Yasmin Mogahed: The greatest quest: Steps towards an everlasting marriage

Bismillah... In the Name of Allah, the Most Merciful , the Most Giving, the Most Loving

Alhamdulillah on Sunday 15th of November I went to the seminar done by Ustadha Yasmin Mogahed 'The greatest quest: Steps towards an everlasting marriage' in shaa Allah. I was really looking forward to her seminar. Couple of years ago, I started reading her writings. Alhamdulillah Couple of years ago, I went to her first talk in London at LMC organised by Al Buruj press, sponsored by Orphans in Need. Since then every year , I like to attend her events. Her book 'Reclaim your heart' is an excellent read mashAllah. I believe it is a must read mashAllah. 

Alhamdulillah as usual, her talk was full of wisdom. I did take a lot of notes . What I need to do now during this week is to reflect, discuss and plan what areas I need to improve in shaa Allah. I have been discussing some of the issues she touched upon with my better half alhamdulillah . As it was a seminar about relationship, it is very crucial to discuss with the spouse and work together to build a sound, healthy conjugal relation. Before I share my notes, I want you to know these notes are based on what I have understood from her talk. I don't want you to think that these are exactly what Ustadha Yasmin said. In order to truly learn from her , I will suggest you to follow her on YouTube and read her writings on her website. In terms of verses from the Qur'an, I have used the translation by M.A.S. Abdel Haleem's The Qur'an published by Oxford University Press which is a highly recommended English translation by Ustadh Nouman Ali Khan. 

So here are some of my notes: 

First of all, Ustadha Yasmin explained the famous, frequently quoted ayah in almost every wedding invitation cards, "And another of His signs is that He created spouses from among yourselves for you to live with in tranquility: He ordained love and kindness between you. There truly are signs in this for those who reflect."Surah Ar-Rum The Byzantine : 21 

Here in this ayah, Allah is showing us a sign among the numerous signs in His vast creation. What is the purpose of a sign? The purpose of a sign is to direct us to our destination.  So marriage is one of the signs to our destination. This is not the sign but a sign among lot of other signs He has shown us. Our destination is be closer to our Rabb, our Lord, Allah subhanahu wa Ta'ala. Marriage is a path to that destination, but not the ultimate path to the destination. 

We live in a society where we are deluded in believing that we as women are not complete until we get married. People quote a particular Hadith to back this mentality, saying " Marriage is half of Deen i.e faith" But what we need to realise that men and women are individuals who have the potential to be complete only through worshiping Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala wholeheartedly. Maryam (Mary, mother of 'Eesa Alahis Salam) Alahis Salam is a great example of a complete woman. Was she married? Our beloved Rasulullah sallallahu alaihe wa Sallam informed us that Maryam Alaihis Salam is one of the women who perfected their faith. Popular media and culture give us this false impression that we are not complete until we get married. Sometimes we tend to think marriage is our ultimate destination. Just like the fairytales, where Sleeping beauty and Cinderella waiting eagerly for the charming princes to come to "save" them and complete them. But marriage is just a path among lot of other paths to our ultimate destination, which is to be closer to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala.

Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala designed us with an emptiness which can be filled only through His remembrance. When we assign that purpose to our spouse, we are bound to feel disappointed. You have set him/ her up to failure. They will indeed feel like losers. And when we fail, we tend to shut down. We don't  feel like trying anymore. We are asking for too much from the spouse , assigning him/ her with superhuman job-description. So when the person continues to fail, he/ she eventually shuts down. And it is all due to having improper expectations. 

So what is the purpose of marriage? It is to help us to be better people and get closer to our Rabb, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Marriage is a training ground for our character . It is easy to learn the theoretical aspect of essential qualities such as patience, perseverance , honesty, trust but to act upon them, we must go through the training. And marriage gives us the golden opportunity to learn these crucial qualities to enable us to become better human beings. When you are a spouse, you learn to be patient, you try to control your lower nafs i.e your ego, learn to apologise. And that is why marriage is regarded as half of faith. 

We all have needs and our needs need to be fulfilled if we want us to be functioning properly and offer our service to others. Sometimes as women we make this big mistake of believing that our need doesn't matter. We give priority to the need of others, husband, children , parents, in-laws and so on. But we must have a balance. It is definitely not about me but at the same time, it is not like, my needs doesn't matter either. You gotta take care of yourself first and only then you can look after others in a better way. If you don't feel full and nourished from inside spiritually, mentally, emotionally, physically, you will eventually have burn out. 

We all have our needs , needs to be nourished spiritually, emotionally, physically. But these needs can never be fulfilled by the creations. Only by approaching Allah, our thirst can be quenched. Creations are by nature imperfect and in need of others. We as creations are by default the beggars. No one likes beggars but Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala loves to be begged. Our beloved taught us to ask Him even for shoe laces. The essence of worship is dua i.e supplication, request to Allah the All-mighty. 

When we are nourished and full from within with Allah's love, we can have a healthy and sound relation with our family and friends. Only then we can truly love our family without the unhealthy dependancy on them. We no longer have the need to ask them to fill us, fix us. As a person who is full from within, you can offer far more to the family. The essence of generosity comes from being full already from inside. You become capable of offering others because you are not in need of others fulfilling your needs. So how do we get to that state where we can be content from within and offer others our service ? In order to build a strong relation with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala we must follow these steps below on a daily basis :

1. Prayer: We must be diligent in praying our obligatory Salah five times a day and at the fixed time. Never miss a Salah. Sometimes people tend to pray all the Salah at the end of the day, some miss the fajr  prayer at dawn. She gave a powerful example . Imagine someone is suffering from cancer and her oncologist prescribed certain medicine to be taken at certain times through out the day. Does she miss taking the medicine? Does she take all of the doses in one go at the end of the day? Or does she says that I can't be bothered to take it on time as I am on Facebook now? To have a strong relation with our Rabb, we must take Salah very seriously. Salah is the oxygen of our soul. When we don't pray, our heart dies. The very life of our heart depends on Salah.

2. Building a strong relation with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala's Book, Al-Qur'an: Reading, studying, pondering over the Qur'an on a daily basis. Make a plan of how much you can read on a daily basis. And ponder upon the verses on a daily basis.

3. Daily adhkaar : Download an app which has morning and evening dua with the meaning. Make it a habit of reciting the sunnah dua after the fajr prayer for the morning and after the Asar prayer do the evening dua. 

So these are her three part prescription which she calls 'The Zikr challenge' unlike the silly ice bucket challenge of pouring ice on your head! So the Zikr challenge can help us to build a strong relation with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in shaa Allah.

"People, be mindful of your Lord, who created you from a single soul, and from it created its mate, and from the pair of them spread countless men and women far and wide..." The Qur'an Women Al-Nisa 4:1 The essence of men and women is same, 'From you, for you', professor Abdel Haleem in his translation of the Qur'an says, 'From the same essence' Razi convincingly reached this conclusion based on comparison with many instances when 'min anfusikum' is used in the Qur'an.

He has blessed the married couple with sakinah , tranquility. When we examine traditional stories such as Romeo & Juliet , it is not tranquility that we find in their relation. It is more like torment and addiction. They were not at peace. Without each other's company , they couldn't survive. Death seemed like a great solution if they can't live with each other as they were addicted to each other. They become the ilah for each other, the object for worship. When we take any other ilah instead of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala , we become the slave of that object. We can't survive without the object. That's why we see people who literally live (worship) for their spouses, jobs, children etc, when something happens to them, they can't survive and commit suicide. Once Plato said, love is a serious mental illness. This sort of "love" popularly depicted by the popular culture is a serious mental illness. It is not healthy at all. 

Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala tell us His Book that when we take an ilah with Allah, then we will be tormented in this life and in hereafter. We must remember that no one can fill the void created by our Rabb. Only through His worship, we can be truly happy and feel content. If I make my spouse, my children, my wealth the object of my worship, I will be indeed tormented because they are never meant to fill us from within. Yasmin gave a example of a car which needs gas/petrol to move. Imagine instead of using the right fuel, I pour orange juice in the engine. It is bound to break down. When our focus is not right and we end up filling us with the wrong fuel, as a result we break down but we question Allah why did He do that to us!?! 

So how do we detach ourselves? The essence of detachment is keeping things in our hands instead of in our hearts. She told us a beautiful story of imam Abu Hanifa Rahimallah. Once while he was teaching his students, someone came and informed him that his ship has drowned. He took a moment to think and then he carried on his lesson. After a while the person came back and told him, it was actually a mistake. His ship is okay and on its way. Once again he took a moment to think and he resumed his lesson. His students felt curious to know why he did that. Imam Abu Hanifa Rahimallah said, when he heard his ship has drowned he checked whether his heart was moved by the loss of his wealth and he found it unmoved. And when he heard the ship was okay, he checked again the state of his heart and it was unmoved subhanallah. This is called detachment. There were lot of very wealthy sahaba (companions of the beloved prophet) who were detached from their wealth. They gave without any hesitation. 

Just before the lunch break, sister Shazia Saleem the founder of ieat (who sponsored the event) did a brief talk about her inspiration, lady Khadija RadiAllahu Anha. She was a very wealthy business lady. She was known as the princess of Quraish in Makkah. She offered her hand for marriage to our beloved Mummad Sallallahu Alaihe wa Sallam. When the prophet said he can't provide for a wife, she said she is okay with it. On her wedding night she gave a huge bag of gold coins as gift to her husband to honour him sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam. She was a great wife and she gave all her wealth to serve her beloved soulmate. When she died she didn't have a single coin in her name. Shazia said have we seen any wealthy person in this day and age who leave this earth without a single coin in their name. It is quite mind blowing to think what a great woman Khadija  RadiAllahu Anha was. No wonder she has been mentioned as one of the greatest women in Islam by our beloved prophet Sallallahu Alaihi wa Sallam . Her life story teaches us about detachment for Allah's sake.

"We shall certainly test you with fear and hunger and loss of property, lives and crops. But (prophet), give good news to those who are steadfast, those who say, when afflicted with a calamity, 'We belong to Allah and to Him we shall return.' These will be given blessings and mercy from their Lord and it is they who are rightly guided." Surah Al-Baqara 2:155-157

Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala teaches us in the Qur'an that we will face loss of loved ones, loss of wealth, loss of efforts during our short stay on this earth. Our body, intellect, beauty, parents, siblings, spouse, children and so on are all gifts from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. They are in essence gifts. They are gifts for a limited time. No one can claim that he/she deserves the gift. Gift is given as a token of love and care. And the gifts in Dunya can be taken back as the verse indicates. Yasmin gave us a example. If she gives someone a car for ten years and after ten years she wants it back, can that person say no to her ? The car never belonged to that person. It was always her car. We must treat the gifts given by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala in the same manner. The gifts are a trust. When it is taken away, we are reminded to say Inna lillahi wa inna ilaihir rajeuun. Allah gives glad tidings to the patient ones. Imagine you lost one of your loved ones and someone congratulating you on your loss. Allah reminds us that we belong to Him. Everything we have does not belong to us. It always belongs to Him. The statement He taught us is not just a mere statement. It is an entire world view. 

When we believe wholeheartedly that everything we have doesn't belong to us then no matter what we lose, we will never question our Lord, "Why me?","How could you do this to me?" The response of a believer will be inna lillahi wa inna ilaihir rajeuun which reminds him/her that everything belongs to Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala and she/he should have her/his gifts in their hand not in their heart just like Imam Abu Hanifa Rahimallah. 

When we focus on the hereafter, the nature of our attachment changes. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala reminds us in the Qur'an that this life is a place of play and amusement . When we are very young, we love playing. When we are pre-teens , we love to be entertained. "I'm bored!" is the most favourite statement of a pre-teen. When we are teenagers, we are obsessed with our look and appearance. We spent ages in front of the mirror. Just before going out with friends, finding a pimple seems like a disaster. Then when we are at college, university, proving that we are capable of achieving a good degree becomes very important. Then comes getting settled by finding a dream job, getting married , having children, having a great house, car , etc become very crucial. Our creator reminds us in His Book, that in this life we compete each other with wealth and children. They become our ultimate attachment but in essence these "attachments" will disappoint us because they are meant to pass away. Nothing in this world remains unchanged. And that's why Allah reminds us through the signs in His creations that we must attach ourselves to Him and His pleasure only. In hereafter, these obsession with self-image, family, career, wealth won't really help us. Only by having a pure heart which enables us to do good for His sake, we can enter the garden.

Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says in Surah Al-Kahf , "Tell them, too, what the life of this world is like: We send water down from the skies and the earth's vegetation absorbs it, but soon the plants turn to dry stubble scattered about by the wind: Allah has power over everything. Wealth and children are the attractions of this worldly life, but lasting good works have a better reward with your Lord and give better grounds for hope. On the day We make the mountains move away and you see the earth as an open plain, We shall gather all people together, leaving no one out. They will be lined up before your Lord: 'Now you have come to Us as We first created you, although you claimed We had not made any such appointment with you.' The record of their deeds will be laid open and you will see the guilty, dismayed at what they contain, saying,'Woe to us! What a record this is! It does not leave any deed, small or large, unaccounted for !' They will find everything they ever did laid in front of them: your Lord will not be unjust to anyone." The Qur'an 18:45-49 
To be continued In Shaa Allah...

Cyber detox mode

Bismillah In the Name of Allah , the Most Merciful, the Most Loving

Assalamu alaikum dear readers and fellow bloggers, 

Couple of days ago, I uninstalled Facebook, Instagram from my phone. I lost count how many times I checked my phone as soon as there was any notifications! Instead of enjoying the moments with family, friends, I was obsessed with capturing photos and share on Facebook/Instagram. My eldest who is 6, complains that mum is too busy with her phone, laptop, ipad etc. Children are not naive. They are most of the time the first ones to spot the problems we adults go through. I realized I must listen to my son before it gets too addictive. 

My work as an editor requires lots of research on internet. Working from home gives me lots of flexibility but it has its shortcomings too. I don't have a break. While my husband can have a break after 6/7 pm during weekday, I am still working at midnight given I have to get the new issue online by the deadline. The magazine Aaila was born in 2010 alhamdulillah with the help of couple of dedicated and very talented sisters alhamdulillah. I treat Aaila as my fourth baby and can't imagine abandoning her. Alhamdulillah future is very promising for online magazines. My mission is to make Aaila a household brand. I hope that Muslims and non-Muslims around the world will benefit from the magazine bi'idnillahi ta'ala. 

Working for myself requires good management of time, great organisational skills, determination, lots of hard work. Ramadan is round the corner. InshAllah I am hoping to have a very productive Ramadan . I have been practicing to fast on a regular basis. First day was quite hard given my body was at shock, forced to starve for 18 hours. It triggers migraine. But alhamdulillah I am getting better at it. It's all about determination and practice. My beloved teacher says that Ramadan is a time when we INCREASE our good deeds instead of starting our good deeds. I believe the fast during the month of Rajab and Sha'baan helps to detox the body and get ready for Ramadan fasts. I also run twice a week for 30 minutes ( early morning). It does help to get the body feel fit alhamdulillah. If you can't run, at-least include brisk walks 15 minutes a day/every other day. And please try to avoid every sort of junk/fast food and stick to simple, healthy, fresh veg and fruits. Avoid carbohydrates and eat lots of fish, lentils, pulses and all sorts of good protein. Drink a LOT OF WATER.

Last week, I had a check up to see if I got diabetes, high cholesterol etc. I had gestational diabetes with my three pregnancies. I will be 35 this year inshAllah. I was expecting to hear that I have already developed type 2 diabetes, given both of parents have diabetes. Alhamdulillah I am still clear. I have even lost weight! I am 68 kilo now. My BMI is 24.9 which is healthy alhamdulillah. But my target is 58 kilo INSHALLAH. Given Ramadan due soon I hope I can get to my target quickly inshAllah.

So I am happy and content with my health but what about the well-being of my mind/soul? What am I doing to detox my most important part? We are what we read, watch, and think. I spend quite a lot of time on internet. I hope to detox my mind from over reliance on cyber world. To do so I have got rid of Facebook and Instagram from my phone as these two ARE the biggest time killers. It has been couple of days now. First two days were quite a shock to my mind, I must confess. My phone felt so useless and dull. My mind kept thinking about what notifications I have been "missing". Now I am feeling calmer. I am able to spend more quality time with family. I realized my poor husband and kids were the biggest victim to my over obsession with social media. My beautiful books were the victim too as they have been eagerly waiting in the shelves to be picked up and read with appreciation. I am also more aware of nature. When I am out and about with kids, I am enjoying the precious moments without getting distracted with the nagging thought of getting my phone out and capture the moments. The whole process of trying to capture every single moment just kills the joy of being there with loved ones. I have learnt the hard way but it's worth learning through experience. I am truly happy and content with this change in my life alhamdulillah. But let us see how long it lasts! I hope to carry on writing and blogging which is a passion of my life. I hope to share my experiance through writing inshAllah. May Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala enable us to use our precious but limited time to live our life to worship Him, ameen! After all, we are created to love and worship Him. That's the ultimate goal of our life. 

Learning surah At-Takasur

Alhamdulillah we have been memorizing the suah at-takasur. When kids are memorizing a new surah, we go through the meaning and tafseer i.e explanations (according to their level). I was listening to the tafseer today so that I can learn about the surah and pass it on to our kids.

Changing myself bi'idnillah

Bismillah, In the Name of Allah Subhana Wa ta'ala

Assalamu alaikum my dear readers, 

Jumuah Mubarak! Hope we all will be able to have a very productive Friday today. InshAllah I am going to Regents Park mosque with my youngest one to meet up with my very special friend Aisha. As you may know, I have started learning Quranic Arabic last year (November) through Arabicgems. Alhamdulillah I believe, I know more about Arabic grammar. Learnt some new words too, alhamdulillah. But I am still struggling with the exams. I am actually really bad when it comes to exams, I must admit. I love learning but I hate exams. Alhamdulillah our wonderful teacher/ ustadha has been very kind to me. She told me I should keep on learning and don't stress too much over the horrible marks :-(

Alhamdulillah my friend Aisha has offered her help to teach me Arabic inshAllah. She studied Arabic in Syria. Some of my friends who have learnt Arabic through Arabic in Middle eastern countries have told me that I must learn Arabic without the English grammar terms as it confuses the student and makes it too difficult to grasp the concepts. I am really looking forward to our meeting today, inshAllah. May Allah subhana wa ta'ala make this journey to learn Arabic ( to understand His Book & implement the lessons in my life, to please Him, only Him) easy and full of baraka (blessings) for me, ameen! May Allah subhana wa ta'ala reward my friend for her amazing support mashAllah. She is one in a million mashallah. I always feel very inspired by her. May Allah keep her blessed forever, ameeen! If you would like to benefit from her awesome writing, then visit her blog inshAllah. Like me, you will become an avid follower of her blog :-) 

Last couple of weeks have been very hectic and emotional for me. I feel like I am not doing enough hence not really achieving enough. I really need to change myself for better. My fear is what if I die without even trying to please Allah subhana wa ta'ala I always say to myself that I will be a better muslimah, a better wife, better mum, better daughter, better sister, better daughter-in-law, better writer and editor, better friend and the list goes on. But am I doing enough to reach my goal? Sometimes I feel really empty, I can't even describe in words how miserable I feel. May Allah subhana wa ta'ala make me a better muslimah and give me the ability to do the best to earn His Ridwaan (Pleasure), ameeeen! 

I have been listening to some talks on changing ourselves so that I can learn from our beloved sheikhs and ustadhs. May Allah subhana wa ta'ala reward them for their great efforts to serve the ummah, ameen! I hope I can follow the suggestions, bi'idnillah.

I hope by next year, I can say that I have become a better Muslimah, bi'idnillah. Nothing is impossible with Allah subhana wa ta'ala's help. I love Allah and I know He will never abandon me, ALHAMDULILLAH.

Making the changes - Sheikh Omar Suleiman

Making the changes - Ustadh Nouman Ali Khan

The story of the baker and Imam Ahmed is mind-blowing, subhanallah. This one story is enough for us to spend more time in zikr, remembrance of Allah subhana wa ta'ala.

Jumuah (Friday) reminder: Repentance, Reliance and Gratitude

Allah subhana wa ta'ala said (about what Nuh Alaihis Salam said to his people): 

"Ask forgiveness of your Lord; Verily He is Oft-Forgiving; He will send rain to you in abundance;and give you increase in wealth and children. and bestow on you gardens and bestow on you rivers." [Qur'an 71:10-12]

"If you were to put your trust in Allah, the way that Allah deserves, then you would be provided 

for as the birds are; they leave (in search of food) at the beginning of the day famished, and 

they  return at the end of the day full." (tirmidhi)


"And (remember) when your Lord proclaimed: "If you are thankful, I will give you more 

(of My blessings), but if you are thankless, then verily, My Punishment is indeed 

severe." [Qur'an 14:7]

Year 2012

Imran's family

Alhamdulillah this year has been quite a good one for all of us. Imran was supposed to go to school from September but he didn’t get in the school we preferred, Alhamdulillah. I was quite unsure whether he should start school this early. He just turned 5 alhamdulillah. I did do my istikhara (prayer of guidance) before sending the application. I am actually quite relieved that he didn’t get in. I believe 5 is too early for any kid to start formal schooling. I want my children to enjoy their life and learn through playing and interaction inshAllah.

Imran is very close to his sister Ayesha and brother Yusuf. Ayesha is 3 years and 8 months old and Yusuf is 20 months old Alhamdulillah. I love the way they are always playing together. Even the way they interact with each other is so beautiful, mashAllah. I make dua to my Rabb that they remain very close to each other and learn a lot together inshAllah.

As it’s the end of the year, I was thinking of reviewing our life this year. So how was my life as a mum of three, you would ask. Alhamdulillah it was great and I cannot ask for more subhanallah. Motherhood is hard but there is nothing which makes me happier than being a mum to my kids Alhamdulillah.For me, it's an achievement alhamdulillah.  People ask me how is life now as I am home-schooling. I don’t really think life has changed that much for us. We still do the same things we used to do before. We love reading together. We love playing and talking about everything. We go to places. Even shopping is a great adventure for us.

Every minute is learning opportunity for us. Some people ask me how I assess Imran’s progress.  The simple answer is I don’t and I hope I never need to assess. He loves learning and I am more than happy to help and guide him and my daughter and baby to learn from their daily experiences inshAllah.

I think, as a society we are too obsessed with measuring and comparing our kids. I feel sorry for them. Childhood is such a magical time when kids just love being kids and explore the world around them. By forcing them to do things in a certain way and then assessing and comparing them with each other, we make them feel bored and eventually hate learning. I am very passionate about lifelong learning. As Muslims we are always learning. Our faith is based on learning and implementing the lessons in our daily life. There is hadith saying that wisdom is the lost treasure of believers.

As a home-educator, I am also on a journey of learning and self-discovery with my kids. I am learning with them Alhamdulillah. I feel so blessed that I am aware of what they are learning and we can discuss topics together. Sometimes just listening to their conversations, makes me feel so grateful for having them as our children, Alhamdulillah. It's amazing watching them grow so fast, subhanallah. Time flies. I still remember the day I gave birth to Imran. What a day that was, subhanallah!

So what curriculum I am following… Not any set curriculum I must confess. I do lots of stories and rhymes. I do the stories from the Qur’an. I believe they must know the stories from the Qur’an first. InshAllah in future, especially when they are around 7, I want to do stories from the sunnah of our beloved prophet Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi wa sallam. They are quite aware of their Muslim identity. They see us praying, fasting, attending halaqas and they are quite interested in following us. I strongly believe if we as parents can lead life as devoted Muslims bi’idnillah, children can identify themselves as Muslims inshAllah. Children love copying their parents and we should do our best to represent Islam in the best possible manner, inshAllah. It reminds me a great qoute by James Baldwin
 "Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them."

Dua (supplications) is a very essential part of our life. Dua is worship and Allah subhana wa ta’ala loves to be asked. I teach them duas and hope to raise them as people of duas inshAllah. I am also trying to teach them the surahs from juz amma (30^th part of the Qura’n). We don’t want to send our kids to supplementary schools to learn about their faith. It’s our sole responsibility to teach them about their faith, we believe. May Allah subhana wa ta’ala give us the ability (tawfique) and the ease (tayseer) to raise our children as best of Muslims, ameen!

Alhamdulillah my husband has been playing a very active role as a dad and kids absolutely love him. He supports me wholeheartedly , alhamdulillah. I am really blessed to have him as my soul mate, Alhamdulillah. May Allah subhana wa ta’ala keep him healthy and high in imaan, ameen! I love making the duas from the Qur’an to have a blessed family. I cannot stress enough how important the duas are for all of us. As parents we may have the best of intentions for our kids but without duas we can never achieve anything. So dua is the most essential part of our life, and then comes efforts, never-ending efforts bi’idnillah. As the year comes to end, let us all raise our hands and ask the Most Merciful Rabb Ar-Rahman Ar-Raheem, to make us the best of parents and make our children the coolness of our eyes, ameen!

Alhamdulillah this year my parents just celebrated their 35th anniversury. May Allah subhana wa ta'ala keep them happy and blessed together for many more years, ameen! Rabbir hamhuma kama rabbayani sagheera, ameen!

 I hope year 2013 is going to be a very productive and baraka-filled life for all of us, inshAllah. May Allah subhana wa ta’ala forgive the sins of our ummah and help us to do our best to earn His Mercy and Ridwaan and eventually meet Him in Jannatul Ferdous, Ameen! Ameen! Ameeeeen!

Everything is from Allah subhana ta'ala!

Bismillah... In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful

Sometimes I think how blessed I am , alhamdulillah. Allah subhana ta'ala has given me so much! Am I really grateful enough to Him? Through my action, do I really show Him my gratitude towards Him? I know that through showing Him our gratitude, He will give us more. Our beloved prophet Muhammad sallallahu alaihe wa sallam taught us to make a special dua after every prayer saying, " O Allah, help me in remembering You, worship You and being grateful to You!".Insha-Allah I hope I can do my best to thank Him . Insha-Allah I hope to show my gratitude to my Rabb by raising my children as best of Muslims! Being a parent is not an easy job. Sometimes it does get quite challenging :-( but I try to keep reminding me that Insha-Allah I am a mother with a big purpose. I hope I will get reward from Allah subhana ta'ala for every moment of struggle I go through to raise our beautiful children, INSHA-ALLAH! Rabbana taqabbal minna...