Tragic stories.. and Malala.

University is overwhelming. Lots of work, pressure, stress, and blah. But the most important thing right now is prayers for Malala Yousafzai.  She needs our sincerest prayers so that she can fully recover quickly inshaAllah.

I request each and everyone of you to do make an effort to pray for this brave girl – the heart of Pakistan. Also, I have received a lot of messages and comments through this blog that praised her bravery and strength to fight against all odds. I wish I can show her your love and support. Thanks to each and everyone of you from the bottom of my heart.

‘Dartay hain bandooqon walay ek nehatti larki say,
Phailay hain himmat kay ujalay ek nehatti larki say.’

-Habib Jalib

 

“You the people have the power.. “

I stumbled upon this amazing speech. Please take a few minutes out to listen to these words of wisdom. It is worth the time.

Speech from Charlie Chaplin’s ‘The Great Dictator’

I’m sorry but I don’t want to be an Emperor, that’s not my business. I don’t want to rule or conquer anyone. I should like to help everyone if possible, Jew, gentile, black man, white. We all want to help one another, human beings are like that. We all want to live by each other’s happiness, not by each other’s misery. We don’t want to hate and despise one another. In this world there is room for everyone and the earth is rich and can provide for everyone.

The way of life can be free and beautiful. But we have lost the way.

Greed has poisoned men’s souls, has barricaded the world with hate; has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed.

We have developed speed but we have shut ourselves in:
Machinery that gives abundance has left us in want.
Our knowledge has made us cynical,our cleverness hard and unkind.
We think too much and feel too little:
More than machinery we need humanity;
More than cleverness we need kindness and gentleness.

Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost.

The aeroplane and the radio have brought us closer together. The very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness in men, cries out for universal brotherhood for the unity of us all. Even now my voice is reaching millions throughout the world, millions of despairing men, women and little children, victims of a system that makes men torture and imprison innocent people. To those who can hear me I say “Do not despair”.

The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed, the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress: the hate of men will pass and dictators die and the power they took from the people, will return to the people and so long as men die [now] liberty will never perish…

Soldiers: don’t give yourselves to brutes, men who despise you and enslave you, who regiment your lives, tell you what to do, what to think and what to feel, who drill you, diet you, treat you as cattle, as cannon fodder.

Don’t give yourselves to these unnatural men, machine men, with machine minds and machine hearts. You are not machines. You are not cattle. You are men. You have the love of humanity in your hearts. You don’t hate, only the unloved hate. Only the unloved and the unnatural. Soldiers: don’t fight for slavery, fight for liberty.

In the seventeenth chapter of Saint Luke it is written:
“The kingdom of God is within man
“Not one man, nor a group of men, but in all men; in you, the people.

You the people have the power, the power to create machines, the power to create happiness. You the people have the power to make life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure. Then in the name of democracy let’s use that power, let us all unite. Let us fight for a new world, a decent world that will give men a chance to work, that will give you the future and old age and security. By the promise of these things, brutes have risen to power, but they lie. They do not fulfil their promise, they never will. Dictators free themselves but they enslave the people. Now let us fight to fulfil that promise. Let us fight to free the world, to do away with national barriers, do away with greed, with hate and intolerance. Let us fight for a world of reason, a world where science and progress will lead to all men’s happiness.

Soldiers! In the name of democracy, let us all unite!

Look up! Look up! The clouds are lifting, the sun is breaking through. We are coming out of the darkness into the light. We are coming into a new world. A kind new world where men will rise above their hate and brutality.

The soul of man has been given wings, and at last he is beginning to fly. He is flying into the rainbow, into the light of hope, into the future, that glorious future that belongs to you, to me and to all of us. Look up. Look up.

Children’s rights activist – Malala Yousafzai

Many people have landed on this blog for the update on Malala Yousafzai who is a Children’s rights activist hailing from Mingora, Swat. There is a post on my blog which has some links to the videos about her that were published in NYtimes.

Malala Yousafzai is the first Pakistani child who has been nominated for the Peace award on Universal children’s day. This year a total of five children have been nominated from around the globe and Malala is the only one from Pakistan.

We truly salute your efforts, Malala. May you continue to work for the betterment of Pakistan and for the children who are denied the basic right to education. Pakistan needs people like you.

Here’s the updated article from Urdu BBC news: http://www.bbc.co.uk/urdu/pakistan/2011/11/111118_swat_girl_award_bbc_nj.shtml

Zama Channel news report: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0eU8ief9pA

Be Pakistani, be very Pakistani!

Dear Pakistan,

You are 64 years old now. During 64 years of the lifetime of an everyday man, he has seen the ups and downs and has already been through the peak of his time and is now well off to settle down quietly and observe life as it moves. But your case is a bit different. When you were born on 14 August, 1947, people threatened you and even said that you won’t be able to stand for more than 6 months. But here you are today celebrating your 64th birthday.

The green flag (Sabz Hilali Parcham)

On this independence day, all I saw around me was green - from virtual world to real world. My twitter feed, the facebook newsfeed, hence, every social networking site was looking like a freshly mowed lawn. Green, everywhere. The spirit that we get to see on the streets of Karachi and Lahore and numerous other cities of Pakistan is applausable. We even made an anthem record today in Karachi where 5800+ patriots gathered in a stadium and sang your anthem together to show solidarity to the world and to send out a positive image of Pakistan. I wish we work for your betterment with the same zeal and passion all year long but we seem to lose it after your birthday. But even this one day does wonders. Whether it be a Punjabi, Sindhi, Balochi or a Pathan, everyone unites under the flag of Pakistan (note: not a political flag). We may face a thousand problems everyday and we may see bloodshed on the streets of Karachi everyday, but we don’t lose hope. The only solution to all this mayhem and chaos is our Quaid’s rule – Unity, Faith & Discipline. 

The world might call us foolish for believing in you optimistically but where there is hope there is a way. You fell, lost hope and stood up again with all your glory. The youth of Pakistan will bring you out of crisis. If people like Ali Moeen Nawazish can postpone their studies and reject the job offers of companies like Google only to come back and work for you, then O Pakistan! believe me there is still hope. There is hope because your people are struggling for your progress and they will do all they can to make you one of the greatest nations.

Candle Lights

Today, on your birthday, I lighted candles and prayed for you in silence. I even adorned my room wall with the only flag I have. I prayed that may peace prevail in my Pakistan and may you come out of these crisis with flying colors. Pakistan, we represent you and you represent us. We were proud of you, we are proud of you and we will forever be proud of you and for being Pakistanis at heart. No matter which continent we are on, you will forever be in our prayers. PAKISTAN ZINDABAD!

Yours,

A Pakistani.

Be Pakistani, be very Pakistani!

Book review: The siege of Mecca

Summer is boring and really calm this year as if time has stopped. I recently finished a book which was really interesting to me since I did not know anything about the siege of Makkah that took place in 1979. The book is ‘The Siege of Mecca: The forgotten uprising in Islam’s holiest shrine and the birth of Al-Qaeda‘ by Yaroslav Trofimov. One word – Speechless. This book has been written in an excellent manner with to-the-point information and without any bias. As the title indicates, the book is about the siege of Makkah which took place in 1979 near the end of Hajj season. It was the start of a new Islamic century (1400) and because it was the start of a new century, many Muslims from around the world came to Makkah to perform the pilgrimage. It was somewhere around the last ten days of Hajj that Khana Kaaba was attacked by the Wahabi leader and his followers, Juhayman.

The surviving insurgents under custody of Saudi Authorities. c. 1980.

This book will take you through the events that caused the spread of Wahhabism in Saudi Arabia under the regime of The Sauds. After the siege, communication of KSA with the rest of the world was deliberately cut off and no one knew what was happening. Even after the insurgents were caught and were being kept under-custody, The House of Saud tried to keep it a low-priority issue. Iran just got rid of its monarch regime with the help of USA and now was under the religious and political leader Ayatollah Khomeini who returned to Iran after staying in France. US embassies all around the world were being attacked by Muslim youth who thought that US was behind the Kaaba siege as US was the first to break the news of this uprising.

Many a times, it came to the point where the Saudi princes felt helpless and wanted to ask America or France to jump in but since non-Muslims can not enter Makkah or Madina, it was impossible. There was this interesting scene where Prince Sultan, the-then defence minister, grew frustrated and yelled at the group of soldiers in the mosque’s vicinity: “If you do not fight to defend the House of God, who will? Do you want me to bring in Pakistanis to do the fighting in your place?”. Quite interesting. We, infact, had a really good army. The book is quite amazing since it opens up all the facts and figures and the reasons that led to the establishment of  Al-Qaeda.

Give it a go!