God and Many Gods of Pakistan

In his book "The Wanderer" Kahlil Gibran writes of a city named Kilafis:

"

In the city of Kilafis a sophist stood on the steps of the Temple and preached many gods. And the people said in their hearts, "We know all this. Do they not live with us and follow us wherever we go?"

Not long after, another man stood in the market place and spoke unto the people and said, "There is no god." And many who heard him were glad of his tidings, for they were afraid of gods.

And upon another day there came a man of great eloquence, an he said, "There is but one God." And now the people were dismayed for in their hearts they feared the judgment of one God more than that of many gods.

That same season there came yet another man, and he said to the people, "There are three gods, and they dwell upon the wind as one, and they have a vast and gracious mother who is also their mate and their sister."

Then everyone was comforted, for they said in their secret, "three gods in one must needs disagree over our failings, and besides, their gracious mother will surely be an advocate for us poor weaklings."

Yet even to this day there are those in the city of Kilafis who wrangle and argue with each other about many gods and no god, and one god and three gods in one, and a gracious mother of gods.

"

In our Kilafis, that we know by the name of Pakistan, we wrangle and argue with each other about the good Taliban and the bad Taliban, and Army's shaheeds and Taliban's shaheeds and the real shaheeds.

While the wrath of them all befalls us equally.

Ye, Who Choose

Tujh ko manzoor nahin ghalba-e zulmat lekin

Tujh ko manzoor hai yeh haath qalam ho jaen

Aur mashriq ki kameenN-gah main dharakta hua din

Raat ki aahni mayyat ke talay dab jaey

Translation:

Throne of murk you grudge against; yet

Yield to severe these hands,

Surrender to the dawn breathing softly in the womb of East 

Be entombed under the metal carcass of dusk

Verse: Faiz

Inapt Translation: mine.

Quetta: That Is You, That Is Me

Bol kay lab aazaad hain teray,

Bol zabaan ab tak teri hai,

Tera sutwaan jism hai tera,

Bol kay jaan ab tak teri hai,

Dekh kay aahan-gar ki dukaan main,

Tund hain shoalay, surkh hai aahan,

Khulnay lagay qufflon kay dahaanay,

Phela har ek zanjeer ka daaman,

Bol yeh thora waqt bohat hai,

Jism-o-zabaan ki maut se pehlay,

Bol kay sach zinda hai ab tak,

Bol jo kuch kehna hai keh le

- Faiz

Break The Bondage!

How much do you let the media feed you?

How much?

Instance Of Eternity

You may,
You may remain silent,
Remembering the friends,
placed to rest on the ground.
You shan’t speak before the dawn.

You may,
You may remain silent.
Remembering though, the hopes-
sliding down, against the walls of stone.
You shan’t speak before the dawn of the sun.

You may,
You may remain silent.
Recalling the fears and the wrench-
of the soldiers trapped in their trench,
of the martyrs left behind in blood-drenched.
And, you shall not speak, you shall not speak.
-.-.-.-.-

And if a while of your hour-
forsaken by the sound of your voice-
can take you to my rage and your remorse,
then, may your silence is tamed by my words.
And, you shan’t speak, you shan’t utter a word.

- Ahmad Shamlou

Poet: Ahmad Shamlou

Translation from Persian: Mariyam Dilmagani

Dedicated to today's incident: Malala Yousafzai, a 14yr old Pakistani peace activist was on her way to school when her school van was stopped by the Taliban who then asked for her by name and shot her. Till the latest news, she is badly injured as are two other children and in hospital.

And there remain many more, whom we may never get to know by names!

On 14th August: For The Heartless, Homeless

I wrote the following lines more than a year back at Chowk.com in reply to a barge of posts that contained nothing but venom for everything green under the sun! I felt angry and hurt. 

Today, its the 14th of August - the 64th Independence Day for Pakistan and going through the reaction of many of my country men, I think it would be best to share this post here as well.

I feel the same today.

Pakistan might not be the best place to live. But so is your home. There's always a dandier place, a fancier retreat! But you don't ditch your home, or do you? You don't keep cursing it for your own short comings, or do you?

Home is where the heart is, they say. 

May be these lines address the heartless, homeless lot.

In more than one ways this is intriguingly ironic and disturbingly real that we have among us quite a bunch of low esteem self loathing pathetic individuals whose only achievement in life seems to be an over bloated hatred for anything and everything that serves them a reminder of their originality (if they have any) and roots. 

Places DO NOT make people, its people who make the places. For a place to become a hell hole, the entire burden of (dis)credit belongs to the thankless lot of parasites that are no more than leeches sucking of blood from the feeble source we call home. It is unfortunate that the ones contributing the least, suffusing their pitless bellies with foreign currencies are the flag bearers of hateful banters, which to them is their more than fair share of contribution for making this country a better place to live!

I feel disgusted at this display of utter brazenness with which they disown this land after using every possible resource on her bosom. Thankless suckling creatures that make the oldest profession on earth seem a shame in contrast to their lack of shame.

Please, by all means, keep on being blind to your mediocrity but let me assert, even if this amounts to bursting your bubble, that you DO NOT come from Mars and (unfortunately) belong to this society. There are people who come from the same society as you do and come from less previliged backgrounds than your own but they overcome difficulties and soar high. Those on the other hand, who are too small to rise higher than the complexes of their skin colour and are limited by the barriers of self hatred continue being bitter to rather justify their inadequacies by blaming others, rejecting their own people and society and acting as if they are better than all of others, and hence bearing the responsibility of passing verdicts over the future of the nation.

For their sake, I would rather wish that all such scum actually leaves this country and rescinds its citizenship. Lets see what do they find then to whine about related to their useless existences! 

Meray Des Main ...

Semi-Final 2011 @ Mohali

For the winning side, congratulations! :)

For the Greens, you are loved. Pause.

Dedicated to the greens:  IF (click on the link to open a jewel box)

AND this ...

Uber Random Randomness

• The only one worth to keep you wait is the One, you are sure, would show up.
• It is neither fair, nor a feat, to wear the badge of another's incompetence.
• Man is weak; must not be judged, AND counted upon.
• Life is simple. They keep telling.
• Advertising serves not to identify needs, its for generating them.
• Wahab Riaz is wo bhai jo garmi main kharab ho gaya hai!
• Kakmal is no Joseph, yet watching his 4 I actually cut my finger!

Watching first Quarter final of cricket World Cup 2011 at Geo Super could cause:

• The regular Geo Super guys have been fired to earn Hamid Mir some rozee roti post Raymond Davis.
• I urge Rehman baba to plz pull sum gimmick outta his pocket. We want Mr. Mir busy with some more important stuff!
• Revolutions and jubilations; I want the world to know I'm inquilaabi as can be; I want the world to know; I'm INQUILAABI as can be!

And just by the way,
Since the devil wears Prada, I prefer Nike!

After 1999, It Had To Be Today

Raymond Davis Released

Ding dong bell
No one is in the cell
Who put Raymond(-Diamond) in?
Little Mian zing!
Who pulled him out?
Little Mian scout!
What a naughty li'll boy li'll Mian is!

When Tried To Bring In The Stepney

... And the working Akmal too gets punctured! :(


According to the recent reports pouring in from Srilanka, the most probable replacement to 'the' Kamran Akmal, his sibling Umar Akmal undergoes an injury while stepping into his brother's shoes ... :(

Buying Jannah At Sale?

(The following prose has also been published at  Chowk.com and Pak Tea House )

Fida'yaan-e Muhammed!

Do you know what this means?

"The lovesomes of the Prophet"!

This is what they declared they were.

I still hadn't recovered from the distress that the realization of the state of affairs in my land that Mr. Shehbaz Bhatti's murder had brought with it all too starkly (and ah-just-so-yet-again!), when today the tv screen began flashing with the scenes from the bomb blast site in Nowshehra, a mosque where people had gathered together for the Friday congregation!

11 people had died. Many others injured.

So what is it really? THIS MUCH bloodshed! All in the name of ISLAM - The religion that names Peace?

I am going berserk trying to decipher who is killing whom? Who is the bad guy in the thriller, and who plays the good cop? Could anyone please inundate me?

Cringing I try to push back this numbing pain and try to focus on these chips once again... No, no interpretations. Just plain, simple FACTS.

Facts without any leanings of fiction so as to not stray away from logic!

This time I wont let my personal biases interfere: enough of it, THANK YOU!

Hmm.... So where do I start from? .... Mr. Shehbaz Bhatti?

Here goes my attempts at trying to understand the picture...

FACTS

Regarding Mr. Shehbaz Bhatti:

• A fellow human being. CHECK
• A fellow countryman . CHECK
• A responsible member of the society. CHECK
• A person brave enough to speak his mind. CHECK

So what went wrong between him and the 'claiming' devotees of the Prophet that made him lose his life and put them on a sure track to Jannah? 

Lets try to understand through this image of the pamphlet they dropped at the killing site 

(sourced from web) 

Since its not a wholesome shot of the script, the readable words are: 

 "In the Islamic law, a blasphemer of the Prophet ..... Either you will remain alive, or us ..... And one Christian infidel Shehbaz Bhatti ..... And now by the grace and glory of Allah ...."

I do not have to state my religious leanings to those who have been frequenting this space. As for others, before you go ahead with labeling me as yet another, in vogue, religion-basher, I am a proud adherent of "lā elaha ella Allahu, Muhammad ur-rasul Allah".

I am a proud bearer of my identity as a Muslim, and as a believer .... until of course, I come across these self appointed arbitrators of the echelons of faith and belief (and everything that falls in between).

The much in-trend zealous concept of Jihad, having a loose interpretation of bloodshed of the infidels makes me check back with the Scripture I follow. Is it really the faith they are trying to implement, or the absolute lack of it, I wonder. 

So, as I begin wondering, lets get back to FACTS...

FACTS, Once Again

• The over-hyped blasphemy Law is a MAN MADE LAW! CHECK
• Criticizing the law, by any means, through any definition under the sun, DOES NOT amount to blasphemy. CHECK
• Without going to Law, killing someone on the charge of such auto-sentenced blasphemy, in person; is MURDER. CHECK
• Anyone, with the slightest regard for the teachings of the Prophet can not call a gang of serial killers as Fida'yaan-e Muhammed! CHECK

I reach here and the excruciating heart ache begins to take the better of me. 

Why am I saying all this? 

Does it matter anyway?

Does anything matter at all?

I dont carry a sub-machine and dont kill people in cold blood, so does this make me an inferior Muslim? 

I listen to all that fast-track JJJ (Jannah-ensuring jingoist jargon) of the AK47, and I am left stupefied.  Whatever happened to the God's word: 

And fight in the path of God with those who are fighting with you and do not transgress, God loves not those who transgress.(2:190) 

DO NOT TRANSGRESS!

O, we, the holy warriors of the Lord, 

Do we even understand what is meant by transgress?

Do we have even an inkling of what is described as limits?

Why cant we answer an argument by an argument?

Why cant we listen to a dissent of opinion before setting out on a barge of lamentation of a perpetually endangered Islam in the Islamic Republic that is this land?

Why do all them uber-believers opt for Jihad Bis-saif (Jihad of the sowrd) over Jihad Bil-nafs (Jihad with the self), whereas its the latter that is more preferred?

You want to know the reason?

Here join me for the facts...

FACTS, Yet Again

• Taming the self is a far more unpublicized, and much more difficult job than pushing the trigger of a gun. CHECK
• Everyone looks for a shorter route to success. CHECK
• Firing squads amid short cuts to Jannah always lead astray. DOUBLE CHECK

Wa Allahu Alam.

PS:
In the dark ages Europe, the clergy declared those opting for physical cleanliness, as infidels.
In today's Pakistan, the self-proclaimed "fida'yaan" declare those defying the hypocritical practices, as infidels.


Little difference, eh?

World Cup 2011, As It Proceeds

If you are anyone even remotely interested in Pakistani brand of cricket, this is a MUST read for you!

World Cup 2011: Pakistan wins inspite of mistakes

Total truth! ;)

As It Reminds Of Snow On The Sahara

As ....

I'll pray the skies above,

For snow to fall on the Sahara

(Photo Credits: The images of Lahore, today during a hail storm, have been randomly collected from the web, and are not my property.)

Middle Grounds

Last 24 hours have seen Pakistan's name flashing on all the international channels, and once again for the wrong reasons!

The serving Governor of the largest province got murdered in broad daylight by his own official guard.

The issue was religious, and the situation has now become too bloody to be talked about.

There have been many people who did't appreciate Mr. Taseer's views at things that matter, however, his murder (which remains the most condemnable act) has triggered an altogether different debate. 

It is now an issue of basic tolerance as a human being that is now being asked.

What alarms me now is the fact that through this episode, once again the ever present biases are contributing to create a situation that is going to enhance the disparity between logic and decisions. It is going to broaden the gulf between the two poles of the society: liberals and conservatives. It is a vicious cycle and, much as I hate to think, there is no looking back.

I hear analysts talking on tv airing views that question the sanity of the officials who had appointed a "bearded" person as the Governor's guard. And I think WTH....!

Where are we heading to?

I wonder and shudder.

I dont observe 'pardah' in the typical sense of the word. My son goes to the most liberal school in town. Yet I, very proudly, consider myself an adherent.

I shudder to think of the society my son is going to inherit. The extremity of polarization wont allow him to offer his five prayers and later go out to jog with his wife. Either he would be asked to renounce his prayers, or he would have to keep his wife locked indoors.

These are the two extremes.

And they are not allowing any middle grounds.

I am afraid for the future.

I am afraid some one unwittingly, is pushing us to an extreme I dont want to embrace.

Bomb Phata!

Finally Ali Azmat back with something to make you (wince and) groove again!

Of 14th of August.

The dismay over the grimness of the situation of the country is unanimous. It sickens everyone for whom it bears even the slightest semblance of consequence. These thugs are a source of pain in each person's throat, unless ofcourse the person is a part of the gang himself.

But guess what, emotional barges of dismay and disappointment don't lead one any where. Just like the 63 years old wait for a red clad Maseeha of revolution, hasn't been able to prove its potency albeit regrettably. 

While the wait for a Maseeha remains an alluring ideal, its this faulty mindset of leaving things onto others that has landed us over here, in this heap of dung! 

I am throughly disappointed with the state of affairs the past generation has left us with, but is this disappointment all that I have to wear as a badge on my chest to proclaim my contribution to this land? 

I have no right whatsoever to question anyone else's contribution until I am convinced that I have a role model in my own example. And to be a role model, one has to ACT. 

If humanity itself is no reason for one to be there to help out those in distress, let the political rationale be (though what a shame!).

If I do not want LeT (or anyother combo of alphabets) to hijack my people in KPK or anywhere else (and thus provide the govt. with another excuse for a sordid saga of you-know-the-rest), it is I who has to be there to cater to their needs.

The govt. is a bunch of spineless b******s, so lets just stop burning our energies on them for a while. They are doing a pretty neat job already, lets please not add fuel to the fire. Get out of your comfy zone and look around, I am sure, someone is out there doing some good work, lets group around and support. Let us be supporting our OWN self first before condemning the govt. for not supporting us. Let us be strong enough to demonstrate that we WANT so we CAN and we WILL.

Lets be strong enough to be HEARD.

And strength needs ACTION for its manifestation.

No one listens to whiners.

Rain, Rain, GO AWAY

I was all set to be on road early tomorrow morning heading towards the flood stricken region of Nowshehra, Mardan and around. 

Not anymore, and this sure is frustrating!

The country is facing the worst floods of the century. 15 million people have been affected and 12 million people so far have been uprooted and with the torrential rains never aiming at ceasing and flood waters now racing mercilessly towards the cities in Sindh, the figures are just promising to get more horrifyingly huge. 

 CNN talks about worsening Pakistani floods by more rains

The government, as usual in any crisis situation, has gone into hiding and the poor are left at the mercy of the showering skies. This times not even the heavens seem bent upon being kind to the helpless who have nowhere to look upto but to the heavens themselves!

The purpose of the planned trip was not to distribute relief goods by hand, but just to be their by the side of those stranded in water. Distribution of donations is another thing, I merely wanted to lend a human face to the support, just to share a few words, a few sorrows. Just to wipe a few tears, if I could; just to hug a fighting soul with all my might. Just to listen to someone who has been listening to the gushing waters all these days....

My heart is aching. The tragedy is of horrendous proportions and the grief of it is too heavy .....

I just wish I had a heftier bank account.

I just wish I could be of more support...

I wish

I so wish!!!!!!!

You Make Me Proud!

Wednesday, July28, 2010 shall be remembered for a rather tragic reason in the history. Loss of lives, innocent lives, hardly leaves any human unshaken. 

152 people lost their lives and left hundreds grieving behind them, and many many more affected by this sudden tragedy. Inna-lillah-e-wa-inna-ilehi-raa'jai'oon.

However, there is one thing that emerged out very prominent as the smoke began to fizzle in the showers at the Margalla Hills - human resilience and compassion. I kept thinking of what someone has so rightly said, "its in the best of times that the worst of people are found; and its in the worst of times that best people are seen." Yesterday, was indeed a very unfortunate day, most tragic for all who value life, yet, it witnessed many unknown sons who were the best in that worst of the times .....

When I heard from a friend in Islamabad that people are scrambling up the margalla hills helping in rescue with bare hands, I did not rather notice it. The impact of the crash was so strong. However, as the sun sank behind the peaks of this hilly region and the rain poured ever harder, those people participating in the rescue operation to look and save anything even remotely to life in that wreckage  strewn over about a third of a square mile of the forested slopes, became more and more important.  

The News reported:

"

Volunteers provided significant support to rescue teams working under highly unfavourable conditions after a tragic air crash at Margalla Hills.

Hundreds of people swiftly rushed towards the crash site despite the fact that there was no proper way and everyone had to make way through thick bushes up to peak of the mountain.

Teams of young medical students and doctors reached the spot to provide first aid after the air crash but they felt disappointed, as all passengers were found dead.

“As soon as we heard about the air crash we reached near the mountain and walked up to the sight of incident. But, unfortunately, no one was alive and we found only parts of dead bodies scattered all around there,” said Hasan and Amir of Shifa College of Medicine who were there at the sight of crash.

Inmates of nearby villages who were the first to reach the spot made a trail with the help of blades and cutters that helped rescue teams to reach up to the mountain.

These villagers, who were dozens in number, extended support to bring lightweight equipment and other necessary material to the top of the mountain.

“We heard a big explosion and saw dense smoke clouds in the mountain after which we tried to reach the sight. There was no access to the mountain so we swiftly took small cutters and in the span of half an hour we made a trail from road to the incident sight,” said Moeen, a villager who were totally soaked after spending many hours in rescue activities.

The volunteers were also reaching from two other undeveloped tracks — one from monkey spot and other from a nearby village — and collected body parts of unfortunate passengers along with rescue workers.

When security officials stopped entry of motor vehicles into the area the volunteers travelled on foot during rain even from the Islamabad Zoo.

The people parked their motor vehicles on road sides on 7th Avenue and Margalla Road and continued their walk just to provide help to the rescue teams.

A large number of fire brigade vehicles were also there but there was no use of them as the incident spot was far away from their access.

Islamabad Traffic Police made hectic efforts to ensure smooth flow of ambulances and fire brigade vehicles from Margalla Road to the sight of incident.

"

Many channels reported the grieving relatives of the victims rendering support to the authorities by joining the emergency teams at the scene of Pakistan's worst-ever plane crash.

I felt numb.... yet blessed. May Allah keep the spirits of this nation high. 

Hats off to the compassion and spirits of our countrymen. 

Hail Pakistanis. You make me proud!