Letters to My Daughter

I suppose I reduce the world to black and white, good and bad, moral and immoral. I believe that my faith prescribes a certain system of conduct, and with that system, there are fundamentals. I think over time the fundamentals seem even more codified, even though I don't believe that God wants to make it hard for us to follow His laws. If He is infinitely merciful, then the decisions we make should be pleasing to first Him and then us. Our happiness, like Paradise now, should not be entirely sacrificed because what would God want from such a sacrifice? What would be the point of such sacrifice for God? What does it mean for me to say that these sacrifices are for something Higher, Greater, Unknown that I cannot explain in rational terms? Why do we continue to deny ourselves with the promise of Paradise? Why can't paradise be now? There is a balanced way to live our lives that keeps Islam in the center, but does not reduce the world to a Muslims-only bubble. I don't know if ...

Today I was called a intellectual whore. I was told that all i want to do is intellectually screw people because what I like most about people are their ideas, experiences and thoughts. I have shown little regard for emotions, and sentimentality and for the UMPTH time this year, I find myself saddened by the loss of a friend. Here's his top 10 of most (im)memorable quotes: 1. "You're like Sex in the City, minus the sex." [Mindless stupidity is the implication] 2. "I am a warm person. You're not" 3. [paraphrase] I am a very sensitive person. I can't have you constantly hurting my feelings. 4. "I don't respect you" 5. "I am a generous person" 6. "We can't be friends, Sadia." 7. "You are emotionally crippled" 8. "What you need is a wall." 9. "I don't mean to hurt you." 10. "You're an intellectual whore." And the best question of today, and of the week perhaps, is when ...

Malcolm Gladwell. "Getting In: The Social Logic of Ivy Leage Admissions" http://www.gladwell.com/2005/2005_10_10_a_admissions.html Major themes: 1. Passion is a significant contributor to success. 2. High intelligence means little without discipline and passion. "Bowen and Shulman write about the characteristics that make athletes more coveted by Ivy League schools: One of these characteristics can be thought of as drive--a strong desire to succeed and unswerving determination to reach a goal, whether it be winning the next game or closing a sale. Similarly, athletes tend to be more energetic than the average person, which translates into an ability to work hard over long periods of time--to meet, for example, the workload demands placed on young people by an investment bank in the throes of analyzing a transaction. In addition, athletes are more likely than others to be highly competitive, gregarious and confident of their ability to work well in groups (on teams). I ...

Prudishness, or Victorianism specifically, I realized this morning, is a social construct. This is not much in terms of a revelation-quality, but at 9:30AM Saturday morning, this is what came to me. Women's sexuality always makes men in power anxious, so they legislate ways to control female bodies. At the Chocolate Show a few weeks ago, Shakera told me that people in history have always had sex. I responded with: No they probably did it within legal and social norms and customs. She said I was an idiot, and the discussion went back to issues of chocolate. So why are we so opposed to following the rules? What is the big deal with constructing rules, if you accept them as preconditions to the good life? So what if you deny yourself a good lay because you believe fornication is inherently wrong? So what if your Paradise is a construct? (Though I pray that belief supplanted with knowledge and reason leads to something real) If you believe constructs to be real, if you regard these con...

The following is a (late) dialogue I wrote for class while in Indiana with Daisy Khan. These individuals are not real characters, and any resemblance to reality is purely coincidental. On the Exaltation of the Spirit: An Intrafaith Dialogue about Ibn Arabi The following is a dialogue between Zaid, a traditionalist Muslim and Ayesha, a Sufi Muslim. Seated at Cafe Reggio on MacDougal Avenue, the two friends are discussing the their reading of Ibn Arabi from their Islamic Studies class. ZAID: One of my favorite verses in the Qur'an, Ayesha, is when Allah says, "And if all the trees on earth were pens and the ocean (were ink), with seven oceans behind it to add to its (supply), yet would not the words of Alah be exhausted (in writing): for Allah is Exalted in Power, full of Wisdom." (31:27 ) I believe that in surah Al-Lugman, the inexhaustible supplies of pens and ink refer to the infinite evidence of God manifest in nature. Don't you agree? AYESHA: [Smiling] I do. But ...

I have to rename my computer. Dinu suggests one name "Samar," which means "evening conversations" which is what we do most nights instead of sleeping. I told my mother a new laptop is in order, but she says something about paying for two kids in college. I don't know anymore.

Passenger Seat Lyrics Death Cab for Cutie I roll the window down And then begin to breathe in The darkest country road And the strong scent of evergreen From the passenger seat as you are driving me home. Then looking upwards I strain my eyes and try To tell the difference between shooting stars and satellites From the passenger seat as you are driving me home. "do they collide?" I ask and you smile.

Today, the police officer at 34th Street asked, "Do you have a hard time admitting that you're wrong?" I said, "No officer, I am usually very quick to admit guilt. But it takes me a long time to change my thinking or behavior." And then I proceeded to ask him for the statistical details on how many people are ticketed or arrested at the subway station. He was rude, and refused to answer. So today I recieved my first ticket. This Monday was my first domestic flight (to South Bend, Indiana), and today was my first SUMMONS. Gee whiz, I am growing up fast. The bad day really started yesterday, when I unexpectedly decided to pop by my friend's place with another friend, thinking well, spontaneity cannot be read as interest/weirdness. However, I had a conversation that put me back in my little hole, and that has left me in pieces. Shattered, is how Mick Jagger would describe it. "My brain's been splattered / all over / Manhattan" That's what he w...

Yesterday, I was at the all-you-can-eat dinner for the Caribbean Student Association (CSA), where I remembered to pay a boy $20 for a book I had borrowed from him last year but then forgot to read, or return. This inspired me to fulfill the other random promises that I have made over time. Last year, I saw a Tisch play with a friend with whom who I promised to share my thoughts. I found the assignment in my old files. He doesn't read the blog, but I posted it up anyway. 11.22.04 The Princess is Waiting Written by Salal Abdel-Sabur The eye is centered in an arched window. Wrapped in hieroglyphics, the words engraved around the window pane read: Theater, Truths, Sight, History, Illusion, Reality, Justice, Repetition, Death. The pamphlet for student production “The Princess is Waiting” included a drawing of an one-dimensional eye around an elaborate panel of symbols and letters. The nine words that surround the eye are significant to the play, which grapples with issues of feminism...

As a child, my mother told me a very strange story about how men find women to marry. This story I've repeated maybe dozens of times, because its influence is rather pervasive in my thinking. My mother told me once, women are like mangoes. Mangoes come in all kinds of conditions. Some are really ripe, some are hard, some are very sweet, some are not so sweet. From a crate of mangoes, people will pick up mangoes according to their preference. However, it is always the case that there will be mangoes that are left over, that do not sell as quickly. People miss them because they are at the bottom of the crate. But they are just as good as any other mango in the crate. But eventually, there will come an individual who just hungry enough to buy that last remaining mango. This story, though sexist and problematic on so many levels, still subscribes hope for the last mango, which is waiting patiently to be purchased and eaten. Over the years, I've gotten over the absurdity of the stor...

On Friday November 4th, my computer was christened "attraction." This is funny because I am afraid of both attraction and computers.

"Since the human being is the supreme value in creation, it is our interactions with other humans that have the greatest degree of moral implication. So much is this so, that we can say that the most specific goal of morality is to establish authentic relationships with other human beings. "The mark of authenticity in interhuman relationships is the presence of self-sacrificing love or altruism. Non-authentic relationships are based on various forms of egotism and self-interest and are characterized by conflict, disharmony, manipulation, cruelty, jealousy and the like." From Love, Power and Justice: the Dynamics of Authentic Morality William S. Hatcher

I resort to writing it seems in times of extreme stress or blissful nonactivity. Today, I (probably) failed my logic midterm, realized I have three papers due next week, realized that the dysfunctional computer brings me more pain than anything else has in the past month, and that a empty stomach and going to sleep hungry is tolerable. Despite all this, I feel inspired by individuals I hardly know, by their conversations, and their presences I enjoy so immensely that all else is bearable. Although I have no problem using those names name on my blog, I think it best to exclude names because 1) they do not necessarily read my blog 2) they would find me extremely weird 3) previous bad experiences with the use of names and 4) to have others wondering who are the mysterious new characters that I have chosen to write about. First let me preface the follow exaltation of people with the dysfunctioning of machines in my life. There is deathly blue screen that has taken more than my productivity...