Sending friends off to hajj

Two days ago my husband and I went to the King Khalid Grand Masjid at Umm Al Hamam to see the Malaysian pilgrims residing in Riyadh depart for Makkah to perform hajj. Whilst the atmosphere was filled with joy, love, excitement and eagerness, I can't deny that deep inside me my heart felt heavy and empty. I have longed to be at the Masjidil Haram once again to devote myself to my Creator. Unfortunately the opportunity is hard to grab, considering I have just arrived in this country for only a month. So close, yet too far away.... but I am grateful.

I have sinned, yet Allah loves me still.
I have forgotten, yet Allah constantly reminds me.
I have gone astray, yet Allah leads me to the right path again.
Too much love shower from Him, alhamdulillah. It was His love that brought me here in the Kingdom of Saudia Arabia.

May Allah make it easy for all the pilgrims who are now gathering in Arafah. May Allah grant them good health, strengths and determinations to continue their worships. And may Allah return them safely to their families after their long journeys. Ameen.

My turn will come, insyaAllah. Until then, I'll work extra hard to strengthen my imaan and keep making lots of duas to Allah the Almighty. May He grant my wishes. Ameen.

Sharing happiness and love with all

I thought Eid Adha this year is going to be a quiet one, especially in my huffing and puffing and drowsy condition. Fortunately (I repeat here again, FORTUNATELY) I was wrong!

Lazy as I have been trying to portray myself for the past few weeks, come Eid Adha I can't simply lie down and close my eyes and ignore all the cheerful laughters of my children playing with their cousins when they came to visit us on the eve of Eid Adha. Suddenly the house was full of joy and colours that reflected happiness.

Thank you Allah. I am truly blessed.

I felt sorry then, that due to my laziness too, I didn't prepare any special food for the family this time. It left me in an awkward situation, really. In the past, be it Eid Fitr or Eid Adha, there were always variety of delicious food and we will all gather at the table and enjoy eating. The traditional ketupat and rendang ayam is a must, topped up with sambal tumis and kuah masak lodeh and sambal kacang. When I had that extra super girl power, I would prepare satay, nasi himpit and lemang too!

"It's okay, dear. We understand you" Mom smiled, while my sisters giggled behind her.

"As long as you allow me to 'eat' your cute baby porcupine, the rest is not important to me!" my brother said, staring a moment at my youngest daughter before he started to chase her.

Baby porcupine, the busiest person during Eid Adha

(baby porcupine is the nickname I gave my youngest daughter for she is super cute to us)


Masya-Allah, I am so happy.

That very morning on 10 Dzulhijjah, the whole family prepared themselves to go to the masjid for prayer, then became spectators to the slaughtering event. This year the masjid at our place received 14 cows to be sacrificed. All went there but me. My husband told me to just stay at home and rest.

I terribly felt guilty for not being able to spread any food on the table, so I decided I would use the time to bake a cake. Then I remembered Nadia's date and honey cake that I have always wanted to try but had not found the right time to do so yet. I said to myself, this is the best time to have a go at it, and headed into the kitchen.

Yummy date and honey cake, recipe contributed by sis Nadia Masood.
You can also try it. Click here for the recipe.

The cake was really simple and easy to bake. It tasted super yummy too! I ended up baking not one but THREE cakes!!! Can you magine that??? The nice aroma filled the house. Wonderful! Thank you, sis Nadia, for sharing the recipe with me. I love you!

I left one cake for the family and cut the other two and arranged them on the plates and started distributing them to neighbours. SubhanAllah, after few minutes the plates exchanged hands, they returned to my table with something else and soon the table was full of variety of food, just in time when the whole family came back from the masjid. Of course they were hungry by then and were also surprised to see lots of food waiting for them.

At 3 o'clock, clockwise: Ayam masak kicap, ketupat, nasi himpit,
rendang, sambal kacang and ayam masak merah. These are Malaysian
traditional food. Except for the date and honey cake in the middle,
none of these dishes were cooked in my kitchen.

"How did you prepare all these?" my husband asked.

"Let it be my little secret" I winked at him and started serving the food to all.

Masya-Allah, how beautiful life is when we share love and kindness with all the people around us.



Imagine how wonderful life could be if there were no war in this world.....

Only peace. Lots of smiles. Loving and caring for each other.


Let's pray for all our Muslim brothers and sisters who are suffering and struggling in their life at the moment. Pakistan, Palestine, Indonesia, Malaysia, Afghanistan, Iraq, China....where ever they are in this world. They must have yearned for a decent, peaceful life, and I believe they deserve our prayers to help make it come true.

Let us also appreciate the freedom and happiness we experience now by offering zikr, lots and lots of zikr. We are nobody, we are nothing without the bless from Allah The Almighty.

SubhanAllah...

AlhamdulilLah....

Laailaha IllAllah.....

Allahu Akbar.....

Taking time off for Eid Mubarak

"Allah is the Most Great . O Allah , bring us the new moon with security and Faith, with peace and in Islam, and in harmony with what our Lord loves and what pleases Him. Our Lord and your Lord is Allah."

Reference: At-Tirmithi 5/504, Ad-Darimi 1/336. See also Al-Albani, Sahih At-Tirmithi 3/157

Assalamualaikum warahmatuLlahi wabarakatuh dear friends

Ramadhan is leaving soon.

I am sure most of us feel sad to say goodbye to Ramadhan, the month full of Allah's blessings for His true worshippers. May Allah accept all our ibadah, wipe out all our sins,shield us from the hell fire and grant us Jannah. Ameen.

Let's strive for the last odd night of Ramadhan (29th) for we might still be given the chance to grab Laylatul Qadr. Who knows this might be our last Ramadhan....

"In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. 

Verily, We have sent it down in the Night of Al-Qadr. 

And what will make you know what the Night of Al-Qadr is? 

The Night of Al-Qadr is better than a thousand months. 

Therein descend the angels and the Ruh by their Lord's permission with every matter. 

There is peace until the appearance of dawn."

Al-Qadr (surah 97) 1-5

Eid Mubarak is now on its way. In a few days to come we are going to celebrate our victory against our nafs and evils. This is the time to reward ourselves. Be merry, dear friends, but forget not that Allah is watching us all the time.

picture courtesy of http://resumeweassist.com/blog/

I'll be absent from the blog for a week or two, Insya-Allah will be back online as soon as I can. Please accept my sincere apologies if I ever hurt anyone's feelings through my postings. And to all my dearie sister bloggers, you will always be in my heart and duas. Do take care and enjoy your Eid celebration!

JazakAllahu khairan kathira.