It is the time of the month again when the pay check comes in and the bills and all expenses have to be settled. Each month my heart sink when I do the calculations. My mom always tells me that bringing up children nowadays are expensive and difficult, unlike the olden days...
I don't know how true she is. I don't know if she simply couldn't remember how difficult it was for her to bring me up and how expensive I was or whether things are getting harder and harder as the Capitalist system puts more pressure on parents and children alike. I try to visualize the lives of people in the past, in previous eras and decades. It must have been difficult living during the time of Prophet Yusuf a.s. when the fear of parents are that your children maybe eaten by wolves, it must have been difficult living during world war 2 in Britain where children were separated from their parents to live away from the cities. It must have been difficult to live during the times of the Japanese invasion in Malaya.
I don't think there was ever a time when raising children was easy or when life was easy. It must have been difficult for our first man and woman, Adam and Hawa having to deal with the envy of Qabil over Habil that lead to the first murder in the history of mankind.
This is the promise of Iblis and his clan when Allah SWT cursed him. Iblis held vengence for Adam and the children of Adam until the end of the days...
قَالَ أَنظِرۡنِىٓ إِلَىٰ يَوۡمِ يُبۡعَثُونَ (١٤) قَالَ إِنَّكَ مِنَ ٱلۡمُنظَرِينَ (١٥) قَالَ فَبِمَآ أَغۡوَيۡتَنِى لَأَقۡعُدَنَّ لَهُمۡ صِرَٲطَكَ ٱلۡمُسۡتَقِيمَ (١٦ثُمَّ لَأَتِيَنَّهُم مِّنۢ بَيۡنِ أَيۡدِيہِمۡ وَمِنۡ خَلۡفِهِمۡ وَعَنۡ أَيۡمَـٰنِہِمۡ وَعَن شَمَآٮِٕلِهِمۡۖ وَلَا تَجِدُ أَكۡثَرَهُمۡ شَـٰكِرِينَ (١٧) قَالَ ٱخۡرُجۡ مِنۡہَا مَذۡءُومً۬ا مَّدۡحُورً۬اۖ لَّمَن تَبِعَكَ مِنۡہُمۡ لَأَمۡلَأَنَّ جَهَنَّمَ مِنكُمۡ أَجۡمَعِينَ (١٨)
Surah Al A'raf: 14 - 18
(13) He said, “Then give me respite until a day when all will be resurrected. (14) He (Allah) said, “You are granted respite’’. (15) He said, “Now that You have led me astray, I will certainly sit for them (in ambush) on Your straight path. (16) Then I will come upon them from their front side and from their behind, and from their right and from their left. You will not find most of them grateful. (17) He (Allah) said, “Get out of here, condemned, rejected. Indeed, whosoever will follow you from among them, I will fill Hell with all of you together. (18)
So, that is the promise of Iblis and his only purpose in life. Him and his clan are constantly devising ways and means to fulfill that goal and they can see us from where we do not see them.
Furthermore, the current system being implemented all over the world is based on the man-made Capitalist system, a secular system that prioritizes freedom, benefit, profit and life's pleasures above everything else. Even as individual Muslims we struggle to reconcile our Islamic values with the values promoted by the secular beliefs e.g. allowing our children to have boyfriends versus free-mixing is not allowed in Islam, letting them watch TV versus surah Al Asr where we should not be wasting time, providing a secure home for our family versus loan with interest (riba) is not allowed. Everything we see, everything we do within this current system is in contradictory to our belief. Sometimes we feel like it is so hard to be a good Muslim but we try anyway, to be the best that we can even thought we know that within the current system, we can never be the best that we truly want to be.
So, I guess this is the greatest challenge of bringing up children today, bringing them up within a secular system, a secular society and struggling to teach them Islam...
May Allah SWT make it easy for all parents and may Allah SWT bring the Khilafah soon. Ameen.
Friday, 27 April 2012
Friday, 13 April 2012
When the truth will become a reality
http://www.salon.com/2012/04/13/the_real_criminals_in_the_tarek_mehanna_case/
Sometimes I sit and ponder about the world and how the reality, the way we live, the things that matter or seem to matter, the way things are, the system that is being implemented, everything seem so different from what it ought to be.
As a Muslim, how do we reconcile the fact that what is said and mentioned in the Qur'an seem so distant and far away from what is being implemented in the real world? For example, the Qur'an tells us that Riba (interest) is haram and yet, the whole economic system is based upon Riba, the banking system, housing and car loans, savings, shares...even if we do not directly deal with Riba but the economic policies, international trading, buying and selling of government bonds, everything is wrapped in an economic system that is built upon interest.
When it says in the Qur'an that 4:141 "Allah will never grant the disbelievers to triumph over the believers"... one start to wonder about the condition of the world today where the US seem to have domination over the world, where the Muslim ummah are the underdogs being oppressed and persecuted all over the world in Palestine, Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq. One may start to wonder what has gone wrong?
However, reading the recent case of Tarek Mahenna, an American citizen, a Muslim who was sentenced to 17 years in prison simply because he refused to become an informer for the FBI...reading his speech, his statement and when he said
"In your eyes, I’m a terrorist, and it’s perfectly reasonable that I be standing here in an orange jumpsuit. But one day, America will change and people will recognize this day for what it is. They will look at how hundreds of thousands of Muslims were killed and maimed by the US military in foreign countries, yet somehow I’m the one going to prison for “conspiring to kill and maim” in those countries – because I support the Mujahidin defending those people. They will look back on how the government spent millions of dollars to imprison me as a ”terrorist,” yet if we were to somehow bring Abeer al-Janabi back to life in the moment she was being gang-raped by your soldiers, to put her on that witness stand and ask her who the “terrorists” are, she sure wouldn’t be pointing at me."
His speech...his statement...made me realize that this is a man who sees the world as it truly is. How the reality today is nothing compared to the reality of what is right and what is wrong. Just because the world is what it is...does not make it right. it doesn't change the fact that interest (riba) is haram or that Allah will not make the believers triumphant.
The world we see today is like a mirage of water on a hot sunny day in the desert. it will disappear as soon as you reach towards it. History has proven to us that there has always been oppressors and time of oppression which will be replaced by time of security. We are currently being ruled by oppressors similar to the time of Ad, Thamud, Firaun and Quraysh. Those who lived during those times must have felt the way we felt...but as history has proven to us that times change and the political situation of the world is ever changing.
Things are changing the the people are changing...
Tarek Mahenna is an inspiration to many people, a man who sees the world truly as it is and is not afraid to stand up for the truth. One day...the truth will be reality.
Sometimes I sit and ponder about the world and how the reality, the way we live, the things that matter or seem to matter, the way things are, the system that is being implemented, everything seem so different from what it ought to be.
As a Muslim, how do we reconcile the fact that what is said and mentioned in the Qur'an seem so distant and far away from what is being implemented in the real world? For example, the Qur'an tells us that Riba (interest) is haram and yet, the whole economic system is based upon Riba, the banking system, housing and car loans, savings, shares...even if we do not directly deal with Riba but the economic policies, international trading, buying and selling of government bonds, everything is wrapped in an economic system that is built upon interest.
When it says in the Qur'an that 4:141 "Allah will never grant the disbelievers to triumph over the believers"... one start to wonder about the condition of the world today where the US seem to have domination over the world, where the Muslim ummah are the underdogs being oppressed and persecuted all over the world in Palestine, Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq. One may start to wonder what has gone wrong?
However, reading the recent case of Tarek Mahenna, an American citizen, a Muslim who was sentenced to 17 years in prison simply because he refused to become an informer for the FBI...reading his speech, his statement and when he said
"In your eyes, I’m a terrorist, and it’s perfectly reasonable that I be standing here in an orange jumpsuit. But one day, America will change and people will recognize this day for what it is. They will look at how hundreds of thousands of Muslims were killed and maimed by the US military in foreign countries, yet somehow I’m the one going to prison for “conspiring to kill and maim” in those countries – because I support the Mujahidin defending those people. They will look back on how the government spent millions of dollars to imprison me as a ”terrorist,” yet if we were to somehow bring Abeer al-Janabi back to life in the moment she was being gang-raped by your soldiers, to put her on that witness stand and ask her who the “terrorists” are, she sure wouldn’t be pointing at me."
His speech...his statement...made me realize that this is a man who sees the world as it truly is. How the reality today is nothing compared to the reality of what is right and what is wrong. Just because the world is what it is...does not make it right. it doesn't change the fact that interest (riba) is haram or that Allah will not make the believers triumphant.
The world we see today is like a mirage of water on a hot sunny day in the desert. it will disappear as soon as you reach towards it. History has proven to us that there has always been oppressors and time of oppression which will be replaced by time of security. We are currently being ruled by oppressors similar to the time of Ad, Thamud, Firaun and Quraysh. Those who lived during those times must have felt the way we felt...but as history has proven to us that times change and the political situation of the world is ever changing.
Things are changing the the people are changing...
Tarek Mahenna is an inspiration to many people, a man who sees the world truly as it is and is not afraid to stand up for the truth. One day...the truth will be reality.
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