Residents of Cowley County, Kansas caused a sensation last week when they captured video of the military towing a concealed object on a flatbed truck down US Highway 77. It wasn't long before a wave of speculation hit, claiming the object was a UFO.

Depending on the angle from which you spotted it, the 30 foot-wide mysterious craft appeared to be saucer-shaped. It was so large that local law enforcement had to remove roadside signage so it could pass through. But it was covered in a tightly concealed tarp, making any further examination impossible.

Muhammad Iqbal

Sir Allama Mohammad Iqbal
Full name	Muhammad Iqbal
Born	November 9, 1877 Sialkot, Punjab, British India
Died	April 21, 1938 (aged 60) Lahore, Punjab, British India
Era	Modern philosophy
Region	British India
School	Islamic philosophy
Main interests	Urdu poetry, Persian poetry
Influenced by[show]
Influenced[show]
Website	allamaiqbal.com

Sir Muhammad Iqbal (Urdu: محمد اقبال) (November 9, 1877 – April 21, 1938) was a Muslim poetand philosopher born in Sialkot, British India (now in Pakistan), whose poetry in Urdu andPersian is considered to be among the greatest of the modern era.^[1] He is commonly referred to as Allama Iqbal (علامہ اقبال‎, Allama lit. Scholar).

After studying in England and Germany, Iqbal established a law practice, but concentrated primarily on writing scholarly works on politics, economics, history, philosophy and religion. He is best known for his poetic works, including Asrar-e-Khudi—which brought a knighthood—Rumuz-e-Bekhudi, and the Bang-e-Dara, with its enduring patriotic song Tarana-e-Hind. InAfghanistan and Iran, where he is known as Iqbāl-e Lāhorī (اقبال لاهوری‎ Iqbal of Lahore), he is highly regarded for his Persian works.

Iqbal was a strong proponent of the political and spiritual revival of Islamic civilization across the world, but specifically in India; a series of famous lectures he delivered to this effect were published as The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam. One of the most prominent leaders of the All-India Muslim League, Iqbal encouraged the creation of a "state in northwestern India for Indian Muslims" in his 1930 presidential address.^[2] Iqbal encouraged and worked closely with Muhammad Ali Jinnah, and he is known as Muffakir-e-Pakistan ("The Thinker of Pakistan"), Shair-e-Mashriq ("The Poet of the East"), and Hakeem-ul-Ummat ("The Sage of theUmmah"). He is officially recognised as the "national poet" in Pakistan. The anniversary of his birth (یوم ولادت محمد اقبال‎ – Yōm-e Welādat-e Muḥammad Iqbāl) on November 9 is a holiday in Pakistan.

Early life

Muhammad Iqbal was born on November 9, 1877 in Sialkot, in the Punjab province of British India in what is now Pakistan. During the reign ofMughal emperor, Shah Jahan—according to scholar Bruce Lawrence—Iqbal's Kashmiri Pandit ancestors from Kashmir had converted toIslam. According to some sources: "The family had migrated from Kashmir where Iqbal's Brahmin ancestors had been converted to Islam." Iqbal often wrote about his being "a son of Kashmiri-Brahmins but (being) acquainted with the wisdom of Rûm and Tabriz."

Iqbal's father, Nur Muhammad, was a tailor, who lacked formal education, but who had great devotion to Islam and Sufism and a "mystically tinged piety." Iqbal's mother was known in the family as a "wise, generous woman who quietly gave financial help to poor and needy women and arbitrated in neighbor's disputes." After his mother's death in 1914, Iqbal wrote an elegy for her:

Who would wait for me anxiously in my native place?
Who would display restlessness if my letter fails to arrive
I will visit thy grave with this complaint:
Who will now think of me in midnight prayers?
All thy life thy love served me with devotion—
When I became fit to serve thee, thou hast departed.

At the age of four, young Iqbal

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Eid al-Adha (Arabic: عيد الأضحى‎ ‘Īd al-’Aḍḥá, IPA: [ʕiːd al ʔadˁˈħaː], "feast of sacrifice") or "Festival of Sacrifice" or "Greater Eid" is an important religious holiday celebrated by Muslimsworldwide to commemorate the willingness of Abraham (Ibrahim) to sacrifice his son Ishmael(Isma'il) as an act of obedience to God, before God intervened to provide him with a sheep— to sacrifice instead.

Eid al-Adha is the latter of two Eid festivals celebrated by Muslims, whose basis comes fromSura 2 (Al-Baqara) Ayah 196 in the Qur'an.^[2] Like Eid ul-Fitr, Eid al-Adha begins with a Sunnahprayer of two Raka'ah (units) followed by a sermon (khuṭbah).

The word "Eid" appears in Sura al-Mai'da ("The Table Spread," Chapter 5) of the Qur'an, meaning 'solemn festival'.^[3]

Eid al-Adha is celebrated annually on the 10th day of the 12th and the last Islamic month of Dhu al-Hijjah (ذو الحجة) of the lunar Islamic calendar.^[4] Eid al-Adha celebrations start after the Hajj, the annual pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia by Muslims worldwide, descend from Mount Arafat. The date is approximately 70 days (2 Months & 10 days) after the end of the month of Ramadan, i.e. Eid-ul-Fitr. Ritual observance of the holiday lasts until sunset of the 13th day of Dhu al-Hijjah.

Other names

The Arabic term "Festival of Sacrifice", ‘Eid ul-’Aḍḥā, is similar to the Semitic roots that evolved into Indic languages such as Hindi, Urdu, Gujarati and Bengali and Austronesian languagessuch as Malay and Indonesian (the last often spelling it as Idul Adha or Iduladha).

Another Semitic word for "sacrifice" is the Arabic Qurbān(Arabic: قربان‎), which is used in Dari Persian and Standard Persian as Eyde Ghorbân عید قربان, and in Tajik Persian as Иди Қурбон (Idi Qurbon), into Kazakh as Құрбан айт (Qurban ayt), into Uyghur as Qurban Heyit, and also into various Indic languages. Other languages combined the Arabic word qurbānwith local terms for "festival", as in Kurdish (Cejna Qurbanê^[6]),Pashto (Kurbaneyy Akhtar), Chinese (古尔邦节 Gúěrbāng Jié), Malay and Indonesian (Hari Raya Korban, Qurbani), andTurkish (Kurban Bayramı).Azeri (Qurban Bayramı), Tatar(Qorban Bäyräme), Bosnian (Kurban bajram),Albanian(Bajramin e Kurbanit) Croatian (Kurban-bajram),Serbian (Курбан бајрам), Russian (Курбан-байрам), (Eid Kurbani Wari) in Sindhi.

Eid al-Kabir, "the Greater Eid" (the "Lesser Eid" being Eid ul-Fitr^[7]), is used in Yemen, Syria, and North Africa (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, and Egypt). The term was borrowed directly into French as Aïd el-Kebir. Translations of "Big Eid" or "Greater Eid" are used in Pashto لوی اختر Loy Akhtar, KashmiriBaed Eid, Hindi and Urdu Baṛā Īd, Malayalam Bali Perunnal, and Tamil Peru Nāl.

Another name refers to the fact that the holiday occurs after the culmination of the Hajj (حج), or pilgrimage to Mecca (Makka). Such names are used in Malay and Indonesian (Hari Raya Haji "Hajj celebration day",Lebaran Haji), and in Tamil Hajji Peru Nāl.

In Urdu-speaking areas, the festival is also called بقرعید Baqra Īd or Baqrī Īd, stemming either from the Arabic baqarah "heifer" or the Urdu word baqrī for "goat", as cows and goats are among the traditionally sacrificed animals. That term was also borrowed into other languages, such as Tamil Bakr Eid Peru Nāl.

Other local names include 宰牲节 Zǎishēng Jié ("Slaughter-livestock Festival") in Chinese, Tfaska Tamoqqart in the Berber language of Djerba, Tabaski or Tobaski in West African languages,^[8][9] Babbar Sallah in Nigerian languages, and ciida gawraca in Somali.

Eid-al-Adha has had other names outside the Muslim world. The name is often simply translated into the local language, such as English Festival of Sacrifice, German Opferfest, Dutch Offerfeest, RomanianSărbătoarea Sacrificiului and Hungarian Áldozati ünnep. In Spanish, it is known as the Fiesta del Cordero, the Festival of the Lamb.

In Bangladesh and West Bengal it is known as Korbanir Eid..............