"bible thumpers" in Islam

Amongst the Muslim women we have way too many preachers who dont practice what they so devoutly preach!!!! Yes we are all sinners, I m the biggest one. But if you want to go around openly preaching, than hey how about actually instilling what you so sincerely believe in. "Bible Thumpers" is a term designated for Christians who like to go around preaching, aggressively in public, and reprimanding individuals openly. (Interestingly enough, you should look at the qualities of a munafiq) I found that this is quite similar to Muslims who go around with their self righteous attitudes trying to morally correct everyone. I guessed they missed Sunday school madrasa class on 'humility 101'.

What I find most annoying out of this bunch is what i call "The Alexis Bellino complex"...Alexis Bellino is a Real Orange County housewife, she has fake Double D's, wears skirts to her butt, but says her husband is her Master, she is his slave and preaches Christianity through out the show. She consistently talks about what it means to be a good Christian woman, while degrading and objectifying her own body and perpetuating close minded right winged republican crap on television.

What I realized, is the Muslim community has its own dumbass Alexis Bellino types. Who go around preaching hate, ignorance, and wacky perspectives on the Islamic faith. Im sorry darling but you are definitely not my authority on Islam, so could you please on behalf of the community SHUT UP.

Im sorry but if you wear in a mini skirt, drink alcohol and cuss for living please do not give me the 411 on how to wear hijaab or practice my Islam (actually STOP PREACHING IN GENERAL). Also stop telling other nikaabis (the face veil) about what you think liberation is, and empowerment is as a woman. Start with yourself..... I barely do my part on my deen, and avoid any occasion of being a public preacher. So why dont you humble yourself and do us all favour shut up and get off the pulpit.

Thanks...than come back and we will discuss my reasoning and why I am where I am..and why I dress like this.

Come to me with sincerity not to blast me (clearly than your not my friend your just trying to humiliate me and call me out on my faults.)

saba mahmood. politics of piety

"Indeed, if we accept the notion that all forms of desire are discursively organized (as much of recent feminist scholarship has argued), then it is important to interrogate the practical and conceptual conditions under which different forms of desire emerge, including desire for submission to recognized authority. We cannot treat as natural and imitable only those desires that ensure the emergence of feminist politics."

MARX

In The Holy Family (1845), he explained this paradox succinctly: "The slavery of civil society is in appearance the greatest freedom because it is in appearance the fully developed independence of the individual, who considers as his own

freedom the uncurbed movement, no longer bound by a common bond or by man, of the estranged elements of his life, such as property, industry, religion, etc., whereas actually this is his fully developed slavery and inhumanity"

Anouar Majid!!! great readings.

With the exception of a few rules in the Qur'an, one can negotiate any ideology within thewide and amorphous parameters of the faith. In the medieval period, Islam "permitted many

schools of thought, great freedom of thought, and tremendous development of philosophical and scientific thinking"(Rodinson 1981, 66). p.332 Majid 1998

abus corner

my dad emailed me today and said,

"***** found the boy on the internet....he is white but seems to be very oriental from manners and a nice person. KH and love mom and abu"

im thinking what the hell is oriental manners ABU!!!!!!!!!! also is this my dad implicitly telling me i should join jdate.com

"the personal is political"

'Can feminists say that their faith is personal and has nothing to do with the public, while still upholding that the personal is the political?' (Nighat Said Khan, 1993: x).

Carol Hanisch is a radical feminist and was an important member of New York Radical Women. She is best known for popularizing the phrase "The Personal is Political" in a 1969 essay of the same name. She was a leader of the feminist movement in the 70s and was famously known for protesting the Miss America Pageant.

The personal is political was important as it addresses the private domain and that what goes in with in the home is very much impacted by historical, social and political contexts. So domestic abuse, and women's unequal share of domestic work, the nuclear family can not be simply pushed away as private matters or seen as natural.

Khwaja Ghulam Farid---anti imperialist poet

Husn e Haqiqi – Beauty of Truth

O’ Beauty of Truth, the Eternal Light!
Do I call you necessity and possibility,
Do I call you the ancient divinity,
The One, creation and the world,
Do I call you free and pure Being,
Or the apparent lord of all,
Do I call you the souls, the egos and the intellects,
The imbued manifest, and the imbued hidden,
The actual reality, the substance,
The word, the attribute and dignity,
Do I call you the variety, and the circumstance,
The demeanor, and the measure,
Do I call you the throne and the firmament,
And the demurring delights of Paradise,
Do I call you mineral and vegetable,
Animal and human,
Do I call you the mosque, the temple, the monastery,
The scriptures, the Quran,
The rosary, the girdle,
Godlessness, and faith,
Do I call you the clouds, the flash, the thunder,
Lightning and the downpour,
Water and earth,
The gust and the inferno,
Do I call you Lakshmi, and Ram and lovely Sita,
Baldev, Shiv, Nand, and Krishna,
Brahma, Vishnu and Ganesh,
Mahadev and Bhagvaan,
Do I call you the Gita, the Granth, and the Ved,
Knowledge and the unknowable,
Do I call you Abraham, Eve and Seth,
Noah and the deluge,
Abraham the friend, and Moses son of Amran,
And Ahmad the glorious, darling of every heart,
Do I call you the witness, the Lord, or Hejaz,
The awakener, existence, or the point,
Do I call you admiration or prognosis,
Nymph, fairy, and the young lad,
The tip and the nip,
And the redness of betel leaves,
The Tabla and Tanpura,
The drum, the notes and the improvisation,
Do I call you beauty and the fragrant flower,
Coyness and that amorous glance,
Do I call you Love and knowledge,
Superstition, belief, and conjecture,
The beauty of power, and conception,
Aptitude and ecstasy,
Do I call you intoxication and the drunk,
Amazement and the amazed,
Submission and the connection,
Compliance and Gnosticism,
Do I call you the Hyacinth, the Lilly, and the Cypress,
And the rebellious Narcissus,
The bereaved Tulip, the Rose garden, and the orchard,
Do I call you the dagger, the lance, and the rifle,
The hail, the bullet, the spear,
The arrows made of white poplar, and the bow,
The arrow-notch, and the arrowhead,
Do I call you colorless, and unparalleled,
Formless in every instant,
Glory and holiness,
Most glorious and most compassionate,
Repent now Farid forever!
For whatever I may say is less,
Do I call you the pure and the humane,
The Truth without trace or name.

Translation by Arieb Azhar

Muslim woman marrying Non Muslim men?

Al-salamu 'alaykum sister:

First I should apologize for the long time it has taken me to respond to your message. As you might have heard, I have been rather ill. But on a happier note, recently we were blessed with a wonderful baby boy.

But I should confess that there is another reason for the delay. This is a difficult issue to deal with. I did receive a large number of inquiries about this same issue, and I have tended to avoid responding to them because I am not exactly very excited about handling this weighty and serious problem.

Surprising to me, all schools of thought prohibited a Muslim woman from marrying a man who is a kitabi (among the people of the book). I am not aware of a single dissenting opinion on this, which is rather unusual for Islamic jurisprudence because Muslim jurists often disagreed on many issues, but this is not one of them.

All jurists agreed that a Muslim man or woman may not marry a mushrik [one who associates partners with God--there is a complex and multi-layered discourse on who is to be considered a mushrik, but we will leave this for a separate discussion]. However, because of al-Ma'ida verse 5, there is an exception in the case of a Muslim man marrying a kitabiyya. There is no express prohibition in the Qur'an or elsewhere about a Muslim woman marrying a kitabi. However, the jurists argued that since express permission was given to men, by implication women must be prohibited from doing the same. The argument goes: If men needed to be given express permission to marry a kitabiyya, women needed to be given express permission as well, but since they were not given any such permission then they must be barred from marrying a kitabi.

The justification for this rule was two-fold: 1) Technically, children are given the religion of their father, and so legally speaking, the offspring of a union between a Muslim male and a kitabiyya would still be Muslim; 2)It was argued that Muslim men are Islamically prohibited from forcing their wives to become Muslim. Religious coercion is prohibited in Islam. However, in Christianity and Judaism a similar prohibition against coercion does not exist. According to their own religious law, Muslim jurists argued, Christian men may force their Muslim wives to convert to their (the husbands') religion. Put differently, it was argued, Islam recognizes Christianity and Judaism as valid religions, but Judaism and Christianity do not recognize the validity of Islam as a religion. Since it was assumed that the man is the stronger party in a marriage, it was argued that Christian and Jewish men will be able to compel their Muslim wives to abandon Islam. (If a Muslim man would do the same, he would be violating Islamic law and committing a grave sin).

Importantly, the Hanafi, Maliki, and Shafi'i jurists held that it is reprehensible (makruh) for Muslim men to marry a kitabiyya if they live in non-Muslim countries. They argued that in non-Muslim countries, mothers will be able to influence the children the most. Therefore, there is a high likelihood that the children will not grow up to be good Muslims unless both parents are Muslim. Some jurists even went as far as saying that Muslim men are prohibited from marrying a kitabiyya if they live in non-Muslim countries.

This is the law as it exists or the legal legacy as we inherited it. In all honesty, personally, I am not convinced that the evidence prohibiting Muslim women from marrying a kitabi is very strong. Muslim jurists took a very strong position on this matter--many of them going as far as saying if a Muslim woman marries a kitabi she is as good as an apostate. I think, and God knows best, that this position is not reasonable and the evidence supporting it is not very strong. However, I must confess that in my humble opinion, I strongly sympathize with the jurists that argued that in non-Muslim countries it is reprehensible (makruh) for a Muslim to marry a non-Muslim. God knows best--I have reached this position after observing that the children of these Muslim/non-Muslim marriages in most cases do not grow up with a strong sense of their Islamic identity. It seems to me that in countries like the U.S. it is best for the children if they grow up with a Muslim father and mother. I am not comfortable telling a Muslim woman marrying a kitabi that she is committing a grave sin and that she must terminate her marriage immediately. I do tell such a woman that she should know that by being married to a kitabi that she is acting against the weight of the consensus; I tell her what the evidence is; and then I tell her my own ijtihad on the matter (that it is makruh for both men and women in non-Muslim countries). After telling her all of this, I add that she must always remember that only God knows best; that she should reflect on the matter as hard as she can; then she should pray and plead for guidance from God; and then ultimately she must do what her conscience dictates.

I hope this response helps answer your question. I pray to God to guide us both to what He pleases and wants, and that He helps the sister you wrote me about to find peace and tranquility with whatever decision she makes. God is the best guide and mentor--may He forgive our sins and bless us with His Compassion and Mercy.

With my sincere regards,

Shaykh Khaled Abou El Fadl

must reads

BOOK LIST for this month:

Hamid Dabashi: Islamic Liberation Theology

Anouar Majid: Unveiling Traditions: Postcolonial Islam in A Polycentric World

Chaim Clorfene and Yakov Rogalsky: The Path of the Righteous Gentile: An Introduction to the Seven Laws of the Children of Noah

Arthur Kurzeil: The Torah for Dummies

Haideh Moghissi: Feminism and Islamic Fundamentalism, The Limits of Post Modern Analysis

Foucault my fav!

"The liberty of men is never assured by the institutions and laws that are intended to guarantee them." -Foucault

abu chat today!

So I talked to my dad today after like a long time, hes like 75, its important to note his age. I told him I missed the pervez musharaff talk at university...he gave me a long talk about corruption and how some politicians used to steal the Qurbani (sacrificed meat for the Eid Festival) that his brother had collected for the Jamaat-e-Islami and sell it. Anyways, my dad encouraged me to meet this one politician who was kind involved in this corruption whilst he was growing up...Im like really why?.. Hes said in his encouraging tone " you should meet him , do an interview and stuff...... and than KILL HIM!!!" My response on skype " UHHHHHH gotta go abu!" If you feel threatened about my dads advice, don't hes harmless in his rocking chair watching CNN on full volume. He's just as passionate as me, his princess!!


My dad if you know gives me the most outrageous advice, when I was in grade two a little white girl called me a 'paki'. my dad encouraged me to go back and call her 'a white witch'. She told the teacher on me and said I called her a 'white bitch'.. I didnt even know or use that word at that age. But, I got stuck writing lines of apologies because my teacher took her side (roll eyes at mr. bennett) Hey at least my dad was kind enough to offer to write those lines for me and encouraged me to go play!!

RANT: capitalism undermines sisterhood!!!

The title was to lure you in....this is not about capitalism, but capitalism probably does undermine sisterhood.

Its been a long year at SOAS, and I have made incredible friendships. But, one thing has left a bad taste in my mouth. THE WOMEN!!! I know its not a London thing, because its various women, women from various parts of the world like America, Canada, China, India, Pakistan, Dubai, etc. The women I have met, have great things going for them, incredibly beautiful and educated women with diverse backrounds, ethnicities, life experiences and so forth. But theres a common trend amongst them, they are AWFULLY MEAN SPIRITED!!!

My first bad experience was at the beginning of the year. I met this incredible woman, who was from the Mid East, in a documentary, writing a book, absolutely gorgeous, constantly in the media, the list goes on. I was her number one fan!! I supported her all the time, and complimented her like I was her boyfriend. Sadly, I had to babysit her feelings, she became extremely needy, moody, tempermental when I didnt offer her a compliment, jealous when I was in a relationship, crazy when I acheived something good and verbally abusive when we actually got in an argument. I really sat and analysed the entire friendship. I tried to see where I went wrong, and I tried hard to be a good friend to her, I even apologized when I did no wrong, because I started to think she was delusional. I came to the realization she didnt want to be my friend if I wasnt the underdog. I think as a woman and a feminist, I have made it my active goal, to support and help my fellow sisters. Maybe thats cliche? Most importantly, as part of my deen (my religion) which is my main priority in my life, I tried always to not be jealous, and be happy for others joys and blessings. I am not saying I only met evil spirited women, but it seems like a a weird trend amongst alot of successful women, they feel the need to rip eachother to shreds.

Also, I have seen these same women drop all their dignity and respect and become petty and stupid for a man.

At SOAS, I met bitchy women, who were ultra competitive, insincere, and ready to bite your head off at any moment. Moreover, constantly engaged in ridiculing each other like pre schoolers to cover up their awful personalities and insecurities. Even worse you have to deal with their UGLY SARCASM AND GARBAGE JOKES!!! Jokes that are usually at the expense of others or you because they have nothing substantial to offer to the conversation.

I am not saying I am flawless, or free from error. But, I think more women should make a conscious decision not to feel threatened by other women, or be so CUT THROAT. Be happy for others gains, and dont wish for others to loose.

I am really put off by it, and I really hope I can meet some more powerful, encouraging women who support each other rather than tear other women down.

moms two cents for the day

Ammi's advice " you can work any part of the world, dunya mai blah blah...(cant rephrase my moms wonderful urdu)...as long as its not a terrorist country"

Quote I like

At any given moment there is an orthodoxy, a body of ideas of which it is assumed that all right-thinking people will accept without question. It is not exactly forbidden to say this, that or the other, but it is "not done" to say it... Anyone who challenges the prevailing orthodoxy finds himself silenced with surprising effectiveness. A genuinely unfashionable opinion is almost never given a fair hearing, either in the popular press or in the high-brow periodicals.”-George Orwell

tattoos, bicycles, and revolutions

So....A couple weeks ago I attended a random event at SOAS...and met an individual screaming revolution in the crowd...We automatically became friends, weirdos unite. He befriended me, and Now Im in moral dilemma up to my head. I have exams, NO WE CANT ATTEND PROTESTS TOGETHER!!! I don't have time for the workers revolution. So I suggested the mosque, a nice friday jummah, pray to G-d, meditate and levitate? Sigh. To my marxist/atheist crush....we may not meet ideologically...but you always have a little spot in my heart.

So he didnt convert me and I didnt convert him....this is how i feel about Marx though....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-u5WLJ9Yk4&feature=related

abus corner

Mahmood says: i know but there still some crazy people who could hijack you from ur mission

"im beginning to feel..."

"Im beginning to feel the drunkennes that this agitated, tumultuous life plunges you into. With such a multitude of objects passing before my eyes, I'm getting dizzy. Of all the things that strike me, there is none that holds my heart, yet all of them together disturb my feelings, so that I forget what I am and who I belong to." In Rousseau's novel The New Eloise....the protagonist describes his wonder and dread of the city, I liked this quote because these similar feelings resonate within me.

cute boys in SOAS library

Well today I met a cute boy in the SOAS library......

any who so ' this boy' asked me some directions....we were sitting next to each other....and he said I have a nice name after he glanced at my computer screen and even pronounced it right too!! he was being all smooth, complementing me , asking me questions, paying attention to MEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!! it was all about me. We talked plenty, the conversation kept on, I was like is this gonna lead somewhere shoot (I mean ask for my digits, FACEBOOK!!!). But, we were in the quiet area, so I was like trying to wrap the conversation up, before someone screams at us. Some people were giving us those evil stares, the kind that tells u 'shut the F*ck up' without actually saying it. He asked me what I want to do in life and where I live etc..etc. I mean it got deep and personal, ok not really. Anyways just when I thought things were getting interesting he dropped it on me like a ton of bricks, "I study economics at LSE................." . I know eh? like WTF?

It gets worse, he tells me he wants to work in Washington for the IMF. At that point I said bye, and hurried away.

to my friends and foes..

to all those who loved me, love me,
...thanks.
thanks for dealing with my childishness, my anger, my wrath, my bitchyness, my overwhelming happiness, my obnoxiousness, my sharp tongue, my sadness, my crude jokes, my neuroticness?
ignorance, my anxiety when i get lost or cant find parking, my inability to multi task, my incapability of structuring a proper sentence without saying ' you kno what i mean'.......etc.

love you

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-iOcKaSeFo&feature=related

random encounters at SOAS

so a random strange man comes up to me at SOAS comes up to me and says " its ten thirty (looking at his watch), you shouldnt be out this late, what you doing here?"
me: (thinking SOAS is full of weirdos, I must know this man im sure of it..he may be my professor actually, maybe hes an uncle) "IM STUDYING!!!"
stranger : " oh reaaaaaaaally, what are you studying?"
me: " uh uh uh development and globalisation"
stranger: "your wasting your time, money, labour power, and creativity"
me (still dont kno why im talking and answering ): "uh"
stranger: " your gonna go back to bahrain anyways"
me: "IM NOT FROM BAHRAIN"
stranger : "oman, kuwait..whatever"
me: "IM FROM PAKISTAN"
stranger: "really, wow your too beautiful to be pakistani"
me: (still wandering why im talking to this stranger,if hes my proffessor and if i should be insulted for pakistani women globally)

abus corner

Going to Morocco these days is like walking in "jesus" shoes to the Temple while Pharisees are the High Priest ! KH, abu

abus corner

dads words of advice for the week


"Don't forget that London is small city and ....you should not compare with Toronto. Honestly,I used to live in a room the size of your washroom and used to heat it with a oil heater. Those were the tough days because they didn't discover the natural gas in northern sea yet and had to make gas from the coal."

lately.............

low carb diet, tons of zikr, and scared of Russian imperialism (10000 nuclear missiles)