غزل از مولانا محمد جلال الدین بلخی "از کلیات شمس"

باز ترش شدی مگر یار دگر گزیده‌ای
دست جفا گشاده‌ای پای وفا کشیده‌ای
دوش ز درد دل مها تا به سحر نخفته‌ام
ز آنک تو مکر دشمنان در حق من شنیده‌ای
ای دم آتشین من خیز تویی گواه دل
ای شب دوش من بیا راست بگو چه دیده‌ای
آینه‌ای خریده‌ای می‌نگری به روی خود
در پس پرده رفته‌ای پرده من دریده‌ای
عقل کجا که من کنون چاره کار خود کنم
عقل برفت یاوه شد تا تو به من رسیده‌ای
لعبت صورت مرا دوخته‌ای به جادوی
سوزن‌های بوالعجب در دل من خلیده‌ای
بر در و بام دل نگر جمله نشان پای توست
بر در و بام مردمان دوش چرا دویده‌ای
هر کی حدیث می‌کند بر لب او نظر کنم
از هوس دهان تو تا لب کی گزیده‌ای
تهمت دزد برنهم هر کی دهد نشان تو
کاین ز کجا گرفته‌ای وین ز کجا خریده‌ای

The creation plan : why we are not perfect society or world

To see that why despite the fact that we human beings are smart still we are not living in a perfect harmonized society. Why every society is not possible to develop a civilized society to answer this first let us have a look at the Creation plan of God.


The famous historian, Edward Gibbon, observed: “Human history is little more than a register of the crimes, follies and misfortunes of mankind.” Other historians have also arrived at similar conclusions, for the ideal existence envisioned by philosophers is nowhere reflected in human societies. Orientalists who have made an in-depth study of human history have remarked that, as regards the human failure to achieve the ideal society, Islamic history is no great exception.

Orientalists hold that, although the history of the first phase of Islam known as the golden age – no doubt presents a better picture than that of other periods, it too fails to measure up to the ideal. During the life of the prophet, owing to the antagonistic activities of the hypocrites internally and the jews and idolators externally, Madinah, the city of the Prophet, could never in any significant sense be converted into an area of peace. After the prophet’s demise, and shortly after the first Caliph, Abu Bakr, had been appointed to be the leader of the Muslims, most of the Arab tribes revolted. It was only when force was used that they were prevailed upon to re-enter the Islamic fold.

Subsequently, in almost every period, unfavourable developments repeatedly proved to be hindrances to the formation of the ideal society. During the times of Umar, the second Caliph, a secret lobby in Madinah, working towards the extirpation of Islam, finally succeeded in having the Caliph assassinated. Afterwards the age of open opposition set in. The third Caliph likewise, was publicly murdered. The reign of Ali, the fourth Caliph, was marked by civil war in which thousands of precious lives were lost and the Caliph himself was martyred.

Given the state of affairs, thinkers and philosophers have always expressed pessimistic views about human history, holding it to be an ongoing tragedy: events have shown that, in this world, the building of the ideal human society is well nigh impossible.

The reason for this pessimistic view of history does not lie in history itself, but in our flawed approach to the subject. Our criterion to study history is not the correct one, for it has been formulated by human beings. The only valid criterion, in the light of which we should study human history, is that laid down by our Creator. The right way to understand this matter is, therefore, to discover the creation plan of the creator and then attempt to study history within its framework.

From a study of the Quran, we learn that for a proper understanding of human society the central idea is not society, but it has human freedom. Man has been granted full freedom of speech and action in his life the reason being that he has been placed in this world by the Almighty for the purpose of being tested. As a prerequisite for this test, man is at liberty to deny God, to kill prophets and to oppose the da’is (messengers) of truth. Given such a state of affairs, human freedom would have to be withdrawn altogether in order to bring an ideal society into existence. And God, in accordance with His plan of creation, would never under any circumstances abrogate human freedom. The Particular nature of human existence on earth has been thus explained in the Quran:

We offered Our trust to the heavens, to the truth and to the mountains,but they refused to accept the burden. Man undertook to bear it, but he has proved foolish and unjust. God will surely punish the hypocrites, men and women, and the unbelievers, both men and women; but God pardons believing men and believing women. God is forgiving and Merciful. (33:72-73).

Trust in the above verses refers to the freedom of choice with which man has been entrusted. The earth and the heavens have neither such freedom nor any will-power of their own. They are compelled to adhere to the laws of nature laid down by God for all eternity. But man has no such compulsion. He is totally free in word and deed.

From other verses in the Quran, we learn that, according to the Creation plan of God, what is of actual importance in this world is the building not of an ideal society but of ideal individuals (67:2). The ideal society will, therefore, come into existence not in this world, but in the world Hereafter- referred to in Quran as Darus Salam (the home of peace). The actual obstacle to the building of the ideal society in this world is the presence everywhere of rebellious and insolent people. In the heavenly society of the Hereafter, all such evil doers will be separated from good people; the heavenly society will then be comprised only of virtous souls. Only in heaven then will it be possible to create an ideal society.

The error in the thinking of secular philosophers derives form their desire to construct in this present world the ideal society- the society which, according to god’s scheme of things, is going to become a reality only in the world of the hereafter. The most formidable obstacle to the emergence of an ideal society is human freedom, but thanks to the exigencies of God’s trial of humanity, human freedom is not going to be taken away. The ideal society will thus remain a distant dream.

According to the Quran the truth has been fully set forth in this world. Now it is up to man to put his faith in it or to deny it (18:29). At another point the Quran says:

It rests with God to show the right path. Some turn aside from it, but had he pleased, He would have given right guidance to you all. (16:9).

The Quran further observes; Had your Lord pleased, He would have made mankind a single nation. But only those to whom He has shown mercy will cease to differ. To this end He has created them. The world of your Lord shall be fulfilled: “I will fill Hell with jinn and men all together” (11:118-119).

This freedom granted to man by his Creator is the reason why a society with uniformity in all its aspects could never be produced n human history. If in a society there are virtuous people, there are wicked people as well. The unworthy have never ceased to create disturbance, even the societies founded by the prophet are no exception. That is why despite the existence of good individuals in this world, a good society could never become a possibility.

However, this is not a matter of evil, or even of deficiency. The truth is that the recurrence of disturbance and dissension in society is essential to the realization of the Creation Plan itself, for good people of the highest calibre are produced in unfavourable rather than in favourable situations.

We learn fro the Quran that man was born to an existence fraught with toil and strife (90:4). The Quran, addressing the human race, has this to say: “Go hence, and may your descendants be enemies to each other” (7:24). In this world, man has no choice but to lead a life which is marred by trial and tribulation, opposition and enmity till the coming of Doomsday.

This human condition has not come about by accident. This is exactly in accordance with the divine scheme of things. God has created this world in order to select those individuals who are capable of inhabiting heaven. Those worthy inhabitants of paradise are invariably produced under abnormal rather than normal circumstances. Human beings should therefore will continue to face unfavourable circumstances in order that desirable people will go on being produced for such selection.

The Quran states: Do men think that once they say: ‘we are believers, they will be left alone and not be tried? We tested those who have gone before them. God knows those who are truthful and those who are lying (29:1-3). In a similar vein the Quran says: Did you suppose that you would go to Paradise untouched by the suffering which was endured by those before you? Affliction and adversity befell them; and so battered were they that each apostle, and those who shared his faith, cried out: ‘when will the help of God come?’ His help is ever near (2:214).

There is another verse to this effect: Did you suppose that you would enter Paradise before God has known the men who fought hard and the steadfast? (3:142). Yet again the Quran addresses Muslims in these words: did you imagine that you would be abandoned before God has time to know those of you who have fought valiantly and served non but Him and His Apostle and the faithful? God is cognizant of all you actions (9:14).

The truth is in this world what is desirable to God is not the Ideal Society but the Ideal man. And as we learn from the Quran, such an individual is produced in conditions of ‘severe affliction’ (33:11) and not in normal, peaceful circumstances.

God looks with favour upon those human beings who, finding themselves in the midst of a jungle of theories and ideologies, are able to discern the truth and then to preserve in their adherence to it. He gives His approval to those human beings whose faith remains unshaken even in the face of severe problems and dire adversity, whose hearts, even when they are subjected to all manner of persecution, are untainted by negative sentiments; who when threatened with calamity, do not lose heart, who even when faced with such untoward events as are likely to divert them from the Straight path, remain staunch in their faith in God; who feel the great tumult of the awakening of spirituality in their hearts, bringing them closer to God.

The man most desirable to God is one worthy of inhabiting the refined and ideal world of Paradise. Such a person, the rarest of rare phenomena, is greater than all that is great in the Universe. Such a human being takes a new birth. He is born, not in peaceful circumstances but in great strife and turmoil. He faces darkness in this world, so that he may life in the eternal light of the hereafter. He treads a thorny path in this life, so that he may enjoy a flower filled environment in the afterlife. Here he suffers loss, so that he may be blessed with the joys of recovery in the hereafter. He patiently bears the deprivation of the pleasures and comforts of this world, so that he may be entitled to a place in the eternal Paradise of heavenly bliss.

Such a precious soul can not come into being in a vacuum. Nor can he develop in the normal atmosphere of society – no matter how closely approaching the ideal that society may be. It is only in the jungle of adversity that such a soul can emerge; there is no other possible breeding ground.
What philosophers describe as social evil is a training ground devised by the Creator to produce human beings of great moral and spiritual character. That is why, in every period of human history, mankind has been faced wit all manner of conflict and dissension. The true believers, the virtuous and in particular, the prophets, have invariably found themselves in unpropitious situations. There is a hadith to this effect: ‘ when God loves a people, He puts them to the test.’

Unfavourable circumstances are not peculiar to non-Muslim societies, in one way or another, they have always been a part of Muslim societies too. In ancient times, the prophets were born among idolaters and deniers and were subjected to severe persecution by their contemporaries. We learn from the Quran that the Prophet Moses was likewise threatened with mental torture and physical agony, even although he had been sent to the people of the Book, that is to the Jews (3:69)

The Prophet Mohammad established a properly organised state in Arabia, later known as the Khilafat-e-Rashida and ruled successively by the four rightly guided Caliphs. But even during this ideal period of Islam, the state continued to suffer from a variety of severe problems. Indeed, there is no period of the Islamic State which can be pinpointed as one in which Muslims led their lives in a state of perfect peace and normalcy.

This is not due to any deficiency in the Islamic state, but rather to the exigencies of the “training course” estbablished by God Himself for the moral discipline of human beings. As mentioned above, it is not part of God’s plan that an ideal society should be formed in this world in which people will lead peaceful lives. According to God’s scheme of things, what is of actual importance is the preparation and formation of individuals. This unavoidably takes place in an atmosphere, not of peace and tranquillity, but of turbulence.

In the present world, neither at the national or communal level, do we possess the moral and physical a resource which are essential to the construction of a high standard society. However, we do have the means to build the ideal character in individuals, and this is an ongoing reality- as a requirement of God’s Creation plan, which is concerned not with the building of the heavenly individual who is fit to dwell in the ideal society of paradise.

Looked at in terms of the ideal society, the history of Islam would appear to have its darker, negative side. But if seen in terms of the development of individuals, this same history would appear to have a very positive, bright side. The ideal society or the ideal state may not have come into being but, through out Islamic history, there has never been any dearth of individuals of great moral and spiritual calibre. Indeed, the annals of history may have little to show in terms of ideal societies, but their pages have been made resplendent with the thoughts, words and deeds of ideal individuals.

In a hadith the Prophet Muhammad observed: my generation is the best one , then the second generation and then the third generation. (Sahih Muslim, 8/550)
This means that Islamic virtue was at its peak in the first generation , and there was a decline in righteousness through the second and the third generations. This stage is known in the history of Islam as the period of the Prophet’s companions and the period of Prophet’s companion’s companions.

There is nothing mysterious about it. Degeneration, a law of nature which applies to every group, set in after the first generation itself.

Dari Literature در دری

نخستین که نوک قلم شد سیاه
گرفت آفرین بر خداوند ماه
خداوند کیوان و ناهید و هور
خداوند پیل و خداوند مور
خداوند پیروزی و فرهی
خداوند تهیم و شاهنشی
خداوند جان و خداوند رای
خداوند نیکی ده و رهنمای



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Persian Literature:
Afghanistan is diversed in linguistic group and so is the literature . There three major spoken language with distinct literature. Dari, Pashto and Uzbeki, Dari is Persian or Farsi dialect languages, Pashto also a group of Indo-Iranian languages, and Uzbeki is a Turkish dialect language .

I. Introduction:
Persian Literature, literature in the Modern Persian language of the Islamic era, written in Arabic script (see Persian Language). This vast literature, marked by the predominance of poetry, is not confined to the geographic limits; it was also cultivated in Turkey and northern India. Both poetic and prose traditions remained strikingly stable for a millennium. Since the beginning of the 20th century, however, owing to the impact of Western culture, new trends have developed in the literature.

Pre-Islamic Period:

The pre-Islamic Persian literature, written in Old and Middle Persian between 650 bc and ad 650, includes the Gathas (divine songs), the most ancient of the sacred writings collectively named the Avesta; Middle Persian texts of Avesta; and epics to be recited at the court.

II. CLASSICAL PERIOD:

Following the Islamic conquest in the 7th century, Modern Persian gradually emerged as a literary language, incorporating an immense Arabic vocabulary and adopting Arabic script. Under the Samanids (9th-10th century) a new literary era began, and the ancient traditions of Persia merged with the culture of Islam. At the same time, in freeing Islam from an exclusive attachment to Arabic, Persian did much to universalize Islam and thus to expand and preserve it.
Persian poetry, which adopted Arabic forms, began sporadically in eastern Persia in the 9th century. Its four main genres are the epic, qasida (purpose poem), masnavi (long narrative poem), and ghazal (lyric). By the 10th century, Persian had become a mature and melodious medium—as is evident in the extant work of the versatile poet Rudaki, known as the father of Persian poetry. A few years after Rudaki's death, the Persian epic tradition, with its sources in the Avesta and Middle Persian texts, began. The first epic poet was Marvazi, who is alleged to have composed a Shah nameh (Book of Kings) in 910. This was followed by a better-known Shah nameh (975) by the 10th-century poet Daqiqi (died about 980); but the best known is that by Firdawsi, considered the great national Persian epic. Firdawsi devoted some 35 years to this monumental work of 60,000 couplets, completing it in 1010. Firdawsi's Shah nameh is a history of Persian kings from the earliest times to the death of the last Sassanid king in 651. Accounts of dynasties are followed with comments on the inevitability of change; the battle scenes are vividly depicted. Firdawsi was a superb storyteller; his characters are heroes and giants, but his language is comparatively free from hyperbole.
Very different from the epic is the qasida, a form first written by Rudaki. The majority of qasidas are panegyrics, but sometimes they are elegiac and didactic; occasionally, they deal with philosophical or biographical literature. The same rhyme is used throughout a qasida, which may be in any meter. The average length is between 60 and 100 lines, in couplets, but qasidas of more than 200 lines are not infrequent. The earliest exponents of the form, contemporaries of Firdawsi, were Unsuri (died about 1049), Asjadi, and Farrukhi, regarded as the greatest of the 400 poets alleged to have been maintained at the court of Sultan Mahmūd of Ghazna. Of the many panegyrists in the long history of Persian literature, Anvari is regarded as the foremost. An esteemed writer of philosophical qasidas is Nāser-e Khosrow (died about 1072); one of his works has been translated into English as Book of Lights (1949). Almost contemporary with Nāser-e Khosrow was Omar Khayyam, the greatest writer of the ruba'i (quatrain). He was a poet of singular originality, conveying his philosophy of life, a hedonism tempered with skepticism, through the medium of this simple, epigrammatic form.
The second half of the 13th century and the first part of the 14th are often regarded as the golden age of Persian poetry. In this period, during the Mongol invasion, lived three of Persia's greatest poets. Sa'di, Rumi, and Hafiz excelled above all in the ghazal, a passionate, sometimes mystical lyric form that, like the qasida, is composed on a single rhyme. Usually consisting of between 5 and 15 couplets, it may be written in any of a great variety of meters. The masnavi, by contrast, is a relatively long narrative poem in rhymed couplets and is a suitable vehicle for epic and romantic stories or mystical and philosophical themes. The best-known masnavis are those written by mystics. The first purported mystic masnavi was the Hadiqat al-Haqiqa (The Enclosed Garden of Truth, trans. 1911) by Sanā'i. He was followed by Attar, an exponent of the mystical doctrines of Sufism, and Rumi, whose Masnavi-ye Manavi consists of six books, containing nearly 30,000 couplets. Its basic theme is love; Rumi was chiefly concerned with problems and speculations bearing on the conduct, meaning, and purpose of life and the longing of the human soul for union with God. The Masnavi, almost every page of which moves, absorbs, and surprises the reader, is considered the most profound and the greatest work of Persian literature, perhaps of all Islamic literature. Of romantic masnavis, the best known is Khosrow o-Shirin (Khosrow and Shirin), one of five poems in the Khamseh (Quintet) of Nezami.
The period of poetic decline began as early as the 14th century. The last great classical poet was Jami, who was remarkable for the quality and the quantity of his literary work in both poetry and prose. Meantime, however, Persian poetry had been cultivated in India since the 11th century, and the romantic masnavis of the Indian poet Amir Khosrow, modeled on those of Nezami, were of high quality. In the 15th and, particularly, the 16th century, many Persian poets were attracted to the court of the great Indian moguls. The style of the Indian school, finding its way back to Persia, became the dominant model under the Safavids (16th-18th century) and was known as the Indian style (sabk-e hindi). Its greatest exponent was Sa'ib, whose poems are renowned for their imagery.
Although earlier scholars and theologians for the most part wrote their learned work in Arabic, a tradition of Persian prose also exists. One of the oldest extant pieces of Persian prose is the introduction, finished in 978, to the prose Shah nameh of Firdawsi, composed early in his career and used as the basis of his famous poem. Another is a translation, into extremely simple Persian, of the Arabic commentary on the Qur'an (Koran) by the Arabic historian Tabari, made by a group of scholars between 960 and 977. Under the Seljuks (11th-12th century), a varied prose literature of pleasing erudition flourished. The most popular genre was that of “Mirrors for Princes,” books of practical wisdom and rules of conduct. Among the early Mirrors, the Qabus-nameh, written (c. 1082) by the 11th-century ruler of Gurgan, Kaikavus ibn Iskandar, is the most attractive. In later didactic writing, the greatest prose master was Sa'di, author of the famous book of maxims (some also in verse) the Gulistan (Rose Garden, 1218).
Drama does not constitute a genre in classical Persian literature. The tazia—Shia passion plays centering on the lives of Shiite martyrs—are lacking in literary merit, but they are deeply rooted in the national consciousness. They reached a peak of popularity in the late 19th century.
III MODERN TRENDS
Toward the end of the 18th century various influences, including contact with the West, started to bring about change in Persian literature. The greatest writer of the early 19th century was Qā'im Maqām, whose well-known Mon sha'at represented a new approach to the art of letter writing. In the second half of the 19th century, the florid style characteristic of Persian prose since the 12th century began to be simplified; a change in subject matter also occurred. Works drawing attention to social and political evils in Iran were written; by the turn of the century a vigorous and lively press developed; and some pioneering serious dramas on patriotic and nationalistic themes were produced. All these activities contributed greatly to the national awakening that culminated in the constitutional revolution of 1905.
Since 1919, when the first collection of short stories in Persian appeared, it has been in this genre rather than in the novel that Persian writers have excelled; best known are M. A. Jamālzādeh, Sadiq Hidayat, Buzurq Alavi, Sadiq Chubak, and Jalal Al-e Ahmad. Hidayat, whose cynical, morbid works deeply affected the younger generation of writers, is considered one of the most significant writers of modern Iran. Since World War II, poetry has gained a new vitality. Some modern poets, following Nimā Yushij as their model, broke from tradition and experimented in blank verse. Drama in the Western sense began in the 19th century; well-known dramatists are Malkam Khan and Sa'edi, a versatile satirist.

About Afghanistan

Afghanistan, a country in southwestern Asia that is situated on a landlocked plateau between Iran, Pakistan, China, and several countries in Central Asia. Kābul is the capital and largest city. Afghanistan have had many names Aryana was the pre-Islamice name, Khurasan was the name given by Abu Muslim Khurasani after the arrival of Islam. The modern name Afghanistan was given after the estabishment of Sultanat of Ahmad Shah Abdali. Afghanistan has long been known as the crossroads of Asia, with ancient trade and invasion routes crossing its territory. Over the centuries many different people passed through Afghanistan, and some made it their homeland e.g Alexander the Great.The Pashtuns, who make up the largest ethnic group, were long known as Afghans, but in modern times the term Afghan denotes nationality for all citizens of the country. Afghanistan was a monarchy from 1747 to 1973, when military officers overthrew the king and established a republic. In 1979 the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) invaded Afghanistan, starting the Soviet-Afghan War. The United States supplied military aid to the guerrilla insurgents who fought the Soviet-backed Afghan government. After the Soviets withdrew in 1989, the country erupted in civil war. An Islamic fundamentalist movement called the Taliban seized control of Kābul in 1996. The Taliban gave refuge to the al-Qaeda terrorist network, and after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, against the United States, U.S. military forces invaded Afghanistan and ousted the Taliban from power in late 2001. Afghanistan adopted a new constitution establishing a presidential form of government in 2004. This is a brief introduction of Afghanistan. There is alot to write and to tell, I would like to request all my friends any question or query if you have then accordingly I will put information. 8th March 2010 All the Afghan students studying in the City of Goa celebrated International Students Day for foreign Students at Rosary College Navelim Goa, all we tried was to give a better picture of Afghanistan, its politics, History, Literature etc not as the media presents what you usually watch is not exactly happening. All the students and the young generation is striving to make a peaceful Afghanistan. please see the video. Your views can make a difference.