salam
I was amazed when I noticed how she became a muslim. IYvonne Riley first caught my attenion when I was reading Harakah’s English section back in 2005. She was a feminist journalist from the land of the United Kingdom. Her experience in Taliban’s prison had opened ger heart to accept Islam and submit herself to Allah S.W.T.
check it out here http://turntoislam.com/content/view/111/27/
jazlan
Taken from Islamic-World:
Wouldn’t
it be wonderful if we could resolve the problem of young Muslims
straying from what Allah has allowed in relationships with the opposite
sex by simply reintroducing youthful marriage, which has traditionally
been accepted within Islam? I have thought long and hard over this
matter and I have not been able to come up with any other viable
solution to the multifaceted problem of Muslim youth disobeying the
command of Allah to participate in wrongful relationships with the
opposite sex other than reinstituting early marriage as the norm within
our ummah.
If we are going to suggest early mar riage as the
solution to the relationship difficulties facing Muslim youth then we
must do everything within our power to help ensure the success of those
early marriages. I see two important hurdles which must be overcome in
order to give early Muslim marriages any real chance for success. There
will be other difficulties to be sure, but if we can find a solution
for these two then we will be well on our way toward making happy and
successful early marriage among Muslim youth an achievable
accomplishment. The first prerequisite for success will be to find some
way to make sure that young Muslims make the right choice of a marriage
partner. The second precondition for success would be to find some way
to make sure that the young Muslim married couples do not succumb to
the tremendous burden of financial stress during those delightful but
fragile beginning stages of married life.
We must get over the
widely accepted idea that so-called ‘love marriages’ are somehow more
desirable than marriages arranged for good Islamic purposes. That is a
completely untrue belief that has been wrongly conditioned into the
minds of many young Muslims by the powerful influences of a Godless
decadent culture. Young Muslims must come to realize the full meaning
and deep truths behind the much repeated cliché, ‘love is blind’. Most
young Muslims would have no idea at all how incredibly and exceedingly
blind love can be. When the heart experiences love the eyes and the
mind can become totally oblivious to the most obvious of faults.
Although
arranged marriages have recently fallen well out of fashion, they
really did have a lot going for them. There is no question of the
reality that arranged marriages have generally been happier, more
successful, and long lasting. There are many logical reasons for this.
First and foremost among the reasons is the obvious fact that parents
will have a much more objective perception of the overall suitability
of the prospective marriage partner for their son or daughter. Even if
modern Muslim youth do not want to give their parents complete
responsibility for choosing a good marriage partner for them, they
should at least have a wholehearted acceptance of the fact that they
must never marry the person they choose for themselves without the
unqualified approval of their parents. To refuse their parents full
right of approval would indeed be to court disaster.
The other
crucially important circumstance that must be taken into consideration
is the financial situation. In many cases youth in their late teens
will either be going on for further education or they will not be able
to have access to employment that provides sufficiently for the
financial needs of the young married couple. It is only right if we
want to successfully reintroduce marriage at a young age that Muslim
parents, relatives, and Islamic society all be prepared with a
generous, loving heart to help the young married couples financially to
the degree that money never becomes a hindrance to a happy and
successful marriage.
If done rightly and with sincerity the
return to youthful marriage within our Muslim Ummah could provide other
benefits besides helping to ensure right relationships and loving
marriage for future generations. It could help reinforce the
traditionally strong Muslim family relationships as generations work
together helping their children have happy and successful marriages. It
could vastly increase the feeling of love and appreciation by Muslim
youth for their parents and their extended family relationships. It
could bring the attention of our ummah to the fact that the original
practices of Islamic life according to the limits set by Allah are
indeed still the very best way to live, even in the hectic modern
world. It might motivate our Muslim Ummah to work ever harder to help
transform the very wrong society of today’s world into a much more
right Islamic society as we attempt to provide the best possible social
environment that can nurture our most dear Muslim youth as they strive
to have happy and successful Islamic marriages. And importantly, it
could help protect young Muslims, during the often perilous university
years, from harmful social influence and participation in wrong
activities, and at the same time it would likely focus their minds more
fully on their studies, their family, and their future.
