Clipmarks | arifsali's clips

CONSERVATION: Conserving culture

Tue, 08 Apr 2008 22:41:07 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: media.www.mcgilltribune.com

In North America, when a building passes the hundred-year mark, there's a good chance that a plaque will be put on it. We don't have much antiquity here, and if there's a building that our grandparents remember from their youth we'll probably fight tooth and nail so that our children will be able to see it. Sure, part of the zeal comes from a desire to keep up the scenery, but there is more to it than that. Such buildings connect us to our past and in doing so enrich our culture-making the price tag to save them well worth our tax dollars.

But some other parts of the world don't have the wealth we do to spend on urban conservation and as a result, even older and more significant architecture is left to rot.

This attitude is what Prince Karim Aga Khan, the spiritual leader of the Shia Imami Ismaili Muslims (or Ismailis), wants to change with his Historic Cities Program.

Tags: culture, conservation

Silencing the drums of war

Tue, 08 Apr 2008 22:39:25 GMT

clipped by: arifsali

Clip Source: english.aljazeera.net

Imagine if Muslims, Jews and Christians decided to combat that noise with musical, cultural and religious harmony of their own? Perhaps the three Abrahamic faiths could drown out, and even silence, the war drums that seem to grow louder each day.

Such a strategy is being tested by performers of A Mystical Journey, a 2008 US tour that features dozens of Sufi musicians from across the Muslim world, including Pakistani rock superstar Salman Ahmed, Algerian chaoui (Berber) legend Houria Aïchi and the Dalahoo Sufi Ensemble from Iran.

Their concerts, which premiered in Canada, are spiritually uplifting tributes to the often ferocious joy and love that have long characterised mystical Islam's experience with the divine, and through it, humanity's potential for spiritual transcendence and renewal.

Tags: music, islam, spirituality, war, peace

The Animals Lawsuit Against Humanity

Tue, 08 Apr 2008 22:37:44 GMT

clipped by: arifsali
clipper's remarks: Within the tenets of Islam are found strong support and guidelines for the protection and treatment of animals.

In the Qur'an and Hadith (sayings of the Prophet), it is emphasized that animals be treated as humanely as any other of God's vast creation. The Qur'an goes as far to say that cruelty to animals is equivalent to cruel treatment of a human being. Kind treatment of animals is considered a good deed in the same sense that good conduct and treatment between human beings is deemed a good deed.

Clip Source: www.fonsvitae.com

A MUSLIM WORK TRANSLATED BY A RABBI FOR A 14TH CENTURY CHRISTIAN KING

A true interfaith title. The ancient antecedents of this tale are thought to have originated in India, but the first written version of the story was penned in Arabic by members of the Islamic "Brethren of Purity", Ikhwan al-Safa, a Sufi order, in the environs of Basra, Iraq, sometime before the tenth century of the Common Era. In their version, the story was the twenty-fifth of fifty-one "letters", or treatises, the Rasa'il comprising an encyclopedia, in which were described the mysteries and meaning of life.

In this fable, eloquent representatives of all members of the Animal Kingdom – from horses to bees – come before the respected Spirit King to complain of the dreadful treatment they have suffered at the hands of humankind. During the ensuing trial, where both humans and animals testify before the king, both sides argue their points ingeniously, deftly illustrating the validity of both sides of the ecology debate.

Tags: animals, ancient