#Untold Dunya | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

wouldnt-it-be-hilarious-if-i · 2 years ago

Text

Reading List (Islam edition)

Stories of the Prophets by Ibn Kathir

Secrets of Divine Love: A Spiritual Journey into the Heart of Islam by A. Helwa

The Perished Nations: Book of Penalties by Al-Hafiz Ibn Abi Al-Dunya

The Prophet's Prayer by Imaam Muhammad bin Saalih al-'Uthaymeen

The ideal Muslimah: The True Islamic Personality of the Muslim Woman as Defined in the Qur an and Sunnah by

The Honorable Wives of the Prophet by Darus Salam

Timeless Seeds of Advice by Ibn Kathir

Islam for Dummies by Malcolm Clark

Notes:

I became friends with a really pretty girl who is muslim, and I realized that with all the islamophobia that I was brought up with and had carefully worked on rooting out, I still had some islamophobic biases that I didn't realize I had. So, before I ever get into conversation with her about her religion, I made the decision to go ahead and start unlearning and unpacking those biases and fears.

I began taking a free Intro to Islam course over Zoom, and I really liked it. It quickly became less about not sounding stupid in front of this girl and more about the love I have for learning about other cultures and religions. I love replacing the hate I was brought up with with love and knowledge. I've missed the last two classes, but aside from those, I've attended as many classes as I could. Islam is a very beautiful religion, and when I think about it, I think back to a girl I spoke to on here years ago.

I can't remember her name or her url. But I remember her telling me that she chose to convert after a very traumatic experience. Her mother wasn't supportive, and it caused a lot of problems between them. But what I remember is how absolutely beautiful her love for her religion was. She told me that she felt the most free when she chose to wear the hijab, and explained a lot of concepts to me that I've just never forgotten. It was one of the first times I ever heard about Islam outside of my family, and it was one of the most life changing.

I really do think of her whenever I think of Islam as beautiful. I don't even know really what she looked like. I just found that love and safety she found under the shade of this beautiful religion and how it completely altered my view of it. She was so kind and sweet, and you could tell she really meant everything she was saying.

The coolest thing is that everything I learned about Islam after her, like real Islam, has only proven what she said. I am always happy when I get to learn more about Islam because every Muslim I've ever met speaks about it with so much love and affection. It just makes me smile, and I really could listen to people talk about it for hours.

Anyway, these books are not quite about Islam, but they fall under my research because they are connected. I am interested in knowing more about the current events in the Middle East---particularly in Palestine and Iran. I know a bit about Iran, but I don't like to post about or discuss subjects I don't feel adequately informed about lest I accidentally share inaccurate and harmful information. I haven't had the chance to really look into the political events going on in these countries, so I'm making a plan to do a fair amount of research to get myself up to snuff with the goings-on.

This is an ongoing list I plan to add to over time.

A History of Modern Iran by Ervand Abrahamian

The Hundred Years' War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917–2017 by Rashid Khalidi

Innocent Until Proven Muslim: Islamophobia, the War on Terror, and the Muslim Experience Since 9/11 by Maha Hilal

The Islamophobia Industry: How the Right Manufactures Fear of Muslims by Nathan Lean

Jewels of Allah: The Untold Story of Women in Iran by Nina Ansary

Behind the Kingdom's Veil: Inside the New Saudi Arabia Under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman by Susanne Koelbl

2 notes · View notes

archosaur-automaton · 4 years ago

Text

It has many names. The Scattering. The Dispersal. Exodus. Diaspora. The Opening of The Way.

The academics at the New Antares Institute of Humanity refer to it as a “Trans-Solar Mass Population Displacement Event.” None of these words do justice to the tragedy. None of them can speak in full of what was lost. There are few records that chronicle what came to pass, and those that remain are incomplete, spotty, fragments of a truth lost to time. What we do know is this: Our species’ birthplace was a world far from the ones on which we now live. It too has many names: Dunya, Dìqíu, Prithvi, Arda. The Great Mother. Our Homeworld. For untold ages there did humans live and die, fight and made peace, savor their joys and curse their sorrows. Myriad peoples built wonders and learned the secrets of the world. Across Her whole surface did they spread, journeying and venturing ever forth into the unknown. It was only natural, then, that when the Homeworld had been known to Her fullest, humanity would look beyond. The ancients believed that nothing in the Universe can move faster than Light. What they were blessed to discover was the truth of the Universe itself: that there are places where it flows faster than light, like a river. And just as a river can be traversed with a boat, so too can the hidden Slipstreams of the Universe be traversed. Thus did humans set their proverbial sails and venture to the worlds beyond our holy Mother, to the stars. For a time, there was peace and prosperity. Some say it was a Golden Age, Heaven made manifest. But even Heaven is not tranquil forever. The Cataclysm did not happen all at once; indeed, it spread slowly. None know its cause, but all know its effect; that within a matter of years, from star to planet to even the void of space, a vast swath around the Homeworld would become uninhabitable. Facing extinction, the only choice left was to flee. Many fleets were assembled, each representing the wonderous diversity mankind, each casting off in a different direction to find new homes on which we might survive. None have been heard from since -- only the ships that made their way here, to the far haven of these new worlds. Our people started over from scratch, settling worlds and struggling for survival for a long time. Though we faced many trials, eventually we regrew our wings and took to the stars once more. Many nations have risen and fell. Many have lived and died, loved and wept, learned and forgotten. But we are still here. Humanity remains. Above all else, we survive. That is what it means to be human. This lesson at least, taught by our Homeworld and mother, cannot be taken from us.

#third age #my writing #worldbuilding #space #scifi #my worlds

29 notes · View notes

vices-aand-virtues · 5 years ago

Text

2020 Popsugar Reading Challenge

The new year is upon us! Which means it was time for me to decide how I wanted to go about my reading challenge for the year. In 2019, I pretty much read whatever I wanted, with the intent of reading more authors of color, romance, and books by women. While I didn’t quite reach my specific goal, my numbers were much higher than in previous years. So this year I decided to up the ante and not only raise those numbers again, but participate in the Popsugar Reading Challenge once more.

When I did this challenge in 2018, it exposed me to books and authors I hadn’t thought to read or intended to read but just hadn’t gotten around to it yet. It also helped me realize that if a book isn’t enjoyable for me, I don’t have to read it.

So here’s my list for the coming year. Fingers crossed it gets finished! Happy 2020 and happy reading!

-------

1. A book published in 2020 - The Worst Best Man by Mia Sosa (changed from original list)

2. A book by an trans or nonbinary author - The Map of Salt and Stars by Zeyn Joukhadar

3. A book with a great first line - My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite

4. A book about a book club - The Naughty Girls Book Club by Sophie Hart

5. A book set in a city that has hosted the Olympics - Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams (changed from original list)

6. A bildungsroman - With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo (changed from original list)

7. The first book you touch on a shelf with your eyes closed - Medium Raw by Anthony Bourdain

8. A book with an upside down image on the cover - This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar (changed from original list)

9. A book with a map - Children of Virtue and Vengeance (Legacy of Orïsha, #2) by Tomi Adeyemi (changed from original list)

10. A book recommended by your favorite blog, vlog, podcast or online book club - Every Heart a Doorway (Wayward Children, #1) by Seanan McGuire, recommended by The Worst Bestsellers podcast Best of 2016

11. An anthology - Not That Bad: Dispatches from Rape Culture by Roxane Gay

12. A book that passes the Bechdel test - Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

13. A book with the same title as a movie or TV series but is unrelated to it -- The Wedding Date (The Wedding Date, #1) by Jasmine Guillory

14. An author with flora or fauna in their name -- The Cruel Prince (The Folk of the Air, #1) by Holly Black

15. Book published the month you were born - The Boyfriend Project by Farrah Rochon, published June 2020 (changed from original list)

16. A book about or by women in STEM - The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women by Kate Moore

17. A book that won an award in 2019 - Dear Girls: Intimate Tales, Untold Secrets, and Advice for Living Your Best Life by Ali Wong, winner of a 2019 Goodreads choice award

18. A book on a subject you know nothing about - The Beekeeper: Rescuing the Stolen Women of Iraq by Dunya Mikhail

19. A book with only words on the cover - A Very Large Expanse of Sea by Tahereh Mafi

20. A book with a pun in the title - High Achiever: The Incredible True Story of One Addict's Double Life by Tiffany Jenkins

21. A book featuring one of the seven deadly sins - A Woman is No Man by Etaf Rum (changed from original list)

22. A book with a robot, cyborg or AI character - Starsight (Skyward #2) by Brandon Sanderson

23. A book with a bird on the cover - Late for Tea at the Deer Palace: The Lost Dreams of My Iraqi Family by Tamara Chalabi

24. A fiction or nonfiction book about a world leader - The Other Queen by Philippa Gregory, a fictional account of Mary Queen of Scots

25. A book gold, silver or bronze in the title - The Golden Son by Shilpi Somaya Gowda (changed from original list)

26. A book by a woman of color - Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

27. A book with at least a four-star rating on Goodreads - Corazon by Yesika Salgado

28. A book you meant to read in 2019 - The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

29. A book involving social media - The Right Swype (Modern Love #1) by Alisha Rai (changed from original list)

30. A book that has a book on the cover - One True Loves by Taylor Jenkins Reid

31. A medical thriller - The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides (changed from original list)

32. A book with a made up language - Shadow and Bone (The Grisha, #1) by Leigh Bardugo

33. A book set in a country beginning with C - Ayesha at Last by Uzma Jalaluddin (changed from original list)

34. A book picked because the title caught your attention - Fruit of the Drunken Tree by Ingrid Rojas Contreras

35. A book with a three-word title - My Old Faithful by Yang Huang

36. A book with a pink cover - Red, White, & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

37. A western - The Cold Dish (Walt Longmire #1) by Craig Johnson

38. A book by or about a journalist - The Seven Husbands of Evenlyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid (changed from original list)

39. Read a banned book during Banned Books Week - Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson (changed from original list)

40. Your favorite prompt from a past PopSugar Reading Challenge - bone by Yrsa Daley-Ward, from the 2016 Challenge: A Book That's Under 150 Pages (changed from original list)

Advanced:

1. A book written by an author in their 20s - The Mermaid's Voice Returns in This One (Women Are Some Kind of Magic #3) by Amanda Lovelace (28)

2. A book with 20 or twenty in the title - Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair by Pablo Neruda

3. A book with a character with a vision impairment or enhancement - The Murmur of Bees by Sofía Segovia (changed from original list)

4. A book set in Japan - Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden

5. A book by an author who has written more than 20 books - The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

6. A book set in the 1920s - Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (changed from original list)

7. A book with more than 20 letters in the title - The Dark Descent Of Elizabeth Frankenstein by Kiersten White

8. A book published in the 20th century - The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro (changed from original list)

9. A book from a series with more than 20 books - Naked in Death (In Death #1) by J.D. Robb (changed from original list)

10. A book with a main character in their 20s - The Hating Game by Sally Thorne (changed from original list)

----

Any of these are subject to change! I’ll also be reading other books not included on this list, so hopefully I can reach over 50 books this year.

Happy reading!

#2020 popsugar reading challenge #reading challenge #2020 reading challenge #bookworm #reading #personal

13 notes · View notes

blackbritishreader · 6 years ago

Link

Two young British-Somali filmmakers, Mohamud Yusuf Mussa and Yasin Mohamed, have attempted to address this through their short documentary See My Dunya (See My World).

The film offers a unique glimpse into Manchester's close-knit Somali community and shines a light on myriad untold narratives and perspectives.

The film forms part of the See My Dunya exhibition, which is on display at Manchester Central Library until 23 March 2019.

#Event #See My Dunya

103 notes · View notes

nayfeeeen · 3 years ago

Text

I've been giving it alot of thought of late, how it will never feel right as long as I'm not working for something meaningful. As long as I'm not working for my akhera. I tell myself I can do it,balance between my dunya and akhera,but then the minute the dunya sweeps in ,my guard breaks.So I console myself,its in your intentions love.You pray,you read the quran,you obey Allah.But do I really?I'm I doing all I can to know Allah better,to learn more about his deen,my religion.Or I'm I delaying it to after,it's always after .After highschool,after this degree,after,after. Maybe I'm labelling knowledge to certain institutions, a piece of paper .maybe I can start right here,in my room,with my laptop and intentions and determinations twice that of a horse in its final lap.But then again,maybe this is just one of those moments I feel sorry for myself and then get completely oblivious days after.

~her Untold tales~

0 notes

tohabibiwithlove · 7 years ago

Text

1/26/18

The days pass by so quickly. How one blink of an eye turns into months. I haven’t posted on here since October. We went through some rough periods within the last 3 months. Lots of fighting. Lots of crying. Lots of painful moments. Marriage and love are not a rose tinted window that one basks in all day and night. Although we know that fluffy narrative isn’t true, it is something else to finally come face to face with it.

The first crack in that window is nothing short of painful. It is a silent, quick blow that does an unimaginable amount of damage. It is a shot to the fairytale that is ingrained in our minds of what a marriage is.

You see my love, I never thought marriage would be perfect. I never thought I’d get everything I wanted. I expected to sacrifice. I expected to compromise. I expected to go through hardships. But now I am in it. Now I am married and I see marriage for what it truly is. And looking at something from the outside is nothing like looking at it from the inside.

I think it’s safe to say that we’ve made many mistakes in our marriage. Whether it’s something we thought wasn’t a big deal that was a big deal to the other, whether it was saying things or acting a certain way out of anger, or feeling disrespected or misunderstood repeatedly by the other, we have been through a lot in these 6 months of living together. And there is no justifying these mistakes. They hurt. They cause damage. They plague our thoughts sometimes. But that is what we need to recognize them as, mistakes.

I now see forgiveness in a new shade. I see how forgiveness looks when the lights are dim now. It’s a side of the spectrum I’ve never seen before. Forgiveness. It is essential, as we’ve always heard. It changes you. It relieves you of untold burdens. It renews your heart and mind. It leaves you with a light feeling in your heart, as what was once so heavy upon you has been removed. And none of this is anything new to us. These are words we always hear. Words that almost sound cliche because of how often we hear them. But again, looking at something from the outside is nothing like looking at it from the inside.

Alhamdulilah for all of it, my love. All that has befallen us that we perceive as bad have actually been seeds, full of life and hope and growth. They were all something that taught us lessons. About ourselves, about each other, about Allah, about the Dunya and the Akhira, about the intricate design of males and females, about living a life in servitude towards our Master. So in reality, all of it has been good. HADITH ALL IS GOOD FOR BELIEVER. And if in one of those sorrowful experiences, we could find no lesson, then it was iA a seed that sprouted in Closeness to Allah. We called out to Him more. We depended on Him more. And that is the best outcome that could possibly occur. So in no way were any of these experiences, although sorrowful at the time, bad. Alhamdulilah for all of it.

Alhamdulilah for the happy moments too. We’ve had many of those. There were rose tinted days, there has been an unimaginable sweetness in so many moments. There have been moments I experienced with you that have left a permanent smile on my heart. Alhamdulilah. And it is those days and moments that I will cherish for the rest of my life iA.

My love, this Journey we have embarked on will continue to be filled with thorns and steep hills, and those will strengthen us beyond reasons we can grasp. But it will also be filled with light, ease, and clear walkways. We must be ready to continue walking through both, together. For we are each other’s provision on this Journey. And almost 1 year in from being married to you, I would like to confirm my declaration of commitment to you on this Journey, hand in hand iA.

1 note · View note