Egyptian Gumbo

She said she felt like dying when things didn’t go exactly how she wanted. I’ve known the sister for a long time now. She always seemed like she knew her bounds; like she knew Allah ‘az wa jal. But soon, all of what was inside her would come out and no one was expecting it.

It is the fuel for An-Nafs al-Ammarah bis-soo’ (the self that is inclined to evil), and it is the disease of An-Nafs al-Mutma’innah (the self with complete rest & satisfaction).

It is Al-Hawaa.

Fatima* had been wanting to marry this brother for a long time but she was scared of what her father would say. When the day came to tell her father and he refused, her hidden shirk had become apparent. She was committing shirk Al-mahabah.

She cried until she fell asleep from exhaustion. She wanted nothing more than to die. Fatima had grown obsessed over the months and no one knew about it. She kept saying that she wants nothing more than to marry the brother.

But what about Jannah? What about seeing Allah’s face?

Fatima had been living on the edge. Not in terms of lifestyle, but the edge of the fold of Islam.

Al-Hawaa, or desires, is not something that is disliked in and of itself. But it is the extremes that become despised. In fact, because it is rare to find someone that seeks to strike a balance in his desires,  Allah ‘az wa jal only mentions hawaa in the Quran when He dispraises it. And there are only very few instances in the sunnah when the term is used in a positive manner.

Sisters tend to over think and over analyze situations. It’s in our nature. And truly that is where some of the dangers of shirk al-mahabah lies. The more a person thinks about a desire, the more obsessed they become with it. And the more obsessed a person is, the more they want to break free from it but find themselves unable to do so.

Ibnul Qayyim describes this person: “He is like a bird that was deceived by a grain of wheat, neither was he able to get it, nor was he able to free himself from the trap he got caught in.”

Perhaps the most profound statement in all of Imam Ibnul Qayyim’s chapter on the dispraise of Al-Hawaa was the anaology he used when describing how man can be more astray than animals when it comes to desire, as Allah ‘az wa jal says in surat Al-Furqaan:

Have you (O Muhammad SAW) seen him who has taken as his ilah (god) his own desire? Would you then be a Wakeel (a disposer of his affairs or a watcher) over him?

Or do you think that most of them hear or understand? They are only like cattle; nay, they are even farther astray from the Path. (i.e. even worst than cattle).

To which imam Ibnul Qayyim said, “An animal takes a share of enjoyment in the taste of food, drinks, and sexual relations that is not attainable by man, and that it lives a comfortable life free from thought and worry. Hence it is driven to its slaughtering place preoccupied with its lusts due to the lack of knowledge about the consequences.” (Whereas man is given reason and intellect therefore man follows his desires to his doom, and is therefore even more astray than cattle.)

Hawaa linguistically means fell down. And the one who indulges in their desires in excess of what is desired by Allah, is only preparing himself to fall on his face.

I am given the opportunity to teach sisters, the youth, at our masjid. And one common thread is the reality of sisters and their obsessions. And the dangers of shirk al-mahabah are very real and very common. And although most people don’t realize it that they have elements of it. I realized that weakness in a person’s iman can be caused by this type of shirk, because the heart wants and yearns for other than Allah, thus causing a person to be unhappy and ultimately lowering their iman.

I’m sure many of you reading this know a case of someone who has gone crazy over another person, or “can’t live without” a certain food or drink to the extent that it not only makes their soul sick, but also their body.

Let every person look to his or her heart to see if this is the case with them. And know that it can all be solved with the help of Allah ‘az wa jal– by getting closer to him and distancing yourself enough from that which you love, whether that be food, drink or love.

Just a friendly reminder. Wallahu alem.

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*real name not used.

For more on the topic of Al-Hawaa, please read “A chapter on The Dispraise of Al-Hawaa (Desire)” By Imam Ibnul Qayyim, prepared by sheik Saleh As-Saleh, rahmitullahi 3alayhom.

My opinion columns turned into a speech. That speech turned into a script. And that script has been turned into a dawah, public service announcement video. (To see the video, keep reading…)

Last year, I wrote and delivered a five minute speech to my public relations class. I decided to take the easy way out of the assignment and decided to take the opportunity for dawah and picked the subject of prejudice to talk about. I chose excerpts from my past opinion columns in The Daily Reveille and made them into my speech.

After delivering the speech one girl came up to me and said, “It really does make me see how ignorant we really are. Especially seeing how it’s only the actions of few that get attributed to your religion.” Others told me it was a successful PR speech because it made them look at their own beliefs about Islam and compare them to my words. I didn’t expect that feedback. Alhamdulillah it was successful, all by the will of Allah. And only Allah has allowed me such opportunities, walhamdulillah.

Meanwhile, I was working on a media kit for Leechon and particularly the upcoming documentary, “Tufaan.” During that time, we came up with the idea of shooting public service announcement videos to put at the beginning of every documentary that Leechon would produce — especially Tufaan, since its primary target audience is non-Muslims. Hence, the idea to use my speech as a script for the PSA emerged.

So we decided to do it much like the format of the “Bear Witness” video that Br. Belal Khan had produced a while back, where every person would read two lines from the script. Here’s the Bear Witness video, which in my opinion is an really nice dawah video:

*video removed because sisters shown in video

Anyway, Br. Ahmed Eid, a brother from NJ who has been working with me and the PR team for quite a while took up the challenge of shooting and editing the video for Leechon. MashaAllah, it turned out great. Although I don’t personally know anyone in the video, I wanted to give a big jazakum Allahu Khairan katheeran for the work and effort you guys put into it. May Allah make it heavy on your scales, ameeeeen. And inshaAllah I look forward to working with you all in the future, bi’ithnillahi ta’ala.

So without further adeiu, our PSA: FREEDOM FROM FEAR

(video removed)

Lastly, in the future I would like to write dawah videos that are not on the defense. Sure there are people who hate Islam, sure there is still a lot of anti-Islamic sentiment around, but I would like to move away from being on the defense to speaking to people in general about Islam. A PSA about “Islam” why they see us prostrating on the floor when we pray, etc.

Good things to come inshaAllah. Give us your feedback and if you like it spread it around inshaAllah.

These past two weeks were stressful for ol’ egyptiangumbo.com, and I’ll tell you why:

I found this really cute video a couple of weeks ago of Kermit the frog and a little cute, adorable girl. I put it up and submitted it to Stumble Upon. I purposely put it under the “Islam” category because my blog is mainly about Islamic topics and they are my target audience.

Some stumblers thought I was “stupid” for doing so, so they changed the tag to the “humor” section. The result?

Hundreds of thousands of new visitors to my blog.

My RSS feed subscriber went from 7,000 to 20,000 then broke from overload. (I’m assuming i have close to 50,000 subscribers now)

And a load of comments came - some good and some bad.

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I’ll be perfectly honest, it caused me a little anxiety. Why? Because I have over thousands of non-Muslims subscribed to my Islamicly themed blog. Why would this cause me stress? Because of everything that I wanted to get away from due to my experience writing columns about Islam in The Daily Reveille, LSU’s student newspaper. Sure there were good comments and bad comments, but the worst part was I had no power at all to respond to those bad comments or defend Islam because of The Reveille’s policy. I worked for them for about a year and a half and I felt that It was a lot of emotional stress and that It wasn’t something I wanted to do again for a while.

Qaddar Allah wa ma sha’a fa3l. As I thought more and more about it, I realized that Allah (God) had given me another opportunity whether I wanted it or not at the moment. To display the true image of Islam, to dispel myths, and to educate others on the true teachings of Islam. I would be truly at loss if I would give up this opportunity that Allah has given me, and if I was ungrateful for it. Perhaps I did something right the first time for Allah to give me the opportunity again.

So what does this mean for egyptiangumbo.com and what does this mean for the new 40,000+ subscribers to my blog; what should they expect?

They should expect me continue my focus on Islamic Media, but to also write more posts about the true nature of Islam.

So for all the new non-Muslims to my blog, this one post is for you:

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It’s amazing how God can lead you to paths you’d never expect; when you least expect it and from avenues you never imagined. Who would have thought that a video of a green character with a hand inside of him would get you to a post about Islam?

Sometimes those random things make all the difference.

Often, you might have this feeling your heart like something is void and missing from your life and you just can’t seem to figure out what it is. Money, food, shelter, love… we could have it all but for some some reason we always seem to want more trying to fulfill something inside of us.

Allah (God) is the sustainer, and it is in the remembrance of him in our lives that not only sustains, but also nourishes and fills our hearts of any voids.

Islam is a very simple and beautiful religion. Everything revolves around one central concept — the belief that there is object worthy of worship, to be fully submitted to, and fully obeyed save Allah.

It’s that simple. We worship the one who created us, sustains us and the one who will resurrect us. We don’t worship the creation. Meaning we do not worship the noble prophets such as Jesus or Muhammad (peace be upon them) nor do we worship celestial objects such as the sun or moon.

We believe Jesus was born of a virgin birth to Mary (peace be upon her), but unlike Christianity we neither believe that he is a the son of God nor that he died on the cross.

Muslims believe that God is so high above having partners or children. Jesus, like all other prophets of God, came with the exact same message as all the other prophets — to worship Allah alone and to do good deeds and abstain from the bad so you can attain paradise.

To be a Muslim simply means to submit oneself to God. If someone believes in these six items of faith, they would be a Muslim:

1. To believe that there is no object worthy of worship save Allah, and the Muhammad is His messenger.

2. Belief in the angels.

3. Belief in all the prophets of Allah, starting from Adam, Noah, Abraham, Lot, Jacob, Joseph, Ishmael, Isaac, Moses , David, Jesus, Muhammad and all other prophets in between.

4. Belief in all the books that came before. Meaning, we as Muslims have to believe in the Gospels and the Torah (among the other divinely revealed books) that they were sent by Allah to His messengers. However, we must also believe and only follow the Quran. The Quran is the last book revealed by Allah to the last messenger, Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him.) The reason we follow the Quran only, and not the other books, is because the Quran remains the true word of God. It has not been altered by man since the time it was revealed.

5. Belief in the last day; belief in the day of judgment. That a person will be held accountable for everything they did in this life before Allah, and will either be destined to paradise or destined to hellfire.

6. And belief in preordainment.

If a person believes in these six simple concepts, they are Muslim.

And once a person is a Muslim there are five pillars of Islam that must be followed:

1. To testify that there is no object worthy of worship except Allah, and that Muhammad is His slave and final messenger.
2. Pray five times a day- at their appointed times
3. Fast the holy month of Ramadan
4. Give Alms (compulsory Charity)– 2.5% of yearly savings (if above a certain quota)
5. Make pilgrimage to Mecca (hajj) at least once in your life IF you have the means (i.e. money, transportation, accommodation, etc.)

And it’s as simple as that. Islam does not get more complicated than these beliefs and actions. It’s all about doing the things required of us and abstaining from sins to the best of our ability.

I’d be happy to answer any questions you may have. I hope you will enjoy the content of my blog, and if anyone wants to ask privately about anything, feel free to email me at the email address in the “contact” section of my blog.

Bismillah,

Virtually on every blog people get into discussions/debates over the “Music Issues:” What’s halal and what’s haram? There are different of opinions — but what are the different opinions and what are the PROOFS behind the opinions? There is the view of ibn Hazm (rahimahullah) and others.

My blog is mainly about media with an Islamic view. I promote videos, I make videos (rarely), and I do PR work under certain conditions.

I asked a student of knowledge to write something up about music so that I can post it here. Everything written is from this student of knowledge and not my own words, and if it weren’t for the fact that the brother asked not to have his name mentioned, I would have mentioned it because I realize it’s important to know who you are taking knowledge from. However, the evidence speak for itself.

Before anyone decides to write a comment, I ask you to be rational and not in attack mode. I do not write to please other people, but rather inshaAllah to please Allah ‘az wa jal. Therefore, I decided to post this. And I hope that this can be a reference to you and your friends, and anyone else you would like to advice against the evils of shaytaan. Feel free to pass it on inshaAllah. This post is a little long, but worth it, inshaAllah. And I was asked not to edit anything, and that’s an amanah on me so here it is inshaAllah:

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This is a small collection of Ayaat, Ahadeeth and statements of Scholars of Ahlus Sunnah wal Jama’ah regarding musical instruments & singing…

Proof 1 -

And of mankind is he who purchases idle talks (lahwal hadeeth) to mislead from the Path of Allah without knowledge… [Luqmaan 31:6]

‘Abdullah ibn ‘Abbas said: “lahwal hadeeth/idle talk” means falsehood and ghinaa’ (singing).

‘Abdullah ibn Mas’ood said: Wallahi (three times) lahwal hadeeth means ghinaa’. And the same interpretation was also given by ‘Abdullah ibn ‘Umar.

Al-Nadr ibn al-Haarith used to tell to the people of Makkah stories of the Persians and their kings and the kings of Romans and so on, to distract people from the Qur’an. Whether it is with stories or any words drawing people away from Allah’s Words or singing, both of them are idle talk. This is why ‘Abdullah ibn ‘Abbas said: “Idle talk” is falsehood and singing.

[Tafseer at-Tabari/Ibn Katheer]

Proof 2 -

(Allah said to Iblees) And befool those whom you can among them with your voice… [Israa' 17:64]

‘Abdullah ibn Mas’ood said: bi sawtik (with your [iblees] voice) is ma’aazif (musical instruments).[Tafseer at-Tabari]
Proof 3 -

Do you then wonder at this recital (the Quran)?
And you laugh at it and weep not; Wasting your (precious) lifetime in pastime and amusements. [Najm 53:59-61]

Verse 61 says wa antum saamidoon (wasting your lifetime in pastime & amusement). ‘Abdullah ibn ‘Abbas said regarding “sumood” (noun and saamiddon is verb) means ghinaa’ (singing)

And this is Yemeni dialect, “ismad lanaa” means “sing for us”…

[Tafseer ibn Katheer]

Point to note –

After the Prophet sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, no one knows more about the meaning of Allah’s Words than the Companions.

‘Abdullah ibn ‘Abbas said: Allah’s Messenger embraced me and said, “Oh Allah given him the knowledge of the Qur’an”. [Bukhari]

Seeing this proof how can someone reject Tafseer coming from ‘Abdullah ibn ‘Abbas?

Proof 4 -

Narrated that Abu ‘Aamir or Abu Maalik al-Ash’aree that he heard the the Prophet sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam saying: From among my followers there will be some people who will consider illegal sexual intercourse, the wearing of silk, the drinking of alcoholic drinks and the use of musical instruments (ma’aazif), as lawful. And there will be some people who will stay near the side of a mountain and in the evening their shepherd will come to them with their sheep and ask them for something, but they will say to him, ‘Return to us tomorrow.’ Allah will destroy them during the night and will let the mountain fall on them, and He will transform the rest of them into monkeys and pigs and they will remain so till the Day of Resurrection. [Bukhari # 5590]

The Prophet sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam included musical instruments along with zina and khamr which shows how heinous of an action it is.

However due to many misconceptions, lack of information, etc we need to mention a few more things about this Hadeeth.

First argument : Imam Ibn Hazm said music is not Haraam.

Imam Bukhari recorded this Hadeeth by saying wa qaala hishaamubnu ‘ammaar/and Hishaam ibn ‘Ammaar said…

Imam Ibn Hazm - rahimullah - said that there was no link between Imam Bukhari and Hishaam ibn ‘Ammaar and therefore considered this Hadeeth to be da’eef (weak). Imam Ibn Hazm made it clear that no Saheeh report reached him stating Musical instruments was Haraam. Al-Haafidh al-’Iraaqi, al-Haafidh Ibn Hajar, Ibn al-Salaah, and all the other great Hadeeth Scholars have clearly pointed out that this was Ibn Hazm’s mistake and recognizing an authentic chain. [Fath ul Baaree v.10]

No Muhaddith of the past or present has classified this Hadeeth from Saheeh al-Bukhari as weak. Those who look for excuses, point out Imam Ibn Hazm allowed Musical instruments. He simply said no Saheeh Hadeeth reached him and if he heard any authentic Hadeeth prohibiting music, he would have said so. [also check Ighaathat al-Lahfaan by Ibn al-Qayyim]

Imam Ibn Hazm was one of the Scholars of Ahlus Sunnah wal Jama’ah, people do not follow his ‘Aqeedah or his Manhaj, but they will use this one statement from him to fulfill their desires.

Second argument: no this Hadeeth is saying that if musical instrument is accompanied by zina and alcohol then it is Haraam, otherwise it is fine.

It is very silly that many Muslims will make such a conclusion from this Hadeeth. If we follow the logic of such people then we can say “oh guess what, zina is fine as long as it is not accompanied by alcohol and music!”…or “hey alcohol is fine just don’t listen to music and fornicate while drinking”

Sheikh Albaani said: This Hadeeth indicates in two ways that musical instruments and enjoyment of listening to music are Haraam. The first is the fact that the Prophet sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam said: “[they] permit” which clearly indicates that the things mentioned, including musical instruments, are Haraam according to Sharee’ah, but those people will permit them. The second is the fact that musical instruments are mentioned alongside things which are definitely known to be Haraam, i.e., zinaa and alcohol: if they (musical instruments) were not Haraam, why would they be mentioned alongside these things? (al-Silsilah al-Saheehah)

Proof 5 -

It was narrated that an-Naafi’ said: ‘Abdullah Ibn ‘Umar heard a woodwind instrument, and he put his fingers in his ears and kept away from that path. He said to me, O Naafi’, can you hear anything? I said, No. So he took his fingers away from his ears and said: I was with the Prophet (sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam and he heard something like this, and he did the same thing. [Abu Dawood]

Some people do not understand the meaning of this Hadeeth and will argue how it is forbidding music. ‘Abdullah ibn ‘Umar just happened to have heard while walking by (i.e. unintentionally) even then he put his fingers in his ears so as not to hear it! And he said the Prophet sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam did the same. We all know that “unintentional” acts are not held accountable by Allah. Yet the Prophet sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam and his Companion put their fingers in their ear so as not to even let the voice of Shaytaan enter their ears unintentionally.

Ibn Qudaamah al-Maqdisi said: the listener is the one who intends to hear, and that was not the case with Ibn ‘Umar; what happened in his case was hearing. The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) needed to know when the sound stopped because he had moved away from that path and blocked his ears. So he did not want to go back to that path or unblock his ears until the noise had stopped, so when he allowed Ibn ‘Umar to continue hearing it, this was because of necessity. [al-Mughni, 10/173]

Proof 6 -

Jaabir ibn ‘Abdullah said: “The Messenger of Allah sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam went to to al-Nakhl with ‘Abd al-Rahmaan ibn ‘Awf, when his son Ibraaheem was dying. He took the child in his lap and his eyes filled with tears. ‘Abd al-Rahmaan said, ‘Are you weeping when you have forbidden us to weep?’ He said: I do not prohibit weeping, but I prohibited two foolish immoral voices: A voice during a calamity while clawing at one’s face and tearing one’s clothes, and Shaytan’s scream. [Tirmidhi # 1005]

Anas ibn Maalik (the servant of the Prophet) said the “wa rannatish shaytaan/and the scream of Shaytaan” refers to musical instruments.

Other proofs can be given, but for the true believers just one verse prohibiting something should be more than enough!

All the Imams of Ahlus Sunnah wal Jama’ah are in unanimous agreement that singing/musical instruments are strictly forbidden in Islam. And Imam Abu Haneefah was the strictest stating the one who listens and enjoys musical instruments has committed kufr.
Not to be confused, he didn’t call the listener of music a kaafir (disbeliever), he said listening to music is a type of kufr (disbelief)
Imam Maalik, Shafi’ee and Ahmad said: Only a faasiq will listen to music.

[Ighaathat al-Lahfaan by Ibn Qayyim/Tafseer al-Qurtubi]

Having said all this we know that the only musical instrument that is allowed in Islam is the daff (i.e. tambourine without any bells).

Proof 1 -

Narrated ‘A’ishah: Allah’s Messenger sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam came to my house while two girls were singing beside me the songs of Bu’aath (a story about the war between the two tribes of the Ansar, the Khazraj and the Aus, before Islam). The Prophet sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam lay down and turned his face to the other side. Then Abu Bakr came and spoke to me harshly saying, “instruments of Shaytaan near the Prophet?” Allah’s Messenger sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam turned his face towards him and said, “Leave them.” When Abu Bakr became inattentive, I signaled to those girls to go out and they left.

So it is allowed for girls to sing/use daff (words of good meaning) on the days of ‘Eid. The reaction of Abu Bakr saying “mizmaaratush shaytaan” (instruments of Shaytaan) again points out that music/singing generally is something that is prohibited in Islam.

Proof 2 -

The Prophet sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam said: The thing that will distinguish between Halaal and Haraam in marriage is the beating of the daff. [Bukhari, Ahmad]

Women are allowed to beat the daff during weddings…in fact, it is something Mustahabb (highly recommended).

Nasheeds -
The recent trend of Nasheeds have changed dramatically and many times we see men and women together (or by men only) using all sorts of musical instruments and calling it “Islamic songs.”

Such a way of spending hours practicing, recording, selling/buying of Nasheeds is totally unheard of in the past. It has reached a point where the youth are flocking towards memorizing the lyrics of Nasheeds rather than memorizing and understanding Kalaam ul Allah, al-Qur’an.

Also there are some Nasheeds without the use of musical instruments or women where the men are making flute/drum, etc noises with their mouth and considering it to be Halaal since they are not “using any instruments but just the natural voice”.

Sh.’Uthaymeen said: There has been a lot of talk about Islamic nasheeds. I have not listened to them for a long time. When they first appeared there was nothing wrong with them. There were no duffs, and they were performed in a manner that did not involve any fitnah, and they were not performed with the tunes of haraam songs. But then they changed and we began to hear a rhythm that may have been a duff or it may have been something other than a duff, and they began to choose performers with beautiful and enchanting voices, then they changed further and began to be performed in the manner of haraam songs. Hence we began to feel uneasy about them, and unable to issue fatwas stating that they were permissible in all cases, or that they were forbidden in all cases. If they are free of the things that I have referred to then they are permissible, but if they are accompanied by the duff or performers are chosen who have beautiful and enchanting voices, or they are performed in the manner of indecent songs, then it is not permissible to listen to them. [Al-Sahwah al-Islamiyyah pg.185]

Sh. Al-Fawzaan said: As for that which is called Islamic nasheeds, they have been given more time and effort than they deserve, to such an extent that they have become an art form which takes up space in school curricula and school activities, and the recording companies record huge numbers of them to sell and distribute, and most houses are full of them, and many young men and women listen to them, and it takes up a lot of their time, and they are listened to more than recordings of Qur’an, Sunnah, lectures and useful lessons. [Al-Bayaan li Akhta' Ba'd al-Kuttaab pg. 342]

Statements from many other Scholars from Ahlus Sunnah wal Jama’ah of our times can be given, but to keep this short we can conclude by stating the Shari’ guidelines for any Nasheed to be considered Halaal:

1. The words of the nasheed must be free of Haraam and foolish words.

2. The nasheed should not be accompanied by musical instruments. No musical instrument is permitted except the duff for women on certain occasions. See the answer to question no.

3. It should be free of sound effects that imitate musical instruments, because what counts is what appears to be the case, and imitating haraam instruments is not permissible, especially when the bad effect is the same as that which happens with real instruments.

4. Listening to nasheed should not become a habit which takes up a person’s time and affects his duties and mustahabb actions, such as affecting his reading of Qur’an and calling others to Allah.

5. The performer of a nasheed should not be a woman performing in front of men, or a man with an enchanting appearance or voice performing in front of women.

6. One should avoid listening to performers with soft voices who move their bodies in rhythm, because there is fitnah in all of that and it is an imitation of the evildoers.

7. One should avoid the images that are put on the covers of their tapes, and more important than that, one should avoid the video clips that accompany their nasheeds, especially those which contain provocative movements and imitations of immoral singers.

8. The purpose of the nasheed should be the words, not the tune.

I end by mentioning the verse:

Have you (O Muhammad Sallallahu alayhi wa allam) seen him who has taken as his Ilaah (deity) his own desire? [Furqaan 25:43]

When clear prohibition comes from Allah and His Messenger, we still disobey and follow our desires. Truly we are guilty of taking our desires as deities besides (or along with) Allah. May Allah protect us all from such misguidance…

—-

Wallahu ta’ala alem.

“Who are YOU to tell ME anything?!”– We’ve all heard this some point or another when we got into a “heated debate” with someone. In essence, if someone spits this out at you they most likely want your resumé; your credibility. (And most likely they think they’re better than you, bad friend I tell ya.)

I started the first post of a series on the Leechon Blog called “The Best Persuader, Muhammed (Salallahu alayhi wa sallam).” I’m currently writing a book (which has been on hold for a while) about the art(sunnah) of persuasion in light of the sunnah.

This is REALLY useful information… so read on inshaAllah:

(photo courtesy of futoor.com)

Yesterday, I held a conference call with my PR team and the issue of ethos, pathos and logos came up into the conversation. With these three things properly executed in a message, one can achieve persuasion, by the Will of Allah.”OK Gumbo, what are you talking about?” I’m talking about establishing credibility (ethos), having an emotional appeal (pathos) and having a factual or logial appeal (logos). And there is no doubt the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam would have all three of these elements in his speech. *these terms are terms of contemporary rhetorical scholars, the Prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam set the first and prime example for mankind*

So first let’s give examples from the life of Muhammad, salallahu alayhi wa sallam, then let’s apply that to our lives today.

When studying seerah, you will notice how scholars are not shy of establishing the credibility of the Prophet,salallahu alayhi wa sallam. For indeed, Allah ‘az wa jal chose the best of the best of the best to deliver and carry the message of Islam.

Imam Ahmad narrates a hadith in which people were talking about and describing the Prophet sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam in different ways. For example, one person said that Muhammad sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam was like a green tree growing in the desert. In reality what they were trying convey was that Muhammad sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam was the only good
person in the clan. So Ibn Abbas says “certain things the people were saying reached the messenger of Allah, so he mounted the pulpit and asked, ‘Who am I?’ they replied ‘You are the messenger of Allah’ he replied ‘I am Muhammad bin Abdillah bin Abdul Muttalib. Allah divides the creation and made me amongst the best of His creatures and He made them all into two groups placing me in the better of them. He created the tribes and placed me in the better of them and divides them into clans and placed me in the best one and I’m the best of you in clan and in spirit.’”

So the prophet salallahu alayhi wa sallam is saying, I’m not the best person in a group of evil people. But instead he was saying that I am the best and from among the best. You’ll also notice that he referenced his linage back to Abdul Muttalib who was of course well known and highly respected in all of Hujaz.

The prophet sal Allaahu alayhi wa sallam also said, “Verily, Allah granted eminence to kinanah from amongst the descendants of Ishmael, and he granted eminence to Quraysh from among kinanah, and he granted eminence to the bani Hashim from Quraysh, and he granted me eminence from the tribe of Banu Hashim.”

Again, this establishes his credibility in a line of the best of tribes and clans. So what exactly does this credibility do? This catches the audience’s attention. It makes the speaker seem that whatever they have to say is both valuable and should be considered due to the that person’s ethos.

And what about other instances from seerah? The fact that the Prophet Salallahu alayhi wa sallam was NEVER an idol worshiper, never drank alcohol, that Allah protected him from listening to music before his prophethood. These are all things that can be categorized under ethos (or credibility of the speaker- salallahu alayhi wa sallam)

How does this apply to YOU?

Let’s say you make Islamic videos, write a speech to be delivered, have a blog or business, or even just give dawah to muslims and/or non-Muslims. You NEED to establish your credibility. And to use specific examples:

Let’s say you are giving dawah to a Muslim and you are trying to convince them to pray regularly and become more practicing. Perhaps you or someone you know was in the same position a while ago and you(or they) completely changed since that time. You should mention this experience to give you better ethos in their eyes- thus, better convincing them to take the same path you did to become closer to Allah.

Another example: Why do you think all those weight loss pills and diets catch on like wildfire? It’s because of all the testimonials they see and read about. REAL PEOPLE getting REAL RESULTS. I mean c’mon have you seen those infomercials?!

Or even just look at the sheiookh when they speak at conventions or in different communities. You will always see a moderator or MC first give an introduction with a background of the sheikh before he speaks to establish his credibility to his audience.

If they do it, you should too. Wallahu Ta’ala Alem.

*if you liked this post, remember to give it a “thumbs up” on StumbleUpon.

Farewell haters, bigots (and that one crazy woman who stalked me.) It’s been entertaining, enlightening and stressful.

What can I say, It’s been a good 1.5 years of writing about Islam (with a semester break in between somewhere), Alhamdulillah. I’ve gotten people asking me how I managed to get my job as an opinion columnist. I guess it’s kind of funny; I never really mentioned this to people, until now. Gather around chickadees while I tell you the story of my wonderful journey into journalism. Sure, I could say something like “It’s because I’m a good writer,” and stop there. But truthfully that’s not really how I got my job. *This post might get a little long, but inshaAllah it’ll be worth it*

In high school, I had an English teacher whom I really didn’t care much for — Mrs. Wimberly. (I called her Wimbo for short.) Just as she thought my writing was mediocre, I thought her outfits with dinosaurs on them were pretty mediocre too. I would say they were really tacky, but I couldn’t help staring and smiling at them all throughout class time. Wimbo would hand back my papers disappointed that I didn’t see the biblical illusions she saw in the books we would read. But that wasn’t my fault. The woman was a little crazy. It really wouldn’t be a stretch to say that if I gave her the book, “Elmo’s Big Adventure” Mr. Elmo would be the biblical illusion because he was “red and represented the blood of Christ.” Anyway, I didn’t really listen to her criticisms and decided to take journalism classes in high school, thus sparking my first interest in media.

Ahh, that really has nothing to do with how I got my job… but do I miss those dinosaurs.

Anyway, fast-forwarding to the end of my freshman year at LSU. Everyone read and still reads The Daily Reveille on campus everyday. One day, I picked up the paper and saw a cartoon drawn on the op-ed page that not only caught my attention, it infuriated me. This wasn’t the first time The Daily Reveille printed something bigoted and completely offensive to Muslims. I decided to head over to the newsroom to have a little talk with the cartoonist but to my dismay he wasn’t there. Surely, I wasn’t going to leave without complaining. After all, I had to defend Islam. And I’m a girl, complaining is in our nature.

So, I requested to speak to the editor-in-chief at the time. It turned out I wasn’t the only one offended by a cartoon which depicted the Iranian President sitting at a laundry mat waiting for his brain to be finished being “washed” with “Quran Detergent;” other people had apparently been complaining all day.

After complaining about how unacceptable it was for him to print the cartoon, he sincerely apologized and told me he “wants to make sure that it doesn’t happen again in the future,” even though he was graduating only week later. He told me that at that very moment they were holding a forum for people who wanted to apply for being on the opinon staff for the next semester. He highly recommended I apply for a position after knowing I was a mass communication major. Subhanallah, it really was the Qadr of Allah that I went to complain at that very moment, because next thing I knew he led me into the room in which I was to apply. And I did. And so did about 100 other people who wanted one of 12 spots.

Anyway, I applied, got called for an interview and then alhamdulillah I got the job. And that started my work in mass dawah. Which wallahi has been such a blessing from the very beginning. However, you have to have a strong heart when speaking the truth about Islam. Don’t sugar coat things, don’t fall under the pressure of those around you.

Wallahi I can’t tell you all how many times I got people saying “Write about something else!” and subhanallah for a brief moment you think about it… then you realize that you are doing this purely for the sake of Allah and I figured if they fire me for not wanting to write about anything other than Islam, then so be it. But they actually loved the readers I would bring and the hits I would bring to the website too, alhamdulillah.

Anyway, so it’s been a good time. I’ve seen a lot of results coming from my columns. People seeing the truth about Islam, new members to our community, changing people’s perceptions; all by the tawfeeq of Allah.

So without further adieu, my last column for the Daily Reveille (I don’t want to re-apply). This column sums up my final message to all the non-Muslims out there- Pick up the Quran and be enlightened, literally:

“‘Hijab Challenge’ successful, enlightening” — (I don’t get to chose my own headlines, that’s why they are always boring!)

It’s nothing great because it came in the middle of my finals, but alhamdulillah ,no complaints. Wallahul musta’an.

“The End” to that chapter in my life…

DEEN SCOPE COMING SOON! -Watch out Islamonline.net muahaha..

Yesterday was a really awesome experience, alhamdulillah. A couple of weeks ago I challenged the women on LSU’s campus to wear hijab for a day. If you want to know how this deals with viral marketing, read on.

I wrote a column called surprise, surprise: “Columnist challenges women to wear hijab for a day.” And that day was April 25th. Writing my columns I really had no idea how many people read them. I know I get a lot of hate mail, and a lot of hate comments, and I knew at least a couple of thousand people read them every week, but this hijab challenge took it to a whole new level.

Melissa and Sarah B. sitting in front a fountain in the Quad at LSU

I got several emails from girls saying they wanted to participate. So I helped them out; I met with some of them and showed them how to wear the hijab. and I even ate lunch with a couple of them yesterday while they sported their hijabs. They were all some of the sweetest girls I’ve met so far at LSU.

Soon after lunch, I got a call from my friend Sarah M. who reverted to Islam about two years ago and she’s telling me that even someone at a coffee shop on campus asked her if she was wearing the hijab because of the challenge. There was a buzz already going around campus. I go the masjid later that night and some of my friends are telling me that so and so was talking about how they read my column and so on and so forth.

My plan worked.

I was able to start dialog all over campus about the hijab. Afterward I got a various people emailing me wanting interviews, I gave a talk about women in Islam to a Women and Gender Studies class; It’s definitely the type of dawah opportunity no one could turn down. That was a lot of potential ajr to pass up. People would ask the girls why they are wearing it, and they would tell them and explain to them why Muslim Women wear the hijab and how we are not oppressed. It was a mass dawah effort. A lot like viral marketing/PR. It’s no wonder why people are all about getting more Muslims in the media. The potential is HUGE for dawah. Imagine, A hijab day on campus could turn into a nation-wide awareness day, which is very possible once we get more Muslims to be trained in media and marketing work.

That’s why I’m starting my own PR company soon. Business proposal should be done tonight and my company should be legally registered soon. There is so much potential out there and so many ideas on how to tap into this field. I’ve seen It work and have felt the sweetness of Allah ‘az wa jal making my efforts successful. Wallahi it’s only by the Will of Allah. And I realize as well, that this is all a test from Allah.

Melissa, Michelle, and Maggie posing for a picture at Atcha Bakery (mmm’ Atcha.)

The Fruits And Veggies of your Efforts:

Melissa was perhaps the sweetest of them all. She was very enthusiastic and excited to take on the hijab challenge, and told everyone she knew about it. We ate lunch and at night she came to our masjid. I stole about 10 girls (unintentionally) away from the youth halaqa to join in our discussion about the hijab. Subhanallah, although I’ve taught these girls before *shout out to you girls :P* and I see them all the time at the masjid, I learned so much about them just from that discussion.

One of the girls came out with the news that she had just started wearing hijab officially last Sunday. Another told of how she started wearing the hijab a couple of months ago, and came with the new news that she had given up listening to music. MashaAllah, la qowwita illa billah. I couldn’t have been happier.

Alhamdulillah, Allah ‘az wa jal gave me such a blessing to be able to change people’s lives. They jokingly (but truthfully) told Melissa how I used to chase after them like herds of sheep and how I wouldn’t start the halaqah until I swung my lasso and reeled them all into the room (that’s southern talk, y’all). They said how at first they ran away from lectures. Then When I would gather them they would come for half the time then leave, then they said that the more they listened to the words of the lectures, the more they wanted to stay on their own, until it lead them to change.

Conclusion?

Don’t give up on what you are doing even if you don’t see immediate results. Never give back or refuse to accept a gift Allah is offering you (i.e. opportunities for dawah). It could be that if we turn down these opporunities and freebies that Allah gives us, that He ‘az wa jal will in turn never give you that opportunity again and give it to someone more greatful.

It is an amazing feeling seeing the fruits of your actions and the potential that is to come, but only if you remember that it was all done by the Will of Allah. and Allah is truly the one that guides the hearts.

Stay tuned for my follow up column in The Daily Reveille next Friday about the results of the Hijab Challenge, inshaAllah. It will inshaAllah be the last column I write for the paper. It’s been a good 1.5 years, alhamdulillah and an awesome way to end that chapter of my life. Wallahu ta’ala alem. So, what are YOU going to do to spread the deen of Allah? (And, do you need a PR person? :P)