Food to Syria from Costco

I walked in and out of Costco on Dec. 28th  with way more things than I had planned to purchase - mostly food supplies for school in the coming month. Costco is one giant store with no design or tempting poster displays. No special layouts, not even windows. The whole place is so cluttered, there is barely any room to drive your cart. To be fair, the products pulled out of their boxes and ...free food samples do invite shoppers to loiter in the store for a little longer than they would like.
There were kitchen appliances or fresh plants -- that shoppers can stop to touch, smell or try. Free food stalls from candy to pizza, fish, steamed and buttered broccolis and brownies! You could practically have lunch by just walking around from one aisle to another.

But my focus here is on expired ood. I am interested in what happens to all the food when it expires? The boxes of frozen vegetables, baked cakes, cookies, chocolates, breads,  ... there must have been 15,000 food items in average at Costco expiring on Dec. 30th. A portion of it, I am sure inevitably would thrown into the garbage and end up in landfills. What if we salvaged that food and sent it to refugee camps in Syria? Hundreds of Costco stores across the country throw away outdated packs of granola bars, Cheerios cereal boxes, baked goods and juice cartons. We can take advantage of the fact that retailers are generally not going to care what happens to their products after a certain date. We can purchase the the soon-to-be expired food before it is discarded at bargained prices for people who really need it. The FDA approves outdated food. The government agency determines that expiration dates are simply an indication of optimum quality as deemed by the manufacturer. The food still remains safe to consume for some time beyond the expiry date.

I did a little research on www.a1freightforwarding.com A single crate containing 2500 kg of food will cost us around five thousand dollars. If 50 people gave zakkah of hundred dollars each, we could afford this plan.
We may be tempted to offer our lose change but that does very little for Syrians we don't even have trash to pick out their food from. Costco outdated and out of season products can serve many soup kitchens in Syria and refugee camps. We can open a dozen charity agencies and food pantries that can save lives!

Allahu Musta'an

Review of the Middle East Revolutions

What does the Libyan revolution look like in 2013? The streets of Tripoli and Benghazi are full of militia checkpoints manned by some of the 225,000 registered militiamen whose loyalty is to their commanders rather than the state. On Nov. 15, the militia men opened Kalashnikovs to anti-aircraft guns on demonstrators in Tripoli who were demanding that they go home. They killed 43 protestors and wounded 400 others. Earlier the intern government's Prime Minister, Ali Zeidan, was kidnapped by militia gunmen. Militias have closed the oil ports, exports and eastern Libya. The Libyan state has collapsed.

The revolutions have so far produced anarchy in Libya, a civil war in Syria, a greater autocracy in Bahrain and resumed dictatorial rule in Egypt.

In Syria, the uprising began in 2011 with demonstrations against the brutality of Assad's regime. After 3 years of chants, protests and civil war, there is no fair candidate to replace Assad. In 2003, the majority of Iraqis wanted to see the end of Saddam's rule vis-à-vis US invasion. But the government replaced by the US in Baghdad is even more sectarian, corrupt and dysfunctional. More state violence ensues. Iraqi prisons are full of people who have made false confessions under torture or the threat of it. Abu Ghraib is the world's most tortuous and murderous prison only after Bagram - a symbol of post-Taliban Afghanistan.

 Why have revolutions in the Arab world failed so absolutely, and why have they increased in faults and crimes? The humanitarian principles expressed at the beginning of revolutions contrast the bloodbath at the end. The mass uprising has come to an end with rapid degradation of human life and public infrastructure.

The depressing frequency of failure of the uprisings does not come as a surprise. Revolutions come into being because of unpredictable forces with different motives targeting the governments. The political, social and economic ramifications of the upsurges in the Middle East were masked by English-speaking bloggers and tweeters as unthreatening velvet revolutions similar to anti-organized religion and pro-democracy uprisings in Eastern Europe. It is a simple-minded delusion that problems: personal freedoms, social and economic inequality would vanish once democracies have replaced the old police states. This propaganda sells in Western media but in reality, it does nothing in terms of engineering anything close to a peaceful transition from the old to new regime. The populations remain sectarian, ethnically and tribally divided - tearing each other apart in new civil wars everyday.

Even when NATO (really the US) intervened in the name of globalisation and humanitarianism like Iraq in 2003 and Libya in 2011, the intervention was very similar to imperial takeover in 19th century. The US talked about 'nation-building' to be carried out but it was clear that they had their own interests in mind just as Britain did when Lloyd George orchestrated the carve-up of the Ottoman Empire. Arab nation states were charted in the early 1960s to create national independence for the various Arab groups. But the leaders of the Arab states, brought to power and armed by UK and the US at the time are now dubbed as ruthless dictators using nationalism to justifying their hold to power. However, the US has always viewed Arab nationalism as a mask for racism and militarism against its freedom and the existence o Israel. The Arabs themselves lack an ideology that would enable them compete as a focus of loyalty with religious sects and ethnic groups. The rebels and reforms in the Arab world have taken the lives of millions and raised their respective countries to debris without resolving anything except creating more dilemmas.

I believe the status quo in the Middle East should change but I will never support the destruction of the Middle East by Arabs. I will never support the invitation to the Crusaders to come back to the Middle East. I will never support the army or airforce of the US, Canada or UK bombing majority Muslim populated lands, the beautiful citadel of Islam. Once the Arabs resisted colonialism and today we are supporting it. What kind of Arab revolution would require the presidents of US, UK, France to bomb the countries which the companions of Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w) conquered to establish Islam. What kind of Arab revolution is this?  So a principle for me is that the Arabs must liberate themselves. If the imperial powers come to liberate us, they will make an Abu Ghraib and Bagram in every single country full of Muslims and exchange a small tyrant for a bigger tyrant.

How should the Arab liberate themselves? Islamic literature, history and culture - offers an integrated and comprehensive solution to bad governments and civil wars. Stay tuned inshaAllah...


 

"Look who I just caught sinning around."- A Tattle tail is in town!

Dredging up the sins of other people is a form of spiritual grave-digging. Personally, I don’t want to hear about anyone's sins, any more than I want to hear about my own. We all have skeletons in our spiritual closets. If we declared open season on them, the rattling and banging of them emptying out would go on forever.
            Sadly, exposing other people’s sins is a form of social currency within some families. It gets one attention. It gives one momentary power. The more “juicy details” one knows, the more transient acclaim they get. It makes the “best,” gossip the focus of Eid dinner conversation. It gives one the power to discredit the validity of someone else’s present, fruitful, life.

            I don’t know about you, but I’ve been exposed to an endless cataloguing of people. I’m fed up with it; sick of hearing it, weary of talking about it. Allah knows whether the sinners we expose have repented or not, and Allah alone is their Judge. The same goes for the rest of us. All of us have sinned. The only difference is perhaps in the kind, frequency and amount of sins. None of us has a pristine closet. We all have something to be ashamed of in our pasts.

Those who are of the tattle tail kind however, will continue to remind us of others' sins at every opportunity. They will seek to grind the noses of the people in shame and accusations. Their life is about gossip and slander. Little have they spied the Qur'an to know what Allah says about them, "Woe to every slanderer and backbitter. Who collects wealth and [continuously] counts it. He thinks that his wealth will make him immortal. No! He will surely be thrown into the Crusher. And what can make you know what is the Crusher? It is the fire of Allah , [eternally] fueled, Which mounts directed at the hearts. Indeed, Hellfire will be closed down upon them. In extended columns." (Surah Humazah)

God's people– if indeed they are God's people – do not accuse, tear down, remind of, and constantly traffic in, each other’s failures and shortcomings; rather, they build up, edify, encourage, forgive and cover the indiscretions – as does Allah himself. The hearts should not be a place of judgment ("Indeed, those who like that immorality should be spread [or publicized] among those who have believed will have a painful punishment in this world and the Hereafter. And Allah knows and you do not know." Surah Nur: 19) but a place of healing and good counsel ("The believing men and believing women are Auliya' (helpers, supporters, friends, protectors) for one another. They enjoin what is right and forbid what is wrong and establish prayer and give zakah and obey Allah and His Messenger. Those - Allah will have mercy upon them. Indeed, Allah is Exalted in Might and Wise." Surah Tawbah: 71).

            I don’t know about you, but I don’t want anyone to come out a loser in the Judgment that we shall all inevitably face – me included. I believe in the old saying that when you point the accusing finger at another, you’ve got three others pointing back at yourself. When it comes to purity, none of us has anything to crow about.

This is an exhortative, and somewhat corrective article. I felt it needed to be written. I’m writing it as much to myself as to anyone. If we insist on bringing other people's mistakes, dusting them out, examining them, analyzing them, and otherwise discussing them. If we try to inflict “guilt trips” as a means of humiliating others, and keeping them one down to us, we may find it backfiring on us. The Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w) warned us according to a hadith in Bukhari, "O those who have embraced Islam only with their tongue, while Emaan has not yet entered their hearts, neither harm Muslims, nor mock them, nor try to expose their mistakes, for anyone who chases after and searches for someone's shortcomings, Allah will expose their sins and humiliate them within their families and on the Day of Judgement."

We have all done our share of gossiping, myself included. Can we please get over it? Can we not move ahead and up to higher ground?

Holidays mean more work!

My last day of work for the year was last Friday, you would think I feel relieved! Sadly no because now I must dedicate more of my time to studying. Term 2 is starting in January and although it is not mandatory, it means as a teacher I have to prepare lessons till June. This makes my life more miserable, in the sense that I have to work for the next hundred years. I have a tentative plan: for January we'll work on learning the Names of Allah using posters, flashcards and case studies. I have these cute cut outs of the Names of Allah to put around the white board. February will be dedicated to the life of Prophet Muhammad (s.a.w) [Makkan period for grade 7, and Medinan period for grade 9]. In March I will be using Shaykh Saleh al Fawz's Islamic Jurisprudence vol. 1 to teach Salah. April will be the month for discussing hijab and modesty - right before summer when people start shedding ... clothes! This all in my head so far, not on paper yet. It depends on when I wake up in the morning and how my mood copes up. It may in fact involve a lot of sitting down and the end of my workout plan as I know it.  

Which brings me to my university drama for next year. I've missed two exams from the previous semester because of bronchitis, so I cannot take a full course load (5 courses) in the upcoming winter semester. On top of which I am a semester behind as it is (first and second year I took only 4 courses per semester - so I have to make up for 4 courses), plus two more courses now because of bronchitis. I’ll have to work extra as well to pay for my tuition and pay my zakah? I think I'll have to do a second job? When is a girl suppose to have any fun with all this work? I am a lot more tired, sleep deprived ... starved! I have realized this is all part of growing up and taking responsibility. Independence isn't cheap folks. You literally have to break sweat ... your back ... your feet...your voice!

I enjoy making the curriculum though, and teaching is really self-motivating. Telling kids about the Deen leaves me pumped up and it energizes my emaan. I come out of class with goosebumps every time. I re-live the ayaat and ahadith I teach, alhamdulillah! It is the best job in the world, I would say. Then there is the grading that absolutely bores me. I never thought a pile of paper could instill so much dread and depression. I am trying to make it fun by putting stickers. Needless to say, every job has its perks and ... dark side?

I wish I could have time to myself, like read the books I really want to - not because I have to make an assignment or write an essay on it, read them for fun. I feel like I haven't read a really good novel in ages. All the course novels that I have had to read this past semester were written by lesbians or authors who committed suicide. Having said that, I have all these novels which I need to sell now in order to purchase new textbooks for next semester. I am so bummed out because the re-sale value of books is so low. You spend $50 to buy a used book and six months later, people don't even want to pay $5 for it. 

I wish I had more time for ibaadah. Especially at university, I feel I am just rushing through wudu and Salah. Wudu really refreshes me - its like taking a mini shower. Taking the extra minutes to offer Sunnah also helps me slow down and catch my breathe during the day. My relationship with Allah is the most important relationship I have, yet I have so little time for it :(  Salah is our greatest privilege but also our greatest failure. All of us need to learn to pray Salah more and to pray better. But one of the reasons why we don't pray better is because we don't trust that Salah actually benefits us. We don't pray Salah to impress Allah or inform Allah. Then why do we pray? 

• We pray Salah to invite Allah to give us the joy of administrating our lives smoothly: our work, our families, our health more peacefully. We cannot do this without Him. 
• Salah allows us to lean on Allah, to not take continuous stress but to ask Allah to help us with our responsibilities, guide us and favour us with more blessings. 
• Salah allows us to not take Allah's blessings for granted but always maintain a humble and appreciative attitude. 
• When we offer Salah, Allah is growing us - in faith and in good conduct.  
• Salah binds us with Allah - and this is my favourite part. When I feel like I have no one, I know that I have Allah and hasbunAllaha wa ni'mal wakeel :) 

On a side note, I was able to manage a day of shopping on Boxing day! All stores were covered with decorations - I love ornaments, crystal balls, streamers, lights. I wish we were half as festive for Eid. By the way, at the dollar store they already have hearts everywhere. We are barely through Christmas and now they are jamming Valentines down our throats. I guess it should motivate me to do some love themed lesson planning. I am actually excited about the content I am preparing. Now, I only need to find the strength to put my ideas onto paper.

My husband has been very helpful in the kitchen, alhamdulillah. The only thing I am battling against with respect to my apartment is cleaning! I have always been an organized freak. I am a list-o-holic. But I hate folding and hanging clothes. Then I can't study if my apartment looks all messed up. So I try to clean during my study breaks - take out the trash, do the laundry, mop the floor, vacuum. Sigh ... the joys of life!

Make duaa for me.

Winter 2013

Announced by all the trumpets of the sky, 

Arrives the snow, and, driving o'er the fields, 

Seems nowhere to alight 

the housemates sit  

Around the radiant fireplace, enclosed 

In a tumultuous privacy of storm

Winter in Canada always comes with many surprises each year. This year the surprise is relentless extreme cold with heavy snow across the country. The storm always arrives gentle and quiet; a distinct calm pervades both the earth and the sky. The movements on the streets are muffled. There is no uproar of winds and no trumpets of sounds. The soft, feathery snow flurries fall like exquisite crystals. The pavement glitters with sliver sparks for a while. 
The next day, rude winds mar the beautiful process. The clouds bring heavy snow and freezing rain, the ground turns in to slush. The stillness is replaced by noise, accidents are spiked. Cars clamour as the roads begin to slide. Everything that is poetic turns into a battlefield. The wind bolts, it gets coarser; the flakes increase in number and size and the snow grows steadily. The flakes fall like pellets, whipping, cracking and consuming trees and power lines. The earth throbs with frost. The impulse to travel dulls, and people suspend indoors. There are white curtains above you and white screens about you. The snow houses you and secludes you. You are wrapped in dark obscurity, caught up with power outage, the cold obliterates. 

As I pass the darkened streets, it is exhilarating in the extreme, my world enveloped in mantles of white, death waiting at every corner side. We huddle together, my husband and I, quietly snuggling  at the sight of wild conflagration of wind and snow. Is this what the Syrians must feel in the cold? Is this what war looks like? Frost penetrates like a blast around everything. Ten and thousands of people were without power: heating, water and electricity for a week. Winter 2013 has been dreadful and beautiful - you decide!

 

                    

The National Research Council of the National Academies (NRCNA) has pre-published (available to the public as of Dec. 2013), an extensive 200-pg study: “Abrupt Impacts of Climate Change, Anticipating Surprises.” U.S. intelligence agencies, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the National Science Foundation, and the National Academies sponsored the NRCNA report. The National Academies consists of: the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, the Institute of Medicine, and the National Research Council. The NRCNA report mentions the risk of abrupt climate change: we have already been witnessed via 100-year floods and severe embedded droughts as well as bouts of extreme cold weather conditions throughout the hemisphere. 

In, Saving the Global Climate from Runaway Arctic Methane Release and Sea Ice Loss, John B. Davies writes: “The warming of the Arctic seems likely to lead to the total melting of the Arctic Sea Ice in late summer no later than the summer of 2018 and to massive release of Methane from the melting of Methane Hydrates beneath the ESAS [Eastern Siberian Arctic Shelf] by the same date leading to runaway Global Warming and the end of most life of earth” - Arctic News, Dec. 19, 2013

Muslims already believe in the Day of Judgement so the "end of most life of earth” doesn't seem like a very rambunctious, gutsy forecast. As The Day the Earth Nearly Died, BBC / Horizon, December 2002 explains, The earth did come to an end - almost 250 million years ago. Almost every living thing suddenly died. Geological studies show that 95% of life forms perished. Scientists call it the Permian Mass Extinction, which was far more terrible than the later extinction that wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago, killing off 60% of all species on the planet. It took 100,000 years for the earth to recover. This possibly may have been the time of Nuh (a.s). Extinctions certainly do happen. Doesn't matter how exactly.  The point is not to take time, health, wealth or family for granted. Sometimes we need a crisis to wake up from our slumber. 

Own Your Time

When is the disconnect? When do you decide to give up on doing work you truly love to simply make money? Fast forward to turning 18, entering  the “real world” and earning a big F for failure.

In the real world, most people I know don’t love work. They love leaving work. They love the weekend. They love celebrating a hard week at work by spending some of their hard-earned money at a restaurant or adult toy store. They live in a constant state of the Mondays.

Take my own work, for instance. I’m doing amazing work for a living, alhamdulillah. But I’m almost half way to 50 years old. So what do I want to do with my life now?Amazing work on the side, you guess? Making money to do something that really lights me up.

For the past 5 years I have been teaching, at different institutions, academies and doing private tutoring.  Don't get me wrong, this is great work, I admit. Even if I can ignore the low pay and endless amount of preparation time. What would you do if money was not your primary ambition? What would you do if you were certain you would not fail? 

What I understood in the past year from experiences with certain people is that, its not possible to make crap-tons of money following someone else' direction. That's how business are built; you are their employee and they own your money, your time and your happiness.  But what about the other time? That time you spend youtubing on your laptop, stalking people on facebook and gossiping over the phone? You own that, you. Own. That. Time.

It was an easy but blindsiding epiphany. Your day job may not be filled with a lot of excitement but you have to continue working there to make ends meet. But you can take the time that you actually own and will that with amazing activities and adventures. We can still follow our dreams after finishing 9 - 5.  Our work can fund our dreams.  What is my excuse? When I was single, I was too busy. When I was planning my wedding, adjusting with my in-laws I was busy. When I am raising kids, I will be busy. I have to step up and own my time to live differently, to live effectively. 

What are you waiting for? There are people who just start. They don't wait for permission. They don't wait for the right time, or for an investor. They don't quit their day job, they carry the skills from their job to get out of the prologue and create a new chapter in their lives. This post is dedicated to a group of brothers and sisters from UK who have changed their lives and the lives of others.

Muslim Aid Convoy to Syria 

Muslims Feeding the Homeless 

Anyone an donate cash to a cause (don't misread that, I believe this is a great thing to do), but if you want to enhance your life while also helping others, then you should volunteer. The charitable cause is up to you. Generally, I feel a little heart tug when I hear about similar charitable causes as mentioned above, that's actually my heart talking. I am sure we all feel that. We can fill it by pitching in. Sitting around and doing nothing is perhaps the wimpiest thing you could do (I am guilty of this too). Many of us are holding onto a decision and waffling right now. Do you have a charity idea? Turn that into action or someone will do it! Don't stay on the fence for an opportunity. Stop thinking about it, start working for it. I know I am only tormenting myself if I come home from work and do nothing. We are trapped by the dogma of weekend. We worship the weekend. Don't let the lazy or greedy lifestyle of others drown out your inner voice. You are born to do great things, have the courage to follow your purpose.