The interesting thing about Muslim history is that the great changes did not take place at the hands of social activists. Change in Muslim history did not take place at the hands of savants. Consistently, great change has come from the works of powerbrokers and from scholars.
Goodbye with Lemonade 26 June 2008
Posted by ANNA in ANNA, Education, Spirituality.3 comments
There is consensus about Jannah among the children. Everyday we’ll have lemonade. “In rivers?” Hamza wants to be sure. Sister Isra nods her head. “In rivers. In Jannah,” she holds the room with her eyes, “you can have any drink that you want.”
The class is abuzz at this. “In Jannah, I will be able to fly,” Aly announces to his table. He holds his hands in the air, zooming. Ammar and Ahmad consider, while Marwa puts tape on her hands. I lean across my desk, and pat her on the shoulder. “I told you to stop it with the tape, right?” I ask. “We need to save the tape on my desk for the class to use, insha’Allah.”
“I made you a whistle,” she says, rolling a markered strip up off the back of her hand. She creates a tight cylinder and passes it to me. “See? You can blow.” She indicates one end. I try not to sigh outloud. “Thank you for thinking of me, Marwa,” I reply. I stand the whistle on its end next to the homework box. “But right now, you are having your religion class. You need to pay attention. And please do not take any tape more without asking.” She nods. I do not threaten to write her name on the board this time, or worse yet, to make her write it on the board in Arabic. The First Graders abhor this. Finally, at the end of the year, I have discovered the perfect punishment. Too bad it involves the language which they are meant to be learning to love.
Testing Converts 24 June 2008
Posted by Baraka in BARAKA, Culture, Sociology, Spirituality.12 comments
I don’t expect anyone to believe straight off the bat that Basil didn’t convert to Islam for me.
Granted, God alone knows if he would have ever converted had he not met me. But though I may have opened a then unthought-of door, I didn’t force him through it. Both of us were very clear that we didn’t want a conversion of convenience, so he converted only after careful study and reflection.
But once I’ve explained all that, I get tired of still seeing the disbelief in people’s eyes. They can certainly have curiosity, questions or doubts about his journey to Islam or “authenticity” as a Muslim, but I expect them to make up their minds after they spend quality time with him, not before.
Change in Muslim History 23 June 2008
Posted by MOZAFFAR in Misc.1 comment so far
Question of the Week: Love, Twice 22 June 2008
Posted by SA'ILA in Culture, Gender, SA'ILA.6 comments
In Islam, polygamy is effectively allowed. Can a man be in love with two women at the same time—and should it acceptable that he may be?
Further, can a woman be in love with two men at the same time?
Riverview 19 June 2008
Posted by ANNA in ANNA, Family, History.4 comments
I cannot remember whose idea it was to go swimming in the river. We walked down ravines, thick as lines on my hand, in sunlight metered through vines. Far at the bottom, the gully widened where water began to flow. A stream the color of hog snakes bubbled along our toes. We followed it, empty handed, until it reached the bank. There, still wearing jeans, we set out to wade in the shallows.
It took less than a minute to realize that we were in trouble, and less than five to drift across the Iowa to its less welcoming side. Whatever ideas we may have had about not really swimming, about our mothers finding out and killing us, were slowly abandoned. We clung there together to handfuls of weeds, and looked back the way we came. There, on the empty bank, our sweatshirts waited all alone. When they came looking for us, I imagined, they would find these. It struck me as funny, then, that I of all people would be in such a state. Wasn’t I supposed to be smarter than this? Did the river, in sweeping me away, forget about my brain?
