Ahmed

“Haji Ali spoke. ‘If you want to thrive in Baltistan, you must respect our ways. The first time you share tea with a Balti, you are a stranger. The second time you take tea, you are an honored guest. The third time you share a cup of tea, you become family, and for our family, we are prepared to do anything, even die. Doctor Greg, you must take time to share three cups of tea. We may be uneducated but we are not stupid. We have lived and survived here for a long time.’ That day, Haji Ali taught me the most important lesson I’ve ever learned in my life. We Americans think you have to accomplish everything quickly…Haji Ali taught me to share three cups of tea, to slow down and make building relationships as important as building projects. He taught me that I had more to learn from the people I work with than I could ever hope to teach them.”
― Greg Mortenson, Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace ... One School at a Time

“عليهم أن يجاهدوا في نفوسهم هوى السلطة و زينة مقاعد الحكم، و أن يجتهدوا قبل أن يجهدوا الآخرين بحلم لا غناء فيه، و أن يفكروا قبل أن يكفّروا، و أن يواجهوا مشاكل المجتمع بالحل لا بالهجرة، و أن يقتصدوا في دعوى الجاهلية حتى لا تقترن بالجهل، و أن يعلموا أن الإسلام أعز من أن يهينوه بتصور المصادمة مع العصر، و أن الوطن أعز من أن يهدموا وحدته بدعاوى التعصب، و أن المستقبل يصنعه القلم لا السواك، و العمل لا الاعتزال، و العقل لا الدروشة، و المنطق لا الرصاص، و الأهم من ذلك كله أن يدركوا حقيقة غائبة عنهم، و هي أنهم ليسوا وحدهم..جماعة المسلمين”
― فرج فودة, الحقيقة الغائبة

“In times of war, you often hear leaders—Christian, Jewish, and Muslim—saying, ‘God is on our side.’ But that isn’t true. In war, God is on the side of refugees, widows, and orphans.”
― Greg Mortenson, Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace ... One School at a Time

“It is morally as bad not to care whether a thing is true or not, so long as it makes you feel good, as it is not to care how you got your money as long as you have got it.”
― Edwin Way Teale, Circle of the Seasons: The Journal of a Naturalist's Year