Iqra

January 2013
The Ohio State Universitys Assalamu Alaikum and Welcome to Spring Semester 2013! Weve got a lot of incredible lectures, GBMS and events coming up this semester. Sisterhood and brotherhood halaqas will continue to be on Wednesdays. Ummah Commitment is back this semester and Project Downtown is every Sunday at 12PM! Iqra is taking submissions for the next issue, so email your pieces and get published! Our annual conference will be occurring at the end of the month! Join us for a weekend long sabbatical from our daily routines educating and preparing participants for the day of judgment and the journey of the soul from this life to the final resting place, featuring world renowned guests,Imam Suhaib Webb, Khalid Latif, and Sheikh Hossam Musa. Information to register for the conference, basketball tournament, and volleyball tournament can be found at: msaohiostate.com The Day of Judgement is rapidly approaching, and those who prepare for it will be the ones Mushtaq Dualeh who will be rewarded. Are you prepared? Iqra Director

Issue 5: The Last Stand

Inside this Issue My Race 6

MAS-ICNA experience 7 2 8 Speech Somali Portal 9 2

Upcoming Events

1/18 Ihsaan: Perfecting our Worship of Allah (SWT) 1/25- 1/26 The Last Stand

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Issue 5: The Last Stand

When the sun is shrouded in darkness, when the stars are dimmed, when the mountains are set in motion, when pregnant camels are abandoned, when wild beasts are hearded together, when the baby girl buried alive is asked for what sin she was killed, when the records of deeds are spread open, when the sky is stripped away, when Hell is made to blaze and Paradise brought near: then every soul will know what it has brought about.
Some Virtues of Friday: This is the day Adam (as) was created This is the day he was granted entry into Jannah This is the day he was removed from Jannah This is the day his repentance to Allah (swt) was accepted This is the day he passed away The Day of Judgement will take place on a Friday Hadith: There is no creature which is not waiting every Friday, from the moment the sun rises, fearing the Hour, apart from Jinn and men.

Surah 81: 1-14

On the day of judgment, when every Prophet will be asking for themselves, too afraid to ask for anyone else, when every mother will forget her child and care only for herself, when every friend will forget their friend and wives will not care for husbands, the Prophet SAW will be the one person who will be asking Allah to save his ummah. He will remain in sajdah until every single one of his ummah will come out of hell and take them to jannah. How many years will that be? If for every sin, a person will spend around 50,000 years in hell, what about the worst Muslim in the world? How long before the Prophet SAW can lift his head from sajdah? Trillions of years? A person should think before committing a sin that they will be prolonging the time the Prophet SAW has to wait to go to Jannah. Were not even worth it, but hes willing to wait for us, so how come we dont care about him? This man who cares for us more than our own mothers?

Shine Hawramani Comparative Studies 13 2

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Outreach Chair

What do YOU have to say about Amr?

Hes hilarious! If you havent heard his impressions already, you havent lived.

Sleek skinny awesome dude. Hes a good guy mashAllah. And hes a real OG, whatever that means.

Q&A with Amr Q: If you could fill the Oval with anything, what would it be and why? A: Those pillows that are in a sword shape for pillow fightsharmless chaos. Q: If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would it be? Why? A: Mecca then Bora Bora Island then Angel Falls Jenna > DunyaBro Q: Where do you see yourself in 10 years? A: God please as a Doctor/Surgeon. Make duas for me. Q: Do you have a favorite Surah? If so, what is it? Why? A: Yusuf, entire story in one surah, cant help but finish it every time
Anytime anyone sees him, they are in a happier mood. Great personality, mashAllah.

Hes a lot more awesome then he gives himself credit for. He super awesome.

Very nice guy. Very smart. Will be successful in life, inshAllah.

Amrs Bio and Plan as Outreach Chair Well, now that the New Muslim Circle is up and running, Dawah tables are about to lannah, inshallah. Then setting up for Islamic Awareness Week woot. Inshallah, I will be speaking to other groups and other things. Its all about Dawah. A little about me, Im just a dude, 3rd year, pre-med and loving life, Alhamdulillah. Make dua I make it to med schoolseriously. 3

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Ex-Oficio

What do YOU have to say about Shukri?

Shukri is one of those people you never want to get on their bad side with.

She is the best sister ever, alhamdulillah. She scares me a little bit but in a good way.

Q&A with Shukri Q: What's your favorite movie/book line? "Et de ratage en ratage, on s'habitue ne jamais dpasser le stade du brouillon. La vie n'est que l'interminable rptition d'une reprsentation qui n'aura jamais lieu" said by Hipolito in Amelie. Q: Your favorite book and movie? Pan's Labyrinth -film Siddartha by Herman Hesse-book Q: Favorite Food? Reese's Q: What do you do in your spare time? Chill Q: If you were a super hero what powers would you have? To Fly. Q: Which is your favorite Pokmon? Digimon

Serious. Professional. Intimidates most. But she cool.

I think that Shukri is an incredible person. Shes got great taste and I love how when she speaks the whole room listens. She tells it like it is. And she LOVES peanut butter. Shukri loves dogs. If you have a dog, make sure to introduce him/her to Shukri.

Shukri s Plan as Ex-Oficio My goal as ex-officio is simple, make sure that the board members still like msa by the time their term ends. To ensure they leave MSA with the same joy and passion they had coming into their respective positions.

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7 Minor Signs of Day of Judgment

Hadith about Qiyamah

Abu Huraira reported Allahs Apostle (may peace be upon him) as saying: Allah, the Exalted and Glorious, will take in His grip of the earth on the Day of Judgment and He would roll up the sky in His right hand and would say: I am the Lord; wbere are the sovereigns of the world? {Book 039, Chapter 1, Number 6703 : Sahih Muslim}

The following minor signs of qiyamah have been mentioned in the Hadith:
1. People will begin considering Allahs wealth to be their own wealth. They will find it extremely difficult to pay their zakaat. They will consider the wealth, which has been entrusted to them as an amanah to be their own wealth. 2. The husband will obey his wife, disobey his mother, consider his father to be an outsider, and consider an outsider to be his relative. 3. Knowledge of the Deen will be acquired in order to earn a livelihood. 4. Leadership and political power will be given to those who are unqualified. That is, to those who have no self-honor, no manners, and those who are there for their own benefit. Tasks will be handed over to persons who are not suitable for those particular tasks. 5. People will honor and respect oppressors out of fear of being harmed. 6. Alcohol will be consumed openly. 7. The custom of singing and dancing women will become rife. Drums, fiddles, tambourines and other musical instruments will become rife

Surat-Al-jinn ayah 26-27

He is Knower of the unseen, and He does not disclose His knowledge of the unseen to anyone. Except whom He approved of messengers, and indeed, He sends before each messenger and behind him observers.

By: Siham Abdi Psychology 16

Allah (SWT) said: O mankind, indeed We have created you from male and female and made you peoples and tribes that you may know one another. Indeed, the most noble of you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous of you. Indeed, Allah is Knowing and Acquainted. (Surah Al-Hujurat Ayah 13). Before starting at The Ohio State University I never imagined that racism was still present in our Muslim Ummah. Maybe Im nave, oblivious even, but I thought everybody saw things the way I did, that we are all Muslims and have that special connection no matter what color our skin is or what part of the world we come from. Then I started school and was having a conversation with some friends and the topic of racism came up and how prevalent it was within the Muslim community. Obviously I knew that racism was present in the world such as black against white but I always believed that the Muslim Ummah was united enough not to exhibit such an arrogant trait. Who are we to think that we are better than anybody else solely based on the color of our skin when it is Allah (SWT) who chose our race for us? We may not want to be called racists but this issue needs to be talked about if we want to be a united Ummah, inshallah.

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Zakaria Farah Environmental Engineering 15 This winter break I went to the MAS ICNA 2012 Conference held in Chicago. Over 4 days, I heard lectures and speeches from some of the most renowned speakers, scholars, sheikhs and imams from around the world. Zaid Shakir, Imam Suhaib Webb (coming to our conferene this month!), Sheikh Abdelfattah Mourou, Dr. Mohamed Abutaleb (coming to a GBM in April,) and Tariq Ramadan are just a few of the lecturers included in the 11th annual MAS-ICNA conference. The diversity of the Muslim population present at the conference was quite a spectacle and surely an environment unique in a place like the United States. The theme of the conference was Toward a Renaissance: Believe, Act, and Engage, and although I was not amongst those who took notes during the lectures the session that resonated the most with me was called Moving Islam Forward in the 21st century: Content and Discourse, it was presented by Tariq Ramadan and Muslema Purmul. I have to be honest ad tell you that due to this lecture being presented on the first day, I was late and unfortunately missed Muslema Purmuls contribution to the lecture. Alhamdulilah, I got to attend several of her other lectures, if you dont know who Muslema Purmul is: Sheikh Google.  Anyway, Tariq Ramadan made a statement during this lecture that has rung with me ever since. There is no peace without jihad. Peace is an instant in your life, and therefore you have to struggle to get it. Constantly. Inner peace is something I think most people struggle with and what is so profound is that this peace would not be possible without its antithesis: strugglein Arabic, jihad. Peace is not a constant and the struggle is to find it is. Basically, the balance between the two is life. The thing about Islamic conferences is that they are a tool. They are not factories that crank out better Muslims after a few sessions. The output is dependent on the input. Go to lectures you want and take advantage of the wealth of knowledge that you can apply to your own life.

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Speech.
Abdulrahman Al- Ruwaishan Journalism 15

Issue 5: The Last Stand

For by the Lord of the Sky and the Earth, it is verily truthjust as you speak. The Holy Quran, 51:23 He [Zachariah] said, My Lord, place for me a sign. He [the angel] said, Your sign is that you not speak to the people for three days except symbolically. And remember your Lord often, and give praise by night and by early morning. The Holy Quran, 3:41 The Prophet pbuh: (taking hold of his tongue) Restrain this. Muadh ibn Jabal: Are we then held accountable for what we say? The Prophet pbuh: May your mother be bereft of you! And is there aught that lays people out on their faces in hell-fire except the harvest of their tongues? Speech is kind words, to loved ones and to strangers. Speech is the Sermon on the Mount, and the farewell speech at Mecca, and I have a dream. Speech is helpful advice, wellearned praise, giving thanks, and spreading knowledge. Speech is a force for good. Speech is hate and spite. Speech is hateful words, to those present and weak, about those absent and unable to defend themselves. Speech is Hitler, thundering his way into power in the Reichstag, driving reason and humanity away. Speech is Slobodan Milosevic fanning the flames of the Bosnian War. Speech is a harbinger of evil. Speech is power. And, as Uncle Ben would say, with great power comes great responsibility. We need to be stingy in speech, and generous with our thinking. Inane talk has turned egregious: no sooner do we open our mouths than we are swept into a current of meaningless babble, harmful at worst, useless at best. We pass from frivolity to absurdity, from absurdity to sheer stupidity. In the end we are not saying anything, really, we are just saying. We become mere wagging tongues, flailing fruitlessly and endlessly in a meaningless breeze. We need to learn how to say what we think, as opposed to speaking in lieu of thinking, or God forbidthinking only what others deem fit for conversation. It is not all-important to be heard, to have others listen to what you say and laugh and clap and admire you. Being heard is secondary to speaking what is worth hearingto speaking the truth. Speech must pass under the pressure of meditation and forethought; then it will be as hard and clear and obdurate as diamond. It must wind its way through the alembic of contemplation, and emerge as pure and sweet as fresh, unspoiled water, just distilled. Dont let your words damn you. Take care to weigh them; always consider the consequences. Use your tongue well, and it will be a witness for you, on the day that ends all days.

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Today, I fell into a portal of Wikipedia and Google. Mushtaq Dualeh With lab reports yet to be finished and essays still Public Health and needing to be written, I found myself more intrigued International Studies 15 in a very different subject, Somalia. Although I am Somali by race, ancestry, language The culture and stories have only recently begun to captivate me. So as soon as my fingers danced across the keyboard and I laid my eyes on the letters that strung into words and soon spectacular tales. My views on Somali history and literature intensified. I read of a legendary Somali Queen from 15 AD named Arawello, who is said to have subdued all men in her kingdom. She brought Matriarchal values to the Somali people, which was a drastic change from the traditional Patriarchal society of Somalia. I learned the origin of the word Barwaqo, Gods Rain, and where Waaq and Eebe are Somali names for God. A nd of Somali mythology that spoke of Giants, Hyena- men and Huur(The R eaper) I browsed a Somali Qasida from the 19th century. Ive never thought of an ancient Somalia. And I rifled through pages on the origins of the Somali language. I found that its a Cushitic language and under the branch of Afro-Asiatic. I clicked hyperlinks, sporadically, and found myself on sites of genealogy and Macrobians. And oh, how incredibly interconnected our world is. We fool ourselves into believing we are so different from one another. All lies. From more insight on Somali trade ports and cities to my discovery that we were a land of Egyptian pharaohs. It never ceases to amaze me, how much Somalia has to offer. The depth of deen, culture, and history is unique to that region alone. And when we look on to that same region today, it is nothing short of apocalyptic. Today, the Land of Bards is nothing more than a land of tears, hunger, pain, and sorrow. And the icing on the cake is this has only been a reality for one generation, our generation. My vision is to change that. Dig deeper into your own culture and history. Sit down with your parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts and learn more about where you come from. Even if you think you know it all, Im sure there are treasures that are waiting to be found.

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Ilhan Dahir|English and Political Science 15

Nomad wandering near darkened places Boots fall on the ground to pass defeated faces Inactively looking for truth But I see none in their expressionless eyes Masks make it that much easier to be cruel They say briefly before they shrug at the shoulders and point up at the skies Their voices are shrill Loud as the first sound to shatter a lengthy and holy silence Sharp as the shrieks of a newly childless mother Where are my thoughts taking me? Perhaps beyond the threshold of propriety No real thinker ever employed thought within a mental prison No honest poet ever dipped pen into the ink of certainty Life is in the undisclosed, Truth is trapped in the unmapped corners of human consciousness I want only to create the inconceivable I want only to begin to see the invisible The greatest minds of my generation are toiling away in the corridors of

sureness Stringing together words That look a lot like regurgitated history pages Eyes confined to small glowing screens Ideas incarcerated by much of the same Our metal limbs have turned us into tape recorders And still I search for an original compilation The musician of our time will light fires with a symphony The greatest painter will need to make those pictures dance The singer will transcend sound to genuinely move an audience Artistry has become a social service It will need to wake us up And yet I am in search of that truth Of that inevitable truth Cloaked somewhere beyond the labyrinth of deceit Somewhere accompanied by virtue and integrity Somewhere beyond the maze of impartial apathy Paved with inconsideration Somewhere cold and humble But well lit and dignified My footsteps grow light with that promise I am on my way
Illustrated by: Ayat Aldoori

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ARE YOU A WRITER, AN ARTIST, A COMEDIAN?

Iqra is accepting artwork and poetry for the Creative Corner feature page! Got Stories, Articles, Commentary, Photos? Send them in to msa.ohiostate@gmail.com! Subject Line: IQRA Submission To get involved in the newsletter contact the Editor, Mushtaq Dualeh, at dualeh.2@osu.edu.
The Ohio State Universitys

Iqra Newsletter 2013

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