all in a day's work

we began blogging last year because we were afraid of getting bored.
summer hols had started and we were looking at the prospect of 3 months with nothing much to do, so we thought it'd be a good idea to document what little we did..
each day, we'd sit and think of things to blog about, then look them up in books or over the net ...subhaanallaah, we had no idea that we would learn so much alhamdulillaah

funny thing is, we didn't just learn just about subjects we googled or facts we looked up..
we also learned about people
in shaa Allaah, they will be lessons for life..

last night someone left us sick messages on the guestbook
when R-R and I looked in this morning, the words caught us with the force of someone screaming at our faces
my first instinct was to tell them to move away while I deleted the messages

Why? I could see this question in their eyes
Why would anyone do this?
there could be many reasons: ignorance, boredom, habit, fear, hate, malevolence, spite..
but the *real reason*, i believe, is that people spend of what they have within..

..in a world that fosters, breeds, encourages sickness of the spirit, is it any wonder that there are people out there with nothing better to do than spread it around?

May Allaah guide us all to that which is good.

Q.E.D

As Muslims, we have our own stories

...of bravery ...Sumayya, Nusayba Umm Ammarah, Khaula, Umm Sulaim Azda bint alHarith...

...of service ...Barakah Umm Ayman, Rubayyi bint Mewaz Shifaa bint 'Abdullaah...

...of genius ...Aishah bint Abu Bakr, Khansa ...

...of piety ...SAWDA bint Zam'a, HAFSA bint Umar , ZAYNAB bint Khuzayma , UMM SALAMA HIND bint Abi Umayya , ZAYNAB bint Jahsh , JUWAYRIYYA bint al-Harith , UMM HABIBA Ramla bint Abu Sufyan , SAFIYYA bint Huyayy , MAYMUNA bint al-Harith , MARIA al-Qibtiyya , Asmaa Bint Abu Bakr

...of sacrifice ...Fatima bint Asad, Umm Rummaan, Umm AlFadl

...of sparkling personalities...Umm Abaan, Atikah bint Amr bin Nawfil,

...of scholarship...Nufaysah bint Hasan, Rabi'ah Bint Mu'awwad, Umm 'Atiyyah, 'A'isha bint Sa'd bint ibn Abi Waqqas, Umrah Bint Abdu Rahman, Zaynab: daughter of Umm Salama, Umm Ad Darda, Fatimah bint Qays, Aisha bint Talha, Hafsah bint Sireen , Ukhtul Mazni, bint Sa'eed ibn al Musayyab

it's a pity that more of us don't know them as well as we do the others.

The city, the girl and a rag doll

By Suleman Ahmer
Benevolence International
AlJumuah Magazine

The first time I came across her was in the first week of December, 1992 in the Bosnian town of Mostar. She had long black hair, hazel eyes and a smile that would light up her whole face. But something was not quite right and I soon realized that her eyes would refuse to laugh. They held on to the look of bewilderment, confusion and the fear of an uncertain future. After months of war, girls as young as Aida had started understanding the devastation, misery, and pain that wars so easily delivered. They called it raat in Bosnian language. Sounding like the 'night' in my native Urdu. I wonder how two languages continents apart would have the same word depicting darkness. For Mostar and its sons and daughters such as Aida, the Balkan war meant exactly that - a never ending darkness...click here to read the complete story

A palace in paradise

Ed: there's a hadeeth which says that a tiny spot in jannah is better than the world and all that there is in it...so what of the women who have been promised a *palace* in paradise?

'Abdullaah ibn Abbaas rA narrated that one day the Prophet sallAllaahu 'alayhi wassallam drew 4 lines on the earth and asked the Companions if they understood what these lines stood for. They replied: Allaah and His Messenger know best.
He, sall Allaahu 'alayhi wassallam said these lines stood for the four foremost ladies of the Universe:

Khadijah bint Khuwaylid

Narrated Abu Huraira: Jibreel (Gabriel) came to the Prophet and said, 'O Allaah's Apostle! This is Khadija coming to you with a dish having meat soup (or some food or drink).

When she reaches you, greet her on behalf of her Lord (i.e. Allaah) and on my behalf, and give her the glad tidings of having a Qasab (palace in Paradise) wherein there will be neither any noise nor any fatigue (trouble).'

[Saheeh al-Bukhari]

Fatimah bint Muhammad

Narrated Ali:
Fatima went to the Prophet complaining about the bad effect of the stone hand-mill on her hand. She heard that the Prophet had received a few slave girls. But (when she came there) she did not find him, so she mentioned her problem to 'Aisha. When the Prophet came, 'Aisha informed him about that. 'Ali added, "So the Prophet came to us when we had gone to bed. We wanted to get up (on his arrival) but he said, 'Stay where you are." Then he came and sat between me and her and I felt the coldness of his feet on my abdomen.

He said, "Shall I direct you to something better than what you have requested? When you go to bed say 'Subhan Allah' thirty-three times, 'Alhamdulillah' thirty three times,

and Allahu Akbar' thirty four times,

for that is better for you than a servant."

[Saheeh Bukhari]

Maryam bint Imran

16. And mention in the Book (the Qur'aan, O Muhammad , the story of) Maryam (Mary), when she withdrew in seclusion from her family to a place facing east.
17. She placed a screen (to screen herself) from them; then We sent to her Our Ruh [angel Jibrael (Gabriel)], and he appeared before her in the form of a man in all respects.
18. She said: "Verily! I seek refuge with the Most Beneficent from you, if you do fear Allâh."
19. (The angel) said: "I am only a Messenger from your Lord, (to announce) to you the gift of a righteous son."
20. She said: "How can I have a son, when no man has touched me, nor am I unchaste?"
21. He said: "So (it will be), your Lord said: 'That is easy for Me (Allâh): And (We wish) to appoint him as a sign to mankind and a mercy from Us (Allâh), and it is a matter (already) decreed, (by Allâh).' "
22. So she conceived him, and she withdrew with him to a far place (i.e. Bethlehem valley about 4-6 miles from Jerusalem).
23. And the pains of childbirth drove her to the trunk of a date-palm. She said: "Would that I had died before this, and had been forgotten and out of sight!"
24. Then [the babe 'Iesa (Jesus) or Jibrael (Gabriel)] cried unto her from below her, saying: "Grieve not! Your Lord has provided a water stream under you;
25. "And shake the trunk of date-palm towards you, it will let fall fresh ripe-dates upon you."
26. "So eat and drink and be glad, and if you see any human being, say: 'Verily! I have vowed a fast unto the Most Beneficent (Allâh) so I shall not speak to any human being this day.'"
27. Then she brought him (the baby) to her people, carrying him. They said: "O Mary! Indeed you have brought a thing Fariya (an unheard mighty thing).
28. "O sister (i.e. the like) of Hârûn (Aaron) [not the brother of Mûsa (Moses), but he was another pious man at the time of Maryam (Mary)]! Your father was not a man who used to commit adultery, nor your mother was an unchaste woman."
29. Then she pointed to him. They said: "How can we talk to one who is a child in the cradle?"
30. "He ['Iesa (Jesus)] said: Verily! I am a slave of Allâh, He has given me the Scripture and made me a Prophet;"
31. "And He has made me blessed wheresoever I be, and has enjoined on me Salât (prayer), and Zakât, as long as I live."
32. "And dutiful to my mother, and made me not arrogant, unblest.
33. "And Salâm (peace) be upon me the day I was born, and the day I die, and the day I shall be raised alive!"
[Surah Maryam]

'Asiah bint Mazaahim

And for those who believed, God gave the example of Pharaoh's wife, when she prayed:

"O Lord, put up for me a home in heaven, and save me from the Pharaoh and his practices and save me from the transgressing people".

And Mary the daughter of Imran who guarded her chastity, wherein we breathed of our Spirit. And she attested to the commandments of her Lord as well as his scriptures, and was one of the truly devout.

[Surah Tahreem, 10-12]

Sermons in Stones

Ed: okay, I have this notoriously nasty habit of taking the fun out of just-for-fun things -- it's called the sermons in stones and good in everything syndrome so I made R-R write this, with a little help from the male r who gave us the "no loving" quote in the previous post, and who inshaaAllaah will take over this blog in a couple of years when R-R and I graduate to bigger things [read muslim-teenz.blogspot.com inshaaAllaah]

5 Things Disney Princesses taught us
By Rasha, Rida, r and R

1. Princesses like to make pies (Snow White), scrub and clean the house, do chores
Ed: food for thought: lazy girls who won't get their hands dirty and are too la-di-dah to do housework aren't heroines, they're the bad guys! (case in point: Cinderella's stepsisters)

2. It's what within that counts

3. You don't have to be a boy to be brave

4. If you love your father (family) you can do anythimg to save their life

5. Princesses never yell and have the softest, sweetest voices

6. Snow White looks exactly like *someone in our family*
Ed: no names please!

Spot the Shirk Contest

since today was the longest day of the year we had plenty of time left over even after our daily drill...so we DVD-ed the time between dhuhr and asr migrating to Sydney with a school of talking fish and green sea turtles and then, going south with woolly mammoths to fight sabre-toothed tigers...

...by the time we started on the Disney Princesses set, our home theatre(complete with windows darkened against the summer sun) had virtually turned into a spot-the-shirk contest

among other things, we spotted Mulan singing to her dead ancestors to grant her prayer so that she could "bring honour to her family"

Cinderella relying on her fairy godmother to transform her into a bride fit for the prince, even while insisting all the while that beauty lies within

Sleeping Beauty cavorting with fairies and witches like they were real

Snow White being brought back (from barzakh?) with a kiss of life courtesy the Prince

Jasmine running around Agraba (Arabia?) , consulting oracles in an off-the-shoulder midriff baring creation

The princess who really won everyone's heart and imagination was Beauty (of B & the Beast) because the opening scene shows her rummaging around in a library for a book she hasn't read yet, and then walking home with her nose buried deep in it, oblivious of the villagers ...
[R-R:"Just like us!!"]

the movie that had everyone's vote was Mulan.
Why?
because it has the Huns and "no loving" in it (referring to the mandatory Disney *m**ch )

Lay off those chips

Potato Chip Chemical May Cause 1/3 Of Diet Cancers

Public Health Advocates Cite Lack Of Risk Notice On Potato Chip Bags

Public health attorneys in California have potato chip makers in their sights for not listing a cancer-causing chemical present in many brands. That chemical is acrylamide. It is an industrial chemical used in plastics, pesticides and sewage treatment that also can occur when starchy foods, such as chips, are processed at high temperatures.

The World Health Organization has said acrylamide may be responsible for up to one-third of all cancers caused by diet, as demonstrated by laboratory animal studies. Acrylamide is already on California's list of chemicals known to cause cancer, but some chipmakers haven't listed it on their product packaging as required by Proposition 65 statute.

The attorneys have filed Proposition 65 notices with the manufacturers of Lays, Pringles, Kettle Chips and Cape Cod chips. Research has shown those brands have unsafe levels of acrylamide in some of their chip varieties. The study looked at one ounce servings, which ranged from 11 to 20 chips depending on the brand, and determined the acrylamide content was substantially more than the 0.2 micrograms per day amount which prompts the Proposition 65 warning.
The brands tested and cited for high levels of acrylamide are: Lay's Baked!, Lay's Stax BBQ, Lay's KC Masterpiece. Lay's Natural Country Barbecue, Lay's Light KC Barbecue Masterpiece, Pringles Snack Stacks (Pizzalicious Flavor), Pringles Sweet Mesquite BBQ, Kettle Chips Lightly Salted, Kettle Chips Honey Dijon, Cape Cod Robust Russet and Cape Cod Classic Chips.

Processed food manufacturers have reportedly asked Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger for an exemption to Proposition 65 labeling for foods with carcinogens caused by heat processing. The governor's office is expected to announce its decision by August.

PS: No prizes for guessing which brands have perennial 'schemes' and consequently fly off the shelves at our neighbourhood supermarket..

New!

By Rasha



By Rida

Win a Lucky Dip

Mosque Offers Rewards for the Young Who Come to Pray
Arab News

JUBAIL, 19 June 2005 — A mosque in Jubail in the Eastern Province has announced a reward for young men and boys who come on time for the Fajr (dawn) prayer, Al-Watan newspaper reported.
The reward — a trip to the neighborhood swimming pool — has encouraged many youngsters to pray the first prayer of the day in the mosque. The mosque has made a list of young people who are participating. They are asked to log in whenever they come to the house of prayer.

Abu Hurairah radiAllaahu anhu narrated that the Prophet sall Allaahu 'alayhi wasallam said:

“If they [people] knew the merits of prayer after
nightfall (‘Isha') and in the morning (Fajr), they would come to them

even if they had to crawl to do so.”

[Saheeh Bukhari and Muslim]

Truths for Kids

awesome site ...MaashaAllaah

In shaa Allaah

ولاتقولن لشيءٍ إني فاعل ذلك غداً

إلا أن يشاء الله

واذكر ربك إذا نسيت

وقل عسى أن يهدين ربي لأقرب من هذا رشداً

wa laa taqoolanna li shayy in inni fa'ilun dhaalika ghada
illaa an'yashaa Allaah
wadhkur rabbaka idhaa naseet
wa qul: asaa an yahdiyanee rabbee li aqraba min haaaza rashada

And never say of anything," I shall do such a thing tomorrow"
Except (with the saying) , "If Allaah wills"
And remember your Lord when you forget
And say:" It may be that my LOrd guides me to a nearer way of truth than this."

Surah Al Kahf: 23, 24

Disappointment is in the Details

Question: What's worse than going to the UAE at the height of summer?

Answer: Not being able to go!

it turns out that while UmmR and the female Rs were preoccupied with weighing pros and cons and making earth shaking decisions [Made in India v/s Made in Syria], booking tickets and buying dates...someone *cough* Abu R *cough* neglected to see if the little Rs passports are travelworthy...and the result is that our travel plans are beached on the Red-Tape Sea shore

alhamdulillaah 'alaa kulle haal... seeing that there are deadlines to be met and suchlike stuff, it looks like we won't be going to the uae this summer after all
:) <----me
:( <------Rasha
:( <-------Rida

...on the positive side we have a full 3 months of summer vacation to do exciting *beneficial*stuff like

getting waaaaaaaaay ahead with our tahfeedh inshaaAllaah
learning all the stitches in the embroidery book
re-reading all the books we've been reading all year
pre-reading our school books for the next class
solving Math fractions to perfection...or at least to Umma's satisfaction;)
learning tables upto 30
...list to be updated soon inshaaAllaah :)

c'mon *smiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiile* Rasha-Rida, chins up , we've got things to do!

Hot and Hazy

The weather report says today will be hot and hazy.

So, how come we're cool?

simple, we're not in the uae

Qaddar Allaah maa shaa fa'al ...Allaah decrees what He wills

Wonders never cease

Ed: Rasha just lost an entire post where she was talking abt how excited she is abt going to the uae and that she got her result today...she's too disheartened to re-post.

...alhamdulillaah she was no.1 in her class and she got a beautiful blue wristwatch with "Victory" written on it...MaashaAllaah laa quwwata illaa billaah.

BUT, for me the most interesting bit abt her result is:
she got 99 in Math
and 100 in embroidery.

Now that takes some doing!

Socially Acceptable Shalwar Kameez

Socially Acceptable Shalwaar Kameez are Made in Syria.

I've learnt something new every day of my life with Rasha-Rida, but this latest had me going whaaaaaaaaat?!

Background:
Began packing for the UAE trip [leaving Wednesday inshaaAllaah] and a few minutes into the packing, the woeful lack of UAE-appropriate clothing [read glamorous, shiny, *new*] left us depressed.
It's understandable, because the only time we shop for clothes is on the Eidayn, or when we go to Makkah/Madinah and splurge on the 10 riyal pyjama shops.
All other articles of clothing in our wardrobes are courtesy N., who regularly upends suitcases full of criminally expensive, unbearably unwearable stuff on her visits [j/k]

So, we went shopping out of season.
3 outfits each I decreed.
One for formal nights/evenings out ..mmmmmm we still remember that lovely buffet, twinkling barge lights and the sound of daf from the wedding party across the pool jazaakillaah Mrs. L.

One for the road…bookshops, malls, other excursions into the unknown

One for visits

The formal wear was easy: twin outfits, sumptuous blue denim skirts layered with cream and red trim…the piece de resistance: matching handbags.

Visions of tar melting on the road overrode common sense [who'll wash ice-cream and ink stains off?] and the next thing we found ourselves holding was a simple cotton shift, white with lots of red, green, blue hand-embroidery on the neck and the front, at least we'll look cool.

The visiting dress was tough…floorlength skirts don't quite cut it with desi relatives [one gets looks like one's sold one's soul to the West laa howla wa laa quwwata illaa billaah]. Our regular wear looks foreign everywhere except here. R-R have an allergy to all clothes desi [comes from spending a long time with natives who look down upon hindiyeen in their midst, while staying up all night to watch bollywood *barf*]

So, we meandered like lost streams back and forth between mountains of the latest shalwaar kameez, Made in India, with labels to prove it attached at the neck. Me hoping they'd spot something they *had* to buy while they put up a big show of pretending not to look between loud exclamations of ..ewwwwwwww look at that one …

…until Rida spotted them.
They were hanging on separate racks, a little removed from the hindi hoi-polloi. Pastel colours, no trim or zari , just a little anaemic line of embroidered flowers along the front.
The kameez doesn't look like kameez.
The shalwaar doesn't look like shalwaar.
But they wanted it.
And we bought it.
Because, my worldly wise daughters enlightened me, Made in Syria is the only socially acceptable kind of shalwaar-kameez for hindiyeen to wear.

Did You Know..

who put the glitter in your clothes, so you can shine?

R=Rassaamah

Ed: R also = resentment, rivalry, you-put-up-her-pics-and-not-mine, so here's more ;)







By Rasha

Girls in Black

By Rida

Assalaamualaykum!
I haven't been writing on the blog for a long time because we had ourexams, but now alhamdulillah they are over!
I got my results and as usual alhamdulillah I got MUMTAAZ

Ed: *cough*

These days I have a lot of time because Rasha still hasn't finished herexams so I read and help Umma and get on with my tahfeez.
I made these pictures on the computer, the upper one is me with Rasha and my cousins and the lower one is my school , not really, but..

If you look carefully you'll see that the figures don't have their necks joint to the body, that's cuz the girls in school told me to do that so that it doesn't look like a real human being!
:)

Look what I found!

Ed: There are blogs where I routinely... what's the correct word...blurk ??

one of them has this awesome post on sons and daughters
subhaanallaah, I was just thinking the same thing this morning!
My day and Rasha-Rida's consists of basically me haranguing them to do this/that/other e.g make their beds, clear up messes [including ones made by kid brothers], look tidy have clean hands and feet, read the mushaf, lay the sufraa...
..generally be *ladylike* all day, every day

no wonder they want to escape to the uae..land of the free ;-)

I just realized the male Rs [younger no doubt, but still...] get away with one mid-morning bath and one post-play scrub, not much helping around the house/tidying up, noisy games and grubby clothes/faces/feet...