Letters to My Daughter

I love that whenever and wherever I ask to go with you, you take me. You take me to class, to the masjid to pray tarawee, to the mall to do shopping on FOOTBALL SUNDAY, to my parents house in Queens, to VA to hear Sheikh Jebril make dua, and back home to you.

"You should not neglect your time or use it haphazardly; on the contrary you should bring yourself to account, structure your litanies and other practices during each day and night, and assign to each period a fixed and specific function. This is how to bring out the spiritual blessing (baraka) in each period. But if you leave yourself adrift, aimlessly wandering as cattle do, not knowing how to occupy yourself at every moment, your time will be lost. It is nothing other than your life, and your life is the capital that you make use of to reach perpetual felicity in the proximity of God the Exalted. Each of your breaths is a priceless jewel, since each of them is irreplaceable and, once gone, can never be retrieved. Do not be like that deceived fools who are joyous because each day their wealth increases while their life shortens. What good is an increase in wealth when life grows ever shorter? Therefore be joyous only for an increase in knowledge or in good works, for they are ...

from wikipedia: Ear picks are a commonly used item and preferred for ear wax removal in East Asia. The person having their ears cleaned would lie down with their head in the lap of the person doing the cleaning. It is generally considered a pleasant feeling, like having one's back scratched. The cleaning of ears is thus considered an act of intimacy, often performed by a mother to a child or, among adults, by one's lover. It may also be performed alone or by professional ear cleaners on the streets of cities in countries such as China, India, Japan, Vietnam, and other Asian countries.

speak the truth and you shall be heard

Bismillah irAHman uraheeem. Alhamdullilah, I was married on Memorial Day Weekend, May 28th, 2006. It was a ceremony that brought together two dynamic families, amazing friends of two dynamic individuals, and was witnessed by over 500 guests in attendance at the Long Island Sheraton. I felt like a passenger in much of the event planning, the details, the mayhem of the wedding. But alhamdullilah, alhamdullilah, alhamdullilah. It has been a wonderful first month of marriage, full of surprises, cries of happiness, and moments of total amazement at the will of Allah talla. Of all the guests in attendance, there are several women I would like to dedicate this entry to, the women who supported, and guided me on the chaotic days leading up to my bethrothal, and without whom I would probably still be trying to put on my holud sari. First is my mother, Nargis Z. Kalam, a mother of 20 years, a wife of 22 years, an elementary school teacher, and the greatest woman I have ever known. She always pu...

The countdown to the wedding offically began when I woke up at 8:30 this morning. This happened without the assistance of my two alarm clocks, my mother, or my Mohamed. The fact that I woke up this early implies, obviously, that I am getting married in 7 days. In terms of preparation, I am trying to bathe and shower every day, wash my face before going to bed, brush my teeth, eat at least 2 full meals, etc. Basically, the daily routine now consists of the normal things that most people do everyday, things that I have neglected to do because the chaos of student life precludes normalacy. In particular, I hope to continue this excellent habit of brushing my teeth well into my married life, insha'Allah. If I don't, it will be time for the root canal. And besides, there is morning breathe to worry about. Some of my aunties came over yesterday to do giftwrapping. We decided to put some things in a massive pink Victoria's Secret box because I happened to have visited Victoria...

The following is an excerpt from a paper I wrote for my history professor, who seemed like a nice guy but was really cold, and merciless. I wrote this section with him in mind. He is about 32ish, and an eligible bachelor, but still a cruel...bastard. I don't really mean that but cruel bastard is a sort of idiom with no adequate substitute. Not only was Al Jahiz an early ethnographer, he seemed to be a sociologist of sorts as well. He made human observations about emotions, such as envy, jealousy, and of course, love. In his essay, “Love and Women,” he tells us of the difference between men and women, about when women are superior to men and vica versa, what occupations and rights women ought to observe. During this time period, passionate love or eros was distinct from conjugal love, because the eros could only be aroused by professionals, like “singing slave-girls,” a class of prostitutes that are cultured, and educated in specific arts like the geisha. One passage of note descr...