Shaykh Saduq (Journey of an Islamic Intellectual)

Mohammed bin Ali bin al-Hussein bin Musa bin Babawayh; Abu Ja’far As-Saduq* al-Qummi –i.e. of Qum-; the master Sheikh and the head of the narrators.

His father was the respectful Sheikh Abu al-Hasan Ali bin al-Hussein bin Musa bin Babawayh: the master Sheikh of Qum in his time. He was also the most precedent, the master jurisprudent, and the most trustful of the ulema of his time.Birth and Early LifeSheikh As-Saduq was born in Qum. Although it was impossible to define the very year in which he was born, it is well known that he was born after the death of Mohammed bin Othman al-Omari (the second representative), which was in the year 305 A.H. That was the opening year of the representation of Abu al-Qasim al-Hussein bin Rawh (the third representative), who died in 326 A.H.As confirmation of this estimation, we provide the words of Sheikh As-Saduq himself in his book titled Kamal ud-Din wa Tamam un-Ni’ma:Abu Ja'far Mohammed bin Ali al-Aswad related to us:
After the death of Mohammed bin Othman al-Omari, Ali bin al-Hussein bin Musa bin Babawayh (i.e. As-Saduq’s father) asked me to tell Abu al-Qasim Ar-Rawhi –i.e. bin Rawh- to ask our master Sahib uz-Zaman to pray to Allah for giving him a male baby.Abu al-Qasim informed that he asked the Imam, who rejected. Three days later, Abu al-Qasim informed that the Imam (a) had prayed to Allah for Ali bin al-Hussein and he would be given a blessed male baby who would be the means by which Allah, Exalted is He, would benefit (many people). Moreover, many boys would come after that baby.
(Abu Ja’far Mohammed bin Ali al-Aswad said) After a period, Ali bin al-Hussein was given Mohammed (i.e. As-Saduq) followed by many other boys.

Another Narrative)
Sheikh At-Tusi said that some people narrated from Abu Ja’far Mohammed bin Ali bin al-Hussein bin Musa bin Babawayh and Abu Abdullah al-Hussein bin Ali bin Musa bin Babawayh (his brother) that Abu Ja’far Mohammed bin Ali al-Aswad related to us:
After the death of Mohammed bin Othman al-Omari, Ali bin al-Hussein bin Musa bin Babawayh (i.e. As-Saduq’s father) asked me to tell Abu al-Qasim Ar-Rawhi to ask our master Sahib uz-Zaman (a) to pray to Allah for giving him a male baby.
Abu al-Qasim informed that he asked the Imam, who rejected. Three days later, Abu al-Qasim informed that the Imam (a) had prayed to Allah for Ali bin al-Hussein and he would be given a blessed male baby who would be the means by which Allah, Exalted is He, would benefit (many people). Moreover, many boys would come after that baby.
(Abu Ja’far Mohammed bin Ali al-Aswad said) I asked him to pray to Allah to give me a male baby, but he did not answer. He said: This is impossible.
After a period, Ali bin al-Hussein was given Mohammed (i.e. As-Saduq) followed by many other boys. For me, I was not given anything.
Abu Ja’far bin Babawayh commented: As he noticed me attending the classes of our master Mohammed bin al-Hussein bin al-Waleed frequently while I was interested in recording and retaining the items of knowledge, Abu Ja’far Mohammed bin Ali al-Aswad used to say to me, ‘It is not strange for you to have such an insistent desire for learning since you came to this world by the supplication of the Imam (a).
Ar-Rawandi, in his al-Kharaa’ij, related the like of the previous narrative, yet brief. Besides, At-Tabirsi, in his book titled A’lam ul-Wara, Sayyid Hashim al-Bahrani, in his Tabssirat ul-Wali, and Sayyid Ali bin Abdul-Karim An-Najafi, in his Muntakhab ul-Anwar il-Mudhee’a, referred to the same narrative.
Imaduddin Mohammed bin Ali At-Tusi, in his Thaqib ul-Manaqib, referred to a part of that narrative.
In his reference to the biography of Ali bin al-Hussein bin Musa; As-Saduq’s father, An-Nejashi said that the man was in Iraq when he met Abu al-Qasim al-Hussein bin Rawh, Allah may have mercy be upon him, and asked him many questions. After that, As-Saduq’s father corresponded with Abu al-Qasim at the hands of Ali bin Ja’far bin al-Aswad and asked him to deliver a paper to Imam al-Mahdi, Allah may hasten his return, in which he asked for a male baby.
The answer was, ‘We have prayed to Allah for you and you will be given two virtuous male babies.’
Hence, Abu Ja’far and Abu Abdullah, whose mother was a bondwoman, were born.
From the previous we can conclude that Sheikh As-Saduq, Allah may have mercy be upon him, had come to this world out of the prayer of Imam al-Hujja (a) after the death of Mohammed bin Othman al-Omari; after the year 305 A.H., when his father Sheikh Ali bin al-Hussein traveled to Iraq and met Abu al-Qasim al-Hussein bin Rawh and asked him some questions… etc. Hence, Sheikh As-Saduq was born in about 306 A.H.
Sheikh As-Saduq used to take pride in such a birth and say, ‘I was born due to the prayer of Imam al-Mahdi (a).’
Sheikh As-Saduq grew up in the laps of virtue; his father used to feed him with the knowledge, shower him with the abundance of his knowledge and moralities, and circulate on him the lights of his purity, God-fearing, piety, and ascetics. All these contributed in the scholastic perfection and growth of Sheikh As-Saduq who lived under the wing of his father for more than twenty years during which he drank these knowledges and took from the great flow of his father’s information, moralities, and conducts. In addition, he grew up in the city of Qum which was swarming with the scholars and narrators, such as the master of the scholars of Qum Mohammed bin al-Hasan bin Ahmed bin al-Waleed and Hamza bin Mohammed bin Ahmed bin Ja’far bin Mohammed bin Zaid bin Ali as well as many others whose sessions and lectures were frequently attended by Sheikh As-Saduq.
After a short while, Sheikh As-Saduq became that great figure by whom people were benefiting. He also became such a distinctive sign of retaining and intelligence. He exceeded his companions in fields of virtue and knowledge and became such an unparalleled person.
Furthermore, the political circumstances of that period played a significant role in crystallizing the personality of Sheikh As-Saduq who lived in the reign of the Buyid in Iraq and Persia (321-447 A.H.), the Fatimids in Northern Africa (296-567 A.H.), and the Hamdanian State in Mousel –Northern Iraq- and Syria (333-394 A.H.)
It is well known that all these states were declaring their loyalty to the leadership of the Prophet’s household. In other words, they were Shia.
Scholastic Journeys
Not only was the intention of Sheikh As-Saduq to suffice with receiving knowledge from the master scholars of his town, but also it rose higher to encourage him to travel and emigrate far away from his hometown for seeking studies and knowledge. In the beginning, he traveled to the city of Ray to answer the summons of Rukn ad-Dawla al-Buwayhi (the Buyid), who died in 366 A.H. There, Sheikh As-Saduq met the scholars of that city, such like Sheikh Abu al-Hasan Mohammed bin Ahmed bin Ali bin Asad al-Asadi whose famous nickname is Abu Jurada al-Barda’i. That was in 347 A.H. He also met Ya’qoub bin Yousuf bin Ya’qoub, Ahmed bin Mohammed bin As-Saqr As-Sa’igh al-Adl (the decent), Abu Ali Ahmed bin al-Hasan al-Qattan and many others.
He then traveled to the city of Khurasan for the visitation of the Holy Shrine of Imam Ar-Ridha (a) in 352 A.H. After that, he returned to the city of Ray.
In 367 A.H., he made his second journey to the Holy Shrine of Imam Ar-Ridha (a). During his third journey which was made in 368 A.H., he passed by the cities of Istrabad and Jurjan where he attended the lectures of Sheikh Abu al-Hasan Mohammed bin al-Qasim Alistrabadi—the famous exegesist (of the Holy Quran) and orator. He also attended the classes of Sheikh Abu Mohammed al-Qasim bin Mohammed Alistrabadi, Sheikh Abu Mohammed Abdous bin Ali bin al-Abbas al-Jurjani, and Sheikh Mohammed bin Ali Alistrabadi.
In his journey back from the visitation of the Holy Shrine of Imam Ar-Ridha (a) Sheikh As-Saduq passed by the city of Nisapur and resided there for a period.
About this residence, he said:
“After I had satisfied my wishes for the visitation of Imam Ali bin Musa Ar-Ridha (a) I was back in Nisapur where I resided. I found that the majority of the Shia there, who were frequently referring to me, were perplexed by the Invisibility –Ghaybah- and doubted the matter of al-Qa’im (a). They therefore left the right course of the submission (to Allah) to join the path of personal opinions and analogy. Hence, I exerted all my efforts for guiding them to the right and taking them back to the path of correctitude by means of the relevant narratives of the Prophet and the Imams, peace be upon them.”
In Nisapur, Sheikh As-Saduq related the lessons of most of the scholars of that city, such like Sheikh Abu Ali al-Hussein bin Ahmed al-Bayhaqi, Sheikh Abdul-Wahid bin Mohammed bin Abdous An-Nisapuri, Sheikh Abu Mansour Ahmed bin Ibrahim bin Bakr al-Khuzi, Sheikh Abu Saeed Mohammed bin al-Fadhl bin Mohammed bin Ishaq al-Muthekkir An-Nisapuri, Sheikh Abu at-Tayyib al-Hussein bin Ahmed bin Mohammed Ar-Razi and many others.
As he passed by the cities of Marwalruth and Sarakhs, Sheikh As-Saduq attended the classes of Sheikh Mohammed bin Ali al-Marwalruthi, Sheikh Abu Yousuf bin Abdullah bin Abdul-Malik, and Sheikh Abu Nasr Mohammed bin Ahmed bin Tamim As-Sarakhsi.
In the years 352 and 355 A.H., Sheikh As-Saduq was in Baghdad where he learnt from Sheikh Abu al-Hasan Ali bin Thabit Ad-Dawalibi, Sheikh Abu Mohammed al-Hasan bin Mohammed bin Yahya al-Husseini al-Alawi; Ibn Tahir, and Sheikh Ibrahim bin Harun al-Hiti as well as many others.
In 354 A.H., Sheikh As-Saduq had the honor to pilgrimage to the Holy House of Allah. In his way, he passed by Kufa and learnt from the master scholars there, such like Sheikh Mohammed bin Bakran An-Naqqash, Sheikh Ahmed bin Ibrahim bin Harun al-Fami, Sheikh al-Hasan bin Mohammed bin Saeed al-Hashimi, Sheikh Abu al-Hasan Ali bin Easa al-Mujawir, Sheikh Abu Tharr Yahya bin Zaid bin al-Abbas bin al-Waleed al-Bezzaz, Sheikh Abu al-Qasim al-Hasan bin Mohammed As-Sakuni al-Kufi and many others.
He also traveled to many cities such as Hamadan, Ilaq, Balkh, Samarqand, Faraghana and others.
In such journeys, Sheikh as-Saduq attended the lessons of many scholars in the cities that he passed by.
Scholastic State and Scholars’ Opinions
Sheikh As-Saduq, Allah may promote his position, was one of the master scholars of Shiism, great intellectuals, and well-versed men of knowledge. He was such a grand mastermind, abundant knowledgeable, and well informed. In his time, he was one of the most distinguishable scholars to whom everyone referred in questions concerning the rulings of the Sharia and was the sign upon whom everyone acted in the religious problems.
Sheikh At-Tusi; the master scholar of the sect mentioned Sheikh As-Saduq with the following words:
Mohammed bin Ali bin al-Hussein bin Musa bin Babawayh al-Qummi is the lofty master. His surname is Abu Ja’far. He was so admirable, good narrator of hadith, skillful knowing of men, and bright criticizer of narrations. Besides, he was such distinct relater and encyclopedic that no one of the people of Qum could attain his rank. He had written about three hundred books.
An-Nejashi referred to Sheikh As-Saduq with the following wording:
Abu Ja’far al-Qummi who resided in Ray was our Sheikh and master jurisprudent. He was the representative of the sect (of Shiism) in Khurasan.
In his Me’aalim ul-Ulemaa, Ibn Shahrashoub said the following about Sheikh As-Saduq:
He was the best of the scholars of Qum. He wrote about three hundred books.
In As-Saraa’ir, Ibn Idris referred to Sheikh As-Saduq with the following wording:
He was trustworthy, highly reverent, well versed in narrations, good criticizer of the reports, well knowing of men, and well memorizer. He was the master of our Sheikh al-Mufid Mohammed bin Mohammed bin An-Nu’man.
Sheikh Hussein bin Abdus-Samad al-Harithi —father of Sheikh al-Bahaa’i— said about Sheikh As-Saduq:
He was highly reverent, high-ranking scholar among the upper class as well as the ordinary people, good narrator of hadith, well knowing of jurisprudence and men, good discerning of the mental and analytical sciences, and good criticizer of reports. He was also the master scholar, jurisprudent, and chief of the Saved Sect (Shia) in Khurasan and Iraq of the non-Arabs; (i.e. Persia).
In the fields of narration and abundance of knowledge, he was so distinct over all those who lived in his time.
The previous models have been few wordings of praise and extolment that were said about Sheikh As-Saduq. To know more about this respectful personality, it is recommendable to refer to the numerous reference books that recorded the biography of him some of which we have just excerpted.
Teachers and Students
Because of the many journeys that Sheikh As-Saduq made to various countries for the purpose of seeking studies, he could read, listen, deliver lectures, and gain the license of many scholars and masters of the countries that he passed by in the various fields of knowledge.
A good look in his numerous books, such as al-Amali, Men La Yahdhuruh ul-Faqih, At-Tawhid, Thawab ul-A’maal and many others, proves that he rested upon many of the Shiite and Sunni master scholars in the field of narrations. He also depended upon such scholars in the fields of hadith regarding a great variety of sciences and fields. The famous names of the master scholars upon whom Sheikh As-Saduq depended in relation of the reports are innumerable.
For avoiding lengthiness, we ask the dear reader to refer to the numerous books of biography so as to have an idea about the teachers of Sheikh As-Saduq.
The students and the narrators on the authority of Sheikh As-Saduq are also too many to be mentioned in this book. Reference books of biography referred to some famous names such as the lofty Sheikh Mohammed bin Mohammed bin An-Nu’man At-Tal’akbari whose nickname is Sheikh al-Mufid, the trustworthy Sheikh Ali bin Ahmed bin al-Abbas (father of Sheikh An-Nejashi), Sheikh Abu al-Hasan Mohammed bin Ahmed bin Ali bin Shathan al-Qummi, Sayyid al-Murtedha Alam ul-Huda, and many others that we could not mention their names in details. To have more information about such names, it is recommendable to refer to the many books that discussed this topic and from which we excerpted this brief biography.
His Works
Sheikh As-Saduq dealt with a great variety of arts and sciences. He wrote many books; more than three hundred ones. Unfortunately, most of these books were lost. We, hereby, refer to some of them:
1. Ali’tiqadat
2. al-Amali
3. Thawab ul-A’maal
4. al-Khissal
5. Sifat ush-Shia
6. Iqab ul-A’maal
7. Ilal ush-Sharaayi
8. Uyounu Akhbar ir-Reza
9. Fadhaa’il ul-Ash’hur ith-Thalatha
10. Fadhaa’il ush-Shi’a
11. Kamal ud-Din wa Tamam un-Ni’ma
12. Mussadaqat ul-Ikhwan
13. Me’aani al-Akhbar
14. al-Muqannaa’ fi al-Fiqh
15. Men La Yahdhuruh al-Faqih
16. al-Mawaaizh
17. al-Hidayatu fi al-Fiqh
Furthermore, there are tens of books most of which were lost, as we have previously mentioned. To have more information about such books, it is recommendable to refer to the books that mentioned the biography of Sheikh As-Saduq.
His Death
Sheikh As-Saduq died in 381 A.H. He was more than seventy years old. He was buried in the city of Ray near the tomb of Abdul-Azheem al-Hasani, Allah be pleased with him.
Today, his tomb is one of the famous shrines whom are frequently visited by people who seek blessings there.
In nearly 1238 A. H., Sultan Fat’h Ali Shah the Qajar reconstructed that holy shrine after the spread of the news of the good charismata that had been seen there.
Al-Khawansari, in his Ar-Rawdhat, al-Mamuqani, in his Tanqeeh ul-Maqaal, and other scholars mentioned a number of charismata of Sheikh As-Saduq (after his death) occurred in his blessed shrine. In the year 1238 A.H., a fissure occurred to the shrine due to the heavy rain. When some people entered inside the shrine for chasing the source of that fissure, they could reach the gutter in which Sheikh As-Saduq was buried. They found that his dead body was laid out while the genitals were covered. It was very sound and handsome. On the nails of the body, they could notice the signs of dye, while on the limbs, there were old threads of the torn coffin.
As this event was rumored in the city of Tehran, Sultan Fat’h Ali… ordered to reform that fissure and reconstruct that shrine.

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Maritime Silk Road (From Persia To China) Urdu Subtitles

It seems to be a good Iranian historical movie, there are some of the best Iranian actors, such as Bahram Radan, Dariush Arjmand and Ezzatollah Entezami, and also some Chinese and Thai ones, I think Shazan
(Bahram Radan) is a Persian Marco Polo in this movie.Mohammad Bozorgnia, who has worked as Dariush Mehrjui’s assistant for many years, has been always interested in making films about sea. The Ship Angelica, Battle of Oil Tankers, Storm, and The Maritime Silk Road are all about personalities who are one way or
another connected to the sea. A Place to Love was his sole film which had nothing to do with the sea. It was made four years ago and was a failure. Some of his films are about contemporary society of Iran (Battle of Oil Tankers, Storm) and some go back in time (The Ship Angelica, The Maritime Silk Road). His new film is one of the most spectacular film projects of Iran and is about a man called Soleiman who, according to historical documents, was the first sailor to cross the Indian Ocean to China. His route was then called the maritime Silk Road and many merchants took that route to get their merchandise to China. One of the passengers in this film is a young man who keeps a log of the voyage. Shooting The Maritime Silk Road has started in southern Iranian islands and has continued into China and Thailand.

Crewmembers include Bahram Badakhshani (director of photography), Khosrow Keivan-Mehr (sound recordist), Farhad Alizadeh Ahi (production designer), Saeed Malekan (makeup designer), and Hassan Beshkoufeh (producer). Main roles have been played by Ezzatollah Entezami, Reza Kianian, Bahram Radan, Dariush Arjmand, Pegah Ahangarani, Payam Dehkordi, Mehdi Mayamei, and Mohsen Hosseini. It has been shot in seven months and in view of high production cost, it would be possibly among important films of the next edition of Fajr International Film Festival.

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Escape From Kufa (Shadow Upon the Sun)

(سايه بر خورشيد) A film depicting 3 women of conviction, ready to answer the call of Hussain (a.s.), but are disheartened with the erratic people of Kufa.

Three women are trying to rescue his wife Hania an idea that gallows on their heads.
Director: Mohammad Taghi Ansari
Producer: Master Hossein Shirazi
Screenwriter: Mohammad Taghi Ansari
Cast: J. Farmer - Afrndnya K. - H. luggage - SJ Mazaheri - R. beings - free math
Running time: 90 minutes
Sound: M. Justice
Sound: Saman Majd desertion
Costume Designer: Mohammad Taghi Ansari
Face processing: Samin seeker
Cinematographer: Hamid Rahim Zadeh
Editor: H. Lavvaf
Music: Muhammad Ali

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Sheikh Saadi Sherazi (Sheikh Mosleh al-Din)

Known by his pen-name as Saʿdī‚ Abū-Muhammad Muslih al-Dīn bin Abdallāh Shīrāzī was one of the major Persian poets of the medieval period. He is not only famous in Persian-speaking countries‚ but he has also been quoted in western sources.His best known works are Bostan (The Orchard) completed in 1257 and Gulistan (The Rose Garden) in 1258.When he reappeared in his native Shiraz he was an elderly man.
Shiraz, under Atabak Abubakr Sa'd ibn Zangy (1231-60) was enjoying an era of relative tranquility. Saadi was not only welcomed to the city but was respected highly by the ruler and enumerated among the greats of the province. In response, Saadi took his nom de plume from the name of the local prince, Sa'd ibn Zangi, and composed some of his most delightful panegyrics as an initial gesture of gratitude in praise of the ruling house and placed them at the beginning of his Bostan. He seems to have spent the rest of his life in Shiraz.His best known works are the Bostan (The Orchard) and the Golestan (The Rose Garden). The Bostan is entirely in verse (epic metre) and consists of stories aptly illustrating the standard virtues recommended to Muslims (justice, liberality, modesty, contentment) as well as of reflections on the behaviour of dervishes and their ecstatic practices. The Golestan is mainly in prose and contains stories and personal anecdotes. The text is interspersed with a variety of short poems, containing aphorisms, advice, and humorous reflections. Saadi demonstrates a profound awareness of the absurdity of human existence. The fate of those who depend on the changeable moods of kings is contrasted with the freedom of the dervishes.

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An Open Letter to Unblock YouTube in Pakistan

I was working with a logistics client in Dubai who had a Pathan staff member who used to take orders from people on the phone and then give them to someone else who would then type them up on a computer and send further for processing.
I told the Pathan that he could use the computer to do the work himself and save the company a lot of money.
“The computer is not for me. I am an uneducated man from Waziristan,” was his reply. He had tried to take computer courses near the office but the timings never suited him so he had given up on computers.
I told him the Internet was for everyone and went on to YouTube and typed “Excel tutorial Pushto”. And up came a bunch of videos that explained how to use Microsoft Excel in his own native language.
From then he was hooked. He had discovered that he could learn almost anything in his own language from his own home, at his own time for free.  A few weeks later, he had created an email account and had started creating the company invoices himself and saved his company a significant amount of money by increasing his own productivity.
Let’s assume that we all have a few common goals. We would like to help educate our country, end poverty and create wealth for the average citizen – not just the elite. We want better doctors, engineers, mechanics and teachers inside Pakistan and not just those that managed to emigrate abroad.
Now, let’s look at how YouTube would actually help us achieve these goals faster.
Over 72 hours of videos are uploaded to YouTube every single minute. Even if only 1 per cent of the uploaded content is useful educational content that is more educational content produced in a single week that is available for free for students to watch than is produced in an entire year across all of the Universities in Pakistan.
Last year, when I was invited by the IBA University to lecture their students in Karachi I had figured that the cost was too high to actually travel from Dubai. So I gave the lecture over Skype. As I figured that I was doing the work anyway, I recorded the lecture and uploaded it to YouTube. An hour of a teacher’s time for 30 students, which then ended up being watched over 2,000 times by other students across the world at a later date. I did the work once of preparing and giving the lecture. The lecture is still doing the “work” for me by being on YouTube. Teachers that teach using the pre-YouTube methods, end up repeating what they said once in a lecture over and over again every year – while the YouTube generation of professors can think and research new content while at the same time reaching a bigger audience with their lectures.
It saddens me to see that the next generation of Pakistanis is missing out not only on my lectures – but millions of other lectures from people around the country and the world.  That the only people able to get access to University professors will be those that can afford to move to a city and afford the luxury of a fulltime formal education. Reading is not a large part of our culture, so blocking YouTube which is video content and the most likely to be used for new people on the Internet has an even greater impact of slowing the spread of knowledge.
The greatest gift that we are given from the world for a free education for our citizens is turned away. Instead, we prefer our citizens to work from hand-me-down books often out of date or through curriculums set by bureaucrats that don’t even have access to YouTube.
Whenever someone mentions a great author I should read, I usually go first to YouTube and search for the author. I then visit www.audiothief.com and download the mp3 version of the lecture and sync it to my phone. I can then listen to the author talking about their book while going for a walk or a drive. This is the era of the self-learner and how I also recommend for my students to keep up with the latest knowledge. They can get the essence of what an author says in their book by listening to a few of their lectures or interviews at their own time for free and it’s available the instant it comes online rather than having to wait for the book to arrive at their village a few years or decades later.
Students in colleges proudly tell me how they bypass the YouTube ban using proxies, but I also think if we end up creating laws that citizens want to proudly break then we encourage a culture of law breaking. I would, however, encourage medical students to find out about the latest medical procedures and how they are performed on YouTube than to work from outdated information they obtained from old books.
The focus in the Internet economy is away from hardware (school buildings) and moves to software (teachers and content). The greatest impact on anyone’s education is the quality of the teacher – not the number of students in a classroom or the quality of the building they are in. YouTube simply gives us access to better teachers such as Virtual University and Khan Academy Urdu and for the past six months we haven’t been able to access these teachers.
Pakistan’s penetration of Internet is approximately 9 per cent or 18 million people. That means that 18 million people have a chance of updating their knowledge at no cost to the government. Compare that to the cost of building a University that teaches a few thousand students and costs a few million rupees.  Rather than focusing on trying to get aid from around the world, we should focus on making better use of the resources we already have.

Internet Users as a Percentage of Population. Source: World Bank on Google Public Data

In Pakistan, more people are killed in car accidents every year than are killed due to terrorism. The safest thing to do would be to ban all citizens from using their cars and force them to walk instead. Of course, we don’t do this, but instead we work on asking citizens to use seat belts and take many other policies that make driving safer. We should look at a similar approach for the Internet rather than the easier approach of shutting it off.
Let me just take care of a few ideas that will come up in response to this article.  Building “PakTube” is not difficult. Websites such as Vimeo.com already exist but the problem is that YouTube has millions of hours of content already on it. Are we going to go on a mission to convince the two billion Internet users around the world that they should move over to PakTube in order to serve the 18 million Pakistanis better? Otherwise, we would be saying to the world’s teachers, thinkers and content creators that we don’t need your ideas – we can create all our own content. And of course, if you do move over to PakTube you should trust us that your content is safe with us as we won’t simply shut down all of PakTube the next time one person misbehaves.
Secondly, I am not sure there is any religion that encourages the suppression of knowledge or the spread of education. Countries such as Saudi Arabia and Indonesia have managed to block the inappropriate content and help their citizens get access to knowledge on YouTube, so I am sure Pakistan can too.  YouTube is also one of the greatest sources of religious knowledge and is full of scholars.
Our Internet policy makers need to understand the term “User Generated Content”. This means that users – people like you and I – are creating the content for websites. Facebook and YouTube are two of millions of sites that provide this ability. This means that any one of the billion plus users that these sites get can post almost anything. As any teacher trying to manage a class of 20 students knows this can be a difficult task, but when you have over a billion users someone, somewhere will say something inappropriate. We have the ability to block individual content – asking the world to conform to our stricter censorship laws is less likely.
Our Internet policy makers need to be proactive so that core software like Skype, Wikipedia, Google and other sites that provide millions of jobs are not shut when the next incident happens.
Technology companies and freelancers will have a harder time convincing clients to move their business to Pakistan once a client understands that YouTube is blocked here – how can you compete in a global economy without such core services?
If I were a politician, I too would hate the Internet and YouTube. It gives the average citizens the chance to criticize me and spread news amongst themselves. I would long for the days in which there was only PTV so I could control what the public saw and only show how great I am. I would hate the fact that anyone on their mobile phone could take a video of anything irregular happening during the elections and upload to YouTube. I would hate citizen journalists trying to fight corruption or voicing their opinion, as I would lose control.
YouTube is the greatest gift we have had and instead of suppressing it, our government should encourage the growth of it along with 3G (fast internet over phones) so that people can get more content for free. Farmers can learn to farm better. Doctors can learn to heal better. Teachers can learn to educate better.
Taking 1 per cent of our own education budget and using it to encourage the growth of the Internet, including YouTube, throughout the country will have a greater impact on the country than investing the same amount in building more buildings or spreading outdated curriculum.
On behalf of those that want to educate more people faster, as well as those that have the desire to grow their own knowledge, I would request that the PTA and Government to do what they can to unblock YouTube.
Are you also impacted by the block of YouTube? If so, tell us how YouTube being unavailable is impacting your ability to study or earn.
Source:.  An open letter to unblock YouTube in Pakistan | Blog | DAWN.COM

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Grand Ayatollah Muhammad Fazel Lankarani

Grand Ayatollah Muhammad Fazel Lankarani was born in 1931 in the Holy city of Qum. His father, the late Ayatullah Fazel Lankarani was a great teacher and scholar in the Islamic Seminary of Qum. His dear mother, was a pure and noble woman of Sayed descent.At the age of 13, after the completion of primary school, he began studying Islamic studies in the seminary of Qum, where due to his great ability and aptitude, he was able to finish the preliminary stages of Islamic studies within six years.From the beginning of the political and social struggle and defiance of Ayatullah Khomeini against the oppression, corruption and tyrannical government of the Pahlavi dynasty in Iran, Ayatullah Fazel Lankarani was one of the helpers and supporters of Ayatullah Khomeini. Step by step in every movement that the defenders of Islam took, Ayatullah Lankarani was there and played an active role. One of his important moves was to be involved with the Jami'ah Mudarasin, a group that consists of the teachers in the Hawza 'Ilmiyyah of Qum in which they were busy spreading the word of Islam and the Islamic Revolution among the masses. More than this, it was they who announced the Marja'iyat and Leadership of Ayatullah Khomeini...Many times during this difficult period, Ayatullah Fazel Lankarani was jailed, and finally, as if the Shah could no longer take the 'Ulama and their standing up for the truth, he was forced to exile him to an area known as Bandar Lange. After staying there for 4 months, we was moved to the city of Yazd, where he was forced to reside for a period of 18 months.After the victory of the Islamic Revolution of Iran, Ayatullah Fazel Lankarani continued to play an important role along side the leader, Ayatullah Khomeini, May his spirit be sanctified, and even today, under the leadership of Ayatullah Khameni'i, he is still fully supportive and active.

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Haunted 3D (Hindi Movie)

in the misty mountains of Dalhousie stands the sprawling Glen Manor, A House with the secret past and haunted present.Screams that shatter in the middle of the right and that the ghoul that will leave anyone who dares headless.Rahan has bought the property and has already sold it further. Money, ha stands to lose millions unless he can make the deal come through but to make the deal he has to first deal with the spirit that has the house in its grasp,,,As Rehan begins to unearth the bitter past of the house a names forth. A name with a picture and the girl in the picture is most beautiful. The name is Meera and the Rehan wonders how anyone can fall in love with a picture and name.Till the discover that the name and picture was the cause of the haunting.

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