Drop the Prefix, I’m Just Muslim

Drop the Prefix, I’m Just Muslim
Very good article I was given the link to by Skinny.

(Posted using ShareThis)

PS: Hilarious change of ads on my blog suddenly. After the last post, it was Kashmir and holidays... Now Google is linking to sites giving special tips on converting to Islam. (Who converts based on a website ad? Hmmm. I am very interested in this phenomenon.)

The 'Presenting.....' Series

Have found perfect overdramatic animation-type pic to manipulate objects of admiration henceforth and make them mine... I am so kicked.

For example...Saab presents her latest 'friend' to the public. She found him one evening emerging from the ocean like so many Bo Dereks or Daniel Craigs. Saab was randomly taking a vacation in the Bahamas when fortuituously, this dream popped out of the water directly in her line of sight. The rest, as we know, is tabloid history.

Said eye candy's name is AK, which initials are coincidentally a very common occurrence in J&K, though in completely different scenarios.

See what I mean?

Anyway.

As Sir Iqbal kept trying to remind us.

The most striking feature of Islam is the equality of all human beings before God. At least this is what it started out as back in the good old days when Islam used to be Islam and the rot we see today hadn't seeped in.

Found a few pertinent lines of Allama (Scholar) Sir Mohd Iqbal's poetry [from his controversial Shikwa (Complaint)], which brings home this idea:

Aaa gaya aen-ladaai mein agar waqt-e-namaaz,
Qiblah-ruh ho ke zameen-bos hui qawm-e-Hijaz;
Ek hi saff mein khade ho gaye Mehmood-o-Ayaz,
Na koi bandah raha aur na koi bandah-nawaz;
Bandaho-sahibo-mohtaajo-ghani ek huay
Teri sarkaar mein pahunchay, toh sabhi ek huay.

Translation:
If the time for prayer right during the battle fell,
Their faces turned to the Kaa'bah, in prostration the brave Hejaz fell.
Mahmud and Ayaz stood together in the same flank,
The ruler and the slave forgot the difference in their rank.
The slave and the master, the poor and the rich , all became one!
On arrival in Thy audience all were reduced to one!

Towards the end of his Shikwa, Iqbal makes an appeal to Allah for the Ummah:

Mushkilen ummat-e-marhoom ki aasaan kar de,
Moor-e-be'maya ko hamdosh-e-Sulaiman kar de,
Jins-e-nayab-e-mohabbat ko phir arzaan kar de,
Hind kay dair-nasheenon ko Musalmaan karde.
Joo-e-khoon mi chakad az, hasrat-e-derina-e mau
Mee tapad naala ba nestar kada-e-seena-e-mau!

(Make easy the difficulties of the blessed Ummah,
Place the poor ant shoulder to shoulder with Sulaiman,
Make the invaluable produce of Love accessible again,
Change the idolatrous Muslims of India into Muslims again.
A stream of blood drips from the frustrations mine
Wailing palpitates in the wounded breast of mine!)

Too much only. Especially the weaving of Farsi with Urdu. Without the English translation I would be lost.

Incidentally, Iqbal’s ancestors were Sapru Kashmiri Brahmins. I did not know this! I will now shamelessly claim him for my own...

Allama Iqbal's 'Lab Pa Aati Hai Dua'

This most famous nazm of the great poet Allama Iqbal is a very common prayer in many Indian and Pakistani schools. Haji Public School, Breswana, is no exception. Unlike most of Iqbal's poetry, this is in really simple, beautiful Urdu, easy for everyone to understand.

Here's a preferred rendition by some kid called Siza Roy. Lyrics with translation provided in the YouTube video.


PS: Must make special mention of my kids who absolutely do not follow this tune. They have their own take on the music that should accompany this prayer.:)

Coming Soon...

Many pics. Many, many pics from recently concluded travels and visit to the school. Sample above.

Happy Birthday, Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde (16 October 1854 – 30 November 1900)Some funnies from the man:

1. I was working on the proof of one of my poems all the morning, and took out a comma. In the afternoon I put it back again.

2. Music makes one feel so romantic - at least it always gets on one's nerves - which is the same thing nowadays.

3. Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.

4. Anyone who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination.

5. Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months.

That Jan Moir Article

The original Daily Mail article here.

The clever satire on same article here on The Daily Quail, as it were.