Khan Hammaad > Recent Status Updates

The root of all problems is the Misinterpretation of the concept of Equality in islam....?

The idea of "genration gap" doesn't apply to muslim societies. Interesting!

According to Attas, the main impetus for secularism came from the application of Greek philosophy to Christianity. For Muslims Aristotle was "THE philosopher" and Plato was a saint. Further, they named one of their great philosophers, Farabi, as the second teacher. Second to Aristotle. Now, it would be interesting to see how Islam contained the Greek Philosophical tradition to avert their path to secularism.

It is as if I am gliding over this. I don't know if this book is written in such a way or my reading skills have developed.

'Theory of Spontaneous Generation', My father once told me about this but with an Islamic source. It was presented as a religious statement.

It's odd and disastrous when scientific-probabilistic claims are presented in a religious cloak of certainty. It's like trying to put a lid on a volcano.

Remember what happened when the church made a prophet out of a scientist-Ptolemy. Remember! Copernicus and Robespierre.

یہ‌مے‌خانہ‌ہے‌،بزمِ‌جم‌نہین‌ہے
یہاں‌کویٔ‌کسی‌سے‌کم‌نہین‌ہے

— جگر‌مرآدابادی

I think, I don't have the proper context to understand this and I cannot foresee how I can use it further in what concerns me.

The acts of the colonizer do not fall into the categories of Good or bad.

On Action (عمل)

عمل‌سے‌ذنرگی‌بنتی‌ہے‌جنّت‌بھی‌جہنّم‌بھی‌
یہ‌خاکی‌اپنی‌فطرت‌سے‌نہ‌نوری‌ہے‌نہ‌ناری‌وے۔

—‌ اقبال

پہلے‌تُو‌حسنِ‌عمل،حسنِ‌یقین‌پیدا‌کر
پھر‌اس‌خاک‌سے‌فردوسِ‌بریں‌پیرا‌کر

— جگر‌مراآبادی

ذوقِ‌عمل‌کے‌بس‌مین‌ہے‌تشکیلِ‌کانْات
ذوقِ‌عمل‌کو‌شرط‌مگر‌آگہی‌کی‌ہے

—اکبر‌حیدر‌آبادی

Lamentations and greif-stricken faces are part of a patterned, stable world. One does not weep, one does not do as before when one is faced with multiple murders.

John Stuart Mill—Radical Empiricist. Held that mathematics is constructed through experience.

Philip Kitcher—Takes Mills view forward by showing how higher mathematics is related to experience. Also that mathematics is born out of IDEALISATION. Therefore a radically different mathematics can come through a radically different idealisation that ours. This is similar to Weber's view of ideal constructs in sociology.

"The wars of Alexander and his successors released an enormous booty...", the connection between War and Economic acceleration seems interesting.

What's more interesting is that this 'Barbarian civilised' gap was even in the Hellenistic period. Was it?

—Stoics produced a condemnation of slavery around 500 BC. If that's right it goes against what Jonathan Brown says.

Greek sculpture was favoured by presence of stone in Greece.
What is the relationship between Geology and the forms of Art?
What kind of Geology favours poetry? Maybe a desert.

The notion of THEATRE seems quite broad. A temple, a mosque.. these are theatres of some kind. With this extension one can see art in varied forms.
What would a civilization without Art look like? How would it's people behave?

Battle of Marathon seems to be an important aspect of the contemporary western imagination.

Athenian democracy had a weak tradition of jurisprudence as it's bedrock was collective common sense and a mistrust of expert's.

It's unwise to make a distinction between Greek Science and Greek philosophy. As before Aristotle it was commonly believed that nature could be comprehended by using reason rather then observation.

Geography played a vital role in the emergence of Greek Civilization and later it's disunity. These Geographical constraints on human action seem interesting. I wonder how far one can extend them.
Similar to this argument is the one regarding Russian Geography and it's history of dictatorships. If this is the case then geography has a impact on politics which implies it has an impact on psychological foundations!

Verstehen—Direct observational understanding.
aktuelles Verstehen— Explanatory understanding.

Weber went directly against Marx in arguing that capitalism was born directly out of religion rather than being tolerated by it or he contradicted the claim that, "Religion was the opium of masses."

Coincidentally this book is related to the one I read before it. That is 'What is History.'

*Moral construction of reality*

The Cruel Redeemer Lazarus Morell.

One cannot decide if it's history or fiction. Even when I know it's a fiction. It's strikes oddly as historical story based on facts rather then imagination.

History and progress.

—what lies beyond Greek, Athens and Rome in the classical age?
The achievements of other peoples do not move me as that of Greek's.. why? Why does Zeus seem familiar then... I don't even know anyone besides Zeus, hades.. why?
—A classic is that which has played a pivotal role in the formation of the present.
—Written records provide the most valuable insights into the mind of a civilization. Archeology comes next.

—Social sciences are different from the sciences as the subject-object distinction collapses.
—Ideal moral categories are abstract but practical moral notions are historical?
—A Historian judges a society not the individual.
—Social sciences and sciences have different methods and avenues of study but a unified in their aim.
—History is a game played without a Joker (God) in the pack.
—Everyone is UNHAPPY=EQUALITY!

—The rise of Cyrus marks the end and beginning of ancient and modern world respectively. Zorasteranism became prominent during this period which had it's impact on major monotheistic religions.

—Cyrus founded Achaemenid empire-First Persian Empire-with it's capital at Babylon, which was the largest empire seen untill then. The structure of the empire would influence later empires significantly.

—Darius and xerxes.

—Ismail merged persian nationalism with islam. Hence the title "Shah", persian miniature art and Shahnameh.
It would be interesting to see how this fusion takes place.
Arts!

—Prophecies seem more like foreign policies.
A prediction is a thing to be done NOT a thing that'll happen by itself.

—How does judgment over historical figures change with time.

—Aurangzeb opposed building of the Taj Mahal as un-islamic!

—The Spread of islam in Africa, China and Malaysia challenges the narrative that Islam was allways spread by the sword.

—How Islam merged with tribal cultures of Africa and Malaysia challenges the narrative that Islam is a fixed set of rules that dictates everything from what you wear to what you eat. It shows flexibility.

—Delhi sultanate was formed by slaves who overthrew their masters.
Khiljis were among them.

—How can one differentiate between the society and the individual.
Is a biography just a history?
—If history is seen as a process then the historian is not like a eagle viewing it from the above but is a part of it. His view depends upon the process itself.
—His view that individual character is of little importance in the course of history and that goes directly against Iqbal's and Nietzsche's theses.

—Among Mesoamerican civilizations Aztec civilization is pretty interesting. Two of the central acts in their culture were sacrifice and blood to maintain balance—both human.
I need to explore more of Aztec philosophy especially their views on death and to which their ethics seems to be tightly linked.

—There was a interesting connection between agricultural conditions and individualism regarding Europe.