oh the irony..

...yes, it's rather funny now that i have a millisecond to think about it...there I was posting about how I got back my long lost literary voice and getting certain people's expectations up ...followed up by a week-long silence ...

as the more perspicacious of our readers may have guessed ...they'RR back...or should I say they'RR BAG...

For the better part of the past week I have been picking a veritable Aladin's treasure trove of books, clothes, CDs, school supplies, more clothes, *vanity cases* from upended bags that have largesse with a capital N written all over them (...jazaakillaah Naanu for multiplying the number of things I have to pick up from the floor n times)......and listening to the have-to-be-heard-to-be-believed stories about what life's like in the Great Wide Out There..

in shaa Allaah, R-R will have a serious update ready by the time I return from shopping for school supplies and uniforms...

The Best Part: Being reunited with my very own copy of My Family and Other Animals, for which my mum hunted high and low ...jzk X100000...it's worth every dirham for the number of laughs and the nostalgia (I read it first in Grade 9) and the deja vu.

44 words that cured me of writer's block

'Is it lack of imagination that makes us come
to imagined places, not just stay at home?'

Continent, city, country, society:
the choice is never wide and never free.

And here, or there ... no.
Should we have stayed at home,
wherever that may be?'

(Elizabeth Bishop)

apples, pears, marble cake, jam tarts and the milk of human kindness

For the past two weeks I've been getting random calls from people who are wondering how on earth I'm managing on my own with the under-5s (...alhamdulillaah, I'm fine).
This is immediately followed by: billaah 'alayki..ehna akhwaat fillaah, yaa bint al halaal, tell us if there's anything to be done, do you need anything from the baqaalah? do you want to go out for a bit?

Twice last week, people landed at our place out of the blue-- a sister took the time last Thursday to teach me how to make pizza from scratch, and stayed back to eat a little, and packed the rest to put away in the freezer.
Someone dropped by last evening en route to taking their little kid to the doctor, bearing (what seems to me) tons of farm-grown apples and pears, enormous slices of homemade marble cake and jam tarts.

I'm always overwhelmed and extremely touched by generosity, especially of the laa nureedu minkum jazaa'an wa laa shukooraa variety...may Allaah bless the hearts that are inspired by small acts of kindness and have the grace to translate that inspiration into action.

aside: I was looking up something on Urban Legends, and came across the original milk-of-human-kindness story...soppy, but sweet

One day, a poor boy who was selling goods from door to door to pay his way through school, found he had only one thin dime left, and he was hungry. He decided he would ask for a meal at the next house.
However, he lost his nerve when a lovely young woman opened the door. Instead of a meal he asked for a drink of water. She thought he looked hungry so brought him a large glass of milk.

He drank it so slowly, and then asked, How much do I owe you?" You don't owe me anything," she replied. "Mother has taught us never to accept pay for a kindness." He said ... "Then I thank you from my heart." As Howard Kelly left that house, he not only felt stronger physically, but his
faith in God and man was strong also. He had been ready to give up and quit.
Many year's later that same young woman became critically ill. The local doctors were baffled. They finally sent her to the big city, where they called in specialists to study her rare disease. Dr. Howard Kelly was called in for the
consultation. When he heard the name of the town she came from, a strange light filled his eyes. Immediately he rose and went down the hall of the hospital to her room. Dressed in his doctor's gown he went in to see her. He recognized her at once. He went back to the consultation room determined to do his best to save her life. From that day he gave special attention to her case.

After a long struggle, the battle was won. Dr. Kelly requested the business office to pass the final bill to him for approval. He looked at it, then wrote something on the
edge and the bill was sent to her room. She feared to open it, for she was sure it would take the rest of her life to pay for it all.

Finally she looked, and something caught her attention on the side of the bill. She read these words ...
"Paid in full with one glass of milk" (Signed) Dr. Howard Kelly.

Tears of joy flooded her eyes as her happy heart prayed: "Thank You, God, that Your love has spread broad through human hearts and hands."

once upon a midnight

Pic courtesy: Epic Misery/BBC

101 things to do with your toddler

with (the better) half of our menagerie gone, there's sooo much less to do at home...it gets boring sometimes so I looked up a list of 101 things to do with toddlers...sweet, simple, homegrown fun.

...the under-5s are also enjoying these cute animated books on animals, alphabets and numbers and the cutest one of all in two versions -- for girls and boys!

painstaking, taking pains

I'm reading the biography of Imaam Al-Bukhaari these days and it's both humbling and inspiring.

Humbling, because of the incredible scope of his scholarship.

The book says that he began memorising ahadeeth at the age of 10 (or younger) and attended the lectures of hadeeth scholars at that age, even correcting one of them (ad-Daakhilee) on one famous occasion thanks to his amazing memory. He travelled with his mother to Makkah (for Hajj) and stayed on to learn from the scholars there -- when he was less than 18 years old!

He wrote over 25 books --which are remarkable as much for their contents as the topics that he chose to write on. It's said that the proof of his genius and his knowledge lies in the topics that he has classified ahadeeth under, in his Al-Jaami' asSaheeh alMusnaad min Hadeeth Rasoolallaah صلىالله عليه وسلم aka 'Saheeh Al-Bukhaari'.

The biography also includes the historical circumstances that led to the compilation of Saheeh Al-Bukhaari, and a section on the rationale and criteria behind choosing ahadeeth. He has been quoted as saying: " I authored Al-Jaami' asSaheeh from a choice of 600,000 ahadeeth over a span of 16 years." The book says that he would pray 2 units of prayer, not only for each hadeeth that he recorded, but even before recording the name of each chapter.

In these days of push-button publishing pundits, merely *imagining* that degree of dedication and sincerity to the deen takes some doing.

Inspiring, because he was someone who worked against odds -- he was an orphan, and had reportedly lost his eyesight as a child, and regained it after his mother's fervent supplications. During his lifetime, he endured petty jealousies and had several run-ins with the powers that be.

May Allaah have mercy upon Imaam Al-Bukhaari...how hard he worked to give us records of the Sunnah...and how easily we dismiss/diss his efforts!

stay at homes have fun too!

هُوَ الَّذِي يُرِيكُمُ الْبَرْقَ خَوْفاً وَطَمَعاً وَيُنْشِئُ السَّحَابَ الثِّقَالَ
وَيُسَبِّحُ الرَّعْدُ بِحَمْدِهِ وَالْمَلاَئِكَةُ مِنْ خِيفَتِهِ وَيُرْسِلُ الصَّوَاعِقَ فَيُصِيبُ بِهَا مَن يَشَاءُ وَهُمْ يُجَادِلُونَ فِي اللّهِ وَهُوَ شَدِيدُ الْمِحَالِ


It is He who shows you the lightning, as a fear and as a hope
And it is He Who brings up (or originates) the clouds, heavy (with water).
And Ar-Rad (thunder) glorifies and praises Him, and so do the angels because of His Awe, He sends the thunderbolts, and therewith He strikes whom He wills,
yet they (disbelievers) dispute about Allaah.
And He is Mighty in strength and Severe in punishment.
[Soorah Ar-Ra'd: 12, 13]

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it's been raining since last evening, complete with lightning and thunderbolts through the night...this morning the under-5s and I sat by the windows, soaking in the tingling spray and catching hailstones ...yes, real, live, hailstones subhaanallaah!...who said stay at homes don't have fun?

off now to cook up an all the french-fries-you-can-eat-fest for lunch...last time i checked the temperature in the UAE was what....42 C? :P

Q.E.D

There's a moment in Cheaper by the Dozen-I (I picked up a suitably sanitised version recently at Jarir, the only movie I've seen in maybe 5 years, b/z its theme of a family with a crazy number of kids and a mum who likes to clickety clack on the computer early in the morning sounded so familiar) when the lead couple (with 12 kids) are visited by their new neighbours with only child in tow.

One breathless OTT comedy sequence later the neighbours are headed out, talking about the couple they just met:

Man: "12 Kids! That's a throwback!"

Woman: "Irresponsible is more like it.."

It made me think of the oft-levelled misconception/accusation that couples who have large families are 'irresponsible'...I'd say that's about as true as calling people with small families 'selfish'...

Like the post below proves, the birth of each child is a miracle, a blessing, a manifestation of Allaah's Will, more than anything else.

QED.

maa shaa Allaah 4!

150 NAPPIES 112 VESTS 56 BABYGROS 168 BIBS 900G OF BABY MILK FORMULA 4 BOXES OF BABY WIPES 2 LARGE BOTTLES OF BABY LOTION 2 LARGE BOTTLES OF SHAMPOO.. A WEEK!
By Jenny Bray
A MOTHER has given birth to quads after being told she had little hope of pregnancy.
Shabnum Sadiq, 25, beat odds of 729,000-1 to produce naturally conceived sons Haider and Zayan and daughters Zareen and Maheen. All are healthy and out of hospital.

Yet less than a year ago doctors said an ovary condition made it unlikely the mum could give birth.
Shabnum, of Reading, said: "They are four little miracles." Husband Khizran, 27, added: "I'm gobsmacked."

The complete article, adorable pix, and a 19-hour-day in the life of a quadruplet's mum here

Empty Nest...20 years too soon

...so Rasha-Rida left this morning to visit their gran, and I'm looking at the prospect of 2 weeks without them...and missing them already...interesting days ahead..

how can the image of a dead child help?

How can the image of a dead child help?
Gulf News

"Your newspaper was not allowed into my house on Monday morning. I had it thrown straight into the bin. It is distressing enough to read of the deaths of innocent children in times of war and conflict but completely unnecessary to show that image on the front page.
What happened to the classic photojournalism of war-torn countries which has won awards over the years for its clear message without having to resort to graphic and brutal pictures of burning bodies and crushed limbs? We live in times when violence is so commonplace on TV to the point where no one takes any notice of real conflict and pain. How can the image of that dead child change what is happening in Lebanon?"

(Letter to the Editor)

The PhotoDirector has a really nice reply, that ends with:

"...We live in the Playstation age where children and adults alike are desensitised by the carnage on their television sets because apparent "death" is so common and "resurrection" is a mere press of the button away. In real war there is no second chance or "restart" button and perhaps parents should be duty bound to explain the difference between "real" death and "cyber" death.
By throwing Gulf News in the bin you may have lost a great opportunity to teach your children about the reality of life and how different it is from Playstation's artificial life..."

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PS: yes we're back...just speechless at all the goings on to post..soon, in shaa Allaah