Ramzaan Mubarak

Ramzan is a fairly common name in Pakistan. Most Ramzans that I have come across are in restaurant and catering areas - Bawarchis (restaurant/Kitchen workers). However, I have never heard of any Ramzan politician, or any famous athlete (cricket, hockey, soccer, etc.). I find it ironic that a name associated with fasting is given to people who work in food industry.

temporal saheb:

Ramzaan, or rather the philosophy behind it, comes across as one of the noblest elements of Islam. If it were open to ijtehad -which I know it isn`t- your objective of 7/24/365 insaan could perhaps be better served by making it once-a-week instead of a whole month thing; the closer spacing would give a better chance of not forgetting the philosophy behind fasting. But then, it would mean having an Eid every week, too!

Ramzaan Mubarak

Re: # 33

disoriented?? haha no

but it has definitely left you discredited.


all the folks on this board, sorry for the digression

Re: # 33

i had to hound you here because you seem to have run away from my replies on gandhi boards.

anyway, thank to your articles i have more understanding of gandhi.

also, how is bombing mosque or killing amadiyas related to ramzaan/this board. doesn`t it happen during non-ramzaan days too?

Apologies again for the digression:

Temporal Sahib:
Some books that seem to come close to what you were referring to are:

Sugata Bose, Peasant Labour and Colonial Capital: Rural Bengal since 1770 (Cambridge: 1993)
Sugata Bose, Agrarian Bengal: Economy, Social Structure, and Politics (Cambridge: 1986)
Sushil Chaudhuri, From Prosperity to Decline: Eighteenth Century Bengal (Dehli: 1995)

Might also try
Anil Chandra Banerjee, The Agrarian System of Bengal 1582-1793 (Calcutta: 1980)

You can also check out this (definitive?) bibliography on Indian history
http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~dludden/bibessay.htm

I think Bose is your best bet; IIRC he is a Marxist (which irrevocably biases his analysis: everything has to fit that straight-jacket!) and has written along the lines you suggested. Hope this helps.

Regards.

Netizen,

I can see that exposure to reality has left you somewhat disoriented.

However... try to remain in the context.

Re: # 30

manto miya:

``these are the people you owe the creation of Pakistan to... and now you are killing them off... ``

wasn`t in another board you were crediting gandhi and congress for the creation of pakistan?

it seems for you, different board, different opinion.

Re: # 25

Good goddess, I hate it when Hamid Sahb sounds like such a decent human being....arrgh!

Urstruly

Shame on you... Shame Shame Shame-
these are the people you owe the creation of Pakistan to... and now you are killing them off...

Shame on you.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/4317998.stm

Eight die in Pakistan sect attack

Pakistan`s government has condemned the attack
Police in Pakistan say at least eight people were killed and 20 injured when gunmen opened fire as worshippers gathered for Friday prayers.
The attack on members of the minority Ahmadiyya sect took place near the town of Mandi Bahauddin in Punjab.

The Ahmadiyya profess allegiance to Islam, but were declared heretical by a constitutional amendment 30 years ago.

Police official Mohammed Arif said the gunmen rode up on motorbikes before entering the mosque and opening fire.

`Religious terrorism`

``So far we only know that three men riding on a motorcycle suddenly came into the village [of Mong] on Friday morning. Two of them went inside the mosque and started firing,`` he told the Associated Press.


When I reached the mosque, I heard cries and saw blood everywhere

Masood Ahmed Raja, eyewitness


In pictures: Mosque killings

About 150 Ahmadiyya live in Mong, a suburb of Mandi Bahauddin, 150km (94 miles) south of Islamabad.

The head of the mosque, Sadiq Hussain Sherazi, was leading prayers when he heard gunfire and ``immediately threw myself on the floor``.

``The attackers thought I was dead and that is what saved me. After a while I got up and saw bodies all around me. There was blood and chaos all around and the wall was full of bullet holes.``

Masood Ahmed Raja, a doctor belonging to the sect, said he saw three masked men escaping on a motorcycle.

``I had no idea who these men were, but when I reached the mosque, I heard cries and saw blood everywhere,`` he said.

``I don`t know who attacked our mosque, but it seems to be an act of religious terrorism.``

`Persecution`

Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao said: ``We condemn this attack. Any act of violence in which innocent people are killed should be condemned.``



Shahbaz Bhatti, head of the All Pakistan Minorities Alliance, also condemned the killings, but said the government had failed to protect minorities.

Human rights groups have constantly highlighted the persecution suffered by the Ahmadiyya in Pakistan.

In August, authorities closed down the offices of 16 publications run by followers of the sect in Punjab city for ``propagation of offensive material``.

Bangladesh has also banned publications by the Ahmadiyya movement amid demands from Islamic hardliners that it be declared non-Muslim.

The Ahmadiyya were declared non-Muslims under the Pakistani constitution in 1974.

The sect was founded by Hadhrat Mirza Ghulam, who was born in the town of Qadian in Punjab in 1835.

The Ahmadiyya believe he was the Imam Mahdi, or the Promised Messiah.

Sectarian violence in Pakistan mostly concerns the rift between the majority Sunnis and minority Shia and has claimed around 4,000 lives in the past decade.

Hamidm

That was a great one, on guilt. Don`t we do most things out of sheer guilt? :)

aisha

Wow. I wish I could write to my parents half as well, or a quarter, or just write! :(

Ramzaan mubarak to you and your family.

A letter to my Mom,

AA Mum.

Contrary to everything you taught me, Ramazan is so pointless. Food becomes the object of our obsessions instead of it becoming secondary, food becomes more complicated and preparations take longer, instead of the task simplifying, food preparation puts undue burden on women, and leads to children getting neglected.

Ramazan is also a time where the most hypocritical things happen, people start wearing hijabs men wear beards. etc. It’s so primitive, might as well put food at an alter. For the past two days I am so sleep deprived, waking up for sehri is impossible to do given our already hectic schedules. Also the fact that it is obligatory totally beats the point of doing it for the soul.

So that`s my rant. I am fasting, perhaps because I must give my experience a chance, perhaps I`ll gain some far-reaching insight.

But I must go on, I think ramadan is a thing of the past, it reduced our country`s productivity leaps and bounds and no matter what one says, it is not good for the health, its so hot here, how can one keep without water for so long, and more over, who says we think of the poor when we are hungry. No we don’t, we think more of our hunger, we can only think about others when our own basic needs are met...Maslow’s Hierarchy. This is such a competition of getting brownie points. It`s like doing something to amuse ourselves.

Ramazan is for people who have nothing better to do and are residing in the West. You guys in Morganton and San Jose. Ok ma, bye...don`t worry too much about my ramazan rage. I may get over it. No need for “save my daughter” prayers in Tarawi either. Here’s the other thing, Ramazan makes people angry because they have hypoglycemia. Totally counterproductive!

Much love,

Aisha F. Sarwari

Hello Temporal,

Perhaps the distinction to be made here is between a ritual and a value. The ritual is to go through the motions, like not eating, smoking, or drinking, saying all the prayers.
The values are the ones that you have articulated ``piety``, ``patience``, ``tolerance``, ``empathy``, ``community`` and ``purification``. These are universal values and encouraged by good people in all religions. Why would we muslim sacrifice these values and settle for mere rituals is beyond me. My question is if these values are to be practised in Ramazan so that we also remember them in the other months, why is it that up front and center are questions about the rituals? The emphasis should be on the values, not what time is Iftar or what time we can have sahri.

Human beings are designed to lead a ritualistic life. It comes from the pagan days, and some of us have not really evovoled into monotheism. I think a sign of a good muslim is one who recgonizes that rituals are for ``pagans``. Islam is available at all different levels, some have chosen the ritualistic life. Perhaps that is all that makes sense to them. It is possible to practice Islam at a different level, where you place emphasis on values, and your actions are correlated with those values, the other level is that of an automaton, doing what you have been told without asking why and going through the motions without having a choice about what you are doing. We didn`t have a choice about which family or religion we were born under. I think it is safe to say that we have a choice about how we can and should interpret our religion.

A comment on this pillar of Islam.

Ramazan is just another way to make people push their limits of religious furvour, a re-charge mechanism so that the brain washing works till the next one. But I don`t want to give too much credit to the inventor because it wasn`t a new concept. Christians and Jews had it. But whoever invented it first, would get that credit.

It is just another hafta-e-safai or hafta-e-khush-iklaaqi. Now a days, corporations can make people do silly things like this because they have control over their push button. Pre-historic bosses had to rely on the notion of the big ghost to make people do it. But that works better than anything.

Tempo, I am amazed at you. Usually poets and artists are the first ones to smell the fishy air.

......i hate ramzan !............... it is the worst time of the year for me because, even though mrs hamidm doesn`t say anything, i feel rather guilty - i don`t know why, but i really do ............ she gets up at sehri and tiptoes around in the dark trying not to wake me up .......... soon i can hear her in the kitchen fixing herself a bowl of cheerios ........ sometimes i smell an egg frying in butter, so i get hungry and go down to make myself two eggs and she will heat up a paratha for me in the microwave .........i never have breakfast, so it is kind of strange to be eating early in the morning, specially when it is still dark outside, and it gives me gas ..............and at iftari i will help myself to an extra samosa ...... of course i don`t tell her that i had lunch, but after almost twenty years she knows that i never miss lunch ........... and then she pulls out the old prayer mat and starts praying - she does that this time of the year, every year .......... but the kids and i are okay with it because she never asks us to join in the strange activity .........

........ but i still feel guilty, so i ask my little one, ``you should fast on saturday``.......``why don`t you make your other daughter fast - she never fasts and why don`t you fast, king abu!``.......``i have kidney stones and i have to drink a lot of water - but i will fast on juma tul wida and also the last roza ``.........``sure !`` .......... i don`t know why she doesn`t believe me ..............

........... now i am feeling really guilty - so i will fast tomorrow .......... wait! i can`t do that, tomorrow is friday and i have to go drinking with urstruly ......... okay, i will fast on saturday .... or maybe sunday ..........

........... i just can`t wait for eid !

Sattar2 #18
heheh…never!

i never read them poems…just write…and make some blood relatives and some friends force read them…a good way to check their high blood pressure:)

Fuzair #19
sigh….ok..let me dig through the old files….will let you know

kaal:
thanks

thnks and rgds

t

Ramzaan mubarak to everybody on Chowk.