Half empty or half full?

Random picture, Layla and the tomato plants

Wow, the month is half over already? It has gone by so quickly! The last few days have been great here. I'm keeping up with my reading schedule, Al hamdulillah, and I have been absorbing a lot of material.
I have split up the Bible reading a little bit so I don't get burned our while reading the longer books. I have been reading 5 Psalms and 1 chapter of Proverbs each day, and I'm reading all the Pre-exilic prophetic books before I read Ezra, Nehemiah, and the Post-exilic prophets.

When I get to the gospels, I may read using this Synopsis of the 4 Gospels that I have. It has the text in parallel columns for each pericope that the Gospels have in common. If something is only in 1 of the Gospels, it just appears by itself. I think that might help me absorb more material rather that just reading through all 4 in a row.

There has been a lot of material that I felt like I grasped better than other times I have read through the Bible, but since I'm reading through so fast, its hard to apply the information. I have a few scribbled notes though, so some of them may turn into posts in the future.

The Quran is also going well. I have just been reading the Juz for each day, which really isn't that much.
I also skipped ahead and read some of the shortest surahs already. I also have some notes on passages in the Quran that spoke to me as well.

On Tuesday, I went to an amazing Iftar dinner with some new friends here in Portland. My friend Erin was having some of her friends from the Masjid and the Islamic school where she teaches over. We have just been friends online for awhile, so this was our first time meeting in person. She has two young daughters, and is married to a Somali. Her SIL Rooda was there and is also going to help me get connected with some Somali translators here. We are also planning to take the kids together to an Eid party at their Masjid.

Layla had fun playing with the kids and their goat, Baraka, who lives in the backyard. There were lots of kids to keep her busy, so I actually got to spend lots of time talking with all the ladies. There were so many ethnicities; Pakistani, Korean, Indonesian, American, Somali. There was such a peaceful feeling when everyone prayed Maghrib together too. I got to talk to Tasnim, one of the Pakistani ladies for awhile. She was very knowledgable about Islam and just had a joy and peace about her. I got to talk to her about how I was first introduced to Islam, and that although I am not officially a Muslim, Islam will always be a part of me.  She seemed to understand what is really important in the diin and what really matters in life. She is the kind of Muslim who keeps drawing me towards the community.

Ramadan has been a really beautiful month so far. I am feeling better connected now that I have my best friend Amanda here, and a new group of friends here. I will be going to a Sabbath service tomorrow at a Messianic church and bringing a book about Islam to a friend there. It is called Miniskirts, Mothers, and Muslims: A Christian Woman in a Muslim Land. I would definitely recommend it. The author is remarkably sensitive to Islam, and I can see how she too, has become a better person and Christian by being around Muslims. I liked it because even though the author sees herself as a missionary to Muslims, she had to change her own worldview of Islam after truly experiencing it.

I wish that more Christians weren't afraid of and biased against Muslims. I think that it just takes building a lot of relationships, one at a time.

Hope the fasting is still going well for everyone and don't forget to make lots of dua too!

JazakAllah khayr.

Ramadhan Tag!

I got tagged by Hajar Zamzam Ismail at Tales from an American Nomad.

So here is the deal for this tag:

1.) Link five people who have written Ramadhan posts that inspired you, and explain why.

2.) Leave them a comment to let them know you gave them "link love," and that they are now tagged.

3.) Link back to the person who tagged you.

This is actually a pretty hard one. I think that there have been some really great and inspiring posts this Ramadan by a lot of different blogger ladies.


I am really glad that some have been inspired by my posts as well. So, let's continue showing the love this Ramadan.

1.) My Hijab did a really awesome post today about how her husband inspires her to fast and be a better Muslim. I love to see husbands being an encouragement to their wives, and families encouraging each other to be faithful and love God.

2. Modest Justice wrote one about getting back in to the masjid and forgiving someone she had a grudge against for a long time. This is so hard for us as humans to do. She shows a lot more maturity that some people twice her age. She is also Somali, so I would love her either way! Waan ku jeclahay macaanto.


3. Cecilia at My Life My Story did a post on how she was having a hard time during Ramadan. This wasn't because she had trouble fasting, but because her family sometimes has negative reactions about Islam. I applaud her for sharing the hard things in her life and pray that she will be able to tell them everything someday.


4. Organica did a post of serving at Iftar for a local mosque. I liked her post because it showed what is good and bad in the community. When Muslims are considerate of each other and are at the mosque only to worship, the Muslim community is beautiful. When people come with selfish concerns only to get enough food and space for themselves, with no consideration for the people who have to clean up the mess, things can get ugly. Its important to remember that the Ummah is a community.

5. Candice at Exploring Life and Islam posted on how she's really been able to embrace her new identity as a Muslim and speaks about how she's been changing to be a better person. I am also impressed with her involvement in Ramadan and getting to know her local Muslim community better while her husband and daughter and in Egypt. I don't know if I would be able to do it!


I look forward to posting and reading more inspiring posts!

Prominent Christian Leader Fasting for Ramadan

I'm not sure how many of you have heard of Brian McLaren. He is a pretty prominent leader in a sort of post-Modern Christian movement known by some as the Emergent Church. He and some other Christians are fasting for Ramadan, along with Muslim friends of theirs.
Here is an excerpt from his blog explaining the purpose of the fast.

"We, as Christians, humbly seek to join Muslims in this observance of Ramadan as a God-honoring expression of peace, fellowship, and neighborliness. Each of us will have at least one Muslim friend who will serve as our partner in the fast. These friends welcome us in the same spirit of peace, fellowship, and neighborliness.
We will seek to avoid being disrespectful or unfaithful to our own faith tradition in our desire to be respectful to the faith tradition of our friends. For example, since the Bible teaches us the importance of fasting and being generous to the poor, we can participate as Christians in fidelity to the Bible as our Muslim friends do so in fidelity to the Quran.
Among the core values of Ramadan are self control, expressing kindness, and resolving conflicts. For this reason, if we are criticized or misunderstood by Christians, Muslims, or others for this endeavor, we will avoid defending ourselves or engaging in arguments. Instead, we will seek to explain ourselves humbly, simply, and briefly when necessary, connecting with empathy to the needs and feelings of others as we express our own.
Our main purpose for participating will be our own spiritual growth, health, learning, and maturity, but we also hope that our experience will inspire others to pray and work for peace and the common good, together with people of other faith traditions.
May God bless all people, and teach us to love God and love one another, and so fulfill our calling as human beings."

Another pastor, Ben Ries has written an article about his experience of fasting Ramadan. 


I think that fasting Ramadan, even for the non-Muslim, can have lasting spiritual implications. There are some days that Christians traditionally fast, or observe partial fasts, such as Catholics during lent. There is also the Bible fast of Yom Kippur, or the Day of Atonement, which is a 24 hour total fast observed by Jews and certain Christian groups today. However, there are very few other times that Christians undertake fasts as a community. I think that Christians and Muslims both can use the time of Ramadan as a time of introspection into our own communities. By humbling ourselves and fasting, God can reveal to each of us what we are doing right and wrong in our own faith.

Some conservative Christian organizations have blasted McLaren and others for undertaking a Ramadan fast. For me, it makes a lot of sense. Fasting Ramadan was something I started doing quite a few years ago when I first started looking into Islam. I think that those who criticize people like McLaren have probably never had a close Muslim friend or neighbor who was a good example of Islam to them.

I hope that all of us who are spending more time in prayer and introspection during this month will be drawn close to our Creator. Amin.

More Books!

We went to the Portland Central Library downtown today. Its a nice library in a really cool old building. Layla and I had fun browsing around as she knocked books off the shelves.
I let her play in the kids books for awhile and do a puzzle, then we went to mommy's favorite sections, Languages and religion.
They didn't have a lot of Somali books at the downtown branch, but I guess there are more at some of the other neighborhood libraries. They have an awesome religion section though. That is, they actually have scholarly books about Islam and Biblical studies and not just negative propaganda type books. The Islam section was pretty heavy on Sufism books. Makes sense for Portland though. There is a big Sufi organization here, and Buddhism is also pretty big in the area.

Here's what we got:

The book about Ramadan fasting looks really good. It is more scholarly that a lot of the Islamic books I've seen. It has information on the history of fasting, fasts in Christianity, Judaism, and other religions. Effects of fasting on health and its benefits, as well as a lot of information on what things are considered to invalidate one's fast.
I plan on starting it right away even though I still have a lot of reading to keep up on. I'm actually still ahead on the Bible reading, and have already finished my Juz of the Quran for today. I'll probably be making another post tonight on one of the ayat that really stuck out to me.

The other book, "The God of Old," focuses on the narrative accounts in the Bible where people had encounters with God. From what I can tell, he focuses on studying how the ancient Israelites perceived God as we can best discern from the texts and archaeology. The author, James Kugel, has another book called "How to Read The Bible, A Guide to Scripture Then and Now" that I also highly recommend. All of his books focus more upon the ancient period of Biblical history that we know the least about from the texts. This time period extends roughly from the Patriarchs to the time of Solomon.

This is the kind of stuff I do for fun :)

Who ate all the Sambusa?

Layla ate all the sambusa!

Well, I guess that's not completely true. Layla, Dave and I ate all the sambusa, and wow they were really good. Probably shouldn't be looking at this if you're fasting and faint of heart. I
If you're looking for something fun to make for iftar, sambusa are the best.
Check out Tammy's Somali Home on my side bar for sambusa recipes because I didn't really use one.
Basically, I wrapped them in egg roll wrappers that I had cut diagonally, they are filled with ground beef, garlic, lots of onion, Anaheim peppers, cumin, curry powder, chili powder, salt, and ancho chile powder.

Breaking the potty training code

Layla and her Grandma (my mom)

I think we may have figured something out to motivate Layla for potty training!
Lately she had been hardly ever going in the potty. I would put her on and the she would go in the diaper less than 10 minutes later. Frustrating.

Yesterday I was feeling the Ramadan spirit and went out and bought some nice dates. I let Layla have one and she got really excited about it. She kept asking for more...

Then my husband got a good idea. We didn't want to give her candy or junk food as a reward for using the potty because it could add up to a lot of junk over the course of a day. He thought maybe we could give her a date every time she went.

It works! So far she has gone 2x today and 1 last night. :)
Who knows maybe this might work for some other little ones.
That is, if they like dates!

My Duas for Ramadan

What better time is there than Ramadan to make duas? Here are global concerns I will be concentrating during this month:

Israel/Palestine:

The song is titled Hevinu Shalom 3Aleinu, Ma3na Ajmal Min Salaam
Let there be peace among us, With us is nothing more beautiful than peace.

The next song is for my dear beloved Somalia, how I would love to visit you someday.
Also dedicated to Omar who is like a brother to me and is living back in Hargeisa.
Aniga iyo Da'uud waanu ku jecelynahay walaal. Waana ku xiisey.

The song is called Baaqii Nabadda-Proclaim Peace



(Chorus)
Doonayaayo doonayaayo doonaya nabad nabad nabadda doonaya
O' We want, o' we want, we want peace, peace, peace is what we want

Da'iimow Allahayow,noo daryeelo, dalkeenu, dadkeenu, nabadda
O' Eternal one, O' Allah, take care of us, our country, our people, peace

Dadow, dadow, dhul Allahayow soo duceeya, Aamiin, aamiin
O' People, 'o people, Pray to Allah for your land, amin, amin

Nalada cadeeddo lagu wada dega baan
By the lights of the sun let us reside together

dadow dadow dhul adoo soo duceeya aamiin aamiin
O' people, o' people pray for your land, amin, amin

Qabiilka dhabar go'ynoo dankugu lagu dadaal
Cut off tribalism from our backs, let our effort be united

dadow, dadow, dhul dalool soo duceeya
'o people, o' people, pray for a broken land (lit. with holes)

Please, any Somali sisters who know better than I do, let me know any words I missed or problems with the translation. This song was a lot easier than most Somali songs, but I still had a little trouble getting all the words.

Ramadan Kariim everyone!

Readings and Ramblings

Salaam, Nabad, Shalom, and Peace all,

Update: As of Aug 16 I am almost done with the Torah (Genesis-Deut) and have read 35 of the Psalms as well. I'm waiting to start the Quran until Ramadan.

Our little family was productive today. The hubby and myself are now licensed Oregon drivers with Oregon license plates. It wasn't actually all that bad. We did forget one paper at home to prove our address, so Dave had to drive back while I stayed at the counter with Layla. She was really good, but I didn't bring the camera. So it's out with the old, Minnesota, and in with the new, Oregon. Our tabs had expired in July, so we figured to just get it all done in one shot.

My mom and brother are coming tomorrow! I'm so excited. My mom just saw Layla right before we moved, but after seeing her every day for a year she's going through withdrawls. I don't blame her though. I can't wait to show them around the city. We are also planning to go to Mt. St. Helens during the week. I want them to fall in love with it so they move here when my dad retires.

I have gotten a jump start on the Bible reading part of my Ramadan Challenge. I'm already to Exodus 22. I have some comments and insights from my readings in Genesis, but I may just write a few notes and post them later. As far as the Bible is concerned, the most ancient period of Israelite history excites me the most. Unfortunately, the texts themselves were written long after the events they are purported to describe. I do believe that oral transmission of stories was pretty reliable during that time, but the details are still sketchy. I always find that part of the Bible drawing me in. I'm not so into theology. I like the human interest stories in Genesis, Joshua, Judges, I and II Samuel and I and II Kings the best. No matter how you look at the inspiration issue, I think that most of the Old Testament's authors were great storytellers and writers.

Do any of you Muslimas who were People of the Book previously miss reading the Bible, or do you still read it sometimes?

The Ramadan Challenge

Muslims all over the world will be celebrating the giving of the Quran as well of the unity of the Ummah in just a few weeks. During Ramadan, Muslims fast from food and water during daylight hours. While fasting a person experiences physical deprivation, but can also use this to draw closer to God. I came up with my own challenge for this year's Ramadan.

I will be reading the entire Old Testament (Torah, Prophets, and Writings):

Isaiah from the Dead Sea Sea Scrolls 57:17-59:9, 1Cent BCE

The entire New Testament:

Opening of the Gospel of John, P66, late 1st Cent C.E.

and the entire Quran:

Tashkent Quran, 8th Cent CE (oldest extant copy)

I would love to read them each in their original languages, but for time's and sanity's sake I will be reading them all in English. I have chosen to read the ESV for the Bible, clearing it up with the Hebrew or Greek whenever I have a question. I feel like reading the Bible and the Quran together could confuse me, but might also help me gain insights into the Quran and Bible that I haven't seen before.

I might need some help in choosing a Quran translation though. I have Yusuf Ali's translation, but it is awkward to read. I have never actually finished reading the entire Quran mostly because of that. I have heard that Muhammad Asad's translation is good. Any thoughts?

It is a lot of reading, I'll admit, but I know I can do it. I just need to ignore the other books on my shelves and spend less time online. Is anyone else doing a special challenge for Ramadan?