Al Wali O – The Protecting Friend

 Only and only Allah (S.W.T) is an individual’s true friend. One may consider some people really true friends, but somewhere there are strong chances of the other person having a different mindset and viewing things from other perspectives. At times you don’t even feel like making clarifications of what I meant and what was the real issue or this or that.

But have you ever wondered, it so easy to communicate with Allah (S.W.T), it is so easy to reveal your thoughts and share everything which is going on in your mind and with that you know that HE (S.W.T) understands each and everything. The best part is that HE already knows everything from the minutest to the highest detail. This was a sudden thought and reflection I had that no doubt the only true friend in a person’s life is Allah (S.W.T).

Your situations, the events turning and twisting in your life, your attitudes and behaviors are understood the best by Al – Wali, the true protecting friend. Whenever you feel low, whenever you are in turmoil and trials, just sit and share your thought process with your Rabb. He (S.W.T) will always be there for you. Infact HE (S.W.T) is with his slaves 24/7.

You may think that you have true friends, but remember the best and real friend is only Allah (S.W.T). We mess up in life; do a number of disliked things by Allah (S.W.T) but still he does not leave us, HE says that I respond to my slaves whenever they call upon me. Isn’t this so marvelous? He forgives our mistakes repeatedly and yet we do not realize or understand our mistakes. For going back to HIM and apologizing, we do not face any difficulty as we have true and sincere hope from HIM that he will forgive us truly.

At times of immediate need, HE is always by us. His help is the help we require from any best friend, His support, assistance and guidance is what is required by individuals to move ahead in life.

Ya Allah, please befriend us and make us do the right things in this world that are beneficial for us in our worldly life as well as the hereafter. Make your friendship the most dear thing to us. Let us strive to make YOU happy Ya Allah. Instill in us the desire to make you happy always, Ya Wali O. Ameen. Ya Rabbul Aalameen. 

Peer -E- Kamil (P.B.U.H) By Umera Ahmed

Peer E Kamil is a novel written by Umera Ahmed. This novel is an epic piece of writing by her as she has crafted the characters in a novel in a very interesting way. This story is as simple as could be for anyone but the message delivered by the novel is extremely powerful.

The story mainly revolves around Imama Hashmi and Salar Sikandar. Imama Hashmi has left her belief for the love of Islam and Prophet Muhammad (P.B.U.H). She is from a Ahmedi family and gradually through various incidents gets to know that the beliefs of her family is wrong. Initially she is dependent upon her family and so cannot reveal her conversion to Islam to her family. Her dad meanwhile notices that there is some danger expected from Imama as he got to know that she is in quest for the truth about religion. He plans to get her married in her family as soon as possible. During her quest she gets to know about her friend’s brother, Jalal Ansar. Jalal reads naats in various places and he has great love for Prophet 

Muhammad (P.B.U.H). It is this love for religion that gets Imama attracted towards Jalal. She starts liking him a lot and a point comes in the novel that Jalal also expresses her likeness towards her. She wants to get married to him and so asks him to get married. You may read further to get to know more about this case J

Salar Sikandar is next door neighbor of Imama. An elite class person with an IQ level of 150 + and has a photographic memory. He has an excellent academic record. He has a strong financial background and he has no aim in life whatsoever. For him life is just to enjoy. He has done major sinful acts in his life. Infact his life is deep delved into sinful acts and thoughts. And while doing them he has no fear of anyone. He does not know the purpose of life. He loves to commit suicide to find out the last degree of pain possible for anyone.

When Imama finds out that her dad is compelling her to get married, she tries to escape. She knows Salar is one of the most disliked people in her life but at that moment she feels that Salar would help her out. She asks him to contact Jalal and force him to get married to Imama as she is stuck at home. Jalal gives the excuse that his family is not giving the permission. Jalal says to Salar that you get married to her for time being so that she can be released from the pressure of her family towards getting married to a non muslim. Imama could not think of anything else and asks Salar to do Nikah with her so that she can be freed. For Salar, this is an adventure and he doesn’t care about anything and does the Nikah. Imama feels that due to avoiding problems for the family Jalal has refused.

Salar’s personality has changed 360 degrees in the novel. He understands completely that the perfect mentor in this world for humans is Prophet Muhammad (P.B.U.H). The trials faced by Salar and Imama allow the reader to learn many lessons. Imama all her life prayed for Jalal as she felt that he is religious and loves Prophet Muhammad (P.B.U.H) and they both can lead a great life. Salar at a certain point of time started praying for Imama, he prayed that Allah (S.W.T) gives Imama as his wife. So read the novel to find out whose prayers gets answered J

One of the most beautiful lessons learnt in this story is that at times you desire someone just because he is religious and you feel that you may lead a great life. You feel a religious person would understand everything but this is not the case. Religious persons are also subjected to materialism, they may talk a lot on religion but when it comes on them to take decisions, they just act like any other person, and bring in all the materialistic things of life such as family issues, societal issues so on and so forth. Though being knowledgeable and in a position to take stand they take the help of other things for their escape. The one who talks does not necessarily act on it. A lot of valuable lessons are learnt by this novel.

A must Must read for all J

Comprehensive Note for Job Seekers

Through my experience of reviewing resumes and hiring people, there are some things that I would like to mention to the job seekers for their benefit. This message is based upon my personal opinion and experience.

There are some points that I want you to reflect upon in detail.

Firstly, it is very important for all of you to have professional resumes. Unprofessional and incomplete resumes are not entertained at all. Therefore, please construct a professional resume that contains all details and then apply for any job posting.

Please ensure that you have professional emails ids. Beautiful, fairy, smart, and other such type of adjectives are NOT professional email ids. So please kindly form a professional email id. IDs with your full names are the best option.

Please do not email me or any other professional recruiter that .. “I have financial problems…..”, or “I need to earn money…”,” I badly need a job….”, or any such statement. This does not reflect professionalism and also it reflects on the person being incompetent. We all know that unemployment is a major crisis nowadays and everyone more or less is facing financial issues.  

You do not need to beg for any job or write such statements. Just do it the proper way, you know about the vacancy, tweak your CV according to the mentioned job post and then just pray that you get shortlisted soon.  PRAY and ASK only to Allah (S.W.T) for anything that you want or desire. Please do not ask the creation, ask only The Creator.

Fresh Graduates, please ignore the salary scale in your initial days of work as you need to build upon experience. Academic life is TOTALLY different from CORPORATE life.  You need to get an experience not in just how the job works but in learning how to deal with people, the work practices, what is acceptable and what is not. The list can go on and on.

Take my advice, if you start in a small firm, you may gain good experience to reflect your skills in a big competitive firm. Also I know that we all graduate from good universities but it is not a MUST that we all land up at jobs in multinationals or at the management level. Please understand this J Don’t feel low or incompetent when you start from low, everything is an experience and one learns the nitty gritties of work at all levels. Then when you all reach at the top management level In Shaa’ Allah, you would be well aware of how things work at the low management level, right?

In times of such crisis, rather than sitting at home and rejecting jobs because they are paying low is not a very smart move. Rather join wherever you get a job and then look for better opportunities. Remember when you are a part of the work force; you have a chance of networking too. If the job is totally undoable, you always have the option of leaving anytime.  

There are many of us who have to run families and many of you may argue that the pay is not enough. Guys and girls still I say, rather than just stating this again and again that we are not getting jobs, unemployment is at the peak, nothing to do… Join wherever you get an opportunity. You need to then look for part time work too. The best part time in today’s era is Freelancing. You can write articles, academic papers, book reviews and so many other things. Sitting from home and submitting work by the deadline. You get your payments in your account. It’s a really neat and totally hassle free job.

The other part time jobs that I find very attractive are giving lectures to evening students in universities. This allows the individual to stay up to date with the latest practices and proves to be an ongoing learning experience.

Lastly, there is no harm in dropping your CV to all places where you deem to fit the requirements of a job. Many people have second thoughts, please do not have them. Just apply if you meet the job requirement criteria, rest it’s the HR’s job to shortlist CVs.

Please always pass on any opportunity that you deem fit for others. It has been observed that at times one does not want to help others in getting a good job as they themselves are not getting the job. Let’s not have this attitude at all. Be sincere and always be helpful to others and Allah (S.W.T) would do better for you.  

Keep praying always.

All the Best :)

Siachen

The word Siachen, the purpose of army in Siachen, the cause, everything was unknown to me until the incident of the 135 soldiers took place over there. Then things started to unravel and all the above questions were answered. The electronic media played an important role in relating the incident. It is through this media that many people get to know the latest happenings in the country.

I realized that we are so out of touch with our country happenings. We ignore the struggle that our army men do to protect our country. Last night I saw the repeat telecast of the morning show aired at HUM TV. The coverage, the discussion all was very heartening to hear and view. The soldiers up in Siachen lose their senses due to extreme cold weather and still they strive towards going there again and again. The frostbites discussed and shown was again very heartening and all these things increase the respect of our Pak soldiers to a high extent.

The search for the 135 soldiers is still under process. 3 weeks have passed since the incident took place.  The digging of the ice still continues with the hope that they can get to the soldiers buried under the ice. Working and digging in such stringent conditions is a very difficult task.  

I read the article on Siachen issue by Javed Chaudhry, the link is as follows:

http://www.bashaoorpakistan.com/general/barf-ka-dozakh-javed-chaudhry/

He has given a detail insight on how life is at Siachen. Our brave soldiers deserve a salute for their bravery and determination to protect our beloved country.

May Allah (S.W.T) bless all the Pak soldiers. Ameen.

I hope and pray that the entire country realizes the valuable services that these soldiers provide us.        

Communication

Communication plays an important role in every individual’s life. The minute one gets up in the morning, the process of communication starts till the end of the day. We communicate with family, then at work, friends and a number of different places.

We need to be clear, explicit, and be to the point for the process of communication to be successful. We need to remain IN Communication with the concerned parties at all times. Assuming the message to be passed across is a big mistake we make at times both in personal and professional life. A word of advice here is that never assume that the other party has understood the message without explicitly stating it. Communication perceptions and barriers come in here. What you may want the other person to understand without your stating may not be even noticed by the other party.

Becoming disconnected for a certain time period and then reconnecting again may cause damage to one’s reputation. The person may be considered as unreliable in terms of communicating promptly.

Be expressive, clear, on time, and communicate promptly whenever and wherever required. This will make things run smoothly for everyone.

Also we all should realize that the most important communication in the whole day is with Allah through prayers. This type of communication is the most vital and most valuable communication that shapes up the life of any individual. Be calm and composed for this type of communication. Do not be in a hurry, as what you are and what you have to do is because of Allah. So takeout ample time and make this communication process effective at all times.  I repeat again be expressive, clear and on time for this special communication Always J

Plans

Primary School days…

 I want to play and play. I don’t like to study much. Oh why do I have to go to school everyday? Why not just study less and play more with friends.

High School days…

11yrs-15yrs – I don’t know what I want to become when I grow up. A doctor, engineer, business person, chartered accountant; oh there are so many other options available.  Which one is the easiest one? In which field am I interested, which field will earn me more money and make me rich in the future.

Learning all by heart is such a difficult thing. Why do we have exams? Have to plan a vacation after exams with parents.

University days…

Ok I have settled to become a doctor. It is quite an honorable field and one deserves a lot of respect in this field. Plus I will be earning good money along with respect and this will allow me to live a high standard of living.

University is fun, hanging out with friends, partying, studying when required, bunking classes, passing comments, bullying weaker ones… so on and so forth the university phase passes

Finally…

Striving to get a high paid job and then get married. We then strive towards maintaining a high standard of living, doing everything to earn more…ensuring that our kids get the best of everything no matter how, prioritizing all the worldly matters to the highest level… trying to earn security after getting retirements and then finally die.

What if I die this very moment? All of us should ask this question and make plans for this eternal phase too.

Do we plan the life after death the way we plan the life now knowing that life is just for time being and after death is the beginning of the eternal life for all humans?