#how to get automatic jannah

[a-journey-to-true-self]

A Ticket To Jannah (Paradise)

Narrated Anas bin Malik (RA): “Once Muadh was along with Allahs Apostle ﷺ as a companion rider. Allahs Apostle ﷺ said, “O Muadh bin Jabal.” Muadh replied, “Labbaik and Sadaik. O Allahs Apostle! ﷺ ” Again the Prophet ﷺ said, “O Muadh!” Muadh said thrice, “Labbaik and Sadaik, O Allahs Apostle! ﷺ ” Allahs Apostle ﷺ said, “There is none who testifies sincerely that none has the right to be worshipped…

[sapphicstarwars]

The Sapphic Star Wars Rarepair Tournament is about to begin! We have compiled 100 wlw rarepairs (all with less than 50 fics on AO3), and will be running a series of polls until only one remains. The polls will open on the first day of Femslash February and run all month long. Additional info and the entire list of pairings can be found below (to be updated after each round) @swfandomevents

IMPORTANT NOTES:

Some ships may have more than 50 fics on AO3 now, but at the time of the original data pull (November 2023) they were below the threshold.

Threats of violence or jokes of killing characters mentioned in the polls will not be tolerated. Commenting or tagging polls with calls for harm will result in an immediate block.

Arguing over the sexuality of characters or how queer they are will also result in a block. This tournament is for fun, and is meant to highlight amazing rare pairs that don't get enough love. Canon or explicit confirmation that a character is sapphic does not make them an automatic winner or a better pair. Please vote based on what ships you are excited to see more of and be respectful.

The list below will be updated regularly as winners are decided.

ROUND ONE

Ahsoka Tano/Steela Gerrera vs Phasma/Nastia Unamo

Rae Sloane/Phasma vs Shara Bey/Jyn Erso

Mon Mothma/Hera Syndulla vs Enfys Nest/Leia Organa

Reva Sevander/Tala Durith vs Jordanna Sparkburn/Sylvestri Yarrow

Oola/Leia Organa vs Juhani/Belaya

Kleya Marki/Mon Mothma vs Vette/Jaesa Willsaam

Chelli Lona Aphra/Hera Syndulla vs Lana Beniko/Jaesa Willsaam

Leia Organa/Hera Syndulla vs Rook Kast/Bo-Katan Kryze

Mon Mothma/Tynnra Pamlo vs Elia Kane/Dedra Meero

Zorii Bliss/Bazine Netal vs Yana Ro/Kor Plouth

Visas Marr/The Jedi Exile vs Fennec Shand/Drash

Kleya Marki/Vel Sartha vs Ahsoka Tano/Shin Hati

Padmé Amidala/Dormé vs Mara Jade/Leia Organa

Fennec Shand/Koska Reeves vs Depa Billaba/Adi Gallia

Rae Sloane/Hera Syndulla vs Karé Kun/Jessika Pava

Jyn Erso/Ahsoka Tano vs Qi'ra/Amilyn Holdo

Latts Razzi/Asajj Ventress vs F!Revan/Meetra Surik

Bo-Katan Kryze/Padmé Amidala vs Rae Sloane/Adea Rite

Leia Organa/Evaan Verlaine vs Visas Marr/Brianna

Luminara Unduli/Asajj Ventress vs Ahsoka Tano/Reva Sevander

Visas Marr/Mira vs Juhani/Bastila Shan

Bo-Katan Kryze/Fennec Shand vs Depa Billaba/Shaak Ti

Fennec Shand/Garsa Fwip vs Yana Ro/Shea Ganandra

Jyn Erso/Mon Mothma vs Ahsoka Tano/Morgan Elsbeth

Bo-Katan Kryze/Sabine Wren vs Merrin/Trilla Suduri

Fennec Shand/The Armorer vs Juhani/F!Revan

Reva Sevander/Tala Durith vs Qi'ra/Enfys Nest

Ahsoka Tano/The Armorer vs Kleya Marki/Cinta Kaz

Shara Bey/Evaan Verlaine vs Zorii Bliss/Jannah

Rook Kast/Barriss Offee vs Rae Sloane/Karyn Faro

Bo-Katan Kryze/Ursa Wren vs Bix Caleen/Cinta Kaz

Zorii Bliss/Rey vs Qi'ra/Ahsoka Tano

Jyn Erso/Sabine Wren vs Leia Organa/Sana Starros

Padmé Amidala/Satine Kryze vs Qi'ra/Rey

Zeen Mrala/Lula Talisola vs Qi'ra/Sana Starros

Peet Deretalia/Jessika Pava vs Qi'ra/Leia Organa

ROUND TWO

37. Ahsoka Tano/Steela Gerrera vs Shara Bey/Jyn Erso 38. Chelli Lona Aphra/Sana Starros vs Mon Mothma/Hera Syndulla 39. Bazine Netal/Phasma vs Reva Sevander/Tala Durith 40. Bo-Katan Kryze/Koska Reeves vs Juhani/Belaya 41. Kleya Marki/Mon Mothma vs Enfys Nest/Ahsoka Tano 42. Chelli Lona Aphra/Hera Syndulla vs Padmé Amidala/Aayla Secura 43. Rook Kast/Bo-Katan Kryze vs Rae Sloane/Chelli Lona Aphra 44. Mon Mothma/Tynnra Pamlo vs Trilla Suduri/Merrin 45. Yana Ro/Kor Plouth vs Visas Marr/The Jedi Exile 46. Fennec Shand/Leia Organa vs Vel Sartha/Kleya Marki 47. Shaak Ti/Luminara Unduli vs Dormé/Padmé Amidala 48. Matthea Cathley/Oliviah Zeveron vs Koska Reeves/Fennec Shand 49. Jessika Pava/Karé Kun vs Bo-Katan Kryze/Breha Organa 50. Jyn Erso/Ahsoka Tano vs Rae Sloane/Elia Kane 51. Latts Razzi/Asajj Ventress vs Elia Kane/Koska Reeves 52. Bo-Katan Kryze/Padmé Amidala vs Reva Sevander/Trilla Suduri 53. Leia Organa/Evaan Verlaine vs Luminara Unduli/Asajj Ventress 54. Leia Organa/Sabine Wren vs Juhani/Bastila Shan 55. Kaydel Ko Connix/Jessika Pava vs Bo-Katan Kryze/Fennec Shand 56. Elia Kane/Karyn Faro vs Garsa Fwip/Fennec Shand 57. Ahsoka Tano/Morgan Elsbeth vs Ahsoka Tano/Trace Martez 58. Trilla Suduri/Merrin vs Padmé Amidala/Beru Whitesun 59. Juhani/Revan vs Mon Mothma/Breha Organa 60. Qi'ra/Enfys Nest vs Padmé Amidala/Mon Mothma 61. The Armorer/Ahsoka Tano vs Shara Bey/Evaan Verlaine 62. Padmé Amidala/Breha Organa vs Rae Sloane/Karyn Faro 63. Saché/Yané vs Bix Caleen/Cinta Kaz 64. Chelli Lona Aphra/Magna Tolvan vs Qi'ra/Ahsoka Tano 65. Leia Organa/Sana Starros vs Qi'ra/Jyn Erso 66. Padmé Amidala/Satine Kryze vs Kaydel Ko Connix/Paige Tico 67. Zeen Mrala/Lula Talisola vs Fennec Shand/Asajj Ventress 68. Peet Deretalia/Jessika Pava vs Merrin/Mosey Cimarron

ROUND THREE

69. Jyn Erso/Shara Bey vs Mon Mothma/Hera Syndulla 70. Captain Phasma/Bazine Netal vs Juhani/Belaya 71. Enfys Nest/Ahsoka Tano vs Chelli Lona Aphra/Hera Syndulla 72. Rae Sloane/Chelli Lona Aphra vs Mon Mothma/Tynnra Pamlo 73. The Jedi Exile/Visas Marr vs Leia Organa/Fennec Shand 74. Luminara Unduli/Shaak Ti vs Matthea Cathley/Oliviah Zeveron 75. Breha Organa/Bo-Katan Kryze vs Ahsoka Tano/Jyn Erso 76. Elia Kane/Koska Reeves vs Trilla Suduri/Reva Sevander 77. Asajj Ventress/Luminara Unduli vs Sabine Wren/Leia Organa 78. Kaydel Ko Connix/Jessika Pava vs Elia Kane/Karyn Faro 79. Morgan Elsbeth/Ahsoka Tano vs Padmé Amidala/Beru Whitesun 80. Juhani/Revan vs Qi'ra/Enfys Nest 81. The Armorer/Ahsoka Tano vs Rae Sloane/Karyn Faro 82. Bix Caleen/Cinta Kaz vs Qi'ra/Ahsoka Tano 83. Qi'ra/Jyn Erso vs Paige Tico/Kaydel Ko Connix 84. Asajj Ventress/Fennec Shand vs Peet Deretalia/Jessika Pava

ROUND FOUR

85. Jyn Erso/Shara Bey vs Captain Phasma/Bazine Netal 86. Ahsoka Tano/Enfys Nest vs Mon Mothma/Tynnra Pamlo 87. The Jedi Exile/Visas Marr vs Matthea Cathley/Oliviah Zeveron 88. Breha Organa/Bo-Katan Kryze vs Elia Kane/Koska Reeves 89. Asajj Ventress/Luminara Unduli vs Jessika Pava/Kaydel Ko Connix 90. Morgan Elsbeth/Ahsoka Tano vs Enfys Nest/Qi'ra 91. Karyn Faro/Rae Sloane vs Ahsoka Tano/Qi'ra 92. Paige Tico/Kaydel Ko Connix vs Peet Deretalia/Jessika Pava

ROUND FIVE

93. Enfys Nest/Ahsoka Tano vs Ahsoka Tano/Qi'ra 94. Jessika Pava/Kaydel Ko Connix vs Jessika Pava/Kaydel Ko Connix 95. Captain Phasma/Bazine Netal vs Morgan Elsbeth/Ahsoka Tano 96. The Jedi Exile/Visas Marr vs Breha Organa/Bo-Katan Kryze

ROUND SIX

97. Peet Deretalia/Jessika Pava vs The Jedi Exile/Visas Marr 98. Ahsoka Tano/Qi'ra vs Morgan Elsbeth/Ahsoka Tano

ROUND SEVEN

99. Match 97 Winner vs Match 98 Winner

[the-silver-chronicles]

How would the Seeds react to the various Silvas?

Now, I try to have the Seeds stay in character whenever I have them interact with my characters and their personalities (especially Silva), but I also feel like I'm bending a lot of rules when I have the Seeds and other characters actually like some of the characters. That little Devil's voice I suppose.

This will likely go off topic a lot because I tend to ramble but I will try to stay consistent to the whole reason I made this post, just gotta get through the exposition. I'll make a second post to give my interpretations of the Seed's reactions to these various Silva's.

Anyway, I have around 5 canon (with 3 other non-canon) Silva's. Most are 26-years-old, which is the automatic age for most of them unless specified otherwise.

Deputy!Silva, the main protagonist of the Far Cry The Silver Chronicles AU, takes the role of Junior Deputy Rook from canon Far Cry 5, reluctantly becoming the face of the Resistance, and doing her absolute best in minimising as much damage and death as possible. All she wants to do is the right thing. Believer in Jannah's Tumultite Principles, though holds religious trauma (direct result of Adam Omar and the Congregation of Omar's Guard. Pastor Jerome and Jannah's principles are helping her heal from that), guilt-complex (born from survivors' guilt, outliving loved ones and Adam's constant verbal abuse how everything is her fault, which the Seeds do not help with when Silva encounters them) and saviour complex (Silva has been unable to save most of her loved ones, including her lover and their daughter, Irene and Persephone Neon, which is Omar's Guard and Paul's fault respectively, but Silva doesn't really see it that way, so she feels obligated, thanks to her guilt-complex and survivors guilt, to help as many people as possible).

Judge!Silva, the main protagonist of the Far Cry The Judge's Duty AU, a version of Silva that is the Judge way earlier than canon, wears the mask to protect her half-scarred face, and to hide her face in shame (having not been able to save her daughter, despite how hard she tried against Paul and the Apostles). Her Third-Eye spiritual affinity is higher than it is in most of the AUs, allowing her to view the world differently (seeing and hearing spirits, using the Third Eye to enhance her skills, realising the Bliss is a sentient hivemind that is hiding its intelligence from Joseph and Faith, intercepting visions between the Voice and Joseph by accident, etc), mostly silent (with the occasional sigh, huff, or other noise), though when she does speak, it's soft, calm and almost monotone (thanks to damaged vocal cords). Judge!Silva believes actions speak louder than words anyway. Believes Joseph that something is coming, but it won't be the Collapse at first (Adam and the Congregation of Omar's Guard are arriving to Hope County on an airship and ground vehicles to invade and prepare for the Collapse there, with Paul and the remaining Apostles of Zachariah coming to destroy everything because they absolutely hate the prophecy. Also, an appearance from Sir Enigma Malvolio who's just an ass).

Harbinger!Silva, a reluctant antagonist of the Far Cry The Harbinger's Salvation AU, with her little sister Elsa Omar acting as the main anti-hero protagonist. Unfortunately, Harbinger!Silva was captured by Paul and heavily indoctrinated into the Apostles of Zachariah, becoming their personal armoured enforcing juggernaut, the Harbinger. Enslaved to a code and brainwashing material, Silva is essentially conditioned to kill everything that isn't Paul Yellowjack or the Apostles of Zachariah. Paul cares for her but knows releasing her from the code will lead her to leaving him, and he can't have her abandoning him. Once Silva is eventually out of the programming (and the armour), she is very traumatised from that experience, and Elsa will do anything to save her older sister and heal her wounds. Unfortunately, in this AU, the Apostles of Zachariah are all alive and at their fullest strength. The Congregation of Omar's Guard thankfully is disbanded, as Elsa killed Adam Omar. Though Oscar Lapis and a few former Enforcers did join the Apostles.

Industrial!Silva, technically the main anti-hero with morally grey tendencies, pretty much a foil and the antithesis to Joseph Seed. This Silva is the leader of the Nation of Tumult Movement, who have settled in Hope County to buy enough land to build their Tumult, living honestly within Fall's End community to gain their favour, and unintentionally strike a rivalry with Eden's Gate when both start competing for land, while also holding differing ideals. This Silva, while holding some heroic qualities and caring towards her people (and allies to an extent), her methods are often less than stellar, like Joseph's, though the difference between both their dubious moments in their moralities comes from Silva's loyalty to her people while Joseph (although he does love his family) is ultimately loyal to his faith and the Voice. This Silva is also 37 years old rather than 26-years-old and is the adoptive mother of 20-year-old Azriel, who is the biological daughter of Joseph who he failed to sacrifice. Persephone is alive and Paul is surprisingly morally okay in this AU. Silva gained a deformity and scar from her left eye from when Adam attempted to drown her in a toxic river. Adam Omar and the Congregation of Omar's Guard is also around and at war with the Tumultites. Silva also has her own people (Alexander Khaos, Nadi Sinclair, Azriel, Ezekiel, etc) helping her with the regions, and holding back a lot of their strength since by comparison, majority of Eden's Gate members are really just misguided while majority of Omar's Guard do horrible things with malicious intention.

Reverend!Silva, technically the main anti-villain, this Silva starts off as Junior Deputy Sylvester Yellowjack in the Hope County arc, a bright and idealistic deputy who goes through hell with the Seeds. Doesn't help when she's infected and bonded by/with the Curse (a sentient bacterium sludge that is kind of like a symbiotic parasite, also the descendant of the Snake that helped Eve burned down the Garden of Eden, or the Paradise of Lies as it calls the place). Instead of the Voice coaching Joseph on how to ruin his life, it is a different voice of God, known as Phillip (by a child Sylvester, who acted as the little girl's imaginary best friend, and who didn't feed his imposter syndrome), who is trying to contain the mess he's made with Joseph and Eden's Gate with the Collapse on its way, still appalled by the actions Joseph commits in his name, so when the opportunity of Sylvester and the Curse come along, Phillip works with them to place Sylvester as a Prophet and replace Joseph, with the new plan being abandoning Joseph's idea of regressing back to a "New Eden" and "rejecting modern ideals" as that would be a spit in the face in Eve and the Snake's (which the Curse is a direct reincarnation of) efforts in leaving that horrid place to ash, so instead they go with Sylvester's idea of bringing about a new age of progression in societal evolution, leading to the recreation of magic (or at least, artificial magic). Omar's Guard makes an appearance to ruin everything, but Paul (who hasn't gone mad and evil and who is more morally right) and the other Tumultites come to help with that, with the Apostles acting as Sylvester's adoptive siblings rather than the enemies worshipping a cruel and callous Eldritch in the other AUs. Sylvester's reputation is eventually ruined but builds herself back up again as "Reverend Silva", who becomes the new prophet and empress of Hope County once the New Dawn arc kicks in, with Phillip having a physical form as her staff but he's not complaining. The only AU where all of Silva's children actually interact with each other. Irene, Al and Elsa are still dead though. Reverend!Silva and Faith become mothers/mother figures to Persephone (Silva and Irene's daughter, 8-years-old during the Hope County arc, ages from 8 to 17 in the interlude, and is 28 in the New Dawn arc), Azriel (adopted child of Silva and Faith, is 9 years old during the Hope County arc, ages from 9 to 18 in the interlude, and is 29 in the New Dawn arc), Mercy (bio daughter to Silva and Faith, born in 2021 during the interlude and ages to 4, and is 15 during the New Dawn arc), Carmina Rye (clone of deceased Nick and Kim's also deceased infant daughter, also Silva's goddaughter, created in 2021 during the interlude and ages to 4, and is 15 in the New Dawn arc), Ethan Seed (Joseph and Meghan's bio son, adopted as a child by Silva and Faith in 2025 and aged to early teens during the interlude, early to mid-twenties in the New Dawn arc), Mickey and Lou (twin daughters of the leader of the Highwaymen, Vince, now adopted daughters of Silva and Faith after Silva decimated the danger the Highwaymen posed, children in the interlude entering early teens, and are entering either early or late twenties in the New Dawn arc). Phillip becomes a bit more ambitious as time goes on.

There is also the unofficial and likely non-canon Apostle!Silva, Scavenger!Silva and Inquisitor!Silva. The first is a loyal and feared member of the Apostles of Zachariah who helped Paul found the cult, the second is a 35-year-old contract worker taking odd jobs and eventually gets stuck with 11-year-old Azriel while stuck in a Holy War in Hope County and the last is a Silva who lost Persephone to Omar's Guard but was recruited by Paul and the Apostles to act as their top agent of sorts, especially in Hope County. Inquistor!Silva is truly the most unnerving and the darkest grey in morality than any of the others.

None of the Silva’s are forces to be reckoned with, and everyone against her learns this the hard way. One key trait between all the Silva’s is that they are all defiant and resistant against the oppressive forces they face one way or another. And they are loyal to a person or group of people. Will not voluntarily be apart of any prophecy that involves the Collapse. Nor will she join any group that worships such a thing.

With exposition out of the way, we can now get to the Seeds' reactions once a part two post is made.

If you want to give your own interpretations of the Seeds reactions with this information in mind, while I'm finishing up mine, that is also okay.

[ramadhanseries]

தமிழில்

JUZ 16-LESSONS

➖SURAH AL-KAHF

Gaining knowledge and traveling, staying or sitting with a scholar are two different things. What we can learn by being in the company of a scholar cannot be learned through an online class or by going to the Masjid or institute only for class and not observing the conduct or the manners of the teacher/scholar.

Allah SWT makes us go through small trials to save us from big calamities such as missing a flight...we might be angry at ourselves, at the taxi driver or the airport staff...but later when we find out that the same flight crashed we are grateful to Allah SWT for saving us. Therefore, when we see that life is not going according to our plans we should have a firm belief that there is "khair" [goodness] in this, I need to be patient, Allah SWT will reveal things to me later.

- When Allah SWT takes something away, He has a better plan for us. Think good about Him. Do not complain. Be patient. Wait for Him to reveal His plans.

- If you are a righteous person then even if you are no more in this world, Allah SWT will look after and protect your children. Your responsibility is to become righteous and develop a strong connection with Allah SWT.

- Ask Allah SWT for beneficial knowledge and that He removes the barriers that stop you from gaining knowledge (ameen)

- Use the means of this Dunya to build your Akhirah. Neither become arrogant upon receiving blessings nor get lost in them that you forget the Haq [Right] of Allah SWT and the people.

➖SURAH MARYAM

Be Like Prophet Zakariyya AS - Make heartfelt du'as - Connect with Allah SWT

We should acknowledge our weakness when making du'a such as, "O Allah! I am weak. I have no control over my nafs [soul] so protect me and save me from committing sins."

"O Allah! I am weak, my memory is weak but I want to learn Your Book, so please make it easy for me to learn, understand, memorize and implement Your Book." (ameen)

➖Ask Allah SWT to make you His favorite

Allahumma ij'alni min ahibbaaik (0 Allah, make me of Your beloved ones)

- Name your male child Yahya! Because Allah SWT "chose" this name for a prophet and the son of a prophet.

- Put the love of the prophets (AS) in the hearts of your children and not the love of fabricated characters such as Cinderella and Batman. Teach them what will benefit them.

➖Qualities to instill in children:

▪️Compassion

▪️Purity (Physical & Spiritual)

▪️Taqwa (Love & Fear of Allah)

▪️Obedience & Respect of Parents

We can only raise righteous children when we have proper knowledge of the Deen. If the parents do not "learn" or gain knowledge about what Allah SWT has revealed and commanded us to do, how can we expect our children to know everything automatically and be perfect Muslims?

Allah SWT chose Maryam (AS) - the only woman mentioned by name in the Qur'an

He chose her, purified her and placed her above all the women of the world. So special she was that an entire Surah was named after her. Pray to Allah SWT to choose you too and to purify you too and grant you chastity (ameen). Tell your daughters about Maryam (AS)

➖Do not neglect your prayers. Do not pursue your desires. Do not say, "I don't feel like praying."

Where do you fail? What are you unable to control? Food, sleep, socialization, wasting time?

- When Allah SWT takes something away, if you are righteous, He will replace it with something betterProphet Ibraheem's father kicked him out of the home, Allah SWT blessed him with a beautiful family - Isma'eel, Ishaq, Ya'qoob, Yusuf and generations of prophets.

- In Jannah there will be no noise, no filthy talk, no dirty jokes, no hurtful speech

▪️How can we make it to Jannah?

➖Check your speech

➖Remove any hints of laghw (swear words, dirty talk) from your vocabulary

➖Think before your speak (your opinion is not required for every matter)

➖Practice being quiet at times

➖Analyze your conversations (what do you take part in?)

➖Share what's beneficial for you and others

➖Be patient in the acts of worship

▪️SURAH TA-HA

The Qur'an was not sent down to distress us (see 20:2). Does the Qur'an make us happy?

- Ask Yourself: Allah SWT loves me so much and I am failing Him, disappointing Him? What am I doing with my life and time?

- Worship is not limited to the rituals (prayers, pilgrimage), our entire life should be worship. Every aspect of our life should be according to the teachings of the Qur'an and Sunnah. We should give preference to what Allah SWT has commanded us to do and not what our hearts desire. We should submit to Him with our hearts, minds, and limbs.

The purpose of the Salah is to remember Allah SWT, "who or what" do we remember in our prayer?

"...Establish prayer for my remembrance." (20:14)

"Indeed, the Hour is coming..." (20:15)

➖Are we prepared?

We are curious about finding the "exact" time when the Day of Judgment will come. The most important question is what have we prepared for the Resurrection? A person's Qiyamah comes the day he dies. His chance/respite is over.

➖Prolong your conversations with Allah SWT as Prophet Musa (AS) did (see 20:18), even though Allah SWT knows everything about us.

- Du'a to make when speaking (presentation, interview, exam) and to improve our communication skills (this includes writing skills as well). Teach it to your children.

رَبِّ اشرح لي صدري - وَيَسِّرْ لِي أَمْري - وَاحْلُلْ عُقْدَةً مِّن نِّسَانِي - يَفْقَهُوا قَوْلِي "My Lord, expand for me my breast [with assurance] and ease for me my task. And untie the knot from my tongue. That they may understand my speech." (20:25-28)

➖Make du'a. Acknowledge your limited capabilities and take help from others when needed. Ask Allah SWT to make your family and loved ones, your supporters in Deen and Da'wah, just like Musa (AS) asks Allah SWT to make his brother Haroon (AS) his helper in spreading the Message of Allah SWT. (This is the biggest favor of a brother on another brother in history.)

➖Exalt and remember Him much

-Evil dreams are from Shaytan. We don't have to act on them. When you see something evil seek refuge in Allah SWT.

Use this time, this life to leave a legacy - strive in the path of Allah SWT so that you are known by this work and included among "His people."

"...And I produced you for myself." (20:41)

➖How can we overcome fear? Do the right thing and rely upon Allah SWT Alone.

"I hastened to You, my Lord, that You be pleased." (20: 84)

➖Show your love for Allah SWT by running to Him! When it's time to pray, do not delay. As soon as you hear the Athaan, leave whatever you are doing, get up and go pray.

JUZ 16-பாடங்கள்

➖சூரா அல்-கஹ்ஃப்

அறிவைப் பெறுதல் மற்றும் பயணம் செய்தல், தங்குதல் அல்லது அறிஞருடன் அமர்ந்து இருத்தல் ஆகிய இரண்டும் வெவ்வேறு விஷயங்கள். ஒரு அறிஞரின் சகவாசத்தில் இருந்து நாம் கற்றுக்கொள்ளக்கூடியதை, ஆன்லைன் வகுப்பின் மூலமாகவோ, வகுப்புக்காக மஸ்ஜிதுக்கோ அல்லது கல்வி நிறுவனத்திற்கோ சென்று, ஆசிரியர்/அறிஞரின் நடத்தையையோ, நடத்தையையோ கவனிக்காமல், கற்றுக்கொள்ள முடியாது.

விமானத்தை தவறவிட்டது போன்ற பெரிய பேர��ிவுகளில் இருந்து நம்மை காப்பாற்ற அல்லாஹ் SWT நம்மை சிறிய சோதனைகளுக்கு ஆளாக்குகிறான்...நம் மீதும், டாக்ஸி ஓட்டுனர் மீதும் அல்லது விமான நிலைய ஊழியர் மீதும் கோபம் வரலாம்... ஆனால் பின்னர் அதே விமானம் என்று தெரிந்ததும் விபத்துக்குள்ளானோம், எங்களை காப்பாற்றியதற்காக அல்லாஹ் SWT க்கு நன்றி கூறுகிறோம். எனவே, நம் திட்டப்படி வாழ்க்கை நடக்கவில்லை என்று பார்க்கும் போது, ​​இதில் "கைர்" [நன்மை] இருக்கிறது என்று உறுதியாக நம்ப வேண்டும், நான் பொறுமையாக இருக்க வேண்டும், அல்லா SWT எனக்கு விஷயங்களை பின்னர் வெளிப்படுத்துவார்.

- அல்லாஹ் SWT எதையாவது எடுத்துச் செல்லும்போது, ​​அவர் நமக்காக ஒரு சிறந்த திட்டத்தை வைத்திருக்கிறார். அவரைப் பற்றி நன்றாக நினையுங்கள். குறை கூறாதீர்கள். பொறுமையாய் இரு. அவர் தனது திட்டங்களை வெளிப்படுத்தும் வரை காத்திருங்கள்.

- நீங்கள் ஒரு நேர்மையான நபராக இருந்தால், நீங்கள் இந்த உலகில் இல்லாவிட்டாலும், உங்கள் குழந்தைகளை அல்லாஹ் SWT கவனித்து பாதுகாப்பான். உங்கள் பொறுப்பு நீதிமான்களாக மாறுவது மற்றும் அல்லாஹ் SWT உடன் வலுவான தொடர்பை வளர்த்துக் கொள்வது.

- நன்மை பயக்கும் அறிவுக்காக அல்லாஹ் SWTயிடம் கேளுங்கள், மேலும் அறிவைப் பெறுவதைத் தடுக்கும் தடைகளை அவர் நீக்குகிறார் (ஆமீன்)

- உங்கள் அகிராவை உருவாக்க இந்த துன்யாவின் வழிமுறைகளைப் பயன்படுத்தவும். ஆசீர்வாதங்களைப் பெற்றவுடன் கர்வம் கொள்ளாதீர்கள் அல்லது அல்லாஹ்வின் ஹக் மற்றும் மக்களின் உரிமையை மறந்துவிடாதீர்கள்.

➖சூரா மரியம்

நபி ஸகரிய்யா AS போல் இருங்கள் - இதயப்பூர்வமான துஆக்கள் செய்யுங்கள் - அல்லாஹ்வுடன் இணையுங்கள் SWT

"அல்லாஹ்வே! நான் பலவீனமானவன். என் நஃப்ஸ் [ஆன்மா] மீது எனக்கு எந்தக் கட்டுப்பாடும் இல்லை, எனவே என்னைப் பாதுகாத்து பாவங்களிலிருந்து என்னைக் காப்பாற்றுங்கள்" போன்ற துஆச் செய்யும் போது நமது பலவீனத்தை நாம் ஒப்புக் கொள்ள வேண்டும்.

"அல்லாஹ்! நான் பலவீனமாக இருக்கிறேன், என் நினைவாற்றல் பலவீனமாக உள்ளது, ஆனால் நான் உங்கள் புத்தகத்தைக் கற்றுக்கொள்ள விரும்புகிறேன், எனவே உங்கள் புத்தகத்தைக் கற்றுக்கொள்வதற்கும், புரிந்துகொள்வதற்கும், மனப்பாடம் செய்வதற்கும், நடைமுறைப்படுத்துவதற்கும் தயவுசெய்து எனக்கு உதவுங்கள்." (ஆமீன்)

➖அல்லாஹ் SWTயிடம் உங்களை அவருக்கு பிடித்தமானவராக ஆக்குமாறு கேளுங்கள்

அல்லாஹும்ம இஜ்அல்னி மின் அஹிப்பாயிக் (0 அல்லாஹ், என்னை உனது அன்புக்குரியவர்களில் ஒருவராக ஆக்குவாயாக)

- உங்கள் ஆண் குழந்தைக்கு யஹ்யா என்று பெயரிடுங்கள்! ஏனெனில் அல்லாஹ் ஒரு தீர்க்கதரிசி மற்றும் ஒரு தீர்க்கதரிசியின் மகனுக்கு இந்த பெயரை "தேர்ந்தெடுத்தான்".

- உங்கள் குழந்தைகளின் இதயங்களில் தீர்க்கதரிசிகளின் (AS) அன்பை வைக்கவும், சிண்ட்ரெல்லா மற்றும் பேட்மேன் போன்ற புனையப்பட்ட கதாபாத்திரங்களின் அன்பை அல்ல. அவர்களுக்கு என்ன பயன் என்று கற்றுக்கொடுங்கள்.

➖குழந்தைகளுக்கு விதைக்க வேண்டிய குணங்கள்:

▪️இரக்கம்

▪️தூய்மை (உடல் & ஆன்மீகம்)

▪️தக்வா (அல்லாஹ்வின் அன்பு மற்றும் பயம்)

▪️பெற்றோரின் கீழ்ப்படிதல் மற்றும் மரியாதை

தீனைப் பற்றிய சரியான அறிவு இருந்தால் மட்டுமே நாம் நல்ல பிள்ளைகளை வளர்க்க முடியும். அல்லாஹ் SWT வெளிப்படுத்தியதையும் செய்யுமாறு கட்டளையிட்டதையும் பெற்றோர்கள் "கற்கவில்லை" அல்லது அறிவைப் பெறவில்லை என்றால், நம் குழந்தைகள் தானாக எல்லாவற்றையும் அறிந்துகொண்டு சரியான முஸ்லீம்களாக இருக்க வேண்டும் என்று நாம் எப்படி எதிர்பார்க்க முடியும்?

அல்லாஹ் SWT மர்யம் (AS)-ஐத் தேர்ந்தெடுத்தான் - குர்ஆனில் பெயர் குறிப்பிடப்பட்ட ஒரே பெண்

அவன் அவர்களைத்தான் தேர்ந்தெடுத்து, அவர்களைத் தூய்மைப்படுத்தி, உலகப் பெண்களுக்கெல்லாம் மேலாக அவர்களை வைத்தான். அவர்கள் மிகவும் சிறப்பு வாய்ந்தவளாக இருந்ததால், ஒரு முழு சூராவுக்கும் அவர்கள் பெயரிடப்பட்டது. உங்களையும் தேர்ந்தெடுத்து உங்களையும் தூய்மையாக்கி கற்பை வழங்க அல்லாஹ் SWTயிடம் பிரார்த்தியுங்கள் (ஆமீன்). மர்யம் (AS) பற்றி உங்கள் மகள்களிடம் கூறுங்கள்

➖உங்கள் பிரார்த்தனைகளை அலட்சியப்படுத்தாதீர்கள். உங்கள் ஆசைகளைத் தொடராதீர்கள். "எனக்கு பிரார்த்தனை செய்ய மனமில்லை" என்று சொல்லாதீர்கள்.

நீங்கள் எங்கே தோல்வி அடைகிறீர்கள்? உங்களால் எதைக் கட்டுப்படுத்த முடியவில்லை? உணவு, தூக்கம், சமூகமயமாக்கல், நேரத்தை வீணடிப்பதா?

- அல்லாஹ் SWT எதையாவது எடுத்துச் செல்லும்போது, ​​​​நீங்கள் நேர்மையானவராக இருந்தால், அதற்கு பதிலாக சிறந்ததைக் கொடுப்பார், நபி இப்ராஹீமின் தந்தை அவரை வீட்டை விட்டு வெளியேற்றினார், அல்லாஹ் SWT அவருக்கு ஒரு அழகான குடும்பத்தை ஆசீர்வதித்தார் - இஸ்மாயீல், இஷாக், யாகூப், யூசுப் மற்றும் தீர்க்கதரிசிகளின் தலைமுறைகள்.

- ஜன்னாவில் சத்தம் இருக்காது, இழிவான பேச்சு இருக்காது, அழுக்கான நகைச்சுவைகள் இருக்காது, புண்படுத்தும் பேச்சு இருக்காது.

▪️நாம் அதை எப்படி ஜன்னாவுக்குச் செய்யலாம்?

➖உங்கள் பேச்சைச் சரிபார்க்கவும்

➖உங்கள் சொற்களஞ்சியத்தில் இருந்து லாக்வ் (சத்திய வார்த்தைகள், அழுக்கான பேச்சு) குறிப்புகளை அகற்றவும்

➖நீங்கள் பேசுவதற்கு முன் சிந்தியுங்கள் (ஒவ்வொரு விஷயத்திற்கும் உங்கள் கருத்து தேவையில்லை)

➖சமயங்களில் அமைதியாக இருக்கப் பழகுங்கள்

➖உங்கள் உரையாடல்களை பகுப்பாய்வு செய்யுங்கள் (நீங்கள் எதில் பங்கேற்கிறீர்கள்?)

➖உங்களுக்கும் மற்றவர்களுக்கும் பயனுள்ளவற்றைப் பகிரவும்

➖வணக்க வழிபாடுகளில் பொறுமையாக இருங்கள்

▪️சூரா தா-ஹா

குர்ஆன் நம்மை துன்புறுத்துவதற்காக இறக்கப்படவில்லை (பார்க்க 20:2). குர்ஆன் நம்மை மகிழ்விக்கிறதா?

- உங்களை நீங்களே கேட்டுக்கொள்ளுங்கள்: அல்லாஹ் SWT என்னை மிகவும் நேசிக்கிறான், நான் அவரைத் தோல்வியடைகிறேன், அவரை ஏமாற்றுகிறேனா? என் வாழ்க்கையையும் நேரத்தையும் வைத்து நான் என்ன செய்கிறேன்?

- வழிபாடு என்பது சடங்குகள் (பிரார்த்தனைகள், யாத்திரைகள்) மட்டும் அல்ல, நமது முழு வாழ்க்கையும் வழிபாடாக இருக்க வேண்டும். நமது வாழ்வின் ஒவ்வொரு அம்சமும் குர்ஆன் மற்றும் சுன்னாவின் போதனைகளின்படி இருக்க வேண்டும். அல்லாஹ் SWT என்ன செய்ய வேண்டும் என்று கட்டளையிட்டுள்ளானோ அதற்கு முன்னுரிமை கொடுக்க வேண்டும், நம் இதயம் விரும்புவதை அல்ல. நம் இதயம், மனம் மற்றும் உறுப்புகளால் நாம் அவருக்கு அடிபணிய வேண்டும்.

தொழுகையின் நோக்கம் அல்லாஹ்வை நினைவு கூர்வதாகும், "யாரை அல்லது எதை" நாம் நமது பிரார்த்தனையில் நினைவுகூருகிறோம்?

"...என் நினைவிற்காக பிரார்த்தனையை நிறுவுங்கள்." (20:14)

"நிச்சயமாக, நேரம் வருகிறது..." (20:15)

➖நீங்கள் தயாரா?

நியாயத்தீர்ப்பு நாள் எப்போது வரும் என்பதை "சரியான" நேரத்தைக் கண்டுபிடிப்பதில் நாங்கள் ஆர்வமாக உள்ளோம். மிக முக்கியமான கேள்வி என்னவென்றால், உயிர்த்தெழுதலுக்கு நாம் என்ன தயார் செய்துள்ளோம்? ஒருவரின் கியாமா அவர் இறக்கும் நாளில் வருகிறது. அவரது வாய்ப்பு / ஓய்வு முடிந்துவிட்டது.

➖அல்லாஹ் SWT க்கு நம்மைப் பற்றி எல்லாம் தெரிந்திருந்தாலும், நபி மூசா (AS) செய்தது போல் அல்லாஹ்வுடன் உங்கள் உரையாடல்களை நீடிக்கவும் (பார்க்க 20:18).

- பேசும் போது செய்ய வேண்டிய துஆ (விளக்கக்காட்சி, நேர்காணல், பரீட்சை) மற்றும் நமது தொடர்பு திறன்களை மேம்படுத்துதல் (இதில் எழுதும் திறனும் அடங்கும்). அதை உங்கள் குழந்தைகளுக்கு கற்றுக்கொடுங்கள்.

رَبِّ اشرح لي صدري - وَيَسِّرۡ لِي أَمۡري - وَاحْلُلْ عُقْدَةً مِّن نِّسَانِي - அவர்கள் என் பேச்சை என் பேச்சை விரிவுபடுத்துவார்கள். ." (20:25-28)

➖துஆ செய்யுங்கள். உங்கள் வரம்புக்குட்பட்ட திறன்களை உணர்ந்து, தேவைப்படும்போது மற்றவர்களின் உதவியைப் பெறுங்கள். மூஸா (அலை) அவர்கள் அல்லாஹ்வின் செய்தியைப் பரப்புவதில் தனது சகோதரர் ஹாரூனை (AS) உதவியாளராக மாற்றுமாறு அல்லாஹ் SWT யிடம் கேட்பது போல், உங்கள் குடும்பத்தினரையும், அன்பானவர்களையும், தீன் மற்றும் தஃவாவில் உங்கள் ஆதரவாளர்களாக ஆக்குமாறு அல்லாஹ்விடம் கேளுங்கள். (வரலாற்றில் ஒரு சகோதரன் மற்றொரு சகோதரன் மீது செய்த மிகப்பெரிய உதவி இதுவாகும்.)

➖அவரை அதிகமாக நினைவுகூருங்கள்

- தீய கனவுகள் ஷைத்தானிடமிருந்து வந்தவை. அவர்கள் மீது நாம் நடவடிக்கை எடுக்க வேண்டியதில்லை. தீமையைக் கண்டால் அல்லாஹ்விடம் பாதுகாப்புத் தேடுங்கள்.

இந்த நேரத்தைப் பயன்படுத்துங்கள், இந்த வாழ்க்கையை ஒரு பாரம்பரியத்தை விட்டுச் செல்லுங்கள் - அல்லாஹ்வின் பாதையில் பாடுபடுங்கள், இதனால் நீங்கள் இந்த வேலையால் அறியப்படுவீர்கள் மற்றும் "அவரது மக்களில்" சேர்க்கப்படுவீர்கள்.

"...நானே உன்னை எனக்காகவே உருவாக்கினேன்." (20:41)

➖பயத்தை நாம் எவ்வாறு வெல்வது? சரியானதைச் செய்யுங்கள் மற்றும் அல்லாஹ்வை மட்டுமே சார்ந்திருங்கள்.

"என் ஆண்டவரே, நீங்கள் மகிழ்ச்சியடைவதற்காக நான் உன்னிடம் விரைந்தேன்." (20:84)

➖அல்லாஹ்விடம் உங்கள் அன்பை அவனிடம் ஓடுவதன் மூலம் காட்டுங்கள்! ஜெபிக்க வேண்டிய நேரம் வரும்போது, ​​தாமதிக்காதீர்கள். அத்தான் சத்தம் கேட்டவுடனே, என்ன செய்து கொண்டிருந்தாலும் விட்டுவிட்டு, எழுந்து ஜெபம் செய்யுங்கள்.

[zoawrites]

Prompt: a concert. They can meet there, have already planned to go together, by a twist of fate end up there, anything! Lol but at least part of it has to take place at a music concert of any genre

Sorry it took me a little while to get this done! Loved the prompt and I had a lot of fun with it! Thank you! 

Story below the cut! (Rated T)

Also, here’s the AO3 link  

Enjoy!

Zoa ❤️

A Wrong Turn to the Right Place

Ben knew he shouldn’t have listened to the damn GPS. ‘Take a right’, it said. ‘Destination will be on your left’, it insisted.

Wrong.

And that was how Ben landed right in the middle of a fucking rock concert instead of at an isolated cabin in the woods where he could find some peace and quiet to finish his manuscript. Was it rock? There was a stage and guitars and a mosh pit so he assumed it was rock. Then again there was a guy with a banjo and another dude with a cello and the two singers had a country twang so probably not rock.

Was it Indie music? Were they hippies?

Ben didn’t know and didn’t care. He just needed to find someone who had a map of the area so he could find his cabin and get out of this loud, body-filled mess of a field. There was a fleet of food trucks lined up along the edge of the crowd, buzzing with customers.

Surely someone had a map. Ben approached the nearest truck and jumped ahead of the line, getting booed and jeered in the process but he ignored the voices. He wasn’t trying to buy anything.  

“Excuse me!” Ben had to shout to be heard over the music and the people. The man at the window glared at him.

“What’re you doing, man? Back of the line!”

Ben was not dissuaded. “I don't want to buy anything. Do you have a map?”

“If you’re not buying, fuck off! I got real customers!”

“Seriously?” Ben scoffed.

“Get the fuck out!”

Ben flipped him off as he backed away. “Asshole.”

He tried every other truck and a few people in line but no one could - or would - help him. After his final attempt, he stood and scowled at the ongoing concert, hands on his hips. How did he end up here? Fucking GPS… fucking food trucks… fucking loud music… can’t hear a damn thing…  

A tap on his shoulder pulled Ben from his angry contemplations and he turned to tell off the concert-goer with all the pent up rage he was currently nursing only for it to disappear in a puff of smoke.

She was in her early twenties, above average height, chestnut hair cut short so that it framed her face. Which was lovely and covered in adorable freckles to which he could devote a whole chapter of his book. Ben stole a moment to gather his thoughts as he took in her Daisy Duke shorts and black, long-sleeved crop-top that had the word ‘nobody’ emblazoned across the chest in white block letters.

“Excuse me, are you in line?”

“What?” Why was it so fucking loud? They weren’t even that close to the stage. “I can’t hear you!” He pointed at his ears and shook his head helplessly.

The girl - young woman - wrinkled her pert nose but then pointed to the food truck. “Are. You. In. Line?”

“Oh, no…” Ben shook his head. “I need a… help.”

“‘A help’?” She laughed and Ben more than ever wished the music wasn’t so loud so he could hear what he was sure was the clearest, loveliest laugh. Her eyes - green with a touch of gold, like the stalks of tall summer grass waving in the distance - looked him up and down, observing his dark blue henley and light jacket, probably realizing he wasn’t there for the concert.

“I’m lost!” He yelled forlornly. Well, as forlornly as a shout could sound. But she seemed to get the picture. His new friend took pity on him and grabbed his hand, guiding him toward the collection of Port-a-Potties lined up at the edge of the field. There were still plenty of people about, so they weren’t completely alone but the noise pollution was much improved. Although he could have done without the smell.

“You’re lost?” She asked and he heard her accent for the first time. British, soft, warm, like sunlight on a spring day. Ben blinked at her for a second before he nodded.

“Yeah. Lost. My, uh, my GPS told me to come here.”

“Where were you trying to go?”

“A cabin. I rented it. I thought I had the right address,” Ben sent a hand through his hair, ruffling it in exasperation. She seemed to watch the movement with interest. “I wanted…” he looked around and sighed, “I wanted a quiet place to write.”

His companion laughed again and yes, it was definitely as Ben imagined it. Better, in fact. “You’ve definitely come to the wrong place for that!”

“I know,” he managed a crooked smile and she pressed her lips into a tight line, as if repressing one of her own. “I don’t suppose you have a map of the area?”

“I don’t. Don’t you have a mobile? A cell phone you can use?”

“No. I don’t like them.”

“Oh, wow,” she grinned. “I didn’t think any of you actually existed.”

“Any of who?”

“Sasquatch.”

“Ha ha,” Ben rolled his eyes but wasn’t offended, not when her eyes were wrinkled and bright at her own joke. “Very funny.”

“I thought so. Here,” she reached into her shorts’ back pocket and drew out her own phone, “let’s see how far astray you’ve come.”

Turned out, he’d strayed quite a ways off his path. An entire state, in fact. The town his cabin was located at and the one he was currently in shared the same name and, unfortunately, Ben hadn’t double checked when he’d plugged in the address. Just selected the automatic suggestion that popped up on the screen like the idiot he was.

“Well, fuck.”

“I’m sorry.” The girl’s expression was honestly sympathetic.

The crowd behind them cheered as a new song began and Ben glanced mournfully over his shoulder. “Look, I don’t want to keep you. I appreciate your help, but I can manage from here. Go have fun.”

“I can still hear the music. I’m Rey, by the way,” she stuck out her hand and Ben stared at it for a second longer than necessary before he engulfed it with his own giant paw.

“Ben. Ben Solo.”

“Ben.” She said his name slowly, as if savoring how it rolled off her tongue. There was even a minuscule lift to the corner of her mouth, which Ben tried very hard not to stare at. “Solo… You’re a writer? Have I heard of you?”

“No,” he shook his head. When she tilted her head quizzically, he cleared his throat and elucidated. “I’m not published yet. This trip was supposed to be my attempt to finish my manuscript…”

“Not getting to a great start, are you.”

He laughed bitterly. “No, guess not.” Then he heaved a very heavy sigh. “I should get going. I have a long drive ahead of me, apparently.”  

“Why don’t you stay?”

The question came as a surprise and this time he allowed himself to stare at her. “What?”

A charming pink hue lit Rey's cheeks. “The sun’s going down, you see. Probably not a good idea to drive in the dark when you don’t have a map.”

“It wasn’t a good idea in daylight, either,” Ben said wryly and Rey laughed again. “But you’re right,” he added, unable to tear his gaze from her bright eyes. “Probably a good idea to stay. I can find a hotel…”

“You can hang out with my friends and I…”

They spoke at the same time. Her eyes darted away in obvious embarrassment but then peered at him from under lightly-mascaraed lashes. Ben swallowed.

“Really? You don’t even know me.”

Rey tilted her head and gave him a shy smile. “You seem fairly harmless to me. Although, you’re a bit short with food truckers, I’ll admit.”

So she’d seen that. Could his face get any hotter?

“Not my finest hour,” Ben admitted, running a hand through his hair again. Her offer was tempting, and the music wasn’t bad… in fact, Ben could see himself tapping a toe to it. “I won’t be intruding?”

“Of course not!”

Then she suddenly grabbed his hand and hauled him off toward the stage. Rey somehow managed to find all the gaps and passages through the dense collection of people, although, with Ben in tow she didn’t really need to because those passages were being bulldozed anyway. Unfazed by the scowls and middle-fingers flipped at them, Rey tugged him to a spot deep in the crowd where four others were bouncing around to the beat.

A short, dark-haired girl with round cheeks and a contagious smile caught sight of Rey, took one long - very long - look at Ben and smirked.

“That’s not what I meant when I said bring back a snack!” She yelled with a wink, earning an aghast and open-mouthed expression of shock from Rey.

That was Rose Tico’s charming self-introduction. Rey’s other friends, Finn, Jannah, and Kaydel were less free with their thoughts, albeit just as curious. They welcomed him warmly enough. While Ben felt out of place - and knew he was - he couldn’t find it in himself to part from the girl who’d rescued him. So he stood and bobbed his head to the music, enjoying watching the others’ antics and enthusiastic singing along.

Still, it wasn’t exactly his favorite activity, and somehow Rey must have sensed that because sometime later - as the horizon was lit by the pink and purple light of the setting sun - she tugged him back through the crowd and toward grassier areas where there were scattered groups sitting on blankets and lawn chairs.

They sat together in a soft patch of grass and Ben sighed, not trying to hide his relief. “Thanks.”

“I did have an ulterior motive,” she admitted, stretching her toned legs out and crossing them at the ankles.

Ben nodded in encouragement, pretty sure if she wanted to take over the world he’d help her. “What’s that?”

“I want you to tell me about your book.”

“My book?” His brows lifted straight up. “You really want to hear about it?”

She nodded and Ben, right in assuming he had little ability to resist any request she made, launched into a summary of his story: a hard-boiled detective investigating the deep, dirty secrets of a city’s nefarious mobster.

“Is there a love story?”

“There’s a woman,” Ben admitted. “I haven’t decided if he should fall in love with her.”

“I think he should.”

“Thing is, I’m not sure how to write her.”

“Maybe you need a muse.”

Ben lifted his gaze from the grass to focus on her face, on all the little freckles dotting her nose, the strange way the fading light of the sun seemed to worship her cheeks. She was beautiful here and now but he wanted to know how many other ways she was beautiful. How she ate toast in the morning. What her favorite movie was. If she squealed when she saw a bee. Everything. He wanted to know everything about her and write it all down.

“Maybe I already have.”

[tros-for-dinner]

[TROS re-write: in this version, the secret Finn has been keeping throughout the movie is that he doesn’t want to kill for the Resistance either, and he wants to save the stormtroopers. Poe remembers his failure in TLJ and his secret in this movie is he’s afraid he’s not a good leader and he’s going to mess up again. After freeing Rose (instead of Chewie) from the star destroyer, escaping by the skin of their teeth, and crash-landing the Falcon on Kef Bir (Endor’s moon, I had to look it up), the team meets the colony of escaped troopers and decide to spend the night recuperating.]

Poe finds Finn at a distance from the fire, staring at the flames without seeing them. Poe sits beside him on the bench, a strange apprehensiveness fluttering through him. He’s never seen Finn this withdrawn.

“What is it?” he asks quietly. His worry intensifies when Finn blinks back into the present, to Poe, then glances away. “We made it out okay,” Poe tries to reassure, making a stab in the dark. “We all made it out okay, Finn. You don’t have to keep worrying.”

Instead of replying, Finn sighs, heavily, and Poe is startled to see tears well up in his eyes. Automatically, he reaches out to grip Finn’s shoulder, try and provide some reassurance. Finn reaches up to grip Poe’s hand but still doesn’t look at him.

“Whatever it is, you can tell me,” Poe implores. It hurts more than he could have imagined when Finn still doesn’t look or move to speak.

“Can I, though?” Finn finally says, almost too quietly to hear. 

When Poe realizes what Finn said, his jaw drops and it’s on the tip of his tongue to retort - What is that supposed to mean?! - when a mirage of General Organa appears in his mind’s eye, glaring at him for being so undiplomatic in such a sensitive situation. He swallows down his retort and fishes at length for what he needs to say.

“All I know,” he eventually says carefully, “is that you need to talk to someone, and if you would be more comfortable talking to Rey, I will get up right now and get her.”

Finn sighs again, but it’s different. “No,” he says, and squeezes Poe’s hand, “you’re the one I need to talk to.”

Finn sighs again, shaking his head. “What do you remember…from Crait?”

There’s a lot of things he remembers from Crait, but before he can reply, Finn sighs again. “Rose said to me, after our failed bombing run, ‘we have to fight to save what we love’, instead of, you know, killing what we hate and…I’ve been thinking about that nearly every day.” He sighs and shifts in his seat to throw his head back and look up at the stars. “Have you ever talked to Rey about the Force?”

“Not really,” Poe says, trying to keep any negative emotions out of his voice. Religion isn’t really something he puts stock into, as a general rule, and it’s really unnerving to see objects move under unseen power when they’re supposed to be stationary.

“I don’t have the Force. Not like Rey does. But…” Finn trails off, visibly thinking. “The Force is like standing in a river: I can feel it pressing on me, swirling around me, but I can’t see the currents in the water.”

Poe blinks. “I thought you didn’t have the Force.”

Finn shakes his head. “I can’t control it like Rey can, but I can feel it. I always have but I didn’t know how to understand it.” For a very long moment, he doesn’t speak, then: “Getting Rose out, being on that Star Destroyer…I’d forgotten how bad it was but it all came rushing back.” Poe can see tears glimmering in his eyes again.

“How bad what was?” Poe asks, as gently as he can.

Finn shakes his head again, pressing his eyes shut. Tears run down down his cheeks, glinting in the firelight. “The air on the ship is just…unbearable. The misery. The…you’re surrounded by so many people but you’re so alone, all the time. They took everything from us: our names, our selves - and then our lives. They erased us so that only the armor remained. No one can live like that, and I can’t believe I’d forgotten how bad it was. I thought I was the only trooper that ever got out.”

“But you weren’t,” Poe anticipates, and Finn nods, somehow looking even more miserable than before. Poe doesn’t understand. “Buddy, you just gotta celebrate whatever wins we get! It’s great that Jannah and her group got out!”

Finn nods even as his face crumples. “You’re right,” he manages to get out, but then starts to cry in earnest. Poe throws caution into the wind and pulls Finn into an embrace; thankfully, Finn goes willingly and sobs into his shoulder, squeezing Poe tightly in his arms. Poe feels terrible - he’d been so upset Finn was keeping a secret from him just a few days ago. He had no idea Finn was holding on to something so heavy.

“Please tell me what’s wrong,” he pleads, so quietly that he knows only Finn can hear him, as his sorrow winds down and his grip lessens.

“I left the First Order because I didn’t want to kill for them,” Finn says, voice hoarse and cracking around unshed tears. “I can’t kill for the Rebellion, Poe. I can’t do it. I can’t…” he dissolves back into tears, and Poe rocks him like his mother used to even though he feels like Finn punched him in the stomach. Suddenly so much makes sense, and Poe feels terrible that he caused Finn to feel like this.

“It’s okay,” Finn manages to say, and it takes Poe a beat to realize he’s replying to Poe’s unspoken sentiment. “It took me a while to figure and I didn’t know how to tell you.”

“Finn, if you can’t tell your best bud something like this that’s eating you up, I’m doing a fairly crappy job,” he says, and that gets Finn to laugh a bit. “Okay, I’m taking you off gun duty, that’s no problem,” Poe says, even though that is a problem in the grand scheme of things. Maybe he can hook BB up to the gun on the Falcon - Rose and Finn said BB took over an AT-AT on the Star Destroyer to help them escape; bet that was a hell of a show…

Poe realizes that Finn has stopped crying but is now tense in his arms. Poe loosens his grip and Finn pulls away to arm’s length, not looking at Poe.

“That’s not everything,” Poe realizes, watching his reaction. When Finn doesn’t look at him, Poe takes hold of his shoulders and squeezes them gently, trying to hug him without pulling him close again. “Finn, whatever it is, I promise I’m not going to be angry. You are my best friend. I can’t help you until you tell me what you need.”

Finn doesn’t speak for a moment, then he exhales shakily. “I thought BB was your best friend,” he says, and it takes Poe a second to realize the non-sequitur is a joke.

He frowns at Finn even as a laugh is trying to bubble up. Jokes are a good sign. “BB may be adorable but best friend has been you for a while, buddy.”

Finn gives him a grateful - if watery - smile and reaches up to grip Poe’s hand on his shoulder. “I realized,” he says, looking down at his shoes, “when Rose briefed us on the condition of the fleet that taking down the control tower isolates the ships. While the number of ‘troopers has stayed the same, intelligence shows they’re going to skeleton crews as far as officers and command crew go. Isolating the ships from their neighbors would make sure that if something happened to the command crew, the ship would be dead in the water for as long as it took to get the command tower back online.”

Poe squints at him and has to search for a diplomatic response. “That’s the general plan, yes,” he manages to say without it being condescending, but Finn shakes his head.

“Poe,” he says, lifting his gaze to look at the man directly, “the full number of troopers is ten thousand on each star destroyer. Ten thousand troopers per ship, suffering cycle after cycle, and who knows how many looking for a way to escape. The Rebellion shoots them out of the sky without even offering surrender.”

Poe suddenly, viscerally understands what Finn is trying to say. “The command crew will never surrender,” his mouth says automatically even as his brain calculates the consequences of what Finn is implying, as if he was right back in the cockpit of his X-wing in the middle of a dogfight. It’s insane. It’s impossible. It’s something that has never been done before in the history of the Rebellion.

Finn looks him directly in the eyes and grips Poe’s shoulders in a mirroring gesture. “The command crew is outnumbered by troopers ten-to-one,” he says intently, not looking away even to blink. “Jannah told me today that the ‘troopers are still using the same private comm channels as before I got out. Poe,” he says, shaking the man in emphasis, “all we would have to do is cut the ship off, broadcast to the troopers, offer surrender, Poe…”

“How would we get the ‘troopers off the ship?” Poe asks, but he’s already calculated the answer. He closes his eyes. “If the troopers take over the ship, we won’t have to get them out. We just have to support them until we can get everything sorted out.”

Finn shakes him a little and Poe opens his eyes to look at him. “If only a few want to defect,” Finn says quietly, “there are drop-ships they can take out. But I was thinking something more ambitious.”

Poe raises his eyebrows incredulously, unable to verbalize the question. Finn looks right at him, a sort of steely determination mixed with palpable fear. “Me and Rey could break into the command center and force them to surrender.”

Poe’s hands, still on Finn’s shoulders, unconsciously tighten grip. His mind is blank. “That’s…” he manages to speak, but can’t go on. Suicide! his mind shouts but he can’t force himself to say.

Finn’s eyes are pleading, now. “This is why I didn’t want to tell you,” he whispers. “I know there’s so much risk. Poe, before you and I got out, I was a model trooper. I never even questioned the system, I just did what they told me. But the Force brought us together and you got me out, and now it’s time for me to pay it forward. If I could save just one of them, all of this would be worth it, but we have the opportunity to save all of them.” The firelight flickers against the tears in Finn’s eyes. “Poe, I am going to do this, whether you help me or not.”

Poe feels - like gravity has somehow been inverted, maybe. Or he mistook zeroes for ones, or confused some of the switches in his cockpit. The plan Finn is suggesting goes against everything he’s been taught since he joined the war but………

Gazing at Finn’s earnest face, while sitting in a village of rebel Stormtroopers, Finn’s plan feels overwhelmingly right. It feels right in a way that nothing has since the Resistance fled D’Qar, since his failure decimated the Resistance, since the remainder escaped Crait with nothing but the clothes on their backs and the fires in their souls. Poe can almost see the battle plan in his mind’s eye like he read it out of a book: the Resistance’s remaining pilots will do everything they can to distract the command crew while Finn and his team take down the tower and broadcast the revolution to the ‘troopers. If they can get just one star destroyer to surrender, it would turn the tide. If they can get just a few drop-ships of defected troopers, it’ll strike a blow. We are the spark of hope that will light the fire…

“Yeah,” Poe says, squeezing Finn’s shoulders to convey his seriousness, nodding slowly at first, then more emphatically as his mind grows used to it, “yeah, I’m in.”

Hope dawns across Finn’s face, growing into amazement.

“I’ll help you,” Poe says, and can’t stand it anymore - he pulls Finn in close and hugs him as hard as he can. Finn doesn’t hesitate to hug back, burying his face into Poe’s shoulder. Tears spring into Poe’s eyes and then he’s laughing and crying all at once. Finn starts to shake, then they’re laughing and crying together, holding on to each other as tightly as they possibly can.

“You promise to tell me next time you get an idea like this in your head?” Poe asks, buoyant with fear and hope and love, overflowing with it.

“I promise,” Finn answers, and hugs him even tighter.

[themattress]

TROS’ Backtracks on TLJ

Critics are up in arms about them, but I’d like to look them over and analyze them:

Luke throws away his lightsaber -> Luke catches his lightsaber

This was a joke that both TLJ lovers and haters should be able to enjoy: lovers can enjoy the parallel and how it shows Luke’s change of heart, while haters can enjoy the reversal and “a Jedi weapon should be treated with more respect” line throwing shade on Rian Johnson.

Luke is cynical and jaded about the Jedi -> Luke embraces the Jedi again

I am baffled by this complaint. Did any of these critics actually understand what even happened in TLJ?  Luke already realized he was wrong to be so cynical and jaded about the Jedi and about being a legend following his talk with Yoda, which is why he did his Force astral projection at the end and proudly declared that he “will not be the last Jedi”, the opposite of his earlier “It’s time for the Jedi to end” mantra. It’s character development.

Luke sunk his X-Wing underwater -> Luke raises his X-Wing from the water

Yes, and it was beautiful. Whether Rian Johnson meant to or not, by placing Luke’s X-Wing underwater he had just placed Chekhov’s Gun on the table. It needed to go off, Luke had to do accomplish the thing he couldn’t in The Empire Strikes Back because now he believed.

Luke's lightsaber is broken -> Luke's lightsaber is repaired

Rey took the pieces with her so that she could repair it in TLJ.

Leia's Force flight is not explained -> Leia had undergone Jedi training

Good. That turns her Force flight into foreshadowing. Also, apparently the original plan in TLJ was that Leia, not Rey, was to be “the last Jedi” following Luke, but that plan couldn’t happen once Carrie Fisher died, so this was the only way to achieve any sort of “Jedi Leia” at all.

Rose is a major character -> Rose is a background character

This one’s a touchy issue: I believe Rose’s reduced role was inevitable given the sheer amount of characters that needed to be juggled, plus J.J Abrams’ desire to give Rey, Finn and Poe a big adventure as a trio. On the other hand, I feel like she probably had more substantial material that was filmed and was left on the cutting room floor, and that’s troubling since we have no way of knowing if this done in good faith or to appease toxic fans.

Finn/Rose is hinted as a couple -> Finn/Jannah is hinted as a couple

I think that was done because the writing was on the wall in TLJ that John Boyega and Kelly Marie Tran have no romantic chemistry on screen, and they work a lot better as just friends. Although honestly, I’m not sure we’re meant to totally buy into Finn/Jannah either. Finn is pretty much a bachelor the whole way through and he has the best chemistry with Poe.

Poe develops into a leader -> Poe develops into a leader again

I think this is similar to a compliant people made in TLJ that Finn backtracked on his development in TFA about not running away from fighting. Except that was not true: in TFA Finn stopped running away but was only willing to fight for and with Rey, the Resistance meant nothing to him. TLJ was about him learning to shift his primary allegiance to the Resistance, to a cause rather than a person. Likewise, Poe developed into a leader in TLJ, but his arc in TROS is about him developing as a leader; there’s a difference between the two. Becoming a leader as Poe did in TLJ isn’t going to erase all personality flaws and hurdles to overcome any more than Luke becoming a Jedi did for him. He still has much to learn.

Snoke was never given an origin -> Snoke is given an origin

Good. TFA and even TLJ built Snoke up as a character who needed to have at least one line of dialogue explaining who he was and where he came from, there needed to be something.

Snoke is dead and Kylo Ren is the new Big Bad -> Palpatine's back as the Big Bad

I’m sorry, but there was no fucking way that the majority of the audience was going to buy Kylo Ren as the Big Bad. He was humiliatingly defeated by Rey in TFA and then humiliatingly defeated by Luke in TLJ. I liked him as the new Supreme Leader and all, but we needed a truly formidable Big Bad to be the Final Boss, and Palpatine was the best one we could get.

Kylo Ren broke his mask -> Kylo Ren repairs his mask

Because he was going back on the field with the Knights of Ren, who all wear masks.

The Knights of Ren aren't there -> The Knights of Ren are here

Yeah, their presence is really just perfunctory. Nothing bad, nothing special.

Kylo Ren slides towards irredeemability -> Kylo Ren is redeemed 

Either route would have been valid, and you’re entitled to your preference. With that said, I feel his redemption was handled exceptionally well, adding such emotional weight to the film.

Hux is set to have a major role going forward -> Hux is killed and replaced by Pryde

Similar to Kylo Ren as the Big Bad, Hux was no longer believable as a threat due to being made a fool of too often, so he was replaced by a more competent villain. With that said, killing him off so abruptly was lame. He had potential as an uneasy ally to the heroes.

Rey's parents were nobodies -> Rey's parents were somebodies

Yeah, just like how TFA blatantly foreshadowed that they were somebody of some kind of significance to the Force. And Kylo Ren only saw a brief snippet of them lacking context, and we didn’t even see it; we only had his word for it. How exactly is this change any worse than changing “Vader killed Luke’s father” to “Vader IS Luke’s father”; or “Leia is Luke’s love interest” to “Leia is Luke’s twin sister”; or all the blatant retcons done in the Prequels?

Also, the Skywalker Saga’s first two trilogies were about Anakin and Luke respectively, so why should the final one heavily center around someone who has no connection them whatsoever? Her being a Palpatine, since Palpatine is the one who created Anakin, is a brilliant way to tie things together and helps give the Skywalker Saga some cohesiveness.

Rey being OP has no explanation -> Rey being OP is explained

Good. “Anyone can use the Force” should not mean that anyone should just hit the Force jackpot from birth and be automatically more powerful than most other people who can use the Force, even those who have been using it longer. And the Force being stronger in some families has nothing to do with bloodlines or midichlorians, it’s a spiritual thing that was literally mentioned in the OT (”the Force is strong in my family”.) Plus, Rey as a Palpatine is what gives the resolution where she chooses to become a Skywalker its power: the spirit is stronger than blood, and who you are biologically related to doesn’t dictate your destiny.

Rey doesn't need much training -> Rey undergoes full training

Idk, I think part of the original “Leia is the Last Jedi” thing was always going to involve her completing Rey’s. I mean, it just seems like a natural f3miNeest ajehnDA! thing to do.

Random Force-sensitive children may be important -> They're not

They can be important in future stories beyond the Skywalker Saga. It was not their time yet.

The conflict might move beyond the familiar -> The conflict is a familiar one

For one thing, this is the final installment of the Skywalker Saga, so no fucking shit the conflict needs to be familiar. It’s a curtain call for the film series as it’s been since 1977, this “fanservice” should be expected. And for another thing, TLJ didn’t move things back toward the familiar? Rey stayed good, Kylo Ren stayed evil, the Jedi were not going to end, we were back in a Rebellion vs. Empire situation. If Rian Johnson really wanted to move things beyond the familiar in the following movie, he did a piss-poor job setting that up. 

"Kill the past" is the message -> "Honor and celebrate the past" is the message

I’ve brought this up before, but it needs to be said again: that was NOT the message of TLJ!!! I cannot believe how many people who both love and hate TLJ got this so wrong! The guy saying this is Kylo Ren, the fucking villain. He’s not supposed to be listened to! Rey doesn’t, and while Luke starts out with a similar mindset, he changes his views following the scene he has with Yoda, he realizes that the past, even the ugly parts of it, is valuable and should not be killed, it should be remembered and learned from. Rian Johnson’s message was a debate as to whether Star Wars’ past was all that good and that maybe it’s worn out its welcome and should be torn down so that the franchise can start anew, and the answer he concluded that debate with was no, that should not happen, the way forward is to always keep the past in mind but never get stuck in it: instead build from it and seek to improve from it. As the saying goes, “those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it”, and “killing the past” is like saying “don’t learn from history”. It’s a bad message from a bad person, so don’t believe it.

And again, it’s the last installment of the Skywalker Saga. Honoring and celebrating all that’s come before is kind of a requisite for big finales like this; just look at Avengers: Endgame!

That’s everything, unless “explaining why the Holdo Manuever won’t work again” is also something that critics are complaining about, and if it is actually is then, well, I give up.

[islamicrays]

I'm tired. He is tired. We were both hungry. The kids were loud.... anyone who has been married for awhile knows where this is going, right?

I'm going to show you what Fearless Vulnerability looks like in turning around a grump-session!

My husband told me dinner was ready. I wasn't feeling well so he took over making dinner and getting it on the table. Relieved, I finished something off for work I needed to get done.

But then he called me a second time. His voice sounded irritated.

I got irritated.

"Why is he calling me like that?" was my knee jerk reaction thought.

Instantly, I checked in with my feelings. Why did I feel so upset?

I'll tell you why.

I could have just sat there with my reaction to the tone of his voice.

But instead I recognized my strong reaction was because I felt guilty having asked him to take care of getting dinner on the table. I felt guilt sitting in my chair "doing nothing" because I wanted to take care of my family.

No...that's not quite it.

I dug more....

I was feeling guilty because I was at a conference for several days and then worked all day yesterday. (Serving my lovely clients from this beautiful WOJ community may I add!)

I hadn't been there serving them for several days in a row.

Here it comes. WHOOOOOSH. Another wave of guilt.

Forget the fact that I am with my family everyday and homeschooling two of my four kids but parenting all of them!

No...guilt says that taking a few days break from that for a conference makes me a terrible wife and mother.

Shame on me!

Ugh.

Ok, so there was the next layer of truth. I wasn't done yet.

I finally came to the table but instead of responding with my layer of truth I realized another feeling was coming to the surface.

Hurt.

I was feeling hurt that he didn't just recognize how tired I was and how I wasn't feeling well. I felt hurt that he would speak to me with a tone of voice that sounded judgy and irritated.

I mean.. I was coming!

But guess what....

GUESS WHAT!!!

Ladies, I want you all to pay attention to this.

Because everyone I coach gets stuck right there. Right there in their feelings and knee jerk reactions.

Let's look at the facts on the ground:

1) My husband took care of dinner.

2) My husband invited me to the table.

So far, we've got two actions that show love and support. No comments about me not cooking, not helping, about me sitting, or even working. Zero. Total acceptance and obvious recognition that I was tired.

Ok....but what was that tone of voice? I had such a strong reaction to the tone! I couldn't help the initial reaction.

When I finally told him that my feelings were hurt from his tone of voice and that I was now also swimming in an ocean of guilt his response was, "I didn't even realize how my voice sounds. I'm tired myself. It was a long day. I'm sorry. You've nothing to feel guilty about! "

Oh.

Why am I not just *knowing* that?

"I just wanted you to join me at the table so we could all eat together. That's why I called you the second time."

Yeah, the knife in the heart moment.

Why, you may be asking, didn't I, the "master relationship coach" over here not just know all of this automatically?

I'll tell you why.

I.Am.Drop.Dead.Exhausted.Today.

It's just one of those days and I admit I didn't get enough sleep last night.

When I'm tired, I am not my best self.

When ANYONE is tired they aren't their best selves, right?

I fell asleep on my coach while my eight year old was reading to me out loud from Charlotte's Web. I never sleep in the daytime. Even when I want to take a nap, I usually can't.

But today, I knocked out for 20 minutes waking up in a groggy grumpy state.

But you know what I did do even while feeling groggy and tired?

I worked Fearless Vulnerability.

I held my feelings and thoughts accountable. I honored how I felt, and I also explored my reactions.

After a few minutes, I told me husband not just my hurt, but my guilt, my doubts about myself - all of it. I resisted responding to just the knee jerk feelings.

Imagine if I didn't check in with myself and be fully honest about what was going on inside of me. Where could this dialogue have gone?

What might it has turned in to?

Two tired, hungry people.... not being vulnerable with themselves or each other.... <-- that has the potential to be a disaster.

At the end of the day, the entire "dinner drama" of my night lasted a few minutes, was solved with a conversation, but mostly the realization that I need some solid sleep.

Yes to the SLEEP!

Few things to learn:

1) Never underestimate the power of being tired or hungry to bring out the grumpy side of yourself or your spouse.

2) Make space foe each other to not be perfect all the time.

3) Apologize when you've hurt someone even when unintentionally.

4) Fearless Vulnerability is a method that asks you to fine 3 levels of truth. In many situations of conflict, there are often 3 truths happening within you all at the same time. Know them and. you can resolve things much faster and more effectively.

5) Be gentle with yourself. I am not perfect. I know that. What matters is that I work hard to *be* my best self as often as I can.

6) Everyone has different sensitivities. What irritates you might not irritate your spouse or any other women in our WOJ community. Honor your feelings. Don't judge them or compare them to anyone else.

7) Rahmah is important in a relationship. Life is long and the journey is hard and some days are just those kind of days.... Have gentleness with each other, give each other some space, and start over the next day.

Keep us in your du'a! Thanks for being here and letting me be vulnerable with you too. ❤

I know I've got plenty of formally or currently sleep deprived ladies on here! If you totally understand what I mean by "those kind of days..." send me some love with some ❤️❤️🙌🏻🙌🏻

Via Wives of Jannah

[jazon-todd]

some (mostly negative sorry lol) thoughts

it’s obvious that these movies were made separately with no real plan on where the story should go once they cooked up the idea to start the trilogy back up again. 

and I don’t think it’s strictly rian johnson’s fault, this falls squarely on disney for not making this completely avoidable. rian had to try and work with what JJ left him, and JJ had to turn around and try to work with what rian left him. like if you’re going to have different directors, at least use the same writers. they clearly didn’t

It’s like…. way too much happened for one movie, while at the same time nothing actually happened at all. We’re back to the same exact point we were at at the end of return of the jedi, just this time all the skywalkers are dead

the first ten minutes I’m pretty sure actually gave me whiplash. going from a planet to another planet to another planet under 2.5 seconds with maybe 3 sentences of dialogue was migraine-inducing

palpatine looked like a fucking demon out of hell. my dad kept whispering DEW IT under his breath and I was losing it

he’s literally not explained at all, kylo knows he’s there, Rey knows he’s there, the FO and resistance know he’s there… and we’re just supposed to accept it lmao. apparently, he’s been there this whole time but now is when everyone starts to care 

palpatine also fucks, apparently

and like I get that this whole movie is about ~hope~ or whatever but it’s honestly just like this man railing a family for 3 generations and they all die before they’re free of him lmao

I really hate how luke and leia both knew rey was a palpatine all this time and still treated her like family anyway when they sent their on child and nephew away because he was “too much like vader” like what

the asian was shit all over once again, I literally do not trust white men with us but whatever

fight scenes were cool but way too quick, better than any we’ve had before in this trilogy. nothing has yet to touch duel of the fates or battle of the heroes though, rip r*ylo but obi wan, anakin, darth maul and qui gon are different

pacing was v weird

I’m really annoyed with how rey snapped at finn when all he wanted was to help her and didn’t tell him who she really was or what she was going through. they made her isolate herself from her friends and it was really ugly

they tried shoving what should have been three full-length movies into one

I guess JJ saying “we explain finn’s background and his family!!!” is just him meeting jannah and being like “oh we’re both ex stormtroopers? cool!” like ok, I was expecting actual backstory but okay

Not sure how rey and ben BOTH somehow got the power to heal someone

oh hey han

PACING WAS SO FUCKING WEIRD

this movie was clearly trying to do a lot of over-corrections from the last jedi instead of… letting it be. which just goes to show that disney shot itself in its trillion dollar foot because they for some reason tried going into a trilogy with different directors and writers for every movie 

great to see the knights of ren doing jack shit except get killed after 5 minutes total of screen time, literally what was the point of any of that. they sucked at their job

again, palpatine was great. didn’t know if we needed him for another trilogy, though. felt like we were beating a dead horse at this point. like, rey or kylo could have walked over and pulled the life support and he’d die in like a second

you could tell the last act was supposed to be emotional, but it moved so fast nothing resonated 

palpatine is just fucking stupid, like just stop shooting the lightning and he would have won, but whatever

no offense to kylo but idk how the weakest skywalker (she says subjectively) got the power to literally resurrect someone when anakin couldn’t even do it but I digress. it’s clearly that ~our true love can save us~ trope 

also speaking of anakin wasn’t ANYWHERE in this movie other than a quiet sentence even though he’s still the fucking chosen one, 0/10 automatically

like they had him say “bring back the balance as I have” LIKE OK IF THE BALANCE WAS TRULY BACK WHY IS THIS EVIL MAN STILL ALIVE HELLO I truly think the worst part of the trilogy is making anakin fail at what he was supposed to do

nice to know finn is force-sensitive FIFTEEN MINUTES BEFORE THE MOVIE ENDS AND WE NEVER SEE HIM AGAIN

actually cried like a little BITCH when ben saw that rey was dead and was holding her body I gtg

the reylo kiss was cute I guess, rey looked really happy 

like I always knew and said he would die……… but I felt like he deserved to live after what he did. idk tho. his death didn’t sit well with me the way vader’s, or luke’s, or leia’s did.

PACING WAS SO FUCKINGGGGGG WEIRDDDDDDD like when ben died and rey was looking down at him my theater was all upset and then it just switched right to everyone celebrating rather than rey mourning for like more than a second and everyone was literally like wait what

didn’t really like the ending all that much but rey also never really did much for me, so sorry rey stans

I still can’t believe she buried anakin’s lightsaber, the man who hates sand more than anything else in the entire world, on the planet he was enslaved on. like, I’m so lost on why these little details were just forgotten about.

not sure how I feel about rey taking on the skywalker name, like on the surface it’s pretty cool because it’s becoming more of a group name (like the new “jedi” title), but I also don’t like how much they were talking about how anyone can be powerful no matter where you come from, just to turn around and make her both a palpatine and a skywalker anyway. idk, more on that later

also not sure how I feel about her starting and ending the trilogy alone lmao but she clearly found her place (even though she’s literally fucking alone) so I guess it works out

liked her saber but idk the mechanisms behind it bc I thought they needed a certain metal to contain the kyber crystal, but that would actually require jj to refer to source material and we know he doesn’t look past the movies so

idk I’m feeling pretty cynical bc endgame sucked ass and GOT sucked ass and so I guess star wars had to suck ass to complete the shitty conclusion trifecta 

all in all, it’s a decent movie, I guess, the more I sit on it. there’s not that many issues I have even though above may seem like a lot, but….

as much as I love finn and rose and poe and what they have given me over the years……. disney should have left star wars be in regards to the trilogy. literally nothing is different from the return of the jedi to now, just that all the skywalkers are now dead and anakin/darth vader died for literally no reason but whatever

[nataliesnews]

Subject: Sheikh Jarrah...one honest man

F 

  And the corona is back and so are masks   26.6.2021  The article which explains Sheikh Jarrah is at the bottom.   Nir Hasson from Ha’aretz phone me to ask if I was willing to be interviewed for an article has was writing for the paper about people who had taken part in the demonstrations and how they feel now. So I did and then he said that they would come to photograph me the next day. When they did not contact me, I thought that’s that as had happened with other interviews. But the next morning I started getting sms  from friends…you are a star, you are famous……I thought it was only about facebook but then one friend sent me this picture and I understood. I hoped it would appear in  the English edition but translated it and am sending it on also with this letter seperately  

I think that I will miss the feeling of being together with thousands. I realise now how along we were all the years in Machsom and when I went out with Arik or the rabbis. Now at Sheikh Jarrah I also feel the alone where we are only one or two hundred standing against the police and with the public so uninterested in what is happening there. They will feel it when the police act against  the ordinary citizen and then they will open their eyes in suprise     Well yesterday At Sheikh Jarrah the euphoria of last week at Balfour and the Knesset disappeared. What was it Kahll Jibran said….the height of your sorrow is the height of the joy you once felt and vice versa. I went with Varda and at first it was all so quiet that we thought we would be home early. Also there were fewer people than usual as in Tel Aviv there was an enormous gay demonstration. But then we moved forward to the police barrier which has now been added to so that they cannot be photographed so easily having a little party at the post. A bus of settlers came along and we did not let it past us. Why the hell should they go in when Palestinian visitors and family member can’t. Then the police started getting themselves ready with their helmets and batons which they are now provided with swinging. Besides as in the photo which I am putting on the stun grenades ….only about 20 of them are waiting for  the bodies of two of the police.

  This  young woman is amazing. She has come up dressed up as a policeman to every demonstration. She often imitates them but this time she was so funny I told her Charlie Chaplin would be proud of her and her walk. She mocked the police in every way she could also acting as traffic director once or twice when cars stopped to watch what was happening. Strutting along, pretending to give out tickets. She really pissed off this idiot who was in charge.  

So much so that he can into the crowd to arrest her. They pushed her off down the road and this blond policewoman went behind her pushing her along and not gently. I was so tempted to tell her who she reminded me of. Much as I try to push thoughts like this away I find it harder and harder

The Palestinian flag is like a red rag to a bull ….the police see it. Their hair stands on end. Their nostril distend. Their eyes blur and then go red. What remains of the brain goes into automatic attack zone.

Zadi was arrested…I am not sure if I am remembering correctly but I think that the sequence was that he had a Palestinian flag…..and as far as I know there is no law of holding a flag of another organization at a demonstration….if that of Lahava is allowed ….but there was a pulling match between him and the commander of the idiots and, only with the help of another police man did the latter manage to get it away from him and afterwards he was pulled out from the throng and arrested.   Then two of the men who went to wait for him at the police station. The one had on a scarf with the Palestinian flag and, though other policemen evidently spoke to him and took no notice, one of the more stupid came up and demanded he take it off. Which he refused. I wish I could send you the videos where you can see the amount of violence and how many policeman are necessary to take back one scarf. Like the Israeli joke of how many…………. Are required to put in a light bulb.  This is what interests the police today.   I had a feeling that the commander did not really know what he was doing. Every time he would barge into the group and then go back and stand as if thinking……or maybe like that man who said, “Sometimes I stands and thinks and sometimes I just stands.” And about twice they came all the way across the road to arrest someone who, as in most cases, is kept for a couple of hours and then released without even appearing in court          

The flag

No borders

One feels the desire to attack. 

Zaid

                  Former Attorney General Discovers Settler Group Took Over His Family’s Sheikh Jarrah Home

Michael Ben-Yair was surprised to find that a religious nonprofit group had charged Palestinians living in his grandmother’s East Jerusalem house hundreds of thousands of shekels in rent, with the approval of a rabbinical court. His legal journey to reclaim the home reveals the settlers’ modus operandi in their drive to ‘Judaize’ Sheikh Jarrah

 Ben-Yair with his sister Naama Bartal in Sheikh Jarrah in 2019. Credit: Hagit Ofran / Peace Now

Nir Hasson

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Jun. 15, 2021

A nonprofit settler group took over a building in East Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood that belongs to the family of Michael Ben-Yair, a former attorney general and retired District Court judge. The group controlled the building for years, collecting rent totaling hundreds of thousands of shekels from Palestinian residents, without the knowledge of the legal heirs of the building’s original owner.

Ben-Yair discovered two years ago that his grandmother’s house had been taken over by the group. No one from the Justice Ministry’s Administrator General and Official Receiver Division, rabbinical courts or a settler group had tried to find her legal heirs. Since then, he’s been waging a legal battle to wrest the building from the settlers, and to allow its Palestinians residents to remain there. On his journey, Ben-Yair discovered the settlers’ contorted and legally dubious methods to “Judaize” Sheikh Jarrah.

‘They could have easily found us.’

Nahalat Shimon was a small Jewish neighborhood in the Western part of Sheikh Jarrah in the late 19th century. Michael Ben-Yair, who was attorney general under Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres, was born there in 1942. In 1948, the residents fled after the neighborhood was conquered by Jordan’s Arab Legion. Like most Jewish residents who fled from East Jerusalem to the western side of the city, the family was compensated for the loss of their house, and received an alternative house and store in the Romema neighborhood.

Open gallery view

 In the 1990s, settler organizations began a drive to replace the Arab residents of Sheikh Jarrah with Jewish ones, based on a law that allows Jews to reclaim property they held in 1948, even if they were compensated for its loss. Nahalat Shimon was divided into an eastern section called Karm al-Jaouni, where land was owned by the councils of the Jewish Ashkenazi and Mizrahi communities. Land in the western section, called Umm Haroun, where Ben-Yair’s family lived, was privately owned by Jewish families.

Land in the eastern section was subsequently purchased by a nonprofit group called Nahalat Shimon, which is controlled by a foreign company and run by a settler activist named Yitzhak Mamo. In the western section, Mamo and settler groups needed the cooperation of Jewish families who had inherited the properties. In some cases, they received cooperation and purchased the buildings, evicting Palestinian families living there. In the case of Ben-Yair’s family, they took a different method.

The house and an attached store are listed in a “trust document,” a type of will drafted by Ben-Yair’s grandmother, Sarah Jannah, daughter of Menashe Shvili. In 1927, she declared before a rabbinical court in Jerusalem that the house and store would pass to her heirs and then the heirs’ heirs. She added that if, God forbid, no family member remained alive after the original heirs, the property would be transferred to a neighborhood Georgian synagogue. This was common in those days, in cases of families with no living descendants.

‘We will never     leave our land’: The Palestinian families facing eviction in Sheikh Jarrah

Israel won't     intervene in Sheikh Jarrah case, making eviction of Palestinian families     more likely

Israel is shirking     its responsibility for residents of Sheikh Jarrah

Israel’s policies     in East Jerusalem are outrageous, idiotic and unjust

Based on this last phrase, a right-wing nonprofit group called Meyashvei Zion (settlers of Zion), managed by Mamo, appealed in 2002 to a rabbinical court, asking that Mamo and another person named Oren Sheffer be appointed as court delegates to determine who the property belonged to. The court approved their request. Shortly thereafter, the two informed the court that they had not found any heirs, and the court quickly appointed the two as trustees of this building, without any significant effort by the court to locate the heirs.

Sheikh Jarah, Jerusalem

The decision was based on the presumption that no heirs could be found, even though Sarah Jannah appears in the Population Registry, since she died in 1955, after the state was established. Anyone wanting to could have easily found her heirs through a simple search at the interior ministry. “The identity numbers of the whole family were consecutive,” says Ben-Yair. “My brother’s ends in 03, mine ends in 04, my grandparents’ ID numbers ended in 05 and 06, respectively.”

In 2004, the Administrator General and Official State Receiver, which had managed the property since 1967, objected to the appointment of the new trustees, arguing that an effort should be made to locate living family members, but the court denied this request. A year later, the receiver handed the building over to Mamo and Sheffer, even reimbursing the nonprofit 250,000 shekels ($77,000) for rent the state had collected from Palestinian residents up to that time. Over the next nine years, the group received 600,000 shekels in revenues from the property.

In 2011, another nonprofit group, the Georgian community council, managed to take control of the property with the support of a rabbinical court. This group also failed to search for the real heirs. Minutes from rabbinical court sessions in 2016 show that the Georgian council knew that the property had legal heirs who were not benefiting from it. The council even knew their names. “They told me it belonged to Professor Yair somebody … Prof. Michael Ben-Yair; we’re trying to find him,” said the Georgian trustee David Bandar, in one of the sessions.

Open gallery view

 Ben-Yair in Sheikh Jarrah in 2019. Credit: Hagit Ofran / Peace Now

‘Lack of basic decency’

When Sheikh Jarrah stared making headlines following the eviction of Palestinian families from their houses a decade ago, Ben-Yair joined demonstrations organized by a solidarity movement against Jewish settlers. He even drafted a pamphlet stating that Jewish families who had fled homes there had received compensation for their houses, making the demand to reclaim their old houses illegal and immoral.

Two years ago, Ben-Yair discovered that settlers had begun evicting Palestinians from a store which he believed was part of his grandmother’s house. He subsequently appealed to the official receiver, attorney Sigal Yakobi, who is also the acting director-general of the Justice Ministry. “Up to that time I thought the property was still registered in my grandmother’s name and I assumed it was occupied by Palestinian refugees, living there untroubled. Since we’d received compensation in 1948, I didn’t bother checking the current ownership in the land registry office,” he says.

Ben-Yair says that when he met with the official receiver, she did a review and discovered that the property had been released.

“I told her that we are the heirs, so she asked to see the trust document and she was stunned. She saw that it was a private and not a public trust,” he recounts. At the meeting, the family members learned of their grandmother’s will for the first time. Ben-Yair and his sister, Na’ama Bartal, subsequently asked the court to look at the trust file. The court rejected the request, saying they did not have sufficient documentation to prove their family relation to their grandmother.

Ben-Yair appealed the decision to the Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court, asking that the Interior Ministry be directed to give him the documents confirming that he is his grandmother’s grandson. Ben-Yair won the appeal, and the Interior Ministry is due to hand over the documents next week.

At the same time, attorneys Michael Sfard and Alon Sapir, with the assistance of Peace Now, submitted a request to the rabbinical court to appoint the family members as the trustees. “Michael Ben-Yair did not go into hiding and was not abducted to an enemy country; he did not change his name or hide in his bedroom. Not only is this a person who is easy to find, he is a public figure who makes public statements and even published a book about Sheik Jarrah three years earlier,” Sfard and Sapir wrote in their request to the court.

A ruling on their request has yet to be handed down, but meanwhile the rabbinical judges ordered that all activity in the trust be suspended. Ben-Yair and his sister said they hope that they will soon get their house back and that afterward they intend to sue the trustees from Meyashvei Zion and the Georgian council for the money they collected from the Palestinians over the years.

Since the trust document prohibits the sale of the house, Ben-Yair hopes to convince his family to lease the property to the Palestinian family living there for a token fee for an extended period. “It’s not just a matter of ‘what’s mine is mine and what’s yours is mine.’ It’s a basic lack of decency and inconceivable under any legal system that I should receive both compensation as well as the property for which I received the compensation,” Ben-Yair says. “It would also involve eviction of Palestinians who would become refugees for the second time, while they are not entitled to seek to reclaim their property from before 1948. Justice requires that they not be evicted and that their custody of the house be ensured.”

Open gallery view

 Attorney Sigal Yakobi, the official state receiver and Justice Ministry acting director-general.Credit: Ohad Zwigenberg

“It’s a crazy story,” says attorney Sfard, who is representing Ben-Yair. “The person they were supposed to look for was sitting right there in his office on the floor above the Official State Receiver in the Justice Ministry. It just shows the intensity of the concealment and of the connection between the Judaizing elements and the rabbinical court. The court is supposed to ascertain that the trustees are not doing anything to distort the wishes of the person who left the bequest or created the trust.”

“Ben-Yair’s story gives us an opportunity to peek into the system of dispossession in East Jerusalem,” says Hagit Ofran of Peace Now. “The state authorities, the Official State Receiver and the rabbinical court are enabling and even promoting the Palestinians’ eviction and replacement with settlers. The government can no longer argue that Sheikh Jarrah is just a real estate matter. It is a political matter that is the state’s responsibility, and the state is also responsible for preventing the injustice.”

‘There may have been some confusion’

The administration of the rabbinical courts says: “In 2011, several people came before the court and claimed no heirs were found. Therefore, the court ordered that in keeping with the trust document, the property be used for a public purpose. The Georgian council is also among the current custodians. The material in the file shows that the name of the woman who established the trust – Sarah bat Menashe Hannah/Jannah/Shvili is spelled in different ways, which may have caused confusion.

“It is most important to note that those who claim to be the deceased’s heirs have to date not proven that they are indeed her descendants, and they conducted a legal proceeding on this matter before other forums. Despite this, and out of caution, when the applicant first contacted Rachel Shakarji, the supervisor of religious properties earmarked for charitable purposes, she wrote to the court and requested that a temporary injunction be given instructing the receivers of the trust not to take any actions that would alter the condition of the trust from a legal or economic standpoint.

“An injunction was immediately granted by the court and it remains valid, even though those who claim to be the heirs of the person who established the trust have not proven their relation to her and even though half a year has passed since the temporary injunction was issued. Considering the time that has passed since the trust’s establishment, the location of the property and the upheavals that occurred there, it is possible that mistakes occurred. However, as noted, to date the claim of the familial relationship between the applicants and the originator of the trust has not been proven.”

Open gallery view

 Ben-Yair with his sister Bartal in Sheikh Jarrah in 2019.Credit: Hagit Ofran / Peace Now

Attorney Shlomo Toussia-Cohen, who is representing the Georgian council, declined to comment for this article. In their response to the rabbinical court, the Georgians claimed that Ben-Yair and his sister had not proven their blood relation to Sarah Jannah and that Ben-Yair’s public pronouncements about the rights of the Palestinians there indicate that he seeks to act counter to the principles of the trust and therefore is not entitled to a part of it.

The office of the Official State Receiver responded: “This is a trust property that was managed by the Official State Receiver and regarding which a release request was submitted by the appointed trustees in the early 2000s. In light of the fact that this is a trust for private purposes, the Official State Receiver opened an inquiry to the court, which appointed the trustees, and expresses its position that the relatives of the deceased should be appointed as the trustees. However, this position was not accepted by the court and therefore in 2006 the property was released to the trustees. It goes without saying that it is the duty of the appointed trustees to act in accordance with the purposes of the trust as set down by the deceased.”

Yitzhak Mamo and Meyashvei Zion declined to comment.

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[flowersofjannah]

Sometimes it gets hard to be nice to people who are mean to me or don’t deserve it. It just makes me look so weak. I know I can be very harsh but my heart won’t allow that because I start to feel bad automatically.

Assalamu ‘alaikum,

That guilt is a gift from Allah, telling you that your reaction is not of benefit. Giving people such a reaction won’t make things better or give you peace, it will just make matters worse. And you're better than that! You don’t need to stoop to their level, you build your own character and morals.

Don’t be nice for their sake, be nice for the sake of Allah. Do what is kind and right for the sake of Allah. Make excuses for people and give your heart peace by forgiving them. Forgiving people who have wronged you not only raises your ranks with Allah, is in accordance to the sunnah of the prophet Muhammad ﷺ, but it will give YOU contentment and peace. This dunya will always cause pain, we have to learn how to navigate through it and forgiving others is a very important guideline and if you can’t find the heart to forgive them then be patient with them, otherwise you might end up full of bitterness and unhappy, may that not be your fate, ameen.

Start to let go, break free. Please don’t be rude with others, that is not how it should be. Deal with people kindly even if they are not kind, your reward is with Allah and He will surely be pleased with your kindness. 

The Messenger of Allah Salallahu Alayhi wa salaam was sitting with a group of the Sahabah (RadiAllahu anhum) in the mosque and he said “A man will now enter [who is] from the people of Paradise.” and a sahabi (companion) walked in. Later it happened again, and then a third time. ‘Abdullah ibn ‘Amr ibn al-’aas (RadiAllahu anhu) wanted to find out what was so special about this man, so he asked the man if he could stay over his house for 3 days. The man allowed him to stay. ‘Abdullah noticed that the man didn’t do anything out of the ordinary: He didn’t fast all the time, he slept some of the night and prayed some of the night, and so on. So after the 3 days, ‘Abdullah told him the real reason why he requested to stay with him, and he asked him what it was that could be the reason why he was from the people of Jannah. The man (radiAllahu anhu) couldn’t think of anything, but after a bit he said “Every night, before I go to sleep, I forgive whoever has wronged me. I remove any bad feelings towards anyone from my heart.” 

[Kitab al-Zuhd by Ibn al-Mubarak – Number 694]

I hope that was of help and I’m sorry people don’t treat you nicely. May Allah grant you righteous companions, ameen! 💕

[irinapaleolog]

In the Star Wars Universe, Love Is Dead

The Rise of Skywalker gives it the kiss of death.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker opens not with a love triangle or a love quadrangle but a love pentagon. When last we left our heroes, Rose had kissed Finn, who many fans were actually hoping would get together with Poe, but who had expressed interest instead in Rey, who had her own twisted long-distance relationship with Kylo Ren. To complicate things even further, The Rise of Skywalker adds two more players to the equation: Poe’s old flame Zorii and an ex-Stormtrooper named Jannah.

For a while, it seemed like the movie had an ingeniously simple solution to this tangled web of hormones. On the desert planet Pasaana, they attend the Star Wars equivalent of Burning Man, and like so many Burning Man attendees, they soon feel their true feelings bubbling to the surface: Finn starts to confess something to Rey, but he only gets as far as “Rey, I never told you—” before being swallowed up by quicksand.

One might reasonably assume—as a significant portion of The Rise of Skywalker’s audience did—that Finn was going to tell Rey he loves her. It makes sense: He’s had a crush on her since the beginning, even asking her relationship status shortly after they met in The Force Awakens, and their connection has only grown since then. Though they spend much of The Last Jedi apart, the very first thing Finn does after waking up from a coma is ask where Rey is.

But The Rise of Skywalker ends with no such confession of love ever taking place. In fact, we never learn what Finn was going to say to Rey in that moment. J. J. Abrams reportedly told a fan that Finn was trying to tell Rey that he’s Force-sensitive. The Rise of Skywalker makes it very clear that Finn is Force-sensitive, but why would he use what he believes are his last words to say that? Why would it be important for Rey to know that in the seconds before she and her friends die? And why wouldn’t Finn just say it, then, once they survived? How come it’s a big secret from Poe?

Whatever the confession was supposed to be, actor John Boyega has seconded that, at the very least, Finn was not going to make a declaration of his feelings, clearing the path for what has turned out to be the central couple of this trilogy: Rey and Kylo Ren. But despite having a throng of other admirers waiting in the wings, Finn doesn’t end up with any of them, either. Rose is sidelined for most of the movie, and her big post-battle reunion is a platonic hug with Chewbacca, not a smooch with Finn.

Despite Oscar Isaac’s express wish that Finn and Poe would become an item, that doesn’t happen either, nor does Poe get together with Zorii, who turns him down with a slight shake of the helmet. Though Finn spends a lot of time bonding with Jannah, the new character played by Naomi Ackie, there’s nothing overtly romantic about their connection in the movie, despite what Ackie has said in interviews. Are there shared sparks, or are they just bonding over their shared pasts in the imperial forces? In the end, all our heroes are single.

They should count themselves lucky. With The Rise of Skywalker, it’s official: Love is dead in the Star Wars universe. Despite the occasional gesture at a triangle or quadrangle or an even more many-sided polygon, the Star Wars movies have historically averaged one core romance per trilogy, and with the conclusion of the ninth installment, not one of them has ended in anything other than tragedy. Anakin and Padme’s love is tortured from the start because the Jedi Order forbid its members from forming romantic attachments, and ultimately Anakin’s fear of Padme dying drives him to the dark side and leaves her to die giving birth to their children.

Meanwhile, Han and Leia both end up dead as a result of their love. The Force Awakens torpedoes the brief happy ending that they got at the end of Return of the Jedi, revealing that they’ve since separated, and it’s all downhill from there. Han is literally murdered by the result of their love, their son Kylo Ren, and two movies later, Leia spends her own dying breath trying to save him.

The Rise of Skywalker marks the shortest-lived romance of all. After years of closely analyzing the most sexual tension the Star Wars franchise has to offer—which is still pretty PG—Reylo shippers were finally vindicated at the very end of the movie, after a newly reformed Kylo Ren saves Rey’s life with Force healing power. They share one passionate kiss—and then he immediately keels over, dead. Forget graphic images of STIs or abstinence-only instructional films, the most effective videos for preventing teen pregnancy may be the Star Wars movies. See what happens when you give in to your desires, kids?

This bleak view of romantic love extends even to the franchise’s spinoffs. In Solo, Woody Harrelson’s Beckett loses his wife, Val, and Han is betrayed by his first love, Qi’ra, who chooses a life of crime over their being together. On Star Wars Rebels, Kanan Jarrus sacrifices himself to save his (pregnant, it turns out) lover, dying in a fiery explosion. And don’t think never consummating the relationship will save you. At the end of Rogue One, Jyn Erso and Cassian Andor die clinging to each other in—yes, again—a fiery explosion, without ever sharing an on-screen kiss. (Though if you think those two were just friends, I suggest you rewatch the elevator scene.) On Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Obi-Wan Kenobi chooses his duty and the Jedi way over the love of his life, Satine Kryze, but she still dies in his arms.

The difference between romance, the concept, and romance, the genre, has long been the Happily Ever After. I’m not saying that Abrams should’ve let Kylo Ren and Rey ride off together into the sunsets—he still murdered, like, a bunch of people, so how would that relationship even work? (The click-clack of keyboards being used to write fanfiction at this very moment will surely explain to me exactly how it would’ve worked, and more power to those shippers.)

But it’s not healthy for the franchise that romance automatically equals tragedy, and pairing off Finn and Rey would’ve been a nice corrective to that trend—not to mention a wholesome example of a romance staple: the transformation of friends into lovers. Whereas Han and Leia bickered, and Anakin and Padme exchanged agonizing dialogue about sand, Finn and Rey’s relationship has been built on kinship and compassion and tender hugs. The confession that never was is a major missed opportunity.

Then again, maybe the Jedi were onto something about forbidding romance, considering what happens to just about every other couple in the saga. Those two lady pilots who kiss at the end of The Rise of Skywalker better watch out—as soon as the camera cuts away, something terrible is bound to happen.

[chazabdulhaqqarnoldsalafi-blog]

Practice What You Preach

The Prophet ﷺ said: “A man will be brought forth on the Day of Resurrection and thrown into the Fire. Then his entrails will be spilled out into the Fire, and he will be forced to walk around and around like a donkey in a mill. The people of Hell will gather around him and will say, ‘O So-and-so, what is wrong with you? Did you not enjoin us to do good and forbid us to do evil?’ He will say, ‘I used to order you to do good, but I did not do it myself, and I used to forbid you to do evil, but I used to do it myself.’ Then he will walk around and around like a donkey in a mill.” [Bukhari] This hadith warns us to practice what we preach. If a person helps to bring others into Allah’s obedience he/she will be rewarded equally for all the good deeds the other person does and all the bad deeds that the other person refrains from. Some people th ink that with all the credit they might be getting they do not need to bother with their own conduct. The above mentioned hadith describes clearly what the end is of those who neglect themselves. Since each person is liable to sin, should one then not tell others to be obedient to Allah (سبحانه و تعالى)? No. Whoever believes in the Last Day, Jannah and Jahannum, cannot heartlessly allow others to go to their ruin. A Muslim is a well-wisher of others and Allah (سبحانه و تعالى) has commanded him/her to enjoin good and forbid evil, work towards the same end, and repent for one’s inevitable shortcomings. When a Muslim tells others how to behave he/she will automatically have to check his/her own behaviour, so that the fingers pointed back are minimal. Thus, enjoining good and forbidding evil works to cleanse both parties.

[noorinhereyes]

I have been very lost, anxious, and depressed for the last few years. I feel drawn to Islam. How do I know what path to take? I have never been apart of a religion before, I wouldn't even know where to begin. Please help, sister.

hello dear, this massage made me smile :) you’re absolutely right here.. i recommend you to read some books about our beloved Prophet Mohammad to get to know the messenger of Allah (btw we say Allah because one reason is also there is no plural form from Allah but God = Gods and you know that’s impossible) there is only one God for us all the Jews, Christians and us Muslims. Yes so, read a book about our beloved Prophet, because when you get to know him, you will start to love this man more than your own family because when you see what he all did for us.. And Allah says if you love Me, than follow the messenger. we Muslims take him as our role model, because he was the most perfect human being on this earth, from his character.. everything was perfect on him! kind and merciful to all social groups. after getting into those books about him you will automatically start to get interested about Islam,😇 so i recommend you maybe to visit a good mosque, ask Muslims which one they recommend, never be shy! we get very happy to hear people get interested in Islam. take a look if they have Islam lessons in english.. so when you visit a mosque you will make also new Muslim friends who will show you our Religion and step by step you decide if it’s the right path for you. i’ll promise you a very happy and peaceful life in your heart beside all war and hate here on earth. of course you will also feel sad sometimes but the only reason for that will be that you’re maybe disconnected from Allah. He’s the only one who gives peace and He also will test you with hardships but they are worth Jannah (heaven). and God will help you trough your hardships, you’re never alone and He knows you will do well because He says in the Quran He will never burden a soul with more than he can carry, so have trust in God and He will guide you wherever you might be in your life. people can leave you, but He will never do this. i wish you all goodness and may Islam be the right path for you and that you’re one day part of our Muslim family (Ummah) and we will see each other in heaven by Gods will :) oh and i would not recommend you to read the Quran alone because it’s very hard to understand what God means exactly in every Sure, that’s why i recommend you to get yourself a Tafsir, that’s the arabic word for exegesis, which means “makes something clear”… read a Tafsir so you will read words from God personal! if you have any questions, feel free to massage me, really! peace be upon you! 💌

[hamliet]

What do you think makes a romance heteronormative? It's just sometimes I feel it's an important and valid criticism to make about heterosexual romantic relationships in media, but other times it feels like the word is misused and applied to any m/f ship someone happens to not like, and sometimes the line between the two seems to get really blurry for me. (especially as a queer woman)

It came to mind recently when being reminded how the RWBY fandom generally views Rosegarden as being heteronormative, and I'm never really sure... why that is, or why people see it that way, or what I'm maybe not seeing? Like, I don't agree with that assessment, and it's not gonna affect my personal enjoyment of the ship, but I'm so curious because I feel there must be a reason why people feel that way, you know?

Er, well, I am not sure I'm the best person to answer this, because I'm a straight cis woman. That automatically indicates I'll have some kind of blindspot.

That said, I'll take a stab at this, but again, take with a grain of salt, and I welcome discussion:

I think the "heteronormative" take is... all too often unclear, because what actually defines that term is precisely as you say: there is no precise definition. The goalposts get moved and moved to suit someone's interpretations, whether in good faith or bad. It's vague and subjective.

However, like you say, it doesn't mean there is no valid critique either. Because there absolutely is.

For me, I think heteronormative applies to het ships forced after years of queerbaiting.

For example, in The Rise of Skywalker, I think Poe/Zorri and arguably Finn/Jannah (though the latter was not explicitly romantic) were heteronormative in a bad way. Zorri and Jannah had no point in the story besides to straight-code Poe and Finn, who are a very popular shipped couple. Poe's actor, Oscar Isaac, even confirmed that he was playing romance for Poe, and the director commented on the importance of seeing gay rep in Star Wars (so he threw in a .1 second lesbian background kiss for unnamed characters that China didn't even censor so oh yeah, great rep, a real subversive hero). While Finn's character is much more ambiguous (he clearly showed romantic interest in Rey and had a fullfledged romance with Rose that got written out offscreen), the way both were forced into non-previously-set-up romantic dynamics in the last film of a trilogy was some very heteronormative bullshit right there.

Heteronomative isn't bad in the literal sense, but if it's forced? Then it's bad. Rosegarden is het because well, it's a guy and a girl (as far as we know, for now), but I will note that Ruby is the better fighter, yet is not just a "badass" but a complex character with compassion, and Oscar is sensitive and not at all embodying toxic masculinity. They challenge each other and have thematic symbolism linking them together. Whether or not it's shipped by people, it's not coming from nowhere, and there are ways in which it challenges cultural understandings of gender. It is het, but it does have potential to really work for the story.

When I evaluate ships in terms of canon possibility, I generally look at whether or not it's well-written or well set up, and/or what it would thematically offer the narrative. That's related to why I read stories and what I like to get out of them and others may engage with stories for different reasons, and that is completely fine; I'm not attempting to say my way is the best way. But for me, while rep is great, if it is not well written or is forced, it is not a more appealing ship to me. And I have privilege too, I can't deny that. It hurts not seeing good rep, and I can only imagine how it feels as a Wlw seeing the options out there.

Fandom is historically a place for those whose stories are not told very much in mainstream storytelling. There is SUCH a dearth of good WlW rep in particular that almost anyone who wants any rep has to make it themselves; hence, a close friendship becomes romantic in fanfic or fanart or headcanons, because the narrative won't deliver even if it isn't directly queerbaiting. Since we all bring our own assumptions, desires, and experiences to stories, people are drawn to such dynamics and want it to be romantic, and dismiss other ships as "heteronormative" even if they aren't badly written and may be more set up than the other ship. People are hurting.

Also, in general, there's a tendency in modern consumption of stories to treat stories as Catholic morality plays, and that spills over into shipping, where people morally justify why their ship needs to be canon or else the story will lead the children astray. Rep is morally good (it is), but what even is explicit rep is often debated in fandom (again, return to the idea that terms are vaguely defined). Like, people say Yuri on Ice was queerbaiting even though they exchange rings in a church and kiss, also share a bed, just because the arm was covering the mouth.

That said, there's still value to discussing the quality of rep. Like, rep is great, but you know what's even better? Good rep. Including characters who are only their sexualities runs the risk of tokenism. See again, the lesbians in TROS who aren't relevant in any way. Forcing ships even if queer wouldn't be good rep, either, though like... that doesn't really happen much because society. In an example of great rep, we have She-Ra, which is like... very prominent in its WLW rep in particular, but the rep ties into each character's arcs and the themes of the story (about queer love fixing a world broken by toxic masculinity and strict puritanism). The characters are affected by their sexualities to where you cannot remove it from their arcs and still fully appreciate the characters, but it also isn't the entirety of their characters. They do not exist just to be "lesbian" (looking at you Kennedy from Buffy, but at least Buffy's Tara/Willow was great). They are lesbians (and bisexual), and they are flawed humans, and their love saves their world. Yang and Blake, while not perfectly written, are also pretty good rep with set up that actually offers the best challenge for their arcs. (I think the teasing of Blake/Sun makes little sense especially when it's less thematically rich than Yang/Blake, so I'll forever be sour about this, sigh.)

Basically, we need more rep for everyone and everything. Treat the characters like characters, aka like people. They should not be forced by the hand of the author; they should feel like complex people even in their magical worlds, including in how they choose partners and if they do at all. For the sake of storytelling, if characters get together, it should offer something to the characters' arcs and the themes.