shorter.smaller.

Is it ok for me to say that I am shock coming back to Malaysia to see that most of the common masses ladies' garments and tudungs have become shorter and smaller? People have traded the longer (but jarang) tudung bawal to a teballer but short and small tudung lycra. Even the older people don this shorties and smallies.

May Allah make it easy for us to understand the deen better.

I love the "Tudung syria" that they have now. Prticularly if it is plain coupled with two-toned inner. But it is nice only for Sya because of the length. The lady who was selling it to me was telling me that it is long and it covers the front. And I looked at her full exposed chest (since she is wearing a super tight shirt). And it does cover her chest. But not the bosom. On Sya, it looks fine. Well not according to Sya though. She prefers the easy to sarung tudung. I think she hates the inner cengkaming her head.

When I was in UK, due to my size, sometimes I had to find clothes at the teens' store. The teenage clothes usually are for people of my size (saiz zaman 90an dulu). Now even the adult clothes do not fit me. And that is not just because i have tripled in size. It is also because the clothes have shrunk. The young adult clothes now fit a 9 year old girl. So I bought one nice shirt yesterday for Sya, at the young adult section. It fits her nice and loosely and goes down to her knees. It would look like sarung nangka on me. Not that I look like a nangka though.

But I have not been to KL yet. Or should I expect worse?

---

It is already the last ten days of Ramdhan. :(

Coming back to malaysia during Ramadhan is hard for me. I am challenged by my surroundings greatly.

All this coupled with own evil nafs.

I ask Allah to guide all those that we loved to the straight path. May Allah help us.

Having It Easier

Truth to be told, it has been an easier fasting month (for me) in the mid of the hot scorching summer in this country.

Since it is summer, the kids have no school. And since the kids have no school, I don't have to brace the summer sun sending them and picking them up like the previous years.

So I got to stay in the house most of the time the whole day and nearly for a whole week. The only time I go out is for my once a week Tauhid class.

I don't have to do groceries for I already have the major stuff. For the perishable I have my lover to order from. Unlike me, of course, he has to work and still walk under the hot sun drenched in sweat and bearing the heat (no wonder he lost so much weight). And then he will get orders from me to buy spring onion, keledek, togeh, tepung, shawarma and such. And I know he loves me asking him to buy this things.

I do almost all my cooking in the morning while I listen to the children practice their surah. And am free almost all afternoon to do what I want. Then when it is about one and half hour to iftar time, I would reheat the food, make some form of savoury or dessert (because I don't favour nasi for buka) that was prepared half way earlier, prepare some hot and cold beverage and Insya Allah leave myself about half hour to iftar time where usually i would tell the children to have their own "me" time and concentrate to make dua'.

By the way, the best time for dua' that one needs to grab is the time when nearing the iftar time.

The prophet (SAW) declared, 'Three men whose dua is never rejected (by Allah) are: when a fasting person breaks fast (in another narration, the fasting person until he breaks his fast), the just ruler and the one who is oppressed.'[Ahmad, at-Tirmidhi - Hasan]

I don't do the tarawikh at the mosque. Not my time yet. Insya Allah one day Allah will give me the time. I don't fancy bringing the cannot-keep-still JackJack to the long tarawikh prayer. He goes to other fards when lover is at home though. So slowly Insya Allah. And I don't feel easy leaving at home alone either.

And tarawikh usually finishes at 930 over here. And that is a loooong one mind you. On average, some mosques finsih tarawikh at 9.

Fasting in this country is easier and there are very little distractions. The malls (if yo do go there) does not play music. Usually they play dzikir or the quran. And the masjid here will get busier as Eid approaches particularly the last ten nights. There will be some selected masjids that will provide food for those who wish to do i'tikaf. But otherwise you can go to any masjids you wish. The last ten nights are the the most "festive" time at almost all masjids. The imam will start doing qiyam in the later part of the night and people who don't actually stay in the masjid for i'tikaf will come from their homes as if it is another fard prayer.

And if you are living in such environment, you'd feel you want time to stop in this last ten nights. You can feel that people are actually immerse in the business of worshipping Allah. It's like rushhour. fast and furious. I feel so much excitement during this time.

And when the Imam announced that the next day is eid, you may just cry because you would feel that you have not done enough. But then you will still enjoy the next day of eid when you go to solatul eid in the open. It is a glorious day.

Alhamdulillah. I have to remind again and again that time and easier to practice is an expensive commodity.

I am leaving for Malaysia tomorrow.

May Allah protect me from my own evil soul.

________________________________

By the way. I have a few books left for sale. The title is Explanation of Important lessons. You can read here for the review of the book.

If you are interested email me at hudishh at gmail dot com. First come first serve. :)

Answerable

Whoever feeds a fasting person will have a reward like that of the fasting person, without any reduction in his reward."[At-Tirmidhi, authenticated by Al-Albani (rahimahullaah).

Over here, there are plenty of charity bodies putting up a tent to cater for iftar targeting mostly the labourers. One thing that one can emulate from the locals here are their generosity for when they give, they really give.

It is a common sight to see local people stopping labourers in random to give food and money. Both men and women. Not to mention big donations here and there. It is not surprising if you hear stories of individual who, when they chance upon a group of Indonesians wanting to go for hajj, he sponsored 500 of them to go.

Anyway I was reading a newspaper strip about the charity bodies not happy with some of the chosen restaurant lack of quality in their service for the iftar tent. This is what they said, in the Gulf Times

They indicated that the contracts signed with some restaurants were cancelled on the second day of ramadhan when it was discovered that they were not abiding by the quality of the food and were resorting to fraudulent methods.

"This is an act of charity which we are carrying out on the strength of the money given to us by many donors. We are ANSWERABLE to the ALMIGHTY and to the donors.""

If we really believe and understand that we are all answerable, Insya Allah we are at a better place than where we are now.

I like this. I like it very much.

What My Mother Taught Me

Sometime ago, I think it was during the Malaysia's mother's day Ummikusayang dot come launched a competition for any of the members of ummikusayang to do a write up about "what your mother taught you". I didn't participate because I am slow that way. I did read many of the write ups. Many of them wrote about how their mother was their influence on their excellent culinary skill.

This bring shame to me. My mother was a great cook. She also used her talent for the extra pocket money. When I was young, i had to follow her send her kuehs to kedai kopi. She made excellent kueh. But did I learn any? Noooo. To much shame.

I taught about this for sometime until the competition finished. Hahahahha.

Until recently I was reminded again. I think I know the answer now. My mother was the one who taught me to read the Quran. She always spend her time on the floor and me with a muqaddam on the rehal doing the alif ba ta and later on continued to read. Until i was confident enough to read the quran then only she sent me to some ustazahs.

I grew up thinking,this is what mothers do. Mothers are the one who teach their children the early reading of the quran. There is no other way to it. So that was it!

I knew I will grow up becoming an executive and drive an Audi and play tennis and I know I want children of my own and I will make sure I will take the full gear responsibility to teach my children to read the holy book.

But not the masak kueh and jahit-jahit part though. despite growing up seeing my mothers do it, I don't feel that it is a mother's job. Maybe because she did that for our living. I kan nak jadi executive bawak Audi. :P (sekarang menyesal dan kueh tak ada bubur nasi pun tak ada)

But now, looking around me, i see all mothers send their kids to a better teacher, a better sheikh. I am sure their kids reading are much better than mine. Not to mention faster too. So I am not sure whether I am actually doing the right thing.

But then when I think of my mum, I always make dua' that Allah multiply her hasanat and the good ilm that she taught me (and the other children she taught)and that the quran will be her defender in yaumul akhirah. When i read the quran I ask Allah, to double triple quadraple the hasanat of me reading to her.

And I feel that I want these from my children too.

We talked about this, Haziq and I. That how much i need dua' from him (and the other two copetot). I may not be able to fulfill this hadith,

Narrated by Uthman, "The best of you is the one who learns the quran and teach others."

I may not be able to teach others but at least I have my children, Insya Allah.

And if we cannot teach, do not despair, because our effort and encouragement in ensuring our children are learning the quran counts big time!

I ask Allah to guide me to do the right thing to nurture them in becoming the best of mu'meen.

Kena Tegur

Ibn Mas'ud reported that the Messenger of Allah, salla'llahu 'alayhi wa sallim, said, 'No one who has got faith in his heart to the weight of a mustard-seed shall enter the Fire and nobody who has got pride in his heart to the weight of a mustard-seed shall enter Paradise.'

It is the beginning of time that your child has grown to certain age, and acquire certain knowledge that you may lack yourself. So be ready with them correcting you.

Be ready to accept it with open heart and hide your ego. Praise Allah for any beneficial knowledge that your child has acquired and may it benefit his dunya and akhirah..

However one can always teach the child to be tactful.

Zachary First Time Fasting

Zachary got influenced to fast more because his brother and sister kept urging him to do so.

So he fast today.

Or rather he agreed to it.

He had his sohoor at 9 in the morning, 6 hours after everyone else.

Then he went through the day not eating anything.

But half an hour before iftar, he took a sip of the cincau drink and said, hmm sedap.

Haziq found out about this and kept nagging him. Really I don't have to nag much nowadays, I can give it to the "knowledgeable" siblings to do it for me.

Jack was a bit upset and probably embarrassed or guilty or the combination of both. But I didn't mind actually. He is six. I know many six year olds are doing much better. But it's ok. In my books wanting to try is good enough. At ten years old however, deserve a smack on the butt from me.

Then come iftar time, we went on some dates and water and the men of the house prepared to leave to the masjid. I didn't put any food on the table except these, because everyone would be incline to take this hadith instead,LOL.

Narrated by ‘Aisha:

The Prophet said, “If supper is served, and Iqama is pronounced one should start with the supper.”

Bukhari : Volume 1 : Book 11 : Hadith 640

But jack still insisted he is hungry. Ibu rasa kasihan and gave him one baked potato and he savour it to the last drop and went to the masjid in the end. Masya Allah!

Actually if he insisted to not go, I'd probably allow just because...

I am writing this to show this write up to him one day. Perhaps we could have a good laugh.

Ramadhan Shahrul Quran

Subhanallah! Ramadhan is coming very soon. May Allah prolong our age so we can meet Ramadhan again. Our youth (ya ka youth?), our health is not a guarantee of life even a second from now.

And if we sincerely make niyah of wanting to fulfil our time this coming ramadhan with ibadah, and yet we are prevented from doing so, Allah is Most merciful, we would still have the reward of the niyah.

One way to realise this niyah is by making plans for this Ramadhan. Let's make plans to increase our ibadah for this coming holy month. And one of the iabadah that we can and MUST make is the quran.

Ramadhan shahrul Quran.
Ramadhan is the month of Quran.

Let's make plans to how we can fulfill this holy month with the Quran. After discussion with the kids, we came up a suitable plan for each of them. They are of different age and thus different capabilities and different level in terms of the eloquence and understanding of reading.

Same goes to all of us. If you wish to strengthen your memorisation of the quran, you may do so either by increasing the quantity or revising the past memorised ones.

You can also follow the rule of minimum four pages reading per solatul fard to finish the quran by the end of Ramadhan. My advise is, when you have the time to read more, do so for the contingecy times.

For the younger ones or the new to quran, you can set the number of pages or verses.

Or make a change, read the translation and also the tafseer of the ayat. You can get the ibn Kathir tafseer HERE.. Can also look up to the common words in the Quran. I wrotes some tips HERE. May it help you.

I am asking Haziq to write up an action plan to what he wants to achieve. I asked him to look at known distractions like traveling to Malaysia, travelling within Malaysia, possible berbuka with friends. So he can tell how much more he needs to put his efforts during his free time.

I am making log sheets for Sya and Jack just to keep track of their schedule. Can be used as a reward proof later. *winks*

Have a plan. Set a goal or goals to live quran in this holy month. At normal time reciting just one letter in the quran earns us 10 hasanat. What more in the month of Ramadhan. As usual goals have to be realistic but yet challenging. May Allah make it easy for all of us.

I think spending sometime with the quran is doable, whether you are a working mom or dad, or a student with an important exam coming. Whoever you are and whatever you are doinf. If you take a short step to get closer to Allah, Allah will run towards you. Surely we want our ramadhan at this increased age better than the years before. A verse? Maybe two. Perhaps a page. At least listening to them.

And when the Quran is recited, listen to it with attention, that you may receive Mercy.” [Al Aaraf 7:204]

Perhaps more of the quran then lagu raya this time round? He he.

Do you have any tip to share with me? Jom share ajr.