Azka's Writeups

This post is a special one for the all the homeschoolers out there wondering if they are doing the right thing. For all of you struggling or fighting against norms and trying hard to take charge of your own learning. This is to address the question of whether any good university will accept you or not. This is to tell you of my own homeschooling journey.  Let's cut to the chase, I began my homeschooling journey when I was 11 years old. I just straight up dropped out of school and never went back after my summer vacations. It was a mutual decision between me and my parents. Why we opted for this is a story for another time, for now, just know that where I am today after leaving school, I wouldn't be here had I been going to school. I wouldn't have possessed the set of skills I possess now.  When we quit school there was indeed a backlash. People would say to our faces that our parents had stolen our childhood and I as an adult would now like to question them that 'do the...

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 ...

  Book: Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling Authors: John Taylor Gatto Length: 106 pages Published by: New Society Publishers, USA Year of publication: 1992 The foreword for this non-fiction controversy, by Thomas Moore is enough to tell us about the author; John Taylor Gatto. Moore describes Gatto as his and his father’s inspiration. Gatto an award winning teacher, first worked as a copywriter and it would be interesting for you to read for yourselves what prompted him into school teaching. It is surprising in this case, firstly, that Gatto dedicated the book to his daughter and granddaughter instead of a student or teacher, as usually would have been, coming from a teacher, and secondly that the book is a strict criticism on the schooling system and the fact that it has been made compulsory. ‘…It should be seen as a book that wrote itself’ Gatto reveals in the acknowledgments section. All 5 chapters of this book are based off Gatto’s learn...

The historical play Dirillis: Ertugrul has become a fever for many. It was quoted as ‘a silent ticking bomb’. Even with a high degree of fictional content, dramatization, few things against Shariah injunctions it aptly tries to portray Muslim prestige and their constant struggle for the prevalence of Islam. It accurately depicts major historical events and their outcomes to some extent.  I had not been able to feel the importance of the establishment of Khilafah nor was I able to realize why a large number of subcontinental Muslims would react rashly to its end, when I was studying History as a subject. But this series gave me an idea of the concept, one which I was keen on exploring.  All through the series, we witness Ertugrul’s personal sacrifice. We witness the many people who die in the way of Truth. And from that, from the ashes of many broken states rises yet again a Khilafah, the last one to be- the Ottoman Empire.  The world before the Ottoman Empire was no diffe...

The bat struck the road with a loud thud, missing me by only a couple of micrometers. I had only two more hours of my precious life remaining, if only I could come into contact with any of these boys. The bat struck the ground once again. This time it managed to fling me up onto the player's shoulder. Close, I was very close to surviving, if only I could reach his nose... I sat on his shoulder...waiting. I could see the long stretch of road in front of him, all empty except for some joyful faces bouncing around each other. They were happy, which was weird, considering how close they were to infection. I felt sad for them, we did not want to do this, make someone fatally ill in order to survive. Alas! it was our only chance, it was the only way we could sustain our population. A shout of salutation made me snap out of my thoughts and I watched as a boy ran to hug the one about to bowl. Infected. 100%. He seemed perfectly healthy, but there were friends of mine all over him. Anot...