when i was young, someone taught me...

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when i was young, someone taught me...
Kashif
06/09/01 at 13:51:15
assalaamu alaikum

I don't know if this thread will go anywhere, but it was inspired by the earlier one on pigs, medicine, etc.

It brought to mind a bogus Islamic teaching i was taught when i was a kid that went something like "If you say the word 'pig', your mouth becomes dirty for 40 days."

lol. Was anyone else taught (fake) pearls of wisdom like the above?

Kashif
Wa Salaam
NS
Re: when i was young, someone taught me...
abdulsamad
06/09/01 at 14:06:44

slm,
  I was taught not to eat fried foods outside the house at night
because I would attract jinn. I'm not sure whether this was bogus.
Also not to whistle because it attracts snakes.

Wassalam,
    Sabri
Re: when i was young, someone taught me...
Mahmoodah
06/09/01 at 14:45:13
salam,
i was told not to wistle as wel, with da same reason!!!
i was also told that if u laff or scream at nite (specially on the streets), then the shytan follows u!!!

i was told loads of fake stuff

wa-salam
Re: when i was young, someone taught me...
Nazia
06/09/01 at 15:08:35
I was told that if you walked in front of someone while they were praying you'd turn into a monkey!!


wassalam,
Nazia
Re: when i was young, someone taught me...
Lisha
06/09/01 at 19:58:54
slm
I was told about whistlein n snakes as well:)
I was taught alsorts of things like if u walk outside at nite with red on, The shaytan gets 2 know u n follows u home specially if u walk under trees!!!
We were told myths about this too!
w'salaam
Re: when i was young, someone taught me...
jawadio
06/09/01 at 21:07:12
hehehe oh man, if i had to write down on the stuff that i was told when i was young that was just some myth, it would fill a book!

here are two of the wierdest:

"If you leave a Qur'an open, Shaytan comes and reads it," and "If you don't fold up a prayer rug, shaytan prays on it (another version says that he urinates on it)."  

My question as a kid was: why would shaytan pray?  I mean, isn't that why he is who he is - because he wouldn't bow when God done told him to?  so how comes now?  What about all those prayer rugs in the mosques all throughout the world that are just left out there unfolded?  Shaytan and his followers busy praying on all of those?  The urinating i can understand, I mean, shaytan *is* a pretty evil fellah, but the praying, that i didn't get.  Also, why would he want to read the Qur'an?  All it does is confirm that he's an evil guy...

at any rate... those questions just got me in trouble from the folks that told me those things:  "Just listen to what i say and stop asking so many questions!"

Wa salam,
jawad.

PS: Philly all the way!





Re: when i was young, someone taught me...
kiwi25
06/09/01 at 22:31:57
salaam,

heres a really crazy one i was told when i was like six, seven:

that if i lied about anything the day before eid and died that night i would be put in a pea leaf, i think thats what u call them i have no idea, but its the leaf that peas are in before taken out,

anyway how can u say that to a seven year old?!

wasalam nouha:)
Re: when i was young, someone taught me...
abdulsamad
06/09/01 at 22:56:43

[slm],
  Looks like you've started something, Kashif :)

[wlm]
Re: when i was young, someone taught me...
Fatoosh
06/09/01 at 23:37:13

[quote]"If you leave a Qur'an open, Shaytan comes and reads it," and "If you don't fold up a prayer rug, shaytan prays on it (another version says that he urinates on it)." [/quote]

lol! that explains why all the prayer rugs in our MSA office are bunny eared.

Alhamudlilah my family never taught me weird stuff. But our neigbors would tell me and my sister that we should never sleep with our hair open because a witch comes to it.
Also, you were never supposed to leave the bottom of a shoe facing upwards because that was disrespectful to Allah.

salaam
Fatoosh
Re: when i was young, someone taught me...
Spring
06/11/01 at 08:37:10
[slm]

One of my friends was taught that you'd go to Hell if you died wearing nail varnish!!

Its probably because you can not make wudhu wearing nail varnish so it was extended to discourage girls from wearing it. . . maybe??
fob memories..
princess
06/11/01 at 10:47:51
as'salaamualikum ;-D

when i was 3, my brother, and my cousin, and i, were all blowing bubbles in the backyard, (it was with this REALLY BIG bubble maker things..) and they told me i could sit on the bubble..:o me being trusting..told my cousin to pick me up and put me on it :) i fell soo hard..(ouch) anyways..they got in trouble for that ;) :) heheh :)

also, when i was 4, my sister told me if u ate french toast..u'd be able to speak french :) hahahahah..:) such a fob :)

langur ;-D
Re: when i was young, someone taught me...
AbdulBasir
06/11/01 at 11:08:13

[slm]This practice of bunny-eared/folded prayer rugs can also have other consequences. A brief anecdote:

Once as a very young boy, I made my salah on a prayer rug that was always spread out completely on the floor. No one else was around, as far as I knew. When I returned for the next salah soon after, I found the prayer rug bunny-eared. How could this have happened? No one was around and could have used the rug. I got frightened and thought that shaytaan had come and done it to prevent me from praying and to mess with me. Completely spooked, I stewed about this for several hours worried about this but alhamdullillah then my mother came and explained to me that someone else must have prayed there without me knowing and folded it.

This was a somewhat traumatic experience for a little kid.
[slm]:)  
Re: when i was young, someone taught me...
meraj
06/11/01 at 13:21:52
slm,

sorry.. what exactly is a 'bunny eared' prayer rug? ???
Re: when i was young, someone taught me...
bhaloo
06/11/01 at 14:16:58
slm

Ahhh yes, the bunny ear prayer rugs (That's where one of the top corners of the prayer rug is folded back, supposedly so that shaitan can't pray?  I don't get this, and sounds fake to me).  
for once, bhaloo and i agree..
princess
06/11/01 at 21:01:33
walikumas'salaam warahmatullah ;-D

[quote]Ahhh yes, the bunny ear prayer rugs (That's where one of the top corners of the prayer rug is folded back, supposedly so that shaitan can't pray?  I don't get this, and sounds fake to me).  [/quote]

my ammi tells me that ALL THE TIME i'm like, [i]"ammi, plz"[/i] :) i think it's total superstition :) now, if the devil was gonna pray (which i doubt he would ever :)) ahh, couldn't he just "unfold" the bunny ear? :) i dunno..dun get it really :)

langur ;-D
Re: when i was young, someone taught me...
bhaloo
06/11/01 at 21:23:27
slm

Does anyone know what the deal is behind the bunny ear carpet deal? ???

Also the issue that Jawad brought up about having the Quran open or any Islamic book for that matter, I was told that I should keep the books closed when I was done so the Shaitan wouldn't read them.  I was like huh? ???  

Where do these things come from? (Pakistan I know, but what's the basis?)
Re: when i was young, someone taught me...
eleanor
06/12/01 at 15:38:16
slm

I asked my husband about this (qur'an and bunny ears) and he says it's because there is a very big chance of a bird s***ing on anything you leave lying around and parents tell their children this so they'll put the sacred things away in a clean and safe place. It's for the protection of the things.

well, that was his explanation and I can only take it as fact unless disputed by someone else.

when I was small my mother told me if I ate too much salt I'd turn into a fish...

and if the wind changed while making a horrible face, your face would get stuck like that...

and if you tell lies your tongue turns black...

and if you pick a dandelion you wet the bed...

wasalaam
eleanor
Re: when i was young, someone taught me...
Lisha
06/16/01 at 11:39:45
slm again,
there r many wierd things dat r said all da time but i heard another 1 abt babies:),
supposedly ur supposed to put a  big black dot on their face so they don't get nazr (evil eyes)on them!!!
At 1st i used 2 think it was just supperstition, but now i dont 'coz when u look at a baby with this dot on them ur yes instantly concentrate on it, ok i'm probably not making ne sence.

w'salaam
Re: when i was young, someone taught me...
Spring
06/17/01 at 18:18:19
[slm]

Talking of babies, a cousin once told me that you shouldn't let babies see themselves in mirrors. Maybe its got something to do with the Nazr thing as well??
Re: when i was young, someone taught me...
zia
06/18/01 at 16:52:17
I was told that that terrible things would happen if you swept the floor after Magrib. Kinda Wack
Re: when i was young, someone taught me...
Lisha
06/18/01 at 19:11:54
slm,
oh yea i was also told if sum1 walks over u, u stop growing n if u walk over sum1 they stop growin!!!

wierd, but maybe it was to stop me from walkin over ppl (bad manners);)
Re: when i was young, someone taught me...
slime
06/20/01 at 22:02:59
salam,
my sister once told me that if i cried too much, i'd turn into a tomato. ooh, and i've heard this one alot..if u hav a black dot in ur eye, u can see jinns =P
Re: when i was young, someone taught me...
eleanor
06/22/01 at 13:12:25
slm

My friends father told her if she picked her nose her head would cave in!!

wasalaam
eleanor
Re: when i was young, someone taught me...
abc
06/24/01 at 09:23:21
LOL all these are so funny, and whats even funnier is that I too have been told most of these things as a child. To add to the collection...I was told that if I ate sand or mistakenly swallowed a pip then a tree would grow inside my stomach :O . Also if someone has hiccups (s)he is being remembered by somebody.
Re: when i was young, someone taught me...
Lisha
06/23/01 at 10:03:32
slm,
yea these superstitions r funny,[quote]if someone has hiccups (s)he is being remembered by somebody.[/quote]-man i was told da same thin;)
Re: when i was young, someone taught me...
amatullah
06/23/01 at 16:08:36
Bismillah and salam,
I was told if my right hand is itchy I will receive some money, if the left one itches then, i will give some away.
If you walk under trees at night say a3oothu billahi coz jinn sit there(maybe true?)
If I kept biting my nails I will have a finger growing in my stomache and it will start to scratch it all the time, and then surely I will regret it.
If you leave your praying rug on the floor, the angels will stay standing on it and they will get tired of standing and then get mad at you.
Whistling is from shaitan and makes him present. (maybe true?)
If your eyelids shake alot (you know those little trembles every now and then?) then if it's the right one someone is mentioning you with good, if it's the left one then well...they don't like you!
If skip over a girl who is sleeping to get to the other side, you will ruin her chances of getting married.
haaaaahahaaaaa
Re: when i was young, someone taught me...
slime
06/23/01 at 16:31:14
LOL, i was told if ur shoes were upside down, it was bad luck
Re: when i was young, someone taught me...
eleanor
06/24/01 at 04:50:46
slm

wow..they're all coming back to me now...

if the hem of your skirt is turned up you're getting post

if your nose is itchy you're going to fight with someone (left nostril for a man, right nostril for a woman!)

if your right hand is itchy you're going to meet someone

if your left hand is itchy you're going to get money

I had that one too!! - if you swallow a pip, a tree grows in your stomach!!

Some of these are superstitions which even the adults who relate them believe in...completely forbidden by Islam of course...

wasalaam
eleanor
Re: when i was young, someone taught me...
Zara
06/27/01 at 11:06:03
slm

if your ears are burning or red, then someone is talking about you :)

wlm

Zara
Re: when i was young, someone taught me...
proudtobemuslim
06/29/01 at 07:51:05
Assalam-u-Alaikum,

This one's fairly famous in Pakistan... If you run a scissor in the air then you start a fight between two people!  I mean not pointing the scissor at anybody just cutting (without anything to cut... ya know?).

LOL... I've disproven this so many times.

Wassalam-u-Alaikum,
Uzer
Re: when i was young, someone taught me...
humble_muslim
06/29/01 at 11:24:00
AA

Eleanor, I fail to understand one thing.  If the Irish are so religious, why are they soooo superstitious ?  I mean is there not a concept of putting one's trust in God in Catholiscm ?
NS
Re: when i was young, someone taught me...
eleanor
06/29/01 at 14:32:00
slm

Good question! It's certainly made me think. But yes, there is a *lot* of superstition in Ireland which goes back to the pagan Celtic times. Now a lot of that superstition has been forgotten and done away with, and I can safely say that 99% of people my age don't believe in it anymore. But sadly it has nothing to do with trusting in God, rather more in one's own common sense.

I don't know if any of you have read the book "Trinity" by Leon Uris. It gives  a very good account of how the "Troubles" all started in Northern Ireland. (the Trinity representing Ireland, Britain and Northern Ireland in this case.)
Anyway near the start of the book someone dies and the amount of rituals and superstition connected to death is amazing. They cover the mirrors in the house and shut all the windows. (keeps the devil out and stops him from stealing the soul). Someone has to go and tell the cows and the bees that the man has died. and so on and so on

Thankfully we've come past that now, but the religion has slipped away from the Irish over the last 20 years or so. Mainly due to one scandal after another in the church, and the church being represented by bumbling fools who claim to know how to make a marriage work and how to raise children, having never had either themselves. The Irish have lost confidence in Catholicism and have practically seperated church and state altogether.

This is a serious and bad digression from the topic in hand. Hopefully I haven't broken the rules of the Constitution. Maybe if you have more questions we could do them over Instant Messaging?

wasalaam
eleanor


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