#Pashto to English translation

[onlinetranslatortool]

It could be difficult for persons whose first language is not English to translate from Pashto to English. Numerous companies and websites offer services for translation, localization, and interpreting. You can translate phrases, sentences, and words that are used frequently for free. To do this, use our online Pashto to English translator.

[jasminedavid]

[onlinetranslpro]

Free online Pashto to English translation site to easily Translate Pashto text into English . You can translate words, sentences and paragraphs from Pashto to English easily and fast!

[languagexs]

Online Pashtu to English Translation Services - Quickly and Accurately Translate Pashto Conversations

Pashtu to English: Unlocking Opportunities for Immigrant Families For the nearly 40 million Pashto speakers around the world, communicating across languages can often get lost in translation. As more Afghan and Pakistani immigrants settle in America, bridging the cultural and linguistic divides through accurate Pashto to English translation becomes increasingly vital. This comprehensive guide…

[hadeth]

عَنْ عُقْبَةَ بْنِ عَامِرٍ الْجُهَنِيِّ، قَالَ قَالَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم ‏:‏ ‏ "‏ الْجَاهِرُ بِالْقُرْآنِ كَالْجَاهِرِ بِالصَّدَقَةِ، وَالْمُسِرُّ بِالْقُرْآنِ كَالْمُسِرِّ بِالصَّدَقَةِ ‏"‏ ‏.‏ حديث صحيح - سنن أبي داود ١٣٣٣ - والترمذي ٢٩١٩- والنسائي ١٦٦٣

Narrated Uqbah ibn Amir al-Juhani: The Prophet (ﷺ) said: "One who recites the Qur'an in a loud voice is like one who gives alms openly; and one who recites the Qur'an quietly is one who gives alms secretly." Hadith Sahih - Sunan Abi Dawud 1333 In-book reference : Book 5, Hadith 84 | Jami` at-Tirmidhi 2919 In-book reference : Book 45, Hadith 45 | Sunan an-Nasa'i 2561 In-book reference : Book 23, Hadith 127

قال الترمذي: وَمَعْنَى هَذَا الْحَدِيثِ أَنَّ الَّذِي يُسِرُّ بِقِرَاءَةِ الْقُرْآنِ أَفْضَلُ مِنَ الَّذِي يَجْهَرُ بِقِرَاءَةِ الْقُرْآنِ لأَنَّ صَدَقَةَ السِّرِّ أَفْضَلُ عِنْدَ أَهْلِ الْعِلْمِ مِنْ صَدَقَةِ الْعَلاَنِيَةِ وَإِنَّمَا مَعْنَى هَذَا عِنْدَ أَهْلِ الْعِلْمِ لِكَىْ يَأْمَنَ الرَّجُلُ مِنَ الْعُجُبِ لأَنَّ الَّذِي يُسِرُّ الْعَمَلَ لاَ يُخَافُ عَلَيْهِ الْعُجْبُ مَا يُخَافُ عَلَيْهِ مِنْ عَلاَنِيَتِهِ ‏.‏ جامع الترمذي

العِباداتُ كلُّها يَنبَغي أن تَكونَ خالِصةً لوجهِ اللهِ، ولا يُطلَبَ بها الرِّياءُ ولا السُّمعةُ ولا التَّفاخرُ بينَ النَّاسِ؛ لأنَّ اللهَ غنيٌّ عن كلِّ ذلك، وإنَّما يَقبَلُ مِن تلك العباداتِ ما كان خالِصًا لوجهِه سبحانَه. وفي هذا الحديثِ يَقولُ النَّبيُّ صلَّى اللهُ علَيْه وسلَّم: "الجاهرُ بالقرآنِ"، أي: الَّذي يَرفَعُ صوتَه بالقرآنِ في القِراءةِ، وخاصَّة أمامَ النَّاسِ؛ "كالجاهرِ بالصَّدقةِ"، أي: مِثلُ المُجاهِرِ المُعلِنِ لصَدقتِه أمامَ النَّاسِ "والمُسِرُّ بالقرآنِ كالمُسِرِّ بالصَّدقةِ"، أي: مَن يقرَأُ في سِرِّه ويتَدبَّرُ بعَقلِه مِثل الَّذي يُخفِي صَدَقتَه عن أعيُنِ النَّاسِ، والإسرارُ أفضلُ في حَقِّ مَن يَخافُ الرِّياءَ؛ لأنَّ الإسرارَ أبعدُ عن الرِّياءِ؛ فإنْ لم يَخَفْ، فالجهرُ أفضلُ بشَرْط ألَّا يُؤذِي غيرَه ولا يتأذَّى بقِراءتِه أحدٌ كمُصلٍّ أو نائمٍ أو غيرِهما، والعملُ في الجَهرِ أكثرُ، ويَتعدَّى نفْع��ه إلى غيرِ القارئِ؛ ويُوقِظُ قلبَ القارِئ، ويَجمَع همَّه إلى الفِكر، ويصرِفُ سمْعَه إليه؛ ويطرُد النومَ، ويزيدُ في النشاط؛ فمتَى حضَره شيءٌ من هذه النِّيات؛ فالجهرُ أفضلُ؛ فإذا كان الجهرُ يترتَّبُ عليه مصلحةٌ، فهذا الجهرِ أوْلَى، وإذا لم يَكُن في الجَهرِ مَصلحةٌ فالإسرارُ أَوْلَى، فهذا أفضلُ مِن هذه الناحيةِ. وقيل: ما كان فيه التدبرُ أتمَّ فهو الأفضلُ. وفي الحديثِ: مدْحُ الإسرارِ بالعِباداتِ معَ إخلاصِها للهِ. وفيه: بيانُ أنَّه لا أجْرَ لِمَن يُرائِي بعِلْمه وقِراءَتِه. الدرر السنية

Reciting the Qur’an secretly is better, just as giving charity secretly is better, for the sincerity involved and the avoidance of show-off and self-admiration, unless if openness is required for some need or benefit, like teaching the Qur’an to others. Hadith Translation/ Explanation : English Urdu Spanish Indonesian Uyghur Bengali French Turkish Bosnian Sinhalese Indian Vietnamese Tagalog Kurdish Hausa Portuguese Malayalam Telgu Swahili Tamil Burmese Thai German Pashto Assamese Albanian Swedish Amharic Dutch Gujarati Kyrgyz Nepali Yoruba Lithuanian Dari Serbian Somali Tajik Kinyarwanda Romanian Hungarian Czech Malagasy Italian Oromo Kannada Azeri Uzbek Ukrainian: https://hadeethenc.com/en/browse/hadith/65055

[aheroonahistorybookpage]

I've kind of said this on the bird app, but I'm going to bring it here.

Give me an episode where no one outside of the main cast speaks English. Highlight the multiculturalism of a city like Los Angeles.

Use Chimney's Korean (Kenneth doesn't actually have to speak), Maddie's Spanish, and Eddie's Spanish (you could even throw in someone speaking Dari/Farsi or Pashto and have Eddie at least understand parts, like Ryan doesn't have to speak it). Even add a bystander who is on the scene and translates from one language to another (not English but Spanish or Korean).

[qsmpbutwithsignlanguage]

I don't know if now is exactly the right time for this, considering everything that is going on, but I've had this post in the drafts for a while, so idk. A collection of random things I've noticed after a year of the QSMP in action (though I've only been involved in the fandom since late October).

Genuinely something fairly long, and I don't want to clog up anyone's feed with this mess of a post, so >

(colors don't mean anything in particular, I just needed to break up the text for my own attention span's sake)

Regardless of the fact that the translation feature exists, QSMP members always seem to make an effort to learn a few words in the language of other members. I frequented Tubbo's streams a lot, and I can remember him looking up Korean greetings back when Acau was just joining the server. Tina, while not fluent in the language, made an effort to converse with the newer Korean members in Korean on multiple occasions, and succeeded in that regard. BadBoyHalo and Foolish both went above and beyond to try to learn bits and pieces of the other languages on the server; Cellbit has been absolutely insane in picking up the languages present on the server, and even Quackity has worked on learning Portuguese behind the scenes with Mike. They aren't the only ones either, not by a long shot, though they were some of the few I watched happening in real time. The first days of different members joining the server were filled with exchanges of words and slang, and it was always incredible to watch. I could go onto the streams of Quackity or Tubbo or Tina when the new Korean members were joining, or Hugo, and walk away with a handful of new swears and slang under my belt. I find it incredible that everyone works so hard to communicate with each other beyond only the translation feature.

The impact of the QSMP was not on the permanent members of the server alone. While this is only one example of a great amount, I've been able to watch Aimsey's intermittent streams where they work on learning Brazilian Portuguese on Duolingo, their most recent only around three weeks ago. They joined Purgatory 2 months ago, but they made lasting friends with the Brazilian members of their team, and they still work on learning the language. They still talk about taking a trip down to Brazil to meet up with their fellow Purgatory 2 teammates, alongside Tubbo. I find that to be quite sweet, if I'm being frank.

The fandom has also worked across that language barrier. QSMP Language Day was one example of this (rip, such great idea, I had so much fun but oh my goodness did that day end terribly), though I have to give a shocking amount of credit to QSMP Twitter. It's always awesome to see the posts that trickle through in different languages, just seeing people discuss different headcanons and theories that they have in different languages, like it's nothing. The translation feature has come in clutch many, many times, but a lot of people have been working to genuinely learn a language since the server started. To those of you reaching your 1 year streak on Duolingo this week, I commend you. I just reached my 60 day one, and while it's not a lot compared to what some people have, it's a pretty big deal for me. I've seen Twitch chats filled with French, German, English, Spanish, Portuguese, and Korean. In one stream I could count spotting seven separate languages being spoken in the span of roughly seven minutes (not including French, idk where you guys went but I just did not spot you once): English, Spanish, Korean, Portuguese, German, Pashto, and Russian. QSMP Language Day was amazing, even if it was cut short by news about the admins, and it's just been really cool to see people communicating in their own respective first languages.

Translation in general. I've seen an uptick of translated closed captioning in videos created by different QSMP members, and while it isn't a lot, it's incredible to see when it does occur. I have to give a shout out to both Quackity and Baghera, for their translated closed captioning. Even if it's only a few videos, it's epic to see. I also find it very interesting that the only Offline TV video I've seen with closed captioning in more than one language was the one that Quackity was in, with Spanish subtitles. It shows that the creators care enough to add the captioning, and I think that's pretty awesome. It's also nice because often adding captions in another language forces you to add captions in the language you're primarily speaking throughout the video, which can help people who need context beyond the often messy auto-generated closed captions.

Fanfiction! Fanart! The most kudosed fanfiction on AO3 in Portuguese of any type is a GuapoDuo fanfic! Almost half of the top twenty most kudosed fanfictions in Portuguese on AO3 are QSMP. I talk about it a bit more in depth here, but it's still incredible to see just how dedicated this community is. I've been involved in multiple fic-gifting events and I've seen some genuinely incredible works come out of this fandom. Heck, I've created a lot of things for the QSMP that I'm incredibly proud of. I've seen some of the most incredible creative expression ever come out of this fandom. The tiniest accounts on YouTube posting full-length, colored animatics complete with the smallest of details (shout out to Artydrawsthings on YouTube for I GOT LOVE, that was absolutely incredible), fanfic authors writing massive A.U.s that explore every character in depth, and livebloggers that will analyze each and every movement to gush over it all. The fandom that the QSMP has built has been incredible, and it's been amazing to see it grow.

Just in general, the sense of community, and overall joy the QSMP has created. You can tell that this a passion project, created by someone who genuinely cared about and believed that what they were doing was something they wanted to be doing, and managed by people who believed that the project was doing great things. I think this is what made the QSMP flourish. It was built off people who were happy on the server, and it truly accomplished what it set out to accomplish: uniting communities. I could have said this two weeks ago, three, a month, five months, half a year; it would have held true nonetheless. However, for the QSMP's first anniversary, I think it's fitting to give it this achievement.

The QSMP without a doubt has its gaping flaws. That isn't something we can ignore, and it isn't something that we should try to. However, to ignore everything that this server has done in the year it has existed would be a crime in my eyes. I'm glad to have been a part of this fandom, and maybe I can't speak Portuguese or Spanish or German and I won't ever be able to French or Korean or whatever languages the QSMP will go on to add (sorry French, rip), but I know a lot more than I did when I started, and I think that the server has done a lot of good in the roughly year it has existed.

So thank you, to the fandom, to the server, and to everyone who made this happen, from the fanartists and the egg admins to Quackity at the top of it all. It's been a great ride, and I hope that it'll be able to continue.

[fatehbaz]

Midway through Jamil Jan Kochai’s collection The Haunting of Hajji Hotak and Other Stories, which maps generations of Afghan and Afghan American lives against over a century of entwined wars, sits what appears to be a résumé. Entitled “Occupational Hazards,” it meticulously records the everyday labors of an Afghan man: [...] his “[d]uties included: leading sheep to the pastures”; from 1977–79, “gathering old English rifles” left over from the last war while being recruited into a new war; in 1980–81, “burying the tattered remnants of neighbors and friends and women and children and babies and cousins and nieces and nephews and a beloved half-sister”; [...] becoming a refugee day-laborer in Peshawar, Pakistan; in 1984, becoming a refugee in Alabama, where he worked on an assembly line with other Asian migrants whom the white factory owner used to push out the local Black workforce; and so on. Dozens of events, from the traumatic to the mundane, are cataloged one by one in prose that is at once emotionless and overwhelming. [...] Kochai interviewed his father for the résumé’s occupational trajectory [...]. An Afghan shepherd [...] is displaced by imperial wars and then, in the heart of empire, is conscripted into racialized domestic economies [...]. [M]ethodically translating lived violence via a résumé, a bureaucratic form that quantifies labor in its most banal functionality, paradoxically realizes the spectacular breadth of war and how it organizes life’s possibilities. [...]

---

In this collection, war is past, present, and plural. In Afghanistan, Kochai recounts the lives of Logaris and Kabulis, against the backdrop of the US occupation, still dealing with the detritus of previous wars - British, Soviet, a­nd civil - including their shrines, mines, and memories. In the United States, Afghan Californians experience the diasporic conditions of war -- state neglect of refugees combined with targeted surveillance -- amid the coming-of-age of a second generation that must confront inherited traumas while struggling to build political solidarities with other displaced youth.

These 12 stories explore the reverberations between historical and psychic realities, invoking a ghostly practice of reading. Characters, living and dead, recur across the stories [...]. Wars echo one another [...]. Scenes and states mirror each other, with one story depicting Afghan bureaucracies that disavow military and police violence while another depicts US bureaucracies that deny social services to unemployed refugees. History itself is layered and unresolved [...]. Kochai, who was born in a refugee camp in Peshawar, writes from the position of the Afghan diaspora [...]. In August 2021, the US relegated Afghanistan to the past, declaring the “longest American war” over. Over for whom? one should ask. [...] War, in other words, is not an event but a structure. [...]

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In Kochai’s collection, war is not the story; rather, war arranges the scenes and life possibilities [...]. Kochai carefully puts war itself, and the warmakers, in the narrative background [...].

This is a historically incisive narrative design for representing Afghanistan. Kochai challenges centuries of Western colonial discourses, from Rudyard Kipling to Rambo, that conflate Afghanistan with violence while erasing the international production of that violence as well as the social and conceptual worlds of Afghans themselves. Instead, this collection moves the reader across Afghans’ transcontinental, intergenerational, and multispirited social worlds -- including through stories of migrations and returns, homes populated by the living and the martyred, language that enmeshes Dari, Pashto, and Northern California slang, as well as the occasional fantastical creature [...].

---

Like Kochai’s debut novel 99 Nights in Logar (2019), this collection merges realism and the fantastic, oral and academic histories, Afghan folklore and Islamic texts, giving his fiction a dynamic relation to history. Each story is an experiment, and many of them are replete with surreal or magical elements [...].

As in Ahmed Saadawi’s 2013 novel Frankenstein in Baghdad, a nightmarish sensorium collides with a postcolonial body politics [...].

In a recent interview, Kochai said that writing about his family’s experiences of war has compelled him to explore “realms of the surreal or magical realism […] because the incidents themselves seem so unreal […]. [I]t takes years and decades to even come to terms with what had actually happened to them before their eyes.” He points not to a documentary dilemma but to an epistemological one. While some scholars have argued that fantastic genres like magical realism are often conflated with exoticized imaginaries of the Global South, others have defended the form’s critical possibilities for rendering complex realities and multiple modes of interpretation. Literary metaphors, whether magical or otherwise, are always imprecise; as Afghan poet Aria Aber puts it, “you flee into metaphor but you return / with another moth / flapping inside your throat.” [...]

Kochai does not “escape” into the surreal or magical as fictions but as other ways of reckoning with war’s pasts ongoing in the present.

---

All text above by: Najwa Mayer. “War Is a Structure: On Jamil Jan Kochai’s “The Haunting of Hajji Hotak and Other Stories.”“ LA Review of Books (Online). 20 December 2022. [Bold emphasis and some paragraph breaks/contractions added by me. Presented here for commentary, teaching, criticism.]

[onlinetranslatortool]

It could be difficult for persons whose first language is not English to translate from Odia to English. Numerous companies and websites offer services for translation, localization, and interpreting. You can translate phrases, sentences, and words that are used frequently for free. To do this, use our online Odia to English translator.

[dillydedalus]

women in translation month wrap-up

here's what i read this witmonth, faves marked with *

das verbotene notizbuch, alba de céspedes (translated from the italian by verena from koskull, english translation: forbidden notebook, by ann goldstein)

salomés zorn, simone atangana bekono (translated from the dutch by ira wilhelm, no english translation yet)

witches, brenda lozano (translated from the spanish by heather cleary)

*three summers, margarita liberaki (translated from the greek by karen van dyck)

breasts and eggs, mieko kawakami (translated from the japanese by sam bett & david boyd)

im park der prächtigen schwestern, camila sosa villada (translated from the spanish by svenja becker, english translation: bad girls, by kit maude)

*boulder, eva baltasar (translated from the catalan by julia sanches): READ BOULDER BY EVA BALTASAR

sweet days of discipline, fleur jaeggy (translated from the italian by tim parks)

the wandering, intan paramaditha (translated from the indonesian by stephen j. epstein)

my pen is the wing of a bird, anthology of short stories by afghan women, translated from dari & pashto

all your children, scattered, beata umbyeyi mairesse (translated from the french by alison anderson)

*waking lions, ayelet gundar-goshen (translated from the hebrew by sondra silverston)

*the lover, marguerite duras (translated from the french by barbara bray)

*trieste, daša drndić (translated from the croatian by ellen elias-bursać)

evil flowers, gunnhild øyehaug (translated from the norwegian by kari dickson)

*empty wardrobes, maria judite de carvalho (translated from the portuguese by margaret jull costa)

die tochter, kim hye-jin (translated from the korean by lee ki-hyang, english translation: concerning my daughter, by jamie chang)

still reading:

the books of jacob, olga tokarczuk (translated from the polish by jennifer croft

mister n, najwa barakat (translated from the arabic by luke leafgren)

[onlinetranslpro]

Free online English to Pashto translation site to easily Translate English text into Pashto . You can translate words, sentences and paragraphs from English to Pashto easily and fast!

[opposumghost]

so this exists.

i fucking love the effort put into this, for multiple reasons: 1) it's not the instrumentals and a guy singing. this dude RERECORDED THE FUCKING ALBUM! He would've had to mix this shit! This would've taken sooooooo long. 2) I like how it's not a language remotely close to english. finnish isn't even part of the same language family as english. finnish is a part of the uralic languge family (a group of languages comprising much of northern europe and asia).

most languages in europe are from Indo-european (english, spanish, french, swedish ect.) but don't be fooled, as this family also spreads out to many north indian and west asian languages (like hindi, pursian and pashto).

a lot of those languages share words (like the english 'three', punjabi 'ਤਿੰਨ (tina)' and greek 'tria'). but finnish? FUCK NO! three in finnish is 'kolme' (K from "king', ol from 'old' and 'me' from 'men') so that means this album has almost no words that sound ANYTHING like the original. The only two titles that sound and look like the original are "Pink Triangle" ("Pinkki Kilmio") and "El Scorcho", which is just same same cuz it's spanish. so the result is a set of songs that sound NOTHING AT FUCKING ALL like the originals, with many of the melodies having to be kinda stretched to include the new words and sounds that rivers cuomo never had the fortune of singing 3) OMG THIS WOULD'VE TAKEN SO LONG TO FUCKING TRANSLATE! when you translate you have to take in so much more than just the words themselves you have to take in: change in phrasing, tone, cultural references, how to get the same emphasis into this new language from the one your translating from. and it's SO much worse with poetry and songs. The beat sounds off, the rhyme is completely gone, many translations just sound like nonsense being read aloud if the original lyrics maybe don't rhyme or are more impressionistic. and this is kinda easier with languages like english to french or spanish or swedish that share some vocab and have roots in many languages. but again i will remind you that finnish has none of that familiarity, so how these sounds sound to finnish native speaker must just be WILD!

he also did the blue album ffs

[hadeth]

 عَنْ أَبِي هُرَيْرَةَ ـ رضى الله عنه ـ أَنَّ رَسُولَ اللَّهِ صلى الله عليه وسلم قَالَ ‏ "‏ إِيَّاكُمْ وَالظَّنَّ، فَإِنَّ الظَّنَّ أَكْذَبُ الْحَدِيثِ، وَلاَ تَحَسَّسُوا، وَلاَ تَجَسَّسُوا، وَلاَ تَنَاجَشُوا، وَلاَ ��َحَاسَدُوا، وَلاَ تَبَاغَضُوا، وَلاَ تَدَابَرُوا، وَكُونُوا عِبَادَ اللَّهِ إِخْوَانًا ‏"‏‏.‏ صحيح البخاري ومسلم حديث ٦٠٦٦ - ٢٥٦٣

Narrated Abu Huraira: Allah's Messenger (peace be upon him) said, "Beware of suspicion, for suspicion is the worst of false tales. and do not look for the others' faults, and do not do spying on one another, and do not practice Najsh, and do not be jealous of one another and do not hate one another, and do not desert (stop talking to) one another. And O, Allah's worshipers! Be brothers!" Sahih al-Bukhari 6066 In-book reference : Book 78, Hadith 96 - Sahih Muslim 2563a In-book reference : Book 45, Hadith 35

حثَّتِ الشَّريعةُ على الإصلاحِ بيْن المسلِمينَ وتَوطيدِ الأُخوَّةِ والاجتماعِ بيْنهم، ونَهَتْ عَنْ كلِّ ما يَدْعو لِلفُرقَةِ والتَّباغُضِ والعَداوةِ. وفي هذا الحديثِ يَنْهى النَّبيُّ صلَّى اللهُ عليه وسلَّم ويُحَذِّرُ مِن بعضِ ما يُؤدِّي إلى هذه الفُرقَةِ والعَداوةِ والتَّباغضِ؛ فحذَّر صلَّى اللهُ عليه وسلَّم مِنَ الظَّنِّ، وهو تُهمةٌ تقَعُ في القَلبِ بلا دَليلٍ، يعني سُوءَ الظَّنِّ بِالمسلِمين، والحديثَ بما لم يُتيقَّنْ مِنَ الأخبارِ، وقال: «إنَّ الظَّنَّ أكذبُ الحديثِ»، أي: يَقعُ الكذبُ في الظَّنِّ أكثرَ مِن وُقوعِه في الكلامِ، وقيلَ: المرادُ بأكذَبِ الحديثِ: حَديثُ النَّفْسِ؛ لأنَّه يكونُ بإلْقاءِ الشَّيطانِ في نفْسِ الإنسانِ. وقيل: إنَّ إثْمَ هذا الكَذِبِ أزْيدُ مِن إثمِ الحديثِ الكاذبِ، أو إنَّ المَظنوناتِ يقَعُ ��لكذِبُ فيها أكثرَ مِن المَجزوماتِ. ونَهى النَّبيُّ صلَّى اللهُ عليه وسلَّم عن التَّجسُّسِ فقال: «وَلَا تَجَسَّسُوا»، والتَّجسُّسُ: البحثُ عَنِ العَوراتِ والسَّيِّئاتِ، والسَّعيُ في كشْفِ سَترِ اللهِ عن عِبادِه، ويُستثنَى منه ما لو تَعيَّنَ ذلك طَريقًا لإنقاذِ إنسانٍ مِن هَلاكٍ أو نحْوِه؛ كأنْ يُخبِرَ أحدُهم بأنَّ فلانًا خَلا برجُلٍ ليَقتُلَه. ثمَّ قال: «وَلا تَحَسَّسُوا» والتَّحسُّسُ: هو طَلَبُ مَعرفةِ الأخبارِ والأحوالِ الغائبةِ، «وَلا تَباغَضُوا» والمرادُ: النَّهيُ عن تَعاطي أسبابِ البَغضاءِ والكراهيةِ، والانسياقِ وَراءَها، وفِعلِ ما يُسبِّبُ العَداوةَ بيْنهم؛ لِمَا في تَباغُضِهم منَ التَّفرُّقِ المذمومِ، «وكُونوا إخوانًا» كما أراد اللهُ لكم؛ حيث جعَلَكم إخوةً في الدِّينِ، وهي رابِطةٌ تلتَئِمُ بها العلاقاتُ بين النَّاسِ، وتَزيدُ المحبَّةَ والأُلفَةَ بيْنهم، كما قال اللهُ تعالَى: {إِنَّمَا الْمُؤْمِنُونَ إِخْوَةٌ} [الحجرات: 10] الدرر السنية.

Hadith Translation/ Explanation : English French Spanish Turkish Urdu Indonesian Bosnian Russian Bengali Chinese Persian Tagalog Indian Kurdish Hausa Portuguese Malayalam Telgu Swahili Tamil Burmese German Japanese Pashto Assamese Albanian: https://hadeethenc.com/en/browse/hadith/5332

قال أبو سليمان الخطابى: قوله: (إياكم والظن) فإنه أراد النهى عن تحقيق ظن السوء وتصديقه دون مايهجس بالقلب من خواطر الظنون فإنها لاتملك، قال الله تعالى: (إن بعض الظن أثم (فلم يجعل الظن كله إثمًا.قال غيره: فنهى عليه السلام أن تحقق على أخيك ظن السوء إذا كان الخير غالبًا عليه. وروى عن عمر أنه قال: لايحل لمسلم يسمع من أخيه كلمة أن يظن بها سوء وهو يجد لها فى شىء من الخير مصدرًا... والنهي عن التباغض والتدابر، وما أمرهم النبي عليه السلام فعليهم العمل به ومانهاهم عنه فعليهم الانتهاء عنه، غير موسع عليهم مخالفة إلا أن يخبرهم عليه السلام أن مخرج أمره لهم ونهيه على وجه الندب والإرشاد، وقد تقدم فى باب الحب فى الله قوله (صلى الله عليه وسلم) : (والذى نفسى بيده لاتدخلون الجنة حتى تؤمنوا، ولاتؤمنوا حتى تحابوا) . فذلك أن أمره عليه السلام ونهيه فى هذا الحديث على الوجوب، وقال أبو الدرداء: (ألا أخبركم بخير لكم من الصدقة والصيام: صلاح ذات البين، وإن البغض�� هى الحالقة) لأن فى تباغضهم افتراق كلمتهم وتشتت أمرهم، وفى ذلك ظهور عدوهم عليهم ودروس دينهم. وفيه: النهى عن الحسد على النعم، وقد نهى الله عباده المؤمنين عن أن يتمنوا مافضل الله به بعضهم على بعض وأمرهم أن يسألوه من فضله، وقد أجاز النبى الحسد فى الخير، وسيأتى هذا المعنى فى كتاب التمنى، إن شاء الله تعالى. وفيه: النهى عن التجسس وهو البحث عن باطن أمور الناس وأكثر ما يقال ذلك فى السر. وقال ابن الأعرابى وأبو عمرو الشيبانى: الجاسوس: صاحب سر، والناموس: صاحب سر الخير.وقال سليمان الخطابى: وأما التحسس بالحاء فقد اختلف فى تفسيره فقال بعضهم: هو كالتجسس سواء، وقرأ الحسن: ولا تحسسوا ومنهم من فرق بينهما، وروى الأوزاعى عن يحى بن أبى كثير أنه قال: التجسس: البحث عن عورات المسلمين، والتحسس: الاستماع لحديث القوم. وقال أبو عمر: التحسس بالحاء أن تطلبه لنفسك، وبالجيم أن تكون رسولا لغيرك. وقال صاحب العين: دابرت الرجل: عاديته، ومنه قولهم جعلته دبر أذنى أى خلفها..شرح ابن بطال على البخاري

قَوْلُهُ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ (وَلَا تَنَافَسُوا وَلَا تَحَاسَدُوا) قَدْ قَدَّمْنَا أَنَّ الْحَسَدَ تَمَنِّي زَوَالِ النِّعْمَةِ وَأَمَّا الْمُنَافَسَةُ وَالتَّنَافُسُ فَمَعْنَاهُمَا الرَّغْبَةُ في الشئ وَفِي الِانْفِرَادِ بِهِ وَنَافَسْتُهُ مُنَافَسَةً إِذَا رَغِبْتُ فيما رغب فيه قيل مَعْنَى الْحَدِيثِ التَّبَارِي فِي الرَّغْبَةِ فِي الدُّنْيَا وَأَسْبَابِهَا وَحُظُوظِهَا  ... شرح النووي على مسلم

 أن النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم قال كونوا عباد الله إخوانا كما أمركم يعني أنه يجب على الإنسان أن يكون أخا لأخيه، بالمعنى المطابق للأخوة، لا يكن عدوا له، فإن بعض الناس إذا صار بينه وبين أخيه معاملة وساء الظن بينهما في هذه المعاملة اتخذه عدوا، وهذا لا يجوز، الواجب أن الإنسان يكون أخا لأخيه، في المحبة والألفة وعدم التعرض له بالسوء والدفاع عن عرضه وغير ذلك من مقتضيات الأخوة المسلم أخو المسلم لا يظلمه ولا يحقره ولا يكذبه ... وهذا الحديث الذي ذكره المؤلف بألفاظه، ينبغي للإنسان أن يتخذه مسارا له ومنهجا يسير عليه ويبني عليه حياته فإنه جامع لكثير من مسائل الأخلاق التي إذا تجنبها الإنسان حصل على خير كثير والله الموفق. شرح رياض الصالحين لابن عثيم��ن

[cincinnatusvirtue]

Countries that are no more: Sikh Empire (1799-1849)

Though short lived, this empire was notable for a few reasons. First, it was the last major bastion of native rule on the Indian Subcontinent before a century of unchecked British rule which had already been gradually expanding over the preceding century. Secondly, it was diverse & tolerant in its ethnic and religious composition, not just in the general populace but more uniquely in its administration. Finally, it was notable for the religion of its leaders, perhaps the only time in history where Sikhs reigned atop an empire. This is the Sikh Empire.

Name: In English, the empire is known as the Sikh Empire. In Persian this was translated as Sarkār-i-Khālsa or the Khālasā Rāj in Punjabi. These languages were important administratively within the empire. Essentially to mean empire or kingdom of the Sikhs. Khalsa is a Punjabi term for the Sikh community more broadly and specifically means "pure" as in one professes to follow the Sikh faith and has undergone the Amrit ritual ceremony of initiation, specifically baptism.

Language: The Sikh Empire was notable for its many languages. Persian was its administrative language at court. Persian had been the language of diplomacy, administrative and the high arts from the Middle East to the Indian Subcontinent for centuries in part due to the spread of Islam to India. It was the court language of the greatest Islamic polity in the history of India, the Mughal Empire (1526-1857). Other languages which in the empire included Indo-Aryan languages such as Punjabi which was the dynastic native tongue of the ruling family and various Punjabi dialects which made up the lingua franca of the core territory of the empire. Kashmiri and Dogri were spoken in some parts as well, also Pashto (Pashtun) also known as Afghani. There were numerous others which also took place in its territory in modern India, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Territory: At its peak, the empire held roughly 200,000 sq miles of territory. The territory was centered in the Punjab region of modern Northwestern India and Eastern Pakistan. It covered territory in the modern states of India, Pakistan, the Afghanistan & Pakistan border and even small parts of Western Tibet in modern China.

Symbols & Mottos: The motto of the empire was ਅਕਾਲ ਸਹਾਇ Akāl Sahāi which is Punjabi for "With God's Grace" and its anthem was ਦੇਗ ਤੇਗ ਫ਼ਤਿਹ Dēġ Tēġ Fatih Punjabi for "Victory to Charity and Arms." The also used a triangled flag called the Nishan Sahib. This flag was used by Sikhs prior to the 1799 establishment of the empire and continued to have use after its 1849 disestablishment. It is usually depicted as an orange inner field with a green outer field with golden trim and patterns both on the green outer field and orange inner field. There were also individual flags for various Sikh, Hindu and Muslim regiments within the army as well. The Muslim ones often sharing similarity with the modern Pakistan flag.

Religion: Sikhism was the dynastic religion and religion of roughly 6-12 percent of the overall population. 50-80 percent of the populace was Muslim and 10-40 percent Hindu. There were also smaller populations of Christians and Jews as well. Religious tolerance was practiced as a matter of policy throughout the empire. Sikhs certainly benefitted from a ruling dynasty that was of their community however with larger populations of Muslims and Hindus among their territory, policies of accommodation and tolerance were practiced to other faiths as well. Likewise Indian and European Christians could practice their faith and rise to important military and government positions and even some Jews featured in the military as well. Promotion within the military and government more broadly had less to do with religion, ethnicity or geographic origin than with merit and personal loyalty.

Currency: The currency of the empire was called Nanak Shahi Sikee, these were metal coins usually of silver composition.

Population: The population was estimated to be roughly 12 million people at its peak in in the late 1830s and early 1840s.

Government: The government could be characterized as a federal monarchy with a later adoption of elements of absolute monarchy. Its origins lie in the Sikh community which started in the Punjab region of the Indian Subcontinent. This region consists of modern Pakistan (mostly) and some of India (remaining portion). It spans the five major rivers west to east (Indus, Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi & Sutlej). Sikhism had its origins and greatest core in the Punjab region among Punjabis. Though it is a relatively young religion by comparison to Hinduism and Islam, elements of overlap and interaction with both of these older faiths have influenced it. Nonetheless, Sikhs faced alternating periods of tolerance and persecution throughout the Mughal Empire and many Sikhs hid in jungles near the Himalayan foothills as refuge from the Muslim Mughals and various local Hindu hill tribal chiefs who persecuted them.

In response to this persecution from their neighbors, Sikhs formed militias to protect their religion community, these militias were called jathas and in turn these formed into a larger Dal Khalsa (Sikh army) circa 1735-1738. in 1748 at Amritsar, India, the most holy city for Sikhs in 1748 these militias were reorganized into a misl which is an Arabic term for equal. These misls became known as the Sikh Confederacy or Misl period (1748-1799). There were twelve sovereign Sikh misls formed and later a Muslim ruled misl which created a federation or confederacy united by Sikhism to preserve and protect their religious faith. There was uneven strength between the misls and some tried to expand at the expense of others, but they still formed a common defense of their community and even held biannual legislative meetings in Amritsar to address matters of the community.

The Mughal Empire suffered major decline in the 18th century following the death of its emperor Aurangzeb in 1707. The combination of a ruined economy from expensive wars, decentralization of power and the expanse of the Hindu oriented Maratha Empire (1674-1818) from the Western Deccan Plateau all contributed to its decline and creation of a power vacuum in parts of India, including the Punjab. To make matters worse, Nader Shah, the Shah of Persia invaded the Mughal Empire in 1739 and sacked the Mughal capital at Delhi. The plundering of riches from the Mughal capital was so great that Persia experienced three years exempt from all internal taxes. In this context the already persecuted Sikhs sought greater mutual defense, though their political autonomy remained relative to their respective misl. Despite the occasion inter-fighting with each other. Other problems came from the Afghan Durrani Empire which grew in the wake of Nader Shah's passing in Iran. The Durrani Empire would expand into Northern India including the Punjab and make the Mughals their vassals especially after defeating the Maratha Empire in 1761 at the Third Battle of Panipat. The Afghans would battle the Sikh Misls many times which aimed to defend themselves in the power vacuum from the Mughal decline.

The founder of the Sikh Empire proper, who united all the thirteen misls was a man named Ranjit Singh (1780-1839) who was of Jat-Punjabi ethnic origin and specifically Jat Sikh ethnoreligious families. His father Maja Singh and grandfather Charat Singh were the founders and chiefs of the Sukerchakia Misl. Ranjit was afflicted with smallpox as a child and left him blind in his left eye and scarred on his body, features which were noted by observers from Europe later in life.

Ranjit's father died when he was 12 and he took over chiefdom of the Sukerchakia Misl which was among the five most power Sikh misls. Through marriage Ranjit had alliances with two of the other top five misls. The Kasur misl near the major city and traditional capital of the Punjab of Lahore was controlled by a Muslim who assisted the Afghans in their invasions of India. Ranjit Singh defeated an Afghan invasion in 1797 in battle. In 1798 another Afghan army was checked by Ranjit Singh through scorched earth tactics.

in 1799 Ranjit Singh took Lahore using a combined 50,000 strong army made from his misl and that of his mother-in-law. This was traditionally dated as the founding of the Sikh Empire as Lahore would serve as its capital but Ranjit Singh would be formally vested as the Maharaja (King) of the Punjab in 1801.

Ranjit Singh held many titles, but the principal ones were Maharaja of the Punjab and Sarkar Khalsaji (Head of the Khalsa) which showed his titular leader status over the Sikh army and other misls. His authority was both geographic in nature and communal-religious in nature (to a degree).

Ranjit Singh would rule and expand the Sikh Empire until his death in 1839. The empire would survive roughly a decade after his demise.

Ranjit Singh was tolerant towards background in his governance and believed in merit and loyalty above all else. He hired Sikhs, Muslims, Hindus and Christians into his military and civil administration. These could also be Indians and Europeans with some French, Italian, Spanish, Russian & German officers taking leadership within his military. Even a few American adventurers such as Josiah Harlan and Alexander Gardner found work within Ranjit Singh's empire. The former Harlan (born to Quakers in Pennsylvania) taking on a governorship and the latter Gardner who was said to be born to a Scottish or Irish (possibly Scots-Irish) fur trader in modern day Wisconsin and had travelled to Central Asia dressed in a turban decked in Scottish tartan pattern joined the Sikh Empire's military where he served as a colonel and commanded the artillery. Ranjit refrained from hiring British officers joining his ranks but still communicated with the British East India Company which was Britain's state sponsored corporation bent on controlling India for its geostrategic and economic benefits. He relented slightly after 1835 and hired some British into his ranks.

Ranjit was secular and tolerant in his rule overall but personally followed Sikhism, he restored Sikh Gurdwaras (temples) and also prayed with Hindus in their own temples and upheld the Hindu sacred protection of cows and prevented their slaughter under punishment by death. Likewise, he had standing orders that his army was never to loot or molest civilians especially when conquering new territory and to not destroy houses of worship. All discipline was to be strictly enforced under his order. Observers noted that Ranjit would increase the salary of those who didn't engage in corruption and slice the nose off of those who were said to misbehave or act corruptly in his administration of state affairs. The mutilation was not only physical discipline but a psychological scar to deter bad behavior and forever mark one as untrustworthy.

The above is the consensus of most accounts, there are some Muslim accounts from the mid-19th century which portray Ranjit's reign as despotic and biased towards Kashmiri Muslims. The overall picture is one of a complex individual but generally agreed upon to be tough and strict at times but also overall pragmatic and not willing to let religious or national background create a personal bias towards their utilization in his administration.

After Ranjit's death the rules of succession weren't clearly established and in quick succession his son, grandson and subsequently two other sons ruled in his wake with his son Duleep Singh reigning the longest from 1843-1849. Duleep would later live in exile in Europe following defeat his by the British.

Military: The Sikh Khalsa Army at its peak in 1839 was roughly 125,000 men strong and it had infantry, cavalry and artillery components. Its origins lied in the Sikh jathas of the late 17th and early 18th centuries which passed onto the Sikh Misl (Confederacy) period of the later 18th century. These were typically cavalry based and engaged in hit and run tactics against the Mughals, Maratha and Afghans. Later Ranjit would modernize the Sikh army along European principles utilizing European and American recruited officers and by purchasing and developing modern weapons.

The military were given performance standards for logistics of troop deployment, maneuver and marksmanship. Likewise, the army was divided into three segments of elite troops, regulars and irregulars. Each with its own infantry, cavalry and artillery component. Even European style medals and awards for merit could be issued, including the Order of Merit with Ranjit's portrait featured on the medal.

Ultimately, the empire's military was a synthesis of modern (19th century) Western organization, discipline and technology with the original Indian cavalry hit and tactics and methods of its Sikh jatha forebearers.

Its infantry composition was not just Western officers and Sikhs of the Punjab for originally Sikhs looked down upon the infantry and so Afghans, Dogras and Nepali Gurkhas among others filled the infantry ranks. In time Punjabi Sikhs joined its ranks too. It reached over 50,000 in strength.

The cavalry reached a strength of 10,000 strong and consisted of Sikhs mainly, given their traditional use of cavalry dating back to jatha and misl eras preceding the 19th century.

The artillery was made up of 5,000 gunners at its peak with heavy cannons pulled by elephants, medium cannon pulled by oxen, light cannon pulled by horses and some mixed guns pulled by camels.

The traditional enemies of the empire in war consisted of the Afghans who presented its greatest threat from the West, the Sikhs pushed the Afghans from the Punjab and pressed into Afghanistan itself before being checked at the border, this demarcated the empire's western limit.

Other enemies included the Kingdom of Nepal which the Sikhs defeated. The Sikh Empire and its vassal the Dogra Rajput also fought against the Chinese Qing Empire and its vassal Tibet which resulted into a military stalemate but saw brief occupation of parts of Western Tibet in the early 1840s.

Its terminal enemy was the British East India Company which would face and defeat the Sikh Empire in two wars (1845-1846 and 1848-1849). The second war would lead to the British annexation of the Punjab and formal cessation of the Sikh Empire.

Lifespan: The empire's origins date back to the 18th century formation of the Sikh Misls within the Punjab and its gradual union under Ranjit Singh. Formally dated to start his 1799 capture of Lahore. In 1801 Ranjit was formally coronated as Maharaja of the Punjab.

Over the next several decades the empire would expand in several directions with the gradual defeat of the Afghans and Marathas who warred in the vicinity of the Punjab.

1809 saw Ranjit Singh sign a treaty of friendship with the British East India Company (EIC). This treaty requested Sikh help against the French should they attack EIC possessions elsewhere in India. Also, the Sikhs were not to pursue conquest south of the Sutlej River which acted as a border between Sikh and British spheres of influence. In reality this bought Ranjit time to focus on expanding against the Afghans in Punjab and Kashmir.

The empire expanded well into the fall reaches beyond Kashmir and Jammu and gained vassals in the Ladakh region. Likewise, the Sikhs would go onto fight the Nepalese (Gurkhas) and check their advance towards Kashmir.

The empire's lifespan very much mirrored with its founder Ranjit Singh's. Ranjit Singh had unified the Sikh Misls of the Punjab through alliance and conquest, and he driven out the Afghan invaders and expanded the Sikh polity he created to vast territories with tributary states of its own. He also gained riches from conquest, meritorious tax collections and trade agreements. Financed religious temple constructions of various faiths and modernized the military. Yet while his empire was on the surface strong, it was to peak with his demise in 1839. His health had declined in the 1830s due to a stroke and alcoholism as noted by many observers. He was said to treat his chronic pain with alcohol and opium though conversely, he refused to eat beef or smoke and was somewhat health conscious. Ultimately it was said he died of a combination of stroke and his failing liver due to his excessive alcohol consumption. He was cremated and four of his Hindu wives are said to have committed sati (ritualistic devotional suicide of widows by casting oneself onto the husband's burning funeral pyre) in a final act of martial devotion to their departed spouse.

In Ranjit Singh's wake, his sons and grandsons found themselves competing for succession, their were deep internal divisions and who to support and in quick order a son, grandson and two more sons of Ranjit took control with the youngest son Duleep Singh taking "control" at age five in 1843 and he would nominally reign for six years. He had a regency under his mother Jind Kaur for the years of his rule.

Following Ranjit's death, the internal division over support of his successors along with the ruling elite of the army which saw itself as the true extension of state and religion was convinced to go to war with the British in 1845-46. The Sikh administrators were said by the British to undermine the plurality and tolerance under Ranjit Singh towards other religions pushing for a Sikh supremacy in all matters. In response, the British began building a military presence along the Sutlej River, viewed as a provocation by the Sikhs. The British stated it was defensive in nature given what they saw as increasing chaos in the Sikh Empire. However, the Sikhs contend it was intended as offensive in nature to goad the empire into war. Whatever the varied causes war began in late 1845 and concluded with British victory in 1846. The result was the partial subjugation of the Sikh Empire with some territory and monies being ceded to the British. Also, separately Kashmir would be sold the to the princely state of Jammu (under British sponsorship).

Tensions between both the Sikhs and British remained which culminated in a second war in 1848-49 and saw the Sikhs fight valiantly but once more defeated. In April 1849 at Lahore, the British annexed the Punjab up to the fortress of Peshawar, gateway to the Khyber Pass towards Afghanistan. The British East India Company turned the Sikh Empire into the Punjab and North-West Frontier Province regions in modern Pakistan and India.

The British were impressed with the military prowess of the Sikhs, in part due to the religious devotion of its troops and in part due to the modernization efforts of Ranjit Singh and his able commanders. The conquest of the Sikh Empire served as the removal of last major obstacle to British rule over the whole of India. Recognizing the prowess of Sikh troops, the British were quick to incorporate them into the British Indian Army. A role they would play from the 1850s including during the Indian Rebellion of 1857 until World War II and the eventual granting of independence to India and Pakistan.

Duleep Singh was brought up in exile in Europe following the British annexation of the Sikh Empire, his teenage years spent in Scotland. He would go onto have family there and the Crown Jewels of the UK now in possession of the British Royal Family would incorporate some of its jewels taken from the Sikh Empire's Duleep Singh. Queen Victoria received the Koh-i-noor diamond which is set in the Queen Mother's crown to this day. The diamond dates back to the Mughal Empire and changed hands with the Persian looting of Delhi to Nader Shah before ending up in the Durrani Empire of Afghanistan and then the Sikh Empire under Ranjit Singh and finally with the British as a gift to Queen Victoria as it was formally surrendered to the EIC and then gifted to the queen. The modern governments of India, Pakistan Afghanistan (including the Taliban) and Iran have all demanded its return to them respectively, a demand which Britain's government has rejected. In 2018, India's Supreme Court & the Archeological Survey of India supported Britain's legal claim, stating the Treaty of Lahore in 1849 secured it through voluntary surrender, stating it was neither stolen nor taken by force, so it remains with the British Crown despite ongoing controversy.

Though the Sikh Empire lasted only half a century for the reasons outlined above, it is a polity worthy of study. First and foremost, its historical place in India as the last major bastion of independent native resistance before total British rule has endeared it to some Indian and Pakistani nationalists and international anticolonial narratives. The British recognized through its occasional defeats in battle at the hands of the Sikhs that they were a force to be reckoned with. Both sides earned a begrudging martial respect for the other following the two wars they fought. The British were keen to utilize the Sikhs for their own military, for which they served over the next century in many campaigns worldwide. Outside from its place in narratives of native resistance to colonial rule and its well-founded military prowess. The empire is relatively unique for its synthesis of administrative help from both within India and the West. Much of this can be chalked up to Ranjit Singh's personally pragmatic and disciplined approach to governance. Quite simply put Ranjit Singh wanted what he thought were the most qualified leaders regardless of ethnic or cultural background. Their merit as modernizers and reformers coupled with personal loyalty were prized above religious or ethnic affinity. Finally, the Sikh Empire is noteworthy simply for being to date the only Sikh run imperial polity in world history. Though it was the successor of the Sikh Misls which had a unified common defense, these misls were essentially politically independent in their own right rather than a singular polity. The Sikh Empire is the only time in history that a ruling dynasty over a vast territorial expanse came from practitioners of that religion and it was supported by an army and administration centered around that faith as well.

[persianatpenn]

Ghazals -- discovering a new poetic tradition

I’d originally planned on diving into a Persian poem for this week’s blog post, but my curiosity about the structure of the poems themselves got the best of me. So today, I’ll be sharing what I’ve learned about ghazals, a poetry form (think haikus or sonnets) that emerged in the Arab world but has since become associated with Persian poetry. The word “ghazal” (غزل) originates from Arabic, a nod to the form’s roots. In the Arab world, any poem on the subject of love, regardless of structure or rhyme, was categorized as a ghazal. When the poetic form arrived in what is now Iran, Persian ghazals initially retained this same ambiguity, but over the years, ghazals became a standardized form. 

These standardized ghazals are a minimum of five couplets and usually do not exceed fifteen lines. Classical Persian poets traditionally considered seven lines to be the “sweet spot.” Usually, the first couplet introduces a theme, and is constructed using a rhyme followed by a refrain. Subsequent couplets repeat the refrain, but rhyme the second line with both lines of the first stanza. Thus, ghazals follow something along the lines of an AA BA CA DA rhyme pattern. The final couplet usually incorporates the poet's signature, typically by referring to the author in the first or third person. Frequently, this also involves weaving in the poet's own name or some derivation of its meaning. Unlike some forms of poetry that revolve around a plot or are narrative in style, ghazals are composed of completely independent lines that are only loosely connected by an overarching theme.

Ghazals gained prominence during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and were popularized by legendary Persian poets like Rumi and Hafiz. Eventually, poets writing in Urdu, Hindi, Pashto, Turkish, and Hebrew also adopted the form. However, ghazals were not popularized in the English-speaking world until the 1960s, when Indian musicians introduced ghazals to English-speaking audiences in the form of songs. In India and Pakistan, the art of singing or performing ghazals is an age-old tradition. Later, Indian poet Agha Shahid Ali introduced ghazals in their classical poetic form to American poets, several of which have since made attempts to write ghazals in English. 

The intricate construction of the ghazal makes it by far the most fascinating poetic form I’ve learned about – it makes me quite disappointed that all those poetry units back in elementary school English class never introduced us to ghazals. Writing (bad) poems was a favorite pastime of mine as a kid, and reading about ghazals has rekindled my urge to write poetry – maybe in ghazal form this time! As the nature of ghazals makes translation very difficult, I’ve made a new goal of one day being able to read these masterpieces in their original Persian. For now, I’ve been listening: although Indian ghazal performances are much more widespread, I found a stunning performance of Rumi’s poems that I’d like to share with you all. 

--kagamin

https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/gazal-1-history

https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/gazal-2

https://poets.org/glossary/ghazal

[deputy-buck]

“We had been given hastily made Pashto and Dari “pointie-talkie” cards, which listed English phrases appropriate to our situation, such as “drop your weapon, or I will shoot,” and then gave both their written and phonetic translations.“

- Nate Fick, One Bullet Away. (p. 109)