hubb (love) and bughd (hate) · hubb and bughd have degrees •the degrees of love and hate that...

HUBB (love) and BUGHD (hate)

February 19, 2017

OVERVIEW

1. What is Hubb ( احلب ) and BUGHD البغض) )

2. Importance of Hubb and Bughd

3. Fighting Society’s Wiring

4. How to Further Gain Control

WHAT IS HUBB - احلب

AND

BUGHD - البغض

HUBB & BUGHD ARE THE EMOTIONAL MANIFESTATION OF OUR VALUES

• HUBB

• The emotion of love, what we strive for

• BUGHD

• Opposite end of the spectrum – to hate

• Something that produces anger and animosity because it takes us away from our goals and values

• Attraction towards the good is not possible without repulsion from the bad.


• Love and Hatred arise from our values and goals

Quran 2:216 “Fighting has been enjoined upon you while it is hateful to you. But perhaps you hate (takrah) a thing and it is good for you; and perhaps you love (tuhibbu) a thing and it is bad for you. And Allah Knows, while you know not.”

BUGHD - Don’t be a Hater??

• There is a tendency among some people to think that there should be no hate at all.

• The thinking is that "being sociable“ and “compassionate” consists of loving all things.

• Certainly Islam recommends Muslims to love people and optimize compassionate and sincere relationship with them, even if they do not believe in Islam or in God.

• However, it is not feasible for a person who has principles and works towards fulfilling those principles to be indifferent to evil and oppressive deeds


THE FIRMEST HANDHOLD OF FAITH

• Once the Prophet Muhammad asked his companions of “the firmest handhold of faith”.

• They suggested different things like prayer and hajj.

• When they could not give the appropriate answer the Prophet said: “The firmest handhold of faith is to love for the sake of God and to hate for the sake of God, to befriend God's friends and to renounceHis enemies.”

THE FIRMEST HANDHOLD OF FAITH

What does it mean to be a HANDHOLD?

LOVE REQUIRES ACTION

• “The firmest handhold of faith is to love for the sake of God and to hate for the sake of God, to befriend God's friends and to renounceHis enemies.”

• Befriending what is Loved. Renouncing what is Hated.

• Our Emotions and our Actions go together.

• Consider Parable of Loving Father who promises his son a treat

HUBB AND BUGHD HAVE DEGREES

• The Degrees of Love and Hate that ideas/concepts deserve differ according to their merits

• Allah (swt) constantly warns us of ascribing too strong of a love or hate to things that don’t deserve it

Quran 89:20: “And you love wealth with immense love” (warning of those will be punished on the Day of Judgment)

Quran 100:8 “And indeed he is, in love of wealth, intense.”


• HUBB

• The emotion of love

• Channeled based on our values and goals

Quran 2:165 “And [yet], among the people are those who take other than Allah as equals [to Him]. They love them as they [should] love Allah . But those who believe are stronger in love for Allah. And if only they who have wronged would consider [that] when they see the punishment, [they will be certain] that all power belongs to Allah and that Allah is severe in punishment.

SO WHY DOES THIS REALLY MATTER?

WE’RE BEING WIRED IN A WAY TO SKEW OUR COMPASS AND VALUES

BOMBARDMENT OF ADVERTISING

• Texas A&M University Digital Library: “A conservative estimate has the average American consumer exposed to more than 850 commercial messages a day.”

• It is only increasing. Each of us sees more ads alone in one year than people of 50 years ago saw in an entire lifetime. -- DMNews magazine, 12-22-97.”

• NY Times 2007 article: Yankelovich, a market research firm, estimates that a person living in a city 30 years ago saw up to 2,000 ad messages a day, compared with up to 5,000 today.

THE LINE BETWEEN ADVERTISING AND REGULAR MEDIA IS BECOMING BLURRED

Product Placement

Virtual Advertising – ad for current product in an old show

THE LINE BETWEEN ADVERTISING AND REGULAR MEDIA IS BECOMING BLURRED

• Supermarket eggs have been stamped with the names of CBS television shows. Subway turnstiles bear messages from Geico auto insurance. Chinese food cartons promote Continental Airways. US Airways is selling ads on motion sickness bags. And the trays used in airport security lines have been hawking Rolodexes.

ADVERTISING LEVERAGES OUR LOVES AND HATES

• One of the most important element of advertising is not information but Association. Advertising makes use of associations with what you already love and hate

• Tie what you already love to a product

• Tie a product to existing desires, such as happiness, health, fitness, appearance, sex, self-esteem, reputation, belonging, social status, identity, adventure, distraction

• We buy many products to avoid social ostracism (elevate out popularity, and instill envy). Commercials do not just sell a product they sell an image. An image of acceptance, popularity, likability; all the things we have been trained to desire.

• Tie your product to fending off what you already hate

• Our product will protect you from your fears, illness, weaknesses, loneliness, unfulfilled need, uncertainty, lack of security

ADVERTISING LEVERAGES OUR LOVES AND HATES

WHAT’S THE POINT = BUILD GOODWILL

• "Goodwill has been defined as the benefit and advantage of the good name, reputation and connection of a business, the attractive force which brings in customers....“

• One of the most valuable assets a company can own.

• In my contracts, companies are the most fearful of being penalized for messing up by having to pay for the other’s loss of goodwill.

STEP BACK: NOT RAILING AGAINST ALL ADVERTISING

• This is not a rail against the general notion of advertisement.

• A practical approach recognizes that advertising is necessary for the promotion of services such as free web search, free email, newspapers, and for many other public services.

• Rather, it is a wakeup call that we need to be proactive about what information is being processed into our brains, before we lose control of our psyches.

MARKETERS WANT TO CONVINCE US WHAT WE NEED

• Commercial Advertising’s main purpose is to raise consumption THROUGH CREATING NEEDS

• So how do you promote extra consumption? Gotta have it.

• Create the discourse of need and want where none would otherwise exist.

CONVINCE US WHAT WE NEED

• One of the risks here is that this could result in an overly strong attachment to this world.

• Love of World and Love of Allah as in competition

• Imam Ali (a.s.) also said: “In the same way that the sun and the night cannot come together, the love of Allah and the love of this world do not come together.”

• Imam Musa al-Kazim (a.s.) said: “No learned servant of Allah grows in his love for the world without increasing his distance from Allah

• Imam Ali (a.s.) also said: “If you love Allah expel the love of this world from your hearts.”

ADVERTISING LEVERAGES REPETITION

• We are often unable to introspect on advertising’s effects —especially in low-involvement situations are:

• the effect of each single ad exposure is small;

• with repetition, even imperceptibly small effects can build into larger perceived differences between brands, or into desires to have certain products

• if something gets repeated constantly without challenge, our minds seem to regard this as prima facie evidence that maybe, just maybe, it is true (the ‘truth’ effect);

ADVERTISING LEVERAGES REPETITION

Truth Effect Psychological Experiment (1977 study)

• Gave college student participants lists of various statements and were asked to rate how confident they were that they were true or false.

• This was done on three occasions, each separated by two weeks.

• Some of the statements were actually true, and some were false, but none of them were likely to be known by their college student participants.

• Each participant saw 60 statements in each session, and each time, 40 of the statements were new (that is, they hadn't been seen in the previous sessions). Twenty statements, however, were repeated in all three sessions.

• People's confidence in the truth of the repeated statements went up from the first to the second and second to third sessions, but stayed about the same across the sessions for the non-repeated statements.

• The pattern was the same (as were the absolute numbers) for the true statements, which is not surprising, because participants were unlikely to actually know which were true and which were false.

• This, then, is the truth effect: repeating a statement makes it seem more likely to be true.

BOMBARDMENT OF ADVERTISING

• It is only increasing. Each of us sees more ads alone in one year than people of 50 years ago saw in an entire lifetime. -- DMNews magazine, 12-22-97.”

• Texas A&M University Digital Library: “A conservative estimate has the average American consumer exposed to more than 850 commercial messages a day.”

• Union of Concerned Scientists: From the moment your radio alarm sounds in the morning to the wee hours of late-night TV microjolts of commercial pollution flood into your brain at the rate of around 3,000 marketing messages per day

HOW TO TAKE CONTROL

TAFAKKUR BREAKS THE REPETITION

• In al-Kafi it is reported from al-'Imam al-Sadiq (A) that: “The best form of worship is to contemplate about God and His Power.”

• Haven't they pondered within themselves? God created not the heavens and the earth, and that which is between them, except with the Truth... ? (30:8)

TAFAKKUR BREAKS THE REPETITION

• Reorient your DEGREES of love and hate after reflection

• Meditation breaks the cycle of repetition, unchains our hearts from the desires and fears being stimulated every day.

• To contemplate on the grandness of this universe, in order to be able to understand that nothing in this world is as grand and important as we make it, and to reflect on Allah’s magnitude and power.

MAP YOUR HUBB AND BUGHD

• Log your past three days as most as you can

• What did you spend your time doing? How was it spent?

• Try to be as detailed as you can


• Look at your Log

• Was there anything I did there that furthered my selected ideals? These may be worthy of Hubb. Can it be prioritized and repeated?

• Was there anything I there did there that hindered my selected ideals? These may be worthy of Bughd. Can it be removed or limited?

• What tangible goals can I set myself in the next year to move forward towards my selected ideals?


• The Prophet (sawas) said: One who wants to partake of the firmest handhold (of faith) should abide by the love of 'Ali and my Household

• LOVE Action.

• Let us come back to the mission of the Ahlul Bayt we described earlier – these are ideals worthy of Hubb• Pick 2-3 concepts from the mission of the Ahlul Bayt that you

would like to prioritize in your own life in this next year.

hubb (love) and bughd (hate) · hubb and bughd have degrees •the degrees of love and hate that...

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