Blogs

Most of today is a wait in anticipation of what is to come. Karachi streets are empty, young kids play cricket instead, on roads that are usually crammed with traffic and people. Rows and rows of shops and businesses are shuttered shut. I visit a protest rally near Mehfil e Khorasaan where women and men…

A trip to Pakistan is always a frustrating challenge certainly, but with intertwining interesting episodes that can leave me in tears or giggling incoherently. You may have read my earlier episodes of forays into this badbakh country, so I will spare you a detailed repeat of much that occurred during my most recent trip but…

February 10 was a very happy day, a satisfying day. CAI donor funded girls school at Phanderi Sadaat in UP, India was officially inaugurated. A year plus in the making, it is a beautiful modern building that will insha’Allah be an harbinger of a brighter future for the poor girls that will benefit from a…

Radical Muslims besiege a minority Muslim community in Sampang, East Java, Indonesia. One man is murdered, their homes burnt down and when they seek protection at a local stadium, food and water supplies are either cut off or severely restricted. Most Indonesian Muslims are very tolerant of beliefs between various sects. Jakarta, for example, is…

Continued from Trekking In Addis Ababa – Part One… We have caught the attention of a couple of ruffians however, who ask us for money; Alan refuses. They follow us for a distance, ignoring Alan’s request to be left alone; I get nervous, as we are in a desolate place. Alan flags down a passing…

I was fortunately blessed to go trekking in Ethiopia in July 2012. It was a wonderful trip, which I finally got down to writing recently. Perhaps you may enjoy this narrate? I stare at the screen and the email in unbelief; turd, I curse, then again, turd! This is the last thing I need, after…

We conclude the azaa of Abaa Abdi’Allah Hussein (A) recently, forty days of tribute to our heroes of Kerbala, Koofa and Syria, saviors of Islam and our hope for intercession on a day when no other intervention will be tolerated. An exceptional gift from Sayyeda Zainab (A) to rejuvenate our faith and seek nearness to…

I have known Sheykh Noor u Deen for about a year now, mainly through his lectures at Husseini Islamic Center here in Sanford, FL. A down to earth person, his lectures match my disposition; pertinent, useful, meat and potato issue driven and quite funny at times. I do wish other lecturers deal on issues that…

I visit Pakistan December 12 – 17, 2012. These five days are filled with painful emotional upheavals and furtive arrangements by my hosts to keep me safe. This narrative will, hopefully, give you an idea of rot that is gripping this once wonderful and proud nation. There is not one person who has a good…

I remain unsure if the following event really took place. Maybe it was a reverie, perhaps not. Nevertheless, something to muse over? It is a mini-baraaza this time, just Mullah Mchungu and me, seated outside the Husseini Islamic Center, here in Sanford, FL, a stone throw away from my house. Majlis finished a while ago,…

I had penned this piece over five years ago but never Blogged it; ajeeb…! So I share it with you now, in the hope you will appreciate the plight of those without water in Afghanistan.  Note the following developments since this was written: • The water project completed in 2010 and functioning, providing clean, potable water…

Abbas Abdulhussein is a very busy man indeed! It takes over six weeks for him to pen this Blog. I wish he does not praise me so much, for all praise belongs to Allah (S). Nevertheless, as promised, I give you a perspective not mine. Here it is then, in Abbas’s words. Enjoy. It all…

Tanganyika and Zanzibar tolerate a tenuous marriage; it was dicey to begin with, the honeymoon was briefer than most human unions of today, but most love evaporated almost immediately after dictator Abeid Karume was assassinated in 1972. Although the mainland has prospered relatively well since Nyerere’s disastrous policies got finely shredded, the archipelago lags much…