The coolest girl in school

The coolest girl in my school was
the girl who trained a squad of knock kneed girls to march in perfect time around the huge school quad;
or the one who won the National Talent Scholarship;
or the one who won the inter-school spelling bee (*ahem*);
or the one who beat a bunch of other fast talkers at debate;
or the one who won national-level medals at high jump and shot put
or the one who was invited to participate in the President's parade
or the one who was a wiz at Math...

...it was never the girl
who had been "asked out" first,
or who wore the shortest skirt or the most lip gloss;
or the one with the sleekest skin and the thinnest ankles...

This is why I am *so* glad (alhamdulillaah) that I studied in an all girls' school and Rasha-Rida are too...

Girls' schools allow girls to discover who they are and who they want to be without being pressured by what they are *expected* to be to be popular/acceptable with boys; (I'm constantly hearing/reading of wannabe bf-gf relationships in kids as young as grades 1 and 2, and I'm sure you have too...so please spare me the open mouths :P)

...they allow girls to bond with others of their planet without any element of catfights/competition/jealousy

...they allow girls to focus on what's most important at that all-important stage of their lives without being distracted by boys and the associated angst

they allow girls to develop a reserve in mixed company that makes it (almost) impossible for them to be one-of -the-guys/ on backslapping, highfiving terms with the opposite sex ever(which is always a good thing, imho) ...[a point that the good Sr. Delphine always pressed: girls, you're all going to be women one day..but only some of you will be ladies]

...they allow girls to ask questions in life science lessons without dying of embarrassment

When I was in school, all my public school friends scoffed at us and said that being around boys took away the "fear/charm of the unknown" and made them "immune", and they just treated boys like one of the gang ...they said it was in fact girls who had never been around boys who were the most "susceptible" and behaved the most inappropriately ...but after all that I've seen through the years, I still believe that girls' school are the last havens of natural behaviour for girls left on earth ...sort of like a sanctuary...and if they are endangered, maybe we should do something to protect them..like starting many more ..it makes sense for Muslims to invest in this ..

(sure, I've seen and been around girls who got into mischief/trouble even in all girls' schools but they got into mischief/trouble on their own time /out of school... BIG difference )

The only downside (if you can call it that) of studying in an all girls' school is that it gives you a longing for like-minded female company to bond with always..even when they're hard to find....

I know I'm always looking for sisters to be sisterly with..always trying to replicate that precious, precious feeling..but alhamdulillaah..that tight, close bond belongs only in the past...with the friends I went to school with (and for a brief while with a brilliant girl pack at work)...

If that were the only advantage my girls out of their school...I'd be glad.

PS: no this isn't the post I was planning..that didn't pass the thought police (in my brain)...a copy of the rough draft can be accessed by all those who write an email with my nickname at school.. :P

PPS: This isn't a fatwa on the haraam-ness/halaal-ness of girls' schools..this is just me (your average jane)speaking about a personal choice and qadr that has worked beautifully for me and my kids. alhamdulillaah.

single sex schools: a difficult circle to square?

Single-sex schools 'no benefit for girls'
Distraction by boys a myth, says study

The Observer

Teaching girls in single-sex schools, long an obsession of many parents worried about their daughters being distracted by boys, makes no difference to their educational attainment according to one of the most comprehensive studies of the way children learn.

The findings by Alan Smithers, Professor of Education at Buckingham University and one of Britain's most respected schools experts, will come as a shock to parents convinced their daughters would benefit from an all-girl environment. Half a century of research 'has not shown any dramatic or consistent advantages for single-sex education' for boys or girls, he will conclude.

...Smithers said headteachers made 'exaggerated claims' about the benefits of girl-only schools because they were under threat. The number of single-sex state schools has fallen from nearly 2,500 to just over 400 in 40 years.

However, a growing movement in the US argues that boys' and girls' brains develop differently, so they benefit from separate teaching styles. In Britain more and more mixed schools are using single-sex classes because of ongoing concerns over boys' results, which have consistently lagged behind those of girls.

... His exhaustive review of data from across the world showed no evidence that single-sex schools were consistently superior. In Hong Kong, where 10 per cent of schools are single-sex, girls appeared to do better. But in Belgium, where co-educational schools are in the minority, boys and girls who study together get the best results. He highlighted the fact that 40 per cent of people who had a single-sex education wanted their children to go to a co-educational school.

...research published last month in Scotland showed that even in a co-educational school, separating pupils into single-sex classes failed to improve boys' performance. Rather than raising success rates, the move led to greater indiscipline, it found.

The studies will not be welcomed by campaigners for single-sex education. Brenda Despontin, president of the Girls School Association said there was no question that girls benefited from the absence of boys. 'There are irrefutable differences between girls and boys. Girls have a greater ability to focus for longer, boys want to change [activities] more times. The requirements of a lesson and how it is structured are different. Parents want their girls feeling confident and comfortable about who they are. Sometimes having teenage boys around can be inhibiting for girls and vice-versa.'

She pointed to a study by the Department for Education and Skills showing the proportion of A grades achieved at A-level in all-girl independent schools was, on average, 10 per cent higher than that of girls in co-educational independent schools, in a number of subjects.

Whatever the arguments, many parents will continue to demand single-sex education for their children and Smithers says it should be provided. While his study shows no overall advantages to the schools, it also shows no disadvantages. As such, headteachers should feel 'liberated' because they can choose whatever system they feel suits them, he said, arguing that some parents wanted the schools for cultural or religious reasons.

miles to go, yaa Rasha-Rida

..it's okay to post fun stuff Rasha-Rida (doesn't the blurb on this blog say "fun and fact-filled resource"?).. but that doesn't mean we mustn't post reminders, reminscences, rants, must-reads...

..the good thing about a blog is that it has no structure, you can stretch your imagination and make it as elastic as you like to fit the whole gamut of your thoughts and experiences..(and mine!)

..there is room in our lives and in our deen for love, laughter and beauty and their celebration...we can and so often do stop to smell the roses and say subhaanallaah, but the beauty of life, its celebration and enjoyment, can never be an end in itself for us..we must be like travellers in this world, if we ever want to reach our destination, our final resting place...

...it's okay to be light hearted, alhamdulillaah we are living in ne'aam...that is our reality right now, but we mustn't overlook that there's another kind of reality..and the fact that it isn't *our* reality mustn't stop it from being less real for us..

As John Pilger writes: "For the Palestinians, a war against their children is hardly new. A 2004 field study published in the British Medical Journal reported that, in the previous four years, "Two-thirds of the 621 children … killed [by the Israelis] at checkpoints … on the way to school, in their homes, died from small arms fire, directed in over half the cases to the head, neck, and chest – the sniper's wound." A quarter of Palestinian infants under the age of five are acutely or chronically malnourished. The Israeli wall "will isolate 97 primary health clinics and 11 hospitals from the populations they serve."
The study described "a man in a now fenced-in village near Qalqilya [who] approached the gate with his seriously ill daughter in his arms and begged the soldiers on duty to let him pass so that he could take her to hospital. The soldiers refused."
Gaza, now sealed like an open prison and terrorized by the sonic boom of Israeli fighter aircraft, has a population of which almost half is under 15. Dr. Khalid Dahlan, a psychiatrist who heads a children's community health project, told me, "The statistic I personally find unbearable is that 99.4 percent of the children we studied suffer trauma … 99.2 percent had their homes bombarded; 97.5 percent were exposed to tear gas; 96.6 percent witnessed shooting; a third saw family members or neighbors injured or killed."

I often ask you to think about/look up what would the Prophet صلىالله عليه وسلم have done in a certain situation, so that you know what's the right thing to do...now, I ask you to think of what would we do if we were in his presence, seriously would we do half the things that we do ...and yet, we are in the Presence of Allaah, the All-Aware???

..remember how Pharaoh told Haamaan to make him a ladder so that he would ascend it and see for himself what was this God that Moosa 'alayhi salaam talked about and if He was real?

Think of us...all of us.. as being on a ladder, trying to get closer to Allaah and His Pleasure...some of us are at the bottom rung, some in the middle, some nearly at the top rung...and we have a chance to reach our goal only as long as we climb...if we stop striving, gaining, growing, trying...we never will...there's miles to go, for me and you...miles to go before we sleep...

is this blog getting toooooooooooooo serious?!

assalamu'alaykum wa rah matullahi wa barakatuh

our blog is getting a little too serious ...and we were recalling our old blogposts.. which were
more humourous and funny than our new ones..

..so i thought i'd share this poem.. it's really really funny..
this humourous poem is about a boy who boasts all the time! he boasts so much that something
unbelievable happens to him...

John Bragger was born with a very big head
It grew bigger and bigger with all that he said

He boasted: 'I'm braver and better than you'
He boasted so much that his face became blue,

and almost arrived at a premature death
from boasting so much that he ran out of breath

'i'm the fastest' he boasted 'at running in school,'
but everyone knew he wasn't at all

'I'm the quickest at sums,' he continued.'I'm bright.'
(he was the quickest, but none of his answers were right)

'i'm the loudest at singing". (we don't deny that)
but he sang even worse than the caretaker's cat,

at most things at school, in fact John was the worst,
but his head grew so big that we thought it would burst,

he could only just manage to squeeze through the door,
we were sure it wouldnt increase any more,

but it did and we even began to feel sorry,
when he had to be taken to school in a lorry,

he carried on boasting about his success:
"I'm the best playing football. I'm brilliant at chess"

'I'm dead good at music. I'v made an LP.
They say I can have my own show on TV

'I 'm so rich that I'll soon be a millionare.'
At times passers by used to stop off and stare,

for he couldn't fit into classrooms at all,
and a crane had to lower him into the hall,

his brain was no bigger,I'd say than a prune's,
but his head was the size of a hot air balloon,

we thought it might happen, and so it did one day,
he boasted so much that he floated away,

he got smaller and smaller, and higher and higher,
still boasting away( what a terrible liar):

' my computer's the biggest that any one has seen,
did I tell you last week I had tea with the Queen??

"Once I rowed in a boat down Niagara falls
My dad is a film star. My mom won the pools."

' The American President told me next June
I can go in a rocket and visit the moon."

With hardly a pause he continued to boast,
as he soared over London and then to the coast,

but where he is now it seems no one knows ,
I suppose it depends on the way the wind blows,

(So maybe one day if you look up you'll spy
a huge head with legs drifting high in the sky)

Our teacher pronounced ,' It's a bit of a mess,
and various stories appeared in the press,

Then the council came round and collected their crane
and the school returned , almost to normal again,

For now that he's gone I can honestly say,
that we miss him a lot in an odd sort of way.

Charles Thompson

I'll try to write more regularly..

wassalamu'alaykum..
* Rasha *

wish-list must-have

I like the sound of this book:

Extract: "Without children this world would be boring; this world would be empty. Because everyone starts off as children and no children means no people."

going by this review: "There are as many ways to understand childhood as there are children. But despite numerous attempts, the story of childhood has rarely been well told. It has always been embroidered with myth, steeped in nostalgia. And it has always reflected the prevailing anxieties of the age.

Throughout history, childhood has provided a prism through which to reveal social mores. In a secular, pluralistic era, with a widening gulf between rich and poor and a greedy, coarsening popular culture, that revelation is more welcome than ever. The time has come to explore how child panic and, more broadly, the way that childhood is constructed in contemporary British society, might affect human flourishing. It takes us to the heart of what kinds of children we hope to raise, and what kinds of adults we strive to be."

And this one:

going by this review: "FROM THE DAY THAT I became a Dad, I knew which Dad I wanted to be — the one in Swiss Family Robinson, the kind of Dad who could build you a shelter, shoot you some lunch (with a bow he’d made himself) and cook it over the open fire while telling you all about the stars and tides. The sort of Dad who could make being marooned on a desert island seem like a lark.I’ve got the inclination but not the skills. I can do the marooning but after that you’re on your own. For instance, it was entirely my fault that we were once washed up on an uninhabited Scottish island with nothing but a hospitality pack of bourbon biscuits and no hope of a boat till nightfall. Pastor Robinson would have knocked up a fish supper and organised a ceilidh. I spent the afternoon looking anxiously from my watch to the horizon and back again while the children played happily in the streams."

and this one: "If ever there was a book to make you switch off your television set, "The Dangerous Book for Boys" is it. How many other books will help you thrash someone at conkers, race your own go-cart, and identify the best quotations from Shakespeare? "The Dangerous Book for Boys" gives you facts and figures at your fingertips - swot up on the solar system, learn about famous battles and read inspiring stories of incredible courage and bravery. Teach your old dog new tricks. Make a pinhole camera. Understand the laws of cricket. There's a whole world out there: with this book, anyone can get out and explore it."

Ed aside: Actually, the first reviewer reminds me of someone I know ..*cough*moi*cough*...I always had aspirations of being a hands-on mum who'd effortlessly guide my kids through the intricacies of cross stitch and Caesar salad, but I'm horrible at hand-work (read complete klutz)...it's a good thing Rasha and Abu-R make up for me..

the best parts about being in Madeenah

By Rasha, Rida and R

*walking
I love walking...always have..and when you walk in Madeenah, you feel the ground under your feet throbbing with the distant echo of footsteps across centuries...we walked everywhere this time, and it was heaven. alhamdulillaah.

*shopping
trinkets, clothes, toys...once I was counting money to make sure I had enough for my purchases, and a shopkeeper in Madeenah told me that I would never run out of cash here b/z the Prophet had blessed the weights and measures ..and subhaanallaah, it's really true ..two riyaals go a looooooooong way here..

P.S

We strolled outside the masjid at 1 a.m (yes, all of us..the kids had slept all afternoon) ...most people had left after salaah, the masjid's doors were shut and the lights dimmed. There was a full moon and the kids were playing in the cool marble courtyard, the slight breeze tousled their hair, like a loving hand.

Was this not the only city in the world that welcomed immigrants, whose people had willingly shared their homes and all the love in their hearts, for the sake of Allaah?

It felt like no other place on earth, like home.
--------------
PS: I didn't mean to lead everyone on ...I was really planning to write about the trip, (including how surreal travelling by air seems to someone who isn't a frequent flier..think about it...you're fastening your seatbelts to FLY...soar thousands of feet in the sky ..you have petite hostesses whose skin and manners seem like polished plastic as they effortlessly pour out a juice and ask you if you want it with ice or without...while the screen shows that the outside temperature is -37 C and your feet are many, many feet away from the reassuring, firm ground...subhaanallaah!) but when it comes to Madeenah, words fail me.

How do I love thee?

I began writing these pages when I was in Madeenah, in the holy precinct, where I had the good fortune to complete some useful studies on Sunnah and the life of the Prophet...I must point out that the distance between the Muslims and their Prophet is wide indeed, no matter what love they have in their hearts and what prayers they offer for him.

I saw them visiting his grave with zeal and yearning before returning to visit their homelands those who envy them for their good fortune and long for the same chance.

No believer would dispute that love for the Prophet is compulsory and that love for him would vanish only from the heart of a stubborn hypocrite. How should one express this love and show allegiance to him: this is the question that needs clarification...I write about the life of Muhammad as soldiers would write about their general or pupils about their teacher...I am not, as I said, a neutral historian unrelated to whom I write about...

Muhammad is not a story to be read on his birthday...nor can love for him be expressed in poems of praise ...the ties to him are stronger than that..Muslims have indulged in these acts only when they neglected the essentials of faith and contented themselves with outward manifestations and formalisms...This would never occur if the Message were clearly understood and the life of the one who conveyed it, followed.

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

(Preface to Fiqh-Us-Sunnah/Muhammad al Ghazaali)

What did I see in Madeenah?

I flew towards Madeenah on the wings of eagerness. The hardships of the way seemed to be a blessing to me,and before my eyes was drawn the soul-stirring image of the earlier traveler whose camel had passed through the same route.

The first thing I did on reaching Madeenah was to offer two Rak'ats of Salah and express my sincerest gratitude to the Almighty for granting me the good fortune to be there.

After it, I betook myself into the presence of the Holy Prophet صلىالله عليه وسلم .

I offered salaam and affirmed that he had conveyed the Message of the Lord of the world, proved true the trust He had placed in him, showed the straight path to the Ummah and strove till the last breath of his life in the way of Allaah.

Then, I sent salutations to both the trusted friends whose selfless devotion was without a parallel in history.

From the Prophet's mosque, I went to Jannat-ul-Baq'ee. What a priceless treasure of truth and purity, of love and dedication is buried in this plot of land! Asleep here are those who had sacrificed the life of this world for the life of the future...

Thereafter, I visited Uhud where the most spectacular scenes of love and fealty were staged...on reaching there, it seemed that I heard the words of Anas bin Nadhr: "I feel the sweet smell of Paradise coming from Uhud"...It was here that Abu Dujaana made his back serve as a shield for the Prophet صلىالله عليه وسلم ...Talhah had taken the arrows meant for the Prophet on his arms until they were paralysed...Hamzah was killed and his body cut to pieces and Mus'ab bin 'Umayr martyred in such a state that even a shroud could not be provided for him...

Would that Uhud gave something of its treasure to mankind! Would that the world got a small particle of the faith and steadfastness of those glorious times!

(Abul Hasan Ali Nadwi/ Fee Mahd-i-Rasool)

The City of Light

It seems to me that all the people who live in this city, or even sojourn it temporarily, very soon fall into what one might call a community of mood and thus also of behaviour, and almost, even of facial expression: for all of them have fallen under the spell of the Prophet, whose city it once was and whose guests they now are...

Even after thirteen centuries, his spiritual presence is almost as alive here as it was then. It was only because of him that the scattered group of villages once called Yathrib became a city and has been loved by all Muslims down to this day as no city anywhere else in the world has ever been loved.

It has not even a name of its own: for more than thirteen hundred years it has been called Madinat-an-Nabi, the City of the Prophet. For more than thirteen hundred years, so much love has converged here that all shapes and movements have acquired a kind of family resemblance, and all the differences of appearance find a tonal transition into a common harmony.

This is the happiness one always feels here -- this unifying harmony.

Although life in Medina today has only a formal, distant relationship with what the Prophet aimed at; although the spiritual awareness of Islam has been cheapened here, as in many other parts of the Muslim world: an indescribable emotional link with its spiritual past has remained alive.

Never has any city been loved for the sake of a single personality; never has any man, dead for over thirteen hundred years, been loved so personally, and by so many, as he who lies buried beneath the great green dome.

It was precisely because he was only human, because he lived like other men, enjoying the pleasures and suffering the ills of human existence, that those around him could so encompass him with their love.

This love has outlasted his death and lives on in the hearts of his followers, like the leitmotif of a melody built up of may tones. It lives on in Medina. It speaks to you out of every stone of the ancient city. You can almost touch it with your hands: but you cannot capture it in words...

(The Road to Makkah/Muhammad Asad)

take a guess?

Latitude 24.4686

Longitude 39.6142

Altitude (feet) 2034

Lat (DMS) 24° 28' 7N

Long (DMS) 39° 36' 51E

Altitude (meters) 619
Time zone (est) UTC+3

anyone know where we've been?? pix and travelogue coming up, in shaa Allaah...watch this space!!!

friends forever

I often watch Rasha-Rida fight and makeup, quarrel and go into fits of endless giggles, scowl at each other murderously and then snuggle together under a single comforter at night...all in the space of a single day.. subhaanallaah!

May Allaah bless them in their togetherness!

The only other thing that comes close to this tight bond is friendship for the sake of Allaah, which has been likened by a scholar to establishing a relationship based on love and trust, for the sake of Allaah, but that is rarer than the proverbial red camels...

being an only child, there are times when I feel wistful at the bond my children share and I renew my prayer: may Allaah make us among those who love for His sake alone, and grant us His love and the love of those whose love benefits near Him, and enable us to do deeds that grant us the highest companionship...Aameen.

the fitrah peeks out of kids' eyes

subhaanallaah..someone sent us this link yesterday, and although we downloaded the video this morning, it's not very clear..we can't make out much more than a little boy saying the shahaadah ..

the blurb on the website says:
Youngest Muslim Reverts in The World.
Children in England Turn To Islam. Two sisters, aged 9 and 12 show a keen interest in Islam. It all started when they went to the Local Mosque after hearing the melodious Adthaan (call to prayer). Soon after they decided to go to classes at the mosque after school, and have bought and studied many books on Islam, and have even managed to learn and read the Quran in the Arabic language. Unlike other children, the girls spend their evenings reading books and memorising Quran as well as praying in their rooms. All of which is very new and strange to their mother...

Khutbah: Muslim Family Values

By Muhammad Alshareef

The family is the cornerstone of Muslim society. In Islam, family-life is based on sacrifice, love, loyalty and obedience. How does Islam view familial relationships?

read the complete khutbah here

100 million little emperors and little misses

Little Miss and Little Emperor

Jane Macartney

Today is Children’s Day. And China takes this very seriously. Driving through the streets of Beijing, I noticed any number of little girls dressed in fairy princess dresses with full tulle skirts in an array of pastel colours.

Here, indeed, I thought were China’s “Little Emperors” – the only children that make up an entire generation of what, sadly, I can only describe as spoilt brats.

I spent the entire morning with a "only child" stereotype. It was an eye-opening experience. My intention was to interview her extremely wealthy father. I had not expected the added bonus of a Little Miss skipping in and out of the room in her pink and white slides decorated with Barbie on the toes in search of her father’s attention.

She had little difficulty grabbing that attention. No, she would not leave daddy alone to answer questions and instead climbed onto his lap. No, she would not take drinks over to his guests. No, she would not stop chattering to daddy even though he said he was busy. And her father made no attempt to enforce his orders.

Finally, the six-year-old miss was ready for lunch. The driver was summoned, we all climbed into a large four-wheel drive vehicle and headed for a smart city restaurant. The young lady sat in front on daddy’s lap, then decided to climb into the back, But that was no fun so better far to sit in the middle of the front seat and watch the unusual foreign guest while gathered in the crook of her father’s arm.

Her father clearly adored her. The middle-aged millionaire sliced up her lunch but looked almost abashed when she refused to eat. The driver was dispatched to collect her medicine from the car and this was then carefully dispensed to Little Miss. She was almost too busy being petted by the waitresses to attend to daddy’s ministrations.

Time out here to mention the waitress-child dynamic. Take a young child into a Chinese restaurant and service will be swift, the infant removed to be the centre of attention among the female staff while harried parents can eat their meal uninterrupted. I confess I don’t have an attention-getter of my own but have watched other parents relish the peace afforded by such moments.

Mine genial host fell into the classic “one-couple, one-child” parent genre . His daughter could be rude, self-centred, demanding and generally expect to be the centre of attention and he would smile indulgently. No surprise there. In China, Little Miss is the rule rather than the exception. Asked to say goodbey to her father's guests, she pouted in a gesture worthy of a coquette more than triple her age.

China has 100 million Little Emperors, doted on by their parents and spoiled by two besotted sets of grandparents. It’s a recipe for selfishness, bad manners and obesity.

As one Chinese editor wrote: China's children are growing up "self-centered, narrow-minded, and incapable of accepting criticism".
How will they behave as adults? Already the first generation born under a draconian birth control policy enforced since 1979 has reached maturity. It’s not too hard to notice that their behaviour is often selfish. And how can they help it after all?
Chinese President Hu Jintao made a carefully calibrated political statement to mark Children’s Day. He visited a handicapped child.

Last year, his choice of publicity event was slightly more in the communist style. Lots of happy children and plenty of song and dance.
The shift in emphasis would indicate that perhaps China"s leaders are really starting to worry about the future of a country in the hands of a generation of spoilt Little Misses and Little Emperors.

good people should go out more often

Narrated Abu Hurayrah, may Allaah be pleased with him : One day while the Prophetصلىالله عليه وسلم was sitting in the company of some people, (The angel) Gabriel came and asked, "What is Eemaan?" Allaah's Apostle صلىالله عليه وسلم replied, 'Faith is to believe in Allaah, His angels, (the) meeting with Him, His Apostles, and to believe in Resurrection."

Then he further asked, "What is Islaam?" Allaah's Apostleصلىالله عليه وسلم replied, "To worship Allaah Alone and none else, to offer prayers perfectly to pay the compulsory charity (Zakat) and to observe fasts during the month of Ramadan."

Then he further asked, "What is Ihsaan (perfection)?" Allaah's Apostle صلىالله عليه وسلم replied, "To worship Allaah as if you see Him, and if you cannot achieve this state of devotion then you must consider that He is looking at you."

Then he further asked, "When will the Hour be established?" Allah's Apostle صلىالله عليه وسلم replied, "The answerer has no better knowledge than the questioner. But I will inform you about its portents. 1. When a slave (lady) gives birth to her master. 2. When the shepherds of black camels start boasting and competing with others in the construction of higher buildings. And the Hour is one of five things which nobody knows except Allaah.

The Prophetصلىالله عليه وسلم then recited: "Verily, with Allaah (Alone) is the knowledge of the Hour--." (31. 34) Then that man (Gabriel) left and the Prophet صلىالله عليه وسلم asked his companions to call him back, but they could not see him. Then the Prophetصلىالله عليه وسلم said, "That was Gabriel who came to teach the people their religion." (Saheeh Al-Bukhaari, Book #2, Hadith #47)

I was just thinking about the significance of Jibreel being sent in human form to inform the Muslims about Islaam, Eemaan and Ihsaan ...honestly, I've learnt more about these three things from being in the company of people who are constantly struggling to practice it in their lives, than by all the lectures and halaqas and khutbahs and articles and books combined...

y'know that cliche that you've heard 35228456 times, it is true: actions speak louder than words...

we had the opportunity to spend a few hours in the past few days in the company of such people...and it completely convinced me that good people should really make time to mingle ...it reminds us wannabes of the potential that can be realised, that is within all of us.