Comments on: Imagining Pakistan I: Hali

By: Prashant Keshavmurthy

Prashant Keshavmurthy — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 05:23:59 +0000

I think “tying Islam’s dominance to the political power of Muslims in India” led to two major and opposite solutions: only one of them was political and wanted an Islamic state. The other was social-intellectual reform that was premised precisely on the assumption that Muslim politics was impossible in British India. It was precisely because Zakaullah, Shibli and some others like Sharar thought Muslim political participation impossible at the time that they resorted to reading and writing Muslim history as a means to intellectual reform.
Shibli’s 5 volume history of Persian poetry that periodizes its topic according to Muslim dynasties significantly stops short of Indian or late Mughal Persian poetry, thus distancing his object in time from his present when scholarship substituted what had been politics. This was also Shibli’s motivation in his essay urging Muslims to obey their non-Muslim rulers, citing Hadis to bolster his point.

By: Jonathan Dresner

Jonathan Dresner — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Classic prophetic literature. Inspirational and idealistic, conservative and critical.

By: Nitin

Nitin — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Sepoy,

Good stuff. Keep them coming.

By: Sohail Ahmed

Sohail Ahmed — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Good read. Thanks because I might have continued to miss it. But a point that I want to make. I believe that political element has always been part of Islam. With two great empires on either sides, Persian and Roman, political strength was must for survival of the early Islamic society. In fact, one of the things that isolated tribes of Arabia found appealing in Islam was that it offered political umbrella and protection. Consequently, Muslims always think in terms of an Islamic Empire, whether or not it exists in reality. By the same token, decline is always thought of as political. However, it ought to be noted that the Tablighi movement (proselytization)which is a little more than half a century old bears no political aspirations; it aims at social reform.

By: Procrastination

Procrastination — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Happy Independence Day

To all Pakistanis. And to Indians tomorrow. I don’t have the time to write something for the occasion, but Chapati Mystery has a few posts discussing some personalities: Altaf Hussain Hali Muhammad Ali Johar Muhammad Iqbal Chapati Mystery also ha…