Tag: Religion
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East is West: Muslim Self and Hindu Other in the 21st Century
“I explicitly chose GTU as the only place I knew where I, a Muslim convert since 1998, could study the Hindu tradition and prioritize the scholarly discourse about its continued relevance emanating from those who live and breathe the Hindu tradition every day. It was neither a madrasa nor a gurukula meant only to train…
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Close Encounters With The Other Kind: A Scholar of Hinduism and his Muslim Interlocutors
I take the disciplinary category of “Hindu Studies” to mean also “Studies of al-Hind”: that is, socioreligious interactions across individuals and groups in Hindustan.
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On Bhakti (Devotion)
We will consider one of the most polyvalent concepts in Hindu religious worldviews – namely, bhakti. I will focus on one particular set of meanings of the Sanskrit word bhakti – namely, devotional love or loving attachment. One encounters bhakti in diverse contexts of Hindu life – as an attitude of dedication to an icon…
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Zikr: The Labour of Lucknow’s Love
by Ankur Barua O my Lord –If there is paradise on earth it is this pearl of exquisite beautyThat gently nestles on the meandering necklace of your GomtiO Allah – this beggar stands waiting at your door for your bounty. In every iota of dust do I discern your resplendent Residency1In whose mansions once dwelled…
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Zikr: The Four Minarets of Hyderabad
O my Lord – Tossed up and down on this vast ocean of humanity I hold on to your name as the anchor of our stability O Allah – in my darkness you shine as a mountain of light. Walking past all the magnificent palaces of the Nizam I gently sigh In this frantic living…
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Reading al-Biruni’s ‘Kitab al Hind’ as Phenomenology of Religion
by Saad Ismail *A paper originally presented at the Department of Islamic Studies, Aligarh Muslim University in January 2024. 1. Introduction: “I have found it very hard to work my way into the subject, although I have a great liking for it, in which respect I stand quite alone in my time.” al-Biruni Abu Rayhan…
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What al-Biruni Can Teach Us About Hindu-Muslim Dialogue Today
by Saad Ismail “I have found it very hard to work my way into the subject, although I have a great liking for it, in which respect I stand quite alone in my time.” Al Biruni Abu Rayhan al-Biruni’s precocious and magisterial study al-Hind (India) was undoubtedly far ahead of its times. Exactly one millennium…
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Sadhguru and the Politics of Spirituality
If you listen to Sadhguru enough times – as I have – you come away with the impression that spirituality is the only sensible alternative to the regressive and old-fashioned belief in religion. Religions, and in Sadhguru’s view, Abrahamic religions in particular – with all their notions of a traditional creator-god, scriptural morality, and heaven…
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Indian Muslim Minorities and the 1857 Rebellion: Religion, Race, and Empire
In her fascinating and path paving book, Indian Muslim Minorities and the 1857 Rebellion: Religion, Rebels and Jihad (I. B. Tauris, 2017), Ilyse Morgenstein Fuerst, Associate Professor of Religion at the University of Vermont reorients our understanding of the 1857 rebellion in India, while offering a nuanced theorization of religion, religious identity, and questions of…
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How to do Hindu-Muslim Dialogue
Dr. Saad Ismail engages Prof. Seyyed Hossein Nasr on how best to approach Hindu-Muslim dialogue in a manner that is both academically rigorous as well as spiritually cognizant of the wisdom of these rich traditions. Prof. Nasr has long maintained close ties as well as deep engagement with Indian thinkers, spiritual gurus, religious leaders from…
Project Noon 