General & Islamic History Archive
There was a naughty boy: Salma Mahmud remembers her brother Salmaan Taseer: There was a naughty boy, And a naughty boy was he, He would not stop at home, He would not quiet be. – John Keats There are so many memories of those days gone by, that it is almost
Umar Bin Khattab (RA), the forerunner of visionary modern state – by Shaukat Masood Zafar: People say good leadership is like a prized perfume. Its very first scented waft announces its presence with astonishing freshness. Bad leadership like skunk just stinks. Democracy is not a separate ideology from Islam. In fact democracy is very
Salman Taseer – Another Victim of Islamofacsim: LUBP interviews Tarek Fatah: Author, journalist, ad man, technical writer, political activist and family man, Tarek Fatah stands as a prominent opponent of Islamofascism today. From confronting the IJT thugs of Karachi University in the late 1960s to taking on the lobbyists of
A Thousand Year Writer’s Block.. – by Omar Ali: William Burroughs famously remarked that Islam had hit a one thousand year writer’s block. Is this assessment justified? First things first: obviously we are not talking about all writing or all creative work. Thousands of talented writers have churned
Book review: Hazrat Ali and Nahjal Balagha — by Khaled Ahmed: Justice and Remembrance: Introducing the Spirituality of Imam Ali By Reza Shah-Kazemi; IB Tauris 2006 Pp 254; Special price Rs995 Available at bookstores in Pakistan This is a book from The Institute of Ismaili Studies, London, and is dedicated
Did Jinnah aspire for a secular Pakistan? – by Dr Safdar Mehmood: Photo: Dawn Related article: A Rebuttal to Dr. Safdar Mehmood’s article “Did Jinnah Aspire to a Secular Pakistan” – by Naveed Ali قائداعظم پر بہتان لگانے والے صبح بخیر…ڈاکٹر صفدر محمود گزشتہ چھ دہائیوں سے یہ بحث جاری ہے
Hindus’ contribution towards making of Pakistan – by Sophia Ajaz: We talk about minorities in India but are strangely unaware of the existence of the same in neighbouring Pakistan. Even before Independence Hindus, Sikhs, Parsis, Jews and Christians existed in undivided India. There was large scale migration/exodus post partition
Was Jinnah a Shia or a Sunni? – by Khaled Ahmed: Jinnah’s funeral, Karachi (1948) Jinnah, … was wont to describe himself in public as neither a Shia nor a Sunni. His stock answer to a query about his sect was: was Muhammad [pbuh] the Prophet a Shia or a
On Dr Safdar Mehmood’s (mis)interpretation of Jinnah – by Naveed Ali: Related article: Jinnah, Ayesha Jalal, Safdar Mehmood, Irshad Haqqani, Khurshid Nadeem – an interesting debate سب اپنے اپنے مفروضوں کے حق میں دلیلیں ان سے پاتے ہیں بیک وقت جناب قائد اعظم کے اقوال سبھی کے کام آتے ہیں
Lady Zainab bint Ali: Victory of truth over oppression: Related articles: Ameer-ul-Mominin Ali: “The First Fighter against Islamism” – by Shaheryar Ali Horr – by Dr Ali Shariati Allama Iqbal and Ahlul-Bayt Imam Hussain, Karbala and Khilafat – by Maulana Muhammad Ishaq Female leaders in Islam have been
Why did Pakistan’s first Law Minister, Jogendra Nath Mandal, resign?: While browsing, I came across this resignation letter by the first Chairman of Constituent Assembly as well as first Minister for Law & Labour of Pakistan, Mr. Jogendra Nath Mandal. Mr Mandal (1906–1956) was a Hindu Dalit politician; he
Remembrance Sunday: From allies to terrorists? – by Jahan Mahmood: In Britain’s hour of need, when she faced the might of the German Army, it was not America that came to her aid but the fighting men of the Indian subcontinent. They came from Bangladesh, India and Pakistan and
Zikr-e-Shahab: Remembering Qudrat Ullah Shahab: Compiled by: Abdul Nishapuri Qudratullah Shahab Shahab at a UNESCO session in Paris with Sahibzadah Yaqub Ali Khan At a sufi shrine in Canton, China, with Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Shahab with General Ayub Khan in a function of Pakistan
In defence of the Objectives Resolution and General Zia-ul-Haq – by Dr Safdar Mehmood: We have previously published a number of articles on LUBP providing a critical analysis of the “Objectives Resolution” which was the first formal step towards mullahcracy in Pakistan. Today, Dr Safdar Mehmood, whose academic credentials are as dubious as
Black fell the day – by Nadeem Paracha: This is an aspect of extremism that a lot of its more ‘moderate’ supporters in Pakistan have not comprehended. Educated men and women can be heard and seen concocting outlandish explanations and justifications in a bid to sympathetically define
Jinnah: India-Partition-Independence – by Jaswant Singh – Book Review by Iftikhar Ahmad: Book review: Creation of the state of Pakistan —by Iftikhar Ahmad Jinnah: India-Partition-Independence By Jaswant Singh Oxford University Press; Pp 565, Price Rs 995 It is claimed that Jaswant Singh’s book, Jinnah: India-Partition-Independence, attempts an objective evaluation. It is
Pakistan’s first ‘tarana’ by Jagan Nath Azad: Related post: Jagan Nath Azad did not write Pakistan’s first national anthem – by Dr Safdar Mehmood Cross Posted from Beena Sarwar’s Blog Complete version of the tarana by the Lahore-based poet Jagan Nath Azad, who was asked by
Did Jinnah know about the Kashmir War? — by Ishtiaq Ahmed: Those who want us to believe that an obscure colonel forced Pakistan into a war without the knowledge of the top political leadership, especially someone of the stature of Jinnah, are insulting common sense In his comment, ‘Jinnah’s role
Jinnah’s role in the Kashmir War — by Yasser Latif Hamdani: The Supreme Commander of both Indian and Pakistan forces Sir Claude Auchinleck followed Mounbatten’s policy and advised the C in C of Pakistan Army to openly defy orders of the Pakistan Governor General In his article ‘The 1947-48 Kashmir
Assaulting the Pakhtun culture: a rejoinder to Dr Ishtiaq Ahmed — by Farhat Taj: The Pakhtun culture is reflected in Ghaffar Khan’s non-violent movement, in the mysticism of Rahman Baba’s poetry and in the romanticism of Ghani Khan’s poetry. This is a society that produced hundreds of anti-Taliban lashkar leaders all over Pakhtunkhwa
My life with the Taliban – by Abdul Salam Zaeef: Humanising the monster Dr Mohammad Taqi My life with the Taliban By Abdul Salam Zaeef Translated from Pashto and edited by Alex Strick van Linschoten and Felix Kuehn Hurst/Columbia University Press; Pp 331 In his foreword to Mullah Abdul
Maulana Azad and Partition: Update: Correction: The following article is considered to be fake, hence readers are advised to post no further comments on a fake article. We have decided not to delete this post in order to preserve the comments in this
Muhammad: A Prophet for Our Time – by Karen Armstrong: Book Review Title: Muhammad – A Prophet for Our Time By: Karen Armstrong 249 pages. $21.95. HarperCollins/Atlas Books. Reviewed by Laurie Goodstein – in The New York Times (International Herald Tribune) The religion with the most adherents on the
Past present: Is Sufism relevant to our time? – by Mubarak Ali: There are some people who, in view of the present religious extremism, believe that if Sufi teachings are revived, religious intolerance and fundamentalism may be controlled. The attempt to revive the past system and old ideas is not a
NRO verdict: a murder of history – by Humza Ikram: Recent NRO verdict is an attempt to distort our 64 years of political history. And the thing which makes me sad the most is that how easily Supreme Court picked up Benazir Bhutto’s book (Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy, and the
Making sense of the distorted history of Muslims in India – by Nadeem Paracha: “Why do many Pakistanis spend more time celebrating Islamic history of regions outside India (especially Arabian), the ummah, and seem to show more concern in what is happening to their brethren in Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan and Kashmir.” Writes Nadeem
An Historical Perspective on Supreme Court’s Decision against the NRO – by Ahsan Abbas Shah: Ahsan Abbas Shah offers an in depth historical perspective on the Supreme Court of Pakistan’s decision against the process of national reconciliation in the country. He warns that any unconstitutional step to derail democracy may result in dire consequences
Authentic, readable biography of Iqbal needed: By Rauf Parekh Monday, 09 Nov, 2009 (Dawn) COMMENTING on the genre of biography, Oscar Wilde said: ‘Formerly we used to canonise our heroes. The modern method is to vulgarise them. Cheap editions of great books may be delightful,
The need for a critical examination of Islamic history and an alternative discourse: The backwards forward Posted by Nadeem F. Paracha There is an urgent need in the Muslim world to think anew about a lot of issues, not to appease the West, but to co There is an informative debate show
What Bhutto can still teach us – by Sherry Rehman: Mourners gather at Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto’s grave to pay their respects – AP/File photo. Remembering Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Audiovisual Interactive HISTORY as it is taught in the schoolrooms of Pakistan is very different from our collective, and often contested,
The burden of history in 2009 is on the sholders of PPP, PML-N and… the army – by Ayaz Amir: Country burns, political class fiddlesFriday, February 06, 2009 By by Ayaz Amir …. At the centre the PPP government is rightly being accused of incompetence and dithering. But is leadership coming from any other direction? The army, Pakistan’s option
Punjab and the study of Ranjit Singh – by Ayaz Amir: Islamabad diary Friday, January 16, 2009 by Ayaz Amir At this juncture, when the seven tribal agencies along the Afghan frontier are lost to any form of government control, and Swat–once paradise on earth, now very much a picture
Why are followers of Al Qaeda, Taliban and Sipah-e-Sahaba barbaric in nature? Where do they draw inspiration from? A dialogue grounded in history: Ghost Of TK Says:December 20th, 2008 [to a supporter of Taliban who is against Pakistan Army’s operation against terrorists in Swat and FATA, who alleged that Pakistan army “killed our Muslim brothers and sisters in tribal areas.”] You mean
What can we learn from The Madina Charter? A Multifaith and Mutlicultural Constitution for Peace and Conflict Resolution: Peace and Conflict Resolution Concepts in the Madina Charter by Yetkin Yildirim It is much easier to make contact with people from vastly different cultures and beliefs in the context of today’s world. Unfortunately, increased globalization has also broadened
The creation of Bangladesh and the role of Pakistani media: On December 16, 1971 the Pakistan army in Bangladesh unconditionally surrendered to the joint Indian and Bangladeshi forces. With the signing of the Instrument of Surrender, Bangladesh came into being and united Pakistan was at an end. However, in
A historical view of terrorism – By Dr. Mubarak Ali: A STUDY of terrorism from a historical perspective would shed light on the origin of this phenomenon and the motivation behind it. It has manifested itself in different hues and colours. Terrorism has emerged in different circumstances with different