AN INTERVIEW WITH MS KAUSER IZHAR

AN INTERVIEW WITH MS KAUSER IZHAR Please tell us about your family background and early religious influences? I was raised in Multan and then in Karachi, Pakistan. My family followed Barelvi Sunni tradition. We were influenced by Sufism. My father became secular as he did not agree with our family traditions, while my mother stayed attached to the tradition. She tried to influence us towards Islam. When I look back we did not have much Islam in our lives. We were only attached to rituals and cultural traditions in the name of Islam. Our practice of ritualistic Islam increased during the month of Ramadan. We also participated in some Sufi practices such as Na’at (poetry in praise of the Prophet Muhammad), Qawwali (a form of Sufi Islamic devotional singing), and Quran Khawani (collective reading of the Quran in Arabic). I was married at the age of 19 and came to US with my husband in 1983. We continued with our traditional/cultural life in the US. I became aware of the life’s challenges and sufferings soon after I came to America and looked for spiritual guidance as I failed in dealing with life’s challenges. When did you start looking for more answers to your challenges? I was enchanted by the West’s liberalization, equality and feminist views, but soon learned that women were in the illusion of western “equality” and their feminist views that did not help them. They were as oppressed as I saw them in Punjabi families, but in different ways. A typical American single mother was studying, working two jobs and also raising her kids was beyond fatigued without the help of family system. This reality brought me back to studying Islam. I started studying commentaries of the Quran by noted Islamic scholars like Maulana Maududi (d. 1979), Dr Israr Ahmed (d. 2010). I also enrolled in some courses with Dr Farhat Hashmi. Finally, I was hooked on to Javed Ahmad Ghamidi’s books Al-Meezan and Al-Bayaan and his lectures. Ms Kauser Izhar is an inspiring figure of the CPS USA team. Her enthusiasm, zeal and dedication to spread the message of peace and spirituality is unmatched. Ms Stuti Malhotra interviewed her to bring her inspiring intellectual and spiritual journey to light. She lives in the USA.