August 21st 1986

The sound of a baby crying, relief from people all around, and love from the mother of the baby, all this happened on the 21st of August, the year being 1986, the clock had just struck 12:00 they say.The Azan was sounded on the ear of the 'cute' baby, the journey had started.Only Allah knew for how long the baby was going to live, all i could tell you is that the baby is grown up and living a peaceful life with his parents, what'll happen next that again only Allah(SWT) knows.Well i'am not asking you to guess who the baby is, for the baby 'was' me.
It's been a long journey really! 23 years of fun and peace i'd say.I've been blessed with a very peaceful life, Alhamdulillah(All praise be to Allah).I don't want to let all the beans out by telling what my life was all about till date. I've started to believe in this "Life cycle" thing, its mechanical!I was small, i grew up to my teenage, and im at the peak of my youth now. All normal.Nothing new.
I realize that 'Life' is one that has been defined in the Holy Qura'an and thought by Muhammed(PBUH).If one takes up what's been defined and what was taught i would guarantee that life would be really very peaceful.
I pray to Allah(SWT) that i live the life as it has been defined in the Holy Qur'aan.

I'm still Alive...

Yeah!I'm alive.My blog was kinda temporarily hibernating because....because?Answers? Ahh.I don't know.Maybe it was because i was into learning some new stuff.(By stuff i always mean Technology).Maybe because there were literally no visitors to the blog(the visitors that did visit were kinda forced to visit, unfortunately they did not re-visit).



Lot's of thing happened around me in this period.Around me - around the world.The Air France tragedy is one of those things which don't want to get off my mind.It was absolutely .... horrific?terrible?Well I don't know how to describe it, but I did try to imagine myself as one of those victims' kin, it is a horrible experience really.I'm sure that many of those would have had imagined their kins 'killed' coming back to them from nowhere. Nobody knows how it happened(at least till date). What we do know is that it crashed into the Atlantic. As I type in here i hear news that the planes tail fin has been found. Anyways I feel for the victims and their kins and hope and pray to Allah(SWT) that nobody ever gets to feel this experience.



While a section of the people of France mourned the victims, exactly a week later a section of them where hailing Federer's Slam.The French Open that had eluded him, was finally conquered by the charming guy from Swiss.He deserved it i think.He is such a humble person, whom many would love to replicate.



And what else?.....Yeah 'me',whatever did happen to me!As for me, nothing new happened. The same old things, TopCoder, office, etc.I've raised my bar in TopCoder.Was the runner up in one of those Test Scenarios competition.I've set a target for myself.What I can say though, is that my mind seems to be slowly shifting towards money,..and that's bad?Yeah, I think it is really bad.I don't want to lose my love towards my faith/religion and programming.

Ideas are many..but Incomplete

For a few days now, in fact I would say a few months, a lot of things have come in my mind. And 'things' in my world almost always means Softwares/Applications/Technologies, anything related to computers and programming. But alas! I've never been able to concentrate/work on any of my ideas.

It has always been my dream to work in a development of an application that would be innovative, creative, that would make me think, that would make me feel satisfied, that would really expose my strengths and weakness'.But one thing that I realize is that it is not possible for me to do so in a Indian-based service-based company. Most projects that are outsourced to the Indian IT world does not need the developer to push himself. It does not ask him to think more than what he has learnt. And it does not ask him to do not more than a copy-pate.But fortunately or unfortunately(Allah knows Best) Im now employed in one of those Indian based IT cos.

But this has not stopped me from thinking on different ideas. From the day I completed my training provided at my company where Im employed, lot of thoughts and ideas have crossed my mind. From Islamic applications that could be useful for the Islamic world to applications that could appeal to the general public, there have been may ideas that have crossed my mind. At this point I would like to say that not all(maybe even none), have been truly innovative. Most applications that I've thought were based on what I was trying to learn at that point.In general, just as Im not worried about how many of them would read my posts on this blog, when ideas come to my mind im not worried on how many users would use my application, let alone have a look at it!

A few months after my training I had ideas of building a "Masjid-Finder" application, that would allow people to search mosques located on different parts(of Chennai, and later across other cities).This was actually a good idea, and is still a good idea, if only I could try implementing it! Few days back as I was attracted towards WEB 2.0, RSS Reader was one thing that I thought of building(there are many of this kind, but one simple complete application built by me would make me feel...feel...!)

I stop here.. yes,yes I know that this post is incomplete,..but that's because my ideas are also INCOMPLETE!

Honesty, it still exists ...

Recently I started subscribing to Shariah Compliant group , and I keep receiving message digests from the group everyday. This is a unique group where people get to ask questions related to the shariath, which are answered promptly by the Ulema(Mufti Ebrahim Desai heading the group of Ulema).

Everyday I get to read questions that really stun me! I really did not think that people, in this modern world, would have such high Taqwa(fear of Allah). Most of these questions that are posted are related to business, riba(interest), zakath,.etc. I have come across a few questions(many, as a matter of fact), that I wouldn't have even bothered to think if it was right, leave alone clarifying with the Ulema. A few minutes back I received a question which has been answered by Moulana Abrar Mirza(a student of Mufti Ebrahim Desai). The question really stunned me. I'm really surprised that such honest people still exist in this world, really! May Allah make a honest person.I pray to Allah from the bottom of my heart that I die a honest man!Following is the question that has been posted by the brother followed by the answer from Moulana Abrar -

Question

I have been working in the present company for the past 6 years. This is also my first company after my education. In the Final semester of my M.asters Degree this company has came to our college to recruit the final year students and conducted an examination. I came to know the question paper from my friend of other college, and I was First in the exam. This company had used the same question paper what they used in my friends college before coming to my college. It is common that most of the times , companies use the same question paper in different colleges, and the students tries to find out the question papers from other colleges with the reasons like it could be the same paper or to know the model of the exam. In my case it was the same paper.

All along these 6 years, some where in my heart it was hurting. 6 months before I wrote everything in an email to the CEO of the company . In the email I also wrote that the only reason I am confessing now, with out thinking about the consequences ,is that I have to face God Almighty, even if I escape here.

I got a replay saying to meet him , when I have a chance. So I met him, he just asked how I came to know the question paper and other things, but he did said any other thing. Infront of him I treid to apologize verbally, but I could not able to do.

While writing the email with emotions I also mentioned that , I got 3 awards from the company for good work in this 5 year span , and also I was 2nd in the class, but later ,I realised that I was 4th or 5th in the class. It was a mistake but not my intention which I have not discussed again with CEO.

Now My question is a) Is what I am earning is Halal b) If I change to another company with current position and experience will it be still Halal c) what else I can do to earn in a halal way

Answer

In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful

Assalaamu `alaykum waRahmatullahi Wabarakatuh

At the outset, we commend you on your honesty and course of action in this day and age of corporate lies and moral degeneration.

It is known, normal, and accepted for students to prepare for such exams by seeking help from others who might have already taken them. Many times, one can find preparation books for these exams in the library with sample questions. For this reason, companies and examination boards generally have slightly different exam questions each time. Technically, your company should have also had a different exam for your college if they were concerned about students knowing the exact questions. Since they did not do this nor did you go against the normal preparation steps with an intention of cheating, your income is halāl. Furthermore, you even informed the CEO of the company and he did not object to that.

But as a matter of precaution, we advice you to also make tawbah and istighfār.

And Allah knows best

Wassalamu Alaikum

Ml. Abrar Mirza,
Student Darul Iftaa

Checked and Approved by:

Mufti Ebrahim Desai
Darul Iftaa, Madrassah In'aamiyyah

I think i'll be a thousand years behind these people in Jannath, if my current state of imaan is considered! But to reach these heights I need the towfik(grace) of Allah, for without Allah's help & will i'm nothing but a statuette made of mud.

Confused!

Yes! Im indeed confused. Im totally undecided on a lot of things.. But still All praise be to Allah who has indeed given me whatever I have asked for.Since I completed my 3 months of training here in LnT Infotech, I've realized and understood the many ironies of life. I have come to understand of the reality and the existence of Fate(Takhdeer in Arabic/Urdu). But I accept whatever Allah has given me and im fully satisfied with it.

My imaan has reached a lowest level of no-return. If that is the case then i pray to Allah(SWT) that I reach a higher level of imaan.Also i pray to Allah(SWT) for peace im my heart.

What im looking for right now is courage.The courage to go to my manager and ask him for a leave of around 4-5 weeks that will allow me to go in 40 days jamaath.O Allah! Please give me the courage

A normal day!

Today was just another day in my life!Nothing new, nothing unusual.Reach office at around 9:40 AM, start my system, open IE, Lotus notes, sign into my iGoogle page, open another browser window, check for any new bugs onTopCoder, and that's it..Relax!Oops! I think I have not mentioned TopCoder before!It has been my favorite past time ever since i joined it.
Algorithm Competitions, Bug races, Studio competitons....an amazing site overall.This has increased my interest in Programming.And not to mention, it has improved my coding skills overall.It's time for dinner already!I'll get back with more information on TopCoder.

And I've started Blogging!

So, finally Atif starts blogging !!! I've been thinking about this for a long time, but as has been my habit of life - kept procrastinating. No one may ever visit this blog, i might even stop blogging someday, but i hope that Google archives this forever!Google has been a kind of an eight sense(you'll get to know what my seventh sense is later..) since i started using computers(here my colleague mentions that my first computer was an Intel 486...nevermind).And i would also like to mention here that computers have been my favourite pastime since I got my first computer! I would attribute this to the fact that i was not exposed to Television(I'am really thankful that it did not happen) and other such things that people consider as thier own pastimes.
I guess if i kept typing i would finish describing the whole of what has happened in this tiny little world till date to me.Therefore i would like to end my first post!My first impression on the blogging community.
Wassalam!