Inspired Muslimah

This is such a beautiful video about a muslim wife. I am learning the qualities that will make a good wife,inshallah. I see which qualities I posses easily and those which will be a struggle. Faithfulness, loyalness, a good devoted partner, a friend, a sister leaning towards piousness, and most importantly a believer in Allah (s.w.t). Obedience does not come so easy for me. I am often told how disobedient I am. I find this hard to believe since I actually feel I am pretty obedient even though its not easy for me. If your habibi or future habibi doesn't agree, then you may have something to think about.

"Women mistakenly think, that in order to be strong, they should behave like men. They should fight for their independence. Their right to work and strive hard like a man. To be in the public domain. As a prior independent western woman, I can tell you, that role is seriously misleading. It is tiring, difficult, and takes away from a woman everything that is beautiful and sacred about her unique characteristics - her fitrah."

This was taken from one sister’s blog and I totally agree http://thelightwithin.wordpress.com who I believe is sister umm travis but I am not sure. If so, nice blog sis, Masha’allah!!

I think this sums up everything quite nicely. I want to be good wife to my future husband but Iam worried about a few things. I already know he worries about me being disobedient. I am very outspoken and I have always been. This is an area I need to work on. He wants a conversation to end when he says and I have a problem walking away. I may keep going with it, which results in an disagreement. I have a huge problem with feeling like I am being treated like a child. This may be due to the difference in our upbringing. He was born and raised muslim and I am a revert. He has a problem with my lack of respect and disobedience. Insha'allah I truly believe he is the one. These are just some area's we must work on before we are married. I found an interesting link off the sisters (umm travis ??) blog I linked above. Here are things we can think about as muslim wives (for those who are married) and for future muslim wives, insha'allah.

Islam is clear on the kind of wife you should be seeking. The Prophet (s.a.w) said: "A woman may be married for four reasons: for her property, her status, her beauty, and her religion; so try to get one who is religious, may you be blessed." This specifically defines just what kind of a companion we are seeking, for if we marry her for anything other than her religious piety, our marriage is bound to fall into misery.

"Therefore the righteous women are devoutly obedient, and guard in (the husbands) absence what Allah would have them guard"[s.4;v.34]

"A Muslim woman

A believing woman

A devout woman

A true woman

A woman who is patient and constant

A woman who humbles herself

A woman who gives charity

A woman who fasts and denies herself

A woman who guards her chastity

A woman who engages much in Allah's praise."

Iam honestly striving to be all of these things, Allah sees my efforts. I still fall short ofcourse. I have already thought about my dowry and marriage contract, however, I am not sure if it is sunnah to make things allowed in Islam to be prohibited as a part of ones contract. I wont share everything, but to make a long story short, I am not ok with my future husband taking a second wife and I would like to include this in our marital contract. I know polygamy is permissible in Islam. I am not okay with it and I have to do some major praying on this. Is it okay that I feel this way or am I wrong for trying to impose a rule on my future husband that Allah has allowed?? I will make an effort to wear hijab soon insha’allah (I plan on wearing hijab as of January 1,2009, but I am not sure my emaan is strong enough). I know these things are very important to my fiancé. MAJOR to him. I have no doubt he will be a good provider, leader, husband, and friend. I also know I can be a good wife to him, I know I can! Make duas for me, my sisters in Islam..Also, I have learned so much regarding becoming a good muslim wife from a muslim wifes blog and umm travis blog. If you need anymore advice on this please visit these sisters blogs,insha'allah. If anyone else has any advice on how to prepare for marriage and issues faced once married please feel free to post them here.

Then I passed by Abraham and he said, 'Welcome! O pious Prophet and pious son.' I asked Gabriel, 'Who is he?' Gabriel replied, 'He is Abraham. The Prophet added, 'Then Gabriel ascended with me to a place where I heard the creaking of the pens." Ibn Hazm and Anas bin Malik said: The Prophet said, "Then Allah enjoined fifty prayers on my followers when I returned with this order of Allah, I passed by Moses who asked me, 'What has Allah enjoined on your followers?' I replied, 'He has enjoined fifty prayers on them.' Moses said, 'Go back to your Lord (and appeal for reduction) for your followers will not be able to bear it.' (So I went back to Allah and requested for reduction) and He reduced it to half. When I passed by Moses again and informed him about it, he said, 'Go back to your Lord as your followers will not be able to bear it.' So I returned to Allah and requested for further reduction and half of it was reduced. I again passed by Moses and he said to me: 'Return to your Lord, for your followers will not be able to bear it. So I returned to Allah and He said, 'These are five prayers and they are all (equal to) fifty (in reward) for My Word does not change.' I returned to Moses and he told me to go back once again. I replied, 'Now I feel shy of asking my Lord again.' Then Gabriel took me till we '' reached Sidrat-il-Muntaha (Lote tree of; the utmost boundry) which was shrouded in colors, indescribable. Then I was admitted into Paradise where I found small (tents or) walls (made) of pearls and its earth was of musk."

Surat al Fatiha 5-7: "Thee (alone) we worship; Thee alone we ask for help. Show us the straight path, The path of those whom Thou hast favored; Not (the path) of those who earn Thine anger nor of those who went astray."

This is what we all strive for; direction in the right path. Recently I have been finding solace in relying on the Quran and authentic hadiths. With my limited knowledge of Islam, I find the hadiths to be the perfect bridge from the Quran though I know the Quran is the only perfect book written since it is from Allah (s.w.t). I am on a journey to learn as much about Islam as I can because while I enjoy learning from others, its time to start exploring myself.

According to the Cambridge history of Iran there are six major hadiths collections. Al-Sihah al-Sittah, is literally the translation for authentic six.

According to University of southern California, compendium of Muslim text, they state there are 4:

Sahih Bukhari, Sahih Muslim,Sunan Abu-Dawud, and Malik Muwatta.

I will start my personal journey with Sahih Bukhari and will strive to share my knowledge with others, inshallah.

BACKGROUND

Sahih Bukhari is a collection of sayings and deeds of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh), also known as the sunnah. The reports of the Prophet's sayings and deeds are called ahadith. Bukhari lived a couple of centuries after the Prophet's death and worked extremely hard to collect his ahadith. Each report in his collection was checked for compatibility with the Qur'an, and the veracity of the chain of reporters had to be painstakingly established. Bukhari's collection is recognized by the overwhelming majority of the Muslim world to be one of the most authentic collections of the Sunnah of the Prophet (pbuh).

Bukhari (full name Abu Abdullah Muhammad bin Ismail bin Ibrahim bin al-Mughira al-Ja'fai) was born in 194 A.H. and died in 256 A.H. His collection of hadith is considered second to none. He spent sixteen years compiling it, and ended up with 2,602 hadith (9,082 with repetition). His criteria for acceptance into the collection were amongst the most stringent of all the scholars of ahadith.

It is important to realize, however, that Bukhari's collection is not complete: there are other scholars who worked as Bukhari did and collected other authentic reports. Sahih Bukhari is divided into nine volumes, each of which has several books.

I just have a question for all my muslimah sisters out there striving to stay on the right path.How do you do it?? How do you manage for those living in a western culture which doesnt really doesnt support an islamic culture.I am a new muslimah and i am loving islam..however.. I feel really bad for the things in the quran that I take as true, anything from allah I take as true,I just have somethings I do not understand..Mainly muslim men being able to have more than one wife. I understand why this was originally but i wonder is there a need for it know. Is there any other muslim sisters out there with this same problem? I know its halal to marry more than one wife but honestly when I do get married I want to be my husbands only wife. Is that asking for to much and am I unrealistic to think this way. I ask allah everyday for the maturity one needs to understand this situation. Can any sisters out there reading this share this experience with marriage and if they would be ok with multiple wives,if there current or past husbands had multiple wives, and or if their father had multiple wives. I feel disloyal to islam which is my chosen religion that I am happy and proud of but this one thing scares me to death! I know it may be a possibility one day and I hope to be able to grow and read my quran and understand it and the hadith says. What if a wife doesn't agree to a co wife? Does her opinion matter? Maybe its not that bad, I dont know any muslim sisters who share their husband but I dont know many sisters at all so maybe its a lot more common than i think. Also earrings and makeup. I have been hearing lots of mixed debates on these topics. Is it wrong to have your hijab pushed back enough to show your earrings? Is is wrong to wear makeup? Is it wrong to socialize with your family and friends who are not muslims during their holidays? With christmas and thanksgiving coming up, I find myself in this funny place. I am now muslim.Iam happy about it but my family is not muslim and they will be celebrating the holidays I grew up with. I am soo unsure about how to handle this.. Hijab is something Allah commands of us and i am not in a position to question him. I do miss wearing my hair sometimes. Am i wrong? i feel like a traitor typing it and I ask for all that read this blog not judge but offer whatever advise they have for a new muslimah. I am trying my hardest sisters,i am still struggling with something though and just needed to get some stuff off my chest. Sometimes i just wonder if i will be able to be a good muslimah because even though I am trying my hardest, every time i do some research I learn of something else I am doing and should stop,eg. fingernail polish.. I didn't know that! Inshallah I will be fine and continue to stay the course and learn and become a better muslimah. These are just some honest thoughts from a new muslimah.

Salaam, I haven't been blogging much this week due to the my school demands. This was was Eid alhamdulliah, and I didn't feel I could celebrate much due the insane amount of school work I had. This morning I had a huge exam which I honestly do not feel I performed well as I should. This is because I did find myself preoccupied with all that was going on for Ramadan and Eid. It wasn't until this week that I really understood how it must feel to be muslim in America. Raised christian I have always celebrated christmas and there is no bigger holiday in America. EVERYTHING shuts down to honor this time and to make it easier to participate in all the festivities. There is no school, work is shut down, malls are closed, you name it. All of these things help you to be able to just enjoy the time,spend time with family and friends,eat, pray,and just relax. However, this week was the opposite of those things for me. I was unable to really sit back and enjoy my first Eid. I couldnt attend the Eid prayer because I had a mandatory class and then I also had a huge exam this morning, that although I did take the day off on Tuesday to celebrate, I paid for it big time. My point is that nothing stopped all around you to allow you to stop and focus on this special time truly means, and that is disappointing to me..I know I may be just complaining but Its just kinda said for Muslims in America, how are biggest holiday is so disregarded. Inshallah next year will be different for me as I will try to plan better in advance so that I can be able to partake in all of the things this wonderful time offers.