Mediocre

Indeed My Lord Is With Me, He Will Guide Me

When Thank You Is Not Enough...

*I’ve blurred out our names in the picture, for we both know who we are J

I live in Saudi Arabia.

I deeply admire her words; her writing, her talks – I always made fervent attempts to ensure that I didn't miss any webinar or a radio talk that was being held somewhere in the world, which I could only be a part of through the internet. I keep her words in my ipod, to help raise my spirits every time they go on a downward spiral – in order to help me sleep. When she came out with her book, one of my most earnest wishes was to one day be able to read it and own it. But, she lived in the United States of America, and her book was selling only in some parts of the world – mine not being one of them.

We plan, and Allah too Plans, and He (swt) is the Best of Planners…

One of my oldest friend’s, who lives all the way in Birmingham, bought me a copy when she bought one for herself. This was sometime in September 2012. Because of unreliable posts in my parts of the world, the book remained in Birmingham – until my friend decided to send it to me through my sister who had just joined University in the UK in October 2012, and happened to be returning for the holidays so soon because of some official documentations that required her presence back in Saudi Arabia. Somewhere in between the book being bought and my sister returning, this inspirational lady planned a visit to Birmingham – not too far away from my friends’ residence that too – where said friend got to meet her – AND – get my book signed by her, thereby not just sending me a book I so dearly wished to own and read, but also getting it signed by the admired author herself!

SubhaanAllah!

And so, I cannot put into words a thanks that would suffice – to my friend for her beautiful heart, and for such beautiful gestures that remind you of Allah, Who (swt) plans beyond your imagination. It’s people, like my friend, who make cliches come true – for friends and sisters like so are indeed stars that shine in our lives; Alhumdulillah.

And so I say, we plan [must buy book – must read book].

And Allah too Plans [He (swt) gets me the book]

And He (swt) is the Best of Planners [Friend in Birmingham buys book – Sr. Yasmin Mogahed, who lives in America, plans a trip to Birmingham close to friends’ house – Friend gets book signed by her in Birmingham, and sends it to me in Saudi Arabia]

SubhaanAllah!!!

Just Like That...

Beauty and Character

Laylatul Qadr

When it rains like so,

Then may it indeed,

Go all out and pour...

~ Ameen!

Raindrops

On Preserving Relationships...

''In all our human relationships, many things often remain unsaid, 

or get taken for granted. Give the other person, the benefit of 

doubt, in order to maintain good relations. Trust requires patience 

and weathering of some storms too sometimes. Let's preserve and 

build relationships, instead of watching them wither away like 

autumn leaves, in the guise of dominoes at play... 

~ Khair insha'Allah!'' ~

#11ElevenLive

Today is the 11th day, of the 11th month, of the year 2011. Little did I know of how this day was being celebrated all around the world, with various events being held on the very same day - all in their own ways and forms - until I was pleasantly surprised to hear of the 11Eleven Project via a TED member, Danielle Lauren. I was elated to be a part of her global venture, thus, I set out with my dad to a mosque near our house where he would pray, and I would take some pictures from the car.

The car clock tells the time, as we set out.

 

                              

   

                          

Friday, is considered a Holy day for Muslims all around the world...

It is a day when Muslim men can be seen visiting their local mosque in hoards; Muslims of different cultures, all rushing out to their friendly neighbourhood mosque to bow down in prostration to their One Lord, early in the afternoon. 

Little kids in their daddy's arms, or holding each others hands...

People who sit on a chair whilst praying, often bring their own...

Old people who walk to the mosque with the help of a cane...

People in their thawbs, their shimagh/keffiyah, their jeans and shirts, their kurta shalwars/pajamas, their lungis, their variations of topis...

All myriads of steps being walked towards the same call to prayer, to bow down together, shoulder to shoulder in prayer...

The end of their ritual brings them back, out of the mosque, off to attend to their worldly needs again. Some start right at the mosque's doorstep with the buying of vegetables, perhaps for their late lunch or early supper...

Vegetable vendors looking for customers, whilst men meet and greet in the background.

What I found most interesting was how I seemed to remember specific people on their way out, from what I had taken in of them when they were walking towards the mosque; the man whose hair could be used in a shampoo commercial, the man with a bling bling dollar sign on his topi, the man with three kids all of the same size, the man with a cane, the man with a chair, the man who ran in, the man who had waved salaam to another, the man in a lungi, the shiny bald guy with the designeresque sunglasses... you get the drift? Sadly, I couldn't get a picture of all those whom I speak of. Nevertheless, I was intrigued at how the mind chooses to hold on to specific things, whilst entirely forgetting the rest. 


And while I silently mused over this thought, we got back home...

It was time for me myself to pray, and before I got around to it, I took some more pictures of my youngest sibling while she performed her Wudu...

And then stood up to pray in the privacy of her room...

The women in our house, in Saudi Arabia, mostly stay at home to pray by themselves - albeit this is not a norm, simply a matter of preference.

I decided to take pictures of how the Holy day of the week is spent in the life of an Indian Muslim in Riyadh - Saudi Arabia, as luckily Friday happened to fall on 11/11/11!

Facebook Users

*Picture credits, all individually go to those who made them. I only accumulated them from the web and put them in a collage.
     
*Disclaimer: This is not meant to ridicule Facebook itself, rather just some of it's ''users'' **cough*abusers*cough**

Facebook-ers as I've seen them. Some I love to bits, regardless of their idiosyncrasies. Some... I'd rather not say what I really want to about them. Politeness wins. Nevertheless, my take on them all below:


1) The general social people who are there to keep in touch, the normal acceptable way.

2) The bored social people whose boredom has driven them to stalker standards, nevertheless managing to maintain general harmless behaviour.

3) The busy social people who are closet stalkers and blatant gossipers.

4) The bored unsocial people who are closet stalkers, silent envy-ers, God knows Best whether they are thus harmless or not.

5) The absolutely pretentious jobless narrow minded psuedo-well-meaning advice monger-ers; they read your words off wall posts, statuses, photo albums, comments to others and triple jump to their own conclusions and judgements, dragging in with them a barrage of blind followers.

6) The brain-numbed to the social scene gamers.

7) The finger-happy mindless 'like-ers'.

8) The attention-craving, at the speed of light status changers, who should be elsewhere twittering with their own kinds.

9) The absolutely confused newbies and equally confused old-bies who comment randomly on off-the-subject discuss worthy threads/statuses/pictures/posts.

10) The super cautious mind bogglingly terrified of where my information may go from here no picture false information empty profile thread bare friend list kind of users.

11) The perv kings and queens who want to jiggy with it via inbox... ''dear pls frand me you are beautiful my number is 14M57U91D [if you're visual you can read that as it was meant to be said] 0= )

12) The random friend request senders because you have mutual friends. Yes, we said Hi to each other once. Err... really? No, I knew your mom... Err... okay, so? Yes I saw you at the mall... Err... creep alert!

13) The genuine event, but random organisers who invite you to an event knowing you live across the globe and the event is today or tomorrow.

14) The god awful group inbox reply-ers who cannot see the difference between the ''reply to all'' and ''reply'' under the senders name buttons O_O

15) The picture stalkers who like your picture before you are done editing the caption on it after posting.

16) The friend list stalkers who soon after making friends eat your friend list with their eyes to instant friend request someone from your list to increase their number of **cough*friends*cough**. These are pretty similar to # 12 above.

17) The I know you well enough to make personal comments, ignorants. This lot should ASAP be deleted from your list. Those who are too polite to do so must suffer the consequences O_O

18) The one's who can't type lYk aDuLts or who hv 2 spk in wys tht r sre 2 bst a vA9 in ur i. This is not your mobile phone that charges you for every letter, nor are we in a hurry to communicate letters per second. Please type in full, else I won't read it. Thanks O_O

19) The ''lolz'' droppers at the end of a serious comment/compliment. It's like they're actually saying, '' ha ha ha in your face, FOO!'' =S

20) The one's who love to tag you in every ugly god forsaken picture.

21) The one's who read anything and everything you say, and think it's about them...

... 
... 

... So, which one are you?  0= )