Circle of Life and Velvet on Mirrors
Uniformity is a rule you see flouted everyday. Science talks of Thermal Equilibrium - how when a hot object and cold object mixed together shares their heat so that they come to the same temperature. Watching this TED talk by Eli Shafak about how you can destroy anything by keeping a body inside a tightly bound circle of itself, makes me wonder.
She says, all you have to do is keep yourself surrounded by mirrors. And you will grow no more. In some ways, Islam is slowly evolving into a static creature that refuses to evolve with time. Edward Luce in his book "In Spite of Gods" talks about his trip to Deoband, the centre of Islamic Orthodoxy. He was visiting Dar-Ul-Uloom - the House of Knowledge - a large Islamic School.
"It was early October 2001 and the madrasa was buzzing with anti-American sentiment. The United States was about to start its bombing of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan [...] I was sitting on the ground in the study of Maulana (an honorific title given to learned Muslim men) Abdul Khalik Madrasi, vice-chancellor of Deoband, with a group of his students. They were telling me that Christians should make an alliance with Muslims against the Jews, who were the real troublemakers. It was Zionists, they said, who had organized the plane attacks on the Twin Towers in New York a few weeks earlier. It was useless arguing.
The burly Maulana, whose beard reached down almost to his rotund belly, then asked if I wanted some refreshment. I said I would like a Nescafe, which is the only kind of coffee usually available in Norther India outside of the cities. 'No, No,' he said sternly. 'We have issued a fatwa forbidding the faithful from buying any American or British products.' I tried in vain to argue that I was not one of the faithful so the fatwa should not apply to me. They laughed. Then I tried and failed to convince them that Nescafe is owned by Nestle, which is a Swiss Company, but they had either neer heard of Switzerland or could not see the difference. No, they said, wagging their fingers, as if they had caught me pulling a fast one, Nescafe is Angrezi. Then something occured to Maulana, who was also a member of the committee that issues Deobandi fatwas. 'I have thought of a legitimate loophole.' he announced with a smile. 'The fatwa only applies to products bought after 11 september. Does anyone here possess Nescafe that is older?' A student raised his had. The mildewed sachet of instant coffee that he fetched from his room certainly pre-dated 9/11. It was one of the most satisfying coffee I have had."
