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“On August 10, 1984, my plane landed in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan. There were no skyscrapers here. The blue domes of the mosques and the faded mountains were the only things rising above the adobe duvals (the houses). The mosques came alive in the evening with multivoiced wailing: the mullahs were calling the faithful to evening prayer. It was such an unusual spectacle that, in the beginning, I used to leave the barracks to listen â€� the same way that, in Russia, on spring nights, people go outside to listen to the nightingales sing. For me, a nineteen-year-old boy who had lived his whole life in Leningrad, everything about Kabul was exotic: enormous skies â€� uncommonly starry â€� occasionally punctured by the blazing lines of tracers. And spread out before you, the mysterious Asian capital where strange people were bustling about like ants on an anthill: bearded men, faces darkend by the sun, in solid-colored wide cotton trousers and long shirts. Their modern jackets, worn over those outfits, looked completely unnatural. And women, hidden under plain dull garments that covered them from head to toe: only their hands visible, holding bulging shopping bags, and their feet, in worn-out shoes or sneakers, sticking out from under the hems.

And somewhere between this odd city and the deep black southern sky, the wailing, beautifully incomprehensible songs of the mullahs. The sounds didn't contradict each other, but rather, in a polyphonic echo, melted away among the narrow streets. The only thing missing was Scheherazade with her tales of A Thousand and One Arabian Nights ... A few days later I saw my first missile attack on Kabul. This country was at war.”
― Vladislav Tamarov, Afghanistan: A Russian Soldier's Story

“Ramadan Sonnet

Bismillah-ir-Rahman-ir-Rahim doesn't mean,
God is merciful only to the muslim.
The spirit of godliness that we hold within,
is meant to light up the world as our kin.
Fasting and feasting all turn mere futile choir,
If, for whatever reason, life is distant from life.
Celebration of Ramadan is celebration of rahmat*,
Ramadan without *compassion is Ramadan without life.
Ramadan is not a muslim festival,
Ramadan is a human festival.
Ramadan is a reminder to rekindle our light,
Ramadan is the end of all feelings uncharitable.
None of us will have faith till we wish for
our neighbor as we wish for ourselves (Hadith 13).
The reward for goodness is goodness itself (Q55:60).”
― Abhijit Naskar, AÅŸk Mafia: Armor of The World

“Celebration of Ramadan is celebration of rahmat (compassion).”
― Abhijit Naskar, AÅŸk Mafia: Armor of The World

“She didn’t have a very clear vision of her future as a married woman. She assumed she would get married one day—she did want kids, after all. She thought. Th ey did look so adorable from far away, if a bit messy. And to a practicing Muslim woman, marriage was sort of a prerequisite to acquiring those. But what that would be like, look like, feel like, she couldn’t really say.”
― Hannah Matus, A Second Look

“For one who lives with kindness, everyday is Ramadan.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Dervis Vadisi: 100 Promissory Sonnets

“30 Days of Ramadan (Sufi Sonnet)

On the 1st day of Ramadan I say to thee,
celebration of Ramadan is celebration of rahmat.
On the 2nd day of Ramadan I say to thee,
the greatest iftar is to lift up another.

On the 3rd day of Ramadan I say to thee,
kindness makes moments holy, not date and time.
On the 4th day I say to thee, till we renounce
apathy, refusing 'interest' counts for nothing.

On the 5th day of Ramadan I say to thee,
helping a human is worth a hundred Hajj.
On the 6th day of Ramadan I say to thee,
service to humanity is service to Allah/God.

On 7th I say, true mercy waits for no month.
On 8th I say, mercy exclusive to month is fake mercy.
9. There is nothing uglier than happiness hoarded.
10. Light shared, is amplified, when hoarded, it's lost.
11. Breaking fast while the world starves, is no holy.

12. Dua without deeds is dua (prayer) of the dead.
13. Only kafir is the one who lacks kindness.
14. Real divinity knows no distinction of faith.
15. The opposite of sacredness is prejudice.

16. Heart is the first and final mosque.
17. Heart set on prejudice tantamount to Quran set on fire.
18. Abandon fundamentalism, and adopt tolerance.
19. What's fanatic is dead, what's tolerant is alive.
20. Tolerance is the awakening of divine desire.

21. Condemn none, convert none, for all are equal.
22. All streams spring from the human heart.
23. Reflections though vary, the sun is the same.
24. Tolerate no more bigotry to poison the world.

25. Surpass all fear, and share a date.
26. Date shared is bloodshed spared.
27. Dogma deserted is harmony harvested.
28. Ramadan is the end of fear and hatred.

On the eve of Eid, I bear reminder - for one
who lives with kindness, everyday is Ramadan.
On Eid al-Fitr, I stand as a promise -
in celebrating each other we rise human.”
― Abhijit Naskar, The God Sonnets: Naskar Art of Theology