Archive for Personal
04.17.09
Posted in Personal, Current Events at 8:06 pm by Abbas
Round three of our discussion on the Iran. I don’t have much time so I am going to be as terse as possible. It is almost time for finals, so I really can’t dedicate that much time to this topic, because I think most of my readers are familiar with the topic enough to make their own judgments.
if we cant even agree that Iran is a theocracy, there’s no point in having a discussion. whether shias disagree with the statement that iran represents shi’ism is besides the point…sticking to facts, it is the only shia state with a majority shia population, ruled by a shia government. so when i criticize iran’s politics it’s fair to say that i’m criticizing a shia state, just like when i criticize saudi, its fair to say that im criticizing a sunni state.
Before we can discuss of Iran is a theocracy, we need to define a few terminologies and get into another discussion, which I don’t have time for. In any case, you’re saying that if the majority of people are of a certain ethnic or religious group then it represents the ideals of that group? I think there is a difference between Shi’as and Shi’aism, like I believe there is a difference between Islam and Muslims.
the guardian council is charged with interpreting the constitution AND vetting candidates. all legislation has to be approved by the gc…and candidates have been disqualified by the gc on the basis of their perceived religiousosity. the supreme leader, who appoints members of the gc with the help of the chief judge (whom he also chooses), has the last word on all powerful posts, is in charge of defense, media, appoints the head of the judiciary, and handles foreign affairs…criticizing government can and has been equated with apostasy in iran…how is it the case that government and clergy are not one and the same?
Come on.. stop making it sound like the Supreme Leader does everything. He is a qualified mujtahid, you think he has that kind of time? 
The President who is second in command and is directly elected by the people has many duties, including nominating members of parliament, power to dismiss governmental members, appoint different high-level secretaries, formulate foreign policy, and so forth. You can see this reflection of duties when you look at the Khatami-era verse the current era.
Also, make sure you mention a Guardian Council that changes every three years, and a Supreme Leader, who was selected by an elected body (Assembly of Experts) and who can be impeached by that same body. Also note, that the Assembly of Experts also have minority religious groups and non-Muslims.
About criticizing the government being equated to apostasy (and ultimately death) really shows your lack of religious training and you’re not a scholar so I don’t expect you to know. However, in Shi’a law (and some Sunni) even an apostate is not to be punished by death, so I find it hard to believe that people have been murdered, for critisizing the government post-Revolution. In fact, the opposite is/was the case (please read up on the killings of sympathetic Shi’as and Sunnis in Iraq, Saudi Arabia, the Gulf, the West, Turkey, and in Iran during the Shah’s time).
I agree, many people died during the Revolution.. but it was a Revolution and the circumstances were very different.
the qualifications of the supreme leader are also besides the point..obviously he’s an ayatollah. for such a self correcting system, there are an awful lot of unaddressed issues such as the lack of freedom of expression…reformists are routinely censored by their government…they’ve shut down critical media…iran has behaved like any other oppressive government. how many activists have been placed under house arrest? what about those who have been given death sentences for speaking out against government?
You sound like a propagandist machine, the same machine that gets over 15 million of our tax money. He is not just an “ayatollah.” Please read “Islamic Government” by Ayatollah Khomeini (r) for in-depth analysis and information. Yes, some activists have been placed under house arrest, while some are not, including the very outspoken Dr Soroush. Death sentences for speaking out against the government? If you’re going to make wild accusations and claims, at least provide some evidence.
Did you even know that the Leader (Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Khamenei) seeks advice from known religious, and secular jurists on a consistent basis? Meaning that there is room for improvement and even the highest ranking official admits and accepts that.
it’s like when i hear ignorant arabs justify saddam’s rule by claiming that the iraqi people could only be ruled with an iron fist. not that i’m equating saddam with iran, but i just simply refuse to believe in this idea that people have to settle for something because it’s the best they have going for them…
I agree (and you better not be equating Iran with Iraq, because that would make everything you said dis credible in my eyes).
Anyway, have a good night.
I pray for your success,
peace.
(response to http://granfalloon.wordpress.com/2009/04/17/response-to-enlightenment-iran/ )
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04.16.09
Posted in Personal at 1:07 pm by Abbas
A post was made on a blog I oftenly read about how we should “reform” Islamic text. “Reform” has became a buzz word for many non-Muslims and Muslims alike. Here is an excerpt from the original post:
i have an interest in the idea of an islamic reformation and a rereading of islamic texts… not to say i support the entire movement or every attempt to reform the faith because id rather not have 15 editions of the Quran, but when a cleric is telling men they can be breastfed by female coworkers, i have to draw the line somewhere… and the topic in general is just filled with some pretty interesting debates.
Since I don’t want to waste space on my blog, you can find the entire article here: http://granfalloon.wordpress.com/2009/03/02/readings-of-islamic-texts/.
In any case, someone by the name of Ali commented arguing that this phenomenon of backwardness, which was the motivation of this “reform” idea presented in the blog, is usually in Sunni circles. In essence, this backwardness does not apply to Shi’a circles. Nevertheless, I assume the author of the post replied by saying,
I agree for the most part but to believe that their counterparts in the Shia world are entirely immune from political hijacking is a bit of a stretch. When the clergy is invested with so much authority, as in the case of the GC, the result generally isn’t that different from Sunni world, i.e stagnation and disenfranchisement.
On a purely spiritual level, complacent and dysfunctional religious leadership specific to the Sunni world is more alarming (to me) because of the lack of guidance and consistency…Islam within the Arab world has been reduced to a stream of fatwas and fragmented theological discourse espoused by self-promoted demagogues with accredited beards for ijazahs.
And I will address this person’s concerns here - since my comments are usually censored and edited. The first assumption that this person is making is the most common miconception that individuals make and that is implying that the Islamic Republic of Iran = Shi’ism. Yes, Iran is a made up of mostly Shi’as, but Shia history stretches way before the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Let us make that clear, before I continue. The Shi’a principle of authority existed during and after the time of our Prophet (pbuh). In addition, there are many other Shi’a communities world-wide.
It is very important that one understands the concept of Imamate and Leadership in Shi’a doctrine before blasting the clergy. Click here for a short book describing it. And we also need to make a distinction that clergy in the Shi’a world is much different/advanced than the Sunni world. In the Shi’a world there is very rigorous training involved, which is much more central, universal, and organized relatively. It is usually centered around the marajeyyat system. Assuming one understands Imamate and its implications, the link to Imamate that we have currently is the maraja, whom are the highly qualified scholars that have the ability to take part in ijteehad. This is because our last Imam (Imam al-Mahdi pbuh) is hidden from us and these were his requirements for his representatives when he went into occultation.
Now that we have established what Imamate and Marajeyyat is we go onto the government of Iran. For the return of Imam al-Mahdi (a) there must be ground work set out for him as a pre-requisite for him to reappear. The Islamic Republic, the government of Iran, strives to be that ground work. Is it a perfect system? Of course not. Is it dynamic (changing)? Of course.
“When the clergy is invested with so much authority, as in the case of the GC, the result generally isn’t that different from Sunni world, i.e stagnation and disenfranchisement.”
In regards to the GC, the Guardian Council or Supreme Court in Iran, this person is right for saying it is invested with so much authority, but this person fails to mention that this Council is made up of only 6 religious jurists and 6 secular jurists. And even that the make-up changes every three years, so it is never in constant stagnation. Tell me a Sunni government, past or present, that has such a robust system of checks and balances as the Islamic Republic and then you may have a point.
And the last part of her comments, lets modify it to the Sunni Arab world, since we are too oppressed to have our own governments - even when we make up the majority.
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04.12.09
Posted in Personal at 2:03 pm by Abbas
I think it is finally that time again.. to make a return. Regardless if anyone reads this or not, I didn’t really feel the need to express my feelings in a blog-like style, but I think it does help me (and hopefully others) in not only expressing myself, but allows me to keep my insanity by forcing myself to keep everything in perspective. Here is a simple update about myself:
- Relocated to the Washington DC metro area from California due to graduate school
- In graduate school at George Mason University striving for a degree in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology
- Two jobs so I can make ends meet
- Involved with some national initiatives like Water On Ashura and Al Hujjah
- Trying to learn Arabic again (grammer and vocabulary mostly)
And that is pretty much it. I probably have forgotten to include some stuff, but that’s all for now.
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09.15.08
Posted in Personal at 11:35 pm by Abbas
There is a pamphlet online by Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Khamanei called “Al Tawhid and its Social Implications.” It discusses the natural result of a Tawhidi world view from the viewpoint of society and humanity’s relationship with all others. It emphasized a point which I find valuable; that such “secondary principles” are made truly important, valuable, and achievable only by a correct understanding and implementation of Tawhid in a person’s life and society’s life. I found it generally instructive and inspiring.
http://www.al-islam.org/al-tawhid/tawhid_social/
Excerpts:
“Before we elucidate the principle of Tawhid from this point of view, that is, its rejection of social predominance by a single class, I think it necessary to mention the fact that Tawhid, contrary to the popular belief that it is merely an intellectual and philosophical theory, is not only a fundamental outlook regarding man and universe, but a social, economic, and political doctrine as well.
Amongst all religious and non-religious terms and concepts it would be difficult to find any term or concept so loaded with construc tive and revolutionary implications, which cover diverse social and historical aspects of human existence. It was no accident that every one of all the Divine movements in history was launched with so much of emphasis on Unity of God, His unshared Divinity and authority over the whole universe.”
“The Holy Prophet of Islam (S) laid down the principle of Tawhid as a path before mankind; but, afterwards, it was merely reduced to the status of an abstract theory and a subject of theoretical discussions and debates. In the days of the Prophet (S), it was a fresh world outlook and a new programme of life;. later, the same principle served as no more than a topic of theological dissections and leisurely scholarly pursuits. In the days of the Prophet (S), it formed the infrastructure of the whole system, and the axis of all social, political, and economic rela tionships; but later it became merely a show-piece and an embellish ment of scholarly endeavour. What else could be expected from a decorative and formal auxiliary which had no active and constructive role to play?”
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03.19.07
Posted in Personal at 12:25 am by Abbas
Basic layout/design complete! InshaAllah the new address to the blog is: http://www.whatheblog.com. Please update your links, because I will not be updating this anymore. I keep this as is, but please continue to visit the new blog. It is still under development stages, so any suggestions, etc would be perfect:).
Edit: Moved back here
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03.15.07
Posted in Personal at 10:34 am by Abbas
I will be revamping the entire blog in the upcoming weeks. I will use a different blogging system. There will also be many new features. For example broader categories catered towards a bigger audience and possibly a different url or domain. So stay tuned…
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03.06.07
Posted in Personal at 4:24 pm by Abbas
I get at least 5 of these types of email a day (for work)… it can get annoying
Hi all,
Does anyone have one or two extra mice that are CD45.1 positive (also
known as Ly5.1 positive). Our order from JAX is only coming at the
end of the month.
Thanks
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03.04.07
Posted in Personal, Current Events at 3:51 pm by Abbas
As the moon moved through the stages of the eclipse, George Lovely took this series of images from which he created a montage. (source: BBC)
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03.02.07
Posted in Personal at 4:37 pm by Abbas
I apologize for the delay. I am really swamped with work and life, so please bear with me.
We all strapped up in our gear. I had my double-layered kufi, and the others had thier own stuff. We were too excited to think logically and we were extremely late. The sun was going to set, so we chose the trail that was closest and we got our water, food, clothing, etc all ready and we made our ways to the Canyon.
Sam: lets get some Mules!
Me: Let me see.
Me and Bernstein go to see the prices and the guy told us it’ll cost us at least 300 dollars and he was explaining how people book year in advance!
Worker: You’re all young.. you don’t need mules!
Anyway, we got to the trails and we started to head down. There was ice on the trails so we went really slow. We said hi to every hiker that passed us (their were many). One hiker said “Shalom” to Bernstein, and Bernstein replied saying, “Salaam.” Kemp and Sam thought they were cool and zoomed ahead of us, so they could reach the river. Us being the more experiencd in the group.. 
.. knew it would be impossible to make it down to the river (12 miles, downhill) before sunset, because it was already getting dark. Hence, we took our time. Bernsteing was taking a million pictures as we made our way down, by the way (all pics are from him fyi). We saw a guy taking baby steps, who looked like he was going to die and pass out.
Me: Are you okay? Do you want some water?
Guy: No I am fine.
We continued and chuckled at him.
Me: Haha.. look at him. He was dying..
Berstein: Yea.
Me: I’m going here.. it seems like a short cut.
Albert: Yeeahh.
Bernstein: I’m coming too. Help me.
The shortcut turned out to be an obstacle in our way more than anything. And our bag packs made it ten times harder, because we had weave in and out of cactus and rocks, but it was fun.
Anyway we continued down and we made it to this hut, rest stop (not restroom), where Kemp and Sam were waiting for us.
Me: Man, I died and came back! I am dying.. I wish I was in better shape.
Bernstein started to yell some religious chants and Kemp and Albert started to make monkey noises, because the echo was awesome, even though we were just 3 miles down. It was dark and we couldn’t see so we decided to camp underneath this hut, which may have belonged to the Navajo Indian tribe!
We started to unpack and get our sleepig bags ready.
Bernstein: Can you recite adhan, please!
Kemp: Yeea.. we want to hear echo! Please!
Me: No. That’s dumb.
Kemp: Come on.
After five minutes I did my adhan. Bernstein recorded it, even though it was dark. The echo was nice. We had cans of beans, spinach, and tuna that we ate. We also had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (the bread was crushed, but we were so hungry we did not care). We prayed, ate, etc. We shared our Jinn stories and looked at the stars, which were beautiful. We saw everything, including the big dipper.
As we were falling asleep.
Berstein: I need to use the bathroom guys.. where should I go?
Albert: Go there.. *points outside at bushes*.. and take this flashlight.
Bernstein: Can you come with me?
Kemp: I’ll take him. (note, that Kemp startled Bernstein four different times by saying “boo” or acting like a mountain lion).
Me: Sam.. you take him, he might have heart attack with Kemp.
Sam: Fiiine.
Bernstein: I cant find my shoes.. oh well lemmie just wear these..
Sam: Mann those are mine! Don’t piss on ‘em!
Me: He’s not five!
He goes and takes care of his business. And we all try to fall asleep now. We try to fall asleep and then suddenly we see a pair of flashlights approaching us.
Sam: There are people there..
Albert: What do you think they want. They are speaking Spanish.
Sam: They just closed their lights .
Albert: I think they are the Navajo tribe.
Me: They prolly thought I was asking for help when I was doing adhan.
Sam: Albert, I think they going to attack, why would they close lights.
Albert: Go on the look out.
Bernstein: Get your axe out right now, Albert.
Albert: No.
Bernstein: You have an axe and people are goin to jump us and you’re not taking it out! (he was almost crying).
Kemp: Why you scared? Don’t be scared. You fight if they come.
Kemp hands me his knife, just in case. Sam gets his too. Anyway, we eventually fall asleep and we didn’t hear from them (we prolly scared them ourselves, because we kept on flashing our light on and off). However, I did not sleep, because I couldn’t lay on my side, because of the dumb sleeping bag from Walmart. We had hand warmers, that kept us very warm. I heard cans moving near our hut, which made me believe there was something out there (like a rat, snake, or mountain lion). The hadith of how Sayyids can’t die from snake bite came to mind, but luckily nothing happened (its prolly fake btw).
We get up for Fajr and we start to head down. We hide our bag packs somewhere and we hurry up down. We encounter deer and a lot of squirrels. We also see dirty underwear and a sock on the trails (you can figure out what that person did with the other sock). We become exhausted but we make it down to the River. It was an adventure. We had to cross creeks and stuff. The river is orange (from the mud and soil), but its streaming and it looks awesome, because the creek leads into it.
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02.21.07
Posted in Personal at 3:41 pm by Abbas
I wrote a letter in response to Parvez Ahmed’s ( board chairman of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy group) and I received a generic response and I replied again. Here are the set of emails (in order).
A Naqvi
To: pahmed@cair.com
Brother Ahmed
Salaamun ‘akaykum wa rahmatullah,
I first want to commend you for your efforts in trying to bridge the gap and cracks amongst the Muslims, and applaud CAIR for advocating and promoting social justice and peace in the United States.
However, your recent article entitled Politics, Not Faith, Behind Shia-Sunni Divide in Iraq, though may be written with good intentions is offensive to me as a Shi’a Muslim American. I think you over-simplified the issue and situation and have tried to ignore the whole problem altogether. Successorship in regards to the Shi’i is very important and is in fact an article of faith (Imamate) and concluding its soley “political” is very inapproproate and unneccessary. And also the historical “facts” you elude to in your article is contested by other historians.
Your statement
“The historical context was always political and, despite severe disagreements in the past, the conflict never assumed the characteristics it displays today in Iraq: viciousness, indiscriminate killing, and complete disregard for human life.”
is incorrect and undermines a great deal history. Historically, the Shi’a minority have been facing systematic discrimination and persecution from the time of the Ummayads till now.
I hope that my comments do not discourage you from your noble work, but encourage you to have increased dialogue with the Shi’a minonrity, so that as Muslim Americans we become united and stronger in order to initiate change and promote justice for all.
Your Brother,
Abbas Naqvi
Parvez Ahmed
To: A Naqvi
Salaam-
Thank you writing to me.
Shias and Sunnis do have variant readings and interpretations of history. Despite this, Shia and Sunni communities have often united on advancing the major principles of Islam - i.e. monotheism (tawhid), peace, justice, social welfare etc. Even if they do not unite the least each side can do is not demonize the other side and commit violence against each other. It is very disturbing to see what is going on in Iraq everyday.
I do understand and empathize with your views. I am trying to find ways to having an open and constructive dialogue on this matter.
Parvez
Salaams,
If that is the case, which is by the way is not, because there is a consensus amongst the historians and it is fact that the Shi’a minority on numerous occasions have been persecuted and humiliated, in the future please do not make it seem like the only “interpretation,” like it was in your article. Again, I commend you for your efforts to build ties and unity, but in the future please be a bit more cautious, considerate and appreciative.
-Abbas
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Posted in Personal at 11:28 am by Abbas
The Canyon trip was indeed an adventure. I am inshaAllah going to blog on it. I don’t have time to blog all of it, so I’ll divide it into parts I guess. For the sake of confidentiality I will use fake names (Sam, Albert, Kemp, Abbas, Bernstein). This is not a novel or a story book, so please don’t lecture me on grammar and proper structure (I don’t care- I am just typing it up). Here is part 1.
———————————————————————————————————-
We left San Diego right after Fajr time on friday (6am) heading towards Pheonex, so we can meet up with some of our Arizona (SMSA) friends and attend the Al Mahdi program (Dr. Liyakat Takim lectured). Kemp did most of the driving, and I did most of the sleeping - I was very tired, because I barely had any sleep the night before. We talked about all sorts of things (fireworks - they are illegal in Cali, gun-laws in Arizona, Jinns, bears, etc). I didn’t really know much about Pheonex; the only thing I knew was the Suns.
We finally made it and we wanted to look for a cheap motels.
Kemp: I know a ghetto motel.. let me take this exit.
Me: Where is it..
Kemp: Right here.
We look for really cheap motels. We see three of them that are around 40. Then we see one that is 35.00 per night.
Albert: Man, we are going to get STDs in these motels. I am not staying in them.
The pool fence was rusted, the curtains were ripped and the cars parked outside were totalled, so we decided it was not worth it. We started to get hungry, so we went to some halal Arab restaurant to eat. We filled our stomachs and Kemp found a nice little hotel through a friend (since he knew the area). We showered, slept and headed to the masjid. It was in the middle of a residential area but it was pretty roomy and there were a good amount of people from different ethnicities (arab, irani, indopak).
We met up with some friends from Tuscon and Pheonex, some of whom I have never met face to face, but have a relationship through blogging, internet, or business.
We pick up Bernstein and we head out the next morning. Instead of leaving at 6am, we leave at 10, 10:30am (that was a big mistake.. you’ll see why soon). We stop at Walmart and we get 10 or so cans of beans, spinach, and tuna. We get gloves, 0 degree sleeping bags. I wanted the snake bite kit.
Sam: Your a Sayyid.. I thought you couldn’t get killed by snake bite. You can use your sayyid powers!
Me: Just in case…
Anyway, we get our stuff and we hit the road and we get there in a few hours. We stop at some hickish restaurant, while they were having an NRA meeting. We get into the Grand Canyon and we change into our clothes and we prepare ourselves down the hike. We chose the ~24 miles (total - up and down) trail. We were all excited and ready to go.
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02.15.07
Posted in Personal at 12:29 am by Abbas
Will be going to Pheonex for the masjid program there, inshaAllah on friday and then camping and hiking the Grand Canyon (18 or so miles - don’t ask how I will survive). Hence, I will not be updating ’till I reurn (Monday, inshaAllah).
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02.12.07
Posted in Personal at 1:14 am by Abbas
The great Muslim divide has has taken shape in the United States. There was an article (http://www.nytimes.com/glogin?URI=http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/04/us/04muslim.html&OQ=_rQ3D1Q26eiQ3D5059Q26enQ3D783e875fdbbd422fQ26exQ3D1171256400Q26partnerQ3DAOLQ26pagewantedQ3Dprint&OP=62eb560fQ2FD9ApDQ3CQ24Q2Az5Q24Q24ByDyZZQ2BDZyDZQ25DQ7CzDZQ25tQ7Cz4ltQ26JBt4) written by Neil MacFarquhar on the NY Times entitled Iraq’s Shadow Widens Sunni-Shiite Split in U.S., where he talks about the tension and discrimination primarily against the Shi’a Muslims. To a certain extend it is true. And to a degree its i true; I can speak for myself and others who face bigotry and intolerance from other Muslims from local masjids and organizations.
Nevertheless, the article has caused a reaction from the acclaimed Sunnipath.com website, an online Sunni academy. The director of the academy went as far as blogging about the article and publicy responded to it (http://blog.sunnipath.com/?p=13).
However, at the end of the day, I think it comes back to the individual. Yes, it’s very important for our establishments to recognize each other compassionately as brothers and sisters in Islam, but our institutions are essentially controlled by our communities and societies, so it ultimately goes hand in hand. We need to recognize the importance of tolerance and compassion as individuals and as established institutions. A very pleasing and satisfying response I read from a Sunni scholar on how to deal with each other was from Shaykh Faraz Rabbani of the Sunni Path Academy and I hope we all follow his advice.
I pray that this finds you well, and in the best of health and spirits. May Allah grant you all good and success in this life and the next.
Yes, there is absolutely nothing wrong with working with other Muslims whom one may have some differences with towards shared goals. Rather, this would be very much in the spirit of the sunna of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him).
At the same time, one must understand that the basis of unity and respect is accepting the reality that there are longstanding differences of opinion that cannot be ignored. Thus, “forced unity” where we try to somehow negate the existence of differences simply exacerbates old wounds. Rather, the way forward is to acknowledge that we differ; and to “work around” the differences rather than denying them.
And Allah alone gives success.
It goes in line to my article I wrote on Islamic Unity (http://thenlightenment.whatheblog.com/2006/05/17/islamic-unity-a-commandment-from-god/). We must also keep in mind, upholding Islamic Unity is not a preference, but an obligation.
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02.05.07
Posted in Personal at 3:32 pm by Abbas
InshaAllah, I will return in due-time with regular updates.
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01.21.07
Posted in Personal, Current Events at 6:03 pm by Abbas
The revolution of Husain (pbuh) was an Islamic movement spearheaded by one of the great leaders of Islam. The principles and laws of Islam demanded that Husain (pbuh) act to warn the Ummah of the evil situation which it was in, and to stand in the way of the deviating ruler. As Husain (pbuh) himself remarked when he left Madina for the last time,
“I am not rising (against Yazid) as an insolent or an arrogant person, or a mischief-monger or tyrant. I have risen (against Yazid) as I seek to reform the Ummah of my grandfather. I wish to bid the good and forbid the evil.”
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