Ayesha Quotes

Be the person you needed when you were younger.

Just remember to pack light. Dreams tend to shatter if you're carrying other people's hopes around with you.

It's not enough to find someone you love. You have to be ready for that love, and ready to make changes to welcome it into your life.

Sometimes there were no words, only sunshine on your heart. Alhamdulilah.

To love without wanting to devour must surely be anorexic.

...for surely the food that memory gives to eat is bitter to the taste, and it is only with the teeth of hope that we can bear to chew it. (Ayesha)

But so often, joy and beauty were stuck in the same places as grief and shame, and one could not be accessed without the other.

What do you see when you think of me, A figure cloaked in mystery With eyes downcast and hair covered, An oppressed woman yet to be discovered? Do you see backward nations and swirling sand, Humpbacked camels and the domineering man? Whirling veils and terrorists Or maybe fanatic fundamentalists? Do you see scorn and hatred locked Within my eyes and soul, Or perhaps a profound ignorance of all the world as a whole? Yet . . . You fail to see The dignified persona Of a woman wrapped in maturity. The scarf on my head Does not cover my brain. I think, I speak, but still you refrain From accepting my ideals, my type of dress, You refuse to believe That I am not oppressed. So the question remains: What do I see when I think of you? I see another human being Who doesn’t have a clue.

[Khalid] took a deep, calming breath, and smiled at her, channeling his inner shark. Or at least, dolphin.

Your defect is a tendency to judge everyone,' Ayesha said. 'And yours,' he said with a smile, 'is to willfully misunderstand them.

I'm here to do whatever Mademoiselle might desire me to do for her," Ayesha said, in her soft voice. "It will be my pleasure to please Mademoiselle in every way.

although our bodies travel by plane, the soul still makes its way on foot.

Realize the importance and worth of people in their lives

Life is not a bowl of cherries

Time undermines us

Because while it is a truth universally acknowledged that a single Muslim man must be in want of a wife, there’s an even greater truth: To his Indian mother, his own inclinations are of secondary importance.

The assumptions he saw in strangers’ eyes as they took in his beard and skullcap were painful to acknowledge. Khalid had considered shaving or changing his wardrobe many times over the years. It would be easier for the people around him, but it wouldn’t feel right. This is who I am, he thought.

Feelings evaporate like reek in atmosphere of time

Friendship is priceless, restrictionless, timeless, and boundless

Ayub’s pro- Western outlook, moderate views, and fair complexion, which made him look more British than the British, confirmed his selection as commander- in- chief in January 1951.

Oh, honey, nobody knows how this thing works. It just happens. Your heart and gut take over, and your mind has to go along with them, because it’s going to happen no matter what. Sometimes you get a sign, and sometimes the sign gets you.

Think then what it is to live on here eternally and yet be human; to age in soul and see our beloved die and pass to lands whither we may not hope to follow; to wait while drop by drop the curse of the long centuries falls upon our imperishable being, like water slow dripping on a diamond that it cannot wear, till they be born anew forgetful of us, and again sink from our helpless arms into the void unknowable.

Sometimes, it felt like I was cutting up my own tongue with a knife and fork before consuming it with that same tongue.

It could be that any brilliant woman who settles down with a less-brilliant man dulls herself to compensate and console.

The color of love changeS so many times

Money is not everything

Life is but a game of Hazard

But all these traits - style, hygiene, the ability to care for oneself and one's home - are, in a man, considered exceptional, almost miraculous. Whereas in women, they are the bare minimum.

No, she is not with child,” Khalid said tightly. “She’s a virgin, and so am I.” There was a stunned silence among the men. “You’re not supposed to say that out loud,” Mo said. “There are women present.

When they saw the host of chameleon butterflies and the way they both clothed the girl Ayesha and provided her with her only solid food, these visitors were amazed, and retreated with confounded expectations, that is to say with a hole in their pictures of the world that they could not paper over.

It’s always been like that, I thought, so much gratitude and admiration when a white person speaks a non-white language and only contempt and indignation for non-white people who don’t speak English. The double standards of language learning.

I know you won't miss me, I know you won't even bother to ask how i am without you? But still my heart will always call for you, my mind will always think of you because I love you and I will miss you that every moment that I stay without you.

Fragrant was Ayesha's breath as roses, the odour of roses clung to her lovely hair; her sweet body gleamed like some white sea-pearl; a faint but palpable radiance crowned her head; no sculptor ever fashioned such a marvel as the arm with which she held her veil about her; no stars in heaven ever shone more purely bright than did her calm, entranced eyes.

Thus it would seem that Ayesha, great tormented soul, thinking to win life and love eternal and most glorious, was in truth but another blind Pandora. From her stolen casket of beauty and super-human power had leapt into her bosom, there to dwell unceasingly, a hundred torturing demons, of whose wings mere mortal kind do but feel the far-off, icy shadowing.

He is a person, complicated and confused. Just like you.

All patriotism, in the end, is patriarchal and deadly.

Finally, she understood her father’s disease. It was when the world lost all colour, taste and smell, and one realised the heaviness of one’s body, the uselessness of one’s life.

Maybe, through these small erasures, which we tell ourselves are ‘polite’ or whatever, we’re covering up a vast network of structural inequality.

Isn't it funny how we had more fake friends than real friends?

Hahaha!!!...I wish this veil of pretense could hide my habit of dodging quotes but dissapointingly,it doesn't,which is why,I know none yet.

Khalid does not belong to Hafsa. He does not belong to you either. He belongs to Allah, and Allah is the One who will determine your young man's fate, as well as yours.

I love you, Ayesha. What would I do without you?" Zorawar said in the platonic way he'd always told her that he loved her. "I love you too, Zorawar. Always have always will." she said ambiguously.

Behold now, let the Dead and Living meet! Across the gulf of Time they still are one. Time hath no power against Identity, though sleep the merciful hath blotted out the tablets of our mind, and with oblivion sealed the sorrows that else would hound us from life to life, stuffing the brain with gathered griefs till it burst in the madness of uttermost despair. Still are they one, for the wrappings of our sleep shall roll away as thunder-clouds before the wind; the frozen voice of the past shall melt in music like mountain snows beneath the sun; and the weeping and the laughter of the lost hours shall be heard once more most sweetly echoing up the cliffs of immeasurable time. Ay, the sleep shall roll away, and the voices shall be heard, when down the completed chain, whereof our each existence is a link, the lightning of the Spirit hath passed to work out the purpose of our being; quickening and fusing those separated days of life, and shaping them to a staff whereon we may safely lean as we wend to our appointed fate. - Ayesha

Mahomet has been extolled by Moslem writers for the chastity of his early life ; and it is remarkable that, with all the plurality of wives indulged in by the Arabs, and which he permitted himself in subsequent years, and with all that constitutional fondness which he evinced for the sex, he remained single in his devotion to Cadijah to her dying day, never giving her a rival in his house, nor in his heart. Even the fresh and budding charms of Ayesha, which soon assumed such empire over him, could not obliterate the deep and mingled feeling of tenderness and gratitude for his early benefactress. Ayesha was piqued one day at hearing him indulge in these fond recollections : " O, apostle of God, " demanded the youth-ful beauty, "was not Cadijah stricken in years? Has not Allah given thee a better wife in her stead?" " Never ! " exclaimed Mahomet, with an honest burst of feeling — " never did God give me a better ! When I was poor, she enriched me ; when I was pronounced a liar, she believed in me ; when I was opposed by all the world, she remained true tome!

The murder of Pakistan’s first prime minister heralded the imminent derailment of the political process and the onset of a brutal political culture of assassinations, sustained by the state’s direct or indirect complicity.

Sheila left her hand outstretched for another moment, cold eyes locked on his face. Then she slowly pulled back and raised an eyebrow. “I should have assumed as much from your clothing. Tell me, Khalid: Where are you from?” “Toronto,” Khalid answered. His face flamed beneath his thick beard; he didn’t know where to look. “No,” Sheila laughed lightly. “I mean where are you from originally?” “Toronto,” Khalid responded again, and this time his voice was resigned. Clara shifted, looking tense and uncomfortable. “I’m originally from Newfoundland,” she said brightly.

Pakistan is a visibly perturbed and divided nation. Its people are struggling to find an answer to the mother of all questions: what sort of a Pakistan do they want along a spectrum of choices, ranging from an orthodox, religious state to a modern, enlightened one?

Who and what was Ayesha, nay, what is Ayesha? An incarnate essence, a materialised spirit of Nature the unforeseeing, the lovely, the cruel and the immortal; ensouled alone, redeemable only by Humanity and its piteous sacrifice? Say you! I have done with speculations who depart to solve these mysteries.

Leo Vincey, know now the truth; that all things are illusions, even that there exists no future and no past, that what has been and what shall be already is eternally. Know that I, Ayesha, am but a magic wraith, foul when thou seest me foul, fair when thou seest me fair; a spirit-bubble reflecting a thousand lights in the sunshine of thy smile, grey as dust and gone in the shadow of thy frown. Think of the throned Queen before whom the shadowy Powers bowed and worship, for that is I. Think of the hideous, withered Thing thou sawest naked on the rock, and flee away, for that is I. Or keep me lovely, and adore, knowing all evil centred in my spirit, for that is I. Now, Leo, thou hast the truth. Put me from thee for ever and for ever if thou wilt, and be safe; or clasp me, clasp me to thy heart, and in payment for my lips and love take my sin upon thy head! Nay, Holly, be thou silent, for now he must judge alone.

But it’s always the friends in the end, isn’t it, who remain to pick up the pieces when the men have gone, leaving destruction in their wake? Still, only the romantic partner is taken seriously. Friends and family will not gather, ever, to celebrate my partnership with Naima—there will be no anniversaries or acknowledgments, no congratulatory cards, no celebratory ceremonies. And yet, it is this slow burning love of female friendship that actually keeps the world turning.

It took forever for my body to adjust. Someone told me then-I can't remember who, probably Naima-that although our bodies travel by plane, the soul still makes its way on foot.

This is simply the plot twist at the end of act four.” -Nana, Chapter Forty, Page 293

Did he not see, I wondered, that nobody else around him was being treated like a king? Did he not connect his whiteness to the special treatment he was receiving?

Always Keep Your Head Up And Dont Let Anyone Tries To Influenced You

A veil of pretense can definitely conceal your dumbness but then it assures the proliferation of your dumbness instead of stagnating it by seeking knowledge from others.

Just remember to pack light. Dreams tend to shatter if you’re carrying other people’s hopes around with you.

A good teacher grows, they’re not born.

Nana was right --she must let events run their course. Things would work out on their own. Inshaallah.

It is eerie, the way he knows that what I feel like to him is disposable.

He takes a pacifying step forward, and, on instinct, I move backwards, nearly knocking his painting off its hinges.

He already has, sang the stupid girl in my head that sounded stupidly like reason, he already has.

I blink, having expecting more resistance.

Are you not my muse?" He askes the question so matter-of-factly they irk me, and I turn on him.

I trust that whatever he make will be a reflection of his own artistry - I trust him.

Someone told me then—I can’t remember who, probably Naima—that although our bodies travel by plane, the soul still makes its way on foot.

The veil of secrecy shrouding high-profile political assassinations in postindependence Pakistan has extended to information on the inner dynamics of its frenzied history.

Love is the law of life," broke in Leo; "without love there is no life. I seek love that I may live. I believe that all these things are ordained to an end which we do not know. Fate draws me on—I fulfil my fate——

A part of me feels bad even saying these things. I worry whether, in doing so, I’m falling into the trap of blaming women for their own oppression. But it’s just, I felt like I saw complicity, like I saw willful blindness.

Jinnah's "Pakistan" did not entail the partition of India; rather it meant its regeneration into an union where Pakistan and Hindustan would join to stand together proudly against the hostile world without. This was no clarion call for pan-Islam; this was not pitting Muslim India against Hindustan; rather it was a secular vision of a polity where there was real political choice & safeguards, the India of Jinnah's dreams, a vision unfulfilled but noble nonetheless.

I remind myself that I'm here to have fun, and alcohol isn't a necessary supplement for that I look around the room again, taking in the sights and sounds of the party, and am about to exhale a sigh of relief when a familiar voice washes over me.

Bhutto’s role in the post- 1970 election crisis has to be assessed in the light of the positions taken by Mujib and Yahya Khan, not to mention the structural obstacles in the way of a smooth transfer of power from military to civilian rule in Pakistan.

Recourse to thick narrative detail reveals that the principal hurdle in the way of a united Pakistan was not disagreement on constitutional matters but the transfer of power from military to civilian hands. More concerned with perpetuating himself in office, Yahya Khan was strikingly nonchalant about the six points. He left that to the West Pakistani politicians, in particular Bhutto, who, contrary to the impression in some quarters, was more of a fall guy for the military junta than a partner in crime.

We tend to think that we have only two options in our life; either survive or die. We fluctuate our focus solely on these two ends. But we often forget while traveling between these two ends there is a middle path that we must pass, where we learn ‘To Live.

Partition severed economic and social links, destroying the political, ecological, and demographic balance it had taken the subcontinent hundreds of years to forge. Yet India with far greater social diversities was able to recover from the shock of partition to lay the foundations of a constitutional democracy. With a legacy of many of the same structural and ideational features of the colonial state as its counterpart, Pakistan was unable to build viable institutions that could sustain the elementary processes of a participatory democracy.

We form these elaborate fantasies of romantic partnerships, Romeos and Majnus who we’ll spend our days and nights with in a passion of rose petals and fireworks, while discounting our non-romantic relationships (if such distinctions can even be made), often more enduring and authentic. We discard them as soon as some man comes along, flashing his teeth and brandishing his penis. But it’s always the friends in the end, isn’t it, who remain to pick up the pieces when the men have gone, leaving destruction in their wake? Still, only the romantic partner is taken seriously. Friends and family will not gather, ever, to celebrate my partnership with Naima—there will be no anniversaries or acknowledgments, no congratulatory cards, no celebratory ceremonies. And yet, it is this slow burning love of female friendship that actually keeps the world turning.

The uneasy symbiosis between a military authoritarian state and democratic political processes is often attributed to the artificial nature of the country and the lack of a neat fit between social identities at the base and the arbitrary frontiers drawn by the departing colonial masters.

Taking the logic of Jinnah's demand to its extreme, Congress now offered him a 'Pakistan' stripped of the Punjab's eastern divisions (Ambala and Jullundur), Assam (except Sylhet district) and western Bengal and Calcutta - the 'mutilated and moth-eaten' Pakistan which Jinnah had rejected out of hand in 1944 and again in May 1946. Such a permanent settlement would at a stroke eject Jinnah from the centre, clear the way for a strong unitary government wholly under Congress's sway, and give away only parts of provinces which past experience had shown lay outside the Congress's ken.

She swore she loved and her love fulfilled itself in death and many a mysterious way. Yet it was hard to believe that this passion of hers was more than a spoken part, for how can the star seek the moth although the moth may seek the star? Though the man may worship the goddess, for all her smiles divine, how can the goddess love the man?

Except in Punjab and the NWFP, the central government’s Kashmir policy had little support in Sindh or Balochistan and even less in East Bengal. Instead of serving the people, civil servants and their allies in the army hoisted the political leaders with their Kashmir petard to become the veritable masters of the manor through autocratic and unconstitutional means.

In the absence of democratic politics, the dominance of a predominantly Punjabi civil bureaucracy and army heightened the grievances of non-Punjabi provinces and the linguistic groups within them. Te entrenched institutional supremacy of a Punjabi army and federal bureaucracy, not Punjab’s dominance over other provinces per se, had emerged as the principal impediment to restoring democratic processes in Pakistan.

In Iqbal’s view, the only purpose of the state in Islam was to establish a “spiritual democracy” by implementing the principles of equality, solidarity, and freedom that constituted the essence of the Quranic message. It was in “this sense alone that the State in Islam is a theocracy, not in the sense that it was headed by a representative of God on earth who can always screen his despotic will behind his supposed infallibility.

Beautiful Ayesha! There were not enough words to describe the kind of enchanting vision she was. The continual strawberry redolence she emitted and the dimples on her ceaselessly flushed, light cheeks had the power to brighten every face in any room she would walk into. She was the person you would look for on a dreadful day because her infectious laughter could completely turn your day around, especially Zorawar’s. There was something exceptionally magical about her soulful, amber eyes. It was as though they could swallow every shining star and every galaxy in the sky.

And handsome Zorawar! No one feature made him so striking, though his eyes came close. From them came a passion, an honesty, a gentleness. He was handsome from the depth of his eyes to the tender expression of his voice. He was fetching from his generous opinions to the touch of his hand. His voice quickened when he sparkled with a new idea or when he was so enjoying one of Ayesha’s that he lost himself for a moment and quite forgot the mask he wore for others.

Be the person you needed when you were younger

I found that I didn't want to give this man anything more of my beloved city when he'd taken something at its heart so secretively and easily.

She does the wrong thing, and I'm the one who feels ashamed.

Shiba's was the kind of beauty that made me understand why men carried photos of their sweethearts to war

They saw Pakistan, the entire country, as some kind of travesty, a broken-off piece of themselves that had turned rotten and sour once severed from its root.

Avoid the TV – Every hour of TV-viewing after the age of 25 cuts lifespan by about 22 minutes. Meanwhile, those who watch TV for 4+ hours a day are 80% more likely to die due to heart and arterial disease.

Experience post-traumatic growth – Incredibly, male Holocaust survivors lived longer than men of the same age who escaped Nazi rule. Despite all odds, these survivors experienced post-traumatic growth which enhanced their later years of life.

Keep a rumination record – Rumination is a toxic practice of dwelling on negative thoughts. Keep an hourly rumination record to catch yourself ruminating and identify when you ruminate more/less. Prepare to actively distract or relax yourself during trigger periods.

For some people, Africa is everything. And for other people Africa is nothing.

Set a timer – Set a timer to give yourself 5-10 minutes to think through a problem. Then when your timer pings, switch gears.

Ayesha, whose nineteen-year-old son had died after eighteen months in service, is one of many who attested to the policing of affect by men, in this case her husband. She explained that “they did not take me to the graveyard. Women normally don’t go, but when someone is a shaheed, women will go along to watch the parade. His [the dead son’s] father did not take me. He said to me, ‘A woman can bear less, for she is weak.’ He said to me, ‘You say namaz (funeral prayer), [but] the shaheed has a high status; you can’t cry for this death.’” She stopped and then added, perhaps to further explain to me why her husband didn’t think it was wise to take her, “I looked at the flag on the coffin, and I felt okha (uneasy). I still feel that way when I see the flag.” 175/378

For Ayesha, whose son died in this war, it was a particularly painful period when the TTP attacked an army school in Peshawar. She wept as she watched television footage of children’s bodies and mothers crying over their losses. Ayesha: If we had not provoked them [the Taliban], they would not have done this to us.60 Musharraf [former chief of army staff] is a dog. He brought this on Pakistan, and he should be kept in jail and never let out. Sister: My brother died fighting these people. Ayesha [cutting her short]: Would Musharraf have got into this war if his son was in the army? He should have sent his son. How many sons have become shaheed because of his decisions? 282/378

زندگی کا ایک اور باب طے ہونے کو ہے سفر کی ایک اور منزل اخٹام پذیر ہونے کو ہے اس دنیا کا یہی اصول ہے اے انسان اب گزے لمحے لفظوں میں بتانے کو ہے لیکن زندگی کا ایک آخری باب کھلنے کو ہے سفر کی ایک اور منزل کا آغاز ہونے کو ہے اب اُن گزرے لمحوں کے ساتھ اے انسا ن رب کے حضور پیش ہونے کو ہے

Try fixed role therapy – 24 hours a day for two weeks, try behaving as though you have the personality traits you would most like to have. They may become part of you.

Read – Reading reduces stress levels by 68%, which is more than virtually any other activity including listening to music, drinking tea/coffee, or walking. And the positive effects emerge within just 6 minutes! Express yourself – Making or tending things (especially using your hands) enhances mental health. Baking can boost confidence, and gardening can reduce stress even more than reading.

We Brought Up As a Traveler; From the moment we are brought into this world by the will of Allah, the first thing we experience is the beautiful sound of Adhan. It is as if Allah is whispering in our hearts, welcoming us into this world. What a beautiful way of the beginning of human life is, Fatima. SubhanAllah!

Your presence in a relationship is not indicative of commitment but rather inertia. Standing before your friends and family and pledging your love and loyalty is an essential ingredient of a long-lasting union.