What Happened When My Son Disturbed Junaid Jamshed in His Prayer

From 2016:

The recent death of Junaid Jamshed has shocked and saddened to many inside and outside Pakistan. SeekersHub volunteer, Hammad Din recalls a chance meeting with Jamshed, and how it touched him in a very deep way.

Last year my son, then 2 years old, joined me for a congregational prayer at our local mosque in Markham, Canada. We arrived a little late and I noticed the back of a very familiar head in one the rows ahead of us. Not thinking much of it, we joined the prayer right away.

I was that parent

From the second cycle onward something very unusual happened. My normally quiet son started crying loudly and continued to do so for the remainder of the prayer. He was so loud that I was sure he had disturbed everyone around us.  Read the rest here

https://seekersguidance.org/junaid-jamshed-disturbed-prayer/

Death of a schoolmate

A schoolmate who was one year junior from me in high school was killed in the mosaue attack in December last year.

On a page dedicated to him I said:

"Was a year ahead of him in A levels. Have very positive memories of him: A person of good ikhlaq and very well rounded (sports, studies, social skills, etc.).

May he be granted Jannat and may his family/friends be granted patience in dealing with this immense loss.

"To Allah We belong, and to Him is our return"

His best friend talks about the loss in this BBC article and probably speaks for many over there. May Allah make things easy for the people who ware overloaded with many hardships.

"When the number of victims in such attacks gets reported in the news, it doesn't really reach your heart. But these people are real people, they are not just numbers. I lost someone I love, he is not here any more and it's unbearable at times.
It's such a loss, not just for the family, but for the country. He was an exceptional human being, a professional who had so much potential."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8408684.stm

David Rhode: Held by the Taliban

A really interesting insight into how the Taliban controls Waziristan, etc.

David Stephenson Rohde is a New York Times reporter who was kidnapped by the Taliban in November 2008. He escaped on the night of June 19, 2009, and made his way to freedom after more than seven months of captivity in the mountains of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Mr. Rohde was part of The Times's reporting team that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2009 for coverage of Afghanistan and Pakistan. He gives his account of his experience as a captive in a five part series, Held by the Taliban.

BBC: A Tale of Two Pakistanis

Mohammad Hanif comments on the Pakistani Psyche in his piece:A Tale of Two Pakistanis

"What we tend to often forget is that the cultural activities we want the world to focus on take place in a middle-class, affluent bubble, with electricity generators on standby, private security guards with scanners, and which are often bankrolled by mobile-phone companies or fast food chains.

Outside this bubble, millions try to eke out a living, then go home to watch the horrors of the day on their split screens.

Not too many of them get to go to the theatre to sing along with those jaunty Abba songs even if Money Money Money is the only anthem allowed at the bottom of hell." READ ON

Rickshaw Diaries: Changing our Condition

Baraka Bajee from Rickshaw Diaries really summarizes the situation in Pakistan beautifully:

Of the people closest to where the bomb goes off they say there is nothing left but a pink mist to mark that a human once lived and breathed there. Further away and you begin to see shredded skin and disembodied limbs lodged in treetops. Then, burned corpses and dazed survivors.

Six years ago when I worked at a Boston-based human rights organization one of our areas of focus was the Occupied Territories - Palestine. The topic of suicide bombings and whether they were valid instruments of defense sometimes came up with family members and other Pakistanis. Many of them thought that even when used against civilians it was justified because of the miserable living conditions of the Palestinians and their lack of weapons against a well-equipped, occupying army.

READ ON

Islamabad Blast

Just learnt about the bomb blast in Islamabad. Its probably the most sad I have felt about something since the Pakistan earthquake in 2005. It really hurts when you see the places you associated with-while growing up-disintergrate, causing numerous casulties in the process.

The immediate problem is the blast, but, I guess what really makes one sad is that the root of the problem remains. In fact, the US attacks over the last few weeks have been adding fuel to the fire.

It really started going south after the Lal Masjid issue last summer when the authorities opted for a "forceful solution". To me, that really blew up the whole problem and we are where we stand today.

As things stand today, bombing the heck out of the tribal areas in West Pakistan is NOT solving anything. I dont think the US has learnt lessons in Iraq? As Owen Bennett Jones says in his recent report on Pakistan:

"There is, I think, universal agreement amongst Pakistanis that, if the US continues to rely so heavily on military firepower in Afghanistan, and increasingly in Pakistan too, then the Taleban will win."

And thats exactly the point. May Allah make it easy for everyone.

All Things Pakistani: The menace of dowry

A good exposition on the cultural practice of dowry in Pakistan. Reminds me of a contention by Sh. Abdul Hakim Murad: "Marriage: pay and display? Or the primacy of privacy?".

I wonder what the historic roots of dowry in India are? Anyways do read this article:

Among the many things that need to be revamped in the mainstream Pakistani society dowry would probably be one of the major ones. Sure no harm in giving the bride gifts on her wedding for her home and personal use but with the growing number of girls start staying unmarried simply because the parents don’t have the money to meet the ‘demands’ of the groom’s family, then it is a quandary that needs to be looked into. READ ON

Koonj: Divorcee

A must read poem by Bajee Koonj for people wanting to understanding the situation of women in Pakistan. While, one would like to think that these problems are limited to the poor uneducated classes of Pakistan, that is totally not the case. The expectations placed on the shoulders of women in most cases ( specially after marriage) there are idealistic and unrealistic. Anyways, go ahead and read this poem:

Divorcee

Hi there.
What happened to you?
He broke your heart?
Took you for granted?
Hurt your feelings, left you? Degraded,
dehumanized, derided you?

He treated you like dirt?
What’s new?

It’s your own fault, you know that, right?
Did you provoke him?

read the rest here

Do you want to understand Pakistan?

For those who want to develop a basic understanding about Pakistan in 45 minutes, the following is an excellent 2 part series recorded by Owen Bennett Jones of the BBC> I have the descriptions of the audios followed by the embedded audios themselves.

Pakistan has become the focus of intense global news coverage, since its former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was killed last year.

In this two part series Owen Bennett Jones, who lived in the country as a BBC correspondent, returns to look at the history of a nation where political crisis has become a way of life.

Nuclear armed Pakistan has been described as the most dangerous country on earth: what does its past tell us about its future?

Pakistan was created as a land where Muslims could live in safety.

But when the British split the sub continent in 1947 they left behind a nation that went on to suffer decades of political crises. Last year more than 750 Pakistanis died in suicide bomb attacks.

Why are Islamist radicals targeting fellow Muslims and why do they have any support in Pakistan?

Part One: The Dream Undone

Why have so many of the hopes and aspirations of Pakistan's founders remained unfulfilled?

Owen Bennett- jones discovers a nation split between powerful feudal families, the military elite, a religious establishment and tribal and regional forces.

The many crises that beset Pakistan from partition and independence in 1947 are explored, through the early military dictatorships, the wars with India over Kashmir, regional wars inside the country and the rise and fall of Benazir Bhutto's father Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

He begins his story at the spot where Benazir was assassinated in Rawalpindi in December 2007.

In a bizarre twist of fate it was the same place where the country's first Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan was killed 57 years earlier.

In Pakistan, history has tended to repeat itself in a cruel cycle.




Part two: Powers in the Land

Owen Bennett-Jones examines the rise of Islamist militancy in Pakistan, tracing its ascendancy under the devout dictator general Zia ul Haq, the man who overthrew and subsequently hanged Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

General Zia had a great hatred for the Soviet Union and felt threatened by the Russian invasion of Afghanistan.

With the aid of billions of dollars of military aid from Washington, Zia helped to orchestrate the downfall of the Soviets.

But in doing so he unleashed a radical Islamist movement that his successors have been unable to quell.

Owen Bennett Jones follows the failure of successive civilian administrations and the decision of current ruler Pervez Musharraf to align himself with Washington.

Musharraf's siege of Islamabad's Red Mosque in August of last year triggered a wave of suicide attacks.

In the wake of the assassination of Benazir Bhutto and with elections slated for 18 February, the country risks being split apart.

Urdu Poetry: Khuda ke bastee: God's Own Land

I just started the english translation of the famous book " Khud kee bastee" ( God's own land). It is a novel about the life of every day people in Pakistan ( it is set in the 1950s but the same issues appear to be relevant today. I will review it once I finish it). Here is some poetry form the book's preface:

Khuda kee basti men khuda ke bandon pey kia guzri
Khuda par yaqin hai lekin khuda kee baste par nahee

God gave us our country, we toil and we plod
We cant trust our land , but we trust in our God

very moving specially for those familiar with the circumstances in which the the poor live in Pakistan ( and in other developing countries).

May Allah make it easy for the poor and May he enable us with the desire and sincerity to help them the best we can.

Back from the Pakistan: Quick reflections

Aslamaua alikaum,

Alhamdulillah. I am back from Pakistan...Fishing and family kept me busy over the last 2 weeks..so I was not able to post regularly while in Pakistan. Here are some quick notes/observations from my trip:

Politics: It is as active as it ever was on political scene.

Hope in leaders: Hope should be in Allah not in individual leaders. The leaders are limited means for change. The best agent for change is yourself.

Politics within homes: Too much involvement of women and minimal involvement of men in internal social dealings makes it imbalanced within homes,

Politics within communities: Women need to be more involved in mosques, charities, etc.

Marriages: The actual people getting married need to be more active in choosing their spouses.

Parenting: Kids should be delegated more responsibilities. There are many grown up babies in Pakistan.

Imams: Specially in Punjab the imams need to get more involved with communities outside the mosque.

Status: People who are well off need to stop doing things for the sake of doing them i.e. we should have "X" because they have "X".

Envy: The people who show off their wealth are creating envy within poor which is indirectly related to more bulgaries/thefts/hold offs.

Opportunity: The poor have little opportunity to move up the ladder economically.

Education: Starts at home-and should not be limited to schools. Education is merely academical.

Love: People should start loving for Allah's sake. ANd if they hate wrong things in society-they should hate the actions not the people who do the hated actions.

Institutions: Need more than the army.

Foreign cultures: Take the good from the foreign cultures while retaining the good in your own culture instead of doing the opposite.

Macdonald's: Please don't go there. Thank you. That goes for other foreign food chains as well. Support your local economy

Inferiority complex: Reading Malcom X biography these days. I actually think we have the black man inferiority complex ( which Malcom talked about) towards the west which is very unhealthy. We talk of success on their terms. Pakistan needs to define it's own agenda of success and be more independent- ecnomically, psychologically, etc.

PIA: is better airline now with better service. Food can be better but perhaps their food makes be appreciate better food even more so alhamdualillah for PIA food!

Aunty Network: Is strong with high speed connection specially with cell phones and cheaper phone rates.

Islam: should not be mutually exclusive form people's lives. Talk of islam should not be mutually exclusive from following it.

Canada: We in canada should be happy with all the blessings we have here. Many in Pakistan could only dream of these. That doesn't make us better then Pakistanis but actually this comfort is a test from God of how we use our comfort for the less fortunate everywhere.

Okay: Those were my thoughts on Pakistan...

Protests in Pakistan and more....

Read this news story about a protest in Islamabad, Pakistan which took place yesterday:

Samad continued: ìLater students were asked to go back and they complied. It was while they were returning that 600-700 policemen, female police officers, anti-terrorist squad commandoes and plain clothed officers came saying they would arrest them as protest rally was not allowed. The police then started charging the students with batons and manhandled them. They pushed and dragged, abused and shoved students into police vans. Most of those arrested were class 9-12 students, while one of them was only a 12-year- old.

That is very sad. I guess what is interesting is that all th calls for such protests are happening through the internet as Spiegel Online Reports:

Indeed, the LUMS protest sparked one in Boston at the same time, thanks to Facebook. News of a protest by opposition leader Benazir Bhutto sparked one in London, led by Jemima Khan, the former wife of another opposition leader, Imran Khan, who is under house arrest. Since the weekend, students have been holding "flash" protests in Karachi, the country's commercial capital. Through cell-phone text messages, students have been gathering, 10 at a time, across the city, shouting protest slogans, and disappearing quickly before the police arrive. If it sounds like a youth gimmick, consider the dangers involved. A student flash mob could find itself in hostile territory, liable to arrest.

The whole scenario is quite depressing for most Pakistanis I have talked to ( in canada). Some even the change the topic when you mention this. If we believe Mr. Musharaf who thinks the imposition of emergency will improve the security situation then my question is what happens after? This is a short term measure. What is he doing to ensure long term security of the country? The roots of terrorism and extremism ( believed in by a minority in Pakistan), is generally a result of dis empowerment and disenfranchisement of people on the fringes of society making them more susceptible to extremist propaganda. Remove the causes of this dis empowerment and disenfranchisement and you are removing extremism.

Daily Telepgraph: Benazir Bhutto, a kleptocrat in a Hermes scarf

Imran KHan's x-wife gives her 2 cents on Miss Bhutto.

This is no Aung San Suu Kyi, despite her repeated insistence that she's "fighting for democracy", or even more incredibly, "fighting for Pakistan's poor".

This is the woman who was twice dismissed on corruption charges. She went into self-imposed exile while investigations continued into millions she had allegedly stashed away into Swiss bank accounts ($1.5 billion by the reckoning of Musharraf's own "National Accountability Bureau").

All Things Pakistani: Ramadan in Pakistan

A well written article of how Ramadan was in Pakistan. I can relate to many things in this article. Nothing like eating amee key Parathas for breakfast and then pakoras in the evening in those Ramadans. As with other things, its only when the moment passes you realize how precious the moment was.

"The dining table would be all set before the crack of dawn, as though it was just another meal in the middle of the day. How did my mom ever get up so early to have everything prepared in advance? Us siblings preferred fried eggs and malai with paratha, while my father preferred a savory dinner-like meal. We would all eat together, drink our tea, and watch the TV playing in the background. READ MORE"

Pakistan and the return of Nawaz Sharif /Benazir

I am sure most of you have heard of the return of former prime ministers of Pakistan: Benazir and Nawaz Sharif. I grew up as a kid following the politics of both these "democratic" leaders and to be honest their return or thier intent to return does not excite me. IN fact their claim that their presence or absence will determine if Pakistan has democracy or not is ludicrous.

As the Gurdian states about Benazir:

Few would argue with the proposition that democracy is almost always preferable to dictatorship; but it is often forgotten the degree to which Bhutto is the person who has done more than anything to bring Pakistan's strange variety of democracy - really a form of elective feudalism - into disrepute. During her first 20-month long premiership, astonishingly, she failed to pass a single piece of major legislation. Her reign was marked by massive human rights abuse: Amnesty International accused her government of having one of the world's worst records of custodial deaths, extrajudicial killings and torture. Bhutto's premiership was also distinguished by epic levels of corruption. In 1995 Transparency International named Pakistan one of the three most corrupt countries in the world. Bhutto and her husband, Asif Zardari - widely known as "Mr 10%" - faced allegations of plundering the country.

As for Mr. Sharif, he never fared any better either as BBC writes:

He controversially reversed a constitutional amendment which took away the president's powers to dismiss the prime minister.

A power struggle with the judiciary also gripped the country after Mr Sharif fell out with the then Chief Justice, Sajjad Ali Shah.

Mr Sharif faced possible disqualification from office after charges of contempt of court were brought against him, but these were eventually dismissed.

In 1998, he was confronted by another stand-off after a former army head said the army should formally have a say in the running of the government.

I dont think that any individual can claim to bring back democracy . I think the two most important aspects of any democratic fair system is justice at every level of society and the education of the masses. The problem with the education system is perfectly explained in this week's Crossing Continents ( BBC):

Pakistan's Government of President Pervez Musharraf likes to describe itself as being on the frontline of the "war on terror". But there is another related war going on, a struggle for the heart and soul of Pakistan's education system.

It is a war the government is losing. Sixty years after independence, more than six million children are not attending school. And that's a conservative estimate. Of those that are in school, something like a third drop out when they are just five or six years old.

These are uncertain times for Pakistanis politically ( both global and local politics) . Please make dua for Pakistan.

For God's sake

or in Urdu its called..Khuda key liay...Thats the name of the new Pakistani movie which has done rathar well in the Pakistani theatres. Thanks to Haseeb bhai for directing me to the movie which is now available on Google videos. I thought the movie had a good theme and touched upon many pertinent themes which are relevant globally. ( though I do think that the movie should have been slower and split into two to three episodes because in some parts, the movie went so fast that it skipped over details, which the viewer had to make assumptions about...). Plus I think the movie focussed too much on the blacks and whites rathar then the spectrum of colours which exist on both sides of the so called global conflict ( or misunderstanding?).

regardless I wont spoil the movie for you. Do watch it yourself if you know urdu. All Things Pakistani has a good review of the movie as well... I will quote Haseeb bhai on the good questions the movie raises:

"How do we respond to Muslim girls’ relationships with non-Muslim guys? (Obviously we know its haraam, but it is a reality).

Is Music haraam? (NOTE: I know there is a legitimate difference of opinion on this issue and I by no means suggest that those who view music as impermissible are extremists!!!)

How do we help our young sincere Muslim brothers and sisters who get caught up with extremist ideologies? (The same issues holds true in Europe and America as well)

How do the real wise ulema of our times stand up and overcome the extremist preachers who so effectively target our youth?

How do we react to racial profiling and the tragedies of Guantanamo Bay and other secret prisons that even today still hold innocent Muslims?

How can we continue to explain to our outraged Muslim brethren across the world that America and the west in general isn’t inherently evil and anti-Islam?"

Who will answer these good questions? I think the answer lies beyond blogs and words and really comes down to taking well thought out actions at your local level whatever form they may take. (the content of these "actions' is subjective rather then objective in my opinion and dependent on your local circumstances and resources) and the purpose would be to educate people across the spectrum ( both muslims and non muslims) through action and word.

Punjabi Dubbing

On a lighter note watch this video which has funny punjabee dubbing to a Bush debate...

Quizing about Shabay Baraat...

Interesting video via GeoPakistani which interviews people in an urban area in pakistan about Shabay-Baraat ( in urdu). A big majority do not know what it is . (Of course these interviews were taken in one market in one city within the middle class areas so it cant claim to be truly representative but still it is sad viewing for it does represent a significant number of Pakistanis...)

More detailed exposition of Lal masjid incident by Mufti Rafi Usmani on Red Mosque/Lal Masjid

More on Lal Masjid/Red Mosque by Mufti Rafi Usmani in Urdu (43 minutes):

http://www.deeneislam.com/ur/horiz/sotiyat/misc/Jamia%20Hafsa%20ke%20khun%20e%20na%20haq%20kis%20ke%20gardan%20par%20hai.mp3%20_.wma

He says:

• The actions of the Lal Masjid people were wrong.
• However their actions in all cases were a result of complaints of local residents--- who were frustrated at the lack of action or even willingness to hear the residents' complaints by the authorities.
  
• For example he talks about the alleged brothel owner whom the lal masjid people ( wrongfully) kidnapped. Apparently a local girl ( who complained to the people at lal masjid)had been forced to go to this brothel and had been raped and photographed and blackmailed thereafter and threatened that the photographs would be made public if she tells anyone about the rape. She had been then forced to come back and preform at the brothel repeatedly.
• Despite all that, he says 2 wrongs don't make it right and the lal masjid people should have used legitimate means to voice their concerns.
• He thinks that there is a contradiction in the government's actions as a result of lawlessness in Islamabad which was not as bad as the May 12 incidents in Karachi and wonders why nothing was done about the curplits of May 12 who killed 40 people.
  
• He then mentions his talks with the government ministers which leads to a resolution between Abdul Rashid Ghazi and the government only to be overturned at the last minute by the president resulting in the deaths of at least a 102 people.
  

Listen to the full speech if you want more details.

Lal Masjid....my opinion or something like it

I had earlier promised that I would comment on the Lal Masjid issue in detail.Luckily however I came across this article through bajee Koonj. Its a case of couldn't have said it better myself:

My trip to Pakistan had been set months in advance; my presence there during this crisis was coincidence. Throughout my stay, as I listened to the discussion about the conflict, I realized how much less I could have understood the events if I had been in the United States, even though I would have been reading the international press on the web. The complexity of such stories so rarely makes it into print, and the humanity of the people demonized drops out all too easily.

As we drove in silence, I thought of how easy it is from positions of safety and comfort to denounce fundamentalism, how often I have done just that. But who are we targeting when we make such statements? I have no trouble denouncing the bin Ladens and al-Zawahiris, or the Bushs and Robertsons, and critiquing their twisted worldview. But what of the ordinary people struggling against the elites who ignore the cries of the suffering? When those people take up a fundamentalist theology that we Western left/progressives reject, must we not highlight the inequality we also say we oppose?

Esack said some have asked him what he hoped to gain by going to Lal Masjid and talking with someone like Ghazi, but he has no doubts about the value and appropriateness of his visits there.

"When we abandon engagement and dialogue with those who hold these beliefs, we are abandoning hope. My goal is not to wall myself off from other Muslims, but to search for authentic connections, even across these gaps. Is that not how we can heal the world, and ourselves?" he said. "It is precisely when we start to think of some of us as 'chosen' and others as 'frozen' that we happily become willing to defrost them with our bombs."

READ ON