Nawab

Trad™ Muslims do not, and will not, subject premodern modes of production and social organisation to the same level of moral and ontological scrutiny as they do urbanised industrial modernity. At most, they’ll acknowledge that feudal agrarianism and nomadic pastoralism saw it’s fair share of evils, but they’ll never explore how these premodern anthropological systems were innately predisposed to structurally engendering forms of oppression unique to its ontology. But they’ll absolutely refuse to entertain the need for industrial modernity, because it is “ontologically kufri”. It just so happened that Islam was so culturally hegemonic in the medieval age, that it partially sublimated feudal agrarianism and nomadic pastoralism. However Islam couldn’t fundamentally root out the structural evils endemic to it. This is the Dunya; Islam didn’t come to bring utopia on earth, it came to make Allah’s Kalimah supreme on this earth. We can only try to organise society in a way most amenable to fulfilling our duties to Allah. The mode of human organisation must shift to accommodate the needs of the age. Trads™ will pay lip-service by saying that “proper application of Islam” solves the problems of premodern anthropologies, which completely ignores that Islam had to fight the spiritually-entropic tendency of these premodern systems. Reversion to the mean meant reversion to barbarism and oppression. This is just conveniently glossed over. But they’ll prattle endlessly about why industrial modernity is ontologically evil, and how it precludes spiritually healthy society because it emerged from the socio-cultural context of Northwestern Europe in the Great Divergence. Trads™ never stop to consider that perhaps feudal agrarianism and nomadic pastoralism didn’t arise from an “Islamic context” either, nor do they scrutinise the spiritual health of these bygone societies (it wasn’t all pretty, to say the least). This is the psychosis of the traumatised Trad™ who hunkers down in his impotence against colonial forces, unable to envisage Islam’s sublimation of industrial modernity. They hope the world somehow reboots to a time before the Steam Age, where all will be will again. Trads™ throw the baby of industrial modernity out with its bathwater.

Trad™ Muslims do not, and will not, subject premodern modes of production and social organisation to the same level of moral and ontological scrutiny as they do urbanised industrial modernity. At most, they’ll acknowledge that feudal agrarianism and nomadic pastoralism saw it’s fair share of evils, but they’ll never explore how these premodern anthropological systems were innately predisposed to structurally engendering forms of oppression unique to its ontology. But they’ll absolutely refuse to entertain the need for industrial modernity, because it is “ontologically kufri”. It just so happened that Islam was so culturally hegemonic in the medieval age, that it partially sublimated feudal agrarianism and nomadic pastoralism. However Islam couldn’t fundamentally root out the structural evils endemic to it. This is the Dunya; Islam didn’t come to bring utopia on earth, it came to make Allah’s Kalimah supreme on this earth. We can only try to organise society in a way most amenable to fulfilling our duties to Allah. The mode of human organisation must shift to accommodate the needs of the age. Trads™ will pay lip-service by saying that “proper application of Islam” solves the problems of premodern anthropologies, which completely ignores that Islam had to fight the spiritually-entropic tendency of these premodern systems. Reversion to the mean meant reversion to barbarism and oppression. This is just conveniently glossed over. But they’ll prattle endlessly about why industrial modernity is ontologically evil, and how it precludes spiritually healthy society because it emerged from the socio-cultural context of Northwestern Europe in the Great Divergence. Trads™ never stop to consider that perhaps feudal agrarianism and nomadic pastoralism didn’t arise from an “Islamic context” either, nor do they scrutinise the spiritual health of these bygone societies (it wasn’t all pretty, to say the least). This is the psychosis of the traumatised Trad™ who hunkers down in his impotence against colonial forces, unable to envisage Islam’s sublimation of industrial modernity. They hope the world somehow reboots to a time before the Steam Age, where all will be will again. Trads™ throw the baby of industrial modernity out with its bathwater.

Pajeet Darwin award, 6/10

Some clicks from a recent visit to the iconic Padmanabhapuram Palace, nestled in the Western Ghats and the former seat of the Kingdom of Travancore kings. Construction began in 1601, widely regarded as the world’s largest wooden palace..