And this is why I must speak Arabic

Note: Did you know we are Christian, for most of the days in a year? Keep reading and you'll be just as shocked as I was when I began this research....I enjoy traveling and meeting people from different backgrounds. I respect multiculturalism but not at the expense of losing my own culture. 

It is understandable that there is a great concern as regards the various problems with one's original language in relation to second or third languages for communication. Most of our parents read and write a language other than English - Urdu, Panjabi, Maratti, Mandarin, Arabic or Portuguese.  Most of our kids speak English with different accent than ours'. And if we ever lived in a Scandinavian country then along with English, some of our family members can almost understand and somewhat even articulate in Dutch, Finnish, Swedish, French and/or German. Seems pretty cool innit?


Personally, I stoutly believe that a person's language constitutes his or her cultural, social and personal value. Our language is more than a tool of communication, it is a quantitative component of our existence. The way we perceive and comprehend the world ourselves and others is processed, structured and expressed by means of language. In this sense language makes our conscience, it formulates our identity as a person and distinguishes us from being simply a part of a mass, while, at the same time, language brings us closer to a specific group of people. The words of a language represents a collection of experiences, history, ethics and morals of a people who speak it. Thus, every language connects its speakers with the the past and the future, it gives them the physiognomy of a nation.  This is why language evolves and matures our beliefs and thoughts, it renews our commitments and our relations.


Learning a foreign language and replacing it with one's original languages means substituting one's reason, sentiments, morals and conception of the world with another. For example, my original language is urdu but I write, think, dream and speak in English. English is the unofficial language of present day Christianity and Paganism. Before everyone gets upset with me thinking I am calling English a Kafir language let me prove that deeply ingrained in English is an illustration of a "foreign" worldview.
For instance, English days of the week and months are named after pagan gods - Sunday is from sun god; monday, moon god; Tuesday is god Tyr; Wednesday is named after god odin, Thursday, god Thor, Friday, god Frigga and Saturday after god Saturn. January comes from Roman Janus, the god of power. Feb from Februa, the Roman festival of purification. March is named after the Roman god of war. April is from Aprilis, latin name for the goddess of fertility. May is Maia, Roman deity of growth. June is the name of the goddess of marriage, the wife of Jupiter. It is also attributed to Junius Brutus, the god of crop growth and ripening. July came from Julius Caesar and August is obviously Octavius Augustus Caesar. Sept. Oct. Nov. Dec. mean 7,8,9,10 in Latin.
English years are numbered after the birth of Christ. BC is Before Christ and AD is After Death of Christ (but Esa a.s never died, Allah saved him and he ascended to the Heavens). English academic school calendar revolves around polytheism, specifically prophet and saint worship - for example, there is the feast of St. Michael on Sept. 29, celebration of Trinity on Dec. 25th and festival of St. Hilary on Jan. 13th.  English special occasions are marked by observance of sin- Valentine's Day is a day of fornication. St Patrick’s Day is the day of drinking. Mother's Day originated with Christians going to "mother church" or cathedral. Halloween/ all Hallow's Day is appraising the powers of the devil. Even our food is contaminated. We eat Quaker Oats, Angel Delights, devil’s cake, brownies and hot cross buns.


This is how a language engineers a person. It gives meaning to our words that structure our articles of faith, our conventions, and approach. Today's Muslims are more of a reflection of "Bend it like Beckham" and "Bride and Prejudice culture" - a brew of Hollywood and Bollywood than an ambience of the lives of the Sahaba (r.a) - companions of the Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w). We are Muslims but we find modesty and covering, living on rent and taking the bus instead of mortgaging a house and leasing a car so estranged. We pity the Muslim who seek God instead of pride. We think its weird that some Muslims yearn for spiritual reward more than we lust after flesh, metal and plastic. We live for good taste and good looks and they are busy perfecting their intentions and actions. We think these type of Muslims are extremists, brainwashed, backward fundamentalists. But are they really losers or we are?


Back home and in the West we learned English, French or German for the sake of educational and professional improvement in terms of income or social prestige. The foreign language gave us material success and status but this did not come without a religious deficit. Foreign language divorced us from Islam and liaised us to Kafir customs and mores.
Shakespeare, Herman Melville and Scott Fitzerald taught us in Romeo and Juliet, Moby-Dick and The Great Gatsby that hedonism and nihilism is the way of life and happiness. Mary Shelley and William Golding convinced us in Frankenstein and Lord of the Flies that human beings are nothing but fickle, foppish and ferocious fiends. George Orwell desensitized us to totalitarian governments in 1984. J.D Salinger and J.K Rowling explained in Catcher in the Rye and Harry Potter that power is acquired through superstition, magic and occults. Louisa M Alcott's Little Women, Amy Sherman's Gilmore Girls and Marc Cherry's Desperate Housewives showed us the different shades of the female gender. Homer Simpson, Ross Geller (Friends) and Ashton Kutcher (Two and a Half men) set precedence for acceptable masculine behaviour.  Overall, our impressions of everything from personal hygiene and health, our choice of cars and cuisines, the dress we wear to the dreams we have -almost  everything is shaped by the language we speak. If we speak English then necessarily we'll read things which are English and watch English shows and unintentionally espouse English habits and philosophy on life. We may now pass as posh Canadians or Americans, integrated to the teeth but we have become very impoverished Muslims as a result. We don't even remember what real Islam looked like. And the worst part is, we don't even care.


"To have a second language is to have a second soul," said Charlemagne around 800 CE. If this is true then no wonder souls are devoid of a sense of Islamic identity, Qurni'c paradigm and sunnah consciousness because we do not understand the Islamic language - Arabic. Language doesn't just stir conversations but it allures our thoughts, perceptions, sensations, experiences and intuition. For example, in Arabic language, the duration of life is بِالْغَدَاةِ وَالْعَشِيِّ morning and evening. So an Arab person lives life, one day and night at time. There is really no grief about the best or anxiety over the future. An Arab speaker assumes that he only has one morning or a single evening to live so he makes the most of it so he lives a life without regrets or stress. But this doesn't mean an Arab speaker will gamble his life away for drugs and women because he does not hope to live very long. He understands الْحَيَاةَ life which is from the root ح ي ي to be lived with modesty ( حياء ) and in moderation. An Arab speaker knows that he is خَلَقَ created, the very word denotes that his formation has a God and purpose. Similarly, in Arabic, the verb tomorrow is interpreted as the next life and Hereafter or Day of Judgment. So Arab speakers grasp the notion for tomorrow as the time and place when they will stand before the Creator and answer for their their life and actions on earth. When you ask, in perfectly normal Arabic and in the present tense, “What is your plan for tomorrow?” The Arab speaker thinks of tomorrow as life after death, the time of recompense. So he won't say he has a day of or he is going somewhere tomorrow. He will think of Heaven and Hell. How do we fathom destiny in English? It was Buster's destiny to win the pizza eating contest or  Cinderalla's destiny to marry the prince. In Arabic, destiny is not the same as a lucky coincidence or the fruit of one's labour or the highest aspiration of one's life but God's Will and Decree. So the Arabic language comes with its very own and unique Islamic cognitive toolkit which we cannot truly appreciate and benefit from while speaking English or Urdu or French, Japanese or Italian. 


So I need to learn Arabic. I feel every day I am moving further and further away from Islam. I pray, wear Hijab, eat halal, read the Qur'an etc in routine. I feel I am not being a conscious Muslim. Like I need to change the way my brain is wired or something, reprogram myself so I am in Allah mode all the time. So that my ideas, emotions, reactions, gestures and speech are Rabbaani. I wanna run away the Kafir mentality, attitude and dress. I want to resurrect the time of the Sahaba (r.a). Reinstate the environment of Madina at the time of Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w). I cannot think of any better way of achieving this than through learning the Arabic language. I think it would be ideal to go to Bayyinah Institute but I think for now I should start with Madina Books by AburRaheem Fha and various Arabic dictionaries at home. Slowly do the exercises and memorize new vocab and grammar rules.

Why And How To Learn Arabic - Nouman Ali Khan - Bayyinah Institute   

Reference: HOW DOES OUR LANGUAGE SHAPE THE WAY WE THINK? [6.12.09]
By Lera Boroditsky http://edge.org/3rd_culture/boroditsky09/boroditsky09_index.html 
Does Your Language Shape How You Think? By GUY DEUTSCHER http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/29/magazine/29language-t.html?pagewanted=all

Syria DOES NOT need to be Saved

The world should just mind its own business. For instance, Canadians should worry about Canada. Why do we ignore reporters who invariably write in local news, "Never before has so much power been concentrated in the hands of the prime minister and a few key advisers." The Globe and Mail wrote a book describing Jean Chretien's regime as a "friendly dictatorship" and Paul Martin created within the Privy Council Office a miniature parallel bureaucracy. In Stephen Harper's government, a centralization has reached previously unimaginable levels. Simpson calls him "El Commandante." Cabinet ministers speaking off the record describe an administration run, in essence, by two men: Harper and Kevin Lynch, Clerk of the Privy Council. All policy goes through them and their coterie of advisers, and much policy comes from them. No report is released, no interview granted, no press release issues unless "the Centre" has signed off on it. Veteran bureaucrats report that never before in their entire careers have they seen a government in which the entire Parliament and so much decision making is so tightly grasped in the hands of the Prime Minister. 

Look at the following pictures ... this was the face of Toronto Canada in 2011!!  

 

With the government now censoring the internet, I probably shouldn't even be writing any of this. The Online Piracy Act (OPA) gives the government legal rights to the entire cyber domain. It gives the government jurisdiction to monitor any network, shut down any website, bug any ip address, block results on any search engine, implicate bloggers, censor ads and games. Tell me you are not worried about Canadian democracy? 

As for Syria, it does not need to be saved. The media is bluffing about Asad. 

1. CNN staged a pathetic story of pro-westerners posing to be refugees in a private orchard. How do I know this? Watch that news segment and you'll see at one point they show children playing a nearby stream. Its more of a toilet than a stream. The children in the scene are clearly taking their cue from someone off camera right, they keep looking up at this person and then "playing". But in the back of the shot, there is one girl that just stands there looking miserable at whoever is giving her directions. I would be miserable if someone made me stand in crap for a McDonalds cheese burger. The scene also shows a bunch of business class Syrians standing motionless in the water with their shoes off. 

The story also features some Muhammad pharmacist who brought his medication to the refugee camp. His medication is really a box of random supplies and his patient is one diabetic woman who has high blood pressure. Then there is this crying baby on the ground and one man looks like he is going to give it a shot but the camera doesn't show that. I guess it was ok to terrify the child by making it think it was going to get a shot would be too much for him. 

If the fake refugees and doctors aren't funny enough then get a load of the trees that are all certain size and there is a row of newly planted trees right on the other side of the dirt path between them and the older trees. You see working farm equipment in the background and at one point there is someone tending a cow that wandered into the shot. They even use the work truck that carried all the stuff to this location as a prop. It’s an orchard. Some wealthy business class resident has allowed them to set-up and shoot their “refugee” scene in their working orchard.

2. CNN did a story about Zainab al-Hosni, an 18 year old girl who was said to be abducted and mutilated by the Assad regime. The news caster said that she is looking at the pictures of the mutilated “Rose” and the pictures are too gruesome to show. But it turned out that "Rose" wasn't dead after all. 

Her family along with the CNN handlers, were all lying. They made the whole thing up. There was no mutilation or pictures. In Feb 2000, the European press ran a story reported by Alexander Cockburn concerning the employment by CNN of military psychological warfare specialists. The Dutch periodical Trouw confirmed this issue. The military influences CNN news. CNN is CIA's News Network. These psycho specialists pose as reporters, editors, news anchors, analysts, producers and publishers. CNN employees these spooks without journalistic cover. Other news agencies ... not so open. Thomas Collins, of the US Army information service acknowledged, "Psyops personnel, soldiers and officers have been working in CNN's HQ through our programme 'Training with Industry.' They worked as regular employees of CNN. Conceivably, they would worked on stories and production of news." See:  Abe de Vries "US Army Psyops Specialists worked for CNN," Trouw, Feb 21, 2001. Alexander Cockburn, "CNN and Psyops" Counterpunch, March 26, 2000. "Why were government propaganda experts working on News at CNN" Fair Action Alert, March 27, 2000. 


3. CNN ran another story ome “refugees’ hiding out in Homs Syria. And par for its course, it includes plenty of women, old and young, and tons of little kids. They are all sitting around in the dark wondering why the rest of the world doesn’t swing by and bomb Syria because they have to hide out now that the Syrian government and the rest of the Syrian people know that they are murderous traitors hell bent on handing over their country to globalist multinational companies and banks.
The journalist walks with phony stunned look on her face. When are these people going to realize that they aren’t good actors? She feels kids heads, tries to act like she is remaining neutral… keeps zooming in on the kids that look uncomfortable while rushing past the kids who are playing or have smiles on their faces. At one point the news segment shows a “gruesome” picture of someone’s brother who was supposedly killed by Assad’s forces, but of course, it offers up no proof of any of those claims. CNN should be sued! They sold Libya to NATO. CNN is responsible for the death of 30,000 Libyans in NATO air strike. CNN and other news agencies fake small paramilitary groups loyal to U.S. interests that claim to speak for the local population; these journalists then pose the militants attacking the targeted government the U.S. would like to see overthrown — including terrorist bombings — and when the attacked government defends itself, the news cries "genocide" or "mass murder,” while calling for foreign military intervention.


CNN has been telling us that we need to bomb Asad out of power in Syria. After spinning these lies, The New York Times was forced to admit, in several articles, that there have been massive rallies in Syria in support of the Syrian government. These rallies are larger than any pro-government demonstration that the U.S. government could hope to organize for itself. The New York Times reports,

"The turnout in Sabaa Bahrat Square in Damascus, the [Syrian] capital, once again underlined the degree of backing that Mr. Assad and his leadership still enjoy among many Syrians' support, nearly seven months into the popular uprising. That support is especially pronounced in cities like Damascus and Aleppo, the country’s two largest." (January 13, 2012). The New York Times is forced to admit that the two largest cities — in a small country — support the government, This was further confirmed by a poll funded by the anti-Syrian Qatar Foundation, preformed by the Doha Debates. According to the latest opinion poll  commissioned by The Doha Debates, Syrians are more supportive of their president with 55% not wanting him to resign." (January 2, 2012). That is more support than the votes Obama and Harper won in the last elections.


Q. Why are Muslim scholars supporting US overthrowing Arab leaders?
A. This has me confused too. I won't name any names but some of my own teachers wanted Ghaddafi and now Asad gone. I really do not know why. Ghaddafi was a proponent of the Palestinian cause. He wanted to unite all Muslim , possibly establish a khilafah.
Libya was composed of 150 tribes, Meghabra and Waffalllah were the two main ones. Despite Turkey and Italy trying to unify the country, the main tribes had split the country into two. in 1969 coup d'etat, Ghaddafi  won the country wide support and adroitly unified the nation. He retained oil wealth for the benefit of the people (King Idris siphoned the profits into the coffer of oil companies). He created a socialist Paradise - no unemployment, highest GDP in Africa, less than 5% of the population was poor (there are more people in the US living below the poverty than Libya). Most Libyans had a house and a car, free health care and education (literacy rate 82). Ghaddafi gave every Libyan citizen (all 6.5 million people including children) $500 a month! There was hardly any crime. Libya ranked 61 on the International Incarceration Index, US ranks 1 (the lower the rating, the lower the Human Rights Standard).  See: Escape to Hell, and other Stories - Muammar Qaddafi by David Seals, June 17, 1988. And What Ghaddafi do with his billions for Libya. Washington seized $32 billion of Libya's money and assets. That should help the US with the recession? But for how long, they need another war soon to get their economic juices flowing.
The other war will be Syria. For example, the news shows the same protestors dying over and over again in different Syrian attacks. Its a joke. There is another man whom the news shows with fake blood. Then they show some man who is shot, they zoom into his wound...his daughter is screaming in the background, pleading to let her take her father to the hospital but the camera men don't care. They are pulling his clothes off just so the viewers at home see his injury. They rather film a dying man than save his life so they can claim the Syrian army is responsible for yet another tragedy. The media will cry humanitarian crisis and US and NATO will be all over Syria.

I don't want to sound like a big mouth. I am not not better than anyone. My articles are just a reflection of my thoughts which may be wrong - I am the first one to admit, I speak from my nafs may Allah forgive me. But I sincerely feel our scholars should shed some light on the tafseer of Surah Hujurat. We are instructed to make peace and reconciliation between disputant Muslims وَإِن طَائِفَتَانِ مِنَ الْمُؤْمِنِينَ اقْتَتَلُوا فَأَصْلِحُوا بَيْنَهُمَا until they both return to following the command of Allah حَتَّىٰ تَفِيءَ  إِلَىٰ أَمْرِ اللَّهِ And Allah specifically says to do be fair and do justice when reconciling. How would you describe Ghaddafi's last moments? Fair and Just? I blame the scholars for endorsing this violence. Allah says all believers are brothers and we should work hard to get along with each other إِنَّمَا الْمُؤْمِنُونَ إِخْوَةٌ فَأَصْلِحُوا بَيْنَ أَخَوَيْكُمْ Violent revolutions and murder should be the last thing on our mind. Allah even warns us and says we should fear Him (have taqwa) when dealing with our brothers in faith and joining relations with them. وَاتَّقُوا اللَّهَ لَعَلَّكُمْ تُرْحَمُونَ Good brotherhood will incur Allah's mercy and breaking the bonds of brotherhood between believers will incur His wrath. And what I see in the Middle East and Pakistan right now, is not really politics but Allah's wrath. 


I think we copy the Bani Israel even when it comes to killing each other.  Like I really love verse 85 of Surah al Baqarah, to me, its one of the best depictions of our time....

ثُمَّ أَنتُمْ هَـٰؤُلَاءِ تَقْتُلُونَ أَنفُسَكُمْ وَتُخْرِجُونَ فَرِيقًا مِّنكُم مِّن دِيَارِهِمْ تَظَاهَرُونَ عَلَيْهِم بِالْإِثْمِ وَالْعُدْوَانِ وَإِن يَأْتُوكُمْ أُسَارَىٰ تُفَادُوهُمْ وَهُوَ مُحَرَّمٌ عَلَيْكُمْ إِخْرَاجُهُمْ أَفَتُؤْمِنُونَ بِبَعْضِ الْكِتَابِ وَتَكْفُرُونَ بِبَعْضٍ فَمَا جَزَاءُ مَن يَفْعَلُ ذَ‌ٰلِكَ مِنكُمْ إِلَّا خِزْيٌ فِي الْحَيَاةِ الدُّنْيَا ۖوَيَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ يُرَدُّونَ إِلَىٰ أَشَدِّ الْعَذَابِ وَمَا اللَّهُ بِغَافِلٍ عَمَّا تَعْمَلُونَ

"Then, you are those [same ones who are] killing one another and evicting a party of your people from their homes, cooperating against them in sin and aggression. And if they come to you as captives, you ransom them, although their eviction was forbidden to you. So do you believe in part of the Scripture and disbelieve in part? Then what is the recompense for those who do that among you except disgrace in worldly life; and on the Day of Resurrection they will be sent back to the severest of punishment. And Allāh is not unaware of what you do."

We kill our own people, Muslim men women and children and evict them from their homes. We instigate aggression and abuse. We create the homeless and the orphans. The poverty and the handicapped people are our self made monstrosities. Then when we turn life into hell, we do fundraisers in the Masjid, collect non-perishable food items at schools. Send our Zakkah and Sadaqah for relief. What could be more hypocritical than this? Iraq, Libya and even Syria were calm and peaceful countries until our scholars supported US and NATO strikes and missiles against them. We are the biggest Jahil on this planet so no wonder Allah is recompensing us with humiliation upon humiliation. We are just that stupid.


Q. But they are brutal tyrants! They kill Muslims. We must stop them, should we not? 
A. What killing? Killing who? Ghaddafi was going to be awarded Amnesty International Rights Hero for 2011 . He was received the most votes and ranked 1000 points ahead of the second runner up. Just an hour before the contest was suppose to end, Amnesty fudged the data.
Ghaddafi assigned a team to search, investigate and liaise with the the Africans in Europe to check their situation. He said that he believed it was his duty and role towards the sons of Africa because he was a soldier for Africa. He was working for them, serving them. He created the first participatory democracy. He gave every Libyan a house. He created the biggest irrigation and engineering project to provide water for every African! So why didn't he win the award?  Maybe because Suzzanne Nossel, former assistant to Richard Holbrooke in his capacity as UN Ambassador and currently Hillary Clinton's Deputy Assistant for International Organization Affairs, has been selected as the new Executive Director of Amnesty International. She deleted Ghadafi's name as the rightful recipient of Amnesty International Hero Award to exploit human rights issue to benefit US imperial ambitions. At the time of the Award competition, Nossel has campaigning against Libya. She gave the Human Rights Council in Geneva the resolution to authorize war against Libya. The Security Council would not have accepted her resolution if Ghaddafi won the Amnesty award.
Keep in mind that Libya was invaded and Ghaddafi killed not because he was a dictator but because he had too much dirt on the European and American leaders . He knew too much and he was going to do something about it so he had to be turned into a boogie man and then silenced. The West was so afraid of his knowledge that they couldn't even afford to give him a trial. They had to kill him instantly and his entire family so their crimes never surface.

But suppose there are killings, suppose Aassad is as bad as Bush/Obama and Gitmo, Abu Gharaib and Baghram. BTW why don't our scholars make the same duaas against Bush and Obama as they make against Aassad? Why don't our scholars facebook and twitter every 5 minutes about American atrocities against Muslims in Gitmo? Why this two-faced attitude? If the White man kills a Muslim its okay, he has to ... he is right but if a supposedly a Muslim kills a Muslim he should be killed in retaliation? BS!  Anyway, suppose Aassad is as bad as Bush and Obama, I even heard someone say that Aassad was as bad as Pharaoh. Did Allah command Musa (a.s) to kill the Pharaoh? Actually Allah told Musa (a.s) to speak to him nicely فَقُولَا لَهُ قَوْلًا لَّيِّنًا لَّعَلَّهُ يَتَذَكَّرُ أَوْ يَخْشَىٰ [Qur'an, 2:44] and do his tazkiyah فَقُلْ هَل لَّكَ إِلَىٰ أَن تَزَكَّىٰ [Qur'an, 79:18] (spiritual purification - like give him Da'wah and soften his heart). Allah even said that his tyrannical behaviour is actually nothing more than a test for the believers for their sins and abandoning the religion وَإِذْ نَجَّيْنَاكُم مِّنْ آلِ فِرْعَوْنَ يَسُومُونَكُمْ سُوءَ الْعَذَابِ يُذَبِّحُونَ أَبْنَاءَكُمْ وَيَسْتَحْيُونَ نِسَاءَكُمْ وَفِي ذَ‌ٰلِكُم بَلَاءٌ مِّن رَّبِّكُمْ عَظِيمٌ [Qur'an, 2:49] If Allah is really testing us because of our sins and lack of religiousity then should we go off on a killing rampage or sit and do some major istighfaar? I personally want to sit and ask for forgiveness then throw everything aside and read the Qur'an until we find a solution - so help me God!