Bakhabar, January 2015

Better light a candle than curse the darkness

Monthly e-Magazine ISSN 2319-4049

http://bakhabar.biharanjuman.org/ Volume 8, Issue 01, January 2015BE AWARE, ALWAYS, EVERYWHERE

New Year Special Edition

Editorial Board

PublisherBihar Anjuman BaKhabar

Editorial BoardAsrarul Haque, Seraj Akram, Mohd. Allam,

Ms Farhat Shakeel and Jahanzeb Mashhadi

[email protected]

“The editors and publishers are not respon-sible for the views of writers, and their viewsdo not reflect our policy or ideology in anyway. We however reserve the right to editany material submitted for publication, onaccount of public policy, or for reasons of

clarity and space. – From Publishers.” Pic-tures have been taken from available public

sources.

Together we can change our society.Join Bihar Anjuman

www.biharanjuman.org

write to [email protected]

form a chapter in your city or countryDubai Abu Dhabi Chennai

Bangalore Delhi Jeddah

Patna Riyadh Muscat

Aligarh Jubail Qatar

Kolkata Hyderabad Toronto

Muzaffarpur Ranchi Gaya

Dammam/Khobar

California Chicago

Bakhabar : January 20152

Point of View

Most Astonishing Shoot Out in Peshawar

I By V.K. Tripathi I

On December 16, 2014, Tehreek-e-Taliban fanatics car-ried out ghastly killings of 136 innocent children in anArmy School in Peshawar, Pakistan. They lined up the

children, asked them to recite Kalma and then fired at them. Itwas an attack on Muslim children by Muslim fanatics. The fa-natics claimed that they do not kill little children. Their claimwas that the children of the “enemy” aged less than 12 are notallowed to be killed by their “Islam”. They killed 10 other peo-ple, before they were killed by the army personnel.

In the midst of darkness, emerged a great saviour of humanity,the principal of the school. She guided children to escape fromthe school during the attack and paid by her life. She was firedon to the extent that her body was not recognizable.

A spontaneous general strike in all parts of Pakistan was ob-served on 17th December. There was no transport on the roadsand almost all shops and institutions were closed. A twominute silence in all the schools in India was observed, withthe Indian parliament passing a resolution condemning the at-tack.

The fall out of this violence is horrifying. It has drowned mil-lions of younger minds in Pakistan in fear. The non-Muslimcommunalists got an opportunity to brand the entire Muslimcommunity as barbaric and fanatic forgetting that the victimsof this violence were Muslims and overwhelming majority ofMuslim masses are innocent like them. They also forget thatthe barbaric killers have been there in all religious shades, be itHinduism, Christianity, Buddhism, Judaism or any other reli-gion.

The shoot out was an act of political terrorism. Sates areknown to perpetrate such violence when they carrsyout carpetbombings covering schools, hospitals and residential areas.They are also known to pamper and support barbaric terrorists.May people come forward to stop terrorism taking political ad-vantage.


Report

I By Sameen Ahmed Khan I

The Second Arab-American Frontiers of Sci-ences, Engineering, and Medicine Symposiumwas held in Muscat, Sultanate of Oman, during

13-15 December 2014. The event was hosted by theSultanate, represented by the Ministry of Higher Edu-cation, the Research Council and the Sultan QaboosUniversity in collaboration with the US National Acad-emies. More than two hundred scientists and re-searchers in various scientific disciplines participatedin the event. One of the main objectives of Frontierssymposia was to foster pluridisciplinary dialogue andcollaborations. The program had sessions on:

1. Global Food Security: Adaptions for the Future 2. Finding new Sources of Water for Growth: WaterReuse & Desalination 3. Old Energy, New Methods to Access Resources: TheHydraulic Fracturing Story 4. Environmental Regulators of Cancer 5. Linkages Session (linkages between the fields)

It is to be recalled that the First Arab-American Fron-tiers of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Sympo-sium was held in partnership with the Kuwait Institutefor Science Research in Kuwait City during 17-19 Oc-tober 2011. It brought together 97 outstanding youngscientists, engineers, and medical professionals from18 Arab countries and the United States to discuss ex-citing advances in the fields of water, renewable en-ergy, diabetes, and agriculture. They also looked at thelinkages that exist between those fields. Among theparticipants were those with no background in thefields highlighted at the symposium reflecting the in-terdisciplinary nature of this event and the goal to re-move communication barriers between research fields.

It is to be noted that the Frontiers of Science Symposiahave been around for several decades. For instance theKavli Frontiers of Science symposia bring togetheroutstanding young scientists to discuss exciting ad-vances and opportunities in a broad range of disci-plines. The format encourages both one-on-oneconversations and informal group discussions in whichyoung participants continue to communicate about in-sights gained from formal presentations and the excite-ment of learning about cutting-edge research in otherfields. By doing so, Frontiers helps to remove commu-nication barriers between fields and encourages collab-orations among some of the world's best and brightest

young scientists. The Arab-American frontiers pro-gram brings together outstanding young scientists, en-gineers, and medical professionals from the UnitedStates and the twenty-one countries of the Arab Leaguefor a series of symposia to discuss exciting advancesand opportunities in their fields. The goal of thesemeetings is to enhance the scientific exchange and dia-logue among young researchers in Arab countries andthe United States, including the Arab science diaspora,and through this interaction facilitate research collabo-ration within and beyond the region. The Arab-Ameri-can frontiers program is based on the success of thelong standing Kavli Frontiers of Science of the US Na-tional Academy of Sciences and the Frontiers of Engi-neering program of the US National Academy ofEngineering. It was initiated by the US National Acad-emies in 2011 in partnership with the Kuwait Institutefor Scientific Research.

The author of this note presented the case of the Me-dieval Arab Achievements in Optics in the context ofthe International Year of Light and Light-based Tech-nologies.

Bibliography1.Symposium Websites: http://www.nas.edu/AAFron-tiers andhttp://sites.nationalacademies.org/PGA/dsc/AAFron-tiers/PGA_152948 2.Host Websites: Ministry of Higher Educationhttp://mohe.gov.om/, the Research Council,http://trc.gov.om/ and the Sultan Qaboos University,http://www.squ.edu.om/ 3.Sameen Ahmed Khan, 2015 declared the Interna-tional Year of Light and Light-based Technologies,Current Science, 106 (4), 501 (25 February 2014).(Fortnightly Publication of the Indian Academy of Sci-ences),http://www.currentscience.ac.in/Volumes/106/04/0501.pdf 4.Sameen Ahmed Khan, 2015 the International Year ofLight and Light-based Technologies (IYL), BaKhabar,Vol 7, Issue 01, pp 17-18 (January 2014). Publishedby Bihar Anjuman,http://www.biharanjuman.org/bakhabar/BaKhabar-Jan-uary2014.pdf

Engineering Department, Salalah College of Technol-ogy (SCT) Salalah, Sultanate of Oman

([email protected],http://SameenAhmedKhan.webs.com)

Second Arab-American Frontiers of Sciences, En-gineering, and Medicine Symposium


RAHBAR-e-Banat madrasa-cum-school distributesuniform and sweaters to all the 87 students


APPEAL

Mohammad Enam Khan Sb isundergoing treatment for his

heart ailment Remember Enam Khan Sb in

your duas

Enam Khan Sb has been the convenor of BiharAnjuman's Patna chapter right since its for-mation. However, more than just managing

this chapter, he has been sincerely managing the en-tire affairs of Bihar Anjuman silently, almost allalone. You must have been receiving news aboutvarious developments related to coaching centres ...sending students to diploma engg, numbers increas-ing every year, alhamdulillah, distribution of shawlsto all the girl students and jackets to all the boy stu-dents, every year, health check-ups of RCC students,conducting the awards ceremony happening everymonth in all the 26 RCCs, managing them with thehelp of just one employee ... raising funds locally, tocarry our the needs of RCC Patna, etc. etc. The list isvery very long. Subhan Allah! He is the heart andsoul of Bihar Anjuman, most others you know arenothing in comparison with Enam Khan Sb's contri-butions. I cannot find words to urge you to pray forhis quickest possible recovery from his heart ailment(remember his heart is Bihar Anjuman's heart) – asthis magazine goes into publication, he has under-gone heart surgery in Escort hospital (Delhi), on 20-

12-2014, got discharged from hospital on 25-12-2014, and has been advised rest and regular check-up for next three months.

BaKhabar’s Tribute to Mohammad EnamKhan, the Heart & Soul of Bihar Anjuman

I am sure you must have thought about what all goesinto implementing ideas like RAHBAR CoachingCentres (RCC) all over Bihar & Jharkhand, BAJEE(women’s) training centres, RAHBAR-e-Banat(women’s madarsa), arranging monthly awards cere-monies at RCC Patna, receiving reports from allRCCs and other skill-development centres, advisingthem, managing their regular affairs throughout thetwo states, arranging logistics to send hundreds ofstudents into diploma engineering courses … Imag-ine what all goes into making of just one successstory - send hundreds of students into diploma engi-neering courses

1. Tracking dates for making Entrance exam forms,arranging DDs for all the students, sending the com-pleted forms with all credentials and DDs to the rightaddress,

2. Arranging studymaterials and able teachersforcoaching, organizing enough classes before theexam, coordinating with all the centres to go through

BAKHABAR SPECIAL APPEAL

1


the same exercise.

3. Keeping track of exam dates, arranging travel forall the students to exam centres, keeping track of thepublication of results, sharing their success storieswith sponsors, associates, and the entire community,

4. Arranging every successful student’s travel tocounselling centres before admission, and for admis-sion,

5. Raising funds to make study materials available toevery student, salary for every teacher every month,for travel of students for their counselling and ad-mission,

6. Raising funds for admission fees and monthly ex-penses of every student who makes it to the poly-technic (diploma engineering),

7. Organizing motivational lectures for students, byleaders from every section of the society, everymonth

8. Keeping track of monthly transfer of scholarshipfunds to every student (three batches) – now thenumber runs into hundreds, soon the numbers will bein thousands, in-sha Allah.

I mean, every intellectual knows that great deal ofmeticulous planning, and logistical arrangements gointo even a single event, however small or simple itmay seem. For example, he has to plan for the idea(e.g., distribution of winter clothes for every maleand female students at RCC Patna), discuss with hisassociates and teachers, discuss with us, and poten-tial donors, get the list of students, then arrange forevery student's size to be noted down, then visit theshops, take quotations, and prepare a budget, get itapproved by the committee(s), note down all thecommitments, visit every person who committed topay to collect the donations, go the shops one byone, and buy the items, pay them, take the cashmemos, keep them properly in the chapter's file, up-date the online account book (MS Excel) which weare able to see .......

Oh! He can do all of it ... he has plenty of free time!I cannot do it .. ... Where is the time with me?

... ... pls do remember Enam Sb in your duas – hehas to manage Patna coaching centre's affairs on adaily basis ........ ... pls do remember Enam Sb in your duas – hehas to manage the affairs of all the coaching centreon a daily basis ..... and update us ... he does updateme on a daily basis, alhamdolillah!

Well, if you think he has a staff to help him in all ofwhat has been listed above, pls do find out for your-self. Bihar Anjuman's policy of ZERO overhead ex-penses ensures that not a single penny of yourcontribution goes into overheads .... ... so,

Enam Sb does it all alone, at least 95% of Bihar An-juman’s work .... all of it, without charging anythingto Bihar Anjuman. He is even ready to donate money... he keeps on spending his own money on the logis-tical arrangements ...

He has to earn a living, for himself and his family,same like me and you ... He has to take care of awife, who has to be taken to the doctor every nowand then ... has to visit family and friends, same likeyou and me!! And, he also needs to visit the doctor,himself !!!

Ya Allah! Bless Enam Sb with the health of a youth,once again, because we have no substitute of himamong the youth! Ya Allah! Bless Enam Sb withenough resources that can turn Your blessings ofyouthful energy to him into great work for the soci-ety! Ya Allah! Bless Enam Sb with a long life, be-cause we don't see any substitute of him ... none isthere in our sight, not at least, now! Ya Allah reservefor Enam Sb the highest places of Jannah, and for hiswife who has to sacrifice her own moments forEnam Sb to serve the community.

More than our duas, brothers and sisters, Enam Sband Bihar Anjuman needs HANDS ..... “helpingshands are better than the talking lips”, says SirajAkram!


Discussion

The beloved Prophet(upon Him peace andblessings) hassaid:'Sadaqah (charity)does not decreasewealth.' (Muslim)

People who followthe orders and wayof arrangements of

the Holy Quran are wellaware of the fact thatmost of the times the Quran joins together two dif-ferent and opposite things, presenting a far-reachingeffect and suitability between different verses.

Discussing with comparison the heaven with hell,Muslims with Kuffar, monotheism with polytheism,darkness with divine light, guidance and directiveswith deviation from the right path is a unique orderof Holy Quran. Those who study the Quran andother religious books witness these facts in the Holybook and also in their real life. The combination ofthese different and opposite things gives an eloquentdescription of facts. Moreover, the warnings do notcreate hopelessness, and promises of reward do notcreate inaction and false hopes.

In Surah-e-Baqra of the Quran discusses bothSadaqa (charity) and Riba (interest) one after theother under the same order of Quran. The first versesdeal with the importance and supremacy of Sadqa.Immediately after are mentioned the collective andindividual losses caused by Riba, vicious reasoningof usurers, their mental and psychological state andthe announcement of war against them by Allah and His Messenger.

It is clearly defined that Allah decreases the wealthof one who takes interest and increases the wealth ofone who gives Sadaqah.

One who receives interest thinks that interest in-creases his wealth while Sadqa decreases.Many people who see only the apparent state of in-terest-takers are caught in their trap but they don’tknow that Allah Almighty says that wealth is in-creased by Sadqa and decreased by interest. This re-ality is far away from the approach of interest-takersbecause their wisdom.

When ones wisdom is crippled then how can he un-derstand these realities?

It may be noted here that there are two types of wis-dom or insight:

One that only sees the quick result of something.Two, that sees the end and ultimate result of some-thing.

We are discussing here the second type of wisdomwhich is not enjoyed by those who have a for rupeesand dollars. Wherever theHoly Quran addresses thepeople of wisdom, it actually means the people hav-ing the second type of wisdom.

Decrease in the interest and increase in Sadqaat hap-pen in various ways:

1) The bank balance and lockers of the interest-tak-ers is full of wealth but as soon as he meets the endof life, he sees that his account for the life hereafteris empty. There is no good deed in hisaccount butthere is a pile of sins.

On the other hand, those who believed in Sadaqahand Khairaat and followed the divine orders duringtheir life would see that Allah has changed their littleamount Sadaqah into huge volume of good deeds intheir account. They earned millions of good deedsagainst what they gave in shape of Sadaqa andKhairaat. This increase and decrease would be visi-ble on the Last Day.

2) The interest-taker has a lot of money and wealthbutwithout any blessing. Such wealth gives him nopeace of mind and comfort in the life, but brings

Charity vs. Interest


Discussion

about restlessness, sleepless nights, disobedient wife,stubborn children, mismanagement in the house anda number of incurable physical, mental and psycho-logical problems. Since such a person is Allah’s de-tested person, other human beings also hate him inhis life.

On the contrary, those who give away part of theirearnings as Sadqaat and Khairaat enjoy Allah’sblessings and love from other human being. It isclaimed and believed thatthose who extend Sadqaatand Khairaat are never found poor and they neverexperience hard time in their life.

Giving in the way of Allah gives unending luxuryand wealth. Such a person is dear to Allah andhuman being as well. Hundreds of thousands of poorpeople pray for his well-being and long life.

3) Though, there is always a possibility or fear ofprofit and loss in any business, there has never beenan incident that could prove that a person who hadhis bread buttered on both sides yesterday, nose-dived and lost everything.

However, it is evident that those who borrowed/lentmoney with un-Islamic conditions, lost their wealthforever and become beggars.

Capital earned through interest appears to be increas-ing but there is no blessing of Allah in it.

Hazrat Muammar (radhiAllahuanhu) says:Our ancestors used to say that interest-taker does notsee forty years of his interest business and experi-ences losses.

Actually Sadaqa and Riba are two opposite systems.There is no similarity in these systems as far asmorality and Shariah are concerned.

Sadaqah is a show of kindness, purity and coopera-tionwhile interest is a show of selfishness, corruptionand miserliness.

There is never a thought of taking back the thinggiven in Sadqa while under interest-based system,one always thinks of taking back the money alongwith additional charge.

A person who are in the practice of giving Sadqahand Khairaat feels for others and in most cases hegives away his own morsel to the other person.

But an interest-taker waits for such a situation thatsomeone would face hard time and he would takebenefit of it.

Countries, which extend loans to the developing orpoor countries facing difficult time due to war orfamine, never miss the opportunity of taking benefitof the plight of the poor countries. They extend loanswith heavy charge of interest.

Such people are worse than animals.Such countries are never desirous of pulling the pooror under-developed countries out of financial crisisbut they want to turn the poor into poorer in order toincrease their capital.

Such countries make policies that bring every citi-zen, man, woman, elderly person and child under theburden of heavy debt. Regret to mention, we are wit-nessing such a situation in our beloved country.

Under the Islamic system of finance the borrower isgiven time to repay the loan and the lender neverputs pressure on the borrower, so long as he is not ina position to repay the loan.

Islam directs to write off the loan if the debtor is notin a position to repay, as long as his financial state isnot changed.

According to Abu Harira (radhiallahutaalaanhu), thebeloved Prophet (sallallahualaihewasallam) said thata Muslim who helps removes any other Muslimsproblem, Allah Almighty would remove any of hisproblem on the Last Day.

Those who take/give interest would never under-stand such Ayaat and Hadiths because their heartsare sealed and they only see the glitter of illegallyearned wealth. They always wait for the bad time sothat they could take benefit of peoples difficulties.Today when almost the entire world is raising voiceagainst the interest-based system of economy, it isthe duty of our rulers and governments to come for-ward and help the oppressed come out of the curseof interest.

The day the Muslims would implement the Riba-freesystem, they would get rid of hefty foreign debtswhich are a product of the interest system.

----


Opinion

I By C Raja Mohan I

It is easy to forget that domestic stability holds thekey to a successful foreign policy.

In his frequent travels across the world over thelast few months, Prime Minister NarendraModihas continually affirmed that India can re-emerge

as the “Vishwaguru”. Modi’s global dream for India,however, is at odds with the deeply divisive religiousagenda and the anti-modernism that have been un-leashed by the RSS and its affiliates.

That India, as one of the world’s oldest and continu-ing civilisations, may have much to teach the worldis not a new proposition. Different schools of Indiannationalism, including those which focused onIndia’s past and others which understood modernIndia’s future potential, believed that an Indian lead-ership role on the world stage was inevitable. Eventhose who were deeply suspicious of nationalist pas-sions, both religious and secular, were convincedthat India’s spiritual civilisation had much relevancefor the contemporary world.

India’s higher economic growth rates in the reformera and the steady expansion of its relative weight inthe international system have lent new credibility tothe notion of an Indian international leadership. Theexample of China has been difficult to miss. Afterthree decades of rapid growth, China is now the sec-ond-largest economy in the world and its aggregateGDP will soon be larger than that of the UnitedStates. Beijing is also the world’s largest defencespender after America.

The dramatic expansion of China’s comprehensivenational power has allowed Beijing to now begin re-shaping the Asian and global orders. A similarprospect awaits India if it continues to moderniseand grow its economy at a reasonable clip. Much ofthe international enthusiasm for Modi, like that forhis predecessor, Manmohan Singh, in the middle ofthe last decade, was based precisely on that expecta-tion.

Faster growth rates of the last decade triggered inter-national calls on India to become a responsible

Held back by Hindutva


Opinion

global power and a “net security provider”. YetDelhi has been hesitant to accept a leadership role.Many in Delhi interpreted these calls as a pressurepoint rather than the recognition of India’s expand-ing weight in the world. Modi, in contrast, is diss-carding this defensiveness and embracing theprospect of a leadership role. Whether Delhi ac-tively pursues such a role or not, India’s democ-racy, which thrives amid extraordinary diversity,religious, ethnic and linguistic, is a source of quietoptimism in a world that is being torn apart by mul-tiple tensions.Modi’s hopes for India as “Vishwaguru” are in-spired by Vivekananda. The swami spoke of thecontributions that India’s rich vedantic heritagecould make in addressing the spiritual challenges ofthe contemporary world. Modi, of course, isstretching the idea a bit when he speaks of howIndia’s democracy and demography can be de-ployed in the service of the world today.

Modi also believes the diaspora that has spreadaround the world and has impressive resources, in-tellectual and financial, can help realise India’s po-tential as “Vishwaguru”. He reminded hisaudiences in Sydney that Vivekananda had urgedhis countrymen to forget their gods and goddessesfor 50 years and worship only “Mother India”.

His suggestion that development might be moreimportant than religion is obviously not shared bythe extremist outfits of the SanghParivar, whichhave lost no time in pushing their polarising poli-tics on the nation. Modi is surely aware that thegrowing assertiveness of the Hindu right will com-plicate the development agenda that was at theheart of his successful election campaign. At equalrisk is the BJP’s promise — “sab kasaath, sabkavikas” — to put development for all above thesectarian Hindu agenda.

Given his own experience in Gujarat and the politi-cal consequences of the 2002 riots, Modi has everyreason not to let religious controversies overwhelmhis prime ministerial tenure. In his maiden Inde-pendence Day speech this August, Modi declaredthat casteism, communalism and regionalism wereobstacles to development and called for a 10-yearmoratorium on divisive issues.

The last few weeks have shown that the RSS andHindu-right outfits are not ready to heed Modi’s ap-

peals to avoid derailing his government’s develop-ment agenda. Modi should also be aware that thenew Hindutva agenda at home will also seriouslycomplicate India’s external relations, a domain inwhich Modi has surprised everyone with his pas-sion and effectiveness.

It is easy to forget that domestic stability holds thekey to a successful foreign policy. A nation that isat war with itself will inevitably be diminished onthe world stage. When a nation turns faith into acontentious question, it invites intervention fromreligious extremists from around the world. It willalso draw into the debate secular forces around theworld that want freedom of faith and a separationof religion and state in India.

The new push for a Hindu rashtra, then, is bound togenerate many costs for Indian diplomacy. Justwhen Modi appears to have succeeded in reducingthe fears of the neighbours and the world aboutIndia’s internal orientation under the BJP, the RSSand the Hindu right seem determined to revivethem. Equally problematic for India is the resurgentanti-modernism of the SanghParivar. Its leaders, in-cluding the prime minister, have made extravagantclaims, ranging from the proposition that astrologyis superior to science to the suggestion that VedicIndia conducted nuclear tests.

While asking his countrymen to take pride in theirrich cultural inheritance and appreciate its rele-vance to the modern world, Vivekananda had alsoinsisted that India must sit at the feet of the West tolearn about improving the nation’s material condi-tion. India, then, must strive to be a good teacherand a better student. It must invest in the seriousstudy of its ancient heritage and master modernknowledge. But if Hindu extremism prevails, Indiawill have little to give the world and be in no moodto learn. Unless he acts now to check these negativeforces, Modi and the agenda for India could end upbeing a minor part of the vast collateral damage.The writer, a distinguished fellow at the ObserverResearch Foundation, Delhi, is contributing editorfor ‘The Indian Express’

[email protected] See more at:http://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/held-back-by-hindutva/99/#sthash.GIs8a8GT.dpuf

----


Report

I By Sameen Ahmed Khan I

The College of Arts and Sciences of the Uni-versity of Sharjah, Sharjah, United Arab Emi-rates organized a four day landmark event,

Second International Conference on Arabs' and Mus-lims' History of Sciences, during 8-11 December2014 with the theme, “The impact of early Arab andMuslim scholars on recent scientific and technologi-cal advances”. The conference was organized jointlywith the Arab Union of Astronomy and Space Sci-ences, and under the patronage of His HighnessSheikh Dr. Sultan Bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, Mem-ber of the Supreme Council, Ruler of Sharjah, andPresident of the University of Sharjah. The eventwas part of this year’s scientific and cultural activi-ties of the City of Sharjah, designated as The Cul-tural Capital of the Muslim World, 2014. TheConference was simultaneously held along with the11th Conference on Space Sciences and Astronomy.

It is to be recalled that the First International Confer-ence on Arabs' and Muslims' History of Sciences,was held during 24-27 March 2008 with the theme,Arabs' and Muslims' Scientific Contributions to Hu-manity. The very first event had over eight hundreddelegates from thirty-six countries with over threehundred presentations. The conference had success-fully attracted over fifty historians of science.

The 2014 Conference aimed to foster communica-tion between scientists and researchers interested inthe history of science, and to reflect the impact ofMuslim scholars on the progress of civilisations andtheir scientific aspects. The Conference covered thefollowing topics:

1. Early Scholars and Research Methodology. 2. The contribution of early Arab and Muslim Schol-ars in: Astronomy and Space Sciences; Basic Sci-ences; Applied Sciences and Engineering;Humanities; Medical Sciences; Art and design; His-tory and Explorations; Technological Applications;Agriculture Sciences; and Environmental Science. 3. Role of Arab and Muslim scholars in promotinginter-civilizations and transformation of knowledge. 4. Role of and contribution of Arab and MuslimScholars in advances in modern sciences and techno-logical advances.

5. Role of and contribution of Arab and MuslimScholars in international technological and scientificorganizations. 6. Role of and contribution of Arab and MuslimScholars in international technological and scientificorganizations. 7. Western Scholars’ recognition of Arab and Mus-lim scholars’ effort and creativity. 8. Modern models and inventions, which are basedon discoveries made by early Arab and Muslimscholars. 9. The current status of research and development ofscholar activities in Arab and Muslim countries.

The conference had a very rich programme includ-ing: Keynote talks by renowned speakers; oral andposter presentations; specialized workshops and exi-bitions accompanied with tourist visits and culturalevenings. There were over four hundred participantsfrom forty-two countries in the 2nd InternationalConference on the History of Arab and Muslim Sci-ences and the 11th Conference on the Space Sci-ences and Astronomy combined. The participantsincluded representatives from the United Nations, anumber of universities and institutions concernedwith the study of the history of sciences locatedacross the globe, the European Space Agency (ESA),the US National Aeronautics and Space Administra-tion (NASA), and the Arab Union for Space Sci-ences and Astronomy (AUASS).

The University of Sharjah was established as a non-profit institution for higher education in October1997. The University is comprised of fourteen col-leges catering to over fourteen thousand studentswith a faculty of about six hundred. The Universitycurrently offers a total of eighty-five academic de-gree programs including fifty bachelor degrees, sev-enteen master’s degrees, seven PhD degrees, onegraduate and ten associate diploma degrees.

Bibliography

1.Conference Websites:http://www.sharjah.ac.ae/ichs14 andhttp://www.sharjah.ac.ae/en/academics/colleges/sci-ences/Conferences/CAMHS/Pages/default.aspx 2.Sameen Ahmed Khan, Report of the First Interna-tional Conference on Arabs' and Muslims' History of

Second International Conference on Arabs’ and Mus-lims’ History of Sciences


Sciences, American Journal of Islamic Social Sci-ences (AJISS), Vol. 25, No. 3, pp. 158-160 (Summer2008). 3.Sameen Ahmed Khan, Medieval Arab Understand-ing of the Rainbow Formation, Letter in EurophysicsNews, 37 (3), pp. 10 (May/June 2006). (Publicationof the European Physical Society).

4.Sameen Ahmed Khan, Arab Origins of the Discov-ery of the Refraction of Light; Roshdi Hifni RashedAwarded the 2007 King Faisal International Prize,Optics & Photonics News, 18 (10), 22-23 (October2007). (Publication of the Optical Society of Amer-ica).

Sameen Ahmed Khan, Engineering Department,Salalah College of Technology (SCT)Salalah, Sultanate of Oman ([email protected], http://SameenAhmed-Khan.webs.com)

----

A Century of Massacres!I By Muhammad Tariq Ghazi I

Hazrat Abu Musa Ash‘ari, radi-Allah-u ‘unhu, nar-rated that the Rasool(s)-Allah said, ‘After your era,a time of tumult will come when Ilm (True knowl-edge) will be lifted (taken away) and there will beThe Haraj��))’. Sahabah asked him, ‘What isHaraj, Ya Rasool(s)-Allah?’ He said: ‘Massacres!’– Jami‘ Tirmizi 2:44.– Tirmizi is one of the six most authentic Hadith

Book.

One hundred years ago began what an Ameri-can academic described as the Century ofMassacres. In just one century – starting

from 28 June 1914 – more than 102 million people,all non-combatant innocent civilians, met theirforced death in organized massacres and genocides,according to Prof. Juan Cole, who teaches history atthe University of Michigan. Of these 102 millionmassacred, Muslim crime share is about one percent,he said.

To avenge the murder of Austrian Archduke FranzFerdinand by a Serb terrorist in Serajevo, Bosnia,one hundred years ago, Europeans began a war on28 July 1914 and four years later left 9 million com-batants and 7 million innocent civilians massacred –dead. Since the thirst for human blood was not satedyet, 21 years later Europe began another, more fero-cious war on 3 September 1939, this time mas-sacring 73 million people, of which 49 million wereinnocent civilians in six years. According to anotherestimate, the number of civilian dead was more than66 million. The blood-thirst continues unsatiatedthough. Since the end of World War II, the worldwas consigned to more than 100 “regional” conflictstaking a toll in many more millions, in addition tohundreds of thousands of pogroms, riots etc.Shrieking and crying is of no consequence. We canonly pray for sanity to return to the mankind.

Muhammad Tariq Ghazi via NRIndians Group<[email protected]>


Story

I By Nurul Islam Laskar I

Guwahati, 29 Nov 2014 : All the DirectorsGeneral of Police from all Indian states andheads of intelligence services have arrived

in Guwahati for the annual national meet that is tak-ing place in the city on Saturday and Sunday. This isfor the first time that this meet is taking place out-side Delhi and hence it assumes great significance.But what is ironical is that nowhere there is a men-tion of the name of Imdad Ali, who was IG of AssamPolice in 1962 when the Chinese had invaded Indiaand under whose leadership the police had renderedexcellent service in maintaining the law and order inthe state in the face of foreign aggression.

Imdad Ali became the Inspector General of Police,Assam in 1962, the crucial year when India hadfaced an aggression from China. Imdad Ali (born1913) was the second son of AimanaKhatun andKhanbahadurKeramat Ali of Balibat area of Jorhat.He did his primary education in JorhatMoktabSchool and thereafter passed his Matriculation withgood marks from Jorhat Government High School in1932. After acquiring a Bachelors Degree in Artsfrom Presidency College, Calcutta in 1936, he gotselected as an officer in Imperial Police Service in1937. He is believed to be the first and last Assameseto be inducted in Imperial Police Service.

The Second World War was knocking at the doorand the frontier areas were in a volatile state. TheGovernment needed able hands to tackle the situa-tion in those areas. Within seven months of his join-ing the police service, Ali was deputed to Sadiya asan Assistant Political Officer and was promoted tothe post of Political Officer within a short time. Dur-ing this period, he supervised the evacuation of In-dian refugees from Burma who returned home onaccount of the War. During the years 1942-45, hewas also actively associated with works pertaining tothe construction of the famous Stillwell Road.

During 1946-47, at the time of division of assets andpersonnel between the two nations, Pakistan had in-corporated Ali’s name in their list of Police Officerswithout consulting him. Assam Chief Minister

Gopinath Bordoloi had to exert his weight to ensurethat this did not happen. Bordoloi had immense faithin Ali’s loyalty and integrity and the latter lived tothe expectations of the former.

In 1947, the year of India’s independence, Ali wasappointed the Commissioner of Naga Hills with thehonour of being the first Indian to hold this post. In1949, he reverted to his parent department, theAssam Police, and was elevated to the post of IGPAssam in 1962. In those days, IGP was the seniormost position in the State Police and post of DGPwas unknown. Assam was undivided, stretchingfrom Naga Hills to Lushai Hills on one plain, andfrom Sadiya to the Khasi and Garo Hills on theother.

In 1964, he was deputed to the Home Ministry inDelhi and thereafter posted as the IGP of Gujarat in1965. Once again, he became the first Assamese Po-lice Officer to hold charge of IGP in any state out-side Assam. During the first year of his posting inGujarat, the Indo-Pak War of 1965 took place. ThePakistani forces were planning for a mass infiltrationbid in the Rann of Kutch region of Gujarat. On ac-count of his experience of border management in theNorth East, Ali was able to gather advance informa-tion of this bid by Pakistan and thwarted it success-fully. He was decorated for his superb performance.Furthermore, during his four and a half years’ tenurein Gujarat, the State remained free from any commu-nal strife. This speaks for his able handling of law

IMDAD ALI, THE SUPER COP FROMASSAM REMAINS UNPARALLELED ININDIA

Imdad Ali DG CRPF with Prime Minister Indira Gandhi


and order in the State. In his own words, “The bestway to control a communal riot is not to allow it tohappen in the first place. There is no use fighting acommunal riot after it has occurred.”

In 1969, he returned to Delhi and was asked to takeover as the first ever Director General of Central Re-serve Police Force (CRPF). In those days, the policeand intelligence services all together had four DGs,once each for RAW, CBI, BSF and last to list, CRPF.On taking over charge he got busy giving a pan-In-dian look to the CRPF and at his initiative a centralcomplex of the Force was established in JharodaKalan, New Delhi and steps initiated for establishing12 new Group Centres of CRPF across the country.It is only due to his personal interest and initiative,one Group Centre was established at Amerigog, onthe outskirts of Assam State Capital, Guwahati.

He brought in revolutionary changes in the function-ing of CRPF and put in operation vehicles that couldtravel long distances at high speed thereby enablingthe force to reach their place of deployment withoutmuch loss of time. Ali played a pivotal role fromDelhi in controlling the Naxalite menace that had en-gulfed West Bengal during this period.

After his retirement from service, Ali wanted to re-turn to Assam but his close friends and fellow offi-cers asked him to stay back in Delhi as they hadinformation about a new assignment for him was inthe offing. Ali was appointed Indian Ambassador toYemen, becoming the first Assamese and the first In-dian Police Officer to become India’s Ambassador toa foreign country.

Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had a special liking forImdad Ali for his proven track record as an honestand efficient administrator and police officer. In theseventies, Yemen was considered as the ‘Window tothe Gulf Region’ where USA, USSR, and othersuper powers were trying to get a foothold. Indianeeded an official who could take care of India’s in-terest there and keep the government home abreastof all developments. Ali fitted the bill to the full.On his return from Yemen, Ali was given two as-signments in Assam in 1979, first to head a Jails Re-forms Commission and then the police ServicesReforms Commission. During this period, he wasalso made a member of the Union Public ServiceCommission (UPSC). He was honoured with thePresident’s Police Medal as well as Fire ServicesMedal for his meritorious service. He was the first

police officer to be made an Aide de Camp (ADC) tothe President of India.

In his youth, Ali was a popular actor and sportsper-son. He was married to Sayeeda, daughter of Sir Md-Saadulla, who was the Prime Minister of Assam forfive years during 1937-45. Of Imdad Ali’s two sons,Abu Ali is a banker in United Kingdom and Ifzal Aliserved as the Chief Economist at Asian DevelopmentBank, Manila (1984-2008). Ifzal happens to be thefirst Assamese and youngest faculty to teach at IIMAhmedabad (1977-84).

Imdad Ali died in 1994 while residing with his sec-ond son Ifzal in Manila. After his death, his familymembers and well wishers set up the ‘Imdad Ali Me-morial Trust’ in Jorhat for the spread of education inhis home district. Ever since then, the Trust has beenoffering scholarships to meritorious and needy stu-dents of the area.

In fitness of things, the Govt of Assam could con-sider consecrating the Police Training College inDergaon after the name of the super cop of Assam,Imdad Ali. Alternatively, the Govt of India couldname the North East Police Academy in Meghalayaas Imdad Ali Police Academy. Whether the govtdoes it or not, no one can deny that it will take agesfor the region to have another officer with the calibreand mettle of Imdad Ali. His life and achievementswould continue to motivate the future generations.——–feedback: [email protected]


I By Jyoti Punwani I

“Jai Sri Ram” was the cry raised by the riotersas they attacked Muslims who had dared toventure out during the January 1993 riots in

Mumbai. Reading about these cases, I was re-pulsed by the way L.K. Advani and associates hadtransformed the name of one of our most reveredand popular gods. A month earlier, I had feltashamed of being a Hindu, watching the saffronhordes demolishing an ancient structure that hadbecome the touchstone of our country’s secularism.

When BabuBajrangi boasted that he felt likeRanaPratap as he killed Ehsan Jafri, most Hinduswatching the sting operation on TV felt sick. Hear-ing SadhviRithambara (in Indore, 1990) and Sad-hviSaraswati (at the Virat Hindu Sammelan lastSunday) call Muslims gaddaars, I was filled withloathing.

From the lynch mobs of 1993 to the Bajrangis of2002 to Dara Singh, who killed Graham Stainesand his little boys in 1999, to Yogi Adityanath de-claring that if “they convert one Hindu girl, we willconvert hundreds of their girls”, they have beenproud Hindus, deriving their inspiration fromHindu mythology, harking back to a distorted ver-sion of history. In their imagination, they are therishis and rajas of yore, roaming the countryside toslay rakshasas and invaders. Not for a moment canI say: “They are not Hindus”, though I can say thisis not the Hinduism most of us practise.

Why then are so many articulate and politicallyaware Muslims finding it difficult to say that theTehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) are Muslim?“This is not Islam,” has been repeated many timesover the last few days, as has “They are not Mus-lims.” Indeed, they are. They derive their inspira-tion from Islam. The picture of the gunmenreleased by their organisation has the kalima in thebackground. The kalima is what you recite whenyou convert to Islam, it is what you recite whenyou are about to die, so that you go to jannat.That’s why these gunmen made their targets reciteit just before shooting them. They were mindful oftheir religious duty.

How many times have we heard “Islam prohibitsthe killing of innocents; one innocent killed is thekilling of humanity. Hence these men cannot beMuslims”? Isn’t this a convenient way of washingone’s hands off the reality that these killers belongto one’s faith? Their version of Islam doesn’t gelwith one’s own, for whom Islam means peace andmercy. That is fine. But at least it should be ac-knowledged that, for them, the same religionmeans slaying the enemy mercilessly. Acceptingthat doesn’t take away from Islam. In fact, itobliges one to counter their version of Islam with adifferent one.

Muslims who say that what was done in Peshawarwas anti-Islamic and, hence, those who did it arenot Muslims, forget that the TTP may well declarethem kaafirs. “Jis Hindu kakhoonnakhole,khoonnahinwohpaanihai (The Hindu whose blooddoesn’t boil doesn’t have blood but water)” is aslogan coined by the RSS. For them, many of usare not Hindus at all. But who has given them theright to say so? The same applies to those who de-clare that the TTP are not Muslims. Who is to de-fine who is not a Hindu or a Muslim?

Many Indian Muslims were not even willing to be-lieve that the Peshawar attack was the work of theTaliban. Excuses like “tribals’’ or “bearded im-posters” were being made till they were left withno choice after the TTP owned up to the killings.

Then there’s the other excuse: “Terrorism has noreligion.” It certainly does. SadhviPragya is aHindu, as are Colonel Purohit and Swami Aseem-anand, who are accused of terrorist acts againstMuslims. Hafiz Saeed and ZakiurRehmanLakhviare proud Muslims. Let us accept that religion is atthe heart of much terrorism in India and Pakistan.By doing so, we don’t betray our faith. By denyingit, we shrug off our responsibility to reclaim it.

JyotiPunwani is a freelance journalistArticled first published athttp://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/editorials/lets-reclaim-faith/

----

Let’s reclaim faith


Media

Rajdeep Sardesai on Narendra Modi and how themedia have lost the capacity to question him. "Jour-nalists have moved from asking questions to takingselfies." Interviewed by PARANJOY GUHATHAKURTA (Pix credit: jamiajournal.com)Posted/Updated Monday, Dec 08 18:38:00, 2014

During a discussion on his recently-publishedbook "2014: The Election That ChangedIndia”, senior journalist and television an-

chor Rajdeep Sardesai was very critical of the work-ing of the Indian media, not only in the run-up to thegeneral election but also because of the unquestion-ing attitude of many journalists who praise PrimeMinister Narendra Modi. The discussion, organisedby the book's publisher, Penguin Books India, in col-laboration with the Maulana Mohamed Ali 'Jauhar'(MMAJ) Academy of International Studies at JamiaMillia Islamia, New Delhi, on 20 November, in-cluded a conversation with Paranjoy Guha Thakurta.Here are edited excerpts:

Paranjoy Guha Thakurta: So how did NarendraModi and Amit Shah crack India’s first-past-the-post-winner-takes-all voting system ...to end up with282 Lok Sabha seats...?

Rajdeep Sardesai: In 2011, Rajesh Jain, a Mumbaibased industrialist who heads "Friends of the BJP"(Bharatiya Janata Party) and promotes the right-wingwebsite Niticentral.com - apparently he also madesome Rs 500 crore by selling a website at the turn ofthe century - wrote a blog wherein he suggested thatthe BJP should junk alliance politics and fight thiselection in the belief that the party could get 272seats. It was Jain who coined the "Mission 272" slo-gan. He said that the BJP should focus its energieson 350 Lok Sabha seats in the country where the BJPhad a fair chance of winning and forget about theother 200. These 350 seats stretched from Goa toBihar and Jharkhand on one side and from Punjaband Himachal (Pradesh) ... to Karnataka in thesouth...

In 2014, large parts of India were looking for anArnold Schwarzenegger sort of muscular man. Inany other context, Mr Modi may have been seen as adivisive figure. But in 2014, given the leadership

deficit on the other side, Mr Modi emerged as amacho leader, the right man at the right place and theright context. There are six "thank you" cards that hehas to send for the BJP achieving this figure...(toManmohan Singh, Rahul Gandhi, Akhilesh Yadav,Ajit Pawar, Mani Shankar Aiyar), the sixth being tothe media.

"Under the Emergency, the government asked us tobend and we crawled. Now proprietors ask us tobend and we crawl."If Narendra Modi was the Pied Piper, the media wasthe orchestra. Eventually, we were like a loud-speaker. We were able to create this surround sound.Sometime in the middle of 2013, we decided thatModi jeetne wala hai (is all set to win). Modi bringstelevision rating points (TRPs). Chalo uske saathchalte hai (Let us go along with him). So at times,we were covering three or four of his rallies live, un-questioningly, uncritically. Before long, we had be-come cheerleaders. We lost the capacity to do whatthe media should be doing, that is question Mr Modi.Suddenly Mr Modi appeared larger than life. He wasno longer the Chief Minister of Gujarat, but the manIndia awaited. He became a heroic figure....

Paranjoy: In your book, you quote an interview Idid with Yogendra Yadav (psephologist and leader ofthe Aam Aadmi Party, for thehoot.org) where he saysthat the BJP got an additional vote share of five percent because of the media. There was unprecedentedvoter turnout... (But was) it just the search for TRPsthat drove the media? Was it just about good busi-ness, say, getting free news feeds from the BJP?Never before has the corporate sector - which owns alarge section of the media - so overtly, so obviously,supported one candidate? Isn’t it evident that the cor-porate media played a huge role in the kind of (elec-toral) outcome that we saw?

Rajdeep: We cannot say that it was just one factor,that the corporate media decided that they weregoing to push Narendra Modi at all costs... Yes, thereis little doubt, and you are seeing it even after theelections, (that) the media (in general) and the corpo-rate media in particular have made its preferences sostarkly clear. I mean you had the absurd sight I sawthe other day in Haryana where the chairman of a

The media has become amoral :Rajdeep Sardesai


media house was sharing a platform with Mr Modi,openly campaigning (for his party).

Paranjoy:You are talking about Subhash Chandra,Zee Group Head….

Rajdeep:You can name names. I won’t. I get intotrouble when I give names, nowadays (laughs).There is someone else who is opening a charitableinstitution with the Prime Minister (in attendance),someone who also owns a media house. It has nowbecome clear where the corporate media’s interestsare. Let me say this: our media, my media, yourmedia has become amoral, not immoral, but amoral.We have decided that jo chalta hai, woh chalta hai(that which works, works). In 2011, Anna Hazare,who may have earlier been treated by the media as ifhe was a gram sarpanch (village head) was con-verted into a national hero. Wherever youlooked...there were people (who had gathered to hearhim)...we in the media said 50,000 are there. Onechannel said Anna is India, and India is Anna, almostreminding you of what Dev Kant Barooah (hadsaid): Indira is India and India is Indira.

"Modi was the Pied Piper, the media was the orches-tra."We have this remarkable capacity now to create,what I said earlier, the surround sound, the hype,around every event. Mr Modi knew that. He wasclever enough to realise that he would go with thistownhall concept (of public meetings)...in a premierinstitution like, say, the Shri Ram College of Com-merce in Delhi where one can give a speech which iscarried by news channels and (he) doesn't have toanswer any questions.

The one thing that Narendra Modi does not do any-more is answer any questions. Take the Diwali Milanthis year hosted by the Prime Minister which variousjournalists attended. The journalists, instead of say-ing: Modi-ji thorisi sawal lijiye (Mr Modi, pleasetake some questions), were more interested in Modi-ji hamare saath selfie lijiye (Mr Modi, please click aselfie with us). Journalists have moved from askingquestions to taking selfies. This has nothing to dowith corporate India. This has been done by journal-ists themselves. We have become amoral beings whohave become cheerleaders and who are completelycarried away by what we see around us. And MrModi was clever enough to realise that.

Paranjoy: On page 31 of your book, you talk of the

time when Karan Thapar was interviewing Mr Modifor CNN-IBN’s Devil’s Advocate programme. Youwrite that you had told Thapar that the Gujarat ChiefMinister and the BJP's prime ministerial candidatewas still very sensitive about the (2002) riots andmaybe, the subject should be broached later in theinterview.It’s not that the entire media has been un-questioning. There is Manoj Mitta’s book The Fic-tion of Fact Finding on the aftermath of the Godhrariots...You covered the Gujarat riots in 2002.

This side of Mr Modi has become an almost forgot-ten chapter among large sections of the media. It wasalways Modi the administrator, Modi who wouldreplicate the Gujarat model of development, Modiwho would get this country out of the quagmire ofpolicy paralysis and so on... Even the section ofmedia that used to be critical of Modi seems lessso.What really happened? How did the mediachange in the decade or so since 2002?

Rajdeep: I don’t know whether the media changed.I think two or three things happened. I think a sec-tion of the media changed. Mr Modi changed, strate-gically. Mr Modi does everything strategically. Hewill even have his mother go and cast her vote in anauto if only to send out a message that the trappingsof power have not changed him and he does not evengive his mother special treatment. Mr Modi realisedpost-2009, once he started seeing himself as a poten-tial Prime Minister, that he could not win India bypractising the politics of 2002. From 2007-08 oreven earlier, Mr Modi projected himself as a victimof an English media conspiracy. So he put large sec-tions of the media on the defensive.

"The media has to ask itself very serious questions….about the way we are covering Modi’s foreign tripsand whatever else that happens around Mr Modi."I mean he made me sit on the footboard of a bus. Ican live with that. It was probably his way of tellingme what my station in life was. But that is Mr Modifor you. He does not forgive or forget. So Mr Modichanged. A section of the media changed for a vari-ety of reasons,including the growing corporatisationof the media.The one thing that corporate interestswanted to do at any cost was to get rid of ManmohanSingh as Prime Minister. They needed someone else. If the Congress in 2011 had brought in a Chi-dambaram who perhaps knew how to deal with cor-porate India better and perhaps had stronger linkswith them, one cannot be sure how corporate Indiawould have reacted. Manmohan Singh, Sonia and


Rahul Gandhi were seen as representing left of cen-tre politics which was seen as slowing down theeconomy, in some cases legitimately so. Alongcomes Narendra Modi. So India changes, a sectionof the media changes, and Mr Modi himself strategi-cally changes.

Paranjoy: One criticism of your book by AjazAshraf (in thehoot.org) is that you have been toomuch of a reporter and less of an analyst. You your-self acknowledge that you are essentially a commen-tator and a reporter, not an academic and much lessan analyst. You have not gone enough into NarendraModi’s alleged role in the 2002 riots. Would youagree?

Rajdeep: If you look at the first chapter, it reflectsmy view. One may argue that I have not gone intodetail like Manoj Mitta did on the incidents of 2002but his book, The Fiction of Fact Finding, is about2002. My book is essentially about 2014. But thatdoes not mean that it's not about 2002. To my mind,I tried as far as I could to speak about the Gujaratriots of 2002 without being judgemental. My fearwas, given my past, the moment I went into 2002,people would say this book is about 2002. I did notwant it not because of any fear about how Mr Modiwould react, but because my book was not about2002. I have written a lot about 2002 and I am happyto continue to write about it.

The best way, I believe, is to just tell the story, ratherthan have any judgement. To my mind too many ofus tend to give our own analysis. Sometimes it is justbest to tell your story so well that the other personhas no answer to your story. That is the better way.That is what my purpose has been. (Rajdeep thenread out a portion from his book in which he de-scribes how he and his colleagues were accosted andthreatened by a group of goons after he was return-ing from Gandhinagar to Ahmedabad after inter-viewing Narendra Modi in March 2002.)

Audience question: We all remember the famousquote by Lal Krishna Advani during the Emergency,'When editors were asked to bend, they crawled'.What would be the punchline for the present media,on how it has been dealing with the present govern-ment?

Rajdeep: Paranjoy is here. He is a good example ofwhat an independent journalist can or cannot do. Butlook, in the days of the Emergency, the government

asked us to bend and we crawled. Now the only dif-ference is that proprietors ask us to bend and wecrawl. These are depressing times. It is not easy tobe a journalist in India because you realise that it isnot often easy to offer alternative narratives to chal-lenge the orthodoxy and to raise questions. ButI dobelieve that the journalist community has enormouscapacity to change. After 1977, the Emergencyyears, journalists did rediscover their spine.

Paranjoy: The same journalists whose voices werethrottled by Indira Gandhi were also very critical ofthe Janata government led by Morarji Desai.

Rajdeep: I remain hopeful. However, the media hasto ask itself very serious questions, particularly ques-tions about the ways in which we are covering the(Prime Minister's) foreign trips and whatever elsethat happens around Mr Modi. It almost seems thatwe are cheerleaders. And I don’t think that anybodyis asking us to do that.Yet, we are getting carriedaway by the surround sound around us.Audience question: Do you think that for some jour-nalists, their own individuality, their own imagina-tion of India as a Hindu country, also plays animportant role in how and what they are writing andreporting about? What do you say about journalists,and their personal politics?

Rajdeep: Do journalists wear their Hindu identity?This is a difficult question to answer. Some journal-ists do and I think that there is a growing practiceamong journalists, not just journalists, increasinglyof all of us in society, wherein they get caught inwhat I call a ‘them versus us’ (phenomenon). Thereis a kind of polarisation that is taking place, eitheryou are with us or you are with them and this is forc-ing journalists to abandon the middle ground, andnot try to see every issue in a rational manner. In-stead we are being boxed into corners and that canlead us into expressing our identities in not exactly asavoury manner. We seem to be wearing an identitywhere we juxtapose our identity against someoneelse's. I have no problem if someone feels stronglyabout his or her religious identity. It is when you usethat identity to contrast it against the others, thatyour journalism gets affected. That is worrying.

Audience question: Does the media just go by TRPhighs? What is the role of the media in the realm ofsaffronisation of education?

Rajdeep: I am no defender of my tribe anymore. I


find it increasingly difficult to defend journalists orjournalism anymore. Saffronisation of education is abig challenge.This issue does not come out on a dayto day basis... who is being appointed as vice chan-cellor, how are syllabi being changed. These storiesdo not often make headline news and that is a con-cern. I just hope that journalists do not lose theirpower of questioning. I remain hopeful in the longrun that there are enough journalists in the country,whether it is a Paranjoy or someone else, who willalways raise tough uncomfortable questions. Modiwants to make India Singapore, but don't forget, inSingapore, journalists who question authorities canbe jailed. We are a country where if you ask Indiansto queue, they will always break the queue. In astrange way, our capacity to dissent is good.

Link to the audio recording of the full discussion:http://jamiajournal.com/downloads/Multimedia/2014/Nov/Rajdeep-Sardesai--JMI--20-Nov-2014--Jami-aJournal.mp3

Such articles are only possible because of your sup-port. Help the Hoot. The Hoot is an independent ini-tiative of the Media Foundation and requires fundsfor independent media monitoring. Please supportus. Every rupee helps.

---

Height of BarbarityI By Dr. Mohammad Manzoor Alam I

The gruesome murder of 142 students in aschool of Peshawar by Pakistani militants,reportedly Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, is a

reprehensible act of barbarity. Those innocent chil-dren were nobody’s enemies. The indiscriminatefiring and grenade attack left many morewounded, some crippled for life.

We condemn the attack and sympathise with thevictims and their families. We also assert that ter-rorists are nobody’s friend and all kinds of terror-ism anywhere on earth–private as well as state arereprehensible, equally and unequivocally. Pakistanhas virtually become an ungovernable country be-cause of rampant terrorism.

Pakistan has become a danger not only to itself,but to its neighbours as well. Only a few weeks

ago, Pakistani terrorists attacked the border post atWagha, killing a number of people on the Pak-istani side of the border, barely a few metres awayfrom the Indian personnel and citizens. Theythreatened to attack on India side the next time.

Such people have the potential to ignite a destruc-tive war between India and Pakistan if they man-age to stage a huge attack on the Indian side. Bothsides being nuclear-armed, such a conflict couldendanger the security of entire South Asia. We areliving in dangerous times, in a dangerous neigh-bourhood.

Constantly unstable situation in Pakistan sincePartition has rendered it vulnerable to dangerousideologies. Such persistent instability led to a civilwar that divided the country in two parts and thecreation of Bangladesh in 1971. Such fissiparoustendencies are again active in Pakistan. The coun-try’s integrity is again at risk in Sindh andBalochistan.

To the credit of the Prime Minister, Mr. NarenderModi, goes India’s initiative of observing two min-utes of silence today (December 17) in schools allover the country in the memory of the slain chil-dren. This rightly sends a signal to Pakistan thatwe (India and Pakistan) have a common past andthere is no reason why we cannot have a commonfuture. Even as two countries, we can be one peo-ple.

The latest massacre in Pakistan shows that allcountries today have a common mission to stopterrorism together, whatever garb it comes in. Thisalso gives us the impetus to increase Indo-Pak co-operation in all fields, including military and secu-rity cooperation, besides economic andtechnological cooperation.

Great pacts and understanding between countriesonce hostile to each other have emerged over yearsof hard works by the two sides. Let India and Pak-istan begin work on a common, peaceful and pros-perous South Asian future.

http://www.iosworld.org/short_takes/Height_of_Barbarity.htm

----


I By M Naushad Ansari I

Nalanda University, which was set up at Rajgir inBihar in 413 AD during the Gupta dynasty, hademerged as a world seat of learning before it was de-stroyed sometime in the 11th century. External Af-fairs Minister, Sushma Swaraj along with Bihar’sChief Minister, Jitan Ram Manjhi, formally inaugu-rated the new Nalanda University on 19 Septemberthis year.

The creation of new varsity started in 2010 throughan Act of Parliament seeking to recapture the lostglory of its earlier avatar.

Many of the dailies published reports on Nalanda’spast glory, decay, theories of the uprooting of Bud-dhism etc. Unfortunately, most of them carried fab-ricated stories about the destruction of the ancientseat of learning, peddling a perverse perception ofthe Indian past. The most amusing was to read ‘Na-landa varsity set to capture erstwhile glory in newavatar’ in Hindustan Times, Patna, on 1 September,2014. The report stated that ‘the university fell uponhard times when it was overrun y the Huns underMihirakula during the reign of Skandgupta (455-467AD). But it was restored by his successors. Theuniversity was destroyed again by the Gaudas in theearly 7th century but was restored again by kingHarshvardhana (606-648 AD). But it could not re-cover from the third and final blow dealt in 1193 ADby Bakhtiar Khilji, a general of Qutubuddin Aibak,out to uproot Buddhism. The Turkish invaders setablaze and destroyed the huge library of the univer-sity, said to rival one at Luxor in Egypt’. On 15 Sep-tember, 2014 the same daily, reiterated that “theoriginal Nalanda University……was burnt down byan army of Turkish invaders in 1193” (‘Nalanda var-sity set to capture erstwhile glory in new avatar’,Hindustan Times, Patna, 15 September, 2014).Another leading daily of Patna, The Times of India,in its 20 September, 2014 issue stated that ‘NalandaMahavihara was reduced to ruins by foreign in-vaders’. Daily Pioneer from Delhi, on 20 September20, 2014, reported that ‘Nalanda University wasburnt down 800 years ago by a Turkish army’ (20

September, 2014). Without mentioning name, thesedailies have indicated that it was none else thanBakhtiyar Khilji who destroyed Nalanda University.

Such falsification of history, with a clear design ofcreating hatred and ill-will in the society, misleadsreaders and pulls wool over their eyes while the factis that historical evidence proves that much beforethe invasion of Bakhtiyar Khilji, Nalanda Universityhad been reduced to ruins because of the rivalry ofHinayana (simple Mahayana) and Mahayana Bud-dhist sects influenced by the ideas of Brahminism.Indeed, there was another Mahavihara in Odantapuri(modern Bihar Sharif in Nalanda District) inside thefort of the local king which was partially affected inthe course of the battle between the forces of Bakhti-yar Khilji and the local king in 1197 or 1198 AD.The chronicle, Tabaqat-i-Nasiri of Minhaj Al-SirajJuzjani, which is usually referred as the historicalrecord of the time, apparently refers to this place anddoes not even mention the name of Nalanda. Pre-sumably, Nalanda was then a desolate place.

The fortified monastery which Bakhtiyar capturedwas “known as Audand-Bihar or Odandapura-vi-hara” (Odantapuri in Biharsharif, then known simplyas “Bihar”). Minhaj does not refer to Nalanda at all.

Nalanda University: When History Is Not History


He merely speaks of the ransacking of the “fortressof Bihar” (Hisar-i-Bihar). This is the view of manyhistorians and, most importantly, of Sir JadunathSarkar, whose credibility is honoured even by rightwing historians (History of Bengal, B.R. PublishingCorp., 2003).

KP Jaiswal Research Institute, Patna, was estab-lished in 1951 by the Government of Bihar with theobject, inter alia, to promote historical research, ar-chaeological excavations and investigations and pub-lication of works of permanent value to scholars.The research work titled ‘The Antiquarian Remainsin Bihar’ by DR Patil, published as a ‘Historical Re-search Series’ by the Institute in 1963 reveals that:“…no Mohammedan Makhdum, Pir or saint of greatrepute happened to grace the tops of the Nalandamounds with their tombs or mosques. This is a fea-ture, which, it should be noted, is commonly to beobserved all over Bihar at sites of celebrated and im-portant sanctuaries. At Bihar Sharif itself many ofsuch Muslim monuments still exist; but their ab-sence at Nalanda, hardly six or seven miles away, israther surprising. Had Nalanda been a living insti-tute of great repute or importance at the time of theinvasion of Bakhtiar Khilji in 1197 or 1198 AD, weshould expect the Muslim chronicles of the event tohave known and mentioned the name of Nalanda.The place, said to have been destroyed by the in-vader, is described to be a great city and a place ofstudy then known as Bihar, which would more ap-propriately be a reference to the modern BiharSharif, which also had a monastery, and not to Na-landa, near which there existed no big city worth thename. As is known, one of the Pala rulers had estab-lished a monastery at Odantapuri or Bihar Sharif it-self which may have affected adversely. All thesewould indicate that, quite before Bakhtiar Khilji’s in-vasion, Nalanda had perhaps fallen to decay or ruinsalready; but how and when actually this happened isstill a mystery to be unravelled’ (page 304).

The research further indicates that “….there is,therefore, reason to believe that Nalanda had met itsfinal end sometime in the 11th century, i.e., morethan a hundred years before Bakhtiar Khilji invadedBihar in 1197A.D” (page 325). This historical re-search series was published under the patronage ofthe Government of Bihar in 1963.

Furthermore, D N Jha, former Professor, Depart-ment of History, University of Delhi, in his article“Grist to the reactionary mill” (Indian Express, 9

July, 2014) on the destruction of Nalanda University,quotes that: “Tibetan monk and scholar, Taranatha,writes in ‘History of Buddhism in India’: ‘Duringthe consecration of the temple built by Kakutsiddhaat Nalendra [Nalanda] “the young naughty sramanasthrew slops at the two tirthika beggars and kept thempressed inside door panels and set ferocious dogs onthem”. Angered by this, one of them went on arrang-ing for their livelihood and the other sat in a deep pitand “engaged himself in suryasadhana” [solar wor-ship], first for nine years and then for three moreyears and having thus “acquired mantrasiddhi” he“performed a sacrifice and scattered the charmedashes all around” which “immediately resulted in amiraculously produced fire”, consuming all theeighty four temples and the scriptures some ofwhich, however, were saved by water flowing froman upper floor of the nine storey Ratnodadhi temple’(History of Buddhism in India, written in the 17thcentury, English tr. Lama Chimpa & Alka Chat-topadhyaya, summary of pp. 141f).This shouldmean, he continues, that “the idea of Brahminicalhostility to the religion of the Buddha travelled toTibet fairly early and became part of its Buddhisttradition, and found expression in the 17th-18th cen-tury Tibetan writings”.

As regards uprooting of Buddhism, there are varioustheories put forward which seek to explain the tragiceclipse. Even today, Gaya is often in news as Bud-dhists are still struggling to wrest control of theirmost holy shrine from Brahmins. The age-old con-flict between Buddhism and Brahminism, it seems,is yet to be resolved.

But the effort to associate Bakhtiyar Khilji with thedestruction and burning of the University of Nalandaand of the uprooting of Buddhism from its place ofbirth is a glaring example of the wilful distortion ofhistory. Certainly such biased historians and their ilkare always free to falsify historical data but this onlyreveals the lack of any serious historical exercise.The truth is sacrosanct and history needs to be pre-served and presented without making it a victim ofthe prejudices of any kind.The author is Secretary, Peace Foundation, Patna. Hemay be contacted at

[email protected] Milli GazetteUPublished Online: Nov 29, 2014Print Issue: 1-15 December 2014


NEWS

Patna Chapter distributed winter garments to allthe students of RCC @ Patna. The venue wasMillat Urdu Girls School, Phulwarisharif,

Patna -this is the new cenrefor RCC Patna, having abig hall.The chapter distributed 44 Ladies Cardigansto theRCC girl-students, and 36 Jackets to RCC boy-stu-dents and 5 Khadi Bundies to the teachers and RAH-BAR manager. The total amount spenton this wasRs.38,300/- the entire amount was raised locally, byPatna chapter. Those who contributed the amount tothe chapter are:

1. JanabDr. KhursheedMallick Sb, President10,000

2. JanabNurul Aziz Khan Sb 5,0003. JanabMunwar Aziz KhanSb, USA 10,0004. MohtarmaDr. ImranaSahiba, Delhi 5,0005. MohtarmaDr.Mrs. ParweenSahiba, Patna 5,0006. JanabAfsarAzmi Sb, Delhi 2,0007.JanabSanjarAzmi Sb, Patna 1,000

Those who were present in this annual function in-cluded,

1. Dr. KhursheedMallick Sb, reputed doctor, and so-cial activist leading welfare activities all over India.He is founder-president of Indian Muslim EducationFederation of North America, a Chicago based char-ity organization

2. JanabAhmad Jawed Sb, Chief Editor of Urdudaily “Inqilab”

3. JanabAjmalFarid Sb, chief editor of Urdu daily “QaumiTanzeem”

4. JanabNurul Aziz Khan Sb

5.JanabShabbir Ali Sb

6 JanabShoib Khan Sb, IPS, retired DIG and a lead-ing light of Bihar Anjuman’s coaching program

7. Dr. FaranMallick

8. HaseebMallick

Annual Winter Clothes Distribution by Patnachapter at RCC Patna

Annual Winter Clothes Distribution by Patna chapter at RCC Patna Patna Chapter distributed winter garments to all the students of RCC @ Patna. The venue was Millat Urdu Girls School, Phulwarisharif, Patna - this is the new cenre for RCC Patna, having a big hall. The chapter distributed 44 Ladies Cardigans to the RCC girl-students, and 36 Jackets to RCC boy-students and 5 Khadi Bundies to the teachers and RAHBAR manager. The total amount spent on this was Rs.38,300/- the entire amount was raised locally, by Patna chapter. Those who contributed the amount to the chapter are: 1. Janab Dr. Khursheed Mallick Sb, President Rs.10,000 2. Janab Nurul Aziz Khan Sb 5,000 3. Janab Munwar Aziz Khan Sb, USA 10,000 4. Mohtarma Dr. Imrana Sahiba, Delhi 5,000 5. Mohtarma Dr. Mrs. Parween Sahiba, Patna 5,000 6. Janab Afsar Azmi Sb, Delhi 2,000 7. Janab Sanjar Azmi Sb, Patna 1,000 Those who were present in this annual function included, 1. Dr. Khursheed Mallick Sb, reputed doctor, and social activist leading welfare activities all over India. He is founder-president of Indian Muslim Education Federation of North America, a Chicago based charity organization 2. Janab Ahmad Jawed Sb, Chief Editor of Urdu daily Inqilab 3. Janab Ajmal Farid Sb, chief editor of Urdu daily Qaumi Tanzeem 4. Janab Nurul Aziz Khan Sb 5. Janab Shabbir Ali Sb 6 Janab Shoib Khan 7. Dr. Faran Mallick 8. Haseeb Mallick


I By Mumtaz Alam I

New Delhi, 07 Dec 2014: “Our analysis relat-ing to the reserved constituencies for theScheduled Caste candidates in three states of

Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal suggests thatthere is truth in the allegation,” Sachar Committeehad said in its report in 2006 referring to an old alle-gation that by reserving Muslim-dominated seats forSC, the religious minority community is being sys-tematically denied political participation.

The panel headed by Justice RajindarSachar hadthen hoped the Delimitation Commission wouldundo the wrong. But eight years later, the situationhas hardly changed, and more interestingly, theCommission doesn’t have answer or doesn’t want tooffer one to counter the allegation.

A number of Lok Sabha and Assembly constituen-cies with substantial Muslim voter population are re-served for SC even though the SC population is nothigh there. Contrarily, constituencies with compara-tively lesser Muslim voter population remain unre-served even though they have sizeable SCpopulation. It was suggested to the Sachar Commit-tee that it would be more equitable to reserve thoseconstituencies where voter population of SCs is highrather than those where it is low and, instead, Mus-lim presence is high.

Even before and after the Sachar panel, the Muslimcommunity has raised the issue of discrimination butcouldn’t find an answer. Even the Delimitation Com-mission or Boundary Commission, set up by thegovernment at specific interval of time to fix limitsor boundaries of legislative constituencies, alsodoesn’t talk about methodology, if any, for reservinga seat for SC or ST.

The question about the methodology is genuine andcommonly asked, and even the Commission admitsit.

In the section of FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions)on the website of Delimitation Commission, thereare 14 questions. The panel doesn’t answer eachquestion separately. It has three paragraphs as a col-lective answer to all. The Q. No. 8 reads: How is thereservation of seats for Scheduled Castes and Sched-uled Tribes decided? The commission doesn’t say aword in response to this question.

In October, a Muslim lawyer and community leaderhad sent a letter to President and Prime Ministerhighlighting the issue and demanding Muslim-domi-nated seats be reserved for Muslims or at least be de-reserve for SC. He had demanded proportionaterepresentation to the Muslim minority in state As-semblies and Lok Sabha.

Adv. Shahid Ali’s letter dated 16th Oct was for-warded to the Delimitation Commission. Ali got atwo-para reply to his 5-page letter last month.

In its reply, the Commission refers to constitutionalprovisions under which legislative seats are reservedfor SCs and STs.

“I am directed to refer to your petition dated16.10.2014 on the subject cited and to state that seatsfor SCs and STs only in Lok Sabha and State Leg-islative Assemblies are reserved as per the provisionsof Articles 330 and 332 of the Constitution of India.Under the above provisions read with Section 9(1)(c)and 9(1)(d) of the Delimitation Act, 2002, the seatsin Legislative Assemblies of all States/ Union Terri-tories including Uttar Pradesh and the seats in theHouse of the People were accordingly reserved forthe SCs/STs…” said Dilip K. Varma, under secretaryat the Commission in his 25th Nov reply.

Question No. 8That Delimitation Commission doesn't answer


The panel also made it clear that there is no consti-tutional provision for reserving seats for Muslims.

“There is no provision in the Constitution or in theDelimitation Act, 2002 to reserve seats for Mus-lims or any religious minority in Lok Sabha/StateLegislative Assemblies,” said Varma.

Again there is no answer to the question: Why areMuslim-dominated seats reserved for SCs or STs?Talking to IndiaTomorrow.net, Adv. Shahid Ali,who is also President of United Muslim Front, saidit is a structural bias against the minority.

“Reserving Muslim-dominated seats for ScheduledCaste and leaving Scheduled Caste-dominatedseats as general is a big discrimination againstMuslims, and this must end,” said Ali.

He also pointed to the 1950 presidential orderthrough which Dalit Muslims and Christians havebeen barred from SC status for last 60 years.

When Muslims ask for reservation they are saidreservation cannot be given on the basis of reli-gion, but interestingly on the very basis of religionMuslims and Christians have been kept out of SCcategory, he pointed out.

Dr Syed Zafar Mahmood, President, Zakat Foun-dation of India who has often written on reserva-tion of Muslim-dominated seats for SC says: Asper Census of India there are 13.4% Muslims inthe country. At this rate, there should be 73 Mus-lims in Lok Sabha (lower house) which has 543seats. But, since 1952 till now, the average numberof Muslims in Lok Sabha has been less than 27.

He offers figures about Muslim-dominated seatsreserved for SC.

In Uttar Pradesh, NaginaLok Sabha constituency(53% Muslims; 21% SCs) is reserved for SC, butRae Bareli (6% Muslims; 29% SCs) is not re-served. In Assam, KarimganjLok Sabha con-stituency (52% Muslims; 12% SCs) is reserved forSCs, but Dibrugarh and Jorhat (both with 5%Muslims or less) are not reserved. In West Bengal,Khargram assembly constituency (50% Muslims;23% SCs) is reserved for SCs, but Tufanganj (16%

Muslims; 53% SCs) is not reserved. In Bihar,Bagaha assembly constituency (23% Muslims;14% SCs) is reserved for SCs, but Balia (3% Mus-lims; 19% SCs) is not reserved. And the list goeson.

The Sachar Committee (formally called PrimeMinister’s High Level Committee For Preparationof Report on Social, Economic and EducationalStatus of the Muslim Community of India) had ex-pressed hope that the matter would receive the at-tention of the government.

“The Committee hopes that it would receive theattention of the Government immediately becausethe Delimitation Commission is at present engagedin this exercise and evidently any suggestion orany exercise to be done by it has to be undertakenduring the current term of the present DelimitationCommission,” the panel had said in its report in2006.

Early this year, Dr. Mahmood had written to PrimeMinister of India to appoint the next DelimitationCommission at the earliest asking it to remove theabove mentioned anomalies and restore constitu-tional justice to Muslims.

Since Independence, such Delimitation Commis-sions have been constituted four times – in 1952,1963, 1973 and 2002.

Follow the writer on Twitter @MumtazAlam1978

----


I By V.K. Tripathi I

On December 20, 2014, I visited the KabadiBasti, behind Vednagar colony, Agra where60 Bengali speaking Muslim rag pickers

were reported to have converted to Hinduism 12days earlier. The TV channels and newspapers gaveit an extensive coverage. There was debate in Parlia-ment too. I wanted to see the truth of the ordeal thesepoor countrymen went through.

I reached Agra from Delhi by Kanyakumari Expressat 11:30 AM. In 20 minutes auto rickshaw took meto Vednagar. As I walked into the hutments, theheaps of waste items were visible around every hut.Some children were sitting on a mat and readingtheir elementary books, some in Hindi, some inUrdu. Some children bore Islamic caps. I asked theirnames. They were all Muslims. Most huts wereclosed as men and women had gone to their (ragpicking) work. Some people were there. There weredozens of policemen, large number of media personsand citizens from other parts of Agra as UP MinorityCommission members were visiting the place. Anelderly person with red tilak on his forehead was sit-ting on a cot. As I wished him, he introduced himselfas Subhash, ex-Corporator of Agra. He wanted totalk, but I told that let me talk to local people first.

I went to a hut where four young age ladies, belong-ing to West Bengal, were sitting. They looked liitlefearful to talk. Language was also a barrier. I intro-duced myself and talked about their work. When Iasked, “Have you accepted Hinduism”, they said“No. We are Muslims.” They expressed surprise overhow this big propaganda has been carried out.

Middle aged Abu Talib, who hails from Kolkata,opened up more. Simplicity was there on his faceand in his words. He said that no one changed reli-gion. “We are poor people, living here for 12 years.Prior to this we lived in Delhi slums. When thoseslums were uprooted by the government, we had tomove out. Some of us have ration cards, some do nothave. Two weeks ago some people came and told usthat they would get us ration cards and Aadhar cards.One day they brought material for yagna and held

yagna in the common space between the huts. Theyasked us to attend. Some of us attended the yagna,the same way as many Hindus attend religious pro-grams of their Muslim brethren in the country. Therewas no talk of changing religion.” Then I talked toother residents, some of whom were cooking daaland rice in big containers for collective eating, theysaid, “This is the site where Yagna was performed.We attended it in good faith with no idea of conver-sion. Next day we learnt from the newspapers thatwe had become Hindus. We were surprised. We havedone no conversion. We are Muslims. We are poorworking class people. We do not know why are wedragged into this controversy.“ Similar things weretold by other residents. Ex-Corporator Subhash saidthat RSS/ BJP had played a sinister game but now ithas been exposed. I talked to policemen. They saidthat there was no security issue. I talked to minoritycommission members at substantial length.

Reg pickers are rendering valuable service to the na-tion while themselves living in dirt, under most try-ing conditions. Their faith is not demonstrative, butreflects in their living, conduct and behaviour. Theyhave the fundamental right to have ration cards, Aad-har cards, schooling, health care, gainful employ-ment and freedom from intimidation and fear.Religious chauvinists, who humiliate native country-men by branding them as Bangladeshis are a men-ace. Freedom from subjugation and exploitation isthe issue. Changing the label of religion is not theissue for the masses.

Religious freedom is a right of every individual. Aperson can change to any religion suitable to his/ herspiritual urges. But no one should be told that if youhave to live here you must convert or live the waywe dictate. This is an imperialist design. The com-munalists create the façade of religious conversionsin the past to humiliate and polarize masses now. Inthe medieval period people converted to Islamunder the influence of Sufis. Many saw in it libera-tion from the caste oppression. In recent past Dr.Ambedkar and many others converted to Buddhismto stress the same point. May the state take sternsteps to stop religious humiliation of people.

----

My Visit to Kabaadi Basti Agra:The Façade of Religious Conversion


I By Gheyas Hashmi I

Continued from the Oct 2014 issue…..

2ND CENTURY HIJRAHAs explained earlier Al-Zuhri, Al-Hazm, both com-missioned by Khalifa Omar Ibn Abdul Aziz to col-lect Hadith but the work was probably not done, dueto early death of the Khalifa in 101 H.

The necessity of Ilm Al-Rijaal, (Science of Cog-nizance of Transmitters), their Background, Intelli-gence, Authenticity, Reliability, Capacity toMemorize, Manner of living, Reputation, Criticism,etc. came into existence in 2nd century, likewise,compiling books about forged Hadiths to warn theScholars as well as the public.

The 2nd century has also witnessed the collection ofHadith in memories and practices (see Fig: 4 belowas instance), but pupils of the 1st century scholarsfelt its importance transferring Hadith from memo-ries to books. One thing has also developed here andit is working on Fiqh (Jurisprudence), i.e. how towork on the very traditions of the Prophet (S) thatcame mostly to them through practices and transmis-sion by inheritance. Under such circumstances issuesand problems related to not only Ebidah (worship),but the finance, commerce, civilization, administra-tion, management and governance, civil rights andduties, etiquette, military, politics, Inheritance, theol-ogy, etc have put a challenge to the scholars. AbuHanifah (DOB: 80H) is the one who has taken thischallenge and started working on Fiqh and estab-lished a school of thoughts. So, he is a father ofFiqh. There was no problem for availability of infor-mation (Quran, Hadith, tradition of Sahaba&Taby-een in memories of scholars) but the problem wasmethodology and scientific system through whichwords of Allah (Quran) and sayings of the prophet(Hadith) can be well-defined and understood andpublic issues could be well addressed. Fard (Obliga-tory), Wajib (less than obligatory, SunnahMuakkadah&GhairMuaakadh (confirmed & uncon-firmed Sunnah), similarly, Haram (prohibited),MakrohTahrimi (less prohibited), MakrohTanzehi(reprehensible), Mobah (neutral) have been derivedfrom understanding the text of Quran and Hadith.So, were IJMA (Consensus), QIYAS (Analogy), IS-

TEHSAN (Prioritization) and URF wa AADA (Cus-tom & Habit) came into existence for issues notmentioned directly in Quran and Sunnah.

Few books came in this period that consists of Ha-dith, Legal opinion of SahabaKiram&Tabyeen, butHadith was actually collected in books in 3rd cen-tury Hijrah.

(1) Mota Imam Malik (dob: 95h),(2) KitabuAathar by Imam Mohammad (pupil ofAbu Hanifah, dob: 131h)(3) KitabulAathar by Imam Yousef (pupil of ImamAbu Hanifah, dob 113h)(4) Musnad Imam Shafa’I (dob:150h)(5) Musannaf Imam Abdulrazzaque (dob: 126h)(6) Musannaf Ibn AbiShyba (dob:159h)(7) MusannafHammad bin Salmah (dob: 167)(8) Musnad Imam Ahmed (dob:164h)(9) Jame’ Ibn Wahab Alqarshi (dob:125h)(10) Jame’ SufyanSori (dob:161h)(11) Suunah Fi Fiqh by Ibn Mubarak (dob:181h)(12) Msaneed Abu Hanifah (dob:80h)PS: Some of these books came into existence inearly 3rd century.

Muta Imam Malik of Imam Malik (95-179H) is thefirst book of Hadith written in FiqhiAbwab. Accord-ing to some scholars, this book ranks first as it isbased on Thulathiyat (Hadith with 3 Rawi) whileBokhari has only 20-22 Thulathiyat.

Scholars used to collect Merwiyat (narrations) ofImam Abu Hanifah in “Musnad Abu Hanifah”. Acopy of 15 Musnad in the name of ‘’ Jame’ MsaneedImam Azam” by Chief Justice Mohammad Al-Khwarizmi (dob 780G) hasalready been published.Next issue will cover a brief profile of these 2 im-portant personalities and their works.… to be continued

-----

TRAP

8TH

rfdeunitnoC

2ND YRUTNEC

INDNTASREDUNunSn, a Qur ,.g.E

sayehG

mor eht 4102tcO

HARJIHY

I(T IARAHSF OGINnsenoc (majIndah naun

c.lootabla@sayehgh(imhsaH

)WSA LICMALSI)bahaaSfos sun

as.mo )

TRAP

8TH

2 YRUTNEC

ned aiexplsArohe w ttbu

essneche ThutA y, iticent

ineenctexis.icblpu

nd

HARJIHY

lAerliearned - lAi, ruhZ - , mazH boe dune, doty noblbao prask w

lAmIlfoy it - e ciencS(l, aaRijMoty itacapCy, itilabliRey,

2nd ce, iskewliy, urentc pimo

a ifKhalby ed niosismmoch tboa iflihahe Koh ly deatar eote

msanrTfoe canznigoCfoe , vinglifoernanMe, izremoM

pi adHed groftuoabksobongli

izzAulbdAn IbarOma llocot. H10n 1a i

)sertit t, Ind, unorkgBacrhei.cte, misicitrCn, ioattpuRe

thsitad assrlahocShe tn arwo

hitadHtecll

e, encgielltInotine mac

hetasellw

T 2he nd enturcenctansi ut b,)

O hangthine phet orPthe fo

esnctasmucricoiattrsinimadcety,goltheowoted rtasd aniliabliavarof

e thed stnesiwosalshay enturut 1the foslipup st hocsy rentucsha osal it id ane hered poldeve s

toy ltsomemacttha)S(phet ed atelrsemblorpd anuesssies

d anent emaganmn,o narveogcsthe toe engllhaca putvehac

qiFn ongikrwo hed sibltaesd anh adH,anruQ(n oiatmrofnifoty

memn ith diaHfon oticelloce antrenctaropmitsitelfsarlho

s n ongkirwo qhiF udencprsiurJ(d anescactiprhugorthmhet

hdabiEy lnot notoed p)ihsrwo(encna esidutd anhtsgirlviic, ,

08:BOD(ahfianHbu A.sarlhoc.htsugthofolohocsa hed he ,oS

abT&a abahSfon otiiadtrh,tiad

:giFees(esctiacprd anesiromesiromemmorfthiadHngirerfs

verthe n ok rwotow ho.e.i,e)udenc.enctaiernhibyn oissimsanrt

p) but, e,cremmoce,ncnaife th,sctiilpoy,rtailime,quettetithken tashahowne othe si)H

qh.iFfoheratfa sihe swae rheTnyeeab arlhocsfoesiromemn i

wobel4 as.ksobotoes

nsotiiadtry verhucsUndern,oiatzilviice,cntairnheI

csith lha egenlmebloprno

sar thebut)

swameblopranc)thiadH(

bon thasesl(( dtebiihopr ,)

morfed videroiatztiiroirP(.ahunnSd an

oldoethoms ysscifentiicsd any gllwebe - d anned idef tosreund

&h dakaMuakahunnSy,roatgilbhiorpsesl(imirahTh orMakurQfot texthe gnnditasreundm

d an)n ADAAawFRU mtousC(

fodsrwoh chiwhugorthtemyse bd ulocuesssiciublpd and oto

dkaaaMurihaG& d emrifnoc(h eprr(ehizanTh orMak,)tedib

e wer,oSth.iadHd ann aur AJMIfe tencsexitonie mact)iabH&

the fosgniaysd an)anurQ(ahllAfatgilbO(d arF.edsesdradllwee limis,)ahunnSed mrifnounc&

(h Moba,e)lbihenseepr alrneut )A ,)usensnsoC( SAYIQ golnaA( y)

ecrdinedotienmt nouesssirof

et phoprthe biajW,)yroat

maraHy,lralbeenveha

,y) NASHETSIanurQn iy ltec

F

cksoboew F

foemitehttahtida(H3re:ugiF

n ie am sinsoct thad oipersith

)hafinaHubAf

ts of fon oinpioalgeLth,iadH

butn,yeeabT&mariKa abahS

swath iadH

cksoboew Fecllocy lactual

n ie am sinsoct thad oipersith3niksobon ied tec rd iHyrntuec

ts of fon oinpioalgeLth,iadH.ahrj


swath iadH

TRAP

8TH

rfdeunitnoC

2ND YRUTNEC

INDNTASREDUNunSn, a Qur ,.g.E

sayehG

mor eht 4102tcO

HARJIHY

IT IARAHSF OGINnsenoc (majIndah naun

c.lootabla@sayehgh(imhsaH

WSA LICMALSI)bahaaSfos sun

as.mo )

TRAP

8TH

2 YRUTNEC

ned aiexplsArohe w ttbu

essneche ThutA y, iticent

ineenctexis.icblpu

nd

HARJIHY

lAerliearned - lAi, ruhZ - , mazH boe dune, doty noblbao prask w

lAmIlfoy it - e ciencS(l, aaRijMoty itacapCy, itilabliRey,

2nd ce, iskewliy, urentc pimo

a ifKhalby ed niosismmoch tboa iflihahe Koh ly deatar eote

msanrTfoe canznigoCfoe , vinglifoernanMe, izremoM

pi adHed groftuoabksobongli

izzAulbdAn IbarOma llocot. H10n 1a i

)sertit t, Ind, unorkgBacrhei.cte, misicitrCn, ioattpuRe

thsitad assrlahocShe tn arwo

hitadHtecll

e, encgielltInotine mac

hetasellw

T 2he nd enturcenctansi ut b,)

O hangthine phet orPthe fo

esnctasmucricoiattrsinimadcety,goltheowoted rtasd aniliabliavarof

e thed stnesiwosalshay enturut 1the foslipup st hocsy rentucsha osal it id ane hered poldeve s

toy ltsomemacttha)S(phet ed atelrsemblorpd anuesssies

d anent emaganmn,o narveogcsthe toe engllhaca putvehac

qiFn ongikrwo hed sibltaesd anh adH,anruQ(n oiatmrofnifoty

memn ith diaHfon oticelloce antrenctaropmitsitelfsarlho

s n ongkirwo qhiF udencprsiurJ(d anescactiprhugorthmhet

hdabiEy lnot notoed p)ihsrwo(encna esidutd anhtsgirlviic, ,

08:BOD(ahfianHbu A.sarlhoc.htsugthofolohocsa hed he ,oS

abT&a abahSfon otiiadtrh,tiad

:giFees(esctiacprd anesiromesiromemmorfthiadHngirerfs

verthe n ok rwotow ho.e.i,e)udenc.enctaiernhibyn oissimsanrt

p) but, e,cremmoce,ncnaife th,sctiilpoy,rtailime,quettetithken tashahowne othe si)H

qh.iFfoheratfa sihe swae rheTnyeeab arlhocsfoesiromemn i

wobel4 as.ksobotoes

nsotiiadtry verhucsUndern,oiatzilviice,cntairnheI

csith lha egenlmebloprno

sar thebut)

swameblopranc)thiadH(

bon thasesl(( dtebiihopr ,)

morfed videroiatztiiroirP(.ahunnSd an

oldoethoms ysscifentiicsd any gllwebe - d anned idef tosreund

&h dakaMuakahunnSy,roatgilbhiorpsesl(imirahTh orMakurQfot texthe gnnditasreundm

d an)n ADAAawFRU mtousC(

fodsrwoh chiwhugorthtemyse bd ulocuesssiciublpd and oto

dkaaaMurihaG& d emrifnoc(h eprr(ehizanTh orMak,)tedib

e wer,oSth.iadHd ann aur AJMIfe tencsexitonie mact)iabH&

the fosgniaysd an)anurQ(ahllAfatgilbO(d arF.edsesdradllwee limis,)ahunnSed mrifnounc&

(h Moba,e)lbihenseepr alrneut )A ,)usensnsoC( SAYIQ golnaA( y)

ecrdinedotienmt nouesssirof

et phoprthe biajW,)yroat

maraHy,lralbeenveha

,y) NASHETSIanurQn iy ltec

F

cksoboew F

foemitehttahtida(H3re:ugiF

n ie am sinsoct thad oipersith

)hafinaHubAf

ts of fon oinpioalgeLth,iadH


swath iadH

cksoboew Fecllocy lactual

n ie am sinsoct thad oipersith3niksobon ied tec rd iHyrntuec

ts of fon oinpioalgeLth,iadH.ahrj


swath iadH


I From Ahlul Taqwa Website I

Imaam Muhammad bin Saalih Al-‘Uthaimeen

Sharh Lumu’at-ul-‘Itiqaad [pg. 105-110] Al-Ibaanah.com

1. The Emergence of the Dajjaal – Linguistically,Dajjaal is derived from the word dajl, which meanslying and impostering. Religiously, it refers to a manwho is an imposter and who will appear during theLast Days, claiming lordship.

His emergence is established in the Sunnah as wellas the Ijmaa’ (consensus). The Prophet (sallAllaahu‘alayhiwasallam) said: “Say: ‘O Allaah, verily I seekrefuge in you from the punishment of the Hellfire,and I seek refuge in you from the punishment of thegrave, and I seek refuge in you from the trial ofMaseeh Ad-Dajjaal. And I seek refuge in you fromthe trial of life and death.” [1]

“The Prophet (sallAllaahu ‘alayhiwasallam) wouldseek refuge from him during prayer” [2] and theMuslims have agreed upon his emergence.

His story: He will emerge from a road in an area be-tween Shaam and ‘Iraaq and will begin to call thepeople to worship him. A majority of the people thatwill follow him will be from the Jews, women andbedouins. Seventy-thousand Jews from Asfahaan (inpresent-day Iran) will follow him and he will travelthroughout the entire earth, just as the wind blowsrain in all directions, except for Makkah andMadeenah, for he will be prevented from enteringthem.

The length of his stay will be forty days. One daywill be like a year, one day like a month, one daylike a week and the rest of the days will be as nor-mal. He is one-eyed (i.e. one eye is good and theother is defective) and between his two eyes will bewritten KA FA RA (i.e. kaafir or disbeliever). Onlythe believers will be able to read it. He will bringabout great trials, some of which are that he willcommand the heavens and it will rain and he willcommand the earth and it will produce vegetation.He will have with him a Garden and a Fire. How-

ever, his garden will be a fire, and his fire will be agarden.

The Prophet (sallAllaahu ‘alayhiwasallam) warnedof him by saying: “Whosoever hears of him, then lethim distance himself from him. And whosoever hashim reach him, then let him recite the opening versesof Surah Kahf upon him” – or – “…let him recite theopening verses of Surah Kahf.” [3]

2. The Descent of ‘Eesaa Ibn Maryam – The descentof ‘Eesaa Ibn Maryam is established in the Qur’aan,the Sunnah and the consensus of the Muslims. Al-laah says:

“And there is none of the People of the Scripture, ex-cept that he must believe in him (‘Eesaa) before hisdeath.” [4]

This refers to the death of ‘Eesaa which will occurafter his descent, as has been interpreted by Abu Hu-rairah. The Prophet (sallAllaahu ‘alayhiwasallam)said: “I swear by Allaah, ‘Eesaa Ibn Maryam will in-deed descend judging (mankind) with justice.” Thishadeeth is agreed upon. [5]

The Muslims have unanimously agreed upon his de-scent. He will descend by the white minaret in theeast of Damascus, placing his hands upon the wingsof two angels. Then it will not be possible for a dis-believer to perceive the scent of his breath, exceptthat he will die. And his breath will extend as far hiseyesight extends. He will search for the Dajjaal untilhe reaches him by the gate of Ludd, where he willkill him. He will break the cross and abolish thejizyah (taxation collected from subjected disbeliev-ers). And the prostration (of worship) will be onlyone – for Allaah the Lord of the universe. He willalso perform Hajj and ‘Umrah. All of this is con-firmed in Saheeh Muslim and some of it in both Sa-heehs. [6]

Imaam Ahmad and Abu Dawood reported that“‘Eesaa will remain for forty years after killing theDajjaal. Then he will die and the Muslims will praythe funeral prayer (Janaazah) over him.” [7] Al-Bukhaaree mentioned in his At-Tareekh that he willbe buried next to the Prophet (sallAllaahu ‘alayhi-wasallam) and Allaah knows best. [8]

Signs of Hour series


3. The Emergence of Ya’jooj and Ma’jooj – Theseare two non-Arab names or (perhaps) they are Arabnames derived from Ma’j which means riotous dis-ruption or from Ajeej which means the setting ablazeand kindling of a fire. They are two nations from thetribe of Aadam that are currently in existence, basedupon the evidences from the Qur’aan and Sunnah.Allaah says concerning the story of Dhul-Qarnain:“Until when he reached between two mountains, hefound before both of them, a people who scarcelyunderstood a word. They said: ‘O Dhul-Qarnain!Verily, Ya’jooj and Ma’jooj are doing great mischiefin the land. Shall we then pay you a tribute in orderthat you might erect a barrier between them andus?'” [9]

Also, the Prophet (sallAllaahu ‘alayhiwasallam)said: “On the Day of JudgementAllaah will say: ‘OAadam, rise and extract the people of the Fire fromyour offspring.’ Aadam will say: ‘Who are the peo-ple of the Hellfire?’ Allaah will say ‘Out of everythousand, (take out) nine hundred and ninety-nine(persons). At that time, children will become hoary-headed and every pregnant female will drop her load(i.e. miscarriage). And you will see the people as ifthey were drunk, yet they will not be drunk. But Al-laah’s punishment will be severe.” News of that dis-tressed the companions severely, so they said: “OMessenger of Allaah, who amongst us will be that(one) man (out of a thousand)?” He (sallAllaahu‘alayhiwasallam) said: “Give the good tidings, forindeed from among you will be one and fromYa’jooj and Ma’jooj will be a thousand.” [10]

Their emergence, which is one of the signs of theHour, has not occurred before in the past. However,its first indications were present during the time ofthe Prophet (sallAllaahu ‘alayhiwasallam). It is con-firmed in the two Saheeh collections that the Prophet(sallAllaahu ‘alayhiwasallam) said: “‘Today a holehas been opened in the barrier of Ya’jooj andMa’jooj, like this’, and he (sallAllaahu ‘alayhiwasal-lam) made a circle with his index finger and thumb.”[11]

Thus, their emergence is established in the Qur’aanand the Sunnah. Allaah says: “Until when Ya’joojand Ma’jooj are let loose (from their barrier), andthey swoop down from every mound. And the truepromise (Day of Resurrection) shall draw near.” [12]

The Prophet (sallAllaahu ‘alayhiwasallam) said:“Verily the Hour will never be established until you

see ten signs before it.” Then he (sallAllaahu ‘alay-hiwasallam) mentioned: “The smoke, the Dajjaal,the Beast, the rising of the sun from the west, the de-scent of ‘Eesaa Ibn Maryam, Ya’jooj and Ma’jooj,three tremors (in which the earth will open and swal-low those upon it) – one in the east, one in the westand one in the Arabian peninsula. And the last ofthem will be a fire that will come out from Yemen,which will drive the people to the (final) place of as-sembly.” [13]

Their story is found in the hadeeth of An-NuwaasIbn Sam’aan (radyAllaahu ‘anhu). The Prophet (sal-lAllaahu ‘alayhiwasallam) said concerning ‘EesaaIbn Maryam, after the Dajjaal is killed: “It will bethat way, when Allaah will reveal to ‘Eesaa: ‘I havebrought forth certain servants of Mine, againstwhom none will be able to fight. So lead my servantssafely to the Mount (Toor).’ And then Allaah willsend Ya’jooj and Ma’jooj and they will come swarm-ing down from every slope. The first portion of themwill pass by the lake of Tiberias and drink from whatis in it. Then the last portion of them will pass by itand say: ‘There was once water here.’ They will con-tinue traveling until they will stop at the mountain ofAl-Khamar, which is the mount of Al-Bait-ul-Maqdis. Then they will say: ‘We have killed thoseon earth, come, let us now kill those in the heavens.’So they will begin to throw their arrows toward thesky and Allaah will return their arrows back to them,smeared with blood. Then the Prophet of Allaah(‘Eesaa) and his companions will be laid siege (soseverely), to the extent that the head of an ox wouldbe better to one of them than one hundred deenars isto one of you today. So the Prophet of Allaah ‘Eesaaand his companions will supplicate to Allaah, andAllaah will send down upon them, insects which willset upon their (i.e. Ya’jooj and Ma’jooj) necks (bit-ing at it). In the morning, they will perish, like onesingle person. The Prophet of Allaah ‘Eesaa and hiscompanions will then descend (from the Mount) tothe ground and they will not find a place the size of ahand span, except that it would be filled with theirputrefaction and stench. So the Prophet of Allaah‘Eesaa and his companions will beseech Allaah andHe will send birds, whose necks look like that ofbactrian camels, which will throw them (corpses ofYa’jooj and Ma’jooj) wherever Allaah wills.” [14]

4. The Emergence of the Beast – Linguistically, theword Ad-Daabbah refers to every creature thatmoves about the earth. What it means here, is theBeast that Allaah will bring forth, close to the estab-


lishment of the Hour. Its emergence is confirmed inthe Qur’aan and the Sunnah. Allaah says:

“And when the word of torment is fulfilled againstthem, We shall bring out from the earth, a Beast forthem, to speak to them because mankind believednot with certainty in Our Ayaat.” [Surat-un-Naml(27): 82]

And the Prophet (sallAllaahu ‘alayhiwasallam) said:“Verily the Hour will never be established until yousee ten signs before it.” And he (sallAllaahu ‘alayhi-wasallam) mentioned from among them: “TheBeast.” [2Saheeh Muslim and its checking has beenstated previously]

There is nothing mentioned in the Qur’aan or the au-thentic Sunnah that indicates the place from wherethis Beast will emerge or its description. These twohave only been mentioned in ahaadeeth, of whichthere is speculation concerning their authenticity.What is apparent from the Qur’aan, however, is thatit is a Beast that will warn mankind of the nearnessof punishment and destruction, and Allaah knowsbest.

5. The Rising of the Sun from the West – The risingof the sun from the west is established in theQur’aan and the authentic Sunnah. Allaah says:“The Day that some of the signs of your Lord docome, no good will it do for a person to believe then,if he believed not before nor earned good (by doinggood deeds), through his Faith.” [Surat-ul-Ana’aam(6): 158]

The meaning of this (some of the signs) is the risingof the sun from the west, for the Prophet (sallAl-laahu ‘alayhiwasallam) said: “The Hour will not beestablished until the sun rises from the west. Andwhen it rises and the people see it, they will all be-lieve, and that will be when: ‘No good will it do fora person to believe then, if he believed not beforenor earned good (by doing good deeds), through hisFaith.’[Surat-ul-Ana’aam (6): 158]” [15]

Website <[email protected]>----

What if you find a Watch in theSand? By Mostafa Malaekah

To the Atheist and the Agnostic the Muslimsays: “Suppose you find a watch in the mid-dle of a desert. What would you conclude?

Would you think that someone dropped this watch?Or would you suppose that the watch came by itself?Of course no sane person would say that the watchjust happened to emerge from the sand. All the intri-cate working parts could not simply develop fromthe metals that lay buried in the earth. The watchmust have a manufacturer. If a watch tells accuratetime we expect the manufacturer must be intelligent.Blind chance cannot produce a working watch.But what else tells accurate time? Consider the sun-rise and sunset. Their timings are so strictly regu-lated that scientists can publish in advance thesunrise and sunset times in your daily newspapers.But who regulates the timings of sunrise and sunset?If a watch cannot work without an intelligent maker,how can the sun appear to rise and set with suchclockwork regularity? Could this occur by itself?Consider also that we benefit from the sun only be-cause it remains at a safe distance from the earth, adistance that averages 93 million miles. If it gotmuch closer, the earth would burn up. And if it gottoo far away, the earth would turn into an icy planetmaking human life here impossible. Who decided inadvance that this was the right distance? Could it justhappen by chance? Without the sun, plants wouldnot grow. Then animals and humans would starve.Did the sun just decide to be there for us?The rays of the sun would be dangerous for us had itnot been for the protective ozone layer in our atmos-phere. The atmosphere around the earth keeps theharmful ultraviolet rays from reaching us. Who wasit that placed this shield around us?We need to experience sunrise. We need the sun’senergy and its light to see our way during the day.But we also need sunset. We need a break from theheat, we need the cool of night and we need thelights to go out so we may sleep. Who regulated thisprocess to provide what we need?Moreover, if we had only the warmth of the sun andthe protection of the atmosphere we would wantsomething more - beauty. Our clothes providewarmth and protection, yet we design them to alsolook beautiful. Knowing our need for beauty, the de-signer of sunrise and sunset also made the view ofthem to be simply breathtaking.The creator who gave us light, energy, protection andbeauty deserves our thanks. Yet some people insistthat he does not exist. What would they think if theyfound a watch in the desert? An accurate, workingwatch? A beautifully designed watch? Would theynot conclude that there does exist a watchmaker? Anintelligent watchmaker? One who appreciatesbeauty? Such is God who made us.”


I By Nissar Nadiadwala I

Two most important things around whichthe focus of many Muslim youth revolvesare: Career and Marriage. They also hap-

pen to be the most confusing things of their lifeas they don’t know how to go ahead and thereare very few counsellors in these fields who canreally counsel them from the Qur'an and theHadith. So in order to make it easy for them tounderstand the theme I rotate the priorities fromCareer and Marriage to Marriage and Careerputting marriage before Career. Don’t get ahappy shock. It is in the terms of responsibility.

If you read Surah Nahl ch 16 Verse 72: Allah has made from you your mates and fromyour mates He makes chidren and 'hafadha'(delightful offspring) and provides you rizk fromtayyab (good things). Yet you believe in baatil(falsehood) and reject the blessings of Allah? Have you considered the famous hadith: Theworld is a transit comfort and the best comfort isa mominah wife (pious and good natured) SahihMuslim Hadith no.1467.If you read the above Qur'anic verse and thehadith together you will realise that marriage isa blessing but our young people discard it,delay it and search for blessings on facebookprofiles, in colleges and workplaces!

Many delayed marriages are a result of astretched education after post-graduation espe-cially by young men. Many of them pass awaytheir twenties and almost enter thirties yet youwill find them chasing degrees after degreesand pursuing career and dreaming of becomingrich, with a house and a car before getting mar-ried! Many of these young men think that mar-riage will be a stumbling block in establishmentof a career or higher education.

Those young people staying in the West orcities like West e.g. Mumbai, Karachi, Dubai,get a lot of exposure to obscenity, the Non-Mus-lims among them fulfill their desires throughharam ways and this happens to be one of

their reason for avoiding marriage at the rightage. Their arguments go like this: If we can getfun for free then why should we get married andget tied up to social and family responsibilities?What about the Muslims young men in thesecities? Since they live in an Islamic environ-ment, they don’t go for haram options like hav-ing affairs or relations out of wedlock so how dothey attend their desires?

With young women it is little different. In aWestern culture they are educated with a men-tal preparation of life after divorce, long beforemarriage. They stay in an environment whereher looks are graded and used as currency forprosperity. They are independent because theyearn. So they don’t want to be a housewife andundergo labour pain, run kitchen, check chil-dren’s homework while their husbands arefreaking around with other girls. So they toohave affairs and divorces and go into live-in re-lations. In other words, they use haram options.Then what about the Muslim women whosemarriages are delayed? They have beenbrought up in a modest environment but theirmarriages are delayed due to her post-gradua-tion, lack of funds for marriage expenses andhunt for a rich guy. What will they do?

The Prophet (Peace be upon him) said “If therecomes to you with a proposal of marriage onewith whose religious commitment and attitudeyou are pleased, then marry [your daughter orfemale relative under your care] to him, for, ifyou do not do that, there will be fitnah (tribula-tion) on earth and widespread corruption.” Nar-rated by al-Tirmidhi, 1084; Ibn Maajah, 1967.Classed as saheeh by Shaykh al-Albaani in al-Silsilah al-Saheehah, 1022.

This is a hadith which many people may findhard to implement. We have made marriagevery difficult and the reasons are just a few,some of them global and some borrowed fromun-Islamic cultures.

----

Stumbling Blocks in the Way of Marriages


I By Khalid Baig I

"...In fact if used properly, it could put IMF, theWorld Bank, and other shylocks who have been en-riching themselves at the expense of the poor out ofbusiness in the Muslim countries...."

Money. These days it is hardly of secondaryimportance for those who don't have it.And even for many who do! What does

Islam say about it? Islam recognizes the value ofwealth. It refers to it as:

"Your property which Allah has made for you ameans of support."[Al-Nisa, 4:5].

But it also warns about its dual nature: it could be ablessing or a curse. It is a blessing if used to dogood. Prophet Muhammad, Sall-Allahu alayhi wasallam, declared that person to be in an enviable po-sition who has lot of wealth and he spends it day andnight in the cause of righteousness. Otherwise it is acurse. No one who reads the following verse canthink of it in any other way:

"And there are those who hoard gold and silver, andspend it not in the way of Allah. Announce unto thema most grievous chastisement. On the day when itwill be heated in the fire of Hell, and with it will bebranded their foreheads, their flanks, and theirbacks. `This is the treasure that you hoarded foryourselves. Taste then the treasure youhoarded.'"[Al-Tauba 9:34-35]

The two characters are brought together in a beauti-ful juxtaposition in a hadith. "The case of a miserand a giver of charity is similar to that of two per-sons clad in armor from their breasts to their collar-bones. Every time the generous person gives charity,his armor expands, till it covers his finger tips andtoes. Every time the miser intends to spend some-thing, his armor contracts, every ring of it sinkinginto his flesh. He tries to loosen it but cannot." . Itshould be remembered that here a generous person isone who spends generously in the path of Allah. Amiser is one whose love of money keeps him fromsuch spending even though he may be spending lav-ishly in other areas.

Such love of money is a disease of the heart and thefirst purpose of charity in Islam is to work as an anti-dote against that. That is why the Qur'an asked theProphet, Sall-Allahu alayhi wa sallam,

"Of their wealth take alms to purify and sanctifythem." [Tauba 9:103].

Hence the name Zakat (purification) for the mainform of that obligation. And it is for this reason thatZakat remains obligatory even if there are no needypersons in a community.

Of course, the system of Zakat is designed to helpthe poor and the needy and it is a highly desirablecharacteristic of the believers that in addition toprayers and other acts of worship they are alwaysconscious of this duty.

"And in their wealth there is due share for the beg-gar and the deprived." [Al-Zariyat, 51:19].

They do it for no other motive but to please theirLord.

"And they feed, for the love of Allah, the indigent,the orphan, and the captive, saying: `We feed you forthe sake of Allah alone. No reward do we desire fromyou, nor thanks.'" [Al-Insan, 76:8-9]

Charity itself has been a cherished institution in allhuman societies. It remains so even in the capitalisticsociety. But without a strong belief in Allah and theHereafter, a charitable act can only be motivated bya desire for fame or some other worldly reward.Human beings are driven by rewards. The only trulyselfless act is one in which the reward is sought fromAllah instead of other human beings. And that is thechange in orientation that Islam provides and that re-mains its most distinguishing feature. Once a goatwas slaughtered in the Prophet's household and itsmeat was distributed. Later on the Prophet, Sall-Al-lahu alayhi wa sallam, asked Aisha, Radi-Allahuunha, what was saved from the goat? "Nothing but ashank," she said. "Everything but the shank," saidthe Prophet, Sall-Allahu alayhi wa sallam. For whatwas given away in charity was truly saved for thehereafter.

Zakaat


There are other distinct features of Islam's system ofZakat. The Qur'an mentions where it can be used.

"The alms are only for the poor and the needy, andfor those employed in connection therewith, and forthose whose hearts are to be reconciled, and for thefreeing of slaves, and for those in debt, and for thecause of Allah, and for the wayfarer." [Al-Tauba9:60].

These are very precise and specific categories, theseemingly general category of "cause of Allah" refer-ring to Jihad by consensus of scholars.

We can better appreciate the immense wisdom in thisarrangement if we compare it with Tithe. Under thatsystem, adopted by the Christian Church, lay peoplewere forced to pay a tenth of their income to thechurch to "support the clergy, maintain churches andassist the poor"-- mostly in that order. The system ledto widespread abuses. It was for this reason that tithewas abolished in France in 1789 during the Revolu-tion and in other countries after that. England finallyended it in 1936. It was never accepted in the U.S.

Zakat, on the other hand, cannot be used to maintainmosques or support the scholars. Neither can it beused to support the normal functioning of the govern-ment. No one can change its rate, sources, or applica-tion, which are all pre-determined by the Qur'an andSunnah. All these distinguish Zakat as an act of wor-ship rather than a tax and have been responsible forkeeping the system mostly free of corruption, even ata time when some Muslim countries have generallyfallen victim to the corruption epidemic. Yet the prob-lem is that a very large number of those who shouldbe paying Zakat are careless about their responsibil-ity.

To be sure, a Muslim has financial obligations otherthan Zakat (to support mosques, schools, and othercommunity projects on an as needed basis), but Zakatitself remains the most potent system for addressingthe economic problems of the Ummah. With 2.5% ofthe savings of the rich people throughout the Ummahgoing to its poor people every year, the basic needs ofeveryone could be satisfied. In fact if used properly, itcould put IMF, the World Bank, and other shylockswho have been enriching themselves at the expenseof the poor out of business in the Muslim countries.

Even for our economic problems, Islam is the solu-tion. If only we would give it a chance.Source www.islaaminfo.co.za

Did people always believein a Creator?I By Mostafa Malaekah I

It is a fact that throughout history and through-out the world, man had been found to worshipand to believe in a Creator. Specialists in An-

thropology, Civilizations and History are unani-mous on this. This led one of the great historiansto say: “History shows that there had been citieswithout palaces, without factories and withoutfortresses, but there has never been cities withouthouses of worship.” Since time immemorial, manbelieved that he was not created simply for thislife, for this short period, and he knew that hewould ultimately depart to another resting-place.We see this evidence with the early Egyptians,thousands of years ago, when they mummifiedtheir dead and built great pyramids (as graves)and even placed the treasures of the dead in theirgraves in addition to drinks and mummified food!From the earliest recorded history, mankind hadbeen unanimous, with very few exceptions, thatthere is a Creator and that there is life after death.However, they differed about the essence of thisCreator, how to worship Him and the descriptionof the life after death. For example, Hindus be-lieve in reincarnation and that after death one’ssoul would then go into a human body or an ani-mal, depending on whether one did good or badin his life, and that this process would continuewithout end until the soul reaches perfection andunites into one with its Creator. People of otherreligions like Jews, Christians and Muslims alsobelieve in life after death, but not in reincarnationlike the Hindus. All three - Jews, Christians andMuslims - however have different views aboutwhat happens to the soul after one’s death.

The fact that all nations and communitiesthroughout history believed in a Creator (with theexception of insignificant few) made the missionof all prophets in all ages concentrate on guidingtheir people away from the worship of creationsto the worship of the one and only Creator God,i.e. rather than having to prove His existence

.----

Bakhabar, January 2015

Documents

Transcript of Bakhabar, January 2015