With a pandemic rendering market forces brutal for the least privileged, and zakaat being calculated in every household before Ramadaan, discussions on Islam's mandate of charity than complete reliance on the human instinct of generosity highlight its socialist proclivities.
1/9 The syncretism of socialist thought with Islamic theology has been complex and like any other set-up, it cannot be pictured as a monolithic entity.
Islamic economic philosophy provides a third option between two extremes of the economic ecosystem.
2/9

The nation has been making news in the international media over the last one week.
Reason : The Voice that is being raised against #CABBill2019
What is it?
Let me explain
Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB):
While CAB talks about giving citizenship to the neighboring (persecuted) minorities let’s have a look at the ones included in this: the bill gives citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Parsis and Christians from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan
#CABProtest
#CABBill2019

Perhaps the best example of #AmalgamationArchitecture and the cultural inclusiveness of #Hyderabad under the Nizam is #OsmaniaUniversity Arts College founded in 1918. It's the 1st Indian university to have Urdu (a modern language) as medium of instruction (as opposed to Persian). Under the last Nizam, Osman Ali Pasha, #Hyderabad was thriving as a center of learning, innovation and technological advancement, free from the dark shadow of colonialism that gripped most of the Subcontinent. Hyderabad was quite insulated from India...

Architecture is not just about buildings, it’s about society, culture, psychology, politics, landscape, the environment, economics, engineering, mathematics, art, craft, materiality, technology, impact, and projecting the future. It’s about people, place and time. #Architecture tells a story:of #people who inhabit it,of its #place in context,of #times it's seen.This house is symbolic of use,history,culture,style.Was it always this color?Was it built at once or incrementally?Is it unified or divided inside?So much to peel, layer by layer...

Here are a few assorted mosques built during the Asaf Jahi dynasty, which ruled Hyderabad from the 1700s all the way up until a couple of years after Indian independence.
#MosquesofIndia #MosquesofHyderabad

The #Nizam built two schools side by side in typical Asaf Jahi style... ...of architecture, Madrasa-e-Mahbubia for girls and Madrasa-e-Aliya for boys at #Abids. The Jama Masjid Aliya is contained in this heritage complex, right next to ASI.

Have you noticed something about the two mosques I talked about? The Charminar and the Mecca Masjid. They're very different from the common perception of what a mosque is supposed to look like, aren't they? Lofty bulbous domes, minarets, crescents, maybe painted green and white? ...Yet these two mosques have no domes or tall towering minarets that symbolize a mosque. Let's look at a few other heritage mosques around #Hyderabad. Here are a few images of Qutb Shahi mosques around the city...

...first a warning: if you're the kind who gets yourself offended because you didn't get a joke, you may want to go read something else for the next couple of days.
(I also have a pretty controversial eponymous magazine.) But trust me, I'm not an anti-national! I’m an architect with a BArch from CSIIT Secunderabad (the twin city that Hyderabad absorbed) and an MArch in Architecture + Urbanism from the Design Research Lab at the Architectural Association, London. Though my practice is very much driven by technology and experimentation...