Do you know that the practice of meditation, widely used in the Islamic mystic (Sufi) tradition, increases grey matter concentration in the brain? A group of Harvard neuroscientists led by Sara Lazar, PhD, showed that after eight weeks of meditation, the grey matter concentration increases in areas of the brain which improves learning and memory, regulating emotions, sense of self and having perspective.
----------------------------------- Reference: Sara Lazar Website, https://scholar.harvard.edu/sara_lazar/home Photo: www.pixabay.com With the recent horrific persecution of the Gonabadi Sufi Order in Iran, we must ponder how the Sufi became a target of the extremist Islamic regime in Iran. Contrary to what some say, Sufism is not a sect, but it exists in both Sunni and Shia Islam as a method and approach toward the religion. Sufis, like yogis, are mystics who focus on the purification of their inner self. Many of Islam’s greatest poets and scholars during the Islamic Golden Age such as Rumi, Suhrewardi, Shabistari, Hafez and Saadi were Sufi. In the beginning of the 16th century, when most of Iran fell under the control of the Safavid dynasty, many active Sufi Orders existed throughout the region. The Safavid monarch himself was a Sufi and his dynasty owed its origin to the Sufi Order founded by the mystic Safi-ad-din Ardabili (1253-1334 AD). However, for several reasons including the need to centralize power, the monarchs felt the need to move away from Sufism and establish Twelver Shiism as the state-sponsored religion of the Kingdom. A class of Shia clerics emerged and so did a brutal systematic suppression of Sufism. It is the irony of history that the demise of Sufism came under the Safavids, who themselves came to power as a Sufi network. [1] Since the 1979 revolution, the Iranian government which fears a popular interest in Sufism has intensified its persecution of Sufi Orders. The Sufi lack of interest in exoteric Islam and religious laws have always been a point of conflict between the Sufi and the clerics. The Gonabadi Order is one of the three main branches of Nematollahi Sufi Order which traces its origin to 14th century Iran. Their core ethical beliefs can be summarized as selflessness, generosity, broadness of spiritual vision and religious tolerance. They are devoted to the use of music in their ceremonies and the beautiful writings of Sufi poets such as Rumi. [2] The Iranian clergy who do not agree with the Sufi belief system continue to demolish their centers and find excuses to imprison their leaders. The level of hatred and persecution of Sufi mystics has become so absurd, that Tehran’s Police Chief and Revolutionary Guard Corp General Rahimi went so far as saying that it’s a merciful act on the part of the Iranian regime to not be using RPGs against the Gonabadi dervishes. [3] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Sources include: [1] Anzali, Ata. “Mysticism in Iran: The Safavid Roots of a Modern Concept” [2] UNHCR, The UN Refugee Agency. “Iran: Information about the Gonabadi dervishes…”; [3] Radio Farda. "We Could Have Used An RGP Against Dervishes," says Police Chief. Feb 23, 2018. Here are some important passages from the book "Men in Charge?" by Ziba Mir-Husseini: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Muslim legal tradition does not treat women and men equally. At the root of this discrimination lies the assumption that men are superior to women. Qiwamah (guardianship), as constructed in Islamic classical jurisprudence (fiqh) and reflected in present-day laws and practices, continues to play a role in institutionalizing and justifying discrimination against women. Quranic verse 4:34 is often invoked as the textual basis for this male authority. It reads “Men are qawwamun [protectors/maintainers] in relation to women, according to what God has favored some over the others and according to what they spend from their wealth. Righteous women are qanitat [obedient], guarding the unseen according to what they spend…. Those women whose nushuz [rebellion] you fear, admonish them, and abandon them in bed, and adribuhunna [strike them]….” It should be noted that any translation of the above Arabic words advocates certain interpretation. The translations provided above show the way classical Muslim jurists chose to interpret these words. For these jurists, men’s superiority over women was a given, and it was in accordance with a conception of justice that accepted slavery and patriarchy, and so they naturally interpreted the verse in this light. Ironically, in relation to marriage, only verse 4:34 and no other relevant Quranic verses has become the foundation for the legal construction of marriage. This juristic construct of qawwamun has provided the rationale for legal disparities to this day such as men’s right to polygamy and the ban on women being judges or political leaders. This qiwamah concept is the lynchpin of the edifice of the patriarchal model of family in Islamic law (fiqh). ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Avicenna (980-1037 AD) was a Persian polymath who is regarded as one of the most significant physicians, thinkers and writers of the Islamic Golden Age. Though he was more of a philosopher than a physician, he has been described as the father of early modern medicine. Of the 450 works he is known to have written, around 240 have survived, including 150 on philosophy and 40 on medicine.
Avicenna’s book “The Cannon of Medicine” remained a medical authority for centuries. It set the standards of medicine in Medieval Europe and the Islamic world and was used as a standard medical textbook through the 18th century in Europe. As a philosopher, his major summa, the Shifa (Cure), had a decisive impact upon European scholasticism and especially Thomas Aquinas, Roger Bacon and Duns Scotus. Mulla Mohammad Bagher Majlesi (1629-1699 AD) has been called the precursor to Khomeini and Iran’s current ruling clerics. [1] During the Safavid dynasty era (1501-1736 AD) Shiism was established as the religion of Iran to differentiate the country from Ottoman Turkey, giving tremendous power to the Shia clerics. [2] It was at this time that Majlesi began to exert unprecedented political influence. Majlesi’s books, in particular his Hilyat al-Muttaqin, became well-known in Iran for the first 10 years of the Islamic Republic (1979). Although Majlisi voices nothing more than his own opinion and the dominant cultural patriarchy of his time, he cleverly attributes his opinions to either the Imams or Prophet Mohammad. [2] Surprisingly very few have questioned his sources. His work contains bizarre propositions and his 17th century view on women and their role in society was misogynistic, many of which have been adopted by Shiite clergy up to this day. For example, he wrote that a trait required for a good wife is that she should be zalil (weak or passive)—a woman who can be dominated. She should also be sexually obedient and “listen to whatever her husband demands and whenever he asks for sex she must agree.” [3] Like many orthodox Muslims he opposed Sufi mystics and Schools of Philosophy, saying that seeking of knowledge is a “a waste of one’s life” and worse would “lead to apostasy and heresy.” Majlesi wrote numerous Shia religious text which have been enthusiastically revived and sanctioned by the current Iranian regime. [4] It’s unfortunate that many clerics and scholars continue to rely on such outdated religious materials. And like their patriarchal fathers remain skillful at taking advantage of people’s religious sentiments. [2] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Sources:
According to the Iranian philosopher, Suhrewardi (d. 1191), each human soul had a previous existence in the spirit world before descending into the body. Upon entering the body, the innermost center of the human soul which is immortal and angelic in nature, divided into two parts. One part remains in the spiritual or angelic realm and the other, descended into the prison of the body. This explains the unhappiness or dissatisfaction that man experiences in this world, which is due to his search for his true self, and he cannot be happy until he is reunited with it. Man’s task in this world is therefore, to regain his true self and be reunited with it in order to be whole again. [1] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Source: [1] Moris, Zalin. “Revelation, Intellectual Intuition and Reason in the Philosophy of Mulla Sadra.” 1/27/2018 interesting Similarities between Ancient Anti-Women laws and Today’s Extremist Islamic LawsRead Now It is interesting to see the similarities between some of the ancient discriminatory laws against women and those present today within religious extremist groups such as Iran’s Islamic regime and Afghanistan’s Taliban. For example, Mesopotamia’s Code Hammurabi (1700 BC) allowed men to easily divorce their wives, particularly if they had not borne children, whereas women could only obtain divorce with great difficulty. [1] A text from third millennium BC says that a wife who contradicted her husband should be punished, even have her teeth smashed with burnt bricks. The man’s power over wife, children and slaves was absolute. And the penalty of an unmarried rapist was to marry the woman he had raped. Men were permitted to take second wives or have sexual intercourse with slaves but adultery by the wife was punishable by death. The rules on veiling—specifying which women must veil and which could not—were carefully detailed in laws such as the Assyrian and Byzantine ones. [1] The veil was used to differentiate between “respectable” women and prostitutes. The similarities between some of these laws to the extremist religious teachings are difficult to dispute. How can these similarities be explained except that they have been passed on from one culture to another throughout centuries and continue in the anti-women laws which Islamic extremists enforce to this day? --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Source: [1] Leila Ahmed. “Women and Gender in Islam.” Yale University Press. https://www.amazon.com/Women-Gender-Islam-Historical-Modern/dp/0300055838 Photo: By Milkau_Oberer_Teil_der_Stele_mit_dem_Text_von_Hammurapis_Gesetzescode_369-2.jpg: Luestlingderivative work: Fred the Oyster (talk) -Milkau_Oberer_Teil_der_Stele_mit_dem_Text_von_Hammurapis_Gesetzescode_369-2.jpg, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9812640 Do you know that the great Iranian philosopher, Suhrewardi, who was killed by Muslim extremists in 1191, established The School of Illumination?
He considered discursive philosophy as developed by Ibn Sina (Avicenna) to be only the first, necessary step in the attainment of true philosophy, which must also be based on intellectual intuition or ishraq (illumination). Suhrewardi combined Platonic philosophy, Neoplatonism, the wisdom of the ancient Persians, especially Mazdaean, and Avicennian philosophy in the matrix of Islamic gnosis to create this widely influential school of thought. His masterpiece Hikmat al-ishraq (Theosophy of the Orient of Light) has been translated into English. The school exercised a deep influence not only in Persia, but also in Ottoman Turkey and the Indian subcontinent, and continues to be active to this day. [1] ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Source: [1] Nasr, Seyyed Hossein. “Islamic philosophy from its Origin to Present: Philosophy in the Land of Prophecy.” State University of New York Press. 2006. Photo: www.pixabay.com Do you know the great philosopher Suhrawardi who was killed by Muslim extremists? Suhrawardi was born in Iran in 1154. He learned jurisprudence in Maragheh (located in the East Azarbaijan province of Iran). He then went to Iraq and Syria for several years to develop his knowledge. His life spanned a period of less than forty years during which he produced a series of works that established him as the founder of a new school of philosophy called "Philosophy of Illumination" (hikmat al-ishraq). Like most philosophers he was often accused of heresy by Muslim extremists and was finally killed by them. [1] According to Suhrawardi, all of reality is nothing but light (nur) which possesses various degrees of intensity. In Suhrawardi's metaphysics, the Supreme Light is the source of all existence: The whole universe or all of creation is degrees of irradiation of this Light which shines everywhere while it itself remains immutable. [2] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Sources: [1] Shahab al-Din Yahya ibn Habash Suhrawardi. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. CC BY SA. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shahab_al-Din_Yahya_ibn_Habash_Suhrawardi [2] Moris, Zalin. “Revelation, Intellectual Intuition and Reason in the Philosophy of Mulla Sadra.” As women are at the forefront of protests in Iran, we ponder the reasons why women have been treated as subordinates for so long in so many societies? Was there a time when women were held in high esteem and had favorable positions in society? According to Leila Ahmad, author Women and Gender in Islam, contrary to androcentric theories claiming that the inferior social status of women is based on biology and has existed as long as human beings have, archeological evidence suggests that women were held in high esteem prior to the rise of urban societies. Historical sites such as Catal Huyuk, a Neolithic settlement in Asia Minor (today’s Turkey) dating back to 6000 BC, show women’s elevated and even dominant position. Within this settlement the larger burial platforms contained women and paintings on walls of shrines featuring female figures. This is not the only historical site that provides evidence of women having a favorable position. Archeological evidence indicates that cultures throughout the Middle East including Mesopotamia, Elam, Egypt and Crete, venerated the mother-goddess and held women in high esteem thousands of years ago. Feminist author, Gerda Lerner, has provided the most compelling theory as to why male dominance gained prominence. She suggests that urbanization, importance of increasing the population and providing labor power in early societies led to the theft of women, whose sexuality and reproductive capacity became the first “property” that tribes competed for. The first urban centers of the Middle East rose in Mesopotamia in 3500 BC, and with it the increasing importance of military competitiveness and therefore male dominance. The decline in women’s status was followed eventually by the decline of the goddesses and the rise to supremacy of gods. [1] -------------------------------------------------------------
Source: [1] Leila Ahmad. “Women and Gender in Islam.” Yale University Press. 1993. https://www.amazon.com/Women-Gender-Islam-Historical-Modern/dp/0300055838 Photo: By Elelicht - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=22743701 |
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