May 2008


This story of Mullah Nasrudin was so funny, I had to put it on my blog. (grinning)

The dervish Nasrudin entered a formal reception area and seated himself at the foremost elegant chair. The Chief of the Guard approached and said: “Sir, those places are reserved for guests of honor.”

“Oh, I am more than a mere guest,” replied Nasrudin confidently.

“Oh, so are you a diplomat?”

“Far more than that!”

“Really? So you are a minister, perhaps?”

“No, bigger than that too.”

“Oho! So you must be the King himself, sir,” said the Chief sarcastically.

“Higher than that!”

“What?! Are you higher than the King?! Nobody is higher than the King in this village!”

“Now you have it. I am nobody!” said Nasrudin.

Interpretations

  1. This is the prime interpretation of the story.
  2. One should show regard for those of humble means.
  3. Even a person of no consequence can be Hodja.
  4. Cleverness opens doors.
  5. Some words can have more than one meaning. A seemingly slight shift in context can make the base noble.
  6. Elevation comes through the abandonment of ego.
  7. Healthy society is circular, i.e when you are at the top you are at the bottom. eg.: Government serves leader, leader serves people, people serves government… Conversely linear systems are unhealthy.
  8. All men are made equal under the eyes of god
  9. Beware of the clever tongued, they can twist things mightily
  10. The one who empties himself of himself, attains the highest position in the sight of Allah.

Source

Hi Everyone

Today I was thinking about global warming, food crisis, war etc. issues that are afflicting mankind. And I thought “hope is dead”. The minute I thought that, I heard a bird chirp. Then I looked at the sky and the warmth of the atmosphere enveloped my entire being. I could hear the birds singing the song of hope, the song of life. And I felt convinced that “hope is still alive”. Its within us, without us, i.e. if we choose to see and choose to listen. God didn’t create mankind in vain. We, humans, weren’t meant to put ourselves at the brink of extinction although the majority are doing just that. But there is still hope since its possible to change the hearts of that majority. I sincerely believe that although I don’t quite know yet how to endeavour about this task. Perhaps I will learn as I journey in this world. However, for now “reaching the destination” isn’t the point; only the “journey towards it” matters. So, let’s all journey towards peace, solidarity, understanding and love for mankind. I think the way is not through revenge but through forgiveness inshaAllah. :-)

Later days

Take care and God Bless You.

Peace and Blessings Everyone

I came across this interesting post and thought to share with eveyrone. Its the opinion of a Muslim lady about enforcement of hijab in Iran.  Bravo! sister for speaking up. :-)

Asalaam u alikum/hi

I am speechless as I write this post. I viewed a video showing Irani police women forcing hijab on other females. As a Muslim woman, I have great love and respect for the dress code in Islam. To me, it represents Allah’s love and His protection. A woman is regarded with dignity and respect when she is dressed modestly. Hijab does not just implies outside modesty but it reflects inside modesty as well. Therefore, if you really practice Hijab, than your conduct, manner and speech will also be in line with your dress. That implies to men too, a guy should be modest in the same manner as the girl. In his speech, actions and manner.

In today’s society, Hijab have become a joke! The very essence of it, is used to exploit and oppress others. Allah oriented it for protection and respect but many use to oppress and exploit females. Let’s suppose, you succeed in oppressing a female to wear it, do you think she will be wearing Hijab for the love of Allah tallah? Do you think she will feel freedom when she puts it on. Each time, she will place it on her head, she will be doing it out of fear, and each time it resides on her head she will feel oppressed.

This is how conditioning works:

1. Also called operant conditioning, instrumental conditioning. a process of changing behavior by rewarding or punishing a subject each time an action is performed until the subject associates the action with pleasure or distress.
2. Also called classical conditioning, Pavlovian conditioning, respondent conditioning. a process in which a stimulus that was previously neutral, as the sound of a bell, comes to evoke a particular response, as salivation, by being repeatedly paired with another stimulus that normally evokes the response, as the taste of food.

Example (Taken from: http://www.ar.cc.mn.us/biederman/courses/p1110/conditioning2.htm)
An individual receives frequent injections of drugs, which are administered in a small examination room at a clinic. The drug itself causes increased heart rate but after several trips to the clinic, simply being in a small room causes an increased heart rate.

Now applying this to what they are doing to Muslim women in the name of Islam.
Female(s) going out without head cover or going out with mild coverage (here I am talking about hair coverage), encounter oppression in terms of beating, verbal harassment and let’s NOT forget sexual harassment. Over time, the female will be less likely to go out without proper coverage.

However, her coverage has nothing to do with Islam or to feel the essence of Hajab (in terms of dignity, freedom, and respect). She is covering in order to escape the oppression per se. Hajab which is such a pure and modest symbol get linked with these negative feelings. Over time, if the female get out of such environment, she will be less likely to wear Hijab. So you see, what these people are doing in reality is creating hate and resentment for Hajab.

Continue reading the rest here

Peace and Blessings Everyone

When I was a little girl, I used to buy these books whose protagonist was Mullah Nasrudin, a very funny and wise character. I was totally in love with this character. He made me laugh but there was always something more to the stories.

Today I came across a compilation of stories of this character at WikiBooks.

Mullah, Nasrudin Hoja appears as the whimsical character in a growing tradition of stories. The tales of Nasrudin are sometimes adapted and used as teaching stories by followers of the Sufi way. Some mystic traditions use jokes, stories and poetry to express certain ideas, allowing the bypassing of the normal discriminative thought patterns. The rationality that confines and objectifies the thinking process is the opposite to the intuitive, gestalt mentality that the mystic is attempting to engage, enter and retain.

By developing a series of impacts that reinforce certain key ideas, the rational mind is occupied with a surface meaning whilst other concepts are introduced. Thus paradox, unexpectedness, and alternatives to convention are all expressed in the humor of Nasrudin.

Please add to the tales of Nasrudin and interpretations. It is said, there are as many interpretations as stars in the sky. And when you read a story, see yourself reflected in the story and make your own interpretations rather than relying on others to tell you the meaning of the story. In this way, you will learn for yourself and the usefulness of the story’s teaching will be deeper.

Here are two stories.

Underwater

Nasrudin the diver worked 200 feet under the surface, when suddenly a venerable yogi floated into his range of vision, without any breathing apparatus. “Oh master! What are you doing at such a depth?” wrote the surprised Nasrudin on his writing-slate. The guru snatched the slate and china-pencil, and wrote furiously: “Drowning, you idiot!”

Interpretations

  1. Humans cannot breathe underwater.
  2. The simplest explanation is usually the best.

Audience with the King

Nasrudin returned to his village from the imperial capital, and the villagers gathered around to hear what had passed. “At this time,” said Nasrudin, “I only want to say that the King spoke to me.” All the villagers but the stupidest ran off to spread the wonderful news. The remaining villager asked, “What did the King say to you?” “What he said — and quite distinctly, for everyone to hear — was ‘Get out of my way!’” The simpleton was overjoyed; he had heard words actually spoken by the King, and seen the very man they were spoken to.

Funny and thought provoking, don’t you agree. Read more stories here in your spare time.

Later days

Take care

Kind Regards

Peace and Blessings Everyone

Today, I was searching “Alzheimer’s disease” on Wikipedia and came across Wikibooks and WikiVersity. Holy! They have actual university level texts for some of the subjects. Some of the books that I particularly liked are Human Physiology, The Poetry of Gaius Valerius Catullus, Chess, Rhetoric and Composition, Cognitive Psychology and Cognitive NeuroScience, Communication Theory, This Quantum World, Lucid Dreaming and Special Relativity.

Its still a work in progress and more material will be added in the future. If you have time on your hands, you can participate in this project as well.

This reminded me of the  Project Gutenberg. Have you heard of it? Its yet another amazing site full of fictional and non-fictional books. You know I actually printed some of the Enlgish books I was required to buy for a University course of mine. This saved me a lot of money, thank God.

They have books in different languages such as English, Chinese, Italian, Latin, Portugese etc. Also, they have lots of classic text by well known authors such as William Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, Agatha Christie, L.M. Montgomery (wrote Anne of Green Gables), Joseph Conrad etc. Yum Yum! :-) So bookmark this site as well.

Later Days now

Take care

Kind Regards

I just thought to beat stress by humor. Usually, my strategies are different but I guess I am being influenced by the people around me which is great. So today I decided to create a new section “Laughter, the best Medicine”. Here is the first post. Smile a little. :-)

Garfield goofing around

Later days

Peace and Blessings

Just in case you forgot. :-)

Later days

Kind Regards

Peace and Blessings Everyone

I was just watching CBC and came across this newsclip about BuyMyTronics. Apparently, some dude sold his defected cell phone for $200 to BuyMyTronics and bought a new phone using that money. A great deal I think.

This program is very environmental friendly. Do you know that electronic wastes have become a growing concern in Canada. Here are some fast facts from EnviroZine website.

More than 140 000 tonnes of computer equipment, phones, televisions, stereos, and small home appliances accumulate in Canadian landfills each year. That’s equivalent to the weight of about 28 000 adult African elephants or enough uncrushed electronic waste to fill up the Toronto Skydome every 15 years.

An estimated 4 750 tonnes of lead is contained in personal computers and televisions disposed each year in Canada.

By 2005, yearly disposal figures for personal computers alone will contain an estimated 4.5 tonnes of cadmium and 1.1 tonnes of mercury.

Exposure to high levels of lead, cadmium and mercury in the environment has been linked to adverse effects on human health and wildlife. This includes subtle neurobehavioural effects for lead, chronic kidney damage for cadmium, and sensory or neurological impairments for mercury.

Electronics contain valuable resources such as ferrous metals, aluminum, and copper, however most electronics are currently sent to landfill. In 1999, it is estimated that disposed personal computers alone contained 4 400 tonnes of ferrous metal, 3 050 tonnes of aluminum and 1 500 tonnes of copper.

Extended Producer Responsibility recognizes that brandowners and manufacturers are in the best position to control the longevity, content, and recyclability of the products they design and market.Instead of dumping your electronic equipment, just sell it to these guys. You get the money and they just fix your equipment and sell it for a better price.

So, start with BuyMyTronics today by checking out their website.

Oh, they are located in Denver. But according to the FAQs, it turns out that they accept electronic devices from anywhere in the world. -)

I hope this would post will help some people and help our planet Earth as well.

Later days

Peace and Blessings

This is one of my best poems. I wanted to publish it for the first time in my first book “Raindrops” which I am still working on. But today, I just wanted to post it. Totally random thing to do but I’m cool with that. :-)

The Moment

————————————————————————————–

Clear deep water stood still, very still

I hear no crickets, toads, no birds, no wind

I hear no breath, no laughter, no EchO

Sweet Silence, I truly hear NoughT

-

Has the fabled wind stopped stirring?

Have the mystical clouds stopped floating?

Serenity echoed amid the universe, moon and sun

Justly the World fell silent, in AcCorD with One

-

As she held his hands and gazed in his eyes

God smilingly pressed pause from up in the skies

-

TwO=OnE