Hello, my name is Tubby...

UK kids are third fattest

By DANNY BRIERLEY and NIC CECIL
BRITISH kids are officially the third fattest on the planet, new research reveals.
One in five children aged ten to 15 are ranked overweight — with five per cent of those labelled clinically obese.
The World Health Organisation figures came as a second study showed the situation was even worse for younger children. A Department of Health report claimed one in four under-11s are overweight and 885,000 — one in seven — are clinically obese. That figure has soared 40 PER CENT in eight years.
The WHO league of countries with overweight kids is topped by Malta, with the US second.
Experts blamed a genetic glitch which makes the Maltese pile on the pounds despite their traditionally healthy Mediterranean diet.
But after analysing the lifestyles of ten to 15-year-olds in 34 countries, they concluded kids in Britain and the US do not get enough exercise and eat too much junk. Nutritionist Claire Macevilly, of the Medical Research Council, said: “European kids are exposed to more fruit and veg and are more likely to be outside. “When it comes to food we are more like America.”
Doctors warn the 21 per cent of British youngsters who are tubby have an increased chance of heart disease, stroke and diabetes at an early age.
The National Obesity Forum’s David Haslam said: “We have a bigger problem than anticipated. The NHS does not have the resources to treat obesity.”
The Department of Health report showed boys are the most likely to be podgy. Nearly a third are packing too much fat, against a quarter of girls.

Where should birds fly after the last sky?

"The Earth Is Closing on Us"
Where should we go after the last frontiers,
where should the birds fly after the last sky?


Record!
I am an Arab
And my identity card is number fifty thousand
I have eight children
And the ninth is coming after a summer
Will you be angry?

Record!
I am an Arab
I have a name without a title
Patient in a country
Where people are enraged . . .

Mahmoud Darwish: Palestine's Poet of Exile
Early on, he discovered he could write, and that his words were weapons... his childhood dream was to be a poet, adding that he published his first poem when he was about twelve years old. "It was not a love poem," he says. "I described our journey from Palestine to Lebanon."

If the Prophet visited you...

If the Prophet sall Allaahu 'alayhi wasallam visited you

I wonder........................

If Prophet Muhammad visited you

Just for a day or two,

If he came unexpectedly,

I wonder what you would do?

Oh I know you would give your nicest room,

To such an honored guest,

And you would serve him your very best.

You would be the very best,

Cause you're glad to have him there,

That serving him in your home

Would be a joy without compare.



But...when you see him coming,

Would you meet him at the door

With your arms outstretched in welcome,

To your visitor?

Or...would you have to change your clothes

before you let him in?

Or hide some magazines and put

The Quran where they had been?

Would you still watch those movies,

Or your T.V. set?

Or would you switch it off,

Before he gets upset.

Would you turn off the radio,

And hope he had not heard?

And wish that you did not utter

your last loud hasty word?

Would you hide your wordly music,

And instead take out Hadith books?

Could you let him walk right in,

Or would you rush about?


And I wonder...if the Prophet spent, a day or two with you,

Would you go on doing the things you always do?

Would you go right on and say the things You always say?

Would life for you continue

As it does from day to day?

Would your family conversations,

Keep up their usual pace?

And would you find it hard each meal,

To say a table grace?

Would you keep up each and every prayer?

Without putting on a frown?

And would you always jump up early,

For Fajr at dawn?

Would you sing the songs you always sing?

And read the book you read?

And let him know the things on which,

Your mind and spirit feed?

Would you take the Prophet with you,

Everywhere you plan to go?

Or, would you maybe change your plans,

Just for a day or so?

Would you be glad to have him meet,

Your very closest friends?

Or, would you hope they stay away,

Until his visit ends?

Would you be glad to have him stay,

Forever on and on?

Or would you sigh with great relief,

When he at last was gone?


It might be interesting to know,

The things that you would do.

If Prophet Muhammad, came,

To spend some time with you.

- Author Unknown

I loooooooooooooooooooooooove this poem.

I wish I had written this!

~Rida~

The first time we went to Madinah...

When I visited alMadinah...

...I went to the Prophet's sall Allaahu 'alayhi wassallam's grave. The feelings were flowing from my heart and ringing in my ears.

As I caught sight of the grave I headed for it, feeling very humble...I paid my respects in the prescribed manner and did not say anything else except one line of poetry. I did not know how it came to me because of the emotional state I was in...
I saw however, waves of people coming in and shouting long phrases. Someone was reading from a book, and another listening to someone who had memorized much; this one was disturbing that one , and everybody was disturbing the people at prayer.
Was it not the Prophet who had said:
Yaa Allaah, do not make my grave after me an idol to be worshipped?

Muhammad is not a story to be read on his birthday, nor is he to be extolled in prayers added to the words of the adhaan, nor can love for him be expressed in poems of praise...Instead of listening to the story of the Prophet's birth being recited in a pleasant voice, one should get up and reform oneself in order to draw nearer to the Prophet's practices in his spiritual and worldly , in his likes and dislikes, in his knowledge and action,in his habits and forms of habit...the Muslims in whose hearts the Prophet does not live and whose insight does not follow them in their actions and thoughts will never benefit by merely sending salaah and salaam to him a thousand times every day.

..How cheap is love when it is only talk! And how dear it is when it is an ideal, safe and assured.

[from Fiqh-us-seerah: Understanding the Life of the Prophet
by Muhammad al Ghazaali]

Walladheena aamanoo wa 'amilussalihaat
wa aamanoo be ma nuzzillaa 'alaa Muhammad
wa huwal haqqu min Rabbihim
kaffara anhum sayyi'aatehim
wa aslaha baalahum
Surah Muhammad: 2

~contributed by Rasha~

How to say "I Love You"

...to RasoolAllaah



Innaa Allaah wa'l malaaikah yusalloon 'alan nabiyy]
Yaa aiyyuha alladheena aamanu,
sallu 'alayhe wa sallimu tasleema

Allaah and His angels shower blessings on the Prophet.
O ye who believe!
Ask blessings on him and salute him with a worthy salutation.
(Al-Ahzab 33: 56)

Thus when it is said that Allah sends His salah on the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) it means that He blesses the Prophet. When it is said that angels send salah, it means that they pray to Allah for His blessings for His Prophet. When we, the believers, are told to do so it means the same thing that we should ask Allah to bestow His blessings on Prophet Muhammad.

Allah sent and continues to send His blessings on the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and the believers. His blessings are countless and they come in numerous ways. We should pray to Allah to send more and more blessings on Prophet Muhammad. The Prophet Muhammad himself has instructed us that when we send blessings unto him, we should say Allahumma salle `ala Muhammad wa `ala ale Muhammad kama sallaita `ala Ibrahima wa `ala `ale Ibrahim. Innaka hameedum Majeed.” This and a number of other similar versions of salah `ala al-nabee are mentioned in many authentic Hadiths. In our prayers we should use only those authentic versions and should not make any changes from our side.

[source: islam-online.net]

Bedrooms=Graves?

[Ed: every FRiday, Rasha-Rida accompany their father to the mosque for prayers and a weekly dose of spiritual springcleaning...the imaam and khateeb is one of the most amazing shuyookh I have never seen...hafidhahullaah...his sometimes searing, sometimes soft words scour the soul and one can actually feel oneself come clean.

Sometimes I go with them, but when I don't they come back prepared to be harangued for the little points of light that remain illuminating their minds, after it's lights out at the masjid

Last night just before she was going to sleep, Rasha casually mentioned:
y'know bedrooms are like our graves??
I was like whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat??!!
This afternoon, I'll get her to explain what she meant

Pros and Cons

...of vacationing in the UAE this June...
compiled by R, R and R :)))

PROS:

1. Eat freedom-flavoured candy from the corner shop whenever we can find a dirham to spare/*someone* with a couple of dirhams to spare *cough* Naaaaaaaaaaaaaanu*cough*

2. See all the places properly that we were too rushed/harassed to see last time...and some we didn't see at all...like Abu Dhabi

3. Meet all the people that we didn't meet last time because the heat got to us

4. BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOKS...and bookstores be ghayr hisaab

5. Go for a walk when we want to...just like that...get up and go out of the door

6. Be dazzled by things, places and people whose only purpose in life is... to be d*a*z*z*l*i*n*g [or so it seems..Wallahu A'alam]

7.Meet up with our cousins

8. See new things...how can we say *what new things* until we see them??;)

9. Try and meet someone *our favourite person* to see if he is as good as he sounds

10. Be stared at because we wear abayas ...and vice versa ;)

CON:
It's too HOT.

No memory match

funny thing is, I tried to find pix of KhawrFakkan, but none matched my memory :(
...it's lush and green, with mountains and huge coloured ships that can be seen in the distant ocean...and a good couple of degrees cooler than the *hot and happening* cities...my kind of place

meanwhile check out what this crazy guy [*his* words, not mine]has to say about Muslim women on the beach.

PS. In case people are wondering... we've *haven't* been paid a pile of petrodollars [we wish!!] by the UAE Ministry of Tourism to do this retrospective.

It's just that we have vacations round the corner...and we're still in the process of deciding where to spend it...

Quiz on the UAE and Me

Assalamu'alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh,

I wanted to see whose the cleverest of us all...and I am writing a simple quiz of 10 questions...

1.Who's the cutest, best loved person who brings DOZENS of Presents in his/her holidays when he/she visits us...and lives in UAE?

2.WE reckon the most hottest place in the world is...what?

3.A tower in UAE...what do the arabs call it?

4.A favorite place of our Ed,where theres a lovely sea corniche and HUNDREDS of ferries?(in UAE)

5.A place in UAE. (hint): Begins with D finishes with I?

6.Name the food the non vegetarians commanly eat by the corniche?

7.A place we went to in the holidays,in UAE, munching chilly chips??

8.Our favorite candy we bought when we went to a small shop beside our gran's house?

9.The best corniche in UAE?

10. Your favorite person...though you haven't seen/met him,only heard his voice everyday for the past 3 years???

Oh,that was easy,wasn't it?'
Well, that was it and I hope to see the answers this very minute!
I think this is a very easy quiz and I'm sure HUNDREDS and THOUSANDS of people shall know the right answer!!!
WAssalamualaykum wassalamualaykuna

*Rasha*