“Cross-cultural marriages are more trouble than they are worth”
There is an element of truth to the assertion that Cross-cultural marriages are sometimes more trouble than they are worth. This is principally due to Islamic principles within Islamic communities around the world being fundamentally consumed with cultural values and principles. In many Islamic countries, culture values dominate those of Islam. This is a dire indictment of the state of Islam today; exposing the levels of ignorance within the global Muslim community, which nobody seems to be doing anything to remedy.

In many communities, Muslims firmly believe what they are taught as part of their culture (within the sanctuary of their own family and community units) are the underlying principles of Islam, when in fact, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Personally speaking, I think cross-cultural marriages within Islam is a good thing as it shows Islam as being indiscriminate and all-embracing, unlike for example, in Judaism, where the belief is that Jews are the “chosen ones”, which exposes the Jewish religion as discriminatory and exclusive to the chosen few. Furthermore, Cross-cultural marriages lends itself to the old adage of ‘beauty being within the eye of the beholder’. Therefore, for example, if one happened to become acquainted with and fall in love with a Muslim partner of a different background to oneself, then surely this is a positive thing for all parties concerned, with the ultimate triumph being the prevalence of the continued longevity of Islam, whereas elsewhere it may have become diluted and thus secularised over future generations. One needs to look no further than our European and cross-Atlantic neighbours to appreciate the true hurt; the social and moral devastation caused by secularised society. Children born out of wedlock, increasing rates of teenage pregnancies, reliance on drugs and alcohol as a means of escapism, promiscuous societies, crime-ridden societies and so on and so forth. These factors all contribute towards an erosion in moral fabric and ultimately bring us closer and closer to the day of judgement. According to my dear mother, who is an Islamic teacher, the day of judgement will befall us when not a single Muslim will enter a mosque upon hearing the Azaan to pray Salat. Fortunately for us Muslims, this day appears to be very far away. However, in today’s secularised western society, where beautiful and historic Churches and chapels are quite literally being sold off by the Church of England to developers and becoming either luxury apartments or fancy bars. Not the use that God had intended, I am sure you will agree. Christianity is very much on the decline in Europe and North America, with the prevalence of atheism; Thank Allah, that Islam continues to blossom in a day and age where religion in itself is almost becoming taboo.

Therefore, cross-cultural marriages, should in theory be like any other marriage so long as there are fundamentals present within the relationship between husband and wife. A show of respect, love and care enveloped with sincerity and integrity will allow for any marriage to survive and indeed blossom. Marriages founded purely on superficial precepts will most likely fail and most certainly not blossom. Looks fade with time, and despite our best wishes, money cannot be taken with us to the hereafter; thus ones moral fabric is what carries us through this life and into the next. Looks and money do not necessarily sustain a marriage and neither does ones culture. Had the latter been the case then surely there would not be an increasing divorce and infidelity rate amongst same-culture marriages. Ultimately, humility, piety and genuine love, respect and affection for Islam, ones partner and oneself will help forge a healthy and sustainable marriage.

I’m Ramziah from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

How to order Sisters Magazine from here and please
tell me the price and the cost if I order from Malaysia.
Say, I order for half year or for one year. Please help me,
because I’m interested with the magazines.

And to all sisters out there you are welcome as my friends.

Wassalam and thank you.

Ramziah, Kuala Lumpur

Thanks for your comment. It’s best to visit the SISTERS magazine website, and ask your questions there, insha’Allah.

I’m a sporadic blogger by passion and a software engineer by profession.
It was my first visit to the site.I liked most of the works and really appreciate the contributions.

Though the last date for sending the articles did end,I wanted to know if I can send an article written by me now,which speaks of the third topic you mentioned above.

Thanks
Wassalaamualaykum

And I do apologize for my tone; it was purely uinitentional, if I sounded like I was blaming ijtema.net.
Wassalam.

Now having got that whole stuffy disclaimer out of the way, I will also contact sis Na’ima, insha’Allah, to see if we can figure out what went wrong. It’s sad that you went through such effort, only to face a brick wall. Plus it doesn’t look good for the magazine!

Well, I am usually NOT a negative person, but I guess it’s no surprise that I will not be applying to Sisters again, despite being very interested in working for the magazine. I have experience of writing as well as blogging (I write for Hiba Magazine but it’s very possible that maybe they did not receive my application.

So, I will also reiterate that the above advertisement should provide a valid email address where bloggers can send in their entries.
Wassalam.

Try the Submissions page on the Sisters website for contact information (there is an e-mail address there that you can use, probably.)

We probably should include the submission instructions in the post somewhere, though.