…and while they’re living for the weekend, we’re dying for Jannat.
Sooo I’m thinking of something to write about. I actually do want to write something, I just don’t know where to begin so I am going to countdown and think of a word or a situation or something and continue from there. Cool let’s go…
1…
..2…
…3…
FANS.
Right…so there’s a fan in front of me which is silly considering the weather is so cold and I have the heater on too but I guess it’s still down here because we haven’t moved it away since summer ‘ended’ (no such behaviour like that by UK weather). So cold weather, where do I go from here? I guess the first thing that pops into my mind was the picnic we had on my 16/17th birthday. Sara, Cara and I were hanging out in Greenford on the 20th and we went into Tesco to buy some goodies (came out with doritos and apple pie) and we spontaneously decided to chill in the snow – it had snowed so much that weekend that the country was a white blanket and snow was ankle deep. But we were very very clever and wise and our parents would have been proud because we thought of buying a shower curtain from a local pound store to sit on in the snow – would absolutely protect us from the slush entering our shoes. I think that’s all I remember from that day but it fun and memorable.
Oh well that’s my pathetic post, I wrote something so I guess I’m satisfied.
Rant
Are rants meant to be written through aggressive typing and red eyes? Coz I wrote this one quite calmly with a few tears and pangs of cringe. But it’s still a rant, because I’m tired of this.
I’m using serious study time to write this, but I have to get it out.
It grinds my nearly-broken gears when the same muslims who say they don’t believe in ‘sects’ and believe all muslims are one, are the same people to utterly judge shi’a muslims and deem them ‘misguided’ for mourning during Ashura.
I have friends who unknowingly do this. I used to try and carefully explain what I know (and frankly, what every Muslim should acknowledge) about the martyrdom of Imam Hussein AS, but they’ll almost always resort to fish-like mouth movements waiting to say “…but I just don’t believe in people hitting themselves”. Oooohhh do me a favour. Please stop visualising a group of people using chains to hit themselves and their children because this does not happen.
The PROPHET’S (PBUH) GRANDSON was MARTYRED. His entire family (including his SIX MONTH baby boy) were kept without WATER and FOOD for THREE days, and then killed. Imam Hussein AS was then BEHEADED in the name of Islam. Betrayal, hunger, and martyrdom. And that’s not even all of it. So much more happened during the days of Ashura, and if you were to bother to listen and stop ridiculing what shi’as know, I can guarantee that you will not ignore it again.
Sunnis fast because the Jews of Madinah used to do so on the 10th of Muharram, but fasting for the remembrance, empathy, and in honour of the Prophet’s (PBUH) entire family who were martyred is suddenly questionable, as evident through the shockingly high number of tweets and WhatsApp messages.
A large proportion of the western world hates Muslims. And then you have sunnis hating shi’as and expressing their hate via extremist methods like trying to destroy Karbala?! Instead of questioning our beliefs, it would be helpful to re-evaluate your own. And quit living in a fantasy where all Muslims are the same. I do not hold the same beliefs as those who refuse to acknowledge and continue to disrespect the status of Moulana Ali AS; the only man to be born in Ka’abah, the Prophet’s (PBUH) cousin, and the righteous husband of his beloved daughter.
At the end of the day, and this goes for everything, it is not worth justifying your actions and beliefs to narrow-minds who refuse to listen and continue to judge.
Of course, this does not reprimand all sunni Muslims. I saw a touching video of a young sunni person acknowledging Imam Hussein and Ashura through rap. In sha Allah, there are more, and will be more people like him.
Oh Hussein, there is no day like yours.
Time
Sometimes I think I am running out of time, but I am running out of time.
I am writing this having just finished an incredible placement on the neuro ward of the JR in Oxford. It was an acute setting so patients were pretty ill; some with severe cognitive impairments, others for palliative measures.
And of-course some died. When they did, the curtains around them would be drawn and the nurse would go in and strip and clean them. Their names would then be removed from the handover to let us know they had passed. People would give a few sighs, but no further emotions than that.
I didn’t feel sadness over their deaths…but then why would I? I certainly empathised with their families and said a quiet prayer in my head. But what I felt, trusting my mind to wander off so dramatically, was fear. Each time for a brief moment, it would rather annoyingly, dawn on me that Malak-ul-Maut (the Angel of Death) had been a mere two metres from me only two seconds ago, to take someone else’s soul instead of mine. It is more daunting that it sounds which, of course, scares me a lot.
Crazy isn’t it? You’re a member of a handful of people in a small bay area and the angel was commanded to take the soul of one. And the only reason the angel didn’t take your soul, was because it wasn’t your time.
So yeah, we’re running out of time. And it is so easy for us to forget that a piece of us is dying every second. I now truly understand why we are encouraged to visit the graves; to remind us that every soul shall taste death. I was reminded of it in a more blatant way, and perhaps I needed it…Allah knows best.
May Allah (SWT) grant us more time to increase our knowledge of this perfect religion and give us the strength and tawfeeq to centre our lives around it, so that it may guide us to the straight path and lead us to Jannat.
Ameen.
Helmet
Autopsy finished
‘fractured skull and haemorrhage’
wish she had worn one
Why have kids?
I want children, I want a family…but why? Why do people want kids?
It’s human nature to procreate, to look after a tiny baby and when they grow up, have them care for you when you’re old and frail. We are after all caring creatures.
But it’s hard to imagine actually wanting to go through those daunting feelings; the stress and the heartache that comes with being responsible for another human. Yes, the irrevocable and unconditional love you have for them, the pride you feel when they graduate and the gaiety of having grand-babies must be incredible. But who doesn’t want to just fall in love with their soulmate and spend their undivided time with them, travelling the world, becoming business partners etc?
I want kids, but I’m not too sure why. So I randomly brought it up to my dad.
He said “..you’re living for someone else”.
I thought about it and it makes sense. All that you’ve learnt and explored, you’re sharing and passing it on to the people you love the most, in the hopes that they’ll live a happy life. And then they will carry a part of you forever, through generations and generations, hopefully making the world a better place. So it’s not just about passing on a surname, or experiencing the joys of child-birth. Your kids are experiencing the joys of existence with you, and they don’t even know it! You’re actually living for someone else…and what better way to live than that?*
*maybe living as a well looked after persian cat would be alright
xo
cosmosolive 