Years ago, I remember learning of the joint family system – not through my own family, but, rather, from a Satyajit Ray film, which depicted a young bride, largely in servitude, scorned by her in-laws. Such was my first impression. Meanwhile, my backdrop was New York City, and, what I would now characterize as glorification
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Shopping – the Productive Muslim Way (i.e. Money-saving & Stress-less way)
The task of balancing your shopping list and the budget is always daunting. Those of us with big families and young children know what I’m talking about. Tackling the grocery list is usually the trickiest. I figured most of my readers, whether they have big families or not, go shopping every now and then, so
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How to be a Productive Neighbor
Aisha reported: “I heard the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, say, ‘Jibreel, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, kept on recommending that I treat neighbors well until I thought that he would order me to treat them as my heirs’ “[Bukhari]. “And worship Allah and do not ascribe any partner to
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How a Productive Muslim Visits the Sick
The Messenger of Allah said, “Every Muslim has five rights over another Muslim: to return the greetings, to visit the sick, to accompany funeral processions, to accept an invitation, to respond to the sneezer” [Bukhari and Muslim]. In the days of the Prophet and his companions, visiting the sick was not limited to relatives and acquaintances, but included strangers and non-Muslims (remember the Jewish kid who served the Prophet and took the shahadah on his deathbed when the Prophet went to visit him.)
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Maintaining Productive Friendships and Relations
Much of our lives are spent interacting with family, friends and co-workers. All of these relationships are governed by codes of conduct, and the most important rule for a Muslim to follow in maintaining them is having ‘taqwa’ (being ever conscious of God). If we try our best to acquire a higher state of taqwa in our
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8 Productive Ways To Spend Time With Younger Siblings
Most of the time when we talk about Islamic family life, we tend to focus on the relationship we have with our parents. However, the bond between siblings should not be neglected when it comes to establishing a stable Muslim family. If you are a big brother or a big sister, chances are that you
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