I love my prayer rug, have I mentioned that before?

sometimes I lay down on it for power naps, but then the tile floor is so hard that I can't stay there very long.

still, love it.

When I mention the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) in conversation, sometimes instead of saying "Sala Allahu 'alaihi wa sallam", my hands, of their own volition, want to make the sign of the cross

now i KNOW that's probably fairly blasphemous, but it just takes so freaking long to SAY "Sal Allahu 'alaihi wa sallam", and if Muslims only had something like that which could be communicated in sign language, I wouldn't have to chop up my thoughts and sentences with long.... whatever-you-call-ems

what DO you call those?


Neways.... what if instead we just like... gave a thumbs up.

Like, the Prophet Muhammad (thumbs up, yeah!)


... ok, no that doesn't work at all. Even I think that that's wrong and sorta disrespectful.

But there's gotta be sooomething

You know you're officially Muslim when google ads starts targeting you with things like a link to a random website entitled "99 Names of Allah"

So the masjid I go to tends to be filled with older folk more so than younger types. Particularly on Sunday's for Duhr when I'm still around following a random class that the masjid offers.

Anyways, Duhr rolled around and the Imam wasn't there, so one of the older guys in my class made the call to prayer and then lead the twenty or so of us in prayer.

Poor guy probably had a bad back... or... he was just old... so whenever he prostrated himself he'd be like "Allaaa--argh--hu akbar".

Rarely have I smiled so much through four raka'ats of prayer.

Do Not break your fast with Mexican, Desi, or Fast Food---it only ends bad for you, your stomach, and the amount of nutrients you get to carry into the following day.


I went to a delicious mexican place with old friends from HS. They were hungry so they went to the restaurant early for some chips and appetizers and I found a park nearby to pray Asr, chill around, and then Maghrib after sunset.

First of all, my preferred sort of park to pray in are the seedy sort of sketchy ones with homeless people hanging out, because when you start whispering to yourself in a language no one understands, and then proceed to prostrate yourself on the grass repeatedly, people just assume you're another crazy in the park.

On the occasions where I have prayed at well-to-do family oriented parks, I worry that I'm making parents fear for their children's safety. Or at the least, I feel judged rather than accepted as yet another public park weirdo.

Most of this is in my mind though.

Neways, I picked up some saltines and water to break my fast on my way to rendezvous with my friends at the mexican restaurant.

Upon my arrival, my friend Lucy cheerfully noted that given my recent disinclination to eating for most of the day, my increasingly slight figure, and, when I do eat, my apparent predisposition for saltine crackers and water, my conversion to Islam during Ramadan means that I have somehow also inadvertently adopted the dietary habits of a fashion model.

The mexican food was delicious, and I am to this very hour (only one and a half hours till fajr) paying the price for my decision to eat there.

Ramadan

regret is the half piece of toast leftover because you started your suhur meal too close to fajr time.

Good Muslim #1: "It's amazing man. Even though I sleep and eat less during Ramadan, I find I just have so much energy during the day."

Good Muslim #2: "A lot of people don't realize how spiritual self-deprivation can be."

Brian: "Orrr... you could eat all night and wake up every day at 1pm!!"
Faisal: (high fives Brian)

now that I've taken my shahada, I finally had the courage to ask a question about Islam that's been plaguing me for almost a year.

So, in the privacy of his car, I ask my good friend Faisal: "So, I've always wondered... Muslims are... supposed to use water in the bathroom after... afterwards... so... what do you do when there's no... bidet."

Faisal says to me, "Well...... first of all, I'm glad you feel comfortable asking me about things like this... Ok, did you see that watering can beside the toilet? Yeah, that's not just for watering flowers, it's also for watering your butt."

And I go "uh... huuh......"

And Faisal says, "yeah... it's frequently led to odd looks and awkward conversations. Mainly in the dorms."

(at which point I imagined all of Faisal's perplexed floormates staring after him as he carries his watering can with him to the bathroom on a daily basis)


Neways, I've figured out I'm going to have to find a teacher, like an Imam to learn 'ibaadat the right way, like what sort of rules apply to keep prayer valid, and all those other nuts and bolts sorta aspects to Islam.

I tried using Faisal's watering can this morning for the first time. It was extremely awkward trying to maneuver a watering can between myself and the back of the toilet. And I thought: I wonder if the Imam will be able to teach me how to do this, or if I'm on my own for this one.

I took my shahada today. I actually flew all the way back to the bay area to do it with two of my closest muslim friends, and an old professor friend who was the khateeb at UC Berkeley's Jumaa gathering today. I also wanted to be in the community where I first got to know Islam and Muslims as a living religion with real life practitioners (as opposed to a thing of history books). To my surprise, even after all these years away from berkeley (and really I was not closely tied to MSA circles at all my last few years in college) there were a number of people whom I knew from the good old days, and just having them in the audience made it... mean so much more.

Neways, some notes: it was interesting to have so private an experience be so openly public---committing to God and Islam as a formality is of course a reflection of a deeper resolution said in the deepest recesses of one's heart and soul, but doing so only has social meaning in a public space, and I think that's probably very necessary for most people, myself included, because no matter how private faith is, there is inevitably if not necessarily a public and social dimension to it, and why shouldn't there be when so many of the things laid out by Islam are social/public AND, more importantly in my mind, when dedicating our public and social selves publicly and openly is just another way or another dimension in which to strengthen the commitments we swear into inviolable sacredness. In this sense I feel like... maybe this is what marriage vows are like, and I conceptualize of their social and public significance very similarly.

On a funny note, so, my two Muslim friends were with me the whole day, but we broke fast with a bunch of my other friends, mostly non-muslim, and just chilled out into the evening. first just random goofing around, talking, etc. Eventually the non-muslim ppl are sorta like "well, this is nice but we're ready to go.... unless people want to go have a beer first and then go". So I'm like, yeah sure, I could use dinner #2.

When the server comes to take our order, she asks if we're all of age, and someone is like "yeah! Actually we're here to celebrate our friend's 21st birthday" (and he points at me). Which already I'm like, man, I know it doesn't matter but I always feel bad for being implicated in lying to the poor servers at times like this, but then she goes "oh really! Well, can I get a beer for you?" with a big "it's on the house" sort of friendly smile. And so for WHATEVER reason, I'm like, "uhhhh, actually... I just converted to Islam, and that's what we're all here to celebrate... so... I can't really have a beer... you see...." and then she sorta has a glazed look in her eyes like she just hears "blah blah blah, no thanks".

ppl definitely laughed at me. my two muslim friends were like "haaaaa!!! you sounded hellla lame man"


And as the penultimate modern parallel to the shahada, I simultaneously took the momentous step of changing the status of my religious views from blank to "muslim" on facebook.

lactose intolerance combined with a love of yogurt = breaks your wudu'




sorry, was that tmi?


or maybe not clear enough


I either have to rush to my prayer mat as soon as I make wudu' or just avoid praying for that hour while i digest.

Addendum to previous post:

Relief from temptation is realizing that the rice krispie treat has gelatin in it and is thus haraam to eat anyways.

Ramadan


Temptation is the little rice krispies treat you carry with you in your pocket all day because you had to make change for the bus at some corner market.

I have become addicted to dates for ifTar.

dates are sunnah

addiction is not sunnah.

Ramadan Mubarak!

day 1 of fasting: food will never have tasted so good as it will after this sunset.


from last Jumaa's khutba at the local masjid, talking about the difference between following the spirit of Ramadan as opposed to just meeting the required obligations of Ramadan:

"Like, folks, if you break your fast with McDonalds, like you have a happy meal for ifTar... that's not really the Sunnah of our Prophet Muhammad (pbuh)"

plus that's just gross: I wait all day for one meal and it ends up being mcdonalds. ick.