Zahra speaks

  Arzoo Raja, a 14-year-old, Christian girl was abducted from Karachi. She forcefully converted her religion to Islam by a 44-year-old man who later married her without consent. This is one of the many occurrences where the minority group has been forced to convert to Islam. It is wrong on so many levels but mainly, this heinous crime is against the values of Islam and the law of Pakistan. The girl in question is only 13 years old and forged documentation was presented in the court to prove that she was 18 years old which made the court uphold the forced marriage. The latest update is that the girl is forced to live with the kidnapper and the parents are seeking justice for their daughter. I have seen a lot of posts related to this case and I truly believe that social media has the power to bring real change. One of the posts that garnered my attention was this: I am not an expert on explaining Islam but I have read the Quran with translation a few times and I yearn to learn more a...

Who am I? We often ask this question from ourselves but this search for self is way beyond our imagination. For me, this question came in at a very early age, 16. I was pumped and ready for a future that I had pictured in my head. Giving my O level exams then go for A levels and later, try to go abroad to study or get married to someone I liked but while I was planning it all, God had His plans ready.  My ordinary teenage took a dramatic turn. My life changed in one night. Despite a prior history of some nerve pain, the probability of becoming paralyzed was simply out of question, for me and my family. Up till that day when I woke up and could not bear my weight anymore, my ailment was 'normal' because we all have nervous and muscular pain at times. All we need is a good pain killer and some good sleep to be ready to face the world again. Not in my case. No. Like my whole life, it was also not 'normal' but something exceptional.  Giant Cell Tumor (GCT). Most of the peop...

Stop living in the future because it is snatching you away from your present. Some people make the biggest mistake of their life by always trying to gape at the future, trying to make it perfect, and in that effort, they miss to look around at the perfection that a moment poses as you live it. It doesn't imply that you should not think about the future at all, I am just trying to emphasis the fact that the future is not promised, and while chasing something that is not certain, why should we lose what we have in hand? Life is very small, it is just this moment that we are living in. What if the world ends tomorrow and all you did today was plan what you would do tomorrow? It would be disappointing, isn't it?  Sometimes all you have to do is give your hundred percent and let the Maker of the world do the rest. I have seen many people who plan ahead of time and I think it's good too because it makes sense. You never know what may go wrong so it's always good to have a pla...