Hasan Spiker

HELL IS OTHER PEOPLE? In the Qur'an, God says Hell is not other people. They treat the trouble caused by people as if it is God's torment itself (29:10). In No Exit, Sartre says Hell is other people. Sartre means that when we allow the perceptions and judgements ("the gaze) of other people to freeze or falsely concretize our understanding of ourselves, they take away the only thing we really have, which is our radical freedom to create ourselves according to our own arbitrary (i.e., ungrounded) free choice. Evidently, this does have some important strands of truth in it. In our defensiveness and identitarianism as modern Muslims trapped within someone else's worldview, we tend to reactively strawman the likes of Sartre, and fail to see what is really there; a powerful mind and profoundly insightful observer of the human condition, whose nature has nonetheless become twisted because of his denial of God. Do not dress truth in falsehood and thereby hide the truth ... (2:42). And it is precisely because of his denial of God that Sartre's solution is for us to cease allowing the societal convention and the prejudice cast by that groundless convention to define our sense of selfhood and purpose, and instead for us to have the "courage" to recognize that no objective criteria for goodness, truth, and beauty exist at all: you must create your own values and purpose. The Qur'anic solution? Certainly, do not make societal convention and prejudice, what we found our forefathers practicing (2:170, etc.) your criterion for goodness, truth, and beauty. Hearken not to those who command the wrong, and forbid the right (9:67). Do not become the slave of common opinion or prejudice, because they only follow conjecture: If you pay heed to the majority of those who live on earth, they will but lead you astray from the path of God: they follow but conjecture and they do nothing but guess. All human beings will come to Him upon the Day of Resurrection, all alone. (19:95), and so you must take responsibility for your own destiny. No one will carry the burden of another (6:164, etc.) But nonetheless, you must follow the true Criterion (25:1), for God has guided you in your innermost nature or fitra to the two highways (90:10) of good and evil, and inspired it with the conscience of what is wrong for it and what is right for it. (91: 7-8). We must each take, thus, a radically comprehensive responsibility for our own destinies, certainly. But in the sublime knowledge that our loving God has us in Our sight (52:48), and indeed, in the hope of receiving our share of I spread Mine Own love over thee – and this in order that thou might be formed under Mine eye. (20:39). Praise be to God who created us Muslims rather than forcing us to consult Being and Nothingness (or more likely, piously espousing its kufr while leaving it unread on the shelf).

@abolore12345 I suppose you know better than Imam Razi, lol !

@RealHasanSpiker Plato is no Imam,lol

Reflections from Plato’s Academy, Athens

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لجيران لنا بالأبطحـــــية بعثت مع النسيمات التحية ​وأودعت النسيم حديث حب قديم كان من يوم القضية

Introducing my pal Paul Williams to the new place we're developing in London... a creative space to meet and make friends @freemonotheist @themaqamcentre

@otesi0 Does anyone have time to write an essay for Herad about the meaning of traditional tarbiya? @safwanSpiker7 @movetomuscat . Apologies, I’m in an airport right now habibi !

@RealHasanSpiker Still waiting for an answer!

Some thoughts from a recent DM exchange

@nav_1gate @HarounKanj The reason it “seems” that is my position to you, is because you can’t read, Nav.

@RealHasanSpiker It seems it's your position to portray a historically deceitful minority as perennial victims, as they slaughter Muslims for 8 decades+ If you can QT @HarounKanj , you can reply to my thread Do it in plain English, no jewish babble 'shaykh' x.com/i/status/20508…

Allah bless you habibi. It is only natural and right for you to defend your Shaykh. However, I warn against Dr. Foudah's methodology because I believe this is necessary, and the right thing to do. On that we will have to agree to disagree. We witnessed the Jordanian backdrop to his rise in the 2000s, and it was not pretty at all — and certainly had nothing to do with our turāth. Now, his mission in life is to portray the position of a historically tiny minority of Ash'aris on Ibn Arabi and his vast school as normative, and as indeed the only pristine "Ahl al-Sunna" possibility. But the claim that this position has normative authority over the tradition is utterly false, and Dr Foudah moreover lacks the personal authority to make that judgement — rewriting history by pronouncing on who is and who is not representative of Ahl al-Sunna ! This is an impudent jur'a that we will not pass over in silence !

بالتأكيد حبيبي و شيخي الخلاف وارد وتقدير علم المخالف مطلوب! لكن اشكالي مع سعيد فودة ليس في مجرد مسألة خلافية بل في منهجه العام في قراءة التراث والحكم على كثير من أعلامه بالخروج عن أهل السنة والجماعة. ومع تقديري لما عنده من علم وجهد أرى أن أفقه الفلسفي والديني ضيق جدا وأن تكوينه التربوي بعيد عن سعة التراث وروحه. ولذلك أراه في المحصلة ظاهرة حديثة في ثوب تراثي لا امتدادا حيا للتراث نفسه؛ و لذلك ضرره في نظري اكبر بكثير من نفعه، و الله اعلم.

𝐒𝐡𝐚𝐲𝐤𝐡 𝐀𝐛𝐝 𝐚𝐥-𝐆𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐢 𝐚𝐥-𝐍𝐚𝐛𝐮𝐥𝐬𝐢 𝐨𝐧 𝐖𝐚𝐡𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐥 𝐖𝐮𝐣𝐮𝐝 "And know that the intended meaning of 'Unity of Existence' is not contrary to what the Imams of Islam were upon. Rather, the intended meaning is that which all people, both the specific and the general, have agreed upon. It is something known from the religion by necessity, without any denial at all from either a believer or a disbeliever; nor can denial of it even be imagined by the rational among mankind. 𝐈𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐞𝐝, 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝𝐬, 𝐝𝐞𝐬𝐩𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐝𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬, 𝐭𝐲𝐩𝐞𝐬, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐝𝐮𝐚𝐥𝐬, 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐛𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐞𝐱𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐛𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐞𝐱𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐀𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐄𝐱𝐚𝐥𝐭𝐞𝐝 - not by themselves. Their existence is preserved for them at every moment by the existence of Allah the Exalted - not by themselves. If their existence is such that they are brought into being by Him at every moment, then it is the existence of Allah the Exalted [that sustains them]; 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐧𝐨 𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐞𝐱𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐞𝐱𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐀𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐄𝐱𝐚𝐥𝐭𝐞𝐝."

Imām Aḥmad Razā Khān Barelwī (1272–1340 AH / 1856–1921 CE) writes: “I say: Rather, none knows anything in reality except Allāh, indeed, nothing exists in true reality except Allāh. And the Prophet, peace and blessings of Allāh be upon him, declared the truest statement ever uttered by the Arabs to be the saying of Labīd: ‘Lo! Everything besides Allāh is false.’ It has been firmly established among us that the phrase lā ilāha illā Allāh has layered meanings: (1) Among the general believers, it means: There is no deity worthy of worship except Allāh (Lā maʿbūda illā Allāh). (2) Among the elect, it means: There is no ultimate aim or objective except Allāh (Lā maqṣūda illā Allāh). (3) Among the elect of the elect, it means: There is none truly witnessed except Allāh (Lā mashhūda illā Allāh). (4) Among those who have reached the furthest end, it means: There is none truly existent except Allāh (Lā mawjūda illā Allāh). All of these meanings are true. The foundations of faith rest upon the first. The criterion of righteousness lies in the second. The completion of spiritual wayfaring is attained through the third. The very essence of arrival (wuṣūl) is realised in the fourth. May Allāh grant us a plentiful share of all of them, through His grace and generosity. Āmīn.” — al-Dawlah al-Makkiyyah bi-l-Māddah al-Ghaybiyyah

@alsenegalen6 With the very deepest of respect my beloved habibi, Abdurrahman's fixation on "knowledge-first" epistemology is really just about as analytic philosophy as it gets. Look up Timothy Williamson. That's Abdurrahman's man.

@RealHasanSpiker I dont have a dog in this fight, but with all due respect dear shaykh, Abdurrahman isn’t even remotely close to being someone who can be described as an « analytic philosopher ». His research output actually argues against it, quite clearly.

I did discuss many of these issues with Abdurrahman many years ago in Jordan habibi. We used to meet up quite often, around 2014 or so. I found him very limited indeed in his ability to understand foundational questions. My Shaykh addressed Said Foudah's modernistic pronouncing on the tradition, especially with reference to Ibn Arabi al-Hatimi, several times in person. My Shaykh advised Dr Foudah to his face first in 2008 (a gathering that @movetomuscat himself witnessed), telling him to abandon his plans to attack Ibn Arabi, and reminding him that he (Foudah) lacked sufficient ability, that he was overextending himself, and more than anything else, badly underestimating Ibn Arabi. Unfortunately, Foudah did not listen to this advice. The rest is history ...

@RealHasanSpiker Respectfully shaykh, would it not be better to just have a discussion/debate up front instead of commenting about each other through instant messaging?

TWO CONCEPTIONS OF WHAT IT IS TO BE RELIGIOUS Calculating Wager or Sweetness of Tasting ? Two main forms of religion have and always will exist, one authentic, the other, counterfeit, corresponding to two human types. The first, phoney variety is a kind of bargain you claim to have entered into with the Divine, in which, somewhat grudgingly, you offer to exchange a finite quantity of deprivation, from all the exciting stuff like fornication and drinking you’d really like to do here, for a larger quantity of revelling and enjoyment in the Hereafter. Religion is a pain, but one that simply has to be done. It is, after all, why you are better than everyone else. At least that is worthwhile! The other, genuine form of religion, involves falling in love with the beauty of God’s creation and of the revelation, and with the life and the spiritual person of the Holy Prophet ﷺ , and thence becoming increasingly nourished, and indeed, enraptured, by the resultant taste and sweetness. This form of religion is the one that the Prophet ﷺ himself calls to. In authentic narrations the Holy Prophet ﷺ speaks about experiential īmān, which, of course, the Sufis later describe. He ﷺ speaks about the sweetness of the experience of faith, and even of tasting it (dhawq). "Whoever has three traits within himself will find the sweetness of faith: one who loves Allah and His Messenger more than anything else, one who loves a servant only for the sake of Allah, and one who hates to turn back to unbelief after Allah has saved him, just as he hates to be thrown into the fire"; and, “He has tasted the sweetness of faith, he who is pleased with Allah as his Lord, with Islam as his religion, and with Muhammad as his Prophet." All is beauty. Knowing that is love. Love is duty. Thomas Carlyle (see photograph), one of the greatest prose stylists of the 19th century (and a famous admirer of the Prophet ﷺ), wrote: “Religion in most countries, more or less in every country, is no longer what it was, and should be, — a thousand-voiced psalm from the heart of Man to his invisible God, the fountain of all Goodness, Beauty, Truth, and revealed in every revelation of these; but for the most part, a wise prudential feeling grounded on mere calculation; a matter, as all others now are, of Expediency and Utility; whereby some smaller quantum of earthly enjoyment may be exchanged for a far larger quantum of celestial enjoyment” (Signs of the Times) Let’s face it, this spiritual illness afflicts far too many Muslims today, many of whom evidently prefer legalism, formalism, and selfish calculation, to truth, beauty, and goodness. Be in no doubt, then, that the Holy Prophet himself ﷺ exhorts you to taste your faith, not to barter with it.

@RealHasanSpiker شيخنا أليس هناك محل للخلاف مع تقدير علمية الطرف الآخر ؟

@IbnBatutta7 Thank you for your advice, even if it was delivered with little respect. I understand where you are coming from. However, on balance, I wholly stand by the way I described them. I believe their reductive account of the contours of Ahl al-Sunnah to be deeply harmful.

@RealHasanSpiker This is very immature of you. Both Shaykh Abdurrahman and Shaykh Saeed people of 'ilm. Have some respect.

@RoTakimToR @movetomuscat Would love to

@RealHasanSpiker Sheikh, is there any chance of you and @movetomuscat bringing back the two mullahs podcast. I know you both are very busy but it’s worth me asking in the slim chance it’s possible.

That means a lot habibi thank you

@RealHasanSpiker Piker and Spiker are as similar to each other as trough and through.

@lisa90i2 🙏

@RealHasanSpiker What happened on your exile shaykh, suddenly you are interested in looxmaxxing discourse I am worrying for you

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