Like a child who knows that he has to walk some day but still can't manage, I am toddling. For days, I have thought how to say this and I am afraid I am tongue tied. Firstly, I would say, don't trust me blindly. This is my understanding of things and others may or may not agree. Just seek other sources for whatever I say (and I shall provide as much references as I could). At the same time, I pray from the Almighty that I get things correctly.
Let me start like this...
One thing is for sure, no religion could have a base as simple as the Kalima we, as Muslims, recite. However, do we really know what it means? The general translation of the first part of Kalima is "There is no god but Allah." The translation has a flaw, I believe. The word "god" restricts the concept only to idol worship. As far as I could find out, there is no proper translation of "ilaha" in English. The word "ilaha" means deity / god/ one to be worshipped/ one who has power to satisfy your needs and answer your prayer/ one who is in control of your affairs/ One who can comfort you; provide protection and support for you.
So, what's the difference? And one may ask: does it matter? This post is about these two questions.
If your understanding of the word "god" goes beyond idol worship, then there is no difference; otherwise, there is a huge difference. There is this wonderful thing about Quran: it's an explanation of itself. If you find a word confusing in a verse, try looking for it somewhere else in Quran and the other verse would explain the previous one. So for the explanation of "ilaha" let's look at verse 25:43. The English translation is given below:
Have you seen him who takes his low desires for his ilaha? Will you then be a protector over him?
Do you think anyone in the world really "worships" his desires? I haven't met anyone who does but I have seen people, the focal point of whose lives is "worldly desires." Thus, I believe the word "ilaha" shouldn't be restricted to idol worship. It's more close to "the focal point of your life."
Let's now come to the question whether it makes any difference or not. If you have followed the last few arguments then you should be able to see that the difference is actually similar to the difference between "idea" and "attitude" or in other words, the difference between "set of concepts" and "way of life." Islam is an attitude, a way of life. It's not an idea or some set of concepts.
Which brings me to what I wanted to say in this post: Islam means submission and there are no rules/ restrictions except those imposed by Allah (which reached us through His Prophet, Salallaho Alay-he Wa'aalehee Wassalam). A Muslim not only doesn't worship any other being/ thing; the focal point of his life isn't anything except the commandments of Allah.
Though it might seem a simple concept to grasp, it might also appear to be quite difficult to follow. Yet, it isn't and I shall tell you why in the next few posts. I shall also continue with why we need to understand the meanings of the words so deeply.
Just as a last example, let me put a question to you: Do Muslims worship the Black Stone (hijr-e-aswad) when they perform hajj and kiss this stone? No, certainly not! This is what the focal point indicates: When you are sure that an instruction is from Allah, then there is no question of right or wrong/ benefit or loss - acting accordingly is "right" and "beneficial."
I shall move forward with both kinds of posts - computer science as well as understanding of life, the later being extremely difficult to put into words. The next post might be about "exploiting buffer overflow vulnerabilities to hack systems."
Submission to Allah's Will is the best companion; wisdom is the noblest heritage; theoretical and practical knowledge are the best signs of distinction; deep thinking will present the clearest picture of every problem.
(Hazrat Ali AS)
Sunday, October 31, 2004
Sunday, October 24, 2004
It's a way of saying "what I am here to do"
Yes, that's how people define karma. I have been here for two months. My first term is over by now and I have done well in the exams, Alhumdolillah. The result of the first term would be announced in a few weeks. But, is it why I am here? Yes, good grades are part of me but is it really the "most important thing" that brought me here.
Certainly not. I am here to complete myself - the way I want myself to be and the most important part of that is to understand life which, I am fully convinced, is linked with Islam; yet I am so far away from my goal. But not any longer.
Uptil now, what has made me afraid of saying anything about Islam is my own self which is evil enough not to deserve any acclaim. Yet, I feel that time is running short and I am not doing anything - may be I should just start and I would improve as I traverse this path. Writing makes you formalize your argument and makes your thoughts concise and coherent. And certainly to say something about Islam is a huge undertaking - even Qudurat-ullah Shahab titles his autobiography's chapter on Islam as "chota moun bari baat." What he has written is astonishing, to say the least.
Last night I had an Iftar at Rymdtorget in Bergsjon from some Pakistani PhD students. Amongst others, a Bosnian, named Raghib, who was in his late 20's was also invited. The man, though young, seemed to be a religious scholar and later I came to know that he taught Arabic as well. He was asked about the situation of Islam in Bosnia-Herzogovina. The man replied, "The atrocities on Muslims by Serbs had been a blessing." According to him, the Muslims before 1991 genocide were no different from other nations of Yugoslavia. "It was common to marry with non-muslims and people hardly offered prayers. Yet, it's this systematic eradication and the sufferings that has made us look deeper into our identity and thus, our religion. The situation is very different now. And we look towards nations like Pakistan for guidance."
How is a Pakistani supposed to respond to the last sentence? Certainly there is something wrong somewhere. But what is it? I am going to find out and it would be very different from the regular stuff told to you by everyone.
A month ago, there was a dinner by Chalmers Muslim Students Association in which the guest speaker talked about "The concept of Saving the Environment in Islam". One of the questions put to him was, "How much of what you have said is practiced in the Islamic world and if not, then why not?" The speaker responded by saying that till the time Muslims followed the teachings of Islam they were the best in the world. It's a very typical answer that we have heard so many time from our teachers and religious scholars. But ponder on the question once again, "Why aren't the teachings followed?" Putting it in other terms, I would say, "If Islam is so good and the teachings if followed can make our country/ place heaven then why aren't they followed?" Perhaps, no one has a satisfying answer.
It's just an official start of a journey which unofficially started quite a long time back. I would be talking about very many things (most of which will be esoteric and thus, unheard of) and would appreciate if I get some feedback along my way!
I do not look for holy saints to guide me on my way
Or male and female devilkins to lead my feet astray.
If these are added I rejoice - if not, I shall not mind
So long as I have leave and choice to meet my fellow-kind.
For as we come and as we go (and deadly soon go we!)
The people, lord, Thy people, are good enough for me.
Thus I will honour pious men whose virtue shines so bright
(Though none are more amazed than I when I by chance do right)
And I will pity foolish men for woe their sins have bred
(Though ninety-nine percent of mine I brought on my own head)
And Amorite or Eremite or General Averagee
The people, Lord, Thy people are good enough for me
(A Pilgrims Way by Rudyard Kipling)
Certainly not. I am here to complete myself - the way I want myself to be and the most important part of that is to understand life which, I am fully convinced, is linked with Islam; yet I am so far away from my goal. But not any longer.
Uptil now, what has made me afraid of saying anything about Islam is my own self which is evil enough not to deserve any acclaim. Yet, I feel that time is running short and I am not doing anything - may be I should just start and I would improve as I traverse this path. Writing makes you formalize your argument and makes your thoughts concise and coherent. And certainly to say something about Islam is a huge undertaking - even Qudurat-ullah Shahab titles his autobiography's chapter on Islam as "chota moun bari baat." What he has written is astonishing, to say the least.
Last night I had an Iftar at Rymdtorget in Bergsjon from some Pakistani PhD students. Amongst others, a Bosnian, named Raghib, who was in his late 20's was also invited. The man, though young, seemed to be a religious scholar and later I came to know that he taught Arabic as well. He was asked about the situation of Islam in Bosnia-Herzogovina. The man replied, "The atrocities on Muslims by Serbs had been a blessing." According to him, the Muslims before 1991 genocide were no different from other nations of Yugoslavia. "It was common to marry with non-muslims and people hardly offered prayers. Yet, it's this systematic eradication and the sufferings that has made us look deeper into our identity and thus, our religion. The situation is very different now. And we look towards nations like Pakistan for guidance."
How is a Pakistani supposed to respond to the last sentence? Certainly there is something wrong somewhere. But what is it? I am going to find out and it would be very different from the regular stuff told to you by everyone.
A month ago, there was a dinner by Chalmers Muslim Students Association in which the guest speaker talked about "The concept of Saving the Environment in Islam". One of the questions put to him was, "How much of what you have said is practiced in the Islamic world and if not, then why not?" The speaker responded by saying that till the time Muslims followed the teachings of Islam they were the best in the world. It's a very typical answer that we have heard so many time from our teachers and religious scholars. But ponder on the question once again, "Why aren't the teachings followed?" Putting it in other terms, I would say, "If Islam is so good and the teachings if followed can make our country/ place heaven then why aren't they followed?" Perhaps, no one has a satisfying answer.
It's just an official start of a journey which unofficially started quite a long time back. I would be talking about very many things (most of which will be esoteric and thus, unheard of) and would appreciate if I get some feedback along my way!
I do not look for holy saints to guide me on my way
Or male and female devilkins to lead my feet astray.
If these are added I rejoice - if not, I shall not mind
So long as I have leave and choice to meet my fellow-kind.
For as we come and as we go (and deadly soon go we!)
The people, lord, Thy people, are good enough for me.
Thus I will honour pious men whose virtue shines so bright
(Though none are more amazed than I when I by chance do right)
And I will pity foolish men for woe their sins have bred
(Though ninety-nine percent of mine I brought on my own head)
And Amorite or Eremite or General Averagee
The people, Lord, Thy people are good enough for me
(A Pilgrims Way by Rudyard Kipling)
Friday, October 22, 2004
Here Comes a New Blogger!
The great Salman Kasbati of FAST 2000 has started bloggin! Check out his web log here.
I'll be back in a while.
I'll be back in a while.
Sunday, October 10, 2004
Masquerading Attacks, Roy A. Maxion and The Ego Trip
A few weeks ago, Roy Maxion of Carnegie Mellon was here at Chalmers University to talk about his recent paper on Masquerading Attacks. But wait, what is masquerading?
The term, masquerading, is usually used in context with Network Address Translation (NAT) but in more abstract terms it means "to wear a mask or to disguise." Related to computer security, one idea of handling masquerading attacks is to note down a user behavior and compare it with his past. A simple idea may make things clear. Suppose, I have designed an authentication system that notes down users' typing speed. In such a system even if you know my password, you might not be able to login because your typing speed won't match mine.
People have habits and most of us are very predictable. This concept of security can be extended further to note any "diversion" from normal behavior. For example, a user might have the habit of checking his email as the first step after logging in. A computer system might detect any diversion from this habit and report the matter to system administrator. Computer Science students will at once recognize that it will require huge amount of data to note anything even as simple as that and it would be very error-prone. Still, research is being done in this field to improve the detection of positive cases and to decrease false alarms.
So, what did Roy Maxion say? Nothing! I was so eager to listen to this man, not only because the idea of using "user behavior" in security is interesting and he had used a new Bayesian Algorithm for categorization but also because he is the head of Dependable Systems at Carnegie Mellon. For two hours, this guy talked about how good his research has been and how silly mistakes the other researchers had made. He didn't say a single word about his algorithm. He repeated the same thing so many times that he reminded me of the lectures at FAST.
At the end, somebody asked Danko Ilik, "How was it?" "This guy was on an ego-trip," came the reply. And the worst thing is that he was traveling through various universities in Europe, saying the same useless things over and over again! I fail to understand how can such a high-profile person do this? Wasting resources and time of so many students and teachers...
But do I have a point to make? No, this is an incomplete post. For quite a few days I waited for it to be complete but it didn't. Finally, I posted it like that. I will be back after 21st (after exams), Insha Allah.
Councilor Hamann: Of course... that's it. You hit it! That's control, isn't it? If we wanted, we could smash them to bits. Although if we did, we'd have to consider what would happen to our lights, our heat, our air.
Neo: So we need machines and they need us. Is that your point, Councillor?
Councilor Hamann: No, no point. Old men like me don't bother with making points. There's no point.
Neo: Is that why there are no young men on the Council?
Councilor Hamann: Good point.
(The Matrix Reloaded)
The term, masquerading, is usually used in context with Network Address Translation (NAT) but in more abstract terms it means "to wear a mask or to disguise." Related to computer security, one idea of handling masquerading attacks is to note down a user behavior and compare it with his past. A simple idea may make things clear. Suppose, I have designed an authentication system that notes down users' typing speed. In such a system even if you know my password, you might not be able to login because your typing speed won't match mine.
People have habits and most of us are very predictable. This concept of security can be extended further to note any "diversion" from normal behavior. For example, a user might have the habit of checking his email as the first step after logging in. A computer system might detect any diversion from this habit and report the matter to system administrator. Computer Science students will at once recognize that it will require huge amount of data to note anything even as simple as that and it would be very error-prone. Still, research is being done in this field to improve the detection of positive cases and to decrease false alarms.
So, what did Roy Maxion say? Nothing! I was so eager to listen to this man, not only because the idea of using "user behavior" in security is interesting and he had used a new Bayesian Algorithm for categorization but also because he is the head of Dependable Systems at Carnegie Mellon. For two hours, this guy talked about how good his research has been and how silly mistakes the other researchers had made. He didn't say a single word about his algorithm. He repeated the same thing so many times that he reminded me of the lectures at FAST.
At the end, somebody asked Danko Ilik, "How was it?" "This guy was on an ego-trip," came the reply. And the worst thing is that he was traveling through various universities in Europe, saying the same useless things over and over again! I fail to understand how can such a high-profile person do this? Wasting resources and time of so many students and teachers...
But do I have a point to make? No, this is an incomplete post. For quite a few days I waited for it to be complete but it didn't. Finally, I posted it like that. I will be back after 21st (after exams), Insha Allah.
Councilor Hamann: Of course... that's it. You hit it! That's control, isn't it? If we wanted, we could smash them to bits. Although if we did, we'd have to consider what would happen to our lights, our heat, our air.
Neo: So we need machines and they need us. Is that your point, Councillor?
Councilor Hamann: No, no point. Old men like me don't bother with making points. There's no point.
Neo: Is that why there are no young men on the Council?
Councilor Hamann: Good point.
(The Matrix Reloaded)
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