“And then I found out that gender can have fluidity , which is quite different from ambiguity. If ambiguity is a refusal to fall within a prescribed gender code, then fluidity is the refusal to remain one gender or another. Gender fluidity is the ability to freely and knowingly become one or many of a limitless number of genders, for any length of time, at any rate of change. Gender fluidity recognizes no borders or rules of gender.”
Source: Gender Outlaw: On Men, Women and the Rest of Us
“You’re going to have to do better than that if you’re trying to break me. I’m a diamond, formed under greater pressure than you’ll ever be capable of, you sad, sad excuse for a human.”
Source: Free Me
“It's quite clear : an outsider can, on principle, only value foreign literature that translates well; the truly great artists of language and the fecund experimenters are inaccessible to him; are usually unknown to him in fact !”
Source: Two Novels: The Stony Heart and B/Moondocks
“While various popular translations of the Qur’an exist, readers should be aware that there is no definitive scholarly consensus on accurate translation. Translators understandably struggle to capture the Qur’an’s sophisticated and layered nuances in a foreign language, and renderings can often sound bland or abstruse.”
Source: The Life of the Qur'an: From Eternal Roots to Enduring Legacy
“Qatar & The West (The Sonnet)
All of a sudden the entire west is peeved at Qatar,
Because only the west has exclusive rights to exposure.
All of a sudden we care about the migrant workers,
The Afghans, Palestinians and Kashmiris no longer matter.
Human rights issue here is, we don't care about human rights,
We only care about filling the air with hypocrisy and mania.
Our poster boy just dumped half his new workforce as garbage,
We buy Oscar, ditch Batgirl, and we diss Qatar for buying FIFA!
We are just peeved that the Arabs are showing off for a change,
Sure it's unacceptable, since showing off is a western tradition.
Yes, it's true that the Middle East reeks with human rights issues,
But it is also teeming with passion beyond western comprehension.
If you really care about human rights stick to a cause for more than a fortnight.
Otherwise keep your trap shut, lest you open and be proved a privileged white.”
Source: Himalayan Sonneteer: 100 Sonnets of Unsubmission
“Eid ul-Adha is not only about sacrificing an animal. Before we sacrifice the animal, we must first put a knife to our pride, our selfishness, and our ego. We must slaughter the animals living inside our hearts, our minds, our thoughts, and our personalities, so we can attain the true meaning of Eid ul-Adha. May Allah accept all our good deeds and prayers.”
Source: "Zaki's Gift Of Love"
“For twelve hundred years Mullahs have been writing proofs of the existence of God. Believe me, I've taught theology for a long time - none of them is real proof. The only real proof can come through illumination.”
Source: The Mantle of the Prophet: Religion and Politics in Iran
“Willingness to conform to Islamic law, even in the face of doubt, spiritual aridity, and dark nights of the soul, is the mark of a serious Muslim.”
Source: The Mantle of the Prophet: Religion and Politics in Iran
“Ivanov's fear was of a literary nature. That is, it was the fear that afflicts most citizens who, one fine (or dark) day, choose to make the practice of writing, and especially the practice of fiction writing, an integral part of their lives. Fear of being no good. Also fear of being overlooked. But above all, fear of being no good. Fear that one's efforts and striving will come to nothing. Fear of the step that leaves no trace. Fear of the forces of chance and nature that wipe away shallow prints. Fear of dining alone and unnoticed. Fear of going unrecognized. Fear of failure and making a spectacle of oneself. But above all, fear of being no good. Fear of forever dwelling in the hell of bad writers.”
Source: 2666
“Nowhere is the case for external obedience put more eloquently than in the writings of al-Ghazzali, the lawyer, theologian, and Sufi who is, perhaps, the greatest moral thinker of the Islamic tradition. [...] [Al-Ghazzali] entered a crisis of doubt that led him to question not only the possibility of certain knowledge of any kind, even certain knowledge of the soundness of one's own senses: "The disease was baffling, and lasted almost two months, during which I was a skeptic in fact though not in theory or outward expression.”
Source: The Mantle of the Prophet: Religion and Politics in Iran