In a country like Pakistan, where a woman’s beauty is only judged on the basis of clarity and fairness of her skin; a lot of women are trying hard to become pretty and fair. Whitish complexion has its own attraction but we fail to understand this on a larger scale; because deep inside our hearts we too admire… Read More »
Mahmud of Ghazni (Nov. 2, 971–April 30, 1030), the first ruler in history to assume the title of “sultan,” founded the Ghaznavid Empire. His title signified that the Muslim Caliph remained the religious leader of the empire despite being the political leader of a vast swath of land, encompassing much of what is now Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and northern India.… Read More »
Such wisdom is evident when we read the following beautiful verses from the Holy Qur’an wherein the Almighty quotes Luqman (‘a) admonishing his son: Luqman said to his son while admonishing him: O son! Do not associate aught with Allah; most surely polytheism is a grievous iniquity. And We have enjoined man regarding his parents – his mother… Read More »
Why I Chose It: Michigan Quarterly Review reader Connor Greer introduces Anitha Ahmed’s short story “Couplets by Ghalib” from our Spring 2021 issue.You can purchase it here. Anitha Ahmed’s “Couplets by Ghalib” makes demands. It places me, as a reader, in the role of its narrator, Rashid, as he recounts a memory. He tells of a time ten years prior when… Read More »
Marrying close family members is a tradition in many countries and among their emigrants, leading to higher rates of genetic disorders. Reporting from Islamabad, Martina Merten asks how these disorders can be reduced One billion people worldwide live in countries where marriage among relatives is common. Of this billion, one in three is married to a second cousin or closer… Read More »
Just hours after the German World Cup organizing committee sent out an advisory statement to German fans asking them to respect their pets this summer by not painting them in the national colors, a strange but believable letter began to drop through the letter boxes of houses across the city of Cologne. Given FIFA’s love of control and… Read More »
Doesn’t parenting a 21st century child bring with itself a whole lot of opportunities along with challenges? None of us might have ever imagined the presence of the deadly ‘blue whale’ game to be one of the worst fears faced by adults in current times. Have we conveniently forgotten the times when these humble words like an apple or… Read More »
A young Ernest Hemingway, badly injured by an exploding shell on a World War I battlefield, wrote in a letter home that “dying is a very simple thing. I’ve looked at death, and really I know. If I should have died it would have been very easy for me. Quite the easiest thing I ever did.” Years later… Read More »
In a video circulating on social media, four people embraced Islam during the lecture of Islamic preacher Dr. Zakir Naik in Qatar. Qatar has invited Zakir Naik to preach Islam on the sidelines of the FIFA World Cup 2022. He will give sermons and lectures throughout the world cup tournament and reports several social media posts. “Preacher Sheikh… Read More »
And now, finally, some football. For much of the 12 years since Sepp Blatter’s fumbling fingers ripped open an envelope containing one word and a thousand questions, the 2022 World Cup has been able to exist in our minds as little more than a surreal abstraction. A computer-generated simulation. Some Philip K Dick-infused vision of a future that might never… Read More »