Islamic Spirituality - The Forgotten Revolution

A very good article by a Cambridge university lecturer:
http://spl.qibla.com/Articles/AR00000138.aspx

"'Blood is no argument', as Shakespeare observed. Sadly, Muslim ranks are today swollen with those who disagree. The World Trade Centre, yesterday's symbol of global finance, has today become a monument to the failure of global Islam to control those who believe that the West can be bullied into changing its wayward ways towards the East. There is no real excuse to hand. It is simply not enough to clamour, as many have done, about 'chickens coming home to roost', and to protest that Washington's acquiescence in Israeli policies of ethnic cleansing is the inevitable generator of such hate. It is of course true - as Shabbir Akhtar has noted - that powerlessness can corrupt as insistently as does power. But to comprehend is not to sanction or even to empathize. To take innocent life to achieve a goal is the hallmark of the most extreme secular utilitarian ethic, and stands at the opposite pole of the absolute moral constraints required by religion.  "

Revolutions Thoughts- 1

When society thinks that it has answered its basic questions, and then an idea comes that challenges it, and reveals that society has not correctly answered society's basic question, then the seeds of a macro revolution are sown, and the idea will permeate society, leading to an eventual macro revolution (hence a paradigm shift, also considered a change in the worldview).

It wakes up the people and shows them how the culture and its worldview oppressed them, and this new idea sets them free. The idea makes the people see the defects in the current system, and answers the anomalies of its worldview.

This is not without resistance from those who have interests in the status quo, and they seek to use all sorts of propaganda, violence and means to suppress the idea.

This is what occurred when the Holy Prophet (Sallallahu alaihi wa sallam) changed Arabian society from its rejection of the after-life, to the acceptance of the after-life. From its acceptance of status as measured by wealth and the number of children, to the acceptance that status is measured by Taqwa.

The types of revolution that I've talked about in this post are macro revolutions. These change the very fabric/nature of society, affecting their cultural, social, religious, political and scientific institutions and worldview

This is different to the micro revolution. That is where one institution or ideology changes due to the demands of the people. The processes can be similar in some aspects to a macro revolution, and different in other aspects. What is happening in the Arabian world is a micro revolution since it involves the changing of political institutions. However micro revolutions can at times lead to macro revolutions.