Banning books and freedom of expression

[abu Hasan]

sigh. why do you always miss the elephant in the room? i am now skeptical about what you might have understood from all that you have read.

[kattarsunni]

I just about get time to read Sunni Muslim books. And that is excluding reading the Quran (minimum 1 juz) every day, as well as daily awraad, prayer with jama't, attending necessary classes, family and social obligations.

And those Sunni books I read are just in one language.

Maybe once I have read all the Sunni works that are necessary in English, Urdu and Arabic, many of them under qualified teachers who can explain hard passages, then I just may have time to peruse the works of an atheist or a deviant.

But really I should leave that job to the U'lama, who have better intellects and eimaan than I do.

This fake obsession that some western born people, and eastern wannabe westerners have with trying to seem 'open minded' and not 'narrow minded', and 'well read' and 'academic' is not for me.

Mainly because our Sunni ancestors have left enough works to stimulate my mind. Just a lifetime to go through the complete works of Imam Ghazzali, or Imam Razi or any One Sunni Scholar and understand them is sufficient for me as a non-scholar layman.
This alongside so many other tasks like learning my basics.

Why should I be bothered to even look at the work of arrogant individuals who don't even wash their backsides like Hitchen's and Dawkin's when I have so much to do as a commoner?? Just to look 'hip' and 'open minded' and 'reasonable'? And not 'narrow' and 'backwards'?
And all that according to modern Anglo/Judaic standards?

Even to read the whole Quran with a good translation and one excellent commentary is a bigger achievement for someone as common as me...

[kattarsunni]

If my intellectual curiosity and thirst is still too much maybe I should take out 7-8 years and study the dars e nizami syllabus. The syllabus is broad enough that it covers an array of subjects.

http://dawateislami.net/html/index3....partment=Jamia

[Unbeknown]

Alhamdulillah! Faith-refreshing posts.

I am neither 'well-read' nor an 'intellectual-junkie' but being taught in a convent school I had this 'follow-your-dreams' and 'Science is Right' orientation and so at a time when probably none in my city had even heard of them I went on to read: Carl Sagan's 'Cosmos- Reflections on the Romance of Science' and 'Broca's Brain' : Books in which he speaks of "Knowledge for knowledge's sake" and I had these wild dreams of pursuing astrophysics as a career! (That moron Sagan says that why didn't GOD place revelation on the moon for us to find it when we landed there, why should he send it to earth where it can be found so easily without much toil and application of science ! ! )

But, Alhamdullilah, slowly, very slowly, but surely I was guided to REAL scholars-- And despite having read Sagan and Hawkins (and that too at a time when I had nothing to hinder me from considering them to be geniuses) -- I found myself looking UP to them: I had found, at last, what "knowledge" IS.

Wassalam.

[naqshbandijamaati]

My Beloved KS brother! We are talking about minds not backsides. The hygiene habits of Messrs. Dawkins & Hitchens bare no relation to their works.
Another one you could read is Carl Sagan. Please explain to a thick like me what's wrong with reading both the Malfuzat of Sayyidi Alahazrat one week and The Demon Haunted World by Sagan the next?

[abu Hasan]

parable of a person in a grove. in addition to trees that have tasty and nourishing fruit, there are poisonous berries in the bush. while, tasting a few poisonous berries may not kill you, the potential is there for you to overindulge in such berries which can eventually prove to be fatal. even if you don't die, you may get sick. and there may be snakes lurking in the bush.

we are just warning you, but you want to argue with us and prove that beating around the thorny bush with bare hands, is safe. well, good luck.

----
this is plain conceit nj. if you want to run down good advice, why do you ask in the first place? you claim to be a sufi and admirer of sufis, but you do not have the fraction of humility that is required to even begin on this path.

"the wise man checks his nafs, and works for [life] after death; and the weakling follows his desires and still hopes to safety from [the wrath of] Allah."

----
you are possibly not even aware of the psychological games you play. try reading: 'games people play' and you will recognize/relate to some of your own. [if it helps: i read this book in early nineties like his other books.]

Please explain to a thick like me what's wrong with reading both the Malfuzat of Sayyidi Alahazrat one week and The Demon Haunted World by Sagan the next?

sure you can, but what is the point?

when i read malfuzat of alahazrat, i feel diminutive and i feel ashamed of myself and my pathetic life. i am utterly depressed at the state of my affairs and how far removed i am from the sunnah. after a good two or three hour session (of reading malfuzat), i do istighfar many times, and sincerely resolve to be a better muslim. the piety and knowledge of the imam puts me in a thrall - and in spite of feeling insignificant as a small fry in front of the great blue whale, i feel different.

btw, is it just a hypothetical question or have you really read malfuzat? no offence meant, but just asking.

i made a deliberate point to read both hitchen's God is Not Great and Dawkins' The God Delusion to see what the most prominent atheists of today had to say about religion--as a sort of test of my faith

in fact, i deliberately avoided dawkins book and didn't bother about hitchens (as i have read his political drivel - and have little respect for the trash he writes). i chanced upon dawkins book in a relative's place. i read it and found it cheesy, but still supplicated to Allah ta'ala to safeguard my faith. i have never read such a book - whether philosophy or atheism - without istighfar and sincere prayer, before and after for hidayah and to keep us on hidayah. only a blithering idiot would trust his nafs.

you are a very brave man indeed...or extremely foolish.

may Allah ta'ala guide you.

[naqshbandijamaati]

sidi AH,

despite my comments on here i can honestly say that i take what you, in particular, say on here [and elsewhere] to heart. that is because of the respect i have for you. so although i might not do everything you suggest your words of advice DO make me think thrice before i do xyz.

in all honesty, i have all the volumes of Malfuzat Sharif --published as a single volume--and i have read *some* parts of it but have certainly not read it from cover to cover. i do not want to make false claims. astaghfirullah. (i do plan to read it from cover to cover eventually.)

amin at your last dua.

The sixth Imam(a) comprehensively replied to 40 questions posed by Imam Abu hanifah(r) in the court of al-mansur in front of a gathering... after that imam abu hanifa said:

أن أعلم الناس أعلمهم باختلاف الناس
the most knowledgeable person amongst the people is the most knowledgeable of the differences amongst them.

[AbdalQadir]

The Book of Knowledge (English translation, html page) from Imam Ghazali's Ihya:

http://www.ghazali.org/works/bk1-sec-1.htm

I'm still waiting for that sharh NJ.

[Wadood]

Originally Posted by abu Hasan

this is plain conceit nj. if you want to run down good advice, why do you ask in the first place? you claim to be a sufi and admirer of sufis, but you do not have the fraction of humility that is required to even begin on this path.
.

Sincere Sunni having admiration for sufis, and aspiration to be a sufi is enough of humility in this age to begin on this path.

any conceit can be handled later