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In place of a eulogy, my aunt has asked the family to write some of their memories of my uncle for the pastor to read.  Here are my thoughts.  inshaAllah I’ll polish them later:

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, due in large part to the gathering Uncle Jeff and Aunt Pat hosted every year.  The entire family gathers, and those who can’t make it are sure to phone in and say hello.  A veritable feast is laid out and we all partake.  Inevitably, talk will turn to politics, and the banter will increase as we sit, stuffed to the gills.

But out of all the hustle and bustle of the day, a bright light stands out: Uncle Jeff’s prayer.  He must have taken such thought to write them out, taking care to include all the people gathered.  Here, insert something about this year – my sister and I think that he wrote one that someone will read.  If he didn’t, write about how I missed it.  Thank you Uncle Jeff, for your beautiful prayers.

Looks like we’ll be having a funeral instead of thanksgiving this year.  My uncle passed away last night.  My aunt is determined to still have thanksgiving at their house with everyone, but man, that’s tough.

inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji’oon – to God we belong and to Him is our return

I finally got my Eid present. Nope, not the husband’s fault. I ordered Treatise For The Seekers Of Guidance a few days before Eid and promptly forgot about it. A week ago, I remembered and was like, where the heck is that book? Before I had a chance to email and ask, I received an email that it was shipped. It arrived yesterday. Obscenely long processing time aside, I’m uber excited about this book!

When I read, I tend to skim. This works fine if you’re reading a hundred pages a day for a college course, or Harry Potter, but it doesn’t work when you’re studying sacred knowledge. One needs to read deliberately, reflecting on each word. Alhamdulilah, the set up of this book is quite conducive to this. Imam al Muhasibi’s text is in bold, and Imam Zaid’s commentary follows in a normal font. Imam Zaid’s commentary serves as a jumping off point for reflection on the words of the original author.

From page one, this book has tremendous benefit. In fact, these first few sections are right in line with what I’m studying in my Sunnipath course on the Creed of Imam Tahawi. Alhamdulilah.

An excerpt from page one:

All praise is fittingly rendered unto God, the First, the Preexisting, the One, and the Majestic.

Something can be first and also have a beginning. Adam was the first man, but he had a beginning. God is unique that He is the first with no beginning. His existence necessarily precedes all other existence, and all else in existence owes its existence to Him, the Creator. Hence, He alone is preexisting. One holding this unique distinction is deserving of all praise for all else owes its existence to Him. This is the foundation of the most credible arguments for the existence of God. Acknowledging God as preexisting and eternal allows us to avoid the logical problems arising from infinite regress, when trying to account for the origin of creation, and the appearance of an obvious effect, in this case, the creation, without the existence of a causal agent, the creator.

Of hajj related interest:

To watch

• Channel 4’s Hajj Program
• National Geographic’s Inside Mecca Documentary
• Discovery Channel’s Revealed: the Hajj
• CNN’s 2006 coverage
• Al Jazeera English Youtube videos – search “hajj”

To read

• One Thousand Roads to Mecca: Ten Centuries of Traveler’s Writings on the Muslim Pilgrimage
• Mecca, the Blessed – Medina, the Radiant
• IslamOnline’s Hajj Page
• Oneness of God and Humanity by Ibrahim N. Abusharif

To Listen:

• Sh. Nuh on the Hajj
• Imam Zaid on Hajj
• NPR – Learning to Endure Hajj – stories of american pilgrims

 May Allah (swt) give us the life and the means to make hajj soon, amin.

 This book is awesome.  Seriously, seriously awesome.  It’s not something you can sit down and read in large chunks.  I’m going to read a paragraph each night and then just reflect as I fall asleep inshaAllah.  Awesomeness to the nth degree, mashaAllah.

How often do we just sit and think about Allah (swt)?  How much of our day is devoted solely to Allah (swt)?   How much of our day is taken up by the mundanities of the dunya?   Get up, get dressed, go to work, go to the gym, come home, eat dinner, veg in front of the TV or computer.  Make all your salat on time if you’re lucky.  Time for dhikr or reading Qur’an?  Phffft!  Go to bed, get up and start it all over again.

an excerpt with some questions for reflection in purple: 

God alone, and none other, is the true Deity, the Necessary Existent, who is Creator, Producer, Fashioner, Provider, Giver of life and death, and Wise Disposer (Think about each of these names.  What do they mean in relation to you, to the world, to creation, to life itself?); who has perfected everything He has created, and excelled in everything which He has made; who directs all things with ultimate precision, and has determined everything He has decreed (Think about your life.  Every action you’ve taken.  Everything, good and bad, that has happened to you.  How is each thing the best possibility for you?). He alone is the true God, Pre-existent and Eternal, worthy of inward and external worship (What are inward and external worship?  Which of these do you do each day?  What more could you do?), exalted above all blemish, who possesses the most exalted attributes and the most beautiful names. His are might and majesty; none shares in His essence, attributes or actions.  There is no other God than He.

Anyone else have any other questions to spark reflection on this passage?

soon inshaAllah

Want to follow the story?  Don’t get your news recycled in the national media, hashed and rehashed by pundits.  Go straight to the best local news coverage in the state – Minnesota Public Radio.

206 votes people.  206 out of 2,885,502 votes cast.  2 0 6.  .007%.  Don’t ever say your vote doesn’t matter.

Minneapolis Somali community facing dark web of murders

At first, Asha had not wanted Ahmednur to volunteer at Brian Coyle. There had been stabbings and shootings in the neighborhood, and Asha feared for his safety. But Asha’s husband, Ahmed Ali Ulusow, a respected elder of the Twin Cities Somali community, thought his son should serve his people. Ahmednur had big ambitions: to work for the United Nations, and, ultimately, to become president of Somalia. He’d even set up a Facebook group for his campaign. “Somalia will be ruled by me in the upcoming years, so I might as well start campaigning now,” he wrote on the group page. He promised to reunite the country and rid it of “qabil minds,” a reference to the clan warfare that catapulted Somalia into civil war in 1991 and continues to tear it apart today. “Islam means peace,” wrote Ahmednur, “and peace we will live in.”

At Brian Coyle that day, Ahmednur helped the other kids finish their homework in the computer lab. As he was supervising little kids in the gym, 16-year-old Ramadan Abdi Shiekhosman came in, wanting to play basketball. Ahmednur told him to come back later, when the younger kids finished. Shiekhosman allegedly got angry, shoved him, and left.

At 5 p.m., Ahmednur finished his job at Brian Coyle for the day and walked into the sunny parking lot. According to the charges against him, Shiekhosman confronted Ahmednur, pulled out a dark-colored handgun, and struck him over the head. The young gunman fired one shot into the back of Ahmednur’s head and then ran away.

(MINNEAPOLIS, MN 11/13/08) ­ On November 14, 2008, the Abuubakar As-Saddique Islamic Center will host a community forum called “Threats to Our Youth: Gangs, Drugs, Homicides, Dropping Out” to address recent incidents in the Somali community.

WHEN: Friday, November 14, 2008, 6 p.m.
SPEAKERS: Representatives from Abu Bakr Islamic Center, Abu Bakr Islamic Center youth program, CAIR-MN, Dar ul Hijrah Islamic Center, and Minneapolis Police.
LOCATION: Abuubakar As-Saddique Islamic Center, 2824 13th Ave. Minneapolis, MN 55407

May Allah (swt) bless and protect these people as they work to confront the troubles facing our community.  Amin.

To my Grandpa, who served in World War 2 in the South Pacific…

to my Great Grandfather, who earned his US citizenship fighting in World War 1…

and to a Great Great Great Grandfather, who died for the North in the Civil War…

…this country isn’t perfect.  But it is a great place to live.  Thank you for keeping it safe.

Found some non alcoholic fair trade vanilla flavor at my local co-op this weekend.  Made completely alcohol free chocolate chip cookies with some chocolate and peanut butter chips made without alcohol (also from the co-op).  Taaaaasty!

Frontier Non Alcoholic Flavors

I haven’t gone through and checked each one, but most do not have alcohol.  The extracts do, as does the raspberry flavor.  If you’re ordering, make sure you click on the “details” icon and check the ingredient list.

On my shopping list:

Between the election and the kitteh quest, I haven’t had much time to surf the muslim blogosphere as of late.  Sorry ’bout that.  We’re going kitteh hunting this weekend at local shelters and rescues, and my internet time will be devoted to surfing petfinder until we find one to adopt inshaAllah.

I do want to mention some goings on in Rome where there’s a Catholic-Muslim forum going on. 

• Catholic-Muslim Forum opens with frank talk at Vatican
• No news is good news at Catholic-Muslim Forum
• Peering through funnels at interfaith problems
• Pace picks up in international interfaith meetings

The Reuters FaithWorld blog is on my daily blogstroll.  If it’s not on yours, it should be.  I’d miss a lot of religion related stories (like the Catholic-Muslim forum) if I didn’t check it periodically.

On a related note, I’ve forsaken my ipod in favor of my little portable radio these last few days, in order to listen to all the election goings on in real time.  I happened to turn it on around 10 this morning and catch part of an interview with Eboo Patel on our local public radio station.  The hour was on the 2008 election and the religion gap, although the portion I heard was q&a from callers, mainly asking about Eboo’s interfaith work. 

That’s about all I have to say today.  Alhamdulilah.  Yes we did.  It’s been a long time since I’ve cried tears of joy.

Also, I think I’m going to name my cat Hope.

Alhamdulilah!

OMGosh, so freakin sad

Obama’s grandma passes away before the election

In other random election news thoughts: 

• I took the morning off to vote tomorrow.  I figure I’ll swing by the precinct at 6:30 and see if there’s a line.  inshaAllah I’ll vote and then wear my “I voted” sticker proudly all day.
• My sister has been canvasing for Obama these last few days in Virginia.  I wish I wasn’t so shy.  I hate walking up to random people and talking.  I did non partisan voter registration in college and hated every minute of it.
• I hope I can wake up Wednesday morning and not cry.

Well, not quite yet, but soon inshaAllah.  The husband has finally relented, after listening to me whine and moon over kittehs for 3 years.  We found an absolutely gorgeous kitteh on craig’s list and went to visit her yesterday.  Alas, she’s painfully shy, to the point where she hid underneath something the entire time we were there and wouldn’t let us touch her.  Perhaps if we were more experienced pet owners we could take a risk, but I’d like a cat that is open and friendly from the get go the first time around.

So, we’ll be visiting some shelters next weekend, where inshaAllah we’ll find a kitteh who loves us right off the bat.

I have everything all set up and ready to go.  I cleaned the apartment from top to bottom, even the closets.  I cleared a spot for the litter box, made a little toy box out of a shoe box, set up an eating station (far away from the litter box) and made a bed out of a blanket and a box.  Now all we need is a kitteh.  inshaAllah soon.