To Be Hijabi, or Not to Be?

I just read this amazing article featured on Oprah.com about this half white, half lebanese, nine year old girl who chooses to wear the headscarf. The article is from her mother's point of view; and she explores the idea of covering up as an outlet to discover oneself. Take a look and see what you think:

Choosing To Wear the Headscarf - article linked here.

Excerpts from the article that especially resonated with me:
"Since that day in Venice Beach, I'd spent years learning to swim in the turbulent currents of attraction—wanting to be desired, resisting others' unwelcome advances, plumbing the mysterious depths of my own longing. I'd spent countless hours studying my reflection in the mirror—admiring it, hating it, wondering what others thought of it—and it sometimes seemed to me that if I had applied the same relentless scrutiny to another subject I could have become enlightened, written a novel, or at least figured out how to grow an organic vegetable garden."

I agree with what she's saying here, I've had different points in my life where I'm very modest - to the point where I forget that I have curves of any kind and that I could use them to my "advantage" (a horrible dumb-it-down scheme the media feeds to women making them believe that if their appearance is up to par - they don't need to have a brain or opinions or thoughts) or very immodest - to the point where I become overly obsessed with my appearance and forget my actual purpose in life. Honestly, moderation is key, I'm happiest when I'm in the middle of both extremes - "O you who believe! Make not unlawful the good things which Allah has made lawful for you, but Commit no excess: for Allah loves not those given to excess." (5.87) - I am by no means saying that one should ever use their body to get ahead by unlawful means, but it is definitely necessary to feel good about oneself so that Muslimah's are associated with high self-esteem and great poise - I would go to such an extreme that I would stop exercising and wearing nice clothes.

"I understood then that while physical exposure had liberated me in some ways, Aliya could discover an entirely different type of freedom by choosing to cover herself."

This is so TRUE. I feel as American-Muslims especially, we should explore and create dialogue about the kind of freedom that stems from dressing modestly. It's so pleasant to know that you have the power to let someone into your space as opposed to knowing that everyone knows/imagines what every curve of your body looks like unclothed. ALLAHUAKBAR!

Peace.

Come on, Paint Me a Rainbow.

I recently came across a couple of articles talking about color therapy or chromotherapy and how different colors can induce different emotions or moods from us. This is through the fact that each color has different vibrations and each vibration is associated with different attributes and qualities. "A color will vibrate at a specific frequency. It is said that organs and glands of our bodies also vibrate at specific frequencies and that colors correspond to the areas of our body which have the same frequency. When we are sick, our organs and glands may become out of balance and not function at their proper frequencies. Restoring the proper frequency is thought to restore health."

• Red is hot. It can stimulate and excite. It connects to our physical self.
• Orange is warm and joyful. It connects to our emotional self.
• Yellow is warm to hot. It connects to our mental self.
• Green is the master color. It is refreshing and cool. It connects us to unconditional love.
• Aqua (turquoise) is cooling. It connects us to our expression.
• Blue is cold and acidic. It connects us to holistic thoughts.
• Indigo is cool and calming to the nervous system. It connects us to our unconscious self.
• Violet is cool. It connects us to our spiritual self.
• Magenta is balancing. It connects us to devotional love.

Then, I started thinking about how color overtly affects me on a day to day basis and took note of what colors I am drawn to. My room is full of whites, light blues, and yellow - I looove coming home to it after a long day of classes and libraries. However, I started noticing something that threw me off and it was my janemaaz (prayer rug) - it was BRIGHT RED and black. Looking over what all of these colors can stimulate, I decided it was necessary to change the color of my prayer rug to aqua with hints of red, I don't know if it was all in my head, but alhamdulillah my duas are now much more open and eloquent. SO, if any of you would like to try out this little experiment and tell me how it worked out for you, that'd be lovely!

I'll leave a link down here for more reading on the possible benefits of color therapy for a deeper look, check it out:
http://www.color-medicine.com/

This world is a prison for the Faithful, but a Paradise for the unbeliever- Prophet Muhammed (PBUH)

This used to be a longer video but I can't seem to find the other parts. Subhan'Allah my heart jumps when I see Samar laughing or smiling and seeing her father's face when he sees her. I can't even imagine having enough patience to deal with losing a family member...and he lost three. This puts the problems of a college student into perspective for sure and makes me so much more grateful for all the blessings I have been bestowed with. Seriously, as a college student I have so much potential to make a change in the world iA and seeing videos like this recharges me in my mission, I am not going to throw away this opportunity. We're surrounded by messages about raising higher in our ranks of this world via wealth and popularity, but why would that be our only intention in this life? The Creator can take away anything He's given us in a second, whether that be our wealth, our legs, or our life. So wouldn't it be wiser to put our focus on the Hereafter and raising our status in the eyes of Allah (swt)? Take a second and think about that also make sure you keep this in your daus: May Allah swt give our brothers and sisters patience in these hard times and also give us, the more fortunate, the ilm and tawfeeq to help them.

read the article here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8164582.stm