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.

Islam and What’s Happening in the Middle East: Sami Hamdi

This video goes beyond its title to bring us a comprehensive view of how Muslims should view the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza in particular and all of the occupied territories in general, and all that results as a consequence of this. The Houthis have emerged as the heroes and most nominally Muslim countries have emerged as having been hijacked by West-promoted corrupt leaders to the point of being OK with genocide. As always with YouTube, you can adjust its speed and skip around the banter to focus on what matters. This video raised Sami Hamdi’s stature in my eyes to a whole new level. The very emotion that became visible, for which one tends to apologize, is the very thing that let me know he is truly a trustworthy witness to what we are seeing. The word mu’min at its heart means trustworthy in the most thorough sense of the word.

Inspired by Palestinians, Many Now Read the Quran, Turn to Islam

This is such a big thing, especially on TikTok, that Zionists are trying to ban the social media site used by millions, a large number of whom are young people. Meanwhile, Israelis have humiliated themselves on TikTok with videos displaying the utmost arrogance and lack of humanity, so out of touch are they with moral values or actual compassion for people. Their dances are often explicitly sexual, showing the depraved nature of this genocide. On the other hand, the faith and resilience of Palestinians under the most dire of circumstances has inspired untold numbers of people around the world to read the Quran and find out more about Islam, often reverting/converting. But they, and all people of conscience, face an international movement to ban free speech, targeting anyone who opposes the ongoing genocide and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. This is in opposition to democratic principles to circumvent those very principles for the despicable and greedy goals of destroying Palestinians entirely in a total genocide and usurping the oil off their coast.

“Invest your energy in one thing; Erasing Gaza from the face of the earth,” the Likud MK and former public diplomacy minister Galit Distel Atbaryan said. (The Times of Israel)

Lies Mined from the Bible Used to Promote Genocide

I’ve been in a state of dread since Israel began its declaration of “war” – a euphemism for genocide, mass murder, slaughter, sadistic systematic killing of children, women, and men – on an entire region of 2.2 million civilians, not soldiers, kept in an open-air prison surrounded by barbed wire and soldiers with shoot-to-kill orders. Easy targets for an IDF whose conscience has been excised. They are openly and with intent ethnically cleansing all Palestinians including those who have nothing to do with Hamas. Death toll: over 10,000 civilians plus journalists, doctors, and international aid workers, and of course, over 4,000 children. Israeli Zionists are atheists who use selectively interpret Biblical references to promote their war crimes to their ardently blind supporters among Christian Zionist “evangelicals,” a group with an international reach. Meanwhile the real reason for the genocide is oil off the coast of Gaza, technically belonging to the Gazan people. Israel is willing to kill or displace over 2 million human beings in an epic Holocaust for that oil. It’s all about greed and religion is merely a pretext.

This article explains exactly what this biblical reference is all about, making an arbitrary mythological connection between Palestinians and an ancient group of people long gone, and how they invoke this to lure Christians to join the Zionist genocide brigade.

The Meaningful Universe 3 – Dhikr and Memory as Connection

Mentioned in the Quran far more frequently than any form of “thinking,” dhikr (which I also spelled as thikr, which seems closer to how to pronounce it, like the “th” sound in “the” or “this” but dhikr is “standard” transliteration) means “to remember” and also “to invoke,” which can be expressed as “to bring to mind.” To get an idea of how far-reaching memory can be, some “ultraconserved” words have survived 15,000 years pointing to a “deep language ancestry across Eurasia;” ancient oral histories have preserved information later confirmed by science and in a larger scale (showing ancient sea rise, for example) as well; and scientists are aware of memory’s key role in thought processes, described as “an integral part of human cognition, since it allows individuals to recall and draw upon past events to frame their understanding of and behavior within the present…and future.” Memory plays a role across all time-scales, from short-term to long-term within individuals, to untold millennia in “collective memory” which is often preserved through oral tradition. The Quran itself, self-described as Dhikr al-hakeem or “wisdom-remembrance,” is a Divine revelation given to us as both an oral tradition as well as a written book/manuscript. 

The Quranic Mandate to Serve Justice against Oppression

The Quran is full of admonitions stating that believers, those who truly surrender to Allah the Exalted, must work for Truth and Justice. Notice that Justice has to be based on Truth; with a capital T to highlight that Allah Himself is Truth. So we should all be truth-seekers, and based on truth we should fight for justice. How can one be just without some knowledge of a situation, using reason and logic to come to a conclusion that resonates with one’s heart or intuition? We should develop this sense and become seriously passionate about it because it matters immensely in both this world and, as consequences, in the next. This also means that we should be alert to the misuse of religion by people of no faith or morals, as a means of perpetuating their own injustices, “faithwashing” their crimes as “self-defense” or self-preservation, and painting their victims as criminals. For example, this has particular resonance in the case of Zionist Israel and their treatment of Palestinians, as this Quora post eloquently explains.

Muslims Should Not Stand Idly By to Oppression

There is much conflict and egregious oppression going on in the world right now, yet it seems most Muslims are oblivious, content to go and pray in the mosque and Friday, work and live their lives, take care of their families, and that’s it — and this is for the “better” Muslims who actually pray and give Zakat and are certain that Allah is One. And I’ve seen wonderful responses to drives for charity for those abroad suffering from natural disasters. But oppression — the tyranny of those in power over innocent populations — should also concern us. Often it seems beyond help; what can we do about, for example, the Uighurs in China? Or the Rohingya escaping from Myanmar and living (the lucky ones!) in refugee camps? There are agencies to help the Rohinjya and others, but we also need to speak out about oppression and call out those in power who could make a difference. And what about the Palestinians? Where is the Muslim support and activism? Young people and minors are being slaughtered and the media is not covering it. Israel is conducting an “operation” called “Break the Wave” and its name says it all — it’s “not only targeting members of certain factions, but any semblance of confrontation to its colonization of Palestine. Intensifying its use of live ammunition, Israel loosened its shoot-to-kill policy last year. ” Is this even legal?