You cannot understand tawḥīd, the principle governing the cosmos, without understanding its negations: tughyān (lit. transgression). (1/6) If tawḥīd is a form of critical consciousness then awareness of who or what is the tāghūt is pivotal to that awareness. Sherman A. Jackson captures the meaning of the term tāghūt brilliantly as “second-creators.” (2/6)

Let us reflect and begin with a fundamental question: what is man? As Gabriel Marcel so eloquently explains, man is that being with ontological capacities (the capacity to ask) and ontological concerns. (1/9) He is that being who raises the question: who am I? It is fundamentally the desire to understand the self (hence the dictum, know thy self) and one’s place in the cosmos (was this not the question that caused Oedipus anguish?). (2/9)

How to Critique Secularism

In this thread, I want to provide a framework for critiquing secularism, namely, the framework put forth by Talal Asad. I will provide concrete examples of how we can apply this framework in our critique of secularism. (1/16) But first, what are the claims made by secularism? The secularist will claim that secularism is that the sacred and the secular, or religion as two universal and pre-defined and mutually exclusive categories. The state merely applies these pre-defined categories. (2/16)

You cannot be colonized unless there exist the internal conditions that render you vulnerable to being colonized. Malik bin Nabi calls this colonizability. It is the absence of an ummatic center (tawhīd) and ummatic project (istikhlāf). (1/4) The very word ummah stems from the noun amm, which means purpose, destination, and quest. Thus, an ummah that does not have an existential ends for itself is not ummah at all. It ceases to exist as a dynamic and creative living organism. (2/4)

How Capitalism Subverts Islam

The highpoint of Capitalism in relation to Islam is the reduction of Islam to a brand and the Muslim to a consumer, a homo economicus. How is Capitalism able to do so? Thread. The first phase is the use of data totalitarianism. Capitalism uses big data to penetrate the consciousness of the Muslim. This allows the global data machine to peer into the very consciousness, soul, and psyche of the Muslim.

How To Remember What You Read:

1- First, acknowledge that you cannot retain everything in the text. Second, recognize that it is not your objective to do so to begin with. 2- The objective should be to draw out the author's (1) thesis or what he or she wants to demonstrate and (2) the main arguments used to do so. These can be summarized in a single page: the what, why, and how.