Do they not see the birds above them?

I stood near the road waiting for my cab to come. As I waited, I saw hundreds of pigeons flying over my head. It looked majestic and I couldn't but keep looking at those beautiful creatures. Pigeons are found in abundance in Hyderabad while crows are not found as much as I used to see in Kolkata. This could be the reason the locals does not find it interesting enough to admire the beauty that was happening just above their head. 

The flocks of birds around 200 in number were moving around in a circle of around 50 meters radius. My eyes traversed their path. They continued doing round and round, the cheerful aura involved was hard to resist. A couple of rounds later few of the birds rested on top of rooftops, street-light poles and mobile signal towers. Was it a rest? I may not be able to tell, but they took turns in getting back to the original flock. After few more rounds they changed their direction to clockwise. This intrigued me, I thought okay let's find a pattern here. It was difficult but I pressed myself to dwell into the minds of the flock and understand their behavior in this activity. After their directions changed, the number of birds kept reducing after each round. Some flew away which I couldn't track where; while some rested on rooftops and towers. Then only two left, I thought of them as chief and his wife probably trying to convince others to keep doing (whatever they were doing). While I kept myself focused on those two pigeons, I was taken aback when all of a sudden another set of birds flew just behind the building and joined those two. The scene completely transformed to its original state leaving me and my pattern findings abilities in wilderness. At the very moment my cab came and I was left thinking, "Okay some other day I will try again to understand what really happened."

While feeling comfortable in the cab, I remembered an aayah from Surah Mulk (screenshot below) where through Quran Allah tells us to go out and look at those birds, ponder how they spread their wings, how majestically they float. Who would hold them except Allah. Subhan Allah! This amazing activity from Quran was nothing short of upliftment of one's imaan.

The water flow

Have you ever wondered what are blessings? If you pondered carefully you will realize we are surrounded by blessings. Look no far, you will find blessings in yourself. The eyes that we use to see, ears to hear, legs to take us to places, hands to do all kinds of work, intellect that makes us distinguishable from other animals; these are all blessings from our Creator. If there is even a bit of doubt if these aren't blessings, then think about giving it away or ask the ones who doesn't have these. Of such many uncountable blessings we have, perhaps the most desirable of them is water. As is with any desirable gifts, we should preserve it and not let it go as waste.

I come from Kolkata, capital city of West Bengal, India. Though it's not a port city, it's very near to the sea bay of Bengal. It is also in one of the dis-tributaries of river Ganga. The water is in abundance in my city. I have never faced scarcity of water in my city with an exception of a day or two. Although I've heard about some places in Rajasthan and Gujarat where people face immense drought, it wasn't in my destiny to practically feel what shortage of water causes until I had leave Kolkata due to call of duty. 4.5 years in Bangalore and 1 year in Hyderabad made me realize how importance water is to our life.

Water is distributed early morning in Toli Chowki locality, the place where I stay in Hyderabad. Locals are happy because by the time they wake up, their water tank is already full. On the way to the Masjid for early morning prayer it is really painful to see water trickling down from plenty of houses. People are lazy to even get up and switch off the motor machine so as to stop the water flow. I am not sure what they are; lazy or selfish. Just think of those who are deprived of this blessings. There's a beautiful campaign to illustrate the feelings to save water;

Abdullah ibn Amr reported: The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, passed by Sa’d while he was performing ablution. The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ  said, “What is this extravagance?” Sa’d said, “Is there extravagance with water in ablution?” The Prophet said, “Yes, even if you were on the banks of a flowing river.” Source: Sunan Ibn Mājah 425

Just think, of our actions. If this causes anger to our creator and He takes away the blessings we are enjoying now. The scary feeling is depicted in the aayah in Surah Mulk.

The plight of common man

The past one week had too much information to digest. There were things happening across ocean, which everyone had their opinion on, while things happening in our country too which supposedly impacted all of us directly. Demonetization of 500, 1000 notes have impacted us in some way or the other. Fortunately for me, I had some notes in 100s which I have been using since last week. Too me it was surprising to see people standing in queues outside bank to get their notes exchanged, I wondered why the hurry, there's still 45 days of time to exchange them and you still have credit/debit cards to make transaction, what is the emergency?

The past 4-5 days I was oblivious to the realities, the outside world, and the answer to the question - why are so many people lining up outside the bank each day, each hour. I was not reading news neither was I checking Facebook and Twitter. Then with an impromptu checking of Facebook, I was stuck with the bitter truth. The bolt like truth that had hit the common man and woman. Everywhere I was seeing people sharing videos of either of the following:
1) Senior citizens standing for hours under the sun,
2) Thousands of people lining outside the bank not sure of getting the cash on that day or not,
3) Police lathi charging on citizens because they were unable to control the crowd. Imagining you getting hit for asking your own money
4) Pregnant ladies fainting
5) Old age woman cursing the government for making her come out in the streets which she never liked
6) Middle aged man weeping uncontrollably because his kid was in operation theater and hospital was not accepting the demonetized notes any more
7) Common citizens having unending lists of complains, talking about either to go to work or go to bank to exchange their notes, rations have finished and what should he feed his family now with no cash left with him

It took me a while to realize that I had been in a cocoon. Even though I was fortunate enough, thousands and may be millions were not so across the country. Not everyone had cash in 100s like me, not everyone had credit/card with them, not everyone had super market in their towns or villages which will accept virtual money transactions and I was not ill nor in emergency to have to exchange with the new currency but now I can feel their pain.

I pray to Allah subhana wa ta'ala to ease their pain.

InnAllaha Ma’ As’sabireen

“Verily, Allah is with the patient”

Who do we keep in our heart?

Who do we share our happiness with? Who do we thank?
Whom do we reach out to when we are in distress?
Where does our heart lie?
Does our life revolve around false attachments?

We all love the blessings bestowed upon us. Spouses, cars, houses, jobs, parents, friends, beauty, youth and wealth are those wonderful gifts that we need in our daily life. For some of us, the need is want, we desperately want to keep it to ourselves even though it doesn’t belong to us. So, who does it belong to? Who blessed us with the gifts?

As with every gifts, it is not ours. We are not the owners of it. It is given to us, which can be taken. This means we should not depend on them. We do not live our life with expectations to receive them and do not die if we do not receive them. But they are dear to us. Who does not like to have gifts? But where we keep them is what we should enquire ourselves – hand or heart?

When we were created we were near God. That is our home. Our heart longs to return back to that home. That is the place we yearn for, even though we do not realize. We try to find it here, in the temporary world. We try to create things which are temporary. We try to love things which will fade away. We try to love people, depend on sources and attach ourselves with strings which is bound to give us pain when it goes away.

We keep other things in our heart and God outside it. When the gifts goes away it causes pain. Do you realize why it pains us when someone dies but it does not pain much when we miss a bus? Deeper the attachment more the pain is. More deep rooted the gift lies within the heart, more the pain is. If we lose those false attachment we are devastated, we chase it and desperately pursue it. In the end we get more pain, our hearts are broken if we do not realize where exactly to seek help from.

When it hurts who can mend our heart? Where should we run to? Where will we seek happiness? After all we want to be happy. Always! The answer lies in title question. Who lies in our heart? Is the answer Allah? If it is, then nothing else can lie there. We need to understand that if we keep things which are permanent in our heart, there won’t be any pain – and only Allah is permanent. If we really want to keep Allah in our heart then we have to remove all the false attachments. We have to empty it first. Until we empty our heart and break our false attachment we cannot fill our hearts with Allah. This is greatest struggle of the earthly life - the essence of Tawheed (true monotheism).


Inspired by the book "Reclaim your heart"

How I felt after watching M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story

No this is not a review. I am not a movie buff to compare movies, performances, filmography, direction, etc. I am just a fan but not an ordinary one....


Flashback --- 2003: I was in class 9, I believe. We used to get newspaper at our tiffin breaks, during which I would associate myself with those who loved sports. Everyday during our breaks we would take the newspaper, turn to the last page eyeing for any interesting news from sports section. In one of those days, we noticed a picture of a tall hunk with mane flowing behind his neck, keeping behind wickets. It was one of those rare initial pictures of MS Dhoni. He must have performed well in one the Ranji matches and that is why that image (remember he debuted in Dec-2004). That first impression was worth remembering. I vividly remember how desperately I wanted that man to be in the Indian team, not because of his batting skills but because of his charming looks and because he kept wickets. Those were the days when we played so many keepers without success, Vijay Dahiya, Deep Dasgupta, Nayan Mongia and few others of whose name I can't remember. Having a good wicket keeper was much desired. Keeping wickets was taking a toll on our wall aka Rahul Dravid and in some way was affecting his batting. My other class mates were awestruck too. One among them was a Pakistan team supporter, he said it would be good for India. I smirked at him but prayed silently that his (and mine too) wish was answered. And it did...!


Now to the movie: 

Mahi sir's ingredient in the field (in my opinion): 30% Batting + 50% Captaincy + 20% wicket keeping. But in the movie major focus was in batting, it was 90% batting + 8% Keeping + 2% captaincy. It's true he has so many records to his name because of his batting, his average never fell below 50, consistently in the top 10 rank for almost a decade, won consecutive ICC ODI batsman of the year, known as hard hitting finisher, etc. But also true that he has won many trophies for the team, captain of ICC ODI World XI for 6 consecutive years, the street smartness he shows on the field, the selection of bowlers to bowl overs during crunch situations, his unorthodox field placements among others were missing. I would have loved to see what goes through his mind during pressure situations. Dhoni, the hard-hitting batsman, turned into the calm strategist and leader, the sequence was missing from the movie. Becoming the captain was a critical phase in Dhoni’s career, and it is surprising that it does not find a mention in the movie. He has executed many supersonic stumpings and it could have taken only a minute to showcase or highlight collage of his wicket-keeping heroics.

Few instances in the movie made me smile: 

There’s a cricketing sequence in the movie that stands out where a young Yuvraj Singh (played by Harry Tangri), smashes a triple ton against MS Dhoni’s Bihar in the final of the Cooch Behar Trophy. Tangri looks very similar to a 19-year old Yuvraj, and is seen having exchanges with Dhoni. His flamboyant personality, which is well portrayed in that scene brought back many memories from 10-12 years ago.

When selectors were debating on which wicket keeper to choose among Dinesh Karthik, Nama Ojha and MS Dhoni, Dada aka Sourav Ganguly gave his inputs, "Dhoni ko try karte hain." That gave me smiles once again. Dada well known for giving chance to youngsters like Sehwag, Zaheer, Yuvraj, Kaif, etc., the movie paints that beautifully even though it was for just one scene. MS Dhoni gives it back in an emotional way. While on his last Test match Dhoni hands over the captaincy to Dada during the last few moments of India vs Austraila match in 2008.

The mutual respect to friends and families is brilliantly illustrated. The Telegraph once reported (probably once Dhoni joined the Indian cricket team and the news was out that he was a TC once in Kharagpur railway station) the place of stay Dhoni. The shabby place was occupied by other men as well (as shown in the movie). The report mentioned that one of his room mate there got married and met Dhoni after his success. Dhoni was kind enough to meet him and complain, "Kya bhaiyya shaadi bhi kar liye aur bulaye bhi nahi (you didn't invite me to your marriage)". Such goals one should have in life of maintaining relationships and keeping the feet firm in the ground.

The last few scenes were of how Dhoni's close friends families reacted to the 2011 World Cup six. The one with which I resonated the most was how his coach, Banerjee sir did. He thumped his chest after pointing towards the TV screen as if saying, "I knew he would do it, I knew it from the beginning". Yes, the wish that I had when I first saw guy with long hair flowing behind was fulfilled.

What does a teacher mean to us?

If a picture speaks thousand words then the above one sure falls in that category.

2 views to see the picture:

1. Here we see a Sheikh teaching a lesson in front of only one student at the Prophet’s Masjid in Madinah. The picture highlights the unfortunate state of affairs in our communities with regard to our attitude towards seeking knowledge, especially since the advent of social media.

Gone are the days – for many – where people would travel to sit at the feet of scholars and develop a personal relationship with them. Gone are the days where we take our knowledge directly from the mouths of the people of knowledge. Instead, we have reduced our learning to listening to snippets of clips on YouTube and listening to reminders that keep our faith supposedly elevated but do not provide much by the way of significant insightful knowledge that really helps us grow in faith and practice.

I’ve even noticed that many people do not even have the attention span to manage listening to a one hour lecture these days. It’s become ‘fast food knowledge’ now sprinkled with the glitz of HD videos and graphics. As for reading books, then all I can say is,

إنا لله وإنا إليه راجعون

We should all have our portions of real human interaction with people of knowledge and take from their adab (manners) and insights. There are numerous blessings found in those gatherings that cannot be found elsewhere, even in books.

2. Never feel as though your efforts have gone to waste. What change can one speech bring, how will that audience of one person respond to your nasihat (advice), what amount of benefit you will receive from Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala by the virtue of that good conducted by that one man due to your words, no one except Almighty knows.

Any other point of view you have to look at the picture? Do comment below.

This article was originally posted in ilmfeed

Things are almost never what they seem

There are lessons that I have learnt - often the hard way - that have made me what I am today. Bits and pieces of memories they are, but they are the what the character comprises of.

Recently, there occurred an incident in my life which made me stop and think if we are dealing with other people with utmost honesty. Or are we simply dealing with them just to meet one's own interest.

Expressing gratitude and being kind to people is one of the basic education we learn from Quran and prophet's life. But when it comes to reality,  applying the knowledge learnt onto our daily life we fall back. Knowingly or unknowingly we fail to convert our learning into action. And that's where we fail as a human being.

Just a month ago, I applied for an Airtel sim through a vendor at my office. I gave him my ID proof, passport size photograph and patiently filled all the details in the application form. And then I waited for the sim to get activated. It didn't happened that day. I waited again for the next day. Then again the sim didn't get activated. Same thing happened the next day and the next. 4 days and I was getting impatient. Even though whatsapp was acting as a backup, the feeling of real call through a number was missing.

I came back to the vendor as a dissatisfied customer I complained to him. Patiently he replied, "Aaj shaam hojayega sir" The sim will get activated today, sir. I took his words. Weekend came and went, 2 more days of wait and still the sim was not activated. Never before I have faced this kind of issue. I was constantly calling that vendor for an update, and he kept on comforting me, sometimes telling the network is slow, sometimes he was on the way to the head office, sometimes pakka tomorrow.

I was hell bent on getting that particular sim activated. I was thinking either the vendor is making a fool of me or the Airtel company has barred me. the second option didn't seemed fitting as I already had one sim working fine. Vendor making me a fool or he not doing his job properly seemed a lot acceptable in this situation. Tell me what would you have thought? I started getting angrier while talking to him. Advising him to do his job by the book or else tell me that he can't do it.

Irritated I was (2 weeks had gone by) I wrote a mail to Airtel complaining about the sim guy not doing his job. Airtel people from customer care is swift in replying. Within hours I got a reply and I was taken aback by seeing the reply. It said, "Sir, you already have multiple connections in your name, we cannot provide one more connection" I had one Airtel sim that I was using and the other one I gave to my wife which was blocked because she was not using it. Hence they were not giving me the 3rd connection in my name.

I felt silly at my behavior. All these while I was angry at the vendor and here I am not getting a sim activated because of my own reasons. I asked Airtel to disconnect the second sim that my wife was not using so that I can activate a different sim.

After a two and half weeks of tension, the problem was resolved and I got to learn a lesson, actually revive a lesson:

Things are almost never what they seem. Look deeper.

Magnificence of Arabic language

In Arabic a word is by default masculine, it will be considered feminine only if it satisfies few conditions for feminism. Now how to identify if a word is feminine or not
(You can go in detail in some other sites, as this is just in brief)

In Arabic words are feminine because either it is real or fake...
Real ones normal nouns or pronouns like sister, daughter, Ayesha, etc.
Fake ones are the one that ends with ة , ى (ta marbuta), or آ like Salat, Maghfirat, Rahmat, Zarqua (blue) etc. (difficult to write Arabic here)
Also, body parts that are in double are also feminine like hand, eye, lips, etc
And there are words like Harb (War), Najm (Star), Shams (Sun), etc. which are feminine only because Arab said so

What so magnificent?
In Arabic the word “shams” (sun) is feminine, and “qamar” (moon) is masculine. The sun burns itself out to give light and life to everything around, and the moon is muneer (reflects the light). Within itself it has no light; it radiates the brilliance of the sun. So when we as Muslim men shine, the implication is that we are reflecting the glorious light of the women of this Ummah. Subhan Allah this grammatical classification of Arabic is completely at odds with all major languages of the world where Sun is masculine and moon is feminine.