Santa must have truly appreciated this touching letter from a fourth-grade Muslim student, who just wanted to thank St. Nick for "giving everyone presents." There's even an enthusiastic "say hi to Mrs. Clause!"
A Redditor posted the note Wednesday, explaining that his mother taught fourth grade and the letter came from one of her students. The missive struck a chord with Redditors, many of whom recalled celebrating Christmas in school despite the religious backgrounds of different students.
"When I was in school everyone wrote letters to santa. Even the few jewish and muslim kids still celebrated christmas. Wasn't really a religious thing just a get a lot of presents thing," wrote one commenter.
Another wrote:
"Aww man, growing up as a Muslim kid in America is the worst!! I spent years begging my parents for a christmas tree. I even tried to invent a muslim Santa who I named Eid Claus but that didn't fly :("
what can i ask from you you perceive it all yourself
o Lord, lord, lord my lord
O Lord...
Cracks on my forehead scars o lord
repair my fortune, my lord
At your door I bow, I perish, I flourish,
Repair my fortunes, oh my Lord..
whoever has come to your door whoever has come to bow at your feet
Drunk, in a trance, dancing he appeared to everyone...
he had come thirsty and gone with a river full
drenched in the showers of light he swam out...
In the showers of light,
O Lord, lord, lord my lord,
O Lord...
Cracks on my forehead scars o lord Repair my fortunes oh my Lord.. O lord..
whoever has come to your door whoever has come to bow at your feet
Drunk, in a trance, dancing he appeared to everyone...
A fragrance used to come And I used to roam, lost, It was a silken illusion And I used to gape, aghast, When I came to your street I saw the truth... The fragrance lay within me you introduced it to me...
O Lord, lord, lord my lord, O Lord...
Cracks on my forehead scars o lord Repair my fortunes oh my Lord.. O lord..
scattering into pieces I surely know how to (crack and shatter)...
otherwise i can only pray
let me stay at your feet [in prayers] i will not go anywhere now
If you abandon me now I won't be able to recover...
O Lord, lord, lord, my lord, O Lord...
Cracks on my forehead, scars o lord Repair my fortunes, oh my Lord.. O lord..
By raising my head, how many things had I desired How many dreams I saw, what all had I attempted When you came face to face When you came face to face, I wasn't able to look you in the eye With my head bowed, in a blink of an eye, ... With my head bowed, in a blink of an eye... What all did I not receive
O Lord, lord, lord, my lord, O Lord...
My beloved returned home, my beloved returned home...
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
“It is better to sit alone than in company with the bad, and it is better still to sit with the good than alone. It is better to speak to a seeker of knowledge than to remain silent, but silence is better than idle words.” --- Prophet Muhammad
Monday, February 6, 2012
At the time of
Muhammad's birth, women in 7th century Arabia had few if any rights. Even the
right of life could be in question, since it was not uncommon for small girls
to be buried alive during times of scarcity. In the Qur'an, it is said that
on Judgment Day "buried girls" will rise out of their graves and
ask for what crime they were killed. Part of Muhammad's legacy was to end
infanticide and establish explicit rights for women.
Islam teaches that men and women are equal before God.
It grants women divinely sanctioned inheritance, property, social and
marriage rights, including the right to reject the terms of a proposal and to
initiate divorce. The American middle-class trend to include a prenuptial
agreement in the marriage contract is completely acceptable in Islamic law.
In Islam's early period, women were professionals and property owners, as
many are today. Although in some countries today the right of women to
initiate divorce is more difficult than intended, this is a function of
patriarchal legislation and not an expression of Islamic values. Muhammad
himself frequently counseled Muslim men to treat their wives and daughters
well. "You have rights over your women," he is reported to have
said, "and your women have rights over you."
Muhammad was orphaned at an early age. He once
remarked that, "Heaven lies at the feet of mothers." As the father
of four daughters in a society that prized sons, he told other fathers that,
if their daughters spoke well of them on the Day of Judgment, they would enter
paradise.
Beginning from the time of Muhammad's marriage to his
first wife Khadijah, women played an important role in his religious career.
According to Muslim sources, Khadijah was the first person Muhammad spoke to
about his initial, terrifying experience of revelation. She consoled him and
became the first convert to Islam. She remained a confidant and source of
support throughout their entire marriage. Though men commonly took more than
one wife in 7th Century Arabia, Muhammad remained in a monogamous marriage
with Khadijah until her death, when Muhammad was in his fifties.
By then, Muhammad was working to establish a new
community. In that context, over the next 10 years, he married several women.
In some cases, these marriages occurred in order to cement political ties,
according to the custom of the day. In some cases, the marriage provided
physical and economic shelter to the widows of Muslims who had died or who
had been killed in battle, and to the wife of a fallen foe. Of all his
marriages, only one appears to have been controversial, and it was to the
divorced wife of his adopted son.
Only one of his wives had not been previously married.
Her name was Aisha, the daughter of one of his closest companions. Aisha was
betrothed to Muhammad while still a girl, but she remained in her parents'
home for several years until she reached puberty. Years later, when absent
from Medina, Muhammad often recommended that, if religious questions arose,
people should take them to his wife Aisha. After Muhammad's death, Aisha
became a main source of information about Muhammad, and on medicine and
poetry as well.
Aisha's assertion that Muhammad lived the Qur'an
became the basis for Muslims ever since to emulate his example.
Muhammad's daughters also played an important and
influential role, both in his life and in the establishment of Islam. Most
notable was his daughter Fatima, who is still revered by all Muslims,
particularly Shiite Muslims.
Following the Battle of Uhud (625), in which scores of
male combatants died leaving unprotected widows and children, Muhammad and
the Qur'an decreed that, in order to protect the orphans of such families,
men might take up to four wives. The permission itself is surrounded with
language that discourages the very thing it permits, saying that unless a man
can treat several wives equally, he should never enter into multiple
marriages. The usual supposition in the modern monogamous West-that Islam
institutionally encourages lustful arrangements-is rejected by Muslims
themselves as an ill-informed stereotype. At the same time, Muslim feminists
point out that in various cultures at different economic strata the laws of
polygamy have frequently operated to the clear detriment of women. Polygamy
is an uncommon occurrence in the modern Muslim world.
Today, Islamic legal and social systems around the
world approach and fall short of women's rights by varying degrees. Muslims
themselves generally view Islam as progressive in these matters. Many Muslim
feminists hold the view that the problems presently hindering Muslim women
are those that hinder women of all backgrounds worldwide- oppressive cultural
practices, poverty, illiteracy, political repression and patriarchy. There is
a strong, healthy critique of gender oppression among Muslim feminist authors
and activists worldwide.
It would be anachronistic to claim that Muhammad was a
feminist in our modern sense. Yet the same present-day barriers to women's
equality prevailed in 7th century Arabia, and he opposed them. Because in his
own lifetime Muhammad improved women's position in society, many modern
Muslims continue to value his example, which they
cite when pressing for women's rights.
Here you are loving them but they are not loving you, while you believe in the Scripture - all of it. And when they meet you, they say, "We believe." But when they are alone, they bite their fingertips at you in rage. Say, "Die in your rage. Indeed, Allah is Knowing of that within the breasts."
If good touches you, it distresses them; but if harm strikes you, they rejoice at it. And if you are patient and fear Allah , their plot will not harm you at all. Indeed, Allah is encompassing of what they do.
