What Does Tomorrow Hold?

My younger sister is in love with toys. Obviously. But why does she have to be obsessed with those Bratz dolls? They're so ugly. Anyways, my mom went out and she saw one and bought it for her. So, of course the child was ecstatic and she plays with it for hours and hours.

I didn't like what was written on the box, though [I'm sucha mom]. It was a gymnast Bratz doll and on the back it said this:

Stand back 'cuz the Bratz are rockin' their all time favorite sports-- showin' the world that it's not just about how you play, but about how Hot you look when you win!

Since when was there so much emphasis on how you look [as a child]? Not even how you look, but how good [hot, sexy, etc] you look. Is that what everything is about these days? This world is so superficial. Not just here, but almost everywhere. And if not everywhere, it will be soon. I guarantee it.

What happened to doing your best? Okay, so in my time, Barbie, physically, was a little unrealistic. Okay, a whole lot unrealisitc. That wasn't all Barbie was for. She was a doctor, a teacher, a mom, a veterinarian. She at least has some sort of career. All I see on TV ads are clubbing or partying scenes. I never cared about how I looked to other people, or what I did. On the website it says, "The only girls with a passion for fashion!"

What are people trying to do by selling toys like this to little kids? I mean, don't they have anything dolls or toys out there like "you-can-be-more-than-just-a-stupid-ho" dolls. Okay, and even if there are...they aren't like the ones on TV. So if you get adoll for a kid, and she's never heard of it, chances are she won't play with it as much as the ones on TV.

My sister [she's three and a half, by the way] always does her hair [I guess from watching me] and then starts posing and flipping her hair and swishing it around [I don't do this] going, "Do I look pretty? Do you like my hair? I just don't want that to be her main concern as a child, and then to be her only concern as an adult. I don't know how the boys toys are like. All I know are Thomas, the Tank Engine and Jay Jay the Jet plane. But in terms of other cartoons for older children, aren't they all violent? Remember the cartoons like Bug Bunny and Animaniacs? I'm not sure, but whenever I flip through TV the only cartoons I see revolve around fighting. Even if it is to fight the bad guys.

Why do you think people are all up on killing other people? This country is crazy with crime. People shoot each other for no reason. It's bad enough they shoot each other for stupid reaons, now they don't even have reasons. People are killing one another. Another human being. That thinks and works. That has a family. That can feel emotional, physical pain. No one has a right to take that away a life except God. And here we are slaughtering each other like it's a game.

I do think toys and television have something to do with it. A person doesn't wake up one morning and decide to hurt people. In most cases it's embedded in their heads and has been years before committing the crime.

I was talking to my friend about this last night on our way home from her school. She doesn't want to raise her kids in America. She doesn't want to constantly have to worry about what her kids do, watch, hang out with, etc. The thing is, you can't shelter your kids forever. Also, it's like this everywhere. Sorry for hating on "Islamic" countries but I know that women strip their abayas and hijabs off as soon as they hit the airport. Don't tell me they don't. It's cultural Islam. They do that at my college in India, too. They only wear it outside. My sister and I are the few that do cover our hair.

I'd rather my daugher wear hijab in America or dress modestly in America and have that sincerity with her to wear it rather than wear the full Abaya and Niqaab overseas where it's just a cultural practice. I don't want her life to be a cultural practice. I want her to believe. It is a challenge in America, I'm not saying it isn't. But once you have that faith, it' easier t practice than practicing in a Muslim dominant country or area.

I've lived in America and now I live in India. My school is mostly Muslim, but it's harder for me to practice Islam there. It's hard to practice around a lot of non-practicing Muslims. I'd rather that non-Muslims be the majority. I'd rather be cussed at, giving the finger or made fun of my non-Muslims. It's just easier for me.

I know a lot of Muslims in America don't practice Islam as they should [myslef included], but there still are a lot that do practice and are sincere and do try to become better every day. The percentage of practicing is higher in America than in where I live in India. I'm talking about Islam. Not Indian Islam. Not cultural Islam. No bad bid'ahs attached, etc.

So, to live in a Muslim dominant country now, is not much different. People do the same things they do here, just undercover. The shame, however, is still there. And that shame does keep people from doing things. Within a few more years, that will also vanish. An Egyptian friend told me that when she went back to visit she was shocked. When guys start dating, their mothers brag about it.

There are people who tell everyone that they are Syed [People who are of the Prophet Muhammad PBUH's descendants] and do whatever the hell they want. I would be so embarrassed of myself if I were Syed. I wouldn't tell anyone because I am insulting the Prophet PBUH. I don't know how people can do half the things they do, post it up on facebook for everyone to see [and why is facebook like a confessional for people? They wouldn't dare tell people about what they do but if it's on facebook it's okay..?] and call themselves Syed. If the prophet Muhammad PBUH saw the Ummah, forget his family, what would he think? He suffered so much for this Ummah and this is how we thank him. What does God think of all this?

With the next generation of people, I can't imagine how it will be. I'm scared to have kids. I'm too scared I won't be qualified to teach them their religion in a way that they will hold on to it. Will they be the ones who say, "I only say the Shahadah because my parents and grandparents said it"? Will they have the Qur'an with them? I don't know.

All I know is, what goes around comes around. Maybe if I'm a good kid and my parents and grandprents are and were good, religious people. InshaAllah my kids will be good, too. Du'as Du'as and more Du'as. The Du'as of a parent on their kids are very powerful.

Anyways, I'm done ranting, I have more to say, but that's one too many tangents. Maybe in another post. I've been thinking about this for a while now. I feel like we are degressing as Muslims, as human beings. We [as a whole] are a self-absorbed, self-obsessed people who care for nothing anymore. Our hearts are slowly turning cold. Pretty soon we will stop feeling anything irrelevant to ourselves. And what we do feel for ourselves is based off how we look and how much money we have or spend. And I'm scared for that.