In late 2011, Tim Winter (also known as
Abdal Hakim Murad) toured Sydney and Melbourne. His tour was hosted
by Islamic Realm, a private educational foundation. I was fortunate
enough to attend his Melbourne classes which were held in the
Melbourne suburb of Box Hill. I recently found my hand-written notes for these some of these talks.
[01] Humans need stillness, meaning and
rootedness. The modern world, including the virtual world, cannot
provide these. Modernity knows how to sell but these commodities
cannot be sold. All modernity can provide is entertainment to help
us forget just how meaningless our lives are.
[02] One of the signs of the end of
times is that distances are folded. Globalisation.
[03] How do mind, body and spirit draw
us together to make us “centred”?
[04] The oldest thing in creation is
insan, the imperfect, negligent human. We are a riddle. Our lives are
like a bumpy progression from one strange experience to another.
[05] Post-modernity says that
generalisation is impossible. What counts is one's self-perception.
It's all about finding irony.
[06] Historically Muslims have had
respectful interactions with other civilisations.
[07] There is evidence of human habitation in Cape York (northern Queensland) dating back 40,000
years.
[08] Islamic civilisation had a
capacity to hybridise with indigenous civilisations. There is plenty
of historical precedent for this. Wherever Ilam went, indigenous
civilisation was invigorated. But what about with the historic
singularity of post-modernism? We are in a post Judeo-Christian (Ahl
al-Kitab) world that has turned its back on itself, its values etc.
Its core “truths”, its values, its legislation etc is no longer
touched by the Unseen.
[09] Modernism was about the clash
between science and religion, between reason and mythology. But the
narrative of modernism as collapsed and been replaced by an equality
of all stories and narratives. The prevailing intellectual currents
are about deconstruction of religious iseals, indeed all ideals.
[10] Most surrogate religions of the
past 2 centuries (fascism, marxism etc) have been complete
nightmares.
[11] Islam is not mmerely a series of
rearguard actions, of defensiveness, even of despair and depression.
Islam is not merely a way of staying afloat but rather a healing. We
don't need a siege mentality or an attitude of insisting on
difference as many migrants use as a survival mechanism. We are
walking through the ruins of post-modernity.
[12] Beauty was left behind 100 years.
The new Freudian human is just a bubbling of desires and ugliness.
These days people look not to beauty or ugliness but to tolerance and
intolerance.
[13] Reactive religion never reacts
successfully. It must be true to itself. We don't need the outraged
pride or the khutbah (sermon) screamed out like some kind of
ego-based jahili rant.
[14] Modern spirituality has become
commercialised egotistical stuff, the work of false gurus and
televangelists.
[15] The diagnosis of the current human
condition is dire. It is a complete dislocation of mind, body and
spirit. Ethics and philosophy have collapsed. According to the World
Health Organisation (WHO), the main reason for people's shortening of
life will be depression.
