Allah/God is our only Ballast

Many people who think themselves modern or of a superior worldview disparage religion (although with the ongoing genocide by Israel is changing people’s outlook), and in particular disparage the “idea” of God, as if God was nothing more than an idea. Although this contradicts the narrative of Jewish faith one thinks of in the public sphere, where God is One, ineffable, and interacts with humanity in a very real and tangible way, more or less like Islam, if one examines how the rabbinical and general interpretive stream goes, it tends toward muddying the waters between human and Divine.  As per below:

God is not a static being, but a dynamic becoming. Without human participation, God remains incomplete, unrealized. It is up to us to actualize the divine potential in the world. God needs us.

As for the “dynamic,” this is very true and I’ve often argued that very point, that “God is not a static Being,” as shown in the Quran. But “becoming” can be understood as “not yet realized” whereas Allah the Exalted is completely and fully realized. The problem with this is “realized” in the next sentence in bold which uses the word “becoming” to imply an insufficiency on God’s part which humans supposedly fulfill. This is false and totally contradicts truth. God/Allah is free of need, and does not “need” us at all. The Quran repeatedly tells us this!

O mankind, you are the ones in need of Allah. Indeed, Allah is the Free of Need, the Praiseworthy. (35:15)

Indeed, Allah is our only true Ballast. Without Him, we have neither true north nor south, nor any direction whatsoever, and truth becomes an invention, something anyone can make up, a fantasy, and thus we lose both balance and direction, rendering life itself pointless and meaningless. Which is where the “modern” mindset, denying God/Allah outright, has taken us. Yet many still have their conscience, their innate Fitrah.

The Only “Trinitarian” Verse in the Bible was “Fake” not part of the Original Greek Manuscript

The main difference between Islam and Christianity lies in the concept of Jesus’ “divinity,” which relies on the concept of the “Trinity.” Paul Williams gives us the history of how the single Biblical verse that explicitly describes the Trinity doctrine was actually manufactured to conform with church doctrine and authorities, who confronted Erasmus, who had originally produced a Bible without this verse, and demand he include it, although it wasn’t in the original Greek Bible. He refused to include it at first, but under pressure stated he would include it in a future version, but only if they found a genuine Greek translation that included it. This was in the 16th century.

Du’a of Facing Allah – Du’a At-Tawajhu

This is a du’a combining 3 Quranic ayat, to be recited at the beginning of the salat prayer before Al-Fatiha. It is called du’a at-tawajhu, which means “du’a of facing Allah.” Surprisingly, I found nothing about it online except some “study notes” for the Bayyinah Institute on a separate website that appears to keep such things online, but it gave no explanation of how it is used, just the du’a and a translation with some notes. It’s basically the du’a of prophet Ibrahim (Abraham), connected to a completion of that du’a given to prophet Mohammad at the end of the same sura (Al-An’am), and a powerful expression of faith in Allah alone (monotheism). 

Surat At-Takathir 102 – “Competition for More” vs Justice and Survival

This sura shoots straight to the issue of our time and of all times where civilizations teeter on the brink of collapse, and always for the same reason, greed and the competition for continuous nonstop increase — today, it’s called capitalism, about which journalist George Monbiot says “Capitalism is just a means by which something even bigger is pursued. Wealth.” This is the very subject of this sura: “Vying for more preoccupies you” — more wealth. And that pursuit as it is literally capitalized on and emphasized in modern developed countries as the whole point of life, is actually killing us and destroying the ecosystems we need for the survival of humanity. Not to mention the insanely prevalent injustice to the majority of the human race. Contrary to what we are told.  

The Top Ten Differences Between the Quran and the Bible

Although there are also many similarities (some of which are shown here) between the Quran and the Bible, this post highlights the differences. And they are very important differences! One wonders, would those who base their faith on one benefit from reading the other? And why are Christians so much more averse to reading even part of the Quran than Muslims are to reading part of the Bible? 

Islam vs Kufr: the Futility of Denial (Al-Kafiroon Analysis)

Yellow verses 1 and 6 frame verses 2-4 in center

Surah 109, Al-Kafiroon, is not a straightforward ring composition, but rather takes a form one could describe as “circuitous” that makes a clear point about its subject matter: kafiroon, often translated as “disbelievers,” but the word deniers or denial is closer in meaning to the root word kufr, even in English sounding like “cover” as in “to cover up”:  In the Quran, Truth is Reality, not a “point of view” or “opinion.” “Belief” in English is used to mean an assumption of truth, not reality itself. Denial itself can be a kind of “religion” or path with a focus on worldly values, debunking and mocking Divine wisdom, thus closing one’s heart to it.

Why Do People Find Healing in Nature?

Photo by Author

أَلَمْ تَرَ أَنَّ اللَّهَ يُسَبِّحُ لَهُ مَن فِي السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ وَالطَّيْرُ صَافَّاتٍ ۖ كُلٌّ قَدْ عَلِمَ صَلَاتَهُ وَتَسْبِيحَهُ ۗ وَاللَّهُ عَلِيمٌ بِمَا يَفْعَلُونَ

Do you not see that Allah is exalted by whomever is within the heavens and the earth and the birds with wings spread? Each has known his salat prayer and his exaltation (of Allah), and Allah is Knowing of what they do.

Surat Al-Nur (Light) 24:41

The healing and restorative power of nature is well-documented, and it is essentially free and without side effects. Nature therapy, also called ecotherapy, is the well-documented treatment of many health disorders by immersion in or interaction with “nature”, which refers to any part of creation, especially living things, even when represented in videos, pictures, sounds, or scents from pleasing natural sources. Another article is one of many discussing how such therapy works or can be applied, the how often confused with the why, which is rarely addressed. When children ask “why is the sky blue,” the answer nowadays is usually a scientific explanation of the how. But the child’s probing why may ask a different question: for what purpose or meaning is the sky blue? So in that spirit we ask here the question why is nature such a healing force not so much to know how it works as a mechanism, but what is the root cause and the purpose/ intention of this phenomenon. 

The Fire of Surat Al-Masad and the Light of Surat Al-Ikhlas: Wisdom in their Placement

Ring Composition of Surah 111

Surah 111 Al-Masad, less commonly called Surat Lahab (flame) directly precedes Surat Al-Ikhlas (Sincerity) #112, one of the most important surahs in the Quran, one could say its very “heart.” Since I have seen “connections” between adjacent surahs, I wondered how two so vastly different surahs could be connected. To find the answer, I examined the surah using ring composition, as the illustration shows, supplementing this analysis with other Quranic verses, as well as examining the number of words and letters in this surah, and found some striking results.

Looking Deeper at Tawheed

Tawheed, the bedrock of Islam, is the immutable truth that Allah is ineffably One. It is not enough to say it is “monotheism” because Christians call themselves monotheists, but insofar as they worship Jesus the son of Mary as a god or “incarnation” or God the Almighty, All-Merciful, no, this is not monotheism and it is a violation of tawheed, sometimes translated “oneness.” The Quran is unequivocal and emphatic about this, quintessentially made clear in Surat Al-Ikhlass. In particular one needs to examine the word Al-Samad.

Shifaa or Intercession in the Qur’an: Clearing Misconceptions

One of the ideas commonly taught in Islam is the idea of intercession (Shifaa), in which someone (we shall discuss whom) intercedes on behalf of an individual presented before Allah on Judgment Day. But some misconceptions have made this rather simple idea more controversial.