I attended a 10 day knowledgeseekers course recently - absolutely brillant!
brain has overloaded with info,shared alot, learnt a new way to re-style my hijab, made friends, kids had a whale of a time.
We were secluded away from tv radio newspapers etd for 10 days - when we were released first thing we noticed was..McDonalds! =0)
More soon..
Tuesday, 28 August 2007
ER
Just have to share this with you...i was typing up my sister doc whilst at work. I had nearly finished the doc when suddenly the computer froze. All applications were stationery. I tried the control alt delete method but that too wasnt' corresponding. I began to panic as i had just finished the sister.doc but had not saved it. My life hung in the balance as i contemplated whether to call up IT and get them to help me knowing that they would have full view of my document if i let them intervene, which basically meant that i was procrastinating at my desk by way of doing personal work rather then work work. (Procrastinate is a new word i've picked up - currently biggest word in my vocab - husband hates it when i call him a procrastinator - sounds so good though, at least it gets the message through though and he gets on with what he is supposed to be doing..).
So i got hold of IT, below is our dialogue;
'GoodAfternoon, IT Support'
'Erm, i wonder if you can help please?'
'Yes'
'My doc has frozen on me and i haven't saved it yet, I'm worried i may lose it'
'Let me take a look' At this point i honestly felt that i was at A&E in a life or death situation. The IT guy logged on to my screen and began doing his job.
'Did you try to end task'
'Yes'
I could see that he was trying to work on retrieving the data, ' I'm afraid this doesnt look good - but i'll see what i can do', he said. I sunk low in my chair, all i could think of was the time it took me to write up the document, i was full of sorrow, i honestly felt as if i was about to loose something very close to me.
'I'm sorry to say but i am unable to retrieve the data, it's just not responding'.
Have you ever watched ER? You know the bit where a doctor has flung himself on top of his patient and is trying to electrify him back to life - well at this point that was how i was feeling. 'What do you mean its not responding,' I cried in dispair,
'I'm afraid we are going to have to 'END TASK'!'. Oh no, i thought this is it, it's dead, my doc has died on me. His mouse hovered over the end task button - i couldn't bear it look, i closed my eyes....suddenly it was all over. 'I'm sorry', he said.
'Me too' I said. 'Never mind though, thanks for trying'. I suppose he could feel the immense sorry in my voice.
'Wait a minute let me try something'. He said. While i was thinking of the length of time it had taken me to put my words togehter and whether my brain would be able to re-write it again, he suddenly said,' Please re-boot your machine'.
Turning of the machine was like turning off life support, i did as i was told. When the machine kicked back in to action the IT guy got to work again. Alhamdu'lillah through some miracle, only an IT literate guy would know how, my word doc appeared again. It came up under an emergency retrieval section. I was overjoyed, however only the beginning of my doc was saved though. I was slightly embarassed though as the first word that came up was 'Sister', so he must have guessed it was a personal doc, oh well, what else does one do when there's nothing to do at work! I was proactively keeping the brain busy wasn't I?
'I wasn't sure if i was able to save part of your doc that's why i didn't mention it, sometimes it just doesn't work', He Said.
'That's ok', I thought. 'Thanks Dr.IT, you're the best!'
I didn't care, at least the beginning part was saved, that's always the hardest part to write. I thanked him profusely.
So i got hold of IT, below is our dialogue;
'GoodAfternoon, IT Support'
'Erm, i wonder if you can help please?'
'Yes'
'My doc has frozen on me and i haven't saved it yet, I'm worried i may lose it'
'Let me take a look' At this point i honestly felt that i was at A&E in a life or death situation. The IT guy logged on to my screen and began doing his job.
'Did you try to end task'
'Yes'
I could see that he was trying to work on retrieving the data, ' I'm afraid this doesnt look good - but i'll see what i can do', he said. I sunk low in my chair, all i could think of was the time it took me to write up the document, i was full of sorrow, i honestly felt as if i was about to loose something very close to me.
'I'm sorry to say but i am unable to retrieve the data, it's just not responding'.
Have you ever watched ER? You know the bit where a doctor has flung himself on top of his patient and is trying to electrify him back to life - well at this point that was how i was feeling. 'What do you mean its not responding,' I cried in dispair,
'I'm afraid we are going to have to 'END TASK'!'. Oh no, i thought this is it, it's dead, my doc has died on me. His mouse hovered over the end task button - i couldn't bear it look, i closed my eyes....suddenly it was all over. 'I'm sorry', he said.
'Me too' I said. 'Never mind though, thanks for trying'. I suppose he could feel the immense sorry in my voice.
'Wait a minute let me try something'. He said. While i was thinking of the length of time it had taken me to put my words togehter and whether my brain would be able to re-write it again, he suddenly said,' Please re-boot your machine'.
Turning of the machine was like turning off life support, i did as i was told. When the machine kicked back in to action the IT guy got to work again. Alhamdu'lillah through some miracle, only an IT literate guy would know how, my word doc appeared again. It came up under an emergency retrieval section. I was overjoyed, however only the beginning of my doc was saved though. I was slightly embarassed though as the first word that came up was 'Sister', so he must have guessed it was a personal doc, oh well, what else does one do when there's nothing to do at work! I was proactively keeping the brain busy wasn't I?
'I wasn't sure if i was able to save part of your doc that's why i didn't mention it, sometimes it just doesn't work', He Said.
'That's ok', I thought. 'Thanks Dr.IT, you're the best!'
I didn't care, at least the beginning part was saved, that's always the hardest part to write. I thanked him profusely.
Saturday, 11 August 2007
Peace n The Hood
I attended the Peace in the hood 2 festival a couple of weekends ago. After all the hype I was expecting it to be a lot better then it actually was. As my family and I approached the venue we could hear a whole load of people singing hymns, shamefully I knew the words to this particularly hymn (having attended a CofE school) so found myself singing along to them!. My hubby and I began to wonder whether we’d arrived at the right venue, we soon saw a load of hijab, niqab wearers and stopped panicking. To be honest there weren’t many people around so we were debating whether we should all go in or not – but since this debate went on and on until we stood right in front of the brother and sister who were giving out tickets, so rather then embarrassing ourselves we coughed up the money required and all went in to a very empty hall.
The first talk had already started, unfortunately it was all in Arabic so we didn’t’ understand a word, actually judging by the vast audience’s body language it seemed as though no one understood a word!
The kids however were having a ball of a time, running to the stalls and purchasing magic rings, halal sweets and even going crazy over at the henna table. As I began to sink low in my chair bored out of my brains the next speaker came on. He began his talk in Arabic and I immediately thought, ‘ Oh no, here we go, how long is this going to take, bring on the nasheeds….’, and then the speaker began to speak in English, his opening line was, ‘ We are all in trouble…..’ Brillant open line, absolutely brilliant, definitely got me intrigued.
He started his talk by reminding us of one of the most important gifts Allah has blessed us with….’Air’. He rightly said that we pay for our gas, electricity even for water, but how much do we pay for air? Exactly, nothing, we pay nothing at all for the air that we breathe. It’s free, Allah has given us free air to breathe, so do we thank Allah?
Alhamdu’Lillah this speaker was superb. He had so many inspiring stories to share with us all, most of them related to da’wah. He knew of hundreds of people that have become Muslim, and most of the time all it takes is for a Muslim to openly practice his religion so that others, non-Muslims especially, have the opportunity to see the beauty of our deen.
I sat and listened to almost every word and wished that I had encouraged all my siblings to attend this talk too. My hubby later said that it was definitely worth spending a fiver to hear this guy speak. I wholeheartedly agreed.
All these stories are of the Sheikh’s experience with delivering dawah and the ultimate results. (The stories are in my own words as I understood them and Allah Knows Best)
Story 1
The Sheikh and his wife had to travel by tube one evening. As they descended on to a platform, he spotted two ladies sitting on oneside of the platform and two men sitting on the other side. He turned to his wife, who wears full niqab, gloves etc, and told her to go give dawah to the ladies while he approaches the men. His wife walked over to the ladies and as she approache them, the ladies turned around saw her and gasped. His wife said, ‘ Don’t panic, I’m a lady just like you’, and she lifted her veil to show them her face. They both said, ‘ Why are you covered up from head to toe then?’, to which the wife replied,’ because I am a diamond for my husband’s eyes only’. The ladies were emotionally struck by this answer and continued to ask more questions, after a while both ladies wanted to take shahadah. The wife turned and clapped her hands to get her husband’s attention (clapped her hands so that the men that were with her husband would not hear her voice). Her husband came hurrying across to his wife and Alhamdu’lillah the two women took shahdah and became muslim.
This was a lovely true story and May Allah reward both the sheikh and his wife abundantly insha’Allah.
I later said to my husband that I would like to wear a nikab and cover myself from head to toe coz after all, ‘I am his diamond’, to which he cheekily replied, ‘ I’d rather just have you in a glass case for everyone to see but not touch’.
Story 2
The sheikh had just arrived back from a dawah tour in Pakistan. So there he was standing at the arrivals terminal in LHR when the time for salat occurred. So he found a space within the arrival section, put down his briefcase, completely ignoring the people around, stood up right and began to very loudly recite the call to prayer, ‘ Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar..’. When he had finished he turned around to face a female police officier who was all red in the face. The officier poitely said the the sheikh, ‘Sir, please come with me, I’d like to show you were the prayer room is’. The sheikh was amazed, he had no idea there was a prayer room at heathrow. He followed the officier and completed his prayer there.
The sheikh wanted to highlight the fact that almost everywhere we look today, there are prayer rooms. The mere existence of these rooms are fabulous opportunites for all of us to do dawah one way or the other.
Story 3
The sheikh had gone to the post office. Whilst there a kind man called David held the door open for the sheikh for a few minutes. The sheikh was so overcome by David’s kindness that he wanted to give something back as a thank you. The best think he could give back was dawah. So he asked David, ‘Tell me, have you heard of a man called Prophet Mohammad?’ David replied, ‘ Who?, you mean the greatest man in the world?’. The sheikh was taken aback by this comment obviously and asked, ‘ Are you a Muslim?’. David replied no. The sheikh then said, ‘Then how do you know of Mohammad?’. David said that he had recently finished reading a book on the 100 greatest men in the world of which Mohammed was included. The Sheikh then gave David a small booklet on Islam to read and suggested that he call him on Sunday once he had read the book so they could discuss further.
The sheikh swears that he gave the book to David on Friday and Saturday morning, whilst at home having breakfast with his kids, the sheikh’s phone rang. The sheikh answered the phone to which the reply was, ’ Hello, this is Sandra, may I speak to Sheikh Jiani please?’, not used to receiving calls from females he replied,’ Astagfur’Allah who is Sandra?’. Sandra explained that she was the wife of the David whom the Sheikh met yesterday. The Sheikh quickly remembered who David was, Sandra had called to say that David had read the book the Sheikh had given him and was interested in taking Shahadah – Alhamdu’Lillah. The Sheikh was overwhelmed with this news, he quickly gathered together his belongings and rushed to David’s house.
Story 4
One man became Muslim just by learning about istanjah!
A non-Muslim was curious why his Muslim collegue kept taking a bottle of water to the toilet. One day he just had to question him, ‘ Are you having a shower in there or what?’ was the man’s polite way of asking. ‘ No, our religion requires us Muslims to keep clean, even when we use the toilet, that’s what the water is for’ The man exclaimed, ‘Your religion is so pure’ – He later became Muslim
What we can learn from the Sheikh?
The sheikh openly recites the Quran when travelling, especially on the tube.
When the time for prayer is upon him, he will pray anywhere.
He always salams his fellow muslim brother (once he was on the tube and he salaamed a brother, the brother sheepishly looked away and walked away from the sheikh without replying. The sheikh wanted his reply back, so followed the brother through the croweded tube. When he was finally standing next to the brother the sheikh said, ‘Brother, I said Assalamu Alaykum’. The brother quietly looked down and replied, ‘Walikum Salaam’. A sister told me that salaaming your fellow brothers and sisters is a FARD – so don’t ignore it.
The first talk had already started, unfortunately it was all in Arabic so we didn’t’ understand a word, actually judging by the vast audience’s body language it seemed as though no one understood a word!
The kids however were having a ball of a time, running to the stalls and purchasing magic rings, halal sweets and even going crazy over at the henna table. As I began to sink low in my chair bored out of my brains the next speaker came on. He began his talk in Arabic and I immediately thought, ‘ Oh no, here we go, how long is this going to take, bring on the nasheeds….’, and then the speaker began to speak in English, his opening line was, ‘ We are all in trouble…..’ Brillant open line, absolutely brilliant, definitely got me intrigued.
He started his talk by reminding us of one of the most important gifts Allah has blessed us with….’Air’. He rightly said that we pay for our gas, electricity even for water, but how much do we pay for air? Exactly, nothing, we pay nothing at all for the air that we breathe. It’s free, Allah has given us free air to breathe, so do we thank Allah?
Alhamdu’Lillah this speaker was superb. He had so many inspiring stories to share with us all, most of them related to da’wah. He knew of hundreds of people that have become Muslim, and most of the time all it takes is for a Muslim to openly practice his religion so that others, non-Muslims especially, have the opportunity to see the beauty of our deen.
I sat and listened to almost every word and wished that I had encouraged all my siblings to attend this talk too. My hubby later said that it was definitely worth spending a fiver to hear this guy speak. I wholeheartedly agreed.
All these stories are of the Sheikh’s experience with delivering dawah and the ultimate results. (The stories are in my own words as I understood them and Allah Knows Best)
Story 1
The Sheikh and his wife had to travel by tube one evening. As they descended on to a platform, he spotted two ladies sitting on oneside of the platform and two men sitting on the other side. He turned to his wife, who wears full niqab, gloves etc, and told her to go give dawah to the ladies while he approaches the men. His wife walked over to the ladies and as she approache them, the ladies turned around saw her and gasped. His wife said, ‘ Don’t panic, I’m a lady just like you’, and she lifted her veil to show them her face. They both said, ‘ Why are you covered up from head to toe then?’, to which the wife replied,’ because I am a diamond for my husband’s eyes only’. The ladies were emotionally struck by this answer and continued to ask more questions, after a while both ladies wanted to take shahadah. The wife turned and clapped her hands to get her husband’s attention (clapped her hands so that the men that were with her husband would not hear her voice). Her husband came hurrying across to his wife and Alhamdu’lillah the two women took shahdah and became muslim.
This was a lovely true story and May Allah reward both the sheikh and his wife abundantly insha’Allah.
I later said to my husband that I would like to wear a nikab and cover myself from head to toe coz after all, ‘I am his diamond’, to which he cheekily replied, ‘ I’d rather just have you in a glass case for everyone to see but not touch’.
Story 2
The sheikh had just arrived back from a dawah tour in Pakistan. So there he was standing at the arrivals terminal in LHR when the time for salat occurred. So he found a space within the arrival section, put down his briefcase, completely ignoring the people around, stood up right and began to very loudly recite the call to prayer, ‘ Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar..’. When he had finished he turned around to face a female police officier who was all red in the face. The officier poitely said the the sheikh, ‘Sir, please come with me, I’d like to show you were the prayer room is’. The sheikh was amazed, he had no idea there was a prayer room at heathrow. He followed the officier and completed his prayer there.
The sheikh wanted to highlight the fact that almost everywhere we look today, there are prayer rooms. The mere existence of these rooms are fabulous opportunites for all of us to do dawah one way or the other.
Story 3
The sheikh had gone to the post office. Whilst there a kind man called David held the door open for the sheikh for a few minutes. The sheikh was so overcome by David’s kindness that he wanted to give something back as a thank you. The best think he could give back was dawah. So he asked David, ‘Tell me, have you heard of a man called Prophet Mohammad?’ David replied, ‘ Who?, you mean the greatest man in the world?’. The sheikh was taken aback by this comment obviously and asked, ‘ Are you a Muslim?’. David replied no. The sheikh then said, ‘Then how do you know of Mohammad?’. David said that he had recently finished reading a book on the 100 greatest men in the world of which Mohammed was included. The Sheikh then gave David a small booklet on Islam to read and suggested that he call him on Sunday once he had read the book so they could discuss further.
The sheikh swears that he gave the book to David on Friday and Saturday morning, whilst at home having breakfast with his kids, the sheikh’s phone rang. The sheikh answered the phone to which the reply was, ’ Hello, this is Sandra, may I speak to Sheikh Jiani please?’, not used to receiving calls from females he replied,’ Astagfur’Allah who is Sandra?’. Sandra explained that she was the wife of the David whom the Sheikh met yesterday. The Sheikh quickly remembered who David was, Sandra had called to say that David had read the book the Sheikh had given him and was interested in taking Shahadah – Alhamdu’Lillah. The Sheikh was overwhelmed with this news, he quickly gathered together his belongings and rushed to David’s house.
Story 4
One man became Muslim just by learning about istanjah!
A non-Muslim was curious why his Muslim collegue kept taking a bottle of water to the toilet. One day he just had to question him, ‘ Are you having a shower in there or what?’ was the man’s polite way of asking. ‘ No, our religion requires us Muslims to keep clean, even when we use the toilet, that’s what the water is for’ The man exclaimed, ‘Your religion is so pure’ – He later became Muslim
What we can learn from the Sheikh?
The sheikh openly recites the Quran when travelling, especially on the tube.
When the time for prayer is upon him, he will pray anywhere.
He always salams his fellow muslim brother (once he was on the tube and he salaamed a brother, the brother sheepishly looked away and walked away from the sheikh without replying. The sheikh wanted his reply back, so followed the brother through the croweded tube. When he was finally standing next to the brother the sheikh said, ‘Brother, I said Assalamu Alaykum’. The brother quietly looked down and replied, ‘Walikum Salaam’. A sister told me that salaaming your fellow brothers and sisters is a FARD – so don’t ignore it.
Sister
It’s true, time is flying by. So much is happening and so quickly. We’ve just said goodbye to Ramadan 1427 and now we will very soon be saying hello to Ramadan 1428. May Allah (swt) make it easy for us all.
My sister was in hospital the other day. Rather then describing my sister to you, let’s put it this way, very recently an aunty wanted me to sum up my sister so she asked me whether my sister was a ‘fashion-wali’ or a ‘ deen-wali’. I was slightly amused at this concept, shook my head and said, ‘Fashion-wali’.
There she was sitting in her hospital bed bemoaning the fact that she was getting old and she hadn’t even seen life yet. I asked her what her priority was in life – she simply replied, ‘To be happy’. Well that’s easy I said, but to be happy you’ll need to take a step back and start from the very beginning. I reminded her that the key to her happiness lies with the very One that created her, Allah. All Allah (swt) asks of you is for you to worship Him. In the return for creating you, giving you beauty, your eyes to see, your ears to hear, this world – all He asks is that you worship Him and Him alone. I advised her, that as soon as you begin to worship your Lord, then you will begin to be happy. Doors will open for you that you could never see – trivial things in life will become meaningless – you will begin to search and yearn for more knowledge, your whole life will re-focus and ultimately you will be one of the most happiest sisters alive insha’Allah.
My sister’s 25 year old friend recently died in an air crash in Brazil. I reminded her that her friend did not live to see 26. The time to worship your Lord was yesterday-don’t waste the time that you have. I could see that alhamdu’Lillah I had my sisters full attention, she suddenly looked at me accusingly and said,’ Well, if that’s the case then why didn’t you bring me something to read?’
‘I did.’, I smugly said. She smiled at me and said, ‘What, how did you know I’d ask for something?’.
‘I always carry a book or two in my bag, you never know when you may need it’.
I had been revising the surahs towards the last part of the Quran. My teacher had given me a booklet containing the 30th chapter of the Arabic and English translation of the holy Quran. I sat with my sister for a while and read through the translation of a surah along with its hadith. All the while my heart was thumping, for all I wanted was for my darling sister to begin to read the Quran and thus come back to her deen.
A few days later I was over at her place in the kitchen at the sink washing dishes as usual and she was sitting behind me. She suddenly said,’ By the way, I’ve nearly finished that book you gave me’ I couldn’t believe what I had just heard. I was so happy, no, I was over the moon, tenfold!. I calmly turned around and said, ‘You have?, Ma’shAllah, that’s brilliant!’. I turned back and continued to wash the dishes, concealing my big massive grin. Alhamdu’Lillah Allah is truly so Great!!.
I did not want my sister to see how overjoyed I was. I was and still am afraid of scaring her further away from her deen. With some people you have to take it a step at a time and go slowly and leave the rest up to Allah.
The other day, my sis and I were over at my mums. My sis had just left mum’s room as I walked in. Mum was in a highly emotional state, her cheeks were red and she had been crying. I asked her what was wrong she said, ‘ Nothing’s wrong, Masha’Allah you sister has just told me that she has begun to read the translation of the Quran,’ she then smiled and said, ‘ She’s finding Surah Al Bakarah a bit to long but insha’Allah she will get through it’. My mum and I cried and hugged eachother for comfort. I could truly feel her emotions as I too felt the same. Insha’Allah one day very soon my sis will find her happiness….
My sister was in hospital the other day. Rather then describing my sister to you, let’s put it this way, very recently an aunty wanted me to sum up my sister so she asked me whether my sister was a ‘fashion-wali’ or a ‘ deen-wali’. I was slightly amused at this concept, shook my head and said, ‘Fashion-wali’.
There she was sitting in her hospital bed bemoaning the fact that she was getting old and she hadn’t even seen life yet. I asked her what her priority was in life – she simply replied, ‘To be happy’. Well that’s easy I said, but to be happy you’ll need to take a step back and start from the very beginning. I reminded her that the key to her happiness lies with the very One that created her, Allah. All Allah (swt) asks of you is for you to worship Him. In the return for creating you, giving you beauty, your eyes to see, your ears to hear, this world – all He asks is that you worship Him and Him alone. I advised her, that as soon as you begin to worship your Lord, then you will begin to be happy. Doors will open for you that you could never see – trivial things in life will become meaningless – you will begin to search and yearn for more knowledge, your whole life will re-focus and ultimately you will be one of the most happiest sisters alive insha’Allah.
My sister’s 25 year old friend recently died in an air crash in Brazil. I reminded her that her friend did not live to see 26. The time to worship your Lord was yesterday-don’t waste the time that you have. I could see that alhamdu’Lillah I had my sisters full attention, she suddenly looked at me accusingly and said,’ Well, if that’s the case then why didn’t you bring me something to read?’
‘I did.’, I smugly said. She smiled at me and said, ‘What, how did you know I’d ask for something?’.
‘I always carry a book or two in my bag, you never know when you may need it’.
I had been revising the surahs towards the last part of the Quran. My teacher had given me a booklet containing the 30th chapter of the Arabic and English translation of the holy Quran. I sat with my sister for a while and read through the translation of a surah along with its hadith. All the while my heart was thumping, for all I wanted was for my darling sister to begin to read the Quran and thus come back to her deen.
A few days later I was over at her place in the kitchen at the sink washing dishes as usual and she was sitting behind me. She suddenly said,’ By the way, I’ve nearly finished that book you gave me’ I couldn’t believe what I had just heard. I was so happy, no, I was over the moon, tenfold!. I calmly turned around and said, ‘You have?, Ma’shAllah, that’s brilliant!’. I turned back and continued to wash the dishes, concealing my big massive grin. Alhamdu’Lillah Allah is truly so Great!!.
I did not want my sister to see how overjoyed I was. I was and still am afraid of scaring her further away from her deen. With some people you have to take it a step at a time and go slowly and leave the rest up to Allah.
The other day, my sis and I were over at my mums. My sis had just left mum’s room as I walked in. Mum was in a highly emotional state, her cheeks were red and she had been crying. I asked her what was wrong she said, ‘ Nothing’s wrong, Masha’Allah you sister has just told me that she has begun to read the translation of the Quran,’ she then smiled and said, ‘ She’s finding Surah Al Bakarah a bit to long but insha’Allah she will get through it’. My mum and I cried and hugged eachother for comfort. I could truly feel her emotions as I too felt the same. Insha’Allah one day very soon my sis will find her happiness….
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