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Tell HN: Eid Mubarak

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Re: Tell HN: Eid Mubarak

#121

Post by shrimp_emoji »

edmundsauto wrote: post #89
hd4 wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hate to be that guy, but that's not at all what Islam says about why fasting was prescribed, and it's actually super clear about the purpose. I mean this is pretty basic, so I don't know why I keep hearing that same old line. "O you who believe, fasting is prescribed for you as it was prescribed for those before you, that you may develop God-consciousness." https://quran.com/2/183

I am not a religious scholar, but wouldn't God-consciousness include having empathy for all beings? I would partially define being enlightened as being able to experience everything in creation.

[flagged]

Re: Tell HN: Eid Mubarak

#122

Post by kjellsbells »

dang wrote: post #103
Juliate wrote: post #77

I am a bit confused: are we going to get more similar posts (which is tangent to some proselytism, under the premise of well wishing?) for each and every religious faith major event around the globe? I am saying this as a former believer (and holding no grudge), definitely aware of the fine line between sharing and pushing cultural items, and balancing the two rather equally in a diverse team. EDIT: actually, it's a…

It's going too far to interpret this as "tangent to proselytism". People can wish each other well without coming close to that. The occasional celebratory post is fine on HN. If it were to become repetitive, it would get tedious quickly and we would downweight such posts in keeping with standard practice (see [1] and [2] about that). [1] https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&so... [2] https://hn.a…

Humbly suggest that HN converts these types of temporal event posts into megathreads a la reddit so there is one root to the discussion, and down-weights one line replies that are simply repeating the sentiment of the original poster ('happy X to you too', etc).

Don't know if that is possible of course. I think the HN readership would welcome a way to use a post to explore cultural aspects, ask respectful questions, etc, but dont need a slurry of one line celebrations.

Re: Tell HN: Eid Mubarak

#124

Post by dang »

HopenHeyHi wrote: post #115
dang wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Religion-related topics are not anathema here, although religious flamewar is, and of course it's not easy to keep the two separate. Religion has been (and is) such a big part of humanity that it would be inconsistent with HN's core value of intellectual curiosity to try to declare it all off topic ( https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sor... ). p.s. Please let's not go into name-calling like "fr…

[flagged]

Your comment proves what I'm saying. It's obviously name-calling to refer to people's beliefs as nutty-crazy-idiotic. In fact the latter word is the canonical example the HN guidelines give for this: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html.

Thanks for the interesting etymology!

Re: Tell HN: Eid Mubarak

#125

Post by n1b0m »

tokyolights2 wrote: post #120
yousifa wrote: post #6

I will add, the fasting from food and water is the easy part. The more important fast is fasting from everything that is bad -- cursing, backbiting, lying, etc -- and from your own desires. All these things are things you shouldn't do anyway, but this is a time to refresh commitment to not doing those things. As the Quran says: "Oh, you who believe! Fasting is prescribed to you as it was prescribed to those before yo…

> and from your own desires As a non-religious gay I probably wasn't invited anyway. But this kind of thinking is what leads conservatives to so much repression and hate. The idea that the wants and needs of your body are something which the mind must actively fight. That the scratchy, ill-fitting wool sweater of your culture is something that you must keep on at all costs. And it leads to resentment of people who ar…

You could say the same thing about extreme endurance sports. It’s not about looking down on other people. It’s about appreciating what you have and for one month putting yourself in the shoes of those for whom even one meal a day isn’t something they can take for granted.

Re: Tell HN: Eid Mubarak

#126

Post by n1b0m »

yousifa wrote: post #6

I will add, the fasting from food and water is the easy part. The more important fast is fasting from everything that is bad -- cursing, backbiting, lying, etc -- and from your own desires. All these things are things you shouldn't do anyway, but this is a time to refresh commitment to not doing those things. As the Quran says: "Oh, you who believe! Fasting is prescribed to you as it was prescribed to those before yo…

I find the lack of sleep the hardest. You don’t really miss the lack of food or water unless you’re in a hot climate.

Re: Tell HN: Eid Mubarak

#127

Post by pwillia7 »

tokyolights2 wrote: post #120
yousifa wrote: post #6

I will add, the fasting from food and water is the easy part. The more important fast is fasting from everything that is bad -- cursing, backbiting, lying, etc -- and from your own desires. All these things are things you shouldn't do anyway, but this is a time to refresh commitment to not doing those things. As the Quran says: "Oh, you who believe! Fasting is prescribed to you as it was prescribed to those before yo…

> and from your own desires As a non-religious gay I probably wasn't invited anyway. But this kind of thinking is what leads conservatives to so much repression and hate. The idea that the wants and needs of your body are something which the mind must actively fight. That the scratchy, ill-fitting wool sweater of your culture is something that you must keep on at all costs. And it leads to resentment of people who ar…

I'm non religious too and I take your point, but to play devil's advocate -- Most of civilization and the ability for humans to live and cooperate together in large groups, requires us to move past our base wants, desires and the actions they would create.

Even if you want to burn down my house and murder me because I wronged you or slighted your family, that's not morally correct. We have secular law to codify what we see as morally right and I think it makes sense that before states really existed or unified people through national myths, that function was served by Gods

Re: Tell HN: Eid Mubarak

#128

Post by HopenHeyHi »

dang wrote: post #124
HopenHeyHi wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Your comment proves what I'm saying. It's obviously name-calling to refer to people's beliefs as nutty-crazy-idiotic. In fact the latter word is the canonical example the HN guidelines give for this: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html . Thanks for the interesting etymology!

Dang, respectfully, you should ask him what he means by it because I honestly read it differently.

I think he is calling the well wishing weird/phony as most people here are irreligious / not muslims / haven't had a clue about Eid Mubarak until yesterday.

Anyway, I can't be sure either but my point is it absolutely would not have occurred to me until you said it. Caveat: English is not my first language but obviously is a bit far fetched.

Re: Tell HN: Eid Mubarak

#129

Post by throwaway6734 »

tokyolights2 wrote: post #120
yousifa wrote: post #6

I will add, the fasting from food and water is the easy part. The more important fast is fasting from everything that is bad -- cursing, backbiting, lying, etc -- and from your own desires. All these things are things you shouldn't do anyway, but this is a time to refresh commitment to not doing those things. As the Quran says: "Oh, you who believe! Fasting is prescribed to you as it was prescribed to those before yo…

> and from your own desires As a non-religious gay I probably wasn't invited anyway. But this kind of thinking is what leads conservatives to so much repression and hate. The idea that the wants and needs of your body are something which the mind must actively fight. That the scratchy, ill-fitting wool sweater of your culture is something that you must keep on at all costs. And it leads to resentment of people who ar…

The ability to repress desires to focus on long term goals or to develop appreciate for the satiating of those desires is a good long term skill to have.

Distance makes the heart grow fonder

Re: Tell HN: Eid Mubarak

#130

Post by Brendinooo »

tokyolights2 wrote: post #120
yousifa wrote: post #6

I will add, the fasting from food and water is the easy part. The more important fast is fasting from everything that is bad -- cursing, backbiting, lying, etc -- and from your own desires. All these things are things you shouldn't do anyway, but this is a time to refresh commitment to not doing those things. As the Quran says: "Oh, you who believe! Fasting is prescribed to you as it was prescribed to those before yo…

> and from your own desires As a non-religious gay I probably wasn't invited anyway. But this kind of thinking is what leads conservatives to so much repression and hate. The idea that the wants and needs of your body are something which the mind must actively fight. That the scratchy, ill-fitting wool sweater of your culture is something that you must keep on at all costs. And it leads to resentment of people who ar…

Repressing my desire to eat every bit of food in front of me helps me on the scale.

Repressing desires to stay on the couch and going for a run instead gives me freedom to experience the world without being out of breath or stopping halfway on the hike.

Repressing desires to keep all of my money for myself leads me to be more charitable, which is better for others.

So yeah, self-control is a great thing to cultivate because the presence of a desire does not mean that the desire is good. And even if it's not bad, then it's something that can hinder a greater good.

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