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Ibn al-'Arabi's Cosmology and the New Creation; 2)Scientists, the Public, and Natural
Selection: From Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Quotes of Aga Khan IV, Aga Khan III and Nasir Khusraw: "And the more we discover, the more we know, the more we penetrate just below the surface of our normal lives - the more our imagination staggers.........What we feel, even as we learn, is an ever-renewed sense of wonder, indeed, a powerful sense of awe – and of Divine inspiration.....the Power and the Mystery of Allah as the Lord of Creation"(Aga Khan IV, Ottawa, Canada, December 6th 2008) "In Shia Islam, intellect is a key component of faith.
Intellect allows us to understand the creation of God"(Aga Khan IV, July
23rd 2008, "The second great historical lesson to be learnt is
that the Muslim world has always been wide open to every aspect of human
existence. The sciences, society, art, the oceans, the environment and the
cosmos have all contributed to the great moments in the history of Muslim
civilisations. The Qur’an itself repeatedly recommends Muslims to become better
educated in order better to understand God’s creation"(Closing Address by
His Highness Aga Khan IV at the "Musée-Musées" Round Table Louvre
Museum, "......The Quran tells us that signs of Allah’s Sovereignty are found in the contemplation of His Creation - in the heavens and the earth, the night and the day, the clouds and the seas, the winds and the waters...."(Aga Khan IV, Kampala, Uganda, August 22 2007) "....in Islam, but particularly Shia Islam, the role of
the intellect is part of faith. That intellect is what seperates man from the
rest of the physical world in which he lives.....This notion of the capacity of
the human intellect to understand and to admire the creation of Allah will
bring you happiness in your everyday lives. Of that I am certain"(Aga Khan
IV, Dar-es- "In this context, would it not also be relevant to
consider how, above all, it has been the Qur'anic notion of the universe as an
expression of Allah's will and creation that has inspired, in diverse Muslim
communities, generations of artists, scientists and philosophers? Scientific
pursuits, philosophic inquiry and artistic endeavour are all seen as the
response of the faithful to the recurring call of the Qur'an to ponder the
creation as a way to understand Allah's benevolent majesty. As Sura al-Baqara
proclaims: 'Wherever you turn, there is the face of Allah'.The famous verse of 'light'
in the Qur'an, the Ayat al-Nur, whose first line is rendered here in the mural
behind me, inspires among Muslims a reflection on the sacred, the transcendent.
It hints at a cosmos full of signs and symbols that evoke the perfection of
Allah's creation and mercy"(Aga Khan IV,Speech, "Education has been important to my family for a long
time. My forefathers founded "The Holy Qu'ran's encouragement to study nature and the physical world around us gave the original impetus to scientific enquiry among Muslims. Exchanges of knowledge between institutions and nations and the widening of man's intellectual horizons are essentially Islamic concepts. The Faith urges freedom of intellectual enquiry and this freedom does not mean that knowledge will lose its spiritual dimension. That dimension is indeed itself a field for intellectual enquiry. I can not illustrate this interdependence of spiritual inspiration and learning better than by recounting a dialogue between Ibn Sina, the philosopher, and Abu Said Abu -Khyar, the Sufi mystic. Ibn Sina remarked, "Whatever I know, he sees". To which Abu Said replied," Whatever I see, he knows"."(Aga Khan IV, Aga Khan University Inauguration Speech, Karachi, Pakistan, November 11th 1985) “Muslims believe in an all-encompassing unit of man and nature. To them there is no fundamental division between the spiritual and the material while the whole world, whether it be the earth, sea or air, or the living creatures that inhabit them, is an expression of God’s creation.”(Aga Khan IV, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA, 13 April 1984) "In Islamic belief, knowledge is two-fold. There is that revealed through the Holy Prophet (s.a.s.) and that which man discovers by virtue of his own intellect. Nor do these two involve any contradiction, provided man remembers that his own mind is itself the creation of God. Without this humility, no balance is possible. With it, there are no barriers. Indeed, one strength of Islam has always lain in its belief that creation is not static but continuous, that through scientific and other endeavours, God has opened and continues to open new windows for us to see the marvels of His creation"(Aga Khan IV, Aga Khan University, 16 March 1983, Karachi, Pakistan) "Our religious leadership must be acutely aware of secular trends, including those generated by this age of science and technology. Equally, our academic or secular elite must be deeply aware of Muslim history, of the scale and depth of leadership exercised by the Islamic empire of the past in all fields"(Aga Khan IV, 6th February 1970, Hyderabad, Pakistan) "The creation according to Islam is not a unique act in a given time but a perpetual and constant event; and God supports and sustains all existence at every moment by His will and His thought. Outside His will, outside His thought, all is nothing, even the things which seem to us absolutely self-evident such as space and time. Allah alone wishes: the Universe exists; and all manifestations are as a witness of the Divine Will"(Memoirs of Aga Khan III, 1954) "Thus Islam's basic principle can only be defined as mono-realism and not as monotheism. Consider, for example, the opening declaration of every Islamic prayer: "Allah-o-Akbar". What does that mean? There can be no doubt that the second word of the declaration likens the character of Allah to a matrix which contains all and gives existence to the infinite, to space, to time, to the Universe, to all active and passive forces imaginable, to life and to the soul"(Memoirs of Aga Khan III, 1954) "Islam is fundamentally in its very nature a natural religion. Throughout the Quran God's signs (Ayats) are referred to as the natural phenomenon, the law and order of the universe, the exactitudes and consequences of the relations between natural phenomenon in cause and effect. Over and over, the stars, sun, moon, earthquakes, fruits of the earth and trees are mentioned as the signs of divine power, divine law and divine order. Even in the Ayeh of Noor, divine is referred to as the natural phenomenon of light and even references are made to the fruit of the earth. During the great period of Islam, Muslims did not forget these principles of their religion"(Aga Khan III, April 4th 1952) "O brother! You asked: What is the [meaning of] `alam [world] and what is that entity to which this name applies? How should we describe the world in its entirety? And how many worlds are there? Explain so that we may recognize. Know, O brother, that the name `alam is derived from [the word] `ilm(knowledge), because the traces of knowledge are evident in [all] parts of the physical world. Thus, we say that the very constitution (nihad) of the world is based on a profound wisdom"(Nasir Khusraw, 11th century Ismaili cosmologist-philosopher-poet, from his book "Knowledge and Liberation") The above are 15 quotes and excerpts taken from Blogpost Four Hundred, a collection of around 100 quotes on the subjects of Knowledge, Intellect, Creation, Science and Religion:http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2008/09/400blogpost-four-hundred-knowledge.html Noor Cultural Center, Sat. April 25, 3:30 pm Lecture Two in Dialogues of Faith and Reason Series Special lecture series featuring Dr. Timothy Gianotti (April 18), Dr. Laury Silvers (April 25), and Dr. Bernard Lightman (May 9) Offered in connection with Noor's 1)Ibn al-'Arabi's Cosmology and the New Creation Dr. Laury Silvers Date: Saturday April 25, 2009 Time: 3:30 p.m. Location: Auditorium, Noor Cultural Centre Admission: $5 The Qur'an says, "Were We then tired from the first creation that they are in doubt as to the new creation?" (50:15) For Muslims, God did not rest after creating the heavens and the earth - rather, creation continues in every passing moment. This talk will be a brief introduction to Ibn al-'Arabi's vision of the cosmos as a barzakh, an "isthmus" or a relationship struck between God and Nothing, renewed in every passing moment, on every level of existence down to the tiniest atom. Ibn al-`Arabi (d. 1240) is known as the Greatest Shaykh, one of Islamic civilizations greatest mystical thinkers, philosophers, theologians, and poets. Laury Silvers is a Visiting Assistant Professor in the
Department for the Study of Religion at 2)Scientists, the
Public, and Natural Selection: From Dr. Bernard Lightman Date: Saturday May 9, 2009 Time: 3:30 p.m. Location: Auditorium, Noor Cultural Centre Admission: $5 This presentation will discuss how Bernard Lightman is Professor of Humanities at Volunteers needed: To volunteer for any of the lectures in the series, please sign up at http://noorculturalcentre.pbwiki.com or email volunteers@noorculturalcentre.ca. Easy Nash Easy NashThe Qur'an itself repeatedly recommends Muslims to become better educated in order better to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2007) The Quran tells us that signs of Allah's Sovereignty are found in the contemplation of His Creation: Aga Khan IV(2007) This notion of the capacity of the human intellect to understand and to admire the creation of Allah will bring you happiness in your everyday lives: Aga Khan IV(2007) Islam, eminently logical, placing the greatest emphasis on knowledge, purports to understand God's creation: Aga Khan IV(2006) The Holy Qu'ran's encouragement to study nature and the physical world around us gave the original impetus to scientific enquiry among Muslims: Aga Khan IV(1985) The first and only thing created by God was the Intellect(Aql): Prophet Muhammad(circa 632CE) Posted by Easy Nash at 11:17 AM http://gonashgo.blogspot.com/2009/04/471noor-cultural-center-1ibn-al-arabis.html |
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