I know this is a controversial topic and i also know that people are scared to debate what has been taught to them as the final word and nothing beyond it.
However music has been a huge part of my life since i was a kid. More often than not it has taught me lessons that no book could ever teach me, and has unearthed passions that i never knew existed inside me. Certain songs and singers have a way of speaking to you like no other, and it is those moments that have given music a certain reverence in my life.
So when people say that music is not allowed in our religion, it hurts me to hear that. Ive thought about it over and over again, and ive reached a conclusion that all those people are wrong and ill tell you why.
Recently i was listening to coke studios version of Abida Parveens rendition of bulley shah and a weird thing happened after that. I cried, got up and went to say my prayers. If a song can make me say my prayers, im pretty sure that its allowed. Take another example. Go listen to josh grobans 'remember when it rained'...it makes me think of God because it was He that gave Josh the voice to sing that song....does that still fall in the 'haram' category?
God has given us instructions that we need to follow, but with our own intuition. Im pretty sure that some sort of music is haram...take for instance the latest rnb hip hop i want to do ure booty type of songs...thats sexual promiscuity right in your face...which is wrong...
Think about it and give me your view.
She and I were sitting together when the topic of our bachpan ke din came up. The topic obviously lead to school and for some odd reason came to fountain pens...
It made me realize how much i loved to write as a kid. Whether it was weird poetry, or essays or even make believe songs, writing was always a passion for me. And i guess a huge factor of that was the tool that i used, my fountain pen. I used to love going to the market, buying my dollar waali light blue pen and a small bottle of ink. I even remember the effort that it took to fill the ink in the pen and how it was all worthwhile once the pen started writing smoothly.
As a kid, i was never allowed to use a cartridge pen. Quite frankly it was seen as an unnecessary expense that was meant for rich kids. Thus the cartridge pen became an ideal prize that i was willing to die for. Although it may seem as a childish frivolous indulgence, it was just so cool at the time.
As I write about my love affair with ink, alot of memories have come flooding back and i just remembered the first time i saw a parker. The parker pen was the epitome of ink tools at the time, the bmw of pens per say...atleast in my world. I remember that i would go to stationary shops in Islamabad and just go and stand and stare at the Parker range that they would have,...and it was worth it. The beautiful contours of the nib, were something that were the very definition of class and elegance at that point in time...and nothing could come close.
I got my first Parker on a birthday. It was a grey steel hand me down that i had silently been ogling at, during my weekly visits to my fathers office. The fact that my father, one of my lifes idols used it only made it shine as if it were a Rolex that had been passed down from one generation to another. It was a special pen i was told, and i needed to guard it with my life. I did for about 6 months, after which I lost it. I was devastated that day, removed form my mom and barely talking when i got home. I had been given a responsibility and u had failed at it. After about a week of not talking to anyone at home, i ran wailing into my moms open arms and told her the story. I got scolded a bit, but just the look on my moms face was enough for me.
What i however learnt from this experience has remained with me for the rest of my life. It was that no matter what, although my parents would scold me from time to time, nothing was more important than their child...and i love them for it.
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