Al-Bayyan
February 2018
Issue 20
The UIC MSA Publication
ect tonight is Love And rrow night as well, As a fact I know of no better us to discuss Until we al ught the happy virus last en I was out singing bee stars. It is remarkably Upsidedown us - So kiss me. There any positions of Love: ve on a branch, the thouerent ways Your eyes can us, The infinite shapes
saba ali
abdul basith basheer
esraa elkossei esraa elkossei
5 esraa elkossei
Introduction
I have learned the most valuable lessons of my life from doing the opposite of what I was supposed to. I learned what’s right from doing wrong; what succeeds from what fails; heeding to the King, the Real, the Apparently Manifest from heedlessness; good coffee from horrible coffee; looking fresh from looking like a bum; eating well from eating until I want to puke. And the list can go on, and on, and on. Further, the older I get, the more I realize that everyone seems to have his or her own truth. We are all bound by, and contingent on the Truth, but when it comes to the truths of day to day life on this earth, everyone is paving their own way in accordance to personal truths.
Hence, who is to say what’s upside down and what’s right side up? Considering that people are products of their environment, and our ways of life are fine-tuned to surviving and thriving in the environments we grow in, who is backwards and who is forwards? Who is straight, who is bent? And if the truth becomes more manifest after falsehood, right becomes more clear after wrong, and the Path seems to straighten up after trekking its twists and turns, then perhaps we should all walk around upside down for a bit. Maybe we’ll learn what it means to be right side up. Or maybe we’ll just get dizzy and get a headache. Only one way to find out, though, right?
Farooq Chaudhry Editor in Chief
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Poetry
Weekend notes i pulled up the rosemaries shook off the soil and let the roots reach out to me. i cracked open the swampy white oak saplings to let them know winter will be here soon. the banana tree cannot sit still it feels a little shy to let you know but we figured out sometimes moving around helps us grow. the orchids still whisper about the geraniums and their soiled pots those tall bastards know exactly why they’re laying down. the mirror behind the peppers is in love with harvest season the peppers in front of the mirror are in love with themselves and i can’t remember where the crawling wire vines crawl to this time of year.
Tradition tradition: trəˈdiSH(ə)n///: the transmission of customs or beliefs from generation to generation, or the fact of being passed on in this way.
A figment made of iron that equals a million lives That have come and gone Traces of my father and his father linger in the peripheries there is no future without a past it encapsulates some, offends others, and some, like me, realize it simply is the beginning of our own. Bismillah. Javerea Ahmed
shaz
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Devil’s Snare
Everything is right. It’s absolute perfection. The future looks bright. There’s a plan in motion. And then Just like that Crash. Everything is wrong. I’m tumbling. Freefall. Caught. I’m upside down. Hanging by my leg, I’m upside down. Trying to figure out where things went so wrong. How did I get from right side up to upside down? Screaming, crying, struggling to fix myself. To fix the things that went wrong. When all I had to do Was let go. Accept the tests, trials, and tribulations. Time heals all wounds But Only if you let it. And just like that. Snap. I fall. But this time? I fall on my feet. Manal Qadeer
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This is Not Trash Fire cannot destroy pure clay, it can only strengthen it, in the process of trying to destroy the pure clay the fire makes it eternal The Devil is made of fire and Adam was made from clay This world is a kiln, we are God’s pottery A short test of fire - to destroy a liar - so when we expire We adorn eternity Yavuz Baysal
You’re still responsible for what you choose to ignore Your lack of acknowlegdment does not negate the fact that you were in fact responsible for my feelings And I finally realize refusing the existance of the feelings in my heart feeds Whatever fire I don’t want to see Nuha Abdelrahim
Contraction deeply diseased easily pleased blood gets squeezed but no signs of creed alive but deceased wishing to be freed but to whims takes heed no garden; just weeds fate a mystery perhaps tragedy or insanity what if victory? we shall see Farooq Chaudhry
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Reflections
The World would implode without Will Smith Javerea Ahmed
Now this is the story all about how, my life got flipped, turned upside down. And I’d like to take a minute, just sit right there. I’ll tell you how I became the Prince of a town called Bel-air. I cant remember a time I didn’t know the lyrics to the Fresh Prince of Bel-air’s theme song. As a kid it was just that show I’d reluctantly watch after PBS kids ended at 6. Now it remains in my head long after the show has finished. And shout out to the song producers because years later I still occasionally find myself singing it with my friends in the car, listening to trap remixes of it in the dark, dark depths of youtube, and making parody versions of my own. Last week my 11 year old brother discovered 150 episodes of Will Smith at his sideways cap wearing finest on Netflixand I caught something I didn’t ever seem to notice before. The theme song was genius. Why? Context. In this cheesy rap the viewer is given all the information they need to understand the show, the entire back story for the show to make sense. Will is the odd one out. He was raised in west Philadelphia not the wealthy, BelAir, which explains why he doesn’t dress or talk the same as the rest of the family
he is living with. He’s different. He may not know which knife to use at dinner or the proper way to engage with people but he’s clever in all the ways that matter. Without the information captured in the theme song and repeated before every episode the show wouldn’t work. Wouldn’t it be great if we were introduced by a theme song every time we met someone, to alert people to our backstory? Just enough so that it explained our sometimes bizarre daily behaviors? Sometimes I wish I could give people the context to my behavior and often I wish I could get the back story on the people I meet. It would save the world from a lot of misunderstanding. There’s an aphorism by Ibn-Attallah from The Hikam, “Actions differ because the inspirations of the states of being differ”. The interpretations of this statement are incredibly vast, but what applies here is that we may not nor will we ever be able to completely understand someone else’s state of being, much less our own, but the first step in explaining the actions of those around us is being aware that they may be in a different state than us, that they too have backstory. Unfortunate-
ly in real life you don’t get a theme song, behaviors leave lasting impressions, and the only way we can really deal with this is with kindness and mercy (cliché I know but truth is truth). The world is a fabulous place, but it is also intrinsically and undeniably broken and therefore battling, on one front or another, its the norm. I’m trying to remember I do not know the theme songs which proceed the people I come into contact with. I don’t know their context, their battle. If I did it would help me to understand what is in their heart. But as I don’t I will try and speak with compassion, to offer a gentle word or smile. I will try and treat them with kindness and remember everyone else is just as fragile as I am. And finally, remind myself over and over again that actions differ because their state of being differs from my own. Sometimes life gets flipped, turned upside down and That’s okay. We all just need a bit of context.
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The subject tonight tomorrow night as w of fact I know of no us to discuss Until the happy virus last out singing beneath markably contagiou There are So many Each curve on a bra sand different ways embrace us, The in Mind can draw, The of scents, The curre Muslim Valentine’s Day Cards Featuring the work of Tanzila Ahmed
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t is Love And for well, As a matter o better topic For we all Die! I caught t night When I was h the stars. It is reus - So kiss me. positions of Love: anch, the thous Your eyes can nfinite shapes your e spring Orchestra ents of light com9
Heart as Warm as Hot Chocolate Nahian Saed
Let me oversimplify a 4 am thought I had once. In every interaction a person has with another person, there are three paths they can take; negative, neutral, and positive. The three paths represent how you treat the other persons insecurities. In the negative path, person A recognizes or may be oblivious to person B’s insecurity. They then decide to further deepen that insecurity on purpose, or even accidentally. This comes in the form of tone, body language, or saying some dumb shit. In the neutral path, person A may or may not be aware of person B’s insecurity, but avoids referencing it, or playing at it at
all. In the positive path, person A is likely aware of person B’s insecurity. They then take control of the interaction and work to alleviate person B’s insecurity by making it seem like its nothing to worry about. Being a warm hearted person must be something like jumping between the positive and neutral paths. It is an invaluable skill to be aware of what people might be insecure about, deciding what to do with that information is up to the individual. I can’t help but think the Prophet (PBUH) was aware of these paths, or at least a similar thought.
The Power of People
Ummesalmah Abdulbaseer
It’s funny how people can just come around, turn your life upside down some might make you smile, and some might make you frown The power that people have over us, frankly, is terrifying. To know that someone’s presence will shape our behaviors, our feelings, and our thoughts. To know that when we start a friendship with someone, we are giving them a piece of our souls and taking a piece of theirs. We suddenly become tied by our knowledge of one another. Our lives become two periods of time, before we met them and af-
ter we met them. Sometimes the people you meet may remain acquaintances, but other times, you’ll come across people that you want to keep in your life forever. People that motivate you, challenge you, and inspire you. These are more than just your friends, they are people that you want to waltz in to your life, people that you can’t imagine your life without, people that will truly turn your life upside down. Hold on to these people, seek their company, for it’ll bring more happiness to you than you’ll ever know.
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Editors in Chief Farooq Chaudhry Nuha Abdelrahim Ghost Managing Editor Ibraheim Mohammad Staff Writers Ummesalmah Abdulbaseer Sarah Basheer Safa Shameem Nahian Saed Samirah Alam Nui Waris Ali Nasaruddin Javerea Ahmed Staff Artist Saba Ali Meme Masters Aleena Haider Manal Qadeer Kareem Jabri Doodles Sumaiyya Ahned Creative Direction Noor Abdelrahim Interested in contributing to Al-Bayyan? If so, email submissions to albayyanuic@gmail.com
The subje for tomor matter of topic For Die! I cau night Whe neath the contagiou are So ma Each curv sand diffe embrace