In addendum
I had a beneficial discussion with one Hasan Hyder yesterday on the previous post and we uncovered some crucial points that I did not express:
1) Is knowledge of khalfiyya tantamount to "being" your khalfiyya?
2) What if your khalfiyya is, ostensibly, quite negative?
3) If each of us is an individual, ultimately independent of khalfiyya, why place weight on it?
So these are not all the things the "double H" and I covered, but what I recall and where I think the central points were. The answers are not fully distinct from one another.
As for "being" who your lineage says you are.
This is just not true and leads to all sorts of societal ills. If it were true, then we would be no different from those who say there is an inherently transferred sin affiliated simply with being human; nor would we be different, also, from those who ascribe validity to the caste system insofar as it is a comment on people's worth. (Some people do have alternative interpretations of what a caste is actually supposed to do, despite what it functionally does.)
No, you are not who your people are or have been. But knowing who they are/were gives you the chance to assess their negatives and positives and to see yourself as the next in the silsila, as it were. You can therefore choose to be someone to extend the chain of positives and end the negatives, if you so desire, improving and passing on the torch/baton/doughnut.
As for what to do if your khalfiyya is really just a cesspool of human indignity and worthlessness.
All praise is due to God for having given anyone in existence the mercy of existing. (The 'ulema of the heart discuss that existence is essentially the primordial, central mercy of God, since He could've chosen that you, as a spirit/mind/consciousness/person, not.) So barring examples I care not to get into, even if you have the singlemost ignoble family history on the face of the earth, you can still have the freedom to forsake that and move forward. Your lineage is not a value judgment of who you have the potential to be.
As for emphasizing origins and why they should be known.
We know boastful pride over one's ancestry is reprehensible and a practice of the Days of Ignorance. So why learn it? To appreciate the inextricably human experience that led, intentionally or not, to your entrance into the world. Whether or not that experience is laden with virtue or vice, knowing it allows you to feel that which you can choose to be a part of or leave behind.
1) Is knowledge of khalfiyya tantamount to "being" your khalfiyya?
2) What if your khalfiyya is, ostensibly, quite negative?
3) If each of us is an individual, ultimately independent of khalfiyya, why place weight on it?
So these are not all the things the "double H" and I covered, but what I recall and where I think the central points were. The answers are not fully distinct from one another.
As for "being" who your lineage says you are.
This is just not true and leads to all sorts of societal ills. If it were true, then we would be no different from those who say there is an inherently transferred sin affiliated simply with being human; nor would we be different, also, from those who ascribe validity to the caste system insofar as it is a comment on people's worth. (Some people do have alternative interpretations of what a caste is actually supposed to do, despite what it functionally does.)
No, you are not who your people are or have been. But knowing who they are/were gives you the chance to assess their negatives and positives and to see yourself as the next in the silsila, as it were. You can therefore choose to be someone to extend the chain of positives and end the negatives, if you so desire, improving and passing on the torch/baton/doughnut.
As for what to do if your khalfiyya is really just a cesspool of human indignity and worthlessness.
All praise is due to God for having given anyone in existence the mercy of existing. (The 'ulema of the heart discuss that existence is essentially the primordial, central mercy of God, since He could've chosen that you, as a spirit/mind/consciousness/person, not.) So barring examples I care not to get into, even if you have the singlemost ignoble family history on the face of the earth, you can still have the freedom to forsake that and move forward. Your lineage is not a value judgment of who you have the potential to be.
As for emphasizing origins and why they should be known.
We know boastful pride over one's ancestry is reprehensible and a practice of the Days of Ignorance. So why learn it? To appreciate the inextricably human experience that led, intentionally or not, to your entrance into the world. Whether or not that experience is laden with virtue or vice, knowing it allows you to feel that which you can choose to be a part of or leave behind.
posted by Wanksta at 7:22 AM
1 Comments:
Your post reminds me of my evolution class lecture of fitness and Lamarckism.
With the respect that natural selection does include using fitness to sort out the more functional traits versus the non-functional ones that either don't do anything or are of a negative effect or are some sort of deleterious mutation. Also the use and disuse of traits throughout a lifetime. As said when you talk about the passing of, um..the doughnuts.
umm..I could be wrong.
Point being, cool post bro.
Salaams
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