Introduction to Schools of thought
O’ faithful believers and the faithless non-believers, half-baked secularists corrupted by capitalism and the ever-manipulated radical extremists!, disgruntled and all-labelling communists and the ever-entitled liberals, chaotic anarchists! and the naive pacifists… Marhaba!
Humans have developed numerous ideologies for themselves over the course of time. Morality and Philosophy were deeply intertwined with that of religion until recently.
Europe experienced a Renaissance as scholars fled Constantinople after its capture by the Muslims in 1453, and brought with them Greek manuscripts that were previously inaccessible.
The next two centuries in European philosophy can be described in terms of two lines of development, rationalism and empiricism, both of which led, in different ways, to the possibility of a greater detachment of ethics from theology. The history of rationalism from René Descartes (1596–1650) to Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646–1716) is a history of the attempt to re-establish human knowledge on the foundation of indubitable rational principles, after modern science started to shake the traditional foundations supported by the authority of Greek philosophy and the church.
Well, It is up for debate whether the recent Godless, Science is King! philosophy(ies) is(are) a major contributor to the erosion of morality in recent times. Circa 2024
Schools of thought and communities
Lets have a thought experiment.
- Lets assume that, a large number of people are followers of an ideology.
- Now, these followers organize themselves in accordance with their ideology.
- They make up rules as per the ideology to govern themselves.
Lets say that the ideology is flawed. Flawed, how? that is irrelevant because we havent named this ideology, have we? lets say that this generic ideology is flawed in some aspects and it negatively affects the governing of the followers since, the rules of their society is based upon this ideology/philosophy. And by negative, I mean that there is an erosion of morality and the degradation of the societal construct leading to the slow destruction of the society itself from inside out. No external influence is needed to make this isolated society go away. It will eat away at itself. Why? because their base principles are flawed.
Now, regardless of the outcome; We have established that a society or community will get together and stay together if they share a singular ideology, correct?
For that collective to thrive, it is entirely dependent upon whether the ideology upon which their base principles are constructed; can remain undaunted upon numerous trials and scrutiny. Else, the collective destabilizes.
What is a Network State?
Recently, precisely a month back, there was an enormous gathering of high profile people visiting the Network State Conference at Singapore.
I got introduced to the term Network State by reading Vitalik Buterin’s Blog. In the blog post that’s as long as my forehead; he talks about his take on the topic and how ethereum/crypto falls into the picture. I skimmed the surface and got to know this chap, Balaji Srinivasan, who is apparently a SVSI (Silicon Valley South Indian) and was also the host of the Conference mentioned before.
From the works of Balaji Srinivasan (link to his work), we can get the following one sentence explanation to the question, Whats a Network State?
A network state is a highly aligned online community with a capacity for collective action that crowdfunds territory around the world and eventually gains diplomatic recognition from pre-existing states.
A network state is naturally dubbed as the successor to a geographically constricted nation state.
A nation state that is defined by people within its borders whom harbor varying ideals, often cannot reach a concensus on a matter. In contrast, a network state is a collective of people united through a single ideology, connected by the advent of technology (the fruits of labour born out of the sweat and exploitation of chinese, congo , sudan… I am getting sidetracked ), Mobile Phones! or more precisely, the internet.
Establishing a sovereign nation state is awesome, but laughable, not feasible and not wanted right now. Ill settle for a community that can do collective action, yes!
Future of the Ummah
The one drawback of the islamic ummah is that it is fragmented. There should be local communities and support systems that need to come to the help of one individual, and there already are such communities but they are largely useless for whatever reason. One reason might be the Fractioning of interfaith ideologies - Sunni, Shia etc., etc., this needs to stop. Yet, even in these interfaith communities, people dont stand up against oppression and are largely complacent as if its someone else’s problem. Personal Survival is prioritized over common good for the community. The failure of local communities to provide safe spaces needs to be addressed.
“Rather, on that day you will be many, but you will be like foam, like the foam on the river. And Allah will remove the fear of you from the hearts of your enemies and will throw wahn (weakness) into your hearts.” Someone said: “O Messenger of Allah! What is wahn?” He said: “Love of the world and the hatred for death.” - Sahih: Related by Abu Dawud (no. 4297), Ibn ‘Asakirin in Tarikh Dimashq (2/97/8) and others. It was authenticated by Al-Albani in As-Sahihah (no. 958)
Found this link, which is informative on this matter State of the Ummah In the Future - Prophecy
More interesting take of George Galloway, on the Muslim Ummah
Enter Ummatics
I already liked Malaysia but its becoming an increasingly dear place with each step it takes.
Ummatics, based in malaysia has been a breath of fresh air ever since my discovery of it via Youtube. If the reader is already aware of this research institute, then it is established that we are feathers of the same bird? birds of the same flock? Anyways, know that we are searching for the same answer and would love to connect.
When I first heard the topics that they were talking about, my thoughts were This is Awesome! Where have they been all this time?
The very notion of a platform where practical ideas are interchanged, ranging from Muslim Passport that has healthcare benefits (interesting take on a network state) to Qas Al-Haq, An Alternative to a Capitalist Nation State is exhilarating. I highly recommend you, the reader (probably with good intentions towards this type of movement) to check Ummatics out.
All of this is a step towards the normalization of Islamic Culture. In contemporary times, there is persecution of muslim minorities around the world along with the slow but sure ethnic cleansing of muslims. Not, just the ethnic cleansing of Arabs or the Arab population but that of muslims
Life is being made harder for us without us knowing, and inaction is probably the worst of the things that we could be doing right now. The establishment of a support network as a first step is crucial and the unity of thought is to be achieved. Complacency is to not be allowed and conscious movement of community building needs to take place.
Approach me through my email or comment to be part of a support system where each member helps one another (within their capability) in times of distress, and to discuss doing socially impactful work/activities together.