Adil Najam
There are times when it is not enough to feel outraged. One has to speak out. To express the outrage. To speak out, and to be heard, against that which is wrong. Indeed, there are times in life when it is difficult to determine exactly what is right. Reality, after all, is complex and […]

Muslim Rizvi
Last year we had a discussion on Halloween in Pakistan and this year we’ll try to see the issues faced by the Pakistani community when they try to celebrate or try to shy away from Halloween while living abroad.

It has been boiling inside of me since that fateful day when I went to a […]

Raza Rumi
“O you who believe, fasting is decreed for you, as it was decreed for those before you, that you may attain salvation.” Al Quran- [2:183]
Earlier posts on Ramzan Sharif have prompted me to write a few lines that may not be contested by readers but I think in all fairness we need to be […]

Adil Najam
Bilal Zuberi’s wonderful post on Ramzan in Pakistan has inspired me to finally write about Rooh Afza - something I have been meaning to do for a while. Bilal’s post was made all the more poignant for me because I spent the first week of Ramzan in Pakistan. As Bilal mentioned, one of the […]

Bilal Zuberi
My narration below traces back to a recent Iftar/dinner conversation with a non-Muslim, non-Pakistani friend. She wanted to know how I would spend a typical Ramzan day in Pakistan. Innocent question, but one that took me on a delightful, and extremely nostalgic, trip down memory lane since I have spent the last 13 Ramzans […]

Adil Najam
This post was originally posted on October 19, 2006. It is being reposted with the addition of some new Qawalli video clips.

As I was driving back from work tonight, I had an old Sabri Brothers cassette playing in my car. The window was down, the sound was loud. As I stopped at a red […]