Daughter of the West

This excellent article by Tariq Ali on Bhutto and Pakistan is well worth reading in full. Robert Fisk called it “one of the most remarkable (but typically unrecognised) scoops of the year” in his recent piece in the Independent which can be found here. Tariq Ali writes:
Arranged marriages can be a messy [...]

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Comparison of Christian and Platonic Doctrine

I talked briefly about Causality and Necessity a while ago. That was in respect of the impact of Platonic and Neo-Platonic teachings on Islamic philosophy and mysticism. The following article by Phillip Sherrard looks at the same theory of emanation from a comparative approach which is very instructive for us as Muslims. It also tackles [...]

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Sprituality and Intellect

This is an interesting interview with the contemporary philosopher Jacob Needleman about the real meaning of philosophy and its relation to spirituality. Here’s an extract:
MISHLOVE: One has the sense — and I imagine you feel this quite acutely yourself — that contemporary philosophy, academic philosophy, has deviated a great deal from the path that was [...]

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Philosophy and Religion- Allama Iqbal (trans)

Here is a translation of the poem that is recited in the video in the previous post.
What is this sun and what are these starry heavens?
I have yet to understand this continuation of night and day
Am in in my homeland or am I a stranger here?
Seeing this vast and desolate desert fills me with fright
I [...]

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Philosophy and Religion- Allama Iqbal

Here’s a nice little poem from Hz Allama called Falsafa o Mazhab (philosophy and Religion). Its last two verses particularly strike a chord with me these days. Listen, look and enjoy.

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Pakistan in Crisis

Pakistan is in crisis again. Gen Musharraf has declared a state of emergency in the country and began a process of meddling in the judiciary. His stated reason is to counteract the terrorist and extremist threat in the country. This is difficult to believe since his primary targets have so far been members of the [...]

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Causality and Necessity

Another interesting piece related to the previous post.
Discussions of causality and necessity in Islamic thought were the result of attempts to incorporate the wisdom of the Greeks into the legacy of the Qur”an, and specifically to find a philosophical way of expressing faith in the free creation of the universe by one God. Moreover, that [...]

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Neo-Platonism in Islam

Here is a brief but interesting summary of the impact and influence of Neo-Platonisn on Islamic thought by Ian Richard Netton who is the author of a number pf works on Islamic philosophy and mysticism. He writes:
Islamic Neoplatonism developed in a milieu already saturated with the thought of Plotinus and Aristotle. The former studied in [...]

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