Readit News logoReadit News
hqudsi commented on Israel shuts down local Al Jazeera offices   theguardian.com/world/art... · Posted by u/jjgreen
C6JEsQeQa5fCjE · a year ago
> Being against the Al-Sauds means being against Islam (according to the Saudi government)

Pretty much every of the hundreds of millions of muslims who live outside Saudi Arabia (and probably a large number of those who live inside it) laugh at that, and despise the Saudi regime. If you do not believe me, try talking to some and asking them.

hqudsi · a year ago
As a practicing Muslim, yup I have no love for the Saudi regime (same with the Iranian regime, Taliban, etc.).

That being said you'll find a variety of opinions with the Muslim community both from Saudi and non-Saudi Muslims.

I imagine my relationship with KSA is similar to how some if not many US Jews feel with Israel. Just like I have an emotional attachment to Mecca and Medina which is currently under Saudi control I can understand how those among the Jewish diaspora may have an emotional attachment to Israel or believe in principle jewish self determination even when they vehemently oppose the government or have reservations about the modern state.

hqudsi commented on Compile-time safety for enumerations in Go   vladimir.varank.in/notes/... · Posted by u/varankinv
hqudsi · 2 years ago
I sometimes do this but idk if I would consider it 'elegant'

The other 'gotcha' is that in switch statements the compiler can't tell whether you enumerated on all your cases as there is no true enum type so it's not uncommon to have a catch all default case that either returns an error or panics and hope you can catch it during tests if you missed a case.

I just wish go had proper sum types.

hqudsi commented on Python Type Hints – *args and **kwargs (2021)   adamj.eu/tech/2021/05/11/... · Posted by u/ekiauhce
Syntaf · 2 years ago
Especially when they don't even leave a doc string so you're forced to track down the packages documentation online just to interact with certain interfaces.

I work in a large python codebase, we have almost no usage of `*kwargs` beyond proxy methods because of the nature of how they obfuscate the real interface for other developers.

hqudsi · 2 years ago
When I was first starting out, a then senior engineer told me: "friends don't let other friends use kwargs".

That always stuck with me.

hqudsi commented on YouTube on TVs getting unskippable 30-second and pause screen ads   9to5google.com/2023/05/17... · Posted by u/thesuperbigfrog
Zetice · 2 years ago
YouTube’s ad platform had a bug in it yesterday that looped the new Little Mermaid ad through most of the 4th quarter of an NBA playoff game, and I haven’t seen much from them about it.

Twitter was on fire about it, so I don’t think it was just me.

hqudsi · 2 years ago
For me it was that coinbase ad.
hqudsi commented on Tell HN: Eid Mubarak    · Posted by u/asim
names_are_hard · 2 years ago
Please correct me if I'm wrong, but my understanding was that GP is partially correct, in that the lunar sighting is not an individual thing, but done at the communal level by the central authority. It's just that like most religions, Islam has multiple streams, and this there are multiple central authorities.

Is this not how it works? I'm not Muslim, this is what I understood from a Muslim coworker. He also implied that there's some politics involved, in that various Middle Eastern countries align themselves with their political bloc when announcing the day, although any political motivations are "alleged" and not acknowledged.

hqudsi · 2 years ago
There's no central authority in Islam like the clergy in Catholism.

However there are legal schools and councils that people trust. Legal schools (or fiqh) were established by famous scholars that nearly everyone recognizes as an expert and were carried on by their students.

From a political standpoint, a lot of Muslims defer to Saudi Arabia because they are the current caretakers of Mecca and Medina.

But generally speaking for everyday normal Muslims they go with whatever their local imam says and go with whatever method the imam used because they are usually the most knowledgeable person around on such matters.

hqudsi commented on Tell HN: Eid Mubarak    · Posted by u/asim
eimrine · 2 years ago
> But the choice of dates is pretty arbitrary.

Of course it's not! It must be comfortable for farmers, and the farming season starts just now. I'm not a religious but I respect Islam as the most wise of religions, like an iPhone among other cell phones. I want to try fastening because I see some wisdom in having a month with feeding like that and I consider these days of year as totally not arbitrary.

hqudsi · 2 years ago
I meant breaking your fast with dates is kinda arbitrary not the fasting itself. Fasting is very much not arbitrary and has a very special meaning since it's one of the few things we do solely for God and God alone. Also you can fast outside of Ramadan as well and get additional blessings from it. The prophet would routinely fast on Mondays for example. I think the only days you are not allowed to fast on is Eid because it's a time for celebration.

There's no rule that says you _have_ to break your fast with dates. We just do because that's how the prophet usually did it. Dates have no inherit religious significance. I eat them throughout the year because they are delicious and have nutritional benefits and there's some baraqah (wisdom) in things turning out this way. Also when it comes to farming dates are often harvested in late fall/early winter that's when they are juiciest so we just missed the window but also Ramadan rotates around the seasons due to being on the Lunar calendar. But there are different kinds of dates and you can dry them and they last on long time without spoiling. A very useful property when you live in a desert hence why it's such a common fruit there.

Even when the prophet didn't have access to dates, he would break it with water or yogurt, or even just salt instead. Whatever he has access to at the time.

hqudsi commented on Tell HN: Eid Mubarak    · Posted by u/asim
IndigoIncognito · 2 years ago
People sit exams during ramadan, I don't know how
hqudsi · 2 years ago
People play professional sports while fasting during Ramadan. I have no idea how they do it but having access to nutritionists probably helps.
hqudsi commented on Tell HN: Eid Mubarak    · Posted by u/asim
Aeolun · 2 years ago
Eid Mubarak!

> no food or water

But really no water? That doesn’t sound healthy. Of course you can easily make it through a day without fluids but…

hqudsi · 2 years ago
As long as you are properly hydrated before it's really not that bad.

Even this Ramadan, when I went to pee later in the day, the color wasn't dark implying I wasn't that dehydrated.

hqudsi commented on Tell HN: Eid Mubarak    · Posted by u/asim
hqudsi · 2 years ago
Islamic tradition values reason and rationality. It doesn’t say to blindly follow stuff. You still have to reason through new situations. The Quran is more for spiritual guidance even though it has some prescriptions. But most of the "rules" come from hadiths or the prophetic tradition which has been passed down orally before it was compiled into books by famous scholars.

For example, the Quran says to pray but doesn't spell out how to pray. We learn how to pray from the hadith. Same thing with fasting. The Quran just says fast like Abraham fasted but it doesn't spell what that was. So we follow the way the Prophet did and he's human - he probably wasn't thinking how it would affect people in higher latitudes. He doesn't have supernatural powers or foresight. We say he's the best of us within human limits. Hence why there's a rich scholarly tradition to work these edge cases. It's also why we traditionally break our fast with dates because that's how the prophet did it. But the choice of dates is pretty arbitrary. There's nothing inheritly special about it. It's a staple food in the middle east so it's what he had access to. If the prophet lived in east Asia, then he probably would have broke his fast with rice and then that we would be the thing we break our fast with.

Also the Quran is not like other texts when it comes to structure. It was "revealed" (or authored for the non-religious) over a span of 20+ years and usually in response to something that happened. It's really more a dialogue between god and the prophet and his companions in response to events (someone is being mean or trying to kill them) or if they need guidance or reassurance on something. That's why sometimes taking verses literally is often wrong.

hqudsi commented on Tell HN: Eid Mubarak    · Posted by u/asim
abeppu · 2 years ago
As a non-religious gay, I fully agree that continually denying yourself something that makes you happy isn't a virtue.

However, raiding the cabinet of historically religious practices and stripping god out of them can be helpful. A lot of things we do on impulse don't actually make us happy, and cutting them out for a bit can be a good way to examine whether they've become unhelpful/unskillful habits. I don't think drinking is inherently bad, but "dry January" can be a nice way to check that I'm not developing a dependency. I'm glad I have a smartphone but I do find that periodically being completely away from screens is a good check. Sex, food, other substances, media, can all be good but can also become parts of habits that don't actually lead to happiness. Temporary self-denial can be a useful tool in reworking one's relationship to these, even if you're definitely going to keep them in your life in some form.

hqudsi · 2 years ago
Yea and as a Muslim - I view it more as practicing discipline rather than suppressing desires. Like one the other posts said, you can't be blamed or sinned for having desires or whatever thoughts you have in your head. If we were, then basically no one is getting into heaven. And for some desires, Islam offers ways to fulfill them in a way that it views as permissiable. Whether or not you buy that ultimately comes down to faith but that's a separate topic.

Notice how imams are not celibate like Catholic priests. In fact celibacy isn't even a thing in Islam. You're actively encouraged to get into a relationship and get married so you can fulfill your sexual desires. There's even a prophetic quote that says getting married is half of your religion. It's that important. Of course some things like drinking is not allowed even if you desire it and that's just something you have to deal with. But even if you cave it's not the end of the world because the grading system is heavily curved in your favor.

Having desires is natural and human and it's even ok to indulge in them every once in a while in a healthy way.

The Islamic term for this is nafs which means "self" or sometimes "ego". So fulfilling human desires is filling your nafs. But just like overfilling your stomach can be bad, overfilling your nafs is also bad so you need to practice discipline in not getting carried away.

u/hqudsi

KarmaCake day50October 12, 2022View Original