Logging life

I will be in India in May. It has been over 14 years that I left for the US. In these years, I have been to India in 1997, 2000, 2002, 2005, and 2008. Strange thing that I noticed this year is that no one is ready to give you a date and time. You contact someone and all they will say is that when you are in Delhi then call me. Arey bhai, give me a time so I can plan my time there. But alas, so now I have resigned to this situation and see what will happen after I land in Delhi. Worried about this swine flu thing. India has now started checking visitors coming from Mexico, US, and Canada for signs of flu. To make matter worse, Delhi's temperature on Wednesday was 43.5C, hottest day of the last 50 years. It will be interesting few weeks.

When faced with evil, Allah commands us to respond by good. Repel evil with that which is better بری بات کے جواب میں وہ کہو جو بہتر ہے Muminoon: 96

This month in the year 1979, the Hindu-Muslim violence in Jamshedpur took the lives of 108 people. The number of dead could have easily been 114, but as it turned out, my family and I survived the mayhem, to write about it thirty years later. This unfortunate event occurred when I was at the tender age of five, however the memory of it is etched in my mind and it is one of the clearest early memories that I have. Thirty whole years later, and the images of the violence that occurred are still extremely vivid for me. Earlier that day on April 11th, the tension in the air was heavy with anticipation of something horrible to come. Somehow my mother was able to sense it and on the morning of Ramnawami she went with her brother and my two little sisters to a nearby Muslim neighbourhood (Golmuri). My father being the idealist was confident that nothing would happen. In case something did happen, he had formed a group of Hindus and Muslims to defend the houses against any mob attacks whether

"Mecca Masjid case has turned cold," declared Indian Home Minister PC Chidambaram in March. Media promptly published the statement signaling a close to this investigation and time to move on to bigger and better news. Seems that Muslim leaders in Hyderabad also got the memo and they too moved on to the spectacle of Lok Sabha and Assembly elections. For the victims of the blast and subsequent police firing, and those who were illegally detained or falsely charged for the bomb blasts and later acquitted their lives have been completely destroyed. None of the recent bombings have ever been solved and most of the suspects arrested were later released by the courts but with their lives in ruins. Background A number of Muslim youths were illegally detained by the AP State Police and tortured to make them confess to the bombings in Hyderabad in 2007. Later courts have released all youths for lack of evidence but the police officers who harassed and tortured these youth have not been

Secularism is indeed a foreign concept for India. Many Indians have difficulty understanding it and therefore are confused on how to apply it in their personal and professional lives. Latest example is Supreme Court’s Justice Markandey Katju. While denying a request by a Muslim student to keep a beard while going to a convent school, Justice Katju termed it as “overstretching” of secularism. Denying the plea of Mohammed Saleem, a 16 year old student of a Christian missionary school because school had a right to make rules that it seems fit would have ended this matter. But Justice Katju overstretched himself and said “We don’t want to have Talibans in the country. Tomorrow a girl student may come and say that she wants to wear a burqa. Can we allow it?” First thing objectionable in his statement is that he is associating beard and burqa with the Talibans. Taliban was a puritanical group that emerged in Afghanistan few years after Russian occupation ended and provided stability to the r

Muslim is one says and believe in five pillars of Islam. There are three stages of belivers- Muslim, Mumin, and Muhsin. In Surah Mumineen, the first nine verses give seven qualities of Mumineen. The Believers must (eventually) win through (1) Those who humble themselves in their prayers; (2) Who avoid vain talk; (3) Who are active in deeds of charity; (4) Who abstain from sex, (5) Except with those joined to them in the marriage bond, or (the captives) whom their right hands possess― for (in their case) they are free from blame, (6) But those whose desires exceed those limits are transgressors― (7) Those who faithfully observe their Trusts and their covenants; (8) And who (strictly) guard their prayers (9). Translation: Yusuf Ali. 1. Concentration in prayers. 2. Avoid vain talk. 3. Active in charity. 5. Guard their private parts except with their spouse. 6. Observe trusts and fulfil promises. 7. Guard their prayers i.e. offering them on time.

Jihad is much abused term now. Jihad has been translated as 'Holy War' little realizing that it is oxymoronic. Muslims have long been arguing that 'jihad' also means struggle or striving and one such example of that usage I found in Surah Hajj, verse 78. Beginning of the verse 78 reads: وَجَـٰهِدُواْ فِى ٱللَّهِ حَقَّ جِهَادِهِۦ‌ۚ Shaikhul Hind Maulana Mahmoodul Hasan translates it into Urdu as such: aur mehnat karo Allah ke vaaste jaisi ki chaahiye usske vaaste mehnat. اور محنت کرو اللہ کے واسطے جیسی کہ چاہیے اسکے واسطے محنت English translation of this Urdu translation will go something like this: "and labour for Allah as it should be laboured for Him. " Now, the interesting thing to remember here is that Shaikhul Hind wrote this translation when he was imprisoned for three years in Malta during WWI. But still he didn't let his condition cloud the translation and still translated "jihad" as labour.

Muslims in India are always suspected for their patriotism. I remember, few years ago a poll by one national daily showed 1% more Muslim loving their country than Hindus. In my own experience I find Indian Muslims to feel very strongly about their country and they don't feel that there is anything strange about this feeling. Radiance viewsweekly is the magazine published by Jamaat-e-Islami Hind. On the occasion of Republic Day of India, this is what they wrote in their editorial of 1-7 Feb 2009 issue. Let us not ask for a while, what our country has not done for us but think what we can do to (for??) our country and our fellow citizens. Islam presents a very high ideal of thought and action before the Muslims to work for uplifting humanity. Let this be the source of inspiration for us to rededicate ourselves for building a strong nation on the firm foundation of belief in God, universally accepted moral principles stressed by all religions and work ceaselessly to achieve this. H