Posts with category - Personal

Back to the Middle

“Whenever you find people in the Ummah going to excess in their beliefs/practices, the scholars will try to redress it by going to excess.”-Sidi Ahmed Zarruq. For example Ibn Al Jawzi wrote a book during his time about the excesses of sufi practices. His book was extreme but nevertheless a catalyst for bringing people back to the middle path.

I thought this was pretty profound and I have always thought about this. God creates movements that seem to be opposing one another within one religion but perhaps they are the poles by which the majority of people are sustained in the middle.

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Why Environmental Health?

As a child I had always watched my father close his eyes and meditate as he remembered God. In a simple process called muraqaba, Muslims are recommended to periodically empty their minds of all attachments to material thoughts and remember their sole purpose in this world. I loved this idea of liberating yourself from the extraneous luxuries of the world and reveling in simple pleasures. Due to this philosophy, I have a deep respect for nature. I believe that the grass, weeds, trees, and even animals are partaking in muraqaba that is purer and more sincere than that of humans. Human thoughts can always be contaminated with desires for fame and status. What status does the natural environment in my backyard want other than to survive?

Nature is constantly giving and nourishing its inhabitants. The earth gives us everything: crops, wood, water, a place for leisure activity, and even beautiful scenery. Yet, just like children who take their mothers for granted, humans perennially forget to thank and appreciate their earthly mother. Similar to the difference between the poverty in the east and modernization in the west, there is a huge disparity between nature and the civilized humans who have forgotten it. I sincerely believe that we are missing a complete picture of our own humanity by trapping ourselves into a bubble of air-conditioned apartments, indoor urban recreation, televised movies, and digital communication. We are living in a virtual world that is completely unaware of the holocaust against the natural environment just like many people were kept in the dark about the atrocities against Non-Aryans during World War II. The same factories that are used to fuel our bubbles of luxury are emitting toxins that harm the health of people in both the eastern and western hemispheres. Environmental health activists aim to correct this skewed understanding of reality and nature.

My first profound introduction to environmental health was through a simple picture book of Rachel Carson’s life and work. It was presented to me as a gift by my second grade teacher. Little did she know that this book would have a large, subconscious role in piquing my interest in the human connection with the environment. As an adult my interest grew to include international health crises, such as the arsenic crisis in Bangladesh. Hundreds of thousands of Bangladeshi citizens are acquiring cancer due to the consumption of water contaminated with this element. When I discovered that professors at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University are conducting research in Bangladesh on the same issue, I was eager to join the school.

My journey has only begun. I hope that I can help bring some balance to the tumultuous relationship between the environment and humanity that has existed since the beginning of civilization. Through moderation we can save the health and life of both entities. Through excessiveness, humanity will only be enveloped in chaos. Certainly this has already been foreseen by a wise Native American: Only when the last tree has died and the last river poisoned and the last fish caught will we realize that we cannot eat money. Through education, outreach, and activism, people of all faiths and backgrounds can unite to seek this proper balance.

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Jambo! Jambo!

I am in Uganda with Safe Mothers, Safe Babies doing my Public Health Practicum. Our overall aim is to improve Maternal and Child Health, and decrease infant mortality.  Some of the projects we are involved in try to create sustainable programs to reduce child malnutrition, ensure safe deliveries, and empower women to be prepared for childbirth.

A scene that cannot leave me is that of my friends and I riding on the boda bodas (motorcycles) while traveling to various community meetings and/or clinics.  The Ugandan children often run into the streets to scream “Jambo! Jambo!” as they smile from ear to ear. (Jambo means Hello).  SubhanAllah imagine experiencing this kind of exuberant greeting as you ride through a vast beautiful, rich, and green meadow with the breeze brushing against your face and body.  This is a taste of Paradise.  I now understand how the laughter and exuberance of children can cure depression. SubhanAllah these children are impoverished but have the richest of spirits. =)

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A Doctor and Heroine in War-torn Somalia

It is truly amazing when people stick to their goals and beliefs when confronted by violence and adversity. I hope this is a quality that I embody in the future. This article is inspiring about a female Muslim doctor who stuck to her ideals of aiding her community even though she was held at gun-point and lost some of her community members in the ensuing violence and confusion. The perpetrators of the violence were religious extremists.

Here is the link to the NY Times article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/08/world/africa/08somalia.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all

Shaykh Faraz Rabbani said something really clever recently. He said that Ihsanists use to lead the Ummah but now we are stuck with Islamists. This is such a clever play on words!

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Guilt-Free Life!

No amount of guilt can change the past and no amount of worrying can change the future. Go easy on yourself for the outcome of all affairs is determined by Allah’s Decree. If something is meant to go elsewhere, it will never come on your way, but if it is yours by destiny, from you it cannot flee.

Sayyidina Umar Ibn Al-Khattab

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Sabr (Patience)

Got this beautiful reminder from the Healing Hearts blog (love that blog):

Two quotes from The Forty Rules of the Religion of Love by Shams of Tabriz, taken from the The Forty Rules of Love by Elif Shafak:

Whatever happens in your life, no matter how troubling things might seem, do not enter the neighborhood of despair. Even when all doors remained closed, God will open up a new path only for you.  Be thankful! It is easy to be thankful when all is well.  A Sufi is thankful not only for what he has been given but also for all that he has been denied.”

Patience does not mean to passively endure.  It means to be farsighted enough to trust the end result of a process. What does patience mean?  It means to look at the thorn and see the rose, to look at the night and see the dawn.  Impatience means to be shortsighted as to not be able to see the outcome.  The lovers of God never run out of patience, for they know that time is needed for the crescent moon to become full.

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Life as a Traveler

Ever since I became a student of Columbia, an ocean of opportunities has opened up. There are numerous internships, across the nation and the globe. SubhanAllah so many of them are appealing and I would love to internship-hop.  I want to try as many opportunities as I can!

I have also made a network of friends here that have become my family–and many of them are international students. I have made friends from Sudan, India, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, and Tibet.  Alhamdulilah I love learning from different cultural perspectives and I love meeting new people on the whole.

People ask me if I miss home and wonder why I don’t go home as often as I could.  I want to explain to them that my home is where my ambition is.  Home is where my hopes and ideals are.  It may not be tangible, because I can feel at home with a new friend in a foreign country.  Feeling at home for me is to be at ease.  To be happy, and to be content with your surroundings.  May God preserve the ease within our surroundings and homes. Ameen.

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Why are there no smoking signs in Medina?

Amazing and powerful article written by Shaykh Hamza Yusuf.  May God elevate his status and the status of  all those who love and learn from him.  May God guide all those who misunderstand him.

http://sandala.org/blog/2011/06/21/where-are-the-no-smoking-signs-in-medina/

The article is about the blindness of our hearts to certain realities in Medina that deteriorate the environment–physical and spiritual.  We have become so obsessed with material acquisition and forget that we are merely here on earth for good character acquisition.  Thus, we should not complain about the West but rather we should look inward to rectify our inner selves.  Why are we so greedy, heedless, and selfish? We seriously need to fix our hearts before God helps us change our societies at large.

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Leakage of Faith in the Hole of the Heart

A great article and a great reminder:

The Most Harmful Thing
by Shaheen Ahmad

“These days I have been listening to a series of lectures based on the topic of how to become an excellent teacher of Quran. Surprisingly I have learned things which I had not even expected. For example, the concept that external problems or hurdles are not the real obstacle in the way of success Rather it is our sins which have the most damaging effect on our lives. This reminded me of the countless times I have told others that I could not do such and such thing or could not complete the target I had in mind because of this problem or that hurdle sometimes blaming people, other times crying over health problems always a string of excuses which are nothing more than that excuses! Because If I had truly wanted to do something and sincerely asked Allah, then why would he not let me do things which I want to do only for his sake? Surely there must be something wrong inside my own self?

I remember a few years ago I had gone to visit my parents. The next morning there was no water in the taps very strange!!! Because the night before they had got the water tank refilled so where did those gallons of water disappear? Plumbers were called and they began digging to find the leakage the whole house was in an uproar, with people coming in and out nothing else could be done because everything depends on water. Finally the broken pipe was discovered and repaired, the tank was filled again and life restored back to normal.

But when the same story happens with our tank of faith and knowledge; it never becomes an issue of concern. We fill our hearts and minds with the knowledge of Quran and Hadith but the next day when we face any situation and open the tap, nothing comes out no patience, no gratitude, no kindness with others where did all the knowledge go? Nobody is worried no one tries to find the leakage of the heart.

But we must realize that just as life stops if there is no water, similarly the soul dies if there is no faith our very survival depends on it so if the knowledge is not coming out in deeds then it means that there is some serious leakage problem. For me it remained a mystery for many years but Alhamdulillah I just found out that every sin for which we do not feel guilty nor do tawbah nor correct it then it creates a crack in our heart from where faith keeps dripping out and we don’t even realize it. So whenever we feel lack of motivation, lack of energy, then immediately we should pray to Allah to show us where we went wrong and then honestly and sincerely ask Allah for forgiveness. So as to mend the crack and ensure that our tank of faith remains full.

May Allah protect us from our self conceit and give us insight with which we might realize our mistakes and correct our ways. Because no one else can do it for us. Each one of us has to be responsible for his own life.

Wassalam,

Shaheen Ahmad
Al Huda Institute, Canada

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Spiritual Aspect of the Kabah

“At the center of the seventh heaven (note there are seven heaves total) is the Populous House (al-bayt al-ma’mur; this is equivalent to the Ka’ba in the higher realms. In the hadiths it is said to be the heavenly sanctuary visited daily by seventy thousand angels, and it corresponds to the Ka’ba in the material dimension. The connection between the Ka’ba and Populous House is uninterrupted, since there are corresponding sanctuaries at the center of each of the other heavens, each being the shadow cast by the one immediately superior to it.

The Ka’ba is the spiritual heart of the terrestrial world, and it is also the projection on the material plane of all the Houses in the higher heavens up to the Populous House, which is the heart of the Universe. The Ka’ba therefore corresponds outwardly to what the heart is inwardly, and this is why we term the Ka’ba the ‘heart of the world’, and the Populous House the ‘heart of the universe.’ Thus the Qur’an verse, Purify My House for those who circle around it, retreat in it, bow and prostrate (22:26), is taken by Imam al-Haddad to refer to the heart with the various influences from the surrounding dimensions revolving around it. Similarly, the physical heart which sends blood and warmth throughout the body is a symbol of the heart of the man of God which radiates lights. The Ka’ba, which radiates the blessings it receives from the higher world throughout the terrestrial world, and the Populous House, which radiates light throughout the universe, are also symbolized by the heart.”

Excerpt from Man and the Universe, by Dr. Badawi

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