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Dear Readers,
While All Things Pakistan has remained alive and online, it has been dormant since June 11, 2011 - when, on the blog's 5th anniversary, we decided that it was time to move on. We have been heartened by your messages and the fact that a steady traffic has continued to enjoy the archived content on ATP. While the blog itself will remain dormant, we are now beginning to add occasional (but infrequent) new material by the original authors of the blog, mostly to archive what they may now publish elsewhere. We will also be updating older posts to make sure that new readers who stumble onto this site still find it useful.
We hope you will continue to find ATP a useful venue to reflect upon and express your Pakistaniat. - Editors
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I do not wish to go into details, but I do find that the ATP Comment Policy is not being followed—and you are permitting some people to actually pass negative comments!
Yes sufi is a state of mind, but why cant we go to a shrine to pay tribute to, and offer ‘fateh’ for, the saint who killed his nafs – desires- and brought peace and love to many. Why cant we nourish our souls by absorbing the ambience created by mystic music and dervish in the shrine; after all, we go to wordly parties to nourish your bodies. Extemtism, though, like bowing before the saint is wrong. Finally, it is Allah who listens our prayers, and we call Him in our prayers while in shrines.
The shrine culture is clearly unIslamic because of the clearcut evidence in the Quran. Verse 5 of surat Al Fatihah is:
Iyyaka na’budu wa iyyaka nasta’eem, which mean: “You (Allah) alone we worship and You (Allah) alone we ask for help”. Therefore we are not allowed to pray or make dua to any pir, whether dead or alive, to ask for our needs to be fulfilled (such as for a baby, or money etc). Whoever does so has committed shirk – which is the greatest of all sins and takes a person outside Islam.
Besides, what’s the difference between visiting a shrine and asking the dead pir for something, and going to a hindu temple and asking the idol for something?? No difference! No wonder you even get sufis from amongst the hindus and sikhs! Because they are already used to making shirk with Allah.
May Allah guide us to the Straight Path, ameen.
I start it from “la” (kuch nahin) of the kalma
negation of one’s ego. and then “Love” corrects, purifies, leads. the only condition is ‘truth’.
PMA, “system” has a history to neglect the soul of the mission.