Ep. 26 — We Too Shall Pass

Quote: "We are all from Allah, and to Allah we return" -Surah Al-Baqarah, Verse 156 About: In mere weeks, this country has seen COVID-19-related deaths rise past casualty totals for past wars and surprise attacks, sometimes passing those records daily. It seems like every day is filled with death.

 
“We are all from Allah, and to Allah we return”
— Surah Al-Baqarah, Verse 156

About

A walk down the greeting card aisle is a trip. In normal times, it’s quite an unremarkable one.

Congratulations! It’s a baby! It is your Birthday! You’re a graduate! You’re married! You’re retired!*

What made this trip memorable was the sympathy section, that part of the card aisle where you hope to find a way to say “sorry for your loss”. This section was eerily out of stock. 

It’s foolish to predict the future—and if the past few months have taught us anything, it’s foolish to even make plans (but we can always say Inshallah!). But the images of refrigerated trailers idling outside hospitals, food bank lines stretching down blocks, and the creases and bruises left on the faces of doctors and nurses working the front lines of this novel coronavirus are perhaps how we’ll remember this haunting moment in time.

The division between life and death can feel so stark, but these two physical states are mere neighbors, at least in the card aisle. 

In mere weeks, this country has seen COVID-19-related deaths rise past casualty totals for past wars and surprise attacks, sometimes passing those records daily. It seems like every day is filled with death.

But this isn’t the first time humanity has faced a pandemic. And this isn’t the first time society has reckoned with death. Is this a punishment? Or is God to blame?

In this episode, we turn to the past for guidance on how to deal with our present—and it too is a trip.

*note: if this whole podcast thing doesn’t go too well, the natural next step is to pivot to greeting cards.

Show Notes: 

  1. [00:30] More on “The Layers of Heaven” by Jovica

  2. [00:45] Al-Mulk, verses 1-6

  3. [02:00] Al-Baqarah, verses 155-56

  4. [02:20] Light reading on the term nafs 

    1. As described by Oxford Islamic Studies Online

    2. More light reading

    3. A short talk on the subject

  5. [04:10] “Keffel” by The Blue Dot Sessions

  6. [04:20] Related: a list of other common Arabic phrases

  7. [05:10] More on David Sloane | (@dcsloane53)

    1. And his book, Is the Cemetery Dead

  8. [05:50] The state of:

    1. Morgues

    2. Refrigerated trucks

    3. Funerals 

    4. And more funerals

    5. Cemeteries in areas like New York

    6. And in other places like Indonesia

    7. And the state of mourning

  9. [06:30] Sayings of the Prophet Muhammad related to attendance and funeral prayers

  10. [06:55] “Aloscape 2” by The Blue Dot Sessions

  11. [07:00] Al-Qaf, verse 19

  12. [07:40] More on Imam Zaid Shakir | (@ImamZaidShakir)

    1. More on Zaytuna College

    2. s/o to the Lighthouse Mosque in Oakland

    3. Part of his service at Muhammad Ali’s funeral ceremony

  13. [08:25] Light reading on the Archangel Azrael

    1. Light reading on what happens when you die

    2. Light reading on the Angels Munkar and Nakir

    3. Light reading on the rites of the dead

  14. [08:25] “Aloscape 1” by The Blue Dot Sessions

  15. [10:10] More on Islamic burial laws in times of the coronavirus

  16. [12:15] Light reading on the concept of the hereafter in Islam

  17. [13:00] Al-Jumu’ah, verse 8

  18. [13:15] “Clatl” by The Blue Dot Sessions

  19. [13:45] More on AbdulKarim Yahya | (@abdulkarimyahya)

    1. And an old tv segment with a younger AbdulKarim

  20. [15:10] Light reading on the timeline of the early Islamic days

  21. [15:15] Light reading on what Mecca was like before Islam

  22. [15:20] Light video lesson on early Islamic days

  23. [15:30] Light context on the those early Islamic days

  24. [15:45] Light reading on the Quraysh

  25. [16:25] The sayings of the Prophet regarding martyrdom

    1. And another one

  26. [16:45] On the history of the “quarantine”

    1. Not mentioned in the podcast: Ibn Sina’s 40-day ban

  27. [17:30] On the Prophet Muhammad and times of pandemics 

  28. [18:40] Light reading on Plague in Early Islamic History

  29. [18:45] Light reading on Umar ibn al-Khattab

  30. [18:45] Light reading on Abu Ubaidah ibn al-Jarrah

  31. [19:05] “ZigZag Heart” by The Blue Dot Sessions

  32. [19:25] More detail on the Umar ibn al-Khattab’s meeting in the desert

  33. [19:30] Light reading on the Ansar

  34. [22:15] More on the Prophet Muhummad’s parable of tying up your camel

  35. [22:45] Al-Imran, verse 185

  36. [23:00] “Lick Stick” by The Blue Dot Sessions

  37. [24:00] More on Dr. Nükhet Varlik

  38. [24:30] “Rainday Textile” by The Blue Dot Sessions

  39. [24:30] Regarding the Black Death

    1. And how it compares to past pandemics

    2. And in another visual

    3. Its symptoms

    4. Its death toll and the silver lining 

  40. [25:20] “Raskt Landsby” by The Blue Dot Sessions

  41. [25:20] Trump soundbytes on 

    1. 2.29.20

    2. 3.23.20

    3. 3.25.20

  42. [26:55] Light reading on the Venetian Plague Doctor

  43. [28:10] “Campanula” by The Blue Dot Sessions

  44. [28:30] More on Plagues, Medicine, and the Early Modern Ottoman State

  45. [28:35] “Static City Drumline” by The Blue Dot Sessions

  46. [28:45] Light reading on Khidr

  47. [30:10] Light reading on Evliya Çelebi

  48. [33:00] Al-Hadid, verses 22-23

  49. [34:45] List of past pandemics revisited

  50. [35:15] John Hopkins University COVID-19 Dashboard

  51. [36:30] “Intercept” by The Blue Dot Sessions

  52. [37:45] Super quick primer on materialism

  53. [38:15] Super quick primer on the Islamic metaphysics

  54. [39:15] “Where it All Happened” by The Blue Dot Sessions

  55. [39:20] Light reading on…

    1. Transhumanism and a timeline of the movement

    2. The singularity

    3. Ray Kurzweil

    4. Shameless plug for an earlier episode of this podcast touching on technology debate

  56. [41:50] Short video on income inequality in America

    1. Report on how billionaires keep on winning amidst the coronavirus

      1. Between January 1, 2020 and April 10, 2020, 34 of the nation’s wealthiest 170 billionaires saw their wealth increase by tens of millions of dollars. 

    2. Report on how 2,153 billionaires have more wealth than 60 percent of the world’s population of more than 4 billion people 

  57. [42:40] “Cicle Ariel” by The Blue Dot Sessions

  58. [42:50] Related: A Bay Area commute to work

  59. [45:30] Related: Light reading on environmental racism

  60. [45:50] Related: On the racial demographics of life and death as it pertains to COVID-19

    1. Another one

    2. And another one

    3. And another one

    4. And another one

  61. [46:30] Related: On food deserts

    1. And another one

    2. And another one

    3. And another one

  62. [46:40] Related: Overview of past tax rates

  63. [48:45] Light reading on “death and taxes”

  64. [50:42] Sufjan Stevens’ “Fourth of July” Cover by Constellation Men’s Ensemble and arranged by Kevin Vondrak

    1. They are a vocal group based out of Chicago dedicated to empowering the next generation of singers through educational engagement.

  65. More on Imam Ali Mukasa

  66. PODCAST RECOMMENDATION: American Submitter by Imran Ali Malik