Shah Faisal on Civil Services : "Make it a mission and never take it as a job"

All India topper at UPSC civil services exam Dr Shah Faisal said that the Muslims in India should not worry about what others say of them. Instead, they should work on their own for the upliftment of the community.

 

"There is no reason to get upset if someone doubts your Indianness because you are a Muslim. There is no need for a certificate from anybody that you are an Indian", Faisal, who hails from Kashmir, said at a felicitation function held at Anujman Islam in Mumbai last night.

 

The function was organized by the Federation of Minorities and supported by host of other Muslim NGOs. Faisal, who did his MBBS from Srinagars Sher-i-Kashmir Medical College is the first Kashmiri to top this examination. "Practise any religion in your home or society but outside, do not ever forget that you are an Indian and learn to respect people from other religions," he added.

 

He also reiterated his appeal to Muslim students to chose Civil Services as mission. "Muslim candidates should opt for civil services not as a job but as a mission",

 

Encouraging the gathering to accept the challenges, he said that Muslims instead of waiting for anyone, should work for their empowerment themselves. "No one will come to help you. It is you who need to stand up for the upliftment of the community", Faisal said. "In pursuit of your goal, you will find people who will trouble you because you belong to a particular religion, caste, region but if you have the capability, then nobody can stop you from overcoming these hurdles and reach your goal", Faisal added.

 

He attributed his success to the provision of equality for all enshrined in the Indian constitution. "Indian constitution provides for giving equal rights to everyone irrespective of caste, religion, region and my success in the UPSC exam is a result of that,"

Stating that there was no better country than India, Faisal said, "We create controversies over pity things like caste, religion, region and language."     

From a report in Ummid.com More Here

"Nothing can match the post of a district collector", says M Abubacker Siddique

"I've broken the jinx" exulted Shah Faesal. One of the main reasons for this jinx is that Muslims do not appear in sufficient numbers for these examinations. Explaining why, Dr Syed Hamid says: “Apart from the small middle class, most other Muslims live in bastis where the din and dust would never let a student study in equanimity. Segregation has become so acute that I don’t see things changing very soon.”

But not everyone believes there is reason to despair. M. Abubacker Siddique, for one, is a delighted man today. Back in 1994, this HSC alumnus achieved the brilliant feat of securing the 2nd rank in the UPSC examinations, setting a record that has only now been broken by Faesal. The IAS officer, who is now the private secretary to Union home minister P. Chidambaram, says, “Finally someone has broken the record!” Giving a glimpse of the strong bonds that exist between the institute and its alumni, he says, “I still go back to HSC, and I was on a mock board that interviewed Shah Faesal. Faesal and I, we are the absolute evidence to show that the system is fair.”

As Siddique sees it, low recruitment of Muslims into the civil services is a matter of perception: “Any community needs to know that there is a good chance of getting through and doing well. Once you can see that happen, your numbers will start rising.” Creating more Siddiques and Faesals is clearly vital to changing perceptions, and in order to do so, Siddique says, HSC needs to widen the pool. He says that it should actually move away from the rigorous process of putting applicants through tests and introduce a canvassing system to find bright students and motivate them into giving the UPSC exams a shot. In order to do so, Siddique believes, what needs to be stressed is not the power echelons of New Delhi, but the power they will have to change things at the grassroots. “As an IAS officer, no post can give you more satisfaction than that of a district collector. You get to see things as they happen, and you get to intervene. Nothing can match that.”

From an article by Shreevatsa Nivetia on Hamdard Study Circle in Outlook. More than 165 Muslims have made it to Civil services through Hamdard Study Circle.

To Read More click here.
Read the success story of Shah Faisal and Mariam Farzhana Sadiq here and here

The breathtaking contrast between Shah Faisal and Faisal Shahzad

It's the stuff legends are made of. Two men, born and raised thousands of miles apart in worlds that couldn't have been more different yet connected by a common, unseen bound.

The stories of Faisal Shahzad and Shah Faisal remind me of Jeffrey Archer’s fantastic novel, Kane and Abel. The Pakistani American and Indian Kashmiri doctor are both young and share a name that is one of the most popular in the Muslim world. Faisal literally means someone who speaks or upholds the truth.

Faisal One, the Pakistani American who refreshed and brought home the horror of the 9/11 last week for Americans with the Times Square bombing plot, ostensibly got the best of everything that the great American dream could offer.

Yet something went wrong somewhere and he snapped. His innocent, likable cherubic face with an infectious smile that stares out of television screens and newspaper front pages doesn’t quite fit the profile of a killer or a terrorist who could bomb a square full of people.

Apparently, in these extraordinary times being an Arab or Muslim is in itself a crime, especially when you also sport a beard and are found within the striking distance of a plane or other equally dangerous flying objects. But if Faisal Shahzad is indeed guilty of the crime he’s being accused of, it would come as no surprise to anyone, including his folks back home in Pakistan — or Muslims around the world.

If this is a war against the US and its Western allies for their blind and unquestioning support and mollycoddling of Israel, as we all understand it to be, it has yet to make the West revise or amend its wretched policies.  In fact, every attack, successful or not, makes Americans and rest of the world even more hostile toward Muslims everywhere and strengthens their enemies.

Faisal Two or Dr. Faisal, named after the ascetic Saudi king much loved for his vision and courage, is an incredible success story in a country where Muslims find themselves increasingly marginalized politically and economically.

Faisal Two stood first in perhaps the toughest and most grueling aptitude test on the planet, beating impossible odds and millions of competing candidates from across the billion plus country. Faisal not just comes from a religious minority, he grew up in a state that has been at the heart of the bitter India-Pakistan conflict. He didn’t go to any fancy convent or “English-medium school” and was educated along with other siblings by his mother after she lost her teacher husband early to an unknown assassin’s bullet.

The breathtaking contrast between Dr. Faisal and Faisal Shahzad, his Pakistani American namesake, amazes me no end.  They are in the same age group and are Muslim. Yet the trajectories they have charted for themselves are as poles apart as Kane and Abel could have been.

I am sure men like Faisal Shahzad when they decide to take the plunge are driven by anger and a misplaced sense of sacrifice. But with their Ivy League education and talent, they could have done more for their people, making an invaluable difference if only they had positively articulated their anger and concern.

If Muslims are keen to take on the world and confront the injustices heaped on them all these years, violence is not the way to do it. Sowing peace, not chaos, is the mantra. Construction, not destruction, is the way forward. Honesty, hard work and excellence, and not violence and strife, are the way forward.
If we wish to find our way and our lost place in the world, we can do so only by following the path of Shah Faisal, and not Faisal Shahzad.

From Aijaz Zaka Syed's article in Arab News

To read the full article click here.

Shah Faisal : "Iam humbled. I had faith in hard work and Allah's grace"

Shah Faisal, 27, says he owes his success to his well-knit middle class family from Kupwara — his 47-year-old mother Mubeenaji, a younger brother and a young sister — and to divine blessings.
Talking to IANS on telephone from New Delhi, Faisal said: "I am humbled. I had faith in my hard work, Allah's grace and the blessings of my family.
"My mother, brother and sister equally share the honour as they supported me like a rock when I decided to sit for the most coveted exams in the country."
Faisal cleared the examination in his very first attempt. "I am very happy and want to serve the people of the country. I want to set an example by providing corruption-free administration to the people."
As a doctor he says he is in a noble profession. "But my people need me as a civil servant. I want to be a role model for Kashmiri youth."
His mother is overjoyed. "I cannot fully express my joy though I knew Faisal had the capability to do it. It is entirely Allah's grace," said Mubeenaji.
Do you think this is a turning point for the troubled Jammu and Kashmir? Will Faesal be successful in becoming a role model for others? 

From IANS report Kashmiri doctor who tops IAS exam wants to be role model

in Gulf News

To read the full report click here.

'Shah Faesal is a role model for Muslim youth', says Dr Syed Hamid

 Shah Faisal with Dr Syed Hamid

This is the first time our student has topped in civil services examination. We are certainly and legitimately proud of that. We were working toward this end and ultimately we have achieved what we have been working for. Earlier the highest position the Hamdard Study Circle got was the second position in civil services – that was our student Abu Baker Siddique from South (Tamil Nadu).

We are also proud of the fact that this has happened in respect of a candidate from Jammu and Kashmir where condition has not been favorable for serious study and yet the young man has proved that despite of all the difficulties in the way one can be successful and eminently successful. Shah Faesal is a role model for the youth all over, particularly the youth in Jammu and Kashmir.

Of 875 successful candidates this year there are only 21 Muslims. How can Muslims presence be increased in civil services?

You have raised a very important point which has been worrying us for quite some time. The present proportion is not satisfactory because Muslims are 13.4% of India’s population and a community of this strength should have got much more than we have actually got.

I was a member of the Sachar Committee which visited most of the states. Wherever we went and wherever we asked authorities as to why the number of Muslims in services is very insignificant, invariably they answered that they get success according to the numbers in which they appear for competitions.

So the major difficulty now is that not enough Muslim candidates are appearing for civil services examination and other examinations. Our major effort should to increase our catchment area, to persuade young men to appear for competitions for various posts, not only civil services. There are so many posts for which they can appear.

It should be our endeavor and endeavor of everybody interested in the welfare of the community to persuade them to appear in large number. If they work hard then nobody would be able to prevent their success. What has happened today would be an encouragement for many of our youth. It is not just Shah Faesal has succeeded. He has become an inspiration for Muslim youth and youth of weaker sections.

As a legendry educationist in India what’s your message to the Muslim community?

My message to the Muslim community is: Be sure that if you work hard then you will be rewarded. It is not that you will be discriminated all the time. There are sometimes cases of discrimination but despite of those cases we must move forward. I am sure if we become a little more serious and make a greater effect we will succeed. I am always sure that by Allah’s grace in the next 10 years there would be a very substantial change in our condition.

From an exclusive interview given to senior journalist Mumtaz Alam Falahi for Two circles.net

To read the full text of the interview click here

"I have broken the jinx!", exults Shah Faisal

 Dr Shah Faisal

“There was nothing in my background that would make anybody think I can achieve this,” a jubilant Faisal, who had been hoping to be among the top 50, said today. “But I did it. So can thousands of other students with similar difficult backgrounds.”

“It is not only my own success,” he adds. “I feel I have broken the jinx that Kashmiri students cannot reach the top. I am the first from J&K to top this examination and I am sure my story will become a model for our students who fear to dream big. I am an orphan with a scarred childhood. There was a tragedy in my family, my father was killed. I was raised by my mother who is a schoolteacher. I belong to a far-flung village in Lolab and I studied in a government school.” Faisal says he was motivated by the idea of “doing more than what forms success in Kashmir”. The civil services examination is not something Kashmiri students generally opt for. “So I thought to make an attempt...” 

What the family had no doubts about was Faisal’s determination to become an IAS officer and to do something for the state. “He always wanted to do something big. Even after qualifying for MBBS, he didn’t seem satisfied. It was his passion to qualify for the civil services exam. He would store photographs of Kashmiri IAS officers in his cellphone,” Mubeena says. 

From Muzammil Jameel's inspiring write-up in Indian Express

To read the full article click here.

 Shah Faisal with Syed Hamid Photo courtesy: Two circles.net

According to Zahid Muhammad, Faesal was among one of very few Kashmiris who made it to the Indian civil services.

“There may have been hardly three or four Kashmiris to join the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) in the last couple of decades. The last Kashmiri success in the civil services examinations was in 1984-1985. Faesal’s success is coming after a gap of almost 25 years,” he noted.

Hamid now is secretary of the New Delhi-based Hamdard Education Society, which runs the Hamdard Study Circle. It was there that Faesal received his coaching. Hamid was absolutely thrilled by his student’s success.
“The Hamdard Study Circle has been in operation since 1991, and we have had many successes in the past. More than 220 students have qualified from our institute. The best result was when one of our students secured fourth place at the All-India level,” he said.

From  Siraj Wahab's piece in Arab News

To read the full story click here

Read Shah Faisal became the first Muslim to stand first in the civil Services Main Examinations

Read the report in Two circles.net and listen to Dr Shah Faisal here