The best proverbs manage to capture important ideas in just a few words. One well-worn Arab proverb has it that: nisf al-‘ilm akhtaru min al-jahl - 'Half-baked knowledge is more dangerous than ignorance.' 'The greatest enemy of knowledge,' insists Steven Hawking, 'is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge.' In the scholastic tradition of Islam there is…
The World Gets Topsy-Turvier: Signs of the End Days [2/2]
One of the main themes that runs through hadiths about the End Days is how good will be considered as being bad; and visa versa, how trustworthiness and honesty shall disappear, how the worthless will be raised to positions of rank and respect, and how there will be an increase in disobedience and widespread violation of rights (kathrat al-‘uquq…
The Rabble, the Ruwaybidah & We the People (Pt 2)
This is the second part of the blog piece I wrote for http://www.islamicate.co.uk (the first part may be read here). After the battle of Hunayn, a delegation from the Hawazin clan came to the Prophet, upon whom be peace, requesting the return of their wealth and captives. They were given a choice between one or…
Dhikr Repetition: Is it Allowed?
In his al-Fawa'id (a patchwork-like book on moral psychology, that contains within it a collage of spiritual benefits and lessons on practical piety), Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah wrote: 'God, Exalted is He, says: And remember Job, when he cried unto his Lord: "Affliction has seized me. But You are the Most Merciful of the merciful." [21:83] This supplication…
Reason, Revelation, Religion: How Do They Fit Together?
The Qur’an undoubtedly requires human beings to accept the authority of religion for whatever lies beyond the scope of reason or ‘aql. It never demands that he accept what is against reason. ‘The messengers,' said Ibn Taymiyyah, 'came with knowledge that reason is incapable of attaining to: never did they come with what reason deems…