Alhamdulillah

Alhamdulillah.Thank you Allah for all the blessings.

I hope Allah will help my journey in this world to the hereafter.

I pray that Allah will guide me throughout my life and guide me to Jannah.

Seven sisters

Here is the photo of seven sisters located near Eastbourne, England.Because I love walking and hiking, I organised this trip with my friends.The weather was hot and sunny and we were very excited to view this beautiful scenery.

Stay positive

Everyday when you wake up
Always think positive
Believe in yourself
Believe you can do it

Pray to Allah
Ask forgiveness from Allah
Ask forgiveness from others
Forgive all people

Success is just ahead
Always be motivated
Trust yourself
Be confident you can do it

Allah loves us
Allah always be with us
Always be good to others
Think positive

Beautiful creations of our Master

Everytime I got a chance to see a beautiful scenery, I was amazed and reminds me of the creator, our Master Allah SWT.
Ya Allah, you are the one and only who create all of us.
In this post, I would like to post some photos taken in Lake District.

Windermere, Lake district

Tarn Hows, Lake district

Performing solat (prayer) 

Tarn Hows, Lake District

My opinion

A multiracial country is not only in Malaysia. As I read and travel to many places, I can see that Australia, UK, Belgium, France and some other European countries are multiracial countries. In my opinion, its good to live in a country with different races because I believe different races have their own strength. If we can work together we can achieve something higher for example in developing our economy and technology. 

Some of Malay believe that Malay has a high tolerance toward others and Malay is synonym with soft-spoken and kind-heart. However, this is not always true because they are Malay who doesn't know how to respect the elders and very stubborn. Those Malay who is a kind-heart and soft-spoken is Malay who is a devoted Muslim, the one who is always follow Rasulullah SAW characters.

In my opinion, race is not something we should be proud of but being a practising Muslim that we need to be emphasized on. If a good Malay Muslim become a leader, I believed our country will be at par with the developed countries. A good leader is the one who has a leadership skill and they know how to strengthen our economy, they have a vision and mission in bringing up the country in terms of moral values and improving the socio-economics of its people.

I have always thinking what happen if Chinese Muslim or Indian Muslim will lead the country. In my opinion, it is not a problem for them to rule the country because I believe good Muslims no matter what races they are, they will lead this country by following the Quran and Sunnah.

I disagree with the idea of some of our leaders who are trying to influence the Malay by saying if other party rule the country, the Malay will left behind and other races will take an opportunity to take the country. No.Its totally wrong and I don't believe that.I believe only devoted Muslims with an excellent leadership skill be it they are from different races, they can be a leader and rule the government.

Some people may disagree with my idea but we need to be open-minded in handling different opinion from others. Do not be too emotional and we can voice out our idea in a good manner.As Helen Keller said that the highest result of education is tolerance.

-Islam is the way of life-

Marriage

Marriage is not about love only.Its about responsibility and patient.Before I got married, I have always imagined something sweet and lovely.Perhaps for the first two years, the couple still in romantic mood and everything seems perfect but after few years of living together, his or her partner change behavior due to a particular reason such as work responsibility (lots of work load) and then his or her partner become stubborn and everything seems wrong. Normally, women is always emotionally unstable because of the hormones. Based from my reading, woman is the one who always asking for a divorce.In my opinion, the husband should not divorce the wife unless the wife has done something dangerous to the husband such as trying to hurt the husband with a knife which may lead to physical abuse.Before divorcing a wife, please discuss with a friend, ulama', and family.After series of discussion, then a husband will make a decision whether to  divorce or to forgive. 

I understand that marriage life is not easy but whatever happens we can ask a guidance from Allah.Pray to Allah and do tahajjud.

I have always thinking why our parent and grandparent can be together forever  although they are living in a small house, not so rich but yet understanding each other and patient.

Sometimes I agree with Malay proverb, sayang isteri tinggal-tinggalkan......because when we are away from each other, we start missing our beautiful moments together.

To my husband who may read this article, I would like to say I love you and I pray to Allah our marriage will be blessed till Jannah. Please be patient with your wife as sometimes woman is known to be emotionally unstable 😆.

ZZz Zone in the library

Taking a short nap after working or studying is good to refresh your focus afterwards and become more productive. I have just found out that in The University of Manchester Library, they have provided a Zzz zone for students to take a short nap. This is how it looks like and they call it as the pod.

The Pod. The photo was taken from: http://www.library.manchester.ac.uk/locations-and-opening-hours/learning-commons/zzz-zone/

It was very funny because back in 2010, I used to study in this library at around 1 AM in the morning.At that time the library open for 24 hours as the students were having examinations. My friend and I took an opportunity of this 24 hours service to stay in the library for the whole night (only during exams, I will study at very long hours). However, we get tired after 2 AM and decided to take a nap at the sofa provided. After 30 minutes of relaxing on the sofa, a security guard came to us and ask us to go home if we want to sleep. We just want to sleep for a while, not for a long time but the guard tried to wake us up. Of course we cannot go home because there was no bus at 3 AM so we decided to stay in the library until 6 AM. 

Now after 5 years I left the library, they have provided this sleeping zone for the students to take a 20 minute nap. At first, I was surprised because I never been to any libraries with sleeping zone.Haha.....Yes, I had an experienced sleeping in the library when I did my internship at Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) and I was being told not to sleep by the woman who is in charge of the library. But here in Manchester library, there is a hi-tech sleeping zone for you to take a nap (The pod has a music so that you can avoid any noises). 

Taking a short nap has been practiced a long time ago.The prophet Muhammad SAW will take a nap before Zuhur prayer in order to wake up early in the morning for tahajjud. Dr Simon Kyle who is a lecturer in Clinical and Health Psychology at The University of Manchester mentioned that taking a nap in daytime can refresh the learning potential of the brain. Providing a sleeping zone in the library is something unusual but this university has done something different to help the students in focusing their studies.

Recently, my dean of faculty send email to us, encourage for us to take a nap during lunch time in Ramadhan as it can help us to reduce tiredness due to 19 hours of fasting.

Yes, I'm going to take a nap right after this......

A scenic view creates a peaceful heart and mind

Walking is one of my interest. One of the best place I went for walking is in Hartfield in East Sussex,UK.I went there with some of my friends in summer last year. Here are some of the photos I managed to capture: 

A view of the farm

My friends and I

We walked almost 5 hours to reach a popular destination here known as Winnie-the-Pooh bridge. This is the bridge where the author (A.A Milne) developed a story about his son and his friends. I never did such a long walking trip eventhough back in my home in country I used to go for jungle trekking but it wasn't very long. 

Walking in the Ashdown forest was a different experienced for me though at the beginning I was reluctant to join this activity.That was because I didn't like walking under the sun.Haha. Its different from jungle trekking because you are covered by the trees while walking and hiking in the jungle. But here, there are times when you need to go through an open field and walking under the sun, so the sunblock cream is a must. Before we reached our destination, we met sheeps, horses, farms and houses. Countryside environment is always peaceful, away from the traffics and skyscraper buildings.

This is me under an umbrella.Hihi

The best part of walking in a countryside surrounded with a farm and forest is I can view a pleasant green scenery all around me.Subhanallah, the natures that Allah creates for us in this world are so beautiful.I wonder how beautiful is the Jannah.  

You can still look beautiful with Hijab

Me and Aiza

I had several experiences where  'Mat Salih' or non-muslims approached me and said to me your scarf is very nice. I don't even know them but maybe because they like the scarf, they come to me just to let me know the scarf is beautiful.My intention is not to show the beautiful of the scarf but to let them know that you can always look beautiful even if you are wearing a hijab.I realised that when you are living in a country where Muslims are the minority, and you are wearing a hijab, you become people attention because they know you are a Muslim.Muslims have been pictured by the media as a terrorist, bad manners and evil so some of them has a negative perspective towards Muslims. To change their perspective, we need to do something in order to let them know that Islam is the true religion. Therefore, there are many things we can do to spread the da'wah to the non-believers wherever we are, wherever we go.May Allah helps us in delivering the beautiful messages of Islam to others.

Values from other cultures

Living in this world, we meet other people from different races and background of cultures. As mentioned in the Quran, surah Al-Hujuraat (49) verse 13: 

O mankind! We created you from a single (pair) of a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes, that ye may know each other (not that ye may despise (each other). Verily the most honoured of you in the sight of Allah is (he who is) the most righteous of you. And Allah has full knowledge and is well acquainted (with all things).

Wahai umat manusia! Sesungguhnya Kami telah menciptakan kamu dari lelaki dan perempuan, dan Kami telah menjadikan kamu berbagai bangsa dan bersuku puak, supaya kamu berkenal-kenalan (dan beramah mesra antara satu dengan yang lain). Sesungguhnya semulia-mulia kamu di sisi Allah ialah orang yang lebih taqwanya di antara kamu, (bukan yang lebih keturunan atau bangsanya). Sesungguhnya Allah Maha Mengetahui, lagi Maha Mendalam PengetahuanNya (akan keadaan dan amalan kamu) (Al-Hujuraat, ayat ke-13).

Based from my experiences communicating with people from other races, I realized that we as a human being need a mutual relationship. That is because a different culture has a different strength and weakness. If we work together as a team, we can achieve something beneficial to the world. For example, people from the western countries, they have their own values which led them to be a developed countries while people from the east such as Japan and China, they are very hardworking. What I'm trying to say is we can add the good values from others and blend the values with our own cultures. The question is how they become smart in developing their nation? I am now still learning from them why they have a powerful economy and technology? I will list down the answers from my point of view.

1) They are good in time management

2) They are very honest for example if something is not right, they will speak up instead of being quiet. The Malay should learn this because if other people say something to us, we easily get irritating or in Malay word 'mudah terasa'. People in the western world, they do not take it personally if somebody trying to correct our works or giving an advice not to do something bad.

3) They are hardworking

4) They love reading and like to think critically

5) They are wise

One day if I have the opportunity to be a leader, I will educate my nation with all of these positive values together with the good values that we already have in our own cultures.

Dorset Jurassic Coast

Sensitive issues

I like to open up my minds when talking to others about politics or religion. Not every people will agree with us when talking about these two sensitive issues. For example, in politics, there are people who support the opposition leaders while others support the government leaders. I start to realize that when we want to express our opinions about politics, we cannot say which side that we support but we can be moderate when discussing these issues. If we are very outspoken about political issues especially the one that we support, some people who disagree with us tend to hate us and run away from us. 

This is similar when discussing about a religion.In western countries, most of them have been brought up not to talk about religions when meeting with other people. Issues related with religions can be controversial if we do not know how to handle it. I used to disagree with the idea of not discussing about religion to others because people need to know the truth but after listening to a talk given by Idris Tawfiq during Discover Islam Week (DIW) organised by Imperial College Islamic Society (ISOC), he has a point. In this world, there are so many things that we tend to agree or disagree. What we belief might be different from other people. Thus, in that case,  we should respect other people beliefs. However, as a Muslim, a call for da'wah is necessary in order to promote a beautiful peace that Islam teach us in everyday of our life. Da'wah is not only explaining what Islam is to other people but it can be a da'wah by showing a good attitude to others. If we have a good akhlaq (attitude), people love to be around us and to Allah's will, those people become interested to know about Islam and follow the Islamic teachings. 

When talking about political issues, we might have different views but we should understand, we cannot change other people views on politics in just a second. We should respect their opinions and do not be too emotional when talking about politics. Express our views in a very intelligent way and speak in a very good manner.

This picture was taken from: http://muslimommy.com/2015/02/05/husband-deserves-respect/

My name

Normally people cannot choose their own name because our names were given by our parents or guardians when we were born in this world.

Some people like their name and I believe most people hate their own name (this was based from my experiences talking to other people). However, there are people who changed their name by attending the court and taking an oath that he/she is now using a new name and therefore the old name will be eliminated from all documents.However, changing a name in a court is not an easy procedure and most people do not bother to do this.

Now, why people hate their own name? Let me list down the possibilities:

1) His/her name is outdated (classic name) - (They prefer a glamorous name instead of 'kampung' name).

2) The meaning of their name is bad.

3) The pronunciation of their name is terrible (according to him/her).

There might be other reasons but these are the common reasons why people hate their name.Me, myself used to hate my very own name.I used past tense in the previous sentence because I started to love my own name when I discovered the correct pronunciation by my Arabic teachers and people in Manchester. Back in 1997, I went to Abraham Moss High School Manchester for a year. Teachers and my friends in that school pronounced my name in a beautiful way. At that time, I realized that I preferred people to call my full name. Not only because of the pronunciation is nice but also the meaning of the name actually will resemble my characters.

The problems of Malay people is their difficulty in pronounce my name correctly and some Malays did not care whether the pronunciation is good or bad but I do care as I had experienced where people outside Malaysia can pronounce my name very well. I am very thankful to all my Malaysian friends and relatives who call my full name. Some people said, ahhh it's too long.I want to shorten it.Perhaps, giving a nickname is not a problem as long as the meaning will maintain the same. 

Why suddenly I want to write about this? That's because yesterday there was a man (Imperial College's staff) who said to me your name is beautiful and I like your name :) 

I told to myself, yes, I like my name too.

Photo credited to: http://centerforproductivity.com/work/change-company-name

لطيفة كريم