Are We Going Tomorrow?

The succession of smses, MSN chats and phone calls that became a reason for not going to the university even today…

 FROM LAST NIGHT:

SMS from X :   Did anyone read DAWN(the newspaper), the part declaring that KU is off tomorrow? Y pointed it put but since I don’t have the paper, can someone please confirm for me?

SMS from Y:    So ppl is it off 2morro? Check DAWN plz

SMS from me to X and Y:    I can’t find it anywhere? Is it really there?

SMS from Y:   Sir syed uni says ku is off.

SMS from X:    Guys, i think we should wait and see what the news brings. Some teacher says nothing is official and i can’t reach the other teacher, been trying for hours. So we’ll see at 10?

MSN msg from me to N.A. :   Are we going tomorrow?!

Reply of N.A :   I don’t know. Did you get the smses from X. I think we should wait for the news.

ME : But what about Masood Sahab?! (the teacher who’s taking Fiction and Poetry classes nowadays)

LATE NIGHT SMS from X:   Since 8am is too late to inform some of you, we ARE going tomorrow and InshAllah we WILL have classes if we are there.

 FROM MORNING:

SMS from X:  Jamiat has a protest planned for today so please stay home.

SMS from N.A. : Are we going today?!

SMS from X: I heard this protest from Z and a  girl in first year who has a friend in Jamiatwarned her. So its pretty reliable. Go if you want. We aren’t.

SMS from X: If you ppl come by van, let me know if your drivers are coming.. That way I’ll spread the news. I’m not allowed to come either way.

SMS from X again: Final: classes at univ are slowly being cancelled one by one. It is not safe. There will probablybe a clash and riots. Stay home. stay safe. AH.

Then I called N.A. and we decided that there was no point in going while fasting if classes are being cancelled. We should and enjoy one more holiday.

Later in the morning N.A. called me and told me that one certain friend, who’s mobile phone is giving her troubles, didn’t get any of the above messages and she actually went there. And Masood Sahab obviously was very angry and now nomatter what anyone says, we have university tomorrow and we will have classes tomorrow. InshAllah. This semester is jinxed! lol.

SMS from X just now: No matter WHAT anyone says or hears, unless there’s a nuclear threat we ARE going tmw. Nothing happened today & we need to finish our course. That’s final.

Nostalgia…

I was 5 or 6 then, when my brother and my sister along with me, used to fill the plastic glasses with Zamzam and used to make a little circle with them while our elder siblings and parents used to go for Tawaf after Asr prayer. I still remember that certain smell of carpets, the joy of breaking your Saum on the first floor, over looking the Ka’ba. In the early 90s, it was not used to be crowded at all during the first two ashras of Ramadan. There was never a need for us to take anything inside the mosque as the Dates and Zamzam were more than enough for us. They are the blessings of Allah.

Times changed. We became older and used to accompany our parents during Tawaf. The best thing that you could ever experience there was the generosity of people. If people were not able to complete their Tawaf a few minutes before the Azaan, other people used to come and provided them with dates and Zamzam, so that they don’t have any difficulty in breaking their Saum. Even when we used to sit inside and wait for the Azaan, families sitting around us, they used to share their food items with the others without any descrimination of creed, race or colour. This is how I’ve seen people breaking their Saum inside the House of Allah.

Above all, praying Trawih prayers in His House is one blessing of Allah that I’m thankful for. I was barely 13 when I came back here in Pakistan. But the feeling of ecstacy, fulfillment and joy of actually praying inside Masjid Al-Haram is still instilled in my soul.  And I still long to go back and experience all those things again with much devoutness and love for Allah.

Watching Tarawih a  few days back on T.V. brought back all those loving and amazing memories and feelings. And the desperate feeling to experience everything once again. And I hope, wish  and pray to Allah that may He call me there soon. Ameen.

To University and Back…

Last time when I stepped inside the university premises, it was monday (10th sept). I skipped my classes on Tuesday, and the classes were put off on wednesday and thursday because of the ongoing students’ week on the campus.

So, after one week when I stepped again inside the university gates, with the people from the administration checking my I.D. card and the Rangers and university guards standing in an upright position, I had this omenous feeling. But then there’s always a  huge number of rangers and guards after a clash and after what happened on Friday, this didn’t come as much of a surprise.

Our class was to begin at 9:20 am, and we were waiting for our teacher, when a student, belonging to a political party with a black band tied to his forearm, said that there wont be any classes for three days. Three days mourning period for those students who lost their lives on Friday. So, we came back home in order to avoid any mishap that might occur amid the security measures taken by the university administration.

This has not happened for the first time. Clashes inside university campus between certain political organizations are common. We see Rangers everywhere, they check our I.D. Cards regularly to ensure no infiltration is there, yet we see illegal immigrants everywhere blowing apart the peace of the very varsity we dwell in. But Firday was a shock to all the university students. A public bus carrying students was attacked right outside the university’s Silver Jubilee gate making matters worst. There were seven casualties, four of them being university students.

This has been the worst incident in two and half years of university life. Karachi University has always been famous for the students’ politcal parties’ clashes but it never went outside the gates of the campus. But now things have changed. Some students now even fear to take a  public bus to university. But when people of Karachi can brave the late ’80s and early ’90s and the recent may 12th mayhem, we hope that Allah will give us strenght to brave these dark times. InshAllah.

The Reluctant Fundamentalist

The Reluctant Fundamentalist is a book recently published and is written by Mohsin Hamid, who happens to be the writer of Moth Smoke as well. I’ve already written something concerning that book in my other blog and I’m putting it’s link here.

The reason I’ve again chosen to write upon it is the fact that  The Reluctant Fundamentalist was recently nominated for the booker prize. Many of the people abroad think that the persona in the book represents the middle-class majority of Pakistan. It’s such a pity that writers, thinkers or even teachers have failed to contradict the above statement. The persona in the book seems more that of an elite class where drinking and going out with women is okay rather than of the middle class. I do admit that nowadays some fractions of middle class have adopted the Western culture and lifestyle but the majority of the middle-class still holds on to the morals of the religion.

The writer cannot write in a vaccum and thus this persona has something or the other of the writer in himself. The whole idea is when a person like Mohsin Hamid writes and claims to represent the majority and middle class, they fail to preject the essence of that class. They fail to represent the kernel, the mode of being of the middle class society.

But then the question remains: Who’s giving him the Booker Prize for the whole concept of fundamentalism in East, he’s been nominated for the way he writes!!!

And this is where the trouble begins. The name of the book itself suggests to represent the concept of fundamentalism. The idea that I was so proud of that we stick to the fundamentals of this religion, given in the Holy Quran. And the idea we get from this particular book is that the teachings of Quran and Sunnah has nothing to do with it!  Whereas, for the majority of Muslims, which happen to belong to the middle-class, fundametalism is the following of the commandments of Quran and Sunnah.

You can read the book if you like, but I felt sick while reading it…

Quran

Surah Al Hashr

Ayat no. 21:

Had We sent down this Qur’ân on a mountain, you would surely have seen it humbling itself and rent asunder by the fear of Allâh. Such are the parables which We put forward to mankind that they may reflect.

Hadeeth: 

(V.59:21) Narrated Jâbir bin ‘Abdullâh رضي الله عنهما: The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم used to stand by a tree or a date-palm on Friday. Then an Ansâri woman or man said, “O Allâh’s Messenger! Shall we make a pulpit for you?” He replied, “If you wish.” So they made a pulpit for him and when it was Friday, he proceeded towards the pulpit [for delivering the Khutbah (religious talk)]. The date-palm cried like a child! The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم descended (from the pulpit) and embraced it while it continued moaning like a child being quietened. The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم said, “It was crying for (missing) what it used to hear of religious knowledge given near it.” (Sahih Al-Bukhari, Vol.4, Hadîth No. 784).

Ramadan Kareem

“O you who believe! Fasting is prescribed upon you as it was prescribed upon those before you, so that you may be pious (or you may learn self-restriant.” (Surah Al- Baqarah: 183)

During Ramadan, when we abstain from food and water, our body is put to test. But during Ramadan when we are asked to stay away from sins, we learn to master our soul and desires. Ramadan is one month where we can take a step back and look at our lives in totality. Look at the way we are leading our lives and try to walk in the direction that has been revealed 1400 years ago. Looking at the pitiful conditions of Muslims, put our ego aside, make amends and together become one single unit of Muslims rather than divide ourselves into thousands of sects.

May we make the most of this month. May Allah guide us all and keep us on the straight path. May our sins be forgiven during this holy month and we be granted Paradise in Hereafter. Ameen.

 Narrated Abu Huraira(may Allah be pleased with him): Allah’s Messenger(Peace be upon him) said: “When the month of Ramadan starts,the gates of the heaven are opened and the gates of HEll are closed and the devils are chained.”

Narrated Abu Huraira(may Allah be pleased with him): Allah’s Messenger (Peace be upon him) said:”Whoever does not give up lying speech (false statements)and acting on those lies and evil actions etc.,Allah is not in need of his leaving his food and drink [ i.e. Allah doesnot want his Saum]”

Sept 11

There’s always this hype created around the world about 9/11 calling Muslims terrorists, fundamentalists and radicals. And I wonder if they’ve been waiting for such event to take place which could have given them the license to call us the axis of Evil. Even when they cannot even bring out and show us the evidence that they found.

It’s been six years since the Americans felt terror shaking their bones and plunging them into depression. So they bombed Afghanistan and then they claimed that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction. And they bombed Iraq. But can two wrongs make a right?! The coalition forces have killed thousands and thousands in Afghanistan, bombing everywhere, killing innocent women and children. They mass murdered the civilians claiming that they want them to be free from the atrocities of the Taliban. But what about the torture cells, the atrocities done by these coalition forces upon men, women and children?

What about Iraq?! How can all those who remember 9/11 can ever forget Abu Ghraib prison?! How can they forget how the Muslim women and men were treated behind those walls? How can they forget that the dead bodies of the Muslims around Iraq were given no respect at the hands of the coalition forces?! Can ever two wrongs make a right? The Superior Civilized West has unveiled the beast inside it. No matter what they have achieved, no matter how many human rights organization they might have formed, they yet not have the respect for Human-beings that their civilized form has claimed to have.

The world definitely has shrunk metaphorically or maybe ” it’s the same with nothing much in it.”

A new Look

Alright, now the font size has decreased. It’s more convinient for my eyes now. The theme has been changed though I loved the previous one better. I guess I will write something worth writing soon and see how can I get more accostomed to this new world of bloggers.

OMG! I don’t really know how to wrok this thing. The font size is too huge. And my page seems as if I’m looking at it through a microscope. I don’t know how to work this thing… AAA!!!

Hopefully in a day or two I’ll spend  hours and see if I can actuallly make this look like something.ARGH! 

Design a site like this with WordPress.com
Get started