Salaams! I went to visit my family for some time and of course there was a lot of cooking involved. My beautiful sisters in law are teaching how to cook Moroccan food, from tajines to sweets and salads, and I usually test those recipes with my family when I go back home. This time, we had a big lunch with a sweet tajine(tajine lahlou), involving almonds, dried apricots and prunes...Here is the result! I'll post the recipe later insha Allah. I hope you're all having a good start of the year.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Food!
Salaams! I went to visit my family for some time and of course there was a lot of cooking involved. My beautiful sisters in law are teaching how to cook Moroccan food, from tajines to sweets and salads, and I usually test those recipes with my family when I go back home. This time, we had a big lunch with a sweet tajine(tajine lahlou), involving almonds, dried apricots and prunes...Here is the result! I'll post the recipe later insha Allah. I hope you're all having a good start of the year.
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Celebrating Christmas?
Salam Alaykoum
I guess Christmas is a quite difficult time for converts: should we visit our families, or just ignore the celebrations? How can we avoid haram meat, alcohol, mixing, but without hurting our families? Among the sisters I know, some decide to pay their parents a visit, as a sign of respect, but do not take part in celebrations or religious activities, and some just stay home and try to explain their families that Muslims don't celebrate Christmas and treat this day as any other day. Some will ask: but Jesus(peace be upon him) was a Muslim prophet too after all, so why not celebrate his birth? Well, I wonder how many people honestly believe he was born on Christmas Day: actually, Christmas is originally a pagan festival: Emperor Contantine, upon converting to Christianity, merged polytheist festival and the story of the miraculous birth of Jesus (pbuh), and started the tradition of celebration the Christ's birthday, a celebration that was actually rejected by early Christian scholars and has no basis in the Bible. But anyway, us Muslims don't celebrate prophets' birthdays (and that goes for Muhammad pbuh, too): we follow them. We were taught that we have only two A'yad: 'Aid ul Fitr, at the end of Ramadan, and 'Aid ul Adha, in remembrance of the story of Abraham (pbuh) and his sacrifice.
I actually attended my mother's Christmas dinner last year, because I was a new Muslim and was scared to give a bad impression to my family if I refuse to come, or to hurt them. I did feel quite unconfortable: I barely ate because the Turkey wasn't halal, was branded "rude" because I barely saluted non mahram men ( in my country, we kiss each other to say hello, even people you don't know, which complicates everything)...Not a great evening for me! Although hamdoulilah, my family doesn't actually give any religious significance to Christmas (they are not even Christians), so I didn't feel like I was involved in Shirk. This year, I opted to stay in London, but I'm going over to visit in a couple of days to compensate my absence. And hamdoulillah, I do feel a bit stronger in my Islam for not going, even though it hurts a bit! Anyway, just to say to my convert sisters, it's a tricky time for all of us, it's difficult to take the right decisions without hurting anybody in the process, and it's hard to change our habits and try to become better when your family is against you... May Allah make it easy for us all!
I guess Christmas is a quite difficult time for converts: should we visit our families, or just ignore the celebrations? How can we avoid haram meat, alcohol, mixing, but without hurting our families? Among the sisters I know, some decide to pay their parents a visit, as a sign of respect, but do not take part in celebrations or religious activities, and some just stay home and try to explain their families that Muslims don't celebrate Christmas and treat this day as any other day. Some will ask: but Jesus(peace be upon him) was a Muslim prophet too after all, so why not celebrate his birth? Well, I wonder how many people honestly believe he was born on Christmas Day: actually, Christmas is originally a pagan festival: Emperor Contantine, upon converting to Christianity, merged polytheist festival and the story of the miraculous birth of Jesus (pbuh), and started the tradition of celebration the Christ's birthday, a celebration that was actually rejected by early Christian scholars and has no basis in the Bible. But anyway, us Muslims don't celebrate prophets' birthdays (and that goes for Muhammad pbuh, too): we follow them. We were taught that we have only two A'yad: 'Aid ul Fitr, at the end of Ramadan, and 'Aid ul Adha, in remembrance of the story of Abraham (pbuh) and his sacrifice.
I actually attended my mother's Christmas dinner last year, because I was a new Muslim and was scared to give a bad impression to my family if I refuse to come, or to hurt them. I did feel quite unconfortable: I barely ate because the Turkey wasn't halal, was branded "rude" because I barely saluted non mahram men ( in my country, we kiss each other to say hello, even people you don't know, which complicates everything)...Not a great evening for me! Although hamdoulilah, my family doesn't actually give any religious significance to Christmas (they are not even Christians), so I didn't feel like I was involved in Shirk. This year, I opted to stay in London, but I'm going over to visit in a couple of days to compensate my absence. And hamdoulillah, I do feel a bit stronger in my Islam for not going, even though it hurts a bit! Anyway, just to say to my convert sisters, it's a tricky time for all of us, it's difficult to take the right decisions without hurting anybody in the process, and it's hard to change our habits and try to become better when your family is against you... May Allah make it easy for us all!
Monday, December 21, 2009
A little note about the Niqab controversy in France
Salaam all!
Just wanted to talk about an issue that is really upsetting me at the moment. For a couple of months, French legislators have been trying to ban the niqab, and they are looking at various ways to do so. At first, they called for a ban on security grounds, saying that everybody needs to be identifiable at all times, and used examples of women refusing to remove their niqabs in council houses, airports and other places where identification is necessary. Personally, the sisters I know who wear the niqab generally remove it in such situations, but anyway... The last couple of weeks, they decided to use the "human dignity" card, since the niqab is apparently an insult to human dignity. What if the women wear it by themselves, from their own free will, will you ask? (and it's actually what primary researches found: an important number of niqabi women in France are actually convert and wear it against their family's will). Well, even if they wear it by themselves, they must have been brainwashed somehow, even if they don't realize it, according to French authorities. And that's where I get really upset. Is the French government saying that Saudi women are insulting human dignity by covering up? What about women that are forced into prostitution, or obliged to do lap danced to feed their children? Is that not an insult to human dignity? What about rising number of rapes in France, the paedophile networks that have important connections and never get prosecuted, the terrible treatment of inmates, the blatant racism of many institution? The fact is, it's been a while since France has deserved its title of " country of human rights". France is a country that hasn't apologized for its colonization of North Africa and the death of several millions of people, and still insists on the "positive aspects" of this dark period of French history. Worse, it seems the French establishment still acts as the colonizer, trying to "unveil" French Muslims, in the same way as they unveiled Algerian women on public places 50 years ago. Today I'm ashamed to be citizen of a country where everyday individual freedom is limited, I'm ashamed of the way my country has been acting, both towards its own citizen and towards other countries, joining the US in a war that we originally refused, and ratifying the European treaty when the majority of French citizen voted against it by referendum. Brothers and sisters, please make duahs for French sisters that are living in a quite hostile environment and will surely have more difficult times to come.
Just wanted to talk about an issue that is really upsetting me at the moment. For a couple of months, French legislators have been trying to ban the niqab, and they are looking at various ways to do so. At first, they called for a ban on security grounds, saying that everybody needs to be identifiable at all times, and used examples of women refusing to remove their niqabs in council houses, airports and other places where identification is necessary. Personally, the sisters I know who wear the niqab generally remove it in such situations, but anyway... The last couple of weeks, they decided to use the "human dignity" card, since the niqab is apparently an insult to human dignity. What if the women wear it by themselves, from their own free will, will you ask? (and it's actually what primary researches found: an important number of niqabi women in France are actually convert and wear it against their family's will). Well, even if they wear it by themselves, they must have been brainwashed somehow, even if they don't realize it, according to French authorities. And that's where I get really upset. Is the French government saying that Saudi women are insulting human dignity by covering up? What about women that are forced into prostitution, or obliged to do lap danced to feed their children? Is that not an insult to human dignity? What about rising number of rapes in France, the paedophile networks that have important connections and never get prosecuted, the terrible treatment of inmates, the blatant racism of many institution? The fact is, it's been a while since France has deserved its title of " country of human rights". France is a country that hasn't apologized for its colonization of North Africa and the death of several millions of people, and still insists on the "positive aspects" of this dark period of French history. Worse, it seems the French establishment still acts as the colonizer, trying to "unveil" French Muslims, in the same way as they unveiled Algerian women on public places 50 years ago. Today I'm ashamed to be citizen of a country where everyday individual freedom is limited, I'm ashamed of the way my country has been acting, both towards its own citizen and towards other countries, joining the US in a war that we originally refused, and ratifying the European treaty when the majority of French citizen voted against it by referendum. Brothers and sisters, please make duahs for French sisters that are living in a quite hostile environment and will surely have more difficult times to come.
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Playing around with little glass squares...
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
One of my favourite calligraphers...
Salaams! Just wanted to share with you images from an amazing calligrapher, the one who inspired to take up the qalam, get the ink out and give it a go. Hassan Massoudy is a renowned Iraqi artist, now based in Paris, and who has a very distinctive, colourful style. His work is based on traditional calligraphy techniques, yet it looks very modern. I love how spontaneous his work looks, while so precise and so reflective. He usually uses proverbs and quotes from poems to get his audience thinking... Here are a couple of images of his work, I hope you will love him as much as I do!
Monday, November 30, 2009
Aid Moubarak my brothers and sisters! I hope you all had a fantastic few days and enjoyed the celebrations.
As a convert, and a quite recent one, celebrating Aid feels a bit alien to me. Not that I don't enjoy it and look forward to it, but my childhood memories of celebrations involve christmas trees, sharing a big meal and exchanging gifts with family, and to be honest, celebrating Aid in the UK, without my closest ones, with my husband who misses his country more at than any other time, is something that I felt slightly apprehensive about. Where do we do Qurbani? What sort of sweets I am supposed to cook? What sort of gifts should I buy? What should I wear? Although I fully embrace Islam, and feel at ease with its concepts, I'm still a European at heart, and at times of Aid I realize that there are simply experiences that I might never have. I might never celebrate muslim festivals with my family. I don't have memories of waking up on Aid day with excitement, feeling the magic. Will I be able to make this day special for my children, as Christmas was to me?
Aid day didn't start very well for me this year: it was a weekday, I had a lot to do, didn't know what to prepare, and had to rush to get to the masjid in time to catch the prayer. However, praying with sisters from all countries, all wearing their best clothes, children running around happily, really made my day. Hamdoulillah, I had a glimpse of what Aid is all about: take a break from the mundane life to give thanks and celebrate life, get back in touch with friends, take time to reflect and to relax. And Insha Allah next year I'll celebrate Aid in a muslim country!
That was just my little thought of the day, thanks for reading!
Friday, November 13, 2009
Salaams! I know, it's been a long long while since my last post. Many things have changed! I went back to university to start a research degree, and have been blessed with many opportunities to meet new Muslims. However, I'm still working on calligraphy, art, theatre and whataver creative activities I can get my hands on! At the moment I'm working on a mosaics piece; I got the mosaics bug while working with kids, helping them to decorate mirror frames with the little glass pieces, and I haven't stopped since, although I'm yet to complete a piece. Insha Allah I'll post a picture soon. Mosaics have a long history in the Islamic world, and I have the chance of seeing beautiful pieces in North Africa, where it's used to decorate floors, walls, tables... with colourful geometric shapes.
Here is a pict
ure I took in Walili (also called Volubilis), next to Meknes in Morocco, which is actually a well preserved Roman site (if you go to Morocco, you should definitely check it out!). Muslim countries in general are well known for their art and crafts, and it's really fascinating to see craftsmen carving a table our of wood, and working with iron to create all sorts of objects, reproducing the same gestures as men have for centuries.Actually the more I learn about Islamic art and culture, the more I'm impressed with its variety, depth and level of detail.
I picked those two stories because they are told in very similar ways in both books, which to me highlights their common origin. I'm not sure if it's right to use both quotes from the Bible and the Qur'an side to side though; if somebody has a fatwa please let me know! Khair Insha Allah, for me it was a way of participating in this multi faith debate, and showing the Qur'an as the continuity of all that was revealed to earlier prophets, although al hamdulillah the Qur'an has been preserved in his integrity since it was revealed, which is not the case for the Bible.
Here is a pict
ure I took in Walili (also called Volubilis), next to Meknes in Morocco, which is actually a well preserved Roman site (if you go to Morocco, you should definitely check it out!). Muslim countries in general are well known for their art and crafts, and it's really fascinating to see craftsmen carving a table our of wood, and working with iron to create all sorts of objects, reproducing the same gestures as men have for centuries.On a different subject, I had the opportunity to take part in a multifaith event recently, and it inspired me to make those two calligraphies, inspired by the stories of Musa and Yusuf (alayhim salam) in the Qur'an Kareem and in the Bible.
I picked those two stories because they are told in very similar ways in both books, which to me highlights their common origin. I'm not sure if it's right to use both quotes from the Bible and the Qur'an side to side though; if somebody has a fatwa please let me know! Khair Insha Allah, for me it was a way of participating in this multi faith debate, and showing the Qur'an as the continuity of all that was revealed to earlier prophets, although al hamdulillah the Qur'an has been preserved in his integrity since it was revealed, which is not the case for the Bible.
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