http://islamfrominside.com/Islam and Islamic issues from a philosophical, mystical, esoteric perspective. A view from the inside looking out.en-ushttp://www.islamfrominside.com/http://www.islamfrominside.com/Thumbnails/TN_IslamTitle2.jpgcopyright 2003-2006copyright 2003-2006Islam muslim mysticism philosophy religion God Allah Chittick Irshaad AdamReligion & Spirituality/IslamIrshaadnoIslam muslim mysticism philosophy religion God Allah Chittick Irshaad AdamPodcast on Islam and Islamic issues viewed from a philosophical, esoteric perspective.Podcast on Islam and Islamic issues viewed from a philosophical, esoteric perspective.This is an XML content feed. It is intended to be viewed in a newsreader or syndicated to another site, subject to copyright and fair use.http://www.islamfrominside.com/Pages/Tafsir/Tafsir(43-36_to_37)remembrance(dhikr)_of_mercy.htmlWhen remembrance (dhikr) of Allah is connected with the aspect of His mercy, that quality of mercy begins to manifest within one's own character - it gains a real, living presence and the heart expands with it's growth....Irshaadhttp://www.islamfrominside.com/Pages/Commentary/Israel.html....Today Israel capitalizes on a name and a difficult history, but this Israel of our era has not within it the character of a promised land....Irshaadhttp://www.islamfrominside.com/Pages/Tafsir/Tafsir(12-100-101)Yusuf%27s%20dream%20-%20the%20sun,%20the%20moon,%20and%20eleven%20stars.htmlAlthough in a narrative sense the sura of Joseph (Yusuf) is one of the most accessible and straightforward chapters of the Qur'an, describing in chronological order the story of Joseph's betrayal by his brothers, his rise to prominence in Egypt, and his reunion with his family, it is simultaneously a narrative whose surface conceals immense depths of meaning....Irshaadhttp://www.islamfrominside.com/Pages/Tafsir/Tafsir(12-36)Dreams%20in%20Sura%20Yusuf.htmlSince the language of dreams is a cloaked, symbolic language - a language of ideas, concepts, and truths embodied into various forms, into bodies and events that symbolize the true meaning - because of this it remains opaque to most. They do not know how to interpret so they shake their heads and say "confused dreams"....Irshaadhttp://www.islamfrominside.com/Pages/Articles/Words%20on%20a%20page.htmlThe Qur�an is not words on a page - the Qur�an is not the Qur�an until its verses take shape in the mind, connect and confirm one another, and its unfolding contents settle into the heart - only then does it begin to speak its magic within us. It speaks its content not with words and sounds but with a transformative alchemy....Irshaadhttp://www.islamfrominside.com/Pages/Articles/We%20have%20adorned%20for%20each%20society%20their%20acts.htmlPeople encompass multiple existences, multiple levels of dealing and interacting with the world. The foremost level is an individual level - the level of a single person or single self (nafs) and the moral and ethical life and behavior of that person within the milieu of small scale interactions. This is the level at which most people relate to religion and ethical life - they see religion as an individual spiritual quest, morals and ethics as an individual�s responsibility, religious life as an individual struggle within their own nafs (soul) and characterized by their own behavior....Irshaadhttp://www.islamfrominside.com/Pages/Tafsir/Tafsir%2811-7%29Six_days_of_creation.htmlTime has a mysterious existence, a nature that is, as yet, unfathomable to us. It does not have any immediately evident, firmly graspable reality such as that found in material objects (and even our understanding of matter succumbs to mystery as we peer deeper into its innermost structures)....Irshaadhttp://www.islamfrominside.com/Pages/Tafsir/Tafsir%2811-49,50%29Ad%20and%20Hud.htmlThe prophet's knowledge of past events and histories was deep, his ability to read and perceive the minute invisible traces that connect a place to it's spiritual history was through the connection of his own being to the plane of the unseen. The Qur'an relates the essentials of the story of Hud - whatever is required for guidance, but the prophet's own link with higher levels of existence enabled him to perceive with clarity the detail and richness of events that had transpired - down to their minute individual elements....Irshaadhttp://www.islamfrominside.com/Pages/Articles/ParadoxForAmodernAge-A_god-eat-godWorld.htmlHere is a paradox for a modern age which seeks to do away with the Divine, to remove it from their frame of reference and erase it from the public sphere. "Those who have no belief set up rivals to their Lord" (Qur'an 6:1). But how can those who disbelieve in God set up rivals to their God?....Irshaadhttp://www.islamfrominside.com/Pages/Articles/ClimbingTheAscendingPathways.htmlLike the mystical alchemists who used the chemical transmutations of the elements as a symbolic representation of an inner transmutation of their heart and soul, the ascent of a mountain, the rise above the forest line into the rarefied atmosphere and stunning beauty of its heights, the sweeping, arcing view of the earth below - these are representative of a parallel ascent within the nafs (the soul)....Irshaadhttp://www.islamfrominside.com/Pages/Tafsir/Tafsir%2811-5,6%29Transparency.htmlWhile the Qur'an points out that existence is absolutely transparent before God, it also points out that God has drawn many veils over his creation and that some of these veils are veils of privacy placed as a mercy and as a token of dignity and respect between people. These are veils which it is an injustice and a violation to remove - levels of privacy which are to be upheld....Irshaadhttp://www.islamfrominside.com/Pages/Articles/What%20is%20truth%3F.htmlJesus said, "To this end was I born, and for this came I into the world, to bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth hears my voice. Pilate then said unto him, What is truth?" (John 18:37-38) Pilate's response is a fascinating one. "What is truth?", he says, but he does not voice the question as a genuine query - it is a rhetorical question, a statement describing reality as Pilate observes it - there is no truth, there are only constructed ideologies and practical necessities and people act based upon these and function within the social/economic/political realms generated by these constructs. Right and wrong, truth and justice exist only within the relativistic confines and context of these constructs....Irshaadhttp://www.islamfrominside.com/Pages/Articles/Fast%20until%20the%20night%20%28Ramadan%29.htmlAnd so the qur'anic command is issued: "...fast until the night...." (Qur'an 2:187) Fast from what the nafs needs and desires. Let the nafs know that there is a truer aspect of yourself, a center capable of overseeing and stabilizing all the intersecting mental systems of the mind and all the material/chemical/habitual/hormonal systems of the body. Proclaim to it that there is a guardian and owner and ruler over the nafs and over the physical form with which it is integrally co-mingled. Let it know that the form and the stirrings of need and desire within the nafs have to submit to this guardian in seeking their satisfaction. The wants, needs, and desires that spring from the material form must submit to the governance and tutelage of a higher form - to the spiritual form indicated by the hadith that states: "God created Adam in His own form...." (hadith)....Irshaadhttp://www.islamfrominside.com/Pages/Articles/Hermeneutics%20of%20takfir.htmlThe myriad facets of intellectual expression historically inspired by the Qur'an and the profound and deep hermeneutics that flowered in various historical forms and in various schools of thought stands in stark contrast to the vicious tail-swallowing vision of an ideology of takfir. For most of Muslim history, the ideology of takfir was a troubling but well-contained side-issue. In recent times, in a strange historical aberration wrought by vast global political changes, it has come into a position of destructive prominence....Irshaadhttp://www.islamfrominside.com/Pages/Commentary/Rules%20of%20misdirection.htmlLike a magician working his sleight-of-hand deceptions to deceive and misdirect the eye, political sleight-of-hand artists work their deceptions to deceive and misdirect a society's collective mind and attention. The mass media provide the stage on which the theatre of deception unfolds and on which the audience's rapt attention remains focused. It's large scale spectacle, full of drama and emotion, fear and prejudice, ideological politics and dubious aims, but ultimately hollow and bitter as these magicians are not working a benign entertainment but applying deceit and duplicity with devastating mendacity.....Irshaadhttp://www.islamfrominside.com/index_of_verses.html(Updated this index to include recently added articles) Here is a compiled reference list of all the Qur'anic and Biblical verses referenced on the Islam from inside website, as well as links to the specific articles in which those verses appear. The Qur'anic verses are listed in sura and verse order....Irshaadhttp://www.islamfrominside.com/Pages/Tafsir/Tafsir%2839-42%29-Sleep%20and%20Death.html....It is not only the thing seen that is of importance but the vision and the perspicacity of the one doing the seeing. God always has a relation of nearness to us - "He is nearer to you than your life- vein" (Qur'an 50:16) But for us to draw nearer to Him, we have to embark on a journey of knowledge of what is configured within our own selves. This becomes possible through the substantive bond we have with God through our nafs.....Irshaadhttp://www.islamfrominside.com/Pages/Tafsir/Tafsir%289_102_to_106%29.html"....We all have inner convictions and determinations, we all have intentions and aims that are beneficial to ourselves and to those around us. For many of us these convictions and determinations and intentions often live and die within us...."Irshaadhttp://www.islamfrominside.com/Pages/Commentary/Danish%20cartoons%20and%20desacralization.html"The Danish cartoons which caricatured the Prophet in different ways (including depicting him wearing a headdress shaped like a bomb), has stirred up, not surprisingly, a hornet's nest of controversy. It is yet another (in this case, somewhat silly) manifestation of an ongoing process in which secular society, acting according to an internal impulse, periodically lampoons various sacred icons. The cartoons could have confined themselves to satirizing specific politically motivated actions and still made their point, but instead targeted the principal foundations of the faith (the Prophet and the Qur'an). Reversing the values and meanings traditionally associated with religious iconography, personages, and texts is a common mechanism....Irshaadhttp://www.islamfrominside.com/Pages/Articles/Raising%20Children.html"....Some time back I was involved in a series of internet discussions on raising children in which Christian scripture was quoted to emphasize the importance of using discipline and training to rigorously mold a child to a particular mindset. The concern in the discussion was with the use and application of Christian scripture in a way that did a disservice to the scripture itself....Irshaadhttp://www.islamfrominside.com/Pages/Tafsir/Tafsir%287-94%20to%2095%29.html"....Any turning away from something also involves a turning towards something else. This is the nature of the world. In the hadith describing the creation of aql (intellect) and ignorance, God commands the aql and it responds by turning towards Him, He then commands ignorance and it turns away from Him. So any turning away from His Mercy, or any arrogance towards His guidance indicates the beginnings of ignorance'....Irshaadhttp://www.islamfrominside.com/Pages/Articles/Empire%20and%20Hegemony.html"Then leading him to a height, Satan showed him in a moment of time all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor and said to him, 'I will give you all this power and glory of all these kingdoms....worship me then and it shall be all yours.' Then Jesus replied, 'Be off, Satan! For scripture says: You must worship your Lord, your God and serve him alone.'....Irshaadhttp://www.islamfrominside.com/Pages/Articles/Knowledge.htmlKnowledge shapes and defines - it lays some limits and demolishes others - it provides a template, an unfolding genome from which both individual understandings and societal forms emerge. We as individuals have control over knowledge, but so also does knowledge have a powerful control over us - impacting our consciousness and unconsciousness, affecting us both overtly and subtly. Our knowledge is not a thing apart from our selves but rather a complex ocean of interactions....Irshaadhttp://www.islamfrominside.com/Pages/Tafsir/Tafsir%2810-31%29.htmlGod is the author of life and death? He creates things with the capacity to receive life under certain circumstances, and sets up the systems by which physical matter organizes into complex forms and comes alive. Within these systems He also sets up the conditions and parameters (health, nourishment etc.) within which life continues, and the limits (old age, disease, injury etc.) beyond which it will be withdrawn, revealing the death eclipsed and concealed within the living....Irshaadhttp://www.islamfrominside.com/Pages/Podcasts/Fall%20of%20Adam%20podcast.htmlSeveral years ago William Chittick gave a lecture at our local university on Ahmad Sam'ani's view of Adam's fall as elaborated in Sam'ani's work, "The Ease of Spirits in Explaining the Names of the All-Conquering King" ("Rawh al-arwah fi sharh asma' al-malik al-fattah"). It's a fascinating and beautiful lecture (reflective of the excellence of Chittick's work in general) and I have wanted for some time to make it available online but did not feel right doing so without first obtaining Chittick's permission. I was recently put in contact with him and he has very graciously, granted permission. The lecture is now available as a podcast. You can listen to it here or subscribe/listen to it as a podcast in iTunes....Irshaadhttp://www.islamfrominside.com/Pages/Articles/What%20do%20we%20know.htmlEach person carries within themselves their own reality-distortion field - this consists of all the layerings of experience, opinion, tendencies, habits, desires, genetic dispositions, physical structure, psychological structure, societal and parental imprintings, media influences, educational influences, religious background, information and mis-information, knowledge and ignorance, proclivities, traditions, interpretations, encounters, and internalized worldviews that have accumulated within the individual and have over time left their traces and marks and given a shape and contour to that person's outlook - this is their internal landscape and it is one that may shift and change and assume new contours over time as an interactive feedback loop occurs between the individual and all the varying layers and levels active in the societal worlds with which they interact and in the complex interworkings of their internal world....Irshaadhttp://www.islamfrominside.com/Pages/Tafsir/Tafsir%286-73%29.htmlThe blowing of the trumpet in this verse signifies the calling of everything that is in the heavens and earth to an accounting. It signifies a transformation of all existence....Irshaadhttp://www.islamfrominside.com/Pages/Articles/The%20Concept%20of%20Intellect%20in%20Islam.htmlImagine that the computer screen and all activity on the screen represents the world of material existence. The screen is considered as the horizontal dimension of the computer. A program is running that simulates a small universe complete with simulated beings....Irshaadhttp://www.islamfrominside.com/Pages/Tafsir/Tafsir%286-74_to_79%29.htmlThese verses describe the spiritual vision and state of certainty granted to Abraham as a gift from Allah. In a series of revelatory or intellectual unveilings, the Reality behind existence - it's true nature - was manifested....Irshaadhttp://www.islamfrominside.com/Pages/Tafsir/Tafsir%2833-67%29.htmlThis world is, in a way, a projected image of the human mind. If some characteristics are more prevalent in the world, perhaps it is because those minds, those societies with such characteristics exert greater effort, leverage more resources, and therefore exert greater influence....Irshaadhttp://www.islamfrominside.com/Pages/Tafsir/Tafsir%288-11%20to%2018%29.htmlThe verses on the first battle the Muslim's engaged in are very unique in the manner in which they combine details about the events and the physical aspects of the battle with a spiritual commentary that makes it clear that there was far more happening than simply an encounter between two opposing forces....Irshaadhttp://www.islamfrominside.com/Pages/Articles/Ecology%20Environment%20and%20Islam.htmlWhen the power of his relationship to God is applied without the temperance of the responsibility of the trust, man misuses and abuses the abilities, potentials, and rights given to him by God. Nature has been given to man as a trust and nothing more....Irshaadhttp://www.islamfrominside.com/Pages/Articles/History%20and%20Perception.htmlAt its best, our era is not graced with serenity. These are event driven times, full of motion, movement, turmoil - an antithesis to contemplation and careful consideration....Irshaadhttp://www.islamfrominside.com/Pages/Articles/A%20Children%27s%20Story.htmlThere was once a King with a vast kingdom. He was a very great King, good, fair, just, merciful, loved deeply by all his subjects, by all the creatures in His kingdom. His was not an ordinary kingdom. He ruled over all of nature, the mountains, streams, skies, and the wide earth whose strength supported all of these....Irshaadhttp://www.islamfrominside.com/Pages/Tafsir/Tafsir%287-152%29.htmlThe qur'an tells the story of how Samiri deceived the people with the golden calf. When Moses departs for Sinai, his whole being is suffused with the power of the Divine attraction that calls him to Itself. Samiri notices something in the dust of the footsteps of Moses....Irshaadhttp://www.islamfrominside.com/Pages/Tafsir/Tafsir%2810-104%29.htmlThe Prophet (s.a.) remains silent about his nature until he is commanded to speak - this silence and reticence in the absence of a direct command is a sign of his true servanthood....Irshaadhttp://www.islamfrominside.com/Pages/Articles/Jesus%20-%20An%20Islamic%20Perspective.htmlThe Islamic position on Jesus can never be understood through attempts to disprove the Christian claims concerning Jesus - this method will only give one a picture of what Jesus is not. Only by placing him within the theological, ontological, and spiritual context of Islam is it possible to gain some insight into the place of Jesus in Islam....Irshaadhttp://www.islamfrominside.com/Pages/Tafsir/Tafsir%285-116%20to%20120%29.html"Son of Mary" - This is a title that occurs only once in the New Testament in Mark 6:3 where someone asks, "Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary?" Mark's gospel was the earliest - the closest to the source - and the one that was used as a basis for the other gospels. It is a phrase that is used throughout the Qur'an as an honorific title for Jesus....Irshaadhttp://www.islamfrominside.com/Pages/Tafsir/Tafsir%2810-105%29.htmlA hanif is one who verifies - so no matter what society or time he lives in, he arrives at the truth through awakening and cultivating the nature that God has placed within him - so the hanif does not deviate when society deviates - he does not follow where society leads....Irshaadhttp://www.islamfrominside.com/Pages/Tafsir/Tafsir%2810-30%29.htmlThe qur'an speaks of two resurrections that take place after death ? the first is in the barzakh and the second is at the final judgment. A person?s life is likened to a book ? with each thought, word, and action, they are writing on the pages of their soul....Irshaadhttp://www.islamfrominside.com/Pages/Articles/The%20concept%20of%20time%20in%20the%20Quran.htmlWhen the Qur'an talks of past events it often speaks of them as if these events exist within our own memories or in a collective human memory as an integral part of our own selves and of our human heritage and nature....Irshaadhttp://www.islamfrominside.com/Pages/Articles/Marriage%20in%20Islam.htmlThe term nikkah which is used for marriage is also used figuratively to describe the coming together of various aspects of creation. For example it says, in the Qur'an, that "the rain married the soil" and then it describes how, from this intimate mingling, something new springs forth - that the earth brings forth flowers and herbage, it opens to new creations, new life, new potentials....Irshaadhttp://www.islamfrominside.com/Pages/Articles/AroundtheKabba.htmlFrom a society in which religion and religious symbolism exist tenuously, vaguely, on the periphery of daily existence, I fell headlong into a concentrated centre of piety, where religion and its most potent symbols exist with the compact density and power of a black hole humming at the core of a galaxy....Irshaadhttp://www.islamfrominside.com/humorindex.htmlAn all male Muslim conference was forced to go co-ed when more women than men showed up for the conference's opening day. The organizing commitee for the World Organization for Male Muslim Youth in North america (WOMMYN) were startled to find that their first conference had drawn a largely female crowd of convention goers. "I don't know how a misunderstanding of this magnitude could occur, the very name of our group makes it quite clear that this is an organization only for male Muslim youth", said the executive spokesman.....Irshaadhttp://www.islamfrominside.com/humorindex.htmlWe first broke the story on growing cellphone usage by religious pilgrims 3 years ago - well, not really, but we would have broken the story if we were a credible news organization...um...and if this site had actually existed 3 years ago...and...uh... if we'd actually gone to Mecca and seen some pilgrims. Well today we're making up for lost time....Irshaadhttp://www.islamfrominside.com/humorindex.htmlThere's a new style of progressive Islam that's sweeping the North American Masjid scene - a style that combines the sass and cool of hip-hop with the spirituality of Islam - and this is one wave that's stirring big controversy as it washes over the Muslim community. "We like to do things our way - there's lots of room for personal expression in our deen and this is our way of expressing our own style." said amateur breakdancer and progressive Muslim spokesperson, Boogaloo Shoobadoo Afeef after praying salat at the local mosque. "Style is important my man and these masjids have to get with the flow - it's wack that they make us line up "military-like" at Jumaa - that ain't happenin...you know - it's like so...old-style." B-boy Omar Khaladoo Islam poplocks his joints like a robot as he performs his salat....IrshaadIrshaadnonadult