chain of command

How best to run a family business....

There must be a clear chain of command. and ultimately only one boss.
As long as the rest of the family acknowledge the boss as boss.
things will go smooth.

It is easy when there is a father and child dynamic. and the father is the boss.
even if the child disagrees with the approach being taken on any matter,
the child will ultimately back down and do what the father says.
the father is boss.

Our business used to have this dynamic.
but the father cannot be there for ever.
He made the business a corporation.
not a partnership, or sole proprietorship
it was meant to out live him.

But with many members of a family involved,
It could seem unclear to people who the real boss is.
For people outside of the business as well as within the business.
Is it the person with the title of president?
Or is it the owner? Or maybe the Chief Engineer
Even in a partnership. One partner has to take the role of president, and the other must acknowledge that title and give that person the authority that comes with the title.

The owner is the boss of the president.
The president is the boss of management
The manager is the boss of the employee
A clear chain of command must be maintained for smooth operations.
otherwise there is confusion about what the employee needs to do.

when there is confusion, there is frustration.
when there is frustration, there is lack of motivation.
when there is lack of motivation, there is loss of productivity.
when there is loss of productivity, the job will not get done the way you want,
done when it is supposed to be done, or the way it is supposed to be done.

so regardless of what thing the employee is doing
that thing may still not be happening in the best way that it could be.
all because of confusion about who is the boss.
a manager of one department cannot tell the employee of another department what to do.
an employee reports to only one boss, his boss's boss, and the president.

RULE #1 have a clear chain of command.
RULE #2 respect the chain of command.

Importance of the Ummah??

I was asked recently to speak at the reunion for Association of Longhorn Muslim Alumni on the topic of "Importance of Unity in the Ummah" but the person who wrote up the printed schedule for the event forgot to write the unity part in the title.  So what the organizers wanted me to talk about, what I actually talked about and what attendees thought I would talk about was probably way different.

First of all we must understanding the terms being used...
Ummah, Unity, Important

What is the ummah?
    Who is in it?
    What is the basis of their inclusion or exclusion?
What is Unity?
    Is it the coming together of a diverse people?
    What are they coming together to do?
    Or is it making people the same in some way?
    In what way? What is that one thing we must all become?
How important is it?
     Is it important in and of itself? why?
     or is it important because it is a pre-requisite
     for something? for what?
     are there other pre-requisites that are more important?

Instead of abstract things like Ummah,
lets think instead of real interaction between
people that can lead to the building of the
most basic elements of human community.

it starts with an interaction.
an interaction that can lead to an creation of a bond

It starts with simply acknowledging each other.
Then getting to learn about each other.
Progresses to accepting each other.
And finding a shared value.
Culminating into a bond of friendship.

Acknowledgement is the beginning of tolerance.
tolerating a person with all their goodnesses
and faults can lead to acceptance.
accepting each other and our rights
is the beginning of being a good neighbor.
being a good neighbor is considered by Imam Ghazali
as fundamental
and synonimous with being a Muslim.
to not cause harm and to help when help is needed.
is the basic characteristic of one who has submitted
to following Allah's way.

In his Ihya, he goes on to describe a level above muslim.

A mu'min,
one who is a good fellow,
a good companion,
a good friend.
beyond just being a passive neigbor.
one who is in a relationship with another person
where there is a commitment.
a bond of brother/sisterhood. Fullfill the rights to your fellow companion,
and you are one who has true faith in Allah.....

Asliyyat

I was driving to tampa to visit my mother my nani ammi was in the passenger seat to my side, she turned to me and said: "eik qissa sunati hun," in udru, the only language she will speak in. Though my brother in law always replies to her in english, adding that he knows she is only pretending not to know english.
Anyways, she wanted to relate a story to me.

There was a man who had a considerable amount of fame during her childhood. He was reknown journalist and author and also devotee of the famous sufi nizamuddin awliyah in delhi, thus he was called so and so nizami from delhi. He came to visit her father the grand mufti of hyderabad.

During the visit, nizami made a comment about how a man these days isn't considered much until he has property. To which my great grandfather responded, "well, I own this house. So I will be fine."

Nizami was surprised to hear the reply, so he added, "oh yes, cars, you are not anything unless you have a car." My great grandfather understood where this conversation was headed and replied "Yes, cars, I have one of those too... Oh yes, and I even have a radio."

A radio was a very rare thing to have in those days. Nizami had nowhere else to go with this conversation, "a radio?", he said in a surprised tone, " that is indeed a wonderous thing. You have one?" He asked, having to acknowledge that according to his materialistic standards, this simple looking religious man, was deserving of some respect.

My grand mother did not relate this story to tell me how privileged a childhood she had. she was not finished. She went on to say that regardless of the luxuries her father had in Hyderabad, serving as the chief religious advisor to the Nizam, he always felt at home and had no complaints when going back to their modest home in the mauvi muhalla neighborhood of Badaun. He remained connected to his roots, "his asliyath."

"Your father was like that too" she added.

This conversation had started much earlier in the drive when she remembered some sort of early mobile phone that my father had, and how these devices have changed so much. I noted how in her lifetime, communication had evolved so much, and she has been a witness to it all. She started with letters and telegrams, the rise of the telephone, then mobile phones; and she was there when a radio came into her house, then a television, then a computer, and now a portable laptop computer with the internet. All she needs now is  someone in the family to get an iphone that brings all these things together. Transportation was the thing that evolved in the lifetime of her parents. Getting physically from one place to another, from animals to carriages to trains to cars to planes. While she had been a witness to how we get information from one place to another without physically going or sending a messenger. She had been a witness to so much. This had reminded her about the incident with nizami. And that incident reminded her of a piece of wisdom to share with me.

It is interesting how each of these useful tools
can become a symbol of status
for the small minded people
who choose to think that way.

And that despite how things change
or get easier with time and money,
I should, like my father before me,
be able to get by on the basics,
without feeling like we can't live without these luxuries.

Because the truth of it is that
we came from humble origins
and should not only be able to return to them,
and survive in them,
but be completely comfortable and happy when there.
Because it is who we truly are.
It is "our asliyath"

have and have not

The conversation i had with my grandmother got me thinking about things that determine ones status in society. society is divided between those who have and those who have not. having means being in possession of something. that something does not have to be material.

I figure 5 things one can possess that determine his or her status in society:
Power - which determines political status
Wealth - which determines economic status
Knowledge - which determines intellectual status
Respect - which determines social status
Fame - which determines cultural status

One can possess one with out the others.
Each thing has its haves and haves nots.

being in possession of any one of these things can lead to pride.
pride is not bad. it is as awareness of ones own quality of being.
but it is when one who has looks down upon those who do not,
that the term elitist or snob can be applied to them.
their pride has turned into arrogance.

not being in possession can lead to wanting.
wanting is not bad. it is an awareness of ones need to grow.
but if not having leads to a feeling of inferiority,
that wanting can turn into envy.

there is the possession of a thing,
and there is the desire to possess,
... the wanting of it.

wanting can lead to satisfaction or wanting more.
wanting more is not bad. it is a continuation of the struggle to grow.
but when wanting more leads to taking from others,
wanting more can turn into greed.

and when one keeps what they have from others,
whether its the political power used to do good,
or economic wealth used to help the poor,
or intellectual knowledge used to teach,
or cultural fame used to bring happiness,
or social respect used to provide justice,
it is nothing but miserliness.

the issue of status seems to be interwoven into what the sufis called the diseases of the heart. we should think beyond having and not having. we should think about growth and development and being good. we should all realize that we come from a station that was below the station we are currently at. and we can always fall back down the ladder at anytime. and in the process of gaining these five types of things we should always remain humble and charitable.

to be humble means to be aware that you are not the most important. that ultimately there is a higher power than you. and to be charitable means that your time, energy and possessions are not the most important. that ultimately you will die and not be able to take anything with you, so use what you have to do good deeds.
The Quran is loaded with these two commands.
Success is through belief in god and doing good deeds.

My father was both humble and charitable, more important then any level of social status he achieved. that humbleness and charitableness allowed him to be connected to not only his former stations in life but the people who are at those stations, his "asliyat."

materialism

Let me me now focus on one specific status symbol: Material Wealth.
There are the haves and have nots, but it is probably more complicated then just this simple division...

those who have are divided between:

  1- those who are born having, among this group are:

    A- those who inherited their wealth
         and control their means of survival

      1- those who work, among this group are:

        a- those who are work harder to gain more, and

        b- those who work hard using a talent
            or to contribute to society, and

        c- those who work for fun,

      2- those who do not work.

    B- those to whom sustenance is provided,

         who break down the same as the above group

  2- those who used to have not

those who have not are also divided between:

  1- those who work harder in order to become among
       those who have, among this group are:

    a- those who want to retain a connection to their life
        of not having and its values, and

    b- those who want to leave behind
        the life of not having and its values.

  2- those who work hard enough to sustain themselves,
       among this group are:

    a- those who wanted to work harder but are trapped
        and unable to gain more then sustanence

    b- those who are content to just survive and
        do not want to seek more.

  3- those who do not work hard, among this group are:

    a- those who have lost hope and gave up on work

    b- those who are unable to work

    c- those who are kept from working

the differentiation between people seems to be by how they gain what they need to survive. and what they do with what is extra. the extra can be accumilated to raise through the ranks, or can be spent on things that can be consumed.

purification vs. activism

a few days ago i had the joy of talking about my old days of being active in a youth group. first it was with a new friend here in kansas city who i may have crossed paths with back in the mid 90s. he is just like me now and no longer really active. and then it was with an old friend who is still active. these conversations i had got me thinking about a recurrent theme in my thoughts about activism.

selfish motiviations vs. utopian agendas

My concept of Ummah...
Community...
Brotherhood...

I've read the biography of the prophet Muhammad. and I've read the biographies of some of his closest companions. My take on what they were trying to do is this. they viewed Islam as NOT about creating some sort of ideal social order but more about fullfilling Personal Responsibilities so you could get rewarded by Allah in this world and the Afterlife. a reward in this world was tranquillity, peace of mind, happiness. a reward in the afterlife was a pleasure from being in permanent proximity to the Beloved. Thus, i must do my duty...

I have a duty, an obligation, to my lord, to myself, my parent, my spouse, my child, my sibling, my neighbor, my friend, "widows and orphans", other believers.
in that order!

as for my lord, he tells me i must believe in his oneness and do good deeds.
he also tells me i must worship him and fast and give 2.5%of my wealth away in charity

aside from the pillers of worship, the duties and obligations are all good deeds.

towards myself, I have a duty to keep myself healthy and sane.

...my parent, I must show them respect for all they did for me and care for them when they are not able to care for themselves.

...my spouse, I must be a pillar of support, an honest partner, and a loving companion.

...my child, I must feed, clothe, shelter, nurture, protect, and teach about Allah.

...my sibling, I must encourage, support, warn, advise, and be there when I am needed.

...my neighbor, I must greet, smile, get to know, and care

...my friend, know if there is a problem and offer to help before i am even asked.

...towards "widows and orphans" i must give money to clothes, feed, and shelter as I would my own family.

...towards other believers i must be there when they're own family, friends, neighbors fail them.

the merovengian was avicennian

while surfing the web i came across an interesting article
comparing the cosmology of avicenna and ghazali.

here is a breakdown of what ghazali believed:

everything works according to
cause and effect
predetermined by god

things are either (khayr)
good and appropriate
(advantageous and beneficial)
or they are (sharr)
evil (harmful and detrimental)

a person will be predisposed towards one
or the other based on conditions of upbringing
that are beyond control.

unaware that what the person thinks is a choice,
is actually an entire series of events
determined in a person by necessity (qadr)

we have a
god given (aql) mind and sensation
will believe something to be advantageous as opposed to harmful

which forces to operate -
(iradah) voluntary motivation
predetermined by god

which forces to operate-
(qudrah) power of action
predetermined by god

which leads to
motion
predetermined by god

that the person chooses simply means
that he is the locus of a volition
that comes to be in him by
(jabran) force of necessity
once the mind has judged
that the action is altogether good and appropriate.
even that judgement comes to be
by force of necessity.

it is god working through intermediaries:
supplying the obedient with
causes of their obedience
so that willy nilly they obey.
and the disobedient with
the motivations for disobedience
so that willy nilly they disobey

for whenever god creates distraction and desire
and the power to fullfill the desire
the act takes place through it
by determined necessity.

ghazali was critical of avicenna
for leaving god out of the equation.

Avicenna believed:
"all volitions come to be after not having been.
accordingly, they have causes which converge
and necessitate them.

a volition does not exist
because of a prior volition;
otherwise there would be
an infinate regression.

nor does it exist by nature;
otherwise the volition would be inevitable
as long as the nature exists.

Rather,
volitions occur because of
the occurance of causes,
which are things that
causally necessitate them.

Motivations are traceable
to earthly and celestial beings
and these necessarily cause
the occurance of a particular volition."

cause and effect.

in matrix reloaded....

Morpheus: You know why we are here.

Merovingian: Hmph... I am a trafficker of information, I know everything I can. The question is, do you know why you are here?

Morpheus: We are looking for the Keymaker.

Merovingian: Oh yes, it is true. The Keymaker, of course. But this is not a reason, this is not a `why.' The Keymaker himself, his very nature, is means, it is not an end, and so, to look for him is to be looking for a means to do... what?

Neo: You know the answer to that question.

Merovingian: But do you? You think you do but you do not. You are here because you were sent here, you were told to come here and you obeyed. [Laughs] It is, of course, the way of all things. You see, there is only one constant, one universal, it is the only real truth: causality. Action. Reaction. Cause and effect.

Morpheus: Everything begins with choice.

Merovingian: No. Wrong. Choice is an illusion, created between those with power, and those without. Look there, at that woman. My God, just look at her. Affecting everyone around her, so obvious, so bourgeois, so boring. But wait... Watch - you see, I have sent her dessert, a very special dessert. I wrote it myself. It starts so simply, each line of the program creating a new effect, just like poetry. First, a rush... heat... her heart flutters. You can see it, Neo, yes? She does not understand why - is it the wine? No. What is it then, what is the reason? And soon it does not matter, soon the why and the reason are gone, and all that matters is the feeling itself. This is the nature of the universe. We struggle against it, we fight to deny it, but it is of course pretense, it is a lie. Beneath our poised appearance, the truth is we are completely out of control. Causality. There is no escape from it, we are forever slaves to it. Our only hope, our only peace is to understand it, to understand the `why.' `Why' is what separates us from them, you from me. `Why' is the only real social power, without it you are powerless. And this is how you come to me, without `why,' without power. Another link in the chain. But fear not, since I have seen how good you are at following orders, I will tell you what to do next. Run back, and give the fortune teller this message: Her time is almost up. Now I have some real business to do, I will say adieu and goodbye.

Neo: This isn't over.

my salvation

if i offer my help and you refuse, will i take offence, and not offer my help again...

if i offer my help and you refuse, i need you to come back later. i need you to give me more opportunities to help. i need this because my salvation depends on me doing as many good deeds as i can. i ask for nothing in return.

i consider myself a muslim, "one who follows islam"
islam is often described as having three aspects:
1-islam-ritually worshipping god
2-iman-believing in: tawhid-god's oneness; risalah-guidance; and akhira-final judgement
3-ihsan-having an awareness and conciousness of god's beauty, taqwa that comes from the removal of things like arrogance, envy, greed, and lust.

I'm trying to get better at doing the rituals, but am praying on god's forgiveness to help me out. There are times when my faith is not as firm as it should be, I hope it is true that "if ye act as ye have faith, faith will come to thee." Now that leaves taqwa...

for me to have taqwa I need to do as much good as I can. Because its through the doing of good that I will chip away at the arrogance, envy, greed, and lust that veils my awareness of divine beauty. the arrogance, envy, greed, and lust that focuses my attention towards creation.

a godfather for a muslim?

Our family had a big celebration last week. It was my son Zarar's first birthday. We celebrated it alongside the aqeeqah of my newest nephew Ahman Alexander. In the aqeeqah my brother-in-law introduced everyone to his son's godfather.

When he first told me that his son was going to have a godfather, i thought to myself: "wasn't a godfather someone who participates in the baptism of a christian child. why would a muslim need one of those." What did it mean that he was going to do this:

was it a manifestation of an inferiority complex?
was it a conscious attempt at assimilation?
or was it just that he liked the movie a whole lot?
maybe it was a combination of all three?

at the event he said that he was going to do something a little modern.
but having a godfather is anything but modern,
it is quite traditional... among christians that is.

whatever the motivation was,
after thinking about it, I think its a good idea.

There is definately more to living as a Muslim in America then just Indegenizing traditional Muslim things into an American context. There is nothing wrong with Islamizing traditional American practices. Of course, an argument can be made that having a godfather is more then just a simple American practice like a thanksgiving dinner or a friday night fish fry, it is a specifically Christian thing to do. Hence for a Muslim to do it, would constitute a discouraged if not a prohibited thing, and something NOT to be done.

But to make such an argument one must prove that when Christians created such a thing called a "godfather," it was based on the teachings of anti-islamic elements of their religion and that it was not just a cultural thing that evolved in their societies. Some jews seem to have incorporated a godfather into circumcision ceremonies. So maybe Muslims can find a place for one in the Aqeeqah. I must admit I have to do more research, but based on a simple wikipedia search, it is a cultural phenomenon, and thus, in my opinion, an acceptable thing to assimilate into our American Muslim culture. A godparent seems to simply be someone other then a parent, who ensures a childs moral and religious upbringing. Maybe I'm wrong.

But if I am right, and it is something that we can Islamize, then what should be the role of my child's godfather? Traditionally a godfather's role is NOT that of care giver. I have certain responsibilities as a care giver to love, discipline, feed, clothe, and shelter my child. And if, God forbid my wife and I are gone, then another family member can be responsible for these things. But what about moral character, religious belief, and guidance.

As a Muslim father, I will have failed my children if they don't know basic morality and religion. akhlaq, islam, and iman. I am the primary person responsible for ensuring that my child:
1-believes in Allah, knows how to pray to Him, and read the Quran in arabic;
2-not only knows that giving charity is among the best actions, but learns how to do from my example;
3-is able to fast in Ramadan as soon as he or she is able to, without giving excuses;
4-believes that Allah will judge us for the good and the bad we do in our lives, and either reward us with happiness or punish us with pain;
5-believes in and knows about the life of Muhammad, that Allah guided us about what was good and bad through messengers like him, and that he, Muhammad Rasulallah was His the final prophet;
6-knows that the ultimate moral message of Islam is no different then the golden rule: treat others the way you would like to be treated;
7-and good moral character comes from controlling greed, jelousy, arrogance, anger (so no terrorism!) and what Imam Ghazali described as the 2 desires: food and lust (so no sex before marriage!)

Should I be allowed to subcontract the teaching of these things out to a godfather?
Ok sure, if I don't have adequet knowledge myself, then maybe the actual training can be done by someone else, if not a godfather, then at least a sunday school or something. ALL muslims should know and practice enough of the above to teach it to their own children, it is a sad sign that I've had to teach these things to high school age Muslims in sunday school. But anyways, I'm glad that their parents think enough about them to send them there.

As far as my own kids go, maybe I can do this myself, but it doesn't hurt to select a responsible person to ensure they get this minimum moral and religious guidance, as a backup if I am not able to do it. Aside from being someone who provides a moral and religious safety net, this person should serve the secular function of a mentor and good example throughout my child's life. It should be someone who practices what is preached, and even better if it is someone who has no need to preach, because my child goes willingly for advice, or for a second opinion (after mine of course). A young Muslim could use someone like this while growing up. Its tough being in a minority with different values from the mainstream. Most youth don't have a mother like mine who helped me gain the benefits of muslim youth groups. Its not a bad idea to designate someone I trust to keep an eye on my child (even if its from a distance), in case things go off track, or I fail, or am absent, or am no more.

This reminds me of an incident that happened after my father's death. I had arrived in Pakistan for his funeral, and an uncle of mine came to visit us. He lived down the road from where we were staying and said that he'd be back later that night to pick me up, to be ready. He didn't give me a choice. I had to go with him.

I figure that he knew that there were things I needed to be told, that there was a way you tell someone these things, and that he wanted to be the one to tell them to me. I don't know his reasons, all I know is that he wanted to prepare me for the next phase of my life. To guide me. And I wanted to be guided.

He simply took me for a drive around the city in the middle of the night. Just him and me. He would say something and ask me if I understood. I would say yes, and he would continue. This lasted a few hours. I didn't realize it then, but I am grateful to him now. I needed what he provided to me that night. I needed more then a friend to talk to, more then a parent to comfort me, more then a younger sibling to comfort, more then the stream of visitors uncomfortably telling me to stay strong. I needed a guide in the darkness. Someone to reminded me exactly who my father was, who I was, and what I needed to do next.

After that night, I knew who it was I would go to if I was feeling lost, or confused. Now... my guide in my darkest hour was not someone designated by my father as my godfather. If my father had picked someone to guide me, I don't know if that person would have done a better job, then this uncle did? But... what if that uncle was not there, down the block? And what if my father didn't have all those great friends of his telling me, "I'm here for you if you need me."?Well... a godfather would have been useful.
I guess I was lucky I didn't need one.

a false sense of security

I thought I wasn't ready... I was!

I agreed to it without knowing what it involved.

I went ahead and did it without planning and preparation.

I was not prepared financially.

I was not prepared legally.

Both of these things are vital to establish what is most important:

... a sense of security.

But without love

it is only a false sense of security

I was prepared to love.

love binds relationships.

love gives what is needed most to feel secure:

... the feeling that one is not alone.

alone to deal with debt

alone to deal with unemployment

alone to deal with the government

the lesson:

save money - but know that it can go as fast as it can come

clear debt - but know that new debt is right around the corner

have a job - but know that the overall economy can go down

learn the law - but know that a lawyer should be hired

get organized - but know that you are not in control

and be prepared to provide the most important thing of all...love.

the foundation for any real sense of security and peace of mind.

time to go find a job.

no peace of mind

i thought i was ready... i wasn't.
i agreed to it without knowing what it involved.
i went ahead and did it without planning and preparation.

i was not prepared financially.
i was not prepared legally.

both of these things are vital to establish what is most important:
...a sense of security.

no fear of debtors
no fear of employers
no fear of the government

the lesson...
have five to ten thousand dollars saved.
clear any past debt.
have a job that pays at least 50k.
learn about any legal issues involved.
get organized.

be able to provide that which is more important then love...
a sense of security and peace of mind.
now what do i do.

remembrance of death

A few hours ago I heard bad news.
a cousin of mine was shot and killed
The murder stole his cell phone and then shot him.
It is to Allah we belong and to Him that we return.

I am reminded of something Imam Zaid Shakir said in a lecture.
Imagine that I am on one end of a field.
There deep holes in various spots that can't be avoided.
I have to walk towards the other side.
But its dark so I don't know...
that hole can be right in front of me.

That hole in front of me is death,
The field is this world i live in.
To walk is to live life.
I cannot choose to stand still...
I cannot fear death...

If I know that I can die at any moment,
Then I know what sort of life I should live.
One without regrets...
And I know what sort of preparations I should make.
I know I have to go on a journey,
I better start packing my bags.

I feel incredible guilt right now.
My last interaction with my cousin could have gone much better then it did. I must keep myself from thinking that I could have done something different, that maybe he still would be here instead of pakistan getting shot for no good reason.

It is said that we should remember death often.
Not so difficult when a member of my family or friends dies every few months.

As I write this I see a set of CDs I purchased a few months ago, its a commentary of Al-Ghazali's Remembrance of Death and Afterlife by Abdul Hakim Murad. Its time to open it and go to sleep listening to it tonight.

a time for introspection?

Setting off a bomb at a Marriott in Islamabad during Ramadan.
Who would do this?
Why would they do it?

“For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction”
Is this law of physics relevant when dealing with human emotion?

What was the target of the bomb?
-An American hotel, a symbol of American cultural and economic influence?
-Foreign tourists and pakistani elite who utilize it for corrupt activities?
-Pakistani employees who are guilty by association if they work there?
-or Pakistani patrons who should not to go to such places?
(for corrupt activities like wedding banquets and ramadan feasts or eating out at its restaurant)

If it was done to send a message, who was trying to send what message?
Was it a message to the American government?
Was it a message to the Pakistani President or government?
Was it a message to “the west” and its associates?
or Was it a message to certain Pakistanis?

based on my own feelings after the bombing of the world trade center,
I see a couple of possible reactions:

reaction #1
Pakistani people may react against those who claim to carry out the bombing...
-the Pakistanis may call for action by their military against these terrorists;
-maybe the people on the street will carry out vigilante mob justice;
-or welcome more American military activity rather then condemning it.

reaction #2
Pakistani people may react against the perceived cause of the bombing...
because the bombing itself is a reaction to some other thing, anger over that other thing which instigated such violence and desire to kill is possible...

fanatics (whether religious or political) who are blinded by hatred are indeed a minority and it is very difficult to get rid of them without you yourself becoming like them, but if you are not blind and arrogant you can see where their hate comes from. often their hate is rooted in a real injustice that is taking place or real vice that exists among the people they target.

It was strange that after the WTC bombing I was just as angry at our government as I was at those who carry out, promote, or justify terrorism.

But... anger is a vicious thing, often leading to nothing but more violence and death.
there is only one thing that can overcome anger.

reaction #3
compassion for the victims of such violence may outweigh an immediate desire for vengence, giving them a chance to think about the consequences for the course of any action against the criminals.

that poor soul who was walking with a limp through the rubble wearing a tie, blood on his face and what used to be a white shirt, pants torn up, seemed to be looking for someone to tell him...
"come here, let me treat your wounds, you will be OK, I'm here to help"

I think in the coming days we will see all of the above...
May Allah guide us to do what is right in this blessed month.

downsizing

I've been having difficulty sleeping. I see the faces of the people I have to lay off. I see them with their families, I see them working hard at their jobs. I've made decisions to fire people who have done something wrong, violating company policy, etc. But, I've never had to lay someone off because I wasn't able to pay them.

A few minutes ago was the first time I did that, It was difficult to hear the employee mention that he also has bills to pay and a family to feed. It was an employee that has been working with us for many many years. What is worse is that I have to do it again later in the day with a couple more employees.

Never before have I been doing in my company what was being mentioned in the news as going on in the overall economy at the same time. I hate the fact that is coincides with the words "job cuts".

There is only one rule for survival.
bring in more money then you spend.

over the past several months I've been having trouble doing both. 1-bringing in money, and 2-controlling expenses.

when the building boom was going strong, I didn't have to think about it. enough money was coming in, there was no need to control expenses. I was even able to get a raise for myself.

but the boom is over, and bills are coming in faster then the money.

I speak to those who have experience and am told that the company must cut expenses immediately. the goal is simple:
get the company in the black.
And aside from cutting expenses by 25%, they recommend that I downsize the company immediately.

I took over as president of the firm in 2002, during the boom. Before then, my father ran the firm. I've never had to downsize before. what do I do? So I've meet with the supervisors and decided where to make the cuts. Every department will see a reduction in staff. Every department. That's at least 5 people who I must lay-off or shift to part-time status.

It is said that when downsizing you retain as much of the middle management as possible. The executives at the top will not be able to do the work of the bottom tier, neither will the technicians at the bottom be able to do the work of the top tier. But the supervisors in the middle can step down to do tasks that are below their level as well as step up to jobs higher then their level. It makes sense. They must teach this statement at business schools because I heard it from a couple of different folks.

There is a little uncertainty in my mind,
I must eliminate this uncertainty.
I must stay determined.
... stay strong
... stay focused
... keeping the company profitable is my job.

I am certain that...
I must make the decisions that no one else can make.
I am the Chairman.

It is certain that employees did not fear me.
By the end of this week they will.

It is certain that fear is good.
It establishes a realization of consequences for inaction.

It is certain that the company will become profitable with these cuts.
The first cuts are where we are obviously overstaffed and unnecessarily spending. The next cuts are at the executive level and where we are paying too much.

It is certain that when the company is smaller, the productivity will increase. No more thinking that someone else is there to do the job. We will be maximizing our potential output.

It is certain that when incentives are in place, people will produce. Pay less but give bigger bonuses. If people get paid to produce, they will.

It is also certain that we can become more efficient if we change some policies and procedures. these are only short term fixes to the problem. changes will have to be made in how we operate, to ensure success in the long term.
My goal is that by the end of March. This company is ready to take on this recession.

suffering and doubt

i've lost count of how many times i've heard agnostics or athiests mention that the main reason they have left religion is its inability to give a satisfactory answer to one question:

why does god allow people to suffer.

if He is all powerful
if He is loving

then why?

what is suffering
what is love
what is power
what is god

i think the problem happens when we limit our understanding of the nature of the divine force we call 'god'. our universe is dynamic and complex. things are more interconnected to each other then we percieve... action/reaction... cause/effect... I think god knows more than a human can ever know, and so it makes sense that god would do things a bit differently. maybe god's reason for making this universe with all its suffering is beyond our ability to understand. a universe that consists of powerful forces that scientists still try to make sense of. a universe with humans that have the ability to cause great harm or great good. maybe there is a reason I can't have joy ALL the time. We know of power, through experiences of powerlessness. and what we think we would do, if we had that power, we want god to do. no suffering for example.

the people who lose faith, really lose faith in the literal meanings of the bible or quran.
I think it was in one of Averroes' works where he describes different levels of understanding for different people. god has made his word universally applicable for all peoples and times. if the literal meaning does not make sense anymore then its time to look at deeper meanings. The literal stories are for those who cannot think beyond them. It is the starting point of understanding, not the end.

Now... I don't always understand the philosophical writings and interpretations of people who follow the mystical teachings of Ibn Arabi, and I don't always agree with literal interpretations of people who follow Ibn Taymiyyah. But, why should it be one OR the other? god has sent his word to guide me, and clear things up in times when I need clarification. Sometimes the literal interpretation is good guidance for me and make a whole lot of sense, like when it comes to deciding what I eat or drink. Sometimes the philosophical interpretation makes sense, like when it comes to deciding how I deal with friends who are gay.

What I do know is that if a man with as deep an understanding of philosophy, logic, and religion as Averroes believed in a god, then there must be a problem with my reasoning or my interpretation if i am having doubt. The problem is not with god's word, or with god's justice, or with god's love, the problem is with my interpretaion. It may be that I am missing some pieces of the puzzle.

my mother's hijab

On the drive to the airport our conversation turned to hijab...

it was triggered by a news report about a seller of hijab in jordan who said that those who wear it for fashion are too picky, they apperently want colors he does not have.

she was told by someone in miami that there are girls here too that wear it for fashion.
I said that there IS a difference between those who wear it because their older sisters were wearing it and those older sisters who decided to put it on for some reason. for some of the younger ones, its just another thing they grew up wearing, and the more fashion concious they get, the more fashionable the hijab gets. for some of the older ones its based on a search for identity and belonging, or a choice for modesty, or both.

I said we grow up here without a connection to a historical tradition of modest dress or hair covering, and those among us who desire to be as modest as God wants us to are left to read the original sources for our selves and figure out how to dress appropriately.

It just so happened that this vacuum was filled by revivalist arabs from the middle east who wore their head coverings in a particular way and called it the "hijab" or the "kufi". Not the "dupata" or the "topee".

The idea of covering the head as a traditional form of modesty goes all the way back to the Prophet. My mother mentioned that in Badaun, even to this day the men do not leave the house unless there is something on the head. Covering the head is a method of showing of respect and humbleness.

For the Women its a slightly different issue. My mother mentioned that modest loose fitting dress is what is most important, and it is what she made my sisters wear, and she would give them a scarf to place around the neck as an extra form of modesty.

She mentioned that when she came to america she did not wear the hijab. But she always had a dupatta as a extra piece of garment thrown over the bossom for modesty. And could be used to cover the hair when it was time to pray, or at times when it was important to humble oneself and show respect to the recitation of God's Word.

She said that it was an arab girl who first showed her the "hijab". she needed a place to stay during a break in university, and while living with us, she mentioned to my mother the places in the Quran where modest dress is mentioned, and how important it is for muslims in America to dress accordingly. My mother agreed. My mother said her father had always asked her to dress modestly. She even made a loose coat for herself for whever she would go out to university and along with the coat would be a dupata. But the dupata styles changed over time to the point that it was very hard for her to use. The dupata became more of a fashion statement.

My mother said that in the past, it wasn't like the dupatta was not fashionable, it was. There was a form of seclusion of women in society that allowed them to be very fashionable when they were among themselves and with their family in the "zenana", and they would go out in public with a "burqa" garment that could provide the necessary form of modesy as they went from zenana to zenana. Even the rickshas were covered to allow them to travel in seclusion. (the reasons and meaning of the seclusion of women to this extent is another topic). And, to this day, my grandmother wears a loose black burqa robe over her stylish dress when she goes outside. (wearing the burqa does not mean she wears a "niqab" to cover her face. my grandmother does not veil her face.)

Over time the notions of social modesty changed and the secluded zenana and concealing burqa became a thing of the past (or the "backward" as its critics might suggest) For people like my mother it made things challenging. She grew up in a family that valued traditional forms of modesty. For people like her, the fashions became too modern for her to follow. And in America, she had to resist the peer pressure of discarding the dupata entirely. She had to figure out how to be both, fashionable and modest. gone were the days of not worrying about modesty in fashion because they had a secluded zenana or burqa or loose long coat to wear outside. She even had to give up on dupata fashions and just wear an older style dupata or a nice scarf thrown over her shoulders.

it didn't help that my younger brother and sister would throw it off or remove it easily while they were in her arms. And when my sister and I got involved in muslim youth activities in the early 90's, my mother reconnected with the head covering called hijab she was shown many years earlier and how it was worn so confortably and stayed in place regardless of the kid in her arms... and so she started wearing it. and was emboldened when her own daughters started wearing it.

if i was on the Hialeah city council...

Among the issues that affect the prosperity of any city is the ability of that city to retain its citizenry, its businesses, and its industries. Its the citizens who live and work there that provide the taxes necessary for its survival. And its the citizens who give the city a reason to be.

So there are two categories of things that must be analyzed.
1- what can keep the citizens from leaving, and
2- what can drive them away

What can keep residents put can be simply stated as happiness.
What can keep businesses put can be simply stated as profitability.
What can keep industries put can be simply stated as a workforce.
the opposite of these can drive them away.
all of these are inter-related.

Now lets look at some major causes of unhappiness for citizen of my city:
-some high cost of living expenses like housing, food, & transportation
-low wages
-high property taxes
-lack of recreational and entertainment opportunities

the wages they earn are directly related to the issue of profitability of businesses.
the wages they earn are also directly related to them seeking to be a part of the local workforce.

It might be hard for a city government to control the prices of homes on the market, or the cost of milk on the grocery shelves, or gas at the pump. But, aside from these cost of living issues, there is much our city government can do to help local business stay profitable leading to higher wages, and help local industries find a trained workforce. And, for sure our city government can reduce property taxes and provide clean parks and recreation facilities.

Here's my idea:
How about we encourage local residents to work locally. It will reduce their transportation costs for sure. The encouragement can come in the form of an annual reward. A citizen can fill out a form with proof of residence and proof of employment and choose a reward that works best form them. One example of a reward that will also helps a local business includes a one-year free basic membership to a local gym. another is a discount on your property taxes if you own your property. another discount on property taxes can be given to those who live in the property they own. another can be given if the own a residential and a commercial or industrial property. another can be given if they own a residential property and own a local business.

Yes, these discounts may reduce the amount of money available for the city government...
So.. it does mean that the city would have to reduce some of its fat, become a little leaner. lets concentrate on the basics: sanitation, water&sewer, streets, police and firefighters. lets streamline the bureaucracy.

Our city is pretty much built out, and our goal is to keep the businesses and residents from leaving, so lets encourage them to make renovations and improvements on existing property. lets cut the requirements to upgrade an existing property to a minimum. just structural and safety related issues and design assistance when they run into problems with plan reviewers and inspectors.

We have a branch of the community college so lets encourage our local business to recruit a local workforce and give them incentives like waiving certain fees and free advertising on the city website or free banners on park fences if they do. And we can arrange for local students to get free tutoring through volunteers at the college or high schools. Or help the students at the community college get internships with our local businesses.

There is no shortage of ideas on how retain people and get them to spend in our city. And the above ideas will bring in people and business from outside of the city. So, while there may be a short term loss in revenue it will be offset with long term gains due to higher property values and more businesses and residents paying for permits to expand and grow.

Another problem our city faced in the 80s was the phenominom of "white flight". Over the past couple of decades our city has taken on a latin flavor and a brown skin tone that comes from genetics and not tanning. Well, there are very few whites to flee now. But I do not underestimate the power of America to assimilate its inhabitants. And in the process making itself culturally much richer. This will happen in our city too, if the current residents stay here. The children growing up cities and in our schools are bi-lingual, and while their parents or grandperents might not know english, they do. As long as these people do not move away, we will see a return to the use of english in most interactions over the next 20 years. If we keep our property taxes low and show the residents that there is no reason to leave. then the assimilation will continue. But if there is a constant turn around, with those who are able to move on, leaving to other cities rahter then expanding their roots here, and we have a city of mosty new immigrants, then not only is there no assimilation, but there is no growth. I think new immigrants benefit in a community where they have to interact with local residents who have an established local culture. And it is a good thing for us that our established local culture is no longer based on white nuclear families, we are much more dynamic now.

getting out of iraq

I kind of go back and forth on whether we should get out of iraq. Sometimes i think that we are a superpower trying to build an empire and should act like one, we can decide to take control of anyone we want (of course they have a right to fight us for it), and considering that we can learn from the mistakes of our english colonial masters, and use international agencies like the UN along with powerful international corporations to develop our new territory, WHY NOT? Its still not too late. If we want to continue the mission, lets recruit/draft and train all able bodied men to fight and win and provide real security for the army of developers to enter. BUT...

today i was looking at some of the videos our soldiers have shot while on duty in iraq. Its quite disturbing. Our men have: a macho attitude, a wildwest cowboy lawlessness, a bloodlust - the pleasure from killing and destroying. When they are attacked or shot at, they seem to loose control of themselves, the cursing, the desire to destroy takes over. Sometimes you can hear a voice in the background trying to maintain control, but its drownd out by the cursing and shooting. In watching all of these I felt like there is something our soldier lack. an internal quality. for many of them, beneath all the toughness, all the training to fight, there is little there. and when they are not in power or control it becomes obvious.

Our enemies believe in something, most of them are fighting for a cause. Our stated cause of "democracy and freedom" is noble but we don't rally believe in it, its not what our soldiers are really fighting for. If heard them in interviews, when they are asked, why they fight, they say something like, "i'm fighting for the guys next to me". They fight because they are ordered to. They fight because they are paid to. Only physical and material needs drive them. Apparently this is not enough to win control of a territory. Our leaders and generals and military training institutions have failed to give them something to believe in. Our enemies have not. So, the only way to win this thing is overwhelming force, like the English did. Because apperently we are no better then they were.

McCain is right, we need to send more troops there, and we should not be afraid to say that we want to stay there for as long as we want. We are a superpower. we deem that controling that territory is in our best interests.

And it comes at a cost... less money to spend on things inside our borders, welfare for the needy of this country, corporate welfare for those industries we want to develop, and better schools for every american, and job training and child care for every american in this changing economy, and some tax relief for homeowners and parents. We can't do these thing AND fight this war to win.

We have to decide our priorities. And If a new president chooses to not prioritize an emperial adventure, then so be it. It is not a defeat or a loss like the republicans say it is. It is a change of mission. We have to be smart about the use of our limited resourses. We can choose to keep what we have control over and leave the rest for those who are loyal to us. It is not a declaration of defeat. It is a diversion of resourses to that what is sustainable and in our interests. We should not pull out entirely from the region. We defeated its ruler and claim whatever land we want as our prize, to do whatever we deem necessary to our interests.

We should allow the kurds to declare independance and keep our troops there. In the rest of Iraq we can do what the Muslims did when they first conquered the area. They built garrison towns. We should build our own fortified cities, and let our troops live there until they are needed for missions. In the other cities, all we need is to buy the leader. Let him to stay loyal or else he will suffer the consequences. He can send his police to our city for training. He can let our business build infrastructure. etc. If there is a civil war between factions then we can provide support to the side that will be loyal to us. Our support can come in the form of whatever is possible for us to accomplish successfully.

a religious and spiritual lineage

My maternal great-grandfather, his son - my nana hazrat, and now nana hazrat's son are a part of a student/master chain (silsila) that goes all the way back to Abdul Qadir of Jilan who died in 1166 and from him all the way back to Ali who learned from the Prophet Muhammad.

Learned what?
...the Tariqa.

Tariqa meaning method.
a Spiritual method...
a how to...

On loving Allah.

There are "orthodox" sufis and "unorthodox" sufis.
The orthodox sufi's primary claim to legitimacy is the fact that he/she is part of an unbroken chain of teachers all the way to the prophet. Their #2 claim to legitimacy is the fact that they do not deny the Shariah of God.

Shariah means "the way" or "the path".
It is the way we should live our life. In surat al Fatiha, Allah refers to the "sirat al mustaqeem". The straight path. The word implies a destination.
What destination?
Towards The Divine Beloved Himself.

More then just Do's and Don'ts.
It is said that the way of God is Truth, it is divine, it is one and it is unchangable. Its principles can be found in God's revelation to Muhammad, the Quran. And also in the way that Muhammad lived his life. But in our attempt to extract these principles from these two primary sources, another thing creeps in....

Human interpretation.

One of the Interpreters of the way of God was Abu Hanifa who embraced the human intellect and our ability to use reason. Abu Hanifa learned of the way of God from a student of Abdullah Ibn Masud, Ibn Masud was a companion of the Prophet, and he became the chief judge in Kufa after the Muslims conquered Iraq.

Another Interpreter was Ahmad Ibn Hanbal who denyed the use of reason to discover God's will. Ibn Hanbal was a literalist, a tradition-ist when it came to the path God wants us to follow.
Abdal Qadir of Jilan was a Hanbali literalist when it came to Shariah, and his spiritual Tariqa, focused on eliminating the diseases of the heart. Greed, Jelousy, Arrogance, etc. His spiritual pracitices focused on orthodox worship instead of unorthodox means. By removing the diseases, one becomes selfless, open to loving, love - defined as giving one's self entirely to another.

In this case the other being The Divine Beloved.
The goal - to be in His company after we part from this physical world.

In the case of my great-grandfather, i assume he first became an initiated student (murshid) and then eventually a master (murid) in the Qadiriyyah, one of the oldest and most prominent spritual methods in Islamic history, the name given to the sufi brotherhood established by followers of Abdal Qadir of Jilan. And in terms of the method of interpreting the Shariah, the way, the path, the law of God. He studied the Quran, the traditions of Prophet Muhammad, and usul (methodology) of Abu Hanifa and eventually became a master of it as well, a mufti, a grand mufti in Hyderabad, with permission (official ijazat from a previous master) to give a fatwa, an opinion of what is the will of the Divine on any given matter.

So... My great-grandfather was a great "orthodox" sufi master. It is something to be very proud of. He has students throughout the sub-continent and many many people think very highly of him. And my grandmother grew up learning about Islam and spirituality from him. But that does not make her, or my mother, or me, sufi's, -just plain muslims.

Because technically none of us are initiated into the Qadiriyyah tariqa, and none of us follow a master's guidance in terms of our spiritual practices, rising through the stages of awareness until we reach the ultimate stage of consciousness (mu'arifa) where we experience extiction of ourselves (fana) and eventually subsist in the Divine presence (baqa).

All I can say is that some of my islamic religious/spiritual traditions were sanctioned by Qadiri sufis. and my methods of praying and fasting or marriage contracts, etc. are guided by Hanafi religious opinions.

Now... I also have family members who are initiated into the Chisti tariqa, one of the sufi brotherhoods that sanctioned some "unorthodox" practices like musical gatherings.

I myself am a fan of the more unruly, anarchic, and anti-authoritarian Qaladari wandering sufis.

my lineage

Several years ago, while i was in Pakistan visiting my relatives, i was shown a book that contained the lineages of the various prominant families of Badaun, India. It contained the lineage of my paternal grandfather's Siddiqui family, and my maternal grandfather's Abbasi family. As i was trying to find sources of inspiration for naming my unborn baby boy, i remembered that i had a copies of the lineages. maybe they had some good names.



While going through them I was thinking about how the knowledge of ones lineage has slowly become irrelevent. My mother mentioned a time in Badaun when, at the tail end of marriage processions, the barber would be reciting the lineage of the family. If the prospective bride or groom could not provide a respectable lineage there would be no marriage.



Now if that's not an incentive to forge a lineage, then i don't know what is. But, I'm sure they had means of determining if it was legitimate since so much pride and honor was at stake. And of course, since the only way to be sure was to marry in the extended family, thats what they did most often. I was told by an uncle that Siddiqui's married Siddiqui's. This does not mean first cousins, according to the lineages that i saw, Siddiqui's have been in Badaun since the turkish conquest in the 1200's. My paternal grandmother(dadi) and my paternal grandfather(dada) were both Siddiqui's, I've seen both of the lineages and they meet about 8 generations up.



But these traditions started coming to an end after the partition. Many muslims left Badaun, And have have lost touch with the knowledge of their forefathers. Not to mention the changes in society that place less value on lineage then in the past. My own father had little knowledge of this stuff growing up in pakistan. He moved to the US and we grew up even more distant.

We've also decided that we can find our own marriage partners. My father had no priority of marrying into Siddiquis. Both of my sisters have married outside of the family. It happened by chance that my wife is half Siddiqui.


So what about my lineage... regardless of whether it is authentic or not, it exists. and, my interest in it probably grew out of the search for identity and self worth that children of all minorities go through. how cool would it be if its true that i am a direct desendent of the closest companion of prophet Muhammad, the first khalifa. And that my name is not based on his city of birth or residence (Makki), or his tribe (Qureshi), or his clan (Taymi), but was a title that was given to him by the Prophet (as-Siddiq). and I have determined that since I have tracked down this information, I now have the responsibility to pass it on to the next generation of my family here in america. To tell my kids what i wish ad been told to me: "You are not the person that is ridiculed in school. They don't know you. But you know who you really are, right? You are Maha! You are a Siddiqui! You are a Muslim! Be proud of it!"

loyalty

the fact that I am actually writing this entry in a blog may be considered an example of overthinking the situation. what is the situation?
...employee loyalty
...employee morale
...employee discipline

there people who were loyal to my father.
they were loyal because he had what i believe are the three things that are prerequisites to loyalty:
1 - money (the means to help)
2 - compassion (the willingness to help)
3 - power (the ability to help)

i think 'A' becomes loyal to 'B' when 'A' goes to 'B' for help and 'B' helps without a second thought. 'A' may become more loyal if 'B' helps again before 'A' even comes to 'B' again. 'A' is not only aware that 'B' can help when help is needed, but also becomes aware that 'B' cares for 'A'.

the help can come in the form of any of the three things:
-money can help one pay for survival,
-compassion can help one feel respected,
-power can help one with protection,

sometimes the idea of loyalty does acknowledge a high and low relationship. where the loyalty is directed towards the one above. so what about the loyalty directed towards the one below.... below in position/rank or below in economic status. can i look at the relationship as equal but with different responsibilities? no. because the reality is that the power is involved. one person has power over the other.

while equality in everything is an attractive idea, it is not reality. if all individuals were equal, would we have no need for help, if all was equal, who would we turn to for help. anyways... all is not equal, so the more important discussion is about compassion, not equality. the moral responsibility of those with means and power to help those without means and power. the idea that what you have is on loan from an even higher power than you, and you can't take it with you when you die, so do some good with it. especially if the higher power likes it when you do good, and it will lead to people being loyal to you..... i'm rambling...

anyways, back to loyalty. can i, in my high position be loyal to someone with a lower position than me. kind of, i suppose, if loyalty to the one below you means that you will use the means at your disposal to protect him/her as well as help him/her with money. and thus closing the circle... when you need protection or assitance the loyalty will manifest in the one below you and he/she will protect and help you. and you will know that person is loyal when you give an order to do something and it is followed.

so what if one of the three, money, compassion, power, is missing?
well, since the process is kicked off by 'A' going to 'B' for help, then 'B' can only be of limited help. you might get a thank you. but you won't get loyalty.

loyalty can be to a person, or to a group of people, but what about a corporation? if the corporation's only concern is profit, then no. people will not be loyal to it. but if the corporation is compassionate and provides protection in the form of health care and liability, maybe. but i think people are really only gong to be loyal to the person at the corporation that pays them, assists them, and protects them, rather then the corporation as a whole. because people know that there is still a person that is making the decisions.

most of our employees were loyal to my father, not his company. and without my father, i have to earn their loyalty the old fashion way. paying them, treating them with respect, and coming to their side when they need me. I think i'm already compassionate, probably too compassionate. I can give those whose loyalty i need a raise, and I can fire a couple of people i don't need to demonstrate my power.

Firing people as a demonstration of power can backfire, the best demonstration of power is to protect a person from real physical harm, and if that is not possible then maybe real financial harm. maybe they are about to be fired and overrule it. or maybe they are about to be sued and i pay for an attorney to defend them. maybe that is why loyalty to a corporation or even to the head of a corporation will always be kind of limited.

empirial majesty

I think there is nothing wrong with building an empire. Some of us eventually get to a point where we want to expand the territory we control. It starts when we purchase a second property. or build a branch office.



What is evil is not building an empire. but injustice when trying to build an empire and injustice towards those within an empire.



The problem with the American empire is two-fold:

1- it is controlled and directed by white men.

2- it does not follow through with its ideals.



The problem is NOT the desire to want more or pride in yourself.

at the root of any empire is the desire to what more...

...more land to enable you to gain more wealth

...more access to human and natural resources to enable you to gain more wealth

...more people to sell your stuff or your message to enable you to gain more wealth



the problem is when expanding your empire, you let greed overpower the values you claim to live by. and when you let pride in yourself turn into an arrogant attitude that dehumanizes others. arrogance and greed will eventually lead to rebellion in your empire its eventual downfall.



Americans need to embrace the idea of empire when it comes to its government. We already should not have a problem accepting the empirial desires of corporations. Unless you want a return to being a farmer on someone elses land. You live in cities now. In cities we work for those who build things and sell those things, or buy things to sell to others, or sell our services that enable others to build or buy or sell. Now whats wrong with expanding our businesses so that we can build, buy, or sell in other places? (as long as we act justly towards our workers and clients). Nothing is wrong with that.



Now about our government. We are a superpower, lets act like one. Why should we not try to extend our influence to new places? Why should we not let those new places join the United States? There are places in the world that are very tempting in terms of the opportunities they give us. Opportunities to enable our businesses to gain access to people and natural resources.

I'm not saying that we conquer all of them using our military. We can continue to do what we do now, expand our businesses into all areas. But, if there are tyranical governments out there that oppress their people (and those people come to us for help), why not get in there and take out the oppressors (as long as we act justly with the citizenry)? But why stop there? Once the oppressor is out. We should extend those people the opportunity to become a state and equal citizens of the United States, set up an election and let them vote on joining the US or not. If they say no, we leave (why rule them when they don't want to be ruled by us).

The only thing that gets in the way of this happening is the fact that our government is run by white christian men who carry on the shortsighted racist tendencies of their european forefathers.

There has never been a democratic empire (the arabs under the second Caliph Umar came close). But when the United States was created there became the potential to finally have an empire that is about more then just one king trying to get richer. It can be about the people trying to get richer. Where the American Dream is extended to those who live in the most hopeless of conditions.

An Empire of Laws.
Laws that limit monopolies are good.
Laws that give workers a safe and just workplace are good.
Laws that regulate the behavior of our military are good.
Laws that give people the right to speak, assemble, worship are good.
Laws that establish checks and balances between different braches of government are good.
Laws that enable the people to own land, and make money are good.
Laws that prevent people from doing injustice to their land or those they do business with are also good.

People of the world are yearning for these laws.
And they are yearning for a government that enforces these laws.
We can be that government.

The problems in Iraq are regarding the national government.
Well, Why not welcome three new states to the United States of the World.
Kurdistan, Shiite Basrah, and Sunni Iraq. Each will get 2 Senators and will be divided into districts where they can choose representatives to represent them in the House. We will establish courts and they now have to abide by US law. In the beginning it will be difficult, but we will be much more respected. We would prove to the world that we not only take out tyrannical governments but we take full ownership of the situation. Not only is the State Department and the Defence Department are involved with creating the new order. but so is the Interior Department, the Treasury Department, the EPA, and the IRS, etc., etc.
But this will never happen so long as the white chistian men who control this country limit its access to the non-whites. Access to immigration and annexation.

definitions

architecture is more than
an art,
design,
or construction of shelter.

art is more than expression.
it is communication.
communication requires two parties,
one gives and the other recieves.

according to leo tolstoy, art is the human expression of feeling with the desire by the one expressing the feelings to have the one who recieves the expression to experience those same feelings.

design is an intellectual exercise
involving the arrangment of thing and nothing.
to arrange is to create order out of chaos.

design can be based upon an theory of aesthetics, a concept of beauty. thus, a system of order based upon a concept of good and bad, beauty and ugliness.

there can be artists and designers who could care less about aesthetics and creating beauty. there can be designers who are not artists, could care less about comunicating their feelings, whose only goal is to arrange things and nothings. and there can be artists who are not designers, who could care less about arranging things and nothings, whose only goal is to express their feelings.

but there can be artists who use design to create beauty. an architect is an artist who creates designs for the construction of human habitations. the reciever of the architects art is the one who will inhabit the architecture. and if the inhabitant expreiences the feelings that the architect wanted to express, then it can be judged to be successful.

but an architectural design can also be an instrument for creating beauty in our built environment. architecture can be more then just constructing shelter to protect humans from the elements. an artistic architectural design, a rationale used to determine the arrangement of solid and void to create forms and spaces that evoke specific feelings, can also be based on aesthetics, a notion of what will make our society more beautiful. better as opposed to worse. good as opposed to bad.

this leads me to ask...
how do i see myself?
i am an artist and a designer.
i have a notion of beauty.
i have training to be an architect.

so... i guess i would be an artist who wants to design beautiful places that humans find comfortable and able accomodate their activities.

of course i still need to define what i mean by beautiful and comfortable.

imam ali

if we approach the first civil war in islam with the idea that no blame shall be placed on any companion of the prophet for wrongdoing, that none of them are bad and all are good, then how do we make sense of the murder of hazrat usman? because murder is bad. isn't it?



i've read the works of other sunnis who are much more knowledgable then i. but i have to try for myself. if i want to understand what happened.



we know muhammad ibn abubakr was one of those who broke into the house armed with intent to kill, but apparently backed out at the last second. we know the rebel mob elected hazrat ali after the murder. muhammad ibn abubakr was very close to hazrat ali. and several of the rebel leaders became his generals after hazrat ali moved the capitol to kufa in iraq.

the art of communication / needs vs. wants

recently i had an interesting internet chat with my wife. i wish i had copy and pasted the entire conversation, my memory is not very reliable. some very important issues came up.


she said she should accept me for who i am rather then wanting me to change my ways. and that she should be able to distinguish between what she wants and what she needs. and not confuse the two things. she wants to be able to open her email and find a nice message from her husband, she expects it. it makes her happy when it happens. but she doesn't need it.

i think that psychologists refer to specific list of things as real needs, like power, safety, survival, belonging, etc., and everything else is basically something that helps fullfill these fundamental needs, it can be considered a want. you can change your want but you can't change your needs. for example my wife needs power, so she wants me to change something about me. it will fulfill her need for power.

so i guess i should help her to find something else that helps fullfill her need for power.

marwan

while writing about the rival caliph, i've realized that the most interesting character is not imam husayn (ra) or ibn zubayr (ra). but its the person whose name would not be followed by the "(ra)" dua.




its marwan!?!




i should write three parallel stories that intersect at a few incidents,the first incident where all three are together is while guarding the gate at the death of usman (ra). then they meet again at the battle of the camel, where the three of them take up arms. and then meet again in medina where husayn (ra), and ibn zubayr (ra) are summoned by the governor of medina at the death of caliph Muawiyah to give an oath of allegiance to his son Yazid. There is one version of that meeting that places all three of them in the room. Marwan is present to advise the governor.

Many of us are already familiar with the tragic story of imam husayn (ra). We hear it every muharram. it is the story of a failed rebellion against the banu ummaya. The story of ibn zubayr (ra), on the other hand, is about a successful challenge to their power and the lesson of constantly struggling to resist evil, his death brings to a close the era of the rightly guided second generation.

But, the story of marwan is story of the rise of islamic secular civilization. husayn's is a tragic event in between that can show another side to the personalities of both marwan and ibn zubayr as secular rulers. There would be no caliph Muawiya and banu Ummaya if not for marwan. there would be no Islamic spain if not for marwan, no Muhammad bin Qasim conquering sind if not for marwan, no need for an abbasid revolution against banu ummaya power, and hence no caliph harun al-rashid to populate the stories of the arabian nights, and no caliph al Mamun to establish his house of wisdom.

after the prophet (sa) died, hazrat umar charted one course for the development of islamic civilization, he did not ask for the caliphate that he we was givin and earned the title of comander of the faithful his legacy lives on in the teachings of our ulema. marwan on the other hand charted an alternate path he plotted and planned and eventually took control of the caliphate and his legacy lived on till the end of the WW1 when the position was abolished by the turks.

leadership

Those who acted as guides to the stars
Are awaiting anxiously for a guide for themselves
Broad vision, heart warming speech, a warm personality
These are all the baggage the leader of a caravan needs to carry

1935, allama iqbal
inscribed in the cover of a book given to rahmat ali.

what it says about us

I had an interesting conversation last weekend with a friend. He thinks my young generation's inaction in the moments after 9-11 shows how pathetic we are compared to others in history who faced difficult times and rose to face the challenges head on. One example that came up was the young indian muslims who organized the Pakistan movement.

Indian muslims in the early to mid 1900s were, like us, a minority community trying to maintain its religious, cultural, and social values as well as establish itself politically in an environment that was becoming more and more threatening. They started to think about what it meant to be muslim and how best to preserve their identity and social/cultural institutions. Students at Aligarh Muslim Unversity and Cambridge met, discussed, and organized. The conclusion they came to was Muslim Nationalism and eventually led to the struggle to create Pakistan.

While I don't think our conclusion would be the same thing, I do think that our great-grandparents generation is a good source of inspiration. And while there may be many similarities when it comes to issues of minority rights and identity awareness, there is one huge difference. They had history on their side. By that I mean, young muslims in India did not have the challenge of trying to figure out what it meant to be a Muslim in India. There was no india, and Islam had been in the various states of the region for centuries. Panjabis and Bengalis and Hyderabadis and Kashmiris knew who they were, they faced no identity crisis in terms of reconciling for example a kashmiri identity with a muslim identity. that problem had resolved itself many generations ago. That gave them inner strength to fight for their right to belong to a different type of confederation. We don't have this issue resolved yet. We are still an immigrant muslim community, with social, and cultural institutions still evolving. We are not strong internally:

PAKISTAN DECLARATION, 1933(from wikipedia)
Rahmat Ali issued this document on January 28, 1933 from his student address in Cambridge. This Declaration comprised the first part of his Pak Plan, and only dealt with the area of Pakistan.

"NOW OR NEVER: ARE WE TO LIVE OR PERISH FOR EVER?"
[Document is headed by Arabic script from the Qur'an, 13:11: "Verily, Allah does not change the condition of a people unless they change their inner selves".]

At this solemn hour in the history of India, when British and Indian statesmen are laying the foundations of a Federal Constitution for that land, we address this appeal to you, in the name of our common heritage, on behalf of our thirty million Muslim brethren who live in PAKSTAN - by which we mean the five Northern units of India, viz.: Punjab, North-West Frontier Province (Afghan Province), Kashmir, Sind and Baluchistan - for your sympathy and support in our grim and fateful struggle against political crucifixion and complete annihilation.

Our brave but voiceless nation is being sacrificed on the altar of Hindu Nationalism not only by the non-Muslims, but to the lasting disgrace of Islam, by our own so-called leaders, with reckless disregard to our future and in utter contempt of the teachings of history. The Indian Muslim Delegation at the Round Table Conference have committed an inexcusable and prodigious blunder. They have submitted, in the name of Hindu Nationalism, to the perpetual subjection of the ill-starred Muslim nation. These leaders have already agreed, without any protest or demur and without any reservation, to a Constitution based on the principle of an All-India Federation. This, in essence, amounts to nothing less than signing the death-warrant of Islam and its future in India. In doing so, they have taken shelter behind the so-called Mandate from the community.

But they forgot that that suicidal Mandate was framed and formulated by their own hands. That Mandate was not the Mandate of the Muslims of India. Nations never give Mandates to their representatives to barter away their very souls; and men of conscience never accept such self-annihilating Mandates, if given - much less execute them. At a time of crisis of this magnitude, the foremost duty of saving statesmanship is to give a fair, firm and fearless lead, which, alas, has been persistently denied to eighty millions of our co-religionists in India by our leaders during the last seventy-five years. These have been the years of false issues, of lost opportunities and of utter blindness to the most essential and urgent needs of the Muslim interests. Their policy has throughout been nerveless in action and subservient in attitude. They have all along been paralysed with fear and doubt, and have deliberately, time and again, sacrificed their political principles for the sake of opportunism and expediency. To do so even at this momentous juncture of Bedlam. It is idle for us not to look this tragic truth in the face. The tighter we shut our eyes, the harder the truth will hit us.

At this critical moment, when this tragedy is being enacted, permit us to appeal to you for your practical sympathy and active support for the demand of a separate Federation - a matter of life and death for the Muslims of India - as outlined and explained below.

India, constituted as it is at the present moment, is not the name of one single country; nor the home of one single nation. It is, in fact, the designation of a State created for the first time in history, by the British. It includes peoples who have never previously formed part of India at any period in its history; but who have, on the other hand, from the dawn of history till the advent of the British, possessed and retained distinct nationalities of their own.

In the five Northern Provinces of India, out of a total population of about forty millions, we, the Muslims, contribute about 30 millions. Our religion, culture, history, tradition, economic system, laws of inheritance, succession and marriage are basically and fundamentally different from those of the people living in the rest of India. The ideals which move our thirty million brethren-in-faith living in these provinces to make the highest sacrifices are fundamentally different from those which inspire the Hindus. These differences are not confined to the broad basic principles - far from it. They extend to the minutest details of our lives. We do not inter-dine; we do not inter-marry. Our national customs, calendars, even our diet and dress are different.

It is preposterous to compare, as some superficial observers do, the differences between Muslims and Hindus with those between Roman Catholics and Protestants. Both the Catholics and Protestants are part and parcel of one religious system - Christianity; while the Hindus and Muslims are the followers of two essentially and fundamentally different religious systems. Religion in the case of Muslims and Hindus is not a matter of private opinion as it is in the case of Christians; but on the other hand constitutes a Civic Church which lays down a code of conduct to be observed by their adherents from birth to death.

If we, the Muslims of Pakstan, with our distinct marks of nationality, are deluded into the proposed Indian Federation by friends or foes, we are reduced to a minority of one to four. It is this which sounds the death-knell of the Muslim nation in India for ever. To realise the full magnitude of this impending catastrophe, let us remind you that we thirty millions constitute about one-tenth of whole Muslim world. The total area of the five units comprising PAKSTAN, which are our homelands, is four times that of Italy, three times that of Germany and twice that of France; and our population seven times that of the Commonwealth of Australia, four times that of the Dominion of Canada, twice that of Spain, and equal to France and Italy considered individually.

These are facts - hard facts and realities - which we challenge anybody to contradict. It is on the basis of these facts that we make bold to assert without the least fear of contradiction that we, Muslims of PAKSTAN, do possess a separate and distinct nationality from the rest of India, where the Hindu nation lives and has every right to live. We, therefore, deserve and must demand the recognition of a separate national status by the grant of a separate Federal Constitution from the rest of India.

In addressing this appeal to the Muslims of India, we are also addressing it to the two other great interests - British and Hindu - involved in the settlement of India's future. They must understand that in our conviction our body and soul are at stake. Our very being and well-being depends upon it. For our five great Northern states to join an All-India Federation would be disastrous, not only to ourselves, but to every other race and interest in India, including the British and the Hindu.

This is more especially true when there is just and reasonable alternative to the proposed settlement, which will lay the foundations of a peaceful future for this great continent; and should certainly allow of the highest development of each of these two peoples without one being subject to another. This alternative is a separate Federation of these five predominantly (sic) Muslim units - Punjab, North-West Frontier (Afghan Province), Kashmir, Sind and Baluchistan.

The Muslim Federation of North-West India would provide the bulwark of a buffer state against any invasion either of ideas or arms from outside. The creation of such a Federation would not materially disturb the ratio of the Muslim and Hindu population in the rest of India. It is wholly to the interest of British and Hindu statesmanship to have an ally a free, powerful and contented Muslim nation having a similar but separate Constitution to that which is being enacted for the rest of India. Nothing but a separate Federation of homelands would satisfy us.

This demand is basically different from the suggestion put forward by Doctor Mohammed Iqbal in his Presidential address to the All-India Muslim League in 1930. While he proposed the amalgamation of the provinces into a single state forming a unit of the All-India Federation, we propose that these Provinces should have a separate Federation of their own. There can be no peace and tranquility in the land if we, the Muslims, are duped into a Hindu-dominated Federation where we cannot be the masters of our own destiny and captains of our own souls.

Do the safeguards provided for in the Constitution give us any scope to work for our salvation along our own lines? Not a bit. Safeguard is the magic word which holds our leaders spellbound, and has dulled their consciences. In the ecstasy of their hallucinations they think that the pills of safeguards can cure nation-annihilating earthquakes. Safeguards asked for by these leaders and agreed to by the makers of the Constitution can never be a substitute for the loss of separate nationality. We, the Muslims, shall have to fight the course of suicidal insanity to death.

What safeguards can be devised to prevent our minority of one in four in an All-India Federation from being sacrificed on every vital issue to the aims and interests of the majority race, which differs from us in every essential of individual and corporate life? What safeguards can prevent the catastrophe of the Muslim nation smarting and suffering eternally at the frustration of its every social and religious ideal? What safeguards can compensate our nation awakened to its national conscious for the destruction of its distinct national status? However effective and extensive the safeguards may be, the vital organs and proud symbols of our national life, such as army and navy, foreign relations, trade and commerce, communications, posts and telegraphs, taxation and customs, will not be under our control, but will be in the hands of a Federal Government, which is bound to be overwhelmingly Hindu. With all this, how can we, the Muslims, achieve any of our ideals if those ideals conflict - conflict as they must - with the ideals of Hindus?

The history of the last century, in this respect, is full of unforgettable lessons for us. Even one who runs may read them. To take just one instance. Despite all these safeguards and gurantees we have enjoyed in the past, the very name of our national language - URDU, even now the lingua franca of that great continent - has been wiped out of the list of Indian languages. We have just to open the latest census report to verify it. This by itself is a tragic fall. Are we fated to fall farther? But that too is dust in the scales by comparison with the tremendous national issues involving our whole future as a nation and a power not only India but also in the whole of Asia.

In the face of these incontrovertible facts, we are entitled to ask for what purpose we are being asked to make the supreme sacrifice of surrendering our nationality and submitting ourselves and our posterity to Non-Muslm domination? What good is likely to accrue to Islam and Muslims by going into the Federation is a thing which passes our understanding. Are we to be crucified just to save the faces of our leaders or to bolster up the preposterous that India can be a single nation? Is it with a view to achieve a compromise at all costs, or is it to support the illusion that Hindu nationalism is working in the interests of Muslims as well as Hindus? Irony is flattered to death by a mental muddle of such a nature and on such a scale. We have suffered in the past without a murmur and faced dangers without demur. The one thing we would never suffer is our own strangulation. We will not crucify ourselves upon the cross of Hindu nationalism in order to make a Hindu-holiday.

May we be permitted to ask of all those statesmen - Muslim or British or Hindu - supporting the Federal Constitution, if it is really desirable to make our nation sacrifice all that Islam has given us during the last fourteen hundred years to make India a nation? Does humanity really stand to gain by this stupendous sacrifice? We dare say that still in Islam the ancient fire glows and promises much for the future, if only the leaders would let it live. Whilst in Europe, excluding Russia, in about the same area as that of India and with about the same population, there live and prosper as many as twenty-six nations, with one and the same religion, civilisation and economic system, surely it is not only possible but highly desirable for two fundamentally different and distinct nations, i.e. Muslim and Hindu, to live as friendly neighbours in peace and prosperity in that vast continent. What bitter irony is it that our leaders have not the courage to stand up and demand the minimum for our political salvation.

We are face to face with a first-rate tragedy, the like of which has not been seen in the long and eventful history of Islam. It is not the question of a sect or of a community going down; but it is the supreme problem which affects the destiny of the whole of Islam and the millions of human beings who, till quite recently, were the custodians of the glory of Islam in India and the defenders of its frontiers. We have a still greater future before us, if only our soul can be saved from the perpetual bondage of slavery forged in an All-India Federation. Let us make no mistake about it. The issue is now or never. Either we live or perish for ever. The future is ours only if we live up to our faith. It does not lie in the lap of the gods, but it rests in our own hands. We can make or mar it. The history of the last century is full of open warnings, and they are as plain as were ever given to any nation. Shall it be said of us that we ignored all these warnings and allowed our ancient heritage to perish in our hands?

Rahmat Ali (Choudhary). Mohd Aslam Khan (Khattak). President, Khyber Union. Sheikh Mohd Sadiq (Sahibzada). Inayat Ullah Khan (of Charsaddah). Secretary, Khyber Unionsee,

like i said: knowing who you are makes you strong. it makes you able to talk like that. and then work for 15 years to make it happen. along comes a problem, you think about what it is and what it means and the failures of your leaders to deal with it, then you come up with a solution of your own, and finally you organize to achieve your goal.Anyways... After 9-11 some of our community's best thinkers called for a pause to reflect upon what had happened and what it means, rather then react. I agreed with it, and I still think was good. And in the past few years our generation has produced much thought about the issue of a Muslim American identity and challenges facing us as a minority community. I was lucky to be a part of one such group in Texas in the late 90's and a great discussion group after 9-11. Are we not DOING enough? maybe. but its not easy to fight for our rights if we are still in the middle of figuring out who we are, and especially if the majority of us are not being threathened in direct ways. Graffiti on 1 mosque out of 10 in a city is not like all ten burning. Would we be going about our usual routine if that happened? Are we up to the challenge if things get that bad? I think we are... at least I am.