Chapter (29) sūrat l-ʿankabūt (The Spider)
قُلۡ سِيرُواْ فِى ٱلۡأَرۡضِ فَٱنظُرُواْ ڪَيۡفَ بَدَأَ ٱلۡخَلۡقَۚ ثُمَّ ٱللَّهُ يُنشِئُ ٱلنَّشۡأَةَ ٱلۡأَخِرَةَۚ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ عَلَىٰ ڪُلِّ شَىۡءٍ۬ قَدِيرٌ۬ ٢٠
Say (O Muhammad): Travel through the Earth and see how Allah did originate creation: so will Allah produce a later creation: for Allah has power over all things. (20)
I am originally from Pakistan, but have lived in the US for almost all of my adult life. My
passion is traveling and learning about different cultures. During the past thirty years, I have taken over one hundred trips and have traveled to over forty countries. By profession, I am an
Environmental Engineer and work for the Government!
My late father, Maulana Arif Hussain (1905-1984), was a Mujtahid-e-Iraq, taught at Sultan-ul-Madaris of Lucknow, India, and was a principal of Sultan-ul-Madaris Oriental College, Khairpur Mirs, Pakistan. He wrote several books on the Middle-Eastern Islamic history.
I have two sons. My older son, Ali Raza Mehdi, is a graduate of NYU (New York University), with a major in Business Studies. As a student, he took several courses in the Middle-Eastern Studies. I suppose this runs in the family. I am so proud of him! Currently, he is working at the Wall Street and plans to continue his graduate studies towards a PhD.!
My younger son, Asif Raza Mehdi is an undergraduate student at a local community college and plans to pursue his studies in Medicine!
I always wanted to try to walk on my father’s foot steps. Lately, I felt dejected after seeing several historical sites being destroyed all across the world. I decided to do a little from my side. I took a 3-month film-making course, bought a couple of cameras/computer/editing software, started traveling to the Middle-East, and started making videos of all the historical places – including those that Quran-e-Kareen describes. Slowly, but gradually, I am getting better in my effort. Hopefully, one day, my sons will continue their paths in the direction of their father and grandfather!
In addition, as I am traveling to non-historic sites for pleasure, I am adding those travel videos here as well. I hope that you would like my effort.
If you have any suggestion(s) and/or comment(s), please feel free to contact me. Thanks.
Syed M. Mehdi, B.E., M.E., M.B.A, P.E.(New York)
