My Favourite Islamic Books

While many have the Translation

the book to get is the one with the Commentary

Just by putting in a word

you get all the ayats that have this word

This is a great book to have.

It contains lots of stuff that we look for elsewhere/

An unconventional study of

The Prophet

They were just amazing!

When I was 5 I was staying at my Khala's house. I walked into my Khalu's room (Asad Ali Qidwai - India's greatest hockey player before the Olympics, by when he had retired)). He was sitting in front of his radio and listening to some female singing. I was brought up listening to classical music since I was a child and her voice was lovely ... so I asked him who it was. He pressed his finger to his lips. So I just heard the song and stood by for his answer. He finally said to me: Jab Namāz ho rahi ho ya koi achhā gātā ho to beech mayñ boltay naheeñ haéñ. Then he told me her name: Jaddan Bai.

Jaddanbai Hussain

(1892-1949)

Jaddan Bai's music became popular and she became an even more famous tavaif than her mother, Daleepabai. She began recording ghazals with the Columbia Gramophone Company. She started participating in music sessions and was invited by the rulers of many princely states such as Rampur, Bikaner, Gwalior, Jammu and Kashmir, Indore, and Jodhpur to perform mehfils. She had also rendered songs and ghazals at various radio stations nationwide.

She later began acting when the Play Art Photo Tone Company of Lahore approached her for a role in their movie Raja Gopichand. She played the role of the mother of the title character. Later she worked for a Karachi based film company, in Insaan ya Shaitan.

Her first marriage was to a Gujarati Hindu, Bachi Babu Khatri, who had to convert to Islam to marry her. They had a son, Akhtar Hussain, who was an actor. I have no details of him at all.

Her second marriage was with harmonium master Ustaad Irshad Meer Khan, a frequent collaborator, who sired her second son, actor Anwar Hussain. You can find Anwar on Google.

Her third marriage was to Mohanchand Uttamchand Tyagi, a wealthy Punjabi Mohyal Brahmin (a Hussaini Brahmin) Hindu heir who converted to Islam to marry her and adopted the name Abdul Rashid. His family disowned him but he continued to live happily with Jaddan Bai. Fatima Rashid was their daughter.

After working in two more movies Jaddan Bai formed her own company, Sangeet Films, which produced Talashe Haq. Jaddan was the Actor, Producer, Director, and possibly the first female story-writer for this film. Her daughter was 14 years old and wanted to be a Doctor - but Jaddan Bai said that may come later. She should be a child star in this film. And so, Fatima Rashid became an actress with a screen name that we all know and remember: Nargis!

Nargis Stamp: 1993

Nargis married Sunil Dutt who had saved her life in a fire at the shooting of Mother India, Unlike her mother, she converted to Hinduism on her marriage. The have 3 children, Sunjay Dutt, Namrata Dutt, and Priya Dutt. You can find Sunjay and Priya on Google.

Nargis had an attack in 1980 while she was at a meeting in Rajya Sabha. She was taken to hospital where, after a few days she was diagnosed as having Pancreatic Cancer. She went to the USA and on her return she did not recover. On 2nd May 1981 she died, aged just 51.

Will Eisner

I was really pleased to see Will Eisner

at a Comics Conference

and had his current book signed by him

Are you a Graphics Artist? Do you love Graphic Story Telling? Do you want to really understand the basics? Or is this your first trip into this wonderful art? You've got to read the books I mention below. 

But who was Will Eisner?

Here is the back of one of his books.

Without him one would never fully understand the wonderful Art and the things that many of us reading a Graphic Novel didn't know. Yes, of course, you could still enjoy the books. True. But to understand what they really are, you should read these two books by him.

And if you are considering this as your next project or actually a lifetime sequential art producer, these are really essential.

There are many books that he has written, but the one that I would really ask you to get hold of is this amazing superb book …

Have a great time

and let's get some good

graphic novels in Pakistan.

Get it if you haven't read it …

As a Graphic Novel fan I often re-read the major writings/drawings and look at pictures with their details and, often, discover something new or worth looking at again. Of late, I was re-reading Maus and came across this panel …

It reminded me of my own Breakfast list of Tablets I have to take, given my Prostrate problems, my old Diabetes, a heart attack that you could read about here, and - a little later - a Pacemaker.

You haven't read Maus?

It's the best book about the Holocaust, drawn (and written) by Art Spiegelman, whose father Vladek Spiegelman was a survivor.

It shows the Jews as Mice and the Hitler Gang as Cats.

Maus has won several awards and is considered among the top Graphic Novels. He has also done a lengthy book, called MetaMaus (which includes a CD) that I have … and I've loved it, too. Art was known before this for Raw and his works that were published in several leading Newspapers and Magazines..

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Here are some pieces from Maus

GO! GO! GO!

 

Or should I not be …

 

While talking about Noor Mukaddam and Dua-e-Zahra cases many YouTubers (almost all of them are good people who fought and are fighting brilliantly) insisted that the actual criminals be put to death.

A couple of organizations, specially WAF, opposed this and felt that a life sentence with no release be set for them. I, naturally, agreed with his … having been always opposed to the death penalty. But the YouTubers sited this and criticized WAF and said they should stick to women's rights, etc.

SORRY!

Death by the State is not a real sentence at all:

It is just vengeance!

The man who photographed a hundred kids and raped them was given a sentence of being killed by the State. Compare that with another person who killed a friend in a dispute over a card game. He, too, was also given the same sentence. Does that make sense? All the State has done is to 'help' the people who wanted some serious action … not just justice. And so they went right ahead and killed these two.

I would have the two given life sentences and had them work really hard in prisons … and face the looks and dangers they face from other criminals. All through their lives.

Things are looking better each day and more people, including police members and organizations around the world asking States to stop this nonsense, It is true that there were problems hundreds o years or even thousands of years in the past that there was no other answer. No jails; no psychiatrist; no understanding of mental disease; no gun laws. Well, the USA has none so far … and you can see how many deaths take place every year.

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There is now an ever-growing case against the death penalty. 

Read the linked item and see what it says.

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The lawgivers, too, have a strong case

against death penalty.

“I think that the only pur­pose for the death penal­ty, as I see it, is vengeance – pure and sim­ple vengeance. But I think vengeance is a very per­son­al feel­ing and I don’t think it is some­thing that civ­i­lized gov­ern­ment should engage in .…”

–Janet Reno, Former Attorney General of the United States [1] 

“The death penal­ty does lit­tle to pre­vent crime. It’s the fear of appre­hen­sion and the like­ly prospect of swift and cer­tain pun­ish­ment that pro­vides the largest deter­rent to crime.”

–Frank Friel, Former Head of Organized Crime Homicide Task Force, Philadelphia [2] 

“Take it from some­one who has spent a career in Federal and state law enforce­ment, enact­ing the death penal­ty … would be a grave mis­take. Prosecutors must reveal the dirty lit­tle secret they too often share only among them­selves: The death penal­ty actu­al­ly hin­ders the fight against crime.”

–Robert M. Morgenthau, District Attorney, Manhattan, NY [3] 

“I am not con­vinced that cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, in and of itself, is a deter­rent to crime because most peo­ple do not think about the death penal­ty before they com­mit a vio­lent or cap­i­tal crime.”

–Willie L. Williams, Police Chief, Los Angeles, CA [4]

For more details on the above, read this.

•

There is another matter, related again to our otherwise wonderful YouTubers, but also to some Müllās and others. They seem to think that some of the support of Dua-e-Zahra is coming from a group that is Western-minded and wants to pullout country's morals into a really low sexual level. Their objection is to the slogan that has been carried by many young and old honest woman (and supported by some men).

This was not what the slogan meant. It didn't say that she can have sex wherever, whenever she wanted to. It was a protest. True that it started in the West against the non-Abortion groups, but it has carried on to other parts of the world, including Pakistan.

Abortions are illegal in Pakistan or require both parents to agree. The women felt that having the abortion was their choice and certainly not the man's choice. Imagine if the child was a result of rape (even marital rape). Imagine if the child had a bad disease or was incomplete.

I always remember an Officer of mine at sea saying "My wife can die in an abortion as long as the baby could be saved". He added, "I can marry again."

•

One of the things I hear often is that these two cases are Laws and they must be followed. This means that people think Law and Justice are the same things. Really?

Think of Hitler's Germany and the millions of Jews and others killed: That was The Law … but it wasn't Justice. Think of South African the Aperthadian Era. The Blacks had to walk on one side of the road and the Whites on another side. That was The Law … but it wasn't Justice. Think of written (and unwritten) Laws: Look at Modi's India. That was The Law … but it wasn't Justice. 

May our people become human beings soon.

Shifting Blues … 2

(Before I start on #2 I’d like thank StormFiber for their immediate reaction to #1 … They sent people on Sunday who changed the device that they had originally given me. It now works perfectly. I also got my Phone Number from their Helpline. 

This is just to show that Blogs work if they are posted on Facebook and Twitter!)

•

Ok … so I am in my new house and my wife and I visited Nadra to have our address changed since the old house has been sold. 

Guess what …

We were informed that the Nadra Card will have our old address and it can’t be changed. “That is the Law” we were told. 

I said what if a person has sold his house in Lahore or any place and bought or rented a house in Karachi. Should they have to have their old address unchanged? “Yes. That is he Law”, he said. 

Will someone at Nadrs or Government please tell me if this is true?

If yes, how can we change this stupid law?

I am absolutely sick of the stupidities one faces here … and this is a country that I live in and don’t want to leave. Let’s make it better!

Shifting Blues … 1

Having shifted from our old house at Phase 1 (DHA), we decided to rent an Apartment at Block 6 (PECHS). The people who owned this house used to have a StormFiber connection and said it was very good. So also said 3 of my friends. However, they shifted theirs to a new house and I decided to give up my old connection with another source. at DHA and get StormFiber instead. That was a while ago …

After a few tries the people came only after I gave them my wife's number as they hadn't cancelled mine from a much older connection at Phase 4 (DHA). But I also told them my number and said that they should use that as my wife and I are often far apart during the day so I don't see her messages. They agreed. But all the calls kept coming on my wife's number …

The men arrived (I think one was Maddy ‭+92 302 8401294‬ but it could have been someone he sent). He fixed the thing about 2 weeks ago. I had chosen a 20mb Package with Phone, Internet, HD Box, TV.

The person gave me a Password for StormFiber (Y8zz) that proved to be wrong. A letter was totally different. I finally found the Password and connected. The Internet worked for about 10 minutes and then a Red Light appeared on the box. Here it is …

                                       

It's still Red.

I rang up StormFiber 4 times!

Three times on their WebSite Complaints

and 1 time to someone who spoke to me.

1. The people come and disappear after fixing the problem and do not want to wait or take a signature or anything. The fault appears again after 5 to 10 minutes after they leave. This has happened on calls 1,2,& 4.

2. On call 3 I was told that a wire has broken at some outside space and they will fix it. Which they did! And the fault appeared again after 8 minutes.

3. I can't use the Internet at all … and this is the 2nd FREE week. What's the point of such a service?

4. The Telephone cable was also given to me but no number was given. Is this real? How do I know which number I have? In any case, the phone doesn't seem to be working.

5. The HD Box was not connected and I have a Red Light on it, too. I guess it's StormFiber's turn to connect it.  Right?

I have left a message on Twitter and will do so on my BlogLink on Facebook so that someone senior contacts me and puts all of this right. And please give me my full month's FREE offer from the time that it is properly done. I think that's a perfectly fair demand.

Cheers!