Two Points

This is not a formal article on any specific topic, just wanted to mention two quick points related to Muharram-ul-Haram.

Point 1: Recommendation

In previous blog we were discussing that Azadari-e-Imam Hussain (a.s.) should be source of character & personality building. In current era there are many ways of misguiding a common person specially media, different propagandas are launched from various sources and among those sources unfortunately one source is MULLA (A person who does not have sufficient knowledge of Islam and Rulings of Maraje and with the limited knowledge he starts guiding people, sometimes on your TV screen and sometimes on mimbar).

In comments of previous blog someone pointed towards a true picture of our nature, we are not willing to listen to a person whom we know that he will not tell us any unauthentic thing just because he is not a renowned speaker; we prefer to go to majalis on basis of venues and no. of people gathered there.

Quote

“My personal opinion is, if anyone is listening speeches of any zakir, atleast he should check his background and authenticity of his speeches. In my view if anyone is interested to listen those kind of speeches and majalis through which he can perform azadari and additionally gain knowledge of true Islamic concepts and protect himself from upcoming FITNA of Muslims and specially among Shia Isna Asheri, he should listen to Maulana Sadiq Hasan sahab.”

His majalis of Muharram 1431 are daily uploaded on different websites. Following is one link.
http://lectures.hussainiat.com/Audio/Lectures/Album.aspx?ALID=1157

*Please note that above paragraph is just my personal opinion, it is not necessary that everyone agrees to it.

Unquote

Point 2: Live broadcast

With the advancement in technology, today Alhumdollilah there are many momineen who are working on providing different facilities so that people from all around the world can participate in Azadari-e-Syedushuhada (a.s.). For example many TV channels are broadcasting live majalis, local cable providers are also working for this cause. Many websites are doing live broadcast and this year telecommunication companies have also provided facility to listen live majalis through a conference call. Mashallah, all those who are giving their efforts for Azadari-e-Imam Hussain (as) will be rewarded heavily, Inshallah.

BUT

I am more than 100% sure that none of the organizers wanted to provide this facility with the intention that people should remain at home and listen to those majalis, this service is beneficial if you belong to any of the following criteria.

1. If a person is living at such place especially outside Pakistan, India etc. where there are limited majalis.

2. A person cannot leave home due to age factor, weather condition, political disturbance etc. etc.

3. Health is not permitting him to step out.

4. Women who prefer to go in ladies majalis only.

5. Any other unavoidable circumstances.

What will we say if someone living on 5 mins. walk from Imambargah who is physically fit and is admitting that there is as such no problem for him in going at imambargah, is listening live majlis on TV and when asked for the reason, the simple reply is that when there is one facility available to listen same majlis then does it matter if I listen at home or at imambargah?

Lying on a bed with a packet of chips and listening to masaib-e-Imam Hussain, is this a good way of Azadari?

LABAIK YA HUSSAIN

I exactly don’t remember the source but either I’ve heard in some seminar or read it in some historical book that before formation of Hizbollah when our ulamas were struggling to build awareness among Lebanese Shias in specific, and people of Lebanon in general the best source they used was Majalis/Azadari programs during Muharram-ul-Haram. The speaker/author further mentioned that there was a time when before starting of Muharram, group of ulamas use to arrange special sessions with all the speakers of Lebanon who were nominated to speak in Majalis at different venues, ulamas use to select different topics for them according to that vicinity. Thousands of shia sect followers gather in majalis during this holy month and when every person was listening to same agenda, same idea, same movement, same revolutionized speeches, entire Lebanese society started to respond in favor of this movement. We all know the achievement of Hizbollah, behind this huge success the biggest role was of Azadari-e-Imam Hussain(a.s.).

This was just a short extract from history but after knowing it, I started wondering that Azadari-e-Syedushuhada (a.s.) is not just mourning on incident of Karbala, it is much more than that. Although this blog site is labeled as a fantasy blog by few brothers and sisters but several thoughts ran through our mind which needs some satisfactory answer. Like, after reading the above extract the first and obvious question is are we getting 100% from azadari-e-Imam Hussain? No doubt that core outcome should be mourning and matam on Imam Hussain (a.s.) and his household and we are doing it at good level but there CAN BE couple of different upshot from azadari-e-Imam.

I know it will be the most illogical statement if I say that there should be a group of people based on Ulamas and representative of Marajs who can guide all the speakers of Pakistan in selecting their matter every year, this statement will be labeled as a biggest fantasy of this blog but do we have any other choices to get value added benefits from Ashra-e-Majalis? As I mentioned that main and core motive of Azadari is to condole Janab-e-Syeda (s.a.) and Imam-e-Zamana (a.t.f.s) but other than that our Majalis should be source of character and personality building. At the very least can’t we start on this level that if there are two imambargahs or majalis venue in one area they should coordinate in a way that voice on loud speaker do not coincide? When niaz is distributed after majlis or in juloos the honor and respect of food which is given in the name of Imam Hussain (a.s.) is not spoiled? The noha CDs and cassettes which are released every year should remain nohas which are in honor and remembrance of the biggest tragedy of this universe and dignity of nohas are not hurted? Program of shab-e-dari should be organized with all due respect and there should be distinction between a normal get together and a program which is organized in the name of Ahlebait. Sabeels in the name of Bibi Sakina should not be a friends meeting place with all the abusive languages and immoral acts. When you are driving in a car with your family to attend a majlis, it should be different from an entertainment drive or going to a picnic spot with all luxuries. Is there any need to mention the disciplinary level in our juloos? You know it very well. We must understand that everything from niaz to majlis, nohas, shabedari, sabeel etc. is done in the name of Mazloom who was martyred in a desert with his kids and companions who were hungry and thirsty for three days. We should change our attitude and life style atleast for 10 days. Can’t we??

Mashallah all momineen participate in every program in their reach but if you witness Ashura juloos and compare it with Chehlum juloos you’ll find a huge difference. Chehlum is not a public holiday then too the participation in juloos is in hundred-thousand and Ashura which is public holiday and is of more importance, participation is in thousands only and till evening it remains just couple thousand, this is because there are several different programs by different organizations and people are divided where as on chehlum mostly people participate in MARKAZI juloos.

Dear readers, kindly permit me for atleast one fantasy as usual, if I think that on the day of Ashura, on the street of Karachi during markazi juloos, more than two hundred thousand people are offering namaz-e-Zuhur and after namaz, 15 minutes of masaib-e-Imam and then a huge matamdari where two hundred thousand people are performing matam with one voice and one rhythm ….

This fantasy came true on the streets of Turkey where the quoted figure was 5 hundred thousand people who performed matamdari on the day of Janab-e-Syedda (s.a). Unfortunately we don’t have any leader in our country like Imam Khomeni that on his funeral millons of people were gathered, we don’t have any leader like Ayatullah Khamenai where hundred-thousand people gather during his speech in Friday prayers, we don’t have any leader like Syed Hasan Nasrullah that we respond on his one call and millions are gathered on street of Lebanon ….. We just have azadari, can’t we show our strength and unity to entire world on the day of Ashura were millions of people are gathered with one motive and one voice LABAIK YA HUSSAIN LABAIK YA HUSSAIN

Hajj Resource

Many congratulations to all momineen and mominaat who are going for Hajj this year. My humble request is to remember myself and all other brothers and sisters in your prayers at all Holy places.

Following are some links for manasik-e-hajj and hajj guide which will Inshaallah benefit you during your Hajj.


Manasik-e-Hajj (English)
Ayatollah Al-Uzma Seyyid Ali al-Sistani


Manasik-e-Hajj (Urdu)
Ayatollah Al-Uzma Seyyid Ali al-Sistani


Hajj Questions and Answers (English)
Ayatollah Al-Uzma Seyyid Ali al-Sistani


Hajj Questions and Answers (Urdu)
Ayatollah Al-Uzma Seyyid Ali al-Sistani


Manasik-e-Hajj and Question/Answer (English)
Ayatollah Al-Uzma Sayyid Ali Khamenei


Manasik-e-Hajj and Question/Answer (Urdu)
Ayatollah Al-Uzma Sayyid Ali Khamenei

Kharadar to Defence

People who are regular listeners of Aga Ali Murtaza Zaidi, for them this article might be repetition but the point he highlighted in couple of his speeches is very much considerable and a big issue for Khoja community these days. In continuation of that some clarification and elaboration is stated in this article.

If we go back half century, mostly Khoja community were situated in Bihar colony, Kharadar, Khada Market, Mossa Lane and its surroundings, few families were living in Nazimabad, Korangi and Malir also but Kharadar was considered to be the hub of Khoja community in that era. This was indeed an intelligent decision by our fore fathers that when they migrated after partition, instead of getting scattered and living in isolation, they preferred to live collectively and merged with Sindhi Khojas living in Kharadar town.

With the passage of time and development in Karachi people started relocating from Kharadar and again a very smart decision that they remained on collective approach and get settled in Soldier Bazar, Lines Area, Garden, Guru Mandir and surroundings. We should be very much thankful to Shaheed Hameed Ali Bhojani for his untiring efforts in development of Khoja community on whole and specifically for his projects in Soldier Bazar and surroundings which provided the baseline to Khoja people in making soldier bazaar as a hub of Khoja community.

Third phase was relocation from soldier bazar towards PECHS, Mehfil-e-Murtaza and its surrounding is another Khoja populated area and today we are seeing lot of families moving to DHA.

As there is no authentic data available about division of Khoja families per area we have to make some wild guesses, following graph is a bird’s eye view of khoja families living in different towns of Karachi in my opinion, please note this is just an assumption and it may be incorrect.

With many advantages in collective approach there are few obvious disadvantages which are logical and understandable in all community based areas. Firstly unnecessary rise in property prices, secondly the area becomes very much congested and lastly the houses are getting less spacious. If you compare current solider bazaar with what it was 20 years back, you’ll find huge difference. Series of apartments are being constructed with less open area and small space between two apartments.

On average if today you want to purchase a house in soldier bazaar, a 3 bed room apartment will cost you around PKR 5 million to 8 million. Similarly in PECHS prices will start from 7.5 million onwards. In that price you’ll get a normal apartment but in same price if you move to some other area like Gulshan, Gulistan-e-Juhar or other new areas like Rizvia II etc. you can easily get a 240yards town house with a small garden and open space for parking etc. but it will not suit us because we do not want to live in isolation and specially due to sectarian issues in our city, it is not at all recommended to live in segregations. Also the massive development projects have made the movement in Karachi very easy and the distance are getting shorter day by day.

Solution to this issue proposed by Aga Ali Murtaza Zaidi is to develop a new society for Khoja Community on a large scale basis in some newly developed area. The prices will be low and you can increase your life style also. For example instead of living in congested apartments, in same price or less you can have your own town house with a garden and an open passage with the potential to build 1-3 stories which can be utilized in case of family extension or to generate additional income by renting it.

Now the question is where to start from, in my opinion there can be two models of developing a new society for community. Both are realistic and doable, first one is forming housing authority and they will be responsible for the entire project and second is just to lay the stone and leave the rest on individuals. Let’s look at both approaches.

Khoja Shia Isna Asheri Housing Authority:

A team formed under supervision of Khoja Jamaat or if Jamaat is not interested then a group of investors from Khoja Community can collectively form a team and initiate a housing project on a huge land, there can be commercial and residential plots for Khoja community people in different sections starting from 80yards to 1000yards and similarly commercial plots. This housing authority can work exactly same way other housing projects are working.

Individualist Approach:

For example there is no one interested in first approach, a group of individuals should survey in different areas and identify the vacant land at different locations. All we need is an imambargah and zonal office of KPSIAJ, once the area is allotted for these places, people will themselves purchase lands in surrounding.

We definitely need to look at this issue in more detail as in coming years due to less purchasing power and higher prices in existing community based areas, people will not be able to afford house and unwillingly they will have to move to some mixed areas and concept of collective approach will not extend further.

Think!

KPSIAJ Census

Few months back, in July 2009 I wrote an article “KPSIAJ Data Analysis http://khojashia.blogspot.com/2009/07/kpsiaj-data-analysis.html” in which I tried to emphasize on importance of quality data management, I was very contented when I came to know that at last after several years someone decided to work on this project which can serve as a backbone for all other projects. Mr. Ashraf Haidari, Hon. Secretary of KPSIAJ formally announced the Census Project on anniversary of Shaheed Hameed Ali Bhojani.

I am hopeful that the census team has done enough planning to make this project successful, successful project is one which meets all the quality requirements (Scope, budget and duration) and after completion it is converted into successful operation. The initial plan mentioned by census team member looks pretty reasonable and realistic and I think for the sake of easiness and user friendliness they have kept the data collection process very simple, manual and without any use of technology, although this is will increase the back office work load but I think this is fair enough for the first trial, if things go well and inshallah it will then hopefully they will think of enhancement in the process.

There are few points which are not clear to me and I am sure many of you must be having similar kind of questions in your mind; we can put our questions on this forum and will request the census team member to give us reply either on this forum or in some seminar or whatever suits them.

As a general practice I can divide the entire process of census project in 3 phases.

(i) Pre-Requisites: Can be termed as Planning

(ii) Data collection: Can be termed as Execution

(iii) Data management: Can be termed as Controlling

Let’s take a brief look at all three phases and brainstorm the entire process. Maybe this can be helpful to the officials of KPSIAJ in making their process smoother. Also by discussion we can highlight some week areas so they can focus on it.

Planning:

This can be arranging of “professional” volunteers, counters in different areas, awareness programs and most importantly “Marketing” of this project. Example: It has been more than 1.5 months that Mr. Haidary announced the project but still majority of non solider bazaar people doesn’t know about it.
As far as the scope of this project is concerned, the speech given by KPSIAJ officials doesn’t clear some of the following questions. I am sure they have the clear scope with them, but due to lack of our knowledge we are mentioning these as questions.

a. The first and most important question, what is the scope of this project? (1) To collect data of every single Khoja member or (2) To collect data of those who are easily accessible, for example those who live in Khoja populated areas or whose addresses in Khoja jamaat’s record are still valid?

b. Are there any additional arrangements for people who are member of Khoja Jamaat Karachi but living in different cities?

c. Are there any additional arrangements for people who are member of Khoja Jamaat Karachi but living outside Pakistan?

d. Data collection will be done only for Karachi khoja jamaat or other jamaat’s like Hyderabad or badin are also included in it?

Execution:

As mention in the speech by the in charge of census project, Mr. Naveed or Mr. Shakir (I forget the exact name) there will be counters in different areas and several volunteers will be serving in respective areas. They will go door to door and collect the data by “filling or getting filled” a per-defined template. The idea seems to be very good but again as a common man there are few questions related to this exercise.

a. Is the term “Areas” specific to khoja populated areas? I think he meant that like soldier bazaar, kharadar, pechs, defence, garden, lines area etc. and assuming that people living in non khoja areas will contact the nearest counter, seems logical BUT how will they make sure that every person has contacted them or if the volunteers are going door-door how will they make sure that they have covered majority people in both khoja and non-khoja areas?

b. If the volunteers are going door to door how will they overcome the problem where addresses in Jamaat’s record are no more valid?

c. I am not sure about the scope and the question related to outside the country or city is already mentioned in the planning phase, if the answer to that question is “Yes those people who are registered members of Karachi jamaat and are living outside are included in census project”, what will be data collection strategy for them?

Controlling:

The most difficult phase in my opinion is the controlling part; it includes the data security, data updation and converting data into quality data. What I understood from the speech of Mr. Haidary/Mr. Naveed is that volunteers will collect data in pre-defined format and back office will compile the data in some software. Now the following points are of high importance.

a. What will be the process for data updation for example addition of child, change of address or other contact details, change in educational statistics etc. I understand that this should be individual’s responsibility that when there is any update or change in the data, people should inform jamaat, but are we assuming that this will happen?

b. Secondly, data security, I think much work is already done on this point and KPSIAJ will not allow any data leakage. Whatsoever, this point still needs some more focus.

c. I am not aware that what information will be asked in census form but I am hoping whatever data is collected, it will be utilized in making future strategies and plans, just dumping the data in computer and getting general outputs will not serve the purpose, they should have some good analysis tools so they can get 100% out of this data, this can be improved with the time but still it needs attention.

These were some of my observation and confusion about the project but overall I appreciate the management of KPSIAJ for thinking on this issue and will pray for their success.

Announcement is done and now we all are waiting for the action to begin.

Good job KPSIAJ!

POLL - Discount for Community Members

Kindly participate in following opinion poll and cast your vote on the right side section of your screen. You can provide comments also to support your vote.

At the end of voting period which is around two weeks, we will present the voting statistics and your comments in front of Hon. Secretary of Khoja (Pirhai) Shia Isna Asheri Jamaat.

Please participate in making some difference in our community.

Hope you will cast the vote with honesty and one person will NOT vote multiple times.

Question:

Do you think there should be separate discount for community members of Khoja (Pirhai) Shia Isna Asheri Jamaat in different community projects where you can submit your Jamaat Identity Card and avail the discount?

a) Yes
b) No
c) Don’t know

For example Fatimiyah Hospital, Fatimiyah School & College, Charges for renting property of Khoja Jamaat like Bhojani hall for majlis or wedding etc, charges for hiring jamaat transport or any other project of KPSIAJ.

Please vote!

Lack of Innovation

The target audience of this particular blog is limited to middle age parents whose children are between 2 years to 8 years, other than this criteria you might not get the essence of this blog. Although the concerns mentioned in this article are not much worrying at the moment but maybe after few years it will be top line issue for our children. Overall take it lightly and think over it!

When I was a kid the hot favorite cartoon series in those days were Tom & Jerry, Pink Panther, Woody wood pecker and few more. If I remember correctly, there was a fixed time daily, 30 mins. in morning and 30 mins. in evening. Good old daysJ. With the advancement in technology and bloom of media, 60 mins. became couple of hours and finally many dedicated channels for children were launched and the transmission became nonstop.

Nice innovation! No one is against it and infact it became easier for both parents and children as they do not have to wait for a specific time, whenever they get a chance they can watch cartoons. Usually most of the cartoon series in our time were purely for entertainment purpose and educational element was not emphasized, but with the progress today’s cartoon series are multipurpose, education with entertainment. Again not a bad modernization!

As you all are aware that we haven’t contributed much in animated media yet, most of these cartoon series are either made in west or now in India, the trend of western cartoons are not much changed as compare to our time, still pure entertainment but with only one enhancement, male/female relations are now highlighted in their stories like some love affairs or dance parties etc. As a matter of fact this is now in every media from Pakistani drama serials to Hollywood/Bollywood movies and if we want to switch on our TV sets than we have to leave with this fact.

Another major contributor of animated industry is India and you know the fact that desi will be attracted with desi, so most of our children are addicted to Indian cartoon channels, “POGO” is these days a super doper hit channel among children. They are doing excellent job from their perspective as they have amalgamated their religious teachings in their cartoons, initially there were some specific series for religious teachings and when they realized that actually this idea has worked beyond their expectation they adopted this idea in other cartoon series as well.

Interesting part of these cartoon series are, they focus on one religious person, for example these days a cartoon series “Hanooman” is being watched by most of the children, they have scripted it so well that the religious teaching is done in an appealing way. They have started the story when “Hanooman” was a child and highlighted all his small small stories so well that children are getting addicted to it. I must say that this is an excellent way to teach religious events and autobiography of religious heros as you all are aware that “a picture is worth 1000 words” and what if it is a full fledge movie? Another great advancement they did is every popular cartoon series are launched in two versions, English and Urdu and we all know that no matter how good our children are in English, Urdu has its own attraction for children of our society.

The easiest answer for this concern is to stop our children from these kind of cartoons, but is this really a good solution? Let me quote one more recent example, these days a cartoon series “CHOTA BHEEM” is most popular series among children, if you want to know the popularity graph just type “CHOTA BHEEM” on Google and check out the ratings. This cartoon series is no doubt very interesting and every second child waits for it, I have really seen a 3 year old child waiting for this cartoon and child’s day is not completed without watching this cartoon, you can imagine how popular this would be. It was use to be a pure entertainment series with some of Indian culture but as soon as popularity graph rose they introduced a new character “KRISHNA” a religious personality in Hinduism, now a new version of this cartoon series is launched “CHOTA BHEEM AUR KRISHNA” and same tactics are being followed in this cartoon also, teaching the autobiography and piousness of Krishna.

On the other end our children are not so much aware of religious persons of Islam, they only know what they are taught in schools or madressas and you can understand that there’s a huge difference in both the learning system (pictorial and theoretical). I was astonished when a 5 year old child was telling me details of “Hanooman” and “Krishna” and was singing their religious song “oom”, when I asked the child to tell me name of 12 imams he was speechless.

I admit that few organizations have worked on animated movies for children describing the event of Karbala and some animated videos to teach wazu and namaz but sadly it couldn’t grab children’s attention. We need to know that children needs entertainment and you have to device a way for educational entertainment.

If not thousands, atleast there are hundreds of stories describing childhood events and small educational lessons from different prophets and Imams (a.s.), the way they use to live during their childhood, their interaction with different people of their age and elder people, stories of their sons and daughters etc. What does our child knows about it? The only source for a normal Muslim is the subject “Islamiat” taught in school and at max the madressa but again it is very difficult to build their interest as they take schools and madressas as a part of their studies and not entertainment, I don’t know whether it is permissible to make animated videos for children based on prophet’s and imam’s (a.s) stories as a complete serial in an entertaining fashion, but if this is not an option, we have to look for some alternatives else our children will remain unaware of Islamic personalities. Same as what we are today, if I take my example I don’t know much about childhood of different prophets and imams, all I know is what usually mentioned in majlis or what I have learned in madressa. That’s it! But yes my kid will know lot about other religious personality as compare to his own religion and this is only due to “LACK OF INNOVATION”.

What do you think!

Bait ul Maal

Bait ul Maal: Instead of extracting any definition of this word from any dictionary or thesaurus lets first think ourselves, what can be a good classification of this word for a common man of any era? General answer will be, it is a depository where all the reserves and assets are accumulated for any functioning body. Without discussing further on it, let’s jump to another question.

What is a welfare state and how does it function?

An interpretation of a welfare state mentioned by Wikipedia is:

“A model in which the state assumes primary responsibility for the welfare of its citizens. This responsibility in theory ought to be comprehensive, because all aspects of welfare are considered and universally applied to citizens as a "right".

Excellent! This means when it’s a citizen’s right, someone can ask that till which extend state should be responsible, as expenses will never end. So the terminology “right” means “basic resources necessary to maintain a good standard of living.”

Now the second part, how does welfare state functions? Again we will try to find out common man’s perception for this question.

The simplest answer can be, the more you earn the more you deposit into BAIT UL MAAL in form of taxes and the accumulated amount will be utilized for the welfare of people. (Memorize it)

Last question, what is Khums? It is a pillar of Islamic Economic System. You can now see the beauty of our religion, remember, in a welfare state “the more u EARN the more you have to pay” but in Islamic system the “the more you SAVE the more you pay”.

Any sensible person can conclude that KHUMS based system is far better than Welfare State System but the point is, “Welfare” can be seen in welfare states but where is “Welfare” in khums based societies?

Before proceeding further on this topic let’s make an assumption that every Shia Isna Asheri person is paying khums regularly, if someone is not paying Khums, I doubt calling him Shia Isna Asheri as in our religion who ever has grabbed the right of Janab-e-Sayyeda (s.a.) is considered to be lanatullah no matter how honorable is he considered by other people.

Now if most of shia isna asheri sect followers are giving khums and also we are receiving huge amount of khums/zakat/donations etc. from other places like African, European and North American countries why is so that still there are huge number of shia isna asheri persons who are living below average life and those who are somehow able to maintain their routine expenses are collapsed in case of any unavoidable conditions. Is there any central point today where a momin can go and put forward his issue and a good solution is provided to him?

Any ideas? Why in-spite of fulfilling our religious duties in terms of finance, we are unable to implement a true Islamic society?

Khums is just one pillar, Zakat, Charity, Sadqa are also financial duties of a momin. What can be done to implement the ideal condition, let’s make a model for Khoja community and it can be broaden to entire shia community.

Suppose in Karachi, most of the Khoja community people give their khums to 8-12 different organization/individuals (it can be listed very easily), first of all those 8-12 people should structure an internal group and apart from their respective projects/activities this committee should be combined under one umbrella and form a BAIT UL MAAL, for now let’s assume “Organization A” is formed which comprises of several other organization and individuals who have the permission from mujtahid to collect khums. All khoja community members plus international community who send their funds in Karachi should deposit their khums/zakat/charity to “Organization A”, this organization should be further sub-divided into different departments like Food, Education, health, marriage, emergency relief, professional development, madressas, imambargah fund etc etc. Depending on the current need and with consensus of all members, budget should be allotted to each department and when any of the khoja community members or any organization is in any kind of need, they can contact respective department and after following a pre-defined procedure the department can help the person.

Does it seems difficult? Believe me this is happening today also but the only change is, it will be done under one platform and in more managed way. Currently the funds are utilized without any co-ordination and due to this there is a high chance that different people are working on similar activities and other activities are not focused at all. Entire concept of interest free loans can also be introduced by this organization and the movement of funds can definitely bring a good change in our community.

Another benefit of this one window unit will be setting up project priorities. For example few years back there were no quality madressas in our community and there was urgent need to start good madressas, by the grace of Almighty Allah, several madressas are now operating in different areas specially soldier bazaar. Now what is the current need? To improve and enhance quality of existing madressas or building up a new madressa in same area & same lane?

Further on, this organization can highlight the current need of our community and most of the efforts should be made in that area. Let’s discuss current situation’s example, these days most the people are affected with the recession, many people are losing their jobs and many small business man have no choice left other than to windup their business, so the current need is some support for affected people, this could be providing loans/donations so their business can survive or generating some job opportunities etc. Another main stream requirement is the inflation support unit, the organization can devise a formula; let’s say a 2+2 (2 adult & 2 children) family needs Rs. 20,000/- to maintain a average living standard and current monthly income is Rs. 15,000/-, organization can look for different options to compensate the deficit, it can be either depositing Rs. 5,000/- into his bank account on monthly basis and on other side groom the person, his wife or any elder child so he can overcome the deficit.

I can write a complete book on “One Unit Operation and the concept of BAIT UL MAAL” but I think the core concept is mentioned for your thoughts, we all know that when Imam-e-Zamana (a.t.f.s) will come, he will form a true Islamic State where a poor person will not have to wait whole day long standing in front of a donor to receive a Rashon of Rs. 500/-

Can we not start to implement some Islamic economic system rules in our community and leave the rest on Allah (s.w.t) and Masoomeen (a.s.), they are always there to help and guide us.

Disgraceful Incident

Few weeks back I had updated a blog regarding sports activity in our Khoja Community and to my surprise people showed tremendous interest in it, I received several emails for appreciation and people sent me their details to contact them once such activity begins. As I was compiling the list to put it in some shape and start making arrangements for some sporting activity under any of my short-listed organization’s umbrella, I got to know that already a group of people have started working on same direction and the good news was that they had already made required arrangements to organize a full fledge sporting event. I was more than happy to know this news and instead of organizing a separate event, I emailed all interested candidates and provided them the information about that group and suggested them to participate in that event in large numbers.

Most of you know the details about that sporting event and what happened in the closing ceremony. For those who are still unaware let me brief you that how we added one more BLACK feather in our community’s cap.

I will not go into any details of such kind that who was correct and who was wrong nor I will mention names of any group as I did not witnessed that very moment but whatsoever the case was, the overall picture was not good and did not portrayed good image of our community.

Story begins with an organization that stepped up and arranged an inter community cricket tournament, open invitations were sent to all community members to submit their teams. People warmly welcomed the idea and good number of teams were registered. A professional venue was decided and all possible professional arrangements were made for the tournament. Event started with great excitement and was commencing quite successfully and then two top teams were selected for finals.

Many respected community members, members of managing committee and few of non community guests were invited for the final match followed by the closing ceremony, everything was set to ideal condition, large numbers of spectators were present in the stadium and the match started with great enthusiasm. At one point match umpire made a decision which was opposed by one team and then the argument started between both teams and umpire, soon the argument turned up into a dispute and finally the supporters also got involved and then very thing became a great mess. Abusive language and physical strikes destroyed the entire environment and at last the match was discontinued. You can easily imagine about the closing ceremony which was arranged after the match.

As I had already mentioned that I did not witnessed that specific moment which was the root of all dispute so I cannot comment on it and ofcourse there is high chance that the umpire made wrong decision, whatever was the case, was this correct way to react? Is this called sports man spirit? Is it professionalism?

As a normal community member I was very disappointed with all that happened, we are not united on a sporting platform which was at the end a game, how do we expect community members to be united on other platforms which are more serious than a game?

After this incident I was very discouraged and seriously I thanked Allah that it was not me who arranged this event, I highly doubt that any organization will now step up to organize these kind of sporting or any other events.

Let’s hope for the best and pray to Allah on our condition! Do prayers work when people themselves don’t want to change?

Bed time story - II

Once upon a time there was a small village where lived a couple in their sweet little home. The man belonged to a very honorable and royal family, his father was the King of the village in his time and then his elder brother was nominated to be the next king but there were many evil and cruel people in village who after the death of King, illegally occupied the kingdom and started harassing the noble family and troubled them in different ways, at last poisoned his elder brother and completely under-taken the kingdom. The leader of that cruel assembly will be regarded as the most disgraceful animal in the history of mankind.

The noble man was a pious and virtuous person and had no greed of kingdom; for the sake of peace he began to lead a life of seclusion. He remained busy peacefully teaching and propagating the precepts of good deeds and of worship and devotion to Allah. His wife was also from very noble tribe and was daughter of the chief of that tribe. Both of them were living happily and were waiting for the gift of Allah, the man use to pray a lot in his night prayers as he wanted a baby girl. One fine day they were blessed with a lovely, beautiful, charming little angel, the baby girl was such an innocent & adorable that entire family celebrated her birth and especially her uncle (father’s brother) was more than happy on her birth.

Since her birth she was sweetheart of all family members, her uncle use to love her more than his children and used to take very good care of her and would not rest until he satisfied all her requests. There was definitely a special bond between them. Similarly her father could not live without seeing her and often heard to say, "A house without her would not be worth living in!” Daily when she went to bed at night she wanted to spend some time with her father. Her father use to tell her stories of her ancestors specially battles fought by her grand-father, she would rest her head on her father's chest and her father would not move from her until she fell asleep.

As the sweet baby grew up she was different from other girls of her age, she was a very religious girl and enjoyed reading the Holy Quran since her childhood and never missed her prayers. From the age of two she took great care to make sure that her head and face were properly covered when in public.

Life was wonderful and days were passing with happiness and joy. Like all other children, she was also enjoying her childhood and was spreading happiness in entire family with her sweet and innocent smiles.

One day when her father returned home he asked all family members to get ready for a journey as the evil people of the village had started teasing and demanded for unlawful things. As a noble man he cannot admit cruel wishes and decided to relocate from the village. Along with all family members including women and children, a group was formed under leadership of the noble man and his brother and they started their journey to an unknown place. The sweet little girl was relaxed and enjoying the journey with her parents, uncle and other family members.

On other end those wicked people of the village were not happy with noble man’s decision as he did not obey to their unlawful wishes so they decided to trap the entire family and torture them; they prepared an army of thousands and sent them to catch the noble family. After several months the army found them in a remote area of a different country and blocked their way to proceed further. The noble man tried a lot to explain them the right path but all the animals in that army were faithless and did not understood the preaching of noble man. At last when noble man did not accepted their evil wishes they decided to show their wickedness and then the universe witnessed the most dreadful humiliation in history.

The sweet little girl, unaware of all those happenings, one day came to know that there is no water and food left in their belongings and all other sources of water were cut down by the evil army, the little angel along with other children remained hungry and thirsty for several days but did not panic, at night she must have gone to her father to sleep on his chest and his father must have told her to remain patient and leave everything to Allah, but that was just the beginning, after couple of days the evil army started a battle and in single day they killed all the healthy males of that group, the poor little girl witnessed the martyrdom of her beloved father, uncles, brothers and other family members and then came the most horrified evening where the little angel was all alone between the sinful people of evil army. Instead of comforting words the little girl was slapped and her dress was put on fire by the tyrannical forces. At this age when children are free from all worldly issues, the innocent girl was tortured on highest level which is beyond imagination of a normal person.

With tied rope around her neck, she was then forced to travel to a different country for many days and then imprisoned in a dark, unclean room. The little princess remained there for several months in hope to return home some day; she was very frightened with darkness in that underground cell. Daily at night she remembered her father’s chest before sleeping and her aunt use to console her that one day she’ll meet with her father.

After so many trials and humiliations one day while the little princess was asleep she saw that her father had come to take her with him, with a smile on her face after several months, she happily held her father’s hand and went away from this disgusting world. She was greeted very warmly by all family members, ancestors and all the angels. After facing all difficulties and sufferings at last the little princess met her father again and now resting on her father’s chest peacefully.

KPSIAJ Data Analysis

In today’s world data analysis and data modeling holds an enormous significance, lot of work is been done on data collection, globally, through various techniques and is used in different research and analysis projects. We all are aware with the importance of “Quality Data” and the rule of GIGB (garbage in, garbage out), someone can ask the difference between data and quality data, the data is called a quality data “if they are fit for their intended uses in operations, decision making and planning".

In light of this definition of quality data, we will discuss the importance of data management and analysis inside khoja jamaat and khoja community. In my opinion, khoja jamaat has worked a lot on “Data collection” during past few years but after data collection I found some lacking in making this data a quality data (read the definition again). Before proceeding further I want to discuss types of information in context to our Khoja Jamaat.

1. One time information which will not change ever

a. Membership Number
b. Name, Father Name, Surname (Mostly not changed)
c. Date of Birth

2. Information which are updated on certain time and is mandatory to provide it to KPSIAJ and remains unchanged afterwards.

a. Date of Nikah
b. Bride and her family details
c. Date of death

3. Information which are updated regularly and there is no good way today KPSIAJ can collect these details unless a person provides it by own or any special arrangements are made to collect it.

a. Qualification
b. Occupation
c. Country of residence
d. Children
e. Additional Qualities
f. Etc.

With a membership database of just (+ -) 10,000 people of Khoja (Pirhai) Shia Isna Asheri Jamaat we haven’t seen any statistical data management by our jamaat ever. In my opinion jamaat should at least start data analysis on macro level and with maturity in process they can go in micro details.

What if our jamaat had details of all khoja family members of Karachi, let’s look at some good and practical examples in that case. Currently when jamaat announces any activity program like summer camp, picnic, seminar, workshop etc. the decision is on basis of wild guess, a broad range of audience is focused without any prior analysis, what if they had something like following printout in their hands.

Example 1:

Age 2yrs - 5yrs (Total Male: xxx Total Female yyy)
Age 5yrs - 10yrs (Total Male: xxx Total Female yyy)
Age 10yrs - 20yrs (Total Male: xxx Total Female yyy)
Age 20yrs - 35yrs (Total Male: xxx Total Female yyy)
Age 35yrs - 50yrs (Total Male: xxx Total Female yyy)
Age greater than 50yrs (Total Male: xxx Total Female yyy)

Wasn’t it been easy for them to decide which audience or age group to focus for which kind of activity? If you think out of the box, from this one matrix many different results can be extracted like possible matriculates this year, expected marriages this year or gender ratio in khoja community etc.

If any of you have ever seen different forms of khoja jamaat which you have to fill for membership, nikah, divorce, death etc. it has the sufficient information for different statistical analysis, we can go through few more examples.

Example 2:

I am a member of KPSIAJ with a membership ID xxx, my daughter is married to Mr. ABC with a membership ID yyy, both information is mentioned in different forms, will it not be good if they have relation between xxx and yyy. As every nikah has to be registered in KPSIAJ, imagine with this one relation what can be achieved.

Example 3:

If today jamaat is asked to provide the information of doctors, engineers, accountants etc. in our community, they will not be able to provide it. Isn’t this information useful in many aspects?

Example 4:

Ratio of registered member of KPSIAJ Karachi, living in different countries can be helpful for international campaigns.

Example 5:

Some educational matrix can grab attention of local and international organizations for betterment of khoja youth. See the below matrix, will it not be useful information of education trend in khoja community.

Under Matriculate (Total Male: xxx Total Female yyy)
Matriculate (Total Male: xxx Total Female yyy)
Intermediate (Total Male: xxx Total Female yyy)
Graduate (Total Male: xxx Total Female yyy)
Masters (Total Male: xxx Total Female yyy)
Phd (Total Male: xxx Total Female yyy)

There can be many examples of such kind. Thus what I want to prove is although we are from same community; we lack the concept of social networking on official platform. May be there are some independent organization/group who are working for it but it would be very good if we have some initial level statistics of our community people.

The most difficult part in implementing this process is the data collection phase. From types of information, category 1 and 2 is already achieved by khoja jamaat, in these categories they have to work on the quality and management of data but the category 3 is still far away from their reach. Another issue in category 3 is that this information is not static and is changed frequently so one time collection of data will not work in long term, there should be some ongoing process so the outdated data can be purged continuously.

There can be several possible solutions for this exercise.

1. Online Updates

Although ratio of internet users are growing day by day but still there are majority of people in khoja community who do not have access to internet, for those people we can sort out some different data collection technique but for people having internet facility, there can be a web based portal where people can update their information. Imagine the strength of this database as this can be accessed by local and international community members.

2. For people without internet access, there are several manual ways.

a. Every 3 years at the time of election, there can be separate desks where information can be gathered.

b. Many community students are studying under Fatimiyah network that can cover certain percentage.

c. Women wings arranges different programs like summer camp, yearly picnic, seminars etc. around 150-200 families can be accessible by this means.

d. Stalls can be placed in different Ramzan and Muharram programs.

Last but not least, when Khoja Jamaat have sufficient information about different families, they can work on many projects for betterment of community, today if some donation is sent for “MUSTAHIQ” people of khoja community, I don’t think jamaat has some pre-defined or pre-collected data which can justify the word “MUSTAHIQ”, decisions are made on “as and when needed” basic and people who are real “MUSTAHIQ” for that aid are not identified as they are “Out of site and thus out of mind”.

Once the concept is introduced it can expand a lot and can be helpful in many ways.

What you think?

Big time confusion

This time I will not be discussing any of my view point on a specific issue, instead I’ll share my confusion and raise few questions for which I am not able to get any satisfactory answer yet.

"Thy Lord hath decreed that ye worship none but Him, and that ye be kind to parents. Whether one or both of them attain old age in thy life, say not to them a word of contempt, nor repel them, but address them in terms of honor. And out of kindness, lower to them the wing of humility, and say: ‘My Lord! bestow on them Thy Mercy even as they cherished me in childhood' "(Al-Quran: 17:23-24)

Each of us are in no doubt that Islam has emphasized a lot about rights and duties towards our parents and specially mother is the most respectable and divine relation Allah has created for his creatures. There are several verses of Quran and ahadess from Masoomeen(a.s.) in honor of parents and enlightens our responsibilities towards them. If someone has to describe the word “mother” and the relation of a mother and a child, I don’t think it will be an easy task as there aren't enough words in the dictionary to describe what my mother is. “For the hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world” Surely whatever we are today is just because of our parents.

But today’s mother was a newly wedded wife someday, as soon as a person gets married with a girl there can be two possibilities, in some cases specially in subcontinent the girl is brought to the house which is of the groom’s parents and they live with parents and siblings, this is what we call Joint Family System. Second option is they will start their life in a new house hoping to turn that into a home someday.

Let’s now discuss some ideal cases where there are no special excuses like small house or relocation to different city/country, financial problems etc. Now my question, actually it is more than a question and can be called a big time confusion.

Should a person start his life in a Joint Family System or Individualistic Family System?

Option 1:

The person leaves his parent’s place and starts a new life at a new place? Ofcourse he will be visiting them regularly and will take good care of them, remotely, as much as possible by helping them financially, morally and by supporting in household work etc. If that’s the case then:

1. Will it be considered as disgracing parents and dishonoring them or not giving them proper love which they deserve from their child?

2. Will it be considered as not fulfilling ones duties and rights towards his parents by leaving them alone at old age when they will be needing him as he needed them when he was a child?

3. Is this act against any of the Islamic laws or instructions or expectations, will this act be a hurdle in gaining Allah’s blessing?

4. Is it something the person has to justify in his society or it should be taken normal by society as a general practice?

5. By living separately there is a distance between grandchild and grandparents as compare to living jointly with them, will it be considered injustice to both of them?

6. Finally if any one of the parent is left alone after others death, what should be the line of action? Hire a maid for him/her? Ask him/her to live with all the sons turn by turn for a decided period? Admit him/her to old house? OR go for any point in option 2.

Option 2:

A newly wedded wife in most of the cases prefers to have her own home and does not like to stay in a Joint family. Maybe in some cases she shows her willingness but mostly witnessed in my surrounding, girls usually prefer to be independent of joint family. In subcontinent still there are many families where individualistic family system is considered very negative and girl is titled as cunning, clever and selfish if she demands for a separate home.

1. Whatever the case maybe, restrict her to live in Joint family?

2. When two – three women are living in same house there is a high chance of collusion, so should a person start balancing his rights towards parents, siblings and wife and try to keep all of them happy in case of any argument? Is it possible? How?

3. Be ignorant and let the things go on its own way and do not interfere until the big blast from either side?

4. Be partially separate in same house? (You know what that means)

5. Change his role as a son and as a husband and be mediator for life time.

Today in our society when a person gets married the first and biggest question infront of him is, should he enter into joint family system or start a separate and independent life, maybe initially this question does not crop up but after some time this issue comes along him, whether in form of demand from his partner or due to circumstances, the decision at that time is not so easy and I am still in search of the answer that what is the best possible solution to this confusion.

As you can see both options have some advantages and disadvantages, I am not listing those here as we all are aware of virtues and pitfalls of both systems but ultimately person has to go with any one of the them, of course selection of any option entirely depends on individual’s circumstances and no universal law can be defined as a selection criteria but still in a broad view there has to be some reasoning to justify the selection, whether it be from religious point of view or social or ethical view but there has to be some logical reasoning.

Last but not least, what is the best time for making this decision, should it be a preplanned decision and with mutual understanding of all the stakeholders or should a person go with the flow in beginning ,wait and watch for the situation and then make any decision?

These are few unanswered questions waiting for some justifiable replies other than “Depends on situation” kind of answers as macro view of situation is already defined.

Gunnah for Sale

Sale sale sale …. Complete Gunnah package available for very reasonable price for yourself and all family members. Don’t miss the chance as you’ll not even realize that you have increase your gunnah account immensely.

These days are associated with Ahlebait (a.s.) and considered to be very holy months, most of the people prefer to arrange wedding functions during these three months (Jamad us Sani, Rajab & Shaban). Usually this is done because of our close association with Ahlebait (a.s.), we celebrate our happiness when they are happy and when they are in grief we also turn into sadness, although this is a very excellent way to demonstrate our love, respect and association with them but one should understand that when anything, any event or any function is done in their name it obviously means that organizers should take extra care and the gathering should be very pure as it is done in the name of “Lords of Purity”.

BUT

Whenever you feel like your gunnah account has reduced and you are feeling uncomfortable because of that, just don’t worry … Go and attend a wedding function of so called “Moderate Family”, you’ll find a complete gunnah package and those 2-3 hours per function is enough to increase your account. And if the function is of your close relative/friend, then just be prepared for some extra ordinary packages like buy one get many free and special discounts upto 100%.

The story starts with the wedding week when you are invited to join a Mehendi function; as soon as you step out from your home the counter will start or maybe it was started the day when you accepted that invitation and started preparation for it. Hmmmmmmmm, nicely dressed, you reached the invited place, you’ll be greeted with some cool music playing in ultra loud voice and you’ll be seeing some females with proper “western” hijab greeting your ladies, no need to mention that you are in a mix gathering as there was no other choice for organizers cause the mehendi function has to be mix gathering as it is sunnat-e-Iblees.

Your account has start increasing but there is much more to come so remain excited, now you have two choices (don’t worry both of them will earn you equal gunnah), either participate in the “Dhoolki and/or Dandiya” performed by girls and boys or remain seated and enjoy the show. Young children must be enjoying the dance and remember DO NOT scold them when they repeat this action at home with their siblings and cousins because you are the one to encourage and develop this notion in them. For most of the children this won’t be a new thing as STAR PLUS has already taught them all these gestures.

And now comes the most disgraceful part of the ceremony, music is on its peak and family members are going to perform Imam Zamin ceremony, with the voice of “Salwat” which will ofcourse muddle up with the music sound, the groom wears Imam Zamin of “YA ALI” and bride wears of “YA FATIMA” and with that Imam Zamin tied on the hand, groom starts shaking hands and taking “Musafa” with Na-Mehram women like Chachi, Bhabbi, Sali etc. etc., still with the “YA ALI” Imam Zamin on the arm, bride’s sisters and cousins do the “ANGHOTA PAKRAI” rasm. This is when girls from bride’s side hold the thumb of groom and demand for certain gift, I am not against the tradition but holding hands without any barrier is what makes it haram.

Do I need to mention that you can easily convert this gunnah into “Gunnah-e-Jaria” by just letting the movie maker to shoot your uncovered head in his camera? You can easily earn gunnah for many years in this way, as the movie will be circulated around the community very regularly. In some cases ultra moderate family will upload it on youtube or some other website of this kind letting the whole world to enjoy the ceremony and without your permission you’ll be seen without hijab by many Na-Mehrams.

When there are thousands of people hungry and living in worst conditions, and majority of them can be found in our own country, it is a mandatory tradition to waste huge amount of food when you know that Allah gave you the meal before this meal and you’ll surely take proper meal after this one then too who cares, one person will collect food for two people and will waste it without a single thought. People use to behave like if this is the first and the last meal in their life time.

Anyways much more can be highlighted on this issue but you can imagine how rich you are at the end of these functions.

Why? Why are we like this, when each of us know that this is not correct then too we do same every time. Why we don’t have courage to reject invitations for such functions where we are dam sure that it will be full of unlawful things? Why don’t we discourage these traditions?

Just because we don’t want the relative/friend to feel bad if we reject the invitation, then what about Allah and Ahlebait (a.s.)? Are the friends superior to Ahlebait (a.s.) that we are giving preference to their displeasure on Ahlebait’s (a.s) displeasure?

I admit that I am also same as all others but I want to change, are you ready to change?

Ask yourself!

Be rich! Put your son on auction

A promise with Satan (Shaitan):

“We won’t let your traditions die. Until anyone of the Khoja community member is alive on the surface of this earth you don’t have to worry at all, we will serve you at our best and will promote all negative traditions in society.”

Yet another girl of our community decided not to get married just few hours before reaching the marriage hall as her family could not pay the required amount demanded by the groom’s family and also they have a “Fixed Price” tagged on the groom. Although girl’s father in law showed the utmost generosity and granted few days to her family for fulfilling his wish list.

The poor girl was sitting in the parlor and getting ready to start her new journey when she came to know that dowry which was sent day before to groom’s house was rejected by father in law as “TV trolley was without a TV” and “Split AC” was not included in the package. Just two hours remaining in wedding ceremony, she had to take a quick decision whether to enter in the hell for her whole life or to remain behind and fight with the hypocrites of the society and prove herself innocent infront of everyone.

Somehow she prepared herself to face all the hurdles and problems which are going to be created by so called “Cultured Khoja Society” and denied from getting married in that mentally sick family. Great work!

Hey one more thing, you guys must be aware of a tradition called “Pairamri”, aren’t you ?? I am sure you are, as you also made thousands from it. For those who don’t know about this tradition, lemme explain you. This tradition is another nice way to suck the blood of poor bride’s family. Groom’s family usually hands over a list of nearby relatives to bride’s family and they have to pay some ”SMALL” token gift/money to relatives. Usually this list is between 20 – 30 people and it can increase to infinity. The gift depends on the relation, the closer the relation is, the gift has to be more expensive and ofcourse for sisters and mother nothing less to gold is accepted.

In the case I mentioned above the small token money demanded was just Rs. 1,000 per relative but the bride family paid Rs. 250 per person and in result the unhappy father in law has no other choice except insulting bride’s family.

Anyways, I don’t know what will come across that poor girl in coming days but I wish her best of luck. I am trying to figure out that what should I pray for her, “May Allah give her that much resources that she can BUY a good husband for her” OR “May Allah give her such family who does not misuse this tradition”.

I hope we all will go with second one.

Sporting Activity - Please participate

Before starting this article I want to make one request, please just don’t read it as a normal article, kindly think over it and make some good suggestions and step forward to implement it practically.

Thanks

“Sports are a very important part of our life. They give us an escape from the hectic life we live and had a great influence on our mental and physical health. Growing children need inspiration and physical stimulation, and sports are a great way to provide such things.”

Read the above paragraph? Good! Now tell me how many of us are into some kind of sporting activity? When was the last time you played cricket or football or racket game? Are you member of any sporting club or academy?

I bet 95% people reading this article have no answer for above questions.

Have you ever wondered why we are like this? Are we just born to work like donkeys all day long and on weekends just watching TV or discussing politics with our friends?

Man I am frustrated. I want to play; I want to be relaxed for at least few hours, far away from all personal and professional problems. I want to enjoy my life with reasonable budget and within Islamic limits.

When I discussed it with few people the only excuse I got was that “WE DON’T HAVE ANY PLATFORM NOR WE HAVE MONEY TO JOIN EXPENSIVE CLUBS”

Agreed, if all of us are interested and we all have same excuse so why don’t we form our own platform? Why are we waiting for someone to give us invitation? Atleast we can start with some low budget activity. Arranging a cricket or a football match will not cost that much brother.

Why can’t we form different teams of Khoja members? Atleast we can start from our area, if we just lay a foundation, I am sure many people will join us. We can form our sports committee and on basis of the ability and expert level we can make different teams for different games.

Further on we can have inter-area matches and we can extend it to inter-city competitions.

Our kids somehow mange to get involved in some sporting activities either in school or in summer camps but who has stopped us for not playing at the age of 30 or 40 or 50?

Cool, now what? Are you ready to participate or you are happy watching TV and discussing irrelevant issues?

I am ready to step ahead and start in my city (Karachi), if someone is interested in joining me, kindly provide your details and drop a suggestion of sport you are interested in.

Details:
Name:
Age:
Area:
Cell no:
Sport you are interested in:(Cricket, Hockey, Football, BasketBall)

People from Karachi can send me these details on khoja.sia@gmail.com

Plan:
I will compile and make summary of participants, will share it with you all. I will give a try and contact Khoja Jamaat to start it under their umbrella, if they show interest then excellent else we can form our own committee and divide people in teams according to their age groups and interest and make an ongoing plan.

Every Sunday first half we can do our activites and rest of the day will be a usual family day.

Sounds good?

Can people from other cities also step forward and take this as a task?

Bed time story - 1

Long time ago, there was a boy who lived with his family in a small home. Since childhood the boy was very genius and always uses to be on top in very subject. When other boys of his age spend their time in different activities this boy remains with his teacher all the time and tried to learn as much as he can. His teacher was very happy with the boy’s performance and because of that he loved him a lot. His parents were also very glad and felt proud of him. The teacher worked very hard and so did the boy and ultimately the teacher transferred most of his knowledge to the boy and soon the boy became 2^nd most knowledgeable person in his town.

 When the boy grew up he got a job in a garden as gardener. Being a loveable person, he love all the plants and flowers and take care of them. He planted hundreds of trees during his job. He used to work very hard to earn livelihood for his family.

 He was very kind to poor people, orphans and widows and in his limited income he use to take very good care of them. Along with these qualities he was a very pious person and use to pray a lot specially he loves to pray at night.

 Due to his dignity, truthfulness, courage and knowledge the gardener became very famous in the town and people started loving him and enjoying his company. After seeing all these qualities, his teacher who was basically the King of the town decided to marry his daughter with the gardener. Gardener was very glad and he married the princess and welcomed her whole heartedly in his small home.

 The princess was very humble and gentle lady and in-spite of being the most honorable, respectful, dignified and noble person; she was very down to earth and polite with other fellow beings. After her marriage with the gardener she devoted herself to her husband and children and most of the time she use to do all the house work herself. She was equally knowledgeable, pious and pure person as her husband and both of them were strong partners in spirituality. When it comes to help others, there was no one like them in the entire town.

 Due to gardener’s bravery and courage, king made him the commander of his army. He participated in different battles and accomplished many hard tasks.

 After seeing the honesty, loyalty and bravery the king decided to make him “next to be king” and one day after returning from a journey, king called all the people of the town and announced that after his death, the commander would be the next king.

 Most of the people of the town were very pleased with the decision and happily accepted the commander as the next king. But there were few people who did not like the decision but kept quite at that time. One sad day the king passed away and the entire town was in grief, everyone was crying, specially the princess. She loved her father very much and was very upset on his death.

 As per king’s will, the commander was to be the next king but the people who were not happy with that decision stood up and opposed the decision after the king passed away.  They ignored the king’s will at all and started new planning and ultimately they formed their own group and used every illegal means to take over the kingdom.

 When the commander, his family and his companions opposed their illegal actions, they tortured and insulted them. They did not even realize the dignity of princess and tortured her badly, as a result princess got wounded and soon she departed from this world.

 Those hypocrites at last took over the kingdom illegally and the brave commander and the most knowledgeable person of the town kept quite just because he did not wanted to start a new battle in his own town.

Apnay wala

"Tammay jamnagri choo" na "tu mavai choo" ohh “African khoja choo”!

Got puzzled? No need, these r just routine questions asked and discussed frequently when two strangers meet in our khoja society.

The entire concept of social community begins as (i) Human, then it is bifurcated down to (ii) Religion, further on we have different school of thoughts in our religion so it is divided into (iii) Sect, also we have geographical boundaries in this world thus we are separated with (iv) Nationality, of course we speak different languages so we are estranged by (v) Language

Is that it??

No it’s not, if someone meets above five criterias then we give the title "Apni Biradari Ka" to the person but the distance from "Apni Biradari Ka" to "Apnay Wala" has some more criteria.

Syed or Non Syed, ohh if non-syed then, Khoja? Great! Khoja, which khoja? Katchi, Katihyawari, Panitali, Mavai, Jamnagri or Sindhi khoja?

Cool now he is "Apnay Wala"

Give me a break sir!

Why is so that when our ladies start searching for the spouse for their child the most emphasis is on the katchi/kathiyawari stuff. People today are talking about global village, inter-marriages between different nationality and different cultures are so common now and we are still stuck up on the areas of Gujrat we belong to.

"saw (100) qasai ek taraf aur ek (1) mavai ek taraf"

“Sanp (snake) chooro aur pehle sindhi maroo”

What the hell is all this.

When we all are Muslims and all of us believe in “Ali-un-wali-ullah”, we belong to same culture and same geographical location then why are we so nosy about this whole cast in its own cast thing?

I was astonished to hear some similar statements from few elder Khoja ladies, lemme quote some phrases

“My father advised me not to ever marry any of our family members to people who belong to Panitali”

“I can marry my child to anyone but not Jamnagri”

Oh Allah, where are we in this 21st century, still the racism on its peak. If this racism would be something like not marrying to Jew or Hindu or any other school of thought in Muslims, it could be justified but not marrying our children to someone who just not belong to the area which I am from, that’s the limit man.

When I get in more detail of this “cast in a cast” issue, believe me, I discovered people giving preferences to their neighbors in sending “Ramzan Iftari” and “Shab-e-Barat” nayaz just because of difference in “cast in a cast”.

Can we stop this racism or it’s really necessary for us as a Khoja to be divided into more sub groups?

Think !

Bloody month of May

Usually people in sub continent are habitual of using hanging calendars which shows single month per page and at every month end that specific page is folded or removed to welcome new month.

Since last five years, every time when I have to do this exercise in the month of April, to welcome May, it is with shaken hands and distress thoughts as the whole story of May 2004 is flashed back in my mind.

May 2004 a bloody month for the people of Karachi especially Shian-e-Haider-e-Karar!

A hot Friday on May 7th 2004, usual working day for Karachites, life was running normal in the vicinity of Shahra-e-Liaqat located between M.A Jinnah Road and I.I Chundrigar Road. The day was passing along as normal, and then came the time for the afternoon prayers, people working in that area usually go to Khoja Masjid Kharadar for Friday prayers and for Zohareen prayers they go to Masjid-e-Haidri, a historic mosque inside premises of Sind Madrasatul Islam, build in 1894.

The mosque was full of worshippers, It was around quarter pass one when people were all set for Namaz-e-Jamaat, with the voice of “Qad q'amatis sal'ah” the prayers were ready to begin, Imam-e-Jamaat raised the voice for takbeer “Allahu Akbar” and in reply instead of people repeating the same verses a powerful bomb exploded in the mosque. Within no time there was a pool of blood all around the mosque, broken limbs and scattered body parts with loud mourning was witnessed.

The blast was so powerful; it ripped through the mosque's concrete structure and also damaged the roof.

Twenty three (23) people got martyred and more than 200 were injured.

Most of the victims were working in nearby offices and went for prayers during Friday namaz and lunch break, the break never ended and turned to be the break in their lives.

As shaheeds are not considered to be dead so still they are alive by Allah’s will. They will return to this world in the army of Imam-e-Zamana (a.s.), Inshallah.

“Think not of those who are slain in Allah's Cause as dead. Nay, they live, finding their provision from their Lord. Jubilant in the bounty provided by Allah: and with regard to those left behind, who have not yet joined them (in their bliss), the Martyrs glory in the fact that on them is no fear, nor have they cause to grieve. Allah will not waste the reward of the believers."

Waiting for the action

Following mission statement is derived from the website of Al Meezan panel. I hope and wish that the panel stuck to their mission and start working on the elements which is in their priority list.

I hope that we will soon start witnessing some progress on mentioned manifesto. (InshaAllah)

Best of luck to the panel!

“Al Meezan shall strive to seek a balance in its endeavour to work for community upliftment and betterment. The community is indeed indebted to the tireless and dedicated services of the preceding leaderships, and to the generosity of the community well wishers, by virtue of which the KPSIAJ has been put on a very strong footing. The contributions of our predecessors in the development of the “Fatimiyah Education Network” and “Fatimiyah Hospital” merit special mention.

However this is only the beginning. The journey is a long way from its fruitation. The metamorphosis of education, medicine, and other social services is in process. With your help and effort, we intend to harvest these phenomena into a more productive engine of growth.”

Suggesstions for KPSIAJ, Karachi

Although elections 2009 of Khoja Jamaat Karachi were very controversial and series of emails and news letters were circulated during the entire election campaign imposing different allegations on many contestants resulting in load of confusion for voters.

However, now that phase is over and elected panel named as Al-Meezan have got the mandate to lead Khoja Jamaat Karachi for next 3 years (hopefully).

Will it not be good to help them in uplifting of our community by providing them with new ideas and suggestions?

The reason for this blog is to collect different views from community members and we will compile all the comments in different categories and present it to President and General Secretary of Jamaat.

Please speak up and provide your views and suggestions in different fields such as education, community center, religious programs, health and fitness center etc. etc.

History of Khoja Shia Isna Asheri

Twelver Khojas:

A number of Khoja families resented the direct control of the Imam on community affairs and formed a reform movement, some even claimed that Khojas were originally a sunni community which resulted in a court case which ruled in favor of the Aga Khan I.

In the early 1800s, some Khojas went for Ziyarat and while in Najaf, they met the Twelver Mujtahid of the time, Sheikh Zainul Aabedeen Mazandarani. During their discussions they converted to Twlever Shi'ism, at the behest of Sheikh Mazandarani, Mullah Kader Hussein arrived in the subcontinent several more Khoja families left the Ismaili sect and learnt from Mullah Kader, the principles of the Twelver Shi'a faith.

A student of Mullah Kader Hussein, Haji Ghulamali Haji Ismail, remembered as Haji Naji was born in Bombay (now Mumbai, India) was a Gujarati speaking Twelver scholar who was instrumental in converting many Ismaili Shi'a to Twelver Shi'a Islam. He published magazines like Rah-e-Nijat and books of supplications in the Gujarati language. One such book, Majmuaa, is an integral part of Twelver Khoja literature to date. His speeches, his preaching, and his simple way of explaining the faith has earned him respect and he is revered by Twelver Khojas all around the world.