Re: principled mind
brilliant, brother psyah, there are so many ideas that your narrative and elaboration has inspired.
would like to say, that in confirming one's absolute zealous pursuit to get what one sets out to do, and singly maintains personal consistency as is aspired to achieve what the principled mind ought to achieve, there remains little to doubt if at all, about its adherence.
now, external, totally uncontrollable factors may create hurdles or obstacles to the course... but, they will only prove to be one more reason for why, the principle mind's principal-ity if you will, in its totality and entirety will become clear.
it is like that rope that one must not let go of, which is a life line. it is that sense of affinity with dedication and loyalty, which distraction or negative forces can't ever mess up, even if they tried their best.
again, the theme of Almighty's affect on our lives is not to be contested in any way from any side.
the nature of life cycle of us earthly mortals is such that we are to be good or bad or good then bad or bad then good. in case of a principled mind, what i am trying to say is that, we cant good the bad! good meaning, the adherence to the principles as in convictions of morality, fairness, justice, honesty and so forth... that the principled mind idealized and will do nothing else, but serve in the cause of following those principles through the body's deeds and words of the person who possesses a principled mind.
it has two unmistakable advantages:
a) it makes the principled mind certain and no one has to worry about predicting its unpredictability. b) it sets precedence for the other minds, to observe and learn
for instance, in a profession where hope and recovery is the end goal, there is no space for helplessness, self pity, made flaky alibis or dejection. therefore, the principled mind, ideally must be strong enough, that even if it ever wavered, it will bounce back to what it should have held on to, i.e., its principles.
i hope i made the point a little bit clearer this time. :> looking forward to your reply.
best, Dushwari
Peace Dushwari
I guess it comes down to 1) Good'ing the bad or not 2) certainty or not 3) Crazy mind loops
There are two types of good and bad, those that are absolute guides and those that are definite relatives. These two sound somewhat oxymoronic. An example of an absolute guide is 'murder is bad', however, when we say 'fassad is worse' it becomes a definite relative. The two forms of 'bad' get defined by their position with respect to one another. There are also general 'bads' like killing and specific goods such as killing whilst defending oneself. Then there are betters and worses and so on. Principles themselves need to follow the fluidity of our definitions of good and bad otherwise the rigidity will become a burden for the worse! Had to use that word again.
Certainty has an appeal, but there are actually a very few set of things that we obliged to be certain about. They are all related to the Sifat of Allah (SWT). One of the things I am 'certain' we are not allowed to be certain about is our outcome. We are certainly not allowed to be certain about the Mercy of God on us, because that would hinder our belief in His Wrath. Again we are certainly not allowed to be certain in His Wrath on us, despairingly, for that would hinder our belief in His Mercy. Muslims are middle path people - that general statement is a certainty - we trust in His Mercy and fear without despair His Wrath.
Behold we find ourselves in loops. That in faith we must be certain but being certain are we in a state of neglect? We question .... and question puts us in the uncertain part of the playing field. A certain person has no need to question. We find ourselves rebounding playing metaphoric tennis with our state of belief. The reconciliation is not to be certain but to be trusting and to gain insight and grow in that insight and gain knowledge and seek guidance in that knowledge trusting our findings and attributing them to God not to ourselves.
Of course if you ask me if I am certain I will say .... yes as far as is my capacity to know, but I cannot then go and close my doors to other options or that will leave me close minded in my certainty and perhaps even arrogant. The Shai'tan's last curve ball ... It is that what we learn in Tazkiyyah that after reassuring ourselves that we have truth, the last thing to do is pat ourselves on the back. What we should do is humble ourselves. Knowledge comes with a price and a burden one of the greatest burdens it unleashes on us is the crown it makes us wear.
And perhaps that last point is a principle ... whoa ... we are back to the beginning!