Salams,
Sometimes I wonder why I do what I do when it is clear that I am incapable of doing it.

So I figure that a screw-up like me, who believes in God, doesn't give up on her goals when they're for Him only, but everytime she stumbles (which is quite a lot), she finds that she is in the perfect position to pray to Him.

Salam,
The overwhelming bulk of comments I've recieved in the last post had made it apparent- ya'll read quite a lot. Thank you to the 1 or 2 of you who reccomended some awesome books. Below is my current summer reading list, some of which you guys might be interested in. It's basically an amalgam of fiction, and non fiction (of the anthro/socio medical type), etc;

The Bluest Eye: Toni Morrison

The Years of Salt and Rice: Kim Stanley Robinson

The Calcutta Chromosome: Amitav Ghosh

Girl in the Tangerine Scarf: Mohja Kahf

The Namesake: Jhumpa Lahiri

A Thousand Splendid Suns: Khaled Hosseini

The Secret: Rhonda Brynes (only because I'm hearing so much about it)

Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer: Tracy Kidder

Infections of Inequalities and/or Pathology of Power: Paul Farmer

Palestine: Peace not Apartheid: Jimmy Carter

Mama Might be Better off Dead: Failure of Healtcare in Urban America: Laurie K Abraham

Guns Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human societies: Jared Diamond

Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Med. Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to Present: Harriet A. Washington

The Syringa Tree- Pamela Gien

---------------------------------

As for islamically relevant books, I’m probably going to stick with just a few including Imam Zaid’s Scattered Pictures and someone recommended to me, Riyadh as- Saliheen Vol I.

I find that the best way to increase islamic knowledge is with audio lectures. Mothers of Our Believers; Anwar Awlaki’s series of pure awesomeness; and if anyone is interested in online summer courses: sunnipath.com is the way to go!

Keep it halal.

Salam,
God is Great. I am home and well and NOT studying for exams. Which is why I ask you all to send over suggested reads! The list is never ending, but I only made mental note of them, which is why I can't remember any of your suggestions. Send them over!

until then..keep it halal!

Salam,
Posting comments on this blog as "anonymous" is cowardly! ( especially if I know you personally =) ) I would sincerely appreciate it if I knew who was contributing to my reflectionssssssssss thanksss.

Salam,
I looked up the fiqh on fortune cookies online, but found nothing in sight.

Until then, I am convinced that what you read from a fortune cookie is truly a sign from Allah. :-)

keep it halal yo.

Salam,
People are disappointing. Actually, we like to think that the world is. There are greedy, selfish, judgemental, self-centered, ignorant people and when you come across a random act of kindness, it's like a sign from Allah.
A few of us were driving through Philly when we came across a stoplight where it looked like a muslim family business were selling flowers for Mother's Day on the side of the road. One of us wanted to buy a bouquet and rolled down the car window to ask for prices, but it turned out that the flowers were ridiculously overpriced. Even one rose could clean out all my pocket change. So as we were about to drive off, one of the guys pled that we waited another minute as he grabbed three red roses and began to wrap it in pink paper. "What about that white rose? Is that any cheaper?" one of us asked, and the man just grabbed one and put it in the bouquet of red as we thought, mannn is this guy trying to rip us off. We rolled our eyes and waited impatiently for the man to come back to the window, so we could refuse a bargain and drive off.
He tied the bouquet of red and white roses, walked back to the car and smiled, "for you, my brother." He walked away as we asked how much, but he only nodded to imply no cost and smiled again at us and said "salam".

Like a sign from Allah. When we think there is no hope in this world, no purity left in our intention, we discover that that in every man and woman, there is good. For He is Al-Latif (The Subtle) and by Him, do these subtle acts of kindness prove that in every dark heart, there is light.

"Those who are kind and considerate to Allah's creatures, Allah bestows His kindness and affection on them. Show kindness to the creatures on the earth so that Allah may be kind to you." -Abu Dawud/Tirmidhi

Salam,
Whenever I'm with my fobby friends (you know who you are), I reminisce over the classic bollywood movies I used to watch with my family during my childhood. Of course I grew out of my bollywood-loving phase-when I used to think my name was juhi chawla and would run around my backyard with a dupatta hovering over me.(i'm going to regret posting this, but i'm sure most girls did this...right...)
But why do I not waste my precious time over the bollywood hungama, today? Because of the very reasons that Imam Suhaib Webb states in the following:

"You have to correct this culture..this Bollywood, Shahrukh Khan, Shaytaan..all this nonsense is destroying the Pakistani and Indian youth...wallahi. My wife is from Malaysia, I went to Malaysia and now they have Bollywood in Malay. I was riding on a bus in the mountains through Malaysia and the bus driver is watching a movie and driving a bus at 3 o clock in the morning. This is crazy, man..is this your illah?? Why don't you stand in the night and pray or somethin? You have to fight this culture."

"It(romance novels) creates a mentality in you, like Bollywood....I'm like going to start an anti-Bollywood Jamaat..because I'm telling you, I saw a Bollywood movie on that bus..because the screen was right there, and my wife was hitting me, "why are you watchin this?", "screen is right there man ", she can sleep on the bus, I can't, and I wanted to see it..actually you can't watch it very much..because they don't have much clothes on..these Hindu chicks. So I watch the movie, and I watched this movie and honestly, I have become convinced that this is an agent of Shaytaan. I'm telling you, because it builds this false sense of life in you, man...life is a love story. Life is ibaadah. Love will be with your family, when you get married you will find true love with your wife inshallah."

It is not only that. Bollywood has become a pathetic immitation of Western culture, yet youth in South Asia are embracing this distorted image of the American life as carefree, promiscuous, and God know's what other garbage. And to narrow down more its negative influence on young women, universally, let me tell you, Bollywood has done pretty good job in giving us unrealistic expectations of the male species.

I must admit, however, I've recently enjoyed listening to the songs of my childhood only because of it's nostalgic effect. And the scenes in which they randomly break out into bizarre dance moves on the highest peak of the himalayas gives everyone a good laugh and lightness in being (lightness from losing brain cells of course).

Nonetheless, there are SOME Bollywood movies that are decent/semi-decent; particularly those that are diasporic, containing political or socially critical content (ie, lagaan, dil se re, black). And I don't want to discredit the film industry in India entirely since there are a few films worthy of seeing out of the 200+ that come out every year. Other than those, I think I'll spare myself some time.

keep it halal yaars.

Salam,
So I just got back from the computer lab where I was attempting to crank out my comp. lit. paper. Best part of the night was walking back to my room 5 in the morning. It's actually really beautiful outside at this time. mashaAllah, this only holds true because it is the blessed time for fajr prayer! "And by the Dawn...is there not evidence of those who understand?" 89:1,5

"The most burdensome prayers for the hypocrites are ishaa and fajr, but if they only knew what they contain, they would come even if they had to crawl.” [Ahmad]

May Allah accept our fajr prayer. ameen.

speaking of which... as salatu khairan minal blogging =)