Reflections

Prisoner no. 650

2010-02-12T04:01:00.000-08:00

We are the generation of Muslims that grew up fearing our own kind. We pigeonholed all the practicing ones as extremists. We dreamed of fleeing abroad and making our future in the center of learning and knowledge. However, we soon realized our flawed construction of reality. The promising slogans of Peace and Democracy proved to be hollow. Shard by shard, our emotions were hurt by those claiming to be humanists; from Abu Ghuraib prison, Iraq WMDs farce to this never ending phony war of terrorism. Now, the case of Dr. Afiya Siddiqui has once again set us ablaze.

Dr. Afia Siddiqui, a Pakistani citizen, went to Manchester to graduate in neurobiology. She had been an accomplished student since her early years and got into MIT and Brandeis University through scholarships. Later, she got married with Amjad Khan but the marriage came to a breaking point in 2002, the year she got divorced. In December 2002, she made another trip to US to find a job for her. The US suspects the real purpose was to open a PO Box Office for an alleged al Qaeda operative. In 2003, Khalid Sheikh Muhammad, a chief al Qaeda person was arrested by FBI from Rawalpindi. Around the same time, Afia Siddiqui was catching a flight for Islamabad from Karachi airport from where she was hustled off by the ISI agents along with her three children. Her family was threatened to remain hushed about the matter. However, later ISI denied all the reports about a woman being handed over to FBI by Pakistan.Moazzam Beyg,an ex detainee of Bagram Air Base, wrote a book Enemy Combatant and mentioned the horrifying screams he heard of a lady. This was corroborated by other detainees and Lord Nazeer. The book was read by Yvonne Ridley, a British journalist who travelled to Bagram and confirmed about an imprisoned woman known as The Ghost of Bagram jail and Prisoner no. 650. After the hue and cry, she was removed to Guantanamo Bay where she was repeatedly raped and brutally tortured. She was kept in a male facility and there was no privacy for her shower and bathroom. She had lost her sanity. She was charged with the crime of being a courier of diamonds and for shooting an FBI officer in Ghazni.

Throughout this time, her family was kept in dark about her whereabouts. Her mother cried vehemently waiting for the shreds of news about her extraordinary bright daughter. It was Yvonne Ridley who broke the ice and presented the case to the public. Her case was reopened in Feb 2010 and the court passed the verdict against Dr. Afia and gave her life imprisonment.

Rehashing the facts is not my purpose, neither am I trying to plead her innocent. I simply want to share with you what bewilders me. The question arises in me is that even if she is guilty of aiding al Qaeda, should she be yanked away from airport to the gloomy dungeons of Bagram, without any news to her parents? Why should her children be detained and made to suffer? Why aren’t the courts issuing verdict against those officers who subjected her to sexual harassment and physical assaults?

The role of agencies in this quagmire is equally dirty. Pervez Mushurraf, in his book mentioned about earning million dollar bounties for capturing and handing over suspected al-Qaeda persons to the US. I feel indignant at us first. Islam considers women sacred, yet she was treated so atrociously and shamelessly by the Muslims. There had been news about her manhandling and gruesome torture, but nobody flinched.

I see this as blatantly against fundamental human rights. The law says that everyone is Innocent until proven guilty. She might be more heinous than Osama bin Laden in the eyes of US, but does that give them the right and authority to molest her, to abduct her along with her children and torture her? I demand that we should put our foot down and force the government to pass a verdict against this injustice and extremism.

If the case is scanned chronologically then one finds sheer inconsistencies. First, the ISI had been telling the family that she is wanted for mere interrogation, and later she is called as one of the dangerous al Qaeda operatives. Secondly, the FBI report contradicted the blame on her since the finger prints on the bullet does not match her DNA. Moreover, the site where she allegedly shot the police shows no signs of bullets. Amjad Khan, who had been in the forerun in alleging Afia of being an aide of al Qaeda, said all the news reports about her are false. He says her son had been killed and her lawyer says that Afia’s identity had been stolen.

I am not taking any side, but a comparison needs to be drawn. Ridley, a UK journalist was held by Taliban for ten days but she wasn’t hurt a tad. So much so, that after her release she embraced Islam. What about the civilized and humanitarian claims of the US? Is Mukhtara Mai the only Pakistani woman worthy of their humanly consideration? I don’t know what torture is like, but we can see a glimpse of it in the picture of Dr. Afia from Guantanamo Bay. Her face has withered. Her radiant smile of her graduation day seems of a totally different person. It shows not only the physical pain, but also the mental scars.

I am not here trying to awaken anyone because all of this should have scrambled us to action a lot before. It’s too big a loss for us to just sit and whine about it. Allah SWT says in Surah Nisa “And what is wrong with you that you do not fight in the Way of Allah and for those ill-treated and oppressed among men, women and children?”We are a nation which boasted about woman’s honor. We are a nation of Muhammad bin Qasim, who flocked to Sindh on the plea of a woman and liberated her.

The Holy Woman

2010-02-03T03:54:00.000-08:00

How many of us have heard of Holy Woman? It evokes an image of a nun, clad in black robe and scarf. Well, it’s not that! Holy woman or Shahzadi Ibadat, as in Urdu, is a woman created by the feudal lord who is married off to Quran or more exactly to the land in case there is no male heir, or if the men of the family do not want to marry off their daughters. I can sense surging anger already!

In her extremely stirring and exquisitely written book, Qaisra Shiraz weaves a plot where a drop dead dame is forcefully turned into a Shazadi Ibadat. The story starts with Sikander, a business tycoon from Karachi falling in love at the first sight with Zarri Bano, who has been rejecting many suitors in search of Mr. Right. However, Sikander is a guy who finally sweeps her off the feet. Soon, she gets engaged experiencing a new kind of love spell cast by Sikander. Period.

The tragedy starts when Jafar, Zarri Bano’s brother dies, and her father finds alleged reason to not let Zarri, a feminist, modern and well educated damsel from marrying. Crying bitter tears and not believing she was being brought in the lap of a tyrant, she was forced into doing something she had fought against all her life. She had pitied and crusaded for those oppressed girls but little did she know that once she herself will have to surrender under the pressure of her father, his izzat and Siraj Din’s love for the mere acres of land.

Shahzadi Ibadat is devoted to a life of worship and religious preaching. As the whole concept of Shazadi Ibadat unfolded, it seemed brutal, inhuman and downright ironic. Though outwardly, one gains respect, but the inner remains shattered, desiring human love. It shows man’s absurd sense of proprietary. He cannot allow another man’s gaze to set upon his daughter. It shows that though our society has outwardly made progress, women are still mere puppets, their strings in the hands of man who can pull and drop it on their whims. Their happiness and sadness are manipulated by their ideas. Qaisra showed how male can twist the logic by connecting the most natural and noble of things and feelings with innuendos and degraded remarks to blackmail and stop woman from going against their way.

One also questions the logic behind making her a Shazadi Ibadat, in which case she is forbidden to marry thus cannot bequeath the property to a legal heir. Her father said that the next heir, according to the tradition will be her sister’s child, then one questions why not allow Zarri to marry who might as well have passed down the property to her own son? Qaisra showed in the end that pulped down by whatever circumstances, human nature is indomitable. It retains its essence, as in the end Habib realizes the havoc he has played with his daughter’s life. Zarri Bano, though alienated from human feelings in the end assents to marry Sikander.

Another story that goes parallel with Zarri Bano’s is Chaudhrani Kaniz who plays the role of a tyrant mother. It is a typical plot where the Chaudhrani is against her son’s wish of marrying washer woman’s daughter, Firdaus. In a typical hyper theatrical style, he flits away from his house and Kaniz has no other picking but to yield to her son’s desire. It gets very humorous too, when both, soaked in their pride, spewed abuses at each other. In the end, she admits defeat and makes Firdaus her daughter in law.

At one point, it seemed the book has been unrealistically weaved into tragedy and melodrama. One almost starts crying at the heartlessness of parents when Ruby marries Sikander. At that point, the reader is teeming with hopelessness and disappointment. I would have loved the read more if Qaisra had not martyred Ruby and Habib, and instead showed that Zarri or her mother stood up against the injustice and gave the ‘happy’ ending to their lives. This way the story would have been a powerful lesson and an example for the entire women who have surrendered to their kismet, carved by their male bigots and their nonsensical traditions.

The language and flow of Qaisra is flowery as well as captivating. She has an intellectual conversational style. The dialogues are passionate, which makes the book an easy read and a page turner. It seems Qaisra deliberately and very astutely crafted a story intermingled with a fine humor and intense tragedy that makes reader cruise swiftly through the chapters.

Stupid White Men

2009-12-07T23:30:00.000-08:00

Who doesn’t know about Michael Moore, the guy from Michigan where another rebel activist Rosa Parks dwells?
Recently, my editor flung his all time famous book Stupid White Men at me. Guess what, it was no less than a fun reading it. His piercing humor makes you rolling with laughter. The book caused hullabaloo around America. Though initially, the publishers advised to pulp the books printed. It was considered too dangerous and homeland-threatening. However, soon the book went up to No.1 New York Times Bestseller and thanks to Penguin, they published the paper back version too.

Mike leashes out against the White men. He is indignant at a variety of things; the Corporate America, the commercialization of education system, the black racists, the pretentious hoodwinking democrats and stings at the male sexist. The first chapter relates to the Bush sham of rigging the elections. According to him, the democrat supporters were put behind the bars in large numbers and polls counting were not even started when Bush was declared the President by the Fox news. Other channels followed suit. This must have sent chill down the Republican’s spine especially when he questions Bush about his education and discloses his family felonies.

Kill Whitey was super humorous. He recounts all his unpleasant experiences in life and says that a strange but an unmistakable pattern emerges in which every cruel act has a Caucasian face attached to it. With his biting satire, he recalled that all the dangerous things, be it H-bomb, Holocaust, PVC, PBC all have whitey in it. He also explained the response he got from his documentary Roger&Me in which he showed a woman clubbing a rabbit to sell off the meat. The video was R-rated because it was considered too violent. Teachers called him up and told they have to omit that part because it is too violent for children. Everyone shed tears for the cute little bunny. However, just two minutes later in the same video is a scene of black man being shot by a police officer. But strange, nobody feels against this cruelty. This seems familiar to us as well where we have also accepted the suffering of poor as usual, like in America where people think killing or imprisonment of a black guy is a standard operating procedure.

The People’s Prayer is a good and vicious prank to make the high ups think of what goes on actually with the people who are at the receiving end of the idiotic laws their government legislated. He prays to God that every member of the House of Representatives be condemned to a life of flipping burgers and dodging bill collectors. He pleads sincerely that may Jack Welch swim the Hudson he has polluted. Once they are in the same mess the other people are languishing in, will they realize the suffering and correct it. So all say, Amen!

The chapter on Democrats is outstanding. It must be painful to all those who foolishly stick their hopes at those liberals. He strikes at Bill Clinton-Al Gore duo at this time, though he says son-of-a-Bush is still worse. Okay, but Bush followed most of the policies coined by Clinton. The arsenic seeping in drinking water streams by the industries started in his time, but he kept the public in dark about it. So, whether it’s the Democrats or Republicans, it’s the same thing forced down your throat. The government doesn’t listen to people; they only nod at the financially powerful people who brought them to power.

However, only carping about the crooked ways is not Mike’s strategy. At the end of each chapter, he calls people to counteraction, with few stupid as well as radical and workable ideas. For all those who want to learn about the similar crooked governments with the high ups having the same devil-may-care attitude as ours, read it, and let’s put some of his ideas to practice in our extreme scenario! Peace!

Ground Zero IIU Blast

2009-10-31T02:28:00.000-07:00

On 20th October, we all felt a lurking danger! To lighten up our moods, the three of us whirled out through various corridors of the campus to the café. It was our sanctuary in IIU where we could sit for like five hours in a go on the same bench, discussing everything under the sun. Buying a scrumptious plate of Biryani, one of the reasons that pulled us to university, we indulged in never ending tattles on celebrities, updating each other on latest secrets of friends, sometimes discussing hard core politics, being disgruntled at society, telling family stories and sharing our anger at why are we not doing anything against killings in Waziristan. Later, we took a round to the shopping area and tested and bought kajals and lipsticks.

The café had such an air that the first step in it, brought you up! Girls laughed in raging decibels, hand slapping, and sometimes, the extra-bubbly ones had water fight running around the café which lifted our spirits and we could not help laughing at the whole scene. But, who knew about the doom it was waiting? Who knew, instead of laughing and energizing ourselves, we will cry and weep here? Who knew it will brutally drown some of the smiling faces forever in the clouds of smoke?

The headlines said Blast at IIU which blurred everything. It seemed the world is falling apart. How desperately I prayed it was some sort of a cruel joke? There was a flood of calls from all over the world asking if we are safe. And I wondered about those parents who received the call informing them about the death of their beloved child who they saw off in the morning! Some must have been in too hurry to say good-bye!

There was turmoil in the university. According to the news sources, the first blast occurred at the entrance of the cafeteria at 3:07. The guard Shaukat Bhatti obstructed him from going in, who was shot by the bomber. Then, Pervaiz Masi stopped him, at which the bomber blew himself up. Sabahat of Computer Science told me there were around 300 girls in the cafeteria. Media department 1st semester were having their welcome party. She was sitting at the side wall of the café. She said she felt a strong jolt, and suddenly, it was all dark and the obnoxious smell of explosives saturated their lungs. Some of the girls fainted whereas others were screaming. Rod pierced through one of the girl. Few sighed their last breaths and bled to death. In the midst of this mayhem, there was another blast at Shariah block after 5 minutes. She told me guys from the male campus fled to the café to help the girls. One of the guys asked her to resuscitate the injured girl, but before she could reach, she expired.

And as I sat safe in my home, I wondered about those girls who saw their closest friends dying, the friends who must have thought living together till the end, seeing each other married, making fun of their spouses and babies…But, line got cut in the middle….

One of my classmates Iram lost her best friend, Sidra of BS Mathematics on that day. She has become a legend. She topped the Pindi board. Now, Iram sits reminiscing about her. Her jokes are echoing in her ear. Then she gets startled remembering her face in the coffin, cold and serene, bringing her back to cold reality. She mournfully tells me how she loved wearing colorful, vibrant scarves. She told me that her parents forbade her to go to university due to the threats but she insisted that without education, people have no value.

Some of the major injuries were suffered by BS English 5th semester; since the whole class was almost there. Maria Azam, one of my friends, had been worried about her neighbor and friend Tayyaba, who was also in BS English 5th semester. She was in PAEC and lost the battle of life on 27th Oct. She told me that she was very religious and recently did a course from AL-Huda. She loved the university. I could not help laughing at her guts. She told me that once the group of friends was going somewhere when a thief snatched the bag from one of them. She ran after the thief and got the bag! I saw her innocent face and could not reconcile to the fact that she is no more in this world. I was awed by the life in her. She excelled in all her roles. Her mother considered her the backbone of the house because she kept everything in order.

Amna Batool, though I did not know her personally, but I sometimes saw her on the bus. Last time, I saw her at PIMS and she was beyond recognition. Even today, I can’t believe that such a smiling and intelligent face was the same person lying in ICU.

Countless tears, countless memories, countless wounds, countless thoughts….why did we have to go through that doomsday? What was the sin of those innocent students? How come life became so uncertain, so insignificant, squeezing out of our hands like sand? I wonder if we will ever be able to erase those horrific memories, those cries….but the story doesn’t end here. It is just one of the episodes. The series started when, we don’t know. We don’t know who is behind all this? We have just been forcefully made the actors….the fuel for this war! I wonder if we will ever be able to sleep peacefully after this trauma when a single odd thing reruns the whole scene again. It is ravaging us from inside.

But then I envisage that pair of green eyes, filled with fear, of the child sitting in shattered home at Waziristan, who is muted with the horror of the hovering drone out to kill his family. How long had they been living in this permanent fear? Why did we not ever raise a cry then, when the fire was engulfing our brothers in Northern Areas?

And now the fire has come to our doorstep. We plan to hide in our homes. But, for how long can we shut up ourselves? For how long will we just sit and watch these counts of dead bodies? Our enemies are preparing the hell for us, they are invading our home, but we remain quiet! This silence is Our sin. This is Our tyranny.

This is the price that we are paying for keeping silence at the brutalities in Palestine, and giving our soil to kill our Afghan brothers? This was our first mistake that is plunging us deeper into the abyss. Our Prophet SAW said that Muslims are like parts of the same body. Isn’t it time that all the Muslim countries unite and face the enemy? It is time that we cut off all NATO supplies going through our country, because they are here not to help, but to only destroy us. Remember, by keeping this silence, it is just the handful of years that we are buying, eventually they will turn against us too.

For how long will we feed ourselves on the foreign aid package, the ridiculous Rs.650 a year per person? Is this the price we have set for each other? For how long will we just switch sides between Taliban and Black Water? When will we, the gullible ones, start questioning everything that West wants us to believe? When will we consciously seek the truth and stand up for it? But, do we really care?? Speak Today, or there is no Tomorrow!

Pity The Nation!

2009-10-25T02:32:00.000-07:00

Pity the nation that is full of beliefs and empty of religion.
Pity the nation that wears a cloth it does not weave,
Eats a bread it does not harvest,
And drinks a wine that flows not from its own wine-press.

Pity the nation that acclaims the bully as hero,
and that deems the glittering conqueror bountiful.

Pity the nation that despises a passion in its dream,
yet submits in its awakening.

Pity the nation that raises not its voice
save when it walks in a funeral,
boasts not except among its ruins,
and will rebel not save when its neck is laid
between the sword and the block.

Pity the nation whose statesman is a fox,
whose philosopher is a juggler,
and whose art is the art of patching and mimicking.

Pity the nation that welcomes its new ruler with trumpeting,
and farewells him with hooting,
only to welcome another with trumpeting again.

Pity the nation whose sages are dumb with years
and whose strong men are yet in the cradle.

Pity the nation divided into into fragments,
each fragment deeming itself a nation.

By Khalil Jibran

Life Goes On!

2009-10-23T02:34:00.000-07:00

Life goes on….so the cliché goes. It is a reality. To those who cling to the past and the memories of the beloved, it is a subtle advice that….Life Should go on!! I remember every time I read this stolid cliché; there was an uneasiness in me. I could not help being agitated by the indifference of this statement. It seemed blatantly dismissive of the people who hold my world. The very people who give meaning to my life, who share the experiences of my life, who hold my hand in times of need, who encourage me to think ahead in life.

And now when I recall this, I want to scream…life CANNOT go on…It SHOULD not!!…I do not want to think of taking one step without them…How can it go on without those very people your life is hinging on? What do you do with the void that stares at you? What do you do with those memories that cloud your today? Those fears that loom up again and again? Those symphonies that you composed for them? Alas, where do you put those words that you wished to share with them?

Perhaps, life has to go on, but the paper of our life is blotted forever. It forever floats from the images, echoes and scents of the past that add hues to our present. We go through poignant nostalgic phases, which detach us from our surroundings. We search those faces in the crowds. We feel a shade on us when the sun is scorching. We feel them smiling at us in our happiness. We tell them the tales of our heart in our loneliness. We cry and laugh in their presence. Because, they live in us forever and ever!

Curfewed Night

2009-10-01T02:36:00.000-07:00

As a child in mid-nineties to 2000, I remember seeing images on PTV 9o’clock news from Kashmir. Daily, it showed statistics of people martyred and procession of funerals. Though, Srinagar was the name only heard on TV, the images of aggrieved mothers thumping their foreheads, wailing over the corpses of their men remains etched in the mind. The hatred of Indian Army still fills the deepest recesses of heart.

Yet again, I see the glimpses of Kashmir in the form of a memoir ‘Curfewed Night’ by Basharat Peer. How I wished it had been about the scraggy icy peaks of majestic Himalayas meandering through it the flamboyant stream, exquisite saffron fields, latticed huts and poplar lined highways. On the contrary, it evoked military convoys, red snow, mine blasts, night curfews and violent militancy. It tells the heart wrenching tales of shattered youth and the tragic gallantry. ‘The poet lied that Kashmir is Paradise’.

Peer is raised in Kashmir. He introduces the impressive profile of his family. His mother and grandfather work in school and his father is a civil engineer. Kashmiris are a people who have put a premium on girl’s education. The family lives happily sending time in much cherished library, and Peer honing his English. However, when the dispute kindled and there appeared the maze of check posts and the gun totting soldiers skirmishing with the militants, their lives turned a new leaf. Fear and paranoia took hold, afflicting the whole population. He narrates to us different incidents of massacres by Indian Army during protests and funerals. This provoked the series of attacks by the liberation armies such as JKLF and Hizb-ul-Mujahideen to avenge the attack by the military. Thus in the skirmish between the Army and the Militants, the innocent people suffered.

He tells the tales of youth crossing the border, to train for militancy. Returning they fought the Army, firing grenades and exploding mines. Interestingly, charmed by their heroism, Peer also garnished the dream of joining SLF which thankfully was discovered by his parents and revoked. The militants were seen as heroes, whom people wanted to see and embracing them, touching their Kalashnikovs in awe. Tariq is one such guy who is a superb athlete, but joined militancy keeping his family in dark about it. His father is grief-struck, because becoming a militant is only next to being killed or worst maimed and tortured for life in notorious cells.

One feels the surging anger and hatred at the brutality of Indian Army. Scores of innocent civilians are killed everyday in the pretext of hunting down militants. One such incident was of Mubeena, the bride who was shot and gang-raped on the day of her wedding and many of her family members were gunned down. Similarly, villages were burnt down, mosques and shrines were destroyed. Hundreds of years of history were razed to ground in a day. The incidents about torture cells send goose pimples all over you. Papa-2 is one of the heinous cells where the captured militants are interrogated. It is infamous for its methods of torturing the prisoners that left such indelible disorders both physically and psychologically making them vulnerable for life.

The BSF practices notorious acts of dictatorial and oppressive regimes. Thousands are displaced by the military and the police. They raid the house and take the men away as suspected militants, never to be returned. Their families mourn; their wives are half widowed waiting for their news if they are alive or dead. Parveena’s speech impaired son was taken away. Hers is an inspirational as well as heartbreaking example. She is a ‘crusader’ who is fighting cases for the disappeared people. But, those disappeared remain lost forever. In compensation, the government offered her the pittance of one lakh rupee, but she loathed it as selling her son. It is now known that the displaced people are killed and cremated in mass graves.

One thing that really struck me was that in this violent militancy pitted against state oppression, the combat only worked to the detriment of the people. Though, the militants are seen as liberating them, ironically, they also spurred and at times directly killed those whom they claim to be liberating. There was an attempt by the militants on the life of Peer’s own parents and his uncle. The local people had to obey them submissively, lest they install a mine on their way home. Thus, forced subjection is from both sides. It was also surprising to know that the militants also switched sides becoming the part of Indian Army and spotting the potential as well as suspected militants. Moreover, it was very heart breaking to know of Shafi who had been tortured in Papa-2 who is verging on blindness. He laments about the chief of JKLF whose lives are stark contrast with those who are actually sacrificing their lives and languishing in torture cells. He talks about the demoralized leadership, shielded by the bodyguards, riding white Ambassador cars looking like mirror images of their ideological rivals in the state.

One thing that I came to appreciate is its style of narration free from any polemics against Indian Army. It does not indulge in any rhetoric against Pakistan or India; the conflict between the two actually which is devastating Kashmir. Rather, he tells the tale of people. He takes us deep down into the quandary showing all sides; of the individuals marred by military and of the youth lost by militancy, of the shrines dilapidated by the ruthlessness of one and the forts demolished by the fanaticism of the other. However, what grieves you is not only the brutality of Indian Army because that would persist, them being our enemies. What we need to see is what our people are doing in the garb of Islam and liberation movement?

The question that persists is of Identity, of Kashmiris free will and self respect. The writer humorously tells that Cricket Match, which evokes most passion in India and Pakistan, serves as a test of their affiliation and will. They never cheered for India. If India played against Pakistan, they cheered for Pakistan, and if it was Sri Lanka against India, they prayed for Sri Lanka. Lately, there had been elections in Kashmir, the writer says the army forced the people to choose ballot over bullet.

The vignettes of a journalist are the lives of people he is reporting on. Peer became journalist against his father’s dream of making him a civil serviceman. His industriousness and unflinching professionalism is an inspiration to all the budding journalists. He yearned to tell the world about Kashmir, both about its beautiful vale and the dilemma of its people. He trudged onto danger zones and plunged himself into dangers to reveal to the world the depths of its misery, the shadows of death and loss and yet the feats of fortitudes and resilience in the lives of Kashmiris. He ends the book showing the bus crossing the bridge between Muzaffarabad and Srinagar. Perhaps, we need a stronger bridge!

Milestone

2009-09-09T02:35:00.000-07:00

We all, at some point in our lives, have come across disabled people. The first feeling evoked in us is that of sympathy. We sigh at their miserable condition, being dependent on others, that we, the well-functioning robots cannot fathom how they bear it. Some of us usually cringe from interacting with them, and this was precisely how I felt. However, I finally dragged myself. Huddled in the car with my three friends, one of them Maria who happens to be visually challenged, we set off for Milestone. The car pulled over to a government building, the part of which was given to Milestone. Piles of pale buildings met our gaze.

As soon as we entered, we were greeted by a lad on wheel chair who had recently come from Lahore. He looked beaming with smiles and quite nattily dressed, wearing chunky rings and below shoulder hair. This was Tayyab Bhai. Quickly, I registered a change in my friend’s attitude who was acting like she has come home. She was no more like the fish out of water that I sometimes feel in her demeanor. The poster on the wall near us read You can’t make the world safe for democracy, unless you make it safe for diversity! I heard the orchestra of sounds from the room and as we were shown in, everyone became quiet and smiled at us. There were five to six people couched on the sofa and some working on computer. Hey Maria, we were supposed to meet disabled people. But, it was like a family sitting together chatting and having the moment of their lives. Maria gave our brief introductions that garnered another row of smiles at us.

The first person I met was Uzma, who had a subtle resemblance with someone I know, but could not really figure out. She had such a serene and hopeful face and elegance in her disposition that I cannot really put in words. She was on the electric wheel chair and clad in pink. She told me she had muscle dystrophy, and on observing our blank reaction, she rhapsodically started explaining it. It is basically a disorder in which the muscles weaken with age and there is no cure for it. Once you have lost the power, you cannot replenish it anyway. Seemingly, the person is normal, but there are major difficulties in mobility. She was ten years old when she got to know about her illness. At that time, she did not know there could be other people having the same disability. Coping with school was really hard for her. She could not carry her bags. But, her father was persistent on having her educated. She used to be dropped off at school quite before the start time, to escape pushing and crowds on the way which might hurt them. In her tender age, she was very shy of her disability. She would wretchedly cry about it, and went into self exclusion from social events, avoiding family gatherings and going out in recess at schools. At weddings, they stayed behind in the car and had their foods while their parents attended it. She told me that she needed an attendant virtually for everything from toileting to combing, and they could not take a step outside the room even without her aid. Later, she went on to do Masters in Computer Sciences and also taught tuition till BSc level. At university, she said that the departments were far off, due to which she used to reach the class late while the rest of the students made on time. Her strength was gradually fading away. She said that the people around her did not accept her condition as disability, rather they thought of it as an illness, due to which they were never provided wheelchairs, which were necessary for her condition- to save from further loss of strength of muscles.

The fear of remarks from society, embarrassment and the almost nil mobility made her feel that her life has come to a blank wall. However, she thanked Allah and her parents for helping her become this person exuding confidence and optimism. But the stimulus was provided by Milestone, to appreciate herself and also to help other’s survive. It was 25th July 2006; she remembered clearly, when milestone came to her life. She respectfully mentioned the name of Shafiqurrehman, the President of Milestone who helped her recover psychologically and explained to her about her disability. She felt there are people who knew what she has to go through, and she could make them understand her experience. By the end, she was again cheerful and related to me how she has become so suave in talking after joining Milestone, whereas she used to be very quiet at her home. She feels now she has found the purpose of her life.

After that, Tayyab Bhai ushered into the room. Maria asked him to talk and initially he sounded a bit hesitant. I asked him about his name and he said Tayyab Bhai, to which I asked if Bhai is the part of his original name, he said yes there should be a stress on it. We all laughed. He had Polio from the age of five and was ridden to permanent wheel chair after having several unsuccessful treatments. He had done ACCA and was doing a job in government as well. One of the remarkable things about him was that he had written a book Dhundle Saaye which was the confutation of Dhundle Chehre written by a renowned author. Currently, he is working on his poetry book. He rapturously told me that he had done everything what people consider normal. He had enjoyed his school, college and university life as a bright student and made lots of friends. He said he had been engaged in this organization for around seven years, initially coming for sports competition. He happily expressed his service in earthquake 2005, acting as Assistant Program manager in Muzaffarabad and Mansehra. He provided wheelchairs, mobile phones, white canes and training for attendants for the disabled people. I asked him about his hobbies and he said he loves reading books which are Islamic and present a different outlook of life. In the end, he passed the recorder to us and started his round of questions which was very humorous.

Finally, we had a group photo and Maria saw us off. I walked out as a different person, putting my troubles on the backseat. Those gleeful, charming, serene faces, encouraging and making each other’s time pleasant, living for a goal higher than their own self, remarkably changed my philosophy of life. I wondered who are actually disabled. Isn't it us who cannot overcome our petty problems, who believe in only taking, or is it them? My heart pleads yes.

Hard Times

2009-09-06T02:35:00.000-07:00

“Now, what I want is, Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but facts….Stick to Facts”.
What is a Fact, but the wrecked refuge of Fancy? What is the principle of Fact, but profit and inequality? Why stick to Facts, and shun fancies and sentiments?

Most of us condemn the materialism around us, leaving no space for human expressions and sentiments of love and empathy. Dickens’ Hard Times is also a didactic criticism of the system of education based on Facts and reasons that paved the way for profit-oriented capitalism and utilitarianism. He draws out a plot and characters that we can easily relate to in our own society today.

Capitalism is the new raging phenomena. Dickens exposes its harsh and demoralizing effect on humanity. He laments about the inequality and exploitation of workers. In the wave of Industrial Revolution, the factories got flooded with workers. Though, this brought prosperity to the owners, the ‘Hands’ producing comforts worked in extremely appalling conditions. While it carved out new cities, those humans-turned-robots only breathed denser smoke under the rusted chimneys, engulfed by the ‘serpents of smoke’.

He laments that the owners remained oblivious to the sufferings of the workers and the perils in factories. As we learn that when Louisa went down into Coketown, she was baffled by the ghastly scene it presented. Paradoxically, the utilitarian economists make a never ending list of calculations, trying to maximize profits, through any means possible. They can shrewdly tell ‘how many hands in the mill or how many steam power horses are needed for hundred units of production’. But, these vertigo causing calculations of National Treasury are impotent of measuring the capacity for good or evil, for love or hatred, or for the corrosion of virtue into vice in these oppressed souls.

This is the ruthlessly selfish side of market-spurred capitalism.

However, the owners and the bourgeois have turned a blind eye to the injustices and disharmony of the system. They zealously pursue the education system which promotes it thus, perpetuating the vicious cycle of ever-growing inequalities and reinforcing the status quo. The ‘ologies’ they study day in and out strictly focus on the statistics that leave their minds enervated of affections and sentiments.

Thomas Gradgrind is the founder of education of reason and Facts. He is described as ‘eminently practical’ and he sees things by way of practicality. Sentiments and Imagination are considered delinquency. Dickens has shown this education system to be dehumanizing and bound to collapse. It is against the grain of fanciful nature of mankind. His children are strictly raised under the same system. Gradgrind reproaches Sissy for indulging in fairytales. He proceeds in life with the formula that two by two is four. He tells his students to ‘settle everything by addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, and never wonder!’

He considers things statistically and value by how much profit they can reap. Thus, he statistically makes viable the marriage of his daughter to his friend who is thirty years senior and whom she is incapable of loving. Human nature is a mixture of different sentiments and desires. The happiness of the soul is not only in the material, but in the intangible expressions of sincerity and love. However, this was obscure to Gradgrind who taught complex calculations only and converting them into money.

He formed a mind of rules and lines. But, the heart devoid of humanity! He envisaged a society, where things are ‘settled by the law of supply and demand, where wheat is pinched when it becomes dear’, where fortunes are made at the plight of weak. Thus, the rich gets richer and the poor gets poorer. This is what happens in the pursuit of statistics, of seeing progress in terms of only rates and percentages.

This education made Louisa rebellious while Tom became wayward. Both are extremely dissatisfied with their lives. Tom makes sense of things in a mathematical way. He indulged in gambling and squandered his life away.

However, Louisa is always in search of the one with whom she could share her fancies. While she is at her father’s place, she gazed at fire for long hours morbidly. She was forbidden to yearn for any kind of amusements. Her father makes the marriage proposal of Josiah Bounderby, whom she loathes. When she questions him if she could love Bounderby, Gradgrind draws out all the utilitarian aspects of the marriage. He never quite understands her soul desires. He is more inclined to abide by his devised system. This shows the barriers in Louisa-Gradgrind relationship. The people who had exhausted all their lives and energies cramming Facts could not learn the essences of human relationship. With his unbending utilitarian mind, he asserts the prospects of wealth, name and status, but forgets the imperative i.e. love.

Tom is portrayed as a mercenary. He is derisively named as ‘whelp’. He makes Louisa marry Bounderby so he can get his money through her not valuing the enduring love that she has for him. The feminist world will sue him or simply ram him up the wall when he says to Harthouse that a woman can be married off anywhere, regardless of her will. Her wishes can be sacrificed at the whims of man. When Louisa was no more able to embezzle money from him, he irately disowned her.

Harthouse manages to gain trust of Louisa. She finds him tender and someone who has a luscious heart of feelings. The relationship reaches a near tryst. However, she refrains from going further down the ‘moral staircase’. Here, she cries in distress to her father and blames his system. At last, Gradgrind saw ‘the pride of his heart and the triumph of his system lying, an insensible heap at his feet.’

Conversely, we are filled with sympathy and awed by Stephen and Rachel. In the midst of materialism and hypocrisy, we find these two utterly compassionate beings. Though, fortune is relentless with them. The reader is on the verge of tears at finding Stephen fallen in a mine. Yet, their lives were ornamented with true love, sincerity and sentiments. They stand in stark contrast from those whose souls are cold and impoverished of romance.

In the end, the triumph is of Fancy i.e. Sissy Jupe, who absurdly remarked that she would carpet her room with flowers. The world is not to be ruled by digits and rates. Let’s color it with beautiful emotions and fancies. Let’s wonder and learn about human nature, passions, hopes and fears, struggles, triumphs and defeats, joys and love. Let not the humanity turn into the serpents of smoke!

Sunburnt

2009-05-02T02:38:00.000-07:00

The sun burnt roses in the unmarked streets,
Walls stained with revolutionary graffiti,
and the dark legends of the heroes worshiped.

The child wails in the broken cradle,
Soaring humidity and parched tongues
Hands flail in the shadows,
Plead to end the suffering.

And slowly the sky trickles,
Earth resounds with the rain drops,
Rising conflagration in the hearts,
Search the sky for the fulfillment of promises.

Power lines quiver uncontrollably,
Nail box rattles
Cat’s eyes glowering beneath the rusted Foxy.

Soon, the rain wanes out,
Windows perched yet again,
Eye lids collapse
the world left with commotion...the harsh music.

Professional Beggary

2009-04-18T02:40:00.000-07:00

From the advertisements of the black soaps, to the red Vitz driven by male chauvinists, the low network rates to the long marches, the uncontrollable suicide bombings and to the incessant protests on flogging of Chand Bibi, we survived the uncertain times. Sometimes glad, sometimes gloomy, gleeful, awed.

And sometimes frustrated! How many a times have we stopped our car and found ourselves swarmed by beggars. The whole troop escort you to the shop and then back to ride. You term them as not so needy, good for nothing, and snub them Nasso, but they obstinately stick. Most of us deem them professional beggars, who are just draining their lives and intently not working.
Begging has become nation’s way. The headlines read “Pakistan is Promised $5bn”. Wow, a handsome cheque, most of our nattily dressed politicians are seen gaping. It is beyond Islamabad’s expectations. Rosy days are back. Yet, I felt embarrassed. The President cladding Armani suit, Tissot diamond watch and boots, that makes even the best French designers gush with awe, is begging. What do you call it, Professional Beggary, huh?

Some people say that we carved out this nation solely for economic reasons. At least, this is our revived ideology founding the two nation theory. Now, where is our free and autonomous economic system? That dream has come to ruins with the replenishing of our beggar’s bowl. Being independent economically is what makes us a sovereign nation in the true sense. Otherwise, we are just the puppets. Our strings in the hands of IMF, World Bank, and Friends of Democratic Pakistan, yet another on the list.

Let’s mull over the disastrous and humiliating clauses that we will be obliged to be the beneficiaries of this aid. The conditions that subvert the writ of the state, as done by the terrorists, we rant. We are wheedled to letting it go by the offer of monetary aid.

This aid will cease the day we mistakenly owe our brothers and sisters in Swat and FATA. The day we clamor against the injustices inflicted on them. The day we put our foot down against the drone attacks. The day we react as vehemently against the countless women and children maimed in Swat as we did in Chand Bibi’s case. But no, we are paid. We thrive on it. We will hail the present trend to restock our bank accounts.

Once again, we as a nation are cashing in, as we cashed in on Afghanistan War. Now, we are capitalizing on our own brothers and sisters. At least remind those at the helm of the affairs the selfish slogan “Pakistan First”. What will our next patriotic slogan be “Punjab First”?
Moreover, how much of this aid will actually proliferate to the masses after the profligacy of those who receive it. Or will it be spent on only lavish parties, Rolce Royce, decorating the palaces and trips abroad?

This is avaricious. An Embarrassment and Indignation. Yes, our economy might be inflating but our souls are dying. There maybe more street lights, but our hearts will steep more into shadows. There maybe more luxurious and topnotch gadgets being imported into our country, yet our manners will remain like those of pagans.

It is time that we build ourselves financially, but on our own terms. Our foremost focus should be the subsistence level of the population and reducing luxury goods ,to say the least. We should rely more on our local products. Though, this demands immense sacrifices but this will make a profitable and autonomous economic structure in the long run.

This is a time of reform, of breaking the old chains, the old bigotry and the corrupt and fraudulent practices infested in our country. It is time we think not as individuals but shift our paradigm to country level. Think with Self Respect!

What Bothers Me?

2009-03-30T02:38:00.000-07:00

Aggression is in the name of Salvation,
False is leading the world,
Rights of poor violated and trampled,
Down is the dark despair and above is the Supreme forgotten.

This is what bothers me.

Little hands toiling hard in the sun,
Children are suffering dreadful starvation,
You call it cruelty and it is true,
But there is nothing we will do.

This is what bothers me.

Life is short and time is running out,
Lofty expectations pinned to me,
The hidden face behind the mask,
And the procrastination before the last mile.

This is what bothers me.

Destructive criticisms are dampening my spirit.
The sacrifices that went in vain,
If you were made my Protector,
Then why did I suffer the most by you?

This is what bothers me

Our silence is tyranny,
Our faith is hypocrisy,
With it, the realization that nothing will change,
The scattered glass marbles reflecting my life!

This is what bothers me.

Hushed Melody

2009-02-27T02:45:00.000-08:00

The strings plucked, the lyrics of our hearts in symphony,
Rhapsody in our thoughts, scraping the repressed memories,
The unfilled space in the canvas of my life,
Screaming for more strokes, some permanence in forms,
The palettes in our eyes still to be painted,
But, the bow soon fades the ecstasy away….
The melody dies on the altar of compromise with times.

The curious eyes glaring at the split shadows,
The silhouette of broken love, secrets and promises,
Now, the sword is dropped, and the hues are diluted,
Roaring laughter, resounding applauds, scathing the wall,
The questions forming ripples in my eyes,
The head bowed down, wishing the sky blushes,
It was never so hard to admit I am crying!

Quakes and Hopes

2009-02-23T02:48:00.000-08:00

An apocalyptic roar,
And the rebellious earth,
Laid in front of me,
My past shattered,
My dreams in debris.

Am I alive? Why this agonizing pain?
Is it the pain that the cries are distant,
But only dead silence at home
Or is it my hand disfigured?
Vanquished with it the fate engraved on them.

The dwellings turned into graves,
The jewels forsaken, the shops abandoned,
No buyers, no sellers,
Just the bargain for life,
………….A lose-win deal.

Wish I was on my amma’s lap
But, maybe she was a dazzling star in the sky,
The Ultimate grief,
The Wounded soul,
And the Paradise lost.

A cutting pain, tears streaming down
Isolated from my hand,
Reckoned as worthless,
I felt Handicapped.
Now who will caress the lost loved ones?

But, I will survive,
I will put together the debris,
And build a castle
The paradise of my fathers,
Wherein will prosper generations.

If the tectonic plates had an extra aggression,
There is an extreme verve in me
If a moment can ruin it all,
The Moments together can turn it into a Paradise,
From the ashes, shall rise the Phoenix.

What is Red?

2009-02-14T02:46:00.000-08:00

I see thrill in the eyes. I hear people discussing different spots to hangout. Suddenly from the talk of Gaza war, we are wondering about love. From the scenes of dead bodies in Al-Jazeera, we are talking about movies pictured in Cinepax. Baffled……..Oh it’s the Valentine’s Day, that has yet again brought us in the midst of red. Red dress, red lips, red rose, red cards, red hearts, red candies and red balloons. Red continues to be in the air, from the gore red to the joyous red.

Red which stained the concrete, a remnant of a frightened kid who hid behind his mother in vain to shield himself from the air raid. Red, that is proudly worn by a damsel experiencing life. Red was once carcasses, counted and callously overlooked. Red is now endeared and prized. Red was depicting silence and fatality. Red is in the midst of noise and laughter. Red was bleeding profusely. Red is being painted happily. Red was causing tears and wrenched hearts. Red is worn to be envied and appreciated. Red signified the end of life. Red is flaunting life.

This gamut of red shows the stark incoherence among us. How indifferently can we enjoy without our thoughts fleeting on the wretched fraternity across the globe. In this day of love, care and admiration, we are sure to be stripped off Humanity.

This time we are entangled in the different threads of red. While some are mourning red, the others will be celebrating red. The paradox haunts me.

Dimunitive Labor

2008-12-30T07:44:00.000-08:00

We have always sympathized with the miserable characters of Oliver Twist and Pip, working in gruesome conditions. Today, we can see this bleak picture prevalent in our society too. The plight of small hands toiling in dark congestion, under dead silence……the children, who like others, should be given love, color pencils and toys…

According to Wikipedia, Child Labor is the employment of children at regular and sustained labor and is usually exploitative. It can be factory work, mining, prostitution, quarrying, and agriculture, helping in the parent’s business and doing odd jobs. And all the work that they do is in all types of weather and at very minimal pays.

Child Labor has reached epidemic proportions in Pakistan. According to HRCP (Human Rights Commission of Pakistan) there are about 15 million working children in Pakistan. The children make a quarter of the skilled force. In our Third World Country, where the population rate is the highest among the world and the education system poorest, the child labor pool is anything but inexhaustible. It has become an institution in Third World countries; however, the incidences of it are also increasing in advanced countries.

The median age of children now entering the workforce is seven, which is likely to decrease owing to the increase in population as well as sky rocketing inflation and food shortage. Another cause of this epidemic are the recruitment by large factory owners voluntarily or forceful by chaining the children’s parents in debt. The owners are particularly aggressive in courting boys of age five to seven, where their dexterity and endurance are at is peak. And most of all they are economical, as they are paid slighter than one third of the pay of the adults. As one Rawalpindi land owner states “Children are cheaper to run than tractors and smarter than oxen. He prefers field hands as they have the most energy but lack discipline.

The children in rural areas are deprived of all sorts of facilities, education health. They are as starved of love as they are of food. A young mother Asma from Sheikhupura says “When my children were of three years, I told them that should pay their way and get ready to make sacrifices for the families and to be sent away from home”. She bonded her five children to the masters in distant villages.

The children work under most brutal conditions imaginable. In sports equipment factories, they sit slumped in large numbers under eerie silence giving full concentration to their work. If they speak or sleep, they are reprimanded. Once they make a mistake, their pay is withheld and punished most severely on the rear of the factory where they are hung upside down, caned, lashed and starved. The boys are frequently beaten and the girls violated. A girl tells the story of her friend who was raped by the owner and when she got ill and could work no more, she was sold off to someone else and her parents never got to know about it. For the masters, the bonded children are commodity whom they trade like livestock, bartering away their respect and everything they own.

There has been many child laws enacted in Pakistan but the problem remains lack of political will and greed. The Employment of Children Act of 1991 prohibited the use of children in hazardous occupation and environments. The Bonded Labor Act of 1992 abolished indentured servitude and the peshgi system. Though the laws are progressive, however, the government failed to provide the implementation and enforcement. The steps taken had always been cosmetic. As a Ministry of Labor Official says “We leave enforcement on the discretion of the police officers” as they understand the need of the community well.”

Behind this is an unpleasant truth about feudal system in Pakistan which hinders any reform that might weaken their authority, lower their profit margins or enfranchise the workers. They argue that such laws do not help in the development of the country. If the government imposes these laws, they would shut down the factory crippling the economy.

The need of the hour is not to eradicate but to limit the working age of children and make the working conditions humane. Also, the media along with the NGOs can play a significant role in bringing out such issues and meting out justice to those god forsaken children.

My Sin

2008-12-21T02:50:00.000-08:00

All I hankered was to study and teach,
Thus waited for you, my father, to share this dream,
How I wished you would relent this time,
But now you threatened to smolder me alive,
Do you abhor those lessons of humanity that I aim to propagate?
Or whom you call your pride should have no worth of own
O God, what sin did I commit?
That I don’t even have the right to dream!

You always got a better share than I, my brother,
Parents love, freedom and praise has always been your prerogative,
I promise I tried my best to preserve your respect in the village,
But it was those vicious hooligans who raped your respect.
Then you deemed me distrustful and slashed my nose
Left me in the fields where I writhed and wriggled,
O God, what sin did I commit?
Who to ask for justice? Where to look for hope?

In my fancy, my companion, I wished you will be the elixir of my pains
Wrenched heart, haggard face, wrinkled strength, torn clothes,
I toiled hard in the sun doing your part, not coveting your comfort,
Our children wailing kept me on my toes, to allay their hunger,
A battered slave at your whims, but you blamed me of insolence, while I never protested,
In your outburst, threw acid on me, burning all my hopes, scathing my fantasy,
O God, what sin did I commit?
Will these wounds on the soul ever heal?

O God, what sin did I commit?
Why do the courts always decree against the innocent?
O God, what sin did I commit?
My innocent sin that I yearned for life!

Zainab Belal

Amma,I could not...

2007-12-29T07:35:00.000-08:00

The icy water trickled down the tap. I washed my face quickly before the water runs out. I tried to smile at myself in the mirror, but could not in that utter gloominess.

Amma, I could not look, and I did not want to, lest the smile fades away.

Somewhere in the house, the tiny candle illuminated my sister’s forehead. You sat beside her, as she curled up herself under the blanket, sobbing in pain. I wore the chappal you gave me last year on my seventh birthday. Abba was screaming, threatening me to come quickly or he would leave me .I wished to embrace you, to touch your cold hands. But, I dashed out.

Amma, I could not, oh I so wanted to.

There was a colossal mass of people. It was an experience of lifetime. I reminisced the time when we came here once. My sister and I had ice-lollies as you sat beside abba with all lovely and attractive smiles. I wish we had the time machine and reverse it to the good old days.

But Amma we are not so fortunate, the time is running out, against our wish.

Abba raised me up on his shoulder to cheer the leader. I saw really dazzling, hopeful and gleeful faces. Suddenly there was a conflagration and the world fell into silence. The next moment it was filled with hue and cry.

Amma, I searched around for father, but I did not find him.

I struggled to wail and scream. But the stone in my throat wouldn’t sink down. There were limbs and blood around me. Flames were raging around me. I was afraid the men in uniform would throw me in the ambulance. I was sprinting, but there was no escape. My feet declined and I fell to the ground. I was convulsing due to excruciating pain. In that icy night, my body was scorched, alas frozen.

Amma, I could not come home, and maybe I didn’t want to……

Arrogance

2007-12-07T07:27:00.000-08:00

“The people who truly believe in Our Signs are those who fall to ground prostrating when they are reminded of them, and glorify their Lord with praise and are not arrogant”.Quran

Arrogance is a state in which we are convinced we have the right to be above the others. Kit is unlawful in Islam, rather a disgraceful state. It is against modesty. The morality of Islam entails submission to Allah and submission entails acknowledgment of one’s weakness…to be fallible, not perfect. However, an arrogant person does not deem himself weak. He thinks he is superior to the rest. He does things for self gratification, rather than pleasing Allah.

Arrogance manifests itself in ones relationships, with Allah as well as human beings. As Harun Yahya puts it:
“Arrogance is an erroneous assumption that a person has an existence apart from and independent of Allah and that he ahs acquired his qualities of his own doing.”
Reasons of Arrogance
Power and Wealth
History is witnessed to arrogant people and leaders because of their power and wealth. Due to it, they rejected faith and subjected those around them to oppression. A person may accumulate money and wealth; however, it won’t be of any use in hereafter. He may horde it, but his grandeur is temporary. His confidence is based on his wealth, thus when he meets someone more powerful, he gets depressed, frustrated and jealous. However, a true believer knows that all human beings are equally dependent on Allah. He is the only source of Power. Allah says ‘Be and it is’. (kun Fayakun). A believer’s image is not founded on material wealth, or any other temporal quality.

“Wealth and sons are the embellishments of the life of the world. But in your Lord’s sight, right actions which are lasting bring a better reward and are a better basis for hope.”Surah Kahf.

Some arrogant people attribute the good qualities of their children to themselves, and they feel pride at their only worldly temporal achievements. We see some parent going out of their way so that their children get A’s, spending hefty amounts of money. They would clothe them extraordinarily well, because for them it is a matter of their prestige. Moreover, the desires of such people are insatiable. They may even resort to illegitimate ways to gain more wealth. As we see today, people are in the cat race to earn more, to indulge in ostentation, and show down others.

Beauty and Youthfulness
Physical beauty is not a quality on one’s own making. It is granted by Allah. It is also a quality that can be taken back anytime. One can lose his/her good looks in an instant. A facial scar, paralysis, skin cancer, loss of organs, burns; we are all prone to thousand kinds of dangers. Even if these things do not happen, ageing is inevitable.

We can look at celebrities. They show off their looks on the ramp, but for how long can this pomp and show go on. Then they go for facial surgeries, but we all know there are hazardous side effects. When we escape this life, we decay beneath the ground, turning into a heap of fossil. Nothing will be left of us. Our soul will be the only thing alive, and what it will need only is our good deeds and taqwa.

Status and Prestige‘Do not strut arrogantly about the earth. You will certainly never split the earth apart, nor will you rival the mountains in height.’
Holding a status and the prestige it brings is one of the allurements of this life. In this ayat, Allah SWT says, you may hold a very influential status, however, it is nothing compared to my creation of lofty mountains and expansive earth.
In the Hereafter, the person will be solely questioned on his obedience to Allah, one’s attitude; his wholehearted submission to his Lord will be the determining criteria of his superiority.

Intelligence, Enlightenment, Education
Graduating from a prestigious college is an important matter of pride. In hereafter we won’t be asked about our college, or intellectual background. It will lose all its significance in the hereafter. Also, one of the ironies of enlightenment in west is that it strayed the people from the core of their selves, i.e. belief in God. The technological advancement, scholarly degrees made people believe they are in no more need of religion. They feel the system is in their hands.

We need to remember that all the prestige and blessings is a test. They belong to Allah. They are conferred on us so that we bring peace and justice in this world with the Will of Allah. Instead of being arrogant, we should always strive to use them in the way of Allah and make it an everlasting souce of reward and comfort for us.
The lot of the Arrogant
‘Their faces will be blackened.’

‘Those who are too proud to worship Me, they will enter the Hell abject.’

‘As for those who deny our signs and are arrogant regarding them, the Gates of Heaven will not be opened for them, and they will not enter Paradise, until a camel goes through a needle’s eye.’ Thus, they will live in Hell for eternity.
They will be punished on account of those they misled in their arrogance.

Conclusion

Allah’s Messenger Prophet Muhammad SAW said
“He in whose heart, there is as much as a grain of pride will not enter Paradise.
We should not feel proud of the improvement we have made in ourselves, or in our morality or as an organization. This is the trap of Shaitan.
Such notions actually deprive of all that we have achieved. One thing to keep in mind is that perfection knows no limits. As Muslims, our point of excellence is always over the horizon. The moment one considers himself he has reached the highest point, the striving for the better ceases. Decline sets in.

The standard set for humanity by Islam is so sublime and dynamic that it starts where other stops. This does not mean it is idealistic and thus, unattainable. This is reflected in the life of Prophet Muhammad SAW and their devoted companions.

Always keep a standard and yardstick. Always see how much is to be done. It saves is from delusions. It will show us our weaknesses. It shows us new targets. If we make our goal, the dawah, the spread of Islam, which should be ultimate goal of all Muslims, then all the things we take pride in become secondary.

A faithful person will always look up at those who are richer in Islamic values, who have better manners, better deeds. Having said all this, just remember how lucky we are to be guided by Allah SWT. He has bestowed so many great favors on us. Take time and be thankful, and do not be among the ungrateful ones.