An open letter to Mona Eltahawy. Disclaimer: Though the message is sincere and heartfelt, the details are not meant to identify one specific individual (i.e. the author) but rather to represent real niqaabis around the world.
Welcome to this week’s edition of MuslimMatters.org’s art feature! JazaakumAllahu khairan to everyone who submitted their photos. If you want to see your work on MM, then either email us
I feel a great big, cynically smug “I knew it all along” coming on. Honeymoon’s over, people – Barack Obama is proving himself to be just as dangerous as Bush
Young Muslim teens are steadily being drawn away from Islam and sucked into a glitzy, glamorous, and utterly shallow culture of pure vanity. How do we find, and keep, our lost boys and girls? What follows is a new approach at analysing the causes of youthful misguidance and a more detailed, long-term method of reaching out to Muslim youth by connecting to them on an individual level and helping them pave the way to greatness.
They got me at ‘Muslim Girl Magazine.’ I grabbed it, stared at it some more, and then folded it to my chest with the kind of emotion you usually feel when you’ve finally met someone whom you dreamt of for years, and now here they are right in front you. When I took it home, I experienced the sinking feeling of disappointment that you experience after you find out that the person you dreamed of meeting, whom you’ve now finally met, isn’t really what you were expecting or hoping for after all.
New Muslim Cool: A documentary about Muslim rappers has been released in San Francisco, following the journey of Hamza Perez, a Puerty Rican convert. Have any MM readers seen it?
Belonging and Banishment: Being Muslim in Canada – MuslimMatters reviews an anthoology of essays by Canadian Muslim writers, spanning a variety of topics related to the theme of Canadian Muslims.
A few questions and ideas remain – for example, in this day and age of “equality,” “tolerance,” and so on, how do we actually demonstrate ‘izzah in public? How are we supposed to abandon our position of a weak minority community and become the kind of Ummah we all dream about? Does being superior mean that we have to hold ourselves utterly away from others and not engage with them at all?
The Arabic word ‘izzah is from ayn-zay-zay, which means might, honor, respect, dignity, prestige, fame and glory.
‘Izzah is honour. And what is honour? Specifically, what is the honour of the Muslim and how is it manifested?
We were of the most disgraced of people, and Allah granted us honor with this Islam. Now if we are to seek honor in other than that which Allah honored us with, Allah shall disgrace us. – Umar ibn Khattab (rA)
The problem is that we have forgotten the concept of ‘izzah (honour). We have forgotten that no matter what our physical or financial state is, Allah has placed us in a position of superiority over all other creation.
So what is this ‘izzah? How do we attain it, and how do we lose it? How do we put this forgotten concept into practice, especially in this day and age?
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