Tuesday, March 8, 2011

It's Tough Being a Girl - Khalid Latif


notes:
so your solution does not rely on me...you have to develop a sense of self-entitlement by empowering yourself with a certain base of knowledge and going out and learning your deen. so that if somebody who is deemed to be authoritative in your community justifies through scripture of poor treatment of you, you can say, "no, I know what I know and you can't tell me that his is religiously correct." ...but until you go out and learn it for yourself, you're just going to have to deal with this.

If a person does not wear it does that mean that they are immodest? and it doens't meant that. and we have to understand that. because if one does not have that qualifying term of what you associate it to be it doesn't necessarily mean that they have to be the extreme opposite of it. our rhetoric around it is so disenchanting that no one's really going to wanna do it because of the way we talk about it.

there has to be gentleness, sense of compassion and mercy in the ways in which we engage with eachother. It's not easy to go out there right now and wear your religion on your sleeve...we have to let people explore and grow and be a means of positive reinforcment not be a people who discourage them from this deen. And we have to start to think about it in this way.

Yes it's important, yes the way we are perceived by society, yes the way we carry ourselves, but this is something that is important for men and women. most of us as men are only identified as being muslim because we are walking next to a women who's wearing a headscarf. most of us as men don't even realize what our hijab actually entails. we don't even know how to dress...

no matter how many sins or mistakes that you have committed in the course of your life can it exceed the mercy of Allah (swt)? but contingent for us to be recipient of that Divine mercy is that we exert an air of compassion and mercy amongst ourselves. and we don't do that. and we have to start doing it.

ameen to creating solid women's education initiatives.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

good lecture.

this is a link to an article by a great contemporary thinker and author within Islamic thought. Thought I'd share- accepting your invite to share.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/william-c-chittick-phd/the-loss-of-human-beauty_b_832374.html
Salam
mike

Anonymous said...

Salaam’Alaikum Sister Fatima,

First and foremost: I LOVE YOUR BLOG! Honey, this so right on time! May Allah reward you for your creativity, and intentions. I plan to read regularly. I’ve added you to my blog roll.

Sr. Fatima says:
“…there has to be gentleness, sense of compassion and mercy in the ways in which we engage with each other. It's not easy to go out there right now and wear your religion on your sleeve...we have to let people explore and grow and be a means of positive reinforcement not be a people who discourage them from this deen. And we have to start to think about it in this way.”

My Reply: I 100% co-sign. When people are disrespectful, aggressive, or harsh my brain tends to shut down. I also wonder if the concept of “adab” or Islamic etiquette is being stressed just as much as covering. Isn’t the point of submission is to transform one’s consciousness of God, self, and the Universe? In my mind, a sign of sincere transformation is good adab.

Sr. Fatina Says:

“so your solution does not rely on me...you have to develop a sense of self-entitlement by empowering yourself with a certain base of knowledge and going out and learning your deen. so that if somebody who is deemed to be authoritative in your community justifies through scripture of poor treatment of you, you can say, "no, I know what I know and you can't tell me that his is religiously correct." ...but until you go out and learn it for yourself, you're just going to have to deal with this.”

My reply: Sr. Fatima based off your notes I feel we are right <> here. I learned through serious trial and error during my youth that having the ability to defend yourself ( a human norm) is just as important as obtaining education, employment, wealth, etc.

If you have time, I’d love to hear your feedback on these two essays over at my house.

http://sistamiriamsrefuge.blogspot.com/2011/04/my-body-is-my-business-why-i-put-my.html

http://sistamiriamsrefuge.blogspot.com/2011/04/part-two-my-body-is-my-business-why-i.html

Salaam alaikum
Big Smiles
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