Dr Muhammad Maroof Shah

The Ashtavakra Gita is a classic of nondualism that appears shocking to many outsiders and quite offensive to literallyminded. However, when read in the context of tradition of which it is a flowering all the key reservations about it get dissolved. If we keep in mind the following points while reading it, it appears neither new nor unorthodox and it is no wonder that such great saints as Ramakrishna used to refer to it without any hesitation. It does appear addressed to elite intellectual and spiritual audience and presupposes certain basics to have been already cleared. These include transcendence of the attachment to senses or desires and thus removing of key hurdle of ego and passions that veil or distort truth. All the hard discipline of which traditions talk is presupposed by the sage Ashtavakra. What he questions is attachment to beliefs which we find in other sages as well such as Sankara, Ibn Arabi and Eckhart. What he emphasizes is freedom from imposed constructions that we f

As curriculum is national debate and countering intolerance generally acknowledged priority, it is time to consider philosophy, the queen of sciences. The pursuit or love of wisdom, as philosophy aspires to be, there can be no doubt about its need for anyone in any culture. In Islamic culture the Prophet (S.A.W) is quintessential teacher of hikmah which means wisdom. Muslims settled score with wisdom traditions from other cultures and today are required to take stock of several wisdom traditions that we encounter in globalized world. How do Muslims approach this crucial task? I would suggest that philosophy’s central definitions/charecterizations/objectives including love of wisdom, seeing things as they are or right vision, preparation for death, self discipline and self inquiry, examination of life and opinions/critical thinking, life of mind/contemplative activity, orientation towards the Good and cultivation of beauty constitute perennially or universally sought/relevant ideals ev

Understanding, with Simone Weil, the pathology of being somebody and invitation to martyrdom as an offering of “I”  Arguably nine tenths of problems we face at personal, familial and social levels are due to wrong view of oneself and one’s vocation. We have not been taught or haven’t interiorized first shahadah/kalima that teaches us to give up the notion of ordinary self/ego for transpersonal Self. The passion for fame or for self aggrandizement or power or position or bossing in administrative career, awards, rewards and recognition are all aspects of the pathology of self-knowledge. Check again your deepest motivation when you choose your career. If it is for certain glamour for getting a name or becoming somebody instead of discovering nobody we truly are, one is doomed to pursue an illusion. If one is an ambitious man of career, gets readily irritated, maintains a distance from fellow people one meets in the street every day, is ever thinking about promotions, not nice to one’s f