Weekend

Last weekend, I discovered a place that is very much the kind of place I like to hang out at.. Its got books, free wi-fi although I must admit they don't have a bigg variety of books but most of them are on philosopy and photography I think. They have a cafe, that place really reminds me of good old school cafeterias.

I felt inspired after a long time to start writing again.. I watched an award winning documentary about the lower caste in the northern side of India. In Hindus, they have higher and lower castes specially in the villages and remote areas, the lower castes are regarded as untouchable..

Spent the day walking around the place and hanging out with my brother. I am sure many people here know about it :P but hey I just discovered it. It's the Pavillion in Downtown Burj Dubai..

Next, weekend they are playing a very interesting documentary about an old man who likes to collect memories from his daily life and how this changes after he falls sick and has a new gate keeper to take care of him, now this gatekeeper likes to do things in a different way.

Meeting Someone You Never Met

Sometimes, I end up missing someone I haven't even met in my real life. I know it sounds very psycho, but I do. I have a list of people I haven't met that I really miss sometimes, and If I don't miss them then I end up meeting them in my dreams ;

There's this person called A, I have gotten to know her during a very difficult time of my life via the sweet sweet internet. I disclosed to her the things I have never disclosed to anyone in my life. And I know for a fact that it was not just that I felt safe writing all that to her behind a screen but it is this sort of connection that just happened naturally, like it does when you know someone forever.. So, there are many times when I wish I could meet this person, and till now I've met her twice in my dreams :P

Then there's H, I loved her style of blogging and then we started exchanging emails about our common love (read : books).. so the other day when I was at a bookstore I ended up thinking about her..and kind of missing her. Weird, much?

I met many other people in my dreams that I haven't met in my real life..I never forget about those dreams.

I used to wish for dreams about my best friend afrah, because I missed her so much and when they did I would wake up smiling. I know it's kinda weird, but I feel happy that at least I've met them in my dreams...It becomes very easy to enjoy the dream if i can have a face with that person's name but well nevertheless its a different experience all the time.

It's not always rosy and flowery though, I end up even dreaming about people I hate and when I wake up, I wake up mad.. Thankfully, these dreams are less compared to the ones about meeting the people I like.

It is all Temporary

Sometimes when you just cannot lift yourself up, you want to behave like a stubborn child and you think you should feel down. Because, nothing really works as you plan and then there are always these problems which never have an end, things don't go the way you want them to. It aches, A lot. I know, I've been there.

It is not just materialistic things that let you down, its people whom You love, the ones who are close to your heart but sometimes the words that come out of their mouth fill your heart with hurt and your eyes with grief.

Sometimes for months and months you keep thinking to yourself when the never-ending circle of problems will come to an end, because they exhaust you mentally to the extent that you feel like leaving everything and escaping into nothingness. But, there's no escape, nowhere to go and nobody can understand.

Patience is a good subject to write about, to advise others for, to hear about, to read about.. but when it comes to practicing it, well it's quite impossible for people like me. But there's one thing that works out at the end of the day if not anything else;

The fact, that all this pain,anger and grief is temporary. If I hold my faith tight then these emotions will fade off in the eternity of bliss that's been promised by Allah SWT.

Al Araf : 43. And We shall remove from their hearts any lurking sense of injury; beneath them will be rivers flowing...

Morning Thought

A tear that brings me closer to Him, Is more beloved to me than a smile,

That makes me ignorant of Him, and takes me away from Him for a while.

The times when my heart and eyes sob with grief,

Holding firmly to His promise with uttermost belief



Those are the moments I search for in my life,

Those are the moments that make me realize;

No matter what happens, Patient I shall remain,

For everything comes from Him, Relief or Pain

48 Days Away

O my dearly beloved month, you are 48 days away,
I can never depend on myself to make the most of you
The time when every soul rushes to pray..
Without my Creator's help, my wish can never turn true.

When the houses are filled with the recitation of the Quran,
11 months of so-called busy life, comes to peace at Ramadan
When the sunnah's are more beloved than any other time,
After all, we are blessed with the rewards from the Divine

You are the time that we need in our sinful lives,
When every soul competes for good deeds and strives
To seek the pleasure of Him, The Rahman, The Haleem,
Whose mercy encompasses everything that we've ever seen

How sad is it, that you do not receive a proper welcome
At your departure, with the night prayer's we are done
We hardly witness them after the last night,
It rarely gets mentioned till the next ramadan's sight..

We start the preparations for weddings much before the actual day,
But with your preparation, we take it all easy-breezy, like its okay.
Iftar parties, heavy food and shopping for the eid,
Last days, there's a decline in every good deed.

May We be blessed from our Creator, to realize your value,
May there be barakah in the way that we spend you..
May we not be of those who sleep throughout your days,
Who spend your nights in many different non-religious ways.

May we take the effort to understand the word of God,
May we not be of those who during prayer begin to yawn
May we read, recite, try to understand Quran a Lot
May we sincerely remember our Lord during dusk and dawn..

Poem

You've consumed my thoughts for years, I lived with you,
Initially in denial of your existence in my life,
Then in hatred for even remembering what you've done to me
You are my most painful memory, I hope i become yours too

It is said, do not repel evil with evil but your an exception,
A part of me screams for peace, for silence
But the memories are so painfully clear
You have won everyone's heart with your mask of deception.

I know what you are, I wish the whole world knew,
The giver of pain, tears, nightmares and agony
I hope you spend rest of your life in misery
You are my most painful memory, I hope i become yours too

Killing you would do no justice to me at all,
For what you've done, its a punsihment too small
Stabs, after stabs, and then a break in between,
Till your wounds heal and can no longer be seen.

Have the torture cycle start again,
For my every ignored cry of pain.
For every plea of mine that fell on your deaf ears,
For all those mentally disturbing years.

Managing Time

If i really start working on all the things i have been wanting to work on then I think I would end up sleeping about 2-3 hours every night. So, now I can really use some time management tips. What are some of the things that I need to work on?

1. Getting Fit - I always end up paying for a month but I go to the gym only for a week. Not nice.

2. Reading - I have about 20 books that are demanding my immediate attention

3. Lectures - I have to finish listening to the lectures I've downloaded in my phone, currently I am listening to them when I am travelling

4. Studying - Although, I still not sure why I have enrolled myself in the Chartered Accountancy program, If i intend to write the Proficiency test in december then I need some serious studying.

5. Learning how to cook

6. Saving for a new camera, while making some wonderful videos with the current one

7. MOST IMPORTANTLY : I need to work on my book and write more, gah the more I read of what I wrote, the more I hate it and feel like starting from the scratch again. I am telling you if you are an impatient person like me, then writing a book is not a good idea.

8. Learn Arabic - The classical arabic for Quran, I need to work bigg time on it

A Lesson that I learnt from Kung Fu Panda 2!

I just came back home after watching Kung Fu Panda 2! I was actually at the cinemas 1 week ago and was severely disappointed to know that it was not released here in UAE although internationally it was released on 26 may! I decided, thats it! I am not gonna watch this stupid movie! (I watched part 1 and it was pretty awesome too!)

The movie revolves around the characters, the Po(Panda) and the Lord Shen(Peacock). Both have had some pretty rough memories of their pasts as kids. Lord Shen's parents tried to control his hunger for power as he was getting in the dark side, but he took it as a sign of hatred from his parents. His parents die anyway once they ask him to leave the town due to his evil doings, they feel awful about being away from their kid and they die.

Okay, i am not here to write the entire story but this is important, a fortune teller predicts the end of his evil that would be done by a panda. He destroys the area where Po and his community lives, his mother leaves him in a basket and runs away so that he is safe. In this movie, he realizes that he doesn't know who he is anymore, because he has the flashbacks of his past. Eventually in his journey throughout the story he realizes what really matters and when he is confronted by Lord Glen he says :

You got to let go of the stuff from past, because it just doesn't matter. The only thing that matters is what you choose to be now. - Po

It hit home with me for a simple reason, which is the lesson behind the movie which i thought was very profound. Not many people might find it so fantastic as i am portraying it now but see here's the thing, the few people in my life who are very close to know that i have a really REALLY tough time with not letting things go or dwelling in the not-so-nice past events.

So my lesson is pretty clear, although I do try every day not think of past events and all but somehow they just come back. But, watching this movie and watching how this message is played out throughout the entire journey of Po in this part made me realize that letting go might be difficult but it is okay, what really matters is that you keep trying because if you don't then you end up becoming the person you hate the most. Now I know that some might think it is just a movie and I have taken it wayyy too seriously, but for me it hit home and I can relate to ,it in many ways. I am sure many people can actually, if they just look inside themselves they would realize that they need to let go too, to heal, to get done with it, to stop being afraid.'

Both, the characters had issues with their pasts, but in the end their outlook determined what they chose to be.

Po's master Shifu says this really inspirational quote : "Anything is possible when you have inner peace"

Sometimes, you just need to tell yourself ''Its time''... ''Easy now... It is hard but you can do it slowly''

Al - Noor Part 2

Bismillah.

Moving on with the name and attribute of Allah SWT, in last post the explanation for Noor-Al-Hissi or The Sensible Light was done. In this post, bi ithnillah we will study about the Noor-Al-Ma'anawee or The Insensible Light;

Note : I would use the word ''Noor'' and ''Light'' synonymously, I hope it does not cause any confusion.

II. Noor-Al-Ma'anawee : It is the type of noor that although you cannot, see it or touch it. You would still feel it. Example, you know that really nice and happy feeling when you have done this almost perfect salah with awesome khushoo? Then, there is this sort of unexplainable comfort that you feel in your heart? Yes, that can also be described as this noor. You will feel it if you have it, but would you know how to acquire it? We'll discuss that in detail later;

This light will enlighten the hearts of the righteous people. The comfort that you feel in your heart after knowing Allah SWT is an example of this type of noor too. And how will we know if our heart is filled with this noor or light of Allah? Well see here's the thing if our hearts are really filled with the light of Allah, then our manners will be refined and we will be reformed as individuals in a manner that is pleasing to Allah SWT meaning I would not go around doing things in my house that troubles my neighbor :P As a consequence of this light in our hearts, even our limbs will be guarded in such a fashion that we would only do those actions would be pleasing to Allah. The following are some other types of Noor that fall under this category.

- Noor Mohabbat Illah (Light of Love of Allah) : If our hearts are filled with the love of Allah SWT then our hearts are also filled with His Noor. Allah SWT says in the Quran in Surah Maidah, Verse 15 ''....Indeed, there has come to you from Allah a light (Prophet Muhammad ) and a plain Book (this Qur'an).''

Now, it doesn't mean that there would be a light when we open the Quran. But, the content of the Quran which is the word of Allah is so powerful that when we sit down with it and ponder upon its verses and study them we would realize that this sheer love for Allah SWT captivates our hearts and our hearts are filled by His Noor.

- Hidayah or Guidance : Guidance is also a type of noor, which frees a person's heart from the shackles of ignorance. Most of us these days live under the presumption the Ignorance is a Bliss. Well, at least I did. But, for those of you who still think that way, Take my word seriously Ignorance is not bliss in the matters of the religion and faith. There are also some people who simply do not want to know about a commandment and I used to be one of them too, Because the way we people think is that ''As long as I don't know about it, I won't be held responsible for it'' which is why when somebody used to remind me about any religious affair that I may have forgotten about or a commandment that I am not aware of, I would simply ask them to shut up to an extent that if they don't shut up I would put fingers in my ears to stop listening them. oooo yeah, I had some characteristics of the Quraish ;) (before they accepted Islam ofcourse).

Why am i writing my experiences to you and telling them here on my blog? Because experience is not always a good teacher, it is a painful one. And I would never want Anyone to do the mistakes I've done when I chose to live in Ignorance. My last advice, Read more about Islam anything that creates a genuine confusion in you, seek out for answers from the learned people, remind yourself by reading the word of Allah in a language that you can understand, listen to lectures, if you are the visual type then watch them. But do NOT, do NOT, think that being a born muslim by default gives you all the knowledge you require, and do not ever ever make the mistake of thinking that Ignorance is Bliss. I know I elaborated more than required here, so i'll stop :D

- Al Islam An Noor (The light of Islam) : Being a muslim and having Islam as our religion is a noor in and itself. our proof?

Allah says in the Quran in Surah Zumar, Verse 22 ''Is he whose breast Allah has opened to Islam, so that he is in light from His Lord (as he who is non-Muslim)? So, woe to those whose hearts are hardened against remembrance of Allah! They are in plain error''

But, here is another thing some people who are born as muslims, they think that they are destined for heaven anyway since they are born muslims and they live under the illusion that it is actually the people who revert to islam who need to do some hard work to get there. This type of mentality is that of the Jews, who think they are the special people. Of course, Alhamdulillah having Islam in our life is also a type of Noor but we must not forget what is Good Islam? It is living our lives as per the Quran and the Sunnah. So we need to renew our Islam on regular basis and stop thinking that as long as we are muslims we are good to go. It is true that muslims even those who are bad would enter heaven, but that is only after they spend their time in hell for the bad things they have done. And if we think, 'Oh thats okay, I think I can manage that' then know that the fire in hell will be 70 times hotter than the fire we have here. Sorry, for the stern warning but we know we all can use some of these for our benefit once in a while :)

Inshallah in the next post, we will study about the Parable of Allah SWT's Noor in detail and we will also study about the different kinds of hearts. Plus, *BONUS BONUS!* :P We Will also study about the ways to obtain the Noor of Allah SWT :D

Till then, this me wishing you a happy weekend?! :)

My love, your with me finally!

I fell in love the first time that i looked at you,
I couldn't help myself, so i went through every review.
Some said good things about you and some criticized
But my love for you was overwhelming, I realized.

I seized the opportunity, I just couldn't let you go,
I love how you record in Full HD with 8MP photo..
In my mind there's only this one thought,
I somehow don't like your USB slot..

But,I still love even with your imperfection,
Your image stabilizer is up to my expectation.
Oh my beloved panasonic TA-1,
In your comparison there's definitely NONE!