Road to Jannah

I saw this film twice, once at home and once in the movie theater and loved it. I don’t know much about the “real history” although it seems quite disputed. However, my father is from India and quite scholarly about that stuff so I asked him quite a bit about it. We also visited a number of the famous Mughal sites in India such as Fatepur Sikri etc and learned about it when we were younger. So, sure a lot of stuff was made up, and liberal license was definitely taken into making the movie. (Like those whole made up conditions? Sorry women didn’t have a say in anything back then! and ignoring the whole fact that she had converted to Islam and never had a temple in her quarters!) It’s a true Bollywood style movie with romance, intrigue, betrayal, praying to hindu gods, huge songs, even elephants! etc.

They do show some subtle anti-Islamic things like he’s only cured once she worships her god and how the only hijab wearing ‘religious’ wet nurse is evil, along with the self-righteous ulema. But I don’t think they were obviously ‘anti-islam’. It was more like they were trying to push secularism across.

In the end, I think the movie showed what the director wanted to show and got the message he wanted to get across. He wanted to show that the Moghuls weren’t evil conquerors. He wanted to show that Akbar was a truly great man, a humanist who had the vision and guts to unite India, and truly do what his forefathers weren’t able to do — position himself as an ‘Indian’ ruler and not a foreigner and subsequently conquer all of India. Many people say this deen-e-ilahi was just a half way thing that the hindus could be brought to accept until they could be eventually ready for Islam. It was just a different name for islam/tawheed after all it means ‘religion of God’. If he had been harsh and pushed islam down peoples throats, he would never have ‘won’ the people, let alone have legitimacy of reign. If you are a smart ruler you make alliances, you arrange marriages with the enemies and conquered, you do all these things to bring peace to your empire. You respect the traditions, you incorporate the culture and traditions of the land while keeping ur religion, you make it your own. This is the way Islam spread across the world so quickly and peacefully.

[I think there’s truly a lesson for us to learn here. As Islam spread, it spread as principles and practice, it incorporated the local culture. It didn’t change who people were. It created a new culture that adhered to Islamic principles and kept their own traditions. Their societies were intact culturally. People were given freedom in what they wanted to believe. Today, we have like this black and white mentality. It’s like something is either completely wrong if it isn’t one certain way. Wearing ethnic dress: Haram. Wearing a black jilbab: Halal must do, only way to do. Being harsh to enemies and beheading them: Halal. It’s like?? The world is not so black and white. We’ve truly somehow lost the Islam in there being like this you know what I mean?]

The director also showed the awesome scale of the Moghul power and pageantry, their love for arts, architecture, poetry. The main moral seems to be in the last words of the film: that only through respecting each other’s traditions and religions will India ever have true peace and happiness. And that is definitely a very Islamic principle. Muslims ruled India for 800 years as a minority and you see that they were always allowed to keep their traditions and religions.

I loved the clothes and jewelery and to see Fatepur Sikri like that was like a vision come true. Truly beautifully filmed. Even the battle scenes, while gory were well choreographed and shot. The songs were poetry. And I also liked that they showed Akbar as a principled man, and spiritual with his Sufism stuff. And I also liked the whole playing out of an arranged marriage to good end, I thought the whole love story was done very well.

I hope Indians watch this in droves because there is no doubt it shows Muslims in a good light even if it doesn’t seem like it to us. Extreme hindu groups in India are calling for banning it and bombing theaters because they think it shows Mughals in too good a light. Muslims say there’s not enough strict “Islam” in it and of course that the whole love story/keeping her hinduism is fiction not to mention there are a number of loveydovey scenes in it during the love story and are protesting it. And then in Rajasthan it’s banned because they don’t like how it portrays their Rajput history. For a film that’s trying to get across the message of religious harmony, it’s sadly ironic.

PS.  I wouldn’t really recommend this film for Muslims to watch because it’s a straight out bollywood movie, but I would recommend for all of us to learn more about the history of this time period and think about the lessons for us maybe.

EVERYONE NEEDS TO WATCH THIS. Amazing how they do this stuff.

http://www.muslimadvocates.org/get_involved/got_rights.html

Watch how easy it is to trap ordinary Muslims. This is exactly how they do it. Poor Muslims invite them into their homes and serve them tea. This is exactly what my mom would do! Have to make her watch this!!

Some days I just want to take off my hijab and wear a cute outfit and walk around outside and be a different person. Just be a normal person where no one looks at me weird and where maybe a cute guy in the grocery store says hi and talks about the freshness of canteloupes. Does this make any sense?

In other news… get married early. (aka before 25) Because when you get older and want to get married not only is there no one left to marry even if you do find someone all your friends are already married with 1-2 kids and are too busy to help you do anything. You kind of lose all enjoyment of it.

Cairo - Al Qahira - City Victorious Part I

Cairo, Al-Qahira, City Victorious, City of a Thousand Minarets, Islamic Cairo, Fatamid Cairo, Ancient Cairo, New Cairo. “You would be mistaken if you think of Cairo as one city, because it is not”, said Leyla as she deftly changed gears and sped narrowly around the car in front of us, missing it’s bumper by inches, her perfectly matching scarf layers fluttering in the wind. We were in her little car around 11pm, heading back from a day at a villa in a nearby area outside of Cairo. The traffic was horrendous even at that time. We were passing by rows of glitzy shops, BMWs and women coming out of restaurants wearing sequined tops and jeans. This was the New Downtown, she told us. I could have been anywhere in the world, like LA or downtown Manhattan, but every now and then I’d see a man in a Jalabiyya on the street and remember with a little shock that I’m in Egypt.

Ever since leaving New York I’ve been feeling like Alice who fell down into a new world, where nothing is like what she expected. My trip first started out at JFK where as our plane headed to the runway we were told we were 8th in line and would have to wait 50 minutes. After a while the pilot came on and told us that we would have to return to the terminal “because a mother had left her baby behind”! This caused a lot of surprise and shock and a murmur went up in the whole plane, and an older woman in front quipped in Arabic that she could understand leaving her husband behind but not her child! This caused a lot of laughter and I remembered that Egyptians were always known for their good senses of humor. So our plane turned around on the tarmac and we headed towards the terminal. I called my dad from my cell phone and told him to try to email my sister and brother-in-law to tell them I’d be about 2 hours late because of what happened. He said, well you never know about these things, sometimes they tell passengers one thing but really it’s something else. I said, how could they make a story like that up!

All the TV screens were tuned to the camera in front of the plane and a few minutes later, all of a sudden we see 4 or 5 police cars and security vehicles surround the front of the plane effectively stopping us dead on the tarmac. It was like a scene out of a movie. “Uh oh” we all thought. For half a second I was scared there was some kind of hostage situation. But as we waited a long while nothing happened. Finally the pilot came on and said on request of the authorities the “American” mother was taken off the plane and arrested and they were just trying to get her luggage off.

Finally it was taken care of and we headed back and lifted off. The seat next to me was empty but next to that was an Egyptian from Boston. He turned out to be very friendly and helpful and said he was a Halal grocery store owner in Boston and visited Egypt often to see his mother and family. We chatted about Islam in America a little and about educating children as he had two kids back in Boston. Egypt is a wonderful country he said, but the problem is the management. Everyone is corrupt and the country has progressed little even in the last 50 years. They are all waiting for Nasser to die for the country to progress, he said. But the Egyptian people, he said, were great. He told me a little about the famous sites and said he was sure I’d enjoy my trip.

As we neared Egypt, we flew right over Sharm-al-Shaykh, a resort that catered mostly to Westerners. The sea turned into beaches and land and then we flew over green fertile farmlands that had twisting irrigation canals between them until finally I saw buildings upon buildings. From the air it seemed like a metropolis- megapolis. Towns and cities all seemed to merge together, it was endless and huge. Was this all Cairo? Suddenly, it turned into desert and all I saw were dunes and sand hills and then pyramids! There were three perfect pyramids right there underneath us. I was so excited I exclaimed “Pyramids! There are the pyramids!” and the whole plane turned to stare at me and then out their windows. The pilot must have heard me too and came on to tell us we had a nice view of the Giza pyramids to our left. It seemed like we did a perfect arc right around the pyramids and I got one of the most spectacular, amazing views of my life.

As I got off the plane, my new seat companion Omar showed me where to get a visa and helped me get my luggage. We headed out to the receiving area and I introduced him to my family and with a wave he left, saying “Come visit my store in Boston!”

End of part 1

Son of Mountains
My Life as a Kurd and a Terror Suspect

By Huma Ahmad

When I first heard about this book I thought it would be a detailed play-by-play of the cat and mouse game of the FBI versus the author and how he finally ended up in prison. Then I thought it might be a book about how our civil liberties are being eroded or perhaps about how Muslims are being stereotyped as terrorists and persecuted.

Then, I started reading.

From the very first line of the book where the author introduces himself in the first person I was drawn in. And I wasn’t able to let go until I read the very last lines of his “jail stories” almost 500 pages later. I laughed at his amusing anecdotes and witty jokes. I imagined his childhood world complete with village characters. I was touched when he talked about sleeping in his mother’s lap under the Kurdish sun and cried when his father died. I was anxious for him to escape his war-torn life and felt idyllic with him when he worked as a gardener in a beautiful villa in Damascus. I attended his wedding and wanted to throw rice as he left for a new life as a newlywed. I was excited for him when he found out he was coming to the United States as part of a United Nations program for refugees. I laughed at his confusion over Albania and Albany and as he detailed his ‘coming to America’ encounters. Towards the very end of the book I was almost surprised when he was abruptly arrested and put in jail. I had almost forgotten what this book was about.

The last chapter at the end includes a detailed report about the evidence and trial by one of his lawyers.

I did not think the author would be a good writer, but the editors have fine tuned the writing so it makes sense to English readers and it happens that his story is just so compelling you cannot help being engrossed.

I am very happy that this book has been written, because this is the story of one Muslim’s life at the beginning of this new century in our post 9-11 era. His story while of one man is the story of many Muslims across the world. But this is the first time an autobiography of this depth and length has been brought to publishing light in the English language.

It’s a book that is so powerful and detailed and emotional that I defy anyone to read it without coming to tears at least once. A book that I hope will one day be read in schools, like Anne Frank, as an example of the period we lived in, where persecution of Muslims while rampant is denied. A testimony to the times we live in where only history will show what injustice was done.

There are many others, of course. Countless stories of Muslims going through trials and tribulations. Innocent men being detained, locked up, tortured, harassed. Families torn apart. Police-state tactics, crimes being manufactured. Men being targeted and arrested before they have even committed a crime.

We have heard of Rendition’s Maher Arar, Brandon Mayfield, Sami al-Arain, James Yee. Now add Yassin Aref and read his autobiography.

*Son of Mountains is available via Amazon/Borders.