Logging life

Being judicious Al-Anbiya And remember David and Solomon, when they gave judgment in the matter of the field into which the sheep of certain people had strayed by night: We did witness their judgment. (78) To Solomon We inspired the (right) understanding of the matter: to each (of them) We gave Judgment and Knowledge; it was Our power that made the hills and the birds celebrate Our praises with David: it was We Who did (these things). (79) The story goes something like this: there was a case brought before Prophet Dawud alaihesalaam that a farmer's crops were destroyed by sheeps of someone. Dawud (a) decided that the person who owns the sheep should pay for the damage to the farmer by giving him his sheeps equal to the value of the loss. Prophet Sulaiman (a) son of Prophet Dawud (a), heard this judgement and said that he can give a better judgement. He said that he will give the sheep to the farmer so he can benefit from milk and wool and the sheep owner will be asked to tend to th...

Indian Muslims and Media: Interview with Kashif ul-Huda by Yoginder Sikand 34 year-old Kashif ul-Huda runs TwoCircles.net, the leading Indian Muslim news and features web site. In this interview with Yoginder Sikand he talks about his work and reflects on Indian Muslims and the media. Q: What made you set up TwoCircles.net? What was your source of inspiration? A: I come from a working class family from Bihar. My father worked for one of the TATA companies in Jamshedpur. He was also involved in trade union activities, starting soon after the communal massacre in Jamshedpur in 1964. He was a major source of inspiration for me. From him I learned the need to work with the community but also that the 'Muslim-only' approach will not work, and that, instead, one needs to work with fellow Indians irrespective of faith. I graduated with a degree in Biochemistry and Cell Biology from the University of California, San Diego. I have been involved in pharmaceutical research since th...

Water is essential for life. About 70% of earth surface is covered by water. About 61% of human body weight is water weight. Can we imagine life without water? Also notice that Allah says in the Quran that He has created the sun and the moon and they move in their orbits. Word used in the Quran for orbit is 'falak' which according to Shafi Usmani is anything that is round be it circle, sphere, ellipse. Al-Anbiya Have not those who disbelieve known that the heavens and the earth were joined together as one united piece, then We parted them? And We have made from water every living thing. Will they not then believe? (30) And We have placed on the earth firm mountains, lest it should shake with them, and We placed therein broad highways for them to pass through, that they may be guided. (31) And We have made the heaven a roof, safe and well guarded. Yet they turn away from its signs (i.e. sun, moon, winds, clouds, etc.). (32) And He it is Who has created the night and the day, an...

Translation of the Quran has made it possible for millions of people to understand the message of the holy book. There are thousands of websites providing translation in many languages of the world and there are institutes that have been setup just to do the translation work. But do you know that the first ever complete translation of the Quran was done in India. The credit for the translation for the very first time goes to Shah Waliullah . He translated the book in Persian. He was criticized for it by people who thought he is doing something that will dilute the message of the book. He had his sons Shah Rafiuddin translate the Quran in Urdu- this was a literal word for word translation so though useful not very easy to comprehend. His other son Shah Abdul Qadir Muhaddis Dehalvi did a literary translation in Urdu, which became very popular and help spread the message to common people. Shah Waliullah became such a revolutionary figure that now all Islamic groups, ideology, movements in...

When there is no news what is a 24/7 news channel got to do? Of course, they are going to make up the news. Watch the following video first: Horror! Horror! A Pakistani flag unfurled in Assam. This was a big news around October 2008. Look carefully and you see that crescent in Pakistani flag is upside down. Another thing you will notice that news channel Times Now is repeating the same visuals over and over again. There is some sword like thing that is in the picture but it is not clear what is it and who is holding it. The TV Channel offers no information on how they got these “exclusive visuals.” Was it shot by their journalists, who alerted them that this flag is there go and shoot the pictures? If it was not their own camera person then who provided them these visuals, who are these people? How they come across this flag and what are their motive in giving this visual? Times Now failed to reveal the source but thanks to YouTube now you can see the raw footage without Times Now edi...

An article written in Hindi for friend Nasiruddin Haider Khan for his blog dhaiakhar . Published on November 23, 2007 नन्दीग्राम और मुसलमान कोलकाता में दो दिन पहले हुए प्रदर्शन से कई लोगों की पेशानी पर चिंता की लकीर खिंच गई है। जिस तरह से वह प्रदर्शन होने दिया गया। पहले से पता होने के बाद सुरक्षा बलों का एहतियाती इंतजाम नहीं किया गया और उसके बाद सेना बुला ली गई... पहले सच्चर कमेटी और उसके बाद नन्दीग्राम ने पश्चिम बंगाल के मुसलमानों की बदतर हालत और सरकार का उनके प्रति नजरिया, उजागर कर दिया है। ऐसे में संगठित होते मुसलमान स‍रकार के लिए परेशानी का सबब बन सकते हैं... इसलिए नौजवान पत्रकार और www.twocircles.net के सम्पादक काशिफ उल हुदा की सलाह है कि भावनात्‍मक मुद्दों के बजाय मुसलमान अपने को सामाजिक आर्थिक मुद्दों की लड़ाई पर ही केन्द्रित रखें तो अच्‍छा है। ढाई आखर की गुजारिश पर उन्होंने हिन्दी में यह टिप्पणी भेजी है। हिन्दी में यह उनकी पहली औपचारिक टिप्पणी है। मुसलामानों की तरक्की के लिए जरूरी है शांतिपूर्ण समाजी और सियासी तहरीक काशिफ उल हुदा 1977 से वाम मोर्चा पश्विम बंगाम की सत्ता पर काबि...

Some Muslims out of respect for the prophets, make them a super-human made of noor. But Quran in various places makes it clear that prophets are also human beings that are born, eat, drink, marry, have children, and die. And We sent not before you (O Muhammad SAW) but men to whom We revealed, so ask the people of the Reminder [Scriptures - the Taurât (Torah), the Injeel (Gospel)] if you do not know. (7) And We did not create them (the Messengers, with) bodies that ate not food, nor were they immortals, (8) اور ہم نے تم سے پہلے بھی تو آدمیوں ہی کو رسول بنا کر بھیجا تھا ان کی طرف ہم وحی بھیجا کرتے تھے اگر تم نہیں جانتے تو علم والوں سے پوچھ لو (۷) او رہم نے ان کے ایسے بدن بھی نہیں بنائے تھے کہ وہ کھانانہ کھائیں اور نہ وہ ہمیشہ رہنے والے تھے (۸) Surah Anbiya: verses 7-8. English translation Dr. Muhsin Khan, Urdu translation by Ahmed Ali QuranExplorer.com

So on Thursday this week, I got an email from BBC world service that they are inviting a “former terrorist” Walid Shoebat to their program “ World Have Your Say .” This guy claims to have bombed a bank in Israel and after moving to the US, accepted Jesus as his saviour and no goes on lecture circuits claiming that Islam is the most dangerous idea of this world. I thought may be I should ignore it since I focus only on Indian issues and don’ t want to get involved in anything else. But later, thought it was a great opportunity to bring in the Indian Muslims on the world stage. So I talked to the producers and said I am ready and told her what my argument is going to be. She said that she will call me during the program but there is a possibility that they might not get to me during the one hour show. In the BBC program Walid argument was that “Islam has one goal and it is to overthrow all western cultures.” Unfortunately, BBC didn’t call me back otherwise I would have told him that a m...

Sometimes I wonder what cost of freedom is. How many lives how many generations a community will lose to violence before saying this is not worth it. Sanjay Kak, a Kashmiri Pandit, in his documentary ‘Jashn-e-Azadi’ captures the cost of violence in Kashmir- for Kashmiris it is a struggle for freedom for Indian soldiers it is a battle for defending India. But for a small piece of lands thousands have lives have been lost over the years and millions lives destroyed. In November 2007 I wrote this piece on psychological impact that violence is having on Kashmiris and Indian soldiers are not doing any better. Jashn-e-Azadi is a sad visual ghazal, each story in the documentary is like a sher (couplet) of a ghazal beautiful words but telling a sad tale. Watch the movie below and movie website is here: http://kashmirfilm.wordpress.com/