Can we co-exist? Muslims and Christians (Any religion as a matter of fact) 

I have recently started to read the Holy Quran. It started with a discussion with my younger brother. This boy is 19. I connected with him last year. He is a Muslim. Our discussions compelled me to read the Holy Quran as I felt some of his ideas about his religion seemed not aligned with the ideas of some other Muslim friends I have. I started to look for answers for him and ended up finding answers for myself. I took a liberty in involving other Muslim friends to get my queries answered. I wanted to inquire about tolerance in Islam about people who are Kafirs/disbelievers. One of my other Muslim friends encourage me to read about Hazrat Umar(RA). She informed me how He (RA) started off being against Islam and how Hazrat Mohammad (Peace Be Upon Him) requested God for him. He started off being an enemy and ended up being a devoted friend and follower of Islam. Hazrat Muhammad (Peace be Upon Him) forgave him and always admired his courage. I also read about Jesus Christ in Surah Al Imran where Jesus is given honor and his followers’ superiority and respect. I came to read Surah Al Kafiron (Disbelievers) where disbelievers are stated to freely follow their religion and practice it. I feel the more I read the more I understand. We always judge other religions based on our prior knowledge which is not factual but rumored based. However, now that I started to read Holy Quran on my own I feel it validates some of my Biblical perspectives. Reading a Holy book of another religion does not convert you. It liberates you as you understand the beliefs of others and get to respect them and widen your own perspective and knowledge about your own book and its perspectives.

Moral: We never try to understand the background of other people who we call friends and acquaintances. We need to understand the rules and regulations of other families, institutions and organizations. Respecting others will help us gain respect. Unless if you are an unconditional giver and you would not mind getting respect back.

Disclaimer: I am still a Christian l believe in God, Holy Spirit and Jesus Christ. I believe in the resurrection of Christ. I love Jesus!

Brother of the Prodigal Son

You never understand a story and someone’s emotions till you step into their shoes.  The story of the prodigal son has been shared with me million times. The focus has always been on the prodigal son from what I have observed. I felt the love of the father towards the prodigal son was remarkable. I always thought the brother of the prodigal son was selfish and envious till I experienced something similar. It is interesting that I identified my own behavior and emotion as the brother of the prodigal son. Once I discerned, I immediately started to look for some articles related to my concern and found a couple. It was intriguing to discover that the brother was as lost as the prodigal son. He was upset with his father because he was working hard to earn his love as he mentioned how hardworking and obedient he was. However, the response of the father did not demonstrate that he ever expected any deed or hard work. The son assumed that he needed to act in a certain manner to earn his father’s love. 

Moral of the story: Relationships are not earned by gifts and good deeds. You should cares for someone because you want to not because you want to earn their love. 

Always remember that you are doing the right thing because it is the right thing to do not to earn a reward or respect. The deed should be reinforcing not the incentive of earning praise, approval and love.

Never forget, God’s grace is unconditional. We have not earned it. We do not deserve it! It is given unconditionally to the ones God wants to for no reason. 

http://www.stannchurch-stl.org/do-you-ever-feel-like-the-older-brother-in-the-prodigal-son-story/

#prodigalson #God #grace #love #learning

Lahore Blast

It is sickening to hear the news of the Lahore Blast. Lahore is my home so deep connection! It is painful how people are tweeting, retweeting, updating statuses and profile pictures on social media about the attack. Seriously, this will become history too! Everyone wants someone else to help. This uproar will stay for a few days, as no one will follow through and it will fade too! What is the point? Till it is our own loved ones we never react the way we should. Only if we saw the body of our own family member true emotions will come. It is not a religious fight. It is an attack on humanity. I am sad doing nothing and changing my status like most. What a hypocrite, I am too!!

#LahoreBlast #Ilovemycountry #beinghuman #lovehumans
#hypocriteiam

Remember Pakistan in your prayers! Amen

Be Still God is There

“Love,

by definition,

seeks to enjoy its object.”

-C.S. Lewis 

Love God and Enjoy His Presence!! 

Want Him not from Him!

Social Pressures and Individuality

“When we tell people they are a good match, they act as if they are. Even when they should be wrong for each other.” Christian Rudder #ChristianRudder #Okcupid #Dataclysm

Christian Rudder in his book, Dataclysm: Who We Are (When We Think No One's Looking), discusses how individuals do not demonstrate their individuality when representing themselves socially. Rudder shared his perspective analyzing the results of the data  from his previously owned website #okcupid. His findings were that when men tend to indicate their interest in women between the ages 40-55 on a social forum, they are actually not viewing profiles of that age range but of 20 year old girls. His book also revealed other findings of how people act differently in social setup! #audiencecontrol

Is it social pressure?

Social pressures and individuality have always been in a constant crash!! :) Christian Rudder's book brought to my mind again the theme of categorization, human end products, individuality and different ingredients!!

Anyways, sometimes I wonder walking down the aisle of a supermarket whether I will find a product with the exact amount of ingredients that I am looking for! Would I have to add an ingredient to it? Would I have to change something about it? Was the advertisement adequate? Did the advertisement indicate what my needs are? Is the advertisement making me buy something that I don't even need?

The world is becoming a market where everyone is trying to sell something or themselves! People market their skills and talents. Resumes, profiles on social media and dating sites all are examples of it.  Navigating through some of the resumes and profiles I noticed selling strategies. I have never read anyone ever stating that they are unattractive, ugly, awful at a task or it is difficult for them to live up to a pressurizing situation. No one ever claims that under stress they get panic attacks. I mean if they do, will anyone buy them or what they are selling! I mean hire them or ask them out on a date!

Having said that, my social environment expects me to live a product life! People try to fit me in this Pakistani Christian category that I am not even aware of! I am not sure how to act for my audience! Sometimes, it is difficult to know what is expected of me. It is a shocker for people if I devotedly pray and then like to listen to pop, hip hop and jazz music. It is difficult for people to comprehend how a church going female who loves to debate on Christian theology listens to Lil Wayne ( not the cursing part/ however I love his messages). #Howtolove #LilWayne

It is unacceptable for people to have me act bold. When they see Pakistani in me. They want to see a submissive and timid woman who cannot express a word she feels. Even as an individual too, sometimes I have certain expectation from myself. I have observed how my personality changes in certain environment. For example,  raised and brought up in Pakistan and now living in United States of America, I do certain things in social settings which I would not do given I have to make an individual choice.

Furthermore, my recent obsession about the idea of categorization makes me ask the above questions and wrestle with some social theories. I feel that the need for the formation of categorization was intended for our good to store and retrieve information. However, this way of learning is becoming detrimental as it forces us to think in a certain pattern and hold certain expectations from the world, and ourselves.

We should use this formation of categorization reversely!  We should be conscious of our behavior of thinking in a pattern and accept it. Following acceptance of our behavior, we would be able to make decisions based on it.

After we stop our pattern and categorized thinking, we will stop expecting from a Pakistani, a Pakistani woman, a Pakistani Christian woman, a Pakistani Christian educated woman, a Pakistani Christian educated working woman, a Pakistani Christian educated working woman living with her parents and  a Pakistani Christian educated working woman living with her parents in United States of America.

Bertrand Russell well said! "So long as a man's spontaneous activities are such as all the tribe approves of and shares in, his initiatives is very little curbed by others within the tribe, and even his most spontaneous actions conform to the recognized pattern of behavior." ( The Role of Individuality)