Dr Muhammad Maroof Shah

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...

Karb Raezay by Isar Kashmiri, Kalae Daywoo Ka Saya by Riyaz Tawhidi, Disappeared Dad and other Poems by Shahzada Saleem How much of contemporary writing really deserves to be read? I think we will agree that the proper question is how little it deserves to be read. However when the question is of resistance literature of which we don’t have much, the job of a reviewer is easy. One may begin without any apology for being a reviewer of it.   Let me begin directly from the excerpts of the books. Isar’s dedication to the book reads: “To my late father whose blood is even today nurturing sad lanes of Kashmir” Excerpts from Saleem’s poems reads: “Don’t  give me birth/In the land of/Terror, my lord/Where I will be killed/In my teenage,/And become  burden/On the weak shoulder/Of my father/In the coffin”(Jehlum only knows) “That we have soaked/ Its banks with our blood/To live a life of dignity/But always our wishes/Were crushed and our /Desires were buried/long its own course...

Who can deny Islam a Philosophy or Intellectual Content? First a few general points regarding facebook post(  https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=808735889155482&id=100000572357935&refid=17 ) by Dr Hamid Naseem Rafiabadi in which he responds to one of my articles, to be followed by point by point response to my article. (I think almost all the points raised by him stand conclusively treated in my “Philosophy and Religion: A Case for Happy Marriage” published recently in Greater Kashmir and in my “A Perennialist View of Comparative Philosophy,” a paper presented in First Asian Philosophy Congress.” However for the benefit of those who find something in his arguments I pen down a few points to further clarify. 1)       Let us define terms and we can have a fruitful debate. Please define philosophy, reason, intellect, logic, Islam, Iman, Ihsan to resolve the controversy. And let Dr Rafiabdi enlighten us with his own definitions if he fin...

“Each of us is guilty before everyone for everyone, and I more than the others,” writes Dostoevsky in  The Brothers Karamazov . This statement expresses the quintessence of traditional ethics as developed by mystics and in modern times by Dostovesky and Levinas. Sufi ethics is an elaboration of this theme. This great idea of answerability or responsibility is a response to Ivan, the famous character in the same novel who says: “If there is no God, all is permitted.” In Kashmir we behave as if there is no God and all is permitted and none is guilty. Let us analyze the question of responsibility in the particular case of scenario of water bodies in Kashmir. Our water bodies are fast becoming history. Most of the springs are gone. The Dal is politicized to death. Anchaar story is getting repeated in the Wular as it is dying a silent spectacular death. Glaciers are melting. Pure water in streams or rivers is becoming a fiction. We have to pay for water bottle and business of water pu...

Is Sufism Parallel Religion or Root of Religion Javed Ahmed Ghamidi appropriates the old Socratic philosophical method of raising questions regarding the opponent’s view. He hardly concedes anything to the opponent and puts up his case as an expert lawyer. His approach is deceptively simple. The same applies to his classic refutation of Sufi doctrine, especially Unitarianism and Sufi view of prophecy, especially its ending. However, today I use the same old Socratic method to analyze his key arguments and hope that a refined group of students and scholars of Ghamidi responds to clarify. Ghamidi Sahib has a lengthy essay on Sufism in his Burhan , and a few televised debates and lectures on Youtube, on Sufism. He argues that Sufism is a parallel doctrine to that of religion, that unity of being can’t be corroborated from the Quran, that Sufi view of saint’s access to divine truths puts the thesis of Khatmi Nubuwwat in danger and that we can point out numerous statements in Sufi t...

Mulla Nasruddin is said to have accidentally hit someone on the road and he fell. He was abused and called names like mad Mulla. He coolly said “Yes I am mad” and the argument ended there and then. Onus often lies on us. Or at least assume it lies on us and we will see things in a different light. Perhaps we will have conscience to prick if we are not totally given to blame mode. There is a sentence by Dostovesky’s character  that may be phrased as ‘I am responsible for any crime that happens anywhere’ that should be enough to lead us to blame ourselves rather than the other. Jesus’ “Judge not” also implies the same thing. Levinas’s view of self-other relationship in which we have infinite responsibility towards the other as the other is ultimately none other than God also implies the same attitude. Most of the troubles in the world can be traced to assertion of will or ego and Islam demands nothing but its surrender. Getting angry when abused or humiliated is, at root nothing ...