Monday, 26 November 2007
Urdu Lessons
So i decided to teach the girls urdu. I thought a good start would be to get my 5 year old to watch a urdu cartoon on zee tv. After 10 minutes she had already picked up her first word of urdu, 'Vow!' she said with a smile! =0) She hasn't stopped saying it since................she's a cheeky one!
Thursday, 15 November 2007
Black Tounge!
The other day I was walking my little one home from school. As we walked by some boys playing in the caged football area, my little one waved and shouted out to them,'Bye Friend, Bye!'
'You don't know them', I said
'Mummy, they're my friends!' she replied. As I gave her one of my 'Oh Really!!' looks she quickly changed her story and quickly with a cheeky grin she said,'Oops I forgot, they are not my friends, sorry for lying mamma'
'You know you shouldn't tell lies like that', I reminded her, 'Your tounge will go all black'. She stopped for a moment and then stuck her tounge out at me and said,
'Mama is my tounge black?'. I took a quick look and said, 'No,it isn't!' She then lowered her head, raised her eyes and innocently said, ' Mama, why are you lying?' - Believe me I was completely lost for words! =0)
Moral of the story - Don't make things up, you'll only get yourself in deeper trouble with the kids!! =0)
'You don't know them', I said
'Mummy, they're my friends!' she replied. As I gave her one of my 'Oh Really!!' looks she quickly changed her story and quickly with a cheeky grin she said,'Oops I forgot, they are not my friends, sorry for lying mamma'
'You know you shouldn't tell lies like that', I reminded her, 'Your tounge will go all black'. She stopped for a moment and then stuck her tounge out at me and said,
'Mama is my tounge black?'. I took a quick look and said, 'No,it isn't!' She then lowered her head, raised her eyes and innocently said, ' Mama, why are you lying?' - Believe me I was completely lost for words! =0)
Moral of the story - Don't make things up, you'll only get yourself in deeper trouble with the kids!! =0)
Monday, 12 November 2007
Thoughts of the day...
Feelings today, good. Feelings yesterday, 50/50.
I attended a comic event on Friday 9th Nov in Canary Wharf. The Muslim comedians were absolutely hilarious. The atmosphere was great and the food was awesome, the venue it self was classic. However, whilst at the time I enjoyed the evening, I came away with my reflecting hat on and haven’t stopped reflecting on the evening ever since.
Was it right for brothers and sisters to be in such a mixed environment?
Should the organisers have maintained a segregated environment? (this is what we were advised at the front desk, we were told that sisters would be seated on the left, brothers to the right and family in the middle, this arrangements did not unfold!)
Was it right for the comic to joke about a woman’s breast so openly? (i.e. He was joking about breastfeeding)
Was it right to use the word ‘Astagfur’ Allah’ in such a manner? ( The comic made police siren noises with words ‘Astagfur’Allah)
Was it right for the comic’s to encourage mingling/mixing amongst the brothers and sisters after the event? (After the event the comic said, ‘Singles – Mingle!’)
Surely for being a Muslim comic, the line must be drawn somewhere?
I feel like, just as Yusuf Islam and Dawud Wharnsby have picked up their guitar once again that Muslim comics are also now treading the boundaries and are becoming quite provocative and daring with their jokes. Why is this I wonder. Well, I suppose if so called ‘Liberal Muslims’ continue to laugh at such ignorant jokes they are then encouraging the comics to search for more relative material. Is this all really necessary – the singing of nasheeds backed with musical instruments? Comedy encouraging excessive laughter? Both musical instruments and excessive laughter have been discouraged by our blessed Prophet (pbuh). I mean, how many people do you know of that have become Muslim just by listening to nasheeds or going to a comedy show?. Is such entertainment necessary or just a waste of much valuable time? When you last went to a nasheed concert or comedy show, did you learn anything to benefit you in your deen?
Let me clarify a few of the jokes made by the comics. When joking about breastfeeding, the joke revolved around the comic’s wife who had just had a baby. One day she was very tired thus handed the baby over to her husband and told him to feed her. He immediately looked down at his chest and said that that would be a bit difficult and it would traumatise the baby. OK, that was funny at the time but when I think back to the joke I feel ashamed for having laughed at it. The audience was indirectly encouraged to think of a woman’s breasts and then laugh about them – astagfur’Allah. What I am trying to say is that we are a Muslim audience and such jokes are certainly uncalled for and should be discouraged. There were non Muslims and new Muslims in the audience, what kind of impression must we have given to them?
So all these thoughts are in my head right now, anti-liberal I suppose, so does that make me a fundamentalist then? Once I advised a Muslim committee of up to 8 men that rather then playing bollywood tunes at their next major Eid event, why not try Nasheeds, they responded by indirectly calling me a radical! It turned out that they had no idea what a nasheed was in the first place, upon explanation they relaxed a bit. What shocked me was that one of the members of this committee was the leader of a London Borough’s Muslim community – for him not to know what a Nasheed was let alone a daff was alarming?
So I asked my husband, if I’m not a liberal Muslim then am I a fundamentalist or what do you call someone that’s in the middle of the two trying to find their way? He said, ‘ Darling’, (ok he didn’t really say ‘Darling’, but it sounds good!) you are just a Muslim, simple as that – you are not liberal, fundamental, extreme, you are a Muslim that tries to stay within the boundaries of Islam – you are holding on to the rope of Allah’.
With that said, time for asr……
Wa’Salaam
I attended a comic event on Friday 9th Nov in Canary Wharf. The Muslim comedians were absolutely hilarious. The atmosphere was great and the food was awesome, the venue it self was classic. However, whilst at the time I enjoyed the evening, I came away with my reflecting hat on and haven’t stopped reflecting on the evening ever since.
Was it right for brothers and sisters to be in such a mixed environment?
Should the organisers have maintained a segregated environment? (this is what we were advised at the front desk, we were told that sisters would be seated on the left, brothers to the right and family in the middle, this arrangements did not unfold!)
Was it right for the comic to joke about a woman’s breast so openly? (i.e. He was joking about breastfeeding)
Was it right to use the word ‘Astagfur’ Allah’ in such a manner? ( The comic made police siren noises with words ‘Astagfur’Allah)
Was it right for the comic’s to encourage mingling/mixing amongst the brothers and sisters after the event? (After the event the comic said, ‘Singles – Mingle!’)
Surely for being a Muslim comic, the line must be drawn somewhere?
I feel like, just as Yusuf Islam and Dawud Wharnsby have picked up their guitar once again that Muslim comics are also now treading the boundaries and are becoming quite provocative and daring with their jokes. Why is this I wonder. Well, I suppose if so called ‘Liberal Muslims’ continue to laugh at such ignorant jokes they are then encouraging the comics to search for more relative material. Is this all really necessary – the singing of nasheeds backed with musical instruments? Comedy encouraging excessive laughter? Both musical instruments and excessive laughter have been discouraged by our blessed Prophet (pbuh). I mean, how many people do you know of that have become Muslim just by listening to nasheeds or going to a comedy show?. Is such entertainment necessary or just a waste of much valuable time? When you last went to a nasheed concert or comedy show, did you learn anything to benefit you in your deen?
Let me clarify a few of the jokes made by the comics. When joking about breastfeeding, the joke revolved around the comic’s wife who had just had a baby. One day she was very tired thus handed the baby over to her husband and told him to feed her. He immediately looked down at his chest and said that that would be a bit difficult and it would traumatise the baby. OK, that was funny at the time but when I think back to the joke I feel ashamed for having laughed at it. The audience was indirectly encouraged to think of a woman’s breasts and then laugh about them – astagfur’Allah. What I am trying to say is that we are a Muslim audience and such jokes are certainly uncalled for and should be discouraged. There were non Muslims and new Muslims in the audience, what kind of impression must we have given to them?
So all these thoughts are in my head right now, anti-liberal I suppose, so does that make me a fundamentalist then? Once I advised a Muslim committee of up to 8 men that rather then playing bollywood tunes at their next major Eid event, why not try Nasheeds, they responded by indirectly calling me a radical! It turned out that they had no idea what a nasheed was in the first place, upon explanation they relaxed a bit. What shocked me was that one of the members of this committee was the leader of a London Borough’s Muslim community – for him not to know what a Nasheed was let alone a daff was alarming?
So I asked my husband, if I’m not a liberal Muslim then am I a fundamentalist or what do you call someone that’s in the middle of the two trying to find their way? He said, ‘ Darling’, (ok he didn’t really say ‘Darling’, but it sounds good!) you are just a Muslim, simple as that – you are not liberal, fundamental, extreme, you are a Muslim that tries to stay within the boundaries of Islam – you are holding on to the rope of Allah’.
With that said, time for asr……
Wa’Salaam
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