Simone Weil: The Personal and Impersonal God and the Sanctity of the Atheist

30/12/2011 Leave a Comment

“As the Hindus say, God is at the same time personal and impersonal. He is impersonal in the sense that his infinitely mysterious manner of being a Person is infinitely different from the human manner. It is only possible to grasp this mystery by employing at the same time, like two pincers, these two contrary notions, incompatible here on earth, compatible only in God (the same applies to may other pairs of contraries, as the Pythagoreans had realised).

One is able to think of God at the same time, not successively, as being three in one (a thing which few Catholics manage to be able to do) only by thinking of Him at the same time as personal and impersonal. Otherwise one represents Him to oneself sometimes as a single divine Person, at other times as three Gods Many Christians confuse such an oscillation with true faith.

Saints of a very lofty spirituality, like St John of the Cross, has seized simultaneously and with an equal force both the personal and the impersonal aspects of God. Less developed souls concentrate their attention and their faith above all or exclusively upon one or the other of these two aspects. Thus little St Theresa of Lisieux only represented to herself a personal God.

As in the West the word God, taken in its usual meaning, signifies a Person, men whose attention, faith and love are almost exclusively concentrated on the impersonal aspect of God can actually believes themselves and declare themselves to be atheists, even though supernatural love inhabits their souls. Such men are surely saved.

They can be recognised by their attitude with regard to the things of this world. All those who possess in its pure state the love of their neighbour and the acceptance of the order of the world, including affliction – all those, even should they live and die to all appearances atheists, are surely saved.

Those who possess perfectly these two virtues, even should they live and die atheists, are saints.

When one comes across such men, it is futile to want to convert them. They are wholly converted, thought not visibly so; they have been begotten anew by water and the spirit, even if they have never been baptised; they have eaten of the bread of life, even if they have never communicated.”

- from Letter to a Priest by Simone Weil (ISBN 0415267676)

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My Journey To Islam

06/10/2011 Leave a Comment

www.presstv.com/Program/202877.html

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Well-trodden Paths – a look at the Shari’ah

01/09/2011 Leave a Comment

By Sheikh Daoud Rosser-Owen
Amir, AOBM

The famous Tudor dramaturge, Christopher Marlowe, wrote circa 1592 to the Prologue of his play The Jew of Malta, “I count religion but a childish toy, And hold there is no sin but ignorance”.

While I don’t agree with him about religion, nor the solitariness of the sin, I certainly hold with him that ignorance is sinful. I don’t mean ‘ignorance’ as in simply not knowing something. I mean ‘ignorance’ as refusing to find out. Indeed, in these days of the easy accessibility of information through the Internet and widespread literacy, I would consider such ‘ignorance’ not merely to be a sin, but worse – a willful and inexcusable self-indulgence. And, as it affects Islam and Muslims in the British Isles and even elsewhere in that putative entity ‘The West’, outrageous and with the wrong people positively dangerous. It should be needless to say that this works both ways.

At the moment it is quite common, even fashionable, among many to denigrate and anathematise the Shari’ah, used as a shorthand for Islamic Law or more accurately as one for the degenerate legal systems applied in certain Muslim countries – which is not at all the same thing.

There is also the understandable reaction to a more immediate problem of the ignorant demands from certain Muslims of Britain, and their umbrella organisations, for the application in the UK of some concept that they describe as “Shari’ah” or “Islamic Law”, but which is actually little better than an Islamic label stuck crudely over some imported cultural or customary code that in all too many dimensions touches Islam itself only notionally.

It is sadly true that there is some justification for these responses.

However reacting from ignorance is not helpful. Yet what else can people do when they are let down by those whose professional duty it used to be (according to the Great John Delane, sometime Editor of The Times, in his famous editorial “The Earl of Derby remarked…” of Friday, 6 February, 1852)  “to educate and inform” but who nowadays seem to take it as being to promote ignorance and dissention? Few people are orientalists, and the generations who were born, grew up and served in the Empire have largely passed out of public life.

The aim of this essay is an attempt to fill in the gap abandoned by journalism. It is largely adapted from my monograph (as yet unpublished because not quite complete) on Tory Fundamentalism and Muslim Ideas of State, and it has been revised in the light of two Reports recently released on Islamophobia: that by Spinwatch, “The Cold War on British Muslims” (available to read at http://www.scribd.com/doc/61402174/The-Cold-War-on-British-Muslims and as a PDF at http://www.spinwatch.org/images/The_Cold_War on_British_Muslims_July_2011.pdf) and that by the Center for American Progress, “Fear, Inc. The Roots of the Islamophobia Network in America” (available to read and to download as a PDF at http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2011/08/islamophobia.html).

It is possible that I actually was the first to coin the word “Islamophobia” in an Editorial I wrote in Q-News International in early 1995 – I had formed the word as a derivative from, and allusion to, “homophobia” – which was picked up by the Runnymede Trust’s Commission on British Muslims and Islamophobia, set up in 1996, in its first Report “Islamophobia: a challenge for us all”, published in 1997. On reflection, seeing how things have developed more towards outright hatred of Islam and Muslims rather than an irrational fear, it would have been more appropriate for me to have called it “Islamomisia”. I had toyed with the idea, and dismissed it as being too academically obscure for a newspaper editorial.

About two years ago, in I think 2008, there was published in one of the UK’s daily broadsheets the results of a survey among Muslims, largely in the Midlands and north-east of England, asking whether they wanted Shari’ah in the UK. Many answered ‘yes’, but the questions remain what did the respondents understand by the request, did they think that there was a realistic possibility of it actually happening, or were they reacting to some massive hypothetical “If”?

Much has been made of the apparent results of this poll. So, following from this, what does the word Shari’ah mean for the average UK Muslim – or the proverbial ‘Muslim on the Clapham omnibus’ – and the average UK non-Muslim? And what does this actually mean for them at the operative level of daily life?

There used not to be an educated person unfamiliar with that verse from Jeremiah (6:16), “interrogate de semitis antiquis quae sit via bona et ambulate in ea” (ask after the old paths where is the good way and walk in it). This “good way” (via bona) is the well-trodden path of the prophets and patriarchs, and is the Way of Truth that all these have called people to follow.

The Muslims do not see their Way as being different from this but as a continuation of this well-trodden path, though all communities at various places, times, and circumstances have needed specific guidance for their conditions. As stated in the Quran “for every one of you We have ordained a Code and a Good Way” (li kulli ja’alna minkum shir’atan wa minhaja)(Q5:48). This via bona is none other than the Shari’ah – a ‘well-trodden path to that watering hole’ (which is what the word actually means) of laws and conduct derived from what has been sent down from the Almighty from which the Mosaic Law of the Torah, much of the Canon Law of the Christians, and the corpus of Islamic Law drink deep. To Muslims, each of these Abrahamic Faiths (as the late Professor Isma’il al-Faruqi, al shahid, termed them) has its own Shari’ah: its own track (semita) on the Way (via) of Truth.

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Beware, Lest the Devil Leads You Astray…

08/08/2011 Leave a Comment

By Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib

The following is an extract from Nahjul Balagha, Sermon 191, known as “al-Khutbah al-Qasi`ah”, the Sermon of Disparagement.


You should take a lesson from what God did with the Devil; namely He nullified his great acts and extensive efforts on account of the vanity of one moment, although the Devil had worshipped God for six thousand years – whether by the reckoning of this world or of the next world is not known. Who now can remain safe from God after the Devil by committing a similar disobedience? None at all. God, the Glorified, cannot let a human being enter Paradise if he does the same thing for which God turned out from it an angel. His command for the inhabitants in the sky and of the earth is the same. There is no friendship between God and any individual out of His creation so as to give him license for an undesirable thing which He has held unlawful for all the worlds.

Therefore, you should fear lest the Devil infects you with his disease, or leads you astray through his call, or marches on you with his horsemen and footmen, because, by my life, he has put the arrow in the bow for you, has stretched the bow strongly, and has aimed at you from a nearby position, and:

He (the Devil) said: ”My Lord! because Thou hast left me to stray, certainly will I adorn unto them the path of error, and certainly will I cause them all to go astray.” (Qur’an, 15:39)

Although he (the Devil) had said so only by guessing about the unknown future and by wrong conjecturing, yet the sons of vanity, the brothers of haughtiness and the horsemen of pride and intolerance proved him to be true, so much so that when disobedient persons from among you bowed before him, and his greed about you gained strength; and what was a hidden secret turned into a clear fact, he spread his full control over you and marched with his forces towards you.

Then they pushed you into the hollows of disgrace, threw you into the whirlpools of slaughter, and trampled you, wounding you by striking your eyes with spears, cutting your throats, tearing your nostrils, breaking your limbs and taking you in ropes of control towards the fire already prepared. In this way he became more harmful to your religion and a greater kindler of flames (of mischief) about your worldly matters than the enemies against whom you showed open opposition and against whom you marched your forces.

You should therefore spend all your force against him, and all your efforts against him, because, by God, he boasted over your (i.e., Adam’s) origin, questioned your position and spoke lightly of your lineage. He advanced on you with his army, and brought his footmen towards your path. They are chasing you from every place, and they are hitting you at every finger joint. You are not able to defend by any means, nor can you repulse them by any determination. You are in the thick of disgrace, the ring of straitness, the field of death and the way of distress.

You should therefore put out the fires of haughtiness and the flames of intolerance that are hidden in your hearts. This vanity can exist in a Muslim only by the machinations of the Devil, his haughtiness, mischief and whisperings. Make up your mind to have humility over your heads, to trample self-pride under your feet and to cast off vanity from your necks. Adopt humility as the weapon between you and your enemy, the Devil and his forces. He certainly has, from every people, fighters, helpers, footmen and horsemen. Do not be like him who feigned superiority over the son of his own mother without any distinction given to him by God except the feeling of envy which his feeling of greatness created in him and the fire of anger that vanity kindled in his heart. The Devil blew into his nose his own vanity, after which God gave him remorse and made him responsible for the sins of all killers up to the Day of Judgement.

Caution against vanity and boasting about ignorance

Beware! You strove hard in revolting and created mischief on the earth in open opposition to God and in challenging the believers over fighting. (You should fear) God! God! In feeling proud of your vanity and boasting over ignorance, because this is the root of enmity and the design of the Devil wherewith he has been deceiving past people and bygone ages, with the result that they fell into the gloom of his ignorance and the hollows of his misguidance, submitting to his driving and accepting his leadership. In this matter the hearts of all the people were similar, and centuries passed by, one after the other, in just the same way, and there was vanity with which chests were tightened.

Beware! Beware of obeying your leaders and elders who felt proud of their achievements and boasted about their lineage. They hurled the (liability for) things on God and quarrelled with God in what He did with them, contesting His decree and disputing His favours. Certainly, they are the main foundation of obstinacy, the chief pillars of mischief and the swords of pre-Islamic boasting over forefathers. Therefore, fear God, do not become antagonistic to His favours on you, nor jealous of His bounty over you and do not obey the claimants (of Islam) whose dirty water you drink along with your clean one, whose ailments you mix with your healthiness and whose wrongs you allow to enter into your rightful matters.

They are the foundation of vice and the linings of disobedience, the Devil has made them carriers of misguidance and the soldiers with whom he attacks men. They are interpreters through whom he speaks in order to steal away your wits, enter into your eyes and blow into your ears. In this way he makes you the victim of his arrows, the treading ground of his footsteps and source of strength for his hands. Take instruction from how he brought God’s wrath, violence, chastisement and punishment on those who were vain among the past people. Take admonition from their lying on their cheeks and falling on their sides, and seek God’s protection from the dangers of vanity, as you seek His protection from calamities.

Certainly, if God were to allow anyone to indulge in pride He would have allowed it to his selected prophets and vicegerents. But God, the Sublime, disliked vanity for them and liked humbleness for them. Therefore, they laid their cheeks on the ground, smeared their faces with dust, bent themselves down for the believers and remained humble people. God tried them with hunger, afflicted them with difficulty, tested them with fear, and upset them with troubles. Therefore, do not regard wealth and progeny the criterion for God’s pleasure and displeasure, as you are not aware of the chances of mischief and trials during richness and power as God, the Glorified, the Sublime, has said:

What! Think they that what We aid them with of wealth and children, We are hastening unto them the good things? Nay! they (only) perceive not. (Qur’an, 23:55-56)

Certainly, God the Glorified, tries His creatures who are vain about themselves through His beloved persons who are humble in their eyes.

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Sheikh Hamza Yusuf – What is Jihad? Who Deserves the Help of God?

06/08/2011 Leave a Comment

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Does Islam Teach Violence?

07/06/2011 1 Comment

By Paul Salahuddin Armstrong
Co-Director, AOBM

A commentary and response to an article entitled, “Does the Koran Teach Violence” by Weylan Deaver.

“The New Testament teaches Christians are at war with evil. But Christians fight with spiritual (i.e. non-physical) weapons for a spiritual kingdom.”

As do Muslims… Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, stated, “the greatest jihad (which means struggle/striving) is with one’s self/ego”. If you read the Qur’an carefully, so many verses are asking the reader to ponder, to strive for spiritual correction in themselves, (cf. Holy Qur’an 2:177, 2:195, 2:203, 2:219, 2:238, 3:191, 10:5-6, 38:28 – there are many more, but I can’t list them all here).

“When it comes to our relationship to fellow men, the gospel teaches we are to be peacemakers, turning the other cheek when mistreated, not retaliating, but leaving vengeance to God.”

Islam likewise teaches this is the best way (cf. Holy Qur’an 2:224,) Prophet Muhammad himself said, “None of you truly believes until he desires for others that which he desires for himself” (40 Hadith of an-Nawawi 13). Clearly, no one in their right mind desires anything bad to happen to them, and we should therefore bear that in mind during our interactions with others. Even in 2:178, the verse highlights forgiveness is superior to seeking retribution.

“O YOU who have attained to faith! Just retribution is ordained for you in cases of killing: the free for the free, and the slave for the slave, and the woman for the woman…”
- i.e. an eye for an eye. However, the same verse goes on to say,

“…and if something [of his guilt] is remitted to a guilty person by his brother, this [remission] shall be adhered to with fairness, and restitution to his fellow-man shall be made in a goodly manner. This is an alleviation from your Sustainer, and an act of His grace…”
- i.e. a court ruling that the victim’s next of kin should receive compensation is better, this is certainly not a mandate for anyone to go and seek revenge. The same verse ends by saying,

“…And for him who, none the less, wilfully transgresses the bounds of what is right, there is grievous suffering in store:”
- which really highlights the point that justice should be carried out in a lenient and merciful manner, certainly not in the brutal way some of those who claim to advocate “Shariah” today have implied!

“That’s a far, far cry from advocating physical violence against the enemies of the church in the name of Christ. Anyone teaching or practicing physical violence in the name of Christ to further the religion of Christianity is, in fact, contradicting the New Testament.”

Like the Tealibans (Tea Partiers) and some crazy evangelical extremists perhaps? While Islam does advocate self-defence, it certainly does not encourage violence or nuking people! The Qur’an stresses the best way, is to work for peace and draw up treaties with your enemies to avoid open conflict (cf. Holy Qur’an 8:61). The Qur’an only permits a country (not terrorists) to defend itself against an aggressive violent state which hasn’t respected the treaties it has made. (cf. Holy Qur’an 8:56-58) That is in fact in opposition to terrorism, not supporting it in any way. Most people, even most Christians, would accept that a state must defend itself from foreign aggression, even though this is a most unpalatable aspect of the world in which we live.

“When it comes to the religion of Islam, there are, without question, many who advocate and practice physical violence against those they consider ‘infidels.”

This is sadly true, there are some extremists who advocate horrible things. Although, in this respect, Islam is no different from Christianity, or indeed many other religious and even some political groupings. Each has their extremist nutty fringe elements, who are themselves opposed by the majority. To single Islam out and imply it is somehow unique in this respect, is absolutely dishonest and a rather pathetic argument.

“Often, politically-correct (and ignorant) American politicians condemn terrorist atrocities, offering the explanation that Islam has been hijacked by radical extremists. But is that so? Consider several quotations from A. J. Arberry’s respected translation of the Koran (New York: Collier Books, 1955).”

While this might not sit well with some people, due in part to their own fierce beliefs, these politicians are correct; Islam or rather, the public image of Islam has been hijacked by radical extremists.

“And fight in the way of God with those who fight with you, but aggress not: God loves not the aggressors. And slay them wherever you come upon them” (from sura II). (2:190)

While on the one hand aggression seems discouraged, killing in the name of Allah is definitely okay: kill your enemy wherever you happen to find him. It makes the part about non-aggression seem a little hollow, doesn’t it?”

Muhammad Asad, in his commentary on verse 2:190 wrote the following:

This and the following verses lay down unequivocally that only self-defence (in the widest sense of the word) makes war permissible for Muslims. Most of the commentators agree in that the expression la ta’tadu signifies, in this context, “do not commit aggression”; while by al-mu’tadin “those who commit aggression” are meant. The defensive character of a fight “in God’s cause” – that is, in the cause of the ethical principles ordained by God – is, moreover, self-evident in the reference to “those who wage war against you”, and has been still further clarified in 22:39 – “permission [to fight] is given to those against whom war is being wrongfully waged” – which, according to all available Traditions, constitutes the earliest (and therefore fundamental) Qur’anic reference to the question of jihad, or holy war (see Tabari and Ibn Kathir in their commentaries on 22:39). That this early, fundamental principle of self-defence as the only possible justification of war has been maintained throughout the Qur’an is evident from 60:8, as well as from the concluding sentence of 4:91, both of which belong to a later period than the above verse.

Although jihad doesn’t actually mean a crusader style “holy war” in the way we imagine in the West. The fact that some people see that is a testament to our own bloody history, rather than anything in Islam. We’ve subconsciously superimposed our own medieval concept of a crusade on Islam and Muslims and by making out Muslims are possessed of some crazy warmongering spirit, seek to make the West look rather benign in comparison! Whereas, the honest truth is all civilisations have foreign blood on their hands and this is not because of any particular Holy Book or religion. Men fight wars, not God, and often times not because of a belief in any particular deity or faith. Even the Crusades were fought as much for control of crucial trade routes as any religious concerns.

The Arabic word jihad can refer to any form of struggle, in a similar manner to the English word “fight”. You can fight, for instance, for human rights or to protect the environment, each of these is a jihad, requiring much effort and self sacrifice. Jihad when referring to warfare, according to the Holy Qur’an, refers to defensive war, a just war, fought to re-establish peace and security. As Abdullah Yusuf Ali wrote in his commentary on verse 2:190:

War is permissible in self-defence, and under well-defined limits. When undertaken, it must be pushed with vigour (but not relentlessly), but only to restore peace and freedom for the worship of God. In any case strict limits must not be transgressed: women, children, old and infirm men should not be molested, nor trees and crops cut down, nor peace withheld when the enemy comes to terms.

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Things to Consider when Referencing Hadith

21/05/2011 Leave a Comment

By Paul Salahuddin Armstrong

Hadith, narrations of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, can be useful supplementary material, which in some circumstances can help to clarify certain matters. However, a few things should be born in mind when referencing hadiths:

1). The only sacred scripture of Islam is the Holy Qur’an, all other texts including hadith are of a supplementary nature. Hadiths are not part of the sacred scripture of Islam, even though they do make reference to the purported words and deeds of Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him.

2). Hadiths vary in their degree of reliability, some hadith are most likely authentic, as they’re based on multiple narrations from individuals regarded as honest and trustworthy members of the community, renowned for their accurate memories; nevertheless, many hadith are no where near as reliable and some are fraudulent. The great imams of hadith themselves, threw out most of the narrations submitted to them for collation. This fact in itself indicates that fraudulent hadiths were something very common during the period in which the famous hadith collections were compiled. If this were not so, would these noble people have felt such a need to sort the wheat from the chaff, and to edit together the books which they did? Even the hadith which they did preserve have been categorised from authentic (sahih) to weak (daif). All this should make us question just how reliable these books are, and not to place too great an emphasis upon them; especially not to the extent that we end up placing more emphasis on hadith than upon the Divine revelation of Almighty God – the message of the Holy Qur’an.

3). Unlike the timeless wisdom of the Holy Qur’an, hadith are a product of their times. Through making reference to the day to day incidents during the life of Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, and his noble companions, they do give us tremendous incites into the lives and culture of the Prophet and his companions. However, this is precisely the very same reason why they are encoded in time and place. In order for us to be able to extrapolate meaningful wisdom and practical guidance in completely different cultural contexts, we need to understand such things as the culture of that time, what the Prophet, peace be upon him, was striving to achieve through his words i.e. his intentions, and through understanding these points, what we are meant to take from these hadiths in present day contexts and what was simply meant for the particular situations which Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, was addressing at that time.

Many times I’ve witnessed hadith being referenced without any effort being made to take these points into consideration. Yet, without taking these into consideration, we will undoubtedly take the Prophet’s noble words completely out of context and perhaps even do the very opposite to that which he would have advised, were he with us today helping us work through how we should address the various challenges we face in contemporary circumstances.

How should we address the difficulties, morally, spiritually and physically, faced by the brave souls working to contain the nuclear disaster at Fukushima? How do we approach the dilemmas faced by leaders who inherit nuclear arsenals in a post atomic age? What is the guidance in the sunnah (example of the Prophet, peace be upon him) for how astronauts should dress? What do the hadith teach about living in space? Clearly, there is guidance in the Holy Qur’an and wise words of our holy Prophet, peace be upon him, which teach us how to address such matters. But we will not derive any useful solutions through a literal reading, but only through contextual interpretation and logical deduction.

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Plain Islam

11/05/2011 1 Comment


www.plainislam.com

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Letter from Benjamin Franklin to Ezra Stiles

14/03/2011 Leave a Comment

PHILADELPHIA, March 9, 1790.

REVEREND AND DEAR SIR—

I RECEIVED your kind letter of January 28, and am glad you have at length received the portrait of governor Yale from his family, and deposited it in the college library. He was a great and good man, and had the merit of doing infinite service to your country by his munificence to that institution. The honor you propose doing me, by placing mine in the same room with his, is much too great for my deserts; but you always had a partiality for me, and to that it must be ascribed. I am however too much obliged to Yale College, the first learned society that took notice of me, and adorned me with its honors, to refuse a request that comes from it through so esteemed a friend. But I do not think any one of the portraits you mention as in my possession worthy of the situation and company you propose to place it in. You have an excellent artist lately arrived. If he will undertake to make one for you, I shall cheerfully pay the expense: but he must not delay setting about it, or I may slip through his fingers, for I am now in my 85th year, and very infirm.

Here is my creed: I believe in one God, the creator of the universe. That he governs it by his Providence. That he ought to be worshipped. That the most acceptable service we render to him is doing good to his other children. That the soul of man is immortal, and will be treated with justice in another life respecting its conduct in this. These I take to be the fundamental points in all sound religion, and I regard them as you do in whatever sect I meet with them.

I send with this a very learned work as it seems to me, on the ancient Samaritan Coins, lately printed in Spain, and at least curious for the beauty of the impression. Please to accept it for your college library. I have subscribed for the Encyclopedia now printing here, with the intention of presenting it to the college. I shall probably depart before the work is finished, but shall leave directions for its continuance to the end. With this you will receive some of the first numbers.

You desire to know something of my religion. It is the first time I have been questioned upon it. But cannot take your curiosity amiss, and shall endeavor in a few words to gratify it. Here is my creed: I believe in one God, the creator of the universe. That he governs it by his Providence. That he ought to be worshipped. That the most acceptable service we render to him is doing good to his other children. That the soul of man is immortal, and will be treated with justice in another life respecting its conduct in this. These I take to be the fundamental points in all sound religion, and I regard them as you do in whatever sect I meet with them. As to Jesus of Nazareth, my opinion of whom you particularly desire, I think the system of morals and his religion, as he left them to us, the best the world ever saw or is like to see; but I apprehend, it has received various corrupting changes, and I have, with most of the present dissenters in England, some doubts as to his divinity; though it is a question I do not dogmatize upon, having never studied it, and think it needless to busy myself with it now, when I expect soon an opportunity of knowing the truth with less trouble. I see no harm however in its being believed, if that belief has the good consequence, as probably it has, of making his doctrines more respected and more observed, especially as I do not perceive that the Supreme takes it amiss by distinguishing the believers in his government of the world with any peculiar marks of his displeasure. I shall only add respecting myself, that having experienced the goodness of that being in conducting me prosperously through a long life, I have no doubt of its continuance in the next, though without the smallest conceit of meriting such goodness. My sentiments on this head you will see in the copy of an old letter inclosed, which I wrote in answer to one from an old religionist whom I had relieved in a paralytic case by electricity, and who being afraid I should grow proud upon it, sent me his serious, though rather impertinent caution. I send you also the copy of another letter which will show something of my disposition relating to religion.

With great and sincere esteem and affection, I am, &c.

B. FRANKLIN.

PS. Had not your college some present of books from the king of France. Please to let me know if you had an expectation given you of more, and the nature of that expectation? I have a reason for the inquiry.

I confide that you will not expose me to criticisms and censures by publishing any part of this communication to you. I have ever let others enjoy their religious sentiments, without reflecting on them for those that appeared to me unsupportable or even absurd. All sects here, and we have a great variety, have experienced my good will in assisting them with subscriptions for the building their new places of worship, and as I have never opposed any of their doctrines, I hope to go out of the world in peace with them all.

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Prayer for our Brothers and Sisters in our Human Family

12/03/2011 Leave a Comment

Our thoughts and prayers at this time are with those who are grieving, suffering pain, or who have been affected by the terrible earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

O Allah, may everyone sense Your loving compassion, which calms our troubled hearts and shelters our anxious souls. We remember those who have died and we pray for those who mourn for them. We pray for those who may be affected as the tsunami spreads across the Pacific. We pray with humility with our troubled and struggling brothers and sisters in our human family.

We pray for our brothers and sisters suffering in Japan, Libya, Tunisia, Egypt, Sudan, New Zealand and other countries. May we dare to hope that through the generosity of the privileged, the destitute will receive of Your blessings, to glimpse hope, warmth and life again.

We pray for Earth, may You rejuvenate her and protect her from harm, so she may continue to nurture life, especially our human family for generations to come. May we come to understand how to live in harmony with our planet and stop hurting her or harming Your other creations. Help us to walk lightly on Earth, with respect and compassion, conveying Your blessing, not being ourselves a burden.

We seek only Your divine Mercy and tender kindness and pray for the sake of Your beloved, Prophet Muhammad and his noble family, peace and blessings be upon them.

Ameen

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