Ramadan Journal '18 | Week One
19:50
Day 1 | Inspiration
Mohamed Salah. The Egyptian King.
The name that has made headlines nationally and internationally and become a world sensation in the blink of an eye. The player who has stolen the hearts of Liverpool and football fans alike, who is the hero of Liverpool Football Club not just because of his insane goal-scoring record, but because of his performance on and off the pitch that proves just how much of a special guy he is. Known for his humility and down-to-earth attitude, and for his classic celebration of prostrating on the football pitch after every goal he scores, he has quickly become an icon for Muslims worldwide because here is this one person showcasing his faith on the world stage and everybody loves him all the more for it.
He is loved for his goals and the excitement he injects into Liverpool's football but he is also loved because he has come from a small village in Cairo to play in the Premier League in which he's catapulted to great heights, and not once has he forgotten his humble beginnings: from helping to fund medical centres and education for young girls in his hometown and becoming the face of an anti-drug campaign that led to a 400% increase in the number of young people seeking help for drug addiction, to over one million people forfeiting their ballot papers to vote for him in Egypt's presidential elections, the love for him is adoration that borders on worship. This is how heavily one person can influence a nation...how it takes just a single person to represent hope in the face of adversity, to transform doubt into belief, to inspire a generation of kids and adults worldwide simply because of who he is.
Mo Salah represents so much more than football. He is the true embodiment of his faith and the spirit of Liverpool Football Club. He is the role model Muslims across the globe have been looking for without even realising it. He is the role model we aspire to be and a symbol of everything that Islam stands for and he doesn't even try. We have been trying to convince the world for decades what it truly means to be Muslim...and here is a twenty four year old footballer, thousands of miles away from home, who is doing just that without even knowing it. He has inspired chants that while created with a little bit of banter, light-heartedly have transformed the image of Islam, he has inspired kids - believers and non-believers alike - to walk into a mosque just because that's where Mo Salah will be, he has inspired those who struggle to pray, to pray...and it has to blow your mind that his faith has become a beacon of hope. He doesn't have to utter a word.
In a world where the media hounds the Muslim faith and demonises all of us who follow it, it is so refreshing to see a footballer single-handedly change the perceptions we have been fighting to change for the last twenty years. He is a reminder of what it means to be Muslim, of how faith and success go hand-in-hand, and with every prostration he performs on that football pitch, he reminds us that the Almighty comes above and beyond. Through the excruciating lows of life...and the exhilarating highs. And I think it's pretty empowering that in the modern world, it is a footballer who is fast becoming a symbol of the Muslim faith and all that it stands for.
Day 2 | Book
This year's book recommendation is not one that I've read but it's one of my many anticipated reads that has glowing reviews and if you're looking for the perfect balance between faith and fiction, this is your book. It should also be noted that my mother - who has never in all the time I've known her expressed an interest in reading - opened it up and was instantly hooked. It is a tragedy that she'll finish it before I do. But if my mum has been thoroughly taken in by it, it's bound to be a good read!
~
It has been a year since Saira was driven from Bangladesh, but the memories do not abate. These are strange lands, and from her vast London apartment, Saira peeks out at the streets, at the people, and at the grey English skies, so unlike the vivid oranges and purples of home. Though there are no bars on the windows, she is a prisoner here—a caged bird. How she longed to be that bird soaring high up in the sky, touching the clouds with not a burden in sight…
After a disastrous incident involving her beloved husband Omar, Saira spirals deeper into herself. She dreams once again of home: the village; the sunny vistas; her kind, sweet mother… and she remembers too the earth-shattering decision she made that night, the series of betrayals, the fury that drove her and her mother into exile. She thinks of Omar, of how at night’s end, dawn blossoms...
Saira has come a long way—and for what? Little does she realise, the roots of love go deeper than she ever suspected, and home is never far away.
Until We Meet Again is a moving and utterly human story of one woman’s defiance in the face of tradition. Saira’s journey of self-discovery is a testament to the binding powers of love and memory, and her tale is a must for lovers of contemporary and international fiction.
Day 3 | Happy
19|05
- t w e n t y f o u r -
Day 4 | World
القدس
t h e h o l y l a n d
فلسطين
the land of palestine
is a land destined for war
acres of deserted date groves and ravaged olive trees
abandoned homes with broken walls
smoke rising from bombed out hospitals
with children left to bleed out on the cobbled streets
the dark red of a thousand crushed roses a bitter symbol of resistance.
gunfire and missiles have become the national anthem that is played in radio silence
a tale of two cities divided by barbed wire that savagely marks the occupation
as tightly coiled and sharply twisted as they are across the throats of men in suits
whose submissive ignorance is as much a crime as the pulling of a trigger by men in uniform
vocal chords tampered into silence, glassy-eyed and unseeing
cotton wool muffling the sounds of bombs and dying children and tell me, must it be told in sign language for you to finally hear the truth?
i wonder if this massacre//genocide//cold-blooded murder
will draw to a close, a white flag waving in the distance
or if the death toll will rise to the seven skies
i wonder how many more houses have to go up in flames
how many more children will breathe their last breath to never again see the sky colour with the burnt bronze of the setting sun
how many more men will lose their mind as their little girl screams her way into the void that calls her name
how many more numbers have to be swallowed up by the smoke
until gaza rises
like a phoenix from the ashes
all gold and crimson in its final act of majestic defiance.
Day 5 | Audio
new favourite recitation: surah baqarah, 2:183-187
يٰٓـاَيُّهَا الَّذِيۡنَ اٰمَنُوۡا كُتِبَ عَلَيۡکُمُ الصِّيَامُ کَمَا كُتِبَ عَلَى الَّذِيۡنَ مِنۡ قَبۡلِکُمۡ لَعَلَّكُمۡ تَتَّقُوۡنَۙ
O you who have believed, decreed upon you is fasting as it was decreed upon those before you that you may become righteous... - Holy Quran, 2:183
Day 6 | Sometimes
even faith has its rise & fall...
Day 7 | Power
...and dua is the weapon of a believer -
The Prophet ﷺ | Al-Tirmidhi
“لا يرُدُّ القدرَ إِلاَّ الدُّعاء”
"Nothing can change the Divine decree except dua" - Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him)
Pray. Pray for the impossible, the unimaginable, the unthinkable. Pray for the wild dreams and the crazy wishes and the ambitions that touch the sky. Destiny isn't set in stone...it is a dynamic thing, an ocean of possibility that ebbs and flows with each wave of life and it takes just a prayer for the tide to change. And of all the beautiful parts of my faith that I have fallen in love with, I think this is my favourite. That the One who has all the power, has given us the power to ask ... and He is just waiting to listen.
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