Dr Sir Mohammad Iqubal

When we study the psychological aspect of Iqubal’s life, we find out that despite having a sensitive heart and a brilliant mind, he had to struggle against many romantic contradictions throughout his life. These contradictions appeared for the first time when Iqubal went to Europe in the pursuit of higher education. Upon reaching Europe, he discovered that his personality possessed certain charm that the opposite sex found irresistible….

Mohammad A. Quayum

Moreover, Rokeya was brought up in the strictest form of Purdah as practiced by elite Muslims of the time. From the age of five, she was prohibited from interacting with men or even women outside her family circle. In several episodes of her book, The Zenana Women (Aborodhbasini), Rokeya sarcastically describes how she had to go into hiding in her own home whenever an unknown woman walked into their courtyard or came to visit them....

Mike Ghouse

It was a conflict between Imam Hussain and Yazid the caliph of that time. Yazid usurped the leadership of Muslim community and wanted the true spiritual leader Imam Hussain to endorse him for legitimacy, which Imam Hussain rightfully declined and Yazid had him killed along with his young children. It was indeed like the Battle of Kurukshetra in Mahabharata; Good against evil, except Krishna's good forces win the battle over the evil ones....

Sadia Dehlvi

It is believed that on this day God accepted Adam’s appeal for forgiveness, rescued Prophet Jonah from the fish’s abdomen, restored the health of Job, saved Abraham from the fire of Nimrod, granted Solomon his kingdom, anchored Noah’s ark at Mount Judi after it had been sailing for six months; parted the Red Sea for Moses to save his followers from the tyrannical rule of the Egyptian Pharaohs….

Sir Muhammad Iqbal

The late scholar Rafiq Zakaria was shocked when Pramod Mahajan, then general secretary of the BJP, at a seminar at Nehru Centre in 1990, said that "a great Indian Muslim like Iqbal who penned Sare Jahan Se Achcha later divided India". "I reminded Mahajan of his ignorance... Iqbal fought communalism-attacking fundamentalist Hindus for questioning Muslims' loyalty to India, he wrote: Patthar ki moorton mein samjha hai tu khuda hai/khak-e-watan ka mujhko har zarra devta hai...

Asghar Ali Engineer

 Much more important is to assess what is the condition of Muslims today in the sub-continent and what impact Sir Syed’s contribution has on Muslim society today. It is so unfortunate that just a few days before Sir Syed Day a 14 year old girl Malala from North West Frontier Province from Pakistan was murdered by Tehrik-e-Taliban-Pakistan led by Maulana Fazlullah just because she was campaigning for education for girls....

Bahadur Shah Zafar

Exiled by the British to Rangoon for fighting for his land, Bahadur Shah II died lamenting the fact that he could not be buried in his own country. Today, 150 years after the last Mughal died in the country of his exile, his last wish remains unfulfilled. It is said that when Subhash Chandra Bose launched his INA campaign from Rangoon, he invoked Bahadur Shah Zafar....

Gaitty Ara Anis

With the rising of religious extremism that has robbed us of all sanity we should ask who we have chosen as our role models and why. I wonder why we have been taught “myths” in our text books and what philosophies have been promoted in our country since it was created? Though many would disagree, in my opinion this deliberate selection of heroes based on religion, class and creed has left us breathless, without the oxygen of fresh ideas. The result is close mindedness and conservatism....

Aiman Reyaz, New Age Islam

Allah praises Muhammad (pbuh) “Most certainly O Muhammad you are on the pinnacle of behaviour” (Ch 68 V 4) Jules Masserman, a US Psychoanalyst, picked Muhammad as his greatest leader. He chose his greatest prophet Moses at number two. He says that leaders must fulfil three functions: a. Provide for the well being of the led; b. Provide a social organization in which people feel relatively secure and; c. provide them with a set of beliefs. ...

Aiman Reyaz, New Age Islam

The pre-Islamic era was full of superstition and barbarism. It was known as the Age of Ignorance. The people of that time were so corrupted in thought and morals that they would cut their idols into pieces and eat them. Their excuse was that they had seen their fathers doing it. They also used to bury their daughters alive. Humans were worse than animals. Their concept of morality was just the opposite of our concept of morality: bloodthirsty were exalted, bloodshed was considered a virtue, and adultery and fornication were more common than legal marriage. …

Dr Haider Shah

We are in the habit of associating rationalism with western thinkers, even though our own history is also full of shining examples of rationalist thinking. Sir Syed has been popularised as the founder of the two-nation theory alone in our national syllabus. It is high time his real message of rationalism was also shared with the young of Pakistan. This can prove an effective antidote to extremism that has gripped our society these days....

Muhammad Yunus, New Age Islam

Delving into the Qur’an further we see it asserting that unless God willed, the Prophet would not have recited the revelation to his audience, nor God would have taught it to them - it asks his audience to reflect on this as he had lived with them for a lifetime before the revelation commenced (10:16, 12:3, 42:52) This demonstrates that the Prophet had not displayed any literary or poetic genius or any philosophical, psychological, political or theological insight all his life prior to the revelation. This in turn indicates that the Prophet neither had any aptitude, nor grooming, nor ambition to found a faith or lead a faith community, let alone becoming the virtual ruler of the whole of Arabia towards the end of his life. His greatest gifts, apart from the power of revelation, were his noble personal qualities. ...

Rakhshanda Jalil

Aligarh accepted him with open arms. It gave him the freedom to be exactly who or what he wished to be. Free of the ties and trappings of caste, culture, class, Shaikh Abdullah was like virgin clay, ready to be moulded. Yet, like clay, he retained certain distinctive qualities of his own. His peers and teachers were quick to spot these traits: earnestness, optimism, determination and an infectious never-say-die spirit....

Danish Raza

It was the summer of 1995. “Papa, it is Hizbul Mujahideen,” said a panicking Juhi handing over the phone to her father Sultan Shahin. It was a death threat to Shahin, who had written in a national daily, countering Hizbul’s call that the war against India was validated by Quran.

For Shahin, it was one of the numerous encounters with extremists. “I invite such people to discuss the differences over tea. I tell them please intimate me before you kill me so that there is no collateral damage,” says Shahin, laughingly. He is serious about sorting out differences though. In 2008, Shahin launched newageislam.com— a website to prompt Muslims to ‘rethink’ Islam and challenge the petro-dollar funded Wahabi ideology. More than one lakh readers visit the site every day and the electronic newsletter reaches out to around 2.5 lakh people….

Durdana Najam

What would make a man in the middle of his youthfulness marry a woman 15 years older to him? What does this marriage tell about Makkah and about women in that society? And how does Hazrat Khadija (RA) inspire Muslim women? These are a few questions that would help one understand women in Islam. Lately, Muslim women have been dragged into controversies and unwarranted criticism because of misunderstanding and misrepresentation of Islamic culture by a handful of people....

Here in Indus valley civilization a unique galaxy of Sufis existed including, Shah Latif Bhittai, Bulleh Shah, Sultan Bahu, Sachal Sarmast, Rehman Baba and Iqbal. From Khyber to Karachi they all were the segments of the same chain. They all composed verses, poetry and prose for Almighty and danced and sang for Him. They all had great respect and reverence for Maulana Jalaluddin Rumi....

Maulana Abul Kalam Azad

There are however, a number of predictions, all seemingly accurate, which are associated with Azad that seem to reinforce further his image as the sage of the age. He is said, amongst other things, to have predicted Pakistan’s dependence on western powers and growing discord between the religious right and liberals in Pakistan in an interview conducted in April 1946. The only problem is that the latter list of predictions has been transmitted to us through a dubious source. This source was Agha Shorish Kashmiri, a committed Ahrari leader who opposed the creation of Pakistan....

Dargah Ajmer Sharif

Indeed, Islam spread in India and Pakistan not by the force of conquest or the elaborate arguments of mullahs and Quazis but through the work of great Sufi sheikhs. The Sufi sheikhs of the 13th century were not merchants of faith. They were men drunk with the love of God, giving themselves no gain but the prospect of divine pleasure, serving humanity irrespective of creed or nationality and sharing their spiritual bounty with whoever would partake of it. Proselytizing was not their goal; it was a by-product of their selfless service. …

Dargah Ajmer Sharif

Sufi Islam, as pointed out by us repeatedly is most tolerant Islam which is highly compatible with multi-culturalism and pluralism. It flourished in India precisely for this reason. Hazrat Moinuddin Chishti, who was from Seistan, Iran also migrated to India via Central Asia after seeing Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) in dream who asked him to go to India and spread the message of Islam. Hadith literature also tells us that the Prophet (PBUH) had great attraction for India and in one of the hadith he is reported to have said that I am getting cold breeze from India. ...

Aristotle and Imam Ghazali are two immortals of history who put their seal on European and Muslim philosophical scholarship through succeeding generations. The generations disappeared in the fold of time but their teachings continue to attract mankind. Still they remain difficult and controversial as in their own times.

For some, Mansur al-Hallaj was a magician, a heretic and a lunatic, who publicly claimed to be one with the One and deserved to be executed for heresy. But to his sympathizers he was a Sufi saint, who was martyred almost 1,100 years ago, on March 26, 922, allegedly for his ecstatic utterance. As far as Hallaj crying out "ana'l-haqq" in public is concerned, notable Sufi masters held it was a result of his spiritual state that is incomprehensible to a layman. …

Ghaffar Khan preached the gospel of non-violence. His philosophy of non-violence was deeply religious and found the inspiration in the person of the Holy Prophet (pbuh) and his treatment of people, especially of those from Makkah after the city’s final conquest. Gandhi advocated Satyagraha, ‘experiments with the truth’; Ghaffar Khan advocated a radical transformation of the Pakhtuns, as peaceful, forward-looking people. (Photo: Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan) … 

Over the centuries, many eminent non-Muslim scholars have rated Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) most highly and have given due recognition to his greatness. “I have always held the religion of Muhammad (PBUH) in high estimation because of its wonderful vitality. It is the only religion, which appears to me to possess that assimilating capacity to the changing phase of existence, which can make itself appeal to every age. I have studied him — the wonderful man and in my opinion far from being an anti-Christ, he must be called the Saviour of Humanity. -- Hasan Kamoonpuri

Sheik Hussein (variably Nur Hussein) was a benevolent, virtuous, and religious missionary who lived in Bale around 1300[i] A.D. Nur Hussein, a comrade of Sof Omar -- another prominent religious disciple of the same era – is credited for introducing and spreading Islam in the region. Since his death, songs have been written to honor him. In fact, a distinct genre of hymn called Baahroo, recited both in his honor and as a prayer, has evolved. Today, a religious cult of sort exists around his life and deeds. It is difficult to enumerate the number of Sheik Hussein’s followers but his cult remained dominant among many similar practices in the region. -- Mohammed Ademo