Vintage Inspired Outfit

(click it so you can admire it with a closer eye)
As I was browsing through the Rebirth of Chic website I came across the GORGEOUS hijab above. howww vintage inspired is it?! Soo I created an outfit for it... Suede flats, canvas hobo (which is actually huge, but I had to resize it to fit), and grey pants are all from Old Navy; shirred sweater top from twelvebytwelve.com; and the pearl bracelet is from perlunapearls.com (super expensive ha, but I had to add it). I think these colors complement eachother well, they remind me of an oyster shell. Which reminds me of a story...

When I used to have days like "OMG why can't I just go out after Maghrib and blah blah" my mom always told me this extended metaphor: first I was to imagine that there is a pearl that has "been around" and is rolling all over the streets, and it's super dirty - if you saw that pearl would you even take a second glance? And then there'd be another pearl that had kept itself safely in it's oyster and was clean - which one would I prefer? Naturally, the clean one. So I think of the oyster as being the limits that I've put on myself - not as my house because it's the 21st century and us Muslimahs have to uphold our Din when it is wrongly slandered about - we have a voice and aren't afraid to use it! But essentially we have set out limits for ourselves as we amalgamate Islamic morals into our modern Western lifestyles, and I believe that is our oyster shell.

Hijab Scene #1

"You dress strange," said a tenth-grade boy with bright blue hair to the new Muslim girl with the headscarf in homeroom, his tongue-rings clicking on the "tr" in "strange."

A Muslim Heroine - The Adventures of Iman

omg this is adorableee! I present to you, the first Muslim girl superhero: Iman.



Iman is a teenage super hero - her super powers? the Qur'an and Hadith. Her main quote is "Islam means peace. Not war" She quotes the Qur'an through out her adventures to help people deal with their problems.

Ahh! What a good role model to girls - shows that they can be smart, beautiful, and athletic as well as still be good muslims. The little girls that I know these days brush off the fact that they're Muslim -they hear so much negativity about it as its constantly being misrepresented in the global media, that they aren't proud to be Muslims - they're more concerned with Hannah Montana, Abercrombie, and Bratz (who by the way spend all day at the mall.. uh atleast Barbie had occupations and aspirations?)

In an interview, Khoreibi said "I especially wanted girls to feel that their religion gives them equality even if their cultures don't"

"Girls have to know that the Qur'an favors them as much as it favors boys. It gives them the chance to be all they can be within an Islamic Framework. They don't have to think I've got to be a different culture or a different religion to be all I can be. You can actually grow up to be an amazing woman-- career-wise, a mom, a very productive person in society-- and be proud of that and still be a Muslim."





huzzah!

Balancing American Youth Culture with Islamic Identity

Part of an interview with Imam Suhaib Webb from an Egypt Today article by Farzina Alam:

As a Western convert to Islam, Webb has found himself in an unusual position: smack in the middle of East and West. Coming to terms with the responsibility such a position holds isn’t always simple. “As Western Muslims, we have a complex when we deal with the tradition. [In the sense that] we are told that traditional Islam is the savior for everything in the West. But I don’t buy that our job as Western Muslims is to synthesize and articulate a Western Islam.

“There’s nothing wrong with that. The Malaysians articulate a Malaysian Islam. The Pakistanis love biryani; the Arabs hate spices and the Africans like a mix. We in the West, because of the society we live in, because of the way our society moves, we cannot just merely regurgitate sixth- or seventh-century texts and try to answer the crisis of humanity. Our job is to fuse both.”

As a convert, knowing what aspects of East and West to adopt or reject is also a challenge. “I have to engage the tradition first, understand it, then what I learn from the teacher, I have to translate into my experience as a Westerner. And I shouldn’t be ashamed of that.

“We have a lot of brothers and sisters who convert to Islam who experience crises in dealing with modernity. What brought sovereignty to women and urbanization is modernity, what brought management — we don’t have any management here — is modernity.

“At the same time spiritually, I have issues with modernity. The absence of God, the absence of a creator. The outcome of modernity was basically Hitler and Mussolini, but we can take just the good. I felt that I didn’t want to lose my identity as a Westerner. I don’t want to start speaking like,” and he adopts a fake Indian accent for a moment, “‘Hello, my name is Suhaib from Oklahoma.’ I meet brothers who go through this crisis. I meet people who don’t want to dress like a Westerner — why not? You’re a Westerner, brother! The Prophet rarely asked people to change their dress or their names unless their names meant something really bad.”

Webb believes converts in the West have not really come to grips with this fusion. “Our job as Western Muslims is to learn our religion well, to have an understanding and articulation that’s balanced within the confines of our environment, because we represent a reservoir of prophetic guidance to the West. And the West represents a reservoir of material guidance for us.” The trick, he believes, is knowing how to fuse the two.

“All of us, whether you like it or not, here [in the East] we are representatives of the West; [over] there, we are representatives of the East. Although I’m definitely not Eastern: My hair is blond, my eyes are blue. But immediately people assume I have experience with the East because I’m Muslim.”

On that note, I was browsing through some of the videos in the “One Nation, Many Voices Online Film Contest” [which Link TV and One Nation held to educate people about the American Muslim experience] and there are a lot of cool ones – check it out at http://www.linktv.org/onenation

There were two videos that I marked as specifically relating to the interview above (even though I'm sure there are more): The first is about snowboarding and how these boarders find it spiritually uplifting – who would’ve thought? I mean isn’t snowboarding all about catching air and trying to defy gravity? Not for all! I think it’s a perfect example of growing up as an American Muslim – maintaining balance between American youth culture and their Islamic identity - so in between all of the snowy-chaos these kids find time to reflect. There is no need to put Orientalist labels on all of us and be like “oh my gosh you’re so exotic” – nah they’re probably out there doing just as many Rippey-flip-Half-Cab-Shifty-Lime-Grabs as the next person.




The second one is called “A Land Called Paradise” it’s self explanatory – Islam stands for diversity, America stands for diversity. <3

Mouna's Story: An Iraqi Girl Struggles to Walk Again

Insh'Allah one day I want to work with Doctors Without Borders - it's a goal I'm working up to. In the mean time, I try to keep posted on what they're doing around the world. This story is about Mouna who lost her legs three years ago in Iraq and is learning to walk again on artificial limbs with the help of MSF surgeons and physiotherapists in Amman, Jordan.












Seeing the excitement on her face as she walks is both an exhilarating and poignant scene. I mean does one even stop to think in between the whining of "I'm too lazy to do that..." of how well-off we are and how ungrateful we can be? If one thing doesn't go as we want, we forget to thank Allah for all of the other blessings he's bestowed on us and instead focus in on this one negative. In fact I constantly have to remind myself of that as well - and that's why it's a good idea to have little iman strengtheners like this.

"Surely with difficulty there is relief" (94.7) Allah isn't going to give you what you can't handle, and if we remain patient throughout these tests our sins will be washed away i'A. I def. feel like little Mouna passed hers, I only wish I could be that patient.

Hints of Yellow - Outfit

okay, so I love winter, but I've noticed that I tend to reach for dark colors during this season... I don't even know why because I mean it's already pretty dull outside. Thus, I incorporated yellow into this outfit, because it's a happy/sunshine-esque color. Sometimes it's hard to wear straight up yellow - however I am a big fan of pops of color so here we are:


mm and I was thinking a yellow handbag if you feel like.. but I couldn't find any that particularly "tickled my fancy" heh. The dress is from express, the hijab from www.thecanadianmuslim.ca, peep toes, bangles, and pants all from banana republic (they have an amazing 70% off sale right now actually so check that out).

Pretty much everything in this outfit was on sale - you love it.