I love rain. Since as far as I can remember, I always have. The best are the thunderstorms, when the whole sky goes black and then it lights up for a split second as lightening rolls and I wait in anticipation for the roaring thunder; waiting for the sound to catch up with its visual. Around 3-4 years back, I remember it had just started to rain and I exclaimed joyfully, “I wish it would rain every single day!” My eldest sister looked at me for a moment, and then asked me “What about all the poor people who don’t have homes and have to stay out in the rain at night when it gets freezing cold?” She waited for that to sink in and then continued “And what about those whose crops are getting destroyed with these endless torrents? Their entire lives depend on the income they receive for their farm-work. If it rains all the time, they’re all completely done for.” [click to continue...]
Posts tagged as:
Islam
Rise of a Dawn
There is no mystification in DAWN, dawn remains clears and rises over the world, fog of puzzlement and clouds of question can not hide its shine, it speak for itself. yesterday was 25th December, a quite noteworthy day in world’s history, date of birth of Hazrat Maseeh (A.S ) whose message was love and tranquility, a person equally dear to two of the biggest faiths, Islam and Christianity, a true messiah whose second coming is still patiently awaited, but this date has also witnessed arrival of another person who is considered as a messiah in his own right, a man who bring the message of unity faith and discipline, passed the significance of freedom and vision, he certainly was a messiah, a savior which Muslims of south Asia anticipated for a long time, messiah known as Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, a dawn whose rise is even more obvious now, there are people who loathed the dawn, but that despise only further reveled the reality of scenery of the dawn, to understand mentality of the anti-dawns one should ask himself few questions, questions like who hate dawn? Who is afraid of accepting the reality of a Dawn? why one [click to continue...]
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Swiss Ban on Building Minarets in Mosques
The Swiss Government has recently banned the building of Minarets in Mosques. The ban comes as a result of a recently held referendum in Switzerland. According to New York Times story:
The Swiss on Sunday overwhelmingly imposed a national ban on the construction of minarets, the prayer towers of mosques, in a referendum drawn up by the far right and opposed by the government. The referendum, which passed with a clear majority of 57.5 percent of the voters and in 22 of Switzerland’s 26 cantons, was a victory for the right. The vote against was 42.5 percent. Because the ban gained a majority of votes and passed in a majority of the cantons, it will be added to the Constitution.
The Swiss Constitution guarantees freedom of religion, but the rightist Swiss People’s Party, or S.V.P., and a small religious party had proposed inserting a single sentence banning the construction of minarets, leading to the referendum.
The ban has come as a surprise to the 400,000 Muslims living in Switzerland and billions of Muslims living around the world. I was particularly surprised at the campaign banner that showed minarets popping out of the Swiss flag and colored in black. The number of minarets shown on the Swiss flag in the campaign banner is far greater then the actual number of minarets in Switzerland. According to same New York Times story:
Of 150 mosques or prayer rooms in Switzerland, only 4 have minarets, and only 2 more minarets are planned. None conduct the call to prayer. There are about 400,000 Muslims in a population of some 7.5 million people. Close to 90 percent of Muslims in Switzerland are from Kosovo and Turkey, and most do not adhere to the codes of dress and conduct associated with conservative Muslim countries like Saudi Arabia, said Manon Schick, a spokeswoman for Amnesty International in Switzerland.
Minaret Ban Campaign Poster
While in fact the ban has a more symbolic effect and gives a clear message to the Muslims through out the world that Switzerland is no more accepting Muslims culture and heritage. It is also worth mentioning here that the Minarets have no Islamic value attached to them as they have no place in Islamic Shariah, which was made the sole target in the campaign by rightist Swiss Peoples Party. Therefore, i will not be wrong to conclude it as a move to isolate Muslims and to [click to continue...]
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Dowry or Jahaiz Culture in our Society
It has been quite some time since I heard about a particular wedding scandal. Nevertheless, it was atrocious to say the least and has stuck in my mind ever since. It was an Indian wedding and the groom went with his father-in-law to inspect the dowry. It was quite a big room, chock full of valuables ranging from a TV, refrigerator, bike to clothes, jewellery and so forth.
The verdict: There should have been a car as well!
The distraught father pleaded that he had nothing more left, but to no avail. The guy threatened to walk off if he wasn’t promised a car. In desperation, the father complied. As it were, the daughter found out about the “deal” one way or another and she refused to be tied up with a greedy pig for the rest of her life!
I remember thinking how brave the girl was but I also recall the misery of her father. It just filled me with gratitude for living somewhere where brides were not subjected to such a materialistic weighing down.
It’s hilarious how totally off the mark my judgement was.
A few years ago, my sister was invited by her colleague to her daughter’s wedding. The cards were sent out and her wedding dress, jewellery, trousseau, hall bookings, salon appointments-everything was ready.
There was barely more than a fortnight left when all of a sudden everything was cancelled. No one could have imagined the cards would be played out like this and it was flabbergasting to say the least.
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Maulana Tariq Jamil - Intezar
Every once in a while you read a story that touches your heart and soul. I was reading an article by Javed Chaudhry ‘titled Intezar’ where he writes about Maulana Tariq Jameel - so thought would share with the audience the whole article;
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Drop the Prefix, I’m Just Muslim
By Yasmin Mogahed
What kind of Muslim are you? The question seems odd, but for those who seek to divide and conquer Islam, the answer has become increasingly important. Even more disturbing are the labels we assign ourselves.
In our families few of us can say we’ve never disagreed with our siblings. But when a family member makes a mistake—even a big one—or has a view we don’t agree with, even fewer of us decide to divorce that family and change our name. Today, the same is not true of our Muslim family. Today, we’re no longer just ‘Muslim.’ We’re ‘progressives,’ ‘Islamists,’ ‘traditionalists,’ ‘salafis,’ ‘indigenous,’ and ‘immigrant.’ And each group has become so alienated from the other, that we’ve almost forgotten that we share a common creed.
While real differences do exist within our ummah, something very serious has gone wrong. Within the fold of Islam, differences are not only tolerated—they’re encouraged as a mercy from God. But as soon as we label and marginalize any who disagree with us, our downfall begins. Once we accept and internalize these labels as our main source of identity, the result is disastrous. As a result, we create our own camps, attend only our own gatherings and conferences; soon enough, we’re talking only to those who agree with us. Dialogue within the ummah disappears, our differences become only more polarized and our views become more extreme. Before long, we stop caring about what happens to the ‘other’ group of Muslims around the world, as we amputate limbs from the unified body our prophet taught us we were. [click to continue...]
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Racism: Social experiments-What Would You Do?
I recently came across a couple of videos showing a social experiment. These videos range from plotting scenarios in the mall ‘where actors are plotted to reconstruct a case of discrimination’. One of these videos include a clear case of racism towards colored people being harassed in stores while shopping. The most interesting part of the study was watching people concentrate more on their shopping while the discrimination continues to get more and more stronger. Some of these people reacted and most of them did not. Needless to say that this does portray what generally goes around and is easily overlooked.
The First Video:
However intense this is how things go about normally. It is extremely rare that someone would even try taking a stand even after witnessing a clear cut case of discrimination. This isn’t necessarily limited to color, we are all aware of the post- 9/11 increase in racism towards Muslim. I have been a victim of discrimination quite a lot of times, unfortunately most of the time it came from people within my country. Somethings that come with the ‘hijab-label’. The hijab is usually taken as a statement more than a ‘will’ or a matter of choice. Since after I started with my hijab there has been a clear difference on how people perceive what I say or believe, sometimes they are suggestive and at times they leave it for the person to ‘go figure’. Somehow the ” why do wear the Hijab” question is surprisingly considered normal,contrary to the “why don’t you wear Hijab question?” Whilst I wouldn’t say that it’s always a one-sided affair it most certainly is the most common form of discrimination. For starters I don’t believe that wrapping up a piece of cloth around my head makes me a better Muslim or human.Infact its not about ‘proving’ something at all, it has a lot more to do with the intention attached to it than anything else.In the end coming down to the fact that it is my choice,neither a compulsion and nor a statement.
The types of discrimination we face doesn’t end here. Many times a lot of my friends and people I know have been asked ‘Yeh itnay ka hai lena hai’ its worth this much are you sure you ll buy it’, all because they are dressed rather casually for a posh place. So the question comes down to how many forms of discriminations do we have in our society? There certainly is the ‘English-speaking’ automatically considered civilized culture on the other hand people are judged by what cell phones they carry or what car they drive in. The fact being while we whine about discriminations abroad we conveniently ignore the issues at home .
The discriminations faced amongst Pakistanis or among Muslim themselves reflect how it’s not just the ‘devil from the west’. I vote for social experiments within Pakistan as well, this might provoke some introspection. Since the ‘media channels’ are so hell bent on ‘reality tv’ why not something with a purpose?
The Second Video: The Hijab Discrimination
Part-1
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UN Report Condemns Israel for Committing War Crimes - Crimes Against Humanity
The United Nations has finally completed its report and indicted Israel of committing severe War Crimes and possible Crimes Against Humanity in Israel’s December 27, 2008 through January 18, 2009 attack on Gaza Strip. The UN Investigation team was headed by Richard Goldstone, a veteran South African war crimes prosecutor, who is also a Jew and has longstanding ties with the State of Israel — he’s a trustee of Jerusalem’s Hebrew University, among other things. The Jewish credentials of the head of the UN Commission ads further credibility to the findings of the report and its recommendations. According to Jewish newspaper Haartez, Richard GoldStone said :
“My first wish and hope is that there will be open and full inquiries in Israel, and the ability of Israel to do that, I accept completely has been done before with regard to at least two other inquiries that I know of which were acceptable by international standards. Israel can do it if it wishes, it’s a matter of political will, And if that happens, then of course that would and should avoid any international court involvement”
In case Israel does not conduct any such inquiries into the incidents and punish the culprits, it will be liable to face the International Criminal Court (ICC) in Hague.
The Palestinians welcome the findings of the report even though it also accused them with similar charges. The case has seriously damaged Israel political standing and its military techniques to conduct operations in civilian areas. Guarding Newspaper feels the same and even though it agrees to the fact that Israeli strong lobby will reverse the whole case and its allies in Europe and America will never let the recommendations of the report to be implemented, yet it agree that it has serious implications for the international politics. [click to continue...]
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Food Recommended by Prophet Mohammad (P.B.U.H)
Got this forward from one of my friends. Thought i would share with everyone, the list of food that Prophet Mohammad has recommended and was personally fond of;
Barley: Good in fever, while use in a soup form.
Dates: The Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him) said that a house without dates has no food. It should also be eaten at the time of childbirth.
Figs: It is a fruit from paradise and a cure for piles.
Grapes: The Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him) was very fond of grapes - it purifies the blood, provides vigour and health, strengthens the kidneys and clears the bowels.
Honey: Considered the best remedy for diarrhoea when mixed in hot water. It is the food of foods, drink of drinks and drug of drugs. It is used for creating appetite, strengthening the stomach, eliminating phlegm; as a meat preservative, hair conditioner, eye soother and mouthwash. It is extremely beneficial in the morning in warm water.
Melon: The Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him) said: ‘None of your women who are pregnant and eat of water melon will fail to produce off spring that is good in countenance and good in character.’
Milk: The Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him) said that milk wipes away heat from the heart just as the finger wipes away sweat from the brow. It strengthens the back, improved the brain, renews vision and drives away forgetfulness.
Mushroom: The Prophet (SAW) said that mushroom is a good cure for the eyes; it also serves as a form of birth control and arrests paralysis.
Olive Oil: Excellent treatment for skin and hair, delays old age, and treats inflammation of the stomach.
Pomegranate: The Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him)said it cleanses you of Satan and evil aspirations for 40 days.
Vinegar: A food Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him)used to eat with olive oil. [That's now a fashion in elite Italian Restaurants]
Water: The Prophet (Peace Be Upon Him) said the best drink in this world is water, when you are thirsty drink it by sips and not gulps, gulping produces sickness of the liver.
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