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Salaam Alaikum wa Rahmatullah<\/b><\/span><\/div>\n
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I was poring over invoices with the baby tugging at my leg when I flipped over to Facebook to see what nuggets of wisdom my friends had posted. \u00a0Immediately I saw a flood of status updates, links, and pictures saying that Mubarak was stepping down. \u00a0Either he was going to, was thinking about it, was being urged to do it by the army, or was already out of the country. \u00a0Peoples\u2019 posts were hopeful but they were also adopting a wait and see attitude. \u00a0One friend included a screen shot of the news on MSNBC saying that he was definitely stepping down. \u00a0I commandeered the living room TV from my daughter and put her cartoons on in the other room \u2013 even the elimination of a brutal dictator can\u2019t be allowed to interrupt Max and Ruby. \u00a0<\/i>CNN shows a \u201cstrong\u00a0likelihood\u201d that Mubarak will leave and they are giving wall to wall coverage with shots of Tahrir Square. \u00a0<\/b><\/span><\/div>\n
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I do hope it\u2019s true. \u00a0I hope that this dictator goes the way of others before him, away from the country he has raped for almost thirty years. \u00a0I know that Allah will judge him with truth, will hold him responsible not only for torture that took place in his prisons, but also for the cries of hungry children that he failed to take care of during his despotic reign. Let\u2019s say goodbye and turn the page, and look now to the future.<\/b><\/span><\/div>\n
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Obviously, this is only step one, because Mubarak\u2019s cronies will still be in charge, evil men like his recently-appointed vice president, Omar Suleiman. \u00a0Surely the regime cannot believe that protesters will find this man a suitable replacement. \u00a0I\u2019m sure there will be continued protests, more blood in the streets, and the outcome is still in doubt. \u00a0Allah only knows what will happen. \u00a0<\/b><\/span><\/div>\n
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Thinking about the fate of an entire country is overwhelming, so I\u2019ll dial down a little bit. \u00a0I want to talk about the fate of every Muslim in Egypt, and Muslims outside of Egypt as well. \u00a0Let me talk to you, the \u201cnormal\u201d Muslim. \u00a0You may be a man or a woman, a college student or a graduate with or without a job, married or not, with kids, without kids. \u00a0You may have stitches in your forehead because someone tolchoked you over the head with a nightstick; you my smell kinda bad because you\u2019ve been living in Tahrir Square for two weeks without benefit of a good shower. \u00a0You\u2019re tired and hungry, yet determined and amazed at your own power and courage. \u00a0You are one of the ones who makes wudu\u2019 or tayyamum and prays, sometimes with Christians guarding you, and you\u2019ve done the same for them. \u00a0Bravo, I say. \u00a0You have gotten a really bad man to step aside. \u00a0What do you do now?<\/b><\/span><\/div>\n
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It may be tempting to jump on the democracy bandwagon and march joyously with those who do not pray, with those who think freedom is the end and not the beginning, those who only want to use their freedom to abandon their duty to Allah. \u00a0I know you all, Muslim, Christian, \u201cprogressive\u201d disbeliever, have all been through a major change and have forged strong bonds as you fought for a common goal, but this does not change the fact that in Islam, there is no such thing as democracy and to call for a government that does not rule according to Islam is clear kufr, a form of disbelief that can take you out of the fold of Islam.<\/b><\/span><\/div>\n
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Now, hold on there, you say. \u00a0We\u2019ve been fighting to get rid of a brutal regime that has kidnapped our young men, tortured them, that helped Gaza become an open air concentration camp, that has aligned itself with Zionists, that has stolen money from its people and fattened itself while citizens starved. \u00a0How can you tell me I don\u2019t want democracy? \u00a0Listen, democracy is better than the oppression you\u2019ve been under, and I\u2019m one of the biggest cheerleaders of those who are fighting against oppression, but don\u2019t throw the baby out with the bath water and give up your Islam by being overly invested in the whole democracy thing. \u00a0Balance is everything.<\/b><\/span><\/div>\n
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In your heart, you must want Sharia\u2019ah, Islamic law. \u00a0In reality, you and I know that it isn\u2019t going to come about overnight, so free elections without fear are a step in the right direction for Muslims who want to be free to worship, free to nudge the government in the right direction, \u00a0and free to share Islam with others. \u00a0Democracy is a necessary evil in this world that shuns Allah. \u00a0So I can understand if you say you want democracy, because the alternative was oppression. \u00a0But in your heart, you must recognize the limitations of democracy and never stray from belief that it is only a temporary solution until Allah grants us relief with Imaam Mahdi and allows Isa, alaihi salaam, to return. \u00a0Until then, each of you has to work to put your heart in the right condition, submit to Allah, pray, fast, give zakah, be a good role model to your non-Muslim neighbors, and always strive to help your fellow human beings by standing up for what is right, like you are doing now.<\/b><\/span><\/div>\n
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DON\u2019T be distracted if \u201cfreedom\u201d allows you to commit fornication openly. \u00a0DON\u2019T be distracted if \u201cfreedom\u201d brings you every pornographic picture to be shared around on iPhones and Blackberrys. \u00a0DON\u2019T be distracted if \u201cfreedom\u201d means you can score hashish easier, or open up an interest-bearing checking account and get a credit card easier, or wear tight clothes or shave your beard or discard your hijab. \u00a0DON\u2019T LET FREEDOM TAKE YOU TO KUFR. \u00a0That\u2019s all I ask. \u00a0Use your freedom to work to improve the lot of your fellow human beings, to teach Islam, to try to save as many as possible, starting with yourself, from the Hellfire. \u00a0If you do that, then no matter who is in charge in Egypt, you will will be the victor on the Day of Judgment. \u00a0I promise that I will be over here in my non-Muslim country trying to do the same, working within a government that I don\u2019t approve of to improve the lot of my fellow human beings, Muslim and non-Muslim, and to share Islam with all who will accept it from me. \u00a0<\/b><\/span><\/div>\n
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May Allah keep us all on the Sirat al Mustaqim and help us to have the freedom and ability to worship Him in all our daily deeds, Ameen. \u00a0May Allah bring true freedom, the freedom from the Hellfire, to all people of good conscience so their deeds can remain intact on the Day of Judgment, Ameen. \u00a0May Allah help us to remember those who lost their lives fighting for justice, and to not let them die in vain, Ameen. \u00a0Anything I said wrong is from my nafs and anything right I said is from Allah. \u00a0I love my Egyptian brothers and sisters for the sake of Allah, and I love all my brothers and sisters in the Ummah. \u00a0We have so much work to do, in Egypt, in Gaza, in Sudan, in China, in Yemen, in Pakistan, in Afghanistan. \u00a0Let\u2019s get to it.<\/b><\/span><\/div>\n
<\/b><\/span><\/div>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogger.googleusercontent.com\/tracker\/8276196425188955527-1011555934042637869?l=muslimahinprogress.blogspot.com\")
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<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bismillahi Rahmani Rahim Salaam Alaikum wa Rahmatullah I was poring over invoices with the baby tugging at my leg when I flipped over to Facebook to see what nuggets of wisdom my friends had posted. \u00a0Immediately I saw a flood of status updates, links, and pictures saying that Mubarak was stepping down. \u00a0Either he was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":81,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n