Race for forgiveness

Be quick in the race for forgiveness from your Lord, and for a Garden whose width is that (of the whole) of the heavens and of the earth, prepared for the righteous;
Those who spend (freely) whether in prosperity, or restrain anger and pardon (all) men; - for Allah loves those who do good;
And those who, having done something to be ashamed of, or wronged their own souls, earnestly bring Allah to mind and ask for forgiveness for their sins, - and who can forgive sins except Allah? and are never obstinate in persisting knowingly in (the wrong) they have done.

Ali Imran 3:133-135

the sound of music

To me, listening to a beautiful piece of music can also trigger remembrance and awe in us, of God's creations. And I'm not talking about songs where you listen to words of advice.. i'm talking about a beautiful piece of music, that has the power to move hearts and make you smile involuntarily, just listening to it.

Because if you only knew the science of sound - what sound is made up of, how sound travels, how sounds can sound so nice, or so differently - don't forget, these are all God's unbelievably awesome creations. Subhanallah.

Combine that with a simple and beautiful image of Nature, we get this :

your beautiful apparels

My hubby sent his 3 jubahs to the Chinese tailor for alteration. The old Chinese lady, the tailor said it would be ready by 6.45pm. However when my hubby arrived there, they were not ready. The old Chinese lady said, a little while more. My hubby said ok.

She finished at nearly 7pm. Break fast time is very near. Then she said she wants to iron the jubahs. Looking at the time, my hubby told her there is no need to. But she insisted. She asked, which of the 3 jubah, my husband will wear to the mosque tonight. Apparently she knows during Ramadan, most muslims go to the mosque to pray. My husband showed her one.

She said, "Gua mesti gosok sama lu punya baju.. baju lu cantik, nanti lu smayang lu punya God manyak suka sama lu.." (I must iron your apparel, you're going to pray, your apparel must be nice, then your God will be very pleased with you."

MasyaAllah. Subhanallah.

Did you know, Allah said in the Quran :

O Children of Adam! wear your beautiful apparel at every time and place of prayer: eat and drink: But waste not by excess, for Allah loveth not the wasters.
Quran, Al A'raf 7:31

How apt for the month of Ramadan. Subhanallah. May Allah guide and reward that kind old soul.

May we gain much in this blessed month. Ameen.

Words - are meant to speak the truth

I wanted to put some study figures (made up e.g. 7 out of 10 people blah blah) for the bonding video.. then i realise, based on my own experience as a general audience, those numbers/words - when people hear/see it, it's just like trivia. We don't really take any action upon seeing most of those kind of figures. Secondly.. I don't know if I really trust those numbers that I find on the internet. And I'd like to avoid putting something that I don't really believe in myself.

which reminds me of another thing - A Hamza Yusuf video on Poetry that I saw, it's wonderful. He spoke about the poets. He said, in the Quran, Allah divides the poets into two types. Those who weave words, based on the highest bidder. and those who speaks the truth. The one based on the highest bidder - they make up words that people want to hear or pay them to do. Then there are those who speaks what's in their heart, they speak the truth.

He said.. WORDS, are meant to speak the truth. masyaAllah. Its something I'll keep close to my heart and will try to live by as much as I can, for every single word expressed. InsyaAllah. How overwhelming our life is.
How overwhelming God is. Subhanallah.

Missing the Gorilla

How many times must I be surprised? Or maybe I'm not really surprised. I'm just glad and proud each time, some 'scientific' studies goes to prove the relevance and need of some of God's written rules.

Latest one that I came across is the need for 4 eye witnesses to prove lewd activities against someone. Apparently, as written in the book that I'm reading now - 'The Invisible Gorilla' (by Christopher Chabris & Daniel Simons) - it is in fact natural and common for a man to 'falsely' see things. Even two person can 'witness' and remember differently, missing important points, although they are both there seeing the same event at the same time, from the same place!

The same has been proven personally to me, when one day, both my husband and my younger daughter, 'vividly' remembered seeing me on my bed in the afternoon, checking my iphone. My daughter even 'recalled' what she saw on my iphone screen. The fact is, the whole day that day, my iphone was dead and I was actually reading a book. They didn't believe me when I told them that.

Subhanallah. How Allah knows his creations best.