Author Archive: Infoeditor
Ibn Arabi Throws Feminism into Relief
Islamic feminism is generally understood in two ways: on the basis of women’s activism and their academic involvement. The second category includes feminist readings of the Quran, Islamic jurisprudence and Prophetic Tradition. Feminist readings in Islam have been restricted to the women-centred Quranic readings of Amina Wadud and Asma Barlas for the last 20 years. […]
The First Minaret in Denmark and the Biggest Mosque in Scandinavia
The mosque complex has an area of 6,800 square meters with a domed mosque, offices, classrooms, a cinema, a restaurant, childcare facilities, a playground, a community center for the aged. Denmark saw the construction of its first minaret, a 20-meter structure, the other day as the project for the biggest mosque in Scandinavia at Rovsingsgade […]
Much Beyond the Dance
Type Jalauddin Rumi in your image search box. In the first page view itself, you see the white-robed dancers with one hand holding aloft to the sky and the other holding down. Martin Lings, in What is Sufism explains it as two points in human existence: Ethereal and ephemeral. In Istanbul, where in the deluge […]
Abandoned in Abandon
One day I ended up with Pradeep Sebastian’s Groaning Shelf, an engrossing account of a book lover. The book has arrayed an assorted group of some interesting characters: Rick Gekoski, the book collector, who bought the very first edition of Vladimar Nebakov’s Lolitha for a whopping $ 4000 to later sell it for a more […]
What’s the Big Idea?
So what is your idea of Islam? To what extent and in what ways is there or should there be a choice? Do you agree with Mohammad Sidique Khan or with Tariq Jahan? On the one hand, Khan, leader of the 7 July 2005 London bombers, sought ‘martyrdom’. In his suicide video, he told the […]
Mathnawi : The Parliament of Symbols
No mystic of Islam is as well known in the west as Jalaluddin Rumi, called his followers Maulana, “our master” (Turkish pronunciation Mevlana), or Maulawi. The order inspired by him, the Mevlevis, known in the west as the whirling Devishes, early attracted the interest of European visitors to the Ottoman Empire and the first orientalists […]
Necrophilia and Uncooked Meat: A Take on Irrational Fatwas
The cyberspace is abuzz with discussions on yet another fatwa, this time from a Moroccan cleric who declared necrophilia lawful. According to the cleric, it is religiously permissible for a man to have sex with his dead wife provided it is done within six hours of death. Although the fatwa seems to have been issued some […]
Tombs, Orders: Facets from History
The Naqshbandiya, which spread in India, China and the Malayan Archipelago, is an orthodox order and in general, appeals to the elite, forbidding the practice of extravagant forms of dhikhr, dancing and music. It was introduced to India by Baqi Billah in the 10th/16th century and was started afresh and reinvigorated by his important and […]
Rūmī and the Sufi Tradition
The following is an excrept from the author’s book Islamic Art and Spirituality State University of New York Press Wine in ferment is a beggar suing for our ferment, Heaven in revolution is a beggar suing for our consciousness/ Wine was intoxicated with us, not we with it; the body came into being from us, not we from […]
Van Gogh’s New Painting on Display!
Sunset at Montmajour, A new Vincent Van Gogh painting has been discovered. Ittook two years of research to confirm its authenticity. The workis believed to have beendone during the artist’s time in the Southern French town of Arles, the same period during which he painted his Sunflowers, The Yellow House andThe Bedroom. The priceless piece […]
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