Cometh the Armageddon

Shock and awe

2005-10-13T09:07:00.000-07:00

Shock and awe, was seen in Pakistan during the early hours of Saturday 8th October. But, out of all bad comes the good and may be now the two waring countries will sit and talk other then stand and fight. This event has also shown that the sole super power of the mortal world and the only other country created on the basis of religion other than Pakistan, Israel are not so bad. My whole-heartly wish is that this will lead to improvement in the world peace and opening of minds by both sides not just the Israelis and Americans but also by the muslim ummah (population). We as people of the world need to see beyond the iron curtain, be optimistic and hope for the best while we are still alive.

The Enemy Within

2005-08-02T19:42:00.000-07:00

So, it happened again. Is this going to be the end of the beginning or the beginning of the end of bombings? That is the question the majority of population of Britain is asking. I myself saw the first bombing as a one off and was hopeful that everything will calm down and the Muslims will not face what the Irish had to face during the time when IRA bombings were prevalent. But after the second bombing (attempted/failed) that hope, that light at the end of the lonesome long dark tunnel is fading away.

The Muslim 'leaders' meet Blair (Ian & Tony) now and then but never ask them the questions that are really going through the minds of the Muslim population. These questions include:
- What cause such crimes?
- What political steps are you (government) going to take to eliminate the causes of such crimes?
- Why is the Muslim community the only one being blamed, why doesn't the government accept any blame for harboring such extreme groups and their members just because they have fled from their own countries and will be tortured there if they return? Well we losing our brothers, sisters, fathers & mothers. Why should be think about such persons' safety when they do not give a damn about ours?

The Muslim 'leaders' (in apostrophes because they were mostly never elected or selected) have never critically commented or questions the events. They have accepted the blame and that's it.

On the other hand there are Muslims who have are in complete denial and are not prepared to accept any amount of blame. That section of the population lives off conspiracy theories and these events have led to brewing and production of many of them.

The largest section of the Muslim population is at the moment totally lost as they do not know who to believe. All sides have made the possibility of living peacefully in UK unbearable for them. They are trying to get on with their everyday work but they do expect to be on the receiving end of any form of backlash. During the past week there have been murmming of possibility of leaving the country that many of us have called home for decades. They see the Muslim 'leaders', the government, the radical groups (who change names more often then we pray in a day) and the media as the part of the problem. The government must ban all such groups and put their members under house arrest. These people do not deserve to be given any air time on the media because they do not speak for the Muslim community in the UK. The Muslim 'leaders' must change their behavior and they must also step down and let the Muslim youth tackle this problem because you ('leaders') are too slow and too confused and too pathetic to think properly...

New York, Madrid and now London

2005-07-07T18:50:00.000-07:00

So now it has taken place. The long dreaded event which many did not want to fear. The only thing that can be said is that the Met Police has taken a very calculated step and have not gone the full circle and blamed Al-Qaeda for this event even though it bores their marks. It is best if the population is kept up-to-date but not at the expense of those members of the population which could be targeted for revenge. I truly foresee a very tense time ahead for the muslim population in general if it does become apparent that Al-Qaeda was behind these. It is also a good step because it will give everybody time to cool down and also those who might be involved in these events either directly or indirectly could be left in the dark for some time so that they can be rounded up as easily as possible without giving out much information.

I will just like to end by saying that I hope that the families and friends of those involved are in the best hands and may God bless you all and give you the strength to cope with this tragic event.

I need some sleep

2005-05-30T15:38:00.000-07:00

Sorry, guys & gals I been busy during the past month or 2 and have not be able to write. Many things have happened since I left for my work and I have not been able to write even though I had great ideas on some topics of interest in the religious, political and scientific fields but I missed the oppurtunities.

Anyway, I would like to congratulate the son of mr Rafiq Al-Hariri, Saad Al-Hariri in his election win. I hope this will contribute positively to the latest reforms that have been taking place in the lebanese politics. It is my utmost wish to see a democratic mid-east but the norms of democratic ideals must come from inside not from outside [definitely not under the pretext of anti-terror war].

Also, it seems in Iraq the tensions have been increasing between the AMS (Association of Muslim Scholars, a sunni organisation) and the Badr Brigades (a shite militia group mostly responsible for the protection of shite leaders). Muqtada Al-Sadr has taken a wise step and have held a meeting attended by both parties. The sectarian war is not what is needed in that region at this time. Too many civillians have died in the past few months. Too many scholars and religious leaders have died. The Iraqis and the Non-Iraqis need to stop the killing of their own. If resistance is the path that you [the Iraqis] want to go through then at least not kill those that have nothing to do with the occupation and the occupiers must arrest people wisely and at least follow the rules set in the Geneva Convention.

That is enough of political talk for the first post since I have come back. More will follow soon.

To Those Who Fight For Us

2005-03-15T11:40:00.000-08:00

This post is dedicated to those who fight for us. The people who risk their lives to protect us (the civilians) either during peace or war. These people who protect us are the same people we have come to despise in Iraq. These same men and women are the backbone of the countries that we live in. I believe that we should not dishonour what they are doing and have done for us but instead its out duty to pressure the authorities that control these men and women into sending them on missions that are humane and rightful. Yes, there may be bad apples among these men and women and they should be dealt with the full force of law. It is imperative that the rulers of the land obey the international law and not send the soldiers to other lands when the majority of the international community doesn’t approve of it. This law breaking (declaring illegal war) leads to more law breaking (POW abuse).

To be a soldier or a fighter is not a game. It requires patients, dedication and above all bravery. This rule applies to soldiers of all the countries around the world. The most common thing that these men and women have is that they are there to fight for the sovereignty of their respective land.

As for an example of the bravery of these soldiers I would just add that a cousin of mine from my extended family about a week ago was badly burnt after a explosion ripped through the lower deck of the navy ship of Pakistan. He could have jumped off the ship as he was on the top deck and wasn’t directly affected by it but instead he went and helped the other navy personal out. During this he was badly burnt and is now in intensive care in a military hospital. This shows that even when they face danger they are still prepared to risk their life to save others. This is the kind of dedication and bravery a person should have. In addition, I would add that it is important that the government of Pakistan launch an official inquiry into this event. This navy vessel was being prepared to leave to world round trip including United Kingdom, United States of America and Saudi Arabia (where the crew was to perform Umra). The inquiry should look at the possibility of sabotage by foreign forces (including friendly and not-so friendly).

It is the duty of the leaders of the land to protect their soldiers from undue harm and to investigate any occurrence of tragic event so that it can be made sure that such events never occur again. The national security of the country is dependent upon these men and women and if they are not protected during peace time then how does the rulers of the land expect the fighters to fight whole heartedly.

The Phantom of Syria

2005-02-27T11:20:00.000-08:00

So, Syria has become a country that we all despise due to its alleged involvement in the assassination of Mr Hariri. It is widely believed that Syria was the one responsible for Mr Hariri’s death because Mr Hariri phoned a political friend of his days before his death and told him “Hariri told me something was going to happen and that it is either for you or for me”. On the other hand, I personally believe that Syria must have known of the support that the Hariri family commands among the population of Lebanon and it would have been suicidal for Syria to commit such an atrocity.

Carrying on, with the widely held perception of Syria’s guilt the media and Israel has begun to tune up the tempo. After the recent suicide bombing in Israeli nightclub the media has begun to blame, the Syrian authorities even-though it is widely known that Islamic Jihad is a separate and independent entity. Islamic Jihad’s Syrian office has begun to issue communiqué after the assassination of Dr. Rantisi of Hamas because it is believed that it is safer for them to issue any statements from Syria or Lebanon then from Palestine, majority of which is under the control of Israeli armed forces. In addition, the next big head of Islamic Jihad lives in Syria so it is not surprising that statements are issued from there. This does not mean that Syria controls or guides Islamic Jihad.
Furthermore, it is surprising that Israel declared Syria as the main culprit in the recent atrocity but it has not announced any military or diplomatic response to the crime committed by Syria. Israel it should be noted never forgives anybody who kills its citizens may they be Jews or Arabs. Israel is a country that holds the safety of its citizens as the utmost priority. Therefore, for Israel to not to have declared any military or diplomatic response to Syria means that Syria is not the one responsible. It just means that there is a worldwide conspiracy to make Syria look like a mad dog that is attacking everyone.

The recent news telecasts have begun to be anti-Syrian establishment. It seems that there is a big push by the ‘invisible hand(s)’ for some kind of sanctions or actions on Syria that will inevitably affect the regime. For Syria to come out of the black hole that it is digging for itself by keeping quite and simply denying the allegations is getting very difficult. It is in the interests of the Syrian rulers (especially King Bashir al-Assad) to democratise the current legislature and allow the banned parties to take part in free & fair elections. This will show to the world’s population that Syria is not run through dictatorship or through suppression of freedom of speech.

Life and Death of Rafik Hariri

2005-02-16T14:53:00.000-08:00

A businessperson turned politician. He was a very enthusiastic and optimistic leader of Lebanon. As a prime minister of a country, which was once at the heart of mid-east conflict, Mr Hariri changed its fortune around. A country, which owns the west 40 billion dollars as debt, has made great progress economically and politically. A country where the civil war had created such a traumatic scene that even the world wanted to forget it. A country whose rival religious sects were fighting against each other.

When Mr Hariri was given the job of Prime Ministership, he took this task upon himself as a challenge. He played a constructive role during his years as the leader of Lebanon. His determination and excellent contributions were the ones that helped to pave the way for creation of nationally united government. At present, this achievement has lead to the Lebanese parliament having representatives from many different sections of the population. The representatives range from the pro-west and anti-west individuals, as well as people who once were bitter rivals of each other. It was Hariri's personal ambition to see Lebanon as a source of light in the mid-east and not as a war torn country like Afghanistan.

I was watching his funeral procession on Al-Jazeera and I saw resemblance of this procession to the one that took place during the funeral of Yasser Arafat. I believe that there were only two popularly supported in mid-east who sincerely wanted to help their own people. This is the reason for such a show of support for a political figure. How many so-called leaders have passed away in the mid-east but none have had such an emotional funeral processions. This truly shows the amount of trust they had in these two men. I believe this should be a sign to the rest of the leaders of the mid-eastern countries. These leaders should know that in order to gain the love of your people you must do something. A leader is one who is not only trusted by people of same religion as him but also by those of different religions. This world can only go forward if its leaders have the support, love and affection of the whole population and not just by select few. So far, the light at the end of the tunnel exist but it is dimming. This light will not be waiting there for us if we are to sit and wait for our leaders to change. I believe it is about time that we tell our representatives what we really think of them and not what they want to hear from us.

Balochistan and the Bugtis

2005-02-12T00:53:00.000-08:00

In this blog, I will talk about the recent developments as regards to Balochistan but particularly the political developments taking shape between the government of Pakistan and the Bugti Tribe.

Balochistan is the largest province but with smallest population of Pakistan. The bugti tribe is a powerful tribe in Balochistan. The bugtis are situated in Sui, the main gas rich area in Pakistan. Recently the bugtis have started to ask for greater amount of royalties for the gas that is extracted. To show their willingness to wreck havoc if their demands are not met they have launched attacks on the gas pipelines. This has cost the government in revenue.

From the reports that I have come across, I believe that the normal people in the bugti tribe do not really care but it is the head of tribe who do not want the area to be developed and just wants the money for himself. There are some reports that Nawab Akbar Bugti has kicked out some 10 thousand people of his own tribe because they are not following his orders.

I believe it is about time that Nawab Sahib is taken care off. There is no point in lingering and trying to avoid a confrontation with the person who is hindering the educational and socio-economical development of his own people. His people do not deserve a leader who lives like a king with heavily armed bodyguards and posh cars when they themselves are barely surviving.

Just as the government took out Naik Mohammad, it would be nice to see Nawab Sahib go as well. Nevertheless, I fear it is not as simple as that and may be the Nawab Sahib has some part to play for the near future. The taking out of the Nawab Akbar Bugti is going to be tough due to his backing from several different countries. For example, during the soviet occupation of Afghanistan, the Americans asked the bugtis whether they would oppose the sale of weapons to Pakistan. This shows how deep the links between the Nawabs of the Bugti and the foreign powers are. Another example is that in the 80's our dear friend, former President Saddam smuggled a train full of weapons into Pakistan, which were fortunately captured. This shows how much love "brotherly" Muslim nations have towards Pakistan.

Just to cap it all off, I would like to say that the establishment should force Nawab Sahib to start a dialogue because without it increasing number of the bugti population will be deprived of their rights. It is also very tragic that the opposition in Pakistan always tries to make matters worst and they should also get their act together and think about the country not about their pockets which are never empty.

Existence of God

2005-02-07T21:20:00.000-08:00

In the name of Allah most Gracious Most Merciful

This is my first blog and I would begin it with a discussion on the existence of God. In the following text I will not use the word God but in its place I may mostly use the word Allah.

I was tempted to answer this question when a fellow student of mine handed me with a sheet of a paper on which the proof of the non existence of God (Allah) was written. Below is the complete unedited text from that paper.

Proof of the non existence of God

Before we can prove that God does exist we have to define what God actually is, so we will define God as omniscient (all-knowing) and omnipotent (all-powerful). So to be God you must have both the attributed of being omniscient and omnipotent, so to prove the non-existence of God we must prove that God is either not all-knowing or not all-powerful.

We will first assume that God exists and try to prove that God is not all knowing. If God knows everything then this includes knowing all that has happened in the past and all that will happen in the future and this means knowing what our actions will be before we acutally do them. This means however that we cannot have free will over our actions because if God knows what we will do before we actually do it, then it will happen anyway and means we do not have any choice in the matter. This doesn't prove that God is not all-knowing but means that either our sense of having freewill is an illusion or God does not know everything and therefore is not God.

We will assume for now that everything that exists is contained within the universe, including God. This means that everything must follow the laws of the universe, including God. But if God is subject the laws of the universe it means that God can not be all-powerful because God's power will be limited by the laws of the universe. Now you could sat that God is not part of the universe, so let's assume that there are things which exist out side of the universe, there are now two possibilities. 1: that these things and the universe are contained in something else which is bigger, or contained in something else which is limitless, but are still subject to some sort of laws. If this is the case then God's power will still be limited by the laws that govern these other places and so cannot exist. The 2nd case is if these things outside of the universe follow no laws, this means there will be no laws to limit Gods power, it also means however that if there are no laws outside of the universe then everything outside of the universe is random because without any rules an entity cannot interact with another entity or with itself (so anything can happen when these things interact with each other or themselves). For example let's say that God wants to create a planet outside of the universe but because there are no laws anything might happen, God could instead make a giant bowl of cold custard with tins of baked beans inside with out meaning to, or just by thinking God could cease to exist. So in the 2nd case God's power is not limited by physical laws but is instead powerless.

So if there exists laws then Gods power must be limited and subject to these laws and if there are no laws then God is powerless, either way God is not all powerful which means that it is impossible for God to exist, instead only a very powerful life-form can exist.

First I would like to say that I do know that the above text that I just copied from the paper that was given to me contains spelling errors. These errors resemble the errors that exist in the text provided to me. As I had said at start that I will copy it exactly as it is, and I have done so. I have not changed any mistakes in that text as I do not intend to.

While I was researching on a reply to this text I asked some of my learned family members. During the discussions with them they stated that when somebody argues with you about the existence of Allah, then you have two options.

You say goodbye to the person and leave the place where this discussion/argument is taking place. This is an option given to those who may not want to indulge in such erratic arguments because either they feel it will be a waste of time or because they believe that they will not be able to convince somebody or they may believe that the level of sophistication in this argument is so low (i.e. level of intellegence of arguing members) that this will only lead to one's mind getting lost or one's belief getting damaged. For muslims, existence of Allah is not a question that we have to ask as we as muslims understand the wealth of knowledge that is within the Quran is in itself a sign that this holybook has divine origins. Furthermore, we as muslims cannot call ourselves muslims if we doubt the existence of Allah thus the belief of the existence of God is vital to our faith, hence, the unwillingness to argue on such matters.
Second option is that if one believes that he/she may be able to successfully argue then he/she may do so. But, he/she must remember that the faith in Allah can only come when the other party has above all an open mind and a truthseeking heart. Therefore the believer must not make the conversion of the non-believer his/her aim, but rather he/she must try only to open the mind of the non-believer.

After weighing up my options I choose to present my part of the argument but I will not allow any person to comment on this post as I do not intend to be drawn into philosophical arguments. Because it was said by Abu Bakr (one of the caliphs of the muslim umma) that our inability to comprehend the divine is the comprehension of the divine. This simply means that its our minds that limit us from believing in Allah. In addition, Allah has also stated in the Quran that do not question my existence, and if you do so then you are no better then those who disbelieve and for this reason I do not intend to prolong this argument more then it is needed for this reply.

In the first paragraph it is rightly stated that Allah is an entity that is all-knowing and all-powerful.
In the second paragraph it is stated that our perception of freewill is nothing other then just mere perception. Now, during my research I have found that in Islam it is stated that a person has a freewill in so that he/she is able to choose his/her path during his/her life. He/She can choose to not to believe in Allah or can choose to believe in Allah. Allah has stated in the Quran that "I do not help those, who do not help themselves". This means that if we do not believe in Allah then Allah will not help us in any way to believe in Allah. If you ask any convert he/she will state that their belief in Allah only came when they read the Quran with an open and clear mind and heart. To negate this perception of Allah I can only state that as Allah has created us then Allah knows every possible choices we will have to decide upon and every choice we will pick. As Allah is all-knowing thus we cannot say that Allah restricts our freewill. Allah has stated that I only help you when you are sincerely willing to take on a task. Allah does know every single possible decision path which we will come across during our lifespan but it is upto us which part of the path we will take. So, in essence this means that our perception of freewill is still there. Here I am using the word perception and this is the correct word to use because we precieve a lot of what we see. Can you as a human really prove that our feeling of freewill is not our perception?
In paragraphs 3 three major assumptions are taken. The assumptions are that Allah is within the universe or Allah is outside the universe but still within something bigger or Allah is outside of the universe where everything is probabilistic. Now can you prove that everything outside of the universe is probablistic? A big problem with this argument is that Allah (the creator of everything) does not in any way assume the shape or form of HIS (Allah's) creation. This means that Allah is not inside HIS (Allah's) own creation. How can somebody who creates something be in the realm of his own creation? Allah has stated that You cannot preceive me, becasue you are limited by the senses in you. Allah was here when there were no life forms as we know it. So this means that Allah is in a realm which has different time frame than us. In the Quran Allah talks of the Judgement Day (this is still to come, end of time as we know it) as if it has happened. This shows that Allah's time continuum is different from ours. As Allah is all-knowing and all-powerful thus, it shows that Allah can see those things which we cannot even imagine.

In conclusion I would like to say that everything is created and in the Quran it is categorically stated that Allah is neither he nor she (hence my continuing effort to avoid the words 'he' or 'she' when refferring to Allah) . Allah has also stated that Allah is not born nor does Allah have a child or children. Allah is the sole power in this space-time continuum of ours. As Allah created this space-time continum then does it not mean that Allah knows how to control it? Does it not mean that Allah is all-powerful and all-knowing.

I hope this long discussion assured you that there is Allah (God) out there. The all-powerful and the all-knowing.

Wa-salam.