Preserving Pompous Insights for Future Posterity and Hindsight Facepalms
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The fundamental conflict of the Islamic finance industry against the spirit of Islamic loans
Islam declares that loans should not be treated as business transactions. When a financier joins a business transaction as a third party between buyer and seller, this fundamentally contradicts Islamic principles. If instead the contract only involves the seller and the buyer, there is no issue with installment payment contracts, and the seller’s added profit…
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Is every innate universal belief true?
“Every innate universal belief is true” is such a grand claim that should warrant a deeper analysis. How robust is this claim? how testable is it? What would be a suitable falsification test for it? The null hypothesis for it would be “At least one innate universal belief is false”. We can bring up examples…
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Quran, the demonstrably supernaturally inimitable literature
To those who pooh-poohed at the Quran thinking it being just a typical manmade book, please name another piece of literature that: 1) claims to be the literal inimitable word of God and challenges humanity to produce anything like it 🔗. The best poets of the time simply surrendered in awe at its succinct eloquence.…
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Islamic financing’s fight against fiat economy
Finally a clear no pussyfooting around answer to the doubts I’ve been having for so long on why Islamic banks’ profit rates just seems like conventional interest albeit only with another name. Also he gave a satisfying explanation to how is it that such systems still get the stamp of approval from shariah scholars, despite…
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Realistic Serenity
Occam’s Razor is a useful tool in evaluating explanations for an observed phenomena. If you don’t know what it is, here’s a definition by SimpleWiki: “Suppose two explanations are equally likely. In this case the simpler one is usually better. Another way of saying it is that the more assumptions you have to make, the more unlikely an…
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Occam’s Razor, Newton’s Laser Sword, and Islam’s holistic approach
I have recently came across Mike Alder’s article Newton’s Flaming Laser Sword in Philosophy Now. Despite its delightfully tongue in cheek tone, the writing does have substance worthy of deep thought (or as you might point out after having read this article, worthy of rigorous experimentation 😁). One particular takeaway lesson to me is the need…
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Purification of Discussions
Hecklers can undermine any productive discussions at public arena like Speaker’s Corner by virtue of the the medium being a free-for-all sport. If instead the discussion is held privately in seclusion between only the two persons, this and other kinds of distractions are eliminated, and the participants can concentrate on each other’s points instead of…
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On Evidence for God and Subjective Interpretations
I am surprised that brother Muhammed Ali didn’t present Quran as the greatest evidence for God. Its inimitable linguistic construct recognized by the best poets of the time, publicly proclaimed piecemeal impromptu, unrehearsed, in highly situational context (e.g. during battles, or prompted by unforeseeable questions and challenges) yet combined into a poetic perfection masterpiece without…
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Intelligence vs Wisdom
I find it interesting that there is a distinction between Intelligence and Wisdom. To suss out why is this so, here is my attempt at their definition: Intelligence is the mental ability to perform well at a given task/goal. It is focused more on the whats, hows, less on the whys. It is procedural, tactical,…
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On Claims of Quranic Numerical Miracles
I am of two minds with regards to claims of numerical miracles in the Quran. On one hand, I agree that such miracles can help us better appreciate the Quran’s beauty, perfection, and integrity. On the other hand, unless there is a specific claim of such specific numerical miracles by the Quran’s own author (God)…
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Better Debates
I find the current way debates go – whether live or in forums/chats – tend to engage more on the visceral than the cerebral, tend to focus more on short term wins than long term gains, tend to delight more on quippy takedowns than insightful lessons. I believe this is partly due to the time…
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Godly Predestination vs Free Will: conflict or harmony?
Godly predestination vs free will would only seem paradoxical when we put ourselves on the same level with God in terms of capability of knowing and action. What Islam claims instead is that God is Omniscient while we are not, especially within the context of knowing our future actions. If a normal human being comes…
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Dresden Files: where each book is even more awesome than the previous one
This might sound contrarian, but I do like my imaginary fictions to be as realistic as possible. With characters who act and react like real people, with believable plot, and world building that doesn’t collapse under scrutiny (meaning if it’s science fiction, its science gotta hold up, and if it’s fantasy, its fantastical elements aren’t…
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Freedom from Fear
Muslims are exhorted to fear only one entity: God. In Islamic worldview, everything else is subservient to God’s will and will never be able to subvert a person’s ultimate fate, that of our eternal soul. Be they ghosts, monsters, demonic beings, wild animals, psychotic killers, they are nothing but mortal creations that at worst could…
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Forms of Words
Words can be conveyed through spoken speech, written prose, or sung poetry. Each have their own strength and weaknesses that affects the effectiveness of the words’ conveyance. Speech is usually spontaneous (although it might have been prepared beforehand). It focuses on quick and easy comprehension, thus clear easily understood words are the most appropriate for…
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Immortal Words
Words have nigh-magical power over us humans. The right words can change the minds of the hardest hearts, as long as they are willing to listen. Crafted from innocuous letters, spelled into words and sentences, synergizing into ideas, into a potent spiel, like a magical spell. Even more wondrous, though spoken once, though written once,…
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Holistic argumentation
“If you study the Israel Palestine conflict for an hour, Israel is obviously right. If you study the conflict for 6 hours, Palestine is obviously right. If you study it for a couple more hours, you don’t know who’s right anymore…” – a random internet commentator In Rationalist circle, there is a golden ideal called…
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Levels of Poetic Beauty
This is a more generalized version of analysis compared to Levels of Quranic Reading, applicable to all forms of poetry (and even beautiful prose):
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Realms of Reality
Reality can be abstracted into various realms, each with their own rules in play. Learn the truths of the realm, and play by said rules, and we’ll master the realm. Break the realm’s rules though at your own peril. Some realms are more forgiving than others when it comes to infractions, but even the most…
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Yearning for a God Worthy of Worship
What dream do you believe in, that makes you carry on living? As schisms scheme to skim your self esteem, when to the ropes you cling, what hopes come ringing, that made you hop back swinging? As you wake up on a brand new day, what does your desire first say? While you rack up…
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Quran as a Message from God, oh really?
The Quran is claimed by Muslims to be the literal words of God sent down to us People of the Final Epoch through Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, the last in the line of many Prophets sent before (like Jesus, Moses, and Abraham peace be upon them). Among many scriptures of ancient world religions, the Quran is…
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Levels of Rigor in Quranic Reading
If you look at the Quran with your eyes, you’ll see words.If you look at it with your brain, you’ll see knowledge.If you look at it with your heart, you’ll see love.If you look at it with all your soul, you will see God. – Rumi With the Quran’s historical authenticity firmly established, surely any…
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Grasping Infinity: Our Key to Understanding God
Infinity is a concept that helps us understand the world better, and through mathematical manipulations of the concept, we advanced our scientific and technological progress much further than would have been possible if our mind were unable to conceptualize infinity. And yet we haven’t empirically measured anything to be infinite yet in the real world.…
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Meritocratic Voting Power
TLDR: a conveniently Covid-conscious voluntarily verifiable voting system where factual knowledge and technology trumps money politics, disinformation, and ghost voting. What if, instead of one man, one vote, we use instead “more political knowledge, more voting power”? I.e. the vote of a person who studied each candidates diligently and thoroughly and decided upon careful reasoning…
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Hirearchy of Values
Life as a human elevated above animals can be viewed as a cycle of conscious choices and consequences, judged using a system of values we hold on to. The ideal life would then be when we always make the right choices, leading to the best results we can see. But that requires perfect knowledge of…
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antara DrMAZA & tokoh ilmuan anti DrMAZA
Saya amat keliru tentang persepsi sesetengah ilmuan Islam yg amat saya hormati terhadap DrMAZA. Mereka adalah tokoh-tokoh ulama yg bukan calang-calang orang, begitu teliti mereka dalam analisa, begitu cermat mereka dalam menghukum sesuatu perkara, dan walau saya tidak cukup arif untuk menilai kredibiliti mereka, setidak-tidaknya hujahan mereka selalunya selari dengan naluri intuitif saya. Tetapi sebaliknya…
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The Three Axes of Judgment
Humans judge everything, consciously or not, even when we say we don’t. At the very least, we have the simple “Like”/”Hate”/”Don’t Care” label we instinctively attach to every entity coming into our attention. Or in matters that occupy us more, we recognize finer spectrums of preference, imbuing more passion into objects that we react stronger…
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My 10 Commandments of the Ideal Dialog
These are the principles that I want to strive for in my discussions with people I may disagree with. Being fallible myself, I may fall short of these standards when in the throes of heightened emotions. Feel free to call me out on them when I do. You are not obligated to follow them yourselves,…
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Never stop learning
To my fellow atheists, Learning a lifelong process. Just as we have changed for the better in the past as we got better informed, doesn’t mean our journey of discovery has stopped then and there, that we are now at the epitome of our self-actualization. “All religions are bunkum” is an inductively valid conclusion for…
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Usahlah Momokkan Agamawan
Memanglah sepertimana yg Nabi ﷺ kata, mutakhir zaman kita, agamawan palsu banyak melata, ramai sekadar mengejar harta, wibawa tiada ijazah semata-mata. Namun itu bukan lesen untuk kita, mengutuk mengeji bebas mengata, entah berita entah cerita. Tegurlah terus kepada si fulan, secara peribadi dengan sopan, kepada si empunya badan, mudahan diterima nasihat kalian, pabila maruahnya tidak…
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Lazy skepticism
As skepticism becomes fashionable, people grab onto it to elevate themselves to pooh pooh over the unthinking masses. And yet ironically due to laziness and ego, they would unknowingly fall back into the pit of gullibility that they smugly thought they’ve escaped from. There is no easy shortcut to true expertise. You have to do…
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Najib’s Law
I just realized that we Malaysians have developed our own flavor of the Godwin’s Law, which i shall christen as Najib’s Law: As an online discussion grows longer and longer, the probability of someone mentioning Najib grows higher and higher. This is applicable to each and any topic of discussion, no matter how bizarrely unrelated…
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Judging extraordinary claims in the Quran
There are some verses in the Quran that refers to supernatural events, such as Isra & Mi’raj (Muhammad ﷺ’s Ascension to Heaven on a Flying Horse) and the Splitting of the Moon: Exalted is He who took His Servant by night from al-Masjid al-Haram to al-Masjid al-Aqsa, whose surroundings We have blessed, to show him…
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No women hadith fabricators??
From “If the Oceans Were Ink“, a book by Carla Power about her interviews with Sheikh Muhammad Akram Nadwi on his research compiling biographies of women scholars throughout Islamic history — an endeavor that he himself started out expecting to find only a handful that can fit into a magazine-length document, but turned out to…
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Randomness
In denying God’s agency, atheists would attribute evolution to random mutations, atomic states to random quantum fluctuations, free will as an illusion born from hormonal impetus. Randomness often is claimed with utmost confidence, as if presenting a fact, instead of perception. By appealing to randomness, they are actually admitting their inability to perceive any pattern/design/meaning…
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Come, let us reason together…
No human can claim complete infallibility, i.e. of being right all the time, every single time. And yet we oftentimes act with excessive pride, with lack of justifiable humility. Even the best expert in one field is just a layman in a lot of other fields. Even geniuses make mistakes, let alone us lesser folks,…
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Due Diligence
Rationality, to me, is to practice due diligence in making meaningful decisions. To take the best action one can think of within one’s capability, while humbly taking account of one’s situational extent of handicap, be they mental (knowledgewise/skillwise/emotional integrity) or physical. “Best action” connotes the adherence to a value system to judge one’s action with.…
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To start with…
I am a Malay Muslim, born and raised within the Malaysian Kelantanese culture. Being the last child of four, with a significant age gap betwen me and my elder siblings, with them being mostly away in boarding school or college during my formative years, essentially combines my last-child status with the single-child environment. Hence my…
Got any book recommendations?
Jackfruit on the Fence 