God’s Plan

I though this was too beautiful not to put up.

Some things are beyond planning.
And life doesn’t always turn out as planned.
You don’t plan for a broken heart.
You don’t plan for an autistic child.
You don’t plan for spinsterhood.
You don’t plan for a lump in your breast.
You plan to be young forever.
You plan to climb the corporate ladder.
You plan to be rich and powerful.
You plan to be acclaimed and successful.
You plan to conquer the universe.
You plan to fall in love – and be loved forever.

You don’t plan to be sad.
You don’t plan to be hurt.
You don’t plan to be broke.
You don’t plan to be betrayed.
You don’t plan to be alone in this world.
You plan to be happy.
You don’t plan to be shattered.

Sometimes if you work hard enough, you can get what you want.
But MOST times, what you want and what you get are two different things.

We, mortals, plan. But so does Allah in the heavens.
Sometimes, it is difficult to understand Allah’s plans especially when
His plans are not in consonance with ours.

Often, when He sends us crisis, we turn to Him in anger. True, we cannot
choose what Allah wishes us to carry, but we can carry it with courage
knowing that He will never abandon us nor send something we cannot cope
with.

Sometimes, Allah breaks our spirit to save our soul.
Sometimes, He breaks our heart to make us whole.
Sometimes, He allows pain so we can be stronger.
Sometimes, Allah sends us failure so we can be humble.
Sometimes, He allows illness so we can take better care of ourselves.
And sometimes, Allah takes everything away from us so we can learn the
value of everything He gave us.

Make plans, but understand that we live by Allah’s grace.

Peace,

M.

Facebook investigated over claims it isn’t safe for kids

FACEBOOK is under investigation by the New York attorney general’s office, it’s reported today in the New York Times.The prosecutor is looking into whether Facebook really provides its 42 million users with an online venue where high school age and younger children are as safe from paedophiles as it claims or is misleading customers.Yesterday, the attorney general issued a subpoena to the social networking site requiring it to produce documentation about its security provisions and complaint resolution practices. The demand comes after investigators joined Facebook posing as children and reportedly received online sexual invitations from adults within a matter of days.In a letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, New York attorney general Andrew Cuomo wrote “Facebook has the right to operate any type of Web site it deems fit. It does not have the right to represent that its site is safe and that it promptly responds to complaints when such statements are not accurate.”No charges have been filed against the company. via

Links
New York Times
Microsoft to buy Facebook shares
——————————–

My question is when are the parent’s gonna take responsibility for the welfare of their kids?  I mean, Facebook, even though it rapidly decreases a individuals productivity,isn’t the only medium through which paedophiles hunt down kids.  Shouldn’t the longer term solution be for the Parents to properly educate their children and basically bring them up properly with good values and a strong foundation?

Technorati Tags: Facebook, investigation, paedophiles, Mark Zuckerberg

your epidermis is showing.

some guy came up to me and said … ” Hey, your epidermis is showing…” and was about to laugh….
so I said..”Well, your bad sense of humour is evident too…”
he called me a bastard and trotted off.

Technorati Tags: humour, life

On the 1st Day of Ramadan…

I found it particularly interesting this morning when I got into work to suddenly see girls who I didn’t even know were Muslims suddenly pitched up in Big Scarves and flaunting their Muslim identity. Sadly, this happens every year… these people (whom my friend calls “Fly by Night” and “Flash in the Pan” Muslims) always scuttle to the surface during the Holy month (as they should), but what I hope doesn’t happen (again, as it does every year) is that this “Proudly Muslim”-ness disappears at the end of the month and sometimes even during!

Also, we see the brothers showing up for Zohar Salaah (Mid-day Prayer), which is equally good and the masjid was so full I couldn’t even get parking! Unfortunately again, the numbers dwindle as we get into it. *sigh*

Right now I should do some soul-searching myself… I am one of those who shirk my responsibility when it comes to prayer. And all the other things I have to change suddenly become clear to me as we get into Ramadaan. So, here are my resolutions for this month…

1) Eat Less (Easy to do in this month, but a good habit to keep up after as well) + I can lose weight :)
2) Pray all my Salaah on time at the mosque (as often as I can manage)
3) Stay up after Fajr Salaah (Early morning Prayer) – Even modern scientists vouch for the benefits of doing this.
4) Read more Quraan.

There may be some others, but I’ll add them as I get into it.. right now , this seems simple enough, hopefully I will succeed :)

Peace,

M.

Technorati Tags: Ramadaan, Ramadan, Fasting, Islam, Muslims, South Africa

Hello, Tech support? I need two goats…

KATHMANDU - Officials at Nepal’s state-run airline have sacrificed two goats to appease Akash Bhairab, the Hindu sky god, following technical problems with one of its Boeing 757 aircraft, the carrier said Tuesday.

The goats were sacrificed in front of the troublesome aircraft Sunday at Nepal’s only international airport in Kathmandu in accordance with Hindu traditions, an official said.

It is common in Nepal to sacrifice animals like goats and buffaloes to appease different Hindu deities.

Well that’s a novel way to solve problems… I wonder what they’ll do when Petrol runs out. They probably have a Hindu cleric on staff at the Technical support centre for aeroplanes and other support oriented services, just in case reading the manual doesn’t work :P

Technorati Tags: Kathmandu, Goats, Sacrifice, Hindu Sky God, Akash Bhairab

Facebook vs. MySpace

Technorati Tags: facebook, myspace, relationships

Muslim Xtremists!

LOL!

Technorati Tags: Muslim Xtremists, Extermists, Islam, Muslims, Muslim, humour

“Make Laugh Not War” and the Conservative Muslim Backlash

I went to watch the Muslim comedy show “Make Laugh Not War” last night and I never ever laughed so much since I went for YFM‘s “Blacks Only” Comedy show in 2005. I swear I laughed so much it actually hurt, really. Riadd Moosa (pictured) was the MC and every time he was on stage everybody couldn’t keep from laughing, he picked on everything South African and Muslim and ripped it apart so beautifully every Muslim couldn’t help but laugh at themselves and I’m sure the same effect was made on the non-Muslims.

I’m in the process of getting a bootleg copy of the event (from a friend of a friend *snicker*), so maybe I’ll put up a podcast later :P

What got to me though, was at the end of the show the comedians had said people were claiming the show was” Haraam” (forbidden) and anti-Islam and , I don’t know if this happens else where but it happens in Durban… the spreading of pamphlets. It’s the most irritating thing ever… In Islam, if you don’t like what somebody is doing, the correct course of action is to give that person nasiha (advice), these idiots subvent the entire process and spread hate-speech pamphlets to every mosque they can get their hands on banning whatever they feel is Un-Islamic without ever talking to the people in question.

It’s not unrelated to the cartoon question, where these same people resort to tactics which are extremely UN-ilsamic in order to make a point. These are the people who are giving Islam a bad name.

Specifically with regard to the comedy show, it actually made Muslims laugh at themselves.. which these people obvioiusly never do. No sense of humour, which probably also lends to the point above. Azhar Usman, who sports a lengthy beard actually started his set up with “Check this out, this is what a person who looks like me, actually looks like when they smile…” LOL, it’s sad but true.

They were even being fought with over the name of the comedy show… Originally it was supposed to be called “Allah Made Me Funny.” but they were taken to task for it so they cahgned it to “Make Laugh Not War” and again these “scholars” went on a tangent saying it was against Jihad… if there’s anyone who needs to have a better understanding of the concept of Jihad, it’s these people and here they go sanctioning “going to war” is Jihad… WTF?

Another question… if we are listening to Scholars who are this immature.. what does that say about us? What does it say about the entire Muslim community? Grow up. Ask the questions… Are we that blind and stupid to (1) Not Learn Islam for ourselves and (2) Blindly Follow without questioning?