Babies babies everywhere

Today a sister came to my house to do a talk. I'd forgotten this particular sister was coming and not the usual one. I mentioned this to her but she took offense: 'sorry to disappoint you', her eyebrows raised and eyes twinkled. I didn't mean it like that but still had to spend the rest of the evening sucking up to her.

One of her points was about Maryam (alayhisalaam). She was alone, in the pains of labour....(Loneliess is the suck, and I can imagine labour being a little like the feelings of a torturous death, so imagine the two together!) Anyway, at this time of need, Allah swt told her, as related in the Quran, to:

"...shake towards thyself the trunk of the palm-tree: It will let fall fresh ripe dates upon thee" (19:25).

This ayah shows us that even at that moment we are in a nadir (and we can think about our own low points to understand the feelings she was going experiencing as most of us haven't had the pleasure of giving birth to a prophet in a desert...) we should not despair.

Funnily enough, I've just looked at the ayah before and Maryam did actually cry out in her anguish, as "the pains of childbirth drove her to the trunk of a palm-tree". She exclaimed: "Ah! would that I had died before this! would that I had been a thing forgotten and out of sight!"(19:23).

This is interesting for me to read because so often I see people hide their fears and concerns to save face and because they don't want to appear 'weak', but this shows us that even esteemed people like Mary (AS) were, at the end of the day, human and had their own tests from Allah which they had to fiercely struggle against, and cope with, to pass. The people we look up to, whether they be from the past or present, are not born heroes- they work for it- conducting jihad against their nafs and shaytans, working damn hard to become characters of stregth and attain falah/success.

So, returning to the story, just as Maryam (AS) needed Allah, He, the Provider, the Protector came to her aid:

'But (a voice) cried to her from beneath the (palm-tree): "Grieve not! for thy Lord hath provided a rivulet beneath thee. And shake towards thyself the trunk of the palm-tree: It will let fall fresh ripe dates upon thee. So eat and drink and cool (thine) eye..." (19:23-26).

Maryam here has been instructed to do the seemingly impossible. A date palm trunk can't be shaken so easily (if at all) by a grown man, let alone a labouring woman! And that is Exactly the point. It's not Maryam who needs to do the shaking-- it is with Allah that lies All Power -la hawla wa la quwwata illa billah (لا حول ولاقوة إلا بالله) - There is No power or strength except with God. And we shouldn't become arrogant enough to think we do have any power. We need only to do our best, to take the actions, Allah is the one who will actually shake the blessings on us from His tree if we simply put up our hands, like Maryam, to the Tree of His Shade.

(NB- Ironically, and I pity pity these people, those who try to 'answer Islam' completely miss this point- see bold writing on this page: http://answering-islam.org.uk/Quran/Contra/qe007.html Ridiculously poor arguments).

(I made up some the points on here so any errors are mine...)

Failing to turn information into 'ilm (worhwhile religious knowledge)

I feel awfully pressured to blog again, I can't write on instruction though, I'm not a trained journalist you know!

Well here's some gossip, my family don't tell me anything! Found out today I'm expecting another niece/nephew and that my aunt is being hospitalised with a possibly malignant lump! :0

Today I went to a religious talk - needed some spiritual enlightenment. I felt really odd being the only one not wearing a black cloak- most of them were wearing veils. I'm used to being the overdressed one and instead today I felt like a ho in jeans and a pink scarf. Literally they were like an identical army shrouded in black. I listened to some really powerful teachings about the importance of good actions and manners and the evils of gossip. I then came home and shouted at my dad, gossiped with someone on the phone and then backbit about someone else. Man I'm such a hypocrite.

I wish I'd bought that book in Oxfam today - Fishing for Salmon in Yemen or something. Instead I bought Edward Said's book to decorate my shelf. I tell myself I shouldnt waste time reading fiction and try and stick to mostly non-fiction buying but it just means books end up standing unread for years on end. Titles which I purchased after intellectual whims include: A Biography of Genghis Khan; Joe Simpsons The Road to Afghanistan (or something), Wild West China, The Snow Geese, Bosnia: A Short History. Materialism won't let me give them away. Ironically I bought a New copy of Affluenza yesterday, the book about modern affliction of materialism, when I know I could have bought it second hand off Amazon.

Speaking of Bosnia, something really embarrassing happened last week. I went to a talk about Shariah in Britain and this old white lady happened to sit next to me. She went on to try and have a really intellectual conversation with me! I coped fine for the most part by opening my eyes wide frequently and saying "Really?" and giving knowing smirks here and there. Then she asked me: You must know alot about the situation, what do you think about Kosova? Eek!

Man have to wake up in 6 hours... last thing I feel like doing tomorrow is going to a FunFair. Urgh. Must. smile.

The Blog is back and back with vengeance!

[NB- My last blog remains closed due to the risk of unintended parties reading the personal items contained].

Th Beginning.

Today I was angered by a mouthy 16 year old who claimed that 'God' created the world in 'perfect balance' and therefore we should not try to change economic imbalances between the poor and the rich.

I know not which 'God' she was talking of for this burka-clad girl was not talking of My God. My God- Allah- is the Most Just and Merciful Lord &Provider of All Creation, rich, poor and non-human. In what I can only describe as pure folly, the miseducated runt was confusing al-Mizan, a Divine Balance, with unjust inequalities in the global market which are perpetuated by the greedy humans and their money guzzling mechanisms.

The world is actually ridiculous.