Friday, July 27, 2007

Lal Masjid (Red Mosque) Friday prayers

Faithful people refused to offer jumma (friday) prayers in lal masjid when new khateeb Maula Ashfaq reached there. They enchanted slogans against the government. They wanted to bring back the previous khateeb Maulana Abdul Aziz.

The new Maulana was very dissappointed and refused to accept the imamat of Friday prayers. He also said that he will never lead prayers in lal masjid.

Snooker in F-8 markaz Islamabad

Since I have got a bad habbit of playing billiards with my friends while my stay in UAE, I start searching for some nice billiards or snooker clubs in Islamabad. Then, I came over to a nice snooker club in F-8 Markaz. Although, I played billiards in UAE, but I played snooker there with my cousine. Its harder than billiards but more fun.

Goodbye to table tennis. I also had purchased the table for table tennis, but now I want snooker table in my house.......

Back to Pakistan

Finally, after official tour of 3 months, I came back to Islamabad, Pakistan on July 15, 2007. The trip was very successful and I had alot of fun there. Credit goes to my friends Imran, Sameer and Arslan. I had very enjoyable moments playing billiards, going to cinema to watch movies, visiting places, shopping malls, eating food at popular places, sheesha, playing cards (I still dont know how to play), beaches, wild wadi, aqua park, alt of gossips and watching Friends seasons when we had nothing to do.

Anyways, after having alot of fun, I am back in Pakistan, my homeland. There is no better place than your home, wherever you go in the whole world.

Saturday, July 14, 2007

A visit to Dreamland Aqua Park in UAE



In summers, me and some friends visited Dreamland Aqua park http://www.dreamlanduae.com/. Its in Umm al Quwain state of UAE alongside a long beach. No doubt, its one of the most amazing family water park with full of fun rides and slides.

Its worth to spend the whole day there. If you get tired with the rides, go to the relaxation pool. There is also a bar in the middle of the pool. Various kinds of drinks and sheesha is available there. KFC and some other food places are also there.

Below is the picture taken during the trip.






From the left: Sameer, Arslan and Me. Imran cannot be seen because he was taking the picture.



This is a must see place if you are visiting Dubai or any other state of UAE. The park is about 60 kms from Dubai, but die to the large traffic, it may take 1 to 2 hours to reach there.

Check out all the pictures at http://www.esnips.com/web/saqibrazzaq-Pictures/.

Saturday, June 23, 2007

Quran with Urdu translation

http://www.esnips.com/web/Quran-with-Urdu-Translation

Check out the above link for whole Quran with Urdu translation. The files are zipped on the basis of para number. Each zip file of a para contains the scanned images of the Quran. These files are originally from www.asanquran.com. The Urdu translation is in two colors for easy understanding of the arabic words. The arabic text and the translation goes side by side on a page.

The idea was proposed by Maulana Syed Shabbir Ahmed in 1988 and he founded an organization (Quran Asan Tehrik http://www.quranasan.org) for this purpose.

Monday, June 18, 2007

Traffic in Dubai

Traffic is the biggest problem that people are facing in Dubai. During office start and close timings the roads become like parking places. Very slow moving. I live in an apartment in Karama and my office is in Jebel Ali Free Zone. It around 40 km distance but it takes 1.5 hours to reach the office. And its even worse around 5 pm in the evening.

Now the government has planned to collect toll tax from the people that travel via sheikh zaid road (a popular road). It will be 4 dirhams per entry. A card will be attached on the car wind screen and the cameras will automatically deduct the amount when you pass by it.

Parking is also big problem. Commercial areas have paid parking, but there are some free parking areas as well. My apartment has a parking place but I dont have car :P because I am here temporarily for just 3 months.

Getting a car is easy. You can even get a reasonable second hand car in 4000 dirhams but getting the license is difficult. 40 driving classes before you enter the test. And there is already a waiting period of 2 months.

Anyways, I travel by bus, The Limousine Lorry Lease, so I dont have to worry about the license, parking and toll fee. But to visit places, car is a MUST, because taxi is very costly here.