Azka's Writeups

Every time I came across a commentary on Surah Duha, people only talked about the first 8 verses and not the last 3 ones. And I have often pondered upon this and have reflected upon the need of these 3 verses in the same surah as the first 8.  Why is it that Allah thought to remind the Prophet (SAW), and through him, us, that we should be kind to the beggars and to the orphans, after He counted all our difficult times and then His favours upon us?  After thinking about this for a long time I would like to present my humble reflection on the last verses and why they are included in this surah.  Think about this, what is the one excuse we give to people (or to ourselves) who are harsh, bitter and rude? We blame their circumstances, their past, 'actually, she has led such a difficult life that she has become bitter'. Haven't we all heard statements like this?  This is why Allah is telling us to be kind in this Surah after he counts all the times we have bee in trouble (...

How was the Democratic State of Israel established? When talking about Palestine and Israel most people forget to discuss a very crucial event, the expulsion of the Jews from Palestine under Ceaser in 1 CE. Jews since then believe that God has promised them a return to Jerusalem and it is their Holy right to rebuild the temple of Solomon, ruined by Nebuchadnezzar and then Ceaser. This belief and the belief that a Jewish only state should exist in Palestine is a brief summary of Zionism.  The temple of Solomon existed where the al Aqsa compound stands today. Zionists believe that rebuilding it will pave way to the arrival of their Messiah, who we call the Dajjal. And that's what they plan to do, they have been digging under the Al Aqsa compound for quite some time now in attempts to weaken its foundations- so that its fall can be blamed on the smallest of natural disasters. They also hope to find the Ark of the Covenant lost 3000 years ago which contains some miracles from the earli...

A few days ago I learnt that the people who were displaced from Palestine during the Original Nakba could never even visit their country again. But their children and grandchildren could.  The background of this story is a similar one. Yousef returns to Palestine to fulfill his father's dying wish... 'It should be right here,' I whisper to myself. I can feel hope and raw emotion filling up my chest as I turn the corner.  The hope is the first to go away, the raw emotion stays, grows, claws at my heart.  I run, down the street and back up again. Could I have made a wrong turn, could I be in the wrong block?  But the tree is there, that tree I'd recognize anywhere, the tree I had seen many a times when my father had shown me pictures of his neighborhood. 'This is our local graveyard Yousef, this is where my parents are buried, this is where I want to buried, with them,close to them,' he had whispered, as his hand traced the edges of the picture in his lap.  And th...

The past few days have been really troubling for us, what with all the posts on ‘Aurat March’ storming our social media accounts every day. We wanted to write about it, but were slightly scared of making our stance public. Finally, we mustered the courage to write and share our opinion!    There is a good side and a not so good side to Aurat March, and both need to be recognized. It is not a problem if women are standing up for their rights. When the state, society and men of the family fail to protect and empower their women responsibly, we see marches as reactions. Someone has made disturbingly wrong decisions in the lives of these women who have lost faith and any hope for justice. The majority laments that the march is indecent. But we have driven them to a point when the protesting women find honour in something else – mainly for their voices to be heard. We also need to ask ourselves if it isn’t ‘indecency’ when a woman is slapped in public, when she is disgraced by sele...

Life was normal, and then suddenly one day it was announced that markets, schools, cinemas and all other ‘normal’ activities would be shut down for an undetermined amount of time. We could certainly not survive that way right? Yet here we are. Things are going back to normal, but the thing is, is normal really good? Let’s look into what this quarantine taught us.  It identified for us our needs and wants Reflect, what places were closed and which were open? Cinemas? Shopping Malls? Jewelry stores? Supermarkets? No. The only places open were medical stores and general stores which offered food and water – at least for a month of strict lockdown. You could find clothes and slippers as well but they were not branded. Does it not make it clear what we pursued as our need and which of our common activities are wants? The importance of family and healthy relationships You know who found this quarantine most depressing? People living alone, or people living with their family but not havin...

We are very sorry if this article looks scattered and disorganized. But it depicts our emotions and thoughts on this incident :  scattered and disoriented.    The growing moral problems of our society demand change from every one of us. Each individual must understand his responsibility and play his role in curbing  our moral decline especially in the absence of a fair judicial system.  The increase in the number of rape cases or more specifically of ‘rapists’ is evidence that  something  is lacking in our  T arbiyah. Hence the first change must come from parents.   Salman Asif Siddiqui,  Director ERDC and an educational psychologist,  in his talk ‘Sex education and Tarbiyah’ talks about this issue in detail. He says that m oral decline of a society occur s due to three reasons    Lack of  G od consciousness – the primary reason Lack of connection – the next big reason ;  here we talk about connection with p...

Hello everyone, so this post is pretty late, I wanted to post it on the 10th of Muharram, that is Sunday but I've been busy. Anyway, here it goes... drop in your thoughts in the comments.   As soon as the new Muslim year began my social media was flooded with positive lessons and messages from Hussain (RA) story. The third Muslim Imam and grandson to the Holy Prophet, Hussain (RA) was martyred on the 10 th of Muharram by the tyrant Yazid’s army after he was kept thirsty for 10 long days. 72 innocent people were tortured, their infants and all of their males were slaughtered. But this post will not talk about his widely known and respected personality or his very painful story. Today I will talk about its outcome, how we perceive it and how we can apply it to our own lives. So, most of the posts talked about Hussain’s success, and that word is what I would like to emphasize, ‘success’. I have believed that ‘success’ does not mean material gain, it is the name given to a constant ...