From the legendary Punjabi Muslim poet of the 18th century Bulleh Shah.
Chal Bulleh chal outhay chaliyay jithay howan sarai annai
Na koi sadi zaat pehchani, na koi saanu man’nai
Translation:
Come Bulleh, let go where everyone is blind
So that no one recognonizes our caste and no one recognizes us (as pious)
Just kidding. This was a joke circulated on the Turkish blogsphere a few years ago.
Here is another story that I wrote sometime ago. I thought it would be (unfortunately) appropriate to post it now because of what has been going on in KSA lately. And you know what I really hate? I really hate when otherwise sensible people (Some Muslims in this case) say nonsense things like, “In KSA they have a sharia system. They never go against Islam. It is the Western media distorting the news. blah blah.” When you try to reason with them then they accuse you of being a Western stooge directly or indirectly. These are the same people have no problem in believing in outlandish conspiracy theories.
Also this is off topic but please pray for the victims of the cyclone in Bangladesh.
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Raped? With Four Witnesses?
by Jahandost
It was an unremarkable village, the only thing different about it was that it was surrounded by mountains on three sides so that its main connection to the outside world was a pass. It was somewhat far from other centers of population, so for the purpose of this story it does not matter when this story took place, it could have taken place today, yesterday, a year ago, five years ago, a hundred or even five hundred years ago. The location is also of no consequence.
On that fateful day Fatima, the daughter of a poor farmer, got separated from the rest of her group while coming back from the fields. While trying to find her way back to the village she came across a group of men who had less than noble intentions. She cried for help and struggled but there is no person who could help her. After desecrating her body the men left her for dead. After many hours of searching her father and the village folk came across her and took her back. Fatima and her family were traumatized, but not completely broken even though people were saying ‘things’ and pointing fingers at her. She knew who were assailants were – the powerful and the influential in the community but she had faith in justice. The case was presented before the judge, the accused of course feigned ignorance and innocence. The qadi (judge) declared that Fatima should produce four witnesses otherwise the court has no doubt that she was involved in adultery and the society must be cleaned of her abominable presence. As expected, the two aggressors were set free by the qadi. Fatima insisted that this law was unislamic and that they were twisting the laws for their own benefit but her voice fell on deaf years.
Fatima was thus condemned to death by the court and abandoned by her family since it was now clear to everyone that she had dishonored her family and there is no other way for them to reclaim their honor. The next day she was brought to the main square to be stoned. She expected justice from men but men are imperfect and often times their justice is also imperfect. Dejected and wronged by her people Fatima turned to God, the only one who can deliver perfect justice and so right before breathing her last she asked God if the perpetrators of this crime would face the same humiliation that she had to face so that in the future men will think a million times before even thinking about desecrating a woman.
After the death of Fatima the village life came back to normal. It was winter time, it snowed this time of the year but this year it snowed unusually heavily so that the pass was closed, that’s when strange things started to happen. The two men who had desecrated Fatima became sick, at first the village doctor could not figure out what the problem was and there was no way to get doctors from the city since the village was now effectively cut off from the rest of the work. Then the qadi became sick as well, it was not after a few weeks that the puzzle was solved but it was bizarre – all three men had become pregnant! People could not explain it, some even called it a miracle. Then it happened again, another woman was raped and she was again asked to provide four witnesses but in her case the court proceedings took some time and the man who was accused was raping her became pregnant instead of her becoming pregnant. The court proceedings were stopped altogether, people wanted to make sense of what was going on in the world. It seemed that in case of married couples, the natural law still prevailed – The woman still became pregnant and their husbands would not become pregnant. Many weeks passed, a few more cases – the same pattern it was always the accused in rape cases that the became pregnant i.e., the men.
The village was still cut off from the outside world even after many months, although the winter should have ended some time ago. Consequently the village was running short on food and other vital provisions. It was then the people realized that it was not just a miracle but rather warning from God. People repented, they finally saw the obvious that the accused in all the cases were guilty. Menfolk had twisted the laws of God for their own benefit and now they had to pay the price. God was punishing them. Only repentance for their crime of denying justice to rape victims could redeem them. The villagers stayed up for a few days, prayed, begged God for mercy and promised that they will not deny justice to women in the future. The women in all the cases were set free, their honor restored and no blame was put on them. It was decided that the accused men would be put to death after the termination of the pregnancy. That night the village went to sleep and the next day when they woke up, all the male pregnancies had disappeared all of a sudden and snow had also melted overnight.
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Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said, “People, beware of injustice, for injustice shall be darkness on the Day of Judgment.”
Saheeh Al-Bukhari, #2447, Mosnad Ahmad, #5798
There was a time when Muslims stood for peace and justice, a time when the aim of law was to bring justice and not to punish people, a time when the jurists realized that the laws are there for humans and not vice versa. Alas! We no longer live in that era. A rape victim in Saudi Arabia was sentenced to 200 lashes. Her sentence was increased when she protested about the original sentence. To the judges, “Do you have any decency left?“
Here is the press release from the Human Rights Watch.
Saudi Arabia: Rape Victim Punished for Speaking Out
Court Doubles Sentence for Victim, Bans Her Lawyer From the Case(New York, November 17, 2007) – A court in Saudi Arabia doubled its sentence of lashings for a rape victim who had spoken out in public about her case and her efforts to seek justice, Human Rights Watch said today. The court also harassed her lawyer, banning him from the case and confiscating his professional license.
An official at the General Court of Qatif, which handed down the sentence on November 14, said the court had increased the woman’s sentence because of “her attempt to aggravate and influence the judiciary through the media.” The court sentenced the rape victim to six months in prison and 200 lashes, more than double its October 2006 sentence after its earlier verdict was reviewed by Saudi Arabia’s highest court, the Supreme Council of the Judiciary.Human Rights Watch called on King Abdullah to immediately void the verdict and drop all charges against the rape victim and to order the court to end its harassment of her lawyer.
“A courageous young woman faces lashing and prison for speaking out about her efforts to find justice,” said Farida Deif, researcher in the women’s rights division of Human Rights Watch. “This verdict not only sends victims of sexual violence the message that they should not press charges, but in effect offers protection and impunity to the perpetrators.”
The young woman, who is married, said she had met with a male acquaintance who had promised to give her back an old photograph of herself. After she met her acquaintance in his car in Qatif, a gang of seven men then attacked and raped both of them, multiple times. Despite the prosecution’s requests for the maximum penalty for the rapists, the Qatif court sentenced four of them to between one and five years in prison and between 80 and 1,000 lashes. They were convicted of kidnapping, apparently because prosecutors could not prove rape. The judges reportedly ignored evidence from a mobile phone video in which the attackers recorded the assault.
Moreover, the court in October 2006 also sentenced both the woman and man who had been raped to 90 lashes each for what it termed “illegal mingling.” Human Rights Watch is particularly concerned that the criminalization of any contact between unmarried individuals of the opposite sex in Saudi Arabia severely impedes the ability of rape victims to seek justice. A court may view a woman’s charge of rape as an admission of extramarital sexual relations (or “illegal mingling”) unless she can prove, by strict evidentiary standards, that this contact was legal and the intercourse was nonconsensual.
In an interview in December, the rape victim described to Human Rights Watch her treatment in court:
“At the first session, [the judges] said to me, ‘what kind of relationship did you have with this individual? Why did you leave the house? Do you know these men?’ They asked me to describe the situation. They used to yell at me. They were insulting. The judge refused to allow my husband in the room with me. One judge told me I was a liar because I didn’t remember the dates well. They kept saying, ‘Why did you leave the house? Why didn’t you tell your husband [where you were going]?’”
“Victims of sexual violence in Saudi Arabia face enormous obstacles in the criminal justice system,” said Deif. “Their interrogations and court hearings are more likely to compound the trauma of the original assault than provide justice.”
During the recent hearings, Judge al-Muhanna of the Qatif court also banned the woman’s lawyer, Abd al-Rahman al-Lahim, from the courtroom and from any future representations of her, without apparent reason. He also confiscated his lawyer’s identification card, which the Ministry of Justice issues. Al-Lahim faces a disciplinary hearing at the Ministry of Justice on December 5, where sanctions can include suspension for three years and disbarment.
Al-Lahim, who is Saudi Arabia’s best-known human rights lawyer, earlier this year had planned to take legal action against the Ministry of Justice for failing to provide him with a copy of the verdict against his client so that he could prepare an appeal. Despite numerous representations to the court and the ministry, he was not given a copy of the case file or the verdict.
“The decision to ban the rape victim’s lawyer from the case shows what little respect Saudi authorities have for the legal profession or the law in general,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch.
On October 3, King Abdullah announced a judicial reform, promising new specialized courts and training for judges and lawyers. There is currently no rule of law in Saudi Arabia, which does not have a written penal code. Judges do not follow procedural rules and issue arbitrary sentences that vary widely. Often, judges do not provide written verdicts, even in death penalty cases. Judges sometimes deny individuals their right to legal representation. In May 2006, a judge in Jeddah had thrown a lawyer out of his courtroom in a civil suit on the sole basis that he is of the Isma’ili faith, a branch of Shiism. Trials remain closed to the public.
Annemarie Schimmel was one of the most influential orientalist in the 20th century and briefly at the beginning of 21st century. She initially started studying Islamic studies after her professor, Hans Heinrich Schaeder, suggested that she study Divan of Rumi. She had received two doctorates, first one about late medieval Egypt and second with a thesis on mystical love in Islam.
She became the head of Ankara University’s Faculty of Theology in 1953. She studied Rumi intensively during his years in Turkey and later started studying contemporary Rumi, Allama Muhammad Iqbal. She produced an annotated translation of Iqbal’s Javid Nama. She also lectured at Harvard University from 1970 to 1992.
During her life, she authored many books including: Rumi’s world, mystical dimensions of Islam, Gabriel’s Wing: Study into the Religious Ideas of Sir Muhammad Iqbal …
She lectured in German, English, Turkish, French, Arabic, Persian and Urdu.
“She received the prestigious Peace Prize of the German Book-Trade Association to honor her achievements in generating East-West understanding; the President of Germany read the laudatio”
She studied many jahandosts and made those jahandosts heard not just in the western world but also reminded them to the eastern world.
She is also a jahandost where her friendship continues via the works she left behind.
We can only hope that more Schimmel’s are among us.
Sources: Wikipedia and Harvard Gazette
tauslu
One of the most lovable (and may be even pitiable) character in world literature is Dostoevsky’s The Idiot. Prince Myshkin is sincere in his heart and thus he is taken advantage of by other people and thus he is an idiot. Jahandost does not claim to be as pure of heart or likeable as Prince Myshkin but Jahandost can be an ‘idiot’ nonetheless, at least some of the time. So there was a friend was in desperately in need of some help and had some problem in rent, so Jahandost stepped in since no one else was willing to do so. ‘Of couse’ he would pay back Jahandost at the end of the month but ‘of course’ the friend left the country at the end of the month and then refused to pay back Jahandost. This is so because he will not be getting the money (the security deposit) that he was supposed to give to Jahandost as it has been confiscated (because of fines) and now it would be ‘unjust’ for him to pay Jahandost. This is despite the fact that Jahandost also paid the fine and not getting the security deposit. So basically Jahandost ended up effectively paying the other person’s rent. Afterall aren’t we supposed to supposed to help our brothers and sisters in time of need? Yes we are; even if they think that we are idiots when we help.
So, “Whatever happened to brotherhood?” Now do you know why I am the way I am.
As I was busy reading diligently and studying I heard a whisper in the background, “Did you miss me?” I looked back and it was a formless smokeless fiery creature. “Who are you?” I asked. Seeing that I was visibly disturbed he answered, “Now now now, don’t be frightened, son of Adam. You know who I am?” All that I could muster was, “No, I don’t.” “I am your best friend. I am the best friend of humankind.” “No you are not.” By the this time I had realized who he was, then he uttered, “Denial, that is the natural state of humankind. Isn’t it?” “Is it?” “For example, did you not miss me during Ramadan? All of you? Did you not miss me? You did not have anyone to blame for your actions but yourself?” His voice was filled with sarcasm when he uttered those words and then he continued, “And this is not all is it? You need me to thrive, to grow. Without a challenge you cannot go on, can you? If it were not for me then you would be rotting in heaven.” “Begone!” I shouted. “See, denial. That is the natural state of humankind. I just wanted to stop by and say hi or even peace be upon you creatures. Haha,” this time it was not just sarcasm but rather there was also a tinge of dark humor and then the formless smokeless fiery creatures disappeared into the void from which he came from and I was left pondering his words.
This is a short story that I wrote a while back. It was first posted on Eteraz.org.
72 Virgins: A Thought Experiment
by Jahandost
Some called the new invention Descartes’ evil daemon, others called it Satan’s workshop. Then there were those who thought that this was the greatest invention of all time although even its inventors were not quite sure about how it worked. Regardless of whatever people thought about the invention, it was the talk of the town for it allowed one to experience a world of virtual reality distilled from the unconsciouses of a community or many communities that one had come across in one’s life. It was called the Neural-calibrator or neuro-cal for short. Most people in the world had not used it but those who had used it found it disturbing to put it mildly. Dr. Akbar Baihisab was perhaps the only person of Muslim background who was associated with the this invention but he had never tried it until that fateful night. Most of the people had left early that day, Christmas was approaching so people were getting busy in other activities. Around midnight Akbar saw the opportunity and went into the control room. After calibrating the neuro-cal he plugged in the wire coming from it to the brain-computer interface at the back of his head and sat down on a chair to experience what happens. Nothing happened for a minute or two and then all of a sudden he sensed that something was terribly wrong because instead of seeing visions he felt powerless and weary, his vital stats began to drop. He could see his head bleeding but strangely did not feel any pain. The end was nigh and the whole world grew dark. When Akbar opened his eyes he saw himself in a large, lavish and brightly lit room sleeping on the most comfortable bed imaginable. “Could this be afterlife?” he wondered.
He rose and noticed for the first time that he was attired in extravagant clothing. “This must be it? May be I should ask someone if someone is here.” He said to himself and took a few steps when he saw a silhouette of a person from a distance. He approached the person, it was woman and not just any woman but the most beautiful woman that he had ever seen. She was well built, smelled like rose and seductively attired i.e., scantly clad. He asked her where he was and she replied, “You are in heaven, master.” She came closer and placed her hand on his shoulder. “Where are the others?” He inquired, to which she replied, “All of us are here for your pleasure master.” And the next instant a whole group of women was visible on the other side of the wall, one more beautiful than the other. He was somewhat taken aback but further inquired, “I mean other people from Earth.” “Aren’t you Glad that you have us. How shall I please thee today?” she replied. He was almost speechless and as she proceeded to give him a hug, he told her to stay back and she obliged to his command. He felt disoriented. He remembered hearing about such visions of heaven from the time when he was a teenager and people in his mosque still talked about visions of heaven in such explicit details and now that he was actually in heaven he felt as if something is not right. He proceeded to the hallway he came across the group of women that he had seen through the wall, scattered here and there. They were similarly attired in came in all colors and hues. He inquired about other people but they never really answered his question and so a seductive smile was usually their answer; then he asked one of them, “How many of you are there?” and she replied. “72 of course master. All virgins!”
Many days passed, he tried to make conversation with these women but it seemed that it was not possible to have a conversation with them since they could not answer most of his questions and just smiled like Barbie dolls when they did not have an answer. All that the women did was to be in their stations all day long and would be ready for any types of physical intimacy that he desired but he was not really interested in that so he never asked anyone. There were lush gardens and wonderful creatures but it did not feel right. He longed for closeness with God. He forbade all the virgins to come near him and spent most of his time in one of the rooms contemplating the meaning of life and the rewards and blessings that God had given him while he was alive. He repented until one night he realized what he had done wrong in his life. That night he prayed and asked Allah for forgiveness, he made a promise to himself that he will stop worshiping houris, heaven, his Sheikhs etc and start worshiping Allah – the most Gracious, the most Merciful. For the first time in many weeks he fell asleep.
“Akbar, can you hear us?” He hared someone calling his name. “Where am I?” He asked. You are in the neuro-cal room. “How long has it been, how long was I out?” He seemed somewhat confused. Then someone replied, “What do u mean, I am guessing that you plugged yourself into the machine right around midnight, so it must have been just five hours I suppose.”
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“the mullah’s Paradise is eating and sleeping and singing,
the lover’s Paradise is the contemplation of Being.”
- Muhammad Iqbal in Javed Nama
Prelude: I wrote this particular piece almost a year ago and it was well received so I thought I should post it again for the new audience and even for old audience who may miss it.
Desiland: The country of Desiland consists of a number of autonomous or semi-autonomous states bound loosely in a confederation. The confederation is in fact so loose that sometimes the member states actually fight amongst themselves without either of the states withdrawing from the union. In some places infighting has even evolved into a long held tradition.
Dreamland: Geographers have been trying to pin point the exact location of this country for centuries now but to no avail. The main problem is that most of the state actually consists of castles in the air. In recent years the application for immigration to this country from other Muslim countries has substantially increased so that it is not rare to see multi-story castles in the air these days. There country is actually divided into two main provinces: “What-if -abad” and “Our-Ancestors-were-great-istan.” Although Muslims of all races, ethnic and linguistic groups are represented in this country, the most prominent feature of the population of this country is laziness.
Large-Giant-Big-Time Muslim’stan: The residents of this country are really big time Muslims who usually come from upper middle class, have a steady flow of income. The country is known for extravagant spending, huge monuments, weekly conferences and seminars on all things Islam. The territory that formerly comprised this country had a number of poor and lower Middle class Muslims as its residents. These people were ignored by the Big Time residents of the new country as if they did not exist. The original residents gradually migrated to other Muslim countries so that in this Giant Big Time state you will only find Big Time Muslims who claim to have solved all the problems in the region. The claim is rather strange because just across the border there are people, Muslims and non-Muslims who do not have enough to eat.
Prograsia: The foundational basis of this country was supposed to be progressive ideology but this is no longer the case. The residents of this newly created country are descendants of lefties who became even more lefties. Initially the founders of this country had a few good ideas but in the course of less than a year the country degenerated into a safe haven for far-left post-modernist anything goes types with the result that the capital city now even rivals, some even say surpasses, Amsterdam for notoriety of its citizen’s lax behavior.
In addition to the aforementioned countries refugees from the once mighty country ‘Sirat-al-Mustaqeen’ are scattered all over the world, in both Muslim and non-Muslim countries. In all these countries the people have become model citizens and beacon of light and hope for all humankind, dedicating themselves to helping other humans and showing the world that they are following the example of the prophet (peace be upon him) who was the mercy to all mankind. There have been talks of resurrecting this country for many years suitable leadership has not been found to date.
This is just an incomplete list of the geography of the Ummah, I encourage other people to send in their contributions about other Muslim countries or even travelogues of the countries that I have mentioned or have not mentioned over here.
Most people have a tendency to paint the world in black and white but the fact is that the world is not black and white most of the time. I have also observed that there also the tendency of dividing the world into ‘us good people’, ‘those bad people’ and ‘other indifferent people’. Sometimes one has to look closely into the ‘other indifferent people’ to realize the humanity of ‘those bad people’ and to come to terms with the fact that there are good or bad people everywhere. And this is where the girl in the pink hijab comes into light. She comes from an East Asian culture where she is a minority and looked down upon if she reveals her religion to her country folk. Its not just the ordinary folk but even the educated people in her country who think like that. This made me think why a lot of Muslims channel their frustrations to only Western countries even though there are countries where Muslims are treated worse.
Its really interesting meeting her. She likes America because here ordinary people understand why she practices certain things like hijab even if they do not agree with her. Perhaps this is one of the things that has made America great – openness to different ideas. Before leaving she said, “Brother I do not want to live two lives any more. One for my country men and one for Muslims. I just want them to understand who I am.” Amen to that. One good thing about America is that it does give you the chance to become what you want. That was the lesson that I learned from the girl with the pink hijab.
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