Boys laughing and crossing road in San’aa after a flood yesterday…

SubhanAllah, sometimes there is not enough water to even make merig – other times, it rains and floods! No matter how bad it gets though, we need to see the rain as a blessing from Allah subhana wa t’ala after the more recent drought that has left villages and areas of the city without adequate amounts of water…. most Sanaani locals are used to the flooding, and take off their sandles to make it easier to cross the roads…

famine in Yemen

Salaam alaikum sisters,
I saw this on dubaisession.com. InshaAllah, we are able to find a way to help. It shows the plight of those who are fighting with famine in Yemen subhanAllah.

Outburts in Jummah Khutbah

Asalaamu alaikum sisters and brothers,
Yesterday alhamdulillah, I was able to attend the Juammah prayer here in my city. The brother giving the khutbah was talking about the different types of Ibadah and then went on to speak about our Ummah in Syria and the crisis they are in and how important it is to unite to help them during this time. An older brother sitting in the chair in the brothers sections started yelling about how it is not a place for “politics” and how we should be telling Saudi and Qatar, not us. The brother who gave the lecture stayed patient as the other yelled, saying “Calm down ahkhi, not now ahkhi, please, this isnt the place nor the time to be yelling.” I just want to address this issue at hand….

First of all, we are told that when one of our brothers or sisters in Islam faces distress, we need to help them. I also think it is important to remember that if it were us in that situation, we would be begging Allah subhana wa t’ala for help, and making dua that others were making dua for us. If it were our family over in Syria, (or Yemen, or anywhere else) we would want anyone who was able to help our family, to help them. Hence, if there is ever a khutbah in the masjid, and there is something you do not agree with, dont be so arrogant and yell out for the brother to stop talking. Dont stay. Leave for the sake of Allah and keep your comments to yourself, and discuss them after, in a civil conversation. Just this morning, these screenshots were on the news… I feel very ashamed for that brother who had the terrible urge to voice his opinion yesterday…

A mother, trying to look for other wounds on her three year old son, and her injured husband, as he lay with his son as his son died in his arms. الذين اذا اصابتهم مصيبة قالوا انا لله وانا اليه راجعون  Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji’un

please pull tabs for orphanage in yemen

Salaam alaikum sisters,
To those of you who are in the London/Windsor/Toronto, Ontario area, I ask you kindly to please get your family and friends, sons and daughters, and mosques involved in saving the metal tabs off cans of vimto, juice and pop, as I am collecting them to take back home here to the metal recycling depot where they will melt them down and pay for them by the pound (usually fifty cents per pound of tabs – i.e about 1500 tabs). The ones I collect myself within our family I will be using to make jewelry to sell to benefit the same orphanage inshaAllah (see below). I will then keep collecting until I have enough money from the tabs and sales and donations to send to my sister in law in Yemen. She will then take the money to the orphange in San’aa. Please take advantage of this chance for sadaqah inshaAllah.

Rasoolullah (saaw), the messenger of Allah swt said: ‘I and the one who takes care of an orphan will be in Jannah like that,’ (and he place his middle finger and forefinger together). (narrated by Bukhari)

 

note: you can either email me for my address to send the tabs, or I can meet you during my daughter’s many appointments inshaAllah. We will be in London August 31, 2011 and Toronto area (hospital for sick kids) mid-December 2011. JazakAllah khair, may Allah bless all our efforts as we work towards the akhirah.

Saleh injured, leaves Yemen

Asalaamu alaikum,
Saleh has left Yemen as president, and now the vice president – Abd Raboo Mansour Hadi – has taken on the Presidential  responsibilities. Dr. Mohamed Abd Al-Malek Al-Mutawakel, member of the supreme council of the opposition coalition known as the Joint Meeting Parties (JMP) told the Yemen Times that vice-president is the legitimate person to take over the president’s tasks for 60 days and presidential elections are to be held during this period, according to Yemen’s constitution.

Currently, Saleh is in Riyyadh Saudi, seeking medical attention after his presidential compound was attacked on 06/04/2011, admist a national uprising demanding his ouster.

update: A visibly injured President Saleh made a speech from Riyyadh today, 07/07/2011 where he is undergoing treatment for his burns and injuries, to speak to the Yemeni people and encourage them to be patient. He also made mention of the other government officials who are getting treatment alongside him.

 

Women continue to demonstrate in Sanaa and Ibb, Yemen

Salaam alaikum sisters,

While Yemen is still looking for  the ouster of President  Saleh, the women are coming out to show their support for the cause and to convince Saleh that he was wrong in his comments made last week about how women should stay home, which they saw as a personal attack on their souls and dignity. Here below are photos of some female doctors in the streets demonstrating mashaAllah, leading the other women.

In a show of support and solidarity, the brothers  made a human ring around our sisters to prevent them from unforseen injury or attack from government supporters. President Saleh, while working with the government to try and downplay his remarks, recently met with the leaders of the womens groups to tell them that what they did takes courage and so fourth but it may be too little too late.

Alhamdulillah I am a mother, and alhamdulillah I am muslim.

Salaam alaikum sisters,
I just watched a story on CNN about Abbie Dorn. Abbie and her husband couldnt get pregnant so they tried invitro fertilization. She became pregnant and later gave birth to triplets, two sons and a daughter mashaAllah. Due to post delivery hemorraging, she bled out, her heart stopped, and became severly brain damaged. Did her husband stay with her and take care of her? No. He moved across the country, literally. The kids didnt see their mother for three years and only now a judge granted her visitation rights… five days in the summer and one monthly online visit using skype.

Alhamdulillah I am muslim. Women in general in Islam have so many rights mashaAllah. Mothers are by all means, NO exception. I have never heard of this situation ever happening subhanAllah. Mothers have a right to their children, as well as having rights over them. Wives have rights over their husbands and husbands have certain rights over their wives. I must also add at this point, that this is a good time to speak about plural marriage. That is, a husbands right to more than one wife (up to four, if he can provide for them equally). In this case, his sick wife could not have a normal relationship with her husband, therefore, by marrying a second wife, he could avoid divorcing the first, keeping the family intact, and providing necessities of life and care which she would not normally need, all the while having a healthy relationship with the second wife inshaAllah.

Allah make it easy for all of us, ameen.

Right to Life Institute for Cerebral Palsy in Yemen

Asalaamu aalikum sisters
Here is a wonderful center for children with cerebral palsy in Yemen mashaAllah. Allah give the sisters in the center who help these children reward, ameen.

MP’S quit ruling party

[ALJAZEERA] Several members of Yemen’s ruling General People’s Congress (JPC), including members of parliament and some ministers, have resigned from the party in protest against the violence and harassment used against anti-government demonstrators in the country.
 
Ali Al-Imrani, an MP from al-Baida province, and Fathi Tawfiq Abdulrahim, head of the finance committee of the Yemeni parliament, resigned from the JPC on Saturday, local sources told Al Jazeera.

This brings the number of resigned ruling party MPs to 13 since the wave of protests against Ali Abdullah Saleh’s rule began.

Sam Yahya Al-Ahmar, the deputy culture minister, Hashid Abdullah al-Ahmar, the deputy minister for youth and sports  and Nabil Al-Khameri, a businessman, have also quit the ruling party.

Al-Ahmar resignation comes a week after his brother Hussein Abdullah Al-Ahmar had left the party. 

Tens of thousands of people continued with protests in several key cities across Yemen, including Sanaa, Aden, Taiz and Hadramawt, pressing on with demands that the president step down.

Protesters are also demanding an investigation into the killing of four people during protests on Friday in the northern town of Harf Sofyan, when soldiers opened fire, in an attack that also wounded seven others.

The government suspended classes at the universities in the capital Sanaa and in Aden, which have been the focal points for daily demonstrations, the Associated Press news agency reported on Saturday.

Proposal rejected

On Saturday, Britain’s Foreign Office issued a statement advising its citizens against all travel to Yemen “in light of the increasing violence” there.

Human rights group, Amnesty International, estimates that at least 27 people have been killed since anti-government protests began on January 27.

On Friday, Saleh rejected a proposal by opposition groups that offered him a smooth exit from power by the end of 2011. 

“The president rejected the proposal and is holding on to his previous offer,” Yemen’s opposition’s rotating president, Mohammed al-Mutawakil, said.

Saleh, who has been in power for 32 years, refuses to step down until his term ends in 2013.

The proposal was made this week by a coalition of opposition groups and religious scholars.

The offer sought to end the country’s political crisis, calling for a “peaceful transition of power” from Saleh by the end of this year.

It also called for a probe into the deadly crackdown on the recent anti-government protests.

The proposal also called for steps to change the constitution and rewriting election laws to ensure fair representation in parliament, removing Saleh’s relatives from leadership positions in the army and security forces, and a guaranteed right to peaceful protest.

yemen… eight ruling party lawmakers resign

Sanaa, Yemen – As pictured above, a soldier gaurds anti-government protestors in Yemens capital city of San’aa yesterday. Furthermore, on the heels of the latest protest, eight lawmakers from the current ruling party resigned, and not only because of the ongoing pressure. Abdilaziz Jabari said, as quoted by CNN, “Corrupt government officials were not taken to court. There’s been no progress on continuing a dialogue between the ruling party and the opposition in order to solve the country’s crisis…” and lawmaker Abdul Bishr explained the reason he resigned, “I resigned because there’s been no respect by the government for human rights, because of the attacks against protesters and journalists, because the security forces are not doing their jobs.”

What do you think about the current situation yourself? Honestly, I think the freedom of speech is wonderful, and that the people know what needs to be done to make the country progress, although I am not so sure if President Saleh necessarily needs to step down for that to happen. I think it can happen while he is still in office, if he continues to listen to the people and engage in talks with the opposition parties…