Here’s an excerpt:

London Olympic Stadium holds 80,000 people. This blog was viewed about 400,000 times in 2011. If it were competing at London Olympic Stadium, it would take about 5 sold-out events for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

In the recent past a name arose very quickly in the world of cricket which got fame in no time. He is none other than the famous Pakistani off spinner Saeed Ajmal. He is known for his contemporary style of bowling and relies mostly on doosra in comparison to other flight and speed variations. The guy made a comparatively late appearance on the international scene, when he was 30, but he is doing the best for making up for the lost time.

Brief History

Saeed joined the Pakistan squad for the first time in Asia Cup 2008 after having one really impressive season at the domestic level. His debut was against India in the same series. Immediately he made a positive impression with the subtle variations that he has got, not afraid of making use of his doosra. But the career of this guy took off through series of great performances in the ODIs which bewildered the team Australia in Abu Dhabi and Dubai. Few runs were given away by him and the doosra he bowled was almost unreadable.

Career highlights

Ajmal’s popularity kept on increasing and he had some excellent time in ICC World T20 in 2009. Throughout the tournament he bowled economically and took wickets regularly.

On his return Ajmal was picked for tour of SriLanka where, in Test matches, he came up with some solid performances and, in two test matches, was picked up ahead of the leg break bowler Danish Kaneria.

In the month of April in 2009, the umpires reported him for having suspicious bowling action. But later on, the next month, he was cleared in an independent test by ICC and continued his international cricket journey.

In ICC World T20 of 2010 he continued with his superb form and was the top wicket taker in the Pakistani team. But still despite of the good form he conceded 3 sixes to Mike Hussey when Australia was in great trouble and he turned out to be the unlucky bowler who was given the responsibility of bowling the last over.

Later in the series the spot fixing scandal came on the scene and Mazhar Majeed unveiled that it was hard to bribe Ajmal and his few other mates. According to Mazhar, Ajmal was much religious and it was hard to get him involved in the spot fixing matter.

 Ajmal Ranked no in ICC ODI Bowlers Ranking

The excellent run of this great modern Pakistani bowler continued and recently in the ODI series against Srilanka he bowled superbly and grabbed 11 wickets in the 5-Match series bowling out main batters from the opponents. At the end of the series Ajmal was ranked at the top place in ICC ODI Bowlers Ranking with 693 points. The off-spinner has got to the top for the first time I his cricketing career and hopefully will try to retain that top place in the coming months.

The journey hasn’t yet ended and he is continuously doing wonders for Pakistan and has been named as the Man-of-the-Match in many ODIs with some of his superb bowling spells.

Saeed Ajmal Pictures Gallery

Saeed Ajmal Bowling Performance

Saeed Ajmal Brilliant Off Spin Bowling Including 4-63 vs West Indies

Crystal J. Briscoe is from Self Test Engine. Looking for IT help? Let’s take advantage of Self Test Engine self paced training and  000-281 Questions to pass exams on first try.

Friends after Lahore now Imran Khan’s Tsunami is heading over Karachi and now its time for the youth of Karachi to support Imran Khan, a true leader of Pakistan.

Friends if I were not a 15 years old boy then I must participate in this revolutionary gathering but my parents restricted me so its my duty to obey them but I request to my elder brothers and sisters to come out of there home, leave Facebook, Twitter and other useless things and join hands with Imran Khan because he is the only one I see who speak truth, who speak about the development of Pakistan, who speak about the youth of Pakistan.

So friends hope you will be there on 25 December on Mazar of our beloved Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinaah.

“What” we didn’t perform on instructions of USA in their so-called war on terror?

We accepted their drone attacks on our civilians, which has killed thousands of our civilians, children and women plus a minor number of terrorists. We accepted to provide them air bases to attack our Muslim brothers in Afghanistan that has killed hundred and thousands of Muslims and we accepted few thousands dollar checks in return. We asked USA to put their finger on any Pakistani civilian and we’ll send that guy or girl immediately to your jail without asking the reason.

What we get in return, another attack on Pakistani soldiers that have killed almost 25 of them including senior officers. Shame on us, we are one of the biggest armies in the world by strength and number, we are the only Muslim atomic power and we are unable to differentiate between friends and enemy. We are keeping killing our own citizens on instructions from outside Pakistan. This killing will not stop until we take the right decision. We have to tell them we are not your slaves.

We don’t have money but we have courage to fight against our enemies. Pakistan should tell them we are not going to support your war on terror anymore. That’s what I only want to say. Why Pakistan Air Force can’t make such mistake in Nato Area asked a question by Rohail Butt. We really need to take tough decisions at this occasion. We have to decide whether we want to continue this kind of war which only hurts us and which keeps destroying our country Pakistan, our people and our identity.

I would like to share this message from Abid Beli

Lets come outside from your house in all over Pakistan with Pakistan’s Flag & with message written on Card Board “We want 24 Nato Soldiers in return of our 24 Shaheed Soldiers & Stop support War on Terror”…… HAI HIMMAT? Facebook/Twitter sai bahir anai ki?

So what you say?

The PTI representative was unable to reply correctly, probably he was not aware of this story. Upon that a lot of people considered Imran Khan a part of ISI or other secret agencies. Few also declared him a part of ISI. This question gave an opportunity all those who have other favorites in Pakistani politics to declare Imran Khan a bad person, a bad politician that is not suitable for Pakistan. Furthermore Anchor person baselessly alleged PTI’s leadership of backhand involvement with the ISI. PTI still has an answer to this question that was published in press release at official PTI site on 22nd November.

Quote from PTI press release.

In one of the high rated programs on the most popular private TV channel this Sunday, the anchor person baselessly alleged PTI’s leadership of backhand involvement with the ISI. She questioned, how Khan sb knew about the Memogate scandal on 30^th October 2011, whereas the Pakistani media opened the story in mid November. Here is how we knew.

On October 10, 2011, The Financial Times published an article by Mansoor Ijaz: “Time to take on Pakistan’s Jihadist spies”. The article reads, inter alia:

Early on May 9, a week after US Special Forces stormed the hideout of Osama bin Laden and killed him, a senior Pakistani diplomat telephoned me with an urgent request. Asif Ali Zardari, Pakistan’s president, needed to communicate a message to White House national security officials that would bypass Pakistan’s military and intelligence channels. The embarrassment of bin Laden being found on Pakistani soil had humiliated Mr Zardari’s weak civilian government to such an extent that the president feared a military takeover was imminent. He needed an American fist on his army chief’s desk to end any misguided notions of a coup – and fast.

The diplomat made clear that the civilian government’s preferred channel to receive Mr Zardari’s message was Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff. He was a time-tested friend of Pakistan and could convey the necessary message with force not only to President Barack Obama, but also to Gen Kayani.

In a flurry of phone calls and emails over two days a memorandum was crafted that included a critical offer from the Pakistani president to the Obama administration: “The new national security team will eliminate Section S of the ISI charged with maintaining relations to the Taliban, Haqqani network, etc. This will dramatically improve relations with Afghanistan.

The memo was delivered to Admiral Mullen at 14.00 hours on May 10.”

It was evident from the tone of Mansoor Ijaz that the matter was not just urgent, it was also of serious nature and a case of high treason on the ‘diplomat’ who he referred to here. It was hence also crystal clear that only the Ambassador to US, Hussain Haqqani, was the diplomat close enough to President Zardari and with back channel contacts enough to reach Adm. Mike Mullen in America.

Khan sb. is an educated man who does not only go on local media’s heresay and blame games, but looks for proofs in international media as well. His only mistake was telling people the truth about what had already been quoted in international media. Our media skeptics need to have more homework done before they raise allegations on a leader of such high stature.

Rest assured, the public of Pakistan is not to be fooled any more. The zeal and numbers that joined Lahore jalsa were just the beginning of a proof of people’s trust in PTI.

I also have a snapshot from Financial Times website.

You can read the article here.

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/5ea9b804-f351-11e0-b11b-00144feab49a.html#axzz1eRdK1Pxo

My Blog “Yasir Imran Mirza” exist from quite some time. I started it in 2007 and started writing some posts about education, technology and about Saudi Arabia. That time I was not much familiar with blogging but slowly slowly my interest started developing in it. It was kind of hobby, kind of fun or kind of keeping self presentation on the internet.

At this stage this blog is developed at a good level. It has more than a thousand daily visitors, about 220 email subscribers, more than 250 likes at Facebook fan page and a total of 1,350,370 Visits. It has 600 + posts. That includes 500+ posts of mine and other few posts from Mubashir Nazir and Hassan Ali.

Although it is not the destiny but still it has to grow more. I am trying my best to make it more user friendly, informative and useful. At this stage I require a little help from my blog visitors.

I need you to vote for my blog as best Social Activist Blog in Pakistan Blog Awards 2011 and help it won the award. There are already few dozens of blogs in the competition and they are doing great. So if you find this blog useful then Visit the link below and vote 5 stars in the competition. That will help my blog to won in the competition and get Best Blog Award.

http://pakistanblogawards.com/2011/11/12/social-activist-blog-yasir-imran/

How to Vote

Visit the link and right below the heading you will find Stars. Just click on the last start from left and you will see all stars turned green, just click the last one and that’s it. Your vote is done. Check the image below for more help.

The voting is open till 25th november. However I urge you to do it now.

I am a voter of Imran Khan, Are You?

Join Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on the 30^th October at 2pm at Minar-e-Pakistan and show your support for a true Pakistani Leader “Imran Khan”. Join hands together with PTI to save Pakistan from terrorists and corrupt politicians and make Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf the top party in Next Pakistani Elections. Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf is the voice of every patriotic Pakistani and Imran Khan will be Pakistan’s next prime Minister, InshaAllah. It seems that all other Political parties are joined together to break the strength of PTI. One of them MQM, announced a Rally to divert People & Media’s attention from Imran Khan’s Jalsa at Minar-e-Pakistan. While PML-N already did their Jalsa at Minar-e-Pakistan yesterday.

Security Plan of PTI Jalsa Lahore

Today I was searching about this topic and suddenly I have found some videos of Rehman Malik stating about Google services. He stated that “If Google and Youtube services did not help in the searching of crime than we have the authority to banned them”. The reason behind the blocking of Adsense account is not confirmed yet but after watching this video I think Rehman Malik is the responsible for banning of Adsense. Below I have listed some videos of Rehman Malik talking about Google services don’t forget to watch them.

I hope that Pakistani government and Google solve this matter as soon as possible. But for my friends blogger I have listed some advertising programs that can be use instead of Google Adsense and from which you can continue your earning. These advertising programs are Infolinks, Kontera, Chitika.

This strange behavior of International Media has been discussed at different blogs and forums with the help of screen shots of specific news, published at International media. But now someone has created a video pointing negative role of media. Please take a look at this and try to find answer of the questions that are asked in this Video clip.

(Please note that this is Asad’s Personal experience and not a legal document/procedure/guideline or training document. Anyone who experienced making a driving license in Saudi Arabia might have different views or thoughts. So just consider it a human’s personal experience)

Many people are skeptical about the driving license process in Saudi Arabia. However though my experience I have observed that if you remained cool and confident during the whole process; it is not a big deal. Before going for driving license; I came across different experiences on many blogs and that frightened me a bit. However when I went through the whole processes on my own, I found it to be easy.

People in Dammam used to go to Khobar as being approachable. To new comers, I suggest going to Dallah School Dammam where as per observation things are a bit easier and with little bit of effort one can get the driving license with in 5 hours i.e around 11 am.

What you need Before going for actual Test

1. Complete all the documents i.e.
2. Letter from company attested by chamber of commerce
3. Translation of your home country Driving License
4. Application Form for Driving License in Saudi Arabia (get it filled from govt relation officer from your company)

Procedure to Make Driving License

Go to Dallah Driving School. Get application form stamped from Driving school and go for medical test. This ascertain your blood group and eye sight. No need to go to main hospitals.There is a nearby dispensary (I forgot its name) on same road. They complete the procedure with 15 minutes and you will get the report then and there.

After this come back to school again and pay SAR 100 fee being one day course fee. Not necessary to attend. However for test purpose; you must get your attendance slip signed from instructor ( I got it signed from two persons one for computer test that was done by some Bengali guy there and other for actual driving test). Instructor will give you the time for test which is normally next working day at around 6 AM.

As there is no rush in this school so you may come any time before six. I was near to end of queue. Still I managed all the things within few hours. Before entering the waiting area near to computer test room, school officer will get your file from you. You may keep your test material i.e. signal card, written contents, etc with you.

Computer Test (Often called Signals test)

The first test is that of multiple choice questions on touch screen computer. Normally Saudi Nationals are given priority over non Saudis for attempting this test first. Once your name is called, go to the computer room. Discard or throw exam material in the waste bin before going into test room. Officer there will check your Iqama and tell you the computer no. at which you have to attempt the test.

Besides Arabic, you may attempt this exam in Urdu, English and Hindi. Attempt in the language you are more comfortable. Before start of exam; listen the instructions carefully. This helps you in understanding the format. You may defer question for later purpose if you don’t know the answer. Normally first 10 questions must be answered correctly and after this 5 out of 10 should be correct. Exam finishes if you meet the criteria even before completion of 20 questions. Mine was completed on answering 15th or 16th question. I deferred one for later on answering but that didn’t come at later stage.

Preparation Material for the Computer Tests

• Signal Sheet given by school
• Rules and regulation and penalty sheet (One page carrying all the stuff). This was given by same bengali guy who signed the attendance slip as mentioned above.
• Third (which i believe helped me a lot) is the you tube video filmed by some Pakistani or Indian guy while taking the driving class

(Disclaimer about Video Material Below: The Videos below are not a part of this blog but they are just shared from a public link of YouTube. If you think these videos are illegal and should not be posted publicly on the internet please contact YouTube customer support.)

Part 1

Part 2

Some questions may come from outside of these contents, however with logical application; you may find the correct answer.

The Driving Test

Once it is done (whether passed or failed), you have to go through the actual driving test. You may opt for “MANUAL” or “AUTOMATIC).

I repeat the same that you may go for automatic car if you are not comfortable with manual cars. Also some of the manual cars are not in good shape and god forbid if clutch does not work properly on that day, you may not be able to pass the driving test, so I suggests going for automatic car which are available in the ground. This include Toyota Yaris, Toyota Corrolla and Honda. Although they are limited but you can wait for your turn. Instructor on ground easily allow this. Be patient and keep hold of your nerves while communicating with these guys as they are single headed. You may also bring your own vehicle. Try it be smaller in length to improve your chances of passing especially the reverse parking test.

Test is done in small batches around 5 to 10 cars. Place you car in the queue. First is the general forward movement with use of proper indicators. In between is a small passage. Be careful while passing that as if you touch the side poles, Instructor won’t pass you. Actually it is too easy to get through that path. Almost all the drivers can do so with convenience.

Reverse Parking Test

After this, you will place your car in the same queue for attempting reverse parking test.
This is done in batches too. Normally it is a batch of five cars as there are five parking slots in the test field. All five cars will move one after other to the parking lot and stopped somewhat 15 to 20 meters ahead of the parking slot. Instructor then tell the parking number in which every driver has to reverse park his car. It is assigned in the same sequence in which cars are lined up i.e. 1 to 5 with last one to park in 5th parking space, second last in 4th parking space and so on. Since I was the first one therefore I was assigned parking no 1.

When all the vehicles behind me started moving; I started reversing my car with right indicator on. Now the basic rule which i learned from my Egyptian friend in the office ( there could be other way also)

1. The distance between the pole and car should be around one and half foot approximately.
2. Second stop your car when the small window on the right hand side of the back door is parallel to the pole.

Now while keeping the car stopped, fully move the steering on the right side. Once done, start reversing the car. Keep you look on the left mirror to see the white line and once your car back wheel on the left side is round 20 to 25 centimeters (8 to 10 inches) away from that line, stop the car. Now fully move the steering on the left side. After this reverse the car and it will be safely placed between the two lines. Don’t try to move more further once the steering is back to its original place as this may push you car behind the allowable area.

After this instructor will ask to take the car out of parking area to see if you can safely bring it back to its original location. After taking out the car, stop it on the track as instructor will take your file to put his remarks. A tick means you are passed; otherwise you have to attempt the same on subsequent week. Instructor put a tick on my file and asked me to take the car back to parking location and wait in the file delivery room.

I waited for around half an hours after which all the files arrived. I got the file from there and confirmed about the procedure for payment of license fee. You may go directly to Riyadh bank if you want to, otherwise you may find taxi drivers working as an agent who will take you to the one of the collection agent office. These offices charges around 40 SAR for processing payment on your behalf. License fee is dependent upon the time period for which you want to issue your license permit. I preferred paying for 10 years which costs 400 SAR. Additionally I pay 10 SAR to taxi driver who bring me to the collection agent office.

Please note that it is your choice to go to bank directly or go the payment processing agent.
I came back to the driving school with same taxi driver and went to the license issuance / registration dept. There was a small queue there. On my turn, I presented the file to officer there, who checked the records online and punched some data in the system. He asked me to get aside so that during the time my license in printed, data of the person after me can be entered in the system.

After minutes or so he called my name and handed over my license to me. It was a matter of great joy and relief for me as all my worries to free movement were gone within a matter of few hours.

Thanks a Lot…

I always receive too many queries regarding change of profession in Saudi Arabia at my blog. Because I have gone through all this process so I know what are the requirements to process an application for change of profession.

Saudi Arabia is hosting too many foreign workers. So that Saudi Arabian Govt set up some rules for expatriate who want to live here and work here to earn livelihood. One of the rule in this regard is, If an expatriate want to call his family on resident visa he must belong to a professional or technical job. And his work permit should prove that. Every expatriate in Saudi Arabia has an Iqama (Resident permit) which states his profession. I don’t know exactly what are the specific professions which are eligible for applying a family visa but I have a clue, most technical professions have this facility.

So if an expatriate is living here and his profession is not eligible for applying for a family visa he got an option to change his profession in documents. e.g Work/Resident Permit. This doesn’t mean he has to change his job, but this is just like a formality in documents. You must have a University degree or a 3 years technical diploma.

1. Requirements

1. If you are already present in Saudi Arabia, You need a letter from your Company/Sponsor to Saudi Consulate Islamabad/Karachi. It should state that you are having an Iqama and working in Saudi Arabia and company has no objection if Saudi Embassy will attest your degree, then attest this letter from chamber of commerce in Jeddah. (If you don’t have this letter you got to pay additional 10,000+ pak rupee to agents in Pakistan to get your degree attested.)
2. Copy of your Iqama
3. Copy of your passport.
4. Your Degree or Diploma

2. Attestations Required from your Home Country

Before submitting it for attestation from Saudi Embassy / Consulate get your degree attested by yourself from following offices.

• Higher Education Commission of your home country
• Foreign Office of your home country

Once degree/diploma is get attested from above, then contact any recruting agency, travel agency or agent who is speciallized for Saudi Arabia. Almost all the agents who provide Umrah Visa can help you in attesting your documents. You need to attest degree from following.

• Saudi Culture Center in home country
• Saudi Consulate in home country

In Pakistan all these offices are located in Islamabad. Please note that you can’t go to embassy yourself for this work, you should find an agent who is approved by Saudi Consulate to do this. This is the website of one of the agents doing this.

http://www.skylinkservices.org/

3. Next Steps Required in Saudi Arabia

Once you have done these attestation, bring your documents in Saudi Arabia and attest again from.

• Consulate of your home countery
• Saudi Foreign Office (located in Jeddah or any other city called خارجیہ)

4. Submit an Application for Change of Profession

Your company / sponsor must issue a letter that you are working with us, doing same kind of work which you are intended to change your profession. Now translate your degree into Arabic and find a good General Service Agency/Agent. These agencies and agents have their offices at Jawazat Street in Jeddah and you can find by yourself in other cities. Discuss necessary details with them. They will tell their requirements and fees.  Settle a suitable amount that is acceptable for both parties. Also make sure your new profession will be eligible for Istikdam (family visa issuing authority).

Then submit your application for change of profession. Once you completed change of your profession to a profession that is eligible for family visa, further process is very simple.I hope this will help. If you have any questions, suggestions or you want to point any of my mistake Please use comments form below.

Furthermore if you want to know the process for applying for a Visit visa, you may read this post.

May this Eid brings happiness and peace for all the Muslims. May this Eid brings Muslims closer to each other and closer to Allah. May this Eid make Muslims understand their shortcomings and their lacks in Education, Technology, their Vision of future and lack of planning in all aspects of their lives.

With a positive hope of a brighter future, I will say Eid Mubarak to all my blog readers and thanks for the support and your positive feed back that make me attach to blogging.

I published a wallpaper for eid last year, if you like you can download it from here.

http://yasirimran.wordpress.com/2010/09/09/eid-mubarak-to-all-muslims/

Post by Yasir Imran

Happy Independence Day

to all Pakistanis who are living in Pakistan or living abroad. Let us make a prayer for Pakistan, May Allah bless Pakistan with good people, good politicians, people who establish a peaceful society and people who don’t make fights on the name of Islam, on the name of religion, on the name of their province or their political party. Let us be the people who only care about their country and their religion. I also have a request, don’t celebrate the Independence day in way that hurts others. Avoid one wheeling or loud music, instead donate your extra money to any needy person.

If you like you may download few wallpapers for independence day I created in last years as per 14th August relevance. Thanks

Pakistan Independence Day wallpapers

http://yasirimran.wordpress.com/2009/08/12/pakistan-independence-day-wallpapers/

If you ask a professional photographer to compare a mobile camera with a professional DSLR he will surely laugh on this. No matter how many megapixels a mobile camera can capture it cannot give results like a professional camera. Although Abdullah Nidal wrote much cheaper ways of buying camera in Saudi Arabia I will still love Mobile Cameras.

There is a feature of mobile camera that brings it back in the competition. It is, you can always keep it with you in any kind of environment or circumstances. Whether you are going to your office or returning back to home, going out for recreation with friends, or going for an official meeting. Even you can keep it with you when you are going to buy grocery. Mobile Camera always accompanies you without any hesitation or trouble. Mobile cameras again take the lead when anytime you suddenly informed about going outside to a place where best photographs can be shot, and you take your professional camera with you but at that moment you found its battery is empty and there is no time to charge it. Again mobile camera has advantage because it is charged most of the time.

Still do you think that Professional cameras should be used for photography? Ok I am unable to convince you, let me stop my discussion on advantages of mobile camera. Before I used to post these pictures at this blog, like Photos of Damn-e-Koh Islamabad, Photos of Waterpark in Jeddah, Photos of Artificial flowers, Photos of Masjid Nabvi Visit and Iftaar at Masjid Nabvi and my last post about Jeddah City photos. Furthermore I have shared a post about Saudi Arabian Wedding that were professional photos takken by a professional photographer Abdullah Nidal. But now I have reserved something for photography. Let me introduce my recent blog about photography. The great thing about this is, it is all (more than 90%) based on pictures of mobile camera. A huge percentage of my photo collection consist of photos of Jeddah city so I started a new blog for photography and named it “Jeddah Photo”. As I am not a big fan of having own domain and hosting etc I decided to set up this blog on Google Blogger platform.

Jeddah Photo Blog

The complete domain is http://jeddahphoto.blogspot.com/

Currently I have added about 50 photos in it, most posts contains a single photo but there are a few posts with multiple images. I don’t claim this blog contains extra ordinary photos but this is the footage a common man sees during his stay in a city like Jeddah.

I am updating it with the time and as per my collection I feel soon I will have more than 500 photos at this blog. And I don’t know how long I can manage to run it.

So, visit it and give your feed back and I will be very happy if you do so. Many Thanks

In his opinion, the historians influenced by the religion have presented the history in a distorted way. They have spun a yarn to cut the relations of Pakistanis with Pre-Islamic Indian History. On the contrary, they have connected themselves to Central Asian and Arab civilizations in order to complete the historical train of thought flowing from Prophet Muhammad صلی اللہ علیہ وآلہ وسلم to present-day Muslims. According to him, this distortion of history is one of the major reasons of extremism in the Pakistani society.

I have a different opinion in this case. There are two aspects of history: One element of the history is description of facts. What happened in the history? What incidents formed different courses of action for nations? And which incident had what impact on the society? This facet of the history is purely objective in its nature. It is a highly condemnable flagitious academic felony to garble the history in order to portray a desired picture for political or religious reasons.

Other aspect of the history is subjective. This is linking oneself to the flow of history by peeping through different ages and societies. Individuals and societies relate themselves to like-minded people in the history from antiquity to the middle ages.

For instance, a communist of any nation will relate himself to Karl Marx and even to Manichaeism in earlier history. The people who like the communist regimes of Lenin and Stalin in formerSoviet Union, may not be concerned in creating a link with the Tsars of Russia. On the contrary, they may be very much interested in establishing relations with the early egalitarian societies like Essenes, Early Christians and even hunter-gatherer societies. In intellectual arena, they may feel proud of connecting themselves to the Plato’s “The Republic” rather than some Russian piece of intellectual work that supports capitalism.

Similarly, a person with monastic trends may not assume a link to the history of ancient aristocrats. He may associate himself to Medieval Muslim Sufis, earlier Christian Monastic Orders, Jews of Cabbala and Hindu or Buddhist Yogis.

A provincialist or localist will associate himself with the history of his particular region. He may find some local heroes in the history to be proud of them. He will admire those poets and writers who have praised the rivers, mountains and valleys of his own area.

The same is true with a religionist. A devout Pakistani Muslim may not be interested in associating himself to the civilization of ancient Moenjodaro. He may be more comfortable in linking himself to the staunch ancient Muslims of Arabia.

Before Prophet Muhammad صلی اللہ علیہ وآلہ وسلم, he may feel a sense of comradeship with the earnest disciples of Prophet Jesus علیہ الصلوۃ والسلام.  Before him, he could create emotional ties to the true followers of the Prophets of Israel علیہم الصلوۃ والسلام. In antiquity, his heroes may be Abraham and Noah علیہما الصلوۃ والسلام rather than some local leaders.

This subjective approach of looking at the history and developing intellectual associations with the people on the same wave length has nothing wrong in its essence. In the present age of “freedom of thinking”, one has the right to establish connections in the history based on his/her orientation.

Secularists often pick holes in the approach of looking into the history as a catalyst to extremism. Extremism has nothing to do with the religion. It is a stark intellectual disorder that can capture the mind of any religionist or secularist.

It is true that religion is often used to cultivate fanaticism and zealotry to serve the political, economic or psychological interests of religious leadership but the secular extremists are not different in this case. Their leaders use some other concepts like patriotism, fascism, nationalism, racism, localism etc. to nurture the seeds of extremism in order to set the stage in favor of their interests.

Therefore, we have the undeniable and unquestionable right to look at the history and establish bonds with the like-minded people of ancient ages. Although, while doing so, we should be aware that some religious or political leader can manipulate such ties to create extremism in order to metamorphose us to his intellectual slaves.

(Author: Muhammad Mubashir Nazir)

Think about it!

• Why is objectivity important in study of history? Which aspect of the history is subjective?
• To whom do you relate yourself in the history?

Send your comments and questions by email to publish them on this webpage.

The course of these two phases is determined by two attitudes that a nation exhibits, these are:

• Attitude towards Ethics
• Attitude towards Knowledge

When a nation is comparatively better than its contemporaries in ethics and knowledge, it dominates them, but when the attitude of the same nation degenerates, its attitude towards ethics and knowledge does not remain positive and this marks its fall.

Attitude towards ethics determines the character of a nation: How honest are its people? Are they sincere to their nation and to humanity? What is the attitude of their leaders to their followers? What is the distribution of resources? Do they take care of their week and poor? What attitude is prevalent among the nation; love or hatred? Are they steadfast enough to face any disaster? Do they help other nations in case of any turmoil?

Hard work, honesty, credibility, open-mindedness, accountability, sincerity, humbleness, modesty, rationalism, soft-heartedness, self-control, creativity, law-abidance, love for God and humanity are substantial values of a progressing society. This ethical attitude mobilizes the nation. People start loving their nation and dedicate their capabilities to build the nation. Talented people of other nations are attracted towards them. The nation flourishes when new blood is added to it.

On the contrary, when ethics of a nation deteriorate, its people become dishonest and its leaders corrupt. From here, corruption trickles down to every segments of the society. Dogs start eating dogs. People no longer care about national interests. Selfishness creeps into general moral character.

Corruption replaces honesty and accountability; laziness sets hard work back. Stonyhearted people outweigh soft-hearted; emotionalism supersedes rationalism; extremism substitutes moderation; open-mindedness is lost to closed minds; love is replaced by hatred; respect of law converts into lawlessness and anarchy; hypocrisy supplants sincerity; wretchedness becomes order of the day; and sooner or later, selfishness eats up humanism. The society is plagued by lawlessness and anarchy. Corruption is a multi-dimensional process which entails more corruption. In a game of pool, a good break has an effect on every ball on the table, and the face of the pool table changes, similarly, corruption starting on any level eventually changes the whole nation, it will affect every individual and every organization which is a part of it. Hatred overwhelms love. In case of a disaster, people start robbing the victims instead of helping them and the society ignores their weak people as a whole.

This unethical attitude prevents the progress of the nation. People start hating their leaders and lose their interest in their national affairs. Talent leaves the nation and joins another that offers them a better environment for development and progress. This brain-drain results in further degeneration of the society. Good people leave and mediocre dominate. The nation lags behind other nations and loses its grandeur and prestige. Advancements in the fields of industry, agriculture, science and technology stop.
A time comes when the nation has to die out. Moral character is vital to survival of a nation.

Other factor for progress of a nation is its attitude towards knowledge. The fate of the nations, which fall behind others in knowledge, is submission. When a nation advances in knowledge, it invents novel ways of looking at things. The nation tries to develop its best talent and innovative people enjoy a high status in the society. The nation attracts talent of other nations since creative thinking is considered an important value in that society.

People start thinking out of the box. They leave no stone unturned, hence this results in outgrowth in all disciplines of knowledge, resulting in its rise. The nation grows in leaps and bounds. As a result of that, the nation outperforms others in competition. On the other hand, when people of a nation become lazy, they prefer boasting over the advancements of their ancestors instead of doing something more productive. Wasting time and enjoying useless activities becomes common in that nation. They think that the world is their oyster. Blind following replaces creativity. Thinking out of the box is considered a crime. People follow in the footsteps of their ancestors. Going with the flow is believed to be more important than turning stones. This produces a paralyzed nation.

Other nations with a better attitude towards knowledge go into overdrive. They outperform the blind-follower nation. Lagging behind in knowledge eventually results in demise of that nation.

Attitude towards ethics and knowledge is a relative term. We are not talking about absolute ethics and knowledge in all aspects of life. No nation can claim to be moral or knowledgeable from every aspect. The nation who dominates others is relatively better than its contemporaries in ethics and knowledge. It does not imply that such nation excel in all aspects of ethics and knowledge.

If we peep through the known history of humankind, we can observe the effects produced by these attitudinizing factors. The Muslims of earlier centuries were better than their contemporaneous nations in morality. Seeking knowledge and its utilization solves the problems of humanity was considered a high value in their society. They outperformed their contemporaries. Their reign stretched from Makran and Afghanistan to Morocco and Spain. They established institutions to serve humanity in realms of science, technology, medicine, business and welfare. They were strong enough to face calamities like drought, earthquakes, and foreign invasions.

On the contrary, they dug their own grave when their moral character degenerated. It never happened as a debacle; rather their moral collapse resulted in a chain of civil wars. Eventually, other nations dominated and enslaved them. The lesson history teaches us is that if we want to build our nation, we should work on transforming the attitude of our people towards character-building and seeking and using knowledge.
(Author: Muhammad Mubashir Nazir)

Think about it!

• Analyze the reasons behind the rise and fall of your nation in the light of its history.
• Why moral character is important for national development?

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Another month of Ramadan is starting from today in Saudi Arabia and Middle East. Alhamdulillah Allah has given us a chance to see this beautiful blessed month. It is a month of blessings and peace. It is 9th month of Islamic Calendar. Muslims used to observe fasts during whole month of Ramadan to get Allah’s happiness and show their obedience and after completing 29 or 30 days of fasting they get a reward from Allah, in the form of Eid-ul-Fitter. So What a muslim man or woman should try to achieved during Ramadan, Mubashir Nazir has explained it very well…

Ramadan is the month of Almighty’s reward. Let us make it the month of guidance. It is the month of abstaining from food and sex; let us make it the month of becoming God-conscious. It is the 9th month of lunar calendar; let us make it the 1st month of our moral edification.

In Ramadan good deeds get more value from Allah so you may consider remembering Allah all the time and can recite these or these Arabic daus to achieve more blessings from Allah. And Ramadan is just started, A Quick Preparation of Ramadan will guide you how to manage your activities during day hours. And if you also want your desktop screen to represent Ramadan check 10 Amazing Ramadan Kareem Wallpapers recently published at my blog by Hassan Ali.