Meeting the In Laws

So I went to cali and got to meet all my mexican in laws. It was interesting. The food was great. So good in fact that I think authentic mexican food has surpassed my love for subcontinental cuisine. The visit made me want to learn spanish, so I have enrolled and insha’Allah will learn the language soon. My father in law loves me, shockingly. He has this weird habit of feeding everyone the way he wants to feed them. I had an awesome dish: Cow tongue tacos - they were fabulous! Some of my wife’s uncles liked me, particularly the one who loves guns Others despise me for not being “their” type I suppose: Mexican and catholic. In fact, one got drunk and started harassing my wife while I was out in the car. Hopefully the next time I see him he and I will have a nice conversation on not being a saying what you really want to say to people’s faces. Overall, my experience was cool. I was amazed at how submissive mexican wives are! In fact, I would venture to say that they may be as submissive as the bedouin women of the levant!

Visited Spots and other things

We went to San Francisco and walked on the very cold and wet golden gate bridge. We travelled to Fremont and visited the Rumi Bookstore - one of the few stores I have ever felt barakah in. We went to Anaheim and ate at Al-Andaluz, a very authentic arab restaraunt that had just opened. While there we also went to Jarir bookstore - the largest selection of arabic books in america! Awesome it was! I never wanted to leave. Jarir is a nice brother as well!

I had the pleasure of getting to chill with Abu Usaama and br. Ammar in LA. In fact we ate halal chinese - it was “ok”. The brothers are very quiet- as I suspected! Unfortunately I didn’t get to spend the entire day with them because for some reason my wife drove to LA with her brother to pick me up thinking that Abu Usaama wasn’t going to pick me up at the airport - while I clearly told them that I was being picked up by Abu Usaama lol. Abu Usaama drives horribly masha’Allah . May Allah rectify his driving skills and give him a happy life amin! It was great meeting the bros though and spending some quality time with them barak Allahu lahumaa.

I went with my mother in law, who thinks I am an awesome husband and father for some reason, my sister in law and my brother in law - though he drove to tijuana - to the San Diego zoo. It was awesome! It is the biggest and coolest zoo I have ever been to, and I have been to many! The kids loved it as well.

My trip to Mexico

After we went to the zoo we decided to go to Tijuana and taste the cuisine as well as visit my brother in law’s girlfriend whose mother is my mother in laws good friend. At first we ate tacos - mexican style. !Dios Mio! They were fabulous. I believe I ate about 5 or 6 of them. We went to the store and bought some medicines that cost a fortune in the US - you don’t even need a prescription! Then we visited the girlfriend and family.

They live in a horridly poor neighborhood. I truly hadn’t seen poverty like that before. It was horrible. It definitely made me thank Allah ta’alaa for what I had. I honestly don’t know how they survive in Tijuana. The cost of everything equals the American costs, yet the salaries there are ridiculously low.  

So, as we left, we were detained for 5 hours by the imperialist American government. I was handcuffed, yelled at, harassed etc. My children were scared, my wife searched, you get the picture. It was very traumatic. Basically the officer told me that we had no rights and he could hold us for 72 hours without explanation. In fact, they released us without explanation! Nothing! Nada!

So I am working on sueing them for not giving my son the medical attention he needed, as well as mental anguish. We’ll see how that works out though. I ended up missing my flight, having to reschedule and spending 8 hours in the hospital due to my son being sick. Alhamdulilah!

School has started and I will be taking finite math - sucks, Espanol - awesome, History - cool. Insha’Allah the semester will go smoothly.

 

What I Have Learned

I have learned in the past few weeks that I connect my spirituality to my relationship with my wife. If my relationship with her is sound, my eemaan is sound. If it sucks, them my level of eeman sucks. It shocks, as well as scares, me that we are so interconnected.  ”They are a garment for you” has meaning for those who reflect.

 

This is nuts!:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7547148.stm

I am alone with  my birds. They watch every move I make, sing beautiful songs of jubilation upon seeing me, and even beg me for attention and love. In my loneliness, I have started discussing serious issues with Kenji, my African Grey. He usually just stares at me, or shakes his red tail. Occassionally he will say, “Okay!”, and continue giving me the “eye” - glaring at me to see what my next move will be. He shakes his head no when he tastes things he doesn’t like. I gave him some garlic and onions today, as I was cooking myself some Chicken Korma Curry, and he enjoyed it - though refused to taste it a second time.

I was telling him about “Rafa’ Yadayn”  today. He didn’t seem to amused, though he listened attentively. I now understand why some intellectual women prefer birds to their husbands. They listen attentively - and I’m referring to the birds.

As I was washing the dishes, clearly a job for women, my green-cheek conure came up and attacked my foot. OUCH! My big toe is still swollen! The next time he tried, I decided to play the game with him. He was fast, but I overcame him speed - for I am faster than lightening, quicker than Batman, and slower than my green cheek conure Habibi who nailed my foot once more! So, why does he attack my foot? I’m not sure but I think he likes the game and attention. We played 10 times at least - it was fun! If I had my camera I would tape it, but my wife in her overzelousness to take pictures of California, stole my only digital camera! So for now you will have to imagine Abul Layth being chased by a little green cheek conure around the kitchen.

They are my friends. Beautiful and oh so full of energy!

 

At 3:00 A.M. my family left, driving, for their long trip to California. I shall join them, Insha’Allah , for a vacation on August the 12th. I will not be driving. Instead, I get the luxury of flying …

I love take-off!

In other personal news, I have been reviewing issues of taharah according to the shafi’i school. This time around I will be memorizing proofs and utilizing Al-Bayhaqi’s Khilafiyyat. 

I am going to be rather lonely for the next month, so keep me in your ad’iyah!

America: 16th happiest nation

Zimbabwe: Least happiest in the world!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/7487143.stm

I strongly feel that the computer uses up to much of my personal time. I feel that I could advance in my studies much further without this box of junk tying me down.

It is with this feeling and objective analysis by myself, that I have decided to leave this hunk of junk for 2 weeks. Upon returning, insha’Allah , I shall re-assess my situation and see the effect abandoning these wires left upon me!

I know, I know, it is great idea!

The following article is science at its most obvious.

My thoughts before hand:

A) The power of lowering the gaze.

B) The effects of not doing so can be severe, especially in decision making.

C) Men’s liberation. When men succumb to the plots of women, they lose their mental capacity to subdue their nafs and defeat their hawaa. The solution to solving the problem of men being idiots: Islam!

Science proves that bikinis turn men into boobs

 

You may have known this all along, but now it has been demonstrated scientifically: bikinis make men stupid.

Read the full article

Years ago, when I became Muslim and began attending the madrasah, I met one of the sons of the Imam of the community, whose name was Khadir. He was a bright young man, whose aspirations seemed endless. Though we had few discussions, his kind and smiling demeanor impacted me positively. In one of our discussions I asked him what his major would be at Indiana University and he told me he intended to go into medicine. As he was attending, he got into a fight with some white students - so I was told - and later was sent to prison for I think a couple of years - I am uncertain.

When he was released, he was totally different man. I remember very clearly that his demeanor changed, he became ‘inward’. He would stay with his father in the masjid, but something wasn’t right. I tried several times to talk to him, only to be avoided. I was puzzled. What happened to the young man who was so kind, had great akhlaaq, and was part of a family that was very loving? I recall one day I had just missed the jama’ah in the masjid, as did khadir, and we made Salah together. After Salah I saw an opportunity to converse. ‘So how are you?’ I asked. ‘Ok’. Khadir says as if he doesn’t want to talk. Khadir, you remember those times we shot some hoops and so and so got schooled? *He smiles* - and without saying a word, walks off with salams. Just like that! Nothing more!

It wasn’t but a few months later he killed a security officer at a local university here.

You can read the story here: http://www.theindychannel.com/news/3758076/detail.html#

I admit that I go to that site sometimes just to look at his picture, just to see his face again. The picture does not do him justice however. He always smiled. This man was not close to me by any means. It is his story, however, that has penetrated my innermost. I simply can not move on from this incident. It has been four years, yet, at random moments I still see him sitting in the corner of the masjid, looking ‘out of place’, as if he were not even there at all. This was a young man who attended an Islamic school, started by his very own mother. His family upstanding, as was he. Yet, in only a wink into time, everything about him changed. Gone!

Some may be reading this and asking why did he do what he did…Well I know why! His mind and spirit were broken. He could no longer think rationally, for his mind felt betrayed, abandoned for so long as he stay in prison without the company he previously had. His mind felt out of place as it entered the “real” realm again.

Or maybe something happened to him in prison that he never told anyone about - which I think is the most possible reason. Maybe he had PTSD…

I’m not certain how to get the rest of my thoughts and feelings expressed in this post. There is so much I want to say, so many theories my mind has concocted over these years since it occured. Though there is a principle I draw from all of this: The mind is incredibly fragile. All of us think we are sane - even if we jokingly say we aren’t. What I saw, in a matter of months, was a man wanting to become a doctor, turning into a paranoid, out of place, traumitised man - a beaten Muslim - broken by the ’system’.

In truth, I am not certain his story will ever stop haunting my mind. In every attempt I make to rationalise this incident, I only find myself affirming the fact that Allah is truly the only one in control. It is His decision to do with us what he wants. You think you are rational, stable in mind and faith, yet in moments all that you work so hard for, all that you ‘are’ is stripped from you…

That’s it. Its over…Just like that!

A patient I was with today who has cancer was hallucinating. They took their hand and began reaching for the ceiling. I asked them what they were reaching for, they didn’t answer…Again I asked…then they said, ‘I am reaching for life’.

For life I am reaching

clinging, hoping

yet the more I reach for it

the more it keeps slipping away

Realizing its all not worth it

Realizing “life” is only worth living for The Eternal

Not Worth Living for the mundane!

 

 

 

My wife was looking at this the other day. It simply amazes me that an entire tribe could have gone untouched for so long. I am certain that its ancestors, or even the tribe, may have had contact at some time or another with other cultures. I wouldn’t be suprised if these natives will be shot, or forced by the brazilian government to modernize or something.

The fact is, there are some intelligent people out there who do want to return to the simple way our fore-fathers lived. I know I am one of them!