

“In a better world I would have kissed her over the ice trays and that would have been the end of all our troubles. But you know exactly what kind of world we live in. It ain't no fucking Middle-earth. I just nodded my head, said, See you around, Lola, and drove home.”
― The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
― The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

“I look up to heaven only when I want to sneeze.”
― Fathers and Sons
― Fathers and Sons

“In the Islamic tradition a distinction is made between two holy wars, the "greater holy war" (el-jihadul-akbar) and the "lesser holy war" (el-jihadul-ashgar). This distinction originated from a saying (hadith) of the Prophet, who on the way back from a military expedition said: "You have returned from a lesser holy war to a great holy war." The greater holy war is of an inner and spiritual nature; the other is the material war waged externally against an enemy population with the particular intent of bringing "infidel" populations under the rule of "God's Law" (al-Islam). The relationship between the "greater" and "lesser holy war", however, mirrors the relationship between the soul and the body; in order to understand the heroic asceticism or "path of action", it is necessary to understand the situation in which the two paths merge, the "lesser holy war" becoming the means through which a "greater holy war" is carried out, and vice versa: the "little holy war", or the external one, becomes almost a ritual action that expresses and gives witness to the reality of the first. Originally, orthodox Islam conceived of a unitary form of asceticism: that which is connected to the jihad or "holy war".”
― Metaphysics of War
― Metaphysics of War

“the normal background-noise type of guilt that comes from just being alive this far into the twentieth century,”
―
―
Zaki’s 2024 Year in Books
Take a look at Zaki’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
More friends…
Polls voted on by Zaki
Lists liked by Zaki