“8 Years Ago, I Killed My Daughter…” Saturday, Mar 31 2007

If you have an infant or access to one, try blowing on her/his face lightly and see what happens. S/he can’t breath, right? Now imagine someone keeping that infant in front of a pedestal fan on high speed? What do you think will happen? YES, in probably a few minutes s/he will die. This is the new way of getting rid of infant girls in India, no chemicals/poison, no fingerprints, no proof she was murdered. Mind of a human beings works in the strangest ways!

Female infanticide is nothing unusual or contemporary. This has happened for years and continues to happen in India and China.

• Ten million girls have been murdered by their parents in past 20 years in India!

Seems like the mentality of these people wouldn’t change of considering girls inferior to boys and a burden. And how could it, they don’t have any reason to. Boys are ‘fortune’ of a family, the bread earners in their society. Whereas, girls are just a burden, they have to be married off by the parents with a huge sum of dowry. If they fail to pay the dowry, they keep the girl along with the shame and insult from the society—not to mention one more mouth to feed!

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If You Really Want to Help… Wednesday, Mar 28 2007

This is not a criticism, but a serious concern for women overseas. Those women who, I believe, are determinedly oppressed and have limited ‘rights’, if no rights. You must be thinking I am about to talk about Saudi women or Pakistani women. Well maybe you are wrong. I am about to bring people’s attention to Hindu women.

For long Islam has been criticized for mistreating women. I would simply say, ‘get your facts straight’!

I watched the movie ‘water’. This Indian movie (Relax! I am not about to publicize my sins…I don’t watch Indian movies but this one was for a purpose. I would actually recommend all Muslims to watch it, especially sisters, and thank Allah for Islam!) is based upon the treatment of widows in Hinduism.. This movie will make you cry even if you are a man and especially if you have daughters.

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Got Any Dates? Wednesday, Mar 21 2007

RELIEF OF PAIN: A MEDICAL DISCOVERY

It is a long-established custom among Muslim parents to put a piece of well-chewed date (or other available sweet fruit) in the mouth of a newborn baby. Muslims do this following the practice of the Prophet Muhammad, upon him be peace, believing him to be, as the Qur’an says, sent as a healing and a mercy to mankind. We may infer from the way this custom originated that there is a virtue in it. There is – complimentary to the virtue and pleasure of following the Sunnah (the practice of the Prophet) – placing a `sugary substance’ inside the mouth of a new-born baby dramatically reduces pain sensation and heart rate.

An interesting scientific medical study, published in the British Medical Journal (No. 6993, 10 June 1995), proved beyond any doubt the benefit of giving a new-born child sugar, in order to reduce the feeling of any painful procedure like heel pricking for a blood sample or before circumcision.

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Let’s Keep a Track of Ourselves… Wednesday, Mar 14 2007

In our last Tuesday’s class, we decided to keep a track of our actions on a daily basis. Basically, each one of us took a chart to stick on the fridge (or in the closet if we don’t want everyone to see what we did) and mark our actions. The chart had a daily check mark section for a whole month for:

• Did I lie today:
• Did I backbite today:
• Did I hurt someone’s feelings on purpose today:
• Did I break a promise today:
• Was I proud today:
• Did I control my anger today:
• Did I try to concentrate in my paryers today:
• Did I only say good things from my mouth today:

We will see how it is coming along for everyone next Tuesday inshaAllah. I thought maybe the readers here can benefit from this too. Especially when I read Mouse’s post on Muslimmatters, I thought maybe this can be used as a suggestion and pass out this chart to family members. As a reminder we briefly discussed in the class:

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‘I just wanna talk…I’ve no BAD intentions!’ Wednesday, Mar 14 2007

(This letter and some of the excerpts are taken from www.islam-qa.com)

“I am a young woman from a very well-known family. All my life I have been religiously committed and of good character, as all will attest, but for some reason I got to know a young man. I wanted to help him because he had suffered the calamity of his father’s death, and he is responsible for his siblings and his mother, but he went down the path of keeping company with bad people. I advised (which was not even a face to face communication!) him and I felt it was my duty to stand beside him and advise him sincerely. Eventually he returned to his studies and gave up those bad friends, and he changed completely. His mother asked him the reason, and he told her. She spoke to me and thanked me for being patient with her son.

One day he came for a visit to see me, and I did not know why I did not hesitate. I went to see him, and I felt as if he was my brother. We spent some time together and what happened happened, unfortunately. Now he wants to come and propose marriage to me, but it is impossible. He is three years younger than me, and he is not of the same nationality as me. Now I am pregnant and I want Allaah to conceal my sin and I want to repent. I know that I have done wrong, and you will criticize me severely, but I want to repent and I want a solution.”

Ø Perhaps this letter can be a lesson to those who claim that a relationship between a man and a woman can be “innocent”.

Ø And it can be a lesson to those who claim that such relationships are ‘Islamically’ acceptable if they are for the purpose of giving advice, especially religious advice!

Ø And to those who want to “water down” the religion to allow relationships between men and women in the name of modernity.

Ø And to those who claim that woman are able to control their desires and emotions and similar justifications.

Ø It is a lesson for those who are heedless of the laws of Allah and pay no attention to the warning of our Rabb, against following in the footsteps of the shaytaan,

Ø It is a lesson to those who continue to take gender relations lightly until they find themselves in deep trouble.

No doubt, this girl must have been careful to protect her chastity initially.

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A New Plug :) Monday, Mar 12 2007

If you are not sick of my emails flooding your inbox already, then here it is just one more time

Introducing:
muslimmatters.org
Discourses in the Intellectual Traditions, Political Situation, and Social Ethics of Muslim Life

This site is dedicated to issues relating to Muslims and Islam: Social, political and religious. Random rants and light humor. We are especially concerned with affairs of Muslims in the West. We challenge ourselves and our readers to engage in discourses that touch our lives as citizens of the West, While maintaining our individual Islamic identities;
Ultimately to cooperate, but not to compromise.

Editorial Staff:

• Ruth (formerly blogged on Houston Chronicle)
• Ibn Abee Omar (formerly of “Lota Enterprises”)
• Amad (formerly of “Musings of a Muslim Mind”)
• AnonyMouse (formerly of “Musings of a Muslim Mouse”)
• Ahmad AlFarsi, pursuing his Masters at MIT.

Guest Writers:

• Yasir Qadhi, Instructor at AlMaghrib, PhD candidate at Yale
• Tawfique Chowdhury is the founder of AlKawthar Institute
• Amir Bulter, who writes for Austrolabe
• Abu Bakr, who writes for Islamicsciences blog

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Woman: An Object of Man’s Pleasure? Friday, Mar 9 2007

My purpose is not to attack anyone, any group or any intellect, rather to show what is misapprehended. The link in this entry is with the permission of the author.

As my blog venture continues, I come across that which I wish hadn’t existed. Ignorance is a bliss, and truly my mind was in much peace before I read some of the stuff I wish I hadn’t read! As my husband probably would say, ‘wake up to the progressive interpretations of Islam.’

In the name of misogyny, much has been said and much has been questioned to the degree that many have denied and rejected ayats/ and ahadeeth just to satisfy what they think is fair and ‘acceptable’. Let’s consider

A. Husband calls his wife for intimacy, she refuse. She is cursed. Period i.e. full stop i.e. no questions asked, no explanation to the rule.

B. Husband calls his wife for intimacy; she refuses because she is sick (emotionally/physically), or they had a fight, or she is upset, or she has SOME excuse. Is she still cursed by the angels?

C. She is never cursed because angels are there to protect her in mercy not to curse her.

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In Search of Spirituality… Wednesday, Mar 7 2007

I’d been exposed to the blog world by my husband (thanks for wasting my time…which I already lack!). But I must admit it is quite addictive and I can now understand his unbreakable bond with his laptop!

So in my recent venture to the blog world, I came across a few ‘from Salafi to Sufi’ kind of posts. Many of them talk about their ‘conversion’ to Sufism simply because lack of spirituality and a connection to Allah azzawjal in Salafism! Salafism being the ‘ism’ of books only, reading Qur’an etc. etc., and Sufism being the ‘ism’ of spirituality and remembering Allah for quite a few hours of the day. I hope I understood this right.

I recently moved away from the place I spent more then half of my life at, my family, my friends, and more importantly my positive-influences and to say the least, the repercussion of my move was an iman-abate. As I felt the deadness of my heart, my prayers no longer had an effect on me, Qur’an wouldn’t making me cry…certainly something was wrong for I had lost the ‘connection’ I once had.

It took me a while to realize that although I had my books, my lecture tapes, my ability to concentrate in my prayers etc. I was unable to use any to strengthen my iman, mainly because I was lacking the company of good folks. I didn’t have the luxury of being around those people who were motivated and would motivate me to come closer to Allah, my study circles with shayookh had come to an end (because there weren’t any in this city), I hadn’t heard uplifting stimulating stories in a while, I hadn’t prayed behind someone who would cry leading salah, and no wonder my heart was hardening keeping me from remembering Allah…It indeed was/ is a sore time!

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Dry Recitations… Friday, Mar 2 2007

SubhanAllah, Shaikh Abu Bakr AsShatery couldn’t even finish reciting this ayah. He tries and tries but his sobs overtakes his recitation. And why wouldn’t it, the ayah is about the punishments of those who disobeyed their Creator in this world, enjoyed the dunya while heedless of akhira. Their end is in the fire of Hell, eating of Zaqqoom (tree in the hellfire) fruits of which are like filthy pus and drinking boiling water…(may Allah protect me, my husband, my children, my parents and siblings, my family & friends, and all Muslims from this punishment, amin)

How dry is my recitation compared to his!

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Revisiting Childhood Thursday, Mar 1 2007

Sometimes I feel like altering my childhood, making a few changes here and there
Come on…no harm thinking about it, right?!

When I was small, I used to read Surah Yasin a lot. I suppose all Pakistanis consider Surah Yasir to be ‘the special’ surah of the Qur’an. I too, used to seek special blessings from it. I remember making ‘nadhar’ (oath), “if I get an A in my exam I would read Yasin 3 times in one day!”

Well, I got many As, so I ended up reading Yasin many times, 3 times a day And that is perhaps why when I was making my daughter memorize it, I could almost read the Surah back to her without even going over it once. I never memorized this surah, just read it more then usual (mostly when I was under 10). And same happened when my son started memorizing it. He thought I had memorized it and forgot! He was surprised that I didn’t need a mushaf to listen to his surah.

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