The historiographical writings produced by the court writers in medieval north India focused on lives of the sultans and their nobles, rebellions, military campaigns, conquests, and administration. This statist discourse represented elite culture and seems silent on the sociocultural, socio-religious, spiritual and intellectual life of the common people. Resultantly, social history of medieval India remained an ignored area of study. Social history is interested in studying long-run trends and structures in society and culture. It focuses on experience rather than events or actions, while identifying patterns from daily life. Keeping this in view, the historiographical gap on social history of medieval India can be adequately filled by sufi literature and its varied genres. It can help construct a more informed view of social history of medieval India, with a particular focus on its ‘Indo-sufi culture’. The present research aims at emphasizing the significance of sufi literature in the historic literary traditions of South Asian history. It explores the formation and functioning of the thirteenth- and fourteenth-century north Indian society by utilizing tadhkirah literature with a particular focus on Siyar al-awliyā [Biographies of the Sufis] authored by Amir Khurd Kirmānī, a Chishtī adept, in 1361-64. Based on Siyar al-awliyā, the present study offers a vivid account of a diverse range of social, cultural, religious, intellectual, spiritual aspects of medieval India ranging from, but not limited to, the development of vernacular languages and dialects, place of women, Muslim education, food culture, dressing trends, building and construction, prevalent diseases, spiritual life, recognition of female spirituality, question of conversion, Hindu-Muslim relations, ‘ulema-sufi and khanqāh-madrassa dichotomies, curricula and scholarship, transmission of knowledge and methods of teaching, production of sufi and non-sufi literature, and issues, principles and writings on samā‘or devotional sufi music. In addition, it offers an overview of varied forms of state-sufi relationship, such as meditational, symbiotic and conflictual, as well as socio-economic profile of medieval India. In a nut shell, the study argues that sufi tadhkirah writings help provide profound insights into minute details of social realities in medieval India. Modern scholars like Richard M. Eaton, Shehzad Bashir, Nile Green along with others also highlight the importance of xi utilizing sufi literature and urge to use these writings to fill the gaps in socio-historical perspective on history. The present study opens a window to our past and serves as corrective to many of the mistaken assumptions regarding Muslim-Hindus divide, absence of female Sufis, and strict segregation of sexes in sufi khanqahs. The study brings to the fore the dire need to shift our focus of research from state-centred court writings to lesser-studied sources of history like sufi tadhkirahs
The Immensely Merciful to all, The Infinitely Compassionate to everyone.
37:01 a. By those lining up in rows,
37:02 a. and those drivers, driving away,
37:03 a. and those reciting the Reminder – The Divine Qur’an.
37:04 a. Indeed, your Allah is the One and Only Allah of everyone. b. HE has no parents, no partners, no siblings, no sons, and no daughters.
37:05 a. Allah is Rabb - The Lord of the celestial realm and the terrestrial world and whatever is within and between them, and, b. Allah is also Rabb - The Lord of the vast expanse of the East and the West.
37:06 a. Indeed, WE adorned the sky of the terrestrial world with splendor of the glittering stars.
37:07 a. And secured them with meteors against every defiant Satan.
37:08 a. So that they, who seek to know the unknowable, may not be able to eavesdrop on the Exalted Assembly of angels, b. for they will be pelted with meteors from every side -
37:09 a. – and driven off, b. for them will be a constant and perpetual punishment.
37:10 a. Except for the one, who is able to eavesdrop and snatch a word of such knowledge, b. he is instantaneously pursued by flaming fireballs.
37:11 a. So ask them: b. ‘Are they more difficult to be created, or those WE created others than them? c. In fact, WE created them – the human species - out of mere sticky clay!
Hafiz Ibn-e-Kaseer’s ‘Al-Bidaya Wan-Nehaya’ maintains a remarkable position in the field of historiography. In this valuable book, he has described the occurrences of the important nations of the past and the epochs of the previous Prophets up to his own era. Although ‘Al-Bidaya Wan-Nehaya’ is basically a book of ‘History’, yet the worthy author has referred to numerous salient events pertaining to the life and mission of the holy Prophet (SAW). A considerable portion of the book, about two thousand pages, relates to the biograph of the Holy Prophet (SAW). Hafiz Ibn-e-Kaseer’s mode of ‘Seerah-writing’ differs from all other biographers in certain aspects. There are some distinctive marks which distinguish his biography from others. The following Article is an analytic account of the characteristic features and merits as well as deficiencies and shortcomings of ‘Al-Bidaya wan-Nehaya’ with special reference to the science ‘Seerat-Writing’ and it aims at determining its credibility as a source of Prophetic Biography
Leadership communication plays a pivotal role in the e ectiveness and e ciency of an organization. Successful organizations always remain concerned about every aspect of their leadership and the verbal communication being used by the leaders remains the top agenda of these organizations. This research study endeavours to investigate the model based on Sullivan''s (1988) Motivating Language Theory. This study investigates the relationship and impact that the three components, i.e.; 1) Direction-Giving Language,2) Empathetic Language, and 3) Meaning-Making Language use on job performance. It also analyse the mediating role of job satisfaction, and a ective commitment between the use of all three components of motivating language and job performance. A sample of all levels of teaching stafrom all public and private universities in Pakistan was drawn based on the non-probability convenient technique. A total 770 questionnaires were administered to the target respondents; in return, 633 questionnaires were received and then 577 complete questionnaires in every aspect were considered for data analysis. At the dyadic level, the teachers were asked to tap their perception regarding the use of all three components of motivating language by their Deans/HoDs and also to provide information regarding their own level of job satisfaction and a ective commitment. In response, to a six-item scale of job performance, the Deans/HoDs provided the perceived evaluation of the performance of their teaching stamembers. The Correlation Coe cient Test was applied to ascertain the relationship between the studied variables. The use of direction-giving and empathetic language by Deans/HoDs has a positive significant relationship with the teachers'' a ective commitment, but the less signi cant negative relationship was found with meaning-making language. Direction-giving and empathetic language used by the Deans/HoDs has a positive signi cant relationship with the teachers'' job satisfaction, but negative relationship with the use of meaning-making language. The results of CFA and SEM indicate that job satisfaction and a ective commitment mediate the relationship between the use of direction-giving language and x job performance and also between the use of empathetic language and job performance. However, job satisfaction and a ective commitment do not mediate the relationship between the use of meaning-making language and job performance. Thending generates more interest in enhancing communication patterns used in the context of the university environment that develop more job satisfaction and job performance of the faculty members. This also added to the literature of leadership communication in another cultural environment. The study recommends that additional testing to be carried out with the longitudinal approach in order to check its further generalization. This study also recommends more leadership-development programmes to be imparted for enhancing the dynamics of verbal communication used by institutional leaders. Key words: Motivating language, Direction-giving, Empathetic, Meaning- making, Job satisfaction, A ective commitment, Job performance.