An advantage of surfing the net is that you get lot of messages, some good, but mostly unwanted. Our people are so fond of seeing their names on the net that they keep sending you “news of the day”, “Shear(Verse) of the day”, “Joke of the day” and things like that. Usually I delete this spam, even without looking at them. One day I was about to delete a message but I noticed it was no ordinary mail. It read,”Aayat of the day”. I held my hand in time and was thus able to read Aayat 34, Chapter Ibrahim:

” And He giveth you of all ye ask of Him. And if ye count the bounty of Allah, ye cannot
reckon it. Lo, man is verily a wrongdoer, an ingrate”

In fact I read the Aayat in Arabic and people who can read Arabic can only admire the real power and beauty of the language used by Quran. The last
part can hardly reproduce the power and beauty of ” Innahu kaana zaluman jahula” . Tears came out of my eyes, indeed we have not thanked God as the right of
thankfulness was and undoubtedly we are an ungrateful lot. We never count our blessings and keep complaining about our petty problems.

If we had learned from the Quran, we would have realized that the secret of retaining our blessings and favors is the sentiment of gratitude. For Allah SWT has very vividly declared in Holy Quran :

” If you express your gratitude to me, I shall give you more !
and If you show ungratefulness, my punishment is stern. “

(7: 14)

Just a few days ago, the brother of my friend returned from USA and asked the price of guava. My friend said, it was 30 to 40 Rupees a kilo. His brother laughed and said, he saw guava in a super store in America and could not restrain from himself from buying a pound, but regretted his decision when he had to pay US $ 6.0 for one Lb. That is we Pakistanis are buying quarter dollar a pound, Americans are buying it @ of 6 dollars meaning that it is 24 times more expensive. And guava is not the only fruit. Mango season has just started and we are bugying, believe it or not, best Pakistani mangoes, Sindhri, Anwar Ratol, dusheri and langra type mangoes from 20 to 30 rupees a kilo. There are so many varieties and markets are full of mangoes. The king of all mangoes has yet to come, Chaunsa mango, which fills the market with its sweet smell. When I used to live in Jeddah, we used to go to sabzi mandi and even without entering the market, we always used to found, if Pakistani mangoes had arrived. As the containers full of mangoes passed we could feel the sweet smell of chaunsa mangoes. We used to pick a 7 kg box at SR 30 to 35, then.

Besides mangoes, the fruit markets of Karachi are full of fresh apricots, peach, strawberries, bananas, garma and water melons. The prices are normal. The rice which had disappeared from the market or being sold at Rs 130 per KG (Super Basmati quality) is now available at Rs 85 per kg. Two three attempts to smuggle wheat to Afghanistan have been foiled and prices of Atta are returning to normal. I am so fond of mangoes that besides eating them in good quantity daily, I do not miss drinking mango juice once or twice a day. And you know how refreshing and energizing it is!

Brothers and sisters, we have a country which has world’s best water and land resources, our mountains are full of diamonds, ruby, emeralds and gold. We have world’s largest coal deposit in Thar desert and our Balochistan is full of Gas and Oil. A Chinese company is digging wells in far flung areas and is meeting an above average success. So far we were not allowed to dig our own oil wells, due to American pressure, but in these days of galloping oil prices, no one can stop us from digging our own oil wells. God Almighty has given us so much, that not only we can fulfill our requirements, but also can sell surplus at reasonable price to our Muslim brother countries.

USA and her allies have consumed all their oil resources by buying them cheap and wasting in long powerful vehicles. Now their time has come to an end and dawn of a new Era is about to begin. Let us therefore, fold our hands in prayer, saying ” Thank you! ” to our Lord .

Muhammad Javed Iqbal
http://mjavediqbal.wordpress.com/