Visual Representations of Prophet
Why is it that visual representation of Prophet Muhammad is banned in Islam? What is the theological rationale for the ban? I stumbled upon an article, where the following is stated: ‘In certain reference works and books about Islam, we may come across the claim that even if the Prophet Muhammad was represented in pictorial […]
In Rapture with a Sarod
With certain fingers, a Sarod is more than an instrument and music is more than music. Longing is more than what you thought it was. When Ustad Amjad Aali Khan sits with his sarod and his fingers move along its strings, the sarod sobs, weeps, cries, wails, grumbles, groans, murmurs, smiles, laughs, giggles, yells and […]
Misfortunes of Two Indian Stars
Headlines about two Indian actors have recently gone viral. They are Bollywood’s own King Khan and Kollywood’s own King Kamal. Shah Rukh Khan wrote an article titled ‘Being a Khan’ in the Outlook Turning Point Magazine on the agonies of carrying a name, Khan. Kamal Hassan made Vishwaroopam (Global Shape), a film on the most […]
Moulid: Beyond Rashid Rida’s Tolerance
As children we did not know the meaning of the moulid we used to recite and sing. Nor did we try. When we pestered our elders for a little bit of glosses on those sonorous, full-bodied verses, they discouraged: ‘You don’t know the meaning of the Qur’an either.’ Piety stayed well outside all meanings. So […]
How Muhammad Matters
Biographies of Prophets are written not just for passive reading. Edification is one of the intentions of early writers of Sira. All authors of Muhammad’s biography have explored/explore how the life of the last Prophet of God matter to them, their society and culture. So have/do the the encomiums being sung as part of mawlid […]
Muhammad: In History and Piety
A manuscript copy of the Koran, written probably in the twelfth century in eastern Iran in a rather simple, late Kufic hand, has one notable peculiarity: the whole of Sura 112, the profession of God’s Unity, is written in unusually interlaced, powerful letters, and on another page, the word Muhammad rasul Allah, “Muhammad is the […]
Does the Big Screen Miss the Prophet?
Love and respect for the Prophet is part of the faith of Islam. There are so many representations of the Prophet in art and literature that it takes a voluminous space to chronicle them all. Resistance to the musical and literary representations from the Muslim orthodoxy has never been as vociferous as it has been […]
Compelled to be Perfect
She sat in front of me; the dejection in her eyes mixed with something else – confusion, bewilderment. She still didn’t know where she went wrong, how she went wrong. She tried to do everything right, the way he wanted it. She tried hard, a bit too hard perhaps. She had been married for two […]
New Flavours for Old Recipes
Take a journey back in time more than 2700 years to a royal banquet in the palace at Nineveh, capital of the Assyrian Empire. As you arrive, the scent of lilies and roses fills the air. Musicians play harps and pipes, sing songs and recite poems. You snack on fresh pistachios and walnuts as you […]
What is Islamic About Islamic Arts?
I was slightly disappointed at having not been able to go to Jaipur to attend India’s most reputed literary festival, especially when I read a report in the Hindu about an open forum featuring writers Ahdaf Soueif, Tahar Ben Jelloun and Selma Dabbagh, Jonathan Shainin and William Dalrymple. In the forum, Moroccan author Tahar Ben […]
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