READ!

When I was in highschool my english teacher once asked me to print out the translation of the first words said to Prophet Muhammad by the Angel Gabriel.
Those words were an order from God to all humankind. They read as follows:
Read in the name of your lord who has created. Created man from but a clot of blood.
The first order was revealed over 1400 years ago yet the Muslim Ummah seems to weaken as the years go by. The weakness I am refering to is not a physical one but one far greater and more detremental to the unity of us as human beings. An intellectual weakness which gives way to many people to attack a religion which is flawless. Yet, because we choose to ignore the first order given to us, we automatically open the door to misunderstandings.
Ofcourse, there area people who read, Muslims who are avid readers. Yet, they read the wrong books. They choose to get their information from anything other than the Quran or the old books of prophetic narrations.
There are also the people who read so much that they believe that their minds are so enlightened that they can interpret Islamic texts on their own.
Then of course there are the people who simply choose to take the easy way out and take their religion and information from other people without actually looking at any documented proof. This maybe constitutes the majority of our society.
If we go back to the first order given to us from Above and actually follow it, I think we can prove that the Israeli leader who said he does not fear Arabs for they are a nation who does not read was wrong.

When I was young...

I remember when I was younger I would always tell my mother when I have a baby I want him to call me by my name...I dont want him to call me mama I can't imagine!
So I would tell my mom I don't care what I'm going to have him call me Sarah!
Ofcourse the years have come and gone and here I am a mother and my son is still learning how to talk...
He calls me Mama sometimes.
I LOVE IT!
My mother was teaching him Sarah...so he would say DAYAA.
This morning I was praying and the room was dark cause I wanted to go back to sleep. AbdulRahman woke up and wanted to get out of bed so what does he say...
Dayaaa
I have to admit I like Mama better..Like my mother told me when I was younger, when you hear the word Mama there is a certain feeling you get like an accomplishment or a sense of worth. I love it!
Another thing I used to say when I was younger in school was. "I never want to become a teacher."
Because my mother is a teacher people used to assume I'd be a teacher when I grow up. I would say NO WAY I don't want a life stuck in a classroom waking up so early in the morning and going from class to class all day long.
Now I'm all grown up and you guessed it! I want more than anything to become a teacher!
Again one of the most gratifying jobs is to teach to see progress in your student/s.
I teach a friend of mine English and just the change in pronouncing the TH was amazing for me.
Anyhow I'll try to keep track of the "nevers" I told my mother when I was younger and how they have changed!

Muslim

"If I had seen the Muslims before I saw Islam I probably would not have become Muslim."
A comment that one hears alot from Muslim reverts living in the Arab world.
On the other hand I'm reading a book about Muslim reverts in the West. A common aspect of their coming to Islam is the way the Muslims welcomed these women into the Masjid even before they were Muslim.
A reason many Muslim reverts become muslims in the west is because they see how the Muslims have such an organized way of life. They see how they have a close knit community.
They see how Muslims have such strong self control that is common in all people.
The problem is alot of these Muslim converts still want to move to a Muslim country to be able to hear the call to prayer in the streets. To be able to pass anyone by in the street and say Salam Alaikom and know that they understand you and answer back. To be able to find a masjid on every corner. Basically to practice their religion openly and with the least possible temptations.
What happens is they come to these countries and find temptations they would not think they would find in a Muslim country. They find extreme difficulty in making a living in these countries. The people are always skeptical over whether they are really Muslims or agents of the West. The cleanliness of course is another issue. Lying. And many more problems.
If Muslims acted the way the Quran and Sunnah tells us to act, the world would get a better picture of Muslims.
If Muslims everywhere were clean. Polite. Waited for their turn. Did not lie. Followed their religion closely as they were ordered to, then the way of life that Allah created and gave us guidelines to would be achieved.

Chance Meetings

I travelled alot when I was young. Lived in many different places and met many different people. Whenever I leave the country I lived in there are always a few people I imagine meeting by chance.
I put a scenario. I imagine what I'm gonna tell them and how they will react that I'm married, with a child, munaqaba...very different from what I was when I knew all these people!
Anyhow so you imagine meeting certain people but u end up meeting TOTALLY different people.
Like today, I never imagined I'd see my P.E teacher from 9 years ago! It was nice though because this chance meeting sort of reminded me how nice certain people are and how they really made a difference in my life even though it wasn't a very apparent one. However. now when I think of it he was one of the most positive influences in my junior and senior years in highschool!
Anyhow these chance encounters remind a person that good is in the people you least expect and you should never underestimate certain anyone's role in your life. Every person you ever met has a certain influence in your life. Many times its not the exact role you you think it is.

Eid Al Adha

Tomorrow is the day. 9 Dhul Hijah. It's the day people from all around the world of all shapes and sizes will gather on the top of mount Arafa in Mecca facing their one and only creator.

The men all garbed in a uniform of white wrapped in exactly the same fashion. The women simply covered from head to toe. Presidents, ministers, doctors, engineers, businessmen, plumbers, drivers, janitors, black, white, yellow, brown, Arab, Persian, American, African, all doing exactly the same thing in the same exact place. They all turn towards their Lord and pray.

Allah will not accept their deeds based on their ethnicity or their social class. He will not look at them based on how much money they have or what sex they are. He will listen to his worshiper, the followers of his final messenger Muhammad, based on how much faith and conviction the person has in his/her heart.

Meanwhile those who were not blessed with the chance to make this once in a lifetime pilgrimage are in their homes fasting and praying. Worshipping their creator and thanking Him for all the blessings He has bestowed upon them.

Then they sleep and wake up to welcome 10 Dhul Hijah. The day of the Big Feast. The second Muslim holiday of the year. In memory of the day Prophet Ishmael, son of Prophet Abraham was spared from a slaughtering. When Allah sent Prophet Abraham a dream that he was to take his son's life by slaughtering him and Prophet Abraham and his son Ishmael complied with all the faith in the world that Allah knows best. A sign of complete surrender. A sign of true faith and belief. Allah spared Abraham and Ishmael and at the last minute sent down a sheep for him to slaughter instead.

Now thousands of years later, Muslims around the world on this day slaughter a sacrifice and give out parts of it to the needy and have a feast with the other part for friends and family.

On the holiest of days, we as Muslims show a rare unity. At home and at the holy land of Mecca.

Happy Eid!

The Food Culture

It is so funny how every culture calls itself the food culture. In reality the one thing that this world has in common is food. The whole world has a food culture.
I'm supposed to be visiting Cairo for a week Inshalla. So I'm planning on seeing all my family and friends. Everytime I plan something its for a meal.
Let's have breakfast Wednesday morning. Let's have lunch on Thursday. Let's have Iftar (for those who are fasting) Thursday afternoon. Let's have dinner on Friday.
While planning your whole life around food has got to be detrimental to your physical strength, it actually helps your social life.
If you're going out with someone for example and run out of things to say that's ok because have the evening you'll have your mouth full of food and you can not talk. Or maybe you can talk about food itself.
The one topic in the whole world that should not steer itself into something so controversial that the outing becomes a disaster.
Then of course a very strong element of the food culture is the way holidays are all turned into food centered events.
For Muslims, what are meant to be the holiest of days end up being spent in the kitchen cooking up what will be eaten all night long. The month ends up being the month that poor people look forward to because people give them food they can only dream of all year long.
The Bayram, or Feast as most people would translate it is always centered around a lavish breakfast or lunch.
Fridays, families gather for lunch.
There could be chaos. People yelling at each other. Children running everywhere. But when breakfast, lunch or dinner is served, everyone unites on one table passing dishes and enjoying this blessing God sent down to us.
Food is the one pleasure we can enjoy without feeling guilty. However, we should not let it become our soul purpose of existence. It is one of the many gifts Allah sent down to us. Lets not abuse it!

Media

I graduated from Journalism and Mass Communication. When I first majored in the field I wanted to make a difference. So, I set out to become a journalist. Now 7 years later looking around I see how much influence the media has on the world. The influence is positive and negative. Mostly negative I believe.
With the assortment of media through which every single human being on this Earth can somehow get their message through, so many different ideas emmerge. That is a good thing.
Meanwhile with so many people telling so many stories, people are always focused on everybody else. The media sets standards the world feels it has to live by.
The definition of a democracy. The definition of liberty. The definition of comfortable living.
Whoever is faster and more innovative and appealing wins. Takes over the media.
While that is going on, people forget to look at themselves and bettering themselves from the inside. Each human being has his/her own values if they use those values to better themselves, that is a step to bettering their family.
Each family has its own values. If they use these values to better themselves from within that is a step to bettering their community.
Each community has its own values. If they use these values to better themselves from within that is a step to bettering their country.
Each country has its own cultural values. If it sticks to those values working within that context to better themselves that would make a world of a difference.
If we look onto someone elses values to better ourselves it just won't work.

The media are influential. Very influential. We just shouldn't let the media make us blind to ourselves.