Book Review: The 8th Habbit

Following are some important wisdoms listed from The 8th habbit by Stephen Covey:-

1. What is personal is most general.

2. We are free to choose and this power and freedom stand in stark contrast to the mind-set of victimism and culture of blame so prevalent in society today.

3. Humans act, animals and human"robots" react.

4. Any time your emotional life is a function of someone else's weaknesses, you disempower yourself and empower those weaknesses to continue to mess your life up. 

5. What is now proved was once only imagined.

6. Most powerful is he who has himself in his power.

7. Setbacks are inevitable, misery is a choice.

8. Enthusiasts believe that the best way to predict the future is to create it.

9. The key to creating passion in your life is to find your unique talents and your special role and purpose in the world.

10. If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies.

11. No other success can compensate for failures at home.

12. Greenleaf Whittier "For all the sad words of tongue and pen , the saddest are these: It might have been". But someone else taught," It's never too late for us to become what we might have been."

13. Albert Einstein: "The significant challenges we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were when we created them."

14. Leadership is communicating people's worth and potential so clearly that they come to see it in themselves.

15. Leadership is a choice not a position.

16. When we listen with the intent to understand others, rather than with the intent to reply, we begin true communication and relationship building.

17. With people, little things are the biggest things.

18. We are product of our decisions, not our conditions.

19. Good intentions do not compensate for bad judgement.

20. Be a model, not a critic.

Endnote

1. Listing is not based on priority.

First Reform Yourself !

"Revolutions are ought to be genuinely flared up inside people's hearts and minds first. The rest will systematically follow itself"

In the words of John F. kennedy “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country”. I believe majority of our people are unaware of this notion. Those who are reject it vehemently because of the perception fed by our principle-less society. Nevertheless major part of blame still resides with us and us only. I see people in many circles of life complaining and criticizing the government whenever they have some time to waste and they enjoy it too and why wouldn't they because it’s the most fun loving activity on god's green earth. People want our government not to cheat, not to be corrupt, be honest with everyone, help the poor, not to be involved in sinful (haram) activities, be rigorous at work all times, speak nothing but the truth .Well I have a question for myself and 190 million population of Pakistan that do we possess the same and other required qualities within ourselves consistently?

My country just witnessed the end of a long march in addition to 3 days sit-in which claims to plant the seeds of revolution and a new beginning. It also claims to put an end to unislamic and nefarious practices in Pakistan. Its claims victory!!! Well I just checked the status of our country and not surprisingly we are still slaves to an interest-based economy. We still live in a society where alcohol is part of norm and our youth consumed by drugs and dishonorable behaviors. We still live in a society where the rich is getting richer and the poor is getting poorer. A society marked by ignorance and injustice. We are still an Islamic nation only in theory and not in practice.........What Victory?? Such long marches can perhaps positively impact us in the short run but not in the long run. Quick fixes don't bring revolution as per my understanding. Our beloved Prophet (P.B.U.H) verily identified many years ago that "Like people, Like government". In the light of this I'd like to suggest that it's not the government that needs to be purged first.....it's YOU and I. Our societies collectively need to rise first in terms of integrity, passion, competence and wisdom. Reforming the government is equivalent to reforming the symptom whereas it's the disease that needs to cured.........and the disease is regretfully us!

The government does not fall from the sky or imported from developed countries but rather it comes from the 190 million population and I believe all its decisions and actions in domestic and international level are replicates of our decisions and actions in our own lives. I have witnessed vast majority of my countryman involved in betrayal, drugs, fornication, profiteering and many more and yet YOU WANT JUSTICE FROM THE GOVERNMENT!!

It’s a no-brainer that our government has persistently failed over the years but by criticizing or demonstrating won't matter in the long run. Every single reform you want from your government must come with a consistent/habitual reform with yourself first. One should not abandon faith because it’s not a matter of days. It's like going at war with your impulse everyday. Every individual should focus and execute his moral authority and raise his/her intellect to a higher level. Remember that good intentions can never compensate for good judgment therefore acquiring knowledge, skill and wisdom is of paramount importance along with integrity. This way an honest society will emerge bringing the kind of leaders you want. Only then you can exercise legitimate audacity to criticize and complaint about those in power or perhaps.............. you won't have to.

Endnote

1. Long march was not the motivating factor behind this post.

Hello fate! We meet atlast

We all look at this world and our lives with a certain lens. It's basically a paradigm which enables our mind to form perceptions and thoughts. It ultimately forms our sense of reality. I've been wearing a lens of "choice". This lens shows me that we are free to choose whatever our mind tells us to. I've always been fascinated by the concept of choice because it makes me believe that I am in total control of my life and that I can steer my life in any direction I want. I also believe that the power of choice is more paramount than thousands of atom bomb because all such bombs in the entire world are created by choice and not by accident. Like any other love story, my such story with "choices" took off in an incredible manner but then we finally met our much heard nemesis..........fate.

Fate has many forms but my first conscious encounter with it came recently in the form of death. While I was driving my car in the middle of night at high speed, suddenly a man appeared from no where and evasively tried to cross the road with his child before I could pass through. His plan seemed satisfactory.....the choice was made.......but fate had other ideas. As soon as I laid my eyes upon him crossing the road, I tried my best to avoid any misfortune but to no avail. Regretfully the person panicked and he landed himself right in the middle of my car and after couple of hours, the accident insured his demise. His child escaped unharmed.

Taking many factors into consideration for hindsight, I truly believe that it was an act of fate. He died in the exact way it was decided. I would have exercised many other choices if that incident didn't took place but  it turned my world upside down and I was thrown at the mercy of gloom and sorrow. Knowing that because of me that man's family was emotionally and financially torn apart and fearing that my happy days may be over gave me at least 48 hours of mental torture. 

Regarding my condition and situation, I believed then and I believe now that ALLAH gave me that test for which I had the ability to clear. Also the crisis could have been a million times worse for me but ALLAH my savior was there to protect me like he always has been my entire life. 

After the incident I've come to understand that fate will always try to meddle with our lives from time to time. It may slow us down and distract us from our mission but now I understand the words of Stephen Covey that "fate may influence us but it cannot determine us". Fate brought death infront of me but whether to run away after the accident or to take him immediately to hospital which i did was a matter of "choice". Our religion,culture,ethics and principles have laid down the correct choices for us to make and if fate tries to endanger those right choices, never let it do so and never falter! I also believe that our entire lives is all about the choices we make in every context and it is these choices that will define our legacy in this world and after.

Endnotes

1. A settlement is established with the deceased family and a case launched at police station is closed permanently.
2. May ALLAH provide heaven to the departed and may ALLAH permanently heal the emotional and financial wounds of his family as soon as possible.
3. I thank all my relatives and friends who supported me in my troubled times and may ALLAH also heal all your wounds. My Special gratitude to Sameer tariq, Hina khan, Farah munawar and Hina shaukat. My misery would have been 4-fold without your company.

      

A Message through Universe to Ashes!

Note: It is advisable that my readers first read my previous post (10 amazing theories about the amazing universe) in order to make my argument in this post seem more relevant.

There comes a time in our lives when we have a sudden change (like a U-turn) of heart, mind or sometimes a complete change of soul. I had my moment that changed not one but all three dimensions.

The above picture known as Hubble Ultra-Deep Field is a small portion of the Universe taken by Hubble telescope and is the deepest image of space ever taken (Wikipedia).

For some this picture may just depict millions of galaxies swimming in space and that's all but for me this picture started a whole new era of perceiving things.....started the genesis! You see I have always wondered the purpose of creating the universe. I have always wondered why did ALLAH create such a MASSIVE! universe with such PRECISION! I mean if you come to think of it, all we need is just our planet earth, moon and the sun to survive. And couple of stars too cause the iron in our body comes from star explosion known as supernova. So that's all we humans need from outside our planet to live out our lives. We may choose to indulge ourselves in getting amazed by the magnificent universe or study it's nature to understand the laws of our planet but practically we don't need to concern ourselves with what's happening outside our planet's domain cause it won't make a difference to our routine lives unless it's that day when it all ends. I never really understood the purpose of universe until recently. Of all the unknown reasons clinging to my ignorance regarding the purpose of the universe, I have been able to decipher one of them and that too in the form of a message........a message to ashes!

If there is a message hidden inside the universe then lets talk about the universe itself. I have already posted 10 miraculous points about the universe in my earlier post but I still wouldn't mind writing same points over and over again as anything and everything about ALLAH's universe never seizes to amaze me. Universe is a place where millions of galaxies exist, stars are formed and exploded, galaxies are merged in a systematic way and then there are blackholes ripping apart entire galaxies. The diameter of the universe is said to be of 93 billion light years and just for one second think about the power it took to create all those gigantic planets, stars, blackholes and other matter in between the mentioned space. And now let me tell you something you already know. A blackhole which is 10 billion times the mass of our sun is not ALLAH's greatest creation, 100 billion galaxies existing only in the observable universe is not ALLAH's greatest creation, 400 billion stars existing only in our solar system alone are not ALLAH's greatest creation......not even all the majestic living and non living things that we see here on earth....but rather it is YOU AND I who are ALLAH's greatest creation.Yes! ALLAH has declared humans his greatest creation.We are amazed by the universe but actually we should be amazed at ourselves. This also means that we are the best creations created by the powers of ALLAH and I cannot write more on ALLAH's power cause that would by far transcend the limits of this post. If all this doesn't make you feel amazing then how about if I tell you that ALLAH loves you more than 70 mothers. If still that doesn't electrify your soul then how about if I tell you that we all are the UMMAH of PROPHET MUHAMMAD (P.B.U.H). He was,is and always will be the wisest of us all and his love too for us is everlasting. He too never thought and did anything other than beneficial for us.So tell me now, doesn't all of this make your feel...............INVINCIBLE!

There is this word which is tossed around alot and always has been in my entire life and the word is "Impossible". People have always told me that certain things in life are impossible because of certain conditions, environment, lack of resources and influential contacts etc etc. I have always bought this notion.........BUT NOT ANYMORE!!!! You want to know what impossible really is. It's everything that is  happening out there in universe. Even the sun/moon coming up each and every single day and that too at same time and at the same spot. All this has been happening for almost 4 billion years!!!!! Try imagining the powers of ALLAH for doing this for such a long time. No wonder why pessimism is disliked in Islam cause when you have ALLAH as your creator then how the hell can a person be pessimistic in life. My friends everything that is happening in our universe is impossible......but its not......and this is what the universe and the sky tells us every single moment. There are other billion suns like our sun out there doing the same task each and every day.........take another look at the picture above and try telling yourself that somethings are impossible.

The way I see things now is that there are two kinds of rules in this world. One is man's made rule for e.g office timings of 9 to 5, an academic degree required for a job, an influential contact to get into politics etc. Then there is the other rule.................ALLAH's rule.........and that rule is.....................there are no rules!.........that if you truly believe in ALLAH, then you better believe in anything and everything.........and that my friend is the message through universe. That nothing is impossible for those who believe in ALLAH. It doesn't matter if you're weak or not ,because if you want to be world's greatest sports person, doctor, teacher, salesman, scientist, politician, ruler, student etc then GO AHEAD AND SEIZE EVERY SINGLE DAY!!!! and don't let anyone ever tell you what's possible and what's not because people don't get to decide it .......only ALLAH gets to do so. You don't need substantial financial resources or influential contacts to fulfill your destiny......All you will ever need is ALLAH and nothing else. This is one elusive equation that for some it takes only a minute to realize and for some unfortunate one's..........even a lifetime is not enough.

All I need is ALLAH......sigh......there was a time when we Muslims used to truly believe this. There was a time when we Muslims used to make non-believers believe it too. It was the same time when we believed in compassion, love, knowledge, wisdom, honesty, chivalry, purity, science, ethics, morals, respect, hard work, intelligence. We used to live like kings! But now we don't have the top universities in the world. We don't have the top companies in the world. We don't even have the toughest army or the most advanced arsenal...........we are simply reduced to ashes. One of the factors I say all of this is because out of 58 Muslim countries, hardly just one can perhaps claim to be a developed nation. So I just want to ask all my countrymen and all my Muslim bothers and sisters in this world one question and one question only..........IS THERE ANYONE OUT THERE WHO CAN MAKE US BELIEVE IT AGAIN?...........Is there anyone who can inspire us to reclaim our lost glory.........sigh.........is there anyone?.........................

Rise and rise again..........until lambs become lions!

Young & Stupid

Some things are inevitable.........and being young and stupid is one of them. It's one mysterious point in time which comes and goes with free will and not a force on earth can stand in it's way. It didn't matter which background you belonged to, what religion you held on to, what part of the world you hailed from, how badly/wisely you were raised cause still it came for you like it came for me and we weren't able to recognize it till the storm was over. Some enjoy it. Some survive it. Some escape it. Others endure it. But the rest are consumed by it for a long period in it. 

It's roots start to grow in adolescence and the first thing it does is to cage the rational mind and unleash all unfulfilled senses of gratification. All one thinks is to find gratification in one form or the other. Kind of like an animal prowling for its prey.......perhaps. Such a state of heart and mind gives no credence whatsoever to principles,values,empathy,ethics,morals,responsibility and no matter how hard anyone tries to make you understand all this, you just won't give a @#$&. It would feel like that the world is just build to make you happy and when things won't go according to plan than you'll point fingers anywhere but at yourself.

Its a disease that cannot be cured. But perhaps it shouldn't be either. After all there are no greater lessons learned than from mistakes and mishaps..........if one has the rational mind and wisdom to apply. But eventually most of us do learn the beauty of hindsight sooner or later. So if you are going through such a time then just ignore this post cause it may all seem gibberish and I also wish you happy hunting but if you have experienced it then look for damage control for the one's you care about and who are the current host of this vicious parasite so that a quick and smooth transition can take place towards being mature and prudent.