A rich man of Lahore, Panjab, approached Guru Nanak, a great religious innovator and the founder of Sikhism.
“I am a great admirer of yours. I have a ton of money, countless pieces of property, any material that anyone may fancy, need or want. But my great desire is to be of some service to you, Guru Nanak Sahib.”
The great guru did not have to think at all. Without wasting one blink, his lightning mind made a counter-offer. “Dear Seth Sahib. I will offer you one Amanat.”
The guru then produced a sewing needle. In his day those were perhaps the most common object in the household. An Amanat is a generic name given to an object, which one entrusts to a trustworthy person, with the expectation that this will be returned at an agreed upon future time.
The name, Amina, trusted lady and Al-Ameen, are applied to persons of such a dependable character that you may safely entrust them with your property or with your life if need be.
In life we trust our property to others such as bankers and our lives to people in the healing profession, our children to teachers, and our souls to priests.
So, you ask, what did Guru Nanak imply with the sewing needle?
“Keep this needle for me but make sure that you return it to me on the day after your death.”
The Seth was overjoyed that the great guru was investing him with such an honour – with such an object of his personal use. “His very own sewing needle.”
But the next day the Seth returned. “Respected Guru Nanak, I do not understand how I will be able to return your Amanat to you the day after my death.”
"If you have enough clothes, food, land, and money to last for a lifetime," said the Guru, "I wonder why this small needle should seem too much for you to carry! How will you take all your money, horses, gold and other costly things into the next world?"
The Seth felt shame for having lived a life of excess. He asked for the Guru's advice. "Work hard, share your earnings with the needy and remember God."
One who understands will understand.
Saturday, June 6, 2009
Monday, March 30, 2009
The Splinter in the Paw
IT HAPPENED
“Do you remember the story of the lion who has a splinter in his paw?”
“Yes”. “No”.
“Maybe a little?”
That may have been a fable but this is a true story of Saturday 22.03.2009.
My journalist daughter, her 22 month young boy and I were out on our planned excursion to see an animal, any animal – preferably a horse of course – either gender, any age, any size….
We left home at 09:00 but no sooner had we left than it happened.
“What happened?”
“We learnt about it four hours later…”
“Noble lady of our home – let us call her KAY – had been in the shower when the door bell rang…..”
“And?”
“She rushed a little…..” That was her first mistake ….
“Why is her rushing an error?”
Surely Kay did not want to keep the person waiting …. And she forgot the teaching of the noble messenger –
“What teaching?”
“Haste comes from Satan …”
“Tell us what happened to the lady Kay?”
“She was trying to steady herself on the banister – the wooden handrail which had not troubled anyone since we moved here in 1977 – when a splinter of wood pierced her right hand and …”
“And what?”
“She never told me how much it hurt or whether she let out a sound – but she says that it bled rather profusely – she managed to pull out one large wooden sliver about 3 cm (one inch is 2.54 cm) long but was unable to extricate the portion protruding from the other side of her (right) palm …”
“Why didn’t she get help?”
“Stoic and courageously she decided on SABR”.
“That is not an English word – “
“No, there is no word that completely describes SABR in English – the meaning of SABR is a combination of several English words. Patience is too passive, forbearance and a capacity of courage usually exhibited by the fair sex during extreme stress e.g. childbirth – so she waited while the hand continued to swell up.
When we returned home the toddler wanted to do outside activities – this long winter has been a Guantanamo of sorts for him and he totally refused to re-enter the house.
Kay looked out of the window and understood that the infant had a need to run about outside –
“I did tell the journalist (mother of the toddler) about my hand .” says Kay.
To cut a long story short – it was about 4 hours before the splinter was seen by a physician –
“You need an operation”, said the Doc.
At a nearby clinic the local anaesthetic and the knife were missing, so the Doc asked a junior colleague to help locate the knife and the anaesthetic.
“Would you like to help me ..?”
An innocent enough question but sufficient to raise an eyebrow and a curious quizzical puzzled expression on the faces of the two other doctors working the Saturday shift.
“What sort of question is that? … like to help …?”
“I just need to find some surgical instruments and local anaesthetic to freeze her hand ..”
Reluctantly, the young doctor – whom I have known for many years – accompanies me to the patient’s room.
“Doctor N, this is my wife Kay – the splinter has lodged deep and at an angle like a fish hook …
I cannot find the instruments; would you know where they are kept?”
He is Iranian – suddenly animated – perhaps relieved that I am not thrusting upon him the performance of the operation – he moves fast now and finds a knife and a set of prepackaged sterile instruments.
I can see that his apprehension has faded away – he is smiling now.
“How is your golf?” I ask.
“Fine,” he has arm muscles like coiled snakes, and he lets me feel them.
“I won’t charge you for helping.”
“And Dr. N, I won’t charge you for seeing the face of my wife – normally it is covered up with a HIJAB” –
I lie quite brazenly.
I can see that Dr. N is impressed – he has seen the face of a lady who is not seen by any outsiders – the true facts are that even I saw her face for the first time three days after our official marriage day … but that is another story.
Incidentally it is always wise to have a doctor in the house – even if he takes 4 hours to look at your bleeding hand.
“Why did this happen?”
The answer lies in another word – “TAWAJJUH.”
“Do you remember the story of the lion who has a splinter in his paw?”
“Yes”. “No”.
“Maybe a little?”
That may have been a fable but this is a true story of Saturday 22.03.2009.
My journalist daughter, her 22 month young boy and I were out on our planned excursion to see an animal, any animal – preferably a horse of course – either gender, any age, any size….
We left home at 09:00 but no sooner had we left than it happened.
“What happened?”
“We learnt about it four hours later…”
“Noble lady of our home – let us call her KAY – had been in the shower when the door bell rang…..”
“And?”
“She rushed a little…..” That was her first mistake ….
“Why is her rushing an error?”
Surely Kay did not want to keep the person waiting …. And she forgot the teaching of the noble messenger –
“What teaching?”
“Haste comes from Satan …”
“Tell us what happened to the lady Kay?”
“She was trying to steady herself on the banister – the wooden handrail which had not troubled anyone since we moved here in 1977 – when a splinter of wood pierced her right hand and …”
“And what?”
“She never told me how much it hurt or whether she let out a sound – but she says that it bled rather profusely – she managed to pull out one large wooden sliver about 3 cm (one inch is 2.54 cm) long but was unable to extricate the portion protruding from the other side of her (right) palm …”
“Why didn’t she get help?”
“Stoic and courageously she decided on SABR”.
“That is not an English word – “
“No, there is no word that completely describes SABR in English – the meaning of SABR is a combination of several English words. Patience is too passive, forbearance and a capacity of courage usually exhibited by the fair sex during extreme stress e.g. childbirth – so she waited while the hand continued to swell up.
When we returned home the toddler wanted to do outside activities – this long winter has been a Guantanamo of sorts for him and he totally refused to re-enter the house.
Kay looked out of the window and understood that the infant had a need to run about outside –
“I did tell the journalist (mother of the toddler) about my hand .” says Kay.
To cut a long story short – it was about 4 hours before the splinter was seen by a physician –
“You need an operation”, said the Doc.
At a nearby clinic the local anaesthetic and the knife were missing, so the Doc asked a junior colleague to help locate the knife and the anaesthetic.
“Would you like to help me ..?”
An innocent enough question but sufficient to raise an eyebrow and a curious quizzical puzzled expression on the faces of the two other doctors working the Saturday shift.
“What sort of question is that? … like to help …?”
“I just need to find some surgical instruments and local anaesthetic to freeze her hand ..”
Reluctantly, the young doctor – whom I have known for many years – accompanies me to the patient’s room.
“Doctor N, this is my wife Kay – the splinter has lodged deep and at an angle like a fish hook …
I cannot find the instruments; would you know where they are kept?”
He is Iranian – suddenly animated – perhaps relieved that I am not thrusting upon him the performance of the operation – he moves fast now and finds a knife and a set of prepackaged sterile instruments.
I can see that his apprehension has faded away – he is smiling now.
“How is your golf?” I ask.
“Fine,” he has arm muscles like coiled snakes, and he lets me feel them.
“I won’t charge you for helping.”
“And Dr. N, I won’t charge you for seeing the face of my wife – normally it is covered up with a HIJAB” –
I lie quite brazenly.
I can see that Dr. N is impressed – he has seen the face of a lady who is not seen by any outsiders – the true facts are that even I saw her face for the first time three days after our official marriage day … but that is another story.
Incidentally it is always wise to have a doctor in the house – even if he takes 4 hours to look at your bleeding hand.
“Why did this happen?”
The answer lies in another word – “TAWAJJUH.”
Monday, February 2, 2009
ATHEISTS – A conversation with myself.
“Has any Inaugural address by a new U.S. President ever mentioned ATHEISTS?”
“I am not aware of such an honourable mention of atheists in any Inaugural address prior to this.”
“Is there a census about atheists?”
“Again, I’ve filled several questionnaires in this life but cannot remember that this question has ever been asked….”
“Why would Mr. Obama be so all inclusive?”
“He is including all mankind in his speech although Atheism is more of a Western choice – what with the recent December 2008 Christmas campaign by Oxford professor Richard Dawkins.”
“And please inform me about this … was it written on the billboards on the sides of London buses …?”
“Those billboards proclaimed the message THERE IS PROBABLY NO GOD SO STOP WORRYING AND START ENJOYING YOURSELF.”
“Who do you say paid for the advertisements?”
“Actually £5,500 was the seed money paid by Professor Richard Dawkins.”
“Did you know that London Transport refused the original ad?”
“And what was the wording there?”
“The original ad was presented as follows: There is no God, so stop worrying and start enjoying yourself।" But London Transport refused it on the grounds that it would be preferable to have a slight grey tone in the question of there being some such entity as God. So a compromise was made the word PROBABLY was inserted – it was a WIN/WIN situation and the billboard is now being sported on buses in several European cities.”
“Do you think Mr. Obama used the atheist word in the January 20, 2009 inaugural speech because he had knowledge of the London billboards?”
“It is not easy to fathom anyone’s reasons, particularly those of the President of the United States – human nature is so, so complex – “
“Please hazard a guess.”
“Since you insist, let me confess I do have a theory –“
“And …?”
“It is called CHOICE THEORY.”
“Is that the one introduced by William GLASSER?”
“Yes”
“Originally Glasser called it Reality therapy or Control theory, but it sounded well, just too controlling.”
“What did Glasser do and what did he teach?”
“He changed the title to CHOICE theory and basically it says that everyone has a choice.”
“I do not agree.”
“Why not?”
“What choice does the small child have when the malaria parasite is injected into him or her by the female Anopheles mosquito?”
“Are you a MCP (male chauvinist pig)?”
“No – it is the female alone which carries the malaria parasite”.
“You are doing it again.”
“What?”
“You started with Obama and you lateralise it to Malaria!”
“Are you mad?”
“One Medical Post editorial said WE ARE ALL BORN MAD – some of us remain so ….”
“Woody Allen.”
“What about him?”
“Woody Allen was mad according to his ex wife Mia Farrow.”
“What did he do?”
“He seduced his own step-daughter, Mia’s adopted daughter – Soon-Yi Previn.”
“Mia was legitimately mad.”
“She ought to have been.”
“Most of Woody Allen’s movies are about sex and death.”
“Did he have a theory about either of these topics?”
“Actions speak louder than words – his actions I just mentioned and his words are as follows: “I am not afraid of dying – I just do not want to be there when it happens.”
“Choice theory again!! He first chose Mia Farrow, then he chose her daughter Soon-Yi and finally he wants to be away when the angel of death visits him.”
“Please stop.”
“Please go back to Obama’s inaugural speech,” my other half says in exasperation.
“OKAY.”
“Words can reveal a lot, they can also conceal a great deal more.”
“In his inaugural address the middle name of Mr. Obama, which is HUSSEIN was spoken confidently and clearly both by the swearing judge and especially forcefully by B.H. Obama himself.”
“Why does the world, at least the Western world, seem so allergic to this President’s middle initial?”
“It is not the initial “H” but what it signifies.”
“And pray tell us what it signifies?”
“We, each of us choose (Choice theory) to apply our own meaning to every word in this case “H” for Hussein … suppose it were Hugh or Harold – would we have made such a fuss about it?”
Quoting William Shakespeare: “There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.”
“That is wisdom.”
“Hussein to the post-George Bush America reminds one of the cruel tyrant Saddam Hussein – why did he have to be so violently executed that his head literally flew off from his body resulting in a huge gush of blood reminding one of the head of John the Baptist being sliced off, when King Herod was obeying his girlfriend, Salome’s command. I have seen the paintings in several European art galleries where John the Baptist had been separated from his body and the blood is spewing out from his trunk. But my analogy is totally inappropriate as John the Baptist was a messenger of God who baptized the young Jesus and is not in the category as applied to the tyrant of Baghdad in recent history.”
“Did any of you know these factoids?”
“Saddam was a CIA-backed dictator of Iraq. We in Canada sent him specially built General Motors automobiles which were called Iraq mobiles – does anyone remember?”
“Saddam used these $7,000 American cars to reward his officers when they got shell- shocked fighting Khomeini’s Iranian lads.”
“The Iraqi soldiers broke down utterly and wept openly - grown experienced soldiers who hated to mow down the young boys that Khomeini was sending in wave after wave against Saddam Hussein’s American supplied army.”
Those boys were wearing a key around their neck and the key was Khomeini’s guarantee that they would be able to open the gates of paradise when they were martyred. So great was their faith.
“Was this the time that Saddam gassed a whole town in his own country IRAQ?”
“Yes”.
“So we should all hate the name?”
“You must dislike Saddam and his actions but when you hate the Hussein part of the name, there is a confounding difficulty.”
“What do you mean?”
“The name Saddam meant this was going to be a person who was opposed to everything and in medical parlance we would call it an oppositional disorder. He opposed everything and everybody according to that name, which seemed to have fitted. But the name Hussein is almost as sacred to the Muslims as the name Jesus is to the Christians.”
“How come?”
“The name evokes emotion – devotion – love – admiration for the courage of Imam Hussein.”
“Please enlighten me about the name Hussein?”
“This is a history lesson and I must be sure that you really want to know this.”
“I have been so patient and quiet while you ramble on, you had started with the London school buses and the billboards about there being no God –
“So what about the Hussein middle name of President Obama?”
“Obama’s father was a Kenyan who studied economics at Harvard.”
“Yes.”
“His name was exactly the same as that of the son; I will abbreviate them as BHO (Barack Hussein Obama) the son and BHO the father.”
“Shouldn’t Obama use the name JUNIOR?”
“I’m not even going there.”
“OKAY! Tell us the history of Hussein and be done with it – I am getting sleepy.”
“The IMAM HUSSEIN is revered as a martyr in the Muslim world –“
“Why?”
“He was the son of the Lady Fatima – the beloved daughter of the Messenger of God – let me call him NEBI KARIM – the word naba means news and nebi someone who brings news. In this case he brought the Holy Quran which was news and it took him twenty three years to dictate it.”
“Are you saying that Muhammad was a JOURNALIST?”
“In a way yes – the second part of the Nebi title is Karim which means blessed.”
“Doesn’t Barack also mean blessed?”
“WOW! You are perceptive.”
“A rose by any other name …”
“Who said that?”
“I forget but mostly things like that were said by the Bard William Shakespeare, who else?
I am just trying to tell you the reason that Imam Hussein is so revered.
It was not just his noble lineage – his father Ali was the first cousin as well as the son-in-law of the Nebi Karim. He was the first male person to accept the message of Islam and the first human to accept his message was the beloved wife of the Nebi Karim, the Lady Khadija the mother of the Lady Fatima. Incidentally Ali was only 12 when he accepted the message of Islam and Muhammad (the Nebi Karim) at that time, when he was addressing the city and inviting them to Islam, Nebi Karim was around 40 years of age. The real history of Imam Hussein is one of betrayal and suffering caused to him by the people of KUFA. At first these people invited the Imam, the noble grandson of the Nebi, to Kufa, paying allegiance to him as their ruler and asking him to come and rid them of the cruelties of the Caliph Yazeed who ruled them from Damascus in Syria.
When the Imam Hussein along with his entire family arrived, after an arduous journey across Arabia, all the way from Medina to Kufa, the people of Kufa betrayed him in the sense that they failed to protect him from the army of the Caliph which was arrayed against the Imam.
The cruel Umayyad Caliph Yazeed, son of Muawiya, one of the scribes of the Holy Quran, had dispatched a large force from Syria and this force was instructed to interrupt the journey of Imam Hussein near the Euphrates River and to destroy the Imam which they did. They denied them access to the river water, the family of the Imam, except for one baby boy who was sick and in arms and they were utterly wiped out – massacred.
The Imam’s full story is too painful to tell you today but he himself was slain on the battle field and his head was severed by a sword stroke, put in a leather goat skin pouch and taken to the Caliph Yazeed in Damascus. This cruel Caliph was toying with the noble head rolling it from side to side with his shoe and placing a pointed stick on the eyes, when one of the courtiers who could no longer stand the scene, wept out loudly “I have witnessed the messenger of god kissing this face and those eyes.”
“Memory of the slain Imam Hussein resounds in the Muslim world in the month of Muharram (except in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia).”
“Why not in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia?”
“Because the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, at that time, was a different Kingdom from the one that President Obama is encountering. This Kingdom is based on Wahabi ideology and follows the prescription of an Imam who does not tolerate women’s freedom to the extent that moderate Islam permits and that type of Islam is prevalent in other parts of the Islamic world rather than in Saudi Arabia.
The Salafi ideology is the one that was in the minds of the 9/11 attackers of the twin towers on 9.11.2001. Osama Bin Laden, although born to a Yemeni father, belongs to an elite Saudi family, which made its considerable wealth in construction in Saudi Arabia.”
“So is it not commendable for President Obama to mention Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus in the same breath as nonbelievers?”
“The first U.S. President to say such things at his Tuesday January 20, 2009 was Mr. Obama and I end my dialogue with myself with the musing that our Western world needs to have an understanding of Islamic history made simple, perhaps under the title of Islamic History for Idiots. Maybe one has to open one’s mind and heart to half the inhabitants of this planet who are on this little spaceship, Earth, and need to know the backgrounds of the names of other important people on that side of the little spaceship Earth.
I have many words to say to you and quoting Jesus, but I cannot bring them forth right now, so, by and by I will try to give you more of the story. My thoughts go back to Napoleon’s advice to his son, to read and study history, which of course the son never took. As Anton Chekhov, the famous Russian writer and physician said, “Advice is seldom welcomed except by those who need it the most.”
“More to come in another conversation. Bye.”
“I am not aware of such an honourable mention of atheists in any Inaugural address prior to this.”
“Is there a census about atheists?”
“Again, I’ve filled several questionnaires in this life but cannot remember that this question has ever been asked….”
“Why would Mr. Obama be so all inclusive?”
“He is including all mankind in his speech although Atheism is more of a Western choice – what with the recent December 2008 Christmas campaign by Oxford professor Richard Dawkins.”
“And please inform me about this … was it written on the billboards on the sides of London buses …?”
“Those billboards proclaimed the message THERE IS PROBABLY NO GOD SO STOP WORRYING AND START ENJOYING YOURSELF.”
“Who do you say paid for the advertisements?”
“Actually £5,500 was the seed money paid by Professor Richard Dawkins.”
“Did you know that London Transport refused the original ad?”
“And what was the wording there?”
“The original ad was presented as follows: There is no God, so stop worrying and start enjoying yourself।" But London Transport refused it on the grounds that it would be preferable to have a slight grey tone in the question of there being some such entity as God. So a compromise was made the word PROBABLY was inserted – it was a WIN/WIN situation and the billboard is now being sported on buses in several European cities.”
“Do you think Mr. Obama used the atheist word in the January 20, 2009 inaugural speech because he had knowledge of the London billboards?”
“It is not easy to fathom anyone’s reasons, particularly those of the President of the United States – human nature is so, so complex – “
“Please hazard a guess.”
“Since you insist, let me confess I do have a theory –“
“And …?”
“It is called CHOICE THEORY.”
“Is that the one introduced by William GLASSER?”
“Yes”
“Originally Glasser called it Reality therapy or Control theory, but it sounded well, just too controlling.”
“What did Glasser do and what did he teach?”
“He changed the title to CHOICE theory and basically it says that everyone has a choice.”
“I do not agree.”
“Why not?”
“What choice does the small child have when the malaria parasite is injected into him or her by the female Anopheles mosquito?”
“Are you a MCP (male chauvinist pig)?”
“No – it is the female alone which carries the malaria parasite”.
“You are doing it again.”
“What?”
“You started with Obama and you lateralise it to Malaria!”
“Are you mad?”
“One Medical Post editorial said WE ARE ALL BORN MAD – some of us remain so ….”
“Woody Allen.”
“What about him?”
“Woody Allen was mad according to his ex wife Mia Farrow.”
“What did he do?”
“He seduced his own step-daughter, Mia’s adopted daughter – Soon-Yi Previn.”
“Mia was legitimately mad.”
“She ought to have been.”
“Most of Woody Allen’s movies are about sex and death.”
“Did he have a theory about either of these topics?”
“Actions speak louder than words – his actions I just mentioned and his words are as follows: “I am not afraid of dying – I just do not want to be there when it happens.”
“Choice theory again!! He first chose Mia Farrow, then he chose her daughter Soon-Yi and finally he wants to be away when the angel of death visits him.”
“Please stop.”
“Please go back to Obama’s inaugural speech,” my other half says in exasperation.
“OKAY.”
“Words can reveal a lot, they can also conceal a great deal more.”
“In his inaugural address the middle name of Mr. Obama, which is HUSSEIN was spoken confidently and clearly both by the swearing judge and especially forcefully by B.H. Obama himself.”
“Why does the world, at least the Western world, seem so allergic to this President’s middle initial?”
“It is not the initial “H” but what it signifies.”
“And pray tell us what it signifies?”
“We, each of us choose (Choice theory) to apply our own meaning to every word in this case “H” for Hussein … suppose it were Hugh or Harold – would we have made such a fuss about it?”
Quoting William Shakespeare: “There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.”
“That is wisdom.”
“Hussein to the post-George Bush America reminds one of the cruel tyrant Saddam Hussein – why did he have to be so violently executed that his head literally flew off from his body resulting in a huge gush of blood reminding one of the head of John the Baptist being sliced off, when King Herod was obeying his girlfriend, Salome’s command. I have seen the paintings in several European art galleries where John the Baptist had been separated from his body and the blood is spewing out from his trunk. But my analogy is totally inappropriate as John the Baptist was a messenger of God who baptized the young Jesus and is not in the category as applied to the tyrant of Baghdad in recent history.”
“Did any of you know these factoids?”
“Saddam was a CIA-backed dictator of Iraq. We in Canada sent him specially built General Motors automobiles which were called Iraq mobiles – does anyone remember?”
“Saddam used these $7,000 American cars to reward his officers when they got shell- shocked fighting Khomeini’s Iranian lads.”
“The Iraqi soldiers broke down utterly and wept openly - grown experienced soldiers who hated to mow down the young boys that Khomeini was sending in wave after wave against Saddam Hussein’s American supplied army.”
Those boys were wearing a key around their neck and the key was Khomeini’s guarantee that they would be able to open the gates of paradise when they were martyred. So great was their faith.
“Was this the time that Saddam gassed a whole town in his own country IRAQ?”
“Yes”.
“So we should all hate the name?”
“You must dislike Saddam and his actions but when you hate the Hussein part of the name, there is a confounding difficulty.”
“What do you mean?”
“The name Saddam meant this was going to be a person who was opposed to everything and in medical parlance we would call it an oppositional disorder. He opposed everything and everybody according to that name, which seemed to have fitted. But the name Hussein is almost as sacred to the Muslims as the name Jesus is to the Christians.”
“How come?”
“The name evokes emotion – devotion – love – admiration for the courage of Imam Hussein.”
“Please enlighten me about the name Hussein?”
“This is a history lesson and I must be sure that you really want to know this.”
“I have been so patient and quiet while you ramble on, you had started with the London school buses and the billboards about there being no God –
“So what about the Hussein middle name of President Obama?”
“Obama’s father was a Kenyan who studied economics at Harvard.”
“Yes.”
“His name was exactly the same as that of the son; I will abbreviate them as BHO (Barack Hussein Obama) the son and BHO the father.”
“Shouldn’t Obama use the name JUNIOR?”
“I’m not even going there.”
“OKAY! Tell us the history of Hussein and be done with it – I am getting sleepy.”
“The IMAM HUSSEIN is revered as a martyr in the Muslim world –“
“Why?”
“He was the son of the Lady Fatima – the beloved daughter of the Messenger of God – let me call him NEBI KARIM – the word naba means news and nebi someone who brings news. In this case he brought the Holy Quran which was news and it took him twenty three years to dictate it.”
“Are you saying that Muhammad was a JOURNALIST?”
“In a way yes – the second part of the Nebi title is Karim which means blessed.”
“Doesn’t Barack also mean blessed?”
“WOW! You are perceptive.”
“A rose by any other name …”
“Who said that?”
“I forget but mostly things like that were said by the Bard William Shakespeare, who else?
I am just trying to tell you the reason that Imam Hussein is so revered.
It was not just his noble lineage – his father Ali was the first cousin as well as the son-in-law of the Nebi Karim. He was the first male person to accept the message of Islam and the first human to accept his message was the beloved wife of the Nebi Karim, the Lady Khadija the mother of the Lady Fatima. Incidentally Ali was only 12 when he accepted the message of Islam and Muhammad (the Nebi Karim) at that time, when he was addressing the city and inviting them to Islam, Nebi Karim was around 40 years of age. The real history of Imam Hussein is one of betrayal and suffering caused to him by the people of KUFA. At first these people invited the Imam, the noble grandson of the Nebi, to Kufa, paying allegiance to him as their ruler and asking him to come and rid them of the cruelties of the Caliph Yazeed who ruled them from Damascus in Syria.
When the Imam Hussein along with his entire family arrived, after an arduous journey across Arabia, all the way from Medina to Kufa, the people of Kufa betrayed him in the sense that they failed to protect him from the army of the Caliph which was arrayed against the Imam.
The cruel Umayyad Caliph Yazeed, son of Muawiya, one of the scribes of the Holy Quran, had dispatched a large force from Syria and this force was instructed to interrupt the journey of Imam Hussein near the Euphrates River and to destroy the Imam which they did. They denied them access to the river water, the family of the Imam, except for one baby boy who was sick and in arms and they were utterly wiped out – massacred.
The Imam’s full story is too painful to tell you today but he himself was slain on the battle field and his head was severed by a sword stroke, put in a leather goat skin pouch and taken to the Caliph Yazeed in Damascus. This cruel Caliph was toying with the noble head rolling it from side to side with his shoe and placing a pointed stick on the eyes, when one of the courtiers who could no longer stand the scene, wept out loudly “I have witnessed the messenger of god kissing this face and those eyes.”
“Memory of the slain Imam Hussein resounds in the Muslim world in the month of Muharram (except in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia).”
“Why not in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia?”
“Because the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, at that time, was a different Kingdom from the one that President Obama is encountering. This Kingdom is based on Wahabi ideology and follows the prescription of an Imam who does not tolerate women’s freedom to the extent that moderate Islam permits and that type of Islam is prevalent in other parts of the Islamic world rather than in Saudi Arabia.
The Salafi ideology is the one that was in the minds of the 9/11 attackers of the twin towers on 9.11.2001. Osama Bin Laden, although born to a Yemeni father, belongs to an elite Saudi family, which made its considerable wealth in construction in Saudi Arabia.”
“So is it not commendable for President Obama to mention Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus in the same breath as nonbelievers?”
“The first U.S. President to say such things at his Tuesday January 20, 2009 was Mr. Obama and I end my dialogue with myself with the musing that our Western world needs to have an understanding of Islamic history made simple, perhaps under the title of Islamic History for Idiots. Maybe one has to open one’s mind and heart to half the inhabitants of this planet who are on this little spaceship, Earth, and need to know the backgrounds of the names of other important people on that side of the little spaceship Earth.
I have many words to say to you and quoting Jesus, but I cannot bring them forth right now, so, by and by I will try to give you more of the story. My thoughts go back to Napoleon’s advice to his son, to read and study history, which of course the son never took. As Anton Chekhov, the famous Russian writer and physician said, “Advice is seldom welcomed except by those who need it the most.”
“More to come in another conversation. Bye.”
Monday, December 22, 2008
Vietnam - 1969
“Have you seen the PHOTO from Vietnam where a police man, in civilian clothes, is shown in the very act of blowing out a man’s BRAINS?”
The man is kneeling and his face shows clear awareness of what is about to happen.
“Was the executioner even brought to trial?”
“There is a girl grown up in Canada who survived being on fire”.
“How did she catch fire?”
“This was not spontaneous combustion … the Air Force was throwing NAPALM …
the ground troops and tanks were spewing this fiery sticky petroleum product and the little girl was caught in the photographer’s lens – she was certainly under ten years of age – and the fall of Saigon was underway”.
“She was fleeing from the pain … her clothes had been burnt off her …”
JULY 1969
“Why are you in Vietnam?”
It was the question that I asked every American I could speak to ….
Friday, 16th May 2008
Before this Friday night I had never heard face to face a Vietnam War miracle story … and had not imagined that she would tell it “as it happened”. After all it was the first time we met!
“My father worked in the Capital city … it was not Ho Chi Minh City until the fall of Saigon”
“Father worked in an accountant’s capacity … when Saigon fell he started to feel threatened and he moved us; the family included my two other brothers and my mother and I”.
“How did you escape from Vietnam?”
“We paid in gold for a passage in a fishing boat”.
“There were about 180 passengers … we knew the great risks we were facing … the sea pirates had much larger ships and they were well armed। A lot of the refugee boats were boarded; the men were killed and thrown overboard. The women and girls were USED and then disposed of”. I forgot what she told me about the small children and babies.
She continued …
“One of the boats decided to fight back. They collected weapons. They tried to fight back … but the pirates brought in two much larger ships and they towered over the small refugee boat”.
“Then the pirate ships came together thus crushing and crunching up the small boat like you demolish a cockroach underfoot …”
“No one escaped …”
“Were there sharks in the Indo China Sea?”
“Yes” … she said quietly … sadly.
“Did you have to face these pirates?”
“It is a lucrative profession … to attack, abuse and rob defenseless persons …”
“We were lucky … or perhaps there was SOMEONE watching out over us. We were sponsored by Canadian churches. Many of our people were brought to New Liskeard.”
“You mentioned that you were in a refugee camp for three months … please tell me how you were selected by the Roman Catholic Church?”
“My father spoke fluent French … this was the reason the Catholic Church accepted us so quickly …”
“It was the year 1976 … we were placed in different villages near New Liskeard.”
“Did you retain your language?”
“Very little, really,” she said. “I cannot write it and there is no community where I work.”
“Where do you work?”
“At St. Joseph’s Sleep Lab in Toronto.”
I ask the names of some cardiologists and discover that two of them Dr. S. and Dr. R. who I knew in the 1970’s – 1990’s are still there!!!
“So your sleep patterns are not normal … did you sleep this night?” I asked her.
“No”.
“A question about your family – would you tell me about them?”
“Yes, my brothers are doing well.”
“and your parents?”
“Mom and Dad moved south from New Liskeard to North Bay – half way closer than New Liskeard “
“Do you see them often?”
“They drive down once a month to visit me …”
“I should like to get your father’s story.” I said to her.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
A Young Jewish Girl - Rachel Corrie
The army bulldozer moved ever closer to her – this tiny wisp of a girl – perhaps a little older than Anne Frank was when she perished – yet – yet it just occurred to me that a life is like a fountain pen which is offered to each soul – the Buddha would have said ‘to each sentient’ soul. Sentient beings are those created with self-awareness and those also have FEELINGS -.
Man has had excess of a quality (often) termed as HUBRIS unless we are weak, ill, poor, male or female persons – helpless infants or handicapped – or elderly – we may not be aware of the pain and suffering of others.
But Rachel was young, vibrant, strong, extremely bright and beautiful. How was it possible that such a wisp of a young woman – if you are curious by now to know her exact age, feel free to Google her name and presto – BLINK - you have at your fingertips the immediate bio data which encapsulates Rachel Corrie’s brief life …….
This was the tipping point of her young life.
The driver of the Israeli bulldozer was probably not very conscious of the risk that Rachel was taking.
“Greater love has no man, than he/she who lays down his/her life for another …….”
One doesn’t have to be a Christian to know the words of that young Rabbi Isa iba Mary (son of Mary) ---- Jesus son of Mary --- to know what those Biblical words mean.
“Deeds speak!” Words are easy.
“Who was the first Christian?”
Not Christ …
No … not Jesus Christ … if he existed there is no archaeological scientific evidence of it – but then why do the Christians and Muslims – among so many others love the ‘son of man” – as he chose to call himself.
“Master”, some said to Jesus, “thou art good….”
“Do not say this…” he corrected the person “Call HIM ALONE as good…” referring to one: the unseen one, the one referred to in the FIRST COMMANDMENT “YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD, YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH, AND LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOUR – YOUR FELLOW MAN – AS YOU LOVE YOURSELF”.
So Rachel Corrie, the young passionate wisp of a girl – daily stood between the encroaching bulldozer and the Palestinian house in the Gaza Strip. One fine day Rachel Corrie was dispatched into the soil – her blood mingling with the debris of the Arab home that she had tried to shield from demolition.
LAST WEEK some terrorists created carnage and mayhem in the city of MUMBAI. I can not label these gunmen as belonging to any group of sentient thinking and feeling beings.
Rachel Corrie was an example of a deeply humane, thinking and feeling person. She never had to say that she was a Jew or a Christian.
For all we know – the ROBOKILLERS of MUMBAI had not a moment of self doubt – let alone any qualms about the evil act of killing hundreds of innocent men, women and children.
This is not an apologia for Islam, a word which literally means ‘peace’ – peace of mind, soul, peaceful acts – submission to a noble code of conduct.
None of these killers could have read a single word of the Quran – be merciful, be compassionate – “if you kill a single person it is as if you have destroyed an entire world – a universe….”
Speechless – my pen runs out of ink – my heart is dry of its blood – the teachers of Islam – LAUDED BY AND IN Quran Moses, i.e. the Lawgiver, Jesus, the Messiah, Muhammad, the Spirit of Truth would be as appalled at the MUMBAI massacre of Wednesday 26 November, 2008 as they would have been by the bulldozer which crushed the life out of innocents like Anne Frank and Rachel Corrie.
All of us – who pride ourselves as being human beings – all of us – each and every one who is not ground down into the misery of poverty and suffering that inflicts this little speck in our little milky way galaxy – each one of us is an equal member of one extended family – Chief Seattle, surely a wise man is reported to have said :LEARN TO SEE YOURSELF IN OTHERS – what harm can you do?”
If the bulldozer driver had read or heard these lines and paused before he took out the Arab house – if the Nazi who snuffed out the life of young Anne Frank had known of the wise advice of Chief Seattle –
“IF” –
“IF” –
“IF” !
IF ONLY –
The word of wisdom is the lost property of the BELIEVER.
MOMIN (BELIEVER).
Whatever good action you will perform – be it an ATOM’S weight of good – YOU WILL SEE THE RESULT ---
“WHY THEN --? Asks the Quran “WHY DOES MAN NOT CHOOSE THE UPWARD PATH?”
And what is the upward path?
It is the choice of feeding the hungry –
slaking the thirst of the thirsty –
aiding the helpless –
offering hope to the hopeless –
guiding the ones lost in the darkness of ignorance.
“FATHER” – beseeches Jesus – “Forgive them (forgive my tormentors) –
They are ignorant and unaware of what they are DOING: -
“You cannot live without forgiving others
-daily you must forgive each other –“
-even a hundred times each day – said Muhammad.
Surely Rachel Corrie had no hate in her heart. As the American peace activist stood by the house she was so innocent and so idealistic that she could not conceive that the bulldozer driver would ignore her presence.
“When we choose to ignore others – we may be sentencing them to death”. We trample on their human right to live.
At Nuremberg the defense of the Nazi Commanders was “I was just following orders –“
“I was just following orders”.
“What a cop out!”
The Mumbai murderers were also doing just that. They did not read MARTIN BUBER.
“They did not even understand their own Quran -----“
MUMBAI MASSACRE - November 26, 2008
RACHEL CORRIE - March 16, 2003 – age 23
ANNE FRANK - Early March 1945 – age 15
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