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The Wonders of the Limitless Sky 

| Faith & Life, Insights, Travel, Uncategorizedby

I have a special bond with nature – trees, forests, mountains, valleys, and streams, all have enchanted me for as long as I can remember. Don’t even get me started on my feelings for the ocean. In this blog, however, I will be talking about the limitless sky.  

Of all the marvels of nature, the limitless sky is the most accessible. You might live in a congested city and not have the time or the resources to go and live closer to nature. Worry not. The sky is always there to satisfy your nature-loving needs.

Shaped like a dome the limitless sky is set up like a giant canvas, where ‘Al-Musavvir’ enthralls us with various strokes of HIS brush. Sometimes clouds are arranged as straight lines, sometimes round and buffy, and sometimes a mixture – random and yet not looking out of place..

Besides the enchanting nature, the limitless sky also has something mystical. At times when I have felt helpless, overcome by sorrow, or burdened by stress, I have stood and stared up at the sky, calling to Allah Almighty. And immediately grief would be replaced by relief, sorrow by happiness.

In Tafsir Anwar Ul Bayan, Maulana Ashiq Ilahi narrates the 10 benefits of looking at the sky.

1. It reduces sorrow 
2. It decreases negative thoughts (waswasa) 
3. It eliminates fear and doubt 
4. It helps in the remembrance of Allah 
5. The heart fills up with Allah’s greatness 
6. It removes harmful thoughts 
7. It is beneficial during melancholic (Saudavi) conditions 
8. Provides comfort for the longing heart.
9. Bring closeness towards family and friends.
10. It gives a direction for us to make supplications (duas)

Even when the sky is clear it still manages to dazzle with a variety of colors merging into one another.

And then, as if providing a final crescendo of an already breathtaking performance, the sky decides to participate with other wonders of nature like the never-ending ocean and the strong as-ever mountains. The views are just Enthralling and Captivating.

The limitless sky is accessible to everyone. Rich or Poor. Busy or free. Traveler or nontraveler.  
The limitless sky is accessible to everyone – including you!

No matter how busy you are, I hope you can find a few minutes to pause your life and look at the sky (hopefully not while driving or crossing the road). And when your heart is filled with wonder remember to remember the ‘Al-Musavvir’ in HIS own words.  

23:14 So, glorious is Allah, the Best of the creators 

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Fighting With Writing 

| Insights, Personal Insights, Uncategorizedby

Sometimes words are desperate to come out of my brain. They are protesting inside and shouting at me that they will not rest till they are on paper. And sometimes, like now, there is nothing. Silence. Nata. Zero.  

It is in this state that I am not writing but fighting. I struggle to find the sweet spot where ideas are translated into words, which string together to form sentences that combine into paragraphs. But in ‘Fighting with Writing’ that does not happen. Either the ideas or the words or both refuse to come out. Refusing like a stubborn child who wants ice cream.  

This whole ‘Fighting With Writing’ thing makes me wonder, ‘Am I actually the one who is writing?’ When the words are coming ‘automatically’ is it me who is putting the words on paper or am I just a tool through which someone else’s stories, ideas, and words are oozing out?  

When I am writing, almost automatically, I find myself doing fewer look-ups, less editing, and even fewer corrections. The whole piece just comes out and settles itself nicely on paper. Like when I wrote ‘Along Came A Virus’. The idea came to my mind when I was tired, had called it a day, and was on my bed hoping to sleep. But the eventual blog had other ideas. The words started shouting in my head, refusing to let me sleep. So grudgingly I came and sat on my computer and started typing. In just a few hours it was done. Posted and even published. It is in this state that probably the best of my work comes out. (Okay I know my best is not even good enough, but I am saying best of ‘my’ work, so the bar is set pretty low 😊 ) 

This fighting sometimes turns pretty violent, wherein, I am prepared to close the screen, toss the pen, and sometimes even delete my blog and everything I have ever written. ‘Oh how light would I feel if I did it’, I tell myself. So how to win the fight and write something of value. Something that at least I would like to read. Well all problems come our way for us to find a solution and in the process, become wiser. And not everything is in the books or YouTube videos. Sometimes we have to learn by experience.  

So I summon the answers from the vast spaces in my mind (which are mostly empty, dull, and boring), and I come up with these points. These would become a solemn pledge, that I promise to follow whenever I am ‘Fighting With Writing’. 

Write Anyways  

Open a blank page and just write. It can be a journal entry where I write manually or an empty Word document. Just open it and pour whatever is in my head.  

Follow a schedule 

Write after Asr prayers for one hour. When the time comes, no matter what I feel, I will write. It can be garbage. It can be intense feelings. It can be curse words or life-changing philosophy. But it would be words connected into a sentence. And sentences connected into paragraphs.  

I am not an impostor 

When my mind tells me that I am an impostor or who am I to tell the world what is good and what is bad and how to live their lives? My reply would be. ‘I am nobody’. And I am not telling the world what to do, rather, I am telling myself what to do. If anything, it is a cry for help.  

The guitar sobs 
The violin weeps 
I shout 
And the world sleeps 

Creativity has cycles 

Creativity might ebb and flow. It might peak and plummet. I shall embrace the cycles. Till the time comes when the words just burst out of me.  

Write I shall 

Write I shall, to calm my nerves. To find a solution. To evade boredom. To make the most out of my time. Write I shall and I shall keep on writing.  

In the end, I get some encouragement when I recall that this fighting with writing feeling, was also faced by a very accomplished writer whom I follow with dedication. The same doubt that my work is so bad that I should destroy it, was also faced by him. His solution was to ‘set a time for writing, prepare the pen, open the blank page, and sit. If nothing is coming it does not matter, just keep sitting till the writing time is over. I guess that is where my unimaginative mind came up with the pledges that I wrote above.  

The accomplished writer was Mufti Taqi Usmani Sahab, whose works I have enjoyed since I was a teenager, and I was surprised that he can also be a victim of ‘Fighting With Writing’. But apparently he was.   

So here I am signing off with a pledge to follow my pledge. Till next time. Chow.  

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Arguments Against University Education and How You Can Avoid Them? 

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Introduction 

Throughout my student and professional life, I have heard arguments against University Education. All these arguments are shallow and do not hold any weight. However, in some cases, they hold true. In this blog, I will tell you about those arguments and how you can avoid them.  

An Important Example 

Before we start, let us first see the difference between a university education (or degree programs) and certifications/self-learning. The difference can be easily understood if you understand the difference between learning how to drive a car and how to build a car. Driving a car would require you to attend a few classes and you can then give a test to get a license. However, building a car would require a more in-depth study program like mechanical engineering. Which path you choose will depend on the vision you have set for your future. Here is my blog on setting big visions and here is a blog that may help you to choose your career.

Argument # 1: Fresh Graduates Need to be trained from the Start.  

Employers often complain that they have to train the Fresh Graduates from the start. This often happens with graduates who do not have the required skill set needed by their employer. How can you avoid being in that group? 

  1. Ensure that you enroll in a university with a good rating. Such universities ensure that their course content and teaching methodologies are tuned to train you as per the requirements of the market.  
  1. Reserve some personal time to keep yourself updated with the requirements of the market by browsing through job portals, interviewing professionals in the domain, and attending job fairs. This would keep you focused on the skills that are relevant to the profession you want to pursue.    
  1. Pick a final-year project by finding a problem that the market has. Find and build a solution on how you can solve that problem.  This would give you the necessary skills and also knowledge about how things work in the practical world.

Argument # 2: I am not getting paid enough 

Realize that corporations are not charities. The amount you are offered by a company is directly tied to the value you bring to their operations. Are you solving a problem they have? Are you contributing to the creation of new products or services? Are you helping them make money? The more indispensable you are to them, the more they will be willing to pay you. How can you ensure that you are in the group of fresh graduates?  

  1. Find out, which degree program has value in the market, not only today but also by the time you graduate. Which companies, locally and globally, could benefit from your knowledge and skillset? Answer all these questions BEFORE you select a degree program.  
  1. For the first 2 years after your graduation keep your expectations low as you would need to prioritize gaining experience over making money.  However, this does not mean that you settle for a below-standard package for your line of work.
  2. Before the interview, do the groundwork and research on salary packages being offered by the company you are being interviewed in and its competitors. Don’t be shy to negotiate if you feel that the amount being offered is too low.
  3. Read the book ‘So Good They Can’t Ignore You’ by Cal Newport.

Argument # 3: What I learned during my degree program is not applicable in the market  

This argument only holds true if e.g. you have a degree in computer science and are working as a fashion designer. How can you avoid it?  

  1. Ensure that you have done the necessary research BEFORE you select your degree program and university. Your decision should be based on the requirements of the market.  If you want to become a fashion designer study that, rather than studying computer science.
  1. Once you join a credible university ensure that you are studying hard (and not hardly) on your course assignments.  

Conclusion 

In conclusion, I would suggest that you do not focus too much on making money. Rather, focus on the positive impact you can make on the society. Such a focus will not only make you rich in terms of money earned but also respect & love gained from the society and even from yourself.

Also, think about the many other benefits of joining a good university. Like getting more in-depth knowledge about a particular domain i.e. learning how the car works rather than just learning how to drive it. Good universities also groom your personality and make it more marketable. They would also prepare you for the future and make you adaptable to the changing trends of the market.  

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