Asalam alyakum

I bought a book, a book that had great recommendations on Amazon, Good Reads, and from a friend.  I was excited…a book about Islam that the general population, and not just Muslims are reading — and I thought I might use it as a book club to interact with the followers of IHiP.  So what book was this, you ask, what is this “fantastic” book?  It’s called Mother of the Believers: A Novel of the Birth of Islam by Kamran Pasha….but I have a lot to say about it, and not much of it is good.

First of all – it’s not fantastic.  It’s horrible.  It started out okay, I liked his introduction, I liked his rationale for choosing to do some of the things he did in the book…and within the first 100 pages, I was brought to tears.  I was really excited.  Then it just went all to hell.  His story telling is weak at best, he has really horrible foreshadowing…at least once in every chapter you read something like “If only I knew of the darkness that was to come…”  Okay, I get it, something bad is going to happen.  On the whole, I think his writing is rather shallow and immature.  Maybe my standards are too high…but I just don’t like it.

That’s the extent of my critique on his writing…now to get to the story.  I must preface this with the fact that when I bought this book, I  thought that it was going to be a story about the birth of Islam akin to the film, “The Message” with Anthony Quinn (which is a great movie by the way!  Watch it!).  I thought it was going to be retelling of this story but from Aisha’s (ra) point of view.  Boy was I wrong.  This is a story that is loosely based on the rise of Islam but filled with all kinds of additions, omissions and what I personally feel is an anti-Islam agenda.

Some my reasoning for this opinion:

• Throughout the book, Pasha seems to forget that Islam gave women the right to choose who they marry.  Not once is it mentioned in this book – in fact, it’s quite the opposite – women are married off left and right to people without even a consultation on her part.
• As we know, the wives of the Prophet (pbuh) all lived together, each with their own room.  Pasha, however, doesn’t choose to call it a room…nor a dorm, not even an apartment.  No, the word that Pasha chooses to use for the places where the wives of the Prophet lived — CELLS.  Yes, that’s right…cells…like a jail cell.
• Pasha explains why he choose Aisha’s age of marriage as 9.  It makes sense: at that time, girls were considered women once they began to menstruate.  BUT – he also plays on this youth, in a way that makes it repulsive.  On page 179 he writes, “Not knowing what else to do, I crawled up beside him and put my arms around his chest.  I pressed my small breasts against his chest, hoping the nurturing comfort of my budding womanhood would bring him some peace.”
• If that isn’t enough – after the verse is revealed that the Prophet’s (pbuh) wives are not like other women….they begin to wear face veils…the author has Aisha think “For whenever I ventured out into the sun, my face would be hidden away behind a veil. The bars of my jail would follow me everywhere and were unbreakable, forged from a tiny strip of cotton that was stronger than the mightiest Byzantine steel.”

There are many, many, MANY other issues I have with this book, but I don’t want to say anything more than I have.  When it comes down to it, the further I got into this book, the more I felt as if I was doing something wrong.  I have never been one to give up on a book….but I have on this one.  I have only 40 pages left, and I cannot finish it; I’ve tried, but I just can’t do it. I was talking with Nye last night on skype and told her that this book is so bad, I feel that I need to repent after reading what I have.  I feel like this is a chic-lit story written about Islam.  I’d compare it to a Harlequin Romance writer choosing to tell the story of WWII – seriously, how good of a job can they do?

In the end it all comes down to this:  The story of the birth of Islam is already greater than any human could ever attempt to tell.  Stay with your original, and best of source (the Quran) and don’t bother with this book.

By: Amira

I was always used to do the minimum when it came to following Islam. I would do my 5 prayers a day, mostly late. I wasn’t wearing the hijab but my clothes weren’t too revealing. I would read the Quran now and then. But i didnt make my imam the center of my life. My mind was always somewhere else. Until one day, in late November last year, something happened that pushed my imam further. A calamity came into my life from Allah subhanu wa taala, and Alhamdolilah, 2 days later I found myself wearing the hijab. I then started to put more focus into my prayers, read Quran everyday, started listening to Sheikhs and widening my knowledge about being a true muslim. I now look back on that day and think that this is how Allah pushed me to a better state, because He wanted me to become a better muslim. I started to learn that everything that happens in our day to day life, is all from Allah. We have no control of our destiny, and whatever it may be, it is positive as it comes from Allah. Nothing that happens in our lives should be viewed negatively, as everything that happens is willed by Allah, the all mighty and all knowing. He is our protector, our giver of benefit and our giver of harm. All praise is due to Him, and unto Him, and Him only, we will return. Allahu Akbar.
Rasul Allah, sal allahu alaihi wa salam said: “Bear in mind that if all the people combined together to grant you some benefit, they would not be able to do it unless Allah has determined it for you. And that if all of them combined together to do you harm, they would not be able to do it unless Allah has determined it for you. The pens have been set aside and writting of the Book of Fate have become dry”.

Now I’m walking into this humongous building, there are teenagers everywhere, I didn’t seem to notice any other Muslims. I was scared to go in alone, I made my big sister drop me off to my class. I felt like a little kid but I was just so nervous.

*Another side note: as a woman, I’m really sick and tired of being treated as a piece of meat or an object. When people look at me, they look at my physical beauty and judge me based on that. But, I am a woman with opinions that matter, I have a voice, I am a person with beliefs and values. I want to be seen for who I am not what I look like.

Asalam alaykum,

Ladies – I wrote a while back about going through a depression phase.  At the time, I thought I was on my way out.

I was wrong.

I thought that I had worked my way out, set my soul into the warmth of the sun and was waiting for it to warm up so that I could begin my life again.  Instead, I discovered that I was back in that hole.  Ladies, I feel like I’m trapped in a cocoon, no – worse than that; encased in cement, unable to move and only passively attending to the events in my life.

I’ve had to disable all my vids on YouTube for a while (I’ll be back, insha’Allah, I just don’t know when) the amount of hate mail that I’ve been getting is just too much for me to handle at the moment.  I hate that.  Not really the hate mail, but the fact that I’ve allowed it to bother me so much.  I’m normally pretty easy going with other people’s thoughts of me and my choices, but lately…yeah, it’s gotten to me.  It’s set doubt in my heart.

So – I need to let you know that I’m going to be taking a hiatus…from facebook, from emails, from YouTube…I need to rediscover who I am and who I want to be.

I am, however, asking that you pray for me – please pray for me to make it through this.  I could use all the help that I can get.

Asalam Alaykum!  I’m not dead!  Al-hamdulillah!  I don’t know if any of you follow my own personal blog, but I posted on there why I’ve been silent for so long.  Let’s just say that wallowing in depression isn’t terribly conducive to writing.

Anyhow, I’ve been on my meds and slowly getting better.  I’m certainly not back to what I would call my normal self yet, but at least I can see that I’m heading in that direction.

While I was in this dark space, I really withdrew from everything…my Hipsters, my blog, my YouTube account….the iHip YouTube, this blog …yeah…I apologize for just vanishing like that.  There was really nothing that I could do, no way to get out of the darkness that I was in.  Then, bit by bit and day by day, I started coming out.  I started reading the blogs that I used to and started watching those Youtubers that I enjoy.

That’s when I saw this post from Sabrina of Slice of Lemon - I really love her blog voice and I have a feeling that if we ever had the chance to meet in real life, we’d make fast friends.  Anyhow, she had this post from a few weeks back and it really inspired me.  It’s all about creating new habits and how it’s supposed to take 21 days of doing something for these habits to form…so she has her list of things, I have my own (sorry, not going to share most of the things on my list…it’s just private, ya know?)

Anyhow – I’m planning on sitting down and making a more “formal” list by Friday…and hopefully making a video in which I’ll share some (not all!) of my things I want to change…Who wants to join me (and by default, Sabrina) and make some small, easy changes that will make us better people??

If you’re willing to share, post your lists in the comments box, on our fanpage, or link to your videos about what you want to change!  Inspire the world!

As you know I have been filming a bunch of videos with Sister Rebecca.  I thought I would link them all here in a blog post, so that they are easier to get to. InshaAllah.

This series is based upon a book called The Prophet’s Ramadhan (saws)  It touches upon some of the things The Prophet (saws) would do before and during the month of Ramadhan. This is a wonderful book.  InshaAllah it helps you as much as it has helped me.

Playlist of all videos!