Social Movement Theory and Marriage

Yup I am writing my thesis and now I am indulging in intricate details of social movement theory, attempting to analyze how social movement organizations and social movements operate. There are so many conflicting opinions and categorizations in this field and it draws on from so many disciplines of social science. I am almost done with this chapter, which is a major one in my thesis, so that should be good and the rest will be fitting the info I have collected from interviews and secondary sources into the variables examined and vola; you got a brand new thesis.

It seems the quality of my thesis will have to suffer to meet the deadline, but I wont publish the one I am going to present the committee, I will give it a few more weeks and add some things which will require extra research and going back to more theory.

Other than that inshaAllah I will write a book in Arabic touching on the matter and other issues touching on Islam and politics.

Marriage!
An extremely enriching experience subhan Allah. The amount of effort one has to put in it for it to work smoothly is a lot yet in the end its rewarding alhamdullelah. There is no doubt it makes you mature early if you get married early, and if you have kids then I can only imagine more. Women get moody and jealous and what not, and you have to cater to their attention, and you are gonna make mistakes too so you have to apologize as much as you expect your spouse to do so. Marriage gives you a whole new perspective on life and social relations.

Yet some people make it seem as if they are on an ever ending voyage to find their long lost love or their soul mate and what not, it becomes an end in itself. There is no doubt that marriage is a blessing and your blessings are from Allah, so whoever you marry is indeed your rizq. It doesn’t end with marriage, marriage indeed is half your deen in the hadeeth, and subhan Allah it is!!!!! it doesn’t mean you don’t have to keep your deen in check, you still have another whole half to work on. Its something necessary to hold hands with someone worthy to pass this world into the one after. It is no wonder that many get divorced so early, they think that they will find happiness in it when happiness is indeed in a good marriage but it is ultimately in following Allah’s way in everything including marriage.

I was once with a bunch of bros whom all congratulated me on marriage and one was like the first 2 years are tough and full of arguments, (another American desi bro on my day of marriage whom I knew since 2003 whom I was blessed to attend and called me kid back then haha was like just remember Osman said patience, patience, patience) after 2 years its all good, his wife told my wife in the gathering (segregated) that’s its 6 months LOL!!!! I guess the bro was patient for a year and a half more!!!! Than she was.

Arguments are inevitable especially at first when you have not lived together and don’t know day to day details of how about to go on with life. The man has to be really more patient, and prophet Muhammad saws was indeed patient with ALL of his wives! Aisha may Allah be pleased with her smashed a tray with food prepared by another wife (I forget which) and he saws laughed it off, 2 of his wives gave him something similar to honey but makes your mouth smell bad out of jealousy from other wives. And yet he saws never raised a hand against any of his wives. Let my wife smash anything, I ll just get up and whack her, no am kidding.

Oh yeah polygamy, now imagine all the issues of one marriage when you have 2 or more wives (every man’s dream) its awesome and all if you can ( sisters hate the subject), many would say that you have to be just and fair between them, but its really much more than that, it gets way more complicated, and the best example is our prophet saws.

prophet Muhammad sallah Alahu 3alayhi wa sallam had to deal with such issues and he was the leader of the Ummah, and running its affairs, so its not an excuse at all to be busy and neglect your household/s which I would like to remind myself with most of all.

now I will do plenty of squats since I couldnt go to the gym to do legs! then perhaps get back to my social freakin movement theory.

سبحانك اللهم و بحمدك أشهد أن لا إله إلا أنت أستغفرك و أتوب إليك

Boring as Hell.

Cairo is lame, thats all I can say its nice for a while but not for long term basis.

and am Dieting and seems working well so far inshaAllah I keep it up.
I got in a car accident maybe I mentioned it before, but no car is so lame its in the freakin garage still when it was suppose to be done a few days ago.

writing the thesis, inshAAllah should be done on time, even though am going slow.
being a student and a husband (major responsibility!) and living close by to your mom is one hell of a tough thing, everyone wants a peice of you and with everything going on its just lame, I need a break and I think am becoming a hermit freak already with hardly any time to socialize.

oh yeah did I mention, I quit the job and got severance pay, I dont have to work isnt that awsome!? and I get to supposedly focus on my thesis, which isnt really happening at the desired degree of focusing, at least no more depressing daily news reports first thing in the morning on coverage areas where someone always has to croak.

alhamdullelah.

I need to Rant more though. blah,
did I mention am a pro in Arabic now? I should excercise my skills sometime on this blog

am crazy I know, thats how exactly i feel now. and am being immature about it.

My Frequent visitor ?

Who is the person in/from Kuwait showing up every few hours ? reveal yourself.

Ramadan Note

Alhamdullelah had an awsome research trip, the people I encountered and new knowledge I gained is pricless. am a totally New Mass, I have developed new ideas,

I have come accross a person og high intellectual caliber, the best read since Edward Said's Orientalism, I was totally mind blown by this man's discourse, he is a Bedoin and an Islamist, he wrote a huge book (over 700 pages) with several chapters of research noting the changes in the Islamic political discourse regarding al-Hukm-Rule/ Governance. where he contextulizes the discourse used by various Islamic scholars within the political, social and economic context of the time.

noting them as

1- the original rightly guided discourse of the khulafah

2-the interpreted (slightly changed) discourse that came after

3- the innovated/changed/mu7araf discourse that we live in today.

The discourse of this man is so intense I was so mind blown, I have been so when I first came across edward said, and I used his discourse a lot in debates, I think this man will be my new guide for a long time in Islamic politics, I met him twice! and we fell in love pretty much, he was only going to give me 2o minutes after calling him, but after he met me and I talked to him about myself, he insisted that he gave me several extended meetings I was suppose to meet him in his house, but i was soo busy with other meetings/interviews, yet my interest with this shaikh/social scientist went beyond the research I was doing, and I know this sheikh will be one of those who revive Islam, and in decades and hundreds of years he will be remembered as a great scholar inshaAllah.

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Today I saw something great, I saw a man pray but he was challanged and had difficulties with his legs, he walked with two crotches all the time, yet during prayer he would use one to stand and to bow and finally to make sujood, subhan Allah, it seemed he exrted a lot of effort to do so, I wondered to myself, how much would this man pay to get healthy normal legs? what would he do to get them? would he pray all the sunnah after salat in congregation ? subhan Allah, I think anyone would strive towards Allah if such was to be given, yet how many of us are healthy ? and disobey Allah.

on another note, I have been typing in Arabic for so long and the only one I talk to in english is my wife, I feel my english linguistic skills are somewhat rusty and am sure there are plenty of typos.

Finally Ramadan Mubarak, and may Allah make us of those whom make use of it.

Chilling with the Badu

So...
I was invited for dinner, then to meet one of the important folks that will help me with my research and ask him questions etc, Out in the dessert in a modernfied majlis/diwaniya, those who hosted the majlis were one of the most generous and noble, kind and warm people i ever came across.

all wore shmakh not ghetra, and at least some facial hair, some had long hair, they all stood up in the majlis when someone comes in and you have to shake hands with everyone, you shout out MASAAAAKUM ALLAH BELKHAIR every once in a while for the first few minutes. and you say shlonkum shakhbarkum etc... eople talk about random stuff, mostly politics, and a dude comes around with Arabic coffee, and dates

dinner of course, no spoon, just your right hand, in a common big plate, with an animal on a pile of rica haha.

anyways, so am going to go back to my town in souther egypt inshaAllah and visit our tribes peole there, 3uwaydah from banu 7azim from the mighty banu 7arb.

of course its not as it used to be decades ago, perhaps I will set an "NGO" with another distant cousin of mine who is also Poli Sci and went to the same university I did. Perhaps we can revive our tribal heritage thats already there, but just make it more of a big deal, and of course make it more Islamic, aint messin around.

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Other than that I have gained fat like an idiot, I really need to diet again, but my weight lifts have gone up on a few lifts without planning or really trying which is good. I miss my treadmill, I miss driving, and for somereason I miss Cairo, naaa not much, Cairo gets too much after a while.

Field Research

Aiwa, Na3am Ok,

So alhamdullelah, my proposal has been approved a while ago, and am off in a country with a relatively liberal Authoritarian regime doing research ! alhamdulleah, sounds cool ay ? well I think inshaAllah the thesis is going to be a major academic contribution inshaAllah, inshaAllah I will publish it too! all I do now is try to make contacts and set up interviews and attend gatherings when there is info

I have been working out in this awesome gym when i have some time, seems a lot of people here are on steroids and lift very little, am all natural and I think I will stay that way inshaAllah, too many risks with doing steroids, dont think its the coolest thing to have a 21 inch biceps an yr impotent.
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Cairo

Egypt is really about to explode or implode on itself, there have been a series of serious events in the country and at a very past political pace, I really have no idea what could possibly happen, bu the current regime seems to have lost the ability to absorb shocks, the people are somewhat becoming fearless of the regime, workers with relatively little education are taking protests down the street and in front the parliament and chanting slogans against the "president" and the government.

The tragic murder of innocent of Alexandrian Khalid Saeid in a very brutal and gruesome manner at the hands of corrupt police men who sell drugs and torture citizens has created public anger, and has resulted in a strong reinforcement of calls to abrogate the "emergency law" which allows any police man to do anything without a warrant from a court, basically knock on your door and drag you for no reason to the police station. Over the past few days there have been protests in Cairo Alex and many other provinces for Khalid and calls of ending the emergency law and taking his murders to court.

Facebook is just full of calls and a lot of the protests are organized through it, and its mostly youth.

Muhammed al Baradie the previous President of the International Atomic Agency, who has an internal consensus on being the next president and his facebook group has over a quarter million supporters is the stronger challenger to the current government, people recognize that he has international legitimacy and parties of all ideologies agree that he should be the transition to political change.

anyways so much going on cant write much about, for the first time in ages I am having genuine interest in Egyptian domestic politics.

salam.

Yeah Buddy

Day
1: Back
2:Chest+abs
3:Rest(optional) or jump to day:4+Calfs
4:Biceps+abs
5:Delts+Traps+Triceps
6:Legs+abs
7:Rest (Mandatory)

at least 40 minutes fasted- slow pace- Cardio + 20 post work out

300to 350 grams of protein 100 to 150 grams of carbs fats by feel increase fats if carbs are low.

wa Allah al musta3aan