Islamic Quote of the Day No. 1

"Striving after knowledge is a most sacred duty for every man and woman who has surrendered himself to God."

Most translations say every "Muslim man and woman" but I like the more universal translation better.
This is a quote from the prophet Mohammed.

It was this attitude that helped Islam outstrip the Christian West in science and culture for hundreds of years after Mohammed's death.  For Christians of that time period -- and for far too many Christians today -- once you surrender to God, you can close your mind to all new knowledge.

I like the quote because it not only refers to learning as a "sacred duty" (something that has never seemed be a part of most Christian doctrine) but also because it puts men and women on the same level.

It also contains a recognition that at the time it was written, humanity had a lot yet to learn about the world.  And for those of us reading it today, it's a reminder that we still have a lot to learn.

*   *   *

Sadly, Muslim groups like ISIS have completely forgotten and/or abandoned this basic precept of Islam, and -- like the fundamentalist Christians of today and the Christian Crusaders of yore -- have convinced themselves that the path to God is through ignorance and violence.

As I've said before, it would be great if all religions -- or even just a single religion like Islam -- could agree on some basic principles of benevolence like this one, instead of fighting it out among themselves based on corrupt and malevolent interpretations of the foundational religious teachings. As enumerated in my post about using Maslow's heirarchy to solve the ISIS problem,  here's a list of basic precepts that decent Muslims should all be able to agree on:

1)     Belief in God – Strict monotheism.

2)     Belief in the Angels – God’s faithful servants and emissaries; capable only of obeying his commands.

3)     Belief in the Prophets and Messengers – Including Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and John the Baptist, with Muhammad (may the mercy and blessings of God be upon him), having been sent as the final prophet and the completion of God’s Message to humanity.

4)     Belief in the Sacred Texts – Including the Books of Abraham, the Torah of Moses, the Psalms of David, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but with the observation that some of these books, over the course of time and translation, have lost the original message, which the Quran, revealed in the Arabic language, preserves today in its pristine form.

5)     Belief in Life after Death – The Day of Judgment, on which all will gather in the presence of God and each individual will be questioned about their life in the world and how they lived it, and will be sent to heaven or hell accordingly.

6)     Belief in the Divine Decree – the belief that nothing happens except by God’s Will and with His full knowledge.  

I'm not exactly a believer in any of this myself, but it looks perfectly harmless to me.  And not at all inconsistent with Muhammad's teachings about learning. What's there to fight about?

Eric Hoffer Quote of the Day No. 7

"The less justified a man is in claiming excellence for his own self, the more ready he is to claim all excellence for his nation, his religion, his race or his holy cause."

This resonates with me, except maybe the "holy cause" part, which I don't understand.  There are some "causes" that truly do transcend individuality and are worth devoting oneself to, and "claiming excellence for."  And I don't think "holy" necessarily means "religious" because he has already covered that.  Maybe he just added it because it sounded good at the end of the sentence.

The reason the quote resonates with me is that it contains the basic truth that there is little objective qualitative difference between varieties of the different semi-artificial constructs we call "nation," "religion," and "race."

Let's start with "nation," since that's easiest, and it's something even Albert Einstein and Leo Tolstoy agree upon:

"Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism - how passionately I hate them!"  (Einstein)

"One would expect the harmfulness and irrationality of patriotism to be evident to everybody." (Tolstoy) 

There's not much more to say about this; for me, it's only a small leap to say that those who "claim all excellence for their nation" are somewhat less than excellent themselves.  That's not to say that some systems of government aren't better than others -- in principle at least, democracy is better than communism or totalitarianism.  But as between two countries with similarly democratic systems, why should one country think that it's better than the other?  Clearly, others have been here before me, so I won't belabor the point -- a good list of reasons patriotism is dumb is found here:

http://listverse.com/2014/03/27/10-unavoidable-arguments-against-patriotism/

And yes, that's where I found the Tolstoy and Einstein quotes.

Religion is similar.  ISIS is appealing to exactly this point right now -- there are a lot of less than excellent young men and women out there who would like to be part of something that calls itself excellent.  And it is their very lack of excellence that allows them to persuade themselves that taking videos of brutal murders is somehow doing the right thing by God.

And of course, "race" is the same.  We can see it right now when we listen to the people who are still sticking up for state-sponsored display of the confederate flag.  I'm not quite saying that everyone who supports the idea of flying that flag over a state institution is a racist; my point is just that the people that I have seen quoted recently in support of the confederate flag seem to be really less than excellent individuals.  Their "less-than-excellence" fits Hoffer's prediction in any event, whether they are racist, patriotic (to the old South?), or believe in the confederacy as a "holy cause."