Monthly Archives: May 2009

On Khalwat, Misyar & Mutaah

By Syed Akbar Ali

In Malaysia we frequently read reports of Muslim couples being arrested for the offense of committing ‘khalwat’ or being in ‘close proximity’ to each other. For the benefit of all thinking humans it is best that we explain a little what is meant by ‘Muslim couples’ and what is meant by ‘khalwat’ or close proximity.

For the purposes of  khalwat a ‘couple’ refers to  a man and a woman who can lawfully get married to each other. The word used to describe such a couple is ‘not muhreem’.  ‘Muhreem’ is derived from the Arabic word ‘raheem’ which means womb. (more…)

An exclusive post by Kazim Aizaz Alam

(Allama) Muhammad Asad aka Leopold Weiss — b. 1900 d. 1994 — is a well-known name at least in the Muslim world. I have recently read his wonderful book ‘The Road to Mecca’. Let me write here briefly what I think of the book and its writer, who is undoubtedly one of the most distinguished Muslim scholars of the last century.

About the writer:

Muhammad Asad was born into a Jewish family that lived in Austro-Hungarian Empire. His father was a lawyer and grandfather was a rabbi. At age 22 he travelled across the Arab world first time as a Middle East correspondent for European newspapers. He converted to Islam in 1926. In later years he travelled extensively in the entire Muslim world. Though his mother tongue was German, he wrote ‘The Road to Mecca’ in English. Besides German and English, he knew French, Arabic, Persian and Urdu as well. He translated and explained the Quran as well as Sahih al-Bukhari from Arabic into English. (more…)

 A different tune: The trio performing together

 By Ruchika Kher
Sufi music is generally associated with north India, but three Dargah singers from the south are pioneering a different brand of singing-a mix of Tamil, Urdu and Arabic. Abdul Ghani, 57, Ajah Maideen, 42, and Saburmaideen Babha Sabeer, 65, are Sufi singers who mesmerise music lovers with their chants at the shrine of Meeran Sahib Abdul Qadir Shahul Hamid Badshah in Nagore in Tamil Nadu’s Nagapattinam district. The trio have lent their voice to an album, Nagore Sessions, produced by EarthSync.
“The Sufi movement spread to south India, too, and one of the most (more…)

I am sharing a message from Suhayl Saadi here: The website associated with my forthcoming novel, Joseph’s Box has been launched. There are stories – fables, one might say – tangential to, and drawing from, the main narrative of the book as well as other information. The site will develop over time. If you pre-order the books now from the site, you will get them early. Happy reading!

About the novel: Recently bereaved Zuleikha Chashm Framareza MacBeth wades into the Clyde one morning and recovers a large box, with which she becomes obsessed. The discovery brings her together with Alex, a lute-playing clerk, and they manage to open the box – only to find six more boxes inside, each of which can be opened only by following a cryptic clue. The clues lead Zulie and Alex on a physical and emotional journey, modulated through music, across Glasgow, Argyllshire, Lincolnshire, Sicily, Lahore, and finally the frozen peaks of the ‘Roof of the World’. Meanwhile Zulie, a troubled doctor, has been sucked into the vortex of the terminally ill Archie MacPherson, an ambivalent, visionary Second World War airman and Glasgow shipyard worker. In the manner of a lord of misrule, Archie’s dying consciousness begins to shape and ultimately define Zuleikha and Alex’s quest as they progress through the seven Sufi stations of sacrifice, truth, power, obedience, life, memory and beauty. Drawing on a wide framework of cultural and spiritual reference, uniquely blending contemporary Western literature and traditional Arabo-Persian storytelling, this is an extraordinary and ambitious novel with a visceral sensuality and subtle touches of magical realism, in the vein of Okri, Murakami and Pamuk.

ISBN 9781906120443; trade pbk 216x138mm (with coloured endpapers); 688 pages.Joseph’s Box will be available on publication date as an e-book via this website and the publishers’ website only.

My Nation, Listen to My Entreaty / Aey Meri Qom! Meri Binti Sun!

My country came into being through a law,
the law of the British
British – whichever line they drew
and gave it the name of two countries,
we just accepted it.

Our nation accepts every thing and every person
This nation accepted tyrants
it accepted lackeys, accepted impostors
If it did not accept,
it did not accept maulvis
it did not accept vampires and wolves,
did not accept declarations and fatwas.
O my nation
Your ancestors also had not accepted them
Your courts also had not defended them
Your flag also had not worn their amulets.
O my nation,
beware of those people
saluting them
defending them
wearing their amulets.
They hate woman,
as if they hate their own mother and their own daughter
In every shape of woman they see lust
and decorate their dreams as such
May any disaster fall upon the world,
they will not speak
May all the officers of all the country
become corrupt, drunk, venal,
they will not speak
On each and every step throats are slit,
people are bought and sold,
they will not speak.
Yes, but if any woman emerges with a banner in hand –
instantly they will speak
instantly delete her from the sphere of Islam,
from every reward of life.
O my nation!
Seek shelter from these merchants of Islam
Else in the harems of tribal leaders and landlords
our futures will be nurtured
These people will not issue fatwas against them
And when our future children
won’t be able to tell the names of their father
then even flocks of swallows will not come to their help.

A Solemn Conversation with the Taliban / Taliban se Qibla-ru Guftagu

Those who were frightened even of girls
Those even averse to knowledge,
they speak of the great Lord
He who commands of knowledge
Unrelated to His command,
they announce these declarations:
That no book be in any hand
Nor a pen between fingers
No place remain for writing a name
That women become nameless
Those who were even frightened of girls
announce in every city:
That the budding contours of a young girl
be veiled
That to the query of every heart
answer this –
There is no need
that these girls
soar like birds
There’s also no need
that these girls
head to any schools, any offices
If there be some blazing beauty, some one pious
then only within the walls
is her place
This is the Decree
This Written.
Those who were frightened even of girls
they are here, somewhere nearby –
See them, know them
Expect anything from them
in the fallen city
Keep courage, believe this
that those who were frightened even of girls
what pygmies they are
Announce in every city:
Keep courage, believe this
That those who were frightened even by girls
they are such pygmies.

Ghalib: Heart is a Mirror and Mirror a Heart

az mihr taa bah-;zarrah dil-o-dil hai aa))inah
:tuu:tii ko shash jihat se muqaabil hai aa))inah

1) from sun to sand-grain– heart; and heart is a mirror
2) {from / by means of} the six directions, a mirror confronts the parrot

Translation and commentary on Desertful of Roses. Parallel commentary on The South Asian Idea. (more…)

A poem by Dr. Carole Fontaine

She’s surrounded by people
She can’t understand,
And every signs says
“This is not your land”.
She stands in line after line—
If she’s legal and lucky;
She lies down on bed after bed
If she’s not.
They are the women
Their countries forgot:
the nanny, the maid, the meatpacker,
the prostitute, the sweatshop woman
Starting over again,
Surviving once more.
The Immigrant Woman (more…)

Courtesy mehr-i-niimroz, I found one of my favourite verses from Ghalib

taa((at me;N taa rahe nah mai-o-angabii;N kii laag
doza;x me;N ;Daal do ko))ii le kar bihisht ko

1) so that, in obedience/worship, the attachment/desire of wine and honey does not remain
2) take Paradise, and cast it into Hell

Commentary here

I am drunk and you are insane
tell me, who will lead us home?
How many times have I asked you not to drink so much
for I see no sober soul in town.
Come to the tavern my dearest and taste the wine of love
for the soul is joyous only in the company of lovers.
The tavern of love is your livelihood
your income and expenses, the wine.
Be careful, not to trust a sober soul
with even one drop of this wine.
Go on playing your lute, my drunken gypsy but tell me,
between the two of us, who is more drunk?
As I left my house a Sufi approached me,
in his glance I saw a hundred gardens.
He swayed from side to side like a ship without an anchor,
while a hundred reasonable men watched on enviously.
Where are you from? I asked him.
He replied, “Half from Turkistan and half from Farghaneh,
half from water and clay and half from soul and heart,
half from the edge of the sea and half from the depths of the coean.”

Rumi — Ghazal (Ode) 2398
Translated by Azima Melita Kolin
and Maryam Mafi
Rumi: Hidden Music
HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, 2001

Tha woh to rashke hoor-e-behesti hameen mein Mir!
Samjhe na hum to fahm ka apne qusoor tha

(That hoor from paradise was part of my being.
I blame it on my utter lack of comprehension of the Ultimate Truth).

Mir, like other great Urdu poets, has seen Simurgh.

Excerpted from here

Natana DeLong Bas’ Wahhabi Islam: From Revival and Reform to Global Jihad is not a bad book, but it is not a particularly helpful book either. One of its strong points is how adroitly DeLong-Bas eases the reader into topics. This is no small feat since the protagonist is Muhammad ibn Abdul Wahhab (d. 1792) , a controversial Shaykh who lived during the eighteenth century. The reformer made an alliance with Muhammad ibn Saud, ruler of a small market town Diriyya, and this led to the formation of a state which claimed to live under the guidance of the Shariah and tried to bring the pastoral tribes all around it under its guidance too. More than I care to admit, the book was a page-turner for me, in spite of its moderate heft. 

However, the simplicity comes at a price. The narrative, especially when it discusses Shaykh Ibn Abdul Wahhab, is afflicted by a linearity that becomes unconvincing after a while. The book proves incredibly readable throughout, but the one-dimensional character that DeLong-Bas chooses to maintain for the Shaykh quickly becomes a cartoon superhero- too good for his own good, so to speak, and quite unbelievable. (more…)

My piece for TFT (May 15 issue)

Raza Rumi reviews 25 years of the Ajoka theatre group and describes how it has evolved into a powerful voice against terrorism and injustice

Madeeha Gauhar, the founder of the Ajoka theatre group, is a woman of conviction and passion. So is her husband and partner, the muse of Ajoka, Shahid Nadeem. Seldom have talent and commitment been so well enmeshed and intertwined with contemporary realities and political struggles. Theirs has been an extraordinary union – a meeting of minds and convergence of political and cultural expression. Small wonder, that the Ajoka couple have successfully refined and expanded the frontiers of street theatre in Pakistan.

Theatre -of folk and nautanki varieties – is embedded in the myriad cultures of South Asia since ancient times. Early carvings and engravings indicate the performative mores of the inhabitants of this region. Over centuries the art forms evolved and absorbed the influences of invaders, new cultures and languages. In the subcontinent, the streams of progressive theatre found a new expression in the twentieth century with the legendary Bombay and Calcutta based groups such as the Indian People’s Theatre Association inspired by the ideologies of the Left. The existence of theatre with meaning continued side by side with the colonial influences that introduced Victorian sensibilities, led to adaptations of Shakespeare, and the localisation of other trends that were shaping in modern Britain and Europe. (more…)

Review by Dr. Mahmood Ghazi

Title: Slippery Stone: An Inquiry into Islam’s Stance on Music

Author: Khalid Baig

Publisher: Open Mind Press

Year: 2008

384 pages.

Slippery Stone: Cultural Colonialism and the Music Question

The dawn of the colonization of Afro-Asian world in general and the Muslim world in particular brought in its wake efforts by the western academia to justify colonization in a variety of ways. (more…)