We feel Super in Ramadhaan, alhamdulillaah!

stats on the world's cleverest kid

Homeschooled 8-year-old likes French philosophy, reads 3 novels a day, has written 400 short stories, touch types at 90 words/minute, has a reading speed of 900 words/minute...and is 4 feet tall.

it's the most wonderful time of the year!

The things I like most about Ramadan:

• One of those things I always like best about Ramadan is Fasting. Usually, we only keep fasts on Mondays and Thursdays, but in Ramadan we keep fasts EVERYDAY! I LOVE getting up for suhur... we always stock our fridge with the most DEE LICIOUS things and wait for Ramadan to feast on them. Our iftar is as nice as the suhur, except it tastes even better!!!
• When we're keeping fasts on Monday and Thursday, Umma makes spicy spaghetti, which I simply ADORE like anything. Abba cuts us watermelon, sometimes muskmelon. Once recently we (Rida & I) made cakes and iced them with dream-whip -- one batch of the cream came out all right but the other stachet just wouldn't become thick! (that was supposed to go on my cake!)
• Abba n Umma and we all go out to look for the moon---( although it's hazy today, i don't think we'll see it today)... Even the youngsters come out, although they're quite curious what the excitement is about!
• I like the look of it on the eve of Ramadan, because children light fire crackers in mid evening---( although Umma doesn't buy us any, b\z they're dangerous. The supermarkets overflow with people and lots of good things to eat: new made buns, macaroni, noodles and lots of fruits like: frozen strawberries, watermelon, mangoes etc. The roads, streets, districts, and every house has lanterns hung on poles here and there. On tv they show you Al-Masjid An Nabawi overflowing with worshippers, and Masjid Al Haraam's shuyookh reading a looooooooooooong taraweeh...
• I remember once we ( Umma, Rida, and Me) were doing Tawaaf around the Ka'bah, when the shaykh was reading the Taraweeh prayer...it was very nice:)

* May Allaah accept our Siyaam and Qiyaam *

PS: *Please remember us in your prayers*

* RAMADAN MUBARAK *

* RASHA*

5 things we're planning to do in Ramadhaan (in shaa Allaah)

1. Fast
Narrated Abu Hurayrah: Allaah's Apostle صلىالله عليه وسلم said: "Whoever observes fasts during the month of Ramadhaan out of sincere faith, and hoping to attain Allaah's rewards, then all his past sins will be forgiven." (Book #2, Hadith #37)


2. Pray at night
Narrated Abu Hurayrah: Allaah's Apostle صلىالله عليه وسلم said: "Whoever establishes prayers during the nights of Ramadhaan faithfully out of sincere faith and hoping to attain Allaah's rewards (not for showing off), all his past sins will be forgiven." (Book #2, Hadith #36)

3. Give sadaqah
Narrated Ibn 'Abbas: Allaah's Apostle صلىالله عليه وسلم was the most generous of all the people, and he used to reach the peak in generosity in the month of Ramadhaan when Gabriel met him. Gabriel used to meet him every night of Ramadhaan to teach him the Qur'an. Allah's Apostle صلىالله عليه وسلم was the most generous person, even more generous than the strong uncontrollable wind (in readiness and haste to do charitable deeds). (Book #1, Hadith #5)

4. Go for Umrah
Narrated Ata: I heard Ibn 'Abbas saying, "Allah's Apostle صلىالله عليه وسلم asked an Ansari woman (Ibn 'Abbas named her but 'Ata' forgot her name), 'What prevented you from performing Hajj with us?' She replied, 'We have a camel and the father of so-and-so and his son (i.e. her husband and her son) rode it and left one camel for us to use for irrigation.' He said (to her), 'Perform 'Umrah when Ramadhaan comes, for 'Umrah in Ramadhaan is equal to Hajj (in reward),' or said something similar." (Book #27, Hadith #10)


5. Give sadaqat al-Fitr
Narrated Nafi': Ibn 'Umar said, "The Prophet صلىالله عليه وسلم made incumbent on every male or female, free man or slave, the payment of one Sa' of dates or barley as Sadaqat-ul-Fitr (or said Sadaqa-ramadan)." The people then substituted half Sa' of wheat for that. Ibn 'Umar used to give dates (as Sadaqat-ulFitr). Once there was scarcity of dates in Madeenah and Ibn 'Umar gave barley. 'And Ibn 'Umar used to give Sadaqat-ul-Fitr for every young and old person. He even used to give on behalf of my children. Ibn 'Umar used to give Sadaqatul-Fitr to those who had been officially appointed for its collection. People used to give Sadaqat-ul-Fitr (even) a day or two before the 'Id. (Book #25, Hadith #587

may Allaah accept!

*Rida*

the trouble with literalists (like me)...

is that we take *everything* literally...even random links :)

"the muslims are coming...

...with food."

***

I can't for the life of me remember where I (recently) read this story about a group of Muslims organising food hampers/ (was it a soup kitchen?) for the homeless in an inner city area, and at the time they were expected to arrive there, a crowd of people would gather in wait.

Once, a curious onlooker asked what the crowd had gathered for, and one of them replied: "The Muslims are coming with food."

subhaanallaah, this is sweet music to the ears, in an age where "the muslims are coming" is associated with all sorts of nasty connotations.

(please send me the link if anyone out there comes across it)

***

Also, many thanks to the person who sent us the MiniSkirts, Mothers and Muslims link, I'll try and see if I can get the book, it sounds really interesting .

***

Likewise, the 'Why didn't her Mum put her on a diet?' story of the teenager who's had surgery to reduce weight...sign of the times, subhaanallaah.

***

I liked The Tycoons of Tomorrow story, (it's not called a nation of shopkeepers for nothing, is it? :P)

***

The most interesting (albeit the most disquieting) one was: "Schools told it's no longer necessary to teach right from wrong".

***

But undoubtedly, the link that gave me the most food for thought was the link that someone sent in (with tongue firmly in cheek, I suspect) from yesterday's Google HomePage How Tos: How to Dissuade Yourself from becoming a Blogger.

Priceless. (Although a bit late in the day for us, I'd say.)

***

With that, our inbox is now clean. Thanks a lot for writing in, everyone.

I'll just go and ruminate for a bit... won't be gone long, in shaa Allaah ( I think).

children of a lesser god?

Bernard Hare on social exclusion of the 'underclass'

The Guardian

"The underclass don't get much of a say.

Several years ago, "a Bramley man in his 30s" was so desperate to be heard that he made the front page of the local paper. Emergency services were called when the man climbed an electricity pylon in a violent storm. On being told by police to come down or face arrest, he refused to descend on the grounds that he was protesting.

When asked what he was protesting about, he replied: "Everything. Life in general."

Bramley Man, I like to think, spoke for all the angry, confused, excluded, alienated, isolated, abused and frightened among us. I wrote a memoir, Urban Grimshaw and the Shed Crew, about runaway children, aged 11 to 14 when I first met them, living rough on the streets of Leeds. It was my attempt to give a voice to those who weren't being heard. It caused scepticism in polite society, but knowing nods among anyone who had been through the mill.

The Shed Crew had fallen through society's safety net. They had difficult family relationships, didn't go to school and were beyond the realm of parental supervision. Many had been in care, but hadn't enjoyed the experience of being shunted from one placement to another and had voted with their feet. They were on the run and out of control, but though they regressed slightly, they didn't degenerate into Lord of the Flies-style savagery. They smoked spliffs, drank alcohol, sniffed glue, had sex, twocked cars, and had runs-ins with the police, but it is not sentimentalising things to say that each of those kids, difficult and unruly as they were, had their special talent or ability - music, drawing, poetry, oratory.

Each one only ever showed love and trust in return for my love and trust. They have struggled with abuse, neglect, drugs, crime, imprisonment, anger, domestic violence, parenthood, grief, loss and other issues. But they are real people, not stereotypes. Adults now, each one has worked through their problems (often without, or despite, the help of official agencies) and become a better person at the end of it. They have survived and prospered against impossible odds. These positive outcomes, where none were expected, show the idiocy of writing off any human being, but especially a young one.

...Of course, it's right to intervene with children from birth. Often, children from the worst families are robbed of their childhood by abuse and neglect. But often, people who look bad on paper turn out to be the most caring and loving people around. By helping young people through the difficult times, we allow them to reach their full potential.

--------------------

to the person who wrote in and asked: what does this post have to do with muslim kids?

plenty.

Feeding the poor, having empathy for and taking care of the underprivileged are extremely Muslim things to do, but it's a pity most of us have given these up, in favour of more interesting pursuits like bashing each other over the head with trivialities.

The moral behind posting this was to tell myself, my kids and anyone else who's willing to lend an ear, (my all time favourite quote, paraphrased): "Don't waste time arguing what's a good Muslim. Be one."

girl, accelerated

I was just reading a review of Little Miss Sunshine, a new comedy about a "most endearingly fractured family" ("a disparate group of people who'll always come through for you" even though, "while growing up, the only thing [you] had in common with them were chromosomes and a postcode.")

The film's named after a "fiercely competitive pre-pubescent beauty pageant" which little bespectacled Olive (all of 7 years old) wants to have a shot at winning, and the family falls behind her, to help her realise her dream.

I couldn't help thinking: is every childhood dream worth following up?

It's a child's right to be given guidance and support by parents, how fair is it to simply support them in whatever whims they come up with, and not give them guidance; not nudge them in the right direction if they're going off track? Is this the new-age backlash from the baby boomers' age, where pushy parents forced generations of kids into yuppiedom?

I've been following news reports of the Jon-Benet case, which shocked and saddened me as a Muslim and as a mother. I think the people who killed her childhood by making her parade like a prize poodle in grown up clothes, are no less criminal than the person who actually killed her physically. I see this systematic decimation of childhood everywhere -- in the toyshops where Bratz and Barbies (complete with bright makeup and shiny accessories) fight for little girls' attention and you have complicated miniature makeup kits for sale, in the malls where distressing "tween fashion" stores peddle lowslung jeans and miniscule skirts.

If there's an entire system (and people who wholeheartedly subscribe to it) out there that has no qualms about initiating impressionable young girls into the rites of adulthood several years too early, I think that acceptance and each-to-his/her-own spirit should extend to the system that works the other way around too, where girls are encouraged to have haya and cover up several years before they are Islaamically required to, non?

the kids who never went back to school

The Twilight Zone / The boy who was buried twice
By Gideon Levy
read the complete article at Haaretz
(via Sabbah)

Abdullah a-Zakh identified his son's body by the belt. The shoes and socks also looked familiar, irrefutable proof that he had lost his son. In the morgue of Shifa Hospital, after hours of searching, he found the bottom part of the boy's body. The next day, when Operation "Gan Na'ul" - "Locked Kindergarten" - ended and the Israel Defense Forces exited the Saja'iya neighborhood of Gaza, leaving behind 22 dead and large-scale destruction, the other body parts were found. Mohammed was buried twice. He was 14 years old at the time of his death. He was killed last week, three days before the start of the new school year, so he never got to enter ninth grade.

...When the children of Saja'iya went to school this week, at the start of the school year, carrying their new schoolbags and also the horrors of the previous week, they found a few empty seats in their classrooms.

innaa lillaahi wa innaa ilayhi raaji'oon.

who's that girl??

Today Rasha started a new grade in school, and according to the school rules, wore a niqaab for the first time in her life. maa shaa Allaah.

When she came back from school, I asked her how she felt.

"Hot."

(she's told me she wants to do a day in the life of post, so no more details)

subhaanallaah.

"why do we fast?"

I have a 5-year-old who's going to fast for the first time this year, in shaa Allaah.

He's small, stick-thin, (having inherited his father's metabolism), has a parrot's talk tendencies...and questions everything.

(sample questions range from: "What are we going to eat on Yawm al-Qiyaamah?" to "Will there be computers in Jannah?")

So while we veterans (Rasha-Rida, Rwho kept his first fast last year, and I) were prepping him on what a Ramadan fast entails ...he said: "But why must we fast?"

Hmmm...pause to think.

How to explain this to a 5-year-old:

شَهْرُ رَمَضَانَ الَّذِيَ أُنزِلَ فِيهِ الْقُرْآنُ هُدًى لِّلنَّاسِ وَبَيِّنَاتٍ مِّنَ الْهُدَى
وَالْفُرْقَانِ
فَمَن شَهِدَ مِنكُمُ الشَّهْرَ فَلْيَصُمْهُ
وَمَن كَانَ مَرِيضاً أَوْ عَلَى سَفَرٍ فَعِدَّةٌ مِّنْ أَيَّامٍ أُخَرَ
يُرِيدُ اللّهُ بِكُمُ الْيُسْرَ وَلاَ يُرِيدُ بِكُمُ الْعُسْرَ
وَلِتُكْمِلُواْ الْعِدَّةَ وَلِتُكَبِّرُواْ اللّهَ عَلَى مَا هَدَاكُمْ وَلَعَلَّكُمْ تَشْكُرُونَ

Ramadhaan is the month in which the Qur'aan was revealed,
a guidance for mankind, containing clear proofs for guidance and the criterion (between right and wrong).
So whoever sights (the crescent on the first night of) the month (of Ramadhaan), they must Saum (fast) that month, and whoever is ill or on a journey, they must make up the same number from other days.
Allaah intends for you ease, and He does not want to make things difficult for you.
Complete the same number (of days ), and magnify Allaah (say Takbeer (Allaahu-Akbar; Allaah is the Most Great) for having guided you so that you may be grateful to Him.

or

آمَنَ الرَّسُولُ بِمَا أُنزِلَ إِلَيْهِ مِن رَّبِّهِ وَالْمُؤْمِنُونَ كُلٌّ آمَنَ بِاللّهِ وَمَلآئِكَتِهِ
وَكُتُبِهِ وَرُسُلِهِ لاَ نُفَرِّقُ بَيْنَ أَحَدٍ مِّن رُّسُلِهِ وَقَالُواْ سَمِعْنَا وَأَطَعْنَا

The Messenger believes in what has been sent down to him from his Lord, and (so do) the believers. They believe in Allaah, His Angels, His Books, and His Messengers. They say: "We make no distinction between one another of His Messengers" and they say: "We hear, and we obey...."
----------------------------

I'd like my son to think of fasting in Ramadhaan as a lesson in obedience first and foremost, an enthusiastic willingness to discipline oneself, in order to please Allaah and get close to Him. In other words, as our khateeb, may Allaah preserve him, puts it: to be His slave-- and not a slave of our own self and desires.

I'd like this to happen before Ramadhaan gets associated with yummy iftaars and suhoors, firecrackers and lanterns on the streets, family and togetherness, overflowing supermarket aisles and Eid shopping...

I'd like my son to know that fasts are intended as "an ease" (even if they seem difficult)

I'd like him to know that the fasts are a kind of celebration of the Highest Communion -- Allaah speaking to humanity as a whole, in order to guide it, with clear proofs

I'd like him to feel grateful that such guidance exists and that he can access it, simply by opening and reading the Qur'aan

I'd like him to think of these early fasts as preparation and practice for his adulthood, as a prelude to developing an unhesitating, strong faith

I pointed out the passage in the Qur'aan where fasting is enjoined...so that he knows this is a command from Allaah and not just something that must be done "because" or "because your parents do it" or 'what will people say if you don't"...he looked at it and said okay, and started to pick a date to fast on.

He seemed preoccupied. I asked him what was up, and he said: "I'm wondering if I'm strong enough to beat up the boys at school yet, if they try something with me." He starts school tomorrow, and has been fed horror stories by his elder brother all summer.

It's funny, while I've been agonising about his random Ramadhaan question, his mind has moved on to something new to worry about...khayr in shaa Allaah

sublime similes

WS Gilbert’s introduction of a character “as innocent as a new-laid egg” made me think of the similes (singular: mathl, plural: amthaal) in the Qur’aan…subhaanallaah, the comparisons are so many, and so unusual

chaste, beautiful spouses in Heaven, like “guarded pearls”, “guarded eggs” “rubies and coral”
serving youths like “scattered pearls”
sparks from Hellfire as huge as “forts”
People being dispersed on the Day of Qiyaamah, like “moths”
The life of this world like “dry grass”
The people who eat and drink and make merry in the world “like cattle”
People fleeing from the Reminder (of Allaah) “like alarmed donkeys fleeing from a lion”
Hypocrites “as if they were pieces of wood propped up”
The people of the Book who did not follow it “like a donkey that carries volumes”

To me, the most moving ayah on the subject is when Allaah Says:

إِنَّ اللَّهَ لاَ يَسْتَحْيِي أَن يَضْرِبَ مَثَلاً مَّا بَعُوضَةً فَمَا فَوْقَهَا
فَأَمَّا الَّذِينَآمَنُواْ فَيَعْلَمُونَ أَنَّهُ الْحَقُّ مِن رَّبِّهِمْ
وَأَمَّا الَّذِينَ كَفَرُواْ فَيَقُولُونَ مَاذَا أَرَادَاللَّهُ بِهَـذَا مَثَلاً
يُضِلُّ بِهِ كَثِيراً وَيَهْدِي بِهِ كَثِير
وَيَهْدِي بِهِ كَثِيراً
وَمَا يُضِلُّ بِهِ إِلاَّ الْفَاسِقِينَ

Indeed, Allaah does not shy away from setting forth the similitude of a mosquito (or a gnat)
or something that is smaller than it.
And as for those who believe, they know that it is the Truth from their Lord,
but as for those who disbelieve, they say: "What did Allaah intend by this similitude?"
By it many are misled, and many He guides thereby.
And none are misled except those who are Al-Fasiqoon (wicked, rebellious, disobedient)

It’s such a powerful negation of the theory that the deen can only be completely understood, and thus implemented, by an esoteric elite .
subhaanallaah.

comma ci, comma ca ( :P couldn't resist)

The List just keeps getting longer


...must-have this book on "the little dots with tails " of which reviewer James Crystal (who advised author Lynne Truss not to bother writing the book b/z "books on punctuation never sell") writes: 'Eats, Shoots and Leaves has a subtitle: the "zero tolerance" approach to punctuation. Zero tolerance? That is the language of crime prevention and political extremism. Are we really comfortable with the recommendation that we should all become linguistic fundamentalists? Lynne Truss seems to have fallen into bad company.'

Describing the approach as 'misconceived', he adds: 'Her book is humorous, clever, clear, pretty accurate, well crafted, and deeply unnerving. Zero tolerance. She uses metaphors of vigilantes, balaclavas, militant wing, criminal damage. It's a joke, of course. Yes, it has to be a joke. But it's a funny sort of joke.
'Zero tolerance does not allow for flexibility. It is prescriptivism taken to extremes. It suggests that language is in a state where all the rules are established with 100 per cent certainty. The suggestion is false. We do not know what all the rules of punctuation are. And no rule of punctuation is followed by all of the people all of the time.'

I'm no advocate of literary (or for that matter any) elitism but I enjoy the language and learning the rules -- even if I never play by them, I'm hoping in shaa Allaah R-R will :P

like...you know...

R-R read the previous post and were intrigued by the idea of fragments of life falling into place, like broken, mismatched pieces of coloured glass in a kaleidoscope.

It’s called a simile, I told them. It’s one of the more interesting and understandable parts of English grammar, when you compare two dissimilar things to each other …see the connection?…similar …simile

They smiled and we had a whale of a time making up interesting ones (which they've told me NOT to post...although there were a few that I thought were really well done..)

Incidentally, this week’s edition of James Kilpatrick’s column Writer’s Art, is also about the simile…he says: It’s the most familiar of literary embellishments, in a class with a wedge of lemon or a sprig of parsley. It can raise a cupcake to the level of a petit four…Good similes have at least two qualities in common: They are succinct, and they are fashioned from familiar elements…

He cites examples of ‘the good’:
How busy was Chaucer’s pilgrim? As busy as a bee
How quiet was silence to TS Eliot? As quiet as wind in dry grass
How guilty was one of Raymond Chandler’s bad guys? He looked “as guilty as if he’d kicked his grandmother.” (!!)
How cold is cold? It can be as cold, said Shakespeare, “as any stone” or “a dead man’s nose.”

…and the “lousy”..gaucheries purported to be from High School essays, and probably they were. Nobody could have made them up:

Her face was a perfect oval, like a circle that had its two other sides gently compressed by a Thigh Master.

Her hair glistened in the rain like nose hair after a sneeze. (Gross.)

The door had been forced, as forced as the dialogue during the interview portion of Family Fortunes.

She caught your eye like one of those pointy-hook latches that used to dangle from doors and would fly up whenever you banged the door open again.

The little boat gently drifted across the pond, exactly the way a bowling ball wouldn't.

Her eyes were like two brown circles with big black dots in the centre.

Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever.

He was as tall as a six-foot-three-inch tree.

The hailstones leaped from the pavement, just like maggots when you fry them in hot grease.

Long separated by cruel fate, the star-crossed lovers raced across the grassy field toward each other like two freight trains, one having left York at 6.36pm travelling at 55mph, the other from Peterborough at 4.19pm at a speed of 35mph.

The politician was gone but unnoticed, like the full stop after the Dr. on a Dr Pepper can.

John and Mary had never met. They were like two hummingbirds who had also never met.

The thunder was ominous-sounding, much like the sound of a thin sheet of metal being shaken backstage during the storm scene in a play.

The red brick wall was the colour of a brick-red crayon.

Even in his last years, Grandpa had a mind like a steel trap, only one that had been left out so long it had rusted shut.

Shots rang out, as shots are wont to do.

The plan was simple, like my brother Phil. But, unlike Phil, this plan just might work.

The young fighter had a hungry look, the kind you get from not eating for a while.

Her artistic sense was exquisitely refined, like someone who can tell butter from "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter".

She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes just before it throws up.

It came down the stairs looking very much like something no one had ever seen before.

The revelation that his marriage of 30 years had disintegrated because of his wife's infidelity came as a rude shock, like a surcharge at a formerly surcharge-free cash point.

The dandelion swayed in the gentle breeze like an oscillating electric fan set on medium.

It was a working class tradition, like fathers chasing kids around with their power tools.

He was deeply in love. When she spoke, he thought he heard bells, as if she were a bin lorry reversing.

She walked into my office like a centipede with 98 missing legs.

Her voice had that tense, grating quality, like a first-generation thermal paper fax machine that needed a band tightened.

It hurt the way your tongue hurts after you accidentally staple it to the wall.

(okay, so I zapped a few off the original list and laughed out loud while re-reading this)

Rediscovering Ramadhaan

The sum total of my preparation for Ramadhaan thus far, has been:

several grocery shopping sprees to stock up on Ramadhaan staples (tomato pastes (6+2 free per pack), shorba spices, samosa leaves, puff pastry sheets) before supermarkets are hit by The Rush (school reopening + Ramadhaan)
+
the purchase of a 10-attachment "multi-preparation machine" (plain old food processor sounds so passe, non?) that can make kibbeh, grind meats into three different degrees of coarseness and daals into the right degree of smoothness for pakoras and falafel and dahi barey, conjure up smoothies and slushes at the flick of a switch
+
the acquisition of an enormous 'fridge (all the better to store leftovers from overladen sufras with)

That, in itself, gave me some food for thought.
I've been unwittingly setting myself up for the kind of Ramadhaan I dread -- all body, no soul.

What happened to the girl who jumped out of bed at suhoor, eyes wide at the sight of so many adults enjoying a midnight feast, heart beating at being allowed into that inner circle?

What happened to that feeling of special piety and pride at hunger pangs during recess, while all around kids sat down to plastic tiffins redolent with jam and cheese sandwiches, and the smell of french fries and piping hot samosas with mint chutney rose from the school tuckshop?

What happened to inadvertently eating an elaichi, and then rushing to rinse one's mouth, and asking every adult in the neighbourhood: is my fast broken?

What happened to anticipation, as the contents of brown paper parcels streaked with oil stains were upended on platters, waiting for maghrib, tastebuds tingling and ears strained to catch the far-off muezzin's pitch?

What happened to watching the taraweeh from Makkah on TV, and then quietly praying one's own, repeating the meagre repertoire of Soorahs from Juz 'Amma, over and over again ?

This year, in shaa Allaah, I'm hoping to re-discover Ramadhaan instead of going into auto-pilot cook-entertain-eat-sleep-pray mode ...

...and hoping that the sacred and the mundane; the past, present and the future; who I was, who I am and who I'm aiming to be will magically fit into place and form a whole, like the broken shards of glass in a kaleidoscope.