This video is truly hilarious and probably has nothing to do with the title of the post, but Hajjaj conveys, to some extent of course, the fake open-mindedness some of us expatriates claim to have adopted far away from home.
Of course I am all for standing for one’s principles and beliefs, but there are people who manage to simultaneously live in both sides of the fence and who eventually appear as hypocrites.
It kind of reminds me of those people who have no problem committing the seven sins [السبعة وذمتها] … yet when the Adhan calls, they’ll take a break from whatever bad thing they were doing, as if nothing’s wrong, pray, and then resume the wrongdoing after prayer … and of course when you dare to question their integrity, they’d say something to the effect of (إن الصلاة تنهى عن الفحشاء والمنكر) (Prayer restrains from indecency and evildeeds. (29:45)).
So, in other words, those people will continue to commit all the sins they can possibly commit in a one lifetime and pray for forgiveness in the hopes that God shut his eyes and overlooked all what they did. Well I would rather not pray at all than be a double-faced hypocrite who will probably serve more time in hell than someone who never prayed but never committed as much sins.
He became a famous pop star just at the age of 18. His songs reached Britain’s Top 10.
In 1975, he reports having pleaded with God to save him. He described the event in an interview some years later: “I suddenly held myself and I said, ‘Oh God! If you save me, I’ll work for you.’” The near-death experience intensified his long-held quest for spiritual truth.
He had looked into Buddhism “Zen and I Ching, numerology, tarot cards and astrology”, but when his brother gave him a copy of the Qur’an, he began to find peace with himself and began his transition to Islam.
Can you ever associate Islam with humor? Hell no! (damn that pun is good!) But it’s true though. I found it difficult, if not impossible, to associate Islam with comedy, let alone stand-up-comedy!! Continue reading ‘Islamic stand-up-comedy?’
The Western version of Shakespeare’s tragedy about the two star-crossed lovers, Romeo and Juliette, is quite known to the whole world.
The Western Version: Juliette, the daughter of Lord Capulet, falls in love with Romeo, Son of Lord Montague. The two feuding families would never allow the marriage, and the events ended in the tragic loss of both, Romeo and Juliette. Very sad, yet romantic.
The controversial Arabic version: A 17-year-old Iraqi Yazeedi girl, Dua’ Khalil Aswad (دعاء خليل أسود) falls in love with a Sunni young man, and converts to Islam. Her family finds out, drag her into the middle of the street and stone her to death! Very sad, prosaic and not so romantic!
"My kind of loyalty was loyalty to one’s country, not to its institutions or its officeholders. The country is the real thing, the substantial thing, the eternal thing; it is the thing to watch over, and care for, and be loyal to; institutions are extraneous, they are its mere clothing, and clothing can wear out, become ragged, cease to be comfortable, cease to protect the body from winter, disease, and death."
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