A Blessed Month...

Bismillah (In the name of Allah)

I think I've been MIA for long enough. And, the main reason is Ramadhan (the ninth month in the Islamic calendar, during which all adult Muslims are to fast from dawn to sunset)

Not surprisingly, I have been away from my sewing machine. And even though I miss it, I know that there is a time for everything, and right now it's time for worship and any extra energy is put to use in looking after the house and children. We're all having a good time. To our amazement, we're enjoying outings to parks and the river. And, since we're not so concerned about eating we are enjoying just being out there, the warm breeze, the water and just everything non-food related. It's so good to have this freedom.

Ramadhan is a busy month of fasting during the day and praying at night. I love this month; in this house we call it the reset button. We give up bad habits and hope to trade them for good ones. The first three days or so caffeine withdrawal and headaches, dizziness, hunger and thirst are an ordeal. But once I overcome this phase, I go about my days as normal and again can function perfectly, alhamdulillah (praised be Allah)

We're now in the last ten days of this holy month, and as Ramadhan slips out of our hands, we wish we had done more. More good deeds that will weight immensely on our scale on a day where every tiny good we did will count. We will miss you Ramadhan, and can't wait for you next year.

To my Muslim readers, I pray that you can fully take advantage of what's left of Ramadhan. I shall be blogging after this month is over with more updates.

Ramadhan Mubarak!

Taking Charge of What Comes Out of Our Mouths and In Our Ears

Bismillah (In the Name of Allah)

We, women, have a tendency to share a lot about the way we feel about things; we're intuitive, sensitive, emotional, and all of these necessary to be the nurturers. How could we be mothers if we were cold and calculating? Allah is most wise about the way he created us and the jobs he assigned to each one of us.

We value friendship and hold it very dear and sometimes believe that in our friends we can find the comfort we need when going through hardships. It's true in most instances, however, we must learn to control our tongues and, even harder, our ears from backbiting.

As humans, we like to complain about things we don't like in our fellow humans; as for women, backbiting our husbands is our top weakness in this regard. This leads to a whole lot of sins written on our list of deeds, a troubled marriage, and most times we even lose the good friends we might have if they're pious and want to avoid listening to backbiting.

In most cases we backbite our husbands when we're upset with them. What most forget is that wives and husbands get upset with each other and sooner or later we apologize to one another or make up in some way. After forgiving each other, for whatever is that happened, most women feel completely different about our husbands than when we were upset with them and wish we had not said all the bad things we said about them to our friends.

I'm not assuming that you (my readers) are backbiters. But since this is a horrible epidemic in our society I want to invite all of you to stay away from backbiting in all its forms and shapes: active and passive. Because the sin of the person who backbites is the same as the person who listens to backbiting.

May Allah strengthen us and may He be the one to whom we turn when we need to be heard.