Black Friday

Ahmad:  Get ready Honey , we need to go!

Fatima, surprised to be called 'Honey', thought her husband  Ahmad  must be up to something.

Fatima :  Go where? It is already 8:00 o'clock at night and we need to put the children to bed.

Ahmad :  Did you forget? Tomorrow is 'Black Friday'!  

Fatima :  What do you mean 'Black Friday'? Is something bad going to happen?

Ahmad: No Darling!  In business merchants used to use red ink to mark losses and black ink for profits. So tomorrow all businesses are hoping to use the black ink. That is why everything's on sale tomorrow.

Fatima (Now he's calling me 'Darling'?): But what does this have to do with us?

Ahmad : Look Sweetheart!  I have been wanting this plasma 55 inch TV for a long time and it is going on sale tomorrow for only $2,199.99, one thousand dollars off from its original price. The store opens at 4 o'clock in the morning. The store has  only three in stock according to my source at the store. (His friend works at the store.)  So hurry up! We need to be in line! I noticed people started to line up as I passed by the store on my way home from work.

Fatima : But we have a nice 32 inch flat screen TV and we don't need another one!

Ahmad : Honey!  You don't understand!  This is completely different. I can see the OSU-Michigan in 3D. You too will enjoy watching "Bab Al Hara" on the other TV when I'm watching the game.

Fatima : We don't have that kind of money!

Ahmad : Yesterday I  received another Visa card and I can use it for this dream-come-true purchase.  I figured my minimum monthly payments will only increase by  $21.

Fatima : Did you forget the house mortgage payment?,  car loan payment? , my student loan?,  daycare for our children? monthly payment on our furniture?

Ahmad : Don't worry.  Everything's  under control.  I just got raise at my job.

Fatima : But any time you may, God forbid,  lose your job.  Have you thought about that? We would lose everything, including our home.  How many people do we know who lost their jobs and for more than a year they could not find another job?

Ahmad: But, isn't true ..

Fatima (interrupting): How many times did I tell you to save some money for our "Black days"?  Not for "Black Fridays"!  Did you forget  what the Prophet upon him be peace said, "The Martyr is forgiven for everything except debt".  Did you forget that the Prophet, upon him be peace, refused to lead the Salat Aljanaza  (funeral prayer) on a deceased person who owed money?  Did you forget what Allah S.W.T says:

"Make not your hand tied (Like a stingy one's) to your neck, nor stretch it forth to its utmost reach. so that you become blameworthy and destitute (Al-Israa 17:29). Let's you and I stick to this golden rule:

"Buy what  you need with what you have"

Ahmad : Jazakillahu Khayran Fatima! Why do you have to be so right? I was so excited ... but you are right.  We shouldn't buy this plasma TV now. Let's work together to pay off our debt as soon as possible. But I have a question for you.  We have one TV, right? What if the OSU-Michigan game and Bab Al Harah are at the same time?

Disclaimer : All characters appearing in this piece are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

The Wife-Beating Issue

"Your mother is so great that I did not have to beat her up once in the thirty years we have been married!" a father told his sons as he was trying to praise his wife.

"Every time she will talk back at me I will slap her," a brother told me as I was trying to provide marital counseling for him and his wife. Apparently he had "smacked" her before they came to see me. The mind boggling thing is that when I asked him, "What did she say to you that caused you to hit her?" he replied, "We had an argument and she provoked me so I said to her "Haywaneh!" (you're an animal!) Then she dared to talk back at me saying, "Inteh el Haywan" (you're the animal). Then I exercised my "God given right" to beat her up."

Though this is hardly a common idea in our community, if only a few brothers follow this misunderstanding of our religion, it damages their families and it damages our whole community.

The opponents of Islam often accuse Islam and Muslims of mistreatment of women and allowing men to beat up their wives referring to the Quranic verse 4:34. Unfortunately some Muslim men do strongly believe that this verse in the Quran gives them some "God given right" to beat their wives.