MM

FT111 - pls write it all up and get reviewed.

.

Yolanda

Thanks.  I will try to remember names and consult with my mom,, but that was a long back and my dad is not around.  We will see.

MMM (tafsir #1)

Actually the Arabic of 5:90-91 does not technically 'prohibit' wine. The first verse says (all trans. mine), "O those who have believed (ya ayyuha'-ladhina amanu), indeed khamr [i.e. an intoxicating alcoholic beverage made from dates], gambling (al-maisar), sacrificing on stone altars [to idol gods] (al-ansab) and divination by arrows (al-azlam) are the filthy acts of demons/devils (rijsu min 'amali-sh-shaytan, i.e the word shaytan is plural not singular), so take heed from [committing such acts] if you wish to be felicitous (fa-ajtanibuhu la'alakum tuflihun).

I don't believe there is a statement here anyone can necessarily disagree with on the grounds of it being a piece of advise about leading a clean, balanced, ethical life on the level of acts. Even if we concede that khamr is the wine made from grapes, this statement is still a pretty reasonable one, the final clause  merely stating to avoid such things if the believer wishes to attain felicity or success in such belief.

Verse 91 says, "Indeed the demons wish to cause amongst you enmity and animosity through khamr, and to hinder you from (yasuddakum 'an) the Remembrance of God (dhikr'u-Llah) and the the prayers (wa 'ani'l-salat), so will you not pull back (fa-hal antum muntihun)?

I still do not see a blanket prohibition here. Both verses are giving a succinct ethical warning about the consequences of khamr and gambling because, as the final clause of the last verse points out, they hinder taqwa (i.e. piety), here specifically instanced as the dhikr (remembrance) and salat (prayer). These are statements indicative not so much of blanket prohibitions per se but rather of advise about the pitfalls of acts prevalent in the behaviours of materialism. I don't believe anyone who has ever been in a bar fight, who has suffered from alcoholism, who has lost someone to a drunk driver, or has lost their home and livelihood to gambling can disagree with the statements of these two ayahs. These two statements might as well be rephrasings from manifestos of Mothers Against Drunk Drivers, AA Gamblers Anonymous, etc. I don't know of a fair-minded churchman (few as they are these days) who can in all fairness disagree with these statements in the Qur'an.

To be continued...

..........

Hi! MM,

    A while back, I read MPD's book report:

//iranian.com/main/blog/multiple-personality-disorder/letter-his-torturer

A former Iranian inmate wrote a book about his torturer, Brother Hamid. After the publication of the book, the erstwhile torturer lost his position at IRI's embassy in Tajikistan. So it is not a bad idea to document these horror stories (name torturer's name) and expose IRI's atrocities. Your family story is the epitome of IRI's tyranny!

I agree with Divaneh that brother/sister title means nothing......look, Brother (Aziz?) Hamid was an IRI's torturer and he got promoted by torturing fellow Iranians! ...I am glad that brother Hamid got yanked from the embassy post!

May your dad rest in peace!

Thank you for sharing such a personal family story!

SF - Let's drink to that! - AI - Thank you.

سخن عشق نه آن است که آيد به زبان

ساقيا مي ده و کوتاه کن اين گفت و شنود

FT111 - retrograde renaissance of Islam is news to me!

But, first, how did those Islamic thinkers live with the fact that they were drinking (5:90-91 - prohibition of alcohol) or that they had a "concubine" (24:2 - fornicators lashed), and......

Secondly, how does a modern society, with the charter of human rights as its guide, live with a book that allows wife-beating (4:34), orders an eye for an eye (5:45), orders cutting the hand of a thief (5:38), orders killing of those who wage war against god (5:33), ...... or a shari'a that kills homosexauals and prostitutes, and.... so on.

Finally, you seem to suggest a retrograde renaissance of Islam, but I do not know enough to judge it, so you may need to write a blog/article and invite those who know enough about "pro/con" to argue the points with you.

Very touching story MM

Thank you.

MM

If I may be permitted to answer your question to SF: the answer is, yes, they were. Elite Islamic intellectual circles were quite eclectic at one time. For instance, Abu Ali ibn Sina outright confesses to having written most of his major works - from his Qanun to the Kitab al-Shifa' and the Isharat va Tanbihat - while drinking wine. Of course the dogmatists also existed at the time. What happened is that during the modern period eclectism became the focus of reaction by certain Islamic movements in both Shi'ism and Sunnism claiming such things were innovation (bida'). Then you had the modern religious rationalists (from al-Afghani to Muhammad Iqbal and Siyyid Qutb) who saw phenomena such as Sufism as being the cause of Islamic decay, blaming it for backwardness etc.

In my opinion the biggest single blow to Twelver Shi'ism came in the 17th and 18th centuries when the Usuli establishment consolidated its power and influence and stamped out its rival Akhbari school. The whole current madrasa establishment (whether in Iraq or Iran) are the Usulis and the unchecked power of the mujtahid 'ulama is part of the problem they represent.  Shi'ism can extricate itself out of this problem by laying aside the sophistries of this establishment and returning back to its own spiritual roots which are the teachings of the Imams (as). There is lots the Wisdom of the Imams of the Ahl-i-Bayt can teach about what is wrong with the Islam of the mullahs and the IRI.

MM

سخن عشق نه آن است که آيد به زبان

ساقيا مي ده و کوتاه کن اين گفت و شنود

 For an Islamic democracy

Dear MM: Another piece of my

Dear MM: Another piece of my heart just cracked. These stories should never be forgotten. This is only tip of the iceberg. The regimes colossal inhumanity has to be yet revealed an it's upon every one us in diaspora to document these atrocities for the future generation.

Thanks Vildemose

One of the stories in your link reminded me of one that my dad told me about a cellmate (many in one cell) who heard his name on the radio as one of the mofsed-ol-fel-arz persons already executed that day (no trial!!!).  The man immediately got up, wrote a letter / will, said his prayers and within a few hours from the announcement, he was taken away.....

tof

Here is a place you can

Here is a place you can share such stories:

//www.iranrights.org/english/memorial.php

Dear MM: This is indeed a

Dear MM: This is indeed a sad story. Many lives were taken and interrupted  in the most brutal and horrifying way in the name of Islam. This unspeakable and immoral disgracefullness continues to endure through the fabric of our society.

Your father's spirit lives on through you and the peace you have found through him.

Ramin

The difference in classes is alarming.  While the elite are building luxury houses, the poor get more desperate, especially in the minority provinces.  Feast or Famine is the quote that comes to mind.

Thanks for recording all these injustices.  We will talk about it later.

SF

Are you saying that at one time wine, saaghi and love were common-place in elite Islamic circles (ayatollah down to talabeh)?  Many of the writings you quoted are about such forbidden fruits in Islam now.  What happened and how do you suppose to go back to those writings?

I've pledged to tell such stories

MM I've pledged to tell such real life stories. The story of "Man in the Park" was such a story about an Iranian teacher who after years of service had to go under a heavy debt to come and seek medical help in UK because he could not get such treatment in Iran. IRI bit us in many ways, the harshest being imprisoned, tortured and killed but many like the teacher also suffered because IRI would send money to feed fat Hezbollah thugs in Lebonan but not provide medical care to this poor man after a life time of service and because of that and because he was treated very late he died.

Iranian borders hold the skeleton of many who tried to escape the regime and either became victims of unscrupulous smugglers or killed by the regime.

I helped students who told me they slept in telephone boxes because after escaping Iran they had become illegal immigrants.

Young people who were sent to anywhere outside Iran, some who turned to drugs and prostitution in countries like Turkey as they had no support.

Soldiers who fell for IRI propoganda went to War saw their comrads die pointelessly and escaped to Europe but carried the horror of War inside them. 

Iranian in mental instituions as the pain of diaspora, or living in a limbo either culturally or for their visa was simply too much.

I saw Iranian couples in Germany, who would collect golf balls from mosquito infested water holes as the German Government did not even feed them properly, or some had broken marriages or turned to alcohol because of living in limbo.

Old men and women who could never see their sons and daughters again.

As for myself, I ended up working in a burger joint for 18 hrs a day and be a heart beat away from being deported for several years until I managed to pull my life back together again. I lost many years of my youth when the biggest worry should be your college grades, and you should be out there enjoying life. 

Believe in your own conscience MM

I can't tell you who to believe in or who not to believe in. I only place the facts, as I see it,  in front of you. You need to make up your own mind. The people you named are not the faces of Islam, despite their claims to the contrary. I gave you examples of how other faiths can be hugely abused. Go back to your own post-Islamic heritage. The greatest names in our culture and literature were not anti-Islam. Have read their work? Do you think Abu Ali Sina, Molla Rumi, Sa'adi, Ferdousi and Hafez were all less of a thinker than the critics of Islam in today's Iran. They reached such high levels of ascendancy in their gnostic orders that they no more needed to follow the rituals and the descipline that others like me must do. But until we reach such levels we need to follow an order. None of them refuted Islam but they attacked the abusers of the faith

Believe what you think is "right." 

For an Islamic democracy

SF

There are lots of examples in antiquities, but here we are in 2011, my concern is Iran, and the faces of Islam are AlQueda, Taliban, Khomeini.......AN, etc.

AGAIN,  who do you want me to believe - you or his lying eyes!!!!

Islam is hugely misinterpreted

And so was/is Christianity. Why do you think that crusaders were killing in the name of Christ? So was the case with Zoroasterian faith. How do you think Cyrus and Draius expanded their epmire? By waving olive leaves in one hand a white flag in the other? How do yoou think the Mazdakis met their ends in the hands of the Zoroasterian priests?.

Nener mind about Judaism.  

For an Islamic democracy

SF

This is the dichotomy of Islam.  In the US, the Muslims are all about love, peace and surrender the the will of god.  On the other hand, you look at places where Islam has got political power, the same love, peace and the surrender to the will of god is interpreted completely differently and to catastrophic endpoints ranging from forced hejab, flogging to stoning.

Is that because the Muslims are watched like a hawk here and do not allow the extremists to foster, or is it because the more extremist factions stay in the other countries?  In either case, Islam needs a much needed renaissance, however, once known for their reformists attitudes (cf. Ayatollah Boroujerdi), they are assasinated or put in jail.

Like it is said here; who do you want me to believe - you or his lying eyes!!!!

MM

Therein is further evidence that in the IRI we are not dealing with an orthodox Islamic state but a completey heretical entity masquerading as a religious state and manipulating religion for its own largely self-serving purposes. Given this, the IRI is an entity of shaytan and so the whole of the IRI from top to bottom are moharib (warring against God). Furthermore, the institution of the vilayat-e-faqih has attempted to usurp the prerogatives of the Imam Zaman, which by itself immediately nullifies any claims on its part to be orthodox.

Mona / Ramin - Thanks

One day, many of these stories should be told and recorded for the next generations to remember.

FT111

Besides the physical abuses of the citizens, one of the greater sins of IRI is the corruption she has fostered in Iran, all in the name if Islam.  Pre-1979, fesaad and roshveh were under the table and limited to a hidden segment, whereas now, corruption is open and goes from the very top to the bottom of the barrel.

...

م م گرامی ...روح بابا شاد و قرین نور و آرامش ابدی

مونا

The tragedy of separation, the greatest sin of the IRI

The greatest of the sins and evils committed by the IRI is the separatism that the IRI has instilled in the minds of many Iranians - whether pro or against it.  This separatism has sown paranoia and suspicion to unprecendented levels in our culture and amongst our people to the point that people react to even harmless diction and religio-cultural forms speech in negative ways. In the late 1940s/early 1950s Jewish philosopher Hannah Arendt showed how totalitarian regimes instill such separatism beginning on the very foundational level of everyday language, esp. how they twist, obfuscate, de-valorize and generally gut the very meaning of words. All of this by totalitarian systems is undertaken for the purpose of control and, moreover, as a primary mechanism of the institutionalization of abuse as the primary means of control. Language is how people communicate about the world. When language is made the tool of repression by totalitarianism (whatever the form of totalitarianism be) - when  words are deliberately imbued by the state to have an immediate panopticon of control via fear - then there is no question anymore that one is facing pure Evil.

The IRI (just like the Sassanians who were heretics to Zoroastrianism) is a heretic state whose founder Khomeini was, arguably, a heretic to Islam and to Shi'ism. Yes, Ayatollah Khomeini (a demon clothing himself as an angel) in reality was one of the worst enemies of Islam the religion has produced. Like the Sufyani Mu'awiyya, Yazid and their corrupt Bani Ummayah clan who murdered Imam Husayn (as)  and persecuted the true believers, Khomeini  was a usurper of the prerogatives legitimately belonging to the Prophet (sws) and the Imams (as).  He misled and lied his way to the top using his religious credentials to do so, and as such his supporters who called him by the epithet Imam (some of whom committed pure heresy by calling him the Imam Mahdi) are effectively no different than the Khwarij who betrayed the Commander of the Faithful 'Ali (as) at Siffin.

Given this, it is incumbent upon the true mu'minin/believers of the Ahl al-Bayt to begin taking back what the Khomeinist kuffar have stolen from the  mu'minin/believers. The mu'minin/believers must unequivocally renounce and resist this heresy of the vilayat-e-faqih and those who support it and the institutions who prop it up.

Like brother Salman Farsi just did, the mu'minin/believers should demonstrate by their words and deeds that the True Vilayat is about Love and so the True Vilayat and Love are inseparable. Those who separate it are separatists and so serving the legions of jahanam - whatever they call themselves. As such when a pious Muslim calls someone a brother or sister, it should also be understood that many times this may be directed with respect whereby the words are being used to honor rather than deride.

Finally, the mu'minin/believers should henceforth heed the words of Imam Husayn (as) who said, "Do not tyrannize/oppress any soul nor be the victim of any tyrant/oppressor" and by reflecting on these words of the Prince of Martyrs see the wolves in sheeps clothing amongst their midst for who they truly are. Wassalam!

Couple of points:

First, someone mentioned a user named "kholfaaye raashedin" who also used to call others brothers and sisters. From what I noticed by reading his comments he was a mere joking character whose humor betrayed his false faith in what he was advocating. But when I call people brothers or sisters I am not joking. I mean it. It means we are brothers in the same faith. You may not believe in my faith but my faith considers all children of Adam and Eve as brothers and sisters.

Second, you can see how brother divaneh who used to refer to me by all sorts of derogatary names and titles, has changed to call me "brother".  Things will change. It needs persuasion.

 For an Islamic democracy

Very powerful MM

I'm glad you wrote this blog. Now I understand what fuels your passion for your ideas.

Needless to say that I am with you on these issues. 

Dear Friends

All-Iranian, Thanks. Regardless of who created IRI, we are stuck with it and hopefully all Iranians will take care of IRI without needing a foreign bail-out.

AmirParvizforSecularMonarchy, Thanks friend.  When the BS gets thick, someone needs to cut the cord.

TruthSeeker9, I barely remember BK.  The link you provided brings faint memories.  At least he had a sense of humor.

Anahid, Thanks.  To date, I get sad on the day, especially since I could not attend his funeral, for obvious reasons (or maybe not so obvious to some).

Freethought111, I will say Amen to that.

Ari, My dad told me a lot of stories from early IRI jails; coleagues to baha'is.  But, to some questions regarding torture, he did not want to upset me and just looked at infinity, which said a lot to me.  Some day, we need to gather all these stories for prosperity, and IC may be one conduit for it.

Divaneh, Thanks for your heart-warming message.  Justice!.... I will seek.  Brother to IRI-supporters!.... I will not be.

Thanks for sharing this, MM

Some day when the occasion is right you should  tell us more about your late father. My respect and remembrance of what little I now know about him on the anniversay of his passing. 

Great blog, truthful and yet real too

sorry to hear about your father,

for a mostarah with islamic democracy toilet paper.