Mission Impossible: Finding Modest and Affordable Clothes

by Ayesha Posted on February 9, 2009

I’ve had it!  Buying modest clothes is IMPOSSIBLE and too EXPENSIVE!

I’ve been trying for years now to build a wardrobe of long shirts, very loose pants, skirts, and jilbabs, but it just ain’t happening!  After all this time I have a bunch of mismatched items that cost me a fortune.

I tried once to sew my own clothes, because I couldn’t find what I was looking for in the stores for a reasonable price, but that was disastrous.  The hemlines on my skirts were crooked, and I looked like I was wearing a bag.  Then I tried having a “professional” tailor sew me some skirts in Pakistan, and that was even worse.  The materials looked all wrong and the buttons and zippers were breaking off left and right.

So I’ve tried scowering malls and stores in Muslim-populated areas (ie, Dearborn, MI) but everything is either way too expensive or extremely tacky.

Recently I’ve tried shopping online, but foreals… 50 dollars for a skirt for a CLEARANCE skirt at shukronline.com?  Okay, maybe once or even twice is okay because I was looking in malls for so long for a nice long skirt.  But after that?  I can’t afford to drop $80 for a shirt and a skirt.  I’m not made of money… I’m a teacher for crying out loud.

Why does it have to be this way?  Why isn’t it easier for Muslim girls (of all shapes and sizes) to find modest loose clothing at a reasonable price?  Am I really asking for too much?  If you go to any regular mall, a pair of pants on sale might cost you $20, but are you ever going to find a normal skirt for that amount?  Tshirts and tank tops fly off racks for $5 in the summer, but just finding a long sleeve loose shirt is like looking for a needle in a hay stack.  Don’t get me started on the designer prices! (I think most designers realize that modest clothing is actually classy, so they’re interested in making modest clothes… at $100+)

Dah!  All I want is to dress modestly, why does it have to be sooo FRUSTRATING!!!!!

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Too Much?

by Ayesha Posted on January 22, 2009

Does it ever feel like just too much?  Family hits the skids, students acting nuts, job teetering on a coast line, slipping on ice, congested nose?

2:286

 Allah does not charge a soul except [with that within] its capacity. It will have [the consequence of] what [good] it has gained, and it will bear [the consequence of] what [evil] it has earned. “Our Lord, do not impose blame upon us if we have forgotten or erred. Our Lord, and lay not upon us a burden like that which You laid upon those before us. Our Lord, and burden us not with that which we have no ability to bear. And pardon us; and forgive us; and have mercy upon us. You are our protector, so give us victory over the disbelieving people.” (2:286)

Well apparently, it ain’t no thang.

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Are The Stars Out Tonight?

by Ayesha Posted on January 17, 2009

Yesterday on my drive into Michigan it was a cold and freezing night.  Luckily, there was no snow to mess up the roads.  The sky was cloudless and the stars were out.  I glanced out of the window and there above me was Orion, my favorite constellation.

Orion

I started thinking about how wonderful the stars were and how beautiful they are.  I know it isn’t a new thought, but the way they twinkle and sparkle in the night sky is magnificent.  They were glowing bright and making it easier for us to see the road.  I find it rather pathetic, though, that I only appreciate the stars as a thing of beauty.  I think if I was a little more removed from the hubba-ballu of “the big city” and “city life” I’d appreciate the blessing of stars in their entirety.

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Trip to the Bank

by Ayesha Posted on January 11, 2009

chase.jpgI ran out of checks and went to the bank to order some new ones.  I went to the customer service counter to ask to speak with one of the bankers and they led to a man’s desk.  He got up from his seat but didn’t reach in to shake my hand.  He asked me my name and what I needed and he got right into loading up my account.  He saw on the screen that I had a lot of money in my checking account and was prompted (by his computer) to ask me about opening a savings account to go along with it.

I just told him, “Oh, I don’t use interest,” and he was so pleased with my answer.  He said he truly admired that at my age I cared to follow my conscious and my religion.  He even said he would remove the prompt from my account so that the next banker I would visit in the future wouldn’t ask me to open a savings account anymore.

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What’s In A Name?

by Ayesha Posted on December 25, 2008

Two things happened at school this past week that made me pretty upset.  They both had to do with the same subject.  The funny thing is, I can’t quite figure out WHY what happened made me upset.  So I’m just going to share the two stories and hope that maybe one of you can tell me why what happened was so… wrong.

1)  For my 8th grade Algebra 1 test I gave the students an extra credit question:  name at least six of the Prophet sallalahu alayhi wasalaam’s wives.  One of the boys raised his hand and said he couldn’t think of any.  Before I could say anything in response to him, a girl in my class told him to just guess by listing six girls names.  And so he did… outloud, “Kelly, Michelle, Melissa…”  Everyone began to laugh.  I told him to stop because he was being disrespectful, and that his joke wasn’t funny at all.  The thing is… when I sat down, I couldn’t figure out why that was disrespectful?

2) Walking in the hallway I overheard some girls making fun of someone’s name.  One friend said to the other, “If I ever met someone named Anas, I would totally call him… ANUS!” The other friends burst into laughter and kept walking to class.  I turned to see who it was, and gave them all a nasty look.

Anas ibn Malik has narrated one thousand two hundred eighty-six hadith, one hundred sixty-eight hadith are in Sahih Bukhari and Sahih Muslim.  When the Prophet sallalahu alayhi wasalaam arrived in Madina, Umm Sulaym presented her son, Anas, to the Messenger and asked if he would accept him as a servant. He was ten years old at that time and served the Prophet sallalahu alayhi wasalaam until his death ten years later. Many of the descriptions of the Prophet sallalahu alyahi wasalaam were related by Anas.  His mother once asked the Prophet sallalahu alayhi wasalaam to supplicate for Anas. He, upon him be peace, said, ‘O Allah, increase him in wealth and sons, give him long life and forgive him his sins.’ Anas would recollect that he had 125 offspring in his lifetime and only two of them were girls, his garden gave fruit twice a year and had basil which smelt like musk and he had lived long and had even survived poison and he hoped for the fourth part of the supplication. He was the last companion to die in Basra in the year 93H aged 103 years old.  He was the longest living companion of the Prophet Muhammad sallalahu alayhi wasalaam.

What’s in a name?

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