#childhoon

How I was misguided

I was born in Muslim family. I was raised as Muslim. From beginning they started misguiding me by saying Azan in my ear. When I grew up, I wad sent to nearest mosque to learn Arabic script. They taught me how to read but didn’t taught me how I can translate the same into my language to understand what is written in the book. Later I was able to read Arabic fluently but was still unable to understand what it was really saying. One day I got a Quran with Urdu translation. I began reading translation but for me it was just a book full of stories and how great and merciful god can torture you after life if you won’t bow down to him in this life. But still it was an awesome thing to learn because many wanted to to get blessed by arranging Quran khawani (reading) in their houses. In return they would arrange food for us, otherwise give us money which was really great!

I was very straight guy and I was like robot. I will adopt to different environments with different people without questioning and arguing. I was born as Barelvi Sunni. I never questioned my faith. Actually I didn't even knew there were other sects in Islam. I knew about Shias and heard that they are Muslims too but didn't knew they were different sect and pray differently. One day my friend asked me “What is my sect?” and I said “I don’t know”. Then my cousin said i was Sunni. After that they started debating on Shia belief / faith. They started calling them infidels. One of the argument they passed was “They hurt their bodies because they killed Hussain and they feel guilty. I started believing them. I became unpleasant toward many of my Shia friends.

After long time, when I was in college, one of my friend converted to Deoband Islam. It was normal for us to hear bad words about Shias. Apparently he said many things that I my self could nor believe so I decided to learn about Shias my self. I had Shia neighbours so I decided to interact with them more. Actually they became more friendly once they figured out that I am not interested in calling them blasphemous or infidel. Believe me they looked more decent than most of Sunnis. But that was obvious because if you are minority then you will not go against majority.

Fumbling blindly around the dimmed corner of the closet, I skimmed over various furs and itchy knits in an anxious search of my new leather coat that the weather had finally agreed with. It was just under fifty degrees, and perfect timing to show it off on a runway strut around the block. I tucked my embroidered jeans into the tops of my boots to ensure that they wouldn’t get snagged and…

“Chalk Lines”

Fumbling blindly around the dimmed corner of the closet, I skimmed over various furs and itchy knits in an anxious search of my new leather coat that the weather had finally agreed with. It was just under 50 degrees, and perfect timing to show it off on a runway strut around tyhe block. I tucked my embroidered jeans into the tops of my boots (assuring that they wouldn’t get snagged) and continued…