Kalimahs in Islam

The Kalimahs in Islam are very important in Islam. These Kalimahs are found in various books of knowledge. These Kalimahs present the very fundamentals of the belief of a Muslim. The children or new reverts in Islam are taught these Kalimahs. A muslim person knows and understands the essence of these Kalimahs, accepts them with complete sincerity and love and leads his/her life according to the requirements.

Below I will provide the Arabic text, the pronunciation in roman english, and the meaning.

First Kalimah: Kalimah-e-Tayyab (کلمہ طیّب ) [Meaning: The Word of Purity]

Laa Ilaaha Illa-llaahu Muhammadur-Rasool-Ullaah

There is no God but Allah, Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah.

Second Kalimah: Kalimah-e-Shahadah (کلمہ شہادت ) [Meaning: The Word of Testimony]

Ash-hadu an-La illaha ill Allahu, Wahdahu La Sharika lah, wa ash-Hadu anna Muhammadan  'abduhu wa Rasooluhu 

I bear witness that there is none worthy of worship except Allah, the One alone, without partner, and I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and Messenger.

Third Kalimah: Kalimah-e-Tamjeed (کلمہ تمجید ) [Meaning: The Word of Glorification]

Subhan Allahi, wal Hamdu lillahi, wa la ilaha ilAllahu, wallahu Akbar. wa la hawla  wa la quwwata illa billah-il 'alii-al 'adheem 

Glory be to Allah and Praise to Allah, and there is no God But Allah, and Allah is the Greatest. And there is no Might or Power except with Allah.

Fourth Kalimah: Kalimah-e-Tauheed (کلمہ توحید ) [Meaning: The Word of Unity]

Laa Ilaaha Illa-llaahu Wahdahoo Laa Shareeka-lahoo Lahu-l Mulku Walahu-l Hamdu Yuhyee Wayumeetu Wahuwa Hayyu-l Laa Yamootu Abadan Abada. Dhu-l Jalaali Wal Ikraam. Biyadihil Khair. Wahuwa Alaa Kulli Shai-’in Qadeer.

There is none worthy of worship except Allah. He is alone and has no partner. To Him belongs the Kingdom and for Him is all praise. He gives life and causes death. In His hand is all good and He has power over everything.

Fifth Kalimah: Kalimah-e-Astaghfar (کلمہ استغفار ) [Meaning: The Word of Penitence]

Astaghfirullah Rabbi Min Kulli Zambin Aznabtuho Amadan Ao Khat An Sirran Ao Alaniyatan Wa Atoobo ilaihe Minaz Zambil Lazee Aalamo Wa Minaz Zambil Lazee La Aalamo innaka Anta Allamul Ghuyoobi Wa Sattaarul Oyoobi Wa Ghaffaruz Zunoobi Wala Haola Wala Quwwata illa billahil AliYil Azeem.

I seek forgiveness from Allah, who is my Creator and Cheriser, from every sin I committed knowingly or unknowingly, secretly or openly. I also seek His forgiveness for all sins which I am aware of or am not aware of. Certainly You (O Allah!), are the Knower of the hidden and the Concealer of mistakes and the Forgiver of sins. And there is no power and no strength except from Allah, the Most High, the Most Great.

Sixth Kalimah: Kalimah-e-Rud-e-Kuffr (کلمہ رد کفر  ) [Meaning: The Word of Rejecting Disbelief]

Allah Humma inni Aaoozubika Min An Oshrika Beka Shai Aown Wa Anaa Aalamo Behi Wa Astaghfiroka Lima laa Aalamo Behi Tubtu Anho Wa Tabarra'to Minal Kufri Washshirki Wal Kizbi Wal Gheebati Wal Bid-ati Wan Nameemati Wal Fawahishi Wal Bohtani Wal Ma'asi Kulliha Wa Aslamtoo Wa Aqoolo Laa ilaaha illal Lahoo Mohammadur Rasool Ullah.

O Allah! Certainly I seek protection with You from, that I associate partner with You anything and I know it. And I seek forgiveness from You for that I do not know it. I repended from it and I made myself free from disbelief and polytheism and the falsehood and the back-biting and the innovation and the tell-tales and the bad deeds and the blame and the disobedience, all of them. And I submit and I say (there is) none worthy of worship except Allah, Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah.

Landing and Takeoff during cross winds

BANANA NEWS NETWORK EPISODE 33, 19 JAN 2012

Budget Travel

There are some parts of World where you can travel very cheap if you know the rules. Today, I write about traveling within Europe.

I have lived in the Netherlands and traveled to some of the European cities and have discovered really cheap options to explore the cities.

If you are living in any of asian countries and want to travel to Europe, you must bear in mind the following tips:

1. Plan your trip to most cheaper destination airplane fare wise and distance wise.

2. You can travel between Europeans cities by taking a plane which is cheaper than trains and saves you both time and money.

3. Plan to visit at least four to five countries (one to two top destinations in each country)

4 the countries you must choose should be bordering countries. For example first landing in Rome, Italy to Milan / Venice to Austria (Vienna) to Czech Republic (Praha) to Germany (Berlin) to the Netherlands (Amsterdam) to France (Paris) to Spain (Madrid or Barcelona).

Zardari sab pe bhari

In this post whatever you will read is only and only my personal views. However, these views are molded by the events, circumstances, and my understanding of the Pakistani politics.

Zardari sab pe bhari has become a quite common phrase being pronounced by many a men in our country. What I understand of this phrase is that Zardari is cunning than anyone else in Pakistani politics.

Asif Ali Zardari is the 11th President of Islamic Republic of Pakistan. He took this honor on 9th September, 2008 and gave disgrace in return to the whole nation of Pakistan. Asif Ali Zardari is the widower of the two times Prime Minister of Pakistan Ms. Benazir Bhutto, the daughter of the Prime Minister/President/Civilian Martial Law Administrator Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

While writing the above sentence, I realized how unlfortunate our nation is. What leaders do we choose?

It is not wealth only that is important to change the ways society develops and progresses. The most important thing in improving lives of people is through learning. Learning comes through education. Zulfikar Ali Bhutto earned his B.A. in political science from  University of California, Berkley, and L.L.B, Advanced L.L.M and MSce in Political Science from Christ Church, a constituent college of the University of Oxford. Benazir Bhutto attended Radcliffe College at Harvard University and received a B.A with a cum-laude honours in comparative government. Later she studied Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. Whereas, Asif Ali Zardari, got his early education from an army college, Cadet College Petaro, where he was notorious of breaking rules in the college and indiscipline behaviour with the college administration and students. What would you expect of such a person for higher education who was not interested in education at the early age? Well one can argue that people can realize later about education and many actually do who come from at least educated families. However, in case of Asif Ali Zardari, he chose not to. This is nothing, adding salt to wounds is that he claims that he went to London Business School and graduated from there and attended Pedinton School in Britain, however, this is not confirmed. How funny it is? Isn't it. His education is not confirmed!

The good thing is that he has never been elected by Pakistani people but he has been selected by senators. He served in Benazir's second government and got tagged as "Mr. 10 percent". People get titles of Sir, Allama, and so on, but our President started his political career to get the title of Mr. 10 percent. Even that did not suffice to his CV. He very cleverly added more to this, Jail - which he rightly deserved - I must say he should never have been released from Jail, he must have got life imprisonment. Anyways, the people who released him are in some way his accomplice. Not only corruption but also murder cases have been his degrees on his CV - Murder case of Murtaza Bhutto, brother of Benazir Bhutto. I don't know but I think he could be involved in his wife's murder as after Benazir's death, he announces himself as the Co-chairman of Pakistan's Peoples Party (the governing party, party found by Late Zulfikar Ali Bhutto).

It is shame for the people of Pakistan that they still chose him to be President. I would say people of Pakistan are more uneducated than Zardari. We as a nation have a very short-term memory and we are very emotional nation. Just at the killing of Benazir Bhutto, rather than mourning the death, the whole nation goes crazy, destroying the people's wealth in the form of banks, shopping centers, business buildings and schools (my God). Already we lack the proper utilization of resources, skills, education, learning, facilities, infra-structure, etc, we dont bother to save them. Every year, we push ourselves back economy wise, development wise, by four to five years. This is what we want as a nation? Probably yes, when we see the majority of people doing this.

Asif Ali Zardari after assuming office as a President has been running a puppet show in a Piccadilly Circus. The chief Puppet is Yusuf Raza Gilani, the Honourable Prime Minister of Pakistan, the second in command is Rehman Malik - wow who has been awarded an honorary PhD degree by Karachi University - Shame on Karachi University Board of Governors! This is the height of illness of education in our society. If anyone wants to measure the level of competency of education system, he/she should see how our universities award the most prestigious degrees and to whom they award. By rewarding degree to Rehman Malik, it seems that we have black sheep teaching and grooming our young generation. I don't have more to say about it.

Zardari sab pe bhari, the most cunning person. He has been playing a game of wolves. If any wolf tries to sleep, the other wolves will attack him and tear him apart. Zardari has played all his cards. He has not left any institution of Pakistani federation to cast a slur upon. Army, the most respectable institution has been targeted very badly in his government period. ISI, one of the most efficient intelligence agency, gets darkened by the Zardari coal mines. Judiciary is treated as a piece of shit. The government's slogan is we want the parliament to be stronger, we want the institutions to be answerable to the parliamentary committees under the auspices of corrupt politicians. Haha! What a joke!

Zardari does not need to resign but the nation needs to wake up! It is a wake up call, the person who could not study in high school, the nation wants him to build an education system competing the world education system. The person who is known as Mr. 10 percent, the nation wants him to clean the country of corruption shit. The person who is blamed to murder his wife's brother, the nation wants him to have a strong judiciary. The person who embezzled country's assets, the nation wants him to strengthen the tax/revenue system. The person who is of loose character, the nation wants him to make our country stronger.

We need good leaders but most important is that we need good nation who chooses good leaders. If we do not have persons of good character, then we must choose leaders who are of less bad character. I don't think we can change the fate of our nation in another 20 years, but at least we can try punishing people who take the responsibility of reigning this country and do not deliver. We have to have our character and moral principles intact.

I forgot to mention that when we want to read jokes, we usually enjoy jokes about stupid people. Every culture/nation have their characters who they joke about. For example, Swedish or Europeans have jokes about Blondes, Indians have jokes about Sikhs, and so on. But do you know what kind of jokes do we have in Pakistan? Two kinds of, one about Pathans and other about Zardari. Now Zardari has been a gali (gali is an urdu word for abuse). I am not joking but it is the fact! You just type Zardari jokes in google or bing search engines and you will know what Zardari Jokes are!

Zardari sab pe bhari hay sab se bari gali! 

Bye for now!

We are blind!

My come back inspired:
O Lord! Make me the instrument of peace,

Where there is hatred, let me sow love,
Where there is injury, pardon,
Where there is war, peace!!! .................................

(Mother Teresa)

We are not only forgetful but we are blind as well. When I sit back and try to remember many of my old days, I hardly remember much. If i remember, I sometimes realize that I was blind on many occasions. Sometimes, when I remember that others were around too, then I question myself, how can others be so blind as well. Life is too short and learning from small mistakes quickly is very important. If you don't mend your ways, you will be dragged into the mud.

My wife shared a news with me about American soldiers peeing on dead bodies of Taliban. My reaction was terrible. I could not believe that how disgusting soldiers can be when it comes to treating the dead bodies of enemy. I am sure this is the reaction of the hatred for Muslims in general and taliban in particular taught to them during their training. Even when Paroah was drowned into the sea, God chose his fate like that. Paroah was not the enemy of mankind only but he was the enemy of God. Even then, mercy in his killing was shown by Almighty.

I must say it is extremely painful to know such an act of american soldiers. Many people quote everything is okay in love and war. There are bundles of books inked with rules and laws to be followed. These have been ratified by all the civilized nations of the world. Yet they don't follow. Rules can either be followed or broken. This suggests that rules are only supposed to be followed by the weak and developing countries and broken by the strong/rich and developed countries.

What are the times of decline? The times of decline are simpler. These times are when one breaks the rules.
It is time of these so called civilized nations to fall apart.

We have many scholars who have told us the stories of success and failure. Why not we try to follow them and learn from them? Life is too short and we must mend our ways. Specially, the war stricken people should learn from their experience and its time to say good bye to all the wrongful things people have been doing. In all such countries the main problems are that of illiteracy, corruption, mis-management, ditching the own people, brain drain and so on. May Almighty Allah lead us on the right path and make our people realize their mistakes and come to terms with foreign powers.

The strength of such poor countries is their people and I do not know why these countries do not make the most of such a productive resource. I only hope that it is never too late to mend ways as life is too short.

Peace is the demand not from Taliban but from Americans, Europeans, British, Canadians and all the countries who are part and parcel of killing people in the name of war on terror.