Islam Methodology

As I get into debates regarding politics and issues that branch off Islamic realms on what is or what isn’t part of Islam and regarding ways of governance in Islam I tend to cross lines with a some folks in classes or social gatherings ( or sometimes blogs) that are highly opinionated about Islam and politics and how an Islamic state should be yet their basic understanding of what is Islam and how to derive belief is a complete mess. Yet they don’t even take a step back and evaluate how they come to these conclusions.

When is confronted by Muslim “Liberalists” who are conscious of that its easy tends to be easy to obliterate their arguments so long as they stick to the debate. How should we understand Islam as Muslimeen regardless of politics, its simple.

Quran and Sunnah as it was taught by the prophet Muhammad peace and blessings be upon him to his companions. Some people out there come and tell us that maybe we should reinterpret the Quran or that the way one understands it is a personal thing between them and God. No Quran was revealed the Prophet (PBUH) with an intended message, that has implications on beliefs and actions. The best people who understood this are the companions of the prophet PBUH they were there with him in all his actions ( including his wives may Allah be pleased with them) and thus Allah in the Quran in numerous verses praises the companions and their understanding of Islam. And the prophet Muhammad PBUH commands us to follow his way and the ways of his companions. They are the ones that not only transmitted the Quran to us and the Prophetic traditions but also their understandings, objectives and intentions.

فَإِنْ آمَنُوا بِمِثْلِ مَا آمَنْتُمْ بِهِ فَقَدِ اهْتَدَوْا وَإِنْ تَوَلَّوْا فَإِنَّمَا هُمْ فِي شِقَاقٍ فَسَيَكْفِيكَهُمُ اللَّهُ وَهُوَ السَّمِيعُ الْعَلِيمُ

So if they believe as ye believe, they are indeed on the right path; but if they turn back, it is they who are in schism; but Allah will suffice thee as against them, and He is the All-Hearing, the All-Knowing. [137:2]

يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ قَدْ جَاءَتْكُمْ مَوْعِظَةٌ مِنْ رَبِّكُمْ وَشِفَاءٌ لِمَا فِي الصُّدُورِ وَهُدًى وَرَحْمَةٌ

قُلْ بِفَضْلِ اللَّهِ وَبِرَحْمَتِهِ فَبِذَلِكَ فَلْيَفْرَحُوا هُوَ خَيْرٌ مِمَّا يَجْمَعُونَ

O mankind! there hath come to you a direction from your Lord and a healing for the (diseases) in your hearts, and for those who believe, a Guidance and a Mercy.
Say: "In the Bounty of Allah. And in His Mercy, in that let them rejoice": that is better than the (wealth) they hoard. [57-58:10]

Like a REAL MAN!

I love this Commercial HAHAHA!

I pitty You Foo!

They See us Rollin they oughta be hatin

Alhamdullelah things going well on my side,

I think i ll either stick to a one week post/ commenting on blogs day or either just cut myself off like i did last semster, its still the begining and things arent as tight, YET.

as I was roaming around as I do every once in a while I found some interesting blogs. I found a BrO! mashaAllah reverted in June and is a bodybuilder himself and has competed, He s My Muscle Sheikh now :P He knows many of the Big Pros and chilled with them, some of his closest friends are HUUGE and he promised he ll give me a VIP tour with the pros inshaAllah if I get accepted for a PhD in the U.S. He s the only Muslim I met so far who knows more than me about bodybuilding :P well he knows a lot about the "forbidden Zone" that I know nothing about so which I have been trying to know about as you may know from previous posts.

Alas, behold For Thy Mass Shall Grow to New Weights :P

I also found another interesting blog with quite an academic indulgence, A venue I can get all potmodern in bust my anti-orientalism style arguments. Among "mainstream" Middle Eastern studies academics and those whom approach it as a case study you gotta luv Edward Said.

I like to get into debates in such issues, mashaAllah wal hamdullelah no bragging I think I can stand well to my ideas and can strongly support them. Im very outspoken in seminars and classes. But I ve been keeping a low profile for the most part, its not a free country after all and several bloggers have been arrested and detained for speaking their minds.

I lost weight!
1 kg actually am 106kg now.
I think i lost more fat and gained more muscle, even though i havent been lifting heavier. my legs are more defined and so as my arms and back
am 16.5 inchs in arms. am hoping i ll be 17 the least by the end of summer.

I always tell the bros to work out alhamdullelah, so far I got less than a hand full to seriously start and have made descent gains. I hate it and it stabs me in the heart when I see a skinny bearded bro walking slightly tilting forward and lowering his gaze.. Bros need to push ther chests out straighten their backs and lower their gaze. Have Pride in your deen and forget about this self pitying portrayal of the self of being a stranger in the dunya and implicitly implied weakness.
This Stranger in the Dunya mentality that some sheioukh have been propagating for a while a few years back along with some of the anasheed have been very socialy destructive to the those who practice and make bros and sisters socially isolated and inactive, and if I want talk about politcs here then forget it its beyond our relam.

I use to work out in this gym we had a bro mashaAllah at least 6' 3 with 22 inch arms the least, massive cannon ball delts, huge low lat back and pecs with a Big Beard. mashaAllah looks awsome and strong! yet he was so humble as most of the other big dudes i know.

so to all the bros who read this, start getting strong and Big and look the haters in the eye.

Arabian Gulf, Home or no Home ? Globalization Par Excellence

So you’ve been born in an Arab gulf country but yr not a “local” or “citizen” Yr Arab or say from the Indian Sub Continent you are basically confused about your identity about your belonging you can either pin point home as where you were born and raised or you can point it out to where your parents were born and you occasionally go every summer to visit relatives among other things.

Yup You may have been to Arab schools in the countries of the Arab Gulf or lets say Indian or Pakistani schools chances are you are much easier to re-integrate back into your “original” society and you have a much easir time saying am fully Egyptian, Indian or Pakistani and people don’t find you that much different or odd or guess yr not really a local of your parents origin.
It gets more complicated if you have been studying in what so called is “international schools” which are actually most likely either American or British schools with the same curriculum Americans and Brits study in their countries. You use to listen to American or British music or both watch their movies not only speak their language but also with the same accent that’s if you were to walk in a grocery store in there the cashier wont think twice you were born in there or least brought up from childhood there. Those folks tend to be the ones more open to other cultures and more likely to have been hanging out in school with a more culturally diverse group with in school.

Other teenagers who tend to relate more with where their parents come from and perhaps don’t have that perfect westen accent and tend to have hung out n groups with people of their nationality say the Egyptian group or the Indian folks or the Pakistani lot, then they are more likely to have it easier when they get back “home”.

Its tough since you were born in the Arabian Gulf it becomes even tougher if you can speak the dialect perfectly well and on the street people would think yr a “local” or “citizen” at least that’s from my experience which partly because my khaleeji (Gulfi) like complexion. Its way tougher when you say Home is in that khaleej country but you have no rights there once yr pops retires you can never go back unless on a contract or perhaps as a tourist but unlikely since the passport owners of the countries I have mentioned have different arrangements.

Im not saying that countries of the Arab Gulf should just give citizenship to folks like us that’s would mess things up, the social political and economic characteristics of these countries. Am Just trying to show this emotional and if you may humanitarian dilemma that am partly caught in and am sure many others are caught in it like myself. Sad reality is our parents in the eyes of these governments (as a whole or as a system or in a purely technocratic vision) are only here to serve a function for material return and once yr contract is done or time to retire your function no longer exists and so you too ought to seize exiting on their lands.

And even worse the those who grew up there their entire lives who are also looked at differently in their “home countries” whom could be pretty much culturally confused or least if they are conscious of it. Then you are torn apart where am I from ? Where is Home? Ironic its probably easy for those who lived in such contexts to settle some where in the English speaking west.

And on a side note Even much more pathetic when say to Egypt your parents have been paying “Taxes” or remittances to the government ( one of Egypt’s top sources of income along with tourism and the Suez Canal) and then when you come back yr expected to sever in the military .. As “paying back your country.” when I havent been using any of their crappy pathetic worthless government provided services and my parents paying their corrupt behinds.

Perhaps this is Just my own experience and am trying to be all generalizing about it, at least am pretty sure it is absolutely the case with Arab folks as much more is culturally common with folks of the khaleej. Alhamdullelah my parrents still work Home or if you want to critically call it my “home”

I think this could open up major issues of research for specialists and students of the social sciences but this is mostly my thoughts with a twist of ranting.

peace

Tag Time

ee na3am ehm..
Thine Hath been tagged by Sara whom inshaAllah one day very soon will start, not insane but moderate pumping of iron.



Favorite Colour; Blue it use to be purple but not anymore



Favorite Perfume (guys); isnt it called cologne ?I like dehn 3ood from the sheikhly stuff and Dark Blue by Hugo boss

Favorite Perfume (girls); Got no clue I dont know

favorite pj brand; ??

favorite Clothing wear brand; dont have a favorite one too. and I hate shopping! been buying a lot of reebok for casual stuff since its not American and I stopped buying american stuff for the most part



favorite Person in the entire world!; untill I find a wife its going to be me.

Favorite Country; Kuwait!!!!!!

favorite car; dont like cars but the Honda CBR is toight



Sport; Bodybuilding!!!!



Sports man; I hate naming one persom. perhaps Phil Heath



Favorite spot in America; where is deh best Hawt Dawgs?

Animal; mumkin Tigers is what pops in my head



Movie; naruto the movie 1

singer; Ahmad Bukhatir

Day in the week; Friday!

time in the day; no specific time maybe a few minutes before sun rise.



Holiday season; Winter break, long enough but not too long and chilly.

number: huh ?

food; huge double cheese burgers

cartoon: NARUTO!


ice cream flavor; cookies and cream or mixed berries



favorite chocolate; twirl



favorite blogger; too tough to answer



favorite name; there are a bunch I like



favorite hobby; Pumping Iron

fruit: Mango or figs ??

room in the house: my room!

Book: Orientalism by Edward Said.

momment: when am in Luv and when am having an extreeem skin stretching muscle blowing pump. cant decide which.

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Update

Emma and Ninnevah You have been tagged!

and I add

whats your favorite dessert ?

Philly Cheese Steak

Yup Yup Yup
been meeting a lot of important people who know very important people whom basically run the world. the things you hear about "them" folks "up there" is that "they" have very personalized lives, like duh dont we all?

they hold like grudges on each other and shift from a postion to its anti radical just for their personal careers. e,g hilary clinton after 1998 from being pro palestine to being a hardcore zionist. Politics can really suck when you need funding and you play elections to win and you cant do whats right.. yes it can be reaallllly dirty.

what if like queen so and so I meet her and she attempts to shake my hand and I refuse.. there goes my funding ? or there goes my head off? hate to think about it in any other, but what if she asks for more ? am not exactly Yusuf alayhi as-salaam but alhamdullelah :P. subhan Allah he said that prison is more beloved to him than obeying the First lady of Egypt at the time. buuuuut alahmdulellah am no slave and am for political gains so maybe I should do it for the ummah :P ok ok am kidding and its disgusting but thats just a thought. a scary one.

Now am thinking whether the paragraph above is appropritate to keep or to remove I just wanted to backspace it but i ll keep it anyway. err I ll delete it in a few days inshaAllah.

Oh well its still great to go to the gym and forget all that and keep admirin your gains in the mirror lol, alhamdullelah I ve been blessed so much I feel there is nothing I can do that would "repay" Allah (cant think of another word) for just one blessing.what even sucks more is I sin and Allah doesnt take away much from me, but reminds me here and there to get back on track. truely Allah is merciful.

am eating from a mini bowl full of cottage cheese
but Id rather have a philly cheese steak right now!, been losing fat and seems to look way better. guess I ll have to give that up for a while errrrr.

Random

Salaam aleykum

Yup, this post probably will be the last in a while but also perhaps not.
Masters is coming close to an end alhamdullelah thesis is also coming up closer.
Alhamullelah am all enthusiastic about it. readings are ridiculously a lot. Shoulnt be a problem inshaAllah.

Gym is ok, busted my back oing heavy squats after a lay off, but alhamdullelah even after resting it seems i have kept the muscle and lost some fat.

been rejecting a lot of hand shakes from women lately. its somewhat becoming annoying that I have to do that. I have also been rejecting invitations to many parties and what not. I guess if yr a Muslim who doesnt drink but also doesnt hang around such places it looks weird as other muslim students go to these places.

In the masters program I am basically a minority no one shares my ideas, very few have common religious convictions and very few practice in fact I can only think of two sisters. alhamdullelah am still sticking to my guns. sometimes I would feel like blah whatever I should "relax" ( or shaytan whispers) more but its simply not who I am, My political ideas are based on morals and so as my way of life inshaAllah. If i quit one am quitting the other which inshaAllah will never do and cant do.

increasingly more than before there have been more reverts to Islam coming, bunch of sisters in hijab one bro in a beard, I also heard two bros took shahada last semster.

Today I had an argument with a work mate of a friend of mine, works in some NGO. it was about Islam, he himself liked Islam and seemed to know a little. He was so arrogant and talked trash with a loud voice as I patiently listened to him and logically attempted to debate him. He couldnt define anything he talked about and his convictions were no more based on mere impressions and sterotypes. In the end I told him whatever man I dont care what you think. I am not going to clinge on every debate I get into it, If you dont wanna see it then dont. He got more pissed off. I stood up and he was like, what ? I didnt realise you were so tall ( and Im telling myself and Big :P) so some girl sitting in the group was like so be quiet and behave LOL :P we later shooke hands as that girl suggested.

oh well at least as masters approaches an end so as a new era of wife search comes close:P ( and perhaps fresh muscle growth)

Oh Wife, where art thou ?