Yasir Ahmed Khan – My Bit for Change

Money, Money, Money..

History itself is the best teacher for mankind. People, who learn from it, record their names in the history as successful. These lessons and the examples keep on cumulating day by day as the time waits for none and keeps on flowing like water streams endlessly by turning future into present and the present into a past.

Nowadays we are so busy in making money that we even forget the people who surround us and complete our lives. Our busy schedule only incorporates workplace as the highest priority where we try to make our wealth multiply every day and never are satisfied with what we have. But after decades trying to earn money, we see a completely changed scenario. We are wrinkled, weak, dependable and needy of care and comfort and everyone else is running on the same path like we did years ago. In Quran, Allah says

“Man is, indeed, very ungrateful to his Lord” (Surah Al-Adiyat Ayat:6).

I was once told a fable about a king and a saint. The king out of his pride orders the saint, standing in front of him, to ask whatever he desires. The saint moved the mystical bowl towards the king and asked the king to fill it. The king tried to fill the bowl. He emptied his pockets filled with gold and silver coins, took out his gold chain and all the rings from his fingers but wasn’t able to fill the bowl completely as the bowl was big. He immediately asked the royal treasurer to bring the complete wealth to him and fill the mystical bowl. The order was obeyed but the bowl was still not filled completely. The king, to avoid further embarrassment, asked his ministers to contribute but the bowl remained empty as there was nothing in it. One by one the whole city’s wealth was poured into the bowl but that too was of no use. Finally, the king accepted his defeat. The Saint turned the bowl upside down and to everyone’s astonishment, it was empty. The saint smiled and moved towards the gates of the palace. The king rushed towards saint and asked him about the mystery of the bowl and that what it was made up of? The saint smiled and replied to the king that the bowl is made of human wishes and can only be filled through the sand of the grave.

In 1923, the eight richest people of the world met and combined their wealth which happened to be more than the wealth of the government of America at that time. They were at their best in the art of doubling the money. But they forgot that they were created by their creator who has also created declines after every escalation. They impaired their relations for the sake of earning money. Within the very next 25 years of time span, they became a history to the world and majority of us don’t even know them.

Charles Schwab, president of largest steel company died bankrupt. The president of largest gas company Howard Hubson went insane. Arthur Cutton, known as one of the most famous future commodity trader died bankrupt. Richard Whitney, who was known as the president of NY Stock Exchange of his time was sent to jail. Albert Fall, the secretary of interior became the victim of Teapot Dome scandal and held guilty for conspiracy & bribery, died after long illness. Jesse Livermore known as the famous stock speculator after a crash of 1929 fell into the well of financial crises and committed suicide. Ivar Kreger, known as the Match king & Leon Fraser the president of Bank of International Settlement, both committed suicide. They all are mostly known as an unsuccessful person rather than their wealth.

Life is same as a ship and the sea water surrounding it is the wealth required by the life to float. If the water of wealth enters into the ship then the ship of life will start sinking. So take some of your precious moments from the busy life and ask yourself repeatedly if the sea of wealth has started to sink the ship of life?

Ethical Marketing …..

Today while driving from my home to office in Karachi, I managed to take the route of NIPA to Hassan Square. On that track, there was a billboard to which my sight came across. I stopped my car on the side of the road and stood still in front of the billboard & kept looking at it for 5 minutes. The only thing my brain anticipated during these 5 minutes was “A BIT FOR CHANGE . . . “.

That billboard was delivering a very important message relating to a forgotten lesson which the religion Islam taught to the “MUSLIM” nation of the “ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF PAKISTAN”, a lesson relating to the respect of women. That billboard was saying “Stop Promoting Nudity for Selling Your Fabric”. Then I managed to take a picture of that billboard.

As the summer season has just arrived, the female lawn designers have placed the advertisement on the billboards promoting their products through female and that too without considering the Islamic limits of ethics. The question arises that why does the marketing is portraying a woman as an object? Is there no other way of promoting the fabric without a female model? Will their sales revenue decrease if they only promote the designs without a woman on the billboards?

Most of the people would appreciate this piece of work but some will be labeling it with the conservative mindset. It seems that we have not only snatched the HIJAB of the Muslim female of our society but has also placed them on the enormous billboards. I would like to mention the Quran versus, in which the Almighty Allah, the Creator of mankind and the universe says in Surah Al-Ahzaab, Verse #59:

‘O Prophet! Tell your wives and your daughters and the women of the believers to draw their cloaks (“Jalabib”) veils all over their bodies (screen themselves completely except the eyes or one eye to see the way that is most convenient that they should be known (as such) and not molested: and Allah is Oft-Forgiving Most Merciful.”:

It is the time that we must do the assessment of our society that are we following the orders Allah Almighty. This is the time to examine that are we in the limits of the ethics assigned to us by Allah Almighty or we have crossed them all. Islam is the only religion which talks about the female respect and honor They are like the clove of the unopened flowers as they are not pricked by anyone unless they blossom there hidden beauty our of them. In Abu Dawood, Book 32, Hadith # 4091 Ummul Muminin Hazrat Ayesha (Radhiallaahu Anhu) narrated

“May Allah have mercy on the early immigrant women. When the verse “That they should draw their veils over their bosoms” was revealed, they tore their thick outer garments and made veils from them.

The time has arrived that we should move towards a complete Islam rather then following the only versus which are favorable to us. We have to stop this evil or else may be our own next coming generation will be on these billboards. According to the book “Kenz Al-Omal, v. 13, p. 91 & 93” The Prophet (s) said,

“A caller will call out on the Day of Judgment, ‘lower your gaze until Fatima (Radhiallaahu Anhu) has passed.”

Keeping in mind the Islamic teaching & taking the Prophet Muhammad Sallalahu Alaih Wasalam, his Ahl e Bayt & Sahabah Ikraam Rizwaanullahe Ajmaeen, we have to explore marketing techniques free from unethical means. Let us secure our Muslim society so that our females may breath again free from embarrassments. The time has come to represent the true image of Muslim not only by words but by conduct. Let us all join our hands to promote this Nobel cause and take another step to free our society from evil.

The divine way

It has been years since Pakistan has emerged on the map of the world. Muslims of India became Muslims of Pakistan after a great struggle and a big loss of human lives. The question arises that what made them struggle for the separate homeland and putting life at stake. Today, after accomplishing approximately 64 years of independence, we have got distributed into two different schools of thought. One of the schools of thought says that Pakistan is a Muslim state (as the Muslims are in the majority) but according to them, it doesn’t imply that the Islamic law should be followed as a mandatory requirement. The other group seems completely disagreeing with this perception and focuses on the approach of the people who struggled for the independence as the only thing in their mind was a land where they can practice their religion Islam without any restrictions.

Our homeland was named Islamic Republic of Pakistan by the founders. But unfortunately, the Islamic laws were not implemented for running this Islamic society. It can easily be interpreted that the people with power at that time, got distracted from the way they should have walked upon. The biggest flaw in our country’s system is that rather than implementing the Islamic laws, we have started thinking Islam is only a religion, and not a code of life.

After analysing the thoughts of the specific group whose thinking is to separate Islam as a religion from the governing of the state, when I open the Book of Allah, the Qur’an when I read Hadith, I feel completely confused that what has made that specific group of people think that way. May be it is due to the reason that we never implemented Islamic laws and now we are trying to satisfy ourselves by saying that Islam has nothing to do with the state governance. Islam is not as the way we have represented it as so-called Muslim. The remaining work of defaming this religion was done by the media, both (electronic and print) as it has played a key role is placing a misconception in the people minds.

If we had implemented the Islamic laws, the present situation would have completely changed. It is not any NGO but Islam which talks about rights of minorities, rights of women, education, equal distribution of wealth, a society free from inflation and governing the overall state. This was the same Islam which was implemented by the Caliphs in their times after the the Holy Prophet (Peace be upon him) by following the Quran & Sunnah as the constitution.

We still have time in our hands to implement the real Islamic laws in our homeland Pakistan which was made an independent state in the name of Islam. It is high time we made practical implementation of the real good governance and a welfare state, and overcome the worst state of time we are in. Why not try the divine way with full faith and conviction for once?

Let’s make it possible

In the world of advanced technologies, where inventions get obsolete everyday due to rapid innovations, where the modernization is the change which is constantly revolutionizing our lives, we the Pakistanis still spend only 2.21% of GDP on the education. I feel this is like the condition of a human half paralyzed, despite of knowing the cure he does not struggle to obtain it. It has been 64 years to our independence but still half of the nation is unable to read & write even in their local languages. Whereas the remaining nation categorized as literate is the majority who hardly meet the definition of educated. That implies that they actually can read and write but are not aware of their basic rights, duties & responsibilities towards their families, neighbourhoods & especially towards the nation.

In April 2010, Article 25A, “Right to Education” was inserted into the constitution of Pakistan as a part of 18^thamendment. The article says that the state shall provide free & compulsory education to all children of the age of five to sixteen years in such manner as may be determined by the law. But if we look at our government funded primary, secondary, and some of the higher educational institutions, we can’t even find “state” & “education” anywhere and if we move towards private education providers, we find it so much expensive that it goes beyond the reach of a common person.

According to a survey, 10 million of children are engaged in child labour. They are not even provided basic education. This is a double figure for the rural areas where children are forced to work in fields. This part of our nation will become a burden for the country in some years causing an increase in the illiteracy rate and also become useless due to a technological change as they would not be competent enough for the future jobs. If we presume that they will adapt the same thinking in future as their fore fathers did in the past then they would most probably do the same with their next generation by constraining them from education. If this happens, then definitely the percentage of illiteracy will be multiplied by two.

Half of our nation is deprived of a very basic need which is the education, solution of the majority of our country’s problem. It looks like now it has become impossible to resolve this issue of illiteracy unless we join our hands and take practical steps for educating the masses.

It is high time we stood for the cause of education. We have to fight the war against the illiteracy before fighting any other war. We have to make it possible, as it is the need of the day. To change the current scenario and to amend the future, we need to give special importance to this task and for that we have to realize that it is our responsibility.

While delivering a speech to the constituent assembly of Pakistan on August 11, 1947 Mr. Jinnah said,

“I am sure that with your support and co-operation, I can look forward to Pakistan becoming one of the greatest nations of the world”.

Let us own his dream and make it our goal.