Sunday, August 30, 2009

Return to the Masjid

MiDun dun dunnnnn!

Asalamu Alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakathu!

This friday I went to Youth Iftar/Taraweeh prayers :D It was definitely the highlight of my week.

In fact, I was counting down the entire week, because school is so passe. It's like I never left!

Anyway this post is dedicated to my friday not my school problems lol

So my misadventure buddy, her sister, person A and I all went about an hour early.

(Person A is a person I had been in a 'grudge' with for the past err 3 years, astagfurillah, and it's really been weighing down my heart. I mean, I know we could never be friends because of our differing personalities, but it's Ramadan, and I you can only avoid someone for 3 days, not 3 years.... may Allah swt forgive both of us)

So I decided after they prayed asr and sunnah, to end the grudge. I told her she didn't have to forgive me, but I forgave her, and that we don't have to be friends but do we really want to go to hell over something that happened when we were young?

That was a significant event in the evening, but not the most interesting (well it's an end to a grudge, shouldn't it be interesting?)

We went to the Banquet Hall early and secured a large table for ourselves and friends who would arrive later.

Imam Suhaib Webb was speaking and he is such a cool Imam! Like next to Imam Amir Abdul Malik, he has got to be one of my favorite speakers!

He discussed how many temptations there are for us young'ins e.t.c, e.t.c

Honestly, it's been two days and I didn't take notes, just know that it was a good talk m'kay? lol

Afterwards, it was time for taraweeh and then the Youth Forum where I learned all about ..uh.. oh right! About Ramadan of course, and how to get the most out of it and learning something new.

A year ago, during the previous Iftar you would've found me outside, talking and gossiping with the other girls but alhamdulillah I feel like I've changed :D

We came home around midnight and it was just the beginning of my weekend, which was totally uneventful.

Now I'm counting down to Iftar. Less than ten minutes :D

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Free Food Fridays- and why I can't have any

-I've taken to writing my blogposts in the morning lately, during suhoor and after, and you all know the reason why-

But this just has to do with a little note about my day at school yesterday :D

Specifically journalism. So the teacher (whom I had freshman year as a english teacher and still can't look straight in the eye for fear they'll burn a hole through my soul....he freaks me out that much)usually feeds his students on fridays, hence the title, and next week he's making salmon.

-tear-

I like salmon.

But it's Ramadan so I can't eat the salmon.

(Doggy bag it home? lol I have the class last, so I won't look like a complete idiot trying to carry food all day)

But we have 5 extra students in the class, so tomorrow/today actually, we'll be getting a writing assignment and it shall 'determine' whether or not we stay.

Ugh, another type of 'test' just so I can take a friggin class.

Wanna know what I'll wear (who cares you've read this far!): Navy blue sweater vest, long white sleeve underneath, matching.. well sort of, royal blue hijab and a walmart tag saying 'Hello, how may I help you?'

You can thank my siblings they thought my blue sweatervest resembled the old walmart uniform.

FORGET YOU GUYS!

Bye :D

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

I'm on here because I think it can make time move slowly

It's 6 am.

I ate macaroni for breakfast.

I need to leave the house by 7:05

For school
-sigh-

Wanna know what I'm gonna wear? :D

Hot pink shirt, black skirt, matching black hijab and a hot pink pin ^_^

I don't have a hot pink hijab sadly.

I'm only typing this down for my benefit.
Maybe it'll open up a 4th dimension where I can relive the summer again.

Or I'll waste so much time I only have 5 minutes to brush my teeth.

I need to go pray fajr.

See, by avoiding school I'm missing fajr.

Bad school!

Why do I have to have history first?! That means I can't chea- I mean ask for answers from the other students!

UGH! FINE

I'll go complain on the couch, THEN I'll watch some t.v

THEN.... I'll go hide out with the squirrels in my backyard

AND YOU'LL NEVER FIND ME!!

MUWAHAHAHAHAHA

P.s I need to get out more



Monday, August 24, 2009

Sometimes I secretly wish I had a British accent

So I could sing this




I couldn't resist


Let's avoid responsiblity together!

Tomorrow marks the beginning of my return to the deathtrap formerly named school.


Ergg!

I mean it's not the whole 'education' thing I'm being lazy about (well, partly) but just the monotony of it all.

This will mark my third year in high school and although seniors are supposed to get
senioritis, I feel like I'm getting a milder form of junioritis (no link because I don't think it exists)

Junior year is supposedly the toughest year, where students take the most
AP classes and we have to take the SATs or ACTs

I'm only taking two APs this year (English and United States History) and my other 4 classes should be relatively, uh, easy but still challenging... if that makes sense
-Math Analysis
-French 3 (tu es une pamplemousse?)
-Drama (we need one performing arts but luckily my misadventure buddy is there!)
-Journalism (

As you can see I'm not taking a science this year, but that's because, technically, I'm already a year ahead in science for most students, so I already took Chemistry. The next step would have been Physics, but the majority of my peers are taking it Senior year so I might as well (look peer pressure in action!) I was going to take physiology like the rest of them since it 'helps' if you want to be a doctor.

But even though I decided
I wasn't Now I'm thinking I could/should (my parents won't accept anything less than a Doctor), plus a look at CNN really turned me off the whole idea (remember what they've been covering for the past 3 months?)

I don't know, I'm young, I have time to make major decisions such as these.

Doctor? Baker? Candlestick maker?!

We'll see for now

(Ramadan Related posts won't be posted often seeing as the major saturation of ramadan posts in the blogosphere :D If you want your ramadan fix, go look at my blog reader thingy at the side and look at someone else's!)

Saturday, August 22, 2009

Beautiful Nasheed



This literally brings me to tears everytime I hear it masha'Allah!

So, 8 minutes till Maghraib, how was your first day of fasting? (Or how is it going, if you live somewhere west of California?)

I'm typing at the dinner table so all the food is in front of me at the moment.
(So close yet so far! But to be completely serious, I'm taking what
PerplxinTexan said to heart: "and when ramadan comes all people get is hunger" let us all try and benefit this ramadan!)

oO the adhan! Time to break my fast and I'm off to pray

May Allah swt keep us going strong this ramadan!

I guess since everyone else is doing it- Ramadan Mubarak!


I'm up and I just ate suhoor like 30 minutes ago! :D
This a great way to practice getting up for school! (And fasting of course)

Not wanting to bore you with the details of what I ate (cereal, almond milk, croissant, tea) I'll just talk about my experience at the masjid during taraweeh last night!

Hot
Frantic
Loud
Crowded

If someone yelled fire I don't think my mother and I would've made it out alive (misadventure buddy was also there, did I tell you she's a full-time hijabi now masha'Allah, yea I'll make a minipost later to feed her ego)

The prayer experience itself was you know, spiritual but the aftermath was horrible, to say the least.

You see, when we came we left our shoes out in front of the shoe shelves because there were no more room and the other shoe shelf is inside. When we came out our shoes weren't there and we had to frantically search the shelves outside, inside and in between.

Who steals shoes at a masjid?! Like seriously? Then again, if I were a hobo I can get some nice shoes there......

Anyway, we finally found our shoes on the shelves outside near the end, next time, we said, we were going to put them in bags.
Like really bright forever 21 bags (or would that just entice people?)

Okay maybe just wal-mart bags, no one steals things in wal-mart bags right?

Right?

And I went to my grandmother's house (read:evil cat's domain) and picked up the pashmina's my aunt got from minnesota (the land of somalis, hijabs, and uhh everything else)

They came in such beautiful colors like navy blue, green, teal, rose/copper/gray?, lavender (which I already have! so I gave to my madre) beige, and yellow.

Alhamdulillah :D

You guys stay hydrated and have a great first day! (Don't sleep too much!!)

Thursday, August 20, 2009

I can't believe it's not butter- er, it's not expensive!

So I went semi-school shopping yesterday and went to Macy's
I gave myself a pretty flexible budget this year, but I didn't want to buy a shirt for $35 when I can get it from a cheaper store for $10.
But, as I was perusing the sales rack at Macy's

LO AND BEHOLD

Skirts for $9.99!

-faint-

I got one in black, turquoise and a boho-y pink skirt with a feather/ belt.
Only $30-something total!!! -tear-

Then I went over to Old Navy's and nearly bought the whole store (Why don't I go there more often?!)

Long sleeves that can double as tops and under shirts were selling for 10 dollars!
And when I walking to the checkout line there was this pretty red shirt for $8 dollars!

Except I didn't see that it said XXL so now I'm bathing in it.

I need to go return it and just get a M or L, seriously, I'm not that big!!

Anyway, I should get back to writing my essays they're due next week!

So if you're in the Bay Area, swing by Macy's and pick up all the skirts you can hold!!!!

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Why is there a statue of Muhammad (saw) at the Supreme Court?

(Even if it is old news, it's news to me!)

Article taken from http://blogs.static.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/21319.html

"Jason English told me about a Mohammad statue at the Supreme Court they heard about on This American Life.
This was their way of saying, “We’re curious, so you should go do a bunch of research on it. Let us know how that goes.”

When I hear about depictions of Mohammad, I picture Muslims burning Aqua* CDs in the streets and boycotts of Danish…danishes.

But much to my surprise, the Danes aren’t to blame this time around.
The statue in question is, in fact, right in our very own Supreme Court building.
Let’s start at the beginning.

A Court to Call Home

Despite its stature in the country’s political and cultural landscape, the Supreme Court was something of a vagabond in its early years. When New York City was our capital, the Court met in the Merchants Exchange Building, and when the capital moved to Philadelphia in 1790, the Court set up shop in Independence Hall, and then City Hall. When the federal government went off to Washington, the Court used the Capitol Building as a flophouse, but got bounced to a new chamber six different times during their stay.

Finally, in 1929, Chief Justice William Howard Taft decided enough was enough and persuaded Congress to authorize the construction of a permanent home for the Court. Construction on the Supreme Court Building was completed in 1935, and the Court finally had a home to call its own after 146 years of existence.

Sculpture figures prominently in the Corinthian architecture of the Court Building. One chamber features a frieze decorated with a bas-relief sculpture by Adolph A. Weinman of eighteen influential law-givers. The south wall depicts Menes, Hammurabi, Moses alayhi salam, Solomon alayhi salam, Lycurgus, Solon, Draco, Confucius and Octavian, while the north wall depicts Napoleon Bonaparte, John Marshall, William Blackstone, Hugo Grotius, Louis IX, King John, Charlemagne, Justinian and, you guessed it, Mohammad (Peace Be Upon Him).

Objections
Things were all well and good for a few decades, with no documented controversies over the sculpture that I could find. But then, in 1997, the fledgling Council on American-Islamic Relations (lol) brought their wrath to the Court, petitioning then-Chief Justice William Rehnquist to remove the sculpture.

CAIR outlined their objections as thus:
1. Islam discourages its followers from portraying any prophet in artistic representations, less the seed of idol worship be planted.
2. Depicting Mohammed carrying a sword “reinforced long-held stereotypes of Muslims as intolerant conquerors.”
3. Building documents and tourist pamphlets referred to Mohammad Peace be upon him as “the founder of Islam,” when he is, more accurately, the “last in a line of prophets that includes Abraham alayhi salam, Moses alayhi salam and Jesus alayhi salam.

Rehnquist dismissed CAIR’s objections, saying that the depiction was “intended only to recognize him [Mohammad]…as an important figure in the history of law (important figure ehh? Of course!); it was not intended as a form of idol worship.” He also reminded CAIR that “swords are used throughout the Court’s architecture as a symbol of justice and nearly a dozen swords appear in the courtroom friezes alone.”

Rehnquist did make one concession, though, and promised the description of the sculpture would be changed to identify Mohammad as a “Prophet of Islam,” (That's more like it!)and not “Founder of Islam.”
The rewording also said that the figure is a “well-intentioned attempt by the sculptor to honor Mohammed, and it bears no resemblance to Mohammed.” (Like most of us even know what his looks like?!)

The reasoning behind Rehnquist’s rejection? For one, he believed that getting rid of any one sculpture would impair the artistic integrity of the frieze, and two, it’s illegal to injure, in any way, an architectural feature of the Supreme Court Building.


Other Depictions of the Prophet
While the Qur’an forbids idolatry, it doesn’t expressly forbid depictions of the Prophet. (Persian portraits anyone?) The prohibition on such depictions that we often hear about comes from hadith (oral traditions that supplement the Qur’an). Muslim groups have differing opinions on the prohibition, with Shi’a Muslims generally taking a more relaxed view than Sunnis. That said, there are more depictions of Mohammad in art out there than we’d think, from the US to Uzbekistan (That's a bit random now innit?).
Until the 1950s, there was even a statue of the Prophet at the Manhattan Appellant Courthouse, right on the front steps. Anyone want to clue us in on other Mohammad art hanging around out there? (Any of you guys know?)
*Yes,
they’re the most famous Danes I could think of…"


**The pink writing is my thoughts not in the original article, and the red font is just emphasis, hehe
So, objections? Fascination? Or apathy seeing as how you've probably already heard of this? Tell me!

Friday, August 14, 2009

I wanna see this movie sooo bad!



-sigh- The trailer gets me every time.

And it came out today! But I came home today
soo I'll have to wait.

Meanwhile, tomorrow is this
all-girl's party and I'm still deciding if I want to go or not. Part of me wants to dress up and have fun (plus my mom offered to drive me there) but another part of me wanted to go to a friend's party on Sunday (I can only go to one party not both -sigh-) I really need to learn how to drive.
Or get a car.
Or both.
But, you see, I'm too
lazy.

Like the sands through an hourglass,

'So are the Days of Our Lives....'

I
had to put that in somewhere.

I'm HOME!

Asalamu Alaikum you guys!

I AM HOME!

THANK GOD!

I could not STAND eating outside 3 times a day -barf-

When I came home I hugged my mother and told her how much I missed her cooking (they had lasagna last night -tear-)

UC Davis isn't a college I'd consider for myself, because I've always wanted Berkely (insha'Allah) and SCU is near home but not SO near. Eh we'll see who accepts me :D




Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Away from home



Asalamu Alaikum!

Currently, I'm typing from my dad's laptop in a shady Inn in Davis, CA (not where I'm from btw)

We're all up here for my brother's orientation.

Did I want to go?

Not really, but my dad said it was a 'learning experience'.

Major hint that this Inn is creepy:

A sign on top of the lock says: "For Your Protection, When in Room engage deadbolt and security latch"

Totally safe right?

Anyway I'm here until friday, (after Jummah prayers insha'Allah, their masjid is sooo pretty :D)

And we had to pay $2.99 for 24 hour of Internet Access (money thieves! -shakes fist-)

Well, I have to wake up at 7 in the morning so toodles!



Stargazing is so peaceful...

Alone.

Not when you're with your family and your little brother is making shadow puppets with the flashlight on your left and your little sister is incessantly talking to you on your right.

But LOOK! Two meteors just passed by! :D

(Written on Wednesday 2 am)


Monday, August 10, 2009

You guys don't like?

I thought the background post was cccuuuttte ^3^

But you guys think it sucks? -tear-

j.k

So tell me what you think of it? Hmm?

-----------------------------------------------------------------
Decisions, Decisions...

What should I put on my list of must-haves for this school year?

I took out most of wardrobe because I felt it wasn't up to par with Hijab. I mean, I won't completely eliminate jeans, but wide legs should be the only ones I buy -Insha'Allah!-

So tell me what every hijabi should have in her closet please? :D

(Okay so that's two questions you guys should answer :D.... annndddd GO!)

Friday, August 7, 2009

Can I get an 'Ameen'?

Asalamu Alaikum ladies,

My relative may have a serious medical problem, but is too stubborn to go see a doctor. Plus we got into a little discussion on what happens after death, since relative supposedly doesn't fear it, or believe anything will happen after. Subhan'Allah, but that isn't the point of this post.

I'd like to ask for your dua'as because relative means a lot to me even if we have differing views on Islam/life/e.t.c

Jazak'Allah khair and have a nice weekend (I won't be posting due to certain events)



Thursday, August 6, 2009

I feel so outed

Asalamu Alaikum you guys (and the new ones, you know who you are)

Well anyway, a few of my super cool buddies found this blog (don't worry misadventure buddy you knew all along) and well.. hi.

I mean I've never said my name or 'exactly' where I lived but then I did talk about my mosque before and the event happening this saturday. So it was bound to happen (not that I don't want you guys, lol).

Anywho, remember that my blog life and my (I have a life other than blogging? oh right) other life are totally different, so sometimes I won't bring up what I wrote about on my blog yesterday during a conversation (unless you want to talk about knitting of course, then I'll discuss blogs with ya'll) And if you guys made a blog that'd be sooo awesome! So stop saying you're life isn't interesting, it's much more interesting than mine and people still read it! lol

But anyway yeah, here's my blog and uh.. you don't have to post your real names on here

Toodles,



(my internet persona)

Sunday, August 2, 2009

Knitting



I tried to take up knitting nearly two years ago.

It's just a hobby or a skill I wanted to learn because don't you feel a bit proud when you make your own scarf? (To wear around your neck lol I doubt it could fit around my head)

But the grey and black yarn is still in the back of my drawer and my knitting needles are gathering dust.

Grr, whenever I try to get back into, I lose a stitch and have to undo 10 entire rows -tear- so I just threw it in the back of my drawer. Hmm, I might take it out again to 'start' over.

And if I ever finish my scarf, I might tackle these things hehe:



Sweaters!!



Squid/Elephant/Hat thing? COOL



O-O; Is that a mask.. okay..



Oooh yeah, a custom knitted Spiderman suit!

Do you have a hobby that you're good at or love to do?

So... I can wear fur?

Answer from SunniPath.com

"Walaikum assalam wa rahmatullah,

I pray that this finds you well, and in the best of health and spirits. May Allah grant you all good and success in this life and the next.

It is in itself permitted to wear fur, though fur of endangered animals, or of animals slaughtered in cruel ways is best avoided--as cruelty to animals is a serious sin.

And Allah alone gives success. Faraz Rabbani"


So, that means yes! Thank you guys for answering and I really didn't know how to comment back to people after I knew the answer unless they asked a question.
So I'll just answer general questions here!

(This is not trying to call anyone out, I'm just trying to answer all of your questions en masse in a humorous way. heh.)

Why do you want to buy fur?
They look nice, to me, they feel nice, and because I just want one.

Why not buy imitation?
Because I've felt the cheap kind and it's just ehh.
Have you heard of pleather?!!

Okay.. how about vintage?
That was actually a great suggestion, thanks Mahdiya! I'd probably just get vintage

Why would you want a carcass on your back vintage or not?
I'm at peace with myself whenever I put my foot in my leather boots, I don't lose any sleep whenever I wear my watch with leather straps, even if I was vegetarian that doesn't mean I embrace the vegan ideals. (Don't we all own something leather?)
So why would I mind having some animal's (are there any halal animals with fur? Because right now I'm having a brain fart and can't think) soft fur lining my leather jacket?

Rereading that last sentence made me feel like monster. Only slightly, then I went back to looking up 'is mink halal?' -it isn't btw, since it's rodent?-

Conclusion:
This was just a random question I couldn't stop thinking about all day two days ago and decided to ask. Would I really buy a fur coat?

No I can't afford it.

If I happened to find one at a thrift store, would I buy it?

Yes, assuming it's under $50 which I doubt.

So I find a harmless answer to a harmless question.

Yay for me!

Hopefully this doesn't make me any more horrible in your eyes.

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-blows kisses to followers- Thank you for making me feel special and that my blog actually means something. Each and everyone of you has made a difference by keeping this blog alive.




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