Strength of a Muslim Woman

I’m spunky and creative
Net and computer savvy
With an honours degree to boot
And business sense aplenty

I speak Mandarin, English, Malay
Deutsch kann ich auch gut
I treat others with respect
Not linger in dispute

I may not look the part
Of your typical woman of steel
But see beyond my garb
And discern my unwavering will

The strength I have come not
From my cash, my car, my career
But from the faith within me
And the hijab I hold so dear

I stand among the corporate types
Of swanky business suits
Where Donna Karan and the likes
Have made their fashion roots

But here’s my modest wardrobe
You’ll find no haute couture
I’d rather sport the hijab
With which I feel secure

Go ahead and question me
Or my credentials assess
But doubt not my abilities
Because of my modest dress

For I’m honest in my dealings
And put my best foot forward
In whatever undertakings
That others me entrusted

Ummu Ehsan

Is silence a crime?

Ashura is the name given to the 10th day of the first month, Muharram, in the lunar Muslim Calender. It is celebrated annually across the world to commemorate the martyrdom of the grandson of Prophet Muhammed (pbuh), Imam Hussain (AS) that took place almost 1400 years ago in the city of Karbala in Iraq. The Imam (arabic for leader) rose against the dictator of that time, Yazid and rallied people to resist his oppression and crimes against humanity. His struggle peaked when he was martyred along with 71 other male members of his family and his followers who chose to stand by him in his noble cause. The female members of the clan were taken prisoners and they utilized the opportunity to propagate the Imam’s cause and expose the heinous face of Yazid.

Is it all just another myth? Or just another war like hundred others that fill the pages of history? Is it just another story of valor that a few million maniacs repeat year after year till date? What is it about Imam’s struggle that has given it an immortal life?

When Imam Husain realized that Yazid planned persecute him because he was weary of the stance Imam had against him, he was called to pay allegiance to Yazid. In this meeting at the beginning of his armed struggle, Imam declared his mission statement with these words:

“My example cannot give his hand to the like of Yazīd”

What I find most striking about these words is the universality in time, space, and person. There are no bars of religion, none of sect or race. What is Imam’s example? And what is the like of Yazid? Perhaps the reason that millions of people continue to repeat this event and learn from it every single year is that the likes of Yazid and the need for examples of the Imam continue to exist.

If the cause was so noble and rightful and if the Imam did really rise up against people who were oppressed and subjected to gross injustice, why then was the Imam prosecuted so brutally along with his clan? Where were the thousands of people who saw the heinous crimes of their king, Yazid everyday?

Like many of us today, they were silent. They hated the crimes with their hearts but was that enough? Like many of us today, they talked about these crimes on their dinner tables and forgot about them as they took their last bites.. but was that enough? Speaking was dangerous and struggle was deadly so they decided to remain silent, much like we do. The more “experienced”, “smarter adults” silenced their youth who argued against the tyrant, they said it was a surge of hormones, of emotions but it would be senseless. Indeed, it was. It was dangerous, deadly but it was right. It was so right, we continue to commemorate it after so many years. What about these people who ceased to take sides and let someone honorable die in the path of truth while they made themselves busy in their day-to-day routines? Was their silence their crime?

If the likes of Yazid exist today in their modern forms and the examples of Husayn struggle against their tyranny, what are we doing? Are we silent?

Admixture

The basis of the occurrence of evils are those desires which are acted upon and the orders that are innovated. They are against the Book of Allah. People co-operate with each other about them even though it is against the Religion of Allah. If wrong had been pure and unmixed it would not be hidden from those who are in search of it. And if right had been pure without admixture of wrong those who bear hatred towards it would have been silenced. What is, however, done is that something is taken from here and something from there and the two are mixed! At this stage Satan overpowers his friends and they alone escape for whom virtue has been apportioned by Allah from before.

Wisdom and Love

Each religion, school of thought, movement or revo­lution is made up of two elements: wisdom and love. One is light and the other is motion. One gives common sense and understanding, the other, strength, enthusiasm and motion. In the words of Alexis Carrel, ‘Wisdom is like the lights of a car which show the way. Love is like the motor which makes it move.’ Each is nothing without the other. A motor, without lights, is blind love, dangerous, tragic and infers death.

In a society, a movement of thought or a revolutio­nary school of thought, men of letters who are clear thin­kers, aware and responsible, show, through their works, that there is a way to come to know a school of thought or a religion. They show that there is a way to give awareness to the people. The responsibility of the people, on the other hand, is to give their spirits and their strength to a movement. They are responsible for giving the starting push.

A movement is like a living body. It thinks with the brain of scholars and gives love through the hearts of its people. If faith, sincerity, love and sacrifice are at a mini­mum in a society, people are responsible. But where cor­rect understanding of a school of thought is at a minimum, where vision, awareness, logical consciousness, deep fa­miliarity with the goals of a school of thought are lacking, where the meaning, purpose and truths of a school of tho­ught are missing, the scholars are responsible. Religion, in particular, needs both since religion is a type of lovers consciousness or love of consciousness.

In religion, knowledge and feelings are not treated as separate entities because they are transformed into un­derstanding and faith by means of common sense and the coming to know something.

-An excerpt from a book by Dr. AS available here