Topics to Come

Just thought I would give a little preview of some of the topics that will be written about, insha’Allah, in the coming weeks.

• Abortion, Suicide, Euthanasia, and Human Cloning in Islam
• The Jews in the Qur’an - Lessons Learned
• Why Voting Muslims Must Lean to the Left
• Muslim Americans - The ‘08 Election and You
• Hijab - A Multi-faceted Concept
• Hip Hop, Activism and Islam
• Achieving Khushu’ in Salah
• Your Time is Your Life
• Academic Jihad - Your Life as a Muslim Student
• The Miracle of Du’aa
• Green Deen - What Islam Says about the Environment

If you have any ideas or requests for topics, please send the author a message through the comment section of this post!
Jazakum Allahu Khairan

Why I Write

This pen in my hand
Allows me to express
What I can’t type,
I can’t say,
I can’t hype,
I can’t get across in any other way…

My thoughts swirlin’
From home
To Work
To Iraq
And back…
From coffee with friends
To wars with no end in sight

How do I fight
The forces that kill and maim,
Destroy and tame our souls into complacency?
It’s like our minds have No Vacancy
And our hearts are on vacation, see…

We got credit card bills pilin’
And racial profilin’
Student Loans
And cell phones
Interest-only mortgages
And no good education for our kids

And all I got is this pen.

This pen in my hand is my jihad;
The only sword I have to unsheathe,
The only mode of expressing my beliefs
That gives me some peace,
Some feeling of relief
in the face of all this hypocrisy.

The spread of democracy
With guns and tanks;
They’re not shooting blanks!
They’re real bullets with casings,
Taking lives,
Raping wives…

The irony
And the lies;
The inquiries
And the cries…

But how do I fight
The forces that kill and maim,
Destroy and tame our souls into complacency?
It’s like our minds have No Vacancy
And our hearts are on vacation, see…

And all I got is this pen.

Post-Zionism-Obsession

Asalamu’alaikum Brothers and Sisters,

It’s been a long time! Nice to see you all again after a long break. I read a very thought-provoking post by one of my friends from college, Affad, who very often intrigues me when I make the journey over to his blog, The American Muslim.

The following is his post, “Imagine a World Where Zionism Won.” The title itself got my attention, and I thought I would share with you my reaction to the article.

First Affad posted an article written by Daniel Gavron in the New York Times….

SOMETHING strange is happening to us Zionists in the 60th year of the state of Israel: we are repudiating our astonishing success. If in the 1880s (the start of Zionist settlement in what is now Israel) or in 1948 (the War of Independence) or even in 1967 (the Six-Day War) somebody had said that one day virtually the entire world, including all the Arab nations, would accept the existence of the State of Israel in 78 percent of the land of Israel, he would have been regarded as either idiotically optimistic or clinically insane. That, however, is where we are today. We have won, but we are refusing to accept the result.

It is as if the captain of a team winning the World Cup, a triumphant Olympic sprinter or a victor of Wimbledon were to say: “No, no. There has been a mistake. I didn’t win, I lost. My victory is an illusion.”

While it is true that the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, talks about wiping Israel off the map, and he might be developing the technical means to do so, he has also said that he will agree to whatever agreement the Palestinians accept. The Lebanese Islamic group Hezbollah is utterly hostile, but it is now focused on events in its own country.

The Palestinian Hamas, which rules Gaza, refuses to recognize Israel, but even that movement seeks a long-term truce, which is tantamount to de facto recognition.

Far more significantly, Fatah, the official Palestinian leadership, is negotiating peace with Israel. The member states of the Arab League, headed by Saudi Arabia, are on record as recognizing Israel within its pre-1967 borders. The world’s only superpower, the United States, is solid in its support of Israel under any conceivable president.

The other four permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, the European Union and the overwhelming majority of the members of the United Nations all recognize pre-1967 Israel.

Wake up, fellow Israelis, it’s over, we’ve won! What is more we’ve won a lot: more than 8,000 square miles out of the 10,400 square miles of the British Mandate for Palestine. And most Palestinians have accepted this territorially lopsided resolution of the 100-year-old dispute.

Problems remain, of course. We Israelis have made a shambles of our Zionist enterprise by establishing settlements in the Palestinian territories we have occupied since 1967. Either we must disentangle ourselves from the Palestinians, or else create a structure for sharing the land with them. Many of the flagship Jewish settlements are so deep in Palestinian territory that no matter how the borders were to be redrawn, the settlements would be left inside Palestine.

And the current talk of swapping “settlement blocs” in the West Bank for equivalent amounts of land in Israel near the border is unrealistic. For any “two-state solution” to work, we would need to conduct a complete withdrawal from the West Bank. Even so, the success of the Zionist enterprise would be astounding.

If we cannot summon the determination it would take for a complete pullback, might the world, led by the United States, try to force us to withdraw? It might, but it probably won’t, so we are most likely looking at some sort of single state, bi-national state or confederation. What matters is that we are acting from a position of strength, and we ought to be investing our energy and creativity in working out a long-term solution with the Palestinians that will be acceptable to both of us.

What we should not be doing is what we are doing now: besieging and blacking out Gaza, killing and arresting dozens of Palestinians in the occupied territories every month, and constructing walls and fences between us and our neighbors.

The most recent suicide bombing in southern Israel has predictably prompted calls for a new barrier along our 145-mile Egyptian border. This is unreasonable. Walls, as recent events have shown, can be breached. Palestinian terrorism against civilians has decreased over the past years, even though the barrier separating Israel and the West Bank has many large gaps. It is illogical to suppose that this incomplete wall is the factor that has reduced terrorism.

The proposal to build an additional fence along the Egyptian border represents all that is wrong with our current policies. To cower behind a wall is to demonstrate again our loser mentality at a time when we have, in fact, won. The political settlement that the world is begging us to reach is the only way to ultimately stop the violence between us and the Palestinians.

Daniel Gavron is the author, most recently, of “Holy Land Mosaic: Stories of Cooperation and Coexistence Between Israelis and Palestinians.”

Affad had this to say in response…

Many Muslims will not like me for saying this, however, I do believe it needs to be said. The faster, the sooner, the quicker we are able to put this conflict behind us, the better it is for the Ummah itself. For the past sixty we have been consumed by this conflict, and for all the right reasons, but imagine, for once we can move on and organize and entrench ourselves with in the socieities we live in, where our politics is not “one issue” (Palestine)- imagine the in roads our money, our talent our ambition can achieve?

We can truly begin to be a positive force, putting our efforts in with like minded movements, working with Interfaith communities, establishing the institutions to deal with our problems that can give their all to that effort. Just imagine.

And my response to Affad…

I think your post is a provocative statement for many Muslims to digest. However, I think it is a concept that many need to contemplate.

The problem is that the “Muslim world” is in a catch 22…

If we harp on the Palestine dilemma, we create a situation in which we cannot fulfill our full potential as an ummah and utilize the resources we have in such plenty to benefit the Islamic cause to the extent that we should. The time, energy, intelligence, money, etc. that this issue consumes is overwhelming to the ummah, and it could be used for other productive enterprises (even for the benefit of the Palestinians).

However, if we do move past this issue and put it on the back burner, so to speak, we feel tremendous guilt because our religion teaches us to fight for the oppressed, to strive for what is right and just, to never turn our backs on our brothers and sisters who are suffering. We also run the risk of our inaction being misconstrued as acquiescence, or even worse, a condoning of Israel’s actions against the Palestinian population.

I believe that is why the Arab states surrounding Palestine have been reluctant to come to the aid of the Palestinians. They fear that if they bring the Palestinians into their countries, give them jobs, provide for them, welcome them with open arms, that all the injustices and all the oppression that Israel has levied upon the Palestinians will be brushed under the carpet and forever forgotten. Just as the Jewish population around the world does not want us to forget the horrors of the Holocaust (which we never should), so too do the Muslims not want a similar situation in which the suffering of the Palestinians is forever lost.

I’m not saying it’s the right thing for the Arab states to do. I wish they all would take the Palestinians and give them better lives so that we, as an ummah, could flourish and move past these 60+ years of stifling backwards movement. But I do understand their difficult position.

The past 60 years have been horrible for our ummah, but signs of light are there. Our community in the US is one of the most vibrant, diverse, intelligent communities in the world, and I hope and pray that the next 60 years can bring success for us, for the Palestinians, and for all those who work for justice, liberty, fairness, and the goodness of all. Ameen.

Dedicated to All Students Fighting For Justice…

This week, many universities will see their Muslim Student Associations, Arab Student Unions, Students for Justice and Peace, International Solidarity Associations, etc. hosting events dedicated to exposing the injustices that are occurring on a daily basis to Palestinians and Arab Israelis at the hands of a theo-democracy aided and supported unconditionally by the United States government.

There will be lectures by intellectuals from all different ethnic and religious backgrounds speaking out for justice, for fairness, for equality, for humanity.

There will be supporters from all different groups, religious and non-religious, who believe that all people, no matter what their faith tradition, ethnic background, political preferences, or physical features, should be treated as humans. They will urge their classmates to listen to the message of tolerance, equality, and respect.

There will also be protestors – Zionists who believe that the “Holy Land” is the birthright of the Jewish population and that Israel, as a nation, has a right, not only to exist, but to expel non-Jews, namely Muslim and Christian Palestinians from their homes and establish settlements that have been deemed by the international legal community to be illegal.

To continue reading this article, please visit the Muslamics blog!

Public Speaking: Using the Voice of the Muslim Youth for Allah

We live in a media-centered society. TV, radio, blogs, websites, DVDs, newspapers, magazines…much of our days are spent communicating and/or listening. As this is the case, in order for us, as Muslim youth, to be successful and to improve the state of the Muslim community in America and abroad, we must excel not only in our studies and in our personal ethics, but also in communication.

Communication is an art, not a science. There is no magic formula that makes you an amazing orator or a brilliant writer. That being said, there are many universal rules about the art of communication just as there are universal rules about painting, sculpture, and music. I’d like to share with you my thoughts on effective public speaking in an effort to spark a movement among young Muslims to use our voices for the sake of Allah (swt).

Objectives
1. To give you a solid working definition of Public Speaking
2. To explain why public speaking is important as Muslim Youth
3. To tell you a little bit about what Allah says about Public Speaking
4. To give you quick tips from A-Z on how to effectively give a speech or carry on a debate as a young Muslim

What is Public Speaking?
The art and process of conveying useful information with certain knowledge, wisdom, and beauty, solely for the purpose of seeking the pleasure of Allah

Why is Public Speaking Important as Muslim Youth?
First of all, Allah gave us the power of speaking to one another and speaking to the world as an amanah – not something to brag about, show off about, joke about, compete over. It is a trust. It’s a heavy trust and we are the fiduciaries, the ones that have the burden to use our speech beautifully, powerfully, and with wisdom and humility.

With this trust, we must use our voices to communicate our way of life to those around us. We must participate in effective daw’ah efforts to show the world the true spirit of Islam. In order to do this, we must be effective public speakers.

Thirdly, we are Americans. We have a duty and an obligation to involve ourselves in the political process, to vote, to understand the issues that face our country, and to help this country be the best it can possibly be. One of the ways that we can help this country is by getting involved in politics, because this country needs Islam. I’m not suggesting that we set up khilafah in Washington, DC. What I’m suggesting is that this country inherently loves Islam. The people just don’t know it. It is our job to let them know what Islam is all about and how beautifully it meshes with our democratic system and our country’s expressed values. In order to show the American public the beauty of Islam, we must know how to express our core values properly.

Next, we have a prescription from Allah swt to seek knowledge, to question and think and analyze and wonder at the miracles that surround us. No matter what the subject, we are to pursue the deepest level of knowledge and understanding. In order to effectively speak in public or in private conversation, we must have true knowledge about the subject that we are discussing. Therefore, public speaking promotes seeking knowledge and associating with scholars and intelligent people.

Public speaking also builds confidence. The youth in our communities are mainly children of immigrants. Our parents have done an amazing job to establish a solid foundation for us in this country. However, they don’t have the confidence or the cultural tools to solidify the institutions and organizations that we need to succeed as a unified Muslim community. It is our generation, the youth in high schools and colleges in this nation that must rise to the occasion and establish the non-profits, the community centers, the recreation centers, the small businesses, the non-governmental organizations, etc., to establish the Muslims as a permanent fixture in this country so that our children are able to easily assume control and glide smoothly into high roles in our society. We can only achieve this if we have the confidence to forge strongly ahead. One way of attaining this level of confidence is to speak publicly about the issues that we are passionate about.

Lastly, and most importantly, public speaking and the research that goes into preparing a speech deepens our knowledge of Islam and in turn, strengthens our love for Allah, for the Prophet (pbuh) and for this deen. When we must prepare a speech about ihsan or fajr or hijab or jihad or taqwa, we delve deep into the Qur’an and sunnah, we look at the stories of the Prophet (pbuh) and his companions, we feel the connection start to form between our lives and the lives of those we seek to emulate. We develop a softness, a tenderness toward our beloved Prophet (pbuh) and his struggles to establish our faith. We feel a love and a longing for the words of Allah and we find ourselves going to it and feeling a deeper understanding of how its pages relate to our lives. SubhanAllah, it is amazing how simply preparing to deliver a speech can bring us so much closer to our deen.

What does Islam say about Public Speaking?
Islam has an answer for everything. Ask any useful question and its answer can be found within Qur’an and sunnah. With respect to public speaking, Allah swt has given us much wise information. SubhanAllah, the way public speaking is approached in Qur’an and sunnah is a very interesting dichotomy. Two opposing, yet harmonious, views about public speaking are clear when studying this subject from an Islamic standpoint. On one hand, Allah swt encourages us to engage in public speaking and rewards those who do so with a pure, sincere intention to please Him. On the other hand, Allah swt warns us about the dangers of public speaking and tells us of the punishment that awaits those who engage in it for the wrong reasons. Let’s take a look at how this subject is tackled.

• Surat An-Nahl (125): Invite Mankind to the truth with wisdom and fair dealing, and debate with them in fine manners.

• Surat Al-Fussilat (33): Who is better in speech than one who calls men to what is right (Islam), works righteous deeds and says, “I am of those who bow in Islam?”

• Malik narrated that the Prophet (pbuh) said, “Whoever believes in Allah and the Last Day should talk what is good or stay quiet and should think clearly before uttering, for the tongue is mankind’s worst enemy on the Day of Judgment.”

• Surat Al-Baqarah (204-206): “And among you are some whose speech may please you in this dunya, and he calls Allah to witness as to that which is in his heart, yet these are the most contentious opponents. When they turn away from you, their efforts are to make mischief and to cause destruction. Allah does not like mischief. And when it is said to these, “Fear Allah,” they are led by arrogance to more bad deeds. So enough for him is Hell, and worst indeed is that place to rest! And among you are those who would sell themselves, seeking the Please of Allah, and Allah is full of kindness to His followers.”

• Surat As-Saff (2-3): “Oh you who believe! Why say you that which you do not? Grievously hateful is it in the sight of Allah that you say that which you do not.”

• Abu Hurairah narrated that the Prophet pbuh said: “On the Day of Resurrection, Allah will not accept repentance or ransom from him who learns excellence of speech to captivate the hearts of the people.”

TIPS ON HOW TO SPEAK EFFECTIVELY A-Z

a. Form a clear, pure, sincere INTENTION
First hadith ever related was by Umar ibn al-Khattab. The Prophet pbuh said, “The reward of deeds depends upon the intention and every person will get the reward according to what he has intented.”

“Verily, my prayers, my sacrifice, my living and my dying are for Allah, the Lord of the Worlds.” Surat Al-A’raf 162

A public speaker will only succeed if he does it for the pleasure of Allah and not for Riah (showing off).

b. Make DU’AA
“ My Lord! Increase me in knowledge! Open for me my heart and grant me self-confidence, contentment, and boldness. Ease my task for me and correct any defects from my speech so that the people may understand. Bestow wisdom on me, and join me with those who are righteous, and make me one of the inheritors of al-jan’aa.”
(Derived from Surat Ta’Ha 25-28. 114 and Surat Ash-Shu’ara’ 83-84)

c. OVER-PREPARE

d. Make an OUTLINE for yourself to follow, but do not use it as a “crutch”

e. KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE
Who are you speaking to? (young, old, mixed, ethnic group, hostile audience)
What are you speaking about? (clear topic that is interesting)
Where are you speaking? (City, town, suburb, farm, church, mosque, temple, park)
When are you speaking? (morning, evening, middle of the night)
Why are you speaking? (objectives)
How are you speaking? (make sure it’s at their level, not condescending and lofty)

f. Ensure that your PERSONAL APPEARANCE is clean, neat, simple, and distinguished

g. Begin your talk with the MENTION OF ALLAH (whether aloud or silently to yourself)

h. Outline your OBJECTIVES to your audience so they know what they will gain
This helps your audience to form a mental picture of what they are about to hear. Remember, a large percentage of the population is assisted most powerfully by visual images. So to supplement you audio, you must allow your audience to have a running “mental video” of what you’re saying and where you’re trying to reach. Try never to have more than 3 or 4 objectives, otherwise it gets confusing and long

i. Speak with CONFIDENCE
Allah (swt) told us, “You, the true believers of Islam and the followers of the Prophet are the best of people ever raised up for mankind! You enjoin the good (al-ma’ruf) and forbid the evil (al-munkar), and you believe in Allah!”(Surat Al-Iman 110). Therefore, why should we fear anything or anybody? If our intentions are pure and we have given our 100% effort, Allah (swt) will come to our aid.

The four main ingredients we need in public speaking, and in all activities we engage in as Muslims:
DIGNITY INTEGRITY HONESTY HUMILITY

j. Always TELL THE TRUTH and be HONEST in your assertions

k. Be FRIENDLY, DO NOT ATTACK or use vicious or vulgar language
There are many times when we, as Muslims, get into heated debates about topics that are very close to our hearts. There are many times when our enemies bait us by using horrific language when referring to the Muslims or Islam. There are many times when people’s illogical assertions are so frustrating and when we get so caught up in the madness of what we see around us, that our blood is boiling. It is at these times when we need to refrain from talking to others and when we need to just talk to Allah (swt). When we are fueled by anger, rage, frustration, and anxiety, nothing good will proceed from our lips. It is at these times when the best of us will know that we need to be silent and to go to Allah seeking the peace that only He can bring. Only when our minds are clear and our hearts are calm and set purely in pursuit of Allah’s pleasure should we again feel safe to take up talk and debate. Our enemies love to enrage us because then we provide them with sensational quotes for their newspapers and “newsworthy” material for YouTube.

l. Be HUMBLE and refrain from thinking highly of yourself. Your gifts are from Allah and all praise for your talents is due to Him.

m. DO NOT SLANDER no matter what others may say about you or the Prophet (pbuh) or Allah.
Allah is in charge of this dunya. I’m not in charge. You’re not in charge. Zionists are not in charge. George Bush is not in charge. Allah is in charge. Let the people call each other names. Let them say horrific things about Islam and the Prophet (pbuh). We can hold rallies and protests, etc. But Allah is in charge. The rantings and vulgarities of the ignorant should not affect us, and we should calmly proceed knowing that our duty is portray Islam with wisdom and beauty. We are not so low as to sink to levels like barbaric animals. The Muslims are dignified, we stand with integrity. We are the best of mankind. And it is our duty to show our virtues in our good spech and in our refined manners.

n. AVOID USELESS TALK, ARGUMENTATION or DEBATE

o. Choose your VOCABULARY wisely
Do not speak to small children using complex words. And do not speak to scholars as you would your homies on the street. Choose your level of speech wisely. There is nothing worse than having an audience feel that you are trying to make them look stupid or that you view them as childish. Your speech conveys just as much about your views about the people you are talking to as it does about your views on the subject you are speaking about.

p. Use ANALOGIES and STORIES to connect with your audience
The Qu’ran and the stories of the Prophet and the companions are beautiful examples of how to effectively use analogies and story-telling to convey a deep message. Everyone in the entire world loves a good story. Instead of telling people x, y, and z, show them. Show them through vivid stories and analogies. Sports analogies are great. They go over really well with the brothers especially, and they are always very relevant.

q. Adjust your TONE OF VOICE properly
Show emotion. If you don’t, how do you expect your audience to care about what you’re saying? Don’t be afraid to show excitement, frustration, curiosity, thoughtfulness, fear, sadness, amazement, tenderness, love. Each of these emotions can be displayed through your tone of voice. Allow your audience to not just hear you, but to feel you.

r. Use RHETORICAL DEVICES and QUESTIONS to make the audience think with you
Allah (swt) did this in such an amazing manner in Surat Ar-Rahman. You can see my discussion of the rhetorical devices in this surah in my blog entry about ihsan.

s. Be as BRIEF but as THOROUGH as possible and stay as long as your audience wishes you to

t. Have SINCERE PASSION about your topic

u. Be CLEAR in your explanations

v. REPEAT important points

w. Use VISUAL AIDS when proper

x. ANTICIPATE & INVITE QUESTIONS

y. LISTEN to the speeches of others with the intention of bettering yourself in knowledge and eloquence

z. End with a DU’AA
Subhannaka Allahumma was bihamdik. Ashadu a la ilaha illa ant. Astaghfiruka was atoubu ilaik.
How perfect you are Oh Allah and I praise you. None has the right to be worshipped except You. I seek Your forgiveness and turn in repentence to You. (Tirmidhi)

He is successful whose heart Allah has made sincere toward faith, whose heart He has made free from unbelief, his tongue truthful, his soul calm, his nature straight, whose ear He has made attentive and his eye observant. The ear is a funnel and the eye is a repository for what the heart learns. He is successful whose heart is made retentive. (related by Abu Darr in Tirmidhi)

Justice and Tolerance: Values of a Muslim

We want justice. We want tolerance. For the Muslims. But if we hold rallies chanting, “No justice, no peace” for the Palestinians, shouldn’t we also be chanting the same for the victims of those suffering injustice, persecution and genocide in Darfur? Shouldn’t we be attending rallies for the rights of minorities in the United States and for the impoverished? Shouldn’t we be joining forces with those fighting for the rights of laborers and those demanding women’s rights?

If we desire so badly for non-Muslims to accept us and tolerate our rituals and practices, our prayers, our fasting, our style of dress, then we, too, must be the loudest voice for tolerance of other cultures and religious traditions. We must be that very last people to make disparaging comments about those practicing other religions…

To continue reading the article, please visit the Muslamics blog! 

Advice from a Young Muslim Activist

We’re activists. We are passionate about issues that are close to our hearts – Palestine, dispelling misconceptions about Islam, the war in Iraq, Imam Jameel, etc. Throughout the year, at campuses around the state and country, we see young Muslim students getting riled up about this or that, putting on protests, rallies, lectures, seminars, Fast-a-Thons, and sit-ins to promote these heartfelt issues.

But where is Allah swt in the mix? Where is Islam? Where is our spirituality?

We say that we are speaking out and doing all this for the sake of Allah….but are we?

To continue reading this article, please visit the Muslamics blog!

Fajr - The Hidden Treasure

So often, I see timestamps for messages I’ve been sent or blog posts of young Muslims, and a tinge of sadness stabs my heart. Even now, I’m looking at my computer clock flashing 11:33pm and a voice deep inside of me says, “It’s too late…hurry and get some sleep so you can wake up for fajr.”

The culture of young people in this country is that of the night. The world of young people comes alive post-10:00pm. Parties, clubs, exam cramming sessions, internet chatting, video gaming…it’s all done way after ishaa prayer, and this culture is interfering with our effectiveness as Muslim youth.

To continue reading this article, please visit the Muslamics blog!

As Salatu Khairun min an Naum

 

The Magic of Kindness

Kind words can be short and easy to speak but their echoes are truly endless.

Life is hard. It’s full of anxiety, stress, rejection, criticism, harshness, and negativity. These difficulties are always swirling around us. We have tons of fears that really wear us down and cause us to have a huge loss of self-esteem and confidence as we go through life.

Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.

 Through all of this whirlwind of difficulty, I’ve found a couple keys that keep a smile on my face and a light in my heart.  The first is the threefold concept of “iman…islam…ihsan” that I posted about awhile ago. The other is simply kindness.

Kindness is magic…it is so magical because it is (unfortunately) so rare. Kindness is also so magical because it is so incredibly easy to give. It takes seconds, at most a few moments, to give someone a piece of your heart and possibly change their lives forever. And in return, you will reap rewards many many times greater than what you originally put in.

Those who bring sunshine into the lives of others, cannot keep it from themselves

Kindness is…
-being open and honest with the people you love and appreciate and telling them very clearly that (1) you love them and (2) specifically what you love about them
-writing someone an email, a text message, a short note, or a card with a few kind words from your heart
-encouraging someone, telling them that you believe in them and that they can achieve their aims
-writing a du’aa for someone, sincerely praying to Allah (swt) this du’aa, and giving the person the du’aa as a gift from your heart
-sending someone a link to a cool website with a kind message “Thought of you when I read this”
-giving positive and uninhibited feedback to someone when they do something good
-calling your friends and just letting them know you care
-going out of your way a little bit to benefit someone else
-a million other things that just flow from your heart when you feel love for those around you

Kindness is whatever you do for others that gives you that light in your heart and that smile on your face.

Kindness isn’t about excessive praise or lip service. It’s about thinking about others on a regular basis with true, uncorrupted love. It’s about enriching the lives of those you care about so that they, too, can have ease and times of joy during this struggle through life. It’s about giving of your heart without fear of it getting trampled. It’s going to get trampled,  believe me. It doesn’t matter. Kindness repays itself many times over and in the end, your little acts of kindness will create a life for you that is majestic. Take the risk. Don’t be embarassed or inhibited or nervous about the result. Just take the plunge, give yourself freely, and watch how it changes your life.

Small things done with great love will change the world.

 

 

George Washington, the Pseudo-Muslim

So not enough of us know our history. As a matter of fact, the only way to really learn American history is to get it from really deep scholars….NOT Prentice Hall publishers that make your standard US History books for 11th grade. Yikes! That stuff is scary!

I mean, honestly, who cares how tall each of our Presidents were? Who cares??!! But it never fails, the introduction to the chapter about George Washington tells us that he cut down that cherry tree (another completely useless piece of information) and that he was approximately 6′ tall. Skip a few hundred pages of useless treaties and war dates and you’ll find that Abraham Lincoln was 6′4″ and “rawboned,” whatever that means. So yeah, point being, you don’t know much of anything about the real important stuff until you embark on your own and delve into the lives of these interesting men who had the brilliant idea to break away from the mighty Crown of England.

Most of you have already probably stopped reading because this has to do with history and Anglo-Saxon white dudes. Well, for those of you who have stayed with me, you’re in for a treat. George Washington’s Farewell Address of 1796 is chalk full of….Islam! And it’s not just some far-fetched analogies. Oh no, this is good stuff. Let’s get into it!

The Presidency as an Amana
In his farewell address, Washington reveals that he is a man of character as he continually refers to his position as President as “that important trust.” George Washington understood his post as President to be a weight, a responsibility weighing on him, like our understanding of the Arabic word, “amana.” He treated his position as a duty to his people and to his God, and thus understood the true meaning of public service.

GW Warns of the Dangers of Bida
SubhanAllah, George Washington, in his Farewell Address, also warned the American people of the dangers of innovations, or as we are familiar with the Arabic term, “bida.” He asserted, “Towards the preservation of your government, and the permanency of your present happy state, it is requisite, not only that you steadily discountenance irregular oppositions to its acknowledged authority, but also that you resist with care the spirit of innovation upon its principles, however specious the pretexts.”

He understood that innovations, no matter how great they look on their face, have the tendency to weaken and corrupt the permanency of preservation of established authority. This is the same understanding that we have in Islam. It is truly amazing to read the writings of great minds and find Islam interwoven in their ideas. To me, this type of finding renews my faith and reminds me that Islam is fitra, it is what all good, pure people have inside of them. Obviously, George Washington, with this intricate wisdom, was such a man.

George Reiterates the Necessity of Religion

Furthermore, George Washington, contrary to many of the extreme leftists of modern times (I am a democrat, by the way, so I can rake on leftists), understood that religion is an integral part of man’s existance. Washington went so far as to say that man cannot perform his civic duties without a sense of a higher power overlooking and guiding his work. SubhanAllah….he says,

“Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connections with private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked: Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice ? And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.”

George Advocates Peace Unless Oppression is Ever-Present
If you would like to understand how George Washington would have handled the Israel issue, just read the Farewell Address section starting with the phrase, “Observe good faith and justice towards all nations; cultivate peace and harmony with all. Religion and morality enjoin this conduct…”

You will find his advice to be most interesting. Maybe some of you who take the time to read Washington’s musings on foreign policy can comment on how his thoughts should be carried out today. But I think it is enough to examine this bold statement,

“The great rule of conduct for us in regard to foreign nations is in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little political connection as possible. So far as we have already formed engagements, let them be fulfilled with perfect good faith. Here let us stop.”

These are just a few of the insights that George Washington’s Farewell Address contains. Islam, it principles, ethics, and morals are much more a part of the true and original fabric of this country than most people know or will admit. This country, in its roots, at its best, loves what Islam has to offer, could benefit greatly from the implementation of true Islamic principles, and would welcome the spirit of Islam within its government structure and communities. For these reasons, we have to read our history. We have to learn and make these connections and grow in our knowledge of our own Islamic legacy. Once connections are made, bridges can be constructed and people can begin moving across to the light.

Marriage (that should get your attention)

I’ve traveled far and wide (throughout Southern California, that is) and spent much time with many different groups of Muslims. The one common denominator seems to be the sisters’ concern about getting married. These girls are masha’Allah very educated, intelligent, knowledgeable about Islam, moderate in their beliefs, strong in their character, active in their communities, and yet, they fear that either they will never get married or that if they do get married, they fear divorce.

I can understand their anxiety. I’m 27, and according to a make-shift graph on some Muslim brother’s blog, that means that my “desirability” is waning and my time is running out. That’s really interesting because I actually think I’m at my height right now. I’m done with school, I have an amazing job that has flexible hours and low stress levels. I’m financially secure. I’m not high maintenance. I’m active in the community. I take good care of myself physcially. I have a great family who is fun and ready and willing to embrace a great guy. And most importantly, I know myself. I know what I need, what I love, what I can’t stand, what my goals are, where I stand on important issues, and who I am in the core of my heart and soul. When I was 25, I couldn’t have said that. So that whole “desirability” chart just got blown out of the water. I’m a better person at 27, and you know what, most educated girls won’t be at their height until about that age, give or take a few years.

And the previous paragraph isn’t just a description of me. It’s a description of a LOT of the girls who are either done with their Masters or their JD, starting clinical rotations or wrapping up med school. It’s all the girls that I talk to all over the place. Same profile, same fears.

These girls that have decided to pursue the highest educational standards available in this country are scared that no brother is going to ask for them. What a shame. The most intelligent, most driven, ambitious, perseverent, dedicated women in this ummah who will be able to move and shake the policies, practices, and principles of this country to include more Islamic ethics, morals and virtues are fearing for their future.

My message to the brothers…bring security to these sisters, start realizing their worth in your lives and in the lives of your future children. The “desirability” of the women you marry should include their desire to better themselves, to educate themselves, to raise themselves up as leaders of the community. Take a chance with a sister who can debate with you on issues of the day, who can work side by side with you in the community, whose intelligence may even surpass your own. It’s not a bad thing. It’s something to respect and cherish.

The best, strongest, longest-lasting, and most loving marriage between two Muslims that I have ever seen is between a very brilliant man and his even-more brilliant wife. He respects her for her genius and never fails to tell everyone that his wife is smarter than him. He isn’t threatened by it. They make an amazing team, with amazing children and an overall amazing life.

My message to the sisters…the road you are choosing may be more difficult, but if your intentions are for the sake of Allah to grow in knowledge with the motivation of improving our ummah, then press on and believe deeply in the hikma of Allah (swt). He will bring you happiness and you should not fear or have anxiety. Put your trust in Him.

Allah is the best of planners. He has your life all laid out. There are benchmarks along our path that are written for us. Our risq, our time of death, our marriage partner, our children. Allah knows already. So why worry. When I lived in Mexico, anxiety was always alleviated when my tia would say, “Que sera, sera,” what will be, will be.

Sisters, keep striving, have no anxiety, and know that your pure intentions, your hard work, your striving will not go unrewarded. You might have to wait longer, much longer than your mother did and maybe some of your friends. But you will have Allah’s blessing and you will live in peace and happiness all the days of your life. Just continue on this path of education, righteousness, and activism and know that you are in Allah’s hands.

Brothers, look at these amazing sisters. You have never had a more amazing variety of beautiful women who are intent on reviving this ummah. Be bold. These women are the building blocks of the future of Islam. Believe me, they can cook some amazing food and keep a beautiful home, too! You lose nothing and gain everything by being willing to look at these amazing women and see their pricelessness.

The Brilliance (and absolute criminality) of the Bush Administration

“The majority of Americans, the ones who never elected you, are not fooled by your weapons of mass distraction.”
Michael Moore

The above quote may be true. Perhaps the majority of Americans are not fooled by this administration’s “weapons of mass distraction.” But perhaps that isn’t the point. Perhaps it’s not that simple. Perhaps the true brilliance (and criminality) of the Bush administration is that its members know they cannot fool us but they can overwhelm our senses and our resources with more and new “bad acts” that will distract us and take our focus off last month’s scandal, last week’s catastrophe, and yesterday’s infamous offense. The brilliance of the administration’s strategy is its willingness to dish out a continuous onslaught of negative press in an attempt to take away all efforts to focus on any one particular controversial event or investigate thoroughly any one specific misconduct.

Firing federal prosecutors without cause
Outing Valerie Plame-Wilson, a CIA covert operative
Illegally wiretapping and spying on American citizens
Iraq
Endorsing and Approving torture in Guantanamo Bay & abroad
Harboring “enemy combatants” without charges in secret prisons in Eastern Europe
Failing to allocate funds to research alternate energy sources
Driving the national debt up from a surplus to hundreds of billions of dollars in the red
Supporting Israel in its summer campaign against Lebanon
Refusing to support stem cell research
Donald Rumsfeld, Alberto Gonzalez, Condoleezza Rice, Harriet Miers, Mike Brown, Scooter Libby, Karl Rove, Dick Cheney, Daniel Pipes, Paul Wolfowitz, John Ashcroft
Cluster bombs
Illicit diversion of $700 million from Afghanistan to Iraq
Ohio, New Mexico, and Florida and the story of voter fraud and butterfly ballots
Jack Abramoff’s illegal lobbying and corrupting of public officials
Halliburton and Lockheed’s stock rising over 400% over the course of the Iraq war
War profiteering in general
Abu Ghraib
$1.8 billion of reconstruction money in Iraq disappearing
The Pentagon-Israel spy case with Larry Franklin
Illegal corporate contributions to Republican candidates
Dick Cheney shooting his friend and fellow hunter
No Child Left Behind
Ground Zero’s unsafe air and the EPAs false reporting
Iran
The Niger Forgeries and the (mis)use of Joe Wilson’s report
Senator Foley and his sexually explicit emails with Congressional pages
Tedd Haggard, crystal meth, male prostitutes and weekly White House briefings
“Mission Accomplished”
the list goes on and on and on…

There rarely goes a day or a week without some new crazy story that has some connection to the Bush administration. And it’s no coincidence. This is planned chaos. The brilliance of the strategy lies in the fact that, while each one of these scandals and failures could probably, if investigated to the its full extent, lead to impeachment or at the very least indictments of high numerous hacks and high ranking officials, the rapidity with which these stories flash upon us completely incapacitates us. While we are shocked, overwhelmed with horror, and outraged, that’s where it ends. But as we sit in our homes, watching CNN with our jaws dropped wondering, “Again? Another scandal?,” the political hacks and cronies keep profiting off their abuse of power and continue destroying all the amazing values and aspects that made this country great.

I wish I had an answer, a solution to the seemingly endless web of heinous acts that the Bush administration has committed. I wish I could end this post with some light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel proposal. But I think the most important thing that we can do right now is recognize the problem, the tactic, the grand scheme.

Once we see the pattern, then maybe we can plan better how to combat it. Our political organizations must start delegating and focusing energy on specific issues. Investigators must probe into one issue at a time and stick with it. News stations must not forget and just move on from one scandal to the next. They should remind us and update us on stories that unfolded months ago but that have been on the back-burner while new calamities have surfaced.

As Muslims, especially as Muslim youth, we must recognize these problems in the political realm and talk about them, speak out against them, write about them, stand up for the ideals and values that we know are consistent with Islam and democracy. We must not isolate ourselves to pursuing issues that relate solely to Muslims because, if you look at the list up above, you will notice that many, if not all the above misdeeds can be related to us as Muslims. They are an offense to our ideals and our way of life. And as citizens of this country, we must demand better from our leaders. Even if we don’t live in an Islamic state, we must relate Islam to our political world and stand up for the integrity, justice, equality, tolerance, fairness, and uprightness that our religion and our country’s Constitution call for.

We think we can have no impact. We feel that we are the scapegoat of modern times. We feel pressured, threatened, spied upon, criticized, misunderstood. But look…we have a Muslim female judge and a Congressman from Michigan. We have a man running for President of the United States who has Muslim roots (whether he likes it or not!). We have the country’s attention and it’s time for us to use this opportunity to promote not only causes that our close to our hearts like Palestine, but also those that might not seem as obvious. We have a place in this nation, and our morals, ethics and values should be heard, promoted, and adhered to. As Muslim youth, make an effort to read, research and get invovled in politics. Whether you make it a goal to read the New York Times or to work on a campaign, it doesn’t matter. But the Muslims are strong and intelligent, and knowledge will help us be productive, proactive citizens who can have a strong impact on how our government operates. Let’s add some Islam, some adab, some haya, some ihsan into the halls of Congress and through the rooms of the White House.

The grand project would be to make a mural and write on it the scandals I listed above and all the others that the Bush administration has engaged in, to serve as a reminder to people that…

…”we will never forget…”

…the defrauding of a nation, the blatant, shameless hubris, the virulent attack on our national conscience, the destruction of our good will, the glorification of all that is wrong with capitalism, the barefaced refusal to uphold the Constitution, the wanton pushing aside of democracy, the glaring neglect of the poor and oppressed, the utter acquiecence to the demands of private special interests and big business, the war on the middle class, the butchering of the soul of the United States of America.

Ihsan: The Pursuit of Excellence

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.
Aristotle

 

Ihsan….just saying the word in my head has a special ring to it, brings a certain unique, inspiring feeling to my heart. This word, this topic moves me. I hope it has that effect on you as well.

Our religion, our way of life is composed of three parts:
(1) Iman
(2) Islam
(3) Ihsan

To discuss ihsan, I must briefly go through the first two, iman and Islam.

IMAN
Iman must be mentioed as the first part of our deen because iman serves as our roots. For many years of the Prophethood, Allah revealed nothing except the concept of taqwa, ikhlas, and iman. It was not until the hearts of the first Muslims were saturated and strong with true iman did Allah (swt) begin introducing the next concept - Islam, to the ummah.

ISLAM
After our roots are firmly in place and take hold within rich soil that is watered and nourished continually, we can begin understanding and encouraging the practice of Islam or submission to the will of Allah. This Islam, or submission, is like the trunk of the tree, sturdy, reaching up to heights. Children are not required to pray until they are 7. Why? Because these first seven years are to be used by parents to plant the seed of iman and help this seed to grow strong roots by teaching their child about Allah (swt), about jannah, about the miracles and the angels and preparing them to have a strong, balanced character. The “rules” of Islam come more easily to those who have prepared their hearts with iman.

IHSAN
This is the forgotten, the neglected 1/3 of our deen. Yet, it is like the “cherry on top.” Ihsan is the fruit, the blossoms of our tree that show up when the roots and nourished and the trunk is free from disease and harmful insects. If we fail to nourish our iman or practice our submission to Allah, we will bear no fruit and our soul will die. But look into our history. It is rich with ihsan. All the achievements in art, science, architecture, literature, geography, politics, economics, social movement, philosophy, medicine and more came from the Muslims’ desire to attain ihsan. Ihsan is our lost treasure that we must unearth and revive.

“When a man says I cannot, he has made a suggestion to himself. He has weakened his power of accomplishing that which otherwise would have been accomplished.”
Muhammad Ali

Ihsan….what does it mean? Like so many other Arabic words that I have mentioned, it has a vast array of meanings. It cannot be summed up prettily in one English word or phrase. Ihsan is excellence. It is perfection. It is beauty. It is balance, harmony, discipline, good character, softness, gentleness, improvement, drive, will power. Ihsan is a human reflection, a human attempt to achieve a high level in the areas covered by the 99 beautiful names of Allah (swt).

In Surat Ar-Rahman, one of my favorite surahs, Allah (swt) uses one of the most powerful and difficult to use literary devices - the rhetorical question. If you have studied literature to any extent, you will know that the rhetorical question can only be used in very special, particularized situations and it can only be used when the author has much confidence and much leverage in the answer and the motivation for asking the question. The rhetorical device is amazing because, as it gives the answer to the question away, it leaves the reader to contemplate deeply on the meaning of the question, the profound reasons behind the obvious. Allah (swt), in Surat Ar-Rahman, conquers this literary device and uses it in truly miraculous ways.

In Surat Ar-Rahman, the most frequent rhetorical question asked is, “then which of the favors of your Lord will you deny?” which is asked 31 times out of a total of 78 verses. However, stuck in between 2 of these 31 rhetorical questions is another, more subtle, yet incredibly powerful ayah. It reads, “Is there any reward for ihsan except ihsan?”

This rhetorical question is amazing on myriad levels. I would like to share three levels of meaning for this rhetorical question:

(1) Those who sincerely strive in Allah’s Cause and attain ihsan in both their worship and their everyday activities will be rewarded for this excellence by being blessed by Allah (swt) with the sweetness of faith. They will be some of the few people who have walked the face of the earth and tasted this level of faith. God-consciousness will be continuous, and everything these few do will be geared for a higher purpose. They will have attained ihsan and in return, they will feel ihsan in their hearts.

(2) Those who sincerely strive in Allah’s Cause and attain ihsan in both their worship and their everyday activities will be rewarded for this excellence by being blessed by Allah (swt) with success in this dunya. This can be seen in our history, in our Golden Age. The Muslims of that time attained ihsan in their rituals and in their other activities. Allah rewarded this ihsan with ihsan - the excellence in this dunya that we read about - the amazing art, architecture, philosophy, medical advances, etc.

(3) Those who sincerely strive in Allah’s Cause and attain ihsan in both their worship and their everyday activities will be rewarded for this excellence by being blessed by Allah (swt) with the ultimate success, the ultimate ihsan - that of jannah in al-akhira.

So in summary, that one little rhetorical device in 55:60 is hidden, but it packs a huge punch. Those who realize the value of ihsan, who reach and strive and work for ihsan, who nourish their roots and groom their trunk in order to bear plentiful, amazing fruit will be rewarded with Allah’s forms of ihsan - the sweetness of faith, success in the dunya, and the ultimate success in al-akhira.

So how does this relate to us right here, right now? We’re high school, college, grad students. We’re young people in the workforce. We’re newly married, engaged, or waiting our turn. We’re brothers and sisters and aunts, uncles, cousins, and children. We’re youth group leaders or mentors or committee heads in MSA/MSU. What does ihsan mean in our lives?

It means that every day, when you’re in a boring class or you get handed an assignment for a 15 page paper or you learn about a comprehensive final exam or you get a huge project from your boss or your mom asks you to make dinner or clean your room or your brother or sister asks for help with homework or to play with you outside - that you stop…that you stop the immediate negative reaction that we’ve been trained to play over and over again when it comes to these sorts of things.

We stop, and we realize that this is our opportunity for ihsan. That this is another opportunity for us to make our intentions for Allah (swt), to please Him. That this is a chance for us to add something to our Life’s Book that Allah (swt) will open on the Day of Judgment and look upon us with joy and be proud of us. For, as Yusuf al-Qaradawi has mentioned,

Allah loves when one of you is given a task, that he or she does it in the most excellent manner.

Sheikh al-Qaradawi didn’t say that Allah “likes” when you do things with ihsan. He didn’t say that Allah thinks it’s “ok” or “cool” or “alright.” One of the greatest scholars of Islam says that Allah “LOVES” when we do things with ihsan. Allah LOVES. Think about that for just a second and let it set in. Think about the last time someone you respected/admired told you that they loved something you did. How did that make you feel? You were beaming for days, most likely. You remembered what they said and how they reacted and you kept replaying it in your head again and again. Imagine then, how amazing it would feel to do something that Allah (swt) LOVES. Imagine standing in front of Allah (swt) on the Day of Judgment and having Him tell you all the things that you did that He LOVED. Imagine how you would feel.

So when you have a test or a paper or you have to mow the lawn or you are going to the gym or playing football or doing an MSA event, do it with ihsan! Don’t just “be,” don’t just get by, don’t just pass. Be EXCELLENT, strive for PERFECTION, be the BEST in your class, show the world how Islam inspires you to attain ihsan!

We are given just a few moments in this dunya. Each breath is a priceless jewel and when it passes it never returns….make this moment, this breath, this heart beat one that resounds with ihsan!

IMAN…………………………ISLAM……………………………IHSAN

Death: A Concept to Live By

We’re, not one of us, getting out of this alive….

So why are we so afraid to speak of our inevitable demise? Why is it considered morbid or pessimistic to contemplate such a certainty? What is it about this topic that makes most people so uncomfortable?

We are young people. We’ve lived 20, 25, 30 years. We’re, many of us, still in school or just entering the work force. We are healthy, fresh, energetic, full of life. We stay up til all hours of the night joking around with our friends or watching lame movies or cramming for midterms. Whether we get 8 hours of sleep or 3 hours of sleep, we function at a pretty high level. We have expectations, dreams, aspirations, goals, and visions to make realities. We’re just too young to die or even talk about death, for that matter.

Plus, we live in the “West,” most of us in California. And if you live in California, it’s all about being “forever young,” looking better at 40 than you did at 18….it’s Hollywood, baby! Californians keep the botox/cosmetic surgery industries alive! Our culture is about the here and now, living it up, partying from dawn to dusk, and buying cool, cooler and the coolest stuff! I mean, I have even fallen prey to thinking that people without an iPod are kinda, hmmm, how can I put this lightly….lame?

This is the culture of consumerism. You work so you can buy cool stuff. You pray for a promotion so you can buy cooler stuff. How can you think about death when life is so much fun cruisin’ down the freeway (in traffic of course) in the Mercedes that you can’t afford, listening to music that spouts about guns, sex, violence and drugs, on your way to a movie in which 90% of the actors are or have been in rehab (but are still glorified as superhumans and paid more money than you will ever see in your lifetime) where you will be surrounded by girls who spent more on their haircuts than a family in Africa will survive on for a whole year and guys who spent more time in front of the mirror geling their hair than they have this whole month listening to world news?! There’s no room for death, for a moment’s seriousness, in this circus we call the most advanced society on the planet.

And even if you’ve managed to avoid the worst California has to offer, you have probably still been caught up in the whirlwind of scholastic achievement, family obligations, MSA rallies and activism, and the plans you’re making for the future concerning grad school, marriage, careers, financial responsibilities, etc.

We prepare so intently for this dunya. We plan weddings for months. We plan our careers for years. We plan vacations for weeks. We plan our weekends days in advance. But none of these events in our lives are certain. The one certainty in our lives, the one event that will inevitably occur is the demise of our physical, tangible bodies. And yet, our days and nights are spent without this fact even crossing our minds at all.

Furthermore, we’re comfortable here. Dunya is what we know. We have our rooms, our homes, our friends, our school pride, our communities, our families, all the stuff that is familiar to us. To most of us, it’s even difficult to think of moving to another city or another state, let alone leaving this world for one that we can’t comprehend and that we’ve never seen.

The reason we’d rather talk about sports or medical school or politics than about death is because we’re not prepared for it. We don’t know about it. We haven’t researched it like we’ve researched for our essays and midterms. We haven’t scoured books or listened to CDs about it or asked other people about it like we’ve scouted for fantasy football teams. We haven’t contemplated about it or put any thought into it the way we’ve thought about what to wear and say and sit at our first job interview. And most importantly, we haven’t made our intentions to live each moment as if it’s our last and to pray each prayer as if it’s our last and treat our loved ones as if we won’t see them the next day. We treat the small, trivial stuff like it’s monumental and the monumental stuff like it’s small and trivial.

As Muslim youth, we have to help one another to change our perspective on death and realize the blessings, the reward, and the dire importance of remembering death, and remembering it often. At some point, hopefully sooer than later, we need to face this concept of death head on and attempt to understand how better to live as a traveler through this fleeting, ethereal lifetime in order to reach our ultimate destination, al-jannah.

And seek with that which Allah has given you the realm of the hereafter and do not neglect your portion in this life. And be gracious as Allah has been gracious to you. And do not seek corruption in the land for Allah does not love the those who involve themselve in corruption.
(28:77)

As the spring brings blossoms and green life to all the plants and crops over the land, so too will the autun come sooner than later with its bitter cold and wind, and then winter will follow to turn the remaining green of leaves and vibrant colors of flowers to browns and twigs and dust. It is the same with this life. We are in bloom right now, and although we view our lives as long and lasting, they are but a mere blink of an eye, a transition from one season to the next. A single drop of water amidst the vastness of the earth’s oceans.

So how do we become like one who is a traveler through this world? What will you need for this journey? I like to analogize our Islamic perspective on this concept to the situation of a real life traveler, one who goes on vacation to say, Paris or Rome. What would this traveler need on his/her journey, and can we make an analogy to these necessities from an Islamic perspective? Here are my thoughts concerning this idea:

1. In most cases, the first step in preparing for a journey is to make a reservation. A reservation reveals (a) your destination and (b) the date of your trip. Our Islamic “reservation” has already been booked. Our “reservation” is our destiny. It was established before we were even conceived. Allah has written our destiny in our books and the pens are withdrawn, the pages are dry. As we sit here at this very moment, our hearts beating, our lungs pumping oxygen through our blood, we have a reservation to stand in front of Allah (swt) and account for our lives in this dunya.

2. A lot of people who go on trips purchase books/maps or guides about their destination. They want to learn all about it so that they know what to do on their trip. They want to know how to get around and where the local “hot spots” are. Our maps/guide books are Qur’an and sunnah. We have Allah’s words to give us direction throughout our journey and we have the Prophet’s (pbuh) example as someone who has “been there, done that” who has left us with a wealth of information and stories about his journey through this dunya.

3. If we’re traveling international, we often need a passport. You have to keep your passport current as a declaration that you are in fact a citizen of the country and a person with the intention to travel. Our passport in Islam is our identity as a Muslim and our constant need to renew our intentions. Purification of the soul. The shahada that we say in our five daily prayers. By constantly remembering our deen and reaffirming our intentions to walk in the Path of Islam and live in a way that would be pleasing to Allah, we are declaring that we are “citizens” of jannah and that we are “travelers” in this dunya.

4. If you’re traveling to a place you’ve never been, you’ll probably want to take a tour with some local guides or have a translator handy so that you can have someone knowledgeable with you at all times. In our lives as Muslims, we also need guides. The best guide we have is the Prophet (pbuh) and his sunnah. But we also have our role models, like the sahaba and others who have lived lives worthy of following. And we have schoalrs of the past and present who we can look to for the wisdom and knowledge in Islamic jurisprudence.

5. Sometimes, you’ll need to get immunizations before you leave on your journey so that you don’t run the risk of picking up diseases while you are away. Immunizations for us as Muslim youth are like innoculating ourselves against harmful people, places, and activities that can make our hearts sick and keep us from maximizing our journey through this dunya. Immunizations keep us away from things that are fitna to us. Immunizations are our commitment to personal jihad.

6. Most people like traveling with travel companions. Our travel partners in this dunya will have a huge impact on our ultimate resting place. Just as companions pretty much make or break a trip, they also can pretty much make or break our journey toward Allah (swt). Show me a person with good, wholesome friends and I will show you a successful person.

7. If you’re like me, you like making an itinerary of what you’re going to do and when you’re going to do it during each day of your journey. If I’m traveling somewhere far, I keep my itinerary pretty light during the first couple days, and then I add increasingly more activities as my journey proceeds. Our itinerary as Muslims is our daily lives and how we schedule our time for Allah (swt). We have to recognize that our journeys as Muslims is a long, arduous one. We can’t jam pack our first phase of the journey or else we will just burn out and be unable to function for the remainder of the trip. We have to develop our iman in steps and phases, adding a little more activity and goals with each week, month and year that goes by. We aren’t going to wake up and be like Abu Bakr tomorrow. We have to plan our life’s itinerary with the knowledge that Allah loves actions for His sake that are consistent, even if they are small. He loves each step and effort we take with sincerity for Him. Plan accordingly.

8. When we go on a trip, we pack luggage. Clothes, personal hygiene items, etc. are all necessary to make our trip more comfortable. If we found ourselves in Rome with empty luggage, we might be a bit unnerved. We’d be forced to wear the same thing for days on end, and after a few days, we’d be pretty ugly and dirty. So when we “pack our bags” for this trip through dunya, what do we want to make sure we have to make sure we are lookin’ our best when we meet with Allah (swt). Our luggage is all the stuff, all the actions, the things we’ve done to make ourselves beautiful in the sight of Allah (swt). Allah (swt) tells us that He doesn’t judge us by our outward bodies but by our intentions, our heart, and our actions for His sake. Therefore, our luggage is the good deeds we’ve done, the zakaat we’ve given, the du’aa we’ve made, the prayers we’ve prayed, the Qur’an we’ve memorized, the dhikr we’ve made, and all the little things we’ve done with pure intentions to pack and store away only for Allah (swt) to know about. They are the things that we want to have when we stand in front of Allah (swt) and unzip our suitcases so that we can show Him that we’ve packed intelligently and dutifully for our journey.

9. Planes, trains and automobiles. When we travel, we need some sort of vehicle. In this dunya, our vehicle to reach our final destination is the body, the physical manifestation of self that Allah (swt) has blessed us with. Just as planes, trains and automobiles need some sort of fuel and regular maintenance, so too do our bodies. We need constant maintenance in the forms of self reflection and improvement, education, health and wellness. We need exercise, outdoor activities, sunlight, clean water, and healthy foods. And we need spirituality and ibadah to maintain our souls. Allah (swt) has given us our bodies as an amanah, a trust, and the way we maintain our bodies will have a direct impact on how effectively we will travel through this dunya.

10. Last, but definitely least on my list of necessary items for making a journey, is a good pair of shoes. Sure, it depends on where you’re going. If you’re going to hike Mt. Everest, you’ll need hikinig boots, whereas if you are planning on going to Fiji, you’ll need some excellent flip flops. However, I think we’d all agree that no matter what category your shoes fall into, you’ll want them to be rugged and sturdy so that they will endure all the abuse that a trip will put on them as well as soft and gentle so that you will feel comfort throughout the duration of your journey. In a similiar vein, a good pair of shoes is like a good heart for the Muslim traveler. Our hearts are at the epicenter of our physical existence and they are also a central component of our spiritual well-being. Our hearts, like our traveling shoes, must be strong and sturdy to battle through all the trials and tribulations that this dunya will bring our way. As Allah (swt) reminds us in the Qur’an: “Did you think that you would enter al-Jannah without Allah testing those of you who fought hard (In His Cause) and remained steadfast?” To endure the tests that Allah (swt) puts in our path to examine our level of iman, we must have strength of heart. On the other hand, our hearts must also be soft and gentle. We must be forgiving and loving toward our families and friends. We must rush to tell those we love how we feel. We must be excited about showing our love for those around us and for our world. Our hearts must melt when we talk about the Prophet (pbuh) and his life and legacy. We must cry easily when we reflect on death and our return to Allah (swt). Islam is the middle path, and it requires a heart that is both sturdy and soft, just like a traveler’s good pair of shoes.

All these are the necessary ingredients for our travels through this dunya. We must pack our bags and change our views about this life. We must detach ourselves from the trivialities of this life and attach ourselves to the eternal ramifications of the hereafter. As Allah (swt) reminds us in the Qur’an,

O people! The promise of Allah is surely true so do not let the life of this world deceive you nor be deceived by the Deceiver.
(35:6)

We must realize that our time is limited, that we must rush to please Allah (swt) so that we are not one of those who, when our death approaches us, we plead with Allah (swt) for just a few more moments, or one more day to pray two more rak’ah or say subhan’Allah a few more times. We must begin our good journey toward al-jannah today. The time is now. The time is now. The time is now.

 

Work In Progress

I am a work in progress. I know where I’ve been, but sometimes I don’t know where I’m going. I have dreams, aspirations, vision. I also have student loans and a weird boss. So where does that leave me? It leaves me here…exactly where I’m supposed to me, exactly where Allah wants me right now. And no matter what comes my way, I will

strive, persist, and endure with peace in my heart knowing that the pens are withdrawn, the pages are dry.

Often, as I sit here contemplating how to share some of my more deeply held thoughts with you, I’m struck by the nagging questions…”What purpose do I serve?” “How can I be a positive force in this mess of a world we are living in?” “What is Allah (swt) asking of me?”

I’m sure you’ve all had these sensations before. As active, young Muslims, we’ve been trained to feel a sense of duty, calling, responsibility, purpose in our lives from a very young age. Now that I am out of school (for the time being) and my purpose is no longer to be the best student I could possibly be, the longing to understand my purpose in this dunya is even more poignant. Sometimes, so much so that it actually becoms a disturbance to my sense of peace and tranquility. It is a persisting question, a puzzle that I’m attempting to piece together with each passing hour, day, week. When I can’t figure out what piece fits best, I begin feeling frustration and anxiety because I know that my time is limited.

I don’t want to float through this life without contributing to my community, the lives of those in my family and of my friends, the Islamic movement in this country. But how? When? Where? In what capacity?

Sometimes, attempting to “find ourselves” can lead to just this sort of panic. The sense of urgency to improve our own small circle of life is a good thing. But if we allow it to overwhelm us, we might become so consumed that we lose our ability to function effectively, to trust in the gifts that Allah has blessed us each with and to trust in the wisdom and power of Allah to work in us and through us.

When we look around us, we see government officials lying to us while looking us straight in the eye, we see our soldiers fighting for an illegal war of profiteering and then coming home only to fight another war against a government that views our veterans as good enough to die but not good enough to care for. We see athletes and celebrities who live like kings and queens, but who somehow can’t stay out of rehab. We see more air time spent on immoral filth like Anna Nicole Smith than on real issues and real people who are making a positive impact in the world. We see……a mess.

And when we look at this mess, we have ideas, we have contributions, we have insight and wisdom and worthy opinions that could be categorized as earth-shattering….if only someone would listen. And the questions of purpose begin to manifest and the anxiety looms heavy once again.

It is during these times that we must stop…quiet our minds and hearts….find a peaceful place and go to Allah.

The Muslim brothers and sisters who I have met in my short time since converting in 2001 have the ability to change the world. They have the motivation, drive, willingness, integrity, faith, brilliance, persistence, work ethic, ingenuity and creativity to solve many of the hardest problems facing our world today. When we have such a dynamic community, we need to encourage and teach our youth the value of trusting in the power of Allah to guide us all, so that the weight of the world’s hardships does not fall on us all at once and crush our spirits.

When we feel lost or confused as to how we can contribute in our own unique way to the Muslim ummah and to this Deen that Allah has blessed us with, we need to go to Him, cry to Him, say to Him at the top of our voice, from the bottom of our Heart, with every ounce of our feeling,

“ya Allah, I so want to be part of Your Way and Your Cause. ya Allah, I want to discover the uniqueness that you have blessed me with as an individual for Your sake. I want to use this special gift to improve my world and to please You. Give me patience with myself. Give me persistence to trudge this difficult path. Give me faith and hope in Your guidance so that I may trust that You will lead me to my destiny. ya Allah, help me to make my life worthy of Your pleasure and one leading to al-Jannah.”

And then move forward knowing that Allah is in charge…so strive, persist, and endure with peace in your heart knowing that the pens are withdrawn, the pages are dry, and your book is truly a masterpiece.

Sabr: Key to Paradise

Allah (swt) did not reveal Islam through the Qur’an in the Arabic language for no good reason. The Qur’an is literary perfection on myriad levels. But the miracle that stands out most to me, as a convert and one who is just in my infancy in terms of learning Arabic, is the richness and depth and strength that Allah (swt) conveyed very succinctly with the Qur’anic Arabic. I hope to have numberous posts about various words in the Qur’an, and so today, I’d like to start out this little “mini-series” with the term, “sabr.” While there are hundreds, if not thousands of words in Arabic that are powerful and worthy of discussion, I believe this one ranks as #1 or at least in the top 3. (Others with power rankings coming soon….stay tuned!)

What is sabr? It is a short, sweet, simple word. Yet it is jam-packed with meaning, with feeling, with intensity. See, I can’t even explain what sabr is and the effects of this one little word without filling an entire page in English!

Sabr means…
patience
strength of will
being steadfast amid tribulations
enduring trials and afflictions
constancy despite surrounding changes
forbearance
preparedness to sacrifice
determination in the face of opposition
courage in the face of oppression

Today, in our society, anxiety, stress and depression are more common than not, and therefore, the importance and all-inclusiveness of the word Sabr is even more vital to our success as Muslims and as an ummah.

Allah reminds us:
“O you who believe, seek assistance (and solace) through Patience and Prayer;
Surely, Allah is with those who patiently persevere.
Refer not to those who have been slain in the path of Allah as being dead;
no, they are alive though you perceive it not.
Rest assured that you will be tested with fear, hunger, loss of property, lives and of fruits of your labor.
Convey glad tidings to those who are patient - those who when affliction, trial or tribulation befall them say,
‘Surely from Allah we come and unto Him is our return.’
Such are those on whom the blessings and mercy from Allah descends, such are they who follow the path of Divine Guidance.”

The significance of Sabr in the Islamic way of life can be gauged by the Prophet’s (saws) consideration of it as half of faith and as the key to Paradise. The other half is thankfulness. And so we are reminded:

How remarkable a believer’s affair is, for it is always to his advantage, and such a condition is only for a believer. If something good happens to him he thanks God, which is to his advantage; if something bad happens to him he endures it, which is also to his advantage.

May we all grow and develop the intensity, depth and richness of this term, sabr, that we may endure the hardships of this life with our eyes set firmly on the prize that Allah (swt) has promised us…

“…with hardship comes ease…verily, with hardship comes ease.”

Al-jannah is the “ease” for which all endurance is made worthwhile

 

 

Finding Balance as Muslim Youth

Before I begin, I want to emphasize that these exercises of writing in this blog and expounding upon lessons applicable to our lives is as much if not more a benefit to me as to you. I write first and foremost as an advisement to myself, so that I might improve as a Muslim and as a friend to each of you. The ideals that I write about, I do not claim to possess. Every word that I write, if it is good, it is from the mercy and will of Allah. And if I write anything offensive or negative, the blame is mine. I am a work in progress, and I ask for your prayers that I may have pure intentions in this endeavor, for it is always difficult to maintain purity in the face of any type of leadership position. Again, the words that follow, I hope and pray that I may benefit from them, just as I hope you will so that we all may say in unison with confidence that our lives, our living, our dying, our every breath has been for the sake of Allah.

“Finding Balance as a Muslim Youth”

Our lives are hectic. We have difficult classes and drama with friends and work to juggle and family commitments and our future to plan and worry about and credit scores and LSAT/MCAT/GRE scores and marriage concerns and MSA issues and….the list goes on and on. Often we’ll get a headache or feel overwhelmed or ill or exhausted from the tumult of “stuff” going on in our lives. Often, we just feel “lost” or out of whack. Our mind isn’t at peace and we don’t feel that harmony and joy that all the yoga-zen-tai chi masters are talking about.So how do we get from the craziness and lopsidedness of today to the peace and contentment that we long to feel, that we yearn for?

The answer is to seek balance. The next question is…how?

Balance, as the ultimate goal of Islam (the middle road), is really a three-step process. I will list the steps and then discuss each in more depth.

1. Purify your intentions
2. Establish your priorities
3. Arrange your time

These three steps are not steps you will go through once in your life and then be done. On the contrary, in order to achieve and maintain balance in our lives, we must be continuously going through these steps from now until it is our time to leave this world and travel to our next and final destination.

Step 1: Purify your intentions
Most of us have heard the hadith narrated by Umar bin al-Khattaab, who relates,

‘I heard the Messenger of Allaah, sallallaahu alayhi wa sallam, saying, “verily actions are by intentions, and for every person is what he intended. So the one whose hijra was to Allaah and His Messenger, then his hijrah was to Allaah and His Messenger. And the one whose hijrah was for the world to gain from it, or a woman to marry her, then his hijrah was to what he made hijrah for.”
(Related by Bukhari and Muslim)

What many of us do not know is that the scholars of Islam unanimously agree that this is the first hadith ever narrated. Imam Bukhari, the most famous collectors of hadith commences his sahih with this hadith and the scholars of Islam also have said that this hadith is one of the hadith around which the whole religion revolves, and it is related from Imam ash-Shafi’i that he said, “this hadith constitutes a third of all knowledge.”

Why are these facts about this hadith so important?
Well, first of all, they are important facts because they shed some light on just how important purification of intentions is.

Secondly, I wanted to re-emphasize how vital it is that we make purification of intentions our first step when we are seeking balance in our lives. We need to first sit down quietly in the sanctity of our own thoughts, go into the presence of holiness and flush ourselves of all the “stuff” that is jumbled inside our head and declare our intention to Allah that our search for balance is for His sake so that He will be pleased with us when we stand in front of Him on that inevitable day.

If Imam Bukhari commenced his book with this hadith about intentions and Abdur-Rahman al-Mahdee announced that the chapters of any book written should include this hadith at its beginning, how necessary then is it for us to commence our search for balance with pure intentions? I assert to you that the most valuable asset in this world is the purity of your intentions behind your good actions.

Step 2: Establish Your Priorities
Once we have cleared our intentions (and I want to emphasize again that we will never be done with this first step…the purification of intentions is so important and so easy to lose that we must continually be in the process of purifying our motives), we can begin to establish our priorities. To illustrate this step, I’d like to relate a story to you.

A professor stood before this Philosophy 101 class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, wordlessly, he picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.

The professor then picked up a jar of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles, of course, rolled into the open spaces between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They again agreed it was full.
The professor picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar and, of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with a unanimous yes.

“Now”, said the professor, “I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the important things - your family, your partner, your health, your children, your friends, your favorite passions - things that if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full.”

“The pebbles are the other things that matter, like your job, your house, your investments…The sand is everything else - the small stuff, always present but not too important. If you put the sand into the jar first”, he continued, “there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls.

The same goes for your life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have room for the things that are important to you. Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Sit and have a nice dinner with your parents. Give your best friend a card or in some way express your love and appreciation for them. Play with your children. Take time to get medical checkups. Take your wife or husband out to a movie. Play games and see the world. There will always be time to go to work, clean the house, watch tv and fix the garbage disposal. Take care of the golf balls first - the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand.”

This story is a wonderful illustration of the second step that we must undertake if we are to achieve balance in our lives. Sometimes, because of all the “stuff” cluttering our lives, we put too much emphasis on stuff that, in the long run, really doesn’t matter. How many times has a night been ruined because you forgot to TiVo Grey’s Anatomy? How many times have we beat ourselves up because we had a Snickers bar and didn’t go to the gy? How many times have we snapped at our moms or dads or siblings or best friends or gotten into an argument for no good reason? How many times have we looked into our past and realized that we hadn’t been very diligent at setting our priorities?

We have this problem all the time. All of us. Nobody is perfect at setting priorities, but in order for us to be the most effective Muslim youth, for us to go out into the world and change the ummah for the better, for us to revive the legacy of the Prophet (pbuh) and the sahaba, we must purify our intentions and establish very clear priorities.

Everyone will have different “golf balls.” Obviously, one that we should all have in common is practicing Islam to the best of our ability and moving forward in our iman and ibaada. Another that we should all have in common is being a loving, valuable member of our families. Since we are all students, another golf ball should be doing our very best in our classes and showing the value of Islam through our work in all our academic pursuits.

The other golf balls are yours to figure out. I can’t name them for you. So I encourage you to take the time to purify your heart and then to physically write down the golf balls, the pebbles and the sand in your life, and to remember these various aspects with that imagery in mind. When you feel yourself starting to fill your life’s jar with sand, you might want to slow down and rearrange your priorities.

Step 3: Arrange Your Time
Once you know your priorities and you have a basic list of the important (and not so important) things in your life, it’s time to make a schedule. Obviously, I’m not talking about accounting for every single second of every single day. I know that there are random things that come up that prevent us from being able to keep a precise, to the second calendar. However, that being said, we also cannot be too loose with our time and too willing to live our lives “off the cuff” so to speak.

Imam al-Ghazali says it amazingly:

 

You should structure your time, arrange your regular devotions and assign to each function a set period of time during which it is given first priority but which it does not overstep.

 

For if you abandon yourself to neglect and purposelessness, as cattle do, and just do anything that may occur to you at any time it happens to occur to you, most of your time will be wasted.

 

Your time is your life, and your life is your capital; it is the basis of your transactions [with God], and the means to attain to everlasting felicity, in the proximity of God the Exalted. Each of your breaths is a priceless jewel, and when it passes away it never returns.

The words of Imam al-Ghazali really need no interpretation or addition. He is one of the Muslim scholars who really understood this cornerstone of the Islamic way of life - this concept of time. Time is everything. Each moment, each breath is an opportunity that we either seize or forfeit. In order to find true balance as Muslim youth, we must forego the dangerous but widespread feeling of invincibility that plagues the youth and we must realize that no amount of time is guaranteed for us.

How many of our young brothers and sisters must we witness dying before we realize that longevity is not certain? How many teenagers and elementary aged youth must leave this world before a we come to fully understand the value of each moment?

To illustrate in a very powerful manner the concept of time, I’d like to relate to you this anecdote:

Imagine there is a bank in which you have an account. Each morning, the bank credits your account with $86,400.

 

It carries over no balance from day to day, allows you to keep no cash balance, and every evening cancels whatever part of the amount you failed to use during the day.

 

What would you do?
Draw out every cent, of course! No one in their right mind would ever leave one penny left for the bank to take away in the evening.

 

Well, everyone has such a bank. Its name is TIME. Every morning, it credits you with 86,400 seconds. Every night it writes off, as lost, whatever of this you have failed to invest to good purpose.

 

It carries over no balance. It allows no overdraft. Each day it opens a new account for you. Each night it burns the remains of the day. If you fail to use the day’s deposits, the loss is yours.

 

There is no going back. There is no drawing against the “tomorrow”. You must live in the present on today’s deposits. Invest it so as to get from it the utmost in health, happiness and success! The clock is running. Make the most of today.

What an amazing analogy and how apt to this exercise of finding balance. Allah is the most just, the most fair. Every single person the world over is given exactly the same provisions each day. 86,400 seconds to do with as we choose. The “rich” are those who are greedy with their time and never allow moments to pass without reaping reward from them. The “poor” are those who squander their time with “sand,” with useless, petty activities and do not invoke Allah’s name or purify their intentions when going through their days.

Yes, we are all given equal provisions, until one day….one day, you will have 86,400 seconds, but I will only have 72,340 or some other unknown amount. And on that day, on the tic of the very last second, my bank account will be closed forever, and all the seconds which came before will be relived and will tell the story of my life.

Will I be crying for one more second, one more day to show Allah that I really meant well? Or will Allah see my account as blessed, as pure and worthy of eternal reward?

Insha’Allah ya rab…grant us all the wisdom to make use of these precious seconds during our youth, ya Allah, when