Contra Sufism

The following column "Contra Sufism" by Aziz Ali Dad , source "The News-Saturday, April 24, 2010.

"People know what they do; frequently they know why they do what they do; but what they don't know is what what they do does."
-Michel Foucault

Amar Jaleel wrote a wonderful article 'Antithesis of Sufism' in this newspaper on April 8. He laid bare the hypocrisy of those who pretend to be Sufis but act contrary to the principles of Sufism. But there is another dimension to Sufism, which is what it does to people who sincerely follow its tenets. After the tragedy of 9/11, Sufism is being flaunted as panacea for religious fundamentalism among Muslims. This article is an attempt to explore the issue of repercussions of following Sufism and its viability in addressing the modern age challenges especially when it gets entangled in power relations.

Nobody can deny the role of Sufism in creating syncretistic tradition in Islam by molding itself according to local cultures and practices. Also, mysticism is an essential element of human psyche. Mysticism in Islam helped in spiritual and moral uplift of the community, but it has essentially remained a subjective domain which could not cater to the challenges emanating from objective world or exogenous factors confronted by Islam in its formative phase.

The emergence of the Mu'tazilite school of thought in the eighth century was necessitated by failure of jurists and Sufis of the time to provide rational answers to some philosophical questions. For example, Wasil ibn Ata parted ways from his Sufi mentor Hasan al-Basari on the issue of free will and determination and sought answers in philosophy. By doing so, he paved the way for the first rational school of thought among Muslims – the Mu'tazalites. It was the enquiring mind and intellectual courage of the Mu'tazilites that enabled them to face squarely the intellectual challenges posed by other religious and philosophical schools of thought. Had they remained in the cocoon of Sufism and dogmatic enclosure of clergy, they would not have been able to engage with philosophical questions of their time.

For more details: http://www.thenews.com.pk/arc_news.asp?id=9&arc_date=4/24/2010

 

 

 

Successors?

The following column "Successors?" by Harris Khalique , source "The News-Friday, April 16, 2010".

The senators belonging to different factions of Pakistan Muslim League staged a walk-out from the current session of the Senate protesting against the remarks made by an Awami National Party senator in one of the appearances he made on a television talk show. He perhaps mentioned that the leadership of the Muslim League included people who ate pork and consumed alcohol. I couldn't watch the programme but supposedly morality of parliamentarians and Islamic values in the backdrop of Articles 62 and 63 of the Constitution of the republic were being discussed. It was alleged that the ANP senator made a reference to the eating habits of Quaid-e-Azam Mohammed Ali Jinnah, father of the nation and president of the All India Muslim League which later became the Pakistan Muslim League. The senator denied the allegation and said he did not mean to imply the Quaid-e-Azam and respected him fully. He asserted that his comments were being blown up disproportionately.

To the citizens of Pakistan, is it really of any consequence today what Mr Jinnah ate or drank when young? Or for that matter whether Allama Iqbal used to drink or not? What matters to us now is the governance and state of affairs in the country Mohammed Ali Jinnah envisioned and struggled for. None of the factions of the Muslim League have anything to do with the ideals, views and practices of Jinnah. Their claim to being the successor party or parties of Jinnah's Muslim League and staging a walk-out on that pretext is totally unjustified

For more details: http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=234395

 

 

 

Alumni Library Membership Renewal

I am pleasure to inform you that our membership of “Monash Library” has been renewed and the databases can easily be accessed now.

 

Link: http://www.lib.monash.edu.au/services/alumni-databases.html

 

If anyone (from the SPO family) is interested to know more about it or visit the website than I am available in this regard at SPO National Center. (The user name and password will be provided to check/visit the site).

 

 

Options left

The following column "Options left" by Harris Khalique , source "The News-Friday, April 09, 2010".

Left, it seems, is regaining consciousness. At the end of the first decade of the 21st century scattered political groups and parties that in the past subscribed to various hues of socialist ideology are making their presence felt by trying to create wider alliances among themselves and aspiring to merge into one big political entity. One has been writing on the subject for some time and just recently, a national newspaper has published a number of articles on the possibilities for and challenges to Left politics in Pakistan. From the recent past, we mustn't forget the untiring efforts of progressive writers and publishers including Late Hasan Abid, Wahid Bashir, Rahat Saeed, Amir Riaz, Muslim Shamim, Tufail Abbas, Zahida Hina, Wajahat Masood, Dr Jafar Ahmed, Ayub Malik, Dr Tauseef Ahmed Khan, Dr Shah Mohammed Marri and some others like them who kept the flame burning during the 1980s and 90s through their magazines and other publications when there was practically nothing happening for the Left in the real political world. Irtiqa Institute of Social Sciences was one of the few institutions which held us all together on a wider scale by organising meaningful and well-represented meetings of enlightened and progressive individuals from across Pakistan and abroad.

When it comes to organising political workers and whatever was left of the left-wing leadership on a mass scale, key members of the Inqilabi Jamhoori Workers Committee, Dr Hassan Nasir, Taj Marri, Mirza Maqsood, Ramzan Memon and Farhat Parveen deserve a lot of praise for triggering the process of creating a new, viable and modern national political party in December 2005. They were joined by the stalwarts of erstwhile Qaumi Mahaz-e-Azadi and the National Workers Party led by veteran politicians Mairaj Mohamed Khan and Abid Hasan Manto, respectively. A simultaneous effort was underway in Peshawar where Pakhtunkhwa Democratic Forum was established by Fazle Raziq, Anwar Durrani and Advocate Shahab Khattak. A little later, Prof Jameel Umar and Shazia Khan embarked on the same journey from Lahore and put in a lot of effort to bring everyone together. The scribe was a part of a group established in 2006 by Ashfaque Saleem Mirza, Rao Tariq Latif, Rana Shafique, Marvi Sirmed and Zeeshan Noel Christopher, which focused more on reaching out to new people besides old comrades.

For more details: http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=233363

 

 

 

New Arrivals

Dear All,

This is to inform you that followings Social Policy and Development Centre (SPDC) publication has recently been added DRC.

S. No	Title 0f Books
1	Resource Mobilization and Expenditure Planning in the Provinces of Pakistan
2	Provincial Governments and the Social Sectors in Pakistan
3	Review of the Social Action Program
4	Social and Economic Ranking of Districts of Pakistan
5	Gender Inequality in Developing Countries: A Case Study of Pakistan
6	Cost of Living Index by City of Pakistan
7	Pakistan’s External Debt Burden: Causes, Complexities and Remedies
8	The Knowledge Divide: Education Inequality in Pakistan
9	The Changing Profile of Regional Inequality
10	Returns to Education: The Case of Fertility
11	Private Returns to Education: Evidence for Pakistan
12	Does Inequality Matter for Poverty Reduction? Evidence from Pakistan’s Poverty Trends
13	Province-Wise Growth Patterns in Human Capital Accumulation
14	Estimating the Black Economy through Monetary Approach: A Case Study of Pakistan
15	Education Status of Districts: An Exploration of Inter-Temporal Changes
16	Trends in Regional Human Development Indices
17	Understanding Rural Poverty Dynamics: The Case of the Poorest District of Sindh Pak
18	Burden of Stabilization on Provinces and Its Implication on Social Sectors
19	Data-Base Report 2005: Socio-Economic Indicators by Gender: A Regional Comparison for Pak
20	Nonprofit Sector in Pakistan: Historical Background

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Subjects or citizens?

The following column "Subjects or citizens?" by Harris Khalique , source "The News- April 2, 2010".

Some of the Muslim scholars of the subcontinent get angry when it is said that we were ruled by outsiders not for 200 but 1,000 years. The subjugation of the local population by the ruling dynasties of Afghans and Central Asian Turks began in the tenth century. The British were the last of the foreign rulers. Undoubtedly they were different and more harmful in the sense that they militarily colonised, plundered the wealth of the subcontinent and took it all away without settling here. Their predecessors, although hugely prejudiced against the locals and ruthless in their behaviour, could be given some latitude for making it their homeland and their future generations getting naturalised in the Indian subcontinent. Dr Mubarak Ali's writings, including the brief book on the subject, "Barr-e-Sagheer Mein Musalman Muashray Ka Alamiya" (The Tragedy of Muslim Society in the Subcontinent), is a must read for those interested in our history.

We can safely say that for a millennium, our ancestors were subjects of different kings and occasionally queens. They were not citizens, but subjects. The unprecedented awakening of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, which came with modernity under the British, inspired local elite coupled with newly emerging intelligentsia to assume a larger role in running their own affairs. We see the birth of the Indian National Congress in 1885 and the All India Muslim League in 1906. Those from the privileged classes of subjects led a struggle for changing the relationship between the monarchic and colonial rulers and the common populace. This struggle led to the creation of two modern states in South Asia.

For more details: http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=232058

 

 

 

 

SPO works

The following column "SPO Works " by Harris Khalique , source "The News- March 26, 2010".

Many would say that spending several years in one organisation will be terribly difficult for a professional in today's world, which is marred by impatience, unrelenting appetite for money and a somewhat hit-and-run psyche. This would require either high-end perks and privileges or some abstract commitment to continue for this long. Particularly, when it is the summit position in a national civil society organisation and there is no rung left above you to climb up or more salary increments to strive for. But working with Strengthening Participatory Organisation (SPO), a non-profit company, was no less than an addiction. Even after almost eight years, leaving such a thriving institution, full of human warmth and brimming with dedication to its cause, took a bit of psychological strength on my part.

In our country the human rights debate, with a focus on civil and political rights, and the social sector agenda, which concentrates on physical and human infrastructure development, are mostly discussed as mutually exclusive. We have rights-based NGOs like Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), Aurat Foundation and Centre for Peace and Development Initiatives (CPDI), Rozan and the likes on the one hand and the rural support programmes, including NRSP, SRSP, TRDP, and Trust for Voluntary Organisations (TVO), etc. on the other. SPO brings the two streams together by bridging the gap between social action and real political change.

For more details: http://www.thenews.com.pk/arc_news.asp?id=9&arc_date=3/26/2010

 

 

 

New Arrival

This is to inform you that “HRCP Annual Report 2009” has recently been added Development Resource Centre.