We have just begun to walk, and we have miles to go ...

Better light a candle than curse the darkness

Monthly e-Magazine ISSN 2319-4049

http://bakhabar.biharanjuman.org/ Volume 9, Issue 10, October 2016BE AWARE, ALWAYS, EVERYWHERE

INSIDE

Founder’sMessage

We have just begun to walk, and we have miles to go ...

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What is Barakah? &How do we define it?

Imam Al-Raghib has a beautiful definition for Barakah,he says that:

“Barakah is the attachment of Divine Goodness to a thing.So if it occurs in something little it increases it, and if it oc-curs in something much, it benefits”

Let's think about this for a minute... attachment of DivineGoodness to a thing..

So if Allah attaches His Divine Goodness to your time.. youmight have little time but you do so much good..(think ofImam Al-Nawawi who died at the age of 45 but did somuch good!)

If Allah attaches Divine Goodness to your money.. youmight have little money but you help so many people withit.. or perhaps you're a rich person and Allah attachesBarakah to your wealth, and you do even more good!(Think of Uthmaan Bin Affan (RA) who was a wealthycompanion of the Prophet and who did so much good withhis wealth!)

If Allah attaches Barakah to your home, to your family, toyour work... you'll see increase and benefit from them! Howbeautiful is that!..

And -sadly - the opposite is also true.. If Allah removesBarakah from your life.. Then the opposite happens…youface overwhelming stress, your wealth/family turn againstyou, you don’t seem to be able to do good with your wealthand time..always just busy..

Barakah is something we should truly seek out and look toincrease in our lives..without it, we can end up leading verymiserable lives


I By Nisaar Y. Nadiadwala I

Afew months back an Islamic website quizzedits readers, specially females "Did you everhad a crush on your Shaikh?" There were

700 plus ladies who had answered and a large num-ber of them admitted that some times and somewhere they felt the pinch of it. How far these typesof surveys allowed to be taken in an Islamic societyis an issue for the Scholars.

Crush means to have a rosy feeling for somebody ofopposite sex you admire. It may be because you likehis or her style or skills or any good thing he or shepossesses. Infatuation is a synonym for crush. Youngboys and girls have this sting of crush and infatua-tion towards their class mates and school mates andin neighbourhood as well.

Teachers and psychologists say that it is natural tohappen. Many movie writers and novelists have ex-ploited this temptation and written stories around itthus upgrading the initial stages of temptation to-wards bold approaches with phrases like "What’swrong in it ?"

Crush and Infatuation are forms of satanic whispersthat appear soft and tickling to one's heart. Islami-cally you can say that it is an early stage of fornica-tion. Buds of Fornication that grow into thorns ratherthan flowers because most of these crushes and in-fatuations ends in heart breaks. This leads to a re-placement with a hunt for a better one. one bead tiesto another and the person becomes immodest and re-mains such. Affairs via internet and face book andsms on mobiles are common route to devilish bold-ness.

A few reasons why teens don’t consider crushes andinfatuations as early signs of fornication andFahishaa :

1. Because nobody tells them that it is bad, ratherelders boast before them about their own crushes intheir school days.

2. Because very body around them are into it. Every-

one seems to have crushes on movie heroes, sports-men and women, good looking famous personali-ties.....

3. it is circulated in a very alluring manner

4. Nobody shares their agony or mental trauma thatthey had undergone during this phase, thus lettingthe crushes be as rosy as it appears.

Dont forget that every huge tree begins with a smallseed or sapling and then it roots reaches far off underthe ground making it to strong to be uprooted. Itsroots suck up water from the earth underground tokeep itself healthy and strong. Crushes and Infatua-tions are seeds of fornications and adultery. If youwater them with rosy fantasies, day dreams, giftcards.... then you are raising up a huge tree with itsroots so deep and far that it will suck up your reli-gious spirits and sentiments too .....

The right hadith that comes to my mind : There is alump of flesh in every body, if it is good then all theactions are good and if it is sick then all the actionsare sick ( devilish ).. and indeed that lump of flesh isHEART..

*Nisaar Nadiadwala speaks and writes on Islam andMuslims. He can be reached [email protected]

Crush.. Infatuation.. Buds, andseeds of Fornications


I By Abdullah Hasan I

Athorough reading of the Prophet’s Seerah(biography) teaches us the best model toadopt in order to engender individual and

collective repose and harmony in the inward, out-ward, and also in the physical and spiritual dimen-sions of human existence. He embodied andexhibited the quintessential characteristics of a suc-cessful human being.

One core value or characteristic that always standsout in the demeanour of the Prophet is empathy. Theway he carried himself with others was impeccable,and this is why Allah described him as being on anexalted standard of character (68:4).

One of the pitfalls of da’wa, I have observed, is thelack of empathy people express and receive in theambiance of what we may term as the crucible of‘Islamic activism’. Some people, due to their overzealousness to convert people to the ‘correct posi-tion’ find themselves, regrettably, ignoring otherpeople’s emotional and spiritual state of mind andcontext.

When we pervade through the Qur’an and the Sun-nah and approaches they adopt in conveying themessage of tawhid to the people, we will find thattheir approaches were prudent, contextual and dy-namic; they always consid-ered the physical,psychological, social, polit-ical and even topographicalsurroundings and states ofpeople. This is why we seethe value of empathy standout in the da’wa of theProphet more than in othertraits. It is from this statethat all other states emergeand flourish. He was evendescribed in the Bible asthe ‘Comforter’, in otherwords, a counsellor andbearer of good news.

One of the impediments of effective da’wa is thelack of awareness of other people’s states and condi-tions. Another is the lack of knowledge or the lack ofappreciation of the multi natured or the diversity ofapproaches and intellectual foundations people areexposed to daily, as well as, the multicultural and di-verse reality they live in. In order to be effectiveagents of change in the community, Islamic activists(duat) should take into consideration what may betermed as the ‘Diversity- and relationship – orientedempathy’ attitude towards da’wa and the people whoare being called (mad’u). This, you may say, is moreof a counselling psychologist approach, which was,without a doubt, the method employed by theProphet when he interacted with other people.

This article will endeavour to illustrate some of theissues the callers should be cognisant of when ap-proaching Muslims and non Muslims alike in callingthem to Islam and the tawhid of Allah. Firstly, and asa pre-amble, in view of the fact that duat (Islamic ac-tivists) are like counsellors, it behoves us to definefrom the counselling psychologist perspective whatempathy is.

Different theoreticians and researchers have definedit in different ways. Some see it as a personality trait,a disposition to feel what other people feel or to un-derstand others ‘’from the inside’’, as it were. Others

see empathy, not as a per-sonality trait, but as a situ-ation-specific state offeeling for understandingof another person’s experi-ences. Covey (1989),naming emphatic commu-nication one of the ‘’sevenhabits of highly effectivepeople,’’ said that empathyprovides those with whomwe are interacting with‘’psychological air’’ thathelps them breathe morefreely in their associationsand connections. Finally,

Da’wa, Diversity and Empathy


Goleman (1995, 1998) puts empathy at the heart ofemotional intelligence.

It is the individual’s ‘’social radar’’ through which heor she senses others’ feelings and perspectives andtakes an active interest in their concerns. These andother academics, although they provide us with dif-ferent definitions, nevertheless, their language islyrical in giving us the maqsad (spirit) of what empa-thy denotes. It is a natural trait (jibillat) which alsocan be acquired through learning and understandingones own condition and experiences of others.

The Prophet was fully cognisant of the pivotal roleempathy plays in developing astute and diligenthuman beings and always was keen to educate peo-ple from an early age on this important value.

Below are some examples:

1. Anas Ibn Malik narrated that “the Prophet (peacebe upon him) used to mix with us (the children) tothe extent that he would say to a younger brother ofmine, ‘O Abu-‘Umayr! What did the Nughayr (akind of bird) do?’ “(Narrated by Al-Bukhari). Thisdemonstrated to the children that they were valued.This was the Messenger of Allah, who was a leaderof a state, a husband, father – despite these and otherheavy duties and obligations, he had time to playwith the children. This made them feel that they areloved, cared for and appreciated.

2. Whenever he would enter Medinah he wouldcarry his grandchildren and other children nearby onhis mount. Again, given them the important attentionchildren need.

3. In another well known tradition, a young compan-ion related that he spent many years with the Prophetand not once did hecomplain or rebuke him.

4. He would carry hisgranddaughter Umamahon his shoulders evenwhile he was praying.Some narrations evensay that he hastened tocomplete the prayer be-cause of them. Theseand other examplesshow the great teacherand counsellor the

Prophet was (peace be upon him).Unfortunately, this is not the case today. Children arebeing neglected and abused. Just recently, it was re-ported that a carer abused her position as a childminder by exploiting explicit pictures of childrenwith other people.

Researchers inform us that when parents and primecarers of children are unavailable physically and/oremotionally, when they are overindulgent, and whenchildren are exposed to violent media, they are indanger of becoming self-centred, prone to aggressiveand cruel behaviour, and unable to feel or express re-morse – a quasisociopthatic interpersonal style. TheWAVE Trust, an international charity dedicated toraising public awareness of the root causes of vio-lence in the society and the ways to reduce it, com-missioned research that came up with some amazingfindings: ‘’Empathy is the single greatest inhibitor ofthe development of propensity to violence. Empathyfails to develop when parents or prime carers fail toattune with their infants’’ (Hosking & Walsh, 2005,p.20). To attune to a child means ‘’attempting to re-spond to his or her needs, particularly emotionally,resulting in the child’s sense of being understood,cared for, and valued’’. (p. 20)

In many instances you will find that those who carryout acts of violence or cruel behaviour in the societyhave had issues and problems at their early lifewhich were not dealt with but suppressed, and intheir later stage of their life some external agent orincident triggers some of the feelings and they lashout expressing their inner turmoil which results incruel and sometimes inhumane behaviour.

Returning to the point raised earlier regarding ‘Di-versity- and relationship – oriented empathy’ attitudetowards da’wa and the people who are being called

(mad’u). This is an area Is-lamic activists should con-sider developing theirunderstanding and incul-cating in their da’wastrategies and work plans.Living in the west, duatare presented with myriadof challenges and diversetests. Although the peoplethey are calling have incommon their basic hu-manity, they will differfrom one another in a


whole host of ways – ability, age, economic status,education, ethnicity, group culture, national origin,occupation, personal culture, politics, religion – toname a few. These diverse target groups and multi-cultural categories require multicultural competen-cies from the perspective of the Islamic worker.What this entails is that the Islamic worker mustopen his or her horizons and vision. If we are tobring about a change in the community, a changethat is vibrant and effective, not just for the Muslimcommunity but for the wider non Muslim commu-nity as well, we must spread our wings and developnew and innovative skills and networks and not becontent with the walls we have built around us.

The Prophet, in addition to the different psychologi-cal and emotionally aspects he observed when call-ing individuals and groups to Islam, also employedthe multicultural and diverse competency skills.Below are some examples:

1. While the prophet was once returning to his houseafter talking to his companions in the mosque, aBedouin pulled him by the collar and said rudely: ‘OMuhammad! Give me my due! Load up these twocamels of mine. For you will load them up with nei-ther your own wealth nor the wealth of your father.’To this impertinence the prophet responded withoutexpressing any sign of offence: Give that man whathe wants! (Abu Dawud, Adab1). The Prophet under-stood the nature,cultural difference,economic status andpsychological stateof that Bedouin anddid not resort to re-buke him for hisrudeness and impu-dence towards him.

2. Zayd ibn San’annarrates: Once,Allah’s Messengerborrowed somemoney from me. Iwas not yet Muslimthen. I went to himto collect my debtbefore its due time,and insulted him,saying; ‘You thechildren of ‘Abd al-Muttalib, are very

reluctant to pay your debts!’ ‘Umar became veryangry with this insult of mine and shouted; ‘Oenemy of God! Were it not for the treaty between usand the Jewish community, I would cut off yourhead! Speak to God’s Messenger politely!’ However,Allah’s Messenger smiled at me and, turning toUmar, said; ‘Umar, pay the man his debt! And add toit the amount of twenty gallons because you havefrightened him!’ Umar relates the rest of the story:‘We went together. On the way, Zayd spoke to meunexpectedly; O Umar! You got angry with me. ButI have found in him all the features of the LastProphet recorded in the Torah, the Old Testament.However, there is this verse in it: ‘His mildness sur-passes his anger. The severity of impudence to himincreases him only in mildness and forbearance.’ Inorder to test his forbearance, I uttered what I uttered.Now I am convinced that he is the Prophet whosecoming the Torah predicted, so, I believe and bearwitness that he is the Last Prophet.’ (Suyuti, al-Kha-sais). The mildness and empathy of Allah’s Messen-ger sufficed for the conversion of Zayd, who was onanother religion and culture.

3. Even in the realm of worship, the Prophet wasdiligent and understood the different abilities andcircumstances of the people. When a complaint wascirculated about an imam because he prolonged theprayer, the Prophet climbed the pulpit and said: Oyou people! You cause aversion in people from

prayer. Whoeveramong you leads aprescribed prayershould not prolongit, for there areamong you peoplewho are sick or oldor who are in ur-gent need.’ (alBukhari). He evenreproached hisbeloved compan-ion, Muadh ibnJabal when he pro-longed the nightprayer, saying,‘Are you a trouble-maker? Are you atrouble-maker? Areyou a trouble-maker? (Muslim)

4. The Prophet


said, ‘No Arab is superior over a non Arab, and nowhite is superior over black (Musnad Ahmad), andsuperiority is by righteousness and God-fearingalone (Sura Hujurat, 49, 13). He also declared thateven if an Abyssinian Black Muslim were to ruleover Muslims, he should be obeyed. (Muslim). Dur-ing the time of the Messenger of Allah, the samekind of racism we encounter today, under the nameof tribalism, was prevalent in Makkah. He under-stood the biases and prejudice people had and eradi-cated it from the outset.

These are few examples out of many where theProphet showed and articulated diverse and multi-cultural competencies. The more duat (Islamic ac-tivists) understand the broad characteristics, needs,and behaviours of the population they are calling, thebetter positioned they are to adapt these broad fea-tures in the domain of da’wa to effectively becomebeacons of change in the community. Below is abasic list of competencies adapted from differentbooks, articles and experiences of individuals:

1. Beware of your ownpersonal culture, includ-ing your cultural her-itage, and how youmight come across topeople who differ fromyou culturally and in ahost of other ways.

2. Beware of the per-sonal-cultural biasesyou may have towardindividuals and groupsother than your own.

3. As an Islamic worker,be aware of both waysin which you are likeany given individualyou are targeting andways in which you dif-fer. Both can aid orstand in the way of theda’wa process.

4. Come to understandthe values, beliefs, andworldviews of groupsand individuals withyou want to call or

work with. In other words, to feel what other peoplefeel or to understand others ‘’from the inside’’, as in-dicated above.

5. Come to understand how all kinds of diversity,group, cultural, ethnical or otherwise, contribute toeach person’s dynamic make up.

6. Be aware of how socio-political influences such aspoverty, oppression, stereotyping, discrimination,prejudice, and marginalisation might have affectedpeople with whom you are working with or withthose you are trying to have a dialogue.

7. Establish rapport with and convey empathy topeople. Both in the individual and collective capac-ity.

8. Initiate and explore issues of difference betweenyourself and the people you are working with or giv-ing da’wa to. Always bearing in mind that Islamdoes not place any barriers between people (between

Muslims). In the endyour interactions (andthe barriers between usand them) with peopleare personal.

9. Design non biasstrategies and plans forpeople that factor in thediversity, education andupbringing they re-ceived.

10. Finally, asses youown level of compe-tence and strive to im-prove in all areasoutlines above.In other words, workwith people the waythey are, both Muslimsand non Muslims alike(to guide them and im-prove them), but do notfeel the need to apolo-gise for who you are.

Source: http://islamicforumeurope.com/live/ife.php?doc=articleit


I By Abu Productive I

The popular phrase “in sha Allah”, God will-ing, became headline news a few months agowhen a young man was removed from a plane

for saying it loudly while talking to his uncle overthe phone, and it was perceived as ‘potentiallythreatening’.

What followed was huge interest in the phrase “in-sha-Allah”, that led to a New York Times articlecalled “In-sha-Allah is Good for Everyone” wherethe article writer,Wajahat Ali, portrays the sad realityof what In-sha-Allah has come to mean these days:

“Most commonly, in-sha-Allah is used in Muslim-majority communities to escape introspection, hardwork, and strategic planning and instead outsourcesuch responsibilities to an omnipotent being, whosomehow, at some time, will intervene and fix ourcollective problems.”

If you ask any non-Muslim who lived in a majorityMuslim country, they would tell you how much theydread hearing the phrase “In sha Allah” from gov-ernment officials or colleagues because they believeit will not happen. I even remember a senior non-Muslim colleague yelling at somebody saying “No, Idon’t want to hear In-sha-Allah! Tell me, will you doit or not?” In which, the reply was “In sha Allah”!

So, how did In-sha-Allah devolve into this status andbecome so abused and misused? What is the truemeaning of In-sha-Allah and the story behind it?How can we restore the status of In-sha-Allah to itsrespectful place? This is what we will delve into inthis article.

The story behind in-sha-Allah

In his early years of preaching, Prophet Muham-mad’s faced a lot of hostility and accusations fromthe local tribes in Mecca who were weary of his newmessage of Oneness of God. He was called a liar, a

madman, a magician and the Meccans kept on plot-ting ways to stop his message.

One of these plots included paying a visit to the Jew-ish tribes that settled in Arabia and asking them toverify the credentials of this new Prophet. The Mec-cans – even though they were pagans – believed thatthe Jews were the people of the Book and had scrip-tures from God. So the Jewish leaders gave the Mec-cans a litmus test: 3 questions they should ask thenew Prophet. If he answered 2 of them and not thethird, then he was a true Prophet. Otherwise, he wasa liar.

The Meccans were ecstatic! Finally, they thoughtthey could corner the Prophet and ask him questionswhich he wouldn’t know the answers to since he wasnot from the people of the Book and was illiterate.The questions were:

1. Tell us about the young men who went into theCave2. Tell us about a King who ruled the east and thewest3. Tell us about the Soul.

When the Prophet was asked these 3 questions. Hereplied, “I’ll inform you tomorrow”. And he did notadd the phrase “in-sha-Allah”.

For 15 days, no revelation came to Prophet Muham-mad and the hostility against him intensified. “Yousee! We told you! He’s a liar! He doesn’t know theanswers to the questions – he said he’ll tell us tomor-row! And it’s been 15 days now!” The Meccans re-joiced.

On the 15th day, a beautiful chapter of the Qur’an,one that Muslims are encouraged to read every Fri-day, was revealed to the Prophet and it answered 2of the questions, and not the third thus passing thetest.

Here is the interesting bit. Close to the beginning ofthis chapter, a very clear message was given to

Let’s Restore the Dignity of “In-sha-Allah” by Learning Howto Say ‘No’


Prophet Muhammad about saying he will do some-thing tomorrow without saying In-sha-Allah. Allahtold him in the Qur’an:

And never say of anything, “Indeed, I will do that to-morrow,”

Except [when adding], “If Allah wills.” And remem-ber your Lord when you forget [it] and say, “Perhapsmy Lord will guide me to what is nearer than this toright conduct.” [Qur’an: Chapter 18, Verses 23-24]And, thus, the phrase “In-sha-Allah” became partand parcel of a Muslim’s lingo.

The wisdom behind saying in-sha-Allah

The scholars reflected on this story and drew threepearls of wisdom from it:

1. We say in-sha-Allah to avoid lyingWhen we say “I’ll do something tomorrow”, and forany reason we are not able to do it, technically wehave lied and broken a promise even though circum-stances were not in our favor. To stay truthful to ourword, we say “In-sha-Allah” so that if somethingdoes happen that was out of our control – we do notend up lying.

2. We say in-sha-Allah to stop regretLet’s say we planned a big day tomorrow with lotsof to-dos, and for some reason when tomorrowcame, things did not happen as planned. By the endof the day, we would normally feel regret and re-morse that we had not achieved what we set out toachieve. But, if “In-sha-Allah” is said while planningto-dos, we will have this calm realization that Allahdid not will it, and it did not mean to happen. Thus,no need to regret, and we can move on and plan forthe next day.

3. It is asking permission from Allah When we say in-sha-Allah, we are essentially askingpermission from Allah to make this happen as wehave planned (Whenever I finish planning my calen-dar for the following week – I make sure to add asincere “in-sha-Allah” because I deeply believewithout His help and support I can’t get much done.)This form of supplication embedded within in-sha-Allah connects our plans to our spirituality and theDivine.

When we look at the reasons above, we would real-ize how far we have come in misusing in-sha-Allah.

It is time to ask ourselves why? Why are we misus-ing in-sha-Allah so much?

The fear of saying ‘NO’ is our biggestdriver to abusing in-sha-Allah

No one likes to say no. It comes across as disrespect-ful, it makes others feel bad about themselves, andwe do not look good. So, as Muslims we have fig-ured a ‘genius’ way to say no without saying no: justsay “In-sha-Allah!”

It helps us argue – quite intelligently – that we hadthe intention to do something, but “Oh well, Allahdid not will it, therefore I don’t need to feel badabout it.”

Let’s have a different, but deeper look. When we sayin-sha-Allah and we do not have the sincere inten-tion or resolve to do what we say we are going to do,we are essentially disrespecting Allah . Why? Be-cause if we say in-sha-Allah and put zero or minimaleffort towards fulfilling what we have said we woulddo, we are then – by definition- blaming Allah forour laziness!

As Muslims, we believe that Allah gave us free willand choice. Our Creator also gave us a mind/body touse to get things done. If something was out of ourcontrol and it stopped us from doing what we hadsaid we would do, then yes, Allah did not will it.But if we had not put the effort in the first place,then how can we suggest that Allah did not will it?

Learning how to say NO instead of misus-


ing in-sha-Allah

We need a serious positive re-brand as Muslims forthe word in-sha-Allah. We must reach a point wherewhen someone hears in-sha-Allah, it should soundless like a joke, and more like “Yes! Definitely! Un-less I’m struck by a lighting, I’ll get it done”. Andfor that to happen, we need to learn the art of saying‘NO’.

There are three main techniques to use to say “No”instead of “In-sha-Allah” and still sound polite:

1. DelayWhile coming across a colleague in the elevator whoinvites us to a meeting the same afternoon, our nor-mal reaction may be to say “In-sha-Allah” (whilstdeep inside, we know we will not attend). So insteadof saying In-sha-Allah, we can tell him “Let mecheck my calendar and get back to you.”

2. DivertWhen marked by the boss to work on a brand newproject we are not interested in or have no experi-ence in, we would rather avoid working on it. In-stead of saying in-sha-Allah in such cases, we can lethim/her know that “I’m not the best person for thisproject because of XYZ reasons,” and can suggestsomeone else who can contribute better to the proj-ect.

3. ShrinkIt’s an important client meeting that last 3 hours;they ask us to join. Our portion is only 30 minutes.Instead of telling them “In-sha-Allah, I’ll join”, wecan simply suggest to them that we would attend forthe first half an hour because that is the part mostrelevant to us and we have commitments to com-plete.

It is not hard to say ‘NO’ once we have practiced it afew times. In fact, people will appreciate us morethan when we misuse in-sha-Allah and break prom-ises.

How can managers/employers encourage apositive use of In-sha-Allah?

Individuals trying to improve how they use in-sha-Allah would only make a small difference in re-branding in-sha-Allah although it is a good start!

What would be more effective is if a cultural trans-

formation happens at work, especially in Muslimmajority institutions/countries, that is led by man-agers/employers who educate their employees onbetter ways of saying in-sha-Allah and NO. Fewpractical tips below:

1. Education on the word in-sha-AllahFeel free to share this article with yourcolleagues/peers/subordinates and let a discussionbegin in the workplace on the misuse of the word In-sha-Allah and how to improve upon it. Make themrealize the cost of abusing in sha Allah not only froma spiritual standpoint but also in terms of loss of pro-ductivity due to lack of clear communication.GiveFeedback when In-sha-Allah is misused: As a man-ager when you hear the phrase In-sha-Allah beingmisused; give feedback (publicly and privately),therefore letting them realize that they shouldn’t takeIn-sha-Allah lightly and you’re holding them ac-countable for their promises.

2. Make it easier to say “No”In some company cultures, it becomes career suicideto say “no” to your boss/manager. Take the pressureoff from employees by making them realize that say-ing a legitimate “no” is better than lying and abusingIn-sha-Allah.

ConclusionThe phrase In-sha-Allah is a powerful and deeplyspiritual phrase that if used properly can really helpus understand the link between our work/lives andthe unseen world of Allah’s will. I pray that this arti-cle sheds some light on how we should use in-sha-Allah, and therefore we can start to save this phrasefrom becoming a practical joke among Muslims andnon-Muslims, and instead we restore the dignity andsanctity of it.What are some of your effective techniques to say‘no’ politely? Share with us in the comments!


I By Dr Mohammad Manzoor Alam I

Human sacrifice has been a part of history.The evil practice still continues in parts ofthe world, including India. We read reports

of such sacrifices in India once in a while made topropitiate some goddess to ask her for wealth, prog-eny or for the success of some small installation likea rice machine in a remote village.

For such sacrifices the children of the poor, weak,Dalits and tribals are selected secretly and picked upstealthily because the criminals, even if their deed isdetected, cannot be brought to justice by the poorparents of victims. And, probably nobody in powerhas chosen to look at it and no guilty person hasbeen brought to book. None that we know of.

During the Jahiliyah (pre-Islamic times in Arabia)humans used to be offered in sacrifice to the god-desses within the precincts of the holy Ka’aba, nearthe fountain of Zam Zam. At that point the fountainwas covered with earth and stone with the neglect ofcenturies, to the extent that nobody knew whether asteam flowed below the surface. Zam Zam was dis-covered accidentally by the grandfather of theProphet (PBUH) when he saw water slowly oozingout of a place where crows were digging for remainsof sacrificed persons in the near past. He cleared theplace and Zam Zam began to flow again.

Within decades of that event came the advent ofIslam with its complete, unconditional ban on humansacrifice for all time to come. Islam’s position is thathuman sacrifice is not acceptable to God, becauseHe did not accept the sacrifice of Prophet Abraham’s(PBUH) son, Ishmael, and accepted a lamb in sacri-fice, instead.

For marking that event (Abraham’s attempt to sacri-fice his son, but God saving him and replacing himwith a lamb) Muslims all over the world celebrateEid al-Azha (also known in the subcontinent asBaqrid and Eid Qurbani).

A flashback is called for here although what I pro-pose to say here briefly is already widely known.

The Patriarch Abraham, also known as the father ofthree faiths––Judaism, Christianity and Islam––sawin his dream that God was asking him to sacrifice hisbeloved son, Ishmael, to propitiate Him.

Abraham duly proceeded to slaughter his son in thename of God, but while he sliced his son’s jugularGod replaced Ishmael with a lamb. When Abrahamopened his eyes he found his son standing by himunhurt and a freshly slaughtered lamb in his place.The message was clear: God had accepted Abrahamas his khalil (friend) for his love of the Creator andhis obedience to Him.

The message was also that there would be no humansacrifice after that event. Jews and Christians, too,along with Muslims, hold this belief. Eid Qurbani,too, has its connotations. The world qurbani is drawnfrom the derivative qurb (closeness, nearness). Abra-ham’s qurbani was offered to God seeking His close-ness.

The ten days of Zil Hijjah up to the day of Eid al-Azha are some of the holiest days in the eyes ofGod, according to the holy Quran. All good deeds–prayers, supplications, spending in the way of God,helping people in need and physically working in theservice of God and His creation–please God more inthese days than in most others. That is why Muslimsincrease their devotion manifold in these days andnights, following the example of our Prophet(PBUH). Now only a few of those days are left. So,let us increase our efforts.

Reciting the takbeer, Lailaha illallah o wallahoAkbar Allaho Akbar walillahil hamd all these tendays frequently is an act of great piety. This is re-cited loudly from the Fajr prayers a day before Eidtill the fourth day of Eid al-Azha till Asr prayersafter all the five fard prayers.

With this I take your leave and wish you a happyEid. The sacrifices go on for three days among MostMuslims. For some it goes on for four days. For spe-cific masael please consult your local aalim or mufti.http://iosworld.org/short_takes/Eternal_ban_on_human_sacrifice.htm

E t e r n a l b a n o n h um a n s a c r i f i c e


Founder's message:

We believe in mutual respect and peacefulcoexistence. We assign utmost importanceto self-help. In order that our lost pride

can be regained, we need to help ourselves. That’swhy we are trying to promote a culture of givingrather than begging from other organizations or gov-ernments. Our inner strength will only come fromthe culture of giving and by coming out of the char-ity mindset (that has blessed our educational systemwith the madarsa culture) and mediocrity. Beggarscan’t be choosers. We have to decide which side wewould be. None but Allah owns the resources of thisworld, which He assigns to whom He wills. He allo-cates these resources most wisely. Resources liketime and money can never be constraints in carryingout the good deeds that we wish to do, thus follow-ing the commandment of Allah Subhanahu WaTáala. Helping hands are always better than prayinglips. And, Allah says: Verily never will Allah changethe condition of a people until they change it them-selves (Quran, 13:11), so we need to take the initia-

tives, and help those who do the same. That’s exactlywhy Bihar Anjuman was founded, and that’s exactlywhat we stand for.

Dear brothers and sisters, our experience says thateveryone agrees to support a good cause if someonetakes initiative. Muslims from Bihar and Jharkhandin your city are definitely not as unattached withtheir community as we feel. It’s a matter of justreaching out to them, helping them. Someone has todo it. Who else could be better than you?

Bihar Anjuman provides a channel to you so that thecommunity can rise from its shoddy present to aworthy future that can be viewed with pride and re-spect by other communities. We urge you to comeforward and join hands with the sole intention ofpleasing Allah. With your hand in ours, we may riseabove the ordinary to build a strong base of educatedpeople before whom the entire world spreads itshands to beg for knowledge and technology, for wis-dom and strategy.

We have just begun to walk,and we have miles to go...

Bihar Anjuman thanks all those who havebeen with us through our journey, from asimple network to some tangible work onthe ground. The journey of a thousandmiles begins with a baby step, a few help-ing hands.


I By Shakeel Ahmad I

{It is fine to term men as dogs because of similarityin their behaviour to that creature! But, how can youequate man to as beautiful a creation of GodAlmighty as a woman! No injustice against womencan be as macabre as this!}

If only God created men to bear children, the"Gender Equality", "Women's Rights", or "Gen-der Justice" movements would not have been re-

quired, nor would women need to be provoked into"confronting the men"; women would be the bullyinstead! I think the chauvinistic conditioning of themale mind doesn't begin at home, but much earlier,in the heavens!! If only God created the men andwomen equal, none would be able to bully the other,nor would any of them need to subjugate. Both beingequal, they would wrestle along the whole of theirlife, if at all they could bear each other!! Ek meyaanmeN do tal-waar!! Manwould bearone child,woman an-other, a per-fect balance;but alas!! Mysister'smother wouldbe a man, andmy mother awoman. Ihope it's notgetting tooconfusing!!Sorry for that... men andwomen,please forgiveme equally!!

Bullying is inhuman nature.The strongerone (humansas well as ani-

mals) always bullies the weaker one. If the weakerone agrees to play second fiddle - in managementphilosophy, it is called “division of labour”, love andpeace (backed by sympathy, maybe) may prevail,else the tug of war, suspicion breeding more suspi-cion, and conflict will be an order of the day. Wewitness this every day in our offices - men bullyingmen, they don't necessarily have to bully a woman;they could easily be bowled over by women peers.Women bullying women is even an uglier sceneeverywhere, be it the office or home.Stronger families or clans bully the weaker ones;same is true for nations. This is the way we are cre-ated - all living beings - so why complain? And,complain to whom? By provoking one party to opena front against the other, we are not solving the prob-lem at all; we are only opening new frontiers; to noavail.

“Compromise” may be a dirty word only as long asit does notgive way to itspositive coun-terparts like“accommoda-tion”, “adapta-tion” (even,“adjustment”).Similarly, “ex-ploitation”may sound of-fensive onlyuntil we lookat it from an-other perspec-tive, forexample, if weperceive it as“helping” theother party, itautomaticallybecomes anoble act - thismay only needadjustment ofour ego-con-trols.

Gender Justice, Gender Equality, Women’s Rights –

a chance to act God!


The liberated woman is suffering far more becauseshe is fighting the battle on more than one front, andfinally finds herself shattered, leaving the society intatters - they are exploited in office, at home, in thestreets. The beasts of prey are waiting for an easy"catch”, sometimes to prove they are stronger (tosubdue the “weaker sex”), sometimes “just for fun”,sometimes to avenge an insult (as are demands ofequality perceived). Her “freedom” sets her free as acommodity ready to be consumed. The source of ex-ploitation of the free-bird is friends more often thanthe foes.

Why should women alone compromise; just becausethey are physically weak? Can’t men be exploited;they must be having some weaknesses? Well, mostmen are in fact lured into spending time and moneyon women friends and partners. Not an exploitation?Fine. What about this finding “3 in 4 B.C. boys onstreet sexually exploited by women”?[http://bit.ly/vl6o9u]. Well, “men aren’t boys” whowould complain against exploitation by the oppositesex! They have learnt to enjoy this exploitation;muslim men permit exploitation by more than onewoman at a time, and enjoy it too.

Gender justice, which is definitely an area everyonemust work on so that he or she is not caught off-guard by Allah, for any injustice done to the other in-dividuals around him or her. But, I always wonderhow there can be gender equality!! Gender is a cre-ation of the Almighty. It was His discretion to createtwo different genders or three, but not one. Is itwithin the capability of us humans to make the dis-tinctively different creatures equal? Is it not same asdreaming to make dogs equal to cats or men. I mean,it is fine to term men as dogs because of similarity intheir behaviour to that creature! But, how can youequate men to as beautiful a creation of GodAlmighty as women! No injustice against womencan be as macabre as this! I mean how can I ask mywife to make me as beautiful as her? However muchher cosmetics I steal-and-use for my sandy skin, howcan I tun them as soft as hers. And, how can I simi-larly be as soft in behaviour to my kids as she alwaysis!!

Allah has placed Jannah at the feet of women, can Isnatch that away from my wife's feet? Even if Iscrape, scratch or lick the underside of her feet, orthe ground underneath, the whole of my life, willthat Jannah ever be mine?

Allah's advice to my kids is to care for their motherthree times more than me; in fact they do so even ifthey are unaware of this because Allah has perhapsfilled their hearts with much more love for theirmother than for their father. Now, how can your gen-der equality campaign provide justice to me?

Compromise is the key to happy life in this tempo-rary phase of our being. If men did not compromisetheir freedom in favour of women, no social fabriccould be imagined – unless one fibre makes way forthe others, no fabric is possible. If women did notsacrifice their freedom and joy for the sake of theirchildren, boys and girls alike, procreation would stopand this phase of life would come to a screechinghalt.

It is the combined responsibility of men and womento try to remove the discrepancies, disputes, dispari-ties; together, like the two eyes.Imperfections wouldexist, we can't eliminate them; we aren't God ....!

For water to flow naturally, one side (end) has to belower than the other; love flows in similar fashion -the best example is that from parents to children.And yes, most men have to bow before their womento receive an affectionate kiss.

Aap se jhuk ke jo milta hogaUs ka qad aap se Ooncha hoga ...


I By Nisaar Nadiadwala I

The dead bodies of 70 Muslim warriorswere scattered all around the low area ofUhud. People moved around to identify

the dead. Among the dead, a young man with hisarms cut off and injuries on neck was lying onthe ground dead. Musa'b bin Umair (r.a) haddied while struggling to save the Prophet (pbuh).

Returning back to Madina, the patience of theMuslim women of Madina matched the heroicperformance of their men. A woman struggled toreach the Prophet (pbuh) to find out if he wasfine. She was Hamnah bin Jahsh. The prophetannounced the death of her brother Abdullah.“Innalillahi,” she responded. Then she was toldabout Hamzah bin Abdul Muttalib's martyrdom.“Innalillahi,” she responded. Then the news ofher beloved husband Mus'aib bin Umair was de-livered to her, she shouted and wept aloud. TheMessenger said, “The woman's husband was ex-tremely dear toher.”

In Makkah,only few yearsback, youngMusaib waswell knownfor his stylishlife style, hiswardrobe hadthe best Arabdresses andperfumes. Hismother Khu-naas BintMaalik wasamong therichest ladiesof Makkah and

people feared her almost to the point of terrorbecause she possessed a strong personality.When the news of his embracing Islam reachedhis mother, she aimed a heavy blow on him.However, under the pressure of her motherli-ness, she spared him the beating and the pain, al-though it was within her power to avenge hergods whom he had abandoned. Instead, she tookhim to a rough corner of her house and shut himin it. She put shackles on him and imprisonedhim there. Mus'ab did not give up Islam so shethrew him out of her house asking him to leaveevery luxury provided by her. He went awaywearing a piece of rag cloth to cover himself.

When she said to him, “Go away, I am no longeryour mother,” Mus'ab went close to her and said,“O Mother, I am advising you and my heart iswith you, please bear witness that there is noGod but Allah and that Muhammad is His ser-vant and messenger.” She replied to him, angrilyraging, “By the stars, I will never enter your reli-

gion, to degrademy status andweaken mysenses!” So,Mus'ab left thegreat luxury inwhich he hadbeen living. Hebecame satisfiedwith a hard lifehe had neverseen before,wearing theroughestclothes, eatingone day andgoing hungryanother.

He went out one

Glorious Pages from theHistory of Islam


day to some Muslims while they were sittingaround the Prophet, and no sooner did they seehim than they lowered their heads and shedsome tears for his wearing worn out garments.They were accustomed to his former appearancebefore he had become a Muslim, when hisclothes had been like garden flowers, elegantand fragrant. The Prophet (pbuh) saw him withthe eyes of wisdom, thankful and loving, and hislips smiled gracefully as he said, “I saw Mus'abhere, and there was no youth in Makkah morepetted by his parents than he. Then he aban-doned all that for the love of Allah and HisProphet!”

In a famous incident after the victory at Badr,the Muslims captured some Makkans and soughtto ransom them. Mus’ab was passing by theranks of the prisoners and stopped he when sawhis brother, Abu Azeez ibn Umayr among them.However, he instructed his brother’s captor tobind him securely and to extract a large ransomfor the prisoner, because his mother was a veryrich woman. When the brother sought to remindMus’ab of his relationship, Mus’ab replied, “Ionly recognize brotherhood of the faith, this manis my brother, not you!”

At the end of Uhud, The Prophet (pbuh) stood atthe remains of Mus'ab ibn Umair saying, whilehis eyes were flowing with tears, love and loy-alty, Among the believers are men who havebeen true to their covenant with Allah. (Surah AlAhzab, chapter 33, verse 23) Then he gave a sadlook at the garment in which he was shroudedand said, “I saw you at Makkah, and there wasnot a more precious jewel, nor more distin-guished one than you, and here you are bare-headed in a garment!” There was nothing toshroud him except his old shirt which could notreach his feet, so his feet were covered withgrass and they buried him.

These jewels of Islam are the parameters for usto judge how high we can climb to Taqwa. Is ourfaith capable enough to sacrifice our extrava-gance style of life? The moral of the story ofMu'sab: Mus'ab did both. He lived for Islam andlived by Islam, and died for Islam and died onIslam. We are ready to die for Islam (as per ourclaims) but how many of us are willing to livefor Islam?

[email protected]


I By Dr Absar Ahmad I

The term used for knowledge in Arabic is ‘ilm,which has a much wider connotation. ‘knowl-edge´ falls short of expressing all the aspects

of ‘ilm. Knowledge in the Western world means in-formation about something, divine or corporeal,while ‘ilm is an all-embracing term covering theory,action and education. Islam is the path of "knowl-edge". No other religion or ideology has so muchemphasized the importance of ‘ilm. In the Qurán theword ‘alim has occurred in 140 places, while al-’ilmin 27. In all, the total number of verses in which ‘ilmor its derivatives and associated words are used is704. The aids of knowledge such as book, pen, inketc. amount to almost the same number. Qalam oc-curs in two places, al-kitab in 230 verses, amongwhich al-kitabfor al-Qurán occurs in 81 verses.Other words associated with writing occur in 319verses. It is important to note that pen and book areessential to the acquisition of knowledge. The Is-lamic revelation started with the word iqra´ (‘read!ór ‘recite!´).

The first teaching class for Adam started soon afterhis creation and he was taught ‘all the Names´ (al-lama Adam al-asmaa kullaha-2:31). Allah is the firstteacher and the absolute guide of humanity. Thisknowledge was not imparted to even the Angels.

The idea of ilm distinguishes the world-view ofIslam from all other outlooks and ideologies: noother world-view makes the pursuit of knowledge anindividual and social obligation and gives enquirythe same moral and religious significance as wor-ship.

To translate ilm as ‘knowledge´ is to do injustice,even though it be unintentional, to this sublime andmulti-dimensional concept. It certainly contains theelements of what we understand today as knowl-edge. But it also contains the components of what isdescribed as ‘wisdom´. But this is not the end of thestory. We can best under-stand the notion with refer-ence to other concepts of the Qurán to which it isintricately linked. This ilm also has some connota-tion of ibadah (worship); that is, the pursuit of ilm isa form of worship. Similarly, ilm incorporates theQuránic notion of khilafah (trusteeship of man):thus, men (and women) seek ilm as trustees of God

for if ilm is sought outside this framework it will vi-olate the fundamental Islamic notion of tawheed.And, the means by which ilm is acquired and thefinal use to which it is put both by the individual andsociety are both subject to accountability: theQuránic concept of akhrah (the Hereafter) en-velopes ilm to ensure its moral and social relevance.These few of the many, many dimensions of ilmil-lustrate the complex and sophisticated nature of thenotion.

The synthesis of a whole array of principles and no-tions into a single, unified concept of ilm is one ofthe basic features of the world-view of Islam. It wasthis universal synthesis that demolished the artificialboundaries of the so-called religious and secularknowledge. And it was this universal synthesiswhich ensured that for a Muslim, knowledge was notan isolated, abstract act or thought; it was at the veryroot of his/her being and world-view. It is not sur-prising then that ilm had so much significance forearly Muslims, that countless Muslim thinkers wereso occupied with the exposition of the concept. Theirconceptualization of ilm is perhaps best manifestedin the attempted definitions of ilm of which thereseems to be no dearth. The quest of these scholars todefine ilm in all its shapes and forms was inspired bythe belief that ilm was nothing more than a manifes-tation of tawheed; "understanding the signs of God",being near Him, as well as building a civilization re-quired comprehensive pursuit of knowledge.

KNOWLEDGE VS ILM


In the Islamic context, the knowledge-seeking mindhas not only a conceptual-spiritual being, but also asocial-material existence. Islam has never allowedthe speculative and active lives to become totally di-vorced from each other. Thought and reflection havealways been wedded to action. On the one hand, ac-cording to a prophetic tradition, an hour of thought-ful reflection is better than sixty years of acts ofworship. But knowledge without action has been de-scribed as a tree without fruit. Contemplativethought (tafakkur) and reflection in Islamic spiritual-ity essentially provide a knowledge that relates theknower to higher modes of being.

The Holy Book considers all things to be "signs"(ayat) pointing to the ultimate origin of the world.Besides describing the internal structure of an object,its history, present state, and future course of devel-opment, it also discusses its place in perspective ororigination and ultimate end; that is, it makes a verti-cal movement that cuts across the horizontal physi-cal plane. Thus the systems of "efficient cause" and"final cause" act as two wings attached to the bodyof the experimental science (study of internal struc-ture) helping it to break out of static, earth-boundstate and enabling it to fly in the infinite skies of theDivine world outlook. The same sort of approach to-wards the phenomena of this world can be seenthroughout the Quran. In this manner the two wingsof origination and ultimate purpose are revived andrejuvenated in all the research being carried outabout these phenomena. In this way, the Holy Quranturns knowledge into reason, reason into wisdom,and mental conceptions into verities. This is thefashion in which the Quran coordinates the findingsof theoretical reason with the effort of practical rea-son. This means that the Quran turns a specialist intoman of religion, a scientific researcher into a practi-cal investigator, a scientific "authority" into a devo-tee of the Truth, a technical inventor into acommitted believer, an industrial entrepreneur into aman of faith, thus transforming raw mind into a sea-soned intellect.

In the past Muslim philosophers did not consider anyfield of learning to be truly independent science.They believed that, without the science of ethics andspiritual purification, mastery over any science wasnot only devoid of any value, but it would in factlead to the befogging of insight and ultimate destruc-tion of those who pursue it. That is why it has beensaid that "al-ilmu´ huwa al-hijab al-akbar" whichmeans that knowledge itself is the thickest of veils,

which prevents man from seeing the real nature ofthings. Moral virtues in man gain him eternal happi-ness and vision of the truth, while moral corruptionleads him to everlasting wretchedness and ignorance.It is, therefore, necessary for man to purge and pu-rify himself of all evil traits of character and adornhis soul with all forms of ethical and moral virtues.The human soul can be compared to a mirror in thisregard. If we wish to see something beautiful re-flected in a mirror, we must first clean the mirror, sothat dust and dirt do not disfigure the reflection. Anyattempt to attain true veridical knowledge would befruitful and successful only when one has purifiedhimself of evil habits and tendencies. In the words ofthe Quran those who have a sound heart (i.e., qalb-e-saleem) can be granted true knowledge of the Real.In order to attain ultimate and final perfection inknowledge and action, is it necessary to traverse thepath of struggle against the selfish lusts and immoraltendencies which may exist within the soul and thusto prepare the soul to receive the grace of God. Ifman sets foot on the path of self-purification and ac-tively engages in performing religious obligationsGod comes to his aid and guides him along the rightpath. The Quranic verse 69 of Surah Al-Ankabut as-serts: "As for those who strive hard in Our cause, weshall most certainly guide them onto paths that leadunto Us.

Extracted from "Exploring Islamic Theory ofKnowledge"


I By Sameen Ahmed Khan I

Professor Niyaz Ahmed received the bouquetfrom the Director General of CSIR, Dr GirishSahni (sent through local florist), immediately

after the announcement of the Bhatnagar Awards on26 September 2016.

Professor Dr. Niyaz Ahmed has been conferred theprestigious Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize in Med-ical Sciences. Niyaz Ahmed is an internationallyknown medical microbiologist working at the Uni-versity of Hyderabad, India. A Fellow of the RoyalSociety of Chemistry (UK), Royal Society of Biol-ogy (UK) and the National Academy of SciencesIndia, as well as the founder Editor -in-Chief of Gut

Pathogens journal. The Shanti Swarup BhatnagarPrize for Science and Technology(SSB) is a science award given annu-ally by the Council of Scientific andIndustrial Research (CSIR) for notableand outstanding research, applied orfundamental, in biology, chemistry,environmental science, engineering,mathematics, medicine and Physics.The purpose of the prize is to recog-nize outstanding Indian work. Thereis an age limit of forty-years. It is themost coveted award in multidiscipli-nary science in India. The award isnamed after the founder Director ofthe Council of Scientific & IndustrialResearch, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar.It was first awarded in 1958. Mostcommentators consider it to be theNobel Prize of India.

The eleven recipients in the seven dis-ciplines are as follows. BiologicalSciences: Rishikesh Narayanan andSuvendra Nath Bhattacharyya; Chemi-cal Sciences: Partha Sarthi Mukherjee;Earth, Atmosphere, Ocean and Plane-tary Sciences; Sunil Kumar Singh; En-gineering Sciences: Avinash Kumar

Agarwal and Venkata Narayana Padmanabhan;Mathematical Sciences: Amlendu Krishna andNaveen Garg; Medical Sciences: Niyaz Ahmed;Physical Sciences: Subramaniam Anantha Ramakr-ishna and Dr Sudhir Kumar Vempati. The recipientswere announced during the annual CSIR FoundationDay celebrated each year on 26 September, which isthe birth anniversary of Dr Shanti Swarup Bhatna-gar, who was the Founder Director of CSIR.

Dr Niyaz Ahmed was born in Paras Village of AkolaDistrict in Maharashtra to Late Mr Abdus Samad andLate Mrs Aqeela Parveen. He is the grandson of themost respected figure of the village Late Mr. HajiBasheeruddin. He has three brothers all of whom

Niyaz Ahmed Conferred the ShantiSwarup Bhatnagar Prize in MedicalSciences

Page 1 of 3

Niyaz Ahmed Conferred the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize in Medical Sciences

Professor Niyaz Ahmed received the bouquet from

the Director General of CSIR, Dr Girish Sahni (sent through local florist), immediately after the announcement of the Bhatnagar Awards on 26 September 2016.

Professor Dr. Niyaz Ahmed has been conferred the prestigious Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize in Medical Sciences. Niyaz Ahmed is an internationally known medical microbiologist working at the University of Hyderabad, India. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (UK), Royal Society of Biology (UK) and the National Academy of Sciences India, as well as the founder Editor -in-Chief of Gut Pathogens journal. The Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology (SSB) is a science award given annually by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) for notable and outstanding research, applied or fundamental, in biology, chemistry, environmental science, engineering, mathematics, medicine and Physics. The purpose of the prize is to recognize outstanding Indian work. There is an age limit of forty-years. It is the most coveted award in multidisciplinary science in India. The award is named after the founder Director of the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research, Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar. It was first awarded in 1958. Most commentators consider it to be the Nobel Prize of India. The eleven recipients in the seven disciplines are as follows. Biological Sciences: Rishikesh Narayanan and Suvendra Nath Bhattacharyya; Chemical Sciences: Partha Sarthi Mukherjee; Earth, Atmosphere, Ocean and Planetary Sciences; Sunil Kumar Singh; Engineering Sciences: Avinash Kumar Agarwal and Venkata Narayana Padmanabhan; Mathematical Sciences: Amlendu Krishna and Naveen Garg; Medical Sciences: Niyaz Ahmed; Physical Sciences: Subramaniam Anantha Ramakrishna and Dr Sudhir Kumar Vempati. The recipients were announced during the annual CSIR Foundation Day celebrated each year on 26 September, which is the birth anniversary of Dr Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar, who was the Founder Director of CSIR. Dr Niyaz Ahmed was born in Paras Village of Akola District in Maharashtra to Late Mr Abdus Samad and Late Mrs Aqeela Parveen. He is the grandson of the most respected figure of the village Late Mr. Haji Basheeruddin. He has three brothers all of whom are PhD holders namely Dr Aejaz Ahmed, Dr Irshad Ahmed and Dr Naushad Zubair. His primary education was completed in Government ZP Urdu Middle School, Paras and high schooling at Usman Azad High School and Junior College Akola. He has graduated in veterinary medicine (BVSc & AH) in 1995 from Nagpur Vet College, PKV Akola and MS Biotechnology from NDRI Karnal and Ph. D in Molecular medicine (Manipal).


are PhD holders namely Dr Aejaz Ahmed, Dr IrshadAhmed and Dr Naushad Zubair. His primary educa-tion was completed in Government ZP Urdu MiddleSchool, Paras and high schooling at Usman AzadHigh School and Junior College Akola. He hasgraduated in veterinary medicine (BVSc & AH) in1995 from Nagpur Vet College, PKV Akola and MSBiotechnology from NDRI Karnal and Ph. D in Mo-lecular medicine (Manipal).

He has joined Centre for DNA fingerprinting and Di-agnostics Hyderabad in 1998 and served there for 10years. In December 2008 he joined the University ofHyderabad as a member of the Faculty and presentlyserving as Chairman of the Department of Biotech-nology and Bioinformatics. Ahmed is also affiliatedwith the University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur,Malaysia as a Visiting Professor of Molecular Bio-sciences at the Institute of Biological Sciences. Healso serves as Adjunct Professor of the Academy ofScientific and Innovative Research, India. He has re-ceived several national and international awards in-cluding: National Bioscience Award 2011; ShyamaSingh and Balamati Devi Award by the Indian Asso-ciation for the Advancement of Veterinary Research,2007; Academy Professor, Academy of Scientificand Innovative Research, India April 2013; Univer-sity of Hyderabad Chancellor’s Award 2015; BestOration Award for Basic Research Nicosia, Cyprus,2015.

Through his productive and translational work, sus-tained commitment and dedication to public healthmicrobiology in India, Ahmed made founding andpioneering contributions to the development of Mo-lecular Epidemiology of bacterial pathogens.Ahmed made seminal contributions to host-pathogenepidemiology of bacterial pathogens such as TBbacilli and Helicobacters. He has also contributed in

unraveling the population genetic structure and viru-lence mechanisms of major human pathogens. Theresearch of Niyaz Ahmed is of an applied nature andhas already impacted human health.

Very few Muslims have received in 58 year historyof the Bhatnagar prize. He is the first Muslim fromthe Vidarbha region to get the coveted honour. The‘Science Family’ of Niyaz Ahmed numbering over150 consists of his students, postdoctoral researchersand research collaborators distributed in prestigiouspositions across the world. He is married toWaseema Niyaz and blessed with two daughters, Fa-reeha Firyal and Rumaisa Maryam; and a son,Suhayb Gazali.

Reported by: Sameen Ahmed Khan, Department of Mathematicsand Sciences, College of Arts and Applied Sciences,Dhofar University, Salalah, Sultanate of Oman,http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1264-2302, [email protected],

Further Details:

1. Wikipedia entry:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niyaz_Ahmed

2. Facebook entry,https://www.facebook.com/NiziAhmed/

3. Personal Website, https://niyazahmed.org/

4. Google Scholar Profile,https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=0RaW-fUwAAAAJ&hl=en

5. List of recipients for the Shanti Swarup Bhat-nagar Prize for Science and Technology 2016,http://csirhrdg.res.in/ssb_awardees2016.pdf


I By Dr Javed Jamil I

I have been advocating for several years that thereis a need to wage an aggressive ideological waragainst the ideology of economic fundamentalism,Westernism being its most visible face in today’sworld. If Hijab is to be protected, the only way to dois to wage a full-fledged attack on nakedness andall forms of its commercialisation. Women of theWest must be made aware of the designs of theforces of economics. This has to be done through awell-orchestrated collective effort, which has beenmissing now. …

To sum up, Hijab is a “grim” reminder to the Westparticularly the corporate world that a lot has to bedone if the expansion of the global sex market is tobe intensified; and Islam will be hard to beat ifMuslims and Muslim countries are to be trapped.This cannot be done without manoeuvring the psy-che behind Hijab.

Impiety and nakedness bring dollars; piety andmodesty do not. West needs dollars, not piety ormodesty. Their people love to go to beaches be-

cause the wet, naked skin delights them. If theirbeaches start getting flooded by burkinis instead ofbikinis, their future as big money-spinners is atstake. The whole “Sexual Revolution”, which “Secu-larism” brought to the extreme delight of the mer-chants, would face a question of survival, at least animpeded growth. And “Growth” is what mattersmost to the merchants, not the health or morality.Popularization of burkini can also bring some moneyto certain business people. But it can signal doom formany other sex businesses.

Hijab has surely been one of the major social issuesin discussion in recent years particularly in the West.Recent bans on Burkini in France has brought thedebate back to the centre stage. “Freedom ofChoice” is no longer applicable here just as it is notapplicable to anywhere where it poses danger to theBig Business or Western Hegemony. And in theirtypical style, they have found a reason to ban

burkini. That it is a threat to “Secularism” and canstrengthen the roots of “Radical” Islam. The plan issimple. If Radical West has to maintain its perpetualhold, any other radicalism cannot be allowed to takeroots.

Is the Hijab issue merely an indicator of the growingfeelings of hatred against Muslims after 9/11? Is itmerely because the Hijab is believed by many tohave become a symbol of Islamic revivalism and as-sertion of Muslim identity? If people tend to thinkthat to be the case they are awfully mistaken. It canbe true that the campaign against Hijab has gatheredmomentum after 9/11. But the truth is that Hijab is aconstant thorn in the flesh of the corporate world.Recent events have only given it a fresh reason topress the campaign against modesty with a renewedvigour. But the real motive behind this campaign re-mains economic, not the religious or political.

With the beginning of Industrial Revolution and itscapture at the ideological level by what I call eco-nomic fundamentalism, the feminist movements inthe West and elsewhere spawned a socio-cultural mi-lieu that encouraged women’s participation in alltypes of social activities. Feminism imbued theirminds with a falla¬cious sense of euphoria over theirnewly found liberty and free¬dom. Freedom was toofantastic a slogan to resist and the prospects of rid-dance from the ennui of routine menagerie was adream come true. Hardly did they realise that thefreedom they were being made to achieve was but amirage and the movement for women’s liberty was acalculated move initiated or supported by the cun-ning merchants. Having excelled in misusing fasci-nation between men and women to further theirbusiness, it was now time to sexually abuse womenfor money.

The economic fundamentalists had pretty wellrecognised the big potential of sex as market. Thedesire for cars, scooters, fashionable garments andother items of luxury could be wanting in a numberof human beings, but sex is a universal human urgeand even the most pious tends to succumb to sexual

“Secularism” loves Impiety andNakedness, Islam loves Piety andModesty


advances of a member of the opposite sex. Manlongs to have as many partners in bed as he can layhands on. The immanence of this human tendencythroughout the world is an irrefutable fact of life.The commercialisation of sex there¬fore was ex-pected to generate massive dividends, unparalleledin any other business.

Furthermore, sex could be used for boosting othermarkets as well. A number of stumbling blocks inthe path of merchandising of sex had already beencrushed or made defunct. The women were nowwilling to be active participants in anydispensa¬tion. Their longing for luxurious life wasrapidly intensifying; they had smelled economic in-dependence. Unfortunately however, women failedto exercise their wisdom in distinguishing betweentrue freedom that would elevate their social and eco-nomic status without turning them into victims ofsavage exploitation and fake freedom that was ad-vertently inculcated in them by the merchants inorder to expand their financial empires. Little didwomen understand that their personal rights wouldbe used as instruments for their abuse.

The first necessity for the commercialisation of sexwas that women must get accustomed to revealingtheir anatomy before others. This could not be ac-complished overnight. The first step in that directionwas popularisation of ‘fashion’ which soon became aword most dear to men and women of all ages andgroups. Fashion as an industry developed by leapsand bounds; and corresponding to its growth, thesize and volume of clothes adored by women gotshortened. Covering the heads had always been re-garded both by men and women in almost all thefaiths that flourished anywhere on the globe a sign ofvirtue. It indicated the decency of personality andrighteousness of character. Head-kerchief was thefirst casualty of the storm of fashion. This led to thedisplay of dozens of attractive hairstyles. Then thearms and shoulders were bared and the necklinestarted descending. Skirts began to shrink, andminiskirts and shorts steadily marked their presenceon the fashion scene. Swimming suits were thenpopularised through sports — women had the right toplay — and films. Within a short period of time thetopless blondes and brunettes could be seen on hun-dreds of beaches all over the world. The businessthrough beaches reached great heights. The nudeposes of women — even an ugly woman could bemade sexy by an expert photographer — started regu-larly appearing in some maga¬zines and newspa-

pers. The films excelled in showing them taking bathor changing clothes. The portrayal of sexual acts wassoon to follow.

In this background, it can be easily understood thatPurdah or Hijab(veil) was the most abomi¬nablesight for the economic fundamentalists donning thegarb of feminism. It must be clarified here that pur-dah (covering of body) was not limited to the Islamicworld, as is often believed. Almost all the races,communities and sects, except some tribes, insistedon covering most parts of the body. Women, espe-cially belonging to the upper class, usually coveredtheir heads and put an extra cloth on their bosoms.The difference in the case of Islam was that it hadassumed the shape of burqua. The campaign of thepseudo feminists was therefore directed against allsuch societies that prescribed some code of dressing.How a woman reluctant even to show her face andhair could be persuaded to bare her breasts, thighsand buttocks! The unholy war against the ‘veil’ inthe countries, where it was still in practice, got inten-sified. It was condemned as the greatest obstacle inthe development of women. Acrimonious debatesensued in newspapers, magazines, social circles andpublic platforms. Army personnel and policemencould cover their bodies with thick uniform and headwith heavy helmets, and yet the heat in the atmos-phere and density of clothes would not interfere intheir normal functioning; advocates and judges could


don jet black robes, even at the height of summer,and yet the travails of weather would not impedetheir work; doctors could put thick white apronswithout feeling uncomfortable; nurses and nuns’head-kerchiefs would not hinder their movements;bishops could perform all their celebrated dutieswearing extra robes and covering their heads; butwomen’s freedom of movements would be severelyjeopardised, as the feminists believed, if they cov-ered their body with some additional piece of cloth.If women wore a hat to cover their head, it was notunwelcome, as it normally did not indicate a desireon her part to practise some piety. Hijab on the otherhand was not acceptable as it demonstrated a con-scious conviction and effort on the part of thewoman to lead a chaste life. Chasteness was and isnot acceptable to the economic fundamentalists;chasteness does not bring money.

Nudity is an antidote to chasteness. Nudity neededglorification in order to be popularised; the shameattached to it was to be mercilessly ravished if soci-ety had to “develop”. The “Operation Nudity” beganwith the glorification of nude paintings and graffiti.The artists who marvelled in eroticism were admiredas some of the greatest ar-tists of all times for thereason that their compositions were portrayals of“reality” and “beauty”. Films also started presentingwoman in her full naked glory in the name of art orreality. The opponents were spurned as the enemiesof truth and art. When the money poured in as the re-sult of depiction of truth, truth was eulogised; whenit required falsehood, it was adored as a work of fic-tion or creative imagination. With the beginning ofthe globalisation, which meant that now Muslimcountries too would be globalised, the forces of thecorporate world have realised that the true picture ofglobalisation cannot emerge unless the Islamic prac-tice of Hijab is challenged and abolished.

ISLAM: THE BALANCED SOCIAL SYSTEM

During the life-time of Prophet Muhammad and inthe early part of the Post-Muhammad era, the dresscode that was applicable to men and women didmean neither a specific type of dress like burqua forwomen, nor total segregation. Women, with theirheads covered and their bodies adorning simple,non-provocative, decent garments and their bosomsfurther protected by chadars, used to offer congrega-tional prayers in mosques along with men. Their par-ticipation had been remarkable in almost all thebattles that Muslims had to engage in. While some

women took arms and fought valiantly at the battlefront, most of them worked behind the ranks nursingthe injured with religious fervour and passion. Theadvent of Muhammad (PBUH) brought education atthe top of the agenda of the activities of his follow-ers; women did not lag behind. They used to furnishthemselves with knowledge along with men in theclasses conducted by Ali, the most acknowledgedexpert of the religious sciences. But all these assem-blies stuck to certain regulations to prevent any mis-chief. In the mosques, women’s row would bebehind those of men and children; they would be thefirst to leave mosques, and when all of them had left;men would come out. In the classes, women wouldsit on one side and men on the other. With the pas-sage of time however, the provisions of purdah tookthe form of a specific robe, burqua, for women goingout of their houses; their participation in congrega-tional prayers was forbidden by the latter clerics andsegregation became too impervious to allow anyscope for their participation in educational and otherpursuits that could require going out of their houses.Islam has wonderful counterpoise in its social sys-tem; it has no scope for feminism or male chauvin-ism. It gave women extraordinary rights and at thesame time took extremely effective steps to safe-guard them from all types of exploitation. It be-stowed on them economic rights comprising the


right to inherit (in proportion to their economic obli-gations), share in the properties of their fathers,mothers, husbands, sons and daughters, made a pro-vision of dower for them (in consideration of theirmarriage) that was obligatory on their husbands tobe given before consummation of marriage and theright to own properties. It awarded them, like theirmale counterparts, the right to earn but did not makeit obligatory for them, thus giving them not only thechoice to earn but also the choice not to earn; in thatcase, the husbands were duty-bound to maintainthem in a way befitting their status. Besides the eco-nomic rights, Islam also excelled in giving themequal rights in social life, such as the absolute rightto choose their spouse, the right to seek from theirhusbands or sue them for divorce, the right to re-ceive maintenance from husbands till their divorcewas formalised and maintenance for their childrentill they were looked after by her, the right to re-marry after divorce and after her husband’s death theright to have or not to have children in consultationwith their husbands, and the right to look after theirchildren, in case they are divorced, till a certain pointof time. Islam not only endowed women with theright to learn, equal rights in religion, education andprayers were made obligatory on them, just in thesame way as they were on men. Of still greater so-cial significance is the fact that Islam imposed suchrestrictions on men (and women) as would ensurephysical and mental security of women. These in-clude total ban on alcohol, gambling and adultery.Purdah was not obligatory, as is commonly under-stood, on women alone; men also could not revealmost parts of their bodies and would preferablycover their heads. Unfortunately however, several ofthese rights were compromised with in successiveMuslim societies. This provided the economic fun-damentalists an opportunity to malign Islam as anti-women. Their aim was obviously to incite womenagainst their religion. The game-plan met with par-tial successes, especially in those countries that ei-ther had either a foreign rule or rulers influenced bythe West or Westernism. In the late nineteenth andearly twentieth centuries, many governments inMuslim countries including Iran, Tunisia, Egypt andLebanon strove to impose western values on theirpeople. The purdah was forcibly abolished, and thewomen of these countries, willingly or unwillingly,started participating in the same form of activities asthe western women were engaged in. At one time,night clubs flourished inTehran, Cairo and Beirut.But the roots of faith were too strong in Muslims toallow it to continue for long. Within half a century,

men and women in these countries in increasingnumbers developed aversion for the new values. Theon-going nakedness stopped, and women againstarted wrapping themselves in the garb of purity;they continued to engage in the educational andother social pursuits in a way as would not makethem vulnerable to exploitative practices. In somecountries however, like in Taliban’s Afghanistan, theIslamic Shari’ah was interpreted too rigidly to allowwomen to get higher education.

Dr Javed Jamil is India based thinker and writer withover a dozen books including his latest, “Muslim Vi-sion of Secular India: Destination & Road-map”,“Qur’anic Pa radigms of Sciences & Society” (FirstVol: Health), “Muslims Most Civilised, Yet NotEnough” and Other works include “The Devil ofEconomic Fundamentalism”, “The Essence of theDivine Verses”, “The Killer Sex”, “Islam meansPeace” and “Rediscovering the Universe”.


I By Dr. Muzammil H. Siddiqi I

As human beings we are responsible, but wedo also make mistakes and we are constantlyin need of forgiveness.

God has granted intellect to human beings. The intel-lect entails responsibility. The more intellect a per-son has the more he/she is responsible.

When the intellect is missing, the responsibility isalso not there. Little children are not held responsi-ble, because their intellect has not yet developed.The insane are not responsible, because they havelost the intellectual capacity. However, part of ourbeing human is also that we make mistakes. Some-time we make mistakes without deliberation and in-tention. But sometime we knowingly anddeliberately sin and do wrong to others.

It is said: "to err is human and to forgive is divine."Both parts of this statement are very true. As humanbeings we are responsible, but we do also make mis-takes and we are constantly in need of forgiveness.Islam speaks about two elements of forgiveness: a)God’s forgiveness; b) Human forgiveness. We needboth, because we do wrong in our relations to God aswell as in our relations to each other.

God’s Forgiveness

There are many names of Godgiven in the Quran. They arecalled “Most BeautifulNames” and they indicatemany different and diverse at-tributes and qualities of God.Some of these names are re-lated to His mercy and for-giveness. Let us look at someof these names:

1. Al-Ghafoor: The MostForgiving. This name occursin the Quran more than sev-

enty times. There are other names from the sameroot, such as Ghafir andGhaffar. The meaning of theArabic word “ghafara” is to cover, to hide and fromit comes the meaning “to excuse,” “to pardon,” “toremit” and “to forgive.” God does all these things. Inthe Quran, it is mentioned that God does not forgivethe Shirk(without repentance) but He may forgiveevery other sin for whomsoever He wills. (Al-Nisa'4:116) We must turn to God to seek His forgiveness.

2. Al-'Afuw: This has another part of forgiveness.This name occurs in the Quran five times. Literallythe word 'Afw means “to release,” “to heal.”“to re-store, to remit.” Thus in relation to God it means “torelease us from the burden of punishment due to oursins and mistakes,” "to restore our honor after wehave dishonored ourselves by committing sins andmaking mistakes." Sometimes in the Quran bothnames: 'Afuw and Ghafoor come together.

3. Al-Tawwab: The Acceptor of Repentance. Thisname of God is mentioned in the Quran about 11times. God accepts the repentance of those who sin-cerely repent and turn to him. The word “tawwab”gives the sense of “oft-returning” which means thatGod again and again accepts the repentance. Wemake sins and mistakes then we repent, He acceptsour repentance. Then again we commit sins and

make mistakes and when werepent, He again very kindlyaccepts us and gives us anotherchance.

4. Al-Haleem: The Clement.This name is mentioned fifteentimes in the Quran. This meansthat God is not quick to judg-ment. He gives time. He fore-bears and is patient to see Hisservant return to Him.

5. Al-Rahman and Al-Rahim:The Most Merciful and Com-passionate. These names arethe most frequent in the Quran.Al-Rahman is mentioned 57

The Power of Forgiveness:An Islamic Perspective

O God, Youare most For-giving One,You love toforgive, soforgive me


times and al-Raheem is mentioned 115 times. Al-Rahman indicates that God's mercy is abundant andplenty and Al-Raheem indicates that this is alwaysthe case with God. God is full of love and mercy andis ever Merciful.

The Quran teaches that God is a Judge and He alsopunishes, but God is not bound to punish. The justiceof God, according to Quran is that God does not andwill not inflict undue punishment on any person. Hewill not ignore the good of any person. But if Hewishes to forgive any sinner, He has full freedom todo that. His mercy is unlimited and His love is infi-nite.There are many verses in the Quran and sayings ofthe Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) onGod’s love, mercy and forgiveness. In one of theprayers that the Prophet taught, he said: “O God,You are most Forgiving One, You love to forgive, soforgive me.” ( At-Trimidhi & Ibn Majah). We needGod's mercy and forgiveness all the time. It is wrongto assume at any time that one will find eternal sal-vation without the forgiveness of God.

Human Forgiveness in Islam

Just as it is important to believe in God’s mercy andforgiveness, it is also necessary to base human rela-tions on forgiveness. We cannot expect God's for-giveness unless we also forgive those who do wrongto us. Forgiving each other, even forgiving one's ene-mies is one of the most important of Islamic teach-ing. In the Quran God has described the Believersas: {those who avoid major sins and acts of indecen-cies and when they are angry they forgive.}(Al-

Shura 42:37)

Later in the same chapter God says: {The reward ofthe evil is the evil thereof, but whosoever forgivesand makes amends, his reward is upon God} (Al-Shura 42: 40) In another place the Quran says: {Ifyou punish, then punish with the like of that where-with you were afflicted. But if you endure patiently,indeed it is better for the patient. Endure you pa-tiently. Your patience is not except through the helpof God…} (Al-Nahl 16:126-27)

In one the famous sayings of the Prophet (peace beupon him) it is reported that he said that God com-manded him about nine things. One of them he men-tioned was “that I forgive those who do wrong tome.”

Prophet Muhammad was the most forgiving person.He was ever ready to forgive his enemies. When hewent to Ta'if to preach God’s message to its people,they mistreated him. They abused him and hit himwith stones. He left the city humiliated andwounded. When he took shelter under a tree, God’sangel appeared to him and told him that God wasvery angry with the people of Taif and sent him todestroy them because they mistreated God’s belovedProphet. The Prophet prayed to God to save the peo-ple of Ta’if, because what they did was out of theirignorance. He said: “O Allah, guide these people, be-cause they did not know what they were doing.” (Al-Bukhari)

When he entered the city of Makkah after the vic-tory, the Prophet had in front of him some of hisstaunchest enemies. Those who fought him for many


years, persecuted his followers and killed many ofthem. Now he had full power to do whatever hewanted to punish them for their crimes. It is reportedthat the Prophet asked them: “What do you think Ishall do to you now” They expected nothing but re-taliation and pleaded for mercy. The Prophet said,“Today I shall say to you what Joseph (referring toProphet Yusuf -peace be upon him- as mentioned inthe Qur'an, Yusuf 12:92) said to his brothers” “Noblame on you today. Go, you are all free.” (Al-Al-bani)

Soon they all came and accepted Islam at his hands.He forgave even Hend who had caused the murderof his uncle Hamza. After killing him, she had hisbody mutilated and chewed his liver. When she ac-cepted Islam, the Prophet even forgave her.

Justice, law and order are necessary for the mainte-nance of a social order, but there is also a need forforgiveness to heal the wounds and to restore goodrelations between the people

A very striking example of forgiveness we find inthe Quran in reference to the most unfortunate eventof “Slander of Aisha.” Some hypocrites of Madinahaccused her. They tried to put dirt on her noble char-acter. One of the slanderers turned out to be Mistah,the cousin of Aisha’s father Abu Bakr. Abu Bakrused to give financial help to this young man. After

he slandered his daughter, Abu Bakr vowed not tohelp him anymore. But God reminded Abu Bakr andthrough him all the Believers:

{Let not those among you who are endued withgrace and amplitude of means resolve by oathagainst helping their kinsmen, those in want andthose who migrated in the path of God. Let them for-give and overlook. Do you not wish that God shouldalso forgive you. Indeed God is Oft-Forgiving, MostMerciful}(An-Nur 24: 22)

Abu Bakr came out of his home and said: “Yes, in-deed, I do want God’s forgiveness. He did not onlycontinue to help him but he increased his allowance.Islam emphasizes justice and punishment of thewrong doers, but it equally strongly emphasizesmercy, kindness and love. Justice, law and order arenecessary for the maintenance of a social order, butthere is also a need for forgiveness to heal thewounds and to restore good relations between thepeople. We must keep in mind that as much as weneed God's forgiveness for our own sins and mis-takes, we must also practice forgiveness towardsthose who do wrong to us.

http://www.onislam.net/english/reading-islam/under-standing-islam/ethics-and-values/451497-the-power-of-forgiveness-an-islamic-perspective.html


“I should have remembered that ‘a picture is worth athousand words.’”

The first of the four “Great Debates” betweenRepublican candidate for president RichardNixon and Democrat John F. Kennedy, Sep-

tember 26, 1960, was historic for many reasons. Forone, it was the first televised debate in U.S. history— staged at the CBS broadcast center in downtownChicago. And then there was the on-screen discrep-ancy between the candidates. Nixon was disheveledand pallid while Kennedy was lively and camera-ready.

Following the debate, most TV viewers believed thatKennedy had been the victor. Conversely though,radio listeners found that Nixon had a slight edgeover Kennedy. And this, arguably, began the processof presidential candidates and their camps beingcompletely obsessed with a perfect TV image. (Ifonly these candidates from 1960 foresaw the 24-hournews cycle!) So, what was all this fuss about TVcameras, studio lights and eye contact? All three ofthem seemed to bury Nixon on that Chicago stage inSeptember.

In order to properly tell the story of this debate,though, we have to take a step back and look at thelarger political landscape at the time. In the throes of

the Cold War, 1960 was a particularly interestingsnippet of America’s timeline: the Soviets leadingthe space race with their Sputnik satellite, the idea ofcommunism spreading in the west a troublingprospect for many. At the time, Fidel Castro hadseized control in Cuba, further strengthening anti-communist sentiments in America.

What’s more, the U.S. was engaged in an age-oldstruggle for civil rights. (Just think, the Civil RightsAct of 1964, signed into law by Lyndon B. Johnson,which ended uneven voter registration requirementsand segregation, was not signed into law until 1964.)

The American electorate was ready for guidance, fora strong presence at the table of world leaders.Richard Nixon was a seasoned lawmaker from Cali-fornia, first serving in the House for three years andthen as senator for another three. He was then cho-sen for Dwight Eisenhower’s presidential ticket andwas in the White House for the very crucial postwardecade of the 1950s.

The administration helped end the conflict in Koreaand decried the “military-industrial complex.”Nixon, it seemed, was perfectly suited to take thetorch as the next president upon the completion ofEisenhower’s second term.

The story of the first televised presidential debate be-tween Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy — ‘MyGod, they’ve embalmed him before he even died’

The story of the first televised presidential debate between Richard

Nixon and John F. Kennedy

should have remembered that picture is worth a thousand

Nixon and Democrat John F. Kennedy, September 26, 1960, was historic for many reasons. For one, it was the first televised debate in U.S. history staged at the CBS broadcast center in downtown Chicago. And then there was the on-screen discrepancy between the candidates. Nixon was disheveled and pallid while Kennedy was lively and camera-ready.

Following the debate, most TV viewers believed that Kennedy had been the victor. Conversely though, radio listeners found that Nixon had a slight edge over Kennedy. And this, arguably, began the process of presidential candidates and their camps being completely obsessed with a perfect TV image. (If only these candidates from 1960


Kennedy, on the other hand, was a completely differ-ent candidate with a completely different appeal. Hewas 43 years old, compared to Nixon’s 47 years.He’d served as a congressman from Massachusettsfrom 1947 - 1954, then as a senator from 1953 -1960. A decorated war veteran and the son of a pow-erful New England businessman and politician(Joseph P. Kennedy), JFK was a breath of fresh air inAmerican politics: young, charismatic, charming,and of course, the first Catholic to be on a majorparty ticket.

Head-to-head, the candidates were each well-versedon the issues, though Nixon had the edge with hisforeign policy experience in the White House.

After a tough season of campaigning, which sawNixon carry a slim lead over his opponent, the Re-publican stumbled a bit the month before the firstGreat Debate. When asked by reporters whatNixon’s contributions had been in the White House,President Eisenhower responded by saying heneeded a week to think of one. The Democrats tookthe ad and ran with it — much the way the Democ-rats have used clips of fellow Republicans warningAmericans about Donald Trump’s unpreparedness tobecome president in 2016.

Nixon also suffered a knee injury from a car doorwhich became infected and wound up putting him inthe hospital — making him visibly underweight. Ac-cording to History.com, he reaggravated the injuryon the night of the debate, too, and was said to havebeen dealing with the flu.

He fought through both illness and injury and cameprepared to tussle with Kennedy. But he had to dobattle with a candidate who’d rested the wholeweekend before, preparing with his campaign.Nixon, on the other hand, was fresh off the campaigntrail.

Both candidates are said to have refused makeup en-hancements from CBS’ artist — though Kennedy’saides reportedly still spruced him up a bit.

When the cameras rolled, Nixon — clad in a graysuit which blended in with the gray backdrop — ap-peared distressed, nervous and unhealthy. He sup-posedly applied a coat of Lazy Shave to hide his fiveo’clock shadow — a cosmetic cover-up that meltedunder the studio lights as sweat visibly beaded onNixon’s face.

Perhaps understanding the intimacy of the screen abit better than Nixon, Kennedy repeatedly lookedinto the cameras and directed his answers at theAmericans watching at home. Nixon, though, justturned from reporter to reporter — in the style of atraditional press conference.

On substance, the candidates were equally matched.According to History.com, both men “each heldforth skillfully and presented remarkably similaragendas. Both emphasized national security, thethreat of communism, the need to strengthen theU.S. military and the importance of building a futurefor America.”Still, when the debate wrapped up, most radio listen-ers considered Nixon to be the winner while 70 mil-lion people watching at home felt Kennedy hadedged out his opponent.

The same History story notes that Chicago mayorRichard J. Daley’s supposed response to Nixon’s on-screen struggle was: “My God, they’ve embalmedhim before he even died.”

The headline of the Chicago Daily News the nextday read: “Was Nixon Sabotaged by TV MakeupArtists?”In the subsequent debates, Nixon was calmer andmore collected — perhaps finally recognizing theforce of the television screen.

When November rolled around, Americans practi-cally could not decide between the two candidates.Kennedy earned 34,220,984 popular votes (49.72percent) while Nixon pulled in 34,108,157 (49.55percent). While Nixon carried more states thanKennedy, the latter earned the victory based off his303-219 victory in the Electoral College.

History notes that just two years after the “Great De-bates,” Nixon, in his memoir “Six Crises,” wrote, “Ishould have remembered that ‘a picture is worth athousand words.’”

What followed in the years after was Kennedy’s hor-rific assassination at the hands of Lee Harvey Os-wald on November 22, 1963.Then, after finally becoming president in 1969,Nixon was the first commander-in-chief to resignfollowing the Watergate Scandal brought to light bythe Washington Post’s Bob Woodward and CarlBernstein.http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/story-


What is your opinion regardingthis hadeeth (prophetic narration),“There is no gheebah/backbitingfor a fasiq/evildoer”? If it is an au-thentic hadeeth, then is warningothers of an envious person con-sidered gheebah/backbiting ornot? Which type of sinners can wewarn others of without being guiltyof gheebah?.

Praise be to Allah.

Gheebah is haram (impermissible) and em-phatically so, because Allah says (interpreta-tion of the meaning):

“…neither backbite one another. Would one of youlike to eat the flesh of his dead brother?”[49:12].

And it is proven from Anas (may Allah be pleasedwith him) that the Prophet (blessings and peace ofAllah be upon him) said: “When I was taken up intoheaven, I was taken past some people who had nailsof copper with which they were scratching theirfaces and chests. I said: Who are these, O Jibreel?He said: These are the ones who ate the flesh of thepeople and impugned their honour.” [Imam Ahmadand Abu Dawood] The Prophet (blessings and peaceof Allah be upon him) defined gheebah as sayingabout your brother that which he dislikes.

It is permissible in a few cases which are indicatedby shar’i (legal) evidence when there is a need forthat, such as if someone consults you with regard tomarriage or business partnership, or if someonecomplains to the ruler and asks him to put a stop to aperson's wrongdoing. In that case there is nothing

wrong with saying about him things that he dislikesfor the purpose of serving an obvious interest. Oneof them compiled a list of the cases in which ghee-bah is permissible in two lines of verse in which hesaid:

Criticism is not gheebah in six cases: complainingabout mistreatment, identifying a person, warningabout a person, highlighting evildoing, seeking afatwa/verdict, and seeking help to remove an evil. But if there is no obvious interest to be served bymentioning him in a way that he dislikes, then itcomes under the heading of gheebah which is haram.

With regard to the question about the phrase “Thereis no gheebah (backbiting) in the case of a faasiq(evildoer)” and whether it is a hadeeth or not, ImamAhmad said it is munkar (basically rejected). Al-Haakim, al-Daaraqutni and al-Khateeb said: it isfalse.

But the fact that there is no gheebah in the case of afaasiq (an evildoer who openly commits sins) is indi-cated by the proven report which says that theProphet (blessings and peace of Allah be upon him)saw a funeral passing by, and those who were withhim spoke ill of the deceased person, and he (bless-ings and peace of Allah be upon him) said: “It isdue.” Then another funeral passed by, and theyspoke well of the deceased person, and the Prophet(blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) said: “Itis due.” They asked him what he had meant by say-ing it is due, and he said: “The one of whom youspoke ill, Hell is his due, and the one of whom youspoke well, Paradise is his due. You are the wit-nesses of Allah on His earth.” and he did not rebukethem for speaking ill of the deceased person ofwhose evildoing they were aware. This indicates thatif a person commits evil openly, there is no gheebahin his case.

And Allah is the source of strength. May Allah sendblessings and peace upon our Prophet Muhammadand his family and companions. End quote.Fataawa al-Lajnah al-Daa’imah li’l-Buhooth al-‘Ilmiyyah wa’l-Ifta’ (26/19).

There is no backbiting in theCase of an Evildoer


Like never before, The Modi gov-ernment has started a newscheme exclusively for Indian

Army Battle Casualties and WeaponPurchase. The government has openedbank account where people can donatefunds directly to Army Welfare Ac-

A new sentimental exploitation against Pakistan and gimmick ofModi govt. Remember the Kargil war during the rule of first NDAGovt, when massive commission were taken from suppliers in al-most every item meant for defence services and its personnel in-cluding the coffins of martyred soldiers. Shame on KAFANKHASOTES. What a great job done by those true Patriots (DeshBakts) and the great job done by the Son of the Soil (Bharat Mata)?There was no VANDE MATRAM or BHARAT MATA KI JAI then, proba-bly because of the heavy commission they got in the supply meantfor the defence of the country and the personnel engaged in thiswork even after putting their life at stake.

What about the transfer of Rs 15 Lakhs to every bank account fromthe black money deposited in foreign banks by Indian Nationals, aspromised by our Prime Minister during the Lok Sabha Election of2014? We have been eagerly waiting for the same since last almosttwo and half years. Transfer this money to our account atonce andwe will donate and deposit the entire amount for the benefit of ourbeloved country and soldiers in the said account of Syndicate Bankinstead of Re 1 /- only, as desired? Your One Rupee Has the Power to Destroy Pakistan

A new sentimental exploitation against Pakistan and gimmick of Modi govt. Remember the Kargil war during the rule of first NDA Govt, when massive commission were taken from suppliers in almost every item meant for defence services and its personnel including the coffins of martyred soldiers. Shame on KAFAN KHASOTES. What a great job done by those true Patriots (Desh Bakts) and the great job done by the Son of the Soil (Bharat Mata)? There was no VANDE MATRAM or BHARAT MATA KI JAI then, probably because of the heavy commission they got in the supply meant for the defence of the country and the personnel engaged in this work even after putting their life at stake. What about the transfer of Rs 15 Lakhs to every bank account from the black money deposited in foreign banks by Indian Nationals, as promised by our Prime Minister during the Lok Sabha Election of 2014? We have been eagerly waiting for the same since last almost two and half years. Transfer this money to our account atonce and we will donate and deposit the entire amount for the benefit of our beloved country and soldiers in the said account of Syndicate Bank instead of Re 1 /- only, as desired?

August 30, 2016 Like never before, The Modi government has started a new scheme exclusively for Indian Army Battle Casualties and Weapon Purchase. The government has opened bank account where people can donate funds directly to Army Welfare Account which will be used for purchasing weapons


count which will be used for purchas-ing weapons to the Indian Army andproviding facilities for war casualties.

People had suggested Government toopen bank account to collect funds ex-clusively for battle casualties and pur-chasing weapons for army, the Modigovernment has accepted the sugges-tion and opened an account in Syndi-cate Bank, New Delhi for the same.The most attractive feature of thisscheme is, people can donate the small-est amount of ONE RUPEES.

Master Stroke by Modi Government

A country’s population of 130 crore ofwhich even 100 crore people (70%) de-posit One Rupee Each, the ministrywill get 100 crores/day, 3000crores/month and 36000 crores/year.36,000 Crore which is greater than Pak-istan’s total defence expenditure.We spend hundreds and thousands ofrupees on many unnecessary expendi-

ture, but if we can spend ONE RUPEEon army, it can surely make India aSUPER POWER. The money will di-rectly reach the defence ministry forarmy benefit and war casualties.

This is the most unique idea to help ourarmy Jawans who have lost life in bat-tle fields.

Come together, show solidarity to ourDEFENCE FORCES, PARA MILI-TARY FORCE and CRPF.

JOIN THE MISSION TO MAKEINDIA A SUPER POWER!

Bank Details:

SYNDICATE BANKA/C NAME: ARMY WELFAREFUND BATTLE CASUALTIESA/C NO: 90552010165915IFSC CODE: SYNB0009055SOUTH EXTENSION BRANCH,NEW DELHI. Windows Phone

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