Practice
To know is to be.
Religious knowledge is incomplete without its practical and experiential dimension. This section explores what it means to live a spiritually informed life in the modern world.
On Bhakti (Devotion)
by Ankur Barua
Meditations
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.
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…
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…
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…
Short Stories
The Clockmaker of Calcutta
As the shadows of time fall thickly across the afternoon of my life, my mind often trails back to a damp winter evening on the banks of the Hooghly river. In the distance a boatman’s plaintive song was slowly rising towards the listless silence that shrouded the air. A goat’s sharp bleating punctuated the peace.
…
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The Island of Remembrance
On a rainy afternoon in July, Reginald took a wrong turn at the busy intersection. Instead of walking in the direction of the noisy marketplace that would take him home in a few minutes, he accidentally stepped into a narrow lane that drew him towards a small garden shaded with leafy trees. As the golden…
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Batman and Hindu-Muslim Dialogue
The Manbat from the DC Comics is a scientist-turned super-villain who has concocted a serum that turns him into a giant bat with super-human strength and hearing. But when the zoologist is under the effect of the serum, his IQ falls precipitously and he turns into a creature of pure instinct. However, there are occasional…
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The Truth in a Truism: A Tafsir
by Ankur Barua Once upon a time, in a land not too far from where you are, there lived Abdul-of-the- desolate-mountain. Now Abdul was a boy of few words, and he grew up to become a man of even fewer words. The very act of speaking seemed pointless to him. He disliked having to repeat…
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Project Noon 