Thoughts on the end of the daytime coffee ban
The month of Ramadan now over, I rather wish it wasn't, because I had finally, towards the last week of the month, managed to balance studies with the schedule changes and other demands of fasting. I suppose I could carry the new pattern over so that I can continue to be productive at school.
I don't have much of my own to contribute in terms of what this post is titled, only that while I should be looking forward to drinking all the coffee I want, after a month of daytime abstinence I don't feel the same craving for it anymore. I guess that's a good thing.
I did find this discussion of interest. It is not your usual "virtues and spiritual benefits of fasting" type material. The post and the subsequent back-and-forth touches on some complex issues, including religious authority, attitudes towards women, knowledge and certainty. There are some heavy post-modernist undertones, and in that sense it is really not about Ramadan at all, even though that is the context. Similar discussions could take place in other religious traditions as well.
I don't have much to say about post-modernism at this point. For a treatment of this (from a Christian perspective), Peter has a couple of posts here and here. I'll leave it to other more qualified people like Junaid to offer an Islamic perspective if they wish.
5 comments:
Assalam u Alaikum,
Hello Ali bhai! :)
Insh'allah you are good.
I know this is off-topic however I wanted to contribute to the converstation and say that I miss Ramadan as well. But we dont have to miss Ramadan as we can make everyday Ramadan. I know we wont get as much thawab but insh'allah Allah is great. Keeping the fasts of Shawal, I feel I am not as nostalgic of Ramadan as I was soon after Ramadan ended.
Insh'allah May Allah make everything easy for you.
Jazakallah
Wassalam
Omar, I'm not sure if postmodernism / deconstructivism can be dismissed away so plainly as you put it. I am by no means defending it, indeed I couldn't because I really haven't read up on it at all, but I'm not comfortable equating it with pure and simple relativism (just yet).
I think there is more to the postmodern inquiry than that. It might seem to fall victim to itself - the old criticism that being anti-foundationalist or relativist paradoxically requires one to be foundationalist about antifoundationalism/relativism. But I think this is only a prima facie reading of it.
Here, especially in the context of religion, such as Islam, I think a distinction needs to be made between metaphysical and epistemological truth. That is, what is true and how we can know what is true. So, one (a sort of pseudo-postmodernist) might be a believer in God, the supernatural, divine revelation etc. and consider that to be the truth, without any claims to the nature and meaning of these metaphysical entities, or claims to certainty about what exactly is meant by, say, commands in the Quran, the tradition of the Prophet Muhammad, why one interpretation is "right" and the other "wrong", or some "more right" than others, or why one group of scholars or school should be preferred over another etc.
This is not the same as requiring a rational explanation for everything.
Admittedly, this line of critical thinking raises more questions than it gives answers, but this is key to postmodern thought - it is not so much a definitive set on its own but a method of inquiry.
You might want to take a look at this discussion Junaid and I had a little while ago in one of my earlier posts. We never finished it, but it touches on some of these same ideas.
And Omar, I think you might have meant skeptics, not sophists?
Good points Omar, but I don't think the post on Aqoul was meant to have any of the intentions that you mentioned. In fact, I looked very differently. That brother's sentiments mirror that of others that I know, where he looks at himself as a hopeless sinner, and therefore questions the sincerity of whatever righteous actions he may perform because he feels like such a hypocrite the whole time. I don't think the brother's intention was to justify any of the bad deeds he was committing, and he seemed full aware that he was sinning.
In previous experiences, I find that people who experience this feeling find it difficult to establish in their hearts that humans were created to sin, and that our very acts aren't even created by us; whatever we may have done in the past is gone, and we must therefore check our intentions in the present and future. This is, of course, easier said than done and does not eliminate the feeling of depression one may have, but one must not despair of the mercy of Allah. As the Prophet said, it is only through the mercy of Allah the we will be granted Jannah, and nothing else. Our counterfeit payments will probably amass to nothing on the scales, including the most pious of us.
What was said about women was also profound and very true. They are definitely placed on a pedestal of virtue, and have no say in it. This is not exclusive to Muslim society however, but occurs in modern Western society as well. The best example of this is how a guy can get away with being promiscuous and even praised, but a woman cannot or else risk being called something derogatory.
Salman, thanks for your comment. It is useful definitely, only that Omar and I weren't talking so much about what is in the actual post than in the discussion that followed the post. Also, I believe the post is by a girl/lady, not a guy.
Omar, sophist is right, from the clarification you made. I'm not sure though what you mean by sketchy assumptions. It appears that any assumptions being made here are by you! Sorry if I have misunderstood.
Perhaps you are right - we seem to be on different pages and any further clarifications and explanations will inevitably take up a lot of time. Maybe in the near future I'll write out my thoughts more clearly in a separate post. Don't hold your breath though.
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