Two flowers
Tonight was the 6th night of Muharram.
The English lecture was just a bundle of statistics of how the Western media has brought down the morality among people in the West by "desensitizing, normalizing and glamorizing" sex. He quoted circulation/subscription figures of the Playboy magazine and funnily enough, he blamed James Bond for teaching Western young men that even they can live such "hedonistic, sexually active" lives and jump from girl to girl without a second thought. I was just really really surprised they didn't poke any fun at gay marriage or even gay people.
The Urdu speaker talked about how Paradise does not accept even a single sin on a person's record and similarly, how Hell cannot stand even a single good deed on a person's record. But, he said, since we're all humans, we all sin and we all do good at one or another point in our lives. Here comes the incredible part: if you love the Imam 'Ali, that love is enough to wash your sins away, so you can be admitted into Paradise. Yay for all those waiting to get in! I'm sure a lot of those in the crowd must've been thinking, "Oh, those poor Sunnis.. if only they'd love the Imam 'Ali like we do."
His narration of the masa'eb [sufferings] was good, today. Since tonight was the sixth night of Muharram, he narrated the story of the martyrdom of 'Aun and Muhammad, the two young sons of Zaynab, the sister of the Imam Husayn. It is said that Zaynab did not weep for either one of her martyred sons, except once. She didn't weep when they were killed. She didn't cry for them when she was humiliated and imprisoned. She did not shed a single tear for them when the tyrant Yazeed returned the severed heads of the soldiers of the Imam Husayn's army and her own sons' heads were brought before her.
It was only when she went back home to Madinah, entered her house and saw the two empty beds of 'Aun and Muhammad that she turned her face towards Karbala' and for the first and the last time, mourned her the death of her sons.
I had a clear view of Cute Guy today. Oh, those eyes! I managed to catch his eye a few times, but then he just looked away. I still don't know his name, goshdarnit!
The English lecture was just a bundle of statistics of how the Western media has brought down the morality among people in the West by "desensitizing, normalizing and glamorizing" sex. He quoted circulation/subscription figures of the Playboy magazine and funnily enough, he blamed James Bond for teaching Western young men that even they can live such "hedonistic, sexually active" lives and jump from girl to girl without a second thought. I was just really really surprised they didn't poke any fun at gay marriage or even gay people.
The Urdu speaker talked about how Paradise does not accept even a single sin on a person's record and similarly, how Hell cannot stand even a single good deed on a person's record. But, he said, since we're all humans, we all sin and we all do good at one or another point in our lives. Here comes the incredible part: if you love the Imam 'Ali, that love is enough to wash your sins away, so you can be admitted into Paradise. Yay for all those waiting to get in! I'm sure a lot of those in the crowd must've been thinking, "Oh, those poor Sunnis.. if only they'd love the Imam 'Ali like we do."
His narration of the masa'eb [sufferings] was good, today. Since tonight was the sixth night of Muharram, he narrated the story of the martyrdom of 'Aun and Muhammad, the two young sons of Zaynab, the sister of the Imam Husayn. It is said that Zaynab did not weep for either one of her martyred sons, except once. She didn't weep when they were killed. She didn't cry for them when she was humiliated and imprisoned. She did not shed a single tear for them when the tyrant Yazeed returned the severed heads of the soldiers of the Imam Husayn's army and her own sons' heads were brought before her.
It was only when she went back home to Madinah, entered her house and saw the two empty beds of 'Aun and Muhammad that she turned her face towards Karbala' and for the first and the last time, mourned her the death of her sons.
I had a clear view of Cute Guy today. Oh, those eyes! I managed to catch his eye a few times, but then he just looked away. I still don't know his name, goshdarnit!