My thanks to all those who helped organise the lectures last night in conjunction with the Museum of Science and Industry - it really was a wonderful presentation which I enjoyed very much and benefitted from wal-hamdulillah, on such an important topic for the Muslims in the UK, and also such an important part of our Deen that the vast majority of Muslims know absolutely nothing about.

My thanks and gratitude to Drs Steve Bell and Robert Massey for making the topic so relevant, and keeping it lucid despite its potential 'heaviness' - it was also nice to see old friends there too, my salams to you all.

You will have noticed in the links section on the right a new website over the last couple of months called 'Moon Watch' which I hope you will all visit and participate in - remember that we expect the new moon over the next few nights so hurry.



As for all those who wasted our time (by reserving spaces etc) and didn't bother coming then what can I say? I look around and just resign myself to the statement of the Prophet (sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam), "People are like camels. Out of a hundred, you'll only find one worthy of being a ride."

Sigh.

As for this Sunday, we shall be holding the annual Hajj seminar at Makki Masjid in Longsight, starting after Dhuhr at 1pm. This will be mostly attended by those leaving for Hajj in a few weeks but I would like it so much more if all those planning to go next year or the year after would come and start to learn their rites in advance, for indeed a proper Hajj requires at least a year of preparation.

Think I'm exaggerating? I jest not my brothers and sisters - I think of all those who do Hajj just like that and then realise that I'd rather not, it's far too depressing.

Hajj Seminar
Sunday 4th Dec
1pm - 4pm
Makki Masjid, 125 Beresford Rd, Longsight, Manchester.

My favourite articles over the last few days...

No keeping a bad man down

Why? Because even though the secular system fails miserably, Shari'ah deals both with the problem of societal forgiveness and yet maintaining a worthy stigma for those crimes that deserve it - not just paedophilia as is obviously the case in our rapidly disintegrating society today.

Romantic love only gets you so far...

Why? Because this article backs up my life mission: to educate all Paks that getting married is more than just how he/she looks; and after the first kid (which is about a year really isn't it?), then well...but hey, don't you lads get too carried away either. Just look at your pait chubby...

Mobile phone ringing tones

Why? Because there is absolutely nothing in this dunya that freaks me out more than mobile phone ringing tones. God it drives me crazy! Especially all and any musical tone and the other ridiculous extreme of the adhan and the Qur'an, may Allah forgive us for our transgressions.

What on Earth is wrong with the good old 'Ring Ring'?!

*going mental at this stage, so stops typing in order to preserve his desk and other valuable items*

Well well well.

They took their time but at long last, my voice has finally been heard.



The Saudi authorities have banned my website. It's official.

:-)


(Thanks to Hood and the Saudi boys for the print screen picture)

I'm a big fan of the niqab and an almost as big fan of the semi-colon; there's one for good measure...

Here are interesting articles on both:

The big cover-up

Last word

Also, here's the full details of that conference coming up next week in Manchester. Of course, it is absolutely vital that we make a show there, not only because the Muslims are becoming the fitnah of the astronomy world at the moment, I think even starting to freak out the gorai as well now, but because otherwise Usama will have my guts for garters.

Just kidding Ozz.




I think there are a few seats left if you ring them up on 0161 606 0156 but I also have a few extra seats booked too, so contact me if you wish to go.

Finally for this evening, for an old man yearning for some good footie this year after all the cricket, please allow me the little bi-fazool luxury of a bit of nike football.

Yep, you know you loved it...

:-)

Kasmi, what a baistee.

Shahid Afridi, the world's second favourite Pathan, being interviewed after today's innings:

With tongue wedged firmly in cheek, another asked whether he can ever play defensively to which he replied, earnestly, no. "Even if someone was to offer you a million dollars?" A little pause, a smile, then, "maybe." But even then, implied the smile, you wouldn't bet on it.



*Sighs happily*

The pleasures of the beautiful game...

;-)

As I crawl through my inbox, I ask all those who've been emailing me on every single issue under the sun to just give me a week odd to get back on track. I've picked the following few notices and requests to address now and bring to your attention...

1. The annual Hajj seminar will be going ahead soon insha'Allah. This is where you all get to see me don the ihram and perform Tawaf around the pillars of Makki Masjid, which is about as close as I'm going to get to making Tawaf of any sort this year...

It should be something like Sunday the 4th of December after Dhuhr, either at Makki or Cheadle and I'll confirm details in due course when the organisers sort it out insha'Allah.

2. The Hanbali fiqh circles will be continuing this Wednesday after 'Isha (@ 7.30pm) at Makki for the time being but probably moving to Cheadle soon in response to some of the financial and political shenanigans of the 'trustees'. We'll see whether they decide to stop wasting everyones' good money and start fearing Allah a bit more before we make our own decision.

Sigh.

3. There will be an important conference next week on the 29th of November called "Calendars, Crescents and Calculations", hosted by the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester featuring some of the leading experts in astronomy, with particular working experience of 'Islamic' issues.

The 'guest' list is unfortunately extremely limited and I haven't received an update but I will post one soon when I speak to the organisers - they were particularly interested in any scientists, school teachers, tullab al-'ilm and other community leaders to attend but watch this space...

4. I need to upgrade my Orange account and I'm thinking of getting the M5000 - has anyone used Tom Tom Navigator on it whilst also using a Bluetooth Car Kit connected at the same time? Please let me know asap of your experiences and general advice on the unit...

5. The 'al-Adab al-Mufrad' circle will be starting soon insha'Allah, maybe a few more weeks...

6. Those wondering what happened to Yusuf's Indigo Jo blog site need not be alarmed - he informs me that it'll be back fully online within a few days insha'Allah as he moves host in response to spam attacks.

Thats all for now folks...

The last five to six weeks have been an incredibly difficult time - mentally. To have witnessed the Earthquake's destruction amongst the already poor and destitute people of Northern Pakistan has been hard to take, but important to witness all the same.

Important only because everything happens for a reason. It is us upon us all as individuals to find those reasons and then learn from them in every which way possible.

Everyone will have their own thoughts on how to interpret this tragedy - I hope to put forward my own ideas a bit later for discussion, for no-one can claim to know the exact reasons of 'punishment' and 'trials' etc as many unfortunately naive maulvees have been announcing from their rooftops, wa-Allahu a'lam.

What I do know though is that the Prophet (sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam) told us, "He who has not thanked the people, has not thanked Allah."

The brothers and sisters who visit this site or heard of our little appeal have been masha'Allah simply magnificent. You gave your sadaqah bi-ghayri hisaab, like the 'flowing wind' of Prophetic fame, and how amazing it was to witness.

Donor fatigue?

Haha.

I told you guys before; Muslims don't do donor fatigue...

:-)

The imdad that we offered to those affected by the Earthquake was very gratefully received, went a little way to give hope to a suffering people and is still very much continuing with the team that PG has formed back in Pakistan. I will be providing a full and detailed report of all these activites in the next few days insha'Allah.

But yes, let me at least give you people your rights.

After thanking Allah for giving us all the tawfeeq to serve His religion, I would like to thank you all for your incredible generosity, your trust, and your swiftness in providing the appeal funds.

Jazakumullahu khayran ahsan jazaa.

Secondly, I'd like to thank my friends and colleagues who have been vital in this hastily arranged campaign using our (private) PG account. Central to this of course has been our good friend Q, or brother Qadir, who has single-handedly in his own time being dealing with the very stressful job of transferring funds to me in Pakistan from this 'community account' which is not an officially registered charity, causing many problems in its own right. Add to this list the brothers from our circle such as Shazad, Naseer, Amjad etc, not only for coming and giving their own support to the medical team but also giving me vital logistical help from the UK as well.

Thanks also to DoctorsWorldWide for their logistical support and help.

I am thirdly very grateful to our team in Pakistan, none moreso than the Dar family in Lahore. Old friends of mine, brothers Yassir, Fahd and Faisal have been crucial to this entire operation, lead by the single most important figure in our efforts so far - Faisal Dar. He has been responsible for the researching and procuring of the different items we've needed from the cheapest possible places in the various factories of Punjab. Being involved in business himself, his experience and contacts have been priceless - without him, there wouldn't have been jack. Simple as that.

So as Faisal will continue to manage our remaining funds in my absence according to what we inform him, there have been other vital members of my team from personal friends such as brother Amanullah, Sa'eed al-Rahman and Rashid Iqbal to my own village tribe members who have all been working on a voluntary basis, solely for the sake of Allah 'azza wa jall to help their fellow countrymen.

Then I must thank those volunteers who I insisted on giving a wage due to the incredibly difficult nature of surveying an area properly to protect against fraudsters. What a fantastic group of brothers, climbing freezing mountains for three days in order to make sure we did a proper and fair job, by personally visiting as many houses and families as possible.

I'd like to thank also Major Adnan the CO of operations in Balakot, and also many other close brothers for their invaluable advice such as the inimitable Scottie, brother Yaqub, as well many other people that I can't possibly all name.

Finally, my family also played an important role strangely enough, making it as easy as possible for me to remain as a Musafir for almost my entire stay in Pakistan. There were many aspects to this, most of it politics of course, and other things which I never considered before I left, yet Allah made it easy for me wal-hamdulillah.

What there is no doubt of is that for every action that occurs from the Decision of Allah, our individual and collective re-action comes under greater scrutiny. I ask you all to pray for those whom I have mentioned and indeed all those who I haven't that are involved in helping to alleviate the distress of the poor and destitute around the world.

May Allah reward all of you, forgive us all our mistakes and shower us with His Mercy, ameen Ya Rabb al-'Alameen.

Insha'Allah we'll be returning tomorrow and so I hope to meet some of you at the circle tomorrow evening where we can get cracking on with plans.

That also means Kif that you've got like about 12 hours to get the house ready. I'm not holding my breath but I tell you something - if the garden is not absolutely up to mack-daddy standard then my goodness me lad, God help you...

And don't even think of using my lawnmower tonight or tomorrow morning on soaking wet grass - you should have thought of that last week matey.

Aaaah, it's almost like I'm at home already.

:-)

Another manic week – just returned back to the Swat Valley.

It’s late, in fact it’s very late and I’m too tired to write much now except that I’ve just survived the journey from hell – my bus ride with the family resulted in two of us being sick, two nappies to be changed on the bus, the eldest wetting himself, the youngest screaming all the way, and me hitting my head umpteen times as I tried to sort all this chaos out whilst standing on a bus which reminds one of a ship in a storm as it passes over the ruined Malakand pass.

The Shangla tent drop was slightly interesting. Our entire shipment of 800 tents was robbed of us at gunpoint before we reached our first drop-off point, where our ‘heavies’ would give us protection. Anyway, loads of diplomacy, bribing and false promises got us out of trouble and we even got the entire relief load back as well.

All this at the cost of so many lies though, may Allah forgive us.

More photos and stuff when I get back.

Before I leave here, we’re looking into the Masjid building plan and CGI (iron sheets) homes for the rest of our funds. This is because the canvas tent manufacturers are the biggest crooks I have ever seen – I wonder sometimes if this earthquake was meant for them; maybe it is. Maybe their lot is being saved for afterwards…

And I have to end of course with the cricket. I saw the highlights on the news bulletin at the station and it looks a seriously tight game although I expect England to knock off them runs on the last day no problems. It’s strange this, because I want people like Collingwood and Flintoff to shine, yet you can’t help a little cheer when the Paks get a wicket…

Tebbit me ‘ole son, you’ve really messed me up.

I’ve been playing the waiting game today as the ‘flexi-tents’ delivery leaves Lahore tomorrow morning to arrive here in Swat early on Thursday after Fajr and then we move onwards to Shangla insha’Allah.

So a full day at home then today, spent mostly reflecting. And reflection is very much the order of the day.

I won’t burden you all with my musings of the last few weeks until I get back to Blighty (where I will then of course take immense pleasure in doing nothing else but wham it all on you lot) but the immediate thought of the moment, when I’m not thinking about tents that is, is when and how am I going to meet my end.

You see, I’ve discovered this new obsession with my ceiling.

All I do is watch it – until I fall asleep. Then when I wake up, I watch it until I can be bothered to get out of bed. I study its design carefully, imagining how it would crack and how it would fall. Would I have enough time to turn my head? Would I have enough time to get into the corner or should I try and make a run for the door?

These tremors/aftershocks are no joke. They really give the room a right old shaking and yet we’re still quite out of the way in this valley whereas those from our volunteer team out in the field told me this afternoon that they’d thought it was all over for them yesterday morning – Balakot and Muzaffarabad were really given a massive jolt which only lasted for one second and then it was all over.

The funny thing is of course that when we (the Brit medics etc) were all together recently in the hotel in Abottabad and these aftershocks were coming, it was mostly laughs and giggles at how fulan fell over fulan, or more specifically whether Shazad fainted or just fell over Amjad (or whoever) whilst trying to leg it out of the room. Sorry lads, I couldn’t resist.

But yeah, we’d be laughing our heads off about it over dinner the same evening or something – remember what I told you before about that stupid Western ambivalence we display in such scenarios?

Here though it’s a whole different story – my people are just totally terrified. The locals view these recent events incredibly seriously, no joking matter with many people even in my largely untouched village refusing to sleep inside the bedroom. People have stopped watching TV, many families have locked away their VCRs (it’s a Pak thing), and everyone seems to be auditing their every action trying to figure out whether we’re next in line or have we been given another chance.

With such a sombre atmosphere, it’s difficult for me to be anything but very aware of these aftershocks and honestly spend my nights in real trepidation at what may happen.

In any case, it’s certainly more beneficial spiritually speaking than having a laugh and joke about it I suppose.

Other than that, the tent saga continues. In fact, the only way I get to sleep these nights is dreaming about tents – I mean, just how mental can one get over these cursed things?!

We decided on splitting our new order between high-altitude (HA) tents on the advice of the army (that’s what they call them), and very heavy double ply canvas tents. We now have possession of 200 of the HA tents but our nightmare continues with the second type.

Our suppliers have been found to be dishonest, liars, and just wanting to make a quick buck at the expense of the destitute. It’s really unbelievable and I wouldn’t have thought it possible until I’d seen the evidence with my own eyes. Now, some of the guys we were going to use have told us that we’d have to wait another 20 days, the canvas would be lower quality and the new price would be 10500 rupees which is an increase of over 3000 rupees! And this scenario changes every hour, honestly, every hour.

It’s a total and utter joke. And it’s driving me crackers.

Bahar haal, we have provisionally returned back to one of the earlier suppliers (who we deemed too expensive at first but now seems rather reasonable compared to the new crazy prices) to supply us with a 4m x 3m double ply waterproof army-standard canvas tent which should be ready in 15 days tops.

The bad news is that I’ll have to come back soon and will probably miss the completion of that order. The good news, wal-hamdulillah, is that 95% of the ground work has been done. The buying team is in place, the delivery and transport system is in place, my designated amirs are in place on the ground in each affected area we’ll continue our work in (Shangla, Balakot, Mansehra and a small part of Muzaffarabad), and we have a team of volunteers in each area ready to jump into action for distribution when the delivery arrives. Even more importantly we have our lists ready of those real Mustahiqeen which we complied during our detailed surveys in these areas. Also, in Balakot, we have the additional advantage of a camp run by some trustworthy British brothers to help in the distribution to the more remote upper regions of Balakot and Naaran as well as Major Adnan and his army logisitical support, including helicopters, at hand if needed as decided by our amirs.

There are many good things to report on these days with respect to the aid effort yet it’s not all bright clouds. Some of my volunteer team returned back to Swat after we sent them to survey areas of Muzaffarabad. They told me that as soon as they arrived, they were given shovels by some other locals and asked to help them shift the rubble in order to pull out the (many) dead bodies still buried under the mass of concrete and bricks. One of the elders told me he found it almost impossible to breathe due to the smell of death and as for the physical state of the decomposed bodies then just thank Allah that you’re there and you’re not here…

Our sadaqah and zakat collection continues as per the original details provided in the post three odd weeks back so keep it fresh in your mind as you ask around your people for more support. This disaster is rapidly fading from the news but don’t let it leave our hearts just yet…

I don’t know what my fascination with the clock is.

7:12am.

And it was a serious one. It went on. And on. And on. Not as bad as the aftershock a few weeks back in the morning but a nasty one all the same. It caused further damage especially in Shangla and Balakot wa Allahu Musta’an.

The tent debate still continues, fuelled by new problems that come up every hour. Our new suppliers are blagging us – we know that 100%. Our tried and tested suppliers are delaying and taking too long. Our different army and civilian advisors are still differing amongst themselves on what is the best option.

The lighter, plastic ‘high-altitude’ tent has a lot of fans amongst the army whereas the civilians reckon the canvas tent is more beneficial. We’re going to get some of both. Here was a picture of the expensive canvas tent we have sourced in one of the (many) factories we visited in Lahore...

...except that I'm having an absolute nightmare putting pictures up - it's just not happening guys, even after hours of waiting.

And you know something else?

They said we had a few weeks before winter would come. They were wrong.

I’m in a not so extreme part of the NWFP as I type this and I am shivering in my thick quilt whilst wearing my outdoor fleece. I can’t imagine what the mountainous regions of Kashmir and other affected places must be like.

Getting out of bed for Fajr has never been so difficult. My water is freezing during wudhu. What is it like for the rest of these people within 100km distance of me now?

‘Eed was indeed a solemn affair – I suppose being so close hurts the conscience more, even though it has been remarkable how much the affectees are trying to make a go of it.

Tomorrow we place our final orders after we decide in which factories to put our trust. We have another shipment of blankets coming from Quetta. I’m off to the Shangla province again to set up the ‘flexi-tent’ delivery and then I hope to get to Balakot again before the end of next week.

Oh, and apparently we stuffed the Blues.

There’s always something cheery to be found on the Beeb, even at 21.2 kbps…

Firstly the good news.

We have had a phenomenally successful (masha’Allah and that is from Allah ‘azza wa jall’s immense mercy) operation in the Shangla Province. The previously described plan of sending our teams as scouts giving out receipts to only the needy and not the fraudsters has lead to over 1,000,000 rupees being distributed as cash donations enabling the desperate at least a little hope and joy before ‘Eed. Wallahi, their gratitude and happiness has been overwhelming, even at something so ‘insignificant’ as 1000 rupees. Their 800 ‘Flexi-tents’ as I call them have also been produced and are on en-route to the province from Lahore as I type which alongside our already completed blanket drop, results in a job well done wal-hamdulillah

The army finally arriving full force in the province as well as starting to distribute significant numbers of tents themselves has eased our stress massively. By the way, we’re getting to see some real nice guys from the army now, so maybe not all so bad then but more on that another time…

Then we received significant new funds masha’Allah of approximately $40,000 and hence due to the repeated requests from friends and partners working in the Mansehra, Balakot, Muzaffarabad and Naaran regions, we have now turned our attention there.

The reason for this extra need of tents? Put it this way, when we saw the destruction in these areas, we simply couldn’t believe it. This was what we witnessed on entering Balakot…



















The problem is that I’m running out of adjectives to describe destruction and devastation. This region looks as if like some huge creature just walked all over it – mosques, schools, shops, homes, all completely flattened with huge numbers of people crushed underneath. The survivors are suffering from incredible trauma injuries and what’s worse is that most of these wounds coming up have not been seen by a doctor for over two weeks! They came into the medical camps and field hospitals often limping down from areas after walking for days or even being carried down mountain paths in beds by any available volunteers, wa la hawla wa la quwwata illa billah – no infection control, no pain relief, just utter unimaginable agony. Severed limbs, massive wounds, broken bones – I simply can’t put the pictures up. Even in the city areas, people had to try and get across to help via bridges in this condition…




And what about the pyschological trauma these people have suffered? The most painful and difficult aspect to this whole disaster has been the wailing and crying children in the hospitals, in excruciating pain, all their families lost, mentally scarred for life.

As’alullah al-‘Afiyah.

The force of the quake even sheared complete mountain faces, causing the entire wall to collapse and totally destroy the villages on it and at its bottom…




As I walk through the rubble, obvious pictures stood out…




Indeed. It was as Allah willed.

This Masjid was utterly destroyed yet setbacks like that will never put off the faithful…




The army in Balakot are doing a wonderful job, there are no two ways about it. I personally witnessed much good things, even being invited by the Major in command to view how they were tackling this huge task…










So, what now?

I have returned to Lahore to make the final decision between two types of tents. There are so many problems, I don’t know where to start explaining the issue.

Tent A is absolutely 100% waterproof, thin, very light and easily transported, a good size (6-8 people), cold inside due to the condensation that builds up but very cheap – I can get 750 of them which will cover thousands of people. Oh, and it looks like a ten quid tent from Argos (although I can assure, it is anything but that, being used by the Pakistani Climbing Association).

Tent B is canvas, huge (8-10 people), warm, not waterproof, very solid, and has another delay of three weeks. It’s very expensive, double the cost of the previous one and will require a huge tarpaulin to go over it to provide cover against the rain.

Tent C is also canvas, double ply, treated, even more expensive (7000 rupees), even more warm and solid, quite heavy (40kg) etc.

Consider that no-one cares for small orders like our orders – everyone has huge government contracts, who are not enforcing quality standards whatsoever and incidentally, are not willing to change their quality for us. Indeed, they are forcing us to stick to their same poor standards.

We have spent the last two weeks scouring the country for the best supply but still are facing problems. The decision for Shangla was made easier because the people told us what they wanted and we knew they could survive ok with the ‘flexi-tents’, i.e. no poles, no pegs, no ground sheets etc.

This is a whole different ball game.

We have spent the last few days in the different tent factories. A decision will have to be made soon. All the advice we have sought so far leads to taking a combination of the two tents A and C.

Major Adnan, the contact we have made who is running the relief operation in Balakot, believes we should get some of the light ones for the very high regions and make the majority of the order a double ply version which is also incidentally the army standard.

We took many pictures at the factories – I am now the world’s foremost expert in winterised tents – and there is no doubt about the cowboy nature of this industry and the huge profits these businessmen are making. All this fi-sabilillah codswallop is just that – codswallop.

‘Ala kulli haal, whatever happens over the next few days, we’ll either provide an acceptable level of shelter for 300 odd people, or a very basic one for 750, or a combination of the both.

I hope I never get involved in such decisions again.

Back to the bad news – I can’t get a blasted bus back home to Swat for ‘Eed as they are all booked up. Anyone reading this in Pak that has a car..?

Sigh.

In any case, wherever you are, whenever you celebrate it, I wish you all a very happy ‘Eed. Taqabalallah minna wa minkum salih al-a’mal, wa kullu ‘aamin wa antum bil-khayr.

‘Eed Mubarak.

:-)