Q Weblog

<<Previous Archive | Next Archive>>

More on Tawakul

Sidna mentioned this evening the saying of Shaykh Hashimi: (more)

Charming...

I noticed this pasted on a computer beloning to one of the people of wilayah and tawfiq: (more)

Religion is God's

God be praised for the blessing of Religion, organized religion. For the religion with God is Islam. (more)

Purposing to Attain this World

From today's post hadra dars:

Sidna mentioned that from the greatest of veils is purposing to attain this world (تدبير - tadbir) which results from the avidness of the nafs to attain worldly pleasures. The true seeker, he noted dedicates his this-world to his next-world and his next-world to his Lord.

(more)

More from Chomsky

I've finished that Chomsky article mentioned in the last post. Glad I read it. Don't appreciated the obvious sympathy with anarchism but I do very much appreciate the historical analysis and the breadth of his survey. Here's some of what he mentions about the not so democratic democracy of the American founders:

Madison sought to construct a system of government that would "protect the minority of the opulent against the majority"... he thought that power would be held by the "enlightened Statesman" and "benevolent philosopher," men who are "pure and noble," a "chosen body of citizens, whose wisdom may best discern the true interests of their country and whose patriotism and love of justice would be least likely to sacrifice it to temporary or partial considerations," guarding the public interest against the "mischiefs" of democratic majorities.

In bringing the implications of that revealing observation forward he notes:

There has been constant struggle over this constrained version of democracy, which we call "guided democracy" in the case of enemies: Iran right now, for example. Popular struggles have won a great many rights, but concentrated power and privilege clings to the Madisonian conception in ways that vary as society changes. By World War I, business leaders and elite intellectuals recognized that the population had won so many rights that they could not be controlled by force, so it would be necessary to turn to control of attitudes and opinions. Those are the years when the huge public relations industry emerged -- in the freest countries of the world, Britain and United States, where the problem was most acute. The industry was devoted to what Walter Lippmann approvingly called "a new art in the practice of democracy," the "manufacture of consent" -- the "engineering of consent" in the phrase of his contemporary Edward Bernays, one of the founders of the public relations industry.

Wow. Though when one considers the picture that emerges: of perpetual struggle between the would-be "free" majority and the "opulent" minority one cannot help but wonder if the perpetual nature of the struggle is not itself  a sort of bondage. As I said a must read.

Noam Chomsky | Crisis and Hope: Theirs and Ours

Noam Chomsky | Crisis and Hope: Theirs and Ours

This is an insightful cross-discipline anlaysis, vast in scope, that reveals among many other things, the inner realities of the Obama "magic":

The neoliberal rollback of democracy -- often called "democracy promotion" -- has enabled other means of control and marginalization of the public. One illustration is the management of electoral extravaganzas in the United States by the public relations industry, peaking with Obama, who won the industry's award for "marketer of the year for 2008." Industry executives exulted in the business press that Obama was the highest achievement yet of those who "helped pioneer the packaging of candidates as consumer brands 30 years ago," when they designed the Reagan campaign.

And the origins and workings of the US empire machine:

James Jones, has a still-more expansive vision: he calls for extending NATO further east and south, becoming in effect a U.S.-run global intervention force, as it is today in Afghanistan -- "Afpak" as the region is now called -- where Obama is sharply escalating Bush's war, which had already intensified in 2004. NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer informed a NATO meeting that "NATO troops have to guard pipelines that transport oil and gas that is directed for the West," and more generally have to protect sea routes used by tankers and other "crucial infrastructure" of the energy system. These plans open a new phase of Western imperial domination -- more politely called "bringing stability" and "peace."

I'm still reading it but already I can say that without doubt this is another must-read from Chomsky. (more)

The Frowns of Clowns

A poem I wrote sometime around 2000. (more)

Eid Mubarak!

Eid Mubarak from Amman!

Allah accept our works and forgive us our shortcomings. Amin.

كل عام و أنتم بخير

Ortiz's Moment of Silence

Recently one of the salihin sent an e-mail with Emmanuel Ortiz's Moment of Silence. My wife sent it to a few people most of whom were quite appreciative. But there was one relative who... (more)

Real Tawfiq

It occured to me today that true tawfiq is not... (more)

Ta'limul Haq

Here is a nice link to Ta'leemul Hack online. A wonderful, mubarak book:

Talimul-Haq

The Independent | Screaming babies – it's all Mum's fault for fussing

The Independent | Screaming babies – it's all Mum's fault for fussing

Expectant mothers who believed crying babies needed their mums – or dads – tended, once their child was born, to be more active in trying to soothe them, cuddle them, feed them or let them snuggle up in the parental bed to try to get their baby back to sleep, the research showed. The downside, the study found, was that the more a baby's mum tried to help her child sleep, the worse that child's sleep then became.

 Right. Infants and toddlers don't sigh, make faces, blog, or rant... (more)

Decisions and Kasb

It becomes clearer with every passing day what kasb (كسب) really is. Once the slave can grasp that Allah is indeed the All-powerful, the Willer, the Indomitable and the boundaries of the self start to become apparent. (more)

The Best of Generations

Narrated `Abdullah: (more)

Laissez Faire Parenting | BBC | Boy's love of trains sparks alert

BBC |  Boy's love of trains sparks alert

The parents of a boy who has run away to try to catch a train have asked railway staff to put up warning posters to stop him getting into danger.

Surely a great deal of what passes for parenting these days is sheer insanity. I had to read this two or three times...

(more)

From Good Character

From good character: (more)