The mosque pulpit doesn’t belong to clerics
The state needs to reclaim it What do Imam Abu Hanifa, Imam Shafii, Imam Malik and Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal have in common? It’s well known that all of them were men…
No more ‘fusion’ or ‘tributes’, please
Recycling of music in the name of reinvention needs to stop The widespread public disapproval that manifested itself against the Coke Studio version of Ko ko korina was long awaited, although not…
Fairy tales and political commentary
On oversimplified political ‘theories’ It may be too early to give a verdict one way or the other, but the protesters may have gone a bit too far for their own good…
Islam needs to be saved from Muslims
Zia-ul-Haq’s legacy is alive and kicking Being a husband was hardly a piece of cake at the best of times. But it may have just got a whole lot more perilous, thanks…
Allama Iqbal
Some perennial criticisms Much is said on the media (often justifiably so) about the Muslims’ unhealthy nostalgic yearnings and reverence for their past heroes. On the other hand, mention of the opposite…
Two questions regarding the end times
With an earnest attempt to answer them The other day, ‘Imam’ Abdullah Bin Moneeb, via a video released from an undisclosed location, declared himself the eleventh rightly guided caliph (khalifa-e-rashid) of Islam.…
Playing 1980s’ cricket in 2018
#FarewellCricket #WellPlayedGreenShits Since as far back as I can recall, what has consistently been testing the collective intellect of this nation has been the perennial question of which team must beat which…
Evolution gone wrong
Or is it a passing phase? At a wedding last month, it occurred to me that evolution, after millennia of success, may finally be running out of steam; in fact, it may…
Poor reasons to be a theist
And why they need to be reconsidered I wrote an article, some weeks ago, enumerating some less-than-satisfactory reasons for being an atheist. I had stated therein that I was not necessarily claiming…
Where have all the female sages been hiding?
Another age-old conundrum What do Thales, Heraclitus, Parmenides, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Plotinus, Augustine, Aquinas, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Locke, Berkeley, Hume, Rousseau, Kant, Hegel, Byron, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Bentham, Mill, Marx, Bergson,…
Honey and olive oil in Grey Goose bottles
Or what makes liquor a moral issue I am sure Ali Amin Gandapur and Sharjeel Inam Memon have excellent reasons for keeping honey in liquor bottles, and those will be extremely instructive…
Who created God?
On faulty questions and the need to agree on meanings of words The more things change, the more they remain the same. This is especially true of discussions on metaphysics or religion,…
Thank you, Imran Khan
For depicting the desi liberals in their true light Imran Khan, now Prime Minister Khan, has taken oath of his new office. Winning the ultimate prize after being ridiculed, written-off, and character…
The war to end all wars
It’s coming Warning: satire ahead. The author bears absolutely no responsibility in the event of it being taken up by one or more of our eminent think-tanks. Sometimes it looks imminent, sometimes…
Nine not-so-good reasons to be an atheist
And why that’s so It’s one of the hallmarks of thoughtful people that either they think long and hard about a problem before taking a position on it; or else they take…
In the New Pakistan
Can we revert to some old things, please? ‘Who writes your scripts?’ an excited Graham Gooch had asked Ian Botham when the latter had taken a wicket on his very first delivery…
Democracy in Pakistan
Past, present and prognosis People have all sorts of views on the institution of democracy as a way of running a society. To some, it leads to a government of the people,…