This past weekend my parents and sister came into town to visit both me and my brother.  Friday night we were at my brother’s place for iftar.  My bhabi had made quite a spread of food.  I did happen to think it was quite blog-worthy, despite what she thought.  The food she made hit the spot, after a long day of fasting.  The chocolate cake at the end of the evening was to die-for.  It was the type of cake that when you’re first offered it you think, I’m too full to eat it, but then when you see it, your start thinking about how much milk you’ll need to take it down.  Delicious!

After eating, the men went for tarawih, and I got to spend time with just the girls.  It was a lot of fun unwinding with Ammi, Ummy, Fahma, Hunno, my puhpo and Jenny.  We talked about purses, sales, cooking, and everything girly in between.  I felt so relaxed leaning against the coach in front of my puhpo, having her pinch my cheeks, and tell me I’m made of milai.

When the men came back, the rest of Saqib’s family left back home, but the two of us stayed behind with my family and did a half exchange of Eid gifts.  Basically, nothing was wrapped and things were being pulled out of giant Bed Bath and Beyond plastic bags :)  One person, who shall remain unnamed, came into the room ho-ho-hoing like it was Christmas time… haraam!  Just kidding, just kidding.

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The administration asked teachers to make themselves more availible to the students who need help, so we have to keep office hours once a week.  Every Wednesday I stay after school for one hour to tutor my students.  This is now the 5th week of school, and since then, I have only seen 2 students ask me for help.  It’s interesting, because these students probably don’t really need that much help, but they just want to ask.  And because they come to my office hours and show me they’re concerned with mastering their skills, I’ve grown to love them more over my other students.

Meanwhile, the masses are still not coming.  And I’m becoming more and more frustrated with them.  Why?  Because they all need my help.  They’re failing quizzes and tests and getting really low scores on the homework that they hardly turn in.  I know they care about their grades, because when I pass back graded assignments, they’re all really upset.  But they don’t do anything about it.  I have repeatedly told them about my office hours, and that I’m availible to meet them on other days too, before, during or after school.  And yet, no one takes me up on this offer.  So, like I said, I’m starting to become frustrated with them because they won’t help themselves by asking for help.

I was thinking, the other day, of the stupidity of the whole situation.  Here I have students in dire need of help, and I’ve made myself availible to them, and they’re not coming or asking.  And then I thought… this sounds familiar. 

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I am feeling like a lame-wad.

I *know* I’m not using my time wisely in Ramadan.  Between the physical exhuastion of fasting and the mental and emotional exhaustion of work, I “can’t” find time to do any extra ibadah.  I’m so behind in my Qur’an, and I’ve hardly been to the masjid to pray tarawih.  Sure I’ve prayed at home, but it isn’t the same.  I get tired easily and give up after just a few sets of nafl.

I don’t want to be one of those people at the end of Ramadan that is filled with regret because this amazing opportunity has slipped right past me.  For the past few days it’s all I can think about– I’m going to regret this.  I’m going to regret this.  I’m going to regret this.  And what’s annoying now is that I’m wasting time thinking about how much time I’m wasting!!

So my new policy is that no matter how tired I am from work, no matter how much grading and planning I have to do, no matter how much cooking I need to do for a party, I’m going to let go of my physical exhaustion and turn into a robot.  After all, fasting was prescribed for “just a few days, ” so if I’m tired now… insha’Allah in just a few days, I won’t be.

O you who have believed, decreed upon you is fasting as it was decreed upon those before you that you may become righteous -[Fasting for] a limited number of days. (2:183-184)

Even Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala is giving us tussalli that it isn’t gonna last forever, so man up and do whatcha gotta do!

Last ten days, here I come!

Craving #4–An Enormous Plate Of Nachos

I want lots of oozing, gooey, melty cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, sour cream, my beloved guacamole, black olives and green onions all over crunchy, crispy and salty tortilla chips. If I can get some meat on that, that’d be nice, thanks!

Over the past week each of my math classes has had to face their first formal assessment.  Before any test I usually like to give some extra credit.  This time was no different.  I offered the students a few extra points if they were willing to explain to me what the above equation meant to them in terms of Ramadan and/or Islam.  Below are some of the more interesting answers I read through:

To relate this equation Islamically you will have to think about it very closely.  So the — or the 2 minuses will change to ++.  So Islamically the meaning of this equation is that 1 good deed + another good deed = 2 good deeds.  We should always do good deeds and Allah will reward us with double the deeds.

^ Not quite what I had in mind, but good. ^

I think that this equation can tell a lot about Islam.  One way is that if there is a good influence people will be affected. So what we can relfect off this math problem is that if there is a good person who has good iman and is a really good person, and there is another person but he is bad when it comes to this behaviors, that one person can influence him to be a better person.  So when you get that bad out of him, then tehre will be two people with good iman, etc.

^ This had an illustration to go with it! ^

If there is a non-Muslim and you are there when he/she converts to Islam, then now you have 2 muslims.

^ I do agree that when I see people take the shahada, it renews my faith ^

First of all, math, especially algebra, was first introduced by Al-Barooni.  So math relates to Islam a bit.  And this equation right here means to me that if there is a bad person (-1) that does all haram things like backbites, lies, cheats, drinks, etc and he stays with the company of a good person (1) that is pious and follows the way of Allah and does good things like prays, read Qur’an, gives to the poor, takes care of his family, etc, then that bad person will eventually become a good person and goes on to the straight path and becomes a better Muslim.  So now there will be two good Muslims (+2) following the way of Allah and so and so forth.  So that is what this equation means to me in Islam.

^ Very detailed, right? ^

Well, it shows that if one person works together even if they have different religions a positive and a negative they can work together and be a positive.

^I think she meant that the -(-1) is a person of a different religion ^

The expression means that 2 negative people can become positive with the impact of one good person.

^A very short and simple idea ^

And finally my favorite… a little hard to follow, but fantastic all around.

This math expression is related to Islam.  This is the reason why.  The negative outside the parenthesis is the environment and the negative sign in the parenthesis is the person’s heart and the positive one (+1) is the good person.  The negative person and his diseased heart is surrounded by a negative environment.  Then one day this sad negative person with his negativ heart meets this very positive individual who relfects his positive akhlaq and imaan to change the 2 negatives into positives.  Then the negative person’s heart and it’s environment become positive and the two positive individuals become a strong force of two to spread the message of Islam.

^ Moral of her story… spread some positivity!  It might affect a negative heart ^