Qadeerudin Ahmed

Syed Usman Marvandi[3] (1177 – 1274), popularly known as Lal Shahbaz Qalandar (Sindhi: لعل شھباز قلندر‎), was a Sufi saint and religious-poet of present-day Pakistan and Afghanistan[4][5]. He is highly regarded and respected by people of all religions because he preached religious tolerance among Muslims and Hindus.[1][2] He was called Lal ("ruby-colored") after his usual red attire and "Shahbaz" to denote a noble and divine spirit and "Qalandar" as he was a wandering holy man.[1] The spiritual song "Dama Dam Mast Qalandar" glorifies Lal Shahbaz Qalandar's teachings, and the song is widely used in Pakistan, India, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. Originally written in the 13th century, the song has been sung by various singer since then, and is widely popular in the sub-continent..

Life

Lal Shahbaz Qalandar, son of Ibrahim Kabeeruddin,[2] was born in Maiwand, today's Afghanistan.[1] His ancestors had migrated from Baghdad, Iraq and settled in Mashhad, Iran before moving to Maiwand. He lived when the Ghaznavid and Ghurids ruled in the Indus region(today's Punjab, Pakistan).[6] 

A contemporary of Rumi, he travelled around the Muslim world and settled in Sehwan, Sindh where he was eventually buried.[7] There is evidence of his presence in Sindh in 1196 when he met Pir Haji Ismail Panhwar of Paat and he is believed to have arrived in Sehwan around 1251. There he established a meeting house (khanqah), taught in the Fuqhai Islam Madarrsah and wrote his treatises Mizan-us-Surf, Kism-e-Doyum, Aqd and Zubdah. Lal Shahbaz lived a celibate life.[1]

In Multan, he met Baha-ud-din Zakariya of the Suhrawardiyya order, Baba Fariduddin Ganjshakar of the Chishtiyya and Syed Jalaluddin Bukhari. The friendship of these four became legendary, they were known as the Chahar Yar (In Persian "the four friends").[2] According to some historians, the four friends visited various parts of Sindh, Punjab (in present-day Pakistan) and southern part of India.[2]

Shahbaz became a profound scholar of religions, fluent in many languages including Pashto, Persian, Turkish, Arabic, Sindhi and Sanskrit. This was also the time period when Ghiyas ud din Balban (reigned: 1266 – 1287) ruled India.[2]

Following his death, Hindus within Sindh began to identify Lal Shahbaz Qalandar as an incarnation of their patron deity, Jhulelal. This connection was emphasized by the popular spiritual song Dama Dam Mast Qalandar which referred to him by the name Jhulelal. Over time, the Jhulelal has become a nickname for him, among both Hindu and Muslim Sindhis.

Shrine

The shrine of Lal Shahbaz Qalandar was built in 1356 and decorated with Sindhi 'kashi-tiles', mirror-work and a gold-plated door donated by the Shah of Iran, Reza Shah Pahlavi and installed by the late Prime Minister of Pakistan, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.[8] The inner sanctum is about 100 square yards with a silver-canopied grave in the middle, according to Nadeem Wagan, Cutharo silver donated by Sardar Mahboob Ali Khan Wagan (Chief Sardar of Wagan Tribe) on one side of the marble floor is a row of about 12-inch-high (300 mm) folding wooden stands, on which there is a set of copies of the Quran for devotees to read. On the other side, beside a bundle of incense, are rows of oil-lamps lighted by devotees. Thousands of devotees visit the tomb particularly every Thursday.

Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai (also referred to by the honorifics: Lakhino Latif, Latif Ghot, Bhittai, and Bhitt Jo Shah) (18 November 1689 – 1 January 1752) (Sindhi: شاه عبداللطيف ڀٽائي‎, Urdu: شاہ عبداللطیف بھٹائی‎) was a Sindhi Sufi scholar, mystic, saint, and poet, widely considered to be the greatest Muslim poet of the Sindhi language.[1] His collected poems were assembled in the compilation Shah Jo Risalo, which exists in numerous versions and has been translated into English, Urdu, and other languages. His work has been compared frequently to that of the Persian poet Rūmī. Seyyed Hossein Nasr, an emeritus professor of Islamic studies at George Washington University, described Shah Latif as a "direct emanation of Rūmī's spirituality in South Asia."[citation needed] He is also known as the poet of Sindh.

Background

The shrine was built for Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai, a noted Sindhi Sufi scholar, mystic, saint, and poet who is widely considered to be the greatest Muslim poet of the Sindhi language.[2] His collected poems were assembled in the compilation Shah Jo Risalo. The shrine is 125 kilometres from the popular Shrine of Lal Shahbaz Qalandar in Sehwan Sharif.[3] Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited the shrine in 2009.[4]

Women serve as caretakers of tombs within the shrine complex.[5] Male singers at the shrine mimic female voices by singing in falsetto to mimic heroines in Shah Abdul Latif's poetry.[5] The Hindu Bhil and Kolhi communities revere the shrine, as Shah Abdul Latif's poetry is considered to be tolerant of other beliefsto mimic heroines in Shah Abdul Latif's poetry.[5] The Hindu Bhil and Kolhi communities revere the shrine, as Shah Abdul Latif's poetry is considered to be tolerant of other beliefs..

Ghulam Murtaza Syed (Sindhi: غلام مرتضي سيد, Jan 17,1904 – April 25, 1995),[4] known as G.M Syed was a prominent Sindhi politician, who is infamously known for his scholarly work,[5] passing only constitutional resolution in favor of the establishment of Pakistan from British Sindh Assembly (which is now Sindh Assembly) in 1943,[6] proposing ideological groundwork for separate Sindhi identity and laying the foundations of Sindhudesh movement.[7] He is regarded as one of the founding fathers of modern Sindhi nationalism.[8]

G.M Syed started his political career at the age of 16, when he organised Khilafat Conference at his hometown, Sann, on 17 March 1920.[9] He was first to become a political prisoner after the creation of Pakistan in 1948.[10][2] He restated the political implementation of Sufi ideologies proposing peaceful religious coexistence, secularism, Sindhi nationalism and laid the basis for Sindhudesh Movement.[11] He spent approximately thirty years of his life in imprisonment and house arrests for opposing the anti-Sindh policies.[12] He was entitled as the prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International in 1995.[13] He died during his house arrest in Karachi on April 25, 1995

Early life

Childhood: 1904–15

G.M. Syed was born to the Sadat family of Sindh in the town of Sann on 17 January 1904. Syed was an infant when his father Syed Mohammed Shah Kazmi was killed due to a family feud on 1st November 1905. After the death of his father, Syed was the only male infant in the family, therefore in 1906 the British Government took his family property in its custody and his family was given the monthly pension by the Court of Wards. He was admitted to a primary school at the age of six and completed his 5 years of primary education in Sindhi, in the year 1915. The female elders of his family decided to home-school him in order to safeguard him from family feud and enmity as he was the only male heir in the family. He was taught Persian and English at home.[15][16][17]

Teenage: 1920–24

G.M Syed started his politics from participating in the Khilafat Movement. He first attended Khilafat Conference held on 7th, 8th, and 9th February 1920 in Larkana. He was inspired by the speeches of Abul Kalam Azad, Abdul Bari Firangi Mahali, Maulana Shaukat Ali and Shaikh Abdul Majeed Sindhi. He himself called upon the next Khilafat Conference on 17th March 1920 in his hometown Sann.[17][16][18] Two days after this conference, his native town Sann observed a shutter-down strike in protest against the injustices of the Allied Powers against the Ottoman Caliphate on March 20, 1920. He remained active throughout the entire Khilafat Movement afterward.[16] He addressed the Khilafat Conference held on March 26, 1920, in Makhdoom Bilawal's Mausoleum as the youngest speaker. He was of a short-height and stood upon a wooden chair to be visible to the audience during his speech.[17] He met Mahatma Gandhi on 27 April 1921 at the Sann railway station while Mr. Gandhi was traveling from Dadu to Hyderabad. Gandhi instructed him to wear Khadi.[19][20] Syed visited the office of the Collector in Karachi on 23 June 1921 to free his lands from the custody of Court of Wards but he was refused. He filed a complaint against the Collector and Mukhtiarkar on 4 December 1922, for hurdling the delivery of his lands from custody[17][16]. Finally, he was awarded his lands back from the custody of Court of Wards in the year 1924, after two years of legal prosecution[21].

Political activism

Syed was the founder of Sindh Awami Mahaz, which went on to join the National Awami Party (National Peoples Party). Like Ibrahim Joyo, Syed blended Sindhi nationalism with Communism and Sufism through the ideas of Gandhi and Marx.

Syed's position brought him ample opportunity to have free income through tributes, cash offerings and landed property. This lifestyle was rejected by him, subsequently he plunged into politics with enthusiasm. Politically, he evolved and traveled from Pan-Islamist to Indian nationalist and then Pakistani nationalist, having joined Muslim League; and ended with being a Sindhi nationalist.[22]

AV School

In the early 1920s, Syed opened Anglo-Vernacular (AV) school in his village Sann, where education for certain language classes was free of cost. AV School offered combo of Sindhi education with English language. The school also offered options of Arabic, French and Persian languages. Prominent Sindhi educationist Ibrahim Joyo was also schooled at AV.[23]

Timeline

At the early age of fourteen years, Syed started his career as an activist[2].

In 1919, became Chairman of the School Board of his own tehsil. He later became its President.

In 1929, was elected as a President of Karachi District Local Board[2].

In 1930, organized the Sindh Hari (Peasants) Conference and became its Secretary.[24]

In 1937, was for the first time elected a member of Sindh Legislative Assembly[2].

In 1938, joined the All-India Muslim League. In 1940, he became Minister of Education in Sindh[2].

In 1941, became one of the members of the Central Committee of the Muslim League.

In 1943, became President of the Sindh Muslim League[2].

In 1946, conditions compelled him to dissociate from the Muslim League, and formed a new party named the Progressive Muslim League. The same year, he was elected as leader of the Coalition Party in the Sindh Assembly.

In 1954, acted as Chairman of Sindhi Adabi Board.

In 1955, played an active part in the formation of the Pakistan National Party.

In 1966, founded Bazm-e-Soofia-e Sindh.

In 1969, formed the Sindh United Front.

In 1972, formed Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz.

Jeay Sindh movement

Syed was the architect of "Jiy-e-Sindh" movement, aimed at achieving Sindhudesh. He is also the author of more than 60 books, (with) subjects ranging from politics, religion, culture, literature and commentaries on famous poet Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai. For his part as a political thinker, literary figure and mystic, he dominated the political arena of pre and post-partition era for decades, while he remained in jail for 30 years.[22]

On 19 January 1992, Syed was put under house arrest, his house was declared a sub-jail. He died on 25 April 1995.

Bibliography

Syed was the author of more than sixty books, written mainly in Sindhi, but also English and Urdu.[25] His works are on numerous subjects, ranging from literature to politics, religion and culture. Due to his breath of knowledge, he bas been described by the Dutch scholar of Islam Oskar Verkaaik as "in many ways a remarkably productive, original, and largely autodidact intellectual, creating his own personal interpretation of Islam out of a range of intellectual influences such as 19th-century Islamic reform, Darwinian evolution theory, theosophy, 18th century Sindhi poetry, Marxism, classical Sufism, German idealism, and probably more."[26]

Some of his well-known books are:

Janam Guzarium Jin Sein (Sindhi)

Dayar Dil Dastan-e- Muhabt (Sindhi)

Sindh Ja Soorma (Sindhi)

Sindh Speaks (English)

Struggle for New Sindh (English)

Religion and Reality (English)

Shah Latif's Message (English)

A Nation in Chains (English)

Steven Paul Jobs (/dʒɒbz/; February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011) was an American business magnate and investor. He was the chairman, chief executive officer (CEO), and co-founder of Apple Inc.; chairman and majority shareholder of Pixar; a member of The Walt Disney Company's board of directors following its acquisition of Pixar; and the founder, chairman, and CEO of NeXT. Jobs is widely recognized as a pioneer of the microcomputer revolution of the 1970s and 1980s, along with Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak.

Jobs was born in San Francisco, California, to parents who put him up for adoption at birth. He was raised in the San Francisco Bay Area during the 1960s. He attended Reed College in 1972 before dropping out that same year, and traveled through India in 1974 seeking enlightenment and studying Zen Buddhism. His declassified FBI report states that he used marijuana and LSD while he was in college, and once told a reporter that taking LSD was "one of the two or three most important things" he had done in his life.

Jobs and Wozniak co-founded Apple in 1976 to sell Wozniak's Apple I personal computer. Together the duo gained fame and wealth a year later for the Apple II, one of the first highly successful mass-produced personal computers. Jobs saw the commercial potential of the Xerox Alto in 1979, which was mouse-driven and had a graphical user interface (GUI). This led to development of the unsuccessful Apple Lisa in 1983, followed by the breakthrough Macintosh in 1984, the first mass-produced computer with a GUI. The Macintosh introduced the desktop publishing industry in 1985 with the addition of the Apple LaserWriter, the first laser printer to feature vector graphics. Jobs was forced out of Apple in 1985 after a long power struggle with the company's board and its then-CEO John Sculley. That same year, Jobs took a few of Apple's members with him to found NeXT, a computer platform development company that specialized in computers for higher-education and business markets. In addition, he helped to develop the visual effects industry when he funded the computer graphics division of George Lucas's Lucasfilm in 1986. The new company was Pixar, which produced Toy Story, the first fully computer-animated film.

Apple merged with NeXT in 1997, and Jobs became CEO of his former company within a few months. He was largely responsible for helping revive Apple, which had been at the verge of bankruptcy. He worked closely with designer Jony Ive to develop a line of products that had larger cultural ramifications, beginning in 1997 with the "Think different" advertising campaign and leading to the iMac, iTunes, iTunes Store, Apple Store, iPod, iPhone, App Store, and the iPad. In 2001, the original Mac OS was replaced with a completely new Mac OS X, based on NeXT's NeXTSTEP platform, giving the OS a modern Unix-based foundation for the first time. Jobs was diagnosed with a pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor in 2003. He died at age 56 on October 5, 2011, of respiratory arrest related to the tumor.

William Henry Gates III (born October 28, 1955) is an American business magnate, investor, author, philanthropist, humanitarian, and principal founder of Microsoft Corporation.[2][3] During his career at Microsoft, Gates held the positions of chairman, CEO and chief software architect, while also being the largest individual shareholder until May 2014.

In 1975, Gates and Paul Allen launched Microsoft, which became the world's largest PC software company.[4][a] Gates led the company as chief executive officer until stepping down in January 2000, but he remained as chairman and created the position of chief software architect for himself.[7] In June 2006, Gates announced that he would be transitioning from full-time work at Microsoft to part-time work and full-time work at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which was established in 2000.[8] He gradually transferred his duties to Ray Ozzie and Craig Mundie.[9] He stepped down as chairman of Microsoft in February 2014 and assumed a new post as technology adviser to support the newly appointed CEO Satya Nadella.[10]

Gates is one of the best-known entrepreneurs of the personal computer revolution. He has been criticized for his business tactics, which have been considered anti-competitive. This opinion has been upheld by numerous court rulings.[11]

Since 1987, Gates has been included in the Forbes list of the world's wealthiest people, an index of the wealthiest documented individuals, excluding and ranking against those with wealth that is not able to be completely ascertained.[12][13] From 1995 to 2017, he held the Forbes title of the richest person in the world all but four of those years, and held it consistently from March 2014 – July 2017, with an estimated net worth of US$89.9 billion as of October 2017.[1] However, on July 27, 2017, and since October 27, 2017, he has been surpassed by Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, who had an estimated net worth of US$90.6 billion at the time.[14] As of August 6, 2018, Gates had a net worth of $95.4 billion, making him the second-richest person in the world, behind Bezos.

Later in his career and since leaving Microsoft, Gates pursued a number of philanthropic endeavors. He donated large amounts of money to various charitable organizations and scientific research programs through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.[15] In 2009, Gates and Warren Buffett founded The Giving Pledge, whereby they and other billionaires pledge to give at least half of their wealth to philanthropy.[16] The foundation works to save lives and improve global health, and is working with Rotary International to eliminate polio.[17]

Ernesto "Che" Guevara (/ɡəˈvɑːrə/;[3] Spanish: [ˈtʃe ɣeˈβaɾa][4] June 14, 1928 – October 9, 1967)[5] was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, guerrilla leader, diplomat and military theorist. A major figure of the Cuban Revolution, his stylized visage has become a ubiquitous countercultural symbol of rebellion and global insignia in popular culture.[6]

As a young medical student, Guevara traveled throughout South America and was radicalized by the poverty, hunger and disease he witnessed.[7] His burgeoning desire to help overturn what he saw as the capitalist exploitation of Latin America by the United States prompted his involvement in Guatemala's social reforms under President Jacobo Árbenz, whose eventual CIA-assisted overthrow at the behest of the United Fruit Company solidified Guevara's political ideology.[7] Later in Mexico City, Guevara met Raúl and Fidel Castro, joined their 26th of July Movement and sailed to Cuba aboard the yacht Granma with the intention of overthrowing U.S.-backed Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista.[8] Guevara soon rose to prominence among the insurgents, was promoted to second in command and played a pivotal role in the victorious two-year guerrilla campaign that deposed the Batista regime.[9]

Following the Cuban Revolution, Guevara performed a number of key roles in the new government. These included reviewing the appeals and firing squads for those convicted as war criminals during the revolutionary tribunals,[10] instituting agrarian land reform as minister of industries, helping spearhead a successful nationwide literacy campaign, serving as both national bank president and instructional director for Cuba's armed forces, and traversing the globe as a diplomat on behalf of Cuban socialism. Such positions also allowed him to play a central role in training the militia forces who repelled the Bay of Pigs Invasion,[11] and bringing Soviet nuclear-armed ballistic missiles to Cuba, which precipitated the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.[12] Additionally, Guevara was a prolific writer and diarist, composing a seminal manual on guerrilla warfare, along with a best-selling memoir about his youthful continental motorcycle journey. His experiences and studying of Marxism–Leninism led him to posit that the Third World's underdevelopment and dependence was an intrinsic result of imperialism, neocolonialism and monopoly capitalism, with the only remedy being proletarian internationalism and world revolution.[13][14] Guevara left Cuba in 1965 to foment revolution abroad, first unsuccessfully in Congo-Kinshasa and later in Bolivia, where he was captured by CIA-assisted Bolivian forces and summarily executed.[15]

Guevara remains both a revered and reviled historical figure, polarized in the collective imagination in a multitude of biographies, memoirs, essays, documentaries, songs and films. As a result of his perceived martyrdom, poetic invocations for class struggle and desire to create the consciousness of a "new man" driven by moral rather than material incentives,[16] Guevara has evolved into a quintessential icon of various leftist movements. Time magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people of the 20th century,[17] while an Alberto Korda photograph of him, titled Guerrillero Heroico (shown), was cited by the Maryland Institute College of Art as "the most famous photograph in the world"

Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz (Spanish: [fiˈðel ˈkastɾo] (About this sound listen); 13 August 1926 – 25 November 2016) was a Cuban communist revolutionary and politician who governed the Republic of Cuba as Prime Minister from 1959 to 1976 and then as President from 1976 to 2008. A Marxist–Leninist and Cuban nationalist, Castro also served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from 1961 until 2011. Under his administration, Cuba became a one-party communist state, while industry and business were nationalized and state socialist reforms were implemented throughout society.

Born in Birán, Oriente as the son of a wealthy Spanish farmer, Castro adopted leftist anti-imperialist politics while studying law at the University of Havana. After participating in rebellions against right-wing governments in the Dominican Republic and Colombia, he planned the overthrow of Cuban President Fulgencio Batista, launching a failed attack on the Moncada Barracks in 1953. After a year's imprisonment, Castro traveled to Mexico where he formed a revolutionary group, the 26th of July Movement, with his brother Raúl Castro and Che Guevara. Returning to Cuba, Castro took a key role in the Cuban Revolution by leading the Movement in a guerrilla war against Batista's forces from the Sierra Maestra. After Batista's overthrow in 1959, Castro assumed military and political power as Cuba's Prime Minister. The United States came to oppose Castro's government and unsuccessfully attempted to remove him by assassination, economic blockade and counter-revolution, including the Bay of Pigs Invasion of 1961. Countering these threats, Castro aligned with the Soviet Union and allowed the Soviets to place nuclear weapons in Cuba, sparking the Cuban Missile Crisis – a defining incident of the Cold War – in 1962.

Adopting a Marxist–Leninist model of development, Castro converted Cuba into a one-party, socialist state under Communist Party rule, the first in the Western Hemisphere. Policies introducing central economic planning and expanding healthcare and education were accompanied by state control of the press and the suppression of internal dissent. Abroad, Castro supported anti-imperialist revolutionary groups, backing the establishment of Marxist governments in Chile, Nicaragua and Grenada, as well as sending troops to aid allies in the Yom Kippur, Ogaden, and Angolan Civil War. These actions, coupled with Castro's leadership of the Non-Aligned Movement from 1979 to 1983 and Cuba's medical internationalism, increased Cuba's profile on the world stage. Following the Soviet Union's dissolution in 1991, Castro led Cuba through the economic downturn of the "Special Period", embracing environmentalist and anti-globalization ideas. In the 2000s, Castro forged alliances in the Latin American "pink tide" – namely with Hugo Chávez's Venezuela – and signed Cuba up to the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas. In 2006, Castro transferred his responsibilities to Vice President Raúl Castro, who was elected to the presidency by the National Assembly in 2008.

The longest-serving non-royal head of state in the 20th and 21st centuries, Castro polarized world opinion. His supporters view him as a champion of socialism and anti-imperialism whose revolutionary regime advanced economic and social justice while securing Cuba's independence from American imperialism. Critics view him as a dictator whose administration oversaw human-rights abuses, the exodus of a large number of Cubans and the impoverishment of the country's economy. Castro was decorated with various international awards and significantly influenced different individuals and groups across the world.

Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; born 21 April 1926)[a] is Queen of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms.

Elizabeth was born in London as the first child of the Duke and Duchess of York, later King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, and she was educated privately at home. Her father acceded to the throne on the abdication of his brother King Edward VIII in 1936, from which time she was the heir presumptive. She began to undertake public duties during the Second World War, serving in the Auxiliary Territorial Service. In 1947, she married Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, a former prince of Greece and Denmark, with whom she has four children: Charles, Prince of Wales; Anne, Princess Royal; Andrew, Duke of York; and Edward, Earl of Wessex.

When her father died in February 1952, she became Head of the Commonwealth and queen regnant of seven independent Commonwealth countries: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Pakistan, and Ceylon. She has reigned through major constitutional changes, such as devolution in the United Kingdom, Canadian patriation, and the decolonisation of Africa. Between 1956 and 1992, the number of her realms varied as territories gained independence and realms, including South Africa, Pakistan, and Ceylon (renamed Sri Lanka), became republics. Her many historic visits and meetings include a state visit to the Republic of Ireland and visits to or from five popes. Significant events have included her coronation in 1953 and the celebrations of her Silver, Golden, and Diamond Jubilees in 1977, 2002, and 2012 respectively. In 2017, she became the first British monarch to reach a Sapphire Jubilee. She is the longest-lived and longest-reigning British monarch as well as the world's longest-reigning queen regnant and female head of state, the oldest and longest-reigning current monarch and the longest-serving current head of state.

Elizabeth has occasionally faced republican sentiments and press criticism of the royal family, in particular after the breakdown of her children's marriages, her annus horribilis in 1992, and the death in 1997 of her former daughter-in-law Diana, Princess of Wales. However, support for the monarchy remains high, as does her personal popularity