Today people think that women are liberated in the West and that thewomen’s liberation movement began in the 20th century. Actually, thewomen’s liberation movement was not begun by women but was revealed by Godto a man in the seventh century by the name of Muhammad (peace be uponhim), who is known as the last Prophet of Islam. The Qur’an and theTraditions of the Prophet (Hadith or Sunnah) are the sources from whichevery Muslim woman derives her rights and duties.
I. HUMAN RIGHTS
Islam, fourteen centuries ago, made women equally accountable to God inglorifying and worshipping Him – setting no limits on her moral progress. Also, Islam established a woman’s equality in her humanity with men.

In the Qur’an, in the first verse of the chapter entitled “Women,” Godsays, “O mankind! Be careful of your duty to your Lord Who created youfrom a single soul and from it its mate and from them both have spreadabroad a multitude of men and women. Be careful of your duty toward Allahin Whom you claim (your rights) of one another, and towards the wombs (that bore you). Lo! Allah has been a Watcher over you.” (4:1)

Since men and women both came from the same essence, they are equal in their humanity. Women cannot be by nature evil (as some religious believe) or then men would be evil also. Similarly, neither gender can be superior because it would be a contradiction of equality.
II. CIVIL RIGHTS
In Islam, a woman has the basic freedom of choice and expression based on recognition of her individual personality. First, she is free to choose her religion. The Qur’an states: “There is no compulsion in religion. Right has been made distinct from error.” (2:256)

Women are encouraged in Islam to contribute their opinions and ideas. There are many traditions of the Prophet (pbuh) which indicate women would pose questions directly to him and offer their opinions concerning religion, economics and social matters.

A Muslim woman chooses her husband and keeps her name after marriage. A Muslim woman’s testimony is valid in legal disputes. In fact, in areas in which women are more familiar, their evidence is conclusive.
III. SOCIAL RIGHTS
The Prophet (pbuh) said: “Seeking knowledge is a mandate for every Muslim (male and female).” This includes knowledge of the Qur’an and the Hadith as well as other knowledge. Men and women both have the capacity for learning and understanding. Since it is also their obligation to promote good behavior and condemn bad behavior in all spheres of life, Muslim women must acquire the appropriate education to perform this duty in accordance with their own natural talents and interests.

While maintenance of a home, providing support to her husband, and bearing, raising and teaching of children are among the first and very highly regarded roles for a woman, if she has the skills to work outside the home for the good of the community, she may do so as long as her family obligations are met.

Islam recognizes and fosters the natural differences between men and women despite their equality. Some types of work are more suitable for men and other types for women. This in no way diminishes either’s effort nor its benefit. God will reward both sexes equally for the value of their work, though it may not necessarily be the same activity.

Concerning motherhood, the Prophet (pbuh) said: “Heaven lies under the feet of mothers.” This implies that the success of a society can be traced to the mothers that raised it. The first and greatest influence on a person comes from the sense of security, affection, and training received from the mother. Therefore, a woman having children must be educated and conscientious in order to be a skillful parent.
IV. POLITICAL RIGHTS
A right given to Muslim women by God 1400 years ago is the right to vote. On any public matter, a woman may voice her opinion and participate in politics. One example, narrated in the Qur’an (60:12), is that Muhammad (pbuh) is told that when the believing women come to him and swear their allegiance to Islam, he must accept their oath. This established the right of women to select their leader and publicly declare so. Finally, Islam does not forbid a woman from holding important positions in government. Abdur-Rahman Ibn Auf consulted many women before he recommended Uthman Ibn Affan to be the Caliph.
V. ECONOMIC RIGHTS
The Qur’an states: “By the creation of the male and female; Verily, (the ends) ye strive for are diverse.” (92:3-4)

In these verses, God declares that He created men and women to be different, with unique roles, functions and skills. As in society, where there is a division of labor, so too in a family; each member has different responsibilities. Generally, Islam upholds that women are entrusted with the nurturing role, and men, with the guardian role. Therefore, women are given the right of financial support.

The Qur’an states: “Men are the maintainers of women because Allah has made some of them to excel others and because they spend of their wealth (for the support of women).” (4:34)

This guardianship and greater financial responsibility is given to men, requires that they provide women with not only monetary support but also physical protection and kind and respectful treatment.

The Muslim woman has the privilege to earn money, the right to own property, to enter into legal contracts and to manage all of her assets in any way she pleases. She can run her own business and no one has any claim on her earnings including her husband. The Qur’an states:

“And in no wise covet those things in which Allah hath bestowed His gifts more freely on some of you than on others; to men is allotted what they earn, and to women, what they earn; but ask Allah of His bounty, for Allah hath full knowledge of all things.” (4:32)

A woman inherits from her relatives. The Qur’an states: “For men there is a share in what parents and relatives leave, and for women there is a share of what parents and relatives leave, whether it be little or much – an ordained share.” (4:7)
VI. RIGHTS OF A WIFE
The Qur’an states: “And among His signs is that He created for you mates from among yourselves that you may live in tranquillity with them, and He has put love and mercy between you; Verily, in that are signs for people who reflect.” (30:21)

Marriage is therefore not just a physical or emotional necessity, but in fact, a sign from God! It is a relationship of mutual rights and obligations based on divine guidance. God created men and women with complimentary natures, and in the Qur’an, He laid out a system of laws to support harmonious interaction between the sexes.

“…They are your garments and you are their garments.” (2:187)

Clothing provides physical protection and covers the beauty and faults of the body. Likewise, a spouse is viewed this way. Each protects the other and hides the faults and compliments the characteristics of the spouse.

To foster the love and security that comes with marriage, Muslim wives have various rights. The first of the wife’s rights is to receive mahr, a gift from the husband which is part of the marriage contract and required for the legality of the marriage.

The second right of a wife is maintenance. Despite any wealth she may have, her husband is obligated to provide her with food, shelter and clothing. He is not forced, however, to spend beyond his capability and his wife is not entitled to make unreasonable demands. The Qur’an states: “Let the man of means spend according to his means, and the man whose resources are restricted, let him spend according to what Allah has given him. Allah puts no burden on any person beyond what He has given him.” (65:7)

God tells us men are guardians over women and are afforded the leadership in the family. His responsibility for obeying God extends to guiding his family to obey God at all times.

A wife’s rights also extend beyond material needs. She has the right to kind treatment. The Prophet (pbuh) said: “The most perfect believers are the best in conduct. And the best of you are those who are best to their wives.” God tells us He created mates and put love, mercy, and tranquillity between them.

Both men and women have a need for companionship and sexual needs, and marriage is designed to fulfill those needs. For one spouse to deny this satisfaction to the other, temptation exists to seek it elsewhere.
VII. DUTIES OF A WIFE
With rights come responsibilities. Therefore, wives have certain obligations to their husbands. The Qur’an states: “The good women in the absence of their husbands guard their rights as Allah has enjoined upon them to be guarded.” (4:34)

A wife is to keep her husband’s secrets and protect their marital privacy. Issues of intimacy or faults of his that would dishonor him, are not to be shared by the wife, just as he is expected to guard her honor.

A wife must also guard her husband’s property. She must safeguard his home and possessions, to the best of her ability, from theft or damage. She should manage the household affairs wisely so as to prevent loss or waste. She should not allow anyone to enter the house whom her husband dislikes nor incur any expenses of which her husband disapproves.

A Muslim woman must cooperate and coordinate with her husband. There cannot, however, be cooperation with a man who is disobedient to God. She should not fulfill his requests if he wants her to do something unlawful. A husband also should not take advantage of his wife, but be considerate of her needs and happiness.
VIII. CONCLUSION
The Qur’an states: “And it becomes not a believing man or a believing women, when Allah and His Messenger (Muhammad) have decided on an affair (for them), that they should (after that) claim any say in their affair; and whoso is rebellious to Allah and His Messenger, he verily goes astray in error manifest.” (33:36)

The Muslim woman was given a role, duties and rights 1400 years ago that most women do not enjoy today, even in the West. These are from God and are designed to keep balance in society; what may seem unjust or missing in one place is compensated for or explained in another place. Islam is a complete way of life.

– Mary Ali and Anjum Ali

III&E Brochure Series; No. 21
published by The Institute of Islamic Information and Education (III&E)

Missed a few days of writing, been a little busy. We had a dinner party, then yesterday, me, Cookie, and Pistashio all kind of, hehe, slept in.

 Right now I’m watching Banu Lhassan. We got nature videos for them to watch here, so now we have a bunch of books and a few DVDs for them while their here. We just finished a DVD about lions. It made me think a lot about lions, and their status in our eyes, and though the lense of history. Allah’s unlimited intelligence can clearly be seen in the creation of the lion.

For centuries lions have been held sybolically for bravery, valor, strength, and majesty. In some cases, even independence, which is far from the truth.

Unlike many animals, lions are not born with natural instincts to kill or defend themselves. They must learn my observing the older and more experienced lions in their pride. This takes years. Also, even after it learns the proper hunting and defense skills, and is large enough to protect itself, it still cannot survive by itself, all lions need their “pride”. Lions need to colonialize together in order to survive. The adult male, no doubt strong and brave, still needs his lioness’ because they are naturally the better hunters. Also, the lioness’ need the lions to help watch and protect and warn them from any approaching danger while the lioness’ are caring for the pride’s cubs. Then the lioness’ need the other lioness’ because when a mother is hunting, the other lioness’ takes care of the cubs, feeding them and everything, treating the cubs as one of their own. There is no such thing as a lone lion.

A great example of the lions teamwork is how they get food when their prey’s herds are drinking at a water hole.

A male lion walks about in the animal’s (such a zebras or wildebeasts and the like) plain sight, and act as if they are not interesting in attacking them at all. The animals do not see him as a threat, but they all must be alert of him, just in case. While the prey is distracted by the lion ahead, other lions go behind them, and wait until they feel that the prey is most confortable, then, they attack as a group.

No lion can do this by themselves, especially to take down wildebeasts. This is why, when an animal who is usually a meal to lions, is not too alarmed when they spot just one lion in the area, because it knows it will take more then just one lion to take it down.

We will show them Our Signs in the universe, and in their ownselves, until it becomes manifest to them that this (the Qur’ân) is the truth. Is it not sufficient in regard to your Lord that He is a Witness over all things? (Fussilat 41:53)

 Me and Cookie stayed up most the night talking, then Pistashio woke up, then we had a bunch of cereal, then bed, so when I was too tired to wake upfor Sohoor, I lasted the day, Alhadmulillah.

 Watched Ro.Da.Bo’s today. Got paid $108.00, which was a gype because I was supposed to get $180.oo. For a woman who owns a business, she’s pretty greedy. But Alhamdulillah I got paid at all.

I bought some books then gave the rest to Ma. “Everything BUG”, “Endangered Elephants”, The Kid’s Guide to Nature Adventures”, “Winnie the Pooh’s Nature Encyclopedia” and “Smithsonian Extreme Nature”. Thought they’d be cool for Banu Lhassan when they come over to visit. Also I like them too, got some nifty tidbits in them. Like only one species of chrickets can be used to calculate the temperature, called snowy tree chrickets.

Also today we went to the gas station, and it had a sign that they use wind energy to power the little convinient store. Got a little curious, so I looked it up. Pretty cool. I also learned that the UK is the windiest place in Europe, hehe.

1. The wind blows on the blades and makes them turn.
2. The blades turns a shaft inside the nacelle (the box at the top of the turbine)
3. The shaft goes into a gearbox which increases the rotation speed enough for…
4. The generator, which uses magnetic fields to convert the rotational energy into electrical energy.

Cool right? I think it’s cool.

“And among His Signs is this, that He sends the winds as glad tidings, giving you a taste of His Mercy…” (Ar-Rum 30:46)

~ siSoi

For Sahoor LIFE Cereal. I watched the little Bugger today. Then I told his mom that I can’t watch him anymore. He cries. And cries. And cries. AND CRIES. We can’t leave the room or he freaks out, can’t even have anything between you and him without him freaking out.

Then I went to Ro.Da.Bo.’s house and watched them. Gosh! Bo was such a bum today too. Didn’t listen a bit. Then I had to sit in the rain at the park waiting for Ma to pick me up. She forgot so I was there for a whlile.

While I was in the park, these two kids like 10 years old kept riding by on their bikes and staring at me and my scarf. The last time they went by, when they got far enough to where I couldn’t see them, one of them yelled out “MUSLIM!!”. COME ON! Like it’s a diss. Ignorant ding-bats. Yeah this post is a bit of a wimpy rant.

Me and Ma were supposed to go to Ar-Rashid for Iftar and Maghrib, but on the way there she changed her mind and went to International, which, no offense, sucked.

 The seperation was funky. And there is the Pakistani lady and her daughter. They don’t give Salams, and the daughter is always stares at me. We left early, then went to the bookstore and I picked out some kiddie nature books for “Banu Lhassan”. I’m gonna pick them up tomarrow.

 In my spare time I was looking up stuff about honeybees. THEIR SO COOL! At the bottom of this is a little viddie about bees from Harun Yahya. Harun Yahya is a F.R.E.A.K. but his nature videos are cool.

Bees hives are made up of hexagons because they can store the most honey (0.075 per unit). If they were squares, there wouldn’t be gaps, but there wouldn’t be as much storage (only 0.063 per unit), same with triangles, even less, with only 0.48 per unit.  The hexagon has the strongest circumference out of all three shapes.

Also, the bees can make hexagons with very minimal materials needed. Great deal right, minimal supplies, maximum storage.

When the bees are making the hives, they don’t start from the middle and work there way out, as might be expected. Different groups of bees start out in different corners and work their way in meeting in the middle, and even though they all start at different ends, the beehive hexagons still come out perfect, and all the same size. SUBHAN’ALLAH!

The back to back comb cells are angled at 13 degrees. The angles that the hexagon containers are at are perfect for keeping as much honey as it can hold but also as so none of the precious substance falls out. One hexagon unit can hold 6 to 7 grams of honey.

The back to back comb cells are also not lined up exactly. This makes better support and ease for the wax walls. Although the wax cell walls may be only about 0.05mm thick, each cell can support 25 times its own weight.

To produce half a kilo of honey bees have to visit nearly 4 million individual flowers.

On some PBS special they were doing this thing on animal psychology, and they caught a bee that was collecting nectar and  overed the jar so he couldn’t see his surroundings then let him go and see if he could make his way back to the hive. He did. Turns out bees make “mental maps” of the feilds they cover.

And your Lord inspired the bee, saying: “Take you habitations in the mountains and in the trees and in what they erect. “Then, eat of all fruits, and follow the ways of your Lord made easy for you.” There comes forth from their bellies, a drink of varying colour wherein is healing for men. Verily, in this is indeed a sign for people who think. (An-Nahl 16:68-69)

It’s almost Iftar. Cookie and Pistashio are making sambosa’s.

I really like  that rose I put at the top, Mashallah.

Its amazing. Roses have a stong and constant and ever-changing smell.  Even in this day and age scientists can’t develope an exact match of the smell of a rose. In attempts to copy the smell fail, usually the artifical rose scent is way too stong and not pleasent, yet, Allah has created it perfectly, and has guarded the beautiful rose, which has been adored all over the world and were symbols of beauty and love, all throughout history.

In Crete, there are Frescoes which date to c. 1700BC illustrating a rose with five-petalled pink blooms. Discoveries of tombs in Egypt have revealed wreaths made with flowers, with roses among them. The wreath in the tomb of Hawara (discovered by the English archaeologist William Flinders Petrie) dates to about AD 170, and represents the oldest preserved record of a rose species still living.

 Romans fisrt cultivated Rosa gallica, they were used as for crowning bridal couples and used as decoration at banquets.

When Cleopatra invited Mark Antony to her palace, she had the floors covere knee deep in rose petals.

During the fifteenth century, the factions fighting to control England used the rose as a symbol. The white rose represented York, and the red rose symbolised Lancaster. Not surprisingly, the conflict between these factions became known as the War of the Roses.

In the seventeenth century roses were in such high demand that roses and rose water were considered as legal tender. In this capacity they were used as barter in the markets as well as for any payments the common people had to make to royalty. Napoleon’s wife Josephine loved roses so much she established an extensive collection at Chateau de Malmaison, an estate seven miles west of Paris. This garden of more than 250 rose varieties became the setting for Pierre Joseph Redoute’s work as a botanical illustrator and it was here Redoute completed his watercolor collection “Les Rose,” which is still considered one of the finest records of botanical illustration.

William Penn returned to the colonies from England in 1699, he brought with him 18 rose bushes. John Adams was the first to plant roses near the White House.

Long before the coloniests arrived, Native Americans used roses to ornament and for health care. Young braves gathered them for the hair of their brides. They also combined the petals with bear grease to cure mouth soars. Flowers soaked in rainwater bathed soar eyes, and the inner bark of the root was applied to boils.

For 3,000 years  the rose has been known as the queen of all flowers.

 Since I didn’t each much yesterday, last night, after Iftar i took a nap, then because of that I was up all night. I decided that I might as well stayup until Sohoor time so that I could make sure I get a better meal then yesterday.

 So I stayed up, and around 5 I woke up Pistashio and Ma and I started cooking some eggs.

 So this morning I had some eggs, toaster stroodle *yum!*, LIFE cereal and a glass of milk, decent meal right?

 Fajr came in around 5:50 AM so I just stayed up until about 9ish then went back to bed.

 Being that I woke up early and got a decent meal, so I figures that I’d be maintained until Iftar, right? WRONG.  I’ve found myself more hungry then I was yesterday, even though I had had more to eat.

 Cookie said that’s what happens in Ramadhaan, the less you eat, the less your hungry. I guess that’s true, I kind of remember that happening last Ramadhaan.

Last night when I stayed up for Fajr and was searching random things online, like the dead sea scrolls, the concept of orininal sin, and so on.

Here’s the thing that almost made me cry yesterday when I was reading about original sin:

“Adam sinning, his nature became guilty and corrupted, and so came to his children. Thus in him all have sinned. And death is by sin; for death is the wages of sin. Then entered all that misery which is the due desert of sin; temporal, spiritual, eternal death. If Adam had not sinned, he had not died; but a sentence of death was passed, as upon a criminal; it passed through all men, as an infectious disease that none escape. In proof of our union with Adam, and our part in his first transgression, observe, that sin prevailed in the world, for many ages before the giving of the law by Moses. And death reigned in that long time, not only over adults who wilfully sinned, but also over multitudes of infants, which shows that they had fallen in Adam under condemnation, and that the sin of Adam extended to all his posterity. He was a figure or type of Him that was to come as Surety of a new covenant, for all who are related to Him. (Ro 5:15-19)” From biblegatway.com bible commentary.

Then this was interesting. I’m not a Christian, I’m an honoured to be a Muslim, I was reading bits of the bible because some verses confused me, before I reverted to Islam.

In Romans 2:2-6, the bible reads: “But we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such things. And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them which do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God? Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God; Who will render to every man according to his deeds.”

 That doesn’t just sit with me. The Bibles tells me that someone I don’t know sins centuries ago, but when I was a baby, a small helpless baby in the cradle, I inherited his sin.

Moreover, later in the Bible it says that everyone will be judged according to our own sins? Hmm…

Still doesn’t sit with me.

Alhamdulillah Allah has guided me to the Straight Path, and Inshallah He will keep me on this Path.

Say: “Shall I seek a lord other than Allâh, while He is the Lord of all things? No person earns any sin except against himself only, and no bearer of burdens shall bear the burden of another. Then unto your Lord is your return, so He will tell you that wherein you have been differing.” (Al-An’am 6:164)

“Allâh burdens not a person beyond his scope. He gets reward for that good which he has earned, and he is punished for that evil which he has earned. “Our Lord! Punish us not if we forget or fall into error, our Lord! Lay not on us a burden like that which You did lay on those before us (Jews and Christians); our Lord! Put not on us a burden greater than we have strength to bear. Pardon us and grant us Forgiveness. Have mercy on us. You are our Maulâ (Patron, Suppor-ter and Protector, etc.) and give us victory over the disbelieving people.” (Al-Baqarah 2:286)

~ siSoi

  Second day of Ramadhaan. For those who don’t know what Ramadhaan is, here’s Ramadhaan explained, in a nutshell.

For Sohoor I had water and part of a doughnut, I woke up too late so I didn’t have time to eat much.

My ma met this lady on the bus the other day, she was Ethiopian and didn’t know that there were other Muslims in our itty bitty city, so we had her over for Iftar, she’s really nice.

 I walked over to her house so that I could show her the way to our house. She was cute. Inshallah she’s going to start covering Islamically.

For Iftar my sister Cookie prepared chicken  and rice, my mom and my sister Pistashio made these almond finger snacks, and I made these honey roll things.

–

All day I kept thinking of yesterday when I took my two friends to the Masjid. The sister that had given us a ride gave them a long talk about religion, and after she had left my friends said that that lady was pushing them.

What I got from what the sister had said, was that when you’re looking into religion, think about what is true and what is not. Don’t get what your parents told you or what anyone told you, look for it yourself and be very careful about what you get yourself into because you will be held accounted for for what path you chose. She said choose a religion that you can wholeheartedly see yourself living and dying in. Then she went on with her experience with truth searching. I think that is where my friends got offended because she used to be part of the Baptist Church before she found Islam.

 When I’m out with my friends, they are always handing out pamphlets talking about their Baptist Church. So to me, what the sister was telling them was the exact same thing, except she did it by word of mouth.

I hope that what she said got to their head and that they think about her words. I’m going to pray for them this Ramadhaan that they are guided to the right path.

“Those who believe in the Oneness of Allâh, and whose hearts find rest in the remembrance of Allâh, Verily, in the remembrance of Allâh do hearts find rest. “

(Ra’d 13:28) 

~ siSoi

Well what can I say?

I’m siSoi.

In Alaska.

 .ANA MUSLIM.

That’s all that matters.