Social – Page 4 – My Bit for Change

My Hijab – My life

Having grown up in England I knew that there will always be people who would not know what hijab meant and many view it as oppression to women. I was however, lucky enough to grow up in a multi-cultural environment where a girl wearing the hijab was normal to see. So I didn’t know that people may react negatively to my hijab until I started university.

My hijab is so much a part of me that I feel naked without it, but it does come with its own challenges. I faced my biggest challenge when I started university, studying Physiotherapy.

In a class full of non-Muslim students who didn’t really know what the concept of hijab was or why I wouldn’t wear shorts or pairing up with boys to practice the treatment techniques we learnt in the class I often felt left out and somewhat uncomfortable. People were awkward around me and I didn’t feel like I belonged in this class. But I was determined to become a physiotherapist whilst still maintaining my hijab.

As the course progressed, my classmates became used to seeing me and the way I dressed so I wasn’t so much of a strange sight anymore and they became more comfortable around me. I was so glad, Alhamdulillah, that I hadn’t been tempted to compromise my hijab to ‘fit in.’ I had been able to maintain my hijab, gain more confidence and still complete my degree. Especially coming from a Pakistani background where many people think physiotherapy is an inappropriate career for a Muslim girl due to the university environment and professional requirements.

There are a few things that I had to remind myself time and again, and helped me get along in a totally challenging environment.

• Be confident in wearing and maintaining your hijab, it is a gift from Allah.
• Discuss with the tutors your hijab at the beginning of your degree to get rid of any concerns you or they may have.
• Be strong and try not to compromise your hijab out of fear that you may be seen as strange and not fit in. Remember the hadith of the Prophet (saw)

“Islam began as something strange and will revert to being strange as it began, so give glad tidings to the strangers.” (Muslim).

• If you respect your hijab, so will the tutors and your classmates.
• Discuss the hijab with your classmates to help them understand and remove any misconceptions they have. Provide them with leaflets or booklets..
• Study and learn about the hijab, why you wear it, how you should wear it. It will help to maintain your hijab and even teach others about it. Remember it is not just a piece of cloth that covers your hair.
• Join the Islamic society at your university, they can help and support you throughout your university life.
• Constantly renew your intention of wearing hijab. Remind yourself what you’re wearing is for the sake of Allah and it will insha Allah become easier for you to maintain your hijab.

Are You as Pious as Me?

Have you seen those people who look very pious and virtuous, but at the same are very arrogant, violent and stubborn? They create repulsive vibes and people try to stay away from them. There must be some problem with those guys who practice and preach religion, but turn more people away then they attract towards religion.

The ‘conceit of piety’ may sound odd; but it happens. It’s a disease actually, better known as ‘kibr’ ‘ghuroor’. Satan (Iblees) was the first one who conceited, thought he is the better one. So, indeed all Muslims should try to refrain from conceit and repent whenever such thoughts come into their mind.

The strange thing is the link of piety with conceit. Those who are pious are never supposed to be arrogant; those who are arrogant can never be pious. So from where comes the amalgamation? That is something to ponder upon.

When a person follows the ‘rituals’ religiously, he develops a feeling that he is better than others; certainly better from those who are not performing religious obligations. This develops a sort of superiority complex, in which a person feels himself superior to others. Such a person becomes big-headed and looks down upon others. It naturally takes away humility and the person becomes more arrogant. In his beliefs he is preaching religion, but actually he is repelling people away.

This conceit is a result of our ‘competitive’ mind-set. We tend to compete and quantify everything in monetary terms. While Allah Almighty has encouraged the sense of competition for paradise, the ‘real value’ of each virtue will be decided by Almighty Himself. It does not matter whether a person has given away a million in charity or a penny, what’s really important is his intention. It’s not like scoring grades in college, where A grader can mock the B grader. Grades would be decided on the Day of Judgment by the Almighty Himself; and till then it’s not disclosed that who will enter Heaven or Hell. Every virtue should take us closer to God doesn’t mean that it is guaranteed that we are closer to God. A famous quote of Hazrat Umar Farooq (RA) in which he said that

‘If on Day of Judgement Allah announces that only one person will enter paradise, from the blessings of Almighty I expect that I will be that one. But if Allah announces that only one person will enter the hellfire, I fear that I will be that one.’

The concept of ‘holier than thou’ repels people from religion. The notion that ‘I have achieved a religious status’ and now I am ‘closer to God than you’ is a problem in itself. When we tag others as lesser than us in terms of piety, it surely serves a detrimental purpose. For the opponents of faith, it serves double purpose. First, it turns people away from the faith. Second, it gives the opponents a chance to mock the religion and those who stand for religion.

When we preach religion and perform the role of Dawah, again it is very important that we have humility and lovely attitude. There can be no example betther than the Prophet (SAW) himself. Prophet of peace (SAWW) shown the most humility in his actions.
Quran says

“And who is better in speech than him who prayeth unto his Lord and doeth right, and saith: Lo! I am of those who surrender (unto Him). The good deed and the evil deed are not alike. Repel the evil deed with one which is better, then lo! he, between whom and thee there was enmity (will become) as though he was a bosom friend.” (ch-41: v 33-34)

Our actions should speak louder than our words. Our words will be effective only when our actions follow them. Those who have the conceit of piety, usually have multiple standards; different for themselves and others. It has more of social aspects. When such a person is in command of the situation, who thinks that others are not equal to him in piety, he actually makes life miserable for others. And what is the end result, people are repelled from God and His word, just because of that particular person and his pharaoh like attitude.

All of us should safeguard our virtues from conceit. Whether small or big, whatever our contribution is, it should make us more humble and more God-fearing.

Prophet (SAWW) gave same message in a hadith narrated hazrat Haritha bin Wahb Al-Khuzai:

“May I tell you of the people of paradise? Every weak and poor obscure person whom the people look down upon but his oath is fulfilled by Allah when he takes an oath to do something. And may I inform you of the people of the Hell-Fire? They are all those violent, arrogant and stubborn people.”

To Him we shall return

For the past few weeks, I was planning to jump in the world of blogging. There is certainly no dearth of topics when you come to talk about problems being faced by Muslims and my homeland Pakistan. As nobody can predict death, events in Pakistan may unfold in a similar fashion. Despite finding numerous topics around, I was finding myself in a midst of a situation where I have not been able to decide (although procrastination played and continues to play a significant role) the topic for my first ever blog.

It was just 5 days ago, when I was talking to my younger brother on Skype in Pakistan, when he quickly ended the conversation by saying that our father is not feeling well. He was rushed to the hospital where he walked himself into the emergency department but the moment he was shifted to the bed, he took his last breaths and his soul departed forever. My whole world along with my family’s turned upside down. It was mere half hour which had changed the shape of life forever for us.

I believe many of us must have experienced the same at some point of their lives. I may not be able to depict that emotion in writing as nobody can fully words when you lose a loved one. Initially, it was sense of disbelief, denial, many “ifs” and “buts” many question starting with “why” but eventually it was the verse 156 of Surah Baqarah which at that breaking moment strengthened and deepened my Imaan and it says while describing the one of the important traits of a Muslims who say, when afflicted with calamity,

“To Allah we belong and to Him we shall return” (Al Qur’an 156:2)

In the increasingly materialistic world, even as a Muslim, it has become difficult to ponder and comprehend the meaning and the whole philosophy of Islam and the concept and purpose of life. Although, we often say that “Death is a reality” but ironically our lives and actions do not depict the faith. The Prophet Muhammad (SAW) says

“Remember the eliminator of all pleasures i.e, Death”

Umar bin Khattab (RA) used to say “There is no preacher/reminder better than death”.

The reminder in the Qur’an that “every soul shall taste death” is enough to put us on the right track if we have faith in the word of God.

We read newspapers and watch news of many people dying by different reasons but just move on and remain oblivious to the fact as if it will never ever happen to us. I just saw one of the two doors of mercy has been closed on me and before that day I had never envied those who have both of their parents alive around them. It is time that we all should really take care of them and let’s pray for all those who lost their lives by any reason that may Allah rest their souls in peace and grant their families abundance of patience. We must not forget life is very short and our day may be near too. Are we prepared to face the Creator?

The Moral Demise

Daughter killed her father …..

Shocked when I heard the news that a teenage girl killed her father; reason, he was stopping her from having an illegitimate affair. It was a breaking news on electronic media and reported widely, shocking for the entire country that how she confessed her crime and was actually not feeling any guilt about it.

One thought that continuously struck my mind was what made a daughter so angry that she went to the extent of shooting her father. What was the real cause? Was her ‘teenage love’ for a boy so strong that she didn’t care about her blood relations? Perhaps she was thinking that something magical would happen as often witnessed in famous Indian movies and she would succeed in getting rid of all obstacles that hindered her path & she & her lover would live happily ever after.

Similarly, a shocking news came about an elite school managing a debate on gay rights in Islamabad and I was thinking that where are we heading towards? Do these elite schools give a damn about religious and ethical values or they just believe in blindly following the ultra-liberal ideologies. They are having fun with fundamental religious and ethical values while we are sitting as mere spectators.

Few years ago, during my college days, once a friend was sitting on the stairs, deep in thought. I asked what happened and he said, ‘ Looking at the current trends, I am thinking that If after 20 years my daughter is having an affair, how will I stop her’. It sent shockwaves down my spine at that time, but now we are seeing things actually we never thought about. Lifestyle has entirely changed in our country in past ten years. Just look at the language of our kids these days and it will shock you.

Lets play the blame game. Lets blame media for polluting the mind of the girl who killed her father. Lets blame our educational system for these shallow moral values. Lets blame parents for not teaching the kids properly. Lets blame society for promoting unethical values. Lets blame the government … Lets simply blame!!

This blame game won’t result in anything positive. We certainly need to identify the ‘root-cause’ of the problem and take corrective measures. In my opinion, the root cause is that we have not defined our own role models. We need to define the real role models. And for that purpose, we need to put a lot of question marks on our real ideology. Who are our heroes? Who are we aspiring to become?

Kids idealize the heroes, and whoever heroes they think, they would try to follow them. We need our own real life heroes. Or should I say, we need to project our own real life heroes, because we already have them, but our kids don’t know as many of us have also forgotten. Is our hero Hazrat Khalid Bin Walid, Hazrat Mus’ab Bin Umair or any Bollywood/Hollywood hero. Everyone in Pakistan would certainly respond that Companions of Prophet (SAWW) are our heroes. But then how much we and our kids know about them. How much do we talk about them. How much do we try to follow them?

Our problem is much deeper. We live in a hypocritical society. We have double or triple standards in everything. We have different standards for ourselves and our future generation. We have confused concepts of right and wrong. We want our kids to be modest, polite, religious, and yet they should be westernized, liberal, and exclusively English-speaking. We are exactly as Ghalib said

رند کے رند رھے ، ھاتھ سے جنت نہ گئ

To sum it up in a sentence, we are confused on our ideology of ‘successes’. We need to define what does success means for us. Is having a successful love affair a success? In movies it might be true, but in real life what is the end result. A girl killed her father to succeed in her love affair. Did she get what she wanted? Can she be called successful?

Let’s turn to Quran to get the meaning of success and Quran says

And whoever is removed away from the Fire and admitted to Paradise, he indeed is successful. (Ch 2 :v 185)

Unless we redefine the success in our minds and reteach our kids the problems will only increase. Bollywood style affairs would be more important in the lives of our teenagers and issues like LGBT will be talk of the town in ultramodern Pakistan with no values to uphold and be proud of.

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?

Islam and Rule of the People – I

Is there anything wrong with the idea that people should have the right to rule? Many people argue that there actually is something unacceptable and Islam does not permit such a thing; a blasphemy, maybe. To say that the people have the right to rule, they argue, is to give away a right reserved for God alone as sovereignty belongs to God, no one should be allowed to be partner in it.

Seemingly, this does tend to make sense. More so, in times as ours when people have come to detest democracy in general after witnessing decades of jiyala politics in Pakistan, and hence express their frustration in various forms, including religious ones.

I, for one, cannot comprehend the absolutist condemnation of democracy. One may debate that politics in our country has degenerated to a very humiliating level (to which one can point out many other reasons besides ‘democracy’). But an outright condemnation to the point that one uses religion to oppose it brings many complications as the image of a religion – that is democratic to the core – is put at stake.

I believe that the argument above is based on certain confusions and mishandlings of conceptions in the Islamic tradition.

First of all, it is beyond doubt that God alone is sovereign. This concept emanates from the creed of Tawhid-the oneness of Allah. This is undeniable and incontestable on all levels. But when we are talking about this world we have to be more explicit and clear in what we imply.

While we may recognize God’s supremacy in this world and the next, we never mean that humans don’t have worldly authority. To say that they don’t would be to deny both free will, everything we see all day and common sense, for the sake of it. It is people who already rule themselves; whether in the form of a singular individual, an institution, class, race, parliament and so on. If human rule is to be denied in its worldly sense then the only plausible form of government would be an anarchic one. Sadly maybe, neither God nor His angels come down on earth and take control of governments. It’s a human decision to make; with or without taking God into consideration.

The question that arises then is, in what form does an Islamic state manifest itself?

Islam has provided a socio-political framework and universal principles that guide us in this regard as well. While Islam recognizes the Divine authority, it fails to recognize a divinely class, and hence closes the doors of theocracy. In this sense, the Islamic ideal is not a religious state. Nobody represents God’s will on earth. Instead, God provides the legitimacy to people to rule on his behalf under the framework of His divine guidelines. He did this by making universal man (all humankind) His vicegerent on earth.

The Islamic principle of governance establishes itself on the basis of shoora (consultation) and Khalifat. Derived from these two principles, we can safely say that while western democracy champions popular sovereignty, Islam recognizes popular vicegerency. While there seems to be common ground on the functional level, conceptually both are worlds apart. It’s somewhat like praying in front of a rock; if your idea of the rock is that it is an idol worth worship then the same action – that would otherwise be completely appropriate – becomes a sin.

The Islamic ideal requires that the Muslim community be taken into confidence not only in the selection of the rulers but also in the decisions of the rulers. The welcoming attitude towards criticism by the Khulfa e Rashideen (the Pious Caliphs) is well established. The attitude of Hazrat Ali (RA) and Hazrat Usman (RA), for example, towards the rebels is without any precedent in history. At a moment, Hazrat Ali (RA) even refused to take action against a rebel who openly declared that he will murder the respected caliph. In both these cases, the caliphs in question had to bear many troubles to uphold such cherished ideals.

On an occasion, Hazrat Umer (RA) spoke unambiguously about the selection of the Muslim ruler. While explaining to people that the selection of Hazrat Abu Bakr (RA) was not to be taken as a precedent because it was only adopted out of circumstantial necessity, he went on to say that “If someone gives pledge (bay’et) of allegiance to another (to become a Caliph) without consulting the Muslim community, then the one he has selected should not be granted allegiance, lest both of them should be killed.” * Obviously, the strict connotation at the end refers to carrying out a crime against both the state and the community. The same treatment would today be reserved for someone who breaks the constitution to usurp power.

Click here for Part II and Part III

Reference“ *Sahih Bukhari, Volume 8, Book 82, Number 817”

Where are all these gates leading to

Our nation is obsessed with ‘gates’, be it Watergate or Bill Gates; (though the latter is considered a plural by many). Thus, it has become customary to associate the word gate with every scandal, whether it is Memo-gate, Mehran-gate, Veena-gate or the latest Bahria-gate; the word ‘gate’ is there as a symbolic representation.

Do these gates open a gateway to somewhere? What is the impact of all these scandals on a commoner’s life in the country? Take Memogate, for instance. A lot of hype was created about it but with the passage of time, the dust settled down. In the end, it was considered as a political gimmick to divert the attention from critical issues. Many talk shows were conducted and costly airtime was used for discussions on every aspect of the memo. Even if memogate was critical and a matter of life and death for the country, what was the outcome of the whole hue n cry? Similar questions can be raised about other scandals in which nothing tangible is infront of the nation which can be called a ‘result’.

Now, consider the recent hype about Bahria Gate. Malik Riaz did a press conference while holding Quran in his hand. He raised some serious questions regarding judiciary and the Chief Justice. It became a breaking news immediately and all channels started running marathon transmissions discussing the pros n cons of every uttered word and gesture of Malik Riaz’s presser. Social Media didn’t stay behind. #BahriaGate started trending on twitter. Everyone with or without an opinion participated. In fact, even I personally tweeted a lot. It was immediately the talk of the town. Malik Riaz tried to prove that he had interaction with the Chief Justice. It turned out that during lawyers movement the interaction was there and Malik Riaz tried to bargain on behalf of the rulers and CJ never agreed on NRO and meeting Zardari and hence no deal was reached.

Apparently, this scandal is perfectly timed to divert the attention of people from the corruption of current government and issues like poverty, inflation, energy crisis, lawlessness and target killings. Media has created a hype and serious issues of daily life have gone on the back burner.

But in hindsight, when I reflect now I feel that this issue is indeed important. This single scandal shows the reality of our society and unveils the nature of our social fabric. Virtually everything and everyone was bought and confessed about. For me, ‘confessing a crime with pride’ is a bigger issue. Malik Riaz openly admitted that he bribed and offered favours. His intentions cannot be judged, but his actions surely tell that he wanted to influence the judicial system.

Bahria Gate should not be looked upon as ‘just another corruption scandal’. It shows that how a person earned fortunes and on his way up the ladder, he tried to purchase everything that came along. He had contacts with major political personalities, military junta, media tycoons and famous anchors. He had a say in crucial political affairs. He utilized all these deliberately established contacts for his purposes. In some cases, he gave a lot of charity to the poor and deprived people. Thus he used all means to establish his significance. This mentality is not rare. When I joined my first job, a senior told me to ‘oblige’ everyone by giving favours. He told me that’s how I could make my roots stronger in the organization. This culture of influencing others and then taking undue favours is ruining the very essence of our society. So very few were able to resist the fortunes offered by Malik Riaz and in the process Bahria town developed into an empire estate which had its own rules of the game.

Another important aspect of this scandal is the role of journalists. They are fighting each other and exposing themselves on this issue. Their fight has revealed a lot about the unscrupulous internal affairs of media. It also shows how people from media are manipulated. Malik Riaz is investing a lot in mainstream media by ads which clearly influences the opinion of media.

One significant thing is the deplorable trend of holding Quran during press conferences. Altaf Hussain and Zulfiqar Mirza did the same before and now Malik Riaz repeated it once again. Seriously, it shows ill mentality of our so called ‘leaders’. The sanctity of the Quran should be maintained and it should not be used in ‘political mimicry’.

This scandal should be taken to the logical and fair conclusion. All the holy cows should be unveiled and slaughtered once and for all. Only then it can bring long lasting peace in the lives of ordinary citizens. It can decide our future if we punish all the culprits and prove that our nation is not for sale. However, if the history of previous ‘gates’ repeats itself then our society will loose its belief on justice. It will bring more downfall for the morality in our society which is already touching its lows. This scam is a test for our nation and I believe that if we successfully cross this bridge, we will come out as a better nation inshaALLAH.

Budget Simplified

Budget 2012 was being presented in National Assembly and it reminded me about my lab attendant. His newly born daughter died last month during labour at home in a far flung village of KPK . He was not able to afford the delivery expenses in hospital and therefore he opted for labour at home. I came to know about it when he had already left home after hearing the sad news of demise. When he came back, he told me that he is earning about 10K and the charges of a hospital delivery were not bearable for him as the medical tests and medicines were quite expensive. I was thinking that whats in the budget for him.

Finance minister tried to convince people that they are living in a heaven while when we look around, its totally a different picture. There is indeed a darker side which does not match with the claims of present regime. Are you confused in the budetary figures? That is why the budget does contain all this fuss. It is an attempt to show the brighter picture when there is dark all around. To cover up the bad governance and corruption of the government, people are trapped in heavy figures to show that the country is in best condition.

So what are these calculations all about? Lets make it simple, consider the following example. If there are only two persons in a place, one has earned Rs 100 and other has not earned anything. Now calculate their GDP, its Rs 100. Their per capita income is Rs 50. GDP includes the earnings /spending of all, in which the rich elite becomes a significant factor, but poor people contribute little to it. Growth rate of GDP depends more upon how much ‘richer the rich have gotten’. So even if growth figures are high, they are significant only for the rich elite. The facilities are available, but not affordable for the common people.

What is the real purpose of a budget then? Ideally speaking, the budget is an estimate of how much we are going to earn and how much we should spend. It allocates money for different projects. Its a document which reveals that how much of the previous targets were achieved and what are the new targets; that’s it. But the government tries to cover its ugly face by using heavy terminologies. A lot of time these figures are falsified, their impact is blown out of proportion, just to cover the mess the government has created.

Current budget is again a same budget with false promises. A huge part is being spent on defense, government expenditures etc. 70 billion rupees being spent on Benazir Income support program is a wastage of money. This huge amount could have been used for the better projects related to education, health, infrastructure and energy sector.These figures didn’t mean anything to the poor labourer who is trying hard to make both ends meet. It doesn’t mean anything for the person who is sick and spending all he could to get a proper treatment. Joblessness is becoming a huge problem in the country. Industry is closing down and millions are loosing jobs. Current Budget is in heavy deficit. It simply means that earnings are less and expenditures are more, government will not reduce its expenditures but will borrow more money. Rich industrialists are not paying taxes and common people have to pay tax on everything.

Now lets talk about increase in salaries. When salaries are increased by same percentage for all, it means peanuts for poor (low grade employees) and huge increments for high grade officers. It widens the already huge gap of rich and poor in the country. A grade 22 officer earning in six figures, with all the benefits and previliages cannot think about the problems faced by a poor. While price hike and inflation is same for all, increase in income is not similar. It makes the poor ‘poorer’ & the rich ‘richer’

So this budget is a budget for elite class. They will get benefited. Poor will not get any benefits unless we change the system. Only one budget so far has ever been termed as a budget for poor people, and that was presented by Liaqat Ali Khan in 1946. Other than that, whichever party was in govt, circumstances were same for ordinary class. The capitalistic economy needs to be uprooted and Islamic system of finance needs to implemented, which ensures flow of wealth from rich to poor; only that is the way out.

Studying in East Asia

OK! so you wish to study abroad, and do not have the fortunes to pursue your dreams? Well, it’s not the end of the world for you. When there is a will, there is a way and the way is to get scholarships.

Universities around the world are waiting for scholars to do research but they are not getting enough suitable candidates, reason being the suitable candidates do not have the information how to get there.
The focus of this article is on getting scholarships in East Asian countries, i.e. Japan, Korea, China, Thailand and Singapore. Countries like Japan and Korea are developing fast and investing a lot in the education sector. Their industries are fully supporting the academia, and it’s very easy to get a scholarship, only if you are persistent.

So let’s go directly to the tricks of the trade.

First step is to search the universities in your desired country on the internet. Once you go to the website of any university, go to the faculty and see who are the professors and observe what they are doing. Drop an individual email to the professors of your interest. No, they don’t mind you sending them an email directly. The email should contain your strengths and your desired area in few lines. The rates of response will be slow, one in ten probably, but if you get a response, that’s it! You are nearly there. Every professor has got industrial and governmental projects in his lab, for which he needs researchers to work upon. If he is interested in you, he will support your studies, will get the university to waive-off your tuition and will ensure that you are provided a living stipend so that you can simply relax and study!

It’s simple, isn’t it? Now if you want me to type an email for you, sorry I won’t do that for you. If you can read this, then your English is good enough, far better than a lot of Koreans and Japanese. English language is a great barrier especially in research for East Asian countries and they consider Pakistani students as a blessing. They need you to do research for them in English. Some universities like AJOU and KNU will give you direct access to the professors while for others you have to search the university website. Drop emails to the professors and wait for the response. I repeat, consistency and persistence is all that you need.

In each university, professors run labs based on industrial projects, so the funding is not an issue. If professor is interested in you, he will accept you and rest are formalities. For instance, in my lab, my professor accepted a medical student, who was a graduate in ophthalmology, to do PhD in Biomedical Engineering, a totally different field. I have seen people with the background of computer engineering having PhDs in chemical engineering. So it’s all about you, identify your area and locate the professors in those areas. Prefer the professors with more experience and more projects. Labs do have their websites, and it contains emails addresses of the PhD students, drop them an email as well. I know a lot of students who got scholarships by this method. Most importantly, you can find scholarships with living stipend for Masters degree without many prerequisites.
In the process, you might identify certain university scholarships, governmental scholarships, and some industrial scholarships. It was strange for me to see people with all those different scholarships, and their only ability was that they searched for it or someone told them about it. Korean and Japanese governments also give scholarship opportunities to the students of developing world, which need to be searched upon. For some students, even the tickets were paid by the professors. My professor paid my house rent for two consecutive years as I didn’t want to live in a dorm room.

The standard of education in the universities of East Asia, typically in Japan and Korea is getting much better. You can find quite a few of them in top 200 of international rankings. Tokyo University, National University of Singapore, KAIST, SNU and Yonsei are considered top class universities with tangible contribution towards research. One important factor which directly contributes towards the international ranking of a university is the number of enrolled foreign students; thats why the universities of East Asia are interested in attracting foreigners. Therefore, these universities are offering alot of opportunities to the foreign students, especially to those who are from developing world. So if you don’t have the fortunes to study in USA and UK etc, you can certainly utilize the opportunities which are being offered in East Asia.

Having said all this, life is not a piece of cake out there. You have to be strong enough to survive the test of times. If it doesn’t kill you, it will make u stronger. So if u can live alone, and live abroad in a different culture; then you can get the opportunity of studying there. Most importantly, once you are out and in the open, you learn a lot. The benefit of getting scholarship in East Asia would be that you can quit and move on at any time as there’s very little you have invested in monetary terms. There is no bond and you have free will to carry on or quit. In short, all you need is passion and the doors will open for you InshaALLAH.

To cover or not to cover – That’s the question!

Lately, I have read at least two well-written articles on the ‘hood and hijab’ issue, or the choice to cover and how that head-covering can lead to many conclusions: freedom, oppression, discrimination, objectification, and in some cases even death. The topic to cover or not to cover, to cover partially, to cover completely, to uncover partially, to uncover completely is a hot and debatable one; clearly, because there are at least five options to answer this elusive multiple choice question (MCQ). Everyone seems to look at this question with an objective stance, but strangely so, objectivity is a slippery slope, and somewhere down the journey to the summit of being purely reasonable, one slips into subjectivity. That is normal for everyone to have a bias. A choice indicates a bias. But when it comes to answering this MCQ, something more than a choice is needed to motivate any of those five options. And this is where the fallacy of the argument lies. To cover or not to cover (and other branching shades of opinion) is really not a matter of choice. It is a matter of belief.

Anything that is a matter of belief, quite simply put, cannot be and should not be evaluated through logic, although many people believe that all beliefs are logical, or should be proven through logic. Belief, however, is something purely emotional, and through the certainty of that emotion it might ascend to logic, or rather logical justification, but that in itself begs the question. An argument between an atheist and a theist is doomed to fail. They cannot be objective about their claims. An atheist believes that there is no God; a theist believes otherwise. And then they build their house of cards in which logic is appealed to, to justify and substantiate their beliefs. It is a matter of belief that God had a conversation with Moses. It is matter of belief that Jibrail had, and continued to have conversations with Muhammad (SAW). It is matter of belief that Holy Scriptures are not just stories written by idle minds and eloquent hands. It is a matter of belief that for someone they are just stories written and read to be inspired, or to inspire fear or love, that angels and God don’t exist and it is all a huge delusion of comfort and convenience. But even the delusionary are now questioning the authenticity of their claims, and so are recruiting to the idea of agnosticism, not either-or, but neither-here-nor-there. It all boils down to belief, and the conviction of that belief.

Now, the argument for the whole covering up issue is that it is professed as a matter of choice. Some can best define it as a moral choice. But then again who defines morality? Those who don’t do it think that it gives them liberation. Those who do it think it’s liberating. I came across a cartoony rendering of this idea: there are two women, one is dressed in a burqa with only her eyes visible, the other in a bikini, with only her eyes covered by sunglasses, and each looking at the other feeling sorry, the burqa-clad saying, “nothing covered but her eyes, what a cruel, male-dominated world”, and the bikini-clad saying, “everything covered but her eyes, what a cruel, male-dominated world.” The choice therefore is an either-or, and the denomination, as claimed by one writer who wrote vehemently against covering up (while thinking all along how objective the analysis was): it’s a cruel, male-dominated world that motivates or compels a woman to cover. Well, there is no doubt that the world is cruel and male-dominated. But the motivation and/or compulsion felt by a woman to observe purdah is what really needs to be analyzed. In actuality for those who believe in the idea and the act of covering up, it’s not a matter of choice, even though it is now construed as such due to convenience (on part of the construer). It might become that, but the choice is rooted in a belief in the idea that morality is not secular, that morality comes from some direction, that direction has to be perfect, and that perfection cannot come from man who is fallible and is known to err, but from the Divine that is infallible, and is known to forgive.

I am not going to present elaborate and innumerable religious citations to justify this point of contention. But I will present a secular maxim that is quoted often enough: when in Rome, do as the Romans do. Now if we are to extend this maxim to a metaphor, and equate the idea of Rome to the faith Islam, then the principle that becomes operative is to do as the Muslims do. And those who believe in the idea, ideology and idealism that Islam has offered, achieved and sought would agree that the best and real Muslims were those when Islam actually came into being, historically speaking. And as it’s best to lead and easy to follow by example, we had Prophet Muhammad (SAW) demonstrate the faith in every way and form. And just as some things never change, we had a cruel, male dominated society even back then – that’s why it was called the Age of Ignorance that the ‘new’ faith sought to enlighten. But it was not the male voice of that enlightenment that asked the women to hush up their individuality, sit in a dark corner and cover up. The commandment, however, was just the last bit: to cover up. Hence it was not, and never a matter of convenient choice. The women heard not the voice of the man who forwarded this commandment, but the commandment itself. The women never followed the man in action; they had their own models and examples to follow and be led by i.e. the Prophet’s wives. So this current claim that covering up should be contextualized as being historically relevant with no place in current times and therefore should be shelved itself at least for those who believe in Islam, and the application of the Roman maxim.

And, now comes the troubling and ever-elusive subject of modesty – the rationale behind covering up. One of the authors expressed her disapproval by stating that modesty cannot and should not be achieved through covering up. I cannot agree more – at least with the former claim. Modesty is a state of mind, a humble mind. But that state of mind is purely subjective, like a bias. A woman from a Muslim nation can put up naked pictures of herself on her blog to reveal her justified rebellion. Her intention in her mind at least is perfectly noble. However, someone who is viewing her nakedness and reveling in what she is revealing renders the protest redundant: she is seeking to inform others of how she was objectified and sexually assaulted, but someone is just pleasing their virility by simply not lowering their gaze and looking at her. The sexual assault and objectification that she was protesting against is being repeated. Not physically of course. But mentally – and the mind knows no inhibitions especially when the stimulus is so graphic. Those who fuel the porn industry can testify to this. So, a pure intention is being marred by the action. You can cover or not cover, but you cannot guarantee what the onlooker is thinking or feeling or imagining. Wearing a burqa (or not) does not guarantee that you are exempted from being an object. That’s why men were asked to lower their gaze first, an expression that was to achieve modesty of the mind and body, intention and action. And the culmination of that claimed modesty – if it was there in the first place – should be manifested in totality, in all four: mind, body, intention and action. You can intend that my intention is not to arouse, but if you’re giving them something to look at (or even nothing to look at for that matter), they’ll still get aroused – a simple biological reflex, stronger in some than in others, but present nevertheless. The burqa can be considered as a necessary and convenient filter. But there are no guarantees.

To cover or not to cover, that is the question! That’s a matter of belief and your choice to subscribe to that belief – and its own package deal. Covering up does not guarantee that you’re ending up in heaven. Neither does not covering up. It’s a popular understanding, that those who cover their faces with a cloth or a beard are the most corrupt and vindictive scum of the earth, or even terrorists for that matter – a hasty generalization of course, as was the case with Travyon Martin and Shaima Alawadi. But the resentment is justified, for those who do cover in the name of faith are bearing an emblem of piety, and to not fully meet the standards of the piety that that emblem should’ve intended to generate in the first place is a mockery of both the emblem and the professed piety. And piety is a private matter of the heart. No human can or should be a judge of that. Piety cannot be achieved by merely donning a garment, or shunning it. One has their whole life to practice the part and to perform. The applause (or the boos) will follow later. And the choice to agree to the metaphor and be convinced of its truth is an open question: a matter of belief.