Zulfikar Ali Bhutto

This chapter, except for the section on the Hazaras in the early Ismaili literature, has already been published under the title of ‘The Shi‘a Ismaʿili Da‘wat in Khurasan: From Its Early Beginning to the Ghaznawid Era’, at the Journal of Shʿia Islamic Studies, 2015, Vol. VIII, No. 1, pp. 37-59. In several qaṣīdas of his dīwān (1956), Farrukhī praises Sulṭān Maḥmūd Ghaznawī as the King of Zāwulistān. For further details see, Baiza, Y. (2014) The Hazaras of Afghanistan and their Shiʿa…

the first grade. In Alramaqia school, I was gossiping with the other students about our teachers. We had a beautiful fair skinned teacher named ‘Aasha Jani. She was always well dressed and wore tight skirts to school. The boys were saying that she was having affairs with one of the students in her science lab. This was confirmed by one the boys who swore that he saw her from the lab’s window. I could not verify his account but the roamers continued about her and how she was flirtatious with the…

The symbolism of Mecca for Helen In the play (The road to Mecca by Athol Furgard faber and faber edition) In the play “The road to Mecca” by Athol Furgard is a character named Helen, also known as Miss Helen. In the play she creates her own Mecca in her yard. Mecca is a city in Saudi Arabia and it is a holy city to followers of Islam. People take this religious journey to deepen their experience with God. In this case Helen takes a spiritual journey and she does not physically go to Saudi…

Abu Bakr the first Rashidun caliph (r. 632–634), a member of the Taym clan and one of the Prophet's closest companions was the first adult male convert to Islam . A merchant and an expert on the genealogies of the Arab tribes, Abu Bakr came to be known as al-Siddiq, the one who trusts, a reference to the fact that he alone believed the Prophet’s story of his night journey to Jerusalem. Recognized even in Mecca as the foremost member of the Muslim community after Muhammad, he is credited with the…

people the Sunni and Shia. Split soon after the death of the prophet Muhammad over who should lead 3 the Muslim Community. They have co-existed for centuries and share many fundamental beliefs and practices. Shia claim the right to Ali, the son-in-law of the prophet Muhammad, and his descendants to lead the Islamic Community. Sunni venerate all the prophets mention in the Koran, but particularly the prophet Muhammad as the final prophet. From Lebanon to Syria to Iraq…

The Dawoodi Bohra community are a sect within the Ismaili branch of Shi’a Islam. They are the followers The Prophet (s.a), His successor, Imam Ali (s.a), and his successor, Imam Hussain. After the twenty-first Imam went into hiding the leadership continued through Dai 's hoping that the Imam would return one day. So far there have been 53 Dai 's. After the passing of the 52nd Dai, Syedna Mohammed…

Essays for Final Exam Part A. II. The decline of the Ghaznavids and the rise of the Seljuk empire, 1040-1200 The sultan-caliph relationship was established when the Turks entered Islam. They did not abolish the Caliphate, by replaced it with a new institution, the Sultanate. It was in the second half of the eleventh century that a third nation was added to the Islam empire. The Turks first entered the Caliphate four hundred years earlier when they were brought in as slaves or adventurers…

Muhammad said, “He of whom I am the mawla (master, leader, friend), of him 'Ali is also the mawla” (qtd. in Jafri Chapter 1). While both modern and ancient Shi’a scholars interpret the word “mawla” as meaning master or leader, the Sunni scholars interpret “mawla” as meaning friend, and therefore write that Muhammad never endorsed 'Ali as the next leader of Islam (Jafri Chapter 1). Islam was created in 610, when Muhammad claimed to have received revelations…

Shiite and Sunni Islam Ever since the death of the Prophet Muhammad in 632 A.D. there has been a divide in the Islam religion. Many debated on who the rightful successor was, causing a rivalry. This rivalry has created two separate branches of Islam: the Sunnis and the Shiites. Of the 1.6 billion Muslims in the world, eighty-five to ninety percent of them are Sunnis. Sunnis believe that the rightful successor to Muhammad is Abu Bakr. Since none of Muhammad’s sons survived into adulthood,…

incompetent son Yazid to ascend to power and effectively concentrated the Islamic rule amongst the Umayyad clan. The majority believed there were other more pious and appropriate individuals . Muawiya was also instrumental in the first fitna against Ali which killed multiple prominent Muslim figures. Non-Arab converts also contested the increasing disparities amongst their status and that of Arab Muslims under the Umayyad rule . In contrast, Hajjaj’s “obedience towards the Umayyads and his…