My heart has adopted every shape...I follow the religion of Love

NOT THE MARSHMALLOWS!!!

Sat, 29 Jun 2013 04:28:02 GMT

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Unmosqued

Sun, 03 Feb 2013 17:55:36 GMT

Don't think that it is a coincidence that so many of the people who're appearing in the film, who're acknowledging this is an issue, are on the East coast. You've had generations to see how that plays out. That's why you see Khalid and Suhaib on the cover of everything, because finally, people are realizing that one size doesn't fit all.

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Ramadan 2012 Day 1: Bam! I'm here and that is something.

Fri, 20 Jul 2012 21:54:29 GMT

Since last year lots have changed for me. I have a Muslim community that is more human to me. I've met lots of amazing sisters and brothers. So I guess I want to focus a bit on some social things during Ramadan.

But forgive me if I ramble. I'm on hour ten of my fast and my head is beginning to ache a bit.

So Matheen and I had a conversation about Jummah (friday/congregation) and Jumaah (together), community and what they should mean.
He posited that there is a scale of what people expect from Jummah prayers. The conversation started as a continuation of a conversation that we'd had with a larger group a few days earlier-- about connection with people and making it workable.

I won't go into that first conversation much because OMG RAGE STABBITY but here is his scale:

Traditional/Low: Jummah should just be your mandatory 20 minutes with the congregation. There will be a speaker. It doesn't matter if they speak a language you know, or if they're interesting or if it is a pleasant environment. Women can be wherever the powers that be decide-- in the basement, in the rafters, it isn't really important. You do it. It is over. You be out.

Middle low: Jummah should be at least in a language you understand. And on topic in some way. And the women should be somewhere in the same sanctuary, but not without a barrier.

Middle: Women should be in the musallah, but apart from the men without a barrier. The speaker should not only speak your language but should be somewhat charismatic and the khutbah should be relevant to life in some way.

Middle High: Women and men should pray together, shoulder to shoulder. Women should be able to be khateeb, but from the back.

High: Women lead prayer from the front.

Untraditional/Super high: Naked man woman prayer.

The scale isn't really about a preference, so ignore the words high and low. It is more about tradition and non-tradition.

Anyway. We were talking about what we believed, and what we'd want and then about why, really, none of it would work in the way that people wanted it to. People seem to want a congregational prayer that does everything for them. It makes them feel inspired and welcome and part of something bigger and holy and delightful and, frankly, like they just had a cigarette after 52 consecutive orgasms.

Matheen pointed out that he doesn't go to things like Jummah or a halaqa for the purposes of learning things. But because that's how you meet people. From then on, you have to put the effort in yourself.

I agree. There isn't going to be a single magical jummah for anyone. Just like there is no magical negro, there is no magical jumma. And if it doesn't work for you, stewing in the lack of magical jumma doesn't help. You know what does?

Doing something for someone else. That inspired feeling, that feeling part of something and feeling welcome? All of that will come if you do what the Prophet, may he have peace and blessings, prescribed the most.

CHARITY.

You go help someone who needs you, you'll feel inspired. You'll see your blessings in sharper relief and you'll pray thanks to Allah, drawing yourself closer to Him. You will feel part of something greater because, yo, you are and who doesn't welcome someone coming to help them? You'll be welcomed with open arms whether you're a convert, a Christian, an embittered white woman, a woman or a GLBTQ person. No one will care because you're there to help! You're there to dig someone else out of their dire circumstances. And, in making something not about you (for once in your life), you might be surprised about who you connect with.

None of that can be attained by sitting on the floor for a few minutes while someone talks at you, no matter how amazing the speaker. No speaker can draw all of the best of what Allah has bestowed on you out in the way that charity can. It is what connects us with one another and highly possible why the Prophet recommended it most amongst all other things.

The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said: "Every Muslim has to give in charity." The people then asked: "(But what) if someone has nothing to give, what should he do?" The Prophet replied: "He should work with his hands and benefit himself and also give in charity (from what he earns)." The people further asked: "If he cannot find even that?" He replied: "He should help the needy who appeal for help." Then the people asked: "If he cannot do (even) that?" The Prophet said finally: "Then he should perform good deeds and keep away from evil deeds, and that will be regarded as charitable deeds." - Sahih Al-Bukhari, Volume 2, Hadith 524

The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said: "Save yourself from hellfire by giving even half a date-fruit in charity." - Sahih Al-Bukhari, Volume 2, Hadith 498

The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said: 'Charity is prescribed for each descendant of Adam every day the sun rises.' He was then asked: 'From what do we give charity every day?' The Prophet answered: 'The doors of goodness are many...enjoining good, forbidding evil, removing harm from the road, listening to the deaf, leading the blind, guiding one to the object of his need, hurrying with the strength of one's legs to one in sorrow who is asking for help, and supporting the feeble with the strength of one's arms--all of these are charity prescribed for you.' He also said: 'Your smile for your brother is charity.'" - Fiqh-us-Sunnah, Volume 3, Number 98

For tomorrow: Seeing the worst in people.

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What it is.

Mon, 25 Jun 2012 17:07:24 GMT

So this is supposed to be my religion blog. And I have lots of things to say about Muslims and religion and thoughts but man, if they aren't all negative.

Right now I'm in a thick of people who will blindly follow the ulama without reflection and people who think that everyone else in all of Islam is backward. And this isn't the internet, this is in my life on the weekends and in my facebook when I don't show up to stuff.

And it's driving me up the wall. And it is overwhelming my perspective. And you know what, I am not even going to call these two groups out for what they are, but you know what I'm talking about.

But Ramadan is coming and I need to use this space again for reflecting on the wisdom that Allah has provided and the mercy He has bestowed and the prayers that have been answered and all of the amazingness that has been given without even asking. So I'm going to try it.
If you read this, and I highly doubt you do, what would you like to see?

More personal stuff? More interpretation? More essays?
Are there topics you'd like to read about?

Maybe you can help get me going again.

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Mon, 28 May 2012 22:21:08 GMT

After a battle, the Prophet and his Companions came upon a group of women and children. One woman had lost her child and was going around looking for him, her breasts flowing with milk. When she found her child, she joyfully put him to her breast and nursed him. The Prophet asked his Companions, "Do you think that this woman could throw her son in the fire?" They answered "No." He then said: "Allah is more merciful to His servants than this woman to her son." (Hadith - Bukhari).

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On fatwas and culture:

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 15:38:26 GMT

Imam al-Qarafi said, “Whoever issues legal rulings to the people merely on the basis of what is transmitted in the compendia (law books) despite differences in their customs, usages, times, places, conditions, and the special circumstances of their situations has gone astray and leads others astray. His crime against the religion is greater than the crime of a physician who gives people medical prescriptions without regard to the differences of their climes, norms, the times they live in, and their physical natures but merely in accordance with what he finds written down in some medical book about people with similar anatomies. He is an ignorant physician, but the other is an ignorant jurisconsult but much more detrimental.” (taken from Umar F. Abd-Allah’s “Islam and the Cultural Imperative”)

source

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On change in Islam: Living Islam for the West or East is criminal, living for the past is negligent

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 00:30:59 GMT

An Intimate Conversation With Suhaib Webb from Mustafa Davis on Vimeo.

I frequently give Suhaib Webb the side-eye-- but this is very good. He talks a lot about change and being real in Islam. He drops knowledge here like whoa.

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Azizah

Fri, 02 Mar 2012 15:04:44 GMT

Azizah, a documentary on Black Lesbian Muslims.

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Love in the time of science

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:16:37 GMT

It is customary to blame secular science and anti-religious philosophy for the eclipse of religion in modern society. It would be more honest to blame religion for its own defeats. Religion declined not because it was refuted, but because it became irrelevant, dull, oppressive, insipid. When faith is completely replaced by creed, worship by discipline, love by habit; when the crisis of today is ignored because of the splendor of the past; when faith becomes an heirloom rather than a living fountain; when religion speaks only in the name of authority rather than with the voice of compassion--its message becomes meaningless.”
― Abraham Joshua Heschel, God in Search of Man: A Philosophy of Judaism

"The incentive repeated in many places in the Qur’an to “contemplate” cannot be interpreted otherwise but as a firm conviction (and promise) that the testimony of the senses and reason will not suppress the soul’s belief. At some horizon, science based on observation and religion based on revelation are no longer conflicting and they can even support each other. That horizon is what I call the horizon of Islam. -Alije Izetbegovic, "Notes from Prison 1983-1988", father of the modern Bosnian Muslim nation.

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Sensitivity

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 19:10:06 GMT

My mother warned me not to ask God to make me humble. She said she did that and like that, everything in her life disappeared.
I asked God instead to make me kinder and gentler. I think the process has been in effect for a while.

I can tell that things are happening around that front. Some walls are coming down but what does tenderness of heart get me? Just wondering.

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Decisions

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 21:04:47 GMT

Keeping it halal and daydreaming, being grateful and all that.

I'm debating importing my other journal here since no one seems to ever cross post to LJ anymore. I don't necessarily have that many religious things to say on a daily basis-- I do salat, I pine for someone, I make du'a, I support those who I can and I ask Allah to draw me closer to Him. No profundity there but my more profane life is a hopping.

Anywho. While I contemplate what to do, watch Imam Zaid talk about celebrity and religion.

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On talking

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 04:29:19 GMT

I watched this khutba a few weeks ago and what struck me was the message that when bad things are going on, it isn't really that God is punishing you, but that He is trying to turn you toward Him so that you'll call out for His help.

But the part that I was supposed to take with me was the part about not being silent about your pain. Brother Navaid says that evil flourishes when we're silent-- silent about our oppression, silent about or abuse, silent about our suffering. And in the moment it didn't hit me so hard but yes, when we suffer silently we're not especially stoic or whatever-- we're perpetuating stereotypes about certain types of behaviors expected of women. Especially WoC and we're not helping ourselves.

Whether it is confession to God (like the hadith that Khalid is fond of speaking of where, I paraphrase, there was a man of his people who was hiding a terrible sin and God said that until he confesses, there will be no rain and the guy never came forward but he prayed to God for forgiveness earnestly and when Ibrahim was like "Wait, we have rain, but no one came forward." And God was like "Oh, hey, I've always known his sin and I've been covering it for 40 years, it was between us. It was his confession, his unburdening himself to me that caused me to return the rain.) or to others, holding onto things silently isn't really the way to go about it. When we speak our pain we allow others to act as insturments of Allah to help, we lighten our load and we take the favors bestowed upon us to others after our pain has subsided.

That's why evil favors silence. Keep your sexuality to yourself. Don't talk about that rape. Don't talk about that experience. Don't talk about how much you were hurt. Silence allows the oppression to flourish. We can pretend everything is fine and ignore our sole duty of pursuing justice for all those who are unjustly oppressed, for soothing them and ourselves.

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Gregorian 2012

Sat, 31 Dec 2011 21:47:37 GMT

Happy New Year everyone. I have been MIA and I am sorry. I have been doing lots in real life toward drawing me toward Allah and submitting to
His will.

I have a few links I'd like to post and iA, will over the next few days. I'll do it as a sort of summation for what I've been working on and seeing and feeling.

1. I have been reading fatwas. I know I have a strict no fatwa policy but good fatwas lay out their reasoning and even if I disagree with it, I have all the basis for why I do. I read a fatwa the other day from a Serbian brother who was asking about slavery during war. Now the guy writing the fatwa was probably learned and referenced all the correct surahs and hadith; however, he was completely off the point. This brother who was asking was talking about whether it would be permissible for Muslim women to be raped by the captors since the 'rule' as he knew it was for women to become property after a war. This is not the 'rule' and Islam is strictly against rape and slavery.

But the guy issuing the fatwa missed that. His conclusion to this brother was "Islam treats slaves well" before quoting every hadith and every surah in which it is declared FREE YOUR SLAVES IF YOU HAVE THEM. Over and over Allah says that a person who frees a slave is blessed. Over and over does the Prophet say that to atone for sins free your slaves. If you don't have slaves? Free other people's slaves. The best thing you can do is to buy a slave out if you own one jointly and release her. But his conclusion was "it's okay to have slaves but treat them nicely." *sideeye* But it's good. It reminds me that I can learn things AND stick to my sense of right when it directly conflicts with a supposed scholar.

2. I've been socializing all halal.

3. I've been reaching out to scholars who I respect and with good result.

4. I got *dances around* an annotated Qur'an by Mohammed Asad. It's GREAT. I love it.

5. I've been thinking a lot about the representation of Muslims in American media.

Uhm, so yeah. Just a few things that I hope to explore in the coming weeks. Loads of things to think about and do. iA, I'll do it soon! m

Happy new year!

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Sun, 06 Nov 2011 04:13:28 GMT

I just wanted to share some brief thoughts on the Muslim holiday.

There are millions of Muslims on the verge of concluding their pilgrimage (hajj) in Mecca; by the time you read this, they're already finished, exhausted and sharing the meat of a sacrificed animal with family, neighbors and the poor. Across the world, hundreds of millions more are putting on their Sunday finest -- thanks to God and the moon and the curvature of space-time for complying with the spirit and the law of the Western weekend -- and heading to mosques. Often way too early in the morning. (Can we comply with the Western sleep cycle?)

It's Eid al-Adha today, the Feast of the Sacrifice, the biggest holiday of the pan-Muslim calendar. Muslims remember Abraham's decision to sacrifice his son, spared only at the very last moment. In honor of that moment, an animal is sacrificed to God and its meat is shared with those close and those in need. The day before was the Day of 'Arafat, when many fast -- as in Ramadan -- in honor of the standing at the plain of 'Arafat, where Muslims on hajj pour their hearts out to God. But really and ultimately, this holiday is about Abraham.

The reason Abraham affects us so is because of his life's tragedies. God is asking Abraham to take the life of his son; rationally, reasonably, that is unbelievable. In the broader Islamic tradition, murder is of course forbidden: We've got Cain and Abel too. And this is sort of what Abraham keeps getting: He doesn't have children until his very old age, and this is a source of great distress for him. As it would be for any of us, but especially in his day and age. And then, when he has a son, God says, dump him in the desert. When he finds him years later, much to his relief and joy -- we can imagine tears of happiness -- God says: Take his life. Show me and the world you love me most.

Abraham's father refused to believe in him. His people tried to kill him. They even made a fire to burn him in, and tossed him in. He wanders alone through the world, without offspring, for years; even married, for a long time he has no descendants. When finally God gives him Isaac and Ishmael, he is asked to leave Ishmael and Hagar (Ishmael's mother) in the wilderness of Paran, the deserts around Mecca. In that stunning, amazing, incredible request, Islam truly and properly begins. The spiritual ground is seeded in a sacrifice that will echo through time, and result in the Prophet Muhammad, Abraham's final heir through his son Ishmael, and the global Muslim community, the Prophet Muhammad's brothers and sisters.

Who says prayers aren't answered?

Time and again, Abraham is asked to sacrifice like no normal person is, or could be. He is asked to abandon, or take the life of his child, and God in each case intervenes. God saves. God guides. The greatest destiny unfolds in that tiny, stunning, unbelievable gesture of faith in God against all common sense. Or, as Iqbal put it, discussing Abraham elsewhere:

"Love dove into Nimrod's fire without hesitation / While reason's on the rooftop, merely considering the scene."

This is what Muslims celebrate on Sunday.

That prayers are answered, even if they aren't answered in our lifetime. That God tests us according to our capacity, and those of us who face the most hardship in dignity and fidelity are the most awesome in His sight. That God's promise is true. That the aches and pains in our souls will be healed one day. Perhaps not in this life, though; we must hold on to the rope of God until then.

Abraham was terrified he wouldn't have children. And in return for his faith, God gave him half the planet, Jewish, Christian and Muslim. It may well be that many of us pray more for Abraham and Muhammad than we do for any other families. Including our own. And the Muslim community centers its identity on him. We are his spiritual family, or at least hope to be. Little children of every ethnicity and nationality, all across the planet, stumble across words they will repeat for the rest of their lives, words they're taught to memorize, and often given gifts if they do, words which have an especially profound meaning on us today:

Allah bless Muhammad, and the family of Muhammad
As you blessed Abraham, and the family of Abraham

Eid Mubarak.

Haroon on Eid Al Adha

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funny: Working with Muslims

Tue, 11 Oct 2011 03:35:09 GMT

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Honoring the rights of creation (Environmentalism, consumption and kindness to animals).

Sun, 25 Sep 2011 17:07:35 GMT

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Mabrook!

Sat, 24 Sep 2011 22:29:31 GMT

Although I doubt he'll read this, congrats to Khalid Latif and his new bride Priya! She's fiesty and smart and adorbs and I'm sure they're going to produce smart, funny, welcoming, short people to populate the earth! Mabrook!!

(I got an invite, but uh, like all the wedding invites I get the wedding was in another state).

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The things that have summed up my life since my last post.

Thu, 15 Sep 2011 01:50:56 GMT

Waiting is painful. Forgetting is painful. But not knowing which to do is the worst kind of suffering. -Paulo Coelho

The Prophet, pbuh, also said: "For every misfortune, illness, anxiety, grief, or hurt that afflicts a believer - even the pain caused by the pricking of a thorn - God removes some of his sins."

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EID MUBARAK

Wed, 31 Aug 2011 00:52:55 GMT

Celebrating Eid here today because all the major masjids here had their Eid prayers today. That, and I don't have tomorrow off.

So many goals for next Ramadan, insh'Allah. I fasted all but eight days, seven of which were spent menstruating. I'll try to make them up before the new year.

Keeping the spirit in mind I'm going to work on my deen and finding/holding/enjoying community.

Blessings to all of you, fasting and not! May Allah (SWT) be gentle with you and you be gentle with others. Bismillah.

Tomorrow I return to the gym! Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!

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Ramadan dia 29, again: Lone wolf

Mon, 29 Aug 2011 19:28:44 GMT

I met a guy who, so far I like. When I explained that I couldn't come hang out because it was Ramadan he was quite understanding and mentioned that he'd broken fast with a Muslim friend of his. I explained, simply, that Ramadan was sort of like Christmas and Easter and Lent rolled into one. It's not super apt, but it isn't that far off if you're trying to explain the restrictive nature of Ramadan for the sake of God and the sort of jubilation that comes after.

In the way that it is very much like Christmas, however, is the implication that if you're not with family you must be some wretched soul. I've gotten no fewer than 10 emails in the last few days instructing people to come to a 'lonely' Eid celebration-- i.e. you lack preconceived indicators of happiness-- you must have something wrong with you.

I know that sounds harsh, but it's the exact same message that people who don't celebrate Christmas get. You're Jewish or Muslim on Christmas day? The smile falters and a hand stretches out to you, a "Oh, that's so sad that you can't celebrate..." or "Well, we don't want you to be alone. Come over!" I understand that these gestures have the best intentions and in this tradition, intention counts but COME ON.

I feel like I'm getting it from all ends. I'm single, childfree and estranged from my biological family-- so in no religion, in no cultural setting am I okay. I'm to be pitied and forced into a room with lonesome strangers for some sort of forced community bonding. No thanks.
I almost feel like bailing on my own, non-familial, Eid plans JUST TO SHOW THEM! Eh. IDK. Maybe I'm just cranky.

Ramadan ends tomorrow and my body is feeling the brunt of it. The lack of sleep, the lack of movement-- they all have taken a toll. Still, I'm trying to be gentle, gentle as the Prophet (SAW) would've been.

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Ramadan Day 29: Gentleness

Mon, 29 Aug 2011 01:43:00 GMT

Sometimes I think about the prophets that I've come to know and the ones that get fed to us by the MMSM (mainstream muslim media)-- the shaming, grumpy, hellfire type prophets and then the ones that actually emerge in their holy books, or in the case of RasoolAllah, sunnah.

To be sure, there're tons of wack sunnah out there where the Prophet (SAW) supposedly is condemning women to Hell for cutting their hair or wearing a wig or walking a certain way but that isn't the Prophet Muhammad I know. A friend of mine in Oakland reminded me of this.

The Prophet Muhammad (s) said: "Verily the one who recites the Qur'an beautifully, smoothly, and precisely, he will be in the company of the noble and obedient angels. And as for the one who recites with difficulty, stammering or stumbling through its verses (because he doesn't know how to read it but is trying to), then he will have twice that reward."

If the Prophet (and prophets) is the best of creation, would they not then possess the best of Allah(SWT) traits? Merciful, gentle, patient, loving, forgiving-- those are the 99 names of Allah.

And I haven't really been going anywhere lately-- I'm not feeling great-- so no new photos of colorful hijab. It was warm yesterday and this was me:

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Ramadan Dia 23: Anger

Tue, 23 Aug 2011 23:56:43 GMT

The Prophet Muhammad (saw) said, "Anger corrupts faith in the same way that vinegar destroys honey."

Had a birthday this week-- got lots of love but still... felt some sort of way. Didn't hear much from people I was expecting something from, well, nothing from some people I was expecting almost anything from. It's easy, when you're fasting, to be angry and short tempered. But that's the point too-- it isn't just to bring to fullness the realisation that we're blessed with such bounty, but also the realisation that we're mean to be a blessing and act as blessed even when our tummies are temporarily rumbly.

Bismillah, alhamdulliah.

This, btw, is the first and last time I wore this sweater. It immediately got black hair dye dripped onto it. Well, maybe I'll dye it some other color. I can't remember if I bought this scarf at Hilal Plaza or if it was thrifted.

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Ramadan Dia 19:

Sat, 20 Aug 2011 03:59:37 GMT

Things have been busy and changing and all of that.

1. Went out to iftar with a bunch of Muslims who were, for the most part, around my age and progressive. I had a great time. InshAllah, they'll be friends. I think I may have found a lady buddy to kick it to masjid events with. Not to mention, amongst them was a un Latino del Caribe! Woo! My people! Was supposed to be at an iftar with them tonight but the notice was too short. InshAllah, next time. :)

2. I haven't fasted since Tuesday. What shocked me was how much my health had deterirorated from fasting-- the severe pain in my legs and knees (I could barely do salat) was from dehydration. I need to figure out a better way to keep my body up AND fast. Also, the lack of sleep messed me up too. Sadly though, I miss talking to Allah through salat. I usually make dua or just start praying in my own way, and I'm doing that but you miss it when you're cut out of your normal 5 times per day. It's weird. Part of me is desperately looking forward to my normal schedule-- running everyday, drinking as much water as I want, eating fruit and stuff... but IDK, part of me doesn't want Ramadan to end. I keep getting reminders that we're down to the last ten days. Hopefully on Tuesday I'll be back to it and feeling better. Lots of du'a to make. Lots of dhikr to do.

3. A cool article about the difference between Islam as our Prophet (SAW) founded it and the way it's been handled since.

For Muslims, Ramadan is a month of fasting, purification, study and prayerful reflection. And after two weeks of prayerful reflection, I have concluded there is no tragedy that has befallen Islam and the Muslim people of the world greater than the derogation of Muslim women. Why?
Two reasons:

Because that abomination has made our communities, our faiths and our religion more vulnerable to catastrophe and less effective in meeting challenges for at least the last thousand years.
Because we did it to ourselves.

Every Muslim will tell you proudly how Islam began as the most egalitarian of religions. From the Quran's declaration of the equality of all persons (male and female, regardless of race, creed or gender) under God's (thankfully merciful) judgment, through Muhammad's own egalitarian practice, that message is consistent throughout. He even worked for his first wife Khadija as her employee, made the woman Umm Waraqah one of Islam's first imams and told his followers to learn half their religion from his youngest wife Aisha, for Heaven's sake! But let's all be honest for a change: Many Muslim men from the very beginning haven't been comfortable with the way Muhammad exalted women. ( Read more... )

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Ramadan Dias...uh.. no se: Law and men.

Mon, 15 Aug 2011 21:49:19 GMT

If you follow me elsewhere you know I made the mistake of reading a question/answer service. I was looking for opinion on a particular Islamic issue but, stupidly, got sucked into reading some of the more inane questions.

Can I pray for rain in other countries?

Can I have a roadside assistance membership? Does it count as insurance?

Can I pray in my freshly laundered clothes? There were unclean things contacting them while they were in the washing machine.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again now. I've got a pretty strict anti-fatwah policy and these questions (and the ultimate answers) are all based on fatwas.

Why WOULDNT you be able to pray for rain in other countries?
Well, there's a very specific prayer that has been delineated by dudes in this tradition. It doesn't say you can't pray for rain elsewhere, but because it's so man-centric, people start asking.
Same with insurance-- insurance has been declared gambling by some of the major schools of Islam and people act like it is the word of God. And the thing is, these rulings aren't even consistent with themselves.

"Well, music is okay, if it isn't Western." "Music is always haram."

My general belief is that the Revelation leaves very little question about what we should do and shouldn't do, where things get murky and confusing is when we start acting as though those legal minds and scholars of the Islamic tradition have a vice grip on what Allah wants, and we follow them, instead of using the tools God has equipped us with, and His word, to figure out our way.

Which brings us to hadith. I use hadith as an advisory opinion-- something to supplement the Qur'an. If it doesn't go along with my reading of the Qur'an, I ignore it. If it doesn't have sufficient basis (I do not trust in hadith that interpret the Prophets hand gestures or facial expressions. I demand that actual words be used), I ignore it. If it doesn't make sense with my heart or the heart that I understand to belong to the Prophet (SAW), I ignore it.

Interestingly, a friend of mine mentioned a hadith and pointed to it as a reason he ignores all hadith.

Another friend commented perfectly saying: All hadith aren't bad... the ones that make sense are good.

Which is my point exactly.

Nahida sums up most of my perspective perfectly:

Hadith are used as tools to understand the Qur'an. Whether or not they should be used at all is up for debate and has been a subject of great controversy. It's been noticed here that I rarely use hadith--the reason is not because I am a Quranist, (though I emphasize with them) but rather because (1) hadith can be found for and against pretty much anything, (2) what use are hadith on a particular topic when the Qur'an answers my question entirely for that subject? will I look to a mortal man for answers, however perfect of a man he was--the name of whom other men have probably used to tell lies--when God has satisfied me? and (3) I am very, very, very picky about hadith. I'm choosier than most scholars are when it comes to hadith. (That implied that I am among them; I'm not a scholar, just to be clear.) And so, I will use hadith, but only in very specific circumstances. While even very "Orthodox" (I hate to use sectarian adjectives) Muslims will acknowledge that most hadith are complete fabrications, a good number of them will assert that previous scholars, through centuries of work, have disposed of the ones that are fabrications.

I highly suggest you read the entire essay. It's impeccably reasoned and makes great sense.

Anyway, I still, every once in a while end up reading fatwas or oddball hadith and getting so upset. I get annoyed that this passes as Islam. I get annoyed that there are people out there who're more concerned about whether their toes are perfectly aligned and spaced during salat than whether they're doing charitable works. I get mad that people look at Islam as a set of rote, passionless steps toward salvation instead of a heart filled, love based attempt to please a benevolent creator.

Take note: The 99 names of God aren't "The Micromanaging" or "The Perfectionist"

Al Wadud-- The loving
Al Mujib-- The Responsive
Al Mani- The Preventer of Harm
Al Hadi- The Guide
As-Subur- The Patient One
Ash-Shakur- The Appreciative One
Al Latif- The gentle One
Al Gafur- The Forgiving

The list goes on for 99 names and to be sure there are some that are less pleasant-- the Humiliator (in reference to those who hurt and betray others), the Judge, the Subduer-- but the vast majority are neutral (i.e. The Ever Living) or about God's ultimate patience, compassion and love for creation.

A friend of mine leads prayer and teaches a Qur'an study class. She was suggesting to someone else that they talk to God about their difficulties with Islam. So I tried that. I just raised my hands and made du'a and launched into all the things that I was upset about. I talked about how I didn't think that the way to Him was through rote action or memorization for the sake of memorization. I ask Allah to guide me to Him, and to submit to Him and not to men who have their own priorities. I wanted to know what made Allah happiest. I wanted to know if this seemingly overwrought system was for everyone? I feel like God speaks to different people in different ways, but maybe I was doing something wholly wrong? Maybe I was going about things the wrong way.

And having that out, made me feel better.

And then I got up for suhur and found this hadith (via Masjid Farooq here in Washington) in my email box:

A person once said to the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him): "The laws of Islam are too much for me, so tell me something that I can follow easily." The Prophet told him: "Let your tongue be always busy remembering (dhikr) God's beauty, majesty and glory."

This hadith is backed up by the Qur'an (one of the things I find incredibly annoying are the back flips that people have to go to in order to justify some hadith, which are clearly in contradiction to both other, sensible hadith, and the Qur'an) in Al Baqarah (2:152).

And I felt extremely blessed.

And that is all for my reflection.

This is how I usually roll on the weekends-- but in and out of the house. I didn't go anywhere on Saturday but for a walk around the neighborhood.

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Ramadan Dias Diez, Once y Doce: Mornings, mornings, mornings

Sat, 13 Aug 2011 02:32:34 GMT

I was telling my friend, "Friend! I am excited to see if I can make better use of my time this year during Ramadan."
I always figure that since I'm not constantly eating or exercising, I can focus on other things. Ideally? Allah. Not so ideally? Work that I am behind on.

I really haven't succeeded. I did cut out some time last weekend to just sit and read the Qu'ran, but since it is late summer and the timings of Isha and Fajr what they are, my need for sleep has trumped my nightly reading of the Revelation. I'd also hoped to memorize another Surah, but there's still time, inshAllah. I did manage to go to Masjid Belal and, inshAllah, I'm going to make it to the Muslim Foodies meetup. NEW THINGS! THEY ABOUND!! I have the feeling my next post may be about socializing. Le sigh.

Anywho!

The time I do have is in the morning since the rest of my schedule (my day jampacked with hearings, the house's need to be cleaned, the beasts' need for care) does not stop for the holy month.

In the morning, everything is still.

The streets are quiet if I take a walk and my email box has not yet been flooded with ads for sales or groupons. I can drink and eat and do whatever I have the mind to, appropriately. I pray without a rush, I eat without a rush.

“Eat Suhur for there is a blessing in it.”

(Bukhari 1923, Sum Muslim 580)

There is really. Suhur forces me to think about what will sustain me through the day. It forces me to consider the uncountable blessings I have from God and that He sustains me in all things. Someone posed the question earlier this week: What would it be like if you had no food to break your fast?

What if you had no food to start it?

Eating suhur reminds me to take a little of everything that I've been given in small amounts to satisfy myself. No overindulgence (although sometimes I go a little too hard on the agua) or you'll be wrecked for the day and you risk breaking your fast by vomitting up all the stuff your body wasn't ready for. If I eat too little, I'll be wrecked for the day, cranky, unable to focus and headachey.

The middle way, as the Prophet, SAW, always said, is the best.

My suhur usually consists of a whole grain cereal, fruit, toast and peanut butter. And about 30-40 ounces of water. Dawn is getting on toward 6AM, but I'm still up around four to get the water in over a bit of time. Sometimes, I have a cookie.

But that's it. And I've stopped trying to put half of my calories into the suhur-- I don't need that much. And that's the other thing about Ramadan. It really puts into focus what you don't really need and what you do need.

I hope Allah blesses me to recall these things after the fasting is over.

Bismillah
Alhamdullilah

wa salat wa salaam ala RasoolAllah.

Ameen

So, I may stop taking these photos after I've come back from my morning walk. I'm always wearing an unusual sheen of sweat and marine layer humidity. And yes, in all of these photos I'm wearing my trusty denim jacket. It is Seattle, it is August. WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME?

Taken at work.

The scarf on top is new and I wore it today. I'll have to write about the woman who sold it to me yesterday.

The middle scarf was on clearance at Lane Bryant. I got lots of compliments on it.

The final scarf is from Wednesday. I am a little adverse to bright colors and when my assistant saw me her eyes widened. I was also wearing a bright pink shirt under my black sweater. When I asked her about her expression she said she really liked it... so yeah. This scarf was thrifted.

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