Tag archive for ‘Islam’
The Depths of Vanity
A few weeks ago I was scheduled for endoscopic sinus surgery and a septoplasty. Since moving to Houston I have suffered from chronically clogged sinuses and allergy symptoms and finally decided to see an ENT specialist, who ordered a CT scan and on the next visit showed me the films, pointing out the ghostly impression […]
Who Speaks for Islam? Part 3b: Jihad, Religion & Politics
To most Muslims, jihad implies honor and sacrifice for others, even when interpreted military, it comes with many conditions, including the writ against targeting civilians. Using jihad and terrorism as synonyms is wrong and counterproductive, and the meaning of Jihad to Muslims is much more nuanced than what many Western commentators invoke.
Obedience to Parents: The Test of Our Generation?
Most immigrant parents came here to go to school, to work, or open businesses. While some studied engineering, others studied business, some opened up gas stations, and yet others came for the ultimate prize of Medical School. In all of these cases though, they left home at a young age and went overseas. After studying, establishing themselves as professionals, buying a car, and buying a house like good Muslim children, they went back home, got married, and brought their wife over here. Then they lived happily ever after. … Then a funny thing happened.
Grad Season = Fitnah Season
It’s that time of the year again - sunshine, spring fever, allergies and oh yes, the hype of graduation for high school seniors! Few students can deny dreaming of the moment that they’ll walk across the stage in their graduation gowns and caps, ready to receive their diploma to the applause and pride of their family and friends. (Parents look forward to it too, although not so much when they get a whiff of how much tickets cost!) However, graduation also means something else - presents and parties! And we all know what the biggest party of all is… the (for Muslims) dreaded P-word. Prom.
Who Speaks for Islam? Part 3a- What Makes a Radical?
Against the backdrop of this bleak world situation, the West desires stable, secular democracies in the Muslim countries it deems as “supporting terrorism”, believing this to be the ultimate measure of victory in the “war against terrorism”. But a number of challenges exist in this battle of hearts and minds, and data is ever-important to understand the people we wish to move.
Open Thread Sunday 5/4/2008
Have you read a wonderful/awful book recently? Anything else on your mind? Here’s your opportunity to take it all out!
The Marriage Project: A Project Nation
In my career as an instructor of “Fiqh of Love” and “Love Notes” with AlMaghrib Institute, the activity and survey sessions conducted in the class environment included many personal questions submitted by students (both men and women), regarding marriage and marital life. Through this, and the overwhelming marriage counseling sessions and advices given in the course of the past four to five years, I was able to collect enough data and statistics to open a window on the status of social life in the Muslim community in America and provide an insight into the crisis of marriage we face here. The findings com from multiple locations all around the country including places such as Houston, New Jersey, New York, Chicago, The Bay Area and elsewhere - and the results were startling. The marriage crisis is a big crisis indeed, and while many of our respected older generation are unaware of it, or at least act like that, the youth were left helpless and sometimes hopeless.
The Marriage Project: Building a Renewed Matrimonial System
The average Muslim waits two to three years to get married from the time he or she begins searching, according to a friend of mine in the matrimonial business. I did not believe him until two years ago, when I began actively searching for a spouse myself. I thought the process would be easy as pie. After all, I can cook very well, am kind to my mother, religiously conservative, and have been told I have good character. Yet now, single and frustrated, I have come to take aim at the disdainful state of the social networks available for Muslims to get married. You would think after all, that the cooking factor alone would have had the sisters lining up out the door with applications in hand.
Who Speaks for Islam? Part 2- Democracy or Theocracy
The reality of the Muslim world is that most of the countries are not democracies, and a number of the ones that are have elections where the ruler somehow manages to win about 90% of the vote in every election. It is no surprise then, that George (lowest approval rating of all time) Bush made democratization a key goal of his foreign policy. While the surveys show that most people admire the West’s freedoms, they do not feel that the US is actually serious about promoting democracy in Muslim lands.
Unable to Appreciate
In the Qur’an, Allah directs us over and over to ponder over the miracles of His creation, and even swears by them: the sun, the moon, the stars, the seas, the turning of the seasons.
“Wal ‘Asr…” “WatTeeni wazZaytoon…” “WadhDhuha… walLayli ithaa sajaa…” “Wal Fajr…” “WashShamsi wa DhuHaahaa…”
By Time… By the fig and the olive… By […]
Entries (RSS)