Infectious Energy

T he  # secret  of  # prayer   # Sujood As believers , we all have always, wanted a prayer that is accepted in front of the Creator. A prayer that brings us closer to Allah SWT and a prayer that is answered by the Lord of the worlds. What is that one secret prayer..... Well the secret of such prayer is in Sujood (Prostration) Ibn Al-Qayyim described the sujood as the secret of prayer, the greatest pillar, and the seal of the rukoo’. The Prophet ﷺ said: أَقْرَبُ مَا يَكُونُ الْعَبْدُ مِنْ رَبِّهِ وَهُوَ سَاجِدٌ “The closest that a servant is to his Lord is when he is in prostration.” (Muslim) The more you humble yourself and go into sujood, the closer you are getting to Allah; and indeed, He elevates you. The Prophet ﷺ said: من تواضع لله رفعه “Whoever humbles himself before Allah, Allah will elevate him.” (Muslim) This is why, whenever the Prophet ﷺ received something that pleased him, he would immediately prostrate to Allah in thanks. All...

Ertuğrul Season 3 .... an episode that shows the birth difficulties of a mother (Halime giving birth to her  # 2nd  child ) . I was surprised to see that where the women of the house and the midwives were helping the child birthing mother in privacy. The Husband and other men of her family were showing support outside the room, praying for her ease. The husband (Ertuğrul) would go inside the room asking for permission at the door to  hold the hand of his wife, to kiss her forehead infront of the other women, making dua and showing support. The expression on his face was I feel your pain. He then leaves his wife for a war to defeat the enemies. The episode beautifully shows the struggle of believing men and women. If men have various roles, women on the other hand have a very difficult role of giving birth to their children... What is that we learn from the islamic tradition depicted in this play: ◇ The whole family is to show support to a woman who is g...

It’s that time of the year again when cricket enthusiasts line up and flock to the stadium to watch their favorite team compete with the rivals. Screens are put  across the country and friends and family reunite; b e it the Zalims, or Gladiators, along with Kings and Qalandars followed by Sultans and United; each team has a huge set of fans roaring for victory.  In Pakistan, we all were deprived of international level cricket for a very long time. The political cum law and order situation, along with the 2009 attack on SriLankan Cricket team absolutely ticked Pakistan off the list of safe countries for international players. The nation which is inherently a fan of Cricket despite Hockey being its national sport was shorn off their favorite game for many years. With the launched of PCB’s own league called PSL in 2015; cricket and international players were encouraged to play matches with our players. Earlier all the matches would take place in Abu-Dhabi but fo...

4.35 pm: ladies prayer area of a popular Mall in Karachi……. My focus was distracted by someone talking loudly. I tried my best to focus on the words of my Salah yet the loud talking did not stop. A lady was upset with someone who consciously or unconsciously (giving every person the benefit of doubt) walked in front of her while she was still in her prayer. She was upset that moving in front of her even though quickly had made her Salah null and void and that she had to do it all over again. She kept on complaining as to how in Shariah it’s not allowed and how people have no manners or respect for shariah law. For a minute I wondered if the women had already left who is she telling all this to. But she kept on complaining how she has to redo her prayer again not realizing that her loud complain was disturbing many in the surrounding who have no part in this. Sadly her complain didn’t stop, a few in the crowd tried to calm her down by asking her to move in front, as in public pr...

Two days back I woke up to see social media upset and demanding PEMRA to ban a play called “M erey paas tum ho ”. The lead actress was trolled for choosing the worst role of her life and much up-roar was made about a “ scandalous pink nighty ” in one of the episodes. Since I had not watched the play I rushed to YouTube to see what the hangaama was about. To my surprise the play had a typical storyline of a middle class government employee Danish (Humanyon Saeed)   with a pretty wife Mehwish (played by Aieza Khan) and a kid, struggling to make ends meet because he is naïve and honest. His wife on the other hand dreams of a better lifestyle with luxuries. A lovable family sets the picture perfect scene of the first episode, till the entry of a rich business man Shahwar played by none other than Adnan Siddiuqi. Shahwar spots Mehwish among common friends and finds her attractive and starts giving her compliments on her beauty, the over possessive husband finds the sitaut...

On Sunday, my OCD kicked in and I decided to clean the house. To make cleaning a bit interesting I selected some old classics of Nayyara Noor. I played my favorite song Kabhi Hum bhie khoobsurat theye … … and held on to the magic mop with dear life. Nayyara’s with her soul searching voice sang the beautiful lyrics written by Ahmed Shamim, I could not help ponder upon the simplicity of emotions and the deep sadness  embedded    in the lyrics of this song. I have listen to it a 100 times before, but somehow with age, the meaning of many things have changed so drastically that even I am surprised myself. The song talks about the beauty of emotions more than the physicality of the beauty itself, it emphasizes on the spirit and the joy found in that jubilant spirit. Somehow beauty and age is such an important thing for women, I am not sure if it is a big issue for men also, as their age or beauty is never discussed. But for women it’s a stark reality, w...

As I was scrolling through social media today, I was petrified while watching a video shared by Shaniera Akram declaring Clifton beach unsafe (we are thankful to her for her efforts).  The video shows, a kilometer of medical waste , including open syringes, vile of blood samples and other extremely hazardous medical waste  dumped by the beach. Uproar in social media and within hour’s pictures of trucks being pulled up near Clifton beach attempting to clean the piles of garbage were shared.   Post and hash tags of appreciation were being shared for Shaniera Akram and the authorities, who took immediate action, claiming the situation is now under control…….   Is the situation really under control? The above scenario was from one of the posh area of Karachi, where in broad day light medical waste was dumped and no one saw anything, showing pure negligence of DHA authorities. DHA has never been held accountable for their poor performance or lack of p...