traveling

On the authority of Ibn ‘Umar (ra), who said: The Messenger of Allah (saws)took me by the shoulder and said:

“Be in this world as though you were a stranger or a traveler.”
[Al-Bukhari]

What does this mean to me? That this dunya is not our ultimate destination. A traveler does not make himself at home for too long at any one place along his journey. A stranger is always strange to his surroundings. If he becomes too familiar with them, he is no longer a stranger.

We are not to become too friendly with this dunya.  Doing so will distract us from our ultimate destination – Allah (swt) and Jannah, inshaAllah.

So what is my goal in this life?  To make the people around me happy?  Not if it is at the expense of my deen.  That’s my ticket to my ticket to my final destination, thank you very much.  Certainly, we are kind to those around us, but if they want us to shed aspects of our religion that displease them, be it clothing, jihad, daily prayer, eating zabiha, we can do without them.

They would love to see you deny the truth even as they have denied it, so that you should be like them. (4:89)

Allah (swt) tells us that they will never be happy with us until we are like them. So if we give up a piece of the deen here, a piece of the deen here to appease them, eventually we’ll have nothing left.

Islam is our path and reaching Allah (swt) is our goal. Is every action you take for Allah (swt)? If your actions aren’t helping you along that path, then why are you doing them?

umrah

Umm Adam has a post up with pictures (and video!) of her recent umrah and family vacation to Makkah.

Check out the video of people waiting for fajr prayer.  MashaAllah, can you imagine praying fajr with so many people?

Oh Allah, please allow us to visit your house soon and to follow in the footsteps of Adam, Huwa, Hajar, Ibrahim, Ismael, Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon them all) and millions of your slaves in hajj and/or umrah!  Ameen.

home

I’m home.  Spent 3 days straight with my extended family – all 25 of them.  Yeah, it was nice, but a bit much.  Random things I have learned:

• My uncle lived a very full life and touched a lot of people.  Alhamdulilah. 
• My dad was crazy in college.  Real crazy.  Lampshade on head crazy.
• Life on the farm was hard.  Ok, I theoretically knew that before, but hearing the stories about growing up on the farm, man, it was tough.
• My dad and his brothers performed science experiments on the barn cats when they were little, such as: how high up does a cat have to be dropped from before it can land on it’s feet?  Boo.
• There is such a job as elephant floor salesman.  That’s what my dad and uncle’s college roommate does for a living.  He sells floors for elephants.
• My dad and my uncle roomed together in college.  They had a very poor sense of hygiene.
• My dad and his siblings are horrible at Taboo.  I, on the other hand, rock.
• The Sunday after Thanksgiving is the worst day to travel.  It took me an hour and a half longer than it normally does to drive between Madison and Minnesota.  The last 19 miles along 94 to the Minnesota border were bumper to bumper traffic.
• My grandmother will never get over my hijab.  She asks me the same questions about it every time I see her. 
• Speaking of hijab, my aunt thinks my hijab is stupid.  Well, she can bite me.
• Madcat is my new favorite pet store.  Too bad it’s in Madison.  They feed their store kitty evo wet food, and OMGosh, she was soooo soft.
• Left over veggie fajita fillings make a good omelet the morning after.
• There are lots of good wet cat foods out there.  I got probably 10 different brands, 20 different flavors.  I also have 3 varieties of dry food: Innova, Origen and Solid Gold.   I figure I’ll see what kitty likes best and get more of that.
•  My kitty is going to be so spoiled.
• Speaking of kitty, my husband is weird.  He asked me this morning if I could sew some clothes for the cat.  Yeah, I can’t sew.  Apparently, he wants to take the cat outside in the winter.  Um, yeah.
• The american paper industry is in dire straights.  My dad, 2 of his brothers and 2 of my aunts are/were all in the paper industry.  Many of the people who came to the funeral were paper people.  My brother is going to be a chemical engineer who specializes in paper, just like my dad.  Every time my dad introduced my brother and said what he was studying, the person groaned, rolled their eyes and urged him to get the heck out while he still can.
• Unsloppy joes are the awesome.  It’s my new favorite recipe.  I made it for my grandma and my sister this weekend, and when my aunt and her boyfriend stopped over, they tried it too.  They all had to have the recipe.

And now, on with life.  We’re into Dhull-Hijja.  Eid is potentially next Monday.  I haven’t had a chance to see if there’s squabbling about the date yet, so I’m not sure.  inshaAllah we’re getting a kitty next weekend.  Alhamdulilah.

Nawawi Foundation

The Nawawi Foundation is a small, educational organization in Chicagoland that provides islamic teachings grounded in tradition, while remaining revelant in the modern world. For those of us not lucky enough to take courses, the Foundation organizes fantastic looking trips each year to a different part of the real life muslim ummah. It’s one of those things on my to do list.

And, for those of us who can’t travel with them, Dr. Umar Faruq Abd-Allah has written some thought provoking papers that can be read online.