'The Quest of Companionship'

Image source

While I's sitting with some my friends and our professor on campus, my professor asked me to read out to him verse # 28 of Surah Al-Kahf, from my pocket size English copy of noble Qur'an. It's a single verse, yet from any point-of-view it is a miracle for its expression and the message within it... It says:

28 | And keep thy soul content with those who call on their Lord morning and evening, seeking His Face; and let not thine eyes pass beyond them, seeking the pomp and glitter of this Life; no obey any whose heart We have permitted to neglect the remembrance of Us, one who follows his own desires [or lusts], whose case has gone beyond all bounds. [Emphasis added]

I'm amazed at this word i highlighted when i look at secular legislators; for whatever anti-God laws they profess and implement are nothing but products of lusts of their lower-self, or of masses they wish to please. Such people i see occupying posts of professors in universities and colleges, writing books and articles 'seeking pomp' through ideas - may we not give them the rank of prophets; nay, we do, God forbid. What more is sufficient to prove to modern man of his utter Decadence and Crisis he finds himself in, yet unwillingly even to recognize it.

Nation-state Idoltary

State is only a mean to provide welfare to its people, where education is free, food and medical services are given at least at a minimum level for people to exist, etc. Read Muhammad Asad's Principles of State and Government in Islam and you'll come to know that an Islamic state does all such and other welfare things to its subjects. And never does a Muslim take a state as the purpose of people, rather for him state is a purpose to attain a bigger purpose. But today, state is given the status, along with democracy (or mobocrisy or hypocrisy), of an idol, something that is (profanely) sacred. Founders are made (psuedo) prophets. People are sacrficed to save virtual interests of those in power in the name of Idol called Nationalism. Why am I shown pictures of Muhammad Ali Jinnah everywhere i go? Why am I considered a profane, in so-called patriots' sense of the term, if I criticize the founders? These are just a nominal examples we gave. Otherwise a whole series of books may be written to expose the practices and ideas of idolators of nationalism and nation-state. May Allah save us from all forms of idoltary, give us an understanding of the term as well.

Opinion question

Don't get me wrong, but i want to know your op on this: Do you think that blogs can be a good way of advertising marriage proposals, as a business model - in the context of Pakistan?

Social entrepreneurship - today, many social evils, in the perspective of islam, may be solved through early marriages... Youth is on blog... Discussion can be triggered... Hmm...

Situation

Today, i went here and there, but in no vain. You may like to think i's thirsty looking out for water in a desert... Not quite so... Today, i made a "sin" of not being able to come home at time and go to mosque to pray night-prayer... I's only only 45-50 mins late; and in cold, O Allah!, i searched forward, backwards, left and right, here and there, went to three mosques in town, not one open to entertain "late-comers"... Now-a-days. Everyone with a basic good nature stands up and decides to provide quality education to save the future of whole Muslim Ummah, yet these mosques on which millions are wasted in decorations, in building tombs, minarets, this and that, mosaics, glass-art work, and their khuddam (workers who live in mosque) lock the mosque so that no one can pray in the cover of night, alone... If this society cannot provide 24/7 services for people to worship the Lord of the Worlds, what else it can provide? Except music concerts, buffets, bonfire, dance performances, wine-parties, seminars on subjects that teach not to open Quran, to forget God, etc. etc all vain glories of a disturbed, extremist, one-eyed civilization... Allah mua'f karay mujhay...

Time for the 'Janaza' of Pakistani Culture

Praise be to God, may peace and blessings be upon Rasul-ullah and his aal,

Enough criticism of modernity and modernized, post-Christian West, which is desperately looking out for Rasul-ullah, saw, let's turn the nozzle of the canon to where I belong to. In the line of historical analysis of all dynasties of Egypt, studied by a past Muslim historian Imam Makridee (ra), time has come to say four takbeer for Pakistani society as a whole, i.e., to say its janaza, or furenal to bury it as soon as possible before it explodes, like a dead body does, if left unburied. We've are not the one to claim that it is dead, or in near-death sit., for it is so for some three valid reasons, you may or may not be wanting to know; here are the signs of complete decadence of a culture/society extracted by Imam, already mentioned, from his extensive study and analysis, when its janaza needs to be offered, for some good:

1. Widespread corruption (rishwat).

2. Debasement of currency.

3. High real estate prices.

(See this video for explanation of these points which we're not going to mention here.)

Case study: Pakistan has the "honour" of fulfilling all these conditions. Such is the state of our decadence. More than ever, we need to resort to the Divine, Revealed Word of Allah, swt, and the sunna of Prophet, which is our mimesis.

P.S: If the above high-lighted solution, which obviously lacks rigor and needs elaboration, does not fit your paradigms, then it means that the very notion of knowledge has been secularized in your mind, or you are simply ignorant of what it stands for. As a cure, if former is the case, we suggest this work which you may like to look at with open mindedness: Knowledge and Sacred, by Seyyed Hossein Nasr. If you fall into the later category, you may like to know about what it stands for.

Allah knows best.

Muhasaba

Now-a-days, there's a ballyhoo going over in Pakistan over NRO case in high judiciary. NRO is basically, from my understanding, a contract of jhaliyya (ignorance), that Arabs before Prophet's time used to make, which let's rich people in this country do whatever they want and punishes poor people only. But judiciary of ours seems to be no more a judiciary of jhaliyya. It has re-opened all previous cases of rich and powerful people involving all types of corruption which were thought to be buried by NRO contract b/w whoever.

Yet people among our ranks rhetorically say, "Everywhere people are dying in blasts. There's so much fear and poverty, and amongst all this mayhem they've opened NRO cases. What nonsense!" Someone beautifully replied by saying, "Would terminating NRO case bring more peace and security at all?" Obviously not, they'd say. In our opinion, it more necessary than ever to end all kinds of jhaliyya from our society. If we want to move forward, Abdal-Hakim Murad tells us what we really need to be doing:

"Muhasaba: you will not move forwards until you look backwards."

Source.

Heedlessness

"It sounded like the flash of lightening striking earth just outside your house." This is how my friend describes the intensity of Moon Market blast that took place near his residence in Lahore. (He and his family are safe.) My people are yet heedless, I dare not exclude myself, so I want to remind myself as well of this. Nothing in their attitude and actions seems to have changed. I don't intend to propose any plausible cause of this most tragic incident, but i do want to mention this: Since I have entered teenage, I've been seeing my brothers in faith doing disgusting things on roads, markets, etc. Anyone who comes to a city of lights like Lahore from a village, for instance, or even people of the city, intends to go to its busy markets to enjoy 'visual rape' of the opposite sex - bad gazing. People do it in the name of outing and enjoying themselves, shopping around. Such a disgrace. After this incident, I thought we'd be repenting for our sins, and avoiding even doubtful deeds. But when I go out, I wish to weep how heedless we are of the signs. I can't tell you how bad I am, only I know and Allah.

A misunderstanding...

There is a little misunderstanding in the (sub-conscious) mind of my people about marriage. Most of them like to presume that a person can only qualify for marriage till he reaches the age of graduation ceremony. Ancients never had this problem. "Till a person reaches the age of puberty/the age of nikah (marriage)..."

Victims are us, eager young lads, not dictionaries (who read them?).

Latest innovation of moderns: Man marries video game character

I am a bit depressed at this news, not because "the modern", central character of this incident, is my brother, but what can possibly happen to my own brothers (people), b'cause of the gaming culture? Let's mask ourselves with morbid expressions so as to repel any illusions that may arise by this incident: "[Whoever] reports on the marriage in Japan between a man known as "Sal9000" and [whatever videogame character] in the Nintendo DS simulating game love plus"? Simple, a man has married a video game character, or at least he wishfully thinks, proving how ignorant he is of the soul of marriage!

Who could have done this in whole human history than those human creatures forgetful (ghafil) of the very purpose of life? This incident is a product of a particular civilization, a mind-set, of a different category of human psyche, of an age Rene Guenon termed as the Dark Age. There's nothing but darkness in it, opposite to the light of Ruh Allah, Jesus, pbuh, the symbol of pure spirit. Yet we, people of my society, wish to go there, visit their lands and buildings and structures; yet they're enchanted by the outward charms of a hollow, deeply disturbing civilization.

From childhood, we are here fed with the images of a paradise that is West, or Westernized societies. It is considered to be a big achievement to be one of them, to be there. How foolish! I've been a victim of this misunderstanding too, I only wish to unlearn it. This incident is a nice reminder, and a little helpful too in this process of knowing the nature of things, and living according to it. Allah hu Akbar!

A sufficient argument for the elimination of t.v.

A gadget named t.v. was introduced some decades back in Pakistan, and like Muslim countries, with the view that, okay, if we can't bomb them directly, let's feed them tom and jerry, star moives, HBO, and above all, I Love Lucy. When a muslim walks down the road, he lowers his gaze, whether literally, or, at the least, he suppresses his lust. We could have kept our children and youth safe from the "grossness" of t.v., but the problem was that within a flash of second, the time taken to jump from a hardly "safe" channel to an "unsafe", no one was able to lower their gaze or control their lust. We gradually, along with the whole civilization, except a select few, sank into the miseries of immodesty, and hence utter misery. Their is only one argument that suffices for our position of elimination of the of t.v. (take it as an augmented product in present context, and its basic nature as well): "Verily, the gaze is a poisonous arrow from the arrow of Satan." TV should then be considered as an atom bomb.

End of times

How deluded the people of a society can be which even abhors the very symbols of piety! Alas! its here, perhaps, the end of times.

Conduct Disorder

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging scans showed aggressive adolescents reacted strongly in two parts of the brain when watching pain inflicted on others. Arousal occurred in the ventral striatum, the area responsible for feeling empathy. But an even stronger reaction occurred in the amygdala, the area that responds to feeling rewarded. The scans caused researchers to hypothesize that aggressive youths may enjoy watching others in pain.

Credit: University of Chicago.

I came to know about child conduct disorder from some notes of my classmate on criminal psychology, and immediately I found it to be useful. I have some young friends who are like brothers to me, and whom I watch to recall my own near-past, always thinking how I can make their emaan and ihsan better than I had. Most people of my age seemed to have developed tastes and interests too vile, sterile, and loathsome in their speech, rhetoric, and actions that thoughts of associating myself with them seem to be remote - I look for innocence and above human fitra. And I sometime childishly wonder if it really exists? Alhamdulillah it does. I see it in these kids, free of all prejudices, hatred, skepticism, kufr, and what really not. However, some of these friends of mine seem to have symptoms of conduct disorder, which if persist can in later stages of their lives turn into a serious problem called anti-social personality disorder. Now I am up to detecting if they really have any kind of conduct disorder, so that they can be sent to some good psychiatrists, who believe in counseling (and not primarily in medication). People generally here are very ignorant of psychological problems.

I think of this activity as more important than my studies, which are concerned with my future. I like to think that I would be relieved to relive my brothers who are in grievances. I would be happier by making their families proud of them. I would be elated by freeing them from depressions. A momin feels the the pain of another as his own, so how can he let the pain cripple his own body. With these spirits our social life is regulated, based on mercy, compassion, care and profundity.

And. No appreciation of the matter, i.e., psychological problems, may be made if we do not show this version of classical school bullying...

Winter, Accounting, Jumma Sermon & I

Inner clarity is certainly a big think to have. What can express the beauty in it better than this piece of Islamic art you are seeing.

***

The winter is setting in, with Lahore's atmosphere appearing to be more vague and cloudy, than our skepticism of Pakistan's bleak future. Interestingly, such an atmosphere may in fact contribute to more inner clearness, and of ideas as well (that's my romantic notion of winter). Nonetheless, the trouble is coming for me: The brain-drying assignments of accounting. And accounting is the right kind of subject to talk about when thinking of 'clear thinking' (don't confuse it with Dawkin's "clear-thinking oasis" for 'mentally incapacitate' people).

The study of this subject, i.e., accounting & finance, should be encouraged among Muslims on a general plane, for it is an "exact science". Right now in Pakistan, according to our (simply) brilliant, highly-experienced professor, managers are all idiots. Managers here just don't care about from where a cost comes, i.e., what are the cost-drivers, they themselves being the best example. Resources are being lavishly raped, because no control is in effect. There's a lack of technical bent of mind and expertise, as a well a loss of religious sense towards one's duties. This situation is evident in almost all departments of our society - government departments being the supreme and the "noblest" example. And the only exceptions are people like my professors, who while consulting the companies are trying to teach them sanity.

I have to depart now for jumma sermon and prayers. Sermon is most looked-after commodity for me. It is purifying bath for my heart and mind, whenever I return from diving into university education.

Educating Muslim Youth by Shaykh Hamza Yusuf

Chittick says that Muslims have stopped to think. One of the major reasons for that is that Muslims have brushed the Islamic model of education replacing it with Western model of education, the latter not compatible wholly with the former. "Everyone nowadays is Qadi al-Qudat, Judge of Judges" - thanks to this alien system's intellectual outlook. While another oppression of the imported system is that it has replaced the fear of God in Muslims with an overwhelming fear of dunya (world) - overwhelming so to say to the mind rooted in tradition - the worth of which, i.e., dunya, is no more than a dead dog. I find this following lecture by Shaykh Yusuf invigorating, as if really 'revitalizing the dying organism' which is our mentality, generally speaking. Hope our elders get the point, reflect deeply on these matters, and do something about 'the dying organism' our youth is. But then again, as he proves, its on youth to take initiative to change, which, taking myself as an example, they can naturally do.

Part 1.


Part 2.

Why to abandon things like facebook?

I
have successfully abandoned sites like facebook and God knows I am not tempted to activate my account again. Horrible images pop up in my mind when I think of these. I feel as I would become thirsty if I go back there. I feel I will be left behind. I feel as if I will burn out and exhaust all of my energies. What's important here is to analyze and judge whether it is really a useful tool or not? And, secondly, even if I am unclear about its real worth, what am I doing on these places? My only premise in relation to the second point is that if I am wasting my time there, then I have no other option than to abandon such sites. Therefore, responding the second question first, what I did: I spent half of the day through internet and mobile - playing Mafia Wars, 'a delusion of grandeur', as they happily call it, updating my status as to 'what was on my mind', even if it were to be ":)"; checking all kind of notifications with a hunger/lust; interacting with people I know, especially with those living far away from me (after having some conversations with them all spirits and emotions part of human relations seem to slow down); and indulging in hundred other, most of which were utterly rubbish sort of activities that consumed my time like a hard acid consumes flesh.

Such sites (as our champion facebook) are built to engage its users in activities most of which are purely useless, filled with all sorts of illusions, and are seriously meant for 'fun' just to increase the number of visitors and members on their sites. The term 'fun' is important here. Muslims are not people of fun, nor any serious person who is true his human nature. 'Fun means activity of fools'. How can a Muslim be like the people of fun, who are non-serious and have no desire to dominate their self (nafs), and 'be like great people', the God-conscious people? Nonetheless, I found that only an iota of this social networking website (facebook, I was heavily addicted to), everything else I did was rubbish, addiction. And they openly say that this is addictive, inviting us to have fun with their services, openly fooling everyone. How can a serious person fall victim to something that is proclaiming "I am dangerous for you"? A serious person is one who spends his whole life to discern between the Illusion and the Real and to assimilate the Real consequently. In an effort to imitate such people, i decided to leave it for some good. Notice their users' reactions: So you've left facebook? As if it was not to be!

But what about its usefulness? Isn't that immensely useful? Yes, it is for its core feature which is 'connecting with people'. But if I really need to contact people far off, I need to limit its use. When I couldn't help myself abstain from its overwhelming useless features, what best should I have done? I did that and left it. I admit the matter is somewhat complex. A paradox that has been recognized by an able and reflective blogger is being quoted here, which is to make us stop and think, and be not afraid of self-examination:

We are the generation of communication, we network busily like bees setting up profile pages on websites which gather a little too much information, we tweet our daily, habitual routines and make idle chatter with our cult followers. We blog of anecdotes, obsessions and random news articles which perk our interests for the day. We text, email, chat on instant messenger and still wonder why we're so out of touch with our loved ones. ("Todays's Generation," Drinking Raindrops.)

As for Muslims, what we have to do is 'to look at what prophet SAW said and did'. Prophet said that he who would disconnect his relations would not enter in jannah (paradise). (Bukhari, Muslim). Therefore, such sites as Orkut or Facebook may only be used for connecting with others, and not a single second may be spent on useless, rubbish things it is right now filled with. I know a good deal of my friends who miss fajr prayer owing to their duties towards such places facebook. Nevertheless, many verses of Quran and traditions prove that our top priority should be our parents and relatives, and then other people. Prophet said: Father's brother is like father for a person (son) (Bukhari, Muslim). We don't need such sites to serve our parents. We don't need it to fulfill our obligations towards our relatives. They need us with our physical and mental presence with them. And I have felt that nothing is more healthier emotionally and spiritually than meeting people in person, and this was the sunnah of our Prophet. 'Let's enrich our lives a little by interacting with others'. People who make board games like Monopoly know the worth of humans interactions that is why board games have an edge over highly addictive and rubbish electronic/computer games. So why should we deprive ourselves of interaction with people that matter so much to us? Tell me, how would you express a smile to your dear one virtually, and how would he or she catch the spirit? And we are depriving our beloved ones of such inestimable and infinitely cheap human gifts, even to those who live in the very room adjacent to our highly exclusive, private, secluded dwellings.

Honour people, be merciful to them, do not backbite

Image source

An unjust king asked a devotee what kind of worship is best. he replied, "For thee the best is to sleep one half of the day so as not to injure the people for a while."

Sa'adi

In the context of present condition of religiosity of Muslim Ummah, the above quote by Shaikh Sa'adi (RA) without doubt fits more for ordinary Muslims than for their not-so-extra-ordinary rulers; because as per a tradtion of Prophet, rulers treat their people according to their piety and God-consciousness (Taqwa), or obedience to God. If the people disobey Him, He punishes them through their rulers, and vice verse. I only need here to point out one of the greatest mischief and sins committed by the Muslims by and large against their own brothers in faith (which may only cured by the advice of Shaikh Sa'adi (RA) to the unjust king as you will see). The sin is called backbiting (geebat).

The life, wealth, and honour - according to a hadith narrated by Hazrat Abdullah bin Umer - of a Muslim is greater in value than Baitullah, Ka'aba shareef. If one attacks on the honour of a Muslim, let alone his life and wealth and property, he is actually striking on the very house of God dear to us more than our lives and families. Imagine. Everyday, in almost every gathering of ours, when we backbite we actually, by attacking on the honour and dignity of a Muslim, are ruthlessly destroying the house of Allah! However, we don't get sick here, we don't even deem it to be a crime, and we have got our own explanations that only amplify our foolishness and expose how irreligious we really are.


In an another hadith, the messenger of Allah said, which may allow us to a lend a few moments for little self-examination over how severe the sin we so easily commit: Backbiting is a crime more severe than fornication. No religion of the world appreciates fornication. We all denounce it openly. There are severe punishments for those who commit this sin in Islam. Yet...! The former is a sin more wicked than fornication. It's because is related to the rights of human beings, it's because its an attack on someone's dignity. And finally, as the whole point of this post was to raise a question to Muslims: Is our religion, i.e., Islam, lacking in wisdom and profundity, or our actions and commitment to its ideals? Answer is quite simple and much evident for the people of understanding. May Allah give us the ability to act upon and fully realize in our actions the ideals of His Last Revelation. Ameen.

Of Justice

Often tears come down my eyes when I correlate the amount of justice pervailing through the fabric of my society - an Islamic society by name containing many diversities - with the following Prophetic tradition. Prophet of Islam once uttered, and as I quote I weep:

Shall I inform you of a better act than fasting, alms, and prayers? Making peace between one another: enmity and malice tear up heavenly rewards by the roots.

I shall not hate. I shall love and be just, because "God loves the just (Qur'an 5:42)."

Watch It & Morose, For God's Love Sake!

This photo comes to you by the courtesy and craftiness of Photography Society, F.C.C. University, where I now study. If you have noticed anything else than the heaps of the wanton litter, it may be the blue sign board which (not surprisingly) engraved a message by our Earth Watch Society, worthy enough to be torn apart. It read, in the old days when all of F.C.C's dwellers could possibly be categorized as humans: "Don't Throw Litter on the Ground." But our Nazis could not resist their impulsive humanity. Neither could I. My instant reaction to this abuse of nature was like this:

"My God I can't believe how sarcastic you've become (addressing the photographer, an honorable man). Are you pointing to the utterly dull 'higher' animals, complete maniacs, filthy mutants, with brains no greater than a tiny nickel ring poor Matilda wears; hearts of whom are rotten more than a rat ran 'over by a van', and who are, to be precise, now-a-days known as Formanites?"

This of course is too inadequate, short and abrupt a reaction to be effective enough to move unbelievably retarded, clumsy and educated beings into swirling birds, idealists. This subject merits a book or two, or more than two, of voluminous size, because it would be about dreams, my countrymen and beyond. Allow me to illustrate my point. A batch of students goes from Pakistan to Germany, abode of learning, the later. And when they are asked on their return to the abode of (?), by our Dean, as to what they liked most of German universities - one single, unanimous answer was: Cleanliness of the campuses they visited (was breath-catching sir, if not unbelievable).

Anarchists may like to contend their egos by labeling such dreams as of 'Tree-Hugging'. So be it. I beg; you beg, at the least, one year of non-torture attitude towards our beloved outdoors and indoors, heavens and earth. But, the anarchists,

They should listen this:
'Tis always inherent in humans
The love of purity,
Which shall be so for eternity.

Is Golablization Inevitable, Irreversible?

These two oft-repeated words, inevitable and irreversible, used often with the term Globalization, lack my respect. Yes, I degrade them as they do it to me. A process that is not strictly happening according to a Divine and Natural Law, but that which actually is a function of the choices humans make, has come to suggest that it transcends human beings. Is it fair? The later question would be raised more forcefully and more provocatively by those who believe in Iqbalian philosophy of humanism, not quite same as Western humanism, however. Iqbalian philosophy of Selfhood gives central place in the universe to humans, who are of best composition. Thou art not for sun and moon, it is they who art for thou. If humans give up to live, to say the extreme we shouldn't say, would globalization be inevitable and irreversible? That is not to denounce increase in the interdependency and inter-connectivity between people, but to show the dominance of humanity over non-human, cosmic elements or forces.

Apart from this, such annotations and connotations for a process called globalization raise logical questions about the certainty and finality of these ideologies. If globalization (the exact opposite of tribalism) is supposed to be an unstoppable phenomenon, which it is called upon by some academicians, then why still its definition is termed too dynamic to be explicitly stated as a whole? That is, you cannot limit its definition or even define it fully by assuming that this process has shown all of its manifestations; and that now no further study of historical processes is required to deduce an all-rounded and exact definition of this phenomenon, process or philosophy ('3 Ps' as called by Ali Muqteda). To be precise, my question is: Why this process has not completed and turned into a condition?

There is no argument over the fact that since globalization has never been a modern or post-modern phenomenon, it has evolved over hundreds of centuries and still continues to be so. But is it correct to label such a phenomenon, process or philosophy, which may be as lethal for humanity as tribalism, unstoppable? Are we becoming a victim of arrow of time, which has inherited in its forward flow some diabolical cruelties, so much unavoidable? Is this whole notion human?

'A Poignant Picture of Punjabi Life'

Image source.

Should we not read Economist about a new collection of stories by an American brought-up Pakistani, who throws vivid light on the complex culture of his soil? IN OTHER ROOMS, OTHER WONDERS, is Daniyal Mueenuddin’s first debut which is about the life of a Pakistani feudal lord. But there is a lot more magic in this than a mere fictional biography of an aging landlord, which justly makes it a literary piece of work by painting things in a large canvas of Pakistani society, especially of Punjab. Nothing could make a foreign journalist describe the Pakistani society so accurately than the stories carved by Mueenuddin, that:

IN PAKISTAN life is shaped as much by who you know as what you do. In this remarkable debut, a range of characters rich in practical intelligence demonstrate the importance of influence. An electrician burdened with 12 daughters persuades his employer to give him a motorcycle; a servant sleeps her way into maintaining her position in a Lahore household; a down-at-heel woman pleads for a post with a distant rich relation. (Economist.)

Therefore, connections are very much the necessity here. Now some words about the archetypal stories by Daniyal Mueenuddin:

Passing from the mannered drawing rooms of Pakistan’s cities to the harsh mud villages beyond, Daniyal Mueenuddin’s linked stories describe the interwoven lives of an aging feudal landowner, his servants and managers, and his extended family, industrialists who have lost touch with the land... A hard-driven politician at the height of his powers falls critically ill and seeks to perpetuate his legacy; a girl from a declining Lahori family becomes a wealthy relative’s mistress, thinking there will be no cost; an electrician confronts a violent assailant in order to protect his most valuable possession... (Daniyal Mueendin website.)

Pakistan is said to be well understood by its inhibitors and much misunderstood by the outsiders. Hopefully this collection of short stories, praised by both Mohsin Hamid and Salman Rushdie, will remove any misconceptions in the minds of foreigners, which can save many lives. Moreover, it can remove the number of dejected hearts who often come here with the romantic notion of receiving bliss from the perfume of Pakistan, and return with many natural shocks. I see hope. (Very poignant.)