My way to the niqab

Assalamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh

I’ve finally decided to tell you about my way to the niqab; how and when I started and wanted to wear it…

I’ve always had this love inside of me for the niqab wishing, one day, to wear it full time. I was wearing it only when on holidays in Algeria… until back home or back at the airport… horrible feeling taking it off and returning to the normal life style… working in contact with the public. Well yes, ’cause I was working, in a shop and so in contact with customers every single day subhanaAllah! I was always thinking: if one day I stop to work I’ll wear it for ever insha’Allah!

And here the baraka from Allah, I was blessed with a baby (my son masha’Allah), having the time off for maternity leave, not sure if going back to work or not. Things were going on in my family life so there was the chance for me to go back to work (…. how much I cried and prayed for being a “stay at home mum”!!).  During those months I started to think about the niqab, the idea popped up in my mind when, one day, my family and I went for a lecture in the new mosque. I knew the entrance was the same (for brothers & sisters I mean) so I decided to wear it just to feel more relaxed.

So, on the way to the mosque, I was feeling soooo well masha’Allah! Not a big difference! If one or two people were looking at me, I realized it was the same “looking at me” when wearing the khimaar only. The difference was that, this time, I was feeling even stronger alhamdulillah!

Back home was the big question: keep wearing it or not? – I was answering this question in this way: what if I go back to work? I’ll take it off… I think I should wait! – I was really thinking about this dunya and not with the right intention to wear it. So, after a while, I decided: I do it for Allah, I don’t care, maybe I’ll die before going back to work… who knows??? ….

… and alhamdulillah, after a month or so I finally had the chance to choose to NOT go back to work, wearing my niqab and feeling it as a reward of my Lord for putting my trust in Him… Allahu Akbar!

Algerian Bread

Assalamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh

I’m posting the recipe of the bread I showed you HERE

I’m having problems to log in the forum where I took this recipe from, so I’ll give you a slightly modified one … basically, the way I make it

• 300 gr strong white flour
• 200gr fine semolina
• 300/350 ml warm water
• 7 gr instant yeast
• 1 tbsp salt
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• some extra semolina (if coarse it’s better)

Place the flour, semolina, salt and olive oil in a large mixing bowl, set aside. Add the yeast to the warm water and mix well to activate it. Then add slowly the water to the dry ingredients, mixing with the other hand. Start to knead the dough… it should be done for at least 15 minutes. Add flour if it’s too wet or water if too dry but always add in small quantities. You can also add some nigella or fennel seeds to it. Once you get a nice and shiny dough, make it as a ball, cover it with a wet kitchen towel and place it in a warm place (under some covers it would be better ) for at least 1 hr.

Once the time has passed, take the dough, punch it to let the air go away and knead again separating it in 2 parts. Take a big oven pan or two individual once and sprinkle with semolina. Set aside. Push gently each dough until about  5 cm thick and pass them in some coarse semolina before placing them in the pan. Cover them again and let them have a rest for about half an hour. Then, add some olive oil on the top and place them in the pre-heated oven at 230°C for about 30/40 minutes, until golden brown.

Let me know sisters

From my new oven…

Assalamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh

I’m very happy to show you the first pieces of bread that I baked in my new oven (in my new flat), alhamdulillah!

That’s the recipe of Algerian Bread, all this is thanks to Henia! JazakiAllahu khayran! Nearly 1 year ago I took a recipe that she posted and I finally tried to make some bread! The first attempt was miserable… but alhamdulillah, with time I’ve improved, I guess

….wishing to give you a piece! Ma’assalama!

Our little “hijrah”, alhamdulillah

Assalamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh

Alhamdulillah we made it! We moved to a new flat and to a new area masha’Allah! I’ve been waiting for this moment for long time, with lots of patience and alhamdulillah Allah has rewarded me!

Yes, a new area, always in the same town but at the “halal” side The best thing is that we have 3 mosques around us, including our dear ICT masha’Allah and obviously lots of halal shops

I ended up hating the area where I was living before, I guess my family and I were the only Muslims around, apart from our neighbour and now I understand the big difference in living among your “ummah” alhamdulillah! You know, we came to see the flat 2 weeks ago, it was raining so I didn’t even want to go out and said to my dh: “for me, the flat is fine, the most important thing is that it’s near ICT” … crazy isn’t it? LOL! But then I came to see it and loved it so much masha’Allah! Plus, the guy who showed us everything and looked after us (very well to be honest) is also a Muslim masha’Allah! May Allah reward him!

So please, if you have a chance, make a small “Hijrah” and move to the “halal” lol!

I gonna go now, insha’Allah I’ll post soon about “pizza fritta”

Free travel & Free food

Assalamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh

I’ve kind of promised HERE to write different posts about my last trip to Algeria. I feel like I’ve been there loooong time ago subhanaAllah, instead, it has been just 2 weeks ago or  so!

This time I’ve seen the country with different eyes. I’ve seen it as a Muslim planning his/her Hijrah, checking the places, mosques and Islamic courses… it is a bit scary to be honest, who wouldn’t be but I think I have to re-new my intention, why I want to move there insha’Allah!

It’s true, there is lots of bad there, I’ve noticed lots of changes. Lots of women in the street, not shy at all to look at you from top until down, not shy to cover what they like to cover, not shy to speak with men. On the other hand, (I don’t know if it’s because of the way I look – I mean ALL covered), I was very happy and honored by the manners that Algerian men had with me: sooo polite masha’Allah! If entering a shop, they would let me go in first, if crossing the road, the same… if standing in queue (I was without my son) they would let me go first… alhamdulillah, still good manners!

Something, related to the sweetness of having good manners, happened to my family and I when, one day, we decided to go to the town centre. Our car broke down few days earlier so we took the bus. We entered the bus and sat down in the back. My husband gave his salam and recognised “someone” of his neighborhood, they know each other just like this, they never talked or something. Anyway, when it came the moment to pay the bus fee,  that “someone” paid for us masha’Allah! I know it’s not much but it’s the action that was so nice… forget something like this in London!!!

After that, we went around the town, lunch time and you know what? We ate very well alhamdulillah and the owner of the pizzeria, (who knew my husband), didn’t want to take our money LOL! I was having a big smile behind my niqab when I saw those dinars going right and left near the till…. friend > dh … dh > friend…. then add the algerian language and their behaves … masha’Allah!

So I can say that there’s still some good in those countries, we just need to have a different intention when going there… maybe… wa Allahu a’alam!

 

Winter time and smell of dough

Assalamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh

While trying to get back my life style, since we have been back from Algeria last Wednesday, I enjoy the winter time! Yes, winter is nearly on us insha’Allah!

It might sound strange for some of you but I love winter! I have some sweet memories related to this lovely period of the year, mostly family related. I remember when my sister and I used to spend whole cold afternoons playing together, we couldn’t go out, so we were having fun just the two of us masha’Allah! It wasn’t “always” fun, sometimes we were fighting too and I mean “real” fighting!! LOL! I still laugh when I remember that I was always (or mostly) the first one to “leave” the fight when we were both catching each other’s hair saying “Leave it!”…. “No, you leave it first!”… “No you!!!” and I was the one…. sab’r since I was little

Then those late afternoons when my grandma and mum used to make the dough for the evening pizza, I used to stay always at the side of the table watching… and trying to learn. And when it was ready to raise… straight to the bedroom, under the winter covers, with the light off and “Be careful! Don’t touch it!”. And after hours… it was ready to play with it Our kitchen table was full of dough, some was going to be an oven pizza and some fried pizza or pizza fritta (tipical from my city: Napoli)… I used to take some dough trying to make my pizza and help out, sometimes I was also playing just like the pizzaiolo (pizza chef) does in the pizzeria: throwing the dough in the air (and not always I was able to catch it ).

Here I am now, making dough for my family, sometimes for pizza and daily for our bread and alhamdulillah for having those memories! They are often  passing in my mind during this days… I’ve been adviced more than once to leave the dough raise in the oven…. but no, I can’t, I’ve been growing with it and my dough will always raise under the covers, those are memories that will always be part of my daily life insha’Allah!!

An Algerian Behave

Assalamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh

I’m back to write sooner than expected, alhamdulillah! I’ve decided to devide my “thoughts” about my Algerian Adventure in different posts, so I won’t mix up everything and I’ll try to explain you clearly how things “work” and “worked” over there (insha’Allah!)

Well, I’ve given to this post the title of “Algerian Behave”, yes, because that’s the first thing that had a big impact on my nerves me when we arrived at the airport! And before continuing I want to say that I don’t want to judge anybody or any country but just share my good and bad thoughts with you all! Just thoughts of a muslimah living in London and visiting Dz!

I was saying, the “behave”. We travelled from Heathrow to Algiers. You can immagine how things work in Heathrow: lots of people but at the same time a very organized athmosphere. When we arrived to Algiers well….. a slow queue to get our passports checked, some nurses (or doctors – not sure) checking every single passenger with a x-ray (or something like that) due to the swine flu alert etc. One of them also thought that we had high fever…. but she let us go… what’s the point of all that then???

We finally took ALL our luggage and GET OUT from there… just yet… we had to face all those people waiting outside for relatives and friends… WOW! Few kids on our way too… while I was holding my son and pushing my luggage (dh had all the rest… you can just immagine ) and they were taking it veeery easy in moving out of the way… GRRRR!!!! Anyway, an area full of people walking very slowly, while you try to make your way out with luggages and baby…  plus, you have the “londoner” attitude of moving fast to catch the train….and it’s harder ’cause the weather is too hot for you!!!

My bil came to take us and while they were putting things in the car a woman (a beggar) came asking for some change… my bil gave her some, then she came closer to me and asked for some EUROS!! … that was funny!! SubhanaAllah!

I’ve noticed the same “take it easy” behave during all my stay. I’ve also asked a dear sister that I met there if that was “normal” in Algeria or “I” wasn’t normal. She agreed with me, that’s one of their characteristics, masha’Allah!

But you know what, sometimes I’ve wished to be like that. I guess my job had an impact on my life style, on the way I do things at home, on the way I organize myself before starting to do something… I don’t know, I just think that sometimes I should only take it easy and don’t stress myself too much! Insha’Allah I hope, one day, if Allah will give us the chance to go to live there, I will learn and slow down a little bit, after all, this is just dunya.

Back from Dz

Assalamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh

Here I am, after a 3 weeks holiday in Dz (Algeria) to visit the family alhamdulillah! I haven’t taken lots of pictures to be honest but I have lots to write about insha’Allah!

At the moment I’m still getting used to the weather change. It might sound strange but we passed from 40°C to 16°C (Algerian weather to the English one) within hours, so I still feel “strange” And since my brain is still not working properly, I’ll leave the post about my Algerian “adventure” for the next time, insha’Allah in the next few days… come back

take care!!!

My day… today!

Assalamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh,

Day before ‘Eid, an happy but sad day at the same time… it’s such a mix of emotions when you find out that “tomorrow is ‘Eid”… stop fasting, stop “feeling” the Ramadhaan… isn’t it?

As soon as I found out that the day after was going to be ‘Eid (today) it started to rain subhanaAllah! I’ve noticed that this happens every year… Allahu Akbar! And with the rain, I started to plan for the morning after… Last night I couldn’t sleep… too excited!!!

Wake up, shower, get everyone ready (I’m always the last one ), have breakfast and go to the masjid. The town was empty, Sunday morning, just Muslims all around… the prayer (and the only one masha’Allah) was at 8 o’clock. It was so nice to see all those happy faces… shaking hands, hugs… sweet moments masha’Allah! Sisters that you didn’t have the chance to meet for the whole month, we were all there

Back home, to spend some nice family time and FINALLY make the tiramisu I’ve been talking about for days before ‘Eid By the way, I’ve just tasted it and it’s delicious masha’Allah! I wish I could give you a piece

…  taqabbalAllahu minna wa minkhum, insha’Allah!!! Eid Mubarak to all of you!!!!

Much better than what expected

Assalamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh,

Eid will be soon insha’Allah and if I have to give a “feedback” about this Ramadhaan well, alhamdulillah! Much much better than what I expected before it started!

I’ve been able to practice my ibaadah masha’Allah, I haven’t thought about what to cook and how to organize my time (thing that anyway I never do! I just catch the moment and in “that moment” I start to organize myself… if that makes sense ). We have been surrounded by muslims alhamdulillah, sometimes for ‘iftar and sometimes at the masjid.. what a blessing masha’Allah! Some have been for ‘Umrah ans some left to spend the rest of Ramadhaan back home insha’Allah!

One of my best friends and sister in Islam left me to go to Algeria! Cheater! In a very algerian style they made the tickets just 2 days before travelling and I knew it while she was at the travel agency…. khayr insha’Allah!

I really can’t spend Ramadhaan away from my home, with my habits and my life style. I live every day of Ramadhaan very carefully, every time I have some spare time I read some Qur’an or I try to do something to live the Ramadhaan. If I was away I know I would be lazy or busy in some useless stuff.

Talked with some sisters about Eid celebration and Eid meal… nothing in my mind yet but I’m sure I won’t be spending the day before making cakes… maybe just a simple tiramisu’ insha’Allah