So How Many Surahs Do You Really Know?

As Salaam Alaikum,

Alhumdulilah. Many months back my brother-in-law gave me a wonderful textbook  that has 23 Surahs, their translation, and transliteration. I was studying it a bit back in fall ‘07 but I got busy with school. Now since it is summer I am studying again, and so far it has been such a success. With a cd of the recitation of the Quran, I plan to learn all 23 surahs in this book in preferably 23 weeks. But we shall see how much I actually learn (I’m hoping for a t least 12).

For the most part these Surahs are very short, but you have to understand that I am not merely learning how to recite them. Yes, I blog before you saying that I am also learning the translation of these Surahs as well. ::GASP::

Now you may wonder why is that so shocking? Why exactly should you be shocked by such an ambition? Well I mean to point this out because from my experience, learning how to recite Surahs of the Quran has pretty much stopped right there. I have found myself several times in Quran classes where all you learn is to recite, but never learn its translation. And I really feel that this is the sentiment for most families and even amoung most Quran schools across the United States.

Case in point: My cousins. My cousins have spent weekend after weekend of their childhood going to Quran school. And praise be to God they can read Arabic very well! My eldest cousin of the group can read it really well and you should see the way that she can just zoom through it. But do they know its translation? No. They just know how to put this letter with this vowel and read! That’s it. And i bet that if you were to ask most Muslims in the U.S. of A. the meaning of Al-Fatiha and whatever other surahs they may know they couldn’t tell you.

Because of this I have to say that I have pretty much never been interested in Quran school. And if you have a very smart child, who is interested in foreign language, can read Arabic somewhat (doesn’t even have to be great), and yet you find that he or she can’t stand getting up for Quran school…. this is probably the reason why. My interests stopped once I was able to put some letters and vowel sounds together. After that, I wanted to learn the meaning— because obviously that would improve my reading, but that never happened. I thought everything else was foolishness and a waste of time. Because of this my arabic obviously did not benefit, and I would say that I am definitly not at an advanced level and I am just out of the woods of a beginners letter. I often start off going syllable by syllable first and then I piece it all together, and after maybe 10 tries I can read it pretty smoothly (but not perfect).

I am not even half-way impressed when I hear of another party being thrown for someone who has “memorized” the Quran and yet they don’t even know it’s translation. Do they really know the Quran? What do they know about the oneness of God? What do they know about the Prophets? What do they know about heaven? hell? Mary? Jesus? Arabham? I mean they have the book right in their head, what do you mean they can’t tell you?

I mean, i know that there are people looking down on me because I know less than 5 surahs myself. But I don’t have much to look up at them when they know so many and can’t give me a translation. But people don’t understand the problem with this. I don’t understand why, but they don’t. Can someone shed any light?

Anyway, like I said I am really trying to learn and it is such a wonderful experience. The Quran is very repetitive so sometimes I catch myself understanding many of the words that I am reading in a new Surah. And after I break it all down, remember the transliteration and all of the good stuff, I really understand what I am saying when I am reciting Arabic at the same time. WEE!

I hope that I can pass on this sort of experience when I have children. I think that what I have realized that because of where I am at, where i plan to be, I have no real interest in learning Arabic for conversation. I am not in Arab land, don’t know many Arabs, never plan to live in an arabic speaking country. But I will be completly thrill if I learned hte Quran and its meaning too!

Anwyays, for information about this textbook that I am using it’s:

“Twenty Three Surahs, Plus Ayatul Kursi and Duas from the Holy Quran: With English Translations and Transliteration”

Printed by:

A-1 Printing and Graphics, Inc.

22873 Lockness Av.

 Torrance, CA (California) 90501

310-530-6777

www.a1prints.com

I called them but it wasn’t clear if they were a secular printing company (who just happened to print some Muslim stuff) or a Muslim-based printing company. Either way their print job is really good.

On top of that that preface of this book says that “Anyone wishing to make copies may do so without permission”. So this would be great for anyone who would like to just order one, and yet share with others by making copies (but it would be good to support the people who composed the textbook together by buying as much as reasonably can).

Also I have that one was printed in ”06/05″ (whatever that means) and is the “Second Edition 2m” (whatever that means too). Just for some details if you would like the exact copy I have, which I believe is really good because it starts off with very short Surahs.

salaam

 

 

What Kind of Feminist Are You?

As Salaam Alaikum,

So my last post and some other reads got me thinking. What kind of feminist am I?

I think that all that I can say is that I’m just a feminist that is particularly concerned over Muslim issues. I say this because when it comes to women issues I am most concerned over what Muslim women face in the Muslim community. Very rarely do I look at issues that are prevalent in a secular society as “women” issues. Just recently I started thinking of abortion and how that may affect me as a woman, since it does concern the female body.

I am constantly reminded of the things that women face and must overcome when it comes to the Muslim community. The gender apartheid— yes, I said, “apartheid”—, the expectations, the limitations, and often the shame that many Muslims put on women.

Just two weeks ago I was at a bbq and there I really felt looked down on by the men. I wanted a hamburger, and the man grilling barely could acknowledge me and practically shunned me as he insisted that it was “upstairs”, which it was not. I ended up waiting at the top for about 20 minutes as the men happily grilled and talked. Finally I went back down and requested my hamburger, which was done and had been sitting there fore about 5 minutes. This time another gentlemen looked as if he was hiding his shocked that I was back down there.

Attitudes like that, that try to dictate where I should and should not be because I am a woman, piss me off. And I say this because I doubt these men treat non-Muslim women the same way. It is when they are around Muslim women they start acting foolishly and as if we are the ultimate sin! As if we are not even human and are not even worthed a breath of “As Salaam Alaikum”. Seriously.

I guess that you can describe me as an agry Muslim woman when it comes to the way that men and women act towards one another. It’s like no matter what, I am still looked as a sex object.

This is why I don’t believe in much of the hype that Muslims like to stress about modesty. Becuase often our actions still prove that we (women) are still treated like sex objects. For instance, I am a married woman. But if a man can barely look at me, speak to me, acknowledge me, etc what does it say? Not only does it say that he think we are not two equals, but frankly its saying that I am still a SEX OBJECT to him. Truly if these dress codes that Muslims have made up were about liberating women from being looked at sex objects, niqabis would be drinking coffee with Muslim men all of the time.

Another issue that concerns me is that Muslim women are constantly taking the blame and told to make sacrifices (much like other women in this world). For example, I can imagine right now that someone who may be reading this and does not agree with the last paragraph would say, “Well if people [which really means women] wore their hijabs correctly they could, but they don’t.” Haven’t you heard this excuse too? So what it says is that we cannot even be reasonably presentable no matter how hard we may try. STILL we are sex objects. Especially when some people barely want to cross the street to get to their cars because there are men near (yes, I’ve witnessed this).

Anyways… that’s my rant for the day.

peace

Feminism Gone Wild: Sexual History Shouldn’t Matter in a Marriage

As Salaam Alaikum,

Fox News is reporting that in France there was a marriage between Muslims that was annulled because the woman was not a vigin:

The annulment of a young Muslim couple’s marriage because the bride was not a virgin has caused anger in France, prompting President Sarkozy’s party to call for a change in the law.

The decision by a court in Lille was condemned by the government, media, feminists and civil rights organizations after it was reported in a legal journal on Thursday.

The case, which had previously gone unreported, involved an engineer in his 30s, named only as “Mr. X,” who married “Ms. Y,” a student nurse in her 20s, in 2006.

The wedding night party was still under way at the family’s home in Roubaix when the groom came down from the bedroom complaining that his bride was not a virgin. He could not display the blood-stained sheet that is traditionally exhibited as proof of the bride’s “purity.”

The husband went to court the following morning and was granted an annulment on the grounds that his bride had deceived him on “one of the essential elements” of the marriage. The woman then acknowledged that she had led her groom to believe that she was a virgin when she had already had sexual intercourse. She did not oppose the annulment.

Critics ran out of superlatives to condemn what they depicted as a dangerous aberration. Valérie Létard, Minister for Women’s Rights, said that she was “shocked to see that today in France the civil law can be used to diminish the status of women”.

Requests for annulments have risen sharply to nearly 2,000 a year in France, but experts could recall no case involving non-virginity. source

Now the only thing that I find repulsive about this situation is that it appears that the family still believes that you can predict a woman’s virginity by the tearing of the hymen. This sort of tradition has lead to the oppression of women and even the death of many! Some hymens are really “strong” and do not tear easily, on top of that there are plenty of women who have torn their hymen during other activities, such as stretching, sports, etc, etc. BUT I would like to say, being the sceptic, that this article doesn’t really make it clear if the “sheet” ever, in anyway, existed. Are they just trying to apply that to them because of other backward stories that have involved bloody-less sheet? And WOW, are these people, during thier wedding parties, really having sex with the family and friends downstairs? WHOA.

Isn’t It Ironic?

As Salaam Alaikum,

I came across this picture here, and read an article about it here.

Now I guess this occured in February where African nations were playing for the African Cup in soccer. It’s May now so I’m quite sure I am late on speaking on this subject, but still. After reading the article and some of the comments left, I am left thinking of how this is really ironic. And really how it shows something deeper, which I am not applying to this player, but it really does show something… it starts with an “r”.

This player was playing against Sudan.

I’m just saying… if you know what I mean. He was playing against Sudan and this is what he came up with?

Sure, Gazans have it really bad… but compared to other people, they have it good, I mean when it comes to publicity and all. Muslims probably cheered over this when this happened, Muslims who don’t have anything to do with Gaza. Did any of them think of what country he was playing against?

Am I the only one who could see how this could be a really big slap in the face to the Sudanese players?

I mean you can’t protest against everything, but wow.

I know it’s a competition but can’t you show some solidarity with the people you are playing against?

African Cup. African Nations. Yet still Arab-nonAFrican issues

And i only mention this because I found this because I heard about it through Muslims, and most of the players on both teams are likely to be Muslim. (and people love to talk about Gaza and pass it off as a Muslim issue)

The Feminization of Muslim Men? Blogging Umar Lee (pt.1)

As Salaam Alaikum,

So I know that I said that I would not be blogging until July 1st, which will be over the Quran, but I have come across something that is too good to not blog about and that is Umar Lee’s series about the feminization of Muslim men. Plans have changed and I have decided to blog about his analysis which I intend to do with every part of the series. Yay!

Just in case you do not know anything about Lee, Lee is a white-American Muslim convert. I discovered Lee through some “bean pie” documentary, where I was totally floored by his “blackness”— lol, his voice, his posture, his clothes all read “black” to me. So I went to his blog and started reading it and so far it is really good. He’s even a friend of mines on facebook, but he never says “hi”sa on my wall so I feel neglected. But that’s all that I know about him so there. Now on topic.

In the first blog of his series, Lee comapares Baltimore men with D.C. men. which he finds the two areas having two different cultures with very little in common. I would say that it isn’t until his fourth paragraph that he begins to talk about the “feminization” of men, which he begins by examining white men.

The following in bold (and anything else in this blog) I only assume he considers feminine: “Males walking around in tight shirts, coochie-cutter jeans, and man-bags chatting away on I-phones in high-pitched voices on their way to overpriced coffee shops and restaurants.” (para 4)

He beleives that this sort of behavior makes it hard to distinguish between the straight man and the gay man, and he also believe that this behavior has infiltrated amoung men from different age groups. These men, according to Lee, admit to not having traditional lifestyles (which I have no reason to doubt).

Now this particularly analysis raises major flags to me. The reason is because Lee goes on to say that these men reject religion, God (atheism), and embrace sexual deviancy which he believes Muslim males in that area are graviating towards.

Blogging the Quran This Summer

As Salaam Alaikum,

I have decided that beginning July 1st, I will begin blogging the Quran. I do this to invite everyone to Islam and discover the truth.

Until then I will focus on other things going in my life and hopefully I will have those things up and running by then.

As Salaam Alaikum