In the recent special issue on Just World Order (Radiance, 29 Jan-4 Feb, 2012), Syed Husain Pasha says there is no chapter in the Qur’ān named after ‘Men’. There is the 76th chapter which is ‘Insan’ (Man). A generic term for all men. There is the last chapter ‘An-Nas’ (Mankind). The dominant connotation in both the terms refers to men.

Just because there is no chapter named after ‘Men’, it cannot be inferred that women ar...

After the Gurgaon school shootout and the similar incident in Satna of Madhya Pradesh in 2008, now it was the turn for a Chennai school teacher Uma Maheshwari. The aggressive attitude of today’s youth is a matter of grave concern. What worries is the background of the accused students, all of them are from rich or well-to-do families. Once again it has reflected the reasonable deficiency in upbringing our children with social moral code. As parents we need to evaluate the values which o...

Mahirul Qadri’s lamentation over the abuse of the Qur’ān by Muslims reminds me of the observation of my friend, philosopher and guide - the Sir Syed of the South - Prof. Syed Abdul Wahab Bukhari, who used to say  that the Qur’ān is remembered and honoured when Muslims are ‘hatched’, ‘matched’ and ‘despatched’. What he meant was that when a child is born, Muslims rush to buy a copy of the Qur’ān and gift it to the nearby masji...

To think that Muslims as a community are not a herd, as one Samajwadi Party leader does, is wishful thinking. Muslim community’s and not Muslim voters’ votes have been solicited from the time of Nehru. Who can deny that “the farman” of the Shahi Imam until lately was waited with bated breath to judge which way the Muslim vote may swing. This time the Shahi Imam has appealed to Muslims to vote en bloc for Samajwadi Party. Even Atal Behari Vajpayee...