2X2=?

Father: 2x2=???

Boy: 4

Father: Excellent!! ( hands boy 4 riyaals)

Boy: (thinks) I wish I'd said 10!

By Rasha

Who's Who?

Ed: A friend once asked me why we named alllllll our kids with the letter R, it's just too confusing remembering their names..it wasn't deliberate ..it just happened once Rasha-Rida's names were in place..
...someone who reads this blog also asked me why I write Rasha-Rida with a hyphen..are they twins?
well, almost...they were born in the same month with just a year between them..

this blog entry will make things clearer re: who's who

THese are a few of my favourite things

...By Rasha

My favourite person (s): RasoolAllaah sall Allaahu 'alayhi wasallam

My favourite book: The Book of Allaah, Qur'aan

My favourite colour (S): silver+ navy blue

My favourite Qur'aan reciter: Abba:)

My favourite sahaabi/sahaabiyaat:
Hasan and Husayn radiyy Allaahu anhumaa

My favourite surah from the Qur'aan: Surah Al Baqarah`

My favourite food: Beans and rice

My favourite subject: English and Arabic and French

My favourite place: UK

********************************

These are a few of *my* favourite things

By Rida

My favourite person (s): Lots of them (can't choose:)

My favourite book: Qur'aan

My favourite colour (s): Green and gold

My favourite Qur'aan reciter: Shaykh Muhammad Siddeeq alManshaawi

My favourite sahaabi/sahaabiyaat: Abu Bakr radiyy Allaahu 'anhu

My favourite surah from the Qur'aan: Ar-Rahmaan

My favourite food: chicken broast, cake, chocolates, icecreammmmm

My favourite subject: Maths (Ed :!!! :$)

My favourite place: London

Maths: The Sum of All Fears

"For most kids, maths is like eating karela, they hate it, but they are forced to swallow it."
More so, since parents frighten kids by asking:
‘If you don’t do well in maths, what will you do in life?’

...ever heard that one before?
click here to read how the maths pill is being sugarcoated

click here to read why crunching numbers ought to be child's play for Muslims

My bad..

Ed: Recently, I noticed *someoNe* (NoticeNoNames) carrying what looked like a brown handbag with gold-orange letters stencilled on it, and a brown shoulder strap.

Now, this persoN has impeccable taste in accessories, and has only used quality black leather handbags in my memory...so, what made them change over to (imho) this tacky look?

turns out, those stencilled letters are LV: Louis Vuitton
which translates into criminally expensive: 2600 dirhams
and evokes admiration and awe in everyone
except totally-out-of-it dunderheads like me,

my bad..



...or is it?
i wonder if the world would be a better place, if more ppl *didn't* know the significance/implication of intertwined Cs on jewellery and the silver lady on cars..

8 dirhams and the fear of God

Shu’bah ibn Al-Hajjaj ibn Al-Ward Al-Azdi was known as as the ‘King of Hadith’, because he was instrumental in shaping the Hadith discipline and raising its academic standards. He is often mentioned by his first name only, because he is so well known that he could not be confused with any one else having the same name...
Shu’bah was born in 82 or 83 AH, corresponding roughly to 701 CE, in a village called Nahr Bustan, close to the city of Wasit in southern Iraq. He spent his early years in Wasit and began his studies there, before leaving for Basrah, which was a main center of learning at the time.
Shu’bah’s father was a former slave, and he died when Shu’bah was still young. Apparently his father was perhaps interested in reporting Hadith. His mother guided his upbringing and education, and she apparently had some education in Hadith. She used to direct her son to the teachers under whom he should study. Shu’bah reports: “My mother once told me: ‘Here is a woman who reports the Hadiths she heard from Aishah. Go and attend her circle to learn her Hadith.” He did as his mother told him and she was pleased with him. The woman in question was called Shumaysah Umm Salamah.
...
One of his students reports: “Shu’bah saw me wearing a new shirt. He asked me how much I paid for it. When I said that I bought it for 8 dirhams, he said: ‘Do you not fear God when you walk around with a shirt that costs so much? It would have been infinitely better for you to buy a shirt for four dirhams and to give the other four to the poor.’” But he would not have given this advice without first implementing it himself. Numerous are the reports by later scholars confirming this. In fact, young children in poor areas used to call him ‘Father,’ when they saw him, because they were used to get from him whatever money he carried...
Read the complete article here

:)

Woman: Are these apples Lebanese or French?

Fruitseller: Lady, you want to eat them or talk to them?

By Rasha

You can do it!

How to discourage fighting, aggression, rudeness, cheek and disobedience... You can combat fussy eaters, tame tantrums and avoid battlegrounds at bedtime...And you'll even learn how to get the darlings to do as you ask in the first place... Here's how you can turn your tiny tearaways into little angels and have a very happy family.

New!

now you can check us out here too... that doesn't mean that we're checking out from here

Ed aside: it just means that *some people* are easily bored and that fluorescent green template was too tempting to resist :)

The plot gets thicker

Another reason to say no to Harry Potter: parentally-approved, self induced sleep deprivation

Innaa lillaahi wa innaa ilayhi raaji'oon

Israeli army leftover kills Palestinian girl, injures two
7/19/2005 8:03:00 PM GMT
An Israeli leftover ordnance killed a nine-year-old Palestinian girl and injured two of her brothers in Gaza City, Palestinian sources said. The ordnance exploded while the children were playing at the Sabra suburb, witnesses said. The sources identified the girl as Ayda Daghmash. Her two wounded brothers were rushed to hospital for treatment.
Many Palestinian civilians were killed and hundreds others wounded, mostly children, by the Israeli army leftovers that explode once touched


Israeli settlers stab to death Palestinian child
7/21/2005 3:59:00 PM GMT
Two Israeli settlers stabbed to death a 12-year-old Palestinian boy near the West Bank city of Nablus, Palestinian sources said.The Palestinian Interior Ministry said in a statement that Yazan Mohamed Mussa, 12, was killed due to an atrocious crime committed by two Israeli settlers.
The incident took place late Wednesday in a Palestinian town next to the Jewish settlement of Shiloh in the northern West Bank. Witnesses reported the stabbing to the police, and Mussa was rushed to a hospital in Nablus, where he died. Doctors said Mussa was stabbed 12 times.

A car with a view

...some of the sights we saw on our way, courtesy other travellers' lenses

babboons by the dozen line the aqaba (rocky, high road) leading away from our city..it's a long tortuous descent, at times we are higher than the fluffy white clouds, ears ping open-and-close, noses turn red from the stinging mountain air and we sit with our hearts in our mouths, muttering adhkaar all the way, seeking Allaah's protection from the insanity of the drivers who insist on driving at 120kmph inspite of huge red signboards that say

: GO SLOW, DANGEROUS CURVES AHEAD

MAX SPEED 20 km

Ed: Maybe they can't read Umma, R-R suggest, when I yell WATCH OUT!!! for the nth time

***

also seen further down the road:

ghanam (mountain goats) scurrying across on nimble toes

sheep demonstrating the sheep-walk ( see a desi for details/explanation)

camels (black, bleached white, red and dull tan) meandering across like they owned the place (prompting shrieking brakes and flashing indicators at night)

mud houses in the land of marble mansions

terrace farms (the only ones we've seen outside a geography book)

watermelons growing in the sand

(subhaanAllaah @ this luscious, sweet, juicy fruit originating in arid soil..)

black-brown mountains, valleys, plateaus, rocks that re-define HUGE

and

a real, live ray

(swimming at the surface when we went to dip our feet into the sea that had once parted for Musa alayhi salaam)

alhamdulillaah ala'neamah

Life is Elsewhere

Assalaamu'alaykum all!
we've been away...travelling..(details and pix later, soon inshaaAllaah)
most important thing we learnt on this trip, o people of the cyberworld: life..the *real* thing...is elsewhere

taqwa=grace under pressure

what can one say about a 6-year-old who died?
That he was brave. And beautiful. That he loved cars (manual, not battery operated). That the corrosive effect of drugs and chemicals used on his frail little body to fight his disease, did not extend to his spirit. That he will always be a fresh, blooming rayhaan in the memory of all those who knew him. That he will inshaa Allaah be among the chief of the youths in jannah, just like the one after whom he was named.

what can one say about a mother who lost her only son?
Who nursed him tirelessly through the uncertainties of cancer therapy? Who ended all her prayers with a hasbiyAllaahu ne'mal wakeel, ne'mal maulaa wa ne'man naseer, not presuming to ask Allaah for a specific favour, after all, doesn't He know all things?
Who stood for fajr prayer at the hospital beside her son's bed, and realized in the second rakaat when she couldn't hear her son's laboured breathing, that he was no more? Who had the khushu to complete her prayer, and only then turn to her son's bed. Who, while others bathed and readied her son's body for burial, sat in the masjid with tears streaming down her face saying only one word: alhamdulillaah..

what can one say about a father who kissed his son goodbye and consigned him to Allaah's care, for ever?
Who took one last, long look at the son he had cradled in his lap, dangled over his shoulders, showered with a thousand distractions to take his mind away from the pain. Who grappled with legal procedures and forms, permissions and requisitions even before he dealt with his feelings, while his son's little body was carried in an ambulance tailing his car.

this exceptional family, so obviously under the shade of Allaah's Mercy, the recipient of the sakeenah He sends down to the people of sidq, sabr and shukr gave lessons in life to all those who visited them to condole their son's death….

May Allaah give us the towfeeq to go beyond shaking our heads in sympathy or widening our eyes in amazement, to learn from their example..

Have you hugged your life today?

what would you call a person who uses things for purposes they were not created?

..who uses a spoon to brush teeth

shoes to drink water

a bathtub to sleep

get the picture?

the Qur'aan says:

wa maa khalaqatul jinna wa'l insaa illaa li' aabudoon

And we have not created jinn and humankind except that they be 'aabideen [worshippers/slaves of Allaah]

in the light of this aayah, what do we call our selves?