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I took a few moments out today to hang with my oldest brother. We went out to grab a bite and then sat down to watch Constantine, the anthropomorphic-God envies man-Devil has all the power, movie. While it was not totally horrible, it wasn’t all that good, either. I don’t watch T.V. (hated it…) and don’t really see all that many movies. I mostly read. But I’m glad I made the exception for Constantine.

No. I’m not. That’s the down side of writing on the Net is that sometimes you can’t get the gist of subtle humor so I have to beat you over the head with sarcasm. The acting was so-so, the script (there was a script?) was all over the place and nowhere at all at the same time. But, it’s saving grace was its look - not the special effects. While those were good it was how the movie was shot. Of course, you’re reading a post by a photographer. I will have to say I liked the way they shot it. Interesting camera angles and good lighting. Now, if only they could tell a story.

By the way, that’s Julia and myself at the South Street Diner last week (photo © 2005 Aaron Dumas!). Yes, she’s the culprit from the mosque incident. Devilish, isn’t she? Thanks for visiting Julia and Aaron. See ya’ll in two weeks.

Tahriym, or the process of making something haram (forbidden) is so common amongst Muslims these days. Especially with the brothers, I should clarify. As with the aforementioned article, Sunnah, Bid’ah and What Lies Therein, we have seen that we have a plethora of people speaking out the side of their necks with no knowledge or authority to do so. While this may or may not be a new phenomenon, it is none the less causing some serious problems, as well as real bid’ah (see the article to get an idea on the definition of bid’ah). Read more this entry »

Recently, I have been asked and approached to explain the concept of Sunnah, things the Prophet did, said could be done or gave tacit approval of. Not to be confused with this are things we can also call ‘amalun-Nabiy, or actions of the Prophet . Conversely, not everything that the Prophet did is to be cataloged under sunnah, per se. Now, hold on. Hold yer horses. I know right now some of you are gonna flip out! Okay, here ‘goes. Read more this entry »

I would like to extend condolences to my friend Rob and his family with the passing of his father. Our thoughts are with you all. I’d also like to recognize the passing of Ibrahim Ferrer, the great Cuban singer who became famous all over again with the documentary, The Buena Vista Social Club. His passing is a passing of part of the Cuban flag. And last, to acknowledge the passing of Peter Jennings. He was a real American icon. I can remember watching him as a kid, waiting for my mother to fix dinner. All will be missed.

I had a very interesting conversation with a brother last night outside the mosque. We were discussing some problems and issues that had come up recently but are not new issues or problems by any means.

The first case was of a young Muslim couple who were going through a hard time. Looking at this from the outside without any sense of reality, or their reality, you’d say this was all brought on them by themselves. While this summary isn’t far from the truth it does make for an interesting “case study”. Read more this entry »

Another topic that popped up in my mind after all this meeting and talking is, “why are we Muslim?” It was brought to my attention (this question) when I heard an imam make a statement in talking about our status here as Muslims (indigenous) in America. He’s comment was, “We became Muslims because we were displeased with the way in which America was headed, not because we wanted to fit in.” Hmm… Read more this entry »

I recently attended several conferences of Muslim leaders and it was interesting to see the diversity of opinions and how they reflected where we’re at. I say “where we’re at” as a loose term because it’s not a place that we’re going to as a static position - we’re constantly in flux. But, never the less, it was curious to hear some different opinions. Read more this entry »

I finally got Imam Luqman Ahmad’s site up: http://www.manrilla.net/lotus/. I will continue to add content to it (his articles, more links and so on). The site will feature news in the South Philly/Philly area, Luqman’s writings as well as a Blog. Stay tuned for more.