Weather was nice today and I decided to go study at the Computer Science faculty (it has a nice cafe there). Wore my skirt and my high heels. Terus rasa macam pegi ofis. Heh. Dah lama tak pakai macam tuh. Was in my jeans 98% of the time here.

I'm half looking forward to the bustle of office life, but anxious as well as I've heard some major changes had taken place in my previous department.

Should I contemplate finding experience in London instead? Ms B, any advice? :D

The bitter pill

"And certainly, We shall test you with something of fear, hunger, loss of wealth, lives and fruits; but give glad tidings to As-Sabirin (those who are patient). Who, when afflicted with calamity, say: "Truly, to Allah we belong and truly to Him we shall return.'' They are those on whom are the Salawat (i.e., who are blessed and will be forgiven) from their Lord, and (they are those who) receive His mercy, and it is they who are the guided ones."
(Surah al-Baqarah, verse 155-157)

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Have you ever given advice/motivation talk to another person and then realized you are talking to yourself as well? You find yourself handing out the bitter medicine to someone and realized it is the same bitter pill that you have to swallow yourself. I sincerely hope that the medicine will have positive effect on that other person. Mine I feel is still stuck in my throat.

Hujan rahmat di petang Sabtu

A bee seeking shelter under the leaves.

Alhamdulillah, we have a new sister :)

My friend has officially reverted, after the Friday prayers today. Guided by our Uztazah from Egypt, witnessed by several Muslim sisters from all over the world, she recited the syahadah three times. So she is now officially a Muslim.

May Allah ease her journey and give guidance to help her become a good Muslim. Ameen.


ps: Right now, she is a better Muslim than most of us (esp me!) for she is a brand new person, like a new born baby. Siggh...how I wish I could make my book all white and clean again.

Taking things for granted

I had mentioned to a friend recently that I learn the ilmu agama for my own amalan to ensure that I'm doing things right and to strengthen my faith.

So I had a bit of anxiety attack when a friend had expressed her desire to revert to Islam and wanted me to teach her how to solat. I mean, I know how to solat. I know all the doas. But do you know which is the compulsory ones and which is not? I know al-Fatihah is compulsory but is the doa in tahiyyat awal and akhir compulsory as well? Dah la tu pulak, most of the terms that I'm familiar with is in Malay. Nak kena jugak cari the English part. Even harder to teach because she has totally zero knowledge of Islam and cannot read the Quran at all. Alhamdulillah, so far she found it easy to follow.

She hasn't officially revert yet, but she has rejected totally her previous religious beliefs and has stopped doing things that she knows is haram in Islam. She has even stopped eating the normal chicken and plan to find the halal chicken from now on.

I am really, really happy for her, and happy that I could help her in her journey. It isn't easy for her, to suddenly discard what she had believe all her life, what her family still believe in. Yet, while there was so many things that worry her in taking this step, she is so positive and have strong faith that Allah will help her through all this. It really humbled me to see how strong she is and how strong her faith in Allah, even though she just found Him. And she is very eager to learn everything - to learn how to solat, to fast, etc. And she hasn't complained about one single thing that she has to do if she becomes a Muslim. She had even scrapped her plan to return to her hometown in mid August because it will be Ramadhan then and she's afraid she'll not be able to practice Islam if she go back.

I think that we take our religion too much for granted that we don't appreciate the gift that was given to us - the gift of being born Muslim, the gift of knowledge in Islam, and the gift of living in a practicing Muslim country. So we don't show our appreciation by practicing it as best as we could, don't alleviate our faith by learning and learning more about Islam, and we don't wear the badge of Islam with pride. In the past few weeks, I have been reminded how blessed I am to have these gifts. Besides my friend, I had also gotten to know one lady from Azerbaijan during my Tafseer classes. She is born a Muslim, but she lived in a country that doesn't allow her to practice. So she is eager to know all there is about being a Muslim. It is these encounters that had really humbled me. We need to guard our gifts, protect them and appreciate them lest Allah takes them away from us and gave them to a more deserving nation than us.


Note to self:
Learn not only for own benefit, but for the benefit of others as well.

Friends that you can have

I have two people in my class that I would consider to be my close friends here. My coffee buddies to be exact. One is a Greek girl while the other is an Arab from Saudi Arabia.

Before coming to UK, I had never thought that I would ever be talking to a Greek, much less be friends with one. To me then, Greeks were ancient people that lived in textbooks and mythology stories. So it felt quite a novelty for me to be talking to one. I got excited as well when my friend taught me the Greek's alphabets, which are the symbols that we used in our Maths and Physics equation. Ulu tak? Heh.

Meanwhile, my Arab friend had changed totally my perception of Arab women. She doesn't wear the abaya and niqab in UK, but though her clothes are quite modern, they properly cover her that she can just pray in them (which is what she normally does). She's like a normal girl, who loves watching movies, knows most of the popular songs, even worked as a Network Engineer. I would say she is quite like me in this sense, hence why we get on so well. But the more I got to know her, the more that I admire her. And I think that she is truly a blessed person. For one thing, she was born and grew up in Makkah. That alone had me green with envy, masya Allah. Recently, while we were studying together, she mentioned in passing that she memorizes the al-Baqarah. My jaw literally dropped. If someone I know tells me that he/she memorizes Yassin, I wouldn't have blinked an eye. But al-Baqarah??? The longest surah in the Quran?? Masya Allah, la haulawala quwwata illabillah.

Last night, after reading The Tea Drinker's post on him meeting the descendents of Sy Abdul Qadir Gailani r.a., it suddenly triggered me to ask her one question -

"Are you by any chance related to Bani Hashim?" I asked her last night.

"My mother is," she answered, oh so casually.

My jaw dropped again. Wow. I mean, really, wow. In my circle of friends, a blood relation of the Prophet Muhammad s.a.w.?? I am still in a daze over this recent knowledge.

She also told me that her mother is coming over to UK soon so I'll be able to meet her.

I am really, really looking forward to that.

TeaD, thank you, thank you for your post that had triggered me to ask this question. :D

Have you ever find yourself doing something for the sake of past history (your own, that is), yet realise you don't have the heart for it anymore? But, you still felt compelled to do it.

I went to watch Transformers 2 today. And I'm still questioning myself why I went.