Don't read if you're fasting.

Most would vote to delay a piece like this to a later occasion that is not the Holy Month of Ramadhan, given the emotional disturbance poured into this article. I say that I should take the advantage of the fact that this is being written after Iftar, and  this would help negate whatever distress I have suppressed inside after the event, in order to pave way for an easier fasting tomorrow. If you’ve seen this article during your fasting period, I invite you to read after Iftar. While it holds no reserves of foul language or sincere attempts to demean any person, the fact that I’m depleting anger as I punch these keys ought to make assurances slightly unwarranted. It can also be argued this article is educational; you be the judge.

The day was particularly sound and pleasant up until the session of Iftar where several topics of enjoyable varieties were brought to the table. I love these debates, the intelligent exchange of facts and the listening sessions; they’re just great, particularly when its followed by such a delicious cosine. However, it’s when sensitive topics like religion that when brought to the table  and taken on a personal basis is when your appetite for truth starts to crease, specificly when you try to administer the conversation back to an intelligent more than an emotional level and the sincere attempts to cool things down backfire.  My case makes it worse; I’m in the company of two elder people of diverse religions one speaking on behalf of mine.  The topic spanned around the reasons as to why a Muslim man is allowed to marry Jews and Christains, but not vice versa. I wait for a proper window of interjection, given the time constraint and go for it. My initial step, given my company’s slightly undermined level of English (which caused a grieve misunderstanding) is to quickly polish and explain his or her standpoint. The first step was done in that person’s favor, and I’m not even given the chance to finish half of my statement, already accused of not stating out the verse fully, while I was yet to pronounce the other half of the syllable! You can imagine the third person’s reaction now; |this young man has no idea what he’s talking about. Best swallow what the other person is telling me, due to the fact that he or she is older and therefore more versed than this man.  In my defense, I ask for the chance to finish as I am indeed saying what he or she Is saying, but instead, I am rewarded by what can possibly the most demeaning response. I can hear it behind the cluster of words my mind and the third person’s own are trying to process “I’m older and therefore wiser”. Given! And yes, the more knowledgeable do indeed out weigh the less informed but that does not prevent me from my God given right to either disagree OR agree with you. To spice things up, this person smiles and speaks in a humiliating tone. “This is how he reacts, regardless of what I have taught him.”

I am slammed back into a vortex of distressful thoughts; ‘taught him?’ Excuse me, when have you EVER decided to sit on the other end of that chair, open a book and convey your most valued teachings and unbiased opinions. How long have you allowed yourself to even listen to what I have to say about particular matters in Islam (in an attempt to ask for your opinion, rather than refute you)? How many times was I allowed to question some of your explanations out of sincere concern before screaming at me? In fact, what HAVE you taught me?  Let’s get more critical; how can you boast about that degree of yours when you’re unable to sit for two minutes listening a younger man disagree with you (assuming that he is right now)?

Author's Note: "What have you taught me" statement is a bit harsh, but I'm keeping it as a reminder to know what I'm writing first before articulating my emotions. 

I invite every reader of this article to look up Omar bin Abdul Aziz,; quite possibly the most just leadership the Muslims have ever enjoyed through out history after the Prophet and the companions, a true model! I want you to look up the response that Omar got from a seven year old boy, when the young man was about to speak before Omar interjected and said: “Let your elders speak.” (not in a demeaning tone of course) . See what the child said.

I’m snapped out of my storm of thoughts, being asked as to what I was about to say. . . They honestly believe that after my humiliation, I would have something intelligent to add, after I was absolutely dismissed. In my verbal attempt to return to what I was saying; I simply paused and said I forgot. They laughed.

And I ask myself…How do the Muslims of the twentieth century expect to have their youth help the religion flourish, if all they want produced are carbon copies of themselves?

A Divine Equation.

I continue to grow inlove with the workings of the universe and the omnipresence that continues to reveal itself in the most genuine unprecedented ways. In my private solitude, reflecting over the events in their beauty and grotesqueness, I cannot but help think that they always serve a greater purpose than what we think they do when they happen.


There is a divine equation out there in the horizon, and we, with the choices we make and who we choose to become, are the variables that inadvertently fulfill a perfectly projected result.

To cut a long story short? Everything happens for a reason.

My response to Khalid's post on Facebook.

I dedicate this post to a question raised by a friend of mine on facebook. He had linked this intresting footage on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbUUNonUgE8&NR=1 , and though I believe that it is somewhat biased by some mild form of selectiveness, I still find it particularly heartwarming and at the same time, profoundly regretful that the Arab World does not enjoy this atmosphere quite often, all hail taboos traditionalists mixed with religion.

I’d like to begin by citing a scenario between Sheikh Al Qaradawi and an interviewer. In a program that has earned my respect and my attention, known as Shari’a and life, our Sheikh was asked “What country, given the current time, would you personally classify as a Muslim state?”

“None.” He replied. “To classify a country as a Muslim state, it is essential for both civilians and government to have a clear and transparent understanding, in addition to a mutual agreement on Islamic standards. Without this harmony, no country of such nature exists.”

Should Arab countries that have been prosecuted by tyrannical figures and have now reclaimed their freedom head for religious standards? Me, being born in a generation that where most of us are born, citing what we know about religions from what we have been taught in school and tradition by families have one answer. No, no and double no. Because for religion to act as a constitution, civilization must be willing to know, practice and animate that atmosphere before claiming to adopt it. It is essential for us Muslims to rectify and honestly acknowledge the fact that most of us speak out of ignorance or what we are told. If you don’t believe me, then right at this very moment, this very second, I want you to ask yourselves if you can cite the exact source that practicly says “You should pray five times a day”.

Attention. This moment of awkward silence has been brought to you by Google.  ~Damien Stryker, Radio Talk Show host I’m familiar with.

Not saying that you shouldn’t of course, I’m only stating facts.  We are capable of demonstrating our basic functions, and yet, most of us can only do so much as to cite the sources for half of them.  But that is the case of us twentieth century religion passionists. Go ask your average Christian “What is the Gospel?”

Ksht! Google!

Once again, I’m not saying that they wouldn’t be able to answer it.  The weakness lies in the fact that most of us are capable of only answering it on a general basis, leaving us vulnerable to some intelligent jerk that is aware of it, but would use citations of perhaps weak basis to refute the fact that our belief is true. In our ignorance of propagating what we believe to know, we give room for weaker basis to grow stronger, thus we inevitably lose the debate. Majority doesn’t always win, especially when they all stand out as …stupid; they’ll look like they’ve been deceived. I could illustrate a gazillion examples of speaking out of ignorance, but I don’t want us side tracked from our topic.

I sincerely believe that Islam is a method of life that should be pursued from every stand point.  But in order for us to pursue anything, we need to be familiar with the steps we are taking. In the twentieth century, most of us have only contributed to the demonization of a religion by reflecting and repeating what cultures and traditions have taught us rather then citing the sources for it. We live in a time where sexual education is conceived by Arabs to be taboo, when in contradiction, it was provided to the youth in the sound methods the Prophet had supported back in the day.

I’ll water it down to a simple statement. You cannot assume to be fair by ruling people with standards that they or yourself are not properly educated by. The U.S, itself, endures this dilemma, where the people are governed by a democracy they themselves are unaware of, giving room for governing bodies to exploit them. If I personally saw someone in the U.S reading a pamphlet that states the Bill of Rights, I’d be either impressed or would make the natural assumption that this guy is applying for citizenship. Let’s face it. Barely anyone knows it.

You want to know who are governing our wold today? Not jews, not muslims, not christains or secularists, but hypocrites. People who would score a four point O GPA in a Marketing degree. Because they’re good at exploiting people’s ignorance.

And that’s my thought Khalid. Sorry for keeping you up.

Living to die another year

I like to boast about the significance of this day by typing the date 1/1/11. That's a string of identical numbers you won't be seeing for a life time, unless some new advent of global effecting events decide to restart the dates. While the world has gone out there to celebrate accomplishment to have seen another a year through, I simply sit to face my screen and acknowledge the very fact (also during birthdays) that I have died another year. It's the reason why they say 'old' when they refer to your 'age'.

I'm no pacifist; I do not discourage commemorations or think lesser of others, I simply believe in seeing things differently so that I'm able to find more reason to be productive.  There is no shame in accepting the fact that the days are gone; you're merely acknowledging reality and that in itself may be a little close to what Maslow refers to as Self-Fulfillment in his seven laws of needs.

But my aim in this post to derive whatever there is from 2010 and reflect on it. I suppose the most conventional sense would be the fact that it seems awkward that it's over, simply because you cannot really remember what went over in 2010 and why. Few of us ever ask why.

It certainly did have its list of minor accomplishments, as much as any in the arch of my life had. That and certain acquaintances , of both introvertive and extrortive nature But really, looking back through the year, can one honestly recall some significant sparks?

Perhaps I had become more responsible; that's something you inevitably have to become as you grow older, but no matter how much you strain yourself to live up to the standards, even if you were to reach the optimum of that, you'd still find yourself scowling with unsatisfaction I suppose we can consider that the peak of Maslow's law, that being self-actualization.

On that note, I disagree with those who believe that it isn't achievable or claim that it is something only profoundly accomplished figures can reach upto. In my opinion, it takes a simple but unappreciated ingredient. Gratitude; most of us spiritually accept it, but such gratitude is short lived, simply because we lack the physical routines to prove it. We busy ourselves with our desperations for further accomplishments, noble or trivial, and we forget to stand up for the few precious moments we owe ourselves to contemplate on what we have so far.

And so, now that I think about, I won't complain about my inabilities. I won't regret 2010. . . . Instead, I'll be thankful .I dedicate this post to gratitude that I owe myself, my god, my family and friends.

The essential teaching of Ramadhan

Tonight, my mother made a long distance phone call to her sister to inquire about Ramadhan in egypt. When I remembered whom her sister was married to, I quickly rushed and asked her to hand me the phone so I can speak with him.

I asked: "Back in the balcony, I remember something important you mentioned about fasting. Something Shiekh Al Sha'rawi conveyed to you.

He replied: "In our time, there was a popular misconception that fasting was placed so that the wealthy may feel the hunger of the poor, if this was true then the poor don't need to fast! He stated something more sensible. God brought a month upon us where he forbade us from what is deemed Good; he forbade us, from the dawn of the day until sunset to draw close to our spouses, wives or husbands, and food so that we see that just as we are capable of distancing ourselves from the two essential deeds that made life progress, we are also capable of distancing from the deeds that doomed it entirely. Such is the wisdom of God."

Dear Sir Thomas Jefferson

Dear Thomas Jefferson,

Some centuries beyond your era sits a lad writing this letter on a clever and intricate, yet simple contraption devised by a series of several innovative minds that may have not shared your passion for knowledge, but have executed what they reserved to the best of their abilities
and opened an epoch filled with extraordinary possibilities beyond margins of imagination drawn in your time. You would be proud of this, but not of us, sir, I assure you. We live in an age that wreaks of ironic paradoxes and hypocrisy in every corner, where even the opinion of the masses themselves have lost credibility. An age where we believe, despite our lack of study and dedication, that we are insufferable know-it-alls as we allow others to do our thinking for us. An age where we allow the truth to be overridden by fallacies spewing fourth from the silver tongues of the corrupt whom cleverly fabricate the images of the good, and commit tremendous efforts to somehow and magically promote the bad to greater summits that we in our willful naivety stood to accept. While these demons have surely existed at every point in the arch of history, the greatest horror in the sinister scheme of things Mr Jefferson is not them, sir, but us. We are the scum of the earth, many of us whom entertain knowledge for a certain measure of years just so we can be ready for the labors in life, to become servants to owners whom are even lower servants, idolizing and overindulging tastes for materialism. Our modern day life is no longer a life, suffice to say, but an era in which our only purpose, Mr Jefferson, our only reason is to indulge urges, only to discover why we are not so satisfied with the pleasures that we have derived from them. And to make things worse, we somehow find ourselves impossibly entitled to higher privillages that we have never worked to deserve.

Why are we the scum of the earth? Because we have forsaken the majestic satisfaction from spending tireless hours of gaining knowledge and despite our awareness of its corruption do we still take up these rigid systems; we have fallen so low that we lack the fortitude and self-esteem to plan and work for our own dreams, always looking for quicker ways to get to it, always forsaking it for alternatives we are deceived by, finding ourselves benefitting others in the end, ALWAYS fooled by the same trick in the game. And though we know in our hearts what we should do, although we are aware of how many years of our lifespan have been stolen by some of the most trivial charades in life that has often led to needless violence, that humanity's true sanctuary in life is the sincere dedication to learning about the greater good, do we still remain here, mocking our own foolishness and allowing the tides to sweep us off our feet. Even when we are surrounded by heaps of concurred epochs of history that were stirred by simple, but sincere steps of one man, ALWAYS, one man, do we continue to wait. . .

I write this in the confidence that it will never reach the addressed, not that it deserves to be. Though I may never know the face the public had given you when you took presidency, like polymaths before you and those around you, it is for the simple fact that you did not allow your attributes, be it age or gender, to compromise your will to learn more and listen, do I write it.

Sincerely,

Mohammed.

Time Management

Well, here I am again, and I won't hide the fact that I'm clueless about what I'm going to be writing about either. I just let my fingertips work in search for the valid thoughts that may flow in. For those of you who ever studied Macroeconomics should understand me when I say the nostalgic words, "Cetris Paribus." 

Let's take this one step at a time, I'm getting nowhere here. Alright, CNN publishes this intriguing (yeah, right) article about the shortening of attention spans of children due to the fact that they seem to be playing video games these days, since parents thought that video games are less likely to provide that symptom then your casual sitting your ass on the couch and switching between the channels routine. As, previously, a hardcore video gamer and still a casual on occassions, I'm gonna have to agree on this one, but for crike sakes, don't you think that it applies to almost every activity you put on repetition? 

Kinda reminds me of the day when a good friend of mine started our conversation by saying "You know, research has it that Music is far more addicting then drugs." Well, holy mola amigos, of course! Because we actually have more access to music than drugs! Don't people get it?! Why do you think individuals are called or sometimes submit the fact that they're obsessed? It's because they're having too much of it! That's what constant repetition of any pattern of behavior does! Be it music, eating excessively or practicing those little no-no's your parents told you to stay away from. It becomes a part of your system; hence, why all the goodies and the alternatives turn dull, unless a person decided to be sincere enough to apply a little time management. Don't tell me you can't. Everybody has time; you just suck at managing it. But hey, welcome to the twenty first century!

Speaking of management, I need to do a little cardio. Until next post, folks.