in order to remain in existence. Having no standing of its own, then, it is reabsorbed into the principle.

This being the case, the manifestation of God’s Names is, in a sense, identical with the names themselves. ‘God is the light of the heavens and the earth (الله نور السماوات و الأرض)’ – the light is the manifestation of God, not God, but the manifestation has no existence apart from the principal from which it derives. It is reabsorbed in it since it possesses no independence. It is in this sense that we are to understand: ‘God is the light of the heavens and the earth.’

Returning to ‘praise (الحمد),’ we see that the definite article has a generic sense and connects it with the expression ‘In the Name of God (بسم الله)’ which precedes it, so we concluded that every instance of praise, by whomever it is uttered, takes place by means of that which is praised; from a certain point of view, they are one and the same, the instance of manifestation and the general principle of manifestation.

When the Prophet (صلى الله عليه و آله و سلم) said, ‘You are as You praise Yourself (أنت كما أثنيت على نفسك)’ or “I take refuge in You from You (أعوذ بك منك)”, then the path of what is indicated is that the one who praises is effaced in the One Who is praised. It is as if God is praising God. No one else enjoys any real existence that enables them to say, ‘I am praising God,’ but it is God who praises God.”

[From the Lectures on Sūrah al-Fātiḥa]

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between the academy and the masjid

Posted in Capitalism, Epistemology, Spiritual Stations, The Struggle on April 7, 2024| Leave a Comment »

This is a note for myself, part of the archive of my subjectivity that I can look back at in future years to remember moments of clarity (or lack thereof).

Shahr Ramadan is coming to an end.

I think I maxxed out yesterday, after day in day out consistent struggle to grasp the sacred moments.

And this morning I finally talked to God about my “career.”

I put career in quotes because it is not like others.

Because al-Razzāq has blessed me to not have to worry about income – like aṭ-Ṭabarī from whom I have benefitted a lot even though he died over 1000 years ago – I have not followed a traditional path to a stable career, whether academic or masjid-related. My adult life has been a constant toggle between the academy and the masjid, and it still is.

And that is not easy. People want to known “what” I am and “what” I do – it is a central part of American culture. Talking heads on TV have something beneath their name to indicate it. I was watching a documentary the other day and beneath the guy’s name it said “Editor.” I chuckled to myself – surely as a multi-faceted human being he was so much more than just an editor. But c’est la vie. I was once “Chaplain” but now no more. I was once “Ustadh” to some, but that is gone too. And now I am not quite “Professor,” so it seems the marketplace of consumers for my products has settled on “Dr. David” for the time being.

And recently that tension has really gotten to me, in unexpected ways. My friends Zareena and Trent helped me to think through it before Shahr Ramadan, as well as my wife. But surprisingly when the month hit, it disappeared almost completely right away. Which to me is a sign that Shayṭān was attacking me on this precise point.

But this morning I finally talked to God about it, and it was 100% clear.

I am after the secret of sincerity within, in both my teaching and writing.

As the ḥadīth in Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim states:

Then a man will be brought forward who learned Sacred Knowledge, taught it to others, and who recited the Qur’an. Allah will remind him of His gifts to him and the man will acknowledge them, and then Allah will say, “What have you done with them?” The man will answer, “I acquired Sacred Knowledge, taught it, and recited the Qur’an, for Your sake.” Allah will say, “You lie. You learned so as to be called a scholar, and read the Qur’an so as to be called a reciter, and it has already been said.” Then the man will be sentenced and dragged away on his face to be flung into the fire.

Even if everything I have ever taught or preached or wrote about is 100% doctrinally correct, that is still not a guarantee that those efforts will bring me happiness after my death. There is something deeper, more personal, that one must grapple with. It is seeking sincerity.

I don’t know the answer, but when I spoke to God I acknowledged that a dars taught to a small group in an unknown masjid can potentially be more pleasing to Allah than a popular undergraduate course at a famous university. And a blog post can potentially be more pleasing to Allah than a book published by a top academic publisher. Surely, if academic fame is a guide to where Allah’s riḍwān lies, then Max Weber and Charles Darwin are awliyāʾ Allāh!

These are the thoughts that I think, and the feelings that I feel. I don’t know to what extent others have them, but I am not others. I am me. And they emerge in my du’as as a product of my subjective struggle to experience the realities of my faith.

The Qur’an speaks evocatively about coming to know with precise clarity in the world beyond this one:

“Now We have lifted this veil of yours, so Today your sight is sharp!” [50.22]

“Again, you will surely see it with the eye of certainty.” [102.7]

“Are these people waiting for God to come to them in the shadows of the clouds, together with the angels? But the matter would already have been decided by then: all matters are brought back to God” [2.210]

One Day it will all make sense.

But until that Day arrives to impinge its realities upon my consciousness awareness, I must wait while my first academic book is going through peer-review with Routledge.

yā Allāh, if in Your infinite knowledge, publishing this text with Routledge brings Your Eternal Mercy ever closer to my limited being, then make it successful!

and if in Your infinite knowledge, publishing this effort with someone else will bring Your Eternal Mercy, then make it so!

I have tied my camel, tried my best to trust in You, and know that You are sufficient for me and the best arranger of all my affairs!

Thank you for sending me friends like Zareena and Trent, and for sending me a thoughtful wife like Sumaiya, and help me do that which is most beneficial for humanity, and that which pleases You the most!

You created me, sustained me, and have always been with me on this wonderful journey of existence!

One day I will return to You, and this world will be nothing more than a passing shadow of morning.

So on these final days of the month of Ramadan, I thank You for all that You have given me, and ask You by Your Mercy to accept the good that I have done, to forgive the wrong that I have done, to correct me when I err, and to guide me when I misstep.

There is no god but You, transcendent are You above this Earth, surely I am from those who have committed dhulm!

And please bless Muhammad and the family of Muhammad, and do with me as You have every right to do.

Hanging with Sayyid Kashmiri while trying to get a secular book deal at the AAR

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prayers of the powerless

Posted in Ahl al-Bayt, Capitalism, Rohingya, Spiritual Stations, The Struggle on February 15, 2024| Leave a Comment »

On this day, I accept that I have limited power, yā Qawī, and I have limited knowledge, yā ‘Alīm.

There is no god but You.

So when I look around the world, and wish that I could right so many wrongs, I recognize my inherent poverty (faqr), yā Ghanī.

Please accept the little I have done to change the world and change myself.

Please forgive the mistakes I have made and any oppression I have contributed to.

Today is what it is, and never could have been otherwise.

For You alone are the Possessor of All Sovereignty (Mālik al-Mulk), the King of Kings, the Most Supreme of all Courts, the One Who created all Presidents and CEOs, and the Judgement is Yours alone.

So let me hold fast to the way of Muhammad and ‘Ali, may Your eternal blessings and peace be upon them both, and one day die in a state of sincere voluntary surrender to You.

āmīn yā arḥam al-rāḥimīn

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Khutba about Genocide

Posted in Capitalism, Khutbas, The Struggle on January 26, 2024| Leave a Comment »

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

In my continued attempt to think through how to properly respond to the sacredness of Friday in the Islamic tradition within the political economy of the United States of America, I am sharing this khutba I gave a year ago in Oakland, CA.

While watching it, I was reminded to pay my Shuumi Land Tax for 2024, so that I would be someone who acts on what they know so that the All-Knowing might give them knowledge of what they do not know.

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the comfort of a mother

Posted in Ahl al-Bayt, Capitalism, Epistemology, Family, Other Religions, Spiritual Stations, The Struggle on December 18, 2023| 2 Comments »

Dear Sayyida Fatima

peace be upon you

do the children of Gaza come to visit you

do you comfort them

and let them know

that everything will be ok

that soon they will see their parents again

just as Husayn returned to you at Karbala

and that one day your grandchild will rise

and the whole world will be free

from the Atlantic to the Pacific

and that when all is said and done

and history is over

you and your father will gather

everyone who has built their home

in a world beyond fear and grief

that right now just seems so distant

do you comfort them in this way

because I need comforting too

I need to know

that one day it is going to be okay

ya Zahra

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Supplicating for Contentment: Updated translation of Ṣaḥīfa Sajjādīya #35

Posted in Adhkar, Ahl al-Bayt, Capitalism, Epistemology, Spiritual Stations, The Struggle on November 29, 2023| Leave a Comment »

All praise is due to Allah, fully content with the decree of Allah.

I have witnessed that Allah divides the livelihoods of Allah’s servants with full justice, and given blessings to all of the creation.

Dearest Allah, bless Muhammad and his family!

And do not test me with what You have granted to them, nor test them through what You have denied me, such that I would envy Your creatures and hate Your decision.

Dearest Allah, bless Muhammad and his family!

Bring me joy through Your determinations, and open my heart by the manifestations of Your decision.

Please grant me the trust to affirm in those moments that Your determinations are nothing but the best.

Make my gratitude to You for what You have diverted away from me more abundant than my gratitude, that is only for You, for what You have conferred upon me.

Guard me from thinking that someone who has nothing is worthy of contempt, or that someone who has everything is blessed, for the truly noble person is the one made noble by obeying You, and the truly powerful is the one made powerful by worshipping You.

So bless Muhammad and his family!

Give us everything we want in eternity, support us through a powerfulness that will never be lost, and let us roam in the everlasting kingdom.

For surely You are The One, The Unique, The Everlasting Refuge, Who begets not nor is begotten, for there is nothing comparable to You!

[Translation by me. Translation by Dr. Chittick and original Arabic here.]

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The First Day of the Rest of My Life

Posted in Ahl al-Bayt, Ahl al-Sunna, Capitalism, Epistemology, Layla, Other Religions, The Struggle on October 20, 2023| 2 Comments »

This is an inflection point, and deserves writing down.

Earlier today I went to the Qur’an for answers, feeling so alienated from my American society on the 25th anniversary of my conversion to Islam.

I just started reading from somewhere in the middle, and this is what hit me most:

“They will answer: Hallowed be You! It was not proper for us to choose any guardian other than You. But You gave them and their fathers the comforts of this life, so that they forgot Your reminder and thus brought destruction upon themselves.” (25.18)

and then,

“It may be that you will destroy yourself with grief because they will not believe. But if We had so willed, We could have sent down to them a sign from the heavens so that their heads would be bowed down before it in utter humility. Whenever there comes to them any fresh warning from the Merciful, they always turn their backs on it. They have indeed rejected the message. But the truth of what they laughed to scorn will dawn upon them before long.” (26.3-6)

I can’t argue with God. I asked for an answer, and I got one clear as day.

The open call to Islam in the United States of America has been going on for decades. We are just 1% of the population, and our country is still controlled by war mongers who enjoy dropping bombs on Muslims. I grew up around billionaires, and I looked over the list of the 400 richest people in the USA earlier today, and not one of them reflects nor supports my most deeply held beliefs and values. I am a stranger (gharīb) in a strange land, where those with deep pockets and nuclear missiles think they are a gift to the Earth.

How did it come to this?

My Lord, I have no one but You.

I do not know what tomorrow will bring.

All I know is that You have always been with me, and I need You.

Every day I need You.

I am so tired of this.

But if continuing the struggle is what I must do, then that is what I will do.

If Prophet Noah عليه السلام called his people for hundreds of years, then how can I deny the favors of my Lord.

“Say: My prayer, my sacrifice, my living and dying are only for Allah, Lord of all the worlds.”

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The Humanistic Standards of International Secular Political Economy as an Expression of Our Faith in a Divinely Created Planetary Order Meant for Human Spiritual Development Rooted in Our Freedom and Personal Responsibility

Posted in Ahl al-Bayt, Capitalism, Layla, Spiritual Stations, The Struggle on May 23, 2023| Leave a Comment »

A faithful man is optimistic about the world, the life and the creation. Religious belief gives a particular shape to man’s attitude towards the world. As religion maintains that creation has a goal and that its goal is nothing but betterment and evolution, naturally religious belief affects the outlook of man and makes him optimistic about the system of the universe and the laws governing it. The attitude of a faithful man to the universe is similar to the attitude of a man living in a country about which he is sure that its systems, laws and formations are just and fair, which those who are at the helm of its affairs are sincere and well-intentioned, and that in it opportunities of making advancement are available to everyone including himself. Such a man will naturally maintain that the only thing which may keep him or anyone else backward, is the lethargy and inexperience of the person concerned, and that he and all others owe a responsibility and are required to do their duty. A faithful man will hold himself responsible for his backwardness and will not blame his country and its administration for that. He believes that if there is anything wrong, which is because he and others like him have failed to discharge their duty properly. This feeling will naturally arouse his sense of self-respect and impel him to move forward hopefully. In contrast a disbeliever is in the universe like a man living in a country about which he believes that its system, laws and formations are unjust and corrupt, and that he has to accept them against his will. The heart of such a man will always be full of malice. He will never think of improving himself. He will think that where everything is wrong, his own uprightness will be of no use at all.

Shahīd Muṭahharī, “Man and Universe”

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Islamic Law in America: A Peer-Reviewed Academic Article

Posted in Ahl al-Bayt, Ahl al-Sunna, Capitalism, Epistemology, Spiritual Stations, The Struggle on March 5, 2023| Leave a Comment »

I distilled some of my observations on trying to live Islamic Law (sharīʿa/fiqh/al-aḥkām al-islāmī/etc.) in the United States of America into an academic article.

Some of my main points are the following:

  • Islamic law in the USA is choice, whereas American law is not. To give one of many possible examples, I am forced to pay income tax by the Federal government based on worldly threats for disobedience, but if I pay zakāt and/or khums it is purely voluntary.
  • Muslims in the USA do not reflect very much on the myriad ways in which they accept the legal and economic foundations of daily life, which I have termed the “civic.” Only occasionally does an issue arise that causes Muslims to question the civic. A good example is the ubiquity of interest (ribā) in home financing, which has given rise to an entire industry of sharia-compliant home finance products. But most of the rest of the legal structure of American real estate law is completely ignored.
  • Muslims in the USA do not have the ability to force non-Muslims to do anything based on Islamic law. The Islamophobic notion of “creeping sharia” is ridiculous when the truth is that American religious freedom means that any Muslim in the USA can renounce Islam altogether at any given moment.
  • Muslims in the USA are default capitalists, because they are consumers and producers in the world’s pre-eminent capitalist economy. Unlike a mid-20th century theorist like Bāqir al-Ṣadr, who could actually contemplate how to deal with the encroachment of USA-led Capitalist models and USSR-led Marxist models on Iraqi society, 21st century American Muslims are already participants in a system not of their own creation and in which they have minimal agency.
  • If all of this is true, then Islamic ethics in the USA needs to begin to develop a more robust engagement with and critique of American law and economics to create maximum space for Muslims to live their sharīʿa convictions to the fullest extent possible.

If you would like to read the entire article, it is available both online and in pdf format:

One Out of Many: The Civic and Religious in American Muslim Life (Religions 2023, 14(2), 170)

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another american day

Posted in Adhkar, Capitalism, Epistemology, Family, Layla, Other Religions, Spiritual Stations, The Struggle on November 15, 2022| 1 Comment »

I spend every day as an American the same way I spend every other day.

With the choice to obey God or not.

With the choice to believe in God or not.

With the choice to believe that Jesus died on the cross for my sins or not.

With the choice to believe whether Muhammad is a Messenger from God or not.

With the choice to believe whether Krishna is waiting for me in Goloka Vrindavan or not.

With the choice to believe in the Flying Spaghetti Monster or not.

With the choice to believe that the world is flat and George Soros has funded the Great Reset and Q has exposed the Clintons or not.

Whether this is better or worse than the daily reality of other countries is a moot point, because if I truly believed that somewhere was better for me, then wouldn’t I be obliged to move my family there for the sake of Allah (like the Sufi Auntie who gave me the unsolicited advice to move my family to Istanbul and everything would take care of itself)?

America is my country by God’s Decree. God could have created me in the womb of a woman in Botswana or Indonesia, but that was not God’s choice.

I am simply trying to be where God has established me (كن حيث أقامك الله).

Over the years I have learned a lot from studying about and visiting Saudi, Egypt, Jordan, Pakistan, India, Kuwait, Turkey, Bangladesh, Spain, France, Iraq, Kenya, UK, Canada, Mexico, Panama, Sweden, Syria and Norway. There are places I have yet to visit that I believe it is important for me to learn more about, such as Iran, Vietnam, Afghanistan, South Korea, Chile, Japan, China, Philippines, Bahrain, Lebanon, Russia, Peru, and Brazil.

But none of them are my country.

I understand this sort of connection to a nation is not how some feel, but it is how I feel. It is my daily reality.

Islamic law is just another choice I face every day, and I choose to follow the best of what I have found, and that currently means I am a muqallid of Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Taqi al-Modarressi of Karbala. In that choice, I am in solidarity with other Americans, Britishers, South Africans, Iraqis and more.

But I can always change my mind. I used to be a Hanafi, and then a Maliki, and now I am a Ja’fari. With each choice, I feel I have moved closer to what God wants from me. But only God knows and only God can judge. May Allah accept from me the deeds I have done trying to be in conformity to Allah’s laws, ameen.

Life is a journey, and if there is anything I have learned, it is to expect the unexpected. I believe Allah constantly tests the sincerity of my belief, often in ways I never foresaw, and I have found Qur’anic proofs for that, such

“Do people think once they say, ‘We believe,’ that they will be left without being put to the test? We certainly tested those before them. And Allah will clearly distinguish between those who are truthful and those who are liars.” (29.2-3)

Whether or not you believe that about yourself is up to you to decide. May Allah make me from the truthful (الصادقون), ameen.

I share this because this is my reality. Every post you have ever read from me has been articulated against this socio-political backdrop. I recognize now very few of my readers share this experience, and often my readers expect me to articulate positions that mirror their realities. But I can’t do that. All I can do is be sensitive to the realities of others, and then act accordingly from the point in space and time in which I exist.

But it is also important that my readers are sensitive to my reality, and the inescapable conclusion that faith/belief/knowledge has always been a choice for me. No one put a Qur’an in my hand and said, “believe or perish!” I chose to read the Qur’an with my own freedom, to determine if I believed that God had spoken to humanity or not. At the same time I was first reading the Qur’an, I was reading the Baha’i scriptures for the same reason.

“Whenever Our Revelation is recited to them they say, ‘We have heard all this before – we could say something like this if we wanted – this is nothing but ancient fables.’ They also said, ‘God, if this really is the truth from You, then rain stones on us from the heavens, or send us some other painful punishment.’ But God would not send them punishment while you [Prophet] are in their midst, nor would He punish them if they sought forgiveness.” (8.31-3)

And so every day I invoke blessings upon the Prophet and seek forgiveness:

أستغفر الله وأتوب إليه

اللهم صل على محمد وآل محمد

It is my choice and my tongue, and I try to use it for the sake of the One who gave it me.

Not for my parents, whom I love dearly.

Not for my country, which is a part of me.

But for my Creator (الخالق), the One who made my existence possible (المحيي), the One from whom I seek benefit (النافع), the One in whom I seek protection from harm (الضآر), the One in whom I hope to the utmost extents of hope (الوهاب), the One who I fear more than coming to the end of my own existence (الجبار).

May my Lord accept from me, āmīn.

a book published 90 years ago about our family’s first 300 years in North America

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