I heard this yesterday and I haven’t stopped thinking about it since.
Yousuf Bashir Qureshi said it. Poet. Playwright. Artist. The man who built Commune Artists Colony on his own belief that art deserves a home in this country.
I went to meet him at the commune yesterday. I didn’t know what to expect.
What I found was a man who served us juice himself. Who answered salam like it was the most natural thing in the world. In a country where people with a fraction of his stature won’t even make eye contact with you, this man poured your drink and sat with you like an old friend.
People like him should be our culture ambassadors. The face Pakistan shows to the world. Because this is the Pakistan worth showing.
But here’s what stayed with me most. That line.
Umeed is anxious. Umeed is waiting by the door, checking if something will come. Imaan is different. Imaan means you already know, you do your work, you give your best and what is meant for you will reach you.
As an entrepreneur who has been through years where everything felt uncertain, I thought I was running on hope. But hope without a foundation exhausts you. Every setback feels like a sign that it won’t work.
What he described is something else. You don’t wait and hope. You work and believe.
That’s the shift.
Pakistan has treasures like Yousaf Bashir Qureshi that most of us have never heard of. Go find his work.
And the next time you’re running on empty:
Not umeed. Imaan.
Umar H.
Originally posted on Facebook on 3 June 2026.
