Umm Layth is hosting the next Muslimahs Speak Up Carnival (on June 14th 2008), inshallah.
Deadline submission is June 8th.

What can you submit to the Muslimahs Speak Up Blog Carnival?

Anything that matters to you as a Muslim woman. I encourage you to write from your heart and be inspired. … Allow yourself this opportunity to speak up and be a part of this group effort to bring Muslim women together online.

For some time finance houses had teamed up with retailers to shower so-called gold and platinum cards on all and sundry, with the hope of ratcheting up consumer debt and subsequently charging an annual 18 or 20 per cent on money for which the banks themselves were paying 3 or 4 per cent. These high rates of return whetted the banks’ appetite for dubious lending.

There is a reason why usury is so evil, it’s because greed can impact our lives in such a devastating way. And if you think you’re immune from riba because you don’t have a credit card or a bank loan, think again.

(Hijab flutter to Kim from Larvatus Prodeo)

I don’t follow American politics too closely. Abu Yasmin flicks on Faux News every now and again for a laugh at what the Republican Propaganda Delivery System is up to, and given that I can’t vote in the elections, I’m only marginally interested in who the Democratic nominee is going to be. However, I’m enough of a realist to know the aftermath of the Bush administration will echo for many, many years to come.

As Glen Greenwald writing about Republican spin-doctor Larry Di Rita being caught out in a lie, blogged:

This brazenness is the result of allowing our high government officials to break the law and lie continuously with total impunity. There is no limit on their willingness to engage in behavior of this sort, because they remain secure that there will never be any consequences. Until that expectation is altered, the behavior will continue unchanged.

This reminds me of the Qur’anic statement: “Verily, God does not change men’s condition unless they change their inner selves.” (Ar-Ra’d, 13:11) which means we get the politicians we deserve. Unless and until we stop lying to ourselves and hold these politicians accountable for lying to us, we will continue to engage in tragic disasters like the Iraq War. (And I say this as an Australian, whose former Prime Minister followed the US like ants in an ant-trail).

I was listening to Shaykh Kabir on my way to work this morning, and among many other pearls of wisdom, he talked about what he called the ‘dimensionless point’ (he didn’t use the Arabic, but he was speaking of the ruh sometimes translated as ’spirit’ cf. al-Hijr 15:29) within us. It is closer to us than our life-vein (Qaf 50:16), and is incredibly beautiful, incredibly intelligent, incredibly merciful if we would just heed it.

When he spoke about this, I cried. I felt so immensely grateful for my life, for my family, for the opportunities I have in life, for being able to hear the words of this Shaykh, may the Beloved reward him in this life and the next. For the first time in a very long time, I felt joy at the immanence of the Life-Source.

I haven’t experienced that for what seems a very long time, and yet God has never moved away from me, I have moved away from Him. I have become distracted by an idol of a ‘big cop up in the sky’ ready to write me an eternally damning ticket for the smallest infraction. By so doing, I have obscured the Still Small Voice Within.

So now, as the Buddhists say: “before enlightenment, wash dishes, chop wood; after enlightenment, wash dishes, chop wood.

Andrea Useem has a very interesting article on loving and leaving the headscarf up at Slate. She discusses the use of hijab (covering the head and body with loose, opaque clothing) as a marker of identity, although often justified on the basis of religious obligation by those who wear it.

I remember a few years ago when some friends and I were swimming in the local pool that offered special swimming times for Muslim women (it was after ordinary hours, and some Muslim women had organised it with the pool). A close friend of mine, who was an older convert than me (one of the first Muslim women I knew) told me she didn’t think hijab was necessary and would take off it off, except that she would lose all credibility in the local Muslim community.

Two things struck me at the time a) I had no idea that she or other hijabis thought that way b) it seemed to me that even if I (or others) believed it was a requirement for believing Muslim women to wear hijab, that’s no reason to marginalise a fellow Muslim who holds differently.

Since that time I’ve researched hijab and have my own views on the religious obligatoriness of hijab. What I do know, however, is that the modern hijab is much more than a religious act. It is/can be a political act, a feminist act, a non-feminist act, a psychological act and much more. This is what I think Useem is getting at. Even though the most common justification for wearing hijab is that it is simply a religious requirement, most women who wear it (at least in the Western world) have a plethora of examined and unexamined reasons for wearing it besides.

(Hijab flutter to Talk Islam)