Defending the legacy of the Prophet (saw)

It happened then, it happened now and it will most certainly continue to happen.

At Taaif our beloved Prophet Muhammed [saw] was shouted, scoffed and jeered at. Driven out of the city, beaten SO badly that his Mubaarak shoes became filled with blood. Instead of allowing the people to be crushed, he forgave them and supplicated for them. Was this then not humiliation, disgrace and dishonour to our Prophet [saw] ?

In Makkah, when his efforts to call the people to Islam went in vain, was he not called a mad man and a liar? Was this then again, not humiliation, disgrace and dishonour towards him? 

As he stood on the mountains of Makkah, was he not cursed ? If this was not humiliation and disgrace toward him, then what does one call it?

They mock at the greatest man to ever walk the surface of mother earth. Can ANYONE, shine a torch, lit by a penlight battery at the sun, and expect the sun to be outshone? NEVER 

The west refer to our beloved prophet [saw] as a womaniser and a paedophile, Naa'oozoobillah! These are the qualities for which the West are known. He married Khadijah [RA] at the age of 40, well passed her peak and that too after SHE proposed to him. 

Besides Aaisha [RA], all his other wives were widows. These qualities best suite a man with great kindness, love and compassion.

A recent uprising was created amongst the muslim community with the release of the blasphemous, anti-muslim video. A person who could not choose a suitable title of a movie, most certainly ought to make a mess of the movie itself. The West, saw this as a way to de-humanise Islam, by means of this Movie.

Whilst the Prophet [saw] commanded women folk to cover their bodies, the West has asked them to bare their flesh. Never was a case of rape seen in the prophetic times, yet recent studies show the increasing number of women raped every seven seconds in the USA.

Nabi [saw] made a woman the queen of her home, whilst the West has made a woman the centre of attraction. An object, made to look so cheap with her images displayed all over magazines!

Then the movie talks about the prophet [Saw] as one who promoted and started war. For a moment let us take into consideration : who currently occupies Palestine and is responsible for the death of thousands of innocent people? Who dropped the first Nuclear bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki killing millions of people ? Who is on a mission to grab all mineral resources of the world? Islam or the West? Definitely not the muslims. In fact Muslims who drank from the cup of martyrdom thank the West for granting them with such great salvation.

Who was the man responsible for writing the first satanic verses? Or rather who was the first European soccer player to score a hatrick? Forgotten? Right? YET the memory of beloved Rasool [saw] is celebrated daily by Muslim all over the world.

15 million people visit the Rowdah Mubarak yearly. Besides this billions of salawaat are sent upon him by Muslims all over the world.

Allah [swt] has himself praised the name of the prophet [saw] in the Quraan, Allah [swt] says "Wa ra fa'naa laka zikrak" 

Isn't it an interesting fact that one in every four infants are named Muhammed. Isn't this a sign? A sign to the west that even though our prophet was a human, he was a means of connection from us, to our creator

It is very Important for us to remember these words said to us by a honourable personality. He said "We should not try to defend the Prophet [saw] in a way that would offend him" 

The legacy of this great Prophet [saw] will never ever die and his name will never leave the lips of those who remember him daily. 

I leave you with a few enlightening words said to us by a Persian poet ,

"Be careful with the Prophet Muhammed [pbuh], for God may forgive a crime committed against himself, but he never forgives one who hurts his favourite"

AYESHA AMRA

Which F-word Will You Choose?!!

"The family.  We were a strange little band of characters trudging through life sharing diseases and toothpaste, coveting one another's desserts, hiding shampoo, borrowing money, locking each other out of our rooms, inflicting pain and kissing to heal it in the same instant, loving, laughing, defending, and trying to figure out the common thread that bound us all together."  ~Erma Bombeck

It is wisely said that blood is thicker than water, thus meaning that family is most important and should come first before friends or acquaintances. But is this really what we practice upon in our everyday lives?

There are many arguments as to who plays the greatest role and influence in a person's life. Some might say the parents as they have, or should have, majority of control, and as they are the ones who shape a person from birth to become the person which they grow up to be. However, some may disagree with this statement, stating that friends play the greatest influence and role in a person's life because as one grows up, life becomes about fitting in with a group of people and fitting into the norm of society, thus following your friends. The amount of time one spends with their friends also emphasises this point greatly.

Regardless of who plays the greatest role in your life, at the end of the day, the question that I want to ask, and the question which you should be asking yourself is: Which F-word will you choose?... Friends or Family??

The answer to the question: 70% of the time, in our teenage years, we choose friends over family!

Reaching the teenage years, we become those people who suddenly care about how we look, we worry about what people think and say. We are no more those carefree souls in primary school who would run around with mud on our cheeks and paint splashed on our clothes not worrying about what other people thought. Instead, we are all about appearance, reputation, status and class. We all want to be seen and heard, and we all want to fit in... Even if fitting in means turning our back on our own family.

Sometimes its not about fitting in or being cool, maybe its just about who we feel comfortable with. Majority of people truly expose they inner self when they are with friends. That's when they can be themselves and have fun.

But, whilst we are growing up, making friends and having fun.. Do we ever stop and think about our family?

How many times have we chose "Movie night with the girls" over "Scrabble night with the family"?? 

Or how many times have we chose "Soccer with the guys" over "Fishing with dad" ??

Think about it.. 70% of the time we rather chose friends over family! Why??.. Well, because they are funnier, cooler, better to hang out with, we can be naughty with them, we can talk nonsensical stories and they somehow understand this teen-language that we speak, better than our family.

Whilst with our family we somewhat feel restricted.. At least that's what most people think.. I mean.. You can't exactly talk to your parents about that guy/girl everyone's crushing on.

Yes, we all need friends for all those good times.. But what about family? 

Ask yourself this:

How many friends have you had in your life? How many of them said they would be by your side forever and left? How long have you been friends with your current friends? How much of your life do your friends really know?

And now ask yourself this:

How long have your family been in your life? How many times has your family promised to be by your side and were actually there? How many times have they sacrificed for you? How much of your life do your family really know?

But.. HOW MANY TIMES DO WE CHOOSE FRIENDS OVER FAMILY????

Its become so sad that I've seen elder sisters display cruelty to their younger sister when in front of friends. I've seen daughters who are, for some reason, too embarrassed to walk with their parents and shy away from them. I've seen son's back chat to their mothers when in front of their friends.

Why do we have this crazy idea that our friends will always be there for us? 

We do so much for friendship, dedicate so much of our lives in the name of friendship.. What guarantee do we have that tomorrow that friend will still be that.. Our friend? Especially in High School.. How do we know if, when we complete matric, we will still meet up with that friend whom we substituted our family time to go out with then?

We might not realise it, but we are all somehow guilty of this. Some of us more than others. We take for granted our family and we don't appreciate them for the blessing that they are. Instead we see them as the people we have to and are forced to live with. Family is important because you didn't ask for them, you can't change them, and yet of all the people on earth they're likely to know you best and be the most important to you.

Anthony Brandt put it rightly when he said:

"Other things may change us, but we start and end with family."

It is only when we are left all alone to deeply ponder over our most prized possessions do we realise the true value of family.

So let's do that.. Let's consider all that our family is, all that they mean to us, and all that they've done for us.. And for once.. LET'S CHOOSE FAMILY OVER FRIENDS!!

Human Perception: Physical Beauty

Since the beginning of human kind, we have struggled with the definition of beauty. Different eras and different philosophers have had their own theories, yet no group was able to agree upon a single conclusion. The only thing that seemed somewhat acceptable and agreeable without being too cliché was that beauty was in the eye of the beholder.

Today, everyone still has their own definition of beauty. A mother may find her child with mud streaked across his/her face beautiful, whereas we might just see a murky, muddy mess! I might look at a book, seeing the wisdom and knowledge held within it beautiful, whereas someone else might look at it and think ‘Ugh, a book!’ 

Despite the differences in people’s opinion, it is important to explore these ideas to get a firm grip on what beauty COULD be. Is it all appearance? Is it perfection? Is it what WE were told? OR Is it something completely different?

In our lives we come across people who may be quite attractive, yet something about their character has a repelling effect on us. The reverse could be said about people who aren't so good looking, yet they possess incredible personalities that draw us towards them. 

An article written by a plastic surgeon, Dr Robert Tonambe, presents an interesting conclusion about how our minds judge beauty. The article, titled "What makes a person Ugly?" focuses on certain positive traits that serve to enhance and determine how we perceive physical beauty. Some characteristics that are mentioned are self-confidence, cheerfulness and optimism. 

It was proven that when it came to judging between physical beauty and personality, our minds incline towards appreciating people who possess positive personality traits.

Unfortunately though, standards of beauty have morphed over time. Historically, paintings show a wide range of different standards of beauty, yet humans who are young, with smooth skin and well proportioned bodies are still traditionally considered to be the most beautiful.

How much money one may earn can also be influenced by their physical beauty. A study found that people low in physical attractiveness earn 5 to 10 percent less than ordinary people, who in turn, earn 3 to 8 percent less than people who are considered to be good looking. Did you Know: Discrimination against others based on their appearance actually has a name, it is called Lookism.

What about a religious perspective? How does Islam view human beauty? Is physical attractiveness looked upon as a positive trait? Needless to say, physical beauty is indeed a blessing. But according to Islamic teachings, beauty is just like any other materialistic and perishable trait, such as wealth, rank and occupation. Physical beauty by itself has little worth and is given no significance in Islam if not accompanied with inner beauty, such as piety and good moral traits. Real beauty is what we carry with us in our journey to the hereafter.

I would like to conclude with a quote by a famous psychiatrist and pioneer, Elisabeth Kubler-Ross. Her words, in my opinion, should represent how we all should see beauty, not physically, but rather inwardly, because that is what really shows through. She said …

"the most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known loss and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness and a deep, loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen."

FATHIMA MOOLLA 

Loyalty in Friendship

The best gift any person could possibly receive is the gift of true friendship. There's nothing more exciting and pleasant as knowing that there's someone out there who cares about you and your happiness, who you can be yourself with and have the time of your life. But, However, many things are needed to make friendship a real one. These include trustworthiness, support, honesty, and loyalty.

And although I've listed quite a few characteristics required for a true friendship, the one I would like to focus on most, which I believe binds many of the characteristics together, is loyalty.
loyalty can be defined as faithfulness to commitments or obligations.

Growing up we are all true to someone, our friend. We don't care or ever think about if they are really true to us, we just young people they can count on an we can also count on them and trust them with the things we tell them or they tell us, we share stupid thoughts with them and laugh at all type of things, we would tell them about our fears, dreams, awkward moments, our likes, dislikes, our crushes, our enemies. We will tell them so many things not worrying whether they would go and expose the things we tell them to others.


Loyalty is one of the most important thing in life when it comes to friendship, because trust can be broken by small things and you need to know that you can count on your friends to always have your back and never let you down.

Nowadays, its become so common for friends to gossip behind each other's back. They start exposing your secrets that you shared with them.

Imagine if everything you ever shared with your friend got exposed?..
Once you share things with a friend, that friend of yours already knows your weakness, and if you can ever get into a fight he would know how to destroy you or you would know how to destroy them.
We see it happening so many times in High School where best girlfriends get into cat fights and cliques form, or when best guys friends get into a serious wrestling match due to disloyalty.

Imagine if your biggest secret was exposed.. That secret which only your best friend knew.. How would you feel?.. Knowing that everyone's looking and pointing fingers, and most importantly, knowing that you've been betrayed.. Betrayed by the person you trusted most.. The person who you thought was most loyal to you??..

So loyalty is a very important thing to a friend, and it can take you a long way and once its broken it can never be repaired cause that person will never trust you again. With loyalty, other characteristics of friendship come naturally, eg: trust, honesty, love, support, and respect.
Its easy to make friends and be friends with someone, but the important part is showing them that you will always be there to support them and you'll never hurt them or stab them in the back no matter what the circumstances may be.

Some people assume that if you are not friends with a person anymore, then you have the right to share they private life and their secrets with the world.. How can anyone ever trust you if you can so easily betray that person you once called your friend?
If you can't be loyal to someone, why be they friend?..


RAFIQ KAZEMBE

My Faithful Friend

My vriende, Mere dost, Sadiqy, Umgani wami, Mate, My friend, Buddy..

These words describe that one very special person in your life in different languages. That one very special person with whom you share a relation and life long bond. That person who you tell all your secrets and confide in without any doubt, that person who makes your saturday nights a YOLO experience... None other that your friend.

But what is friendship?
People have been asking this question for centuries, and we can never know the exact answer that will fit everybody’s definition of friendship.

In the dictionary you can find three definitions of friendship:
1.      The quality or condition of being friends
2.      A friendly relationship
3.      Friendliness, good will
In order to know what all these definitions mean we need to figure out what is the definition for friends. A friend is defined as a person whom one knows, likes, and trusts. So friendship is when two people know each other well, and trust each other.
Friendship is the relationship between two people who really care about each other.

In my opinion, friendship is when you and your friend know that you will never do anything bad to each other, that you can protect each other, fight but come together again and there will be always happiness around when your friend is next to you.
A friend can call you at 3 a.m. and you will never be mad at her, because you know that something happened. With your friend you are being yourself. You can tell her all the secrets and know that she will never tell them to anyone. A friend is a person that feels like family, but you are not connected by blood. You are connected by feelings. Sometimes even a friend can be closer to you than somebody from your family. We can choose our friends, but we can’t choose family.
Many people carry their friendships from early childhood, whether some can meet in the last 20 years of life and question themselves “How did we live without this person earlier?”
          
What is friendship?
It is knowing there is a person who you can trust completely. It is realizing that someone else wants the best for you, and you want the same for them. It is being together without needing to pretend. It is knowing that you can call them anytime and they will be happy to hear you. It is leaving somewhere for holidays with your family, and writing emails to them everyday explaining what is going on, and missing them a lot. It is sharing your grief and you happiness with them. It is helping them solve problems, and knowing they will do the same for you. It is fighting with them because of some stupid thing and knowing that after five minutes everything would be great again. It is forgiving them if they were wrong because you know they didn’t mean it. It is sharing your dreams, hopes, and secrets together. It is coming to help them and expecting nothing in return. It is having fun through everyday life together. It is finding time for each other no matter what. It is understanding that you friend is the best and telling him that all the time. It is saying no without having to explain why. It is knowing what they feel and why.

Here we see some beautiful quotes based on other people's perspective of what true friendship is:

"A friend is one who knows you and loves you just the same."
-Elbert Hubbard

"An insincere and evil friend is more to be feared than a wild beast; a wild beast may wound your body, but an evil friend will wound your mind."
-Buddha

"Friendship... is not something you learn in school. But if you haven't learned the meaning of friendship, you really haven't learned anything."
-Muhammad Ali

"Lots of people want to ride with you in the limo, but what you want is someone who will take the bus with you when the limo breaks down."
-Oprah Winfrey

"Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born."
-Anais Nin


But, If one had to narrate or relate a story of the most true and most beautiful of friendships throughout history, the one that would definitely top the list, or should top the list, is the Mubarak friendship of Nabi Muhammed (saw) and Abu Bakr (ra).
Their friendship is like none other. It was a friendship bonded by Religion. It was friendship that prevailed through all trials and triumphs, a friendship that lasted till death and beyond. A friendship where they always had each others back. A friendship in which they brought each other closer to Allah and closer to Deen.. How beautiful is that friendship!!

That is the kind of friendship we should all strive for.

I'm bored.. let's prank call !!

What immediately comes to our minds when our phone rings and we see the words "Private Number"??

"OMG a prank call !!", right?

We are all inclined to get together with our friends every once in a while, some more than others. Perhaps it might be for studying purposes, perhaps it might be a party, or to have a movie marathon, or to just have a chilled girls or guys night in or out. This is the time when we all unwind and relax, enjoying our time with people we have fun with. But the question that should be asked is.. What do we really do in these get together??...

Speaking from experience, I know that its become a norm in teenage get togethers to make prank calls as the highlight of their evening. The whole group cuddles together and share cell-phone numbers of their enemies or even friends they think would be quite hilarious to prank, and thereafter put their own cell number on private so as to not get caught.

Sometimes, prank calling is not only done when having a get together, sometimes one just simply prank calls because they are bored and want to have a good laugh.

Kids love the idea of making prank calls to people! There is just something so devilish about making prank calls to others and disturbing them in the dead of the night which appeals to the pubescent young souls of kids looking for something exciting and devious to do! 

nowadays, no one is exempted from the prank calling list- teachers, friends, parents, neighbours, partners, coaches, principals- they are all there. Teens mostly love the idea of calling elders who will be totally clueless as to how to handle the situation resulting in them screaming vulgar words at them through the phone. The scariest prank call, as some teens would say, is when a private number calls and no one speaks, or the person simply breathes heavily.

It’s also common for many teens to place prank calls to random numbers. They pick a number randomly, say something they think is funny, hang up, call the number again until they get the other person shouting angry words at them to stop. 

However innocent and harmless they think their phone calls may be, it cannot change the fact that prank calls are considered not only a nuisance but illegal as well, especially if the calls are becoming threatening and distressing.

Prank calls can easily be traced nowadays, and once located, the prankster may be charged with harassment. You definitely don’t want this to happen since, depending upon the number of times you have called and the nature of your calls, you can end up facing not only a warning but stiff fines and jail time as well.

What people don't understand is that prank calling can have many side-effect on the victim. Certain teens lose their confidence and feel somewhat shy away when they become victims of continuous pranks. They think that the world is against them and become paranoid at whoever looks or laughs their way, assuming that they are the one making the calls. This creates a negative impact on that person's social, academic and family life. 

Sometimes, prank calling can cause division amongst friends, families and partners because the prankster pretends to be someone they not and feed lies to the victim.

It can be totally agreed that prank calling is a fun and exciting activity done by many people out there, but what needs to be considered is not how you feel when you carry out a prank, but rather how the person on the other end of the line feels. How do you think they feel when they receive a random call at 12pm in the middle of their sleep from a reckless teen who tells them "baby, I miss you so much"??? 

How would you feel?

How would you feel if every night you received an anonymous call from someone who would just breathe heavily or say weird stuff like "I know what you did last night"??

At first, you might find it interesting and you might play along. But what happens after? When you get sick and tired of that person calling you everyday at random times with different approaches, and sometimes whilst you are busy with family?

How would you react if someone kept harassing your sister, brother, mother, father or partner in such a way? 

Before we are too quick to pull out our phones and dial that number, let's stop and think.. How would I feel if I was the person on the other side of the phone?