Muhammad Mujahid Syed

Saudi Gazette

 

JEDDAH — Muallim, a Muslim lifestyle magazine, was launched by chief guest and Indian Consul General Faiz Ahmad Kidwai at Mehfil restaurant here Wednesday.



“Muallim magazine provides the necessary knowledge of Islam and Muslim affairs to Muslim youth in English. It is a very good beginning and is the need of the hour,” said Kidwai. He added: “Times have changed. I did my schooling in English, and while staying at the hostel my knowledge of Islam and Urdu was very less, in fact it was limited only to the summer vacation. I learned Qur’an during my government service.”



Kidwai was impressed with the efforts of Ubaidur Rahman Qasmi, the brain behind the magazine. He said that the present generation of Muslims are lucky as they have more access to Islamic knowledge in English.



The consul general also said that the magazine would be subscribed by the Indian Consulate, Jeddah Library so that readers can benefit from it. 



“The main objective of Muallim is to provide hope and make the Muslim nation optimistic. Our aim is to pull the young generation out of their inferiority complex. According to Allama Iqbal inferiority complex declines a nation,” said Qasmi who hails from Sultanpur UP.



Qasmi, who is also the managing director of Blossom media private limited, said that it is the only media, advisory and consultancy firm on emerging Muslim consumer market in India.



“We highlight Muslim lifestyle. We have columns, news items, youth horizon, job opportunities by the Government of India, Islamic games and news from the global Muslim community. Our contents are like any other English magazine but our main concern is to show Indian Muslim, Islam and the Ummah in a healthy way. The Almighty God had declared the Muslim nation best among the comity of nations. We too try to show Islam and Muslims in the right light — as a religion of peace. Our aim is to connect the Muslims with the Qur’an and the Sunnah,” he said.



He added: “There are many Urdu daily newspapers, but most of them are published by non-Muslims and Muslims do not have any English daily newspaper in India.”



Danish Ghafoor conducted the proceedings and Dr. Alimuddin proposed the vote of thanks.