" Dear Friend, V ( Faith ) "

Dear Friend,

How are you doing?
I hope you are doing fine.

You asked me about "Faith".
Well, there are things to say.
What I want to share with you now is some concept that I have come to believe in after much ado. (When I say much ado, I mean much ado. Believe me!)

Let me start out with a question. (You might at first think it's so irrelevant, but you will see that it is not.)
Have you ever fallen in love? (I mean a real passionate fiery one.)
If you have, then you will be able to understand my words better.
When you are in love, you feel you are in a different world, separate from the rest. If someone tries to reason with you (in any way), you won't listen. And if you do, you won't understand. As if you see everything with a different eye, from a different point of view.
The same is viceversa. That is, it's hard to understand lovers. What they do and what they say seems funny sometimes.
You know what they say:
" Dancers look funny to those who don't hear the music."

It's a whole separate world. With its own rules and values.
When I say they are separate, it doesn't mean you can't be in two of them at the same time, but it means to understand the residents of a world, you have to be one of them.

And the same goes for the World of Art, the World of Friendship (Ma'refat!) and many many other worlds.

One of these worlds, is the World of Logic. (Your world I guess.)
And another is the World of Faith. (The World of Religion.)
These two (like the others) are not opposite. They are just different.

And here rises one of the biggest misunderstandings of mankind, leading to one of the worst mistakes: "Trying to mix up." Trying to judge others through one's own standards:
The Logical calls everyone else "irrational" and The Lover calls them "non-romantic".
The Religious calls others "unfaithful" and The Artist calls them "crude". And so on...
And you know what?:
"They are all wrong."

And the same applies to the concepts in each:
Reasoning with a lover is as pointless as urging a commoner to enjoy Art.
The struggles to prove "There is no God" are as meaningless as the ones trying to prove His existence.

And this mistake has given birth to blind fights and quarrels, cruel wars and bloodshed all along the history, even at this present time. (Especially in the third world countries.)
Simply because people have been unable to come to believe that they are not the only ones.

Finally remains one last question "Which one is better?"
Who could tell? (Except for himself/herself.) That is, maybe for you one is more suitable than the other, but the same might not apply to your brother. (If you have one!)

Well, can you advertise your creed?
Of course. But you have to be loyal to the rules of dialogue. (Something that we Iranians haven't learnt, most unfortunately.)
Are you happy with your choice? And you want to share it with others?
Be my guest. Do it.
Talk about yourself: your beliefs, your ideas, your World, its beauties, its advantages... Instead of focusing on finding faults with others, making fun of each-other, hurting each-other's feelings, calling names, offending, insulting, slighting and humiliating (I am giving you synonyms. Check the rest in your dictionary!!) anyone who doesn't belong to your world. (I don't say that you do all these things, or you are the only who does. I am talking in general.)
You say what you have to say, and so do I and so do the rest.
And then let's allow people to decide which one suits them best. (Everyone for himself.)

In the end, let me wrap it up by a quote from Coelho:
"Respect other people's choices as you expect them to respect yours.
Because, maybe you chose a good way for your life, but it's not the only good way there is.
Because to believe in your way, you needn't prove all the other ways are wrong.
And finally, because if more people believe in a way, it doesn't make it more correct."

Best Wishes,
Ali

" Dear Friend, IV ( The Light ) "

Dear Friend,

How's life?
It was so nice to receive your message.
Thanks a billion!

Well, you asked about " The Light ":

Imagine we have a room with nothing in it.
Not even air. Nothing.
And in the two opposite walls we have two identical holes. Precisely facing each other.
A ray of light enters the room from one and goes out from the other.
Well, what do you see in this room?
The law of physics (I don't know which!) says you can't see anything.
Nothing at all. Not even the light.
But if you hold your hand against the beam of light, then you can see your hand, but not yet the light.
We see by the light, but we never see the light itself.
We are even not aware of its presence most of the time. (Unless we lose it maybe.)
This idea is the essence of this poem.

In this poem, there is one adventure: " a child running home, seeking shelter from the rain " five outlooks and one message.
The first outlook belongs to the child.(I guess this one could be me. I have my own reasons!):
-I'm looking back,
over my shivering shoulder.
Watching the dancing trees,
running far far back.

The second outlook belongs to the mother or whoever is waiting for the child in the house:
-I'm looking on,
through cloudy eyes.
watching the dear soul,
running towards me.

The third one is the Earth:
-I'm looking up,
through the hovering dust.
Watching the hurried feet,
thumping on my face.

The forth is the sky:
-I'm looking down,
through the lights and thunders.
Watching the frightened child,
seeking shelter from the rain.

And the last one belongs to the real one. The main one. The one.:
-I am the light,
shining through the bits of this world.
Watching the pulsating being,
making everyone able to see.

And at last comes the message:
The only thing I can't figure:
Why can't ever,
- anyhow, anywhere, -
anyone see me?
Oh ! Never !

Now rises the question "Who is the light? The One?"
Well, for each person it could be someone or something different.
For one it could be "Love" and for another could be "Hope".
It could be "Beauty", "Knowledge" or any other thing.
For me it is "God".

But as for " Faith ", well that's a whole separate story and it needs much elaboration.
I think we should talk about it some other time.
Tell me if you are interested.

But before everything you should tell me what you think yourself.(Not what others say. Just what you yourself believe.)
And the questions you have. Any kind.
I'll be so happy to be of any help. (Not that I am much of a wise guy or something. Only I have had experiences of my own.)

Please keep in touch.
I am waiting impatiently.
Best Wishes,
Ali

" Dear Friend, III ( Writing ) "

Dear Friend,

You have such a nice style of writing, and your command of the language is so authoritative.
I promise, (Promise I said), that you will definitely become something, if you try a bit.

Just do some reading (as I'm sure you do). Read everything: plays, novels, articles, short stories, prose, poetry, serious, light, all kinds.
Just find some time to read. And keep at it.

And write.
Writing keeps you in touch with yourself:
It makes you observe (to collect the material), think (to analyze the data), evaluate (to compare it with the other data you already have) and finally, conclude and express the result.
And you certainly agree just how much this helps to refine yourself.

It also helps to track down the changes you go through (emotionally, personally, in your character, etc), and to analyze it better retrospectively.

It's just great.
Do it.
You won't regret it.
Take care,
Ali

" Dear Friend, II ( English ) "

Dear Friend,
How are you doing?
Thanks a lot for your message.
It was so nice of you.

Why English?
I don't know, but I feel more comfortable expressing these ideas in English.
I reserve Persian for more personal matters. Private stuff you know.
But English is for when I want to speak up, to go public with something.
And that's the reason I guess.
Maybe I start my Persian weblog one day, and you will see the difference.

Please keep in touch,
Best Wishes,
Ali

" Dear Friend, ( It Happened One Night ) "

What will appear on this Weblog from now on under the title of " Dear Friend, " are letters to my dear friends which I thought might be useful to my other visitors as well. (With their prior permission of course!) You know, frequently asked questions, common comments, similar suggestions, things like that.
So, there you go!
By the way, you could be one of my dear friends too! A few lines is all it takes.
I am waiting impatiently.


Dear Friend,
How's everything?
Hope you are doing just great.

It was so nice to receive your comments. Thanks a million!
It was very kind of you.
Well, I have a few points for you too.

First of all, when I first started writing these pieces I had no intention of publishing them one day.
I wrote just for my own sake. I sort of talked to myself.
And it has really helped me.
Whenever I had so much pressure on me, it came as a relief. Broke the stress.
When I had intense emotions, it would give them an outlet. Ease it up a bit.
When I learnt a lesson or something it would help me figure it out. Clarify the dark points, you know.
That's maybe why they have a kind of advisory tone.
However, I agree 100% with you: " when you are writing something, the theme you are trying to give to reader will be more highlighted when it is not directly told "
But the point is that I wasn't telling anyone, I was just telling myself. They are somehow the essence of my life. (At least for some parts of it.) I have lived them out.
And then one day, somebody read a few of them, and advised me to publish it somehow or other. Share it with others, as others have done it before.
And I thought "Hey! Not a bad idea! Let's do it!"
And there you go! Simple as that!

I also have something to tell you about "It happened one night..."
It has such an adventure.
There was a gap of around three to four years between the beginning and the ending.
I wrote :

It happened one night.
It was late and dark.
I was walking home.
It was raining hard.

The road looked unknown.
There was heavy mist.
What happened to me?
Definitely lost.

Then I just saw her.
She was crying hard.
At once I stopped.
And looked all around.

Only me and her.
There was no-one else.
I felt so sorry.
I wanted to help.

I think it came out of a experience I had,(or I was having) or a vision of some sort.
But then, that was it. Black out. All stopped. No more words. Dead end.
I tried a little to wrap it up, but it just didn't work.
I didn't push it anymore and let it go.
I saw this scrap of paper again and again so many times while browsing through my notes, but everytime, the only thing that came to my mind was a big question mark.
And so it went.
Days turned into weeks, weeks into months, months into years, and still nothing.
until almost recently (a few months ago) that I was going through my old stuff, a little piece of paper caught my eyes.
I picked it up, looked at it and all of a sudden, all the rest was there:

I didn't know how,
I didn't know why,
I went to her side :
Smiled and said: "Hi!"

She then turned around.
Looked into my eyes.
Full of heavy pain,
which was no surprise.

She was lost,
I found her.
I was lost,
She found me...

It was life,
we both lost.
It was us,
we both found.

Just like that. No warning, no preparation, nothing.
It just poured out.
Nice adventure for a poem, don't you think?
Weird how these things figure out, isn't it?

But if you want to know what happened behind these lines, well my friend, that's another story.
Each and every one of these writings has its own story.
Sad, happy, interesting, boring, personal, public... All kinds.
If you want to know any, please let me know. And your request will definitely be considered!!


At the end, once again I express my most heartfelt gratitude for your time and kind attention.
I'll be waiting to hear more from you.
Best Wishes,
Ali

" Peace "

We humans make such a fuss about finding peace that we forget what we were looking for in the first place.

Keep moving on. And stay hopeful. That's the key to peace.
Just keep breathing and everything will be all right.
Or at least you'll get used to it. And that's a kind of peace too.
And that's all that matters.

And I promise you'll find it when you least expect it.
Because, mostly it is hidden in the places that we least heed to look:
Within.

" On Our Graduation Night "

My dearest friends,

Tonight as we sit here warm and tight, it reminds me of the first time we sat together like this seven years ago. Most of us fresh from high school. And since then we have been through a lot together.

We have studied and we have nestled together.
We have worked and we have partied together.
We have dawned and we have dined together.
We have attended weddings and funerals together.
We have laughed and we have cried together.
In short, we have lived together.

We started out as kids and together we grew up into mature men and women.
And although many of us may have not noticed, we existed in each other's lives as classmates, as colleagues and above all, as friends.

And now that we stand together before the parting of the paths of our lives, I ask you all to stand up, take each other's hands, raise them high and let all witness this long lasting bond of friendship.
And may it go strong through happiness and grief, thunder and sunshine, bitter times and sweet ones.

And as we have taken an oath never to forget who we are meant to be and what we are meant to do as doctors, let us never forget who we were and what we went through as friends. And to stand by one another, like we have done before, wherever we are and whatever we are doing, come what may.

And I wish you all the best anyone can wish for his dearest friends.
And may your greatest wishes be granted and your highest dreams be fulfilled.
And may your lives be as prosperous as it gets.
And so be it.

Sincerely yours,
Ali Saqebi

" From Paulo Coelho VII "

· God is where you let him be.

· The world is the visible side of God.

· Forgive your enemy, but never regard him as your friend.

· "Attack" and "retreat" are both accepted in a battle. What is unacceptable is to be paralyzed by fear.

· If you lose your faith, still keep on moving. Because that's where we get faith: in persistance.

· Sometimes we worry so much about arrival, we forget about moving on.

· Running away from the battle is worse than losing it.

· No-one is always wrong in this world. Even a non-working clock shows the correct time twice a day.

· We always see the best way to go very clearly. But, sadly enough, we usually take the one we are used to go.

· The end doesn't justify the means, because ends are built upon the means.

" From Paulo Coelho VI "

· A ship is safest at the harbor, but it wasn't built for that.

· You can never turn back in time, so, always think about going on.

· You don't have to climb a mountain to see how tall it is.

· Silence doesn't always mean "approval". It might also mean "inability to disagree".

· When you achieve something important in life, it doesn't mean you have to forget about everything else.

· Only when you can understand the meaning of a misfortune, that you have come over it.

· You should learn what you need to know. Not what you like to.

· What makes you drown is not falling into water. It's staying under water.

· You may doubt the way you were meant to go. You may even leave it sometimes. But you may never forget it.

· Busy people usually find time for everything in their life, while the lazy ones always nag about lack of time.

" From Paulo Coelho V "

Anyone may do many wrong things.
But the worst thing anyone can do is:
to lose the hope that he can become a better person.

" From Paulo Coelho IV "

Pain and agony, are unavoidable in one's life.
If you don't experience them pursuing your dreams,
you will definitely suffer them without knowing why.

" From Paulo Coelho III "

Sometimes some small things can tarnish your biggest joys.
Like a dust in your eye, when you are enjoying a maginficient scenery.
Never let such things happen to you.

" From Paulo Coelho II "

Respect other people's choices as you expect them to respect yours.
Because, maybe you chose a good way for your life, but it's not the only good way there is.
Because to believe in your way, you needn't prove all the other ways are wrong.
And finally, because if more people believe in a way, it doesn't make it more correct.

" From Paulo Coelho "

When you consider doing something, don't ask:
" How am I going to do it?" or "Where can it be best done?" or "When is the best time?"
But before everything, ask yourself:
"Why should I do it at all?" in the first place.

" Do as you please "

People expect you to live as they believe you should, to do as their wishes dictate.
And because their ideas frequently disagree with others, logically you can never satisfy everyone of them.

So, why not simplify the problem by choosing only one master to attend to?
And who could be possibly the most important of all?
You, yourself ofcourse.

You can never please everyone.
Please yourself.

" Life and death "

I have seen life face to face.
I have kissed life on the lips.
Now, how can you call me dead?
Now, that I've drowned in her embrace.

" It's my life, It's now or never ..."

Sometimes the proverbs can be quite misleading:
You can't hit two birds with one stone.
Every stone is meant for one and only one bird.

In any given moment, you have only one responsibility to attend to.
If you fulfill that one task, you've earned the essence of that moment.
And if you don't, be sure that you've lost that moment forever.

And remember:
Life is vigilant and strict.
It'll never let you get away with it.

So, quit being clever and play by the rules.
You have one stone, one bird, one chance.
Take your best shot.

" It happened one night ..."

It happened one night.
It was late and dark.
I was walking home.
It was raining hard.

The road looked unknown.
There was heavy mist.
What happened to me?
Definitely lost.

Then I just saw her.
She was crying hard.
At once I stopped.
And looked all around.

Only me and her.
There was no-one else.
I felt so sorry.
I wanted to help.

I didn't know how,
I didn't know why,
I went to her side :
Smiled and said: "Hi!"

She then turned around.
Looked into my eyes.
Full of heavy pain,
which was no surprise.

She was lost,
I found her.
I was lost,
She found me...

It was life,
we both lost.
It was us,
we both found.

" No Judgment "

Don't pass judgments about people and what they do.
Because the situations one faces can hardly be understood by another, unless experienced personally.
And also because the background everyone has had makes him unique in his character.

Every human being is like a separate ocean.
So, however deep your insight penetrates to the depth of human soul, it can never, never ever reach the bottom. (Not even your own, let alone the others)

So, let's leave the judgments to Judgment Day.

" Love in the first sight "

There is no such thing as "love in the first sight".
You have been meant to love each other ever since you were born.
Only you met later.

" Faith "

Faith cannot be defined or understood.
It can only be enjoyed.
You can either have it or lack it.
You can either believe or disblieve.
But you can never question it.

" Rain "

I'm walking,
in the rain.
Tears running,
on my face.

I'm crying hard,
for being away,
from my sweetheart,
for such a long time.

I love her so bad.
I want her so bad.
I just don't know why,
She never cares about me.

Then I feel His tears,
running on my face;
washing my own tears away.

I hear Him,
crying hard,
for being away,
from His sweetheart,
for such a long time.

He loves me so bad.
He wants me so bad.
He doesn't know why,
I never care about Him.

" A Matter of choice "

We live in a world of oppositions.
So, naturally, you can never have everything.

It's all a matter of choice.
Realize your priorities and learn to choose.

And keep in mind that you get the more important ones for the price of the less.
If you believe so, you'll have a much more comfortable life.

" The Light "

-I'm looking back,
over my shivering shoulder.
Watching the dancing trees,
running far far back.

-I'm looking on,
through cloudy eyes.
Watcing the dear soul,
running towards me.

-I'm looking up,
through the hovering dust.
Watching the hurried feet,
thumping on my face.

-I'm looking down,
through the lights and thunders.
Watching the frightened child,
seeking shelter from the rain.

-I am the light,
shining through the bits of this world.
Watching the pulsating being,
making everyone able to see.

The only thing I can't figure:
Why can't ever,
- anyhow, anywhere, -
anyone see me?
Oh ! Never !

" Be Yourself "

Never try pretending to be someone else, when you are not.

Because, no matter how hard you try, one day you'll look in the mirror, and'll see a face which is not a bit close to what you pretended to be; nor any similar to what you were.

Be yourself.
Otherwise, you will be nothing.

" Painting "

In the garden,
I'm sitting.
The trees,
I'm painting.

Blue color,
in one hand.
Yellow,
in the other.

Mixing them,
to get green,
to paint my picture.

When I look up,
I see God,
doing the same.

In the heavens,
He is sitting.
The universe,
He is painting.

Blue sky,
in one hand.
Yellow sun,
in the other.

Mixing them,
to get green,
to paint his nature.

" To love, itself "

You were such an unfair trader.
You took everything from me, and gave me nothing but one.

You took my happiness, my peace, my freedom.
You took my innocence, my dreams, my ambition.
You took my mind, my heart, my soul.

And in return,
you gave me nothing but : obsession, obsession, obsession...

" Right or wrong? "

It's not so important whether you are right or wrong about something.
What is important is the question you are right or wrong about :

Is it worth thinking about? Is it worth discussing about?
Is it worth arguing about? Is it worth fighting for?
Is it worth living for? Is it worth dying for?

" Humanity "

In my days, I have had my own highly respectable sacred words :

In the days of childhood, it was success.
In the days of adolescence, it was justice.
In the days of youth, it was love.
And now, it's nothing but humanity.

I wonder when all my days are gone, will I cry over lost words?

" What really matters... "

In the ups and downs of life there come moments when you have to make some really tough decisions. Through these special times I've learnt a great lesson which really helps me through :
There is no such thing as best choice.

It doesn't really matter what choice you make.

What matters is :
to follow the road you've taken to the end; no matter how far it may go.
to pursue the ideals you've set for yourself; no matter how high they may seem.
to accomplish the goals you've aimed at; no matter how hard they may be.
to fulfill the dreams you've seen; no matter how impossible they may look.

We are not here to make choices. We are here to understand the choices we have already made. ( Or have been made for us.)

And finally, Don't worry about what happens next.
Because, as Oracle said:
" No one can see beyond a choice he doesn't understand. "