Scattered Pearls – لُؤْلُؤًا مَّنْثُورًا

When I was young, which I still am, but when I was a lot younger, we never had a TV. We never watched cartoons, no Disney movies, no music, no video games… Nothing. We’d play in the fresh air, with each other, or make up our own games, instead of sitting and staring at people moving around in a box.

TV was the shaytaan box. Music was totally haram. Of course as kids, we’d believe it, not really understanding why it was haram.

The kids in school would always ask, “What’s your favorite TV show? Do you watch so-and-so?”

They’d always get a “we don’t have a TV” answer from us.

And then the whole “OMG! Are you serious!? How do you live!?”

I’m actually glad my parents kept us away from it. Most people don’t realize the influence cartoons have on young people’s minds. It’s not so obvious. You might think, “How on earth does Cinderella have a negative influence?”

And music? Well, we all know it’s haram to an extent, but really, when the sheikhs say music is hypnotizing, what do they mean?

All these products of entertainment send out subliminal messages.

Most people think subliminal messages are the messages that you get in songs when you play it backwards. That’s not an established fact and you won’t hear the message unless it’s played backward… and who regularly plays their songs backwards?

Subliminal messages are messages enclosed within another medium (shows, music, advertisements, etc) which pass below the human minds normal rate of perception. The mind is unable to process the information. Partially because the mind is numbed and not fully concious while watching TV? These messages, which can come in visuals or audio forms, subconciously affect the viewer/listener.

So when a young girl watches Cinderella… and her Prince Charming (I don’t even know how Prince Charming found her in the first place, I saw the movie only once.) taking her away from her so called miserable life, the young girl’s mind is collecting all that information. She is made to believe that one day the same thing will happen to her.

Wasn’t Cinderella made for young children? What business do young children have in watching a grown woman being swept away by a Prince Charming? I mean, really… why are we training them to think about a certain Prince Charming ever since they’re children?

That’s just the threshold.

Something else I found amazing. What IS entertainment? Is it merely the pleasure of watching so called fascinating characters do things you can never ever do? Or is it something more dangerous?

Entertain – from Latin tenure (Aha, this is where learning Latin has paid off) – meaning to go in and hold the attention of

ment – from Latin mente or mental meaning the mind.

ENTERTAINMENT – to go in and hold the attention of the mind.

So basically, entertainment holds the attention of your mind, which means it controls your mind, which means your attention span is zilch while your eyes are glued to the screen which means you’re not even thinking while watching that darned box!

You can conclude that the goal of all sorts of entertainment is to control the mind of the “entertained”.

Young children do not have solid morals. They are still in the process of learning and experiencing. There is NO way on earth cartoons will shape the morals of a child. Instead, it will deform it. Everything that happens in a cartoon or TV show is what the child learns. He or she will behave in the same way as the characters.

Another thing I found appalling was the masculization of women and the feminization of men. Females are stripped of their roles as WOMEN and men are stripped of their role as MEN! You’ll find a woman beating up bulky men while the MEN are clumsy, weak, and unable to do anything. Someone tell me how a scawny woman can beat up a guy! It’s STUPID, impossible, and utterly… whatever. I don’t have words for it.

No matter how hard a woman tries, she cannot be like a man! Get over it! It doesn’t make you any less human, jeez! Be a woman, and let the man do what he does best.

And what’s the message being sent out to young girls? Yup… it’s obvious for anyone with brains.

What about music?

You know how they say it has a hypnotizing effect?

What does hypnotizing mean?

When someone hypnotizes you, you are not in a concious state of mind. You are being controled by the hypnotizer. When the hypnotizer controls you, it makes you do what IT wants you to do.

Music hypnotizes the mind. The message carried within the lyrics and the beat subconciously tell you how to behave and ta-da! You’re under the influence.

Oh and how can I forget those malicious video games! The annihilator of peace in my life! That slim box for which I have built so much resentment in my heart! That Xbox 360 and whatever other models there are… I wish it would chuck itself out of the window.

Kids get OBSESSED! It’s like, once they play that one game… they can play it for hours on end. It just never ends. They just keep thinking about that game and that’s the only thing they EVER talk about.

Somehow, thanks to his STUPID friends, whom I hate so much, got him into it. He goes to their house, plays the games, and he wants one for himself. And so his stupid friend lets my brother borrow the WORST GAME IN THE WORLD! Call of Duty 4. Violent. Violent. Violent.

I don’t know what 11 year olds are doing playing rated M games.

I’ve noticed that ever since he started playing those games, he acts different, he doesn’t care about stuff he used to care about, his grades went down… It’s just “shoot, shoot!”

Go out, get some air, kick that ball! Stop letting your kids rot on the couch!

And that game? If it’s not training children to be fighters of “freedom”, then honestly, WHAT IS IT? They’re actually fighting against terrorists! You see Arabic writing on the walls and hear shouts in Arabic. They’re the bad guys. We are the good guys fighting for our nation.

I told him he was killing Muslims. And the reply? *shrug* “It’s just a game.”

I have a friend who goes into rants about how we’ll have kids… and… “omg, I can’t wait! You get to dress them up and do whatever you want… and spoil them and buy them everything and omg, cartoons! I love sleeping beauty, Z. and omg, I can’t wait till you have kids. They’re gonna be the cutest things ever… you have to let me baby-sit them…”

I told her I was never leaving my kids with her, EVER . And that they were NEVER watching dumb cartoons until they’re old enough to understand the world. Of course, she went into a rant about how that’s not fair and how she feels bad for them and you’re  gonna be a mean and boring mom and she’s gonna kidnap my kids… Oh, I’m so scared!

Anyways, I hope I got my point across. No more music OR movies for me. Except, well, the good stuff… The not so famous music, once in a while. Like… Fine Frenzy .

I certainly don’t find numbers fascinating the way Math-freaks, such as my sister, would find them. I find them fascinating in a quite peculiar way. It’s um… VERY weird. I asked a few people what they thought about it. You can imagine their reactions.

“Whoaa, you’re freaking me out Z!”

“Ok, you really are crazy!”

Well here’s the deal.

Ever since I was a kid, I always played with numbers during Math class.

1 was the poor lonely single guy. Quite a boring one. He can’t really get married, either. It’s like, he’s destined to be that way.

2 is the young shy girl. She’s sweet. She can’t ever say no. She’ll swallow anything down, be it sour or sweet. And she’s… quiet?

But sadly, she’s married to 3 and 3 is a meanie. He looks angry… even if he isn’t. 2 has suffered a lot with 3.

4 is the hyperish bubbly one.

5 is the casually nice guy. Married to 4

6 is Miss Extraordinary. She can multi-task and can balance everything in her life.

7 is the cool religious married to 6. I think they have lots of kids.

8 is the middle aged man. Around 40. Owns some kind of business.

9 is Grandma.

10 is married to 9 which makes him Grandpa.

Haha… I don’t have to sit and deeply think about this stuff. It’s just been in my head every since. I’ve always turned numbers into people while doing Math since I hate it anyways.  Kind of hard to do with Geometry… but it worked with 3 + 2 = 5.

There’s a lot more to the “personalities” of the numbers, but I think a few words of description is enough.

I wonder if there are any other crazy people out there!

يَـٰٓأَيُّہَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُواْ لَا يَسۡخَرۡ قَوۡمٌ۬ مِّن قَوۡمٍ عَسَىٰٓ أَن يَكُونُواْ خَيۡرً۬ا مِّنۡہُمۡ وَلَا نِسَآءٌ۬ مِّن نِّسَآءٍ عَسَىٰٓ أَن يَكُنَّ خَيۡرً۬ا مِّنۡہُنَّ‌ۖ وَلَا تَلۡمِزُوٓاْ أَنفُسَكُمۡ وَلَا تَنَابَزُواْ بِٱلۡأَلۡقَـٰبِ‌ۖ بِئۡسَ ٱلِٱسۡمُ ٱلۡفُسُوقُ بَعۡدَ ٱلۡإِيمَـٰنِ‌ۚ وَمَن لَّمۡ يَتُبۡ فَأُوْلَـٰٓٮِٕكَ هُمُ ٱلظَّـٰلِمُونَ

O you who believe! Let not a group scoff at another group, it may be that the latter are better than the former; Nor let (some) women scoff at other women, it may be that the latter are better than the former, Nor defame one another, nor insult one another by nicknames. How bad is it, to insult one’s brother after having Faith [i.e. to call your Muslim brother (a faithful believer) as: "O sinner", or "O wicked"]. And whosoever does not repent, then such are indeed Zâlimûn (wrong-doers). (Hujjurat: 11)

… So, where do I begin? If you have siblings, you know what it’s like being teased (not fun) and teasing (fun). I know for sure that my siblings really enjoy teasing me because they enjoy my somewhat bizarre reactions. They call me grandma, dadi, tomato face, meanie, baby, old lady (they’re so… WEIRD), bossy, dumbo, slow-fer, klutz… etc. Well, it gets very, very annoying at a certain point. At at certain, it becomes an insult thrust in your face like a dirty rag. Even though they’re joking, it slowly starts to sink into your subconscious mind and you feel hurt by their comments.

A while ago, Sr. R once mentioned in class that we should refrain from calling each other names, nicknames, etc, because you don’t know if you’re hurting that person. It’s so common, living in the society we live in, to playfully call your friends stupid, idiot, dumb, and so on… I mean, there’s nothing wrong with saying the word stupid when necessary, but STOP SAYING IT IN EVERY SENTENSE!!!! My sister and her friend coined this phrase “stew cow” so they wouldn’t have to say “stupid”. Thank GOD they got over it.

It’s kind of hard to apply these… rules. Very hard.

I don’t have a problem with calling people names . Exceptions applied for a FEW people.

But the rest of the Surah (Hujjuraat), definately your guide to Islamic behavior… one rule at a time.

And women are experts at scoffing at each other. For real.