Posts (page 3)
As Eid ul Adha precedes the celebration of Xmas this year my kids have been spoilt rotten by both sides of my family. My parents gave them money for Xmas a few days after Eid, in which they were given money as well as presents by various members of the family. As they opened their Eid presents they were surrounded by wrapping paper and toys! My youngest son was still not satisfied with the presents and wanted more (not a good sign).
Xmas is a time when family who u hardly see get together and celebrate and put up with each other for a day or two, with the odd argument occuring. This is kind of what happened in our family this Eid. Two senior members of the family had a big bust up which resulted in the other half of the family not wanting to go to their house on Eid! Im telling you, the drama is still carrying on even after the two involved in the argument have kissed and made up!! Thats probably why they only get together in one building once or twice a year!!That in itself is quite sad, when i think about it.
We are so wrapped up in our own busy lives that we dont have time for people anymore. Technology has allowed us to communicate more with people, quickly and easily but does that mean we can communicate better with them? Instead of having a conversation face to face we much rather phone,text or email a loved one as its less hassle to do so. Then things are (or can be)misinterpreted as a result! I always promise people i will stay in touch and get together when i am not so busy, but then the months turn into years! When you do eventually get together with a friend or relative, you realise that you really don't have that much to say to them.
I have got exams coming up in a few weeks so i am trying my best to stay at home and revise but this is proving more difficult than it sounds! Panic is slowly starting to creep in as the number of terms i need to memorise keeps getting longer and longer.
I setup an IM account a few days ago, as a fellow student in my class wanted to keep in touch with me to discuss coursework (i didnt want to give him my number). As the online chatting is new to me, its still novel, but it made me realise its just another way to keep in touch with people you cant be arsed ringing and having a conversation with, which is a shame. Its a good way of keeping in touch, but I dont think i will be using it that much.
On to something totally unrelated - i watched an episode of wonder woman today - brought back memories:)
Have we reached the point of no return? I.T. tells it like it is
And now for something completely different.....
What old wives’ tale have you discovered to be totally untrue?
Submitted by Jack Yan.
If you dont dry your hair after washing it you will get a cold.
If you watch horror movies while pregnant your kid will turn out like some horror movie character.
Going swiimming will exacerbate your asthma.
Were your holiday cards store bought, handmade, online, TBD or MIA?
As we are celebrating Eid, Eid cards can be bought ranging from the cheap and tacky to the beautiful (with arabic calligraphy) to the handmade (which can be a mixture of tacky and beautiful). As my friend makes them as a hobby with the proceeds going to a charity, i usually get my Eid cards from her, but to be honest I usually only send one out, to my best friend every Eid (Im still waiting very patiently, for her to send me one back, someday i hope)!
The kids usually make them for other family members if they can be bothered, this year they just wrote on a paper and drew a picture on the front, 2 minute job!!
This was the title of a 3 part reality programme shown on Channel 4 this week The title itself is misleading as Islam itself does not expect people to become Muslims as there is no compulsion in relgion. The premise of the programme was to get a group of people who live in Harrogate (where there are no Muslims) who volunteer to live under the shariah law (islamic rulings) for 3 weeks to see what would happen. As there is no country which currently adopts the shariah law in its full capacity, this task would be difficult for any one to undertake, even Muslims. It is also too much to expect a person to accept the teachings of Islam in 3 weeks as many reverts take a few months or even years to get the hang of some of the basics of Islam such as praying and fasting.
Many of the participants found the experience too much, and resented being told what to do, this would not be the case in reality as a person wanting to experience Islam would be allowed to experiment with one aspect at a time. These participants had to give up everything immediately, they were willing to participate, but still found it hard to take orders from the mentors. You see with Islam you need to explain carefully why we are not allowed to do certain things such as drinking alcohol.Change doesnt happen overnight. I think the pilgrims felt they were pressured into doing things but eventually they did comply
In this programme, they were expecting non-Muslims to give up alcohol, smoking, free mixing, dressing immodesly, eating pork in 3 weeks! Obviously sparks are going to fly and tensions will no doubt arise. I dont really see the point of these kind of programmes, they are just another excuse for people to point their fingers at Islam and Muslims and say that Islam is alien to western culture.
Amongst the participants was a glamour model, a lapsed Muslim and his girlfriend, an atheist and a gay hedonistic young man! Talk about stereotypes, there were quite a few in this programme! What did pleasantly surprise me, was the transformation of the young gay man Luke, who actually said on camera, that he would "consider converting to Islam" just because he could if he wanted to and that he "wasn't brainwashed into it!". Luke had realised his life style of booze and partying was not as it cracked up to be and found the five daily prayers and the whole 3 week experience enjoyable and memorable, leaving him with a good impression of Islam! I bet the programme makers were not expecting that when they began filiming. They probably thought they could make the participants hate Islam so much but i think for those watching who wanted that to happen, they will be disappointed. One lady Hayley, on a spiritual journey also found the experience profound and could understand (unlike the other women) the reasoning behind the hijab, she felt the pressure and intensity of being different when she went out into the public wearing a hijab. She couldnt understand why we have to advertise our religion so blatantly as the hijab is a universal symbol of Islam.
For many women it is a daily struggle to wear the hijab knowing that people may judge you from your appearance, but that has always been the case for many people, who were and still are being judged by the colour of their skin!
I think the main aim of the Muslims who participated as mentors in the programme was to show that Islam is a religion of peace and not like the one that is portrayed in the media, and for that I hope it achieves success. (The programme can be watched via the channel 4 website.)
Eid Mubarak to all my brothers and sisters all over the world whether you are celebrating on Wednesday or Thursday, it doesnt matter, what matters is that you are taking part in a celebration dating over 1400 years and a very meaningful celebration.
May Allah guide us and keep us on the straight path and accept the prayers and ibadah of all the Pilgrims who have travelled far and wide for the occasion of Hajj.
For me this year, Eid will be slightly different as half my family are away in Pakistan for a wedding so the other half of the family are not really in the mood for Eid as it isn't quite the same without the whole family. Also the extended family are all working that day, as the day of Eid was only announced last week, it was difficult for everyone to take a day off work, at such short notice! Never mind, the kids will be happy as they usually get loads of gifts.
I got my laptop back today, with the fault on it repaired so now I need to uphold my promise to back up all my work onto a separate disc so that in the event of a breakdown, i dont lose any of my work! I have lost all my files that i saved on my PC since i bought the laptop plus all my bookmarks on my browser! I should be grateful that they reparied my laptop considering it was my fault it broke down in the first place!! Thankyou Acer:)
I have a busy week coming up, the kids will be performing in a concert at school, we have Eid-ul-Adha to celebrate and i NEED to start REVISING for my examis in January. I did reasonably well in 2 out of 3 of the assignments i have done and im not too optimistic about the third, so i need a good pass mark for the exams i am taking (which are public law and the law of tort).
As Eid is only a week before Xmas we are kind of getting the Xmas vibe as you see people rushing to get presents for the kids, I have already lost out, as the game i wanted to buy my son for Eid has sold out!
Like most parents, I occasionally read a bedtime story to my youngest child (while he still wants to listen to me!). I have a wonderful selection of stories from the Qur'an, written especially for kids and with colourful pictures depicting ancient times.
The majority of the books I have for kids are from goodword books. I have been collecting them for a few years now, one day i will own all of them (inshaAllah), as they are good for adults to read too!
As some of the stories have been simplified for the young reader, the majority of the story has been reduced to about ten pages, which is good for me as i dont have to spend ages reading the book. ( I am a lazy parent!)
Some of the stories are a bit gruesome, such as the story of Habil and Qabil, the two brothers Cain and Abel in the Bible, and many of the Prophets went through trials and tribulations. The good thing about these stories are that there is always a moral/lesson to be learnt, and i am surprised that many Muslims do not know the stories of the Prophets mentioned in the Qur'an. I would much rather read my son a story on what I believe to be true (as they are based on words from the Qur'an), than some fariytale nonsense of dragons, princesses and magic pumpkins! There is no happily ever after in the stories I read. We live in a dangerous world, the earlier our children learn about it the better they can be prepared for it.
Many of the stories from the Qur'an have been brought to life through computer animation but we have yet to catch up with Walt Disney and Dreamworks in bringing these stories to our modern technology wielding children, which is a shame as there definitely is a market for this type of product!
While flicking through the 50 or so channels i have on SKY last night i came across a programme called Fight School, a programme where competitors have to learn martial arts at a fight school and then the master has to choose the weakest two to a fight at the end, this week they had to learn how to use nunchaks (made famous by Bruce Lee).
I only watched 5minutes of it, the format is exactly the same as the rest of the crap reality shows (minus the public vote). There wasn't even any chinese competitors (unless they had already been eliminated??) Cheap programming, for today's audience.
Martial Arts (real Martial Arts) is not something you can learn with a few months training, indeed the chinese masters are reluctant to give any newcomer, any real skill or knowledge. It is usual passed on from master to teacher, and the technique of qui-gonn (Chi) is a concept that the average person cannot even comprehend!!
An old programme called Mind,Body and Kick Ass Moves, where a Brummie martial artist (fluent in Mandarin) demonstrated this fact perfectly as he travelled to various countries in the East sampling all the different types of Martial arts, with clips of him demonstrating some techniques he learnt of qui-gonn to normal folk (like David Blaine freaking people out with magic, but better as this is real skill, not mind tricks which can be learnt).
I recently attended a death and bereavement course at my local masjid. I wanted to do this course, as death although the only certainty in life, is a morbid and taboo subject amongst many, even Muslims who should not be afraid of death.
“Every soul will taste of death.” (3:185)
“The mutual rivalry for piling up of worldly things diverts you, until you visit the graves (i.e. till you die).” (102:1-2)
Human beings are made up of seconds, minute = time. That's all we are, and when the stopwatch stops, so will we. It is therefore wise to prepare for death. The majority of people do not have a will. The laws of inheritance in Islam are also complex for the average Muslim, so it is important to ensure the will specifies that the exectuor will distribute according to Islamic Jurisprudence. The will can also specify the person's dying wishes and requests, something which i didn't know. Unfortunately it is prevalent amongst Muslims to engage in un-Islamic practices when a person dies, these are many and include: women wailing and beating themselves, putting flowers at the grave, placing objects in the person's coffin, holding gatherings to read the Qur'an on behalf of the deceased every 3, 5, 7, 30 days after the death.
There are also issues surrounding the washing of the body and how this is done. When a Muslim person dies, they are taken to the masjid where there should be facilities to wash the body, the body is then placed in pieces of white cloth and wrapped ready for the funeral prayer. The funeral prayer differs from the normal prayers as there is only standing, 2 units of prayer and no prostration. The coffin is usually placed at the front of the imam and the congregation.
As part of the course, we had a girl who volunteered to be the dead body, and we were shown how to wrap her up accordingly, and how to wash a dead person. Although it sounds quite straightforward, i imagine it would be much more difficult when faced with washing a deceased loved one.
Although there are people in the community, who will come forward to volunteer to wash a body, it is comforting to know that someone in your family is capable of doing the job, should the situation arise. This is something that is often neglected and should be addressed to prevent forbidden actions taking place at this sensitive time.
I hope that my new found knowledge in this area is not put to the test yet InshaAllah.
“Until, when death comes to one of them, he says: ‘O my Lord. Send me back to life (on earth) in order that I may do good deeds in the things that I neglected.’ By no means! It is only an utterance that he says. And before them is a barrier (preventing them from returning: the life of the grave) until the Day (of Resurrection) they are ressurected.” (Quran 23:99-100)
