My Blog

The Imams Time, is it Public Domain?

3/24/2023

There seems to be an air of ownership over the Imam's time in communities, the way the Imam is being utilized, not to maximize on his productivity or to help him be the best Imam and Family man, but we only see the Imam as the Masjid entity. When a neighboring community comes to visit, we love to show off our Imam, especially if the said neighboring community doesn't have one. We don't maximize our Imams talent, if he isn't a good speaker, he is decent, but he can give great classes, we should ask him to give more classes, he may be more of a organized lecturer type, or a great quran reciter, not every Imam is capable of being Super Imam. 

We also need to stop imagining every Imam can give speeches which make you emotional like famous scholars such as: Imam Omar Suleiman, Molana Tariq Jameel, Mufti Menk, Shaykh Abdullah Waheed, etc. Some people are good speakers and can educate you, you just need to pay attention to the content they are giving and stop thinking because he isn't so and so the information he is giving lacks, just because he isn't popular or famous. We need to value the time of our Imam and play to his strengths as a community, when he gives a lecture or speech ask him to talk about something he is passionate about, or ask him to talk in which aspect of a topic does he like and talk about that. 

The Imam needs time with family as well, everyone wants their kids to have a good job, so they can make good money, have good benefits and have plenty of time for a family, while the guy we expect to enrich our families, should always be found at the masjid throughout the whole day, how is he going to make sure his family is doing well if he is always at the communities beckoning and service. Many times you find the only time the Imam gets with his own kids is if he is teaching them him in class himself. Yeah you will find a few imams here and there, who completely neglect the needs of the community and just treat their job as a past time, but that is not very common. 

The Salah timings are throughout the day, for a normal worker or business man going for salah is a choice, if they make it great, if they don't no one can hold that against them. But if the Imams kid is sick and he is the only one who can take them, maybe someone will understand and be ok with it, but if he needs to take his kid on a Thursday night to buy something for school and he knows he will not make it for salah, wait till the masjid management tells him he breached his contract and he should have been there.

"Let me catch the Imam after Salah"

3/21/2023

There's a deep rooted issue with this statement and sentiment. Having a question, or an issue and consulting the Imam in this matter is very good and commendable. But it shouldn't come at the expense of catching the Imam without at least paying heed to his schedule or personal arrangements. Most often Imams when asked a question or asked for consultation right after Salah will agree and engage knowing the community member is probably struggling or needs immediate assistance.

But the question to the person trying to catch the Imam is:

did you ask them before hand if they have office hours?

Is your question relevant to the Imam or is it a personal gripe with another individual, shura member, or all the planet?

Will you ask for a set time and stay within that limit?

Can they set up a meeting with you at a convenient time for them as well?

They may have been teaching all day and this may be their family time you are taking out of, how will this effect their family time?

Do Imams not deserve the option to say no at times and ask to reschedule?

If they say no and ask for another time people get upset and act as though the Imam is their personal servant, and he should immediately drop everything and address the needs of this particular individual.

There's been many instances where I as a volunteer Imam and many others I know volunteer or full time imams have been stopped for 30 minutes to multiple hours because someone needed to talk and they were just ranting about something or the other which wasn't even relevant to us, people doing multiple hour consultations when asking for 15 minutes than leaving without even apologizing for going way over their allotted time.

Because imams are public servants meant to not have schedules or families I suppose. There is a flip side to this but that's for another day.

Tokenization of Muslims in Hollywood Films and TV

2/20/2023

Need a brown or Arab person to play a role in a show or movie? We got you covered by hiring some random person of a random but similar ethnicity. Cultural cues, who cares, we just need someone who looks the part and will listent to the directors and producers to play a certain role a certain way. 

Seems like the way Hollywood likes to play their Muslim characters, half the time the characters don't know how to pray, actually most of the time. They don't even know the basic Arabic most Muslim families try to teach their kids. Because they just need someone to play a role. This is an unfortunate mischaracterization of marginally misunderstood population of people, we will forever be treated this way by Hollywood, because they need to sell something, we used to be sold as Arab Sheiks who womanize and do crazy stupid things, we evolved to the evils of society, who try to destroy everything, now we are currently seeing our sisters exploited because only women actively show they are Muslim for the most part, so the hijab is being used to show "Muslim", but than you will have hijabis who go against their family and marry a Non Muslim, or one who is part of the Alphabet community, something or the other.

Yes please Tokenize us Hollywood so our community can be happy they are in the movie industry. Sheesh some people are easy to buy, some not all, never forget that.

Culture Infiltrating Islam

1/14/2023

So one of the issues we come upon is people criticizing Islam not in its true nature, but what it has morphed into. You will see many people who are far away from the practice of Islam taking the sign of Nazr or Evil Eye as very religious. Its a weird phenomena, especially the I'm spiritual but not religious, basically this is people saying look I know Allah is watching me and what i do, but i will chose to remain Muslim for his love and grace, and a possible entry to Jannah, but i will just choose not to take care of the orders he has ordained upon us knowingly. People love turning to cultural Islam, its convenient and easy to practice, go to a mawlid once a year, listen to a few nasheeds possibly start doing a little jig if you the version of your islam is a bit more out there and say i did my duty to make the prophet (saw) happy and than butcher every sunnah available for the ensuing year.

Than you have the other side of the equation, who make culture their religion, you can take certain customs of the Pakhtoon culture, or certain Arabian cultures, where they don't allow women to do much beyond the walls of the home, they don't allow education etc, not even much in the aspect of religion you know how to pray and do a little bit above average and thats it. You have to remember Hadhrat Aisha (ra) was one of the highest scholars when it comes to early Islam, she saw how practice was supposed to be done and taught many. Obviously Parda was observed, but many came to learn from her, its the fact that we need to educate our girls as much as we can so that they can educate, the future girls and their own offspring. If all we give our girls is a 5th grade education and just memorize Juz Amma, how will they help their children become hafiz? How will they help their kids with complicated Math problems, i feel females should be very highly educated. We currently have a lack of Muslim Female obgyn's, who will understand their Masail as a muslim woman, help them with their medical and religious needs. We really need to get past the two extremes of Religion and come to an understanding of Islam as its essential need and ways, and pursue higher education for all of boys and girls, make them strong model muslims for everyone's benefit.

Fall Bazaar review 2

1/7/2023

So some more details on this festival, the organizers were mashallah very nice and supportive individuals. They met you smiling and answered all questions, they were willing to help you bring stuff from your car etc. They set up space for praying that was awesome, they broadcasted the adhan much to the white people's confusion. There was halal food and pastries available for purchase, but really there weren't many, many stalls for other things. It was outside so it was windy and all my stuff was flying away so I put heavy stuff on top, so it made my table look messy, but my stuff didn't fly away, but the guy next to me, poor guy, the wind would blow his whole table over. But obviously they didnt market it well, or give a diagram to find the place. I had never been to this pullen park before. I could not for the life of me find the place, it was so easily said beside shelter 6. Given I have to idea what shelter 6 is or where it is, I had parked in the wrong lot etc. I will once again reiterate that the organizers were very fine people, and were very kind. I set up and sat there. The number of people who came were ok, maybe 150-200 people passed through. I wish I would have known what was going on. I would have brought some games to support the event. But it was a good first experience, a few hiccups and learning experiences, also the set up time was by 11. I got there at 11:30, don't judge i had a 3.5 hour long drive, but no one showed up till 12. Typical Mozlem timing, lol. 

Fall Bazaar Review 1

1/6/2023

I went to a Muslim Fall Bazaar yesterday, it was an interesting experience, i have not been to one ever in my life. So you get to learn a good bit when you experience something new like this for the first time in your life. It wasn't anything special enough that i was in awe, back in my days in Atlanta we used to attend much bigger and more better organized events, but that was Atlanta, this was in Raleigh, so aside from my long drive, it was pleasant, and meeting new people was awesome, it helps with work and personal growth as well. You get to learn from experiences how better to attend these kinds of events and what to do. So i will cover the first part of set up in this, so i did a basic set up: Tent, Table, collateral to give away and donation collection tools. Things i wish i would have taken, company stickers and some games, possibly cornhole or something like that to bring in people. The instructions from the arranging group were very wanting and poor in nature of what we should bring and what they will provide. The individual with the booth next to me complained of the same issues. My employer paid for a sponsorship, so did a competing organization, which is fine, but the organizers only recognized them as a sponsor, although they didn't even show, they ghosted the very event they supposedly sponsored. Kind of crappy that they didn't even acknowledge our sponsorships even though we were there and they weren't. More details about experience in the next blog post.

The ban of Halal Slaughter in Greece

1/5/2023

So in Greece they banned Halal and Kosher Slaughter without pre stunning, which in some cases might make the animal close to dead or change the state of the animal, and why do we put even more chemicals in the meat we are eating. Pre stunning for Muslims and Jews is not a good way or in many views permissible as i stated why in the previous sentence. I have worked in the meat business, I'm not super well versed like many with decades of experience, but I can tell you the methods used by the major corporations for meat production and slaughter are beyond harrowing and disgusting, but that's ok to these countries and politicians. God forbid someone take the name of God and run a knife that's cruel and unusual. These are just moves to enable islamophobia and antisemitism to run rampant, nothing more than that. I'm sure 50 cows and a few thousand chickens being slaughtered religiously was hurting no one at all.

Greece is not the first European country to enact such a ban, they are apparently the 11th, European politics and leadership is super racist, islamophobic and antisemitic and this move shows just that. This isn't even getting into the discussion of how people consider all meat, prepared by people of the book, when in fact they are using atheistic and principles not found in religion, but far away from any faith. But please thank God if you live in a country with true Freedom, not theses nations with farce freedoms like many European nations, which say freedom but infringe upon the very tenets of Islam and Judaism. The USA may have its flaws, but it truly is a beautiful country which allows us to consume our food the way we like. All thanks to Allah for being able to eat Halal meat here.

Marrying a Mushrik

1/4/2023

So marriage is an agreement between two people (a male and a female) to live together as a unit, to support each other in good and bad times, it also brings two families together through this bond. Now when you bring in religion there are rules and regulations. There are rules and regulations for good reasons, if you marry someone with a completely different background and they cannot bend a little and the family cannot bend a little, what will ultimately happen will be a break.

So in Deen e Islam it is preferred to marry someone from our own faith, even taking into effect their socio economic background, a poor can marry a rich muslim, but you should keep in mind one party will have to bend a little due to the change in lifestyle.

Now we Muslim men are allowed to marry Ahle-Kitaab (people of the book, Jewish, Christian etc.) keeping in mind, they have to be believing and practicing ahle-kitaab, it will have a bearing on the offspring and a lot of other aspects of life. Also the families may not be able to mesh that well, there will be issues when you don't want to go Christmas dinner, but they get upset you never come over. You probably wont eat the food they serve, oh there are so many issues related to marrying an ahle-kitaab sister.

You will see most Muslim men won't even approach this marital conundrum if they can avoid it, most of the time it's either physical attraction, or having been in the company of a non maharam female without a guardian present which even allows you to get to a point where you want to marry someone with whom you have very little in common aside from love and taking walks on a beach with no shoes on.

Now the big issue, marriage to a Mushrik (polytheist), this is a big no no, it is strictly forbidden in Islam, for very good reasons. Our religions, practices, religious culture nothing matches. We simply cannot marry them. There's many well known couples, Shah Rukh and Gauri Khan, Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor, Hassan Minhaj and his wife Beena and many other people on Instagram who try to get validation by saying things like we got married, people in the comments tell us it's wrong but we are happy so its great and that's all that counts. They got married to Hindu women. I have respect for every religious group. The Hindu community is no exception, they do good for their people and others as do other groups.

These people have married Hindu women, they can be happy and stay married if they want, no issues from me, that's their personal matter and I am not someone who can tell them otherwise. But to glorify it and talk about it as though they have done something great to bridge the gap between Muslims and Hindus, that's ignorance. Looking at a Muslim talking about a sin and glorifying it is already going too far, then to talk about it as a great deed, that's an insult to the rules of Allah. Telling people our happiness is what matters is fine, everyone's happiness is important, but to use that phrase as validation for your misdeeds and use it as a reply to people who are saying your relationship is Haram according to Islam, or impermissible according to Hinduism is a bit reckless. A simple, we don't prescribe to the rules of our religious marriage ideology would be sufficient and tell people your marriage is based on personal love and a bond that has nothing to do with religious rules. My whole issue comes in with the attitude of we did nothing wrong according to religion. Look, according to Islam your marriage is invalid, your marriage is based on a personal feeling and that's that, just stop validating it for others' happiness.

The summary of my rant today is, just say I married someone because I liked them and as a Muslim if you don't like it, its fine, we frankly don't care, this marriage wasn't to please Allah, it was to please my inner desires.

Issues with Pornography 

1/3/2023

Islam is a religion which is meant for all people, and its message is meant for all people. Basically when i do a podcast i ask questions in regards to what everyone should hear, not just a Muslim. When i did the pornography vices episode, the episode was shared by people who are not Muslim, the reason is pornography is something that ruins marriages and relationships regardless of faith or belief. I know it's a common belief that watching it together will help couples out and stuff, from an islamic perspective watching it is sinful, as you are watching someone who is not your spouse and other strange people sans clothing. If i or you or anyone watches it as a muslim we should acknowledge the sin, trying to refrain from further indulgence in such materials. We are human, mistakes happen all the time.

But when couples watch porn, they expect each other to perform like pornstars, but the fact of the matter is we are not pornstars. They are actors and are acting a part, they train for this acting, us as men and our wives do not, we have jobs and house work to do, to expect such actions from your partner would be absurd, than to follow up if you are upset your partner doesn't do what you watched it can lead to relationship breakdown or misunderstandings.

This is why it is forbidden to watch in private or in groups, it leads to further sin, to prevent future relationship breakdown and issues our religion and its rules advise us to stay away from this act of indulging in porn.

People can say it's not easy, but even society has rules to keep order. You could say stopping at a stop sign just slows me down, but it's to prevent further chaos and a huge traffic mess. Then society has unwritten rules like you give an elderly person preference in line for food or a seat on a bus, as they do not have the same strength as a young individual and have waited their turn many times in life. Similarly religion prescribes things to keep order in society and to prevent mental breakdowns in people and further complicate a relationship. If you know what's best and have taken any advice from my post you will try to stay away from porn as much as you can, and if you accidentally indulge, you will repent and ask Allah to keep you away from it.

Jazakallah

Racism is Alive

1/2/2023

Racism has been alive and is still alive, it has not gone away, in fact speaking specifically to the American crowd, it was up until the late 60’s early 70’s that people of color started getting rights to many things Caucasians have taken for granted. Being able to use a bathroom, own property, or do simple things even people of color take for granted now. I’m not saying we have been granted privileges beyond our very imaginations, we have not, we still get racially profiled by police, at airports, while trying to buy a car, at restaurants while giving at $100 bill even.

But to act like we don't have things better than the people 60 years before us did, would be being ungrateful to their struggle, the people who had it the hardest were our Black brothers and sisters, who are still heavily discriminated against and given harder odds than anyone in the USA and around the world. But the topic I'm trying to emphasize today is that racism on a massively harder scale is only 50-60 years in the past. People alive today have seen and faced that racism we've been reading about in books since my school days in the 90’s. It made it seem like Malcolm X (Allah have mercy on him) and Martin Luther King Jrs. struggles were a 100 years ago. No, in fact when I was in school those struggles were only less than 30 years old. The consistent washing of racism and its side effects is really hurtful and continues to bog down our society. To fix a problem you have to admit or realize it is a problem.

If you merely pretend a problem will go away on its own, it will not happen. To say that I have black friends, that means you are not racist, is really silly, you can like one person but dislike their community, it's a very common societal norm. We need to realize we have not left racism in the past and it still rears its ugly head way too often. We need to realize racism is a problem now, and it will remain in the future as long as we are not willing to accept that we have not reduced it to zero. To pretend that racism is a problem of the past and it doesn't happen anymore is to be like an ostrich and put your head in the ground. The next few blog post will be about racism and its issues in society and in Muslim communities.

RSS abuse of Muslims in India

1/1/2023

So I was reading an Al Jazeera article which was talking about the rabid pursuit of Christian minorities in India and the way they are being treated.

I will link the article here at the bottom.

So the inequality when it comes to the international media in regards to mistreatment by Muslim nations, vs what their Darlings do, namely the the Only "Democracy" in the middles east, and "The Largest Democracy" in the world. You have to realize that these two nations and their religious governments allow their religious zealots to commit daily abuses against minorities in their countries, it seldom makes it to the news, the Islamophobic agenda of the world wide media houses shows, its not even funny at this point about the bias against Muslims or minorities which might be construed as Muslims supporters, Christian Arabs, Christian Pakistanis are also tossed under the bus, because generally they support their home nations, their is discrimination, i will not deny that, but overall they are treated and protected by people, because the love and humanity of Islam and Muslims has always been the strong point of Muslim people.

But if you hear about Israeli Settlers burning down and Olive tree farm of some poor Palestinian family trust me, thats never going to make it to the front page of CNN, but if a Palestinian Christian and Muslims kick a Settlers dog that is trying to bite them, that will end up on the front and center of the news.

I remember the Christchurch Massacre which happened a few years back in New Zealand, where dozens of Muslims were slaughtered in cold blood. CNN identified it as a Fire arms incident. Fox News got it right surprisingly, but it goes to show you the price of Muslim blood is nothing compared to others, in the eyes of the media, dogs blood is worth more. Back to the Al Jazeera article. RSS and BJP members are organizing and attending rallies, encouraging the torture and abuses of their Christian minority, where are all the evangelicals? Please do step up? They are encouraging the police to not go defend these people as they are doing Sunday service and RSS members come and destroy their churches, beat up their members and possibly rape their women. Heck they are so perverted and beyond comprehension that they might be committing crimes against babies.

In 9 months of 2021 there were over 300 reported crimes against Christians in India, these weren't small one person taking the rights of another sort of deal, theses were major crimes of oppression. You won't hear about it because the Indian and world media is too busy telling you about how Muslims and other minorities are disturbing the status quo in India. Trust me its sad, and its not to say all Hindus or Indians are bad, there are many great Hindu individuals in our own community who hate what is going on, I have many Muslim friends from India who have never had issues, Such as a regular podcast guest Rafi.

My own uncles funeral was attended by no less than 30-40 of his Hindu friends, who sought permission to seek blessings from his body, referring to him as a Bhagavan, a fortunate or highly respected man.

The international Media if they could get off their Islamophobic high horse and report the actual oppression against Muslims and all other minorities, it would help us make the world situation better.

Uighurs, Palestinians, Kashmiris, Rohingya, Central African Republic the list goes on of countries where Muslims and other minorities are being massacred, not even getting into India and Israel.

So if they could stop propogating hate in India towards Christians, Muslims and many other groups it would be very nice, and take away that stupid moniker of Largest Democracy, where the overwhelming majority of voters are Hindu and they are empowering Hindu extremist leaders to oversee mass abuses against minorities in the name or security and peace.

Here is the article:

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/12/2/india-christians-church-hindu-groups-bjp-conversion

Sadqah During Covid

11/17/2022

So an amazing thing happened during covid, people were losing their jobs in USA, businesses were suffering, Masajid were closed or limited capacity. I imagined donations would drop a lot, there was a lot of uncertainty, money was tight, panic buying was high, just everything was going wrong.

But subhanallah the Muslims community stepped up, despite the fact many lost their jobs and all other ways to earn. They gave more so locally and internationally, isn't that amazing. It just goes to show, Muslims are not dependent on the power of money to give, they depend on Allah that he will give them more back than they had yesterday.

It's truly wonderful, than they recently released a report which said that Muslims were the most philanthropic American group, we read a lot about islamophobes saying muslims don't to anything to society, than you find out they are group with the biggest hearts in America. Muslims well done Alhamdulillah.

Why I do my Islamic Podcast?

10/28/2022

https://www.youtube.com/c/TheStraightPathPodcast

When I was first invited to talk about my podcast it was as a guest on a podcast called The Forgettables, it was a guest appearance to talk about my podcast, why I do it, what motivates me, and why do a project which may at many times seem thankless. It's really a grind and you have to keep motivating yourself to read, research, write and do an episode, you don't just go in willy nilly and produce an episode, release it and get a million listens. I'm not Joe Rogan. I can't talk about everything for an hour and people will tune in. That's the funny thing about clout and people worshipping others for no reason. It's not to say Joe is useless and makes useless content, it's to say that many others when they get fame they can say or do what they like, because they can, people get enamored by people who are famous. A famous person can talk about the most asinine things, they can have the worst character but people will still die to get an autograph with them. It's the fame and the money that drives people to put up with snobby famous people.

Obviously new podcasters have to make good content, quality has to be there, you can't just produce anything and say it's done, you might be lucky and be able to make it work, but it's not supposed to be like that. Sometimes luck works your way, most of the time in podcasting it doesn't. Like July 2021 i had nearly no plays on my podcast, august comes around the podcast goes wild thanks to god. Wild from my level, not a million plays but like a 100 in a week. It's funny how we have different levels of satisfaction, for me I'm happy to see 15 downloads a day, others are not satisfied with different levels. My podcast, as I explained on the first episode when I came on as a guest, is to bring change around the world at whatever level we can, as one of the hosts Ahmed said on that episode as a question, this is a question of what are we leaving behind? Asad bhai leaves behind material which changes lives and answers real questions of life. It was pleasing to hear from someone else, someone who was not a friend at that time, but due to the podcast development we have developed a close bond and i can tell him my darkest secrets like Refis (another host) hair isn't really that long he just wears extensions.

But we spoke about the fact that I do the podcast for the purpose of helping people find the meaning of life as Muslims. I share the stories of different people and their journeys. I've had an African scholar who spoke about Islam in Africa and his life in Africa. I've had a reformed musician on, who quit music and switched to Islamic vocal only music. I'm adding animation to my portfolio, just different things to help people fell comfortable being Muslim in society and all through out the world where things are starting to blend and melt. People from different cultures are meeting and people are starting to feel insecure being a Muslim around others, how can we help them feel comfortable in their own skin.

I have goals to build a sustainable village in Malawi via the podcast platform, we are already planning the steps, it's a long project which will involve a lot of planning and a lot of money and labor, it's a long term project but i know the results will be magnificent, i was motivated to create my podcast in memory of my mother so she can be forever remembered in the hearts of millions around the world. So the village project will be in her name as well. I will also create projects in the names of other deceased relatives. The podcast is to give benefit to as many as we can, whether it is through listening or it is through giving back to society and community.

We then spoke about the fact that it's a niche, and my network is smaller so it is a challenge getting it out there, but I trust in God, I will make a message and he will distribute them all throughout society. The challenges posed by people around us, the detractors, anything you do there will always be people out there to try to throw you off of The Straight Path. So just overcoming all of these challenges to make something happen as always is not easy, most podcast don't make it to a second season, I have just started my second season, I have other small series going on in between, I will not stop nor will I be overcome by detractors, because my mission is bigger than them and anything they can imagine, it is to change lives in my society and all throughout the world.

I don't see myself as a reformer or anything, I'm just a guy who is trying to help people who live in a world where mental challenges are many, and solutions are few, so maybe my talking a little bit with experts and people with experience will be the change we need. Give help and get help should be our motto instead of spreading negativity we should be beacons of positivity. Our mindset should always be: My positivity spans as far as it can so your negativity cannot reach those who are trying to seek shelter from it.

Still not going to the Masjid, due to Covid???

10/27/2022

So I want to discuss the spiritual pandemic which is covid. At first many masajid closed their doors, due to the fact no one knew what covid was, reading reports of overflowing hospitals in Italy with people dying in the streets waiting for treatment was harrowing. I was even in favor of the closures and allowing a few dedicated people to come pray if we couldn't institute proper protocol, the reason was as I'll call it the parking conundrum. When people park at grocery stores they park properly, when they get to the Masjid they park anywhere, it's because we don't respect rules and boundaries at our masajid. People won't wear masks, they won't social distance etc. Even if they do, they will hug right after Salah. At first I think the first 2-3 months people stayed put for the most part, then everyone got comfortable and started doing big gatherings and weddings etc., but the masajid stayed off limits. Now this makes no sense, you can't tell me you can attend a 500 people wedding without masks, but you'll get covid when you come to a masjid wearing a mask using your own prayer mat etc. People already didn't come to the masjid, with a waning spiritual connection already in place, they just further let shaytan get a hold of them and ruin whatever they had going on in the name of covid.

Almost 2.5 years after masajid have opened up, a lot of masajid are still struggling,because our communities have still refused to come back home. They don’t realize the spiritual damage they are subjecting their children to by not coming to the masjid at all or very less. People have realized the impact not going to school has for kids, how creating and artificial environment at home is hard, for the religious needs especially in the west when we don’t have basic knowledge in most cases, creating that environment is even harder, add in we depend on whatsapp video calls and sunday school as our primary source of islamic education, in either case the environment is either non existent or poor at best.

We must go to the masjid and reestablish our connection with the masjid then use this to strengthen our connection with the owner of the world. I pray this finds you in good health inshallah and please go back to the masjid.

The Dangers of Pornography according to a normal Muslim

10/25/2022

Islam is a religion which is meant for all people, and its message is meant for all people. Basically when i do a podcast i ask questions in regards to what everyone should hear, not just a muslim. When i did the pornography vices episode, the episode was shared by people who are not muslim, the reason is pornography is something that ruins marriages and relationships regardless of faith or belief. I know it's a common belief that watching it together will help couples out and stuff, from an islamic perspective watching it is sinful, as you are watching someone who is not your spouse and other strange people sans clothing. If I or you or anyone watches it as a muslim we should acknowledge the sin, trying to refrain from further indulgence in such materials. We are human, mistakes happen all the time.

But when couples watch porn, they expect each other to perform like pornstars, but the fact of the matter is we are not pornstars. They are actors and are acting a part, they train for this acting, us as men and our wives do not, we have jobs and house work to do, to expect such actions from your partner would be absurd, than to follow up if you are upset your partner doesn't do what you watched it can lead to relationship breakdown or misunderstandings.

This is why it is forbidden to watch in private or in groups, it leads to further sin, to prevent future relationship breakdown and issues our religion and its rules advise us to stay away from this act of indulging in porn.

People can say it's not easy, but even society has rules to keep order. You could say stopping at a stop sign just slows me down, but it's to prevent further chaos and a huge traffic mess. Than there are the unwritten rules of society, like you give an elderly person preference in line for food or a seat on a bus, as they do not have the same strength as a young individual and have waited their turn many times in life. Similarly religion prescribes things to keep order in society and to prevent mental breakdowns in people and further complicate a relationship. If you know what's best and have taken any advice from my post you will try to stay away from porn as much as you can, and if you accidentally indulge, you will repent and ask Allah to keep you away from it.

On a lighter note porn is so foul and so haram even Javaid Ghamidi (Mohammed Shafique by birth) when asked about it he said it is something to abstain from, this in an interview which can be found in the following clip: https://youtu.be/IUWYhlTyorc

Jazakallah

A New Year

3/2/2022

So after a long hiatus of blogging I am back, trying to blog with regularity, i had joined a writing cohort, fell behind in that due to real world responsibilities, my daughter falling ill really threw me behind. so 2 weeks catch up equals about 2 months extra work it seems. So what is going on currently, Ukraine Vs Russia, WW3. I see what's going on in the world with the we need to save Ukraine and we stand with Ukraine junk. Than the news is like these are normal refugees, these are white skinned blue eyed, blond haired people becoming homeless due to war. I mean for the most part that is a good description of Syrian refugees as well, aside from the fact they are ethnically Arab, some percent muslim and some percent christian with some minority religion sprinkled in. But it does create and issue when refugees are trusted based on their ethno religious background over what they are coming from and what do they bring? Syrian refugees are some of the most highly educated and intelligent people on earth, any country who takes them in will get loads of Drs, Engineers, and other professions. Than the other narrative of, Iraq and Afghanistan have been at war forever, Iraq and Afghanistan have been free nations which have very diverse populations, and their country borders were crafted by the Brits before they made a disaster out of Asia and the Middle East. These borders were not based on anything sensible, the European colonizers stole all the resources and left the new countries with puppet leaders and nothing to work with. Populations who historically didn't get along were placed into one country and forced to make it work. Like who in the crap got to decide that we will place, Christians, Sunnis and Shias in one country along with forcing the Kurds into a corner. Like really who got to make this crockpot of a country? Than you steal everything good before you leave, even the Koh i Noor Diamond, the british claim they own it by some shoddy treaty they probably crafted, I mean if they placed a gun at some princes head and said ,sign this fair agreement and he did, what legitimacy does it have? The world may never realize the atrocities the british committed because they don't want to admit the truth. but anyway we will continue tomorrow down this narrow dark path trying to dissect the bias against Muslim sufferers and their Euro Christian or Jewish counterparts suffering.

Acid Reflux

12/13/2021

I sort of missed a blog yesterday, was a bit busy getting back into the hang of working, trying to get all the hamsters back in their wheel.  My daughter had covid, we stayed huddled up at home until she tested negative or we at least had 10 days from symptoms, it was a hard time being stuck in the room, all 4 of us. Than i was very tired yesterday, had to drive around and get some supplies etc, it was a rough first day back. But one of the side effects of sitting in the room and eating, just eating aside from that i wasn't doing much else, is the acid reflux that comes with it, I have a history with acid reflux, it's mostly triggered by stress factors, so ultimately I cannot eat spicy foods either. So we were eating a bit spicier than usual since my wife wasn't cooking, she was confined to the room. 

So acid reflux for me is triggered by a few things, one which is stress, I hate this version, because its a mental thing which is causing me discomfort in my chest and it prevents me from eating comfortably. The second reason is eating spicy foods, that's why I have given up all spicy foods, this also is a leading reason of why I can't eat at parties or peoples houses on invite, it will lead to a night of discomfort and fear, oh when will it kick in and start the hell of the the stomach world. Third reason is eating late or not on time, this one is tricky, you can't eat late at night, so i try to stop eating by 9 now, or you can't miss a meal, usually if I miss a meal, the system starts its initial attack within an hour. Now I can't just eat and make it better, it takes a few hours or sometimes days for the system to adjust. Yeah it sucks, but it's my system, I thank Allah for it, it could always be more problematic.

I try to make sure my acid reflux doesn't kick in, it's different each time, sometimes the pain is in the stomach, sometimes it's a gas pain, at others it's in the throat. It is pain at the end of they day, the main thing is to avoid the items I know, avoid eating at the wrong time. The last one is hard avoiding stress, we live in a society with people, some really stupid idiotic people, and they will give you stress no matter how hard you try to avoid it. So just try not to take any stress and pray for the best.

Explosion Poops

12/12/2021

Weird date, it's a bunch of 1's and 2's and a random 0, today will be a short musing. My daughter just fell asleep, this kid is funny, she can fall asleep sitting. babies are funny, they do things called explosive poops. Explosive poops are a very unique phenomena, where the baby poops so hard that the poop flies out of the diaper through the clothes all the way up to their necks. Causes a huge mess which takes a while to clean, and the only real way of cleaning up properly is to give the baby a bath. I have faced this many times myself, so if you find yourself on the opposite end of one of these and lost on what to do, feel free to send an email, I'll try to reply asap with full instructions.

The curious nutcase that is Richard Dawkins

12/11/2021

I've known about Dick Dawkins for many years, never really paid attention to him like that, he is somewhat the Peer sahib or saviour of the Atheist community, a modern day Jim jones i guess. They look up to him and revere him like the Hindus do a famous singer at one of their Diwali events. I've recently started to see what he writes and his opinions on many things, Islam included, to say he is an islamophobe is not factually correct, he is a super Islamophobe is more proper in our context. The guy just slaps 5 things together which he sees Muslims do and says this is Islam, see it for what it is. This is the tactic of most Islamophobes and certainly the Ex Muslim delusionists.

The main issue is when it comes to Islam, people attribute the actions of Muslims as Islam, but when it comes to other religions, they seperate. Take the case of a school shooter raised in a Christian household, not one time will his religion come up in conversation, not once, no new article will write this down, that he came from a Christian household and they attended church every sunday. Every Muslim to who commits a crime, the first thing they always look for is; is this an isolated incident or is he connected to a larger group we must crack? Plenty of Atheistic people commit mass murders, currently the Atheistic government of China has millions of Uighurs placed in concentration camps, as they commit acts of treachery and murders of many of them, not a word of opposition from these so called atheist.  The Buddhist of Burma have been torturing and killing Rohingya Muslims for decades on end with no punishment or mention of religion. These are things you can google search and find out for yourself. The people of Palestine, both Christian and Muslim are being targeted by the Zionist government of Israel with no end in sight, but you never hear mention of the Jewish atrocious acts, why not? Why is Islam always the scapegoat? When Amr ibn al Aas (ra) left Egypt, the Coptic christians cried, the Holy Benjamin prayed for his success, because the Muslims came and liberated Christians from other Christians, namely the Byzantines, which allowed them to pray freely and trade freely, where as the Catholic church had clamped them down. Muslims have always been the liberators and freedom fighters, where it went wrong for us was when we stopped fearing Allah and let the desire for wealth get to our heads.

Back to Dawkins Sahib, he promotes such things as Cannibalism, Pedophilia, Incest to name a few disgusting and immoral things. But somehow these Atheist clamor and run over obstacles to meet this clown. On face value, we can just assume this man has very little morals and 0 values if he can be ok with consumption of human meat, to clarify later on he said lab grown human meat. Like who the hell thinks up of this clownery? Pedophilia, is such a disgusting crime, like there are no words from me on that topic, I have kids, if someone took some indecent actions against my kids, i'd make sure they end up behind bars or on the other side of a knuckle sandwich at the least. Incest between direct relatives, I'm not a big proponent of cousin marriages, but the research seems to have shown something like a few direct cousin marriages have to have taken place for the 4th or 5th generation to have some real abnormalities. But that's my opinion, if someone wants to do it and it isn't against the law sure, go ahead, but these guys Dawkins and a few other atheist, say things like what if a brother wants to date his sister, like what the hell, do you guys have 0 moral compass?

And there my friends is where the real issues start, atheist have no rules, no basis to make rules off of, or a moral compass to look to, to create their rules for their seemingly utopian society. I think we have that already it's called China, the government is officially Atheist, and the masses are also atheist, look how that's going, let us not forget one of the most famous Atheist of all time, Joseph Stalin, responsible for the death of over 20 million people, let that seep in, 20 million. We should ask Dawkins and all the other atheist to explain how an atheist who are much more "pacifistic" than theses terrible Mozlems, how did he single handedly become responsible for over 20 million dead? Maybe Dawkins can have a symposium with his other atheist in a library, usually where atheist conferences happen, they have no incentive to offer charity, so nobody wants to foot the bill of donating a venue, what's the point? You will get the greater good? These guys are anti religious institution, but they still get married, marriage is a very religious concept, fair practice and justice come directly from religious ideology, atheistic principles are things like survival of the fittest.  Anyway this became a rant as most of my blogs do, but it does highlight the fact, that most atheist if they don't adopt some religious practice usually end up lost and talking nonsense, standing against the very idea of Islamic sacrifice of animals to feed mostly poor people, but not a peep when on thanksgiving millions of turkeys are killed to feed friends and family, you will notice the real problem isn't the sacrifice and feeding, its. the fact that the Muslims are doing it. A Muslims billionaire would feed 100 million people with no deal to convert, just out of the generosity of this heart, and 5 people would convert and they would say it was food dawah. Bill gates who isn't very religious, but does follow a religion, he feeds 1 million people and no one changes faith, people will praise him, but criticize the Muslim due to nothing he did, but because due to his generous action people joined Islam.

I will leave you today with duas of prosperity for everyone.

Atheism, my podcast episode and response

12/10/2021

I recently did an episode related to Atheism, it wasn't a smackdown of Atheism or a refutation, it was more along the lines of why do certain Muslims gravitate towards it or leave to join the "Religion" of Atheism. It isn't really a religion, I like to refer to it as such, because their advocates preach it as such, inviting people to join them, so they can sit around a bonfire sit indian style hold hands and sing Kumbaya. My first brush with Mulhids as they are called was many years ago when an ad for a book, Called the Curse of God, came up trying to sell me a book. I in my very Asad nature, poked and said sales must be bad, you have to advertise to sell this trash, It's a Pakistani Guy who moved away from Pakistan like 20 years ago for an education trying to sell his book I guess. Lots of atheist came and started pelting me with things, I really don't care i went back and forth for jest, than a christian guy joined me and was battling them, finally the author Harris Sultan came by and started replying, fair to say, that ad was take down because of the mess i made, and I think i was definitely take off of his list of targeted subjects. 

My episode was very tame, we didn't deconstruct Atheism at all, we could have, but that wasn't the topic. We spoke about emotional and family trauma people face, which is veiled as religion, which causes people to leave Islam, a lot of times people haven't ever discovered Allah in reality, they only pray on the basis of a physical act, but the spiritual level doesn't connect them with Allah. I have in my past been able to reach that higher level, it takes dedication and time to be able to do it. You hear stories like those of Harris where he says he comes from a fairly irreligious family, he only prayed one year of his life regularly, he was always a big advocate for many unislamic things, even before he openly declared Atheism. He was looking for a High from that one year of prayer, it doesn't work like that, you can't just crash course your way to Allah, many people try, or convert and the high they feel that first week they never get it again, because they stop putting in work into their spirituality. 

You hear things like I can believe in a creator or simple creator, but I will not accept Allah from people like Harris, basically what he is saying is, I would have to accept that there is a God, but I don't want Allah with all his rules and regulations. Their gripes with the Prophet Mohammed come much later down the line, most of those are cushions to make their mental psyche keep up with the ideology that Islam is bad. Him like many others have had failed careers in many areas, they work day jobs to make ends meet and get into Anti Islamic content creation, there is nothing Islamophobes love more than a sell out, if they can get a brown guy to say Muslims are the scum of the earth, it makes their battles so much easier and funding so much easier to get. Get a failed actor, so he knows acting pretty well, has a business to support him in the while he can get monetized and famous on youtube, you are golden. 

See the problem with a lot of these open Ex Muslims is, they aren't very good of convincing you against Islam, they just spew hate and their opinion on things. They are mostly toxic and little in nature, if someone challenges them they get defensive and aggressive, they have no bounds or morality at all, as they have shed any and all Muslim manners, for an atheist there are no bounds, everything is fair game as long as they can justify it, even the murder of someones sisters to get a debate heated. 

But anyway before this blog attracts them and i get heat, i think it is fair to say, they are very fragile in their glass houses, since they have no pillars to stand on, Muslims are very staunch on strong since we have pillars to stand upon, you may hate certain aspects of our belief but we will stand by them because we have a spine.

But anyway here is the discussion before i hurt any Gora Complex afflicted Ex Muslims feelings, and they have to go to their kitchen turn on their green screen and make a video cancelling me :).

Bangladeshi Student murdered in 2019 getting some justice?

12/9/2021

So in 2019 a Bengali university student wrote a facebook status which was anti AL, AL is Bangla political party, the one in charge right now, led by Sheikh Hasina, a female PM of a muslim country for many years now. Yeah western nations Muslim countries have done it before a lot of you have, amazing isn't it? But they have been quite brutal in carrying out justice against their opponents, a lot of elderly JI-B members have been publicly hung, or imprisoned as really old men. You won't hear anything from the international media because the AL apparently are their darlings. 

So anyway this young blossoming university student wrote this anti AL status on Facebook, that went viral, just expressing a little freedom of speech, I think criticism of political parties should be fair game, especially in Asia where is corruption is through the roof. they usually don't like that, you can see in Pakistan where on the daily the misappropriation of funds committed by the PML-N that happened in the pre PTI era is being exposed. Trust me when PTI leaves whenever that is, their sins will also come to light. This student went to university as usual, he got accosted by the students wing of the political party, they ushered him away, mercilessly beat him with cricket bats and ropes, then threw his lifeless body from some high level. That is inhumane, he merely was exercising free speech in regards to the Bangla government allowing India to use their water supply, a cause anyone can be upset about, I am sure he had a few more gripes with the ruling party as anyone does. 

Anyway they found the 20 guys, yeah 20 guys who committed this crime, somehow theres always a cell phone or CCTV video available, but people still don't learn, it took two years and most of the guys have finally been sentenced, something like 15-20 years a piece. The father was happy they got justice, it rarely happens in Asia, although he won't get his son back, he can feel a bit better knowing there is punishment for this heinous crime. So I think instead of giving a 15-20 year sentence, they should give 10 years in prison followed by having to either be punished or come in and serve 8-15 days a year after release for 30 years as a reminder for the murder. I think one shot and its done does ruin their life, but they can move on and forget, I do not believe in only punishment without rehabilitation, I believe each and every prisoner needs to be emotionally and spiritually rehabbed, everyone can realize their wrongs and move away from them. People are complicated and the experiences of their life can shape what bad decisions they make later in life, people are like onions at times, you have to peel at a lot of levels to get them to realize the wrong they have done and how gruesome it was.

Society needs a bit of humanity, we need to figure out how to plug that in again. Jazakallah for reading Asalamualaikum.

Honor Killings, Do only Muslims do it? Yeah but others do as well! What no way!

12/8/2021

So in Pakistan over the past week a Sri Lankan Factory manager was brutally murdered, murder is a kind way to put it, his factory workers, essentially dragged him than burnt him alive, only one guy ran to help him. Now the problem is this one man who tried to help him will probably have to move and lead a life, in which no one know who he is, otherwise some crazy idiots will try to kill him. So the real problem comes from overly religious ideology in certain aspects, where people in Southeast Asian cultures are attached to amulets and pictures. The slightest disrespect towards them will enrage people, i remember once folding a prayer rug in the way i always do, to be insulted and instructed by my cousins that the feet  were touching the head, whatever that meant. Essentially the fold was right in the middle horizontally, so the part where you put your head down was folded into the part where your feet are, it was seen as a sign of insult to them. See being overtly attached to symbolism is big in the Southeast Asian society. People from our culture are superstitious and overboard on the symbolism, so you have to be careful as a Muslim, Hindu, Christian etc, of Desi background. 

So what happened with the Sri Lankan manager, he had been living in Pakistan for 11 years, very well aware of the culture and background of his workforce, so it wasn't like he didn't know what crazies he was dealing with. His wife and 2 kids lived back home in Sri Lanka, so he was dutiful to his work and trying to create a better life for his family. Apparently they were going to clean the factory premises, and someone had decided to put up a somewhat religious poster on a wall, I think first of all that's super reckless, in Pakistan, India, Bangladesh people post flyers of a religious nature anywhere and everywhere, they are hard to get off and if you pull it off you have to be careful because people put names of the Prophet Mohammed (saw) and Allah on these at least in Muslim flyers I don't know what goes on other religion ones, so you try to be respectful, not to end up being accused of being a Gustakh-e-Rasul etc. People need to realize, you can't just put flyers or religious things everywhere, if you own the business, put it on the Entrance door, maybe in a hall way but not all over the place so people can have space to be themselves and not always worried of disrespect to the words or art. If you are an employee, you can put something removable in your personal space but nothing permanent on public walls, well people bring up the logic, but its only the praise of our Lord etc, yeah but theres a chance that it can cause issues or distress to others, so please don't put others in a compromising situation because of your ignorance.  

So this Manager took down a poster for a clean up, now some knucklehead had placed this poster in a public place, so he had to rip it off and dispose of it, all this cause some overzealous employee to gather other workers and basically kill this man, see in these cultures, if you tell someone oh so and so insulted our religion, god, family, village, people will get overly emotional and get ready to kill someone in the name of honor. Now what happens in these countries is, people create these fake narratives and say so and so said such and such thing about the religion, if they get thrown in jail as an innocent person, the system is so corrupt, no lawyer will be able to defend you without repercussions to them and their family. The individual who is using religion on a fake basis to accuse you is usually a liar trying to cover up their own wrong, so they will use cronyism to get others to say yes they heard you insult the religion or its tenets, its overall a messed up system, you can't use honor and trust anymore, people lie way too much. 

As Mufti Tariq Masood Sahib said, he is a very popular and well respected scholar from Karachi Pakistan, you also can't have initiated the abuse, so basically you can't say to a Christian, hey you guys believe in a false god, and your religion is so bad, than the Christian insults Islam or the Prophet, you have no legs to stand on because, you started this unnecessary insult session, this isn't Wild n Out where you are having a rap battle and people move on, when religion comes into play, feelings get hurt and emotions get activated. So in essence a lot of work needs to be put in to avoid these situations, people need to be put on watch, that look you can't participate in vigilante justice, you can't just insult people and expect to be respected because you think you are the King or Queen of the world. 

Than the religious community and government of Pakistan need to step it up, every year you hear about so many people who get arrested because of a interaction like this, Muslims, Christians, Hindus in Pakistan all get arrested due to lies or stories people concoct and the society supports this sort of behavior. I think there needs to be real reform, where disrespecting the Prophet (saw) and Allah still needs to be an area which is off limits, but we need to disallow mob mentality and vigilante justice to prevail. One Muslim man was trying to clean off some huge poster someone posted on his house, ruining his house, people accused him of insulting Islam and he died in a Pakistani Prison due to being jailed without cause on this offense. Where is the justice in this? The Prophet (saw) forgave many and most people who insulted him, there are a few examples of people who were exiled or killed for this offense, but they were to be examples that this act is not acceptable, but you have to look that his forgiveness was always more than his punishment. We should also give people chances to ask for forgiveness and let them see the mercy of Islam, yes although you made the first step and insulted our religion, in the case where the Muslims started the insults we need to let a fair court decided in this matter, we will still be like our Prophet and forgive you, we can never compete with Allah's 

forgiveness, his mercy is always more than his wrath.

But Alas I have written far too much again, we really need to protect any and all people from overzealous crazy symbolism based religious ideologies. 

Allah protect us all, and protect me as well. And may he increase my love for him and his Prophet Mohammed (saw).

Violence in Southeast Asia, culture or religion?

12/8/2021

So I was going to post a second one yesterday, didn't get a chance with the baby being pretty sick and the wife not feeling well. Covid for the baby has put a damper on all of us in the room. Hey it gets to you i swear, you really want to stay up beat, but it is really hard. But anyway i want to talk about hate crimes, honor killings and other sorts of violence that happens in Southeast Asia. A lot of times people like to blame Islam as a religion for all this violence, but in reality the same stuff happens in India, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Burma, Nepal etc. As you move further East or West you will still see a little bit of it, but in variation, not the same stuff. Take an example of what happened in India, in a Hindu family, where the daughter got married to her college boyfriend, the family wasn't happy with the marriage, but they didn't do anything for a while but were upset, until one day the brother and mother went to visit the pregnant girl as a rouse. They went to her in laws house where she lives, sat with her in seclusion, the brother grabbed her by the head, while the mother held the legs and they decapitated her. They further went outside held the head up for the phone camera and snapped a pic to post to social media or something, god knows what mentally insane thing was going through their head. But this is not a condemnation against Hindus, although CNN gave some farfetched tale about reporting on the names of the family involved is against the law in india, when the Indian new sources had everyones names plastered all over the web, CNN usually doesn't hesitate when it comes to a minor of Muslim descents name, i wonder what made them become so conscious in regards to a non-muslim. 

You will see these sorts of things happen in Muslim, Bhuddist, Jain, Non-religious, alternate religious households. Why do they happen? Culture, honor killings are cultural more than having to do with religion. In this region mentioned above, and extending beyond in some different format, if you marry outside of your community the family takes it as an insult, nice families will usually be ok with it, try to get along and make amends. On the extreme, which isn't so unusual, they will try to kill or hire to kill the couple or at least one of the parties who got married. It makes no sense, I cannot figure out why, it just doesn't make any sense, they got married, if they are happy let them live. But oh my god our honor was spoiled by our son/daughter marrying outside of our caste or community! Isn't it worse that you killed them? In Islam for murdering an innocent the punishment is the death penalty, this would only be in a fully governed Islamic country, and the weird thing is people who commit these heinous acts are ok with being put to death, they think they will be honored and revered after their death for doing the right thing.  If you gave this same punishment of the death penalty in other religious groups in this region, 9/10 times they would still commit the murder, because to them their familial honor is above everything. 

I think the problem lies heavily on the culture and not being able to change it, after colonization, before that Islam entering the region, so many major changes have take place, modern governmental systems in place to discourage this sort of behavior, it is so deep rooted it just doesn't go away, rather whatever system or religion comes in stays engrained with this honor and caste based system. It really is mind blowing that someone could kill their own sister or daughter because they married someone they didn't like or approve, taking the law into their own hands. I'll write about the killing of the Sri Lankan factory manager tomorrow or another time. What really happened there was unfortunate and sad, people with personal grudges in these regions will blame the innocent party of having incited religious hate, so therefore they can rile everyone up based on loving their prophet or deity respective of religion, than you go thrash and destroy the house, car, possessions or ultimately taking the life of the innocent party. Using religion as a a crutch to defend yourself and hurt the innocent party. When you come in front of the court, all you will merely say is, they committed an insult of our so and so, they expect a religious judge who will side with them or someone who will side with them based on the repercussions of the religious zealots. It is really sad when justice can't prevail because of gang violence and religious mafias, or overzealous believers. It happens in all religious communities in Southeast Asia and beyond. Inshallah will elaborate a bit more tomorrow or tonights blog post. 

Take care and make dua for all the sick around the world.

Why I revere Ahmed Cheema and Refi Hussaini

12/7/2021

They are good guys, now go support their content.

Instagram: Ahmedhcheema and RafiHussaini

Dr. Zakir Naik and  his image for me over the years

12/7/2021

So to be honest, I was not a big fan of Dr. Zakir back in the day, I didn't dislike him, I just wasn't big into why debate culture was so big. I thought Islam is right, why do we need to debate with people to prove it. Then I realized, our people were going astray, because people get convinced of easy things not proof based things. Thats why when someone says if you walk everyday for a month you will lose 5 pounds and it will stay off if you maintain at least walking twice a week, it is so hard. But when a Kardashian comes on TV or youtube now, and says I did this easy routine of eating Poutine and walking once a week and i lost 25 pounds in a month, we know its crazy but we will do it because its easy. We as humans have progressively gotten lazier and less hard working because we are driven by money not peace. We think money is peace, but it isn't, ironically Peace TV was started by Dr. sahib to broadcast his and other Islamic programs around the world. I used to dislike the whole clapping after every answer he gives, seemed like a cookie point factory. Recently I have started to enjoy his question answer sessions with the public.

Now we as normal everyday Muslims, we are starting to see people ask us these same questions that Dr. Sahib answered years ago, it is a regurgitation of a question they saw elsewhere, so we would benefit from watching and listening to some Dr. Sahib. Not saying to get your fiqh from him, get that from whatever scholar you already trust, just learn a few answers to common questions. Trust me it will empower your Imaan and will make you stronger in the face of someone questioning your faith. There was a really funny one i saw recently in which for 20 minutes a guy from the crowd was asking questions and Dr. sahib answered every single one, then the guy was like I'm still not convinced Islam is correct. Dr. sahib and this guy got into a funny debate of a medical nature, where this guy who is an engineer was trying to tell Dr. sahib what the medical community agrees upon, and then he dropped the hammer, Are you a Doctor? He asked him 3 times, guy is like no, but i read something, Than Dr. Sahib was asking him about a building made out of paper in Bombay and for him to tell him why it wasn't possible as an engineer. He was pretty ignorant, Dr. sahib made his point but this guy was still disillusioned. 

There is an appreciation you will build of Dr. Sahib, after maybe some years or some interactions with ignorant people. Remember he has been exiled from his home country, they are trying to extradite him and punish him. They want him to become a Government pawn, he refuses, they shut down his organization, banned Peace Tv in India, they have done so much to hurt him. He basically can't give those speeches and question answer sessions he used to do back in the day all over India where at least 15-20 people were converting in front of a crowd of 20,000 to 30,000. You see the rampant hate created by the ex-muslim community towards our faith and our people. They may not directly go out and harm Muslims, but their rhetoric and channels are watched by Islamophobes and they take this info, as though they are getting it from some super reliable source and they use it to hurt and persecute Muslims. Thats why you see not help for the Uighur Muslims being persecuted in China, because Muslims have been painted in such a bad light, that even millions of Muslims being placed in concentration camps doesn't even hit the news, your more likely to read about a Kardashian Dog dying than a Muslim dying from being placed in a camp. So in essence the work Dr. Sahib has put in, the years, the study and effort is just amazing. Even till today Atheist who hate Islam, go after Dr. Sahib real hard and say he wouldn't stand a chance against them, yeah theses guys who have created a youtube following based on the dramatics of their channels nature vs a man who methodically quotes books of religion and research as though he is reading a teleprompter. Yeah I'm going to go with the guy who has years of schooling, years of professional debating experience, and can quote almost any book to dumbfound you in a second. Thank you for your hard work Dr. Zakir Naik.

Content Creators Lack of Support

12/6/2021 Night Blog lol

My daughter should be cleared inshallah by tomorrow of covid, its been quite the journey of handling our baby with masks on in our own room. Trust me its a challenge having to change clothes after burping her, changing clothes 3-4 times a day ain't no joke. Inshallah things will change for the better by tomorrow. 

So in out Muslim community, we have people who do content creation, wonderful work it is, you can possibly turn it into a career, alternative to what we have been taught by society to work as a cog in the system created by the corporations. I have respect for honest content creation work, which doesn't lean on faking it or making it seem like you did something you didn't do. Like releasing a video that says, Mufti Menk said something Haram, and its just a video about a Mufti Menk Bayan, Clickbait as they call it. but i get why content creators do it, western society has created this adrenaline junky society, in which people are stimulated by tabloid worthy titles, so its the fault of society that they have made content creators so dependent on dishonesty for them to click on the videos or blogs. 

If you are a new content creator who creates honest content, doesn't look for validation, or doesn't use clickbait type titles, chances are if you haven't gone viral you're struggling along wondering where things went wrong. Trust me you did nothing wrong, if you are putting out good quality content, it will take time for your content to catch on if it ever does, and it's fine. If you are a Muslim content creator, and you are not getting the support of Muslims, especially those in your immediate circle, worry not we all go through that, because most of our circle is surrounded by people who will only show up if its a dawat and they getting that free nihari and biryani, you can't convince them to click on that youtube video to even give a phantom like. 

Even the close people who say they will support you most of the time its wanting and sad, I have seen people outside of my circle support me more than those close to me. Doing my podcast I have built lifelong friendships with people who I still haven't met due to covid. Inshallah I'll meet them and show them appreciation for their continued support. It's like when there is a family wedding everyone who is related but not the center of attention wants to be treated like a dulhan (bride), people will say things like you didn't ask me if i was hungry, dang it your a 58 year old individual, if you were hungry I am sure you could pick up a piece of bread and eat it. So everyone who is close to you will make suggestions to you about your content, even though they may not even watch or support or either they will jest at your craft. Anyway buckle up its going to be a bumpy ride and you will come out just fine if you don-t listen to the haters, because thats all they ever going to be. Go do what you need to continue to put quality content out there, and if you need a subscribe, ill give you 5. Keep up the good work and don't get phased by the haters.

This blog post is brought to you by Falcon Notes, the best tools in content creation don't come from heaven they come from www.falconnotes.com. 

Beause heaven is reserved for the unseen gifts. :)

Find the creative Tiger within you

12/6/2021

So we have been in quarantine with our daughter who has covid for a week now, it has been an experience, see being partially stuck in a room to avoid getting other family members in the house sick is really a challenge. Myself, my wife and son have all tested negative but we interact with the baby all the time so we have remained locked up for the most part. My Stepmother brings us food and at times i'll go get things from the kitchen. We are avoiding unnecessary interactions and item usage. It is all in the spirit of avoiding to get anyone sick. I think this teaches you, that you can live a basic life style if you have to, we just choose to be outside all the time. Maybe sitting inside your house for a few days will help you re-establish a connection with yourself and your desires. Maybe you want to create content, but due to your busy lifestyle you don't. Take away all the outside elements and you become a more clear person in regards to what you want to do. I have personally written a bunch of blog posts, gotten my book on track, i wrote so many blogs on my site, that it crashed, i didn't write too many but my friend who made the website, very generously created a beautiful website for me for free, but it ran into some issues, we are getting that fixed. In the mean time i decided i will write more abstract thoughts here, and i will try daily, if not i may make a video on my youtube channel and link it here. I really want to put good content out there, and i needed this week to get my head straight to be able to do it. If you want to watch my content you can search up The Straight Path Podcast on youtube, its a logo with Mic in the middle (yes many think its an orange lightbulb, yeah that one).

I'll complain about the lack of support for new content creators later.