Knave or Knight? June 14, 2008
Posted by electromagnetic in Traces.add a comment
There is no furusiyya without futuwwa.
An Infinite Regress of Proofs June 8, 2008
Posted by electromagnetic in Fragments.Tags: Razi
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If we reflect, contemplate and investigate, and if following this reflection a conviction arises, then our knowledge that this conviction constitutes knowledge cannot be immediate; for truth frequently turns out to be contrary to it. If it is [said to be] discursive, it will need another proof; and infinite regress will follow, which is inconceivable.
Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī (1149-1210) contends in Dhamm ladhdhāt al-dunyā, that any criterion for certainty requires another criterion to prove it, ad infinitum. Translated by Ayman Shihadeh in his work The Teleological Ethics of Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī (Leiden: Brill, 2006), pp. 211-65, at pp. 255-6.
Authentic Conversion June 6, 2008
Posted by electromagnetic in Notes.add a comment
Conversion is tawba, and just as the latter does not cease in life, neither does the former. We continue to convert, to make tawba, until we awaken in death. For some people, true tawba requires never forgetting the past. For others, true tawba requires forgetting the past forever. These two modes are not mutually exclusive.
In any case, to absolutely fix conversion into an event rather than experience it as a process of change over the course of a lifetime often leads to neglect of tawba and engagement in a kind of superficial pop-celebrity-like project of image reinvention. Mere self-indulgence. Arguably a peculiar luxury of the young, affluent, and idle. To understand authentic conversion requires a sophisticated study of tawba. Otherwise, we are not doing much more than taking some perverse pleasure in religious exhibitionism. Testing how much we can shock others. Making a fashion statement.
Scholars for Dollars June 1, 2008
Posted by electromagnetic in Traces.add a comment
For modern man, morality is mere commerce.
