Foot in the Sink

Shaykh Hamza Yusuf is another scholar whom I deeply respect.  Another epitome of American Islam.  He has a CD out in which he translated and commented on a work entitled the 17 benefits of tribulation, I’m just going to list these benefits, if you have a comment/question on any of them then express it when you comment.   Zaytuna actually gave out 5,000 copies of this CD at the recent ISNA convention as a waqf.  I recommend you purchase the CD, the list just that: a list,  Shaykh Hamza has some very interesting commentary that I’m not going to write about.

The list was compiled by Sultani Uleman (Sultan of the scholars) Izzuddin Abdul Aziz ibn Abdus Salam.  An egyptian scholar who died in 660 AH.  He is possibly the only one to have ever mastered by the maliki and shafi’i madhahib.

17 Benefits of Tribulation

1.You realize the power of Lordship over you

2. You realize your abject servanthood and your complete state of resignation and brokenness before the Will and Power of God. 

3.  Sincerity to God, one has no place of return in putting off or defending against the calamity except to Him.  It makes you sincere because the muhsin is the one who call on God without any shirk.

- a moment of ikhals in this world is enough to save a person

4 He returns to God and suddently is fervent in his desire of his Lord.

5. It leads to a humbled state before God and it leads to prayers (du’a), that you call on God.

6.  You’re forbearing towards the One who has afflicted you. 

7. You forgive the one who has wronged you

8.  To be patient during the tribulation

9. To be happy about what’s happening because of those benefits

10. To be grateful for it. 

11. Purification that these calamities have towards peoples’ wrongs and sins. 

12. Compassion that God enables you to show to people who are in tribulation and to help them  

13. Tribulation gives you the blessing of having true knowledge of the extent of well being.

14.  God has prepared rewards for the calamities that you’ve beared patiently or with contentment. 

15.  What is hidden inside the folds of these calamities are blessings

16.  Tribulations prevent you from arrogance.

17. Contentment.  Tribulation afflict the good and the evil [people], whoever doesn’t like it, its on him, he’s lost the dunya and the akhira.  Those who are pleased with it, its because he knows it  because paradise is better than anything in this world and if those tribulations are what it takes for him to get to paradise, then he’s content with it. 

First of all I want to say Ramadhan Mubarak to everyone.  I sincerely hope that God Almighty grants us a most beautiful and blessed Ramadhan and that our time is full of barakah, ameen.

Alhamdulillah, I’ve always loved reading ever since I was a little kid.  I’m very ashamed to say this but it was my laziness in HS that took me away from books.  Alhamdulillah I got back into reading in college when I was trying to get more into the deen.  In my first three years I read a lot, alhamdulillah including a book on Seerah and even a few book from the Ihya ‘ulum al Din of Imam Ghazali.  Then another period of laziness set in during my senior year which pretty much stayed in place until the beginning of this summer (with the one exception of the Kite Runner which I read a few months after graduation). 

The book that rekindled this interest was the autobiography of Malcolm X.  It was a book I’ve been meaning to pick up for a long time and one day when I was in the city I passed by this old hippie dude by NYU selling a bunch of books on the sidewalk and saw the autobiography amongst the books, the book was in pretty good condition and it was pretty cheap, so I decided to buy it.  This was around April I believe, since then I’ve done a lot of reading including:

1. Autobiography of Malcolm X - Excellent book, definite recommendation for those of you who have yet to read it.  I would read this book (and many of the others) on my commute into the city (either to work or when i went for leisure).  When I started reading this book, I was on a project in Westchester and I would take a Metro North train to get there.  The train’s first stop was 125th St – Harlem, and I’m really not sure if the lines have changed much since Malcolm’s day, but I think I was on the very line that he worked on.  That really did strike me.  Other than that there were just some very striking things about him and his life.  I finally came to understand a lot of what the Nation of Islam was all about.  Being a traditional, cultured, and orthodox Muslim all my life, and being quite ignorant of pretty much everything, I’ve always had my doubts and a negative opinion about the Nation of Islam and how they had used and distorted my religion, however in college I first started realizing that things are never black in white, *especially* when it comes to religion and people.  All of this was further explained to me in the next book I read…
2. Islam and the Blackamerican – This book was released a little over a year ago, and I think I was one of the first to get my hands on it.  I tried to read it once or twice and didn’t get very far.  However after attending one of the author’s lectures and after reading the Autobiography of Malcolm X, I decided I would pick up this book and that I wouldn’t put it down until I finished it.  Before I get into the book, I’d like to say a few things about the author: I firmly believe that God Almighty has blessed the Muslim community with a scholar the caliber of Dr Jackson.  To me he is probably one the best representations of an American Muslim.  He has gone overseas to study in the traditional fashion, he’s also pursued a “western” education at one of the country’s (and world’s) top institution (Univ. of Penn), and despite these two facts he’s still very much down to earth and able to connect with your regular Joe Muslim.  Now the book: this book is amazing.  Dr Jackson covered a plethora of issues in this book, I could hardly do any justice to it if I tried to list or expound on any single topic.  A friend of mine said that, just with many other books, its best to read this book once to get a general idea of what he’s talking about and to get a good feeling about the topics he brings up and stances he takes and to then let that sit in your head.  After that going at it a second time would be when you sit and think about specific topics/issues.
3. Samarkand
4. Hadji Murad
5. Life of Pi – I first came across this book when I noticed my colleague reading it but honestly I didn’t think much of it afterwards.  About two months a later a good friend of mine then recommended it (same one who recommended Hadji Murad), so I decided to pick it up.  The book is a a pretty good read, I did feel that it did kind of drag on a bit, though honestly thats probably because i’m the type of person who likes to complete books and sometimes just read pages or chapters just for the sake of being done with it and not really paying much attention to the plot.  Aside from that, I think the book is pretty good.  I’d give it 3.5/5 stars.  I wouldn’t outright recommend it to anyone in particular, but I wouldn’t speak ill of it if someone were to ask me about it. 
6. To Afghanistan and back
7. Animal Farm
8. The Bluest Eye
9. Taliban Militant Islam, Oil, and Fundamentalism in Central Asia (60% done)

I wanted to put and end to my reading of these kinds of books in Ramadhan so that I could focus on Qur’an and more ‘deeny’ books, and so I did, though I’m very tempted to finish up the Taliban book.  Insha Allah this ramadhan I plan to read and finish the following books:

• al Qur’an kareem – alhamdulillah, i was able to complete the recitation of the entire Qur’an last Ramadhan and I pray that Allah, ‘azza wa jal, grants me the ability to do so this year
• ‘Ulum al Qur’an – recommended by a friend.  actually, highly recommended by him.  It seems to be a simple read and since it is the month of the Qur’an, why not?
• Etiquette with the Qur’an – recommended by the same friend.  This is actually written by Imam al-Nawawi, I’m quite surprised that I haven’t heard of it prior to my friend telling me about it.  I’m quite excited about this book.
• Muhammad: His life based on the earliest sources – this would be mey 5th time starting up this book (I’ve never finished it =/).  Most recently this book was part of a halaqa that I participated in this past summer and I felt we had some really good discussion and I also found so many insightful lessons from each section.  Insha Allah I plan on finishing it this Ramadhan, and insha Allah I hope to maybe write a few posts on it.

 Those are the books I definetely want to finish before Ramadhan does, insha Allah if I find I’m reading a good amount and that I may have time for another book, I would really love to finally start reading Purification of the Heart, insha Allah

I guess thats about it.  If you’re to take anything from this post I hope it’s some sort of (possibly renewed) encouragement for you to start reading. 

So why foot in the sink?

I consider my being a Muslim-American to be a big party of my identity, and to me a foot in the sink epitomizes what it means to be a Muslim-American: The act of stopping in the middle of the day, (whether you’re outside hanging out or at work or anything else a typical person (read: American) would be doing) going to the closest public restroom and performing wudu (ablution) thus adhering to the commandments set forth by God Almighty is part of this notion. The other is the bold, brave and very strange act of putting one’s bare foot in the restroom as part of the last step of the wudu that is always met with nervous and apprehensive behavior, no matter where the restroom or who the person may be. This, I believe sums up with it means to be an American-Muslim. Boldness and courageousness are traits that most ordinary Muslim-American need to show on a daily basis in the face of ignorance and fear (now matter how slight) towards both non-Muslims and (ironically enough) their fellow Muslims. Despite the fact that they are (naturally) nervous they are still firm and sure of their actions. Regardless of who is looking or what may be said or thought, they know that the placing of the foot in the sink is imperative for the completion of their wudu and thus the validy of their ‘ibadat. So too do many Muslim-Americans carry on their lives in this respect. There’s a lot more that can be said, but I’m afraid I may have already confused you enough, so I’ll end here.

Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim

Like with anything else, I start this endeavor in the name of God, the Most Beneficent, the Most Merciful.  This would be my second blog and so Insha Allah I plan to be more consistent with this one.  I hope to do a lot and write about a lot on this blog, including (but not limited to) thoughts on books i’m currently reading, reflections on life, summaries of any kind of lectures/talks, and even random ramblings.  And so I start, Bismillah