A Few of My Favorite Things

Hello! I am back from Dallas and had a wonderful time visiting with my parents and my sister, (and dh too, although I'm around him all the time!). I'm not really big into gifts, materiality wise, but this year I got a few gifts that were really amazing and made me appreciate my family that much more. My mom spent the last 6 months pulling together every family recipe that I have ever enjoyed since childhood from all her cookbooks and put them together into one cookbook that she typed up along with her commentaries on the recipes. Wow! She even got it bound together at Kinkos. Another special gift, a mancala set from dh, which is a great game that I love and which was "borrowed" by an acquaintance a few years ago and never returned. It is a traditional African counting game and its also great to teach your kids to count, but even us so-called adults think its fun! If you have never played it I definitely recommend and it is not very expensive to get, see pic above!

The Cherry Tree Carol

When I first reverted to Islam I was especially attracted to learning about the stories of Isa and Maryam in the Qur'an, probably because it was the most familiar to me, so it made the reversion process easier. Anyway, the story of Maryam and the fig tree in the Qur'an really struck me as oddly familiar the first time I heard it, but I knew that it was not a traditional Christian story:

From Surah Maryam:

17. She placed a screen (to screen herself) from them; then We sent to her Our Ruh [angel Jibrael (Gabriel)], and he appeared before her in the form of a man in all respects.
18. She said: "Verily! I seek refuge with the Most Beneficent (Allâh) from you, if you do fear Allâh."
19. (The angel) said: "I am only a Messenger from your Lord, (to announce) to you the gift of a righteous son."
20. She said: "How can I have a son, when no man has touched me, nor am I unchaste?"
21. He said: "So (it will be), your Lord said: 'That is easy for Me (Allâh): And (We wish) to appoint him as a sign to mankind and a mercy from Us (Allâh), and it is a matter (already) decreed, (by Allâh).' "
22. So she conceived him, and she withdrew with him to a far place (i.e. Bethlehem valley about 4-6 miles from Jerusalem).
23. And the pains of childbirth drove her to the trunk of a date-palm. She said: "Would that I had died before this, and had been forgotten and out of sight!"
24. Then [the babe 'Iesa (Jesus) or Jibrael (Gabriel)] cried unto her from below her, saying: "Grieve not! Your Lord has provided a water stream under you;
25. "And shake the trunk of date-palm towards you, it will let fall fresh ripe-dates upon you."
26. "So eat and drink and be glad, and if you see any human being, say: 'Verily! I have vowed a fast unto the Most Beneficent (Allâh) so I shall not speak to any human being this day.'"
27. Then she brought him (the baby) to her people, carrying him. They said: "O Mary! Indeed you have brought a thing Fariya (an unheard mighty thing).
28. "O sister (i.e. the like) of Hârûn (Aaron) [not the brother of Mûsa (Moses), but he was another pious man at the time of Maryam (Mary)]! Your father was not a man who used to commit adultery, nor your mother was an unchaste woman."
29. Then she pointed to him. They said: "How can we talk to one who is a child in the cradle?"
30. "He ['Iesa (Jesus)] said: Verily! I am a slave of Allâh, He has given me the Scripture and made me a Prophet;"
31. "And He has made me blessed wheresoever I be, and has enjoined on me Salât (prayer), and Zakât, as long as I live."
32. "And dutiful to my mother, and made me not arrogant, unblest.
33. "And Salâm (peace) be upon me the day I was born, and the day I die, and the day I shall be raised alive!"
34. Such is 'Iesa (Jesus), son of Maryam (Mary).


Hmm it sounded so familiar, just like this Christmas Carol from my childhood, which is a very very old carol (13th or 14th century) and which is not very commonly sung as far as I know, but it was one of my mom and my favorites.

The Cherry Tree Carol:

When joseph was an old man, an old man was he
He married virgin mary, the queen of galilee
He married virgin mary, the queen of galilee
And one day as they went walking, all in the garden green
There were berries and cherries as thick as may be seen
There were berries and cherries as thick as may be seen
Then mary said to joseph, so meek and so mild
"joseph, gather me some cherries for i am with child"
"joseph, gather me some cherries for i am with child"
Then joseph flew in anger, in anger flew he
"let the father of the baby gather cherries for thee
Let the father of the baby gather cherries for thee"
Then up spoke baby jesus, from out mary's womb
"bow down ye tallest tree that my mother might have some
Bow down ye tallest tree that my mother might have some"
So bent down the tallest tree to touch mary's hand
Said she, "oh look now joseph, i have cherries at command"
Said she, "oh look now joseph, i have cherries at command"
When joseph was an old man, an old man was he
He married virgin mary, the queen of galilee
He married virgin mary, the queen of galilee

How did this story enter Christianity in the form of an obscure carol when it is not a part of the modern day bible? Was it taken from the Muslim neighbors of Europe during the Crusades? Or is it a part of Christianity that was later wiped out of the Bible, only to be confirmed in the Qur'an? I don't know the answer, but it sure is interesting to think about!

Christmas Shopping Blues

It is that time of the year again. Time to battle the crowds at the mall, agonize over what to buy for your family and generally (in my case) get grumpy about the whole situation. First of all, my parents are impossible to shop for. They have no hobbies, or very few hobbies that aren't very stuff intensive (for example, my dad is a soccer referee, you can only buy so many yellow jerseys!). My sister isn't that hard to buy for because she is a college kid so she always needs something. And this year I thought---thought- that dh and I made a deal to make each other little stockings with lots of small goodies in them. $50 limit. We don't really celebrate Christmas since we are Muslim, but it is part of my culture as an American and my family is Christian, so I still like the traditions like giving presents, eating cookies, and so on. Anyways, back to me and dh's deal with the stockings. I spent 5 hours last night finding cute things for him and today he says, why don't you just pick whatever you want out and that will be your present from me. NOOOOOOOO!!!!! I want him to pick something. Is that too much? I don't really want anything, I just want something thoughtful from him. I can't even think of something that I want for myself?????? Ah well, there are still a few days left, maybe we can work something out. Also, I have Christmas depression from getting in a huge fight with my sister over the phone yesterday, but that is a whole other story. Salaams!

That's This Cricket....

Not This Cricket

Pakistani Cricket Madness

Today is the last ODI (one day international, for you less cricket savy readers) and my dh and his best friend Yasir are watching in the living room, while I am chilling in the bedroom. I am definitely cricketed out after having watched every match in the last series. For those of you who don't know, a one day cricket match lasts approximately 8 hours and when they are playing Pakistan, the game starts at 1 am and goes until about 9 am. So you have to stay up all night and watch. I will say that I am a secret fan now, even though I complain about it. And of course I cheer for Pakistan! I even know most of the players. My faves, Shahid Afriidi (he hits all those sixes!) and Inzamam (the captain, I think he looks like a big teddy bear). I don't like Shoaib Akhtar because he had such an attitude and his hair is always long and greasy, lol. Sorry if I butchered any of their names. Well, it is 3 am now and England is batting, and I am ready for sleep. Can't wait till January when Pakistan plays India, I am sure that we will be up all night for that too!

I'm Baaaaaaaack!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, first of all, let me say that my pre-new year's resolution is to actually write on this thing, although noone reads it! That's ok, I am just going to use it to spout off and hopefully it will help me even if it isn't any good. I have just finished the worst semester of my entire life (including the second semester of my junior year of high school when I had mono). I am sooooo glad that it is over. I think that I am going to make a resolution to blog a little bit everyday, even if it is just a paragraph or so. My problem before is that I was trying to write too much at once, which made me feel like I didn't have time to keep up with it during school. So hopefully I will do better and maybe someone will actually start leaving me comments that aren't ads for weight lose or low interest mortgages. (hint-hint to anyone who has left or is planning to leave those types of comments, please don't do it, you get my hopes up when I see the comment email in my inbox until I figure out that its spam).

The Devastation of Katrina

Bismillah ar rahman ar raheem,

My prayers go out to those whose lives have been taken or those whose lives have been destroyed by this horrible hurricane. It truly saddens me to see the thousands of people who are suffering in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. On a personal level, this is a deeply shocking and heart breaking event. I have been watching the news covering of the hurricane andit is unbelievable. I am asking everyone to send their prayers and support to the people who are suffering and I hope that these people can turn to God in this desperate time. I pray that the violence that is ocurring right now will stop, because it is only making the situation worse. At the same time, I can only imagine the desperation and abandon that these people must feel about their situation. The government must react now to help them! What is going on? It doesn't seem like things are happening fast enough. Are we dropping supplies into the people who can't get out right now? Why have they gone days without food, water, and medical aid? IT IS INCOMPREHENSIBLE!!!!! We are the most developed nation in the world. We have spent millions of dollars in preparing for terrorist attacks on our major cities. How is this different? and why aren't we prepared for it? The people in the streets are crying out for help and it seems like we can't help them. It is inconceivable to me that there is not more that we can do to help the people that have not been evacuated yet. On another note, alhumdullilah for the generous outpouring of help from the citizens of Texas. It seems like the mayors of Texas cities have it together more than the federal government does. It brought me to tears to see the gratefulness of the refugees arriving in Houston today. They were crying out of gratitude just for the opportunity to sleep and take a shower. I hope that my own city can provide assistance to the refugees as well, unforunately with the destruction of the major interstates coming East, it does not seem like there is the ability to get people here to Atlanta right now. Once again, I am keeping all the people of the gulf states in my prayers right now.

Guerilla Warfare Interviewing

Hello!

Sorry I have been gone for so long without posting anything, but I have spent a week in Dallas with my parents and then last week I spent in Chicago with my sil, her husband, and my two neices, who are sooooooo precious. It makes me want to have kids right now! The oldest one is almost three and she is so smart, mashallah. She is speaking both English and Urdu very rapidly and switching back and forth. For example she would talk to her parents and her mamoo (M, my dh, it means mother's brother) in Urdu. Then she would talk to me, the obvious ghori, in English, lol. She calls me Susan Bajji. The other one is one and she is learning to walk and basically just says uh-oh! to everything, which is really cute too. Well enough of me bragging about my neices, just wanted to explain why I haven't blogged in about two weeks. And I am probably going to disappear next week too because its time for ....

Guerilla Warfare Interviewing!!!!!!!!

This is what I call my school's on campus interview program. Next week I have 15 interviews in a span of three days, as well as four cocktail parties all on the same night (we will see how that one works out, lol). Admittedly, the interviews are only 20-30 minutes long, but that is a lot of interviews. I have already had one and then will have another one following the OCI, which will put me up to 17 for the month. Lucky me. The worst part is when they ask you if you have any questions. You are supposed have some witty and insightful questions for them, and you CANNOT ask them anything that you could learn by reading their websites. Well, most law firm websites are extensively detailed. They are lawyers, after all. So there I sit, racking my brains, trying to find a question for them that will make me look like a genius. Err, so wish me luck next week as I go into the trenches to do "war" with 15 of Atlanta's biggest law firms. Well, maybe war is a little bit of a strong word. However, at times, it does remind me a lot of Sorority rush.

Helpful hint: For muslim law students, or anyone else who is in law school and doesn't drink: The pressure at these cocktails and things to drink is pretty big, not to get drunk, but to at least be seen with a drink in your hand. For some reason, it makes people think that you are more sociable, have good people skills, etc. So the solution, drink gingerale, or sprite with a splash of coke. It looks like you are drinking alcohol and you don't have to field a thousand offers for someone to get you a drink, or asking you why you are not drinking. (Or them secretly checking you off in their mind because they figure you must be pregnant). Actually, all law students should try it, you can look like a social bunny without having to worry about getting buzzed and saying something stupid or spilling your drink, etc.

Allah hafiz for now and send your duas/prayers for me for next week.

Dallas Aquarium

This is a Giant River Otter, or Lobo del Rio (river wolf in Spanish). It is the largest species of otter in the world! They were playing the whole time, very cute :)

Keeping cool in the Dallas heat! These little guys come all the way from the southern tip of South America.

Hello From Dallas

Hello! I am in Dallas for the next week visiting my parents and having a few interviews with some Dallas firms, yes, that's right, the interview process for NEXT summer has already started. Oh, the joys. I have 13 interviews in 3 days in two weeks. But for now I am enjoying my time with my parents and my baby sister who is also here. Today we went downtown to the Dallas Aquarium, which is probably that best aquarium that I have been to so far. I would definitely recommend it if you are ever in Dallas. I am going to post some pics of the oh so cute penguins and otters and manatees that we saw.

When I was a kid I always wanted to be a marine biologist until I realized that I am completely mathematically and scientifically challenged (ahem, why I'm in law school, maybe...). But I still love seeing all the marine life, especially the mammals.

So I will try to post them, but since my parents have not entered the 21st century and gotten dial up yet, it may take a while. Everytime I come I keep bugging them to get DSL and a wireless router, but they stubbornly stick to their dial up. M, if you are reading this, I hope that you are doing alright in ATL without me. I hope that you are actually eating something and going to sleep at a decent hour, miss me! cuz I miss you.

Tonight we are going to a baseball game maybe, and then tomorrow shopping, interview on Thursday. I doubt that I will blog again this week because the internet is sooooo slow here, so see you all next week :).

A View From Above

Cooking Queen and Halal Food

So tonight was a cooking night for me. Sometimes, usually once or twice a week I will get the bug to actually cook something. Poor M, otherwise he suffers through and eats Ramen noodles or soup or whatever else I can warm up on the stove in 5 minutes. So I get this urge to cook and whenever I do it is usually desi food, which is really funny. I didn't know how to cook at all before I met him, so I basically learned since we've been together and all I know is desi food. So I made Rogan Josh curry with chicken and daal and bootleg roti (I call it bootleg because I buy tortillas from Wal-mart and heat them in the chappati pan, that is so lame, lol).

On a random side note, I read a case last year in criminal law about a kid who killed a Pakistani guy by hitting him in the head with a chappati pan. The man was trying to make sexual advances on him, it was something along the lines of whether it was manslaughter or murder because of the mitigating circumstances. I just remember thinking how bizarre it was to read about chappati pans in law school.

Anyways, back to my mad culinary skills, I also made yellow cake with chocolate icing which was a really bad idea because that means that we are going to eat it. We are always trying to diet and then I go and do things like buy donuts or bake cake and ooops, there we go again.

So on to my second topic for today, halal food. When I first reverted to Islam we were living in Birmingham. I decided that I wanted to only eat zabiha food. There were two halal stores in the entire city and they only stocked frozen chicken and ground beef...every other week. So I was eating fish and veggies non-stop. My mouth watered when I passed Chic-fil-A and Eddie's, whose philly cheese steaks I miss desperately. I literally had a break down in the grocery store one day and started crying because I wanted to eat chicken and brocoli hot pockets so bad. It was pretty hard, but now I am used to it and we have come to Atlanta, which has halal butchers with fresh meat! I mean you can get filets, lunch meat, fresh chicken and beef. Its great! And we have a kosher Publix here, pretty unbelievable, I live in the middle of an orthodox Jewish neighborhood, but Kosher is waaaaaay more expensive than halal, so I try to avoid it if I can.

Funny thing is that I have been mistaken for an orthodox Jew in the grocery store many times. The worst was when I went to the Kosher deli because I had a total craving for a turkey sub. So I go to order it and the deli guy gives me this really weird look and says "um, we don't make subs during Passover." I was so embarassed, I said "I'm sorry I didn't realize its still Passover" which made him look at me even weirder. So I kind of forgot that Jews don't eat leavened bread during Passover, duh. He must have thought I was some kind of horrible Jew. Ah, well.

Its late and time for bed so goodnight.

Sura An-Nisa

Welcome to My Blog

Well, my summer vacation is winding to a close and I have been addicted to the internet the entire summer, so I thought that I would take it one step further and finally start my own blog. We shall see how this goes :). I have not really had a summer vacation as I have been working close to 80 hours a week at two seperate internships and a restaurant job on the weekends, ugh. I swore to myself when I graduated college that I would never work in a restaurant again, but being broke does have a strange effect on one's promises. Oh well, 3 more weeks I will be back in school and I will be working myself to death in an entirely different and more enjoyable way. Oh yea, lawyerly disclosure for my first post:

This blog represents solely the opinions of the blogger and in no way represents the opinions of Emory Law School, or any past, current, or future employer of the blogger, or any family members of friends of the blogger, or any pets that the blogger owns or will own in the future (including Sydney, whom I am dog sitting now).

Now I will introduce myself and wonder if there is anything interesting enough about my life to make other people on the internet want to read it. I am 23 yrs old, getting ready to start my second year in law school, which I love. I am here in the big city for the first time in my life and still trying to get used to it. Thank god that M, my Pakistani mian, mere dil, is here with me or I would go crazy. I am a revert to Islam for the past two years which has been the most interesting, difficult, and inspiring journey of my life and I am so thankful for that. Also, I am Southern born and bred and have lived here my whole life. I love Southern culture and I am proud of my roots (but I am not some crazy "The South will rise again!" confederate flag waving redneck, although I do know quite a few and are related to some of them). So I hope to make this blog interesting and up to date and thanks to anyone who will take the time to read anything that I write.