The Prophet Muhammad received his first Divine revelation in Makkah in the year 610 C.E. God had appointed him to spread the message of tawhid or the oneness of God. Now, with regard to this mission there was a major issue that he had to deal with. And this was that the Ka‘aba, which is in Makkah an

Most smokers would reply that no one tricked them into smoking. It was and has always been their sole decision to smoke. However, when one looks back it is not uncommon to see the different reasons why people, both young and old smoke. The common ones we all know: “we need it to be part of the group

The ghastly act of suicide bombing that left more than eighty people dead in a church of Peshawar yesterday (September 22, 2013) is condemnable on several counts:
While a crime of taking one life is as condemnable in the eyes of God as killing the entire humanity, taking as many lives as were lost

September 23, 2013
Yesterday, after our first morning service here at Christ Church in La Crosse, Wisconsin I was teaching Psalm 79 to our adult Christian Education class. This psalm is about the national lament concerning the havoc brought by brutal violence on God’s people in Jerusalem. The psa

The 2013 Asia Pacific Association for the Control of Tobacco (APACT) Conference was held in August, 2013 in Chiba, Japan to address the prevention and control of tobacco use worldwide, with a special focus on the Asia Pacific region. One of the important achievements of the conference was the signin

The Sunday Church Service at All Saints Church in Peshawar ended in heartbreak as two suicide bombers below themselves up while Sunday service just ended and killed more than 90 worshipers, 34 of them women, 7 children and more than 110 were injured. According to the Minister of Interior Chaudhry Ni

It is regret to inform you that militants attacked All Saint’s Church (protestant church) Church of Pakistan in Peshawar this morning while believers were busy in worship during Sunday Service. There were two police man deputed by the government who sit on the main gate of the church as security in

Some people argue that social problems can be solved only through ‘social activism’, particularly through demonstrating against the state, against what they call the ‘ruling class’, against what they term as caste oppression, class oppression, imperialism, patriarchy, the oppression of this or that

The ‘International Conference on Public Health Priorities in the 21st Century: The Endgame for Tobacco’, jointly organized by The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) and Health Related Information Dissemination Amongst Youth (HRIDAY) was held recently in D

I’m 46, and I still bed-wet. ‘Hawww!” I can hear you gasp in horror! But, please tell me (for I’d really like to know), what’s so ‘hawww!’ about this? After all, I don’t say ‘hawww!’ at the many things you may do in your bed, do I?
So, to come back to what I was saying before you interrupted me, I’

All Parties Conference – APC was held in Prime Minister’s secretariat on Monday 9 September, 2013. Addressing the political leaders at the APC, PM Nawaz Sharif said that he considered dialogue as the priority option to curb terrorism in the country, the solution to address the terrorism issue is sor

The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) is the world’s first global public health and corporate accountability treaty and to date 177 countries are Parties to it. By signing and ratifying this treaty, these countries are committed to adopt a range of measures to reduce tobacco use, in

How people label themselves and others plays a major role in shaping the nature of their relationships. If wrong labels are used, for oneself as well as for others, it can cause great problems and tremendous misunderstandings, even violent conflicts. One example of this is how many Muslims label the

Earlier this year we had visited many biosafety level (BSL) III laboratories in India where one of the latest diagnostic tools were available to do drug susceptibility testing (DST) for tuberculosis (TB). One red-coloured sticker on these diagnostic tools caught our attention: UNITAID. This organiza

The Quran tells us: ‘Good and evil deeds are not equal. Repel evil with what is better; then you will see that one who was once your enemy has become your dearest friend’ (41:34).
Taking into consideration this verse, I believe, contrary to what many Muslims constantly repeat, that there are no e