And there I was, just about to shut down my laptop after deciding that I’d surfed enough for the day, when my sister rushed to inform me of some “bloody incident all over the news”. Benazir Bhutto had returned to Karachi today after 8 years of self imposed exile. Scores of her “supporters” (some genuine [...]
The Myth Of Pakistan & Musharraf’s Liberalism
There is much interest in Pakistan’s political and cultural dynamic these days. Hardly a week passes by when you don’t come across some article or the other in the international press highlighting and celebrating Pakistan’s apparently new found inclination for modernism, or ‘enlightened moderation’ if I were to use Musharraf’s now worn out neologism.
Such writers [...]
Should Muslims Really Have One Eid?
Eid celebrations [...] are greatly predominated and influenced by local culture across the Muslim world, so much so that you’d find a big difference in the way it’s observed from Turkey to Pakistan to Indonesia. We all eat different kinds of festive food, we all wear different kind of festive clothes, we all really do [...]
Celebrating Eid Around The World
I’ve been busy compiling a indepth article on moon-sighting controversies in the Islamic world, and that’s why the belated Eid wishes post. Hope you’ve had a spiritually fulfilling Ramadan and may Allah accept the good deeds we have done during this month!
Eid is being celebrated through out the world on at least three different days [...]
‘The Wine of Islam’
Most modern coffee-drinkers are probably unaware of coffee’s heritage in the Sufi orders of Southern Arabia. Members of the Shadhiliyya order are said to have spread coffee-drinking throughout the Islamic world sometime between the 13th and 15th centuries CE. A Shadhiliyya shaikh was introduced to coffee-drinking in Ethiopia, where the native highland bush, its fruit [...]
“i am man observing fast”
Xill-e-Ilahi comes up with an entertaining summary of the effects Ramadan has on Karachi’s drivers:
one of the easiest ways to die in our lovely city is to venture out of your home on to major road a few minutes before the sirens start blaring to signal the iftar. the way the traffic moves at the [...]
Bangladesh’s Cartoon Controversy: The Prophet & His Honor
A few weeks ago I had quoted Simon DeDeo (a Chicago based astrophysicist and literary critic who blogs at Slashdot) in response to a pertinent article at Desicirtics by Aditi Nadkarni on freedom of speech on the Internet, the quote was: “your right to free speech ends where it steps on someone else’s right. Just [...]
Ramadan And Women: Removing The Obstacles To Spiritual Success
I was reading my Sound Vision Ramadan newsletter this morning when I came across a very relevant article on how women in Muslim societies generally tend to squander their Ramadans. The author complained how many Muslim women seem to miss the blessings of Ramadan because of the overemphasis on great food at Iftar time. While [...]
