Scattered Pearls – لُؤْلُؤًا مَّنْثُورًا

Today’s my birthday. I turn *guess how old* today. I can get my licence, woo hoo!! Haha… wow… I don’t even feel like it’s my birthday. It just feels like any other day, though I can’t believe an entire year has already passed by. Twas an incredible year. I can’t believe how much I’ve changed, from looks (I have, right? Mama said so.) to personality to my mentality and what not. And not to mention, all the good stuff happened last year. One of the best things? Barirah (also known as Burrito and Bawiwah), no doubt. She’s the best thing that ever happened.

She’s got a bunch of teeth and knows how to say Amma and Abba and “no!” and “ta” and makes the cutest noises ever. She gets SOOOO excited around people. I mean, really excited… doesn’t stop blabbering and smiling at everyone. She’s an attention hogger anywhere she goes. The last time we went to see her, she hugged me. I was touched =D. And kissed me… and hogged my M&Ms… which she grabbed a bunch of from my hand and stuffed in her mouth and… she walked! My baby walked… haha… I seriously can’t wait till she starts talking and saying our names.

I know I probably sounded childish… ah… I wish I was still in my terrible twos instead of sweet sixteen…

So like… I hate being labeled tablighi just because my dad is a hardcore TJ. And I hate being forced to go in taleems (I mean, really, I HAVE to go… and sleep… and watch everyone snooze) and bayyans and jamaats and whatever else. It’s SO desi, I am sorry. I don’t learn a thing. I’ve been going to taleems all my life and I don’t think I’ve ever paid attention to anything ever said, but I’ve paid attention to everything Sr. R and Sr. M have taught us and I’ve actually learned more from the classes at the masjid than I’ve learned in JAMAAT! Ha…

Most tablighis think that they’re the only ones the right path and if you don’t go in jamaat you’re a loser and you’re “going away from the deen”.  It’s like you’re outrageously wrong and have commited some terrible sin. I also find it funny that you become the greatest khateeb after going “out” for 3 days and you become a Sheikh or something.

I also find it irritating that the whole Tablighi thing is all desi. They do everything in Urdu. There is nothing for young people… maybe for the guys, but the girls become aunties sitting with the aunties. They make everything HARAM HARAM HARAM! A lot of the young “tablighi” girls I know are SO naive… or they’re rebels . I also think tablighis are very very cultural. Note, I’m talking mostly about the women. The men… I don’t know so well except for my uncles and dad =/. Very not nice. My uncle is the perfect example of “if you’re not Tablighi…” kind of TJ. He hates that my dad ALLOWS us to go to the masjid, or to any of the classes that take place at the masjid… Haha, I remember him saying “I could teach you Arabic” when we were going for the Arabic class. That pissed me off… You don’t know anything and yet you are way too arrogant to learn anything.

Let’s see what else… On Saturday they had some kind of ladies “ishtima” (oh, not to mention that they’re really good at messing up Arabic words. Ishtima = ijtema’a = gathering). It was supposed to show the women what happened at the men’s ijtema’a… And boy, was it… AWFUL. All it was was a bunch of “bayyans”… by guess WHO!?! My pops. Wow. Like I’ve never heard THAT before. So exciting. People were taking notes as though it was the best lecture they had ever heard. And I was sitting there completing the whatever empty Arabic worksheets in my binder. Some aunty gave me a “what do you think you’re doing” look…

Through the urdu bayyan… I made myself comfortable by the side of the couch and slept . Sorry, it just wasn’t interesting. The maulana was talking in urdu and my dad was translating… and when the maulana randomly started lecturing about the ayah from Surah Ahzab… how did the translation go? “Women should stay home.” That woke me up from my half sleep.