Just as a Reminder to all- you CAN’T tell online when someone is “just playing” which is why Islam tells us “to avoid much suspicion”. “Be slow to anger” I’m mainly talking to myself, but I know I am not the only one who could benefit from this advice….

Remember to think the best of everyone even when ticked off. Wires get crossed, people’s ‘hood’ comes out-and we forget that OUR experiences in life, thoughts, assumptions, and behaviors is NOT the way everyone else lives/thinks/feels.

You could say something completely innocent & if the other person had a bad experience with it, they will associate it with that. Then they will say something, you will say something and over something insignificant 2 or more people are upset.

Even if someone does say something snappy, remember it is a reflection on them of something they may be going through. However, how you react is a reflection YOU and who you are. Let’s all try to be more forgiving, quick to apologize, nicer to people (remember my previous post a few days ago?!?! yeah thats deep!)

Remember your words/actions/behavior have the power to make or break someone!~Love Holly

“Be kinder than necessary because everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle”

T.H. Thompson and John Watson

BismiAllah

Asalaamu alaikum waramatulahi wabarakatu

Some quick and to the point knowledge/reminders/advice/encouragement and ideas.

Allah subhana wa ta’alaa has described the treatment of the spouses in the Quran as:
“And among His signs is this, that He created for you mates from among yourselves, that you may dwell in tranquility with them, and He has put love and mercy between your hearts. Verily in that are signs for those who reflect.” (Qur’an 30:21)

Tranquility, love and mercy indeed are the essence of marriage.
Allaah’s Messenger  , said: (The Prophet Muhammad) (saw) said: “The best of you are the best to their wives” (Sunan al-Tirmidhi).
‘Aisha (ra), the wife of the Prophet, described his character beautifully when she said: “Indeed, he was in the service of his family (or wives)” (Sahih al-Bukhari).
There is NO tit for tat in Islam. If a man is wronged by his wife he does not/should not try to wrong/harm/infuriate her, just like she should not do it to him either.

The Prophet Muhammad never hit/beat/abused his wives. This is not from Islam.
We don’t stop ourselves from improvement because we are ‘mad’ or she/he told me too so I’m not going to. We need to throw all this ‘hood’ out the window and remember we are Muslim. I speak to myself as a reminder and to my sisters and brothers. I am not saying we are perfect and that we are not allowed to feel human emotion, I’m saying, as we used to say ‘check yourself before you wreck yourself’.

Narrated ‘Abdullaah bin ‘Umar  that Allaah’s Messenger  , (The Prophet Muhammad): said “No one does anything more excellent in the sight of Allaah, The Great and The Glorious, than restraining his anger, seeking to please Allaah.” [Ahmad and At-Tirmithi]

Narrated Atiyyah As-Sa’di : “Abu Waa’il Al-Qass  said: “We entered upon ‘Urwah bin Muhammad bin As-Sa’di . A man spoke to him and made him angry. So he  stood and performed ablution; he then returned and said: ‘My father told me on the authority of my grandfather ‘Atiyyah who reported the Apostle of Allaah  as saying: `Anger comes from the devil, the devil was created of fire, and fire is extinguished only with water; so when one of you becomes angry, he should perform ablution`.” [Abu Daawood].

There are SO MANY examples that we are to try and avoid this anger at all costs, and why shouldn’t we? After all it reduces us to immature behaviors and speech that we could later regret. Even if we don’t regret it, our knowledge and Eman are at such a level that we don’t care, authoo bilah; being in this state, argumentative, hostile, annoyed, mad defiant is NOT living in tranquility as the Quran orders us. Shall we then, go against Allah?!? Thats deep.

The Prophet SAWS had food thrown across the room IN FRONT of guests by his wife ‘Aishah and he laughed, he did NOT beat her.

al-Bukhari confirms this episode as well:

Sahih al-Bukhari Hadith: 7.152 (The Chapter of Envy)
Narrated Anas:

While the Prophet was in the house of one of his wives, one of the mothers of the believers sent a meal in a dish. The wife at whose house the Prophet was, struck the hand of the servant, causing the dish to fall and break. The Prophet gathered the broken pieces of the dish and then started collecting on them the food which had been in the dish and said, “Your mother (my wife) felt jealous.” Then he detained the servant till a (sound) dish was brought from the wife at whose house he was. He gave the sound dish to the wife whose dish had been broken and kept the broken one at the house where it had been broken.

We need to become better than ourselves. AlhamduliAllah my husband is a very patient and practicing man. AlhamduliAllah we shoudl ALL strive towards being a little quieter, a little more patient, and a lot more of a better example for our children, families, and society around us. We need to stop being lazy. If this is our Deen (way of life) how come we don’t know anything about it? How come we know more bout fake reality shows/soap operas and the like of such time wasters but not our way of life?! We want non Muslims to know we are peaceful, to know Al Islam yet we don’t! MashaAllah how cute..not. We need to be better for our children so that they have a chance at a peaceful life internally and in their homes. How can we expect good behaviors, pious children, and children that know how to treat themselves, others, and their spouse if we don’t do it ourselves? The fact that Muslims have failed to continuously pass the teachings of Islam by practicing it to their next generations, have caused us (the Ummah) suffer a lot in ever face of life, and marriage is by no means an exception to it. We need to try and be better than ourselves.

It is important we know these things, one because we HAVE to know our Religion, two how can we expect others to know about our religion if we don’t know/practice it? and Three knowledge is power.

Have a great day InshaAllah!

your words/actions/behavior have the power to make or break someone!

I was just thinking of how deep, scary, empowering, and what a Huge responsibility that is!

I was just remembering the lady that thanked me for being nice to her at work the other day…. SubhanaAllah she was just in shock about her daughter dying and wasn’t sure about life, she had been talked down to elsewhere and came in upset looking…(I didn’t know at the time -I just knew she looked like a troubled person or “one of those” customers)

I just figured, you know; she was stressed or one of those mean people…but for some reason I went out of my way to be nice to her that day. Last week, she came in to the office and was hanging around the office. I was polite but was already wondering why she was lingering and thinking of how to ask her politely if there was anything else I could help her with (‘professional’ speak for are we done?) she grabbed my hand and said in Spanish

“God bless you, no, really. You TRULY gave me hope in humanity a few weeks ago. I came here to do something and found out when I arrived that the one day I leave the hospital, is when my daughter lost her life her battle to cancer…alone, the day I stepped out! (this is way too heavy for a parent!) I was there for weeks, and she died alone… I had people with road rage on the way here, issues at home, and people were condescending to me at an office…I came in here wondering why bother with life, still thinking my daughter couldn’t have died…she is not dead I was in some sort of denial…and YOU were nice, above and beyond nice to me, Thank you for that”

The other co worker of mine was like wow…she left and I cried. Kathy (co worker) was like “girl why you crying? That was a nice thing you did, she said something good, you helped her”

I said “I’m crying because I lost my daughter too, but I’m crying harder because I was trying to ‘get rid of her’ and even more deeper than that I’m crying because that is TOO much power for people to have, we hurt others All the time, sometimes intentionally, sometimes unintentionally but that is so deep and scary that we as humans are so sad, weak, and lonely sometimes and others are so high and mighty in their funky moods or what they think someone meant that they belittle others or nitpick, it’s sad and it’s scary, but it’s also beautiful. I just thought I’d share since me and my husband were talking about this as well.

I’ll end with a quote I love=

“Be kinder than necessary because everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle”

T.H. Thompson and John Watson

This is a Spanish news report that was originally a 3 part “news” investigation into why so many Latinas are “strangely” attracted to Islam.

If you understand Spanish and want to watch here you go parts one and two I’ll post part 3 God Willing when it comes out.

Congratulations sister Alex for doing such a great job MashaAllah

PART 1 (a bit over sensationalized and negative footage thrown in there but keep watching esp part 2)

http://video.msn.com/?mkt=en-us&playlist=videoByUuids:uuids:a4fba58e-9eb2-4182-b0cc-aa6a5cf9bc14&showPlaylist=true&from=IV2_es-us_Telemundo&fg=gtlv2

PART 2

http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/a-que-renuncian-hispanos-al-convertirse-al-islam/xo3812is

And then this video was a while back with my friend Hazel Gomez

Do you have questions, comments? Post them here or pm me I’ll be happy to answer them.

 Aunque la televisora Univision ya lo dijo, las noticias y Telemundo ya lo anuncíaron, La Musulmanas hablando Español en el restaurante que tu pensabas que eran Arabes o de alguna otra Cultura lo estan comprobando, La Latina en la tienda Mexican comprando nada de puerco y vestida de pies a cabeza que han visto lo han confirmado. Hay Latinas entrado al Islam.  Pero eso yo ya lo sabía, obviamente siendo Mexicana

Pero porque? dirariamos nosotras…….

Es que la verdad hay muchas razones . El Islam es mas que una religion, es mas que creer en Díos, es enteramente toda una forma de vivír. Es una cosa hermosa y distinta pero a la vez muy familiar a nuestra cultura.

Es como ir a un pais nuevo donde todavia hablan tu idioma y reconozes mucho y lo entiendes- aunque es diferente. Yo tengo varías amigas y hermanas Musulmanas de decendencía Latina  que son de diferentes partes del mudo Latino con  decendencia de lenguaje basada en el Español. Y eso es no mas aqui personalmente en Illinios, me imagino que hay muchas mas en otros Estados. Aunque no se conoce exactamente cuantas mujeres exactamente están acceptando el Islam como su forma de vida; habia una encuesta que lei por el internet que decia que al final de la década pasada sugirió el numero de mujeres occidentales entrando al Islam y que ese numero sobrepasa el número de hombres occidentales hasta 4 a 1.

Ahora el porque o mejor bíen dico las varías razones porque. Las mujeres estan haciendole por creyencía, Fe, amor, estudio y esperanza en la palabra de Díos. muchas Mujeres son solteras, y otras Divorciadas. Unas son madres y otras jovenes, unas conocen a unos Muslumanes en las escuale, trabajo o por matrimonio. Otras por buscar al Islam y tratar de enteder el odio y de donde vien…viene hayando la verdad. Hay algunas que hayan su Islam a medio de el esposo, pero eso no es todas. Porque los hombres no pueden forcar a las esposas a ser Muslumanas. Eso tiene que venír de fe, creencia, y esperanza no mas. Por eso hay muchas Musulmanas que aunque no tengan esposo todavía son Muslumanas.

Mucha gente se asustan-una por estar pensando que un hombre nos hizo cambíar (yo no tengo ningun hombre Musulmano yo sola acepte por Dios y mi misma) otros piensan que se nos lavo el cerebro, otras personas  creen que El Islam esconde, maltrata; o abusa a las mujeres. Como Latina y Americana yo te puedo asegurar de que yo no se de tí, pero a mi no me atraería algo que me podría maltratar o tratar con injunsticía! Que absoluto odio me daria. Porque me haría musulmana?

El Islam dío derechos a la mujer de disfrutar la vida, ser respetada, poder divorcíarse por maltrato or por no ser complacida, el derecho a trabajar o no trabajar, y tambien el derecho a que se nos mantenga. Cuando se te dieron tus derechos de votar? Del divorcio, de no ser malatrada Busca en historia, a ver que hayas -y dime si acaso no, el Islam nos lo dio por bendicion, regalo y misercordía de Allah para nosotras. Díos nos ha hecho Mujeres fuertes de corazon y espirtu y suaves de amor y femenidad y con derechos. Los derechos a tener y buscar una educacíon, derechos a ser felizes, derechos a tener respeto y tener opciones.

En el Islam hallamos muchos de nuestros valores culturales siendo mencionadas como el respeto a la madre, el amor a Díos, el derecho a tener un marido bueno que nos ayude, satisfecha, mantenga y respete. El hombre no le puede decir a su esposa que salga a ganar el dinero pa los biles, y que pague los gastos de la casa. El hombre debe de cargar con la responsabilidad financiera de hacer eso para ella o ella y la familía. Claro, que si la esposa quiere contribuír, puede hacerlo para ayudar en la casa pero ella tiene la libertad de trabajar si quiere y no tener que precuparse de el mantenimiento de los gastos.

En el Islam La mujer muslumana puede ser hermosa y arreglarse para su esposo, podemos salir, y manejar, y trabajar.

Tambíen podemos ser esposa o madre amorosa y cariñosa, en la case sin tener que salir, podemos tener nuestera feminidad. Podemos volver y mantener nuestra cultura Latina donde el hombre es el que nos protege, haga decisiones, nos cuide y no tenemos que sentir pena por que el lo haga. Tambien podemos ser solteras Y amar a Ala Díos y saber que tambien a alguien en la comunidad Musulman que debe protegernos de los hombres de malas intencions y que Díos hasta nos dio la maneras y reglas de protergernos con la forma de vestir de muslmana.

Yo no estoy escondida, ni estoy segregada, estoy Separada. Separacíon es buena. Por ejemplo Cuando voy al baño, voy al de la mujeres; no con los hombres. Asi con my ropa tambíen, no apretada que me limite la respiracion y siempre estoy de modelo hasta pa los viejos rabo verdes. Yo deje esos días atras. Hay una liberacíon y femenismo en poder ponerme una falda y camisa larga, o un pantalon y una camisa larga no apretada y mi velo/pañuelo de Reina; el cual Islam me mando. Ala Díos nos dijo ”Dile a tus mujeres, a tus hijas y a las mujeres de los creyentes que se cubran todo el cuerpo con sus mantos; es mejor para que se las reconozca y no sean molestadas. Díos es Absolvedor, Misericordioso”. [33:59]

Usando el Hijab, cuando estoy en la calle, estoy libre para concentrarme en mis mandados, paseo y  recoradatorios. No estoy paraimpresionar a nadie, ni para que me anden molestando y mirando como perros rabiosos que ven carne fresca. Tu sabes esa mirada cuando descaradamente te miran de pies a cabeza? mhm si tu ya sabes de lo que hablo.

Apoco creen que no me gusta ser reconozida/ Yo antes me vestía con respeto y sin velo. No estoy diciendo que todas sin velo o sin el Islam deben ser molestadas tampoco. Pero estos hombres de hoy en dia no la respetan a uno vestida, aunque se vista uno bien. Los hombres son muy  perversos de pensamiento. Tenia yo muchos amigos, MUCHOS antes y cuñados y hermanos y creanme lo que les digo, si supieras como hablan……. es mas – da ganas ni de salír en frente de ellos!!

No quiero dar a entender que no mas el Islam es para mujeres. tampoco quiero dar la impresion de que el pobre hombre tiene que hacer todo y sacrficarse por la mujer.

En el Islam Díos nos dío a todos promesas de bien estar, fe, amor, respeto, sus regalos, reglas y nos recompensara a todos por nuestras aciones. Somos aliados, amistades, derechos unos al otro. Nos ayudamos y tratamos de hacer todo por El Díos.

En El Qur’an dice Ala que “Los creyentes y las creyentes son aliados unos de otros, ordenan el bien y prohíben el mal, cumplen con la oración prescrita, pagan el Zakat y obedecen a Dios y a Su Mensajero. Dios tendrá misericordia de ellos; y Él es Dios, poderoso, Sabio”. [9:71]

y Tambíen

“Al creyente, hombre o mujer, que obre bien, le haremos, ciertamente, que viva una vida buena y le retribuiremos, sí, con arreglo a sus mejores obras.” El Qur’an 16:97

“El creyente, hombre o mujer, que obre bien, entrará en el Jardín y no será tratado injustamente en lo más mínimo.” El Qur’an 4:124

Hay muchas bendicíones mas que yo pueda poner en palabras. Es un sentimiento, una firmeza, estabalidad de mente y una gran misericordia tener el entendimiento y placer de ser Muslumana. Yo podría escribir y escribir y nunca acabaría. Esto no se lo puedo vender ni hacer ver mejor ni peor de lo que es. Usted tiene que decir si quiere leer y creer lo que ve o continuar creyendo en las “noticias” y falsedades.

Written by me Holly Garza

In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Most Compassionate
All praise and thanks are only to Allah, and may the  peace and blessings be upon the most noble of the Prophets and Messengers and their companions Ameen.

First things first, I am no scholar. I’m not even a very well learned Muslim, there is far better than me, nor am I a great writer. A good Muslim, a studied or a practicing Muslim can-and will, be able to tell that just by reading my writing style, examples, and words. It is not my intention to neither take credit for all I am about to share as I learned all of this myself from many sources such as The Quran, Hadith, The Sunnah; study groups, sisters; prayer links, blogs, praying myself and sites.

My only goal is to be able to share my love, experiences, and somewhat limited, but growing understanding of prayer and the different supplications we can make for the new Muslim; or the non practicing Muslim trying to find their way back, or simply for people who don’t know how or who want to feel that “connection” the peace, the emotional high  to their Salat (prayer) and the beauty of it.

So picture this: it’s 5:48 a.m. the alarm goes off signaling wudu (washing up for prayer) time and almost time to get prepared to pray one of the first obligatory prayers upon the Muslim. Obligatory…. sounds like a chore, paying taxes, or doing homework on time…or does it?

Perhaps Obligatory means something better? For example: our hearts job is to beat, that is it’s obligation; to sustain life for usby always working and pumping our blood, to feel joy and love. Our nose has the obligation to breathe and smell. However, oh the pleasures we can get smelling a home cooked meal cooking, a fresh flower; or our child fresh out the tub.

Those are things that are obligatory on our bodily functions but beautiful. Prayer is obligatory and beautiful as well. It’s not just a chore, it’s a beautiful blessing so many of us aren’t even aware of.

When you pray you get into a wonderful feeling. It’s like your mind is so focused on the beauty of what you are doing it’s beyond amazing. You might even be a little less intense feeling and still feel serene and full of love, awe at bowing in front of God, tranquility, and modest. You can feel the naturalness of going down in sujood (bowing with your forehead to the ground=total submission, gratitude, awe, fear, and love for our Creator) the humility it gives you during the prayer.

What if you don’t feel all of these emotions though? What if it’s a ritual thing or not done at all? What if your a new Muslim,What if you Want these emotions or want to pray better or simply pray and don’t know how, feel awkward, or you can’t learn once and for all how to do so?

No need to despair Allah is so Merciful that there is so much knowledge out there I can share a few tips or links.

Dhikr is to make rememberance of Allah(God) to mention his name or ask of Him or to repeat the words of His attributes or rememberance. Salah or Salat is the actual Ritual “mandatory” prayer. Dua is the act of praying in our own words or using some of the Early Muslims or The Prophet’s Dua’s(prayers or supplications). Therefore we have options. The Prophet’s prayer is a book I am reading and it’s wonderful. Also Habibi Halaqas (link on my blog) has a download in print on how to make salat (the Muslim parayer). I am more than willing to email this out to anyone who may need it new or old Muslim.

If you do a simple google search even non Muslims can and will tell you there is stress relief and emotional well being that comes from praying.

For more information, actual quotes and a previous blog I wrote on that please read my previous blog HERE

Part two of this coming soon InshaAllah.

Siraj said 2 or 3 things that are like my favorite quotes and oh so real. Can you guess what they were?

My Story by Imam Siraj Wahaj

I do not love a religion, I love submitting to the All Merciful, The All Powerful, The Life Giver, The Forgiver, The One God. We so happen to call it Islam. Yes islam does believe God will punish us for our sins. However that is not all being a Muslim means. Islam is so much more just read my previous blogs, or go to any islamic center and you will see.

The “Religion” I practice and believe in is about God, seeking constant forgivness, mercy & love . I try my hardest to live right according to Islamic religious guides from the Qur’an and common sense.  Islam has healed me. I used to be angry, annoyed easily, hurt, and extremely depressed. I have been able to find hope and truth in Islam. I have become a better person because of practicing Islam. I have a lot optimism where I used to be more pessimistic. I have  a lot more patience (which I am still working on) where I had hardly none before. God is the Healer the  all merciful. It is easy to believe we are created for this purpose. There is Only One God and I am a proud Practicing Muslimah and very happy to say that= I bear witness that there is only one God, and that He is the creator and sustainer of all that exists, that nothing happens except by His decree and that He is the only one worthy of worship. and that Muhammad is His last and final messenger.

For more information on Islam Type Islam religion into a interenet search or go to MuslimMatters.org or click here

However there are some people who take it very seriously and are very good at it.

Today I’m going to focus on the Islamic bloggers that are good (because of the crescent awards)

There are many great bloggers from just for fun, to home schoolers, to politics and Islam I enjoy reading and commenting more than I have time for my own.

As some of you are aware the

Brass Crescent Awards are going on now Please go vote for the best pick in your opinion, I did earlier

http://brasscrescent.org

People say or think “oh she is oppressed… Oh look she is running to get home for her husband, oh look she stopped joking around because her family husband friend etc is here”…. We should always be real and true to whom we are at ALL times! If we are bubbly and outgoing or shy and quiet we should always be the same with all people we should always be that way around others (obviously when appropriate).

After all God sees us at All times. Either way eventually it will get to be Very exhausting to try and put up a facade of being different for different people…..but then again this is not a Muslim women community problem only!

Even very frustrated Feminists activist admit we  women are our own worse enemy! It’s time to stop being so phony and fake and or hard on ourselves!

It’s time to Stop judging you’re sisters in humanity and in Islam for being, acting, or looking different from you.

It’s time to stop judging ourselves by our looks in the mirror based on fake airbrushed magazine or television shots of what beauty is. It’s time to stop judging the shy if you are outgoing and it’s time to stop judging the outgoing because you are shy.

Stop acting silly if it’s not you, stop acting quiet and shy and timid if that’s not you…I know it’s not me. As long as it’s nothing inappropriate, rude, or mean for no reason I won’t bite my tongue.

Be who you are, say what you mean But NOT at the expense of you’re sisters. It’s time to stop blaming men, culture, society, and religion for our behaviors! God All Mighty granted women in Islam rights over fourteen hundred years ago in the Qu’ran take them!

It is our right and Responsibility to know our rights but we need to know our responsibilities as well. Let us not be like those who go to work and avoid working and expect the pay check. I want, give me, this is my personality so I can be and say what I want;….uhm NO. There is such a thing as tact.

Just because we in America have the right to “freedom of speech” that doesn’t give us the right to be a donkeys butt! Just because Islam gave us “women’s rights” doesn’t mean our house is a slob pit and work and socializing become more important than family.

Just because we have the responsibility to give Dawah (tell others of our religion) and we can attend the religious centers and events does Not mean that becomes an everyday thing to attend too before our duties, responsibilities; and rights such as Prayer, worship; children (if you have them), parents; cleanliness, and husbands(if you have one) rights over us.

I, Alhamdulilah; have been very blessed with a mouth to speak, internet access to learn and find out about things and opportunities to network and volunteer and attend events. However, my child is not neglected, my laundry is clean and for the most part the apartment is very clean these days. There are weekends where I am busy 2-3 days doing a sisters event, visiting, or being with a friend or family member, and the mosque or a Religious event.

However, there are weekends where I do absolutely none of that and just stay home in my own private worship, read to my child or go to the store or library, everything in balance.

All that said…. Stop giving the excuse of being too busy to clean, to “thick” to work out, too married to brush you’re hair, to tired and busy to learn you’re religion and see you’re family and sisters (either Muslim or not they have rights to time with us). Stop giving the excuse that you can not or won’t wear make up, at home you can do whatever you want. No need to look sloppy.

Look cute, don’t let yourself go. You’re family, friends, and husband have the right to see you healthy, well groomed, and clean. Allah blessed us with our inner beauty as well as outer. Just because we are un married or married doesn’t mean to stop washing, and grooming and being a woman.

Onto the Religious aspect. There are Duas (prayers) for every joy and affliction. You have the right to know and benefit from these! There is the internet, books, knowledge centers…there is NO excuse not to know these things. Ask you’re sisters in Islam they will teach or tell them to you. Go online, don’t have internet?  Go  to the library it’s free.

Don’t have the 10-30.00 dollars for a book? Fall back on the ordering pizza and star bucks just for 2 weeks and you will have enough money! Trust me, I am by no means well off!  but Alhamdulilah I borrow books from my sisters in Islam, look online, and ask questions of that which I don’t know. There is free workshops online, in public, at religious gatherings. It’s time to Stop judging one another and letting yourselves go. Love yourself and remeber Allah loves beauty