03.23.07
Why do Birds Fall in Love?
Why is it that men have a double standard when dealing with ex-spouses? Granted they can usually easily remarry them as a cowife but why I don’t get it.
My zoge is out of the country visiting parents and his 2 kids and recently seperated wife. He emails me from her house and says he had to use the internet, which he did and his mom and sister don’t have it at their house so he had to use hers of course. He had mentioned this before he left but said that he would be in the house and she would be at a friends next door as she has friends who are her neighbors.
I guess when push came to shove, she just went in another room while he used the internet so the story goes. She was there in the house but the kids were there so you know and his son is 13 and his nephew 14 were there so it’s okay. This is after he took them all grocery shopping as he said they didn’t have a lot of food in the house. Al hamdulilaah that he bought them groceries but couldn’t he have given her the money or given his son the money and let them shop on their own.
Something just doesn’t sit right with me about this scenario. I’m sure he wouldn’t like me with my ex-husband grocery shopping or using the internet at his house.
So any how – he is out of the country visiting his family and I am here holding down 2 businesses of his and our 5 kids, so I am overworked and stressed and he is being the typical male. I have to manage his business make sure the employees show up, handle irate customers, get kids ready for school, cook dinner, clean, fix and repair computers, handle payroll, check his email and respond to pressing issues.
I’m just exasperated really with him and his islamic adab and had hoped for better and well this is what I get. For some reason I don’t feel jealous, far from it. I just feel a bit perturbed that he would so zealously violate the free mixing standards set out by Allah. I don’t think he intended to do this but it appears a bit flaky and when I ask if he would like to have her back, he doesn’t know?
And as the song goes, ‘ Why do fools fall in love?’ Do you get it?
03.15.07
Cloudy Won’t You Stay Away
It’s been a heck of a month thus far. My husband has been planning his trip to London to see his family and finally bought the ticket today al hamdulilaah. I’m glad he’s getting an opportunity to go and hope that his business doesn’t go under during my management of it while he’s away.
I think he made me real paranoid as he told me that most of his clientele are very anti-muslim and if some of his customers walk in see him and walk out – so Allah knows how they would take to someone clearly Muslim in hijab so I just feel uncomfortable handling the reigns but inshallah things will go well.
My kids are getting better it seems. They are more manageable and they are starting to learn this deen. I gave two of them and islamic quiz and they knew the answers to almost everything I asked al hamdulilaah so they are retaining what they learned.
My 4 year old has a new thing she picked up around the way it’s called:
“Talk to the hand” and she places her hand up in front of you. This is done when you are saying something she doesn’t want to hear or have time for. She’ll just put her hand up in a stop signal fashion and advise you to talk to the hand. Such precious rudeness I was quite taken aback!!
Little gems like this come flowing from her mouth like water out of a faucet. I still haven’t made it home to see my family as I was sick the last time I planned to go, then my mom got out of dodge with a quick trip to Florida for sun and no stress.
She planned and went the same week I was planning on going to see her.
I would like to move from my current locale because I just can’t take it any more. The friendliest people are the Wal-Mart cashiers! Wal-Mart staff are the only people I see regularly – perhaps I should buy stock in Wal-Mart.
For Muslims trying to save money I recommend Amana Mutual Funds by Saturna Capital. I moved my IRA there that my previous employer had given me and al hamdulilaah the money is gaining strength after strength. It is a good mechanism to save money for hajj, hijrah, or just general family savings.
I’m falling asleep on the keyboard so I will sign off for now.
03.10.07
Call Upon Allah, And He will respond to you
Ibraaheem Ibn Adham (d.160H) – rahimahullaah – said, when he was asked about the verse:
“Call upon Me, and I will respond to you.” [Sooratul Ghaafir 40:60]
“They said: We call upon Allaah, but He does not answer us.” So he said:
“You know Allaah; yet you do not obey Him. You recite the Qur`aan; yet you do not act according to it. You know Shaytaan; yet you continue agreeing with him. You claim to love the Messenger of Allaah (sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam); yet you abandon his Sunnah (guidance and way). You claim to love Paradise; yet you do not work for it. You claim to fear the Fire; yet you do not stop sinning. You say: ‘Indeed death is true’; yet you have not prepared for it. You busy yourself with the faults of others; yet you do not look at your own faults. You eat the sustenance that Allaah provides for you; yet you are not grateful to Him. And you bury your dead; yet you have not heeded its lesson.” It was related by al-Haafidh Ibn Rajab in al-Khshoo’ fis Salaah (p. 62)
Shaykh ‘Alee Hasan al-Halabee said:
“So keep in mind the point of death, and of one’s passing on to the next life, and the number of sins that one has committed and the small amount of good that one has done. Think of the good that you would earnestly like to do at that time – then bring that forward and do it today. And think of all those things which you would desire to clear yourself of – then clear yourself from them now.”
We Were Not Created in Vain
According to Abdallaah bin Bakr bin Habeeb al-Sahmee: We were told by a man in the mosque of al-Junaabidh that `Umar bin `Abd al-`Azeez delivered a sermon to the people in Khunaasirah in which he said:
O people, you were not created in vain, nor will you be left to yourselves [See 75:36]. Rather, you will return to a place in which Allaah will descend in order to judge among you and distinguish between you. Destitute and lost are those who forsake the all- encompassing mercy of Allaah, and they will be excluded from Paradise, the borders of which are as wide as the heavens and the earth. Don’t you know that protection, tomorrow, will be limited to those who feared Allaah [today], and to those who sold something ephemeral for something permanent, something small for something great, and fear for protection? Don’t you realize that you are the descendants of those who have perished, that those who remain will take their place after you, and that this will continue until you are all returned to Allaah? Every day you dispatch to Allaah, at all times of the day, someone who has died, his term having come to an end. You bury him in a crack in the earth and then leave him without a pillow or a bed. He has parted from his loved ones, severed his connections with the living, and taken up residence in the earth, whereupon he comes face to face with the accounting. He is mortgaged to his deeds: He needs his accomplishments, but not the material things he left on earth.
Therefore, fear Allaah before death descends and it’s appointed times expire. I swear by Allaah that I say those words to you knowing that I myself have committed more sins than any of you; I therefore ask Allaah for forgiveness and I repent. Whenever we learn that one of you needs something, I try to satisfy his need to the extent that I am able. Whenever I can provide satisfaction to one of you out of my possessions, I seek to treat him as my equal and my relative, so that my life and his life are of equal value. I swear by Allaah that had I wanted something else, namely, affluence, then it would have been easy for me to utter the word, aware as I am of the means for obtaining this. But Allaah has issued in an eloquent Book and a just example (sunnah) by means of which He guides us to obedience and proscribes disobedience. He lifted up the edge of his robe and began to cry and sob, causing the people around him to break into tears. Then he stepped down. That was the last sermon he gave before he died, may Allaah have mercy on him.
For variant versions of this sermon, see Ibn `Abd al-Hakam, Seerah 43-45, 132-33; Ibn Katheer, Bidaayah, IX, 199; This translation was taken from The History of al-Tabaree, Vol XXIV, by D.S.Powers/
In the same book, it is also related that, According to `Abdallaah – his father – al-Fudayl – `Abdallaah: I was told that `Umar bin `Abd al-Azeez wrote to the Syrian army as follows:
“As-salaamu `alaikum wa rahmatullaah. Now then, whoever contemplates death frequently speaks little, while he who knows that death is certain is satisfied with a little. Farewell.”
My Comments: Such a beautiful heart softening reminder for us all. I think of all the things I complain about and get stressed over when the biggest thing to remember is that we will die and it is our deeds that will be reckoned with at that time.
What have I sent forward for tomorrow? What have I sent forward for that Day?
03.09.07
Bank of America filth
Well today is another day of woe be me at my lovely riba bank of america!
I am searching for a new bank as I am tired of the customer disservice. I’m not looking for great interest rates or loan products, just someone who can receive my deposits with a smile and give me access to the money the next day so I can write checks as need be. Unfortunately that Bank of America is totally callous, cold and uncaring. Truth that I am not the only one can be read at a website called www.bankofamericasucks.com ! Now this site gave me much a great laugh – the comments and insights from the BOA dissatisfied customers and even the BOA employees who come on board to defend their company from it’s not so customer friendly business practices.
This bank if messing up our company’s payroll. We make a deposit to cover payroll which must be done this week. Never in the past have they put a hold but this particular day my husband did the deposit and maybe his Taliban looks made them think ole lets hold off on releasing the funds on this one. So we have to wait 7 days to clear as opposed to one day. I go in the next day to talk to the branch manager and they refuse to budge. Our employees want their money, they are broke and we only pay once a month as it is so I have to finagle all these different accounts, and pull money from out of the sky, and hope our current customers pay us in cash so we can deposit money before payday tomorrow.
Then I go searching online for a new bank. I type in the bank name and then complaints in Google and most come up with pages and pages of complaints of customer disservice. I keep looking at these voucher checks that I just bought and thinking how I won’t be able to use them at the new bank and convincing myself to somehow stay there until my checks are used. But with less that 10 employees and a monthly payday it will be a year before these checks are used. I also am forced to go in there and deposit the daily cash receipts for the business so even if I get a new bank the old Bank of America will still have to be used.
I’ve never felt hatred for a bank before this week and I wish it wasn’t like this but they keep doing things like this and I know they wouldn’t care if 100 million people withdrew their money, so my taking my little pennies out won’t affect them one iota.