Dr Muhammad Maroof Shah

Today we discuss how taking art seriously means we are taking life seriously. How do we lesser mortals who are no saints find God in a world where traditional Gurus or Sufi Shaykhs are either hard to come across or there is an instinctive distrust in them? How do those who have fought hard to get back their lost religious faith keep living? How do we, regardless of our religious or philosophical positions, find some convergent point to launch our  boat in turbulent waters? God in his infinite graciousness has made ample arrangements of our return to our homeland, Heaven or Himself. One powerful and universally accessible mechanism is art. Today we discuss how taking art seriously means we are taking life seriously and this helps us in reaching our ultimate destination in the embrace of God.        Art is a form of faith that is available to even a secular man and it is through art that religious impulse survives in the deserts of modernity. Artists...

Finding Grace in the Kafkaseque World   Once sermons used to move a man to tears; some would even die listening to them as has been reported about Gousul Azam (RA). Now hearts seem to have hardened and preachers don’t seem to carry great conviction, although they may be eloquent and can quote chapter and verse from many books. Friday sermons used to be great education (occasionally they are still and we have some Friday imams or speakers in Kashmir whom certain people don’t ordinarily miss to attend); now most people avoid reaching mosques much before scheduled prayer time so that they are not “bombarded” by sermons. Although one can still get greatly moved by some classics of sermons like those of Gousul Azam and Eckhart and some pieces from such contemporaries as Zulfiqar Naqshbandi and Ahmed Javed.       It is said that once a great Zen Master was going to deliver a sermon in presence of great gathering. The moment he arrived at the podium, a song ...

Some writers (including most writers of popular fiction and tele-serials that bombard us) merely distract and entertain, some provide a certain delight as well and some useful instruction, but some destroy our ordinary consciousness and bring us face to face with something truly terrible or grand or too important to be ignored. They ask questions from us and subject us to a trial of conscience. For them “writing is a prayer,” and (their books) are considered classics. Kafka belongs to this group. We need to be jolted out of the complacent and cozy distracting entertainment and daydreaming we indulge in in newspapers, cheap serials or most popular films. Let us read Kafka straightaway.       First, one of his parables on the inaccessibility of Law/Justice/God/Meaning of which modern man complains. “He called on God, but received no answer” is a common complaint today. Most of us, at least occasionally, have felt abandoned and heard no answers from God to our...