Virtue of Friday

What’s in a name?

“What’s in a name?……”
Shakespeare

I have really old memories associated with that quote which go back to my school days where my friend used to often quote it saying “Shakespeare said what’s in a name and below that he wrote his name!” It cracked me up every time I heard it! 😛

 

When I started this blog and had to choose a username, I didn’t really have time to think of a proper name because I was more concerned and excited about what I want to share on this blog, plus WordPress told me I can change my username whenever I want to! But as a new hijabi I wanted to use the term “hijabi” in my name.. so now all I needed to find was a an adjective to prefix it! After some thought I gave in to “potential hijabi”, one of the reasons being I had read an article recently that used this name and it was lingering in my mind… plus it sounded cool! 😛

But on a more serious note, It also was a reminder to me that

Light upon Light

O Allah! Put noor in my heart and on my countenance, and make me amongst those whom when people see them, they are reminded of You! Ameen.

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.

“Let’s talk about hijab” – Megan Wyatt

I just read this post by sis Megan Wyatt on her fb page and I just HAD to save it up here! It’s just amazing, mashaAllah!! So many beautiful gems and reminders!! I hope this post really helps sisters out there to understand the hijab at a more deeper level inshaAllah! May Allah bless our hearts with the love for hijab  and His obedience and make it easy for us!!!

So, let’s talk about hijab. (groaning? Read on?)

First of all I have to say that this is a subject I feel I can understand from many different angles. I am a convert to Islam, which means choosing Islam and then to cover is against and so different from my entire childhood and upbringing. I was your typical American “girl next door” before I became Muslim, so changing how I dress, my social customs, etc was huge for me.To be really frank, I didn’t truly change for many years to come. I did the right things on the outside, but it took me a long time to be integrated as a person.

When I wore hijab, it was quite simply because I wanted to fit in, I wanted to

Renew Your Eeman. Carpe Diem! – Habibi Halaqas Webinar

Assalamualikum wa rahmatullah 🙂

Excited to announce our next webinar this month! Guess who’s the speaker? None other than Sh.Abdul Nasir Jangda!! Alhumdulillah! 🙂
So if you are up to kick-start your coming year oozing with eeman and renewed spirits, making sure your resolutions are not just penned and forgotten, then this is one webinar you do not want to miss!! So sisters what are you waiting for?! Carpe Diem – Sieze. the. moment, ladies!! … Register NOW!! 😀 (Brothers, don’t lose heart, the webinar will be recorded and uploaded on YouTube, so everyone can benefit, inshaAllah!)

REGISTER HERE: www.anewyou2013.eventbrite.com

Until I see you…

This poem made me cry.. SubhanAllah! :’) So beautiful! ❤

salAllahu alayhi wa sallam! ❤ :’)

The year that was…(or still is?! :D)

Assalamualaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatahu:) – Peace be upon you and mercy of Allah and His blessings

Woohoo.. It’s snowing again on wordpress!! 😀 SubhanAllah.. so love this effect! 🙂

Its been a really really long time since I posted here.. Alright alright I did post something recently but I am referring to my confessions :D.. ! And to be precise I published only 2 posts about my personal reflections this year!

Though they were a lot of things I wanted to blog about .. lot of situations and experiences that I wanted to pen . . but either I procrastinated it or just didn’t have the time.. caught up in the race against time to submit assignments at  the last moment, to meet deadlines, to study for exams tests .. to make loads of posters for HabibiHalaqas, alhumdulillah  🙂 .. or simply hop tabs!

But above all the toughest challenge has been balancing the deen and dunya! Working for the dunya .. without losing focus on akhira! Spending time with people without losing out time for Allah!

Constantly trying to run back to Him as soon as the trigger for an eeman low goes abuzz ! Making dua and hoping every night to be given the ability to pray fajr .. and not giving up when I miss fajr!! Trying hard to maintain at least the 5 daily prayers when my eeman was at the lowest of the low . . and not giving up the tiny little habits that I had inculcated like trying to stay in the state of wudu all day alhudmulillah, because it takes weeks/months to build good habits but only a few days to break one!

The eeman ride is a hard one for sure . . but the article by sis Yasmin Mogahed  – This is Awakening did help me a lot Alhumdulillah. It helped me realise that

To Life or To Death….

A big big reminder to self! ❤ and to all those who are in need of this reminder…

Source: HabibiHalaqas.org

by Sister Sunshine Smiles

“Inna Lillahi Wa Inna Ilaihi Rajioon”

Indeed we belong to Allah(SWT), and indeed to Him is our return.

The intensity that this statement offers does not pertain to death alone but different perceptions of loss and intellect that blows my novice mind to amazedness.

A few years back, this phrase came into my existing Dua’ dictionary when my Father introduced me to it as I was unaware on how to react on the news of somebody’s sad demise.

That one unforgettable morning which started with these words on my lips even before the break of dawn, forced my mind to shut down emotionally for the rest of the day.

It is unimaginable how Allah(SWT) finds the perfect reminders to soften our hearts from the deep barriers of hardness that develop around it in the conscious attempt of living up to the ever competing world.

This isn’t another article reminding you that death is inevitable and all that. This one’s about life, creatively wrapped in ribbons of genuineness symmetrically bowed in what we love to call ‘Love’, of which death does hold some significance.

Love, that was initially focused on our parents when we were 4 years old eventually got distributed to, say a few relatives, cousins and friends when we turned 10 and even more friends and relatives as we