By Adley on Saturday, August 22, 2009 1:10 PM

Peace to all,

This is my first blog post in DRC -- thanks a lot to brother Arnold for giving me a spot. I am still preparing an actual entry for this blog, so this introductory post will not be too specific. If you happen to have read my short bio, I would be dealing mostly with how the qur'an can relate to us in a human way. What is that supposed to mean anyway?

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By General on 8/21/2009 5:55 AM

by Mustafa Abu Sway

 

Introduction: Allah (SWT) created humanity and, out of His mercy, He bestowed on humanity proper guidance throughout its history. The story of Adam (AS) in the Qur’an shows that he received instruction and revelation, before and after his time in the Garden. Humanity’s beginning was, therefore, an informed one. The instructions that Adam (AS) received were to equip him with the knowledge necessary to relate to his environment and to warn him against satanic temptations:     “And He taught Adam the names of all things…” Qur’an, 2: 31     “Then We said: “O Adam! Verily this is an enemy to thee and thy     wife: so let him not get you both out of the Garden, so that thou art     landed in misery.” Qur’an, 20:117 Despite all warnings, Adam (AS) gave in to Satan’s evil whispering. Nevertheless, Allah SWT chose him for his grace: “He turned to him, and gave him guidance.” Qur’an, 20:122 When Adam (AS) was dismissed from the Garden along with his spouse, after Satan...

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By General on 8/21/2009 5:50 AM

The Principles of Islam The history of science is often regarded today as the progressive accumulation of techniques and the refinement of quantitative methods in the study of Nature. Such a point of view considers the present conception of science to be the only valid one; it therefore judges the sciences of other civilizations in the light of modern science and evaluates them primarily with respect to their "development" with the passage of time. Our aim in this work, however, is not to examine the Islamic sciences from the point of view of modern science and of this "evolutionistic" conception of history; it is, on the contrary, to present certain aspects of the Islamic sciences as seen from the Islamic point of view. To the Muslim, history is a series of accidents that in no way affect the nontemporal principles of Islam. He is more interested in knowing and "realizing" these principles than in cultivating originality and change as intrinsic virtues. The symbol of Islamic civilization is not a flowing river,...

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By General on 8/21/2009 5:45 AM

In my book "Al’Kitab W’al Qu’ran" (The Book and the Qu’ran), published in 1990, I addressed fundamental questions, such as: What is the basis for authority? What is the basis for our relationship to one another, or to the state? To what extent our ideas have been shaped by reading, or a misreading, of fundamental religious texts, particularly the Qu’ran? If someone listened to programs about Islam on Arab televisions, he or she would see that the shaykhs preaching on TV say that Islam is good and Muslims are not good, as if Islam is something free in space. My understanding of meaning of Islam and of the situation of the Muslim world, starts with the definition of what Islam is. I differentiate between "Islam" and "Islamization". "Islam" as such is the holy Qu’ran. But "Islamization" is what people see in the phenomenon, which can be understood by sociology. There is no need for a new Islam, but there is a need for a new Islamization, because Islamization is bounded by history and geography, unlike Islam...

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By General on 8/21/2009 5:41 AM

One can summarize the philosophical presuppositions of classical physics in the following way:   There is a physical reality independent of us. This reality is understandable, and the aim of physics is to understand this reality as it is.   This reality is decomposable into recognizable components and each component can be described in terms of some definite properties such as mass, electric charge, etc.   Macro-objects consist of micro-objects, and one can describe the behavior of macro-objects in terms of the behavior of micro-objects.   The time evolution of every system is such that every state of the object is causally determined by its earlier state.   Our knowledge of the behavior of physical objects is obtained through observation and experimentation, and the effect of the observation process on the observed system is negligible and is, in any case, calculable. In short, classical physics believed in an objective reality independent of us, and in our ability to get a true picture of this reality....

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By General on 8/21/2009 5:19 AM

Women's Rights in the Islamic World Equality, Not Just before the Law In recent years, women's rights activists in Arab countries have been working hard to improve the lot of women, not only by calling for new laws to be passed, but also by ensuring that they are enforced too. Martina Sabra highlights a few typical examples from the Arab world. Arab women's rights groups are working hard to ensure that not only are laws improved, but that they are enforced too Widad Naggar (not her real name) does not know how old she is. "I guess I'm 46 or so," says the mother of four children from Helwan, one of Cairo's poor neighbourhoods. Widad's birth was not officially registered, so she cannot tell how old she is. Hundreds of thousands of other Egyptian women share her fate. For decades, Widad had neither birth certificate nor identity card. She was unable to vote and could not handle official formalities on her own. Her husband Magdi had to accompany her whenever something needed to be sorted out at school or with the authorities – because of her lack of papers. "I often felt very ashamed," she says....

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