Salam,
So just to clarify- It's not all about black and white. My last post did a really good job in creating such a dichotomy and although I could cut, paste, and edit to cater to what I really intend to say is the "big picture", I will not. Because I wrote exactly what I wrote down as I was observing. And sinince I have an overwhelming amount of work to do, I'll save the comtemplations for later. =)

keep it halal.

Salam,
The other day I was on the train towards North Philly. I noticed that most of the passengers were caucasion or appeared to be white, assumably from a middle-upper class background. There was a woman of middle-age talking on her cell phone while she vainly stared into a compact mirror as she applied a red coat of lipstick. She had short blonde hair with humongous pearl earrings and among her accessories was a man of her age, dressed in casual plaid that seemed to act like her servant as he followed her orders- must have been her husband. The rapid pace of her rambling between the cell phone and her partner was interrumpted by a sudden pause and extended glare out the window. I turned towards the window and saw what initially looked like a group of school boys in blue uniforms playing recess in their school's parking lot. Only a second glance made me realize that these boys were in fact incarcerated men, inmates of a local penitentiary. The train moved slow, as I watched them kill time with basketball and small talk against the wired fence. Within every blue suit was a victim of circumstance, inhibited by the cycle of poverty, accepted as a racial inferiority. I assume they were all locals from the city of this so called brotherly love. As I turned back into my seat, I found every passenger straining their neck as they gawked from their windows and ogled at the sight of uniformed inmates. Soon these passengers had turned back into their normal positions, with their noses in the daily headlines of the Philadelphia Inquirer, reading about yet another violent quarrel in the city of brotherly love. Interesting, I thought, that most of these passengers were heading towards work or an interview at some corporation based in the city or maybe they were visiting family in the suburbs, where birds don't stop chirping and cars slow down at the sight of children playing kickball on the street. Soon they would forget about the inmates and maybe never question the conditions from which they came from. Conditions in which sirens of an ambulence echoed between streets and children ran like they did in the suburbs except there were no safe bases and certainly there was no homerun. Just an ongoing cycle of running and some more running in order to stay in the game.

Salam,
Every trip I have taken into Philadelphia thus far has exposed me to something I haven't noticed before. This morning, I decided to take the train home for my cousin's birthday (he turns five today mashaAllah) and surprise my family with my unexpected presence. I usually go home twice a semester, so coming home to affectionate hugs and kisses from my parents and relatives was like a kodak moment =)

But I must say the highlight of my day was the train ride through Philadelphia. One of the main reasons why I love public transportation besides it being an incredible alternative to conserving energy is the passengers. No where else will you meet people as mundane as you will on a public transport. What I do realize, however, is that even though these people compose the common majority, each of them are in fact, atypical. You can sit next to an middle-aged man in a tattered blazer and inaffective combover reading the boring Business section of the Times, yet little do you know that he is a single Dad working two jobs to support his young daughter, who he would sacrifice his life for. Or the college student who sports a varsity football jacket with a copy of Machiavelli that he's assigned to read for class but uses it to shade his eyes from the sun while sleeping. Or the girl that finds her way through the aisle with purple-streaked hair, torn fishnets, and body piercings on every body part imaginable. It makes all the "dignified" women on the train put their purse on the empty seat next to them as they ogle and snicker at such a pathetic sight. What would they think if they knew that this very girl was in fact nothing like what they assumed? Her looks belie her ambitions and the confidence that none of those women on the train have.
I mean it's just a thought. Maybe you don't fabricate stories about passengers on the train, but associating life with struggles, victories, and unusual circumstances to a strange face makes them all the more human.
We are bombarded with statistics of populations, of victims, and of casualties yet we cannot fathom the numbers because in the end..they are just numbers; a mathematical calculation of a circumstance that does not apply to us or directly affects us. So we are apathetic.
But if we can consider the strangers around us- not to suggest that we should create novellas about a life they don't really have- by exhibiting awareness, we can make all the difference in how we treat the concept of life and its beautiful complexities.

Salam,
I'm baaaackk! It seems as if the last time I had written in this blog was a little less than one year ago. What I have posted below is a recent reflection, but hopefully I can revive this blog. I mean it's perfect timing- finals exams approaching, deadlines for papers are near- but there's always time for for procrastination =)

I looked back at some of the posts on this blog, and can only cringe at the cheesiness that exudes from every single one of them. Yet I wouldn't want to delete any, since everything I said was a straight-from-the-heart, cathartic freewrite. So I ask of you to resist all temptations and not look back at my posts from 2003 up until last year. And if you really can't help it, it's at your own risk.

Just to make this post worthy of writing, here's a link to a burda recitation at Zaytuna from a few years ago. I can't even describe how beautiful this is. http://youtube.com/watch?v=85Zj06Mq5eQ

keep it halal.

asSalamu Alaikum,
I want to share an experience with you that I just had an hour ago, as I was walking back from another dorm on campus. I got a call from someone who excitedely told me to look at the moon. I was in complete awe of one of Allah's most miraculous creations. Never in my life had I seen the moon so close and bright yellow. The person on the phone mentioned it looked like something from a sci-fi movie. SubhanAllah, it seemed as if one could reach it by plane, for that's how close it seemed.

Now, it may seem a bit outlandish and too fantastical to ramble on about as it is something we see every night, but if there is anything that I have gotten out of this sight, it is remembrance:

The remembrance of my being; The remembrance of this dunya and its miracles; what may come after the ground below us trembles and the very moon that greets us every night, is cleft asunder; The remembrance of al Qiyamah, the resurrection; The rememberance of Allah, subhana wa ta 'ala.

As I was getting ready for the normal routine of studying and preparing for sleep, I was a bit shaken by how easily I had forgotten all of this so quickly. "The rivalry for worldy gains distract you, until you visit your graves" 1:102.

I shuddered over my experience in college and how striving for grades and making time for frivolous activities had taken away from my spirituality. In instances like these where I see something so mundane yet has such a powerful impact on my spiritual sense of being, I thank Allah for giving us one of His Signs.

"The Hour has drawn near, and the moon has been cleft asunder (the people of Makkah requested Prophet Muhammad to show them a miracle, so he showed them the splitting of the moon)...And Our Commandment is but one, as the twinkling of an eye."- Surah Qamar (54) from the Holy Quran.

I pray that what I had felt when I was out there an hour ago will remind you, too, about Allah's supreme control over this dunya and the beautiful struggle to gain the barakat of Allah and achieve Jannah. As hadhrat Abu Hurairah said, "This world is a prison for the believers and a paradise to the nonbelievers" - Ad-dunya sijnul mu'mini wa jannatul kaafiri.

ya Allah, let us remember this with every step we take and strive for a path that pleases You and by Your will, grant us the paradise of the hereafter.
ameen.