Not Muslim enough for you

I’m writing about something that has been on my mind and I just wanted to get it off my chest.

It was July of 2008 where I have met a sister in Islam. She was walking outside to her car when we had met. She told me that she was married to the brother of where my husband and I go for our communication services. Well she befriended me and was in her glory to have found a sister around her. In the beginning she was making me feel uneasy because she was “pushing herself on me.”  I was not comfortable with this but I find this with a lot of people ( as one old neighbor of mine before I moved, non Muslimah, where I just would ignore her because she was at my door too much and I couldn’t tell her to stop and be rude). The Muslimah knew she was pushy and told me that if she felt if I was to say something. Well when I don’t know someone that well I just don’t go up to them and say “ma’am your pushy can you back off!.” The other reason why I allowed this sister to push me to my limit, (though not in a bad way) was because I thought that if someone can push and push in Islam that I would be on the path that I needed to be on. Well this sister was looking to perform miracles and wanted things to happen overnight. For one she assumed I did all 5 prayers without she asked me. She was trying to get me to do the prayers in front of her and go to the Masjid which I don’t have any problem with but again I don’t work well with being pushed. I would ask the sister questions about Islam and sometimes she will say “I don’t knw” but she didn’t say it normally as if she was irritated with my questions. When I would confront the sister she would tell me I am being to dramatic and that I am taking things the wrong way. Then the sister started saying “why do you cover your hair if you don’t practice” I was confused as she went onto say “I don’t mean that you shouldn’t cover your head I am just asking.” How dare a sister ask any sister about why they wear hijab? It’s not their business. It’s between the sister and Allah not anyone else. For one not every Muslimah is advanced in her religion for one and that’s just a comment that her tongue should have kept quiet on. Alhamdulliah for the sister that Allah gave her all that she needs to keep going. She shouldn’t try to question anyone else.

There was another time in mid-August where I had borrowed a book from her. Then shortly after the sister  went on vacation. When she came back she kept calling and pleading for the return of her book and acted like I was keeping the book for good. She left message after message claiming that she was bringing a sister over to use that very book with her on the weekend. I’m sorry I don’t believe it for a second because there are many books that this sister had on various topics and I just find it hard to believe no quesitons asked. I told her my phone was off that was why I didn’t get her messges when the truth was I only played the game she was playing which was “you don’t take my call, I wont take yours.” So I guess she didn’t like the way it felt. I had no issue giving the sister back her book as I’m not a theif but then I emailed her and told her I would give it back to her quickly and don’t you know she was still talking about the book. I mean c’mon give it a rest!

I just think to myself that for one I must not have been “Muslim Enough” for her. I’m sorry I don’t rush into things espcially with Islam and yes I do take my time so that I will keep going. Alhamdulliah for the Sister and for everything but I didn’t need all that drama from her either.  I was really upset she didn’t trust me with her book.

You know what really bothered me most was that in the beginning I remember being happy that she was one person that I thought would help me with Islam and stick by me to be patient enough to stick by me. Then come to be that she just wanted some “quick reward” from Allah to make me the perfect Muslimah instantly. I realized that just because her face was covered it doesn’t mean her heart was in the right place because it sure wasn’t.

Feminism & Gayism

Mashullah for Shiekh Mohammad Alshareef!!!

I have learned much about Islam from him since I don’t have much Islamic influence around me. I listen to him everyday on any topics that I find. I was listening to this brother about stories in the Qur’an. It was in regards to “perished nations.”

My Mother who is a Christian grew as any other Western American, has gotten caught up in the all the morality of what is right and wrong. For example in the story the Sheikh was talking about gay’s and how God has never allowed this. Even those that don’t practice homosexuality but don’t stand up against it goto hell for supporting it he was saying as in lut’s wife. Well I was remembering when my Mother was having a conversation with me on the phone about homosexuality. She was telling me that she thought “by watching tv” that it maybe a “genetic thing.” For one God doesn’t put “gayism” in someones body. That’s just an insult to God Almighty how can anyone even say or suggest this? She also told me that there was a “woman pastor” who spent some days with some gay people to see what life is like for them. Then after that my Mother was telling me how much the pastor agreed with this choosen lifestyle. WHAT??? First of all in the Christian Bible you are not allowed to have women Pastors! And because she was already misguided she was only misguided some more!

Then I was telling my Mother about some girl I use to talk to that I cut off all contact with her…

One day I called the girl at her home. Her boyfriend answered and said that she wasn’t home to call her on her mobile phone. Well I didn’t because I wanted to do other things so I wrote the girl an email saying something to the effect of “I called you at your home and your boyfriend answered.” Let me tell you I never saw a girl get so mad in response. She said “HE IS NOT MY BOYFRIEND HE IS MY HUSBAND.” Well for one she told me in the past she didn’t care what I callede him. Second, they may have been together for 12 years but they are not legally married by any court. Not in the eyes of God! SO THEY AREN’T MARRIED! Really I couldn’t understand why she is mad about that. If she wants to get married that bad and have that lable of marriage over her then she should go ahead and do it. The girl got all defensive and said “I don’t see your paper.” I said name the time and place and I will bring it to you! (lol). She shut up about that but instead she got someone to write me back which I knew wasn’t her because the person wrote much nicer than her for one and the big give away was “alsalam alaikom” she never wrote me any of that so I suspect it was her BOYFRIEND that wrote me which I thought was rather rude so I told the person that I wish not to talk to her again. This happened about August. I was already not ok with her to begin with before that but because it was Ramadan I thought I would forgive her before.

Well I told my Mother this a few days ago. She said I have to agree with your friend. I was furious because my Mom is suppose to be a “Christian.” Real Christians don’t believe in gayism or living in sin according to their own Bible as we Muslims do not. She went on to say “It’s common law.” she said  maybe by “western standards but not by God.” My point is how are you going to agree with Western laws over God’s? All that movement of women in the 1960′s just messed up religious beliefs so much that you just have no idea as a Westerner how you are to live your life. It’s like most of us forgot or have no idea what is the truth anymore. It’s all warped before our eyes.

For one when confronted with a homosexual about his or her orientation, no one should be shy to tell them they are wrong in what they practice as this is the truth and inshallah they will be guided to the right path by God. Also how dare anyone agree that living in sin is ok because you done it for “so long” as it is. You really think God will over look this? Um… NO!

Somethings aren’t meant to be tollorated! It doesn’t mean your prejudice it just means that you know where you stand on the day of judgement in front of God!

A new me, a new you

I have bought a book sometime ago. It is called The Self-Esteem Workbook. I was cleaning out my book shelf when I found this book and felt I was in a state of mind to actually work on the necessities of myself.

I have found that you can’t ignore your body and expect to feel good. I’m sure I knew this down deep inside but I guess it took me to visualize it to really get it plus seeing the necessary steps to take to fix the problem areas.

The 3 areas of optimal physical health are aerobic exercise, sleep hygiene & eating practices.

Aerobic Exercise

Aerobic exercise improves self-esteem and mental health. It’s also the treatment choice of weight management & sleep improvement. We all should have at least 30 minutes of exercise at least (no less than) 4 days in the week. Being content is key to exercise sucess. Exercise can be effective for losing weight and manage stress. Start exercising gradually. Exercise should leave you feeling refreshed and energized. Exercise should not hurt or exhaust you beyond a pleasant fatigue.  Only do what you can do to start. Your not in competition with anyone including yourself. If you have trouble falling asleep then exercise before dinner or earlier.

Journey to the Library, track and progress

As mentioned in a previous post I am working in The Self-Esteem Workbook. I hope to be on track with the Sample Menu: A Week of Meals page in the next 1 to 2 months. At this point I am just writing in the spaces provided everything I am putting into my mouth. Then every week I hope to modify it to the point of the nutritional value I should be taking in.

I went to the library yesterday to origionally get a book on maqluba which I happen to take out this book often when at the Library. It’s called Cooking the middle eastern way. Though I know when I go to the Library (or to the Shop Rite even) I can’t just pick up one book (one of anything) so I found a book on How do I love thee kitty? I choose this book because we recently (like 2 days ago) got a cat and my daughter has to read when she is at home and thought this would be a good book. She read yesterday about half the book and I hope she can finish the rest today so that I can go back and get a new one. Then the holiday of EID is comming so I wanted to make some arts & crafts with my 11 year and 9 year old children to make cards for their Step-Father. The name of the book I took out was How to make holiday pop-ups. When I was a kid I already did this the best way I could but now I couldn’t believe they actually have a book just for this. I thought I was great and hope to see what my kids can do. Then I found a wide open book called Good Housekeeping the complete household handbook. I thought maybe I can take a few tips from the book. I shall look more into it soon and see what I can find. Last I found a beautiful book on 100 Afghans to knit & crochet. I love knitting and crochetting and I just got so happy when I saw this book. I will be writing pages for this post to keep you updated.

Seriously asking for it

I am just commenting on an article from my local news in Philadelphia.

http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/Parking-Spot-at-Center-of-Neighbors-Beating.html

I saw and heard on the radio yesterday about 2 men fighting over a parking spot so I just wanted to give my feedback and comment on the story.

Notice how it says “the families have been fighting for years”. If they want to make make it a religious thing then they both lose because what peace is coming out of verbal and physical assult? Neither man should care about one anothers religious beliefs. They don’t affect each other so it shouldn’t be an issue for the other. Also Mirzayan is wrong. Muslims do believe in the Torah and the Bible (they should do their homework and stop the assumption of what Islam is in their minds that’s how fights like this occured because of their igornance). Mirzayan had no right judging the Muslim and calling him names because he didn’t like his faith, I mean your kind of asking for it if your going to prevoke the situation by saying ‘You look like a pimp.’ No matter what your religious faith is.
It’s a shame that Muslims in the USA have a bad rap! I mean if you ask a non-Muslim why they dislike or hate Muslims they will tell you 99.9999% of the time it’s because of 9/11. * NEWS FLASH PEOPLE * There wasn’t one American Muslim that hijacked a plane on September 11, 2001. So stop your sulking and MOVE ON! It’s like the American non-Muslims can play the “religion card” because of the bias against Muslims already here in America. In other words in the case of the Upper Darby story in Pennsylvania, there was a fight that broke out against a 74 year old Christian man and a 23 year old Muslim man over a parking spot which wasn’t the root of the problem but a difference in religious beliefs. Mirzayan the 74 year old man and his sister were shouting at Sheikh the 23 year old over a parking spot. Mirzayan started the fight by having a screaming match with Sheikh by getting into Sheikh’s face and saying “you look like a pimp” then push Sheikh. Sheikh retaliated by beating him up. I mean what do you expect when your prevoked? Mirzayan’s sister said it was all over religious views though to be honest the American-Christian’s are the ones that have a problem with the American-Muslims. That isn’t the American-Muslims fault if the Christians don’t like them. So the Christians have no right in thinking or saying that the public are more apt to believe them because of their religious faith. What’s right is right. If someone is going to get in your face, call them names and push them no matter what the faith is then come on folks your seriously asking for it.  

Top Health Food Shockers‏

I woke up today for religious purposes. After partially accomplishing what I had to do, I saw some news online and since then I have been so angry! GROUND BODIES OF INSECTS??? WTF???!!! What upsets me is that it takes the FDA this long to tell us that it has to be labled? I mean it takes a bunch of sick people to make it known (what we are truly eating)? Now I see where we are truly getting our dose of protein right? I may have these things once in awhile but still it’s a shame it takes something like this to be made public!

Taken from: http://www.aolhealth.com/diet/basics/health-food#cmntbgn

Marcia!, Marcia!, Marcia!

I went into my local Rite-Aid this morning. There is this middle aged-older Jewish woman that works in the pharmacy. Her  name is Marcia. I don’t normally have problems with her though you can tell by her body language that she isn’t exactly going out of her way for you. I mean for example one day I told her “I hope you feel better” because her voice was “horse.” She couldn’t even say a “thank you.”

Then it was last Wednesday where I was talking to a Pharmacist about my daughters medication. The Pharmicist didn’t know when a man would drop off some medication that my daughter needed so Marcia was there and she said “oh about 12 but yesterday he didn’t get here till after 1:00pm.” I left in the morning and came back around that time. I had an appointment at noon so on my way back to the house I stopped at Rite-Aid to get the medication. Marcia was looking all around for it and I said “don’t you remember you told the Pharmacist and I that the man wouldn’t drop off medication till after 1?”  Don’t you know she got stupid with me and said “no that wasn’t me you were talking to that was the Pharmacist” I wasn’t going to argue with her so I said “ok.” Well she went in the back and got the medication which did raise a few eye brows but nevermind that. Well  the next time I had to refil another medication the guy was there I had some concerns about the medication and as I was getting it filled he was talking to me about the other medication last week. He said did everything go ok? I said yes but Marcia had a problem finding the medicine and I came back after 1:00 and reminded her that she said after one but said I wasn’t talking to her but you. He made a face (it was so funny as if she was crazy) , he said I was right there when she told you.  He said some other things about her though I don’t exactly remember.

Well TODAY… I got a refil for my daughter as the guy told me to make sure he is the one who fills the medicine. Marcia said “do you live here” I said what do you mean? She said you were here yesterday. I said no I wasn’t because I didn’t have anything to fill. She said then it was the day before. I told her that it was 3 days ago (could have been longer to be honest) , she said yeah you were in front of the store. I just made a face like what are you talking about.. The b*tch say’s “oh I’m not going to argue with you”  then leaves to the front of the store lol. She was so ignorant. It’s a shame that b*tch can’t get fired for ignorance. I wish I could f*ck that b*tch up by making up a story like she did to me and say “Marcia, Marcia, Marcia my dear I am so not going to argue with you over….” A nice prank too would be good to get revenge on her, like they do in some of those tv shows but the only difference is I don’t want her to know I have anything to do with it because that will be the time that I would go off on the b*tch and cus her out so it’s better to play a prank without cussing her out! Anyway I was just getting this off my chest I hope I don’t see that b*tch no less than 30 days PLEASE!

Drivers, I got beeped 2 times, though it wasn’t enough!

I’m a little depressed because this morning drivers were too impatient and for what…? I don’t know…! For one I was driving my oldest daughter to school and there were school kids and a crossing guard. Well I was taking a few seconds after the stop sign to watch where the school kids were going with the crossing guard when the car behind me beeps their horn because supposedly I didn’t pass the stop sign fast enough. The second time was a right-green arrow that by the time I got to it it disappeared. Well I looked to my left to make sure no cars were comming for a second and again I got beeped! If getting beeped twice wasn’t bad enough then I was at another traffic light and you know how your the only one making a left hand turn when all the other cars in front and in back of you are going straight? Well I was as close as I get to the left and all other cars are in the right to pass me which is perfectly normal BUT  this is the first time I ever had a car  inched up past me when I would inch up to peak over to my right to see if there are any cars comming at the time of a yellow light. I’m thinking what benefit does the car next to me have by doing that? Did he think I changed my mind and wanted to beat him, he wanted to be the first to leave, he wanted me to stay there, or he didn’t think I liked he was in the next lane? There was no reason for him to inch his way every time I inched up. He was really rude. Well I hope he feels stupid because as soon as I saw it was yellow I just went hoping there wasn’t any oncomming cars to my right I just wanted to beat the traffic because there was so many. I’m sorry if he felt his bubble was busted but really it was unnecessacery for him to have done what he did!

Who’s Loyal?

I am really upset and I have been since yesterday at 6:00 p.m. You know for the past few years my husband and I have associated ourselves with a guy by the name of S.C. I wouldn’t say we were great friends or even friends but social aquaintances who did business (telecommunications) together. Well it all started November 3, 2008 we bought a new mobile phone and my husband asked S.C. if we could take the phone (it was a Monday) and will pay him that Thursday. He agreed. Then we left with the phone. That Thursday my husband paid S.C. in full that day.

Then a few months later at the middle of January 2009 my husband gave S.C. the phone that he sold us plus another phone for “x” amount. He said he would pay him February 5. Well it was February 4th and I reminded my husband to talk to S.C. about the money and he did. S.C said tomorrow at 6:00 p.m. it will be ready. Well 6:00 p.m. came and I went to see S.C. about the money because my husband was at work. There was a girl there that has been working there even at the time of when the phone purchace was done in Novemeber.  She said that he wasn’t there. I turned around and saw S.C.’s wife who just had a blank look on her face. I just walked out I wanted to say something but knew there would have been a problem if I did say something. I called my husband and told him that he wasn’t there. my husband told me to come back at 6:30 and I did. S.C. was there at the door ready to leave the store. I asked him about the money and he said he would give it to me tomorrow that he was busy and ready to leave. I thought he was ignorant because what next? Is he going to keep prolonging it? He said come back tomorrow. He said come back tomorrow. I had asked him what time. He said 3:00 p.m. He asked if there was a problem? I said as I was walking away you told us at 6 and he just said he wasn’t here, as it wasn’t a problem. I again called my husband for the second time and told him that I saw him but he didn’t give me the money and had explained what had happened. He said he will go there tomorrow before he goes to work. Ok, it wasn’t 3:00 but my husband was going to be at work at that time so he went there himself but the guy wasn’t there. My husband said just go to him at 3:00 p.m. well that was what I did. I went at 3 and that same girl was there and again she said he wasn’t there. I wanted to say something at this point but just walked out. I told my husband that he wasn’t there when he keeps saying he will be there. He said this is why I don’t give credits because you don’t know who to trust. I agree so much with this I have always believed that if you tell someone a specific day then you should do it. Well he called a lot there which I don’t blame him as the guy does owe him. My husband told me again to see if he is there. My husband wanted to make sure he wasn’t there because it’s a little ironic that they keep saying he isn’t there. Well then I didn’t see him but I did go in. My husband told me not to but I couldn’t help it. I did tell the girl there that we are not trying to bother you guys but S.C. does owe my husband money and everytime he gives us a time but he isn’t showing up.  She said “oh is that your husband” and I said “yes” She said she would pass on the message. I didn’t like her personality and knew it going in but just had to say what I needed to get off my chest. She said she would tell him that we were looking for him. My husband again called shortly after that and the guy was there and my husband sounded mad as he called me from work. He said go down there and get the money he is there and don’t say anything. I said ok. He said he and the guy were arguing over it. Well I went down there and there were many people. There was S.C., his wife, the girl, one or two others working and S.C.’s friend. Well I first walked in and the first thing out of S.C.’s mouth is “you said I was hiding?” I said “what?, no I didn’t.” He said that the girl said I said that. I looked at her and said no I didn’t. I was angry that this was said. I then said just wait I will sware on the holy book and look you in the eye and tell you I didn’t do it. And he looked at me and he should have known I didn’t. I think he believed me at that point. Him and I are the same religion so there shouldn’t have been any issues there. Anyway he said well she wasn’t sure but that is what she thought she heard. I was pist off that he wasn’t even sure. I don’t know why he brought it up if he wasn’t sure as if he was down my throat about it.  He asked about the calling. I told him that was my husband not me and when my husband told me to get the money that is when I came down. Then he was trying to explain how he was right and how we were wrong. He said it was only a few days from the time he owed my husband the money. I said no my husband gave you the phones a few weeks ago and you said February 5th at 6:00 p.m. but you weren’t there and said the same at 3:00 p.m. he said I’m sure your not as busy at me so I couldn’t be there at those times. DUH… I don’t care if I am busy or not the point is it was 2 weeks and he should have been ready I told him this. He just kept saying it wasn’t two weeks but two days. He got me to see it was from Febuary 5th and 6th. He was just ignorant! My husband told me not to deal with him anymore but I already said to my husband that after 6:00 p.m. that day I didn’t want to go back there again either.