Is Love a delusion?

Love is NOT a delusion

As long as we have known, generation after generation have searched
for true love, its reputation; much like the Holy Grail has become
weak in the dejected minds of those with its unrequited forms. What
people do not seem to understand is, that love is not a construct in
their heads, its not simply an illusion of grandeur, it is NOT a
delusion.
Love is the emotion of giving and receiving, of appreciating and
caring for something or someone to the extent that they be willing to
give everything for it, its not unlike the love a mother has for her
child, the love a child has for his parents or the love of two people
in a long happy marriage, you can even see it in animals!
Any emotion taken to the extreme can cause you pain, anger is good to
protect yourself from falsification, but its extremity is deadly.
Grief can remind you of what is most precious and consequences of
mistakes, but its extreme can once again be lethal to you. In the same
way, love is an honest emotion that taken in its true sense i.e.
understanding, compromise, respect, loyalty and affection can bless
your life with immense happiness, earning you a lifetime of
partnership and friendship and giving you all the benefits of a
gratified life. So don’t run away from love by fearing what may happen
if you trip in its pursuit, because when you finally reach a love
worth sacrificing for, one in which you receive as well as give
affection, I can guarantee you will never regret it.

Men; animal or human?

I was watching MTV a couple of days back and I felt like I was being smothered alive by the hypocrisy of the world that I’m living in. Women everywhere across the world on any channel, show, video or movie are being objectified by men, whether they know it or not. And if any of our kind wants to stand up for her rights and refuses to be objectified, they are usually ended up with the title ‘prude’. So women today have to choose between the title of either ‘prude’ or ‘slut’. You might not agree with this statement and say something like

‘This is not true. There is a middle ground there. You don’t have to take to extremes on either end’.

But see we don’t have a choice for a middle ground. In Pakistan if a woman is caught kissing a boy she will be deemed a slut. And all the boys will talk about it and spread the story further. In Pakistan the men are the real gossip mongers. The hypocrites usually want a girl that is ‘pure’ and ‘untouched’ when they’ve been doing God knows what with God knows who, since the age of puberty.

I’m making a straight out statement that men have huge egos and they use women and money to soothe it.

Also let’s take a look rappers and rap videos for example. In the videos these men are shown to be ostentatiously rich and surrounded by well endowed women to say the least.  Now these men probably suffered from low self esteem at an early age and couldn’t get any ‘action’ hence now when they do have it they have to prove to the world and themselves mostly how attractive and appealing they are physically and financially.

How can Muslims not actively partake in politics and society?

This is a side of the Prophet's (peace be upon him) life that we very rarely get to see or get told from our religious teachers. Of how he skilfully dealt with potential dangerous situations and prevented bloodshed amongst the most divided of societies, and built upon that a foundation of peace and clarity. Upon having recognition of this it seems almost incomprehensible how the active participation of Muslims in politics and society, upon working for the greater good can be removed from our identity. More noticeably, in Medina, the progression was conducted in the environment of Non-Muslims under the banner of Islam. A situation somewhat similar to our own.

Both of these examples helped to establish the basic social and judicial fabric that we know in Islam. These are principles and attitudes that are applicable to every age and relation to a human being, as it was applicable to one of the worst of situations. And if we do follow this Sunnah, we are collectively standing up for the good of this world, in the name of Islam. How can we expect to be able to spread Islam in the best of manners without following it? And shouldn’t we as Muslims, aspire for the greater good and development in our lives, communities and societies?

Aside from looking at our duty (although I cannot stress how important it is), if we look at what is possible for us as Muslims, it was this basis of working for the good for others that caused the light of Islam to be as it was during medieval times. That caused the space for intellect, innovation in a social, just and harmonious society. That caused people to come to Muslim cities, for the opportunity and sheer quality of life that the Islamic system brought. And that caused Islam to show the world how truly great it is.

The Social Network : A review

Today I watched the hit movie ‘The Social Network’ and I must say that the movie was quite touching. The movie was about how Facebook came to be what it is today and two best friends, Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) and Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield) who were studying in Harvard University. Zuckerberg was portrayed as a misunderstood and brilliant computer nerd who in the beginning of the movie created Facebook as a vengeful mean to get back at his girlfriend but ends up making a website worth billions. Zuckerberg also gets sued for ‘stealing’ the Facebook idea by three Harvard students. In the movie Saverin finances the website and is behind Zuckerberg every step of the way but Saverin gets cut out of the deal because Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake) poisons Zuckerberg against Saverin. Sean Parker was portrayed in the movie as a cunning and conniving young entrepreneur whose eyes were set on Facebook and cutting out Saverin from the equation but in the end Zuckerberg does realize his mistake and gives Saverin his due shares of the company.

Personally what I liked about the movie was Zuckerberg’s character which was portrayed fantastically by Jesse Eisenberg. I could understand his loneliness and paranoia about trusting people. It was that lack of trust that brought on the rift between him and Saverin in the first place. Sean Parker was just someone who voiced those thoughts. The saying on the cover of the movie hits the mark and is quite chilling.

Are we mice or men?

I believe that a bold and courageous act change the course of history. And since there has been no such act being performed in our country or in the world in general, I conclude that we are mice. The world is crying out to be saved but the cries are falling deaf to our ears and why is that so? It’s because we’ve grown accustomed to these problems so much so that we turn a blind eye to injustices that are played out before our eyes. Granted there are a few people who did change the course of history with their courageous acts. The men who did not scamper away into their holes
Che Guevara was a Cuban revolutionary of the 19th century, a Marxist who ended the tyrannical rule of Batista. He worked under Fidel Castro who was the leader of this movement. Although he was a soldier, he was also a doctor, a philanthropist and a writer. Gandhi was another man, from India who brought his nation to his feet by means of non violent protest. What both these great men have in common was the fact that they had enough courage to stick it to the man. And in both cases the ‘man’ was the West. Even normal people can be heroes. Rosa Parks, a colored seamstress on board a bus in Montgomery Bus Alabama refused to vacate her bus seat and give it over to a white man. This act sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott which was the grounds of the Civil Rights Movement. The Civil Rights Movement was solely responsible for giving the blacks their rights in America.
If all these events did actually happen and people do have the potential to take control and bring down tyrannical rules why the hell are people around us or more specifically people in Pakistan not taking charge? Why do we sit and wait for the our current or future leader who we chose through the beautiful method that is democracy to screw us common people over? Why do we wait for them to take over so they can milk our country dry? I’ll tell you why. It’s because we are too comfortable in our little holes to come out. It would require a lot of valor, perseverance and discipline for us to achieve this and quite frankly, we have none of these qualities. We are mere mice after all. Rodents that scamper at the first of danger.

Shoe chucking - Terrorism at its finest

Pakistan's favourite President Asif Ali Zardari was recently the target of a shoe attack after his speech in Birmingham; the latest trend in protesting inefficient leadership. Authorities claim that it was not quite clear what the man appeared to be protesting, but if I had to wager a guess I'm thinking it was probably something like 'Get off the stage!'

The majority of Mr. Zardari's speech was peppered (as it always is) with realistic and impassioned remembrances to his lately departed wife Benazir Bhutto. Any other topic related to the countries state,
or its recent disasters would of course be an insult to his and his wife's memories. After half an hour of venting his frustrations ('I often ask myself why she had to go') he proceeded to express his explanation as to why he gave his son, a recent college grad, the position of Co-Chairman of the PPP.

Not much of the content in his speech gave an allowance to his behaviour of being on a trip to England while parts of the country was suffering from the floods. His disappearance caused unrest and anger in Pakistan and it might be possible that the shoe was thrown by a man disproving of Mr. Zardari's actions.

Shoe attacks are becoming popular as a way to protest against poor leadership. Though there was no footage of the actual throwing we can all vividly remember the shoe attack against Ex-President Bush during his conference in Baghdad.

With the state of affairs as they are, we might soon anticipate a policy disallowing people to wear shoes in conferences.