Adding faith to faith

How did the Muslim rulers see themselves after Prophet Muhammad? I was trying to find this out last week and came across something I was not expecting. They considered themselves as deputy's of God on Earth -- no more nor less. 

In their mind, God continued to keep the Muslim community under his protection by having his deputies implement his laws on earth.

This approach however changes as we see the scholars stepping into the scene and depriving the Caliphs of their spiritual role by nominating themselves as the spiritual leaders.

What does all this tell us about the positioning of the early rulers vis-à-vis Prophet Muhammad?

From the sources that we have, it is clear that the early Caliphs were positioning themselves on the same level and possibly higher than Prophet Muhammad and considered themselves to be as important for the Muslim community as Prophet Muhammad, whose task was to bring the message of God to the Muslims and empower them to continue the implementation of the divine law on earth.

Snow is beautiful.

"Snow is the precipitation in the form of flakes of crystalline water that fall from the clouds. Since snow is composed of small ice particles, it is a granular material. It has an open and therefore soft structure, unless subjected to external pressures."
The abovementioned is the definition of  what snow is -- scientifically.
This is a very useful definition and I am sure many people have and are working for the purposes of studying snow.  But I hope they do not forget one important thing -- that snow is also beautiful!
The beauty, the magic seems to get lost in the endless efforts of understanding things. It is the same in everything, and of course I mean my studies.
You ride on your passion to get to where you want and once you get there, everyone tries to keep telling you that you must question everything, the passion you rode on, the path that took you there, and everything that is a part of your journey. I do not mind doing that, in fact, I enjoy that, but please can we also remember that is is beautiful?
It is almost midnight, and as I watch the snowflakes fall under the dim light of my kitchen balcony -- I think to myself of the snowy days in Baku, when I would spend hours playing with friends. Wherever it falls -- snow is beautiful!

Baku -- the city of dreams.

I have just come back from Baku. It was a fun trip -- my daughter's first birthday, the New Year celebrations and many other new meetings, etc.
The city is growing, changing very fast. It is only the Caspian Sea  -- calm, relaxed, romantic.. and the strong winds -- severe, cold but predictable that have remained the same.
I walked along the Caspian and thought a lot about Baku. I thought how beautiful Baku is and how everything that is changing, both good and bad, create many new ways and opportunities to love Baku.
The flame towers that rise from the centre of the city seemed to me as a decision that Baku has made -- the city is burning with desire to grow, to let the world know about it and to let the world love it! There are still many things to change, improve, develop in Azerbaijan. But Baku, the capital city,  has made its decision. Baku wants to tell its story to the world.
What can I do for Baku? I also want to tell the world about this amazing city where so much has happened and so little is known about. The city where my friends, family and I have learned to dream. Baku -- the city of dreams!

Is there a third way?

In about year 610, an Arab merchant had an experience that would ultimately change the history of the world. This is how I started my essay which I had written during the last week of the first term at Oxford. As you could probably guess I am speaking of Prophet Mohammad here.
Apparently every single part of my first sentence can be much scrutinised and easily doubted in historiography. Was it really the year 610? Was Mohammad an Arab? Was he a merchant? Was it all really happening in Mecca? Where is Mecca? and most importantly -- did Muhammad really exist?
The list of questions is endless and one can really go on with these debates for a very very long period of time. I enjoy looking and studying all these methods and exploring the research tools and ways of looking at history in general, but what strikes me as the most extraordinary thing is the division of scholars.
 One group, that is called revisionists, say that they reject the Islamic traditional accounts as they cannot be trusted and the others, traditionalists, say that the revisionists are wrong and that the Islamic historical accounts are all true and cannot be doubted.
These debates have been going on for a long time, and one thing has become obvious to me: At the heart of these divided camps lies a big fear of committing the deadly sin of irrationality on the side of the former and the deadly sin of infidelity on the side of the latter, none of which can be considered serious in historiography.
But is there a third way?
 There seem to be many intelligent historians who understand these problems and try to do as much as possible in order to provide us with the most accurate information as possible. However, the number of those who blindly reject these attempts and try to do everything to create confusion is growing.

But I think we, the new generation of historians who are interested in understanding more about Islam and Prophet Mohammad must understand that apparently, intelligence is not enough, we must bring passion in. It is only with intelligence AND passion that we can maybe find the third way that everyone is looking for.

Education in the service of a dream

These weeks have been very busy for me -- I have been studying a lot. I am studying Arabic, which is considered to be the main tool in what I do, because with the help of this language I am going to research the materials that will be needed for my thesis. This is how you say it academically. If I put it my own language, it means -- I need to learn Arabic so that I can work on my dream project.
It is very interesting when you have a dream. In the beginning, you think you are very very special and unique and there is noone like you. Then, you become a part of a group where people are similar and by the end of the day you understand that actually -- you are all the same.
You come to a class, let's say Arabic, and you complain to yourself that you are wasting your time learning where to put this dot or that circle, when in your head you have such a great dream!
In other words, you think that you know it all and that there is no need to learn more, you just need to go and do it. You know they say: you don't need no education, all you need is inspiration. I think there is another approach to this. I think we need education to serve our dream.

There is an incredible amount of smart, intelligent and decent people we need to learn from. There are many books we need to read and many sleepless nights to work. We need to do all this, because we have a dream!

Are you mad enough to do it?

The first week at Oxford was intense. In one week your life changes completely -- you become a student again, going to school, with homework and reading to do etc.
Then there is so much unnecessary information that does not directly relate to what you want to study. There is structure, methodology, and many many other things that seems to intentionally distract you from what you really are interested in and what you really want to study.
And the difficult thing is, these things cannot be ignored or neglected -- they are a part of the "process" and you must participate.
There are also lots of people involved. Usually fellow students are fine, but it is the lecturers, doctors, professors and their egos you must deal with, too. But this is the case everywhere else, isn't it?
However, that is not the question. The question is are you mad enough to do it? Because one's got to be mad enough to go through this with a dream and not give up.

I hope we are all mad enough!

The University of Oxford -- a place to dream?

This Tuesday I went for my Induction day to Oxford.

Oxford is a beautiful little town -- very spiritual in my mind. The reason I say this is that as I was walking by those magnificent, ancient buildings and architectural sites, I could almost feel the spirit of those scientists and scholars who walked those streets many centuries ago, passed those buildings, studied in them, lived in them and most of them carried a dream inside!

I entered one of those buildings, where we had the Induction. As I was listening to every speaker speak, I also wanted to have a feel of what they really talked about: Was it a dream that had brought them here? Are we all - people who have come here today - united by a dream? 

Later on we were divided into small groups in accordance with our programs of study. There were 13 of us and as we introduced ourselves and talked about our main interests I could see and feel in the eyes of every one of us that twinkle, the twinkle of a dream! But the question is: Are we going to be able to persevere with a dream at Oxford? I do not know. As Paul McCartney said in his song:

"When will it be right? I don't know

What will it be like? I don't know

We live in hope of deliverance from the darkness that surrounds us!"