Dr Muhammad Maroof Shah

Under democracy one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule — and both commonly succeed, and are right.   —H.L. Mencken I begin with the meaning or definition of modern politics in The Devil’s Dictionary: Politics, n: [Poly “many” + tics “blood-sucking parasites”]. I am terribly shocked by some confessional statements of world famous politicians. One is from the former US President Ronald Reagan who confessed that his career in politics has convinced him more and more that politics considered to be the second oldest profession has many resemblances with the first or the oldest profession. Other confessions are from de Gaulle and Jefferson, French and US Presidents respectively. “In order to become the master, the politician poses as the servant.”  “Whenever a man has cast a longing eye on offices, a rottenness begins in his conduct,” are the sayings of these two presidents respectively. Given these widely shared perce

It is beneath the dignity of any person who has self respect to beg for votes, observed Nietzsche Living in a world where: ~ “Politics has replaced philosophy” and we find, around us, politicians rather than statesmen. ~“Politics as industry fills the airwaves with the most virulent, scurrilous, wall-to-wall character assassination of nearly every political practitioner in the country”  — and then declares itself puzzled that [people] have lost trust in its politicians. ~One is bound to be soiled by mudslinging which is “in politics, anything bad the opponent says about our candidate; in contrast, when our candidate does this, it is called 'making a good point.” ~“We'd all like to vote for the best man, but he's never a candidate.” ~Politics has been “concerned with right or left instead of right or wrong.” “There are many men of principle in both parties …but there is no party of principle.” It is the rich that fund campaigns implying justice has been sold. Isn’t i

Despite efforts of individual scholars from both Sunni and Shia schools for better relations between the two across the Muslim world, the fact remains that Muslims are divided and this is making them vulnerable. And more importantly, the divide is discrediting their theological leadership in the eye of the world and among its new and educated generations. Shia-Sunni dialogue has not been happening at the ground level. And the dialogue between intellectual and theological elite has not been very successful and so far, hardly any breakthrough on elementary methodological plane has been achieved. The self perception of both communities is constructed on certain imagined points that have been questioned by more objective history. And a deeper meaning of theological systems is not clear to both. Sufism or   Irfan   is missing in both. Brilliant studies of such scholars on symbolism, esoteric and metaphysical aspects of Shiism as Henry Corbin and Nasr and others, the sophisticated philosop

We have few scholars of national or international standing in certain fields and what a tragedy if we don’t recognize them After the death of Amin Kamil many felt that we, as a community, didn’t honour him as he deserved and we failed to make full use of his great erudition in Kashmiri literature. What use do we make of  another literary giant Rahi Sahib, arguably the greatest living Kashmiri poet and critic whose poetic and critical work we have failed to translate and introduce to international audience  and we have failed to familiarize our newer generation with him despite his being the last great link from Lalla till date in what can be called Kashmiri Tradition– for learning to read him  newer generation may profitably consult young critics as Abir Bazaz (his essay “Learning to read Rahi”  comes to mind)  except for gracing certain formal occasions and occasional talks on electronic media? We have no platform for benefiting from our best scholars after they get retired. We ha

Revisiting Ibn Arabi(r.a) Shias and Sunnis are divided over many issues, including the issue of interpreting sacred text. Both quote the Quran and the traditions in favour of their positions which are often exclusive on particular questions. Dialogue between Shias and Sunnis is thus hinged on agreeing to a theory of interpretation, or exegesis, of the sacred book. Is it possible to revisit certain great thinkers, respected by both Shias and Sunnis, or having influenced both Sunni and Shia thinkers, to help us carry out this dialogue? I think, yes. And that thinker is the master of gnosis, Ibn Arabi. Ibn Arabi – the greatest Shaykh in the Sunni world – has been appropriated by Shia thinkers, including Mulla Sadra, the greatest Shia philosopher, and Imam Khomeini, the architect of the Iranian revolution. Today, we try to see how Ibn Arabi advises us to approach the Quran and the question of divergent interpretations. He repeatedly claims that he is not applying any ex

The question is that how do we understand its cosmic or universal essence today? Are you a Shia or a Sunni? Would one acknowledge to be either in modern ideological sectarian sense? Or wouldn’t the best answer according to both ordinarily categorized as Sunnis and Shias be that they are Muslims – truly Muslim. Isn’t the ideal answer echoed in Salman Farsi’s (RA) answer ‘Salman bin Islam’ when he was asked who he is. Granted that the tendency to side with Ali (RA) was latent even during the Prophet’s life and emerged to confront certain other forces – it was a hard political choice – the question is how do we understand its cosmic or universal essence today? It could be done only if it revolved around moral superiority of the family of Prophet – even Sunnis grant this – or siding with Justice or Resistance today against oppression – even secular and Marxist historians would recognize this and present Ali(a.s) and Hussain(a.s) as heroes. Shiism can never reduce Ali(a.s) t