Arif & Ali's Blog

What’s the Right Thing to do? I’m Confused.

arif — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 15:54:32 +0000

I had once blogged that to live a life of no-regret and to maintain a sparkling conscience, you need to follow just two steps.

1. Always do the Right thing.
2. Give your best at it.

But what is the Right thing to do? Is majority always right? Does one always follow the principle of the Greatest Good for the Greatest Number? If so, then you are justified in killing one person to take his organs to save five others who need them. If that doesn’t make moral-intutional sense because you feel individuals have rights that are greater than the majority, then you have no right to support a ban on Alcohol, Smoking or Prostitution, if certain individuals want to indulge in the same, while the majority don’t.

I’ve asked these questions to myself several times, I’ve read philosophical books on these and have even attended classes on the same. I have finally come across the best explanation in this fabulous series of lectures by Harvard Professor Michael Sandel on What’s the Right Thing To Do. The first few were simply riveting and am eagerly looking forward to completing the series. I am on Lecture 4, Titled: Consenting Adults. Watch or Hear the first lecture here and if you’ve ever thought about the above questions, I guarantee you’ll be hooked. Professor Michael’s practical examples of what’s the right thing make this so engaging and relevant, I wish I had learnt this stuff back in school.

Oh by the way, I bumped into this lecture, because I am subscribed to the Learn Out Loud Free Resource of the Day Email. I LOVE this Email Service. I get access to incredible wealth of Audio and Video material without searching for it. I highly recommend subscribing to it.Similar Posts:

Self-Control with Ramadhan

arif — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 09:30:59 +0000

Picture taken without permission from the Boston Globe The Big Picture

A dear friend (Navaid Alam) has written this well-expressed article on Ramadhan, that was selected by The Hindu (a leading national newspaper) for publishing in it’s Open Page. This has been re-published here without his permission, (hopefully he won’t sue us, it’s Ramadhan after all :-).

The ninth month of the Islamic Hijri calendar, Ramazan (or Ramadan), holds a special significance for Muslims around the world. It is in this month that Muslims attempt to let go of the worldly pleasures and decide to reorient themselves towards being better humans — humans that are not so lost in the pursuit of their desires that they cannot sense the needs of others. The cruelties that man shows towards his own body round the year are redressed in this month. The body is allowed to rejuvenate and repair the damage caused during the rest of the year. Conscience, that guiding light, is strengthened and prepared to shine through the dark alleys of human greed. And the soul is provided with the spiritual nourishment that it needs to connect with its creator.

Although many obvious benefits for fasting have been observed both by spiritualists as well as scientists, the Muslim fasts because God has so commanded. This, while it may seem dogmatic, is inherently cogent. A command of an omniscient god cannot possibly be wrong because if it was then He wouldn’t be omniscient. However, this holds good provided it can be established through reason that it is indeed His command. This is one of the fundamental rationales of the Islamic thought and the foundation of its call to acceptance because faith built on unreasonable premises is unworthy of submission.

Fasting has always been prescribed by God for communities around the world, a fact attested by the the Holy Koran. And why shouldn’t it be, after all if fasting has such fundamental benefits then those benefits must be for the entire human race. And one fundamental benefit mentioned by the Koran is taqwa in Arabic.Taqwa means, among other things, self-restraint, a quality fasting so strongly creates. When man is able to control his two most basic urges namely the digestive and the reproductive, it becomes easier to contain the others. And such control is the first step towards the greater realisation that these are the necessities of life not its purpose. However, the purpose of fasting is to control these urges and not to kill them for they are fundamentally essential to human existence and a system that destroys them cannot be natural or divine.

Islam did not, however, merely prescribe fasting but prescribed it for a specific period of time. One whole month to be exact, dawn to sunset is a Muslim required to fast abstaining from food, drink and sex. Token or symbolic fasting for a certain day cannot provide the results that Ramazan seeks to create. It is only when people abstain from these day after day for a good one month can they attain control of their selves and a sense of concern for the less privileged begin to develop. Moreover, fasting that is accompanied by massive eating before and after the prescribed period of the day cannot yield those results.

How can one feel the pain of those not fortunate enough to have their daily meals if one gluttons himself and feels no pangs of hunger? The Sufis have always held in accordance with the tradition of Prophet Muhammad, may peace be upon him, that one ought to eat less even during that portion of the day when one is not fasting otherwise the spirit of the fast is weakened. However, pragmatism requires that people be not subjected to undue duress hence the tradition of sahr, the pre dawn meal and iftar, the ‘breakfast’ meal.

Fasting however is not merely about avoiding food and drink; it is also about building your character. The one fasting is required to control his talk so as not to say words of abuse or even dislike to other fellow human beings. The Prophet said, “Whoever does not give up forged speech and evil actions, God is not in need of his abstinence from food and drink.” Anger, that form of temporary madness, is to be subdued, a lesson that Muslims around the world would do well to follow. Said the Prophet, “Strong is not the one who overcomes people by his strength, but he who controls himself while in anger.” This is the demand oftaqwa.

And when the faithful fulfils this commandment of God, having fasted and abstained from all vices and actively sought virtue for nothing but the pleasure of God, then he breaks into thankful joy on the first day of the next month,Shawwal, the day of Eid. After the prayer of thanks in the morning, the day is spent meeting friends, neighbours and relatives. Grudges of the past are buried to make a new beginning in human relations.

However, those struggling with the necessities of life are not to be forgotten and they are as entitled to enjoy this day as the others. Besides the zakat which is not directly connected with this month, Islam has prescribed another mandatory charity called the Sadqatul Fitr. This is a small sum given by those capable to the poor to enable them to engage in the festivities of Eid for there can be no festivity for the well off unless they have taken care of the have-nots.

(If you’ve liked the above article, do let Navaid know at naf@engineer.com).

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Sufi Comics: Is the World an Evil place?

Mohammed Ali — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 08:33:54 +0000

: Sufi Comics: Is the World an Evil place?

When I read spiritual texts at times I come across passages where the “World” is condemened. It’s described as a place that tempts man to do evil acts. It makes me think if the World is an inherently evil place or does it mean to say something else. Perhaps what is evil is excessive materialism that takes us away from Godly values.

Imam Ali (‘a) clarifies this confusion when he sees a man condemning this world. In this comic I’ve been able to capture only an excerpt of the narration. The full narration can be read from Nahjul Balagah, which is a collection of his sermons & sayings.

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Here’s another person who took his bug seriously. Paid off pretty well.

arif — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 08:04:22 +0000

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History of the bugs that I have caught.

arif — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 12:04:50 +0000

I would speak, even when I’m not spoken too: I have had various bugs in the past. Once upon a Time it was the Toastmasters and Public Speaking bug. I would use every possible opportunity to speak in public. Toastmasters was a great platform for that. And when I joined Toastmasters, I was infected. I got the Toastmasters-bug. The spirit of the Dubai Toastmasters club was simply outstanding. You couldn’t come out of a meeting feeling excited and all-charged up. Man, I get a high just thinking about it.

But like all bugs, it comes and it goes. After several years of being an active Toastmaster, the magic wasn’t there for me anymore. The meetings were just as good. But something in me changed and I felt that I had to give my time elsewhere.

In the long run

i had been a chubby kid all my life. My trousers just kept getting wider and wider. I hated exercise. I would wonder why would anyone want to put themselves through hours pain and exertion. Yet I loved the image of being lean-mean exercise nut. Finally when I outgrew every possible trouser that I had with me when studying in London. While travelling on a London Tube, I came across this easy-peasy schedule that Nike printed. It said that just follow the schedule and I’ll be able to run 10 Kms by the end of three months. Wow. Me chubby, tubby Arif would be able to run 10 Kms at the end of three months. And all i needed to do was exercise like 3 times a week. I mean like, hey, why not, worth a shot. I hit the pavement the next morning and since then I’ve not looked back. I have run 100′s of Kms. I had got the running bug and it was AWESOME! I registered for races, and completed them. I paid huge bucks (while on my measly articleship salary), and subscribed to Running magazines all the way from UK and US. Would peer through every page statistic. I have run Bangalore roads in the dead of the night, and Dubai’s streets in the afternoon in the peak of summer. I ran so much that I injured my knee. Yet I continued running.

The bug is not as infected as it used to be. I am not consumed by the thought of running. And it’s several years since my subscription to international magazines have expired. Yet the hangover continues. Even today I do an approximate run of 5Kms almost every day. Whenever I travel, I always travel with my running shoes. Here’s a travel-tip, the best way to experience a city, is on runner’s foot at 6:00 Am in the morning when the city is waking up.

The GTD bug

This bug my blog-readers would be familiar with. I was obsessed with GTD. Every moment I was online, would read up about it. In my car I would hear all possible lectures and podcasts on it. And every possible chance I would get I would speak to others about it. I did not even spare the Maulana who accompanied us on Hajj. Even him I tried to convert him into a GTD enthusiast. I was not successful with the maulana, but to some extent I influenced my father, my brother and several of our staff at Vakil Housing. They didn’t much of a choice as I would stand behind them at their work desks and would be spewing the various processes of GTD, pushing them to implement it.

Other Misc bugs:

There was the blogging bug and the Spirituality/Sufi bug, each of which had taken my fancy for a significant time and then moved on.

and now it’s the Sketch Notes bug

We all take notes. We’ve done so from school. My note taking evolved from plain linear notes like this, to mindmaps like this. Yet I was always fascinated by sketch notes. Notes that involve both text and pictures. They look so cool, one wants to revisit them and most of all it’s so much fun just creating such notes. Each note is a work of art. I never knew how to take down such sketch-notes. Till I came across the following online seminars:

Doodle Revolution

Visual-Notetaking 101

Sketch Noting Techniques

That was it. I had that all familiar feeling again. My heart began racing, I was getting feverish, it was like falling in love. Yup, I was catching yet another bug. Now every possible meeting that’s what I do, I sketch-note and it feels awesome. And here are some recent sketch notes that I have taken.

The Moral of the Story is
You know when you’ve got the bug. It’s when every possible moment, that’s what you want to do. The good news is, a bug is a healthy thing. A very VERY healthy thing. It should be encouraged, nurtured, so that it blooms into a Virus, maybe even an epidemic, so that it has the maximum number of people infected.

Whenever I have caught the bug, I have emerged as a stronger, faster or simply a better me. And sure after a while the bug passes on, yet the after-effects linger infact they stick with you for a lifetime. Pay attention when something catches your interest which is beyond a mere fancy. Infact each time you have a bug, it’s a gift from the gods. Go all out. The energy that is generated with a bug, is beyond human strength. It comes from a realm that is beyond our five senses. It permeates into our world and it’s the chosen few that it reaches. Make the most of it. Cause it’ll last only for a short while. Invest every possible resource you have to make the best of that bug. It doesn’t have to be a hobby like the one I listed above. It can be a bug for family, entrepreneurship, and believe it or not, even your job. Thank the gods, load your weapon and go out your guns blazing.Similar Posts:

Quit Whining.

arif — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 05:09:01 +0000

“Have the guts to change things if you find that necessary.”
- Emory BullardSimilar Posts:

Sufi Comics: How to pray to God

Mohammed Ali — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 01:21:59 +0000

Sufi Comics: How to pray to God

I often find it difficult to concentrate during prayers. The mind wanders about from one thought to another, and then I complain “why doesn’t God answer my prayers?”. Perhaps the problem is not with God not answering, but the way I’m asking.

During prayer, instead thinking that God is somewhere high up in the sky, we should pray by whispering softly to Him knowing that He is very close to us and loves to hear our Prayers.

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How the Muse teases, chauffeuring her Train of Thought.

arif — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 05:07:57 +0000

“I had this encounter recently where I met the extraordinary American poet Ruth Stone, who’s now in her 90s, but she’s been a poet her entire life and she told me that when she was growing up in rural Virginia, she would be out working in the fields, and she said she would feel and hear a poem coming at her from over the landscape.

And she said it was like a thunderous train of air. And it would come barreling down at her over the landscape. And she felt it coming, because it would shake the earth under her feet. She knew that she had only one thing to do at that point, and that was to, in her words, “run like hell.” And she would run like hell to the house and she would be getting chased by this poem, and the whole deal was that she had to get to a piece of paper and a pencil fast enough so that when it thundered through her, she could collect it and grab it on the page.

And other times she wouldn’t be fast enough, so she’d be running and running and running, and she wouldn’t get to the house and the poem would barrel through her and she would miss it and she said it would continue on across the landscape, looking, as she put it “for another poet.” And then there were these times—this is the piece I never forgot—she said that there were moments where she would almost miss it, right? So, she’s running to the house and she’s looking for the paper and the poem passes through her, and she grabs a pencil just as it’s going through her, and then she said, it was like she would reach out with her other hand it. She and she would pull it backwards into her body as she was transcribing on the page. And in these instances, the poem would come up on the page perfect and intact but backwards, from the last word to the first.”

from Steven Pressfield’s Blog, who got it from Elizabeth Gilbert’s TED Talk on Nurturing Creativity.Similar Posts:

Its’ the Thought that counts

arif — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 04:15:43 +0000

“An hour of effective, precise, hard, disciplined and integrated thinking can be worth a month of hard work. Thinking is the very essence of, and the most difficult thing to do in, business and life. Empire builders spend hour-after-hour on mental work… while others party. If you’re not consciously aware of putting forth the effort to exert self-guided integrated thinking… if you don’t act beyond your feelings and you take the path of least resistance, then you’re giving in to laziness and no longer control your life.” – David Kekich

What a brilliant Quote. The crazy lives that we lead these days leaves us so little time to think. Do you have thinking time marked out in your calendar? But even if you have taken your time out, what do you think about? Should you let your mind go racing behind whatever mental rabbit trail that it comes across or should you have a structured format through which you should apply your mind to? Here are some tips in random order to help you Think More and Think Effectively:

1. Take a Walk. Every once in a while, stroll alone. Be it the Mall, a Park. or just the High Street. Have no agenda, no friends, no nothing. Just you, yourself and 40 minutes of just allowing your mind to wander where ever it wants to.

2. The Write way to Think. Visit a cafe alone. It’s one of the most relaxing and therapeutic exercise you can do during a stressful day. Don’t take a book with you. And for Heaven’s sake don’t lug that laptop. However do take a notebook (once again not the laptop kind, but the old fashioned one with paper in them) with you. And liberally list out, whatever thought occurs to you. It might be something that you need to do today. It might be some strong hostility that you are feeling towards someone, whatever it is just keep that pen scratching that paper. While you are scribbling stuff out, build the thoughts already put on paper. So for example if you have put down the anger you feel towards somebody, think, why is it that you feel this anger? Put that answer down. Next you may consider, what is it that you can do about the situation, well then put down your options. The Rule here is not to write all this out neatly in calligraphic style but more about the quality of the answer as well as the speed in getting those thoughts down real fast. Keep at it, and an hour later of this thinking and you will emerge a much more focused, confident, stronger You.

3. Think about the Purpose of your Life.

This is my all-time favourite question. I just can’t get enough of it. Me and Ali are always thinking on this question.
Think on Why you are here? What’s the meaning of it all?
Think what is it that will give you the greatest fulfilment, meaning, satisfaction and happiness right now?
Then Think what is it that you need to do to today to move closer towards experiencing that fulfilment and meaning?
Think, How would you be leading your life if you had just six more months to live?

5. Think long term Goals.
Where do you see yourself 2 to 3 years from now?
Where do you see yourself in your Professional Life? In your Career. Any new skills that you feel you should add to your arsenal that would be essential a couple of years from now? Any new experience that you should go through?
What about goals for your family life? For your Children? Skills that they should be acquiring now, that they’ll thank you for a decade later? (On that note, read this post on Six Wonderful Skills that I am glad I picked up after School.)
What about any new hobbies that you’ve been thinking of acquiring but haven’t got round to? Some sport that you always wanted to play or some classes that you wanted to attend?

6. Think through your short term projects
If you are already in sync with your long term goals but it’s the out come of your Short Term Projects that are bothering you, take time to think through them. A Project is any activity that takes more than one step to complete. Projects could include getting your child to School, changing something that’s bothering you in your car, or getting a car, or getting that report out at work, all of these activities have more than one step to it. Take time to make a list of all the projects that you are currently handling and what do you next need to do about them.

7. Think of the different roles you are playing in your Life.
Think through the different roles that you play in your life. Your role as a Father or Mother, your role at work as an Executive or an Administrtor, your role as a Husband and Wife. How are you doing in these roles? What changes would you like to bring?

8. Think about habits, thoughts processes that you want to acquire and change.
This is another thing that I’m thinking about constantly. Think about how you are thinking. Are you mostly negative? Beating yourself up all the time? Regretting on how the Past should have been and Worrying how the future will turn out? You know you have complete control on your thoughts. You choose what to think all the time. A little bit of reflection and you can choose to think differently.

Similar take time to reflect on your Habits. What habits you’re proud of and like to keep. Feel good about those and pat yourself on your back. Now what are those that can be done away with or can be changed? Make a note of it, and pick any one habit to start working on.

9. Think of the wonderful creation that our world is.
A Quote from Hadith-e-Muffadal:

The sky is like a canopy; the earth is spread like a carpet, while the stars set in stratum upon stratum, appear as lamps alight in their places. The gems are treasured as if the house has lots of collections. Besides these, everything is readily available to meet individual needs. Man, in this world, is like the masterful owner of the house, having in his possession everything therein.

And there exist the different plant species available for meeting; individual needs – some as fodder for the animals, others as drugs for human beings; some merely for ornaments, some to supply fragrance to man for his recreation; some as drugs for animals, some as nutriment for man; some for birds only and others for the quadrupeds alone and so on. Different species of animals have been allotted functions for particular exigencies and interest.

10. And most importantly, Think of the Poverty, Oppression that’s there in the World today. What can you do about it? What ARE you doing about it?

We are the luckiest people that ever lived; we have abundantly and manifestly the capacity to address human problems if we care.
It is a matter of vision and courage and compassion.- RAMSEY CLARK, former United States Attorney General.

Watch your thoughts,
they become your actions,

watch your actions,
they become your habits

watch your habits,
they become your character,

watch your character,
it becomes your destiny.
~ Anonymous

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Being Happy is as simple as this

arif — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 05:02:04 +0000

Thanks Tina.

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