A Death in the Family

Assalamualaikum guys,

   It’s been a while since a posted something with more than ten words in it. Anyways, this entire month has been one hell of an eye opener for me.

   My  dear aunt, Anees, and my dear uncle Saleem, had come to visit from the States. About a week later, his mother was taken to the hospital after a bad fall. She was in serious condition. We all made du’a. She had to go through surgery. She was became fine by the grace of Allah (SWT).

   While she was in the hospital, something else had happened concurrently, my grandfather’s elder brother, the Ameer of our family, the captain of the sailing ship, had died in his mid 80s. He was a man who I’ve never seen frown. Everybody told me that he was a patient man. He had four wives and them and all of there children were there at the time, crying over the death of one of the wisest and oldest man in the family. It had been the first time in my life that I have been to a graveyard. It was probably the most fearful time in my life. There were no memorials, no grave stones, and no lush grass. There were small mounds of dirt. Millions of mounds of dirt.I was scared that I might step on someone’s grave. We had taken the body to the grave. The grave was only six to seven feet low. We placed the body in the grave. I could not help but to picture myself in there. What a feeling for a dead man that would be. His face was only showing. We then put banana leaves and hard cloth sheets one side and stuck bamboo sticks to it to hold them up. We then covered the top of the body with about a foot of gap between his head and the cover so that dirt won’t fall on him. We then started to but the dirt on him. It seemed like he was just sleeping and we were throwing dirt on him. His beard was trimmed and his head was covered with cloth. After he was fully covered, we made du’a, a part from attaining Jannat-ul- Firdaus, I prayed that he would have the window of Jannah on his right side and the cool and soothing breeze of paradise cooling his face. My Grandfather was extremely close to his brother. He was depressed for the last two years since he is getting old(please make du’a for his recovery insha’Allah). He had felt it the most. For the first time his head was on my chest. He was weeping. It had been the first time I’ve seen my Grandpa shed a tear, It was unimaginable for me. He had always been the tough guy for me.  He was a well built man with hefty biceps and a strong chest, but he had become weak because of his depression. Non the less, that image of him stayed in my mind forever. I saw the weakness of the heart one when lose a loved one. He was Superman, and he was holding kryptonite.

   The next day, something that had hurt me more than anything had happened. One of my aunts from my father’s side lived in Sligiri, an Army Base in India. Her husband, Riaz, was plastic surgeon. He had fixed faces for civilians who had faced bombing and war Afghanistan and Kashmir. He had gone to do this great work in Africa. Subhanallah may Allah(SWT) reward him for all the work that he has done. One days after the death of my Grandpa’s brother, Riaz uncle dived in a pool, and never came back up. He was a great swimmer. No one knows what happened. He was taken to the hospital. Three hours later, we got the news that he died. Apparently he died two hours before, but his wife was in such bad shape, that the doctor didn’t know if he should tell her or not. He was 36-37 years old, his daughter is ten, his wife is now a widow, They were happily married with a great life allhumdullilah. His body asked Allah if it could breath, Allah said no, and that was it. 

  This got me to realize the value of life and how thing can break down like buildings being demolished. It as at the snap of a finger. But what got me thinking was when people are alive, others gossip and say bad things about them, but when they die, they realize how good he person was in reality. It’s sad how it takes death to make people realize the goodness of mankind. It’s a great time to say,”wow we suck!”

Mos Def’s Def Poetry

Some great poetry from brother Mos Def’s show by Brother Talib Kweli and Sister Suheir Hammad.

 

 

Backwards?!!

Assalamualaiukum!!! 

  Well, today I have another school story. Talk about ‘experiences’. I was at the exam hall today and the teacher walks in for attendance. She is checking the ratios between hindus and muslims, muslims and christians, christians and hindus, etc. She came up to me and said, “Umair, must be backwards, no?” I didn’t understand what she was trying to say to me. So I replied ,”No, actually I’m Muslim.” She then says, ” Same thing.”

  I was extremely confused at that point. I had no idea Muslims were called backwards! I was furious at that point. That comment was in my head the whole day. It then came to me and I asked myself, “Why do people call us backwards?”

A list of problems cam into my head;

- Our literacy rate is terrible, the last genration had only about 31.1 % of leterate Muslims in Tamil Nadu according to NDTV News Channel.

- We burn stuff when we are pissed, like during the release of the film Jodhaa Akbar(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jodhaa_Akbar) last month. In North India Muslims and Hindus had riots for a really dumb reason. That Jodha was not from Rajput, but from Jaipur. Is that valid reason for burning stuff? That’s not even a reason to burn your fireplace! India is hot enough!

-We don’t have enough Muslims in the Media! Wait, yeah we do… who are they again? Oh yeah, SRK, Saif Ali Khan, Salman Khan… They’re great Islamic icons. Yeah right. I’m talking about the big timers. Practicing Muslim versions of Ambani and Tata Birla.

-We are probably the most lazy race in the world. We need our nauker to pick up our damn tissues when we drop it.

  Some may say, ‘Well, Hindus are rioting too, they are lazy too! It’s just that they are better off because they are Hindus, and we are Muslims.’ OBVIOUS. Think about it folks, if Muslims rules India today, which means if it was a total Muslim country, wouldn’t we do the same. Blame others all the time, give muslims the benefit of the doubt, put them in high positions? Yeah, 100%. We live in a Hindu country. Yes, Shah Jahan built the Taj Mahal, Mughul were the greates rulers of India, but alas, India is a Hindu country. The national language is hindi, not urdu or arabic. There are more temples than any other religious place. Before Hindi movies, you don’t see Qur’anic verses (astakafarullah) or Jesus on a cross(for christians), you see Ganesh and something else (like Shiva or that monkey like figure or somthing). Muslims here proved that India as a Hindu country in 1947 when we made Pakistan. That was straight up saying India is a Hindu country. Our own family in India support Pakistan in cricket when they live in the south, have never been near Pakistan, or even tried Pakistani food. What does this tell you? This is like asking to be called backwards. How illogical is this? Blaming Hindus for bashing on us and saying we’re not Indians when we basically do unpatriotic things. I’m not bashing on Pakistanis because I’m tight with Pakistanis (represent). So ask yourselves, who’s fault is it that we are called backwards?

 So, we just have to try 110% more than everyone else at everything we do. The things that the last generation did have fallen back on us. Now, the new muslim generation has to work extra hard, be extra patient, and have extra faith.

Shabba Khair

The Rope of Allah(SWT)

Assalamulaikum folks!

       Today’s topic is about The Rope of Allah azawajjal, faith in Islam. Moving to India was a challenge for me. Nothing seemed to go right. Everything seemed to be out of place. I thought moving to India would be a cultural expierence and it was, it just wasn’t Indian culture. It seemed as if I landed in a Third World America. Every one seemed to emulating the west. This was fine, but what bothered me is tha they emulated the wrong aspects of the west. It was extremism to the evil light of the west. School, well, I thought school was going to be like a school in the Bollywood movies. I was afraid of the beating I might get daily, I thought no one knew english fluently, and I thought no one knew about the west. That was my ‘extreme’ way of thinking. I came there and saw a completely different school as how I had imagined it to be. People knew english better than me! That’s not the schocking part though. What schocled me was the fact that the school I thought was the other extreme of what I had imagined it to be. The kids had all the bad qualities of the west; drinking, gossiping, smoking, smoking pot in the bathrooms, buying condoms and porn,  everything. Astakfarullah you say? Well brother, let me tell you the bitter truth, half of these kids are Muslim. I then completely lost hope, even worse, I lost faith. Faith in everything. Faith in a better Ummah, freinds, and sometimes even in Allah (SWT). My hands were slipping off the Rope of Allah azawajjal. Then I realized that , I can’t do that. It’s not just just that it’s wrong. It’s completely HARAM!!! So I grabbed the Rope and made intense du’a. I went out and started a youth group. This was the craziest and misunderstood idea ever. Why? Because I started. I was a nobody. This was not even a legitamate group. No kid accepted it. No parent accepted. I made more du’a. I then found a group of five devoted kids who were at my doorstep. Allhamdullilah the mission was almost accomplished. Coencidently, Peace Exhibition was going on the following week. I had bumped into Zakir Ahmed (Chairman of Peace) and later Zakir Naik, both by accident, and I just brought the subject and they agreed to support us on our mission. Allhamdullilah after alot of du’a, everthing came to place. The kids coming to my doorstep, Peace coming up without me knowling, bumping into the Chairman of Peace and a Muslim Icon, coencidence? No. This is all because of Iman, a lot of du’a to Allah azawajjal. Allah (SWT) put things in place and gave it to us on a platter. Honestly, I barely did anything. Wallahi, it was all givin to us by Allah (SWT).  So always make du’a and hold on to the Rope Of Allah azawajjal.

Shabba Khair

The Glue Of Islam

Bismillah A’salaat tu w’salaam Ala Rasool Sayeedinah Muhammad Wa Ala Aali Muhammad Kamasalayta Ala Ibrahim Wa Ala Aali Ibarahim, Innaka Hameed un Majeed, Amma Ba’d  

Assalamualaikum ya’ll!!!

I wanna make this post short and sweet inshaAllah.

THE ISSUE

We all have issues with one another.  All of us disagree to one and other, right? That’s cool, the Prophet (S) incouraged a diversed ummah and Allah (SWT) encourages us to ask questions. But what happens when this diversity seperates us? We split up and for different sects of the religion and different groups and go to a seperate masjid and so forth. Some of refuse to pray behind some people who follow a different madhab that they follow!!! Imagine yourself as a madhab, say Hanafi. If Imam Shafi’ [may Allah bless him iA] came to your masjid, would you refise to pray behind him? Heck no you won’t. You’ll be running to the front row to pray right behind him, right? So why do this to an ordenary Muslim? One thing that I saw a lot of in India and a little in the States is that Muslims refer to there fellow Muslims according to what madhab they follow. This is called ‘labeling’. This little word or action seperates us from one an other. So try not to label your fellow brother or sister inshaAllah. So we all have differences, but as long a we stay in the fold of Islam, we are there is no major difference between us. The fold of Islam is the five pillars, Qur’an and the Sunnah, and our concept of Allah ( this is the surah Al- Ikhlas test, if the concept of Allah agrees to all the verses in surah Al- Ikhlaas, it’s fine.). If thse things are the same, then we are all Muslims and that’s our only label. If we only call ourselves Muslims and nothing else then inshaAllah, nothing can seperate us. These little differences like where we put our hands when we pray, the measurements of our beards, or if we play chess or eat zabiha or not shouldn’t bother us ss long as we are in the circle of Iman, we are fine.

WHY IS THIS SO IMPORTANT?

 This is so important because we need each other to spread the light of Islam. All of need to hold hands as Muslims. If one Muslim is not practicing, don’t bash on him, that’s only gonna push himaway from Islam, hold is hand, and invite him. Hold your non muslims brothers hand when you have campaigns for HIV, Global Warming, etc. Show them your a Muslim and you are also invlolve yourself with this world. If they do something crazy like campaign for gay rights, then tell them, im sorry bro, that’s a tiny bit too extreme for me. Hold your brother’s hand and forget about our labels. Wehave one label, and it’s ‘MUSLIM’. Show the world that we are not evil and negative. Show them the light of Allah (SWT). Sh. Yasir Qadhi once enmphasised on a point of our lazyness. We can’t blame people and sit around do nothing. We can’t wait for a Khalid bin Waleed to come or a Salahuddin Ayoub to come. We have to do whatever we can. For example. if all of us were sitting in ISNA convention hall together and the lights turned off and it’s pitch black, what do we do? We can’t find the switch,so we panic and start blaming each other. But one person out of these thousands of people turns his cell phone on for a light, but its just a small light. Then, another person lights a lighter, then one man lights a match, and everybody start turning on small lights, what happens? The whole room turns bright again. We all have to do small things to make our light shine inshAllah. We have to looke at everything with a posotive light. Critisism, failure, getting kicked off your basketball team, look at these things with a very posotive light. Smile at everyone, muslim or non muslim. You never know who’s day you might make brighter. Make your mark everywhere and do good and let people know your a muslim, not by carryng a flag and destroying stuff, but by dressing, walking, talking, and acting qupon the guidance of the Qur’an and the Sunnah.

Insha Allah, I make du’a for myself, the ummah, and the rest of the world to hold each other hands and tie the knot of brotherhod. Ameen

Shabba Khair

Impact of Quran on the Heart: Dr.Mamdouh Mohammad

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The Fate of The Dark Knight

Searches Surge for Heath Ledger as The Joker

By Molly McCall

Fri, January 25, 2008, 3:41 pm PST

For months now, buzz has been building for “The Dark Knight,” the next edition of the “Batman” film franchise. Directed by Christopher Nolan, the upcoming movie stars Christian Bale as Batman—and Heath Ledger as The Joker.

Advertising for the blockbuster release, which will hit theaters in July, has focused on Ledger’s grisly, battered-looking super villain. Now, as The Wall Street Journal says, “the actor’s death puts into question the future of the Joker-centric marketing push… and whether Warner Bros. will change tactics rather than risk a negative response.” AFP quoted one source as saying that the dilemma the studio finds itself in is “unprecedented in the modern era.”

We don’t know how people will respond to the movie’s marketing or its release, but the fate of the film and the look of Ledger’s bruised bad guy have electrified searchers. After news broke of Ledger’s shocking death, queries for “heath ledger” catapulted upwards. The next most sought-out search was “heath ledger joker.” Since his death, demand for the actor’s portrayal of the criminal mastermind has surged nearly 3,600%.

Over the past week, we’ve also logged massive spikes in terms like “batman the dark knight joker,” “heath ledger joker pictures,” and “heath ledger as the new joker.” General queries, such as “dark knight movie” and “batman the dark knight trailer,” have skyrocketed.

One of the posters for the movie features an image of the Caped Crusader’s arch foe scrawling “Why so serious?” in blood. Yesterday, “the dark knight why so serious” surged. For as long as Ledger’s death remains in the news, there will surely be intensified focus on the film. What happens after that, and how seriously audiences respond to the summer release and its greasecaked clown criminal, remains to be seen.

Abdul Jabbar Suhail, My Uncle, Asking Sh. Yasir Qadhi A Question At Peace

Courtesy of Saqib Bhaiya and WasatStudios.

Peace Vision of Islam MYC Together?!!!!

Assamualaikum guys,

     Peace conference has just ended. It was great Allhumdullilah! It was one of the best things that happened to India. Isa Washington was the MC and was awesome. He made a huge difference during the conference. Saqib bhaiya’s boy Yasir Qadhi rocked the house during the first part of the conference with his lectures with subjects like ‘Invite the World to Paradise”, ’Unity and Disunity in Islam’, and ‘Repentance’ along with his “Aqeedah 101″ workshop. My family are now all Yasir Qadhi fans. They have his CD’s stacked up on our CD stand taking the place of Hindi music for good. Waleed Basouni also had an impacton the people with his speech on ‘Violence in the name of God’. We chilled before he left. Hussein Yee spoke about trials of the grave and about peace. He also did a workshop on bringing up your family. He was really good. Tawfique Chowdhury spoke on amazing women in Islam and Preserving our faith in the 21st century. Salem Al- Amry, a speaker from UAE had ok speeches but really good workshops on Tawheed. Yusuf Estes had come to speak about Proof of God, God in general, and Da’wah. He was hilarious. Everytime he cracked a joke no one would laugh because they didn’t understand it. He started with saying, “Assalamualaikum, my name is Yusuf, but my wife calles me ‘useless’ ”. He ended with saying, ‘You better laugh because my jokes don’t get any cheesier than this.’ Sh. Hamoud Ashamry had come. He was a pilot for thirty years and started doing da’wah. Mamdouh Mohammad was awesome. He’s you typical Arab uncle. He was really nice and talked about traps of Satan, Soldiers of Allah(SWT) Approaching Quran and workshops on shortcuts to paradise and Salah.  Bilal Phillips came down and talked about Hijab, Desires and Modernism. Last but not leat was Dr. Zakir Naik. His speech was packed with muslims and more non-muslims. He talked about the concept of God in the world’s major religions. obviously he schooled everyone in the question and answer session. Allhumdullilah Sh. Bilal converted three four people along with Homoud Ashamry, Salem Al Amry Walled Basouni. Allhumdullah they managed to convert about twenty thirty people. Takbeer!!! MYC, the Muslim Youth Council, the group I created, is now materialy under Peace. Allhumdullah. We get a whole office building (which is pretty damn big), one lak a month, workers, (webdesigners, graohic designers, managers, etc.), and a ton of other stuff. Peace and i are running it like a business since I emphasised how it should be run like Al- Maghrib. Insha Allah I hope it goes wee. The website will be up next week. I’ll post a ling InshaAllah. Peace pics will be put up al soon as I get a new USB wire insha Allah. Sh. Abduraheen Green couldn’t be with us because of sickness. Make du’a for him insha Allah. Sh. Yusuf Estes is coming to Chicago next week. I hope you guys catch up with insha Allah.

Shabba Khair

It’s Been a While…

Assalmualaikum guys,

Well, it’s been a while since I’ve blogged. I have been wanting to post on xanga, but i just could never find time. So, I hereby dedicate this blog to post that may interest you insha’ Allah on my expierences in India and around the world . I’ll update you on my personal thoughts, feelings, my viewpoints, home videos, Islamic videos , Hadith, and various articles. Take care!

W’salaam