Ungrateful: Let's get MARRIED!

Dear paper-hearts your imagination is a blessing, if you can use it right. Imagine your ex and start talking to them and act as if they are really there. All that you could have been and the things they would have said. Trust me it will always make you laugh. And soon you’d get tired and the ex's ghost would eventually fade away. Woahoo! This is the best way. Sure your family might diagnose you with schizophrenia but it will be worth it. Forget counting how many degrees of separation there are pay attention to your creativity. Cherry on top this relationship advice keeps you happy or maybe I’m the only weirdo here.

Don’t we have had enough of the WHATEVERHOOD movies with the same plot since we were in kindergarten? Life won't work the way you expect and this is the beauty of it. Yes it gets worse but don't it return you greater rewards and the least expected opportunities? The thing is we have lost the plot. The purpose of life was never to get the right one. Even if you get the right one this world won’t turn into Jannah. It stays exactly the same if you are lucky.

However Islam doesn't stop you from marrying the person you like. The problem arises when life doesn't turn into a fairyland after you marry the love of your life.  We expect too much from the creation of ALLAH. Plus we take pride in staying ungrateful to our loved ones, just to keep them struggling like slaves. And the day they give up we go to the whole world complaining how our marriage is a mess. Once the argument is resolved we use it as a secret weapon to bring the partner down bad next time.

Here is a beautiful example: One day we called our maid for overtime to do some extra chores around the house. She came to help showing great loyalty. Before my mother paid her overtime the maid started praying for her husband. It was shocking for this man has given her absolutely nothing of value, no house or wealth, not even kids! She works extra hours for the school expenses of her adopted son. Yet she is grateful and praying for her husband. How lucky is that guy and how much she respects him. Who are these people and what are we?

Life is too short for confusing yourself with superfluous distractions. Whatever is written in your fate will stay yours. Nothing can be better than to put your trust in ALLAH who is Al Aleem, The ALL-KNOWING. Be grateful and accept any goodness that ALLAH sends your way.
Oh and let me know if the BEST ever breakup-remedy mentioned above works for you. Extraordinary is what we are! 

Casual: MUST. WATCH. TV. SHOWS.

TV shows are such a waste of time. Warning: an entirely pointless and casual article ahead. We don’t have to be professional and boring all the time. Right? Not that I just ran out of topics.

Have you ever watched the whole season of a popular TV series in a row? It’s not about the sad shows, which no sane person likes to watch. The sitcoms or super dragged comedy series in which everyone is funny, goofy or both. The shows that keep you hooked on till you begin to resemble any hypnotized drug addict. Soon you know so much about these witty people. And it starts feel like you are a part of their lives when they don’t actually exist?! The moment when you know everything about each and every character of the show it all ends.

OK it might be an over exaggeration but either way it doesn't get any better. Since you’d always realize it was an absolute waste of time. Not really cause probably there isn't anything else to do sometimes. So perhaps the feeling of being wasted comes from considering it a reality and later finding you are not the piece of the puzzle missing. In case you have a smart scheme; to keep the final show of the season pending for a few hours believing it would help. It won’t.

No don’t even think of denying it, sometimes nonsense things makes the most sense, just admit it. (Even if it appears so, that was NOT some cheesy line from the serial. And you just believed a lie.) Anyway why do we watch shows that sure make us laugh then bring so many creepy feelings afterwards? Unless you have someone to discuss it with in which case it gets a little less lonely maybe.

It’s OK if it was your own choice but in case someone recommended it to you. Not just recommended but introduced the whole idea of watching the complete season in one day. Then you must stop listening to such mean, heartless, and ‘has no life’ people.  For their long term motive was to make you feel great in imagination but miserable in reality. Now do you see the master mind plan? This addiction turns you into a restless hungry Zombie, MUST. WATCH. MORE. SHOWS!

Long, downright disturbing story short: just stop it, it’s not healthy. Guess we ended up finding a meaning to this pointless discussion. However I’m not sure if I have added to the temptation of watching another Season in a row. This leads to a very important question, which TV show made you feel this insane when it was over?

Spirituality: Lessons Learned!

Few years back I and my two girls were bright eyed and bushy tailed hijabis who knew nothing about Islam.  The good part is we wanted to learn more about ourselves and find reasons. The problem with that was we never got one for being looked as a lost cause. Then someone told us about the new guy at campus.  This guy who would teach people about Islam and by people I mean ‘girls’. It sounded spooky at first but then we thought he is on the right path? Maybe...

On your search for knowledge, spirituality or Islam you’d come across many different types of people. The people who give you no right to question then impose their ideology on you like King Julian from Madagascar. Further on your journey you’d encounter horrible realities of how people are divided and how they don’t even acknowledge the concept they are ready to 'DIE' for. Sadly it adversely affects a learner and their perception about Islam. They start to fear asking questions. 
No matter how many disappointments you get on your journey it should not stop your search. If you are lucky you’d find people who only show you the path by walking on it as an incredible example for you. This scenario is extremely rare though.

Anyway this guy turns out to be decent, honest and poised man except for one thing. He would set his own Haram and Halal, and could change them the next day plus with a logical explanation. For instance we girls have to abstain from bad company but it is OK for him. The reason was his gossip lover; rumor spreading, materialist friends were his childhood buddies. At first we were astonished wondering how he does that but later the only person he deceived was himself. The downfall is destined when you start to mess we NATURE'S rules.

The key is to never believe what they only say, just sit back and observe. Observation is enough to see if they follow what they teach you. A teacher has to be an example first or else the lesson is multiplied by ZERO!

Leave all your bad companies or they will take you right back in the ditch where you pulled yourself out of. Stop being guilty about things you don’t even owe people in the first place.  When you want to rise to a higher spiritual level, start to let go whatever is unnecessary. How can you set yourself free when your feet are tied to the heavy burdens? Spiritual soul has to be lighter in order to rise above. Untie itself from sins, bad company or anything that pulls you down to the ground. Remember arrogance does not take you up it drills you into the concrete floor permanently. The opposite of light and spirituality is depression and downfall.

Well that guy did help us learn that each and every one of us has the ability to differentiate between right and wrong. If don’t get influenced by the prevailing trends or absurd cultures for the truth penetrates through it. The recognition of truth is already programmed in you; your conscious is a gift from your Creator. Thus when the truth comes to you stand by it and abandon anything your HEART rejects. 

Solution: Smoking is a thrilling blindfold!

   If you started to smoke to look all “Brad Pitt” chances are you’d end up looking more like Gollum. Others excuses include peer pressure, workload stress, emotional imbalance, etc. Then there was this smart sneaky guy with a villainous air around him I met on a pleasant Punjab tour until his mother told me the weirdest thing ever. He’d smoke and pile all smoked cigarettes at his father’s bedroom door, sometimes the whole pack! Thus maybe in some cases smoking is done in derision, vengeance or to get a reaction.  Anyway if you knew the whole situation you’d be on this guy’s side, only we have to agree his revenge is pathetic and absolutely self-destructive.

The process of quitting is same for smoking, you search the problem first. The problem is craving. Ok now figure out why, when and where it emerges from. And then how it penetrates into your system. Pick your lame excuse for smoking and replace it with something more devastating and positive. If the replacement didn't work and surely won’t work in the beginning so keep replacing. The process itself keeps your mind of the negativity. By the way there are many other better options to reduce stress than decomposing yourself alive.

A smoker who wants to quit is never ashamed of the cigarettes but they are ashamed of realizing they have lost self control. They start to feel helpless against the bad habit that haunts them; especially when their loved ones desire a healthy lifestyle for them. Addiction is crazy thing if you start to give in it becomes the giant you could never beat. We forget we are the one who let this monster in and fed it. In that case your addiction is pretty smaller than the monster you are only if you understand.  The question is not “how I got here?” it is “how I get out of here?”

Somehow each and every one of us is to blame for not restraining a smoker just because it was a guy. Shockingly in our culture a male smoker takes pride in talking about it. In contrast females are blessed with a huge barrier of social unacceptability here. Plus our society believes Male has more responsibility and needs to provide for the family and protect it. And then ironically it allows them to invite painful death caused by addictive cancers. Smoking is simply a long term confused yet sure suicide plan. The solution is smoking should be made taboo for both genders.

Even if you do it casually or once in a while when with friends it does NOT become any healthier. Also we need to see bad habits don’t come in good times on a golden plate. Let’s hope they find a way out of the hell, without becoming a part of it.

Spread the good word and keep shining!

A New Beginning!!!!

Note: Article sent by volunteer, Maddah Hussain

Sometimes all you need is a spark. An ignition to get your engine running. Although, Man has invented machines but in doing so, he actually made a mirror image of himself. It may sound crazy but have we ever thought about it? That we are doing what we're told, like someone has defined some tasks and we're executing the commands. It's just like we're running in circles or a particular pattern. We wake up, get ready for work, eat, go to work, have lunch, more work, get home, eat and then go to sleep.

I used to believe that everyone is unique but in reality, people only look different but on the inside everyone is just the same like everyone is running in circles and getting nowhere. Now at this point, some people are bound to get confused about this whole concept of living, some become lost, some will linger on and some will draw a tangent to a circle to end up somewhere new.

The whole point is that Mankind is destined to achieve the greatness of the all the worlds, not to be caged and lost in the limbo. Everyone wishes for a reset button to start over new. Well, you can always start over, not from the beginning but from where you were devastated, broken and crushed. To be precise, from the moment you gave up on life or yourself.

The reason behind this is that we have limited ourselves to our small lives and we are so caught up in things that we even forget about ourselves. Take some time out and think about all the great things you can do. You can do anything, you can become anything. You just have to put your mind in to it. JUST STOP AND THINK FOR A WHILE THAT WHAT YOU'VE BEEN DOING? WHAT YOU'VE BEEN MISSING? AND WHAT GREATNESS YOU CAN ACHIEVE!!!!!!!!