Kithab

Introduction

2009-06-29T18:51:00.000-07:00

How do you tell the story of the mouse who ate the cat--you don't. Somethings are seriously never meant to be told, just experienced, traumatized and forgotten. The story I am about to tell you, you wouldn't believe it; I wouldn't either. This story--my story, is a one of those crazy cases you'd hear on CNN or read in The New York Times but not this time. I was like you, hearing about these instances one day and forgetting about it the next; continuing about my life, until it was me who was the victim.

My name is Amir, I'm 22 years old and I am an American Muslim. Being Muslim is my first form of identification, something life has made me regret at points, nevertheless, I am a Muslim. My story starts in spring 2009 with just a quarter of my senior year at Harvard remaining. I was content with myself, I lived a pretty ideal life. I had two of the most amazing friends ever, I was President of the Harvard Crimson, and had recently been accepted into Harvard Law School. Life was good; or at least as good as life can gets for practicing Muslims in America.

My two friends, Ahmad and Aminah, both also Muslim, they too were living ideal lives. We were on track to be future leaders of our the next generation of American Muslim community. Ahmad and I had both been accepted into Harvard Law School and Aminah planned to enrolled in John Hopkins to become a neurologist. We were practicing Muslims: we didn't just fulfill the bare pinnacles of Islam, we took our religion to heart and were Islamically-consistent in every aspect of our lives. We had refused to be like those who identified themselves Muslims yet their actions were contradictory.

That's how four years in Harvard had passed: studying, praying, going to the Masjid for lectures, and the occasional 'hanging out'. We had worked hard these four years and we planned to continue to work hard, we believed working hard was mandated in Islam. Time played its course and before we knew it, we were Harvard graduates.

Within the span of twenty plus years we had lived, our lives had stayed within certain boundaries; somethings were practical and others were not. The three of us were very strong willed yet we knew what was possible and what wasn't; we didn't believe in, "everything is possible". This was all about to change.

The summer began and thus began our misadventures. What began as a simple airplane flight turned into two weeks of torture and ended as a multi-million dollar law suit against the US government? Reading this journal is not something you should do, it is something you need to do. It's not just my story, it’s our story.

Excerpts from an Unwritten Novel

2009-03-30T20:28:00.000-07:00

Hey, most likely your on this blog because I told you to check it out. This is basically a novel I want to write, a realistic fiction story.

You can browse on the side through the different chapters. Make sure to leave comments on what you think. Also I'm horrible at grammar so you readers, are all my editors. Find a mistake, just leave a comment and Ill fix it ASAP. (At the moment, there are a million of them, haven't edited it yet; completely raw draft)

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Note: Any similarities with reality are pure coincidence and it was not the authors intent. Viewer discretion is advised.

Chapter 2 - Part 1

2008-04-05T21:07:00.000-07:00

May 1, 2009.
In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful.
Assalam Wa Aleikum.

This entry will be really quick, I have to go to the publisher to pick up the paper. Its March 1, the first of day of each month is my day to get the paper from the University Press Center. It's one of the less fun parts of being Editor-in-Chief of the paper but there's a lot of fun stuff too. It's kinda cool to meet underclassmen who aspire to be Editors and talk about their accomplishments in Journalism. I mean this is, Harvard, a lot of these kids were Editors-in-Chief of their school paper which is a fairly decent accomplishment. I've met kids who have published books and sold over a million copies: pretty cool, I think. I'm actually, well, I write short stories and I'm working on a novel.

I'll talk about that another day but for now the whole reason I had to write something down is because of this party. There's this senior-only party--ya, a college party--and if your a senior and don't go, your a loser. The student affairs committee holds it every year, there's food, dancing, music, which is bad but nothing compared to the after party. The after party is wild, people openly "do it" while others watch, there's alcohol and weed. If your not hung over or high by the first two hours, your, in the words of a ex-senior, "your not enjoying yourself". I feel bad for the girls who are going to regret getting that drink with that guy the night of the party. If you go to this party, you are putting yourself in an environment where it is just sinful to be there even if you didn't drink or get high. Seriously, there is so much Haram (Anything forbidden in Islam) in this place, how have I survived the pass three years?

Then I remember, Ahmad and Aminah: Subhan'Allah! (It means Glory be to Allah, its a form of remembrance that reminds you that everything is from Allah). If my two amigo's hadn't been with me, I would have definitely committed some huge evil sin by now. Anyway, so we've talked it over and we have a plan.
We will tell everyone that we're going to go to the party, then on that day we won't show up and make some lame excuse. I feel like a coward for doing this but it's either that or weird looks and losing half my post-college future contacts. This is it though, the last big party, once we avoid this, no more weird scheme's to avoid sinful parties.

This one time in freshman year, Ahmad and I went to one of these parties. It was horrible, these guys kept trying to convince Ahmad to drink alcohol but he kept refusing. One of them thought it would be funny to spill some on his head. One thing about Ahmad, he gets mad very easily. Even though the guy was bigger than him, he punched the guy in the face and gave him a black eye. His friends started beating up Ahmad, trying to force him to drink beer and get him high; he kept resisting until I called the cops. Sure, we got into trouble, but it was worth it. Later Ahmad's dad, who is a lawyer, pressed charges against the kids and got they fined and one kicked out. Their gang leader, I think his name was Michael Gregory, got kicked out of the school.

He wasn't just a jerk but a racist and islamophobic too. He was the son of some high-office CIA official too, but that didn't help him against Ahmad's dad, after all he is Ahmad's dad. After he was found guilty, he started cursing us out outside the courtroom. I remember his exact word, he said, "You bastards think America's yours now, once we f**king blow up your country then you'll see whose boss. Go back to Islam land you damn Muslims. We like our beer in America." Ahmad was ready to start up another case by killing this extremely racist idiot, but luckily I stopped him before he did anything irrational. I always think some day he's going to screw with our lives again, he's the son of a white, rich, CIA officer, he's bound to become a member of homeland security. (Humor?). That name still haunts me in the back of my head: Michael Gregory.

This was supposed to be quick but it’s hard to stop writing once you start. Oh Ya, if your wondering what Assalam Wa Aleikum means, it just means peace be upon you in Arabic and is how you say 'hi' or 'bye' to a fellow Muslim. I really have to get going to pick up the paper, but one last interesting fact. In Assalam Wa Aleikum, the ending 'kum' is plural, for when you say it to someone you’re actually having peace being sent upon them three times instead of one. Arabic is an awesome language, well us Arab's think so at least.

Kithab--Assalam Wa Aleikum.

-Amir Habib.

February 21, 2009

2008-03-30T14:03:00.000-07:00

February 21, 2009.
Assalam Wa Aleikum.
In the name of Allah, the Beneficent and Merciful,

Hi? Where do I begin? I just bought a journal (not a dairy) and I have to write in it frequently for the next three months. It's a school assignment, trust me, I'm not into this, ’sharing your thoughts on paper' crap. It’s all a big waste of time. But, if have to do this for the next three months, I might as well make it fun.

Hi. My name is Amir and I'm a twenty-one year old double major in international relations and journalism at Harvard College. I am an American Muslim from Palestinian descent. I'm very out-going which gets me into a lot of trouble. I love to write and sound smart. I'm the Editor-in-Chief of the Harvard Crimson. I hate, hate, arrogant people and ungrateful children.

Now that I have introduced myself, time to write an introduction for you. I will call you 'it' just because I'd rather not make you a 'she' or a 'he'; that's kind of creepy to me. So a little history of me and dairies, I've never kept one. Why? I've always been too cautious that someone might read my inner most secret thoughts and rambling, which could prove dangerous. But to be honest, I think it's kind of cool.

It’s interesting; no one will ever read this so I can write whatever I want. All that good stuff is for later. First of all, let me explain the assignment in detail. As journalism major, I have to take a creative writing class, Creative Writing 101, what a genius name for the class. I wonder what Professor 101 thought of that.

Anyway, so our nutty professor came up with the idea of us keeping a journal for the remaining three months of school. Can you believe it, the last three months my senior year, I'll be wasting it on writing in this crap. No offense to those who write in a dairy, but I'm a journalist, I like to write article, not dairy entries. So the requirements are that it has to have at least fifty entries, each entry must have been at least 1 page and have a title. It's not hard; it's actually a lot of fun.

Besides the quick introduction of myself, I should introduce my friends. My two good friends: Ahmad and Aminah. Ahmad is the best brother-like you could ask for. He's been my friend for more than a decade, ever since pre-school. The best thing about him is that he's also a strong practicing Muslim. Whenever I'm too lazy to wake up to pray fajr--the first of the five daily prayers in Islam--he will force my lazy ass to wake up. I think we all need someone like him to remind us to stay away from bad things, something a university campus is overwhelmingly filled with. As Muslims, we both lower my gaze in front of girls, we have a fist-length beard, and we pray five times a day.

Our third musketeer is Aminah. The three of us went to the same high school and ever since then, we've been good friends. Aminah wears hijab and a burqa, so I only see her face. Yet she's very pretty and has a great personality, but best of all she's also a great Muslim.

Being good friends with her, often at lunch it's awkward when some girls came to talk to her while me and Ahmad are sitting there; we have to look down while they talk. Sometimes a girl will walk by and Ahmad or I will be glimpsing at her without realizing; Aminah will ridicule us look down. She's a really good friend.

The three of us tend to get into a decent amount of argument, especially in terms of politics and religion. I'm very conservative and they're both liberal for both politics and religion. Religiously, we have similar basic fundamental beliefs, while the differences are subtle details. But, all in all, we've had a lot fun at out time here. Our more than three years at Harvard has been marked with academic excellence, organizing Islamic events, and lots Middle Eastern cuisine. (Every Friday night).

I'll write more about us and what we've done and what we plan to do. Actually, it's pretty important, Ahmad and I want to be lawyers and Aminah wants to be a cardiovascular surgeon. Ya-ambitious, but I think it's really important. The American Muslim Ummah (Ummah means the followers of Muhammad (Peace be upon Him) and the 'Peace be upon Him' after Muhammad is a sign of respect, I'll just abbreviate it for convenience purposes.) needs more lawyers and doctors but more importantly religiously-practicing lawyers and doctors.

Oh wow, its 11:23 PM, enough for today. You really need a name: for now I will just call you Kithab, it means book in Arabic, till I can decide a better name.

Kithab--Assalam Wa Aleikum.

-Amir Habib.