If there is one thing I love to do it’s to get organised and plan ahead: “There is no intelligence like planning.” ~ Hadith Ibn Majah (via Provisions for the Seekers – Zaadut Taalibeen) Although the Muslim New Year passed about two months ago, I didn’t quite manage to get myself organised by then.  So […]

If there is one thing I love to do it’s to get organised and plan ahead: “There is no intelligence like planning.” ~ Hadith Ibn Majah (via Provisions for the Seekers – Zaadut Taalibeen) Although the Muslim New Year passed about two months ago, I didn’t quite manage to get myself organised by then.  So […]

I loved how the dresses for the wedding turned out.  Fashionista originally wanted to go for hot pink, but took one look at this dress and decided she had found the one.  After hunting all over London (Green Street, Ilford Lane, Southall), she found this in Birmingham.  We made a second trip with her to […]

Learning to read Quran is a subject I return to again and again, because it is so important to me and also because it has been a journey for both me and my children.At times I struggle to ensure that there is a lesson everyday, but I am seeing the benefit of five straight lessons […]

Learning to read Quran is a subject I return to again and again, because it is so important to me and also because it has been a journey for both me and my children.At times I struggle to ensure that there is a lesson everyday, but I am seeing the benefit of five straight lessons […]

Learning to read Quran is a subject I return to again and again, because it is so important to me and also because it has been a journey for both me and my children.At times I struggle to ensure that there is a lesson everyday, but I am seeing the benefit of five straight lessons […]

Preparations for Fashionista’s wedding later this year are gathering pace in the family. We have sorted out most of the big things now – venues, decor, food (the one thing you CANNOT get wrong at an Asian wedding). Fashionista has found her wedding dress which is absolutely stunning (and nothing like what she originally planned) […]

This is my fruit-tree collection. I have been sticking fruit stones into pots on my window-sill not really thinking they would grow. So far I have an avocado plant and a lychee which is very pretty. My pride and joy though is my little ajwa plant. Ajwa is a very special kind of date and […]

After a hectic Eid day which had me standing in the kitchen most of the day, I spent the second day of Eid at my mum’s.  This is my favourite thing about Eid – eating the best food I will taste all year, cooked by my mum’s hands, hanging out with my sisters and sister-in-law […]

You know those days, when things start going wrong and then they just keep going wrong?  The kind of day better spent in bed until it’s over?  That’s the kind of day I had yesterday. I was woken at am by a blazing toothache – both the tooth and sinus pain combined at a time […]

We usually throw one Eid party a year for ladies and children but in the last year or two I had found these getting rowdy and moving away from my aim of providing a halal environment for my Muslimah friends to meet, enjoy and in some small way remember Allah (SWT): Abu Hurairah and Abu […]

I came across this article today about the work of the humanist psychologist Carl Rogers and this quote resonated deeply: “I have found it of enormous value when I can permit myself to understand another person.Our first reaction to most of the statements which we hear from other people is an immediate evaluation, or judgment, […]

The last fortnight or so has seen me in a strange mood with my husband being his patient and sensible self and trying to quietly support me through it. I’ve been thinking a lot about my past and how it has affected my future, how it has affected my life chances and my children’s chances.  […]

I have been going through my boxes of beads one at a time with lots of ideas and colour combinations coming together.  One of my favourite things to make though are my rainbow tasbeeh’s (rosary) because they are one of the things I make that people really like to receive as a gift and that […]