Update: May 27, 2011

Assalamu alaykum and hello!

Today has so far been an okay day; the windy, cold, and wet weather is a bit depressing, but overall things have gone well. I spent the morning on a road known as Green Street. For any of you who have been to Devon Avenue in Chicago in the US, Green Street is much like that, especially the Bangladeshi, Indian, and Pakistani sections. For any of you who read the past post in which I mentioned Manchester’s Curry Mile (Wilmslow Road), Green Street is similar to that as well.

Thanks to a primarily Pakistani Muslim population, Green Street is lined with an array of shops specializing in Pakistani goods. There are several masjids as well as the shops, some of which are rather large. Many women wear the niqab as many are followers of the strict orthodox Sunni Deobandi and Salafi traditions of Pakistan. In other words, Green Street is a fairly good representation of the eastern part of Greater London.

The reason I went to Green Street was to find something specific, something I had never seen in any of the shops where I’m currently staying. I’m not going to tell you what that something was, but it will be the subject of a post either tonight or tomorrow insha’Allah! Hint: it has something to do with a post I published last week!

There really isn’t anything exciting to mention about the blog, but there are a couple things I should mention. First, I again won’t be publishing a chapter of my novel for two reasons: 1) I didn’t have any time to write so there isn’t a third chapter yet, and 2) I’m preparing to publish the first book in that series, ‘The Bond of Sisters.’ Insha’Allah I’ll write something about that Sunday for those of you who want to know more. Tomorrow I will most likely be doing some serious editing so I won’t have much time to actually write anything.

The second thing I would like to mention is an idea for a series of posts about some of the more important Sahaba, companions of the Prophet Muhammad salallahu alayhi wassalam. Muslims know plenty about the Prophet, how he lived his life, what his character was like, and the like. However, many do not know nearly as much about the Sahaba, but they are also good sources of inspiration and knowledge. There is a verse of the Qur’an – which I need to find – that states the Sahaba were the best community brought for mankind.

I do not know exactly what I’m going to do, but what I’ll probably do is take a specific person and then write a post about them: their conversion to Islam, their relationship with the Prophet, what we can learn from them, etc. There is no set schedule as to when each post will come; I’ll publish them when I finish writing them. It might take some time and energy to write each one because truthfully I myself do not know much about the Sahaba; it will be a learning experience for me insha’Allah.

My lack of knowledge also includes a lack of knowledge in who were the more important among the Sahaba. So far my list includes Abu Bakr, ‘Umar bin al-Khattab, and ‘Ali, may Allah be pleased with them all. That’s it. As you can see I need more, so if any of you have any suggestions as to who you think are the most important Sahaba, I would love to hear them. Just leave a comment or email me!

I think that’s all for this update. I have no idea what I will be writing about this upcoming week; it’ll be a surprise for all of us. So, on that note, have a good weekend!

Iman