• Ark-e-Gulab,  Blog,  Religion and Philosophy

    Kaashif and Baatin on Love

    What does it mean to say that if there is a tinge of attachment it is not real Love? Kaashif Real Love is selfless. There is no attachment, you don’t need the person anymore. Baatin How can “no attachment” be possible? Kaashif At the “real” level of Love, you are not attached to the person but the person’s “being”. And that is how “no attachment” is possible. Baatin Separation from the beloved shouldn’t hurt then. Kaashif The “being” of the person never goes. The beloved always “is” once she “has been”, she cannot “not be”, for a person who has “been” will always “be”, he can never “not be”. Baatin…

  • Ark-e-Gulab,  Religion and Philosophy

    How to practice faith?

    I don’t claim to be a mystic who has gained any kind of spiritual mileage, however, the very fact that I am a human being makes me eligible to write on a topic that concerns the core living of us humans. While for most of my life I have held on to rationalism in the public sphere of my life while holding on to intuition as the source of judgment in my personal one, the two often seem to be at loggerheads for an outsider. That, however, has not been true in my experience; it has been a smooth ride between the two seemingly contradictory sources of knowledge. Why I…

  • Social Issues

    Women Liberation – An alternative viewpoint

    We do not always realize that an opinion we carry, with all the conviction with which we carry it, may not be our opinion at all. Has it ever occurred to you that what you say may not be the outpouring of your real innate ideas? Has it occurred to you that the ideals you carry may not necessarily have been yours at all? What if the ideals are an import? Is there the slightest possibility that an opinion we think is a well-informed one could have come out not of critical examination but from a blind adhering to a thought which we assume to have emerged out of critical…

  • Historical Issues,  Political Issues,  Religion and Philosophy,  Social Issues

    The Khwarij of today

    The Messenger of God, peace and blessings be upon him, said, “There will be division and sectarianism in my nation and a people will come with beautiful words and evil deeds. They will recite the Quran but it will not pass beyond their throats. They will leave the religion as an arrow leaves its target and they will not return to it as the arrow does not return to its bow. They are the worst of the creation. Blessed are those who fight them and are killed by them. They call to the Book of Allah but they have nothing to do with it. Whoever fights them is better to Allah than them.”

  • Social Issues

    How to read a book – Part III

    Click here for Part 1 Click here for Part 2 By now you can be reasonably sure you have understood the book. However a complete understanding of a book requires the final work of criticism, the work of judging. Till now you have been following the author, keeping your eyes and mind open and your mouth shut. From now onwards you are going to present yourself and argue with the author in the third and final state of reading of which the rules are as follows.