Selling Spirituality

Manto mian,

The queen is even more of a rubber stamp than Pres of India, although a lot more expensive. I wonder if the same is the case with the Agha Khan. In any case, I couldn`t care less if UK remains a monarchy or not.


Tahmed sahib, I am no more fond of brahminism than you are.


Regards

#104 Think of it as a form of brahminism. :-)

#106 masanamuthu my friend - well connected people anywhere, including Pakistan, can become whatever they want to without inviting trouble.

Why is this simple point so difficult for you to understand?

Mantolives,

..Yes...once in a while a not so well connected secular humanist gets into a bad situation with the Mullahs... but facts are facts...

Does that mean only ``well connected`` people can become secular humanists without inviting trouble in Pakistan?.. :-)

Ah... but the hereditary monarchy of the United Kingdom presides over the defacto greatest democratic republic in the world...

Such is the complexity of this world...

(he is the representative of a progressive modern section of Islam...)

I dont know much about Ismailism, its current beliefs or the Agha Khans. But the fact that Agha Khans get their posts for purely hereditary reasons doesn`t appeal much to my republican temperament.

Regards

This is what it has come to... this is a true account... the author is a friend. Fake spirituality needs to be crushed ... be it of any religion.


http://www.naseeb.com/naseebvibes/prose-detail.php?aid=5095&pg=1&PHPSESSID=caa64be05722362280617e56cf8c5898

Hajj Marathon

By Asra Nadeem

Even though my mind had stopped registering things, I knew that the person lying in front of me was dead and the guy behind me, telling me to walk over him had lost his mind. How could I walk over the dead?

The next second I fell on the dead guy. A chill ran through my hands and traveled my entire body. Someone behind me yelled and told me to get up and just walk over the guy.

I walked over him.

It was suffocating.

I wanted to go back home to my mother.

I heard someone saying that if you die here you will be a martyr.

I did not want to be a martyr.

The temperature was well above 35 degrees Celsius. There were four thousand people walking over each other to save their life.

I was never scared of death, but right there and then I did not want to die. I did not even want to walk over someone who was still alive and kill him. I had come here looking to cleanse my soul and not to taint my conscience with murder.

The minute I walked over that guy I lost count of the dead bodies I walked over. For the first fifty of them, I think, I made sure that I don’t step on anyone’s head, heart or neck. After that I could not even look down. For five minutes my feet did not touch ground. I was being pushed over people who like all of us wanted to survive but could not. I was afraid that the only part of me to get out of this stampede would be my arm. After falling another two times I was finally pulled out by an African, who dragged me out.

Around 700 people were killed in Minna, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, during Rummi, stoning the Satan. I could have easily been one of them. Who was to be blamed? The officials who kept the


I could not wait to see the Kabbah. I had a list of Duas ready for my first sight of Allah`s home on earth. There are no words that can explain the feeling that engulfed me when I saw the Kabbah




crowd waiting in this intense heat so that they could say their prayers? The primitive survival instinct that made men crush men? The mullahs who have divided religion into so many sects; one claiming that the Satan can be stoned at any time during the day, the rest announcing noon to be the blessed hour? Or as someone in my group later said that it was all Satans’ doing as he can not see Muslims following the right path.

More than half of the people asked why I wanted to perform Hajj at such an early age. I recall a friend saying; “But I don’t think you have done anything that drastic that you have to perform Hajj to clean your sins.” All I kept telling everyone was that I am going there for my peace of mind; one thing that was messed up even more.

Claustrophobia struck me with full force the minute I landed in Jeddah. The heat and the filthiness of the Hajj terminal fused my mind. But soon the excitement of being amongst a sea of people from all over the world, the idea of seeking holiness and purity took over.

I could not wait to see the Kabbah. I had a list of Duas ready for my first sight of Allah`s home on earth. There are no words that can explain the feeling that engulfed me when I saw the Kabbah. I thought: Allah, this is where I want to be. Though the feeling was short lived, as just while I was praying with all my heart an elbow hit me hard in my ribs and I was thrown on my uncle standing ahead of me. I felt like I was in the football ground in school and not at the most holy place for Muslims on earth. I could not figure out why that person was in such a hurry; little did I know that this was just the beginning.

I performed my first

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Umra two days before Hajj, which meant that the crowd was at its peak. I could hardly recite any verses or pray as all my attention was focused on not loosing hold of my uncles’ arm and getting lost in this crowd. I was disappointed that I could not concentrate on praying. Even when I was saying Nawafill, all I could think of was that what if someone walks over me.

The government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has allocated 3 feet wide and 6 feet long space to each Hajji. The measurements are almost equal to those of a grave. Call it irony or whatever!

The camps in Minna were crowded with Muslims from all over the world. The Islamic brother hood was at its peak when a 100 people had to share the same lavatory and all of them were getting late for Salah. For the first time in my life, for five days, I lived on eight dates and almost three glasses of water each day.

All through Hajj and my entire time spent in both Mecca and Medina I saw people rushing and running, as if they were not here on a religious journey but were running a marathon that had to be won at all costs.

After the stampeding incident in Minna I was sedated for three days and it took me a week to go to Haram again and face the crowd that was still pushing and running all over the place.

After the rush settled down a bit I got to perform Umra twice and at both times it was a lot more serene than before. I felt that finally I was getting closer to the cleanliness and purity I had wanted from this trip. It didn’t take long before I was proven wrong.

My uncle had strongly forbidden me to go anywhere near Hajra-i-Aswad. He was insistent that my claustrophobia would strike again. Being the rebellious person that I am, I


While in the queue for people waiting to touch the holy stone I felt a hand run over my butt




planned to visit the holy stone myself, after all I was in Allahs’ home on earth and I would be safe. While in the queue for people waiting to touch the holy stone I felt a hand run over my butt. I thought this is just a coincidence as I am jammed against so many people. The next second the hand traveled my entire bum feeling every inch of me.

I was DISGUSTED.

I turned around and saw this brother in Islam standing behind me with a ‘Yeah it was me, what can you do’ smirk on his face. I had traveled from that high spiritual feeling of calmness to disgust so rapidly that all I could manage to say was, ‘Half of my body is touching the holiest place on earth, how can you even touch me!’ A lot of men, being the ‘ever ready for a fight’ kind, grabbed the guy but I was too sickened to wait and watch. For me this was it!

I had gone on Hajj trying to find peace within my heart, to pray to Allah, to strengthen my beliefs that had gone haywire somewhere along the way and to find a sense of holiness that I thought existed.

What I experienced only shattered it all even further.

If Islam teaches us patience, I saw it exploding every time I was pushed out of the way. If Islam teaches brotherhood, I crushed it along another three thousand people when I walked over the dead. If Haram-e-Kabbah is the holiest place on earth, I was harassed over there. If Islam teaches justice and equality then why was an entire block of rest rooms in my camp in Minna allocated to the Bangladeshi ministers’ family?

I don’t know what to believe in anymore because one journey that I thought would have some answers, only gave me more disturbing questions.

It took me five months to speak about it. The nightmares still haunt me!

#99 by majumdar

[That MKG slept in the nude with the girls is a known fact. That he didn’t penetrate is an assumption. ]

I could say something bad about someone close to you, and say that it ``is a known fact``.

Where did you find out about this ``known fact``?

Majumdar,

The Agha Khan is hardly a witchdoctor... he is the representative of a progressive modern section of Islam... the sort that doesn`t sell spirituality but sells modernity packaged as religious belief.

I am afraid I can`t add Agha Khan to that list...

Masanamuthu,

Boy do you have some misconceptions about Pakistan...

There are several secular humanists and atheists alive and kicking in Pakistan... more often than not celebrated poets and writers... who openly attack Islam... tolerated by society and often well respected.

To name a few ... Khaled Ahmad, Qasmi, Abid Hassan Minto, Raza Kazim, Collin David,
I A Rahman, Ejaz Haider, Ardeshir Cowasjee, Irfan Saeed and countless others of the left movement... mostly atheist, all secular humanist...

Yes...once in a while a not so well connected secular humanist gets into a bad situation with the Mullahs... but facts are facts...

(It must be kept in mind that Gandhi didn’t penetrate any of the girls he just lay naked next to those two naked girls)

That MKG slept in the nude with the girls is a known fact. That he didn’t penetrate is an assumption.

(I say Amen to an end to Monks, Maulanas, Mahatmas, Pandits, Priests and Popes...)

Manto mian, Would you add Agha Khans to that list too.

(arstoo: that problem was solved 1400 years ago, with mohammed being the last of the prophets. )

Tahmed saheb, If God was sad at the plight of humans and decided to send another prophet would you accept him.

Echoboom mian,

You have been posting on the achievements of French Muslims in the current WC for the past few days. Yesterday night one French Muslim behaved true to form- he violently assaulted a kaffir and got packed off.

Regards

KrishnaABCD,

You are the sort that would lie about day being night on account of sun being hidden by the clouds. I have nothing further to say to someone like you.

Re: # 96

Dear Masanamathu, It is unfortunate that many non-believers cannot publicly share their

truth as they are afraid of the consequences. I believe in a secular society in which

there is not only freedom of religion but also freedom from religion. I have met many

non-believer Humanists who respect believers but believers do not respect non-believers.

Non-believers are in a minority and like all minorites....women and blacks, their rights need

to be respected. I dream of a secular world where all human beings and their truths are

respected even when we do not agree with them. But maybe being a poet I am a dreamer.

It is sad to see so many people who are forced to be hypocrites as they cannot share their

truth publicly. After my book was published I met so many closet Humanists.

Thanks for your concern. sincerely sohail

Dr. Sohail,

I see that you are living in Canada. please ignore my earlier question.. that explains your courage in publicly proclaiming you are an apostate.. I was thinking it would be like committing suicide if you do it in Pakistan.. Anyways it is the right thing to do.. thanks, one less believer is always good. :-)

.. After gaining power, control, money and status, these pseudo-mystics rationalize their abuse of power by connecting it with the religious traditions of the community. They proclaim,
“God told me to do so.”
“I had a sacred dream.”
“I had a special revelation.”


..When I published my book FROM ISLAM TO SECULAR HUMANISM, I

publicly shared that I am a Humanist and not a believer.

Dr. Sohail,

This is very interesting.. Are you saying in public that you are an apostate of Islam..?..
Are you still living in Pakistan??..

Thanks.. it is nice to know.

Dr. Sohail

The truth is that all humans are inwardly followers of Rajneesh cult with different names and labels. Even Ghalib, the Aarif poet, could not solve this dilemma as to how reconcile drives of our lusts with the truth. Whereas, he says at one place:

Hazaaron khahishen aeisi kih har khahish pih dam nikle
Bahout nikle mere armaan lekin phir bhi kam nikle

and then he says:

Baazeechaae ittefaal he dunya mere aage
Hota he shabo roz tamaasha mere aage
Ik khel he aourange Sulemaan mere nazdeek
Ik baat he ehjaze Masseeha mere aage

and again:

Saraapa raheene ishq wa naaguzeere ulfate hasti
ibaadat barq ki karta hoon aur afsos haasil ka