Master of the Self

“He who controls others may be powerful, but he who has mastered himself is mightier still”

Lao Tzu

Social Evils

A report published by The Joseph Rowntree Foundation lists the top 10 social evils in UK society as: decline of community; individualism and selfishness; consumerism and greed, a decline of values, the decline of the family, young people as both victims and perpetrators, drugs and alcohol, poverty and inequality, immigration and responses to it, and crime and violence.

BBC article - Report lists new ’social evils’

It will be interesting to hear what solutions they come up with to tackle these social problems. Change in a society’s ethical values happens slowly and I can’t imagine it can be reversed quickly or easily. Especially if we don’t recognise what the root causes of each problem are. For example how do you deal with the problem of consumerism and greed? A commentator on the BBC website wrote:

“The egalitarian principles of liberty, brotherhood and justice have been consumed by social Darwinist greed”.

Food for thought…

Shores of Ignorance

John Wheeler, an American Physicist, on mankind’s knowledge of the sciences:

We still live in the childhood of mankind, all these horizons are beginning to light up in our day: molecular biology, DNA, cosmology.  We’re just children looking for answers.

As the island of our knowledge grows, so does the shore of our ignorance

Present and Past

If you want the present to be different from the past, study the past.

          Baruch Spinoza

If you want your present state to be the same as their (Sahaba) past state, study them.

Me

Beauty: A Proof of Existence of God?

An interesting Q&A I found on the AskPhilosophers website:

Question:

Are there any interesting arguments for the existence of God from the existence of beauty? i.e., because there is beauty, we know there is God?

Answer:

by Richard Heck

My understanding is that Kant argued in something like this fashion. Or, at least, that Kant thought that it was through the contemplation of beauty that we could experience the divine. I don’t myself see that any sort of real argument will be forthcoming along these lines, but I do understand the sentiment. Certainly there is music that makes me particularly conscious of God: Plenty of Coltrane, for example. But for myself, I think my deepest sense of the divine emerges from contemplation of the men and women who have made great contributions towards the emergence of justice in the world. To me, that is, the best argument for the existence of God is the existence of people like Dr Martin Luther King, Jr. I don’t expect that to be convincing to anyone else, though.

As Muslims, for us one of the best arguments for the existence of God is the existence of the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him). The epitome of beauty in every human faculty. The more we learn and know about him (peace be upon him) the more our belief in Allah increases.

In the perfection of the Messenger of God, Muhammad (upon him peace and unending blessings) are signs that point to the existence of the Almighty and Merciful Allah subhan Allah wa ta’ala.

Something to ponder about.