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Books that influenced Gandhi
“A friend of the poor and the underdog, humble and bold, sincere and frank, simple and austere, non-violent and truthful in thoughts, words and deeds; frail in body but mighty in spirit”. This is how Satish Kumar describes Mahatma Gandhi. This great leader shook the foundations of British Empire and tried to liberate India in the real sense of the term. He tried emancipating the “untouchables” in the way he deemed the most appropriate, gave the message of peace, love, brotherhood, truth and non-violence. It is important to know what shaped such great a leader and what thoughts inspired him. Gandhi’s thought started developing and getting shaped in London where…
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Excerpts from Karen Armstrong’s Muhammad – Prophet for our time
“The life of Prophet Muhammad was as crucial to the unfolding Islamic ideal as it is today. His career revealed the inscrutable God’s activity in the world and illustrated the perfect surrender that every human being should make to the divine.” “Some Muslim fundamentalists have based their militant ideology on the life of Muhammed; Muslim extremists believe that he would have condoned and admired their atrocities. Other Muslims are appalled by these claims, and point to the extraordinary pluralism and of the Quran, which condemns aggression and sees all rightly guided religions as deriving from the one God. We have a long history of Islamophobia in western culture that dates…
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Q&A: If Prophet of Islam preached peace and tolerance how come there are so many war mongers amongst Muslims who take cues from the same life?
If Prophet of Islam preached peace and tolerance how come there are so many war mongers amongst Muslims who take cues from the same life? A short answer: It is a questions that bothers many a people and we do need to consider why such is the case. Like any other social phenomenon there are many perspectives to be investigated. Let us begin with the Arab Custom of narrating tales. The pre-Islamic Arab society was a war torn community wherein a murder was remembered for generations and vengeance was sought for decades generation after generation. The Arabs would compose poems and ballads on this theme, narrating the tales of a…
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Achieving Peace Between and Within Nations
In many ways the world is unfortunately devoid of any peace and political stability. Various Governments or Governmental Organizations and Non-Governmental Organizations have apparently been trying to achieve some sort of peace and stability. Yet the destination is not in sight. Out of the many things that can be done, I list out two of the most important in my opinion. 1. Strengthening Democratic Ideals It might come as a surprise to many but wars in contemporary world have taken place between countries with at least one of them not being a democracy. In other words, two democracies don’t usually go for wars against each other. Examples of recent wars…
Renaissance, Reformation, Enlightenment