About IslamicGnosis
As an independent and young endeavour, we proud ourselves in striving to better ourselves in a multitude of facets. We are ambitious in achieving our goals, through facilitating knowledge and wisdom to be broadcasted, meanwhile educating ourselves in the process. We wish to facilitate IslamicGnosis by abiding with our core tenents to keep this project pure and to continue championing its noble cause.
We have demarcated this section into four key areas to help the viewer understand a little about what we do.
Our Values
In all our approaches with Islamicgnosis, we strive for three things:
The pursuit of truth is a must for those wishing to understand, deliberate and delve deeper into the deep metaphysical questions. Through this epistemological lens, in any venture, we gather as much extensive evidence as possible, along with rationalism and logical reasoning, whilst marshalling one's biases and continuously, refining and defining our core tenets as our learning and journey advances. Like language, truth is more like a process you embody contra to conceptualising abstractly. Living in error, you strive for truth, and this action of striving bestows the most accurate embodiment of truth. More importantly, the ability to speak and act in truth is a measurement against hell. By seeking the truth, one admits that the unknown is more important than what is known.
Moreover, we strive for excellence in ourselves and the actions we undertake. The Islamic term for this is Ihsan which also means 'beautification' and 'perfection'. This concept is fundamental to Islam, and seen as the zenith of morality and ethics an individual can attain, even from the view of the profane individual. You do more than what is required, and you expect less than what is due to you. You do more, and you are satisfied with less. Whatever we do, we believe that we must do it with excellence and Ihsan, be it the from the most mundane procedures to the highest and most practical actions, enhancing our purpose and enjoyment.
Finally, we believe that moderation is essential for anything. It is the centre between two extremes. All virtues remain sedentary between two vices. We strive to find this centre and to use it to guide us back to it if we have become led astray. This understanding of moderation is alluded to in our concept of the straight path to Allah in Islam. The straight way is the one that traverses the middle ground, neither swerving right nor left. Moderation is a comprehensive principle in life, guiding oneself in all activities taken, avoiding any extreme conscious state. We do not wish to be under unnecessary duress, and neither do we want to remain too comfortable, lacking in fulfilling our potential. Balance is key.
Our Mission
We strive to serve the path of Islam, going through the principle of 'Do not make things difficult, make it easy, do not discourage, instead invite to love'.
Our mission is therefore:
Our Approach
Islam is a prophetic and universal religion, having the core principles of there only being one God and Muhammad being His final messenger. Gnosis is the life of the heart through God, and the turning away of one's inmost thoughts from all that is not God. Its direct translation from Greek meands 'knowledge' or 'understanding'. In this sense, knowledge or understanding is seen in relation to the divine. The worth of everyone is in proportion to gnosis, and he who is without gnosis is worth nothing.
The profane individual who takes little to no comfort in the idea of God and its eschatology, may be sceptical listening to the afroementioned statement, especially its latter, if their convictions view God in the orthodox facet. Yet, this will continue to remain sedentary if we limit our understanding towards such conventional notions of God.
We cannot know God only through the senses: he is immaterial. We cannot know God only through the intellect: He is unthinkable. We cannot know God only through Logic: He is infinite. We cannot know God only through philosophising: we enter into endless deliberations. The knowledge of God remains simple; it comes through a concoction of the aforementioned concepts, with the foundation consisting of introspective reflections and illuminations guided by external revelations. As the Sufi would say, 'Look in your own heart, for the Kingdom of God is within you.' This statement has the implicit message that understanding oneself through gnosis, or the heart, treads the path of enlightenment, for the heart is a mirror in which every divine essence is reflected. Gnosis and Islam are one of the same, vouched by the great Islamic sages.
These two concepts are symbiotic in such a way that contributes to Islamic inclusivity, with our understanding of objective truth accessible through one's intuition (fitra in Arabic) bestowed within our DNA. Such an objective or metaphysical truth can be analytically deduced and induced through understanding one's being, intuitively, and is equally propagated by cognition, logic and reason. Islam is one where such an objective truth is contained, but this is not to say all religions are entirely erroneous as God has spread his truth to all of humanity, not limiting himself to one religion or one way of thinking. However, by using Islam as a first principle, this platform aims to demonstrate that the spiritual, mystical and intrinsic nature of Islam caters for all of humankind, as 'mankind was one single nation, and Allah sent Messengers with glad tidings and warnings and with them He sent the Book in truth to judge between people in matters wherein they differed;' (2:213). Henceforth, this divine truth can be found within all religions using the lenses of Islamic esoteric exegesis.
Such perspectives provide: a universal and all-encompassing definition of what God is; our purpose as divine beings, and also, rendering us with the ideal functionings to enrich ourselves towards a higher state of consciousness. Work produced by IslamicGnosis will thus use such notions as fundamental first principle when tackling any question, ranging from metaphysics to epistemology, to the social sciences and more. Additionally, such explanations will foster detailed understanding and analyses as to why such first principles seem to stand on firmer grounds than alternatives. Some explicit examples of our principles include but are not limited to: Life has a purpose, humans do have a divine nature, we will remain ignorant limiting understanding to the five senses, and there does exist a God, reinforced when we understand the definitions of God.
Islamic Sufism and its answers to such questions do present a broad and inclusive understanding to the exemplified areas of concern; subsequently, this will be our frame of thought, when publishing our own content, and reinforced with sound logic, reason and evidence.