Closing Pandora's Box

This article appeared in the Local Guardian last week:

(click to enlarge)

If when you stand in front of the mirror and are not happy with what you see, remember that you are BEAUTIFUL and be grateful.

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Title: Firework – Katy Perry
If you would like further information about neurofibromatosis, click here to visit the medical website that I use to do my university homework.

Whenever I get a chance I go to Jumu’ah (Friday prayers). I mentioned in my previous post that last week I heard a very thought provoking and inspiring Friday sermon. The topics were 2; The importance of prayer and it’s acceptance on Friday and defending the honour of the Holy Prophet Muhammad^saw*. The Imam said:

Why do you let the enemies of Islam have the opportunity to lift a finger at not just ourselves but also at our beloved prophet Muhammad^saw because of our weaknesses? We too will be held accountable as a reason for that cause. If we wish to cleanse the world of all misconceptions about the Holy Prophet^saw then we must try to implement his true teachings in our lives. This is something that every Muslim should keep in mind, and always try to the best of their ability to present the flawless face of Islam to the world and in response to false allegations against it, to demonstrate to the world its pure and luminous picture. Laws can deal with visible fitna however they have little or no effect on the fitna in the heart.

The above quote is something we’ve all probably heard many many times. It is simple in what it says, but profound in the wisdom behind it. We live our lives in groups and have all had the multitude of experiences associated with joining, being part of, and leaving a group. Groups are defined by the people within them. Your family is a group, your friends, your school, your religion, your ethnicity etc.

As Muslims living here here in the west, we are ambassadors for Islam. People who don’t have much knowledge about Islam will base their understanding on what they see from the Muslims. Very few people would, after seeing a Muslim do something, refer to the Qur’an and the Hadith and judge the actions of the Muslim on that. Though that would be the best way of finding out what Islam really is but if someone doesn’t do that, can you blame them? Who has the time?

I was speaking to a convert recently about this particular topic and he said:

If we were living in a purely Muslim society, we wouldn't have to go through the motions because we would be surrounded by Islam all around us. Living here in the west we have to be heard, we have to stand up. But before we can do all that, we have to learn. And then life throws various circumstances at you. Sometimes they're caused by you, and sometimes they're not. And that I think brings the best out of you.

These days Islam and Muslims are presented in such a horrific manner by the media with countless examples of heinous and barbaric acts from places like Pakistan and Afghanistan mixed in the pot. For example just last week a woman was murdered by electrocution in Pakistan for honour killing. When people repeatedly hear such things on the evening news this is how their thought process goes:

We all know these ‘activities’ have nothing to with the true teachings of Islam, but when someone’s source of knowledge is the 6o’clock news on the BBC, this is all that they will be exposed to. Because of such things, they may form a false image of Islam in their minds and be opposed to it (which they have every right to do, taking into account their limited knowledge). That’s when the bad names start flowing…

The Qur’an says:

Allah and His angels send blessings on the Prophet. O ye who believe! you also should invoke blessings on him and salute him with the salutation of peace. (Chapter 33: Verse 57)

When you love someone dearly, you would anything for them. You wouldn’t stand anyone referring to your loved one in a bad manner, or calling them names or putting dirt on their character. يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُو (Oh ye who believe), if you do love your prophet then why do you give others the opportunity to call him dirty names, as a result of your actions? Invoke Durood, and blessings on him^saw and salute him^saw with the salutation of peace as you have been instructed, and inculcate his excellent example in your life. Your actions speak so much louder than your words, what are you going to do about it?

I have a story to share regarding this, and that will be the first of many posts regarding this topic.

[This is a scheduled post]

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*^saw – Short for صلى الله عليه وسلم meaning Peace be upon him.
Durood Shareef – An introduction can be read here and the Arabic audio can be downloaded here.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD

Some of you may remember I posted a collection of reflections back in September in the name of “For Your Story” which dealt with my reaction to the passing away of Charley. A very lovely friend of mine, Yara, drew a front cover for it (above), signifying the single path which in its continuation leads to life and ultimately to death. Is death not a part of life, just as the two sides of the tree are still part of the same tree? It is an amazing drawing and I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to her for sparing some of her time to make this drawing.

I’d also like to thank Hijabi Hippie Hypo for awarding me the versatile blogger award. There were some conditions to go along with the award, and as I have already made it once, you can view it here. It is also her blog’s 1st anniversary today and so a very very happy birthday HHH! You all should pay her a visit (click here).

In other news, I was requested by a reader who wished to remain anonymous, that I should start a medical blog. What do you guys think? If you’re going to give me thumbs up is there anything in particular you’d like me to start with?

Yesterday I heard an amazingly thought provoking Khutbah (sermon) on Jumu’ah which I shall share with you soon. Also, I’ve been working on the ‘closet’ post which is self reflective and consists of 2 parts that will be posted in the near future (next week-ish).

That’ all for today because the football is about to start, so I take my leave, and wish you all a very happy weekend. OMG! I’ve missed the first half. NOOOOO

:)

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Title: Reach – S Club 7
Drawing Cover for For your story by Yara.

Last semester, I had one taught module i.e. one module for which we were lectured. It was the Therapeutics: Protein to patient module, and dealt with drugs^*, their discovery, making, action and other bits and bobs of pharmacology as well concentrating on 5 specific diseases; learning about their discovery, how diagnosis, prognosis and treatment or management has developed over time and what the future holds. An integral part of the module was, in the words of the module organiser, "’Bullshit Detection”. In today’s exponentially expanding technological world, we are constantly bombarded by drug adverts from every direction; creams that will make your wrinkles disappear, pills to make you smile from sunrise to sunset, lotions that’ll make your your hair so thick, you could be mistaken for a yeti, or if you’ve ever taken a peek at your spam / junk mail, pills that’ll grow your third leg by a good 7 and a half inches¹. There are so-called doctors, who have graduated from universities with names that are vaguely familiar to names in Lord of the Rings, handing out leaflets on the street claiming to cure erectile dysfunction, cancer², and anything that’d make even grown men blush. Coupled with the fact many people are just so busy and don’t have the time to investigate the claims made by the multi-million pound advertising companies that are shoving ‘magical-cures’, quoting long words from non-existent research that are nonsense. But we still buy them. We still pay that extra couple of pounds to buy the carrot that contains beta-amyloids³ to combat hair reduction. The bullshit detection part of the course was to enable us to recognise and analyse ‘quacks’, their treatments and bogus forms of health information we are exposed to. One lecture in particular which focused on complimentary medicine was so funny, that each and every student in the lecture theatre was LMAO-ing so hard at the sheer stupidity of how some of these forms of treatments are carried out.⁴ All in all, a lot of the scams mentioned above are ways of stealing money from the uneducated general public, though it is amazing to see how those people who are educated, still make use of such things, but that’s not the point of this post. Below is a slide from a lecture we had on the history of asthma, and I think it puts the point across quite nicely:

While revising some of lectures from that module a few days ago, I got distracted as I always do, and started thinking about something completely unrelated. It all started with homeopathy. Homeopathy⁵ is an alternative treatment, known by many as the sweet little white balls. The lecturer who taught us, was extremely anti-any-type-of-complimentary-medicine and therefore he gave us one side of the argument. To balance the whole thing, we also received a lecture supporting homeopathy. Medicine is an evidence based field in which all drugs are vigorously tested, undergoing clinical trials to determine whether, if any, of the potential benefits are due to the drug itself or placebo⁶. Many sceptics of alternative medicines such as homeopathy argue they work, if they do, by a placebo effect as the ‘active’ constituents are so dilute they could not possibly induce any effects themselves. So while sitting there pretending to revise, I thought to myself about those people / patients who claim to have been cured or gotten better after taking such alternative medicines.

Regardless of your personal belief^**, let us take sides with the sceptics and assume for argument’s sake, that complimentary medicines don’t work. If they don’t work for whatever reason, and people are still getting ‘cured’, without having taken any conventional medication, one can conclude the alternative medicines had a placebo effect. The positive effects must therefore have all been psychological. It was the person’s belief which cured them, the pills were just something to instil that belief. As my train of thought continued to choo-chooo along, I was reminded of a quote from a lovely film a friend of mine forced me to watch (forced because it was a chick flick, and I was sceptical about how good it would be):

Happiness is a state of mind – Love happens.

Come to think of it, I totally agree with the quote. Like the patients above who had such strong faith in the amazing-ness of the sugary white balls that they got better, I think each and everyone’s mental state of mind can play a great impact on the healing of wounds; physical and or emotional. It has been observed by many that those people who are optimistic tend to heal faster, whereas those with a negative state of mind, heal a lot slower and may even get worse spiralling downwards. Patients in wards that have a good support structure as well being full of life, quickly overcome their problems and reclaim their life that they lost to injury and or illness.

Everyone comes across instances in life when they feel hope is lost, life changing events that open the inviting door of depression such trauma and loss. In these situations it can be difficult being positive, because it hurts so much. The injustice of the incident leads to anger and we become trapped thinking, “Why? Why did it have to be this way?”. I’ve been there, so I know what it feels like sitting in the darkness searching desperately for even a speck of light. But I made my way out of the darkness. It all starts with you. The hardest part about the fall is picking yourself up. After that, once you’re on your feet it becomes easier and easier and easier. Believe tomorrow will be a better day, believe you will find happiness and love and laughter and life, and maybe if you believe hard enough, your beliefs will turn to reality.

For the Muslim readers among you, I would like to share a hadith from Muslim in which the Holy Prophet (sa) said that whoever was guilty of spreading pessimism among the people was leading towards their downfall as pessimistic ideas tend to discourage one and halt progress.⁷ So find the butterfly of happiness and share it with everyone around you.

*NB: In the healthcare profession, when someone uses the word drugs it encompasses all medicines and not just those ‘street drugs’ such as cocaine and heroin. Normal medications such as paracetamol and aspirin etc are also drugs.

** I am personally undecided about homeopathy, as I like to conduct my own research before making up my mind, and haven’t really got round to it.

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Title: The storm is over now – R Kelly 
¹If you didn’t understand this, then don’t worry. If you’re a guy, you probably got exactly what I meant
²Claiming to be able to cure cancer is against the British law and a punishable act: Click here to read the Cancer Act
³Beta-amyloids are found in plaques in the brain’s of those with Alzheimer’s Disease. If I hadn’t mentioned this, you’d have thought they were good for your hair.
⁴There is a website dedicated to historical remedies used for the treatment of many illnesses. It is good for laughs: http://thequackdoctor.com/
⁵A brief introduction to homeopathy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeopathy
⁶An introduction to placebo-controlled-studies used to test drugs can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Placebo-controlled_study
⁷Muslim, Part II, vol. 2
Picture 1 of a lecture slide take from my university given notes.
Picture 2 of homeopathic medicine showing container and balls taken from this website: http://www.drallanapolo.com/images/general/homeopathy.jpg

I was browsing BBC Radio 4 podcasts¹ and came across the Beyond Belief programme², and a particular podcast titled ‘The history and place of Islam in America’ (Mon 4^th Oct 2010). The discussion warmed with an introduction as to how Islam spread to America, and then moved onto the main topic of whether it is right to build an Islamic Centre on Ground Zero³.

You can download the podcast here (12.7mb)

The following quote is from Pamela Geller⁴. Start listening from 13mins 30sec:

It's not two blocks from the site, it is Ground Zero. That building was partially destroyed in the attacks of 9/11. The landing gear crashed into the roof and to erect a fifteen storey mega-mosque and Islamic centre in a building that was destroyed in 9/11 is deeply offensive and insulting and deliberately provocative. Why there?...We have hundreds of mosques in New York City, we have thousands across America, it's not an issue of religious liberty. No-one has suggested abridging or invoking the first amendment, it's an issue of common decency and human compassion. We're constantly being schooled in this hypersensitivity in the Muslim world; you can't run the Danish cartoons, you can't say the word Muhammad on Comedy Central or run Muhammad in a huggy bear costume because it's deeply offensive. And yet, there's no reciprocity. You know, where is the mutual and mutual respect? Where is the mutual and mutual understanding? Over 70% of Americans are opposed to this mosque. It's deeply offending, it's painful. Many moderate Muslims, Muslims of conscience feel that a mosque on Ground Zero is deeply offensive and wrong. (15.42 onwards)

What do you think about the issue? Which side are you on?

Do you agree with her when she says:

In the Shari’ah you cannot insult Islam, you cannot defame Islam… (15.08)

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Title: Breaking the habit – Linkin Park
¹The podcasts for BBC Radio 4 can be found at the following address: http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/radio4
²Debate exploring the place of religion and faith in today’s world (BBC Radio 4): http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/belief
³Also known as Park51, the Mosque & Community Centre’s team’s blog can be accessed here: http://park51.org/
⁴Pamella Geller, who featured in the discussion, has her own website, on which her biography can be found: http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/about.html
⁵Proposed picture of Park51 taken from: http://batteryparkcity.com/real-estate/developer-sharif-el-gamal-sees-park-51-mosque-as-empire-state-building/

Today was a meh day. Just one of those days. My mind was all over the place, wanting to visit places I didn’t want it to go, worrying about people; those who I hadn’t heard from in weeks, and those that were ill. People tell me to worry less and I just roll my eyes because worrying is what I do.  It was in this confuddlidified state of mind I got on the bus and made my way to university this morning. You know when you just want to get from A to B, do what you have to do at B, and just come home without drama or anything out of the ordinary? Yeah I wanted today to be like that. But what a day it was going to be.

“Stop looking at me bruv,” an annoyed voice said at the back of the bus. I was sitting on the top deck, in my seat (the one I always sit in) reading Where does it hurt¹ that Pink recommended to me. I realised I had read the same sentence about Molly twice.

“I said stop looking at me! And don’t you dare lift your hands up at me.”

No reply.

“Bruv, I’m telling you, if you don’t put your hand down, I’m gonna f*** you up proper.” What is wrong with kids? I thought to myself, why can’t you just shut up and let me read about Molly and her addiction?

“Are you deaf or something? This is the last time I’m telling ya. Put  your hand down, and don’t look at me.” The other person who was looking and had his hand up didn’t reply. I got a weird mental image of a little child with no face sitting there at the back, with his hand up waiting to be granted permission to speak so they could reply back to the other angry voice. Put your hand down and stop looking at him you dumbass, I thought.

That’s when we heard it, an extremely loud thud of something hitting against the window. The something in question was a head. Everyone turned around. The fight had begun. Obscene words mixed with punches  were thrown to and fro, some hitting their targets while others missing. A man got up and tried to restrain the two boys as another ran down the stairs to call the driver. The bus suddenly pulled up on the side of the road and the driver signalled to a passing by police car. Next thing I know is, police are taking my details as a ‘potential witness’. What am I going to tell them? I was too busy engrossed in the lesson Molly, an elderly lady addicted to heroin was giving to a doctor. The driver told us the  bus wasn’t going to be going anywhere soon and so we should all change. Great. I couldn’t be bothered to wait for another bus so enjoyed a wet, rain-filled half hour walk to university.

University today was boring. I spent it alone on level 6 AKA the psychiatric level, in a teaching room reading journals. NSS² as one of my friends calls it, had finally begun. Reading journals, research papers and reviews is extremely boring, time consuming, and mong-out-ing³. If you don’t know what one looks like or what it contains, you can download a couple by clicking here, here, and here. The 3 I have linked to are of 9 I read today relating to my research project titled, ‘Lysophospholipid induced reactive oxygen species production in microglia’. It took me a good few days to decipher what that meant, let alone start investigating it. No wonder this semester is called NSS. Anyway, by 4pm I had had enough. My brain couldn’t take any more torture so I decided to call it a day and get back home. That’s when incident number 2 happened.

It had been raining pretty much all day and now it was raining heavily. I was standing at the bus stop, hoodless, waiting for the bus to come. The bus shelter was packed with people trying to get away from the rain. A pregnant Asian lady walked up to the middle-aged white guy who was sitting on the seat smoking a cigarette and drinking beer, and asked if she could sit down. “Don’t tell me what to do in MY own country,” he replied giving her a disgusting look. He didn’t stop there but went on and on and on about tax-payers money being stolen by 'Pakis who do nothing but sit at home and live off benefits’. I wonder how long he had been waiting to let it out his frustration and hate regarding ‘Pakis’?

My bus came so I gave the man one last look, prayed for a safe and quiet journey home and got on. On reaching the bus station I had an ‘inviting fly moment’ when I discovered Mr Racist was there. How the hell did he get here so quickly? He was sitting on the floor surrounded by a few community support officers and on closer observation I noticed he was hurt. There was blood all over his face coming from a cut on his left cheek. Why is it all the racist guys I have met have an injury on their face, usually a scar and this time a cut? In my bag I always keep a first aid kit, consisting of a few sterile wipes, some plasters and paracetamol. Was it worth me wasting my stuff on a guy who probably had nothing nice to say to me? I walked over, gave him some water to drink, cleaned his blood smeared face with a moist wipe and put a plaster on his cut. Then I finally walked home.

*****

I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge an award given to me by the ever so lovely Kamila who is the amazing owner of Basket of Dreams. Though there are rules attached to this award, I wish to sincerely apologise that I am in a bit of a rush and due to a lack of time, cannot therefore fulfil them. =( *hangs head in shame* Forgive me Kamila!

With that, I wish you all have a restful and enjoyable weekend! :)

PS
I wrote this is a bit of a hurry so please excuse any spelling and or grammatical mistakes.

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Title: Bad Day – Daniel Powter
¹Where does it hurt? – Max Pemberton
²NSS – abbreviation for ‘No social semester’ referring to the lack of social life I will have this semester due to the amount of work.
³Monged – adjective, normally used to describe one that is stoned. I use it to define a feeling, that is abnormal such as feeling ill, tired, bored etc etc.
Photograph of a random London bus was taken from here
Photograph of moist wipe taken from here

When I was young, about 13 or so, my dad brought me a telescope and microscope to explore both the micro-universe and the macro-universe. They were modest things; the telescope had a maximum zoom of 400x and the microscope’s zoom was 200x. I used to love standing out in the garden during the depths of the night, just staring up at the stars and following planes. As I grew older and astronomy no longer had a place in the physics curriculum my star gazing days were left behind. Instead, my eyes were turned away from the heavens and towards the universe that lies within us, and here I am today studying all about it. Recently, I saw a link to The sky at night on BBC Iplayer, which sent me hurtling back to the nights of stargazing. The sheer size, magnitude and beauty of the universe, here at home on earth and out beyond the reach of my little grey telescope is awe inspiring and extremely humbling. So I decided to collect some beautiful pictures from NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the day website and share them with you. Each picture has an explanation, and caption which you can view by clicking on it. Enjoy!

You remember once I said smiles can be found any where if you look hard enough? Well there’s a smile in the beautiful photograph above. See if you can spot it.

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Title: Forever Young – Jay Z ft. Mr Hudson
All Photographs – Taken from http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html
Holy Qur’an, Surah Al Mulk, Chapter 67 : Verse 4