(Think not that if thou passest away, the world will also be gone;
A thousand candles have burned out, yet the circle of the Sufis remains. 

Tanbour (a guitar or harp like instrument) is the oldest and most genuine Iranian musical instrument and nowadays nearly half of the people around the world are acquainted with this ancient Iranian instrument and are using it in different parts of the world under different names.

IN his Laudes, St. Francis of Assisi extols the virtues "with which the most holy Virgin was adorned, and with which every holy soul must also be adorned (Laude delle virtù delle quail fu adornata la Santissima Vergine, e deve esserne l'anima santa)". These two references, one to the Virgin and the other to the soul, have a profound and precise meaning...

The Shahnameh is replete with scenes of kings and heroes in the company of wine. In one episode, for example, Esfandiyar feasted on kabob and wine (may) before going into battle against Arjasb. In another story, Rostam and Esfandiyar partook of wine prior to riding into Zabol. What made Ferdowsi's rendition of such scenes remarkable is that even centuries of Islamic strictures could not efface the visceral connection of the Iranian with wine.

ALL the constituent elements of a rite have necessarily a symbolic sense, while on the other hand a symbol itself in its commonest acceptation, as a support for meditation, is destined essentially to give results which are exactly comparable to the results of rites.

The lecturers will join so-called "independent watchdog teams" at the provincial and regency/municipal levels. They will be responsible for preventing the kind of large-scale cheating that has dogged the exams for years.

THE liturgy can be regarded in two very different ways: one may either take the view that the primitive simplicity of the rites has to be preserved from all sorts of cumbersome accretions, or alternatively one may adopt the attitude that liturgical embellishment, if not contributing to the efficacy of the rites, at least enhances their radiance and consequently is a gift from God.

The spiritual path begins when the heart is awakened to His eternal pres-ence. The Beloved looks into the heart of His lover and in that instant the lover knows the secret of divine union, that the lover and Beloved are one.

Mazdean family law is the most extensive and involved section of the civil code as set forth in the few surviving Middle Persian legal texts, especially the Sasanian lawbook entitled Mâdayân î hazâr dâdestân.

The Mazdakites were socially radical religious sectarians who dominated Iranian politics in the late CE 5th and early 6th Centuries.

RAJANPUR: The 107th Urs of renowned Sufi poet and saint Hazrat Khawaja Ghulam Fareed will begin at Kot Mothan Sharif from April 12.

Prophet Muhammad (Peace be on him):
"Gratitude (shukr) for the abundance (ni'math) you have received is the best insurance that the abundance will continue."

 Concordia is developing a program in Iranian studies, starting with an undergraduate minor that is listed in the 2008-09 undergraduate calendar. Its organizers intend that this initiative, which is unique in Canada, will grow into a full-fledged major program.