“History is full of instances of people who challenged the mighty forces of evil and they were not only fighting a lonely battle but were left alone to die. If somebody asked me about achievement I would have to talk qualitatively because my forces have depleted. So what? People who were swearing by my values finally succumbed. I have been ex-communicated.”...

The Dargah of Mai Sahiba at Adchini near Mehrauli is one of my favourite Sufi spaces in Delhi. Her Urs, death anniversary, was celebrated last week. Along with hundreds of devotees, I sought blessings at her threshold. Each time I visit her Dargah, I am reminded of Mai Sahiba’s unwavering faith in God through all her trials and tribulations. Bibi Zulekha, popularly called Mai Sahiba, is the mother of Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya....

(I have seen nothing but the grace – of God),” The above phrase is proof enough of the identity of the Great Lady whose birthday we mark on the 5th of Jamadi al-Awwal every year with celebrations for her nurturing Islam back to life after history’s most heartrending tragedy. She expressed this phrase not in a state of ease, comfort, joys, and amenities, but in a state where the weak of heart, mind and soul, would wish death to be a welcome relief….

Imam Al-Ghazali is one of the greatest Islamic Jurists, theologians, entitled as Hujjatul Islam, (Ornament of the Faith)," Sharaful A'emma (Honor of the Scholar), Zainuddin "Great Siddîq," absolute Mujtahid, a major, a debater and expert in the principles of doctrine and jurisprudence. Shaykh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the renowned scholar of our time, states that, like ‘Umar ibn ‘Abd al-‘Aziz and Imam al-Shafi‘i for their respective times, al-Ghazali is unanimously considered as the Renewer (Mujaddid) of the Fifth Islamic Century....

Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya is also known as Mahboob-e-Elahi, meaning the Beloved of Allah. According to the Islamic calendar, this year the 709th Urs celebrations of this great Chishti Sufi master commence on the eve of February 28. The Dargah is representative of Delhi’s language, poetry, food, music and architecture. Just as in the life of Hazrat Nizamuddin, the Dargah continues to attract people from all sections of society, irrespective of class, creed, gender and faith.....

Lamartine, in his history of Turkey published in 1854, wrote, “If greatness of purpose, smallness of means, and astounding results are the three criteria of human genius, who would dare to compare any great man in modern history with Mohammad? “The most famous men create arms, law and empire only. They founded, if anything at all, no more than material powers ... This man moved not only armies, legislations, empires, people and dynasties, but millions of men in the one third of the then-inhabited world.”....

February 13 marked the birth anniversary of one of the most prolific Urdu poets, Faiz Ahmad Faiz. Faiz sahib stands out in the rich tradition of Urdu poetry as an ideologue who never shied away from taking up the momentous task of conveying the message mainly inspired by politics of the Left. That too in such a spellbinding manner that no other poet........

But a careful examination shows that the percentage of people killed in these wars relative to the number of the people who participated in them amounted to about 1.5 percent. Since the Messenger of Mercy was victorious in most of these battles, the numbers of casualties indicate that he is not to be counted among the ruthless and barbaric warlords, conquerors, and military generals of human history – and in fact, far from it....

In just 23 years of his life as prophet, Muhammad united nomadic warring Arab tribes into submission to One God. The revelations of the Quran alone did not transform them for they were largely illiterate. It was essentially the Prophet’s character that appealed to the rough Arabs. After humiliating and battling the Prophet for years, they handed him the keys of their hearts after recognising his qualities of honesty, humility, justice, compassionate and generosity.....

The Holy Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) was one of the greatest humanitarians that ever walked on the earth. In fact he must be called the saviour of humanity. George Bernard Shaw insists that “if a man like Muhammad were to assume dictatorship of the modern world, he would succeed in solving its problems that would bring it the much needed peace and happiness.”[The Genuine Islam] Similarly, a great historian, Lamartine argues that “as regards all standards by which human greatness may be measured, we may well ask, is there any man greater than he?”[Histoire de la Turquie] According to Michael H Hart, he leads the list of the Most Influential Persons in History’ (The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History’)

As a result, at the turn of the twentieth century, Maulvi Abdullah Chakralavi floated the idea of supremacy of Quran as the only comprehensive and divine source of guidance for Muslims in their religious beliefs and practices. He denounced Hadith and the practices of the Prophet (PBUH) ritualized in the form of Sunnah - the second most important source of religious guidance according to the consensus of Muslim scholars for many centuries - as irrelevant....

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….

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....

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....

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….