Reclaim Your Heart by Yasmin Mogahed

Assalamualaikum, good morning and ohaiyou!!!

Today I wanna share a good news with all of you (^o^). Last week, I ordered a book, "Reclaim Your Heart" by sister Yasmin Mogahed. It arrived on Sunday evening. For those who have read her articles before, this is some sort of compilation of her articles and mainly about self-motivational, personal insights on breaking free from life's shackles. 

The front cover of the book

It is interesting to read and easy to understand since it is based on her own experience. Taken from the synopsis at the back cover, which you also can see from the bottom picture: 

"Many of us live our lives entrapped by the same repeated patterns of heartbreak and disappointment. Often, we have no idea why this happens. Reclaim Your Heart is about freeing the heart from this slavery. It is about the journey in and out of life's most deceptive traps."

"This book was written to awake the heart and provide a new perspective on love, loss, happiness and pain. A manual of sort, Reclaim Your Heart will teach readers how to live in this life without allowing life to own you. It is a manual of how to protect your most prized possession-the heart."

The back cover

Even though the book contains verses from Al-Quran and written based on Islamic way, but it is also useful and suitable for the non-Muslim readers.  I believe that this book is worth to buy and read as a reminder and as a motivation to ourselves. You can find this book in hard copy form and e-book form at:

amazon.com

bookdepository.com

E-book - Kindle

E-book - Apple

Till then... wassalam.

XOXO

Cheering Up Myself!!!

Assalamualaikum and hi to all,

This blog has been quiet for quite sometimes ( been too lazy to update). Thinking to express how I feel right now. In mood swing for a couple of days. Feels like to punch 2 morons to the face. Hmm... Maybe it is a test and reminder from Him to me, since I'm a bit 'strayed' from the right track for a period of time. Too enjoying my life not in a proper way.  (-_-')

This feeling started in a similar way like in the previous story. "Curiosity killed the cat". Well, that proverb is true. Even though my curiosity causing me in emotionally unstable now, but am glad actually in a sense that it makes me think rationally.

I couldn't stay like this for any longer, because it caused sorrow inside me, distracted my focus on my work & study and also ruined my appetite [this one I like for my diet (^_^)V  ]. During reciting Al-Quran  after dhuhr prayer, I come across to these verses:

"Therefore remember Me, I will remember you, and be thankful to Me, 

and do not be ungrateful to Me. O you who believe! 

Seek assistance through patience and prayer;

surely Allah is with the patient". (Al-Baqarah, 152-153)

"And We will most certainly try you with somewhat of fear and hunger

and loss of property and lives and fruits; and give good news to the patient, 

Who, when a misfortune befalls them, say: Surely we are Allah's and to Him

we shall surely return. Those are they on whom are blessings and mercy from 

their Lord, and those are the followers of the right course." (Al-Baqarah, 155-157)

 ~Thinking to pick the sunflower seeds at that time~

 ~Nice view of sunflower farm~

 ~Among must see event during summer. Aren't they wonderful??~

~Love the colours so much~

I felt much better after that. Knowing that, every time I'm in difficulty, He will talk to  me through Al-Quran. Believe me, it always works this way with me, it just a matter of the right time and I'm sure many of us have also experienced the same thing.  So I decided to cheer up myself and nobody can make me happy except for myself. Here's the sunflowers to brighten my day and wonderful fireworks to cheer me up (reminds me of the Katy Perry song, Fireworks), even though the summer has passed and now the autumn is here. <(^o^)>

Till we meet again... Wassalam.

~XOXO~

Never lose hope in Allah

Assalamualaikum,

Phewww!! It has been a while since the last post. Too many things happened within this period. Happy, wonderful, sad, hardship and grateful moment I've been through these 2 months.

I'm rushing and struggling to get data for the project, went to Aomori, Yokohama, Chiba and Universal Studio of Japan (USJ) in Osaka during Golden Week holidays by car, played badminton and knowledge sharing session with dearest friends every weekend. Really enjoy these moments. And now it's EURO Cup time! But I have to select certain match only coz I have to do experiments during day time. :( Anyway, no matter what happen, will support Spain to win this EURO Cup!  :)

Seminggu berlalu, bila buat pertama kalinya terasa kecil hati yang teramat sangat (pencemaran tatabahasa, utk menguatkan expressi :p ) dan fed-up apabila dilayan seolah-olah kita tiada hak or perasaan, as if dia je yang boleh berbuat sesukati anytime dia nak. This is not the first time and he keep on doing the same thing over and over again. Don't wanna elaborate more about the details but I wanna say that my 'sabar' reached the limit and really upset about this. 

But before that, after the Golden Week holidays, I found that, I don't feel happy even though I spent my time with my love one. I really wanna change my life into something more meaningful and in peace, even though it gonna affect my relationship. I already started by taking baby steps since a few months back, but still not good enough. Perhaps lacking somewhere, but I never give up, never lose hope in Allah. I plan to tell him what I wanna do, when he come to see me in his next trip. At the meantime, I tried and keep searching for my inner peace and to strengthen my relationship with Him. Believe me, it is not easy... involved a lot of tears when looking back all the things that I've done, played with my emotion. But He never leave me in that pain and tears alone...after every tears and pain, I can feel peace inside me, feel my heart filled with His love. As in my 2nd post, we must love Him more than anything. He will test us to know whether we are really serious and determined to change, to become someone better. You can feel it yourself. So, istiqamah is very important, even small thing, but do it often and consistent.

"Never lose hope. Stay close to Allah and when you mess up, go back to Him. Never, ever stop going back to Him. Repent often. Cry to Allah. And hold on tight—with your life—to His remembrance and to prayer. If you do this, you may get wet, but insha Allah never drown in this ocean of dunya." -Yasmin Mogahed

It's true.... you may get wet, but insyaAllah never drown in this ocean of dunya. Daripada menangis memikirkan apa yang orang lain buat kat kita, lebih baik menangis memikirkan kesilapan yang telah kita lakukan kepada Allah. So, berbalik kepada kisah kecil hati tadi. I donno where I got the strength not to call and not to start messaging him anddd not bother to reply his messages. Wowww!! It's an achievement for me. :)  The most important is, I don't feel sad about it. But I admit that I felt a strange feeling when he did not wish for my special day, maybe he forget, or revenge coz I ignored and treated him not as usual. Well, hundreds of my friends and family members wished me with wonderful wishes!! Thank you very much!!! 

Honestly, I donno what will happen to my relationship. I gave him too much, sacrificed too many things. No matter how much I love him, I must love myself first. There is nothing I can do about it, just pray to Him to give me strength to move on, keep on istiqamah, forgive all my mistakes and sins, and keep on giving peace inside me. Biar  hati disinari dengan cahaya iman yang tak akan pernah kunjung malap. Teruskan berdoa dan berusaha, jangan pernah putus asa dengan rahmat dan kasih sayang Allah. Berserah kepada Allah...sesungguhnya Dia Maha Mengetahui apa yang terbaik buat hambaNya.

Never lose hope in Allah....

Till then, Wassalam.

XOXO.

Take a break... Hanami...

Subhanallah... Indah sungguh ciptaan Ilahi dimuka bumi ini. Menikmati hanami (cherry blossom viewing) dan menemani parents I explore Ishikawa. Just wanna share some of the wonders during Spring. Hope all of you enjoy the sakura pics.

*If you wanna share the pics, please acknowledge the owner/photographer* Thanx..

xoxo..

Saya Sayang Bapa...

Assalamualaikum warahmatullah,

Dear readers, I hope everyone is fine. Been busy lately with all the works. Alhamdulillah, some of them turn out very well.

Today, I wanna share something that I've been thinking for quite sometimes. Perhaps nothing new to some of you, but let just take it as a reminder.

Do you love your father? Many of us will simply say "Yes! I do." without taking time to think about it. Ye la kan, siapa yang tak sayang bapa, unless yang ada krisis or sejarah hitam dengan insan yang bergelar bapa. Kali ni, yang I nak share maybe lebih sesuai dengan perempuan yang masih single.

Dalam kita mengaku bahawa kita sayang bapa kita, pernahkah kita melihat kembali apa yang kita lakukan untuk membalas kasih sayang yang diberikan oleh beliau? Some would say, every year I celebrate his birthday and Father's Day, I kiss and hug him everyday and so on. Do you think all of that enough to show that you love him?

Once, when I faced a big issue, for the first time I talked about my personal problem with my father. To me, there is a gap, between me and my parents in terms of sharing my personal story. The funny thing is even my cousins will come to my father to seek for an advice about their personal matters, but not his own daughter. So, when I decided to talk about my personal problem and asked for his advise, I felt really glad. All the things he said, brought me back to the right track.

Beliau berkata, kita sebagai manusia, tak pernah terlepas dari melakukan kesilapan dan dosa. Mungkin Allah datangkan ujian ini sebagai peringatan buat kita, agar kita bertaubat dan kembali kepada Nya. Never stop from asking for Allah's forgiveness. Jangan pernah tinggal solat ( slalu jugak tak cukup 5 waktu ),beristighfar selalu, buat solat sunat taubat dan sentiasa berdoa mohon keampunan dan dipermudahkan segala urusan. InsyaAllah, akan lebih tenang hati dan akan ditunjukkan jalan penyelesaian. Dan, hendaklah sabar dan yakin akan pertolongan dari Nya.

Betapa kasih seorang bapa kepada anaknya. After the long conversation through the phone and with all the tears, I sat quietly and suddenly thought about, what are the good things that I did or gave to my father all these time? In terms of material and financially, insyaAllah enough and as the eldest, I have lots of responsibility towards my family. But... are those enough? Air mata kembali mengalir deras apabila teringat satu artikel tentang anak-anak perempuan yang baligh dan belum berkahwin, dosa-dosanya akan turut ditanggung oleh si bapa kerana kecuaian si bapa mendidik anak mengikuti ajaran Islam. Beliau dah cukup beri pendidikan agama kepada I. Pendidikan di rumah, diluar rumah, formal, informal... you name it, semuanya beliau dah usahakan dan berikan. I sangat sedih bila memikirkan yang selama ni, segala dosa, maksiat yang I lakukan telah menambah dosa kepada bapa I. Umpama menempah tiket untuk beliau ke neraka.. nauzubillah.

Seriously, when thinking about that, I told myself that I must try to close all the doors that could lead me from keep doing the sins, the same mistakes in my life. Berhenti dan menjauhkan diri dari segala bentuk kelalaian dan kemaksiatan. I sangat sayang bapa I. I tak nak kerana perbuatan I, beliau yang menanggung dosa. And until today, I keep reminding myself about this because as I said many times before, manusia selalu lupa.

So, I hope, kita sama-sama usaha memperbaiki diri dan menjadi insan yang lebih baik di sisi Allah. Dalam I cuba mengingatkan diri sendiri, rasanya tak salah untuk sama-sama mengingatkan anda yang turut membaca blog ini.

Do you love your father??? Think about it deeply and carefully before you answer it.

Semoga kita sentiasa sayang bapa kita dan membalas kasih sayang tersebut dengan melakukan perkara yang betul dan berlandaskan syariat Islam. Wallahualam.

Till then, wassalam.
xoxo

Siapa Yang Hendak Di Tipu?!

Assalamualaikum,

Dear readers, there's something that I wanna share with you guys. A true story and hope that we can learn something from it.
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One morning, XX woke up from her sleep. Entah kenapa tetiba rasa tak sedap hati. Terasa lain sekali. There's a strong instinct inside XX that keep telling her that something fishy is going on with XY. XX really believe her instinct coz it's proven many times.

So, as a routine XX log in into her social network account. Then she went to her friend's page (lets call her YZ) to see the pics that YZ uploaded. There you go!!! Look what XX found. This XY keep telling XX that he felt boring with all these social network stuff and called them crap or bla..bla..bla.. But the funny thing is,  XY has another  new social network account!! And unfortunately for XY, he doesn't know that YZ is a  friend with XX (XY thinks that he is clever, but somehow XX is one step ahead from him). New account??For what?? XX thinks she knows why, but it's better just keep it to herself. Well, as I told earlier, XX instinct can be trusted (not 100%, but reliable) coz this is not the first time 'ke-kantoi-an' happened. Actually happened several times but still XX can count them with her fingers, and keep all of them in buku 555 (buku hutang  :p  ).

I believe some of us or many of us faced this kind of situation or similar. Perhaps, some people will said, 'that's just coincident' or 'she's just lucky'. Never mind, coz the main point that I want to highlight here is not about XX instinct BUT "To Whom You Want To Lie Or Hide??".

Sebagai manusia, kita tak terlepas dari  melakukan kesilapan termasuklah berbohong dan menyembunyikan sesuatu dari pengetahuan  orang tertentu atas apa-apa alasan sekalipun. And there's no term such as 'Tipu Sunat'. Tipu tetap satu dosa... dan dalam Islam, Matlamat Tidak Menghalalkan Cara.

Tapi, pernahkah kita berfikir kembali, kepada siapa sebenarnya kita menipu dan bersembunyi? Of course  dengan orang tertentu yang kita niatkan, tapi jangan sesekali lupa yang kita juga cuba menipu Allah s.w.t.  Kenapa I berkata begitu? Allah telah melarang kita daripada berbohong dan apabila tetap dilakukan perkara tersebut maka kita juga menipu Allah, seolah-olah Dia tidak melihat dan tidak mengetahui apa yang kita kerjakan. Ingatlah, sesungguhnya Allah itu Maha Melihat, Maha Mendengar dan Maha Mengetahui setiap apa yang kita kerjakan dan juga setiap apa yang ada di hati setiap hamba Nya. Namun masih kita leka kerana itu sifat manusia, selalu lupa.

Allah Taala berfirman, "Katakanlah wahai Muhammad, sekalipun engkau semua sembunyikan apa-apa yang ada di dalam hatimu ataupun engkau sekalian tampakkan, pasti diketahui juga oleh Allah."(Al-Imran, ayat 29)

Mungkin kita merasakan bahawa pembohongan kita tidak akan diketahui oleh orang tersebut, tapi Allah itu Maha Adil, Maha Kuasa. Dengan izin Nya, bila-bila masa saja Allah akan menunjukkan segala pembohongan
yang kita dilakukan kepada orang yang teraniaya tersebut. Maybe today... tomorrow... here in dunya or in the after world. We'll never know.

So, when looking back to this story, it makes me think that, to whom actually that we want to lie? How long we wanna keep lying? Maybe we scared that one day people will now the truth... but aren't we more afraid of Allah, The One who always know what are we doing and thinking all the time? Kita lebih takut orang tahu apa yang kita lakukan daripada takut kepada Allah. Itulah yang selalu manusia lakukan, malah I pun tak terlepas dari melakukan kesilapan yang sama. Jika tersedar dari kesilapan, maka, berusahalah untuk bertaubat, meminta keampunan daripada Nya. Sesungguhnya Allah Maha Pengampun, Maha Pengasih dan Maha Penyayang.

Actually, many things we can learn from others experience. Perhaps we gone through the same thing ( become a liar or a victim ) but we never take time to analyze the situation and never evaluate ourselves. I hope from this moment, together we try to improve ourselves, little by little if we cannot make a big change. Well, small steps but continuously and consistent is much better that a big change but only for a while and not effective. Seperti peribahasa, hangat-hangat tahi ayam. Remember, Allah knows everything and there's nothing that you can hide from Him.

That's all for sharing today.

Wallahualam.

Wassalam.
xoxo...

Dikala Orang Yang Tersayang Menghampakan Kita

Assalamualaikum,

Terasa sedih akan hati hamba Allah. Feels empty, frustrated, sad... when the loved ones disappointed you. After all what you did, what you gave, what you sacrificed, love, heart, loyalty...just for him/her. Always be there during their ups and downs. But, in the end... they paid all of it with being unfaithful, dishonest, just playing around with your heart. Knowing all of these, just break your heart into thousand pieces. Only Allah knows our heart. Our feeling. Our sadness.

Tapi, pernahkah kita berfikir kembali... tatkala kita dalam kesusahan, kepada siapa kita meminta dan berdoa? Hanya Allah yang mampu mengeluarkan kita dari segala kekusutan dan permasalah. Ketika itu, kita berdoa dengan bersungguh-sungguh dan ikhlas kepada Nya, agar diberikan penyelesaian.

Namun, apabila sudah berada dalam kesenangan, kemana perginya rasa syukur? mana perginya doa? We repay all the His kindness by being ungrateful, forget all the loves that He gave us. We rather gave our hearts, loves and loyalty to human, more than what we should give to Him.

Allah S.W.T telah berfirman, " Maka apabila mereka naik kapal, mereka berdoa kepada Allah dengan penuh rasa pengabdian (ikhlas) kepada-Nya, tetapi ketika Allah menyelamatkan mereka sampai ke darat, malah mereka (kembali) mempersekutukan (Allah)" (Ar-Rum, ayat 65)

Memberi sepenuh kasih sayang, rasa cinta, kesetiaan kepada manusia... belum tentu mereka akan membalas dengan kebaikan serupa. Tapi, apabila segala rasa cinta, kesetiaan, kasih sayang dan taat diberikan kepada Allah, nescaya Allah akan membalasnya dengan pahala, rasa cinta, kasih sayang, ketenangan yang berlipat ganda.

When we are in grieve, as a human being, we also need someone to talk to... perhaps good friends or family. It is very lucky to have friends who will always be by your side during our happy and sad times. Who will help you and guide you back to the right track. They are your true friends.

Jadi, beringatlah, jangan pernah ditinggalkan Allah dalam hati dan kehidupan kita. Samada dalam susah mahupun senang. Jadilah hamba yang bersyukur. Berpada-pada lah ketika memberi kasih sayang dan segala yang kita ada buat orang yang kita cintai, jangan sampai melebihi daripada apa yang sepatutnya dan jangan sampai melanggar perintah Nya.

Wallahualam.

Wassalam.
xoxo

1st Entry

Assalamualaikum dear readers,

Phewww!!! This is my first entry. The main reason why I come out with this blog is b'coz I need a place to share things that I know. Anything.... perhaps about daily experience, Islamic thought, or even recipe (coz I love to bake and cook)... whether it's from me, my frens or from other sources. And it's must be useful to others.

I akan guna bahasa malaysia dan english untuk my post. Ikut mana-mana yang I rasa selesa. Nervous jugak masa buat decision nak buat blog ni.

Right now, I'm in a journey to find peace inside me by back to the basic which is Islam. I hope that all of you will give me your full support.

Alright, this is enough as my 1st entry. :)

Wassalam.
XOXO