Greener Grass On The Other Side?

They claim that the grass is always greener on the other side. It’s only natural for us humans to wish for what we don’t have. It’s like the child who stares out from his third floor window with his chin propped up on a fist,a solitary tear on his cheek as he watches other children playing with the snow below, signs of joy adorning their faces as they hit each other with snow balls. Then this child sighs and rolls away his wheelchair, wishing to feel the cold snow splattering against his face, hear the laugh come out of his own chest, but he can only sit and imagine it.

Yet when we keep our view outward like that, always comparing ourselves to others, we will never be satisfied, because we will always meet people who have something we want but don’t have, especially in terms of materialistic wealth, possessions and status.

And the prophet Muhammad (PBUH) taught us what to do in such situations as given in this Hadeeth …

On the authority of Abu Hurairah ( may Allah be pleased with him ), who said: The messenger of Allah ( peace and blessings of Allah be upon him ) said: Look upon one who is below you in status and do not look upon one who is above you in status. In this way you will not look down upon the grace that Allah has bestowed upon you. ( Bukhari and Muslim ) [1]

The thing is, if this child were to stop looking out the window, and survey what he already has, like the contents of his room, or his loving family, or the free time in his hand, he might realize that what he has already compensates for what he doesn’t have. So the question this child should ask himself is, “How can I use what I already have to advance myself as a Muslim, and benefit other Muslims in general? How can I develop what I already have to move myself forward? What’s the first step I need to take today to jump forward?”

And that’s similar to the idea of “capitalizing on your assets” that is used by business people. It’s just making the most out of what you have right now. Don’t think about tomorrow…

Don’t think about next month…

Think about what right now…

Given what you already have…

Not hope to get…

But what you already have… in terms of assets.

Of course, when business people talk about capitalizing their assets, they’re talking about getting the most money out of those assets. Since – all praise is due to Allah – we’re Muslims, we’ve got it better, as we think in terms of more ajr and more opportunity to do good deeds on Earth.

*Or at least, that’s what we’re supposed to think in terms of.*

One of my engineering friends called the idea, “increasing efficiency,” which was quite interesting because in any generic engineering system, we’ve got: Input -> Process-> Output

Efficiency is defined by the ratio of output/input, so when we think of taking a step forward, or making a life-altering change in – what we hope – is the right direction, what we’re trying to do is actually trying to increase the efficiency of our own system, and that is, getting the most output out of the input we’ve been given.

And if we attempt to extend the analogy, all physical systems incur some losses on the way, so the efficiency is never a 100% unless Allah wills it otherwise. Similarly, we might intend to take a step, or make a change, but it might not work out, or it might not work out the way we’ve planned, and that’s one of the beauties of being Muslim, because we believe that everything that Allah (SWT) has written for the believer is kheir.

So if we tried so hard, and things didn’t work out, then there must be good in there. But that doesn’t mean that we quit trying especially if we really believe in what we are doing. It also doesn’t meant that we obsess over the failures along the way, and get disappointed, because the implicit message might be to just be patient because we never know, something better might show up down the road.

And there’s a quote defining patience, “Patience is waiting. Not passively waiting. That is laziness. But to keep going when the going is hard and slow – that is patience.”

So in a nutshell, today’s reminder to myself is this, the grass is not greener on the other side. Don’t even look there. Keep your focus on this side, be grateful for what you have, make sure your intentions are pure for Allah’s sake, try to capitalize on your assets, increase your efficiency, make changes but don’t obsess over failures, because change needs time and patience, and have faith that what is maktoob is kheir.

[1] arabic text;

عن أبي هريرة رضي الله عنه قال : قال رسول الله صلى الله عليه وسلم : ” انظروا إلى من هو أسفل منكم ولا
تنظروا إلى من هو فوقكم فهو أجدر أن لا تزدروا نعمة الله عليكم ” . ( رواه البخاري ومسلم ، واللفظ لمسلم

;

Eid Mubarak

Imagine if Kabshoo was a marketer who was asked to make a billboard with directions to the slaughterhouse…

Parking Crisis!

Have you noticed how creative Abu Dhabi car drivers are in finding parking space nowadays? They see potential for a parking space, where others see nothing. The question nowadays is not whether the parking is legal as much as it is, whether there is space for another car to pass.

And sometimes there isn’t space for another car to pass and yet people park anyway, and one might find themselves reversing for a long way because of a bottleneck created by such a parked car.

However, people need to start thinking consciously about where they park their cars, because they can make it really unsafe for other drivers and pedestrians alike. Do you know how many cars come to a screeching halt because a child jumps out of nowhere in front of them? And one realizes that the problem is not just with the hurried child, but also with the parked cars that reduce a driver’s view of the road.

Presented below are a classification of the types of parking spaces there are in the region. Pictures are used for illustration purposes only.

The Attracted-To-Pavement Parkings

These are the parked cars that can be found along pavements and around corners.

A lovely car parked in a so-not-lovely place

The above car was parked at a main road’s exit (going right). This particular location was already a blind corner, due to a construction site’s fence (can’t be seen in the photo) that limited pedestrians’  view of the main road, so a pedestrian could not tell early if a car was coming or not. Now add this parked car, and it exacerbates the problem for drivers who want to take the exit, and you can only imagine what happens if you have the following equation:

Pedestrian taking a risk+Parked car+Two cars taking the exit side by side =

*screeeeeeeeeeeeeching tires*

Another example for Attracted-To-Pavement Parkings

The Nu9 Kom Parkings

Now there’s someone who seems a bit frugal with parking space. It’s as if they’re sending a message; why take the whole parking and waste, when you could half-park and save space behind you?

When Nu9-Kom parkers go to extreme measures

The Take-The-Stop-Sign-Literally Parkings

Seriously, if you’re a driver, that stop sign over there is telling you to stop and watch for oncoming cars as you’re entering another road. You’re not supposed to take it literally, stop completely, kill the engine and park?!

Reflect-The-Centerline-Road-Mark Parking

These are the cars that usually park in the middle when you have two-directional flow of cars, and if you think that one column of parked cars is bad enough, sometimes you’ve got two as shown below.

The On-Pavement Parking

The drivers who park this way make it not surprising for someone to find such a sign in another area of the city…

*Why? What does the sign say?*

A Closer Look

The Jungle Parkings

"It's a jungle out there!"

Jungle parkings have cars that are so tightly packed that if one thinks of parking there, someone else’s advice may be, “Don’t park there, it’s a jungle out there.” The cars are packed so tightly together that one wonders how these cars got in in the first place, because cars seem to be blocking each other. But Jungle parkings show how tragedies and crises tend to bring people together, because after some experience of calling the same people to come and remove their cars, one learns to recognize a friend/neighbour’s car and may say, “Oh, that’s just a friend’s car. I’ll block them, and later on they can call me.”

Which, by the way, just adds to the Jungle Parking crisis.

Empty Space?!!

If you find an empty space in a highly-populated area at an unlikely time, don’t get overexcited, because maybe;

1.It’s not yours unless the sticker on your car says otherwise.

2. It’s bogus. We call those the “too-good-to-be-true” parkings. For example, you are driving around, and you see a huge black GMC car, and it seems that the space right next to it is empty, and you get all excited, just to discover a tiny Mini cooper or Beetle car in that space, and you hadn’t seen it because it’s petite and it was hiding behind the larger car.

3.You don’t need it. And those are the parking spaces you see when you’re on your way out. And it’s quite interesting how some of us seem to have developed Pavlovian conditioning to parking spaces. For instance, you’d see the reverse lights of a car, and suddenly you get excited that you want to park, just to remember that you don’t need it, or maybe you’re on foot!

WASTE OF SPACE

But parking problems are not everywhere. Some places have ample parking space that even cats take advantage of the extra space.

The cat in the picture below is showing us what to do in case the housing crisis gets too bad, because if you think the parking crisis is bad in Abu Dhabi then you haven’t seen the housing crisis!

6annesh ta3esh tanta3esh...5aleek cool

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Egypt Vs. Algeria “Battle”

There’s been immense unrest between Muslims as a result of what? A football match. These matches have been driving people crazy, and I wonder if that could be taken literally. On Saturday, the screams from a cafe downstairs after the match sounded like those of people in a mental institution. Then on Wednesday, the silence was heavy. (You could easily guess where most of the audience were from).

The divisions among Muslims are getting out of control. First there’s the intra-country tension in Muslim countries such as Palestine and Iraq. Now football. Wow. What next? Shawarma fights?

And it’s quite sad to see how all this is happening during the Hajj season; a sacred time where Muslims need only to see the rituals of Hajj to see how Islam presents practical representations of unity. After all, the rich pray side by side with the poor, and the black man wraps the white Ihram in the same way as the white man does, and the Arabs walk around the Ka’aba at pace with the non-Arabs, saying exactly the same words using exactly the same tone, their beautiful collective voice reverberating across the land, “Allah akbar, Allah akbar, Allah akbar, la illaha illa Allah, Allah akbar, Allah akbar wa li- Allah al7amd.”

Remember, Allah (SWT) says in the Quraan;

52. And verily this Brotherhood of yours is a single Brotherhood, and I am your Lord and Cherisher: therefore fear Me (and no other). / Surat Al Mu’minun

Back to the football match, and the screams…

*Alhamdullilah allathi 3afana*

But the seriousness of how some people deem these football matches makes one wonder where we’re headed as an Ummah, and I speak about myself before anybody else.

I don’t know if you remember the heart-breaking cries of Palestinian Huda during an attack back in 2006. The news clip can be seen below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WaCJn4hdjc

At the same time, the world cup FIFA was going on. And one can easily imagine how many televisions in the Arab Muslim world changed the channel from Huda’s news to the football match. You can also start imagining how many tears were shed over the loss of a favorite team than on Huda’s family.

Someone from the channel-changing-dudes might think; How can I help her? I can’t do anything…let me finish watching….goooooaaaaalllll!! *screams like a maniac here*

Yet someone else might connect all these events and think; You know what…the time for change has come. We can’t keep on living like this. Our brothers are being killed. When will we wake up? And change really begins with…me, myself and I.

Both statement have got I’s, so we determine where we stand. Because, if we really think about it, we may be so angry about all these divisions on a macroscopic scale, but on a microscopic, how many Arab Muslims make fun at the accent of non-Arab Muslims? How many times do locals turn down the applications of expatriats just because of their nationality? How many times do we refrain from helping a person in need just because they’re not family or friends?

And this is a reminder to myself before anybody else.

اللهم أصلح أحوال المسلمين

And before I go….A bunch of images organized in what may be called as a poem…maybe in a mental institution…

*dry laugh*

Shrapnel ripped through scores of bystanders
Mahmood, pieces of metals all over his body
He was playing on a bicycle outside his house
A bundle of joy wrapped in a blue shawl, bloody
Sorry, Gaza, that a pure land like yours
Is being defiled by the hands of the filthy

People starving on Tel Al Zaatar
While elsewhere the pot-bellied
Leave food for the trash can
Sleep evades you in the grasp of darkness
While it holds us prisoners in the presence of night lights

“Wamu’tasimah,” a cry that waged a war
“Abooya,” the screams of picnicking Huda,
Amidst ocean waves
Replaced by arm waves
In a football game

Mournful call for Fajr reverberates over the land
On which air pollution stands solid over morning traffic
On which 200 cars crash in a pile-up at Gantoot

Skeikh Yassin bound to a chair murdered,
Self – defence, the ancient excuse
That silenced mouths that were mute

So clear it was painted on a matatu glass
“Khilafa is the answer,” a mass return to Tawheed,
The only way to light Gaza is one candle at a time

Feeling on top of the world?

Imagine yourself in this situation;

Imagine you’ve reached the top of the mountain. Imagine you’ve got everything that anybody could want in this world; the car is a Cayenne, the jewelery store’s guard knows you by name, you’ve got a loving family. But there’s still something inside you…a void in your heart that cries out in pain… a screaming voice that sends your internal compass berserk.

If this internal compass was a magnet, imagine flipping the magnetic field from one direction to the opposite direction over and over again, North becomes South, and South becomes North. And the disruption translated in your life is terrible, because nothing you own makes you happy. Instead, everything seems to first bore you, then depress you and finally strangle you.

It’s like you have a thirst for something, but can’t quite pinpoint it. You know you’re upset but can’t quite understand why, and you keep on driving in circles and circles in this confusing city, with all its street noise and pollution, in search for the Road to Happiness. Until suddenly, your eyes fall on something…

And suddenly, all the boisterous city noise is pushed into the background, and all that you hear is…

1 (Click to listen)

{(124). But whosoever turns away from My Message, verily for him is a life narrowed down, and We shall raise him up blind on the Day of Judgment

(125). He will say: “O my Lord! why hast Thou raised me up blind, while I had sight (before)?”

(126). (Allah) will say: “Thus didst Thou, when Our Signs came unto thee, disregard them: so wilt thou, this day, be disregarded.”}/ Surat Taha from the Holy Quraan (Ayat 124-126)

For years, philosophers have been trying to figure out answers to the big questions in life, such as, what is the purpose of life? What happens to us after we die? How can we be happy? Yet all these answers are crystal-clear in Islam if you search for them. For instance, the complete package of life is pretty simple really;

2 (Click to listen)

{162. Say: “Truly, my prayer and my service of sacrifice, my life and my death, are (all) for Allah, the Cherisher of the Worlds:

163. No partner hath He: this am I commanded, and I am the first of those who bow to His will.}/ Surat Al An’am from the Holy Quran (Ayat 162- 163)

In Islam, you find simple, detailed answers to supposedly tough philosophical questions, answers to social problems, answers to psychological problems, and most importantly, answers to spiritual problems.

Why? Simply because it’s the truth.

And it is in accordance with the fitrah or natural inclinations of mankind which predisposes man to believe in Tawheed or the Oneness of Allaah (SWT). The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said, “Every infant is born with Fitra but it is his parents who make him a Jew, or a Christian or a Magian (fire worshiper).” [Saheeh al-Bukharee and Saheeh Muslim]

Allah (SWT) is our Creator, and true peace and happiness in this world – and the Hereafter -  can only be attained in one way and one way only, and that is by taking the Quraan and the Sunnah of prophet Muhammad (PBUH) as a life manual, keeping in mind that Hidaya does not come from ourselves, but from Allah (SWT).

3 (Click to listen)

125. Those whom Allah (in His plan) willeth to guide,- He openeth their breast to Islam; those whom He willeth to leave straying,- He maketh their breast close and constricted, as if they had to climb up to the skies: thus doth Allah (heap) the penalty on those who refuse to believe}/ Surat Al Anaam from the Holy Quraan (Ayat 125)

So the question is, are we ready to turn to Allah (SWT) and start moving in the right direction?

P.S. 1 Whatever that I’ve written which is correct is from Allah (SWT) and whatever that is incorrect is from myself and from the devil

P.S.2 Yusuf Ali Translation of texts from the Holy Quraan

Finally landed in the Blogosphere!

So I’ve finally landed in the blogosphere…

*ouch*

Again.

However, the real me is really hoping to slowly disappear into oblivion, so to my friends who’re reading this, I’d really appreciate it if you NOT use my real name in the comments or hint at anything that’s going on in my personal life.

To the others who are wondering what to expect here, expect just one thing; the unexpected insha’Allah. According to what I’ve been told, my notes take people through roller coaster rides. Some might make you laugh, others might make you tear up. Some might open your eyes to something new, while others are just there to activate your brain cells, and make you think differently about common things.

So buckle up, and enjoy the ride!

*vrooom*

Also, feel free to subscribe to the blog.