Dead?

Something happened that made me wonder; we live in our own little bubbles. We, in this age of global village , live lives as if we are all islands, disconnected, not effected and certainly not moved by whatever that is happening outside the boundaries of our little homes. We talk about change, and “tsunamis” and “revolution” yet we are not willing to sacrifice even our time to the very cause we think we believe in. Or are we?

I’m saying all this because this is exactly what is happening in our society. Whatever that is happening in Waziristan right now, or districts of Lyari in Karachi, Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, or Palestine, how does it effect us? Do we think about them for more than two seconds? Do we even care about them more than posting a picture of it, or updating our status about it on facebook? Does it effect our lives in anyway? I don’t think so. We keep on living our lives the way we are living them, full of distractions and entertainment and we think we can bring a revolution without sacrificing our lives, careers, luxurious lifestyles just by clicking and wasting away in front of our laptop screens. We are not willing to do more than that and we believe we are doing sooo much.

Revolution, change and every word related to it looks nice and everything but the reality is much more brutal. The situation in our homeland and in the Muslim world is almost out of control. We have people who would sacrifice their lives for their leaders, but they will not unite under the one banner of Pakistan, let alone Islam. We should be ashamed of ourselves for not even feeling a pang in our hearts for those who are dying in streets everyday by stray bullets, target killers or by drones. How can we feel for the Muslims of other countries when we don’t care about the people who live around the corner from our own houses.

Do we feel for the kids that die in Waziristan by drones? Or the families that are lost in that beautiful valley of Swat? Or those who are a target in Karachi? Or any other part of Pakistan? If not how are we supposed to call ourselves alive when we are no better than the dead.

“Osama Bin Laden is dead”

All the news items that are there start off with the same line that he was hiding in the city of Abbottabad, 30 miles from the capital Islamabad. And all those around the world are now questioning the ever denying of Pakistan that he is not in Pakistan. The question is, who knows maybe he had been hidden there by both CIA and ISI and since Pakistan has been asking US to limit the number of CIA contractors and to keep drone attacks at bay or maybe some other thing must have come up that made US to unilaterally carry out the operation so as to show how effective Pakistan’s ISI and Army is.

The kind of news items appeared soon after were much of a laughing stock for the US.  As the pictures were said to be fake, then there was this DNA test results, which take 48 hours to come out, just sprang from the scene. Plus the much hasted burial at the sea. All these things leave hundreds of questions unanswered.

There are people who are saying that he is the one man who has hijacked our beloved religion the most in the past millennium or so. Just a question to all those people out there, was it just him or even the political leaders of the Muslim world. I mean has he done much damage or has the “enlightened moderation” done more damage. When 9/11 happened and when Mulla Omer proposed to have a fair trial in a neutral country then, why did US back out from it? When the whole 9/11 sham has been exposed, okay… forget it. Was it fair on the part of US to bomb thousands of innocent civilians just to get one man killed?

Osama bin Laden went to Afghanistan two weeks after the Russian invasion, and America jumped in two years after the invasion, how can one be sure if Osama was trained and sent there by the US who knew from day one that Afghanis with few arms and almost no technology will stand their ground and keep Russia at bay for a couple of years without their help and later they’d jump in to help them first hand.

No matter what the outside world says, all I am going to say is there sure is something about those handful of people who (unlike our army, politicians and leaders), are still fighting the US and NATO troops with fewer arms and almost no technology. I side with them who live in caves, fight them and have stood their ground for ten years. US and NATO having all the technology in the world, still lacks that one thing which drags them into psychological downfalls and they commit heinous crimes against poor civilians; keeping part of their bodies as trophies, killing for no reason, sexually harassing people before shooting them countless times in their heads! Bravo!

Last but not the least, US now is saying again and again that they got clues from Guantanamo prisoners. And that be to justify all the various ways of torture they put to practice against the prisoners there. wow! How can one ever forget Abu Ghraib prison and what happened there. This is how US thinks justice should be done by treating the rest of the world like worms. They still think we, Muslims, are cannibals, whiteman’s burden that can never learn the art of being human.

For Muslims out there, read the article of Orya Maqbool Jaan. And remember this is the time when we will be tested and our eimaan would be put to test. I pray to Allah that may He keep us on the right path and may be stand our ground till the moment death seize us. Ameen

Ramblings… Again

So all the media channels and their anchor persons have invited rightists and leftists on their forum just to discuss just one question : Kia ye quaid-e-azam ka Pakistan hai? What kind of state did he dream of? Extremist? or Secular?

I am just shocked to see people coming on television saying that Pakistan has nothing to do with Islam and Quaid-e-Azam never wanted a state where religion meddled with the state affairs! Oh! Puhleez! Why then ask for a separate state when they cannot implement the Word of Allah here!

I wont go into the debate but surely would quote Iqbal’s couplet here,

“jalaal-e-paadshahi ho ya jamhooree tamasha ho
judaa ho deen siyaasat se tu reh jaati hai changaizee”

And one more thing… We all think that we are free but are we really… and this reminds me of another couplet of Iqbal,

“mulla ko jo hai hind mein sajday ki ijazat
nadaan ye samajhta hai k islaam hai azaad”

So true, it its Pakistan completely, so even after being free for more than 60 years, we still are not free. Still there are people who think that women shouldn’t wear Burqa because they are a threat to the national security just because of one Bomb Blast! I mean what about the blasts carried out by men? They weren’t wearing Burqas so how can you just think it’s the solution.

The people who think are in power and who think that because they know English and can write in the language, they have all the knowledge, intellect and they are the most sanest beings, present quite stupid arguments! The solution to suicide attacks is not barring women from wearing a veil or men from keeping a beard! The problem lies somewhere else and I wonder why are people so blind to see that and just come up with stupid suggestions as that!

If a family is attacked by a drone, and there is only one survivor, do you think he or she would be thinking of welcoming UN and it’s food program? It’s so easy for UN to come in and say, hey! we have the food, this is the love that we have brought from so far away(not to mention that you have to pay for that stupid aid). Anyway, the point is these people who have lost their loved ones, families, homes via drone attacks are most likely to come under the influence of foreign mafia (Black Water, RAW, Mossad, CIA) and I’m 100 percent sure that they manipulate these locals by abusing and torturing them by killing their families and then using them against the locals so that they can put pressure on the government and destabilize the only Islamic country that has the nuclear weapons!

And who trusts that UN organization that is doing nothing when it comes to Muslim genocide, be it in Gaza, Iraq, Kashmir or Pakistan! And trust me it  has no power over US or Israel or India, or any other country that is involved in the killing of Muslims all over the world! We love UN!

Height of Insensitivity

It was the time of the second Caliph of Islam, Hazrat Umar Radiallahu anhu, when the Muslims ruled over a vast region. And that region was way bigger than Pakistan. Hazrat Umar Radiallahu anhu at that time said that even if a dog dies out of hunger near the river Euphrates, I will be accountable for it. Allah will question me about it. This was the height of sense of responsibility that he practiced and not just talked about! And once his wife made a sweet dish for him and he asked her how did you managed it, she said I have been saving little over the months, and from that savings was I able to make it. He said that means that I am getting more than I need from the Bait-ul-maal and cut short his salary because he didn’t want to wrongfully use the money of Bait-ul-maal.

Families today are committing suicides around the country because they are not able to meet ends meet! And the leaders of this country cannot even show any sensitivity towards those people. Qamar Zaman Kaira actually is advising poor people to give away their children to Bait-ul-maal! The President, Prime Minister and other ministers are not willing to give up their own fuzul se expenses and are not even ashamed of illegally gobbling away the poor people’s tax money. They call “corruption” their right! President and Prime ministers have wealth of their own, why don’t they live in their houses, why don’t they pay their own bills, why don’t they face power outages and why the hell do they get all those body guards and million dollars worth bulletproof cars out of our tax money?!  And all they could say to the poor people that give away their kids to Bait-ul-maal?! Not only this but PML-Q’s member was even recorded to have been saying that the cases of committing suicides is Allah’s will as life and death are Allah’s will and we cannot meddle with that! If that’s the case, why do these ministers have body guards and why do they travel in bullet proof cars? Why take such measures when they have soo much faith in Allah that death is haqq and if they are to die because a bullet hit their head, these bullet proof cars will not be able to save them. Why waste our money? If they cannot meddle with the matters of life and death, why even wage a war against terrorism, they shouldn’t bomb and kill people in their own country because Allah will take care of that Himself. Why meddle with it?! This is the height of insensitivity!

And I am wondering why have I referred to Hazrat Umar’s life and his way of running the state affairs when ministers can easily say that during his time, Quran was supreme but now constitution is! Astaghfirullah! And yes maybe we misunderstood her! My foot! Why is it that the CMs of this country are getting 50% more money this year for their own expenses?

This is not just the height of insensitivity, this is crossing the limit!

Rambling Thoughts

Why is US still quiet on the issue of Gaza?! (it’s a rhetorical question by the way)

Isn’t this what has been happening since the rise of Islam. Jews conspiring against Muslims in Madinah al Munawwarah during the time of Prophet Muhammad SAW and still haven’t changed! And we read in Quran that Jews and Christians can never be friends of Muslims, and Subhan Allah they have always proved themselves to be the worst enemies of Islam and Muslims.

Time and again, jews and christians have conspired against Muslims forming alliances and time and again Muslims have fallen in their traps. Muslims have always been fighting amongst themselves and though they have been taught brotherhood, that was the easiest thing they forgot. Muslims were taught to remain steadfast to their religion and to hold fast to Quran and Sunnah and that was and have always been the easiest thing to forget. We have seen through time that whether it was the fall of Baghdad or the end of Muslim rule in Spain, it was all because Muslims became corrupt and stood against one another whereas the Christians and Jews always united under one banner to wipe out Muslims from this world. Muhammad Asad said that it is from the times of first crusades that Europe still has feeling of hatred towards Muslims, it’s embedded in their genes. But I would rather say that it has been there since the birth of Islam, and about jews, since forever. Whatever that is happening in Gaza, it’s not happening for the first time, history is filled with similar events where Jews and Chritians have showered their love on Muslim Ummah!

We don’t have to go far to look at it. Just look at how Muslims were treated in the Subcontinent before partition, how Muslims were treated in Abu Ghraib prison, how Dr. Afia was treated, how they shower white phosphorus on Gaza, how they are killing people with drone attacks and how IMF has forced people to kill themselves. And the funny thing is we have not yet learned a single thing from the past. Our leaders think of themselves only just like the leaders of the Spain before it fell, or Baghdad before Tartars crushed it under their feet.

Today, we see the same situation in Muslim countries, they’d say whatever, but to actually help Muslims, they’d think of hundreds of reasons to back out! And it is only helping Christians and Jews and they treat Muslims like animals. They have united to crush muslims whether they are in Afghanistan, Palestine, Pakistan or wherever in this world, but Muslims are soo asleep that they cannot even unite under one flag! There’s a Hadeeth that a momin is never bitten by the same hole, but I guess we are bitten again and again by the same hole and we still want to keep ourselves buried in the same hole!

Identity Crisis

When Musharraf came to power and the whole 9/11 thing happened, major changes were seen in the political, social and economic scene in Pakistan. When the US said that, ” either you are with us, or against us”, it divided the people of Pakistan. Most of them supported Afghanistan and believed that the US operation was unjust. There were statistics that said that they supported Musharraf… whatever! Anyway, during this whole crisis, his think tanks derived a formula of “sab se pehle Pakistan”, there were songs, concerts, and what not to make sure that this message was embedded in the minds of people so that they would think “Pakistan First”! It was pretty effective as people have this nationalistic mentality in Pakistan where everyone’s either a Punjabi or a Pathan or a Sindhi, or a Balochi or a Muhajir or a Pakhtoon! Proof of it is that NWFP’s name has been changed to Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa, the Siraikis want another province for themselves! And it is soo sad! So, back to where I was, Musharraf was pretty much successful in making people think with his media campaigns to think about being  a Pakistani first. And because it was the period when the US coalition attacked Afghanistan, this nationalistic thought overcame all the other provincial identities.

And why am I mentioning all this?! Because we fail to prioritize our identities! There’s been a video that a friend of mine posted on her wall on FB, and the title is, “yea kin logon ki basti hai aey Khuda” by some group called Jagoo Pakistan. The group though criticizes the media responsibilities towards Dr. Afia and too much publicity to Shoaib and Sania wedding and the attitude of the government towards Dr. Afia as compared to that towards Sania Mirza.  I’d agree to the part that yes, the media hasn’t done justice to Dr. Afia but we have to see where we can draw lines. Sania  Mirza maybe Indian but she is a Muslim first. So, when you call her  the “other” or dosre ki beti, you show and you prove that the Musharraf’s “sab se pehle Pakistan” was a success! I’m not saying that I’m not a Patriot or that I don’t love Pakistan, it’s just that if it wasn’t for Islam, there wouldn’t have been a Pakistan.

Pakistan was not made to divide Muslims, but it was made to protect them, to safeguard their rights but somehow the purpose seem to have lost! We fail to realize that we are first and foremost Muslims. When people starting converting to Islam more than 1430 years ago, the Kuffar of Makkah used to say that what kind of religion is this which has put enmity between blood ties and the reply to that is in Quran that Allah has developed love between them (the Muslims) which is far greater and far stronger than that of the blood ties! The Muslim brotherhood didn’t rely on the blood ties or worldly advantages, the brotherhood and the love between them was based on their love for Allah.  They were tied together because they loved Allah and they were Muslims. When we embrace Islam, or when one comes under the fold of Islam, he/she automatically becomes a part of the Muslim community in all parts of the world. That is the beauty of it!

So when we are Muslims first, the Sania Mirza issue shouldn’t be shown like this. The media is responsible for creating such a hype about it and that maybe because the agenda on which the media conglomerates wants the real issues to subside in front of such mundane ones. Always remember, “Nothing is what it seems” specially on television. This so-called free media (I’m calling it a so-called free media because the strings are held somewhere and I know it’s not as free as they project it to be) has undermined the value of Dr. Afia’s case soo much so that the people of Pakistan don’t even know what is happening except for a few! And if this is “awareness” that they are spreading, I wonder what’s the opposite of it!

Anyway, the only thing that I want to highlight here is think of being Muslims first! These national identities were gievn to us by Allah Ta’ala so that we could recognize one another. Not because we can divide and fight. Learn from Ansars from the occasion when they gave half of EVERYTHING to their brothers from Makkah! This is our tradition. Sania Mirza married Shoaib Malik, fine, it’s a marriage! Let it go! There are far more important issues at hand that should be looked into. There are far more difficult times ahead of us, which should be thought about! How to get out of the crises that we are facing as Muslims, as Pakistanis, inside our country and outside in the international community! Look beyond the mere walls of your houses. We are Muslims, and all Muslims all over the world are tied together. Look Muslims everywhere are suffering, and we as their brothers, what can we do??? Think outside the box! Think!

We are Muslims first! Can’t we make a small contribution to the Muslim world even if it is by praying for our Muslim brothers who are in pain! We are Muslims, we are tied together for our love for Allah and His Messenger(pbuh), so stop prioritizing your national identity! We are Muslims First!

Are You Crazy?

Sitting with my husband and watching what he was doing on the computer, which is most of the time watching news and reading newspapers and of course fb, he came across a person whose status was that the Government of Pakistan has lost it’s marbles for spending millions of dollars on the lawyers of Dr. Afia when the majority of population is living under the poverty line!

…

Shocked?! Flabbergasted?! Want to hit your head on the wall?!!

I’d rather kill him for saying that!

He’s crazy! How can one even imagine that?! Selling these people off to the US state, disappearance of her children and the other two who are believed to be dead, doesn’t he feel anything? She had been harassed, raped, mentally tortured and we as Muslims and Pakistanis can just let it go because we don’t think the government should spend that much money on her?! Doesn’t he have a mother? Doesn’t he have a sister? Wont he have a wife or a daughter? What if something like that happens to them, God forbid, would he continue eating and drinking and wont feel anything for them, wont do anything for them?  Are you going to blame her for the starvation of the Pakistani people or are you going to blame the corrupt Pakistani Government for that? Is this what we have stooped to?? THIS?!!! Is it soo easy to sell your mother and daughters?!

So we should join the Musharraf and the Government of Pakistan and continue doing all the wrongs that we have been doing for soo many years and not raise our voices against the cruelty and the wrong done by these people and then maybe we will prosper??! The people of Pakistan won’t live below the poverty line? Have we stopped fearing Allah that He might send down punishments from Heaven on this very earth for siding with the wrong?! The very reason Pakistan is going through whatever that it’s been going through since a very long time is because we have stopped supporting what’s right, we have stopped raising our voices against the wrong, we have stopped caring about right and wrong as we don’t let ourselves be touched by the tragedies of our own people as our lives have been going on a smooth keel! We have stopped giving a damn about anything and everything. Will our actions go unnoticed?!

On the authority of Hudhaifah Ibn Al-Yamân (may Allah be pleased with him and his father) who reported that the Prophet (peace be upon him) said: “By Allah in whose Hand my soul is, you’d better enjoin what is right and forbid what is wrong or Allah will descend upon you His severe punishment and then you supplicate Him but He will not answer your supplication” [Narrated by At-Tirmidhi, Hadith no.2169]

Prisoner 650

The long awaited judgment was passed and the daughter of the nation was put behind bars, yet again! There’s a limit to everything and there’s a limit to Zulm as well. There’s a limit to double standards and there’s limit to torture and abuse! HUH! The New world knows no limits when it comes to abducting people, abusing them and torturing them and then blaming them for something they haven’t done and then coming up with a “fine” jury and putting them in prison for life harassing them throughout!

Dr. Afia Siddiqui. Nation’s daughter. Abducted with her three children! One of them returned but the other two… there’s no sign of them. The Americans fail to provide justice to her because it would mean that her abduction altogether was unjust! Their ego would have been terribly wounded. The system would have been called flawed of which the Americans are so proud!

The facade of their so called honest and just judicial system has just been shattered to pieces. Dr. Afia was physically, mentally and sexually abused inside the American prison, Bagram in Afghanistan and then later was taken to America when much hue and cry was created about her whereabouts and her screams that were heard during her stay there. Prisoners used to say that even after when they were released her screams used to disturb them at night. The torture by American or Ishould say the coalition forces has been out there when the whole Abu Ghraib prison situation came out. The treatment with men was soo shameful, I wonder how these so called human right activists and these so called humane American policies would have worked their hands over when their animal instincts were unleashed on a frail women leaving her almost unrecognizable!

The question still remains… she went missing in Pakistan… who took her to Bagram? And please don’t give me the answers the stupid American lawyers keep blabbing about. Forget that… the most important question… where are her children? Are they even alive? The Americans, who are so proud of their history, their just treatment with women and children, where have they put her kids? The kind of torture she was subjected to, ain’t she human? or just because she is a Muslim, she can never be subjected to respectful treatment?! I remember how Yvonne Ridley accepted Islam, because the Taliban treated her with utmost respect and the Americans, though might have come to Afghanistan to liberate it from Taliban, could never even give a woman the respect she deserves! The American Judiciary has the motto that a person is innocent until proven guilty but the double standards that are kept for us Muslims, treated Afia Siddiqui as guilty until proven innocent!

The worst part is the government didn’t give a damn what happens to the Afia Siddqui case because it has been the puppy dog of America and can’t talk to them one on one! Musharraf, the person who handed her over to the authorities. Do we forget that there’s a reward for every deed we do? Handing her over, her torture, not doing anything for her, what will we answer when we’ll stand before Allah and what if He asks us that what have you done? Reminds me of Hazrat Ibrahim A.S. when he was thrown in fire, a bird brought water in her beak to put it out. Angels or God ( I don’t remember) asked her that why is she doing it when she knows that it wont be able to put out the fire. She replied, “I’m doing whatever that I can.”

We, as Muslims, as Pakistanis, as students, teachers, writers, and in whatever field we are in, we can put in a little contribution. Even if it is just a drop of water in our beaks, just one speck. The Government, the people in power are too much worried about their own power games that they wont budge. It’s time we take initiatives of our own accord because it’s not going to come from somewhere else.

As I said in the beginning, there’s a limit to everything.But there isn’t a limit to the American torture and Jewish hatred for Muslims. The Muslims seem to have crossed their limits when it comes to dishonor and slavishness! But the situation we all are heading forward to… seems to be more going towards the end that we have always read about. There will be either fundamentalists or liberals. And the middle that we have seen for so many years is vanishing quickly. MAy Allah make us one of those who follow Haqq and are supporters of haqq . Ameen.

There Are Signs

Image Source

Last September, a bomb blast rocked the city of Islamabad- the target was Marriot Hotel. There were many stories regarding the whole blast and the most famous were that of American Embassy being invloved in the whole affair. Though the authorities wanted people to think otherwise…

Today, the target was Lahore Rescue building. So many killed, so many injured… the images wrought our hearts, the cries filled our ears, yet our hearts didn’t shake for the horror that was unleashed!

The blame game begins:

Rehman Malik said on record that it was a reaction of the Swat operation. But most of us thought otherwise. Why believe the lying government? Why believe the stupid man when there have been no  investigation as such?! Why believe that the men caught are not actually the people of the governement? or Mossad?or CIA? or RAW?!  There’s more to everything that’s been done today… that happens today… why rely on these puppets for the truth?

Taliban, who tried to form a government in Afghanistan were feared by the whole world, so America thought why not just eradicate those handful of people, they bombed the place to bits and pieces killing and they’re still killing innocent men and women and children. Taliban, that were originally Taliban, are still in those caves still fighting the nato forces and the american forces in Afghanistan.Taliaban, who eradicated the poppy fields, who stopped tribal wars and those who fought away Russians with barefeet and no hi fi weaponary. Well, at the end of one of the john Rambo movies, it says that this movie is dedicated to the courageous people of Afghanistan just becase at the time they were fighting Russia, but what happened then…? Well.. it’s all changed now. Oh plus! They grow poppy now in Afghanistan, and Americans are selling herione now for more than 100% profit and in dollars… they must have hated that about the Taliban too…

The country ,whose anti-aircraft guns were rooted on the soil fo Jordan to safeguard the refugees of Palestine, is itself in jeopardy. The country whose rulers are corrupt, American puppets or better American puppies and who are there because America wanted them to be there. People are under the impression it’s them who vote. Bechare… when will they able to see the truth. How can we rely on democracy in Pakistan when more than 90% of the population is slaves to the chaudhries, waderas and sardars? where literacy rate is low than 87%?How can an Aalim’s decision be equal to a Jaahil’s? This is what happens when we follow a flawed system where the word of Allah is not held Supreme. Beware of the Wrath of God, for when the zulm increases to it’s limits, and they spread fasaad, the Wrath of God is unleashed over the creation preceded by the warnings. Look around us, the soaring temperatures, the poverty, the IDPs, the bomb blasts and the earthquakes… but we fail to realise that we have digressed!

There are signs for those who have aql.. but that aql comes with taqwa, imaan and amal-e-saleh. We are far from that…

“Oh Lord! Give me Strength”

Earlier this year or should I say the end of last year, all of us witnessed worst crisis in Gaza, where they actually closed all the borders and bombed the people of Palestine as if their lives were worth nothing. I remember watching this news report on BBC with my younger sister in which the reporter or the news report was showing these huge UN trucks laden with sacks of food items. So, the report showed how after a long long time waiting at the border, were they allowed to carry food items inside. Something funny happened then. The news reporter said though these trucks are allowed inside the Gaza Strip but we do not know if the people would have enough money to buy them. My sister was shocked and she asked me isn’t that UN aid?! Isn’t that supposed to be free?! Shouldn’t they just distribute it amoungst people, families which are wrecked, ruined, terrorized, distroyed and made homeless?! The reason it didn’t come as a shock to me was because when Earthquake struck Pakistan and the whole international community extended their hands in order to support Pakistan, the aid that came was not actually aid it was “loan”. So they helped us get loans and then look all of us are indebted to them.

Anyway, the reason I mentioned it was because, I can actually see papers filled with UN reports of this much number of people have been displaced and World Food Aid and others  regarding Swat’s Internally displaces people, and I wonder, and I actually wonder if they are actually providing those people with aid?! And if aid, what definition of “aid” are we following?! It’s been a long time since I’ve stopped trusting these organizations and their efforts as there’s more to their help than just being humane and the love of people.

Now I feel stupid! Who am I to say anything… Have I put in my contribution?! *sigh*

“Oh Lord! Rabbana! give us strength to help our brothers who are in distress.” Ameen