Dec
26
Posted under
la tv,
to read I watch too much TV. It’s all TNT’s fault, with their Law & Order marathons and whatnot. The husband and I have fallen into a mind numbing routine. I come home from work, he’s on the computer, I turn on TV and watch a rerun of Law & Order for the 13th time. Eventually, I’ll reheat leftovers for dinner, and then return to the Law & Order, or, if it’s Monday, turn on Heroes. How much of my life has been spent on Law & Order?
Today marks the start of the first official no TV week in our household. The only TV I’m allowing myself is the morning news to see the weather and road conditions, which is kind of a necessity (I’m telling myself), as we’re in the midst of a week long snow storm here in Minne-snow-da. It’s going to be hard. There are 12 step programs for alcoholics, gamblers, smokers, etc. Where’s the program for the TVaholic? Ah, here’s one. Here’s my islamicized version of the plan:
1. Give your extra TVs to charity. - ok we only have one tv, so no problem there
2. Only turn on the TV to watch a particular show. - the only show I’ll allow is the morning news, channel 24. No flipping around if it’s on commercial. No flipping to TNT to watch a rerun of Angel for the nth time.
3. Then, when you sit down to watch a particular show, set a timer - ok, so no timer for the morning news, but only one round of the weather/road reports. After that, the TV gets turned off.
4. Throw out the remote control - I can’t quite do that, although I’ll have my husband hide them.
5. Rearrange the furniture - good idea. I’ll have to brainstorm with the husband to see how we can do this
6. Hide the television - Can’t quite afford to get a TV cabinet, but I do have a bunch of islamic art that I don’t have hung up yet. inshaAllah I’ll stick some on the TV :)
7. Eat meals, especially dinner, with the television OFF. - ah yes, this would help me with my (failing) diet as well. Unfortunately our kitchen table is taken up with a computer, so we naturally gravitate towards the table in the living room (near the tv). inshaAllah we can sit there, with the TV off, and listen to lectures or something instead. Or maybe, *gasp* we could just talk. Now that’s scary.
8. Set a rule that you can’t watch TV if the sun is shining. - That really doesn’t work well when you live freakin up north and the sun is only shining when you’re at work. It will be good in the summer though. I can’t count the number of times I’ve put off going for a run because there was a rerun of Law & Order on that I had only seen like 3 times.
9. Make a TV-watching plan each week. - I don’t think I’m quite ready to go completely no tv, so this will work once Heroes comes back on. Heroes on Monday, House on Tuesday, and then that’s it.
10. Set a rule that you must read 30 pages of a book or magazine before you can turn on the TV - excellent idea. I pulled an old college textbook off the shelf yesterday - A History of Islamic Societies - a mamoth 1000 page tome that I only had to read half of in my Islamic History class, and even then, I kinda skimmed it. Well now I can buckle down and read it. I was trying to reduce my TV time over the long break, and read On the Side of my People: A religious history of Malcolm X, and it was quite good. Just think of all the books out there I could get through.
11. Create a list of one-hour evening projects. - Maybe a half an hour instead. 30 minutes of reading Qur’an every night at 9. 30 minutes of listening to a set of Islamic lectures together. 30 minutes of reading a book related to Islam. 30 minutes of dhikr. Yeah, I could get into that.
12. Switch to games. - We do have a bunch of games sitting and gathering dust. I think too, saying that we’ll go for a walk each night would be a good bit of physical activity we both need.
13. Develop a fast-moving news routine. - meh, don’t really need to worry about this. I do all my news via NPR podcasts and reading the BBC. However, I should limit the time I spend surfing news websites. Will definately have to set a time limit there, maybe turn on the timer.
14. Say no to Jaws for the 15th time. - ah the rerun, my nemisis. I’m just saying la to you. I’m sorry Jack, sorry Lenny, sniff, it was nice seeing you again and again and again…
15. Get outdoors every night. - yes to 30 minute walks, unless it’s below zero. I’m resolved, but I’m not crazy.
16. Change your TV-viewing chairs. - will pull the kitchen chairs out into the living room if we do want to watch tv. Good idea.
17. Say no to… - Crime shows. I watch too many of them. One Law & Order per week, max.
Books to get and read, recommended by Sh. Nuh and Sh. Hamza:
Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television
Amusing Ourselves to Death
The Plug in - Television, Computers and Family Life
Aug
15
Posted under
tasawwuf,
to read Came across this website today, which looks to contain a lot of interesting tidbits, lectures and ebooks. It contains the teachings of a Maulana Yunus Patel, who as best I can tell, traces his teachers back to the Prophet (saws) through Rumi (ra). His biography is quite flowery, but I can’t tell much about him from it, unfortunately. Not much comes up in a google search either. There is a contact us option on the website, so inshaAllah I’ll do that to find out more about him and his teachings. His website is just put together so darn well, it draws a person in.
I’ve downloaded his booklet on ikhlas and tafweez for reading inshaAllah.
Jul
31
Posted under
current events,
thinkers,
to read Both Tariq Ramadan and Sheikh Hamza Yusuf have recently written pieces on the sad maladies that is anti semetism that infects the muslim ummah.
From Br. Tariq:
The situation is far too serious for one to be satisfied by simple explanations based on current frustrations. In the name of their faith and their conscience, Muslims must take a clear position so that a pernicious atmosphere does not take hold in the Western countries. Nothing in Islam can legitimize xenophobia or the rejection of a human being due to his/her religious creed or ethnicity. One must say unequivocally, with force, that anti-Semitism is unacceptable and indefensible. The message of Islam requires respect of Jewish faith and spirituality as noble expressions of “The People of the Book”.
And Sheikh Hamza:
In our inherent contradictions as humans, and in order to validate our own pain, we deny the pain of others. But it is in acknowledging the pain of others that we achieve fully our humanity. A close friend of mine, a professor of religion in a Muslim country for many years, recently told me that his wife, an English teacher in that country, had wanted to use Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl as a text for her Muslim pupils. But the school administrators repeatedly denied her request because they deemed it inappropriate reading for young Muslims. It is sad that the current political morass in the Middle East has led to this intolerable refusal to confront a people’s collective suffering. Perhaps in acknowledging that immense past of Jewish suffering, in which the Holocaust is only the most heinous chapter, Muslims can better help the Jewish community to understand the current Muslim pain in Palestine, Iraq and other places. In finding out about others, we encourage others to find out about us. It would greatly help our Jewish brethren to know the historical facts of Jewish experience in the Muslim world, which are often heartening and humanizing and very different from their European experience. In our mutual edification, we grow together.
inshaAllah ta’ala one day voices like these will be loudly and publically embraced by the majority of the ummah.
Jul
30
Posted under
Video,
to read,
to watch Brother Neurocentric wrote the drama the Demise of Imam Faustus for a group of british muslim secondary students. You can buy the book, and now, you can see parts of it online. Haven’t done either yet, but the book is on my to read list, and I’ll watch the videos when I get home inshaAllah.
The story of ‘Faust’ has become an important part of modern European mythology as the tale of a man who sold his soul to the devil in return for unlimited power and wealth. Here Faustus rears his head once more at a moment of religious controversy when the role of religion—and of Islam in particular—in society is the subject of fierce debate. The Demise of Imam Faustus, a drama by Matthew Wilkinson deals unashamedly with religious themes: the relationship of man with God and the impact of his conduct in this life on the eternal destination of his soul.
It’s been a long time since I’ve written any scripts, or much of anything of substance asside from college papers. In junior high and high school, I enjoyed writing for the sake of writing, and wrote several short plays to be performed by my church’s youth group. But since college, I haven’t had that same spark. Br. Neurocentric has written some about his struggles and embrace of writing as a muslim. Definately something to reflect on as I contemplate picking up the pen (or keyboard as it were) again.
Jun
19
Posted under
Quran,
to read 
fisabilillah.org has a number of free books that are available to read online. And, if you right click, copy and paste each page image into a word document, the books become portable. Imagine that, knowledge you can take with you anywhere ;-) There is no copy right to any of the material in the books, so copy and paste away.
I’ve only looked through the Qur’an related books, but thus far, everything looks peachy keen. According to their about
us section, they’re decidedly no partisan, but not anti anything. Oftentimes I’ve found that sites that claim to follow ahul al sunnah wa jamaah are virulently anti madhab, but that doesn’t seem to be the case here.
The books on Qur’an are fantastic. Each contains the verse in arabic, a transliteration, and then an easy to read translation. The translation looks to be the Dr. Muhammad Taqi-ud-Din Al-Hilali and Dr. Muhammad Muhsin Khan version I’m not fond of, but with most of the commentary taken out, which is great. The main problem I have with this translation is the insertion of commentary into the text of the translation, which confuses many of the new muslims who receive this Qur’an for free. I can’t count how many times I’ve come across a newbie who believes that the words in brackets are words from the Qur’an, and not mearly the commentary added to explain.
Ah, but I digress. Go, copy and paste, read!