Spiritual Meditations *Thursday, Apr 23 2009* Why Religion has a Transforming Power? <http://www.newageislam.org/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=1345>
*Understanding Man as a religious animal * Were one to characterize the life of religion in the broadest and most general terms possible, one might say that it exists of the belief that there is an unseen order, and that our supreme good lies in harmoniously adjusting ourselves hereto.... Scientific theories are organically conditioned just as much as religious emotions are; and if we only knew the facts intimately enough, we should doubtless see 'the liver' determining the dicta of the sturdy atheist as decisively as it does those of the Methodist under conviction anxious about his soul. When it alters in one way the blood that percolates it, we get the Methodist, when in another way, we get the atheist form of mind."- *Dr.* *William James* in The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature. The Varieties of Religious Experience was first presented as a series of lectures at the University of Edinburgh in 1901. To prepare for the talks, Harvard psychologist William James had read widely in the religious classics, including the personal accounts of various saints and mystics. His decision to look at spiritual experience from a psychological point of view seemed very new at the time, even blasphemous. Mountains of books were still being churned out on the finer points of dogma and theology, but James was more interested in individual experience. His purpose in writing the book was to convince the reader that although religion itself often seemed absurd, the spiritual impulse was what made us human. James wanted to know why man was a religious animal, and what practical benefits spirituality brought us, assuming that we would not engage in it if it did not do us some good. The book's insights are wrapped in prose as elegant and forceful as anything written by his novelist brother Henry James, and it was recognized as a classic virtually from the day of publication. The book's great service was to make the religious reader see spiritual matters from a more rational, objective perspective, and to persuade the scientifically-minded that religious experience had its value and was a 'fact'. More...<http://www.newageislam.org/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=1345> Islamic Ideology *Is Islamisation the cure of all evils besetting Pakistan? <http://www.newageislam.org/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=1346>* Complete Islamisation of Pakistan has been the genuine and long-standing demand of the overwhelming majority of Pakistanis. Not only that, it is also the appropriate answer to the lurking fears of Talibanisation, growing rapidly with every passing day, as a natural response to the suppression of this public demand at the state level. -- *Qazi Hussain Ahmad* --- *Hasba bill infringes personal freedom: SC * The Supreme Court (of Pakistan) on Wednesday ruled that the state cannot enforce any religious obligation stipulated by Islam, except Salat (prayers) and Zakat. Authored by Chief Justice of Pakistan *Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry*, a 106-page detailed judgment, said that Islamic jurists were unanimous on a point that though zakat was seriously enforced by Hazrat Abu Bakar but for salat, the only way was through “Taleem” (education), “Tableegh” (preaching) and “Targheeb” (persuasion). The court agreed that private life, personal thoughts and individual beliefs of citizens could not be allowed to be interfered with and held that under the Hasba Bill, the NWFP Assembly had conferred judicial powers on “Mohtasib” (ombudsman) not only to inquire into cases of maladministration of government agencies but also religious and personal affairs of individuals and blocking powers of judicial review by civil and criminal courts. On August 4, a nine-member Supreme Court bench had declared several clauses of the Hasba bill relating to powers of the mohtasib as contrary to the constitution and had advised the NWFP governor not to give his assent to the controversial law. -- *Nasir Iqbal* *---* Also: A well-known Karachi-based blogger *Aamir Mughal* provides a lot of material exposing the hypocrisy of both the secularists and the fundamentalists of Pakistan including the history of what he calls “the trite slogan of Islamisation”.** 3 Comments More...<http://www.newageislam.org/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=1346> Radical Islamism & Jihad *'Resistance' is the essence of Islamism <http://www.newageislam.org/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=1347>* Islamist movements will succeed or fail largely "on the basis of their ability to offer a clear alternative social and economic vision from the Western model for the distressed and poor in their societies," he writes. The Islamist revolution is in its early days, he concludes, and the coming period will see considerable fluidity, tension and change. This is one of the most substantial and useful books on Islamism to appear in a generation. It may not change many minds among those who support or oppose Islamist movements, but it will provide a combination of clarity and factual information about this phenomenon that has been sorely missing from the debate. -- *Rami G. Khouri* More.<http://www.newageislam.org/NewAgeIslamArticleDetail.aspx?ArticleID=1347> -- Syed M. 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