From: Majdi Al-Nasr "[email protected]"@startext.net

Subject: S.A.D.A.'S  ARTICLES

The Sisters Association for Dawah Arlington P.O. Box 602 Arlington, TX.
76004-0602  (817) 941-1955
 
As-salaamu Alaykum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakatuhu Sisters!  My name is Michelle Al-Nasr, and I am with S.A.D.A.  - The Sisters Association for Dawah in Arlington. (Texas, that is!) I thought that I would send you some of our articles that we have published in our local newsletter, let me know, insha Allah t'ala, if you all can use anything!  We've got
lots more where that came from, too!Jazakoom Allahu Khayrun!

   "THAT'S ENOUGH ALREADY"

I am an American Christian raised woman. At the age of 23 I started learning about Islam, and eventually became Muslim (All  thanks and praise to Allah). As a teenager and on into my 20's, I always made sure I looked my best, and actually I was voted best  looking girl by my senior high school class. Full face of make-up, perfect hair, and always the clothes in trend. I had the best  looking sports car, a great paying job as a hair designer, and I  was always looking to have a good time. I was an independent  woman, and was never questioned  about any decisions  I made, or criticized  about anything I did.  When I became Muslim all that  changed. Suddenly  every one had something to say, I heard it all.
 I was no longer thought off as being able to use my adult mind the same way again. I was brain-washed, or I was doing it to please my   husband. ("You can't change a person ." isn't that a common saying?) As a Christian, I was religious on Sunday mornings for an hour, or when the lottery numbers were being picked I would pray -" please God let me win", or when a loved one was hurt I would  try to make a deal with God. And of coarse on holiday's.  I am 28  now, and Islam is a way of life, my way of living. Everything I  do, every minute of my day is now done differently. Especially, I  pray 5 times a day . Believe me, you can not pretend to be a  Muslim. These days I live a simple, peaceful, very moral life. I  have no stress, no worries. My husbands' duty is to make sure I'm  well cared for, and to provide for me. I am able to stay home and  take care of my son according to my standards, not a  baby-sitters'. I couldn't trade in his smiles for a pay check, his  smiles are my pay. I read, I sew, I relax, and I have plenty of  time to prepare fresh home cooked meals for my family.  Oppressed  ? Yes, I was oppressed last week , when my cordless phone broke  and I had to use a regular one.  I wouldn't change my life now for  anything.  And if I was to divorce my husband, SURPRIZE, I'm still  going to practice Islam in the same manor I do now.  So if you are  a friend or a family member of a convert to Islam, instead of being negative or against it, try  to understand and respect the  persons new way of life. And remember we are Islam. There is no question that will embarrass nor offend us.  These people who are great scholars of Islam because they saw a movie, are not the correct source of telling you about my life. I saw a few movies  about Italian's, so should I assume all Italian men are in the Mafia, deal drugs, kill people, and have girl friends on the side?  NO!  Believe me, I have a lot more to write about my hardships and  hassles of being a Muslim. None of which pertains to the religion itself, but to what even perfect strangers have said or done to me.  Oh yeah, did I mention I was also voted  MOST LIKELY TO SUCCEED by my high school senior class.  I feel as though I have.

                                                                                 Signed, A Muslim Sister
 

Long before I became Muslim, I wrote a small thought down on paper.  I remember one line - "You must have courage to have faith".  This thought came back to me recently when I was overwhelmed with mail order catalogs.  I noticed that a number of the catalogs dealt with the "new spirituality".  They offered everything from "healing" crystals, guardian angels, Tibetan monk prayer bowls to statuesque Buddahs. Well, how convenient I thought, I could be a Buddist one week and then a witch the next.  I would never have to commit to anything.  Just think how trendy I would be!  Doing my yoga, consulting my crystals. Then it hit me, religion has become a fad!  It's hip to believe . . . to believe, but in what?

It can't be anything too inconvenient.  Nothing that would ask too much of a person.  Nothing that might cause a person to give up those things they love -  like movies, music, dancing, drinking, having sex with whomever they may wish.  Nothing that might make them too different or make them actually examine their lives and themselves. Nothing that would require some backbone - some courage.  It is far  too easy to make a halfway commitment or to sit and convince yourself  that you are a good person already, better than most, you think.  You don't need faith.

Yet there are so many people looking, searching, needing to believe in something.  Especially in an age when murder, rape and crimes of all types fill the newspapers and televisions.  Especially in an age when our ethical and moral behavior is on trial in one hour talk shows hosted by people with more problems than the guests.  WAKE UP!  When your house is robbed and you are stripped of all your possessions will you turn to your crystals to sustain you?  When your brother is murdered for no reason, will your "guardian" angel console you?  And when you are faced by the mortality of your own life, will you turn to
Buddha, who was merely a man himself and who died a long time ago?

In a world full of harm and peril, don't you think you should be better equipped to protect yourself from the harm and deal with the peril?  If we KNOW that nothing worthwhile comes easy - that there are certain things worth fighting for - then live by it.  Then have the courage to have faith in a religion which will truly help you.

I guess I'm not very fashionable in my hijab (scarf) and jilbab (long coat).  And I guess I'm not very trendy when I leave conversations and gatherings to do my prayers.  But I have a faith which will truly sustain me and help me in times of trouble.  I've made a commitment.  I
have the courage to believe that there is no God but Allah and that Muhammad was His Messenger.

All praise is for Allah, we seek His aid and we ask his forgiveness. We se ek Allah's refuge from the evil within ourselves and from our own evil acti ons. Whomsoever Allah guides then none can misguide him, and whomsoever All ah lets astray, then none can guide him. We testify that none has the right  to be worshipped except Allah alone with no partner, and we testify  that M uhammed id His slave-servant and His messenger. Unfortunately, now a days there are many Muslims writing about Islam that are incessantly quoting Hadiths that are either (a) Da'eef - meaning weak, or (b) Mau'du - meaning made up or fabricated. Because of this epidemic, th ere has been an increase in the spreading of inaccurate information among t he Muslim Ummah. Many of us, when we were first Muslims (and many of us that  have been Musl ims for a life-time) are under the mistaken assumption that just because so meone with a Muslim name writes a book on Islam, and appears to have a list of credentials on the back cover from somewhere in the world, then ALL of the information inside the book MUST be correct! How can we make such a gra ve mistake, brothers and sisters? If we take the time to write something of Islamic knowledge, we are at least obligated to spend the time to research it carefully! It is our obligation, why? Because Allah (SWT) will ask us a bout it on the Day of Judgment! Just think of the sin we may commit if we s pread the incorrect information, and then someone reads it and then acts on it! Not only would we be responsible for ourselves, but also we will be an swering for others that carry out the misinformation that we have spread, a nd Allah (SWT) knows best!! And as the Prophet (saws) has said in Khutba Al -Hajah, "...every stray path is in the Hell-fire". May Allah (SWT) protect us all from that, ameen. You may still ask , 'Why should we be so particula r about the accuracy of the
hadiths?' Very simply:  * To guard against lies attributed to the Prophet (saws) * To protect our own Emaan * Finally, to search for the correct knowledge as taught by the Prophet (sa ws), which can only be achieved through the authenticated sayings, actions and practices of
the Prophet (saws) and his companions (may Allah be please d with them all). Who else could possibly be better teachers of Islam? As M uslims, we are required to obey Allah (SWT) and the Prophet (saws), as Alla h (SWT) has ordered us in the Quran, "And obey Allah and the  Messenger (Mu hammed [saws] ), so that you may attain mercy". Surah 3 Ali-Imran, aya # 13 2. Again and again, Allah commands us to obey the Prophet (saws) in the fol lowing: Surah 4 An-Nisa, aya # 59 & 80; Surah 64
At-Taghabun, aya # 72; and again in Surah 77 Muhammed, aya # 33.

We all must be careful that we do not make the mistake the disbelievers ha ve made, by following their rabbis, monks and priests blindly. We must alwa ys ask our shiekhs, our imams and our teachers of Islam where their Islamic information originates from, and then we should check the source ourselves - making sure that it is from the authentic sayings of the Prophet (saws) and his companions (may Allah be pleased with them all) who were taught Isl am directly from the Prophet (saws).

Finally, and most importantly, we all need to ask Allah (SWT) to guide us all to the Siratul Mustaqeem (The Straight Path), and when we are shown the authentic evidence - we should not be so arrogant as to turn away from it out of our own pride and our own desires. May Allah (SWT) out His Infinite Mercy protect us all from that fate, ameen.

" The only  saying of the faithful believers, when they are called to Allah (His words, the Quran) and His Messenger  to judge between them, is that t hey say: "We hear and we obey." And such are the prosperous ones (who will live forever in Paradise). And whosoever obeys Allah and His Messenger, fea rs Allah, and keeps his duty (to Him), such are the
successful ones". Surah  24 An-Nur, aya # 51-52. May Allah (SWT) make among those who are obedient to Him and His Messenger, ameen.  This has been a reminder for all of us from the sisters at:  S.A.D.A.

"Put That on My Mastercard, Please"

All praise is for Allah, we praise Him, we seek His aid, and we ask His forgiveness.Weseek Allah's refuge from the evil within ourselves and from our evil actions. WhomsoeverAllah guides then none can misguide him, and whomsoever Allah lets astray then none can guide him. We testify that none has the right to be worshipped except Allah alone, with no partner; and we testify that Muhammed is His slave-servant and His messenger.  "I think I'll put that on my Mastercard!" That's the thought  that many Muslims may have had at recent Islamic fund-raiser dinners. 'Why?', you might ask, 'Why would a Muslim, who knows
that interest (Riba) is haram, have  thoughts about charging ANYTHING on a credit card?'  Well read on...  I recently attended a fund-raiser dinner, at which many Muslims from the D/FW area were attending. The dinner was held in a grand and quite beautiful hotel. As I entered the hotel, I noticed there were signs for various fund-raiser dinners for the evening. There were two large signs standing side by side; one for an Islamic fund-raiser, the other dinner was a fund-raiser for teen crisis pregnancy. 'Alhamdulillah', I thought, 'Muslims do not need the other type of fund-raiser. Alhamdulillah, Muslims do not act like non-Muslims, and Alhamdulillah, we do not have the multitude of problems that go along with it either.' Upon entering the dinner hall, I began looking for a place to sit down. I couldn't help but take notice while glancing through the women's section, the large number of uncovered heads among the Muslim women. I soon found myself a seat, surrounded by the nine women sitting at my
table, only myself and a close friend were wearing hijab. I thought to myself, 'Don't these women know that the hijab is obligatory and it distinguishes them from the non-Muslims?' The dinner program began. The guest speaker was announced and he began his energetic speech. After a short while, as the task of raising money was underway, the  guest speaker began shouting at the crowd of Muslims, "Put it on your credit card! Have something concrete to present to Allah on the Day of Judgment!" I thought to myself, 'What? What is he saying? That's like gambling in Las Vegas and using  your winnings to go to  hajj!' A short while ago, I discovered that charging sadaqah on credit cards is the new trend, not just at the dinner I was attending, but all over the D/FW area! I was sickened to find out that many of the Islamic communities in the D/FW area are planning to accept credit cards to build their masjids and Islamic schools! Sitting at the dinner, I wondered if the speaker who said, "Bring something concrete to Allah on the Day of Judgment!"  would be able to answer my questions:  * What will you bring, O speaker?  * Will you be waving your Mastercard or Visa for evidence of
your sadaqah payments?  * Is the action of charging on credit cards, the 'concrete action' that you plan to present to Allah (SWT) on the Day of Judgment?  * Will you be ready to be leading the crowds that will follow you with their credit cards in hand?

I wanted to remind him and the others that feel this action is acceptable: Allah (SWT) has told us in the Quran [2:279] if we don't give up interest, we must take notice of a war from Allah!  * Are you ready to go into battle against Allah (SWT)?  * Will you and your army of feeble credit card holders be sufficient to do battle with Allah (SWT)?  * How can you justify doing something haram?  There is no justification for doing something haram, even if it is for sadaqah. You cannot make something halal out of something haram. These dinners also handed out pledge forms to enable donations to be paid off in interest-free monthly installments. Why then, are these Muslims who organize these dinners pushing the use of credit-cards? By promoting the use of credit cards at these fundraising dinners, you are saying to Muslims (including new Muslims) and non-Muslims alike, "Credit cards are okay! Use them!" Have we all forgotten what Allah (SWT) has taught us?  'Allah will destroy interest (riba) and will give increase for sadaqah (deeds of charity, alms,  etc.) and Allah likes not the disbelieves, sinners. ' [2:76] 'O you who believe! Be afraid of Allah and give up what remains (due to you) from interest (riba) (from now onwards) if you are (really) believers. And if you do not do it, then take notice of war from Allah and His messenger ...' [2:278-279] As the dinner ended, a ill feeling came over me. I kept seeing the women with their heads uncovered, and I kept hearing the speaker shouting, "Charge it in your credit card!" I thought about the dinner that had been going on downstairs for the teen crisis pregnancy center. I thought about the multitudes of  problems that the non-Muslims face because of their lifestyle and their disobedience to Allah. Then like a knife in my heart, a final thought came to my mind: 'Are the Muslims of today really so different than the non-Muslims? 'No', I thought to myself sadly, 'I guess not'.