Miracle Writers

Miracle Team

Nusrat Hussain

Founding Editor

 After arriving in Vancouver, in 1996, Nusrat Hussain tried different working avenues. Later in 2001, he applied his knowledge of Journalism earned through a degree and established the first Muslim newspaper ‘The Miracle’ of British Columbia in Canada. According to him, the name of the newspaper ‘The Miracle’ came to his mind during a ‘Muraqba’ (a solitary sitting asking for Divine guidance). The Miracle has entered its eighteenth year of publication while serving the community of BC. ‘Bringing harmony to all communities,’ a slogan created by Hussain is posted on the masthead of ‘The Miracle.’  After the 9/11 attacks; Hussain interviewed nine different Ambassadors from Muslim countries serving in Ottawa, Canada in 2002. Those interviews were published in the form of a Miracle magazine. In interviews with the ambassadors, Hussain questioned the reasons for ‘Terrorism’ around the world. The magazine received a wide audience at the international level.  Nusrat Hussain is a retired Squadron Leader of the Pakistan Air Force. He served in the Air Force as a Pilot, Air Traffic Controller, and Intelligence and Administration Officer. During his time in the air, in the tower, and while serving the master spy agency ISI, Hussain learned dozens of lifesaving lessons. He has shared his insights in a newly published memoir. The book, dedicated to Hussain’s late Father, Abboo Saheb, is titled The Last Salute because before retiring from his Pakistani Air Force uniform, Hussain presented the last salute to his father. “My father was a hardworking man with great vision and integrity,” said Hussain. “He brought us from poverty to respectability.”  ‘The Last Salute’ has become popular in Air Force circles around the world. It was also acknowledged by the present serving top man of the Pakistan Air Force, Air Chief Marshal Sohail Aman. Hussain was granted a personal audience at Air House Islamabad by the Air Chief Marshal. After a premature release from the Pakistan Air Force in 1990, Hussain joined the Bahrain Amiri Air Force in the year 1992 as an Air Traffic Control Officer and left the Bahrain Amiri Air Force upon immigration to Canada in 1996. After about seven years of serving the Miracle newspaper, Hussain handed the reins of the paper to Naseer Pirzada who had joined the newspaper in 2002 as Managing Editor and a partner in the business. In recognition of his services, the newspaper still carries the name of Nusrat Hussain as the founding Editor. Mr. Hussain lives in Vancouver with his wife Shaheen and has four children Maheen, Mohammed, Mohib, and Mahvish.

Muhammad Naseer Pirzada

Editor-in-Chief

February 23, 2001, was a remarkable day for the BC Muslim community when Mr. Nusrat Hussain launched “The Miracle”, British Columbia’s first newspaper. The newspaper was published biweekly.  I joined him as a Managing Director in June 2002. In January 2007, Mr. Hussain, founder of “The Miracle “, handed over the reins of the newspaper to me. I have been trying to nourish your baby, The Miracle to this day. How successful my entire team and I have been in achieving this task? Well, Miracle’s readers are the best judges. In the past few years, initially as Managing editor and then an Editor-in-Chief,

I conducted many successful Election Forums on Municipal, Provincial, and Federal Elections debates. Recently, at the 2015 Federal Elections, the Miracle played a vital role to conduct debates for Surrey Candidates under the banner of BC Muslim Print Media. I did interview many Canadian political leaders interviews including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, former NDP leader, the late Jake Layton, and many other dignitaries including High Commissioners and Consul Generals.

In the most recent BC Provincial elections in 2016, the Miracle covered nomination meetings, election campaigns, press conferences, and community forums of many candidates and their profiles.
In addition, Miracle organized and hosted multiple Qirat and Hamad-o-Naat competitions, and awards for Miracle Youth, Advertisers, Sponsors, and Writers over the years. The Miracle also conducted three 6-hour-long exciting Musical Competition programs for a tribute to the legendary Pakistani Singers Mehdi Hassan and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan Mixed Pakistani songs. These programs engaged children, youth, adults, and seniors of all communities.

On February 19, 2016, again, we conducted a 6 hours program of Miracle’s Writers and Musicians awards with Sham-e-Ghazal night to pay tribute to the great legendry Pakistani singers, Mehdi Hassan and Noor Jehan on a large scale at Afghan Chopan restaurant in Surrey. In addition, I have proudly and consistently represented the Muslim community, Pakistani community as well as Muslim Media at numerous events and protests.

My responsibilities for the Miracle are a lot.  Because the Muslim community is small in numbers and the growing number of other local newspapers, as the managing editor of the newspaper with a limited budget, I have to write the editorial, write reports, cover local events, select articles, speak with advertisers, and design the newspaper.

My professional background is as an Architect and Project Coordinator.  Prior to joining Miracle, I had more than 20 years of experience in Project Coordination, Site supervision in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Toronto. I graduated from NCA Lahore, Pakistan in 1976-81. I received a Gold Medal in Drafting and designing Diploma in 1972-1975 from GCT Lahore, after my FSc.

 Khadija Naseer

(Urdu Section Incgarge)

 I am working with Miracle since Mr. Naseer Pirzada joined Miracle Media with Mr. Nusrat Hussain in June 2002. But officially joined as a sub-editor, Urdu editor, and typist in 2014 job.

My background is:

Master in Chemistry from Punjab University

Worked as Lecturer at International College, Al-Khobar, Saudi Arabia for 10 years.

Worked as a lecturer at the King Faisal University of Dammam, Saudi Arabia for 7 years.

Migrated to Canada in 1997. Post-graduated with distinction from Toronto Institute of Pharmaceutical Technology with a Diploma in Pharmaceutical Quality Assurance and Quality Control.

Graduated from BCIT in Occupational Health and Safety program with distinction

Worked as QC/QA specialist, QC manager in all major pharmaceutical companies of   Vancouver for 10 years.

Worked as Occupational Health and Safety Documentation Specialist in Downtown Vancouver for two years.

Voluntarily assist in writing, editing, and compiling articles for Miracle newspaper since 2005.

Shams Jilani

(Urdu Writer &Editorial Board Member)

 He is a Canadian of Pakistani origin. He was born in 1931in a prominent Family in India and came to Richmond, B.C in 1989 from Pakistan. He started doing community work and received the “Community Achievers” award in 1995. He has also served as General Secretary for the Hindi Society and President of the Canadian Urdu Association.

For the last twenty-eight years, he has been enriching the mainstream of Canada and other parts of the world with his columns on current affairs, Islamic history, and humanities. The man from Richmond, British Columbia is a well-recognized face who received countless awards and recognition for his contribution toward community services and for writings in the Urdu language. His affiliations cover a broad horizon from the founding member and chair for Richmond Multicultural Senior Society up to the President of the Canadian Urdu Association and reflect his efforts to strengthen cultural harmony among the South Asian community. He also got a lifetime membership from 411 Seniors Centre Society and received an intercultural harmony award from the City of Vancouver B.C.

He has written more than twenty books in the Urdu language and one in Hindi (Uttam hay Insan). The Urdu collection covers diverse titles such as biographies of early Islamic personalities (the Prophet Mohammed (Peace be upon him), all four righteous Caliphs, Hazrat Fatima, Hazrat Hasan, Hazrat Hussain, and Sahabiyat (May Allah be pleased with them), Islam &HaqooqUlIbad, Buniyadyat of Diabetes (translation of medical text from English to Urdu) that was written by Dr. A.R Minhas (M.D & F.R.C.S and ex-Director for Diabetes Education Surrey B.C). besides that, he has two poetic collections, Urdu Sada Ba Sehra&GumaneMoatabbar. For his book “Islam AurHuqqoqUlIbad”, he received the best writer award from the Honorable Christy Clark (who was then Deputy Premier of British Columbia) in an event organized by Miracle newspaper.

Now, at the age of eighty-seven, he writes biweekly columns in the Miracle and the Community Times, as well as weekly columns for the Pakistan Times which are published in Chicago and Toronto. He is also the editor of the AalamiAkhabar in the UK which is run by prominent Urdu Journalist, Ex- Broadcaster of BBC, London, Mr. Safdar Hamdani. He had been chairman of Mustafa Hamadani Academy and was granted the very first Mustafa HamadniAward in 2008.

For the last twenty-four years, he has been a member of the various Advisory Committees of Richmond, BC. He was amongst those who helped establish and maintain a vibrant multicultural community in BC as part of the “Voices of Wisdom “Project established by 411 Seniors Centre Society. He also received multiple recognitions from both the federal and provincial governments for his work.

 Aslam Hayat

(Urdu Writer &Editorial Board Member)

 He was born on 23^rd March 1933 and studied at Punjab University, Matriculation, 1949, Karachi University, B.com, 1960 Institute of Cost & Works Accountants, the UK to be graduated as Associate: in Business Management and Accountancy. (1955-58)

Experience:    Worked in Pakistan Times, Lahore as Junior Proof Reader. As Accountant, Karachi

Development Authority (1958 -1966), Astt. Director,

Airports Development Agency (1967-1989)

Interests:         Literature, music, spirituality.

Writing for the Miracle Urdu Section on Sufism, Self-improvement, and on

Topics of general interest. My first article was published in the Miracle, issue 37 of

August 9-August 22, 2002

 Azhar Syed

(Editorial Board Member)

Azhar Syed was born and educated in India.  He immigrated to Pakistan in 1952 and then to Canada in 1973.  He and his family have lived in BC since they arrived in Canada.  Mr. Syed worked as a Production Manager for a leading publishing house and advertising agency in Karachi, Pakistan.  In Vancouver, he served as Purchasing Manager for Behnsen Graphic Supplies Ltd. for 18 years before taking early retirement.  In 1991 he joined hands with his wife to run a family daycare in Richmond.  They closed the daycare in 2002 to retire. Mr. Syed has spent all his years in Canada working on building the Muslim community and forging ties between the Muslim community and other communities in Canada.  He has been a volunteer community organizer, educator, and Imam.  He has worked at different levels of various local and national Muslim organizations.  Mr. Syed is also a registered marriage officer.  He has educated himself in Islam by studying the Quran and renowned authors, both classic and contemporary.  His interest to serve the community brought him close to The Miracle and he joined its Editorial Board. His contribution is more on the getup and presentation of the newspapers. He also advises on community issues.

Maulana Abdul Latif Nomani

(Editorial Board Member)

 Maulana Nomani is a religious scholar. He studied religious education at Faisalabad School and then migrated to Fiji in 1982 and served as the Imamat Lautoka Jameh Masjid. He then taught for 4 years at Lautoka Islamiyah College as an Urdu and Arabic teacher. He migrated to Canada in 1994. He was a founding member of the Fiji Islamic Centre in Surrey and served as its Imam and Khateeb for 19 years. He opened Ayesha Islamic Centre in Vancouver on Main Street in 1996.  In 2000, he moved to its current location on Scott Road in Surrey. Currently, he is the Head Imam of Masjid Aulia Allah in Surrey. He is also the Hajj group leader since 2000 under Suleiman Fauzi Hajj Tours. Maulana Nomanihas wrote on Islamic social issues solutions with the help of the Quran and Hadith reference. He joined the Miracle editorial board to help as an advisor on Urdu and Islamic sensitive issues. He has been a strong supporter of the Miracle at each stage.

 Shamim Karim

(Urdu Writer)

 Ms. Shamim Karim was born in the city of Rawalpindi in Pakistan. Her father was in the army. Therefore, she was traveling to different cities in pre-partition India. At the time of the partition, she was in Pune.  Inspired by the vision and dream of Quaid-e-Azam of the establishment of a separate Islamic state, her family went to Bombay from Pune and then to Karachi by sea.

She started her education in Karachi in an army School. She belongs to an educated and literary family. Her brother, the late Dr.Attaullah Khan Mussarat was fond of poetry. Her grandmother was a poetess and had literary meetings in their home which developed her interest of Urdu literature in her. She started to write stories about infamous kid’s magazines including khilona and bachoonkiduniya. She wrote for “Monthly Naqqad” in high school. Her father moved to Lahore and her family settled there. She did her Bachelor’s degree from Lahore College and her master’s in Geography from Punjab University in Lahore and her Master’s in Urdu from Oriental College in Lahore. She then got a Bachelor of Education from the Educational College of Lahore. During this time, she was writing for QandeelMagazine and Daily Mashriq newspaper. She worked as an Urdu and Social Studies teacher at Azam Garrison School Lahore. She married Saleem Akhter Karim and migrated to Canada. She has 3 daughters and one son. Due to family responsibilities in Canada, she almost forgot my writing. Then, at the insistence and encouragement of Mr. Rafiq, former Miracle Urdu editor, he began writing for the Miracle. She spends her retired life traveling to different counties.  She considers it a great pleasure to be a part of this paper

 Alam Aara

(Urdu Writer)

 Khursheed Alam Ara Siddiqui. liked to use the name Alam Ara as a writer. She got her bachelor’s degree

in Chemistry and Zoology. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts too. And then she started to work in an educational institution. And during this time, she completed a course in Library Science in Karachi. She then got married and was blessed with three sons and then proceeded with her life as a housewife. She lived in Saudi Arabia, the UK, and the USA prior to immigrating to Canada. Her first contact with the Miracle Newspaper occurred on the 2nd day after arriving in Canada. On this day, she met Mr. Athar Ghazi and his wife Deeba Ghazi along with Mr. Nusrat Hussain, in order to gain information on the timing of Sahoor and Iftar, as it was the month of Ramadan. Mr. Hussien presented her with the Miracle Newspaper which enlisted the Timetable. At the time, Mr. Hussein was publishing the Miracle Newspaper. As time went on and their struggle to settle down in Canada continued, she made numerous new friends. It was during this time, she became aware that Miracle is adding an Urdu section. She was very interested in writing and picked up the pen and started to send articles to the newspaper. She was encouraged by her husband Iqbal Munir and her son Amir Munir, who took the time to train her in typing in Urdu. Her sons, Shoaib and Nauman also assisted her in this journey. Mr. Mohammed Rafiq introduced her to Canada Urdu Association along with Aalmi Newspaper, where she is currently working as Bureau Chief. She is the writer of 4 books. Her first book is on the state of Pakistan’s democracy and political affairs. The books are named, 1) SabaqamozKahaniyan  2) Bua AurSiyasat3) Shagoofay

4) SabaqAmozKahaniyanPart  2Currently,she is working on her  5th book..

 Nafisa Siddiqi

(Urdu &English Writer)

 Mrs. Nafisa Siddiqui’s parents were from Lucknow India and settled in Karachi after the partition.  She prides herself on her Canadian and Pakistani roots. She studied at Nazareth College in Hyderabad and graduated in Science from Sindh University, Hyderabad. Her dream was to become a doctor, a dream that sadly never came true. She is a certified aromatherapist and natural care consultant from Douglas College in Vancouver. By profession, she is an enthusiastic all-rounder. She was a teacher at Pakistan College Sharjah, U.A.E. where she was not only loved by her students but also respected by their parents.

She was a well-known fashion designer in Karachi Pakistan, representing Pakistani women on international levels, and was running my own boutique before moving to Canada. She also worked with Dr.Azam as a drug addiction counselor for a couple of years in Karachi.

As a writer, she writes stories and poetry in Urdu and Articles in English about history, politics, and common social issues that we are faced with in our day-to-day lives. She got married and was blessed with four kids.  She has worn many hats in her life, a writer, debater, teacher, counselor, designer, therapist, and the list goes on.

 Dr. Huma Mir

(Miracle’s Writer)

 Dr. Huma Mir is a media celebrity who successfully established herself as a leading TV Actor, Anchor, Columnist, and Writer.  She is a Medical Graduate with a Master’s Degree in Urdu Literature. She also holds Advanced Diploma in Communication Studies. She was only 5 when she started participating in Bachon Ki Duniya& Tote Batote on Radio Pakistan and the infamous Music Shows for kids SaatSuronkiDuniya by Sohail Rana on Pakistan Television.

Up till now, she has performed in numerous television dramas in leading roles. Some of her famous plays include Palay Shah, Wapsi, Waqt Ka Aasman, Padash, BarishKeBaad, Sargam Time, Monsoon, KhwabAzab, Musafatein, RaftaRafta, and Jeet. She has also been anchoring TV Shows on diversified topics. News Morning, News Night, Dateline Sindh on PTV, Aacha Such on ARY, and Subhe Pakistan Morning Show on Geo are just a few to mention.

Dr. Huma is an active member of the Canada Urdu Association and the Iqbal Academy of BC. She is the author of two books. As a columnist, she is contributing to the Miracle.  Her TV Show Dil Apna Pakistan is telecasted on Shaw twice weekly.

 Shabnam Khan

(Writer)

 Shabnam Khan is a Registered Professional Counselor and a Master’s Practitioner in Clinical Counseling. She is a Private Practitioner at S.K. Counseling Services in Surrey, British Columbia. Shabnam has also acquired her B.A. in Business & Marketing from Sydney, Australia. She is originally from the Fiji Islands where she completed her education at Kamil College and at the Fiji Institute of Technology (FIT).

Shabnam believes Counseling is a process of learning how to make good life decisions. Realizing that there can be a lot of reluctance in seeking Counseling Services, Shabnam is committed to breaking these barriers through awareness and continued education!

Shabnam specializes in Individual, Child & Youth, Pre-Marital, Marriage/Couple & Family Counseling. She works in areas of Self Esteem, Parenting, Depression, Grief/Bereavement, Assertive Communication, Anger Management, Boundaries & Relationships, etc. Shabnam also advocates as an Adult Educator in Schools and Community Gatherings through workshops on Effective Parenting, Mother’s & Daughter’s Groups, and Women’s Support Groups. Shabnam has a passion for writing Inspirational Stories and her Articles are published in Community Newspapers. She is an inactive volunteer in her community and often devotes her time to planning and facilitating events. Shabnam is a member of many Non-Profit Organizations and also with SBOT – Surrey Board of Trade. Shabnam resides in Surrey, British Columbia with her husband and two beautiful daughters.

Her Saying: “Opportunities may come and go but the discipline, love, care, respect, and motivation that surrounded us throughout our childhood will never fade. Those are memories we carry on with us for life as we are accustomed to them and want to cherish them becoming part of our identity” “Her Mom Is Her Role Model”

 Asma Shums

(Writer)

 Asma is a wife, mother, daughter, businesswoman, and cook, and holds many more unofficial professional designations. She gets her inspiration to write from her experience in the past holding many different professional roles and personal escapades. Asma has been an avid reader and writer from a young age which has continued until today. One can find more about Asma and her interests from her library checkout history with titles ranging from crime, cooking, self-development, and family relations. In addition, her favorite authors, to name a few; John Grisham, Danielle Steele, and Khaled Hosseini, can be credited with the hours spent by Asma curled in front of the fireplace for hours. In addition to reading and writing, one can find Asma cooking exotic dishes that she continues to share with her readers. The rich cultural features that address generational and societal differences often found in families that are presented in Asma’s columns can be attributed to her background in India. She often gets inspiration for her writing through her daily interactions with her talented children who continue to challenge and broaden her perception. She is rightly described as the most colorful person by her peers as she continues to bring excitement and happiness to everyone through her literary pieces. Asma’s writing pieces are published every second week of the month and cover a range of topics from cooking, family advice, and everyday observations from her perspective in society