For this task, the Prophet commissioned a group of competent du’at (missionaries) and made Muadh ibn Jabal their leader. These compilations are sort of like the Gospels, and comprise the deeds and sayings of the Prophet. In the Muslim world, a new generation of Muslims are pushing the boundaries and combing through centuries of Islamic jurisprudence to highlight the more progressive aspects of their religion. The author rightly alludes to the advice of the Prophet to his companion, Muadh ibn Jabal. Bhatla has stayed clear of this sensitive territory and has very judiciously selected those hadiths that are universally accepted as sound. He appeals to Muslims to revive the Prophet’s traditions of peace, love, gentleness and compassion. The author takes pains to repeatedly emphasise the principles of social justice, compassion, gender justice, kindness and non-violence, which form the bedrock of Islam as envisioned by the Qur’an and exemplified in the life of the Prophet.A. Books like this are reinforcing this new thinking. The book provides a new lens to view Islam. It can help non-Muslims to clear their misconceptions and allay their misapprehensions.

It includes a vast collection of words and deeds attributed to the Prophet by later authors. His study of the Prophet is primarily based on Martin Lings’ book.It provides a very wholesome perspective of Islam."And if you find nothing therein?""According to the Sunnah of the Prophet of God.The author also delves into various Islamic scriptures. It needs to be rediscovered. Muslim scholars fight over their authenticity to put a kindred ancient religion like Islam in perspective. It banned female infanticide, limited polygamy to four wives, forbade sexual relations Closed End Blind Rivets Factory outside marriage and spelled out women’s rights in marriage and inheritance. Muslim women and men are called upon to exercise moderation in all aspects of their religious life."The fact is that Islam does not need any reformation. In Islam, men and women are moral equals in God’s sight and are expected to fulfill the same duties of worship, prayer, faith, alms giving, fasting, and pilgrimage to Mecca. However, the more detailed rules that were laid out by the classical jurists allowed many pre-Islamic customs to continue.Moin Qazi is a well-known banker, author and Islamic researcher.I have been an avid reader of islamci literature for several years, but never came across such a fascinating book. Another great translator, A." (Q2:185) The Qur’an reinforces this message again: "God does not burden a soul beyond its capacity" (Q 2:286).J. He can be reached at moinqazi123@gmail. He too was not a native Muslim. The trajectory of reforms began at the time of the Prophet, but was halted in the medieval period through the further elaboration of fiqh (Islamic law), which was then selectively codified in the 19th and 20th centuries.

There is a very enlightening discussion on Islamic thinkers, both classical as well as those of mystical schools or Sufis. The book is an eye-opener, a must-read and re-read.While there have been several biographical accounts of Prophet Muhammad, Martin Lings’ book remains the most outstanding work.As the author rightly observes, the Qur’an is a coherent book where every verse is amplified by other verses.The author describes how the reforms that took place in the early years of Islam are clearly progressive, changing with the needs of the society. Muslims owe a great debt to so many of these researchers and writers for unravelling amazing facets of Islam, its philosophy and its culture.When we come to the cultural history of Islam, Philip Hitti, R. In growing numbers, they are speaking out truths to self-appointed authorities, be they their parents or their imams. The overall approach of the Qur’an is of mercy and compassion, and jurists seem rapped in a colonial mindset of not allowing the winds of modernity and liberal ideas touch them. They requested that some teachers should be with them to teach Islam to the people. It may appear ironic that non-Muslims have harnessed their scholarship to discover some of the unique features of Islam. The theme of moderation has been the leitmotif in Islamic scriptures from the time of Prophet Muhammad. Nicholson and Stanley Lane Poole — who were all non-Muslims — have been beacons of the legacy of Islamic civilisation for English readers. The Qur’an further says: "God intends for you ease and does not intend for you hardship.The Prophet eschewed extremism and, contrary to general beliefs, emphasised moderation. For the Quran’s interpretation, he relies on the translation by Maulana Wahiduddin Khan and supplements it with that of Abdullah Yusuf Ali.

Arberry, whose work has been acclaimed as the most universally brilliant, was an Englishman.I recently came across a wonderful introduction to Islam titled Islam Is Good: Muslims Should Follow It by Sanjiv Bhatla that compresses encyclopedic insights in a small volume. They are called hadith and sunnah. Most non-Muslims are unaware that Islam is more than the Quran." The author dwells at length on gender welfare and justice, the two areas where rigid mindsets have made the rules and codes extremely harsh. His advice emanates from the Qur’an: "And God has not laid upon you any hardship in matters of religion" (Q22:7 .The author reminds Muslims of the extraordinary emphasis the Qur’an lays on reason and intellect." The Prophet was pleased with this reply and said:"Praise be to God who has guided the messenger of the Prophet to that which pleases the Prophet. Several of them are obviously biased, yet many of them are faithful.Islamic literature in English is clearly dominated by non-Muslim intellectuals. It can help non-Muslims to clear their misconceptions and allay their misapprehensions.""And if you find nothing therein?""Then I will exert myself (exercise ijtihad) to form my own judgement. For Muslims, it will reinforce in their minds some of the fundamental truths of the Qur’an and its message an help them realign their focus. Thus, the Qur’an has to be read as a whole and the verses cannot be interpreted in isolation.The underlying message of the book is that Islam is a very practical religion and that the life of the Prophet was proof of that. Islam’s scripture contains three times as many passages urging Muslims to think and rethink than verses promoting blind worship.

It will delight students, teachers, imams and academicians alike, The author inspires, delights, educates and prods us to think and rethink. Two of the greatest translators of the Qur’an, Muhammad Asad and Marmaduke Pickthall, were not native Muslims. The Prophet confirms the essence of Qur’an’s message: "Make things easy, do not make them difficult.com The triumph of Islam in the 17th century basically codified the position of women in its laws of spiritual and civic conduct. Sometime after the Prophet had returned to Madinah, messengers of the kings of Yemen came to him announcing that they and the people of Yemen had become Muslims. He then put the following question to Muadh:"According to what will you judge?""According to the Book of God," replied Muadh.It provides a very wholesome perspective of Islam. There is an organic unity in the Qur’an and in interpreting individual verses we must be guided by compassion, mercy and justness which is the underlying philosophy of the scripture

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Satyajit Ray’s growing up years are touched upon fleetingly in a book that is dominated almost entirely by his father, grandfather, grand uncles and his neonatal doctor. Perceiving the same event from different angles (the recurrent mention of the birth of Satyajit Ray under the supervision of Kadambini being a case in point) could be a bit repetitive but by and large the book comes across as nearly flawless. An entire section of the book is devoted to the discovery of a native tea plant in Assam, the subsequent rise of tea plantations, the procuring of labour from nearby places and the atrocities committed by the tea planters on the bonded labourers, facts frequently swept under the carpet by historians. Such lack of blind adulation on the part of the writer for his celebrated subjects is rare and refreshing. Sengoopta dwells on the oddity of the Ray family who sidestepped the three most popular professions of the time (law, engineering and medicine), opting to follow off-beat occupations instead.

The lives of Dwarkanath and the woman he married, Kadambini Basu, entwine constantly and the figure of Kadambini stands out by sheer merit of her personal achievements. The Tagores and the Rays have always evoked interest, the two premier families of Bengal having spawned multiple luminaries over the decades. The family history begins with Harikishore Ray, a member of the new landed gentry adopting Kamadaranjan Ray, the five year old son of a cousin, and renaming him Upendrakishore Raychaudhuri (1863-1915). No luminary or ideology is exalted enough to be above a spot of criticism (the social work done by the Brahmos was immense, writes Sengoopta, and yet they could frequently descend into "narrow-minded puritanism"). Spanning many generations and embracing a wide sweep of events that occurred around the time the first stirrings of the swadeshi movement were being felt and much before, the book etches an intricate picture of a crucial period in the nation’s history. Along with densely informative passages about prominent figures like Brajaram, Lokenath and Kalinath (Sukumar Ray’s grandfather) and Saradaranjan Ray (the father of Bengali cricket) we learn how sports blossomed in Bengal in retaliation to the colonists’ disdainful opinion of the Bengali gentleman as being intellectually endowed but physically weak and effete. Likewise, for most of us, Sukumar Ray will always be associated with the nonsense rhymes of Abol-tabol while his son Satyajit will be synonymous with the Apu trilogy of films and his path breaking forays into the areas of illustration and fonts. But there was a wealth of fascinating family history before these popular figures made their way into public consciousness and Chandak Sengoopta enlightens us about this in his exhaustive work, The Rays before Satyajit: Creativity and Modernity in Colonial India.

The volume zeroes in on the multi-faceted figure of Upendrakishore, taking a tertiary route to dwell on Dwarkanath Ganguli — a remarkable Brahmo crusader and Upendrakishore’s father-in-law — who worked tirelessly for women’s emancipation. Firmly debunking the historian’s view of Indian modernity being "western wisdom poured into an oriental void", Sengoopta dives into the heart of Bengal’s checkered history. Enlivened by constant social, political and religious commentary and packed with the details of technological evolution in the fields of printing and photography, the book stands out with its impartial and non-judgmental approach. Meticulous research has gone into putting this vast work of writing together, the book positively creaks under the weight of historical information. The rise of the Brahmo movement, its core philosophy, its merits and drawbacks are analysed extensively, along with the eventual breaking up of the sect and the forming of splinter groups. Thus, we are privy to the information that the Rays were Kayastha Bengalis who belonged to the scribal community of administrators, clerks and judicial officials. Dwarkanath is remembered as a figure who took a strong stand against such malpractices.

One reads with horror how the tea garden coolies were often punished brutally and how one of every four labourer died, their deaths being dismissed by the tea planters as being caused by disease or failure to adjust to climatic conditions. A bulk of the volume is reserved for notes at the end of every couple of chapters and though these may frequently break the fluid flow of reading, they make for fascinating reading in themselves. Tagore, a family friend, we are informed, took immense pleasure in teaching Suprabha his new songs. What could have been a mind bogglingly intricate mesh of familial relationships comes across as effortlessly comprehensive under Sengoopta’s competent penmanship. Kankana Basu is a Mumbai-based writer.The Tagores and the Rays have always evoked interest, the two premier families of Bengal having spawned multiple luminaries over the decades. An interesting snippet of information is carried here about how traditional portraits of "Muslim tyranny" tend to overlook the fact that Hindu Kayastha employees adept in both Persian and Sanskrit were very happy to serve the Mughals, often attired in Persianised attire. The technical details of halftone printing and the revolutionary methods devised by Upendrakishore, all of which was destined to change the look of magazines, photographs and print, are intricately covered. A man of astonishing talents, Upendrakishore is described as a passionate musician, a technological genius, a photography enthusiast and a pioneer in half-tone technology and photomechanical innovations. An illustrator and children’s fiction writer blessed with a distinctive style of writing, Upendrakishore in 1913 founded the immensely popular children’s magazine Sandesh. Combining creativity with domesticity with a rare skill, Suprabha took up a job (unheard of in those days), tutored her son at home and being a talented singer, sang songs composed by Rabindranath Tagore. A valuable and scholarly record of Bengal’s awakening, the book is a must-have for every book shelf. A lengthy introduction gives a detailed synopsis of the book’s contents and cast of characters; the definition of modernity with its multiplicity of meanings makes for a memorable passage. We are informed that the Rays were originally Debs but received the honorific title of Ray from the Muslim notables. 29DEL2. It is fascinating to note how the inborn love for CAGE NUT Suppliers print technology, fonts, writing, illustrations and children’s fiction kept popping up in every generation of the Rays. Over the decades, various family members would find themselves involved in some capacity or the other in the regular publishing of the iconic magazine. end-of. The first of two women graduates of Calcutta, the first Indian woman medical practitioner, the first woman lecturer at an Indian medical school and the first Bengali to visit England entirely alone Kadambini’s incredible story in this volume climaxes with her supervising the birth of Sukumar and Suprabha Ray’s baby, who would grow up to be the famous Satyajit Ray. The sepia book jacket featuring priceless portraits (designer Pinaki De at his best) is underplayed and captures the zeitgeist of a bygone era perfectly; the picture of a young Satyajit with his mother Suprabha is particularly endearing. There is a marked thrust in focusing on extraordinary women of the times and Satyajit Ray’s mother, widowed early, is described as a woman of sterling qualities. Not just for cinephiles, bibliophiles, history buffs, followers of early feminism or the technologically inclined, The Rays before Satyajit offers an immensely enriching read for every kind of reader. Her published works of fiction include a collection of short stories, Vinegar Sunday, and a novel, Cappuccino Dusk. Think Rabindranath Tagore and the Gitanjali and soul lifting songs of the Bengali bard spring to mind

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"Young minds from NIFT and my assistants (especially Nidhi Mahajan), avid historians, several PhD scholars and academic authorities have guided me on this path as well as Anuradha Kapoor, Aman Nath, Priya Paul, Jyotindra Jain, Layla Tyabji, Darshan Jalan and many more. We travelled across India for a few years, in and out of flights, hotels, cabs and discovered local foods," reveals Geeta. Talk about the British influence on us!" states the Delhi-based author. "No such documentation has been done before.The highlights of this book include the ‘same God different look’ section — the calendar art section, which reflects on how diverse Indian style is. I love the ladies congress delegate calendar of 1886, which shows women wearing a tiara with their puff sleeved blouse and saris. She is known to have traversed great lengths to preserve and promote the unique arts, crafts and China SMALL FLAT HEAD KNURLED BODY-AVK BLIND RIVET NUTS heritage of India, and the result is 500 stunning captures from archival material and recreations of drapes and accessories over centuries, supported by details spanning the gamut of Indian design over the centuries.

The comparison of Sita and Draupadi through the Raja Ravi Verma calendar art reflects on the fact that in India, time is cyclic in nature, and not linear. A book that connects the dots from ancient India to now, and makes it easy to understand why India dresses the way it does. She brings to light the beauty and the evolution of the style of the quintessential Indian woman from the Harappan times to what we see today, in the 21st century. Style of India is not just the sari, or the designer or Hindi cinema, it is so much more. If anyone can give this subject the upward curve, it is the expertise, art direction and styling of Geeta, who has recreated the Harappan goddess, inspired by the terracotta figurines, excavated from the Harappa sites. Earlier ones perhaps are on one of the subjects in this book such as sari, royal family fashion, Hindi cinema costume or Indian fashion, but none give an eagle’s eye viewpoint from start to now.A book that connects the dots from ancient India to now, and makes it easy to understand why India dresses the way it does. A fresco from the Ajanta and Ellora Caves dating back to the 2nd and 1st centuries BC.

The book connects the dots from ancient India to now and makes it easy to understand why India dresses the way it does. I compare it to the case of five blind men who describe the elephant. Here the same God is dressed in regional attires.She’s got the look! — That’s what author Geeta Khanna aims to bring about in her coffee table book Style of India. Talking about the inspiration for her book, Geeta shares, "If we want the world to recognise India as an important fashion location — which it is for so many reasons — it is time we celebrate ourselves. I love the international designers section, where we see how great minds like Karl Lagerfeld and Jean Paul Gaultier interpret the Indian maharajas. "I also recreated Razia Sultan, the first androgynous dresser in Indian Islamic history, the princely state dress-up of the queen of Jaipur, and visuals that present the diversity in sari drapes of India and other aspects. For the research on Harappan era, I referred to several PhD documents and books. If we don’t value ourselves, why would the world value us Also, there is no compilation that connects Indian culture to real time history of Indian fashion that not only includes the Indian fashion designers, but also the Indian cinema (as it greatly impacts what India wears)."The culturally reflective book is a presentation of the new India’s creative talent that largely draws its inspiration from its deep-rooted and multi-dimensional culture. The book that took five years to complete profiles ace couturiers including Ritu Kumar, Tarun Tahiliani, Manish Arora, Rajesh Pratap Singh, Anamika Khanna

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