Lahori Muslim debut blog

Bismillahir-rahmaanir-raheem

Indeed only Allah is worthy of all praise, who taught man by the pen and taught him that which he knew not. Blessed is His Name, Ar-Rahmaan, as he created man, taught him the Qur'an and taught him the ways of eloquent expression.

This is a blog site dedicated to documenting my (i.e. Shazib Shaikh alias Abdullah) experiences following my imminent return to Lahore (Pakistan), insha'Allah (scheduled 06-01-06). As a result, I am hoping to achieve certain objectives by the bounty and mercy of Allah. The blog is thus a means to the following ends:

1. An efficient way to stay in touch with many of my acquaintances in the UK, especially my friends in Manchester, updating them with personal news.
2. A source of news about the state of affairs in Pakistan with regards to Islamic da'wah, especially in my home city of Lahore.
3. Provides some commentary on international affairs affecting Muslims as seen from my stand point.

Mind you, as all of you who know me well will affirm, I've not been the most sophisticated when it comes to current affairs. And given the climate in the world generally, especially in Pakistan, objectives 1 & 2 may be restricted. Thus the list indicates not only the number of objectives, but also their order of priority.

VERBOSITY: Forgive me, but often in the interest of preserving a train of thought I tend to use quite convoluted and not easily readable prose. No, no, no! This is not the result of some sophisticated psycho-analysis but rather the repeated complaint of my supervisor on going through tomes and tomes of my thesis drafts. But there is hope... on returning to Pakistan I anticipate this infection I have contracted from Radio 4 of seriously treating the most mundane of subjects may leave me. Instead single syllables may become the order of the day. So persist with patient peseverence...I know one teacher of mine who will wish dearly that I should "make the religion easy for the people - keep things simple - and not make things too complicated..." Anybody wish to hazard a guess who this is.

Well, insha'Allah there is still a month left to this imminent departure... perhaps I will convey to you the feelings of a returning Lahori over this time. So do keep posted.

Wassalamu alaikum

Abdullah