Men Missions & Machines

Sufi Azim Jamal has volunteered 15 hours per week over the last 20 years, towards service to the Afghan refugees


Is Sufi Azim Jamal a Sufi mystic? No. He is, by training, an accountant. After twenty years in the accounting field, during which time he earned three degrees and became a senior partner in his accounting firm, Azim decided to risk “the ocean” and follow his dream of becoming a professional inspirational speaker.


Until then, his passion for motivational and inspirational speaking had been fulfilled through volunteer work. He says, “These engagements changed me. I learned so much about myself, about life, about purpose and about others, that I would have paid to get a chance to speak!”


Although his 20-year career as an accountant and financial planner was flourishing, Jamal’s heart was not in his work. By the mid 1990s, he was weighing the pros and cons of putting aside accounting and becoming a professional motivational speaker.


“I saw so many things that affected me forever,” says Jamal who was in Mumbai recently. He speaks with quiet intensity about that “life-changing experience.”


“One day, I went to a refugee camp where I met 14 Afghan refugees living in one small room. I heard stories from people who had lost a father in front of their eyes. I heard of people who had walked 18 days in the mountains without shoes and of women who had given birth in the wilderness. They told me how six of them working 14 hours a day could not make a single dollar.”


Jamal describes how he “sobbed like a baby” during the cab ride back to his hotel. Deeply moved by the plight of the refugees, he spent the night wondering what one man could do to help people in such desperate need.


“I went through a lot of soul-searching that night and asked how I could help them,” he recalls. “I made $200 an hour as an accountant and I could send some money every month, but I couldn’t really help them. I wondered what I could do that I would be so successful that I could make a difference to these people financially. The answer was inspirational speaking. I decided that if I put my heart and my energy into it for 10 years, I could be one of the top 10 speakers in the world and I could then give to others” Jamal gradually withdrew from the accounting firm that he had been running since 1985.


Jamal¦s “Seven Steps to Lasting Happiness” - which is now in bookstores everywhere, went on to become a national best-seller and spawned a companion workbook, Journal for Lasting Happiness, and a CD. Since then, Jamal has published two more books, The Corporate Sufi and The One-Minute Sufi. Jamal estimates he has spoken to one million people since becoming a professional speaker.


Today, Jamal follows a schedule that few would choose to emulate, but it works - and works very well, for him. On most days of the week, he rises at 2 a.m. and reads, writes, meditates, visualises and exercises.¡¨By waking up early, I take care of my mental, physical and spiritual needs by 7 a.m., giving me the whole day to take care of my social and economic responsibilities,” he says.


“I want the money to help people in less fortunate parts of the world,” he says. “To me, making money is a good thing, as long as I do it ethically and share it with other people who need it. I have the opportunity to do it, and therefore the responsibility to do it.”


Azim Jamal’s philosophy draws on the richness of Sufi poetry and tradition to help us maintain a spiritual and ethical centre while still pursuing our worldly goals.


Azim has volunteered 15 hours per week over the last 20 years, towards service to Afghan refugees overseas. He meditates regularly and lives a balanced life with his wife, parents and 2 children.


Making a difference does not only refer to doing some grand things, but also to doing the small everyday things that affect people’s lives. Azim believes that service is on a higher level than even prayer. Service is faith in action and the translation of prayer in daily life. Without action, prayers are not enough. As Sadi, the revered 10th century poet wrote: “The path is the service of others, not prayer beads and dervish robes.”


Practical tips for balanced living prepared by Azim Jamal. *Define your personal mission.


*Work on preparing a family mission statement (involve all family members in the process).

*Set personal and family goals for health and fitness, reading, bonding, meditation etc.

*Focus on the solution, not on the problem. For every problem, there are 21 solutions. Explore creative solutions with outside the box thinking.

*Do two meaningful activities at the same time. Brisk walk with spouse or business colleague i.e. exercise and bonding.

*Focus significant time on most important activities (approx.75 % of time). Eliminate the non- essentials. Remember Less is More.
*Schedule priorities. Schedule weekly one to one meetings with spouse (partner), each of your children and work colleague.

*Eat with family once a day (breakfast/ dinner). Make this a family ritual and an enjoyable time for sharing and communicating. Remember Slow is fast.

*Value diversity. Synergy happens from differences.

*Try to remain in the big picture (Personal mission, family mission). Do not get caught up in the small stuff.

*Prepare a weekly time budget of where you want to spend your time. Keep track for a week where your time goes. Record your insights in the journal.

*Try 20:20:20 (meditate, exercise and read) in the early morning. Start the day with the big stuff!
*Live one day at a time. Treat each day as the most important day of your life.

(The writer can be reached at mhl@rediffmail.com)

Rasheeda Bee’s strong will and indomitable efforts to fight for the victims of Bhopal gas tragedy have made her an epitome of courage and kindness.


Contrary to the general perception that Muslims, particularly women remain in the cocoons of tradition and do not have enough courage to fight against odds, a semi- literate woman, Rasheeda Bee has proved that her religion never came in the way of her fight against injustice. In fact, her strong will and indomitable efforts to fight for the victims of Bhopal gas tragedy made her an epitome of courage and kindness.


Rasheeda Bee never came out of her home alone till the Bhopal catastrophe happened. She belonged to a conservative family and got married when she was just 15. When the leakage of the deadly Methyl isocyanate from Union Carbide created havoc on December 2, 1984, Rashida did not know what to do. Two decades later, she has become a symbol of the struggle for justice to the victims of the world’s worst industrial calamity. Rasheeda, along with her associate Champa Devi Shukla - got the ‘Goldman Environment Award’ for the year 2004 in San Francisco, US.


Rasheeda, who never went to school, now carries a stylish visiting card and a mobile phone. She is heading a NGO- Bhopal Gas Victim’s Women Stationary Workers’ Union. Rasheeda and Champa Devi Shukla along with several others women formed a women’s group that later took up the seemingly unending fight for justice. “It was very difficult. I had never talked to any stranger before the tragedy. My son died because I couldn’t take him to hospital. I was alone at home those days. He died due to lack of proper treatment. It was long before the gas tragedy happened,” says Rasheeda explaining her early days . After the gas leakage she was a changed woman. “ Allah gave me courage, I came out of my home and started fighting for justice.” Her women’s group went door-to-door and asked women to join them. After an year of the incident, the state government started a three- month training project for women. After that, the authorities asked them to leave and do their business on their own. But the victims, wanted employment. The womens group met the then chief minister Moti Lal Vohra. He referred the case to the State Industry Corporation. The women started making stationery items for the corporation. Initially, they were paid Rs.6, a month. After much protest, their salary was raised to Rs.10-15 per day. They worked there for two-and-half years. They prepared stationeries used in government departments. After two-and-half years, the corporation made a profit of Rs.4,00,000. So the group said that the profit should be shared with the women. The corporation was to work under no-profit-no-loss scheme. But the government refused to share the profit.The women’s group led by Rasheeda sat on a protest for 27 days. The then Chief Minister Arjun Singh gave the stationery-manufacturing unit to a government trust. Later in 1988, it was given to the government press. Its unit is still working in the premises of Bhopal municipality. In 1989, employees of the press got Rs.2,400 per month but the victims (all women) who worked there got Rs.532 only. So the group decided to fight against this discrimination. On June 1, 1989 the group started a protest march to Delhi. They covered the distance on foot in one month and 13 days. “It was a tiresome trudge. My voice flickered when I addressed the women. I encouraged them.” “There was no other way. We didn’t have men in our group. So women came with us. I told them if Muslim women are going out, why not Hindus.” She says Moti Lal Vohra who was then Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh assured the group that they will get justice. He promised and convinced them to go back to Bhopal. “Since then, we are looking for Vohra but he never met us. We were cheated,” says Rasheeda. The cases are still pending in various courts.


When Union Carbide merged with Dow Chemicals, Rasheeda’s group initiated protest against it in February 2001 in Mumbai. Over 500 women painted the Dow office wall with red colour, the symbol of blood.


After receiving the Goldman Award, Rasheeda and Shukla formed a Bhopal Ki Chingari Trust (Bhopal’s Spark Trust).They gave all the award money ($125,000) to the trust. It will be used to provide jobs to the unemployed women who are gas victims, medical treatment of disabled children, and an annual award will be constituted to be given to people fighting against polluting companies.