At Eternity's Gate

It comes in waves and it is a veil which is dropped and uplifted again and again...and again...

کوئی چارہ ساز ہوتا کوئی غمگسار ہوتا

I vaguely remember that in the book 'Zaavia' by Ashfaq Ahmad, the author narrates an incident in which a person came with a strange illness (some marks on the hand) to ask for a cure from baba ji (for people who are not familiar with Ashfaq Ahmad's writings just think of him as a peer/shaikh). At that time baba ji didn't know what it was so he asked the person to come at a later time. Only when baba ji himself incurred the same illness did he gave out the remedy.

I wish I could find the exact incident so that I could narrate it more aptly but the essence for me was that at times we are just too quick to blurt out suggestions when we really don't know what others might be going through. At times we know we are right but still we want someone to say you are right, at times we know we are wrong but we still want someone to accept us with our failures. At times we just need a shoulder to cry on.  

یہ کہاں کی دوستی ہے کہ بنے ہیں دوست ناصح

  کوئی چارہ ساز ہوتا کوئی غمگسار ہوتا 

Again this field has no right and wrong answers. What others do or don't do cannot always be a judge of their intentions. They might be getting angry with you, scolding you, hating you for bringing yourself in such a wretched state and they still might have your best interest at heart...they still might love you all the same.

The English Effect

It was in one of the short stories back in the O-level's syllabus that a guy tells a girl (or perhaps it was the other way round) that he loves her and the girl replies that if you had said that in Urdu, it would have sound so bazaari (vulgar) ... or something similar to that ... English does have this intellectualizing, legalizing and toning down effect over here. I have seen people happily bearing abuses hurled at them in English but usually they are not so comfortable with Urdu or Punjabi. Similarly when the Pakistani stage dramas were gaining notoriety with their abundant double entendres; English sitcoms were usually let off scot-free with their sexual innuendos. 

Confusion

How effortlessly he plugs in the verbal abuse when he barks at the waiter to bring the naans quickly. Considerable height and more than a few sessions at the bodybuilding club entitles him to such mannerism.

Where you desperately want to punch the hell out of him, only if you had the same height and sessions on your side; you also start to feel better about yourself. At least there are people who more perfectly adorn the definition of a jerk.

What feels worst is that you did not have the courage to stand up for that poor guy whose lips were sealed only because he has a family to feed. 

National Geographic Photo Contest 2011

See the pictures here.

Maybe because it is of Pakistan but picture number 8 is fascinating...

"An unexpected side-effect of the 2010 flooding in parts of Sindh, Pakistan, was that millions of spiders climbed up into the trees to escape the rising flood waters; because of the scale of the flooding and the fact that the water took so long to recede, many trees became cocooned in spiders webs. People in the area had never seen this phenomenon before, but they also reported that there were less mosquitos than they would have expected, given the amount of standing water that was left. Not being bitten by mosquitoes was one small blessing for people that had lost everything in the floods. (© Russell Watkins)"

This blog is about...

http://www.wordle.net/

Lectures by Shaykh Kamaluddin Ahmed

Islam

• Temptations of the Youth

• Islam and Secularism

After the Jalsa...

• Criticism washed away
• How Shahbaz Sharif lost his mojo 
•  قریب تر ہے نمود جس کی 
• آغاز تو اچھا ہے انجام خدا جانے
• مشرق سی ابھرتے ہوے سورج کو ذرا دیکھ 
• پانی پت کی تیسری لڑائی 
• ظالمو جلدی کرو 

Article by Orya Maqbool Jan

Here is the link to an interesting article 

Eggs in Ratatouille

Original recipe here!

Love or farewell or recognition

Could she still draw back...? Her  distress awoke a nausea in her body and she kept moving her lips in silent fervent prayer.
A bell clanged upon her heart. She felt him seize her hand:
-Come!
All the seas of the world tumbled about her heart. He was drawing her into them: he would drown her. She gripped with both hands at the iron railing.
-Come!
No! No! No! It was impossible. Her hands, clutched the iron in frenzy. Amid the seas she sent a cry of anguish!
-Eveline! Evvy!
He rushed beyond the barrier and called to her to follow. He was shouted at to go on but he still called to her. She set her white face to him, passive, like a helpless animal. Her eyes gave him no sign of love or farewell or recognition.

Eveline, Dubliners, James Joyce 

Pakistan: A personal history by Imran Khan (Book Review)

"Cogent, candid and honest; Imran Khan’s recently published book gives an intriguing insight into the mind of a person who may well become the country’s next prime minister..." Read the review here!

Materialism or Comfort?

How many times we have noticed that at the time of rukhsati in our weddings the car which is embellished to take the bride and groom away (and at times a couple more close relatives squeezed in) has to be a saloon.  If the groom’s family does not own one then either the car is rented or borrowed.  Is it materialism or comfort?

Anger Portrayed

Women in Media

Pakistan’s recent obsession with dual SIM cellphones is bearable but what irks me while watching those incessant advertisements is that the duality feature is usually depicted by a boy having two love interests...

Beef Brisket

Recipe by Tom Perini. Got it from here!

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons chili powder
• 2 tablespoons salt
• 1 tablespoon garlic powder
• 1 tablespoon onion powder
• 1 tablespoon ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2 teaspoons dry mustard
• 1 bay leaf, crushed
• 4 pounds beef brisket, trimmed
• 1 1/2 cups beef stock

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Make a dry rub by combining chili powder, salt, garlic and onion powders, black pepper, sugar, dry mustard, and bay leaf. Season the raw brisket on both sides with the rub. Place in a roasting pan and roast, uncovered, for 1 hour.

Add beef stock and enough water to yield about 1/2 inch of liquid in the roasting pan. Lower oven to 300 degrees F, cover pan tightly and continue cooking for 3 hours, or until fork-tender.

Trim the fat and slice meat thinly across the grain. Top with juice from the pan (I reduced the juice to make a thick sauce). 

Squeeze some lemon juice at the end. Bon Appetite.

Scarborough Fair

Let me share this beautiful English ballad with you. Here is the best version, I could find.

Are you going to Scarborough Fair?

Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme,

Remember me to one who lives there,

He (she) once was a true love of mine.

Tell him (her) to make me a cambric shirt,

Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme,

Without a seam or needle work,

Then (s)he'll be a true love of mine.

Tell him (her) to wash it in yonder dry well

Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme,

Where water ne'er sprang, nor drop of rain fell

Then (s)he'll be a true love of mine.

Tell him (her) to dry it on yonder grey thorn

Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme,

Which ne'er bore blossom since Adam was born

Then (s)he'll be a true love of mine.

Tell him (her) to find me an acre of land

Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme,

Between the salt water and the sea strand

Then (s)he'll be a true love of mine

Plow the land with the horn of a lamb

Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme,

Then sow some seeds from the north of the dam

Then (s)he'll be a true love of mine

Tell him (her) to reap it with a sickle of leather

Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme,

And tie up the sheaves with a rope made of heather

Then (s)he'll be a true love of mine

If (s)he tells me (s)he can't I'll reply

Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme,

"Let me know that at least you will try;"

Then (s)he'll be a true love of mine

"Love imposes impossible tasks,"

Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme,

"Though never more than your own heart asks,

And I must know you're a true love of mine"

Dear, when thou hast finished thy task,

Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme,

Come to me, my hand for to ask,

For then thou art a true love of mine.

To read further about the history of this ballad, click here!

Physics definition

Leonard: Well let me see if I can explain your situation using physics. What would you be if you were attached to another object by an incline plane, wrapped helicly around an axis?

Sheldon: Screwed.

Leonard: There you go

The Big Bang Theory

Fatima is Fatima - Dr. Ali Shariati

Ali Shariati (November 23, 1933 in Kahak - 1975 in Southampton, England) was an Iranian revolutionary ^[1] and sociologist, who focused on the sociology of religion. He is held as one of the most influential Iranian intellectuals of the 20th century ^[2] and has been called the 'ideologue of the Iranian Revolution'.

I was introduced to him through the writings of Basit Bilal Koshul. Koshul’s work titled ‘Recounting the Milestones: An appraisal of Islam’s Encounter with Modernity” also outlines the life and ideas of Ali Shariati.  (Read it here, page 66). According to Koshul, Shariati was attempting to articulate a vision of Islam that made Islam a living historical phenomenon, at the same time that it exposed the vulgarity, hollowness and inanity of the attempts by the political and cultural elite of Iran to uncritically import secular, Western culture into their society.

I came across Ali Shariati’s lecture titled “Fatima is Fatima” (Read it here) which he delivered at Husseineh Ershad, an educational institutional established by Shariati in Tehran. The essence of the lecture is very interesting and worth reading especially in today’s world where women are divided between tradition and modernity. I have pasted some highlights from the lecture below but before I end this post I would like to share with you a paragraph from the above mentioned work of Koshul.

“Shariati notes that everything that has been said about “man” in the Qurab also applies to “woman” because, from the Quranic point of view, both are created from exactly the same nature and each is equally liable to be held accountable on the Day of Judgement for his or her deeds. Commenting on the popular misconception that the woman in created “..from the rib of the man,” Shariati notes that in Hebrew and Arabic one word means both “rib” and “nature”. During the process of translation, the word “rib” has been used more often with reference to the relationship of the creation of the women in relation to man. But the following ayah of the Quran makes it clear that the woman is created from the same nature as man:

And Allah made for you mates, of your own nature. (Al-Nahl 16:72)”

Highlights

A new class is created. It is characterized by foreignness and modernization. It adores the West. It is not religious. If it had a memory of or inclination towards religion, it has long since been stamped out. Luxury, transience, pretentiousness and foreignness prevail among this class. And their Islam, in the words of Sayyid Qutb, is an American Islam. 

Woman, in their (traditional clergy) view, must also remain as she is today because, simply enough, her form existed in the past and has become part of social traditions. It may be 19th century, 17th century or even pre-Islamic, but it is considered to be religious and Islamic.

The idealistic schools of thought embrace the highest values, the absolute and most desirable ideologies. Each and every fact is categorically rejected if it does not suit them. They have no patience. They deny unpleasant realities and dig out the roots of anger. Anger, violence, pleasure seeking and greed are realities which do exist…

The opposite of idealism is realism. Its followers see everything, no matter how ugly or unpleasant, simply because it has an external existence. They accept a thing, attach their hearts to it and find faith. They oppose and reject, however, all beauty, truth and correctness simply because these do not record with existing realities. Through this rejection, they become unbelievers…

We (Muslims) only have the right to know fashion models and beauty queens. We have only the right to know movie sex goddesses in cheap exploitation films, the Queen of Monaco and all of the seven female guards around James Bond. Such women are the sacrifices made to European production of Europe. They are the toys and wind-up dolls of the wealthy. They are the slaves of the houses of the new merchants. We Muslims only have the right to know these examples of the women of European civilization. I have never seen photographs from Cambridge, the Sorbonne or Harvard University telling about female university students who go to the library to work on 14th and 15th century manuscripts and to research artifacts from 2500-3000 years ago in China. I have not seen pictures of those who bend over Quranic manuscripts based upon Latin. I have not seen pictures of those studying Greek, Cuneiform and Sanskrit texts without moving and without allowing their eyes to rove. They don't take their heads out of their books until the librarian takes their books away or asks them to leave. 

We separate her from humanity. We thought that if she had beautiful handwriting, she would write to her lover. With this type of thinking, it would have been better if we had blinded her so she would never see a 'forbidden' person. In this way, Mr. Jealous, who feels the weaknesses of his own personality, would not have to worry about the disloyalty of his wife. He would be safe to the end of his life.

It was the Prophet who said, "Education is necessary for Muslims, both men and women." But it is always men who have had the right to be educated... 

They said, a Woman will be freed-not by books or knowledge or the formation of a culture or clear-sighted vision or by raising the standard of living, or by common sense or by a new level of vision of the world, but rather with a pair of scissors. Yes. Putting scissors to the modest dress!" This is how they think that women will all at once become enlightened! 

An Arab poet tells us, "If a father has a daughter and thinks of her future, he should think about three different sons-in-law: one, the house which will hide her; two, the husband who will keep her; and, three, the grave which will cover her! And the last one, the grave, is the best."
This is why the Koran, in the strongest terms, warns of the dangers of this frightening 'highest honor' when it says: He hides himself from the people. Should he keep her with disgrace or bury her alive in the dust? Behold, evil is what they decide" [16.59].

References 

1. 30th Anniversary of the Foundation of the Islamic Republic, A Revolution Misunderstood. Charlotte Wiedemann
2. Gheissari, Ali. 1998. Iranian Intellectuals in the Twentieth Century. Austin: University of Texas Press.
3. Abrahamian, Ervand. 1993. ‘Ali Shariati: ideologue of the Iranian revolution’. In Edmund Burke and Ira Lapidus (eds.), Islam, politics, and social movements. Los Angeles: University of California Press. First published in MERIP Reports (January 1982): 25-28

Fishy

Ingredients

5 tomatoes
2 onions
3 cloves of garlic
Fish (Pangasius)
Peanuts
3 potatoes
Cheese
3 Tbsp cream
4/5 Olives

Directions

Roughly chop the onions and garlic
Heat oil in a pan and cook onions and garlic for a few minutes and season them
Take out the fish from the fridge and season it with salt and pepper
Grind a couple of tomotatoes along with  peanuts, salt, pepper and olive oil and pour it on the fish
Add 4 tomatoes into the pan of onions and garlic while roughly sqeezing them with hands
Add a pinch of sugar to the pan and reduce it for 5 min.
Now pour this reduced material, cream, potatoes, olives, cheese on the fish
Cook the fish in an oven for 20/25 minutes at 210 centigrade

* Do not forget the sugar, otherwise onions can have a very dominant flavor.

For the original recipe see here!

Did you tear his heart...

It is narrated on the authority of usama b. Zaid that the Messenger of allah (may peace be upon him) sent us in a raiding party. We raided Huraqat of Juhaina in the morning. I caught hold of a man and he said: there is no god but allah, I attacked him with a spear. It once occurred to me and I talked about it to the apostle (may peace be upon him). The Messenger of Allah (may peace be upon him) said: Did he profess "there is no god but allah," and even then you killed him? I said: Messenger of allah, he made a profession of it out of the fear of the Weapon. He (the Holy Prophet) observed: Did you tear his heart in order to find out whether it had professed or not? and he Went on repeating it to me till I wished I had embraced Islam that day. (Sahih Muslim, Book #001, Hadith #0176)

I don't know but this hadith keeps haunting me. The words 'did you tear his heart in order to find out' keep repeating, keep reverberating. They make me question my judgments about people every day, every time.

Not unless you are cheated that you realize how much you trusted

On the other side

If you haven't buried them already then make sure that while crossing the bridge of time you throw away any expectations into the stream below. Someone else is always there with the proclivity to take a sip from this stream of life. The moment the water touches the lips the expectations will curse him, fool him to live another day...and when you reach the end of the bridge, you will see that time has not spared anybody.

If you had wanted me to be there at the end, if you had not been insouciant; you should have held my hand and taken me along with you.

A "thousand-star hotel"

"She describes spending nights sleeping on the forest floor in a "thousand-star hotel", applauds "the ferocity and grandeur of these poor people fighting back", and says "being in the forest made me feel like there was enough space in my body for all my organs"."

The Booker prize-winning novelist on her political activism in India, why she no longer condemns violent resistance – and why it doesn't matter if she never writes a second novel. Here!

Khuda Sai Naumeedi - Haroon ur Rasheed

• Part 1
• Part 2

Great Difference

" 'The mind,' Bacon says, 'presupposes a greater unanimity and uniformity in the nature of things than there really is.' Thus, for example, astronomers have assumed that the heavenly bodies, being 'perfect', must move as the mind deems it most fitting for a perfect celestial body to move, namely in perfect circles; observation, however, shows them to move in ellipses. 'It is incredible,' he exclaims, 'what a number of idols have been introduced into philosophy by the reduction of natural operations to a correspondence with human actions; i.e. by imagining that nature acts as man does.' Why are the stars in the sky arranged as they are?--or rather, why do they appear not to be 'arranged' at all? 'If the grand architect had acted a human part, he would have ranged the stars into some beautiful and elegant order, as we see in the vaulted roofs of palaces....so great a difference is there betwixt the spirit of man and the spirit of Universe' "

Willey, B. (1965). The English Moralists. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd.

I Can't Think!

I Can't Think!  by Sharon Begley

"You need to pull back from the constant influx and take a break.”

So what are you? Sufficer or Maximizer? 

Personally it feels like...

" ... a dangerously fragile veneer , and when that veneer cracked, man became one with the beasts again, falling back into the same slime of the primeval abyss he prided himself on having climbed up from..." (Sidney Sheldon)

Telenor TalkShawk

There is a Telenor talkshawk advertisement running on television these days. A wife tells her husband, "Suna hai college mai ap barai dil phaink thai". 

Just wondering, what if it was the other way round?

Such a thing would be unacceptable to our local morality but where does that leave us? 

Early Fool

Someone: So when is your wedding anniversary?
Wife: 31st March
Husband: Han, mai aik din pehlai he fool ban gya tha...

Interesting Reads

• Recounting the  Milestones:  An  Appraisal  of  Islam's Encounter with Modernity

                    Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

• The Reality of Tasawwuf In the Light of the Prophetic Model

• Iqbal, The Sufi Epistemology and the End of History

"And that is why I have sworn not to put pen to paper until my ideas either clarify or depart entirely; I have quite enough sins on my souls without putting dangerous, shallow epigrams into people's heads..."

Fitzgerald, F. S. (2004). This Side of Paradise. New York: Prometheus Books.

  

We should have a human obligations movement instead of a human rights one.

Patience

If you want to teach patience to your children, give them unpeeled pine nuts.