say... PEACE!!

And the servants of the Most Merciful are those who walk upon the earth easily, and when the ignorant address them [harshly], they say [words of] peace (25; 063)

salam,

so... I came across this verse in surat al-furqan... and it just made me... unsuspectedly... laugh.

now, you might be thinking... why is this random muslim blogger laughing at the words of God... but it wasn't that I was laughing in a... haha-funny, laughter... it was more like... haha-interesting... cuz.. I always say 'peace out!!!' or 'peace' in general... but at the same time... i'm a relatively angry person..

but anyway, I was thinking that this verse has a very interesting format... now think about it... It's basically a story of a 'servant of God' broken up into 3 parts:
1- walking upon the earth easily
2- the ignorant address them harshly
3- they say peace

I was wondering what does walking upon the earth easily mean...?personally... physically, i often trudge... does it mean literal walk... or does it mean a certain attitude or a way to hold oneself?? ect... While I read this, I thought of it, more along the lines of literally an attitude.. having a somewhat mellow, easy outlook on life. I think of the way people act, who sincerely believe in God, and a lot of the time, they're really mellow. Like, it's all good, God's got my back... and so, when they 'walk upon the earth easily' you realize, that they're taking the condition of the world easily... not to be confused with lightly... but they take it easily, because they feel like they can do something about it.. it's not hard to deal with the earth, very simple... obey God type of thing. Why? because they're servants of God, and again, if they do something, they know that the hard part, God's got covered... you know what I mean??

The second part the ignorant address them harshly, what kind of ignorance do them mean? Like is it like religious ignorance? or is it, general ignorance? I heard a saying recently that goes something like this: don't argue with an ignorant person, you'll always lose... and when I read this verse, I was thinking why do ignorant people like to argue? They say that ignorance is bliss... and sometimes that's true... but ignorance is also frustrating... imagine being somewhere and everyone knows something that you're ignorant about... I know that my ignorance in my field of study frustrates me sooooo much... I get mean, harsh, and angry... and it made me think.. maybe ignorance takes a psychological toll... not like.. hi, this person is crazy... but if you feel like you're missing something, a piece of information, you get determined to cover that weakness up... you go into this... super... RAAWR mood... and you get harsh, defensive and so on... I felt like the word, ignorant in this verse takes on a different meaning, than if it was like 'the non-believers' or something like that. I feel like, often, ignorance translates a person into this bundle of chaotic energy, that leads to a sense of harshness... of trying to, you know, make up for what's lacking...

The third part is in reference to the servants of God saying peace and it's interesting on how the word peace is used... I mean, it's used as a greeting... It's also used to indicate the relationship you want to have... i.e. peaceful, as in not fighting... also, it indicates the type of person you are as well... you want to relax, not fight, just let it go... and I feel like, responding with peace, just seems so chillax... you know? Why bother stressing?? Just say peace, because you know that the argument is, essentially, useless.. Instead of trying to prove an ignorant person wrong, just embody the concept of peace... be like... what's the point in arguing? Lets just you know... agree to disagree.. pick up a cup of chai and you know... chill... be peaceful... find a sense of comfort with oneself, because you know that God's, once again, got you covered.

any how... I just came across this:
http://www.wikihow.com/Stop-Letting-Ignorant-People-Bother-You
which basically instructs you on how to deal with ignorant people and it made me laugh all over again...

By the by, this is not like a tafseer or anything... just personal reflections I have sometimes... we need to develop a personal connection to you know the words of God, and I feel like when I do it like this, it makes me feel... relieved in a way...

salam \\// peace
-reem

Whispers and Jugular Vein

"And We have already created man and know what his soul whispers to him, and We are closer to him than [his] jugular vein" (Qaf; 16)

Salam,
So, usually when people reference this verse they talk about the aspect of God being closer to us than the Jugular vein... and yesterday when I was reading this surah on my way to work... The first part struck me... And we have already created man and know what his soul whispers to him which is different than that aspect of just closeness... I don't know what I was thinking before reading the verse, but a lot of the time our thoughts over power us... now... you might be thinking... umm... reem that makes no sense... but for me it really struck a cord...

A day before, I told a friend of mine "my own thoughts suffocate me"... sometimes I feel under attack by my own thoughts... Not in the sense that I'm depressed... but I think too much... If you know me well, you know that I'm a motor mouth... I say anything and everything... But if you know me even better... you know that my brain talks to me... yes two sided conversations... back and forth... somewhat schitzophrenic, because it's not me who I'm talking to... but at the same time it's me... It's like my thoughts have a mind and will of their own... I can sit there with a 'look' on my face, and well underneath it all their's like verbal (well mental... but not psychological perse) warfare going on...

I told my dad once that I have this thing that I named, parallel thought processing... so you know how computers do parallel processing... my brain does that... so it's like I have two or more people in my brain thinking at the same time... and sometimes it's sooo loud that I have to take SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much tylenol just to get the pounding to stop... but anyway... back to the verse...

So, the verse says And we have already created man and know what his soul whispers to him and it made me think about how well God knows us... and the fact that God said "whispers" reminded me so much of my own mind. Not one whisper.... but grammatically in a format in arabic that it's like repeated whispers (yuwaswas... rather than waswasa).. I don't know it just made me think about the fact that although I have all these thoughts and whispers going on in my head... God knows about it.

Knowing that God knows about it, makes me feel much more sane... and that more comfortable... and in a sense... confident. After you know, exposing my psychological fears... God then says the second part... which is often quoted "and We are closer to him than [his] jugular vein" and it makes me think of God as somewhat of a Psychiatrist/Psychologist... On call... just a prayer away... oh so close to us, we just need to grasp that concept.

A lot of the time, when I hear that verse, people interpret it so that is God like being you know... in your head... in a "Big Brother", I'm watching you, type of way... But yesterday, when I was reading the verse... It felt like... God knows what I'm thinking, because He's going to be there for me... Like how one of your friends that you grew up with can read your thoughts out of knowing you so well and loving you... and then if it's just hard, she'll (or he'll) assure you a spot on their shoulder to lean on. You know what I mean?

So, as I was reading that verse, I realized that regardless of the paralell thought processing and the thought suffocation that I felt often plagues me (and possibly others)... that God knew my thoughts, understood them and is going to be there for me.

I guess that's it.. Maybe you'll feel/reflect on the verse another way...

salam \\// peace
-reem

self-imposed burdens

"Allah wishes to lighten (the burden) for you; and man was created weak" Al-Nisa 28

This verse pulled at me today, while flipping through the Quran, and although to understand it, you need to know that the preceding verse talks about repentance, and how God wants to accept it from us, however following our desires (hey look at that... it seems to be a recurring theme so far) causes us self-inflicted deviation.

So, what was I thinking when this verse popped up at me? A couple of things. First, I was thinking... this burden is not light!!! In my head, I was like 'you have to be kidding', but then I remember something fatima (my friend) said to me, and yes this is paraphrasing, she said: That true, God doesn't burden a soul more than they can handle, but people can burden themselves in their woes and that can be too much for themselves. And well, it's true, God does wish to lighten our burdens, but we're weak, and burdens can come in the form of wolves in sheep clothing. Desires are appealing, but succumbing to them can have crazy triggered reactions, and those can be insanely burdensome. God saves us these burdens by simply abstinence (refraining from over-indulging in our desires).

Your desires are not only a personal thing, but they can effect society at large. A decision I may make, can reciprocate into the lives of other people. I might decide today to pull an all nighter, I get in a car accident that totals my car and detrimentally hurts the other driver. This other driver, even though was participating in the accident and reacting to the situation, had nothing to do with my decision to pull an all nighter, yet he was effected (he almost lost his life) by simply me not sleeping enough. (This actually happened in the past)

Anyway,
I'll stop now because I can feel 15 different tangents pulling at me simultaneously, and if i started writing them all down... well.. i'd never stop..

What's going on?!?!

salam/peace to all those who might come across this blog,
I decided to start a second blog that is solely for Quranic reflections/ruminations...
So what does that mean?
I keep a journal (handwritten) where I randomly pick a verse of the Quran and just reflect upon it... I would say that it is NOT a tafseer (scholarly interpretation) of the Quran in anyway, but just the thoughts of day to day struggling Muslim in America.
I started keeping this journal about 3 months ago, because I felt like I was completely disconnected to the book that is supposed to guide my everyday action, my every thought, in essence, my life. Rather than reading huge chunks of it, since I felt like it wouldn't help me developmentally, I started doing this... I guess, I decided, that since I'm on a computer more than not, I should might as well start it as a blog... So, again, I just pick a verse at random and reflect, I could be be wrong... I could be right... God knows, but this is a personal thing where I'm trying to tie my personal faith to my everyday life, to the book that is supposed to guide me till the day of my death...
(oh the translation of the Quran that I typically use is "The Noble Qur'an" by Al-hilali and Muhsin Khan)
so again, i just pick up the quran and flip through till a verse pops out at me....
thanks for reading, and comment away.


Surah Jathiya (45: 23)

'Have you seen him who takes his own lusts (vain desires) as his ilah (god)? And Allah knowing (him as such), left him astray, and sealed his hearing and his heart, and put a cover on his sight. Who then will guide him after Allah? Will you not then remember?'

While I sat there reading this verse, the first thought that popped into my head was this: 'damn... i'm screwed' (and yes, just because these are reflections on the Quran, doesn't mean that I'm gonna start filtering my terminology, well to an extent).. but honestly, more often than not it is our own desires that we follow most, put as our ultimate voice of reason. The interesting thing is, even when you follow the 'desires' of other people, you are in essence following your own desire to be accepted, liked, or whatever you want to call it. The point is this: when you follow your own desires, you lead yourself. When a person follows their own desires they seal their own fate. Meaning, there is only one way or the other (in my personal opinion) you could lead yourself by following your desires or you could lead yourself by following what God wants. Both ways you lead yourself, you just put one opinion over the other.
When you lead yourself in pursuit of your desires, then you become deaf to all that is around you (not literally, but to the voice of spiritual reason). This you do see all the time. Think of the big shot CEO who will do anything to get on top of the food chain. Or the video game addict, who thinks everything in the world is just a game. Or how about that sex fiend, who spreads his potentially sexually transmitted disease, just because he doesn't think it's a biggie because getting some is more important. Or that simple person who justs wants another chocolate bar, and swipes their ATM card for a dollar, and gets charged $36 for the overdraft fee, ect. It isn't about 'really bad stuff' but real stuff. I mean not everyone is going to be an evil CEO person or sex fiend, like in the movies, but everyone has some desires that they put before everything else, without really, truly considering the repercussions of their actions. For example, I personally am addicted to soda (or as michi's say, pop) and if I don't have some, I don't care if I show up half an hour late to work, or chewed off someone's head, spit it out, stomped on it, and then dug it under the ground, I want my soda. Get what I'm saying, it's not evil per se, but I guess the verse is talking about not going into extremes where your desires become the rule of thumb.
Other than a symbolic deafness, one becomes symbolically blind, which is similar to being deaf, you really don't see what's going on around you, you aren't in tune with the rest of the world, you see everything the way you want it to seem.
I think that the scariest aspect of this verse is the concept of your heart being sealed, and the concept of not remembering God. Once your heart is sealed, it seems irreversible. Like 'hi, i'm forever heartless, no one can breach my cold, frozen heart' but the verse actually isn't saying that (in my opinion), but that this is a possibility. The reality of the situation is, when you come across a verse such as this, it is a warning of sorts, telling you that, by following your vain desires, you are sealing your fate, but if at some point you change, you can turn back, and that is through remembrance of God. If you remember God, you found the proverbial key to your locked (sealed) heart. And when you remember God, your desires become secondary.
I don't know, God knows best, but what I am trying to say, is this: the verse hit home because 1) we have a tendency to follow our desires 2) vain desires are a handicapping tool, when they become your primary expression of life 3) the way to unlock your deafness, blindness, and sealed heart is by remembering God. and finally 4) desires aren't necessarily a bad thing, but following them like a blind sheep can lead you straight into the wolf's den.

peace
-reem

On surat Al-asr

Asalamu alaikum, (peace)
This is a random post .. and just a set of reflections I'd like to share.
So, I was listening to surat Al-asr (which means the appointed time), and usually, this surah is quoted in order to emphasize the importance of time... So, I started looking into the translation/tafseer of it... and somethign hit me like 'whoa'.

Surat al-asr is a God given mini yet comprehensive version of '7 habits of highly effective people' or books that GUARANTEE success... and you just need to look at the six things mentioned in the surah...
1- TIME
2- impending loss for mankind (except!!!.....)
3- Those who BELIEVE
4- and do Good deeds
5- and encourage the truth
6- and encourage patience

Those six things are the most essential factors of success, whether its "dunyawi"(within this life) success or success in the hereafter...

So, lets look at this in a 'business' mentality.

The first element of a successful business is the ability to work with time, meeting deadlines, creating deadlines, getting up early, working late... setting priorities and so on.. You're working with time!!! There has never been a successful business that didn't revolve around efficient time planning. Now, back to surat Al-Asr, Allah (swt) is giving an oath by His creation time... You know how Allah (swt) grants rights for everything?! Animals, trees, other human beings have rights upon one another? What is the rights that Time has on us as human beings?! Islamically, we cannot abuse time, because we are breaching it's rights, we are abusing a creation of Allah (swt)... So, in a business world... they say TIME is MONEY!!! meaning don't waste it... but how about outside this business world? are we granting Time the rights it has upon us, or do we neglect its importance, like a stray cat begging for a bowl of milk.

The second element of a successful business is to know that you are a potential loser. No business man starts off cocky... they have to work their way up... and even when they make it to the top of the business world, one mistake can lead to a suit that pulls away everything they worked for. It doesn't even have to be business related... the business man could accidentally disregard courtesy 'laws' and walk into a person, the person suddenly falls and breaks their leg, and your top of the line business man is suddenly a broke bum singing over fire lit garbage cans.

So, what does this mean Islamically for us, well cockiness should never be on our agenda, we need to recognize the potential slippery slope that may confront us... We need to be cautious and prudent. We need to recognize that there is always a potential for failure, because everything is beyond our control without recognizing the framework in which the world works... i.e. Allah (swt)'s world

The third element of a successful business is the belief in the business. You believe in the business and that is why you are willing to dedicate your time, and confront risks, if that belief did not exist, than your goals will be short lived. How about what Allah (swt) is telling us?! well He's telling us that belief is essential for success, other wise, we would already slip into the slippery slope of failure... moving forward is essentially pointless without faith, without belief, without conviction in what you're working for.

The fourth element of a successful business is the action, being able to take wise decisive action. It is not enough that you believe in your business, and plan your time and plan for defenses against the potential failures, but you need to execute! otherwise, everything will be left hanging, your call will be left rotating, stuck in queue, in an never ending circle of inaction. Of course we know that Allah (swt) mentions plenty of times in the Quran 'Believe and Do good deeds', just as He reminds us to do so in surat al-asr. :)

The fifth element is encouraging truth.. In a business, if you and your staff cannot be honest, then no one will be on the same page, and everyone will be holding each other back. Truth is essential for a working body for success. People must be able to be honest and upfront about everything. They must be willing both to receive and give honest constructive criticism. Competition is ineffective if people cannot be honest with one another. Often we find in business, people start competing with one another, under-handing one another, and eventually we find that their success is short lived. However, people who do honest-to-God work, well their success is based on a foundation without loopholes, without excuses, without falsifications, without faults (in a moral sense). Their foundation does not have the cracks that weaken it, because their honesty and truth fill in all the gaps. Allah (swt) says the same thing about us, He tells us in this ayah, that we need to ENCOURAGE truth, not only apply it in our lives, but in those around us as well. Because doing so will fill in the cracks and gaps between the brothers and sisters in Islam. Honesty will strengthen their relationship with one another and with Allah (swt). Honesty in words and actions leads to no contradictions (again morally :) )

The final sixth element is encouraging patience, not only applying it to your selves, but encouraging an atmosphere of patience. It the business world, if you are not patient, then the people you work with will feed off of your impatience and react in the same manner you do. Nevertheless, patiences does not mean passivity. One doesn't sit back when their company is falling off a cliff and says, well theres nothing i can do about it.. NO!!! Patience in the business world means action till you're six feet under. Inaction is not patience, it is reluctance. Patiences is WORKING WITH WHAT CARDS YOU ARE DEALT WITH! :) while maintaining a healthy working atmosphere. So, what is Allah (swt) encouraging in this ayah, well not only to be pleased with what Allah (swt) has given you, but for you to work as hard as you can, and get the people around you to work as hard as they can, in order to attain success.

These six elements are the factors that add up to success, whether it is success in the dunya (this life) and akhira (the after life). So, why did i talk about the business world? because we all live in some sort of equivalent to the business world, either as a worker or consumer. Now a day, success is based upon books written by 'successful business men'.. Yet, their books contain no more than what Allah (swt) taught us within a short surah of about 3 verses... now think about the other 113 surahs in the quran...

SubhannaAllah (glory to God), I don't know why this surah struck me so strongly today, well i kind of do, because i've been having problems with work and school, but subhannaAllah, Allah gives us the solution to everything. We probably read this surah 75% of the time during the week for our prayers, but does it really mean until a brick hits you in the face, knocks out your two front teeth, and suddenly something dawns on your that you felt like you've been looking over an entire life time....

Anyway, this post is just to say this... success is spelled out for you in surat Al-'asr...
hopefully i didn't say anything contradictory to the teachings of the prophet or the message of Allah in the Quran
Jazakum Allahu khairan (May God bless you)
Asalamu alaikum (peace)