Barzakh is a term used in Islam for an intermediate state of human existence between death and resurrection. 1. Barzakh in the Qurʾān and tafsīr In two verses in the Qurʾān (25:53, 55:20), barzakh (perhaps from Persian farsakh, a measure of distance; Jeffery, 77) means a barrier between two seas. It is from a third verse that the meaning of barzakh as an intermediate state between life in this world (al-dunyā) and the next world (al-ākhira) is derived: dead sinners plead with God to return them to life so that they can perform good deeds and thus regain His favour, but…

The first Urdu autobiographies were written in the 1880s. (The term “autobiography” will be used here in a broad sense, for any kind of consistent autobiographical narrative, including reminiscences that cover only part of the narrator’s life.) These autobiographies engaged in various ways with the colonial situation and particularly with the events of 1857–8. In later autobiographies, the freedom struggle and India’s partition in 1947 came to figure prominently alongside more personal affairs and …

Hudood Ordinances refer to the legislation of penal laws in Pakistan entitled “Enforcement of Hudood Ordinances VI, VII, VIII and IX” on 10 February 1979, issued in English. In these ordinances, the “hudood” (Ar. pl. ḥudūd, penalties, sing. ḥadd) relate respectively to the offences of theft and robbery; adultery, rape and fornication ( zinā); false accusation (qazf/qadhf) of zinā; and punishment by whipping (; Council of Islamic Ideology 17–44). Ordinance IX, the last Ordinance, was enforced to provide the law required for the execution of the punishme…