Treatment of depression needs a reset.

Great article by The Epoch Times. In one of Witt-Doerring’s videos, he argued that 95% of people don’t really need antidepressants. They need resolutions to their problems. I would argue that for Muslims, 99% of people don’t need to use antidepressants. Most of medicine has a huge, if not 100% emphasis on science, but they never even entertain the supernatural aspect of life.

The full article is free, but to avoid signing up, you can just read it here.

Does your phone make you laugh and cry, or does Allah make you laugh and cry?

Does your phone make you laugh and cry, or does Allah make you laugh and cry as he says in Surah Najm:

‎وَأَنَّهُۥ هُوَ أَضْحَكَ وَأَبْكَىٰ ٤٣

‎Moreover, He is the One Who brings about joy and sadness.[1]

‎[1] lit., laughter and weeping.

Surah Najm 53:43

‎Let me share two Hadith that makes me cry and laugh at the same time:

‎Abu Huraira reported: The Prophet ﷺ said,

‎“The people will stand before the Lord of the worlds for the length of half of a day, which is like fifty thousand years. That day will be made easy for the believer like the sun lowering itself until it has set.”

‎Source: Musnad Abī Ya’lá 6025

‎Abu Huraira reported: The Prophet ﷺ said, “The Day of Resurrection for the believers will be like the length of time between noon and afternoon prayers.”

‎Source: al-Firdaws lil-Daylamī 8893

The Day of Resurrection will be a hard day, and the narrations of it do insight fear as the Prophet’s of Allah (may Allah be pleased with them) themselves will be concerned about their deeds. So how about us?!

But on the other hand, Allah gives us hope and mercy, and lets us know that for the believers, the difficulty will be minimal, in sha Allah.

Make sure it is Allah who makes you laugh and cry, and don’t turn your phone into a demi-god that gives you what you need when you need it.

Take your women to the Masjid to learn.

Going to the masjid isn’t required for women, but in today’s society and time, more women should go to the masjid and attend lectures and seek knowledge. Parents have to be at the forefront of this.

Why is it “OK” to send our women to public schools, have a job, play sports with their awrah being revealed, and even attend school dances, but then say Islam says it is better to stay at home for women than to go to the masjid?!

If your daughters go astray, don’t be stupid and think, “Oh my God, how did this happen?!”

You let it happen.

We all have to ask ourselves, are we truly sacrificing for the next life, or are we sacrificing our akhirah for fleeting gains in the dunya?

And no, watching lectures at home doesn’t have the same effect. Your attention is compromised since you’re looking at a screen versus at a human being.

“Teenage jobs” that teach life skills are being eliminated due to robotics.

Terrence O’Brien from The Verge (paywalled, but free for News+ subscribers here):

Stocking shelves, scooping ice cream, flipping burgers, and delivering takeout aren’t glorious jobs. But they used to be the sort of thing that gave young adults and teenagers a first taste of independence. They offered valuable lessons in managing a budget and taught them important interpersonal skills. But the knock-on effects of online shopping, automation, and digital media have largely driven them out of the workforce.

Teens have voluntarily removed themselves from the labor market because they’re forced to fight over an ever-shrinking pool of jobs with an ever-expanding pool of workers. And now, we’re training robots to take what few scraps are left. Even bagging groceries isn’t safe.

Some disturbing numbers:

The average age of a retail worker in the US in 2024 was 38.7. In clothing retail specifically, which skews much younger than retail as a whole, it was 33, up dramatically from 29.3 in 2015.

Delaying children will only make it worse for you and your children’s future.

If the average woman has children starting at 35 and passes on those feminist ideas to her children, by the time she’s a grandmother, she will be at least 70 years old, and grandpa might already be dead. If women have kids early in their early 20s and pass those proper values downstream, they can be grandparents at the age of 45-50 instead of 70. A huge difference that allows you to help your children when they become parents, and also allows you as a grandparent to play with your grand children. It’s literally a win-win scenario for all parties involved:

1. Grandparents - they get to help their children with the grandkids, further cementing the ties between the three generations. They can teach their grandkids about Islam and even tell them stories from their past and pass down real history. Grandkids can help them as they age with common tasks.

2. Parents - can ask grandparents for advice and wisdom, can benefit from home cooked meals being outsourced to the grandparents when needed, along with free babysitting. Let me repeat - free food and babysitting.

3. Grandchildren - get to interact with 2 generations of loving family that can teach, play, advise, and overall bond with them. Unlimited food, treats, and love.

Contrast that with the modernist perspective, where you have maybe 1-2 kids in your early 40s, and by the time they have kids, you have one foot in the grave and your children have to decide whether to help you or not. They’re too busy with their own newborn children, and now mom and dad are also old and need help. Of course if they are brought up with an Islamic paradigm, they will help, but it will also put a huge strain on their workload.

Sora 2 video AI generation - Problems from a Muslim perspective.

If your womenfolk are plastered on the internet, they could easily be victims of AI videos showing them do all kinds of innocent, and not so innocent stuff. All it takes is a simple prompt and your wives and your daughters are a feast for sore eyes.

What is it going to take for Muslims to realize that women showing themselves online is a huge risk? That risk also is there for men as well, but men have to be online for a multitude of purposes, whereas women don’t need to be online. In fact, she is rewarded for concealing herself and sinful for exposing herself improperly.

Yeah, sure, there are standards that depict and mark deepfakes as deepfakes, but their implementation is nowhere near where it should be, and it will continue to be a cat and mouse game with other mal-intented apps finding ways to make fake videos without any watermarks.

The problem is beyond what I have stated above, and the consequences can be severe beyond just deepfake porn, but when we do what is impermissible, it will only lead to further humiliation.

What is the right amount of screen time for a 2-5 year old?

Was doing some research on a particular topic, and I was surprised to see the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry had this as a recommendation:

For children 2-5, limit non-educational screen time to about 1 hour per weekday and 3 hours on the weekend days.

These limits are high even in my house, but notice how the limits are only for “non-educational” screen time. At that young age, all screen time should be educational, and at those early ages, it should be zero.

But what do I know? The professionals have spoken!

I’m glad the “professionals” were able to clarify that for me, and now I can let my future toddler watch Cocomelon for an hour each day, and 3 hours on Saturday and Sunday after she finishes watching educational content for several hours prior. 🙄

Child-led parenting is a slippery slope.

Susanna Wolff from The New Yorker with a great satirical piece of how pathetic child-led parenting is. If you think this is a joke, just know that Muslim parents are asking Imams whether or not they should circumcise their son at birth, or should we let him decide when he gets older?

I kid you not.

America’s illiteracy problem.

The Atlantic released an article last week that was really eye popping, and the first paragraph really tells us a lot:

The past decade may rank as one of the worst in the history of American education. It marks a stark reversal from what was once a hopeful story. At the start of the century, American students registered steady improvement in math and reading. Around 2013, this progress began to stall out, and then to backslide dramatically. What exactly went wrong? The decline began well before the pandemic, so COVID-era disruptions alone cannot explain it. Smartphones and social media probably account for some of the drop. But there’s another explanation, albeit one that progressives in particular seem reluctant to countenance: a pervasive refusal to hold children to high standards.

Test scores about reading levels:

Test scores from NAEP, short for the National Assessment of Educational Progress, released this year show that 33 percent of eighth graders are reading at a level that is “below basic”—meaning that they struggle to follow the order of events in a passage or to even summarize its main idea. That is the highest share of students unable to meaningfully read since 1992. Among fourth graders, 40 percent are below basic in reading, the highest share since 2000.

The distribution numbers also shows how the divide between the rich and the poor is only growing, and will continue to grow:

These learning losses are not distributed equally. Across grades and subjects, the NAEP results show that the top tenth of students are doing roughly as well as they always have, whereas those at the bottom are doing worse. From 2000 to 2007, the bottom tenth of fourth graders in reading ability showed substantial improvement, before stagnating. But by 2024, those gains had been erased. In 49 out of the 50 states (all except Mississippi), the gap between the top tenth and the bottom tenth grew. Nat Malkus, of the American Enterprise Institute, has pointed out that this surging inequality has grown faster in America than in other developed countries. The upshot is grim: The bottom tenth of 13-year-olds, according to NAEP’s long-term-trend data, are hitting lows in reading and math scores not seen since these tests began in 1971 and 1978, respectively.

The obvious problems such as smartphones, social media, and ill-spending are all going to be there, but the one critical component is always going to be how children learn to read:

A clear policy story is behind these improvements: imposing high standards while also giving schools the resources they needed to meet them. In 2013, Mississippi enacted a law requiring that third graders pass a literacy exam to be promoted to the next grade. It didn’t just issue a mandate, though; it began screening kids for reading deficiencies, training instructors in how to teach reading better (by, among other things, emphasizing phonics), and hiring literacy coaches to work in the lowest-performing schools. Louisiana’s improvements came about after a similar policy cocktail was administered, starting in 2021. And this outperformance might continue in the future: The state recently reported that the number of kindergartners reading at grade level more than doubled in the past academic year—rising from 28 percent to 61 percent.

The “Mississippi miracle” should force a reckoning in less successful states and, ideally, a good deal of imitation. But for Democrats, who pride themselves on belonging to the party of education, these results may be awkward to process. Not only are the southern states that are registering the greatest improvements in learning run by Republicans, but also their teachers are among the least unionized in the country. And these red states are leaning into phonics-based, “science of reading” approaches to teaching literacy, while Democratic-run states such as New York, New Jersey, and Illinois have been painfully slow to adopt them, in some cases hanging on to other pedagogical approaches with little evidentiary basis. “The same people who are absolutely outraged about what” Robert F. Kennedy Jr. “is doing on vaccines are untroubled by just ignoring science when it comes to literacy,” Andrew Rotherham, a co-founder of the education-focused nonprofit Bellwether, told me.

Phonics is the key to reading, and it works no matter the economic status of the family. It is a simple curriculum that any parent can teach their children from a young age. If a child’s reading isn’t established, every other aspect of their life will be deficient, and they will be at a huge disadvantage throughout their life.

This isn’t a joke.

The way we learn how to read Qur’an, such as Noorani Qaeda, is the exact way we need to use to learn English. For more detail information from a professional Muslim teacher, check out this video from Br. Michael Abraham.

We are turning our temporary world into a Jannah.

The ease and luxury of how life is becoming and the lack of ambition and responsibility that people are avoiding makes it sound like people are really trying to turn this world into their Jannah.

A life of ease, no responsibilities, no children, no spouse, etc.

I can get all the pleasure I need in other ways.

It is all about me, and worrying only about myself.

You want to eat something in particular? A few clicks and you’ll have it in 30 minutes delivered to your doorstep.

You want to watch something? A few clicks and there you have it. Sometimes you don’t even need to do that because it shows up in your feed automatically because the algorithm knows what you like.

Doesn’t this remind you of Jannah, where you can think of any food or drink and it just shows up in your hand? Any pleasure you want to experience, and you can get it within seconds?

The algorithm and the conveniences of this world are making people weaker, and trying to turn this world into a Jannah is one of the biggest deceptions.

Your time in this world is just like a night followed by the day:

كَأَنَّهُمْ يَوْمَ يَرَوْنَهَا لَمْ يَلْبَثُوٓا۟ إِلَّا عَشِيَّةً أَوْ ضُحَىٰهَا ٤٦

On the Day they see it, it will be as if they had stayed ˹in the world˺ no more than one evening or its morning. (79:46)

This world is a mirage that will bite you back hard - when you realize the reality of the situation.

When Sunday night hits and you have work the next day.

Except it won’t be Sunday night. It will be your last night, and your soul will be leaving your throat.

Youth Risk surveys are pointless, flawed, and can worsen kids’ addictions and sexual behaviors. Opt-out of them.

“Do you inhale permanent markers?”

“Do you inhale Wite-Out?”

“Have you ever inhaled glue?”

“How often do you inhale these substances?”

I remember taking “youth risk” surveys when I was in school, where you’re asked a series of questions about your potential drug and sexual habits. Of course these surveys were anonymous, but I learned so much more illegal ways to harm myself through these surveys than before taking the survey.

How beneficial are these surveys? Who really knows, but I know kids would just mess around and lie just for laughs.

I used Wite-Out all the time in middle and high school, but it never came to me to vigorously inhale it for a sense of euphoria. But now, I was technically more prone to trying it since I knew about it.

I remember a similar experience in pharmacy school, where the students were taught about all the side effects of many controlled substances, such as Ketamine, LSD, and at the time, marijuana. The effects it has on your brain allows you to smell music, taste colors, and even experience “out-of-body” sensations where you can see yourself outside your body.

Makes you want to try it right?

At least in pharmacy school I was learning about drugs to help me identify what drug a patient might have overdosed on, but do our kids really need to discover every single way to experience euphoria?

And discover it through a survey that is looking to improve adolescent health?

The irony is insane.

The blueprint for family destruction and by extension, societal destruction.

1. Promote sexual freedom and women’s liberation from the household.

2. Have your children raised by daycare systems, making kids more distant from their parents physically and emotionally from birth.

3. Due to a lack of a dominant caretaker figure (the mother), kids never develop a secure attachment to the mother.

4. Child grows up with developmental problems and psychological issues due to said detachment.

5. All these issues are complex and parents don’t know why their kids are acting this way even thought the child has every gadget and toy possible, and so the child is medicated as a ”last resort.”

6. Medications that alter brain chemistry in young developing minds leads to worsening depression, anxiety, and leads to children acting more violent.

7. A general lack of purpose and lack of nourishment of the soul fuels all of the above.

8. School shootings become more and more prevalent.

9. Thinking the solution to this problem is to have less children and rely more and more on automation and robotics.

How to fulfill the ties of kinship at weddings without compromising your religion.

I recently went to a wedding with my kids, but didn’t attend any of the functions. Didn’t go to the Sangeet, and didn’t go to the wedding either. These events are like many “Muslim” weddings, filled with tabarruj, music, dancing, etc., which is my main reason for avoidance. Even though I didn’t go to the actual events, I was able to stay at the same hotel as everyone else, and meet with my family and chat over breakfast and throughout the day before and after the events.

It sounds counterintuitive to spend all this time and money and not go to the wedding, but there is a much deeper reason why one should go in such a manner.

The Prophet ﷺ said,

“Whoever would like his provision to be increased and his life to be extended, should uphold the ties of kinship.” (Narrated by Al-Bukhari, 5986 and Muslim, 2557)

Many people want to just be like everyone else, but you end up compromising your beliefs and principles. The reality is - you can uphold the ties of kinship, and you can avoid the haram.

My goal here isn’t to brag and think of myself as superior or as some holy, pious individual, but just to convey a simple message that will hopefully benefit many others in sha Allah.

It will cost you time and money to go and stay at the hotel and pay for your own meals while everyone is enjoying the festivities, but you will get much more time and wealth for your sacrifice. 

Allah and His Messenger ﷺ are promising you more wealth and a longer lifespan!

What more could you ask for? Who doesn’t want those things? 

That is literally everyone’s dream!

Remember, it’s tough to be the one who acts “weird” and is all alone, but every change for good has to start with one individual.

And that individual could be you.

The power of a Western-raised Muslim girl.

Most people want a traditional “back home girl” who isn’t influenced by the modern liberal movement.

Nothing wrong with that, but if you find someone from the West who is really on her Deen, thrived through the modern system, and wants to be a stay-at-home wife, she will be better at raising children in the West.

She knows the dangers and will do everything she can to homeschool.

A traditional back home girl won’t understand the modern threat as much, and will be less likely to homeschool.

Unfortunately, it’s becoming harder and harder to find these diamonds in the rough.

It is becoming obligatory NOT to send your kids to public school.

This isn’t the first time I heard this, but it’s so true Subhan Allah.

If schooling is finished (which it is), what else are public schools except disguised liberal agendas that are meant to destroy family units and focus only on the self?

If you live in a red state, don't be fooled and think your child is going to a conservative school, where the rule is, "You can have a boyfriend, but don't get pregnant because we have morals in this house."

What my dad taught me.

I remember my dad sitting me down and telling me when I was a kid that when I grow up, I have to provide for my family after Allah.

It is a man’s responsibility to take care of his family and provide.

That stuck with me for many years, and was the reason why I made sure I took a path that led to success, wealth creation, and also was something that I truly enjoyed.

You can set your own children up for success, but you have to start having deep conversations with them.

You need to normalize the “abnormal.”

Parents:

You need to normalize talking to your children about the "abnormalities" of Islam.

Tell them, and more importantly, show them why Islam is the truth, and what happens to people who don't have proper guidance.

Use examples from your own life and be vulnerable with them. Show them how society is dwindling because of a lack of Islam.

You don't need to do research, just use examples from your own life experiences and from your co-workers, acquaintances, etc.

Tell them about the Hadith of the Prophet ﷺ, who said, "Islam began as something strange and it will return to being strange, so blessed are the strangers."

Are your teenagers getting “therapy” without your knowledge?

There's plenty of school counselors that could be providing "therapy" to your children without your knowledge, especially after they're 13 years old when they have more adult privileges and privacy safeguards according to US law.

Ironically, at the most rebellious time of a child's life, they're being counseled by strangers who have no context to the situations that might be going on in the teen's house, and the religious "limitations and restrictions" might be causing them "trauma." Of course in this situation, the student might need some intervention or may even need to shelter somewhere else until they can legally get separated from their parents.

I'm talking about loving parents who don't abuse kids. Regular parents who just want to lay down foundational rules both from a parenting and religious perspective, which only becomes hard to impossible when kids are surrounded by indecency and lack of good manners all day every day.

Staying in shape.

Alhumdulilah, I can do more pull ups now than when I was in high school.

I'm in my 40s.

Staying in shape is not an option, and most people realize it too late.

When the commercials are more poisonous than the TV show itself.

Television is already poison and a waste of time, but when the commercials are for drugs that most people don't need, the poison becomes even more potent.

Antidepressants that most people don't need, and add-on medications to your antidepressants if your main anti-depressant is not working are some of the most common ads I've seen recently when flipping through channels at a hotel.

They'll never tell you that you need a social life, spiritual healing, or that Islam is the solution. If you’re not feeling better they will tell you your medication isn’t working, and you need to supplement it with another drug that's usually classified as an atypical antipsychotic.

When it becomes normalized to take multiple drugs to fix a chemical imbalance in your head that didn’t exist and now exists because you’re on these medications.

The irony is unbelievable.