Friends.. by the will of Allah .. for the sake of Allah! :)

About a year n half  back I came across a blog post. It was a review on the items the sister had won in a giveaway! I read the post and hit the ‘like’ button! Little did I know that that one like was a way of Allah swt to send a really special companion into my life! 🙂

A few weeks/months later I found a comment from the same sister on my blog! She told me that she had  recently realised that I had liked one of her posts, so was kind enough to leave a comment on mine! 🙂 MashaAllah!
Little did I know that this was not just a passing comment but the beginning of beautiful bond of sisterhood!

Weeks passed. Once my newsfeed displayed a status update by Sr.Yasmin Mogahed! Her words touched my heart and I was amongst the first to leave a comment. A few seconds later a notification popped up “Nasmira Firdous likes your comment on Yasmin Mogahed’s status”. Little did I notice that this was the same sister who was also my fellow blogger.

The same day she left another comment on one of my blog post asking if that girl was me! I said yes it was..wondering how she found out, since I use my pen name here. (For the sake of my privacy I shall not mention how 😉 but) let’s just say that Allah has His own beautiful unexpected ways of sending in people into your life. So, this was just the beginning of a bond that truly began and continues to be loved and cherished for the sake of Al-Wadood, alhumdulillah! ❤

Over the year, we had loads of conversations! From her studies at IOU to my life as an engineering student… from the love for Allah to the love for His deen.. about life as a muslimah.. about the struggles of this dunya.. about the highs and lows of eeman and ways to get through it.. struggling through the roller coaster of life.. reminding each other of Almighty, The Wise… ! alhumdulillahi rabbil aalameen! 🙂 None of Your favors I deny my Lord. Truly, all praise is only for You. :’)

She’s my most beloved sister in faith, my fellow blogger, colleague at HH (and will be my senior, incase I decide to take up the BAIS course in future, inshaAllah! 😉 )  – Nasmira .. or Nasmiiiii as I love to shout out! 😀  It’s  our long conversations about love for Allah, Islam and everything (halal) under the sun… that really made me survive the lows of eeman mashaAllah! 🙂

Recently my dear BIG sister as she likes to call herself (:P) sent me a lovely gift! (As for my gift for her.. uh .. well.. all I can say is it’s not yet dispatched.. Why? well that’s another story.. we shall keep for some future post!)

Anyway, back to the gift… well.. I think I should just let the gift do the talking 😛 . So, here it is

Beautiful, ain’t it? MashaAllah! Even more beautiful was the message that came with it! 🙂

‘The illusion of this life lasts but a moment..
It’s the journey you carve that makes the path
and the destination whimsically beautiful.

When you think you’ve experienced happiness,
Just remember being given your book of deeds
in your right hand on the Day Of Judgement!

“Words are a pretext.
It’s the inner bond that draws one to another.”
And how beautiful it is when that bond is Islam
between you and me!!‘
–Nasmira

Alhumdulillah, so overwhelmed reading the message! :’) Now whenever I am happy I actually think of the happiness that will come my way if I receive my book of deeds in my right hand on the day of judgement, inshaAllah! And this thought, it reminds me of my bigger goals and keeps me humble and god-conscious even in the times of happiness, alhumdulillah! ❤

JazakaAllahu Khair Nasmi for all the things you’ve thought me, alhumdulillah..! You are indeed an awesome big sister, mashaAllah! 😉

May Allah accept your duas and grant you good in this world and next! May Allah make our friendship and sisterhood a means for us to be amongst the people who meet and part for His sake and who are granted His shade on that day when there is no shade but His! Ameen Ya Rabb! 🙂

 

2012 in review

Alhumdulillah it’s always a pleasure and exciting to look back at the events of the past year! 😀 Alhumdulillahi Rabbil alameen!
May Allah accept this from me and make this blog a means of sadaqa-e-jariya for my akhira. Ameen! and JazakaAllahu Khair to all the readers! 🙂 As this hadith teaches us:

The Prophet (sal Allahu alaihi wa sallam) said, “When a man dies, his deeds come to an end, except for three: A continuous charity, knowledge by which people derive benefit and a pious son who prays for him.” [Sahih Muslim]

Commentary:

A thoughtful reflection of this Hadith will reveals that the three things are indeed man’s own good deeds which somehow continue to exist even after his death. For example, places like a hospital, a mosque, a religious school and a well built by a man continue to operate like a trust as traces of his activity in earthly life, Allah says (interpretation of the meaning):
“And We record that which they send before (them), and their traces [their footsteps and walking on the earth with their legs to the mosques for the five compulsory congregational prayers, Jihad (holy fighting in Allah’s Cause) and all other good and evil they did, and that which they leave behind].” (36:12)

So long as they exist and people benefit from them, the dead person will keep receiving his due reward. The same is pertinent to the spread of knowledge of Islamic disciplines to people’s moral uplift. For instance, if during his lifetime he wrote books based on Qur’an and Hadith, advocated the cause of Islam, instructed lots of pupils in Islamic teachings, it will be counted as an unending activity on his part. The Prophet (sal Allahu alaihi wa sallam) said, “Whoever guides [another] to a good deed will get a reward similar to the one who performs it.” [Sahih Muslim]

Besides, this Hadith tells us that, after his death, man will receive reward by the Du’aa (Supplications) of his virtuous children, and other Ahadith too confirm it. This clears the issue of sending the fruit of good works to the welfare of a dead person’s soul. Charity or the continual charity from the part of a dead person himself, beneficial (religious) knowledge and prayer are acts of Sunnah under this rule. With the exception of these, all other deeds do not benefit the dead. However, if the dead person was under obligation to perform Hajj or had missed obligatory or vowed fasts, his heirs are commanded by the Prophet (sal Allahu alaihi wa sallam) to observe them on his behalf. Because this is like a debt payable by the dead person and his heirs are under obligation to discharge it for him. Yet, this rule is inapplicable to other forms of physical worship.

And Allah knows best!
(Source: Hadith a day)

On that note, alhumdulillah, here is the 2012 annual report for my blog prepared by The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys! 🙂

Here’s an excerpt:

4,329 films were submitted to the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. This blog had 28,000 views in 2012. If each view were a film, this blog would power 6 Film Festivals

Click here to see the complete report.