This is the sixth journal entry in a series of about 15 which I wrote over a three week period while I was in Pakistan this summer. If you go to the category Pakistan Journal you can see all the entries. There are some really interesting experiences and observations which I make throughout the trip(or well at least in my opinion).

6/13/04

Alhumdulilah my sister is married now, so you know what that means! I’m next hehe. I haven’t been able to write in a few days since I’ve been having a lot of stomach problems. I went to the printers place on the 10th. I spent most of my day with the brother who runs the business. It turns out Shahid Bai mentored him when he was younger and helped him join a Muslim youth group. Wow, What a coincidence.

A crazy situation took place while I was at the printer’s office. My stomach was hurting. I had to keep going to the bathroom after I would eat or drink anything. So I am sitting there and all of a sudden I really had to go. So I asked the brother to show me where the bathroom was. His office was basically in a storefront inside of a small building. So there was a public bathroom there for all of the workers. So he takes me, I do my thing and when I came out he’s standing there. I wondered why he waited for me. So I go back to the office and sit down and I immediately feel the need to do more of my thing. So I tell him now that I know where it is (on another floor) I can go by myself. So I head up there. I go into this one room, its like how we have stalls, they’re just small rooms next to each other. This room was different from the one I original went in. There were no hooks to hang up my clothes. So I was like damn, so I come out trying to find another available room. I go into another one and there are hooks in that one. So I think let me test out the faucet (which is used to fill/refill the lota) to make sure it works before I get stuck in there with no water. I realize that it’s leaking. The knob is made of plastic… I try turning it… and all this water comes gushing out at me (the knob flew out). And I am jumping around in there trying not to get wet. I can’t put it back in… The pressure from the water kept pushing it out! So I come out and look around to see if anyone can help. But everyone is busy doing their thing. So I ask this guy to help me. He comes in and he starts fixing it. I really had to go badly at this point. So as another room becomes vacant I go in there… But there’s no hooks! So I just say forget it. I come out and there is this area with a bunch of sinks. It’s just like a wudu area. I wash my hands and then I’m like standing around thinking how stupid I will look if I don’t go now and go downstairs then have to go again and have to run back up. Then all of a sudden the man who fixed the faucet says to me “Dou Rupee Nikal” which literally means “take out two rupees”. It’s like when you go to high school in Brooklyn and someone says to you “run your pockets son” or “Give me a quarter”. Was I being robbed? Was the guy just a bum? I had a 5 rupee bill so I just said “Take 5” and I bounced. I had like $700 American on me, the last thing I wanted to do is get robbed in a Pakistani bathroom. So I come down and tell the brother about what happened and he laughed. I think it was him who told me that guy cleans the bathroom (by his own will) and expects people to pay him for providing them a clean extcretionary experience. The brother said “You will find a lot of people like this in Pakistan”.

I felt really good that day because the brother told me a lot about the existing state of Islamic Work in Karachi. The mayor of the city is from an Islamic party. And Karachi is the most crime ridden city in Pakistan. The city leadership has been in the hands of the people who have caused the most amounts of problems. Life expectancy here is lower than the other parts of Pakistan because of the horrible standard of living. There is garbage everywhere! Some of the streets smell like sewage. And there is so much pollution. And I thought that New York City was dirty. It’s nothing compared to this! So the brother was literally showing me all the good work that has been done since the new mayor came in 2 years ago. He showed me specific roads which had been paved. He showed me current construction efforts to reduce overcrowding on roads. They demolished these side sidewalks to expand the roads to add more lanes. I got to appreciate Muslims (real Muslims) participating in government actually working for change and improving their society.

I had a  discussion with some brothers on the effects of colonization on the Muslim World. They were comparing the few lands which underwent little to no occupation in the Muslim World to the rest of it. Alhumdulilah I finally had found level headed Muslims in Pakistan! Until this point I had only come across secularist extremists. Some who abandon the deen, and others who manipulate it or don’t do justice to it. i.e. the molvis in the masjid which have marginalized the purpose, function, and real vision of Islam. And have perverted its application to a set of rituals.

The next day, the 11th was Jummah. My stomach had gotten worse but I was looking forward to hearing the khutbah at the Brailvi Masjid (which is pretty bad)… In these last 2 days (Thursday and Friday) Pakistan was really reminding me of hell. Since all these pakis would be going to hell (JUST KIDDING). But the extreme heat was killing us. My mother forced me to stay where she was staying for a few nights. The place was horribly designed. I felt like I was suffocating to death. The only thing that helped me was knowing that inshallah I would be going home in 2 weeks. So when I go to Jummah my stomach is hurting, the heat is really extreme and its causing me to feel really sick. Then the Imam gives the khutbah (or Baiyan I should say) on the topics of the virtues of praying in the masjid, praying, and praying while wearing a Topee and never praying without a Topee. This is the masjid with the loaners. When he started making stuff up I started feeling sicker and angrier. He said if you pray in the masjid on time all your problems in this world will go away. Your business will thrive etc etc. Which is not true. Then he starts saying “What good is your prayer if you are not wearing a Topee?” His khutbah should have been entitled: “Namaz Paro, Topee Pano” which means make prayer and wear a Topee. I only believed the things which he said that I already knew and I discarded everything else. After Jummah I was feeling really sick, I walked with my cousin really far, we were looking for a cold bottle of 7 up. But we had to settle for Pepsi. Since it was Jummah everything was closed. Which was cool. Oh yeah the Imam would sing Hadith in Urdu! It was hilarious! Every time he would say something about the prophet he would sing it! So funny, man it was scary when the entire crowded masjid would do the thing with the kissing of the hands and rubbing of the eye brows during the adhaan. I was complaining to my cousin about the khutbah saying how these molvis just want people to come pray at the masjid. They think that is Islam. The masajid there are only used for prayer and for nothing else. There is no such thing as a Muslim community here, because the people think they are already living in an Islamic State, which is ridiculous. Any Islamic parties or Jamaahs here are branded as sects or as political nuisances. The sects part is true. But I think that the non-sectarian Islamic Jamaahs get a really bad rap because of the common molvis in the corner masjids which have nothing to do with them. Also politics are seen as being dirty and un-islamic. So an “Islamic Party” seems oxymoronic to these people. Then again only 40% of them are literate. The common person here has issues with or misconceptions of the Islamic Work that is taking place in the country. The more educated people are, the better their understanding is of Islam, which makes so much sense since this religion revolved around ilm. I hate to “sound Salafi” but the more these people blindly follow the more lost they are from their true purpose of creation.

After Jummah the brother from the print shop picked me up and took me to eat lunch where I had a discussion with some good Muslim Youth. Every conscious Muslim that I met in Pakistan had the same question for me. They wanted to know how it was possible for Muslims in America to propagate Islam without being persecuted. The reason they asked this question is because from observing our Foreign Policy they came to the conclusion that our country hates Islam and wants to eradicate it from the globe. So based on this perception they were almost shocked to know that Muslims are openly propagating Islam and are building their own communities in America. I explained to them that although we do feel that our community is being unfairly targeted by individuals with certain agendas against us. Overall in society we have our place and have our freedom to practice and even spread our religion. I hope this would help to lessen their Anti-American sentiments and give them a more realistic view of how things work in the West. This must have been the best day of my trip.

I also learned that there was a historical conflict (over the past 20 years) in the city of Karachi where Muslim Student Organizations clashed with a certain organized street gang/political group called MQM/APMSO. The street gang had resorted to using violence and killing people. The Media blamed the Muslim Student groups as well for fueling the conflict. Due to this Muslim Student Groups had this really bad rep (which won’t go away) and had to work really hard to fix their public image by doing solid community based Islamic Work i.e. creating Children’s Islamic Magazines, and offering classes in computer technology.

When I got back to where I was staying that night I was all happy till I saw that the Jamaati hating Auntie had come over. She immediately went off again. She was like “All these Jamaatis have cable at home” (as if having cable is haram- besides who knows how true that even is). And she starts her ranting and raving. So this time I start arguing with her and start shutting her down. I asked the auntie if she had read any “Jamaati” literature and if she ever found anything wrong in it. She said “No”. So then I was done arguing.

The next day (the 12th) was the wedding day. I went to my uncle’s house and napped for most of the day. I was staying at my cousin’s house on the night before it was so hot that I slept on the roof. The next morning my father and I went out trying to find bananas. Since Pakistanis have such a hard time sleeping due to extreme heat their businesses do not open till 11 AM. Plus when the electricity goes out (which is every few hours) the ceiling fans don’t work. I hear Saudi is worse than this (somehow). I don’t think I’ve ever been in such a harsh climate before. Later on we go back out to search for bananas again. But first I go to get a haircut. There is this guy who has a make shift barber shop under a tree. He had his wires for his trimmer wrapped around tree branches. When he was trimming my beard I had to lean back on this chair which was really uncomfortable. There were flies all over the place since there were people selling fruit not too far from there. Then we bought bananas and headed for my uncle’s house. On the way we had to walk through this street which I call “the garbage street”. I felt like I was walking in a landfill. Just thinking about how low the standard of living was… I was becoming sick. My father ate a banana and tossed the peel into the street. I became really angry and I started going off on him (without raising my voice or being rude). He tried to justify it by saying he wasn’t adding to the problem because it couldn’t get any worse. I told him he had just made it worse. I used to think NYC was really filthy. But now I know what filth is. All I was thinking is “cleanliness is a part of Imaan” and these people criticize the West but the West would be more suitable for the actual inculcation of Imaan. Sure we have adhaan on loud speakers and people wear beards, turbans, and Topees. But where is the true essence of the deen? Why isn’t it reflected in the streets? Why is it confined to the masajid? Why do these people expect the government to clean up after their mess? Sure they need a better sanitation system but don’t they realize that the are making themselves sick by littering like this? The issue of air pollution maybe beyond the individual but the issue of litter is absolutely not. Haven’t these people heard of garbage cans? Even in their homes they might have like one small basket in a huge house. There are no garbage cans on the streets. Do these people think that this type of waste will evaporate? In some respects these people are medieval.

Finally the wedding. It was scheduled to happen at 8 PM but people were not expected to enter until 11 PM!! The groom did not get there till about 12! Dinner was at like 1 AM! And the photo shoots took another 2 hours! When people talk about Desi Standard Time I thought that it was a stereotype, it definitely is not. People don’t even come to their offices on time. We had this molvi do the nikkah khutbah, he said if his picture was taken or if the cameramen pointed their cameras at him he would run away. I thought he was nuts. It’s good that he is firm on his beliefs but he needs to wake up. These anti-technology molvis are living in the past. No object is halal or haraam it’s the usage that needs to be look at. I wonder what they think of Quran TV. Oh yeah I forgot cable is haram, so Quran TV must be haram by default.

I realized that in America the Desi Muslim community is no longer hanafi (in the Pakistani hanafi purest sense). Since many of these people blindly follow, they were just following what was happening in their masajid oversees. Now they follow what they see in their masajid in America. In America since we have a mesh of the various schools of thought we have a pretty assimilated application of fiqh. What’s being implemented in all the masajid is various fiqh. So Muslim see Muslim do. Quite frankly from being here I now know for sure I am not a hanafi and Pakistani-hanafi application  is very irritating to me. Reason being that priorities are given to all the wrong things i.e. the Topee. Imam Abu Hanifah was so dynamic. He was a scholar of Ahlul Ray. He always analyzed issues before forming judgments. His example is rejected in his own name over here! Its time for Zuhr now. So I need to be out soon.

Pictures from this segment of the trip:

[img=http://www.azeemkhan.info/images/pakistan/34.jpg width=100 height=100] [img=http://www.azeemkhan.info/images/pakistan/35.jpg width=100 height=100] [img=http://www.azeemkhan.info/images/pakistan/36.jpg width=100 height=100] [img=http://www.azeemkhan.info/images/pakistan/37.jpg width=100 height=100] [img=http://www.azeemkhan.info/images/pakistan/38.jpg width=100 height=100] [img=http://www.azeemkhan.info/images/pakistan/39.jpg width=100 height=100] [img=http://www.azeemkhan.info/images/pakistan/40.jpg width=100 height=100] [img=http://www.azeemkhan.info/images/pakistan/41.jpg width=100 height=100] [img=http://www.azeemkhan.info/images/pakistan/42.jpg width=100 height=100] [img=http://www.azeemkhan.info/images/pakistan/43.jpg width=100 height=100] [img=http://www.azeemkhan.info/images/pakistan/44.jpg width=100 height=100] [img=http://www.azeemkhan.info/images/pakistan/45.jpg width=100 height=100] [img=http://www.azeemkhan.info/images/pakistan/46.jpg width=100 height=100] [img=http://www.azeemkhan.info/images/pakistan/47.jpg width=100 height=100] [img=http://www.azeemkhan.info/images/pakistan/48.jpg width=100 height=100] [img=http://www.azeemkhan.info/images/pakistan/49.jpg width=100 height=100] [img=http://www.azeemkhan.info/images/pakistan/50.jpg width=100 height=100] [img=http://www.azeemkhan.info/images/pakistan/51.jpg width=100 height=100] [img=http://www.azeemkhan.info/images/pakistan/52.jpg width=100 height=100] [img=http://www.azeemkhan.info/images/pakistan/53.jpg width=100 height=100] [img=http://www.azeemkhan.info/images/pakistan/54.jpg width=100 height=100] [img=http://www.azeemkhan.info/images/pakistan/55.jpg width=100 height=100] [img=http://www.azeemkhan.info/images/pakistan/56.jpg width=100 height=100] [img=http://www.azeemkhan.info/images/pakistan/57.jpg width=100 height=100] [img=http://www.azeemkhan.info/images/pakistan/58.jpg width=100 height=100] [img=http://www.azeemkhan.info/images/pakistan/59.jpg width=100 height=100]

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Filed under: Pakistan Journal