Pakistan
4_1_11
Our newly joined team member, Nizam Hunzai, has observed that the 4th of January 2011 written in the above order resembles the word Allah in Arabic.
One year ago, the Attabad village had slipped down and killed 19 people, beside blocking the Hunza River gorge.
Today we remember in our prayers those who were killed in the disaster and those who have been suffering for during the past one year due to destruction of their houses and property.
We also salute resilience of those who have not lost hope despite of all odds.
Team Pamir Times
Salam aleykum,
I am urgently trying to contact people who are trying to raise this issue as I want to write about it.
I saw the poster on the website which said the rally started at 1.30 yesterday, so after 50 minutes I saw nobody and I had to leave. Would it be possible to meet with somebody from your group in Islamabad tomorrow?
Please contact me as soon as possible on 03035853506 or email aadil_w@hotmail.co.uk ……………………….THANKS!!
There might be plurality of views towards matters of divine and religious expression and equally there may be valid spiritual experiences of people with regards to divine Reality but as Muslims, when it comes to remembering God or doing dhikir of Allah it is important that we do it in a way that is beautiful and sublime therefore I would beg to differ when you paint the name of God/Allah in black. We know that God has ninety nine names and he can reveal himself in a multitude of ways including as a “Warner” or someone who is “wrathful” and so on but we as Muslims know many other qualities of the divine when God refers to Himself as the Allhu Nuru Samawati Wal Ard (Allah is the Light of Heavens and Earth (Q24:35) why not present God and his name in a creatively beautiful and loving way as a way of accepting the tests and tribulations that He subjects us all. Black symbolizes darkness and thus all that is ugly and full of difficulty. We know that the natural disaster that struck Attabad exactly one year ago has displaced many households, the government has expressed a lukewarm approach towards this problem, and a lot more needs to be done but we should never be forgetful (gafla) of God. To reaffirm and remain resilient in the face of the unknown, in the face of hardship is the way of living a life of what Aristotle calls eudemonia: a true happiness or excellence achieved after a moral struggle to remain up to principles. What I have attempted to describe above may look live a theological recasting of a situation that requires active government support, and strong political activism on the part of the community yet I would say that matters of divine should remain part of the existential quest to find meaning in the problems that beset us and we should not forget about the mercy of God and thus we should be grateful to Him.
Trangfa Maujood
Shishper Meadows
There is nothing intrinsically bad about black…its just a colour mate…when we say black symbolises destruction, it is us who are making black as the sign of destruction and pessimism. So kindly (if possible) we should not make an issue out of just one colour…its just that black is black..red is red..or orange is orange..nothing intrinsically bad about them…if we attack bad symbolism with them…its fault on our side (humans) who still fail to ‘think’ most of the time and rely themselves on mere symbolism without thinking….(not that m saying symbolism with thinking is bad)…
Secondly, practically speaking and using a bit of the capacity of my thinking, atta abad is a pure case of human fault and error, nothing more, nothing less. I don’t want to argue whether God tests humans through these acts or whether He makes a point through it, I just want to say that we all know that this incidence could have been avoided, at least it was humanly possible to avoid it.
Yes! the mountain fell down, yes! the lake was formed, but we just dint act……and it was after that we (humans) dint act that it became a big problem…. If you’re saying that God puts in a meaning in every problem, a lesson to learn den i just don’t agree to apply this logic here since the problem is a total outcome of human error and inaction…dats it…we dont need to straighten the dog’s tail to see that.
Yes we need to consider the God’s mercy, but dont we also know that God helps those who help themselves ? So it would be better to consider that we (humans) are answerable to our actions and mate this time the problem was totally a result of our own actions …at least dominantly..If you are going to say next that God made humans to error..den sorry mate, my thinking at that point just fails to answer since it can only think on a logical space…. God is very logical for me but not in the sense that you are propagating Him.
I dont doubt Aristotle and his saying but i dont buy into the result you are taking out of his saying. For me, he just means that one human error and resulting problem out of it enables humans to learn so dat the same mistakes are not repeated……..its not that problems such as these will be inevitable..
Yes, we dont learn from our own histories but for sure we are improving and for sure we have made it possible (through learning from our mistakes) most of the problems that we used to face in the past….
plus the concept of beauty is subjective…i can find something beautiful whereas the same thing can be ugly for you…. a bit of tolerance (which our society clearly lacks) towards each others’ ideals of beauty and sublime will be greatly appreciated….and this applies in every aspect, be it religion or anything else. Overall, i think the focus of the Nizam’s observation was the divine name and i seriously believe that neither him nor pamirtimes team ever ever thought about usage of colour in putting accross der message…
Briefly speaking…der was no intended symbolism involved in terms of colour …so dont make it symbolic!!