musaafir-e dasht

Abbaji, my paternal grandfather, Hakeem Muhammad Idrees Khan, passed away on 24 Ziqa’ad, 1432 AH (October 23, 2011). He was 88 years old - the last grandparent I had. He studied at the famous Tibyya College , Delhi, and remained a practicing Hakeem throughout his life. Allah had blessed him with so much shifa in his medicine that people used to come from far away places to get themselves treated. He lived an extremely humble life in a small town, Kaloor Kot, situated at approximately 4-5 hours drive from Multan. He was a disciple of his father-in-law, who we all lovingly remember as nanaji – another pious friend of God, Hafiz Abdul Ghafoor rahimahullah, who was given the khilafat by Hazrat Shah Abdul Raheem Raipuri, Hazrat Shah Abdul Qadir Raipuri, and Hazrat Munshi Rahmat Ali Jaalandhari (May Allah have mercy on all of them). Towards the end of Abbaji’s life, we often used to ask him if he was also given the khilafat by his Shaykh ( nanaji ) and he always evaded the question… It w...

After a long time I am spending a Friday at home... Feels great, alhamdulillah! Right now I am reading Muhammad Hasan Askari's critique of Existentialist philosophy. Indeed we have had (and still do, mashaAllah) some wonderful intellectual stalwarts in the field of literary criticism who blatantly refused to give in to the Western modes of critical thought. Their greatness lies all the more in taking justified pride in their own religious and intellectual tradition, and hence coming up with excellent comparative studies between the Eastern (more specifically, the Muslim) and Western intellectual traditions. Askari Sahab's work is essential for the students of literature in this day and age when globalisation is on the verge of divesting us of the Centre we once cherished and probably also took for granted. P.S. Askari Sahab is also the translator of the first volume of Mufti Shafi Saheb's (rahimahullah) magnanimous ma'ariful Qur'an . He did not live to tr...

I had my research meeting with my supervisor today. While commenting on the writing I had submitted to him earlier on, he made a very point which, I hope, will stay with me forever. While asking me to remove certain generalised claims and statements I had made in my paper, he quoted Maulana Shah Abdul Qadir Raipuri (may Allah have mercy on him). Hazrat once said about tasawwuf that according to his knowledge , it was the way through which people have always been reaching Allah. He said he wondered what people think taswwuf was! It was simply a path that led to Allah SWT and His servants have always been treading it to find Him. He further said that he, at least, did not know of any other way that could help one reach Allah SWT. If there was one, he too would have wanted to know about it! The point my supervisor was trying to make was that one should learn humbleness form our elders – he didn’t say this explicitly; this is my understanding of his quoting Hazrat Raipuri’s example at ...

Just came across this article by Orya Maqbool Jan on Uni-aza's blog. Tempted to share on mine too. Very thought provoking! SOURCE