Barasti Akhiyan

Palkein kyun naam huin
ankhein kyun chalak gayein
dill mein aik dard sa utha
jaisay tarikiyan chimat jain

sehra mein paon chill jaye
mitti bhi kankar si laggi
khayalon k darechoon se
kuch yadein jhank gayein

himmat aur bhi kam hui
nazrain jhuk si gayein
mazzi ki talkhiyan
kyun peecha chorti nahi

Mein Sukaina Gillani Hoon

Well, this sentence sounds very lame but recently I have been on a thought process to find out who I really am and to accept myself with all my flaws. Usually teenagers go through this process but I feel thinking on this issue is an ongoing process. Most women dont realize who they are and what their importance is. They are always known as the daughter of someone, then the wife of someone and later on as the mother of someone. Who are you and who am I is the question on table. While trying to cover all the basis and trying to fulfill all the tasks which have been placed on our plates we tend to forget our own existence. For me, Sukaina Gillani is the name which was given to after my birth and Allah placed me in this position. This is the name which will be stuck with me during every good and bad moment of life. If I end up performing an exceptional task I shall be remembered as Sukaina Gillani and if I end up on the wrong path then vice versa. This name will be written on my tomb stone after death and I shall be called out from this name on the Day of Judgement. I don't know who I am and who I want to be unlike some people. I dont know where life will take me but all I know is "Mein Sukaina Gillani Hoon". This is not the same as "I am Sukaina Gillani". This lame and stupid sentence defines that I am proud of my Desi heritage and brown blood. Its a part of me which shall always be ingrained in my blood, my skin, my actions and my thought process. While naming me, my sister who was 3 at that time didn't realize who she was naming me after. But, years later I am proud that I am named after one of the most Noble women who lived on this planet. I don't have the capabilities or the strengths she had for she shook the world and created a mini revolution of her own by the age of 5. She is still remembered and though I am no where to be compared if I could even get the blessing of her name it is an honor for me. Sukaina literally means "Tranquility". For those who know me, I am not the most tranquil person on this planet nor am I an ambassador for peace but I do wish I could be of some help in creating "World Peace" without sounding like Miss Universe. Gillani on the other hand comes from a long line of ancestors who spent their lives in finding out the true religion. I am not a Sayed but I am proud of my ancestors who converted from Hinduism to Ismaili to Shia Twelver because if they would not have and would have stayed on their old path I would not be where I am and my faith and spirituality would have been compromised. Gillani also tells me about my genes, my bloodline which consists of people who were determined and have changed not only their social class over the years but have educated themselves to understand their mistakes and to learn from them. I am the daughter of a soil which consists of faith and spirituality, humbleness and humanity, pureness and tranquility. With all its faults and flaws "Mein Sukaina Gillani Hoon" and I am proud of the fact that no matter who I turn out to be in future I am who I am.

You are a Shia, I am a Sunni, Lets FIGHT

As the paradox states, I am not a sunni but sectarian violence between different sects in Muslims is turning out to be a major problem in the 21st century. As the month of Moharram began, this violence has increased substantially. The sad news is that this act of terrorism will not end any time soon as the hatred has been fueled for over 1400 years and many brain-washed, un-educated or anger-riden people are still fueling this crime. Every year it hurts my heart when I hear about the bomb blasts and firings in a shia gathering during this month. Then later on we sometimes tends to hear about a shia retaliation and this is a never ending story in which many innocent lives are lost, many families are destroyed and emotions are ignited all in the name of the SAME religion. 

It might be interesting and beneficial to take a look back in the history when and where this violence started. It is not new in a religion that such sectarian violence takes place. Christianity is divided into many sects and for a period of time violence and crusades were nothing new.  The sad story of Islam is that this violence began right after the Prophet's death in Saqifa and then Jamal and Siffeen took place. The focal point turned out to be the Battle of Kerbala which Shiites commemorate every year as the Grandson of the Prophet was slaughtered in the desert of Kerbala and his family was taken hostage all in the pseudo-name of protecting Islam. Then couple of revolutions took places, governments were overthrown but this struggle of political power led to the division of Muslims in factions with each following those who they believe have been the rightful appointees and declaring war against the followers of the other factions. The result turned out to be that we are still waging this war after 1400 years.

The culprit sadly turns out to be those leaders who have not understood the mere fact the Islam means "peace" and fighting on the basis of petty differences will make not change anyone's mindset. The brainwashing strategy seems to be a very common weapon in creating this mass destruction. People tend to believe their leaders as they think such leaders will know what is right and what is wrong when instead they become the victims of the short end of the stick. The bottom line of the issue is the fact that people are ignorant and do not want to learn religion but want to accept it just the way they are told. They don't want to study or read the scriptures and thus are taken advantage by some vicious people who portray themselves as very learned and then take advantage of such innocent folks by attracting them with false hopes and the power of money. Illiteracy when fueled with anger, ego and emotions creates the perfect concoction of sectarian violence. 

The only way we can solve this issue is to teach people and let them ask questions and then let them decide what they feel is the correct path. Our leaders will probably never take a step back but now its up to us to differentiate between the good ones and the bad ones because a single rotten fish can make the entire pond dirty and only a very small amount of poison is needed to kill a person. With the majority of leaders being good, we need to find a way to educate people so that they can differentiate between who is right and who is wrong and who should be condemned and who is fueling a war for his own benefits. Lets educate instead of propagate so we can discuss and solve our problems instead of increasing them. 

One Billion Strong and NOT One Worthy

According to the latest reports there are currently about 1.6 billion muslims on this planet. But ask a person off the street if he knows any famous muslims, there are huge chances that he might reply Osama Bin Laden aka Hitler of our times. It is saddening that Islam being the religion of peace and prosperity, being a highly progressive religion and having about 1.6 billion followers has no one to represent it. Why are there no famous Muslim authors, scientists, artists or even politicians in our times? Why isn't there a Muslim country in the first world? Lets not blame the WEST as most of the 1.6 billion Muslims live in the West but still we lag behind. In order to answer my own questions I have a few theories which will help me in understanding why we have not yet reached our potential. 

1. Lazy Syndrome

The first reason would sadly be that we are lazy. Yes, we will never agree to this but we lack the courage to stand up and change what we need too. We do not want to take actions to better our future instead we want to complain about all the conspiracies which are going on against us and how it is undermining our potential and is not letting us reach to where we want to go. For example, I doubt there would be a single Pakistani who would not like better education, better economy, more jobs and overall a better country to live in, but sadly how many people do we see complaining and how many people do we see actually trying to work for this cause. There are just a limited amount of people trying to work and there are way many people who are providing intrusions in this noble task. We are all blaming how the West is doing all these atrocities against the Muslims but how many of us are trying to solve these problems in a logical and reasonable manner. (Suicide bombing your own country men and killing people is not a logical, reasonable or even a human solution to this problem). Why do we not have Muslims speak against these actions in a debate form in which all parties can present their points and have a solution which would make both the parties happy. Reason. We are too lazy to come out of our comfort zone and work for a cause without pay. If the best interest of Muslims would be our only criteria, there is no reason why our countries will not excel and why we would not excel but for that we will have to work way harder than we do and perform tasks which we do not want too. 

2. White Supremacy

Most of the Muslims come from a background in which their ancestors were under the White Man's rule. Even though they have been free, their spirit is still oppressed. They may be under the colonial rule or even the African American Muslims from the Nation of Islam who were fighting for justice and freedom. Our thoughts are still enslaved and thus after the rule of the Gorra Sahab (White Sir) we have now turned into the Brown Sahab (Brown Sir). In the rush to follow the White Man we have lost our own identity, culture, traditions, science, art, language, history etc. Nowadays Mohammad is Moe and Jaffar is Jeff. We have not only lost our identity is following the White Man blindly, we have lost everything we have ever been proud of or anything which we have or will achieve. We do not follow the White Man in how he has developed science and technology or how he has stepped on the moon. In fact is the past century it is hard to find any new scientific research or invention crucial to the mankind developed by a Muslim. We have distorted our language and now we commonly speak Minglish (Mixture of Urdu and English. My Arab friends have told me that they do the same and have a language which is a mixture of Arabic and English). We have lost our culture and traditions to a great extent. To top it all currently the best Islamic History books available are written by non-Muslim white authors. We are so far behind at this point that we cannot even write our own history. Those of us who are even slightly famous have either adopted the western structure of such an extent that they are not even capable of being called a Muslim or have gone to such an extreme that they have lost the meaning of Islam by their fanatic, fundamentalist thinking and actions. 

3. Unappreciated Talent

It would be wrong to say that there is not a single worthy Muslim living on this planet. Undoubtly, we have no Stephan Hawkings, Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg among us but we do have some Muslims who have made their name in this era. We do have Riz Khan who was an outstanding journalist in CNN and now works for Al-Jazera. We also have authors like Reza Aslan who has even appeared in the American Daily shows. But there are not enough professionals excelling in their fields when we are 1 billion strong. We tend to not appreciate in what we have when we start running after others praising what they have. For example, Waris Shah's poetries were no where less than the works of Shakespeare but because we have not read or tried to understand the work of Waris Shah, we do not even know what we have and what we are losing. Sadquain's and Gulgee's art was exceptional but we have not yet even tried to know or see what a treasure their paintings were but we know the work of Leonardo De Vinci and Michaelangelo. We all know Tiger Woods but Imran Khan is losing his fanfare. Even comparing Micheal Jackson with Rafat Fateh Ali Khan seems funny. While running away from what we have, we are stepping on the toes of any Muslim who wants to achieve something. We do not trust our fellow brothers in Islam and in some way we are justified not to trust them because of our actions. When Muslims turn out to be like Zardari or even the Arab Sheikhs who are ruling over half of the Muslim World but have not increased the standards of living in their own countries, why should we trust them but then we are the ones who are losing no one else. 

Basically, we need to help ourselves. We need to trust each other and make ourselves trustworthy. If not for anyone lets not let a quarter of this world's population not have a single worthy person among them. Lets have great scholars, scientists, artists and authors so that we can give our future generation a better future than we have in front of us. 

TUG O WAR- ISLAM VS PAKISTAN

Disclaimer: Some of the contents might conflict with my religious point of view and some might conflict with my patriotic point of view.

We should remove "Islamic" from "Islamic Republic of Pakistan". Reason: There are so many types of Islam followed in Pakistan that this term has lost its meaning. For example there is Shia Islam, Sunni Islam, Sufi Islam, Bahrelvi Islam, Ahmadi Islam (sorry this is incorrect as the others don't think they follow Islam so we have kicked them out), Conservative Islam, Modern Islam, Liberal Islam, Moderate Islam, Talibani Islam, Musharaf Islam, and this list goes on and on. Now the question arises which type of Islam does Pakistan follow? Does it follow the Islam which allows it blow up shrines and mosques in the name of Islam or does it follow an Islam which allows muslims to drink and party all night. Every Pakistani seems to have a different connotation of Islam they seem to follow and think is correct. After living in the west I feel Pakistanis are trying to follow an Islam which has nothing to do with the religion sent to us by Allah through our Prophet PBUH. For example there is a famous hadith which says "Cleanliness is half of faith (eman)". Pakistan and clean seems like a joke when put together in the same sentence. OR how about karo karri, honor killing or flogging a girl in the name of Islam because a girl married someone she likes when Islam has given her the right to do so. OR blowing up innocent MUSLIMS in the name of JIHAD.. that just seems to contradict itself. 

We Pakistanis (and I tend to include myself in all these shortcomings) tend to be very passionate about Islam. We are so passionate that we took out rallies and boycotted facebook recently in the name to protect Islam but we did not take out rallies to boycott porn websites (well that just seems too much effort) nor did we try to tell people what Islam really is because we ourselves are confused amidst all our sects and tribes and castes and cultures that we do not really know what the definition of Islam is for our next door neighbor who also happens to be a Muslim. We are also very active in taking out rallies against the Israeli Occupation in Palestine but how about a kick Taliban out of Pakistan rally. Ouch we are too scared to do that plus Taliban doesn't let us survive in a anti-Israeli rally what will they do in an anti-Taliban rally. We hate our president Mr. 10 percent but we dont have the courage to kick him out like we have kicked out our previous presidents. (I am betting that the 100 goats he does sadqa everyday literally save his life because we really hate him). We Pakistanis also have a love for blaming our shortcomings on the west. We are in this position because of US, UK, Israel etc but as I agree with what Hassan Nisar said and I also think that with 1.66 billion muslims on this planet, if we can't still stand up and fight against the what we thinking is happening as a western propaganda than we are at fault and we should take charge and make our countries better, invent new technologies, teach our children and lets not blame them because we seem to love their Mc Donalds more than our Bun Kabab.

The history of war and terror with the name of Islam is not new to the sub continent. If my memory is on my side, Islam reached the Indian peninsula through the crusades of Mohammad Bin Qasim during the era of the Third Caliph. This happened to be a very gruesome conquest of Sindh and Punjab but then some where in the history we also see the Imam Ali AS came to Hyderabad, Sindh and there is Molla Qadam there which is the footprint of him. (I have not visited that place... just heard about it). After a few years when muslims were being persecuted during and after the time of Karbala, about eighteen women of the Family of the Prophet along with one of the sons of Imam Hassan AS came to this region to find some shelter. This is how Bibi Pak Daman (who is actually Bibi Ruquiya Binte Ali AS, Imam Ali's youngest daughter now buried in Punjab) and Abdullah Shah Ghazi (one of Imam Hassan's son who was killed by the Karachi beach and was buried by Hindus) reached this region and propagated Islam through their actions and not by sword. (I am not sure about the authenticity of this story.. heard it in Majlises and found through some web searches but am not 100% sure about it). There were more conquerors in that region and everyone fought in the name of Islam. From the Mughals to warriors like Tipu Sultan, Islam was always the core focal point of these conquests but later on Islam reached this region because of the sufi saints. Saints like Shah Abdul Latif Bhithai, Sachal Sarmast, Lal Shahbaz Qalandar, Khuwaja Nizam etc, it was their actions and teachings which converted the hearts of hindus and muslims alike and thus even today they are still revered and people still believe in them. Our culture from our lifestyle to our psyche has so much hindu influence that unless Islam wouldn't have been taught to us as a religion of love and peace, we would have never accepted it. For example, mehandi and maiyoun are no Muslim festivities in a wedding to the role of a widow woman in our society who we treat as a living satti. In our daily lives if one examines there is a major contribution to the hindu culture (if I start writing about it, i will offend so many that a few of you might end up calling my mom and complaining about how misguided I am). Still, Pakistan has always faced this war on the name of Islam and we are still fighting this war but I don't know when we will find the true Islam.

When Pakistan was created 1947, Quaid e Azam, made it as a country for all muslims and non-muslims. Nehru at that time said that this country will not survive the next five years. Today, Pakistan celebrated its 63 anniversary this year but it feels like we are still not free. Now instead of fighting Hindus and British, we are fighting different sects in the name of Islam. We all want to call ourselves moderate and practicing as well as liberal and open-minded muslims but lets first decide what Islam we want to follow- the liberal, modern cool Islam or the Islam brought to us by Our Prophet PBUH which was conservative but gave more freedom that we can understand or imagine. 

So lets first follow Islam and then call our dear Homeland as the Islamic Republic of Pakistan