An epitome of humanity

On this day (12th of the islamic month Rabbi-ul-Awwal) as the first burst of dawn hid behind the dark veil of last moments of night, a widowed young mother gave birth to a son- her only child, who was named Mohammed, and who was destined and prophecised to change the course of humanity and bring light of knowledge and wisdom in a time when darkness of ignorance, arrogance, hypocrisy and dominance was widespread.

Islamic world celebrate the birth anniversary of this great legend as Milaad-un-Nabi on this day every year (which falls on 4th of january, this year).

Prophet Mohammed was born at a time and in a soceity where a perpetual war of supremacy and dominance raged betwixt the local tribes of Arabia; the teachings of the preceding prophets were manipulated, abandoned or forgotten under the lures of money, power and self-indulgence; the weak and helpless were abused, ill-treated and oppressed; women were reduced to mere domestic objects, female-infanticide and slave-torture was rampant; and atrocity was the way of life of the strong and influential.

He grew up to earn the titles like the Truthful One, the Honest One, The friend of all and The Respectful one, even before his prophethood was revelled upon all. And when his prophethood was revealed, he did earn enemity from the oppressors and way-laid (many from his own kith and kin), he faced en-masse hostility and heart-breaking ridicules, and even lost many of his beloved ones.

But he had a divine duty to perform and never faltered even for once. He reciprocated stones, swords and swearings with a smile, forbearance and forgiveness. He answered every challenge and tests of his opposers and doubtsters with alacrity and precision. He sacrificed willingly, endeavoured relentlessly and taught with utmost love and patience.

When he did go to war it was as a last resort, in compliance of the Divine commandment and to safeguard human values and the lives of those who trusted him. And he never ill treated the war survivors who surrendered to him.

The Treaty of Hudaiwiya and The conquest of mecca are classic paradigms of human-rights and how to treat even our enemies with leniency and respect. He taught the virtues of patience, love, mutual co-existence and kindness.

He even set examples of secularism by often accepting invites and himself inviting people of other religions, passing unbiased judgments in any dispute that was brought to him, visiting and helping the poor, sick and needy, maintaining friendly contacts with all he could and appreciating his followers who did the same.

He lived a very ordinary lay-man life void of any luxury or indulgence, but his life is a treasure-trove of inspiration and wisdom. He fulfilled his divine obligation and- as The almighty Allah states in the Holy Quran that those who live to fulfill his divine will (prophets, martyrs and saints) never die, they only bid adieu to worldly existence; They remain alive even in their tombs- even Prophet Mohammed lives in Medina and reaches out to those who call unto his guidance and aid.

Role distance plays

Continued from "Distance, thou art strange."

Where distance has played such magical medium on one hand, it has on the other played the trickster who slowly, silently, flungs us in the labyrinth of daily routine and such priorities where we don't find a way to interact with each other except once in a blue moon. These have been friends from my childhood and school life, who have seen through life with me. We have learnt together, played together, grown up together, shared our dreams, confided our secrets, been partners in mischief, spoken hours at length about everything and nothing! With whom I understood the meaning of friendship, who have now moved to various destinations with their life, but are still as dear to me.

Taranum Fathima, Arshiya Nausheen, Trupti Jain, Mahalakshmi Satish Balaji, Kavita, Charanya, Kusuma, Seema, and so many playmates of my childhood...
I can't blame them, I hold myself responsible most of the time. I have been the one to drop my end of the thread, to give in to the delicacy of the situation and not pursued them enough.

I still recall the after school minutes I spent with Arshiya on the steps of our school waiting for our parents to pick us up and sharing all the knowledge we had in the world. I was so hurt when in the first year she chose someone else as her best friend! But she proved herself to be a true gem and kept me as close as ever.

Charanya was the first to separate choosing another high school, but for years till she moved to another city we met often, exchanged letters and stayed up to date with each other.

Trupti was the next to go away with her family shifting to Pune, but the distance was yet to not settle between us. We sincerely wrote letters to each other every two months, and what letters they were! Each of a dozen+ pages, complete with the latest minutest development to the last detail, livened up with jokes, quotes, designs, drawings and picture postcards!

Anybody else who saw it wondered how we could write and read such novel-sized letters to each other and what on earth could we have written in such close knit handwriting, but only we knew how short the letters seemed to us. Yet now, we have each other's phone number and email id but have no time except for an occassional Hi.

Taranum has been another gem and probably the one amongst us who goes out of the way and to lengths to maintain a steady interaction and never forgotten a friend. Maha and kavita have tried their best to remain in touch since distance set in, but we all have a void in our lives which only we can fill.

My note to them is: "You remember, whenever I was asked who my best friend is, I always replied as- All my friends are best in their own ways.

I wasn't wrong and I can still proudly say so. Thank you for enriching my life and sorry for all the forfeiture on my part."

Distance, thou art strange!

It's really funny how distance plays such tricky games with our heart. Sometimes when it takes two close ones far from each other, they writh and wither in each others memory, and sometimes it becomes such a casual thing we accept it like morning after night.

I understand more than blaming distance, the onus lies on the love and dedication the two people shared betwixt them. But what when the feelings are equally true, and affection equally indepth in both the instances? I speak from my own experiences here, and of friendship- a relationship I hold truly precious and sacred in my life.

I don't know if the proverb "Distance makes the heart grow fonder" suits the instances I relate to here, because they have always remained at far flung places from me. But yes, they all have surely become important part of my existence in such a short duration that I strongly believe destiny had planned our friendship.

Cindy Ackley, Judy Yaron, Elly Stornebrink, Yatita shah, my group of co-authors from the anthology "Love stories that touched my heart", so many friends and siblings I made via facebook and in my college years! Our interactions have usually been of touch-and-go nature, and always via one telecom media or another(except for a few whom I have met for a short duration). But my friendship with each of them has clicked almost instantly, and the honesty, trust, joy, comfort and respect I share with each of them, (I know) comes from true friendship.

A personal note from me to each of them: "I don't know if we would ever meet in person, but somehow it already feels like we have, and I'm so grateful to each of you for all that you have done, have been and mean for me."

Continued in Role distance plays.

My most precious

A love haiku that my heart whispered to me.

I dedicate this to my parents, my sister and my nephew...

you are my island,
my life's shore, my horizon;
you make me complete

Noblest of them all!

Once when i was little, my sister was so touched by the dedicated attention of doctors to my father when he was undergoing some treatment, I recall her observing that surely a doctor's is the most noblest profession.

I agree, to heal, save and care for a life is a really honourable and noble way of life, but to confer it the title of being "the noblest" seems a bit overdone to me.

I mean there are so many professions without which humanity and life on earth would suffer and struggle! There's nobility is every deed and honour in every profession (that are not vice).

And the comradeship and acceptance i found here, in the blogging community and amidst the co-authors of my anthology is really so amazing and humbling.

All of you help and support with such altruism, connect with such honesty and goodwill, and care with such concern, you really belittle the agonies, disappointments and heartbreakers in life. You hold us up and never allow us to give up.

You all rock and this blog is dedicated to all you precious friends i found in this wonderful world of writing and blogging.

A beautiful reunion

At long last a re-connection n some new beginnings! :)
Check out my latest blog at rediff in a whole new avatar :-)

here's d link: http://blogs.rediff.com/liveliness/2014/05/15/ to-new-beginni…d-old-memories /

Dedicated to all of you

In honour of a true legend

                        In honour of a true legend       

My first memory of hearing about Prophet Mohammed (Peace be upon him) is of my mother telling us siblings anecdotes from his life (and sometimes from lives of his disciples, other prophets and Sufi saints) every night while putting us to sleep, in our childhood, followed by few small prayers.

What I loved the best of these sessions was the universality of the messages each anecdote carried and the simplicity of the great personage. He was always so caring, so affable, so patient, so humble, so humane and so generous, even his enemies and infidels respected, liked and trusted him.

Even prior to the declaration of his prophet-hood he was known for his honesty, hard-work, humbleness and trust-worthy nature; and all used to address him as “Ameen” and “Saadiq” meaning “The trustworthy one” and “The truthful” respectively. After his declaration of Prophet-hood too, this trust did not waiver and even the infidels and people from other religions approached him to solve their serious feuds and knew he will always judge sans any bias or discrimination and justice will surely be delivered.

Today, on his birth centenary, I present before you all some words of wisdom, quotes from him authenticated by the two great books of Hadiths- “Sahi Buqaari” and “Muslim-Sharief”, which I believe are true gems and germane to everyone (especially in present day society); because that is what he always wished for- spread the light of love, life, wisdom and truth across all civilisations and creations.

So here it is... Pearls of Wisdom picked up from the Hadiths… quotes of our Beloved Prophet Mohammed [SAWS – Peace Be Upon Him].

    It is better to sit alone than in the company with the bad; and it is better to sit with the good than alone.

It is better to speak words to a speaker of knowledge than to remain silent; and silence is better than bad words.

 

    Speak to men according to their mental capacities, for if you speak all things to all men, some cannot understand you, and so fall into errors.

 

    Keep Yourself far from envy, because

      It eats up and takes away good actions,

like the fire that eats up and burns wood

 

    The ink of a scholar is more holy than

               The blood of a martyr

 

    Verily ye(you) are ordered the divine commandments, then forsake them not; ye are forbidden the unlawful, then do not fall therein; there are fixed boundaries, then pass not beyond them; and there’s silence on some things without they being forgotten, then do not debate about them.

 

 Wishing everyone Happiness on the Birth centenary of this great legend…

“Eid- e- Milaad – un – Nabi sab ko Mubarak ho”

The man with the magic pen

My favourite classes during my school years, especially in my primary school were English’s. I used to look forward for them everyday and come alive with the stories they told and carry their message in my heart.
I enjoyed each one of them, from stories written by greats R. L. Stevenson, Charles Lamb, Hans Christen Anderson, Mark Twain, Wordsworth, Lewis Carroll, etc to historical anecdotes and famous folk-lore. Though they were merely names and interesting stories put together in our reader to us back then, I realise now what precious gems of English literature the Board had collected to enhance our linguistic skills and understanding.
But one name which never failed to capture my attention and whose stories fascinated me the most was Mulk Raj Anand. For me, at that tender age of 6 or 7, oblivious of the fame any of these names enjoyed and such other great’, finding an English story written by an Indian was as astonishing as finding the wonderland would have been for Alice or the Neverland for Peter; as my tender mind had courted a strong notion till then that only an English could write in English.
I recall Mulk Raj Anand’s stories usually centred around every-day occurrences, Indian culture and traditions and simple meanings, but i was still so impressed by his style and the topics he addressed, that he became my favourite writer and when i realised (as years passed) as to what a great author he truly was, my admiration of him only alleviated.
Surely, he was a man with a magic pen, for his stories not only touched the reader’s soul, but left a lasting impression in their lives. Characters created by him like Baakha of “The Untouchables” and the protagonist in “The Coolie” has become unforgettable in Indian literature. One of the early writers in English from India to attain international repute, his writings not merely addressed the common mass but also challenged the British rule in India, and also brought about a radical change in India’s social structure, eliminating social evils and shaking the grounds of deep-rooted blind-beliefs.
So today, on his 108th birth anniversary, I dedicate this all new series of my blogs to him, whose style of writing established a life-long rendezvous with the beautiful language and art of writing for me, and in whose magical world of stories, i found my dream.