Quran – Brown Pundits

Hijab: Between Revelation and Regulation

October 10, 2025October 10, 2025X.T.MBahá’í, Culture, Gender, Hinduism, Iran, Islam & the Middle East, Partition, Postcolonialism & the Global South, Religion, Women's Rights, X.T.MAbbasid era, Baha’i Faith, Bahá’u’lláh, Bahai history, Cambridge Massachusetts, divine feminine, East and West dialogue, emancipation of women, faith and freedom, fiqh, Gilan, hijab, Iran, Iranian culture, Islamic Reform, Islamic theology, jilbab, Kashan, khimar, Kurdish women, Mahsa Amini, Mazandaran, Middle East, modesty, Muslim feminists, Persian feminism, Persian modernity, post-oligarchic world, Qom, Qur’anic interpretation, Quran, Qurratu’l-Ayn, Religion and Politics, revolution of consciousness, secularism, Semnan, Shiraz, spiritual feminism, Táhirih, Tehran, theology of modesty, unveiling, veil, women in Islam69 Comments

When Bahá’u’lláh wrote that every word of the Qur’ān bears meaning and intention, he was reminding us that revelation, properly read, resists reduction. Scripture, like language itself, is alive; it breathes, it hesitates, it renews. Yet somewhere between the living word and the legislated code, the hijab became a symbol, of modesty, of defiance, of cultural siege, of theological purity, until its nuance was lost to politics.

My friend is in Kashan, a city of gardens and scholars, and perhaps among the most traditional pockets of Iran. She forgot her hijab back in her home city and now cannot step out of her hotel. The irony is sharp: the veil that once signified spiritual privacy has become an enclosure of space. Kashan’s cobbled lanes whisper poetry, but they also enforce silence.

Meanwhile, the liberal axis of Iran, Shiraz, Tehran, Gilan, Mazandaran, Semnan, walks the tightrope between revelation and rebellion. The North dresses as Europe, the Centre prays as Qom. Mahsa Amini’s martyrdom was Kurdish, and therefore doubly liminal: ethnically marginal, religiously symbolic (the Kurds are very secular as a rule of thumb; more Zoroastrian than the Persians). Her death reopened a question the Qur’ān itself leaves open — what, after all, does ḥijāb mean?

1. The Qur’ānic Vocabulary of Modesty Continue reading Hijab: Between Revelation and Regulation

Links on My Browser Right Now – Open Thread

September 19, 2025September 19, 2025X.T.MAncient India, China, Civilisation, Colonialism, Geopolitics, Indian Subcontinent, Iran, Islam & the Middle East, Pakistan, Partition, Postcolonialism & the Global South, Politics, Race, Religion, X.T.MAutocratic Alliance, Bahá’í, Civilizational Analogy, commentariat, Foreign Policy, Geopolitics, Hadith, HDI, India, Infrastructure, Islamic Reform, Middle East, Muslim Minorities, nuclear deterrence, Open Thread, Pakistan, Personality Types, Quran, Russia, Ukraine, Ummah, US Policy51 Comments

A few pieces I’ve been reading this week:

The Lies America Tells Itself About the Middle East: (Foreign Affairs) – On how U.S. narratives obscure its own role in the region.
Don’t Overestimate the Autocratic Alliance: (Foreign Affairs) – A counterpoint: authoritarian states may not be as cohesive as advertised.
The Four Humours: Our 2,500-Year-Old Mania for Personality Types: (BBC Future) – Why these frameworks endure and what that says about how societies interpret character.
Can We Hear God? (Bahá’í Teachings) – A reflection on divine communication and perception.
The Dawn of the Post-Literate Society: (James Marriott, Substack) – On how screens and AI are reshaping reading and writing itself. Thanks Kabir for the suggestion.

Reflections

On the Ummah: Muslims have often failed to concede ground in internal debates, which has left them politically boxed in. One reform across all denominations would be to return directly to the Quran as the primary authority. That alone would dissolve many cultural accretions, halal (animals should be stunned before slaughter), hijab (a Sassanian trait), and other practices, into something more adaptive.

And here’s a more speculative question: if the “Satanic Verses” were reconsidered if Al-Lat, Al-Uzzah, and Al-Manat were understood as sacred divinities at the threshold of the Lote Tree, would that make Islam more fluid, especially for minority-majority dynamics?

On Kabir: I’m not moderating him out, but readers should be aware that he frames everything through Muslim-rights activism. Engage, but don’t get gaslit into endless provocations. Everyone is entitled to their nationalisms — but they can’t claim liberalism at the same time. That tension makes it worth examining how plurality is treated within the Hindu fold itself. Dharma, unlike the Abrahamic Faiths, tends to all for multiple truths co-existing with each other (Buddhism and indigenous East Asian religions).

👉 Over to you. I’m retreating from heavy moderation — I see BP’s strength in letting the commentariat lead. Biases are fine. Gratuitous abuse is not.

“In March 1998 the Indian PM Gujral, told … “Pakistan was not capable of making atomic bombs.” he had been convinced by Indian Intelligence and Dr Raja Raman, the head of Indian Atomic Energy Commission, who had publicly claimed that nuclear weapon were beyond Pakistan’s reach.”

Sacred Texts and Jewish-Muslim Relations

March 22, 2024Omar AliDr Hamid HussainArabs, Jews, Quran, Torah1 Comment

From Dr Hamid Hussain

This is part of a series of my work on Jewish-Muslim relations encompassing a wide canvas of similarities in scripture, rituals, Arabic & Hebrew language, mysticism, literature, coexistence in historical context and conflict in recent times. It has been a fascinating journey tracing the sibling rivalry of Isac and Ishmael.

Hamid

Jewish Muslim Relations – Sacred Texts – The Torah and the Quran

“Lighthouses don’t go running all over an island looking for boats to save; they just stand there shining.”

Anne Lamott

The Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) and the Quran are two sacred texts considered revelation from God by Judaism and Islam respectively. Both sacred texts are considered foundational stones of faith. Tanakh is acronym for Torah (five books of Moses called Khumash in Hebrew), Navi’im (Prophets) and Ketuvim (Writings). The Torah is called sefer (book) and the Quran um al kitab (mother of books). Both texts share several commonalities in terms of themes, narratives, and ethical teachings and are at the same time quite different. One can pick any side depending on what one is trying to convey. In the inter-faith interactions, participants stress commonalities sometimes exaggerating the similarities or trying to find common ground where none exists. On the other hand, polemics with aim of denouncing the other side can give a long list of differences between two texts. Continue reading Sacred Texts and Jewish-Muslim Relations

The Koran; a very short introduction

November 19, 2020November 20, 2020Omar AliBook ReviewsIslam, Michael Cook, Quran1 Comment

An old review I happened to revisit today. It was written for the Pakistani news-magazine Herald in 2002, you can see a reference to “colonization of the Middle East” which indicates it was a different era and a different me 😉

The Koran (in the OUP “Very Short Introductions” series,) Oxford 2000.

Pious Muslims may feel that in the presence of the text and its commentaries, they do not need Professor Michael Cook’s “very short introduction” to the Koran. The pious may also wish to stay away because Professor Cook was once associated with the notorious “Hagarene hypothesis” (put forth in the 1977 book: Hagarism: The Making of the Islamic World by Patricia Crone and Michael Cook) though he has since backed away from some of the more extreme claims of that book. But “The Koran, a very short introduction” turns out to be a very witty and interesting book, full of insights that the most pious Muslim will find informative and stimulating. Continue reading The Koran; a very short introduction