It's Been Ages

Salamualaykum [Peace and Blessings Upon You All]

It seems like ages since I last posted anything on this blog. Once again I've been caught up with school and also....I have a new blog that has been consuming all of my time lol. As of right now, I still want to keep this blog because it was my first blog and it really kept me focused on Islam. Limiting myself to mainly write about Islam helped me to increase my knowledge alhamdulilah, so slowly I want to get back into it. Also, if you want to get the link to my other blog on Tumblr, please email me at beautyofislam1@yahoo.com or leave your email and I'll send it to you. I blog so much more on there so let me know if you want to keep in touch.

Salams,

Riham :)

True Obedience and Devotion

“After performing Salat Al Maghrib, she put on her make-up, wore her beautiful white dress preparing herself for her wedding party, Then she heard the Adhan of ‘Ishaa and she realized that she broke her Wudu…she told her mother: 

“Mother, I have to go to make wudu and pray ‘Ishaa”

Her mother was shocked: “Are you in ur right frame of mind?!. Guests are waiting for you, to see you! What about your make –up? It will be all washed away by water!!” then she added 

” I am your mother and I order you not to perform salah now! if you make wudu now, I will be angry at you”

Her daughter replied : ”Wallahi I won’t go out from here till I perform my salah! Mother you must know that, ‘There is no obedience to any creature in disobedience to the Creator!’

Her mother said:”What would our guests say about you when you’ll show up in your wedding party without make-up?! You won’t be beautiful in their eyes! and They will make fun of you!”

The daughter asked with a smile: ”Are you worried because I won’t be beautiful in the eyes of created beings? What about my Creator?! I am worried because, if I miss my salah, I won’t be beautiful in His eyes!”

She started to make wudu, and all her make-up was washed away, but she didn’t care…

Then she began her salah and at the moment she bowed down to make sujud, she didn’t realize that it will be her last one! 

Yes! She died while in sujud!"

*Not Original Content*

Sunsets & Ice

Salamualaykum! I hope everyone is doing well. I'm just checking in. I started school last week and as usual life is pretty hectic, but alhamdulilah I'm getting into the swing of things. I'm taking a lot of credits this semester, but I feel like I can handle it. i love almost all my classes and find them super interesting so inshAllah I can find the strength to put in the hard work. Any who, last weekend I was walking to go study and I couldn't help but notice how beautiful it was outside. Literally everything, the trees, the leaves, the branches, the flowers, the berries, and anything else in sight was dripping in ice. It snowed a couple days earlier and the snow melted and turned into ice. It simply was gorgeous so I ran and grabbed my camera. I also snapped a couple shots of the most spectacular sunset I've ever seen (i'm not kidding, it was that gorgeous). Now, I'm not much of a photographer, I was just messing around, but I hope you enjoy these photos :). 

Loss

Lately what has been on my mind is the concept of loss. We’ve all experienced that painful feeling where we feel an uncanny emptiness in our heart because someone is no longer a part our life. It’s a terrible feeling, but if we look beyond that sadness we’re experiencing, i’m convinced that we can find beauty. 

I once heard that those people that spend the least amount of time in our lives have the greatest impact. I believe that to be true because I’ve had this happen many times in my life. About two and a half years ago I met a friend that drastically changed my life. MashAllah, not only did she positively impact my life, but she impacted countless other people’s lives around me. SubhanAllah, Allah placed her in my life at a time when I really needed someone and she was there. Allah swt works in beautiful and mysterious ways and by having her there to support and encourage me, my life was changed. Sadly, she was only in my life for a year and now lives thousands of miles away, but alhamdulilah 3la kulu hal.

Allah also blessed me with someone else who I truly grew to love. When I met that person, I didn’t know they would become such an important part of my life, but surprisingly they did. They helped me during some of the toughest and most defining moments of my life. In a way I depended on them…and they too also left my life. While I was sad and still am, I’m learning to look beyond that and to realize that there is a wisdom behind everything that Allah swt does. In a way, I feel as though that persons purpose in my life is now complete and that I need to move on to something else Allah has prepared me for. I don’t know what it is yet, but I know that it will be great God Willing. 

Sometimes the people we want so badly to remain in our lives are not meant to stay for whatever reason. Not because we did something wrong, but because what we think is best for us now sometimes is what corrupts us. So set yourself free and accept what Allah has decreed for you because after all, He does know best. 

Spring Semester Aspirations

[Long Sigh] it is almost time to head back to school. I'll be leaving in the next few hours to face my impending destiny...Alright I'm being dramatic, but I am really really really not looking forward to this semester. As of right now, I'm taking 18 tough credits and it doesn't help that one of my closest friends won't be there to help keep me sane :/. I'll get through it though inshAllah, I know it. I did really well last semester, so I refuse to let myself undue all the hard work i've done in the past. To keep myself on track, I made a list of aspirations I have for myself this semester. 

- Make Fajr Everyday on Time (InshAllah!) 
- Finish Memorizing Up to the Half Way Point of Sourat al Baqara (InshAllah InshAllah InshAllah)
- Gym It Up
- Eat Healthy Food
- Start Couponing to Save Extra Money
- Succeed Academically
- Volunteer/Give to Charity
- Focus on My Personal Growth
- Find a Summer Internship 
- Blog more on Heaven is Where the Heart is-Beauty of Islam :) (blogging keeps me sane)
- Drink More Tea and Less Coffee (i'm an addict I tell ya)

Yaz The Spaz

If you're a hijabi and anything like me, you're probably constantly seeking hijabi inspiration. It's not easy wearing hijab, especially in the West where stores fail to cater to modest dressers. Finding a hijabi to look up to and gain inspiration from is always a treat, so I wanted to share with you a cute mahajabah who's style impressed me. Introducing Yasemin Kanar a half Cuban half turkish girl living in the U.S., otherwise known as Yaz The Spaz.  She is a Hijab, Make-up and Fashion Consultant, and....a professional fondant cake decorator! She can show you dozens of ways to wrap your scarf and also how to dress. These are some of her hijab styles that I loved the most.

Traditional Wrap
Although this is just a traditional wrap, I really love it. It has a very clean finish to it and it's so simple and easy, but very classy at the same time. Whether your just starting to wear the hijab or have been wearing it for years, this is probably the style you'll wear your hijab in the most.

Wedding Hijab Style

This style gets a bit complicated, but i'm sure you can style it to your liking. I love the way she twisted the hijab and wrapped it into a side bun. This is a style I would love to wear at a party. 

Blue Zebra Hijab Style

I really love the coverage this style gives. At times it can be hard to find a style that looks really good and covers well. I wear this hijab style a lot and I really like it. To gain more coverage on your neck use pins to hold it down. That's a mistake I make a lot, but thanks to Yaz's tutorial on this style I learned how to keep my scarf from shifting and exposing my neck. 

Playful Turban Style

This is the turban style hijab you may have seen before. I've seen this style worn by many people, but I never tried it before. I love how she wore it and how she covered her neck and didn't make this hijab style look so dramatic. It's very playful and fun and seems easy to wrap. I actually plan to try this style some time. 

Side Ruffle Hijab Look

This is a style I probably would have never thought about trying but after watching the tutorial I found it easy and really cute. I need to go buy more turtle necks first lol. 

Hijab Twist with Hood Effect

This is probably my favorite hijab style out of all the ones I showed you today. Once again I love the coverage and it helps that its really cute too. It looks confusing but the tutorial really helps. I'm definetly gonna try this style out and I'm so excited cuz it's casual and I can wear it to uni once classes start next week :). 

Heaven is Where the Heart is

Salamualaykum (Peace Be Upon You All). I know I'm late, but I would like to wish you all a Happy New Year! This is my first post of 2012 and with a new year, I bring to you a new theme and a new blog title!! This isn't spur of the moment but a change I have been meaning to make for a while. There is another blog also with the title The Beauty of Islam so I felt I needed to make a change. After much thinking I finally found the perfect name to give to my blog. Heaven is Where the Heart is, is now the title of this blog as an extension to the Beauty of Islam. My email and URL address will remain the same to make it easier on you and me.

I was inspired to name my blog Heaven is Where the Heart is through the following quote-- "My home is in heaven. I'm just traveling through this world." This quote really spoke to me and I felt it defined exactly how I felt. Me and my friends have this phrase we always say when things go wrong. If we're upset or feeling down, we say "This Stinkin' Duniya!" It always seems to make us feel better for some reason haha. Seriously though...this life is just a test and it will be over in a blink of an eye. In the Noble Quran, Allah swt puts into perspective how short this life really is.

“Allah will say: “What number of years did you stay on earth?”
They will say: “We stayed a day or part of a day.
Ask of those who keep account.”
Allah will say: “You stayed not but a little, if you had only known!
Did you think that We had created you in play (without any purpose),
and that you would not be brought back to Us?”
— (Quran, Surah Al-Mu’minun, 23:112-115)

Reminders such as these really make me long for Jannah (Heaven). While this world can be beautiful at times, I'm constantly reminded that it's beauty doesn't and won't last forever. I see it in my everyday life and all around me. In my personal life, I see that one moment I'm happy..then a few hours later I'm sad. When I turn on the news, one moment they're discussing politics and the next moment they're broadcasting devastation from an enormous Earthquake. This life is so unpredictable and we're not guaranteed anything. Why would we want to choose this world over a life in the Akirah (The Afterlife) where we are promised  eternal happiness? We shouldn't want to choose this world but sadly we do. It's in our nature as humans to become so distracted with what's in front of us that we don't think about what awaits us in the future. As Believers, we can counteract this trait by reading the Quran and remembering death often. These are two cures to increasing our imaan (faith) and maintaining our focus and our hearts on the end goal which is Jannah inshAllah. 

Dear Readers

Salamualaykum! I just want to take a moment to say thank you for everything! Thank you to all my followers who have been reading my blog since I first started it and to those that have recently started reading my blog. I really do appreciate it. While I primarily started this blog for myself as a form of self expression, I also now try to aim my posts towards your interests through topics that are beneficial to you all. I appreciate all the comments and the emails. You guys are so caring and I love that you're from different parts of the world and have diverse backgrounds. I would love to get to know all of you and learn about your lives, struggles, concerns, and thoughts. I'm in no way an expert, but if you have any questions or comments feel free to email me at beautyofislam1@yahoo.com or leave me a comment anonymous or not. InshAllah I'll post the answers to your questions and concerns here.

Why do people have to leave each other? Part II

Source: yasminmogahed.com

Read Part I Here

Leaving is hard. Losing is harder. So a few weeks ago I asked the question, ‘why do people have to leave each other?’ The answer took me into some of my life’s deepest realizations and struggles. But it has also led me to wonder: After people leave, do they ever return? After something we love is taken from us, does it ever come back? Is loss permanent—or just a means for a higher purpose? Is loss the End itself, or a temporary cure for our heart’s ailments?
There’s something amazing about this life. The very same worldly attribute that causes us pain is also what gives us relief: Nothing here lasts. What does that mean? It means that the breathtakingly beautiful rose in my vase will wither tomorrow. It means that my youth will neglect me. But it also means that the sadness I feel today will change tomorrow. My pain will die. My laughter won’t last forever—but neither will my tears. We say this life isn’t perfect. And it isn’t. It isn’t perfectly good. But, it also isn’t perfectly bad, either.
Allah (glorified is He) tells us in a very profound ayah (verse): “Verily with hardship comes ease.” (Qur’an, 94:5). Growing up I think I understood this ayah wrongly. I used to think it meant: after hardship comes ease. In other words, I thought life was made up of good times and bad times. After the bad times, come the good times. I thought this as if life was either all good or all bad. But that is not what the ayah is saying. The ayah is saying WITH hardship comes ease. The ease is at the same time as the hardship. This means that nothing in this life is ever all bad (or all good). In every bad situation we’re in, there is always something to be grateful for. With hardship, Allah also gives us the strength and patience to bear it.
If we study the difficult times in our lives, we will see that they were also filled with much good. The question is – which do we chose to focus on? I think the trap we fall into is rooted in this false belief that this life can be perfect—perfectly good or perfectly bad. But that’s not the nature of dunya (this life). That’s the nature of the hereafter. The hereafter is saved for the perfection of things. Jannah (paradise) is perfectly and completely good. There is no bad in it. And Jahannam (hell – may Allah protect us) is perfectly and completely bad. There is no good in it.
By not truly understanding this reality, I myself would become consumed by the momentary circumstances of my life (whether good or bad). I experienced each situation in its’ full intensity—as if it was ultimate or would never end. The way I was feeling at the moment transformed the whole world and everything in it. If I was happy in that moment, past and present, near and far, the entire universe was good for that moment. As if perfection could exist here. And the same happened with bad things. A negative state consumed everything. It became the whole world, past and present, the entire universe was bad for that moment. Because it became my entire universe, I could see nothing outside of it. Nothing else existed for that moment. If you wronged me today, it was because you no longer cared about me—not because this was one moment of a string of infinite moments which happened to be tinted that way, or because you and I and this life just aren’t perfect. What I was experiencing or feelings at that instant replaced context, because it replaced my entire vision of the world.
I think in our experiential nature, some of us may be especially susceptible to this. Perhaps that is the reason we can fall prey to the “I’ve never seen good from you” phenomenon which the Prophet ﷺ (peace be upon him) referred to in his hadith. Perhaps some of us say or feel this way because at that moment, experientially we really haven’t seen good, because our feeling at that instant replaces, defines and becomes everything. Past and present becomes rolled up into one experiential moment.
But, the true realization that nothing is complete in this life transforms our experience of it. We suddenly stop being consumed by moments. In the understanding that nothing is limitless here, that nothing here is kamil (perfect, complete), Allah enables us to step outside of moments and see them for what they are: not universes, not Reality, past and present, just that—a single moment in a string of infinite moments…and that they too shall pass.
When I cry or lose or bruise, so long as I am still alive, nothing is ultimate. So long as there is still a tomorrow, a next moment, there is hope, there is change, there is redemption. What is lost, is not lost forever.
So in answering the question of whether what is lost comes back, I study the most beautiful examples.  Did Yusuf return to his father? Did Musa return to his mother? Did Hajar return to Ibrahim? Did health, wealth and children return to Ayoub? From these stories we learn a powerful and beautiful lesson: what is taken by Allah is never lost. In fact, it is only what is with Allah that remains. Everything else vanishes. Allah (swt) says, “What is with you must vanish: what is with Allah will endure. And We will certainly bestow, on those who patiently persevere, their reward according to the best of their actions.” (Quran 16:96)
So, all that is with Allah, is never lost. In fact the Prophet ﷺ has said: “You will never give up a thing for the sake of Allah (swt), but that Allah will replace it for you with something that is better for you than it.” (Ahmad) Did not Allah take the husband of Umm Salimah, only to replace him with the Prophet ﷺ?
Sometimes Allah takes in order to give. But, it’s crucial to understand that His giving is not always in the form we think we want. He knows best what is best. Allah says: “… But it is possible that you dislike a thing which is good for you, and that you love a thing which is bad for you. But Allah knows, and you know not.” (Quran 2:216)
But if something is going to be returned in one form or another, why is it taken at all? Subhan’Allah. It is in the process of ‘losing’ that we are given.
Allah gives us gifts. But then we often become dependent on those gifts, instead of Him. When He gives us money, we depend on the money—not Him. When He gives us people, we depend on people—not Him. When He gives us status or power, we depend on, and become distracted by these things. When Allah gives us health, we become deceived. We think we will never die.
Allah gives us gifts, but then we come to love them as we should only love Him. We take those gifts and inject them into our hearts, until they take over. Soon we cannot live without them. Every waking moment is spent in contemplation of them, in submission and worship to them. The mind and the heart that was created by Allah, for Allah, becomes the property of someone or something else. And then the fear comes. The fear of loss begins to cripple us. The gift—that should have remained in our hands—takes over our heart, so the fear of losing it consumes us. Soon, what was once a gift becomes a weapon of torture and a prison of our own making. How can we be freed of this? At times, in His infinite mercy, Allah frees us…by taking it away.
As a result of it being taken, we turn to Allah wholeheartedly. In that desperation and need, we ask, we beg, we pray. Through the loss, we reach a level of sincerity and humility and dependence on Him which we would otherwise not reach—had it not been taken from us. Through the loss, our hearts turn entirely to face Him.
What happens when you first give a child a toy or the new video game he’s always wanted? He becomes consumed by it. Soon he wants to do nothing else. He sees nothing else. He doesn’t want to do his work or even eat. He’s hypnotized to his own detriment. So what do you do, as a loving parent? Do you leave him to drown in his addiction and complete loss of focus and balance? No.
You take it away.
Then, once the child has regained focus of his priorities, regained sanity and balance, once things are put in their proper place in his heart and mind and life, what happens? You give the gift back. Or perhaps something better. But this time, the gift is no longer in his heart. It is in its proper place. It is in his hand.
Yet in that process of taking, the most important thing happened. The losing and regaining of the gift is inconsequential. The taking of your heedlessness, your dependence and focus on other than Him, and the replacing it with remembrance, dependence and focus only on Him was the real gift. Allah withholds to give.
And so sometimes, the ‘something better’ is the greatest gift: nearnesss to Him. Allah took the daughter of Malik Ibn Dinar in order to save him. He took his daughter, but replaced her with protection from the hell-fire and salvation from a painful life of sin and distance from Him. Through the loss of his daughter, Malik ibn Dinar was blessed with a life spent in nearness to Allah. And even that which was taken (his daughter) would remain with Malik ibn Dinar forever in Jannah.
Ibn ul Qayyim (may Allah be pleased with him) speaks about this phenomenon in his book, Madarij Al Salikin. He says: “The divine decree related to the believer is always a bounty, even if it is in the form of withholding (something that is desired); and it is a blessing, even if it appears to be a trial and an affliction that has befallen him; it is in reality a cure, even though it appears to be a disease!”
So to the question, ‘once something is lost, does it return?’ the answer is yes. It returns. Sometimes here, sometime there, sometimes in a different, better form. But the greatest gift lies beneath the taking and the returning. Allah tells us: “Say, ‘In the bounty of Allah and in His mercy – in that let them rejoice; it is better than what they hoard.’” (Quran, 10:58)

"Every Soul Shall Taste Death"

               
I can't imagine having to make a decision like this man did and I hope I never have to. I found the last statement he mentioned to be inspirational. "Live simply so other people can simply live."