The Book of Life

INSIGHTS OF THE WISE reaching home, Afzal, God forbid, would have been taken to the hospital, and Hindu-Muslim rioting in the area could have destroyed hundreds of families. After telling the story, Afzal said: at that moment, I remembered the teachings of Al-Risala. It was the mindset Al-Risala had given me that kept me from becoming inflamed at the moment of provocation and, as a result, saved me from a terrible outcome. The glass of water I brought prevented hundreds of people from reaching that ghastly end where blood would be spilled on the streets. Words can act like fire or like ice: some words can stoke a man’s anger into a furnace, while others can cool his blazing temper. It is up to the speaker which of the two he chooses. AN EASY SOLUTION Altaf Husain Hali Panipati (1837–1914) was a man of revolutionary thinking. He started a reform movement in Urdu literature and heavily criticized the tradition of classical Urdu poetry. He claimed that Urdu poetry had become mainly exaggeration, romanticism, and fanciful imagination, while it should be meaningful. As an example, he produced the Musaddas, also called “Madd-oJazr-e-Islam,” a very famous long poem written in 1987. This criticism greatly angered those who took pride in Urdu poetry and considered it their glory. Hostile articles began to appear against Hali. The newspaper Oudh Punch