Global Intifada

I’ve got two things on my mind lately:

1. Can the concept of rizq be reconciled with Malthusian constraints? Rizq is a belief in Islam that all of the material necessities for created things are predetermined and often described as being adequate. Thomas Malthus came up with the notion that while the productivity of any given society increases at a linear rate, its population growth increases at an exponential rate. At a certain point, the population growth will become a burden on the productivity of the society and consume most or all of its resources, resulting in a decline. However, at some point, all markets will become exhausted (especially at the rate the human race is going), so its theoretically possible in the not to distant future that we’re going to hit a massive crisis. How is the concept of rizq, then, compatible with drought, famine, flooding, other natural disasters and human induced economic conditions that are the equivalent such as recessions, depressions, wars, etc? Thoughts anyone?

2. Was the crisis that Imam Ghazzali described in “The Deliverance from Error” a spiritual crisis, an existential crisis or was it just straight up nihilism? Luqman and I got into a discussion about this. Thoughts?

Share This