D e P r o f u n d i s

Wise words of advice:

Do not despair if your feet stumble and you fall into a big hole. You will come out of it stronger than before. And Allaah, the Almighty, is with those who are patient.

Do not grieve if you receive a fatal arrow from one of those who are closest to your heart, for you will find someone to pull out the arrow, treat the wound and bring back to you life and smile.

Do not stand for too long looking at the ruins, especially if they are inhabited by bats, and ghosts have found their way to them. Rather, look for the sound of a birdsong heralding the coming of a new dawn.

Do not look at papers whose colour has changed and whose writing has faded, whose lines wander between pain and loneliness. You will find that these lines are not the best things that you have written and these papers are not the last thing you will ever write. You should differentiate between one who will read these lines and one who will throw them to the wind, for they are not merely beautiful words; they are the feelings of a heart that has lived these lines, letter by letter, the pulse of one who took them as a dream and felt the pain of their fire. Do not be like the heron, which sings its most beautiful song when it is bleeding. Nothing in this world deserves even one drop of your blood.

[Taken from: You can Be The Happiest Woman In The World]

This is just so ridiculous.

Justice Peter Openshaw, a judge over the trial of Tariq al-Daour, Waseem Mughal and Younis Tsouli does not know what a website is! Lol. Allaahul musta`aan.. This is just sad..

Read the full news article here.

The article also had a hilarious bit at the end:
“What are the Beatles?” judicial legend; may be apocryphal
“How can a bed be turned into a sofa?” Judge Seddon Cripps asks about a futon
Who is Gazza? Mr Justice Harman, who later also admitted ignorance of Oasis and Bruce Springsteen
“What is Linford Christie’s lunch box?” Mr Justice Popplewell (probably mischievous)
“What is this Teletub?” Judge Francis Aglionby, about a Teletubby jigsaw
“What is B&Q?” Lord Irvine of Lairg, Lord Chancellor and head of the judiciary
Source; Times database.

May the stars carry your sadness away,

May the flowers fill your heart with beauty,

May hope forever wipe away your tears,

And, above all, may silence make you strong.

- Chief Dan George.

Cheeks stained with tears, and hearts wrenched with agony and frustration. The families had just heard about the painful and humiliating ordeal Steven Vikash Chand [25 yrs old; one of the Toronto 18 accused of "terrorism" charges] was subjected to yesterday. He was beaten up while taking a shower by one or more of the guards at the Maplehurst Correctional Complex and they then banged his head against a wall. He was then dragged out of the washroom by his hair to his cell. When he requested for a doctor to treat his bleeding, they denied him his right and instead put him in a holding cell.

It will be a year since the incarceration of the Toronto 18 in about half a month from now, some of whom have been released on bail while the youngest has been acquitted. The rest have continued to be held in solitary confinement despite the fact that atleast 4 of them were not under the communication ban. While the trials for the defendants may well be months or even years away, the media has done every bit with the help of the authorities involved, in exploiting the accused. They have not been convicted, yet they are already being punished. So what about real criminals? What about the rapists and psychopaths that plague the cities all across Canada? Why aren’t their lives ruined and ripped apart? Why aren’t they humiliated and punished for crimes they’re CONVICTED of? A few years ago, a woman known as “Jane Doe” was raped in downtown Toronto. After the incident took place, she went to the police to report it. While reporting the rape, she was informed by the police that she had been a victim of a serial rapist. This was a rapist on the loose. He was walking free on the streets of Toronto, yet no warnings had been issued. So where was the media then? Why did the media not fulfill its real job in bringing out the filth of the society? Perhaps it was too busy exploiting Muslims?

Another recent example of hypocrisy is the issue of bail to Basil Prasiris, a 41 year old man who ADMITTED to killing a  police officer. What can be more absurd than that? These young men are still awaiting their trials, but their lives have been destroyed and are faced with threats and insults by the guards at the Maplehurst “Correctional” Complex. While murderers walk free.

How very absurd.

Democracy. Freedom of speech. Justice. Liberty. Land of opportunities. One must rethink these glorious titles that have been so frequently used in reference to Canada since its birth, after these blatant injustices and atrocities committed against these defendants, including the Secret Trial 5: Mohamed Mahjoub, Mahmood Jaballah, Hassan al-Amrei, Adil Charakoui, and Mohamed Harkat, Maher Arar, Huseiyn Cecil and others.

How long must this be tolerated for?

Is Canada really growing a branch of Guantanamo on its soil?

Why has there been constant, evident xenophobic incidents involving ethnic minorities throughout the history of Canada including the implementation of Chinese Head tax in 1885, Japanese Internment in 1942, mistreatment of the Aboriginals, etc.?

I wonder what the Canadian government has to say to this. 

As for Steve and his co-accused, you’re not forgotten and you never will be.

Another brother that we have disappointed as Muslims and as humans. Huseyin Cecil. A Canadian Uyghur Imaam was sentenced to life imprisonement on April 19th, 2007. As I was browsing the site that has been setup as a part of the Initiative to help release Cecil, I came across some very graphic pictures of how Chinese torturers treat their prisoners:

Sleep deprivation: they insert a stick
between eye-lashes so that the victim
could not close eyes for hours.

Prison guards force a practitioner to sit on a metal
chair and handcuff his hands and feet, then put a
wooden stick wrapped with a towel to his mouth
and tighten it to his neck with ropes.

“At the first interrogation, they
used electric batons to give
shocks to my face and neck.
The second time, I was fastened
to a “cross” fetter, my feet were
cuffed and they put the
telephone leads round my big
toes and rang the telephone
making me jump again and
again. To stop the jumping, they
put me on a stool and pressed
the stool’s legs on my feet. They
rang the phone again and my
legs involuntarily jumped. After
this, my memory got worse, and
my brain is poorer. No one
could endure this.”
For full story please visit: Amnesty International

Subhaan’Allaah, I have never seen anything like this. And I’m lost for words as to how to describe this toture.. Its beyond cruel and inhumane. Its just.. subhaan’Allaah. May Allaah protect our brothers.

To think that Br. Cecil (may Allaah protect him from every harm, aameen) may be totured as his family does believe that he is being tortured, is just heart-wrenching.

Please, please make du`aa for this brother and his family.

Oh Allaah, hasten the release of all our brothers and sisters, all around the world and grant their families patience and imaan to deal with this ordeal.. aameen.

Joyous are others, weeping is me
Playing are others, oppressed is me,
Others hear of liberty songs,
It is me listening to slavery fables
Liberated are others, enslaved is me,
It is me ridden as subjugated beast in
the caravan.

Çolpan, an Uygur Poet

“O you who believe! Be afraid of Allaah, and be with those who are true (in word and deeds).” [al-Tawbah 9:119]

Ibn Katheer (may Allaah have mercy on him) said (2/414): “It means: be truthful and adhere to truthfulness, and you will be among its people and will be saved from calamity, and this will make a way out for you from your problems.”

‘Abd-Allaah ibn Mas’ood (may Allaah be pleased with him) said: “The Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: ‘You must be truthful, for truthfulness leads to righteousness and righteousness leads to Paradise. A man will keep speaking the truth and striving to speak the truth until he will be recorded with Allaah as a siddeeq (speaker of the truth). Beware of telling lies, for lying leads to immorality and immorality leads to Hellfire. A man will keep telling lies and striving to tell lies until he is recorded with Allaah as a liar.” (Reported by Muslim, 4721)

“Do not trouble yourselves about standards or ideals; but try to be faithful and natural: remember that there is no greatness, no beauty, which does not come from truth to your own knowledge of things; and keep on working, even if your work is not long remembered.”
William Dean Howells, Literature and Life, Entire

This is a picture of the 26 year old hotel worker who was killed while in the custody of the British Soldiers in Iraq [follow the story here]. This is what his father said:

“When I saw the corpse I burst into tears and I still cannot bear to think about what I saw. I was horrified to see that my son had been severely beaten and his body was literally covered in blood and bruises … He had a badly broken nose. There was blood coming from his nose and mouth. The skin on one side of his face had been torn away to reveal the flesh beneath. There were severe patches of bruising over all of his body. The skin on his wrists had been torn off and the skin on his forehead torn away and there was no skin under his eyes either.”

I read that description over and over until I knew my heart couldn’t bear anymore of it. Subhaan’Allaah, may Allaah’s curse be upon all of those responsible for this. These animals who live in the bodies of human beings made a big deal when their panzy soliders were detained in Iran and treated with luxury, while they do this to our brothers [don't tell me he was a shi`aa 'cause I don't give a damn]? These [the soldiers, including the British, the American and the Canadians] animals, and I ask Allaah to humiliate them in both this world and the hereafter, have lost the right to be referred to as “people” or “humans” because they’re nothing but cold-blooded barbarous beasts. They are the real terrorists. They are the one’s responsible for the atrocities committed all over the world. Its their people who randomly massacre innocents. Who knows the reasons why they do this, but perhaps for some it is simply the work of a psychopath whereas for others like these soldiers its utter and pure hatred for Muslims.

This story of Mousa is just one of the millions that are unspoken of. Imagine, that their blood on not only on the hands of these scum bags, but also us, Muslims due to our sheer silence over this.

What more will it take for us to wake up? Does something like this have to happen to every single muslim family (may Allaah protect us all) for us to realize that these Muslims who may not be our kin, are still our brothers and sisters? They are as beloved to us, as our blood brothers.

Seven soldiers were acquitted in March after Mr Mousa’s death. Another, Corporal Donald Payne, 35, of the QLR, admitted the war crime of treating a number of Iraqis in his custody inhumanely. He became the first British convicted war criminal and is awaiting sentencing.

Oh Allaah, bring them to justice and send your wrath upon those who commit atrocities against the Ummah of your beloved (sallallaahu `alayhi wasallam) and grant us the strength to speak the truth, aameen.

While reading the comments posted on the Globe and Mail news article: “Isolation of terror suspects ‘apalling’..” I came across one comment [pasted below] that, well.. didn’t really take me by surprise considering how ignorant some people can be. But I thought, I might as well exercise my right to “free-speech” in further commenting on it, since the writer [of that comment] had his liberty in doing so.

Richard Roskell from Naramata from Canada writes: “We could behave like the Taliban, and just behead them and thier lawyers.”

I mean, come on now. Who’s inciting violence here? Shouldn’t people who incite violence be arrested? How can it be, that when a Christian or a Jew spews hatred against Muslims, its their right to free-speech. But when a Muslim expresses his or her own sentiments, he or she is condemned, labelled a terrorist and worst yet, locked up. How is Canada, or any other democratic country for that matter, really a democratic [democracy: a state of society characterized by formal equality of rights and privileges] country when its apparent laws negate the very essense of democracy?

Isn’t it about time that Muslims - and yes, including the “moderate” muslims - realize this fact and stop pointing fingers at their fellow muslims, and instead stand as a unified voice against this bigotry and injustice?

I find it very sad that certain Muslim leaders, or ex-leaders such as Tarek Fatah, would rush to condemn Muslims and rinse their hands off them, considering their job well-done and feeling no guilt or responsibility towards those who are subjected to discrimination and inhumane treatment, be it the accused or their families in the case of Toronto 18. This is why we will never succeed. Because the problem lies within us. We no longer fear Allaah, nor share the level of Imaan as did our forefathers. We’d rather distort the meanings of the aayaat of the Qur’aan to fit our own desires, so we don’t have to face any hardship in the path of Allaah, because really, hardships = extremism = fundamentalism = terrorists. Right? I bet if Tarek Fatah was reading this, he would be vigorously nodding his head in agreement.

Abu Bakr as-Siddeeq (radiyAllaahu `anhu) reported: “O you people! You recite this Verse: `O you who believe! Take care of your ownselves. If you follow the guidance [and enjoin what is right (Islamic Monotheism and all that Islam orders one to do) and forbid what is wrong (polytheism, disbelief and all that Islam has forbidden)] no hurt can come to you from those who are in error.’ (5:105) But I have heard Messenger of Allaah (sallallaahu `alayhi wasallam) saying: “When people see an oppressor but do not prevent him from (doing evil), it is likely that Allaah will punish them all.”

[Abu Dawood and at-Tirmidhee]

Islaam teaches us to speak up against tyranny wherever that may be. Because if we don’t, we will be replaced by another nation that will, as has been promised by Allaah in the Qur’aan. A shame it is, how we are so fearful of speaking the truth without any fear except fear of Allaah that we let our rights be trampled over. If we’re being degraded today, its because of this. The very core of our Imaan has rotten away over the past couple of years and we have become numb to what our fellow Muslims go through. There was an instance when a jew approached `Alee ibn Abi Taalib (radiyAllaahu `anhu) and said to him with regards to khushoo` (concentration during salaah) that they (the jews) have no trouble gaining it (khushoo`) whereas, the Muslims often complain about the lack of it. `Alee (radiyAllaahu `anhu) replied to him saying that shaytaan had destroyed their deen, so he did not need to bother with their khushoo` but because Islaam has been established as the correct and final deen without any distortions, he (shaytaan) tries his best to attack the khushoo` of a Muslim. I know I’ve done a poor job of paraphrasing this incidence but I hope the message in it is clear enough.

Fact is, we have lost our deen and we have strayed from the only true guidance that exists. We have lost our love for the Qur’aan, and our hearts have been overshadowed with love for all that is finite. We will never cease to be humiliated until we go back to the teachings of the Qur’aan and stand by the religion that Allaah has ordained for us.

“..So after the truth, what else can there be, save error?..” {Soorah Yoonus; 34}

Okay, so I got tagged by Umm Layth (who thinks I’m a very boring person :P) and I had to come up with 10 weird things about myself. Here’s the rule btw, for those who I’m gonna tag next:

“People who get tagged must write in a blog of their own ten weird things or habits or little known facts as well as state this rule clearly. At the end you must choose six people to be tagged and list their names. No tagbacks!”

1. I don’t eat until someone reminds me. Happens often at work.

2. My niece calls me mommy.

3. I blush very easily. I was once talking to one of my colleagues, and I had just mentioned something good (I swear) about my boss and he walked up right behind me, out of nowhere. And my face turned red. Like, tomato red. It was so bad, that my colleagues bugged me about it for the rest of the week.

4. I’m a scaredy-cat when it comes to cats. I just cannot stand cats. I remember a while back I was at sister bismillaah’s house. We had a sleep over. So when I woke up in the morning, her kitten was sitting ontop of my face. I had a blanket over my face (its a habit of mine) but I could feel her purring. Oh man, that was one awful moment for me.

5. I cannot sleep if a single thing in my room is misplaced.

6. I hate sunglasses. I never wore them except for this one time when the sun was too bright for me to see ahead on the road while I was driving, I put on this old pair of sunglasses which were huge (they’d been in my dad’s car for the longest time catching dust), and they’d keep falling off my nose.

7. I don’t scream. Or maybe I can’t. I recall an incident about a year ago where my hijaab caught fire while I was trying to add a burning effect/look to a sheet of paper. I stood there for like a few seconds in shock and I couldn’t scream, until my sister saw it and yanked it off me.

8. I’m not afraid of jinns.

9. I wake up a couple of times during the night to check if my niece is breathing.

10. Finallllllyyyyy. The last one. Hmm. I hate comedies. Be it movies, shows, whatever. I just hate ‘em.

Now, to tag 6 people man? I don’t even know that many. Hmm..

Mariya, Saadiyeh, Mujaahidah, Maverick, Nuqtah and Salafiyya.

Okay. So like right now, I officially HATE facebook. Like seriously, I mean all that pokings gotta hurt one after a while, no? What ticks me off the most is how brothers poke sisters and vice versa. I know people come up with their “oh its not like I’m poking him/her in real life” lame excuse, but come on. I find it somewhat musing how sisters actually enjoy those pokes.

 Oh! this reminds of a comic piece I was linked to a few days back from Maniac Muslim:

The Facebook Stalker

I know I’ve written plenty about Facebook but this one seems to be a no brainer. You think all those cute girl party pictures are only viewed by girls? Think again suckers. That’s only a Facebook utopian dream. We’re dealing with people like this:

If you haven’t fixed your privacy settings… now would be a good time to do so.

Getting poked from a stranger on Facebook is like getting poked in real life by a stranger: there’s a potential to catch diseases. I know people that sit on their computers all day poking random people just for the sake of poking. Imagine doing this in real life?

I take it most people wouldn’t poke back in real life. Unless you are some sort of freak.

______________________________________

So yeah. Quit Facebook. Save yourself from falling into sins.