Mirza Yawar Baig – Life is a journey

			Bismillah R Rahman r Rahim Al hamdu Lillahi Rabbil Alameen wa Salatu was Salam ala Shalom Babel
mousseline, Muhammad Rasulullah, sallAllahu, alayhi, wa sallam, demon Cassia and cathedra. From
Abbado, my brothers and sisters, one of the things that I thoroughly enjoy is travel.
		

			Now,
		

			when you're saying which I'm sure all of us have heard made,
		

			which says life is a journey.
		

			So, let's think about this. Seriously. What does that mean?
		

			If I say life is a journey, what does that mean?
		

			Let's think about some of the main things and a journey. Number one,
		

			a journey has a destination.
		

			The reason why you're making the journey, the destination may be a place the destination may be a
may not be a single placement, maybe multiple places because you're just sightseeing, you know,
World War or something like that.
		

			Or the journey maybe to
		

			go to a place to do something for example, you went for Hajj or Umrah, you're going you're not going
to Makkah as a tourist, you're going to Makkah for a great Ibadah for a great act of worship. So and
think about the journey to a college university journey to meet family and friends.
		

			All kinds of reasons right? Journey to do business, one of the one of probably the highest number of
people today travel for business reasons so journey to do business.
		

			So multiple reasons why we journey. So first thing about the journey is that the journey has a
reason why you're doing that.
		

			As I said, maybe your destination may be something else. Second thing was journeys, that therefore
the journey forces you to plan.
		

			So no matter how spontaneous you think you are, no matter how
		

			you know, just seat of the pants kind of life you think you have
		

			on a journey, when you decide to go on a journey, you don't just get up from your bed and start
walking. That's not a journey. So depending on where you need to go, there will be legal things to
deal with, for example, passports, visa as then there will be other things like hotel
accommodations, obviously tickets.
		

			Or if you're driving, then it you know, get your car checked, make sure it's going to go the
distance
		

			then there is the backing for the journey.
		

			So what will you take, now you have a house full of things, obviously, you will not take all of it,
you will not even take your favorite things because your house may have some beautiful curios and
artworks and so on so forth, which you really love, you will not take them with you, you will have
pets who will love you know, sometimes more than your children, for example. But your pets, most of
the time will not go with you on this journey.
		

			Including your children, for example, you may not take the children on the journey. So there is a
whole set of planning that needs to be done. Now what is the thing about planning, planning is to
decide what comes and What doesn't come, go, no go.
		

			In the what comes and what doesn't come will be things that you
		

			have to do. No matter how difficult or unpleasant they might seem to be, for example, I'm sure every
single one of us would like to see a world in which visas are not required. Right? Just get on a
plane and go and that's it. All you need is an ID to say who you are. And you go, there was a world
like this, believe me, if you go back in the past, in the, in the Age of Empires, people just went
from place to place they were they didn't have passports, they didn't have visas, they just
traveled.
		

			So we would love to have something like this, I'm sure every one of us Nobody enjoys having to get
passports and, you know, visa and stand in line at the immigration no matter how simple that
immigration might be, but you would much rather just walk in. So, there are some things that are
		

			beyond your choice, you know, you have to do them. And if you don't do them, then these are things
which will maybe become a major problem. For example, I mean, if you if you if you let I mean this
is not even possible. But if you somehow managed to land in a place in a country and you don't have
a visa for the country, you will get deported. You will they will put you back on the on the return
flight they will not be able to leave the airport so it is a serious thing. You know they're not
planning not doing that actually causes some serious, serious trouble. So we didn't really you do
some things which are not
		

			Have pleasant or not, you don't look forward to them you didn't, you didn't ask for it you, it just
happens. You make this choice that comes with the choice. If I want to travel, I need a passport and
a visa. If I'm saying I'm absolutely I'm somebody who's totally anti passport, totally anti visa, no
problem, just stay where you are. No travel, no crossing borders.
		

			Within your country, sure, maybe you can just go around anywhere, no problem. But the moment you
talk about leaving your country to go to some other countries, you have no choice, you either get a
passport and visa or you don't have that's it.
		

			So, destination, things you have to do
		

			things you leave behind. Now, there again, there's a planning to that, which is the things which I
will leave behind who takes care of it, for example, you might have plants in the house. So if you
have plants in the house, and you decide to go on a two or three week, vacation somewhere, if you if
there is no one watering those plants, you're going to come back with a house full of dead plants,
you have a pet, same thing, children, whatnot, whatever you leave behind, who is going to take care
of that.
		

			So you're, you're you're planning for for that as well. Then
		

			your destination wherever you go. And this can be the final destination this can be interim
destinations, point to point and so on.
		

			The logistics of that, where will you stay?
		

			And what will you do? What is that place where you stay? What must it have? For example, you might
say I want to stay in hotels, which are Islamically certified as halal. I don't want to stay in a
hotel, which has all kinds of, you know, for our fast happening, which had bars and casinos and
discos or you might say it doesn't matter to me, I just stay in hotel and I know I'm in my room, I
mean, what people are doing doesn't matter to me, whichever way so whatever is your priority,
		

			you're going to choose your destination and interim destinations, the accommodation, then local
transport, so you will land in the place now what you do is there is the possibility of hiring a car
is someone going to chauffeur you around, I want to spend money on taxis and Uber and whatnot. So,
there is a whole list of things that you have to prepare for and you have to plan for and you have
to maybe in some things book in advance and so on, if you don't want to encounter needless
difficulties in your journey. Then the other side of the journey, which is you will meet new people
		

			you will at least listen to new languages or new sound which are new languages you may not know
them, but you you try to make sense of them because in some cases you may not know the language, but
you still have to deal with people who speak only that language and not your language. So what you
do, for example, if you go learn in a country and you're staying there for a few days, you have to
go to the market to buy something and so on you have to deal with, with signs in different languages
in a language different from what you know and talk to people and so on buying selling all this. So
language is then the opportunity to
		

			to sample new cuisines, new foods. You know, one of the things that Holiday Inn for example, sells
all over the world is that
		

			every single holiday in Rome is the same. So no matter where you go in the world, you wake up in the
morning and a holiday in room bed, the TV will be exactly where it in the same place the you know
the the the dinette table will be in the same place the wardrobes will be the same place and so on
so on. Now, you might think of your think and say what kind of a horrible boring situation is that?
But believe me, that's a big selling point for Holiday Inn customers who don't want to do not want
variety in their lives, even though they're trapped. So they say their point of view is
		

			I'm traveling, I will choose what variety I want. Once I get out of the hotel, I will go and eat in
a different restaurant and you know go to different places and so on. But my room in the hotel, I
don't want my my room in the Holiday Inn in Rabat to look like a
		

			Moroccan or Marguerite be
		

			villa. You know, I don't want my room in the Holiday Inn in Riyadh to look like an Arabian the
inside of an Arabian tent, no matter how luxurious it might be. I don't want that I want the same
room everywhere. So this is this is one perspective on life. Other people might say well you know
what the reason I'm leaving my country to go somewhere
		

			So as to sample that life. So I don't want the same thing I want to the excitement, including, for
example, the uncertainty including maybe some mild inconvenience of something new. But I would like
that different perspective. So opportunity to meet different people opportunity also to understand
different cultures, different from your own.
		

			So you learn the ability to understand, you know, cross cultural communication, cross cultural
understanding, not sitting in judgment on something and saying, this is right, and that is wrong.
And this is, I will do this, and I won't do that. But more more, you learn to become more open and
more
		

			broaden your perspective and broaden your mindset. So all of these things are when you say, life is
a journey, think about life to apply, or I described for you a journey, physical journey, going from
point A to point B. But take this into your own life and apply this in your own life and say, how is
my life a journey? How am I learning all these things in my life? What are the priorities? What are
the things that I have to do, no matter how unpleasant but if I don't do them, things will be much
worse. So I must do them. This will be relationships, this will be hard to deal with people as also
for
		

			preparation studies, enhancing of skills, you know, keeping yourself updated, keeping yourself
relevant, socially relevant,
		

			intellectually relevant, and so on so forth. How do you contribute? You know, I take this and apply
it in your own life, right? I'm just putting this out here for us to maybe have some more
conversation on this and I obviously always welcome any comments. So think about this a life is a
journey. How does this actually the journey metaphor? How does it apply to me in my life, I was
getting while he was a board member, I have to get high