Feb 7, 2010
Posted by Mohammed Ali in Sufi Comics | 0 comments
Sufi Comics Food for Thought
I love this saying because it’s deep and many meanings can be derived from it. One of them is that of Humility. Man has a tendancy to become proud of himself. He begins to think all that he’s achieved is because of his own doing. This pride blinds him from his own weakness and he forgets that all his abilities & creativity has originated from the Creator.
As we contemplate on our humble beginning and towards our end, we will find humility arising inside us, and we’ll naturally start giving credit to the One who created us.
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Feb 3, 2010
Posted by Mohammed Ali in Sufi Comics | 1 comment
Sufi Comics: Mother
During pre-Islamic Arabia, the Arabs were so ashamed of having daughters, that they would bury their new born daughters alive. The above is an example of how the Prophet of Islam changed the attitudes of the people during that time & emphasized the importance of the role of women in society.
One would have thought that after centuries of progress mankind would have matured enough to realise the role that the women plays is critical for a healthy society. Yet in many places around the world, the role of the women is still seen as inferior. This has resulted in an alarming rate of female fetuses being aborted. We need to introspect our attitudes and culture, because a society that does not value their women, will always be limited in their growth.
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Jan 26, 2010
Posted by arif in Uncategorized | 9 comments
We all know it’s true, that we can get more of an impact if we focus our energies on fewer tasks. An example I’ve quoted often on the power of focus is the analogy of trying to light a fire using a magnifying glass on a hot day. We’ve all tried it out as kids. However, picture yourself, taking a whole pile of newspapers outside in the sun on the World’s Hottest day, you may have the most powerful magnifying glass in the world, but you’ll still not be able to start a fire for hours or days, until you FOCUS that magnifying glass. Once you do focus the rays of the sun on to a single spot on that pile of newspapers. You don’t just have a fire, you have an INFERNO. Focus…focus…FOCUS!
We all have such limited time, limited energy and limited resources in the world. And yes the opportunities are galore that are screaming for a highly precious commodity of ours, our Attention, so don’t sell it cheap.
A book that I’ve completed recently that has helped me hone my focus is The Power of Less by Leo Babuta.
Leo is one heck of a case study. A few years ago, he was a government employee, heavily in debt, overweight and a heavy-smoker. Over the past several years, Leo has:
- Quit Smoking
- Got himself into peak physical condition
- Run Several marathons to prove it
- Got our of Debt
- Quit his job to follow his passion of full-time blogging.
- Maintain two excellent blogs
- Got one of his blogs to be ranked the number one Personality-Development/Self-Help blog
- Completed three books.
How he achieved all the above? It’s by focussing on one activity at a time. Leo, spends the rest of the book listing out a few principles and practical steps that one can follow to reduce the clutter in one’s life and focus on the essentials. The steps that have worked most for me are:
Identify your MITs (Most Important Tasks) early in the day and complete them first.
We get so caught up on answering our emails first thing in the morning, that one easily loses track on other tasks that provide higher returns for the time spent. Hence beginning of the day (or the end of the previous day) once one write down your MITs, make sure you complete those first thing in the morning. The tasks that you listed would not take you more than a an hour or two at the max. Most of the time, the tasks highlighted get done in less than 30 minutes. But it’s our procrastinating and demonising of the tasks in our minds that make it seem that it would take forever to complete. As Brian Tracy says, Eat that Frog. ie Get your most unpleasant task done first thing in the morning. And since you have to eat that frog anyway, it doesn’t pay much to If you have to eat a live frog at all, it doesn’t pay to sit and look at it for very long.
Focus on never more than Three Projects at a time.
What’s a project? The project here is not used in the conventional sense of for eg. Installing and delivering a software to a client, or in our case Delivering a Residential Layout of 300 homes. Nope, the word Project here is used in the GTD sense, that is, any action that has more than one step to complete. So simple things like Hiring an Employee, Completing a Report or Getting one’s child enrolled to school, are all Projects. Because they all have multiples steps to complete. Why Leo has said Three and not One, it’s because generally inevitably you might be waiting for someone for some information on any one of the Project. When that happens you have two other projects to focus upon.
Have a Daily Morning Routine
This is a great tip that I’ve been putting in practice for several years now. Have a Routine in the morning that gets you looking forward to the day. A routine that you consciously follow. Not one that you subconsciously stumble through day after day till your life is over. For eg. Leo’s routine is to be up at 5:00 Am, brews for himself a cup of delicious coffee, then spends atleast an hour writing his next blog post. My routine for the last several years has been:
5:30 – 6:00 Pray namaaz
6:00 – 7:00 Catch an hour’s sleep
7:00 – 8:20 Breakfast, Leave for Quran class or for Gym for a workout and shower.
8:20 – 9:20 Spend an hour writing either a blog post or my Journal. Reach office by 9:30
From 9:30 to 10:30 -
Once at office I look at my calendar and ask, “How much time do I have today that’s totally at my Discretion? or How much time do I have where there are no pre-scheduled meetings?”
Then:
Empty my Tickler items for the day into my inbox
Empty notes from my pocket notepad to my inbox
Empty biz cards to inbox
Look out for urgent Day Specific Tasks in Calendar to be attended to.
Then:
Clear outlook tasks @Ainbox
Clear email inbox/physical inbox 15 mins to 30 mins
Attend appointments as planned
My morning routine has worked well for me. Before it’s 10:30, I’ve completed my exercise for the day, my writing and have cleared all the new inputs (via email or paper) into my life. Depending on your goals, set an Early Morning Routine that has you start the day running. Also consider setting up a Daily Evening Routine too, to ensure that you have maximum energy next morning.
Do Less than you Can do. Even if you can do more.
This has been a brilliant tip that Leo has provided. Highly effective when it comes to establishing a new habit. Say you need to establish a habit of flossing your teeth. So Leo says, “Do less than you can do, even if you can do more.” That means for the whole first week, all you should do is to take out a piece of floss cut it and leave it on the bathroom sink. That’s it. Don’t floss you teeth, even if you can floss your teeth. The key here is to set regularity. Since all that you’ll be doing is to taking out a piece of floss and not actually flossing your teeth, the resistance to do this activity will be minimal. Similarly if you want make a habit of exercising regularly say jogging for 30 minutes, just do 15 minutes. Even if you can jog more, don’t. Keep doing this, till it really becomes part of you. I’ve been implementing this rule and been doing less even if I can do more and it really works. There is very little resistance to do the activity the next day and hence a habit is quite easily formed.
Take care friends, do read the book. There are tons of other principles and tips to help you achieve your long term goals. The above are the few that have stuck with me.
Warm wishes. Keep smiling :-)
Jan 24, 2010
Posted by Mohammed Ali in Sufi Comics | 0 comments
Sufi Comics The Prayer of Jesus
Islam considers Jesus (‘a) as one of the greatest Prophets and Personalities. There are several stories of Jesus (‘a) that can be found in Islamic Literature (See: Words of the Word of God) that serve as a common ground between Muslims and Christians.
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Jan 17, 2010
Posted by Mohammed Ali in Sufi Comics | 3 comments
Sufi Comics: A Slaves Slave
A Sultan (King) becomes the Slave of a Slave.
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Jan 15, 2010
Posted by arif in Spirituality | 3 comments
I so love Sufic Tales and Poems. These are words that have been born in a realm other than ours and tease us as to what lies beyond. Reading these sayings provides one with a delectable taste of the spiritual pleasures that a Sufi experiences. One of the best Sufic books I’ve come across is Essential Sufism. I share with you below a few quotes from the book, with the hope that it’ll help me internalise these into practices.
O My Lord, if I worship You from fear of Hell, burn me in Hell; and if I worship You from hope of Paradise, exclude me from Paradise. But if I worship You for Your own sake, do not withhold from me Your Eternal Beauty. ~ Rabia
(This prayer is a modification of an original prayer by Hadhrat Ali (AS))
Act as if there were no one on earth but you and no one in Heaven but God. ~ al Antaki
As long as your lower self rules your heart, you will never lose your love of this world. – Traditional
If you treat your lower self with affection, you will never by saved from it. ~ Traditional
Those who are dead to their lower selves are alive with God. ~ Traditional
Those who are controlled by the lower self must serve it; those who control thee lower self serve others. ~ Traditional
The lower self is like a theif who sneakes into your house at night to steal whatever is valuable and worthwhile. You cannot fight this thief directly, because it will mirror whatever force you bring against it. If you have a gun, the theif will also have a gun. If you have a knife, the thief will have a knife as well. To struggle with the thief is to invite disaster. So, what can you do? The only practical solution is to turn on the light. The thief, who is a coward at heart, will then run out. How do we turn on the light? Through thepractice of remembrance, awareness, and heefulness. ~ Sheikh Tosun Bayrak
A donkey with a load of holy books is still a donkey. ~ Traditional
( I LOVE this quote! )
Each faculty of our delights in that for which it was created;
lust delights in accomplishing desire, anger in taking vengeance,
the eye in seeing beautiful objects, and the ear in hearing harmonious sounds.
The highest function of the soul is the perception of truth. ~ al-Ghazzali
If words come out of the heart, they will enter the heart,
but if they come from the tongue, they will not pass beyond the ears. ~ al-Shurawardi
Jesus (upon whom be peace!) saw the world revealed in the form of an ugly old hag. He asked her how many husbands she had possessed; she replied that they were countless. he asked whether they had died or been divorced; she said that she had slain them all. “I marvel,” he said, “at the fools who see what you have done to others, and still desire you.” ~ al-Ghazzali
Jan 14, 2010
Posted by arif in Uncategorized | 1 comment
Times of India and Jung Group launched this beautiful campaign titled Aman ki Asha, an Indo-Pak peace project. We disapprove with a lot of that TOI reports on and that style that it reports with (read: sensationalism). An Indo-Pak Peace campaign is certainly something that we didn’t expect from TOI. The reaction has been mixed as expected, however the positive comments on facebook and twitter are encouraging enough to believe that indeed this campaign will make a difference in the hearts and minds of Indians and Pakistani’s all over the world.
Below are the various articles, TV spots that have been released for Aman ki Asha as on date.
1. Love Pakistan. The Front Page ad on Times of India that took India’s breath away. Beautiful Copy, brilliantly executed.
2. Give Tomorrow a Chance. The 1,742 word Editorial by the Chief Editor of Times of India. I love the opening line: “History is what we inherit. The future is what we make of it.”
3. An Idea whose Time has come. A joint statement by the editors of the Jung Group and The Times of India.
3. Homepage. The homepage of the Aman Ki Asha Initiative
4. Big B. Amitabh Bachachan campaigns for Aman Ki Asha. “In lakeeron ko zameen hi pay rehnay do, dillon pay math utharo”.
5. Behind the scenes footage and interview of the ad with Amitabh Bachan
6. Must See TV Ad for Aman ki Asha
7. Aman Ki Asha on Pakistan Televison
8. Twitter. Follow updates on Aman Ki Asha on Twitter.
9. Facebook. Become a fan of Aman Ki Asha on Facebook.
Jan 14, 2010
Posted by Mohammed Ali in Sufi Comics | 4 comments
Sufi Comics A Visit to Hell
Hell and Heaven are going to be a reflection of our Inner state, based on our intentions and actions in this world.
Here’s another Sufi Comic on Bahlool.
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