Day in the Life of Muslim Kidz

child victims in Gaza

2009-01-24T20:11:00.002+03:00

Children of Gaza: stories of those who died and the trauma for those who survived

The Israelis killed my kid, not once or twice but a thousand times."

2009-01-16T17:49:00.001+03:00

The words keep echoing in Kamal Awaga's ears, sending jolts of pain into his feeble, wounded body.
These were the last words uttered by his 9-year-old son, Ibrahim, before he ended up as a practicing target for Israeli soldiers.

"They killed my son in cold blood," says the grief-stricken father, still in a state of shock.
Ibrahim joined more than 350 children killed by Israel in its three-week onslaught on the coastal enclave.

But while others fell victim to killer bullets or deadly bombs, Ibrahim's fate was even more tragic.

He became a shooting practice for a squad of Israeli soldiers.

"The Israelis did not show mercy for his innocence," said his tearful father from his bed at the Al-Shefa hospital in Gaza City.

"They had no pity for his tiny body," added the heart-broken father.

Nothing in the day prepared the Awaga family for the tragic twist of events that unfolded.
They woke up to a sunny morning after days of being locked in one small room to escape the massive Israeli bombardment.

"Mom, let's have our breakfast out in the garden. I'm tired of staying in this room," the grieved mother recalls Ibrahim's plea.

An hour later, the table was set in the garden and the family was hoping to enjoy rare moments of peace, unaware of the eyes watching them from a distance.

A first missile stole the family's job before another destroyed their house.

"Dad, I am dying," cried Ibrahim to his father who rushed frantically to his side.

"Hurry, let's go," Awaga told his wife and two other children while carrying bleeding Ibrahim.

But even before they could reach the gate, a flood of bullets showered them.

One bullet hit the mother's leg and another hit the father's waist.
Ibrahim's two frightened brothers ran for cover behind the rubbles of their bombed-out house.

As the firing died down, the family thought their misery was over. But the Israeli soldiers were not finished yet.
"When the soldiers came closer, I thought they will kill me," said Awaga who faked being dead.

"But they were aiming at my young child," he said choking at the bitter memory.
One soldier came close to Ibrahim's body, turning him by his leg and laughing while another fired his gun to the dead boy's head.
Laughs got louder as they carried the body to a higher place to start their party.
For a whole hour, the father hushed his cries of pain as he watched the Israeli soldiers compete in sniping on his dead son's body.
"They were using his bullet-ridden, bleeding body as a shooting practice.
"With each bullet, they were humming with words I could not figure out, but it sounded full of rapture. It was as if they were celebrating."

When they finally had enough "practicing," the Israelis took their guns and left the house.

Four complete days passed before emergency doctors were able to find their way to the family and rush them to hospital.

"What did my son do to deserve that?" Awaga asks, shaking his head in disbelief.

"The Israelis killed my kid, not once or twice but a thousand times."

---

HasbunAllaahu wa ni'mal wakeel...ni'mal Maula wa ni'man Naseer.

our children and Gaza

2009-01-14T18:25:00.003+03:00

Our children and what is happening in Gaza
Dr Muhammad Abdulaziz al-Shuraim

It is hard for us as adults to cope with what is unfolding in Gaza these days. How do we expect small children to cope? This is especially when they see and hear on television the tragic and bloody events that are taking place. Adults might be able to understand what they see on television and go on productively with their lives. Indeed, many have learned how to cope from the sheer number of crises and wars that the news exposes us to year after year. However, children need special care to deal with these tragic events without suffering adverse psychological effects.

Even if we do our best to shelter our children from the the most graphic depictions of what is going on in Gaza, the media will invariably expose them to images and events that they will find deeply disturbing. The following advice can be taken by parents to help their children cope:

1. We need to be receptive to our children's feelings. When children express fear or worry about what they see or hear, the role of the parents is to accept these feelings from their children as being natural. They need to convey to their children that everyone has these feelings – even adults. When a child knows that his or her feelings are normal, and that he or she is not alone in feeling fear, it allows the child to cope more positively with that fear, especially when he or she sees that the big people who share such fears continue to go about their daily activities in a normal manner.

2. We must not criticize the fear our children feel or deny their feelings. Many parents say things like: "There is no reason to be afraid" or: "Don't be frightened." They believe that such statements placate their children's fears. This is not the case. By denying the feelings that our children are experiencing, we actually aggravate their fears, because they feel that they are doing something wrong for feeling the way they do. They need to know that everyone feels fear, just like they do.

3. We need to encourage our children to communicate their feelings. Some children need to put their feelings in worlds before they can deal with those feelings. Moreover, some children confuse their genuine feelings with imaginary ones. Just talking about what they feel gives many children comfort, since they know that they have an outlet whenever they come under stress. As parents, we need to encourage communication and also accept from them what they feel, without criticism or condemnation, as we have already explained.

4. We need to answer their questions honestly. In the face of such a crisis, children will definitely have many questions going through their minds. Moreover, the fertile imaginations that children possess can make them construct things in their minds that have no grounds in reality. This is why it is critical – no matter how complicated or silly our children's questions might seem to us as parents – that we do our best to answer those questions accurately and honestly. If we do not know the answer, we should be able to say: "I do not know."

Honest answers help children to distinguish what is reality from the constructs of their imaginations. If children cannot find answers from the people they look up to, their imaginations will run wild.

5. We can help our children to describe what they are feeling. After a child speaks about what he or she feels, it is possible for the parents to identify or describe that feeling for the child. For instance, a parent can say: "You are scared for your brothers and sisters in Palestine." or: "You are worried that the same thing could happen to us here."

Helping to put their feelings into words does not make things worse, like some people think. Rather, it helps children psychologically, allowing them to better understand what is going through their minds, and by letting them know that the people around them understand and respect their feelings.

6. We must teach our children how to best cope with their fears. By showing sympathy for our children's fears, we help our children to overcome them. When a child says that he or she is frightened that bombs will fall on the house, it is an opportunity to explain to the child that such things are indeed frightening but they are taking place far away. We should feel worried, but not for ourselves, but rather for our brothers and sisters over there who are living through the tragedy. We can take this occasion to teach our children to supplicate to Allah to protect and help them.

7. We should channel their feelings in positive ways. Children are more disposed than older people to feel sympathy for others and make sacrifices for them. We can ask our children to make suggestions how we can help our brothers and sisters in Gaza. Maybe the children can donate some of his or her money – no matter that it is very little – to grant relief to the victims of the tragedy. This increases their sense of solidarity while reducing their feelings of fear. It increases the desire of the children to be more charitable in their future lives, and to be more ready supplicate to Allah to help those who are suffering.

8. We should use the occasion to teach our children. Many children do not appreciate what they have. They are born into a life where they are blessed with a comfortable home, enough food to eat, and toys to play with. They take all of this for granted. When they are disturbed by a tragedy like what is taking place in Gaza, we can use the opportunity to teach our children the importance of thanking Allah for the blessings that He has bestowed upon us. We can make our children aware of the fact that others do not have these things that we take for granted. There are children who do not have the food that maybe our children disdain to eat. Parents can remind their children that what they complain about cannot be compared to the suffering the children of Gaza are going through who have lost almost everything except their hope in Allah.

9. We must explain what our faith in Allah teaches us about life's difficulties. We need to explain to our children that the trials Allah deems to have the people of Gaza endure is also part of His love for His creatures. Allah graces those in adversity with the chance to show patience and to strengthen their faith in the certainty of His promise. In this way, we teach our children how they, as believers, can cope better with adversity in their own lives.

10. We need to show our children that we love them. Sometimes children need to be reassured that their parents will do everything to protect them from what frightens them. They need to know that their parents are there for them. We need to hug our children and kiss them when we see that they are frightened or under stress. At the same time, depending on the child's age, we need to give the child confidence that Allah, in His wisdom, has decreed everything for humanity and that we must rely on Allah and go on with our lives, though there are dangers out there.

I hope that these words of advice will help our children cope in a positive manner with the crisis that is taking place, though our children's difficulties are nothing in comparison to what the children of Gaza are suffering from.

Finally, I pray to Allah to help our brothers and sisters in Gaza. Truly, He is the one who is All-Powerful, and He is the one we turn to for help.

rationed food in the land of milk and honey

2009-01-14T09:30:00.002+03:00

Palestinian children eating their rations at an UNRWA center in the Jabalya refugee camp. (AP)

sometimes one is glad that hell in the Hereafter is real and everlasting

2009-01-11T11:08:00.002+03:00

Welcome to Hell: Gaza's unending misery
Last week, an Israeli attack outside a UN school killed nearly 40 people. Israel and Palestinian witnesses said militants carried out an attack from the area moments earlier. But it is Israeli fire, Israeli weapons and Israeli military that do the aiming – and Palestinian women and children being killed at a rate that is sickening world opinion, if not yet world leaders.
And behind the statistics, the pictures of broken bodies wrapped in winding sheets are the stories of real people. People such as Olvera Al-Jarou and her tiny son Yusuf. Mrs Al-Jarou, 36, originally from Ukraine and married to a Palestinian doctor, became the first foreigner to lose her life in Gaza. Her one-year-old son Yusuf, clinging to her in fright during a bombardment, also died when an Israeli shell hit their home. A daughter, Yasmine, was severely injured and is now in intensive care; another son, Abdulrahman, was also wounded but is expected to make a full recovery.
Mrs Al-Jarou could have left with about 300 other foreign nationals allowed to leave Gaza by the Israelis last week. But other family members were denied the same escape and she decided she could not abandon her husband and children, as well as the community that has become her home. "My wife said to me that her place was with us, here, in Gaza. She could never just leave us. So she stayed, and she died," said Dr Awny Al-Jarou, who received cuts to his head. "She died. My beautiful son died as well. My wife was cut in half and my son was in pieces. My heart is breaking but I have two other children and I now have to make sure that they live and grow up. I try not to think about my wife and son."
Death from the skies is not the only threat facing Gaza's children. Medical facilities are stretched almost to breaking point, and no one can vouch for this better than Dr Al-Jarou. He is at the Shifa, Gaza's biggest hospital, where about 70 patients are in intensive care, among them his daughter Yasmine. They cling to life through four generators working round the clock at a hospital which has been without power for the past seven days because Gaza's sole power plant has stopped working due to lack of fuel. "How terrible it would be," Dr Hassan Khalaf, the hospital's director, said, "if our patients survive attacks – and then die because of a lack of electricity."
And the threats to Gaza's families, these "collateral" inhabitants waiting to be damaged, now include, according to the World Bank, being drowned by sewage as the Israeli offensive threatens to cause the collapse of a giant lagoon of human waste. The bank says the earthen walls of the 75-acre lagoon – which contains 450 million gallons of sewage – are being weakened by the bombardment and the build-up of water pressure because pumps have run out of fuel. If they were to burst they could bring about a death toll far greater than that of the military action so far.

shocking!

2009-01-10T11:20:00.003+03:00

Who/What inspired the creator of Barbie dolls

Why am I not surprised??

Allaahu musta'an

2009-01-09T23:27:00.002+03:00

Children found next to dead mothers
Four small starving children too weak to stand were found next to the bodies of their dead mothers by ambulancemen who had been trying to reach their Gaza neighbourhood for four days after it came under Israeli attack, the Red Cross said yesterday.
In what the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) called a "shocking incident", another man, also too weak to stand, was found in the same bombed house, along with at least 12 corpses on mattresses.
Accusing Israel of violating international law by imposing "unacceptable" delays on rescuers trying to reach the scene, the ICRC said that when ambulance crews were finally allowed to access the area in Gaza City's Zeitoun district during a bombardment pause on Wednesday, they found 15 other survivors, including several wounded in another house. In a third house, they found three more corpses.
The ICRC said that because the military had erected large earth walls around the site, the crews were forced to use donkey carts to convey the children and the wounded to ambulances. Pierre Wettach, the ICRC's head of delegation for Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, said: "The Israeli military must have been aware of the situation but did not assist the wounded. Neither did they make it possible for us or the Palestine Red Crescent to assist the wounded."

speechless.

2008-12-30T22:11:00.003+03:00

The bodies of five Palestinian siblings lie in a hospital morgue following an Israeli air strike.The five sisters, Dena, Iman, Ikram, Tahrir and Samar Balousha, died when a bomb destroyed their home and a next-door mosque in a refugee camp north of Gaza City.
Their mother had taken her sixth and youngest child to safety in a nearby building and returned to find her home smashed to rubble.

taqabbal Allaah minnaa wa minkum

2008-10-02T10:11:00.003+03:00

Hope everyone has/had a happy 'Eid.

please spare a prayer for our Imaam's family..may Allaah raise their ranks in jannah and grant them sabr. This is the first 'Eid we have spent away from this masjid, subhaanallaah.

Mosque fire kills imam’s children
Hayat Al-Ghamdi Arab News
A son and a daughter of Sheikh Ahmed Al-Hawashi, imam and khateeb of Noorain Mosque , died on Tuesday in a fire that broke out at the imam’s residence that was attached to the mosque.
Al-Hawashi has called for an investigation into the fire that killed his two children — Anas, 2, and Tasneem, 4 — while they were preparing to celebrate Eid and injured a Civil Defense officer and four others.
The imam suspected that the fire was a criminal attack on the mosque. He added that there was a similar attempt seven months ago. He ruled out suggestions that an electricity short-circuit might have caused the fire.
Maj. Muhammad Al-Asimi, spokesman of the Civil Defense in Asir province, said the department’s operations room received information about the fire at 9:30 a.m., adding that seven fire-fighting units had been sent to put out the blaze.
Al-Asimi said security officers have launched an investigation to determine the reasons that caused the fire that had gutted part of the mosque including the imam’s home, prayer hall for women and its library.

innaa lillaahi wa inna ilayhi raaji'oon

the bottomline

2008-08-19T09:16:00.003+03:00

وَنِعْمَ أَجْرُ الْعَامِلِينَ

And the excellent reward is for the 'aamileen (doers).
Not for the talkers, philosophisers, wish-we-were-doing-more-ers.
This is such a short piece of an ayah, but it set me thinking in a way only Allaah's words can.

May Allaah imbue us with a sense of urgency and an acute awareness of time... of its irrevocable passing and of the sure sense of regret that follows time not spent in His way.
Wishing everyone a blessed Sha'baan and an especially blessed Ramadhaan. Please keep us in your prayers!

who does Allaah love?

2008-08-19T08:54:00.003+03:00

2. Surah Al-Baqarah : Ayah 195
"Surely Allah loves the doers of good."
2. Surah Al-Baqarah : Ayah 222
"Surely Allah loves those who turn much (to Him), and He loves those who purify themselves."

3. Surah Aal-i-Imran : Ayah 76
"Indeed, whoever fulfills his promise and guards (against evil)-- then surely Allah loves those who guard (against evil)."
3. Surah Aal-i-Imran : Ayah 133-136
"And hasten to forgiveness from your Lord; and a Garden, the extent of which is (as) the heavens and the earth, it is prepared for those who guard (against evil). Those who spend (benevolently) in ease as well as in straitness, and those who restrain (their) anger and pardon men; and Allaah loves the doers of good (to others). And those who when they commit an indecency or do injustice to their souls remember Allaah and ask forgiveness for their faults-- and who forgives the faults but Allaah, and (who) do not knowingly persist in what they have done. (As for) these-- their reward is forgiveness from their Lord, and gardens beneath which rivers flow, to abide in them, and excellent is the reward of the laborers."
3. Surah Aal-i-Imran : Ayah 146
"And Allaah loves the patient."
3. Surah Aal-i-Imran : Ayah 148
"And Allaah loves those who do good (to others)."

5. Surah Al-Maidah : Ayah 42
"And if you judge, judge between them with equity; surely Allaah loves those who judge equitably."
5. Surah A l-Maidah : Ayah 54
"O you who believe! whoever from among you turns back from his Deen, then Allaah will bring a people, He shall love them and they shall love Him, lowly before the believers, mighty against the unbelievers, they shall strive hard in Allaah's way and shall not fear the censure of any censurer; this is Allaah's Face, He gives it to whom He pleases, and Allaah is Ample-giving, Knowing."
5. Surah Al-Maidah : Ayah 93]
"On those who believe and do good there is no blame for what they eat, when they are careful (of their duty) and believe and do good deeds, then they are careful (of their duty) and believe, then they are careful (of their duty) and do good (to others), and Allah loves those who do good (to others)."

9. Surah At-Tawba : Ayah 7
"Surely Allaah loves those who are careful (of their duty)."
9. Sura h At-Tawba : Ayah 108
"And Allaah loves those who purify themselves."

49. Su rah Al-Hujurat : Ayah
"And act equitably; surely Allaah loves those who act equitably."

60. Surah Al-M umtahana: Ayah 8
"Surely Allaah loves the doers of justice."

61. Surah As-Saff: Ayah 4
"Surely Allaah loves those who strive in His way in ranks as if they were a firm and compact wall."

this reminds me of

2008-08-05T14:41:00.004+03:00

...me, at age 10, when eating the dictionary was my favourite pastime,
happily inherited by all my children alhamdulillaah.

Reading the OED: One Man, One Year (excerpt from a NYT review)

Ammon Shea, a sometime furniture mover, gondolier and word collector, has written an oddly inspiring book about reading the whole of the Oxford English Dictionary in one go. Shea’s book resurrects many lost, misshapen, beautifully unlucky words — words that spiraled out, like fast-decaying muons, after their tiny moment in the cloud chamber of English usage. There’s hypergelast (a person who won’t stop laughing), lant (to add urine to ale to give it more kick), obmutescence (willful speechlessness) and ploiter (to work to little purpose) — all good words to have on the tip of your tongue when, for example, you’re stopped for speeding.

Shea’s book offers more than exotic word lists, though. It also has a plot. “I feel as though I am eating the alphabet,” he writes halfway through, and you want him to make it to the end. This is the “Super Size Me” of lexicography.

Back in the ’90s, Shea read Webster’s Second from beginning to end — no easy feat. Did doing so help him in any way? No. It didn’t make him a better or smarter person, or improve his test scores. In fact, it seems to have hindered his capacity for self-expression. “My head was so full of words that I often had trouble forming simple sentences out loud,” he writes, “and my speech became a curious jumble of obscure words and improper syntax.” But Shea seems to have loved this experience of verbal overspill — he underwent the prolonged brain-shiver that comes when thousands of unfamiliar meanings pour in without stopping. “It felt wonderful,” he says.

The logical next step was to read the O.E.D., but here Shea hesitated. The O.E.D. is huge, as everyone knows. It’s monstrously deep and serious and maddeningly detailed, each entry a miniature etymological seminar. And the lovely-ugly words, words that Shea didn’t know existed, leap up to his hand. Acnestis — the part of an animal’s back that the animal can’t reach to scratch. And bespawl — to splatter with saliva. In Chapter D, Shea encounters deipnophobia, the fear of dinner parties; Chapter K brings kankedort, an awkward situation.

Months in, Shea arrives — back-aching, crabby, page-blind — at Chapter N. “Some days I feel as if I do not actually speak the English language,” he writes, his verbal cortex overflowing. “It is,” he observes, “like trying to remember all the trees one sees through the window of a train.” Once he stares for a while, amazed, at the word glove. “I find myself wondering why I’ve never seen this odd term that describes such a common article of clothing.”

By Chapter O there is evidence of further disintegration. Is he turning into, he wonders, one of the “Library People”? The bag-toters and mutterers who spend all their time there? “Sometimes I get angry at the dictionary and let loose with a muffled yell.” At night he hears a deep, disembodied voice slowly intoning definitions.

But then, thank goodness, he breaks through into sunlight. In Chapter P he finds a rich harvest of words, including one, petrichor, that refers to the loamy smell that rises from the dry ground after a rain, and a nicely dense indivisible word, prend, that refers to a mended crack. He notes these down in his big ledger book.

Théophile Gautier read the dictionary to enrich and exoticize his poetry. Walter Pater read the dictionary to keep his prose pure and marmoreal — to learn what words to avoid. Shea has no interest in purity or poetry. His style is simple. He just wants to identify and savor, for their own sweet sakes, malocclusive Greek and Latin hybrids that are difficult to figure out how to pronounce. He is fond of polysyllabic near-homonyms — words like incompetible (outside the range of competency) and repertitious (found accidentally), which are quickly swallowed up in the sonic gravitation of familiar words. And a number of Shea’s finds deserve prompt resurrection: vicambulist, for instance — a person who wanders city streets.

The effect of this book on me was to make me like Ammon Shea and, briefly, to hate English. What a choking, God-awful mash it is! Surely French is better. Then I recovered and saw its greatness afresh. The O.E.D., Shea notes, is “a catalog of the foibles of the human condition.” Shea has walked the wildwood of our gnarled, ancient speech and returned singing incomprehensible sounds in a language that turns out to be our own.

innaa lillaahi wa innaa ilayhi raaji'oon

2008-08-04T14:37:00.005+03:00

JERUSALEM (CNN) — An Israeli border policeman has been arrested in connection with last week’s shooting death of a Palestinian boy, an Israeli police spokesman said Sunday.

Maysaloun Moussa, mother of the slain boy, holds a poster bearing his image at her home Wednesday.

The border policeman was placed under house arrest Thursday, two days after Ahmed Moussa’s death in the West Bank.

According to Israeli media reports, Moussa was shot in the head during a demonstration against an Israeli security barrier near the village of Nil’in. His age initially was reported to have been 9, but other reports have said he was 10 or 11.

Eyewitnesses said Moussa was killed when Israeli soldiers fired shots near a group of Palestinian youths during the demonstration.

finding the Prophet in his people

2008-07-10T10:00:00.006+03:00

Last night, my son had an ikhtibaar (exam) at the jami'yyah -- he was being tested for the portion of the Qur'aan he has learnt so far. His ustaadh took him and a couple of other kids from his neighbourhood halaqah to the (bigger) masjid where the exam was being held.
After the exam, he brought the kids back and on the way he played them a cassette of anaasheed on his car stereo.
It made a huge impression on my son. ''He played the cassette especially for us, Umma,'' he said.

At other times, I've heard my son narrating ahaadeeth and stories his teachers have told him, and even personal anecdotes from the ustaadh's childhood. Once, the teachers herded all the kids together in their personal cars and took them to a playground to play football, another time they were taken on a trip to an amusement park and plied with their favourite snacks.

Needless to say, their kindness makes a big difference to their students. Mind you, these aren't their regular schoolteachers but part-time teachers who are probably students themselves, who've taken up the enormously daunting task of keeping unruly bunches of young schoolboys in one piece through the long summer hours and helping them revise their Qur'aan.

After picking them up, there was still time for salah, so we headed back home and stopped at the masjid that's right in front of our home to pray 'isha. I sent my sons off to the men's section, and they popped right back looking a bit worried, saying there's no one there except the mu'aththin.
Not wanting them to kill time, I sent them back and asked my elder son to ask the mu'aththin if he would allow him to say athaan just this once.
He came back looking a bit crushed, cheeks and ears aflame: ''He said no.''
From my other son, I gathered that the mu'aththin had been a bit...umm..brusque in his refusal.

I could understand the mu'aththin's point of view -- he had the rules to think of, and the masjid committee and possibly other worshippers who could ask him why he'd relegated his duty to a child.
What I couldn't understand was the brusqueness, the lack of kindness in his refusal.
At times like these, I miss Rasoolullaah صلىالله عليه وسلم .
How can the followers of the Prophet صلىالله عليه وسلم who took bay'ah in all seriousness from a group of children in his masjid, who said man laa yarham, laa yurham of the man who hadn't ever kissed any of his children, who patted children on the head as he passed them on the street neglect to follow his primary sunnah of kindness, while scrupulously sticking to all others?

It reminded me of something I'd read by Dr. Ingrid Mattson, on Finding the Prophet in his People, where she recounts her experiences as a new Muslim, and later as a Muslim mother.
Definitely worth a read, and a pause for thought.

call me juvenile if you like

2008-06-23T18:28:00.004+03:00

..but I couldn't resist making up this poster

after seeing who's who on the editorial board of The Harvard Crimson.
Has not the time come for people to acknowledge the obvious?

''Indians are obsequious'' and other racist claptrap

2008-06-22T09:57:00.003+03:00

For me, one of the biggest challenges of living 'abroad' has been having one's 'nationality' -- and all the positive and negative stereotypes that go with it -- rubbed in one's face several times a day. Never mind if you can't tie a sari to save your life or don't cook nihari for breakfast every weekend, people just assume that you do all the things desis are supposed to do in bollywood movies and tv serials, but are just too embarrassed to admit it in public.
How irritating is that?!
I've been brought up to be polite and considerate, to be solicitous of others' well-being before one's own, to never, ever be outright rude but to withdraw (from conversations/relationships) if they're heading towards a nasty, messy showdown.
To have regular good manners thought of as a racial characteristic, a vestige from years of being colonised makes me want to go up in smoke, honestly. Is this a sign of the times or what, when people are so used to being treated badly that plain ole good manners seem OTT?
This is just a waseeyah to my kids (in case good manners are extinct and completely out of fashion by the time they grow up): don't lose your adab just because people around you have lost theirs/don't appreciate/recognise good manners when they see some .

As Ustaadh Muhammad Al-Shareef writes: Rasul Allah, sal Allah alayhi wa sallam, said, "A believer mayachieve the status of one who fasts during the day regularly andspends the night regularly in prayer: through his good manners."
[Lessons from this Hadith]Ask yourself, what outstanding characteristic am I lacking inthe most? And then, for the next 10 days, just work on buildingthat blessed characteristic into your outstanding mannersportfolio!''

TGIF and a happiness equation

2008-06-20T10:58:00.003+03:00

...Dr Cliff Arnall, a part-time tutor at the University of Cardiff, [...] has devised a formula which measures good mood using increased outdoor activity, high energy levels and more sunlight.
The equation Dr Arnall devised, in work commissioned by ice cream maker Walls, was O + (N x S) + Cpm/T + He.
Within that, O stands for being outdoors and outdoor activity, N for nature, S for social interaction, Cpm for childhood summers and positive memories, T for temperature and He for holidays and looking forward to time off.
Today is also pinpointed as the happiest day of the year because of its added ‘thank goodness it's Friday’ feeling at the start of a summer weekend.

Meanwhile we check out ten great foods to get you in the mood and raise those seratonin (sic) levels.
(Am I the only person on MSN who noticed these guys have spelt serotonin wrong? :nerdyspellingNazisis:)

In other news, we're all alive, well and happy to be back alhamdulillaah...lots more very soon iA

what if someone opened the door into your life?

2008-04-19T10:03:00.002+03:00

Good reminder from Ustaadh Muhammad Al-Shareef:
Allah's Messengerصلىالله عليه وسلم said, "Be honest, for indeed honesty leads to righteousness, and righteousness leads to paradise."
[Lessons from this Hadith] Live your life in a way that if someone was to open the door on you at any moment, you would have nothing to hide. This is true success. Think of something that you may be ashamed people will find out about, and take some action right now to stop doing it.

feed your brain...

2008-04-10T12:40:00.006+03:00

here are a few riddles...

What gets wetter and wetter the more it dries?
A towel
You throw away the outside and cook the inside. Then you eat the outside and throw away the inside. What did you eat?
I ate a chicken
What goes up and down the stairs without moving?
A rug
What can you catch but not throw?
A cold
What goes around the world but stays in a corner?
A stamp
I have holes in my top and bottom, my left and right, and in the middle. But I still hold water. What am I?
a sponge
Give me food, and I will live; give me water, and I will die. What am I?
Fire

Want more brain food?

Dear Blog

2008-04-08T22:01:00.003+03:00

sometimes, life redefines 'Busy' and you catch yourself hanging onto every second to cram more work into it. subhaanallaah.
Rasha-Rida this blog needs an update, stat.

inspirations in your inbox

2008-03-23T00:12:00.004+03:00

We don't really have a humungous e-mail list consisting of the entire world and their sister, but this is something really nice that I'd recommend to anyone out there looking for divine inspiration in their e-mail inbox: weekly-emails from Ustaadh Muhammad AlShareef that remind you of the words of Allaah and His Messenger.
A sample:
My number one goal in life is...

مَن كَانَ يُرِيدُ حَرْثَ الْآخِرَةِ نَزِدْ لَهُ فِي حَرْثِهِ وَمَن كَانَ يُرِيدُ حَرْثَ الدُّنْيَا نُؤتِهِ مِنْهَا وَمَا لَهُ فِي الْآخِرَةِ مِن نَّصِيبٍ
"To any that desires the soil of the Hereafter, We will increase
in his soil, and to any that desires the soil of this world, We
grant somewhat thereof, but he has no share or lot in the
Hereafter.
Surah Ash-Shura 42:20
[Lessons from this Verse]
When you ask people what their number one goal in life is,
rarely do you hear the person immediately respond by saying:
"Pleasing Allah, Jannat Al-Firdows - the highest level of
Jannah, and being with Rasul Allah, sal Allahu alayhi wa sallam,
in the hereafter."

But ... isn't that the correct answer? Let's make it a reality with how we live our lives!
PS: Invite 10 friends to benefit from these emails by telling themhow you yourself benefitted, and that they too can join by emailing: successinislam@getresponse.com.

what do you call a man-made disaster?

2008-03-06T13:21:00.000+03:00

Humanitarian situation in Gaza worst since 1967 say aid groups
Agencies
London: The humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip is at its worst since the occupation began in 1967, according to British aid groups. The coalition of groups including Amnesty International, Save the Children and Christian Aid have all criticized Israel’s blockade on Gaza, branding it as illegal collective punishment.
They also called on the international community to resume dialogue with Hamas, as the "international policy of isolating Hamas has not reaped any benefits."
The report entitled Gaza Strip: A Humanitarian Implosion says that almost 75 per cent of people in the private sector have lost their jobs and 1.1 million Gazans are dependent on food aid. The groups have also called on Israel to ensure people in Gaza are able to get basic necessities such as clean water, food and electricity.
The report added: "The situation for 1.5 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip is worse now than at any time since the beginning of the Israeli military occupation in 1967." Amnesty UK Director Kate Allen said: "The current situation is man-made and must be reversed."

Ghada Karmi's book: In Search of Fatima

2008-03-06T11:17:00.005+03:00

...is one of the most straight-forward, unselfconscious and unaffected piece of writing I've ever read. These are the highest compliments I can think of for someone of her intellectual stature and experience. It is so easy for academics to fall into the trap of intellectualising everything, it's a major miracle how someone with her background avoided that and came up with such a beautiful book.
She struck a chord with me for several other reasons...a semi-lonely childhood, a house frequented by her father's famous intellectual friends, a convent-school education, studying medicine instead of the arts even though she loved reading and writing to fulfill her parent's wishes...her (self-admitted) anglophilia, her friend's opinion (and her own) of her as "a dark-skinned English girl" and subsequent devotion to the Palestinian cause.
It reminded me in parts of Edward Said's memoir 'Out of Place', but 'In Search of Fatima' is special because it's written from a Muslim perspective, albeit by a person who describes herself as non-practising.
I bought the book at duty-free and could not put it down until I'd finished all 450 pages.
Good stuff.

fee amaanillaah

2008-03-05T14:44:00.004+03:00

I thought I was scared of flying too, until this time.
Travelling on my own for the first time, I actually dared to peep out of the open window shades.
To see swirls of light and dark clouds, pinpoints of light, mountains and the sea, and a magic horizon that seemed to veer out of reach just as the 'plane reached closer.
I felt so close to Him, the Owner of the Ways of Ascent, to whom ascend the angels and the Rooh.
I truly felt fee amaanillaah (in Allaah's preserve). subhaanallaah.

***

In other news, it wasn't just my imagination: I now have it on good authority that people (airlines staff and travellers) are definitely unfriendlier to mums with babies and much more accommodating to single ladies travelling alone.

Each time I've travelled with kids in tow I've had to weather condescending clucks of the tongue, semi-exasperated sighs from strangers of all shapes and stripes. However, this time, ironically when I needed very little help/assistance from people, everyone was uber polite and eager to please. What's up with that?

Reminds me of this really sweet article that I'd posted the last time I travelled, worth a re-post I think:
Beauty v/s Babies and Beards
By: Rabbi Shmuley Boteach (courtesy: Beliefnet)
Have you ever tried to infiltrate business class holding a baby? Had I arrived with something actually ticking that said “BOMB” in big, bold letters, I would have been accorded a more pleasant reception. Everyone looked at me as if I had boarded with an obvious contagious disease. The baby, coupled with the fact that the guy bringing “it” on board had a yarmulke and an unruly beard (i.e., obviously one of those religious fanatics who is far too fertile by half), had most of the passengers ready to trade in their expensive business-class tickets to fly cargo.
Next, the official persecution began. After great efforts on my part to get settled with my baby into my seat, while maintaining access to the thirty books that I needed to research my next book, the flight attendant walked over. “Is that your seat?” she asked, skepticism oozing out of every well-powdered pore. I confirmed that it was. “Are you sure?” she asked. I confirmed that I was. “I’m going to have to see your boarding pass.” I was indignant. “Let me get this straight,” I said to her. “There are thirty passengers in business, and you single me out and demand my boarding pass?” “If you don’t immediately present your boarding pass, I will have you removed from the airplane.” I picked up the baby, removed the library from my lap, reached into the overhead compartment, rummaged through my bag, found the boarding pass, presented it to the stewardess, and took a deep breath. She looked it over. There it was, in black and white, Seat 2F. “Wait here,” she said. She went to the front of the aircraft, returning a few minutes later. “Were you upgraded on this flight?” “No,” I said, “I was booked in business from the outset.” Foiled in her mission to rid business class of beards and babies, she retreated to the other well-coiffed stewardess, and spent the next ten hours whispering and pointing, even after the baby was transferred to my wife who was sitting with the common folks.
Fast forward, two weeks. I am now traveling first class on a flight from Newark to Dallas, courtesy of a TV station. I have no baby, just a laptop. They announce that First Class passengers may board. I start ambling forward when, pushing through the crowd, I am scuttled aside by a very tall, leggy blonde. Her arrogant demeanor says one thing: model. Within a few minutes she is ensconced in her bulkhead seat, a pristine white poodle by her side, which she hugs and kisses and shares her drink with. First I have to witness the nauseating spectacle of all of the female flight attendants queuing up to pet the dog. “Oh, is this yours? She’s just gorgeous. Oh, Stacy, come and look at this beautiful little furry thing.” How my baby and I had earlier been treated immediately comes to mind. Later I notice that the flight attendants pretend not to see when Missy Long Legs holds the pooch during landing when “it” should have been put in its container.
The hypothetical scoreboard high in the clouds reads, Beauty: One, Beard: Zero.
Dog: One. Baby: Zero. I was frankly flummoxed by the degree of attention that was heaped upon this passenger, and how the other women treated her as their natural superior. In 1996, nearly 700,000 Americans underwent plastic surgery for aesthetic purposes. In the U.S. people spend more money on beauty than they do on education or social services—a good illustration of our priorities.
There is something seriously wrong in the world when children are treated as a nuisance while dogs are treated as love objects. And there is something seriously amiss when appearance, rather than actions, can dictate likeability. There is something dangerously off track when men and women who love children, and aren't afraid to have large families, must feel apologetic and guilty for doing so. To paraphrase Martin Luther King, we await the day when our children will be judged by the content of their character rather than the comeliness of their skin. And we await the day when the fact of our children’s existence is not judged at all, but seen as the embodiment of infinite blessing .

the mummy's curse

2008-03-02T08:47:00.002+03:00

We don't do days, but this mother's day article is worth a peek: Free us from the curse of the yummy mummy
"On this special day, shouldn't we seize the opportunity to kill off the myth of the Yummy Mummy once and for all and perhaps replace her with the far more realistic Bummed Mummy? [...]
What else could explain the bizarre trend, started by celebrities, for women to slim back down to the size of a Twiglet straight afterbirth or how the fact that they've managed to get back into 'those pre-pregnancy jeans' is routinely perceived as far more marvellous, much more of a 'miracle', than giving birth itself?
[...]Despite society's best efforts, parenting has not turned into a Boden catalogue, so, arguably, neither should we[...] maybe it's time women stopped envying the Yummy Mummy and started seeing her for what she is - just another tiresome fiction of perfection that no sane person has got time for.
Do the women of today really want to be remembered as the Yummy Mummy wannabe generation that cried their eyes out because they weren't Posh Spice? Do they really want inscribed on their tombstones: 'Her greatest achievement was to get back into her jeans quickly'?
Thought so. In fact, to any mother reading this: just for one day, forget all about trying to be 'yummy'. Instead, relax...and spend the rest of the day barking instructions at your progeny to attend to your every need. Isn't this what Mother's Day is all about?"

it's raining death

2008-02-29T07:06:00.003+03:00

innaa lillaahi wa innaa ilayhi raaji'oon
from: Arab News
GAZA CITY/RAMALLAH, 29 February 2008 — The Israeli warplanes continued Wednesday night and early yesterday to target different sites in the Gaza Strip killing nine civilians including three children and a 5-month-old infant. Several other people were also wounded during the attacks, witnesses and medical sources said.
Palestinian media and medics reported late in the evening that three children from one family were killed and a fourth was critically wounded when the Israeli warplanes targeted them while they were playing in eastern Jablaiy refugee camp in the northern of the Gaza Strip.
[...]
An infant was killed in an airstrike on Hamas government building in Gaza city last night ...after nightfall, an Israeli strike killed two children as they left a mosque, local sources said.

Anthea Turner, a forward on Martha-Stewart types, and life on fast-forward

2008-02-25T16:25:00.005+03:00

We spent this weekend at a picturesque (and according to Rasha, "posh") villa located on the edge of a mountain (think mists covering a deep, deep valley on one side and an artificial dam lit up by fairy lights across the road) because we ran out of water at our house and the water tanker wouldn't be available until after Friday prayers.
We're also in the process of shifting (at least mentally, we haven't got down to the nitty gritty yet) to another place.
Each day as we zoom off to our respective workplaces I can feel time passing us by.
Just looking at the kids and seeing them growing up (maa shaa Allaah) before our eyes makes it seem as if we're living life on fast-forward...as if moments are passing us by without giving us time to savour / absorb them fully.
Sometimes, I feel like I am literally running out of life.

***

I got this forward and laughed out loud.
House Cleaning Tips for New Mothers or 30 Minutes to a Cleaner House
You're getting company in 30 minutes. Your house is a mess.WHAT WILL YOU DO?
Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the first session of Housekeeping Tips for New Mothers. If you're a Martha Stewart type of housekeeper, this column is NOT for you. However, for the rest of you, this is your chance to learn 15 Secret Shortcuts to Good Housekeeping that your mother never told you.
SECRET TIP 1: DOOR LOCKS
If a room clearly can't be whipped into shape in 30 days, much less 30 minutes, employ the Locked Door Method of cleaning. Tell anyone who tries to go in the room that you accidentally locked the door and can't find the key. Of course, the locksmith can't possibly come until tomorrow. CAUTION: It is not advisable to use this tip for the bathroom.Time: 2 seconds
SECRET TIP 2: DUCT TAPE
No home should be without an ample supply. Not only is it handy for plumbing repairs, but it's a great way to hem drapes, tablecloths, clothes, just about anything. No muss, no fuss.Time: 2-3 minutes
SECRET TIP 3: OVENS
If you think ovens are just for baking, think again. Ovens represent at least 9 cubic feet of hidden storage space, which means they're a great place to shove dirty dishes, dirty clothes, or just about anything you want to get out of sight when company's coming.Time: 2 minutes
SECRET TIP 4: CLOTHES DRYERS
Like Secret Tip 3, except bigger. CAUTION: Avoid hiding flammable objects here.Time: 2.5 minutes
SECRET TIP 5: WASHING MACHINES & FREEZERSLike Secret Tip 4, except even bigger. Time: 3 minutesSECRET
TIP 6: DUST RUFFLES
No bed should be without one. Devotees of Martha Stewart believe dust ruffles exist to keep dust out from under a bed or to help coordinate the colorful look of a bedroom. The rest of us know a dust ruffle's highest and best use is to hide whatever you've managed to shove under the bed. (Refer to Secret Tips 3, 4, 5.)Time: 4 minutes
SECRET TIP 7: DUSTINGThe 30-Minutes-To-A-Clean-House method says: Never dust under what you can dust around.Time: 3 minutes
SECRET TIP 8: DISHESDon't use them. Use plastic or paper plates and you won't have to.Time: 1 minute
SECRET TIP 9: CLOTHES WASHING (EEWWW)This secret tip is brought to you by an inventive teenager. When this teen's mother went on a housekeeping strike for a month, the teen discovered you can extend the life of your underwear by two ...if you turn it wrong side out and, yes, rerun it. CAUTION: This tip is recommended only for teens and those who don't care if they get in a car wreck.Time: 3 seconds
SECRET TIP 10: IRONINGIf an article of clothing doesn't require a full press and your hair does, a curling iron is the answer. In between curling your hair, use the hot wand to iron minor wrinkles out of your clothes. Yes, it really does work, or so I'm told, by other disciples of the 30-Minutes-To-A-Clean-House philosophy. Time: 5 minutes (including curling your hair)
SECRET TIP 11: VACUUMINGStick to the middle of the room, which is the only place people look. Don't bother vacuuming under furniture. It takes way too long and no one looks there anyway.Time: 5 minutes, entire house; 2 minutes, living room only
SECRET TIP 12: LIGHTINGThe key here is low, low, and lower. It's not only romantic, but bad lighting can hide a multitude of dirt.Time: 10 seconds
SECRET TIP 13: BED MAKING
Get an old-fashioned waterbed. No one can tell if those things are made up or not, saving you, oh, hundreds of seconds over the course of a lifetime.Time: 0
SECRET TIP 14: SHOWERS, TOILETS, AND SINKSForget one and two. Concentrate on three.Time: 1 minute
SECRET TIP 15:If you already knew at least 10 of these tips, don't even think about inviting a Martha Stewart type to your home.
For some reason it reminded me of Anthea Turner's show that I like to watch, if only to reassure myself that I'm not alone.

you don't say!

2008-02-20T20:13:00.003+03:00

Interesting: 7 Deadly Sins of the blogging world - a far cry from Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Sloth, Wrath, Envy and Pride!

Into the Mind of a Mum (3)

2008-02-20T15:27:00.004+03:00

Why I won't buy you a or a and no, my name isn't Ebenezer Scrooge.
okay, I won't buy you or let you buy a laptop or a must-have mobile even though we both have the money to buy both those things (alhamdulillaah) because:
a) It's the old need v/s want thing.
Why on earth would you need a personal laptop at your age when we've got our vintage computer and my dell? (decrepit and lately defunct, but dell all the same). Yes, I know the ratio of users v/s computers in our house is skewed, but still...

b) I'm old fashioned and genetically desi. That translates to: i believe that if you want something really bad which you don't really need, you should work for it. You know what that means...more messed up rooms to clean at the exorbitant rate of SR 100 per room...but think of the satisfaction you'll get when you'll eventually have earned enough money from the sweat of your brow...just think!

c) Laptops allow you to spend unlimited time surfing the net or writing mystery stories and mobiles make it easy for you to call /text random people just to see what they're up to ...both induce you to waste time and money. Why would I let you buy something like that?

d) Seriously though, after seeing what happened to my miskeen old laptop and (just yesterday) my pathetic mobile, how can you even think of having fancy new ones in a house full of sippy cups and leaking bottles, curious fingers and mechanically inclined little minds?

Into the Mind of a Mum (2)

2008-02-13T08:51:00.001+03:00

Why I won't let you fool around with your hair / face.

Cross posted on the Sisters-in-Faith blog .

common sense 101

2008-02-12T12:58:00.000+03:00

Parents to the Rescue

The Guardian

...most people would feel helpless if confronted with a medical emergency and seven out of 10 adults would not know what to do if faced with the sight of a child lying face down in water.
"We polled 2,000 adults and their answers ranged from doing nothing and feeling helpless to not checking if the casualty was breathing before starting CPR [cardio-pulmonary resuscitation] - which could prove fatal," says Andrew New, senior training officer for St John Ambulance. "Given the number of first-aid emergencies that could be resolved relatively easily, it is worrying how few parents say they don't know what to do. Even doing something simple, such as having the confidence to give reassurance, can make a huge difference to the outcome."
"Without a doubt, parents don't know enough," says Clive James, a senior training officer and volunteer with St John Ambulance. "Just take the recovery position, for example. Putting somebody in the right position can save their life. Or choking. If you know exactly what to do, you can help."
There are all sorts of first-aid courses in the UK, ranging from a basic three hours to several days, but many people are reluctant to go on one. "Mostly it's because people think they won't need it, that it won't happen to them," says James, "or they're not sure what the course might involve. But 99.9% of first aid is common sense."
Joe Mulligan, head of first aid with the Red Cross, believes some parents are reluctant to learn because they don't want to confront the idea that they may need to use it on their own children. "We get a lot of people signing up for a course after the event. They've normally had a scare of some sort. What happens in the first five minutes after an accident is critical and can be not only life-saving, but in cases of burns and scalds, quick and appropriate treatment can have a huge effect on the cosmetic result."

Instant response: what you need to know
Burns

The first thing to do is cool the affected area. If possible, hold it under cold water for at least 10 minutes. Then cover with clean, non-fluffy material such as a cloth, plastic bag or clingfilm. If it's deep or larger than the palm of the casualty's hand, also seek urgent medical attention. Do not Use lotions, creams or adhesive dressings or break blisters.

Lumps, bumps and bruises

Apply a cold compress to bumped areas for no more than 10 minutes, to relieve the swelling. When people go into shock they go cold. Hold their hand to warm and reassure them. If you are worried they might be concussed, the rule is that if the child gets knocked out, even for a short time, or acts strangely, they should see a doctor.

Nosebleeds

These usually happen because a tiny blood vessel inside the nose has become damaged. Aim to control the blood loss. Sit the child down, tilt their head forwards and allow the blood to drain from the nose. Then get them to pinch their nose and dribble into a bowl. Discourage them from coughing, swallowing or swilling. After a few minutes, release the pressure on the nose. If still bleeding, keep pinching for another 10 minutes.

Strains and sprains

Strains are pulled muscles and sprains are stretched ligaments. Remember "Rice". R is for rest: get the child to sit down. I is for ice to reduce pain and bruising, but don't apply it directly on to the skin - wrap it in kitchen roll or a tea towel. Frozen peas are good because you can roll them around the injury. C is for compress: apply a bandage firmly to the injury. E is for elevation: keep the injured area as high as possible, to slow blood flow to the injury, so reducing swelling and long-term bruising.

Febrile convulsion

Make sure the child is not too hot and keep them in the recovery position (on their side, mouth facing downwards for easy draining, chin up to keep airways open). The convulsion may be caused by their temperature getting too high but it could be asthma or epilepsy. If in doubt, call an ambulance. Do not Wrap the child in too many layers if they have a high temperature.

Into the Mind of a Mum (1)

2008-02-11T08:43:00.000+03:00

I'm thinking of starting a series of posts that unravel the workings of a mum's mind. Mind you, this is not a generic Mum I'm talking about, this is specifically about the thoughts of one mum among millions: me (not to imply that I'm one in a million or anything :P) so that kids in general and my own kids in particular, get an insight into what's really behind a mother's seemingly bizarre and/or unreasonable commands/demands.

Today, I'm going to start with:

Why I won't let you make an internet ''friend''

You know, in desiland they have this saying: someone who's been burnt by (hot) milk, will drink even (cold) buttermilk by carefully blowing on it. Clumsy translation I know, but basically the message is the same: once bitten twice shy.

After having 'met' and interacted with, confided in, shared work, life histories, experiences, ideas and laughs out loud with plenty of people online, I feel patently qualified to tell you kids that an online ''friendship'' is definitely not for you.

Here are my reasons why:

1. There are scores of criminals and sick people cruising the internet, just waiting to sink their talons into gullible young people looking for an online 'friend'.

I keep reading these stories in the media of how youngsters are lured into conversations with people posing as 'friends' their own age that eventually lead them to great harm.

I think you should be aware of this... this is not just happening to other people, it could happen to anyone. I won't let you expose yourself to this danger, just like I wouldn't let you walk down a busy, unlit road alone at night.

As'alAllaahu al'afwa wal aafiyah.

I ask Allaah to protect you and all the other kids who are careless/unaware of this aspect from all harm.

PS: This site has some useful internet safety rules for Muslim kids...a really beneficial read.

2. On the internet, you are an online 'persona' not a real 'person'.

Sure, online friends might share their thoughts and ideas and innermost feelings with you and you might do the same, but you'll never know the sum total of their personality and they'll never know what you are all about, unless you meet and interact with them in real life.

You know how it is with people, you come to really know them after meeting them over a period of several years -- the nuances of their characters, their good and bad qualities (and yours) are revealed slowly through time and different circumstances.

On the other hand, what you know about people online is what they tell you, you can't make any conclusions of your own because you haven't seen them, haven't heard their tone of voice or observed their body language. You've no idea how they will react when things aren't all that rosy...for example if you have a disagreement / argument.

Sometimes people end up saying things they shouldn't have said / giving out TMI (too much information) about themselves or unconsciously hurting people by their words / actions online. You know it's impossible to unsay words and undo actions, moreso in a virtual world.

So, I strongly feel that instead of investing your time and emotions into someone who really can't be there for you when you need them or when they need you (in moments of crisis / need) you would be better off without all this hassle and unnecessary drama.

You can spend your time and efforts a whole lot more fruitfully by making connections with real people around you, who you can relate with and depend on, who can see you and who can do things for you, and vice versa.

3. Internet friends are for old (er) people

I know this sounds like a double standard, but I firmly believe that kids don't have the psychological maturity, emotional intelligence or fine-honed discretion to make online friends like older, more experienced and well-weathered people do .

No seriously, as you see more of the world, you learn to pick people with greater care and some of us develop this fine instinct / intuition that helps us zero in on the right people and steer clear of the others, alhamdulillaah.

I've 'met' and talked to and had some really stimulating, enriching exchanges with some amazing people over the internet whose existence I'd have been completely unaware of otherwise. Unfortunately, you have to be (at least) my age before you have the know-how to do that :P

So until then, please chill.

Remember Allaah and make duaa so that He blesses you with tayyib rizq -- companions and friends whose love brings benefit near Him.
Connect with people around you (cousins, school-friends / family friends' kids).
Make 'friends' with your siblings instead of always being at war.
Talk to your parents if you're lonely / confused / need someone to confide in.

Spend time with the best of people:

"It is reported from Nu’aym bin Hammaad:‘Abdullah bin Al-Mubaarak used to often stay at home, so he was asked, “Don’t you get lonely?” He replied, “How could I get lonely when I am with the Prophet – Allaah’s peace and blessings be upon him (i.e. I read his hadeeth)?”

Also on the authority of Nu’aym bin Hammaad:It was once said to ‘Abdullah bin Al-Mubaarak, “O Abu ‘Abd Al-Rahmaan, you often sit alone at home.” He said, “I am alone? I am with the Prophet - Allaah’s peace and blessings be upon him – and his Companions.” Meaning: reading hadeeth.

Ibn ‘Asaakir, Taareekh Dimashq 32/458.Shaqeeq bin Ibraaheem reports:It was once said to ‘Abdullah bin Al-Mubaarak, “After you have prayed with us you don’t sit with us?” He replied, “I go and sit with the Sahaabah and the Taabi’een.” We said, “And how can you sit with the Sahaabah and Taabi’een (when they have all passed away)?” He replied, “I go and read the knowledge I have collected, I find their narrations and deeds. What would I do with you? You sit around backbiting people.”

[Adh-Dhahabee, Siyar A’laam Al-Nubalaa' in his biography of ‘Abdullah bin Al-Mubaarak.]

In conclusion, I won't let you be/have an online friend because I love you and want to do the right thing for you, even though you might not agree with me/ understand why it has to be this way, right now.

in shaa Allaah, one day you'll know.

What about the children in Gaza?

2008-02-10T13:51:00.000+03:00

By Jamal Anderson
As the prison doors close again on the large-scale concentration camp that is the Gaza Strip, the desperate inhabitants are once more sealed away from the world.
Below is a reproduction of an account by a member of the UK charity Islamic Relief of what he saw and experienced.

"As our team arrived in Gaza we saw first hand how this situation is one of the worst we have ever encountered. The atmosphere is one of tense despair where people are enduring sub-human living conditions.
"It is damp and bitterly cold here but the homes we are visiting have no heating and most have no windows as they have been blasted out during bomb raids. The first home we visited was that of an old lady looking after a 12 year old disabled child; she
hadn't eaten for days in order to give him what little she had.

"In another home we found a couple looking after 14 children, some were their own, and others the children of families whose parents have been killed. They didn't have enough blankets, and were having to choose at night which of them got to use the blankets. We have been providing blankets as well as food and clean water, but so much more is needed.

"The situation is desperate! Hospitals are poorly equipped, not just for patients who are sick but also for those who are injured by the bombing raids. We encountered children and adults with limbs blown off, as well as those needing operations - but
doctors warn if the power supply fails, many won't survive! There is also a horrendous sewage problem which will only compound the health problems.

"Of all the war and disaster zones I have visited this is the worst ever. The people of Gaza are suffering in a big way, and are feeling like the world doesn't care. They ask us please not to forget their suffering. I really don't know how they are enduring it. As well as the suffering there's the tense desperation that death could come at any minute if another bomb falls out of the sky. Everyone seems ready for death, it is a weird sensation and no civilian population should have to suffer such an unjust situation."
www.islamic-relief.org.uk

information overload, child-friendly khutbahs and verses that stay on

2008-02-09T10:41:00.000+03:00

We have this tradition at our place where we get together after Friday khutbah and try to recollect what we've heard (on tv /in an actual masjid) . It's a good way to rakkiz what one has heard. Sometimes the kids remember certain ayahs or ahadeeth or the general topic of the khutbah, but at other times the khutbah really goes over the top of their heads.

One thing they all do remember is anecdotes/ parables / stories and I suspect this is the case with most people who attend Friday khutbahs. I personally feel that Friday khutbahs are not the time for an information overload; short, simple yet stirring khutbahs that address topical issues might make all the difference to the Ummah and the dipping interest levels of its youngsters in all things religious.

Anyway, the khutbah itself was about istighfaar: seeking forgiveness repeatedly, sincerely, for major and minor acts.

The Imaam mentioned the Syed al-Istighfaar (see below) and read these verses (given below) in the 2nd rak'ah.

Although we may have read the supplication and the verses separately many times, yet I could feel a fresh dimension opening on hearing them at the khutbah.

many of us who are ''practising'' tend to get complacent about seeking forgiveness, perhaps grading our efforts as ''miah-miah'' (:P nativespeak for 100/100) when in reality we have miles to go before we make the grade.

many of us who are consciously sinning reach a level of spiritual ennui where we might feel we already have accumulated the proverbial mountain of sins or sins like the foam of the sea...why bother seeking forgiveness?

The answer to both is that although all the Prophet's sins were forgiven, he would still seek forgiveness more than 70 times every day. And he promised us, his Ummah, that Allaah would even forgive sins as numerous as the foam in the sea. And who forgives sins except Allaah: I find this verse really really powerful.
One day later, I'm still thinking about this. subhaanallaah.

'and who forgives sins, except Allaah?'

2008-02-09T10:04:00.000+03:00

وَأَطِيعُواْ اللّهَ وَالرَّسُولَ لَعَلَّكُمْ تُرْحَمُونَ

And obey Allaah and the Messenger that you may obtain mercy.

وَسَارِعُواْ إِلَى مَغْفِرَةٍ مِّن رَّبِّكُمْ وَجَنَّةٍ عَرْضُهَا السَّمَاوَاتُ وَالأَرْضُ أُعِدَّتْ لِلْمُتَّقِينَ

And make haste towards forgiveness from your Lord, and Paradise,

As wide as the heavens and the earth,

prepared for Al-Muttaqoon (the people who fear Allaah).

الَّذِينَ يُنفِقُونَ فِي السَّرَّاءِ وَالضَّرَّاءِ وَالْكَاظِمِينَ الْغَيْظَ وَالْعَافِينَ عَنِ النَّاسِ وَاللّهُ يُحِبُّ الْمُحْسِنِينَ
Those who spend in prosperity and in adversity,

who repress anger,

and who pardon people;

Indeed, Allaah loves Al-Muhsinoon

(people who strive to excel in their good deeds).

وَالَّذِينَ إِذَا فَعَلُواْ فَاحِشَةً أَوْ ظَلَمُواْ أَنْفُسَهُمْ ذَكَرُواْ اللّهَ فَاسْتَغْفَرُواْ لِذُنُوبِهِمْ
وَمَن يَغْفِرُ الذُّنُوبَ إِلاَّ اللّهُ
وَلَمْ يُصِرُّواْ عَلَى مَا فَعَلُواْ وَهُمْ يَعْلَمُونَ
And those who, when they have committed Faahishah

or wronged their souls/selves,

remember Allaah and ask forgiveness for their sins;
And who can forgive sins but Allaah?
And do not continue / persist in what (wrong) they have done, once they know.

أُوْلَئِكَ جَزَاؤُهُم مَّغْفِرَةٌ مِّن رَّبِّهِمْ وَجَنَّاتٌ تَجْرِي مِن تَحْتِهَا الأَنْهَارُ خَالِدِينَ فِيهَا وَنِعْمَ أَجْرُ الْعَامِلِينَ
For them, the reward is Forgiveness from their Lord,

and Gardens with rivers flowing underneath (Paradise),

wherein they shall abide forever.

How excellent is the reward for the 'Aamileen!

(the people who do good).

the ''syed'' (chief) of all supplications

2008-02-09T09:41:00.000+03:00

اللَّهُمَّ أَنْتَ رَبِي لا إِلهَ إِلّا أَنْتَ
، خَلَقْتَنِي وَأَنَا عَبْدُكَ ، وَأَنَا عَلى عَهْدِكَ وَوَعْدِكَ مَا اسْتَطَعْتُ
، أَعُوذُ بِكَ مِنْ شَرِ مَا صَنَعْتُ ، أَبْوءُ لَكَ بِنِعْمَتِكَ عَلَيَّ ، وَأَبُوءُ بَذَنْبِي
، فَاغْفِرْ لِي ، فَإِنَّهُ لا يَغْفِرُ الذُّنُوبَ إِلَّا أَنْتَْ َ

Shaddaad bin Aws said: The Prophet صلىالله عليه وسلم said, “The best supplication for seeking forgiveness (Syed-ul-Istighfar) is to say: `Allaahumma Anta Rabbi, laa ilaaha illa Ant, khalaqtani wa ana `abduk, wa ana `ala `ahdika wa wa`dika mastata`t, a`oothu bika min sharri ma sana`t, aboo’u laka bi ni`matika `alayya, wa aboo’u bithanbi faghfir lee, fa innahu laa yaghfiru ath-thunoob illaa Ant. (O Allaah! You are my Rabb (Lord).

There is no true god except You.

You have created me, and I am Your slave, and I hold to Your Covenant as far as I can.

I seek refuge in You from the evil of what I have done.

I acknowledge the favours that You have bestowed upon me, and I confess my sins.

Pardon me, for none but You has the power to pardon).’

He who supplicates in these terms during the day with firm belief in it and dies on the same day (before the evening), he will be one of the dwellers of Jannah; and if anyone supplicates in these terms during the night with firm belief in it and dies before the morning, he will be one of the dwellers of Jannah.” [Al-Bukhari]

taken from Imaam Suhaib Webb's blog

Friday khutbah I attended

2008-02-09T09:10:00.000+03:00

For the past two Fridays I've had the chance to go for Friday khutbah, alhamdulillaah.

Usually Friday mornings are an impossible whirl of activity, but some days things work themselves out by the will of Allaah (subhaanallaah, there is no other explanation) and I find myself inside the masjid, surrounded by the scents of rayhaan and oud, the muted sounds of women softly reading the Qur'aan or their athkaar, others praying their tahaiyyatul masjid.

Earlier, I used to find it stressful getting ready on time and getting out of the house at X hour to catch the khutbah so I'd just bundle the kids out with Abu RR, but these days alhamdulillaah, the masjid seems like an istaraahah, a place to catch one's spiritual breath.

As if in congruence to my thoughts, there's a little computer print-out at the entrance of the masjid (in Arabic):

Imaam Ahmad was asked: mataa Raahah ? (When is Raahah i.e. when will there be an end to cares?)
He said: 'Inda awwal qadam adh'ahaa fil Jannah. (When the first foot is placed inside Jannah.''

places on paper

2008-02-06T18:26:00.000+03:00

The Guardian has this list of books that transport you to places you've never been to before, except on paper. Ever had that feeling while reading a book? They've even got a name for the phenomenon: international books. Neat!

I have my own list, though:

Any biography of the Prophet /Companions to take you 1400 years back in time.

Palestine, by Joe Sacco for a virtual visit to the Holy Land.

The God of Small Things, by Arundhati Roy for all things Kerala.

Anything by Gabriel Garcia Marquez to transport you to a place where it's hot, mosquitoes abound and there's the smell of gun powder and bitter almonds, while parrots squawk outside on guava trees.

My son's father by Nadine Gordimer to apartheid South Africa.

Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell to south American cotton plantations.

Pride and Prejudice / Sherlock Holmes' adventures / PG Wodehouse to Victorian England.

The Good Earth by Pearl S Buck to China.

Enid Blyton books to a place called childhood.

btw, the ''learning stuff'' label reminds me..

2008-02-01T16:55:00.000+03:00

look this up for really interesting tips on improving memory: MindTools

essential Friday reading/listening

2008-02-01T15:44:00.000+03:00

Besides Soorah Al-Kahf of course, there's this incredibly insightful tafseer (exegesis) of the soorah by Abul Hasan Ali Nadwi that you should try to get your hands on (if you haven't read it already that is).

I read it aeons ago and I'm looking to get hold of a copy again for Rasha-Rida to read, in shaa Allaah.

In other Friday news, nothing compares to listening to the soorah by one of my favourite reciters.
I'm convinced that the fastest way to learn a soorah is by listening to it as often as possible.
Try it.

plastic baby bottles in hot water

2008-01-31T11:30:00.000+03:00

Hot water 'increases baby bottle chemicals'
Alok Jha, science correspondent
The Guardian,
Hot liquids dramatically increase the amount of harmful chemicals released by plastic bottles, according to a study.
Scientists found that polycarbonate plastic bottles released a known environmental pollutant 55 times more quickly when filled with boiling water.
Polycarbonate is used to make everything from compact discs to milk bottles for babies. The plastic is made from bisphenol A, a chemical produced in large volumes across the world. But over time, the plastic leaches its raw ingredient back into the environment.
"There are a lot of concerns surrounding bisphenol A," said David Santillo, senior scientist at the Greenpeace research laboratory in Exeter. "It is a hormone disrupter able to mimic and interfere with hormone systems in animals."
In the experiment, Scott Belcher, of the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, wanted to work out how bisphenol A leaked out of polycarbonates and whether the temperature of the liquid stored in the bottle affected the rate.
"Previous studies have shown that if you repeatedly scrub, dish-wash and boil polycarbonate baby bottles, they release bisphenol A. But we wanted to know if 'normal' use caused increased release from something that we all use, and to identify what was the most important factor that impacts release," he said.
Belcher took reusable water bottles and tested them for seven days with room temperature water and then boiling water, simulating normal usage during backpacking, mountaineering and other outdoor adventure activities.
He found that boiling water released bisphenol A from the bottles up to 55 times more quickly than the lower-temperature water.
The results, published in the latest edition of the journal Toxicology Letters, found that with room temperature water the rate of release from individual bottles ranged from 0.2 to 0.8 nanograms of bisphenol A an hour. After exposure to boiling water, rates increased to 8 to 32 nanograms an hour.
"A nanogram is a fairly small amount but, given that a lot of hormones work at levels far below that, even if it's not as potent as a natural hormone, you are in the range there which could be contributing to adverse effects," said Santillo.
He added that Belcher's research should renew calls to develop alternative materials for baby milk bottles.
"Newborn babies are at a very sensitive stage of their development and the last thing you want to be doing is dosing them with a very potent hormone disruptor," he said. "If there are ways of avoiding that, the time has come for the public to know about those."

dead and gone: the man who made childhood fun

2008-01-30T20:24:00.000+03:00

very very sweet article on the man who invented the Hula Hoop and the Frisbee (among other fun toys)...as much an obituary of childhood as it was in the pre-pokemon cards and playstation era really as of the man himself.

BY MITCH ALBOM
Last week, at age 82, Richard Knerr died. You probably don’t recognize his name. You probably can’t pronounce it. He wasn’t an actor or a war hero. He cured no diseases. Made no scientific breakthroughs.
In fact, you could say Richard Knerr was about one thing and one thing only: fun. But if you measure a man by what the world would be like without him, here a few things that, minus Knerr, you would never know:
The Hula Hoop.
The Frisbee.
The SuperBall.
Those alone took up a third of my childhood.
Knerr was the co-founder of Wham-O, the company that made those items and more, including the Water Wiggly, the Slip ‘N Slide and Silly String. If there was a philosophy to Wham-O’s products, it was this: Keep it simple, keep it cheap, keep it something kids like to do, over and over.
You’ll notice what is left out.
Violence. Noise. Weapons. Video.

Just for the fun of it
Believe it or not, there was a time when “free time” in America meant doing things like trying to shake a Hula Hoop without it falling down your legs. Or lining up a perfectly flat Frisbee throw, so that it glided on air like a flying saucer.
I know, I know. Anyone under 30 is groaning just reading this. But we make no apologies. This was what we did for fun. We threw Frisbees back and forth. We shook Hula-Hoops around our waists. We flicked a SuperBall against the pavement so hard it would bounce onto someone’s roof.
And then Mom called us for dinner.

[...]

I didn’t know Richard Knerr. But I recently saw an old photo of him in a shirt and tie, goofing it up, Hula Hoops swinging from his shoulders. And I was saddened by his death, because it reminded me of how a certain philosophy has died with him.
Today, kids’ fun has to be at someone’s expense. Blowing up your opponent is fun. Clobbering your friend in Madden football is fun. Insulting people on MySpace or laughing at a geek on YouTube is fun. You don’t see kid “crazes” anymore — the way SuperBalls or yo-yos were crazes. Today a kid craze is cell phones or PlayStations. Today the idea of bouncing a ball as high as you can seems so incredibly lame, you’d wonder if the kid doing it had problems.
But that’s the thing. We didn’t have problems. Not like they have today.
We bounced our balls, threw our Frisbees, shook that silly plastic ring until our hips hurt. And it was fun. It was fun because we weren’t proving ourselves. Our toys didn’t define us, rank us or socialize us. They were meant to be played with. What else could a product from a company named Wham-O be?
By the way, it doesn’t surprise me that Wham-O was sold to a conglomerate in 1982, then later sold to Mattel, then later to a bunch of investors. Guys like Knerr and Melin, who started in their parents’ garages, are often bought out, left with memories, photos and a big check.
Just the same, I was sad to see Knerr’s obituary, because it reminded me of so many youthful things that have waved good-bye. I know when something drops out of style, they say “it went the way of the Hula Hoop,” but they shouldn’t mean childhood.

Daal-chawal with a capital K

2008-01-26T07:09:00.000+03:00

So yesterday we tried Koshary from a restaurant called Koshary an-Neel.

The name conjured some really exotic images for me...I imagined a harmonious commingling of sun-kissed rice and tomatoes with fragrant spices from the Mother of All-Civilisation (Umm Dunya) and some sort of meat (it's an Egyptian dish after all :P).

Imagine my feelings when we unpacked our 'safari' order to encounter daal-chawal with shatta with layers of salty macaroni and spaghetti strings on top, with a few boiled chickpeas strewed on for good measure.

Good, hearty meal all right, but definitely not what I was expecting. Perhaps I get my hopes up too soon?
Anyway here's the recipe (with pictures and a story to go with them) for days when you want to make daal-chaawal by another name. :)

''have you ever seen an Egyptian?''

2008-01-24T08:59:00.000+03:00

Laila El-Haddad of 'Raising Yousuf, Unplugged' on the opening of the wall:

''Of course the border opening will only provide temporary relief, and the ecstasy it generates will be fleeting, as it was in 2005 when shortly after Israel's Disengagement, the once impervious and deadly, sniper-lined border became completely porous. It was an incredible time. I will never forget the feeling of standing in the middle of the Philadelphi corridor, as it was known. Of standing there with hundreds of thousands of other Gazans, savoring the moment of uninterrupted freedom, in this case, freedom of movement. Goats were being lobbed over the secondary fence; mattresses; cigarettes; cheeses. Egyptians took back bags of applies from northern Gaza, and comforters. For two weeks, it was the free market at work. Once a nesting ground for Israeli tanks, armored bulldozers, and the like-all of the war metal-the face of the occupation- that became synonymous with destructions and death for us in Gaza, and particularly for the resident's of Rafah, Philadelphi had so suddenly become nothing but a a kilometre of wasteland, of sand granules marking the end of one, battered, besieged land, and the beginning of the rest of the world.But traveling this short distance had previously been so unthinkable, that the minute it took to walk across it by foot was akin to being in the twilight zone. You couldn't help but feel that at any moment a helicopter gunship would hover by overhead and take aim.

It was then that I met a pair of young boys, 9 and 10, who curiously peered over the fence beyond the wall, into Egypt. In hushed whispers, and innocent giggles they pondered what life was like outside of Gaza and then asked me: Have you ever seen an Egyptian? What do they look like?

They had never left Rafah in their lives.''

''say you're sorry!''

2008-01-22T20:33:00.000+03:00

interesting article in 'Slate' that debates whether getting kids to apologise (to each other/otherfamily members during fights) and to others (if they're misbehaving in mixed company for example) is a good idea or a bad one?:

"OK, sorry," clears the air. It's one way to strive for a modicum of family civility. And after all, growing up is sometimes an exercise in learning to go through the motions, and sometimes a genuine feeling can follow upon an action that's repeated until it's instilled. If I tell my kids to say they're sorry 10,000 times, I can hope that someday the grudging mutter will turn willing and sincere.

The other time I hear myself barking "Say you're sorry!" is when I'm with a friend and his or her kids, and one of my kids is being obnoxious, and I'm embarrassed. This one I can't really defend: It's a cheap way to signal that I, for one, have some manners; that I know my kids are being trolls and won't let them get away with it, at least not entirely. Forcing an apology is a lot easier than imposing a real punishment. So, it suits for small- to medium-sized infractions that I feel like I should address (or rather shouldn't be seen letting go). Especially, if I'm honest, toward the end of a long day.

'tis the season to eat/make halwa!

2008-01-19T16:44:00.000+03:00

The winter chill seems to say: chuck out the calorie counter and dig out the degchis, it's time to make hot, tastes-best-with-ginger-tea halwa.

Chana, carrot, sooji: take your pick.

PS: Now that I've finally acquired the knack of making halwa, I'm appalled at how easy it is!
I mean all these years I've been thinking that there's this huge subtle art behind it that can only be achieved by a chosen few Cordon-Bleu cooks (or the desi-equivalent thereof), and now I find it's ridiculously easy.

Try it, honestly. It's great calorie-rich food for growing kids (not so good for mums though):P

us and them

2008-01-17T21:04:00.000+03:00

These days, I find myself thinking a lot about Palestine.

How can one not?

I'm completely dumbfounded when peope shrug their shoulders with supreme self absorption and dismiss Palestine as a ''territorial issue'' or '' not my problem''. I believe it takes a truly hardened heart to brush away so much pain with such nonchalance.

alhamdulillaah, there are several media outlets and personal pages that cut across religious and race lines (AngryArab, UmmKahlil, Leila Um Yousef, Sabbah, Uri Avnery...to name a few of those I regularly follow) who've been doing an excellent job on reporting Palestine, when most of the mainstream media are content to let sleeping stories lie...for various reasons.

It's also achingly ironic that this new spate of violence in Palestine comes at a time when Muslims are fasting in thanks to mark the day Moses is said to have left Egypt with Bani Israa'eel, after the Prophet صلىالله عليه وسلم said: ''...we have more right to Moosaa ...''

subhaanallaah.

If we were inanimate objects...

2008-01-11T07:47:00.000+03:00

If I were an inanimate object I'd be:

for obvious reasons: it's a multi-tasker and handy to have around the house

Abu-RR:
b/z it always points to the right direction, no matter where it is!

Rasha:
b/z everything is rosy-hued to her and her head's 'most always in the clouds :P

Rida:
b/z she's a realist, but that doesn't stop her from looking outward.

must-see

2007-12-31T20:19:00.000+03:00

Teachers working for months without pay, a chronic overcrowding in the classrooms, and students at risk each day from imprisonment and perhaps worse - welcome to the typical education experience in a Palestinian school.
Those who can, teach - often without pay.

Witness presents a series of three films taking a close look at the extraordinary difficulties and challenges that two ordinary Palestinian schools face.

While poverty is widespread throughout the West Bank and Gaza, Nablus is one of the worst-hit areas because of the decreasing range of employers and the limited number of opportunities.Hobbled by the Palestinians' diminishing purchasing power and by Israeli security closures that have isolated Nablus and its merchants from the rest of the West Bank, hundreds of employees have been fired this year alone.

According to the Mayor of Nablus, about 70 per cent of the city's residents live below the poverty line, but the Palestinian Authority and local government have virtually no funds to give the poor.
Astonishingly, despite these poverty levels, almost 90 per cent of children in Nablus go on to university.But the education system is cracking under the weight of the crisis. More than a million Palestinian students face daily risks ranging from Israeli roadblocks to imprisonment and even death.

Witness goes into the classrooms and corridors of two schools to gauge the situation.Mahmoud Awemleh and Najla Yousif, maths and science secondary school teachers, do their best to teach and inspire their pupils, while trying themselves to survive the challenges of life in Nablus. Osaid writes his end-of-year exams which he missed while in an Israeli prison. The schools' teachers anxiously await pay day, wondering if their salaries will come through this month or not. Meanwhile tragic pandemonium breaks out when Israeli soldiers launch a nearby raid to root out

militants.This series provides a rare glimpse into the daily lives of those trying to educate, and be educated, under occupation.

3 things you could do on 'Eid

2007-12-18T20:08:00.000+03:00

1. Make lots and lots of duaaas (including some special ones for some people in R family who have coughs and colds and are recovering from surgery)

2. Go through the Hajj quiz and the other Islam quizzes (Levels 1 to 8) on the BBC Religion and Ethics website to see how much you really know about Islam and the Hajj.

3. Read Sultan Baybars' rare copy of the Qur'aan online using The British Library's amazing 'Turning the Pages' technology.

Hope everyone has a blessed 'Eid and an accepted Hajj (all those who went), in shaa Allaah.

Abdullaah bin Zubayr on the 8th of Thul-Hijjah

2007-12-17T17:08:00.000+03:00

Abdullaah bin Zubayr, went out on the day of Tarwiyah (8th day of the month of Hajj) and made Talbiyyah in the best manner, then he praised and thanked Allaah and extolled Him, then he said:
'' To proceed: You have come from many different directions in groups to Allaah, the All Mighty, the All-Powerful, and Allaah has made it incumbent upon Himself that He honours His group; so whoever came to seek that which is with Allaah, if he asks Allaah, he will not be disappointed, so prove your words true by your actions, for the foundation of speech is action and the intention is the intention and the hearts are hearts, Allaah is Allaah during these days for they are the days during which sins are forgiven. You have come from many different directions, for a purpose other than trade or seeking the life of this world, hoping for what is here.''

Then he performed the Talbiyyah and none could be seen who was not weeping profusely.

(from:Child Companions of the Prophet)

the best days of the year

2007-12-11T15:23:00.000+03:00

The Best Days in the World
Based on "Al-A`yaad fil Islaam" [by Muhammad. al-Jibaly]
© QSS
The Blessed Days of Dhul Hijjah
In what follows, we will highlight some of the Sunnah regarding these days, hoping by this to provide an incentive to make the best out of them and gain Allaah’s reward, in shaa’ Allaah.

The First Ten Days of Dhul-Hijjah
"The best days in the world are the Ten days." [Ibn Hibbaan, al-Bazzaar, authenticated in Saheeh Jaami` us-Sagheer #1133]
"There are no days during which good deeds are more beloved by Allaah than these (ten) days." [al-Bukhaaree, at-Tirmidhee and others] The Prophet, sallallaahu `alayhi wa sallam, was then asked: "Not even Jihaad in Allaah’s way?" He replied: "Not even Jihaad in Allaah’s way; except for a person who went out (for Jihaad) with his self and wealth and came back with none (i.e. lost all for Allaah)." [at-Tirmidhee, authenticated in al-Albaanee’s Irwaa’ ul-Ghaleel, #953]

All good deeds can be done during these days and the early generations of Muslims used to exert themselves excessively in worshipping Allaah. In particular, fasting and dhikr (mentioning and remembering Allaah) are to be done in plenty on these days.

Dhikr
Ibn `Abbaas commented on the verse <<…and to mention Allaah’s name [plentifully] on Known days>> [22:28] by saying: <…these known days are the ten days [of Dhul Hijjah].> [Tafseer ibn Katheer]

Fasting
One of the wives of the Prophet, sallallaahu `alayhi wa sallam, said: "Allaah’s Messenger used to fast the (first) nine days of Dhul Hijjah, the day of `Ashooraa’, and three days of each month. [Saheeh Sunan Abee Daawood #2129]

Fasting on all these days, however, is not a waajib (compulsory), nor is it a constant sunnah that the Messenger, sallallaahu `alayhi wa sallam, never dropped. `Aa’ishah said: "I never saw the Messenger, sallallaahu `alayhi wa sallam, fast the ten days." [Muslim]

The Day of `Arafah - The Best Day of the Whole Year
The day of `Arafah is the day when the pilgrims stand in worship on the Mountain of `Arafah.
"Fasting the day of `Arafah expiates the [minor] sins of two years: a past one and a coming one. And fasting the day of `Aashooraa’ expiates the sins of the past year." [Muslim]
"There is no day on which Allaah `azza wa jall frees people from the Fire as He does no the day of `Arafah. He comes close (to those standing on `Arafah) and then revels before His angels, saying: "What are these people seeking?" [Muslim]

The Day of al-`Ad-haa
The tenth of Dhul-Hijjah is `Eed ul- Ad-haa or the day of an-Nahr (slaughtering). It marks the conclusion of the major rites of Hajj, and commemorates Allaah’s bounty on His Messenger Ibraaheem, when He gave him a ram to sacrifice as ransom for his son Ismaa`eel, `alayhimassalaam.

"The day of al-Fitr [i.e. `Eed ul-Fitr], the day of an-Nahr, and the days of Tashreeq are `Eed days for us Muslims. They are days of eating and drinking." [Ahmad, an-Nasaa’ee, Saheeh ul-Jaami` #8192]

The Three Days Following `Eed ul-`Ad-haa
On these days, the pilgrims complete their rites, Muslims continue with their `Eed celebrations, and are prohibited to fast. "The days of tashreeq are days of eating, drinking and mentioning Allaah." [Muslim]

The Sacrifice
Allaah `azza wa jall mentioned the sacrifice together with the first and foremost worship in Islaam: prayer. This is a clear indication of its great importance. Thus He ordered His Messenger, sallallaahu `alayhi wa sallam, to slaughter sacrifices by saying: <<…Pray unto your Lord and slaughter [your sacrifice]…" [109:2]

Ruling
The general concensus of the Muslim scholars is that the sacrifice is an important sunnah, and a worship called for in the Law of Allaah. However, they differ as to whether it is nafl (voluntary) or waajib (mandatory) for those who can afford it. Some scholars have explained the different ahaadeeth on the subject by stating that the sacrifice is obligatory on those who can afford it and not obligatory on those who cannot.

Abu Hurayrah reported that the Messenger, sallallaahu `alayhi wa sallam, said: "He who has the capacity, and does not sacrifice, may not approach our musallaa (place of prayer - on the `Eed)." [Ibn Maajah, Ahmad and others, authenticated by Al-Albaanee in Saheeh Sunan Ibn Maajah, #2533]

Regarding this hadeeth, Imaam ash-Shaukaanee said: "Prohibiting the one who could afford to sacrifice, but did not do so, from approaching the musallaa indicates that he must have left off a waajib, as it becomes useless to offer the salaah without this waajib [obligation]." [Nayl ul-Awtaar]

Avoid Cutting Hair or Nails
The one who plans to sacrifice (normally, the head of household) is prohibited to cut his hair or nails from the first Dhul Hijjah until he offers the sacrifice. "For the one who has a slaughtering to perform (on `Eed then, once the hilaal (crescent) of Dhul Hijjah is observed, let him not cut any of his hair or nails until he sacrifices." And in another narration: "Once the ten days start, for those of you who havethe intention to sacrifice, let them not cut any of their hair or nails (until they sacrifice)." [Muslim] This prohibition is the opinion of the majority of the scholars of the early generations of Muslims.

Allaahu A`lam
Our last call is all praise is to Allaah and may His salaah and salaam be upon our Prophet Muhammad and his family.

oooooooold news!

2007-12-06T09:12:00.000+03:00

Honey can quieten a child's cough better than any medicine, say researchers

When it comes to helping a child fight off a cough, the centuries-old remedy of honey is still the best, researchers said yesterday.
The natural sweetener is a traditional soother and remains better than costly over-the-counter medicines, they said.
In a study, a dose before bedtime easily outperformed a cough suppressant widely used in commercial treatments.
Honey was better at cutting the severity, frequency and disturbance from night-time coughs of those suffering upper respiratory infection.
It also helped their sleep, suggesting that parents may be wasting their money on expensive alternatives sold in chemists and supermarkets.
The study compared honey to dextromethorphan (DM), the active ingredient in many cough mixtures.

***

subhaanallaah..

if there's one thing I could bring back from the big city..

2007-12-01T19:46:00.000+03:00

..it'd be the sea.

(we were by the corniche on the 14th of the month, in time to see the moon tempting the surging tide to soar higher and higher, almost unto itself. subhaanallaah.)

and the books.
I spent so much time in bookstores breathing in the precious fragrance of paper and fresh ink, it reminded me of my childhood dream of growing up to be a librarian or a bookshop owner, just to be surrounded by the latest books and to be able to read them at leisure.

after living so long in our small town, big cities seem strange, though.
the people walk faster. and look/act so much "smarter".
there are barely any ra'see abayas anymore.
nobody raises an eyebrow when young girls traipse around in malls wearing painted-on abayas , side-partings showing from pushed-back shaylas, and pink nailpolish.
people refuse you common courtesies (that you take for granted in small towns).
nobody knows you and you don't know where you can find the nearest pharmacy that sells your baby's herbal tea.
the city looks strange, even after you concede to yourself that you are looking at it through a stranger's eyes.

one dad's answer to "can I cook my sister" and other FAQs

2007-12-01T19:01:00.000+03:00

Ever wondered the best way to answer the endless stream of questions that invariably come from children in the back of a car during long journeys?

Wendell Jamieson decided to tackle the problem by putting the most common queries to academic experts on a range of subjects, from mammalian evolution and medicine to ancient history and meteorology. Here are some of the most fascinating questions and answers from a new book he has compiled.

How far up in the sky can a child's balloon go before it pops?

I'm assuming this is a typical rubber balloon, which can have a diameter of up to three feet and is filled with helium. It will expand in proportion to the decrease in atmospheric pressure and, in theory, could reach about 28,000 feet before the rubber gets brittle from the lower temperature and then pops.

Why do people "fall" in love?

We don't really fall in love; we jump in love - we are at the mercy of our chemical make-up. Chemicals are released in our brain when we are drawn to someone. One of these, phenylethylamine, makes us feel very excited - everything seems wonderful. It's almost like flu: your face is flushed, your palms are sweaty, you breathe heavily, you even feel a slight tingle in the hands and feet.
Generally, people are attracted to opposites of themselves - the organised person to the disorganised; the bookworm to the social butterfly.
In the next stage of love, a hormone called oxytocin is released. This plays an important role throughout our lives: it is a "cuddle hormone" and acts as a kind of infatuation chemical. Childbirth and the noise of a baby crying also make it flow.

Why do all animals have tails, except for humans, chimpanzees and gorillas? It is not just humans, chimpanzees and gorillas that don't have tails. Other apes such as orang-utans, bonobos and gibbons do not have them either.
Basically, tails are designed to provide balance for animals, particularly those that might live in trees. A tail counterbalances the weight of the head at the front of the body.
As humans became more upright and some apes started to use arms for more than just walking, the need for a tail for balancing became smaller, so over time and through evolution, it faded out.
However, we do have the remains of a tail - the bottom three or four vertebrae of the human spine are fused together to form the tailbone (coccyx).
This still has a use, anchoring muscles such as the one of your bottom, and it still really hurts if you fall on it.

Why did ancient Egyptians build pyramids? Why not giant rectangles or some other shape? Egyptologists assume they represent primeval hills, the hills that on the day of creation rose out of the flood. This idea certainly comes from the natural state of Egypt in former times. the land was flooded by the Nile, and when the flood retreated, islands appeared which were considered to be symbols of the day of creation. So a pyramid could represent such a hill.
But one could ask: why was it not just a rounded hill, why did it have edges leading to a top? Another idea is that kings used pyramids to climb up to their heaven.
But these are all speculations. A final theory is that in the Egyptian city of Heliopolis (the centre of the sun cult in Egypt) there was a monument called a benben stone.
It could be that this sacred stone had the shape of a pyramid, and that the people who built the pyramids were trying to recreate that, because the top piece of a pyramid is called a benben.

Why is the sky blue?

At first, people thought the sky was blue because there were water droplets in it, but if that were true you'd get a deeper blue when the air is more humid and that's not the case.
After a little more investigation, it was realised that the blue was due to the air molecules in the atmosphere.
The light from the sun is made up of many different colours, each of which is a different wavelength of light. The wavelength of red, for example, is longer than the wavelength of blue.
Longer wavelengths for the most part travel straight through air molecules, while shorter ones are more scattered by them.
So when the blue wavelengths hit the air molecules, they are scattered all over the sky - and that's what you see when you look up.
At sunset, when the sun is lower on the horizon, its light has to travel through many more air molecules than when it is right above us. All these molecules scatter the red wavelengths, too, and that's why the sun looks red at the end of the day.

In Antarctica, are people upside down?

Of course, when standing at the bottom of the Earth, you don't feel upside down. Your feet are on the ground and the sky is above you.
But an astronaut in Outer Space may look down at you and notice that your head is pointing in the opposite direction to someone standing at the North Pole. (Incidentally, from the same view, someone in London may look somewhat sideways.)
Thanks to gravity, we're all grounded on the Earth with our heads towards the clouds, and we're all right- side up relative to our location. Life is all about perspectives.

If you don't hit anything with it, how does a whip make that noise? That very satisfying "crack" is a miniature version of a sonic boom as the very tip of the whip - which is called the "cracker" (made out of a tuft of thread or string or nylon) - moves faster than the speed of sound and breaks the sound barrier.
The speed of sound in air is 760mph. Only whips with crackers make that sound. The whip was probably the first manmade object to actually break the sound barrier.

Why does red mean stop?

The 19th-century Scottish engineer Robert Stevenson, who was active in designing early lighthouses, looked for an alternative colour to white - most lighthouses had a white beacon - when he built a lighthouse near to one that already existed, because he was afraid ships wouldn't be able to tell which was which. Of the light sources and coloured glasses available at the time, he found that red was a particularly intense light, meaning it could be seen from the greatest distance.
So in maritime signalling, red became an alternative to white, and was later adopted by the Admiralty in 1852 to mark the port-side on steam vessels. Green was adopted for the starboard-side, and vessels seeing the green light on other ships had the right
When train tracks were developed, engineers adopted this system as meaning stop and go - and the same system continued with cars.

Why do we have eyebrows?

In his surprisingly weird book The Expressions Of The Emotions In Man And Animals, Charles Darwin maintained that human eyebrows are descended from the vestigial remnants of the scattering of long hairs one finds in the very same place on other mammals, including chimps and dogs.
But why were eyebrows preserved, while most of the rest of our hair was lost?
In accordance with Darwin's views on sex selection, he believed that those human hairs which remain are those which are attractive to the opposite sex.
However, another suggestion is that they're important for forming facial expressions that are more easily recognised by other individuals in one's social group.
They also serve the practical purpose of stopping sweat and rain running down your forehead into your eyes.

Why do clouds make shapes?

Meteorologists divide the infinite varieties of cloud formation into ten basic types. Not all of them make shapes - some are just too blurry and indistinct to have any clear edges to them. But the most distinct are the sharp-edged "cumulus" clouds, which are the fluffy cottonwool tufts you see on a sunny day. They often look like elephants. This is because they can develop vertical towers, borne on rising columns of air (thermals).
After about ten minutes, the cloud's droplets start to evaporate at the sides, leaving a central trunk that curls upwards as it is blown along in the wind and looks like the trunk of an elephant.
This might be why ancient Hindus and Buddhists believed elephants to be the spiritual cousins of clouds.

Why do you never see baby pigeons?

Because they can't fly. You'll never see them unless you look into a nest, which pigeons build hidden away from predators such as cats, dogs, hawks and people. The squabs (chicks) will be there three to four weeks before they can fly. You probably do see young birds, you just don't realise it because young birds are the same size as adult birds. If you see one out there chasing other pigeons around, it is probably a baby begging its parents to feed it.

Do unborn babies know they're in there?

Thankfully, no - if you knew you were in there, it would be kind of scary for nine months.
The foetus is growing, of course, but the frontal lobe of our brain - which gives us emotion and self-recognition - develops very slowly.
Even until adulthood, the frontal lobe isn't fully developed: that's partly why we sometimes see bad judgment in teenagers.
Foetuses do all sorts of exploring behaviour in the womb. They run their hands along the inside of the womb, they feel their own feet and their faces, and they put their hands in their mouths.
Studies have also shown that a newborn infant will recognise its mother's voice compared to a stranger's voice and will also recognise its native language versus a foreign one.

How many hairs do I have on my head?

The average adult has about 100,000 hairs or follicles - and children have the same amount. Redheads have fewer because their individual strands are thicker. It's extremely rare for children to lose their hair. Usually it will happen in their 20s, 30s or 40s, depending on their genetic code.

Why do your hands and feet go wrinkly in the bath, but not the rest of you?

The outer layer of your skin, the epidermis, produces an oily substance called sebum - you can see it when you touch a mirror or a window; it's the oil you leave there.
Sebum keeps water off your skin, but after a long period underwater, the sebum is washed off and the skin starts to absorb water.
When you are immersed for a long time, dead cells in the outermost layer of your skin (which protects the body from the environment) absorb the water. This causes this layer to expand and therefore have a greater surface area. Being attached to the tissue below, it wrinkles to compensate for the greater surface area.
This outer skin layer is thicker on the palms of your hands and on the soles of your feet than on the other parts of your body, so absorbs more water here, making the wrinkling more noticeable.

(Extracted from Father Knows Less by Wendell Jamieson, published by Putnam at £9.99. Copywright 2007, Wendell Jamieson.)

good stuff: the week of young people's blogs

2007-11-30T16:46:00.000+03:00

interesting :

"For over eight years, the City Circle has been running a supplementary school that offers academic support to students between the ages of 8 and 18. The school is run by volunteers and serves around 110 students. CC Saturday School enjoys a great reputation and fantastic feedback.

Inspired by the movie Freedom Writers, we decided to give our students the chance to share their views on the CC blogs. The students were given the freedom to write about whatever they want and that the good pieces would be published unedited. To encourage the students, we promised prizes to the best six stories. Over this week, the CC blogs belongs to the young ones, the innocent, those with no political agendas. Some bits will make you laugh, other make you shed a tear, some are entertaining, others thoughtful. Above all, we cannot ignore them. They are the future.

To find out more about the school please visit the school's page.

Sid Djerfi is Head teacher of the City Circle Saturday School.''

Read the 'Pick of the Blogs' here

consolation in a cat

2007-11-22T09:39:00.000+03:00

ever seen a bald cat?
no?

Then there's hope for mums who are in their post-partum 'shedding' phase...or so the good doctors say.

"The most common cause of hair loss in women is a shift in the growth cycle," says Rebecca Caserio, M.D., clinical associate professor of dermatology at the University of Pittsburgh. In other words, at any given time, some of your hair is growing and some of it is done growing. Most hairs have a life expectancy of three to six years, even if you get a haircut--or several--in the meantime. These hairs go into a resting stage for three months and fall out, and then new hairs are produced from the same roots.
NO BALD CATS
In other words, a certain amount of hair loss is normal. Think about it: Your cat probably sheds hundreds of hairs a day without going bald.
"We normally shed somewhere between 50 and 100 hairs every day," says Dr. Caserio. "But there are a whole host of life events--namely, hormone shifts from birth control pills, pregnancy and menopause--that affect growing conditions, so that we can sometimes lose hundreds of hairs a day." Rapid weight loss, severe dandruff, iron deficiency and a low protein intake can also speed up the normal rate of hair loss by forcing hairs into a rooting stage. A serious illness or a physical stress, such as childbirth, can trigger dramatic (but temporary) hair loss of up to 50 percent, but this only occurs in extreme circumstances, says Dr. Caserio."

The treatment?

"If your doctor has ruled out medical causes for accelerated hair loss, women doctors say that there's plenty you can do to hang on to what hair you have and encourage healthy regrowth. Their advice will be of special help to women who experience hair loss after childbirth.

Be gentle. Treat your hair like a baby's, says Dr. Bihova. Use baby shampoo and shampoo no more than once a day. Lather up only once when you do and rub your scalp gently. Then spritz your hair with a detangling conditioner.
Air-dry your hair. Avoid drying vigorously with a towel, says Dr. Bihova. Also, if you must use a blow-dryer, keep it on a low setting.
Style when dry. Grooming wet hair can cause it to stretch and break, says Dr. Bihova. So don't comb or brush your hair until it's dry.
Switch shampoos with the season. Change your brand of shampoo at the beginning of every new season--summer, winter, spring and fall, suggests Dr. Bihova. In her experience, it seems to prevent some shedding.
Don't tease. Even women who aren't losing their hair should avoid teasing or back-combing, says Yohini Appa, Ph.D., director of product efficacy at the Neutrogena Corporation in Los Angeles. "It is one of the worst things that you can do to your hair." Teasing breaks the hair and contributes to the appearance of hair loss.
Perm and color carefully. When perming and coloring your hair, follow product instructions carefully, says Elizabeth Whitmore, M.D., assistant professor of dermatology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore. Neither perms nor color causes hair to fall out, she adds. But both, when done incorrectly, do cause hair to break. And when the break is very close to the scalp, it can make you look as though hair has fallen out.
NUTRITIONAL HELP
So much for treating hair loss externally. To address possible internal causes, try these strategies.
Get adequate protein. Eat a couple of three- to four-ounce servings of fish, chicken or other lean sources of protein every day, even if you're dieting, says Dr. Whitmore. Protein is needed by every cell in your body, including the cells that make the hair. Without adequate protein, the cells in your body don't work efficiently and can't make new hair to replace old hair that's been shed.

Maintain iron levels. Since iron-deficiency anemia can also cause hair loss, make sure that you eat a well-balanced diet that includes a daily serving or two of iron-rich foods, says Dr. Whitmore. Good sources of iron include lean red meat, steamed clams, cream of wheat, dried fruit, soybeans, tofu and broccoli.
Take vitamin B6. "I have no idea why it works, but 100 milligrams a day of vitamin B6 seems to decrease hair-shedding in some people," says Dr. Caserio. Just don't take any more than that without consulting a doctor, she cautions. Larger amounts can be toxic, especially over a prolonged time."

from: The Doctors Book of Home Remedies for Women

junioRs: aww inspiring,eww inducing

2007-11-22T05:18:00.000+03:00

must-read: Rasha on her pesky little brothers and other junioRs

I quite liked this poem by a youngster called Kaitlyn (age 14) over at poems-and-quotes

My little brothers quite the rascal
Who runs around all day
Who demands things upon things
And always gets his way

He jumps up on the tables
And screams with all his might
He'll pull and twist my hair
Or try to start a fight

He'll throw around his toys
He'll throw around his food
Or he might hand them to you politely
Just depending on his mood

He'll talk to you for ages
About things you never knew
Things that dearly bore you
But what's a boy to do?

(...)
But over all this time
I've finally come to see
I love my little brother for who he is
I should just let him be.

Nice.

Speaking of 'family' poems, I liked Kamala Das (who incidentally is reported to have become Muslim lately). These are only excerpts which I found online, the complete poems -- especially her 'childhood' collections (that I read when I was in school) -- are poignant reads.

Punishment in kindergarten

Today the world is a little more my own.
No need to remember the pain
A blue frocked women caused,
throwingWords at me like pots and pans ,
to drainThat honey-coloured day of peace.

"why don't you join the others,what a peculiar child you are?"

On the lawn ,in clusters ,
sat my schoolmates sippingSugarcane,
they turned and laughed;
Childrens are funny things, they laugh in mirth at others' tears.

I buried my face in the sun-warmed hedge
And smelt the flowers and the pain
The words are muffled now,
the laughingfaces only a blur.
The years haveSped along ,
stopping brieflyAt beloved halts
and movingSadly on.

My mind has found an adult peace .
No need to remember
That picnic day when I lay hidden by the hedge,
watching the steel white sun
Standing lonely in the sky.

and 'An introduction'

'...be girl, be wife, they said.
Be embroiderer, be cook,
Be a quarreler with servants.
Fit in.
Oh Belong, cried the categorizers…..’

5 things I'd tell my kids about 'How to Win Friends and Get Along With People'

2007-11-20T08:52:00.000+03:00

When I was growing up, my parents and sometimes other elders would advise me (no, naseeha wasn't a bad word back then) about life in general and about people in specific, and how to deal with them. Think of it as a rudimentary People Skills 101 initiation.

This was usually when I was going overboard with a new *friend*, making completely inappropriate new acquaintances, spending too much time with other people unsuitable for company...etc. etc. etc.

When I was on the receiving end of all that naseeha, I'd usually think (I was much too polite to say it out loud to an elder's face): It isn't necessary that what you've seen/known of people is an absolute truth, there are different kinds of people and perhaps the people you've known/seen/had bad experiences with are different from the one's I'm dealing with.

But now, in retrospect, I'm awestruck at how spot-on all that advice was.

Children need an elder's perspective on people...they know too little of life to get by on their own.
So, I was thinking, if I had to tell my own children a couple of golden People Skill Rules, what would I say?

1.
إِن يَنصُرْكُمُ اللّهُ فَلاَ غَالِبَ لَكُمْ
وَإِن يَخْذُلْكُمْ فَمَن ذَا الَّذِي يَنصُرُكُم مِّن بَعْدِهِ
وَعَلَى اللّهِ فَلْيَتَوَكَّلِ الْمُؤْمِنُونَ

If Allaah helps you, none can overcome you;
and if He forsakes you, who is there after Him that can help you?
And in Allaah (Alone) let believers put their trust.
[Qur'aan 3:160]

There...you can chuck social *networking* and all the pseudo airkissing routine along with sucking up to *important* people right out of the window...sure, be nice, polite, respectful, considerate in the Sunnah of the Prophet صلىالله عليه وسلم in all sincerity, but never as in N.E.V.E.R think that people can be of benefit/harm in a worldly/otherworldly sense.

It's only Allaah and Him Alone who holds the keys of all the good/bad that can befall you and in Him Alone put your trust, and Him Alone ask for help.

PS:I can't stress this enough, hence the red bolded font, fahimt?

2. Love for others what you love for yourself
The Prophet صلىالله عليه وسلم said: "laa yu'minu ahadakum hattaa yuhibbu li akheeh ma yuhibbu li nafsih."
Anas, may Allaah be pleased with him, relates that the Prophet صلىالله عليه وسلمsaid: “None of you truly believes until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself.” [Sahîh al-Bukhârî and Sahîh Muslim]

It's a really deep hadeeth which has endless scope for reflection if you think about it. Here the Prophet صلىالله عليه وسلم linked faith itself to one's reciprocal treatment of others.
If you don't like to be treated badly, don't treat others badly, because if you do, you are actually violating your faith.

The more I think about this hadeeth, the more I feel humbled and awed by Rasoolullaah's hikmah and the unsurpassed gift he, صلىالله عليه وسلم had, of speaking volumes within the space of a few words...subhaanallaah!

3. Love Allaah and His Messengerصلىالله عليه وسلم, and you will be granted the gift of the love of his creatures (whose love brings benefit near Allaah)

Narrated Abu Hurairah, may Allaah be pleased with him:
The Prophetصلىالله عليه وسلم said: "If Allaah loves a person, He calls Gabriel saying, 'Allaah loves so and-so; O Gabriel! Love him.' Gabriel would love him and make an announcement amongst the inhabitants of Heaven. 'Allaah loves so-and-so, therefore you should love him also,' and so all the inhabitants of Heaven would love him, and then he is granted the love of the people on the earth and is regarded well by them." [Sahih Al-Bukhari]

There you go...you don't have to be a people-pleaser, because as my pet paraphrase goes:
You can please some of the people all the time,
and all the people some of the time,
but it's IMPOSSIBLE (not to mention exhausting and self-defeating) to try and please all the people all the time.

Your best bet is to try and please Allaah in all that you do, and the rest will follow.

4. People are Rizq from Allaah and part of your Qadr.
I honestly believe that all the people that we meet/interact with in our lifetime ...right from the parents whose homes we are born into to the spouses we "choose" or the friendships we "make" are part of Allaah's portion of sustenance for us; we have been decreed to know them and have them enter our lives.
Alhamdulillaah, there's something beneficial to learn from all your interactions with people...even the good, bad and indifferent people. Look at these interactions as Allaah's way of teaching you lessons in life and living and always keep learning and praying to Allaah to grant you the best rizq in this world and the next.

5. You won't always get along with people.
This is the toughest, most terrible truth and it might seem incomprehensible to you when you're young.
As you grow older, you'll find your life littered with 'had-beens', 'could've beens', 'should've beens'. Believe me, in spite of trying your best, there will be friendships that fall apart, relationships that change over time.
The one thing that you can and should do is to pray:
رَبَّنَا اغْفِرْ لَنَا وَلِإِخْوَانِنَا الَّذِينَ سَبَقُونَا بِالْإِيمَانِ
وَلَا تَجْعَلْ فِي قُلُوبِنَا غِلًّا لِّلَّذِينَ آمَنُوا
رَبَّنَا إِنَّكَ رَؤُوفٌ رَّحِيمٌ
"Our Lord! Forgive us and our brethren who have preceded us in Faith,
And put not in our hearts any ill-feeling/hatred against those who have believed.
Our Lord! You are indeed full of kindness, Most Merciful."

May Allaah make you and me safe from the sharr of our own souls and from the sharr of the people and Jinns; and make us among the people of Jannah, whose hearts will be cleansed of all ill-feeling towards other people... who will be seated facing each other in gardens underneath which rivers flow, in the best and most blessed companionship, faces beaming at attaining the ultimate and everlasting happiness.
Aameen.

the best day of the week

2007-11-16T07:31:00.000+03:00

The Prophetصلىالله عليه وسلم said: "The best day during which the sun has risen is Friday.'' (Hadeeth reported by Imaam Muslim, Abu Daa'wood, an-Nasai, At-Tirmithi)

Things to do on Friday:
Go for Friday prayer
"O’ you who believe! When the call is proclaimed to Prayer on Friday hasten earnestly to the remembrance of Allah, and leave off business. That is best for you if you but knew." (Soorah Al-Jumu'ah:9)

Do Ghusl and use perfume, go early for Friday prayer: "Every Muslim is obligated to wash on Fridays and wear his best cloth. Also, he should use perfume if he has any." (Hadeeth Sahih Al-Bukhaari and Muslim)

Increase supplications since there is a period during Jumu'ah when duaas are answered.

Send salutations upon the Prophet
Like our shaykh says:

صلوا وسلموا على من دلكم على الله فعرفتموه
صلوا وسلموا على من دلكم على المسجد بيت الله فدخلتموه
صلوا وسلموا على من دلكم على الصراط المستقيم فسلكتموه

من صلى عليه صلاة واحدة صلى الله عليه بها عشرا،
ومن صلى عليه عشراصلى الله عليه بهامئة

ومن صلى عليه مئة صلى الله عليه بها ألف
، ومن زاد زاده الله من فضله

إِنَّ اللَّهَ وَمَلَائِكَتَهُ يُصَلُّونَ عَلَى النَّبِيِّ يَا أَيُّهَا
الَّذِينَ آمَنُوا صَلُّوا عَلَيْهِ وَسَلِّمُوا تَسْلِيماً
"Indeed Allaah and His Angels send salutations upon the Prophet...
O you who believe, send blessings and salutations of peace upon him."

Read Soorah Al-Kahf: "Who ever recites Surah Al-Kahf on Friday, Allaah will give him a light to the next Friday."

...'ala aalihi wa sahbihi ajma'een

2007-11-15T14:24:00.000+03:00

Muslims begin any public speech/talk/sermon by sending salawaat and salaam (salutations of peace and blessings) upon the Prophet صلىالله عليه وسلمand his family and his companions, and those who follow them in ihsaan (excellence) until the Day of Judgment.

I've always been envious (in a wistful, non-negative kind of way) about the immediate family and companions of the Prophet صلىالله عليه وسلم and how fortunate they were to have been blessed by his presence among them; how they were the recipients of his affection and friendship and care and kindness...subhaanallaah...what an enormous blessing! From the way they supported and obeyed him صلىالله عليه وسلم , it's clear that they were chosen by Allaah to be his family and companions, just as he,صلىالله عليه وسلم, was chosen to be a Messenger for all of mankind.

I love reading the biographies of that blessed group of people, especially of the members of his family who are not so well known.

I was reading about 'Abdullaah bin Ja'far, in 'Child Companions of the Prophet' -- the first child who was born among the group of Muslims who emigrated to Abyssinia when the persecution of Muslims had become intolerable in Makkah. He was the son of the Prophet's cousin Ja'far bin Abi Taalib and Asma' bint 'Umays, may Allaah be pleased with them.

''It is reported by Abu Daa'wood in his collection of ahadeeth (Prophetic narrations): 'When Ja'far bin Abi Taalib was martyred in battle, the Prophet صلىالله عليه وسلم visited his family and said: '' O Asma, where are the sons of Ja'far?''

When they were brought before him, he صلىالله عليه وسلم hugged them and smelt them and his eyes welled up with tears and he wept.''

'Abdullaah bin Ja'far himself reported: '' I recall when the Messenger of Allaah صلىالله عليه وسلم

came to my mother and brought her the news of my father's death, and I remember he was stroking my head and that of my brother, and his eyes were pouring with tears until they dripped onto his beard.

Then he صلىالله عليه وسلم prayed: ''O Allaah! Indeed Ja'far has been given the best of rewards, so bless his children with a better recompense than that with which You have blessed any of your slaves.'' (Reported by Ibn Sa'd in At-Tabaqaat).

On the day his father died, the Prophet صلىالله عليه وسلم kept 'Abdullaah bin Ja'far with him and made him sit on the bottom step of the pulpit which he ascended to inform people of Ja'far's death. He صلىالله عليه وسلم took him and his brother to his house and they ate lunch with him (sifted barley, cooked and seasoned with oil and pepper).

'Abdullaah bin Ja'far also said: Whenever the Messenger of Allaahصلىالله عليه وسلم returned from a journey, the children of his household would greet him. He once returned from a journey and I was brought to him first and he carried me in front of him, and then one of Fatimah's two sons was brought (either Hasan or Husayn) and he seated him behind me and we entered Al-Madeenah, three of us riding on one beast.'' (Reported by Imaam Ahmad and Muslim)

'Abdullaah bin Ja'far also narrated: ''The Messenger of Allaah came when I was bargaining over the sale of a sheep for my brother and he صلىالله عليه وسلم said:''O Allaah! Bless his dealings.'' And I never bought or sold anything, except that it was blesssed for me.''

Once, he accepted some land from 'Abdullaah bin Az-Zubayr which was harsh and salty in lieu of a debt that was owed to him by Az-Zubayr bin Awwaam. He offered two units of prayer in it and supplicated Allaah and the land became prosperous and well-irrigated. (An abbreviated version of a narration in Asad-ul-Ghaabah, vol. 3)

'Abdullaah bin Ja'far was so generous that he was called the Sea of Generosity, just like his father Ja'far bin Abi Taalib was called Abu-l Masaakeen (father of the poor). Once, when he was rebuked for being ''too generous'', he replied; ''Indeed, Allaah has made me accustomed (to receiving bounty from Him), and I have made the people accustomed (to receiving charity from me). I am afraid that if I cut it off, it (Allaah's blessings) will be cut off from me.''

walking the tightrope on a keyboard

2007-11-10T23:43:00.000+03:00

This one's an absolute MUST as in M.U.S.T read: Marina Hyde on treading the thin line between being an 'escribitionist' and an 'exhibitionist' on the internet, in The Guardian.

excerpts:

"'Do you really keep a diary?" a besotted Algernon asks of Cecily in The Importance of Being Earnest.

"I'd give anything to look at it. May I?"

"Oh no," replies Cecily with princessy disdain. "You see, it is simply a very young girl's record of her own thoughts and impressions, and consequently meant for publication. When it appears in volume form, I hope you will order a copy."

Wilde's jokes are so faultlessly crafted that they tend to retain their bite even a hundred years later, but the latter does lose something of its surreal edge when considered against the news that today there are four million bloggers at work in the UK alone. Four million! It feels like the magic number at which the inner monologue could be officially classified as endangered.

These days, if it's in our heads, out it comes, edited to varying degrees into words and pictures, and presented to a real or imagined audience. Self-important? Perhaps. Often tedious? Certainly. But that doesn't matter as much as people make out.

Even if there weren't the vaguest of ironies in newspaper columnists wondering why people feel the need to share their views on life with anyone, it does seem time to move beyond the sneering accusations of Pooterism that traditionally form the basis of mainstream media attacks on self-published alternatives. If all we had to worry about in this brave new world was preposterous self-regard comingled with a comic lack of self-awareness, then it might be an idyll indeed.

Far more intriguing, and progressively alarming, is the degree to which we have embraced the new exhibitionism. An early term for bloggers - back when it was a frightfully niche pursuit and the internet was all fields and so on - was "escribitionists", and though the word was never what you'd call common parlance, what it stood for has become common practice as personal sites and social networking communities have exploded.

How odd, I found myself thinking recently, that in an age when we seem more and more concerned with encroachments on privacy, we are so increasingly keen to invade our own. My mistake, of course, was to assume there is a "we" at all. According to those who understand far more about communications psychology than I do, the great generational dividing line has been drawn. And broadly speaking, if you're under 30, your private self and public self are interdependent in previously unthinkable ways. Time and again, in surveys of what young people want from their online experiences, keeping socially connected is ranked way above privacy.

[...]But the view that this is a cultural shift with which we must all make our peace is wrong. Naive and cavalier is a dangerous combination, and a disdain for their own privacy will leave young people immensely exposed.

Consider the case of the 23-year-old Muslim woman who was found guilty this week under new anti-terror laws. Samina Malik worked for WH Smith at Heathrow, but was given to writing poetry about beheading non-believers and martyrdom and suchlike. Not long after she had begun visiting chatrooms, calling herself the "lyrical terrorist" - she thought the name "cool" - the knock at the door came. Examination of her computer revealed she had downloaded, inter alia, something called "How to win in hand-to-hand combat". She lives in Southall, awaits sentencing.

When we live in a society where reactionary bedroom poets are found guilty under terrorism laws, it makes you wonder whether their rather more seasoned and significantly more brilliant predecessors such as Swift wouldn't, in a similar climate, have realised the folly of bunging their every move on Facebook, and made alternative arrangements.

The world may be shifting, but we must attempt to encourage in young people an understanding of the value of privacy, and a sense of the very real dangers that might attend them should they discard it."

w00t:404 no more!

2007-11-10T17:21:00.000+03:00

for someone who's constantly reading so much of (and on) popular culture in the media, I've always wondered how the meanings of some newfangled words have eluded me.

Like w00t. I mean I knew it had something to do with crowing over one's own abilities/accomplishments, but who knew this:

Definition of woot (wüt):
1. (interj.) Celebratory exclamation used especially in online role-playing games.
Origins: From whoot or hoot, a howl or other such sound. In humans, an expression of gratitude while, in animals, it is a form of communication.
Example: Woot! I gained a level!

2. (acro.) We Owned Other Team. Alternatively spelled w00t or w007.
Origins: Initially used by gamers to express victory via landslide, now its meaning has been generalized to express accomplishment.

I got this particular gem from unwords.com, a website dedicated to "changing the English language one word at a time."

The website is also the destination of choice if you're a 404 on the meanings of other 21st century colloquialisms like 'boondongle', 'clicklexia', 'compulsive away disorder' or can't make out a word when others 'disemvowel' the contents of their brains on a computer.

fascinating, I tell you.

parental plug: smell the roses

2007-11-04T05:07:00.000+03:00

if you want to see the impossible -- spring in winter, blooming pink roses et al, check out the Sisters-in-Faith blog's newest makeover.

One can almost smell the roses,

don't be the devil's balloon!

2007-11-02T16:47:00.000+03:00

from: a very interesting muhaadharah (lecture) I heard by Sh. Sa'eed bin Misfar Al-Qahtani.

The lecture was about the different ways Shaytaan and his tribe, the shayateen from among the Jinns and Humans try to get unsuspecting people to deviate from the way of Allaah, as-Siraatal-Mustaqeem, the Straight Way...and how to seek protection from them.

The Shaykh enumerated upto 15 ways that Shaytaan & Co. attack the human psyche and soul...and one of the ways he mentioned was by way of a person's hawa.
Hawa consists of a person's inclinations ...their hobbies (called Hiwaayah in Arabic)pursuits/interests.
He said that usually, these hobbies/interests take one away from Allaah and His remembrance unless one tries to align them on purpose with Allaah's commands by means of mujahada (striving within one's soul).

Another very interesting thing he mentioned was that the Prophet صلىالله عليه وسلم used to seek protection from Shaytaan, from "hamazatihi, wa nafkhihi, wa nafthihi" (from his touch, his breath and his exhalation).

What is the nafkh (blowing) of Shaytaan?
It is the feeling of false pride/haughtiness/arrogance by which he puffs up people into believing that they are better than what they really are.
He said the man-fookh, the thing/person who is puffed up with pride, is for all practical purposes like Shaytaan's balloon.

Actually, the balloon in itself is a small thing, but once it has been blown into, it assumes huge proportions, which in reality is nothing but air...something without any substance.

I really liked the lecture because the Shaykh had an infectious air of sincerity about his words and a wonderful sense of humour...it was obvious that he was enjoying the lecture as much as the people who were listening to him.

How to deal with Halloween

2007-10-31T21:11:00.000+03:00

alhamdulillaah, we don't have to deal with Halloween at all, but there are Muslim parents and kids out there for whom it is a concern, so I thought we'd share this article (if you haven't seen it already) : Dealing with Halloween: 13 Tips for Parents.

Parents Wake Up!!

2007-10-20T11:04:00.000+03:00

Sr. Maryam has a heartfelt post up on Imaam Suhaib Webb's blog called 'Parents: Wake Up!!" which captures the exasperation/frustration I'm sure we've all felt at some point, at the way some Muslim parents allow their children to run amok in public without any supervision.

Obligatory reading if you're a parent, or even a wannabe.

when a little = a lot

2007-10-19T07:20:00.000+03:00

From the Companion, Anas bin Maalik, may Allaah be pleased with him:

"The Messenger of Allaahصلىالله عليه وسلم said: "Whoever prays Fajr in congregation, then sits remembering Allaah until the sun rises, then prays two units of prayer, he will receive the reward of Hajj, and `Umrah.

The Prophet صلىالله عليه وسلم said: "complete, complete, complete."

[Related by Imaam Abu 'Eesa At-Tirmithi in Saheeh at Tirmithi, Saheeh al-Jaami']

something's cooking

2007-10-17T13:42:00.000+03:00

given that some people in our house are still fasting, not all out feasting, I thought I'd share a recipe of something I'm cooking for the evening today: Chinese Chilli Chicken, via India.

Tastes nice, smells appetising, not too many spices and easy to make.

I love that recipe website too btw, it has scores of desi recipes which magically turn out right if you just follow the instructions on there.

Nice!

how the horse got its name

2007-10-16T09:18:00.000+03:00

*very* interesting post on one of our favourite blogs: 'How the Horse Got its Name' at Arabic Gems.

Maa shaa Allaah, there's always something interesting and beneficial to read on that blog.

e-'Eid cards

2007-10-16T08:58:00.000+03:00

so, we've been sending out e-'Eid cards the last couple of days and were wondering whether some of the readers of this blog might like to check out our new, revamped card service.

alternatively, if you scroll down the page, you'll see the pale blue bravenet e-card service box sandwiched somewhere among the host of other boxes on our sidebar.

suggestions on improving the service/sketches/gifs are always welcome.
jazaakumullaah khayr.

Our first (and possibly last) cable car adventure!

2007-10-14T23:33:00.000+03:00

(pic: saudiembassy.net)

On the first, chilly day of Eid, (this is to give a picturesque beginning to the post) Rida and I actually ventured to sit in a cable car -- a REAL one! Really, I'm not exaggerating... ask Ed if you want to confirm this amazing fact:)
Not that I enjoyed it much when we started... the thing zoomed forward -- and I screamed so loud that the passengers of the cable car were almost deafened. Rida backed me up with a louder roar of terror... you really should've seen us...screaming our heads off!!
I could hear my brothers RSenior-RJunior screaming too... junior R was crying and saying that he wasn't a scaredycat, but we were all going to DIE!! And senior R was on the floor of the car with his face in his lap!!!...hahaha...
OOOppss.... not good of me to laugh now, huh?
I must admit there was a terrible uproar in the cable car... and most of the screams were mine...
When I looked behind or should I say beneath me, I could see the valley of Rijal-al-Ma' ... it was so terribly steep that I was ready to faint. Rida's eyes were clamped shut... junior R was screaming as the car rocked to-and-fro, senior R was now crouching on the seat with his and ears shut... so were mine...
...and each time it went lower and lower, the thing went slower and slower... and when it felt as if it had decided to stop, over the steep, moss covered valley, I screamed loudly: 'IS IT GOING TO STOP?!' and junior R would collapse into a wild fit of loud sobs and cries:)!
Senior R would crouch upon his seat uncomfortably in a quiet fear. Rida had stopped yelling; I had decided that the scene was really beautiful, and I was sort of feeling ashamed of my loud screams:P No use screaming, you know. When we at last arrived at the cable car station, I couldn't believe I had actually sat in that DEATH car that was hanging on a 'rope' as junior R calls it... we had just had a ride in a 'little box stuck on a long rope tied to poles between the two stations'.
Still... Rida and I are always cribbing there're no adventures around for us...
... and guess what Ed remarked when we got back? -- 'Never again-- once is ENOUGH!'
after all... that's why cable cars were made, right?

May Allaah accept!

2007-10-12T06:23:00.000+03:00

Ed: Our Imaam calls the day of 'Eid 'Yawm al Jawaa-iz', the Day of Prizes, where everyone's efforts in Ramadhaan are evaluated and awarded. He calls Ramadhaan a 'madrassah' from where people graduate with different scores and at different levels.

This is why my 'Eid greeting of choice is: Taqabbal Allaah minna wa minkum; may Allaah accept from us and from you, for without His acceptance all one's efforts and intentions are reduced to nothing...and there is no real happiness without earning His pleasure.

***

P.S: : If you haven't seen the sisters-in-faith blog 'Eid makeover, you don't know the meaning of 'festooned in festivity' yet.

No really, it's the most exciting 'Eid template, complete with an incandescent crescent and colourful fireworks...good work, Rasha-Rida!

***

P.PS: For people like me, who like seeing new places through other people's eyes, this is a real site for sore eyes: MuslimPhotos.

It has pictures of masaajid and other places of historical interest from around the world. I especially liked the gallery section called 'Prophets were Here' which has pictures of places which were actually visited by several Prophets. There's Makkah and various sites in Madeenah, Jerusalem, Damascus and even a picture of the ruins of the church in Syria where the Christian monk Bahira saw the Prophet صلىالله عليه وسلم as a young child and recognised the signs of Prophethood in him.

Very interesting pictures, maa shaa Allaah. Look them up!

ending Ramadhaan on a clean slate

2007-10-07T12:09:00.000+03:00

Imaam Suhaib Webb has two brief, but powerful posts on mutual forgiveness: Mending Fences and Forgiveness Notes.

The latter is a particularly good idea, where people are encouraged to write notes seeking forgiveness from people they might have wronged knowingly/unknowingly.

It's interesting how (relatively) easy it is to turn to Allaah seeking His forgiveness again and again after wronging our souls, but how difficult it is to approach another human being.

Is it because we're hard-wired at some intrinsic level to humble ourselves before the Lord of the Worlds, who in turn, is oft-Forgiving and the Most Merciful?

I think it's an excellent idea to detox our souls of any accumulated negativity against people -- particularly fellow Muslims -- no matter how hard it may seem.

If we can't bring ourselves to actually say/write words seeking/granting forgiveness, the very least we can do is pray:

رَبَّنَا اغْفِرْ لَنَا وَلِإِخْوَانِنَا الَّذِينَ سَبَقُونَا بِالْإِيمَانِ

وَلَا تَجْعَلْ فِي قُلُوبِنَا غِلًّا لِّلَّذِينَ آمَنُوا

رَبَّنَا إِنَّكَ رَؤُوفٌ رَّحِيمٌ

"Our Lord! Forgive us and our brethren who have preceded us in Faith,

And put not in our hearts any ill-feeling/hatred against those who have believed.

Our Lord! You are indeed full of kindness, Most Merciful."

The Famous Five's Kids!

2007-10-07T11:43:00.000+03:00

"Enid Blyton's Famous Five are being given a 21st-century makeover for a new TV cartoon series. Gone are Julian, Anne, Dick, George and Timmy the dog and in their place come the next generation - Jo, Max, Dylan and Allie - descendants of the original characters, and a new dog called Timmy II.

The original stories began in 1942 with Five On A Treasure Island and the youngsters had no more gadgetry than a penknife or two. But the 2007 Five have laptops and mobile phones.
There is a half-Indian character, Jo, the daughter of the original tomboy Georgina, who replaces Aunt Fanny as the host for the children's school-holiday adventures."

***

Even though the authors say they're taking great pains to ensure that the "essence" of the old books is retained, I for one, don't believe in successful on-screen re-births.

Instead of 'creating hype and curiosity for old Famous-Five fans', this particular bit of news has only left me feeling dated.

coincidence!

2007-10-06T11:25:00.000+03:00

Yesterday, I made the season's first saalan.

Today, I was thinking of making the season's first officially Indian iftaar and look what I found...recipes for a complete Indian spread that includes shami kebabs, something called "cheese pops" and "spinach balls" and thandai...all of this on one page.

Even if you're not culinarily inclined, you might want to look up the link if, like me, you're curious about what 'cheese pops' look like.

crisp writing, savoury ideas

2007-10-06T10:46:00.000+03:00

A couple of days back I was teaching my son a lesson on different kinds of "occupations" (think "the work a person does to earn his/her living", not Iraq) and in the worksheet that followed, he had to write what was the occupation of his father and mother.

In all 7-year-old seriousness, he wrote: Mother: "Baker"

***

I love food writers who write like this , plus the fact that they are into "goo-free baking" is a bonus (one can only stand so much of whipped cream and frosting on cakes and cookies).

"I don't know about you, but it's double duvet time in our house (cue late-arriving Indian summer between me writing these words and you reading them). Anyway, when the woollies and wellies come out, so do the cake tins and baking trays. And right now they're out and proud.

But I'm not about to overload you with recipes for brownies, muffins and millionaire's shortbread, partly because you've almost certainly got a copy of How To Be A Domestic Goddess, but also because my seasonal baking urge is right now on a distinctly savoury jag. Hard to say why. I guess the chocolate and icing sugar store was uncharacteristically bare a couple of weeks back, and it set me off on a goo-free baking spree. It's a definite advantage that the average store cupboard probably already holds everything you need to cook some very delicious savoury morsels.

River cottage spelt digestive biscuits
We make these in two slightly different ways: follow this recipe for a digestive to serve with cheese, or reduce the sugar to 100g to create a slightly less sweet biscuit for pâtés. Makes about 30.
50g spelt flour

250g medium oatmeal

250g cold, unsalted butter, cubed

125g soft light brown sugara generous pinch of salt

1½ tsp baking powder

10-20ml milk
Put everything except the milk in a food processor and blitz until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Tip into a bowl, then add just enough milk to bring it together into a firm dough. This uncooked dough will keep in the fridge for several days (as long as the milk in it remains fresh).
This makes a very firm, solid dough and, if it's been in the fridge, it will be rock hard, so let it come to room temperature before rolling. Preheat the oven to 160C/325F/gas mark 3 and lightly grease two baking sheets. Put the dough between two sheets of clingfilm or baking parchment, and roll out until 2-3mm thick. Work quickly because it can become sticky as it warms up (return it to the fridge for a bit if this happens). Use a plain round cookie cutter to stamp out the biscuits. Arrange on the baking sheets and bake for 10-12 minutes, until pale golden and just beginning to turn brown around the edges. Leave to cool, then store in an airtight container.

Seedy crackers
You can use whichever seeds you like here, though the aniseedy note from the caraway works particularly well with blue cheese. Fennel, dill, sesame or nigella seeds are all good options. Makes about 25.
50g strong white flour

½ tsp baking powder

½ tsp each poppy and caraway seeds

½ tsp salt40ml olive oil

100ml water
Preheat the oven to 160C/325F/gas mark 3 and lightly oil two baking trays. Sieve the flour and baking powder together in a large bowl, then stir in the poppy and caraway seeds and the salt. Add the oil and rub it in with your fingers until the mix comes together with a texture resembling coarse breadcrumbs. Slowly pour in the water, stopping when you have a soft, but not sticky dough.
Roll out the dough to roughly 5mm thick and stamp into 5cm discs. Take each disc of dough and roll out on a lightly floured surface to make a long oval shape. The dough should be very thin - only about 1mm. Place the ovals on the baking trays and bake for just five or six minutes, until dry and crisp but barely browned. Leave to cool, then store in an airtight container.

Interestingly, the writer tells us why a digestive isn't really a digestive:

"Digestives, incidentally, are so-called because it was originally claimed the bicarbonate of soda they contained would aid digestion. This is almost certainly nonsense - but I wouldn't for a moment wish to strip them of their badge of wholesomeness."

Next, he proceeds to brag about how easily he can munch through vast quantities of biscuits and pairs them up with all kinds of dips, purées, pâté and preserves.

Definitely my kind of occupation.

trouble with the 3 Rs: where Maths and English cause anxiety attacks, bad moods and blood pressure!

2007-10-04T12:20:00.000+03:00

Millions of adults struggle with basic maths and English in everyday life, a survey revealed yesterday. Up to 13.5million experience raised blood pressure when they have to make basic calculations such as sale discounts or cooking times.
Some 10 million become flustered when called on to use their English skills, for example writing a memo to the boss or reading instructions. ...the average adult faces maths challenges 14 times a day, giving 306,000 in a lifetime. Literacy abilities are called on even more often - 23 times a day and 503,700 in a lifetime.
But a Manchester University expert who used heart and blood pressure monitors to check the physical responses of participants found widespread anxiety over simple tasks. Professor Geoff Beattie found that adults who struggled with maths and English registered significantly more negative moods and raised blood pressure...

a sample quiz from dailymail:

stories that linger a lifetime

2007-10-04T11:00:00.000+03:00

The Times has been asking several 'well-known names' to recall the books that they enjoyed the most when they were young... to kick off a charitable programme called 'BookStart' that involves donating 3 packs of free books to every child under 3 in the Uk.

It makes me wish there was something like this in Muslim countries (God knows they have the resources to do this). Besides weaning children off tv, computer and gaming screens, a programme like this would develop their minds, language skills, world awareness and emotional intelligence...and most importantly give everyone something more substantial and interesting to talk about than sales!

Personally, I find reminiscing about books a great ice-breaker and in a funny way, one feels a strange sort of bonding with people who enjoy/have enjoyed the same books. I think I've bought nearly all the books I've enjoyed as a child for my own children, subconsciously recreating my own old library, and it still feels wonderful to be surrounded by all those stories and sharing them with all the Rs.

Like me, they enjoy stories from the seerah, all the Enid Blyton school series, Famous Five and Secret Seven, The Magic Faraway Tree and the Adventures of the Wishing Chair.I was a trifle surprised though when they weren't as enamoured by Nancy Drew as I used to be, perhaps because the newer books are quite insipid and not as enagaging/informative as the old ones.

Like me, they liked Oliver Twist, Charlie and the Chocolate factory, Jane Eyre, My family and other animals and (surprisingly) Pride & Prejudice, which was a book that always exasperated me.

However, they haven't yet laid their hands on the one book that defined growing up for me, and which I loved beyond anything else: Catcher in the Rye.

subhaanallaah!

2007-10-03T22:06:00.000+03:00

from: GulfNews

A Bangladeshi contestant has ranked first at the 11th Dubai International Holy Quran Award [...]Mohammad Fadil Rabi, from Bangladesh, who won the first place is the first contestant from Bangladesh to win the DIHQA. He is also ranked fourth among five nominees for having a beautiful voice in reciting the Quran.

On the remarkable and inspirational performance of the participants the organising committee said, "Such great performances and sweet voices were unbelievable. They were all reciting one book ... regardless of their different races, nationalities, languages, and colour."

The winners: List of those honoured
First: Mohammad Fadil Rabi, Bangladesh.
Second: Abdullah Mohammad Al Ja'adi, Yemen.
Third: Mohammad Sharif Edris, Libya.
Fourth: Si Thu Aung, Myanmar
Fifth: Bilal Ahmad Khalifa, Egypt.
Sixth: Ejaz Moukaddam, South Africa.
Seventh: Swari Ahmad, Burkina Faso.
Eighth: Ali Al Adwi, Niger.
Ninth: Mohammad Ali Al Marzouqi, UAE.
Tenth: Mohammad Al Radhi Amlih, Mauritania.

-----------

Just yesterday, I was telling Abu-RR that native Arabic speakers appear to have an advantage when it comes to reciting the Qur'aan, and here I am proved wrong.

It's true: Allaah bestows his gifts upon whom He wills...subhaanallaah!

revert at 11, hafith at 15, Imaam at 19

2007-09-30T22:13:00.000+03:00

Read the amazing life story of Umugwaneza Sulaiman, a contestant for the Dubai International Holy Qur’an Award:
from: ArabNews

...Even though he is only 19, this young man from Rwanda has survived a life of hardship. As a young child he survived the genocide in Rwanda in 1994. He still has horrific memories of hiding in forests from militias that were killing people. The rivers and roads they walked through were littered with bodies. Later on he lost his father and had to lead a harsh life in one of the poorest countries in the world.

Despite all his hardships, Sulaiman was determined to become a hafiz and was rewarded by becoming the first Rwandan to take part in the Dubai International Holy Qur’an Award competition. Sulaiman’s quest with the sacred book started when he converted to Islam at the age of 11.

“Even though my family were Catholics I was never interested in the church. The Azan from the mosque in my neighborhood fascinated me and I started attending classes there,” he said.

When asked if he faced any resistance from his family, Sulaiman said that his family had no issues with him becoming a Muslim, as Islam is a held in high regard in Rwanda after the 1994 genocide. His whole family followed him a few years later and converted to Islam.

Since the genocide, Rwandans have converted to Islam in huge numbers. Muslims now make up 14 percent of the 8.2 million people in Africa’s mostly Catholic nation, twice as many as before the killings began. The reason behind the conversions lies in the fact that Rwandan Muslims did not take part in the genocide and played a key role in the humanitarian efforts that followed.

Muslims have been honored by the national government for their roles in saving the lives regardless of their faith. Many people attribute the recent spread of Islam to these humanitarian acts.

It took years of dedicated work for Sulaiman to memorize the Qur’an. The lack of qualified teachers in Rwanda made him make up his mind to travel to Kenya as there are good Qur’anic schools there.
“I was 15 when my five friends and I decided to travel to Kenya to seek knowledge. Two of my friends were converts like me,” he said.
The six young men packed their bags and traveled to the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, to find the school. They enrolled themselves in a free boarding school, which accepts students from all over East Africa. There they studied under the tutelage of Qur’an scholars. It took Sulaiman two years to memorize the whole Qur’an.

Now back home in Rwanda, Sulaiman works as a part time Imam and Qur’an teacher to supplement his income while studying at the only Islamic seminar in Kigali. “Masha Allah, there are so many Muslims now in my country. We are working hard at teaching the Qur’an to the new generation of Muslim children,” he said.

After finishing his education, Sulaiman hopes to get a scholarship to study Islam. “We get Muslim scholars coming from Uganda to spread the word of Islam in Rwanda. I hope that through my knowledge of Islam I will be able to help spread peace in my country,” he said.

17th Ramadhaan: The Day of Furqaan`

2007-09-29T22:25:00.000+03:00

`The Battle of Badr~: eternal lessons for those who understand.
..
"There has already been a sign for you in the two armies that met (in combat i.e. The battle of Badr)
One was fighting in the Cause of Allaah, and as for the other (they) were disbelievers.
They saw them with their own eyes twice their number (although they were thrice their number). And Alla`ah supports with His Victory whom He pleases.
Verily, in this is a lesson for those who understand.
`( سورة آل عمران , Aal-`Imraa`n, Chapter #3, Verse #13)(`Arabic)

"And Allaah has already made you victorious at Badr, when you were a weak little force.
So fear Allah much `that you may be grateful.
`( سورة آل عمران , Aal-e-Imran, Chapter #3, Verse #123)(Arabic)

And (remember) when Allaah promised you (Muslims) one of the two parties (of the enemy i.e. either the army or the caravan) that it should be yours, you wished that the one not armed (the caravan) should be yours, but Alla`ah willed to justify the truth by His Words and to cut off the roots of the disbelievers
( سورة الأنفال , Al-Anfal, Chapter #8, Verse #7)(Arabic)

And know that whatever of war-booty that you may gain, verily one-fifth (1/5th) of it is assigned to Alla`ah, and to the Messenger, and to the near relatives, the orphans, Al-Masakin (the poor) and the wayfarer, if you have believed in Allaah and in that which We sent down to Our slave (Muhammad ) o`n the Day of criterion (between right and wrong), the Day when the two forces met (T`he battle of Badr) - And Alla`ah is Able to do all things.
( سورة الأنفال , Al-Anfal, Chapter #8, Verse #41)(Arabic)

And (remember) when you met (the army of the disbelievers on the Day of the battle of Badr), He showed them to you as few in your eyes and He made you appear as few in their eyes, so that Allaah might accomplish a matter already ordained (in His Knowledge), and to Allaah return all matters (for decision).
( سورة الأنفال , Al-Anfal, Chapter #8, Verse #44)(Arabic)

And (remember) when Shaytaan (Satan) made their (evil) deeds seem fair to them and said:` "No one of mankind can overcome you this Day (of the battle of badr) and verily, I am your neighbour (for each and every help)."
`But when the two forces came in sight of each other, he ran away and said: "Indeed, I have nothing to do with you. Indeed! I see what you do not see. Indeed! I fear Allaah or Alla`ah is Severe in punishment."
( سورة الأنفال , Al-Anfal, Chapter #8, Verse #48)

Ramadhaan Q & A

2007-09-28T16:03:00.000+03:00

10 Questions with Rasha & Rida

What's the best thing you like to eat at suhoor?

Rasha: Cheese sandwich and milk
Rida : Dates

ًWhat's one thing you can't do without at iftaar?
Rasha: Water

Rida: Dates and chicken nuggets

What's your favourite Ramadhaan memory?

Rasha: When we went for Umrah last Ramadan

Your favourite duaa?
Rasha: The du'aa the Prophet used to say after breaking his fast : ''Thahab athama' wa ibtallatil 'urooq wa thabat alajr in shaa Allah"

Rida: The duaa we say before iftaar: Allaahummaa laka sumt, wa 'ala rizqeka aftartu

Your favourite sahaabi?

Rasha: Ummmm…. I like Saad bin Abi Waqqas, and also Umar bin Khattab…maybe 'cause I behave like him sometimes :)

Rida: 'Uthmaan bin Affaan, because he was so kind and generous and gentle and shy.

Your favourite incident from the life of the Prophet?
Rasha: When the Prophet (Sallalahu 'alayhi wa sallam) was emigrating from Makkah to Madinah… when the people of Yathrib were welcoming him; it was sooooooo sad and poignant.

Rida: When the prophet sallallaahu 'alayhi wa sallam heard the voice of Gabriel at Jabal An-noor teaching him the quran for the first time.

Your favourite reciter of the Qur'aan?
Rasha: Abba, of course :) and Sheikh Salah bu Khatir and Sheikh Shuraim.
Rida: Abba and Salah bu khatir :)

The soorah/ayah that you like to read in salah?
Rasha: Ummm… Surah Taha.
Rida: Soorah Qisas and Maryam (b/z it has a story in it and I like soorahs with stories)

One habit from Ramadhaan that you'd like to carry over to the rest of the year?
Rasha: To complete a khatmah every month, in shaa Allaah!!
Rida: Fasting till I've tons of weight!!

What do you miss the most about Ramadhaan when it's over?
Rasha: Fasting, and the way everyone's controlling themselves or at least trying to ;) (their manners)

Rida: The time before breaking the fast when all our duaas can be accepted

***

10 Questions with The Ed

What's the best thing you like to eat at suhoor?
porridge and milk.

What's one thing you can't do without at iftaar?
water

What's your favourite Ramadhaan memory?
Stopping at Nimas on the road to Makkah to break our fast with home-made chocolate fudge brownies in a masjid that was covered by swirling mist and great gusts of chilly winds. I was a novice at road trips then and didn't want to go any further b/z one couldn't see the road b/z of the fog!

Your favourite duaa?
I guess duaas reflect a state of mind and my favourite duaas keep changing all the time, but my all time favourite is:
Allaahumma arinal haqqa haqqan, warzuqnaa ittiba'aahu/
wa arinal baatila baatilan, warzuqnaa ijtinaabahu.

Your favourite sahaabi/sahaabiyaat and why do you like him/her the most?
This is so tough!
Actually there are many companions whom I admire (Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthmaan, 'Ali, Abu Tharr, Muaath bin Jabal, Huthayfah bin Yaman) and others whom I find inspiring (Mus'ab bin Umayr, Nusaybah) and yet others whom I envy (in a good/wistful way) for their closeness to the Prophet صلىالله عليه وسلم(all the Prophet's family…his wives and children and relatives, Usamah bin Zayd, Barakah Umm Ayman, Umm Sulaym)

I guess my favourite companion is the un-named woman who was told of the loss of her father, brother and sons in battle and kept asking how the Prophetصلىالله عليه وسلم was; until when she saw for herself that he صلىالله عليه وسلمwas safe she sobbed with relief and said that all her losses didn't matter as long as he صلىالله عليه وسلم was alright.

Your favourite incident from the life of the Prophetصلىالله عليه وسلم?
Hmmm…tough one again.
The time when the Bedouin Arab came to meet the Prophet صلىالله عليه وسلمand told him that he hadn't prepared much for the Hereafter, but he loved Allaah and His Prophet, and the Prophetصلىالله عليه وسلم replied that he would be with those whom he loved.
It gives me hope!

Your favourite reciter of the Qur'aan?
Make that reciters! Abu-R, all of you kids, Sh. Abdul Mun'im Abdul Mubdi, Sa'ad al Ghamdi, Sh. Salah, Sh. Huthayfi, Sh. Husayn Aal Shaykh, and last but not the least Sh. Hawwaashi!

The soorah/ayah that you like to read in salah?
آمَنَ الرَّسُولُ بِمَا أُنزِلَ إِلَيْهِ مِن رَّبِّهِ وَالْمُؤْمِنُونَ كُلٌّ آمَنَ بِاللّهِ وَمَلَائِكَتِهِ وَكُتُبِهِ وَرُسُلِهِ لاَ نُفَرِّقُ بَيْنَ أَحَدٍ مِّن رُّسُلِهِ وَقَالُواْ سَمِعْنَا وَأَطَعْنَا غُفْرَانَكَ رَبَّنَا وَإِلَيْكَ الْمَصِيرُ

لاَ يُكَلِّفُ اللّهُ نَفْسًا إِلاَّ وُسْعَهَا لَهَا مَا كَسَبَتْ وَعَلَيْهَا مَا اكْتَسَبَتْ رَبَّنَا لاَ تُؤَاخِذْنَا إِن نَّسِينَا أَوْ أَخْطَأْنَا رَبَّنَا وَلاَ تَحْمِلْ عَلَيْنَا إِصْرًا كَمَا حَمَلْتَهُ عَلَى الَّذِينَ مِن قَبْلِنَا رَبَّنَا وَلاَ تُحَمِّلْنَا مَا لاَ طَاقَةَ لَنَا بِهِ وَاعْفُ عَنَّا وَاغْفِرْ لَنَا وَارْحَمْنَا أَنتَ مَوْلاَنَا فَانصُرْنَا عَلَى الْقَوْمِ الْكَافِرِينَ

One habit from Ramadhaan that you'd like to carry over to the rest of the year?
Getting up for Qiyaam everyday, being more mindful of salah and careful about what I say and do .

What do you miss the most about Ramadhaan when it's over?
The sounds of taraweeh pouring in from everywhere at night.

sepia-tinted Ramadhaan posts

2007-09-28T06:14:00.000+03:00

Lots of people (now grown up) share childhood memories of Ramadhaan in Jordan, Palestine, Lebanon...reading through these posts brings up tons of memories. Good stuff.

A sample:

Ramadan Memories...
By Mike Odetalla

pic and narrative courtesy: www.hanini.org

The holy month of Ramadan is once again upon us, and its fasting. Muslims will fast from sun-up till sun down, abstaining from food, water, and intimate relationships.

Each year around this time, my memories of Ramadan in our small village of Beit Hanina, a suburb of Jerusalem which was still without electricity, whereby people carried lanterns to light their way in the darkness as they went first to the mosque and from there to visit friends and family: a special part of Ramadan, are once again rekindled.
Beit Hanina had a drummer, charged with the pre-dawn task of awakening the village to sahoor, the light meal whose end marked the beginning of each day's fast. Closing my eyes and thinking real hard, still brings back the sound of Beit Hanina's drummer banging away, and the delightful memories of joining the other children, carrying our decorated fanoosia lanterns with candles burning brightly inside them, as we ran along behind the drummer, singing, laughing and shouting to help awaken the sleeping adults and start them on sahoor and their new day. How I admired the drummer; how I wanted his job and to share his fun.

In Ramadan 1979, my first visit back to Palestine since the '67 expulsion, my cousin and I, both 18 and living in the US, finally became the Ramadan drummers of Beit Hanina. The Israeli invasion of 1967 and the subsequent occupation made the drummers' job very high risk and today they are scarce: Ramadan drummers were often stopped, even beaten, and some have been killed by the Israeli occupying army.

By 1979, the village had not enjoyed a drummer in 5 years, so my cousin and I delighted in our job of walking through the village each morning banging away on large tin cans. It must have been a very humorous sight: the elderly were happy to hear us; the younger people thought we were a great joke and made fun of the 'bored Americans'. But everyone agreed that we had renewed some "life" that had been lost as we broke through the dark still nights of Ramadan.

For me, however briefly, I was transported back to a happy childhood whose memories had never left me for a moment.I still remember sitting by the family's transistor radio with my siblings listening to the special programs as we awaited the "cannon" to go off, signaling that it was time to break our fast. The "cannon" was a World War I era English relic and merely made a loud bang, which was all that it, was good for.
Ever since my children were very small, I had regaled them with the many stories of my childhood in Palestine, enjoying the look of fascination on their faces as they implored me to tell them yet "another story of when you were young in Palestine"…

During Ramadan, my mother would always invite friends and relatives to our home to break the fast with us. As Muslims, we are obligated to share breaking our fast with others, especially those less fortunate than us. It is considered a blessing to do so. It is something that we continue to do here in America as we invite friends and loved ones to share in our blessing on this Holy Month, the essence of which are a time of prayer, fasting, and charity.
Some of the best memories that I carry with me are connected to the month of Ramadan in Palestine when I was a child. The closeness and feeling of "community" that I felt during those times is something that is almost beyond description. The sound of the drummer, the Muezzin call to prayer, the static emanating from the transistor radio, the "boom" of the cannon, the enticing aroma of the special foods that we only ate during Ramadan, the sight of families huddled together on a mat covered floor around the evening meals, illuminated by the flickering light of a kerosene lantern, enjoying their meals, as humble as it may have been, in the company of family and loved ones…

These are my memories of Ramadan before the Israeli invasion and subsequent brutal and inhumane occupation which has destroyed many families and communities and is now in the process of causing further havoc as Israel continues to erect its Apartheid Walls, checkpoints, and roadblocks which have reduced many Palestinian villages and cities to nothing more than walled off ghettos and open air prisons.

Unfortunately, these will constitute the next generation of Palestinian children's memories and experiences…

cross posts: The clever bird

2007-09-27T11:59:00.000+03:00

Rida has a cute post on Sisters-in-Faith and Rasha recounts a Fiqh lesson on the different kinds of water which can be used for wudhu, for which we had to create a whole new category of posts: ewww inducing.

Can you figure out this one?! I got it out of my Qira'ah book...
A hunter went out to the forest to hunt a bird, he caught a small one and when it was in his hands it asked him: "What d'you want to do to me?"
He said:" I want to eat you!!!"
The bird said: "I'm so small you won't even become full with me! But I'll give you three pieces of advice which will be better than eating me.
One I'll give when I'm in your hand, the second when I'm on the tree, and the third when I'm on the mountain!!!"
The hunter agreed.

The bird told him the first one:"Do not regret what you've lost."
The hunter freed her and said:"give me the second."

The bird stood on the tree and said:"Do not believe the impossible"
The hunter said:"and now give me the third?"
Then the bird suddenly had an idea and said: "You're so stupid! if you hadn't let me free you would have got out of me two precious diamonds each weighing twenty pounds!!!"

The hunter bit his lip with remorse and said:"Give me the third?"
The bird:"How can I?!You have forgotten two so how can I give you the third?Hadn't I told you not to regret what has passed and not to believe the impossible? Do you really think that I have two precious diamonds each weighing twenty pounds inside me?!"
And she flew off!!!

This story is a bit complicated to narrate, but it's got a really nice lesson, sah?

The most chilled out Ramadhaan or (alhamdulillaah x infinity)

2007-09-26T21:27:00.000+03:00

For all practical purposes, this Ramadhaan I should have been stressed out to the max.

I have a demanding, physically and mentally draining job, a new baby (alhamdulillaah) who demands nutrition and attention 24/7, besides the same-old, same-old routine of growing up the bunch of Rs Allaah has sent our way.

The writing on the wall says I should be tearing out my hair or staring dully into space at this point, halfway through Ramadhaan. But I'm not.

What gives?

I wish I could say for sure.

Perhaps it's something as simple as an answered prayer.

Last Ramadhaan, (which was incidentally one of the most stress and angst-filled times of my life) I prayed and prayed and prayed and prayed to Allaah 'azz wa jall, that if I lived to see another Ramadhaan, please let it be different from the spate of Ramadhaans I've virtually sleepwalked through like a spiritual zombie or an automaton.

alhamdulillaah, Allaah has heard.

This time, from the very beginning, I felt a deep tranquility descending on my heart, alhamdulillaah.

This Ramadhaan, Allaah created a cosy little space in my heart, a warm, sacred space where the soul can disappear even if I'm in the middle of customary bedlam and immersed in the mindboggling mundanity of mummyhood.

This Ramadhaan, I learnt to let go. Of expectations -- others' and my own -- and stopped trying to live out the semi-mythical idea of a perfect Ramadhaan.

This Ramadhaan, I made my own.

No store-bought, commercialised, idealised utopia for me. I am doing what I can, happily, joyously to the best of my ability; not racing on an invisible treadmill or glancing over my shoulder uneasily to see if others have caught up in the race to be super-mum, super-wife and super-muslimah.

This Ramadhaan, I rest easy in the knowledge that Allaah, Al-Lateef, Al-Khabeer knows the deepest secrets of our hearts and souls.

He knows I would much rather be doing some things, when I'm doing other things and may He accept the sincerity of our intentions inspite of the imperfection of our 'ibaadah.

May Allaah allow this Sakeenah to last long after Ramadhaan, in this world and beyond. Aameen.

Hope everyone's having an equally cool Ramadhaan, in shaa Allaah. Keep us in your prayers!

if you want to see a real live Qur'aan miracle

2007-09-25T21:29:00.000+03:00

tune in to the international Qur'aan award on Dubai tv.

subhaanallaah, it is so moving to see Muslim youngsters from the world over ...from Congo to Nepal to Taiwan to Barbados to Kyrgyzstan...most of whose native language is not Arabic reciting the Qur'aan with flawless tajweed.

subhaanallaah! like the Qur'aan says:

innaa nazzalna ath-thikr
wa innaa lahu la haafithoon.

"indeed, we have revealed Ath-Thikr( The Reminder, Qur'aan)
And indeed we will preserve it."

sadaqa Allaah ul Azeem.

the world's most geographically aware 3-year-old!

2007-09-23T09:37:00.000+03:00

3-year-old can identify flags and names of 167 countries
from: GulfNews
Dubai: A three-year-old Indian whiz kid has successfully memorised the names of more than 167 countries' flags in 11 days with his parents' assistance in Sharjah.
The outstandingly smart boy, Aazer Hussain, whose parents are planning to enrol him in kindergarten next year, has the ability to identify the names of more than 167 countries from their flag colours. He can also easily fish out the flag if someone asks him to do so by naming the country.

***

maa shaa Allaah! Just goes to show the ENORMOUS potential little kids have, subhaanallaah, and how little we, as parents and educators tap into it.

inspiring and humbling

2007-09-23T09:14:00.000+03:00

These are a series of articles on the participants at the international Qur'aan award organised in Dubai...very interesting, inspiring and humbling (for the elders) profiles, maa shaa Allaah.

Keen on learning from the Quran
Dubai: It began as part of family tradition to memorise the Quran but now it is part of their identity.
Participants at the Dubai International Holy Quran Award say they are determined to spread their knowledge of Islam.
The first participant, from Nigeria, proudly says he wants to teach the Quran "just like I was taught".
18-year-old Ja'afar Saeed's instructor was his own father who is a teacher of the Quran in their community. All of his seven siblings learnt the Quran by heart along with his parents.
The second participant, 20-year-old Hussain Talal Abbas from the West Bank, Palestine, said that at a young age he developed a keen interest to learn the words of the Quran as it occupied most of his time.

He daily devoted three hours of his time memorising and revising it with a goal of purifying his heart by God's words, he said with a blush of humbleness and shyness.
"My parents fully supported my decision and encouraged me to nourish my memorisation talent," he said with sincerity.
The undergraduate wants to earn a degree in Arabic Language as well as continue with a postgraduate degree in the same field.
Ahmad Kharoub, from Morocco, started memorising the Quran at the age of 8 and completed it in 2 years. He was motivated by his father and siblings as well as the Islamic scholars among whom he grew up. From learning the Quran he finds tranquillity, serenity and contentment, he said.
The nineteen-year- old has 10 sisters and a brother who are all seeking to learn the Quran. The student of Islamic Jurisprudence wants to be a tutor and reciter of the holy book.
Saeed Ebrahim of Jordan says he owes the blessed step of memorising the Quran to God and his parents. The 19- year-old says that his future ambition is to teach the Quran and its interpretation.
He was able to complete his memorisation of all 30 chapters of the Quran in just 6 months.

feeding and fasting ?

2007-09-22T21:43:00.000+03:00

I really liked this article because it doesn't come right out and say it's impossible to feed a baby and fast in Ramadhaan at the same time.

Religious Fasting and Breastfeeding
By Kelly Bonyata, IBCLC

Breastfeeding research tells us that short-term fasting (not eating) will not decrease milk supply, but that severe dehydration can decrease milk supply.
There have been a few studies on short-term fasting and breastfeeding (see the references below). Prentice et. al. studied women in West Africa who were fasting for Ramadan (no food or fluids between 5:00 am and 7:30 pm) and found that milk volume was not affected but milk composition did change to a certain extent. The researchers noted that the women appeared to superhydrate themselves overnight when fluids were allowed to lessen daytime dehydration.

Studies in the United States by Neville et. al., Neville & Oliva-Rasbach and Tigas et. al. likewise showed no significant decrease in milk supply after a short fast (the women in these studies did drink water during the fast). The breastfeeding woman's body appears to make several metabolic adaptations during short-term fasting to ensure that milk production is not affected.

Mothers may want to err on the safe side, and drink water even if they are not eating. There are two risks to not drinking all day: (1) mom gets dehydrated, and (2) if the dehydration is severe enough milk supply can decrease. Mom's dehydration is comparatively easy to deal with -- if she feels thirsty (or urine gets very yellow, or she feels dizzy or ill) she needs to drink. The decrease in milk supply related to dehydration may be a bigger issue for some fasting mothers - some mothers have a hard time getting supply back up (this is often seen in mothers who don't eat or drink due to illness). When a mother does not drink fluids for a day, baby generally nurses as usual the day of the fast, but often needs to nurse more often the next day or two.

Some mothers have found that drinking water on fast days is more of a need during the first six months when baby is exclusively breastfed (not taking any food or drink other than breastmilk); once baby is older and taking other foods, it may be feasible to neither eat nor drink during the fast.

Keep in mind that mothers who have sugar metabolism problems (diabetes or hypoglycemia) or other health problems, fasting could be risky (for mom). Consult both your doctor and your religious advisor if you feel that you might have health issues that preclude fasting.

Specific guidelines
Jewish law exempts from fasting anyone whose health might be even a little harmed by it - this would include pregnant and nursing women whose health (or the health of her baby or fetus) might suffer from fasting. There may be ways of eating and drinking small increments that are still compatible with fasting. However, a local competent Orthodox rabbinic authority should be consulted so that the method and amounts of eating and drinking will be done within the correct guidelines.

Muslim women who are pregnant or breastfeeding may be exempt from fasting if they feel that their health or the baby's health would be negatively affected by the fasting. The mother may be expected to compensate for the missed fasting at a later time or pay some expiation for not fasting. Consult a scholar or a book of fiqh to determine the appropriate guidelines

'Umar bin Abdul Aziz's definition of Taqwaa

2007-09-22T19:49:00.000+03:00

يَا أَيُّهَا الَّذِينَ آمَنُواْ كُتِبَ عَلَيْكُمُ الصِّيَامُ كَمَا كُتِبَ عَلَى الَّذِينَ مِن قَبْلِكُمْ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَتَّقُونَ

"O ye who believe! Fasting is prescribed to you as it was prescribed to those before you, that you may achieve Taqwaa."
(Soorah Al-Baqarah, 183)

'Umar bin 'Abdil 'Aziz was once asked:"When does a person reach the peak of Taqwaa?"
(variously translated as self-restraint, God-consciousness, God-fear)

He, may Allaah have mercy on him, replied: “If he put all his thoughts and desires in his heart on a plate and then wandered around in the market, he should not feel ashamed of anything there.”

And another time, he said: “None can reach the station of Taqwaa until he possesses neither action nor words that can be exposed to his embarrassment either in this world or the Hereafter.”

did you see this? (parental plug)

2007-09-18T22:01:00.000+03:00

If this isn't the cutest Ramadhaan blog makeover in the world, I don't know what is!

the struggle to keep it simple and sunnah

2007-09-18T21:44:00.000+03:00

One of the biggest ironies of Ramadhaan is the enormous struggle it involves to keep it simple and sunnah. How difficult it is to be content with a minimum of food on the sufrah, when the supermarket aisles are flooded with food!
How hard it is for the Ummah of the Messengerصلىالله عليه وسلم who broke his fasts with fresh dates (Rutb) or if they were not to be found, three dry dates and some draughts of water, to be satisfied with less than what our senses demand!!

May Allaah makes us of those who follow the best of guides, and the best of guidance...and in doing so, enable us to drink from his fount, Al Kawthar, whose cups are as numerous as stars...whoever drinks from it will feel no thirst after that, ever.

Aameen.

On a (somewhat) related note, I found this relatively simple bunch of regular iftaar fare : salad, shorba, sambousa and chicken-rice on the GulfNews' tabloid! magazine, that looks simple enough to try out on a weekend.
happy feasting...errr, I mean fasting :P

Lemony Chicken pulao
Basmati rice 1 Kg
Diced chicken 1 kg
Onion slices 200 gms
Tomatoes sliced 200 gms
Ginger-garlic paste 100 gms
Whole garam masala 10 gms
Butter / ghee 200 ml
Lemon 4
Salt 30 gms
Green chillies 4
Coriander powder 10 gms
Cumin powder 10 gms
Coriander leaves chopped 50 gms
Brown onions 50 gms
Chopped mint 20 gms
Cinnamon powder 5 gms

Method
Soak the rice in water for 30 minutes. In a pot, sauté onions with garam masala till light brown, now add chicken and ginger-garlic paste and sauté for two minutes.
Add coriander powder, cumin powder and green chilli along with tomatoes.
Add 1litre of water and bring to boil. Now add coriander, mint and lemon cut into halves, with skin. Season with salt and bring it to boil for 5 minutes.
Add drained rice and cook on a slow fire with lid covered till the rice is cooked and the water is absorbed. Set on Dum for 10 minutes. Garnish with fried onions and sliced almonds and serve hot along with yoghurt raita.
TIP: SETTING ON DUM CAN BE SIMPLY DONE IF YOU HAVE AN OVEN WHICH CAN TAKE YOUR COOKING VESSEL. SEAL WITH A LID AND PLACE THE WHOLE VESSEL IN AN OVEN PREHEATED TO 350 DEGREES.

Watermelon and feta salad with ginger dressing
Diced watermelon 300 gms
Feta cheese, diced 150 gms
Lightly toasted sunflower and pumpkin seeds 50 gms
Dressing
Peeled and grated
fresh ginger tbsp 1
Honey 2 tbsp
Finely chopped mint 1 tsp
Lemon juice 20 ml
Method:
Dressing: Blend the ingredients in a bowl. Mix the watermelon and feta in a bowl so that they are evenly distributed. Lace the salad with the dressing. Garnish with the mixed seeds.
TIP: THIS SALAD NEEDS TO BE MADE AT THE LAST MINUTE TO KEEP THE FRESHNESS. HOWEVER THE SWEET GINGER DRESSING CAN BE MADE IN LARGER QUANTITY AND KEPT STORED IN THE REFRIGERATOR AND USED WITH OTHER SALADS.

Vegetable soup
Zucchini 100 gms
Carrots 100 gms
Mushroom 50 gms
Baby corn 50 gms
Green beans 100 gms
Potatoes 100 gms
Chopped tomatoes 100 gms
Coriander leaves 50 gms
Garlic 50 gms
Onion 50 gms
Olive oil 50 ml
Chinese thread noodle 50 gms
Saffron threads 2 pinches
Fine semolina 50 gms
Salt and pepper 5 gms
METHOD
Wash zucchini and mushrooms, peel the carrots and potatoes and grate the vegetables finely. Slice and chop the tomatoes. Chop the coriander leaves. Peel and mash the garlic. Chop the onions.
Lightly saute the onion and garlic in a sauce pan in a olive oil. Cut the thread noodles and add them. Also add the grated vegetables.
Fill the pan with 500ml water. Season with salt and pepper. Add saffron threads, coriander leaves. Cook for about 20 minutes.
Add semolina. Stir with a wooden spatula to bind the soup. Stir in the chopped tomatoes and butter. Serve soup in a soup bowl along with garlic bread.
TIP: SUBSTITUTE YOUR FAVOURITE PASTA IN PLACE OF THE THREAD NOODLES AND ENJOY IT JUST THE WAY YOU LIKE IT.

Spicy cheese sambousek
Dough
Refined flour 500 gms
Eggs 1
Melted butter 50 gms
Corn oil 50 ml
Milk 250 ml
Salt 10 gms
Sugar 10 gms

Stuffing
Cottage cheese 100 gms
Feta cheese 100 gms
Chopped ginger 10 gms
Chopped green chilli 10 gms
Cooking oil for frying 300 ml
Chilli powder 2 gms
Oil sunflower refined 10 ml
Roasted cumin powder 5 ml

Method
To make the dough, mix flour ,eggs, butter, corn oil, milk, salt, sugar and knead into soft dough. Cover and rest for 30 minutes.
For stuffing, crumble feta cheese, cottage cheese and mix in chopped coriander, ginger, green chillies, chilli powder and roasted cumin powder.
Roll the dough thin. Cut it into round shapes. Add 1tsp of cheese filling. Close it in a half moon shape, then press on the edges by using a fork. Fry in hot oil. Serve with sliced lemon, tomato, and mint chutney.
TIP: YOU CAN PREPARE THE SANBOUSER IN ADVANCE AND STORE IN A DEEP FREEZER. FRY AS SOON AS YOU REMOVE FROM THE FREEZER. DO NOT ALLOW TO THAW.

it's here!!!!

2007-09-12T21:32:00.000+03:00

it's the MOST wonderful time of the year.
(is it just me, or do the skies in Ramadhaan shine much brighter?)

may Allaah accept, from all of us.

*1

2007-09-11T09:07:00.000+03:00

Around this time of the year, most khutbahs are about the beginning of the school year and general dos and don'ts for students and teachers.

While this Friday's khutbah at the Masjid an-Nabawi by Sh. Abdul Baari ath-Thubayti was about the same topic, it was also strikingly different because it talked about the role of teachers and parents in the tarbiyah of the nafs.

This is an area of parenting many of us tend to neglect/not focus too much on ...most parents are all about gearing their children to be 'achievers', either in the worldly or the other worldly realm. In order to achieve that 'success' we must first nurture and discipline the nafs.

(to be contd)

where do I begin?

2007-09-10T10:17:00.000+03:00

so MUCH to say, so little time and energy to say it in.

May Allaah bless our time in Sha'baan and enable us to reach Ramadhaan.

اللهم بارك لنا شعبان و بلَغنا رمضان

COMING UP NEXT on this blog (in shaa Allaah):
*points taken from last week's khutbah on the start of the new school year and Ramadhaan, by the Imaam at Madeenah, Abdul Baary ath-Thubayti.

*an excerpt from a very recent, real-life story on the reality of not knowing whether we're going to reach Ramadhaan, in spite of all our Ramadhaan resolutions and challenges and stocked fridges, by Sh. Ahmad al-Hawwaashi.

*Ramadhaan diaries by Rasha-Rida (they're ambitiously planning to write one every day...we'll see how it goes, in shaa Allaah)

*links to other interesting Ramadhaan diaries from around the net

*and the coup de grace: inputs from The Ed :)

Z = zed or zee?

2007-08-29T08:44:00.000+03:00

WordWise is carrying a list of words Britons and North Americans are divided over.

British — North American:
aerofoil — airfoil
aeroplane — airplane
agony aunt — advice columnist
anticlockwise — counter-clockwise
articulated lorry — tractor-trailer
asymmetric bars — uneven bars
aubergine — eggplant
blanket bath — sponge bath
bonnet (of car) — hood
boot (of a car) — trunk
bowls — lawn bowling
brawn (the food) — headcheese
breeze block — cinder block
brent goose — brant goose
bridging loan — bridge loan
bumbag — fanny pack
candy floss — cotton candy
car park — parking lot/garage
central reservation — median strip
chips — French fries
cling film — plastic wrap
common seal — harbor seal
consumer durables — durable goods
cornflour — cornstarch
cot — crib
cotton bud — cotton swab
cotton wool — absorbent cotton
courgette — zucchini
crash barrier — guardrail
crisps — chips or potato chips
cross-ply — bias-ply
current account — checking account
cut-throat razor — straight razor
dialling tone — dial tone
double cream — heavy cream
double-declutch — double-clutch
draughts — checkers
drawing pin — thumb tack
drink-driving — drunk driving
driving licence — driver’s license
dummy — pacifier
dustbin — trash/garbage can
eat in (of restaurant) — for here
engaged (of a telephone) — busy
estate car — station wagon
ex-directory — unlisted
eyebath — eyecup
financial year — fiscal year
fire brigade — fire department
firelighter — fire starter
fringe — bangs
full board — American plan
gear lever — gearshift
green fingers — green thumb
groundsman — groundskeeper
holidaymaker — vacationer
hundreds and thousands — sprinkles
indicator (on car) — turn signal
Joe Bloggs — Joe Blow
Joe Public — John Q. Public
jump lead — jumper cable
ladybird — ladybug
level crossing — grade crossing
lift (in building) — elevator
lolly (lollipop) — Popsicle (trademark)
loo — john
maize — corn
mangetout — snow peas
maths — math
monkey tricks — monkeyshines
motorway — expressway/freeway
mum — mom
nappy — diaper
noughts and crosses — tic-tac-toe
number plate — license plate
off-licence — liquor store
opencast — open-pit
paddling pool — wading pool
pay packet — pay envelop
pedestrian crossing — crosswalk
petrol — gasoline/gas
physiotherapy — physical therapy
plain chocolate — dark chocolate
plain flour — all-purpose flour
post code — zip code
postal vote — absentee ballot
poste restante — general delivery
press-up — pushup
punchbag — punching bag
pushchair — stroller
queue — line
razor shell — razor clam
real tennis — court tennis
recorded delivery — certified mail
reverse the charges — call collect
reversing light — backup light
room only — European plan
roundabout (in road) — traffic circle
rowing boat — rowboat
sailing boat — sailboat
self-raising flour — self-rising flour
shopping trolley — shopping cart
skirting board — baseboard
sleeping partner — silent partner
splashback — backsplash
storm in a teacup — tempest in a teapot
surtitle — supertitle
terraced house — row house
toffee apple — candy apple
trainers — sneakers
tram — streetcar or trolley car
transport café — truck stop
twelve-bore — twelve-gauge
vest — undershirt
waistcoat — vest
white spirit — mineral spirits
windscreen — windshield
worktop — countertop
zebra crossing — crosswalk
zed — zee
© Oxford University Press 2007
Extracted from the Oxford Dictionary and Thesaurus (ed Maurice Waite).

Also, for the orthographically challenged/curious: a list of 100 Commonly Misspelled Words (each with its own mnemonic so that one won't make the same mistake twice) + 150 bonus words and a list of 100 Commonly Mispronounced Words (includes some LoL inducing phrases).

Look them up!

Haloul, Farfour and Saraa

2007-08-26T10:42:00.000+03:00

The girl who urges children to fight Israel ... with clean teeth

(Ed: although the article doesn't mention anything about "fighting", I guess the subs couldn't let it go at that)

In pink flares, an embroidered shirt and neat headscarf, Saraa Barhoun is the new star of Hamas TV, spearheading efforts to persuade the youth of Gaza and the West Bank to follow a path of religious devotion, resistance to Israel and clean teeth.

Last week Palestinians had nothing to watch but the 11-year-old and her co-presenters Haloul, a bumblebee, and Farfour, a mouse that advocates violence against Israel, because power cuts knocked out satellite TV, leaving them with only Hamas's al-Aqsa Television.

Saraa, who lives with her family in Rafah, has undoubted star quality. Her Arabic is eloquent beyond her years. Her father is a teacher of Islam and she has learnt well. Saraa explains her role as twofold - to help the West understand Islam and to be a role model for Palestinian youth.

'I would like to tell everyone that Islam is very easy,' she said. 'It is not a hard religion and if people in the West converted they would find themselves in a better place. I want to tell the world we are not terrorists or their enemies.'

[...]

Israeli groups have cited Saraa as an example of how Hamas breeds hatred of Israel, but her producer, Samir Abu Mosen, says it is not television but growing up with Israeli violence that radicalises Palestinian children.

'The point of the programme is to show children they have a right to live without violence, to communicate with others and to share their experience,' he said. 'Saraa is a great role model for Palestinian children. We are trying to show negative behaviour and allow Saraa to correct it. This could be anything from cleaning their teeth, respecting their parents or doing homework.'

back to school (groan)

2007-08-25T10:16:00.000+03:00

The intro of this article on the increasing costs of school supplies made me smile:

"The phrase "back to school" has struck fear into the hearts of children for decades, but increasingly, parents as well are beginning to dread the beginning of term."

It's true...stationery supplies, uniforms, shoes and backpacks and the other 12396473625631626 school essentials that one's kids insist they "need, not want" can make a laaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarge hole in one's pocket, without the right strategy.

While the internet is awash with tips on smart back to school shopping strategies, we have our own homegrown strategies :

1. Ask: Does my child need this, or merely want it ?

2. Begin early before the stores are flooded with a mindboggling array of products and harried parents rushing around trying to make sensible purchases from the glut.

This time around we've almost completed our shopping thanks to Nanu who sponsored all the pre-emptive shopping trips while she was here, basically buying the kids all that they laid their hands on...jazaahallaahu khayr.

make your home reading central

2007-08-25T10:04:00.000+03:00

our home is reading central alright (alhamdulillaah), albeit of a slightly different kind (inside j/k).

Here's a really cool "inside look at a home rich in words and language — a home that inspires both kids and adults to read. It's full of ideas that you can quickly and easily replicate in your own home."