Correction: I don’t think anyone understands me. I’m so frequently misunderstood that I sometimes think I should give up trying to communicate altogether. All too often, what is understood is diametrically opposed to what was intended. I may as well just retreat back into myself and revert to playing dumb. I admit it: the problem …
I regularly train managers on the best practices of creating accessible and inclusive content, and yet every time I seek to refresh their memories — usually after discovering they’ve carried on regardless — they respond, “This is the first time I’ve ever heard of this.” I could point to emails I’ve sent, documentation I’ve provided …
We love binary representations of the world, even though we know from experience that the world is not like that. At times of heightened conflict, it’s a battle of us versus them. Our side — suddenly united — versus their side — likewise apparently united. But really we know that’s a gross simplification of reality. …
The job of a government is to protect its citizens and strive to make their lives better. You don’t do that by provoking confrontation with enemies with vastly superior firepower. You certainly don’t goad the world’s military superpowers, “Bring it on!” Ordinary people just want to lead peaceful and productive lives. They don’t want their …
Six years ago, during the Rohingya crisis, I was roundly condemned for pointing out that Bangladesh was in the midst of its own humanitarian crisis resulting from unprecedented floods at the very moment the online ummah believed it should be opening its doors to the streams of desperate refugees fleeing from neighboring Myanmar. It’s strange, …
Everything has its time. What was not possible at one moment in time, may be possible at another. A door once shut may open. Who knows what the passage of time has in store for you. Be patient. Most certainly, your time will come.
The truth of the matter is that most people haven’t a clue what it is that we believe. Indeed, even many of Muslim heritage don’t have a clue either. If I think back to the first Muslim acquaintances I made at the age of sixteen, neither of them could (or were prepared to) tell me …
As promised, three minutes into my working day, I am forced to kick myself, exhaling an elongated doh. What eluded me last night, seemed so obvious in the morning. Proving once more the complete futility of working way beyond contracted hours out of that ever present sense of duty. No, just take a break. Your …
Our lad knocks on my door. “What you doing?” he asks, pushing on in. “Trying to fix something not working,” I say, pointing at the open console on one screen, and my code editor on the other. “You haven’t been downstairs for ages,” he mutters. It’s nice to be missed, I think to myself. If …
A monumental cock up of epic proportions, borne of the relentless incompetence of every party at every level. I imagine this is how the history writers will record the events of the past weeks. Overreach from every side. Kneejerk reactions leading to catastrophe. Frenzied rage morphing into absolute madness. Little do these incompetents realise that …
I wake again in the middle of the night with intense agitation in my heart. I think it’s a result of my subconscious turning over our attempt to give our youngest some independence. Perhaps we are overprotective and overly restrictive parents, but my anxiety seems to have shot through the roof on their return. We …
You can desire something, but it’s not destined for you. You can think something is good for you which isn’t good for you at all. If it’s meant for you, it will hit you. If not, it is impossible. Be content with God’s decree, whatever it may be.
Would I be more content in myself if I wasn’t surrounded by highfliers? What if I had not ventured onto LinkedIn in the midst of a global pandemic to reacquaint myself with all I had once known? Might I not have crashed so hard had I not momentarily joined the alumni association of my old …
