re-awakened muslimah

OK, so this is how this post actually started: Almost fifteen years back, or maybe more, my cousin was chosen as the child star for a tooth paste advertisement... It was an ordinary advertisement showing a father and son rising in the morning to the yummy fragrance and taste of this particular tooth paste... But what made it different was it's punch line which went,"You have gotten up, but have you really woken up from sleep as yet???!!!" This phrase just stuck forever in my head... It was meant to be catchy for sure, I mean it was for marketing purposes after all, but I felt it really held depth... I mean when we say re-awakened what does it really imply?? The correct synonyms would be, "revive, rekindle or resuscitate"... In simpler words, bring back to life... So has my faith really revived over time? And then AliF visited and the post took a slight turn:) My gorgeous deeni sister dropped by to brighten my Juma'a! She looked the usual, lovely self Mas...

Alhumdulillah this year Pakistan is experiencing an early winter... I cannot say much about my city, it's not cold as yet, but the feeling is there! The early morning chill, the fragrance of winter at night, the nostalgia... Oh it's gorgeous already alhumdulillah... I can feel silence in the air... When tea boils in the morning, the aroma settles in the quiet, still air... It lingers on for quite sometime, till we dont shake it out of the curtains and wipe it away with the dust cloth and mop... Till it stays it keeps us feeling cosy... Yahya cannot decide whether it's cold or not... After a shower he feels chilly... Soon after it gets hot... I explain himit's just the weather changing it's mood! SubhanAllah for the wonders of nature and the wonders of Allah swt!!! I still don't feel cold ofcourse (there is no reason to!) but snuggling up with a book is already so much fun!  Colors already seem more vibrant... I'm looking for reasons to add oranges and ...

Alhumdulillah we have all successfully completed the month of ramadaan, thirty days of spiritual enrichment, joy and festivity! The much awaited and longed for month just quickly came and went... It was a matter of immense joy and utter disappointment, both! All thanks to the Almighty for His rehma in giving us another succesful ramadaan... I tried my best to devote myself to salaah, qiyaam, quraan and siyaam alhumdulillah! Yet I knew in the heart of my hearts that it could never be enough! Anyhow, summing up ramadaan would be one tough task, however I have decided on jotting down my most important(closest to my heart) ramadaan minutes... * We welcomed ramadaan by making arrangements for the first taraweeh alhumdulillah, Little Friend took off excitedly with his brothers for the first important salaah of the month... * The air became well-lit with noor; Quraan recitation filled the atmosphere alhumdulillah! * Yahya's school timings were altered. I organized my routine aroun...

My little daughter was tucked between Little Friend and me as we sat doing our mundane Ramadaan-Sunday  activities. He BBM'd half way across the world, while I checked the news paper. Sunday editions are the most fun ones! The front page showed heart breaking pictures of the most terrible floods to hit  Pakistan in around a hundred years. The homeless, the hungry and the ill were photographed in different angles to beautify the images as well as invoke feelings of compassion in our hearts, all at once. By the time I had reached the entertainment section I had been through several episodes of killings, suicide attempts, protests following increased prices and load shedding and not to forget the false promises of the government heads made to the victims in each case... I sighed miserably... My little one took turns first staring at me then Little Friend... The entertainment did not interest me the least bit because of the high ramadaan spirit... I was not "wowed" by...

I want to begin this post with the mention of a dear friend and deeni sister... Her initials are A.F, hence AliF is what I want to call her in my blog... It would be quite appropriate as she is my first true deeni sister and marks the beginning of  a deeni friendship just as the alphabet "alif" marks the beginning of Arabic alphabets... AliF is really pretty mashAllah and looks especially gorgeous donning her black jilbaab and veil with  only large dark eyes visible to the world... She has incredible courage mashAllah and a generous heart! But what I really admire about AliF is her ability to memorize just about any ayaah or hadith almost as soon as she is done reading it! MashAllah! She can fluently recite just about any reference from the quraan and the hadith in support of her argument! Above all AliF is not one bit arrogant about this wonderful trait that she possesses!  Once, when she had invited me and a friend over for breakfast, sh...

Yahya was asked to bring two old and used greeting cards for some art project in school... I was very pleased to read the note as it reminded me not only that I have bundles and bundles of old greeting cards, but also that I had very recently started getting rid of old sentimental stuff... the stuff included my engagement flowers :) , my wedding flowers :) , a glass decoration, now stored in a cardboard box in the form of broken shards, that Little Friend got me before we were married, and a box full of chocolate wrappers that I treasured because I had received the chocolates from Little Friend right after we were engaged!!! Imagine how dear all this filth was to me that I felt people were very unfair when they suggested I should part with it! So last week I labelled it as part "spring cleaning" and part "abandoning worldly possessions spree" when I actually discarded all these useless items( i still have a carton ful of them at the back of the cupboard... ...

I remember keeping track of all the beauty pageants that took place in the world while I was just a little child. My elder sister, cousin and I followed the pageants as they led to the grand finale, Miss World Pageant... We actively commented on how each model smiled and talked and walked... It was endless... At this point I would say an endless waste of time! This morning as I surfed channels to find the Saudi Channel, I stumbled upon the Miss Universe pageant that was actually happening live... In memory of my childhood I decided to watch a few minutes of it (especially since it has been a decade since we had watched it last)so that I could update my sister also on how "amazing" it was this year. And to my utter surprise, I found myself loathing every bit of it! Maybe because it was a ramadaan morning, or maybe because I have distanced myself completely from the filth of this world by the grace of Allah swt... For whatever reason, I was first repulsed by the sight of half...