car woes vol. 32

assalaamu alaikum

after dhuhr, i was coerced into going to grab a frosty from wendy's and drop my friend off at bally's on the way back and make it in time for class. so after we get the frosty and what not, i pull into the parking lot for bally's and some guy with a huge ram 1500 is reversing out of his parking spot and reverses right into the side of my car. the rear right door panel pops off and is slightly dented. i got all the insurance info and the popo came and all that jazz. after it was all done, when he pulled off and left, some black bag fell from his cab and i picked it up. it had important documents (...) so i plan on returning it to him. after i got home and told my parents what happened, they were like too bad you only have liability, so insurance isn't gonna give you any money. oh hell no. even though it was HIS fault? how am i supposed to fix this thing up then? meh. so my plans of someday pimping out the bonneville and making it more gangsta than it is by default have been replaced by getting this door panel fixed somehow.

maybe i should sell him his bag back for the cost of repairs. yeah, that'll work. hustle baby.

gimme da rock

salaamu alaikum

i dont write when i want to, i write when i must.

poetry isnt a hobby for me, but sometimes ill be inspired to write a piece if ive seen something or i got certain thoughts or emotions to express. i just made a poster out of this picture on the side via a program called "rasterbator" (dont ask me bout the shady name) and hung it up in my room, and during my 3 hour long psychology class on thursday, i started writing a piece for it. its not done yet, but iA, when it is, ill put it up or something.

diagnosis

assalaamu alaikum

leaving out the details as to why i had to put this off for so long, i finally went to the doctor on wednesday, and after she did her checkups and what not, she was like its either a hernia or avascular necrosis. now BEFORE i even went to the doctor, i was telling ppl that based on my own diagnosis i thought it was a hernia, and simply "knew" how a hernia must feel even though i've never had one before. after an ultrasound (shutup) and xray, i was right. i have a hernia, and today i'm supposed to go to a referred surgeon doctor dude to see what hes gonna do about it. pretty obvious right?

now the thing is, the doctor told me that i shouldn't do anything physical, meaning lift heavy things, work out, or PLAY BASKETBALL. man, thats what i look forward to the entire week. i rest myself just so i can play ball on fridays and sundays. and i've had this thing for 6 months now, and i've been playing ball with it on the regular. i understand not playing AFTER the surgery to heal up, but if this thing isn't gonna go away without surgery, what harm is me playing like i always play gonna do BEFORE the surgery? its not gonna affect whether i gotta get the surgery done or not, cuz thats a given.

i dont know. odds are, that if i roll up into the gym tonight with everybody playing, i won't be able to just sit on the sidelines and watch. this will probably be my last week to play before i gotta lay off for surgery n crap too, so i might as well...

whats that like 2? i got 68 more excuses to go...

EDIT: so who wants to school me on how to embed audio files on this page? i've seen ya'll do it, so share the knowledge.

i suck at school

assalaamu alaikum

so today i successfully failed my first biology exam. woohoo. too bad its not over. i have a psychology test tomorrow (more like today) and since i missed my last math class, i gotta catch up with 2 new chapters of stuff i don't understand by tomorrow (more like today). and then for bio, i have a paper due on monday which i gotta do over the same weekend as MSA EZ, and that same day, i have a lab practical for which i gotta memorize like a billion and one random greek derived bone names and be able to identify slides and junk.

yo i'm the worst student in the world.

oh yeah...

well at least i know what NOT to do next semester

madina market

Assalaamu alaikum

this is what i'm using for my hair so it can grow all nice and pretty. it never does. its always all thick and messy so that i just keep it cut mad low.

but this stuff is nice. it smells off the hook too.

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.

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

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

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!

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

'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

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.

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.

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)



after some photoshopping: