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Postmodern sin: Acedia

Not Caring About Anything

Deadliest Sin Of Our Time

From Sh. Hamza Yusuf's Presentation


By OmarKN


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In Islamic terms 'acedia' would be on the one hand wastefulness and on the other carelessness (ghaflah ).

Wastefulness because this station of the soul is wasting the life of the person with trivialities, and it is wasting the good things ( ni´mah ) which were either given or promised by Allah.

For the careless soul cannot have reverence of Allah (taqwa ), if it does not care about anything while it is the robust control of the ego (nafs and hawaa), and open to the wisperings of the Satan (shaytaan rajim ).

The gallery images are from a presentation by Sh. Hamza Yusuf on Falah Channel [1]


- Acedia is essentially a flight from the divine that leads to not even caring about the best outcome for one's life. The ultimate consequence is despair which can end in suicide - we seek protection from Allah (God) against this (rather postmodern) calamity.

Symptoms:

- not living in the present and seeing the future as overwhelming

- idleness, nihilism, neglecting basic human duties in life, such as your outer appearance, hygiene, your relationships, your community's welfare, the world's welfare etc.

- lacking true commitment - too many choices, being "a slave from within" - misguided by an intense love of the self/ ego (nafs.

- forgetfulness about "the one thing most necessary": remembrance of God and fulfilling Allah's (God's) rights which He has over His creation - (in love and beauty).

- slothful inability to make decisions (that lead baroque tragic heroes to passively accept their fate, rather than resisting it.) [2]


Quran


23_115

{ Then did you think that We created you uselessly (in jest) and that ye would not be brought back to Us (for account)? } 23-115




Slideshow Quotes

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Source: Falah Channel

”A very beautiful reminder from Shaykh Hamza Yusuf about the problem of addictive technological gadgets, especially cell phones and the problem of distractibility in modern times.” [n1]

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Related texts
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  1. Sh. Hamza Yusuf on Falah Channel
    Devil of Noonday, Deadliest Sin Of Our Time - Cell Phones
    ↩

  2. en.wikipedia: Acedia
    ↩

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* Living Islam – Islamic Tradition *