Monthly Archives: January 2008

By Nadir Ali

A little over fifty years ago our Persian teacher, a pious maulana in the old mould, was explaining the exemplary character of the Holy Prophet (pbuh). He quoted lines from Baaba Naanak to explain his point ‘Ek ne keh di ek ne maani’. This was not uncommon. From great Punjabi poet Hafiz Burkhurdar (17th century) to a common Punjabi villager, everyone quoted Naanak. Now they teach no Naanak at Punjab University Lahore, because Naanak was a non-Muslim.

However in Muzaffar Ghaffar’s series on Punjabi classic poetry, you get an insight into the great wisdom and beauty of Naanak’s poetry. Muzaffar is a great cultural asset and in presenting a selection of Naanak after seven volumes in this remarkable series on Sufi poetry of Shah Husayn, Bulleh Shah, Sachal Sarmast and Khawaja Farid, he has excelled himself in this one. His series presenting all the major poets of Punjabi language in English is a work unique not only in the subcontinent but among world literature. In no other language are all the major poets of a language explained so comprehensively and competently by one author. Punjabi has a very rich heritage and Muzaffar has done justice to this colossal undertaking. (more…)

This soulful poem by Faiz (??) was rendered by Madame Noor Jehan in her early, melodious years. Manto has also mentioned this rendition in his biography of the great Noor Jehan.

What an effortless and grand effort. (more…)

Decades of imperialism have left Afghanistan and its people devastated. But the fall of the Taliban, and the much touted ‘liberation’ of Afghanistan, has produced a new spate of novels, films and other artistic media dealing with the ‘Afghan victim’.

And when I say ‘Afghan victim,’ I mean a nauseating overdose of burqa-oppression, Taliban brutality and other Oriental tragedies. Not only are these subjects sexy they tie into the global imperatives of terror and Islamism but they also artfully exonerate the aggressor, whether it is the Soviets, US imperialism or NATO. As such, the bulk of this new subgenre of fiction addresses the Western, English-speaking world; writing about reluctant and not-so-reluctant fundamentalists sells ‘Over There’. Meanwhile, literature is turning into a grand extravaganza of marketing, prizes, commoditization and short-lived shelf lives.

Feryal Ali Gauhar’s second novel, No Space for Further Burials, attempts to break free of many of these stereotypes. A trained economist, filmmaker and former UN Goodwill Ambassador, Gauhar opts to publish her book in India , not a Western outlet. More importantly, No Space inverts the oft-hackneyed themes of displacement, war, America and the suffering Afghans, ultimately treating these grim motifs by focusing on the sanity and insanity implicit within personal narrative. (more…)

Recently, I was asked to help a friend with the original text of Bulleh Shah’s Hindu na Na heen Musalmaan. I found the original Punjabi and also found two other pieces that I am posting here.

Bulleh Shah’s poetry addresses most maladies that we face in this day and age.

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HiNdu na naheeN musalmaan,
Baheeye tiranjan taj abhimaan.
Sunni na naheeN ham sheeya
Sulha kuhl ka maarag leeya.
Bhookhe na naheeN ham rahje,
NaNge na naheeN ham kahje.
RoNde na naheeN ham hasde
UjaRe na naheeN ham vasde.
Paapi na sudharmi na,
Paap pun ki raah na jaanaaN.
Bulhe Shah jo hari chit laage,
Hindu turak doojan tiyaage

Neither Hindu nor Muslim,
Sacrificing pride, let us sit together.
Neither Sunni nor Shia,
Let us walk the road of peace.
We are neither hungry nor replete,
Neither naked nor covered up.
Neither weeping nor laughing,
Neither ruined nor settled,
We are not sinners or pure and virtuous,
What is sin and what is virtue, this I do not know.
Says Bulhe Shah, one who attaches his self with the lord.
Gives up both hindu and muslim. (more…)

Muslims in Germany are completely alienated politically and also have to cope with a racist witch-hunt, which has increased continually ever since the September 11 terror attacks in New York and Washington. Muslims as a whole are routinely associated with the enforced wearing of headscarves, honour killings, arranged marriages and violent criminality.The ruling elite in the worlds of politics, the media and academia are systematically attempting to divert attention away from the social crisis and class tensions, instead expounding on a “war of cultures. This could be seen in the article by historian Hans-Ulrich Wehler in the Die Zeit newsweekly about a Turkish problem, due to the fact that the Muslim minority has proven itself incapable of assimilation. Writer Botho Strau warned in Der Spiegel of the Islamification of the West and implicitly called for a crusade and fight against Muslim minorities in Western countries.The study Muslims in Germany has now given new impetus to this demagogy. Even though the authors have subsequently called for a more differentiated view to be taken on the results of their study, they are nevertheless directly responsible for the fact that the study has provided new fuel to the likes of Koch and Schuble. This Muslim-baiting has since been joined by the interior ministers of Lower Saxony, Uwe Sch¼nemann (CDU), and of Bavaria, Joachim Herrmann (Christian Social Union), who demand that all Muslims living in Germany must sign a “declaration renouncing violence.”

Full article can be read here

Source

Bamiyan is no ordinary location. This was the place where the giant Buddhas that stood for centuries with their message of peace were destroyed by the Taliban. And, now this startling revelation. There is tragedy laced with irony here.

Forget Renaissance Europe. The world’s first oil paintings go back nearly 14 centuries to murals in Afghanistan’s Bamiyan caves, a Japanese researcher says.

Buddhist images painted in the central Afghan region, dated to around 650 AD, are the earliest examples of oil used in art history, says Yoko Taniguchi, an expert at Japan’s National Research Institute for Cultural Properties. (more…)

Cross-posted from drunkonink blog. Soniah Kamal’s thoughtful write-up is worth sharing here:

Saba Bhaumik’s opinion piece in Outlook India once again attempts to explain why Indians may not be madly in love with Arundhati Roy while the West supposedly is but Bhaumik doesn’t say anything that hasn’t already been said a million times: Indian males are envious coz Roy is smart, the women are confused by her outspokeness and, while Roy’s hair styles challenge beauty norms, her sense of style sets dressing trends. (more…)

Ishtiaq Ahmed writing here

Today’s article coincides with India’s declaration as a republic in 1950. The civilisational roots of modern India are always worth discussing, because despite all the odds against it — the caste system, poverty and hunger, illiteracy and other such debilitating factors — it became a democracy and has remained so.

Civilisation denotes a complex society with distinct cultural and ideational features that takes shape in the long, historical process through the division of labour and a concomitant social hierarchy. Therefore, civilisations cannot be understood only in contemporaneous terms; historical antecedents and legacy weigh heavily in forming the present. On the other hand, civilisations are also dynamic and change, adjust and transform, while retaining links with the past. (more…)

I discovered this video courtesy a blog at Naqsh.
This is a soulful rendition of powerful lyrics by Khawaja Ghulam Farid; and the images are pretty innovative as well. (more…)

There’s a basket full of loaves on your head,
yet you’re begging for crusts of bread from door to door.
Pay attention to your own head, abandon giddiness.
Why are you knocking at every other door?
Go, knock at the door of your own heart. (more…)

Babar, the founder of Mughal dynasty in India was an unusual character of his times. A poet, writer and a free soul, he was so modern and some would say post-modern in an era otherwise categorised as medieval. I was delighted to find this piece authored by Ashfaque Naqvi.

An interesting book has landed at my table. As the title, Zaheeruddin Muhammad Babar, is about the person who laid the foundations of the Mughal Empire in the sub-continent. Written by the eminent Indian educationist, Qamar Rais, it gives a different picture of the man from what we gather about him from his self-written, Tozak-i-Babri…..

As Prof Qamar Rais says in the foreword, he had for long been studying the works of Ali Sher Nawai and such other classical poets of Uzbekistan but realized during his stay in that country that those people revered Babar more for being an intellectual and a lyrical poet. In fact, even during the Soviet era, he saw Babar’s pictures hung in most homes showing him holding a book and sunk in deep thought. As a consequence, he directed his studies in that field.

… even today, Babar is held in esteem and considered a hero both in Afghanistan and Uzbekistan. He even quotes Pandit Nehru as having said that the greatness of Babar lay not in capturing India but in capturing the hearts of Indians. (more…)

By Intizar Husain

ONE fine morning under the programme of Sahitya Academy I found myself in Lucknow, and wondered if it was the Lucknow I had earnestly desired to get a glimpse of. When after partition Attiya Husain wrote her novel depicting the Lucknow of good old days, she chose to present it under the title Sunlight on the broken column. Now the broken column is very much there, but sunlight has long faded away. The novel had been dubbed as decadence by the maulvis, reformists and the progressives alike, and as a flourishing of fine arts and culture by the liberals. Prof Anis Ashfaq, who was kind enough to host me and sensing my keenness to have a glimpse of that sunshine, led me to Imambara Asifiya. What a splendid structure. One was left wondering at high, spacious roof with no columns to support it. The upper story has a bhoolbhulliyan, a maze. It provides added attraction to visitors. (more…)

by Syed Salman Chishty

Shah Ast Hussain

Among the Belivers are Men ,who delivered their promise to Allah

(Ayah 23/ Surah Al-Ahzab)

On the 10th of Muharram, 61 after Hijrah (680 AD) Hz.Imam Hussain was martyred by the army of Yazid. This tragedy shook the Muslim world and continues to be remembered by those who love the Prophet (saw) and his family. The death of Hz.Imam Hussain , his struggle for truth, justice and the greatness of Islam is still remembered and commemorated today. (more…)

KM and I have known each other for ages. There were days when we were at school and the height of excitement of pre-globalized Lahore was visiting friends. So we would plan our visits and then sit for hours and talk. Random, intelligent and human stuff.

And, then our lives expanded so to speak when we arrived in London as undergraduate students, lost and a little disoriented in a college with thousands of students. I remember that we watched “The Unbearable Lightness of Being” together and few other alternative films. KM was a little shocked at the Kundera’s hedonism. There was one that KM did not find too exciting. Perhaps it was Greenway’s “The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover“. Of course we were growing up and finding our little paths and dealing with our demons and gods. (more…)

Rather than harping on the divisive rhetoric of tribe, sect and political persuasion, we have a theological and teleological imperative to green our society

In a remote part of Central Java, Indonesia’s most populous island, there is a rather unusual form of environmentalism taking root. Shadowed by the great Merapi volcano and surrounded by fertile fields of rice and sugarcane, a small school is graduating environmentalists whose commitment to the earth is not based on Western conservation texts but rather predicated in values derived from Islam. The head of the school, Nasruddin Anshari, frequently uses the refrain “one earth, for all”, just as much as he does the usual Islamic invocation of Allah-u Akbar (God is Great). (more…)