This is the tenth 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).

6/17/2004

After waking up we headed straight for my cousins house. Her
siblings all migrated to the U.S.
and Canada. Her
husband owns a company which exports jeans. He had a really huge house which he
shares with his parents and siblings. He had an armed guard who opened the gate
for us. He didn’t have a wimpy pistol, he had a huge semi-automatic rifle. Her
husband was not very talkative, although he did seem really religious. We took
pictures with her cute little kids. Then we went to two of my aunts homes which
were inside of a masjid. One of my aunts husbands is the imam of the masjid.
From their house you could climb up into the tower from where the adhaan is
given. We went up there to chill. There was a really nice breeze there, since
it was high up. I also finally met my cousin Atif who is studying to become an
alim. My mother had told him a lot about me. So he asks me a lot about what I
am doing and what the organization that I work with stands for. I guess he
wanted to know my aqeedah was, ha… or if I was a part of a sect or something. I
also asked him about what he was studying. He is Hafiz-ul Qur’an and he studied
multiple tafaseer. It turned out that in fiqh they were studying only Hanafi
fiqh. And the tafseer that they studied were from various Indian scholars. It
sort of made sense, but at the same time it was strange. The world is moving
towards becoming a global village. For Indian scholars to say that their brand
of Islamic thought is so developed that just concentrating on studying it by
itself is enough for its students of knowledge is strange to me. But then again
I come from a place where we are exposed to everything. I asked him if they
ever study comparative fiqh on specific issues. He said they do, and he
emphasized that they are taught to respect the other opinions and accept them
as valid opinions. We also had a long talk about priorities within Islam. He
asked me what my analysis was of Islam in Pakistan.
And I told him that I think it is very secular. I said that people have
abandoned Islam, and have left it in the masjid, and have run away from it,
thinking that the closer you are to it, the less material success you will
have. And the religious molvis have captured the masjids and are ruling them by
these same standards by making the application of Islam totally irrelevant to a
person living in this day and age by endorsing a very linear thought which does
away with all technological/modern issues with one word: haraam! And secondly
have focused on the most unusual aspects of faith: its external embodiment. He
totally agreed with me and gave me examples of the very points I was making. It
was really interesting that he asked me what my analysis was, because that’s
exactly what I was doing during the course of my entire trip. I was trying to
analyze the application of Islam in the country. Later on that night our eldest
cousin along with his wife and kids took us out to eat. We went to a really
nice restaurant called “Village” where rich Pakistani people dine. Due to my
stomach being really messed up all I had was chicken soup which was really
good. They had all sorts of food and it was set up buffet style. You could see
the chefs running around with trays of food. There was live music which was men
singing while playing the accordion, which was pretty funny. I took a picture
of that. They had waiters who served the drinks and handled refills. We had a
good time. Atifs brother Asif was also with us, who is one of my favorite
cousins. That night we swung by my grandfathers house so my father could have a
small meeting with him. My parents are always thinking that he is going to pass
away soon because of his health. So they try to meet him as often as possible. Oh
yeah at my aunts house (one of the two) has a son who sings naat! So I made him
do one in English, it was hilarious! On Friday at the masjid after Isha they do
naat for hours and the whole neighborhood can hear over loud speakers.   

Pictures from this segment of the trip:

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Filed under: Pakistan Journal