Akram Quotes

We are each on our own journey. Each of us is on our very own adventure; encountering all kinds of challenges, and the choices we make on that adventure will shape us as we go; these choices will stretch us, test us and push us to our limit; and our adventure will make us stronger then we ever know we could be.

O mere mercy.... message: My heart longs to hear... Through all these Wind whispers Rain recalls Crickets cry Damp and dark I sit here under the night sky Trough all these sweet noise Why o why ? A mere call of mercy doesn't reach this lonely soul of mine ? O mere mercy...

God is good," said Akram. "Fuckin' A," said Milo.

Later, when I asked him whether I'd offended him, he'd assured me I hadn't. It was simply that Muslims didn't hold with images of prophets, he explained. "To depict them limits them," he explained. "Out of respect for the prophets, we don't like to limit them." That upended my pat ideas of art's power. For Akram, pictures stunted the imagination rather than stretched it.

On the whiteboard next to him, the Sheikh drew a line. Next to it, he sketched a circle. The line represented your space, the environment in which you find yourself. The space could be anywhere - a well, a prison cell, a state ruled by a despot, or a foreign country. Next he pointed to the circle. That symbolised the cycle of a Muslim's life, the steady bit of night and day, ticking away, for as long as God chose to keep you on this earth. The space you found yourself in was not in your control, said Akram. The cycle was. Your circumstances were given to you by Allah; using the cycle of your days to practice taqwa, or love and awe of God, was your job. Tend to this cycle of faith, said Akram, rather than worrying about your circumstances.

Denying women access to the mosque, like denying them other rights, was simply clinging to customs, not faith, said Akram. In the case of education, he'd gone further: preventing women from pursuing knowledge, he said, was like the pre-Islamic custom of burying girls alive.

Mohamed Akram, explained that the Brotherhood “must understand that their work in America is a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and ‘sabotaging’ its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and Allah’s religion is made victorious over all other religions.”5

Եթե յուրաքանչյուր նահատակված հայի համար ընդամենը մեկ մոմ վառեին, այդ մոմերի ցոլքերը Լուսնի լույսից ավելի պայծառ կլինեին։

you might not be interested in politics, but politics is interested in you.

Ab toh chaahat bhi nahi hai ki, Mujhe kuch naaye log Jaan jaaye ab, Ab toh bs ek hi khwaaish hai ki, Mujhse mere ruthe hue log maan jaaye ab..

When you have a good sense of smell, strong odors are unbearable, when you have a good sense of hearing, strong voices are destructive, when you have good reasoning, life sounds awful.

By digging up the buried tradition of women scholars, Akram has prepared the ground for radical social change. For Muslims, the Islamic past is not just a source of interest for historians but a blueprint for the present. Precedent, not innovation guides the devout on how to live and behave. So Akram's discovery of these women scholars isn't simply an interesting bit of long-buried history, but a quietly eloquent argument for changing the status quo.

Wasim starts this one wide. Very wide. But from the moment he puts it out there, it starts to move in. It’s the most typical Wasim Akram ball. The ball doesn’t just swing, it manages its own destiny in a madcapped energetic way. It’s an orb of light more than a ball. Fluttering. Dancing. Lewis gets on the front foot and pushes towards it, but the ball zips past him quicker than he can see. It takes a bit of inside edge for dramatic effect and zaps into the stumps. This is reverse swing.

Wasim Akram and Waqar could win a World Cup on their own. When Wasim bowled, the ball had a mind of its own. It could be placed on the same spot, repeatedly on a good day, but it also leapt up, cut left, cut right, swung in, swung out. It was as if it was being operated by a remote control. His run-up was reportedly 17 paces, but it felt like six super quick steps and a left arm that was invisible to the eye. He was the combination of every single tape ball bowler in Pakistan’s street cricket history. When Wasim bowled, it felt like anything could happen.

Yet cricket was never the problem. In some ways, challenging as it often was, it was the simplest part of my life. Bowling to Viv Richards, Sachin Tendulkar and Brian Lara or batting against Shane Warne, Malcolm Marshall or Muttiah Muralitharan was child’s play compared to handling the expectations of my nation, the turmoil of my team and the machinations of my administration.

You know when they get really against women? When all the scholars start studying philosophy.” The misogyny running through fiqh, said the Sheikh, was a matter not merely of scholars’ medieval mores, but of the influence of the Greek philosophers on them. Aristotle, a man who held that the subjugation of women was both “natural” and a “social necessity,” influenced key Muslim thinkers who shaped medieval fiqh, argued Akram. Before Aristotle became a core text, and before the medieval scholars enshrined their views on gender roles in Islamic law, men and women were accorded far more equal freedoms in Islam, he explained. He sketched peaks and troughs in the air, as if plotting the rise and fall of sexism through history. “God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen” was reaching its crescendo above us. “So why do people get obsessed with following the schools of law?” I asked. “Why not just go back to the Quran?” A wide, bright smile. “People can

So is he a radical?” non-Muslims often asked when I told them about the Sheikh. “Not at all,” I’d say, assuming we were all speaking in post-9/11 code. “Of course not.” And I’d meant it. He is not a radical. Or rather, not their kind of radical. His radicalism is of entirely another caliber. He’s an extremist quietist, calling on Muslims to turn away from politics and to leave behind the frameworks of thought popularised by Islamists in recent centuries. Akram’s call for an apolitical Islam unpicked the conditioning of a generation of Muslims, raised on the works of Abu l’Ala Maududi and Sayyid Qutb and their nineteenth-century forerunners. These ideologues aimed to make Islam relevant to the sociopolitical struggles facings Muslims coping with modernity. Their works helped inspire revolutions, coups, and constitutions. But while these thinkers equated faith with political action, the Sheikh believed that politics was puny. He was powered by a certainty that we are just passing through this earth and that mundane quests for land or power miss Islam’s point. Compared with the men fighting for worldly turf, Akram was far more uncompromising: turn away from quests for nation-states or parliamentary seats and toward God. “Allah doesn’t want people to complain to other people,” he said. “People must complain to Allah, not to anyone else.” All the time spent fulminating, organising, protesting? It could be saved for prayer. So unjust governments run the world? Let them. They don’t, anyway. Allah does, and besides, real believers have the next world to worry about.

Predictable but Contingent: The First ‘Political’ Killing at Karachi University On 25 February 1981, a group of left-wing students from the NSF and PSF was gathered at the Arts Faculty lobby of KU for a demonstration in downtown Karachi when they heard that a military jeep was parked in front of the Administration building. An army major had come to help his daughter get admitted to the university and though he was there for personal reasons, the students were enraged—this was Zia’s Pakistan, a country under military rule, where the left was living its twilight but remained a force to be reckoned with on the campuses, particularly in Karachi. As the organiser of the demonstration, Akram Qaim Khani, recalls, ‘it was a surprise. It was a challenge to us. I was a student leader and the army was in my university…’. At Khani’s instigation, the fifty-odd crowd set off for the Administration building, collected petrol from parked cars, filled a Coca-Cola bottle with it and tried to set fire to the jeep. Khani claims that he saved the driver (‘he ran away, anyway…’), so no one was hurt in the incident, but while the students—unsuccessfully—tried to set the jeep on fire, a group of Thunder Squad militants arrived on the scene and assaulted the agitators. Khani (who contracted polio in his childhood and thus suffered from limited mobility) had been spared from physical assault in the past (‘even the big badmash thought “we cannot touch Akram, otherwise his friends will kill us’”), but this time he was roughed up by Thunder Squad badmashs Farooq and Zarar Khan, and he was eventually captured, detained, and delivered to the army, which arrested him.

Sometimes is necessary to fall from grace to teach indecent.

Don't invest your love and respect for everyone. These attributes are admired by some. It is unfortunate but it is cold hard truth

One will keep on charging new karma as long as there is the awareness of ‘I am the doer’. In the ‘akram-marg’ (step-less, direct path to Self-realization), ‘We’ (enlightened one, Dadabhagwan) dissolve your ‘doer-ship’. The awareness that ‘I am the doer’ goes away and the understanding of ‘who the doer is’ is given. Therefore, the charging (of karma) stops! What is left now? Only the form of ‘discharge’ is left.

Religion means to search eternal element with deluded assertion, while this (akram vignan) is a science.

Just as God has established the Knowledge of the Kramic path (traditional step-by-step path of spiritual progress), similarly this is Akram Vignan (spiritual science of the step-less path to Self-realization); however the Knowledge is the very same. Kramic Knowledge is such that it cannot work in accordance with the current times. That is why, in this era of the time cycle, Akram Vignan has naturally come to light.

The whole world has constantly wandered around in ‘negativity’ and died. This ‘Akram’ [science] is a fine ‘positive’ path.

When can one’s soul acknowledge (accept)? When one has an ‘open mind’. This [Akram Vignan] is not something one has to keep faith in. Faith should arise automatically. Regardless of whether I rebuke or scold you, even then faith should come within you.

The one who has become free from all mistakes, he has no superior over him; he needs no one to reprimand him. He can become whatever he desires. Our path (Akram Vignan) is a path in which a person can become such that there will be no one to reprimand him.

The worldly [spiritual] science is methodic (kramic) in nature; one progresses “step by step”; one has to ascent one step at a time. Whereas this here, is Akram Vignan, a path of step-less spiritual science; it is a science that has arisen after 10 Lac (a million) years. In this path, one travels in only an ‘elevator’. There is no effort to climb stairs here. Thereafter, one is constantly in the uninterrupted bliss of the Self (samadhi). There is constant bliss amidst mental affliction (aadhi), internal suffering (vyadhi) and externally induced affliction (oopadhi).

We all have potential for greatness in ourselves. The only thing we need to do is to find it.

One with higher 'revolutions' of intellect has a higher power of understanding. He will understand before explanation becomes necessary. Laborers do not have even five 'revolutions' per minute and an intellectual has one to two thousand 'revolutions' per minute. The higher the 'revolutions, the quicker he will understand this ‘Science’ [Akram Vignan].

This ‘Akram science’ does not scorn worldly interaction in the slightest. While living absolutely within it's reality, It does not scorn the worldly interaction. Not scorning worldly interaction is itself a thing of principle.

When can one really say that pudgal (non-Self complex of input and output) is the doer? It is after one attains Self-realization. Otherwise, he would go in the wrong direction. After attaining Self-realization, as one prevails in the Gnani's Agna (five directives that preserve the awareness as the Self in Akram Vignan), only after that is the pudgal considered as the doer of everything, and only then can it be considered that You [as the Self] are not liable. If one were to say this [the pudgal is the doer] without that [Self-realization and prevailing in the Gnani's Agna] then everyone would go on the wrong path.  

Kramic means doership. 'Akram Vignan' only needs to be understood. That which has arisen through lack of understanding, will be dispelled through understanding. There is no (belief that), 'this happened to me,' One simply needs to Know, 'this is what happened'!

As long as the tendency for unity of the mind-speech and body prevails, it is considered acceptable to undertake worldly interactions. In this era of time cycle, it is not possible for this unity to prevail. That is why, on the Akram path, this worldly interaction has been entirely placed in the category of 'to be settled' (discharge). Even then, in Akram, the worldly interactions are completely ideal.

The Knowledge that manifests in conduct; that is true Knowledge. The rest are considered as knowledge without substance (shushka gnan). This Akram Vignan is such that it will manifest in conduct!

What is this satsang (in Akram) like? Here, there are no such botherations of, 'do this', 'do good', 'do that', 'ask for forgiveness', 'do introspection', 'do chanting', 'do penance'. Here, One does not have to 'do' anything. Here, One just needs to Know and to understand. The right belief of 'I am pure Soul' (Samkit) can be attained only through understanding and Knowledge of the Self (Gnan) arises through Knowing. And the One who has Known and understood, He can have the right Conduct as the Self (samyak Charitra).

On what foundation is the world remaining in existence? It is on the foundation of agnan (ignorance of the Self). Are the activities good or are they bad? No activity is good or bad, but if ignorance of the Self moves aside, then everything will come down. By continuing to develop good habits and removing bad habits, the foundation will not go away. As long as the foundation exists, worldly life (sansaar) will exist. How many things will you keep moving aside? Instead, You [the awakened Self] should move away. On this Akram path, the element (vastu, the Self) itself is made independent (niradhar).

I am doing' is referred to as parparinati. To believe any results of the non-Self (parparinam) to be one's own, is parparinati. After attaining this Akram Gnan [Knowledge of Self-realization] parparinati does not arise at all.

Ihr wart es?", fragte Fis so ungläubig, als meinte er, sich verhört zu haben. "Ihr habt uns angegriffen?" "Uns?", fragte Nonda, und für einen kurzen Moment glaubte Anûr Ärger in dem Gesicht des Nori zu entdecken. "Ich kann mich nicht erinnern, dich damals dort gesehen zu haben", sagte Nonda und klang mit einem Mal müde. "Auch wenn du ein Kind der Wüste bist, so waren es damals andere Menschen, die angegriffen wurden. Verwechsle dein Schicksal nicht mit ihrem. Wut und Hass sollten nicht vererbt werden." (Kapitel 19 "Wohin?", Seite 400)

And the more I say the Bismillah, the more it seems necessary. It is instinctive, important. It reminds me of the vastness of I, a mobile dot under the spread diaphragm of a ceaseless heaven.

membelah gunung jadi perkara dangkal, daripada membaca arah pikirnya seseorang. temukan jarum dan jerami pun masuk akal, daripada menerka arus hati seseorang

membelah gunung jadi perkara dangkal, daripada membaca arah pikirnya seseorang. temukan jarum dan jerami pun masuk akal, daripada menerka arus hati seseorang.

membelah gunung jadi perkara dangkal, daripada membaca arah pikirnya seseorang. Temukan jarum dan jerami pun masuk akal, daripada menerka arus hati seseorang

membelah gunung jadi perkara dangkal, daripada membaca arah pikirnya seseorang. Temukan jarum dan jerami pun masuk akal, daripada menerka arus hati seseorang

Religion means researching the true Eternal thing with Deluded world view (with wrong belief) and ‘this’ (akram vignan) is a science itself.

This (Knowledge of Akram Vignan) is the ‘real’ thing and it is the absolute truth and the absolute truth is always functional (gives results).

As long as the awareness of ‘doer-ship’ is there, till then, one keeps on ‘charging’ (karma). In the Akram-path, ‘we’ (the Gnani Purush) destroy your doer-ship. The awareness that ‘I am the doer’ goes away and we give the understanding of ‘who the doer is’. Therefore, ‘charging’ (of karma) stops! What is left now? Only the ‘discharge’ is left.

This is Akram Vignan [Akram Science - the stepless spiritual science of direct realization of the Self]. Once you pull out from the racecourse [competitive worldly life], your 'personality' will shine then. Those in the racecourse will never have personality; not a single person.

My love for you is not plain But it does not add up I love you not Yes, I have never revealed it to anyone Nor will I ever do so You are no exception either Yes, I will keep my words to me But, I have no control over my eyes That might blab out And lead you to take My love is for you only Though I'm not to say so

... չէ՞ որ թե՛ երկանյքով թե՛ լայնքով Վերին Այլիսը կազմում էր, հավանաբար, վեց-յոթ կիլոմետրից ոչ ավելի, և մարդիկ, ովքեր հողի այդ հյուլեաչափ պատառիկի վրա ժամանակին կառուցել են տասներկու եկեղեցի ու յուրաքանչյուրի մոտ կերտել դրախտային անկյուն, եթե իրենցից հետո չեն թողել գեթ մի քիչ իրենց լույսից, ապա Աստված ինչի՞ համար է և ի՞նչ պետք է մարդուն։

Ես վաղուց եմ ձգտում ոչ մի կապ չպահպանել այս աշխարհի հետ: Իսկ երբ բախվում եմ նրան, ապշում եմ այն ամենով, ինչ կատարվում է այնտեղ: Մարդիկ փոխվել են անճանաչելիորեն: Չէ՞ որ սարսափելի է, որ ամբողջ երկրում չգտնվեց գեթ մեկ հոգևոր հեղինակություն, որը չվախենար իր կաշվից, կարողանար ժողովրդին ճշմարտությունն ասել: Ո՞ւր է մեր մարդասեր ազգը: Ո՞ւր է մեր փառապանծ մտավորականությունը: Ես դա վաղուց էի զգում, առաջներում էլ եմ մտածել այդ մասին: Օղակը, որ ըմբոստների պարանոցին գցել էր մեր նախկին «հարազատ հայրը», ինչ-որ ժամանակ առանց նրա էլ սեղմվելու և խեղդելու էր մեր տարաբախտ մտավորականությանը…

that maybe there is a fighter,” Mr. Zaqout said. “When we’re talking about the fighters who are fighting on the border or the tunnels, we couldn’t know, because their bodies are not coming to the hospital. I think these numbers will increase in the next days.” Fares Akram contributed reporting from Gaza, Alicia Parlapiano from Washington, and Gabby Sobelman

In Akram (the stepless scientific path to moksh), we do not look at anyone’s worthiness at all. If we were to look for that, then no one is worth in the current time cycle (to get the knowledge of the self realization).

Awkwardness and crookedness will not do ‘here’ (in Akram Path). The slightest breach of humility will cost you your moksha. Absolute humility [Param vinaya] means inner humility. Tremendous humility is needed.

Get your work done through the direct present link of Akram Vignan. One has listened far too long to the indirect (via scriptures), the enlightened ones who is not present now. Take advantage of the present living (pratyaksh) gnani [the living enlightened one] so that you will have the direct experience of the Soul (our Real Self).

This Akram Vignan has been disclosed 'as it is'. This 'Vyavasthit' (result of Scientific Circumstantial Evidences) is exactly 'vyavasthit' (as it should be). 'We' have Seen, 'How much has been done, and how much still needs to be done' in this world. What is the point of repeatedly grinding away at that which has already been done?

When can a path be considered 'Akram'? It is one in which there is both, vyavahar (the relative viewpoint) and nischay (the real viewpoint).!

The one who attains the 'Akram' path, will have his spiritual work done. (On this path), you have neither been made to give up potatoes nor onions. All you have to give up is, the ignorance of the Self (agnan)!

Just as there is Kramic Vignan (the science of the step-by-step path to Self-realization) similarly this is Akram Vignan (the science of the step-less path to Self-realization). However, Akram Vignan cannot be found in books, it is in the heart of the Gnani (the enlightened One).

This ‘Akram’ science is such that not even God can question you!

Akram (non-sequential) path’ and ‘kramic (step by step) path’ are two different paths. They are the same with reference to Knowledge (Gnan), but the Kramic path is the path of doing and the Akram path is the path of releasing the reins (of doing).

Akram Vignan is where the worldly life goes on but there is no karma bondage and Kramic Gnan is where the worldly life goes on and one continues to bind karma.

Just as there is Kramic Vignan (Step by Step Science), this is Akram Vignan (Stepless Science). But Akram Vignan is not found in any books; it is in the heart of a Gnani (the enlightened one).

Kramic Gnan (Step By Step Knowledge) refers to ‘effect’ as the ‘cause’ and the Akram Gnan (Stepless Knowledge) calls the ‘cause’ as ‘cause’.

There is nothing but dependency in the worldly life. Constant dependency! Animals are dependent, humans are dependent too; how can we afford that? It is possible to become independent from all this; such is ‘this’ path (the path of Akram Vignan). This is the ‘real’ path; the path to become independent.

Through what has one seen this (AKRAM) Science (stepless path to liberation)? Through pragna shakti (energy and power of the Pure Soul). Knowledge, seen through buddhi (intellect), is helpful in worldly life, but ‘here’ (in the path of Akram science), we will need pure Gnan (Pure Knowledge without the touch of Intellect).

What is the state of the antahkaran (inner complex of mind, intellect, chit and ego) of mhts of the Akram path? Meddling has stopped for them, but when effects of the past karmas unfold, they become confused that, ‘these are my effects’. Whereas, when they ask ‘us’, ‘Are they our effects or someone else’s?’ I will tell them, ‘Theses are someone else’s effects.

What is Akram Vignan (Stepless Science)? It is to disclose everything ‘as it really is’.

What does our Akram Vignan (step-less Science of Self-realization) say? It says one should recognize the intrinsic nature of everything [element]. Moreover, that intrinsic nature has arisen from a mixture of more than one element. One should recognize that intrinsic nature, then there will not be any problems.

... հոգու խորքում մտածեց, որ զուր է այդպես համառորեն խուսափում մարդկանցից: Միայնությունը, մտածեց նա, հենց մահ է, գուցե ավելի վատ, քան մահը: Ու նաև մտածեց, որ այնուամենայնիվ, երբեմնակի խմելը լավ բան է, այլապես կարող է կյանքից հեռանաս՝ այդպես էլ չպրծնելով կպչուն թախիծից:

This’ path is not to be followed through force. It is to be followed through understanding.

As a nonbeliever, I knew I couldn’t replicate Akram’s ecstasy. As an English speaker without classical Arabic, I knew I’d lose the poetry of the original words. But a bit like the nun who, while drifting off to sleep, allows herself a few seconds of wondering about sex, I found that Akram’s description suggested the limitations of my own cozy secularism.

And now, at the very height of corruption, when not a drop of conscience or shame remains in people, when insult and malice suffocate everyone, when lies have become so widespread it’s difficult not to lose your bearings, you’ve found the ‘boldness’ in yourself to present the bill to the disgraced Master.

To be left all abandoned, is a ruinously aching feeling. Your heart breaks all over again, Just as it starts healing.

Love is the obsession of desiring intimacy from a specific person, I love you is telling that particular person that you appreciate it.

Many times, Islamic scholars in the service of kings would invent hadiths,” said Akram, “because they flattered or aided the ruler.

Akram added to this argument, stating that the oppression and injustice occurring within child marriages today emphasises the need to oppose it at the juristic level.

Islam is not a property,” Akram once observed during a seminar. “It’s not your identity. Don’t think that if someone laughs at you, you have to explain yourself. We are more interested in defending our belonging, our identity, than in the Prophet. Don’t think about identity! Think about good character!

The major problem with Islamists, said Akram, was their tendency to make Islam more about political struggle than piety.

This (Science of Akram Vignan) is a real thing, it is the truth, and every truth will always bring results.

This path of 'Akram' (step-less path to Self-realization) is of a different kind. This is a science (vignan)! Vignan means that which liberates just by knowing it!!!

In fact, this 'Akram Vignan' is scientific! It is a science! It is exact! Whereas everything else is simply 'discharge' that is taking place!

This path of 'Akram' (step-less path to Self-realization) is a diversion road, it is not a path where others views are refuted and one's own are maintained. All the 'bridges' on the 'Kramic' path (step-by-step path to Self-realization) have broken down, that is why this 'diversion road' has come about. Once the 'bridges' have been reconstructed, this 'diversion road' will disappear!

You do not have to renounce anything. The path of liberation is not one of acquisition or renunciation at all. Acquisition and renunciation are actually a part of the auspicious and inauspicious path. This [Akram Science] is actually the path to liberation; it is the path of [attaining] the absolute state of the Self (Parmatma pad). One only has to understand it.

What is this Knowledge? It is neither vyavahaar (the relative; worldly interactions) nor is it Nischay (the Real). It is in fact Akram Vignan! What is Akram Vignan? It is pure Nischay (the Real; the Self) and pure vyavahaar [worldly interactions].

It is ok to feel down, it is ok to cry without any reason. It is ok to feel things that are piercing your heart. Don't always suppress the storm bubbling inside you. Scream and let it go! You are stronger than you know. But just know that it is a phase that shall pass. It is not your entire life. Brace your pain like your strength

Dhoondte Dhoondte kyon tera har ek thikana… Har roz mujhe ku dejata hai ek naya bahana… Zulfon ka woh tera, teri ankhon ko chupana…. Ankhen woh teri, tera main deewana… Husnwalon se toh sahi me bhara hai zamana… Fir bhi qaid hai meri ankhon me woh sirf tera muskurana… Khwaishon se meri zindagi ka yun hi bhar jaana.. Phir bhi har ek khwaish se upar hai, bs tu mujhe mil jaana…

Why do you paint, Akram?” I asked. “What—” “Close your eyes, Sebastian,” he said, stopping me. “Just for a minute, close them and tell me what you see.” I did as he asked and answered, “Nothing, just black.” He tilted my head a bit to the west. “Open them now and find the blessing of vision. This abundance, the explosion, the mixture of colors, the movement, life passing by… See the sun setting? What colors can you find in the sea? Surely there are blue and gray, but don’t you also see that darker gray, light green, even black? Look at the hues of the sun drowning in the sea, melting in oranges, reds, purples. Look at those trees over there. Look at the waves, at me, at your hands, the eyes of your friends. Now, must you still ask me why I paint?” Akram replied. He then left me and walked to the tip of the yacht to enjoy the sunset and the breeze. “Artists,” I mumbled to myself.

CONVENTIONAL SWING (BALL SWINGS IN THE DIRECTION THE SEAM IS POINTING) ‘The key to swinging the ball is to keep a light grip and secondly the flick of the wrist with the fingers going down the ball … not across it. This is the major point. The bowler has to keep the energy behind the ball by flicking their fingers to six o’clock on the dial, rather than to five o’clock or seven o’clock. ‘The grip is also important. The fingers can be together or apart, but I preferred them to be together. Others like the great Ray Lindwall, Australia’s fast bowler of years gone by, would have his fingers placed on both sides of the seam. It’s a personal preference only. ‘I always loved the saying: “If he misses, I will hit his stumps.” It is simple but it is accurate, and 52 per cent of my dismissals in Test and one-day cricket were bowled or LBW.’ THE YORKER: WASIM AKRAM

In fact, I think our late-1980s Lancashire team would have been unbelievable at T20 – Neil Fairbrother, Mike Watkinson, Phillip DeFreitas, Wasim Akram, we’d have had one hell of a side.

Life is a war, the battle of minds. Let the destiny fight for me .....

Bowling has the problem of wildly differing methods so that placing Wasim Akram against Bishan Bedi is rather like hanging a Rembrandt next to a Picasso and trying to produce a valid comparison.

How to be creative. Grasp, analyse, organise, let it flow.