Zain's Guide to Overthinking Everything

Ibn Taymiyya on Ethics Utilitarianism as propagated by Jeremy Bentham states that an act is good when it produces the maximum happiness and benefit for the greatest number. Then religious utilitarianism would be maximizing happiness and benefit for this world and for the hereafter. For Ibn Taymiyya, worship of God alone is the ultimate purpose of humanity and leads to the ultimate happiness and benefit of humans. Therefore, Ibn Taymiyya thought in terms of religious utilitarianism. He applied this framework to understand God’s actions as well. Furthermore, in his ethics, “The Book and justice are inseparable. The Book explicates the law. The law is justice, and justice is the law. Anyone who judges with justice judges with the law… The entire revealed law is justice’ (MF 35:366). Law and human benefit are equivalent such that there is no benefit outside of the law as benefit is the law and law is benefit. “The principle overall is that the law never neglects a benefit. Indeed, God – Ex...

Omnipotence and Omniscience Paradoxes Refuted     Paradoxes are apparent and not actual contradictory realities such that there is an argument to sustain it without contradicting the laws of logic. Therefore, the conclusion of a paradox seems illogical on the surface but the argument to back it is logical. One of the most famous paradoxes presented in the theological realm is the Paradox of the Stone also known as the Omnipotence Paradox. Paradoxes in theology attempt to create tension in their conception of God through an apparent contradiction such that it could be possible to accept absurd conclusions about the divine nature. This may be with positing there is a contradiction within God’s omnipotence or it could be with multiple attributes or an attribute with our human experience of the world such as the Problem of Evil existing with God being infinitely merciful (this is refuted in a different blog post). In this case, the Paradox of the Stone is an example of the first t...

Ramadan: A Brief Overview     Ramadan is the ninth month in the Islamic lunar calendar and Muslims around the world are commanded and obligated by God in the Quran and by the Prophet Muhammad in his Sunnah (his normative ethos and actions) to fast i.e. abstaining from food and drink during it as it is one of the five pillars of Islam alongside the declaration of faith, praying, charity, and performing pilgrimage to Mecca if one is able to.   “Islam is built upon five: to worship Allah and to disbelieve in what is worshiped besides him, to establish prayer, to give charity, to perform Hajj pilgrimage to the house, and to fast the month of Ramadan.” (Bukhari 8)   “Ramadan is the month in which the Quran was revealed as a guide for humanity with clear proofs of guidance and the decisive authority. So whoever is present this month, let them fast. But whoever is ill or on a journey, then ˹let them fast˺ an equal number of days ˹after Ramadan˺. Allah intends ease for you, ...

Notes on the Basics of Islam Part 3: Understanding Islamic Principles     Imam Al-Sa’di said, “The pleasure that the student experiences when they seek knowledge overwhelms all the pleasures of this life.” What is meant by knowledge? According to Sheikh ‘Abd Al-‘Azeez Ibn Baz. “The word ‘knowledge’ refers to many things, but as used by the scholars of Islam, what is meant by ‘knowledge’ is religious knowledge. That is what is referred to in the Book of Allah and the Sunnah of His Messenger ﷺ when the word is used without qualification”. We must respect the scholars of Islam as they are the inheritors of the Prophets.  “  Allah does not take away the knowledge, by taking it away from (the hearts of) the people, but takes it away by the death of the religious learned men till when none of the (religious learned men) remains, people will take as their leaders ignorant persons who when consulted will give their verdict without knowledge. So they will go astray and will l...