Dr Muhammad Maroof Shah

Understanding Why Good People Must Suffer. Weil explains how the idea of seeking some comfort for Imam Hussain’s camp or temptation of advising other actors in the drama or God to redirect some of its elements in more humane or moral terms that is often indulged in by some Muslims is premised on failure to understand the basic design. “Renunciation demands that we should pass through anguish equivalent to that which would be caused in reality by the loss of all loved beings and all possession, including our faculties and attainments in the order of intelligence and character, our opinions, beliefs concerning what is good, what is stable, etc. And we must not lay these things down of ourselves but lose them—like Job…” We find true renunciation in Hussain(A.S) who offers or loses all things, relationships and the last and most dear treasure, life.       In fact ultimately it is a childish question to ask how Hussain(A.S) could have saved himself or struck a be...

Is Shia-Sunni Division in Islam to be Lamented or Celebrated? Is it possible to conduct an impartial inquiry or trial to see where the truth lies in Shia- Sunni polemics? There are obvious difficulties. Taking both terms in general without commenting on extreme intra-sectarian developments later, let us see how we could proceed. This trial can’t be decisively decided on the basis of history where facts and interpretations mix, passions and ideological lenses colour narratives and the whole enquiry is inherently open ended. It can’t be in the court of (exoteric) theology because that is what is precisely to be judged and it can’t relinquish its own limitations to accommodate the other. It can’t be in legal or even philosophical courts that remain inconclusive given how inconclusive have been prolific polemical works. The jury or court must be acceptable to any neutral believer or analyst as well and its verdict such that could be validated somehow by anyone who bothers to take necess...

Understanding Mourning, Muharram and Kashmir 2016. Abiding value in Shia approach to culture, politics and religion – that resists sharp critical scrutiny of Sunnis and secular historiography and  anthropology – consists of, among other things: Importance of resistance  against the status quoists of all hues, in every clime, against those who assert that justice has been done and we can complacently wait and see (a thesis brilliantly defended by Hamid Dabashi in Resisting the Empire ). Heroes of resistance are martyrs who are so special people that we can’t even imagine their glory. They don’t die, asserts the Quran. Imagine if special method for defying death by science were discovered and who wouldn’t sell everything for getting it! How could they die as, being consumed in witnessing Truth, they are no longer themselves – egos – whom death could touch.  There is a station that is better than heaven that is available for mortals here on earth. That is the station of ...

Historically it is the impact of poets, mystics and philosophers in Muslim cultures that has provided an antidote to sectarianism. Given the pandemic of sectarianism, how do we immunize ourselves against the deadly flu? Especially since we refuse the  imposed secularization as vaccination drive that was adopted by the West; that generates serious allergic response and throws away the baby of religion with the bathwater of sectarianism. Historically it is the impact of poets, mystics and philosophers  in Muslim cultures that has provided an antidote to sectarianism sponsored by Mullacracy and sectarian politicians. Let us see how deep rooted sectarian consciousness is in history.       For various reasons we have had divergent sectarian interpretations that have been fighting one another and thanks to changing political equations, fortunes of certain sects would change.  Earliest civil wars in Islam were fought in the name of sectarianism though...

Sanaullah Mir is Kashmir’s Mulla Nasruddin   One hour talk with a gifted mind is worth scores of books. And there are such gifted minds amidst us. I immediately recall  two such minds – I call them Super Mirs or Meers of Mirs  – Prof. Sanaullah Mir (Parvaaz Sahib) who teaches philosophy at AMU and Prof Shabir Ahmed Mir, awardee of “scientist of the year” at international level, a self taught mathematician and one of the most brilliant pharmacologists of India, who has  retired last year as professor of veterinary pharmacology. Today we converse with the first Mir. Brilliant people have their own idiosyncrasies. Perhaps these are the cost of devotion to thinking. Sanuallah Mir, generally speaking, doesn’t pick up phone. I doubt if he would be tempted to take up even President’s call. He has no important document like service book copy or certificates with him. His colleagues have been great friends and they take care of his documents and may other matters he is...

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...

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...