Monday, December 31, 2012

Let There be a Party Amongst You

After perfecting our Religion for us Allah (SWT) was pleased to propose Islam as our way of life.

And then He (SWT) said that there should be a party amongst believers who were busy doing Allah (SWT)'s work.

This used to be one of several points that bothered yours truly in a nagging sort of way.

What about the rest of the people, those who were not engaged in Allah (SWT)'s work?
Of course, they are not supposed to be involved in Satan's work - that argument is a mere distraction.
The bothersome aspect is that is it alright to avoid Allah (SWT)'s work.

Answer is yes. Allah (SWT) has already perfected our Religion for us and then ceased Prophethood.
Now those of us who will work for Allah (SWT) will certainly get those benefits similar to those that were directed towards Prophets (AS). Those who do not turn to Allah (SWT)'s work will not be sinners but their rewards will be like the non-Prophets in Prophetic times.

Clearly to get rewards like Prophets is our for asking - it is voluntary to work for Allah (SWT). It will be silly not to make use of the opportunity.

And the race begins by making intentions to work for Allah (SWT). And it costs nothing to make the intention that we shall devote our complete life for Allah (SWT)'s work. We may decide its specific form later.

On Alcohol

The verdict of Allah (SWT) banning alcohol was accompanied by the explanation that it has more harms than benefits.

This statement used to make yours truly feel inconvenient.
Allah (SWT) is our Lord. He (SWT) is our Lord Most High.
Explanation do not befit Him.

And in today's spiritual session (Majlis) this got clarified.
All thanks are due to Allah (SWT) for that.

The explanation is that some people at that time were counting benefits of alcohol. Alcohol was slowly getting discouraged by the Revelation and it might have been the talk of the town at that time. And when benefits of alcohol are being counted then it becomes a argument with a weight. And it is this weight that is being neutralized in in the Verse of the Noble Qur'an that says that alcohol has more harms for you than benefits.

There is one more similar point that used to bother yours truly but let us leave that for the next post.

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Moaning of a Thankless Person

No one likes thanklessness.
Yet, strangely, the world is filled with thankless people.
Most of the thankless people are those who do not thank Lord Most High.
These are the unbelievers.
We are using here two translations of an Arabic word.
One translation is thankless, those who do not thank, and another one is unbeliever.
There is yet another, third, translation of the same word and we shall not mention that.

So this post is about the moaning of a thankless person.
He is moaning the fact that earlier there used to be many cultural Muslims in India and Pakistan and now these are disappearing.
By cultural Muslims he meant those people who do belong to Muslim community by culture but they are atheists.
This moaner enjoyed and still enjoys company of such people.

But why should yours truly be concerned with his moaning?
Well yours truly, as it happened in life, had known a few of these cultural Muslims.
So there is this personal connection - you can not erase your past.
You can only seek Lord's Forgiveness and this sinner does seek Lord's Forgiveness.
May Allah (SWT) forgive past sins, all of them, of this sinner.

And then there is another angle that is more general and of universal interest.
Many of these cultural Muslims do take themselves to be real representatives of Muslims, if not Islam.
And then they try to solve the problems of Muslims, in their own way.
They do not realize that a Muslim is not a well defined entity without Islam.
Yet they insist on going on with solving the problems of Muslims.

Aligs dealt with this problem a few years ago when some of these cultural Muslims made a foray to explore the possibility of tackling problems of Muslims in collaboration with AMU intelligentsia. And the programme soon came to a cropper in spite of the fact that Aligarh is no bastion of Islamic orthodoxy.

Yours truly is not deriving any lessons from the situation - only taking stock of it.

Friday, December 21, 2012

How Many of Us Feel That?

The purpose of life is to spend your time and every other blessing in obedience of Allah (SWT). How many of us care about that? Let us not forget that He (SWT) bestows His blessings in this world with no concern about our future actions.

Dr S.K.Singh

Dr S.K.Singh has retired from Physics Department as a professor last year. Today he was there in the department and it was strange to meet him. One really feels that with passing times the things only decay. You do not see academicians like him around anymore. Even before retirement he had left to take up the job of Vice Chancellor of H.N.Bahuguna Garhwal University, Shrinagar, Uttarakhand. He continues to hold that post. Immediately after his joining that university was made a central university.

Dev Benegal on Farhan Mujib

Shyam Benegal's nephew and a film maker in his own right, Dev Benegal, has made a fifteen minutes voice over documentary, In My Words, on our own Alig artist and science educator par excellence, late Dr Farhan Mujib. Narrated in the voice of Farhan Akhtar, son of legendary Javed Akhtar and Honey Irani and who is named after him, compresses an eventful yet very calm life. And then it is sort of roller coaster ride for those who had any overlap of space and time with the protagonist - and there are many such people. Just a week ago the world completed one year without Farhan Sahab and viewing the film brings back all the sweet memories and the sour pain of his departure. The seamless merging of flamboyance and the understated, humour and irony, complete forthrightness with utmost sensitivity - phew! One had to see him to believe it all. He was a talented person and he lived with such people and even a short audio cameo with still images itself is a good cocktail for a thorough and thorough catharsis. There is life lived fully and he did precisely that. And then there is some vicarious  pleasure of seeing that from close quarters and this too his offered to many of us. We do miss you Farhan Sahab.

Thursday, December 20, 2012

Subtle Enemy

Allah (SWT) has repeatedly warned us that Satan the cursed is our open enemy.

Why is that?

Because Allah (SWT), our Creator, knows that we are prone to fall prey to the tricks of  Satan the cursed.

He, the cursed Satan, only makes suggestions. And we lap it up.

And he is not the enemy that uses the same tricks.

There is a country, most powerful on the globe now, who beats our lands black and blue and declares that they have no enmity towards us of our faith.

Then there is this new but by now a hundred years old movement within Islam who are trying to tell us that we did not know the correct Islam all these years. They are trying to wean us away from Madhhab first.
And that is the only step that is requited.

Once you break a link then you have broken all.

This enemy too is subtle. Defeat it.

Saturday, December 15, 2012

Do You Want To Cry?

All right, yours truly will help you.
Listen to this Naat and do the needful.
Actualy you do not have to try.
It will happen on its own.
It is a blessed Ummah.

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Simplified Life

Have you ever been frustrated in life? Like not understanding it?

Actually it very easy. Principally. Practical problems are always there.

In principal all you have to do is to use blessings of Allah (SWT) in his obedience. And that is it.

Simple. Isn't it?

World Population

World population is increasing at a rate that is rather obvious to even demographically untrained eyes. Yours truly finds that mostly scary. Indeed if it was not for the active management on part of authorities world over to manage the resources the world will be a horrible place. It is because of such consideration that yours truly finds the news covered by BBC comfortable. The report says that by 2030 Asia will eclipse US and the Europe as economic powers and the latter will in fact be poor countries. No yours truly is not rejoicing at the prospects of west falling into penury. The report says that the US and the Europe will be poor places populated by aging population. No, again western demography turning geriatric is not what yours truly's point. It is the next stage. Since Asia has taken the western route to life the results can not be different - sooner Asia will face the same fate as west is going to face in two decades. Since things speed up with time it will be reasonable to assume that a decade later Asia will face the same situation - aging population with economic activity that is not furious but smooth and calm.

And that is a calming thought. Smooth and calm economic environment, not the aging population.
Aging population will have to be taken care of but such things are easy to do in smooth and calm environment. Not in hectic and furious environment.

Friday, December 7, 2012

The Main Problem

The main problem that AAA focuses on is to develop an Islamic view of the world around us.

And this is not a responsibility of yours truly only. Yours truly is completely incapable of bearing such a gigantic responsibility.

So every one has to get involved.
And not for airing your views. No, not for that.
The purpose should be to develop Islamic view about the things in our life.
We need that because the world keeps changing in unexpected direction while we are obliged to stay and remain on Shariah in every condition.

People with modern education either find Islam boring or they embellish their life with Islamic terminology in a way that Islam is merely another piece in the antiques in the drawing room. The spirit is completely missing.

The religious apparatus on the other hand has a completely different view. The feeling on that side is that modern developments are of no consequence. These modern developments do not count - according to them.

This leaves a huge gap between parts of Muslim Ummah.

Even while living in this divide we can not ignore the requirement that we have to live our life completely according to Islam - whether our Baser Self likes it or not, whether it is convenient or not.

Deen is simple, it is not necessarily convenient.

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Over Sharing, FaceBook, Twitter

Over sharing is bad.

In all probability it will be Forbidden (Haraam) in Islam but that is a matter of Fatwah.
Yours truly does not have a FaceBook or a Twitter account.
It is difficult enough to curb over sharing on the rest of the net. Why take additional risk?
But the cyberspace and cyber community has to be engaged by Muslims.
If you leave any front post unoccupied then it is sure to be occupied by your enemy.

On Celebrations, On Death

Why is so that celebrations of some people are filled with darkness while there is a lot of Noor in it when some people talk about death? Yours truly was earlier reading details of some celebrations where a rogue Maulwi was boasting of his exploits. It was suffocating. Then yours truly read a piece where the writer was merely ruminating about mundane matters and ended the narrative on a very brief remembrance of death. It was illuminating. ( An Elder once said that there is Noor in it when people of Allah open their mouth - even if they are talking of worldly matters. And there is darkness in our, worldly people's, talk even if we talk about Islam.)

This is the effect of rubbing the dust of the feet of the people of Allah (SWT) on your forehead.

Naayaab Hai Ye Gardish-e-Sayyaargaan Ki Raakh
Kuchh Sar Pe Daal, Kuchh Kaf-o-Daaman Mein Le Ke Chal
Rare is this dust raised by the treadings of the treaders
Put some on your head, rest in your pocket and hands

(Mir Ahmed Navaid)