wormsngods

[wormsngods]

Ahmed ibn Hanbal and Small Government

We've all heard how Ahmed ibn Hanbal saved Islam in a sectarian sense but I was thinking about how Caliph Al Mamun was very clearly attempting to reach the culmination of the political developmemt that preceded Islam

The Roman Empire had been attempting very fervently to merge the institures of Empire with Church by merging the Greek Orthodox church into itself and harshly crushing minor differences as political dissent whereas in parallel the Sassanians had developed ideas of Farr i.e. the Monarchy being divine favour of Ahura Mazda (God).

The latter finds its earliest trace in Darius attributing his successes to Ahura Mazda but much earlier than this it finds root in god men led cities being taken over by military strong men who institute priesthood as a subordinate institute

The Roman impulse finds root in early roman caesar cults which had collapsed in the face of christianity

Both of these ideas developed alongside a 700 year war between Persia and Rome. This war led to the development of very early forms of the idea of holy war on the roman side.

Maybe Ibn Hisham was not aware of this but by chosing to begin his redaction of the Sirah with the collapse of Jewish Himyarite Yemen in the face of a Roman sponsored invasion by Aksum (Abyssinia), his attempt at bolstering his own yemeni origins ironically preserved what I believe one of the earliest impulses of crusade when the jewish oppression of christians were responded to with the sword by a unified christian effort.

Shortly after in 623 Heraclius presents his massive campaign against the persians as a holy war aimed at regaining the Holy Cities of Antioch, Alexandria and Jerusalem. Most importantly, the true cross.

With the Umayyad state (modeled on roman ideology) the state was viewed as a jihad state perpetually expanding the borders of God's Kingdom, however this impulse neglected the church and the throne which led to the Abbasid Revolution

Al Mamun saw all three and attempted to sieze the future. He named a descendant of the Prophet PBUH and Ali r.a. as his heir and made him his own son in law, he patronised the mutazalites which would give him absolute interpretive and legislative authority over the sharia and he pursued an aggressive policy of expansion.

He saw the Caliph not as a caretaker but as an absolute emperor who ruled both church and state. A warrior god king. The Caliph as a superior successor to Shahanshah AND Caesar.

But.

One man refused to comply.

But how did this save (political) Islam? Wouldn't it seem to have crippled the establishment of a robust absolute empire?

The Buyids (or Seljuks or Mongols)

Within a few decades of Mamun, hordes of shiite turks invaded the caliphate and carved it up among themselves. Most importantly the buyid shahs of Iraq patronised the early scholars of twelver shiism and forced the SUNNI Caliph to show allegiance to the shia cause and participate in muharram mournings.

Only the seljuk invasion ended this humiliation. However if Mamun suceeded. And an absolute Caliph clung on to Empire and God and Prophet. The Buyids might very well have been our end. The reason why the invasion isn't even remembered in our cultural memory is because the Abbasids allowed their regional states to slowly gain independence and foster independent local ideas of statehood.

We look back to that era and see Mahmud Ghaznavid charging into Somnath, cutting down hindus and idols - Indian Islamic Statehood was Ghazwa e Hind

Turkey looks back and sees a migration into Iran and Anatolia where they convert to Islam and cross swords with Rome

Egypt and Syria looks back and sees the Fatimid Caliphate and Saladin

All because one man decided to protect God's rights from an Emperor.

[wormsngods]

netanjahu will be in poland and they are not going to arrest him????????

[wormsngods]

A friend and I were discussing how peace time virtually renders men vestigial and how the only meaningful cope for that is to await 'The Revolution' which is a name we bestowed on an unknown yet cataclysmic event that is in the near future for which we all have to prepare. How? By practising the virtues of bravery, honesty, maintaining kinship ties, forming in groups and physical exercise.

Halfway through the convo I realised we had accidentally reconstructed the Judgement Day. It got me thinking how it was Pax Romana that produced a disenfranchised population living unimportant lives in peacetime that would allow Christianity to spread like wildfire.

Similarly an increased focus on the afterlife appears in India with the second urbanisation period and we see the emergence of Upanishads, Buddhism and Jainism.

The Hebrews in Egypt awaited a Deliverer

The Israelites in Canaan awaited a King

The Jews of Judea awaited a Messiah

The Arabs of Yathrib awaited a Prophet

I shall wait for my Messiah and I will prepare for his wars.

[wormsngods]

The way 'feminist retellings' have become another name for multi-dimensional female characters being white-washed and reduced to misunderstood/wronged/abused woman who does conventionally evil things to protect herself/for the greater good will always make me want to hurl myself off of a cliff.

Often times, these retellings bear no respect for their original text, and simply write to be quoted on tumblr mood boards and praised by booktokers as 'subversive' and 'a new take on feminism.'

I need authors to stop writing feminist retellings until they understand that women can be

1. Evil

2. Ambitious

3. Cruel/unkind/selfish

And gender based violence against these women is not acceptable simply because of their actions. They do not need to be victims of earlier abuse, or extremely kind, or the chosen ones for violence perpetuated against them on the virtue of their gender to be condemned.

[wormsngods]

Cramming pharmacology in the death throes of the Earth. I am far from Eden, but someone needs to memorise the adverse effects of Propranolol.

Descendants who still recall my existence will bear witness to the Second Coming.

[wormsngods]

Forgiveness

Was thinking about how I have a three strikes rule for (new) people before I distance myself. And even with long term friendships, I have a limit to forgiveness. And I think I speak for most of us when I say that very few would overlook something like adultery (prioritising someone else over us).

Yet God forgives all of us every single day. How most of the people who made up the greatest generation (The Sahabah) spent their youth in idolatry and disbelief yet not only did God forgive them their inequities but actively fought on their behalf and honoured them above all other generations.

That alone makes Him worthy of worship.

[wormsngods]

To trade in the reward of Hijrah for the love of his woman. Truly the Sahabah were titans among men.

Muhajir Umm Qais.

In the very beginning of Riyāḍ aṣ-Ṣāliḥīn, Imām Nawawī comments on the Ḥadīth: “Actions are based upon intentions and a man will only be rewarded for what he intended to do and whoever emigrates for Allāh’s Messenger, his emigration will be for Allāh’s Messenger and whoever emigrates for a worldly cause or a woman, his emigration will be for what he intended.”

He explain how basically the origin of this famous Ḥadīth comes from a man who was in love with a woman named Umm Qais.

He sent a proposal to her and she refused and said that she would only marry him if he traveled to Madīnah.

This man did so so, and the two were married.

And because he immigrated to Madīnah just for her, he became known as Muhajir Umm Qais.

I personally found that sort of cute 😂.

[wormsngods]

i have been finally stumbling upon better methods to study. i don't mean borrowing other people's methods online or getting tips, just a deeper understanding of how my brain and my field in particular works so that i am able to see the most efficient ways to get through it. but the issue is since i am starting my graduating semester soon, this realization is closely followed with regret. i regret not doing better in high school and all throughout university. i have been regretting all the imperfect scores along the way and have been mourning my life prior to this new found clarity.

but, i am trying to lock in for finals starting today and i am reminding myself that even ending on a decent note would count and that 20s are still the learning years. and that perhaps my most important work is still ahead of me. perhaps its that final semester. or perhaps it is the year of work and exam prep following that. perhaps my greatest achievements are yet to follow. perhaps it is not too late for the realization of my full potential.

on that note, i really want to see myself even for one week or something to actually live my "full potential" at that moment in time. ofcourse actually reaching the fullness would be quite sad as there would be no room to grow but that is not how it works though. we have potentials in every moment. i just wish i could be present enough, could love myself enough, could be disciplined enough to seize one moment of my fullest potential even if it is super brief perhaps even half a moment or something.

[wormsngods]

I don't care if the characters in the text try to justify it either. Their justifications are not valid 90% of the time anyway.

-Mod S

[wormsngods]

Conquering the Concrete Jungle

Pray 5 times a day

Gym 5 times a week

Warrior Diet

8 hours of sleep

Zn, Mg, Vitamin D supplements

[wormsngods]

As salamu alikum, I'm 25, I was an "exmuslim" for the last 5 years or so and I Alhamdulilah I'm back on seerat al mustaqim, I have interest in Hinduism, Sufism and now Judaism/Hebrew...I like your blog.

I am glad you found my blog of use. Hopefully my ramblings continue to be a source of good God willing.

[wormsngods]

[wormsngods]

“The Deobandis might also be regarded as innovatory in the ways in which they sought to promote their Sufi reformist teachings in the wider community. They were quick to appreciate the advantages of the printed word for spreading their training beyond the immediate circles of the master and students. The printing of fatwas on Sufi questions was one successful method already noted. Others were the translation of religious texts from Arabic and Persian into Urdu and the writing of works intended for a more popular readership. One of the most influential in this category was the Bihishti Zewar (Heavenly Ornaments), written early in the twentieth century by Ashraf ‘Ali Thanawi (1864-1943), 'widely considered the prominent Sufi of modern India’. It is remarkable as a book of guidance directed specifically to Muslim women and, in its Sufi aspects, seeking to develop their spirituality to the same level as that aspired to within the community of Deobandi male shaykhs and their disciples. It is revealing of Thanawi’s attitude that, when asked to write a guidebook for men, he declared this to be unnecessary, as they could equally well benefit from the same guidance, and he merely added an appendix. Bihishti Zewar was intended to reach women of all ages and levels of educational background, including the illiterate, to whom the book could be read aloud within the household. Its lessons were to be repeated and discussed with the aim of effecting a complete reform of the heart. The seventh section of the book is devoted strictly to Sufi concerns. The goal is nothing less than to wean women away from reliance for their salvation on the intercession of holy men and participation in all the customary practices of folk Sufism. Instead they were to take responsibility for working towards such ultimate salvation by constant struggle in the greater jihad. They are reminded: There are two causes that disrupt one’s ability to distinguish good from evil and to secure the reward described above. The first cause is your own lower soul, which at every moment is sitting right in your own lap. The lower soul suggests all sorts of things; it invents pretexts to oppose doing good; it rationalizes the necessity of doing evil. If you frighten it with the fear of torment, it reminds you that God is the Forgiver, the Merciful. On top of this, Satan lends it his support. The second cause of disruption involves those people with whom you have some relationship, whether relatives, acquaintances or neighbours. The women, therefore, are counselled to restrict their social circle to a few trusted, pious people, to remain at home engaged in their religious duties and pursuit of the Path and to seek to guide others along the same lines.”

— Sufis and Anti-Sufis: The Defence, Rethinking, and Rejection of Sufism in the Modern World

[wormsngods]

it's always so fascinating and heartbreaking when a character in a story is simultaneously idolized and abused. a chosen prophet destined for martyrdom. a child prodigy forced to grow up too fast. a powerful warrior raised as nothing but a weapon. there's just something so uniquely messed up about singing someone's praises whilst destroying them.

[wormsngods]

Step Fathers & Masturbation

Tamar and Judah (1667) by Aert de Gelder

Most of us have heard of Onan. At the very least those of us familiar with Christianity during puberty are familiar with him. For centuries, he has been cited as evidence that masturbation is a sin and has filled many a teen with immense guilt. Be that as it may, I re read the passage tonight and noticed something that had passed my notice for years prior.

But I am getting ahead of myself. The story starts in the bronze age when a tribal chief, Judah, has a son with a canaanite woman whom he names Er. Er takes Tamar to be a wife. However YHWH, finds his conduct to be evil and kills him. As per the ancient tribal custom of levirate marriage, Tamar was now to be wed to Er's brother Onan. Onan on marrying Tamar, refuses to impregnate her and instead pulls out every single time they sleep together so YHWH kills him too and the story continues.

That is the story of Onan. Or is it?

That is how most of us remember this story. But there is one little line nestled in there that my brain for some reason passed over every single time I have read this passage. That line is ,"But Onan knew that the child would not be his; so whenever he slept with his brother’s wife, he spilled his semen on the ground to keep from providing offspring for his brother." [Gen 38:9]

Onan's sin was not wasting his semen (although that in itself is not enough to deem masturbation permissible, sorry to disappoint!) but his sin was refusing to raise a child that was not his!* Where else have I heard this before?

Anywhere you go online these days you will see bitter lonely religious young men decry step fathers for being "c*cks" and insulting single mothers with much worse expletives. Why? because in their eyes it is not masculine or just to raise the child of another man. Precisely what was bad enough for YHWH to smite Onan. If YHWH is not directly killing you for your own bitter refusal to be a man and to fulfill your societal duty and letting stupid hang ups like this get between you and love and happiness and health, that does not mean He is not damning you to a slow and miserable destruction.

As you continue reading, Tamar takes on the dressing of a prostitute and proceeds to seduce her father in law and by this act she births twins who will, in time, go on to produce King David and his royal house that as per the new testament culminates in Jesus the son of Mary.

Judah and Tamar (1840) by Horace Vernet

What is the lesson to be learnt from this peculiar passage? Maybe past christians and jews who lived in peace time could not understand as well as we stand to do.

We however live in a time almost as sexually free as that of bronze age canaan. We may see reflections of the onlyfans girls, the step fathers, the born again virgins, the bitter redpill bros in these ancient names who produced mighty men and kings from their human and fallible deeds. and Allah knows best. Amen.

*Levirate marriage required that the parentage of the child be called from the deceased brother

[wormsngods]

I can’t express how important it is to have hobbies in your 20s. To have something you enjoy and look forward to after long work days, tough conversations, and pressures in the real world. You need something to pour into like you’re a child again. The world is expectant, in a rush, focused on outcome. But with a hobby, you can take your time, make it your own, show it to no one, be bad at it, and do it for pure enjoyment without worrying how it will turn out. We desperately need the space to experiment without emphasis on the final product. We need emphasis on the process. Hobbies can teach us how to get back to that space. 

[wormsngods]