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.

Illness

Illness can become the best or the worst of what this world has to offer

The Lahore Zoo

These pictures were taken a couple of years back and I thought about sharing them. Went a little bit overboard to insert the lens inside the cages at times so as to get the clear picture. The turkey was not from the Lahore zoo rather it was taken at one of the rest areas on the Lahore Islamabad motorway.

Inherited Knowledge

There is this seemingly indefatigable reliance on inherited knowledge. Makhi pai makhi martai ja rahai hain hum log. We are not letting anything novel come in and that is creating an absurd stagnancy in our lives.

Half Knowledge

Partial knowledge is perhaps the worst of all mental states; a person can find himself in. We read and listen with our minds shut and only let that information filter through which reinforces our already preset notions.

Pride is the only thing which doesn’t allow us to listen to a subordinate at the office or a maulvi at the mosque. Just because one of us has got a degree from a better institution or has read the Quran a couple of times makes one reject everything contrary to personal beliefs. We hold so dearly to our views that we don’t ever let the prejudice take a backseat and give the conflicting idea a fair chance. We go on to claim that our knowledge is perfect without even realizing what the heck we are blabbering.

Criticism is valid and healthy but I observe that we are scared that our beliefs might crumble. The defensiveness and haughtiness which accompanies arguments is only this fear manifesting itself.

Suo Motu?

Writing in the sand

Oh, then I feel my blood run cold

Eyes like the sharpest blade

That penetrate to the bottom of my soul

Words of truth that cut so deep

You write the lines of mystery

I stumble and the stone I held in hand is cast away

When the mirror's shown to me

I see my own hypocrisy

And weep upon the writing in the sand

All the things I try to hide

All the times that I avoid your eyes

Thinking somehow I can live the lie

When the truth becomes too great

And I can't try to clean my rotten, filthy state

Or the hidden sins that doom me to my fate

Oh, I can't hide it from Your sight

You search out the secret things, the darkest dreams

And reveal them in the light

When the writing in the sand has washed away

I could never turn and walk the other way

For the words are carved into my very soul

And the light exposes everything I know

~ Theocracy - Writing in the sand

Colors

Every time, Everywhere, Everything

Every time when you do not find anybody who understands you and every time when you realize that not being understood is not a sign of some higher/different mindset rather it is just you being an uptight jerk. Every time when your heart is so full of everything that is good but you are unable to permeate that goodness out. Every time you try to make things work and every time a strong wave wipes away the beautifully crafted castle. I now get your point of not writing a blog. Every time, everywhere, everything is relative!

P.S. Everything which this world has to offer!

Mensa International

"Mensa is the largest and oldest high IQ Society in the world.It is a NPO open to people who score at the 98^thor higher on a standardized, supervised IQ or other approved intelligence test percentile "

So how would you feel if your IQ score translated to 97 percentile? Urggghhh :S

Rights of Men

With the tip of his forefinger he traced the path of the blade of a UPS backed ceiling fan. The battery was dying down as his finger moved in ever slowing circular motion and finally came to a halt. The energy saver flickered for a few moments and it too faded out. ‘It’s better to burn out than fade away’, he smiled remembering how cool that line sounded back in his teenage. Kurt Cobain was supposed to be the ultimate reality. Duh! Suicide is a luxury which God didn’t allow us. His mind wandered.

“Do you know who is poor? They (the Companions of the Holy Prophet (SAWW)) said: A poor man amongst us is one who has no wealth.”

His teacher had narrated the Hadith that very morning while he adjusted himself for the fifth time. His right leg had gone numb and he fought the temptation to stretch his legs for once.

“He (the Holy Prophet(SAWW)) said: The poor of my Umma would be he who would come on the Day of Resurrecton with prayers and fasts and Zakat but since he hurled abuses upon others, brought calumny against others and unlawfully consumed the wealth of others and shed the blood of others and beat others, and his virtues would be credited to the account of one (who suffered at his hand). And if his good deeds fall short to clear the account, then his sins would be entered in (his account) and he would be thrown in the Hell-Fire”

“So make sure you leave no stone unturned to compensate for all the wrongs done to people”, the teacher emphasized.

“What if someone thinks that he has been wronged but actually he hasn’t been, then?” a guilty conscience from the last bench asked.

“What if he has been, are you still ready to take the risk? With your number of good deeds, I don’t think you can afford to spare even a few of them”, the person sitting next to him supposedly thought it was necessary to speak.

“Okay, then what would be the compensation for a broken heart?” someone was thinking in that class.

TV Islam

Lately we have been relying too much on Qtv and Alim Online for religion. I think the search and struggle for knowledge has been left in the hands of a few and people in general are taking the easy way out. This would make us even more short sighted in our approach towards religion. We would never be able to get the big picture and will hopelessly cling and be subsequently swayed by every new 'Alim' out there.

I have nothing against these programs but yes, I do feel that religion should not be restricted to them. There is a wealth of knowledge out there for us.

On hearing her parents fight, X to her friend who had just come to her house:

And you thought my life was perfect...

Friend:

No, actually I always knew that you had a traumatic childhood : )