Shallow Stuff

“You are the best Ummah singled out for mankind; you enjoin what is right, forbid what is wrong and believe in Allah.” 
(Quran 3:110)

__________________________________________________________

Every Sunday is the same – I pick up the newspaper’s weekend supplement and soon find myself digusted with its contents. The thick magazine that is issued every Sunday with the Dawn newspaper has several sections – columns by various writers, news about celebrities, new movies, fashion pages, song albums, gardening tips and technology updates. Very obviously, it caters to the middle class and elites of our society, the segment of the the population that actually reads the english language daily Dawn newspaper.

 Now, what is it that makes me fling aside the paper with disgust on a calm Sunday morning? Well, here’s how it goes: every weekend, I like to settle down with a cup of tea after breakfast for some enjoyable reading – after all, the magazine often has informative and even hilarious articles. However, over the past few years, there has been a growing trend for the newspaper to regularly feature columns and articles that poke fun at, and even challenge, some of aspects of our Deen. Coming from “Muslims”, it is alwaysunpleasant. There are many things a Non Muslim would say that we would brush aside as stemming from ignorance but when a Muslim says it out loud, with great aplomb, in a renowned newspaper, it is deeply saddening. I can never grow immune to that.

With the rebels wreacking havoc in the Pakistan under the guise of an “Islamic” movement, the media has shed a lot of light on the fallacies of their movement and often point out all the places these people are detracting from Islam. However, it seems as if many people have even taken this as an opportunity and a free license to air their long held, half-baked views on Islam in general, questioning and challenging even the most authentic and core principles of Islam. It is this phenomenon that has hit the newspapers too and suddenly, you have articles by every Tom, Dick and Harry talking of and even poking fun of religion and practising Muslims.

 

One of the hot topics in this age of capris-wearing and dupatta-shedding women is centered on women covering up. Dawn seems to be giving a lot of space to people who write on this. Every other week or so, some pointed reference or a whole article even is found devoted to this.
Why do you have to cover up? What are the benefits? How can women be ‘liberated’? That’s what it’s always about. Sometimes, there’s barely disguised venom, other times there are attempts to gloss over the whole thing with a seemingly neutral point of view, whereas it’s quite clear what the writer is trying to say. One particular writer wonders whythere is a new wave in the upper middle and elite classes to frequent Quran circles and cover up – yes, the writer’s a Muslim. She goes on to praise the young, hip Pakistani woman who dresses up in a “modest way” (read capris, sleeveless, no dupatta, etc.) without going all Hijab-ey!

 

Don’t these people stop and think for one tiny moment what they are challenging, what they are speaking against? It is the Quran and Sunnah the clearly spell out the laws, not any ordinary person and yet, many “Muslims” get away with such propoganda as the readers praise them for their “valuable points”, “eye-opening revelations” and what not. Really, if this isn’t contagious, I wonder what is?

Going beyond Hijab, there seems to be an unwritten policy to exclude from print all articles and comments that refer to religion directly with quotes from Islamic sources. Let’s not even go to Quranic verses or Ahadith, the very mention of the word Allah or and other religious reference in the article disqualifies it from being published. One of my articles was published last Ramadan, in which I had spoken about preparing for Ramadan. My article didn’t even focus on the “spritual” aspect of the preparation – it was about things like shopping early, making healthy foods and so on. When the article was printed, it was under the section of “Detox Diet”, altering the premise of the article quite a bit. Next, they had moved to edit out words like Sunnah, Taraweeh, Suhoor and completely cut out the tiny bit in the end where I had mentioned how, by preparing well, we could have more time for worship in Ramadan. To top it off, the article was illustrated with the image of a half-eaten burger that now looked like a cresent. Well ofcourse, isn’t Ramadan all about eating? I do not know what I was thinking when I attempted to point to something else!

As I said in my last post, we are a society teeming with contradictions and double standards. It’s easy to speak against religion when you are a Muslim because at the end of the day, you’re still a Muslim and no one’s going to boycott you if you play your words well. A’oodhobillah!  And we wonder why we are so downtrodden despite being “chosen” by Allah(swt) to lead the world in all that is good.

Flux and Spark

I took a long break from writing here, being very busy with preparing for my final exams but even though I wasn’t actively “blogging”, there were many things on my mind I’d seriously want to share here. Now that I’ve given the first phase of my exams, with a gap of about a week before the next phase, I can get down to writing again InshAllah.

Even if you’ve shut yourself away to study and cannot pay much heed to the distractions around you, it’s impossible not to know and be affected by what’s going on in the world. Much of what is happening is extremely distressing, made worse by the lack of credible information and objective judgement. Lies, exaggeration, sensationalism and propaganda seem to rule the day. On the other hand, there are certain people within us Muslims who believe it is okay to kill any number of human beings, Muslims or Non Muslims, to achieve their goals – a distorted version of “for the greater good”. Then again, within them are some who simply pose as Muslims, their real origins and motive being highly dubious, if not outrightly proven as coming from unfriendly “friends”.

Everyday, there’s some random suicide bombing or blast in the country – it’s almost as if you switch on the TV, you expect to see the bright red news ticker flashing the latest incident. It all comes down to, “how many were killed? How many wounded?” Even mosques are not spared, sparking intense suspicion as to who the criminals really are, rather than the one sweeping term used in the media to label all the criminals as “rebels” or “Islamists” - this last term being extremely deplorable.

Our country has its homegrown as well as outsourced problems although I do not join the ranks of those who say, “it’s the Americans’ fault! They conspired against us!” because I believe that it was OUR fault that we weren’t able to stand for our own right. Instead, the highest offices in this country were often seats of corruption and treachery rather than stations for “leaders”. Corruption, selling national interests for personal gain, lawlessness, complete disregard for all principles and rules of state spread into the rest of the country and now, even though we claim that the common Pakistani is really a good person, we know that we are defined by the opposite. We have good people too – bright, intelligent, brimming with talent and creative solutions – but who will let them rise to the top when elections are more about feudal lords, industrialists and “blue blooded” elites simply consolidating their power? “Mr 10%”, the infamous corrupt and criminal-record-holding husband of a former prime minister, has occupied the Presidency… a day I had thought would never come, despite all the mess that the political and military axis has made in the country. So now, as the electricity comes and goes, water crises prevail in one or the other part of the country, we know that we have as able a man sitting in the high office as any other rock in some forgotten cave.

On the social front, there’s no good news either. So-called “honor killings”, buying and selling of women in “marriage” in rural areas are disgusting as they are but there is more too. Wife beatings, torture received at the hands of the in-laws, “vitriolage” (throwing acid on a women, usually a wife, as “punishment”) and the age old dowry system sadden the heart. How can a society be so cruel? True, this occurs in a smaller section of the population and not all of these things happen in every area, but it is horrific nonetheless. For the sake of decency, we can leave out details on other black marks in the society – child abuse, increasing incidence of AIDS, prostitution and now, even homosexuality… A’oodhobillah.

Upon all of what I mentioned above, is the added religion factor. There’s a HUGE gap between Imaan (faith) and Amal (deeds) such that you’ll have people crazily running on to the streets, burning buses and damaging the infrastructure as “protest” when derogatory cartoons of the Prophet(pbuh) were published in Europe but when it’s time for Salaah (prayer) or exhibiting Sabr (patience), refraining from harming others… will anybody really care? In some areas, there’s a rumor sparked that some Non-Muslim “disrespected” the Quran and a wild mob unleashes its senseless fury upon helpless Non-Muslim families. The Shia-Sunni tangle is always bubbling underneath the surface, ready to erupt at the slightest incident. Cheating, lying, stealing, plundering… it’s all a part of normal routine for many. A’oodhobillah.

On another front, materialism and a growing trend towards a “free society” concept rages in the upper-middle class and elites of society. You could look into this segment and wonder if they are Muslims, even in their appearances. From kindergarten to the elderly, this segment of society flourished and transformed under the former President’s misguided sense of “enlightenment”. A new wave of troubles and ills is spreading from this angle, which makes one feel so sad. The speed with which we’re letting go of the last shreds of whatever Islamic values we had can be seen in the shrinking of clothes and the high disdain of any tendency towards “covering up”, second only to perhaps the “secularist” segment in the Turkish society.

We are a society in turmoil and yet, despite all the darkness, there is always a spark of hope. Sometimes, I feel we’re so lost in our troubles, we forget how it feels to be really happy. Recently, when Pakistan won the T20 Cricket World Cup in England, the performance of the team and all the good they did, in spirit and play, was applauded by the world. Fireworks went off across the country and a wave of joy that gave us all goosebumps! The pulsating, reverberating joy buoyed the nation for days, giving them reason to hope that there’s always a silver lining. Seeing the team go down in a prostration of gratitude to Allah in the British stadium (a rare sight unfortunately, especially among the aforementioned upper middle class and elites) was the best part. Some might ask – it’s just a game, what does that have to do with the turmoil in the country? Of course, it’s just a game and it cannot directly have any impact in reducing, for example, the troubles in the Northwestern areas of Pakistan. However, sometimes you need a break from the ordinary, a spark of something new, to jolt you out of believing that the current state of things is the only state that will ever remain. And that realization, that there IS a better situation to aspire and work for, makes a lot of difference to many.

Apolobloggergizing

 

Apolobloggergizer: A blogger who’s circumstances have made it difficult to blog despite the blogger’s sincere desire to do so, resulting in one highly apologetic individual.

Will be updating tomorrow, InshAllah! Just got to get over with this last exam tomorrow InshAllah… *sigh*

Backbiting – Majid’s Story

Short Story – Backbiting.ppt (DOWNLOAD)

It’s a week for PowerPoint presentations, I think! When I received news that a portion of my pathology syllabus for next month’s final exam had been cut off and added to the following semester’s load, the unexpected reprieve was the perfect reason to head to the computer. Then, happy in the thought that I had the leisure of time to do what I wanted to, I decided to let some creativity loose and make something out of it. Few people know how much I enjoy making short PowerPoint-type presentations. Designing an eye-catching template and working on the content is great fun in itself because you keep imagining how the finished product’s going to look like.

The person who encouraged me to use this creative tool for the purpose of furthering the Islamic cause was none other than my teacher and mentor at the Islamic study circle I visit every Saturday, Alhamdolillah. She pointed out the impact of short, beautifully designed messages sent out through emails or posted on websites. Once I discovered the amazing world of colors, wallpapers, fonts, animations, pictures – and of course ‘clipart’ – it was like a fresh breath of air after the rather un-creative world of medical books. See, medicine is amazing in its own way but the artisitc flair inside every person needs to flex its muscle every once in a while to maintain a healthy balance.

I once saw a very cute presentation that was innovative in the way that it was more like an animated comic. I decided to something like it and thus, on Friday, I made this presentation, Alhamdolillah. I’m eager to make more of them but for now, I must return to my final exam preparation and put off all the other ideas for the summer break InshAllah! That reminds me, I must also tend to my washed laundry and clean up the mess about my room… right, I should leave now.

Wassalaam!

My dear parents…

Parents.ppt (Download)

Here’s a short presentation that I put together today! Alhamdolillah, it taught me a lot… which goes to show how excellent such activities can be for reinforcing concepts and reminding oneself! I hope you, too, derive much benefit from it, InshAllah!