The Journey [2]

A series of posts inspired by a line in a nasheed that says;

والله مافي هذه الدنيا ألذ من اشتياق العبد للرحمن

It is about a journey that I went through and would like to share it with you all.

When you're feeling down at the end of the night, when the world seems to be spinning so fast, you are left to get all these depressing thoughts.. Despair is engulfing your heart and you could barely breathe above your silent cries.. What do you do?

الاية 28 من سورة الرعد

الَّذِينَ آمَنُواْ وَتَطْمَئِنُّ قُلُوبُهُم بِذِكْرِ اللَّهِ أَلاَ بِذِكْرِ اللَّهِ تَطْمَئِنُّ الْقُلُوبُ

My heart felt heavy.. It felt weak and troubled because of all the negative thoughts I was having.. I felt like I needed a blanket, I needed to wrap my heart with something so it would be whole and intact again, to place it back properly instead of having it shaking and turning.. The answer, my readers, was perfectly clear.

أَلاَ بِذِكْرِ اللَّهِ تَطْمَئِنُّ الْقُلُوبُ

Why do we lose ourselves to our darkest of times? Why do we feel so troubled when we have the solution right in front of us? Yes, ithkir Allah, pray to him, listen to Quran and just lay back and relax الله هو الحفيظ الرحيم You will be amazed at how easily your mood has been lift up, you no longer feel lost, you no longer surrender to your weakness, you will rise above it all with the help of Allah. You have trouble sleeping? Read a few verses of the Quran, the mu3awithat, put your earphones on and listen to the recitation of your favourite Quran reciter, smile and be content for we have a solution to all of our ordeals yet we act like we don't. When you turn to Him in time of your need, there's something joyous in that. There is the deep knowledge that He is going to help you. He will be there for you. He will answer to your prayers. Don't give up hope like some did.

إن الله كريم مجيب الدعاء

I think reaching to this level of realisation makes life easier for you. You know that whatever you'll go through, there's a way out. There is a way to bring joy to your heart, a way to feel peaceful and whole again. Words can't express this amazing feeling, keep working on your faith, on your connection to Him and you will definitely reach there inshAllah.

The Journey [1]

A series of posts inspired by a line in a nasheed that says;

والله مافي هذه الدنيا الذ من اشتياق العبد للرحمن

It is about a journey that I went through and would like to share it with you all.


A few nights ago I sat with my little sister and made her listen to هي جنة لحمود الخضر She was fascinated by the idea of living in Heaven eternally and the description in the nasheed made her eager to hear more about Jannah and how to get there..

It made me reflect on how far I've gotten with my own faith, with my connection to Allah. I haven't been the good Muslim so to speak for a long time, I used to go on with my prayers as a routine and never fully get into that calm state of serenity.. Until I desperately needed to reconnect with Allah. It was at this particular time of my life where I felt so alone, like I needed to know who I was and what I was in order to go about my day. Something bad happened.. It left me weak and vulnerable and plain sad. It dragged me into the hallways of depression and I thought to myself that I'd forever stay there, that this is it for me.

During many sleepless nights, I couldn't help but wonder if what I was doing to myself was rational, because I knew the way out of all this was to get back to my senses and think straight. I began to understand that everything happens for the reason, that Allah had this written for me so there is a good thing coming out of it eventually.. I learned to look at the bright side, I learned to accept the situation, embrace it even. I began feeling peaceful when I was in the darkest stage of my life and on the sound of the athan, I'd make the wudu and spread my sijaada on the floor and start praying.. It calmed me down completely, it made me realise how beautiful it is when you turn to Allah in your time of need. Whenever you feel down or hurt, just turn to the one who will always be there, who will listen to your prayers because he's السميع العليم

Sub7an Allah, no matter how far away we drift from him, He will always be there for us.

يقول عز وجل في كتابه الكريم في سورة البقرة، الأية رقم 186

{وَإِذَا سَأَلَكَ عِبَادِي عَنِّي فَإِنِّي قَرِيبٌ أُجِيبُ دَعْوَةَ الدَّاعِي إِذَا دَعَانِي فَلْيَسْتَجِيبُوا لِي وَلْيُؤْمِنُوا بِي لَعَلَّهُمْ يَرْشُدُونَ }

And when My servants ask you, [O Muúammad], concerning Me – indeed I am near. I respond to the invocation of the supplicant when he calls upon Me. So let them respond to Me [by obedience] and believe in Me that they may be [rightly] guided.
Surat Al Baqarah, verse no. 186

This is a da3wa from Allah to us; whatever you need, pray to Him.

I took comfort in the 5 daily prayers. I began to look forward to them because they were the only times that I would leave everything else that didn't matter behind me and fully be there, in mind, body and soul, focusing on what's important, on why I'm here and that's nothing but to worship Him. It gave me a sense of utter peacefulness, to feel that Allah is watching over me.. He made this happen for a reason, and what better reason than to reconnect with him?

Few Thoughts

(1) A lot of things happened with me at the past week. Two of my family members, both mothers, passed away on the same day. It confused me and I had to get things straight before getting back to cyberspace. I learned not to take anything for granted, especially our own parents.

(2) The true blessing is having the chance to do the Taraweeh prayers daily in Ramadhan at a mosque.

(3) Khawater is becoming interesting by the day. Yesterday's episode hit an all time favourite after introducing a straight-forward point.



Hearing the British lady and the Jewish man standing up for what's right, regrardless of their nationalities or religions spoke loud and clear to me. To all of us. When humanity is being ripped apart, there's no excuse not to stick with the truth.

(4) خطوة | A Step blog is created by 3 intelligent Omanis and 2 Palestinians. Follow them to take a step forward to Palestine's history.

"In 1895, Herzl started his fake dream: "The state of Israel penetrates the Red Sea through the gate of Jordan" A dream to have their own state. And his dream became true by a single book, protocols & global summits. He united the Jews from east to west to build the evil state on the Palestinian lands, tooling away farms, hourse and family members of Palestinian’s Jews, Christians & Muslims. So would we ever start making our own dream?"

(5) Eid is approaching by each passing minute. Even though I'd miss Ramadhan greatly, I'd love to enjoy the happy vibe Eid spreads around amongst people of different ages.

Couple Of Advices

(1) Praying Taraweeh have never felt more beautiful than having to do it at the mosque almost every single day. Take this from me and don't waste this rare opportunity.

(2) Mosque is a place for praying, reading Quran and not for women to bring their babies along. Coming to the mosque is important but you can leave your kids back at home or at your family's, let the others worship Allah in a quiet atmosphere. Of course, I'm talking about 1-4 years old who would not only speak loudly, but keep running around causing havoc for one whole hour.

(3) If an act of kindness was presented to you, please welcome it with a warm heart. Even if it were simple things like someone is trying to open up the door for you, and most importantly, take the time to thank them.

(4) Set every hour after every prayer to at least read a single chapter of Quran, that way, you would finish reciting the Quran by the end of Ramadhan.

(5) TV is a total waste of time, especially in Ramadhan with what the Khaleeji shows, etc. Watch some good & beneficial shows like Khawatir and the like; you'd learn a lot in a mere of 20 minutes.

First Taraweeh Prayers In Years

Remember how in my previous post I mentioned about wanting to do the Taraweeh prayers in a mosque? Well, last night, I did just that. When Dad knew about the women-area in the same mosque he and my brothers go to, he agreed to drop me by. I entered, made the wu'9oo and joined the ladies lined up for prayers. The women next to me tugged at my arm, asking me to squeeze in so as to make room for the others. Gladly, I made it just in time for Ishaa prayer and we all prayed with the Imam. This brought a rush of memories of my previous years in praying in a mosque as a jama3a, and there are absolutely no words for this heartwarming feeling.

After finishing the 4 ruk3ats of Ishaa, people rose again to pray the sunnah prayer and copying them, I did the same. Immediately after I finished, the Imam started the Taraweeh prayers that consisted of 8 ruk3ats. I couldn't help but remember how I used to get tired of standing for the long prayers back when I was 10. I also recalled the fact that my aunt used to tag my sister and I along in the same period of time to a mosque both at noon and night, and once, I drank water from the tank, thinking it was night and we came for Taraweeh instead of spending few hours of noon in reading quran at this same mosque. Then, my aunt told me, god loves you so much that he allowed you to drink few drops of water and that I'm supposed to continue fasting as it obviously was a silly mistake. I can see the incident so vividly as if it happened last night and not few years back.

The witar prayer followed (I knew this because the mother of the child next to me explained so before we started) and the reason I found the explanation useful is because the Imam prayed two ruk3ats, ended the prayer, prayed another single ruk3a, then ended it once more. I was confused and thought better than to ask Dad as I’d be accused of not paying enough attention, but thankfully, Dad explained it all later on: Some Sunni and Ibhadi people do it this way: Two shafa3 and one witar, each separated. Also, the other minor difference is at the salam part, some do it once, and others like me, twice.

If if ever got the chance to do it all again, then I'm sure there will be no hesitations.

The Concept Of Ramadhan

(1) With Ramadan approaching, the TV seems to be flooding with various ads about new shows that had started featuring since today. Why, we should ask, is this so? Have the concept of spending the days of Ramadan in worshiping Allah and increasing our faith changed into anticipating these useless shows?

It reached to a point where we now refer to them as Ramadan TV shows, hence the title. I’ve been pondering on this for a while now and some answers have been ‘because we don’t have anything better to do during fasting’ Is this right? How is Ramadan any different from the rest of the months? Are we too hungry that we’d spend the time from sunrise till the Mugrib prayer watching TV? What bothers me the most is that these shows were especially done for Ramadhan, and to make it worse, by Khaleeji people, or Arabs.

(2) Come to the other part where it's all about preparing various dishes, many of them that end up in the trash. It's both saddening and depressing to spend the whole day cooking this as the main course and that for dessert. Again, you'd notice how this relates to the first idea of watching TV all day long so as to be full, as if food & TV shows are important in this holy month.

I, for one, never cared about following a certain show during fasting, but once a while though, I'd watch some cartoons with my little siblings. If I liked a specific show, then I might watch it later on, as they'd obviously re-play it after Ramadhan. The same goes to food, if it weren't for my family, I wouldn't have participated in cooking, but then again, that (they tell us) IS the spirit of Ramadhan; being with and helping the family.

On a different note, some have been complaining about the weather and how unhelpful it would be for fasting, but let me tell you this; my sister & I have been fasting for the past days (something we do before Ramadhan so as to get used to fasting) and it's nothing out of the ordinary (considering the fact that we're indoor most of the time). And since my parents were in UAE, they fasted along with them and we sensed the Ramadhan-ish vibe on today's Futoor, with all the family gathered around. What I couldn't enjoy is the Taraweeh prayers, even though I insisted on going, there's no women-area in any mosque nearby. (Hopefully one day, I could, inshallah!)

Ramadhan Kareem to all of you, hope we could make the best out of this one.

Note: Follow my dear friend and blogger, Sarz, who has such interesting and informative posts in regards our beautiful religion, Islam. Also, check out her advices on how to invest the days of Ramadhan here.