I Am Asif

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...

The last day on our trip to The Sundarbans started on an island called Dublar Char . This is a place famed for its shutki , a kind of dried fish preparation popular in Bangladesh. Right after daybreak we got out on the land to check out the place. This area is occupied for a certain period of the year by fishermen who catch fish and dry them up to produce the shutki. So almost all the people who live here are seasonal fishermen. Now in our family, we never were fans of shutki, mostly because of its awful stench. I remember back when we were in Elephant Road, our next door neighbors used to cook shutki every now and then, and we all started running this way and that, hurrying to close all the windows. So for a guy like me, this shutki island is not the place to be. If you don’t like the smell as well, you should be glad that you can’t smell them through the photos, cuz otherwise you would have to run away from the monitor. Rows upon rows of bizarre looking dried fish are hung upon s...

The sun was shining bright in the winter morning when we reached Katka . This place offers a whole set of varying experiences. We had to get into our boat again at first and head into a canal for a short distance before we came to a landing spot from where the walk towards the sea beach started. This walk of about 45 minutes is a fun ride by itself. At the beginning the forests were at a pretty fair distance on either side of our path, as our caravan of 63 with the two armed gunmen at the front and back walked deeper into the region. Soon the tree-lines started to close in on us. And then came the spot called Jamtoli , were the path only allowed a single file, and the tree branches and bushes brushed us from the sides. Now, these parts of Katka are famous for spotting tigers and a considerable number of tigers are believed to be living in and around this region. This is the area where the famed tigress ‘ Jamtolir Raani ’ (The Queen of Jamtoli) was spotted. So passing through this narr...