Love of Game vs. Love of God: Is There an Organic Connection between The Two? [Quote – 210]

“Those who love football find football.

And those who love soccer or baseball find soccer and baseball.

In the same way, those who love God find God.

So, it is a question of what it is that you love or seek most in life.

And how well and how hard you do so.

And in what contexts and places.

It would be interesting to know how Love of God intersects with Love of Game in the lives of many, or at least some, of the high-end football, soccer and baseball players in the world.” (Dr. Pasha)

The Amazing World of a Believer [Quote – 207]

Nothing is more amazing in this world than a believer who is sustained by God’s Love.

Let me explain how.

“When a believer looks at God, I mean when he thinks or contemplates about God, he thinks his life is forever.

But when he looks at this world, he knows that his life hangs in the most delicate and dynamic balance of a dizzy whirl of a billion variables from minute to minute and from second to micro- and millisecond.

So a believer learns to scale his life and his priorities accordingly.

And his life then becomes a perfect balance of rights and responsibilities.

As a result, a believer discharges his duties, and fulfils his obligations, to friend and foe alike, and to humans and non-humans alike, as if he had but maybe seconds to live.

But he leaves his rewards in the safe and secure hands of his master – God Almighty.

And he rests comfortably in the safe and secure knowledge that what is his by divine dispensation will also be his in actuality. 

And what was meant to reach him in this world will never miss him, no matter who gets in the way or tries to stop it.

A believer never surrenders his rights, no matter how seemingly insurmountable the odds against him, for he knows his rights are given to him by his maker and master, God Almighty, and not by fellow-human beings like himself.

Nor does a believer allow the rights of anyone else to be denied or diminished, for he knows all rights, his as well as everyone else’s, come from God and it is his God-given duty to cherish and protect them and to strive tirelessly to secure them for himself as well as for all others.

Yet, at the same time, a believer’s struggle for his rights is most cultured, compassionate and dignified, for, he knows that the one who gave him his rights will also make sure to deliver them to him.

As a result, a believer’s struggle for those God-given rights – life, liberty, property, family, human dignity, freedom of belief, freedom of expression and such – both for himself and for everyone else in this world, is persistent and fearless.

For, a believer reads in the Qur’an, which is God’s word in his hand, and in this world, and in the universe, that God does not change the condition of a people unless they themselves work to change it.

As a human being, a believer loves Liberty more than he loves Life, just as the American revolutionary Patrick Henry once said it as eloquently and forcefully as perhaps any man can ever say it: “Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death!”

And as the Bible quotes the indomitable Moses, Prophet and Messenger of God, may God bless him, as saying it to no less a tyrant than Pharaoh who not only considered himself the greatest king on earth, but also God: “Let My People Go!”

But a believer respects, loves, and celebrates life as a very special gift and trust from God, not just for himself but for all of God’s creation, both human and non-human.

Such a man is mortal to the extent all creation must drink inevitably from the decreed cup of mortality. But his life, legacy and impact on the world are forever, for, he is moved by the Spirit of God that God breathed in him when he created him.

Such a man is indestructible, unbreakable.

For, as someone once said it:

  • You send him in exile, you turn him into a tourist on the endless expanse of God’s earth;
  • You lock him up in jail, you make it possible for him to be in never-ending tete-a-tete with his Creator;
  • Or you kill him, and thereby you confer upon him the priceless blessing of martyrdom and send him directly to paradise where he lives forever in eternal bliss in the presence of God Almighty.

Indeed, how different is the world of a believer who knows, understands, and believes, and cares, from the world of a non-believer who neither knows, nor understands, nor believes, nor cares.

And what an enchanted and impregnable and radiant and self-sustaining world it is!

Directly in the hand of God Almighty.

May God bless such a believer and those he loves and teaches, and whose lives he touches!” (Dr. Pasha)

Love of God and Love of God’s Creation – Different or the Same Thing [Quote – 206]

“Your journey to God begins when and where your preoccupation with your own self tapers off.

The more ascendant and salient you make yourself in your list of priorities and in your own scheme of things, and the more prominent your child, spouse, job or business is in the calculus of your life, the slower and more arduous and fitful your journey to God and the farther and more uncertain your destination.

Unless, of course, you master the true Islamic way of doing things under which you love God first, and foremost, and unconditionally, and above all else, and then you compress and derive all your worldly loves, whether it is your love for your family, career or even yourself, from that single most dominant and all-consuming passion in your life – Love of God.

That total and single-minded devotion for God then validates, legitimizes, blesses and consecrates every other lawful love you may have in this world, whether it is love of a child, parent, sport, business, spouse, career, nation, society, culture or place.” (Dr. Pasha)

A Dictatorship Is a Dictatorship, Is a Dictatorship, Is a Dictatorship [Quote – 205]

“Tyranny has many faces and they are all from the Devil.

In case anyone has trouble understanding this simple equation, let me make it as clear as I possibly can: A so-called “Religious” Dictatorship or “Islamic” Dictatorship is still a dictatorship.

It is one of the many faces of tyranny.

Nothing more, nothing less.

In fact, such a so-called religious or theocratic dictatorship is all dictatorship and tyranny and no Islam.” (Dr. Pasha)

Democracy Is from God and Dictatorship Is from the Devil [Quote – 204]

“To the extent Democracy implies rights, freedoms and opportunities for participation and representation for “The People,” it is from God and it embodies the essence and spirit of Islam. 

Dictatorship on the other hand, any kind or type of dictatorship, whether it is a civilian or military dictatorship or a hereditary monarchy pure and simple, that limits the rights and freedoms of “The People,” and denies them opportunities for full participation and representation, is from the Devil and it represents all that is alien and hostile to Islam.” (Dr. Pasha)

This Eidul Adha – Festival of Sacrifice – Ask: What Are You Sacrificing [Quote – 203]

Message for Eidul Ad-haa

“My message for this Eidul Ad-haa is a simple one.

When Muslims and their small and big leaders proceed to slaughter and sacrifice their camels, sheep, goats and cows, I suggest they ask the following question of themselves: To what extent are they sacrificing these animals at the altar of God and to what extent are they sacrificing Islam and Muslims, and the overall wellbeing of God’s creation on earth, at the altar of their own egos; selfishness; greed; corruption; politics; ambition; and cooptation by and sellout to the Devil and his minions and agents?” (Dr. Pasha)

Trying to Understand God and His Ways in His Creation [Quote – 202]

“If you ask me why people accept Islam, I can give you two answers: one a very simple human one; the other a most complex unfathomable divine one.

From a human point of view, the process and outcome of conversion from religion to Islam, and, more specifically, from non-Islam to Islam, is the composite function of a billion variables, some known, most unknown or exogenous, each with its own specific value and error component, acting in concert, and the entire result being predictable or explainable within a certain margin of error, provided we have at our disposal all the theoretical models and methodological tools and instrumentations required for the purpose of figuring out these things.

I am calling this human equation simple because there is a way and there is a hope that somehow and sometime we can solve the puzzle. 

The divine answer may appear simple when stated in our daily language but is unknowable in both theory and practice as it transcends the limits of human knowledge and powers of human understanding.

For it means knowing God in all his attributes and understanding the calculus of his mercy and dispensation and his grace with regard to his creation.

Simply stated, it does not lie in human power to know or understand God and the internal dynamics of the way he does things.

Our very humanity is defined in terms of our general inability to comprehend God or the ways in which he dispenses his grace and mercy to his creation.

Wa laa yuheetoona bishai im min ‘ilmihi.” (Dr. Pasha)

Guidance Comes from God – So Learn to Connect with Him [Quote – 201]

“I am not saying Muslims should not be “nice.”

And I am not saying civility is not a virtue.

In fact Islam is all about being “nice” and kind and merciful and saying and doing “nice” things as much as you can.

But, at the same time, don’t beguile yourself into thinking that your being “nice” will automatically melt every non-Muslim or unbelieving heart and will necessarily lead to everybody accepting Islam.

If that were true, some of the arch-foes of Islam and Muslims, during the time of Prophet Muhammad, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, like Abu Jahl and Abu Lahab, would have been among the first to embrace Islam.

For, they knew first hand, and only too well, what a kind, compassionate, loving, generous and “nice” man Prophet Muhammad, Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam, was.

The fact is that it takes more than a “nice” word or a kind gesture for people to see the truth of Islam and come forward to embrace it.

It happens when the doors of a human being’s heart are opened by God Almighty.

That is why no one, other than God, can take credit for “guiding” people.

People find “guidance” – Hidaayat as the Qur’an calls it – when the divine mercy smiles down at them. Not when someone – a human source for example – wants to “guide” them and not when they want to “discover” the truth for themselves.

That is why blessed and fortunate indeed are those who are guided. For, they receive guidance from above – and not from any other source.

This is not to say others – an identifiable human source – do not play a helpful role in either bringing people closer to Islam or in driving people away from Islam.

We are all perfectly capable of doing that, and we indeed do both those things all the time: helping people to open their eyes to the beauty of Islam or giving them cause to dislike Islam even more than before.

But the “guidance” part that puts people over the top positively or negatively in the form of either accepting or rejecting Islam? That comes from God and no one else.” (Dr. Pasha)

Published Books

Library Catalog

Please request free copies of our books and booklets for your family, friends and local libraries today! Send us your correct address and contact information and a brief introduction who and where you are and what you do. And we will be happy to try and send you our literature free of cost.

Booklets