Two good reads

The first post,'Smart muslim chicks who inexplicably scare off guys', is a bit old but it really cracked me up, so I thought I'd share it with you guys :)

Even though I hail from the other side of the Atlantic pond, I did empathise with the main character of the article, sister “Afaf”: in Western terms we are both far from being classed as “over-the-hill”, but in Desi (and perhaps other cultural) terms, we are perishable goods, close to hitting our respective expiry dates, and are in danger of being sold off at a 50% discount, in order to avoid being left on the shelf.

I thought the second article,'Women of Islam: Divinely fortified pillars of strength', was very inspiring. The writer talks about 4 great muslim women who underwent a lot of hardship but continued to remain strong and steadfast.

-The woman whose husband divorced her, then wanted her back:
-The woman who was left by her husband:
-The woman who gave birth alone, because she had no husband
-The woman who was slandered, and lost her husband’s affection for a month

Muslim Women : Visibility and Leadership

I do not necessarily agree with everything these women have to say. An interesting video nevertheless.

What do you think??

Eid Mubarak!

PLEASE READ! (regarding previous post)

The hadith that I posted earlier is not apparently mentioned in any reliable book. A few people asked me if I knew the source and I could not find it anywhere either, so i decided to pose this question to brother Wajdi Akkari from one way to paradise.I will Inshallah include the source for any hadeeth that I post hereafter

This is what he had to say:


This hadeeth is not part of the Prophet’s Sunnah, and it is not something that is known to the scholars and muhaddithoon in their books and Musnads. It is not narrated except in a few books whose authors filled them with fabricated reports, false reports, stories and myths, such as Nuzhat al-Majaalis wa Muntakhab al-Nafaa’is, by the historian and man of letters ‘Abd al-Rahmaan ibn ‘Abd al-Salaam al-Safoori (d. 894 AH) – pp. 182-183, Chapter on the virtue of Ramadaan and encouragement to do good deeds therein. It also appears in the tafseer Rooh al-Bayaan (8/112) by Ismaa’eel Haqqi al-Hanafi al-Khalooti (d. 1127 AH). They mentioned a hadeeth similar to that referred to by the questioner, in which it says: “Moosa (peace be upon him) said: ‘O Lord, You have honoured me by speaking to me directly. Will You give anyone else something like this?’ And Allaah revealed: ‘O Moosa, I have slaves whom I will bring forth at the end of time, and I will honour them with the month of Ramadaan, and I will closer to one of them than to you, because you have spoken to Me when there are seventy thousand veils between Me and you, but when the ummah of Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) fasts until their lips turn white and their faces turn yellow, I will lift the veil between Me and them at the time they break their fast. O Moosa, glad tidings to the one whose liver thirsts and whose stomach hungers in Ramadaan.”

Moreover, in the matn (text) of this hadeeth there is something which indicates that it is munkar (i.e., unsound), which is the words “I will be closer to one of them than you” – referring to Moosa (peace be upon him). It is well known in Muslim belief that the Messengers and Prophets are better than all other humans, and Moosa is one of the Messengers of strong will, so how can Allaah be closer to His slaves than to His Prophet Moosa (peace be upon him), of whom He said (interpretation of the meaning): “And We called him from the right side of the Mount, and made him draw near to Us for a talk with him” [Maryam 19:52]? And Ibn ‘Abbaas (may Allaah be pleased with him) said: He drew so close that he heard the scratching of the Pen – i.e., writing the Tawraat (Torah). See: Tafseer al-Qur’aan il-‘Azeem by al-Haafiz Ibn Katheer (5/237).

To sum up: The hadeeth mentioned is not in any of the reliable books, so it is not permissible to attribute it the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) or to believe what it says.

And Allaah knows best.

Ramadan Kareem!

May this holy month bring you peace and prosperity and may Allah strengthen your iman and answer all your duas ! :)

Tagged! 5 things about me

So I've been tagged for the first time ,thanks to fatty over at mint.fresh.muslim :) !

1. I HATE wet ( bathroom ) floors. I do not understand why people have to get water all over the floor especially when taking wudhu!


2. I always wanted to become an aerospace engineer and join NASA, but my parents never liked the idea. I'm very happy studying law now though, alhamdullilah, but there are times when I wonder what it would've been like if I had studied aerospace engineering


3. I am an insomniac. I've been this way since I did my O Levels ( which seems like ages ago :S). I keep up the entire night and go for lectures in the morning, half awake. Don't ask me how I manage to stay alert.


4. People keep telling me that I'm short and tiny. I like to think I'm 'petite' :D . 5'1 isn't that short, is it??


5. I LOVE chocolates (cadbury flakes in particular) and ice tea!



I tag :

Jalpari , Firdous , Bengali and Angie Nader

Women, marriage and double standards

Why are many educated, successful working muslim women not as successful when it comes to marriage?? Munira Lekovic Ezzeldine in her article 'How hard can it be' talks about how people expect a woman to be married by a particular age and how men want their wives to play a more 'traditional role'. Here are a few excerpts from her article and my views.

My husband and I recently tried to match-make a couple of our friends. Omar began telling his friend about a really nice woman we knew at 33, successful, beautiful. His first response was, "So, what's wrong with her? Why is she 33 and not married?" Looking at the 30-year-old man before me, my first thought was, "I could ask you the same thing." However, the reality set in that there's a double standard when it comes to the issue of age and marriage...Once a young woman passes the age of 25 and remains single, she is considered "old" and often finds it difficult to find a suitable spouse

I find these double standards appalling. Where I come from its not even 25 but 22/23 ! So you can see parents starting to scramble around looking for prospective grooms for their daughters no sooner they hit 20/21.I know parents who agree to let their daughters marry a man who’s much older because they think he would then be well-established in life and would be able to care of his family better. Whats even worse is the fact that that people around start asking your parents whether they've started looking and somehow manage to convince them that their daughter should be given in marriage as soon as possible.

In recent decades, men have also become highly educated and progressive, and have even fought for women's rights and the elevation of women in Islam. However, while these men are impressed with a successful and active woman, they do not consider her "marriage material." Despite the elevation of women, many men have maintained traditional ideas as to the type of wife they seek. After all, they do not see anything wrong with the way their mother was.

Why do these ‘progressive’ men even bother fighting for our Muslim women to be allowed to hold high posts ,to be allowed to wear the hijab at ,etc when they would never marry such a woman and wouldn’t let her work? Inferiority complex?


Many Muslim women seek not to compete with men, but rather to establish a partnership with their spouse. Ultimately, these women want to be cherished and loved in the same way that the Prophet loved Khadija.

I agree with her completely. We DO NOT want to compete with our husbands. We just want to be well educated in addition to being a good mum and wife. What is wrong with that?I am not doing a law degree so that I could file away my certificate once i get married .However, I do agree that a woman’s role is first in her home. Her duty is first towards her husband and children. I do not think a woman should be independent to the extent that she has a 9 to 5 job and ignores her home, being carried away by all that comes with being a working woman. Once she starts a family a woman could consider other avenues to keep what she has learnt live such as lecture part-time or even maybe work from home, but with regard to marriage, a woman should not be forced to marry by a particular age merely because no man would marry her once she passes the age of 25.

You can read the full article here