"Moisture is the essence of wetness, and wetness is the essence of beauty." - Derek Zoolander

I just came across a post I wrote in Feb that I never got around to posting...it makes me nervous thinking about school and quizzes and midterms starting up in a couple of weeks. ANYWAYS the overall message of the post is good so...read on!

I'm finally getting a day of straight up lounging without any guilt; these last two weeks were chalk full of exquisitely stressful midterms and make-you-chew-your-pencil-like-it's-candy quizzes. For the past hour I've been testing out my latest belated birthday gift: Sennheiser HD 205's - whaats up Louis Armstrong, your voice sounds even more delicious through this new medium. Anyways, getting to the point...this break means time to reflect and the topic that comes up among most collegiate minds in a very Zoolander-esque manner is: "Who am I?"

Of course this self-discovery will never cease, but it's been noted that those who take some time to try to shape certain aspects of themselves rather than just "going with the flow" are much more appealing roamers of the Earth. So how do you shape yourself to be someone you want to be? Take a look at your environment and all that you're exposed to. These things shape you; you're like a sponge and all of the external factors you come across are absorbed into your head. Eventually the sponge will be less like our little, rigid Nickelodeon friend and be more like the mushy square laying atop your kitchen sink...and it will overflow. All that comes out of it is everything it took in, similar to everything that comes out of your mouth is one version or another of what your five senses have experienced.

TOP FIVE RUINERS OF YOUR COULD-BE AMAZING PERSONALITY:
1. Jersey Shore
2. Cosmo
3. the Twilight series
4. Auto-Tuners (thank you T-Pain)
5. Teenage Mom

WHAT YOU SHOULD BE ABSORBING:
1. Qur'an + legit Hadith
2. lots of Def Jam Poetry (holla all my sassy women of color!)
3. One Be Lo's S.O.N.O.G.R.A.M.
4. The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.
5. Ani Difranco.



I lovelovelove her fran(c)kness (ha ha), but really, that's an powerful quality to have...as long as it's used in an eloquent manner: "squint your eyes and look closer/ I'm not between you and your ambition/ I am a poster girl with no poster/ I am thirty-two flavors and then some."

As opposed to Snooki from Jersey Shore, who is also very frank....but whaaaat?
"I had a feeling where I wanted to make out with somebody, so, umm, I just made out with Ryder, because all the guys like that."

peace!

Native Deen love

I just went on a run half fueled by frustrations and the other half consisted of the bowl of nutella + bananas I ate for iftar. It took me a good four miles to feel satisfied as well as all of the Native Deen & Outlandish albums I own. This took me back to my senior year of high school where I listened to nothing other than these two bands every single day. I am currently writing Native Deen a thank you letter for making their music, because honestly, I didn't realize how much their lyrics shaped my thoughts and actions. Sometimes you just need to hear someone else's experience match up with situations you come across to stimulate your own perseverance. And usually...Gossip Girl and 30 Rock don't teach very good decision-making tactics. It was especially the track "I Only Fear My Lord Allah" that I remember repeating incessantly especially during rough drives home from school around the time I turned down my at-that-time crush because I didn't wanna hit up Prom with him.

"Has there ever been a time when it was time to pray, And you were with a group of people at that time of day,
Maybe with a group a buddies who know nothing bout Salat, Or yet a teacher or a boss, someone you do respect a lot.
And you wished to take a moment, but you knew not what to say,
Your afraid that they will look back in that funny type of way.
...You stay and do not pray because you fear what they will say,
You forget Allah is greater than a person made of clay.
Lord of all the heavens and lord of all the sky,
And you go and fear a creature that is someday gonna die.
I think we underestimate, who controls our very fate,
We say that hes our lord, but we forget that he is very great.

These lines are what always stayed in the back of my head when I started praying at the library or in the Macy's fitting room. Soo if you haven't already, check out some Native Deen and Outlandish tracks + add them to your workout mixes :)

check out other Muslim Hip Hop here: http://www.muslimhiphop.com/

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/

Guitar Hero to the Rescue!

“SubhanAllah” moment of the week occurred yesterday. I was playing Rock Band with some friends after I was done with a loooong week of class/midterm study - note: this game is $150 and we don’t spend that kind of money on games in my house (but we do on jeans...if that means anything). For awhile I stuck with vocals because singing is easy and fuuunnn but after awhile someone else wanted to try, so I tried out the guitar. I’m sure everyone knows what a Rock Band guitar looks like - just like a Guitar Hero one - six colored buttons on the neck and while you play you watch the screen to know which buttons to press while you “strum” the bar. When you’re new it takes a lot of concentration because your brain is still learning which fingers go with which colors, the more you concentrate, the faster you learn.


I was doing horribly, on EASY, while everyone else was playing on hard or expert. But even as I saw myself getting low percentages every time, I didn’t make an effort to pay more attention to the finger-color pattern. It as as if I had internally labelled myself as a “n00b” and therefore it was acceptable for me to be performing badly. This seemed like a mechanism to keep myself from feeling bad about performing poorly as well as to prevent myself from the “oh no” feeling of treading outside of the waters of my comfort zone.

At the time, I didn’t care. But the “subhanAllah” kicked in this morning when the connection between my incoherent playing was made with the way I’ve been living my life - Ya-Allah, you work in such beautiful ways.

Basically, I’ve been “half-assing” (for lack of a more fitting word) my way through LIFE. Whether it’s preparing for tests, participating in class, running races, concentrating in prayer, being a good Muslim. EVERY SINGLE one of these things could be done SO MUCH better, but I choose to stay in my little bubble and not move forward...just get by. If I was somehow able to get out of my body and look down at the person that I have grown into, I would be quite disappointed. I’d flip them the bird. I have like sixty more years to live tops...and if I’m going to merely “get by” for the next years, I doubt I’ll have much to show for it on the Day of Judgment.

“Verily, Allah does not change the condition of a people until they change what is in themselves” (al-Qur’an, 13:11)

Allah (swt) is always there to help us, but we need to provide an outlet for this help! This is for anyone who feels like they aren’t getting the most out of their life - and I’m sure everyone feels like this at time. But, hey, the answer is lies in the Qur’an. At last Friday’s khutba the speaker said “If you want to talk to Allah (swt), pray. If you want Allah (swt) to talk to you, read the Qur’an.” So let’s make two nafl of prayer today and ask Allah for aid in re-connecting with him and in turn i’A becoming a better human being. Ameen.

Moving From the "No" to the "Yes"

I don’t know too much about Islam’s stance/definition of what dreaming is, other than it’s the sister of death...but it’s a pretty interesting subject, and i’A I’ll look into it and let you know! One of my friends recommended this movie (“Waking Life”) to me when we were on the subject of “indie movies” and some parts are pretty mind-expanding. However, if you decide to watch it, keep in mind that it is very existentialist and as I do not have a great understanding of existentialism I can't provide what parts are and are not in line with Islamic thought. But, watch with an open-mind. Anyways, the point of me putting this clip up is to comment on what he says from 5:10 to 6:14. It caused me to reflect on what I’ve been doing with my time...and if those are good decisions based on the ambiguity of HOW much time I actually have here on Earth. We should live this life as if we are travellers (i.e. don’t get caught up in materialism/worldly gain because our final destination is Jannah i’A).

I got this from Daily Reminders site (there's a link on my blog roll - check out this blog it's really cool): On the authority of Abdullah ibn Umar (May Allah be pleased with them both), he relates that the Prophet (Peace be upon him) once held my shoulders and said:

“Live in this world as (if you are) a wayfarer or a stranger.” And Abdullah ibn Umar (May Allah be pleased with them both) used to say: “If you live till night, then do not wait for the next day (i.e. do not have hopes that you will live to the next day), and if you wake up in the morning do not have hope that you will live till the night. And take (advantage) from your health before your sickness and take advantage of your life before your death (i.e. do every possible obedience in your life before death comes to you for then no deeds can be performed.)” [Bukhari and Tirmidhi]

Back to the clip, let’s focus on this part: “this instant where God is posing a question, ‘do you want to be one with eternity? Do you want to be in Heaven?’ and we’re all saying, ‘no thank you, not just yet.’” and “Time is a constant saying no to God’s invitation...and actually this is the narrative of everyone’s life...the story of moving from the ‘no’ to the ‘yes’...all of life is like ‘no thank you, no thank you’ and ultimately it’s ‘yes I give in, yes i accept, yes I embrace’ and that’s the journey, everyone gets to the ‘yes’ in the end.”

The way I interpreted this was: okay our life is as long as an instant compared to the Hereafter and we have been given all the resources to get into Heaven (i.e. the sunnah of the Prophet pbuh, the Qur’an, the power of reason) - so why, with the answers right in front of us, are we still following the ways of those who have gone astray and earned Allah’s wrath? Take a second to think about your life and all of the “no thank yous” you’ve “said,” where you’ve chosen temporary worldly pleasures over eternal pleasure. Take a second to try to grasp the meaning of “eternal” can you even wrap your brain around living forever?! subhan’Allah. Let’s look at this excerpt from a SunniPath.com answer:

“A person drowned in desires should reflect upon his condition after he has fulfilled and satisfied his desire. He should ask himself: Have I found the pleasure and comfort I am searching for after fulfilling my desire? It is the Wisdom of Allah Ta'aala that whenever a Muslim fulfils a forbidden desire he feels unhappy, distressed, depressed, miserable and ashamed to such an extent that these feelings compel him to repent. Thus a sinner is afflicted with an unending sadness, misery and disgrace. Ibne Mubarak (RA) has said: ‘I have seen sins deadening the heart. It's addiction causes disgrace. The abandoning of sins is life for the hearts. It is best for you to oppose your nafs.’”

And another huuuge point: Imaam Ghazaali Rahmatullah alaihi writes: "The angels and Ambiyaa alaihimus salaam are such that they never commit any sin. Shaytaan is such that he persists in committing sins. Never does he ever feel ashamed nor does he ever think of discarding sin. The human is such that immediately after committing a sin he feels ashamed and makes a firm determination to discard the sin in the future. From this it is understood that not to repent after committing a sin is the work of Shaytaan." We have to keep on struggling, because this life is temporary - we have to start taking those steps towards saying “yes” to Allah’s question before our lives pass us by.

Salaam!