گو نہ تم سے ملی وفا مجھ کو
پھر بھی تم سے نہیں گلہ مجھ کو
میں بھی تم سے کنارا کر لیتا
کرنی آتی نہیں جفا مجھ کو
زندگانی گزارنے کے لیے
مرنا پڑتا ہے بار ہا مجھ کو
اُس کو مجبوریوں نے گھیرا تھا
کہہ نہ پایا وہ برملا مجھ کو
وہ نہ دھتکارتا مجھے تائبؔ
چاہے کرتا نہ کچھ عطا مجھ کو
Sirah of the Holy Prophet ﷺ is the topic on which a lot of work has been done both in the Muslim and non-Muslim world. For Muslims it was the source of aspiration and adaptation for the practical purposes of social life while for the non-Muslims it was the source of inquisitiveness and understanding Islam as a successful religion in the past and present time. Therefore, Muslim enthusiastic interest in the biography of the Holy Prophet ﷺ developed and evolved into a regular science while the west has modified the knowledge of biography according to their own order of preference but within the same biographic precedents. Both have tried to reconstruct the biography of the Holy Prophet ﷺ historically, chronologically and logically.
Clinton Bennett is one of the western scholars who has contributed not only in the Islamic literature but also the biographic field. His work consists of numerous issues in Islam. Whatever he has learned from Islam and the Sirah of Holy Prophet and thus concluded in the form of his own thoughts, he has expressed most of them in his famous five books for example ‘In Search of Muhammad’, ‘Muslims and Modernity’, ‘Studying Islam’, ‘Interpreting the Qur’an’, and ‘Victorian Images of Islam’ (doctoral thesis)’.
This study focuses on Clinton Bennett’s work on Sirah specifically with his broader view of the subject. This research is descriptive and analytical in nature and presents a detailed analysis of the work it is based upon.
Women Shamans in Louise Erdrich's Novel Texts This qualitative study is about the women shamans in the novel texts of Louise Erdrich. The women shamans, included in the study, belong to Native American culture that had been stereotyped, labeled and defined by the theoretical frameworks of the colonial masters, and therefore, this resistance has been highlighted in the analysis of the novel texts, by utilizing a theoretical framework that gives proper representation to the native women. This study is about the understanding of the roles of these women shamans in their native contexts in a quest to find the hidden history behind the stories, which has been silenced by the authoritative colonial masters. The study is grounded in the colored feminist perspective of bell hooks and Paula Gunn Allen as the white theoretical underpinnings are unable to give proper representation to the perspectives of the indigenous people. The women shamans are analyzed in the interplay of myth, metaphor, narratives and emotions. The metaphors and emotions in the novel texts, challenge the authoritative and colonial gaze, which has marginalized the indigenous people and restricted them from their spiritual and peaceful traditions. The Colonial patterns and discursive strategies still persist in the lives of the indigenous women. The study is about the role of these women shamans in their tribes, and the manner in which they challenge the patriarchal, dominant and sexist thinking. The mythic world of shamans and the interplay of myth, metaphors and emotions give rise to these narratives and the analysis of these narratives give a critical insight into the lives of the Native Americans driven away from their lands and harmonic, matrilineal culture of their ancestors to the margins. The study focuses on the conceptual metaphors analyzed in the cultural context of the native women while searching for the identity, family system, spirituality and religious traditions of the indigenous women.