Tales of a Solitary Soul

Tonite is the fourth yearly banquet for EMAAN (Edmonton Muslim Achievement Awards Night). I still vividly recall that evening when I got the call three years ago about some kinds of an award nights for Muslim students across the city, a first of its kind in Edmonton. As with most organizations, the start was the toughest and we barely had more than twenty students show up from across the city (considering there are hundreds of Muslim students in high school).

Being incharge of recruiting people from my high school, I attracted a grand total of one student (to the best of my recollection). Even that one person came because I think I almost forced her to. I don't want to give the wrong impression, the person was a good muslim too so that probably was the reason.....otherwise if everything was left up to my convincing skills, I'd probably crash and burn!!

Four years later, now it has various scholarships and awards for students ranging from junior high to University......so much baraka'h!!! Well, its nice to know that I was initally a part of something that is insha Allah going to benefit hundreds of people down the road

(for all engineers: derive an equation that would calculate the amount of good deeds I'm earning thanks to my initial involvement....i'm guessing it should have some kind of exponential lograthmic term!!)

I found something interesting for everyone to enjoy and you never know when it mite come in handy :-)

What NOT to say when caught sleeping at work/class:

1. They told me at the blood bank this mite happen!
2. This is just a 15 minute power-nap like they raved about in the last time management course you sent me to.

3. I wasn't sleeping! I was meditating on the mission statement and envisioning a new paradigm!

4. This is one of the seven habits of highly effective people!
5. I was testing the keyboard for drool resistance.
6. Actually I'm doing a "Stress Level Elimination Exercise Plan" (SLEEP). I learned it at the last mandatory seminar you made me attend.
7. I was doing a highly specific Yoga exercise to relieve work related stress.
8. Darn! Why did you interrupt me? I had almost figured out a solution to our biggest problem.
9. The coffee machine is broken.
10. Someone must've put decaf in the wrong pot.
11. Boy, that cold medicine I took last night just won't wear off!

To those who think the American media has no double standards or biases...

http://www.iviews.com/Articles/articles.asp?ref=IV0505-2699

........welcome to reality!!

I've been tracking the following story for a while now...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4566879.stm

To weigh in on the situation, it pretty much boils down to two main sides.....the 'secularites' (S) and the 'extremists'(E)......(I gave these names for the sake of giving names. Labels are often just plastered on because of our need to categorize everything so we can pretend that we understand it.......this is a topic for another day)

In my opinion, they are both at fault, more so for the 'E' and not for the reason that you all might think....

S - their real motives are not truly human rights but rather a feeling of inferiority that arises after a superficial freedom. Their bodies are free but the minds are still slaves. Why make a mixed race a human rights issue and not other sports?? Simply because at the end of the day, when they're measuring themselvs to the cousin who lives in North America or Europe, it means one more similarity they can chat about when he/she visits. If someone is genuinely interested in long distance running, does the gender of the person running next to you make a difference??

E - their role seems to be confined to violently bring change in the society. Violence first, if that doesn't work......well then, more violence!!!
They claim to be following the path of Islam and yet couldn't be farther away....not in the end goal by rather the means. You can't change a person who doesn't want to be changed. The same goes for a society or a nation. The fact that a sizable percentage wants to have a mixed race should be a failure signal irrespective of whether it takes place or not.

When Islam came to the Arabs in the 7th century, one of the biggest problems was the consumption of alcohol which was widespread and rampant. The process of its elimination took years with several steps: first don't drink before prayer, when people got used to that then it was don't drink at certain other times and gradually a complete ban came on alcohol.

Why didn't Allah just one day put a complete ban on alcohol instead of these gradual steps taking years??? Because its human nature to resist anything that seems to be imposed even if its for the betterment.

Allah used this example to provide us with a template to deal with anything in life. If reading books is not habitual, certainly a Robert Jordan novel is out of the question. Therefore a slow start is needed with maybe magazines and then work our way up to short stories......and before you know it, the whole Harry Potter series is finished!!!!

Light is said to be the fastest thing in the universe.....well, I would beg to differ....mark my words, nothing in life is faster than time!!

It seems like yesterday I was in high school and here we are now.....where are all those people I knew back then???...some I actually cared about while others were there for the sake of being there...some I left by choice while others disappeared without a trace.......what path of life have they taken.....will I ever see them again???

...not likely......maybe its better that way.....

.....or what about the people I knew just last year....how many have come and gone!!!
....each one with stories that could amuse you till dawn broke......

Some decisions are very hard to make even if they are the right ones....while others are already made for us.....

I stand on a very crucial juncture....ready to break the final link to the past and move on....where shall I go from here??? Who will accompany me on this journey and how many will be left behind??

.....time will decide, it alwayz does!!

So the first week of school passes by and it wasn't bad as I had previously imagined. But sadly, its all downhill from here for soon a sea of labs, assignments, projects etc. will drown me in a way that my corpse will be unidentifiable!!! (ok, so maybe I exaggerated that just a teeny tiny bit....)

Cricket season has started but for some reason I just don't feel into it this time around. It can't be because of my performance as I did pretty good in our first game but at this rate, I don't see myself playing for very long. It feels like I've reached a saturation point and its time to move on. Think of it like high school....you enjoy the time while you're there but there comes a point where you've had enough. Insha Allah, I still plan to finish this season off as I've already made a commitment but who knows after that........

Heard of Auschwitz? Rwanda? Darfur? Now read about one of the worst that virtually no one knows about. Where's their commemoration or parade??

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3799937.stm


There seems to be soo much going on at times that its impossible to keep a track of everything. Some of the responsibilities seem so gigantic that not even Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay would be able to overcome them (first people to climb Mt. Everst; 1954 i think). The myriad of things to worry about include family, studies, islamic work, personal development......but then again, that's life I suppose.

Ideally, I'd like to have a gameplan for each but more often that not, its just random work that I'm putting in. Alhumdillalah its all worked up until now (well, at least most of it...) but lets see how long it holds up......

"And We do not lay on any soul a burden except to the extent of its ability" (al-mumenoon v:62)

Sickness seems to have taken hold of me as I begin a new semester of school....thats right, not one class or two, a total of FIVE classes during summer!! Welcome to engineering my friends.....

The co-op recruitment has also started this week and it'll be interesting to see where I end up working this time......there were some interesting places to say the least--Rainbow Lake, Trail, Ponoka......needless to say, I didn't apply to any one of them. I've made up my mind that its either Edmonton/Calgary or nothing.

The only good part about studying in the summer seems to be the small class sizes of about 25-30, it almost feels like I'm back in high school......the good ol' high school dayz; rather meaningless looking back but fun nonetheless.

The medication seems to be hitting its stride at this moment for I just had a strong urge to put my head on the computer desk and fall asleep. I'll take this as a sign to go to bed early today.....make dua' please for I hate being sick!!

Read an interesting article about Chinese Muslims. But the thing that surprised me was the graves of the companions of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) that were sent to carry the message of Islam to China are still present to this day!

http://www.islamonline.net/English/artculture/2005/05/article01.shtml

I've been waiting for this movie to come out for a while. Its about the Crusades or Jerusalem to be specific. It looks to be in the same mould as Gladiator and Troy but hopefully better. It'll be interesting to see how they deal with this touchy topic in light of the current situation. (refer to my earlier post about Salahuddin sometime in January to get a historical view about this movie)

http://movies.yahoo.com/shop?id=1808529407&d=hv&cf=trailer

The post-exam period has brought with itself a feeling of evaluation and just random pondering. Maybe its the free time now, but I've been thinking about a lot of stuff lately. Courses, co-op term in fall, family, marriage, egypt, post-degree era............

Getting pulled in all directions, it becomes very hard to keep track of the big picture sometimes......

A part of me wants to travel the world, hiking across the Swiss Alps to the Parisian suburbs and on to the English countryside where each brick has amusing tales about royal monarchs to the lowly pickpockets........ancients secrets hidden behind castle walls, waiting for the right person to turn the key and unravel its mysteries.....the same grounds that were once soaked in blood during WWII only to be brought back to life by the playful laughter of children as they race across seemingly endless greenery.......each blade of grass yearning to tell its story of the battles it has seen with countless acts of courage and heroism.....only if it can speak.......

People say the most crucial time of my life is right now......of how I plan the rest of my life...how I plan for my finances, what bonds I buy, how I invest, which savings account I open........the list goes on......

I tell them, or atleast I want to, that I also have a list......how many night prayers have I offered, how many hours did I spend in Allah's way, how much did I donate to the masjid, to a homeless, to an orphan.....

Will I ever walk bare feet through the lush fields of the French countryside or lie on the Mediterranean beaches staring across the same ocean that had once witnessed the launching of a thousand ships??

The Prophet said, "A single endeavor in Allah's Cause in the afternoon and in the forenoon is better than the world and whatever is in it."