Friday, December 15, 2006

Scholarly Osmosis

Apparently I'm uber religious. And I'm also the female scholar of the area. Don't ask me how this happened, it just did.

I was talking to a friend of mine today and she was telling me about her grandfather who passed away. Then she paused and said "Allah yirhamo" (May Allah have mercy on him), and asked me "is that what I should say when I talk about someone who passed away?" And I replied "umm, yeah I guess so." And she says, "well, you're the religious one (pointing to my abaya), you would know."

So yeah, my abaya makes me know these things. It's like the cloth is infused with Islamic knowledge - once someone puts it on, BAM it's fatwa time!



If that's true, I wonder what school of thought Michael Jackson specializes in...

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

Salamaat,
You've been tagged :)

MTR said...

that's funny..

i had a similar kinda thing happend tome. At dinner with friends, random dude asks me a question prefacing it with: "You look like someone who would know"

Yup, apparently the beard emanates islamic knowledge

M&M said...

lol aww

ya wearing a hijab does that too, so i figure the abaya steps it up a notch:P. But ya weird stereotyping sometimes, it gets annoying.

Anonymous said...

SubhanaAllah, am I the only one that doesn't get that? even with my abaaya? (maybe niqaab will do it for me)

Maybe it's just me. Be more like me, it won't happen to ya... :P

HC

Anonymous said...

people used to ask me all sorts of islamic rulings and opinions on just about anything back when my beard was huge.

some favorite times:

"Oh, Hafiz sahib, you lead the prayer"
(despite the fact that i'm not a Hafiz)

...and being asked at random family events to "open" the evening with a recitation. (again, not a Hafiz)

Anonymous said...

people used to ask me all sorts of islamic rulings and opinions on just about anything back when my beard was huge.

some favorite times:

"Oh, Hafiz sahib, you lead the prayer"
(despite the fact that i'm not a Hafiz)

...and being asked at random family events to "open" the evening with a recitation. (again, not a Hafiz)

Anonymous said...

I'll pretend that I wrote the second post of the double-posts by Umar above, since the exact same thing happens to me. I often get asked about all sorts of rulings, and am asked to recite at a bunch of random events by people who think I'm a hafiz. Though at family events, I'm usually off the hook thanks to my actual-Hafiz brother, alhamdolillah.

Anonymous said...

What's better - to be treated as a scholar but really be unknowledgable or be treated as a fool yet be a scholar? Perceptions are different for each I guess. (that was a rhetorical question by the way - nothing implied there)

Asmaa said...

Maliha, but my whole blog is about me being weird :|

MTR, haha, you're actually the one who's usually confused, not the other way around :P

MN, hmm interesting extension on our conversation. But I still don't agree with you ;)

M&M, yeah I never used to get stuff like this before I starting wearing abayas. I guess it comes with the territory.

HC, I have a few theories as to why you don't get this, hehe. Because you're a punk/gangster Abaya-wearer. Whereas I have the whole halo look ;) (I know, astaghfirullah)

UmarX2, it's too bad you trimmed your beard. But yeah, people also join you in prayer and forcefully make you be the imam. Haha.

Faraz, it's the beard, surely. Because coming across a full-bearded young guy is somewhat rare, people may think you have some kinda extra barakah. Haha, beware.

Nauman, what's better? Being treated like a fool but being a scholar is definitely better than vice versa. At least arrogance won't come in that way.

Anonymous said...

How come nobody's responding to the question of MJ's school of thought? I think he adheres to the Majnuni school but I haven't heard him say exactly so I could be wrong...

Michael Jackson al-Majnuni...has a ring to it, doesn't it? Wouldn't it be "funny" if they brought him to RIS 2007 to talk about his "conversion" to Islam?

Anonymous said...

as brother Umar said,

It's the same with beards. I swear, I've had a record of 7 people asking me if loving a girl is Halaal or not. At the same time, everyone wants the dude with the beard to lead the Salah, whether he has good tajweed or not

ehh

So yeah...there you have it.

Vaqas said...

Religion..come on!
Half of the blogs that I have visited in last two hours were about religion. Yet in real life nobody is religious, even ethical.

MTR said...

vaqas:

Two hours spent visiting blogs ? Try google reader

Anonymous said...

I feel a bit off topic compared to the rest of the posts....but my first thought when seeing the pic was...that cloth looks really soft, thats probably pretty comfortable clothing.

Asmaa said...

Rizwan, haha yes the magnuni school of thought (it would have to be with the Egyptian hard G though. That sounds more authentic).

Slave of Allah, but then maybe having a beard will motivate you to live up to people's standards, no?

Vaqas, in "real life" people ARE religious and ethical. Maybe you need to find new friends or actually go to the masjid to see these anomalies. You don't have to visit my blog if you don't want to hear religious stuff.

MTR, you and google :|

Ahmed, you're so right! Abayas are the most comfortable clothes in the history of...clothing! :D Actually, I think shalwar kameezes are probably up there on the scale of comfyness too :)

Vaqas said...

hahaha
see? this is how religious people like you act.

Asmaa said...

"This is how religious people like you act." Wait, I thought you said there were no religious people. But now I'm religious apparently. Well, thanks.

Vaqas said...

perhaps that's why I included "like you" in the phrase.
and it just added to my belief that there are no religious people.





if you know what I mean.

Asmaa said...

So now you're saying that I'm irreligious? Wow. I really dislike people passing judgement on me (especially having only seen my blog), so I'm not even going to dignify that with a response.

Vaqas said...

hahahaha
such a kid

I didnt mean to instigate a brawl, alright?
it ends here

good day.