Tafseer Class Notes

AA

The following are notes I took from Sh Amin's weekly tafseer class back in June. His very beneficial class starts back up soon, inshaAllah. Visit Darul Qasim's website.

- In order for harmony to exist, there are differences in economis/salaries.

- An educated person might make more $ than an educated person. An athlete that can't even speak proper English will make more $ than you imagine.
---> You can't input a religion or ideology or philosophy into this because it was what Allah wanted.

- In Islam's early days, first 100 years, you'll barely find any stories about people killing others for thier money.

- The REASON why all this happens is known only to Allah.

- When people fight to say that they're fighting to protect their interests, it's a capitalistic war, not religious.

- When you let go of YOU, Allah will come. Otherwise, it's shirk [think about it!].
---> Once you put your ideology, your Islam into the picture, He won't come. So submit yourself to Him and say, "This is what You want. Alhamdullilah."

- Let go of the consequence or outcome you try to create. ALL in hands of Allah. You can only do so much yourself, Allah takes care of the rest.

- Once He comes to you, you will the He is Praiseworthy.

- Think about the Heavens and Earth for 15 minutes a day to get a sense where you fall into the [big] picture --> it will refresh you and increase you to Allah.

- You'll realize how huge & wonderful this creation is and then realize how much greater the Creator is, though we'll never really know.

- So many species undiscovered/not tracked on earth, sea, etc., but Allah can bring them all together when He wants.
- Nothing is beyond His Will & Desire.

- The One who Gathers is the One who Spreads --> He controls traffic & flow of everything.

- Unite and let go...
---> The Prophet (sw): United the Arabs. After his (sw) death, did they stay in one area? No. Spreaded out. This is what the Prophet (sw) did...united them and then said go...

- Muslim leaders didn't interfere with the churches, temples, etc. The treatment can be seen today in, for example, India. Under Muslim rule, temples from that time still exist.
- They let people that had their own system rule and live by their rules. If they didn't have their own system, then Muslims would say, "We have a system, follow that." Didn't disturb/interfere......[Remember, it's Allah' system]

---

- In life there is another element of truth that is not known: Everyone will be fed and have rizq

- You never know what can happen to your job.
- If you knock on the right door, the right door will open.

- Allah provides for whomsoever He wants regardless of that person's iman. If Allah gave you, then you must give towards others. And don't say, "I'll give you this ONLY if..." because Allah didn't do that for you. [SubhanAllah! Just think about the depth of that...]

- Because you have access to some means doesn't mean you have supremacy. You must balance that power with kindness and subtleness.

- Havest of the Hereafter: Sow your seeds here [i.e. this world]. Take the necessary steps to plant, irrigate, etc. And reap some benefits of that here, but most in the Hereafter.
- The mindset of frustration comes when no realization that there is a life after.

- People don't realize that what they say or do has an impact...

- Exposing the intent of the legislator.

- Removing harmful things from the past is the Lowest Branch of Iman.


FiAmanAllah

shahrukh khan

Meray mehboob, meray sanaam...shukria, mahrbani....COME ON, EVERYBODY... How did I ever miss my Bollywood calling?

Women's Rights: Leaps & Bounds

Women's Rights: Leaps & Bounds Part I

Dear Women,

It has come to my attention (it took a while for me to digest) that over the course of history, women have faced a great deal of hardship on an overall global level. Issues of equality in the workplace, the right to vote and an elective office, sexual exploitation, and fair treatment from one’s spouse are but a few issues – albeit major ones – that surface a wide array of numerous other problems. The women’s suffrage movement, for example, and other battles for women equality are all well known and well established in the annals of history, so I’m confident that I can save readers a historical synopsis about such events…

So, while my personal beliefs contend that Islam truly has an answer for women’s equality in an in fact pragmatic, honest, and equally beneficial manner, I will try to leave religion out of this as much as possible (if possible, that is, because while I write that, I also understand the role of religion for many is an intrinsic component of establishing a gender equality framework).

At this point, you may be wondering where is Imran’s philosophical nature coming from and why, suddenly, is he preoccupying himself with concerns on women’s rights? Is he, for instance, trying to impress a girl? Much to your surprise, my answer is a resounding no. Instead, my inspiration comes from construction workers. Yes, construction workers.

You see, over the past few years I’ve seen a significant increase in women construction workers. Without doubt, this speaks of a shift of equal opportunity for women to be able to share in the same responsibilities that men typically have had (i.e. manual labor). So, conclusively, you can say that the women’s right movement in at least the workplace front has in fact made leaps and bounds; an ever increasingly upward slope of progression. We have women representatives in the House, Senators, CEOs, and now women making headway into the blue-collar industry. This is to be applauded. Or is it?

So, when I noticed women working in construction (specifically road/highway construction), I thought to myself, Well, this is what they fought for! If that’s what they want, then they got it. Working in 30 degrees – 90 degrees weather, I hope they’re happy drilling, digging, etc. away, but, hey to each her own! But this was only an initial and fleeting thought because I soon realized what was really happening: The women construction workers were not actually drilling nor were they digging away. Rather, they simply stood at the beginning and/or end of a construction area holding a sign reading, SLOW DOWN. I chuckled. So, is this the fruit of the women’s rights movement? To fight for the same positions typically rewarded to men to only stand and look pretty (I’m using “pretty” pretty liberally here in this case)??

So the question that begs to be asked is, what do women want? Well, if you ever watched Mel Gibson’s movie What Women Want, you will know that it is a man that is control (wink, wink), feminine and manly at the same time. In other words, the answer to my question is that women do NOT know what they want. A flagger in the construction world is simply a model of sorts. You should note that I find myself constantly looking for a girl that is doing something a little more, shall we say, involved? Riding a bulldozer, manning a driller, etc. Something! But time and time again I see that they are only holding a flag or sign telling people to slow down. On a rare occasion, I must say, I did find one or two exceptional cases where women were drilling (or trying to) and controlling a machine, but the other 99.9999 percent of the times, they were simply super models distracting men from the road (well, that only happened on a rare occasion, too) or distracting themselves from what the women’s right movement should ultimately mean…

And that is the fight for representation within limits and equal pay (I know women have to find it detestable that a man is telling the world over what the women’s rights movement should focus on). I do not consider women working as flaggers as a step in the right direction. Why the hell are women fighting for such jobs? If it’s for positions such as the foreman (okay, foreperson), architect, etc.; then, okay, I will support it and also support that they get paid the same as men, but I also caution them to be weary of representation. Specifically, let’s not forget the plain and simple reality that men are men and women are women…

*** To be continued ***

Moe(hummand)

Hey

So listening to B96 the other day they were taking callers from ppl that called off or got dumped right before their wedding.

So, some Arab guy named "Moe" calls in and tells how some girl broke it off with him right before the wedding because of some "harsh" traditions his family has. That's when he qualified that statement by saying that he's Muzlim and Arab. I was like, Thanks, buddy, you did us all a favor with that one! No reinforced stereotypes there! Your average Jo (or is it Moe?) out there that believes everything they see on Fox News will now say to himself, "See, even their own people know that Islam is too harsh!" Anyway, Moe went on to say that the girl he dated for two years (more proof of his "Islamicness") was just too westernized for his family. Then he says -- get this -- how he's in med school and tells all of Chicago, "I mean, who doesn't want a doctor, right? I had everything planned out..." On that point, I had to laugh myself and nod thinking, How true! Eddie, Jobo & Erica (the radio DJs) were basically laughing and like, WTF? They asked him if it was pre-arranged and he was like Definitely not, we dated for 2 yrs, but it's all good, i'm young, single, and if any girl wants to talk to me out there, just let me know.

Don't worry, Moe, I'm sure there was some girl -- most likely desi -- calling B96 right after that inquiring about your contact info. So maybe I should give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that perhaps you called into B96 coming up with a story like yours so you could essentially self-promote yourself. Brilliant and well done!

Regardless, I was still like, F-ing great! Someone out there will now thing that "muzlims" are either waaaay too strict and repressed or that, once in America, they just totally get out of control because of all the freedom...!

Good stuff

Innocent

As Salaamu Alaikoom WR WB

I know this comes a bit late, but this is one of those blog posting where I'm compelled to say, if you read anything on my blog, read this article from Esquire. It'll move you so...


Allah hafiz

Google Talk - Voicemail!

Hi

Google continues its onward global dominance with its updated Google Talk!!
[Thanks to Sh Faraz Rabbani's blog for the FYI.]

(IMPORTANT NOTE: I think I know what their next big thing will be! But I can't tell you!)


Viva Google!

Lebanon

AA

The tragedy in Lebanon is indeed saddening. An entire city is being destroyed and totally levelled out. May Allah grant peace and ease. Allah huma salay Allah Muhammad. Ameen.

Here is an overall account from NYT on what's happened the past couple weeks. The Israeli death:Lebanese death ratio is outstanding.

Here are some relevant quotes from int'l leaders courtesy of Umar's blog.

Salaam

Viva Espana!

Hi

Okay, so when I added the subscription option on my blog, I was delighted to see the next day my first subscriber be someone from Spain. The other day, I was even more so joyed to see yet another person from Spain subscribe to the blog. It's like I'm the biggest thing Spain has ever known (and I'm not talking physically, punks)...

So I assume that you two are perhaps from Madrid and most likely came across my blog via my Madrid videos on Google Video, right? Well, feel free to comment and introduce yourselves. I have to say, and as you probably noticed in my videos, Madrid is very beautiful. Both the people (=women) and the "feel" and look of the city. It's actually pretty romantic. While walking by the Palacio Real (Royal Palace for you ignant folks), I kept thinking to myself how amazing it would be to have had una chica with me at that time...just to share in the experience. But aside from that small aspect of romanticism, there's also the charm of the city itself and the culture. (My understanding is that the culture is very lazy or at least laid-back, no?) I guess for someone like me, it's pretty fricken cool to actually see in person so much of what you'd see on TV, magazines, etc. And to actually live, so to speak, a part of it is an awesome experience. The more I travel, the more I see why well-travelled individuals are so worldly (in a good sense; knowledgeable) and interesting. It's like going out of the US, you leave the well protected bird's nest that the US is so good at providing. You can finally see that there are other things -- for better or worse -- out there that are different from your everyday life. In a sense, your world view changes.

I don't know, I think it's kinda cool. I know I was only in Madrid for a few days and London thereafter for a couple more, but if you're open-minded and also come from a multi-cultural background like I do, I guess you'd probably be inclined to pick up on these type of things...

Anyway, just thought I'd share some quick thoughts on that. Actually, in talking to a fan-of-Imran's from Dallas a few days ago, I was asked if I thought it to be strange or weird that I write all this stuff about my life to the world over. Well, to that I say that the world is a big place and despite my self-loving, I really don't think a lot of people would access this information/website. Well, at least I hope. Recently at work we somehow ended up Googling our names and when I entered my name, my blog and a couple of the videos came up. I was like, CRAP!! I tried closing the window quickly, but my co-workers saw it in passing and said that they would Google me again. I don't think they ever did because I haven't heard anything from them, but now I gotta start thinking of what I put up before I actually do...(especially if it's about someone at work that I don't like...haha).

Well, anyway, based on the 2nd subscription and my continued and steady rise to international celebrity status, I felt compelled to welcome Espana to my blog! Bienvenidos! I'll continue to brush up on me espanol y voy a tratar a escribir mas en espanol. Losiento, pero son las uno en el [morning] y no se porque no estoy dormiendo ahora! Dios mio! Tengo malos [habits]. Pero, a veces es necesario para mis [loyal fans]. Ok, tengo que salir ahora. Paz!

Ciao, baby!

Alas! The Lotus and I finally rendezvous.

 

All business in SF...

SF baby...