World Bank Project Completed by 11 Students of University of Peshawar

Eleven young students from University of Peshawar have successfully completed the World Bank Youth Initiative Programme.

To, The Young Leaders

Dear Young Leaders!!!

Assalam-o-Alikum,

As, Napoleon Bonaparte said, “A leader is a dealer in hope”.

We are always told that if we don’t do as the romans do, we will not succeed. A leader never accepts that. If we take an example of Pakistan, we will always be told that, “Look! This is how the society functions.” And it’s common that most of the time people do not fight the system, they can’t lead their country and take the easy options.

Changing Technology

A few years ago, we used to buy prepaid internet cards to get connected with the world through internet. The speed of those connections was ten times slower than that of modern DSL or wireless internet. I used to download themes and pictures, which took hours to download even a single picture or theme, but still we loved it.

Life is Tough

Life is tough, when you stand up you’re going to be shot back down. When you are down, you’re going to be stepped on.

Dehumanization

In these modern times, there is an extreme pressure on each individual to make his place n have others perceive him in a respectable manner, n the ones who fail to achieve such recognition tend to go to any lengths using any kind method just to make their voice heard, because this never ending competition is just rising higher n higher.

اخبار والا

(میری کہانی میری زبانی)

میں اپنے آخری پرچے کی تیاری کر رہا تھا کہ اچانک ابّا نے کھانے کے لئے آواز دی. کل میرا انٹر کا آخری پرچہ تھا اور میری تھوڑی سی تیاری ابھی باقی تھی . اگر میں آج انٹر کہ پرچے دے رہا تھا تو وہ صرف اور صرف ابّا کی دعایں اور میری استانی جی کی محنت کا نتیجہ تھا ورنہ میں آج بھی دو سال پہلے کی طرح اخبار والے ک نام سے جانا جاتا.

Lack of Spirituality

A living human being is a combination of body and soul. Our body can be seen and touched by others and if any part of our body is in pain, we run towards a doctor trying to find a cure for it. Intense care is taken by us about our bodily needs. We nourish our body times a day to keep it healthy.

سبب: روحانیت کے عنوان پر اک مضمون

Spiritualismیعنی روحانیت ۔۔۔  یہ وہ فطری عنصر ہے جو انسان کو زندگی جاری رکھنے میں تعاون کرتا ہے۔ جوان جانوروں میں نوخیزی پائی جاتی ہے جو انکو بے فکر ،یہاں وہاں کودنے پر امادہ کرتی ہے۔ وہ جانور بڑھ چڑھ کر اعلان کرتا ہے کہ وہ زندہ ہے۔ خون اسکی رگوں میں بھی دوڑتا ہے۔ اور وہ قدرت کی دی ہوئی اس نعمت کو شکریہ کے ساتھ تسلیم کرتا ہے۔ جب یہی نوخیزی پاکیزہ فکر اور سوچ کا مجموعہ بن جائے تو اسے روحانیت کہتے ہیں۔ روحانیت ہر ذی شعور کی روح کی ضرورت ہے۔ اگر آپ میں روحانیت نہیں تو آپ صحت مندانہ روح کے مالک نہیں۔ آپ کی روح بیمار پڑ جائے گی۔ آپ معاشرتی لقوا کا شکار ہو جائیں گے۔ طبیعت میں بے چینی رہے گی۔ کام اپنے وقت پر انجام نہیں دے پائیں گے۔ آپکا مزاج، آپ کے اور آپ کے گردو نواح کے لوگوں کے لیے مشکلات کا باعث بنے گا۔ اور یوں آپ بظاہر تو ہٹے کٹے دکھیں گے پر اندر سے، روحانی سطح پر بیمار ہوں گے۔ ایسے میں دشمن تو کیا ، یار دوست کی بھی نصیحت کانوں کا زہر معلوم ہو گی۔

Future of Kashmir

 

Kashmir, a disputed territory between India and Pakistan for more than 50 years is cradled in the lap of mountains of Himalayas, is a Switzerland of East with carpets of saffron, a breath taking land where fruits grow in abundance, a place where water in many form is a charm and of course a valley which is another name of Paradise on Earth.

Kashmir Conflict

The Kashmir conflict is a territorial dispute between India and Pakistan over the Kashmir region, the northwestern most region of Asia. The two nation theory that was to guide to the partition of Indian sub-continent was a unique historical phenomenon, defining Muslims and Hindus as two very different peoples who could not be kept together on the basis of religion, culture, and way of living and basic nature of humans. Even visionaries like Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, Ali brothers and Allama Mohammad Iqbal had pointed to the same principles of two different nations, much before the partition of the sub-continent decades later in 1947. The operational principles was to allow Muslim and Hindu majority areas to join the two independent countries namely Pakistan and India respectively.

A Simple Problem

Ever had I taunted myself for why to be late with in materialization of the ideas in my mind? Ever had I witnessed some other smart boy to autocrat his vision with the cool ideas of mine. Boys and girls, ever and ever I have found some noble person to play with my perennial grace and dignity. Nevertheless I am hopeless of my role and solicitude towards the functional solidarity. Welcome to the Islamic republic of Pakistan. P for PEACE or P for POVERTY. Welcome!

Let me prelude my Gentle and Educated readers with the critical meaning of What Basically a State Is? All from the creation of this Universe, each system follows a functional hierarchy. It begins at the service of individuals in a village, up to the service of the same coded human in the Metropolitan. It starts at the dispensation of the workers on the “Entrance Counter” -----to the relevance of the Executives in a Sofa Office. It swifts with the hone of the Sweeper of our streets to the Executive Sweepers of the Presidency. A State is a self-governing Political entity. Mind it “Self Governing”. A Nation is a tightly knit group of people which share a common culture. These are some standard definitions provided for the word “State” and “Nation” in a local dictionary. God Promise, I have not taken these definitions from the Thesaurus of America or from the Books of the Israel. Can we justify our Position as a State against this simple definition? Can we juxtapose our entity as a Nation with this simple and clear definition of Nation? Can we share the joy of be called a United Nation and Impetus State? I beg my pardons but I regret our existence as a Nation and then as a State. When 190 million populations could not verify a simple definition, when our educated youth could not appose a simple stance for what Unity is. Dear readers, how can we speak of whether to have a dictatorship or democracy in our country? How can we speak of having Umar Gul as an attacker rather than Muhammad Amir? How can we expiate the exposition of Best Singer Awards by our Media? This is what how cheap Humans are? This is what so down our respect is? A simple Problem.

History cannot be replicated by superficial images and video sound as a reality factor that happened in the past. We the youth were not here at the times of Ayub Khan and General Yahya. We did not share the responsibility of what happened before us but we do carry the answerability of what happened after us. We are using the resources of this Paralyzed State in order to polish our Minds and Skins.  We do blame our illiterate elders for the vacuous Pakistan. But what then if our kids blame their Educated Parents for the same black code of our Mud. The Parents whom used to call themselves ---- An Educated and Properly Oriented Youth.

In spite of this disguise, my heart still has a sharp ray of Hope. I still witness a Beautiful Moon shaded over a vista of Dark Black. I still see the thrill and verbose in the shine of Sun. A famous Chinese philosopher was reported to have replied to a question. What would be the first thing you would do as a ruler of a new state? By saying, the first thing I would do—would be to define the meaning of words. The main problem we the youth have are having our minds in the Parliament while sitting before a teacher in a class room. We see the beauty of Bullet proof Mercedes while the teacher writes the Proverb “Beautiful girl can never give you bright future”! Enough is enough. Let us join our hands to rectify the things we could. Let us filter our each small environment we do all have. Let us manage the minds of our Family members with firm concepts of truthfulness as these family members will then share their option in Elective Processes Let us sediment our new generations with the concept of Purpose rather than the steam of reward. If and then, the day and now, the night and day we started to rectify our daily life discrepancies and whimsy--- we will soon witness the day when we will have More WE and Less Me. Let us leave the major duties of our elders to them. Let them enjoy the scream and honor of 12 and 15%.If the blood of Pakistan has bear the corruption and red money excavation for 60 years, let it bear it for another decade too. But the youth should propagate and elongate their status so accurate that one day our Corrupt Mentors will have to leave this space and the intellectuals of our generation will devote their humbleness to the cause of stability and sovereignty of Pakistan. At least we would be at that time so much properly oriented by our self training modules rather than proving ourselves as a tip of an iceberg as we are now.

I will justify our cause with a simple Clause. A Mosque is never called a place where Imam Lives. A mosque is a place where each and every person bows down before his Creator, The Compassionate GOD. The sacred place KABBA is not named as Holy Mosque for that Sheikh Sudais lives there. It is called A Holy Mosque where the Muslims practice their humbleness before ALLAH. Today if our local mosques are not having Faith, in spite it portrays some human bodies that just perform exercises. If we the youth do segregate the Population of Believers in Mosque, I bet never ever could the imam digress us from the truth. In spite if we shout at random to experiment upon with new Maulanas, nothing else but a condition where anger would seem to be the better button of change as it is now in our people the best option for normalizing our blunders and deviance in responsibility.

Written by: Behram Wali

Justice: A Myth or Reality?

 

I saw eight polio workers shot dead in 48 hours for they were serving humanity, heard the cries of a Christian girl being raped in Farooqabaad by a Muslim land owner and a 15 year old girl being brutally murdered by her father in the name of honor-killing.

Qur’an and Our Current Situation

In the Name of Allah, the Rehman the Raheem.

We are living in 21^st century, in which the modern science and technology has revolutionarised the life of a man. Man has become a digital animal. All we are curious about is our comfort , the desire of more wealth, new technological devices like cell phones, iPods etc , the want of all sort of worldly pleasures has deluded us from a very important purpose of our life that I am going to discuss very soon. This want of world by humans is described in Quran in (Sura 102: Sura Takathur)

Allah says:

Greed for more and more distracted you [from Allah]. Till you reached the grave. No! You are going to know. Then no! You are going to know. No! If you only knew with knowledge of certainty. You will surely see the Hellfire. Then you will surely see it with the eye of certainty. Then you will surely be asked that Day about pleasure.

By just having a look at the rough translation of Sura Takathur, and applying it on us we come to this point that we have been deceived by this short and temporary life.  We are running behind temporary pleasures. The life is a test from Allah, as Allah say in ( Sura 67: Sura  Mulk )

Allah says:

[He] who created death and life to test you [as to] which of you is best in deed - and He is the Exalted in Might, the Forgiving –

We are heading towards the greatest catastrophe that would be felt on this Earth and the important thing is that what we have prepared for it as

Allah says:

Indeed, We have warned you of a near punishment on the Day when a man will observe what his hands have put forth and the disbeliever will say, "Oh, I wish that I were dust!" ( 78:40)

Hazrat Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him ) said “  Whoever of you wants to see the Day of Resurrection than he can must read the following Suras of Quran i.e Sura Inshiqaq, Sura Infitar, Sura Takwir” . Here  is a reflection from these Suras

Allah says:

When the sun is wrapped up [in darkness]. And when the stars fall, dispersing, And when the mountains are removed. And when full-term she-camels are neglected. And when the wild beasts are gathered. And when the seas are filled with flame. And when the souls are paired. And when the girl [who was] buried alive is asked. For what sin she was killed. When the records of men’s deeds are laid open, And when the sky is stripped away. And when Hellfire is set ablaze. And when Paradise is brought near, A soul will [then] know what it has brought [with it]. (81:1 - 8: 14)

Similarly the other two Suras also discuss this event in a very demonstrative way.

A day on which the people will be in three groups as

Allah says:

[on that Day] you shall be divided into three groups.(56: 17)

One group of three will get his record in  his right hand (the successful one), and the other will get his record in his left hand(the failures), and the third one is the foremost in their faith.

Question is which one of the three groups we are? How would we determine in which category we come? Let us reflect on one of the Hadis, Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) said ‘ One the Day of Judgement , you will be with those whom you love “.

Meaning that you will be resurrected on the Day of Judgment with the type of people you love. If you love musicians, pops stars, artists, poets, film stars you will be with them on the day of Judgment. And the reason is very clear “Whom you love, you try to be like them “.

Many of us love music up to the point we cannot spent single moment without it . Such people often claim that music gives nourishment to ROOH but the thing to note here is that nourishment is provided by something that is beneficial, and wait a second what are the lyrics of music feeding in the mind? The content of music is all related to love, Haram relationship between opposite genders, or they are talking about some crazy event that happened once in their life or something that is beyond the scope of even craziness!

In Quran

Allah says:

And of the people is he who buys the amusement of speech to mislead [others] from the way of Allah without knowledge and who takes it in ridicule. Those will have a humiliating punishment.(31:6)

Mufassiron of Quran has said that this Ayah is talking about Music and also about all other things that stop people from the way of Allah and stop them of the remembrance of Allah.

A very wrong concept of Christians and Jews has now peeped into the minds of Muslims that as we are Muslims we will enter Janah one day but how many of us know that by doing all of this we will still die on Islam.

Allah says :

O you who have believed, fear Allah as He should be feared and do not die except as Muslims [in submission to Him].(3: 102)

Everything has a price, the more expensive the thing gets the more high its price is and Jannah is the most expensive gift and its price is vey high.

In the sight of Allah the world is not worth even a wing of mosquito.

Allah describes this temporary world in different places in Quran.

Allah says:

And present to them the example of the life of this world, [its being] like rain which We send down from the sky, and the vegetation of the earth mingles with it and [then] it becomes dry remnants, scattered by the winds. And Allah is ever, over all things, Perfect in Ability.(18:45)

Similarly in Sura-Al- Infitar

Allah says:

O mankind, what has deceived you concerning your Lord, the Generous,(81:6)

Allah does not wants us but we need Allah in our lives, each breath we take is by the will of Allah, each leave that falls from tree , falls by the will of Allah, every single action that we do Allah is aware of it.

As Allah quotes the example of Hazrat Luqman when he said to his son

[And Luqman said], "O my son, indeed if wrong should be the weight of a mustard seed and should be within a rock or [anywhere] in the heavens or in the earth, Allah will bring it forth. Indeed, Allah is Subtle and Acquainted.(31:16)

Most of us set a milestone in front of us that when we will get old we will pray, but no one knows when is his death.

Allah says:

But never will Allah delay a soul when its time has come. And Allah is Acquainted with what you do.(63:11)

Hazrat Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him ) said to Ibne- Ibaas “ Live in this life as a stranger. When day comes don’t hope for the night and when the night comes don’t hope for the next day “

Let me mathematically prove you the shortness of this life:

Average life span of man varies from country to country but let us we take the maximum 100 years and a little above that may be 120 years which is too long .
Life in the Hereafter is Infinity,

so let us divide

   Life on Earth =     120/ Infinity  = 0 Years

Anything divided by Infinity is zero . Is this is the figure we are all running behind. This situation is defined in Quran.
Allah say:

hey see it [the Day of Judgement] to be far off, But We see it (quite) near.(86: 6-7)

Our Holy Prophet Hazrat Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him ) said” There is a part of your body, if that is right, whole body is right, if that is wrong whole body is wrong . And that part of the body is Heart.

Allah says:

That is because they believed, and then they disbelieved; so their hearts were sealed over, and they do not understand.(63:3)

The main reason, of the sealed heart is that abondining of Quran. We don’t contemplate on the Quran anymore. It has become a book of reading on just several occasions. We are no more concerned to take guidance from it . One of our Imam said: “ If you are reading Quran just to reach the end, you have not benefited from it .”

 No more tears flow through our eyes when we listen to it. Just see in what a bad condition we are in now.

Allah says:

Had We sent down this Qur'an on a mountain, verily, thou wouldst have seen it humble itself and cleave asunder for fear of Allah. Such are the similitudes which We propound to men, that they may reflect.(59:21)

My dear readers ! recite, try to understand , reflect on the versus of Quran as it will be our companion on the day of Judgement – The day on which no body can intercede except for whom Allah wills

Allah says:

The Day that the Spirit* and the angels will stand in rows, they will not speak except for one whom the Most Merciful permits, and he will say what is correct.(73: 83)

*Here spirit is referring to Hazrat Jabrail Alihay Salam.

Quran is a timeless guide and it will intercede for us on the Day of Judgement. Today Learing even Arabic grammar is not a problem sites like http://www.lqtoronto.com teach online and totally free. Books can also be found free on sites like http: // www.kalamullah.com .

In the end I would end this article with the words of Allah.
Allah says:

If you persist in denying the truth how will you escape the Day that will turn the children’s hair grey.

Written By: Asad Irfan

Fist & Fate

Disclaimer

ALL THE CHARACTERS MENTIONED IN THE ARTICLE ARE NON-FICTITIOUS. THE ORIGINAL NAMES HAVE BEEN REPLACED WITH FICTITIOUS NAMES IN ORDER TO ENSURE TRANSPERANCY. ANY RESEMBLANCE TO ANY PERSON OR EVENT IS PURELY CO-INCIDENTAL.

Of the different ups and downs of time the life was passing by very smoothly. It often comes to our mind that is there anything else besides ourselves that governs our lives. When it comes to the success of anyone there are mostly two factors one believes play their part. Firstly, your efforts and the second which most people call as Luck or Fate. Is there truly existence of our luck or our fate? The same question was in my mind before I found answers to my questions. With the smooth flow, Abdul's life was also at its pace rather he had an ideal life. He had all the joys of life what he could dream of. He was a very strong, energetic and hardworking person. To sum up he was blessed with a dream life. It was his 5^th grade. Everything was going very nice for him, peace and calm. Abdul was a very hardworking student and there was no doubt to his hard work. Then he reached 8^th class with the same pace and grasping all the victories. And came the 10^th examinations, the result of his efforts was to be declared and as everyone expected he scored 90% marks in the tenth examination. There was no limit to his joy and who could. Everyone appreciated his efforts but whenever people talked about him they did in such:

People: “ya he’s a very hardworking boy no doubt but he’s a lucky person too”

He was flowing in his pace and one after another his rewards were waiting for him. It was his 12^th grade examination now. He had been working very hard for his ultimate goal and no one was to question his efforts again now. Who knew what was to happen. The result was declared and to everyones surprise he could only score 80% marks. It fell like bomb on his soft life. The things went cold for him and the clouds of despair started to roam around him. The fate was tightening its grip on him. When it came to his not being successful (as compared to his efforts) what was to be questioned, his efforts or his luck? Now let us leave this story for a movement and move to something else.

Abdul was amongst those persons who didn’t believe in fate or luck and he believed that there was nothing like luck, all you had, the fate was in your fist. There was a reason behind this all. Once in his 9^th class he met a palmist by chance and the entire palmist could tell him was he didn’t have the luck line on his palm (there is a specific luck line on everyones of our palms). This thing was quite disturbing for him and it made him strong for his efforts and his faith. His belief in his efforts was not wrong but his disbelief in luck or fate was somehow not pleasing. He thus grew stronger for his efforts only. I happened to met him and I asked him some questions.

Me: any reason for your failure (actually not failure)

Abdul: I really don’t know so

Me: was it your bad luck?

Abdul: I just don’t believe in luck or bad luck

Me: what about your efforts?

Abdul: I tried my best.

Me: then what?

Abdul: I really just don’t know…..

He was unable to answer my questions properly as he was unwilling to accept luck at all. The question again is Is there anything like luck or fate? If so what about our efforts? I was still unable to get my answers when I met Ayesha. I asked her the same thing and she was able to answer my questions very briefly. She explained me this way:

Ayesha: ok, lift your right hand.

Me: yes I did.

Ayesha: now lift your left hand.

Me: I did so.

Ayesha: ok now lift your right leg also (simultaneously).

Me: I lifted my right leg also somehow.

Ayesha: and now lift your left leg also.

Me: ah……. I cant, rather no one can.

And here was the answer to my questions.

She said: listen Haris! you know why you weren’t able to lift your left leg also, because it wasn’t under your control. You could do only what was under your control. Lifting right hand, leg and left hand was under your control so you did so while lifting of the left leg wasn’t under your control. Of the 100% of anything 75% is in our control while the rest 25% is in the hands of fate or luck. So give your best and leave the rest to your fate.

I had my answers and had them so briefly. Yes there is existence of fate. Fate is indeed the other name of God. God did give us the potential to change our fate with our fist but it doesn’t mean that fate doesn’t exist. Fate does exist. Fate is Gods hand Most of us believe in fate only when our efforts fail us. But giving your best and then leaving the rest to your fate. I met another person who illustrated me further.

Nabeera said: Many times in your life you just can’t change things. You try to but none is in your hands. Try to be calm and flow with the time and your fate. Go on with the fate. Give all your efforts and just move on with the fate, you never know where your fate wants to take you. Believe in God and have faith that every cloud has a silver lining and that after every night there is a bright sunlight.

The answers to all my questions were complete now. I had these answers to Abdul and his belief in fate had blossomed now. His efforts are more rewarding to him with his belief in his fate. And so my belief on fate was even stronger than ever. It is not the fate or only fist that goes to success. At last we know that Fist and Fate go together.


Muhammad Haris Qureshi