Sunday, November 27, 2005
Bangers and Mashed
Hi guys! Nope, I haven’t died – unfortunately for you know who – you know who you are! Saffy continues to rock so HAH – thanks to Allah of course. Hee.
Wow – feels like I haven’t seen you people in ages. I guess I just lost track of time. I’ve got way too much to be able to handle on my own but more just keeps coming – is it supposed to be that hard?
On top of that I’ve been doing something else that has distracted me from the internet… Dawah! Yey, I’ve actually been doing some dawah all by myself and I love it. I started doing it because I found out it’s fard but now I love it. I discussed with a sister last week until Fajr time about Islam’s view on nationalism! She didn’t agree with me in the end but at least I got bare reward, rite? Plus there’s another sister who’s really sharp and I can see how she changing like I changed and I love that too.
I hope my intention hasn’t changed – EEK! Please make dua for me, I’m only little. I just want everyone to understand what I’ve realised now. I mean the other day I met a bunch of dawah carriers at Uni and they wanted me to come with them for an hour to give towards God.
*HUH*
What does that mean even? They explained that when I’m studying at Uni, I do that for myself and everything else I do during the week is for myself so I should give one hour to God at least once a week! It really upset me that practising Muslims still think like that. I thought as a Muslim I was worshipping God whilst I’m studying and doing everything else! It’s that Secular stuff again – oooh it keeps coming back just to purposefully annoy me :( I’ll GET you Mr Evil Secular Man for mashing up my brothers’ and sisters’ thinking.
I know this is going to sound crazy (maybe even dodgy) but I think I’m starting to see Islam differently to most other people. There’s just a few sisters who think like I do and they can answer questions that even my Islamic Class Teacher can’t answer – when I ask my teacher questions I’m told to “have sabr” and that “Allah works in mysterious ways” (but said in Bengali – Allai zeta khoroin, mongolor lagi khoroin – who’s this mongol guy anyway and why is everything always done for him?). Anyway, why does it feel dodgy that these Uni sisters with no formal Islamic education feel they can answer all of my toughest questions? Does it feel dodgy coz they’re too young to be able to refute Scholars with years of experience and knowledge? Or maybe the Scholars that I have access to are the kind of ones that say stuff that the Government likes and all the good ones are in prison somewhere :(
Hmm… I don’t know… like I remember in Bangladesh I was watching some 15 year old boys playing football and they were truly amazing – much better than 15 year olds in London. So I asked my cousin bhaiya why the Bangladesh National Football Team is so lame. He told me that you can only get into the team in Bangladesh if you have an uncle or some other link in the Government. There was some major political corruption thing going down. So the National Team was not an accurate reflection of how good Bangladeshis really are at football. It must be the same for the cricket team coz they’re pretty lame too. That probably also explains why I’m never impressed with Miss Bangladesh in the Miss World competitions – actually that’s more likely coz none of the beautiful Muslim sisters would ever enter such a lame, degrading competition to begin with. Hey, inshallah if we ever get a Khilafah, maybe we could have a competition called Miss Taqwa 2006 ;) That’s why Allah made us competitive, rite?
Anyway, maybe that’s how it is with these sisters. Maybe they just seem so amazing only coz I’ve never met a real scholar before. I guess the only way I’ll find out is by discussing what I learn with as many people as possible and seeing what everyone has to say. Oh my gosh, I really hope none of them read this blog – that’ll be so embarrassing – nah, I don’t think they’ve got time for that – thank God! They’re always too busy busy, even to spend a little time with me…
Wow – feels like I haven’t seen you people in ages. I guess I just lost track of time. I’ve got way too much to be able to handle on my own but more just keeps coming – is it supposed to be that hard?
On top of that I’ve been doing something else that has distracted me from the internet… Dawah! Yey, I’ve actually been doing some dawah all by myself and I love it. I started doing it because I found out it’s fard but now I love it. I discussed with a sister last week until Fajr time about Islam’s view on nationalism! She didn’t agree with me in the end but at least I got bare reward, rite? Plus there’s another sister who’s really sharp and I can see how she changing like I changed and I love that too.
I hope my intention hasn’t changed – EEK! Please make dua for me, I’m only little. I just want everyone to understand what I’ve realised now. I mean the other day I met a bunch of dawah carriers at Uni and they wanted me to come with them for an hour to give towards God.
*HUH*
What does that mean even? They explained that when I’m studying at Uni, I do that for myself and everything else I do during the week is for myself so I should give one hour to God at least once a week! It really upset me that practising Muslims still think like that. I thought as a Muslim I was worshipping God whilst I’m studying and doing everything else! It’s that Secular stuff again – oooh it keeps coming back just to purposefully annoy me :( I’ll GET you Mr Evil Secular Man for mashing up my brothers’ and sisters’ thinking.
I know this is going to sound crazy (maybe even dodgy) but I think I’m starting to see Islam differently to most other people. There’s just a few sisters who think like I do and they can answer questions that even my Islamic Class Teacher can’t answer – when I ask my teacher questions I’m told to “have sabr” and that “Allah works in mysterious ways” (but said in Bengali – Allai zeta khoroin, mongolor lagi khoroin – who’s this mongol guy anyway and why is everything always done for him?). Anyway, why does it feel dodgy that these Uni sisters with no formal Islamic education feel they can answer all of my toughest questions? Does it feel dodgy coz they’re too young to be able to refute Scholars with years of experience and knowledge? Or maybe the Scholars that I have access to are the kind of ones that say stuff that the Government likes and all the good ones are in prison somewhere :(
Hmm… I don’t know… like I remember in Bangladesh I was watching some 15 year old boys playing football and they were truly amazing – much better than 15 year olds in London. So I asked my cousin bhaiya why the Bangladesh National Football Team is so lame. He told me that you can only get into the team in Bangladesh if you have an uncle or some other link in the Government. There was some major political corruption thing going down. So the National Team was not an accurate reflection of how good Bangladeshis really are at football. It must be the same for the cricket team coz they’re pretty lame too. That probably also explains why I’m never impressed with Miss Bangladesh in the Miss World competitions – actually that’s more likely coz none of the beautiful Muslim sisters would ever enter such a lame, degrading competition to begin with. Hey, inshallah if we ever get a Khilafah, maybe we could have a competition called Miss Taqwa 2006 ;) That’s why Allah made us competitive, rite?
Anyway, maybe that’s how it is with these sisters. Maybe they just seem so amazing only coz I’ve never met a real scholar before. I guess the only way I’ll find out is by discussing what I learn with as many people as possible and seeing what everyone has to say. Oh my gosh, I really hope none of them read this blog – that’ll be so embarrassing – nah, I don’t think they’ve got time for that – thank God! They’re always too busy busy, even to spend a little time with me…
Monday, November 07, 2005
I Got a Pot :(
I’m back! Yep, it’s meeeeeeee!
Eid Mubarak to all nice people out there!
I had a wonderful Eid this year – I got to meet so many cousins (if you remember one of my early posts I was saying I hadn’t seen most of my cousins in years).
Anyway, Eid has made me a wiser person coz this year I made the classic Eid mistake. Can you guess what it is?
No, I didn’t fast with shaytan on Eid (in Bangladesh they always celebrate Eid two days later – mashed)! I thought Islam was supposed to have answers for new situations - so how are we supposed to deal with this problem? Hmm... I really don't like thinking about this one - it makes me so sad that I'm not celebrating on the same day as my cousin in Bangladesh :(
*BIG SIGH*
Ok, guess again?
No, I didn’t forget to pay my Zakat-ul-Fitr until Eid day :P In Bangladesh that would be ok coz there’s plenty of starving peeps around but since I’m now in England, it’s all about paying the Zakat-ul-Fitr two weeks in advance so it can fly to starving people around the world. Yeah, I know most people don’t realise this but the whole point of this Zakat in particular is that no-one should go hungry on Eid. It drives me round the bend when Mr Imam Sahib says to put any Fitranah money into “box for Masjid extension”. Grr…
Like usual Dad came home shouting at Mr Imam Sahib. He was angry coz the Imam was Bengali but apparently he was not a good speaker. Abba thinks that the Pakistani Mosque Committee purposefully find wimpy Bengali Imams to make Bengali people look stupid. Dad thinks we should set up our own Bengali Mosque. I didn’t agree – What happened to One Ummah man? Anyway, I bet even if the entire Mosque Committee became Bengali they would still fight over which part of Bangladesh they’re from and which tribe they're from. I’ve seen them doing it Bangladesh. I think they need some serious mentality re-boot! Out with the old (nationalism and tribalism) and in with the new (bonded by Islam)!
Outside the Mosque some HT guys were giving out leaflets about a conference this Sunday in Euston about the anti-terror legislation and how we should deal with it. These guys need to take a break some time – someone should introduce them to the concept of KIT KAT! :) Some of the speakers are from Stop Political Terror and the rest are from HT. I think I’ll be going to it and see what they have to say inshallah.
Ok back to me! Any more guesses? Ok, I’ll tell you… I got a POT! Yep, that’s my classic Eid mistake: POT!
:(
It’s so horrible but I couldn’t help it – I always get a POT on every Eid. I didn’t eat any breakfast and then by the time all the men came back from the Mosque, I was starving so I ate everything. I had to taste everything coz there were so many nice things. Then we went to all of these different houses. Each house was hiding another delicious surprise. So I ate and ate until… I got POT. I can’t even hide it under my clothes. You can see it and it’s so big and round like I’ve hidden a massive bowl on top of my belly. But it’s not a bowl, it really is my belly and it looks like a pot.
It reminds me of those little damaged like, grey teddy bears you can get with the little bellies that stick out. That’s what I looked like... Amongst many other valuable lessons, I have learnt this Eid the consequences of not having a little bit of patience. I hope nobody else got POT and everyone had a good Eid. I really want everyone to have a better Eid next year. Ameen.
