Books – Kashmir Pages

The Dhikr Book of Kashmir

Kashmir Pages — Thu, 17 Aug 2023 20:39:43 +0000

VIEW

DOWNLOAD FROM GOOGLE PLAY STORE

“The Prophet (SAW) said: ‘He who remembers God much (man akthara dhikr Allah), God loves him (aHabbahu Allah),’ and he said: ‘The night that I was enraptured to my Lord (laylata usra bi), I passed by a man extinguished within the light of God’s Throne (mugheeb fi nur al-arsh). I asked, who is this, and is he an angel? I was told No. I asked again, Is it a Prophet? I was told No, and I said, Who then? It was said: ‘This is a man who, while he was in the world, his tongue was constantly moist with the mention of God and his heart was attached to the mosques.’
It is related that a servant of God will join the gatherings of dhikr with sins the size of mountains, and then rise and leave one such gathering with nothing left of them to his name. This is why the Prophet called it one of the groves of Paradise when he said: ‘If you pass by the groves of Paradise, be sure to graze in them.’ Someone asked, ‘What are the groves of Paradise?’ to which he replied: ‘the circles of dhikr.’
On the authority of Hazrat Ali (RAA) – may God be well pleased with him – it is related that God manifests Himself (yatajalla) to the ones remembering during dhikr and the recitation of Qur’an. The Prophet said: ‘No group gathers and remembers God seeking nothing other than Him except a caller from heaven calls out to them: ‘Arise forgiven, for your bad deeds have been turned into good ones!’
Abu al-Darda’ narrated that the Prophet said: ‘God verily will raise on the Day of Resurrection people bearing light on their faces, carried aloft on pulpits of pearl, whom the people will envy. They are neither prophets nor martyrs.’ Upon hearing this, a Bedouin Arab fell to his knees and said: ‘Show them to us (ajlihim), O Prophet of God!’ – that is: ‘describe them for us.’ He replied: ‘They are those who love one another for God’s sake alone. They come from many different tribes, countries, and cities. They gather together for the remembrance of God the Exalted, remembering Him.'”

The books presented in this compilation feature some of the most revered prayers from Kashmir’s Islamic traditions. This collection has been meticulously compiled with the hope that it will bestow spiritual benefits upon its readers, becoming a wellspring of peace and solace. May the almighty Allah support this endeavor and reward all sincere intentions.

The Forty Hadith of Imam Al Nawawi

Kashmir Pages — Sat, 28 Nov 2015 07:44:38 +0000

In the introduction to his compilation the Imam writes, “To proceed: It has been transmitted to us on the authority of `Ali ibn Abi Talib, `Abdullah ibn Mas`ud, Mu`adh ibn Jabal, Abu`d-Darda’, Ibn `Umar, Ibn `Abbas, Anas ibn Malik, Abu Huraira and Abu Sa`id al-Khudri (may Allah be pleased with them), through many chains of authorities and in various versions, that the Messenger of Allah (may the blessings and peace of Allah be upon him) said: ‘Whosoever memorises and preserves for my People forty Hadith relating to their religion, Allah will resurrect him on the Day of Judgment in the company of jurists and religious scholars’. In another version it reads: ‘Allah will resurrect him as a jurists and religious scholar’. In the version of Abu`d-Darda’, it reads: ‘On the Day of Judgment I shall be an intercessor and a witness for him’. In the version of Ibn Mas`ud it reads: ‘It will be said to him: Enter by whichever of the doors of Paradise you wish’. In the version of Ibn `Umar it reads: ‘He will be written down in the company of religious scholars and will be resurrected in the company of martyrs’. Scholars of Hadith are in agreement that it is a weak Hadith despite its many lines of transmission.”

Imam An-Nawawi shows us the great rewards promised for transmitting of 40 Hadith in light of the above Hadith though he also points out that the Hadith is zaeef (or weak); nonetheless he asserts that any transmission of the Hadith is still a noble deed.

Kashmir, by Sir Francis Edward Younghusband

Kashmir Pages — Fri, 17 Apr 2015 06:34:01 +0000

Bernier, the first European to enter Kashmir, writing in 1665, says: “In truth, the kingdom surpasses in beauty all that my warmest imagination had anticipated.” This impression is not universally felt, for one of the very latest writers on Kashmir speaks of it as overrated, and calls the contour of the mountains commonplace and comparable to a second-rate Tyrolean valley. And fortunate it is that in this limited earth of ours we every one of us do not think alike. But I have seen many visitors to Kashmir, and my experience is that the bulk of them are of the same view as the above-mentioned Frenchman. They have read in books, and they have heard from friends, glowing descriptions of the country; but the reality has, with most, exceeded the expectation. Some have found the expenses of living and the discomforts of travel greater than they had expected. And some have arrived when it was raining or cloudy, and the snows were not visible; or in the middle of summer when the valley is hazy, steamy, and filled with mosquitoes. But when the clouds have rolled by, the haze lifted, and a real Kashmir spring or autumn day disclosed itself, the heart of the hardest visitor melteth and he becomes as Bernier.
The present book will deal, not with the whole Kashmir State, which includes many outlying provinces, but with Kashmir Proper, with the world-renowned valley of Kashmir, a saucer-shaped vale with a length of 84 miles, a breadth of 20 to 25 miles, and a mean height of 5600 feet above sea-level, set in the very heart of the Himalaya, and corresponding in latitude to Damascus, to Fez in Morocco, and to South Carolina…

DOWNLOAD THE BOOK

A Lonely Summer in Kashmir by Margaret Cotter Morison: Free e-book

Kashmir Pages — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 16:31:22 +0000

The question I had to decide when at the end of May 1901, I was suddenly, through no fault of my own, thrown entirely on my own resources in Kashmir, with no friend in the land and no one with whom to travel or chum, was whether to hang around Srinagar or the hill-station of Gulmarg, and by mixing persistently with others try to forget my own loneliness, or whether to follow out my original plan of seeing something of the country, and explore alone the mountains and side-valleys as I had intended doing in the company of my friend. I had as yet seen only two sides of Kashmir life, that of the river, amid lovely scenery, on a house-boat ; and the life of the English residents in the capital, Srinagar. The river life is exquisite for a time, especially in the spring ; the trees all bursting into life, the white blossom to be seen everywhere, the river banks and fields blue with iris, the chains of snow-capped mountains on either hand which unfold their beauty slowly as the boat goes winding up the valley. After the long and tiring journey into Kashmir nothing more delightful at first can be imagined ; but after a time this lazy life is found to have its limitations ; there is not enough variety for one actively inclined, the novelty of watching the boatmen punt, tow and paddle the boat wears off, there is no other exercise to be had but to walk along the bank while the boat slowly follows behind, and every day the mountains look more alluring and seem to invite one into their fastnesses and to leave the sluggish river life.
Srinagar, the capital of Kashmir and the only big town in the country, is a place full of life and picturesqueness, which captivates the visitor by its novelty and perpetually amuses him by the many quaint similarities to places seen before. With the polo-ground, tennis-courts, and smartly dressed ladies, one might think oneself in an ordinary Indian station ; at the Residency garden-parties, where croquet is played on the softest of lawns, and strawberries and cream dispensed under cool spreading trees, any one would think himself at a country house in England ; on the river above the town, where house-boats are crowded close together for over a mile, the sight recalls Henley a few days before the regatta ; a row down the town where houses and temples line the banks, where gracefully carved wooden balconies overhang the water, where men and women loiter chattering on the steps, and half the population lives in boats, brings back faint memories of Venice. But a visit to the Dhal Lake, with its willow-lined water canals and unique floating gardens, or a stiff climb up the hill, called the Takht-i-Suleiman, to obtain a panoramic view of the city, so green in spring-time, with grass growing thickly on all the roofs ; and lastly, the perpetual swarm of merchants round one’s boat thrusting themselves and their goods in a the window repeating their never ceasing cry of “Only see, lady, only see ; don’t buy, Mem-sahib ” these are suggestive of Srinagar, and only Srinagar, for their like is seen in no other part of the earth…..

DOWNLOAD

Our Visit to Hindostan, Kashmir, and Ladakh by Mrs J. C. Murray Aynsley (1879): Free e-book

Kashmir Pages — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 15:39:38 +0000

Coming to India as simple travellers, we were able to go wherever fancy led us so that, at the expiration of nearly three years, we have perhaps seen much more of that country than many who have passed half their lives there. A friend in England seemed pleased with some letters I wrote to him, giving descriptions of places we had visited ; and thus arose the idea of a continued series of papers, which I thought might possibly interest other friends at home at some future period. The idea of publication was an after-thought ; and this must be my excuse for the almost colloquial style in which they are written. Those who know me will, I trust, excuse the many imperfections incidental to a first attempt at coming before the public ; and I crave the indulgence of strangers also for the same reason. I am much indebted to various friends in India for the loan of some rare and valuable books ; also of departmental works belonging to their offices, by means of which I have obtained information on many subjects of interest.Amongst the former may be classed Ferishta’s ‘History of Hindostan/ translated by Dow, from the original Persian, more than one hundred years ago ; and the travels of Fa Hiang and Hionen Thsang, the Chinese pilgrims, who visited India, the former in the fifth, and the latter in the seventh, century of our era. Other works I have also consulted and compared with each other, as opportunity occurred ; but many months spent in camp, with, at times, an almost daily removal to a fresh spot, has prevented much study for want of the necessary time and materials. I only wish I could insure my friends as much pleasure in reading our travels as I have felt in writing about them.

DOWNLOAD

Kashmir the Land of Streams and Solitudes by P. Pirie : Free e-book

Kashmir Pages — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 09:26:29 +0000

There are other roads in Kashmir; roads like colonnades between serried ranks of poplar trees, “the tall, slim, silvery pillars of the beautiful populus alba, or the somber stateliness of the dark poplars of Lombardy ; roads bordered by willows, or leading through marshy meadow-land, or carpeted with snowy petals from the blossoming branches of apple and pear and cherry trees, which make fragrant archways overhead; many and lovely are the roads of the Valley ; but the road par excellence of Kashmir is the River, the Veth as the Kashmiris call it, which is an abbreviation of Vitasta, its Sanskrit name, the fabulosus Hydaspes of the classic historians.
Up and down the wide and placid river go the flat bottomed, slow-moving boats of the country—the wide grain-barges, the doongas with their roofs and sides of matting, the deep-laden market boats, and the little fishing-boats so often drawn up near the bank with a wide net outspread, its wet meshes glittering in the sunshine like a dragon-fly’s wing.

DOWNLOAD

Afoot Through the Kashmir Valleys by Marion Doughty: Free e-book

Kashmir Pages — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 09:06:33 +0000

Many years ago a little girl with knitted brows and every outward sign of strong concentration was pulling at one end of a chicken’s ” merry-thought.” The brows relaxed and the mouth widened into a delighted smile, ” I’ve won it,” she shouted, holding up the longer end, ” and I wish to go to Cashmere.” ” I don’t believe you know where Cashmere is, and you will not go now, because you have told your wish,” shouted her cousin defiantly, for he had not been pleased to be beaten by a girl.
Nevertheless, by dint of hard wishing and a good deal of patience, after long years the little girl arrived in Cashmere, but by that time she was no longer little, and people talked of the land of roses as ” Kashmir ” with a K. What she saw and did when she arrived there will be told to you in future chapters; that she felt her wishes were not wasted is proved by the fact that she hopes the day may come when she will be able to return to that beautiful valley and make better acquaintance with it.

DOWNLOAD

The Panjab, North- West Frontier Province, and Kashmir by Sir James McCrone Douie : Free e Book

Kashmir Pages — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 11:24:35 +0000

In his opening chapter Sir James Douie refers to the fact that the area treated in this volume—just one quarter of a million square miles—is comparable to that of Austria-Hungary. The comparison might be extended; for on
ethnographical, linguistic and physical grounds, the geographical unit now treated is just as homogeneous in composition as the Dual Monarchy. It is only in the political sense and by force of the ruling classes, temporarily
united in one monarch, that the term Osterreichisch could be used to include the Poles of Galicia, the Czechs of Bohemia and Moravia, the Szeklers, Saxons and more numerous Rumanians of Transylvania, the Croats, Slovenes and Italians of “Illyria,” with the Magyars of the Hungarian plain.
The term Punjábi much more nearly, but still imperfectly, covers the people of the Panjáb, the North-West Frontier Province, Kashmír and the associated smaller Native States. The Sikh, Muhammadan and Hindu Jats, the Kashmírís and the Rájputs all belong to the tall, fair, leptorrhine Indo-Aryan main stock of the area, merging on the west and south-west into the Biluch and Pathán Turko-Iranian, and fringed in the hill districts on the north with what have been described as products of the “contact metamorphism” with the Mongoloid tribes of Central Asia. Thus, in spite of the inevitable blurring of boundary lines, the political divisions treated together in this volume, form a fairly cleancut geographical unit.
Free ebook courtesy of Project Gutenberg.

DOWNLOAD

Diary of a Pedestrian in Cashmere and Thibet by William Henry Knight : Free ebook

Kashmir Pages — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 17:18:57 +0000

With the fullest sense of the responsibility incurred by the addition of another volume to the countless numbers already existing, and daily appearing in the world, the following Diary has been committed to the press, trusting that, as it was not written WITH INTENT to publication, the unpremeditated nature of the offence may be its extenuation, and that as a faithful picture of travel in regions where excursion trains are still unknown, and Travellers’ Guides unpublished, the book may not be found altogether devoid of interest or amusement. Its object is simply to bring before the reader’s imagination those scenes and incidents of travel which have already been a source of enjoyment to the writer, and to impart, perhaps, by their description, some portion of the gratification which has been derived from their reality. With this view, the original Diary has undergone as little alteration of form or matter as possible, and is laid before the reader as it was sketched and written during the leisure moments of a wandering life, hoping that faithfulness of detail may atone in it for faults and failings in a literary and artistic point of view.

This free ebook is brought to you courtesy of Project Gutenberg.

DOWNLOAD

The Great Weaver from Kashmir by Halldór Laxness : Book review

Kashmir Pages — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 17:47:22 +0000

Ayaz Rasool Nazki:

While surfing the net I stumbled upon the title of a book “The Great Weaver from Kashmir” by Halldor Laxness. A sheer curiosity, a result of sighting Kashmir in the title of a book that too by an author who was a Noble laureate induced me to place an on-line order for the book which was delivered in good time. Having completed the reading of the 436 pages of this immensely readable novel which is part biography and part criticism of various thought systems studied by the author in the prime of his youth, an attempt shall be made to understand the value and merit of this important book. The book was completed in 1927 when Halldor was only 25years of age. Before embarking on my mission of sharing with my readers my impressions about this work, it would be in place to run through the authors life, as it unfolded in the course of almost a century ,as our author lived a very long life of 96 years.

Halldór Kiljan Laxness was born in 1902 in Reykjavik capital of Iceland, but spent his youth in the country. From the age of seventeen on, he travelled and lived abroad, chiefly on the European continent. Expressionism and other modern currents in Germany and France influenced him. In the mid-twenties he was converted to Catholicism; his spiritual experiences are reflected in several books of an autobiographical nature, chiefly Undir Helgahnúk (Under the Holy Mountain), 1924. In 1927, he published his first important novel, Vefarinn mikli frá Kasmír (The Great Weaver from Kashmir). Laxness’s religious period did not last long; during a visit to America he became attracted to socialism. Alþydubókin(The Book of the People), 1929, is evidence of a change toward a socialist outlook. In 1930, Laxness settled in Iceland.

Laxness’s main achievement consists of three novel cycles written during the thirties, dealing with the people of Iceland. Þú vínviður hreini, 1931, andFuglinn í fjörunni, 1932, (both translated as Salka Valka), tell the story of a poor fisher girl;Sjálfstætt fólk (Independent People), 1934-35, treats the fortunes of small farmers, whereas the tetralogy Ljós heimsins (The Light of the World), 1937-40, has as its hero an Icelandic folk poet. Laxness’s later works are frequently historical and influenced by the saga tradition:Íslandsklukkan (The Bell of Iceland), 1943-46, Gerpla (The Happy Warriors), 1952, andParadísarheimt (Paradise Reclaimed), 1960. Laxness is also the author of the topical and sharply polemical Atómstöðin (The Atom Station)1948

Laxness was a prolific writer and continued to write in to his eighties, his last book appearing in 1987.His collection includes scores of novels, few volumes of poetry ,essays and newspaper columns. He traveled through out Europe and America but finally settled down in his own country of birth ,Iceland. As per his own admission he had been brought up in an environment where morals were considered as virtues and keeping the Lord’s creation away from any harm, greatest and noblest of acts. This grand mother’s early sermonizing seems to have made an indelible mark on laxness and this comes out again and again in his works. His espousing the socialist and even communist cause can be traced to these firm roots in his personality.

“I spent my entire childhood in an environment in which the mighty of the earth had no place outside story books and dreams. Love of, and respect for, the humble routine of everyday life and its creatures was the only moral commandment which carried conviction when I was a child.” (From Laxness’s Noble speech)

The Great Weaver from Kashmir is the story of a young Icelandic poet who in his adolescent idealism decides to conquer the world, not by the might of a sword but by the power of a pen .He in his impetuousness feels and believes that he possesses the greatest ever intellect as a poet on this planet and so he owes it to the mankind on the ground and God in the heavens to compose fifty poems of the most perfect form and substance fit to be the offering to the God and thus the poet attains a perfection thitherto unknown .So he sets off from his native land to become the most perfect person on the face of the earth ,abandoning in the process not only his home ,his hearth ,his family but also his childhood friend and companion ,the love for whom he does not accept and acknowledge till the closing moments of his narrative. Why was it necessary for him to undertake the journey for a task which he could accomplish in his own land ;to compose fifty poems ,and why was it necessary to disown his love ,for which we come to know ,later on in the story that he lived all his arduous and not so pleasant a life. The poet in search of perfection not only as a poet but also as a human being is torn between the angel and the devil. This shifting and shuffling goes on and in one breath he is in full control of his carnal and base self and in the next movement he is singing hymns to devil, glorifying and deifying him in all seriousness. The Great Weaver, the poet himself as we learn in due course is in search of a philosophy that would satisfy the intellect of a modern man.The book has been written in the years following the first world war and therefore seeks answers to questions related to conflicts and wars. The option or the choice offered by Catholicism, an escapist and easy route is hard to ignore and our poet with all conviction dons the mettle of a monk but alas here too his longing for devils ranch, while in angels garden, removes him away in search of his lost paradise. All his professing and spiritualizing does not stop him from falling when the real test comes. This in fact is the high point in the whole saga of intellectual acrobatics. Rationalising the irrational is a special attribute of intelligent people and the hero of The Great Weaver justifies this to the hilt. He is never steadfast in his resolutions and breaks every vow that he professes.Halldor examines many creeds and convents while searching for some way of life ,some doctrine of conduct but discards all one after another. He goes in to the ascetics of catholic faith with trail blazing lucidity glorifying it as the last and the only answer to man’s problems, faces the rigors of a hard and regimented frugal existence and doesn’t give up when giving up could be justified but suddenly comes out of the seminary and undertakes a journey back to his own long abandoned city ,his long forgotten home and his long separated family. This naturally brings him face to face with the girl whom he had in a fit of seeking glory away from native shores abandoned. Again true to his back and forth oscillations he neither gives up nor owns the girl who is by now a married woman.

The Great Weaver testifies to the vast exposure of the author to different philosophies and thought systems scattered over cultures far and wide .He does make references to Vedas,Geeta and other Hindu sources as well as to zorashtra and Tao but albeit a brief scene in a pleasure house in Cairo where the revelery is called off when moazzin calls for prayers he seems to have been totally ignorant of Islamic sources of philosophy and thought.

The Great Weaver is for a while swayed by the socialist doctrine but again discards it as his Catholism.

An interesting question remains unanswered, why Kashmir? What is the significance of the title to the book? Why is it named, The Great Weaver from Kashmir? Although there are no direct answers to this, Halldor does refer to the valley at three or four places and it becomes clear that the hero of the novel Steinn Ellithi is the Great Weaver from Kashmir. The relevant lines go like this;

I have vowed to leave no further room in my soul for anything other than the celebration of the spiritual beauty of creation. No soulless wish or physical longing, No fleshy desire or pleasure. I am betrothed to the beauty on the visage of things. I intend to travel back and forth through existence like a jubilant monk of the world who beholds the smile of the Holy Mother in everything that exists. My bread and wine will be the glory of God on the face of the creation, the image of the Lord on the Lord’s coins. I am the son of the way in China, the perfect Yogi of India, the Great Weaver from Kashmir, the snake charmer in the Himalayan valleys, the saint of Christ in Rome…..

…..within a short time he would be gone, swept away and lost somewhere out in the realm of incomprehensibility , gone east to Kashmir to weave silk and satin……

My soul is like Kashmir , the valley of roses;I have been given the glorious talents, and what’s more, the calling to put them to use…….

The rain took the color from his cap, and the drops trickled down his face like streaks of tobacco juice; the Great Weaver from Kashmir…….

He spoke the language of a distressed child who has been shaking for a long ,long time from suppressed weeping, the Great Weaver from Kashmir was no longer anything but an empty shell……

The Great Weaver from Kashmir squatted here on his knees, suppressing sobs, his face in his hands, fearful that even Almighty God would not be able to wipe away such crimes…………

It appears that the hero of the novel Steinn takes for himself the title Great Weaver of Kashmir as a mark of perfection .At that point of time Steinn’s only purpose is to become the most perfect human on the face of the world. What other than the Great Weaver from Kashmir would signify perfection.Halldor would have seen the exquisite Cashmere in the wardrobes of Iceland nobles and been influenced by their matchless perfection. Only the Master weavers could have woven such intricate designs as would be visible on these Cashmeres brought from distant Kashmir to Europe. An alternate explanation would be that the author had during his extensive studies in oriental (India) lore come across the story of the greatest Rishi of Kashmir, for it is quite interesting to know that Nund Rishi did spent time on a weavers loom during his great spiritual journey. Was this Rishism at the back of his mind when he chose the title of the novel. No one can say for sure but the fact remains that this novel does celebrate the idea that we know as Kashmir.