Sunday, February 26, 2006

i am the anti-you

assalaamu alaikum

cousin: do you ever dress up?
me: ... o_O
cousin: like in nice dress clothes?
me: uhh yea, whenever i go to court.

is that often? not really. 3-4 times in the last year? your call.

but i gotta go again tomorrow. dunno for what. these dudes just keep summoning me. if i say anything stupid like "yo" or "man", i'll let you guys know.

Saturday, February 25, 2006

woo!

assalaamu alaikum

my phone is back. it fell in the toilet yesterday, and i had to watch it bubble as it filled with toilet water. for a second i thought of just reaching in and grabbing it, but i decided that whatever had happened to the phone had already happened, and there was no need for haste. so i flushed the toilet to drain the water and tried a variety of tools to fish the phone out. eventually a metal hanger did the trick. i washed the phone off and let it dry over night. this morning it still didn't work. so i used the blow dryer on it earlier while watching a college game and then left it alone, being told that it prolly short circuited or something geeky like that. came back home right now, turned it on and voila. its back.

alhamdulillah

Monday, February 20, 2006

kitchen chronicles

assalaamu alaikum

so i did it again. i made paratha again. by myself. and yes, i ghouned the atta too. my fam left food on the table for me when i got back, but for some reason that chicken didn't taste right, and i was starving (i used my last 50 cents in school on a tiny cup of hot chocolate to keep me from falling asleep in class) so i go around the kitchen and through all the drawers until i find the atta, add some water and start mixing it. i'm actually looking forward to trying out our new stove. after like 10 years of living in this house with the same busted up stove, the thing finally broke down and they finally replaced it for us, giving us this brand new fancy stove that has a shiny plastic (?) stove top and is all sparkly and what not. it looks mad out of place in our kitchen but whatever. i'm ready to try this thing out.

i swear, i've never been pissed off at a stove until this day, and i'm convinced that this thing is the worst stove in the world. our old one was better. bring it back. after i do all the atta stuff and roll it out into roti shape (and yes, it was round and proportioned) i throw that thing on the roti pan and set it on the stove and crank it up to "high". this thing sucks. i ended up spending at LEAST HALF AN HOUR on making ONE paratha because it just wouldn't cook. i go out the kitchen and walk around the living room expecting a burning smell any moment so i gotta run back, but when i look back after 5 minutes, this thing isn't even smoking.

30 whole minutes for 1 paratha. and finally i was so hungry, i think i ate that thing half kachi. i couldn't wait any longer. i started eating that thing and put the next one on the stove. the second one is taking just as long, and i'm over here wondering how in the world i can make this thing go higher than its highest setting. after a good 10 minutes of wasting my time with the stove, i was like man screw this, and i scrap the middle man. i take the roti on the spatula and just cook it over the stove place like a smore. meanwhile the metal spatula is getting hotter and hotter and i'm getting ready to burn my fingers. so i switch hands while this thing is cooking and i can see the smoke and everything, and even thought about putting on those grandma mittens but finally the roti was done. it took maybe 30 seconds for it to become pakki (cooked) after i took it off the pan and just cooked it gangsta style.

with hardship comes ease though, and i was rewarded with a delicious meal of hot nihari and fresh paratha. i washed it down with a glass of cold water, but only after i was almost completely done with the water, i looked in the glass and saw all the foreign objects that were inside of it.

yum. just another weeknight.

alhamdu lillahillathee at'amnaa wa saqaana wa ja'alnaa minal muslimeen. ameen.

wassalamu alaikum

Saturday, February 04, 2006

carson palmer syndrome


assalaamu alaikum

aH, its no where near as bad as what happened to the bengal's quarterback, but thats the idea. we were playing football, i was QB, i'm in the pocket, i try and step up through the gap, and get hit; my forehead smashes into the mouth of another dude and his lip splits open causing him to have to go to the hospital and get stitches.

i hit the ground with a cut on my forehead, but that wasn't what i was worried about. my knee got hit somehow from the side and bent inward; a pain that i'm familiar with cuz that was the same knee that i dislocated 3 years ago. nothing broke and no ligaments tore, alhamdulillah, but i'm sure they stretched.

(btw, i didn't go to the doctor, but i've been injured so many times that i can do my own simple diagnosis by now. seriously.)

so that's why i'm limping. and that's why i won't be able to start taking kung fu again. and that's why i probably won't be able to play in the Darul Taqwa vs. ICCL game next week.

soo make duah that i recover quickly and fully and can get back on the field/court as soon as possible!

Thursday, February 02, 2006

friday

salaamu alaikum

i just remembered earlier today that i gotta give a khutbah tomorrow (actually, its now...LATER TODAY). and i have no idea what its gonna be about.

yes. the excitement.

Wednesday, February 01, 2006

PICS


assalaamu alaikum

the pictures are up with small captions for the ones that need em:

SLIDESHOW

EDIT #1: BY THE WAY, during the slideshow, just click on the pics to read the titles and captions and stuff.

EDIT #2: AND, there are two pages on the slideshow, once the first page is done, it'll ask if you want to loop or see more. See more. (a few people thought there was only this many pics, and i'm like no, theres another 50 so yeah.)

enjoy

Monday, January 30, 2006

duah

salaamu alaikum

PLEASE make duah for brother Alucela, dude is 19 years old, recently married, and got shot on saturday night. the bullet hit his jaw and shattered his bones and he was in for reconstructive surgery last night. just last year, his brother was killed also. aH he is stable tho, but make duah that Allah gives him a speedy and full recovery, eases his pain, and forgives him his sins. Ameen.

photography



assalaamu alaikum

the pics are in. not ALL of them, but i'm only missing a few. and the videos are not uploaded yet. last time i talked to adnaan he said he'd make one big clip of all the videos and put it up. but anyways, i don't know whether i should just link to a photo album or post the pics in here with stories or what not.



Monday, January 23, 2006

back too soon

assalaamu alaikum

alhamdulillah, im back yall. the whole trip and experience was awesome. i arrived in bmore on saturday late night, an hour or two before it was officially my birthday: Jan 22. what could be a better birthday present than a trip like this?

i took me a little journal there, which also served as a duah list, and i was planning on writing about the stuff that went on in it, keeping it updated and all that good stuff. but i guess im just not a journal type of person, cuz i wrote absolutely nothing in its time. so i didn't write a single entry about our trip to Aqsa until i was in madina. and nothing about anything else, until my last days there where i just went and kinda recapped when i had some extra time.

theres so much to tell, so im not gonna do it all in one post. im gonna break it up into a number of posts so it doesnt become a drawn out run-on.

i got pictures. adnaan ahmad, photographer and worker for the Muslim Link was one of my fellow hajj partners, and so we took a whole rack of pictures and videos with his vicious digital camera. he has yet to give them to me, but once i get a hold of em, ill put em up on a gallery or something, insha Allah, and show yall.

Tuesday, December 27, 2005

beeline from beemore

assalaamu alaikum

inshaAllah, i will be leaving Bmore for NY tomorrow at 12:30PM. make duah that i have a safe trip there and back, and that my Hajj and Umrah is accepted by the mercy of Allah, ameen. i won't have my phone on me, and probably won't touch a computer for 3 weeks, so right now, i want to ask anybody and everybody who knows me, if i have done or said anything against you, please forgive me, as i have done for everybody, and Allah will reward you.

Jazaakumullahu Khairan.

Monday, December 26, 2005

'tis a sad day

assalaamu alaikum

i played ball today, came home, showered, and cut my hair. man, it was like parting with an old friend, cuz this was the first time that my hair got a little long without me getting dandruff, head getting all dry and itchy, and just being forced to cut it from frustration. it was nice hair. and long hair. i hadn't had long hair for a few years actually. and now its gone. back to the shape-up sized hair, just with no shape-up (i was lazy). but yeah, my intention of growing my hair out sunnah style is still on, but the reason i cut it was cuz i was going to have to cut it anyways for hajj. and since i'm about to travel, long journeys and the works, i don't need to make it worse by having long hair that's gonna get all dirty. so its gone.

my head is cold.

s-m-h

Sunday, December 18, 2005

MARRIAGE post #1

SIKE...made ya look.

assalaamu alaikum

Imam Irfan mentioned something very interesting the other day, and it really scared me:

(paraphrased)

Imam Suyuti mentions that when the Prophets die, their miracles go up with them and are no more. for example, Musa AS's staff that he could throw down and turn it into a serpent; once he died, that miracle was also lifted up. when the Prophet Muhammad SAW died however, 2 miracles were left in this dunya after he departed, the first of which is obviously the Quran.

the second miracle has to do with the stoning of the Jamarat, the stone pillars that we pelt during hajj that represent the three places Shaitan came to Ibrahim AS. now for the servents of Allah who's Hajj is accepted, angels come down and take away the pebbles that they have thrown. that is why you are not supposed to pick up pebbles from the area of jamarat itself, because these are the pebbles that have been rejected.

and just think about it. if each and every one of the hujjaj throws around 49 pebbles into this same area, shouldn't there be mountains of pebbles piling up? even if before we didn't have the same number of people performing Hajj, say it wasn't in the millions, but still tens of thousands right? shouldn't the pebbles have started to pile up with all these people throwing them into the same place? but the saudi government has never had to do anything about this pile, because it simply never existed. until now. and thats the scary part. just recently, the saudi government has been required to remove the pebbles from the area of the jamarat, because the piles have begun to grow.

ya Allah, accept our Hajj and Umrah, and do not make us from those who's Hajj or Umrah has been rejected. Ameen ya rabbal Aalameen.

Friday, December 16, 2005

six feet deep

assalaamu alaikum

dr. iqbal passed away yesterday. inna lillahi wa inna ilaihi Raji'oon. he was in a coma for nearly a year and just recently woke up a few months ago, only to have a heart attack. may Allah make his sickness and suffering a means for his Forgiveness and grant him the highest of ranks in Jannah, Ameen. his family is awesome. his sons are all huffadh, 2 of them still studying their aalim course in buffalo, and one of them already a mufti in his twenties. he's my teacher and brother. we play football and basketball together. he would always be coming back and forth from the hospital, spending the entire day by his father's side and would only leave to come and teach us fiqh. inshaAllah, he will be one of the teachers in the Dar-ul-Uloom, may Allah bless him.

the janazah was today after jumu'ah. we went to the graveyard for the burial. there were so many people there, and not only from our community but from other communities in silver spring and laurel too. i was thinking about the concept of brotherhood, and how Allah could take into account the shere number of people attending a janazah to forgive His servants sins. when the Sahabah were asked about their fellow Muslim brothers, what would they say? "We know NOTHING about him but GOOD." really, how many of us can do this? and its such a big deal, because when a person dies, and people talk about him, Allah takes that into account as well.

i dunno, its always good to visit the graveyard and see the dirt that will become our bed very soon. the craziest thing is when you're actually inside the grave and helping prop the body up on its right side. sure, the 6 feet high walls of dirt that are surrounding you, the limp body (man dead weight is really heavy) draped in white sheets right next to you, the sides crumbling as dirt and mud fall into the hole as people try to get in and out have their affects, but what you won't notice until you are inside the grave is all the insects. there are so many insects, roaches, centi/milipedes, all those multi legged things you see on fear factor n stuff, they're crawling down there. waiting. just waiting for the body so they can feast on it. and you realize that that is what is going to happen to your body as well. you're gonna be eaten by tiny roaches in your grave. your mouth, ears, nose, hair, is going to decay and be food for the insects in the dirt.

"Every soul shall taste death."

check it out though. i got this problem every time i go to the graveyard, and its always clawing at the back of my mind. aren't we supposed to bury our own dead? aren't we supposed to bury the muslims? the muslims bury the muslims? if we are not even supposed to bury the muslims along with non muslims, should we let non muslims bury our dead?

...

then why do we let them use the machines to finish up what we started? after the body is placed into the hole, everybody is told to take 3 handfuls of dirt and throw it in, reading the ayah:

Minhaa Khalaqnakum, wa feeha nu'eedukum, wa minha nukhrijukum taaratan ukhra.

"From it We created you, and into it We shall return you, and from it We shall bring you out once again."

and then after that, they take shovels and start dropping down the dirt. it only lasts like 5 minutes tho before random uncles are like, "beta, leave it, they will do the rest." c'mon now. are you serious? we got like 100 heads over here! how long and how hard can it be to just finish the job? it seems so superficial to do a lil bit and then QUIT, and let the graveyard ppl come with the machines to finish it! whats that mean? we just wanted to feel good by thinking we were making a difference by scooping in a few shovelfuls of dirt?

i've felt this way ever since i followed a random janazah to the graveyard. it was still during my days in quran class. after prayer, my teacher told me to go to the graveyard with the janazah because there were only a handful of people going. literally, i could count them on a hand (and a half) if i wanted to. but anyways, we went to the graveyard, and after we put the body in, we started filling up the grave. after five minutes, the machine dudes came, but this handful of brothers i was with told him that they would do it themselves. it took a good 30 minutes of just shoveling dirt, but we did it. and wallahi, it feels so much more real and doing justice to the deceased by letting the muslims bury them. and its not hard or impossible. we did it with a few brothers. but when it comes to janazahs that have so many people, we can't take a few minutes and just finish the job instead of leaving it half done and giving up.

i dunno if i'm just making it unnecessarily hard on myself and others, but thats how i feel. i know that i would want to be buried by the people i knew and loved, and not some bobcat machine.

back to the future

assalaamu alaikum

alhamdulillah, i'm done with finals. finally. the last few weeks i haven't been able to think. like my mind is just foggy for some reason, and i'm just waiting for the semester to be over so bad that it just numbs my brain. i couldn't even get as hyped as i should be about going to hajj. iA tho, i can start now.

my body felt so bogged down during the week, and today we played some serious ball for the first time in a good 3 weeks. my legs are shot. i was out of breath. sweating. bout to have a heart attack. the whole works. it felt so good. came home. hot shower. fresh clothes. and it feels like i just released a whole lotta pent up something. stress? maybe or maybe not, cuz i don't think i was stressed out. more like i was in the slums. lack of stress or activity. i hate having nothing to do and just sitting in the house. i gotta be busy. i feel the best after a long (somewhat) productive tiring day.

Sunday, December 04, 2005

all-nighters

after being super lazy for maybe a year now, i finally decided to go ahead and install photoshop again. so now those MIST pictures that are like 4 megs each can be easily cropped and resized for normal human viewing.

this was our MIST banner. a masterpiece that is no longer with us today. i believe it was flushed down the toilet or used to soak up a basement flood. (wussup iboo)

Image hosted by Photobucket.com

after some photoshopping:

Image hosted by Photobucket.com

Tuesday, November 08, 2005

big ups to iboo lal

imma try to find the mp3 of this somewhere and link it.

فرشي التراب يضمني وهو غطائي
حولي الرمال تلفني بل من ورائي
واللحد يحكي ظلمة فيها ابتلائي
والنور خط كتابه أنسى لقائي
والأهل اين حنانهم باعوا وفائي
والصحب اين جموعهم تركوا اخائي
والمال اين هناءه صار ورائي
والاسم اين بريقه بين الثناءِ
هذي نهاية حالي فرشي الترابِ
والحب ودّع شوقه وبكى رثائي
والدمع جف مسيره بعد البكاء
والكون ضاق بوسعه ضاقت فضائي
فاللحد صار بجثتي أرضي سمائي
هذي نهاية حالي فرشي الترابِ
والخوف يملأ غربتي والحزن دائي
أرجو الثبات وإنه قسما دوائي
والرب أدعو مخلصا أنت رجائي
أبغي إلهي جنة فيها هنائي

Rough translation I found on the net (some of it doesn't make sense):

Dust is my bed, embraces me and it’s my cover now
The sand surrounds me even behind my back
And the grave tells a dankness of my affliction
And the brightness draws a line……………
Where is my family’s love? They sold my loyalty!
And where is my group of friends? They left my brotherhood!
Where is the bliss of money? It’s behind my back now
And my name (reputation) where is it shine between praises
This is my end and this is my bed

And love farewells its longing and my elegizing cried
And the tears went dry after crying
And the universe became narrow and so is my space
And the grave became my ground and sky
This is my end and this is my bed

Fear fills my estrangement and sadness is my illness
I expect firmness and I swear it’s my cure
And for Allah i pray faithfully, you are my hope
Allah! I desire heaven, to find bliss in it

And for Allah i pray faithfully, you are my hope
Allah! I desire heaven, to find bliss in it

Tuesday, November 01, 2005

no countdowns here

assalaamu alaikum

tonight was the 29th night (for some of us) and theres only at the most, 2 days left in ramadan. i was chilling with my boy earlier and i kept hearing him say, "finally, ramadan is almost over. i can't wait for eid man." i usually feel the same way. i did last year, and all the years before that. this ramadan is different. and you know whats funny is that while we were having our bootleg MSA meetings early on in the month, we had a lil discussion about how this ramadan was different from all the rest, or if it even was different at all. well at that time, i wasn't sure if it was different at all. i was just getting through each day and night one by one, and it didn't seem any different. but now i can honestly say that this is the first time where i REALLY do NOT want the month to end. i wish ramadan went on for the rest of the year. i wish it never stopped.

i wish taraweeh could go on for the rest of the year. i wish the rest of the months and every single day of the year could go by like a day of ramadan, drenched and surrounded by the recitation of Quran. i finished the Quran on the 25th night in annapolis, and the morning after, i was straight depressed. and just a few hours ago, we finished again at ISB, and i got that feeling again.

i could describe it as fear. fear of getting high off ramadan, and then hitting the low in the months following. i never really made ramadan or post-ramadan resolutions or any of that stuff, but this time... i dunno. i just wanna keep this up.

taraweeh man.

my arabic is garbage. but its 20 times better than last year, and recitation was the funnest thing in the world, cuz i was actually understanding it. my goal for next year (if i live that long) is to have arabic down, insha Allah. im gonna be studying it either way in the darul uloom, but i really wanna study it WELL. i wanna KNOW the language and be able to speak it, so basically that means that i wont be just "barely getting by" with my hour of studying a week or the way i usually procrastinate.

i got so much stuff to do and improve on. will i do it tho? i think bout all this stuff constantly, but i dont really act on it. today while i was waiting at the MVA for *4* hours, i was chillin in the car listening to Ghamdi's, Muhammad Jebril's, and Ajmy's khatm duah, and asked Allah to give me death right there if there was nothing good for me any more. basically, like if i was gonna slip up and become more worthless than i already am this following year, save me from it. and then i was thinking, i need to constantly make duah for Allah to make me die in a state of Islam, and the best state possible. almost like, oh Allah, if this state that i am in right now is the best state i will EVER be in, make me die in it. no i'm not wishing for death, but i'm juss saying that i'd rather die while i'm ahead rather than go backwards and die in an unfortunate situation.

Allahumma innaa na'oothu bika min 'AINIL LAA TUDMA'.

"Oh Allah, surely we seek refuge in You from the eye that doesn't tear."

* * * * * * * * *

oh, but i am looking forward to this sunday. tackle football, cedar lane park. i feel like merkin some cats. insha Allah.

Friday, October 28, 2005

khatm-ul-Qur'an tonight yall.

be there or be square.

(dont hesitate to shoot me if i ever say that in real life)

Wednesday, October 26, 2005

juss a lil bit

salaamu alaikum

gotta let out a big: WOOOOOOO (loud sighing "woo" o_0)

i. am. beat. yo.

we ended just now, 2:00AM man. its like coming back from a good hard game of ball. it feels good. but you're straight mopped.

Saturday, October 22, 2005

the green ranger

salaamu alaikum

http://thatvideosite.com/view/969.html

aw man i would put this up on islamica, but the site that its on has some haramish ads.

ahh the old school days of saturday morning cartoons... :faint: