Bismillah

Today, the family and I enjoyed a very sweet and beautiful pomegranate. It came from California and was delicious.

For the first time I thought about the beauty of this fruit. It’s as if Allah wanted to protect every little red berry (or arils) within it. They reminded me of precious little gems and brought about thoughts of the beauty of hijab. All this from a small pomegranate. Alhamdulillah for everything. Alhamdulillah for pomegranates.

Assalamalikum,

its been a long time since Ive written on here. My life has been a constant upheaval lately but Ive decided that now is the best time if any to get this all down onto techno paper.

So you may ask, ‘ok, after all this time what brings you back?’ to be honest I dont know why I feel I should write this but I want to so I will insha’allah. I am always constantly grateful to Allah (subhana wa ta’ala) for everything he gives me, yes sometimes I question the constant tests Im given and wonder why I need to be tested that much. However, I have faith and I always remind myself that he wont test me with more than I can deal with alhamdulillah.

After moving back to UK from Canada last November I came back to no job, little money, no friends in the immediate location let alone any muslims… then as the seasons changed and the weeks grew into months, my uncle got very sick in Oxford. I had visited him since being back and when he went into hospital, because I wasnt working and because I was the one used to driving long distances (read: moved from Canada!) I was the one who drove numerous members of my maternal family from Liverpool to Oxford to see him. See him as he lost more weight, was put on a respirator, was given a tracheotomy, was out cold for days at a time, tried to pull all his tubes out, asked for his tubes to be pulled out…  it pains me to only have these recent memories fill the lifetime of memories I have of him… but Im told thats normal and over time it will change. I still couldnt find a job as his months in the intensive care unit went from 1 to 2 to 3 and finally after 3 months in hospital his pain and suffering ended.

It was Wednesday it happened, and today after talking over an interview I had last week in the midst of getting calls for 2 separate interviews next week… I realised, if I get a job out of these 3, that it truely was meant for me to be here over this time for my family and for him. But then I feel guilty for not spending even more time down there with him than I had done.

So I suppose Im just grateful I was able to do all this for myself and my family.. and that Im still here to say this. I remember when he really got sick, I made duaa to Allah (subhana wa ta’ala) that if his eyes were to be opened to the beauty of Islam then to let him get better and make it through this. Obviously it just wasnt written for him. Allahu alim.

Thanks for ‘listening’

A short poem on gratitude is posted at the Illume Magazine site on my Community Blog.

Gratitude – a lovely and personal reflection on what she is grateful for.

This is a follow up post to what I wrote last week on the Shared Spiritual Reckoning blog. Again, this is on thankfulness.

This is my post on thankfulness/Thanksgiving over on the Shared Spiritual Reckonings blog.

Via Umm Travis at Tea Break Thoughts, please check out The Complainer’s Challenge. What an excellent way to get in touch with our gratitude, mashaAllah!

Bismillahir Rahmaanir Rahiim

Asalaamu alaikum and welcome!

The Grateful to Allah blog is a group blog dedicated to expressing our gratitude to Allah for His many favors upon us. We are proud to present this carnival, a round up of posts from other blogs on the topic of gratitude.

Umm Layth at The Muslimah presents A Blessed Home

Darvish gives us Answered Prayers and Generosity of Spirit

Tim of Folio shares The Need to Express Gratitude and God’s Generosity

A brother Aiman asked me to host his entry, Except With the Favor of Islam

Bint-eh Adam of Tranquil Art discusses “what really counts” in Farewell: End of the Nokia 6230 Era and shares Bracelets and Things

Daniel Abdal-Hayy Moore has offered us a poem hosted here at the Grateful to Allah blog: Gratitude

Tiel Aisha Ansari of Knocking From Inside gives us one of her exquisite poems, Nearer Thee

Nourah of Chronicles of Super Hijabi shares short fiction (YAY!) in Zakiyyah’s Second Chance

Saha of Yemen Journey… And Beyond! gives us Grateful to Allah – Beauty, Contemplation…Action

Hammad Din of Din Seeking the Deen shares On Gratitude

Aaminah Hernandez shares a poem, written for the carnival, AlhamdulALLAH

We at the Grateful to Allah blog would like to encourage random and frequent expressions of gratitude to our Creator and Sustainer. If you would ever like to contribute to this blog, or you have written something about gratitude on your own blog and would like us to link to it, please email the administrator at niqaabisister@yahoo.com.

Many thanks to those who participated in this carnival and shared such inspiring treats. To those who wanted to participate but were not able, inshaAllah there will be a next time and we look forward to reading your thoughts, inshaAllah.

Also, thank you to all readers. We hope this carnival touches your heart and encourages you to be grateful, and we hope the same for ourselves.

GRATITUDE

He threw an arm up in the air

in gratitude

He kicked a leg out in the air

in gratitude

He moved his whole body through the air

in gratitude

He took a big gulp of rosy air

in gratitude

And his eyes shone and his voice cracked

in gratitude

And in gratitude things to be grateful for

came to him

And with gratitude dark things left him

and light things took their place

And beatitude came over him in its

luminous circles he walked through

And he moved in space with a

wider latitude

And the whole world in its various spheres

showed him gratitude

And matter mattered less as matter and

more as gratitude

A serene demeanor became his

general attitude

He opened his hands wide in the air

in gratitude

In his breast his heartbeats kept time

to the meter of gratitude

And he never took a chance with anything other

than gratitude

It carried him past the end of his

days in the same Paradise he was always in

And this is Reality

not some platitude

_______________

(from Underwater Galaxies)

To read more of this amazing poet, you can check out his blog and be sure to also check out the group blog, The Court of Lions, that brother Daniel and several other of my (Aaminah) personal favorite poets contribute to.

Bismillahir Rahmaanir Rahiim

I am so grateful for real, true friends.

For the one who tells you what you really need to hear, even when you don’t want to hear it.

For the one who pulls you out of despair and negative thinking by calling you to remembrance of Allah.

For the one who holds up the mirror, and then holds your hand when you are crying at the image of yourself.

For the one who can tell you, with all sincerity, that they love you for the pleasure of Allah, within minutes of you making a total jerk of yourself.

For the one who would defend you against anyone else.

For the one who is always there when you just need to not be alone.

For the one with tried-and-true advice who shares it without making you feel stupid for not having thought of it yourself.

For the one who puts a smile on your face as soon as you see their name pop up in your inbox or chat box or Facebook comments or caller ID.

Do you have a friend like that? Do you have more than one friend like that?

Say a du’a to Allah to thank Him for giving you such friends.

Then tell your friends how much you appreciate them.

And try to be the same kind of friend back, inshaAllah.