Whither Pakistan? The Presidential 'Election' and Beyond

hamidm is an armchair anaylst--happy to see OTHER people's sons and daughters kill and be killed. Typical neocon cowardice.

hamidm mian# :"facilitate regime change in iran - bombing the nuclear installations and a complete economic embargo would be a good start ........"

...even the most ardent neo-cons have hidden themselves, with their heads in shame....bush and cheney are the butt of jokes and have destroyed their parties future....

yet, you keep gonig on and on.......

i think their should be a law, which bans individuals who passionately support policies, which have proven destructive and useless, and refuse to eat crow........

Re: # 76

naqshbandi,

......... how long do you think the regime in iran is going to last ? ..... it is no different than the communist regime in the former ussr and you can already see it slipping along with the head scarfs of the women on the streets of tehran ...... any ideology that suffocates man's natural desire for freedom and personal liberty is bound to fail ......

.... the free world, led by the us, must do whatever it can to facilitate regime change in iran - bombing the nuclear installations and a complete economic embargo would be a good start ........

#77 Posted by teshah on October 17, 2007 5:37:56 pm

'...in fact no common day or night in the global world but only a passing shadow.'

What a perspective! Wah wah!

Re: # 73

Urstruly

Welcome dear I was missing you for a long. But I am sorry you did not get my point. I agree with you that moon-sighting should not ,as a matter of course, be made an issue at all and it was actually not so till the bigoted mullah like Munib started trying to impose their holy writ by blowing up and exploiting this issue.

May Allah save Islam from the Mullah like Munib who speaks out lies like a demi-god, a god who does not know that there is in fact no common day or night in the global world but only a passing shadow.

Regards

Manto,

Eventually a time will come --as it did in Iran--where the common man--the man who does not know or care of the Karachi Stock Exchange--will have had enough and will decide that Islam is the answer. At that time if--or rather when--Allah in His Wisdom --sends the elusive 'charismatic religious leader'--you will see the Inqilab e Mustafavi insha allah.

Asif I am on vacation but I thought I'd drop a line between SMSes and emails.

There will be no Islamic revolution.
Musharraf has indeed strong armed his way through a crisis of his own choosing but now more and more people I come across are increasingly apprehensive of chaos and uncertainty that will come from Musharraf's sudden elimination from the scene.

The day Mush was "re-elected" KSE 30 crossed 17000 and KSE 100 hit an all time high.

The businessman is very cautious and extremely pro-Mush and pro-shaukat. Without funds and hartals by businesses big and small no revolution has a chance I am afraid.

As for charismatic religious leaders ... That is as big a joke as your claim that Meher Ali Shah raised the pen without touching it.

Pakistan is run by the hidden hand... The hidden hand will take care of that which goes against its interest.

Re: # 73

simply brilliant ! ....... i have been hearing this fcukin argument for the last forty years ........ as the prophet (pbuh and his camel) said, we are an illiterate people ....... it is true even today

....a couple of years ago i went to the headmaster of my daughter's school to ask him if he could make sure the teachers did not give any homework or have any test on eid .......... he sighed and said he would be more than happy to do it if we could decide when eid was ...... i told my daughter to clebrate hannuka instead .......

MOON-SIGHTING

Naqshbandi, teshah, mfrajel:

I hope the following will address concerns of all of you

Lately, I have been thinking that we (I am referring to Muslims only) are un-necessarily making a big deal out of the issue of moon-sighting and that of having multiple Eids. If we look a little deep into the matter, it in fact works out very well in favor of Muslim community everywhere.

Consider this: There are three possible ways, which are currently in practice to moon-sighting in order to celebrate Eid, and Ramadan etc., which are as follows:

1. Moon-sighting locally:

This is a unanimously accepted universal way of moon-sighting among Muslims. There are no two opinions about this method. This method has been authenticated by both Qura'n and Hadith. The deviation from this method becomes inevitable if the moon could not be sighted locally, due to weather, part of hemisphere where that locality is located, or any other reason. In that case one of the two following two methods is used.

2. Moon-sighting via calculations;

This method is also authenticated by at least one hadith. According to this Hadith, a group of people, presumably learned ones of Bani Israel, approached Holy Prophet (pbuh) and asked him about the way they (Muslims) would start Ramadan or Eid. They inquired whether Muslims used calculations or depended upon the moon-sighting. The Holy Prophet (pbuh) replied in these words "we are illiterate people, so we just see the moon with our eyes (and start eid or Ramadan)". According to this Hadith it is quite clear that that the permissibility of calculations was not in question, but the ability to do the calculations was in question.

3. Following Saudi Lunar Calendar:

This method is also authenticated by Ahadith. This method can be used where moon-sighting could not be done locally, and also reliable calculated method is not available. This method was typically adopted by the early expatriates from Muslim world who migrated to West and farther in Northern hemisphere where days and nights are unusually long or short. Saudis themselves maintain a Lunar calendar for all government and business affairs which is based on calculations. Hence any day in any year in any century is predictable just as Gregorian calendar. The authentication of this method comes from this hadith: This hadith tells us that Holy prophet (pbuh) allowed us the testimony of two people of good character who traveled from as far as a distance that would be covered by a camel in an over night journey. Holy Prophet (pbuh) even said that if the testimony came later in the day up until Zuhr (noon), when people were fasting, they should break their fast and celebrate eid. So a simple ijtehaad will allow us to extend this situation, given the modern day means of transport and communication to include a wider area. However, there are also limitations to this method. For example, on a given day moon passes over Earth forming a "belt of visibility' over a certain area, depending on the time-zone. This belt is geographically well defined. So Pakistan and Afghanistan, though are adjacent countries, might fall into two different "belt zones", hence they might have two different sighting zones.

As one can see all three methods are authentic "Sunnah" of Holy Prophet (pbuh); It is the will of Allah to maintain every aspect of the Sunnah alive till the End of the Days come. It is just like some people pray while clasping their arms, and some don't, because Holy prophet (pbuh) has prayed in both ways. Some of us follow one way and the other the other way. As a Muslim our duty is to educate fellow Muslims so that they could be more tolerant of the ways of their fellow brethren.

Another challenge to the religious leader is when they cannot confirm a Eid day, how are they sure that it is Allah who is THE GOD and mohammed is his prophet? How can they claim other religion to be misleading when they cant even agree on this simple matter.

Re: # 70

This is a good example of freedom in Islam. Why cant we take it in that angle. If a muslim believes friday is Eid, but lets say its on saturday, then this is fine as that muslim "beleived" Eid to be on friday and so he is not wrong in fasting on saturday. Religion is all about belief and thats how everybody is evaluvated on judgement day on whether he is true to his belief.

Re: # 69

Naqsh

You say:

"about the different eids--i don't see the big deal. Difference of opinion is a mercy for this ummah."

But what about this:

"The problem here is not with an obsession with synchronicity but the belief that fasting on Eid day is a cardinal sin. Three Eids this year have ended up making sinners of us all as in every past year, maybe cancelling our accumulated piety in the month of Ramadan."

There is an authentic Hadees that only Iblees fasts on the day of Eid. So what do you say about those who fast on the day of Eid?

Is not Mufti Muneeb lying when he says, "Shawwal ka chand kahein nahein dekha geya" when half the Muslim world is celebrating Eid."

Who are the Iblees then?

about the different eids--i don't see the big deal. Difference of opinion is a mercy for this ummah.

Arjun,

Re:#50

(here's the real story behind the 300 surrender monkeys..they didn't "refuse" to fight their fellow muslims...the surrender monkeys surrendered without firing a shot.)

Most likely it was not a case of surrender. It was a simple case of defection/mutiny. Which probably is worse.

Regards

#63 Posted by Naqshbandi,

Perhaps true but they've never attacked a sufi shrine so far. Wouldn't be a bad idea though :)

#58 Posted by Naqshbandi,

It was formally announced by the NS secretariat in London a few days ago.