In Defiance of Taliban

Rebecca Kesby of BBC would like us to believe that Pakistanis are taking up skiing in Swat valley in defiance of Taliban.

Very conservative statement - from western perspective.
Taliban is the villain and the West is the saviour.
The trouble with Goebbelsian philosophy is that whether your intended target believes in your lie or not you yourself are more likely to believe it.
And hence you are at the risk of getting disconnected with reality.
And that is the matter of fact.
The west today is by and large cut off from ground reality.
And what is the reality?
Well Muslims today might be in a state of daze because of western affluence and too many of our people might be drooling at the western life styles but the reality is that overall flow of people is not in that direction. You find more and more inclination to keep a grip on religion, not to leave it.
That was part one of reality.
Part two consists of the fact that western physical power, including media, money and diplomacy, is no more the same as they are assuming. Because of economic down turn they do not have the same nimbleness in their maneuverability.

So Defiance of Taliban is a straw man argument. Sport is decidedly an Islamic activity - even if too many of modern sports would not pass muster in an Islamic assessment skiing is something that Islam should not frown upon.

I suppose Muslims should be asserting more against such self-serving western propositions. We have our own way of life and we should be courageous enough to defend it.

Beware of Your Enemies

One of the Cardinal Rules that we often forget is to beware of our enemies.
Iblis, though he is only one of so many of our enemies, has been warned against by Allah (SWT).
Let us try to learn about our enemies from the example of Iblis, the cursed.

We have from Surah Baqrah 2:

34. And behold, We said to the angels: "Bow down to Adam" and they bowed down.
Not so Iblis: he refused and was haughty: He was of those who reject Faith.

One sign of enemy can be inferred from here - he will be disrespectful to you. Openly or secretly. Rejection of faith might lead enmity with you.

35. We said: "O Adam! dwell thou and thy wife in the Garden; and eat of the
bountiful things therein as [where and when] ye will; but approach not this
tree, or ye run into harm and transgression."

We do not know for how long Adam and his wife dwelt there in the state of bliss. But this pristine state is the one that will be targeted by the enemy.

36. Then did Satan make them slip from the [garden], and get them out of the
state [of felicity] in which they had been. We said: "Get ye down, all [ye
people], with enmity between yourselves. On earth will be your dwelling-place
and your means of livelihood - for a time."

The enmity with Iblis is inherited from the days of felicity. Clearly this state of loss, enmity, begins when we switch side towards Iblis, momentarily, by succumbing to his suggestions in contravention of Allah (SWT)'s command. Any one making a direct or indirect hint towards breaking a law of Shariah should be taken as an enemy.

But what about an enemy who is not after our Deen but only Duniya - who is after our physical possessions?
Our physical possessions are the means, created by Allah (SWT) for us, so that we can reach Jannah - navigating this world using those means. A person who is after our worldly possessions is putting our Jannah in jeopardy. Not a friend indeed and ultimately he or she  too is an enemy.

37. Then learnt Adam from his Lord words of inspiration, and his Lord Turned
towards him; for He is Oft-Returning, Most Merciful.

This is the beginning of business. Tragedy has taken place. Decision to out Adam and wife from Jannah has been taken. Preparation for exit are underway. Sort of a tragedy in slow motion. First mistake earned a punishment of about sixty to seventy years - in the Ummah of beloved Prophet (PBUH). During this punishment itself we have the opportunity to earn our ticket to Jannah. That is the silver lining  of the tragedy. And Iblis, the cursed, is there, together with his company to pull the con trick again.

38. We said: "Get ye down all from here; and if, as is sure, there comes to you
Guidance from me, whosoever follows My guidance, on them shall be no fear, nor
shall they grieve.

Here we have the deal. Mistake was committed. Punishment announced. And help rendered. Escape clauses inserted. It is a test now. There is hope and there is fear. And the route to escape from fear and grieving is explained. It is simple - just follow guidance of Allah (SWT). That guidance is now the Shariah of Prophet Muhammed (PBUH). A single act of momentarily following Iblis has tossed not only Adam and his wife but all of their progeny into a series of events where there will be traps by Iblis and company for multiple acts of mistakes, failings, errors.

39. "But those who reject Faith and belie Our Signs, they shall be companions of
the Fire; they shall abide therein."

This is a statement that is scary, in the negation and powerful. But the hope is not difficult at all to locate here. Allah (SWT) is Ar-Rahman and Ar-Rahim. Just accept faith. Accept His Signs. That is all that is required to be on the felicitous side.

Hazrat Qari Amir Hasan Sahab (NM) used to say that to deceive and to be deceived  is not a Believer's path. This is a strange saying. To deceive is voluntary but to be deceived is not entirely voluntary. Even then a Believer is safe from deception. If you get deceived then you did show some weakness of faith. If you implement your faith in Allah (SWT) then you sure will assert that Allah (SWT) has forbidden to touch that particular tree.

Hazrat Thanwi (RA) on Ibn Taimiyyah and Ibn Qayyim

Hadhrat Maulana Ashraf Ali Thaanwi states:

"Ibn Taymiyyah and Ibn Qayyim were master and student. They were very intelligent, and masters of the pen. Their pace exceded that of a motor car. Then (at full speed) they didn’t look who came in front of them in the street-be it a child or an animal. They just went forward at full speed, continuing their own discourse without regard to what others said. This is not the way of a people who make true Tahqeeq. (Magar yeh tarz Shaan Tahqiq nahin) Their manner of discourse would be harsh . Ibn Taymiyyah(ra) did a lot of service for the deen . He was born with a harsh temperament and such was his fitra. But the kaamil(perfected individual) is he who has the perfect balance between ilm and adab , and keeps both in due perspective."

Malfuzat Volume 15, p.643

Source: SF

Faith Dynamics

There are facts.
We need them to get through in life.
Then there is dynamics. This is more helpful in getting through life.
Whole point of life is to live it according to Islam.
Most essential issue in that is to acquire, maintain and preserve your faith.
Here is a Hadith that is effective in perfecting you faith:

Abdullah ibn Hisham (Allah be pleased with him) narrates: “We were with the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him & give him peace) and he was holding the hand of Umar ibn al-Khattab (Allah be pleased with him). Sayyiduna Umar said to Him: “O Messenger of Allah! You are dearer to me than everything except my own self.” The Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him & give him peace) said: “No, by Him in Whose Hand is my soul, (you will not have complete faith) till I am dearer to you than your own self.” Then Umar (Allah be pleased with him) said to him: “However, now, by Allah, you are dearer to me than my own self.” The Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him & give him peace) said: “Now, O Umar (you are a complete believer).” (Sahih al-Bukhari)

Students Movements in 1960s

Source : The Contemporary History

Comments by yours truly will be in blue colour.

Q: Why is this topic important for the present blog?
A: Yours truly has been arguing against the continuation of the AMU Student's Union. This institution is against the ethos of Aligarh Movement. Here we are looking at the genesis of the idea of Student's Union. Historically the ideas seems to have developed in the US. The students movement became so strong in America that special measures were taken to politically disarm the father ideology of Marxism there. Mrxists remember that action as the McCarthy era. If US was forced to protect itself from the bad effects of that movement then why do we Aligs think that AMUSU is such a sacred institution that it is harbinger of some good for Aligarh Movement itself?

The most striking result of the baby boom was the activism of college students during the 1960s. In the United States, the initial impetus for student activism came from the Civil Rights movement. As the decade wore on, students in the United States and elsewhere found more elements of the "establishment" that required political action: the Vietnam War, the draft, and charges that universities were complicit with the military.

Q: What is Baby Boom?
A: Between first and second world war US economy, and hence the world economy in general, took a nose dive. Slightly after the second world war US experienced a markedly increased birth rate. It is called Baby Boom. Here are some landmarks: Wall Street (Economic) Crash : 1929. US Birth Rate Minimum : 1934. US Birth rate Peak : 1948.

The first major student protest organization, the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), was founded in 1960 by Ella Baker, who had organized the Southern Christian Leadership Conference for Martin Luther King, Jr. She believed that existing civil rights organizations were out of touch with African-American students who were willing to push the movement further. Also in 1960 Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) emerged from the Student League for Industrial Democracy, created in the 1930s to try to build a political left in Great Depression America.

Remarks : Above paragraph missed two significant points. Firstly the conscription, the military draft, that compulsory military service was one of the reasons behind the students movement. It was Richard Nixon, much later who did away with the draft. Secondly the black people's organization, the Nation of Islam, lead by Elijah Mohammed was at the forefront of the civil movement. This organization, though copying many things Islamic, was not Muslim at all.

SDS became the central institution of what would soon be called the New Left. In June 1962, 59 SDS members and sympathizers, including some SNCC members, assembled at an AFL-CIO camp in Port Huron, Michigan, to develop a political manifesto.

The resulting Port Huron Statement was written by student Tom Hayden. It suggested that U.S. universities should become the locus for a new movement concerned with empowering individuals and communities.

Remark : The movement clearly has all the tell-tale signs of communist methodology that is so obvious till today. A few years back the girls from Women's College occupied the Registrar Office, during Dr P.K.Abdul Aziz's tenure, bringing not only the corresponding residential Hall to a stand still but the Registrar Office itself. Even the press was surprised by the clockwork precision of the events that took place. Amongst the AMU community it is a common knowledge who was behind the episode except the then provost of the girls residential Hall. She is clueless till today. AMU is not a place for simpletons. The  starting point of the episode was a purported sexual assault which simply disappeared into thin air as the things progressed.

SNCC was the first of these organizations to achieve national prominence. Its members, who had initiated sit-ins at segregated lunch counters, took part in the Freedom Rides of 1961, testing federal court orders desegregating interstate bus terminals. They conducted voter registration programs in several southern cities and demonstrated against segregation.

Remark : This is a side remark only. From last few paragraphs it is clear that the civil rights about which US is so keen to implement in India and the rest of the world, these civil rights are about half a century old even there.

In 1964 SNCC and CORE (the Congress of Racial Equality) staged "Freedom Summer", during which white college students were invited to teach African-American children and assist with voter registration efforts in Mississippi.

Remark : Another side remark. The blacks were getting lynched in US even in 1930s. With such a horrible immediate past it is strange that US takes a high moral ground in all things social. Or is it because of its past? So that we do not remind her, the US, of her sordid immediate past?

During that summer, three student activists, whites Michael Schwerner and Andrew Goodman and African-American James Chaney, were murdered by white racists. The University of California, Berkeley’s Free Speech Movement began when students returning from Freedom Summer found their university restricting political activity on campus.

White resistance to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the 1965 Voting Rights Act led activists in both SDS and SNCC to see themselves as allies of revolutionaries in the rest of the world and to move further left.

Remark : We are talking about 1960s. That is just a generation ago. It is commendable that US learned its civil lessons on its own and it learned it fast. But it does not have the right to push its ideology down other people's throat. same goes for the communists - the main contention of this post. They have an ideology but it does not match the ideology of AMU. The defining characteristic of AMU ideology is Crown of No god But God on their head.

Stokely Carmichael (later Kwami Ture), who became chairman of SNCC in 1966, coined the slogan "Black Power" to express African-American pride, which had the effect of driving white activists out of the organization.

SDS and other white-dominated activist groups had, by this time, become outraged at the escalation of the war in Vietnam. The first "teach-in" against the war took place at the University of Michigan during the spring of 1965. In April a march on Washington organized by SDS drew 20,000 protesters. It was the first of many.

Remark: One can see how old black empowerment is in US. We are at present living in the era of first black US President.

Concentration on antiwar politics had an unforeseen consequence. In 1964 SNCC staffers Mary King and Casey Hayden anonymously circulated a position paper noting male dominance in movement organization.

Later, they publicly raised the importance of feminism in civil rights and antiwar groups. Some men in the movement saw women’s issues as a trivial distraction from their own concerns about the draft. King and Hayden’s work led to women’s caucuses.

Remark : Point to note is the beginning of time line of feminist movement coming onto the stage. And concerns over the draft competing with it.

In May 1968 youth uprisings in Paris nearly brought down the government of Charles de Gaulle. A general strike led by elite Sorbonne university students, joined by many French workers, decried France’s education system and its role in the Vietnam War.

That same year, Czechoslovakia’s "Prague Spring" tried to implement "socialism with a human face" in the teeth of Soviet domination. In August Warsaw Pact troops crushed the movement, while in the United States riots erupted between Chicago police and student activists during the Democratic National Convention.

Remark : Here we have a perspective on spread of the student's movement. The point to note once again is that aprt from AMU no other institution, US government, French government, Czech government is paralyzed by the student's movement in the present times. If other countries have solved their student's movement problem then why not AMU? Let us not forget that even the citadel of Marxist ideology, the JNU, is never brought to its knees by their student's union.

Violence escalated in 1970 when National Guard units shot and killed students protesting the Vietnam War at Kent State and Jackson State Universities, touching off protests on many other campuses. But by then SNCC and SDS were collapsing. SDS had splintered at its 1969 convention into a number of groups, the best known of which, the Weathermen, took its name from a Bob Dylan song.

Remark : There are two lessons here. Brutality of US towards unarmed students as well as the resulting collapse of student's movement. And the rabble rousing poets switching to lamenting mode. 

Renamed the Weather Underground, this group is best remembered for a Greenwich Village explosion in which three members blew themselves up while assembling explosives. Broad-based student activism declined after the draft was discontinued in 1973.

Remark : The draft discontinuation remark is a red herring. US simply realized that student's body is not a proper power center to be nurtured. Are we taking heed at AMU?

Javed, Shabana and Salman Rushdie

Javed Akhtar is left disappointed with Salman Rushdie. The infamous author wrote a rude, nasty and uncivilzed mail to Javed Akhtar's wife Shabana Azmi. Javed Akhtar has been a supporter of Salman Rushdie but he did mildly criticize Rushdie in a TV interview. That was enough to infuriate latter.

Let us get one headline out of the way. The notorious author did not have Javed's email address so he chose to communicate through Shabana. It is probably not a case of insulting the wife of your interlocutor.

The problem lies in Javed Akhtar's idealism. In spite of coming from an illustrious family, he is Jan Nisar Akhtar's son whose is a respected name in Urdu literature as well as Mumbai, Javed is a self-made man. To be self-made is usually a mixed blessing. It is a monumental triumph and it is a gigantic tragedy. Monumental triumph should be understandable because to be self-made is indeed something triumphal. It is also a gigantic tragedy because you get cut-off from reality. The giant piece of reality that your triumph is cuts you off from the more giant reality. You are a giant in one aspect of life when you can declare yourself self-made man. But that is only one aspect of life. This injunction of reality into the picture by no means diminishes the value of personal triumph.

Thus just because you created the giant angry young man of Bollywood and then made a successful transition to a lyricist and then a public intellectual speaking vaguely for Muslims does not make you a worthy espouser of Muslim cause. Nor it qualifies you to take Muslim feelings for granted. That Rushdie has given you a nasty bite does tell us that you made a mistake in recognizing him. You should not have trusted him in the first place.

Shibli Academy Orientalist Seminar - 7

For background material see here.

Title : Islam Aur Mustashriqeen (Islam and Orietalists)

Vol : 7 (Compiler : Dr Muhammed 'Arif Umari)

Contains articles, summaries and precis of corrections published in Ma'arif to orientalists mistakes about Islamic sciences and individuals.

1. Preface : Dr. Zia-ud-Deen Islahi
2. Orientalist Noldeke and Noble Qur'an : Maulana Owais Nadwi Nigrami
3. Collection and Compilation of Noble Qur'an and the Orientalists : Muhammed 'Arif Azmi Umari
4. Orientalists on Arguments of Revelation and Prophethood : Maulana Zia-ud-Deen Islahi
5. Orientalists Stand on Migration (Hijrah) : Maulana Abdur Rahman Parwaz Islahi
6. Correcting Some Mistakes of Orientalists Regarding Prophet (PBUH)'s Biography : Maulana Zia-ud-Deen Islahi
7. Imam Ash'ari and Orientalists : Maulana Mirza Muhammed Yusuf
8. Mistakes of European Orientalists Regarding Abul 'Ala Ma'ari : Late Maulana Abdul Aziz Memon
9. Islamic Sciences and Arts and European Orientalists : Maulana Abdus Salam Nadwi
10. Scientific and Artistic Treasure of Muslims and the Orientalists : Maulana Abul Kalam Azad
11. To Contradictory Views About Orientalist : Maulana Shah Muinuddin Ahmed Nadwi
12. Services and Limitations of Orientalists : Syed Wahiduddin
13. Waywardness and Contradictory Reporting in Analysis and Debate by Orientalists : Maulana Ziauddin Islahi
14. Spreading of Orientalists' Objections, Their Characteristic and Axis : Maulana Ziauddin Islahi
15. Well Known Orientalists and Their Writings, Introduction and Overview : Maulana Salman Shamsi Nadwi
16. Orientalism in Holland :  Maulana Shah Muinuddin Ahmed Nadwi
17. 18th International Orientalists Congress, Leiden, 1931: Dr Shaikh Inayatullah
18. International Orientalists Congress (1938?) : Syed Sabahuddin Abdur Rahman
19. International Orientalists Congress, Istanbul (1951?) : Dr Muhammed Hamidullah
20. International Orientalists Congress, Cambridge(1954) : Dr Muhammed Hamidullah
21. International Orientalists Congress, Munich(1957) : Dr Muhammed Hamidullah
22. 25th International Orientalists Congress, Cambridge(1958) : Dr Muhammed Hamidullah
23. 26th International Orientalists Congress, Delhi (1964) : Syed Sabahuddin Abdur Rahman
24. International Orientalists Congress in America, Ann Arbor(1967) : Dr Muhammed Hamidullah

Sir Syed Memorial Lecture - 2013

Yours truly is just back from Sir Syed Memorial Lecture - 2013.

University has a deserted look, today being a holiday since yesterday installation of Students' Union took place. A better expression for the university would be all-dug-up, a major sewage, drainage, road widening overhauling is underway.

The lecture was in Engineering College conference room. Yours truly must have been to that room after a long time for it sported all new look. The acoustically beneficial grotesque roofing has been replaced by white thermocol tiles and the floor as well as chairs have been replaced. You do feel like entering the room.

When yours truly reached Dr Salahuddin Umari, Director, Sir Syed Academy was in the process of introducing the Academy and the speaker Dr Gordon Campbell, FRAS, Professor of Renaissance Studies, Leichester University. He had chosen the topic The Inheritance of Sir Syed: A View from the West.

The lecture was not too deep and yours truly says that as a complement. A public talk is not supposed to be dry academic monologue. Sir Syed Academy had taken the thoughtful step of distributing glossy printed lecture as well as material on Academy itself.

Dr Campbell spoke about the things that included terms like 1857, traditional Perso-Arabic education at home, death of elder brother of Sir Syed, plaques in London's Mecklenburg square containing three educationists and reformers related with India including our founder, idea of a college or university, Francis Robinson, rote learning, critical learning, present dispensation at AMU, his twenty visits to India as well as his at least second lecture here at AMU, Professor Saud Alam Qasmi, Professor A.R.Kidwai, culture, Tehzeeb, importance of values, what British universities can learn from AMU and more.

Most gratifying part for yours truly was a short acknowledgement speech by Pro Vice Chancellor Brigadier Syed Ahmed Ali. He spoke with remarkable confidence as well as infectious optimism. Clarity of a serviceman was palpable. He emphasized that students should greet the teachers with As-Salamu Alaikum and divulged the fact that he and the Vice Chancellor have started wearing Sherwani on Fridays.

Yours truly lingered around for a few moments after the lecture and managed to have a few words with the PVC. It was slightly irksome to assure him that a Sherwani sporting bearded man can be in a science subject that was mentioned in the lecture just held with longing. Yours truly acknowledged his oozing confidence and conveyed a desire that he should do some thing to inject the same confidence into the hearts of our students. His momentary brooding can be taken as a sign of the fact that the point went across.

May Allah (SWT) forgive yours truly for praising a person on his face, it was meant for the good of our dear students. May He (SWT) imbibe our students with the confidence.

Shibli Academy Orientalist Seminar - 6

For background material see here.

Title : Islam Aur Mustashriqeen (Islam and Orietalists)

Vol : 6 (Compiler :Zia-ud-Deen Islahi)

Contains Urdu translation of Arabic articles on Noble Qur'an, Hadith, Fiqh, Prophetic Biography and Islamic Culture and Civilization done by the associates of Dar-ul-Musannifeen.

1. Noble Qur'an and Orientalists : Dr Iltahami Naqrah
2. Sacht and Prophetic Traditions : Dr Mustafa Al-A'azmi
3. Orientalist Sacht and Fiqh : Dr Muhammed Anas Zarqa
4. Partnership and Profit and Orientalist Ludovitch : Dr Muhammed Anas Zarqa
5. Prophetic Biography and Critical Examination of Thoughts of Orientalist Montgomery Watt : Dr Imadudin Khalil
6. Islamic Social Life in the Eyes of Orientalists : Dr Abdul Wahhab Abu Hadiba
7. Islamic Civilization of Spain in the Eyes of Orientalists : Dr Mustafa Al-Sha'a

Shibli Academy Orientalist Seminar - 5

For background material see here.

Title : Islam Aur Mustashriqeen (Islam and Orietalists)

Vol : 5 (Compiler : Syed Sabahuddin Abd-ur-Rahman)

Author : Syed Sulaiman Nadwi (RA) (d.AH 1373, 1953AC)

Includes summary of interests of orientalists in Islamic sciences and arts and then answers their objections on Islamic history.

1. Preface: European Orientalists and the Library of Alexandria
2. Detractors of islam and Jiziya
3. Orientalists of Europe Before 1800AC ( France, Germany, Switzerland, England, Holland, Austria, Denmark, Spain, Portugal, Italy)
4. From 1800AC to 1830AC ( France, England, Germany, Italy)
5. From 1830AC to 1850AC ( France, Germany, Switzerland, England, Holland, Asiatic Societies)
6. From 1850AC to 1870AC ( France, Germany, Austria, English, Russia, Spain)
7.  From 1870AC to 1880AC ( France, Germany, Russia)
8. Lecture of a German Orientalist on Spread of Islam
9. Orientalists of Europe, Love of God and Islam
10.  Orientalists of Europe and Muhammed bin Umar Al-Waqidi
11. Again Waqidi
12. Answer to a Letter of an English University
13. Some Made Up Stories of Church of England
14. Foremost Lines

Hillary Clinton's Half Truth

A BBC headline says, quoting Hillary Clinton, that the world has become a safer place.

Oh, yeah. As long as you keep Islam and Muslims out. Islam and Muslims remain singled out as those entities for who it is even desirable to make the world a safe place. Muslim world is still reeling under the American onslaught in particular and western onslaught in general. Your damage to Muslim world has been more extensive than your damage to Japan and the communist block. Your overall record, if not putting Hitler's record to shame, will surely compete with him. The strange thing is that the world still is not waking up to the monstrosity that US has turned out to be. It is strange that the world takes US triumph as triumph, US happiness as happiness and US sorrow as sorrow. A pathetic state of affairs where the rest of the world has lost its individuality having annihilated its hopes, aspirations and expectations in the hopes, aspirations and expectations of US. Why else the world will modulate its feelings with those of US? It is all the more strange looking at the condition that US society finds itself in. Just think of the too often occurring random shootings.

Testosterone Challenged US

US is now officially emasculated. Who else will assign the front-line combat duty to its women?

It is sure the they will be basking in the glory of their exalted actions. Might even be choking with emotions of finally having done the needful for women's liberation and  empowerment.

Silly people have not figured out why there are sporadic fatal shootings in their society but they continue to take steps guided by the same philosophy that is doing them in.

Silly people do not realize what calamity they have brought on women by assigning them non-combat duty in the forces and now they have gone one step further.

We also keep hearing from the same silly society about experimentation like male pregnancy.

That it is a society gone bonkers is known for some time now but we hear of no corrective steps. On the contrary we keep hearing about one silly decision after another.

Of course we Muslims do have a personal axe to grind - we are at the receiving end of their onslaught and hardly anyone is fooled by their diplomatique about freedom, democracy and the so called war on terror but any one having any trace of humanity will be heart broken at the spiraling down of American society.

Dear US you are not an inspiration. Not that we were looking for one.

Freedom in Islam

This is not an in-depth or thorough analysis of how Islam gives you freedom.

It is a simple but very effective and useful example of freedom granted to us by Islam.

It is an example of how Islam liberates you.

In fact without Islam you can not even define freedom - sorry to say that. Or may be not.

***

Mufti Taqi Usmani Sahab (DB) said in one of the speeches that we believers should not indulge too much of speeches.

This was shocking to yours truly.

How will Islam spread or even maintained without speeches?

Then his brother Hazrat Rafi Usmani Sahab (DB), Mufti-e-Azam Pakistan, upped the ante. It turned out that their Shaikh Dr Abdul Hayee Arifi Sahab (RA) always advised them to avoid giving speeches.

If you have an urge to spread Islam then there is no alternative but to speak.

And two very honorable Muftis, the best of our times, are telling us to do just the opposite.

It is not easy to reconcile oneself with this idea.

But where is the freedom here? In fact every one will fairly conclude that yours truly is talking about the opposite - restriction. Patience dear brothers and sisters. (Pyaro is the word used by our beloved Elders in place of the word dear!)

Mufti Rafi Sahab (DB) also added that their Shaikh told them not to speak on topics assigned by the people. Their Shaikh told them to put the balm where there is the injury.

There is the freedom dear brothers and sisters. You have been liberated from the tyranny of people - they assigning you topics and you doing their bidding.

You might feel that this is not what you were looking for.

But yours truly did not promise you what you were looking for. Till our last breath we are bound by Shariah.

And once you accept that you are bound by Shariah till your last breath, from the depths of your heart, then it liberates you from the tyranny of the people and all of creation of Allah (SWT).

That is a consequence of Fadkhili 'Abaadi wadkhuli jannati - so be My servant and enter my Jannah.
When you decide to be a Slave of Allah you are allowed to enter Jannah - the freest place you can imagine.

Verily our Lord is Most Merciful, Most Beneficent.

Taking Islam from CERN

Yest that is possible - to get Islam from the European Center for Nuclear Research (CERN).

Have a look at this story.

Also, I was lucky enough to get to visit CERN in Geneva last summer with my school! Because I had a small faith in Allah SWT at that time, and because the scientists spoke about the creation of the universe, what I believed made just more and more sense, and I now want to talk to a Muslim expert on physics if I get a chance to.

Islam from Space and Time

Special theory of relativity was a in some sense a boon for mankind.

Firstly because of its intrinsic value as a piece of scientific knowledge. We marvel at it even today.

Secondly for putting time in its place. The pun is irresistible.

Time is such an over powering thing in life that it shakes your faith. "Who created God?", asks the atheist.
We take time to be absolute. And there lies the problem. If time is absolute then it can impinge the way it want on anything else, including God.

That special theory of relativity removed that omnipotence of time it should be taken as a helping hand for faith. Time is not absolute and it is inextricably combined with space. This demolishes the tyranny of time once and for all.

You can not talk of time without space. Time does not have tyranny over space, at least. Why make it tyrannical over everything? In particularly God. Ergo Islam is a possibility.

I suppose that is enough for now.

Kalim Aajiz

This is a difficult post to prepare for yours truly.

Kalim Aajiz is an Urdu poet from Bihar who spent his active career as a teacher.

Over bearing feature of his life is killing of his very loving mother and very dear sister in the riots of 1947 and dumping of their bodies in a well.

He chose to express his sorrow in Urdu poetry, specifically ghazal.

His first collection of poems is called Woh Jo Shayari Ka Sabab Hua ( That Which Caused Poetry).
In the beginning of that book there is a reasonably detailed description of the fateful event - the narration looks as if it is being executed in slow motion. It was excruciating reading for yours truly. But you are nevertheless thankful to him as well as marvel at his grit to gather courage to go through the motion of writing the story. If it was not for it then we would ever have been bereft of the cause behind his conduct. You can see that there are no signs of smile on his face, let alone laughter. He would recite his ghazal in the Mushayaras with a pain and feeling that looks out of this world. And then he would disappear. His style is mature and reminds of the old era of Urdu poetry. Very ruthless literary critic, Kaleemuddin, honoured the poet by not using his usual dissection on his work.

In this video he recites a poem called Supplication (Du'a) that he says was not answered. Even this poem is rather heart breaking. Dear Aligs, or rather their families, laugh at the end of the poem but they should be forgiven because they really do not know what they were doing.

For the benefit of those who do not know Urdu he tells that last night he has again made supplications earnestly. After that he starts reminding that he has not asked for this and this. This list is surprisingly complete and one is left aghast that he has not asked any of the significant things that one can imagine. One is left wondering what this crazy man has supplicated for? He then reads your thoughts and says the very same words. Then he divulges the supplication in a metaphor that is exquisitely delicate and admits that he has asked for someone's love.

Life is difficult. For some it is more difficult. For some it is cruel. For some it is very cruel. Kalim Aajiz falls in that category. But there is no complain - Aajiz is a man of Sabr - patience and steadfastness. The same Sabr that Allah (SWT) asks us to show.  Aajiz has lived his life with Tablighi Jama-'at. When one is overwhelmed by vagaries of life then Aajiz is role model to look up to.

And no, yours truly has not been able to do justice to his story.

Shibli Academy Orientalist Seminar - 4

For background material see here.

Title : Islam Aur Mustashriqeen (Islam and Orietalists)

Vol : 4 (Compiler : Maulana Abdur Rahman Parwaz Islahi)

A Compilation of Maulana Shibli Nomani's Responses to Orientalism.


1. Preface by Syed Sabahuddin Abd-ur-Rahman
2. Palmer's Allegation Against Abbasid Caliph Haroon Ar-Rasheed and its Refutation
3. Arabic Translations of Other Nations and Orientalists
4. European Orientalists and the Library of Alexandriya
5. Algeria
6. Mechanics and Muslims
7. Rights in Islam of People of Other Religion
8. Objection Against Hazrat Umar Farooq (RA) in Relation to Dhimmis and its Rebuttal
9. Hiding the Islamic Civilization by Jurji Zaydan
10. Preview of Translation of Drapper's Conflict Between Religion and Science
11. Is Hanafi Fiqh Derived from Roman Law?
12. Is Islamic Law Influenced by Roman Law?
13. An Overview of the Conquests of Hazrat Umar Farooq (RA)
14. European Claim Against Authenticity of Noble Qur'an
15. State of Compilation of Noble Qur'an
16. Orientalists and Prophet (PBUH)'s Biography

Shibli Academy Orientalist Seminar - 3

For background material see here.

Title : Islam Aur Mustashriqeen (Islam and Orietalists)

Vol : 3 (Compiler : Syed Sabahuddin Abdur Rahman)

Papers Received on the same topic after 1982  Darul Musannifeen Shibli Academy seminar on orientalism.

1. Russian Orientalism : Asad Shahab
2. Islam and Orientalists : Professor Habibul Haq Nadwi
3. Reading of Seerah and Orientalists : Dr Nisar Ahmed
4. Hazrat Ibraheem (AS) and Orientalists : Maulana Hifz-ur-Rahman
5. Answers to Orientalists Objections in Syed Sulaiman Nadwi's Ardh-ul-Qur'an : Maulwi Umair-us-Siddiq Nadwi
6. Sir Syed Ahmed Khan and Orientalists : Maulwi Ubaidullah Koti Nadwi

Shibli Academy Orientalist Seminar - 2

For background material see here.

Title : Islam Aur Mustashriqeen (Islam and Orietalists)

Vol : 2 (Compiler : Syed Sabahuddin Abdur Rahman)

Contains the papers read in 1982  Darul Musannifeen Shibli Academy seminar on orientalism.

1. Preface : Syed Sabahuddin Abdur Rahman
2. Different Stages of Orientalist Thought : Professor Khaliq Ahmed Nizami
3. Orientalists and Islamic Sciences : Shaikh Nazir Hussain
4.  Professor Ignaz Goldziher : Maulana saeed Ahmed Akbarabadi
5. Orientalists, Orientalism and Islam : Dr Sharfuddin Islahi
6. Sir Hamilton A. Gibb : Professor Zia-ul-Hasan Farooqi
7. Historical Perspective of Orientalist View of Islam : Professor Khwaja Ahmed Farooqi
8. Orientalists and Islam (Part - 1) : Dr Musheer-ul-Haq
9. Qur'an and Orientalists : Mr Syed Athar Hussain
10. Brown and Islam : Dr Amir Hasan Abidi
11. Story of Abraham in Npble Qur'an and the Orientalist Objections : Ziauddin Islahi
12. Joseph Sacht and Principles of Fiqh : Muhammed Tufail
13. Orientalists and Seerah of Prophet (PBUH) : Dr Imaduddin Khaliq
14. Orientalists and Islam (Part - 2) : DrAnwar Jundi
15. Orienlaists Objections on Our Modern Academic Institutions : Maulana Qazi Zain-ul-Abideen Sajjad Merathi
16. Orientalists and History of Turkey : Dr Akmal Ayyubi
17. Orientalists' Services and Limitations : Syed Wahiduddin
18. A Glance at Mongomery Watt's Muhammed (PBUH) in Makkah : Syed Sabahuddin Abdur Rahman
19. Science of Traditions and Orientalists : Dr Taqiuddin Nadwi Mazahiri
20. An Overall Scan of the Topic of Islam and Orientalists : Maulana Abulais Islahi
21. Maulana Abul Hasan Ali Nadwi's Views About Orientalists
 

Shibli Academy Orientalist Seminar - 1

For background material see here.

Proceedings of 1982 Seminar on Islam and Orientalists held at Dar-ul-Musannifeen, Shibli Academi

Title : Islam Aur Mustashriqeen (Islam and Orietalists)

Vol : 1 (Compiler : Syed Sabahuddin Abdur Rahman)

Page 2-37         : Seminar
Page 37 - 50     : First Session of the Seminar
Page 51 - 70     : Second Session of the Seminar
Page 71 - 91     : Third Session of the Seminar
Page 92 - 107   : Fourth Session of the Seminar
Page 108 - 136 : Fifth Session of the Seminar

Speakers/authors included : (1) Maulana Syed Abul Hasan Ali Nadwi (RA)
(2) Dr Mahmood Tantawi (3) Hakim Muhammed saeed (4) Maulana Abdul Quddus Hashmi Nadwi (5) Mufti Syed Syyahuddin Kakakhel (6) Dr Syed Salman Nadwi (7)  Syed hamid ( Vice Chancellor, AMU, Aligarg) (8) Professor Khaleeq Ahmed Nizami (9) Dr Ibraheem Quraishi, Thiland (10) Dr Zafar Is-haq Ansari (11) Shaukat Sultan (12) Dr Yusuf Qardhawi (13) Maulana saeed Akbarabadi (14) Zia-ul-Hasan Farooqi (15)  Professor Amir Hasan Abidi (16) Dr Musheer-ul-Haq Nadwi (17) Maulana Taqiuddin Nadwi (18) Dr Abid Raza Bedar (19) Maulana Ateequr Rahman Usmani  and many more.

Delving into the content is left for later, Lord Most High willing.