   ISLAMIC
ARCHIVAL WORK 

DR UMAR AZAM BA
PHD DCL DIP.FJ DIP.IM
 MANCHESTER
UK 
MARCH
2003
A.
DEFINITION
'Islamic
Archival Work' may be defined as 'a collection of personal papers
[original work, letters written, letters received etc.] systematically
filed and preserved so as to form a personal Archive of potential
benefit to posterity'. This Archive would consist entirely of
'Islamic' ['relevant directly to concepts of the religion of Islam']
documents: anything not relevant to the religion would not form a part
of such an archive.
__________________________________________________________
B.
AIM
I
built up my own personal Archive from 1984-2003 [1]
and I would like to reveal my 'secrets'. [2]
Why should any ordinary person have an archive?
It will:
a]
encourage the creation of original knowledge
b]
encourage the distribution of this knowledge [3]
c]
original knowledge will boost the quality of library stock
d]
this knowledge will be helpful to young Muslims [4]
as well as teachers/academic staff in schools, colleges and
Universities
e]
your Archive will be a significant personal success: an achievement of
which you did not think you were capable
f]
you would be able to use your Archive to write your autobiography
g]
you would be able to use your Archive for publishing letters: selected
and interesting specimens of your correspondence
h]
you would be able to display your original work and related documents on
the Internet for browsers worldwide to use.
[1]
THE DR UMAR AZAM ARCHIVE is still ongoing.
[2]
According to the terms of
our religion, I must do this. The Prophet Muhammed [PBUM]
has said: 'None of you can truly be a believer unless he wishes for his
brother what he wishes for himself'. [MUSLIM] Also, the Prophet [PBUM]
said said: 'When a person dies, the benefit of everything worldly finishes,
except for two things: charity, for which the reward is ongoing, and
pious children who pray for him.' [MUSLIM] Now if a person
produces important Islamic work from which others derive benefit, this
falls under the category of [religious] charity. So a personal
Islamic Archive, whose documents are the product of such work, and an
archive, too, which itself has the potential to be educationally
valuable to posterity would be a definite means of religious
and educational charity to others. If the readers of this paper can
gain the know-how and inspiration to form their own [valuable] archives,
they will get their reward from Allah Most High and so, too, will I -
for revealing my specialist knowledge!
[3]
This paper contains
information (addresses etc.) relevant to the United Kingdom. Please
check the directory of your specific country for such addresses.
However, the methods and strategies outlined herein are obviously
applicable to the building of a Personal Islamic Archive in any
country of the world.
[4]
The population of
the younger generation of Muslims in the UK is, Masha'Allah, growing
every year, so effective Islamic work will teach them knowledge of our
religion. There is a need for this kind of work: Later
generations of Muslims who don't know much about their religion could
drift away from Islam and then their destination will be Hell. We
have a huge responsibility to leave for them something of Eternal
importance. There is a similar need for Islamic knowledge
(especially now that the politics of Islamic countries and factions
is so much in the news nowadays) in schools, colleges and Universities - for
the information of RE staff, academic lecturers and (for
research purposes) Professors. This specialist knowledge is also
in demand from the media: television and radio, newspapers and magazines
etc. Also, thousands of non-Muslims convert or 'revert' to
Islam every year in the UK. Islamic work -especially the
production of valuable, original Islamic publications written in a
clear, easy-to-understand style, and then distributed or published on
the Internet- will help them too.
_________________________________________________________
C.
METHOD
In
order to impress the reader with the Islamic effectiveness of working
toward a Personal Archive, I'm first going to present my own results
and then, in the second section, I'll explain the methods my
readers can use to try to do the same for themselves. If you
follow my methods to the letter, you -as an individual- could become as
effective and efficient as an entire organisation (which doesn't get
much done!). These methods, as far as I know, are original.
However, it may be the case that similar stategies are carried
out by individuals, organisations and institutions all over the
world! Although the primary purpose is to encourage the creation
of Islamic archives, this paper will also hopefully benefit non-muslim
readers to build a personal Archive on any subject.
Muslim organisations will have tremendously comprehensive archives if
they preserve the three main ingredients: orinal work, outgoing letters
and incoming letters; for the larger organisations, the number of such
documents may well run into hundreds of thousands of
documents. I would suggest that all organisations keep copies of
their Archives in boxes in some kind of room resembling a library, or a
Library itself, so that their visitors have the opportunity to consult
such documents and perhaps find source material for research,
original work etc.
_______________________________________________________
D.
SECTION 1. RESULTS OF DR UMAR AZAM'S ISLAMIC ARCHIVAL WORK 1984-2003*
RESULTS
OF NUMBER OF LETTERS RECEIVED
________________________________________________
 RESULTS
BY YEAR
1984...................................................................... 23[a]
1985.........................................................................56[a]
1986........................................................................228[b]
1987........................................................................115[b]
1988..........................................................................44[c]
1989..........................................................................98[c]
1990.........................................................................178[d]
1991.........................................................................
89[e]
1992..........................................................................
52[f]
1993..........................................................................236[g]
1994..........................................................................159[g]
1995........................................................................... 56[h]
1996.............................................................................36[h]
1997............................................................................269[i]
1998............................................................................341[i]
1999...........................................................................
216[i]
2000...........................................................................
307[j]
2001...........................................................................
739[k]
2002............................................................................910[k]
2003
..........Jan/Feb/Mar....................131[l]
Notes
[a]
My documents begin with the year 1984; inexperienced for the
first two years; distributing mainly THE BRITISH MUSLIMS
[b]
Distributing THE BRITISH MUSLIMS, PRAYERS IN ISLAM, SELECTED VERSES
FROM THE QURAN
[c]
Low figures due to pressures of beginning of an arranged
marriage
[d]
Distributing RUSHDIE'S SATANIC VERSES: AN ISLAMIC RESPONSE
[e]
Pressures of end of arranged marriage
[f]
Lack of funds because substantial funds already being expended
on publication of 'DREAMS IN ISLAM'.
[g]
Writing to libraries and bookshops to sell published copies of
DREAMS IN ISLAM; donating copies of this title.
[h]
Ill Health
[i]
Distributing THE PHILOSOPHY OF ISLAM; receiving comments on my
appearances on radio stations [BBC Radio Lancashire, GMR, Derby];
writing to leading foodstuffs manufacturers [British Bakeries, Nestle,
Walkers etc.] regarding vegetarian ingredients in products; writing
political letters to British and US Governments, and British newspapers.
[j]
Relatively high figure because of replies from poetry magazines
to whom poems were submitted for publication/assessment, and from THE
INTERNATIONAL LIBRARY OF POETRY
[k]
With INTERNET facility; guestbook entries and e-mail messages
[l]
Relatively low figure because of production of new works: DREAMS OF
REWARD IN PARADISE, ROMANTIC DREAMS, DREAMS OF STRENGTH AND POWER, A
LETTER TO NON-MUSLIMS
_______________________________________________________
RESULTS
BY MONTH    
Each
figure is the total number of letters received for that month
in that year
___________________________________________________
YEAR
1 * 1984 * 1405
MAY
3 JUN 3 JUL 2
AUG 0 SEP 3 OCT 0
NOV 10 DEC 2
TOTAL
23 CUMULATIVE TOTAL 23
AV/YR 23.0
__________________________________________________
YEAR
2 * 1985 * 1406
JAN
6 FEB 2 MAR 3
APR 0 MAY 1 JUN 0
JUL 5 AUG 15 SEP 11
OCT 11 NOV 2 DEC 0
TOTAL
56 CUMULATIVE TOTAL 79 AV/YR
39.5
______________________________________________________
YEAR
3 * 1986 * 1407
JAN
6 FEB 13 MAR 5
APR 18 MAY 47 JUN 39
JUL 23 AUG 13 SEP 20
OCT 22 NOV 13 DEC 9
TOTAL
228 CUMULATIVE TOTAL 307 AV./YR 102.3
______________________________________________________
YEAR
4 * 1987 * 1408
JAN
11 FEB 16 MAR 24
APR 17 MAY 12 JUN 7
JUL 9 AUG 3 SEP 3
OCT 9 NOV 3
DEC 1
TOTAL
115 CUMULATIVE TOTAL 422 AV./YR
105.5
_______________________________________________________
YEAR
5 * 1988 * 1409
JAN 8
FEB 4 MAR 4 APR 7
MAY 5 JUN 1 JUL 4
AUG 2 SEP 0 OCT 5
NOV 2 DEC 2
TOTAL
44 CUMULATIVE TOTAL 466
AV./YR
93.2
______________________________________________________
YEAR
6 * 1989 * 1410
JAN 3
FEB 8 MAR 9 APR 6
MAY 16 JUN 10 JUL 7
AUG 3 SEP 11 OCT 16
NOV 5 DEC 4
TOTAL 98
CUMULATIVE TOTAL 564 AV./YR 94.0
_______________________________________________________
YEAR
7 * 1990 * 1411
JAN
8 FEB 6 MAR 13
APR 18 MAY 40 JUN 21
JUL 11 AUG 6 SEP 12
OCT 12 NOV 19 DEC 21
TOTAL
178 CUMULATIVE TOTAL 742 AV./YR 106.0
_______________________________________________________
YEAR
8 * 1991 * 1412
JAN
7 FEB 7 MAR 17
APR 4 MAY 17 JUN 9
JUL 2 AUG 8 SEP 5
OCT 2 NOV 3 DEC 8
TOTAL
89 CUMULATIVE TOTAL 831 AV./YR 103.9
_____________________________________________________
YEAR
9 * 1992 * 1413
JAN
5 FEB 3 MAR 4
APR 5 MAY 6 JUN 5
JUL 5 AUG 1 SEP 3
OCT 2 NOV 5 DEC 8
TOTAL
52 CUMULATIVE TOTAL 883 AV./YR 98.1
______________________________________________________
YEAR
10 * 1993 * 1414
JAN 21
FEB 12 MAR 21 APR 18
MAY 23 JUN 21 JUL 20
AUG 12 SEP 18
OCT 11 NOV 28 DEC 30
TOTAL 236
CUMULATIVE TOTAL 1119 AV./YR 111.9
________________________________________________________
YEAR
11 * 1994 * 1415
JAN
28 FEB 16 MAR 9
APR 12 MAY 7 JUN 11
JUL 24 AUG 18 SEP 18
OCT 6 NOV 7 DEC 3
TOTAL
159 CUMULATIVE TOTAL 1278 AV./YR 116.2
_____________________________________________________
YEAR
12 * 1995 * 1416
JAN
7 FEB 4 MAR 8
APR 6 MAY 31 JUN ?
JUL ? AUG ? SEP ?
OCT ? NOV ? DEC ?
TOTAL
56 CUMULATIVE TOTAL 1337 AV./YR 112.2
_______________________________________________________
YEAR
13 * 1996 * 1417
JAN
? FEB ? MAR ?
APR ? MAY ? JUN ?
JUL ? AUG ? SEP ?
OCT ? NOV 18 DEC 36
TOTAL 36
CUMULATIVE TOTAL 1370 AV./YR 105.4
_____________________________________________________
YEAR
14 * 1997 * 1418
JAN
31 FEB 17 MA R 23
APR 15 MAY 22 JUN 16
JUL 19 AUG 17 SEP 18
OCT 28 NOV 32 DEC 31
TOTAL
269 CUMULATIVE TOTAL 1639 AV./YR 117.1
______________________________________________________
YEAR
15* 1998 * 1419
JAN 34
FEB 39 MAR 33 APR 24
MAY 27 JUN 31 JUL 41
AUG 28 SEP 21 OCT 21
NOV 27 DEC 15
TOTAL 341
CUMULATIVE TOTAL 1980 AV./YR 132.O
________________________________________________________
YEAR
16 * 1999 * 1420
JAN 16
FEB 26 MAR 10 APR 19
MAY 14 JUN 12 JUL 22
AUG 14 SEP 17 OCT 15
NOV 23 DEC 26
TOTAL 216
CUMULATIVE TOTAL 2196AV./YR 137.3
________________________________________________________________
YEAR
17 * 2000 * 1421
JAN
16 FEB 29 MAR 17
APR 14 MAY 27 JUN ?
JUL ? AUG ? SEP ?
OCT ? NOV ? DEC 32
TOTAL 307
CUMULATIVE TOTAL 2503 AV/YR 147.2
_______________________________________________
YEAR
18* 2001 * 1422
JAN 19
FEB 23 MAR 35 APR 31
MAY 70 JUN 43 JUL 72
AUG 85 SEP 106 OCT 81
NOV 104 DEC 69
TOTAL
739 CUMULATIVE TOTAL 3242
AV/YR 180.1
________________________________________________
YEAR
19 * 2002 * 1423
JAN
75 FEB 51 MAR 39
APR 62 MAY 59 JUN 65
JUL 150 AUG 116 SEP 87
OCT 34 NOV 86 DEC 86
TOTAL
910 CUMULATIVE TOTAL 4152
AV./YR 218.5
_________________________________________________
YEAR
20 * 2003 * 1424
JAN
48 FEB 37 MAR 43
***************
The Dr
Umar Azam Archive
LATEST STATISTICS (as of 30 March 2003)
Letters written:
2 2 5 8 *
Letters
received: 4 2 6 9
No. of original
works on Islam: 1 2
* I made the
mistake of not filing letters I had written myself in the period 1984-
c.1997, until a holy dream advised me to do so! I had always
considered receiving a letter to be more important than writing one -
since to receive one can't be guaranteed in the same way as to write
one!
______________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
My records
are based mainly on my following Islamic writings:PRAYERS
IN ISLAM (1983-4) SELECTED VERSES FROM THE HOLY QURAN
(1984) THE BRITISH MUSLIMS (1984) DREAMS IN ISLAM
(TYPESCRIPT, 1986) RUSHDIE'S SATANIC VERSES: AN ISLAMIC
RESPONSE (1990)DREAMS IN ISLAM (DORRANCE, PENNSYLVANIA,
1992) PRACTICAL ISLAMIC ADVICE (1995), VISION OF
PARADISE [by ZAHEER AZAM] (SIRAJUDDIN & SONS, LAHORE, 1997), IN
AWE OF GOD: A COLLECTION OF ISLAMIC POETRY (2000), DREAMS OF
REWARD IN PARADISE (2003), ROMANTIC DREAMS (2003),
DREAMS OF STRENGTH & POWER (2003), A LETTER
TO NON-MUSLIMS (2003) and Comments/Correspondence re: THE DR UMAR
AZAM WEBSITE (http://www.dr-umar-azam.com).
I have also written letters on political themes to the British
Government and newspapers in Britain and various other
correspondence e.g. to libraries, periodicals and Universities
worldwide.
_______________________________________________________________________
E.
SECTION 2. METHODS OF ISLAMIC ARCHIVAL WORK
I.
RESOURCES/EQUIPMENT
The
following is a list of the various materials and equipment that I have
found indispensable over the years: lever arch files; cardboard
document wallets; a ream [500 sheets] of plain white paper; stapler and
staples; hole punch; paper clips; clipboard; Parker,
Schaeffer ballpoint and fountain pens;
Osmiroid, Lamy fountain pens; bulldog clips,
presentation files etc. etc.
This
is only a small sample of the diverse stationery equipment I have used
over the years. The point is that you should not be afraid to
spend money on stationery and facilities [e.g. investing in a computer,
printer, subscribing to Internet firms etc.] because, obviously, your
work will be the more effective the better equipped you are [if worthwhile
use is made of such equipment and facilities].
_______________________________________________________________________
II. INDIVIDUAL OR COLLECTIVE WORK?
Once
you have produced your work, it is essential to work individually and be
secretive if necessary: you don't want to get demoralised in the early
stages! When I first began my organised Islamic work in 1983, I
made the mistake of telling people that I was trying to write a book on
Islam. Even friends became resentful, and I wondered if they
were trying to block my success. Others were outwardly jealous and
I remember one fellow Muslim urging me to 'burn it [your work],
brother!' Also, try not to join Islamic groups/associations for
meetings etc. to help your Islamic work. As well as the
jealousy problem mentioned above, people are unreliable: meeting
are cancelled, members turn up near the finish times, nothing gets done.
Certain ideas and plans for action are adored by some members, but
abhorred by others. You may be working at something which you
might consider is not as important as another, more valuable task.
Who makes the final decisions? Who gets the credit? Who
gets the blame? What is the 'pecking order'? Or is everyone
truly equal? If you work as an individual, there is absolutely no
barrier to your progress, achievement and advancement.
____________________________________________________
III.
PRODUCTION
Although
it is acceptable to distribute other people's work and
then build your Archive, I would say that for the Archive to be truly
your own, the letters should mostly be relating to your own
work. So it follows that you must try to produce valuable
written work in the first place; for it to be valuable, it must be
original, not copied from work which already exists. Look
for gaps in subject areas: for example, I have been writing research
papers on 'dreams'; Islamic psychology is a rare field,
unlike, for example, general themes in the history of Islam.
You could write an essay, a collection of religious poetry, a book, an
Islamic-religious research paper, a journalistic article or
compile a significant collection of meaningful and educational or
letters serving the purpose of an Islamic political campaign.* Because
you are working independently and producing your own work, if you
do not feel that such work is technically accurate [and the religion of
Islam is too valuable to spread misinformation] or lack the
experience of 'professional' [as opposed to academic writing i.e. at
school, college or University], THEN HAVE THE WORK CHECKED by a few
Islamic organisations, by academic staff of colleges and Universities
[if you know any] or, in the last resort by myself ([email protected],
[email protected])
You should always obtain the opinion of more than one source because one
negative and malicious comment will be unfairly spiteful and may have
the effect of making you throw away valuable work! When I was
distributing PRACTICAL ISLAMIC ADVICE, a few of my readers were jealous
of my independence and wrote cheeky comments such as, "Have you had
this work checked?" As well as being an Honours Graduate from
a leading University, I had done wide background reading of my subject
and was, in fact, a published author and an authority on my particular
speciality [(holy) dreams in Islam]. I therefore felt that such
'comments' were rather impertinent! Once your work is given
approval by the majority of those organisations whose advice
you sought, and after making the necessary recommended alterations and
adjustments, you will be feeling confident that libraries and other
recipients of your work will be receiving something of worth.
Moreover, the corresponence you send out and receive in return whilst
arranging for your work to be checked and approved will add extra documents
to your Archive.
*
See my Website (www.dr-umar-azam.com) for
examples: e.g. 'book' = 'DREAMS IN ISLAM'; essay = 'RUSHDIE'S
SATANIC VERSES: AN ISLAMIC RESPONSE'; collection of meaninful
letters = 'POLITICAL DOCUMENTS'; journalistic article = 'THE PHILOSOPHY
OF ISLAM'; poetry = 'IN AWE OF GOD: A COLLECTION OF ISLAMIC POETRY'; Islamic-religious
research paper = DREAMS OF REWARD IN PARADISE.
______________________________________________________
Working
on the Internet
I
will assume that you have your own Web Site and more than one
e-mail addresses.
Log
onto your e-mail addresses [e.g. 'Yahoo'] and click 'COMPOSE'.
Type out your work for that day. Save it and label it: 'HARAM
INGREDIENTS IN CONFECTIONERY C1', for example. C1 means, 'Copy No.
1' : that is to say, the first draft. 'SAVE'
this draft. 'SEND'
this draft to a different e-mail address of your own e.g.
'Hotmail'. The latter two steps will prevent accidental deletion
of your hard work. If you accidentally press a wrong button and
your work disappears from the screen, click the 'REFRESH'
icon.
The
next time you COMPOSE a
stage of your work, call the draft, 'HARAM INGREDIENTS IN CONFECTIONERY
C2'. SAVE this
draft and SEND to your
other e-mail address, then DELETE
the SAVED C1 and the SENT C1. Repeat these steps every
time you do a stage of your work.
After
you have completed your work and added it onto your Website, join YAHOOGROUPS
[ category: RELIGION subcategory:
ISLAM] so that you can e-mail details
of your Website and the actual work [a very important additional advantage
of having prepared your work in e-mail format in the first place!] to
hundreds and thousands of potential readers simultaneously. MSN
COMMUNITIES may also be useful.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
IV.
PRESERVATION
Once
you have produced your work, treat it like gold! You don't want to
lose it. Keep all the rough drafts, photocopy the master
copy, store a copy in the hard drive of a computer and another copy on
a floppy disc. Then it will be impossible to lose!
________________________________________________________
V.
DISTRIBUTION
Next,
send a copy to each of the following copyright libraries: THE
BODLEIAN LIBRARY, OXFORD; CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY, THE NATIONAL
LIBRARY OF SCOTLAND; THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF WALES; THE LIBRARY OF
TRINITY COLLEGE, DUBLIN. Also send a copy to THE BRITISH LIBRARY
in London and another one to THE BRITISH LIBRARY DOCUMENT SUPPLY
CENTRE, Wetherby, Yorkshire. If your work can be used by
newspapers, or is useful for newspapers' information -for example, a
paper on the Palestinian problems- then do send it to newspapers and
relevant magazines e.g. THE ECONOMIST. [+] If your work is only
a few sheets of paper, you need to bind it firmly to make it suitable
for library use. [*]
1.
Look for addresses of UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES in SAUR'S
DIRECTORY OF WORLD LIBRARIES
[This
specialist book would be available at any University or public Central
library, or through inter-library loans].
2.
Look for addresses of PUBLIC LIBRARIES in SAUR'S
DIRECTORY OF WORLD LIBRARIES.
3.
Look for the addresses of Islamic
organisations/associations/charities/Mosques in the MUSLIM DIRECTORY [a
link has been provided in the 'LINKS' section of this website].
_________________________________________________________
Letters
Here
is an example of an outgoing letter you can write:
Dear Librarian,
I have pleasure in sending you a copy of my research
......................... for addition to library stock.
Yours sincerely,
................... [Signed]
____________________Name and any qualifications e.g. B.A. (Hons.)
This
letter should be addressed to 'The Acquisitions Librarian'. You
should then, within two weeks get a reply like this:
Dear
..................
Thank you very much for sending us a copy of your research
.........................
It will be added to stock in due course but for now I wish to convey our
appreciation of your thinking of us.
Yours sincerely,
............................. [Signed]
________________________
[Name]
______________________
[Position]
If
there is no response to the work you sent out within two weeks,
write a polite letter reminding the librarian concerned that you are
still awaiting a response:
Dear Librarian,
I would like to enquire whether you have received a copy of my research
.........................which I posted to you on .........................
Please acknowledge receipt of the work, confirming that it will be added
to stock.
Yours sincerely,
.......................... [Signed]
.......................................[Name
and Qualifications]
You
will then either get an acknowledgement, or your work back with a letter
regretting that it cannot be added to stock for some reason or other.
Don't get offended: even the letter rejecting your work is a letter and,
so, a result: if you had done no work at all, then you wouldn't
even have got this negative letter. Don't tear up the letter; file
it in your Archive. When you are successful in the long run, such
temporary setbacks will be insignificant! Overall, if your work is
useful, you will find that far more libraries will accept your
work than will reject it.
[*]
I recommend A4-size Rexel Project Files with clear face. Stationary
Box, Partners, Office World, WH Smith and all the other leading
stationers are bound to have this product, or an equivalent one, in
stock.
[+]
Aim for quality. Junk mail gets a 4% response. If your work
and letters sent out are excellent, you will get a response of
approximately 70%, which is the aggreggate figure of the response
to my letters between 1984-2002. So make sure v. high results
justify your expenditure.
_________________________________________________________
VI.
RESULTS/FEEDBACK
Don't
be shy to solicit comments on your work which you will then file in your
Archive. Soliciting, whilst asking respondents to be honest, is
just a matter of getting people to comment - people who don't realise
how important their feedback is, or who just need to be somewhat
pressurised to give an opinion, otherwise not caring less! But if
someone is wary and firmly refuses, there is no need for pressure -
you'll always find fresh respondents! Some respondents will give a
terrible comment just to be spiteful and obtrusive! Also,
I've encountered college students who are very wary of filling a form in
with their comment and then signing it. But they gave me their
comments orally! So I filled in the forms on their behalf,
labelling the forms 'ORAL COMMENT' and putting the letters 'PP' on them!
What matters is that the comment was not fabricated by me;
those were the genuine comments of the respondents, whether written or
oral.
________________________________________________________
VII.
BUILDING UP YOUR ARCHIVE
In
the early stages of your Islamic work, it is better to file
original documents in plastic pockets in lever-arch files.
Files should be as follows:
1.
'MANUSCRIPTS', containing
all your rough work and notes.
2.
'LETTERS RECEIVED',
containing all incoming correspondence. The following filing
system is recommended:
5* 23* 222* or
5/23/222
'5' denotes
the 5th letter of that month e.g. February.
'23'
denotes the 23rd letter of that particular year.
'222'
is the cumulative total of letters received since the very beginning
of your Archive.
When
you have received many letters in a week, or on a day, the asterisks may
be impractically cumbersome, so over the last two years or so, i have
started using the slashes instead.
3.
'LETTERS WRITTEN',
containing all the letters you are sending out. I use a very
simple system for outgoing letters: I just give the reference, for
example, L1757 i.e. its unique reference for its placing
in the order of outgoing letters. There is no complex filing
system here because it is far easier to find a letter which you have
written yourself than to search for a letter received in the
past.
When
you receive a letter, make a copy of it. Officially, it is
illegal to photocopy a letter without the writer's permission
[copyright], but I take the view that once the letter is sent to
you, it becomes your own property and, moreover, if the original
documents are donated as your personal Archive to a University or public
library in the future, you need to keep copies for reference. But
you are more than welcome to ask your correspondents if you can
photocopy their lettters [I suspect it may lead to unnecessary suspicion
on their part and a curious desire to inquire into your motives for
wanting to build up an archive]! File the original in the LETTERS
RECEIVED file and a copy [including copied sheets of any
accompanying leaflets, circulars etc.] in a cardboard document
wallet marked Copies of
Letters Received. Similarly, when you write a letter,
file it in the LETTERS WRITTEN
file and a copy of it in Copies
of Letters Written cardboard document wallet.
________________________________________________________
VIII.
SELF-MOTIVATION
You
need to be serious about doing Islamic work. It should
hurt if you get a bad letter, and you should feel genuinely pleased when
you succeed. You need to be consistent, working a little
every day, rather than doing a lot once in a while. Fit this
work around your employment and family commitments. You need to be
able to continue the effective work after illness, domestic
problems, external problems etc. This ability to 'bounce back' is
crucial. You need to have the strength of character to override
everything: jealousy, criticism and snubs. You should be like a
championship-winning football team that tries to defeat every team
that it plays; it may not eventually defeat every team, but it does defeat
most teams because of this initial ambition. You should make
tables, charts and graphs of statistics to know how effective your work
is. Sport is competitive. So you should draw analogies with,
for example, football and cricket scores and draw such tables, charts
and graphs for a period spanning many years (you can see my own
statistics in this paper, as above).
The
Football Analogy
Treat
each letter received like a goal! If you are receiving many
letters, you are scoring well, at or near the top of a league
table. If, however, letters are few and far between, the
converse is true: you are at, or near, the bottom of the table and in
real trouble. How can you get relegated? When you are
completely unsuccessful and receive no replies! In practise, this
would not be the case, for if you put in the hard work of writing
information and then posting letters, you must receive replies!
Even if not everyone replies, you will still receive many replies: these
will be your reward and something very productive than if you had not
made any effort at all! Make a table for each week. Each
week will be your match. Each day which passes will be a
goal conceded. So you have to score more than seven to win. In the
early years of my Islamic work [1984 and 1985], I frequently
lost, as in the hypothetical example [from 1984] below:
MON
4 MAY ..... 0
TUE
5 MAY ..... 1
WED
6 MAY ..... 2
THURS
7 MAY.....0
FRI
8 MAY .....1
SAT
9 MAY .....0
SUN
10 MAY ..... - [no post on Sunday]
There
were 6 days on which I could have received a letter. I received 4
letters that week, so Iost 4-6. Therefore the real score was 0-2,
giving the result as the final difference between the figures. If
it had been 6-6, then the score would have been 0-0.
So
you can make a table of scores over many weeks. For example, week
ending:
SAT
9 MAY 0-2 L
(4) LETTERS RECEIVED
SAT
16 MAY 0-1 L
(5)
SAT
23 MAY 0-4 L
(2)
SAT
30 MAY 0-0 D
(6)
SAT
6 JUN 1-0 W (7)
The
results will be shown as:
P
W D L
F A PTS
5
1 1 3 24
30 4
Although
your scores have not been too good, you still received twenty-four
letters, which is 24 more than someone who was not using this
footballing means of motivation and received none at all!
Incidentally,
friends have often been critical of my competitive nature but you should
not feel guilty to be doing something very worthwhile individually and
thereby beating fellow Muslims who don't strive in the same way.
In the Holy Quran, Allah Most High urges us to be competitive: 'And vie
one with another for a Garden whose width is that of the distance
between the Heavens and the Earth'.[Proof] Just keep in mind that
if people cannot keep up with you because of lack of willpower and
ability, rather than admit defeat and give you due credit, they will try
to demoralise you and haul you down to their sub-standard level!
The
Cricket Analogy
Consider
each day as a ball bowled and each week as an over completed. So
every month has four overs in it. A year consists of 52
overs. In the above example, 24 letters were received in 5 weeks,
so the run rate per over would be: 4.8, which is very good!
Perhaps the cricket analogy will be a comfort if the footballing scores
begin to demoralise you! At an approximate rate to this,
you would receive 260 letters in the whole year, which is excellent!
If you can reach the stage where the number of letters that you received
has no parallel in cricket, e.g. 8 letters reeived on a certain day,
whereas the maximum score off a bowl is 6, you will be exceeding
reasonable targets (for individual work) by far! If
you consider that the 260 runs have been scored, not by an entire team,
but all by yourself, then this is an extremely impressive individual
score! Treat each month as a wicket; when the month passes, the
wicket has fallen. Because there are 12 months in a year, you have
two months in hand, as in a cricket match 10 fallen wickets means that
the team is all out: a fact that can boost morale at times of
poor results. This luxury was a great comfort to me in those years during
which my yearly score was running low: I felt glad that there
weren't just ten months in the year, and felt glad of the extra 8
weeks. More often than not, at times of scarcity, I would
count the period to October as the fall of the eighth wicket and
then write an exceptional number of letters in November and
December to receive more correspondence and to boost the totals of these
months, as well as January of the next year (replies to
letters can take a painstakingly long time to arrive)!
Note
that these two methods [the cricket and football analogies] are
obviously not the only two methods of self-motivation which can be
applied to enhance one's exertions. You may be able to adapt to an
alternative system, to gain exceptional results, which best
suits your enthusiasm- e.g. tennis scores, a system for which you would
need to categorise results into games and sets!
____________________________________________________
F.
CONCLUSION
The
thousands or hundreds of thousands, and collective millions, of
valuable documents which form archives of so many individuals and
organisations will be invaluable assets to society. Their
function in being a means of source material and inspiration for new
ideas, and to begin fresh work, will be invaluable. Such collections
will be a result of remarkable effort, organisation, determination
and ability, all combined to further the cause of our, Masha'Allah,
great religion - Islam. 
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