Ramadan Mubarak 2012

A belated Ramadan Mubarak to everyone. I hope everyone has a blessed month.

"Oh Allah, we ask you for Paradise."

 

شَهْرُ رَمَضَانَ الَّذِي أُنزِلَ فِيهِ الْقُرْآنُ هُدًى لِّلنَّاسِ وَبَيِّنَاتٍ مِّنَ الْهُدَىٰ وَالْفُرْقَانِ ۚ فَمَن شَهِدَ مِنكُمُ الشَّهْرَ فَلْيَصُمْهُ

The month of Ramadhan [is that] in which was revealed the Qur'an, a guidance for the people and clear proofs of guidance and criterion. So whoever sights [the new moon of] the month, let him fast it. (2:185)

The month of Ramadan is a month of spirituality, of cleansing and becoming closer to God. It is a month of refraining from all physical desires and feeding your soul. It is also a month in which the Qur'an was sent down from Al Law Al Mahfuz to the heavens as a complete book and then it began its deliverance to Earth through the angel Gabriel over a period of years.

The blessings of Ramadan are immense. Every year when I enter into Ramadan I want my spiritual state to be the highest however this Ramadan I feel I haven't begun so well. Don't get me wrong, I'm fasting, refraining from everything that a Muslim should refrain from while fasting, reading the Qur'an and attending Taraweeh everyday. But I find I am lacking spiritually. They say that when you have that special connection with God you feel it in your heart and it is called the sweetness of faith. I've felt it  and it is considered heaven on Earth for a believer because it is a feeling that is incomparable.

Like everything Ramadan needs preparation and I think this Ramadan I didn't prepare enough or maybe not at all. I remember my Ramadan two years ago, I was straight out of studying the Qur'an for two years and I entered into Ramadan. I think that is when I truly felt. But as they, your environment changes you and university and work has caught up with me. I feel different this Ramadan, as if my heart is harder and I don't feel enough. I am not feeling that spiritual connection and it is worrying me.

I guess what I can repeatedly to is make du'a and hope and pray for his mercy. For Ramadan is a month that it has so many oppurtunities and blessings in it that if one does not get himself forgiven during this month, then he is truly the loser.

Syrian Martyrs by Province

الـلهم تقبل شهدائهم 

(May God accept their martyrs / martyrdom)

Self Defence Steps for Women

I miss blogging. I used to do it a lot before and it helped me in a lot of ways. Facebook and Twitter are good in their own ways but blogging has its own personal satisfaction. You actually don't have to put things in 140 characters and your writing skills grow. It is also a platform where you build a community and share ideas but in a more concrete manner (if that makes sense).

So I plan to blog more this year and hopefully cut down on my social networking and micro-blogging.

Anyway, I came across this and it made me laugh. Considering the day and age we live in, this actually works at times.  :-)

Pamela Geller & her supposed conference to help Muslim Women

Everyone knows the hate Pamela Geller has against Islam. You just need to go through her blog to realise how much of a bigot she is.

Recently she organised a conference discussing honour killing and Islam. Obviously, Pam believes Islam is the cause of honour killings (although honour killings are mentioned no where in the scriptures and is not a part of Islam) and her conference, which was known as being again full of hate against Muslims was out to educate people about how evil Islam is to women.

Surprisingly though, although Pam wants to "educate" Muslim women about the evilness of Islam and how they should leave the religion, the conference itself discriminated against several Muslims who wanted to attend, including Muslim women.

The discriminations and racism here is so evident. Not just by staff members but members of the police.

Watch the video of how to Arab-American Muslim bloggers attempt to enter the conference but are barred:




This is what Spencer Watch had to say:


But surprisingly, Muslim women found themselves denied entry to the conference and, after patiently waiting in the corridor after being told to wait, were removed from the Hyatt Hotel by the Dearborn Police Department and Hyatt security.

Several of the young women commented that they shared a similar appearance with Jessica Mokdad, the young women who Geller and Spencer claim was murdered in an “honor killing” (a conclusion not shared by Mokdad’s family or Michigan prosecutors).

ThinkProgress attempted to attend the event and was turned away, and eventually removed from the Hyatt by the police, along with the young women. One of the women commented, “I tried emailing [Pamela Geller to register] and I literally couldn’t get any kind of response back.” That comment seems to contradict Geller’s claim that she wants to help Muslim women and that the conference was in defense of the human rights of Muslim women.

It always surprised me that people like Pamela Geller have an audience with all the hate that she spews.

I wish people spoke to Muslim Women and actually bothered learning about Islam from the right sources instead of listening to hate-filled and racist people like Pamela Geller.

Assads thugs bury a man alive, asking him to declare Bashar as God

In the past few months various horrific videos have come out from Syria. Horrific is not a word that completely describes what the people in Syria are going through under the tyranny of Bashar Al Assad.

In this video Assads thugs bury a man alive, asking him to declare Assad as God. The man clings on to his religion, saying, 'God, there is no one for us except you' (يا الله ما لنا غيرك يا الله) and the declaration of Islam, 'There is no God but Allah'.

May Allah grant him the highest level in Jannat Al Firdaws. Ameen




 

  اللهم اجعل اخر قولي في هذه الحياة الدنيا ان لا إله إلا انت وان محمد عبدك ورسولك

Foreign Policy panders to Western Orientalism of Muslim Women

Foreign Policy published their May / June 2012 edition recently and the main theme of the issue was matters related to women. More specifically women rights', female oppression in the MENA region and so on.

However, the cover picture of the issue is a bit controversial and hit a personal nerve. It is a picture of a naked woman with a painted on black veil (niqab) with the caption, "Why do they hate us?" which is also the title of the article written by Mona El Tahawy who talks about female oppression in the MENA region. (The article in itself is something that I have a bit of trouble with. I don't believe in a Men Vs. Women approach when it comes to solving gender problems or that Islamists are the root of all evil, that is Monas personal views talking, but that is for another blog post)

This is what was on the cover issue of Foreign Policy's edition for May / June 2012:

The photograph reappears in Mona El Tahawys article, "Why do they hate us?" but in a different pose. The woman is portrayed in a more submissive and subjugated manner.

My problem with the above pictures are the implications. I have been wearing the Niqab / Burqa / face-veil for nearly 6 years now. I wear it by choice and in the past few years I've seen a lot of portrayal of the face-veil in the media. Sadly, most of it is negative, misinterpreted or caters to western orientalist fantasies of Muslim women being oppressed and needing to be saved. All the attention there is in the media on the niqab, a piece of cloth that is worn by a minority of women around the world, either presents them as being oppressed or not knowing their own minds.

We never see any positive news on women who wear the veil. Why not feature those women who wear the face-veil and yet are doctors, engineers, writers or simply house-wives but lead normal and productive lives? Why not feature the Muslim women fighting to wear the face-veil in countries like France or those like Manal Al Sharif from Saudi Arabia who stood up for women being allowed to drive?

They could have chosen so many different pictures to portray oppressed women, why a niqab / burqa wearing woman? 

Foreign Policy follows the media tide in its sweeping generalisations on the face-veil and caters to the misguided view that all niqab / burqa wearing women are forced, oppressed, uneducated and need to be saved. Why else would this woman appear in a picture looking subjugated right next to an article that talks about female oppression? The implications are obvious.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not denying that there are issues concerning women and women empowerment in the world, especially in the Arab / Muslim world. I wholly support the empowerment of women but it needs to be understood that freedom does not necessarily mean stripping our veils off us. People find it hard to believe, but a good percentage of women do actually wear the veil, either face or head by choice. I know that I certainly do and I can account for dozens of other women who I personally know who wear the face-veil from different walks of life that do so as well. This needs to be understood and taken into account.

The generalizations here are sweeping: Muslim Women who veil, especially those who don the face-veil = oppressed. The implications are more obvious when the picture appears again in Mona El Tahawys article on female oppression in the MENA region. It's the same cycle used in various media publications when it comes to this side of the world. Female oppression in the Arab / Muslim world. Check. Woman in Niqab as picture on the side. Check.

Initially I thought Mona had a hand behind it considering her past negative views and comments on the face-veil but she denied it in her tweet.

Haha! I didnt design but i do hv agenda RT @hamna_: So @monaeltahawy does it again w/personal agenda vs niqab in 2ndpic she uses for article
— Mona Eltahawy (@monaeltahawy) April 23, 2012

So technically it is the artist and foreign policy to blame for pandering to western orientalist fantasies, however Mona clearly has an 'agenda' and we see this within the article. Islam is portrayed as the root of all problems facing women in the Middle East.

These days in the media, either Muslim women are portrayed as being exotic and sexy creatures (obvious from the first page with the dolled up eyes, niqab and the little box on the right that says, "The sex issue") or they're portrayed as being oppressed, waiting for the world to save them. Foreign policy does it both ways.

I wish for once we're portrayed as normal. That when there are articles and publications discussing women issues, especially those in the Arab / Muslim world a veiled woman is not smack drab in the middle of it. Or if she is, let there be some positivity about it. Last but not the least, Mona El Tahawy needs to stop being taken as a spokesperson for Muslim / Arab women just because she is a "Muslim" and Arab-American.

Muhammad Al Shareef in Dubai!

Shaykh Muhammad Al Shareef, a lecturer on Islam who is part of Al Maghrib Institute in Canada came down to Dubai for DIPC 2012 where I had the pleasure to listen to him live and meet him at his stall. I've been listening to his lectures for years online and now alhamdulilah managed to listen to him live.

He in doing a tafseer and lecture in Dubai while he is here and is not to be missed:

I hope this is the start of Al Maghrib Institute coming to UAE.