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.

Duaa of Friday & "osm" Blog-link

I think we need a Duaa of Friday, don't we? :)

Enjoy it dear sisters! Bismillah:

 

Before I go I need to tell you about this osm (awesome) blog! I found it this morning and absolutely love it - especially the beautiful and cute pictures, masha'Allah!

Take a look yourself and read about Table manners in Islam, Celebration of Eid ul-Adha, 5 basic duties of a Muslim and much more (new articles every Sunday):

My Eid ul-Adha 2010

I woke up to offer the Fajr-prayer in the dark. Afterwards I had a shower including ghusl. The clothes I chose to wear was a beautiful yet simple salwar camise, which my mother-in-law has recently sewn for me. It's cream-coloured with small dark-red flowers on it. Masha'Allah, she did a good job! I wore a simple light rose headscarf and a light rose long skirt under the top from the salwar calmise. I chose not to wear the pants from the salwar camise 'cause I think Pakistani and Indian women give me too weird or even envious looks (no offence, I love Pakistanis and Indians :) my husband and his family are Pakistanis, so how could I not :), when I dress exactly like them... So I gave it my own touch with the skirt. For breakfast I enjoyed some dates and water.

My husband had to go to work, but actually I enjoyed getting ready all alone for Eid-namaz. 08:50 I went by bike to the mosque aka the local sportshall (remember? - From My Eid ul-Fitr 2010 :) On my bike through the city I kept repeating the Eid-takbeer and my heart was filled with so much joy I couldn't stop smilling! Muslims crowded the streets (...here must be said that I do live in a muslim-dominated part of the city -  and I LOVE it ;) and I thought that everybody looked so beautiful and radiant! And almost everybody had a smile on their face - except from a few tough Muslim teenagers/gangsters ;)

The non-Muslim Danes seemed to not understand all the happiness and beautiful clothing of the Muslims. Hehe. Many of them looked stressed and rushing to work. Actually I think most Danes don't know there are two Eid's!

Anyway :) People were saluting each other at the mosque and I entered and directly went to the place among the women, having brought my own prayer mat this time, 'cause last time we had to pray on big pieces of paper...

The Eid takbeer was absolutely breathtaking! And the Eid-prayer was great although maaaany kids were running around in front of the women, screaming and playing and I must admit that I sometimes can't concentrate that well on my prayer, when there's a lot of noise around me... Anyway, the khutba was great too. The imam talked about how we as Muslims are so good at judging other Muslims and talking badly about Muslims who are Shi'a, Salafi and whatnot. Before the duaa, he ended the khutba saying that Islam has been a broad deen for so many years and that we in Denmark cannot suddenly make it become a narrow deen! I thought it was very well said :)

Most of the women at the mosque were very kind, but afterwards I just took off because I hadn't recognized anybody I knew at the mosque. I bought some fruit, mangojuice and freshmade Baklava to enjoy with my husband later.

Actually I had to go to school at 2PM, but I really didn't feel like it 'cause I'd rather stay home and enjoy the Eid-spirit, offer my prayers and prepare the dinner: couscous with vegetables.

When my husband came home we had dinner together and later we had tea and Baklava and said Eid Mubarak lots of times to each other :)

That was my Eid. As a revert I don't have a big family to celebrate Eid with - they celebrate Christmas... so it was just me, my husband - and my rabbit. But sometimes you don't need more than that. It was a lovely day, Alhamdulillah!

In 1½ week we'll celebrate a belated Eid at my parents-in-law's place together with my stepdaughter, insha'Allah.

I hope all of you also had/are having a wonderful and blessed Eid, insha'Allah!

 

Eid Mubarak!

Dear sisters and brothers,


I wish you all a wonderful and blessed Eid ul-Adha!!!

Give a Goat... or a Cow for Eid ul-Adha

If you don't know what to give your loved ones for Eid or for their birthdays or whatever you're celebrating, I think one of the most wonderful presents you can give is something related to charity.

Perhaps you already knew this and were going to do it anyway, but if not - read on: Through Muslim aid.org (and other organizations too probably) you can donate money for the yearly Qurbani in countries, which need our charity for that purpose! Do it for yourself and give it as a present to people close to you, if you feel like it. The more money donated, the better!

More charity-present-ideas:

In Denmark there's this organization, Folkekirkens Nødhjælp - Dan Churchaid, who started this fantastic campaign (Giv en ged - Give a Goat), which gives you the opportunity to buy "a goat", "rabbits", "a bag of rice", "a football", an almond tree", "an island", "a fish" etc.! (You can see all the presents here).

Two years ago I "recived" an almond tree. Well that is I received a card with a picture of that tree on it and on the back it was written that I hereby support families in Central Asia and Kirgisistan to join and plant almond trees together, which will supply them with almonds that they can sell on the local market.

That's just one example of how their presents work and I LOVE the idea of it and it really was the best present I received! Almost daily I looked at that "tree" thinking about how the money donated would help some people in need. I have a feeling that many more Danes have donated to charity because of these gifts, because it gets so real and you're not "just" giving money, you're giving something special for a special place in need of that present. And really: most of us have enough stuff lying around in our apartments or rooms and don't really need more of that!!

The presents range in price from kr. 80 ($ 40,7) - kr. 5000 + ($ 919 +)! Awesome, isn't it?

My intention with this post, was to hopefully give some of you ideas for presents that will not "just" make one person happy - but many more, insha'Allah, and you can do it even if your country doesn't have a campaign like the Danish one above! You could for example donate some money to an organization and find a postcard yourself (for Eid it could be with some kind of cattle on it (any one approved by the Sharia) :)) and write the amount of money donated and how it will, insha'Allah, please some people in need! Then you donated for the present for a loved one (loved ones) and donated for Qurbani yourself :) Insha'Allah!

Good luck my dear Blogger-friends!

My Eid ul-Fitr 2010

I started the day with an Eid-hug for my husband and my stepdaughter, some breakfast and then we went to Eid Namaz in a local "mosque" = sportshall, 'cause this country still doesn't accept that there are quite a few muslims here and they still think they can control something by not building a mosque... Allah (swt) knows best. I met some lovely muslimahs there and one of them I went on a café with (including her daughter and my stepdaughter). We had a great time there, both not having (big) muslim families to go home to celebrate with. My husband had to go to work. We plan on making this an Eid-tradition :) Hoping that other muslimahs will like the idea too.

My stepdaughter and I baked some ginger cookies (yummi!! -see picture above) at home and decorated the house with coloured festoons and balloons and sang along with Sami Yusuf ;) Later we took off to an Eid happening in the city. Sadly this year they'd moved it further away from the city, so not many people stopped by accidentally - and it was raining too...
There was music, lovely food (etc.) and henna designers there and I got a beautiful design on my left hand and arm:

My stepdaughter wanted me to do her design, so I did that for her at home :) Still practising to become better, 'cause I really like to do it.


Today my parents-in-law came by for lunch and afternoon tea and dessert :) And to exchange presents :)


SubhanAllah, I had a lovely Eid. And I hope you, who are reading this, had a lovely Eid too.

EID MUBARAK to all my dear sisters!!

My Dear Sisters!

I wish you all EID MUBARAK and hope you're spending wonderful times with your family and loved ones.