Sam Harris is a popular Atheist who has very critical views of Islam. Some would say he is an Islamophobe. Regardless his recent post on his site on Islam is very interesting. I found these comments surprising coming from someone who probably would love to rid the world of Islam.
Even with all his dislike of Islam, he finds parts of Islam beautiful. Reminds me of the first Muslims, many of whom were enemies of Islam and became the best Muslims like Khalid bin Waleed or Umar ibn al Khattab. Here are some of the lines where he shares his positive comments on Islam:
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First, by way of putting my own empathy on my sleeve, let me say a few things that will most likely surprise many of my readers. Despite my antipathy for the doctrine of Islam, I think the Muslim call to prayer is one of the most beautiful sounds on earth. Take a moment to listen:
I find this ritual deeply moving—and I am prepared to say that if you don’t, you are missing something. At a minimum, you are failing to understand how devout Muslims feel when they hear this. I think everything about the call to prayer is glorious—apart from the fact that, judging by the contents of the Koran, the God we are being asked to supplicate is evil and almost surely fictional. Nevertheless, if this same mode of worship were directed at the beauty of the cosmos and the mystery of consciousness, few things would please me more than a minaret at dawn.
I also love the poetry of Rumi, and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan is one of my favorite musicians of all time. True, both of these men were Sufis—and Sufism is reviled as heresy throughout much of the Muslim world. But I expect that many of the people who attack me as an anti-Muslim bigot will be surprised to learn that I love these products of (nominally) Muslim religious devotion more than most other forms of art. If you have never heard Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, you owe it to yourself to listen:
I also have no problem with spiritual devotion, ecstasy, and awe—in fact, I think they are among the most important experiences a human being can have. I just object to the incredible ideas that surround such experiences in every church, synagogue, and mosque. I also worry that certain religious beliefs make devotion, ecstasy, and awe both divisive and dangerous. Again, my tolerance for difference is much higher than my critics understand. I’m not a scared white guy who is put off by the howls of the natives. In fact, I’ve done a fair amount of howling with the natives myself. I know what these people are experiencing, and I value many of the same experiences.
To see the world through my eyes—or to realize why you do not—watch at least a few minutes of each of the following videos.
I know that many readers will view the scene depicted above as an example of disturbingly irrational, mob behavior. Are these people crazy? No. These are Turkish Sufis chanting the Zikr. I have done this practice—not in such a crowded and colorful context—but I understand what these people are up to from the inside. And I know contemplative rituals of this kind can be extremely rewarding. Here’s another example, of a sort more reminiscent of my own experience:
I find this sort of chanting beautiful—and I know how good it feels to do it for hours at a stretch, even all night. Here is the practice in a Hindu context:
It is true that I’m more comfortable with what the Hindus are doing here, because they are expressing their devotion to God in the form of a Divine Lover, and their feelings of religious ecstasy are explicitly channeled in that direction. There is no evidence that Lord Krishna exists, of course, but we needn’t worry about whether any of these people are fans of global jihad.
Unlike many of my critics, I recognize that these practices profoundly affect people. In fact, I’ve spent thousands of hours doing practices of this kind. I am not even slightly scared of “the Other.” I love the Other—I love his food, music, and architecture, and I even share his spiritual concerns. That is why when I see something like this, I fear for the future of civilization:
Watch the entire video with your full attention. If you cannot feel the haunting beauty of this recitation, if it is inexplicable to you that people can be moved to tears by the mere sound of these verses, then you are not in contact with the data. Indeed, if you don’t understand how someone could be willing to die to defend the legitimacy of such an experience, you are very poorly placed to understand the problem of Islam.
This video has everything: the power of ritual and the power of the crowd; tears of devotion and a lust for vengeance. How many of the people in that mosque are jihadists? I have no idea—perhaps none. But their spiritual aspirations and deepest positive emotions—love, devotion, compassion, bliss, awe—are being focused through the lens of sectarian hatred and humiliation. Read every word of the translation so that you understand what these devout people are weeping over. Their ecstasy is inseparable from the desire to see nonbelievers punished in hellfire. Is this some weird distortion of the true teachings of Islam? No. This is a recitation from the Koran articulating its central message. The video has over 2 million views on YouTube. It was posted by someone who promised his fellow Muslims that they, too, would weep tears of devotion upon seeing it. The reciter is Sheikh Mishary bin Rashid Alafasy of Kuwait. He has as many Twitter followers as Jerry Seinfeld and J.K. Rowling (2 million). In doctrinal terms, this is not the fringe of Islam. It is the center.
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Source: Sam Harris’s Blog
Sam Harris completely misses the point on the last video. The tears are not for the disbelievers. The tears that are shed upon hearing that excerpt from the Quran recited by Shaykh Mishary is about our own self. We are thinking about our own life and our own actions for fearing that the sins we committed will take us to the hell fire. We are not crying because disbelievers are going to the hell fire. That just sounds stupid. We cry because we are afraid of the punishment of the hell fire. We are afraid for answering for our sins. We are afraid for displeasing God. That is why we are crying. That is why we shed tears upon hearing those verses.
And to add, I guarantee you without even understanding what is recited, people cry out of beauty. I do it and have done it. I’ve listened to many recitations of the Quran not understanding one word but come to tears just by listening to the beautiful recitation. This is the beauty of the word of God.
May God guide Sam Harris to peace.
Jul 19, 2013 @ 16:22:52
Salaam. This was a brilliant post by Harris; it made even me (a non-theist) realise the spiritual beauty of Islam. Harris doesn’t misunderstand why devotees are crying in the last video. He does says “people can be moved to tears by the mere sound of these verses”.
Just as non-muslims like myself can empathise with how devout muslims may feel here, you must also be able to imagine that sincerely spiritual people, irrespective of religion, show similar sentiments towards their God or just have a deep spiritual yearning even if they don’t worship any god (like myself).
When I fully put myself in the shoes of a devout muslim listening to the last video, I also can’t help but feel not only the positive emotions, but also a deep sense of contempt and vengence towards ‘those who disbelieve’ who are also the ‘enemies of Allah’. It seems perfectly possible that some muslims with a longing for paradise and their interpretation of Qur’an can commit atrocities like terrorism and will keep doing so untill Islam leaves no room for such beliefs. And that doesn’t seem like happening untill large number of moderate muslims stop clinging onto every letter of the Qur’an as perfect word of Allah just as the fanatics do. It’s almost like idolatry of the Qur’an; it’s better to believe only Allah is perfect, nothing else is, not even Qur’an.
Peace.
Jul 24, 2013 @ 03:58:57
Al-Quran is perfect as it is the word of Allah who is perfect. Its one of Allah’s miracle. Unlike other books, al-Qur’an is pure and never been modified since the time of prophet Muhammad PBUH. Not only the words, even the length of a letter such a and aa (2 tempo) and aaaa (4 tempo) and aaaaaa (6 tempo) if false people can tell that this is wrong. Non muslim might think that this is crazy, but like it or not that is the truth. Every muslim who learn tajweed (the science/diciplines of reading quran) knows it. And most muslims children usually already know tajweed when they reach 10 years old. Non muslim dont believe it beacuse their books are far from purity, its been modified time to time by humans hand.
Some people become lost (become terrorists or other false deeds ) not because they read al-Quran, but because their lack of knowledge of the quran. They use their own mind and feelings to understand the meaning behind the verses, which is a very very bad practice. For a muslim, learning is a must, learning is a lifetime mandatory. If one stop learning it will be considered as a sin. And learning must be done through teachers, professors or scholars. It can not be done by one self as it will lead him to false understanding. Many authentic hadits show this core principals.
A lot of “so called terrorist” are young muslim people with lack of knowledge, far from the scholars, usually their mind are manipulated by political agents (like mossad etc.) who pretend to be a muslim to do bad things to civillians. They cherry-pick quran verses to support their propaganda leaving other verses and authentic hadits behind. Alqaeeda arent our scholars, they are our enemy. They are enemy of the muslim scholars. Alqaeeda are mossads playing dress as a muslim. There are no muslim scholars who teach us to kill non muslim civilians. In Islam killing a non muslim civilian in peace time (not in a war event) will cause you not only can not go to heaven, you wont even be able to smell the heaven. It was said in one of the authentic hadits (book of bukhari and muslim).
Sorry for any missspells, I’m not english native speaker.
Sep 19, 2013 @ 06:46:38
BismillahirRahmanirRahim
Salamu’alaykum,
The cognitive dissonance in Sam Harris’s (and most aggressive atheists) approach is pretty amazing.
“I love his food, music, and architecture, and I even share his spiritual concerns”
He loves it all except he hates the very foundations which built that civilization, he hates the foundations which allowed for such spiritual practices to flourish and nourish peoples hearts.
He does so because of a particular verse recited which he, as usual, misinterprets.. Whats puzzling is how he can claim to spend hours in contemplation yet simply misunderstand the tears over their own personal fear over judgement and accountability of our actions vs his projected understanding that the Imam is tearing up from a “desire to see nonbelievers punished in hellfire.”
Ultimately his spiritual practices, were they with any foundation and guidance, would have found him to understand that what is often addressed as ‘unbelievers’ is in effect, the unbelief and hypocrisy within ourselves. That is a initial and primary purpose of Islamic self-reflection.
The fact that he supposedly participates in similar rituals only to denounce the foundations of the belief system that brought rise to it is incredibly hypocritical. But this is nothing new, atheists have not found a completely logical way to come to the current system of Western culture and morality, and when they enter the fray, they end up with ideas such as Princeton University’s Peter Singer, calling for beatiality to be legitimized and killing of a newborn (note: not abortion) is logically never equivalent to killing a full grown human being.
Atheists tend to ride on the coat tails of Islamic-Judeo-Christian values when it comes to building the very foundation of their society, so why not ride along with their spiritual practices as well. The problem is their approach, were it universalized, would not grow society into richer and more fulfilling spirituality, but a cancerous one.
Sep 22, 2013 @ 03:25:46
I think, what he concerns is what happened when we divorce spirituality from religion and strip it to merely the outward appearance. It’s waaay too easy to box people, to create division in the name of religion. In the end, there are seekers lurking in our every souls. I admit some Sufi actions are heretic, and a bad name to Sufism itself. But their teachings on spiritual purification and how to seek God from the heart and to see Him as Beloved, is heart-moving and beautiful.
Sep 08, 2014 @ 06:26:49
What attracts people to religion are its spiritual aspects. Spiritual characteristics appear to be fundamental to people everywhere. This is why atheists can enjoy and participate in them without necessarily embracing religious beliefs about them. It could be argued that the most repulsive features of religion are those that people find non-spiritual.
May 03, 2015 @ 09:07:05
I found this rather late (May 2015). I don’t believe in gods. Yet, from the first time I heard the Adhan, the beauty of the call (to prayer) and style of singing thrilled me. I have several versions I listen to at times. Some versions I care for less and those I disregard. Am I experiencing spiritual epiphany? Hardly. I’m experiencing the utter thrill of specific interpretations of a stylized method of song which resonates in my ear and somewhere deeply inside my brain. My neurons thrill to receive auditory signals from my ears when I hear the Adhan. I’m partial to “Thunderstruck,” by AC/DC, too.
Sep 29, 2015 @ 18:26:31
As a Muslim, I can tell you that Sam has got it all wrong about the tears of Muslims when the Quran is being recited specifically those verses regarding punishment. But what do you expect from a neuro scientist who knows nothing about Islamic theology but always eager to comments about its perceived dangers that exist in his mind. One is not inspired to seek vengeance on disbelievers when listening to these verses. There is a maxim in Islam which teaches that a Muslim lies between two states. Between the fear of gods punishment and the hope in gods mercy. When listening to the verses that speak about punishment, the tears of Muslims are fear that we may be inflicted with this treatment and concern for our own selves and has nothing to do with hatred or contempt of non Muslims. None of us know whether we shall die in a state that is pleasing to God and neither can I judge the fate of Sam Harris or any non Muslim as only God Knows of this.
Jan 23, 2017 @ 20:10:31
Tear of fear and tear of joy