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Assalamualaikum

I notice that people have left comments here that I have not yet approved. Well as you can see I have not been attending to this blog lately. Glad to see that you are still visiting. Insha Allah there will be more postings 🙂

Assalamualaikum

So I’m sure you’ve hear the big news that is all over TV, websites, and newspapers. I’m not here to debate OBL or the news or anything, just merely a comment.

A few angles/opinions about the whole issue:

Obama is just looking for popularity

His popularity hasn’t been high, that’s for sure. High gas prices in the US and accusations attacks by rival Republican party members about things such as his birthplace (soundly disproved last week) has hurt his chances for 2012 re-election. This is a monumental achievement for his leadership and presidency.

How can we be sure it’s OBL?

There has been debates about whether to release the photos or not. Publish and it might become propaganda material for extremists.Don’t publish and you’ll get conspiracy theories.

Burial in the sea issue

Ulamas have voiced their disagreement about burying in the sea, which is not in line with Islamic tradition. The US response? They do not have countries willing to accept the body for burial, and again, they do not want the grave site to be a gathering and memorial place of OBL.

My personal thought about the whole issue is that it is somewhat good news, and a lot of concern about what comes next. We all hope that things start to get better from here. That the US will pull out of Afghanistan. That the Muslim community will stop being the target (although there has been reports of attacks/vandalisation of mosques and Arab community after the news).

Just from a sample of Twitter and Facebook accounts, Muslims in Indonesia are not as excited about the news. There are posts about this being fabricated news, Obama’s tricks to regain popularity as mentioned above, or to the respects and prayers paid to OBL. There are “reports” from weird news sources and other websites about the death of OBL way before. I understand the issue of Western-controlled media, but getting news from unknown sources and cheap-looking websites just don’t cut it for me. And also don’t get me started about the 9/11 being an Israeli/CIA trick.

Also, western scholars/Ulamas have posted their opinions.

Yasir Qadhi’s thoughts

Shaikh Yasir’s thoughts is very well-written, I encourage all of you to read it. He is born in the USA, but has studied all over the world including Saudi Arabia.

This is a very interesting video.

Basically it was about whether Muslim women should be allowed to marry whoever they like. The ones in support says it is a basic right to choose who you want to marry. The opposing view is that Islam regulates this, Muslim women are not allowed to marry non-Muslim men or other women.

One of the speakers in support of the motion brought up the family issue. She argues that the family knows best; that when you are faced with a difficult or controversial things such as marrying people of another culture or religion, you should seek the support of family.

Now as reverts, I’m sure this issue connects to a lot of you, single or married. It is tough enough for the folks to accept us being Muslim, let alone having Muslim in-laws. And I think for the fellow reverts who are in the SE-Asian Malay culture understand the racial dynamics of the Muslim-Malay and the non-Muslim-Chinese-Indians-other minorities. This is a sensitive, even somewhat taboo topic. Something that people just get done with and do not talk/discuss in the open. Those who do marry outside their ethnicities or religion would sometimes get talked about, stared at, etc.

I understand there are a lot of views among different families. Both sides can be as fundamental/hardcore or as liberal. The liberals would be in support of doing what you want. The conservatives would advise you to go with the safer approach. Muslim and non-Muslims alike will not only bring the cultural and family aspects, but also connect it with the scriptural sources. The Christians would quote the 10 Commandments of obeying parents. The Muslims would quote the Hadith that Heaven is under the mother’s feet.

If we are using the Islamic teachings, me and other revert guys don’t need our family’s approval for marriage. I have actually heard of people using this as an “antidote” to the possible difficulties. But can you imagine a Chinese kid marrying a girl without family’s consent? It is hard enough trying to marry a different ethnicity EVEN in the same religion. Imagine if those 2 factors are both different.

That and the common issue of Muslim families reluctance to let their daughters get married by reverts. Or someone from other nationalities/ethnicities. Just from my observation, it seems like Muslims are proud if a revert sister joins their families. Or we’ve heard sisters who get marriage proposals right after they said Shahadah. What about the brothers?

I’ll have to admit that lately I’ve been detached from religion.

I keep saying I’ll read the Quran, read into this verse, research that khutba. But that never came.

I keep trying to wake up early and pray.. that hasn’t been too successful.

I said to myself to come to masjid and pray in jamaah.. not happening either.

And recently a friend spoke to me about the state of our religiousness. It’s about how our relationship with God and religion is so personal, something that others have no business about. But then in Islam there are rules, guidelines about that relationship.

It’s been close to 3 years since I said my shahada, maybe more if I go back to when I did accept Islam, but up to now I still can’t go around in public saying I’m Muslim. This is true in the family and society level in general. Among Muslims people tend to see you as this “exotic” being and some view you as different (better or worse) than the regular Muslim dude. Among the non-Muslims, especially in my background, you are viewed as a lunatic perhaps, or a fool. If people see me, the LAST thing people would associate me with is Islam.

It’s funny that sometimes during Islamic events I try to look Muslim, and still people ask if I were Muslim. As if the white cap doesn’t tell already. I believe a lot of reverts share this. One revert sister told me how disappointing it is to see another Muslim on the street (mostly the visible Muslims, with hijabs etc.), yet you can’t or won’t greet him/her because you’d get the stare. “What is she doing?? Was that a salaam to me?” That has happened actually, where I greet someone and the response was more of a confusion.

I think as a guy I can get away with not displaying my Islam. For the girls, from what I believe is the rule, since hijab is an obligation I think it is tougher if they wear it. I can’t imagine how it feels right now to be associated with Islam and be known as Muslims the second people see you. So for that I really commend you folks who do the Muslim look, including the guys. I remember when I had a small goatee my friends and family would crack “terrorist” jokes.

I think I’m rambling away now. But I think the point is that people take their own time in practicing and applying the deen. I remember a scholar who was touring Egypt, and he talked about a guy selling potatoes in a cart. Of all the Islamic knowledge he has and all his amazing discoveries in Egypt, at that time he singled out the potato-cart guy. It was because when prayer time came, the guy asked the neighbors to keep an eye on the cart while he went to the masjid and pray. He literally left all his business, perhaps all that he had to make a living, to pray when the time comes. You can’t follow the Qur’an more than that. I guess that guy didn’t go to the best schools, or the best Islamic academies yet he displayed a quality that we might not often see see in people who claim to be knowledgeable or learned in the Deen.

I still have more thoughts but I’ll hold it so it won’t confuse the direction of this writing even more, but please share your thoughts so we can keep it going.

Assalamualaikum

Haven’t posted in a while.

I remind myself first to seek refuge to Allah from any feelings of riya’ from writing this. I hope this can be beneficial to the readers. Aamin.

In the winter weather countries, prayer times are close to each other compared to other seasons. It is somewhat nice, because Fajr here starts around 5.30 so we can get extra sleep and Maghrib is around 5.15 PM. What is not so nice is they are so close together that you have to plan around especially when going out. In a non-Muslim country where masjids and musollahs are few and far between, Muslims have to make special considerations. Not all of us deal with prayer issue the same way. Some try to combine the prayers, some try to plan ahead their schedule, and some just do it wherever they are. In a recent event I had the chance to pray jamaah out in the open, on bare grounds, with hundreds other Muslims. It was so crowded that we didn’t have enough mats, so just gotta do what you gotta do. That was also the case for the sisters. Some of them didn’t even care putting their face on the ground to do sujood.

Yesterday I had to run some errands before class. The way the time went, I arrived on campus about 20 minutes before Asr ended. My parking place was a little far to the MSA “headquarters” so I plan to pray somewhere else, probably the library. So I went there and surveyed the area. It was a very quiet library with few people reading on the cubicles at the edges of the room. Ok I decided to just pray there. I picked a corner, and alhamdulillah the qiblah was perfect since it faced the wall. I laid out my jacket on the floor since I’m still uneasy about sujood in bare floors. Need to carry some sujood base for the future. As I was ready to start praying I heard footsteps coming my way. I am still nervous about praying in public, so I flinched a little to see who it was.

Allahu Akbar, it was another Muslim brother. He was standing on the corner as if trying to pray. I asked whether he was going to pray and he said yes, then we proceeded to pray in jamaah together. I know him because I have seen him give Jumaat khutbah on campus a few times. I am still amazed by Allah’s plans. Those who have prayed out in public must have felt stronger and more confident when you pray in jamaah with others. Alhamdulillah it seemed like Allah made it easy for me to pray that time.

I hope this can encourage you to stay routine in your prayers. For those in non-Muslim countries I hope Allah made it easy for you. If you are confident, that itself might be a source of dawah since other people might be curious in what you do. Believe me most people even in the West are open and curious about our beliefs. For those living where masjids and musollahs are just around the block, there’s just no excuse not to pray.