Do Not Like the Sound of That

Apparently there is further fall in Indian GDP growth.

This does not look like a pleasant news. But such things are unavoidable. Positive growth can not be maintained indefinitely - the resources of the world are limited. It is the west which has been dominating the world thought process for last hundred years that has created this chimera that we should switch to growth mode of society. In a world where economies are interrelated effect of western slow down is bound to reach each and every world economy and the best thing is to anticipate and prepare for it.

So how to handle economic slow down? Good question - and if you do not have the answer then start thinking about it. Yours truly knows at least one thing - sooner or later it will boil down to cutting down your expenditure. Government expenditures should have never reached that they have, just think how Greek folly of debt financed spending that is bringing European economy down, but now we shall have to thing seriously about our own expenditures as citizen.

This is related to patience - Sabr. Sabr is a difficult thing to do but it is extremely rewarding. Switch yourself to Sabr mode and weather it out.

National Science Day - 2012

Today on February 29, 2012 Physics Department is celebrating National Science Day - 2012.
The celebration is associated with the discovery of Raman Effect by Sir C.V. Raman in the first half of twentieth century. Today Professor Naresh Dadhich and Professor M.Sami of Center for Theoretical Physics of Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi delivered lectures as part of these celebrations. Many academics gathered to listen to them and the the 2012 issue of the Physics Bulletin published by the Department of Physics was released by the Vice Chancellor Professor Sibghatullah Faruqi. Most exciting thing was that both of the external speakers were crowded for long time by the students after the lectures. More interestingly some students, perhaps they were from the Zakir Husain College of Engineering and Technology, asked questions during  the lecture itself.

For a mature society scientific discourse is a way of life and it was very heart warming to see this in action.

Broad Minded

Yours truly is sure that brothers and sisters are familiar with the following saying:

It is alright to be broad minded but do not be so broad minded that your brain falls out.

Hazrat Maseeh-ul-Ummah (RA)

Here are some links to the sayings of Hazrat (RA).

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12(A) | Part 12(B) | Part 12(C) | Part 13

Enjoying Induction into Falsehood

A young man, Omar Kamal bin Farooq, is enjoying his induction into falsehood.

No guess required to ascertain who has facilitated his assertion.
This reminds your truly about another young man whom yours truly has to deal with.
Basically yours truly has to make all those accommodations in this case which is against so many of yours truly's self imposed rules.
Reason being his absolutely frail psychological composition. Young man must be dabbling in undesirable substances. And his father must be aware of it. There is a danger of a precious life getting wasted slowly just in front of our eyes. Responsibilities of yours truly are really very minimal in this case and hence the concern too is moderate but the tragedy in making looks gigantic nevertheless - every life is precious, nay, priceless.

And the musings of first young man too are not very heart warming. The route that he is exploring decidedly takes to the wrong destination in the hereafter but the possible end may not be much different from the possible destination that the other young man is heading towards. May Allah(SWT) guide both of them on the right path and give them the requisite strength to follow it. May He forgive ours and their sins and replace them by good deeds. May He cast our lives completely according to His Will - His obedience.

Qari Amir Hasan Sahab Encircled by Divine Mercy

Announcing the passing away of Remainder and Reminder of Pious Predecessors Hazrat Qari Amir Hasan Sahab today morning on Friday, February 23, 2012 at Mumbai. Burial is scheduled for after Friday Prayers in Mumbai.

Verily we are for our Lord and unto Him is our return. May Allah(SWT) grant him a place in Jannat-ul-Firdaus, honourable patience to the grieved family and all those who were associated with him and a replacement of him for the Ummah.

PS: See also TSHS and SF.

False Confidence

Have you ever come across a statement of the following type - the wordings might be different but focus on the theme :

Qur'an gives us many of these scientific theories 1400 years ago. They are not accepting Qur'an as whole but they are relying on Qura'n in their scientific developments. This is the strong argument in favor of Qur'an's truth.

I am sure you have. And I seek refuge from Allah(SWT) if you hold this opinion. There is lots of truth in these sentiments but the falsehood is much more. What makes the situation worse is the fact that separation of truth and falsehood in this is not straightforward. Luckily the danger of being accused of being anti-Islam is not that much in this case otherwise that weapon is also not very far when you deal with such people who have shunned logic and reasoning together with reality.

It is sheer false confidence to have this kind of faith.

Qur'an is the word of our Lord Most High. Science is the creation of our Lord Most High, or more precisely, our knowledge of His creation.

Next Allah(SWT) has given us the abilities to understand the world around us. This fact can be deduced from our experience. So having given us the ability to understand so many aspects of His creation, the thing we call science, where is the need to incorporate that in the Holy Qur'an? As some one has said that it is not a book of science - it is the book of signs of Allah(SWT). Of course He (SWT) has sprinkled it with many things that will be classified in science but the object of this book is quite different and much more noble than the gory scientific empiricism. It is a book of guidance to mankind - a Mercy to us - a finalization and completion of Allah(SWT)'s favour to us.

The Noble Qur'an goes beyond science. It tells us what to do with science. Science can not tell us that. It guides us. Science has very limited capability in this direction.

Then there is another rub. If we thing of the last fifteen hundred years then for the first one third (actually slightly less) we did science and for the last two thirds we have left it. So the reality is that we are not using the God given ability to do what is beneficial for us. And this is a loss.

Naval Joy Ride

Italy is not an aggressive country.
It is country who tried to manage its economy using the worst choice of a businessman with moral ambiguity as PM. That can not be taken against them - though silly it was.
So the joy ride by the marines of their naval ship can be attributed to those marines only.
I suppose this is a known fact that India does not harbour pirates in its neighbourhood.
In fact it is the only country who tried to jack up the stakes in fight against piracy in Somalian seas.
So the Italian marines mistaking fishermen as pirates is really a silly thing.
Just see how individual actions can create diplomatic crisis.

Thankless and Thankfull

Throw anything at Ray Gillon in Portuguese, Thai, Turkish, Russian, Polish, Dutch, Danish, Norwegian, Bulgarian or Mandarin and he will banter back

And there are ten more languages that he can manage.

Is this not a great blessing of Lord Most High?

There are many people in the world who are extremely well endowed in various ways.
Some are thankful to God for this some are not. There is a terrible news for those who do not render thanks to Lord Almighty. Then there are others who use blessings, even very significant blessings, against God's wishes.
They do lots of damage in this world to the obedient servants of Lord but one only shudders at their fate in the hereafter.

Bagram Baseless Base

Afghanistan was not even a developing country when the US further devastated it to avenge the destruction of the twin towers of the World Trade Center.
Is the revenge not over still?
Have the total deaths in Afghanistan not passed the WTC casualties long back?
Why then there is an American Base in Bagram?

The latest reports are that they have again desecrated the Holy Qur'an.
There are protests in Afghanistan.

The US commander in Afghanistan, General John Allen, apologised and ordered an investigation into a report that troops "improperly disposed of a large number of Islamic religious materials which included Korans".

By the grace of Allah(SWT) the General has at least learned one lesson - their hapless targets, the Afghans, too do have some principles. And if the US forces are ready to kill others for their interests then there are people who are ready to sacrifice their lives to defend their rights, honour and dignity.

According to BBC:

A BBC reporter at the protests said he saw people crying as they protested at claims that foreign troops had set fire to the Koran ...

This cry baby phenomenon should perplexing to the intruders in Afghanistan but they mature enough to realize that the forebodings can not be benign.  They are facing people of heart - only God can grant victory over such people. And it is not that the people of Afghanistan were overwhelmed even in the worst phase. The unwanted visitors have an insolvable problem at their hands.

Crafty Student

She was worried.
Hate symbols started appearing on her door.
The university was very concerned.
The authorities came into picture and put hidden cameras in place.
And it was the student herself who was putting those symbols her door and around the place!

Source : YT

No Mincing of Words

When you realize that the stakes are high there is a possibility that you will not mince your words.
Dr David Duke is one of them.
Here is the video.

And Lord Most High is Most Kind

From a BBC report:

A Swedish man has survived being trapped in his snow-covered car for two months without food, police say. 

Police say the temperature in the area had recently dropped to -30C (-22F).
The man, who was too weak to utter more than a few words, said he had been inside since 19 December. He may have survived by drinking melted snow.
Police say they have no reason to doubt his story.

Verily our Lord Most High is Most Kind.

Thank You Todhunter

Here is a passage from his piece here:

In response to the recent explosions in India, Georgia and Thailand, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Iran is destabilising the world and its aggression must be stopped. Tehran says Israel’s accusation that it is responsible for the bombings is baseless. No mention from Israel of the assassinations of nuclear scientists in Iran. No mention of cyber attacks on Iran, the funding of anti-government militias inside Iran or other destabilisation strategies waged against Tehran by the US, Mossad, the CIA or MI6.

Significant Women

"Never underestimate sisters wearing hijab &, even more so, niqab - especially in the current climate. May Allah reward you & keep you strong" -Mufti Muhammad ibn Adam

The Blast Culture

When western forces devastated Iraq in the name of purported weapons of mass destruction some mysterious events started at a rather regular pace. This was the bomb blast culture. A culture that soon spread to Afghanistan and Pakistan. In fact India itself fell victim to it. Now let us focus on Iraq. Before his downfall Saddam Hussain has asserted that the western forces will be defeated in the streets of Iraq. This did not happen. What happened was an apparently random events of bombing in which the casualties were not at all the US?NATO?European forces but the civilian population. This was incomprehensible. If Iraq is invaded by the western forces then why should Shias and Sunnis start killing each other? But this is what was happening.
The curtain on these mind numbing things is slowly being lifted. Hideous west applied their ages old technology of divide and rule. Do a blast in Sunni locality and sooner or later some one will blame the Shias. And even if that does not happen then the western media sooner or later will find a way to fill up the gap. And then reverse the game by doing a blast in Shia locality and the vicious cycle is complete.

What kind of people will do this kind of thing? Not civilized ones. No wonder M.K.Gandhi quipped that western civilization will be a good idea.

Here are some reports that give us a peep into western tactics to sow the seeds of discontent in the Muslim world. It is not less devastating then a holocaust.

British special forces caught dressed as Arab 'terrorists'

British soldiers have been caught posing as Arabs and shooting Iraqis in the occupied city of Basra in southern Iraq. A group of them was caught yesterday by Iraqi police. They were driving an Iraqi car, wearing Arab clothing, and carrying weapons and explosives.

The Iraqi police were patrolling the area looking for suspected "terrorists" or "insurgents", and they noticed that the men were acting suspiciously. Suddenly, without warning, the suspicious men started shooting at people, but the new Iraqi security forces managed to capture some of them before they could escape. Obviously, if these men had not been caught, the mass media would now be reporting the incident as just another attempt by evil "terrorists" to create civil war in Iraq.

There have been a number of incidents in this area and throughout Iraq in which police and civilians have been targeted and killed by "terrorists" or "insurgents". But this is the first time that any of those responsible have been caught in the act, and it is now clear that at least some of them are working directly for the occupying forces, as many Iraqis have openly suspected all along.

A few days ago, in a statement unreported in the corporate mass media, Iran's most senior military official specifically linked the instability in Iraq with agents of the US and its allies: "we have information that the insecurity has its roots in the activities of American and Israeli spies."

The post-war violence in Iraq is always been blamed on "Islamic extremists" or "rival ethnic factions". Yet in the history of the country, nothing like this has ever happened before. The problems began precisely when the US and UK seized control.

The Iraqi police arrested the men and put them in prison. Unfortunately the police never had a chance to question the men and find out exactly what they were doing, because within minutes the UK sent in six tanks and an elite SAS unit to break their terrorists out of jail.

During the illegal prison break Iraqi officials were held at gunpoint, much of the jail was demolished, and all of the other criminals and insurgents were set free. The US and UK do not hesitate to use violence and terror to achieve their objectives, no matter what the consequences.

The official explanation for the illegal jail break is that somebody thought the British men might be taken away by a gang of Iraqi resistance fighters and never seen again. This is blatantly nonsense, of course, because the entire prison was entirely surrounded by British tanks and troops. With the full force of the British military at hand, the terrorists were rescued quickly and easily.

As further details emerge, the Western media increasingly presents conflicting reports about the nature and sequence of events, and the official British sources cited without question in mainstream news coverage are indicative of a classic disinformation exercise.

When local people saw what was happening the area began to erupt with angry anti-British protests.


SOURCE

The Guardian, "British tanks storm Basra jail to free undercover soldiers", front page, 20 September 2005.

    British troops used tanks last night to break down the walls of a prison in the southern Iraqi city of Basra and free two undercover British soldiers who were seized earlier in the day by local police.
    An official from the Iraqi interior ministry said half a dozen tanks had broken down the walls of the jail and troops had then stormed it to free the two British soldiers. The governor of Basra last night condemned the "barbaric aggression" of British forces in storming the jail.
    Aquil Jabbar, an Iraqi television cameraman who lives across the street from the jail, said dozens of Iraqi prisoners also fled in the confusion.
    ...
    In a day of dramatic incidents in the heart of the British-controlled area of Iraq, the two undercover soldiers - almost certainly special forces - were held by Iraqi security forces after clashes that reportedly left two people dead and threatened to escalate into a diplomatic incident between London and Baghdad.
    The soldiers, who were said to have been wearing Arab headdress, were accused of firing at Iraqi police when stopped at a road block.
    ...
    Muhammad al-Abadi, an official in the Basra governorate, told journalists the two undercover soldiers had looked suspicious to police. "A policeman approached them and then one of these guys fired at him. Then the police managed to capture them."
    ...


FURTHER READING

BBC News, "Iraq probe into soldier incident", 20 September 2005.

    Both men were members of the SAS elite special forces, sources told the BBC's Richard Galpin in Baghdad.
    ...
    Mr Reid said surveillance had established the men were being moved to another location, while at the same time an angry crowd posed an obstacle to the departure of the six-strong team.
    ...
    Almost simultaneously, a separate operation was staged to rescue the men from the place where they had been moved to.
    ...
    Richard Galpin said al-Jazeera news channel footage, purportedly of the equipment carried in the men's car, showed assault rifles, a light machine gun, an anti-tank weapon, radio gear and medical kit.
    ...


Al-Jazeera, "The occupation forces are the real perpetrators of bomb attacks in Iraq?", 14 September 2005.

    Iran�s top military commander accused the United States and Israel of planning the non-stop bomb attacks that killed thousands of civilians in Iraq.
    Brigadier General Mohammad-Baqer Zolqadr, the deputy commander of Iran�s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), told a gathering of senior officials, that the U.S. needs those attacks to justify the continuation of its military presence in Iraq.
    �The Americans blame weak and feeble groups in Iraq for insecurity in this country. We do not believe this and we have information that the insecurity has its roots in the activities of American and Israeli spies,� Zolqadr said.
    �Insecurity in Iraq is a deeply-rooted phenomenon. The root of insecurity in Iraq lies in the occupation of this country by foreigners�.
    ...


Washington Post, "British Smash Into Iraqi Jail To Free 2 Detained Soldiers", front page, 20 September 2005.

    BAGHDAD, Sept. 19 -- British armored vehicles backed by helicopter gunships burst through the walls of an Iraqi jail Monday in the southern city of Basra to free two British commandos detained earlier in the day by Iraqi police, witnesses and Iraqi officials said. The incident climaxed a confrontation between the two nominal allies that had sparked hours of gun battles and rioting in Basra's streets.
    An Iraqi official said a half-dozen armored vehicles had smashed into the jail, the Reuters news agency reported. The provincial governor, Mohammed Walli, told news agencies that the British assault was "barbaric, savage and irresponsible."
    ...
    In London, authorities said the two commandos were released after negotiations. But the BBC quoted British defense officials as saying a wall was demolished when British forces went to "collect" the men.
    The killing of the New York Times reporter took place six weeks after an American freelance journalist, Steven Vincent, was kidnapped and killed in Basra, allegedly after being taken away in a marked police car. ...
    ...
    Iraqi security officials on Monday variously accused the two Britons they detained of shooting at Iraqi forces or trying to plant explosives. Photographs of the two men in custody showed them in civilian clothes.
 

BBC News, "Insurgents 'inside Iraqi police'", 21 September 2005. 

    A report released by the US defence department in July said Iraq's police force was recruiting insurgents and former criminals to its ranks.
  

CBC News, "The Geneva Conventions", 13 May 2005.

    The Americans argued that captured members of al-Qaeda do not fall into any of these categories, saying that al-Qaeda members don't wear uniforms ("fixed distinctive sign") or obey the laws of war. Rumsfeld labeled them "unlawful combatants," and said the rules of the Geneva Convention did not apply.
 

Washington Post, "Enemy Combatant Vanishes Into a 'Legal Black Hole'", 30 July 2003.

     During war, captured enemies are either lawful combatants, soldiers who adhere to such rules of war as wearing identifiable uniforms -- in which case they become prisoners of war -- or unlawful combatants. Al Qaeda and Taliban operatives fall into the latter category, the United States has decided, and thus have fewer legal rights than POWs and far fewer than criminal defendants.

   

What's There in a Name?

This quotation is from Shakespeare and in some situations it is true, that is, the name is immaterial. In some situations it not true and the name matters.

And this should be reminder to us to the effect that western thoughts and ideas may or may not be useful. Any time you come across a gem from them it is better to check it with the Qur'an and the Sunnah.

Coming to the main point. We begin with a quote from Yawar Baig (h/t brother Afriqi Haq) :

They became and created super specialists in the religious texts with no attempt to look at their application to fast changing external realities of society. And they also started preparing ‘priests’; students whose role was seen as being confined to Imaamat in masaajid and teaching in Madaaris. Interestingly, they even called the Ja’amia Islamia, a ‘Seminary’ and its Nazim or Muhtamim, ‘The Rector’. It is tragic to note that no attempt was made at least to be distinct from Christian Religious institutions in nomenclature.

Yours truly does not agree with Mr Baig. Yours truly has been using Seminary for Madarsa and Rector for the Muhtamim. More than that yours truly has been using Monastery for Khanqah. And there is no intention to imitate the Christians. The intention is to communicate to the English speaking people the tenets of Islam. A more careful approach will be to use Islamic Seminary and Islamic Monastery for a Madarsa and a Khanqah but that will only be pedantic. Those who indulge in criticism will continue to do so and it is difficult to mitigate them.  

Time To Check Madness

Here are the BBC headlines:
(1) India Court Debates Gay Sex Ruling (2012)
(2) India Court Reviews Gay Sex Order  (2009) 
(3) India Media Hails Gay Sex Ruling (2009)

The trouble in this matter is that those people who are caught into this deviant behaviour are more vocal than the majority. This is not Indian phenomena. In seventies the homosexuals repeatedly stormed the annual meetings of American Psychology Association to press for regularization of their behaviour. It is strange that the scientific organization of the most scientifically advance country just could not defend itself and buckled. This bowing down of US Psychology community was a tragedy of gigantic proportions. May be tracing your footsteps back is the way out here but action in this regard has to start in the US - only US public, the silent majority there, has to assert to the American Psychology Association to review its , by now a few decades old, folly. And it is not a matter of minority rights. Minority rights are indeed kosher. The issue at stake is whether the sick have the right to decide that they are not sick. This carries the more serious implication by which the healthy are, by insinuation, condemned as sick.

There is another factor that has contributed to this disaster - the western lopsided notion of gender equality. Man and women are equal but man has a slight upper hand - this is the Qur'anic injunction in this matter. Notice that the tie breaker is the difference between the western and Islamic positions. And then there is the complementary equality of man and women. You take care of the bread earning and I'll take care of the house keeping. But this preposition has becoming very insulting in the modern context. Though most of the women do indulge in the house keeping but this can not be asserted as a normal thing without inviting the ire of the so called modern educated and liberated people. Unfortunately many women have fallen into this trap and have accepted that man-woman equality is not complementary but mirror equality. Of course reality sooner or later takes over and these people simply disappear from the scene when they realize that life can not be lived on the basis of these deviations. Unfortunately enough new blood comes up to fill the vacuum created. Luckily the world population is huge and the society can absorb the deviations for some time without disappearing. Yes - society has the danger of disappearance when people forget about procreation.
And should we not take those people as deviated who have decided to ignore procreation entirely? Anyway these things have become very serious in the west. Man and woman are turning into same gender marriages and those woman who are lucky in this aspect are in another trap - they do not find any man who is suitable for them according to the modern criterion of the western man woman equality. It is a fact well acknowledged that Europe is disappearing because of lack of procreation. We in the west have slightly more time to act but warning must be sounded because this time can not be very long. A decade of non-procreation is enough to put you into non-reversible decline. The calculation is simple. A generation, after enough stretching, may be just a three decades long. In that three decades period you get the middle decade only for procreation.

So, to cut the long story short, now is the time for India to put an stop to this disgrace. Marriage is a very sacred institution in India and its sanctity must be maintained. It will not be a bad idea for the silent majority to wake up and assert its right to maintain its modesty, sacred institutions and continuation of its existence.

Thank You Aligarh

Faza-il-e-A'amal  (Excellence of Good Deeds) is the staple diet book in Jama-at work.
Then there was a feeling that it needs to be supplemented by some other book.
Apart from the Selected Traditions (Muntakhab Ahadeeth) Hayat-us-Sahabah (Life of the Companions) (RA) is one such book.
Originally the book was written in Arabic and then translated into Urdu and English.
And then there are brothers looking for the original Arabic. They ask as to where is it published from. And you wonder that may be it it is Cairo or Beirut. But where is it really published from?
Check it below for yourself.

And if you are too lazy to click on above image here is another view of the bottom line.

It is from Dodhpur, Aligarh!
Is it not a sign of the fact that Allah(SWT) choose this town for this noble service?
May Allah(SWT) shower his Mercy on this city of knowledge and accept it for higher noble services for the Ummah of the blessed Prophet(PBUH) and his Deen. Ameen.

Insulting India

Here is the BBC report.
A woman refuses to go to her in-laws because they lack a toilet facility.
And she wins. Her husband is forced to do the needful - to construct the toilet.
Looks like a ordinary event.
Rural India does not have toilets at home.
It is a good idea if your ladies are not forced to go out into the open fields.
But then there are the NGOs preying on gullible Indian society - making the woman a heroine.
And BBC picking up the story.
Is yours truly the only one wanting something to hit?