The paranoid

Sometimes, religious people can be paranoid. Today, I was browsing through some photos from Qom and came across one taken of me while we were on the bus on our way to the Haram. A few times a week, buses from our hawza (khabgah, specifically) drop off and pick up girls to and from the Haram.

So, in the picture was me smiling and a tiny half non-smiling face in the background. Like, really tiny and just less than half of her face. And I remembered when me and my friends were having our photos taken, this very girl in the background sat somewhat angrily in her seat and said to us in a strict tone, "Make sure I don't appear in your photos!" I went like, "Dah who's clicking you," in my head. I was annoyed not just because she was ruining our fun but also because she- like a few others out there- was simply and uselessly paranoid. She was wearing a chador and was hence more than fully covered. There was no reason for her to panic even if a cheek or eye of hers starred in one of our photos. But still, she was paranoid! And it wasn't like this girl wore niqab and didn't have any dude look at her face all her life.

Now, the problem is when we start to make not only our lives difficult for ourselves, but even those of others'. Just because we are religious (or try to be religious) doesn't mean we can't make life easy for ourselves. All this fascination and paranoia, at some point which would demand reason and practicality, would feel like the biggest burden for us ourselves and then people will start to blame religion and Islam for all that's wrong in the world! No, it really happens. Like being obsessed about your face. Because you think you're so breath-taking. Or, I don't know, Khanom S being paranoid about us wearing heels to class. A girls only class- and university.

Islam came to us to make our lives easy and beautiful. To show us how to live a fulfilled and happy life. To tell us that we could really be perfect and gave us perfect role models to imitate. Islam is not a burden. So, don't burden yourselves. It's a blessing. So enjoy it. Be happy, and make others happy. Heal, and you will be healed. Okay that last sentence was from Sami Yusuf's song. I'm obsessed with Sami Yusuf, ya. If i could clone a man, I'd have his clone as my husband. God! Don't have me thinking about it!

In the end, that girl did make it in my picture haha. I saw it and cropped her out. I even remember saying to my friend in response to her comment, "Nobody makes it in my photo when I'm being clicked."
*wink wink*

P.s- Sami Yusuf, no- I don't want to meet you. You're married and of no use to me.