It pains me to write this article, but I feel I must. Conspiracy theories, yes, we’ve heard them all, some of us attribute credibility to them and others ridicule it. Conspiracy theories are, without a doubt, rife within the Muslim ummah, the western Muslims are not exempt from this trend. I hardly hear Muslim’s rejecting conspiracy theories. Unfortunately, they’re enforcing them, and referencing them during conversations, frankly someone needs point this out. They need a slap in the face, I’m definitely not condoning violence, but a slight tap to bring them back to reality, will do.

The majority of people have gotten bitten by the conspiracy bug, it has infested their brain, and introduced it’s progeny to their new comfortable nest i.e. the Muslim mind. Whenever you prove one is wrong, somehow, you’re hit with an even more absurd one. I remember not too long ago at a gathering, laughter was in the air, no audible voice could be discerned, for all the tepid fun we were having. Then the ambiance turned sour, someone mentioned from a “credible” source that 9/11 was a set up. I don’t want to repeat the story, in case some might believe it to be true, but unless you live under a rock, your ears have been insulted by this one. Unfortunately, once in a while, personally is one to many, I’m left flabbergasted, by such comments.

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The Strategy And Logic of Reform

No Muslim can say that there is no need to reform the degraded and stagnant condition of the Ummah. We shall now, InshAllah, indicate the way by which the Ummah may achieve the incumbent reformation. At the outset it should be understood that the change, the revolution which, the Ummah has suffered is a spiritual ailment. Spiritual ailments like physical ailments have causes. It is common practice that in the case of curing a physical disease we must first aim to determine its causes then work to eliminate them so as to achieve health and well-being. Likewise, in the case of the ailment of the Ummah we apply the same logic used to work with physical ailments to the treatment of  spiritual diseases i.e., we aim to identify and then eliminate the causes of disease once eliminated, spiritual health and vigor will be established.

First Principles of Reform

The two essential principles of reformation that we ought employ in revitalizing the Ummah are:

1.) Proper diagnosis of the reality and condition of the Ummah so as to establish the causes of the diseases we suffer.
2.) Determine the ways and means of eliminating these causes.

Much more at Imam Webb’s site.

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Muslims in every corner of the globe are faced with trying times. The recent onslaught upon the civilian population in Ghazza is having ripple effects in our communities here at home, in ways that are both unexpected and outdated. Some Muslims have been heard to say, “Why should we be worrying so much about what goes on in Sudan, Kashmir, and Palestine, Thailand, Philippines, and Afghanistan when there are so many Muslims suffering here?” Some of us feel that being too strongly critical of Israel’s action, which even the United Nations objects to, may make us appear anti-Semitic and worse. Our fears, I am sure we all can realize, pale besides the fear of those dying and being maimed today, and crossing a myriad of checkpoints just to get to the hospital. While we are at pains to convince the non-Muslim world of the compassion embodied in Islam, we fail to extend this compassion to our very own Muslim brethren. When we fail at compassion for our own, why would any non-Muslim believe that we really and truly feel compassion for those beyond the reach of the so-called magnificent Ummah?

To be sure, there are Muslims facing dire straits in the United States. We, in the wake of September 11, are faced with routine “random” searches at airports. Quite a few of us have been pulled off airplanes because maybe we carried a prayer rug that was rolled up the wrong way. We may have family back in our home countries who are faced with leaders who are leading nothing but chaos into villages and cities alike. And so, we may feel that because we can bear the suffering that has been placed upon our shoulders, so should our brothers and sisters in lands unknown. We fail to realize that while we expect an outpouring of pure, unadulterated support for the trials we face, we likewise owe the same level of support to the rest of our Ummah, and indeed to all human beings in suffering, regardless of the person’s faith.

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Little did we know that the imminence of war between India and Pakistan would once again become a possibility, howsoever faint or misguided? The ruling political junta in India is talking war following the media frenzy over Mumbai carnage. Once again it is time to be ‘tough’ with Pakistan. This is a surprise given that the interlude of peace under General Musharraf and all the offers of conflict resolution were either stalled by the red-tapism of Indian bureaucracy or a victim of political inaction. At home, we have the air-force planes hovering the wintry skies of Lahore causing consternation not only to the peaceniks, shrinking each day, but to the overwhelming majority of the common citizens. After all what have they got to do with the power game in Islamabad and Delhi, the media hysteria or even the terror cartels?

True that circumstantial evidence points to the fact that the metaphor of our times, Ajmal Kasai socially upgraded as the Urduised Kasab, is linked to the little Faridkot in the Pakistani Punjab. However, much of the international community has reminded India that there is little or no evidence of any direct involvement of the Pakistani state let alone its fragile civilian government. Yet, the rhetoric of unilateral strikes by the Indian foreign minister and now the venerable Sonia Gandhi is having the right effect here. Of war mongering, preparedness assessments and the much trumpeted security strategy through the nuclear option.

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Arundhati Roy and others in India, quite bravely, have urged the Indian state and society to look at the monster in the mirror and many observers in Pakistan have also taken an unconventional line in this dangerous game of legitimizing aggression, violence, the deadly nuclear weapons and their usage. But these are views that are in a minority and the monsters of jingoism and nationalism have unleashed their ire against such voices of sanity. Not surprising for the nation-state business in the subcontinent where we have three constructed nations armed with weapons and managed by the leftovers of the colonial bureaucracy.

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History will not be kind to such short- sightedness. More importantly, the future of generations is at stake. It is time to make it clear that war mantra has to be abandoned by the myopic, power-hungry elites of India and Pakistan.

Time to be confident. And to heal.

Being a citizen of Pakistan, and being a woman citizen of Pakistan I am so proud of this country. It has given me so much, the love, the warmth, the humanity, the neighbours, the streets, that we have progressed. In the journey from 1947 we have made a number of sacrifices but despite all the odds we have progressed beyond even our wildest imaginations

We are not tired even as yet, we have not given up hope, our people have potential and we will continue to move forward, some of the challenges thrown at us have been beyond comprehension, but our resolution to raise our head high will empower us to strive ahead.  We are defiant and Pakistan is a huge country, the only country in the world created for the Muslims out of a political struggle of Muslims. No wonder we have the toughest challenges.

We lost Bangladesh; with a sad heart we were forced to accept that as a fact. The People of Pakistan are united, sectarian, political, ethnical and regional differences make us Pakistan. It is this vibrancy that brings us different point of views yet we laugh together and join to celebrate our Eids, our Ramadan, our prayers and our faith unites us with whole of Muslim world.

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A lot of Muslims who converted from Christian families have the dilemma of not wanting to offend their families or see this day as the only opportunity to see all of their family in one place. Everyone does what they have to do; but at the end of the day Christmas is a celebration of shirk so not attending family Christmas celebrations is not a disrespect of your family, but rather upholding the Haqq of Tauheed. Like I told my grandmother I want the best for you and having a holiday for associating a partner with the Creator is not the best.

In this manner Christmas is a good time for dawah and in that sense it is a time when two things that are not popular for current Muslims to do in post 9-11 Muslim America; uphold the Truth and remain different and give dawah to Islam. As a young Muslims I can remember going out on dawah teams and every masjid having a department dedicated to the call to Islam.

And some fun at the City of Brass.

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Which leads me to my new topic, yes its about business. Not monkey business, it’s actually about why we should keep our honesty when dealing with customers and especially maintain our Islamic business ethics in our every business matters. I work in a retail store, we sell overpriced clothes for no reason to beat our customers in the head. For example, we have a $1,500 coat in our store, which attracts alot of window shoppers.  Anytime I sense a customer is ready to buy it, I advise them to not get it from my store and get it from saks fifth ave or something. Where you can actually save hundreds, automatically they are stunned.

They can’t understand why an employee in the store would show them so much honesty, I’m not trying to brag about my customer service, the point is treat others how you would want to be treated. Another girl  walked in ready to buy $300 jeans, I also redirected to another store to get a better deal and again she was staring at me like an alien. Calm down, I’m a citizen. But I realized when you break the norm for the right reasons, you are looked upon as as stranger, which in reality is quite disturbing. That shows how backwards we are.

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 “There are no days on which righteous deeds are more beloved to Allaah then these ten days – i.e., ten days of Dhu’l-Hijjah).” They said: “O Messenger of Allaah, not even jihad for the sake of Allaah?” He said: “Not even jihad for the sake of Allaah, unless a man goes out himself with his wealth and does not come back with anything (i.e., he expends all his wealth and is martyred).” Narrated by al-Bukhaari, 969. (source).

What to do if you aren’t performing Hajj or Umrah this year?

1) Fast the first nine days:
“The Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) used to fast nine days of Dhu’l-Hijjah and the day of ‘Ashoora’ and three days of each month – the first Monday and two Thursdays.” Narrated by Imam Ahmad, 21829; Abu Dawood, 2437; classed as da’eef in Nasab al-Raayah, 2/180, but classed as saheeh by al-Albaani.”

Brother Naeem:

 Today marks the first of the 12th month, Dhul-Hijjah, of the Islamic calendar. It has been reported that while the last 10 nights of Ramadan are the most blessed nights of the year, these first 10 days of Dhul-Hijjah are the most blessed days.

Fast, Pray, and Worship all you can.

[Image courtesy: la_imagen]

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The keys to successfully managing your home lies in creating Master Lists. Read about the importance of managing your home in this previous entry: Benefits of Scheduling. You can create these on paper first, then copy onto the computer so you can print them out as needed, or start off from the beginning on the computer, but don’t forget to print it and put it where you’ll notice it. I wanted to post my files but my blog is not showing the files properly. I can send you some or all the files by email if you need more help than what i’ve explained below.

1. Master Meal List: a list of all possible dinner meals. Group by meat, chicken, fish, vegetarian etc. If you also cook for breakfast and or lunch, you may need a meal list for those meals as well. For me i only cook breakfast on the weekends, during the week it’s cereal and milk. For lunch, i have a weekly schedule where every monday is mac & cheese, every tuesday is pizza, every wed is sandwiches etc. Refer to the Master Meal List when making the menu for the week.

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Just like any other day of the week, walking home from University. Look up, look across and I see a crowd. I walk to the crowd. The crowd are watching. Watching him. Watching him real hard. I look at them. I then look at him. It’s silent. Everyone’s silent, except him.

He screams: “Kill me. Please.” Everyone else still pitch silent. They stare. “Don’t watch me, just slay me, please,” he says. Paul Sherlock, a weak, indignant homeless man.

He looks as though he’s already dead but alive in appearance. “I’ve lost my wife, my children, my work, my home; there’s nothing left for me in this world. I might as well be dead, and rot in hell” he says.

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