Just Ask A Muslim

Entrenched A material world for a material life It could never understand the strife Of a People dispossessed and prohibited life I am an American citizen of Egyptian descent, Living in a world with in a world; always to be sent From door to door – as if the world were a room for rent The television: a window to my internal world Chaotic and feeling so effortlessly hurled By our “leaders” into an abyss tossed and curled To live a life of spirituality with in the superficial You become the target of a life: artificial Spiders weave cob webs around you, scheming to call you a terrorist official But why the lies…? Just look into my eyes And maybe your fear will undo it ties Put a hand out to understand A world that keeps growing, yet becoming a tight band We scream for peace as individuals, little do we know we can become one hand None of us are better than the other Not him, not her, not even the Pope’s mother Life goes on and the world is always ready for another What do I wish

Bitter cold, sick and yet I cannot make a sound. My coughs are swallowed and my chest feels like it is about to burst. Burst out of fear, illness and pain…but something I have rarely felt is hatred, and yet it feels like it runs through my blood…only for those who killed my family. Now I am alone and the goose bumps are prickling through my skin. It is dark in here. Small confinements have always scared me, but I am not alone. God is with me. If they find this place, the worst that they can do is kill me as they did everyone else in my village. I am only 12 years old, but feel as if I bare the burden of three painful lifetimes. I have no hopes of a future ever presenting itself to my saddened and once eager heart. All I can think of is surviving one more day. My world has crumbled on my head…I was sitting in my room when the bomb hit…now I am stuck with one of my legs crunching with every movement I make under a beam that used to be our roof…the Earth under me is nerve

Um Sumayyah said... I would just like to say may Allah be pleased with you, Amaana. Although I am a Muslim myself, alhamdulillah, I get a lot of inspiration and joy out of reading your insights and the wonderful way in which you answer peoples' questions. I pray that whoever reads this blog benefits from it and that the originator of the blog reaps all the rewards inshaAllah. Love you always for the sake of Allah :) 7:40 AM Reply from Amaana03 Dear Um Sumayyah, Jazaky Allah khair for your wonderful response to my blog :) I want to tell you about a best friend & sister that I have...without her a lot of things that you are reading wouldn't have ever made it to paper. We grew up together and even though she is all the way in Bahrain now...I know that our experiences are very closely interconnected. Just as you ask Allah (SWT) to reward me for this blog...I also ask Allah (SWT) to reward her for helping me see the things that I would maybe not have seen

Something I wrote in College [edited after having my baby girl]: The air is fresh and the sky is full of stars. The kind of stars you find when looking into the eyes of a newborn. The brightest, purest and most innocent spheres found on Earth. A mere sparkle from these eyes hold all the treasures hidden underneath the surface of this world. Brown, innocent and almond shaped these eyes look at you with hope; free of worries or sorrows. A jewel like no other...you can't help but you look back with happiness, and hope that for the rest of her days, the light in the sky will be as bright. ~Amaana03

May the Peace and Blessings of God be Upon You All... I wanted to ask a favor of everyone that comes by my blog...I am beseeching you to make special du'aa (prayer/supplications) for my friend's daughter. She is several months old and going through hard times in the hospital right now. Please make du'aa that she gets better and that her family has the patience and the strength needed to nurse her back to health inshaAllah (God-Willing). Ameen. ~Amaana03

In my humble short years of life...I have actually come to some conclusions...life is experience waiting to happen. Life is a compilation of mishaps waiting to be made...but the stupid and utterly true mistake would be to try to live life without understanding what went wrong. Everything happens for reasons...and these things work as catalysts to make us who we are today. ~Amaana03

Anonymous said... IF YOUR A MUSLIM AND YOU BELIEVE IN ALLAH AND EVERYTHING THAT IS SET BY HIM AND YOU DONT ALWAYS PRAY.. IS THERE ANY WAY YOU CAN REPENT TO ALLAH AND REGAIN YOU RELIGION? EVEN IF THIS PROBLEM HAPPENS MORE THAN ONCE? 11:28 PM Reply: Bismillah Al-Rahman Al-Raheem – In the Name of God Most Gracious Most Merciful Dear Anonymous: Well the first step in the right direction is that you have realized that this is an issue that you have to fix...so good job! :) I have done a little research concerning your question...I hope that it will be of help. Most people wait to hear that they will be rejected by God and that there is little to no hope...this is definatly NOT the case in Islam. One of Allah (SWT)'s names is Al-Rahman, The MOST Merciful. He has Rahma (Mercy) on His Servants and He is also Al-Wadood, The MOST Loving. In the Holy Quran, Allah (SWT) says: "Tell them (O Muhammad ): 'O My slaves who have wronged their souls, do not despa

Thankfulness for everything that we have is something easily said and hardly done. I was thinking about it today...how many times a day do we thank God for the simple things in life. The simple things can be something as small as a pure cup of clean clear water...a lot of times we forget that there are people in this world that are thankful for water we wouldn't even urinate in. I know this sounds harsh...but really. Think about the health we have... And about the blessings for sight and all of our senses. It is amazing how much we depend on these so-called little things...that without them we could very easily be considered disabled. Here is an article from Al-Jummu'ah magazine Vol.10 issue12. It's relevant...to the point and makes you think...(oh yeah...please remember that Allah = the Arabic word for God, even Christian Arabs call God - Allah). BEING THANKFUL TO ALLAH The other day while watching a network news program, I saw a Muslim man in Kosovo with her six­mo

Abby said... Thankyou very much for your long and thoughtful answer, Amaana! (Hope I got your name right!) What you say is very interesting. You do seem to share a lot in common with how Christians pray. Do you ever ask for things in prayer? Would you say, Dear Allah, my sister is ill, please heal her? Or are the prayers more ritualistic? Are you encouraged to ask for things? In my prayers, I pray through 4 points, acronym "ACTS" - start with Adoration, then Confession of sins, then Thanksgiving for prayers answered and then Supplication, asking for things from God. It's just a good discipline to remind me to give God the glory before asking for things and being me-centred. I should be God-centred. :) I do not have to pray this way, there are many different ways for Christians to pray, but for me it is a good discipline. Thanks for taking the time to speak to me. Abby Hi Abby, Yes we do ask for things from Allah when we pray. We are in constant need f

Abby said... Hello! Would love to ask you questions as a Muslim! Can I? I am a Christian myself. Can I ask you, what is the purpose of prayer, for you? Do you pray five times a day, and why? How does it make you feel? Do you talk to Allah and do you feel he talks back? Prayer for Muslims has always been a confusing issue for me, and although I know a Muslim socially, I don't feel able to ask her this. Would love your help. Abby 1:09 PM Amaana03 said... Hi Abby, I would love to answer your question :) The word for prayer in Arabic is Salah...it comes from the same root word as the word "Silah" which means connection. In Islam there is no middle-man. Everything and anything that you do is between you and God...humans are not to judge one another when it comes to matters of the heart and worship. So this connection that we have 5 times a day is much needed for the human spirit. In our prayers we recite verses from

The idea of "Just Ask A Muslim" originated with the newspaper column called "Just Ask A Mexican". I thought that the concept was great. In this column ("Just Ask A Mexican") people write in and ask questions about Tex-Mex and Mexican culture. Basically through coining this blog "Just Ask A Muslim" I am asking you to ask a Muslim - I'm not a theologian...I'm just a normal everyday person trying to live life to its fullest. So, the simple questions you may have about Islam or Muslims can easily be asked from the convinence of your own home. There have been a lot of groups that visit our mosque each week. They come to learn more about Islam and our way of life...but not everyone has the priviledge of having a Mosque or Islamic Center in their city - and unfortunatly, sometimes if they do, they may not find someone to talk to about Islam. So here is your forum...if you are reading any of these postings and would like to add to a qu

Day in day out we live our lives with the hopes of better understanding ourselves and the world around us. But what does that really mean...to "understand" ourselves? A few years back I was fortunate enough to be an active member in the Muslim Students Association. While being a part of this ever changing group...I learned life lessons that would not only help me get through life, but hopefully guide my children as well. We had something called a dawah table, basically a table/booth where we handed out Islamic pamphlets to educate everyone on campus. The sole purpose of this table was to educate, but while we were out there...we got into a lot of heated discussions about life, God, politics and last but not least religion. Almost everyone that spoke to us would tell us things like, "I was raised Catholic (or Christian)..." What is that supposed to mean? Are you still Catholic or are you not? Do you believe in what you were taught or not? It was here that