Category: Uncategorized
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Return Hate with Empathy
Empathy is a dying art. It is a virtue on ventilator. Yet we must find whatever means we can to resuscitate it. Our life and the lives of our children depend on it. And need I say, our afterlives are also on the line.
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Why Shashi Tharoor Is A Hindu: The Politics of Inclusivism
The problem is not that we are different. The problem is how do we coexist while respecting our differences? We must also bear in mind that is only under modern religious nationalism that there arises an acute need to summon a unifying identity around which to rally. While this certainly serves political expediency, nonetheless, a…
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Why We Work
“What do you” This much-bandied string of words can be a polite greeting, a conversation-starter, and a way of getting to know a stranger. As such, the phrase can lend itself to many interesting and meaningful conversations. But in common usage it remains no more than a perfunctory formality at best, and a cause for…
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The Futility of Arguing About God
It had been the longest time since I had indulged in the bitter-sweet back-and-forth of theological disputation. That is, until yesterday. In a meeting lasting five hours, I and my interlocutor were at least as equally drained as we were initially energized. The exhilarating and at the same time exhausting debate on theological minutiae had…
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Simone Weil and the Fatihah
Thus, one may read Simone Weil’s comment on the Lord’s Prayer as reminiscent of popular Muslim sentiment regarding the Fatihah: “The Our Father contains all possible petitions; we cannot conceive of any prayer not already contained in it… It is impossible to say it once through, giving the fullest possible attention to each word, without…
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The God Beyond Grasp
Naaz Khialvi, a contemporary lyricist, embodies this poetic sensibility, and in colloquial Urdu verse, gives us a confessional masterpiece that lays bare the most heartfelt and heart-wrenching raptures of a worshipper grappling with the puzzling nature of God. The poem entitled ‘Tum Ek gorakh Dhanda ho’/’You is a puzzle lock has been immortalized in its…
Project Noon 