Behind Every Great Blog...

Dear sisters!

I hope you're all doing well <3

You know I'm busy with studying - one week and two days until my last exam! Yay. I'm already trying to plan my two first weeks of holidays - although I have to work a bit too... My husband will be abroad visiting friends and I will be all by myself, so I need to do something I like! :-) Like going to the sea, visit a city/town I don't know yet, go to the forest, visit family, see friends, watch a movie at the cinema, go to a fav. café and have tea and cheesecake. Hehe. I haven't been alone for such a long time (10 days it'll be) since I married my husband four years ago, Alhamdulillah. It's a bit exciting. Lol.

By the way this picture and text below really made me laugh!

And the husbands wonder why the dinner isn't being served... - We're all busy blogging! :-D

And speaking of great blogs: I'm going to post a list of a few blogs I recently discovered, which I would definitely encourage you to visit - and hopefully follow too :-) Enjoy:

Guard Your Heart

Noir Stripes

 

time turns flames to embers

LOVE2COOK

Ital is vital, halal and sweet

I Cook Halal

Abundance Tapestry

The Stylish Blogger Award

Dear Marie and dear Blue Pearl! I want to thank you both so, so much for passing this award on to me! You both mean a lot to me and therefore it brings me a lot of joy everytime I receive something from you - like a comment, mail or award. Thank you for being who you are: Beautiful, wise women with pure hearts, masha'Allah!

The rules, when you receive this award, are to share 7 things about yourself...

 

1. I love stars, swallows, butterflies, snails, smiles, mountains, seas, flowers...

2. I can observe animals and also insects for hours

3. As a kid I wanted to be an archaeologist in Egypt

4. Now I want to work as a Speech-Language Pathologist with adults

5. I have relations with people who have beautiful hearts and I see them as my family

6. I love The Neverending Story as a book and as a movie

7. This night I dreamed about cheesecake. I am really craving it. Lol.

I give this award to the following beautiful sisters - and to those I didn't give it to: Know that you're just as wonderful as the bloggers below and you all deserve an award!! <3

DSK - The Dreamer and Believer

 

Dana and Rawan - Rainbow

 

Mariam - Underneath a Silver Sky...

 

Bonnie - Blessings through trials

 

Texan, after UAE

 

Aisha - My world of perception

 

 

Blogger-sisterhood

The 24th of May I made a post called Introduce Yourself - and a Sister to give you wonderful bloggers a chance to let even more people get to know your fabolous blogs - and to also share other sisters' blogs that you love! -- And if there are other sister who would love to be included on this list, just let me know in the comments and I'll of course add you too <3

Please join the sisterhood-spirit and pay the following sisters a visit and become their new followers :-)

Rainbow by Muslimah

- A magazine blog with designs, poems, reminders, hijabs, recipes, blogger templates, blogger badges etc.

Revert Muslimah

The Muslimah Corner

Daily Inspirational Quotes by Maryam K

To make a rhyme by MarieHarmony

- Creation: photos and writing

The Color of Our Skin by MarieHarmony

- her ideas, thoughts, inspiration

Itto's Living Faith 

My world of perception

You, Me & Religion
 

A Single Christian Mom's Advice on Making Life Easier

My Life as a Muslim Convert by Muslim Convert

Muslim Mummy by ummH

Thank you so much to all of you above! I love your blogs already! :-)

Introduce Yourself - and a Sister

Dear sisters, I hope you're all doing well <3

This is just a short note before I'll continue working on my papers/exams:

I love getting to know new beautiful blogs! I love how I often accidentally find one by some beautiful Muslimah or Christian or whatnot through our 'Blogger-sisterhood'!

Anyway I'm sure I'm still not following anywhere near all the unique blogs out there.
So please do me and also the other readers of this blog a favour by introducing yourself - and another sister!
Tell us where you're from, what you write about and link to it here, so we can visit you and hopefully follow you too! And add the link to the sister's blog that you like too - - That way I hope to find blogs also from women who don't follow this one :-)

I hope you'll join in. Everybody is welcome - new and 'old'. Also bloggers I follow already, because hopefully somebody who doesn't, will discover your blog!

I'm looking forward to visiting your fabolous blogs!

-
Insha'Allah I'll create a post with a list of your blogs and the ones you linked to :-)

Who 'rose water' Is...

Dear sisters!

I hope you're all doing well and are smiling - if not all the time, just most of the time, insha'Allah :-)

I'm sitting on the floor in the living room, while my family is trying to sleep :-) Occasionally I look out on the breathtaking colours of the sunset. It's been raining sooo heavily this evening and now Allah (swt) has turned the sky from dark grey to deep red, masha'Allah. The birds are singing and I will soon be going to bed.

Some of you sisters have been sharing pictures of yourself for us to see on your blogs. I've been thinking about doing that myself for a long time, not really knowing if it's good or bad to upload pictures of yourself on the Internet. But I've decided to let you see who this rose water is!! :-) Are you excited? (I am...! ;) Probably you already scrolled down before reading this... Lol. Anyway. The pictures were taken of me on Eid ul-Fitr 2010, because a journalist was actually following me and another Muslimah and interviewing us on our different approaches to Islam!...

Hehe. If you're wondering what I'm up to...: I was just listening intensely to/enjoying the Eid ul-Fitr Takbir at the mosque = sports hall and we (the women!) were praying on plastic :-/ For Eid ul-Adha I brought my own prayer mat and shared it with two other lovely sisters :-)

Talking about daily practice of Islam etc. with the other Muslimah (who's not pictured...) in front of me. And having a most delicious chocolate cake!

That's all for now, dear sisters. I wish you a wonderful day and night :-)

Good night from rose water.

scents of arabia

I want to just spread the word about our sister bosnishmuslima's perfumed business scents of arabia!

She describes it as: "...a small perfume business offering samples and decants of selected fabolous arabian perfumes..." and I really recommend you visiting her wonderful blog and insha'Allah you'll find a perfume that you'd like to try out (she ships to any European country & the USA for now). The perfumes are indeed fabolous, just like bosnishmuslima herself, masha'Allah.

Sister-Love

The Butterfly Award

I was so lucky to be one of the winners of the Butterfly Award! Masha'Allah, thank you so much dear Farsilla! :-) You're too sweet and it's a beautiful award!

When you win this, the rules are that you write something about yourself and give the award to some wonderful people.

About me: I easily adapt to new situations - especially new places to live or when things change the place I live in. I try to see these new situations from a higher perspective and get the best of out it - and say Alhamdulillah, for everything that I have.

I give this award to:

Marie - The Color of Our Skin

Safyiah - Muslim Wife Secrets

salma - productivehijabii
Zarina - Muslim Women Exposed

deros - tea party...
Sara - Sweet Serenity

Safiyah - Safiyah's Musings

Salma - imperfect Stepford Chronicles
bosnishmuslima - scents-of-arabia

Riham - Beauty of Islam

Sanaa Muslim Mama - Oldskool Muslim Mama

*Muslim mama* - A muslimah Mother

Maryam K - Islam Online Learning

Sorlisa - Bringing Modesty back into Fashion

Allahu Akbar! The Missing Muslim Woman - Alive and Well

Ya Allah!

Look at this:

(Copied from the blog This Little Life of Mine)

Wazineh Suleiman - ALIVE AND WELL!!!!

GOD IS GREAT!! All praise is due to Him!

Behold, the power of prayer!

Wazineh Suleiman, has been found alive and well.  Regardless of the reasons behind her disapperance, she is ALIVE!


via Wazineh's support group on Facebook


Article here.

And here.

Edited to add:  Making 70 excuses for others in Islam  via Seekers Guidance

People need to stop dwelling on the reasons behind her disappearance and praise God that she is alive. No one knows what happens behind closed doors, only God. No one can judge, only God.  

“If a friend among your friends errs, make seventy excuses for them. If your hearts are unable to do this, then know that the shortcoming is in your own selves.” [Imam Bayhaqi, Shu`ab al-Iman, 7.522] 

I pray that God gives her and her family the strength to get through this difficult time. 

Allahu Akbar! I couldn't have seen better news today :)

Missing Muslim Woman in Cartersville, Georgia

I copied this from the blog This Little Life of Mine to spread the word! Please do everything you can to spread this news and pray for the woman and her family!

Wazineh Suleiman of Cartersville, Georgia is missing. She had stepped out 9PM Friday  night (the 8th of April 2011) to rent a movie from a local Walmart Red Box and she never returned home. (News link: wsbtv.com)!

Wazineh, 30, is a mother of five children.  She is approximately 5 feet 7inches tall, and weighing 130 pounds. She has hazel eyes and brown hair (though it is usually covered).   She drives a gray 2004 Nissan Armada (Georgia license plate BLM 4024) which still has not been found.

Anyone with information on the whereabouts of Wazineh Suleiman is asked to call the Bartow County Sheriff’s Office Criminal Investigations Division at 770-382-5050, ext. 6032.

Please, please spread the word any way you can. 
Whether you know someone in Georgia or not. Whether you are Muslim or not.  Please Tweet, Facebook, blog, email, tumblr... anything! 

May Allah protect her and return her safely and unharmed to her family. Please keep her and her family in your thoughts and prayers! 

- - - - - - - - - -

This is old news - and Alhamdulillah: You can read the positive update on this case by clicking here, because the woman was found alive and well!

My Favorite Things & The Inspiration Award

Dear sisters,

I'm doing better again (now my husband is sick...) and thank you ALL for your sweet comments to my last post <3

Here goes My Favorite Things list, which Sara tagged me to do. Thank you for that sweet sister! And below that, you'll see my response to the Inspiration award I won from Blue Pearl :-) <3

1. Food – Pakistani and Indian, Moroccan, Lebanese, Italian & Sushi...
2. Color – Blue, rose and purple.
3. Animal – Rabbits, cats, dogs, butterflies, horses, sheep, goats, (small) snails, swallows, Chimpanses, White Tigers and so many more!
4. Sports Team – None.
5. Dessert – Tiramisu! And ice-cream with lots of "stuff" in it (like in Ben&Jerry's, Häagen-Dazs...)
6. Pair of Shoes – I like especially one pair of my shoes, which are a pair of black ones with a little heel and a beautiful bow at the front. Matches my black Spring-jacket with a bow in the back (I actually accidentally found out that they match! Hehe).
7. Outfit – My outfit is mostly very feminine and classy too.
8. Brand – ZARA, VILA, Vero Moda, ONLY, H&M...
9. Perfume – At the moment I'm wearing Zahra every day, which I won from bosnishmuslima's give-away last month :) (Thank you <3) and I need to own a bottle of Juliette has a Gun "Midnight Oud" (Thanks bosnishmuslima again for your great inspiration!!).
10. Accessory – Earrings. I love earrings and (too) often buy new ones.
11. City – Berlin, Mekkah, Medina
12. Hobby – Cooking, playing the violin & the piano (when I get near one...), dancing, yoga...
13. Beauty Product –Eye liner
14. Snack – Fruit, nuts, chocolate, chips (occasionally)
15. Holiday – Eid (both of them).
16. Movie – The Messenger, Amélie, The Neverending Story, Howl's Moving Castle, It's Complicated, Sonnenallée...
17. Song – I don't have a favorite, really. But I love John Lennon's music, Michael Jackson, Cat Power, Coco Rosie (occasionally), Jurassic 5, Promoe and LoopTroop, Savage Rose, Thomas Koppel, The Beatles, Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan etc.
18. Guilty Pleasure – I just really have a sweet tooth! :-D
    
    
    I tag the owners of the following blogs: Imperfect Stepford Chronicles, The Zenith of enthusiasm, Somalianarab Princess and vanilla ice cream floats :) Have fun :)
    
    

 Here comes the answers to winning the Inspiration award from Blue Pearl:

Thank and link back to the person that awarded this to you.

Dear Blue Pearl! I am really honored to have won this award from you <3 Alhamdulillah, I'm glad my blog is an inspiration to you.

Link posts by you and fellow bloggers that YOU find inspirational.

Does it really say that I have to link to posts from my own blog that I find inspirational? Hehe. I think I'll stick to my fellow bloggers :) I'll list 5 although there are 100+ inspirational posts out there! <3

• Blue Pearl - Beautiful Things

• Marie - A Wife's Prayer

• Under the Same Sky. - The Dreamer Within

• Nikki - I Wish...

• Oldskool Muslim Mama - Acceptance 

      Give the award to 10 fellow bloggers!
10 - or maybe 12?! :)
Blue Pearl, who gave me this award, is really an inspiration too - so I give you the award too!! <3

• Safiyah's Musings
  
• A Veiled Muslim Jedi's Journey
  
• scents of arabia
  
• This Little Life of Mine
  
• tea party...
  
• The Color of Our Skin
  
• Reflections 4 Muslimahs
  
• chamomile&smiles :)
  
• Oldskool Muslim Mama
  
• How to Deal
  
• Muslim Women Exposed
  
• Ramblings of an American Convert Abroad
  

A Cold & Thanking Sisters

Oh no, Spring came and I caught a cold! Although I even kept wearing my winter jacket :-/ Allahu Alim. Insha'Allah I will be doing well again very soon :-) The Prophet said: Hours of sickness sweep away hours of sins. - (nahjul Fasahah)... 

When I am doing a bit better again, I will post about My Favorite Things, which Sara tagged me to do :-) Thank you sweet sister for thinking about me!! <3

I will also do what needs to be done, when you receive the award below :-) THANK YOU so much dear Blue Pearl for giving me that award!! Alhamdulillah, I am very honored that you see my posts as an inspiration to you <3

The Shining One

Our dear sister Bosnishmuslima is having a give-away at her blog and because I want to be in it, I am posting this about the lovely perfume, she is giving away.

I would love to be able to add some of this ultra-feminine, fruity-floral, sweet fragrance; Zahra. The ingridients are rose, jasmine, marigold, mimosa, saffron, red berries, oud, sandlewood, musk and vanilla, which seems like a heavenly mixture - and Bosnishmuslima surely could sell every single perfume in the world to me, with her breathtaking descriptions of them, masha'Allah :)

Athaan & A Sister who Needs Duaa

This is one of the most beautiful and heartfelt recitations of the Athaan I have ever heard, masha'Allah. I hope you enjoy it too, and what better way is there to start the day, than with such a beautiful recitation?!

I've been up since 6 AM to prepare the breakfast for my husband and his daughter, before they had to leave for school and job. The sun is shining beautifully and I feel much gratitude and love today :) Alhamdulillah. I have to study at home today and insha'Allah I will take the time to read some Qur'an too. The healing power of the recitation of the Qur'an or reading it by yourself is absolutely amazing, Alhamdulillah!!

Before I'm off to make the most of my day, I would like to ask you to visit this blog, since it looks like a sister needs some love and lots of duaa!

Take care all of you!

Join My Tea- & Coffee-party!

My little PC and a Coffee Latte Tiramisu!

I'm having a lovely Saturday. It seems to be the first real day of Spring because there are +10 degrees Celcius in some parts of the country :-D So I just had to get out of my home and go to one of my favorite café's and have a Coffee Latte Tiramisu! How I love that drink. Hehe. Also I felt like I'd been home a bit too much this week and I needed to go out... I already feel how that also makes it greater to get home later and see my husband again :-) 'cause sometimes I feel like we see each other a bit too much, which makes it less exciting... You know what they say, "it's good to miss each other a bit sometimes".

Well, back to my coffee. Yummi ;)

I feel like inviting you all here! But because it is impossible because of obvious reasons, I invite you to my virtual tea- and coffee party! Please join in my dear sisters :)

And because this is rose water throwing this party, you should all try making this lovely rose tea some day, if you're throwing a party yourself:

This recipe will make one gallon of rose tea.

• 8 bags of earl grey tea

• 1 large orange or two medium ones - sliced

• 1 cup of white sugar

• 3 tablespoons of rose water

• 1/2 gallon of hot water - 2 quarts

• 2 quarts of ice

I got the delicious recipe here, where you can read how to make it: http://www.fun-tea-party-ideas.com/rose-water-tea.html

But for this tea- and coffee party, tell me what you choose to drink :) and answer these 3 questions:

1. Do you have a memory connected to marshmallows, cornflakes or strawberries - if yes, what is it?

2. If you were going to have your last meal ever, what would you have?

3. What is freedom to you?

Here are my answers to the 3 questions:

1. Once (when I was 10)  I was on a wonderful vacation in the mountains of Norway with my family. We lived in a little house without water and electricity - and had to get water from a river :-) Every morning sheep would lick the plants and grass outside the house and I would go out to them on my bare feet and feed them cornflakes and suddenly more and more sheep would crowd outside the house every morning, begging for cornflakes :-D

2. I would have a vegetarian Indian dish with Indian bread and sweet mango lassi and for desert I'd have icecream with hot chocolate sauce and also a piece of cheesecake and a cup of green tea with roses...!

3. Freedom to me is when you feel free inside -- a peaceful and happy heart and soul, feeling the presence of Allah (swt) and feeling satisfaction and gratitude for everything there is.

Please join in my dear sisters! And I tag ~ x Aisha x ~, Alice, Marie & MoOn to throw the next tea- & coffee-parties :)
I send you lots of love and happiness on this beautiful Saturday!

Make a Difference Now

Dear sisters!

I hope you're doing well.

I've been wonderfully busy with lots of things such as a Symphony-orchestra weekend trip, studying, reading self-help books, hanging out with my husband and yesterday, on the International Women's Day, attending a demonstration with my sisters in the hope of making it illegal to buy sex in Denmark (insha'Allah!).

Some time ago Blue Pearl posted about this wonderful website called FREE Rice, where you play simple multiple choice games and for each correct answer, FREE Rice donates 10 grains of rice to people in need. FREE Rice is a non-profit website run by the United Nations World Food Programme. You really should join and it won't cost you anything but a little time!

In Blue Pearl's post she also gave a simple description of how this works and also asked to join her group Muslims United. So please follow the steps in her post to become a member, 'cause we need more wonderful members and to donate more rice (food)!

Just 5 minutes a day secures a meal for one of the 925 million hungry people worldwide!

Looking forward to seeing even more sisters and brothers join the group <3

For those who also feel like donating money, check this wonderful website out, which is also an initiative of the United Nations World Food Programme:

In the developed world, life puts tasty food on our plates all the time. French sausage, avocado or chocolate cake -- we all have our favorites.

If we take just one of these things and give it back, or feed it back, we can help change the lives of hungry school children around the world. WeFeedback brings together individuals like you to do just that. It’s fun, it’s social and it makes a lasting difference.

Source: http://beta.wefeedback.org/

The Stylish Blogger Award

Assalaam Alaikum dear sisters!
Dear sister Salma from Imperfect Stepford Chronicles gave me this lovely award! And I am really pleased to receive it from this wonderful blogger. THANK you dear sister! I love your blog too!

There are some rules connected with these Blogger-awards and they are here:

1. Thank and link back to the person who gave me the award

2. Share seven things about myself

3. Award 15 recently discovered great bloggers

4. Contact these bloggers to tell them of their award

 things about me

1. I dislike going to bed late (after 11:30PM)


2. I have 4 sisters and 3 of them are half-sisters


3. Too often I dream about living in the mountains or on the country somewhere


4. I think that if my husband dies many years before me, I will go live in a Muslim community somewhere and just live from serving others and worship Allah (swt)


5. I would love to have 2 children and so hope my husband will agree on that - although he already has a daughter and only talks about us getting 1 child. Hehe. 1 child will also be fine of course. Allah (swt) knows best


6. I can't wait to be a speech-language pathologist and I graduate in 2 years, insha'Allah


7. I love my city of birth: Berlin and miss this place a lot

(recently discovered) great bloggers receive this award from me

1. Blue Pearl WISER, MISS TWEET BLUE PEARL

2. deros tea party...

3. * Muslim mama * A muslimah Mother

4. Amalia 7 Days in the Sun

5. Rationality

6. Alice A blog of Alice

7. Effervescent Everyday Muslimah

8. Zarina Hassem Muslim Women Exposed

9. MoOn MoOn Smile-English

10. .hopeful. .Staircase to Jannah.

11. Umm Aaminah Ummi of Aami, muslimah mommy!

12. Bint Mahmood Diaries of Bint Mahmood

13. Rene's Bare Essentials A muslimah's green clinic

14. bosnishmuslima inlovewiththearabicworld

15. Sara Sweet Serenity

- and I could have given this award to sooo many other wonderful bloggers too!!! I LOVE all of these blogs and follow them as often as I can - and please just enjoy the award if you are a winner of it and already received it before :)

Thank You Sisters for Your Support

Dear sisters!

I thank you all so much for your supporting words and your duaas.

The surgery went well today and my dad is doing well, Alhamdulillah! Now we're just awaiting the results to see which treatment he can get for the cancer. Insha'Allah he can get the best one that can cure him.

Take care all of you. Lots of love from me to you.

9 Weird Things about Me

Because deros just answered to the tag Weird things about me, I realized that Blue Pearl has tagged me too for this in December! Hehe. Sorry for the delay and enjoy, insha'Allah:

1 * I don't know how weird it is - but people (from 7+ years...) do think it's weird: I can get overly excited about "casual" stuff like how the sky looks when the sun sets, or how the birds sing. In December I really got excited about how beautiful and unique every snowflake is and caught them in my black glove to look more closely at them. I was with my class from university and some of the girls thought I was being crazy again. But it ended up with every body standing with their hands stretched out, catching snowflakes and studying them closely. Hehe :-D Subhan'Allah.


2 * I often prefer the company of animals to that of human beings and I have a very special love for my rabbit! She's 5½ :) Here she is in the snow on the balchony this December:

Ooh and here she is eating the snow:

3 * I like doing the opposite of what is considered "normal" or "right". When I was younger I really challenged my mother in many ways: in an early age I became a vegetarian, from March till Autumn I would walk around in bare feet, I had boyfriends she never could accept and I believed in God from an early age and experimented with a lot of religions and beliefs. Now being a Muslim with a "foreign" husband is also "one of these things" for my mom. Sorry... It's just the way I am.

In school I was the only one choosing not to be confirmed at the age of 14. My argument was that I did not want to say "yes" to something, just to receive lots of gifts and money (which is often how it works here in Denmark).

4 * I prefer not to open the door, when somebody rings the doorbel... I think it's because I like my privacy, when I am at home.

5 * When I am alone some times, if my husband is out or on a trip, I most often buy sushi for dinner and creamy cakes for dessert.

6 * I don't feel joy and relaxation when thinking about forests. I feel loneliness and a bit scared and would probably never go to a (Danish) forest on my own. I love forests when they are part of a landscape with mountains!

7 * I hate being the center of attention, especially if I didn't choose it myself!

8 * I use natural oils on my body on a daily basis and my husband calls me his sticky wife. Hehe.

9 * I can't stand it if my nails grow long and neeeeed to cut them, no matter what. (I love the nails on the picture :). Oh yes and by the way I can't stand the scratching sound of long nails against texture :-O



That's all for now, although I think I could continue for hours. Hehe.
I tag 4 other people (and hope you haven't been tagged for this before): Alice, Visual Notes, MoOn and Aabida Muslimah. I hope you feel like making a post on this :) and I look forward to your responses, which you can add here if you want: