What Were Your Favorite Subjects in High School?, my son asked.
Easy. English. … I would have if I could have, Punched Miss Scarlett in the face, And frankly my dear, I would have given a damn, Were he my dashing Rhett.
Hand Made Tale
“You are now old enough to stitch your own clothes,” Mummy said.
I was twelve. Mummy took the fabric she had bought for my shalwar qameez. She lay it flat on the dining table, folding it lengthwise.
What Was Then, What is Now
Once our home in Staten Island
“How has the country changed in your lifetime?” My son Saqib asked me. Oh my! Where do I even begin? How about at the beginning….the sound I never thought I would hear in New York of the 70s…
Read moreA Girl's Best Friend
“Do Muslim children play with dolls?” A friend of mine asked me. She was working on creating a line of rag dolls as part of a day care program for children living in homeless shelters. It had occurred to her to make a few dolls with a hijab for Muslim families.
Read moreRemembering My Mother
“What was your mother like when you were a child?” my son Saqib asked me. She was beautiful!
Read moreA Military Father's Gift
A cadet at the Pakistan Military Academy
“Daddy, Javed hit me,” I said to my father… I was six, or not quite. Javed was the neighborhood bully, a skinny, wiry boy, probably just a year older than me. .. “Don’t come crying to me. Go back and hit him.”
Read moreShould Muslims Celebrate Christmas?
So why is it o.k. for Muslims to celebrate Christmas? For starters, Allah commands us to do so, in the Quran.
Read moreA Keepsake From My Father
“When I am gone, you can publish them,” Daddy said to me.
“I want to publish them in your lifetime….There is no benefit to you if they are published afterwards.” I choked on the word ‘afterwards.’ So began the work of organizing Daddy’s memoirs
The Craziest Thing That Happened to Me
Have you ever used a ouija board? When I was 8 or 9 years old, I walked in my uncle’s room and saw him, my aunt, and Khala Ji, my grand aunt sitting around a glass table, talking to a metal piece on the table.
Read moreHappy Birthday Omar. Happy Birthday Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)
Omar with Khalid
Today is our grandson Omar’s birthday. While I reminisce over the last 20 years, how far Omar has brought us, the places he has taken us, how he changed our lives. . . I am also looking forward to another birthday. A birthday that changed the world forever.
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