Private Opinion

Two Couplets

aaj to besabab udaas hai jii
ishq hotaa to ko’ii baat bhii thii

Nasir Kazmi

apnii bekalii kaa sabab aaj tak
Khud bhii jaanaa nahiiN ke tujhse kaheN

Ahmed Faraz

Please Vote For Indian Muslims Blog

A collaborative blog helped I co-found, Indian Muslims, has been nominated to the prestigious Brass Crescent Awards in the Best Group Blog category. Brass Crescent Awards are given out to the best of Muslim Blogosphere annually and are now in their fourth year of running. Here is what I wrote at Indian Muslims on this occasion:

Happy Eid 2007

Albeit a bit late, here is wishing everyone a great Eid.

Ramadan Blogging: Day 30

Last day of Ramadan with Imam Suhaib Webb.

Ramadan Blogging: Day 29

Ramadan came, but Bairam is with us.
The lock came, but the key is with us.

Mouth is closed. Eyes are opened.
That brilliance that the eyes see is with us.

We have cleaned soul and heart with fasting.
The dirt which has been with us is cleansed now.

Some stress comes from fasting,
But the invisible treasure of heart is with us.

Ramadan came to the heart’s temple;
The one who created heart is with us.

Since Salahuddin* is among this crowd,
Mansur and Beyazid* are with us.

Ramadan Blogging: Day 28

Eid is around the corner. With it comes the dilemma: to celebrate or not to celebrate. It seems this year too, like previous years, Eid will be observed on different days by different mosques. The one I go to has already decided the Eid is on 13th October.

Meanwhile, there have been a couple of good articles at Indian Muslims on Eid. Mirza Faisal Beg reminds us of the beautiful story of Premchand called Idgah and Inam Abidi remembers a family friend on Eid.

Ramadan Blogging: Day 27

A common charge leveled against Muslims is that they don’t condemn terror. Or at the very least, they don’t condemn enough. One ex-PM in India tried to justify the mass-murder of 2000+ innocents in Gujarat in 2002 on this very premise.

Ali Eteraz, provocateur par excellence, writes a good piece in Huffington Post on this issue.

The amount of disinformation about Muslims is disconcerting. One popular smear is that Muslims are in an alliance with the left to take over the West; it is an allegation that far right loves to use.

Ramadan Blogging: Day 26

Mohd. Rafi singing Ramzan Ki Fazeelat. Reminds me of my hostel canteen during Ramadan in Aligarh.

Ramadan Blogging: Day 25

Famous qawwali of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Shamas Ud Doha, Badar Ud Doja.

Ramadan Blogging: Day 24

I think I am a nice dinner guest. I remember a lot of witty anecdotes, have a decent sense of humor and am respectful to others point of view. Unless I am on a table full of Pakistanis.