Salaams to all!
How is life these days? How are you adapting to your new life? Believe me, I was actually looking forward to this lock down. (What more can an artist or writer want?) Previously,great writers would go into the woods and lock themselves up in a cabin for days to get that artistic work done. Now, you can have it at home, in the middle of the city!
Solitude. No disturbance, no guests, no events, honestly, what more could a creative person want?
But no!
This is me. I’m even busier since the lock down. My daily Food Drives and your donations have kept me in such a beautiful spin. I’m totally overwhelmed by your loving trust and these beautiful opportunities to help the poor.
You made my Dream come true:
I was remembering how I’ve been praying/talking to Allah, ‘please let me help these jobless people sitting on road sides, hoping to get a day’s work.’ It would make me laugh at my thought processes.
I’m noticing, Allah makes notes of what you say when you talk to Him. Then, if He wants, He puts that in His calendar for you in your future, (of course with the helping hands of some angels like YOU!)
Yes, how he helped me get that dream come true! I’m seeing it everyday with my Food Drive.
It is happening, when they need it most, during this Corona Virus Lock Down. I can’t tell you the joy of handing them food package. The happiness I feel to hear those words of prayers from them. Several of them just hold up their hands in prayer for you. Listening in humble gratitude to those words takes me into a ‘high’ that no drug could ever give me.
Can you feel those prayers?
Believe me I’ve felt them. I’m sure each of my donors would be feeling them happen when things fall into place miraculously. How you wonder, ‘I can’t believe how this happened.’
This is how it happened. When you generously paid for a meal for a needy family.
Marium and @usernameconfidential:
I was thrilled to chat with Marrium Sohail of @usernameconfidentail on Instagram last night. A few days ago when she asked me to come on live session with her, I was very flattered. The topic of ‘parenting of strong girls in our society’, was close to my heart and it was something I’d love to share with our followers.
So last evening it happened. The session was very well organized by Marrium who had done a lot of research on my back ground. Her questions were pertinent, and got all answers. You’d get a gist of it all through these blog posts of mine here.
The session ended abruptly when Marrium asked what is the best thing to give your child? This was my answer, but the session ended:
If you can give your child these three things, they are ready for life:
- Your own feed: Gives your child best immunity for life.
- Habit of saying prayers: Clean habits and a hot line with Allah.
- Reading Holy Quran with translations: it will equip you for facing everything in life.
It was exciting for me. The difficult ‘start’ to it, with the technological issues was also fun, (Murphy’s Law is always in its elements with me!) Anyhow, I’m amazed at how you all stuck with us through it all. We had so many persons viewing it. The questions that Marrium put together were all so pertinent. I really loved answering them.
Marium told me that my dear friend Rubina Hasan had given her an insight to my personality and how I’ve been. (So sweet of you Rubina.) We have been together many years. She is definitely one of my very close and very dear friends. My friends are an integral part of my life.
Love you all for your sweet response.
I was specially thrilled to see my book ‘Tulip of Sinai’ in Marrium’s hands. (Yes, one of my dreams coming true! – to see my book in the hands of the youth of our times.)
It was appropriate, as it was the evening before Allama Iqbal’s death anniversary.
Twenty-first April death anniversary of Allama Iqbal
So, Allama Iqbal died in 1938. It was just nine years before his dream of a separate land for Muslims of Sub-continent of India, came true. His vision, and his belief that Muslims need to have a separate country of their own. How right he was, otherwise, we would be like the Kashmiris or Sikhs of India today.
In fact the horrific ethnic cleansing of Muslims that has been taking place in India till recently, is proof of the vision of Iqbal. This is what great leaders are all about; As Abdul Sattar Edhi once said that the definition of a leader is of the one who can see fifty years ahead.
How many leaders of that vision do we have today? This is why I’ve worked so hard for illustrating and publishing Allama Iqbal’s Payam-e-Mashriq. Tulip of Sinai is made up of the first two poems of that book. Hopefully, when I get my life into more order, I’ll publish the full version of Message from the East.
That is the hope I have from this lock down.
It is a important to be clear in our minds. We have to know where we stand in our world, where we want ourselves and our coming generations to go. Then we have to know what we plan to do with our combined lives.
Let me share my favorite verse of Allama Iqbal with you now:
Na Ho Tughyan-e-Mushtaqi To Main Rehta Nahin Baqi
Ke Meri Zindagi Kya Hai, Yehi Tughyan-e-Mushtaqi
Devoid of passion’s roar I can exist no more:
What else can be this life but passion strong and strife?
This is why I fell in love with Iqbal’s poetry. It ignites you, fires you up, gives you confidence and energizes you.
You begin to rely on yourself because you believe in yourself.
Do, spare some time to enjoy poetry by Allama Iqbal. You can read my previous blog posts here and here. Just feel his words’ power, and see how these will change your life.
Stay blessed my dear Reader, ?
