Hurricane Ike

Alhamdu lillahi, we made it through the hurricane.  We lost electricity, water, and telephone service (including Internet).  Masha Allah , by Saturday night, about 2100, the lights and the air conditioner came back on.  By last night (Sunday) we had some water, with a full return by this morning. 

Our home sustained minimal damage.  No fallen trees or broken windows.  Allah is most kind.

I was particularly thrilled at the opportunity to fast during this trial.  I felt sooooo blessed to be tested in this way.  Mind you, even during this trial, Allah made it easy for me.  Hunger and weakness did not bite my gut and I did not feel weak or hindered.  I felt a little warm, but beyond that, I had no complaints.  Well, this isn’t entirely true.  No running water…need I say more.  This is something that I know we here in developed nations take for granted; being able to turn on the water at will, being able to shower for 5, 10, 15, 30 minutes at a time AND with warm water.  So I was able to gain so much, Insha Allah from this imposed difficulty. 

1. No need to be angry, because it is no one’s fault that a massive hurricane came running up our part of the country, unless of course, you intend to blame Allah .  Astagh firullah.

2. No television to watch for hours on end, no computer to vegetate in front of, no telephone to blab into about absolutely nothing.  Plenty of time to reflect and thank Allah for all that you do have, which in the scheme of things is the entire world for some people.  Some people’s homes were destroyed by fallen tree, cars smashed, homes under water.  Subhanallahi.  None of that here.

4.  I once read a hadith that stated that for every pain or difficulty Allah gives us blessings.  Even a discomfort as small as the prick of a thorn.  Imagine!  During Ramadan, to pray through and fast through a terrible storm and to go without all of those taken-for-granted creature comforts.  Insha Allah , we have piled up the blessings!  Insha Allah .

5.  I am so small, I am so nothing, I am soooooo at the will of Allah .  I was listening to a portable radio.  The weather man said something like this, “Well, the worst of Ike is now past.  Mostly we just have rain.  If we can just get this rain system to let up so that the cold front can move in…”  I cringed.  Who is “we”.  And, can “we” really have any effect over the rain, the direction of a cloud, the wind, a speck of dust, anything?  Is this not the domain of Allah ?  We?  C’mon!  Astagh firullah!

I am very grateful to Allah , and very humbled by this experience.  May Allah continue to give such blessed opportunities to me and to other Muslims, Insha Allah .

Khaalidah

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www.anunproductivewoman.com

Masha Allah , I am so glad to be able to announce that the website for my novel, An Unproductive Woman is now up and running.  Check out www.anunproductivewoman.com when you can and when the book is available, please support a Muslimah.  Jazak Allah !

Khaalidah

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The Test of Sincerity

I have been listening to an ongoing series of lectures by a sister named Mona.  The website to get these lectures, which focus on Sincerity, specifically during the month of Ramadan, can be found on my blog-roll.  The site is called Islamic Happiness.  I encourage everyone to download these lectures (free) and listen to them.

She hits on so many points that I can personally see in my own life.  Namely loving and acting strictly for the sake of Allah .  How many of us truly do this?  I am guilty of failing in this regard, but Insha Allah , I intend to take advantage of this holy month, while the Shayteen are chained and my mind is clearer than ever to incorporate some of these ingenious principles into my life.  Loving and acting for the sake of Allah .

This message hits home for me as I am guilty of disliking and even claiming to hate someone.  Someone in particular.  She has offended me, in some way, that I am sure to her is insignificant, and I have declared an everlasting hate for her.  Astagh firullah.  It is shameful that I have been guilty of allowing Shaytan to guide and control me.  How many of you have despised someone, as the saying goes, until you are seeing red.  Red, as in anger.  How many of you have been in an emotionally challenging situation and lost your head.  Astagh firullah.  I feel fortunate in that I can recognize this failing of mine, because it is Allah ’s gift to me.  He is allowing me the time and the opportunity for me to reform.  How ignorant and arrogant would I be not to take advantage of this opportunity?

Realize, that life is full of just these types of opportunities. 

3. And We indeed tested those who were before them. And Allah will certainly make (it) known (the truth of) those who are true, and will certainly make (it) known (the falsehood of) those who are liars, (although Allah knows all that before putting them to test).

4. Or those who do evil deeds think that they can outstrip Us (i.e. escape Our Punishment)? Evil is that which they judge!

5. Whoever hopes for the Meeting with Allah , then Allah ’s Term is surely coming. and He is the All-Hearer, the All-Knower.

6. And whosoever strives, he strives only for himself. Verily, Allah is free of all wants from the ‘Alamin (mankind, jinns, and all that exists).

 So, I suppose my question to myself and to the rest of the Muslims who are in the daily jihad to live the best life possible is: Are you able to recognize these tests, and if so, do you think that you are passing these tests?  It seems that the smallest tests are the most difficult to overcome.  Or perhaps this is all relative.  My recent and biggest test has been to realize that I can do nothing (absolutely nothing) unless Allah has made it so.  But even more significantly, in most cases nothing at all needs to be done.  The most difficult and the most simple thing is to give it ALL up to my Allah .  This means having faith that Allah will protect me from any entity that may wish to do me harm, because Allah knows and I know not, because no one can succeed against me if Allah does not will it.  This means showing mercy and even love (for His sake, if for no other) because it is a stronger better emotion than hate, or anger, or bitterness.  So I have declared to reform my heart, to act and love strictly for the sake of Allah .  Surely, if I can fast for my Lord, I can love for Him.  I can do anything for Allah , Insha Allah .Visit Islamic Happiness. 

 Pray for us all, that we may be pleasing to Allah , and ever faithful on His path.  Khaalidah.

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More on the Book

Insha Allah , I have been working all week with the publishers and it looks like my novel An Unproductive Woman will be available to purchase by October 1.  Alhamdulillaah, I am very excited. 

  This is the chosen cover of the book.  I love it.  The website will be launched some time this week Insha Allah .  You can also visit the website I built for myself at www.khaalidah.com.

Insha Allah , please make dua for its success.

If anyone has suggestions for places that I can send a press release to, please let me know.  I would like to generate as much publicity for the book as I can.

Salaams, Khaalidah

May your Ramadan be heavy with blessings, Insha Allah .

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Ramadan

Insha Allah , Ramadan will be upon us in less than two weeks.

I love this time of year.  It is almost like doing a refresh on your computer, eh?  You gear down as the shayteen are locked away, and you concentrate on the Most High Allah .  You do more zikr and prayers.  You stay up later and yet somehow find strength that you never knew you possessed.

May everyone have a marvelously fruitful Ramadan, Insha Allah .

I intend to try to write as much as I can here on this blog during Ramadan.  I will speak on my experiences and my progress.  I invite you all to join me here with stories about how you are faring during the holy month.  I find that sharing with like minded people fuels the iman and soothes the heart.  Please do plan to join me in relating your own inspirational Ramadan stories.

Fatiha

Khaalidah 

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Obama Is Not a Muslim. Alright, Already!

Yesterday Obama, then John McCain, was interviewed by Dr. Dick Warren in front of an audience at the mega-church Saddleback.  I watched some of this.  I actually watched more of the warm-up.  You know, the two hours of pontificating on CNN and similar news stations, by so-called political experts discussing what they expected would come out of this discussion.  A major part of this speculating session was devoted to Obama, he refuting rumors of being a Muslim and having to prove to those ignoramuses who for some reason “want” to believe he is a Muslim, that he is not.

Which brings me to a question, and I know you have been thinking it too.  What’s so bad about being called a Muslim?  Of course, if I were inadvertently called a Christian, I would be quick to correct the mistaken party, but I certainly wouldn’t make out like this is some hideous disease.  Surely, the press is more to blame for this.  Obama has, for the most part, remained pretty neutral about this.  He has said that he is a Christian, he has been filmed in his own church, has spoken to people in churches on the campaign trail, and of course there was that never-ending debacle with his former pastor Jeremiah Wright, Jr.  However, in my opinion, neutrality in this instance is akin to fueling the flames.  Why not say, “I am not a Muslim.  I am a Christian and this is my choice.  That said if I were a Muslim, I would be proud of that.”  Or he could say something like, “While I am not a Muslim, I want to be the one to say that Islam is just as decent and valid a way of life as any other and I am disappointed that this has become such a point of contention in this campaign.”  Is this too much to ask for?

Some may say it is too much to ask for.  After-all he is trying to become elected as the first Multi-ethnic African-American in post 9-11 America (ie. highly suspicious and bigoted against anyone who looks like they may be from the East.).  BUT, I say that the actual presidency doesn’t mean as much as the race.  I believe that no matter what he does in office (should he become president - which I hope for, because no matter what he is better than McCain in my estimation) what he is doing right now will be remembered above it all.  His race, fairly clean and dignified as it has been, his character and seeming honestly, the fact that he is NOT the status quo and completely unlike any other candidate this country has ever seen - these are the things that will make all the difference in the end.  And then if he does a good job in office, that will be the icing, but not the cake.  The icing because at the heart of it all, I believe that a politician is a politician, and a politician is a liar.

Certainly, as a Muslim, I feel it is a bit unfortunate that Obama’s Muslim father did not do the job all Muslim parents are charged with, ie. raising the new generation of Ummah, but that is really neither here nor there.  What is done is done, and what is done is forgotten.  Okay, so Obama is not a Muslim, but I do think that he is a fairly good guy, so why can’t he just say it?  He is after-all calling for CHANGE.  Right?  So isn’t this the time to change peoples perceptions?  Is this not the time to be that agent of change, not just in terms of economics and foreign policy but also in terms of how this so-called “melting pot” actually melts?

 Melting pot.  Does anyone use that term anymore?  When I was a kid, maybe twenty-five or thirty years ago that term was used regularly in school to describe the ethnic make-up of our country.  We are a melting pot, not all the same, but we go together in one big happy equal stew.  What happened to the melting pot?  Or have we become more synical; instead of a melting pot we are the main course (white America), and a bunch of side dishes that we can either choose or reject?  If so, America may be on a diet.  A no Eastern immigrant diet, a no Muslim diet, a not anyone who isn’t a Christian like me diet.

“Yes please, I’ll have the fried chicken.”

“Would you like anything with that?”

“Uh…Yes, I’ll have a butter milk biscuit and the all-American apple pie.”

“Would you like anything else?  We have biryani rice, hummus, and couscous as a nice side dish.”

“That sounds weird.  No.  I think I’ll just have a Coke with that.”

But you may say, America is accepting of people who are different, after all it looks like we might just elect a black man named Barack Obama into the White House.  Maybe.  But no matter how much America like African American Barack Obama, they still don’t like us.  We haven’t come as far as we would like to think.

  Allahu Akbar!  Khaalidah.

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Alone…With Allah

I am a convert of 18 years.  A daughter of nearly 38 years. 

I suppose I would start there, the daughter the convert.  Certainly there is so much more to me than that.  I live my life as a Muslim, not incognito, but out there blatantly in hijab and modest dress, never accepting invitations to go out to dinner and drinks (alcohol) from my colleagues.  I field questions on a regular basis about my national origins (I AM AN AMERICAN - FROM CONNECTICUT - THAT IS WHY MY ENGLISH IS SO GOOD!), about why I won’t eat even the chicken, about how my children really don’t feel left out on Christmas and Easter (Do Jews get asked these questions too?), about weather or not I am hot in my Muslim garb (HELLO!  IT IS 100 DEGREES OUT HERE.  WHAT DO YOU THINK?).  I have been doing this reluctant Muslim Public Relations every since I have been a Muslim, and I am okay with it, really.

The thing that I am having the most difficulty with, I suppose, is making a point, standing my ground, encouraging a general sense of understanding and acceptance between myself and my mother.  I am assuming that I am not the only Muslimah convert to have these experiences.  What experiences?  Well, I really don’t know how to describe it, but I’ll try.  There is this feeling, like there is a wall between us, steel or brick, and it is transparent.  There is a doorway in this wall, through which I can get to my mother and she can get to me, but neither of us can see it.  And so, neither of us uses it.  We stand there looking at each other, doing sign language and yelling real loud.  We press our faces up against the wall and we whisper, as if this would help, and somehow we manage to make out some of what the other is saying, bits and pieces, but the rest gets lost and scatters like fallen beads.

I know, all of this is really abstract.  What I am trying to convey, I suppose is that in the heart of me, I know that I will never give up my Islam.  No matter where I go or what I do.  Not even under duress or threat of death.  Not even at the risk of losing everyone or everything that I hold dear.  And I think that this is a threat to my mother, and dare I say, a threat to any parent who in their heart of hearts can not accept that their child had submitted to the will of Allah .  I think I get it though, how she may be feeling.  Probably abandoned.  Like, “This is the child that I raised to be like this, and she/he has rejected it all, has carved out something totally opposite.  What does that make me?  Nothing?  Useless?  Unimportant?” 

I think that the parents who do better at accepting the conversion of their child to Islam, are those who don’t make it all about them.  These are the parents who want for their child what will benefit them most, even if that means that they do not chose their path.

Certainly, I would love it if my parents were Muslim, especially my mother, but I am a realist, and I understand that I can only plant the seed.  Allah is the rain that will nourish and make the Islam grow in the heart of a person.  I am only a seed.  Allah is the rain.  Allah is the ultimate.  But even if my mother were never to be a Muslim, I would continue to love her the same because not only is it my duty, but it is also natural.  Allah has made the relationship between mother and child this way.  This is a magnificent bond.  Ya Allah .

I pray, not only for myself, but for all Muslims who have converted, that we are able to maintain and nurture the relationships between ourselves and our families and good friends as we move from this duniya into the fold of our faith.  I say this same pray for those born Muslims who are practicing their faith, while their Muslim parents are not.  May Allah continue to give strength and courage and serve as our protector.  Insha Allah .  Ameen.

And We have enjoined on the human being in (regard to) his two parents - his mother bore him in weakness upon weakness, and his weaning was two years - Give thanks to Me and to your parents. To Me is the goal. But if they strive with you to associate with Me (gods) you do not know about, then do not obey them. But keep company with them both in the world in an honorable manner, and follow the path of who repents to Me. Then I will tell you what you have worked. - Surah Luqman ayat 14-15

O humankind! Be in awe of your Lord and Sustainer, He who created you all from a single soul, and created from it its mate, and from the two of them brought forth many men and women. Be in awe of Allah and of the wombs (that bore you). Surely Allah is watching over you. - Surah an-Nisa ayah 1

Khaalidah

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Finally

At about 1330 today I recieved the edit of the epilogue.  Finally.  I read it over, added a couple of changes and approved the edits done by the copy-editors.  Alhamdulillahi!

Now I have to choose the interior style.  A list of interior templates were sent to me to choose from, which I will do.  I will email it to the production team tomorrow, Insha Allah , or at least by Monday and then I think I can pretty much take my hands off of it until I get the galley.  It is DONE!

Almost…

May we be blessed by Allah in all things that are good.  Khaalidah

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Step #1 Patience

Today, I emailed the editing team.  I got the word.  The edited version of the epilogue will be ready tomorrow, when they promised, on the 14th.  Well, the body of the manuscript was completed about three weeks ahead of schedule, so I had hoped that this would be the case for the epilogue.  Today’s lesson?  Patience.  Sabr.

“And be steadfast in patience, for verily Allah will not suffer the reward of the righteous to perish.” (11:115) Salaams.  Khaalidah

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A Novel About Aisha?

Check out this article.  Supposedly an novel, characterized as nearly soft-core pornography was written about our beloved Aisha (radhiallahu anha).  ACKH! 

Is nothing sacred?  Is nothing honored? 

 The novel was taken off the presses and will not be released.  Read the article to get more details.  Come back and tell me what you think.

May we acknowledge our sins and make tauba, Insha Allah .  Khaalidah

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