FROM THE EDITORIAL DIRECTOR

FROM THE EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Prof. Farida Khanam is an author, editor, translator, public speaker and former professor of Islamic Studies at Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. Among her books are ‘A Simple Guide to Sufism’ and ‘A Study of World’s Major Religions’. She has translated into English many books authored by Maulana Wahiduddin Khan. Currently the chairperson of CPS International, she is a regular contributor of articles to various publications. Prof. Khanam has edited Maulana’s English translation of the Quran and has also translated his Urdu commentary of the Quran into English. COPING WITH DEATH T WO books, published in the US, look from a scientific angle at the human side of death. One of them, On Children and Death, is written by Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, who drew material from her work with the families of dying children. The second book is coauthored by Colin Murray Parkes, a senior lecturer in psychiatry at the London Hospital Medical College, and Robert S. Weiss, a professor of sociology at the University of Massachusetts. Titled, Recovery from Bereavement, the book grew out of work done over ten years ago by the Harvard Bereavement Study. It looks at the way widows and widowers under 45 mourn their losses, and asks the question: Why do some get over their grief, while others do not? Both books, then, are the result of entirely scientific research, and aim to provide solace to the bereaved families through scientific approach. Do these books succeed in their aim of offering consolation to those who have been robbed of their near and dear? Suzanne Fields, reviewing both works in the Washington Post, thinks not. These two books by these priests of science and reason, she writes, address the griefs and protocols of dealing with the dead and dying. Well-meaning books both, concerned with offering practical psychological advice as well as solace, they nevertheless—perhaps inevitably—are useful but not elevating, sensible but never soaring. Grounded in the earth of observation, they are offered to wounded spirits that crave not advice but inspiration.” (Guardian Weekly, January 1, 1984)