The Introduction

In the name of Allah, The Most Gracious, The Most Compassionate

My friends and I have long decided to have our own Usrah group and start one to strengthen our Ukhuwan and also as an opportunity for us to share and increase our knowledge together. So finally, last Friday on the 6th January 2012, we gathered in my room :)

  Fae and Nadiah came over to the house during Jumaah prayer time and we started our first session. We read surah Al-Asr and went in depth into the translation of the Surah.

The translation of Surah Al-Asr is
1. By the time!
2. Lo! Man is in a state of loss;
3. Save those who have faith and do righteous deeds, and counsel each other to hold on to truth and counsel each other to be steadfast.

   What we learnt from the surah is that, we have to organize our time to do good deeds and basically  to surround our everyday life around good deeds either specifically by performing Ibadah or doing work and other things with the right intention to seek His pleasure. We also shared each of our experiences as holding different roles from each other and how we managed our activities. We learnt a lot from each other! I shared my story as a working mother in the hospital and fully committed to breastfeeding.

   In conclusion, we learnt from our discussion was to
1. Always be punctual
2. Respect time, and other people's time
3. Manage our time wisely to be filled with good deeds (Amal Soleh)
4. Be an agent of change among friends and family, to have the intention of delivering a good message either directly or indirectly.

  InsyaAllah, our usrah will be done every fortnight and we hope to increase our knowledge and get to increase our Imaan. Ameen.

The Social Network

   I still feel grateful to God, for lending clever IT people to all of us allowing us to experience the easiness of getting connected to one another. Its just amazing how things evolve over time, from computers to mobile phones to smart phones to social networking and of course faster and faster internet connection. 

  Facebook itself has made me connected with hundreds of friends, not to mention the long lost ones. I've managed to get connected back with friends in London whom I last met when I was 13 and many primary school friends too. It allows us to see updates on our friends, observe the growth of their children, know their family and friends and many-many more.

  Despite all these benefits, one word would have to assist everyone involved with using these pages

"SELF-CONTROL"

Seriously! Self-control is so important as we do not want to get carried away and spend too much time on these pages. I am experiencing this problem myself, sometimes I would even sleep late without realizing the time just because I started to browse through a friend's page and it becomes like a domino effect. Perhaps what I'm saying is just happening to me but then again I thought its good to share this reminder. 

  Self-control is not something to be taken lately, as scientists have discovered that a higher self-control in children is associated with a better IQ or performance in the long-term for these children. So what more in us adults! I wonder how many organizations or companies are facing this problem of their staff facebooking too much and reduced productivity totally. I am so screaming this to my ears and brain now! 

   In Islamic point of view, we are taught not to bother about other people's business or be a nosy parker unless we are to help but it just gets harder when we are too connected with each other and get to access into other people's lives.

  I here take this as a challenge for myself today to not waste and abuse my time on Facebook, rather to use it purely and solely as a means of updating friends on recent events and to share words of wisdoms or teachings. Nevertheless, I wonder what would happen to our lives if Facebook never existed, no?

Great teaching!

I need this now

The Light

The holy month is coming to an end again, and most of us are busy preparing for Eid. I did a personal self auditing and the conclusion was not very satisfying :( Should've done more and grabbed more of this month's rewards. I'm currently facing the shudda wudda cudda (not sure you how you spell it but try saying it) moment.

I really feel the intense regret and frustration of not fulfilling many of my hopes and dreams in this month :( I'm only human, and I know I could do better. Whatever it is alhamdulillah I'm grateful that this time around I get to meet Ramadhan again with my family and spend it with them. Its true what they always say : Would we even meet with the next Ramadhan again, and usually you'd think that this won't apply to you right but after seeing my young friend go at such a young age I can really feel this.

I hope that insyaAllah Post-Ramadhan, our family will be consistent in waking up early and performing Sunnah prayers, praising Allah before dawn, reading the Quran and trying to understand it and many many more. May Allah bless us all for our good intentions. Ameen.

I really would like to say this to many youngsters out there if I ever had the chance, I was once in darkness and it never felt right and calm until I found the light and it was the light of Allah, only then I felt peaceful and in harmony with the whole universe. So seek for this light and leave the darkness as you can only be seriously happy once you've found Him.

Eid Mubarak everyone! Lets celebrate in moderation, give out to charity and eat wisely (big shout to me).

Beautiful