Anonymous asked: Waq, you are a wonderful, wonderful person. Love and respect, Moon.
Moon, I swear to God, you’re one of the best human beings I have ever come across on Tumblr or in any medium. I have so much respect for you it’s unreal. You inspire me in so many ways.
Sending tonnes of love and respect right back at you!
(you owe me an email and a facebook message and a painting!!!! I haven’t forgotten! Also, I would beg you to come back but this place isn’t what it used to be and you’re better without it)
Anonymous asked: hey man its manboof got myself into some deep shite and since u give good advice i was hopin u wud pls help me? its got to do with wat i accidentally did to my dog's pet rat. cud u pls help me out? forever grateful sistah, i love them turkey sandwiches, thanks for inviting me ovah to ur place last year. sorry i been missin for ages but i cant get ovah this pain that ur turkey sandwich got in my stomach like food poisoning or turkey poisoning man help out a bro in need thanks lotsa love to me.
Oh, ManBoof, what crazy things do you get yourself in to?! At least you got away from Hawaii. Where have you been? I thought you ran away with Suzy!
What did you do to your dog’s pet rat? How can I help you?
Food poisoning isn’t fun at all. You should be really careful about what you eat.
Anonymous asked: did you know? --> wwwfacebookcom/pages/The-Bristol-Bike-Project/105261049560233?sk=info
I had a look at their page but I don’t know what that is or why you would link it to me…
The project works by helping people get bikes. This it what it says on their page…
The Bristol Bike Project aims to provide free bicycles to underprivileged groups that would not otherwise have the opportunity to own a bicycle. People that would like a bike must be prepared to come to our workshop space and to work alongside us overhauling their own bike which they may then take away with a quality lock and lights. All of our bikes are donated to us by the general public and are either unwanted and unused or require more work than they are worth. We want this to be a sustainable project with the emphasis being about helping people help themselves. We therefore encourage and promote the learning of new skills and skill-sharing amongst peer groups, an increased awareness of how bicycles work and aim to prevent as much as possible from going to landfill by recycling everything that we possibly can! if you have any unwanted bikes or would like any further information, please email james & colin at: thebristolbikeproject@gmail.com thanks!
Anonymous asked: What are you looking for in a wife? :)
Hi, Anon :)
I’ve been thinking about this question for a few days and in all honesty I’m not looking for anything in particular. There’s no single quality I want more than any other. There’s no one single quality that would be a deal-breaker.
It’s more about what the woman has and how it comes together in her. I want to see a manifestation of those things so she becomes someone engaging and stimulating intellectually. I want someone who I feel would be a good mother to our children. I want someone who sees the world in the same way I do. I want someone who can talk to me for hours and hours about life, the universe, and everything but can also listen to me. I want someone who pushes me and makes me want to be a better person and Muslim. I want someone who makes me closer to God. I know we’ll have our bad moments so I want someone who has it in her to compromise.
I haven’t mentioned beauty or education or work or any of those things because it’s all negotiable. I feel I have attributes that I bring to the table but I feel like I’m more that those attributes. I want someone who sees me for me and I’m willing to look past, and through, the standard list of things in her and try to see her for the person she really is.
I feel like I will have the world to offer to the right woman when she comes along, in sha Allah. I know that being a husband and a father is going to be the most important thing I do in life and I want to make sure it’s the thing I do the best.
Anonymous asked: Salaam! Have you watched the documentary Make Bradford British? And if so, what did you think of it? Just curious. Hope all is well :)
W/salaam. Coincidently, I got asked about this twice today. I have seen Make Bradford British. There were way too many sights that were all too familiar to me in the show. The guy with the beard, the religious man, my brother used to work out at the same gym and him and knows him REALLY well. Bradford is insane.
Anyway, about the show, I feel it was too simplistic. They painted simple pictures of racism in the city that are far more complex. Yes, segregation is a problem. Yes, racism exists here. Yes, we should do more to combat racist attitudes. Whether the show did anything towards helping that, I don’t know.
I don’t know where real solutions to the problem that is Bradford are going to come from. We need more quality jobs here. We need more emphasis on education. We need more racial integration and mixing to happen from a much younger age. We need people to understand different positions people take. People really need to understand Islam.
As entertainment it was fine. As social commentary, it was severely lacking and reductionist.
Anonymous asked: Hey so I read your post abt your mom. Idk if this is out of line or unwanted, but I'll say it anyway. stuff like that happens with my mom too, and she ignores me for months, neither of us apologizes we eventually get over it. Maybe she'll get over before sh leaves, and if she doesnt, then at least she'll be fine when she gets back. All desi parents are like that. My mom has said all that and threatened to ship me to paki and get me married to an illiterate village boy. dont worry too much :)
Oh, Anon… My mother is one of the most stubborn women I know. There are reasons but tumblr isn’t the place to get in to that stuff. I’m sorry about the problems you have with your mum. I’m going to make sure mine gets over herself before she leaves.
Well… my mother has been suggesting I get married to all sorts recently so I know your pain but it hasn’t come to those levels yet… Let’s hope we both dodge those bullets.
Anonymous asked: Have you ever thought about running in marathons?
In fact I have… I tried to run the London Marathon for a few years but never got a spot. I was set to run the New York Marathon in 2007 (I think?) but couldn’t get the money I needed for my charity together. I was going to run for the Red Cross.
I’ve run countless half-marathons, both organised and for fun. Distance running is the best. There’s nothing quite like race day.
In training for the New York Marathon I ran 22 miles which is still the longest run I have ever been on. I was on track for running the marathon in 3hr and 20mins. I always felt that if I truly pushed myself and trained hard I’d be able to run a marathon in under 3 hours. My personal best for the half marathon is 1hour 32mins.
Anonymous asked: I feel the same way ever since I lost wieght. I have crazy emotions, so its good to know that there is someone out there who is the not in any way similar to me that is going through similar things. It comforts me, it's wierd, but I am too. Sorry for the long message.
This isn’t a long message at all! Don’t worry about it in the slightest. If you ever want to talk about what you’re thinking/feeling then I’ll be more than happy to talk to you on or off anon. It’s hard. Losing the weight is just the start. How we see the world after we lose the weight is just one of the things we have to deal with. It’s not weird.
Anonymous asked: Salaam, wow your answer to the last question, that's EXACTLY what happened to me :( I've never been judgemental abt weight, (I've grown up w/ an overweight sibling) but I got bigger in the last 5 years, and recently, since I started to lose some & look better & feel better I've started REALLY noticing when other people are fat, and I notice, just randomly walking in a station for example, when they're eating really fattening unhealthy food and I think things I would NEVER have thought before :S
I don’t think it’s a bad thing that has happened to us. I think it’s something that we just have to try to be aware of. Just because the choices we make in our own lives is different now from those other people are making doesn’t make them better or worse people than us - just different.
It’s so easy to get in to that mindset where you think “if I can do it then you can too so stop complaining and bitching and just get on with it” but we fail to realise just how difficult it actually was. For me, I struggled so much. I found it impossible to control my diet at times and ran hundreds and thousands of miles to lose my weight. Even at my lightest, where everyone told me that I was too skinny, I still felt like I was over weight. It’s a struggle for me. I just have to realise that a lot of other people are struggling too but in a slightly different way.
Anonymous asked: Waq, can you please pray for a friend of mine? Her father is sick and losing his usual strength, he thinks he's going to die soon. She feels under pressure and weak, she always cries. Please? I do not believe in any God so it would be strange if I tried to pray, but maybe you can do that for me. Thank you.
Of course I will.
Can you guys please pray for Anon’s friend and dad.
You can always pray, Anon. Just think about the person and hope good things happen for them.
Anonymous asked: I've got an idea for those people saying what a woman should or shouldn't dress like... get a life. It's not anyone's place to say someone is more religious or isn't based on what they wear or don't wear and shouldn't be treated differently based on that. Whatever happened to being respectful?
Exactly! It’s certainly not my place to judge another Muslim. The most I can do is offer advice to a person if what I feel they are doing is wrong and that’s not by slut shaming them either. There are ways of offering advice in Islam. If they choose to follow or disregard it, it is between them and Allah. I can’t force someone to do such a thing. Only God knows who is righteous amongst us and where we will end up in the hereafter.
Treating someone with respect is paramount. People forget that all too often. Learn from the examples set by the Prophet (pbuh) in how to deal with people who don’t agree with you. Islam, as always, shows the way.
