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In the Name of God بسم الله
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About this blog

Ideas about modern issues from an Islamic perspective. Those posts which were written with the help of GenAI have been spun off into a separate blog as have the posts which contained a semantic field analysis of the Qur'an.

The pinned entries in this blog are longer and articles and unpinned articles are much shorter and the latter may likely be works in progress. The longer articles are followed by a ChatGPT critique to help identify areas for future improvement.

Entries in this blog

Economics

Large numbers of people living comfortably, in close proximity & in harmony

Chongqing in 2025   TLDR Chinese economic success has many contributory factors. I argue that one of these has been the ability of the country to enable large numbers of its population to live comfortably, in close proximity and in harmony. This particular cause for success will be hard for any other country to achieve. Introduction People talk about various reasons for economic performance. I think population density has something to do with it. This is Chongqing, for a
Haji 2003

Haji 2003 in Economics

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Ethics

Surfacing Satan

[originally posted on December 29, 2024, AI generated summary added on 1st June 2025, AI generated image added 2nd June 2025] Summary The essay argues that conventional gain-loss calculations, suited to trade or war, overlook intangible consequences that ultimately shape reality. In the current Middle-East upheaval, material metrics—casualties, territory, political control—obscure a parallel, spiritual ledger. Crisis strips away rhetorical masks, exposing genuine beliefs and motives: a
Haji 2003

Haji 2003 in Ethics

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God Hypothesis

One day we'll all be philosophers

[This was originally written on November 25 2017 and was updated on Sept 13 2023, to include the graphic, headings and a summary, further updated on 27 May 2024 to include references to Artificial Intelligence. On 2nd June 2025 the image at the top of the article was added] Summary There is an inverse relationship between human labour for any activity and the moral and ethical issues related to it. The less we work, because we have automation, for example, often the more we need to exe
Haji 2003

Haji 2003 in God Hypothesis

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Ethics

Satan's slipstream or the good in evil

[Originally posted in 2021, updated with a summary and small corrections. Further additions in 2024, with references to Oppenheimer and supporting quotations. Image added 2nd June 2025] Summary Good people can focus on doing good. Bad people who are motivated by the nafs can be told of the harms in engaging in it, but it's likely that they will persist. Sometimes however evil leads to some positive outcomes - good people can benefit from these, while still maintaining the wrongfulness
Haji 2003

Haji 2003 in Ethics

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Politics

A counterpoint to the Great Replacement Theory

[This post was initially published as 'A little conspiracy theory of mine' on Oct 25 2016. I've now retitled it and linked some of the text with the notion of the Great Replacement Theory. On 2nd June 2025 the AI generated image above was added] Summary Britain, after the Second World War ostensibly recruited workers from various developing countries in order to fill skill shortages. However, around the same time, there was a concerted effort by Australia to recruit working-class Brito
Haji 2003

Haji 2003 in Politics

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Economics

Whichever option you choose - you lose

[updated in May 2023 to include the Nvidia example and refine the argument overall, updated August 2024 to include an assessment by the FRBNY and the quotation from Sashi Tharoor. Updated 14 Jan 2025 to include the example of RedNote. Updated 12 Feb 2025 to include the material on free trade at the end of the article].   Summary When you are in a weak position, all the choices you have are bad ones. Your opponent who dominates you due to more and/or better resources will ultimatel
Haji 2003

Haji 2003 in Economics

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God Hypothesis

God Hypothesis

[This was originally posted in 2016 - but seems to have disappeared from my list of blog entries, although subsequent posts in the series are still there. This post is based on the original, but I have used the passage of time to refine it and add some more detail. Detail also added about transition fuels. Illustration added 2nd June 2025]. Synchronicity between resource availability and human development I think it is interesting how the content of planet Earth appears to be ‘synchron
Haji 2003

Haji 2003 in God Hypothesis

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Interfaith

Flowering of religions

[illustrative image added 2nd June 2025] Summary Since the inception of Islam, there had been various sects competing for prominence; many had died out, and the two major ones were Twelver Shia and the Sunni fiqh. Then suddenly, from the start of the 19th century to the end of that century, we have the emergence of Ahmadiyya, the renewal of Ismailism and the creation of a new faith entirely, Baha ism. Go back a hundred years, and we can add Wahhabism to this list. I identify a com
Haji 2003

Haji 2003 in Interfaith

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God Hypothesis

God & the concept of multiple discovery

[image added 2nd June 2025] Summary Multiple discovery also referred to as simultaneous invention - is where the same innovation is discovered by people working independently from each other. The notion suggests that individuals do not necessarily possess unique insights, but rather the presence of various environmental and cultural factors will engender innovation. A specific individual therefore has no specific genius that sets them apart from others. An alternative hypothesis is tha
Haji 2003

Haji 2003 in God Hypothesis

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Economics

Riba and economic inequality

Summary For Muslims, the questions around Riba are focused at the level of the individual because we want to know what we can and cannot do. This post looks at the broader societal issue. The conclusion is that riba and the business of lending can increase economic inequality between different segments in society. Assuming an Islamic state has an overriding need to address economic inequality - it cannot accede to the provision of credit in a manner that we are used to in the West.
Haji 2003

Haji 2003 in Economics

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Economics

Money, markets and minorities

Summary Buying and selling in the market place may provide advantages to minority groups at the expense of the majority. A State that represents the majority may need to act in order to address the imbalance in a manner that may seem on the face of it to be discriminatory. The impact of buying and selling in the market place The problem with money and markets is that they strip exchanges between people of all social and cultural content. In market-based exchanges, you can buy/sell
Haji 2003

Haji 2003 in Economics

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Rationality

Doing your own 'research'

Note: I'll be updating the initial entry with additional points over time, as discussions elsewhere on Shiachat help me to flesh out the original arguments.   Summary In this essay I discuss why the theory behind 'Do your own research' (DYOR) does not live up to reality and the negative consequences that this can have for those who follow it. What I will also do is to examine how the whole notion of informed decision making fits within a broader ideological framework and why
Haji 2003

Haji 2003 in Rationality

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Slavery

Arabs kept slaves too ...

[This blog post was originally posted some time ago, but I have revisited it to edit, reformat and so on. I will be doing this to other blog posts as well - it's not a glitch in the system if they come up in the recent timeline. Image added 2nd June 2025]   "Arabs kept slaves too", is a comment often made by the apologists for European slavers, it's usually followed by the statement that Europeans abolished slavery, whereas the Arabs did not, so Europeans are morally superior. Thi
Haji 2003

Haji 2003 in Slavery

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Rationality

Freewill, viruses & opportunities

Whether Covid-19 is a naturally occurring virus or whether as some claim (unconvincingly, so far) it is a bioweapon, in my opinion its spread is the result of free will [15]. If it is naturally occurring, then it was human actions that led to its migration from animals to humans. We know that some viruses can do this and we have had previous experience with ones (e.g. SARS) that have created far less havoc [1]. By the same measure this one could be seen to be a dry run for worse epidemics to com
Haji 2003

Haji 2003 in Rationality

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God Hypothesis IV

https://www.ft.com/content/d67ffecc-02dc-11e9-9d01-cd4d49afbbe3 This is overdue in my opinion. The idealistic, almost naive notion that human exploration of space will be driven by purely scientific motivations cannot last. If as theists we believe that God has created the heavens for us to explore and done so in a manner that makes this possible on a stage by stage basis. The proximity of extra-terrestrial bodies has been fortuitously placed so that we can reach each one with the tech
Haji 2003

Haji 2003

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Brain drainers & brain drainees

Summary The factors which allow countries to produce lots of brains may be the very factors that mean such brains will find better opportunities in countries that are better able to pay brains. Whether the countries producing the brains are able to benefit from their education-positive actions depends on whether the brains who leave for better opportunities consider their success to be a function of their childhood country or their own hard work. Countries that produce brains need
Haji 2003

Haji 2003

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God Hypothesis III

Man's development has required educating ourselves about the properties of ever more challenging and powerful fuel sources. The earliest sources could be exploited at the level of the sold individual whereas modern ones  require transnational co-operation across many different fields of endeavour. That intellectual development has also required an increasing level of sophistication in terms of morals and ethics. We have had to develop appropriate safety rules and regulations, for example, i
Haji 2003

Haji 2003

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God Hypothesis II

This post was stimulated by the election of Donald Trump and his view that claims of climate change are exaggerated and his promise to the electorate that he'd resume coal mining. When uranium was first discovered people believed that the world's supplies would only last until the new century (2000), but since then new discoveries keep being made. Uranium will likely last a very long time and for more than long enough for us to develop alternative and safer and cleaner means of energy gener
Haji 2003

Haji 2003

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Lifestyle

Unlimited pleasure

[Headings added 25 August 2025] Introduction There are arguments given by atheists challenging religious beliefs, and resulting practices that science does not support and which atheists argue should be abandoned by believers. In this essay, I want to look at one example, where I think science is catching up with religion. Happiness and the story of sugar The industrial farming of sugar by Europeans in the West Indies, starting from the eighteenth century, is a goo
Haji 2003

Haji 2003 in Lifestyle

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Lifestyle

Reconfiguring Happy

[Illustration added 2nd June 2025] I thought I’d put this together based on the discussion in laith’s spirituality thread. The issue of happiness arose because striving for spirituality can involve lifestyle changes and I think a barrier to that can be a feeling that such a lifestyle will diminish one’s enjoyment of life. Which leads us to wondering what it means to be happy and whether that can be changed. Looking around me I see all sorts of people doing very different thin
Haji 2003

Haji 2003 in Lifestyle

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Economics

Why conspiracy theorists sell food supplements

I won't mention names for fear of giving these people even more (unwarranted) publicity. I wanted to draw attention to some theory that explains the title of this blog post. Typically, the conspiracy theorist will draw attention to some phenomenon (unrelated to food supplements) and tell you how you have been lied to. This device is used to build your trust in the conspiracy theorist as someone who is both an expert (they know things) and also benevolent (they care about you). The
Haji 2003

Haji 2003 in Economics

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Lifestyle

Music in Islam

In 2010 we did a little project that involved analysing the content of Shiachat posts over the preceding few years to capture what people were saying about Music on Shiachat. The final report is attached. Music in Islam v.1.pdf
Haji 2003

Haji 2003 in Lifestyle

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Lifestyle

Hatshepsut & Nefertari

The view from the Temple of Hatshepsut. Maryam had the idea for how this would work and it did with some post-processing.   Both ancient Egyptian queens and both with a seemingly new cult in the 21st century. Obviously, the cult is not among actual worshippers but amongst tourists keen to see their monuments. Nefertari was the favourite wife of Pharaoh Ramesses II and as for Hatshepsut this is what Wikipedia has to say: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatshepsut While I
Haji 2003

Haji 2003 in Lifestyle

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Economics

All this on a Ford factory worker's wages

Why has the West seen falling living standards? Variations on this question are commonly asked on social media. The common theme is that living standards in the West used to be so good but what happened? Popular answers to the following tweet include: But they didn't have internet and dad worked 50-60 hours a week Our rulers sent jobs overseas Women thought it would be a good idea to work Bigger government Inflation I think the real answers ar
Haji 2003

Haji 2003 in Economics

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Politics

Speculation in the absence of information

Summary Iran is often accused of sponsoring groups such as Hamas. But what form is any help likely to take? Some speculative answers in the absence of any tangible proof. Background A short period after the Iranian revolution in 1979, Saddam Hussain, the Iraqi President decided to invade the country. He was funded by the Saudis and Kuwaitis amongst others and supplied by various western countries. Iran was embargoed. So they had to develop their own capabilities both in terms of h
Haji 2003

Haji 2003 in Politics

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