Letter to Julia 20131121

Hey there, my awesomely gorgeous Rock and Roll babes!  How are those emotions today?  I love you with all my heart.  The weather here is cold and rain, rain, rain.  It's been raining all day.  The sliced cheese turned out a success as cheese spread when rolled around and squished in my hand.  Australian cheese is cheaper I guess, because it's closer to here than the USA or Europe.  But I suppose it's not enough for cheesecake.  The paste I made from the mustard powder is an excellent substitute for wasabi.  Too bad my baby squid is already 3 days old, so I didn't enjoy it as much.  I think I'll use the rest for a squid and mackerel liver omelet tomorrow.

OK let's get back to the topic of Julia's laundry.  And it's not just about the clothes dryer.  There's also the oven, boiler, backup power, etc.  Of course, we could tolerate our living conditions just like everybody else here, but why not be progressive?  Why not make a solution that could help make the lives of others easier inshaAllah?  My answer to the lack of gas pipelines here is the LPG (low pressure gas) cylinder.  LPG cylinders in Malaysia are about 10 to 12 kilos each, which is a lot of gas, and each house has at least one.  Not the same size as in India and some other countries, but let's focus on Malaysia.  All LPG cylinders are controlled by regulators, which ensures that the gas flow is consistent.  The gas intake for gas-powered appliances in the West is a permanent fixture.  So instead of the permanent fixture, there could be a nozzle similar to the nozzle on the regulator, which would fit a rubber hose.  Now the gas pressure would most likely be less than the gas pressure of the typical Western gas pipeline, but so what if the flame inside the appliance be smaller?  Just change the numbering on the thermostat.  And so what if the gas runs out?  Just change the LPG cylinder.

Letter to Julia 20131120

In the name of Allah, most Gracious, most Merciful.

My dearest Julia and Erin, how are you feeling today?  I pray you are feeling healthy and confident.  Please forgive me for taking yesterday off.  I wanted to sleep in and eat squid all morning.  Just squid.  Baby squid is going for damn cheap at the night market, and it makes convenient sashimi, but anything else is tedious.  I don't have any wasabi, but I just bought mustard powder which I plan to mix into a thick paste.  Also, I plan to eat my Ritz crackers with sliced cheese.  Hey, squash the cheese in your hand and rub it around and it turns into a spread.  It's a lot cheaper than cream cheese, tastier too.  As I told you before, as my wives inshaAllah you are automatically professional endorsers of food products, whether you eat at a restaurant or buy groceries to eat at home.  This makes people (and the market) go bonkers over what you eat.  So please enjoy yourselves at your favorite and trusted restaurants, and experiment with cooking, and devour your favorite snacks.  Just don't overdo it.

There is certainly much attention to what we eat in Islam.  Food can bring us closer to God inshaAllah, mostly because we need to eat to live.  But the pleasure of food can sometimes give us that glimpse of perfect happiness, that all of us crave.  So eat of the good and lawful food that Allah has provided for you, but fear Allah.  Don't forget Allah!  Don't forget to say, "In the name of Allah, most Gracious, most Merciful" before your first bite.  There is no blame on you for what you ate in the past as long as you believe in Allah, guard yourselves from evil, and do good deeds.  Again, believe in Allah, guard yourselves from evil, and do good deeds.  Again, believe in Allah, guard yourselves from evil, and be righteous.

Letter to Julia 20131118

In the name of Allah, most Gracious, most Merciful.

My dearest beloved Julia, I truly, truly love you with all my heart.  You are so very beautiful, and I cherish you deeply.  You are a blessing to me, and I am grateful to God and to you for your love.  I don't mind at all building your house.  It is my job to provide for you and Erin, to house you and Erin, and to enhance your business connections.  InshaAllah.  You don't have to buy me anything in return.  Of course I can't stop you if you do, just remember that Muslim men cannot wear gold or silk until after Judgement Day, if they are allowed into heaven.  I don't want to hurt your feelings by not wearing what you give me.

My beautiful precious Erin, I haven't had a chance yet to see you at the Victoria's Secret fashion show, but I do have one photo from that show, and I must say that you are so gorgeous and ravishing.  You are truly a wonderful and beautiful woman, and I am profoundly blessed to have you as my wife.  I love you so much Erin, I want to look after you and embrace you, and take tender loving care of you.  InshaAllah.

Qur'an 20131118

In the name of Allah, most Gracious, most Merciful.

158.  Are they waiting to see if the angels come to them, or your Lord, or certain of the Signs of your Lord!  The day that certain of the Signs of your Lord does come, no good will it do to a soul to believe in them then, if it believed not before, nor earned righteousness through its Faith.  Say, "Wait you: we too are waiting."

159.  As for those who divide their religion, and break up into sects, you have no part in them in the least.  Their affair is with Allah.  God will, in the end, tell them the truth of all they did.

160.  He that does good shall have ten times as much to his credit.  He that does evil shall be recompensed according to his evil.  No wrong shall be done unto them.

161.  Say, "Verily, my Lord has guided me to a Way that is straight, a religion of Right, the Path of Abraham, the true in faith, and he joined not gods with Allah."

162.  Say, "Truly, my prayer and my service of sacrifice, my life and my death, are for Allah, the Cherisher of the worlds."

163.  No partner has God.  This am I commanded, and I am the first of those who bow to God's Will.

164.  Say, "Shall I seek for cherisher other than Allah, when God is the Cherisher of all things?  Every soul draws the results of its acts on none but itself.  No bearer of burdens can bear the burden of another.  Your goal in the end is towards Allah.  God will tell you the truth of the things wherein you disputed."

The Cattle 6:158-164
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Wait you: we too are waiting.

Verily, my Lord has guided me to a Way that is straight, a religion of Right, the Path of Abraham, the true in faith, and he joined not gods with Allah.

Truly, my prayer and my service of sacrifice, my life and my death, are for Allah, the Cherisher of the worlds.

Shall I seek for cherisher other than Allah, when God is the Cherisher of all things?  Every soul draws the results of its acts on none but itself.  No bearer of burdens can bear the burden of another.  Your goal in the end is towards Allah.  God will tell you the truth of the things wherein you disputed.

Letter to Julia 20131116

In the name of Allah, most Gracious, most Merciful.

Hello there, my most beloved beauties.  The most beautiful girls in the world.  How are you feeling today?  I pray you are feeling healthy and confident.  How's business?  My parents gave a box of Ritz crackers the other day.  I didn't really eat all that much Ritz crackers back in the States.  I would buy a box of generic saltines and a block of Cracker Barrel extra sharp cheddar for a better crackers and cheese per dollar value.  But I asked my Mom, "Do you have any cheese?"  She said no.  So yesterday I went searching for some cheese spread.  I can't get Cracker Barrel here, but any cream cheese spread would do.  I went from store to store searching in vain for cheese spread, or even plain cream cheese, and the weather was bloody hot.  I swear, cheese sells like mad here locally.  Especially cream cheese.  And it's damn expensive, too.  I don't know what the locals do with all that cream cheese, all I know is that it sells.  If someone opened a cheese store here, I'm certain they would make a lot of money.  The demand for cheese here seems insatiable, even though most Asians are lactose-intolerant.  What does it take to make cheese anyway?  A lot of milk, slow heat, some lemon juice, and a way to separate curds from whey, and a means to age and dehydrate cheese.  The quality of milk is certainly an issue, so the diet of milk cows is important.  Soybeans.  If they can make soy sauce, then they can feed milk cows with soybeans, and there are plenty of soybeans in Asia.  Gah!  I'm irritated.  I don't want to enter the food business just to get some cheese for my crackers, let alone the dairy industry.  I think I saw some Philadelphia cream cheese at the Chinese store.  I hope it's still there.  I wish someone would sell Cracker Barrel here.  Maybe I should just buy some milk and make my own cheese.  Or eat my crackers without cheese.

Qur'an 20131116

In the name of Allah, most Gracious, most Merciful.

148.  Those who give partners will say, "If Allah had wished, we would not have given partners to God, nor would our fathers, nor would we have had any taboos."  So did their ancestors argue falsely, until they tasted of Our wrath.  Say, "Have you any knowledge?  If so, produce it before us.  You follow nothing but conjecture, you do nothing but lie."

149.  Say, "With Allah is the argument that reaches home.  If it had been God's Will, God could indeed have guided you all."

150.  Say, "Bring forward your witnesses to prove that Allah did forbid so and so."  If they bring such witnesses, be not you amongst them, nor follow you the vain desires of such as treat Our Signs as falsehoods, and such as believe not in the Hereafter, for they hold others as equals with their Guardian-Lord.

151.  Say, "Come, I will rehearse what Allah has prohibited you from."  Join not anything as equal with God.  Be good to your parents.  Kill not your children on a plea of want: We provide sustenance for you and them.  Come not nigh to shameful deeds, whether open or secret.  Take not life, which Allah has made sacred, except by way of justice and law.  Thus does God command you, that you may learn wisdom.

The Cattle 6:148-151
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Have you any knowledge?  If so, produce it before us.  You follow nothing but conjecture, you do nothing but lie.

With Allah is the argument that reaches home.  If it had been God's Will, God could indeed have guided you all.

Bring forward your witnesses to prove that Allah did forbid so and so.

Come, I will rehearse what Allah has prohibited you from.

Letter to Julia 20131114

In the name of Allah, most Gracious, most Merciful.

Hello there Julia, my beautiful and most dignified princess.  You are my Queen, and I love you with all my heart, my most precious darling.  I have been talking a lot lately, haven't I?  I was hoping to take a little bit of a break from blogging, but it didn't turn out that way.  I do love you so, and I hate to be separated from you.  I've been thinking about why houses here have no drywall and studs, and are generally made entirely out of brick.  I'm thinking termites.  Termites flourish in this weather, and they can fly.  Wooden houses get ravaged by them.  Plus, there are many other critters out here in the tropics that could potentially make a home inside drywall panels.  I look at my floor, and it is made of concrete.  Which is fine for the ground floor, but what about the second level?  We don't want wooden beams holding up a wooden floor, would we?  The option is steel beams holding up a floor that can be tiled.  I don't expect Casa de Julia to inexpensive, otherwise I wouldn't be married at all.  I cannot take any other position than to consider your well-being.  Ya Allah, please grant me the wealth I need to be happily and securely married to Julia and Erin.

Are you being a naughty girl, Erin?  That little devil can turn into a monster if you let him take over, so you control him.  I hope you're not getting back at me for that joke I told.  Sometimes I like to tell jokes to make you and Julia smile, because I love you, and I want you to be cheerful.  That's just who I am, take it or leave it.  So please be a good girl.  A pure, chaste, and honorable woman.  A role model for girls all over the world.  There is no more "pain".  You're not on your own anymore.  You are loved.  I love you, and I will marry you inshaAllah.  You are a very precious thing, more people need you than you know.  Since your country was sold off by the bankers, what's left are natural resources like you.  So please take tender loving care of yourself in my absence.  And I will look after you when we marry, and help protect you.  InshaAllah.  Meanwhile, please eat a nice ribeye steak for me, you know, a sizzling piece of beef with the big bone sticking out.

Both of you, if the Public Eye gets too nosy and aggressive with you, just tell them "I'm his wife, inshaAllah", then refer them to me.  I will refer them to Allah.  Let them worship and fear Allah.