Where butterflies have gone?

”Please don’t catch them you would hurt them, their wings would lose the color and beauty” I used to appeal like this to my siblings and friends in my childhood whenever I saw them in hunt for butterflies. I was fearful that the butterflies would fly away never to return back and I would lose the unending joy and pleasure which they provided with their beautiful and majestic presence. These small and fragile insects had such a great impact on me whenever I had the chance to see them.

I so much detested the hobby of all those who used to catch and preserve butterflies in their scrap books on the pretext of immortalizing them. This was a habit of possessiveness; people want to possess all beauty, all good things in life. Beauty and all good things are the pleasures that must be shared and not possessed.

Today, we find that this habitat is fast vanishing and we seldom see the beautiful and colorful sight of these delicate creatures. Where the butterflies have gone?, I haven’t seen them in years! Environmentalists tell us that this is now a global issue and we are losing these beautiful creatures very fast and each one of us has to protect “their” butterflies.

Protecting butterflies mean much more than merely protecting them. Butterflies are the symbol of beauty, civilization, love, life, environment, relationships, harmony and the wholeness of being. When each one of us saves our part of butterflies, then we actually had indulged in saving and serving all that which they symbolize.

Khurram Ali Shafique

Khurram Ali Shafique’s “Shakespeare according to Iqbal” is an intriguing episode in finding ground breaking connection in the Nezami-Rumi-Shakespeare-Iqbal quartet . A mystery, thicker than Dan Brown’s Da-Vinci Code.

The following connections are extremely fascinating:

1)Tempest’s Nine conflicts and gulshan e raaz e jadeed’s nine questions.

2)Tempest’s seven major conflicts and Nezami’s Haft Paykar.

3)Tempest’s seven major conflicts and Iqbal’s seven couplets on Shakespeare.

4)Tempest’s five later conflicts and Nizami’s quintet.

All this seems very mesmerizing. Some critics say that the character of Prospero was Shakespeare personified, then the drowning of his books resembles with drowning/burning of books of Rumi.( in the book WAY OF LOVE it is narrated that books were drowned in a well).

Look at the following passage from Nezami Ghanjavi:

“Divine command on the day of creation did not produce anything more charming than language, do not consider those who have this gift, ever to be dead: they are like fish, having lowered themselves just beneath the surface of speech: they shall reappear sooner than you utter their names…..” what a paragraph !

In holy Quran one Sura (Chapter) starts with “Noon wal Kalm” mystics have referred “noon “to fish and “Kalm” to knowledge, language and power. In ancient symbol’s and modern abstract arts fish stands for sustainable life.

This is a diminutive volume but a Book that will usher a new approach to understanding collective ego, the book is published by Iqbal Academy Pakistan.

ABC of Anger, Beauty and Compassion

According to a tradition of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) :

Allah, the Exalted, is beautiful, and He loves beauty.



What is Beauty?

Beauty in aesthetics means a balance.When we achieve Balance things look, feel and reflect Beauty. Our actions, thoughts, reactions, desires and speech are beautiful when it retains Balance.
Things become un-balanced when we are not compassionate, we are angry or violent. We become angry and violent when we are fearful, lonely and not empowered. A little compassion, a little detachment, a little benevolence, a little grace, a little show of kindness can work miracles and can bring equilibrium and poise in a situation that has become disproportionate, ugly and un balanced.



When we find somebody in need of a help to Balance his Life, his affairs, his attitude, we must provide that little orientation that balances, so they become beautiful.



Allah the Exalted is Beautiful and Loves Beauty, so we must
also act as the Beloved acts.


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