Al-Fatiha ended with a request for guidance; al-Baqura begins with a discourse on the nature of guidance. This chapter, The Cow, the longest chapter of the Qur'an, takes its name from the familiar Biblical story of the "golden calf" narrated in verses 67-73. However, the cow itself is not the subject of the chapter. In keeping with the general style of the Qur'an this Surah deals with a number of themes, including the nature of belief, the temptation of evil, the wonders of paradise, and the articles and everyday practice of faith......

Humility has several forms, and these are observed according to the customs of different peoples. There exist all kinds of forms of respect, towards parents, teachers or masters; but after examining and studying life keenly, one finds that it is to God alone that all forms of respect are addressed. It is this lesson that the various religions have taught to different peoples according to their needs....

This is the religion which has been the religion of the past and will be the religion of the future. All religion taught by Christ or any other of the great ones, was intended to awaken in man that sense which is awakened when religion is living. It does not matter then into which building one goes to pray, for every moment of one's life has become religion – not a religion in which one believes, but a religion which one lives.....

It is quite easy for this common understanding to become, in religious terms, the equivalent of just keep on doing what people have always done. Follow in the footsteps of tradition, do what custom authorises, that's what the straight path has always been so why should you argue or question? But I am less and less convinced this can be the appropriate way to understand the straight path......

If anybody asks what Sufism is, what kind of religion is it, the answer is that Sufism is the religion of the heart, the religion in which the thing of primary importance is to seek God in the heart of mankind. There are three ways of seeking God in the human heart....

If the lowest common denominator of feminism is about extending the same legal rights and opportunities to both sexes/genders as well as valuing their respective contributions to society equally in order to engender a gender just society in which all humans can flourish and reach their full potential than being a ‘radical feminist’ is something that we all should aspire to since there is no ‘moderation in justice’......

Every child is born a pupil, one who is willing to learn and willing to believe. As the Prophet Muhammad has said, every soul is born on earth a believer, and it is only later that a man turns into an unbeliever. If he had not been born a believer he would never have learned the language of his country, for if someone had tried to teach him the words and he had refused to accept the teaching as true, he would never have learned the names and characteristics of beings and things….

A Bedouin Arab was sent by Abú Sofian to Medina to assassinate Mohammad. The emissary was tracked in his evil attempt, and confessed the purpose with which he had come. This is related by Ibn Sád Katib Wakidi as the cause of Mohammad's sending Amr Ibn Omeya to assassinate Abú Sofian.[228] According to Hishamee, Amr was commissioned by the Prophet to fight with Abú Sofián, and to kill him in immediate revenge for the murder of Khobeib and his companions captured at Raji.[...

Having dismissed many of the arguments of western intellectuals about Islam, Norton indicates that neither outright assimilation nor distant toleration is to be preferred: rather she chooses the third option, moving "us" closer to "them". Indeed, she seems to regard this as already having happened....

The one who does not seek for God, is disappointed at the end of his journey of illusion. Throughout the whole journey he did not find the perfection of beauty, goodness, and greatness on the earth, and he neither believed in nor expected to meet such an ideal in heaven. All the disappointments, which are the natural outcome of this life of illusion, disappear when once a person has touched the God-ideal, for what one seeks after in life, one finds in God.....

Traditionalist Muslim scholars see the "straight path" as a straight line, the shortest distance between two points. Some Shia Muslims argue that it refers to Ali, the cousin of Prophet Muhammad and the fourth caliph of Islam. Sufis, or Muslim mystics, see it as gnosis. The great 12th century Andalusian Sufi Ibn Arabi reflects his own philosophy of "unity of being" in his commentary on al-Fatiha. The straight path is thus not as straight and simple as it seems....

We come to know God through what God tells us of his nature and attributes. Rahman and Rahim, the most frequently referred-to attributes of mercy and compassion, come from the same root word. Rahman has feminine connotations. It has the meaning of a womb as well as kinship, relationship, loving-kindness, mercy and nourishing-tenderness. God is overflowing with love and mercy from which all creation comes and in which all creation shares no matter who or what we are: believers or not, Muslims or followers of other faiths, or of no faith, good or bad. God makes no distinctions; and is ever ready to forgive!......

Religious differences have caused endless wars and disasters for the human race. The reason of this is that the spirit of unity has not been recognized, while undue regard has been paid to uniformity. In the present age, when the spirit of religion is at its lowest ebb and only the uniformity remains, divisions of classes and discords of all kinds spring up; one party, one class against another, the spirit of rivalry, jealousy, and destruction everywhere.....

The punishment of death was inflicted upon the persons condemned, either from private enmity or for the unpardonable offence of high treason against the State, but it cannot be said, as I will hereafter show, that these so-called cases of assassinations had received the high sanction of Mohammad, or they were brought about at his direct instigation and assent for their commission....

Mohammad, neither sooner, nor later, in his stay at Medina, swerved from the policy of forbearance and persuasion he himself had chalked out for the success of his mission. At Medina, he always preached his liberal profession of respect for other creeds, and reiterated assurances to the people that he was merely a preacher, and expressly gave out that compulsion in religion was out of question with him.....

IS RELIGION FROM GOD OR MAN-MADE?

Fateh{puri@ believed in God, and there are various instances in his writings to prove that. However, he was not sure if God had anything to do with religion. As seen in the earlier instance, he tried to rationalize even the divine revelation, and showed that it was possible to see the Qur’an as the personal contribution of the Prophet. This was because, for Fateh{puri@, religion had a more utilitarian purpose, than spiritual. Religion, for him, was to serve as a guide for humanity, to remind them of doing good deeds, being kind to one another, and remembering God, while taking part in worldly pursuits and aiming for progress and success.

In reality, all religions of the world were made by humans and were not related to God, revelation or providence. ...

IS THE QUR’AN REALLY GOD’S SPEECH?

As mentioned above, Fateh{puri@ believed that the only thing that could be proven was that the Qur’an came from Muh{ammad’s mouth; whether it was really God’s speech is debatable. ...

STATUS OF THE PROPHET

Prophet Muh{ammad, according to him, was basically a reformer who was very concerned about the state of his society:­ its illiteracy, ignorance, social evils like polygamy, infanticide, drinking (etc.), its material culture and idol worship. After all, he sat meditating in a cave for weeks even before the advent of the revelation. --  JUHI SHAHIN

Excerpts from a newly published book in Pakistan: The War Within Islam: Niyaz Fateh{puri@’s Struggle Against The Fundamentalists by Juhi Shahin

Sana Haroon has written an excellent book that will help us understand the killing fields of the Tribal Areas of Pakistan today. This month (April 2008) the local Al Qaeda warlord and alleged killer of Ms Benazir Bhutto, Baitullah Mehsud of Wana, convened a big conference of the Tehreek-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in Aurakzai Agency near the tomb of Haji Turangzai to proclaim that his emirate had come to stay. He was himself not there for fear of being killed by an American drone but his deputy representing Bajaur was there as were warriors from all other tribal areas including Malakand in the NWFP, Book Review by Khaled Ahmed in the Daily Times.