Date: April 15, 2016
A human being’s caliber and knowledge lies in his bio and gene. Some of us excel in mathematics, some in social studies etc. by profession we will be doctors, engineers, scientists, politicians etc. by hobby, we will be coin collectors, riders, cookers etc. profession, wishes, character and everything may be different. But ultimately, each Muslim has a clear singular goal. It is nothing but, aspiring to the character of Prophet Muhammed. If you are physically clean for the day, you should read Quran on that day. If it is possible, a Muslim should read Quran every day. And there is a belief that Muslim should read Quran during the holy month of Ramadan. But you should read it before, during and after the holy month of Ramadan. Ramadan is meant for intense character training and its lessons are applicable for the year round. In the holy month of Ramadan and there after we should attempt to focus on the wisdom of Quran and the idealistic ways of Prophet Muhammed. In addition, we should engage with two greatest miracles of life through prayer, those are reflection and action. We should always be in remembrance of Allah and we should learn Quran and its teachings before, during and after Ramadan.
"The best of what a man leaves behind are three: a righteous child who supplicates for him, ongoing charity the reward of which reaches him, and knowledge that is acted upon after him."
Sunan Ibn Mājah
"Every day two angels come down from Heaven and one of them says, 'O Allah! Compensate every person who spends in Your Cause,' and the other (angel) says, 'O Allah! Destroy every miser.'"
Sahih Bukhari
Hiba Masood a writer, speaker and a story teller talks about her Baba's influence in teaching Quran and its holy threads in her wonderful opinion piece "Baba, The Quran and Me". When she was in her younger age, she had to recite Quran every day, that her Baba taught her to do so without fail. She memorizes her childhood experience in the holy month of Ramadan as well as her Baba's powerful Ramadan experiences. Her Baba looked after all his children with extreme care. She had not faced poverty or any other means difficulties in life. Baba used to talk about his life and his days spent with his eight brothers and sisters used to look like. They were like in abject poverty, splitting one bowl of food for Iftar amongst a family of eleven and so on. Baba used to say that once all the work is done, you should recite Quran in every single possible minute. Every letter you recite during Ramadan has 70 times the regular reward? That means every letter, like saying Alif, gets you seven hundred good deeds. Years passed and with all the impetuous, rebellion of youth, of spending my days in smoke-filled rooms, strategizing with socialist/activists, and my evenings protesting against the Iraq war on the frozen streets of Toronto. Of not praying at all, of not so much as glancing towards the dusty shelf where my Qur'an sat the entire year. Next year Hiba got married and her brand new husband got astonished by her behavior and activities. She never proper placed her shoes and she always misplaced her cell phone. And she blessed with a baby boy just before the month of holy Ramadan. And there have many, many more years filled with anxiety, scary financial strain and a stormy marriage of sickness and grief. Years passed with no changes. Hiba recited Quran verses just as a routine, or just like fasting in the month of Ramadan without knowing the rewards of reciting. At last wisdom came to her brain at the age of thirty and she started to settle in life. Slowly, as an enthusiastically expected reconnection, she started reciting Quran well to Allah to the Qur'an to her childhood, to her father and to herself. Now her beloved father is aging and sick and she is in great agony by thinking about her sick dad. She used to caress his dad's grey hair, press her cheeks to his. She says that she misses him a lot and she is afraid of the future. But most of all, she whisper her gratitude. Gratitude for gifting her so freely all the things, all the lessons, all the beliefs, all the forces of habit and inspiring stories and abiding, enriching traditions that have blessed her life. Ultimately he was the lighthouse when he was able.
Read MoreParenting is the most admirable and challenging task that a family need to work out a lifetime. We are living in the very post modern culture of 21st century that follows a different and dazzled way. The biggest challenge that a parent has to understand is that we are living in a world very different from the one in which we grew up. Every now and then, our children are living in a globalized, materialized and a superpower world of technology. The major global changes that we face are information exchange and threatening technology empowerment. We live in the information overloaded age and our daily walks on the information super highway and we definitely need to thank the technology for having the complete picture on every walks of the life. But what we need is to have the knowledge on what information to believe in reality and what to believe as just propaganda. Secondly we can say that technology is a challenging scenario. Technology can make life easy. But it can distract and increase false sense of satisfaction to us. Facebook and such social networking sites share billions of posts a day. But do you think, all the shares are informative or justifiable? Never can it be. The aftereffects of the thoughtless words are serious and severe. While posting such things on virtual platforms, always keep in that technology cannot replace wisdom. Natural wisdom never can be replaced by artificial intelligence and vice versa. Use your intellect to understand the event and color the scene to see the whole world.
Read MoreHere is the story of a young woman of 23 named Kearney-Argow who has been using pain killers over years. She had been in three car accidents and was suffering from consequent neck pain and migraines. She started using pain killers for each time. When ever she approaches her doctor, she used to get dangerous pain killers in the prescription. Every time she took Opioid stupors to relieve from pain. She says that it is easy to get Opiates here in the cities of New Jersey. She used cannabis, ketamine and some other powerful pain killers that doctors normally prescribe to cancer victims. Due to the over dosage in using pain killers, her weight fell to 43kg and she did even stopped going college. Some how, this lady is getting back to her normal state and started going for a job. Al Jazeera reports say that “According to the US government&8217;s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), opioid abuse is an &8220;epidemic&8221;. The number of overdose deaths involving opioids &8211; including some strong painkillers and heroin &8211; nearly quadrupled between 1999 and 2014”. Reports say that 78 Americans die every day due to over dosage of pain killers and other pills mixed with Alcohol. 2017 budget request of President Barack Obama allotted $1.1bn to treat opioid addicts who want help. In fact the crisis is that every single family in United States is facing the pain killer addiction, that one of the family members would be using a pain killer. And this addiction turns to serious sickness to them. former politician Patrick Kennedy said that spending a little more for treatment would be far better than filling the addicts in courthouses, jails and emergency rooms. Now America has banned hard drugs like heroine, but still uses opioid pain killers. Oxycodone and Hydrocodone were once reserved for severe pain of those recovering from car crashes and surgery, and those getting palliative care for AIDS, cancer and other killers. Some reports say that in 2013, physicians prescribed nearly a quarter of a billion opioid drugs. Various recommendations and reports say that it is time to stop using pain killers in United States for diseases and move with some other healthy alternatives to this issue.
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