Monthly Archives: December 2010

Pakistan’s electronic media is now a repository of the grand opinion setters of the Urdu press. Almost all channels have employed conservative writers of the Urdu press and given them immense outreach to air their well-known views on nationalism, religion and ‘culture’. Whilst the primary pastime of these wise men is to fan anti-Americanism, their domestic agenda is directly related to what the clergy, since 1947, has wanted Pakistan to be: an unadulterated Islamic state. The only caveat is that none of them can define what an Islamic state and society entails.

In recent days, there has been a concerted campaign to malign Veena Malik, our television starlet who has dared to participate in the famous and brainless Indian reality TV show, “Bigg Boss”. Pakistani artists have continuously defied jingoism and performed across the border. (more…)

The Afghan imbroglio has now come to haunt the region and perhaps the globe as well. Thirty years of destruction and violence have left a stateless and vandalized polity where the great powers of our age are scrambling for bits and pieces of territorial and political control. Alongside this, the regional players with great delusions of grandeur about their strategic interests and military might i.e. India, Pakistan and Iran are also picking up battles attempting to reinvent history or reaffirm their jingoistic sense of nationhood.

There is no question that the US invasion and subsequent battles in Afghanistan were unjust and destructive. More so, the operations of a mammoth war machine have become deeply unpopular within the US and other countries, which comprise the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The arms industry has been the key beneficiary of this war game that does not appear to be ending anytime soon.

Prior to the Lisbon summit held in November 2010, much was made about the withdrawal of NATO troops from July 2011 onwards. It appears that the US policy is in shambles with competing centers of power and influence, yet to agree on a common way forward. More importantly, the radicalization of the Pashtun majority in Afghanistan and its dangerous identification with a resistance (some say liberation) movement is even more worrying. The Left has mistaken the rise of the Taliban as an anti-imperial cause, while the Islamists use this historical development as another sign of the move towards a global Caliphate. The Islamophobic Right-wing across western capitals is scared and even more belligerent than before. Meanwhile, the doyens of Al Qaeda sit in their bunkers somewhere along the Pak-Afghan border and smile at how efficaciously their agenda is being carried out by all the concerned parties. (more…)

This video is from the band Da Saaz. Dhruv Bilal Sangari is singing and Raoul Amaar Abbas has directed, produced and shot all the trippy light

Happy is the moment, when we sit together,
With two forms, two faces, yet one soul,
you and I.

The flowers will bloom forever,
The birds will sing their eternal song,
The moment we enter the garden,
you and I.

The stars of heaven will come out to watch us,
And we will show them
the light of a full moon –
you and I.

No more thought of “you” and “I.”
Just the bliss of union –
Joyous, alive, free of care, you and I.

All the bright-winged birds of heaven
Will swoop down to drink of our sweet water –
The tears of our laughter, you and I. (more…)

Shahidain has sent another Bait from Sultan Bahu for Jahane Rumi

” Alif-Allaah chambe dee bootee
murshid man wich laee hoo
Naffee asbat daa panee milias
har rage har jaaee hoo
Andar bootee mushk machaaiaa
jaan phullan te aaee hoo
Jeeve murshid kaamil Baahoo
jain eh bootee laaee hoo

Alif-Allaah chambe dee bootee
murshid man wich laandaa hoo
Jis gatt utte sohanaa raazee
oho gatt sikhaandaa hoo
Hardam yaad rakhe har wele
sohanaa uthdaa bahndaa hoo
Aap samjh samjhendaa Bahoo!
aap aape ban jaandaa hoo (more…)

Abayat from Sultan Bahu on Priests and Scholars (thanks to Shahidain)

“Parh parh ilam mulook rijhaavan,
kiaa hoiaa is parhiaan hoo
Hargiz makkhan mool nah aave,
phitte dudh de karhiaan hoo
Aakh chandooraa hath keeh aaiaa,
es angooree phariaan hoo
Hik dil khastaa raazee rakkheen,
laieen ibaadat varahian hoo”

Priests and scholars parade their learning
to please the kings –
of what avail is such erudition? (more…)

By Sadia Dehlvi

We are in the beginning of Muharram, the first month of the lunar Muslim Hijrah Calendar. According to authentic prophetic traditions, Muharram is one of the four sanctified months mentioned in the Quran, the others believed to be Dhul-Qa’dah, Dhul-Hijjah and Rajab. Muharram literally means, ‘one that is sacred’. This does not mean that other month has no sanctity, because the month of Ramadan is admittedly the most sanctified month in the year. However, these four months were specifically termed as sacred months; their sanctity accepted even by the pagans of Makkah.

Muharram is a time for prayer, obligatory fastingand seeking blessings from God for it is associated with many events in Islam. The tenth of Muharram is said to be the day when Adam was forgiven after he fell into error and weeping in repentance for three hundred years saying, ‘Oh Lord, we have wronged ourselves and if you do not have mercy upon us, surely we will be the losers’. (more…)

I have waited, walked and sometimes slept… the reluctant memories of lounges live with me

By Raza Ahmad

When I think of an airport, I envisage chaos, delays and inefficiency. Travelling across Asia teaches one to be patient. This is why I keep a book or two, a writing pad and of course my laptop that can be great companions in any circumstance.

Last five years have entailed excessive travel, mostly involving airports. From the sleepy airstrip of Thimpu in Bhutan to the snazzy Chang Mai airport in Singapore, I have waited, walked and sometimes slept… the reluctant memories of airport lounges live with me. Of late, my travel has concentrated within Pakistan.

The recent memories of airports in Pakistan are not all that pleasant. The vulgar VIP culture and the way the overstaffed Pakistan International Airline treats its customers is disconcerting. Before entering the airport, the first thought that crosses one’s mind is about the inevitable delay. God knows how many delays I have suffered along with several others.

I am a frequent traveller and therefore my experience with flight delays is nasty and brutish. Last year, I waited at the Lahore airport almost the entire night. Every half an hour, the flight was further delayed. After all those hours of torture, flight cancellation was announced. These are extreme examples. (more…)

Thanks to sensational reporting on WikiLeaks, the relationship of Pakistan with Saudi Arabia has been spotlighted. We have known of ideological links between radical Islamic groups and their Saudi patrons for a long time. However, this has never been debated due to the status the Saudi monarchy enjoys in Pakistan. Criticising it constitutes sacrilege and the moment one even begins to raise a question, the proponents of the ‘warm’ and ‘time-tested brotherly ties’ construe this as an attack on Islam. Let’s be clear: The House of Saud is a temporal, political entity and is not representative of spiritual Islam.

(more…)

By Wanderer

It was in August 1989 and the date was either 10 or 11. I had a strange dream, a dream that I will never forget. I dreamt that I was sitting outside my house on the road in the wee hours of the morning and eating something. I see someone coming towards me and my instinct tells me that the person approaching is none other than the Holy Prophet PBUH himself! He comes and takes me along saying he wants to show me his house. In the next scene I am standing outside a small and a modest house and he shows me in. The only striking feature in the house that I remember was an array of lights outside and inside without any apparent source. Lights outside were multicolored while the inside was all white.

21 years later in the month of November, I was in Makkah, standing outside a building constructed on the site where once the Holy Prophet PBUH lived! I never knew life could be so unpredictable. A world changed in these 21 years and I too went through many phases. Religion kept moving in and out of my life. Perhaps mostly out. I was never a deeply religious person anyways. But the last few years were spent as a skeptic. Always questioning and never really finding answers. Convincing answers I mean. But I asserted that religion was not just about rituals. One need to be a good human being and that is the foremost requirement. I still believe that rituals minus character, compassion, service, forgiveness, love, tolerance and empathy does not make one a good Muslim. Notwithstanding my point of view, I knew that I had many conflicts within that needed to be settled. I just did not know how to. I knew something was missing but I could not pinpoint it. (more…)

A Bait from Sultan Bahu

“Haafiz parh parh karan takabbur,
mullaan karan vadaaee hoo
Saavan maah de badalaan vaangoon
phiran kitaabaan chaaee hoo
Jithe wekhan changaa chokhaa
parhn kalaam savaaee hoo
Doheen jahaaneen mutthe jihnaan
khaadhee wech kamaaee hoo”

The Hafiz is proud of of his learning
the priest thrives on self promotion
Like monsoon clouds they are continuously on the move
with books under arms, selling their honour
Wherever they find a promising household
they read scripture in loud, fervent strains
for lucrative commission.

O Bahu! They have put God’s name on sale
just to make a living.

In this world they live spiritually bankrupt
robbed of all honour, they go to the one beyond

(Translation by J.R.Puri/K.S.Khak)

For urdu or shahmukhi, the reader may use this

http://www.apnaorg.com/poetry/bahu/bahu38.html

The WikiLeaks saga has reconfirmed the status of Pakistan as a client state. Its leadership — civilian and military — as a matter of routine, involves external actors in matters of domestic policy and power plays. We knew this all along but the semblance of documentary evidence confirms the unfortunate trends embedded in Pakistan governance systems. However, the orthodoxy that it is the West which interferes is not the full story. The inordinate influence exercised by ‘friendly’ Arab states, especially Saudi Arabia, is also a sad reminder of how warped Pakistan’s way of living is.

India is the principal enemy; and our Saudi and Gulf friends wish the other neighbour, Iran, to be bombed. We are obsessed with “legitimate” security interests in Afghanistan. This is a dysfunctional state of being and has made us addicted to western aid, leveraging global great games and denying that regional cooperation is in our ultimate self-interest. Such delusional ways of looking at the world has made the state splinter and devolve authority to non-state actors, which can advance its security policies. (more…)

Rumi, once again

The ritual prayer is five times daily,
but the guide for lovers is the verse,
they who are in prayer continually.*
The headache of intoxication in those heads
isn’t relieved by five times, nor by five hundred thousand.
“Visit once a week” is not the ration for lovers;
the soul of sincere lovers has an intense craving to drink.
“Visit once a week” is not the ration for those fish,
since they feel no spiritual joy without the Sea. (more…)