The bump

The street he lived on, there was a bump half way through it, that he could see it from his bedroom balcony. He thought it stood there very clearly, no one can miss it.

Lately, he's been spending quite sometime in the balcony, and noticed something different. Some cars would see the clear bump, yes, slow down, pass it safely, and drive ahead. However, other cars would miss seeing it, and he'd hear a loud braking noise, and sometimes the driver's cursing words.

It was the same bump .. just standing there .. waiting to be noticed.

Wires, Birds, and Perspective?

A couple of days ago I was wandering through my Facebook timeline, then I found this picture posted by a friend.

I liked the picture and thought it's creative. It's all about perspective, that's how I saw it. Most people (including myself) would see the bottom half of the picture as wires making up a fence. The upper half proves otherwise, they're birds not wires! Just wow. Perspective perspective. I also thought about it in terms of freedom. The wires transforming into birds and flying away.

Anyway, I scroll down the page a bit more, and I find this ...... 

That second picture is posted by another friend who is not related in any way to my friend who posted the first picture. I go like this :O

What's with the wires and birds, and how I choose to see them? 

I sat there staring for a couple of minutes, thinking how creepy this is getting. Is it some kind of a message from God? 

Wires and birds .... I have no idea what I should get out of this.

الناس الحشرية - by Abeer, Yomna, and Basma Zaki

يا ناس يا حشرية 

ماتخللي عندكوا دم شوية 

مش لازم كل حاجة تحصل ليا 

يكون عندكوا بيها إخبارية 

ده إيه القرف والعكننة ديه 

الواحد مايعرفش يعيش أبداً شوية 

من غير ما تتدخل في حياته ولية 

تفضل تسأله أسئلة وتعمل فيها بلطجية 

إنتوا فاكرين نفسكوا عايشين في أنهي ألفية 

طريقة أبلة نظيرة دي والله ماهتأثر فيا 

وعلى فكرة ممكن أقلبهالكوا حرب دموية 

لو ماسبتونيش في حالي الساعة ديه 

كنت قاعدة مرة مع الست فتحية 

جارتنا دي الست الحشرية 

قالتي إزيك يا حبيبتي يا غلبوية 

وأنا من طيبتي إفتكرتها بجد بتطمن عليا 

شوية ولقيتها بتحكيلي ع البت شوقية 

اللي عمرها في حياتها ما كان ليها علاقة بيا 

وإزاي جوزها طلع راجل هفية 

طلقها عشان مشهقتش شهقة الملوخية 

بدأت تشتم فيه بطريقة هسترية 

وأكنها هي اللي إطلقت، مش البت شوقية 

شوية وقالت إيه الرجالة ديه؟ 

دول محصلوش حتي فراخ الجمعية! 

وفجأة قربت مني شوية 

وفكرتني إن أمي هتموت وتفرح بيا 

وقالتلي مش كفاية لكاعة بقي يا تحية؟ 

على أساس مثلاً إن دي حياتها هي! 

مانا برضه إستغربت داخلتها الأونطجية 

عاملة نفسها قال إيه خايفة عليا 

وأتاريها بتكلمني عن سنجاوي ابن الست فوزية 

جارتنا القديمة من أيام شقة المنوفية 

فضلت تشعر فيه وفيا 

كأننا جزء من سينفونية كلاسيكية 

ولما أعلنت رفضي بكل تلقائية 

قالتي ليه؟ حد يفرط في جوازة زي ديه؟ 

ده عريس والله يا بنتي مية مية 

واللا انتي في حد في حياتك يا عنَيّا؟ 

قوليلي ياختي ومتخابيش عليا! 

ودي كانت المرة الخمسمية 

اللي أقتل فيها في دماغي الست فتحية 

وبعد ماكلنا سوا أكلة هنية 

بصيت لقيت سنجاوي داخل عليا 

وشايل في إيده كيسين ملوخية 

وقال ايه جاي عايز شوية تقلية 

هما للدرجة دي فاهمني غبية؟ 

إيه ياربي ده، دي عصابة مفترية! 

والحكاية دي كل شوية تتكرر هي هي 

أنا بجد زهقت من عيلتي الرجعية 

اللي عمرهم ما سابوا الفرصة ليا 

إني أعيش حياتي بشوية إيجابية 

طبعاً فيه ناس كتير من نفس النوعية 

وبيعملوا بالضبط زي مابتعمل الست فتحية 

بيدخلّوا في حياة الناس بدون أي وجه أحقية 

نفسي بقي نخلص منهم ونعيش في حرية 

أحب أوصللهم رسالة نهائية 

إنتوا بجد جبتولي عقدة نفسية 

عيب اللي انتوا بتعملوا ده، إتقوا الله فيا 

عشان قربت أرتكب جريمة وأخلّص البشرية 

من قرفك يا ولية إنتي وهي وهي وهي 

A Scene from the Future

In the morning, I get this from a friend;

ربنا يجمعنا في زمرة الذين أعزُّوا دينهم   :)

In the evening, I say Ameen to someone saying this prayer;

اللهم احشرنا فى زمرة المصطفى صلى الله عليه وسلم ..

Then I stopped for a moment and wondered which زمرة will I be a part of? Which زمرة do I want to be a part of? Will I be in a زمرة entering Jannah?

اللهم اجعنا فى زمرة عبادك الصالحين الذين أحبوك وأحببتهم ورضيت عنهم ..

Faith, no more for granted.

"I NEVER TAKE MY FAITH FOR GRANTED," that's the one thing Sarah Joseph kept repeating very sincerely during her talk last Saturday. 

She was a Christian, a very devoted committed Christian, and she said she lost her Faith once when she converted to Islam, but now she's never going to take it for granted.

After I left, I couldn't stop thinking how I have been taking my Faith for granted for so long .. not on purpose, but out of ignorance and carelessness. That doesn't make it any less of a shame though..

I'm tired of promising myself things that I never manage to do, so this time I'm not making any promises, just a sincere intention to start my journey of learning all about Islam. Questioning, Pursuing the truth, and Submitting to Allah. I couldn't help but think that being part of Zumaran must be Allah guiding me of where I should start. Ramadan is here. I'm off to a Umrah in a couple of days in-sha'Allah. SUB7AN ALLAH. I couldn't have made better plans for a new start..

Sarah also talked about how she stopped listening to music for a couple of years, not because she believed it's 7aram (forbidden) -as she doesn't believe it is- she only did that because it was a "distraction" for her along the way of getting closer to Allah. 

I'm getting away from many things that I consider current distractions in my life these days, and focusing instead on the things that matter.

Quoting a friend, "I want to revert to Islam" 

That One Single Precious Moment

Moments. Precious moments.


I'm a terrible person when it comes to remembering things!

However, we all have a couple of precious moments that we hold in our memories and love to re-visit from time to time. They make us grin, laugh, and even tear up because we wish we could go back. We appreciate those moments. They're precious..

I'm sure we all have some of those moments, if not many, I hope. I want to know what's the one single precious moment that you hold on to?

It can be that moment of success, that moment you met "the one", that moment you carried your first born, or that moment when you were the reason for that someone's smile :), ...

The one moment that inspired me to write this post .. The one moment that I wish to hold on to forever is something different .. It's the moment I hear something about my one and only Allah, and "feel it" deep inside. The moment I feel I love Him more than anyone and anything in this world. The moment I feel the strongest, only because He is by my side. That moment .. My most precious. I wish I can hold its memory and all those feelings that come along with it, in my mind, soul, and heart, for eternity..

What's the one single precious moment of your life?

A Tribute to Mr. Amin Selim (from someone who never met him)

Mr. Amin Selim. I've been hearing this name for a couple of years now, and never once was it mentioned in a negative context. I wasn't an IG student, and I haven't had the honor of getting to know him personally. However, I have four friends who know him well and have always been talking good about him.

On the day Mr. Amin died, I noticed everyone on Facebook and Twitter change their profile pictures and avatars to a photo of him. Facebook statuses, Facebook notes about him, and tweets all over Twitter mentioning what a great man and amazing teacher he was. Also, I was very touched by the event his students created just to make a خاتمة قرآن for him. 

I called a couple of my friends that knew him to tell them البقاء لله, and they were crying, not believing he's gone, going on and on about what a great man he was, and how he was the best teacher they've ever had. I'm a horrible person in situations like this. I didn't know what to say to them..

A whole week of seeing this man's name every time I get on the internet.

I was very curious to know how this man got everyone around to love him that much. How can someone possibly do that? 

Then came the ganaza announcement. Saturday 8:30am. Who will possibly go to a ganaza that early? I was wrong thinking this would result in only a few people attending. It seemed from people's posts and comments that everyone was going. I couldn't get my mind to stop thinking about all this..... I finally decided that I want to attend his ganaza. I thought a million times about how weird I'd feel and how weird I'd look, going to a ganaza of someone I never met. At the end, I decided I'm going anyway.

Saturday 7:30am, I woke up to the alarm clock, very energized, even though I had slept really late the night before. Yes, I'm finally going to see part of the difference this man has left behind. 

8:30am I was there. The ladies' praying area was almost full. More girls and women kept filling up the place. I kept watching people around, everyone looked sincerely sad, some were crying, and some were saying some prayers for the best teacher they've ever had. 

The ganaza prayer started when the place was literally packed. 

ثبت في حديث ابن عباس عن النبي صلى الله عليه وسلم أنه قال: (ما من رجل مسلم يموت فيقوم على جنازته أربعون رجلاً لا  يشركون بالله شيئاً إلا شفعهم الله فيه) رواه مسلم

I'm positive that Mr. Amin must have done great things in his life for Allah to grant him all this love from everyone around him.

I want to dedicate this post to Mr. Amin's family and students. I'd assume that everything I've seen and heard about this man is a sign that Allah truly loves him. No one should worry about where he is now.

قَالَ رَسُولُ اللَّهِ صَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَيْهِ وَسَلَّمَ : " إِذَا أَحَبَّ اللَّهُ الْعَبْدَ نَادَى جِبْرِيلَ : إِنَّ اللَّهَ قَدْ أَحَبَّ فُلانًا فَأَحْبِبْهُ فَيُحِبُّهُ جِبْرِيلُ ، ثُمَّ يُنَادِي جِبْرِيلُ فِي أَهْلِ السَّمَاءِ : إِنَّ اللَّهَ قَدْ أَحَبَّ فُلانًا ، فَيُحِبُّهُ أَهْلُ السَّمَاءِ ثُمَّ يُوضَعُ لَهُ الْقَبُولُ فِي أَهْلِ الأَرْضِ " .

القبول فى الأرض ..

I'm not sure if I should feel sad that I missed out on knowing a great person like Mr. Amin. However, I'm sure that even though I didn't get the honor of knowing this great man personally, he still inspired me that it's possible to make a huge difference in this world, and leave a legacy behind..

أشعر بالغبطة نحو هذا الرجل الذى لم أره فى حياتى .. 

الله يرحمه ويصبر أهله ..