Social Issues
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Building a Progressive Society
The world today stands at that vulnerable point where Fascism and its parallel ideologies are being appreciated. Politicians, political parties, reformers, modernists, conservatives, traditionalists are all equally riding waves of propaganda and are winning elections or public support. Humanity is being manipulated to accept as reality what may be poles apart from actually being so. Myths are taken as truths, fake news and propaganda make rounds on social media networks like Facebook and Whatsapp every day. What is more worrying is that people with “understanding” having undergone proper modern education from schools and colleges and Universities are being part of it. What then is wrong with the society, or the…
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Instruction of the Student – Imam Zarnuji
Burhan al-Din al-Zarnuji (d. 620 AH/1223 CE), a Muslim scholar, is the author of the celebrated pedagogical work Ta’līm al-Muta’allim-Ṭarīq at-Ta’-allum (Instruction of the Student: The Method of Learning). We took the book for our reading sessions. The following summary would be helpful for the ones who have read the text or joined us in the sessions. These bullets can help in reminding what is already learned, this cannot replace a teacher or the text. Foreword by Hamza Yusuf: Islamic Community is Rooted in Adab. Adab is knowing ones place in hierarchy. Argument for hierarchy “Are they the same – those who know and those who do not” (39:9). “I…
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Relevance of Indian Philosophical Thought
The Indian subcontinent happens to be the home to one of the oldest human civilizations in the world. This civilization that thrived in this part of the world has passed on to us an enormous wealth of literature that deals not just with ethical and moral codes, but also with Philosophy and Science. One of the defining characteristics of the Indian Civilization was its approach to knowledge. While the Greeks would develop sciences for the sake of sciences or they would gain knowledge for the want of knowledge, Indians would have a different world view altogether. They would develop sciences both for the sake of spiritual as well as mundane…
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Intelligence or Good Looks
Historically “white”, “male”, “middle class”, “straight men” have been able to use their minds and not their bodies in order to become valuable in western culture and elsewhere – and they were employed as high-paid decision-makers. In contrast, ethnic minority, female, working-class, trans and queer people have generally had to rely on their bodies in their working lives – in manual, domestic, reproductive, or slave labour, or even sex work. Belonging to a social group whose value is defined through the body is generally a sign of your subordination, which explains why women have been long paying a lot of attention to their bodies and why so many young men…
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Women Liberation – An alternative viewpoint
We do not always realize that an opinion we carry, with all the conviction with which we carry it, may not be our opinion at all. Has it ever occurred to you that what you say may not be the outpouring of your real innate ideas? Has it occurred to you that the ideals you carry may not necessarily have been yours at all? What if the ideals are an import? Is there the slightest possibility that an opinion we think is a well-informed one could have come out not of critical examination but from a blind adhering to a thought which we assume to have emerged out of critical…
