Applications of Free Will

A keen study of free will would suggest to you that it does not really matter whether you have it or not. What would matter most is that as long as you have some degree of freedom in choosing and doing things in one way or the other, you would prefer to pursue your goals. If you are an athletic type, you may want to enroll in a gymnasium and develop a great body. You may also train to become a kick-boxer. And as soon as you have learnt something about the art, you may find your heartiest adversary and you may apply a perfect flying kick right on one of his jaws. This, however, depends on how you define virility. Even if you do not care much about the masculinity of your approach, or rather if you are a person of a nonviolent type, even then you may want to do something with your newly learnt martial arts skills and your toned body. You might at least go to a beach, take your shirt off and stand in the knee-deep water. All of a sudden you stretch and raise your right leg above your head,  so quickly so as to create a great splash in the water. You get yourself photographed. Congratulations! You are in the news now!! You are Jean Claude Van Damme!!!

The above narrative was one of the many examples of how a person can hone and use one's mental and physical faculties. It was supposed to be funny! The debate that whether humans have free will or not is a totally different one. In as much as the subject may sound trivial or insignificant from a practical point of view, its study has rather serious applications in various scientific and academic disciplines that concern human development and well-being in one way or the other. These are social science, psychology, human behavior, neuroscience, law, politics, philosophy, war and religion, to name but a few.

For the purpose of brevity it may be worthwhile to look at the importance of this subject from the vantage point of its relevance in studying neuroscience. I believe that neuroscience is one such area which has started to dominate many other spheres of life in today's interdisciplinary world. It attempts to study things as simple as emotional well being of humans to issues as complex as motivations behind peoples actions and their repercussions on social order and legislation.

Consider psychology and mental health, for instance. Why do people choose to be angry when they can smile? Why do people choose to steal things from others while they could simply have helped an old person cross the street?

A very interesting reason for studying free will is to understand human consciousness. Analysis of human consciousness is a very hot topic these days. On a coarse level it tries to understand the human consciousness and along with that whether or not it survives bodily death or not. In either case, that is, whether or not human consciousness survives bodily death, it becomes quite interesting and important to understand as to how to live this earthly life happily and peacefully? What forms a healthy coexistence? What is the role of religion in our lives? This and many other interrelated questions urge us to study the nature of free will. May Allah help us all to live and coexist peacefully.

Understanding Free Will

The subject of free will has fascinated me for a long time. I have wanted to learn about the subject for a number of reasons. The first time the subject drew my serious attention has a rather boring description. But the event was that a few acquaintances had broached up the topic and were trying to explain to each other what it means for a person to have free will. I had to remain quiet because I had no concrete explanation of the subject in my mind. However, that was the first time the subject drew my serious attention. Ever since then I have been interested in studying about various other reasons too. Why do people behave in one way or the other? Why do siblings fight with each other whereas they could be affectionate with each other at the very same time. Similarly, why should we be jealous of a friend or cousin when he/she tells us about his/her recent achievement, whereas we could have felt happier and could have had a congratulatory appearance at the same time?

Why should we prefer to choose one thing over the other? Are we free to make our choices and act on them? And what are the consequences of acting upon our choices, no matter how good or bad they are? Why does a good person end up in a jail and a person who is perceived to be mean by people become a member of the parliament? These and many other questions inspired me to read and understand about the subject of free will. This article is a summary of my understanding that I developed after reading articles from various writers. I must mention that the explanations I have found most lucid about this subject are those of Sam Harris.

On a very coarse level free will can be defined as the ability to make choices under certain constraints. This means that a person is both free to choose and also act upon his/her choices while not violating the constraints which define boundaries for his/her actions. A more refined definition of free will is the ability to choose. The ability to act is called as volition. Another term that is associated with free will is determinism. The theory of determinism suggests that everything we do or choose to do is already predetermined and that we are not free either in making choices or in acting upon them. Between free will and determinism there is a spectrum of positions that vary between soft and hard determinism. However, to keep the discourse simple, for me at least, I will stick only to the presence or absence of free will. The position that free will does not exist can be explained with the help of the following example.

Assuming that you have read this article up to this point this can be done fairly easily. Assume that now I ask you to judge this article on a scale between 1-- 5 for its quality of content. Depending upon whether you are a casual or a seasoned internet user you may find this task absolutely boring or quite interesting. You may also have a mixture of feelings. On one hand you may feel like totally abandoning this article as crap and doing something else instead. At the same time you may think that it may be an interesting thing to rate an article for its content. You might think that it may hone your skills as a reader and a reviewer. At the same time you think that it is absolutely trivial and useless both to write and read about something as monotonous as free will. But then you think to give it a try. You may get motivated by thinking that you may grasp a few nice ideas for writing something more interesting. At the same time you are aware that you have to attend to the eggs that you have put on the stove to boil. You feel like leaving this computer of your's and going to the kitchen. But then you decide to hang on for a few moments till the time you reach the end of this paragraph.

If I have portrayed your thought process to some degree of accuracy while you were reading the above paragraph then indeed you have had a stampede of thoughts. A midst all of those thoughts, ideas and feelings you have managed to read this blog post to this point. You don't know exactly why you are reading it. But your eyes are slipping through line after line and you think that it is worth reading it. Indeed, if you have read it through to this point, you are pretty much engaged with this article by now. You do not know exactly why you are reading this or whether you like it or not. You even do not know exactly why you opened this article in the first place and started reading it and kept on doing so, whereas you had other tasks to complete too. Bingo! You have finished reading another paragraph.

If you are a neuroscientist, or you know someone closely who is a neuroscientist, you may get an explanation from the point of view of electrical activity in your brain. You may be told, or you may have learnt, that your choices are governed by complex electrical activity in your brain that take place on the level of synapses and neurons. You may argue that it is actually the chemical reactions in your brain that govern your behavior in the present moment. Let's call it the electrochemistry of your brain for the sake of simplicity. You may even believe that you are not consciously choosing to read these words as they slip before your eyes. Instead you may believe that the decision to keep on reading through moment by moment has already been made by the temporal lobe of your brain a few microseconds (or milliseconds) in advance of what you are currently reading. This kind of reasoning is brought forward by the opponents of the existence of free will camp to argue that it does not exist. Irrespective of whether you are a proponent of this line of reasoning or not interested in it at all, it might be altogether mysterious to you as to why you have read this article through to another paragraph.

In the same way as I have tried to explain my understanding of the non-existence of free will, anyone can try to explain its existence. Consider now to look at things from my vantage point. In the same way as you may be baffled about why at all have you read this article, I might be confused on as to why I have written it in the first place. Is it all about electrical impulses, auroral charges, and whims of the mind through which I have grown out to write this. Among a myriad of things on my to-do-list for today why did I write this article at all? Indeed I thought about writing about free will a few months ago. This has al most been a year that I thought that I should write my thoughts about the subject of free will. The reason is that I find the subject both fascinating and challenging. Indeed, one of the most challenging things in the world is to satiate the intellectual curiosity of a philosopher. And free will is a subject that very much falls under the umbrella of philosophy.

In as much as I wanted to write about free will, I kept on postponing it. I have listed the reasons why I wanted to write about it above. But what are the reasons due to which I have been postponing it to this point. Well, there are quite a few reasons indeed. One of them is procrastination. Another is the fear that I may end up writing something stupid. The underlying guilt that I want to gain attention is another reason for holding back for so long. Another reason is that it sounds all the more pretentious to be publishing one's thoughts in the public domain. It is a blog post that I am writing after all!

But no matter what the reasons may be, I have at last chosen to write about this subject. This, out of the choices I had (i.e. to write or not to write about free will), and irrespective of all the reasons for writing or not writing about this topic, I have at last chosen to consciously write about it. And as you have reached the end of this article I would conclude it by saying that this ability of humans to make deliberate choices suggests that we do indeed have free will. May Allah help us in using it well.

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The Alchemy of Happiness

The Alchemy of Happiness is a wonderful book by the renowned medieval Muslim scholar, philosopher and mystic, Abu Hamid Mohammad ibn Mohamad Al-Ghazali (RA). Although Imam Ghazzalli (RA) is remembered mostly for his works in philosophy, his book, the alchemy of happiness, aims to elucidate its readers on as to how to live a happier and a more fuller life according to the tenets of Islam. Original title of the book is Kimiya-yi saadat. The book has many chapters that are divided into four main parts.

Mainly the book discusses various forms of worship including prayers and dhikr. A significant portion of the book deals with the various aspects concerning human relations. The most interesting thing about the book is that discusses various spiritual and psychological problems and their cure. Emotional problems an individual can have such as hate, anger, spite, envy and jealousy etc. are discussed and their cures are suggested.  For instance, the author suggests simple cures such as to praise the person for whom one has jealousy in his/her heart. To this end, the book is also a very good resource for learning about emotional intelligence.

The Conquest of Happiness

Conquest of Happiness is a very interesting and a wonderful book by Bertrand Russell. Bertrand Russell was one of the most prominent intellectuals of the early twentieth century. His major domains were philosophy and mathematics. However, this book is about life. Particularly, the book lists many tips and tactics for acquiring happiness in life and for developing a happier and a more content personality. Apart from its contents, the book is also very well written and is a good resource for anyone willing to improve their reading comprehension of the English language. There are many good examples in the book through which Russell has tried to persuade his readers to live with a simpler lifestyle. The book also gives a reflection of the simplistic mindset that Bertrand Russell had.

The most interesting thing about the book is where the author gives and example regarding struggle for survival. I do not remember the story verbatim, but it somewhat goes like this. Russell gives the example of a businessman living in a big city such as London. He spends most of his time with his work. He is so much workaholic that he hardly has time for his spouse and children. He leaves home early in the morning and comes back much late at night. On work he spends most of his time devising strategies in order to beat his business rivals. This is how his life goes on. Russell suggests that if you ask such a man on as to why he works so hard? The usual answer would be that he has to struggle for survival. Russell argues that this is not struggle for survival. Russell then gives an example of two friends stuck on a wrecked ship. Everyone except them has died on the ship. In order to feed themselves to stay alive they have eaten up all the corpses. Their plight is now such that in order to remain alive one of them would have to eat the other. This, Bertrand Russell argues, is struggle for survival.

There are many other interesting things in the book and avuncular advice to his readers for achieving happiness. For instance, Russell suggests that achieving happiness is not a one day endeavor. Rather it should be acquired over time and should be considered as a lifetime goal. Among other things Russell also argues that one should never feel guilty or remorseful from the point of view of having committed a sin. Although Russell asserted that he would explain his rationale somewhere latter in the book, as far as I remember he did not do it.

Overall the book is very nicely written and despite the fact that it is very old, it is still very much relevant for everyone to read.

Fatwa on Terrorism and Suicide Bombings

During the last ten days of this Ramadhan I managed to treat myself with a thorough and complete read of the Fatwa on Terrorism and Suicide Bombings. The fatwa is written by Shaykh-ul-Islam, Dr. Muhammad Tahir-ul-Qadri. Dr. Qadri is an eminent Muslim scholar and his book is an attempt to guide Muslims in particular, and rest of the humanity in general, on as to why terrorism is wrong when seen through the central teachings of Islam. The book is more or less 450 pages long and contains narrations from Quran, hadith and examples from the conduct of early Muslim rulers and caliphs. The central aim of the book is to address the confusion that lurches within the minds of young Muslims viz a viz terrorism and jihad. According to Dr. Qadri the current intensity and magnitude is becoming a great cause of atheism in the world. Another reason is that the wave of terrorism that has persisted for more than a decade has been a great cause for bringing disrepute to the Muslim Ummah in general and Pakistan in particular, where Dr. Qadri  is originally from. He argues that while majority of the Muslims condemn terrorism in all forms, a minority of Muslims give it a tacit approval. It is worth remembering that Dr. Qadri was one of the first Muslim scholars who condemned the world trade center tragedy extremely vociferously.

In almost the first three quarters of the book Dr. Qadri has argued against terrorism and rebellion in a painstaking manner. In reality, this portion of book is dedicated to arguing against internal rebellion within a Muslim state. The matters concerning rights of non-Muslims living in Muslim countries have also been discussed thoroughly. Dr. Qadri argues that devout Muslims should not revolt against their unjust rulers even if they are unjust, cruel and tyrant, as it is forbidden. On the other hand, they should acquire lawful and constitutional means for getting their matters resolved by the state. Dr. Qadri argues that the people who abandon peaceful routes, such as adoption of democracy or a peaceful constitutional struggle, and rebel against the state are outlaws and should be dealt with severely accordingly.

Dr. Qadri also argues that according to the central teachings of Islam it is the duty of the Muslim state to protect the rights of the non-Muslims who live in their country. It is the duty of the state to provide security for their life, family and property. They should have proper privileges to practice their religious chores while not coming in conflict with the tenets of Islam. 

The last part of the book is dedicated to Muslims living in non-Muslim countries. Dr. Qadri argues that Muslims living in non-Muslim countries should abide by the rules and regulations of the country they reside in. Muslims should not become a source of mischief for the country they reside in. Instead they should pray and wish well for their country of residence. 

In order to strengthen his argument regarding the conduct of Muslims living in non-Muslim countries he quotes the classical event of migration of early Muslims to Abyssinia (modern day Ethiopia). He quotes that the early Muslims who migrated to Ethiopia were received well by the Negus who was a Christian. The Negus treated them with humility, honor and respect. In return Muslims who lived there were also extremely loyal to the Negus. So much so that in one of the conflicts of the Negus with one of his rivals the Muslims prayed to Allah for his victory and even vowed to help him in time of need. Dr. Qadri argues that such should be the conduct and intentions of Muslims while living in non-Muslim countries. 

Dr. Qadri ends the book by suggesting a few peaceful alternatives to violence and unrest. For instance, he proposes Muslims to acquire modern education, make effective use of print and electronic media to convey their concerns, stage peaceful demonstrations and rallies, and learn from other societies about how to live and coexist with peace, harmony and nonviolence. Every Muslim and non-Muslim should read this book. 

Mesmerism

Tomb of Hazrat Gul baba Bektash in Budapest, Hungary

It may astonish a few, surprise some others and annoy the others to know that mesmerism is also claimed to have a basis in Islamic mysticism. I read about this in the book Irfan. I made a few translations from that book. My reading of Irfan was motivated by my desire to understand the nature of consciousness. I read it after I read atheism, specially The End of Faith by Sam Harris. The chapters I translated include An Account of Invocation of Jinns, Angels and Souls, The Reality of European Spiritualists and Their Misunderstanding and Certainty in Belief is Dependent Upon Seeing.The book is written by Hazrat Faqir Noor Muhammad Sarwari Qadri Kalachwi (RA). This book was first published in 1942. It has two parts. Both parts also  have translations in English. The urdu version of the first volume can be read here and English version can be read here.

Somewhere in Irfan the author suggests that mesmerism also has a basis in Islamic mysticism  According to the narrative in the times in which Franz lived there used to be Hazrat Gulshan baba Bektashi (or probably it was Gul baba) somewhere in the Eastern Europe. I do not remember the country precisely but I think that it was Hungary. Hazrat Gulshan baba used to treat the people about their problems. By the blessings of Allah he could cure the sick. He was also blessed enough by Allah the he could treat the wounded. Thus, it was reported that many wounded soldiers used to come to him and he  used to make dum on them. In hours of desperation he even used to apply his spit to the wounds of the sick and they used to heal by the blessings of Allah. Even Christian soldiers used to come to him and he was quite venerated by them.

In those years Franz Mesmer started visiting his shrine. From there he acquired a few tricks of the trade viz a viz what we now know as mesmerism or its descendant, hypnotism. This is what I read in Irfan, Allah knows the best.

God of the Orient

The other day I came across an Urdu novel titled "Khuda-e-Mashriq", literally meaning "God of the Orient" in English. I casually browsed its pages and I could not resist reading a part of it with a lot of concentration. I shall talk about that latter. But first I would like to briefly describe what the novel is about. The novel is written by Muhammad Zahid Afghan. As the name suggests, the writer is most possibly from Afghanistan. The central character of the novel is a British female who travels all the way from England to various Eastern countries and probably lands up somewhere in the subcontinent. Her name was Salomi. I am not sure though, but I think that I should reconfirm. There she makes friends. And she has her perplexities and bewilderment typical of a traveler.

The part that I found the most interesting was that the favorite personality of Salomi was the renowned German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. In her conversations with her friends she talks about Friedrich Nietzsche and his nihilism. This was the part that I found most interesting. I heard about Friedrich Nietzsche  and a few about his quotes a long time a go from friends. Names such as Friedrich Nietzsche and others can be quoted in educated circles as a symbol of intellect. But after a long time, I started wondering what his really philosophy was. After all it is important to know what someone really contributed as a philosophy as opposed to merely quoting from his/her quotations. I came to know that Friedrich Nietzsche was an atheist and that much of atheism of the present day can be attributed to having a background in Nietzsche-ism. Well, I could be wrong but I suppose that Friedrich Nietzsche still has an impact. Latter I came to know that Friedrich Nietzsche was a nihilist about the existence of God. And I wondered what were the reasons that led Friedrich Nietzsche in to nihilism.

Salomi explained the underlying reason very clearly. At one point she starts narrating about the life of Friedrich Nietzsche to her friends with an emotional vigor. She says that as Christianity arrived, for some odd reason the West started indulging in barbarism. As a consequence Friedrich Nietzsche became agnostic about the existence of God. He abandoned his civil life and went somewhere in the alps to live there. There he created a new God. Zarathustra! 

Latter while having a discussion with her friends, they ask each other that then who was the God of Zarathustra. One of the characters proposes that the God of Zarathustra was the God of Hazrat Ghulam Moi-ud-din Chishti (RA). He (RA) was a sufi saint with a substantial following in the subcontinent. It is interesting to note that Zarathustra (AS) was himself a prophet of Islam. Overall the novel is nicely written and tries to address various philosophical curiosities. It is interesting to note also that there are people in Afghanistan who try to do such delicate and creative work.

Bunny in the Clouds

Muhammad (PBUH) written naturally in the clouds.

I remember having read an article a few months ago in connection with Dr. Eben Alexander's much hyped book Proof of Heaven. I don't remember exactly but I think that the article was published in the scientific American magazine. The article had a mention of a phenomenon of seeing a "bunny in the cloud" in it. According to my extrapolated understanding of it the term is related to wishful thinking. That no matter what random shape the rather amorphous clouds acquire, if a person is adamant about seeing a bunny in the cloud, he/she will eventually see it. This is a nice analogy to explain the idea of wishful thinking. That no matter what a person sees or feels in his/her dreams, hallucinations, spiritual trances or commas, if a person is hellbent on perceiving it as heaven, he/she will eventually do so. 

Laa Ilaaha Illa Allah written in a farm in Germany.

It makes a lot of sense to wonder that whether the phenomenon of seeing a bunny in the cloud is always a visual illusion or can it also be attributed some authenticity at times. Here I presume the use of the term "bunny in the clouds" to be metaphorical. This means that both bunny and the clouds can mean anything that can be seen or observed. For instance, bunny can mean a flower, food, drinks, a knife, a sword, Jesus (PBUH), Marry (PBUH), Muhammad (PBUH), Allah, a garden, heaven or fire. Similarly cloud can also mean anything like a cloud, a dream, moon, a potato or a watermelon. 

Religious people have a great propensity for seeing different types of such metaphorical bunnies in different types of those so-called clouds. Thus, it is not uncommon to see visual appearances in the clouds that resemble Jesus Christ (PBUH). Some of them are vague and there are others that seem to be made up. But there are indeed a few that appear to be shadows of a standing man with a staff in his hand. I have chosen one of such pictures of the clouds to post here. 

Jesus (PBUH) in the clouds.

Obviously it is no proof that it Jesus standing in the clouds with his staff in his hand. One cannot even claim that it absolutely looks like as if a man is standing in the clouds at all. These are just randomly arranged clouds. But still if we look at these clouds closely, they do appear to have a human head with rather thick and curly hair. A left arm. The bends of the chest. and something that resembles a stick. But whether this man is Jesus (PBUH) or not cannot be claimed. But this is only one picture. There could be other more vivid pictures on the web that may be easily claimed and classified to be containing Jesus (PBUH) in them. 

Allah written on a cactus.

Muslims also have a tendency for finding names of Allah and Muhammad (may Allah's peace be upon him) written on clouds and other things. Indeed, there are many pictures on the Internet in which the word Allah has appeared to have been written naturally in the clouds.

Muhammad (PBUH) written on a goat

Similarly, a simple search query reveals that pictures with the word Muhammad (PBUH) in Arabic appearing on clouds and other things like stones, bread, or in a fruit are also quite numerous. At some points such appearances are vague but at others they are quite vivid. 

Allah written on foreheads of newborn twins

Such phenomenon has also been termed as pareidolia. There is also religious paredolia in which names or figures of religious figures visually appear in various natural phenomena.

Allah written inside a pomegranate

It is quite wonderful to observe that many of the appearances in the pictures are extremely vivid. One can only hope that these pictures are real and not forged. 

The Muslim Way of Speaking

Speech and language are essential and important components of human communication. Societies have evolved many languages over the course of human evolution. Currently there is a large number of languages and dialects that are spoken on our planet that may be believed to range between being euphonious to cacophonous. The manner in which a person speaks reflects on how genteel and humane he/she is. In civilized communities it is considered a norm to speak in a sweet-sounding manner. It may be thought that the early civilized societies may have had a tradition of learning to speak well too. To be able to speak is a great blessing of Allah Almighty indeed. But it is not difficult to find a widespread abuse of this blessing in everyday life. It is not uncommon to come across conversations that are full of swearing, cursing, profanity and slandering.

The Muslim Way of Speaking addresses this problem in a comprehensive, eloquent and lucid manner. The book is written by renowned Muslim scholar Harun Yahya. The book is available for download on his personal website and can be read online too. The book is also available for purchase on online stores like Barnes and Noble and Amazon.

The book is written from an increasingly Islamic perspective. It takes examples from Quran and Hadith on  as to how to speak and address people in normal everyday discourse. First of all it emphasizes on the importance of praising Almighty Allah in speech and to call Him through His beautiful names. It advises to speak with the knowledge that Allah is with the speaker at every moment. It warns not to associate others else with Allah. It is advised to speak in the knowledge of one's helplessness in the face of Allah and that no task can be performed without the will of Allah. Quran should be employed as a guide in speech. One should speak in the certainty of fate and the truth that there is good in everything. Allah should be trusted in all the situations.

One should speak with the awareness that life of this world is transitory. One should have concern in his speech for what is lawful and what is unlawful. One should avoid the style of speech that is influenced by Satan and one should seek refuge of Satan from Allah. One should enjoin what is right and forbid what is wrong. One should speak with wisdom, sincerity, truthfulness, sensibly and logically. One should also give good tidings.

One should speak so as to arouse joy and enthusiasm. One should say what is best. One should not speak under the influence of the mean inner self and by being motivated by personal desires. A person's speech should be measured, courteous and respectful. Humility should be a cornerstone of good speech. Similarly, while speaking one should have an attitude of tolerance and forgiveness. Consultation should be a major part of intercommunication. One should make frequent references to one's disposition about submission to the will of Allah and to acknowledge that there is no strength but in Allah. It is very important to adopt good manners while speaking to one's parents. Backbiting and gossiping behind people's backs should also be abandoned. Suspicion and slander should be abandoned. Similarly mocking and ridiculing people should be discouraged and abandoned. One should not speak out of covetousness and envy. One should not speak in vein and make empty and trivial statements. One should not interrupts others speech and on their own turn they should speak calmly. A very important point is to adopt the manner of speech that is appropriate to the level of knowledge of the person that is being addressed. Speaking hypocritically should be avoided at all costs. A way of speech that gives rise to doubts should be avoided. A manner of speech that is probing and prying should be avoided. The statements that lead to evil should be avoided. Obfuscation should be avoided and secret and meetings should not be held. One should speak so as to defend and support our prophet Hazrat Muhammad (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him).

Finally the books lists the advantages of adopting such meritorious traits in one's speech and the author presents the conclusion. The last chapter of the book is deception of evolution. It is dedicated to addressing Charles Darwin's theory of evolution and natural selection. It tries to show with the help of logic, and in the light of relevant literature review on as to how the materialist theory of evolution presented by Charles Darwin is wrong and flawed. 

Overall I have found the book to be a very enjoyable read. It is well written and the quality and amount of material presented in the book is quite balanced and enlightening. I found this book while I was looking for literature regarding neural basis for language, speech and accent production. Although I could not find anything of that sort in the book, I believe that the book is an excellent resource for behavioral rehabilitation.  

Language and Speech Production

The other day I was thinking about writing a small research proposal around the idea of studying neurological basis for accent and language production. There were a few interrelated reasons for which this came to my mind. First is based on the observation that some people have a natural talent for adapting themselves to various accents. I have personally met some people who can change from a very crude Punjabi accent to a very polite Urdu accent in a fraction of a second. It was also very cool to observe a few people whose native language was Mewaati and they used to change between swinging Mewaati and plain Urdu in a fraction of a second. Same can be said about multilingual people who can speak languages other than Urdu, such as Siraaiki, Potowaari, Punjabi and possibly also English.  Indeed, I have seen people who can copy accents very fast and can have a wide variety. There are people who can mimic a plethora of lingual accents and dialects. Many comedians and actors fall under this category.

The other reason was based on the observation that some people are more prone to speaking in a harsh and impolite manner. Indeed, swearing is very common in Pakistan. I am not sure but I think that the tendency to swear is related to the idea that a person appears to be more masculine and virile if he does so. I am not sure if swearing is considered a crucial positive aspect in grooming and upbringing of an adolescent boy. Moreover, most of this profanity loving psychology is inherited from Bollywood movies too.  Swearing and the use of obscene expression can be very common in Pakistan. When you have a problem, you swear. When you are happy, swearing can sometimes be the best way to express that joy.

On the other hand, I have also had a chance to come across many very soft-spoken people both in Pakistan and abroad. There are languages and dialects that may be considered very euphonious and sweet sounding. Indeed, the way you speak or the way you are addressed can have a great impact on your personality. However, this may not be claimed that people who are more likely to use rough and obscene language are indecent, less effective or less loved in any way. On the contrary, a sweet sounding person can sometimes be considered weak and worthless as opposed to a person who uses whatever words that come to his mouth and somehow manages to achieves his objectives, such as developing a domineering aura around himself.

But I think that it is worthwhile to study the neurological basis for accent and language production. To this end, it can be a good idea to study how people learn to speak from an early age and how they develop one way of speaking or the other. It would also be a nice idea to see the social and psychological factors that affect the speech related affairs of human personality. Along with that it would also be interesting to study the neurological basis for language. It would be interesting to see what parts of the brain play an important role in language production. Similarly, to see how the human ability to speak evolve over the course of his/her life, and whether it is a adaptable trait. It would also be very interesting to study the benefits multilingual people can have over people who speak only one or two languages. And most importantly, I wonder that what are the benefits and pitfalls of speaking in one way or the other.

Allah

Every now and then these days we are asked and hinted by skeptics to contemplate on the idea on as to whether God even exists or not. I have seen many comments of skeptics who have asked this question. As a matter of fact I have seen a question lurching on the websites of many skeptics that pokes the Muslims in to thinking whether Allah is real or not. In a recent article renowned atheist Sam Harris quoted that the God Muslims believe in is almost surely fictional. We live in times in which it is very important for any person to ponder over their beliefs. Indeed, it is very important for people to know why do they believe in what they believe. More specifically, it is very important for Muslims to know that why do they believe in Allah as the sole deity, and consequently Muhammad (may Allah's peace be upon him) as the last messenger. It is equally important for non-Muslims to know as to why Muslims believe in Allah as their God. This is important not even from the point of view of faith literacy, but also to satiate one's own thirst of intellectual curiosity and skepticism.

This article is an attempt to contemplate on the word Allah, as a name or a concept. After all people have believed in various gods since millenniums and no one has ever seen a sight of a convincingly real god. To this end, no one has ever seen Allah as well. It is also important to investigate whether Allah really exists or whether it is a mere invention of the Muslims.

A casual literature survey reveals that the word Allah means 'the God' in Arabic. And even though it is widely believed that Muslims believe in Allah as their God, people from many faiths in the pre-Islamic Arabia believed in Allah as the supreme deity. Pre-Islamic Arabia had polytheism, Christianity, and Judaism as the major religions. The polytheists worshiped other sub-deities along with Allah. These included, Laat, Uzza and Manaat. Christians worshipped Allah along with Jesus Christ (may peace be upon him) as the son of Allah. And jews also worshipped Allah. And more importantly all of these three major religions had the word "Allah" solely reserved for referring to God. Polytheism gradually vanished by the advent of Islam. Christianity and Judaism remain to date as the major world religions along with Islam. And the word Allah is still used to refer to the God by the followers of these two major religions. For instance Arab Christians today still use the word Allah Al-ab (God, the father) to refer to the God and also to distinguish their usage of the word from the Muslim usage. Similarly, Jews use the words such as Allah and Elohim to refer to God, and agree that words Allah and Elohim are derivations of the same origin in a linguistic sense. The word Allah, or its close derivatives, also occur in many other languages as a reference to God.

To this end, it turns out that Muslims have not invented the name or concept of Allah. The only major thing Islam tries to do is to dissociate subordinate deities from Allah. This means, that on one hand Islam dissociates sub-deities such as Laat, Manaat and Uzza from Allah. On the other hand Islam suggests that Jesus Christ (may Allah's peace be upon him) was not a son of Allah, rather he was a prophet of Allah just like Muhammad (may Allah's peace be upon him). This notion of Islam is summarized in the following chapter of Quran-e-Hakeem titled sincerity:

AL-IKHLAS (SINCERITY)

Total Verses: 4
Revealed At: MAKKA

112.001 
YUSUFALI: Say: He is Allah, the One and Only;
PICKTHAL: Say: He is Allah, the One!
SHAKIR: Say: He, Allah, is One.

112.002 
YUSUFALI: Allah, the Eternal, Absolute;
PICKTHAL: Allah, the eternally Besought of all!
SHAKIR: Allah is He on Whom all depend.

112.003 
YUSUFALI: He begetteth not, nor is He begotten;
PICKTHAL: He begetteth not nor was begotten.
SHAKIR: He begets not, nor is He begotten.

112.004 
YUSUFALI: And there is none like unto Him.
PICKTHAL: And there is none comparable unto Him.
SHAKIR: And none is like Him.

P.S. In writing this article I took help from a Wikipedia article. And also the idea that Christians of Arabia refer to God as Allah was brought to my attention for the first time by a close friend who is a devout Roman Catholic Christian. 

Spiritual Shower

To maintain health, prosperity and a peaceful life and to get rid of illness, once sick, are important necessities of human nature. The diseases contracted by human beings are of both types; spiritual and physical. The healing cure of both types of illnesses is given in Quran-e-hakeem and Ahadith-e-mubarka.

Islam is a pure religion and prefers cleanliness and hygiene. That is why ablution has been ordered along with five diurnal prayers. And it has been ordered to wash those parts of the body that get dirty frequently. And then taking a bath has been made obligatory at least once in a week so that the whole body becomes neat and clean. The wonderful spiritual shower of Aulia Allah (friends of Allah) is such a powerful deed that contains the saying of Allah, meaning aayahs of Quran-e-hakeem and the procedure of the Prophet of Allah, Hazrat Muhammad (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him).That is why it is a flawless and tested deed for every illness and worry. Thousands have tested it and you are also requested to test it with the power of belief. Allah almighty definitely accepts the deed which has strength in it.

The procedure of spiritual shower is that the last six surahs of Quran-e-hakeem be recited with tasmiya and by reciting dared sharif before and after reciting the surahs three times each. And after that recite the prayer of entering the wash room.

بِسْمِ اللہِ اَللّٰھُمَّ اِ نِّیْ اَ عُوْذُبِکَ مِنَ الْخُبْثِ وَالْخَبَاءِثِ

Translation: In the name of Allah, O Allah. I seek refuge in You from the male female evil and Jinns

After reciting this enter the washroom using your left foot. Take the shower according to the sunnah. While bathing keep reciting the above mentioned prayer in your heart. Do not recite with your tongue at all. And imagine about whatever illness or worry you have and think that that is also cleaning and getting away with that. After this when you come out, do it with your right foot and recite the prayer of coming out of the washroom/toilet.

غُفْرَانَكَ الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ الَّذِي أَذْهَبَ عَنِّي الْأَذَى وَعَافَانِي

Translation: (O Allah) I seek forgiveness and pardon from You. All Praise be to Allah, who removed the difficulty from me and gave me ease (relief)

And then after this recite the last six surahs of Quran-e-hakeem in the same manner as described above. Beging and end by reciting dared sharif three times.

The last six surahs are as follows: (1) Surah Kaafiroon, (2) Surah Nasar (3) Surah Lahab (4) Surah Ikhlas (5) Surah Falaq (6) Surah Naas. These can also be downloaded from the following link as an mp3 file.

Check this out on Chirbit

Note: Please do not recite the six surahs before going to the washroom if you wish to have ghusal-e-janabat, that is a shower to remove impurity. In that case, recite the surahs twice after coming out of the washroom.

Please follow Ubqari for more on Islamic spirituality.

Psyops: The Reality of European Spiritualists and Their Mi...

Psyops: The Reality of European Spiritualists and Their Mi...: This article tends to present translations of important excerpts from the chapter titled " The Reality of European Spiritualists and Their ...

The Reality of European Spiritualists and Their Misunderstanding

Hazrat Faqir Noor Muhammad Sarwari
Qadri Kalachwi (RA)

This article contains translations of important excerpts from the chapter titled "The Reality of European Spiritualists and Their Misunderstanding", from the book "Irfan (part 2)" by Hazrat Faqir Noor Muhammad Sarwari Qadri Kalachwi (RA). This book was first published in 1942. It has two parts. Both parts also  have translations in English. The urdu version of the first volume can be read here and English version can be read here. I have to acknowledge that this translation is not very good and has various reasons to it:

1. I have tried to translate everything verbatim from Urdu to English with less regard for grammatical corection but to stay more in harmony with the text.
2. There are many jargon words specific to Islamic spiritualism which I do not know the meaning of and I do not possess an Urdu to English dictionary.
3. Translation is a cumbersome process.
4. I did the translation.

It is advisable that this article be read in connection with, and preferably after reading, An Account of Invocation of Jinns, Angels and Souls.

It is also advisable that this article be read in connection with, and preferably after reading, On Afterlife and Islamic Spirituality.

The motivation behind doing this translation very immediately was this interview of Richard Martini, 

New Pathway To Healing: An Interview With Richard Martini.

Now we want to make this thing clear that what beings are the safli (evil) souls that  European Spiritualists invoke and communicate with. And when they are asked that who are you, why do they reply that we are your forefather's and we are the souls of those people who have passed away from this world. And before this we have been living our lives on earth like you, and now we are living and are busy in spiritual progress in the seven communities (or planes or levels or realms) of the aalam-e-arwaah (the world of the souls).

If this is true then the beliefs of all religions, specially Islam, which are, judgement, the judgement day, hashar nashar (I think this translates to judgement too), azaab-e-qabar (punishment of the grave), munkar nakeer (some angels that ask questions in the grave), qayaam-e-qayaamat (again the setting of the judgement day), and the reality of heaven and hell etc., then belief vanishes in them. Because when these spirits are asked about these things they deny their existence. And say that there is no such thing like this. Neither there is hell nor heaven, nor is there any existence of a Godhead. Although because of spiritualism Europe's science-ridden materialists' previous naturalist and atheistic ideology has now changed and they have all become convinced of life after death and they have gotten redemption from the Christian Religion's old papal and priestly machinations.which had indulged them into the wrong consolations of tasliyyat (I don't know the translation, but I think that it means confession) and kaffaara (this is an urdu word which means to pay or worship, or do something similar to attain redemption from one's sins). Now everyone considers himself responsible for his deeds. But these spirits meaning safli souls' (I don't know the meaning of safli but I think that it means evil) and jinn devils' false descriptions have pushed them into a quagmire of a new type of atheism and irreligiousity and the ghost of Darwin's evolution has again overcome their hearts and minds. Meaning that this life is a natural thing and just like in the worldly life the human body is attaining the levels of material progress and evolution, similarly death is also synonymous with a natural change and after death human being keeps on accomplishing higher levels of spiritual progress and evolution. Before this, although to a certain extent, everyone had the fear of death, due to which those people used to refrain and shy away from doing bad deeds, but now the fear of death has vanished away from their hearts and the thought of reward and punishment has also vanished. Only the name and the process of progress and evolution has remained which is happening autonomously. Similarly the devil has pushed them in to a new kind of irreligiosity and atheism. Thus, the example of falling from the sky and getting stuck in the date palm suits truly with them. And similarly he has imprisoned them in the false idea that the miracles of the previous prophets were also of this kind and type of safli (evil?) and mad (mental, the word junooni) karishmas and when their mediums heal and cure the diseases created by mad ghosts then they think that previous prophets, specially Hazrat Isa (Alaihe Salaat-o-wassalam, meaning peace be upon Him) (i.e. Jesus Christ PBUH) who used to cure, handicapped or the blind by birth, he also had inside him this type of spiritual and healing power, the practice of which these people do in their churches with the help of passes etc. Even though, there is a diference equivalent of sky and the earth between every two of these safli (evil?) acrobatics and alvi (good in some sense?) miracles.

Now we consider it important to tell the souls or the spirits that are invoked by the spiritualists of Europe in their seances and those that say we are your forefathers who have passed away from your world or we are those dead humans' souls who inhibited the earth. We have passed away from this world and tell their relatives and kin their complete signs and whereabouts. Who they actually are? And what is their reality? 

It should be clear that the mediums of Europe are often women or weak, illiterate, or simple minded (or possibly innocent) men. Most of the mediums are affected by certain mental illnesses for a while. And the guide spirits that are appointed on them that mostly tells of itself as a foreign person. The most strange thing is that such infants who die after less than even a week or so, such infant children' souls' when invoked start talking, communicating and answering every question like grown up adults without training. Moreover, when some people die, they appear in spiritual seances and start talking without inhibition, even when they are not buried. Even though the person, after having undergone prolonged illness, the difficult process of death, enters the unseen and unheard barzakh (another jargon word, but it is one of the planes of the afterlife) and has to deal with different kinds of revolutions and storms therein. He, for no reason, has the pain and agony of leaving his beloved land, house, relatives and kin and solitude, how can he instantaneously get rid of all of these irritations and problems and start talking with the members of the seance? Thus, these are things which the refined wisdom cannot agree to accept.  Thus, what are these things that tell of themselves as the dead peoples' souls? If they are not souls, then how and why they are aware of all the information and circumstances of the souls.  

So the real thing is that according to Islamic beliefs when a human being is born, a devil is appointed and fixed for (and with) him. Therefore, when it was asked to Hazrat Muhammad Sallalaho Alaihe Wassalam (PBUH), You (PBUH) replied, "Yes, a devil has been fixed with me. But Allah Almighty has endowed me with dominance over him and my devil has become a Muslim". Such physical jinns and devils are born naturally with every human being and to him is also an hidden structure, to which some people refer to as duplicate. This structure is human soul's image, shadow, and complete model and all human feelings and knowledge. Besides this there are other subtle structures in human self. Our spiritual teacher Hazrat Sultan Baahu (Rehmat Allah Alaih) (May Allah's beneficience be upon Him) says in his book Noor-ul-Huda Kalaan:

There are bodies within the body of the human beings and there are various types of these bodies. And every type has a name given to it. Because Humans' body is like a magical treasure. The puzzle of this magic of body is solved by a person of spell by virtue of the name of Allah and attains inner and hidden wealth and blessing. Those hiddedn structures are described as follows:

(I am missing the translation because of the fact that there is use of Persian language here and some jargon).

On another occasion he says:

Nine types of subtle bodies come out of Arif Billah's body. Thus, four bodies are nafs-e-ammaara, nafs-e-lawwaama, nafs-e-mulhima and nafs-e-mutmainna. Three bodies are of the heart; qalb-e-saleem, qalb-e-muneeb, qalb-e-shaheed, and two bodies of the soul; rooh-e-jamaadi, rooh-e-nabaati.

On a third occasion he says that:

From every body, thousand rather so many bodies come out and then they assemble in to one body.

So this type of numerous bodies/structures exist in the human body and after death this type of human's symbolic bodies stay behind like offspring. Other than this there is Allah Almighty's uncountable invisible creation the quantity of which is not known to any other but Allah Almighty.

Translation 74:31: And none can know the hosts of your Lord but He.

One structure, namely humzaad which is called as duplicate in English is appointed with a human from the time of his/her birth. If the spiritualists of Europe invoke such an invisible subtle structure and he/she tells of him/her-self as the body and mind of or the soul of the same soul, then because of this an aspersion cannot be made about different divine religions' specially Islam's, beliefs and ideologies and various notions regarding human soul about punishment, judgment, etc stay untainted as they are. The existence of jinns is although true and shown in Europeans' old religious beliefs and they exist with the names of genie, fairy, devil etc. But the type of invisible subtle creation spiritualists encounter in or out of their seances, they describe themselves as dead peoples' souls. And whatever right or wrong those souls tell them they believe in that. Although one hundred years ago there was not a single person in Europe who was convinced about the existence of soul after death. Now only due to the invocation of souls in the spiritual seances and frequent visual exhibitions experiments has convinced Europe of life after death and a slight glimpse about the one  true thing among many beliefs and ideologies about the religion of Islam, which is life after death, has been known. And in spite of so many observations and experiments devil has indulged them in to a new type of atheism and naturalism. As Allah Almighty has said in surah Al-Anaam (chapter 6) of the Holly Quran:

111. And even if We had sent down unto them angels, and the dead had spoken unto them, and We had gathered together all things before their very eyes, they would not have believed, unless Allah willed, but most of them behave ignorantly.

112. And so We have appointed for every Prophet enemies - Shayatin (devils) among mankind and jinns, inspiring one another with adorned speech as a delusion (or by way of deception). If your Lord had so willed, they would not have done it, so leave them alone with their fabrications. (Tafseer Qurtubi, Vol.7, Page 67)

In the verses above, how has Allah

CONTINUED