Flight of the Navigator

The ideas I've been having for posts have just been piling up--I started keeping track of them using the Notes feature on my iPhone. And yet where is the time to develop blog posts out of all these great ideas? Mostly spent in school-related endeavors, I suppose, or trying to keep up with my Google Reader.

Anyway, I had one idea today that I guess is kind of mediocre, which I guess gives me a chance to catch up with my readers. Let you know I'm still here, just kinda busy. Thanks for all the happy wishes and nice comments. Just on Saturday my fiance left to go visit his family back in Pakistan, and when he gets back inshaaAllaah then more information about upcoming nuptials might be in order.

But this post isn't really about that. You see, I read just today some weird article from the BBC about the difference in brains of men and women while looking at art. (On a partially related note, did you know that scantily clad women force men to see them as objects?)

The question I thought to consider is whether men or women are better drivers. It's an interesting question, I thought, since I figure that men definitely think they're better drivers--or at least, they drive more often, and tend to be more car-savvy, right? And it's customary for a man to drive his lady and family around, is it not? Are men safer drivers? Better able to concentrate? Didn't it use to be the case that women would actually get lower insurance rates than men because they were safer? Women might tend to be less reckless maybe? Who knows?

In this article, however, I read that apparently "women tend to be more aware than men of objects around them, including those that seem irrelevant to the current task, whereas men out-perform women in navigation tasks." I sort of understood that to mean that women would make better (or at least safer) drivers by being more aware of other vehicles and hazards that might occur on the roadway. But that men are definitely better at navigating.

I used to think I was pretty good at navigating, until I went on a trip with my family to Boston. There's something totally insane about the roads in that city... it takes thinking in 3-D, while the maps are only in 2-D. Not a task for the faint of heart. Nor for the driver, who needs to look out for drivers traveling at insane speeds.

So maybe women make better drivers than men? So men should ride shotgun, right? Not that I'm looking for an excuse, really. I don't mind sitting passenger-side, as it affords a better view. But my fiance seems to have the same opinion and would rather I drive... great minds think alike?

Dhikr Station

For last Eid al-Fitr, someone gifted me a CD set of an "in-depth study" of Al-Fatihah, by Jamaaluddin Zarabozo. I've recently started listening to it--but I haven't yet gotten past the first CD. Actually, it was a while before I even got past the first track--the introduction!

Because after introducing what the CD set is and the publisher, etc., there is a recitation of the surah that is just so clear and beautiful, I didn't want it to stop. I listened to it over and over and over and over and over...

Isn't that strange? I mean, we read al-Fatihah so many times in a day--and in Ramadan so many more times. And yet in the last couple days I haven't been able to get enough of just hearing the recitation of Al-Fatihah. As soon as it starts, I can just feel myself calming down, and my mind clearing and focusing on the recitation with all of my attention.

After all these years of listening to Al-Fatihah, every day, I felt like all of a sudden I had never heard it before. And this is not after listening to some 25+ hours of lecture on the surah, but rather before listening; rather, just acknowledging that Al-Fatihah is important enough for me to begin a CD set of such magnitude on such a short surah.

It was really an amazing feeling, to have some recitation of Qur'an strike my heart that way--like I had never heard it before even though I thought I knew it like the back of my hand.

I had listened to it so many times that without even being entirely aware of it, I was sort of reciting it under my breath while at the gas station last night. So consumed was I with the beauty and flow of the words that I didn't realize the woman at the pump beside me. So I was a little bit shocked when she said "As-salaamu Alaykum!"

Having learned in class just hours before that we should always return a greeting with what is equal to it, or better than it, so I replied with a smile, "Wa alaykum as-salaam!" And I asked her if she was a Muslim--since I have been greeted as such by non-Muslims before, but she informed me that she was a Muslim though reluctantly admitted that she did not practice like she should.

So we talked for a minute about how beautiful Islam is as a middle path--comprising both outward manifestations through the law, and inward aspects of spirituality, and that it accommodates people of all nations and races and even with physical disabilities.

It was just a reminder to me to be grateful not just that Allah has guided me to Islam but that He has made Islam a part of my life, every day. So even while I was whispering al-Fatihah under my breath, I was blessed to remember that Allah did guide me. And that only makes me cling desperately to that guidance, and to beg for more.

Does the end justify the means?

From the Islamic point of view, that is, rather than the Machiavellian one.

It's a worthwhile question--can you do something that is haraam in order to achieve an admirable goal? I just recently heard a rather strange hadith (which has not been authenticated, so I won't relate it) that caused at least one person to draw the conclusion that it is okay to adopt a reprehensible method of obtaining a noble objective. Hearing it for myself, I didn't see at all how the person came to that conclusion.

But the more the discussion progressed, and it seemed that this was precisely the case (i.e., haram means for a good end), I remembered how my shaykh had recently mentioned more than once in recent classes that the end does not justify the means.

We were talking specifically about the seerah--the biography of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). For years the Muslims were being persecuted in Mecca, and the Prophet (pbuh) was offered by his enemies leadership in the city, but he refused. It seems like a very strange decision, doesn't it? As it was, only the poor and weak were accepting his message, but maybe if he were in a position of authority more people would be guided to Islam. Right?

But he didn't accept it. I guess you could say that Allah had a plan, and it wasn't for the Muslims to become dominant by a deal with the mushrikeen. The Muslims were able to establish a state (i.e., in Medina) only through da'wah, because of people accepting Islam and accepting the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) as their ruler.

Nowadays we don't have the Islamic state, so our position is analogous to that of the Muslims in Mecca, before the migration to Medina. And yet, we (at least, most of us do, right? or some of us?) want an Islamic state, a khalifah, a way to implement Islam fully at all levels of society. That is the "end." And the "means" obviously are the different routes by which some people might attempt to establish such an Islamic state: democracy, perhaps, or a military coup, perhaps invasion, or some might even say jihad.

But when we look at the life of Muhammad, do we see any of those routes to establishing the Islamic state? Nope. What do we see? Da'wah--only da'wah. The Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) did not use any sort of military or violent jihad to establish an Islamic state--so how is it anyone can argue that we should do it today? We shouldn't, it's pretty simple.

The end does not justify the means.

And I've yet to see any evidence suggesting otherwise in any other part of life, in any other aspect of Islam. So I imagine the prudent path here is to ask Allah for forgiveness for our sins and mistakes in the past, and to make it easy for us to remain firm on the Straight Path.

Stronger than I thought...

One nice thing about working out is finding out how strong I am, and how far I am able to push myself physically.

A few weeks ago, my trainer had me do an exercise called the "plank." Basically the point is to hold yourself in what is close to push-up position, only your weight will rest on your forearms rather than your hands. Holding yourself up like that is supposed to strengthen your "core" muscles--i.e., your abs an lower back. The first time I did it--I won't lie--it hurt tremendously. Not just on my back but my whole body seemed to ache at the moment I began. But I kept myself up, exceeding the time my trainer had suggested I try, impressing not just her but also myself. A couple weeks later when I tried again, I had more than doubled my time. It impressed me because just the very first time I did it I thought I wouldn't be able to hold out for more than 4-5 seconds.

More recently, my trainer had set me on a machine for doing a kind of chest press. After completing my first set, she laughed--apparently I was the only one of her clients who was able to use this machine at all on the first try (the others were unable to do so, even on the lightest setting!)

And I had thought I was someone who was not particularly strong at all, at least not physically. But sometimes it's nice to surprise myself, finding that I'm stronger than I thought I was. It motivates me to keep working, and to try and get stronger. I feel like I can always push myself just a little bit further.

Seerah vs. the Superbowl

It is with a strange sort of pride that I admit to not discovering until 8:30pm Sunday night who was actually playing in the Superbowl. It didn't much matter to me, since I had no intention of engaging in any sort of Superbowl festivities. You see, I had intended to spend the day at the masjid.

First I had my 9th grade Sunday school class, just after noon, followed by dhuhr salaat, which was then followed by a class aptly named Essentials of Islam. It's a class designed to help Muslims who feel their basic knowledge of Islam is insufficient--new Muslims, or those who wish to start taking their deen more seriously, those who never had the benefit of Sunday school, or else forgot what they learned. So I sat in on that class today to offer help as needed, and then after 'asr salaat and a break to eat I went back to the masjid for maghrib and another class on the seerah (biography of Muhammad) which was of course followed by isha salaat.

So I got to pray four out of five prayers today in the masjid. (That's a nice feeling!)

But here is something interesting. After praying maghrib I went up to the classroom, where the girl students started to gather. We'd nearly filled up our space when the shaykh arrived. Then we started to wonder if any brothers were coming! Because up to that point, none had showed up. Then only one walked in with the shaykh. Today was the first session of this class, and we sisters sitting there began to wonder if the boys had ditched in order to watch the superbowl.

Did they? Did they choose to watch a game of football instead of taking this opportunity to learn about the life of Muhammad (saaws) with our beloved shaykh?

Nope!

After just a few more moments, they all filed in collectively, filling up their space as well, and getting out even more chairs. May Allah forgive us for our mistakes and for our sins, protect us from the Shaytaan, and increase us all in knowledge.

Loving Leah

Last night I watched an interesting Hallmark film with my mom. It was about a woman from a Traditional (Orthodox) Jewish community (Leah) whose husband had passed away, and her husband's brother who was not observing Judaism at all. (He offered her an apple and a slice of cheese, saying that one of these must be kosher...)

The premise of the story is that when the husband dies, if he leaves no children, then his widow is supposed to be married to his brother in order to carry on his name. Despite being in some sort of relationship already, the brother decides that he actually wants to take this tradition, because to not take his husband's widow as a wife would seem like denying his brother's existence, something he didn't want to do.

So the widow agrees to move to Georgetown with her brother-in-law, though they insist on living as "roommates" instead of as husband and wife. Now, eventually the couple ends up falling in love and making a happy marriage, but there are a few things that I found interesting.

First of all, we can see how a woman who is not observant of the traditional practices regarding dress and modesty feels uncomfortable by wearing a short dress, while in a room of women wearing longer clothes. There was also a point made about the segregation of men and women at the funeral which might have seemed to some to be overkill. It looked to me, however, that an attempt was being made to show the Traditional Jewish community as being weird by being so "religious."

What ends up happening is that instead of bringing her new husband more towards faith, Leah actually ends up leaving many of her own customs behind. She decides to uncover her hair for instance, while shortening her skirts. She doesn't leave her faith entirely, but begins attending a Reform Temple (something that really upset her mother.)

I couldn't say for sure, but it seemed that there was a subtle message that it was better for her (according to the filmmakers) that she be less strict in her religious observation. Every time she encountered a new situation she would use religion as an excuse for her awkwardness. At times it was endearing and at times it was... obtuse.

I wonder why it is that Americans so love to see religious communities being assimilated into the mainstream. Why is it that religious observation is seen as oppressive and backwards? Overall that's what bothered me about the film.

Song for Gaza

WE WILL NOT GO DOWN (Song for Gaza)
(Composed by Michael Heart) Copyright 2009

A blinding flash of white light
Lit up the sky over Gaza tonight
People running for cover
Not knowing whether they’re dead or alive

They came with their tanks and their planes
With ravaging fiery flames
And nothing remains
Just a voice rising up in the smoky haze

We will not go down In the night, without a fight
You can burn up our mosques and our homes and our schools
But our spirit will never die
We will not go down
In Gaza tonight

Women and children alike
Murdered and massacred night after night
While the so-called leaders of countries afar
Debated on who’s wrong or right

But their powerless words were in vain
And the bombs fell down like acid rain
But through the tears and the blood and the pain
You can still hear that voice through the smoky haze

We will not go down
In the night, without a fight
You can burn up our mosques and our homes and our schools
But our spirit will never die We will not go down
In Gaza tonight

Composed by Michael Heart © 2009

http://www.michaelheart.com/Song_for_Gaza.html -- The song can be downloaded at the composer's website. Please visit and show your support. He is requesting people donate to charities that can aid the Palestinians.

Good Times and Better Times

Sometimes life takes a turn for the worst--and things get rough for a while. But sometimes it takes a turn for the better or leave you pleasantly surprised. That's what happened to me a few months ago. And since then things have gotten steadily better.

But the absence of dramatic change does not diminish the incredible 'high' I feel right now. And still I know things are only looking up. You see, some time has passed since I met the man with whom I would like to spend the rest of my life, and it will be some time still before I get to do that (inshaaAllaah.) But where I am right now, things look awfully bright.

That is, things look bright and sparkly, especially in the direction of my left hand, adorned at present by a charming and elegant engagement ring! If you didn't notice the ring, my absurdly wide smile, now a near-constant fixture on my face, might have given away the sheer delight and elation I feel.

It's true that just being engaged makes me happy, and so does speaking to my fiance's family and knowing that they are as happy as I am, but what really tops it all off is knowing that Allah has put someone in my path (or I in someone else's path), and brought us together with nothing other than Islam. That more than anything else is what makes me feel so blessed.

Alhamdulillah. :-)

I'm engaged!

The Smell and Taste of Knowledge

Have you ever caught a whiff of something that smelled really tasty? Maybe walking down the mall past a Cinnabon store, or early in the morning while your mom cooks breakfast? Maybe a coworker's lunch while you're fasting? It can be frustrating at times, to be able to smell something you know you can't taste, especially when it smells so delicious that it makes your mouth start to water.

A few weeks ago I asked a person of some knowledge a question about Arabic grammar--and to be quite honest, I didn't understand his answer. I felt like I could smell it but not taste it. I kind of knew what it would take to try to understand it--I vaguely remembered hearing the terms before, although I couldn't quit reconstruct their meanings in order, in step with his explanation. But I did really want to understand. I felt like it was right there in front of me and I just couldn't grasp it. Like some sweet-smelling food that I just couldn't taste.

I think many Muslims are this way--that their experience with knowledge is only at that level where they are exposed to it. They can smell it, for instance, and get the gist of what it's about, but they don't really comprehend it. They can't taste it, chew it, and digest it--so they aren't able to really benefit from it.

But the more knowledge a person acquires, the more he is able to grasp. I've heard an example, about a book describing chess strategies were given to two groups of people, one being expert chess players, the others not knowing anything about chess. Now you might think that the second group, which has the most to learn regarding chess, would benefit the most. But really, it's the expert chess players who benefit most because they are able to understand what the book is talking about and apply the strategies described therein. Whereas the novices had no background to help them understand the material in the first place.

So when people take the path to acquire knowledge (and here I mean specifically knowledge about Islam), they start filling in the gaps little by little, and when they are presented with something new they can do more than just smell it. They can taste it. And they can chew it--by chew it, I mean they can think it over, ponder and reflect on what they have just been exposed to. And then they can digest it--and by digest it, I mean that they can take that knowledge and benefit from it, the same way that food nourishes the body. So they aren't just smelling it, they are actually able to benefit from it.

On the other hand, I think the average Muslim who goes to Jumu'ah khutbahs, and goes to conferences and seminars, really only gets to smell the knowledge. He can tell it's there, and he can appreciate it at a somewhat superficial level--and it can either attract him or repel him.

And then there are some people who have a little more knowledge who are able to taste it--and sometimes, you know what? I think they spit it out, and decide they don't want to benefit from it. And sometimes they will take it and reflect on it. They will consider it from all possible angles and perspectives, and try to grasp the fullest possible meaning of it. And then it can nourish them, spiritually, as they are able to completely digest and benefit from it.

So I could smell that knowledge, the answer to that Arabic grammar question. And I really want to taste it, instead! I want to reflect on it, and I want to benefit from it.

Oh my Lord, increase me in knowledge! And oh my Lord, let it benefit me.

Deficiency of Women?

A while ago I mentioned in passing a particular hadith which is often used by the enemies of Islam to suggest that women in Islam are deprived of essential humanity, as fully inferior beings. It is used to justify the erroneous (read: bogus) claim that Muslim women are "oppressed."

And without proper understanding, the hadith certainly can give someone that impression. For instance, early in my days as a Muslim, this particular hadith gave me a lot of trouble--it upset me immensely, and made me want to reject hadith altogether because it seemed so wholly unfair. The injustice was not in the hadith, however, but in my poor understanding of it.

Once the hadith became sufficiently explained to me, it became more beloved to me than many other ahadith. It also taught me some valuable lessons--to not impose my own standards on the deen of Allah when I am without knowledge, and to trust in the wisdom of Allah.

Since I mentioned the hadith (some time ago), I received a comment asking me to discuss the hadith a little bit more in depth, so I would like to do just that. I'm sure it's possible to look up a good explanation of the hadith from a real scholar, I just want to add a few things that I think are especially interesting about it.

So first let's examine the hadith--it is authentic, related by Bukhari in Book 6, Hadith 301 (if you want to look it up, I guess.) Here it is:

Narrated Abu Said Al-Khudri:

Once Allah's Apostle went out to the Musalla (to offer the prayer) on 'Id-al-Adha or Al-Fitr prayer. Then he passed by the women and said, "O women! Give alms, as I have seen that the majority of the dwellers of Hell-fire were you (women)."

They asked, "Why is it so, O Allah's Apostle ?"

He replied, "You curse frequently and are ungrateful to your husbands. I have not seen anyone more deficient in intelligence and religion than you. A cautious sensible man could be led astray by some of you."

The women asked, "O Allah's Apostle! What is deficient in our intelligence and religion?"

He said, "Is not the evidence of two women equal to the witness of one man?" They replied in the affirmative. He said, "This is the deficiency in her intelligence. Isn't it true that a woman can neither pray nor fast during her menses?" The women replied in the affirmative. He said, "This is the deficiency in her religion."

So... it sounds almost like it's saying women are stupid and worthless in the religion. Almost. That's how it gets twisted anyway, but that's not what it says, and not even close to what it means.

The first interesting thing about this hadith, to me, is that the Prophet (saaws) is directing his statement specifically to a group of women. Imagine if the imam during a khutbah left the minbar and walked so he would stand just in front of the women--and gave them a special sermon, specifically for them. This hadith isn't so much a sermon, but is a statement directed exclusively to women, exhorting them to give in charity, and this is done while eliciting a fear of Hellfire. Basically, it reminds the women to give in charity to protect themselves from Hellfire.

Then he (saaws) mentions a shortage in the "intelligence" of women, and a shortage or deficiency in their religion. And that (in addition to the women being the majority in Hellfire part) is what sets people off, I think. So here the women are talking back to the Prophet (saaws)! Instead of seeing them bowing their heads in silence, we find them questioning his statement. They ask 'why?' and 'how come?' and 'what does that mean?' That itself is kind of beautiful to me, showing that the Prophet (saaws) was approachable and that the women were not afraid to speak to him, even to voice their concerns.

And in fact, their concerns are precisely the same as those which people today seem to have with the same statement. It sounds like an insult, after all. It's difficult to see in the translation the good-natured humor inherent in the statement, that it's almost like a joke. How can I say that? Because of the exaggerations and rhetorical devices.

But anyway, let's get to the two main claims--about a woman's intelligence and religion. The word for intelligence in this hadith is `aql which carries an important connotation. It's actually the word used for a rope used to hobble a camel to keep it from running away, so it has this connotation of tying something. Now maybe you're asking, what is supposed to be tied, with regard to intelligence? And the answer here is that a person must be able to tie his emotions, to control his emotions, to keep them from overpowering his judgment and his reason. So another way of saying that women have a shortage of 'aql is to say that women are emotional. Or, that they are more emotional than men, in general. I would like to find anyone to dispute that statement. It's so obvious, really. (And I'll add an interesting note, that Imam Al-Bukhari filed this hadith in the book entitled 'Menstrual Periods.' Ahem! Women being emotional? Ah, yes.)

So first we can see that the statement is not an insult at all, but it states merely a commonly accepted fact, in slightly different terms. It's also interesting that women do tend to be more emotional than men are, that they often make choices based on their feelings. It is not, however, a weakness, because without the immense emotional capability of women, how would they be able to raise children the way they do? So I would say it is a special quality of women, and that it is for the benefit of all mankind that men can think with more rationality and women with more emotion.

When it comes to the matter of a woman's religion, once again we must see what is being referred to--and again, this hadith is in the section on 'Menstrual Periods' for a reason. You see, women are actually excempt from performing prayers on days that they are menstruating. That exemption means that overall they will end up praying less often than men do. Not for any fault of their own, but that Allah has not required it of them. So in the end a woman will have a shortage (or deficiency) in the prayers she has performed (as she has to make up for fasts.) The man of course does not have that sort of exemption, but has to keep regular steady practice of these rituals. And even so could be led astray by these women. (That is also an example of an exaggeration, by the way.)

But what is the point of the hadith, let's remember? It is to remind the women to give in charity. Why? Because they are not the same as men--not physiologically, not emotionally, not mentally--and remember that women do not go and wage jihad either, not militarily. But women are also going to be held accountable for their actions--what they did in this life. And standing behind an excuse isn't the way to go.

So... give in charity.

That's why I think it's beautiful, that there is a lot going on and a lot to learn from it. It also helps me to remember when looking at Islam, to avoid the temptation to view it with the lens of modern feminism which in many cases does nothing at all to help the woman and only undermines the society as a whole. This hadith actually underscores the importance of women in the society, I think, the importance of women to hold fast to the religion as they will be held accountable for their actions just like men will be.

Bottom line? Give sadaqa!