on music, and walking in the rain with a baby
Yvonne Ridley's opinion
http://www.muslimsweekly.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1807&Itemid=238
Sami Yusuf's reply
http://samiyusuf.com/press/Sami_Yusuf_open_letter.htm
got these in an email, though i had read ridley's opinion before. i do listen to music myself, though my tastes have certainly changed over the years (alhamdulillah)... a sister who taught in our sunday school years ago nearly convinced me to stop, and i did for two days, by noting the way music makes you "feel good" - i guess, if you're listening to nelly furtado and timbaland's "promiscuous", which i have to admit is a great dance song as far as those go but you get to the chorus and remember you're a muslim... (that particular song, with the chorus lyrics that include "Promiscuous boy/Let's get to the point/Cause we're on a roll/Are you ready?"[no, i didn't have it memorized, i looked it up], reminds me of surah al-nur, ayah 26, which yusuf ali translates as, "Women impure are for men impure, and men impure for women impure and women of purity are for men of purity, and men of purity are for women of purity.")
i digress! but, and i think koonj's hubby wrote about this too, it's impossible to lump together something like "promiscuous" with something as lovely and haunting as that one signature instrumental from the film "a beautiful mind" or a lively irish fiddle tune. during my pregnancy i would play enya's "caribbean blue" in the car and hope my baby could both hear the music and feel the upswelling joy the song inspires in me... and yes, i played and recited plenty of qur'an to him too, don't worry :)
these days, however, i've discovered that "this old man" gets him grinning... love it!!
look at that... even as i was typing (with my left hand only, holding nursing baby with right) the light dimmed and the rain began outside, and a peal of distant thunder... i wish i could take musa outside in this summer storm! in my doctor's waiting room (i've been much luckier with my OB's than my poor cuz!) i discovered a book called "the sense of wonder" by rachel carson, with some lovely photographs, and... the internet being the wonderful resource that it is, here is the first paragraph:
"One stormy autumn night when my nephew Roger was about twenty months old, I wrapped him in a blanket and carried him down to the beach in the rainy darkness. Out there, just at the edge of where we couldn't see, big waves were thundering in, dimly seen white shapes that boomed and shouted and threw great handfuls of froth at us. Together we laughed for pure joy - he a baby meeting for the first time the wild tumult of Oceanus, I with the salt of half a lifetime of sea love in me. But I think we felt the same spine-tingling response to the vast roaring ocean and the wild night around us."
it makes me want to plunk him in the carseat and drive him out to the beach right now (but you don't plunk a baby in a car and drive out anywhere, do you). and maybe it would be okay, to take a wee walk outside at the edge of this storm, but he's not even three months old and i've never done this momma thing before... but maybe i should just be the mom that i really want to be?
oh well... being a breastfeeding mom, i'm ravenous, so i want to eat before anything else, now that he's asleep (and chuckling at his dreams apparently... so cute!).
ps, here is the book:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/006757520X/ref=si3_rdr_bb_product/103-1934515-7529443?%5Fencoding=UTF8
http://www.muslimsweekly.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1807&Itemid=238
Sami Yusuf's reply
http://samiyusuf.com/press/Sami_Yusuf_open_letter.htm
got these in an email, though i had read ridley's opinion before. i do listen to music myself, though my tastes have certainly changed over the years (alhamdulillah)... a sister who taught in our sunday school years ago nearly convinced me to stop, and i did for two days, by noting the way music makes you "feel good" - i guess, if you're listening to nelly furtado and timbaland's "promiscuous", which i have to admit is a great dance song as far as those go but you get to the chorus and remember you're a muslim... (that particular song, with the chorus lyrics that include "Promiscuous boy/Let's get to the point/Cause we're on a roll/Are you ready?"[no, i didn't have it memorized, i looked it up], reminds me of surah al-nur, ayah 26, which yusuf ali translates as, "Women impure are for men impure, and men impure for women impure and women of purity are for men of purity, and men of purity are for women of purity.")
i digress! but, and i think koonj's hubby wrote about this too, it's impossible to lump together something like "promiscuous" with something as lovely and haunting as that one signature instrumental from the film "a beautiful mind" or a lively irish fiddle tune. during my pregnancy i would play enya's "caribbean blue" in the car and hope my baby could both hear the music and feel the upswelling joy the song inspires in me... and yes, i played and recited plenty of qur'an to him too, don't worry :)
these days, however, i've discovered that "this old man" gets him grinning... love it!!
look at that... even as i was typing (with my left hand only, holding nursing baby with right) the light dimmed and the rain began outside, and a peal of distant thunder... i wish i could take musa outside in this summer storm! in my doctor's waiting room (i've been much luckier with my OB's than my poor cuz!) i discovered a book called "the sense of wonder" by rachel carson, with some lovely photographs, and... the internet being the wonderful resource that it is, here is the first paragraph:
"One stormy autumn night when my nephew Roger was about twenty months old, I wrapped him in a blanket and carried him down to the beach in the rainy darkness. Out there, just at the edge of where we couldn't see, big waves were thundering in, dimly seen white shapes that boomed and shouted and threw great handfuls of froth at us. Together we laughed for pure joy - he a baby meeting for the first time the wild tumult of Oceanus, I with the salt of half a lifetime of sea love in me. But I think we felt the same spine-tingling response to the vast roaring ocean and the wild night around us."
it makes me want to plunk him in the carseat and drive him out to the beach right now (but you don't plunk a baby in a car and drive out anywhere, do you). and maybe it would be okay, to take a wee walk outside at the edge of this storm, but he's not even three months old and i've never done this momma thing before... but maybe i should just be the mom that i really want to be?
oh well... being a breastfeeding mom, i'm ravenous, so i want to eat before anything else, now that he's asleep (and chuckling at his dreams apparently... so cute!).
ps, here is the book:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/006757520X/ref=si3_rdr_bb_product/103-1934515-7529443?%5Fencoding=UTF8
posted by Ayesha | 7:21 PM
2 Comments:
Yeah, I got an email of that Yvonne Ridley article too. I thought her points were solid, but maybe she was a bit too...ummm...is zealous the word? I mean, its not like you dont care about the ummahs problems just cuz you listen to some sami yusuf.
Intention is everything. Not all music is created equal. I was a punker when I was a teen, but was raised on classical music.
Can one compare Beethoven to a punk band? Much of Western classical music is directly devoted to God, maybe not as we understand Him, but close.
One must pick and choose, like anything in life. I believe we will be judged on what we picked and why we picked it. Music, in and of itself, is no more haraam than this conversation that we are having.
It just depends on what you are discussing, how you are discussing, and your intentions for the discussion.
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