And how I dress exclamation mark — Social scientists estimate that 15 to 30 percent,...

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Sounds perfect Wahhhh, I don’t wanna
thcoralsea

Social scientists estimate that 15 to 30 percent, or, “[a]s many as 600,000 to 1.2 million slaves” in antebellum America were Muslims. 46 percent of the slaves in the antebellum South were kidnapped from Africa’s western regions, which boasted “significant numbers of Muslims”.

These enslaved Muslims strove to meet the demands of their faith, most notably the Ramadan fast, prayers, and community meals, in the face of comprehensive slave codes that linked religious activity to insubordination and rebellion. Marking Ramadan as a “new American tradition” not only overlooks the holy month observed by enslaved Muslims many years ago, but also perpetuates their erasure from Muslim-American history.

Although the Quran “[a]llows a believer to abstain from fasting if he or she is far from home or involved in strenuous work,” many enslaved Muslims demonstrated transcendent piety by choosing to fast while bonded. In addition to abstaining from food and drink, enslaved Muslims held holy month prayers in slave quarters, and put together iftars - meals at sundown to break the fast - that brought observing Muslims together. These prayers and iftars violated slave codes restricting assembly of any kind.

For instance, the Virginia Slave Code of 1723 considered the assembly of five slaves as an “unlawful and tumultuous meeting”, convened to plot rebellion attempts. Every state in the south codified similar laws barring slave assemblages, which disparately impacted enslaved African Muslims observing the Holy Month.

Therefore, practicing Islam and observing Ramadan and its fundamental rituals, for enslaved Muslims in antebellum America, necessitated the violation of slave codes. This exposed them to barbaric punishment, injury, and oftentimes, even death. However, the courage to observe the holy month while bonded, and in the face of grave risk, highlights the supreme piety of many enslaved Muslims.

Ramadan was widely observed by enslaved Muslims. Yet, this history is largely ignored by Muslim American leaders and laypeople alike - and erased from the modern Muslim American narrative.

Ramadan: A centuries-old American tradition (via ailurophobicailurophile)

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queermuslims
zahra-muslimah

Only straight muslim men get the privilege of accusing marginalized muslims of practicing “liberal” Islam because “traditional” Islam benefits them only and they could care less about the rights of others. It’s really easy to defend sexist, homophobic, ableist distortions of Islam when you benefit from those distortions. 

Just because the Islam that women, LGBTQ muslims, disabled muslims, and muslims with mental health issues have embraced doesn’t look like your “traditional” Islam doesn’t make it wrong. It means we’re trying to carve out a space for ourselves in a religion that was hijacked by patriarchy not long after the Prophet (saw) passed away.

And no, Islam was never meant to be this way. Islam is not patriarchal. The Prophet never advocated for people to be marginalized. But here we are now. So don’t shame people looking for an Islam that allows them to be an active member. Look at yourselves and ask yourself why you felt the need to put Islam in a tiny, tiny box when it was meant to be for everyone. “Traditional” doesn’t always equal right and “liberal” doesn’t always equal bidah. We are all just looking for Islam.

mahdialynn

Anonymous asked:

Isn't being a Muslim transgender or a gay Muslim Harram😕😕

hijabihybrid answered:

Its haram to change your gender if your already a muslim. If you’re a transgender and you converted then all your sins are forgiven when you convert. Being gay isnt haram, having a homosexual relationship in any type of way is haram. Meaning, you can not control how you feel and your thoughts So in Islam you not held accountable for that, but if you carry out those thoughts then it becomes haram.

haraamsquad

Let’s take part in a logical experiment, shall we?

I’m a Muslim woman, and a woman of trans experience. I’m one of those who began physical transition long before I converted to Islam. By this account, I should be exempt from the punishment transgender people who were born Muslim are subjected to. Here’s the catch though: you’re wrong.

The uneducated and uninitiated are very quick to equate the physical transition some trans people go through as “changing gender”, but it’s a misnomer. A person never becomes a new gender. A trans woman is never “a man who becomes a woman” - she is a woman, who was always a woman, who is seeking medical treatment to essentially correct a medical/physiological issue. This is supported by countless scientific and medical studies affirming the radical notion that trans people are actually the gender they identify with (rather than unsupported philosophical statements reifying a nonexistent essentialist model of gender & sexuality).  

When people say “you can’t change your gender”, I agree with them. A trans person isn’t changing their gender any more than a person taking insulin for diabetes is altering the state of their pancreas - these are things we are, physiologically psychologically endocrinologically. A person’s physical body may change that they may live better and more wholly in themselves, but the truth is that the person is still the same. A woman is a woman is a woman. Trans people aren’t exempt from this.

On to our logical experiment: I am a trans woman who transitioned before I came to Islam. The person standing next to me is a transgender woman born in to Islam and just beginning physical transition. There is NO DIFFERENCE between the two of us with regards to our gender. Our bodies may look different, but I’m going to let you in on a little secret - expression of womanhood is infinitely diverse and literally every woman on this planet has a different body from the next. The two of us are both women, in the same way, and to claim that one of us is valid while the other isn’t is a gross misinterpretation of both what it means to be transgender AND the Islamic interpretation of gender-variance in society*. 

* - this argument also is in direct violation of multiple rulings from respected scholars and authorities on fiqh from a diverse array of sects (including Al-Azhar in Egypt, which ruled in favor of trans people’s prerogative to physically transition in 1987; and the Islamic Republic of Iran which made a similar ruling in 1988), so historically and legally this argument has no standing. But like whatever this is tumblr who needs legal or logical support for their take on fiqh.

#TemporallyBasedArgumentsWithRegardToTransLegitimacyDenyTheInfiniteNatureOfAllah’sInfiniteReachAndMercy

[[ps: “you can be gay so long as you don’t have gay relationships” is a trash argument but that’s for another day.]]

trans-muslims-blog
huffingtonpost.ca

As a Muslim, I Believe There Is No Room for Transphobia in Islam

Both conservative Muslims and Catholics talk of mercy and compassion, but it seems they draw the limits at LGBT persons. While they have been able to get past difficult texts on slavery and concubinage, they have not been as successful on texts that are used to repress sexual minorities. Given the Prophet's teaching of "doing no harm and accepting no harm," it is clear that any Muslim position in Canada should not be based on the fear-mongering of transphobic "Muslim" and "Christian" groups. Indeed, justifying one's transphobia under the guise of religious freedom is unconscionable.

Insha’Allah I will grow to understand Islam much better.

Insha’Allah I will meet people who can help me develop as a person and a Muslim, and I can help them

I feel so lonely in my religion, and I feel like a bad Muslim. I am sorry for these self pitying posts.
Too many days home alone and sick.

Insha’Allah tomorrow will be better.

mahdialynn

Anonymous asked:

I'm sorry.. No i'm not, but how stupid can one be to think transgender/gay is allowed in Islam? Unless your source is directly from the Quran or an authentic hadith, your argument is invalid. have you not heard of the story of Lut from the Quran? You can be gay and not act on it. thats fine. But to say that a muslim can be transgender and have gay relationships no, that's not. Hello Zinna! Not allowed. Unless you were a non muslim before then fair enough. Quran is our handbook to life.

mahdialynn answered:

The fact that you’re insulting me before even making a point make me think I’m probably not going to change your mind (even in the face of multiple sources and a sound argument) BUT for the sake of anybody else reading this who is genuinely interested or could benefit from the information, I’m going to answer.

—   There are multiple verifiable sources and ahadith which corroborate this particular truth:
- that gender variant people (whom we may today interpret as “transgender”) existed during the time of the Prophet (saw), AND
- that they were accepted as functioning members of society (and by & large
respected in their lived/chosen gender role)

—   In a modern context, several authentic, well respected institutions have ruled in favor of transgender people’s prerogative to transition and allow trans people to seek medical intervention and live as their preferred gender. These are not esoteric, left-wing or activist type rulings. These are not specific to any particular sect. These are rulings from places like Al-Azhar, the oldest Islamic university in the world (by a fatwa from Sunni Grand Imam Mohammed Sayyed Tantawi in 1992) and the Islamic Republic Of Iran, not exactly know for it’s lenient position on deviant lifestyles (from revolutionary-era Shi’a authority Ayatollah Khomeni in 1987).


What are your sources? Aside from an emotional knee-jerk reaction to something you don’t understand? You mention Lut - are you aware of any of the countless other interpretations of that passage, other than the one so often blindly wielded to justify hatred? Can you tell me what that passage is supposed to say about transgender people at all? Are you a scholar? Can you back up your claims, with solid logical and legal support? 

You call me stupid. I’m largely self-educated and of course my own knowledge is limited, but I have studied, for years, to better understand how my family and people like me can live more wholly and well under Islam. If I had any doubt, for even a moment, that this faith condemns me and people like me simply for existing; I wouldn’t be here in the first place. I’m blessed with the knowledge that Islam is much greater than the narrow, clueless bigotry that so often shouts over the rest. If I knew nothing else about this subject, knowing Allah would still be enough for me.

Do you believe in an infinitely merciful, all knowing, loving God? Why would you limit that to condemn something you don’t understand? To up and turn people away from the greatest truth there is in the universe? How cruel can you be? How does that in any way reflect submission to that same loving, merciful and omnipotent undying force?

I’m gonna keep living, and I’m going to keep supporting family like me. You do you. Allah knows best.

reverthelp

There is no Muslim - or no person, or slave (of Allah) - who says, in the morning and evening:

‘Radaytu billahi Rabban wa bil-Islami dinan wa bi Muhammadin nabiyyan

(I am content with Allah as my Lord, Islam as my religion and Muhammad as my Prophet),’

but he will have a promise from Allah to make him pleased on the Day of Resurrection.

Sunan Ibn Majah 3870 (via reverthelp)
ummahboutique
ummahboutique

TORONTO: Group of Mercy’s 3rd Annual TTC campaign “Islam Taught me…”

The campaign highlights what Islam teaches Muslims in regards to their work, family and community. Ads were placed in the busy Toronto station at different platforms to help show people what Islam really means. There were 10 different posters of men and women in different fields with a quote about what Islam has taught them; each poster was potentially read by thousands of transit passengers, helping to spread the positivity of Islam Insha'Allah

thcoralsea

It’s Ramadan right now which is this incredible time for self-care. Muslims go by the lunar calendar, so astrologically it’s in tune with this feeling of serious psychic shedding. Ramadan is all about removing, renouncing, and recalibrating. It’s a time when you remember what it’s like to be tender, when you’re constantly awakened by your senses because you’re hungry; it reminds you of gratitude and how much you have.

During Ramadan (and this is whether I’m fasting or not) I feel immersed by God. I read a really cool quote recently about God, actually. It’s from Sor Juana—who was a Mexican nun in 17th Century—and she said “God is a circle whose center is everywhere.” Or something like that, it might be a rephrasing of Voltaire, but regardless—when I read that—it was a revelation. When I really started to think more critically about death last year, I realized that the only thing that makes you eternal is the love you share with everybody. Nobody is easy to love—everyone comes with a caveat—so to look beyond that and to love anyway is truly an elixir. Find God everywhere. Whether or not “they” exist. Find God in your friends; in life; in yourself.

I wrote about Self Care and Ramadan for The Hairpin (via fariharoisin)
mahdialynn
islamandhomosexuality.com

5 Muslim Nations Where Gay is Legal - LGBT Muslims

These are five Muslim countries where being gay is not a crime. What do they have in common? None of them were colonized by the British Empire.
haraamsquad

These are five Muslim countries where being gay is not a crime. What do they have in common? None of them were colonized by the British Empire. Many countries in the Global South, whether Muslim or otherwise, are generally using colonial laws that pre-date their local penal codes to criminalize romantic love between consenting same-sex couples. Whether in West Africa, or Southeast Asia, in the heart of Europe or the Middle East, these countries remind us that the conversation on gay rights is not as clean cut as some might have imagined it to be.

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