I Am Asif

I don't think there could be any better month to end this year. December, or the second half of it, has been jam packed with three very significant events, probably for my life. First of all there was the three days I spent on a jamaat, this time with my dad! Those who know me (or the unlikely souls who read my blog) know pretty well that I try to spend some time of the path of Allah regularly. I've been wanting very badly for a long time now to take my father with me some day. He's been eager a few times as well, but health issues and other mismatches were getting on the way. Finally thanks to Allah we went out together on a jamaat on the 16th and spent the next three days in the environment of a masjid. A long awaited wish of me and my sister has been finally fulfilled, Alhamdulillah. Then came the biggest family event, ever. The place where my father and my uncles grew up is the native village of Fuljhury, in Pirojpur district of Barisal. There, the more than a hundre...

I took a very rapid decision to take the IELTS test last month. I got registered just one month before my exam date. At that point l wasn't even aware of the format of the exam. So I just downloaded some practice materials from the net and started to give some practice tests by myself. The first three parts of the exam, namely listening, reading and writing were on the 27th of november at the Bashundhara Convention centre. I was actually pretty impressed by the way the exam was conducted. Speaking test was on the 29th at a hotel in Gulshan. Thanks to Allah the exams went pretty well indeed. The exam was a pretty good experience for me. I was in serious need for a break from my seemingly infinite boredom, so the whole thing was a breath of fresh air for me. Judging by my small practice and the way the exams went, I was hoping for a decent enough score. But when my results came out as 8.5 out of 9, I was actually overwhelmed! My individual scores are as followes: listening-9. re...

Although I’ve seen a few of my cousins get born and grow up a little, but since they didn’t actually stay with us I never really got to handle a baby before. We all needed a big change in the family, and this big change comes in the form of a tiny little boy! Yup, he’s small, believe me, like a pet. He’s the first baby of my sister cum friend. We’ve all been waiting for this little bundle of joy for a long time now, and when he came to us two weeks ago, instantly the youngest member of the family became the most popular one! As I’ve said before, I’ve had no previous experience with babies. The first few days I couldn’t even carry him properly, as soon as he came to me he would start to cry. But in a few days, when he first slept on my arms for more than an hour, I got to feel something I’ve never felt before. It was really amazing. I now have some sort of idea about how my uncles and aunts must feel for me; since I’ve grown up in their hands from an age my nephew is in now. He’s bee...

Ibn Abbas Radiyallahu Anhu narrates that Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam said: Today you listen to me about Deen; tomorrow you will be heard. And then it will be heard from those, who heard from you. (Abu Dawud)  Although I’ve been acquainted with Tabligh for several years now, but only after going in this jamaat that I finally got to see and participate in the Dawah activities in full swing. The effort that is going on in the name of ‘Dawat-e-Tabligh’ in every corner of the globe now is the effort to re-establish the missing bond among Muslims. Deen cannot be rejuvenated in the hearts of the Muslims without the proper understanding of Allah Subhanu Ta’ala. So our Dawah consisted of just that, to remind the people of Allah’s identity as the controller of the whole creation. The goal of the Dawah is not to preach to others and give Hidaayat, but to acquire Hidayat from Allah for ourselves by preaching the very words that we want to set in our own hearts. Once this purpose ...

How can we correct ourselves if we don’t know what to correct? How can we adhere to Deen Islam if we don’t know what it asks from me? How can we follow the Sunnah of the Prophet (S) if we don’t understand its importance? How can we obey Allah if we don’t love Him? How can we love Allah if we don’t even know Him? It’s not possible to understand the value of something if there’s no effort behind it. Those who are brought up in rich families don’t understand how precious food is, because they never had to struggle for it, they never knew hunger. We claim nowadays that just because we have recited the Kalima we’ve become Mu’min . But how strange is our Imaan that it cannot prevent us from an action which we ourselves know is a grave sin, in what level is our Imaan that it cannot improve our behavior, doesn’t make us humble, kind and soft hearted. What kind of Imaan do we posses that makes us arrogant and selfish? What sort of Imaan do we have that it cannot take us to the masjid w...

This post is not a very good idea. How can it be? I've decided to mention just a few of my 'friends' here, out of so many. Section A of our batch is like a freak show. Each and every character is unique and has his/her own set of ideas, morals, attitude, pros and cons. So it would be better if I could talk about them all. But instead I'm just going with my short list. For a couple of friends, staying together in the same school, college and university and always in the same section is rarity probably in the whole world. Yet, starting from class four at Udayan School, going through the time at Dhaka City College together and now here at AUST, me and Shuvro have spent 13 friggin years together. Amazed? Even I can't believe it's been that long. But the irony in it is that despite spending such a long time together, me and Shuvro never got to be close friends. Our conversations mostly comprised of me hitting on Shuvro, giving him a healthy dose of pochani , or oth...

Since we've come to our senses, one particular thing has been part and parcel of our lives, classes. So now that our classes are all over, it's been a little hard for us all to accept the situation we're being thrust into. It's hard to imagine that I'm not gonna wake in a hurry anymore, putting on the clothes as fast as I can, grabbing my bag and dashing out of home without taking breakfast, to catch the first class. There will be no more staring at the white (or black) board and struggling to keep up with the pace of the lecturer, no more staring blankly into the eyes of the teacher, not understanding a word yet pretending to know it all. No more attending the quizzes with zero preparation and not regretting about it at all. Not gonna have to submit anymore lab reports, although most I did was change the font of someone else's hard work. But above everything else, the most striking fact is that there will be no more of friends. Sound too harsh I guess, cuz you...