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They Asked Me to Draw Muhammad… So I Did.

// May 21st, 2010 // 8 Comments » // Announcements, Blog

My submission to Draw Muhammad Day.

Click to enlarge

The hand-drawn illustration is a combination of Arabic & English, spelling the name “Muhammad”. The text are quotes from several authentic narrations describing the physical attributes of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him [props to the Chill Yo Islam Yo blog].

Who speaks better than someone who calls people to God, does what is right, and says, “I am of those devoted to God”? Good and evil cannot be equal. [Prophet], repel evil with what is better and your enemy will become as close as an old and valued friend. But only those who are steadfast in patience, only those who are blessed with great righteousness, will attain such goodness.

Qur'an, 41:33-35

Love For Other People What You Love For Yourself

// May 17th, 2010 // 1 Comment » // Blog

The following story was published back in March as part of a MuslimMatters post titled “On the Fingers of Abu Hurayrah…..Towards a Noble Life“. Since then, it has come to mind so many times during the course of normal, everyday interactions, I had to track it down, and bookmark it here.

“Love for other people what you love for yourself and you will be a (perfect) Muslim.” – Prophet Muhammed, sallalahu 'alayhi wa salam

An extraordinary example of putting this teaching into practice is that of some of our righteous predecessors.

Ibrahim al-Nakha'ee (rahimahullah) was a'war al-'ayn (blind in one eye), and his student Sulayman ibn Mihran suffered from weak eyesight (a'mash al-'ayn). Ibn al-Jawzi related a story about them in his book Al-Muntathim that they were walking in the streets of Al-Kufah headed to the masjid.

As they were walking, Imam Al-Nakha'ee said, “Sulayman, can you take one road and I take another? For I fear that if we were to pass together by the foolish people, they would say, 'A'war – one eyed – is leading an a'mash – bleary eyed- (through the road) and they would then have backbitten us and fallen into sins.”

So Sulayman replied, “O Abu 'Imran! What is wrong then when we are rewarded while they are sinful?”

Ibrahim al-Nakha'ee replied, “SubhanaAllah! Bal naslam wa yaslamun! Rather, that we be safe (from their backbiting) and they be safe (of sin) is better than if we are rewarded and they are sinful!”.

[al-Muntathim fee Tareekh al Muluk wal Umam]

This is a form of altruism that we all desperately need to adopt. There is a lot of bitterness, enmity and ill-will amongst us. We need to improve ourselves and one another with a far more loving attitude. May Allāh make it easy for us, āmīn.

Macro Gone Mad

// May 9th, 2010 // 3 Comments » // Photos

I've gone a little 'macro' nuts, lately. I dig how the shallow depth of field makes the most mundane of things look, like, totally awesome, māshā’Allāh.

Btw, I've realized just how lazy I've become wrt my camera. When I bought my first digicam way back in 2002 (a Minolta summit or other), I was so excited by my shiny new purchase, I insisted on fiddling with every manual setting available. These days, I normally shoot on auto-mode. It works out okay in well-lit environments, but the picture quality becomes extremely naff (I mean, more so than I'd expect) in anything less than daylight. I keep reminding myself that I need to figure out the best settings for indoors – especially as I hate using the flash – but bah… laziness.

Then, the other day, I lent my Canon to another sister from the ISoc, and within a few minutes she'd taught me five new things about the camera, like how to control the flash intensity (I had no idea I could do that), and change the aspect ratio to widescreen (though I'll probably stick to doing that during post-processing). This is one of the few times in my life that I've been outgeeked by a fellow Muslimah! I am totally going to leech off of her knowledge, inshā’Allāh. In a good way.

In other news, the first meeting of the Sisters Film Club went well, māshā’Allāh, in spite of clashes with the Muslim Medics AGM, and general exam stress all round. We have our sights on the first project, which should be ready for June, inshā’Allāh. More details as they become declassified for public release.