What do you wear with a monochrome dress? Red of course! And your favourite shoes. Pretty in pink Spent the day cooking piles of food for extended family and my parents who joined us in the evening, so today it’s my turn to get dolled up and relax as we are all heading over to […]

Zak has been warned by his parents not to tell lies.  Any more fibs and he won’t be allowed to go to the park.  When faced with difficult situations, what will he do.  The book follows throughout his day as he finds himself at various junctions faced with a choice – tell the truth about […]

I have been mulling over the awful attack this week outside Parliament and on Westminster Bridge. I can’t imagine the pain of those who have lost family members and the terror of those that were injured. My thoughts are with those who have lost their loved ones and who have been hurt: I pray that […]

On the weekend, I took Little Lady out for the afternoon.  I had taken the boys out to the Halalgems Halal Street Eats Event and British Museum the day before.  She had declined to come along as she wanted to go without them. So I took her alone the next day with the promise of checking out the market […]

I got pestered by mum-in-law and hubby to go to the park with them yesterday, I wondered what they were up to.  On getting back home, I walked in to find my sisters and friends, lots of yellow and lots of food. I suspected the girls were up to something, but I was seriously surprised to see my dearest friends […]

I first wrote about Imran Khan in 2011, here, when I came across one of his speeches, unfortunately I can’t find it now, but it was unlike anything I had heard from a Pakistani politician and just blew me away.  I wrote again in 2013 of my disappointment when IK lost the elections in Pakistan, […]

I was rather excited this morning.  Despite my terror of the pain of labour, every time I have a contraction my hopes are up that I might meet my little one soon insh’Allah.  So after about three or four hours of contractions this morning, I was convinced something would happen.  It’s also my birthday, so […]

I recently worked on a project where I had to do some research around litter and initiatives around the country to tackle the amount of litter people throw in the streets. It was an interesting project and I learned a lot, but one thing stood out – people throw litter in the streets but not […]

Zanib Mian is a Molecular Cell Biologist and Founding Director of Sweet Apple Publishers. She grew up in London, where she still lives with her family. Zanib wrote her book The Muslims in response to the surge of faith-based bullying as, reported by Child Line and the NSPCC. She hopes it will help counteract some […]

 I have been meeting over the last few days with same colleagues at work to talk about whether we need to sponsor a platform for young people locally to share their stories of racism, particularly their experiences at school.  One of the ladies leading on the project is someone I have a lot of respect […]

As my best friend just left for Hajj (may Allah SWT accept her pilgrimage insh’Allah), I dug out my old Hajj journal from 2005 (the year there were two Hajj – January and the following December). I recognised so many of her hopes and worries in what I had written. I had hoped to reproduce […]

One of the things that I and my best friend do when either of us is down is ask the question “Tell me 10 things that make you happy right now?” I thought I would have fun with this prompt and give myself some things to feel good about. We are also just passing half […]

Fashionista was visiting London for the weekend with my sweetheart of a niece, so we decided to take my mum and the kids out for ice cream.  It’s an interesting effect on kids whose parents try to limit sugar intake, the subsequent effect of liberal consumption of sugary foods.  I don’t recall eating sugar as […]

Assalam-alaikam, My Cousin T, who is only 15, is a fellow sometimes blogger and a very hard working fundraiser. He spends a lot of time fundraising for his local masjid and for other charities. I have seen him standing in the July sun with a collection bucket in the middle of the day during Ramadan. […]