Hatred of Wisdom: modern East & West

Deep down our society has become perverted due to the historical process called colonization. It's a spiritual problem. Colonial education stripped away elements of sacredness from the very business of instruction and education. In Mirror and the Lamp, economic historian Atiyab Sultan with illuminating and ground breaking research from earliest and contemporary scholarly sources showd how Britishers in the name of reform actually deformed everything.

Our society has developed a materialistic mindset. A pursuit of knowledge for personal ilmi consumption that is not related to something "practical", (say the professional degree) is frowned upon as a toxic waste that will rust one's mind, especially if it serves no monetary purposes. Our muslim forefathers, a philosopher and a polymath scholar told us, would sell everything for ilm, and not sell their knowledge for money. (Surely stipends were given to teachers, scholars and their those who reflected on deen.) Their love for knowledge was unearthly - starting with the First Principles of Prophecy which influenced all other fields like a canopy over earth. I too want to drink from that cup. For Iqbal, taking the sip from modern west is a big no-no (perhaps because their 'intellect is atrophied'); for the method in the recipe of Hashmi (pbuh) is unique and superior. As Frithoj Schuon puts it: West thinks too much and thinks wrongly; East is sleeping over treasures and doesn't think much.

Pursuit of Satisfaction: Your recipe?

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For some time recently, I've been perplexed by self-projections and how one should judge himself. Should one judge himself from his professional, social or academic achievements, and/or the quantitative influence of his work - or something more abstract? All of this sounded little egoistic afterwards, as soon as i tried to reduce the anxiety by little introspection from a spiritual point of view. But. Even this spiritual understanding of my desires and ambitions didn't solve the conundrum. I got the answer from Iqbal's persian poem.

(English trans by me from Urdu)

Laazt e sair ast maqsood e safar.
Gar nigah bar aashiyan dari mapar.

Purpose of journey is to get the pleasure of it.
If you aim at your destination/home, don't fly.

***
Zindagi juz lazzat e parwaz neest
Ashiyan ba fitrat e Oo saaz neest

Life is nothing but to taste flight.
Ashiyana (home) is not nourishing for his nature
__________________________

Whats your recipe?

Counting Probabilities in Movies: Impossible

My tiny brain cannot comprehend the delusions perpetrated by movies. I was perplexed and doubtful - but never sure - of these delusions.

Have the screen play writers ever wondered what they are producing? How would people perceive the writers?

They do mention here and there the odds a hero is up against. But. Take into (some level of) free will of so many people and things surrounding the heroes. That hardly seems to count. Occasionally, one or two things won't go according to the plan and that's it. That's just not enough to even remotely satisfy or honor randomness at work in the world of chaos in which the plots are set.

Do they have anything else but "escapism" as an excuse for fooling themselves and their audience? Probably not. Maybe that's the point that even if the possibility of doing a feat is 1 in a million times - it's doable. However, the process of getting there is brutally by passed in the name of Greece's self-delusional fantasies..

We mistake high definition graphics and few moments of breathtaking actions as a recipe for stretching beyond the limits. Not even a chance. Censorship is required by those with deep introspection into these matters.

Wealth of the Poor

How about maximizing GDP?

In England there was commons land. Common people depended on this land for their livelihood and shelter. They were poor people who didn't even have modest incomes, who only survived on what they could find in the forests, lakes, etc., for themselves and/or for their cattle. Similarly, it provided them housing and shelter. The land,as a public good, made life liveable and gave a sense of security against economic upheavals and lack of basic goods - things too inevitable in today's civilized market economies in war-ridden scenarios.

The rich people had their eyes on it, maybe for long. In 1066, after the Norman's Conquest, things changed drastically. Rich and powerful lords invoked the god of greed and free markets, and approached the king for its 'privatization'. "Your lordship, your pro-poor policies are making these people sluggish and dormant. Inefficiency reigns. Producivity suffers. And the idol of progress is angry upon us. End protectionism. End this injustice that blocks pur way to [indefinite] Progress." And they told many other stories their PhD economists wrote. King nodded in yes. He had to give in for the sake of (indefinite) progress. Let the game begin.

All the poor people were banished from the commons land, which became not so common by then. And was sold to the fittest, ie the wealthy, the powerful. Can't make any compromise on competition, ye see. Their houses (read: fragile huts) were destroyed, and the rest was just part of the package which was to be theirs no more. Survival became difficult, if not impossible. Previously, they could graze their sheep and drink its milk or eat fresh fish from flowing lakes or rivers and survive, but now the conditions became worse. You can imagine that. Where did the desperate souls go? Fuel industrial revolution for insanely meagre pays, in insanely inhuman conditions? Well that's what scholars are betting their guesses on.

During the time of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), there was commons land on which poor people used to graze their cattle and perhaps drink water from. Rich and powerful people approached him (PBUH) to allow their cattle to enter it for grazing; to end this economic corruption of Inefficiency and low Producivity; to let free markets reign.

Holy Prophet's Judgement: "rich are forbidden from their entrance into commons land and are instructed to find some other pasture or land for their big flocks, lest they overgraze the rightful share of poor people's pasture."

The judgement given by Prophet (PBUH) is totally opposite to the one given by anti-poor forces and shows the basis of Islamic economics to be welfare of the people and especially the poor.

Adapted from a lecture by economist Dr Asad Zaman, www.asadzaman.net

Success & Humiliation

One Chairman Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission told the following tale to a group of young Pakistani researchers going abroad:

“A man planned to work for an insurance company. He heard about another man in the profession who was very, very successful.

He visited him to seek his advice and left. After 15 days, he came back to him, and said: “I can’t do it.”

The successful one asked, “Why can’t you do it?” The first person replied, “There is too much humiliation in it. People don’t listen to me, they quarrel, they push; they are too humiliating.”

The successful one replied: “I’ve been doing this thing for the last 15 years. People often didn’t listen to me. Sometimes they pushed me. Some even slapped me on my cheeks. But nobody ever humiliated me!”

The moral?