Reporting on Afghanistan Does anyone know where to get a copy of Makhmalbaf`s movie Kandahar?

Ghazali On Women In Islam THE WIVES OF THE PROPHET

There have been a number of references in this discussion relating to the number and characteristics of the Prophet`s wives, along with attempts to draw inferences regarding the Prophet`s character based on these references. I have provided some facts below regarding his wives (I think I`ve covered all of them). I would like to preface this with the following quote from Adil Salahi`s Muhammad: Man and Prophet:

``It is tempting to explain most of the Prophet`s marriages in terms of the political, social or religious aims which attended each one of them. One must be wary, however, of oversimplifying matters, seeking justification for things which one should accept without too much worry. The Prophet was allowed by Allah to marry as many women as he wished. If he therefore availed himself of this permission for no reason other than that for which people normally get married, this should be an absolutely satisfactory explanation.``

KHADIJAH: She was a wealthy widow. Most biographers put his age at 25 and hers at around 40 at the time of the marriage. (Some reports suggest that the Prophet was nearer 30, while there are reports that she may have been 35, or even 25. Ibn Abbas, the Prophet`s cousin states that she was 28.) During the 25 years of their marriage prior to Khadijah`s death, the Prophet did not marry any other women.

SAUDAH: She married the Prophet during the second year after the Hijra, when she was around 50 years old. She was one of the earliest converts to Islam and had emigrated to Abyssinia with her first husband, who died there.

A`ISHA: She was the daughter of the Prophet`s companion Abu Bakr. She is reported to have been married to the Prophet at the age of 6, and reportedly consummated this marriage when she was 9. (Some researchers believe that the ahadith reporting Aisha`s age are inaccurate. Based on various historical data reported by Tabari, Ibn Hisham and others, one scholar has calculated Aisha`s age to have been between 14 and 20. Allah knows best.)

HAFSAH: She was the daughter of the Prophet`s companion Umar. She was widowed when her husband Khunais ibn Hudhafa was martyred at Badr. It is reported that the Prophet offered to marry her when Umar complained that Uthman and Abu Bakr had declined to marry her.

ZAINAB: She was a widow when the Prophet married her. Her previous husband Abdullah ibn Jahsh was martyred at Uhud. She died at the age of 30 during the Prophet`s lifetime.

UMM SALAMAH: Her name was Hind and she is considered to have been one of the earliest Muslims. She married the Prophet after her first husband Abdullah ibn Asad was martyred at Uhud.

ZAINAB BINT JAHSH: She was the Prophet`s cousin. She was previously married to Zaid ibn Haritha, the Prophet`s freed slave. The Prophet married her after Zaid divorced her and upon the revelation of verse 37 of Sura Al-Ahzab.

JUWAIRIYAH: She was the daughter of Al-Harith ibn Abu Dhirar, chief of the Al-Mustalaq tribe. Her tribe was captured during a military confrontation with the Muslim army. It is reported that during the distribution of the captives among the army, the Prophet took her for himself, granted her freedom and proposed to her. As her subsequent marriage effectively made her tribe the Prophet`s in-laws, the Muslims decided to free their slaves from the Al-Mustalaq tribe.

UMM HABIBAH: She was the daughter of Abu Sufyan, a Quraysh leader who commanded its armies in several battles against the Muslims. She was one of the early Muslims and emigrated to Abyssinia with her first husband Ubaidullah ibn Jahsh. Her husband converted to Christianity, and she continued to live with him. Shortly after the death of her husband, the Prophet arranged to marry her through the help of the King of Abyssinia.

SAFIYAH: She was a member of the Jewish Banu Al-Nadheer tribe, and had been divorced by her previous husband Sallam bin Mishkam. She married Kinana ibn al-Rabi` a little before the Muslims attacked Khaibar. Her father and husband were killed at Khaibar. She accepted Islam and married the Prophet after the fall of Khaibar.

MAIMUNAH: She had been divorced by her first husband and her second husband died. The Prophet agreed to marry Maimunah in response to the initiative of her sister.

MARIA: She and her sister were sent as gifts to the Prophet by the Coptic ruler of Egypt. It is reported that they both accepted Islam on their way to Medina and that Maria later married the Prophet.

Why Most DOT.COMS Will Fail Re: temporal #1

``Venture capitalists think business model is for cynics, who know the cost of everything and the value of nothing. (Thanks for using my line from the précis to your last article:))``

Actually it`s Oscar Wilde, Lady Windermere`s Fan (1892), Act 3

Cecil Graham: What is a cynic?

Lord Darlington: A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.

Negotiating Human Rights Re sigalph235 #21: ``The bottomline is this: there is no Pakistani way and no Islamic way of human rights. Human rights are human rights and only the Mullah Umars of the world will try to fudge the issue by constantly denying that there exists a universal standard of human dignity.``

Recently read two pieces that are relevant to the above comment. (I apologize for straying from the general thrust of the discussion that the article has generated, and do not wish to diminish the importance of the core issues in any way.)

Jermey Bentham, Anarchical Fallacies (1796):

``In proportion ot the want of happiness resulting from the want of rights, a reason exists for wishing that there were such things as rights. But reasons for wishing that there were such things as rights, are not rights ... - wants is not supply - hunger is not bread.``

``Of a natural right who has any idea? I, for my part, I have none: a natural right is a round square, - an incorporeal body. What a legal right is I know. ... Right is with me a child of law ... A natural right is a son that never had a father.``

Jeremy Waldron, The Law (1990):

``Though they are often expressed in simple slogans, human rights are not a simple matter. There are endless disputes about what counts as torture, whether pornography is free speach, what`s required for a fair trial, which rights can be overridden in a public emergency, what counts as a public emergency, how conflicts of rights are to be resolved, and so on. Think about the issue of abortion. Do foetuses have rights, and if they do, how do they weigh against a woman`s right to control her own body? These are awfully difficult issues on which honest disagreement is more or less inevitable. When such disputes crop up, how are they to be decided?``

Startup Genes I: A Tale of Three IPOs Re #1,4,6-8. DITTO. Are you meeting with the delegation from MOST or the CE next week by any chance?

Azam

Mecca or Mohenjodaro? Dawn, The Magazine: May 7, 2000

http://www.dawn.com/weekly/dmag/dmag1.htm

In Search of Identity

By Mubarak Ali

SINCE its inception Pakistan has faced the monumental task of formulating its national identity separate from India. Partitioned from the ancient civilization of India, Pakistan has struggled to construct its own culture; a culture not just different and unique from India, but one appreciable by the rest of the world.

The overshadowing image of the Indian civilization also haunted the founders of Pakistan, who channeled their efforts in making the differences between India and Pakistan more tangible and obvious.

The fundamental difference between India and Pakistan was based on the Two Nation theory, strengthening Pakistan`s Islamic identity. At the same time, a necessity was felt to outline the geographic differences between India and Pakistan. It was pointed out that West Pakistan had always remained a separate region geographically and historically, and, therefore, it had to be autonomous. Recently, Aitezaz Ahsan in his book The Indus Saga and the Making of Pakistan has emphasised the geographical and historical exclusiveness of Pakistan from the Indian subcontinent.

The collapse of Russia and the emergence of Central Asian Republics inspired most intellectuals and government circles to revive the cultural links with Central Asia. There have been a number of newspaper articles tracing the cultural relationship between Pakistan and Central Asia, claiming that Pakistani people have more affinity with the Central Asians rather than with the Indians.

In its initial years, the ideology of Pakistan was conceptualized in national terms rather than religious because it was the country (division between East and West Pakistan) and not Islam that was in danger. However, religion remained a strong basis of Pakistan`s ideology. In 1971, Radio Pakistan broadcast the speeches of eleven eminent scholars on the Ideology of Pakistan with the purpose of providing ``an analysis of the recent happenings in East Pakistan and expose the designs of anti- Pakistan forces, who have been conspiring since long to strike at the very roots of our nationhood``

The tragedy of 1971 brought a shock to the people and also a heavy blow to the ideology of Pakistan. Under those circumstances, it was believed that the ideology of Pakistan was misused by the ruling classes and never implemented in its true spirit. More or less convinced of their Islamic heritage and identity, Pakistan`s government and intelligentsia consciously attempted to Islamize the country. Historically, the process of Islamization was the outcome of the promises and declarations of the Muslim League leadership, which had vowed to put in place an Islamic system in Pakistan. Therefore, after the creation of Pakistan, it was logical to make Pakistan an Islamic state as it was achieved on the basis of religious nationalism. However, a few days before the physical Partition had to take place, Jinnah delivered his famous speech to the Constituent Assembly on August 11. The secular tone of the address created problems in the Muslim League leadership as well as in the circle of bureaucracy. An attempt was, therefore, made to censor Jinnah`s speech. This, however, failed.

After the passage of the Objective Resolution in 1949, it was argued that the Resolution automatically repudiated Jinnah`s speech as it provided the Islamic basis to the new country. However, later on more arguments were given to reject this speech. It is said that the speech was just an `aberration` ; and delivered at a time when Jinnah was very sick. However, in spite of all such arguments, the speech is used by the secularists to put the conservative elements at bay.

Liaquat`s attempt to make Objective Resolution the preamble of the constitution, setting up the Board of Islamic Teaching in order to advise the Basic Principles Committees on the Islamic aspects of the constitution was the use of Islam to strengthen centralization and to curb provincialism. At this stage, though, the bureaucracy remained in opposition to the ulema and resisted to recognize them as the final authority in matters of politics and administration. That is why the proposal to establish the Ministry of Religious Affairs was rejected in order not to give them any space in the sphere of administration.

The history of islamization can be traced to the Bhutto era when he attempted to set up the Ministry of Religious Affairs and coming up with a Haj policy by terminating the lottery system. The process was further accelerated after the general elections of 1977 when the opposition launched a countrywide campaign against Bhutto. The slogan of Nizam-e-Mustafa and Bhutto`s counter-balancing efforts are major marks in that direction.

Zia-ul-Haq furthered the process to buy legitimacy for his military regime. The element of communal and sectarian hatred in today`s society are a direct consequence of the laws that the dictator had put in place.

Contrary to expectations, the process of Islamization did not stop after Zia. Benazir in her two tenures maintained the status quo, while Nawaz Sharif added his own bit, like mandating death penalty to the Blasphemy Law.

The happenings on the Islamization front, in fact, shed light on the intentions of the country`s leadership, the way it has used Islam to its convenience and requirements. With the failure of the ruling classes to deliver the goods to the people, religion was exploited to cover up corruption and bad governance. Moreover, the process of Islamization not only supports but protects the fundamentalists in their attempts to terrorize and harass society in the name of religion. There are published accounts of the kind of menace that is spread by religious schools run by these fundamentalists. The political failure of the ruling classes is giving them further hope that the time is not far when they would be at the helm of affairs, like their counterparts did in Iran and Afghanistan.

In any ideological state, efforts are made not only to protect the ideology, but also to disseminate it. Therefore, the state indoctrinates through media and education. The same process is being followed in Pakistan. Zia-ul-Haq, during his military dictatorship, coined the phrase ``geographical and ideological boundaries`` and made it the responsibility of his government to defend the same from external and internal enemies. This declaration made all secular and liberal-minded people enemies of the countries. They were warned again and again of severe consequences in case of any violation of the Ideology of Pakistan.

To make the young generation conscious of the Pakistani ideology, the University Grants Commission of Pakistan made Islamic Studies and Pakistan Study compulsory subjects at all levels of the education system, even for the professional students. The Zia government also made the two subjects compulsory for `O` an `A` level students. This gave the government an opportunity to teach the students its own version of history, especially the Pakistan ideology, which is described as something like this: ``The struggle was for the establishment of a new Islamic state and for the attainment of independence. It was the outcome of the sincere desire of the Muslims of the subcontinent who wanted Islam to be accepted as the ideal pattern for an individual`s life, and also as the law to bind the Muslims into a single community.``

In asserting this identity, Pakistan is in a state of dilemma: in case of rejection of the ideology, it has to repudiate the very basis of its separation from India; to keep and preserve the ideology means to alienate the non-Muslim minorities to become a part of the Pakistani nationhood.

On the other hand, as the ideology has been used by successive political and military leaderships for their own domination by means of maintaining over-centralization, it has disillusioned the small provinces. They see the ideology as a tool that is used to snatch their political rights and to deprive them of their regional and cultural identity. The alternative that is suggested by some Pakistani scholars is to reconstruct the Pakistani identity on the basis of territorial, rather than religious, nationalism.

Hamza Alavi has rightly suggested that by doing so, ``we will free ourselves from our present day hang-ups about the so-called Pakistan ideology and its confusing appeal to religion, which only has effect of promoting vicious sectarian conflict``. So true, but who cares?

What are they Teaching in Pakistani Schools Today? I agree with Dr. Hoodbhoy’s conclusions, but I wanted to set the record straight about “Nizam-ul-Mulk and the madrassa system of the 11th century” referred to by Dr. Hoodbhoy. Nizam al-Mulk (1018-92), a Seljuk vizir of Persian origin, was one of the greatest statesmen of medieval Islamic civilization. According to Encyclopedia Britannica:

“Because of Toghrl Beg`s victory over the Buyids in Baghdad in 1055, the Seljuqs came to be seen as the restorers of Muslim unity under the Sunnite caliphate. While Alp-Arslan and Malik-Shah expanded the empire to the frontier of Egypt, the Seljuq vizier Nizam al-Mulk oversaw the empire`s organization during both their reigns. The Seljuq empire, political as well as religious in character, left a strong legacy to Islam. During the Seljuq period a network of madrasahs (Islamic colleges) was founded, capable of giving uniform training to the state`s administrators and religious scholars.”

Nizam al-Mulk was known as a great patron of the sciences and literature. He was a friend and mentor to al-Ghazali, whom he appointed to take charge of the Nizamiyya madrasah in Baghdad. He was also a patron of the famous poet, mathematician, astronomer, philosopher, and physician Omar al-Khayyam.

The madrasahs established by Nizam al-Mulk provided advanced religious, scientific and philosophical education. These madrasahs were similar to the madrasah universities of North Africa, which the first European universities are thought to have been modeled on. George Makdisi, a leading American scholar of medieval Islam, has extensively documented the common origins of Islamic and Western educational institutions. For example, the methods of teaching by lecture and disputation in the English Inns of Court is thought to have originated in Islamic madrasahs. Intellectually these madrasahs probably have more in common with the Western universities of today than with the robot-factories called madrasahs in Pakistan.