The Bombing

Temporal writes :

Muslim, well?

That is the 64 million dollar question. When I was innocent, I used to say anybody who recited the Kalima, beginning with the negation --- There is no God but Allah and Muhammed is his prophet ---- is a Muslim. But I was not only innocent, but naive as well. I may think of myself as a Muslim. But that is not relevant.

My question : why is that not relevant ? I would say that in reality, it is the only thing that is relevant.

Temporal continues :

To be a Muslim I have to conform to Zaid’s definition of Muslim. Or Bakr’s. Or Saad’s...or.....or. And short of calling other believers heretics, these pious men with their holy grails -- kashkols and tasbeehs--worry beads freely call anyone but themselves not the real Muslims.

My question is : again, why ? What is it about the existence of Zaid`s, Bakr`s, Saad`s definition of Muslim that coerces you into doing/not-doing or believing/not-believing that you otherwise would not-do/do or not-believe/believe ?

-arun gupta

To temporal,

Great article. Looks like your imagination is running amok. Though as some one else mentioned, the change in track after the brushing of bosoms and dropping of the robe, was a bit disappointing amnd anti climactic. Dropping of the robe, followed by certain predictable but aesthetically desribed incidents would have certainly added some more spice:) Were u tempted to do something on those lines ?

Also, can`t understand why ``Abdullah was born at Surat, India to a family of the former Nawabs of Surat`` . Abdullah could also have been born to some Ashraf Rangwala, a State Bank of India employee and Zubeida Rangwala, 8th grade bilogy teacher at ``St. Some One`` high school in the same Surat. Why the Nawab family ? Elitism..............I dare not say that :)

Again, thanks for a refreshing, thought provoking and a very ``Hatke`` piece. We can only pray that no moron ever does what that Israeli does in this article, because I am sure that something like that would trigger the worst tragedy in the history of humankind. Trust the faith of Muslims for that.

Cheers!

Satyavadi

Reply #: 29

FARANGI_KUSH

Your reply to OM was great ! You explained your point without bashing his religon despite the fact that he did try to lure you into doing so.

However I will have to disagree with you about the motives of the invaders. Sure a lot of them were after the gold, but they were also interested in destroying the kafirs. For them Hinduism was not insignificant, like the example you used, we were not goats for them, useless and worthy of ignorance.

Ont the contraty, Hindus were a major source of irritation to the muslims. Why else would they insist on building mosques on sites that were considered to be holy by the hindus ?

AD

Would it have been worth wile,

To have bitten off the matter with a smile,

To have squeezed the universe into a ball

To roll it toward some overwhelming question,

To say:`I am Lazarus, come from the dead,

Come back to tell you all, I shall tell you all`-

temporal, Keep writing!!

sadhna #37:

You gave four choices. How many lifelines do I have? Can I call a friend? Poll the audience? Eliminate two wrong answers?

.......hmmmm. You may be onto something. How
about all of them in varying degrees?

And if I have to guess, I’ll go with your guess.

rgds

temporal

sac #36:
What do you mean ...”Iran bears serious watching......?”

rgds

t

PS: Your ‘balanced’ comments on “j-fk” and your choice of dietary intake on another thread were very witty.

Godot #34

Godot janab, jaisi aapki marzi. Big T, small t all will end in dust or ashes.

Next time, I will write something brief with your short attention span in mind. Please do not consider this a firm commitment on my part. Kal ka kiya bharosa?

And you also write, “Being bizarre was the only way you figured you could get on the front page of Chowk?” Yaar kamal kartay haiN aap. Itni puraani yaari aur sar-e-aam aap nay yeh baat likh di?

ijazat,

t

Dear t:

You submission reminds me of an article I read a while back that discussed how prescient fiction was in predicting the fall of communism as opposed to ``factual`` writing. I think you may be on to something although my gut feeling is that these so-called Islamic countries will not need an external impetus rather they`ll implode from within. Iran bears serious watching......

Well, temporal, I had plenty of options to choose from, for the intent of your article.

1. Huntington`ian clash of civilisations, scenario of one end result.

2. Insecurity of the Islamic world due to various reasons including enimity with nuclear-armed countries including Israel(what I initially thought).

3. Fatalistic picture of human catastrophe and the purposelessness of it all, like a physicist describing in detail the death of the sun many million years from now.

4. A possible accidental event leading to long-desired fundamental change required in the Islamic world which is tough to bring by other means, which seems the right guess, isn`t it?

Sadhana

Actually, I thought the article was an illuminating piece on what a thin string the muslim world dangles on. Also it showed the absurdness of what the end of humanity can come due to (the bombing of Kaabaa, thus the elimination of life due to the elimination of a symbol, but we muslims are good at that).

However, I was ofcourse more interested in what happened after the robe slipped off! Unfortunately that was anti climactic! Keep it up Temporal!

Re: Temporal (with a big T, as in Tootsie?)

I thought you were a level-headed, intelligent individual. But this is ludicrous (not to mention too long to hold interest). Being bizarre was the only way you figured you could get on the front page of Chowk?

sadna #30:

``I had to have the intent of your article explained to me by someone else.``


Why?


rgds

t

Om #21:

Seriously, I believe any such attempt whether by any irresponsible person or group or country would result in a holocaust (possibly, nay certainly nuclear) the like of which the world has not seen nor will survive to see.

The results would be more destructive with the passage of every year.

Time to seriously discuss the control and certifiable elimination of nuclear arsenal worldwide, beginning with the Mid and Near East. Must admit, this is a by-product, not the main thrust of the story.

rgds

t

``Following the death of the last of the Sudairi Seven, Saudi Arabia was thrown into turmoil...``

Again a spoilsport comment:

If in 2020, SA still has oil, there maybe well be a plastic mannequin on the throne funded by United Auto Workers and defended by US/European troops, but there will be no turmoil.

Sadhana

temporal

A article with such serious concepts, even if written in jest, requires a serious answer.

I had to have the intent of your article explained to me by someone else. If indeed you are saying that the Islamic world needs to be shaken at its foundations starting with destruction of its symbolic focal point, please consider this. It will not work. Right now, the focal point or highest symbol Kaa`ba is a benign symbol or rallying point for the faith of millions. After such destruction, it would remain the rallying point but become instead symbol of the fury of the same millions. It would still remain a powerful symbol, whether physically destroyed or not.

While contemplating revolution, also consider this. Every street-corner bigot need not provoke a revolution in retaliation. Real faith could also mean persevering and winning one-by-one small battles and big battles, recovering from failures, displaying stamina to prevail in a long and exhausting war of attrition with seemingly no end.

Sadhana

Om:#21

Please do not be so stupid.Why throw your hard earned billions? temporal is also so naive as to worry about an Israeli finding time for such nonsense.

You got it! Only a `muslim` can do it.

For your information & perhaps for those of the Ba Ba Blacksheep background.THIS HAS ALREADY HAPPENED------of course in real life & at the high-tech level of its time.

After the historic battle of good & evil at Karbala,the evil (but `muslim`) Yezid attacked Makkah & Kaaba sharif,set it on fire by lobbing firebombs through catapults,ransacked the city---& the rest is history.On another occasion the Black stone(hajre-asvad) was taken by the karamatees and it was restored after a while.

So Om! we do not need any external help in these matters.Please never ever confuse between Islam & Muslims.In case you just landed on this planet please be informed that there are thieves,robbers,murderers and all kind of good and bad people as anywhere else--even among muslims!Also,these same people are good AND bad at different times of the

day and at different period in their lives.There is no pattern & predictablity in this.And that is where all the joy of living lies.

The more than 100 million who died in Europe in this last century during the two wars & in between were `christians` too(church going! practising! fundamentalist!) & so were those who goaded them into it--But this is not Christianity,just as suttee & achhoot & cow worship,dung eating & urine drinking not Hinduism.

The `muslim` kings (never khalifas) who destroyed your temples had nothing against Hinduism,which they valued as much as you would value a goat--nothing,useless.But they were looking for gold,which was often hidden in the stones(sculpted) & foundations of the temples.Remember that in Taxila & Afghanistan no statues of Buddha were destroyed.They are still there.Also in Europe,the statues of even Christ & David are there----our own prophets! As an Islamic culture all these were `respected` & left untouched because there is no money in it.

Islam has no use for an idol of anykind.Be it a mosque,a stone,or even a geographic tract of land known as country.Destroying these will not get you wealth (we do not hide it there) but only make you poorer.If you want to destroy an idea you can only do it by replacing it with a better one.There is none! & there will not be a better one.Even the west is bit by bit co-opting the legal system,the only difference being that it loves to call it its own `discoveries` like it discovered India & red Indians.

Islam as a legal & moral system has no equal.It is also true that it is seldom `practised` or `implemented` but that is where the joy of pursuit lies.There are tremendous joyful stories for those who are not self-loathers.If you get your quarry then the game is over.Allah wants us to do a constant & perpetual battle with our inner selves & with the world outside.We will not be judged as countrymen,races,professionals but only as INDIVIDUALS so it is important to be a better muslim individually even if one is the only one left.We have been given the opportunity to judge & audit ourselves only to judged for our judgement & audited for our audit at the Hereafter.