Trust in God and Tawhid- Imam al-Ghazali

Hamza Yusuf is a modern Islamic Scholar.
Al Ghazali was a medieval Islamic Philosopher.

Healing Hearts

The video clip posted below is taken from one of Shaykh Hamza Yusuf’s lectures: “The Critical Importance of Al-Ghazali in Our Times”. Shaykh Hamza in this 2:25 min video clip touches upon what Imam al-Ghazali meant when he spoke about Trust in God and Tawhid. I would encourage you to listen to the clip (and the whole lecture if you can, but this clip in particular). For me, this clip pretty much sums everything up. I think once we get our heads around this thing Imam al-Ghazali wrote about and Shaykh Hamza narrates (which doesn’t happen overnight), we will be able to deal better with the situations and circumstances God places us in. It’s not an easy thing, but hey, who said this life was meant to be easy? But we strive, and strive, and persevere, and try to build our understanding which ultimately gives us the strength and…

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Google never forgets.

What is the difference between Google and the NSA? The NSA spies on the world and people of the United States for “national security.” Google on the other hand doesn’t spy on anyone. They do however control the worlds largest search engine (Google Search), the worlds largest email provider (Google Mail), the worlds largest online database of user documents (Google Drive) , a database of your calls and text (Google Voice/Talk), the videos you’ve watched (Youtube), the Internet you use (Google Fiber), the cellphones you use (Android OS) (FYI they know almost every wifi Password in the world if you synchronize your wifi passwords with Google). They know who your friends are (Google+), the books you read (Google Books), your thoughts and ideas (Blogger. Even though you use WordPress, Google knows.). They have your pictures (Picasa), they know where you’re going (Google Maps), they know how much money you have (Google Wallet). They know how busy you are (Google Calendar), they know where you live (Google Maps once again), and they know the type of house that you life in (oh look, Google Maps). They know how you think, what you like, and who you are. And guess what, Google wants to drive your cars.

So, yeah. Google doesn’t spy on anyone.

The scariest part of this is that we give our information to them willingly. You don’t see anyone protesting against Google absorbing all of our data. You only see anti-NSA protests. I’m not saying the NSA isn’t a problem. I’m saying we look at everything. We should analyze where we put our information and make sure that we have complete control over it. Google has control over it. The NSA has control over it. Facebook, Microsoft, Apple, Oracle, IBM, and every other major technology company has control over it. We, the people, need to regain control over it.

Europeans seem to be less trusting of Google. They raised their fist to Google’s invasion of privacy until they had more time to look over their Privacy Policy. The European Commission attempted to created a new privacy proposal know as the “Right to be Forgotten”, but sadly it was vetoed. At least they tried. However Americans (you know this is going to be good) just clicked dismiss when Google notified them of the changes in Privacy Policy. Now that’s what I call progress.

Going back to what the difference between Google and the NSA is, I would have to say not much. Except for the fact that the NSA (for the most part) uses your information to make sure you’re not going to blow up a bomb and Google… well Google puts your information through algorithms, processes it in ways you nor I will understand, and produces profits. Nice big fat juicy profits.

Remember that every time you fight for your rights or your privacy or well anything. The NSA and Google (and probably Facebook) knows. And they’ll never forget.

Nero Lucifero