Writer’s Quote Wednesday – Rumi

Inspired by Writer’s Quote Wednesday from Silver Threading (link at bottom of post) , to write inspiring posts based on your favorite quotations .

One of my favorite writer, poet is Rumi( A.S) who was also a sufi saint .His writings are truly inspiring,They still hold true  for anyone who  is reading them  and you can connect with him instantly .His works are still valid  although he lived in 13th  century.

Sometimes  Rumi  leave you in mystery with his words  and you feel lost ,the more you try to understand,you end up in more confusion, so you just leave it there and move on in your life As life is full of unpredictable series of events,you  then come across some incidents which make you realize what he was saying  and the meaning behind those mysterious words.Well I can write on and on about him, no wonder students do their research on his work.

One of the quotations that actually helped me change and focus on myself, is the one above .We all want to change the world, we all have ideas about what others should do, what is wrong with them and the world , but we never look at our own selves!  What is wrong with us ? What can I do about it? What should I change in myself that can benefit us both, me and the world? If everyone starts to change himself/herself ,Will not the world be a better place to live ?

I started my journey with many questions that keep outpouring and I am seeking their answers :

What is inside of me ? Am I just this flesh and bones or something more ? What is locked inside that speaks to me , sometimes in evil tones,sometimes in tones of Heaven, ?

What is it that makes me happy when I say happy from inside? What is it when I say you touched my soul , when physically you didn’t !

How do words influence us ? How can you say few words and just calm me down! How much  deep is the depth  of words and love,

What is it when I say my soul sister, what connection do I feel with you?

What strength is it in love that keeps us going through all times?

How does the hatred burns me from inside although nobody can touch it,

Where have we  met before ,though I am meeting you first time , but I know I have known you for so long ,or may be always.

and so on 🙂

Well you see what Rumi did to me through his few words, something was already burning inside , he just confirmed it.  Hope to share more of my reflections on his work and of other great writers/leaders who inspired me to ‘My Journey with Hijab’

(The Event is hosted every wednesday by Silver Threading ,you can check latest post  

http://silverthreading.com/2015/09/30/writers-quote-wednesday-sue-vincent/

Btw I found about it through post of my blogger sister Ameena k.g you can check her blog  ,She has nice poetry. , https://randomsbyarandom.wordpress.com/ )

Stereotyping Muslim Woman

The girls in small towns( Okay big towns as well, I am a small towner, I always think with that frame of mind 🙂 )  have grown up with the idea of a free woman as being portrayed on media.Now after becoming that free woman which includes   having a job , monthly paychecks  and our independence too and as we go up the ladder of our lives ,we are discovering our roots, our essentials and things that we need to do as muslim women, many girls are now choosing Hijab as their choice.

There is always a misconception about muslim women regarding their freedom, The women of world is one side, and the muslim women on other side. They are seen as backward,’oppressed’ and uneducated. People around you are surprised to see you working or studying whether you wear a Hijab or not?, they  sometimes ask questions as if you are coming from a cave just because you are muslim.

We are living in society where people are educated, working, they have their opinions about life and world. They even voice their support and express solidarity with beliefs they do not conform with but the perception about women in Hijab is still not changing .

I wish to live in a world where they actually believe in what they say, about women equality ,respect of choice and decision.

Well right now I think I live in a world where even women look down upon another women whether it is for her beauty,skin color or something on her head 😉

My New Blog for food !!

For my sister Loubnanya🙂

She actually made me think of doing the recipe posts! Well,  I didn’t think of putting my  recipes on this blog, I had in my mind to make another blog for food in future as I am always procrastinating things,well you gave me a nice push, so this weekend we ( me n my husband) finally managed to create our blog.

right now,it just has one recipe that I cooked on weekend, I hope we will put more recipes soon so you can  have options to choose ,:-)

fromworldskitchen  is the name of my new blog.

Chicken Tikka Masala Karahi Style

So if you are foodies and like to cook , do follow my new blog. Your feedbacks are awaited , even for  something that you didn’t like, it can help us improve things.

My Love for Bruges

Recently I have been to this beautiful city of Bruges ,which is in Belgium and I wanted to share with you all my experiences  with the lovely city ,so here I am .

It was not the first time I have been to Bruges but I like it more ,each time I am there,  and there are many reasons for it,

It is  an old small town of Europe which reminds me of medieval era, with lot of small cobbled streets, canals and those medieval style buildings. I want to be lost in all of those streets and find my way again to another beautiful street with those lovely small houses and shops.The boat ride in canals is amazing , they take you to an entire tour of the city through canals and tell you about their history on the way .The city center is a  good mix of old and new, you will find all brands for shopping in those antique style old shops, Also there are nice traditional cafe and you will  also find McDonald ,Quick etc . There are many beautiful restaurants alongside canals where you can sit and watch the boats in water coming and going . Apart from it, there are  old churches,Belfries ,clock tower and museums( for those who like to visit them, ) I am more interested in seeing old architecture and scenic beauty . There are some old wind mills outside the city ,  I loved walking up hill to see them more closely .The picture on top is of the passage  on  the side of   the lake , you will not want to come back from here , it happened to me  and my husband ,  none of us wanted to come back home!

I have added some pictures from my recent visit , hope you like them .The whole experience is a fairy tale one ! .

A view of Canal

A Bridge in Bruges

Small Street in Bruges

Old Lamp Post

an old Wind Mill

Canal sidewalk

an old building

Eid ul Adha – A Feast of Sacrifice

As muslims around the world are celebrating Eid ul Adha/Eid ul Kabir/Bakra Eid ,(as is called in different countries). I wish you all a very Happy Eid , May Allah accept our sacrifices on this day and hope you enjoy with your loved ones!

Somebody asked me, so what do you do on this day , so I had my answer ready , We, as muslim women  on this day wear new clothes, cook the best food and enjoy it with our families ! Men have another task  apart from mass prayers, they have to take care of sacrificing the animal and then  distributing the rightful shares to relatives and poor .

Why do you celebrate it ?? I know the symbolic story of Prophet Ibrahim (A.S) that he was asked to sacrifice his son who was replaced by a sheep by  Allah  so this is why all muslims sacrifice sheep/goats or other animals this day. I said yes, this is true, so after that person was gone, I thought ,what else do I know more than him/her  as a muslim?May be nothing, the festival has become more as a ritual or tradition for us, we look forward to holidays,good food ,clothes and meeting our families and I think that is all, even the meat that we give to poor people,we are giving  them as if we are doing charity , but  actually it is not, it is their right from Allah, how many of us are offering them with all due respect and not as charity ??

Prophet Ibrahim (A.S)  when asked for this sacrifice ,had only one son then  and  Ismail(A.S) was born when he was too old,  how must have  an old father felt putting a knife on his young son’s neck? but he did it with all his willingness and submission to Allah, what has been the level of love in his heart for Allah , his obedience ,that led him to overcome  all his emotions. But he was not a common man , he was a prophet.Yes , we  all have this in our minds, but  even as common man what actually can we  sacrifice today for Allah on this day, What can we let go? How much obedient we are to Him?

I do not intend to spoil your happy moods with my post,   but just to make you a bit  more thoughtful, more grateful for the blessings we have and more humble towards others , along with being joyful!

Have a blessed joyful Eid !!

( P.S  : Do let me know if you can think of one thing that you can let go for sake of Allah )

One Lovely Blog Award

Thank You Liz  from LUMOS & LEMONS and  Star of Persia for choosing me for this award, it really feels great to be appreciated and special for all these nominations I am getting ,It is not even a month that I started my blog. Your support on my blog and reading my posts, is encouraging enough to keep me going! Thank you once again!

7 facts about Myself :

1. I have studied Engineering in IT and a Masters in International Business, Being an Engineer has helped me to earn my bread and butter and live respectably in society, though there is always uprising heaviness in my heart that has wandered me to try new things, like the Masters in Spain,and now this blogging stuff! ,so far have enjoyed doing it all.
2. I come from middle class household from a small town in India and I take pride in being a small town girl , as a matter of fact, most of India live in small towns and villages , there is still such a big urban divide between people from metros and rest of the country.
3. I am a rebel by nature, something which doesn’t confirm to my heart  ,it is hard for me to accept or do! I do not live by norms of society,not anymore I would say,  but by norms of my Allah and His prophet .
4. I love to cook food and travel to places, so in future if you see some posts about some  new recipe I tried or pictures of some new places I explored, don’t be surprised.
5. I love cartoons, animated movies , Minions are my favorite these days.
6. I love to shop,be it anything, clothes,food,home decor etc etc , I still don’t know how  I can  manage to get a list of things that I need very week apart from grocery and house utilities?? I always need to buy something !!
7. I used to write poems as a child to express myself, When I grew up I realized how funny they were on scales of poetry,one could hardly call it a poem!so I stopped after that self realization ! 😛

so these were 7 facts about me, hope you have enjoyed it!! ( pardon me if not, I am boring most of the times, I know ,lol )

my lovelies : accidentallyinked , thelittleblogofstuff.wordpress.com,  farheen siddiqui( khamosh dhadkanen ) , revels1, Fatmawaty, Loubnanya

So, rules:

• Thank the nominator and link them.
• List the rules and display the award.
• Add 7 facts about yourself.
• Nominate 7 other bloggers and let them know via a comment.

The Mean Gene!

As I have start to move a bit further on scale of my age( and Weight too 😉  ) , the behavior/habits I have laughed  about my grandmother and father , those traits have started to surface in my behavior too ,  two of the things I have started doing which accredit to these culprit genes :

My father and my grandmother(his mother), always call the person they are talking to with the name of person who is not present  there at that moment! We always have to correct them, My father sometimes  calls me Nadira which is the name of his youngest sister and when he is with her, He often calls her Sana (my name) .It is the same with my grandmother, she always calls me with name of my cousin who is not present there 🙂 It is funny and irritating at same time! Well I did the same thing to one of my colleague during lunch time this week, twice and he reminded me , it’s not his name 😀 I  felt the attack of those mean genes first time! Gosh Not ME !!

The second behavior: my father is always talking of something he felt bad about or been angry about for long time .Everyday  you talk to him, he will repeat it to you and you always have to remind him,” forget it Daddy, it’s over!!”  but he remains  so emotional and angry about it for days until something worse happens and he talks about the later one then. I am doing the same thing from past one week, every time at dinner table I discuss the same thing   I was angry about  ,to my husband and he tells me the same thing, “Forget about it dear!! You don’t have to take everything to your heart!! ”

I told him, don’t worry it’s not me, it’s the Mean Genes once again !!

Though miles apart, how we behave like our parents or grandparents , it’s incredible!! How we sit like them, walk like them, make same faces!! Its simply amazing!

I could only remember  the meaning of  a verse of Quran ‘ To which of the favors of your Lord, Will you deny’ , and my heart replies  ‘None my King ,none!! ‘

The Idea of a simple marriage!

For us ,the idea of a simple wedding is very boring , there is no fun in it,  no music, no big gathering ,not a good venue?? What ??

Although being muslims ,Islam encourages us to have simpler marriages, but if we look to our wedding extravaganza, it is no where even close to being simple!

A marriage has more meaning than only having fun ,music or good food ! it is how you start your life ,,with values, expectations and commitments.A great wedding cannot  ensure you a happy life or vice versa .

In times of  our Prophet,wedding were simple affairs, if someone has no money to throw even a small feast , people were bringing their own food to eat together, the idea was to share the happiness and give good wishes for new life.Even teaching some verses of Quran to bride was acceptable  as a mahr(wedding gift) from groom. Well now, we look down upon people whose wedding locations do not  seem good enough, we don’t even want to attend !! The idea of being simple is  now more associated with poverty , but even if someone is poor, Is it a shame ?? How our society looks  down at poor people even rips their self esteem as if they committed a crime !

Well to keep within the topic, I would come back to the advantages that I observed from a simple marriage , I have listed here, hope it helps people who support this idea too , :

1. Does not put financial burden on your parents and yourself.You don’t have to delay your wedding  for years to save thousands of bucks and then spending all that hard-earned money just in one day,
2. Avoids unnecessary stress before and after the wedding which doesn’t let you enjoy the best moments of your life.
3. Gives you enough time to enjoy,  You can offer your obligatory prayers peacefully, personally meet your guests, Imagine it is your most important day and you are missing your prayers??  Why ? because you are too dressed up in that suffocating heavy dress, oodles of makeup, jewellery and high heels, you can hardly walk without support, and you need to be on stage for your guests at cost of missing your Salah! That’s how most of us start our new life ,
4. Otherwise you are busy doing some traditions which makes you exhausted in all the events ranging from 1-4 days depending on place/traditions.
5. Avoiding social pressure of how their idea of marriage should be like, it’s your wedding and it should be based on your suitability not theirs.
6. Avoid Expectation of people about the event, their unwelcome judgements ranging from everything you wear, how you looked ,how your wedding has been organised, your budget ,what has your father given you in  presents (dowry between the brackets) , and what has your husband given you as gift, they want to know everything.

for point 5,6 the question is why are we doing this to ourselves ?

Giving liberty to others to give opinion about our life, and how  our wedding should be organised ? Judging girl’s father on basis of place he chose for the wedding or food he ordered for the guests but not what is actually giving away, a fully grown  piece of his heart which he has so well-preserved all his life? Who let them judge us or our family? of course it’s us .. we played  victims  of society, and let it happen , however great our wedding could be , people will anyway find some flaws , especially some in-laws to put down their new daughter in law and her family .

I truly support the idea of simple wedding, which revolves around feelings and not show off, how much money or gifts you give to your daughter, it will never make sure her happiness !! Her happiness lies in finding a  person who values her for who she is ,not how much money she is worth for. Your daughter is priceless , you as a girl are priceless, your feelings your emotions are more valuable than anything! Know your self-worth  ! Look for the right man not the rich man and things will become easy for you InshaAllah.

P.S: I am trying to live the sunnah and experience the beauty of it.Life is getting simpler and easier.,Alhamdolillah.

(some common vocabulary for people who don’t know: Salah is obligatory prayer for a muslim and Sunnah are sayings/teachings/practices of our prophet)

For my wordpress friends : I also have a FB page for my blog, dont forget to  check it: https://www.facebook.com/MyHijabDiaries

The Liebster Award!!

Thank you girls for nominating me for this award! 🙂 Nihaad (thelittleblogofstuff.wordpress.com) and revel1(identity17), It was a pleasant surprise to get nomination from both of you!!

I have recently started  to write, not even a month  old on wordpress 🙂 , It was basically to express myself and to raise awareness for Hijab , and some social issues , your support have really motivated me to be active on my blog and I am happy to find you all on this blogging world.

I  have combined the questions from both , so kept the answers short to save your time!!

What’s the craziest thing that’s happened to you?

My brother , I love him a lot

What do you do when you get angry?

Normally when I have sensation that I am getting angry I r ead Lahaul and try to calm down, otherwise I realize it after I have bursted like a balloon already 😀

Are you a stay at home person or would you rather be out and exploring?

Out and exploring

If you could do the one thing that could potentially change the world, what would it be?

Ban politicians ,we need more humanitarian leaders than political ones

Who’s your favourite famous person? Dead and alive

with out any doubt  Prophet Mohamed P.B.U.H and as a living  person I personally like Mufti Menk , He is really inspiring !

Would you rather sweet or savoury?

Savoury ( love spices )

What’s the one quality you like and dislike?

Helping others and I dislike people who are suffering from superiority complex.

What is one thing you’d like to be better at?

Public speaking

Do you prefer sleeping in or waking up early?

Waking up early

Where are you from?

India

Do you like animals?

Yes , especially the babies of animals.

Now, set from Nihaad

1. What is your least favourite food?
Least favorite : fish with bones

P.S : It is my favorite ( Butter chicken and Biryani)
2.How did you come up with your blog name?
I am a day dreamer; it perfectly describes me and luckily i managed to get a wordpress name as well related to it.
3. What is your pet-peeve?
When people just ping you to  ask only personal questions!
4. If, you were to be given a ticket to anywhere in the world, where would you go?
I would like to see whole world :P; I think all of us, On my list currently is Turkey,Morroco,Tunisia ,
5. What is your favourite topic of conversation?
I love talking about food!!!
6. Which actor/actress would you most likely run away with?
– nobody 😀
7. Which TV series/ book sequel do you most enjoy?
Recently I was watching a lot of Pakistani Dramas :D, written by Umera Ahmed

 8. same as above set
9. What do you do to unwind?
Relax with my husband, or read…
10. Do you prefer Apple or Android?
Android!
11. Do you like sneakers or formal shoes?
depends, for work I prefer formal, otherwise I love sneakers!

You, can choose any 11 questions from above ,

My nominations below , I am sure many of you have been already nominated and answered it already! you don’t have to re do it,  I also loved the blogs of Nihaad and revel1, but doesn’t make sense to nominate them else we would just end up in forever loop 😛

sorayashenemckenzie ,

Imran Ali

Fatmawaty

Iliyas Burnett

dbushra

scatteredtulips

peaceloveanunity

accidentallyinked

Aaliyah Zahra

The Journey Breathes

The Rules!
– Insert the liebster award logo in your post
– Thank and link those who nominated you
– (After reading the official rules) You also have to reveal 11 interesting facts about yourself! lol
– Answer the questions designated by the blogger who nominated you
– Nominate up to 11 other new bloggers with less than 100 followers
– Ask 11 questions of your own to your nominees that they have to answer
– Notify your nominees about The Liebster Award
– Include instructions of the process in your post

Pre -Wedding Nerves ,Anxiety ?? Read on !!

Few days or weeks  before the wedding every girl is nervous , anxious , over emotional  or in other words  ‘getting cold feet‘  . The idea of spending your entire life with someone,  thoughts about uncertainty of future life, upcoming responsibilities etc makes you super nervous  even though you have known your future husband for a long time or not, doesn’t matter .

The most important thing in a marriage is being with the right person , rest everything comes later!!, good times ,bad times, relatives, in laws, etc,

If he is a righteous  person , he will stand by your side through everything.

Would like to share some of my  thoughts coming from my experience to calm you down and  be more sure  that you are going to hold  the  right hands .

You are with the right person if :

• He respect your parents and get along with them well, whether it is an arrange marriage or not, you can always find out if he cares for your parents or not . Being a girl you cannot be happy if your husband doesn’t respect you parents .
• Do you feel comfortable around him or talking to him? Are you able to share your feelings and speak your heart out ? Is he genuinely interested in  your feelings and gives you advice.
• You feel more confident and content after talking to him.
• He generally doesn’t make you wait , as he is more excited to see  or call you .
• He is generally polite to other people .If he is polite to others, he can never be rude to you, it is not in his nature.
• Surprise you with small little things that you love or  you never told him specifically  like your favorite chocolate or you favorite coffee, or a favorite flavor ,something you were talking about for long . It just shows how much he cares for you and your liking.
• He tries to be friend with your friends 🙂 so you can all hang out together later !
• You never feel tied up or stressed  because of the relationship , your heart is at peace for the choice you have made or your parents made for you (  an arranged marriages)
• Last but not the least, He gives you ‘Your time’ to be alone or go out with
  your friends or do something that you like, not bothering you with phone calls or restricting you to go out with your friends or family.

Well, I think it’s enough to know that you are with right person so go ahead enjoy your time! and don’t forget to thank Allah for sending the right guy for you.

P.S: I tried to take into account also the arranged marriages in India  where you have courtship period to know your future husband .