In these days of gloom, doom and upheaval, one feels down in the dumps. But the publication of a good book or magazine brings joy as though a thousand flowers had bloomed. I felt that spring, a rare phenomenon in this part of the world, had come to Karachi’s bleak, soggy when recently Zubair Bhai, the ever-helpful librarian (a rare breed in our libraries) at Bedil Library, handed me two issues of a quarterly magazine ‘Discourse’, published from Karachi.

In addition to sporting a pretty face, ‘Discourse’ has a serious (and gigantic) intent, which is to bridge the gap between Islam and the west through dialogue. But I’d better put it in the magazine’s own words. Under the heading ‘Editorial Stance’, it says: “It is against the background of the plight and predicament of the Muslim Community and the ever-increasing hostility and mistrust of the west for ‘things Islamic’ that Discourse International intends to address, by way of balanced and unbiased dialogue, debate and discussion between the two ambivalent ‘civilisational stakeholders’.

In the first issue, Qaiser Alam in his editorial mentions that “the overriding objective is to develop and cultivate a mutually acceptable and tolerant debate and discussion between ‘things Islamic’ and ‘things western’ in order to erect a communicative platform … to chalk out a sustainable blue-print for mutual respect, survival and progress with peace, honour and dignity.”

The journal, which heaven knows why has been dubbed as ‘Book Series’, avoids generally, to quote the editor, “an over-critical and ‘holier than thou’ approach”. In his opening article ‘Terms of engagement between East and West’, Qaiser Alam tries to sort out the reasons behind the prevailing hostility and even hatred between the Islamic world and the west. He points out that the western intelligentsia has been able to convince a vast majority of its people that almost all movements for independence or self-rule are either extremist or terrorist, aimed towards destroying the western civilisation. But, he thinks, the blame rests on others as well, such as Muslim ulema and the Muslim intelligentsia, the orientalists and the Sufis.

One may or may not agree with Alam or the contents of other scholarly articles contributed by well-known authors and thinkers such as Dr Manzoor Ahmed, Jamal Panipati, Ahmed Javaid, Zamir Ali Badaiyuni and Asif Farrukhi, but it is heartening indeed that a serious journal in the English language, publishing philosophical, literary and scholarly papers, has come out from Pakistan.

The second issue of ‘Discourse’ also carries some very interesting and thought-provoking articles. Included in this issue, Qaiser Alam’s article ‘Post-modernism and Urdu Ghazal’ deserves special mention. He laments that the post-modernist Urdu ghazal suffers from some serious ‘ailments’ and with precision, he diagnoses the nature of these ailments.

Barring a few typographical errors that can easily be attributed to the printer’s devil, the journal achieves a high standard of authorship, editing and printing.

What one should do is to keep one’s fingers crossed that the journal maintains regular publication because it is a non-profit, non-commercial venture. In the past, many such good magazines have come forth and died for one reason or another.

– drraufparekh@yahoo.com