Daroon-e-Khanna
The 6th Karachi International Book Fair was held in Karachi this week. More than 300 publishers/ booksellers, more than a quarter million visitors over five days. You might have read about the importance of such events, you might have heard about the achievements of the fair and you might have been told about the diversity on offer.
But since more than 70 percent of the stalls were trying to make money by making the readers better Muslims, we concentrated on the free goodies on offer. Here is our alternative tour of the 6th Karachi International Book Fair.
Things We Got For Free
A DVD of the first-ever documentary about Maulana Maududi’s life, produced by Al Khidmat, Jamaat Islami’s charity wing.
A CD of the Jamaat’s current Ameer Maulana Munawar Hassan’s speeches. We accepted it under extreme duress.
Four pamphlets:
- Sins of the Tongue (the Urdu version is called Zaban ka Gunah)
Not what you think. It’s all about Islamic punishments for gossiping and backbiting. - Music: Quran aur Sunnat Mein [Music According to the Quran and Sunnat]
More haraam than you ever thought. It leads to road accidents and zina. - Quaid-e-Azam Speaks
… And it seems he couldn’t utter a sentence without quoting from the Quran or invoking Islam. - How Good is Your Child’s School?
They perform Shakespeare’s plays? They celebrate Halloween? They have sleepovers at their friends’ house? You need to find a more Islamic school.
We were also given a newsletter by the Pakistan Librarians’ Association. Their favourite word seems to be ‘decline.’
One Thing We Thought Was For Free But Wasn’t
A DVD on goras converting to Islam.
We assumed it was for free because we were promised that everything on this particular stall was for free. But then we were told that this DVD was an exception. 80 rupees.
Things We Admired But Found To Be Way Out Of Our Budget
Kaaba Fun Game
Masjid Fun Game
Salat Fun Game
Things We Could Have Got For Free But Didn’t
Complete Quran audio download to our mobile phone. Takes only five minutes to download, we were assured.
Books We Wanted To Buy But Then Looked At The Last Chapter
Two new biographies of Mohammad Bin Qasim, both with happy endings. Dude marries Raja Dahar’s daughter and lives happily ever after. And we thought he was called back, tortured and executed by being sewn alive into a hide and drowned by the then khalifa.
Books We Didn’t Even Know Existed
Collected works of Dale Carnegie (of How to Make Friends and Influence People fame) in Urdu. This was definitely the heftiest volume we have ever seen in the Urdu language.
A new translation of The Brothers Karamazov by a gentleman called Shahid Siddiqi.
One Thing We Did Buy
A funky looking mug which reads ‘Smile, it’s Sunnah.’
Editors Note: Daroon-e-Khanna blogs at Cafe Pyala, where this post first appeared.
“That is the most absurd thing I have ever read anywhere. can you please substantiate your claim? May be that will help rectify the “biggest historical lie”.
Waiting….”
@Monano:
You don’t have to wait.
All you have to do is to open any undergraduate text of world history and see if they have anything to say about Adam or Jibreel or even Santa Claus, notwithstanding what millions or billions may believe in.
Generally I take the Cambridge World History as the standard text of history, which unfortunately is blissfully unaware of any historical personality called Adam. However since it is written by kuffars, it may not have any validity for you. So I am ready to settle for any history book written by a Pakistani historian or any other historian of repute that deals with Adam as a historical personality. The point is that apart from the evangelical literature (of christian and muslim variety), no one else has ever found any evidence about historicity of Adam. (To rub more salt to your wounds, the same historians have no qualms about accepting that Ashoka was a real historical person! How unfair!!)
Kamaal Mustafa
You said:
“There is no historical evidence that Adam was a real person.”
That is the most absurd thing I have ever read anywhere. can you please substantiate your claim? May be that will help rectify the “biggest historical lie”.
Waiting….
@Adnan:
“Ironically, if I go on your theory, our history SHOULD start from Prophet Adam(AS) then. why don’t you strive for that huh?”
Dude, you need to learn the difference between mythology and history. There is no historical evidence that Adam was a real person.
Its shameful that ATP is now using posts from other blogs to make fun of thought and literature of some religious entity. I dont know whether or not the items presented on the fair represented Islam in true sense. But clearly this post is a scornful report by someone having clear prejudice against a certain thought.
I am not arguing on the points raised in the post. What concerns me is that ATP has published a post which was not written for ATP, more so when it is making fun of an activity by religious corners. This clearly shows narrow minded bias of ATP against right-wing elements. Has ATP run out of secular arguments that it has now started making fun of Islamic publishing? It does not suit you Prof. Najam.
If this festival had mostly religious books then it is opposite of big bookstores in Pakistan.
Bookstores in Pakistan will contain publications mostly on politics, geopolitics, history, poetry and help in passing exams like TOEFL, SAT, GMAT etc. There also lots of technical books of medicine, engineering, I.T. etc available, as well as magazines on fashion etc.