تفسیر القرآن از سر سید احمد خان کا تحقیقی و تنقیدی جائزہ

Sir Syed Aḥmed Khān belonged to a famous family of the subcontinent during the late Mughal and early British colonial period. He was famous for his close relations with the colonial government. He served many years in the judiciary. In recognition of his services, he was conferred upon with various titles such as Sir, The Imperial Advisor, etc. He is the founder of the educational campaign which was later known as the Aligarh movement. He was worried about the future of Muslims in India. This worry forced him to produce various literary and Islamic books to uplift the political, cultural, educational and social status of the Indian Muslims. One of his famous contribution to Islamic literature of Quranic exegeses is his Tafsīr al-Qur’ān. His tafsīr is influenced by western thoughts. He, instead of following the traditional methodology of Quranic exegeses, tried to understand the Quranic verses rationally. This led him to deviate from many established concepts of Islamic doctrines. He went against the Muslims’ affirmed beliefs in his exegesis. He mistrusted some of the basics of Islamic thoughts and tried his best to make new parameters of writing & reading of the Quranic exegesis on human logics. In addition, some of his views show certain relevance to the Mu'tazilites school of thought. The aim of this paper is to present an analytical and a critical evaluation of the exegetical opinions of Sir Syed Aḥmed Khān, particularly on the issues where he deviated from the mainstream Islamic thoughts in his exegesis, Tafsīr al-Qur’ān.

Trust and Mistrust: A Case of Pak-Afghan Strained Relations 2001-2008

Pakistan relations with Afghanistan have mostly been frail, based on mutual mistrust which has never allowed the two countries to establish closer ties. In post Taliban era, Pakistan recognized Hamid Karzai government and expressed its desire of establishing friendly relations but nature of relationship was fragile and mistrust was dominant. Their bilateral relations during (2001-2008) showed heightened mistrust which inhibited the development of strong and stable relationship and presented a situation of Prisoner‟s Dilemma. Several issues strained their relations and were responsible for widening trust gap. Mistrust in the fight against terrorism, cross border infiltration, blame game, safe havens in FATA and regional factors complicated the situation and halted cooperation between the two neighbors. Pakistan and Afghanistan are security seekers but concrete steps for bringing peace and security are lacking on their part. A friendly and secure Afghanistan is very much important for Pakistan‟s future stability, security and prosperity and vice versa. Mistrust and causes of friction, if not removed, will complicate the process of maintaining friendly relations and threaten regional peace and security. The study therefore, highlights the causes of friction and recommends breaking the Prisoner‟s Dilemma to establish relations based on mutual trust and cooperation.