Three Kinds of people!

During my Eid celebrations I understood with an epiphany that there are three kinds of people in this world.

1. People who take from this world and give nothing back to it
2. People who give as much as they take from this world
3. People who only give to this world without taking much
I think that prophets lie in this third category because their sole purpose is to establish word of Allah on earth and for this very reason they spend their whole lives. Also in this category are people like Abdul Sattar Edhi who spend their whole lives giving without taking much.
Next are those people who are philanthropist and virtuous ones who care for other beings and spend from their earnings for others, they give their time to others and they try to be virtuous. But they keep a balance in what they give and what they keep. These are the people who are members of societies like Edhi center and Akhuwat foundation.
The people of the third category are the greedy ones who only try to fill their pockets from the riches of this world and fail to share with others. These are the ones who are tormented in nightmares and satisfaction/happiness eludes them.
It is the Aura of Muhammad's (p.b.u.h) religion (deen) that after Muhammad (p.b.u.h) no other Prophet is going to come. And Allah has put the responsibility of dawah (preaching)of His word on the followers of Islam - that is Muhammad's (p.b.u.h) religion.
So, it is plausible to say that after Muhammad (p.b.u.h) it's Muslims who have to just give to this world without taking much from it. It is for this reason Allah has again and again told us in the Holy Quran about the malignant nature of dunya (world's gains). He has warned us not to indulge in it so to forget about akhira (Day of Judgment) and the life after death.

In this context i believe we have to think and we have to ponder over our actions that what are we doing and why we are doing things we are doing.
May Allah forgive us and guide us to the straight path.

Directly from my heart !

I read two columns of ansar abbasi and Hassan nisar today. And I couldn’t feel myself more miserable after reading them. From where do I start? Corrupt leadership, corrupt clergy, corrupt scholars, illiteracy, poverty, energy crises, Balochistan’s liberation, India’s ferocity on waters, Aman ki asha, profanity and blasphemy in the name of commercialization, down trodden economy, frustrated people, delusional youth, absence of law and order, divided people, oppressed women, war, terrorism, suicides and this list goes on and on and on.
People try to find optimism in individuals of this nation. Recently, I heard news that Pakistani speakers had won an international debate competition in USA. An individual made a car run on hydrogen fuel cell. And there are number of examples in which Pakistani individuals are providing their unprecedented performances and services internationally. But in this optimism there is a big flaw. These are individuals and we are Muslim ummah. When this word ‘Ummah’ comes into my mind everything collapses on the plane of thought and future of this group or fraternity. I see massacre of Burma, genocide in Palestine, Bosnia, killings in Kashmir. I experience loss of faith in Allah, I see absence of values that Islam has taught us, I see ulema betraying their own religion on television. My heart fills with pessimism again. I see no light in this darkness, I see no flower in this swamp, I see no hope in this despair, I see no visionary in us blinds, I see no heart with feeling in this crowd of heartless souls, I see no escape from this prison of turmoil, I see no Umer, no abu bakr, no abu jundana, no bilal, no Iqbal, no Quaid, no Modudi, no Nadvi.
I pray to Allah to guide our way and be sufficient for us in every aspect of oppression Muslim Ummah today faces. May He grant us strength to stand by our principles with confidence, and dignity. May Allah shatter this rock of illiteracy resting on our hearts and brains. May we revitalize the lost Islamic values and moralities. O Allah ! we have never been in so much need of your blessing then today. Forgive us and guide us.

Reminisce on vanity of Nations!

These were the famous words of soldiers marching into Russia singing:

Let everything go to pieces, We march on
For today Germany is ours;
Tomorrow the whole world!

These have taken from the book "Why Nations go to war" by John G. Stoessinger.
What happened in that war, its catastrophes are explicitly known by everyone today. And i was just imagining that sense of profound vanity that brought Hitler and his subservient a scourging defeat.

Performance Measuring Indicator

the other i just had a flash that what could be the Performance Measuring Indicator (PMI) for evaluating effectiveness of the islaah that ulemas tend to make while delivering their Friday sermons and other islaahi speeches.
The plan that came into my mind is this:
After the sermon, the speaker should tell a conclusion in a form of an action and thereby asking listeners to act upon. At the end of the next sermon or speech, everyone should be given a small piece of paper and be told to write down the extent to which he was able to perform the action as was advised by the speaker. The person should write down what benefits did that particular action provided. Furthermore, if he wasn't able to act then what were the hurdles he faced and what are the possible solutions. This method can be adopted for those groups who are introvert and are literate. This thing can be done on paper but as i am writing this i am thinking that Pakistanis are not all literate. So, to solve this issue people who are extrovert but are not literate can be asked to sit in another session and answer the questions separately. People who are literate and are introvert should be again and again convinced to join the extrovert group.
The people should interact in some way with the speaker and vice versa. This interaction should be done in a way that could be quantified so as to give a measure precisely that what is needed.
This might be a way of measuring the effectiveness of a speech or a speaker. It can make speakers more aware of what they are missing in their sermons. It might indicate that why words of khateeb are not effective change elements now-a-days in our society and mainly it will aware speakers that where they lack. It will also give confidence to people that where they stand morally in the society, what values are missing in them and how these can be improved.
The data collected through this practice can give an overall picture of what people think and where they want to go. It can surely tell that where people are broke and where they are strong. It will tell in which areas betterment is required and in which areas it is satisfactory. I mean we should utilize these tools of PMI in order to better understand the society and to know what is needed the most in our society. What usually happens in the sermons is that a speaker speaks; people listen; and go home without any interaction or feedback. There is a small interval of time at which everybody thinks that yes i have to do this; it is important; but as the moment passes he forgets everything and is left into the abyss like before.
Up till now i have not seen any type of Performance Measuring method utilized by the speakers of mosques in order to know what are the impacts of their speech and how can they do better.
I know that there are a lot of factors that I am not taking into account. But still i think it can be done in many mosques around the globe.
The readers are most welcome to iterate this method into something more practical and effective.

The Philosopher

I could not find anything about the writer, but this story is worth a read. you can find it here at arcnp.org/philosopher.pdf
It is written by Judith Kipling.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Just now I finished the book “the perks of being a wallflower”. A few days early I was just randomly searching on the internet where I found a trailer of a movie named “The perks of being a wallflower”. After reading some details I found out that the film is an adoption of a novel by Stephen Chboskey. The film is directed by the same author and stars Logan Lerman and Emma Watson. I have never read a book that has been adapted into a movie. Out of curiosity I just searched for its .pdf file and fortunately found it and started reading. The lingual style of the book is real simple and it is written in such a flow that it simply captured my attention. So, I started reading it.
The book is in fact a series of letters that have been written by central character of the novel ‘Charlie’ to a person he has never met or talked or knew. He is a very nervous kid who is in search of friends after the demise of his very best friend Michael.
Following things just came into my mind and I thought that I should do little scribbling myself. What I felt after reading this book is right here and it is you people who have to tell me what does this book really depicts…
It’s a book about things “books, music and girls”. At some places it is more than that. It gives you an inside of a kid who ‘thinks too much’ and gets ‘panicky’. It outlines the life of a first year student of high school and things he comes up with and cannot run away. The book teaches us to participate in life but it feels to be more of sarcasm then what has been put into the book, because it teaches us so many things other than participating. Like being there for friends and what friendship really means. Charlie, protagonist of the novel is actually a person who is always caring for others and is giving a helping hand to whatever his friends are coping with. This thing does affect his relationship with Sam but I think it is the innocence in his character that really makes this novel worthwhile to read.
The book teaches us through Charlie little things which go unnoticed by us ‘the common people’ and how they affect the moral structure of the society and how Charlie always tries to not think all of this but it keeps coming to his mind. The good, bad and the ugly experiences he enjoys with people and how different things upset him. If we think in our world these things do matter to us and affect us in different ways. Like many of us feel like to have someone by their side in distress and tension who can pacify our sorrows and ease our pain, and that many of us don’t find that ‘someone’ by our side. It is like people here care no more for others than they do for themselves and this is what makes Charlie special. This is what a wallflower really does; provides you with a sense of serenity while not drawing any attention to you.
The book also touches some morbid and worrying aspects like the lives of 16 year olds who are taking drugs, vine and other stuff and getting high. Things like having sex in this age of adolescence and the feelings it imparts in the kids. The guilt they feel when they masturbate for the first time and how they are always talking and thinking about girls and partying and ‘living’ life. They don’t care about what is happening in the world and what is their role in it or what they can do to better the society in which they live in. The book actually has no moral sentiments from which to draw any values, rather it is the depiction of this these moralities in the thinking and feelings of Charlie.
The relationship of Charlie with his family is shown to be too remote because he is always running for his friends whenever something came up in his mind and he just wanted to know that his family loves him and he loves his family and that’s it. His dad is busy in his work and when he does come home, he sees hockey game without his son because “he asks too many questions”. He did not attend any party with his family except for thanksgiving and Easter and some other traditional parties. The family didn’t go for any outing. I didn’t notice any time when the mother asked to his son that what is really happening with him and why is his attitude like this and he never found his family worthy enough to share his inside passions or feelings with them.
It tells us the story of Don Juan that Sam’s (a friend of Charlie) boyfriend was hiding from her. I don’t how much this book represents family and social structure of West but it feels so strange to read all the details. (It is you guys who have to enlighten me on this very fact). May be because here (in Pakistan) people don’t think about their actions and ‘living their lives’ more than the hardships they bear in catering the bread and butter for their family. And in contrast to this worried and hard environment they still smile and ‘live’ what they really want to live. This difference I am feeling after reading this book might be because of the completely different social structure that I have been brought up and I think I would not have been different if I have been born there. And I thank Allah very much for this that I am not born so much blinded by the perks of this world.
Overall the book has taught me in many ways and I hope that it does this to other readers also.

Magnum Opus

Chirping of hummingbirds, indefinable boundaries of blue sky, that first drop of rain in summer, those cold evenings in winter, explicit beauty in aromatic springs, those grey leaves in autumn, that bliss of coldness in scenic valleys, soothing waters of the streams, those indefinite sands in deserts, fires, floods, lightening, auroras, are an integrate part of the Grandeur of our Creator.
Those warm tears sprinkling from the eyes of a son at her mother’s demise, those merry moments of one’s prestige, those gutty feelings of doing things for the first time, that unconditional love of father for his child, that innocent look on novel face of a juvenile little girl, love, dedication, sacrifice and satisfaction, serenity, joy and felicity, dignity and morality, rage in frustration, confusion in turmoil, and fear of unknown also reflect mastery of the Sustainer. But there is a line that divides God’s Creations; the ones with brains and the ones with not.
In the vastness of this mighty picturesque of universe, we are like a tiny speck of sand in the ocean. But it is us who can think and choose and pacify or activate things. No other creation can have notions or intuitions. They don’t have the burden of sacrificing. They don’t feel happiness. They don’t break down or hang over. They don’t have to repay their debts. They don’t have to invent or to discover. They don’t have to repent or be sincere in any relationship. They don’t question other’s sentiments.
So, these are the most exuberant, vivacious and convoluted creation of our God. That eats, sleeps, and has kids as well. Albeit, it is the only creation with wisdom and soul, it still culminates qualities of many of other creations of God; rage is like a burning fire, love is like a bird in flight, care is like soft whisper of the wind, sacrifice is like a seed that buries beneath the earth, lust is like a vicious ravenous tiger; ambition like an eagle souring above all other.
It is in fact a higher form of creation that God has created and it has a purpose, similar to other creations, but with a mortal physical being. It seems like every other creation is made for us; humans. Rains for crops, animals for food, iron to build, fuel to run our engines on, and what not have we used for our benefit? We still continue our legacy of discovering new elements and utilizing them in a better way. But yes it is us who have the burden of choice that we have to make in every single passing moment of our lives.
After decades of development and persistence what we have discovered is that we live on 1 of the 170 billion galaxies and we exist in a solar system with a star that is 1 in 300 billion; such little is our existence in contrast to the Magnum Opus of our creator.
We have become arrogant of the little knowledge we have acquired through the course of history and in our arrogance we have renounced God. We have dejected His existence. And we aspire to be the ‘commander of our own destiny’. So petty is our presence in the vastness of this universe and still we stand up to God, while actually we cannot. This aura of our race is in fact also a creation of Allah.
It is a dire need for us to understand our place in the grand scheme of Allah who is the Almighty. There is no running away from what He has decided for us. But it is our choices that result in the projection of our destiny. The peace inside of us can only be achieved if we embrace our destiny. It is the need of our conscience to understand our place in this magnum opera of our creator without which we will not be able to bring our rightful place and purpose to fruition.
We are cynical about the good that is left in us. We no more have time for others. We are promulgating macabre vices of our kind and our higher and once inveterate qualities have faded into the looming darkness of liberty; Liberty that extracts every possible characteristic innate in humans, creating chaos if not tamed by shackles of our conscience and moralities. It is this inner captivity of one’s self that can evolve into a beautiful amalgam of diversity in harmony amongst each other that can result in peace and serenity of every one on this planet. That can solve our gravest problems of today like these economic depressions, strategic relations of nations, world wars, indecency, and vanishing values. It can give us the solution to the place of women in society. It can outline the true human rights and can give voice to the unheard.
“

He causes the night to enter the day, and He causes the day to enter the night and has subjected the sun and the moon - each running [its course] for a specified term. That is Allah, your Lord; to Him belongs sovereignty. And those whom you invoke other than Him do not possess [as much as] the membrane of a date seed.

[Quran 35:13]