Prioritizing & Reconnecting at deeper level with the Quran

Starting  each day with the recitation of the Quran puts ones heart at peace and in a state of calmness. This helps one to take on the challenges of the day and stay focused on the important things. The most beautiful part is every time one opens the Quran there are lessons and reminders for one to hold on to and work on for the day. 

The goal should be quality not quantity. Reading half a page, a page or two, but reading with understanding is important. If one doesn't understand Arabic then reading a translation can be useful. Trying and testing different amounts and seeing what works best can be helpful. 

As Muslims parents everyday we strive to instill in our kids the love of Quran and the Sunnah. What we forget is... If they don't see us loving Quran - by spending "one on one time" with it (I am sure we as parents are very familiar with this phrase) how exactly  do we expect them to love it.  If they don't see us turning to the Quran when we are overcome by negative emotions so we can return to our normal states. How will they learn to channel their emotions in a positive manner, or control them. To function at our optimal level we have to first and foremost connect ourselves with Allah and Quran. Having this spiritual connection can help us see this world and the people around us from a whole new lens.

I just have too much on my plate and that is the case of most moms. So I have set a goal to read one double  sided  page a day no matter where I am and how busy the day ahead might seem. I feel so dependent on it that if I miss it I feel out of place in all my roles as a woman, Or more like everything feels out of place. 

Every time before sitting with the Quran I just remind the kids that it Mama's time for what Allah created us for, if they need something I will listen to them after I am done. Of course, it took them some practice but now Alhumdulillah it so amazing,  while iI recite they quietly listen Mashaa-Allah. Before I use to explain in simple words to them that "Allah SWT created us only to worship Him, pray to Him and to read understand and implement the Quran. There are other important  things that we have to do but before all that comes Allah. And when pleasing Allah is our goal then Allah SWT helps us with everything " 

Here is a glimpse of the reminder I got from my time with Quran today. 

He said, "I only complain of my suffering and my grief to Allah , and I know from Allah that which you do not know. {Yusuf:86}

How is that you spend time with the Quran and make it an important of your day?

"Baba, Salem went to Paradise with Allah"

I want to share with you this amazing story that melted my heart. As I watched I cried and made so much dua to Allah, sought His refuge from the trails of this duniya.  A story full of lessons.

The blind son and his father...

I ask Allah SWT to make us of those who can protect and guard our tongues as we guard our chastity, or children! I ask Allah SWT to protect us from being victims of those with sharp tongues. I ask Allah SWT to grant us all righteous, humble, mukhlis (sincere), trustworthy company (friends and family). I ask Allah SWT to protect us from shaiytan and his whispers. I ask Him to make our children's hearts full of Eman.

The little boys Emaan and tears for not being able to get to Jummah in time, his recited Surah Al-Kahf even though he was blind, brought his father to Islam. Most of us procrastinate reciting/reading Surah Al-Kahf until its close to Maghrib and then we blame it on time.

The man says 'people started avoiding me just to be saved from my tongue'.

The Prophet saw said: "When the son of Adam wakes up n the morning, all of his body parts humble     themselves in front of the tongue and says, 'Fear Allah with with regards to our rights! Our well-being depends on you. If you remain upright, so shall we. If you become crooked so shall we.' " {Ahmad & at Tirmidhi, Hasan}

Animals have long tongues, yet they cannot speak.
Man has a relatively short tongue yet he cannot keep silent.
- Shaykh Muhammad Al Aarifi

                                                          **********************

Good friends/people are a blessing in disguise.

Allah SWT says "And the Day the wrongdoer will bite on his hand [in regret] he will say, "Oh, I wish I had taken with the Messenger a way. Oh, woe to me! I wish I had not taken that one as a friend. He led me away from the remembrance after it had come to me. And ever is Satan, to man, a deserter."And the Messenger has said, "O my Lord, indeed my people have taken this Quran as [a thing] abandoned" {Al Furqan - 27-30}

Ya Rabb... Ya Rabb... don't make us of those who will regret on that Day, and neither of those who have abandoned The Quran. Ya Allah make the Quran delight of our hearts and the remover of our pain, sorrow and discomfort. Ameen.

He would mock/backbit, and his own mockery came in-front of him in the form of his son. Allah SWT says "...these are days which we make to alternate amongst mankind..." When someone dose something like backbiting, mocking, slandering, namima, hurting others or disrespecting others, one conveniently forgets that it will come infront of them on day. A lot of times people backbit others on how the others have wronged them and they are so nice with them...what I don't understand is that if we backbit someone than HOW do we expect to have a good relationship with them, its not an honest relationship. Its namima. Allah will never put love for them in their hearts. Its a disease of the heart. May Allah SWT protect us from it and cleanse our hearts from the ailments of the heart.

Allah SWT gives every person a chance(s) to turn around from their wrong-doings, its on the person to see/recognize that chance/opportunity to devote oneself to Allah SWT. To live in this duniya with aim to attain Jannah. For this man it was the day of Jummah when he took his son to the masjid, the son he had neglected for 10 years! For some its a trail/test (a fitnah), a sickness, a broken heart or a loss of a loved one.

I ask Allah SWT to grant us gentleness when dealing with our families, friends, children, and acquaintances. Ameen. The Prophet saw said: "Gentleness beautifies everything, harshness disfigures." {Muslim}

This story was a great reminder for me in many ways, and hope you all benefit from it as well inshaAllah.

  Please share how/what you felt/thought after hearing this amazing story. Looking forward to hearing from you.

A beautiful reminder!

In the recent years we have heard a lot of talks about what is happening around us, our homes, people, envoirnment, and children, most of which are tangilbe. We/others can see them and  feel them, therefore we are easily pulled to focus on them. On contrary our inner state, our soul, is intangible and we tend to very easily forget about it. The only one who knows about our inner state is us and Allah SWT.  We often find ourselves too busy trying to appear clean and neat, watching out for what our bodies consume and what's in our environment. We are too busy with purifying/cleaning/cleansing our external and in that busy process we conveniently neglect our internal purification/cleaning/cleansing. What is this internal purification?? The Purification of our Souls and Hearts.

It's VERY important to remember that as Muslims all our outward actions are always a means to our inward purification. The actions we do with our limbs (tangible) leave a lasting effect on our hearts and souls. Let us be true to ourselves... and accept that a LOT of times we tend to focus souly on our external on the expense of our inward. A good example of this could be, we delay our prayers to the LAST moment in order to complete a (tangible) task at hand.

Salah (prayer) is one of the first steps to purifying oneself internally. So if we try to perfect our Salah our internal soul will inevitably be purified and be at peace. Salah purifies us in many ways from sins, evil thoughts, diseases of hearts, and helps us attain the pleasure of Allah SWT, which should be our primary focus.

There is no harm in focusing on the external, what needs to be understood is that the outward actions are only a means to obeying Allah SWT, and attaining His pleasure. We have to purify our intention for every act we do. Salah is one thing that lets us connect to Allah SWT, when we say Takbeer Ihram {Allahu Akbar} we cut ourselves from this duniya and focus only on Him Azawajllah. We should always be mind full of Him, pause here for a second and ask yourselves...How many times is that the case with us in this fast paced lifestyle we have adapted.

Is there anything wrong with purifying/cleaning/cleansing our external? No, absolutely not.  Allah SWT says in the Quran "Allah Loves those who purify themselves" {9:108}. Prophet Muhammad SAW said: "Purification is half of Faith" {Muslim}. What we have to remember is that these purifications also refer to the internal cleanse, the cleanse of our soul and heart.

Let us try to perfect our Salah and focus more on our inward then outward... and you will be AMAZED to see how Allah SWT makes all your outward/external matters fall into the right place.

7 steps to a successful prayer

This is a small and beautiful reminder a friend had posted, which provoked a lot of these thoughts in my mind and heart. Lets us try to treat Salah as our getaway from this duniya and not a chore of our fast paced life. Lets us run after Allah SWT and not this duniya. Let us be Dynamic in our Salah!

As our beloved Prophet SAW said "...coolness of my eyes is in prayer". I ask Allah SWT to make the coolness of our eyes the prayer as well and not this duniya and its fame. Ameen.

I have a game plan to try to perfect my Salah inshaAllah, I want to make short but consistent goals with the permission of Allah SWT. I'll let you all know inshaAllah.

What are you going to do to perfect your Salah? Please share and let others benefit as well.

Home Sweet Home

A Belated Eid Mubarak to all.

Alhumdulillah we arrived safely home last week. We were suffering from a really bad jet-lag, maybe the worst one so far. I know traveling east from North America brings a bad jet-lag but this one was surely a test for our whole family! It took us a while to get over the tiredness of the Ramadan, the last 10 nights of Ramadan, Eid, and then on top of all the traveling overseas a day after eid. Alhumdulillah we got over all that piled up tiredness/fatigue, did all the unpacking and cleaning, and now slowly getting back in routine.

We all missed our home a lot and are happy to be back home. While we were away on our vacation Allah swt blessed us with lots of learning opportunity, great company and fun things to do with our family and in-laws. InshaAllah stay tunned for the upcoming posts.  :)

Where have I been?

Maybe some of you are wondering where have I vanished...

Well, both our little ones have been vomiting and diarrhea-ing the past week or so. Alhumdulillah Allah swt is Most Kind, they are on the road to complete recovery...and also trying to put on the lost weight. Be'edhnillah. Please remember us in your duas...with the these little sick, blogging was the last thing on my mind.

Hopefully you and your families had a great Jummah! InshaAllah in the next few post I will be sharing some things we have been up to this week despite being sick we were able to do some fun stuff... that I would love to share with my readers.


ALSO, stay tuned for some holistic care tips to help yourselves and children prevent aliments and how to get over them rather than druggin' out on pharmaceutical medications. Allah know best!

Duas needed :)

Muslim Travelers Guide

Assalamulikum wa rahmatullahe wa barakatuhu,

Incase some of you are wondering, where on earth have I disappered. We had gone out of town, to visit Harmain (the two holy lands: Makkah & Madinah), to cool the eyes of my beloved parents and also to perform Umrah. Alhumdulillah!

Our journey was long and tiring, but I tired to fill it with lot of fun, adventures and learning. With the izan (permission) of Allah. Alhumdulillah Allah swt has blessed us with countless opportunities to travel around the Kingdom and also around the world, and I pray that He does so in the future too. (Ameen). Many people have asked me how I deal with the kids in the car??! How I "tame" them if you want to call it that. InshaAllah I will be sharing some of the things/tips/ideas/experiences that have worked for us. Before I start I would like to add that it's not as easy as it seems, but its worth the try because traveling teaches us tremendously! This will inshaAllah be a great help for those who want to or LOVE to travel but have somewhat stopped after having kids. And also those who are just too worried about how to manage/entertain kids in the car or how to keep them in there seats (as much as possible) during long hours of a flight.

So here we go....

1.   Rely on Allah, and ask for tawfeeq (ability). Make dua and pray two nafil before leaving (if possible). What will you be asking for?

• travel goes smoothly
• kids stay calm and under control
• provide us with unexpected learning experiences
• your own sanity and calmness. 
• His protection and mercy
• to make the distance short and comfortable
• to be able to enjoy and have fun

2.   Dua of traveling. Start the journey with the traveling prayers, if you are leaving someone behind know or read the supplication of the resident for them. Its a great way to teach the kids the dua and letting them know that we start everything with the name of Allah swt. AR looks forward to reading them and now H tries to repeat after us to mashaAllah.

• I have this car "must haves".

Prayer mat, Fortress of the Muslim; morning & evening dua books; other Adhkar books; Arabic for dummies CD; Nasheed CD; Quran recitioan CD; Minshawis 30 Juz for children CD; a Mushaf; one book for AR and one for H; a book for myself and my husband; A waterproof mat in the trunk to sit anywhere (beach, parks, desert); favorite toys; Sunblock.

3. Different learning tools. 

• Educational games. You can make your own or buy some travel games we had this travel board game and also a wrap up matching cards. 

• Worksheets. Laminatting all the sheets will save you ink on your printer and you can reuse them everytime you travel. Try to chose images that relevent to your travel and the place you are traveling too. i.e Scavenger hunts: about the customs/culture, road signs, airport, different vehicles, car colors, nature, about the country/city. Map, so the child can mark the starting and ending point and where you are stopping. Other fun worksheets on topics that interest you child. (Remember, DO NOT make the car into a class room! have fun and let them have fun too, if they are not interested in doing something thats fine, so not force them to do ALL the activities you brought!). 

• I spy bags. You can purchase them from etsy. (we made a temporary one with a sturdy ziplock bag, I will either be purchasing one or making my own). 

• Books. Have a variety of reading books and activity books. I would recommended wipe-out books, if you don't have those then try laminating the pages.

• Small size etch-a-sketch board. For the toddler to doodle on, or even the preschooler. H loves her doodle board because it fits perfectly in her tiny hands mashaAllah.

• White board. A small size white board and some colored white board markers.

• Paper & clipboard. For coloring and some colors attached to the clipboard with a yarn.

• SING ALONGS! We sing a lot. We try to get baba to sing to but he has to focus on the driving because of the rash Bedouin drivers who almost killed us on several occasions! Singing nasheeds, nursery rhymes and reciting Quran has helped AR memorize a lot of things. We even create our own nursery rhymes. 

• Listening Materials. Nasheeds, Quran, Lectures (for the adults when the kid are sleeping), Arabic for dummies or Rosseta Stone. I really want to get audio stories inshaAllah.

4.   Snacking time. Have healthy, sweet and salty snacks, that you have prepared from home for the whole family to munch on (I love snacking while traveling! I also take tea for us in a thermos!). 

5.   Comfy and cozy. Keep the kids in comfortable and easy to move clothes even if you are going to visit someone. Keep blankets if you think you wont have any. I normally change the kids quickly before we arrive to our destination, unless of course they are sleeping and its night time.

6.   Traveling by plane. PLEASE save yourself the trouble of listening to those aunties who tell you to OVERdose your children with baby Tylenol or Advil. INSTEAD, you can avoid giving hyperactive foods, give them a bath before living so they are calm. Before leaving from home I always fill there sippy cups with "Chamomile tea". It works wonderfully in keeping them calm and soothing them to sleep. I also keep the homeopathic medicine called "Chamomile 30", it helps with ear aches that are caused by the take off, crankiness due to absolutely ANY reason!, I always keep this is my diaper bag medication pouch. 

7.   Traveling by car. When driving try to travel during the day-time so children can actually enjoy and look at Allah's nature from the window. Try to also plan most of your activities and trips to places during the day time as well, that will help you because children will be less cranky and fussy. Also make sure that children are well feed to avoid any meltdowns and crankiness.

8.   New toy! This always works like magic (astaghfirullah) but really! it works like a miracle! even if its worth a dollar. Children get so happy...try to pick something that your child will like. I SOMEtimes rap it as well.

9.  Toy back pack. For an older child its easier to keep a back pack with their things in it

Controlling kids in a car or even in a plane is an "ART" that you will have to gain if you want to have a smooth ride to your destination. I would like to call it "The Art of Travel". I am still working on gaining strength over this art, every journey has taught us something new and something to work on. "With practice comes perfection". However, always remember that "Perfection" is ONLY for Allah, we can master something but, know that true perfection is ONLY and ONLY for Allah. Walillahil Hamd! (And for Allah is the praise)

Its perfectly normal to be scared and worried about how to travel with kid (by car or plane). I was too...to the point that I just wanted to blink my eyes and arrive at our destination, I know I had no magic carpet. We said bissmillah and embarked on the journey which opened doors to a world we were missing out on! Alhumdulillah, tawfeeq comes from Allah. Every journey has taught us SO much. 

InshaAllah I will be posting soon about what travel teaches us.

Please share any tips and advice you have to improve our next journey inshaAllah.

Happy spring! Adhan Practice and Importance

Happy spring...enjoy the weather and feel the breeze!

Alhumdulillah for being able to live in a Muslim country. Alhumdulillah for the great weather. we keep the windows open in our house, at every Salah time we can hear the adhan and the jamma'ah. Its such a blessing because the kids notice it and try to imitate it, and once the Adhan is done they actually pray! AR goes to make wudu and since H is at an imitating age, so whenever she sees me praying she runs to get her pray-mat to pray as well. MashaAllah, its amazing.

So today I decided that from now on I will be doing the following to to encourage their behavior and interest inshaAllah.

1. Try to leave everything and sit down to listen to the Adhan and reply to it together
2. Say the after Adhan supplication together and make a small dua after that (I will also discuss with AR the excellence of making dua after the adhan and how dua is readily accepted after Adhan with ahadeeth) 
3. Help AR memorize the Adhan (inshaAllah).
4. Sing the wudu nasheed "This is the way we do Wudu" (Will post it inshaAllah)
5. Use the Learning roots "What's next?" cards to teach and focus on one step per two days.
6. We are already doing the times  and rakkaat of Salah now I will also try to point at Salah we are listening to. e.g: (pointing at maghrib) "its maghrib time, come lets listen to the Adhan and make dua"

NOTE: I will be updating this post inshaAllah!

Mom's golden advice

THIS POST WAS NOT TO BE A PUBLIC POST, BUT I FELT THAT MAYBE IT WILL BENEFIT SOMEONE BI'DHNILLAH.

Bismillah hi rahmanir raheem.

I want to share the story of our princess H and the power of dua.

I would like to start by saying Alhumdulillah for healthy and beautiful children Allah has blessed us with. Having healthy complete children is an inconceivable blessing which a lot of people take as granted!

The story of our princess started when we introduced solids to her at around 5 months. Her stool would be bright green and very mucusy. I knew right away that there was something wrong. I did a lot of reading on the internet, asked people, emailed doctors and then concluded that she was sensitive to something she was eating or me (which was going to her through nursing), meaning she might have some sort of allergies. I spoke to an expert and she told me not to worry to much as long as she is not having a some serious signs of allergies, such as asthma, eczema, hives and blood in the stool.

She was waking at night here and there being a little cranky sometimes, but it was all fine until I saw blood one day in her stool, I got really worried about her and started crying! I made lots of dua for her and Alhumdulillah  that was the first and the last time I saw blood in her stool. Alhumdulillah.

I was feeding H everything like normal infant would, except egg (she didn't like it and it would give her a 10 minute rash around her lips and cheek), and avoided milk products, However, her stool still had mucus and would sometimes wake up crying for no apparent reason in the middle of the night. When she reached the mark of toddler-hood (she turned 1) I wanted to start milk with her, because with ALL the house work, homeschooling and nursing I was feeling SO drained by the end of the day! I just wanted her on a bottle at least once a day (milk, not formula). So I started adding milk in her diet here and there to get her use to it, but it was the same thing, crying at night, I would say even worst! So I stopped.

About a month ago someone came to our house and saw her legs and said that she has eczema. She also added saying that her daughter was allergic to ALL sorts of things and she had eczema and asthma. There was also a nurse there who said something around these lines: "Yeah, it looks like eczema but you can't know until you get it tested!". A few week earlier I was testing H to see what she was reacting to and I had pretty much concluded it was cow's milk, because she showed intolerance to "Lactose free milk" as well.

THIS IS THE BEST/MAIN PART!

So the next day I called my mom and told her about how H is allergic to milk I think, but there is no real sign for it and how the ladies at our house had said such and such. (note: I had a very concerned/convinced mommy voice that nothing can be done for her except illuminating milk). My mom listened to me first and then said to me:

Amma: "You are talking as if you have NO trust in the Power of Allah"

(I am thinking in my mind NO, thats not the case! I stayed quite though) she continued saying: "I understand that she cries at night and milk is affecting her, its a well known fact that children's digestive system takes 2 years to completely get use to different foods some children are more sensitive than others. You are saying that Alhumdulillah there is nothing serious that needs immediate care, so inshaAllah when you go back in summer then get her checked. But you need to STOP discussing this with people and start ONLY asking Allah to cure her completely."

Me: "I do, but its been a while she has been going through this."

Amma: "ok, so that means that if you start getting peoples opinions and asking people what to do instead of Allah, it will help change state of her health??"

Me: "No, I know only Allah can give her shifa and Alhumdulillah its not like she is diagnosed to have allergies yet."

Amma: "I would say from now on, just drop this subject (meaning don't talk to anyone about it), erase everything anyone has said to you and put your trust in Allah and make dua for her with FULL conviction that ONLY HE can cure her. I will also make dua for her inshaAllah, I might be going to Makkah I'll make dua for her there too inshaAllah. Give her Zamzam to drink with the intention to cure her." She added a Hadeeth (paraphrased) 'When we rely on people, or turn to people for help then Allah leaves us in the hands of those people.' So, go and ask Allah to cure her and HE is Qadir (All Powerful) on doing that"

Me: (in tears, but realizing that, its true that its only HIM how can help me until I actually go the doctor, or might not even have to do that) "Ok, inshaAllah."

BY ALLAH THE LORD OF THE HEAVENS AND THE EARTH, THE ONLY ONE WORTH OF WORSHIP AND PRAISE, THE MOST KIND, THE EXALTED ONE! Our little girl was AMAZINGLY cured by ALLAH THE AL MIGHTY ALLAH in less then a week! she had been dealing with this for almost 13 months!! Alhumdulillah for the past 2 weeks she has been drinking a bottle of cow's milk in the evening and she sleeps like a baby throughout the night (just gets up for water or nursing and goes right back to sleep) no endless tears of pain!

Lessons I got from this:

1. ONLY Allah can helps us, not that I didn't know that but the conviction level needs to be stronger. We unknowingly start expecting people to help us when we start sharing our problems and matters with them. I was  asking/talking to different people about her state of health, WHY? To get them to give me a convincing answer/solution. I was not intentionally doing that... I should have ONLY turned to Allah from the start. 
2. Listening to our parents even when we think they are wrong (as long as they are not telling you to commit shirk or do Haram) can be in benefit for us because Allah will be pleased with you. (At first I felt like, my mom's not understanding, but when she said the Hadeeth, I said to myself YOU are not understanding!)
3. Nothing in our life happens without a purpose. The purpose behind this in m eyes was the fact that I was exclusively able to nurse H for more then a year. We all know the countless benefits of nursing.
4. The power of the parents dua! It saddens me to even think of the day when the shade/blessings/barakah/duas of our parents will end upon their death.
5. I kept thinking about what my mom said and remembered this aayah from suratul Al-'Isra 11 "And man supplicates for evil as he supplicates for good, and man is ever hasty." This ayah made me think so much, for as to maybe I was asking for shar (evil) unknowingly when I was putting my issue in-front of people who really couldn't help me! All, most of them would say was "Yeah she is allergic, our this is the way the allergies start and then they get worst! someone even said stop the dairy right away or she could die (me: WHAT!?? imagine someone telling you that about your child...wouldn't you want to take precaution if that matter could cause them harm). Whatever these people were saying was maybe getting accepted which I was not aware of. I was hasting for a solution and turning to people was not the right way to go about it...but to me it seemed wrongfully right! 
6. How blessed I am to have a wonderful mom like her!! I pray that Allah makes us sadaqah jariyah for them. rabbir ham huma kama rabbayani saghira'. Ameen

Words for my mama!

Nothing like a mother 

who reminds you of Allah when you are falling apart,

who commands you to be patient when things are getting hard,

who loves you even when you don't listen to her (we all do that one time or another),

who reminds you to join kinship,

who reminds you that your husband's Jannah is not you, its his mother!

who reminds you to leave this Duniya because she wasted her youth on it and it didn't benefit nothin'

who reminds you of ALL the blessings Allah has given you, so you can be grateful to Allah

who reminds you that you can do it when you feel like you cannot.

who teaches you to overlook the shortcomings of other and look at the good of others,

who reminds you (repeatedly) that your Jannah is in the obedience to your husband,

who reminds you to better yourseslf as a wife and a mother.

who reminds you of things Allah has protected you from.

and most of ALL 

who reminds you of ALLAH when you need HIM the most!!

I love my mother!