Mary was a Prophet

"O Maryam (Mary)! Verily, Allah has chosen you, purified you (from polytheism and disbelief), and chosen you above the women of the 'Alamin (mankind and jinns) (of her lifetime)."

Rather, Mary was a prophetess.

This is going to be such an unpopular blog post, but I really just want to open some eyes and get people to think.. I mean really THINK about their religion. One of the biggest problems with Islam is that so many people are under the impression that in order to be a good Muslim, one just has to blindly accept what they are told, and perform the duties they see as "obligatory/fard" like ticking items off of a checklist.

I don't subscribe to that view, and I've always been under the impression that people should open up their own eyes and THINK. Don't fall victim to the 10%; don't be a sheep. God gave you a brain, so you'd better start using it.

I can't go into extensive detail in this blog post obviously, but maybe I can open up some doorways for further inquiry. Firstly, consider why it is that you (Muslims) get so upset or up in arms when you hear/read this: "Mary was a prophet". 

Exactly why do you get so hung up on it? I'm guessing it's for one reason: Mary had a vagina.

Every other prophet we have been told to accept in Islam is a male. That's fine. I'm not arguing against the prophethood of any other individual, only for the inclusion of Mary in the lineup.

Secondly, you might say, "Maria, Mary was never mentioned in the Qur'an as a prophet!". True. But can you tell me any other individual that is mentioned more often, or has an entire chapter devoted to him/her? As far as I know, Mary is mentioned in the Qur'an more than Mohammed himself. This is not something to be taken lightly.

Historically, it seems that prophets are individuals who receive revelation from the divine (whether it be through angelic intermediaries or direct divine revelation). A prophet is also someone who either leaves a scripture behind as guidance, or tries to use their message to reaffirm faith for large swaths of humanity.

Mary epitomizes this description/understanding of prophethood in Islam. Not only did she receive direct spiritual guidance from the Angel Gabriel, she bore the next Prophet - Jesus - through miraculous immaculate conception at the hands of Allah. In the words of Michael Muhammad Knight's character Rabeya (The Taqwacores): Mary may not have left us a scripture, but I say that her book was her son.

I don't find the argument that her name is not explicitly mentioned as a prophet in the Qur'an a very convincing one. I do believe that the Qur'an was the direct word of God. Unfortunately, we in 2013 will never really know what the word of God was. All we can go by is the version of the Qur'an that has made it down to us today. Never forget that there was a gap between Quranic revelation and Quranic compilation. Even after that, who's to guarantee that the non-prophetic companions of Muhammad didn't make some final tweeks? The word of God as revealed to Muhammad is nothing more than perfect. But I maintain that we cannot be assured that such perfection has been maintained in its entirety until today.

I find the story of Mary, and her revered status in the holy Qur'an to be more convincing of her prophethood than the fact that she is not considered a prophet by mainstream Islam simply because she was not named as such. Don't lie, she isn't mentioned or labeled as a prophet because she had a hymen (perfectly intact, I might add), and I don't find that a convincing argument in the slightest.

Islam has been transformed from an egalitarian movement of the people, into a male-dominated, exclusionary society. I refuse to give in to that anymore. Women are equal to men in every way, shape, and form. God has told us that. On the day of judgment there will be no preference given to men over women, so why should we act out such idiocy in our mortal lives? If men and women are equal in every sense, as God has instructed in the Qur'an, how can women not be prophets? Trying to say as such is illogical.

I am a woman. I have a vagina. I am a Muslim. I love Allah. And I believe that the blessed virgin Mary was a prophet of my religion.

Peace and love always <3

Why I wear hijab

Something about essay season in grad school makes me want to blog blog blog my days away... My creative side gets so beaten and downtrodden during these few months of dry details and structure. I have to let off steam somehow, and those of you who read this blog take the brunt. But hey, I ain't forcing you to read this. So sit down, shut up, and like it. LIKE IT.

I've been doing quite a lot of soul searching lately concerning my relationship with hijab, and why it is that I continue to wear it. Some of you who have been following me for a long time might remember a video I posted listing the reasons why I wear it. Most of what I said there is still true, but there's a lot of bullshit. That was still when my relationship with Islam was in its infancy. Now, my relationship with Islam could be thought of as an adolescent teenager, and my views on this topic have once again changed.

Being in Doha and immersing myself in the field that I am, I come into contact with so many academic types who strictly adhere to secularism. They cling to it. I've been asked often by a handful of PhDs why it is that I continue to wear a scarf on my head while we puff on never ending bowls of sweet shisha smoke.

The truth is, I put hijab on initially to form a physical barrier between myself and the habits I was trying to kick. It's nice to wear a constant reminder on your head that pushes you towards being a better person.

I don't think that hijab is obligatory for Muslim women. I hold no preconceptions about Muslim women who chose to wear hijab or not, I think this sort of thing is best left as a personal decision. Nobody can mediate between yourself and God in the end, and He knows best what is in the hearts of pious women.

When I started wearing hijab I still drank (although I quit soon after). I don't pray every day. I smoke, and sometimes I take off my scarf when I'm alone with an attractive guy... Does this invalidate my hijab? According to every serious Muslim scholar with a beard down to his knee: YES! HARAAAAM!

So why do I continue to wear hijab? I am not (by far) the most pious or devout Muslim woman. Does that really have anything to do with hijab, though? I think not. Islam gives me a great excuse to wear a scarf around my head and to dress more modestly. I can blame this simple comfort on God, too. It's great. It's far too complicated to actually explain to somebody in polite conversation why it is that I decided to start wearing hijab, but maybe I can express something coherent in this post.

First and foremost, when I wear hijab and cover myself until I'm comfortable, it signals to others that my body belongs to me. Let's face it: today, women are constantly objectified. In the media, advertisements, even in civil society. Women no longer own their own bodies. The sensual curves, intoxicating fragrance, or simple beauty of a woman are no longer her own.

This idea that women should cover because their beauty "is for their husband only" is total bullshit. A woman should cover herself or decide to dress modestly because she respects herself, and so that she can take back total control over her own body. A woman's body or beauty belongs to nobody but herself, especially not her husband. Men do not own women. We own ourselves. When I wear hijab, I get to decide with whom I share my body. I don't want the whole wide world critiquing or scoffing at the body that I was given by God, and likewise I want to bestow the richness of my body on only those that I choose.

My hijab is then a signal to the world that I respect and care for myself, not that I am "oppressed" and/or "owned" by a male.

To be perfectly honest, I also love wearing hijab just to throw people off. Most people in Doha automatically speak to me in Arabic and are totally baffled when I respond in my big fat American accent. Hijab commands respect in Muslim societies, and deflects a LOT of unwanted attention. Of course, you can never do away with all of the stares, hoots n hollers, but wearing hijab does help a bunch.

Well that's it. I know that's not a great answer, and probably not what many of you wanted to hear but hey. I don't know if I care.

Peace and love always <3

Chewing the Proverbial Academic Fat

I know, I suck. I've neglected this blog like crazy, but it's not because I don't love all of you...

Some of you may remember that in my last blog post I had mentioned that I was coming up to another big crossroads in my life, and well.... I may have survived. Most of my posts have related to my life in Doha thus far, and about my changing relationship with Islam. The past few months have witnessed a changing relationship with myself as a result of changing relationships with individuals, and that's the type of heavy shit I don't feel like sharing with the world. Except that I just did.

I feel that since I came back from Colorado to Doha in February that my life in this chaotic city has taken on a whole new shape. I'm feeling much more comfortable in my own skin, and I finally feel as if I can relax and connect with people. I was so shut off during my first three months in Doha. I couldn't let people in, and I actively worked to shut many people out (Sorry if I shut you out, anyone <3 )

I'm normally a total loner when it comes to people, and I'm not one to spearhead any new relationships. For those hippie-dippy suckers like me that buy into astrology: I'm a cancer, and I will freaking snap at you to stay away until I think I can trust you. Under this big hard, pointy shell I'm just a big gooey mush of crab guts, though.

Since I came to Doha, I've been looking to start branching out and meeting the "who's who" of my field (incidentally very easy to do in Doha), and I've had to transform myself from a boondocks-bred, hay bail slinging, blue-eyed convert, into an academic-type, professional bullshitter, donning plastic smiles in order to shake hands with the people I've got to know. I don't blame them, they're all brilliant minds who work much harder than I do, and who really know their shit. Sometimes, I feel like if we all shut up and listened to some of these people who actually have a brain, we could solve all the world's problems. But then I remember that the world is overwhelmingly populated by idiots... And I resign myself to brooding and blogging.

The first few months of this newfound semi-professional legitimacy had me love-drunk on the prospect that I could have the opportunity to be like these people... I could have the recognition and the freedom of the ivory-tower academics. I saw the path to a PhD and academia start to unfold beneath me... and I came to realize...

Fuck that.

I am not content to resign myself to the academic ivory-tower, as appealing as it has the potential to be. I love the idea of being able to rely on my mental capabilities, and to be recognized for your thoughtful contributions and postulations on the nature of politics/society/economics or whatever. But I just don't think that that's for me. From the time I was about 16, whenever people would ask me what I wanted to do with my life, my stock response was "I'm going to save the world," followed by a wry grin.

Academics don't save the world. They postulate on it. They talk about it with other academics behind closed doors and hope that some drops of the leftover wisdom might trickle down into the mouths of the people who need it most.

But we are still thirsty.

I have always adhered to the idea that street smarts trump book smarts, and I don't think that anyone can really have lived their life when they've spent it immersed in print. On the final day of judgment, the volume of work you may have produced, or the PhDs that you have, or who you know that's important will do you no good. The more I immerse myself in the unending task of pursuing a degree I'm not even convinced that I want, the more I realize that I am distancing myself from the true human experience. Every day spent climbing the steps of this ivory tower takes me farther up and away from the people in which I can see God so clearly.

I've only ever told one person, and now I'm telling the whole damn interwebz this crazy theory I have that I can see God in the faces of people. Since we were all created by Him, He has left pieces of Himself in us, and they shine through. In an honest smile, an insecure glance, or in the shining eyes of your new lover... God is reflected.

I have to be amongst the people. I cannot continue along this trajectory without remembering first who I am and what I feel the need to do to make this world a better place (before I die in a plane crash over the North Atlantic ocean someday. Mark my words, this is how I'm going out).

Again, this is all just ranting and raving... Consider it the musings of a crazy mind and nothing more.

Peace and love always <3