Saving Energy through Modifying National Behaviour by Suleman Ahmer

Excellent advice by Mr Suleman Ahmer, CEO, Timelenders. I so wish we paid heed!

By Suleman Ahmer, 24 January 2010

Addressing the energy crisis of Pakistan through modifying the national behavior

Pakistan is facing a severe energy crisis the negative impact of which is being felt at all levels of the society whether it is economic, social or unfortunately on the level of the national integrity by contributing to the elements that fuel terrorism like unemployment and severe financial deprivation.

The government has embarked on an awareness campaign which I believe will have only limited success as it hinges a lot on legal enforcement like clamping down on late marriage events in Karachi to forcing businesses to shut down by 8:00 pm. The issue of legal enforcement in Pakistan is marred by the presence of massive corruption in our legal and enforcement frameworks and the high ingenuity of Pakistanis to find creative ways to go around laws which they believe are hurdles.

The alternative to this would be to intelligently and creatively fall back on the rich Islamic heritage that we have by calling upon two elements:

• The concept of avoiding waste in Islam (Israf)
• The concept of getting up early and sleeping early in Islam

I would not dwell upon the first element as it is self evident.

For the second element, there is a serious lack of awareness amongst the Muslims regarding the Islamic injunctions of starting our day early. For example please note the following authentic hadith:

"The barakah of my Ummah is in the early time (of the day)"

O Allah, give Barakah to my Ummah in the early time (of the day)â€

The morning sleep (sleeping after Fajr—morning prayer) stops rizk (sustenance)â€

Adding to this, there are medical facts that point towards how sleeping in the morning is detrimental to our physical and mental health.

If we can get the nation to stop sleeping after Fajr we shall have a phenomenal impact on the consumption of energy.

The workday, in the light of the above, would then look like this:

1. 6:30 am to 1:30 pm (work)

2. No lunch break rather people go home to eat. This will have a positive impact on our national health and save energy that goes into feeding millions when they can have food at home which is being cooked anyway for the rest of the family members. After 1:30 pm, we would not need energy for offices leaving the evening open for our industries.

3. After lunch people would have their mid afternoon nap (Qailoola as it is called in Islam which was a continuousSunnah of our Prophet (sas)). This has tremendous health benefits, reduces stress, and regulates high levels of adrenaline and cortisol in our bodies which are known to trigger cardio-vascular diseases.

4. The evenings will be spent with children and other healthy activities.

5. People will be able to go to markets earlier and our markets will be able to shut down earlier.

6. When the day will start so early, it would just would not be possible to stay awake beyond 10:00 pm, reducing the heavy load on energy.

We have developed a 5 hour workshop on these ideas where we talk about the Islamic and health aspects of sleep. It is called the Sleep Management workshop. Thousands of people have adopted the above stated lifestyle and there a number of businesses in Pakistan which have adopted the timings of working between Fajr and Zuhr (morning and afternoon prayers). A member of the National Assembly, Mr. Baligh-ur-Rahman from Bahawalpur, has attended our workshop and can be approached for recommendation.

Action Item

1. Take key policy makers through this short workshop. Timelenders will provide this service gratis.
2. Hire a reputed international PR firm to design a nation wide campaign where religious scholars and the avenue of the Friday prayers are also included.

SOURCE