Logging life

Allah wants believing men and women to be modest. Modesty is not only the responsibility of women but men are also asked to lower their gaze. Tell the believing men to lower their gaze and be modest. That is purer for them. Lo! Allah is aware of what they do. (30) And tell the believing women to lower their gaze and be modest, and to display of their adornment only that which is apparent, and to draw their veils over their bosoms, and not to reveal their adornment save to their own husbands or fathers or husbands' fathers, or their sons or their husbands' sons, or their brothers or their brothers' sons or sisters' sons, or their women, or their slaves, or male attendants who lack vigour, or children who know naught of women's nakedness. And let them not stamp their feet so as to reveal what they hide of their adornment. And turn unto Allah together, O believers, in order that ye may succeed. (31) [Al-Noor]

The Islamic etiquette for entering someone's house is to first seek permission, then say salaam. If permission is not granted then one should return back. O ye who believe! Enter not houses other than your own without first announcing your presence and invoking peace upon the folk thereof. That is better for you, that ye may be heedful. (27) And if ye find no-one therein, still enter not until permission hath been given. And if it be said unto you: Go back, then go back, for it is purer for you. Allah knoweth what ye do. (28) [Al-Noor]

Men and women indulge in gossiping and slowly this idle talk turn into exaggeration and lies. Allah curses those who accuse chaste women so we should listen to Quran's instruction that if a news comes to us we should verify it before we pass it on to others. Verily, those who accuse chaste women, who never even think of anything touching their chastity and are good believers,— are cursed in this life and in the Hereafter, and for them will be a great torment,— (23) On the Day when their tongues, their hands, and their legs (or feet) will bear witness against them as to what they used to do. (24) On that Day Allâh will pay them the recompense of their deeds in full, and they will know that Allâh, He is the Manifest Truth. (25) [Al-Noor] [English translation by Dr. Muhsin]

Dastan-goi or story telling is as old as humanity itself. With the popularity of Television, art of oral story suffered as now everyone wanted visual experience but spoken and written words are making a comeback. Mahmood Farooqi of Delhi has made lot of effort in reviving the traditional art form of dastan goi and always perform to a packed house. He was in New York recently and got rave reviews. His blog is here : http://dastangoi.blogspot.com/ and a short clip of their performance: Of course, this art form is not unique to Urdu though the richness and rhythm of words makes the performance very interesting. English story telling on the other hand give more importance to the story itself and humor. You can listen to story tellers of The Moth here: http://www.themoth.org/listen

Indian government spends about 5000 crore annually for minorities welfare. A number of schemes and programmes specifically designed for the minorities are on the books for a number of years. But still Muslims have not seen much of the benefits of these programmes. Moosa Raza, a former bureaucrat blames poor implementation for the failure in benefits reaching the targeted population. He says that monitoring of the government programmes is lacking. A native of Chennai, Moosa Raza has served over 35 years as an IAS officer. Therefore, he explains me to what is involved in implementation of a programme. Implementation is done through government departments, agencies and district administration. So however good the designing of the programme, it is at the implementation level that schemes fail. “Partly due to lethargy, partly due to negligence, and party due to lack of commitment to the concept of ameliorating the weaker sections that the implementation is not done at the same spirit that t

We have all heard that in Islam women's witness is only half as good as men but as I read the following verses from Quran, I see that Quran attaches more weight to woman's witness when her word is taken as final. Al-Noor : And for those who accuse their wives, but have no witnesses except themselves, let the testimony of one of them be four testimonies (i.e. testifies four times) by Allâh that he is one of those who speak the truth. (6) And the fifth (testimony should be) the invoking of the Curse of Allâh on him if he be of those who tell a lie (against her). (7) But it shall avert the punishment (of stoning to death) from her, if she bears witness four times by Allâh, that he (her husband) is telling a lie. (8) And the fifth (testimony) should be that the Wrath of Allâh be upon her if he (her husband) speaks the truth. (9) Also, I noticed that during nikah ceremony, by convention, girl is asked first about her acceptance for nikaah, if she says no, then the groom is not even

I don't think I had "jhaal moori" since I left Jamshedpur. So after almost 20 years, I had a taste of jhaal moori today, or my version of it. Thanks to Yogi Sikand for reminding me about jhaal moori and providing a recipe for it. take moori add cut tomoato, onion, fresh dhaniya a bit of chana chur a boild alu and a dash of sarso ka tel and then a pinch of namak and lal mirch and some nimboo If you don't know what moori is, call up your Bengali friends. Another recipe for jhaal moori is here .

A conversation with Azim Khan "In case of violations of fundamental rights, one can file a petition by merely sending a post card to the court. High Courts and the Supreme Court can accept it as a writ petition and pass directives to the concerned authorities." Azim Khan, a human rights teacher and researcher explained during the course of an interview. Azim Khan holds a Masters in Human Rights from University of London as Ford Foundation International Fellow and an LL.M from Aligarh Muslim University. Presently he is working for an accredited American higher education institution as Academic Director. Besides teaching human rights law he has worked as facilitator of the Leadership for Social Justice (LSJ) Program in Washington DC. Khan has published numerous reports and articles on human rights and provided human rights training and advice on a pro bono basis on numerous occasions to organizations such as UN OHCHR, UNCERD, and NGOs. Recently, he was awarded a Scholar of Peac

The Muslims of North India for historical reasons have not had very friendly relations with the local police. I was in Patna visiting Rahmani-30 when Abhayanand, Additional Director General of Police makes a visit in his official car. Rahmani-30 is set up on the pattern of Bihar Super-30 which is a successful experiment to pick and train 30 students from poor economic background and prepare them for entrance exam of famous Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs). Abhyanand waits while group of twenty odd Muslim students finish their afternoon prayers (Asr). These students have recently appeared for the class tenth exams and selected to Rahmani-30 after an entrance test and an interview. Entrance test was held in Bihar, Jharkhand, and West Bengal – clearly a sign of increasing popularity of the institution that is barely a year old. A year ago, Maulana Wali Rahmani, Sajjada Nasheen of Khanqah Rahmaniya, Munger and Secretary of All India Muslim Personal Law Board requested Abhayanand to h