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Posts Tagged ‘Muslims’
Ode to Benaras - Ghalib’s grand vision
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A Brahmin resident of Benaras |
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Ghalib |
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Benaras: “forever spring” |
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It is incredible that a Muslim poet who prided himself on his Turkic ancestry and invoked the “warrior” past in his day-to-day conversation (through his letters) could compare the divine light at Mount Sinai to the lamps at Benaras |
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he cancer of communalism and bigotry in South Asia continues to haunt us. These days, the Muslims are once again a subject of intense, though not always fair, scrutiny in India: their loyalties are being questioned and many are potential terrorists if not already abettors of violence. The post 9/11 world has contributed to the demonising of the Muslim identity and history to surreal heights.
The recent bomb blasts in Delhi have placed the communal discourse on the front pages. The invaders and violent Muslims have done it again. A friend called me from Delhi and narrated the profiling that takes place at marketplaces and how the gulf between different communities is widening.
There was a time, not in the ancient past, when in Delhi the greatest of Urdu poets Mirza Ghalib (1796-1869) lived in an age when Hindus and Muslims shared common saints, dargahs and even popular gods and goddesses. Written accounts of this age – the mid to late 19th century – relate how intimate co-exitence of “Mussalmans” and “Hindoos” had led to a relative amalgamation of customs among the common people. And poets like Ghalib could see the commonalities of spiritual streams:
I n the Kaaba I will play the shankh (conch shell)
In the temple I have draped the ahraam (Muslim robe)
The verse above delineates the Sufi concept of fana (or dissolution of the self in divine reality) and the unity articulated by the ancient Indian texts such as the Vedanta. Sufis were to elaborate this as the wahdat-al-wajood (Unity of Being) philosophy.
Tags: Benaras, Calcutta, Delhi, Ghalib, Hindus, Islam, mathnavi, Muslims, Pavan, Persian, poem, Poetry, tolerance, Varma, wahdatalwajood
Muslims feel like Jews of Europe - UK Minister
What an alamring statement coming from a Minister in the UK.
LAHORE: Britain’s first Muslim minister has attacked the growing culture of hostility against Muslims in the UK, saying that many feel targeted like “the Jews of Europe”, The Independent reported on Friday.
Shahid Malik, who was appointed as a minister in the Department for International Development by Prime Minister Gordon Brown last summer, said it has become legitimate to target Muslims in the media and society at large in a way that would be unacceptable for any other minority, according to the British newspaper.
Tags: Europe, Islamophobia, Jews, Muslims
A modern Ottoman - the Turk Gulen wins the intellectuals’ poll
The Turkish cleric Fethullah Gülen, winner of the intellectuals poll undertaken by Prospect, has been hailed as “the modern face of the Sufi Ottoman tradition.” The magazine further states that he is “at home with globalisation and PR, and fascinated by science”, Gulen also influences Turkish politics through his association with the ruling AK party in Turkey.
The results of the Prospect/FP 2008 global intellectuals poll can be found here
Is it possible to be a true religious believer and at the same time enjoy good relations with people of other faiths or none? Moreover, can you remain open to new ideas and new ways of thinking?
Tags: author, cleric, Gulen, intellectuals poll, Islam, Muslim, Muslims, Ottoman, Prospect, sufi, theoretician, Turk, Turkey