The artworks in acrylic and of different sizes have adorned the walls of the restaurant.
Hyderabad:
A 14-year-old girl’s passion for painting paid off as her artworks have made their way to London to adorn the walls of a restaurant.
Syeda Ashna Turabi, a class 10 student, is elated as her six paintings including an art work of historic Charminar, Mecca Masjid and its surroundings have been displayed at Adeena’s Kitchen, a restaurant opened in South London last week.
The art works attracted the attention of a businessman when Ashna’s father had posted them on social media.
Impressed by her paintings, Syed Amjad Ali bought six of them for his restaurant, which serves Indian, especially Hyderabadi food.
The artworks in acrylic and of different sizes have adorned the walls of the restaurant.
“Thanks to Almighty Allah I have achieved this success and I hope to carry this forward,” Ashna told IANS.
Painting came naturally for this Hyderabadi who took keen interest in drawing and colouring since her nursery school days.
Like many children of her age, she was fond of drawing and colouring. However, she persisted with her hobby as she moved to high school and it turned into a passion.
Urooj Ahmed, a freelance photojournalist, did everything possible to encourage Ashna, the eldest of his three daughters.
“I realized that she has some special talents in her and provided her all the required support and encouragement,” he said.
Ashna has done her artworks with all including oil paint, coffee, ink, water colours, and acrylic
What makes Ashna’s achievement special is she learnt the art on her own. “She used to spend hours working on canvases and with every painting she improved,” said Urooj Ahmed.
Ashna, however, received some guidance and useful tips from Fawad Tamkanat, a leading artist and son of well-known Urdu poet Shaz Tamkanat.
Last year, Urooj Ahmed started uploading her works on Facebook and other social media platforms.
Ashna now plans to do a series of paintings on Indian culture and heritage. “I want to do a series of paintings on different subjects like various dynasties and monuments,” she said.
She also wishes to organise an exhibition to display her artworks. “It will take some time as I want to focus on studies while continuing the art in the available time,” she added.
Source: IANS
source: http://www.siasat.com / The Siasat Daily / Home> Top Stories / by Minhaj Adnan / by IANS / September 21st, 2020
Noted Islamic scholar and author, Professor Yasin Mazhar Siddiqui (76), former Chairman, Department of Islamic Studies, Aligarh Muslim University passed away today after a prolonged illness.
Professor Yasin Mazhar Siddiqui wrote more than 40 books and 300 research articles in Urdu, Arabic and Persian. His writings on the Prophet and his teachings got wide acclaim. He wrote extensively in reputed literary journal, ‘Nuqoosh’ and got international ‘Nuqoosh Award’, ‘Seerat-e-Rasool Award’ and ‘Seerat Nigari Award’.
Professor Siddiqui, an alumnus of Aligarh Muslim University worked for ten years at the department of History before joining the department of Islamic Studies as a Reader, and later he became professor and chairman of the department. He also served as the Provost of Aftab Hall.
Professor Tariq Mansoor, Vice Chancellor, expressed his deep sense of sorrow at the demise of professor Siddiqui whose profound scholarship explored new dimensions of Seerah writing. His death causes irreparable loss to the academic world.
Professor Nisar Ahmad Khan, Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences, Professor Muhammad Ismail, Chairman, Department of Islamic Studies and Professor Obaidullah Fahad deeply mourned his death.
source: http://www.milligazette.com / The Milli Gazette / Home> News> Community News / by The Milli Gazette Online / September 15th, 2020
Jaffer Gulam Mansuri established Delhi Darbar Restaurant in 1973 at Grant road in Mumbai. Fondly call Jafferbhai, he made amazing biryani and could cook every item on the menu. He was ailing for the past few days and was admitted to Breach Candy Hospital in Mumbai. He tested positive for Covid. He was around 80 years old.
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Rajdeep Sardesai@sardesairajdeep
He was known as the ‘biryani king’ of Mumbai.. he served the best dabba gosht in Mumbai.. Jaffarbhai of Mumbai’s Delhi durbar has passed away: thank you for many fine meals from college days till now.
MLA from Bhiwandi (East), Rais Shaikh, tweeted “Jaffer Bhai will always be remembered as the Biryani King of Mumbai. May Allah grant him Jannatul Firdaus.”
Noted TV journalist tweeted: “He was known as the ‘biryani king’ of Mumbai.. he served the best dabba gosht in Mumbai.. Jaffarbhai of Mumbai’s Delhi durbar has passed away: thank you for many fine meals from college days till now.”
Meena Iyer, CEO of Ajay Devgn FFilms and former editor of Bombay Times tweeted: Jaffer Mansoori of the famed Jafferbhai’s Delhi Darbaar, Mahim, Metro and several other areas of Mumbai breathed his last today. He was the Badshah of Mughlai food. RIP Sir. Condolences to his family.
To see his banquet/restaurant please visit: https://goo.gl/maps/AiT3oMhBwrHC3q2b9
source: http://www.milligazette.com / The Milli Gazette / Home> News> Community News / by The Milli Gazette Online / September 10th, 2020
FMS Welfare Trust, with an aim to serve Sadaat-E-Ekraam and poor to eradicate hunger, inaugurated ‘Roti Bank’ on Friday at Nampally, Hyderabad.
The initiative was inaugurated by Siasat’s Managing Editor Zaheeruddin Ali Khan Ali along with other Welfare Trust members.
The trust was founded by Hasan Nawaz Khan in Chicago, with a team of five in July 2017. Multiple programs under the Trust are undertaken in Hyderabad and Gulbarga for improvement of social and economic status of the poor and needy.
source: http://www.siasat.com / The Siasat Daily / Home> Photos> Hyderabad (Photos) / by Shaik Nizamuddin Laeeq / September 18th, 2020
Achan Village (Pulwama District), JAMMU & KASHMIR :
Pulwama :
A young budding writer from South Kashmir’s Pulwama district has received over 70 awards and certificates so far from different institutes of the world for his writing skills. The young writer aspires to become a human rights activist.
Faheel-Ul-Islam (18), son of Rafiq Ahmad Mir of Achan village in Litter Tehsil of Pulwama district, who is pursuing his Bachelor’s in Political Science at Aligarh Muslim University, a writer, wants to bring changes in the society where the youth as per him have degraded their morality and wants to work for the uplift of future generation.
Faheem said that he was in Class 11th when he started writing and since then he has co-authored around one dozen books. “Recently my book titled ‘The Midnight Silence’ got published, which is now available online as well as offline,” he said.
He said a book, which is a collection of 30 poems is multi-dimensional and the topics that have been touched include ‘our valley, our youth, hope, nature and many other things’.
“Since the last four years, my articles got published in the leading international, national and local papers and magazines,” he said, adding that he has continuously writing on all unethical things like drug addiction, suicide, rape and other issues.
“The sole motive of my writing is just to awake our youth, on which our future depends and I want to transform them to such an extent so that they too can contribute their part for the welfare of the society,” he added.
Faheem further stated that the most prestigious awards he has received so far include Indian Excellency Award by bringing hope in youth, Indian Humanitarian Award for my social work and Bravo International Award for inspiring and motivating youth to transform the morally degraded society.
“I have planned to publish a new booked titled ‘Concealed Chinars’ in which I will provide an opportunity to 20 such writers who are unable to publish their writings due to financial issues,” he said
He further added after completing his bachelors, his plan is to pursue masters in Human rights so that he can help the people in highlighting their issues.
“Besides studying and writing, I am presently working as a Radio Jockey at Kashmir Online Radio where I always try to change our youth who have been involved in futile exercises,” he added.
“My message to the youth of Jammu and Kashmir will be that don’t waste your time in futile exercises and try to contribute the society,” he said, adding that “if our youth will work positively, our future will be prosperous”.
source: http://www.therealkashmir.com / The Real Kashmir News / Home> Pride of Kashmir / September 17th, 2020
Farsi, or Persian, was once counted among the great global sultans of language and culture. In a corner of Calcutta, the flame still glows. We chart the bygone glory of the tongue, and speak to some who keep its flicker alive.
LANGUAGE LEGACY : The tomb of the great Persian poet Sheikh Saadi in the Iranian city of Shiraz, sketched by the 19th century French painter Eugene Flandin . Voyage en perse, avec flandin, ed. gide et baudry, 1851 : from Wikimedia Commons
Bani adam a’za-ye yekdigar-and/ke dar afarin-aš zeyek gowhar-and. All human beings are members of one frame, or body/Since all, at first, from the same essence came/When life and time hurt a limb/Other limbs will not be at ease/ You who is not sad for the suffering of others/Might not deserve to be called human.”
The portals of the Iran Society, a 75-year-old centre for Persian studies in Calcutta, reverberated with the musical rendition of verses one afternoon. The recitation of 13th-century poet Saadi Shirazi’s verse by Persian teacher Abid Hossain leaves a delegation from Tajikistan speechless.
Tajikistan is one of the central Asian countries where Persian is spoken and used officially, the others being Iran (earlier Persia), Iraq, Afghanistan, Ujbekistan and Azerbaijan. The Tajik delegates, a team of five experts, have been collecting samples of Persian literature, especially poetry, from across the world. “We didn’t know that this region, so far away from the Persian Gulf, had once been a seat of Persian literary activities. We knew about Delhi, Kashmir, Punjab, but not of Calcutta, Dhaka or Chittagong,” says Abdughani Mamadazimov, who teaches international relations at the Tajik State University in Dushanbe and is the leader of this delegation.
Persian or Farsi was introduced in the Indian subcontinent by the Persianate rulers of Central Asia in the 13th century. The language was not only the lingua franca of the classes — just like English in modern India — but also the language of creative literature and philosophy. In fact, the word Hindu, connoting people living in a geographical region beyond River Indus, is of Persian origin. So is the word Hindavi (later Hindi), used for the language spoken by the people in large parts this land. After having played a key role in communication and literature, the language was replaced by English in late 19th century. And now it faces ignominy or oblivion.
During the Muslim conquest of Persia in the mid-7th century, the Parsis took refuge in Gujarat and parts of western India to avoid religious persecution. And that is how Farsi floated into India. “Persian language, with pre-historic roots in southwestern Iran, is one of the oldest Indo-European languages,” says Amit Dey, a senior historian and professor at Calcutta University. He continues, “The Arabs conquered Persia but failed to impose Arabic on the conquered. The Persians were forced to accept the Arabic script but did not sacrifice their language. Instead, Farsi turned into a prestigious cultural language in various empires in Western Asia, Central Asia and South Asia. New literature, espe-cially Farsi poetry, developed as a court tradition in the eastern empires. Thus, Farsi became a vehicle of cultural conquest defying Arabic political hegemony.”
As a result, some of the classics of literature, such as Rumi’s Mathnawi, Firdausi’s Shah Nama, Omar Khaiyyam’s Rubaiyat, Hafez’s Divan and Saadi Shirazi’s Gulistan, were written in Farsi in the medieval period. Farsi also became the vehicle of Sufi mysticism, defying all orthodox religious boundaries.
Its secular, liberal and strong cultural moorings helped Farsi survive political threats from Arabic and other languages. Even rulers of Turko-Afghan origin in medieval India, including those of the Delhi Sultanate and the Mughal regime, accepted it as the language of the court and diplomatic discourse. “They chose Farsi rather than their mother tongue Turkish, or Arabic. Persian flourished in the Indian subcontinent, unlike in northern Africa where the conquered nations were Arabised,” says Dey.
According to him, the decision to embrace Farsi was actually a political move by the rulers to get the better of the orthodox ulemas or Muslim theocrats — mostly proponents of Arabic and Turkic.
Patronage of the language encouraged the flow of Persian texts and Persian speakers — soldiers, merchants, administrators, scholars, poets, Sufi saints, artists and artisans — to South Asia between the 11th and 18th centuries.
Irrespective of their ethnic, religious or geographical origin, these migrants from central and western Asia had skills in Farsi that would help them earn a livelihood in courts and bureaucracy.
Farsi reached its pinnacle in south Asia when Mughal emperor Akbar established it as the official or state language in 1582.
Mind you, this was despite the fact that the Mughals were native speakers of Chagatai Turkic. “He used the language as a tool to knit together diverse religious and ethnic communities in his court as well as his burgeoning kingdom, culturally,” adds Dey.
Not just Muslim aristrocrats, but also scribes of upper caste Hindu lineage — Brahmins, Kayasthas and Khatris — who served as clerks, secretaries and bureaucrats, learnt the language and got acculturated in Persian etiquette for social mobility. Ghazals, nazms and qawwalis (at Sufi shrines) in Farsi were wholeheartedly accepted as forms of literary and musical expression by the educated of all faiths and ethnicity.
Akbar and Jahangir commissioned Persian translations of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. Dara Shikoh went a step further when he took up the task of translating the Upanishads into Persian, aided by veteran bureaucrat Chander Bhan. Persian romances, such as Laila Majnu and Yusuf Zuleika, were translated into many Indian languages.
The medieval Bahamani Sultanates and successor Deccan Sultanates and even the Hindu Vijayanagara kingdom had highly Persianised culture. The Sikh gurus as well as the Maratha ruler Shivaji were well-versed in Persian. The language had been used by the Bengal Sultanate as one of the court languages and in the chancery’s administration mainly in urban centres in Gaur, Pandua (today’s Malda), Satgaon (a port in Hooghly) and Sonargaon (near Dhaka), long before the Mughal period.
One of the principal patrons of Farsi in the early 15th century Bengal was Sultan Ghiyasuddin Azam Shah who established contact with the legendary Persian poet, Hafiz. Poet Alaol composed literature in the language and translated Persian classics into Bengali.
Royal patronage encouraged a section of non-Muslim elites in Bengal, especially the Bengali Hindu gentry and aristocracy, appropriate aspects of Persian culture, such as dress, social practices and literary taste. Rammohun Roy wrote treatises in Persian and started India’s first Persian newspaper Mirat-ul-Akhbar in 1823. The country’s first Persian printing press was also set up in Calcutta.
In the initial phase of the British administration, Persian was used as the language of the courts, correspondence and record-keeping. Governor-General Warren Hastings, well versed in the language, founded the Calcutta Madrasa where Persian, Arabic and Islamic Law were taught. The remnants of Persian judicial terms adalat, mujrim, munsif and peshkar are still used in courts across India.
The sharp decline of Persian began when English was made the language of governance through Lord Macaulay’s education policy in 1835. The emergence of vernacular languages, especially Urdu, ushered in further decay of Persian.
Says Dey, “Persian was, after all, a language of the elite. Urdu first emerged as the common language of soldiers of heterogeneous origin (Mughals, Rajputs, Pathans, Turks, Iranians, etc.) in the Mughal camp, and then became a language of the masses.” Urdu borrowed elements from Persian — idioms, styles, syntax, script — and mixed these with the local dialects, such as Poorvi and Brajbhasha. “Sufi saints like Nizamuddin Aulia also chose Urdu for discourse with his followers,” he adds. Furthermore, many madrasas started focusing on religious education with more emphasis on Arabic scriptures.
Notwithstanding its decay, Farsi survives in Hindi and Bengali as thousands of loan words used in everyday life. Sample these: abohawa (weather), jomi/zamin (land), maidan (ground), rang (colour), maja (fun), kalam (pen), chashma (spectacles), pyaz (onion), pulao (flavoured rice), jharu (broom), badmash (rogue) and so on.
It also survives as a discipline in “foreign language” departments of many universities in Calcutta, Delhi, Mumbai, Lucknow, Hyderabad, Guwahati and Patna. Says Iftekhar Ahmed, head of the department of Persian in Calcutta’s Maulana Azad College, “There are plenty of jobs for students of Persian in Central Asia and the Middle East. Some of the graduates are even hired by giant tech companies such as Amazon and Google.” Institutes like the Indian Institute of Persian Studies, Delhi, and Calcutta’s Iran Society are trying to keep the language and its heritage alive.
The Iran Society, founded by M. Ishaque, a Persian scholar, is the country’s oldest functioning centre for Persian studies.
The society offers a Farsi course and is a treasure trove of old and rare Persian books and journals. Fuad Halim, a council member of the society, says, “Most of our students are researchers of medieval Indian history, which is primarily documented in Persian. But there are some retired people too who join the course just for the sake of learning.”
Pritam Goswami and Prateeti Bhattacharya are two such PhD scholars. Pritam is researching the evolution of food habits of Bengalis which include food of the Nawabs of Murshidabad and Dhaka. Prateeti is working on the position of women in the Delhi Sultanate. She says, “Since there is a lot of misconception and misrepresentation of the history of the period, I want to read the original documents and treatises penned in Farsi.” Subhashini Majumder is a retired state land revenue officer who joined the course because she wants to read Rumi and Saadi in Persian.
The institute has been serving as a window to the Persian world hidden in the heart of the city. While visiting the institute at Kyd Street (now known as Dr Md Ishaque Road), Tajik scholar Abdughani expresses hope that the institute and the language can “build a bridge between secular Indians and secular central Asian nations.”
According to him, Persian is a language that has defied all borders and divisions. He adds, “It’s a neutral language of poetry, philosophy and culture that has united political and sectarian divisions for thousands of years.”
source: http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph, online / Home> Culture> Heritage> Big Story / by Prasun Chaudhuri / September 13th, 2020
A script has been developed for the Beary language spoken mainly by a section of Muslims and others in the coastal region.
The initiative was taken by the Beary Sahithya Academy and the script was developed by nine-member Beary writers.
Academy President Rahim Ucchil launched the script and said that the script has been developed in such a way that it will sync with the Unicode.
The script is unique. There are plans to launch an app to download the script in mobile phones shortly.
The expert team who developed the script are Abdul Rasheed Zaini Kamil Sakhafi, Aboobakker Siddiq, Haider Ali, Abdul Razak Ananthady, A K Kukkila, Muhammed Fouzeed, Abdul Samad Bava, Abdul Rahiman Kuthethoor and Hamza Malar.
Speaking about the script, Ucchil said it has 13 vowels, 33 consonants, numbers, months and days. Efforts will be made to popularise the script using the online platforms.
Further, he said that the academy has submitted a proposal to introduce Beary as a third language in schools for students from class 6. Once it is approved, Beary language will also be taught in schools as a third language.
He said that Beary language is being spoken by nearly 20 lakh people across the world. It serves as a vital link for Tulu, Malayalam, Kannada, Konkani, Kodava and other languages.
The academy plans to publish Beary Calendar titled ‘Naalkanakk’ for the year 2021, he added.
source: http://www.deccanherald.com / Deccan Herald / Home> State> Mangaluru / by DHNS, Mangaluru / September 12th, 2020
Delhi Minorities Commission initiated a scheme of awards to best performers in various fields of human endeavor in NCT of Delhi and beyond.
For 2019-2020, the Commission has decided to offer awards under 14 categories which are as follows:
(for X, XII classes students securing 96+ per cent marks), Communal Harmony, Community Service, Human Rights, Non-Government Organisations, Promotors of Punjabi, Promotors of Urdu, Sports, Supporters of Minorities, Teachers of Substance, Print & Electronic Media persons, Outstanding Schools, Special Awards, Life-Long Achievement. This year 178 awards have been given under these categories.
Two new categories, Special Awards and Lifetime Achievement Awards, have been added to the list this year.
These awards are given mainly to residents of NCT Delhi but in exceptional cases, awards are also been given to persons from outside Delhi. Each awardee will be honoured with a shield.
A booklet containing photo of each awardee with a short introduction about his/her achievements has also been printed and is available at https://archive.org/details/dmc-2019-awards . (Please see below for a short list of the awardees).
The following is the full list of the awardees under various categories:
ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE (students who secured over 95% in High School and Higher Secondary exams in 2019):
Flavia Ekka (St. George’s School, Alaknanda, High School Exams 97.6%), Tracey James (Fr. Angel Sr. Sec School, Senior Secondary Exams 97.4%), Himieka Jain (DPS Mathura Road, High School Exams 97.2%), Garima Jain (DPS Mathura Road, Senior Secondary Exam Exams 97.4%), Kulsum Azad(Hamdard Public School, High School Exams 96.6%), Abeer Mohammad Asad (DPS Mathura Road, Senior Secondary Exams 97%), Mahwash Rizvi (Greenfield School, Senior Secondary Exams 96.8%), Mohd. Sadique Raza (Father Agnel School, NOIDA, High School Exams 98.4%), Afrah Naayaab (DPS Indirapuram, High School 97%), Harjas Kaur (Guru Nanak Public School, Pushpanjali Enclave, High School Exams 96%), Harjyot Singh Sidhu (DPS Mathura Road, Senior Secondary 95.4%), Aliza Alvi (DPS Indirapuram, High School 97%), Ancy A Daniel (ST. George’s School,High School Exams 97%), Anjali Maria Antony (Mater DEI School, Senior Secondary Exams 98.4%), Divya Jain (St Joseph’s Academy, High School Exams 95.4%), Aayush Jain (DPS Mathura Road, Senior Secondary Exams 97.2%), Zainab S. Qazi (Hamdard Public School, High School Exams 96.2%),Ruba Haider (DPS Mathura Road, Senior Secondary Exams 96.8%), Ms Sana (SGGSS Sc 2, JamaMasjid, Senior Secondary Exams 97.6%), Ms. Mantasha Ilma (Jamia Girls Sr. Sec. School, High School Exams 97.6%, Dashmeet Kaur (St Joseph’s Academy, High School Exams98%), Japneet Singh (Springdale’s School Pusa Road, Senior Secondary Exams 97.8%), Harjeet Singh Bedi (DPS Mathura Road, Senior Secondary Exams95.4%), Mahi Singh (Springdale, Sr Sec Exam 96/75%), Namira Rasheed Khan (DPS Ghaziabad, High School 96.6%), Barundeep Singh Gambhir (DPS Mathura Rd, Sr. Sec. Exams 96%).
COMMUNAL HARMONY:
Fr. Dr. M.D. Thomas(interfaith dialogue), Rev. Dr Vincent Manoharan (interfaith dialogue), Tej Lal Bharti(communal harmony), M. Farooq Engineer (communal harmony), Raees Ahmad (journalist and humanrights worker), Iqbal Mulla (interfaith dialogue), Baba Hardip Singh-ji (communal harmony), Soul of Humanity (NGO helping needy people), Vishav Satsang Sabha (NGO working for communal harmony), Syed Abdullah Tariq(interfaith dialogue and communal harmony), Jayshree Shukla (promoter of the composite culture, author of photo essays on Old Delhi).
COMMUNITY SERVICE:
Bhadant Buddha Kirti (serving the Buddhist community), Asad Masih (Muneer Social Welfare Society), Reena Charles ((Human rights, community service), Victor (social worker), Fr. Varghese Kunnath (seminar, orientation and training for youth, students, teachers), Rehab Foundation(community service), Karwan Foundation (community service), Sahulat Microfinance Society (national NGO promoting and facilitating interest-free microfinance), Ashwani Kumar Bairwa (president of NGO, social work in Badarpur area), Mohd. Khalid Khan (community service), Dr. Badrul Islam (promoter of Yoga), Sarabjeet Singh (community service), Adv. Abu Bakr Sabbaq(Community Service, human rightsdefender), Musharraf Husain (community service), Shama Khan (community service, especially in slum areas), Masroor Ul Hasan Siddiqui (community service), Mrs Feroza Jassawalla (community service), S. Gurvinder Singh (helping minority communities through promotion of education of children), Manjeet Singh (Nanak GA Charitable Foundation), Parmeet Singh Chadha (social worker), Mandeep Singh (serving minorities by supporting educational institutions and NGOs), Virasat Sikhism Trust (doing sewa to uplift Sikh Heritage and Punjabi language), Perminder Singh Malik (community service, especially by promoting education), Hasleen Singh Sodhi Adv. (helping minority community legally), Bibi Tarvinder Kaur Khalsa(community service), Avtar Singh (community service), Gagandeep Singh (community service), Inderjit Singh Asth (community service), Jaspal Singh (community service), Swaran Jeet Singh (community service), Ajeet Kaur (community service), Dr. Anju Jain (community service), Manjeet Singh(community service), Tanveer Kazi (community service as the Delhi head of Action Aid India), Ovais SultanKhan (human rights activist), D. S. Bindra Adv. (regular organiser of langars), Victor (social worker), Adv. H R Khan (human rights and educationactivist), Manjeet Singh Chugh (RTI activist, PIL).
HUMAN RIGHTS:
Dr. Denzil Fernandes SJ (social scientist working for the human rights), AC Michael(minority rights activist, former Member, DMC), Mrs. Anna Pinto (human rights activist), Farah Naqvi (writer & human rights activist), Armeet Singh Khanpuri (escorted back home 32 Kashmiri girls; saved 15 girls in riots), Mahmood Pracha Adv. (human rights defender), Quill Foundation (human rights of marginalized communities).
NON-GOVERNMENT ORGANISATIONS:
Institute of Objective Studies (research institute and think tank), Haq Educational & Social Welfare Society (vocational training centre), Sikh Youth Organization, Mahakanishk Bodh Vihar Kalyan Samiti, Guru Daami Foundation, Pratyek (networking with 2000 schools in the country), Budhiye Dhamn Charika Samiti Delhi Pardesh, YWCA of Delhi, Action Aid India
Bhairav Singh (Ambedkar Samaj Vikas Sangthan), Dr. S. S. MINHAS (holisticdevelopment of young students), Gurminder Singh Matharu (Member, SGPC Amritsar), Jagtar Singh (helped repatriation of 32 stranded Kashmiri girls safely to their homes in the Valley), Gurpreet Singh Bindra (helped repatriation of 32 stranded Kashmiri girls safely to their homes in the Valley), Baljeet Singh (helped repatriation of 32 stranded Kashmiri girls safely to their homes in the Valley), Harminder Singh (helped repatriation of 32 stranded Kashmiri girls safely to their homes in the Valley), Jajinder Singh (helped repatriation of 32 stranded Kashmiri girls safely to their homes in the Valley), Msgr Susai Sebastian (former director, Chetanalaya),Victor Henry Sequeira (social worker), Bishop Warris Masih (peace-making in churches society), Franklin Ceasar Thomas (fighter for the rights of Christian and Muslim Dalits), Dr. Fr. P.R. John SJ (Principal, Vidya Jyoti College), Ajit Singh Sehra (Ujjwal Bhavishya NGO), Saleem Baig (worker for community uplift, RTI activist).
TEACHERS OF SUBSTANCE:
Saiby Mathew (Don Bosco School), Mrs. Magdalene Bhat (St. Michael’s Sr. Sec. School), Mrs. Maria Rodrigues (St. Xavier’s School), Ms. Grace David (St. Columba’s School), Mrs. Anne Albin (Mater Die School), Mrs. Tarannum Shoukat Ali (Rabea Girls Public School), Nazia Nikhat (Zakir Nagar 1Urdu School), Rana Tasleem (Zakir Nagar 2 Urdu School), Mrs Jeanie Naozer Aibara (Principal of Ambience Public School), Pritam Singh (Guru Harkrishan Publicc School, Shahdra), dr. Prabhjot Kaur (educational consultant and motivator), Swarn Singh (Guru Harkrishan Public School, Vasant Vihar), Mr. S. L. Jain (Director, Mahavir Senior Model School), Dr. Haleema Sadia (26 years of experience as teacher, currently Dy. Director (Education), Delhi Waqf Board).
PRINT & ELECTRONIC MEDIA PERSONS:
Gurpreet Singh Sethi (photographer and maker of short films), S. Amrik Singh Kooner (Akaal Channel), S. Gurpreet Singh Bhooi (Akal Channel), Md. Mahtab Alam (The Wire Urdu), Qurban Ali (veteran TV, radio, print andNet journalist), Abhisar Sharma (outspoken and brave TV journalist), Lucy Gabriel Chattopadhyay (All India Radio External Services), Mobin Ahmed Khan (All India Radio), Humra Quraishi (prolific writer, columnist, journalist, book-reviewer and author), Masoom Moradabadi (celebrated Urdu journalist), Suhail Anjum (celebrated Urdu journalist), Muhmamad Anjum (Inquilab), Shaheen Abdulla (committed young journalist), Aditya Menon (journalist committed to the causes of the masses).
OUTSTANDING SCHOOLS:
Hamdard Public School, Talimabad, New Horizon School, Scholar School, Abul Fazal Enclave, St. Xavier’s School, Shahbad Daulatpur, Mater Dei School, Tilak Lane, Don Bosco School, Alaknanda, Dr Zakir Husain Memorial Sr. Sec. School Jafarabad, Rajkiya Pratibha Vikas Vidyalaya, Dwarka (first ranking in government-run day schools in the country).
SPECIAL AWARDS:
Mohd. Rizwan (young inventor), N.M. Theerthe Gowda (arbitrator and advocate), Ms. Khursheed R. Nariman (sculptor), Bhupinder Pal Singh Walia (historian of gurudwaras in Africa), Gobind Sadan, Gadaipur, Mehrauli (Sikh-led interfaith community celebrating all religions).
LIFE-LONG ACHIEVEMENT:
Dr. Manzoor Alam (Chairman, Institute of Objective Studies), S. Rajinder Singh-Ji (Head Granthi, Gurudwara Rakab Ganj), Mary Pat Fisher (author, promoter of interfaith dialogue), Fr. Cedric Prakash SJ (human rights, peace, interfaith and reconciliation activist), Nirmal Kumar Jain Sethi (welfare and promotion of the Jain community), Prof. Haseena Hashia (academia and welfare of the Muslim community), Teesta Setalvad (human rights and rule of law), Prof. Akhtarul Wasey (Islamicscholar with life-long commitment to academia, interfaith dialogue and welfare and promotion of the Muslim community), Mufti Ataur Rahman Qasmi (Islamic scholar, chronicler of Delhi, Haryana and Punjab mosques).
(Full list of DMC Awards 2019 with photographs and more information about each awardee is available here:https://archive.org/details/dmc-2019-awards)
source: http://www.theindianawaaz.com / The Indian Awaaz / Home> Amm/New Delhi / by Indian Awaaz / June 09th, 2020
Dar-ul-Uloom Deoband, the world-famous seminary is proud of its educational heritage since its inception. Its huge library plays an important role in attracting students and research scholars from all over the world. Dar-ul-Uloom is currently working on a project to digitize its colossal library containing rarest of the rare books and manuscripts with great zeal.
The man in charge of this overwhelming task is its librarian Maulana Shafique and his team of 13. They are going about their task with enthusiasm and passion. Even though they have no pressure of any deadline, they still realize the sheer enormity of their task which would leave an indelible mark in the pages of history and immortalize their names.
This prestigious library preserves Islamic History in the form of more than 2 lakhs books and around 1563 rare manuscripts including the Holy Quran written by the Moghul Emperor Aurangzeb and a 750-year-old handwritten book on botany by Imammuddin Zakaria. The age of these historical manuscripts is between 500 to 800 years. Most of this treasure trove is bequeathed to Dar-ul-Uloom as a gift or ‘Hadiya’.
Dar-ul-Uloom has taken enormous care in preserving and curating these rare books and manuscripts with great seriousness till now.
The library has an enormous collection of books on Sufism. According to Maulana Shafique, the library houses hundreds of handwritten books on Tasawwuf (Islamic mysticism). The latest amongst them being 300 years old. This vast collection of books was acquired during the last 150 years.
Pic credit -umair hashmi
The library which was established in 1866 has more than 2 lakh books. Apart from this mammoth collection, there are about 40 thousand books which are part of the Seminary’s syllabus. The most precious collection of this library is those 1563 manuscripts which were handwritten in Arabic, Persian, Urdu and Sanskrit. Out of these about 300 manuscripts have become extremely frail and its contents began to be hazy and illegible which requires immediate curative measures to arrest its further deterioration. This situation caused a great deal of concern amongst the seminary’s officials and its Vice-Chancellor Maulana Abdul Khalique Madrasi who decided to take immediate initiative to conserve these priceless books and manuscripts.
Since the library houses ancient books in addition to 1563 manuscripts which included a letter from the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) addressed to the Egyptian King, a Quran written by the Moghul Emperor Aurangzeb, another Quran written with golden ink, yet another one written completely on one page as well as handwritten copies of Towrah, Vedas, Geeta, Mahabharat and Ramayan and such other antique manuscripts of knowledge which are being conserved and curated by using modern technology.
According to Maulana Shafique, the scholars of Dar-ul-Uloom give utmost importance to conserve the treasure of knowledge of this seminary. He narrated the famous incident of the Late Shaikh-ul-Hadith Maulana Anzar Shah Kashmiri when he went to Egypt. He chanced upon a rare ancient book which he wanted to bring for the library. But the owner of the book declined to part with it. Maulana then borrowed this book for reading and he memorized the whole book in just one night. When he returned to India he re-wrote the book “Nurul Aza” which is part of the Seminary’s curriculum.
Pic credit -umair hashmi
Maulana Shafiq considers the books as the treasure trove of knowledge. These books are an important source of research work. “We have research students from all over the world. Hence, we had to protect these books. For this, the ‘Mohtamim’ (Vice-Chancellor) Maulana Abdul Khaliq Madrasi himself took me to the National Archives of India and got information from there,” he said, and added, “Later a team of three people attended a seminar organized on the same subject in Jammu. We contacted Iran Culture House in Delhi. The people of Iran Culture House were quite professional and knowledgeable. They agreed to cooperate and conserve the books and manuscripts by using the modern techniques but on a condition that they would retain a copy of each preserved book or manuscript as their fee. However, we did not accept their condition in this regard. Maulana Abdul Khaliq Madrasi Sahab’s seriousness reached to the extent of a zeal. We collected all the technical knowledge to undertake this mammoth task all by ourselves by relying on Allah. We commenced our task during the lockdown.”
Maulana Shafique says that the books are related to a great number of subjects such as Unani Medicine, Biology, Jurisprudence, Law, History, Theology, Culture and Astronomy.
He adds that hundreds of books were never opened since centuries because of its delicate and infirm nature to save it from damage.
“There is a manuscript of the 24th Section of the Holy Quran written by the Moghul Emperor with golden ink. Specialists are conserving the manuscripts at a rate of about 150 to 200 pages a day. They are being scanned, laminated and digitized. A new library has been constructed at Darul Uloom. After its completion, the books will be shifted over there. So far 1 lakh pages have been saved. Preservation of 50 lakh pages is yet to be done,” he said.
About the digitization process, Maulana Shafiq, in charge of the library, explains that the boys first separate the pages of the manuscripts by inserting a serial number with a pencil and applying a paste of transparent glue, then laminated with a special tissue glass cloth and dried. These pages are then saved sequentially. It is scanned before binding and preserving digitally. Our conservation project includes books of every religion written in about 20 languages.
The 95 per cent of books found in the library were acquired as a gift.
Darul Uloom’s library has an annual budget of Rs 50 lakhs which is included in Darul Uloom’s total budget.
Sameer Chaudhary of Deoband says that very few in the world know that Darul Uloom has such a wealth of valuable books. “The whole world will have a big surprise once our digitization project is completed,” he adds.
As of now the National Archives of India, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and Iran have shown great interest in this project and offered help but according to sources, Darul Uloom does not want to accept any help in this regard.
Maulana Shafiq informs that earlier he was afraid to touch these ancient books as the paper was falling apart by a mere touch. Now, since the preservation process is being completed these books would come alive and benefit research scholars from around the world. After its digitization, these books would be safe to be handled for thousands of years.
The library which was built in 1907 would be considered among the most modern libraries of the country. A new library building is being built within Darul Uloom’s campus at a cost of Rs 20 crore. These digitally restored books would then be shifted in the new building.
There is a large stock of old books at the library. These include letters written by Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) to the Emperor of Egypt, Quran written by Aurangzeb’s hand, another one written with gold ink, yet another one completely written on one page as well as an amazing collection of books like Towrah, Vedas, Geeta, Mahabharata and Ramayana.
source: http://www.twocircles.net / TwoCircles.net / Home> Indian Muslim> Lead Story> TCN Positive / by Aas Mohammed Kaif / TwoCircles.net / September 04th, 2020
A three-day workshop on research and writing, essay writing and journalism under the pen section of FikroKhabar came to an end at Alhaj Mohiddin Muniri Hall of Maulana Abul Hassan Ali Nadvi Islamic Academy.
The concluding session taught how to make journalism and the media a means of publishing the message of religion and how to work in the practical field. The meeting also decided on the strategy of the Bazm-e-Kalam, which includes the federation of the most important Muslim media. It also includes mentoring them with various workshops for those involved in the field of Bazm-e-Kalam. Bazm-e-Qalam membership forms were also distributed at the meeting, which the participants filled out and expressed their commitment to develop the sector and make it a source of Islamic da’wah . Participants in their written comments said that the establishment of such sectors is the most important need of the present era.
Among the guests on the stage, Jamia Islamia Bhatkal Superintendent Maulana Maqbool Ahmed Kobatte Nadvi said that media is a great way to get people on the right track. It can do things we can’t imagine. The same means of communication include Friday sermons, the benefits of which we can see in society today. Maulana congratulated the officials of Fakro Khabar and his entire team for organizing this workshop and also expressed his happiness to present it in a good and unique way. At the same time, the audience urged the audience to use mobile phones in the right direction.
Mr. Mohsin Shabandari, founder of Bhatkallys.com and Urdu Audio.com, the first website of Juma Bayanat, said that any news should be researched before it is made. Nowadays, it is very important to be careful about the news that is sent to WhatsApp without any research. He also expressed his desire to make the best use of mobile phones and create a platform for all media.
Maulana Ayub Barmawar Nadvi, Maulana Shoaib Nadvi, Maulana Irshad Africa Nadvi, Maulana Muhammad Ali Sharif Nadvi, Maulana Saud Nadvi, Maulana Rehmatullah Nadvi and others were present on the occasion.
source: http://www.bhatkallys.com / Bhatkallys.com / Home> Bhatkal News / by Bhatkal News Bureau / September 04th, 2020
