I decided to make life easier this Eid and give cash instead of gifts. This used to be the tradition when I was a kid and for my parents generation (it used to be called “Eidhi”). With this in mind I thought I would decorate some envelopes to put the money in. I used all […]

As the person doing the cooking at home, I always feel responsible for trying to get everyone eating healthily.  This year I decided to try and learn a few new things and try to minimise all of the fried food that Ramadan has become synonymous with for some people. I have been following recipes I have found on the internet with varying success. […]

I have been suffering from a headache for the last few days.  I get these every few days at the moment if I don’t eat regularity.  I went to bed with it, woke up at dawn for prayers with it when reading Quran helped and then woke up again a few hours later it.  I think […]

Had another very long day. This time full of tears and prayers. My gran passed away this morning, peacefully and surrounded by family, Inna Lillah Wainna Ilayhi Rajioon. My last post looks so naive now, I really thought we would bring her home and she would be around for a while yet.So we have had […]

I have been trying to be very careful with money recently as I know I can be an impulse buyer.  I have been cooking at home, learning to make do with things that are less than perfect rather than rush to replace them and getting organised with my money in general. The exception has been […]

I and my three sisters are launching our new online shop Feroza today.  We will be selling handmade and kundan style  jewellery, scarves, hijab pins, accessories, handmade cards and tasbeeh. We have been working away for the last few weeks hunting for lovely things for our shop, taking pictures, designing logos and advertising, working on […]

What a horrid morning. I woke up feeling so miserable today and spent the whole morning veering between rage and sadness, with everyone feeling the brunt of it. The house is still being refurbished and we are still living in two rooms. Everyone has colds and coughs and keeping everyone organised and with a routine […]

From my journal, 20 May 2006:I have come to notice recently, more and more Islamic art, artists and it seems, an explosion of creativity. There seems to be a global emergence of Islamic nasheed artists (Zain Bhika (SA), Sami Yusuf (UK), Dawud Wharnsby Ali (Canada), Mesut Kurtis (Macedonia) etc), recitors of the Quran (Hassan Rasool, […]

Having spent the first day of our Cornwall holiday at St Michaels Mount getting very cold, we decided to spend the rest of the day back at our accommodation resting.  On the drive back we came across the Cornwall Gold Centre.  I had seen this on TripAdvisorand I and my mum had wanted to visit, […]

Who in your life are you grateful for? It would be easier to ask who I am not grateful for. I believe that everyone that comes into our life, helpful or harmful, does so for a reason. They either give us comfort, or they force us to grow in some way. I am grateful for […]

I attended Sheikh Alaa Elsayed’s seminar on marriage at the Twins of Faith conference and it gave me lots of food for thought. The seminar was engaging and very funny and I came away with some clear information. The seminar listed things that men and women should look for in a spouse and what things […]

After planning to go for ages, spent a lovely sunny Sunday at Hewitt’s Farm in Kent with my family.I woke up two hours before everyone else to get the picnic ready, breakfast laid out and the over-excited munchkins up and dressed – of course I still had to shout from the door to get everyone […]

Assalam-alaikam, I realise it’s been a year since I last wrote and in that time I have had moments when I yearned to write and others when I wondered if I ever would again. Then today I realised I have this little pocket of time for myself every day between clearing up after Iftar and […]

I mentioned these guys in a previous post. When we first moved into this house one of the bonuses we soon found was that we had absolutely lovely neighbours on both sides and we soon made friends with a few of the more gregarious people living on the road. However, about a year or so […]