http://www.chillyoislamyo.com/trust-in-allah-but-tie-your-camel/

(copied in entirety – all credit due to original author, linked above!)

Well in today’s world, it would be more like lock your car, guess it depends on where you live.

If you got a camel then you don’t need to worry about gas prices, haha.

Basically the point of this post is to remind you and myself that it’s easy to say “it was meant to be” when things go wrong, but we need to remember that we should always try our best with what Allah swt has given us, then if it doesn’t work out then Alhumdulilah it’s all good. Allah swt is the best of planners and we should be conscious of that.

If Allah swt wills something then it will happen, but like Mufti Abdul Rehman ibn Yusuf says ” You do your best, and Allah swt will do the rest”.

For example if you call some guests over to your house to eat dinner and you don’t cook, the food isn’t going to drop from the sky or if you don’t study for a test on purpose and you fail you can’t blame it on the Qadr. The person who failed to prepare or put some effort in has no one to blame but themselves.

The reason I bring this issue up is because I often notice people do a poor job on something and the finished product or outcome is a failure and then they say ” it was meant to be”, sorry Allah swt says in the Qu’ran:

{And that man can have nothing but what he strives for.} (An-Najm 53:39)

In conclusion, there is a balance in everything. Of course we should always have in our heart that without the will of Allah swt nothing will occur, but Allah swt gave us the ability to raise our standards in everything we do and most importantly tie our camel.

Once you tried your hardest with all the resources you had available to you provided by Allah swt (and only you know what that is), then you can see what arises from the situation.

I end with a hadith by our beloved Prophet:

One day Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) noticed a Bedouin leaving his camel without tying it and he asked the Bedouin, “Why don’t you tie down your camel?” The Bedouin answered, “I put my trust in Allah.” The Prophet then said, “Tie your camel first, then put your trust in Allah” (At-Tirmidhi).

May Allah swt give us the ability to maximize our potential in life and give that which is only best for us in this world and for the hereafter, Ameen!

Okay, was wrong and absolutely disrespectful to draw a picture of the Prophet (PBUH), I can agree with that, but c’mon.

The guy isn’t a Muslim and he’s obviously an asshole looking to provoke people. Responding to this moron was exactly what he wanted.

He did a rotten thing to the ummah, but the ummah took the bait and the outspoken fools who decided to call for violence against the cartoonist – I think they were the ones who did a LOT more damage to the ummah than this man and his stupid cartoon.

Now today I see that some crackpot Somali broke into the cartoonist’s house and attempted to murder him with an axe. That’s just pathetic. Thanks to Mr. Somali, the cartoonist is back in the spotlight. More attention on him, more free publicity for him, and more negative attention for those ‘crazy Muslims’.

Thanks a lot Mr. whack job Somali. Yeah, you really did us all a favor. Eff you!

I’m Muslim and I don’t really care if they use them, though it would be nice to have the option to be patted down behind a curtain or something versus the machine. A CHOICE would be nice.

However, if they’re going to do this, I wish they would do it for EVERYONE. Otherwise, it simply doesn’t make logical sense.

Here’s a personal example: My husband and his friend fly home to Turkey and back together about once a year. My husband is about 5’8″, light skinned and dark haired. I guess he looks ‘foreign’. His friend is about 6’4, light skinned and light haired. My husband gets stopped EVERY TIME and his friend has NEVER been stopped. They both hold the SAME passport, the SAME nationality, the SAME point of origin and destination, and take the SAME trip. Something is WRONG with this picture!

Point being – if some idiot terrorist wanted to blow up a plane, wouldn’t they send the whitest, most Western looking person to get past the screeners versus the ‘obvious’ looking dude? (and my husband doesn’t even dress like the ‘stereotypical Muslim’.. It’s tee shirts, jeans, baseball caps and sneakers all the way!)

Half of the time the screeners aren’t making ‘educated guesses’, they’re just making stereotyped guesses.

If they want to do a thorough job, they should do EVERYONE, because if they think my husband could be a terrorist (ha!), then it’s just as likely his friend could be (also ha!).. But if the terrorist masterminds actually wanted success in their venture, they would have probably chosen his ‘European-looking’ friend versus the ‘Eastern-looking man’.

Seriously. Do you think the terrorists are going to send the bomb with the guy dressed up like the Saudi sheikh or the guy dressed up like the Disneyland tourist? Because does it really take many brain cells to figure out which one is going to be pulled from the line to get searched and which one is going to breeze right on through?

See my point?

On another note, I what I wish they’d do.. I wish they’d start monitoring lone men (especially sex offenders!) traveling frequently to Thailand and other pedophile paradises. I don’t even think they monitor perverts and violent criminals up in the friendly skies – and there are a hell of a lot more of them than terrorists!

Like this one about the Russian baby with Qur’an verses ‘miraculously’ appearing on his body.

If this was in the U.S. or some other country, they’d take the baby away for suspected abuse. The parents could be painting irritants on his body.

I just can’t help but be skeptical until the baby is away from the parents and under strict observation. Otherwise, I think this is just bunk and probable abuse.

I mean – how can people see so much going on in the world with crappy parents exploiting their kids for attention and fame? (Balloon boy, anyone?) Maybe they are sick in the head and don’t think they’re causing any kind of harm. Maybe they don’t even realize they’re doing it.

I just don’t know how the religious folk immediately jump on the BS band-wagon without any kind of objective testing. They assume the parents are Muslim and it’s their baby, so what could they possibly do that isn’t 100% legit. I just don’t buy that sense of reasoning!

Call me a downer, but I just think it’s sad that the Ummah seems to need these types of apparently contrived ‘miracles’ in order to justify their faith, when there are simpler (albeit, subtle) and more telling miracles all around us. I see more of a miracle in the complexity of the human body or even a leaf than these video ‘miracles’!

Another thing that annoys me. These ‘miracle’ videos (and plenty a lot more obviously fake than this one) get passed around all the time by otherwise intelligent and logical individuals. It’s like they feel if they fail to recognize these claims that they are bad Muslims or unbelievers. Seriously! Just look at the comments on all the videos and there is not one, not one Muslim on there questioning the  authenticity of the claims.

It reminds me of that scene from the 80′s cartoon film ‘The Last Unicorn’ where an old witch captures a unicorn for her dilapidated carnival freak show. Being a witch and in tune with the ‘other world’, she can sense the unicorn for what it really is. Knowing that the world weary and jaded masses, however, will not, and will only see a white horse – she ends up putting a charm on the unicorn that gives it a fake, albeit – visible horn. Only through this farce can people finally ‘see’ what is actually there.

In an article from the ‘New Yorker Buzzine’, an author puts it this way:

“When I hear such fix-its, I’m reminded of one of my favorite childhood movies, The Last Unicorn. In the film, the unicorn’s horn can only be seen by those who “search and trust,” while all others see nothing more than a white horse. When the evil Mommy Fortuna kidnaps the unicorn for use in her carnival freak show, she must first attach a fake horn over the real one so everyone will see a unicorn when they look into that cage. As Mommy Fortuna tells the unicorn, “Do you think those fools knew you without any help from me? No! I had to give you a horn they could see! These days, it takes a cheap carnival trick to make folks recognize a real unicorn.””

(original text for the quote above – taken from: http://www.buzzine.com/2008/07/obama-new-yorker/)

Essentially – can one still remain objective and question these things, or does being a good believer mean checking your common sense at the door?

Can anyone else out there relate? Or do you just think I’m a kill joy?

My husband I were supposed to go out and see the fireworks tonight, but it looks like it’s raining, so they’ll probably be cancelled.

So, instead of doing our traditional ‘freezing our butts off near the waterfront to watch fireworks’, it looks like we’ll be staying at home watching a movie and eating my not-ashamed-to-say awesome creamy chicken enchiladas with tomatilla sauce, rice, homemade salsa with loads of fresh cilantro (my favorite!) and a chicken and ginger noodle soup with vegetables. Salad, too.. Can’t forget the salad. (Turks like my husband would literally just fall down and die without their bread and salad at every meal)

Now, I just wish we could somehow sneak out and watch Avatar 3-D at the IMAX.. Then it would just be PERFECT. :: sigh ::

Anyway, happy 2010!!

Anyway, check out the video. This brother is a trip!

Okay, my husband and I don’t celebrate Christmas (though I did buy a glitter poinsettia and put it on the coffee table in the living room, next to all our Christmas cards), but my family does.. and they still get us gifts, which, being the materialistic individuals we are – we don’t complain about!

My mom and dad always ask what we want, and we always suffer over our list throughout the year, trying to think of something we wouldn’t spend money on for ourselves. Our Christmas gifts are a time when frivolity and fun are allowed to enter the financial picture.

Eventually, my husband decided on either a leather jacket, or a pocket camera. I, on the other hand, had my heart set on an iPod Touch. One of the evil 64GB ones I could dump my whole media library on, as well as load up with a gajillion fun, albeit useless, applications.

Secure in my belief that a shiny box from Apple was going to be under the tree, I spend the two nights before Christmas Day browsing through the iTunes app store, looking for interesting little doo-hickeys that caught my eye. On Christmas Eve, I went to sleep excited and content.

Christmas morning, I woke up after literally about two hours of sleep. (I was at my dad’s house and have trouble falling asleep in different beds) My husband and I got dressed, brushed our teeth, wiped the gunk out of our eyes and waddled into the living room where people were distributing gifts.

First off, I got some little things, like some snowman mugs, a few cards full of cash (always a pleasure!), a tin of hot chocolate, a DVD player for the living room (our other one had broken), a bottle of Chanel No. 5 (sublime!).. But no iPod. I didn’t see Sadik get his leather jacket or camera either.

Eventually, my dad came over with a BIIIIIIIIG box. My husband and I looked curiously at each other. I asked him to open it, and he did, and what did we find?

Yes. A television. Not just any television, but a 32″, Samsung LCD. Now, I got happy (who wouldn’t be?), but inside, I was disappointed. I felt like an asshole.

You see – the Mr. and I had been in the market for a television. We have spent more than a year wistfully browsing the stores for the perfect television in our budget. We decided that we’d like to go for something at least 37″, but more in the range of 40″-46″ for our living room.

Now, I said ‘we’ earlier, but I should clarify. Mostly the television was my husband’s thing. Every time he was looking at televisions, I’d be wishing for a treadmill. You see, we already have two televisions, albeit – old, clunky, standard models around ten years old. Two televisions, in my opinion, were even one too many. I had only recently given in to the idea of having a tv in the bedroom. A pretty, big, modern looking tv sure would be nice looking in the living room, but that’s about as excited as I got regarding them.

Now, with this twinge of disappointment, I ended up feeling like a major asshole. Seriously.. A majorly stuck-up asshole. I mean, who was I to feel disappointed in something that was so nice? Something that most people would LOVE to get on Christmas morning instead of the usual ugly sweater or maybe a few DVD’s. Here I was getting a huge and beautiful gift, and feeling disappointed about it.

Later on, my brother explained why this had happened. Basically, my dad wanted to have something impressive under the Christmas tree. He didn’t just want to give my husband a little box with a camera, and me a little box with an iPod. He wanted to make an impression. Hence, the tv. I mean, in his mind, and my brother’s mind.. Who wouldn’t want a tv? (and yeah, of course, they’re guys!)

My brother said he picked up the nicest tv in the Christmas budget and got that one, so that we could return it and use the money to get whatever we wanted later on. The thing my little brother didn’t understand (little bro has always lived with my dad who used to be quite well off, and now little bro pulls in a six-figure salary himself).. Is that you can’t give a television to a couple.. and expect the male in the couple to exchange that television for a fun little doo-hickey for his wife. It just doesn’t happen.

On the way home the next day, I actually cried in the car because I felt like such a monster. I should be happy. I should be grateful. I decided to make my husband happy, that we would keep the television, return it and put the money towards an upgrade to a 42″ television package. As much as I really disliked the idea, I figured it would make my husband happy, and once we had it installed in the living room, it would make me feel better just by virtue of it looking so much nicer than our heavy looking 26″ standard tv.

Regarding my stupid and frivolous iPod Touch.. I told myself if I got rid of some of the stuff in the house and sold it (essentially cleaning up), that I could use the money to buy my silly little iPod. Thing is, even thinking about that, I feel bad about that. Like I should be being more practical.

I don’t know.. I still feel like a major ass.

Basically, the ‘facts’ I presented were:

- Since Islam is very pro-animal rights, wouldn’t it be technically BETTER for our souls to not consume animal flesh?

- If the Prophet (SAWS) were alive today, I somehow doubt he would consider even zabiha halal meat ‘Islamically halal‘ due to the heinous ‘living’ (and I use the term ‘living’ very loosely here) conditions of most of the animals before death.

- I’m sure the Prophet (SAWS) would probably also disapprove of the amount of animal products that we are consuming. (Never mind the sheer amounts of food and waste, in general!)

Anyway, please check out the blog post below for a much more in-depth overview from a Muslim vegan perspective:

http://islamicvegan.blogspot.com/

If you’re curious, check out this link:

http://bible.org/article/birth-jesus-christ