Eid Mubarak!

May Allah fill this world with justice as it is currently filled injustice.

Ameen.

Some Thoughts on Khudi

"Personality is a state of tension and can continue only if that state is maintained."-Allama Iqbal

One of the greatest tensions to which the personality is subject is that between the truth and expedience. We are naturally gregarious creatures; we have a desire for appreciation and social acceptance. In fact, our flourishing as human beings depends on it. At the same time, Humans were created to know and love the truth; without a living relationship with the truth the very structure of our being will decay. To go to either extreme, to attend exclusively to either drive is destructive of human personality and thus of human good; to care only for social acceptance is to reduce one's self to a cypher, to nullify one's own personality in the personality of others, while to borishly insist on one's own take on the truth in total disregard of the social context in which one is enmeshed and in defiance of those very the conditions that allow truth to flourish in the hearts and minds of others is also to nullify one's personality. In the latter case one takes one drive, one facet of a personality (though doubtless an important one) and obliterates the rest of one's being in it. It is in this case that we see an inkling of the wisdom behind the Prophetic directive to speak to people according to their level. In both cases the tension which is crucal to the formation of personality is relaxed and thus its fruit, human flourishing ("personality... is the most valuable achievement of man"), is destroyed.

This is not to say that each of these drives ought to be given equal weight; one can be virtuous hermit but not virtuous flatterer or sycophant. What is crucial is the inner experience of tension between these competing drives; it is this experience that serves as the crucible in which a fully developed personality comes into being.

Possible Reasons for the Timing of Saddam's Execution

Can be found at Informed Comment.

Saddam's Execution

While I have a great personal distaste for the death penalty, I accept that it is part of Islamic law and therefore just when certain stringent conditions have been met. The execution of Saddam did not meet any of those conditions. The government, such as it is, of Iraq has no authority to execute anyone; it was put into power by foreign occupiers and itself has a history of major human rights abuses, including the operation of sectarian death squads. In addition there was no way for Saddam to get a fair hearing in a country in the middle of a civil war; he had problems enough keeping his lawyers alive. In addition, the Government intervened to dismiss a judge who was deemed to be too lenient on Saddam; there wasn't that seperation of powers that is necessary to protect the integrity of the judiciary. The decision to execute him during 'Eid is unspeakably egregious; 'Eid is traditionally a time of reprieve, not of vengeance. This decision will undoubtedly provoke increased violence and blood shed; even if it were just to execute Saddam, to do it at this point in the history of Iraq is both unwise and immoral. I mean in no way to be an apologist for Saddam, but at this point his actions are between him and Allah (SWT); the actions of those who have executed him do concern me because they are the actions of my own government or of those whom my government has put into power.

Ethiopia Invades Dar Al-Islam

Funny how this isn't being brought before the UN, huh? A blatant act of aggression against a Muslim country goes unnoticed, yet a peaceful nuclear program by a Muslim country calls down UN sanctions. Bunch of hypocrites, all of them. They'd rather have brutal warlords they've bought and paid for carve the country up than have it be united under an Islamic government with popular support.