Monthly Archives: September 2013
Heartachingly Sweet
Iman: Momma, your hands are shaking!
Me: Yes, they do that sometimes dear.
Iman: I’ll stop it for you!
:holds my hand:
That’s my girl.
More Sweetness- Tweet Tweet!
Shaykh Sajid Umar
I just finished six hours of class- possibly the best class I’ve ever taken- called The Unfolding Dream with Shaykh Sajid Umar. It would not be correct to say it is the Tafseer of Surah Yusuf- because Tafseer only scratches the surface. Six hours… and we’ve covered thirteen ayas. I came to class with five hours of sleep and wasn’t in danger of falling asleep at any point. I have had such an amazing, spiritually refreshing, and emotionally satisfying day that I cannot remember for the life of me why I only attend classes like this once a year.
I tell myself it’s because I work and have three children, but the truth is that my heart gets complacent and makes excuses to not be challenged, polished, or re-stoked when the spiritual hearth grows cold. It’s not life’s fault I stay away from classes, it’s mine.
Shaykh Sajid Umar is a very funny, very interesting, and very smiley Imam from Zimbabwe who’s managing to keep people awake, engaged, and enthused about things they never knew they could be enthused about. I learned the difference between Makki and Madani surahs today, and I realized most of my favorites are Makki, and I figured out why. Alhamdulillah.
I’ve been live-tweeting the class all day, so if you’re interested in some of the gems, follow me on twitter @zebasez. If you’re in Dubai and have even half a chance of making it to Day 2 at the Islah Center at 9 am tomorrow- try. It’s well worth the effort.
May Allah reward the people at the Kalemah Center and Shaykh Sajid Umar for making this happen, and of course- all praise if for Allah who blesses us with the sweetness of Iman and knowledge when we seek it. 🙂
Right Brain, Left Brain, Tic-Tac-Toe
RB: The kids have really messed up the living room walls. I think there’s even a game of tic-tac-toe behind that sofa…
LB: Eh- You could be dying, why should you care about what the house looks like?
RB: Just because I could be dying doesn’t mean I need to die in squalor.
LB: You’ll be dead, how will you know if it’s squalor?
RB: That’s a good point. But if people come to give condolences they might see that tic-tac-toe game.
LB: And?
RB: They’ll wonder who won. I want to paint the living room.
LB: Then I hope you like zig-zags because your hands have been shaking non-stop since late August.
RB: I know right! All my drinks are shakes, haha
LB: Oh oh! And the manual toothbrush is now automatically sonic, HA!
RB: And remember, when we went out for dinner with HF, he told me to just try to hold the salt shaker still, because that would do a better job of getting the salt out.
LB: He’s horrible isn’t he.
RB: Oh yes, and awesome. There are some other upsides to the shaking hands by the way.
LB: Oh?
RB: Yes, all of our phone videos now come with DRAMATIC BACKGROUND TREMORS for EXTRA REALISM. Like the Blair Witch Project.
LB: Does anyone still remember the Blair Witch Project?
RB: I do, but we never saw it. We just remember the hype, and poorly made videos of frightened people with runny noses. I tell you, if I was running for my life the last thing I’d think of would be starting a vlog.
LB: Says the woman who’s dying on her blog.
RB: Oi! I’m not dying!
LB: Suit yourself.
RB: I am going to paint the living room!
LB: I hope you like squiggles.
RB: Musfira does. Maybe we’ll paint it together. 🙂
The End.
Countdown to Catastrophe!
If you hate Barney (you know you do) and you wish there were intelligent, adorable, totally halal, and well-written cartoons for children that also happened to be ISLAMIC!!! (talk about unrealistic expectations, hunh?) then I have bad news for you:
There are only five days left for the Misri Bunch kickstarter campaign to find Season 2 of their Names of Allah series.
The Misri bunch is:
- a sweet balance of cute & entertaining
- not an insult to your child’s intelligence
- the simple presentation of complex concepts that children learn and remember easily
If your kids haven’t seen this, they’re missing out.
And if season 2 doesn’t happen, we’re all missing out.
All of season1 is on You Tube, and well worth the watch. Season 2 needs funding for development, so please, please, PLEASE donate to their kickstarter and give a gift to all Muslim kids with internet access. Maybe even yours.
JazakAllahuKheiran 🙂
Irony
So HF was in a fender-bender today. He was stopped at a signal and someone ran into the back of his car hard enough to crash his into the next stopped car. Alhamdulillah, he’s alright and as he cheerfully mentioned: the car needed new bumpers anyway. It’s still a little unsettling to me though, that even though I’m the one all dramatically falling to bits and spending lots of my time contemplating death, that there’s no real warning for any of us. I could live with myopathy until I’m 93. Or HF could die healthy on his way to work tomorrow. It’s all in Allah’s hands. SubhanAllah.
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