Escapism.

In the name of Allah the Most Gracious, Most Merciful. All praise is due to Allah and Allah only.

So yesterday on the 25th December was the Christmas festive holiday. While others took the chance to go out and have that leisure to shop, eat and dine, I opted to stay at home and engaged in a deep deep slumberland. OK NOT. 

After a hard days work, I thought I'd take this one day off of doing or thinking any heavy things. You know, a day off to rediscover myself and get in tact with my head. Haha!  

Well, my kind of escapism is one when I indulge myself with books. Reading books has been my hobby ever since I knew how to read. Looking back on the years, amazing it was to see the trends of genre that I so involved with based on age and environment. 

From fairy tales to adventures. Mystery to fantasies (Twilight Saga, remember?). But never had I leave the inquisitive side of me away. The one where I wanted to know more about the life's of our Prophets from Adam (peace be upon him) to Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him). As I'm getting older, I knew that I need a change of wind. I knew that I had to preoccupy my mind with something that is more beneficial and could give positive impact to my life and gradually to my family and insyaAllah to the ummah. 

When I realized that, I changed my reading habits. My preference of genre. There's a saying, "You are what you eat". In this case I'd say "You are what you read" if I may say so. When I adopted to my new books genre and keep to it, there's a thrilling emotion inside that one cannot simply describe. It's like one part of you that was missing has now been restored. For instance, I read a book titled Muhammad by Martin Lings. It occurred to me that each time I spent on one chapter, it felt as if I was there. MasyaAllah :') And I couldn't wait to get to the next chapter and get to know our Prophet (saw) more. 

May Allah Glorious is He accepts our good deeds and give lights to those who seek true knowledge. Allahumma Ameen. 

Beat the Accursed.

In the name of Allah the Most Gracious, Most Merciful. All praise is due to Allah and Allah only.

Never ever underestimate the power of good words that are full of wisdom. That weak heart can be turned around in a matter of seconds with Allah's will. Sheikh Tawfique really is blessed with the talent of powerful speech and writings. One of the many statuses that he posted in FB that has captured mine today came in at the right time. 

Imaan rises and falls. One moment you feel you're so close to Allah (swt) and another moment you feel clueless with your own self. That could be an indicator that you need to seek Him :') 

Oh and this is a reminder to myself first and foremost. Struggle hard and struggle smart to beat the accursed. InsyaAllah Taala. 

Muslims' Mannerisms

In the name of Allah Most Gracious, Most Merciful. All praise is due to Allah and Allah only.

Everyday we wake up to new challenges and tasks, be it easy or difficult to face with. What differs us from each other is the way we respond to each situation. Our behavior is actually a reflection of our character. Thus the reason Allah (swt) sent us His mercy through our beloved Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) as a guidance for a perfect manner.

  "And We have not sent you, [O Muhammad], except as a mercy to the worlds" Al-Anbiya' (21:107)

To read and understand the Prophet's sunnah especially on mannerisms are easy theoretically, but it is hard to implement in our real life. That moment when you want to burst out cursing at the reckless driver, that moment when you see someone's doing something wrong and couldn't do anything about it, so on and so forth, are gripping moments when you realized you're at the wrong seat for getting mad. But so long as we try our best and pray to Allah (swt) to make it easy for us, InsyaAllah all good is going to come our way.