Yaser M. Haddara

Mohammad El Kanady and Johny bin Kanuck are two awesome guys serving the truth up cold on their shared blog. Anas Tolba is a very creative young man who also happens to be the son of my teacher/mentor/murabby/sheikh. His imagery and poetry in both Arabic and English are worth reading. And Hossam El-Gabri is the guy with the can-do attitude and tremendous insights into motivation, tarbiya, training, and leadership (among other skills ). If we all encourage him perhaps he will keep up entries on his new hadithuna blog.

I also strongly recommend you check out Omair’s latest entry and Hadeel’s reports about Egypt.

Things have been hectic, hence the last two week hiatus. I am still working on that loooong article on humor in classic texts, but in the meantime the buffer has filled up with things I’ve been meaning to post. So a few entries to follow. The long post will most likely come next week inshaa Allah. In the meantime I’ll try to keep you busy with things that have backed up in the queue

Abdul asked about the hadeeth “that Allah says that I am to my servant as he /she thinks of me” and he says “does it mean that we should always think ‘merciful’ and that way we’ll be more prone to mercy?”. The short answer is that yes that is what it means and we should always strengthen our hope in God’s mercy. To shed a little more light on this I looked it up in ibn Hajar’s commentary on Bukhari and Imam al-Nawawy’s commentary on Muslim. They make a number of significant points:

1. Imam al-Nawawy is explicit in stating the simple meaning mentioned above, that the hadeeth motivates us to have hope in God’s pardon (الرجاء وتأميل العفو).
2. True hope is what is joined with action. So if you call upon God in the manner that He prescribed and while fulfilling the conditions that He has set then you should be in no doubt that He will respond. Similarly if you sincerely seek to come closer to Him you should be in doubt that He will guide you. “Hope” that is used as an “excuse” or justification of the abandonment of effort is pure delusion.
3. The opposite of hope is despair (not fear, true fear complements true hope). When one’s awareness of his/her own shortcomings, failings, sins, error, etc., is so acute and so destructive as to leave one in no doubt of being lost, then one is indeed lost – another hadeeth says that for such a person “God will consign him to what he expected of God.”
4. During a person’s life the emotions of love of God, hope of His mercy, and fear of His displeasure should all work together. Scholars differed in the matter of hope and fear as to which, if either, should be more prevalent in the servant’s mind. The debate arises from the simple fact that there is still room for action and so the question becomes how to spur oneself on to better action. At the time of death, however, scholars used this hadeeth as well as other texts and knowledge to emphasize that one should categorically be hopeful at the moment of death. This is because the time for action is ended and all that is left is God’s mercy.
5. There are two beautiful quotes included in the commentaries on this hadeeth. Imam al-Nawawy quotes al-Qady (I believe he means Abu Bakr ibn al-Araby) to say that the “thinking” or “expectation” referred to here is “forgiveness when he asks for forgiveness, acceptance when he repents, a positive answer when he supplicates, and sufficiency when he asks for sufficiency.” Ibn Hajar quotes Imam al-Qurtuby to say that the “thinking” or “expectation” is “to expect a positive answer when he supplicates, to expect acceptance when he repents, to expect forgiveness when he asks for forgiveness, and to expect reward when he worships God fulfilling the conditions of that worship, and to expect these because of his holding firm the truth of God’s promise.”

On a separate note, just before I took this latest hiatus I had posted “The Best and the Worst” — two sayings of the prophet, may God’s peace and blessings be upon him, that describe for us the best and the worst. From your comments it seems to have resonated and for that we say al-hamdulillah. Nonetheless some of the reaction was unexpected, at least to me. We can sometimes be our own worst critics – and that in a destructive not constructive manner. Of course it is important to worry about oneself and to challenge oneself to identify and work against shortcomings. But two very important things need to be noted.

The first issue is quite general and not specific to this particular case. The prophet, may God’s peace and blessings be upon him, said, “If your doing good feels good to you, and doing bad feels bad to you, then you are a believer.” There is also a saying (not sure if it is a hadeeth) that Shaytan does not come into a ruined house. In short, if you are questioning yourself, challenging yourself, worrying about your faith and your goodness and your spirituality, then inshaa Allah that itself is the indication that you are traveling the right road. Inshaa Allah you’ll get there. Just keep the faith, and keep going.

The second issue is specific to this case. The prophet, may God’s peace and blessings be upon him, is filling us with hope and joy. He is telling us if we are simply kind, then God will be kind to us. Indeed it is important to fulfill our legal obligations, to study to deepen our faith, to struggle to excel in spirituality, to persevere in the obedience of God, to feel and manifest gratitude to God, and all the other ways of thinking about coming closer to God, an ambition that should have no end short of the meeting with God, and a desire that should not be sated until God by His grace enters us into paradise and favors us with the sight of Him. And in seeking this ambition and struggling on this path we should always be setting the bar higher and be critical and all the rest of it. But what these two sayings are telling us is that sometimes we need to step back from the struggle and put in perspective the central importance of human relations: the bottom line is that if God has graced us with the genuine desire to be good to others, then He is telling us that He will be good to us! And there is nothing in all the universe that is more merciful, or more beautiful, or more conducive of hope than the knowledge that simple human kindness may save us.

First off, Suleiman does it again. It’s been said before and it’s still true: the man is a gem. He’s gone and recovered Noha’s comment that was chewed up by the server move. Yay!

He’s also posted a video of his first stand-up gig in a comedy club in D.C. and it’s first rate. Check it out.

Secondly, Asma, Asmaa, and Noha are now on the blogroll. (Yes, it’s not a mistake Asma and Asmaa are two different people ). Check their blogs out – you will not be disappointed. Asma just started on hadithuna this past February but already has a consistent following maa shaa Allah. Her blog so far is about inspiration in a variety of modes and the comments from everyone enrich the discussion. Asmaa is part of a two member team with another sister who goes by the alias “The Fool”. They are both accomplished writers and have explored a variety of topics from the humorous to the somber and reflective. Noha is an artist in engineer’s clothing like so many members of our community. (this line needs a smiley but I couldn’t decide if it should be a laugh or a frown or a head scratcher!) Her blog is both a photo and “random thoughts blog”. Please check them out in the blogroll.

There are others to come in the near future inshaa Allah; I am just trying to stagger them a bit

Apologies for staying away for so long. I’ve been trying to write my 3rd episode in the discussion on humor, and it’s taking a long time. The primary reason for that is that when I decided to do just a little bit of research I found many more sources, and so many more examples, than I thought I would find! I do not claim that I am going to produce something comprehensive or scholarly but I do want to include a lot of diverse things.

One quick example – I came across a book specifically in the condemnation of unlikable people (dhamm ath-thuqalaa). By unlikable we mean people whose company does not bring pleasure to the people around them, who seem incapable of choosing the right words for the occasion, and who tend to overstay their welcome. The theme of the book is that such people have been criticized (or condemned or put down) by the Quran, the sunnah of the prophet, may God’s peace and blessings be upon him, and by scholars and sages in every age! One example is given of a man that came to Bashar ibn Burd, a well-known poet who was blind, and told him, “Whenever God takes away the gift of sight from someone, He tends to give him an alternate blessing to make up for it. What do you count as your alternate blessing?” Bashar’s answer was, “That I won’t be depressed to death by seeing you!”

In any case, it’s going to take at least another week before I can put that installment up here. In the meantime, I have a backlog of things I wanted to post, and responses to your wonderful comments that I wanted to make. I will be doing this over the next few days inshaa Allah.

Here’s a quick start.

Dr. Ahmed al-Kadi was invited to give a talk about Islam in Stanford’s Memorial Church. He started out by giving a traditional introduction discussing Islam, Iman, and Ihsan. Then he offered an insight that has stayed with me since. He mentioned five things, each of which is the only answer to a particular question according to the Quran and the hadeeth of the prophet, may God’s peace and blessings be upon him.

• What is the only thing that God does not forgive?
  • Associating a partner with God in worship.
• What is the only reason that humanity was created?
  • To worship God.
• What is the only reason that the prophet, may God’s peace and blessings be upon him, was given messengerhood?
  • To be a mercy for all the Worlds.
• What is the only thing that is forbidden upon God?
  • Injustice.
• What is the only reason that something is made permissible or forbidden?
  • al-Tayyibaat, meaning things that are pure, wholesome, and of benefit, are made permissible. al-Khabaa’ith, meaning things that are impure, unwholesome, or of harm, are made forbidden.

He then spoke about the implications of each of these for the mindset of a Muslim, the relationship between a Muslim and others, and the behavior of a Muslim in this life. Thinking about these implications is left as an exercise for the reader .

Al-hamdulillah, Little Mosque on the Prairie (hereafter LM) seems to be doing rather well. I haven’t been able to find a site that gives updated viewership or ratings for Canadian shows, but from the various reviews it appears that the show has settled in at about a million viewers regularly. The comparison is made with the benchmark Canadian show, Corner Gas, which gets a little less than 1.5 million viewers regularly. So the numbers seem to be healthy al-hamdulillah.

A number of Muslims are still very upset with the show, which I suppose is fine. I would have preferred to see our community in general simply accepting that comedy is largely a matter of taste and that we could agree that some of us will laugh while others will simply switch the channel. Unfortunately the bulk of the criticism seems to come at it from the “let’s all follow the Quran and sunnah” perspective, a perspective I personally find rather annoying since I take it for granted that in fact most of us are trying to follow the Quran and sunnah. I know I had promised a post (or maybe two) about humor in classical sources and I am almost ready to put that up so stay tuned inshaa Allah. I also received an email recently that’s been doing the rounds that summarizes the arguments against, so inshaa Allah I’ll take that up in a series of posts. All of this I intend to do in rapid succession if God wills, so if you’re interested in this please do stay tuned over the next two weeks.

Meanwhile, two things are “comforting” for those of us that have been enjoying the show. The first is all the right-wing rants against the show. Michael Coren bares his islamophobic teeth in this piece. (A short digression: I recorded an episode on the Michael Coren show a couple of months ago and the man was positively charming. I thought he was even-handed and quite fair in the way he ran the show. Off air he was respectful, friendly, and I would even say generous. This editorial seems to be written by a different person! Ironic how we can be so more vicious with each other when we’re not actually talking to a living breathing human being ). Another collection of hyperventilating rednecks may be found on this blog. The common theme in all these is their feeling that the show portrays all the Muslim characters in a good light (they are all lovable even if a little eccentric) whereas it does the opposite with the “white” townsfolk, especially the radio broadcaster. I disagree with their reading of how the non-Muslim folks are portrayed but therein lies the bulk of the irony: their perception is almost a mirror image of the Muslims that have reacted negatively to the show.

The second “comforting” thing was this online Q&A with the show’s creator Zarqa Nawaz. I had hoped to speak with her directly before blogging on this subject again but unfortunately did not get the chance. But this Q&A gives you a feel for what she likes and doesn’t like about the show. It should have been clear from the outset (and I had said this to a number of people verbally but didn’t put it in my previous review b/c I didn’t want to be distracted from the central messages there) that a show like this does not go on the air with one person entirely in control of the writing. So some things are gonna make it through that no one likes. Nonetheless, even some of the scenes that Zarqa found questionable I actually didn’t, which I suppose puts me in the extreme minority — so what else is new?

I’ve put comforting in quotes in the above two cases b/c in each case it’s a mixed blessing: on the one hand the perception of the show by hyperventilating rednecks tells you something about its positive impact and on the other hand we’re not necessarily seeking such a negative reaction; and on the one hand it helps to know that there is room for improving the show as Zarqa is better able to educate the rest of the writing team and on the other hand it’s not super great that this didn’t happen from the outset.

There are also things that are comforting, without the need for quotation marks. That the show seems to be successful al-hamduillah is a good sign. I hope it’s here to stay. The show has been getting funnier. And I believe (I don’t have scientific data here, just anecdotal evidence) that even among some of its critics the show has started to gain more acceptance. It’s also given us as a community the opportunity to discuss more of these issues.

So I’ve made a number of promises here that I’ll have to try and keep inshaa Allah. Over the next two weeks I will inshaa Allah blog about (roughly in this order):

1. Humor in classic texts
2. My personal review of episodes 3-6
3. The larger issues surrounding LM (some of these will be identified in the reviews; others come from the email I talked about earlier)

Until then, don’t worry, be happy! And please remember: Peace.

I’ve been battling a cold for the last several days. At some point I felt like I’d just gotten from under a truck . I am still coughing, sniffling, sneezing, and generally feeling very miserable. I was so tired I couldn’t even blog . And it just got me thinking what it always gets me thinking under these circumstances . In high school biology they taught us that viruses were “the threshold of life” having some of the qualities of living things, but in other ways resembling non-living things. Then how feeble is the human being that is brought to a grinding halt by such a creature. And how arrogant is the human being that thinks to subjugate the Earth and all that lives upon it.

Yet, as soon as I have that thought, a kind of pessimistic needling comes along and I wonder how long I will may expect to remember <i>this</i> time? After all, how many times have I reflected upon disease and human frailty, only to forget a little while later and go back to ‘business-as-usual’. Or how often have I taken heed from the death of a loved one or a stranger, only to forget just a little bit later and return to life’s busy-ness.

There are those among the servants of God that are more constant in their remembrance even as they toil in His service in the company of others. There are those whose hearts are connected with God even as their bodies dwell on Earth, whose spirits are attached to the Latter Life even as they live out this one, and whose entire being yearns for the sight of God and the company of His messenger, may God’s peace and blessings be upon him, even as they bear witness to the labors of humanity. They struggle and then they taste the sweetness of faith and intimacy with the Divine.

But as we aspire to have that be our abiding condition, we realize that everyone forgets. Some may forget less frequently, or suffer less in the loss. Yet the nature of human beings is that we forget. Far from being a source of regret or a “calamity” to dwell upon, it is probably more accurate, more productive, and truer to our purpose to remember (since we do forget) that the prime lesson for which Adam and Eve, peace be upon them, were placed in paradise for a time was the fact of human forgetfulness.

ولقد عهدنا إلى آدم من قبل فنسي ولم نجد له عزما

(We gave Adam the covenant beforehand and he forgot and we found no resolve with him). So the real trick is not that we do not forget. Wisdom may lay in accepting that we will forget and bringing to our selves reminders as often as we need them. Perhaps this is why the Quran tells us that we will constantly be tested in a variety of ways that we may return. Perhaps this is why the Prophet, may God’s peace and blessings be upon him, was constantly giving his companions brief reminders that would affect them but not tire or bore them. Perhaps each of us should establish constant mechanisms for remembering what we are sure to forget.

So as a reminder, meant for myself before it can be of use for anyone else, I looked up the hadeeth that I have heard so frequently, “Make the best of five before five: your life before you die, your youth before you age, your health before you ail, your spare time before you get busy, and your wealth before you get poor.”

Al-hamdulillah, I have to say that I am rather pleased with the way that this blog has evolved. Considering how much I like to talk it’s probably not a surprise that this has become a very addictive exercise . There are days when I am just too exhausted or too overbooked or too disorganized to be able to blog, and al-hamdulillah I am not at the stage where I suffer withdrawals symptoms on such days . Nonetheless, on any given day, if I can’t blog I feel that something is missing. Very curious development given that this journal is barely 4 weeks old! Even more curious (or, in Wonderlingo, curioser and curioser) given that I’ve had things I’ve meant to write in more traditional formats that were actually started 4-5 years ago and are still in the “in progress” stage! Al-hamdulillah, it is a blessing to be given an opportunity that matches one’s style, and it is a blessing to be able to express and share oneself.

For those of you that are following this little project, I thank you from the bottom of my heart – it is your engagement that makes this rewarding and keeps it alive.

A quick update then on how this thing has been shaping up. With tremendous help from Jaffer and Suleiman the custom header for the particular theme that I am using has been further customized to use certain pictures. So now the header picture rotates between six scenes: two from Cordoba, one is the courtyard of al-Hambra, and one each from the three sacred mosques. Inshaa Allah there will be more to come, I just grabbed a beautiful picture of a sidewalk in Cordoba from Farah’s blog.

I also finally got around to creating a blogroll. The blogroll currently has People and Places, and inshaa Allah I will eventually add Things. A quick intro to my good friends listed there (I won’t put links here, it’ll get too tedious, but please visit them from the links in the sidebar):

• Ahmed Deif is the Head of MAC Youth and a newcomer to blogging. He seems to be metering his output at one post per week, but take it from me they are worth the wait!
• Ali Jafferi is a thoughtful, creative, courageous, and engaged member of the McMaster crowd. He has much to say about the state of the ummah and the way we need to understand our past, present, and future.
• Ayman Khafagi is my good friend down south! He started a blog long ago and then allowed it to lie dormant for a while. I am glad that I had something to do with his return to the blogosphere and it has been a pleasure. His blog about the death of Muhannad Jondy rahimahullah is appropriately somber. But humorous or solemn he is consistently provocative and engaging. (OK he’s my friend so I’m biased; he’s also a member of the MAS Youth Exec so I’m even more biased; but check it out for yourself and you’ll see).
• Farah I have already mentioned. She has this amazing photoblog and she has incredible taste. I loved the exploding icecaps, and the photoblog has an eclectic range from natural scenery to architecture to calligraphy to art.
• Hadeel is our correspondent in Cairo and she’s doing a terrific job. She’s recently promised a series of open letters to Egypt that I’m sure will be especially engaging.
• Hafsa, our newlywed hijabi, and her husband Omair, have been sharing pearls of wisdom gleaned by the two of them from marriage, travel, and new careers. Wait’ll they start with children .
• Hamza Moin is Maniac Muslim . The best way to describe this is that it’s a genuinely cool project. Cool may be an outdated descriptor, but for me it captures the Maniac Muslim phenomenon, and I do believe it is well on its way to becoming a phenomenon inshaa Allah. Visionary!
• Jaffer Maniar is a gem (I am plagiarizing his description of Suleiman here ). He’s the one that’s been guiding me through my illustrative efforts and he’s quite a talented young man. You’ll see some of his comments on my blog. He updates every Sunday so I suggest you designate for yourself at random a day in the week that you can check out his blog (not necessarily Sunday). That way we won’t overwhelm his server with traffic .
• And keeping the best for last (it just worked that way alphabetically ), Suleiman. Jaffer calls him a gem and I agree. May God reward him greatly for what he’s done and is doing with hadithuna. I am still waiting for permission to share with you articles from the Ghost in the Machine workshop but when I do inshaa Allah I will share a really insightful paper on social software (blogging, bookmarking, etc.) I believe hadithuna is a great idea, and one whose time is now. And it owes both its existence and its upkeep to Suleiman’s vision and dedication. And as if all this wasn’t enough, his own blog is just outstanding.

So what’s next? First, inshaa Allah I aim to keep on bloggin’ . You can always check out my “Coming Soon” page to see what’s in my queue and you’re welcome to suggest other things. I haven’t been immediately responding to comments because I am ever hopeful that if I start interesting threads we can get decent discussions going and I don’t necessarily want to be in the center of the discussion . But I do read every comment and I do mean to eventually respond to every open comment (this may be a little ambitious given that we already have 5x comment-to-blog ratio) if not directly then at least by inclusion in future posts.

Second on my list is to finally settle on what I want to include in my About page and perhaps have a nifty author profile in the sidebar a la Suleiman.

Third is to figure out how to use the flickr lightbox both in the body of the blog and in the sidebar so I can upload some pictures.

I also need to inshaa Allah expand the blogroll. There are a couple of really interesting blogs that I have seen for people that I may not personally know but have nonetheless had a strong impact on me. Gradually they’ll be added to the blogroll. I am also trying to talk Wael into doing this inshaa Allah. We’ll see. I will not add a place or thing to the blogroll unless I blog about it first. Hopefully that’ll keep things manageable size-wise.

And last but not least, I want to explore the 3-column version of my current theme provided I can get it to work with minimum headache to Suleiman.

So please keep checking this out and help me with your feedback. And remember to leave comments

A big Thank YOU and jazaakallahu khayran to Jaffer Maniar who’s decided to consult for me on all matters pictoral

The Cordoba picture in the header has been whitewashed to allow the text to show, a darkish gray has now been used for the title, and the picture was cropped just the right amount to allow you to see the complete building. More pics to come soon inshaa Allah. I just wanted to say thank you.

Jazaakumullahu khayran and thank YOU to all those that have been visiting the blog and leaving comments. It is indeed much appreciated.

A few quick responses are in order.

Abeer: thank you so much for the links. The pictures and the drawings are beautiful. Now I have to decide how to use them

Farah: thank you for looking for photos. For me to come up with the same photo you would have picked is a great compliment indeed

Suleiman: jazaakallahu khayran for all the work you’re doing to keep us all going and for your friendship and encouragement. In particular, thank you for fixing the broken links

Jaffer: thanks for the pointers. As I mentioned tonight I did try to apply them but it sounds like you would have a much easier time than me, so I’m gonna hold you to your offer :> Oh, and the EANACS reference? Inspired. Definitely Stanford!

Sha: It’s wonderful to reconnect with old friends. And how appropriate that it would be over LMotP I will email soon inshaa Allah.

Ayman, Nazir, and Yusuf: Thank you for thoughtful analyses and discussion. I really appreciated the diverse thoughts on this. I’ll wait a bit to see what others may have to say inshaa Allah. I’ll probably weigh in again after the 3rd episode. It airs up here on Wednesday, but I may have to wait again till Monday to watch it. We’ll see inshaa Allah.

One important thing I do want to bring up right now. We should not doubt other people’s intentions. It’s one thing to disagree with the show, its contents, style, crossing the boundaries, etc. It’s another thing altogether to assume that there are “secular Muslims” behind it trying to undermine the rest of the community. Zarqa is well-known in the community. She has been part of the community her entire life. She is respected and she has contributed significantly over the years. Disagreeing with her on the content or style or even the message of the show is not an excuse to doubt her intentions or her “hidden agenda”.

Now that the custom header feature for K2 has been fixed I figured I’d play with it a bit. I don’t have an ear for music or an eye for color, so if my colors ‘trouble’ you in some sense I would not be offended at suggestions. The picture is from Cordoba. Since we anointed Cordoba House I’ve been looking for good pictures of Islamic architecture in Spain. I may decide to put up new ones in the future. If you have any good ones please share.

(This is the 10th entry on the blog since I started exactly 10 days ago. It’s been rewarding. I pray that it keeps getting better. JAK to everyone who was supportive — and that includes the people that laughed outright; you know who you are! )