Upon my newfound knowledge, I stumbled upon the blog of an optimistically realistic lawyer/consultant/father/husband on which he dishes out a buffet of food for thought.

In one particularly compelling piece, the author compiles a list of 50 rules for his son and daughter, who had just graduated high school and were preparing to enter college. The piece is composed of rules/tips/pieces of advice to help his children in their progression to adulthood.

After reading, I was immediately compelled to begin accumulating my own tidbits of lessons-learned, but I have no sons or daughters so I’m here to address the next best thing: my brothers and sisters.

50 Rules for my Muslim brothers and sisters:

1. Visit the office every so often. Chances are someone is hoping you would do so more.

2. Shake your fellow brother’s hand firmly. It makes for good practice.

3. Leave the office. I said visit it, not live in it.

4. Say salaam. Or else.

5. Studying will get you far in life. Friends will make your journey worthwhile. Study in groups.

6. Get to know the ground of Bruinwalk well. It’ll be your best friend. Especially on hot days.

7. Scooters. No.

8. Renew your intentions. The late charge isn’t worth it.

9.  Learn about the Palestinian conflict. Never has injustice been so celebrated.

10. Know where you came from.

11. Volunteer at each project at least once.

12. Clothing is self-defined. It says about you what you tell it to.

13. Make sure your parents never forget, even for the slightest moment, the sound of your voice.

14. Debate for knowledge, not for victory.

15. If everyone and their mothers disagree with your opinion, it doesn’t mean you’re wrong.

16. If you find yourself in a one on one, it’s already too late

17. Have lunch with a non-Muslim friend at least once a week.

18. If you aren’t crying at either your or a friend’s graduation, then you probably missed a step.

19. Your relationship with Allah swt is a lot like Facebook. If you’re smart, you’ll make it private.

20. Get to know members of this graduating class. You’ll be bragging about it in the future.

21. Your intentions may have been in the right place, but you still messed up. Fix it. A QB never intends to throw an interception.

22. If a certain brother or sister doesn’t come around, its because he/she doesn’t have a reason to. Be that reason.

23. Be the first to grab the prayer mats before and after prayer.

24. Ignore sectional differences. There’s a person behind there.

25. People rarely know the extent to which you care about them. Tell them.

Stay tuned for the next 25!

As a recently paroled inmate of UCLA, I’ve been asking myself the above questions, but mainly asking, what now? The intent behind this column is to attempt to answer that question. At the minimum to present a possible answer.

Plan a college farewell

So for starters, how about doing something simple like take a vacation?

You’ve just spent the last four plus years studying your butt off to earn your degree or to get into grad school. The road ahead to your life is just beginning, but right now you have an opportune moment.

Once you start in the real world with a job or grad school you’ll notice a difference in your free time. You have more of it, but it isn’t usable.

For example, when you are working, your day has very fixed boundaries; get in the office around 9, get out around 6. There is no homework, no weekend projects, nothing. Once you leave the office, your time is yours, which is really cool because now you will have time to do things regular people do, like sleep, relax, read books, and have fun.

The only hang up with working is that you no longer have long vacations in which you can travel, or visit old friends. You have to first earn time off, then once you’ve earned enough hours you have to get permission from your boss to use that time.

Unlike school you can’t blow off a week of work just because you felt like it or you wanted to travel. You’ll get fired for that.

So as a grad-to-be, you might want to plan on some kind of final farewell to your college life. A farewell to waking up at 1pm, missing classes as you felt like it, roaming around SoCal on a whim, attending various conferences and, a farewell to your college friends.

We all go to our separate corners of the world after we graduate, and once life kicks in, be it marriage, work, family, and so on, you won’t be seeing your friends as often.

For example, one of my roommates works in an office that is about a 3 minute ride from mine. For nearly a month now, we haven’t had a chance to meet up because our schedules just aren’t syncing up.

So all your friends may be in SoCal, maybe even in your city, but you might not see them as often as you like because you are both busy.

That being said, you and your friends should try to plan some kind of farewell/ “hello future” adventure together.

Travel abroad…

If you have been granted some wealth by Allah, maybe you want to consider visiting another country. Places like Europe, Africa, Australia, or your home country come to mind as possible locations. Since you have some free time available, try to schedule such trips during off peak times for better fares. Hit up websites like Groupon or Livingsocial to find deals on various kinds of trips.

If you are on a budget, a new thing is to hook up with a relief organization that is doing work in an area you’d like to visit. Often times such organizations need help with building schools, homes, or other kinds of infrastructure. As part of your pay they will fly you out to Haiti, to Africa, or elsewhere in the world, provide a place to stay, and give you around a week to “vacation” in the area once the work is done. These trips can be free or nearly free and would be an amazing way to give both sadaqah and seeing the world.

…or go somewhere closer to home

Now if you are broke, much like the author of this blog, then this alternative is even better: simply hang out with your friends for some time after graduation before they all have to go their separate ways.

LA is home to some pretty cool sites and activities. You can go horseback riding up to the Hollywood sign, hiking in Malibu, cruising on LA’s Numbergring, ice skating, karting, star gazing, shopping, eating, movie going, exploring, and the list goes on and on. There is plenty of stuff to do in LA that doesn’t cost much. You can even get to some of it using the bus or try to get a buddy with a car.

Do your best to end your UCLA experience well, as what comes next in your life is going to be interesting…

After my last quarter, I went to Point Dume (Malibu, CA) with my favorite brothers.

While at the MSA West conference this year at UC Berkeley, Rahman encountered the booth for United for Service, a non-profit organization that takes volunteers to developing countries in order to understand the every day challenges and improve the conditions of the citizens. While on the trip, the volunteers work with different non-profit groups to understand the different health, educational, and social needs of the poor and take different measures to aid them.

The organization also gives the training and tools to volunteers on how to work for other social causes when they return home. Despite the application being due in two weeks and knowing that only a handful of applicants would be chosen, Rahman decided to take a chance at her dream and apply.

A few months later, Rahman opened her email to find out that she was one of only fourteen applicants chosen to volunteer inIndia. Reminiscing about the moment, Rahman talks about the excitement she felt when she realized her dreams were about to come true. “I am extremely excited for the opportunity to see first-hand how non-governmental organizations work in impoverished regions. I am going to be able to visit schools for under privileged children, orphanages, and government funded hospitals, inshAllah helping to make a change.”

Rahman’s trip lasts from June 29, 2012 until July 21, 2012 but by April 15, 2012, she must raise $3000 USD in order to cover the costs of her trip. Rahman has asked her friends and family, sent emails, and appealed on Facebook in order to raise money. She still needs $1438 USD to reach her goal and set out on a trip of a lifetime.

To find out more about Rahman’s cause and contribute, visit her website.

While the first half of the book includes vignettes that account the hardships each of the women faced, the last half encompasses a variety of issues like the role of U.S. politics in global women affairs, the role of Islam and misogynistic cultures, possible solutions to gender inequity such as microfinance and education, then concludes with a chapter on how the reader can help.

Kristof and WuDunn parallel the oppression of these women to slavery, citing the cause of oppression as a “curse” of being poor, being a woman, and being rural. Among the highlights of the book are the stories of Meena, the sex-trafficked girl; Usha, the educated untouchable; Woinshet, the abducted bride-to-be; Mukhtar, the internationally recognized Pakistani rape victim; Mahbouba, the abandoned daughter; and Prudence, the weakening mother-to-be.

Each of the vignettes features a more brutal, jaw-dropping awakening than the last and it becomes nearly impossible to begin reading a chapter without resolving to read the end to find out whether the woman survives.

(Spoiler alert!) Since most of the women do, indeed, succeed in disarming the oppressive capabilities of their captors—their sex traffickers, rapists, or communities—by either fighting back or escaping and making a life for themselves, they ultimately defeat oppression.

None of their lives can be justified in the ten-or-so pages that account their most unwanted memories; however, seeing their faces and learning about their struggles gives a new perspective to what constitutes “oppression.” Kristof and WuDunn complement each woman’s story by integrating facts and statistics of the innumerable women across the world whose stories are faceless, nameless, and unknown, creating a deep sense of empathy toward women in the developing world.

If you begin reading Half the Sky, I want you to know that this book will stick with you. It will make you reevaluate the typical struggles you go through any given day and it will put them into perspective. Half the Sky will force you into learning uncomfortable, imposing details about these women that will resonate within you for a long time—but do not be mislead; the women are so valiant that their stories will empower you, too.

This is a book for those interested in gaining knowledge of the ubiquitous female plight as well as those looking to understand some of the anthropological factors hindering the end to oppression. Although not meant to be a panacea for all female humanitarian causes, Half the Sky still edifies its readership with accurate journalism and enigmatic story telling. It is the quintessential read for the modern feminist and global citizen.

This article was also published in the MCA Youth magazine.  

Al-Talib interviews Hamza Siddiqui, a spoken word artist, who is a Junior at the University of the Pacific. In this exclusive interview, Siddiqui performs two spoken word pieces, one of which has not been publicly performed yet. Siddiqui is an artist aspiring to shed light and educate others about global societal issues. He also appeared on TEDx.

Due to the tuition increase over the last few years, students like Victoria Beyrooty are forced to take on extra jobs and cut personal expenses in order to pay for school. In accordance to the tuition increases, middle class students receive less aid. “The stress continues to increase,” she says “as I have to take out more in loans and receive less work study hours.” If President Obama’s blueprint on federal aid to education is implemented though, some of the anxiety of paying for school may be alleviated.

President Obama announced his blueprint for keeping college affordable in his State of the Union address on January 24, 2012. In his blueprint, the president called for reform in federal aid by awarding schools that keep tuition affordable and giving federal support to tackle the cost of college.

To provide more information to college students, Vice President Biden held a conference call on February 2, 2012 regarding the new plan. On the conference call, the vice president went into detail on the mechanics of the president’s blueprint. If the plan goes becomes a reality, schools that show innovative ways to keep tuition down will receive more federal aid. For example, if a school works with community colleges to transfer units so that students do not have to pay again to repeat the same course, the federal government will provide more money due to the school’s effort.

The vice president mentioned keeping interest rates low so that students will have to pay less back after graduation. The current interest rate on federal student loans is 3.4% but is set to double to 6.8% over the summer. The blueprint proposes to keep the interest stable for a year at its current rate. Vice President Biden also discussed doubling the number of work study jobs to assist more students in paying for school while also gaining work experience.

Due to the tuition hikes by the UC Regents, UCLA may be ineligible to receive extra aid that the federal government will designate towards schools that lower tuition. Joelle Gamble, External Vice President of UCLA’s Undergraduate Students Association Council, discussed the potential outcome of the blueprint on UCLA students and how it may not concern them at all.

“A plan like this has never been seen. This can potentially happen or just something to discuss in the state of the union address,” Gamble says. “Even if it does go into effect, The UC’s are more affected by state aid than federal aid.”

If that is the case, students may have to continue dealing with paying more for college regardless of the blueprint going into effect or not. Students like Victoria Beyrooty might just have to continue to cut personal expenses just to make ends meet.

Cartoon by Noora Kamel.

(Flickr/Raka18)

Musta`rab is literally defined as “Arabized”. After the Muslim conquest of the Iberian Peninsula, the Muslims very quickly consolidated their newly acquired territory by effectively integrating the indigenous Spanish population. Andalusia arose a hub of culture and sophistication. Naturally, by means of trans-cultural diffusion, the indigenous Spaniards inclined towards the culture of the Arabs and became known as Mozarabs (Anglicization of “musta`rab”).

While maintaining their creed, the Mozarabs absorbed the dress, language, and culture of the Muslims. They dressed in robes, grew their beards, and taught their children Arabic (which became more preferable to them than their own native tongue). They even went so far as to view Christianity and Islam as both equally legitimate religions despite the official Latin Christian view that Islam is heretical (Amira K. Bennison, The Great Caliphs). In a lamenting of the Christian condition, Paul Alvarus, a church elder of the 9^th century wrote:

The Christians love to read the poems and romances of the Arabs; they study the Arab theologians and the philosophers, not to refute them, but to form a correct and elegant Arabic. Where is the layman who now reads the Latin commentaries on the Holy Scriptures, or who studies the Gospels, prophets, or apostles? Alas! All talented young Christians read and study with enthusiasm the Arab books; they gather immense libraries at great expense; they despise the Christian literature as unworthy of attention. They have forgotten their own language. For every one who can write a letter in Latin to a friend, there are a thousand who can express themselves in Arabic with elegance, and write better poems in this language than the Arabs themselves. (María Rosa Menocal, The Ornament of the World)

A teacher of mine, whom I hold with great admiration, Shaykh Hamza Karamali, said that if you were to take Paul Alvarus’s lament and exchange all the Christian terms for their Muslim equivalent and vice versa (exchange Christian with Muslim, Church with Mosque, etc), then this quote would be relevant to the Western Muslim’s condition today.

If you take the word musta’rab, and simply add a dot above the letter “`ayn” it becomes mustaghrab. Mustaghrab admits to two meanings: 1) westernized and 2) strange/curious. Indeed, the same phenomenon prevalent amongst Christians in Muslim Spain can be observed amongst Muslim living in the West today.  How strange it is that an individual cannot help but concede to the culture of authority.*

Special thanks to Shaykh Hamza Karamali who helped teach me to rise above the veil of cultural and intellectual suppression.

*the culture intended here is in reference to things pertaining to the Islamic equivalent of what the Andalusian Christians suffered from

Professional Clothing for Interviews

The interview is the first impression the interviewer will have of you so it’s important to aim for a professional rather than trendy look. Here are some styles you could follow:

• A long-sleeved buttoned up shirt with slacks.
• A long blouse that goes to mid-thigh length.
• For slacks, opt for the wide-leg trousers rather than the “skinny” style.
• A shorter blouse can be worn with a long maxi skirt (with no slits) for modesty and comfort. Skirt should be preferably black-colored.
• Recommendations: pleated skirts look more professional than A-line or peasant skirts.
• With a blazer, wear a long shirt or tank-top.
• A long cardigan is also appropriate and can give more coverage than a blazer. Choose darker colors such as black or navy.
• A trench coat can also give more coverage, especially ones that go knee-length. They are good for most seasons.

The Hijab

(Photo: Flickrr/ niznoz)

• The hiijab, or headscarf, should be plain rather than patterned. Solid colors are recommended, such as gray, white, navy and black.
• Use pins and an undercap to hold the hijab together so it does not look messy.

Avoid

• Spandex materials.
• See-through hijabs
• Skinny jeans or pants –this looks very unprofessional.
• Printed or very colorful hijabs
• Checkered, polka dots, or strong animal print blouses

Shoes

• Wear closed-toed shoes.
• Flats and platforms are good choices as they don’t make noise.

Office Attire After Being Hired

It is highly recommended to continue dressing professionally after being hired, even if everyone in the office is wearing casual clothes (such as jeans and T-shirt), as it will make you stand out.

“Dress for the job you want, not necessarily the one that you have,” academic and career counselor Madina Humkar  recommends.

Stores

• Macy’s, New York and Company, and The Loft are some examples of stores where these modest, professional clothing can be found.

A final piece of advice…

You should never feel pressured to compromise modesty in order to achieve a professional look, and we hope these tips can help with that.

A good piece of advice to always keep in mind: “Dress for Allah (swt)”.