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Episode 29: Islamic Principles #4: The Patterns of Creation
How can we make sense of Islam today? This is not only the name of this podcast, but a question that I’ve been obsessed with for decades. This series shares several first-principles that we need to keep in mind as we seek to answer this question. Some will seem basic (but need repeating) and others might be new. In both cases these meta-principles are essential tools to make sense of it all.
Episode Notes
Quran Mentioned
“You will not find in the patterns of God change” 35:43
“We will show them our sings in the heavens and in themselves until they see it is Truth”41:53
“These days we alternate power between people” (3:140)
“He causes the night to pass into the day and causes the day to pass into the night” (35:13)
“He created you into tribes and nations to know one another” (49:13)
“Where it not that God checks one group of people against another, there would be tribulation on earth” 2:251
Hadith Mentioned
“scholars are the inheritors of the Prophets” (al-Tirmidhi)
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Understanding the Muslim Mind
If we could take all of Islamic intellectual history, what sort of patterns and principles could we deduce? More importantly, if we found someone who actually knew all this information, what would they look like, think like, talk like, etc.?
What is Usuli Islam?
In The Clock of the Long Now, Stewart Brand argues that religion is one of the most durable institutions of civilization that helps ground us all in timeless values. In his concept of the forces of innovation (rapidly changing) and durability (slow changing) of civilization, religion would definitely be amongst the more slow adapting forces.
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