So I Could Get Good Deeds...By Eating A Salad?

Crunchy, fresh lettuce; ripe, red tomatoes; dark, green cucumbers; topped with goat cheese, red onions and chopped dates; drizzled with olive oil and some…sunnah dressing? That’s how you make a scrumptious, sunnah salad. 

SubhanAllah, the deeper I study Islam, the more I realize how easy it is. The fact that I could simply set my intention and turn everyday activities into acts of worship is just amazing. We could transform our every meal into a form of worship. Ever notice all the foods mentioned in the Qur’an and sunnah? These foods definitely weren’t mentioned by accident. It requires no extra effort if you just redirect your intention, every action and every bite you take can translate into an act of worship! Olives, onions, dates; these are all foods that are incorporated within the Quran and sunnah just to name a few. If I could make my own nutrition labels for these foods, right under ‘calories from fat’, I would add ‘good deeds from sunnah.’ Why would you not want to incorporate these foods into your daily lives? Not only can you be blessed, inshaAllah, with reward for adhering to the Qur’an and practices of the Prophet (pbuh), but also with all the tremendous health benefits of these foods. 

So I’ve got my day job and my night job: civil engineer by day; health and fitness guru by night. Sometimes they overlap. Here’s the engineering nerd in me about to come out: so as civil engineers, we deal a lot with the soil that’s underneath everything we want to build. The more I learned about the characteristics of soils, clays, and sands the more I understood the human body. We were all created from clay, and I don’t want to get too nerdy here, but if we came from the earth, wouldn’t it make sense that the place to get our nourishment would be from, well… the earth. In a society where manufactured and processed foods are the norm, it has become more and more challenging to eat healthier foods...you know, the kind that grow from the earth! This stigma surrounding salads and vegetables has gotten the majority of people thinking that anything healthy can’t taste good! Wrong! How could a chemically processed, mystery meat concoction is more appealing to us that a balanced salad, filled with food items the Prophet (pbuh) himself used to eat?! 

From a larger perspective, health is a part of our deen. Allah gave our bodies to us. We are entrusted with our bodies, and only we can control what we do to them. No one is holding up french fries and candy bars and forcing us to eat them. No matter what’s served in front of us, at the end of the day, we’re the ones who control what our hand picks up to place in our mouths. We are eating way too much and our food selections, simply said, aren’t the best. It’s time to take drastic action before we further harm our bodies and teach our younger generations the same unhealthy eating habits. So what do we do?!

Here we are almost a month after we’ve established our new year’s resolutions. I can almost bet that if you’re a female (and perhaps the occasional guy), ‘losing weight’ or ‘working out’ were probably up there on your list. Whether you’ve lost sight of these goals or you’re still continuing strong, I hope this has rejuvenated you or opened your eyes to a new way of looking at being healthy.  

For you ladies out there, there’s an organization aimed at women’s health and fitness with an interesting incorporation of Quran and sunnah. I recommend all to check it out because it really makes eating healthy and staying fit fun and easy! Check out www.Nadoona.com and get started on a healthier path in life. 

Sunnah salad for dinner anyone?

Nadine Abu-Jubara

Nadoona

Executive Director

Muslim Youth For Truth Contributor

P.S. Here’s some tips to help you get started:

1) Water water water. Drink lots of water before you decide you need a big huge plate full of food to satisfy yourself. The part of your brain that tells you you're hungry is conveniently the same one that tells you you're thirsty. Sometimes your body is just telling you it’s super thirsty, not super hungry! 

2) Take it slow! It takes 15-20 mins for your tummy to tell your brain that you're full. Try not pile up your plate, fully chew all your bites, and give your body time to process what's going on before you jump right into seconds.

3) Soda is NOT a staple! Try some icie cold water or FRESHLY squeezed fruit juice please. High in phosphorous and phosphoric acid, soft drinks infiltrate bodily fluids and corrode stomach linings, upset the alkaline-acid balance of the kidneys, and eat away at your liver like Hannibal Lecter. Is that really want going into the 1 body you own?

4) Vitamins- you should take a multivitamin once a day. What kind, or which brand you ask? The multivitamin of the Prophet (pbuh)! They contain natural fibres, proteins, oil, calcium, sulphur, iron, potassium, phosphorous, manganese, copper and magnesium. Have you guessed it yet? yep dates, eat one :) Sorry Centrum, the Quran beat you to it.

5) BREAKFAST! Breakfast, breakfast, breakfast. The most neglected meal of the day. Most common excuses for not eating breakfast are “I’m not hungry” or “I have no time.” You haven’t eaten for 8 hours! How are you not hungry?! I don’t care if you’re ‘not hungry,’ after 8 hours, you need to eat! Time an issue? Try preparing something the night before. I boil my eggs the night before so in the morning all I need to do is peel, heat a little, and enjoy. I think it’s worth the extra 5 minutes in the morning! Ladies! Women who eat breakfast burn 300 calories more in a day than women who don’t…do it! 

JUST DO IT! (....I think Nike might be onto something)

So it’s a new year! We’ve all decided that we are going to start working out and start eating healthier. This year is going to be a good one. This summer I will be the leanest, meanest, most ripped I’ve ever been in my life - even more than when I used to be a high school athlete who trained hard every single.  Why? Because I’ve made a RESOLUTION. No more playing games and joking around.

Oh, but wait. First I have to make a training plan. Ehh, but how can I start training if I’m not even eating properly? It’s just going to make my stomach hurt and I’m never going to see results with this horrible diet. So, I also first need to make a nutrition plan. Actually, you know what? I’ll first let one week of classes pass by so I can get used to the new semester.  God knows I don’t want to overdo it all at once; baby steps right? Hmm, I just thought about it, but I have an evening class every day. So, I’ll train in the morning. BUT! There’s no way that I’ll wake up on time, so first I need to get into the habit of sleeping properly. Once I’m used to waking up early, I’ll train right after Fajr. You know, now that I think about it, I can’t workout with this crick in my neck. I’ll wait for that to heal before I start working out, too.

Subhan’Allah it’s February now! And by the mercy of Allah all these conditions have been met. NOW I can start training. So, I was reading online, looking for the best workout plan, and I found about four that are really good. But I can’t pick one because they all have some good things about them. Hmm, I should create my own plan and save myself the headache.

Yes! It’s only March and I’m done creating my own workout plan! Now time to put it to the test! Ahh!!!! I have to study for midterms!!!! Okay, I promise myself that after midterms I’ll start working out every day! Oh no, but I can’t because my cousins are visiting for Spring Break. Well, after they are gone it’ll be all dedication! No social life, just training! Then when they all see me in the summer, I’m going to be a no fat machine!

So Spring Break is over, but I ate too much junk food with my cousins and we stayed up late every night. I need to realign my life first before I dive into this whole workout thing.

Crap! It’s summer time! Everyone is going to know that everything I said about getting ripped was a lie! I have no results to show! But it’s okay. Alhamdulillah, I’m going overseas this summer, so no one will have to see me in my sorry state.

Hmm. Does this sound familiar? ALL OF IT!?!?! If not, then Masha’Allah, you are blessed. But if you are like most people including myself, THINKING about working out is one of our greatest hobbies. We think and think and think. We plan and plan and plan. We do all the research in the world. We spend all the time making sure everything in our lives is perfectly ready to handle the training. We spend so much time reading about and watching videos about the success of others . We are so determined. We are so driven. We are so passionate. We think about it so much that we look into the mirror and without having worked out a single day, we believe we already start seeing results. We start telling others that we feel so much better. That we’ve gotten so much stronger or faster. But in reality, all we’ve done is planned and thought we were training. What we’ve done is made excuses. What we’ve done is cut our own legs from under ourselves.

Here’s the truth:  You are never going to find the perfect workout plan. The average human being does not need a special training plan to see results- movement in itself is enough. If one becomes a pro-athlete, then one needs to start worrying about tailoring your training to make it personalized. But the average person can do any decent training plan and see results IF they actually do it and if they stick with it.

Your lifestyle will never be perfect so stop saying that I’ll wait until my eating habits are good, or until my sleeping habits are good. There will always be something you can improve.

No more, I’ll start slow by first getting used to my course load then I’ll start training. Why? One hour of working out a day is going to destroy your studying? If you have cousins over, one hour of working out is too much time away from them? Okay maybe an hour is too much. You can’t do 20 push ups (on your knees if you have to)? You can’t do 20 burpees? You can’t do 10 minutes of running?  You can’t do a 8 minute Tabata workout? You can’t crank out 10 pull-ups, 20 push ups, and 50 squats?

The problem is not that you need the perfect training plan. Because all there is to know about working out is easy to learn. The problem comes when you decide you haven’t learned enough and so you sacrifice your workout so you can do more “research”. And of course that research will prompt more questions leading to more research and thinking and planning.

For those people who know me well, when asked about training advice, I usually point out the best exercises and the best routines and the best style of training for specific goals. But I intentionally am not giving any training advice now. Why? Because you all already know what to do. You might even know better than I do. Now the only thing left is to do it.

Go! Do it! Right now get out of your chair and do as many push ups as you can. Go! Now! Why are you reading this still if you haven’t done the push ups? Do them! I just finished doing mine. And you know what? It feels good! It’s humbling though. Now I just realized that I cannot do as many as I imagined I could. But at least I did them. Now I have a starting point. Now you have a starting point. Tomorrow let’s beat that number. And then next day beat that number. Very soon, those of us who did 5 push ups will do 40. Those of us who ran a 13-minute mile will run 5- minute miles. Those of us who power cleaned 50 pounds will clean 250 pounds. Insha’Allah

All it takes is the mentality that NOW I’m going to do it. There is no tomorrow! There is no “tired”. There is no too much homework! Too much homework to fit in a 10 minute workout? C’mon please! We spend more time browsing Facebook.

Sure it’s going to be hard in the beginning. But no one said it was going to be easy. Nothing worth having comes easy. What’s easy is eating until you have diabetes---- then it’s all-hard from there. But being able to run when you are 65 is hard. But it’s worth working for.

Start now! Stop making excuses! It’s already the New Year! We all already know WHAT to do. Now we have to do it. We all have a goal in our minds. Now it’s time to achieve that goal. Let’s collectively tell ourselves that we will start. Because once we start, the habit is easy to build. It’s just that the beginning step is the hardest. So why not start now? I don’t care if it’s 3:00am and you are reading this! Do as many push ups as you can! Now!! No push ups? Fine do squats! Now! The point is to get started NOW because there is no tomorrow.

If you’re reading this and haven’t already done push ups or squats, then I’m sorry to tell you that this year is going to be just like the last year for you. And you’re going to stay in your out of shape condition. You are going to continue making resolutions and telling your friends about them. But you will never show them results. In fact you’re simply going to get worse. The gut is going to grow. The spare tires are going to be joined by more. Joint pain will not be too far behind. That is IF you haven’t started yet. So start now!!! The pain is worth it! You know it is. You wouldn’t have made the resolution otherwise!

We all want a secret pill, a secret formula, some special shortcut; but the only secret formula that is battle tested and proven to work is the one we don't want to hear: HARD WORK.

Let’s get off of our lazy glutes and start busting them. A whole new you is a little elbow grease away!

By now I’m expecting you all to have finished 200 push ups……………………… (Sarcasm)

Insha’Allah, make dua’a that our path easy for us to follow so that we may reap the rewards of living healthier lives. And Insha’Allah we use our health to serve Islam and our Lord to the best of our abilities. Allah helps those who help themselves. So let’s get started.  Click here for some motivation.

Enjoy and Asalamu’Alaikum.

Ashkaar Qazi
University of South Florida
Project Downtown Tampa President
Muslim Youth For Truth Contributor

Going Green For The Deen (...Oh, And Yourself Too)

Most Muslims know what ‘deen’ is – religion, faith, way or path.  Deen is the Arabic word. Islam is a deen.  Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism and other faiths are deens. 

    

What many Muslims may not know is that their religion encourages them to live a Green Deen.  Catchy name, right? It’s quite brilliant and author Ibrahim Abdul-Matin in his new book, Green Deen: What Islam Teaches About Protecting the Planet, has presented to Muslims and anyone interested in what Islam has to say about the environment what a green deen is.  It fosters awareness of one’s environment and surroundings in order to become a God-conscious and conscientious human being of one’s actions on the planet and thus, towards other fellow earthlings.

Abdul-Matin’s passion for being an environmentally-conscious Muslim and person of this planet is from his father telling him the hadith of Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, “The Earth is a mosque.”  Hence, everything in it is sacred.  Abdul-Matin went on several nature ventures with his father throughout his childhood and when prayer time arrived, his father would take the time to pray by finding an appropriate area and brush it free of twigs and leaves.  Abdul-Matin explains how this connection to nature was instilled onto him during his youth, and has remained and continues to propel him to be better person via his actions on this planet.

Divided into four parts, “waste, watts (energy), water, and food,” Abdul-Matin’s book provides great examples of what Muslims are currently doing to be more green, while also offering ample solutions of how to build or modify mosques that are more earth-friendly.  An interesting preexisting model is the holy mosques of Mecca and Medina.  Both recycle wastewater called gray water which is treated and used for wudu’ or ablution before prayers.  The Saudi Arabian government issued a fatwa that this method of water recycling is encouraged.  

What is most remarkable about the book and a great motivator for readers, is six Islamic principles Abdul-Matin elaborates on that align Islam and the environment so closely.  They are: 1. Understanding the Oneness of God and His creation (tawhid) 2. Seeing signs of God (ayat) everywhere 3. Being a steward (khalifah) of the Earth 4. Honoring the covenant, or trust, we have with God  (amana) to be protectors of the planet 5. Moving toward justice (adl) and 6. Living in balance with nature (mizan).  

Abdul-Matin constantly draws upon these concepts and reminds the reader of them when talking about a Green Deen.  An example is water.  Allah (swt) reminds us in the Qur’an, “We made from water every living thing.” (21: 30).  Being a Muslim means taking wudu’ and let’s be honest, how many of us put the sink on full blast, wasting gallons of water and being passive in our ritual ablution before facing our Lord?  Well, you can change that.  If we keep the six principles in mind with water usage, we can be better stewards, khalifah of this Earth.  

Unfortunately, many water sources are filled with toxins.  Large corporations dump their chemicals into our water.  Thankfully, there are people whose lives are occupied with cleaning up these messes, which contaminate water.  The author introduces his sister, Tauhirah, as an example of a Muslim trying to instill the six Islamic principles into her work.  Her company cleans up these messes and Tauhirah sees firsthand how the signs, ayat, of God in nature are polluted by human action and neglect, writes Abdul-Matin.  The delicate balance, mizan, is in peril and it is Tauhirah’s job to work for justice, adl, every day to improve ecological struggle.  She is a khalifah who, as Abdul-Matin explains, takes the trust, amana, she has with God seriously and wholeheartedly.

Alhamdulillah, there are other great examples of Muslims working for a greener planet such as Tauhirah in all four areas: waste, watts, water and food.  

Abdul-Matin’s passion and enthusiasm is clear in this eye-opening book which should be a must for all Muslims and all people who want to better their home, Earth.  The author is a policy advisor in the New York City Mayor’s Office and works on issues of long-term planning and sustainability.  

The green phase that has been going on lately is something Muslims should not take lightheartedly; rather, it should not be a phase, but become a lifestyle.  Abdul-Matin provides a plethora of ways to live this lifestyle, which is essential to Islam.  It is unfortunate that Muslims forget this, do not care to recycle or at least use less, and actually contribute to the degradation of our planet.  It doesn’t matter your faith to be a greener person, but Muslims should step up to the plate.  We have the tools, Alhamdulillah.  Let’s green deen-ify our life!  Of course, we must first pray sincerely to Allah (swt) to give us the energy and care to take of this planet, which our Creator has blessed us with us.  Ameen for a Green Deen!

Nora Zaki

University of Florida

Muslim Youth For Truth Co-Founder

For more information about this book, please visit www.greendeenbook.com.  

"Verily, Allah (God) never changes the condition of a people until they change themselves."*

I finally made it to my apartment door, gasping for air. I could barely stand up straight, and instead, was propping myself up against the door handle, looking for my room key. If you’d seen me, you would have thought that I had run a 10K while being chased by full-sized Siberian huskies...you know, those really big, scary looking dogs with razor-sharp teeth.

So, what really happened...?

I stupidly opted to live on the third floor while signing my lease, and now have to suffer the consequences of climbing three flights of stairs daily, while being pathetically out of shape.

It wasn’t always like this, you know. For the most part, I thought I was pretty “fit”. I used to go to the gym five times a week.  I even ate all the main food groups. Climbing stairs used to be no big ordeal...I actually used to see elevators as one of the reasons America’s obesity percentage is steadily rising.

As I fumbled in my bag for my keycard, I noticed a disturbing pattern in my train of thought...the phrase “used to”.

‘Uh oh’, I frantically thought to myself. ‘I’m becoming a bum!’

It had been almost a month and half since I moved out of my parents house and decided to embark on the road of getting a higher education solo. Part of the reason was the fact the Journalism program in this new town is ranked higher than the one I previously attended. The other part was that I needed to prove to myself that I could make it in the real world strictly on my own. And that last bit, well, is a lot more challenging than it sounds.

It also meant no more of my mom’s healthy-without-you-knowing-it-so-it-still-tastes-amazing cooking. Now THAT was probably one of the biggest blows.

The first few days after moving in to my new place were fine. I still kept up the healthy routine. Jogged to the gym daily. Raced up the stairs. I felt amazing.

But after the first two weeks of school and the work started to pile up...that’s when it all went down hill.

The evidence

Maybe I’ll go the gym tomorrow instead...I’m too tired today....Ah, ran out of groceries...Is McDonalds really that bad? Come on now.....

The vicious cycle officially began....that one day became two....two became three...and so on. Gym time became rare. Racing up the stairs was slowly starting to become more difficult. Soon, I began dreading it.

As I finally made it inside and sat on the couch panting, I realized that I was treading down a very treacherous path.

Fast food is like a drug...once you get hooked, it becomes very difficult, and for some, almost impossible, to stop. Part of you knows that this garbage is killing you, slowly clogging up the arteries that feed the very organ that keeps you alive...your heart. But the attraction of the laziness and convenience involved force you not to care. As your health worsens, physical activity starts to become less and less attractive, until you eventually stop exercising at all. And that garbage starts to build in your system, with no means of escape.

I thought about what my life would be like in thirty years (if I'm blessed to live that long). If I had kids inshaAllah, would I be able to get through a game of tag without collapsing midway? No, probably not. I thought about all the time I’d be spending in a doctor’s office being treated for God knows what...heart disease, diabetes, cholesterol.....the list of possibilities is endless. As someone who tries to live every minute to its fullest potential, did I really want to waste valuable time in hospitals and clinics? And whenever I wasn’t in one, did I want to be hindered by the symptoms of these various diseases and the side-effects caused by being medicated to treat them? Especially when many of these diseases are preventable if the right measures are taken early?

One of the greatest blessings Allah (swt) bestowed on us after our belief is our health. The Prophet (saw) said, “Ask Allah (swt) for forgiveness and health, for after being granted certainty, one is given nothing better than health.” (Tirmidhi)

We often take our health for granted. However, Allah (swt) has entrusted us with our bodies for a predestined period of time and will hold us to account on how we utilized them, which is a reflection of our health. With this in mind, we have a duty to make sure we undertake all necessary actions to protect this blessing.

I looked down at those spicy mystery-meat Mc Nuggets in my lap and wondered if they were really worth it.

‘Nah’, I sighed. 

That was three months ago, and alhamdulilah, putting down those mini-heart attacks was one of the best decisions I ever made. I wish words could adequately describe the difference in how you feel while being fit and healthy versus the attractive, yet completely poisonous alternative. No, poisonous is not an exaggeration...It seriously is poison, or at least, near poison!

All this is why we at MAS Tampa Media have decided to start the New Year with practical tips on how to improve both your nutritional intake and fitness routine, hopefully leading to a more holistic and wholesome lifestyle. We’ll also discuss the importance of going “green” and how it relates to our daily lives. You might think this “green” thing is just a fad, but it goes much more beyond that. 

It’s 2011 people. There’s a whole year ahead of you to send your bad habits packing and invite new, better ones to stay. Seriously, give it a shot. Trust me, you won’t be sorry that you did :)

Sarah Kassem

University of Florida

Muslim Youth For Truth Co-Founder


* Quranic Verse, (13:11)