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.

So I watched Miss Austen Regrets this past Sunday on PBS. It’s a new biopic on Jane Austen’s life. Set towards the end of her life (she died at the young age of 41), it was definitely a much darker and more complex characterization of her life.

I really like Jane Austen for so many reasons and feel a connection to her. First, she’s given us all these great books and heroines and heros to look up to, to admire, to sigh over. Secondly, I think her personal life parallels mine.

Most poeple think that traditional, courtship culture doesn’t exist nowadays, but I’m here to tell you it does!!! Yes! Among Muslim cultures. Ours is the most relentless marriage culture that ever existed. Like Jane we cannot have pre-marital relations or ‘date’. Somehow we have to find husbands before we are considered spinsters and like in Jane’s era we have our own balls that are conferences, conventions, private dinner parties and so on. Guys rate girls on their beauty, families, and so on and girls rate guys on their wealth/family. Come on, admit that you do it too. For certain the mothers do. Our line would be: It is truth universally acknowledged that as soon as a Muslim guy graduates from med school, he’s in need of a wife! And we definitely do have our own matchmaking mamas and the usual struggle of marrying as per our parent’s wishes for establishment versus holding out to marry for love.

In Miss Austen Regrets it seems that Jane held out and ended up living a pretty miserable life, worried about continuing financial problems of her whole family, being shuttled between brothers who had their own difficulties, having a sister who lost her fiancee and selfishly didn’t want Jane to marry either, a mother who continually harped on past refusals of Jane. Someone said in a review that it probably wasn’t realistic that her mother was like that. Well news to you, every desi mother is like that, and she reminds her daughter everyday about her unmarried status. So I can see it as very likely. It’s in a benevolent way of course, mothers want the best for their daughters. You can’t blame them for trying to stay within societal norms.

Many times in the film you find a melancholy Jane looking out at the water or staring at nothing, showing perhaps her regrets. The film shows a few of her ‘lost loves’. The first being her wealthy ‘tall and awkward’ neighbor whose proposal she accepted only to change her mind the next day. Then there’s her sister in law’s brother who she refused and he went on to marry someone else. And a few others. But I have to say, I don’t think she regretted anything. Looking back on my own life, I can’t say I regret refusing anyone or making certain choices. Even though like Jane, I ended up alone. Those were the tough choices I had to make, I couldn’t have made any other. Watching these films, you might think, oh she should have just married the neighbor what was the harm. Easy for you to say! How would you like a forced marriage with a Mr. Collins or even a slimy John Thorpe. Not so appealing now huh. They’re not even possibilities you know?

So Jane had her tumultuous life and had a niece she tried to advise like I have my niece (but she’s a little too young for marriage advice yet). Jane wrote on and off during her life, as I try to be creative here and there. Her birthday is the same as mine. Her father was bookish and scholarly, mine is a professor. She is humorous, yet dark at times like I am mostly. Like Jane if I had a family or children I doubt I would have been creative or been able to do the things I’ve so far done in my life.

In the end Jane says she ‘lived the life that God intended for her.’ And I believe the same for me.

I didn’t realize how much I missed ISNA until these past four days when I finally attended after an absence of about three years. I remember going to my first ISNA at nineteen amazed and wide-eyed at the amount of Muslims there, the sheer numbers, the awesome, motivating, touching lectures, praying in such a huge Jamaa’, meeting Muslims from all over the US, being able to buy books and CDs I never thought existed. This weekend, I felt like I tasted that sweetness of Islam again after so long.

I can never understand people’s criticisms of ISNA. Usually they fall into one of two groups – the first think that ISNA is too loose and liberal and the second hear stories of all the “Haram” that occurs and think it is more righteous not to attend. Well, honestly who are you guys kidding folks, first of all ISNA is not some monolith controlling group. It is an umbrella organization whose goal has always been to bring all Muslims together under one banner (whether they have been successful or not is another thing). But it is not a convention for a certain group of people. It’s not just for Niqabis or for Hijabis or for non-Hijabis, and they’re not going to enforce their version of Islam like some secret religious police! It’s for everyone, at every level.

I know for a fact, how much Dawah goes down at ISNA and how it has helped so many people over the years, including myself. As for the second group, I mean jeez, wake up and smell the chai, guys and girls hanging out in the lobby… TALKING… my GOD… apparently these people have been living in a closet the last 10 years and don’t realize what is going on among today’s youth (i.e. open dating, pre-marital sex, hard-core drugs, and alcohol). It’s common everywhere, take a look around in your own communities. With that kind of reasoning, maybe you should stop going to your Mosques because of all the Haram that is occurring. That makes a lot of sense then, doesn’t it?

Anyway, people are going to do what they are going to do, and your non-attendance of ISNA is not going to change anything except deprive of you of what could have benefited you.

I’m not saying that ISNA is the place to attain Islamic knowledge per se, you should be going to local Halaqas, study circles, Deen intensives, classes and so on for that, but I think it is a GREAT place for networking, meeting new and old friends, seeing what’s going on in the Ummah, hearing the vision our leaders and scholars have for us, motivating us for the coming year and increasing our Imaan and so on!

So moving on, Alhamdulillah this ISNA had some nice speakers like Hamza Yusuf, Zaid Shakir, Yasir Qadhi, Faraz Rabbani, Mokhtar Maghroaui, Siraj Wahaj, Abdullah Adhami, Abdullah Idrees, Ingrid Mattson, Jamal Badawi, Altaf Hussain, Abdul-Hakim Jackson, Muneer Fareed, Asma Mirza, Keith Ellison and even Jesse Jackson made a surprise appearance! There was an awesome bazaar filled with new books, CDs, videos, kids educational games and toys, Islamic and Desi clothes, funny t-shirts like (marry me i’m a doctor!), wedding dresses, saris!, Islamic software, paintings, wooden art, calligraphy, jewelry, Muslim magazines, furniture, oriental carpets, relief organizations, condo shares in Dubai and Makkah!, even khuffs, lotas and halal krispy treats! You can buy the best of everything from every Muslim country right here. It is so uniquely an American Muslim Souq. It is amazing just walking around and seeing all the different types of people, the nationalities, the clothes, and the hijabs…so beautiful!

As for entertainment, every night after the lectures they had an “open mic” at the HYATT with all kinds of acts and talents until like 2-3AM every night. I think it was an admirable attempt to combat the HYATTless lobby scene. They had some really cutting edge acts of rap, hip-hop and spoken word. The main ISNA entertainment had some great acts with Baba Ali of You tube Ummah films fame hosting as MC. These included the Sound of Reason, 3ilm, Nour, a new talented comedian named Aman Ali, Kareem Salamah (the new Muslim country singer!), Native Deen and Dawud Wharnsby. They were all amazing Ma’shaAllah.

Many of the talks centered around American Muslims rising up and being part of this society and how we need to change things so people feel like Islam is indigenous and it’s “theirs” and how like in the 70s African-Americans picketed for Muhammad Ali because they felt ‘he was one of their own’ and we need that again to progress! Imam Zaid brought up the issue of race relations within the Ummah and some hard-hitting issues like how Arabs with liquor stores in the ghettos are seriously undermining the Dawah!

One of the best sessions I went to was one with Faraz Rabbani (Sunnipath founder) and Yasir Qadhi (Al-Maghrib) about seeking knowledge. They mentioned how there is so much out there for a sincere seeker of knowledge these days even without going overseas — books, tapes, cd series, classes, online, offline etc… and that we really need to take advantage of these opportunities that we have that were not here even a few years ago.

They BOTH talked about the importance of this and emphasized how it didn’t matter what organization/who you go through, just that you do. I was so happy to see them together emphasizing this since some of their students go off the deep end and start attacking the other!! I was going to yell a Takbeer after that!

It really takes ISNA to bring people together and make everyone realize that the Ummah has bigger problems than finer points of Fiqh!

Another beautiful session was with Sh. Mokhtar Maghraoui and Altaf Hussain. They told some funny plane stories and emphasized how we should be compassionate and helpful and true to our Deen and this is what people should be seeing of Muslims. You don’t let anger or personal grudges and things like that get in the way. You always try to do good to others and put Islam and its teachings first. You think the best of people and treat all people with respect and compassion even if they do harm to you.

One example Bro. Altaf gave us is when he was on a plane and a mother and her two children came on but the father had to stay behind because the plane was full, so he got off so the father could get on even though he has a wife and children at home too! That is real compassion and practicing Islam and Dawah to boot!

Sh. Mokhtar went back up to tell his own cute story about the little old grandma lady that went up to him at the grocery store and asked if “she could help him with his basket’. And he thought ‘I can carry her and the basket! lol’ and then she said she just wanted him to know she didn’t hold Muslims responsible for 9/11! (This was the day after). I think I’ve heard this story about six times but love how he tells it each time!

There was an 8,000 fully packed MYNA session that was really funny and cute and both Sh. Hamza and Imam Zaid did a really good job entertaining and teaching the kids and I remembered my own good ole MYNA days *sniff

Oh and at one point Sh. Hamza was talking about kids being good to their parents, and parents being good to kids and then he says, “Abdullah come up here!… Have I ever physically beat you in any way?” and his son came up on stage all embarrassed and said “No Dad”. It was just so funny.

Alas, I miss the weekend already and am afflicted with that classic after post-labor-day-post-isna depression (PID) syndrome!

I think in the end, the reason why ISNA is special is because I feel like I belong. If I walked down any street, walked through any mall, go to any restaurant, I automatically get stares and whispers, sometimes approached usually in a nice way, but it is never comfortable. But ISNA…. ISNA is home.

PS. If you wanted to know what I bought from the magical world of the ISNA BAZAAR I bought:

…tons of new Nasheed CDs by Dawud Wharnsby, Kareem Salamah, Native Deen, Zain Bhikha
…the Longing for the Divine calendar 2008 and Eid cards
…new CD series sets of Hamza Yusuf, Yasir Qadhi, Muhammad Al-shareef, Suhaib Webb, a set called ‘Women Inspired by the Beloved’
…cute outfits and kids books/a game for niece/nephew/any cute kids I know
…Hijab pins and those shawl beaded Hijabs
…a number of new books that looked interesting like a new Hajj autobio by Sh. Jibreel, a new prayer book by White Thread Press (rest too long to list thanx to a really nice brother and awesome discounts from Al-Rashad Books!!)
… Halal marshmallows and Halal krispy treats!
and if you’re wondering if i have any money left i have to say that I *borrowed* money because i ran out of cash

***Watch some of the archived ISNA lectures online

***Read some articles in the western media about ISNA

***If you’d like to add your own ISNA Review!

(and if you know me in person and would like to see all the pictures, send me an email and I’ll send you the links!! )