August 2011

Monthly Archive

August 26, 2011

Thoughts On My Son’s Memorisation of the Qur’an

Posted by Admin under Life
[21] Comments 

Bismillahi ma sha Allah, on this blessed 27th of Ramadhan, my son Eesa, 10, has finally completed his hifdh of the Qur’an. Allahu Akbar. =)

 

Alhamdulillah, and again Alhamdulillah – both Umm Eesa and myself cannot praise our Lord enough for His immeasurable bounties and mercy.  How He has favoured us in so many ways is quite simply breathtaking. Alhamdulillah, and again Alhamdulillah.

After the permission and tawfeeq of Allah ‘azza wa jall, this is the culmination of many years of really hard work and sacrifice on behalf of my wife, myself and of course Eesa himself. This is no doubt only the beginning of a long road that all of us should be wanting to set out upon, but to finally reach Stage One in what we hope to be many stages on the way to creating real authentic scholarship and leaders for the Muslims in the West in sha Allah, one cannot but feel so relieved and happy especially at such a blessed, beautiful time of the year. Alhamdulillah.

We wanted to share this wonderful news with our friends and family for two main reasons

1. Because I trust that the very first statement that will fall from the lips of you Islamically educated and upright individuals will be “ma sha Allah, laa quwwata illa billah.” (thus protecting my family from any dodgy nazar bakwas!) and that the second statement will be a du‘a from you blessed people which we are truly and sincerely SO dependent upon, always and forever.

2. Because there is a real need for the Muslims to take their children’s Islamic upbringing very seriously; news such as this should be used to encourage and inspire us all to set out and complete this same objective as easily and successfully as possible. In fact, despite the obvious “nazar” doubts I see this as obligatory upon myself to share such news as my own senior Mashayikh advised me. It IS possible, it IS your priority for your children, and IT is the best thing you’ll ever commit serious time to.

I don’t have the time to write in depth about some of the key things we did, our tips and tricks and the like – note that I’m a huge believer in the principle of “different strokes for different folks” – what worked for us might not work for others, or even be applicable. I do actually intend perhaps on teaching a family seminar and maybe also bringing this to a weekly class as well in Manchester for 2012 where I’ll go into proper detail along with scriptural evidences etc in sha Allah.

But for now at the very least, you should know:

- if your child doesn’t love to memorise and you don’t create an atmosphere of the same, then this will be very difficult. Sure, taking a hard-line approach, hardcore punishment and (light) beats etc is a tried and tested method which might work now but it’ll come back to sting you on the backside later when they show no interest for the meaning of the Qur’an or even wanting to study it. And anyway, there are enough things you can withdraw from a kid’s life these days which hurt much more than a slap – there is somebenefit in the Premier League after all… =)

- this whole Qur’an memorisation game takes up so much time from both parents so be ready for that, but don’t run away from it. You and your child will suffer if you just delegate your child’s education to some next Maulvi as I mentioned in my lecture called “The Absent Father” (see the Prophetic Guidance site for that).

- the most important person in this whole equation – even more than the child – is the mother. I have said many times before to you that the most important education you give is to our women, because they are the ones who hand-rear and build the next leaders of the world. That’s not some Hollywood movie rhetoric by the way – I am fully committed to making my children the greatest thing this world has seen since slic…Haagen Dazs Strawberry Cheesecake Ice-Cream in sha Allah. =)

And I recognise that your wife will play at least a 70% winning role in that effort. You simply cannot invest enough into looking after your wife, supporting her, educating her, and loving her all the way throughout. She not only has to be the engine for this process, but then she has to be the daily role-model and yet at the same time put up with a lot of disrespect and disappointment and anger from the kids which they will never dare display to their father. It’s a thankless job for many years but that’s why a righteous woman is the very best provision a man can ever receive, because it is her faith, righteousness and love in Allah jalla wa ‘ala that keeps her going along this very long and tiring path.

- We live in a new age. I seriously fear that even less people will be memorising our texts in the future despite our numbers swelling like crazy over the next 50 years. Firstly, there are just FAR too many distractions as well as secondly, there are too many new tools that will allow one to get away with not having to memorise anything. I tell my students that a set of glasses will be available soon that one can wear and they will have the entire Qur’an displayed in front of your eyes – being an Imam will become a piece of cake! I saw an NEC prototype with other material 2 years ago so just wait for that one to be released and then you’ll realise what I’m talking about.

So these two realities of our new styled life (not just in the West but everywhere) means that we have to be dynamic when it comes to our approach to this challenge. In my personal opinion that means embracing technology and the razzmatazz of this new life, and not trying to fight it – ipods, the internet, MP3 players, and other trials in normal society such as Sony Playstations, Ben-10, Ronaldo & Messi and the Transformers. These have to be part of the solution, and not just seen as the problem. We’ve personally been able to use all of the above to get the first part of the job done and we will be very dependent on them to maintain our progress and move through to the next stages of consolidation of the hifdh, the adding of qira’at, memorisation of tafsir and hadith etc.

This is controversial I accept, but for me it’s a Yankee no-brainer.

- further to the above, be prepared to seriously dig deep into those pockets. You will definitely have to come good for all the promises and carrots you dangled in front of your kids otherwise they’ll never trust you ever again. I wince when I look at what I’ve had to pay and what I will be paying soon to keep this up from machines, to games, to outings to arcade chairs to all kinds of bakwas. But it is worth it. Believe me, it is worth it. Just sitting with my kid and discussing tafsir and the grammar of the Qur’an during our recitals has shown me that and you definitely need to 100% believe me in that too so that you aim for the same kind of satisfaction ma sha Allah.

Note that I’ve been able to lessen this financial burden by being pretty frugal and keeping the kids away from such delights above for many years – they never had anything electrical or game machines etc all their lives, and thus to be given them as a prize and carrot makes their value even more great to them. But if you have this approach where you shower your kids every year with gifts and top-end stuff, or when they get good Secular grades or you celebrate birthday bakwas etc and the like, then expect a real hard slog to really motivate your children when it comes to Deen. Just sayin’ ya’ni.

Oh and prepare yourself to have regular kick-offs with your Dentist. Your kids teeth are going to get battered with all the chocolate bribes. Have you ever tried getting a kid to memorise a page for an apple?!

- the final point for now is specifically aimed at those writers/activists/public people/scholars/da’ees etc who do such good in the community but don’t invest the same time in their children. I’m not here to judge but I will say that I hope you don’t come to a day when you look back and regret the hundreds of hours spent on the da‘wah and then didn’t get at least the same results from those whom you are obligated to care for. People often find it insulting when I have a dismissive attitude to giving lectures and accepting invitations – I don’t really mind people getting offended by that to be honest. My skin is far too thick for that, perhaps my brain as well. But I learnt my lesson early on many years ago and I’ve done my fair share on that scene – there’s now plenty of speakers and lecturers around at the moment who love doing that so good luck to them. I don’t want to have that problem again myself, so I’ll just take it easy and focus on what I feel the priorities are – if that means I accept some, reject some, ignore some, then so be it. It’s about balance. We HAVE to teach and educate the people and give quality da‘wah but lets not go to any extremes. And I advise those of you with children to be that ruthless as well, if not more so.

There’s so much more that can be said about all of this but I just want to focus on this time of ‘ibadah and thanking Allah jalla wa ‘ala for his infinite bounties and blessings.

I also wanted to thank all of the hundreds perhaps thousands of people I come across in real life as well as online who make du‘a for me and my family. May Allah bless you all and give you the very best in this life and the next. Many of you know that I have a slogan which I say often: “please pray for me because we are completely dependent upon it”. See, I’ve learnt a long time ago the amazing power of du‘a. Really. I mean it.

And I guess well now you know that we truly and sincerely are grateful for those supplications, and these blessings above are partly in response to your wonderful empathy and generosity, so long may it continue! We are dependent upon it. =)

Eesa’s feat isn’t amazing by any stretch of the imagination because we’ve seen enough Youtube videos showing amazing miracle kids and the like, but this message is a reminder to you on what can be achieved, and it is also a reminder to myself on how important it is to be keep going and make something from this and to not just rest on our laurels so as to humiliate myself and my family. This will be good motivation for me!

Having said the above, well done Eesa. You did great son – may Allah jalla wa ‘alaincrease you in good, and make you a million times the man your father could ever possibly have been (which won’t be difficult lol!) and that you become a credit to this mighty nation of the followers of Sayyidina Muhammad (sallallahu ‘alayhi wa sallam). Ameen!

=)

AE


 

August 20, 2011

In Praise of Traditional Women

Posted by Admin under Life
[16] Comments 

In Praise of Traditional Women

By Henry Makow (Revised from Jan. 2004)

__________________________

I am grateful that I married a traditional woman.

I don’t sacrifice any freedom for love. I am in charge. My wife is comfortable with that. I am twice as free as when I was single.

My wife is passive by nature. Passivity is the natural female principle. The marriage of active (male) and passive (female) is the basis of heterosexuality.

But it is heresy to say so.

Women are actually ashamed to want to be homemakers. How did this happen? How did motherhood go from being honored to being stigmatized? This change in attitude is the trajectory of Illuminist subversion of America. Obviously, the Illuminists prefer women to be corporate widgets rather than wives and mothers.
.
A woman needs a man to love her. The notion that she should be “independent” and career oriented is absurd. As if pounding a mail route is superior to making a home and caring for loved ones. As if obeying a boss is superior to assisting the man she chose to love and marry.

There is no greater blessing than a woman whose grace, beauty and love warms a home like sunshine. There is no greater gift than the precious love she gives husband and children.
THE PASSIVE (FEMALE) PRINCIPLE

The passive principle is the earth principle. The earth receives sunshine, water and seed and produces life. A woman receives a man’s love and seed and performs the miracle of giving birth to a human being.

A healthy woman in love wants to recreate her husband in her children.

Carrying and nurturing the young is the essence of female psychology. The denial of this reveals the Illuminists’ desire to override nature and control all human life.

Being a wife and mother is what makes a woman tick. She needs to be intensely needed and loved by her husband and children.

These roles are passive by nature. They involve a great deal of adaptation and self sacrifice. But they also require that she is not taken for granted. A wife and mother must be cherished and honored for her priceless contribution.

A woman is not going to be loved permanently for her appearance which is transitory, or for her accomplishments. Love is not like that. We love the people who sacrifice for us.

Men also sacrifice by supporting their families and providing leadership and love. Happiness can only be found in love, not self-seeking. Love is self-sacrifice. Human beings were designed to look after each other.

In contrast, Illuminism sees “freedom” as self indulgence. This is not the “truth that will make you free.”

The model I am describing used to be second nature. It has become esoteric knowledge. It is not for everyone. I offer it to those looking for an alternative to feminist dysfunction. You will find your own balance.

Marriage is under constant assault. This formula has worked for centuries and still works today.

THE ACTIVE (MALE) PRINCIPLE

The Male Principle is the God Principle – energy, form and direction.

Women want to look up to their husbands. They tend to seek men who are older and more successful. Why? They want their husband to be like their father was (or should have been), strong, capable, reliable, protective and nurturing.

More than anything, they are seeking emotional and physical security. They feel most secure when they feel possessed by a strong, loving man.

A man should prepare himself for this role. He should have a clear vision of what he wants to do with his life. If he is lost, he might ask God how he can serve Him. What was I born to do?

A man’s work should be his first priority and source of challenge and self-confidence. In contrast, a woman was not designed to get meaning from career. For her, career is secondary to being loved and needed.

Despite what feminists say, a man should never show weakness. The essence of masculinity is power. If he is weak, he loses a woman’s respect. If he lacks confidence, he should gain it by setting goals and achieving them.

A man should never think of any woman as a sine qua non. That puts him in a position of weakness. (She has to pass your test, not vice-versa.)

A man should never succumb to emotional blackmail. If a woman is withholding love or sulking, he should give her time to get over it.

A man should know what role he wants his wife to play. A man usually chooses on the basis of sexual attraction. What else does he want? I appreciate my wife’s reasonableness, intelligence, competence, and sense of humor. Think of the long haul. You need someone who is easy to live with.

Most women were meant to be wives and mothers. A man should think about becoming a father and the responsibility this entails. He is not only providing for his offspring, but also teaching them how to be human beings. He is creating a new world, a family.

A man will not care about something that doesn’t belong to him. He should find a woman who is prepared to surrender power in exchange for love. A creature with two heads is a monster. A family with two heads will go in two directions. The man is the head; the woman is the heart.

Marriage is about dependence, not independence. It is about union, two people becoming one. For women, surrender of power is the essence of love. If a woman can’t trust a man with her life, she doesn’t love him and shouldn’t marry him.

Marriage is about possession and being possessed, which most men and women crave. A successful union is the only thing that satisfies the spiritual hunger underlying the sex drive, and prevents wander lust.

The heterosexual contract is this. The husband has the power and he does his best within reason to make his wife happy. A man cannot love a woman if he doesn’t have the power to grant her wishes.

But a man must keep his end of the contract, or the marriage is off. He must be loyal, and show every day how much he appreciates her.
CUTTING THROUGH THE FOG: THE STALINIZATION OF LOVE

The vast majority of people find their identity and values in family. Destroy the family and the state is in control.

Incredible as it sounds, the Illuminists are building a world police state. The international bankers finagled the right to create money out of nothing and collect interest on it. They need a police state to protect this racket and make sure no country defaults. They own the mass media, politicians, and dominate big business.

Feminism is the cover for a sophisticated illuminist propaganda program. We have been brainwashed.

Nobody has a problem with treating women as equal to men. Feminism treats women as though they were men. It portrays heterosexuality as pathology and discriminates against men. Women are favored for jobs so they will have careers instead of children and men can’t support their families.

Society is being sabotaged. Alas, this is what the “war on terror” is really about, enslaving the world, not protecting it.

Bella Dodd, a former leader of the American Communist Party revealed: “The bourgeois family as a social unit was to be made obsolete.” The aim was to “create a new type of human being that would conform to the world they confidently expected to control.”

The bankers use Communism is to overthrow the Christian foundations of Western civilization and put themselves in charge. This is the true meaning of revolution.

The Rockefeller Foundation funds feminism. I searched RF and “Women’s Studies” in Google and got 137,000 entries. They have funded population control and eugenics research for decades, here, in the USSR and in Nazi Germany.

With women usurping the male role, we are becoming a homosexual society. There is a difference between accepting homosexuals as human beings, which I do, and allowing society as a whole to become homosexual.

Sound extreme? Consider this.

Homosexuality is the inability to form a permanent bond with a member of the opposite sex. It is commonly characterized by an obsession with sex and promiscuity. Sex becomes a surrogate for love. Doesn’t this describe society today?

Homosexuals generally have sex but no families or children. The bankers want us to have fewer children, and indeed the birth rate has plummeted since the 1960′s.

The Illuminists aren’t afraid of gays, single mothers or children. They are afraid of proud strong men who have families to protect. This is behind the degradation of men.

An ad for Swanson’s TV Dinners goes like this. Working mom asked for a big bowl she can eat on the run. Swanson responded. Kids wanted something for after school. Swanson responded. “Dad wanted to wear mom’s frilly under things!” Picture father with a goofy smile. “We didn’t know how to respond.” This is an example of the ongoing corporate attack on masculinity. The Whiskas cat food ads are another. They would never portray women as cats.

“First You Get the Women, Then You’ve Got the Children, So Follow the Men” -Adolph Hitler
CONCLUSION

We can fight the New World Order by having strong male-led families.

After many marital mishaps, I now have a frictionless marriage. My wife and I complement each other. She doesn’t compete, criticize, complain or try to control, the four C’s. She tells me if something is wrong. I try to make her happy. She’s part of me.

Because of her passive nature, I don’t feel like I must constantly anticipate and meet her expectations. Rather she allows me to propose. Usually, she assents. When she doesn’t, we compromise. Her acquiescence empowers and completes me.

I love her. She commits the unpardonable crime. She is good to a man.

 

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 182 other followers