Time Flies

Wow.

It's 2009. April. For some reason i think i'm stuck in the year 2000.....maybe because such a big thing was made of it that this year, as opposed to 2003 or 2007 or some other random year sticks in my mind. But its been NINE years since 2000...!!

I haven't written anything in this deceased blog so far this year. In all of 2008, i think i only wrote a few things..! And yet this is not due to lack of crazy things happening.

What has spurred me onto writing again..? Yes...the resurgency of Stormy786....lol

I do have a lot to say......the global economic crisis, the collapse of Lehman Brothers..! My new job, my stint in Bahrain, move to Saudi...and many many other things... ;-)

I know i've had lots of "comebacks", but maybe this one is for real.....we'll see inshaAllah

Salaams

Blast from the past...!

Well well well.....look who it is........


Yes, the round the world antics and resurgent blogging of stormy786 has galvanised me into returning to the world of blogging....and you my poor readers...who i dare say rarely visit this site anymore (and who can blame you after having suffered so badly at my hands..!) have had to put up with random once-every-four-month-posts from me.....well Again its been a ROLLER COASTER of a few months............. ;-p......................but I AM BACK !! And i will repay you dearly o faithful remaining readers.....MUUAHAHAHAHAHAH......


Its far too late to write anything sensible now though, so i'll leave you with a very sensible alternate Xmas speech from someone who can sometimes be quite sensible... Mr Ahmadinejad


Until next time,
Salaams

Jibber Jabber

It's a saturday. It's Ramadan. And i'm at work.

:-(


Yes, even though it Is several months since i last wrote something, this is all you get...!


Salaams.

WIEF

Salaams Habibis.

I hope and pray all is well in the lives of my readers, inshaAllah.

Just thought i'd write a quick post regarding my attendance of the 4th World Islamic Economic Forum (WIEF) in Kuwait as part of the British delegation with the Muslim Council of Britain.

Alhamdulilla 34 people were present as part of the UK delegation and attended the 4 day event at the end of April. The reason behind the event was to do an Islamic versino of the World Economic Forum where lots of world leaders come to discuss the issues of the day and how things can be solved, but WIEFF, it was primarilly Muslim countries being represented. There was also a great opportunity to network with random people froma cross the world and to see how Muslims around the world are fairing.

Personally i went just to check out the event - to see how these things work, if there is much benefit to be had etc. Alhamdulilla, in all i think the event itself was pretty interesting. the speakers, which included the likes of Blair, King Abdulla, Hamid Karzai as well as many prominant businessmen spoke of the need for muslim countries to invest in their economies, allow multi-nationals to come in, etc. The networking opportunities were also good, although i think it was more useful for people involved in buisness (eg import/export etc) than random people like myself.


ANYWAY, the biggest thing to come from the event was not event based, but the plight of immigrant workers in Kuwait. Generally, even amongst arabs, Kuwait seems to have a very bad reputation in terms of the people and how they treat others. But the treatment i saw there was really shockign but also very saddening that it was from a Muslim country. Anyway below is a letter that someone from our delegation penned to the Kuwaiti Embassy in London which i think describes everything.

May Allah bring humility into all of us and enable us to treat others as we would want to be treated. Ameen.

Salaam

--------------------

Dear Sir,

We were very fortunate to visit Kuwait as part of the UK delegation to the 4th World Islamic Economic Forum held in Kuwait City 28th April to 1st May. Congratulations on holding a very successful conference.

We had the opportunity to see and visit many of the famous landmarks in Kuwait City, such as the Kuwait Towers and Masjid Al-Kabir.

During our travels, we encountered many workers from the Indian sub-continent and primarily from Bangladesh. We learnt a great deal of information about life in Kuwait and the truly cosmoplitan nature of the ex-patriate community residing in Kuwait, engaged in numerous professions, and making an excellent contributon to the well functioning of the Kuwaiti economy.
However, one theme that we heard repeatedly from numerous Bangladeshi workers is the alleged maltreatment of the Bangladeshi low skilled labour force. Amongst other things, we were told about:

- Very low pay, KD25/KD30 monthly salary.
- Salaries are not paid regularly, often being paid once every 3/4 months; and even then, only for one month's work, despite being in arrears for several months
- Workers being paid through their bank accounts, but often the employer maintains control of their cash withdrawal card and only allows them to withdraw part of the salary i.e. lower than the official amount
- General degrading and mistreatment by their employers

According to these low-skilled workers, other ex-patriate professionals and the Bangladesi high commission staff, some Bangladeshis are engaged in illegal activities. However, they feel that the whole community of 240,000 Bangladeshis are judged and treated through the same degrading lens based on the actions of a few. Indeed whilst we were in Kuwait we read a front page article in the Kuwait Times newspaper quoting a parliamentory candiate advocating the deportation of all Bangladeshis from Kuwait. Some of those we spoke to offered an explanation for some of the illegal activity that Bangladeshis are involved in: because they are often pushed to the limit and are without a basic level of subsistance, due to being unpaid, they are more likely to become engaged in illegal activities to support themselves and their families; and when engaged in such activities it becomes a self perpetuating vicious circle, causing harm to them, their families and of course to the Kuwaiti society.

We have found in our country when dealing with the causes of urban decay and crime in London and other major cities, that treating people justly, ensuring equal and fair access to justice, giving all people a stake in society through forms of civic participation, educating people about and taking measures against forms of prejudice, racism and discrimination, creating hope and supporting good citizenship, all make a real difference to tackling crime and promoting urban regeneration. We have found that people generally like to give back to society when they feel valued as a member of society and it is when they feel disenfranchised, alienated and deprived that they engage in uncivic activities and display the worst of human characteristics.
As your excellency and your government is very well aware, we now live in a knowledge based world economy. Our government in the UK and many other leading European and US governments have recognised this as a key determinant of the future prosperity of our economy and our nations.

Accordingly, we have enacted laws that invite the very best talent from all over the world to be able to come and seek employment in the UK in key sectors of our economy. We are well aware that Kuwait too has an open policy to attract talented professionals from around the world. We would like to draw your attention to the fact that there are now many more opportunities for top talents from around the world who can seek opportunities in Europe, US and Canada on an un-precedented scale. In the battle for the very best talent that all competitive economies of the world are seeking, quality of life, standing in society, level of acceptance by the indigenous population and the long term settlement opportunities will increasingly become the deciding factors in the choice of top employment country destinations. As friends of the state of Kuwait, we would like to politely draw your attention to these trends.

To our sadness, when we engaged local Kuwaiti citizens on these issues, their general reply was that the plight of the maltreated ex-patriate workers is not a major issue or a priority for Kuwait. Instead, they insisted that many Bangladeshis are inherently criminally inclined. They generally refused to give attention to our suggestion that the problems are rooted in much wider social issues and cannot be dealt with unless the underlying social and economic causes are addressed robustly.

We do not believe that this is the policy of the State of Kuwait. We further believe that the State of Kuwait sincerely believes in the universal value of equality of all people, and that justice, meritocracy and good conduct are some of the key defining priciples for standing in society.
We would very much like to hear back from you regarding the Kuwaiti government's views on the issues highlighted above. Furthermore, we would like to hear from your excellency details of the steps that your government is taking to address these issues.

We very much look forward to receiving your reply.

Yours faithfully.

"When you hear hoofbeats think of a zebra"

Salaams.

A book i'm (trying) to read at the moment

A nice review below...will give my own thoughts on it when i'm done..inshaAllah.

In your prayers please.
Salaams.


----------------------------


Shems Friedlander, designer, pedagogue, academic, poet, filmmaker, and photographer has produced a thought-provoking volume in ‘When You Hear Hoofbeats, Think of a Zebra’. His extensive travels combined with a profound understanding of the spiritual dimension of Islam render him a most able guide towards the elusive domain of self-knowledge. A noble and essential goal, for Imam Ali has said “Whosoever knows himself knows his Lord.”

The title of the book neatly encapsulates its aims; our total immersion in the dunya has conditioned us to imagine horses when thinking of hoofbeats. Friedlander’s objective is to encourage the reader to see things in a different manner – akin to lateral thinking, but exercising the heart and not the mind. To achieve this, Friedlander punctuates his readable text with stories. Daniel Goleman, one of the key proponents of EQ (emotional quotient), says of stories, they ‘have a unique power, an ability to make their points without marshalling the mental resistance that more sharply reasoned rational appeals often raise. Knowledge is best transmitted through rational means, speaking directly to the mind. But wisdom strikes to the heart when it is carried in a tale.’ The late Idries Shah was instrumental in introducing this predominantly Eastern art form to the Western audience via the ‘exploits of the incomparable Mulla Nasruddin’.

The realisation that ancient methods of instruction have something concrete to offer the modern world of fuzzy logic is illustrated by a recent paper published in the British Medical Journal, ‘The power of stories over statistics’. The author ponders why stories are so powerful and suggests two reasons: a biologically hardwired predilection of the brain for stories (compared to other forms of input) and the role of the storyteller. How many times have you sat through a lesson or a lecture and emerged with little to show for it? Yet on other occasions either because of a particularly quirky or gifted narrator, or due to the resonance of a particular analogy, the relevant point can be recalled vividly. Goleman sees the methodology as ‘the antidote to what has been called “psychosclerosis”, hardening of the attitudes.’

The book is divided into twelve sections: eleven brief expositions and a ‘gift’ from the author in the form of a letter from Imam Ali to his son extracted from Nahj al-Balagha. Each section presents new concepts but maintains a degree of repetition enabling the reader to constantly revisit the author’s core themes: Allah (swt) and death.

The author urges us to be mindful of Allah (swt) and proposes that the only means to do so is to interrupt the monotony of our lives by introducing adventure. This is not necessarily in the form of jungle-trekking and white-water rafting, but to a much milder degree. Our days can tend towards a repetitiveness which desensitises us to creation. These Groundhog days ensure we lose our connection with our Creator, who manifests Himself through creation. By stepping back and doing things even slightly differently, we can re-establish the ontological chain that connects everything with God, and reawaken ourselves to His presence.

The author tells us of an old dervish he once met in Madinah who told him that ‘life is a gift that consists of three days and two are gone’. It is with such simple yet multivalent anecdotes that Friedlander gives impetus to the text and immediately follows this jolting of the heart with practical measures that can be readily implemented. Thus he moves spirituality from the world of intellectualisation – chin-rubbing and beard-stroking – to the world of pragmatism and action. The work is impregnated with hadith and axioms of scholars, giving the charm a seal of authenticity.

A descendant of the Prophet (saw) is reported to have said ‘Worship is not merely frequent prayers and fasting. True worship is contemplation on Divine matters’. Friedlander appreciates the value of such wisdom and emphasises that ‘action is not just five prayers a day’. However, the author also appreciates that this is easier said than done, especially with the dunya forever presenting new charms to lure people back to their old ways. ‘If we can just say, “I’m turning on the television, and the television is turning me off”, how long will we watch?’ He does not advocate a monastic lifestyle of seclusion, but urges restraint from total detachment from reality. It may surprise you to note that the psychophysiologist Thomas Mulholland has found ‘that after just 30 seconds of watching television the brain begins to produce alpha waves [that] are associated with unfocused, overly receptive states of consciousness… In fact, Mulholland's research implies that watching television is neurologically analogous to staring at a blank wall.’

Perhaps the most engaging aspect of the book is its advice regarding relationships with others, which are classified as private, personal or professional. We all realise that the most important sphere is the private – reserved for those dearest to us, foremost of which is Allah (swt) – yet we spend the most time in the other spheres. Friedlander suggests means of redistributing this subconscious misallocation. Central to the thesis is the need to appreciate creation – including fellow humans – in order to truly love the Creator. Others act as vital mirrors of our own qualities. A notion that culminates in our own souls reflecting the Divine attributes. Key to this is abolition of the ego via the correct use of words. There is a reason ‘why Allah has placed our words in a mouth that imprisons them by rows of teeth, hard teeth that clamp shut. And lips that seal the mouth.’

I found the book enlightening and have since re-read it, a gesture previously reserved for William Dalrymple. Inevitably, a review can serve only to whet the appetite or sour the palate, but as a final note, any book that draws to your attention the fact that the palmar creases on your hands spell 81 and 18 in Arabic numerals, which amount to 99, and yet we continue to perform misdeeds with these same hands is surely worthy of at least a cursory perusal and maybe even of becoming a companion for life.

Fifty Six

SONNET 56

Sweet love, renew thy force; be it not said
Thy edge should blunter be than appetite,
Which but to-day by feeding is allay'd,
To-morrow sharpen'd in his former might:
So, love, be thou; although to-day thou fill
Thy hungry eyes even till they wink with fullness,
To-morrow see again, and do not kill
The spirit of love with a perpetual dullness.
Let this sad interim like the ocean be*
Which parts the shore, where two contracted new
Come daily to the banks, that, when they see
Return of love, more blest may be the view;
Else call it winter, which being full of care
Makes summer's welcome thrice more wish'd, more rare.

-*-*-

نـاظراً حـالي أنـا أرث ِ لحـالي والمـقـام
أطرقت رأسي وجرى دمعي على خدي وراح



هل تعلمون مشاعري دفـاقـةٌ عنـد الختـام
ماذا ترى يا صاحبي هل تتركونا والسلام


جفنــي إذا أغمضتــه أبصرت صحبي لا أنام
يا صاحبي أنت الصديق وأنت خـــــلــي لـلأنـــــام



إن يحجبوك عن العيون لأنت فـي جـفـنـي تـنــام
إنـي أحبـــك يــا أخــي في الله لا أخشى الملام


كـنـــا سـويــــاً دائــــمــا واليـوم قـد فــك الخـطـام
اليوم نترككم ولكن صــوتــكــم فـي الأذن دام

Rollercoaster

My Dears, it has been a long time since i conversed with you all...?

Muchos apologies for this since work and life and life and work have denied me the time to spend with you which you desere.

As ever lots of activities on my side....a trip to Qatar and Abu Dhabi (pics on facebook), craziness at work (leading to a 400page report..!), some personal mourning, regained fitness, CFA II starting and lots more......but what doesn't kill us makes us stronger...? If you get through it that is.

Thus is the uniqeness of life - that everything that happens, good and bad, adds different dimensions to our character, makes us who we are and takes us down one path rather than another. The film "Sliding Doors" is a favourate for me due to its concept ; the two completely different lives a woman leads, one where she catches the train (and gets home to see her husband with another woman) and the other life when she misses the train and doesn't catch her husband.

Who knows? say if Adolf Hitler had a loving upbringing and had a certain group of friends rather than another and so on, would he have turned out the way he did? If you could travel back in time and met him say when he was 21, would you "take him out" knowing what he would end up doing? The butterfly effect.

Being able to cope with the richness, the vitality, the vivaciousness of LIFE itself can sometimes seem daunting initself. But the fact we are capable of all this, good things, bad things, to ourself, to others, is truely a sign for those who ponder.

Learn and Live.


Happy Valentines Day
Salaam.

Choo Choo...

Well hello my lovelies…and a late late late Eid Mubarak…!

Been meaning to wrote something for aaages…but not had the chance, as usual…!! Alhamdulilla managed to get the last 10 days of ramadan off so spent that at home with the family which included eid too. Sad in a lot of ways but I was thinking that this period, a mere 10 days, was the longest I had spent at home consecutively for nearly two years…! Crazy I know. Now back in London and back at work……alhmadulilla enjoying it though.


Winter is upon us as I write this with the clocks having gone back a week or so ago….and as with most people, I think I suffer a mild form of S.A.D or Seasonal Affective Disorder….as in in the summer you feel more energetic and lively whereas in the winter you can't be bothered to do anything. Even worse for me though as I never see the little sunlight there is…! I leave my flat at 6:30, when its dark, and then I get home for 7 ish, when its dark…! And given your in an air-con building, you lose track of the weather outside….!

Trains. YES. Trains. You know, those things that run on tracks and take you from A to B. That's what I want to talk about..! The train system in the UK is sooooo messed up, its ridiculous. Like so many times when I'm trying to go home on a fri evening, I'll buy a ticket, then because there are no seats left, face standing up for 4 hours before I get home…! I mean, if there's no seats left, why do the train companies continue selling tickets..?! Why should I pay £50 to stand for 4 hours…?! CRAZY. Also, even more crazy is the way these train companies win their licenses etc etc….don't wanna bore u with the details but its MESSED UP and leaves us, the consumer, not very well looked after. In the age where everyone is super conscious about the environment, I can't understand why they can't make trains, one of the most energy efficient modes of transport, more accessible for people….like if four people want to go to London and back from Manchester, by car it will cost them £40 petrol…? And £10 depreciation of the car….? Whereas by train you're talking at least £200…….

So every time I'm going back home on the train, there will inevitabley be one problem or another…either there won't be any seats left…or the train will be delayed…or like during ramadan when I purchased an "advanced" ticket which I was supposed to pick up from the station..but when I got there, there was a Huge queue for the machine so I ended up missing my train…!

Another thing that bothers me is how often you get a generic ticket (i.e. no specific seat) so everyone waits, with their eyes glued to the screen which will show which platform to go to for that particular train…and people wait, stare, wait, stare….and then the screen shows platform X for all trains to Y and people literally start running to get to the train so they can get a seat…and you see all these elderly people trying their best to drag their luggage and also get to the train…quite upsetting

If you manage to get to the train, then you have the issue of finding a seat…! Because often people will pre-book seats and not turn up….so you have to take the chance and sit on seat which says "reserved" and just cross your fingers that this person doesn't turn up….thankfully when i went up I ended up finding a seat which was not even reserved so I sat down and smugly watched as other ran around me like headless chickens looking for a seat to sit down in…


So two rows ahead of me, there was a seat which said "reserved" but a guy came, asked if anyone was sitting there and then placed his bag on the seat and told the guy next to him that if no one came for that seat, he would sit there…and so he stood near that seat waiting to see if anyone would come….1 minute later a woman came up the aisle, saw that the seat had no one sitting on it and asked if anyone was sitting there…so the guy with the bag said he was hence his bag, but he was waiting to see if the official reservee turned up…but the woman seemed to just ignore this, remove the bag and sat down….so the guy who had "reserved" the seat by placing his bag on it went upto the lady and said something like "errrm…..what are you doing, I just told you i'm sitting there" , to which the woman replied "I don't think you are, I'm sitting here"…….and so the argument started….and the man kept saying that he was sitting in that seat so had placed his bag there to wait and see if anyone actually claimed it, whereas the women, who was getting incredibly hysterical kept saying that the fact was he was not physically sitting there, so she dat down….the whole scene was bizarre because there was something quite clearly wrong with the woman…and her husband tried to calm the guy down by telling him she was not well etc etc…but the woman just kept becoming more and more animated and started pushing the guy, even though she was the one clearly in the wrong….and then she snapped and started shouting at people to call the police because this man was apparently "attacking" her…to which the "innocent" guy was even more perplexed at what was going on….so the train stewards came, then the police etc etc….and 20 minutes later, when they realised that the guy had done nothing wrong and this woman clearly had "issues" they decided they didn't want to take things further so they ended up putting the lady and her husband in first class, and the guy got his seat which he had reserved with his bag

All this. Over who would get to sit down..! I mean surely we're missing the point here…! If you've paid £50+, surely, at the very least you should be entitled to a seat regardless…! Crazy….


So Yes. Trains. Very useful things. But as is ever the case in the UK, not as useful as they could be.

Salaam

Down Ramadan Lane...

Salaams,

Ramadan Mubarak…!!

So another Ramadan has stealthily crept upon us again…subhanAllah how time eats away at us like the waves crashing into the rocks…

The past few Ramadan's I've had have all been different in various ways…pre-university alhamdulilla it was a very family orientated experience fasting at home in Burnley…something which I haven't really had in 6 years…! I think in many ways this is a great loss as, for me anyway, Ramadan is very much a family orientated thing as everyone wakes up together for sehri, goes through the day hungry with each other and then collects together again at iftaar time to break the fast…also another huge loss in not fasting at home is the loss of the community atmosphere you get in the area I live in….given that 99% of the people in my area are Muslim, there's a noticeable "noor" about the area with people busy shopping for their iftaar or running to the various masaajids for prayer and the various smells of food being cooked coming into the streets….almost like being in a Muslim country…!

From 18 onwards the following three Ramadan's were spent at university..and to be honest they were a bit dry, the first two anyway. From being a spiritual act, fasting almost became a mechanical one as the vast majority of people around are still eating, you still have to go to lectures, supervisions etc..essentially the days were the same as normal apart from missing breakfast and lunch. But one good thing about Cambridge was the free food…! No, I don't mean because it was free…! But the food provided at the mosque for iftaar provided a focal point and allowed you to meet up with many friends, although it wasn't That regular as it was a good 20 min walk from the main campus site. My third year at uni was Much better, particularly because I had swapped to an Eeeeasy course which meant I had lots of time to do extra ibadah, alhamdulilla. Looking back on that, I know appreciate how much of a link there is between how much ibadah you can do and how "useful" you feel that Ramadan was. Alhamdulilla the ISOC in that yr at uni was very strong too so there were many communal events going so I really felt I benefited from the spiritual and social blessings of Ramadan.

The following Ramadan I was back at home but unfortunately I didn't feel like I got that much out of it as I had just finished my ten week internship and so was Drained and I was off on my gap year straight after so had a fair few things to sort out. Last years Ramadan got even worse as it was my first in London and the first whilst working which was Very difficult. I literally joined my team on the first day of Ramadan, so I found it incredibly difficult in combining all the extra things your supposed to as well the demands of the new job.

This year however has been much better, so far. I think I've settles into London and my job and so am able to better manage things so I can get as much out of Ramadan as I can. As with most years, it always somewhat awkward to explain to a new bunch of non-Muslims that your fasting, then having to go through what this means etc etc…but alhamdulilla this yr I've been very fortunate…! One of our BIG clients happens to be a Muslim guy from Leicester (he actually commutes from Leicester to London everyday…!!). So anyway I went to a meeting with my boss and him, and when he saw me with a beard and my name I presume he thought I was Muslim so he came over to me, gave me salaams, asked about me etc…all with my boss just standing there feeling somewhat dejected I think…! So I think he was chatting to my boss the other day and mentioned to him that Ramadan would be starting soon, that he should le me leave early etc etc…so all the things I was going to say, my client told my boss for me…! Alhamdulilla..! So in return I was thinking about telling my boss to organise an iftaar for our Muslim clients…! I actually think this would be the first time any bank would have done this…but am a bit wary though as they are all very keen to keep religion etc out of things…we'll see inshaAllah

In other news there are Big developments at 41CGG…due to various reasons (nothing bad!) two of the high profile members have ceased to be part of the brotherhood in the flat (ie they're moving out) so after an extensive process (which we on many occasions thought would never end…!) alhamdulilla we have found two high calibre young men to fill their places ; ShortStack from the Mauritius (bro from Cam) and Yank from the US (still working on a nickname for him..another bro we had the pleasure of studying with for a while at Cambridge). So alhamdulilla the Cambridge centric vibe to the flat will remain, and both the guys are a good laugh so this should be another good year coming up, inshaAllah!

Salaam

More Ibn Batutta-ing

Salaams,

Well the traveller has been doing more travelling…

Alhamdulilla I spent the week of the 13th in Dubai and Qatar and spent last week end in Paris/Belgium.

The main reason for Dubai was to just see what all the hype is about - and to be honest I think it's all a bit over hyped…Dubai is still mainly desert with only one main road where there are quite a few big buildings present. Fair point though that there are quite a few buildings in construction stage so that in a few years time it will be a lot more packed out, but still, it wasn't as buzzing as I had expected it. The main things to do there are to SHOP and EAT which I more than accepted. The malls there are indeed out of this world, with everything you can think of, and more, under one roof. One such mall involved us going skiing on real snow on slopes they had created within the mall…! The food was awesome too as all the cuisines of the world were available to eat.

The whole story of Dubai is quite amazing/scary and this was shown quite clearly by a visit to the museum there. In it there were lots of picture of the current king when he was a child - and boy were things different then…! Only 40 years ago, the royal family were living in a 2 story building, wearing tattered clothes and with the very basics in terms of household items. Looking at the pictures there is no way one would think that this was the royal family. Also just looking at some pictures of Dubai, even 10 years ago shows how in such a short amount of time the city has been completely transformed.

This I hasten to add has been done off the back of South Asian and north African labour. Modern day slavery is what some people call it. Over a million Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Filipino and North African Arabs working 12-15 hours a day in the sweltering heat, for often nothing more than a place over their head and some food (i.e. they don't even get paid). OK, this applies mainly to the labourers, but for the majority of these guys, as soon as they land, their employer takes the passport off them, and then they are at the mercy of them in terms of the conditions they will have to work in. This was one bizarre aspect of Dubai and Qatar - the fact that you rarely saw any Arabs around (except eating in the restaurants and shopping in the malls) - 90% of the people outdoors were Asians so often it felt like I was back in Bangladesh…!

Another issue has been the rise in prostitution and drugs. With the ratio of males to females 7:3, prostitutes have been shipped in from eastern Europe with the Russian Mafia bosses ruling the underworld in Dubai. There's a saying that apparently every third woman in Dubai is a …. Maybe this is an exaggeration, but there is a LOT of it, especially in the posh hotels (as is the case in most Arab countries - hence the bombings in Jordan which targeted the 5* hotels)

I actually preferred Qatar to Dubai because it was a calmer and smaller version to Dubai. We also went there to visit a friend who was working for a construction company who were building the new airport in Doha…he seemed to be loving life out there…..tax free income, free (and awesome) accommodation, subsidised travel, good quality of life, cheap living, good weather, halal food and the list goes on….so I'm actually now seriously thinking about working abroad at some point…Lehman have offices both in Dubai and Qatar so it shouldn't be too hard to go out there for a yr…we'll see inshaAllah.

The road trip last week end was pretty cool too…It was my first time in France, but Paris was very nice..and the Eiffel tower all lit up at night is simply magical…! We only spent a day in Paris so didn't get to do too much but I was quite surprised at how cosmopolitan the city was. We then drove to Belgium and went to Ypres, near Passendale where the battle of Passendale had been fought 90 yrs ago during WW1. The world's largest commonwealth cemetery is placed there with 30,000 people commemorated and 11,000 actual graves present. It was quite a sight to see headstones as far as the eye would allow you…shows you the reality of war I suppose - so many people dying, many unnecessarily. As Stalin said though "one death is a tragedy, a million is a statistic".

But now back to London, back to work, back to the ins and outs of Living.

Pics soon iA.

Salaam

Big up the Al-Thani's

Salaam..!

Well, given the jet-set life i lead...(ahem, ahem)..i am currently blogging from Doha airport...! I have several hours to kill and the kind al-Thani family provide free net access at the airport so, i thought, "how to waste this time?"...(Fake Sheikh, learn from the master mate....i concede u are the Champion when it comes to food, as you showed today, but leave the blogging to me man...lol)

Once again (sigh) it's been a while since i've written anything and again this is not for want of events going on with my life...inshaAllah my Dubai and Doha adventours will be for another day, but with other things...

The BIG news is that i passed my CFA level 1 exam..!!!!!!!!!! (i could continue putting on exclamation marks to express how happy/relieved i am...but you get the picture - VERY happy !). Alhmadulilla, alhamdulilla, ALHAMDULILLA...it was such a relief to have got he all clear. As i mentioned i think, the exams did not go too well as the nature of questions were very different from past papers, but i think everyone must have found them hard hence lowering the raw pass mark required. It was a feeling of relief more than anything i think as i had worked pretty damn hard so if i failed it would have felt like such a waste of time. Passing also means i now have a Huge amount of confidence going into the remaining two levels (yep, there's another two levels to go before i get the full CFA qualification...) as i kinda know now what is needed to pass.

As ever though, it's important to remember Allah in these circumstances as its easy for one to get carried away thinking it was due to your own efforts and hard work that the exam was passed.

The exam, however brought into question, again, the very way we classify people in society these days. Even though, alhmadulilla, i've done pretty well in school exams and so on throughout my career, it seems very narrow minded that people's success rate when applying for jobs and how "successful" they are deemed to be is determined by how much intense memorisation they can do and how much of this they can regugitate in a 3 hour period. OK, fair enough for the artsy subjects is not As simple, but essentially it does come down to how disciplined you are in making summary notes of you subject. and then memorising them. Coming up with a viable alternative is hard, but the present system seems very unfair on those who may be "intelligent" but just have poor memories or are unable to bring all this out in a intense three hour period. Allahu a'lam.


Anyway i think i need to try and bring some sense of regularity into my blogging so inshaAllah i will try and write something every other fortnight starting today (Saturday 18th)..but obviously i may give you extra snippets now again, if you're lucky ;)


Salaams

Life & Death

Salaam,

This last week has been a bit of a rollercoaster and somewhat already explained by a previous post i wrote with the same title

Last Sunday I received a call from a friend informing me that another friends father had passed away and the janazah was to be held the following day. No matter how often these things happen, you can never explain or feel prepared for the swirling emotions which occur and seem to consume you when major news like this is received. All the trivial matters in life are swept away and the untainted reality of life comes to the fore ; what are we doing with our lives? Where are we going? What have we done so far? If we died tomorrow, how would we answer for ourselves...?

I had actually met my friends father at his srs wedding last year at which he seemed to be in very good health. My friend himself was on a university related trip in the US whe his father passed away so it was all was sudden and unexpected - from a heart attack, even though he had no previous problems whatsoever. But just to think - that phone call my friend must have received telling him of the news.....sometimes you think how on earth would you deal with these things...could you deal these things if they were to happen to you.

Anyway I took last Monday afternoon off to go to the funeral which was a sombre event. I really don't like thinking about all things related to death (although islamically we're encouraged to do so...) and so always find attending funerals quite difficult. Also this time round I think it was the first time ever where I actually ended up going to the grave yard itself to witness the body being put into the grave. As difficult as I found it for myself, I suppose these things need to be done as it does bring the unquestionble reality of death to you and inshaallah this should spur one to make the most of the things Allah has blessed you with......inna lillahi wa inna ilahi rajioon.....subhanAllah talk about timing...I wrote the above and then left my laptop for a bit when I received a text from a friend saying a guy from my college at university, two years younger who did economics had committed suicide on Saturday.......


A feeling of shock which is numbing. I think I wrote about the time when I was in Jordan and I recieved an email to say that another guy I studied with had committed suicide, and now this.....i remember speaking to this guy a few times, much like the first guy, but I didn't know either of them very well.....but they both seemed "normal"....Wow, subhanAllah that we have our religion to fall back on in times of need. And I was discussin with friends how it's sad in a way that only when sad events like this happen does the reality of our own mortality sink in and for a short period we try to be "extra" religious because we have this in front of us, but then after a while it wanes off. True we cannot go around daily thinking of death, death, death, as the world would be a pretty grim place to live in if this was the case. However I think we need to have a balance in terms of always falling back on this thought whenever we are getting carried away with someone of our worldly success - "wa ma ramaytha ith ramaytha lakinna allaha rama" sums it up nicely I think.


Anyway the life part of this title - Saturday was my birthday...! I'm not really a birthday person though (some go as far as to say birthdays are quite depressing ! ) , but of late I've been around people who do "celebrate" it so it's starting to rub off on to me....anyway given that I've been aiming to try out different things, a few of my friends and I ended up going to play some golf ! It was a beginners course over 9 holes and only par 3 holes at that so was quite suited to us beginners, and alhamdulilla the weather held out for the most part so we ended up having a great time. Although we were all pretty aweful I think we'll be going back in the near future. The day was capped off with some food and then a viewing of "Transformers" which was out that day (good graphics, Extremely cheesy storyline) so alhamdulilla in all it was a pretty good day. Bring on year number 24 !

Salaams

Summary NY and Morocco Pics

Blah blah

Well hello my lovelies,

Well life is ticking away...and i'm grappling away, as ever, trying to make the most of it....come 20th of July it will be my 1 yr anniversary since i started work. It's gone phenomenally quickly, as i was told it would, and i think i've learnt quite a lot which is good. But i think it's important to use these "milestones" such as anniversaries, birthdays etc as a time to reflect on where you're going with life, what you've achieved, what you want to achieve and so on...

Anyway, as part of my efforts to bring my life back on track as it were, i'm trying my best to make the most of my weekends. One thing i've always wanted to do was learn how to cook properly...! So today was baking day in 41 CGG...! so we went shopping, bought our flour, eggs, baking tin and so on...and tried to bake a "conventional" carrot cake and another "random" cake where we threw in lots of different fruits, nuts and so on. They turned out edible. Just about....there's always next time..!

We're also going healthy at 41CGG so we purchased a smoothie maker and started mass producing lots of different types of smoothies (available for purchase). Our issue seems to be, similar to the cakes; we put lots of tasty things in, but combined, it tastes of nothing! so suggestions and tips welcome...

Also been trying to get involved more in Islamic talks etc. I used to always complain that all the Islamic things are centered in London, but now that i live here, i'm not taking advantage of them! So iA the plan is to try and at least attend one islamic talk/circle/class a week...back a uni it all seemed so easy with circles, talks etc at your doorstep, but now that i'm busy with work and other things, i really appreciate just how good i had it..!

Another thing i've picked up and am thoroughly enjoying now is reading! Until a year or so ago i don't think i read a book since GCSE English, but after being advised to read some classics, i've got into now and actually look forward to it! I'm just about to finish Crime and Punishment which has been awesome and think i will read The Brothers Karamazov which i've heard is pretty good.

And finally, after a 2 month break due to exams, illness, weddings and other excuses, i re-started taking driving lessons...! I don't know why, but i really can't be bothered learning..! whereas most guys seems ultra keen when it comes to cars, i just don't care. But anyway, i think it will be good to just get it out of the way, which i intend to do by the end of summer inshaAllah

That's enough for now. Remember me in your prayers.

Salaam.

New York New York

Salaam,

So a week in the Big Apple is where I've been and alhamdulilla I had a fantastic time out there. The trip was for a media conference my team was hosting so it wasn't all play, but still good nonetheless

I departed on the Fri so I could spend some time sight seeing with a friend who I met whilst out in Jordan. So Fri night I arrived at midnight at JFK airport and then took a taxi out to Connecticut where my friend lives. The thing about NY and the US is that it is Actually like how you'd imagine it would be; from the images we see on TV and the things we read about the place, its all true; Manhattan (where I stayed) is just full of towering building, like in Canary Wharf, but Every where, the city itself is full of all kinds of people from differing backgrounds, then the famous yellow cabs everywhere, the classic scene of the steam shooting out from the manholes (gross) etc etc..it's all true

My friend lived in a middle class area with the typical large detached house
with white picket fence at the front. I met his family and some of his friends
who came over all of whom were incredibly hospitable. There happened to be
another bro from the UK out there who had moved to NY a month ago for work so myself, him, my friend and another guy spent Saturday doing the sites including the statue of liberty, empire state building, Madison square garden, NY central mosque, WTC site, Rockefeller centre and a few other things as well.

Another thing I've realised with my travels is that things look a lot smaller in
real life! From my disappointment with the pyramids ("they're big, but I
expected Big"..lol) to some of the things I saw in the US - for example the
statue of liberty is pretty big, but for some reason I expected it to be HUGE.
Anyway, on the sightseeing front I think that was one of the highlights. On the
Sunday I was just going to do some further sightseeing, but by chance it
happened to be the 50th Puerto Rican Parade day (similar to the Notting Hill
Carnival in London) so I went out and checked that out. The atmosphere was crazy and it was all very cool and surprisingly without any alcohol which was good. I also happened to see Jennifer Lopez and Ricky Martin both who I think are Puerto Rican and were at the parade, as well randomly ending up next to the Liverpool striker Harry Kewell and his wife who used to be in Emmerdale

In terms of work, it was actually pretty busy; basically Mon to Fri we had
presentations on 9am until 5pm and then I had to rush back to the hotel to type up the notes and send these out. After this, at around 7 we had to take the
clients for the evening "social" events. All the clients were actually very
safe and we did some pretty cool things in the evenings (e.g. go to a NY Yankees baseball game and the Gordon Ramsey restaurant) so it was all pretty good fun.

On Fri we only had one thing on so took the chance to do some serious shopping. I ended up in Macy's which is their equivalent of Selfridges I think, but, as with all things in the US, ten times the size (according to the sales assistant it's the biggest store in the world). Anyway, given it was Fathers Day that weekend, there was a 50% sale on and given that £1 = $2, it meant I could take another 50% off so that a $100 pair of jeans became £25...!! So yes, as I said, I did quite a lot of damage there...


And then on Saturday morning I was back in the UK. Alhamdulilla I had a great time out there, and wouldn't actually mind going out there again (although it's one of those places which is OK in small doses, but not really suitable for long term living I think). The conference is annual so should be going back next yr iA, and on the way back we were discussing the possibility of doing an Asian trip sometime in Feb to cover India, China and Japan so that would be awesome if I got to go along. So alongside the business class flights, 5* hotels and lots of fancy events, I seem to be finally finding the "glamorous" side of Investment Banking..!

Pics to follow iA

Ws

And Over

Salaam,

And so it's over. Four months of slaving away after work and in the weekends, and i completed the exams on Saturday. Was it worth it?

NO!

The exams went OK. First one went well, second really bad. It was Really annoying though because both exams were pretty easy, but i had been revising all the hard stuff, Non of which came up, and only glanced at the basic definitions etc. So all that hard work came into no use, and i've probably ended up doing worse than if i had slacked off. So as you can imagine, i'm a tad annoyed.

Ah well, we'll see what happens when results come out in 2 months time. Jzk to all of you who contacted me to wish me well, alhmadulilla it was much appreciated and helped.


Ws

The End is in Sight

Salaams,

So as you should know by now, i have been incredibly busy recently with work and exam prep. This, this and this amongst other things have been occupying me at work but alhamdulilla i am genuinely finding it all interesting so that's good.

Anyway on the exam front, the end is indeed in sight with the exam on this coming Saturday...as i think i mentioned, my workplace is pretty much making me do a course which will help me in my job...the problem is that most people do it as part of their course when at uni or when they're working part time...not when they're already doing a 60hr week...! Plus on top of that it's supposed to be a killer exam which requires 250hrs of study and ends up with only 35% of people sitting it passing...

I've tried to do as much as i can on it, and today i did a mock exam at the training centre and alh did OK, but this final week is gonna be make or break time. However, having spent all this time studying for this exam and spending all this time at work, i'm thinking more and more about the purpose of it all. What's the pont? essentially. If we Really do believe this life is a transitory phase, why are we willing to put soooo much effort for this finite world, but very little for the infinite hereafter...? It's not uncommon for people at uni to do 12 hr revision days for a good couple of weeks, but when do we think it needy to spend that amount of time preparing for the hereafter...? I mean how many hours per week to we purposely set aside for Deeni affairs? What % of hours from the week is this..? Of course there's nothing wrong in seeking comfort in this life; rabbana athina fidhunya hasana etc, but getting the balance and getting the priorities right is key, and this is something i think most, including foremost myself, need to re-evaluate...


Wow, got all a bit serious there...anyway, iA after my exams i should be going to New York for a week with work so quite looking forward to that. However, as ever, i've been told it will be quite busy so won't really get much time to check things out but iA i'm gonna fly a day early and meet up with a bro i met in Jordan so there should be Some time to chill out.

Anyway, the zzzzs are calling.

Salaam.

Letter From Egypt: Looking for nostalgia in a glass of juice

Salaam


Nice Article :


There appears to be a particular way to drink sugarcane juice. Standing outside the most popular sugarcane shop in Cairo, customers carefully hold the tall, slim glass between their thumb and forefinger, examine the milky green liquid as though eyeing something valuable, then chug it down.

There always seems to be a crowd hovering around the one-room open storefront on Salah Salem Street in Old Cairo. No line, just a crowd: men, women and children, Muslim and Christian, veiled and unveiled, poor and rich, all day long.

"I am born here," said Ali Muhammad, 52, as he wiped white foam from his top lip. "Everything has changed in this neighborhood. But this juice shop, it is still the same."



Salaam

Ali Baba

Salaams,

Well with the remarks from the Fake Sheikh spurring me on (he is currently residing at the flat…..did I not mention “The Naked Lady Problem” is leading to lots of people coming to the flat…he’s just flown from Qatar for it..! lol) , this is my second entry in the last few weeks which, as you all know, is pretty good by my standards

Anyway, fancy going to Ali Baba's anyone…? Just thought would write about this little Egyptian restaurant we’ve discovered right next to where we live (literally a minutes walk) which we are now visiting quite regularly. Its pretty small and looks like they've just converted their house and seems like a classic little family run restaurant you would find in some little town in Egypt…it seems to give off that vibe. The mother of the family is the main chef and her daughters are the waitresses etc…and the men of the house…? Their upstairs watching TV and smoking sheesha….ok, so even though thee atmosphere maybe of a family run restaurant, I don't think this is how they are all run in Egypt.


When we first went, we made the comment that in this respect Asians are very different to Arabs. Like this restaurant for example. In the Asian community (tradionally anyway) the Worst thing that can happen is for the women folk in your family having to work, and especially serve other people (mainly men) to make money. It would be seen as a great "dishonor" and would imply that the men folk can’t provide for their family, and that’s why the women are having to work…(kind of makes sense, if you think about it…) Also the fact that they are working serving mainly random men would not look great on them and their family. So this restaurant all seemed a bit bizarre – that the mother figure ( who is quite elderly actually) is slaving away in the kitchen cooking lots of meals and her daughters are running around taking orders, cleaning tables etc, whilst the men of the family just do nothing. Does the husband not think that it's quite bad for his wife to be slaving away like this…? Does he not care his daughters are running around the restaurant with loads of men oogling at them (their mostly arab after all)…I don't get it, but this is the way it is. Obviously I'm making a lot of rash judgements here - I don't know their family circumstances, I don't know why the women are working and men do nothing…I'm just saying what I see (as the guy in "Catchphrase" used to say…Lol) and it all seems pretty bad.


Anyway, aside from the analysis, they make some good food..! Lol. And recently I have started chatting to them in Arabic, and got the mandatory questions with it “Are you Muslim? Noooo... are you sure? How do you pray?" etc etc…, and I mentioned I was in Egypt for a while, I had visited Alexandria (this is where they're from) etc and so now that we’re on good relations, hey presto, I get extra meat in my kebabs!


Let the Egyptian women work away in their restaurants, no complaints from me…!

Salaam
PS, just to clarify "The Naked Lady Problem"…this isn't some kind of "in-joke"…we do have a naked lady problem. Basically one of our neighbours on the opposing building likes to walk around her room, naked, with the curtains opened. Yes. So as you can imagine, this is a problem (hence "The Naked Lady Problem). Thankfully it's not on my side of the building, but if you go to wash the dishes you had better be careful…! Lol. So, as you can imagine, the washing is always done these days..! Lol. Nah, I'm messing. Thankfully though she has stopped doing it now as she hasn't been spotted for a while. All the brothers in the flat are viewing this whole thing as a test from God (mA, mA). So nice try Naked Lady. But no thank you.