Reaping bounties as Ramazan culminates on April 8, 2024As the holy month of Ramazan culminates with all its bounties, the faithful sought Allah’s benediction Saturday night – during Laylatul Qadar (The Night of Decree) – 27th night of Ramazan. It was one of the series of five Nights of Decree falling during last Ashra of Ramadan – a night better than thousands months […]
Were the doors of Ijtihad closed in classic Islamic period? on February 15, 2020Ijtihad in the classic Islamic terminology is the exercise of reason to dig out solutions for the problems that beset Muslim society. The early Islamic community allowed for the use of Ijtihad as a means to retain the relevance of Islamic principles in the context of rapidly evolving realities. It was an integral part of […]
Shah Ismail: a blend of Sufism and Salafism on February 6, 2020The advent of 18th century saw an intellectual resurgence in the Islamic world. Muslim scholars, collectively, in different parts of the world made concerted efforts towards resurrecting the creative spirit of Islam. The great orientalist scholar Albert Hourani writes in his book The Emergence of the Modern Middle East that most of the scholarly undertakings […]
Farangi Mahall: The Harvard of the East on December 9, 2019In the last years of the 17th century in India, a league of zealots stormed a house; killed its owner and set the entire house on fire. In less than an hour, everything, including a private library, was reduced to ashes. Qutbuddin–an exceptional philosopher and the owner of the house–was dead. His assassins were enraged […]
Remembering Abu’l Kalaam Azad: an intellectual, a nationalist and an Islamist on November 13, 2019Syed Ghulam Muhi-uddin, famous as Abu’l Kalaam Azad, was born in the city of Mecca on November 11, 1888, into a learned family of scholars. Possessing an enchanting disposition and espousing a scholarly deportment, Abu’l Kalaam Azad, at an early age, carved out a swelling constituency of followers. His impeccable oratorical skills, literary prowess, lingual […]
An open letter to the chief minister of Gilgit-Baltistan for the acknowledgement of his services on November 4, 2019Honourable Provincial Chief Executive, The ensuing letter is written with a solemn and firm conviction to explicate the sanctity of the moral pedestal that you have attained and to apprise the general masses at large of the services you have dispensed and the sacrificial contributions you have made for the social welfare, societal betterment and […]
Classic and modern Islamic political thought: an overview on September 1, 2019Islam appeared as a religious dispensation in the desert of Arabia in the early eighth century. But it took more than three hundred years for the scholarly elite of Muslims to develop a sophisticated system of theology, positive law, creedal formulations, and mystical Gnosticism. Classic Islamic Political Thought in the early Islamic scholasticism was divided […]
Barring Iran from entering the nuclear clubb on April 25, 2016Assuming a prestigious status in the Shiite circle, Qom offers a tranquil look in the dark nights. This holy city of Iran grabbed the headlines of newspapers and sent shock waves even across the Atlantic Ocean when the underground uranium enrichment facility at the site of Fordow was discovered in 2009. Iran is swiftly furthering […]
The Egyptian crisis on September 9, 2013Egyptian history brings to the fore a spectacular display of civilisations rising to the unprecedented zenith in terms of military might and architectural prowess and empires dissipating into the fog of oblivion by degrees. Adding more shades to this intriguing region is the flowing body of the River Nile that has been the lifeline for […]
US and its dear friend Hamid Karzai on August 26, 2013The ever-rising friction between the failing government in Kabul and the US is contributing to the fog that characterises the political landscape of Afghanistan. The Taliban are strongly poised in the south of the country with massive support lent by the Pashtuns of that area. The provinces of Helmand and Patika are also located in […]