Hallow-eeep!

So it's halloween today. And even though we live in Pakistan, i know about 5 halloween parties that are taking place today in my town. Even though we are Muslims, and we don't go out trick-or-treating, we still are having these costumes parties..all in good fun ofcourse! It's just a fun party, it's not like we're adapting Christian beliefs.

But what my friends fail to grasp is that celebrating it, you are actually saying that it's okay. That an event such as this is rather exotic (and ofcourse, anything exotic is totally cool. WE don't have any cool celebrations of our own do we? Eid is just boring. Rather than coming up with funner ways to celebrate it, let's just adapt someone else's culture and religion! Yeay!)

Tonight, while I KNOW some of my friends are dancing dressed up like witches and gargoyles and vampires in the ISLAMIC Republic of Pakistan, I choose to stay at home and draw light upon the history of this "cool" celebration that we don't even know about.

Pagan(...Yes, PAGAN) Origins of Halloween

Halloween originated as the Eve of Samhain, a celebration marking the beginning of winter and the first day of the New Year among ancient pagans of the British Isles. On this occasion, it was believed that supernatural forces gathered together, that the barriers between the supernatural and human worlds were broken. They believed that spirits from other worlds (such as the souls of the dead) were able to visit earth during this time and roam about. At this time, they celebrated a joint festival for the sun god and the lord of the dead. The sun was thanked for the harvest and given moral support for the upcoming "battle" with winter. In ancient times, the pagans made sacrifices of animals and crops in order to please the gods.
They also believed that on October 31st, the lord of the dead gathered all the souls of the people who had died that year. The souls upon death would dwell in the body of an animal, then on this day the lord would announce what form they were to take for the next year.

Christian Influence

When Christianity came to the British Isles, the church tried to take attention away from these pagan rituals by placing a Christian holiday on the same day. The Christian festival, the Feast of All Saints, acknowledges the saints of the Christian faith in much the same way that Samhain had paid tribute to the pagan gods. The customs of Samhain survived anyway, and eventually became intertwined with the Christian holiday. These traditions were brought to the United States by immigrants from Ireland and Scotland.

Islamic Teachings

Virtually all Halloween traditions are based either in ancient pagan culture, or in Christianity. From an Islamic point of view, they all are forms of idolatry (shirk). As Muslims, our celebrations should be ones that honor and uphold our faith and beliefs. How can we worship only Allah, the Creator, if we participate in activities that are based in pagan rituals, divination, and the spirit world? Many people participate in these celebrations without even understanding the history and the pagan connections, just because their friends are doing it, their parents did it ("it's a tradition!"), and because "it's fun!"
While it may be tempting to join in, we must be careful to preserve our own traditions and not allow ourselves to be corrupted by this seemingly "innocent" fun. When tempted, remember the pagan origins of these traditions, and ask Allah to give you strength. Save the celebration, the fun and games, for our 'Eid festivals. We can still have fun, it's not like it's forbidden in Islam and most importantly, we should learn that we only acknowledge holidays that have a religious significance to us as Muslims. Holidays are not just excuses to binge and be reckless. In Islam, our holidays retain their religious importance, while allowing proper time for rejoicing, fun and games.

Guidance From the Quran

On this point, the Quran says:

"When it is said unto them, 'Come to what Allah has revealed, come to the Messenger,' they say, 'Enough for us are the ways we found our fathers following.' What! Even though their fathers were void of knowledge and guidance?" (Qur'an 5:104)

"Has not the time arrived for the believers, that their hearts in all humility should engage in the remembrance of Allah and of the Truth which has been revealed to them? That they should not become like those to whom was given the Book aforetime, but long ages passed over them and their hearts grew hard? For many among them are rebellious transgressors." (Qur'an 57:16)

For the sake of God, please fix this road !!

No, this is not a random title. This title has actually been copied from a sign that I saw outside a road close to where I live in North Nazimabad, Karachi. Leaving the house with my family one day, I braced myself for the long and painful bumpy roads as soon as I leave my street and enter the main road. The bumps and the reminents of the construction wof the street which has been going on since...how long was it? I honestly can't even remember the date. But I assure you it has most probably been more than a year. Anyway, so as we headed out that day, what we didn't brace ourselves was for the amount of laughter that would come after seeing a huge black sign pinned on the side saying "Khuda ka khauf karo. Road sahi kardo!"

I guess it wasn't really a laughing matter. I guess some part of me was impressed by these people, whoever they were, for atleast TRYING to make those so called construction workers or whoever it is taking care of the constructions in Karachi feel a bit of shame. I used to look for moments to go out, maybe even for a walk, down to the other block, where it is a more commercial area. Ever since the road incident, I barely ever feel like doing it. My mom and dad think twice before going out to run small errands because it's just not worth all the up-down-up-down bumpy ride in which one has to not only make sure that they don't end up hurting the bumpers of their cars, but also face the other cars coming from all over the other places, from your front and both sides.

But that's not the sad part. The sad part is, that it's been almost a month and a half since we saw that sign get posted, and still, the road is exactly the same as ever. No officials, no concerned authorities have apid any heed to it. If there were ever a 'Procrastinator of the year' award, by far, Pakistani officials would get it.

A Thousand Splendid Suns- Book Review

A Thousand Splendid Suns, written by Khaled Hosseini is a novel about two women growing up in war-torn Afghanistan. Mariam and Laila come from two different worlds, but as their lives and a series of events progress, they find themselves together, remembering what it is like to feel love and have hope. Chronicling the lives of the two women over a thirty year span, the novel is able to give readers an insight on life of women growing up in a male-dominated society. Afghanistan’s tumultuous history serves as the backdrop of Hosseini’s novel. The plot of the story runs parallel to the country’s timeline within the last three decades. As conditions in Afghanistan go from bad to worse, so do the lives of the novel’s two protagonists. Although the novel is a work of fiction, Hosseini’s use of historical references make his story more realistic and allows the reader to have a better understanding of what life is truly like for characters Mariam and Laila.

Mariam was born out of wedlock, and the first part of the novel follows her as she grows into a woman. The second part of the novel shifts to the story of Laila, a 9-year-old girl who lives near Mariam. Although both girls' stories are interesting, it was not clear during my first reading how they connected or where the novel was going. In Part III, Mariam and Laila's stories converge. This is where the novel really takes off and becomes hard to put down. For those readers who read The Kite Runner and are afraid during the first part of the novel that A Thousand Splendid Suns will never pick up the momentum of Hosseini's debut work, fear not. It will all come together, and you will appreciate the time Hosseini spent developing the characters in the first hundred pages or so.

Overall, I highly recommend A Thousand Splendid Suns. Hosseini has written another page turner that moves quickly despite how difficult it is to internalize the sad and violent content that runs throughout the book. This is not light reading, but it is very good reading. Not only does Hosseini do an excellent job of creating an extremely interesting plot that engages readers from beginning to end, his use of imagery and descriptive language adds to the realism of the characters and their thoughts and feelings. Incorporating elements of friendship, love and war makes Hosseini’s novel relatable to many around the globe and a “must-read” (according to NY Times) for bookworms alike.

The Crucial Time

The nation is going through turbulent times. Pakistan is living on the edge these days. Let it be India's immoral motives against Pakistan ,the international pressure over different issues, Flood victims rehabilitation process, downsizing economy or the recent bombings in karachi and other major cities of the country, Pakistan is suffering...badly.

Recent analysis show that these are one of the most difficult times that Pakistan has ever faced in its history. But the point in case here is that Pakistan has been through such times before. The war of 65 and 71, conditions after the nuclear launch or 9/11 or even the external pressures, the nation did survive and it prospered.

US President's recent business trip to India was being regarded as not a major threat to Pakistan's relations with USA and Obama rightfully played it well but in the end speaking to Log sabha(Indian Parliament) he did speak out few contradicting statements which did discourage few hopes in Pakistan like India's positive role in Afghanistan which indeed is not as positive as it was being told by President Obama.

Rehabilitation for victims of flood affected areas is another major challenge ahead of this country and the government.

The war on terror is another major issue which has to be addressed in a more structured manner as was done in swat and areas along.

India's motives have been quite evident of the fact that what can we be made go through in coming days, fundings to militant groups in Pakistan, stoppage of water flow to Pakistan, blaming Pakistan on almost everything even if a child in India gets his lollipop stolen Pakistan must be blamed!

The issues related to sports specially cricket are getting out of control every day. Hearings over Salman butt and Amir's cases and Zulqurnain's acts surely need an attention forcing the governing bodies to restructure the whole board.

International pressure over different issues has also been a worry for this country. The sanctions imposed by IMF may sound scary but their implementation makes things worst as being explained by Joseph E Stiglitz.

Hence a lot is to be handled and it has to be handled right. Pakistan holds the experience of making through such extreme situations and it rightly will once the will is there ...will to change...

Fear God Or Love God?

I recently was going through a 2-week old DAWN when my eyes caught this small article titled "Love God or Fear God?" It seemed interesting so I pursued my eyes on reading the rest of it. What I read hit me with a brand new light. The article talks about our concept of Allah and how we tend to fear Him more than we love Him. The truth is, ever since we are little, we are told by our parents "Don't do this, God will be mad at you and will put you in hell". Atleast, ever since I was little, I had this very vague idea of God sitting on a throne and punishing the wrong-doers. I was always afraid of Him and scared to be punished, thus I was constantly disturbed and afraid whenever I failed to do what was told to me that I must do in order to please God.
Today, we tend to hold so strongly to our fear of Him, that we fail to actually love Him. Our whole lives encircle around hell and heaven but not around Allah. We do what we do in fear of Him, but we are oblivious to the fact that if we were truly to love Allah, we would need not to worry about the rest. We look at our daily prayers as an obligatory duty we must perform in order to reach heaven, when we should actually be seeking nearness to Allah through these prayers, not heaven. Ofcourse, if one is close to Allah, he will most surely attain Paradise. Personally, I feel that this phenomenon of heaven an hell was basically set up by Allah as a mere path, the eventual thing that people of a higher spiritual level should seek is actually the love of Allah.
Alot of things we do today, alot of the practices we condemn, are basically because we think that Allah will punish us. We never say "If you want Allah to love you, do this" instead, we say ot ourselves "Do this if you want to be saved from Allah's wrath". Isn't the greater purpose of life to find Allah's love? Obviously, when we love someone, we would never do anything that does not please them, so eventally, the wrath part will go away if we truly look for the the Love of Allah. Allah states that His love is the intensity of the love of 70 mothers. Also, in many parts of the Quran, his love for us is sometimes emphasized more than his wrath. Thus, our main goal in life should be to love Him, not to be scared of the wrath we'd get on the Day of Judgement. Ofcourse, that should be kept in mind; however, the higher purpose should always be to love Him, and if we truly give ourselves to love Him, paradise and hell would mean nothing.

Is Customer Service Dead?

A few days back I overheard my sister-in-law, lecturing my brother for what seemed like the hundreth time on why he hadn't called the LG company to come and fix their television that she had just brought 2 months ago for her dowry and had already broke down. "I DID call them. They said they sent someone but the person who came at the door said he didn't own an LG" said my brother. "HOW is that possible?!" "I don't know" "Fine. I'll just call them myself!"
After a while, I saw my sister-in-law completely flustered and rather angry, doing unnecessary cleaning around the kitchen, something she tends to do when she is frustrated. On inquiring what had gone wrong, she told me that the Customer Service representative whom she had talked to was extremely rude and utterly disrespectful. Not only was he not letting her properly explain her problem, he yelled at her and was being downright mean. When she asked him to atleast have some manners in talking to a woman, he raised his voice even further and went on to accuse her and ended up hanging up on HER, rather than the other way around.
I was completely shocked and still am. I know that this is Pakistan, a place where we tend to not give any ethical emphasis on customer satisfaction once the product is already sold, but to be so rude is just not right! LG is a well-reputed company and I was very dissapointed to find out that it does not take it's customers seriously. No matter if the customer buys something worth Rs.100 or Rs.100,000; he is still a customer and thus his satisfaction should be the priority of any company, specially one as huge as LG.
In countries all around the world, customers are treated with complete respect, even if they are completely wrong or extremely hard to deal with, the point of a Customer Service representative is to calm that person down and assure him that he will be provided with the service he needs eanwhile even thanking him for his patience and apologizing for their fault, whether it may or may not be there. Pakistanis tend to copy alot of things from the West, their clothing, their way of living...then why can't we try to copy what actually should be copied? Things like cooperation and care seem non-existance sometimes in our society which is just sad.
I probably will make sure I don't buy an LG television, or maybe even any LG appliance in the future because now I know how they treat their customers. Smart companies know that if it's customer service is well-managed, it will eventually attract more customers. So, in the end: Advice to all those companies who think they're all that- we are the customers, we have the power to make you or break you. Treat us right, or you won't go anywhere.