About the book …
26 Feb 2011 3 Comments
in In my mind..., Niqab/Burka, Salafi, Sunnah, Women
Assalamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh,
As explained in my previous post, I’ve finally started to read the book “al-Hijaab” of Shaikh al-Albani (rahimahullah).
Well, alhamdulillah, I’ve managed to start reading it and I can say that the book really takes you “back” in the past. It gives you examples from the time of the Prophet (sallAllahu ‘alayhi wa sallam) mashaAllah and lots of references to the Sahaba.
I don’t feel to say more as I’m just at the beginning but alhamdulillah for having that book! It really seems to explain properly the whole issue of hijaab and so on. I remember when looking for his (al-Albani’s) opinion online, to understand “why” he thought so (about the niqab being highly recommended rather than obligatory) and reading of someone who criticized him for giving “freedom” or “chance” to women to show their beauty… well, would a Salafi do so? I don’t think so. Indeed al-Albani’s opinion is far from it mashaAllah and not everybody get it subhanaAllah! The line between his opinion and those of other Shoyouk considering the face covering as fard is very thin mashaAllah!
Highly recommended simply means: It’s good for you, do it!!
I’ll keep you updated inshaAllah! 
My little one
22 Dec 2010 6 Comments
in al-mujahid, Du'a, Family, In my mind...
Assalamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh,
I still remember the first time you looked at me… and now you look at me with those “naughty” eyes mashaAllah!
The first time I saw you I cried, I cried a lot subhanaAllah! And I cried for days and nights. I remember waking up during the night and have tears and tears coming out from my eyes, I couldn’t stop them… and when I think about it, I remember it as a dream, a bitter sweet dream… Ya Allah! Your tests! And we never appreciate! … alhamdulillah!
I spent months reviving my imaan, putting my trust in Allah, making some du’as that, as a Muslim, I had never made before… but still, I knew, I knew that Allah was going to answer them, I believed that! I did indeed! I just needed patience and more patience mashaAllah!
Months before (“the test”) I asked Allah to increase my imaan and the imaan of my family… and so He answered.. Allahu Akbar!!
Here I am!
03 Nov 2010 5 Comments
in Algeria, Family, In my mind..., Muslims
Assalamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh,
You see?? I’ve loaded some pictures!!! Wohooooo!! 
I’ve always wished to post them, I took them during my last visit in Algeria. It’s in the wilaya of Chlef, country side (of course!).
I enjoyed that afternoon so much! And then it was sooooo quiet masha’Allah! Lots of trees and green! That area was full of rumman (pomegranate) trees, on the left and on the right. I managed to take a picture from the car on our way back. Asking dh to stop… here is a horrible one 
You could see some of the pomegranate trees between those 2 big ones.
hope to be back with some food pictures insha’Allah! Still thinking: should I have a blog or a simple section… what do u think?
jazakhum Allahu khayran!
Hands Free Post
14 Oct 2010 14 Comments
in al-mujahid, Family, In my mind...
assalamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh
How is everyone? It seems everybody is busy with something or doing something or somewhere else masha’Allah! Umm Ibrahim back from England masha’Allah (what a pity we didn’t meet…. ok so I’ll have to go to KSA then 
), recipes posts are back on The Muslim Wife Kitchen… and here I still had the ‘Eid post! SubhanaAllah!
The thing is that I really can’t find a moment to sit down and do what I like, to translate, to organize my blog and add the ‘foodie’ section I have in my mind insha’Allah 
(even if I have problems with the pc and couldn’t pass pictures on it…. so what’s the point of having a food section without pictures.. 
– so it’s on stand by at the moment).
Kids are growing masha’Allah and driving me crazy learning every day. I really wonder what language almuhjahid #1 is trying to speak…. almujahid #2 is just fun tabarakaAllah! He smiles at everybody… not my character that’s for sure LOL!
And while I just cook , bake and try to find a ‘hands free’ moment for myself, I hope to receive the baraka from Allah and leave this country… for a while, for ever… just leave.
jazakhum Allahu khayran
From the eyes of a mother
18 Jul 2010 2 Comments
in Family, General, In my mind..., Muslims, Sisterhood, Women
Assalamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh
A muslim mother just enters the unit. She seems a visitor but from the white “bracelet” on her arm I understand she is a “mother”, maybe her first child or maybe not. But for sure, her first time in that unit. Everything must look so BIG at her eyes, everything around her has got “sounds & noises” never heard before maybe. Scary noises! SubhanaAllah!
I look at her, hoping to share a greeting but her husband arrives and points out to her the room, room 3, where her child is staying. She enters the room, walking slowly with her eyes just pointing at her baby, not looking around, not caring for anybody else, just her child. I see her, I hear her, I feel for her… she is crying subhanaAllah! It’s a shock yes, the moments you were planning to spend as a family, the whole family, celebrating, being happy for the baraka from Allah… those moments planned from someone else, Him! Alhamdulillah! He knows the best!
I wish to enter the room, to talk to her, hug her and remind her of Allah. Khris hugs her, explains to her, try to make her relax… may Allah guide you Khris!. I’m still looking, yes looking at my sister in Islam and wishing to remind her about the tests from Allah, great tests, hard at our eyes but a rahma from Him!
I leave and an ambulance comes to transport the baby, to transfer him somewhere else, I think, I guess I won’t be able to meet her again.
May Allah cure all our brothers & sisters around the world! Insha’Allah!
The brother nobody knew…
12 Jul 2010 10 Comments
in General, In my mind..., Islam, Muslims, Reverts
Assalamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh
Just here quickly to share with you this story. It just happened last week subhanaAllah!
My dh was walking with my oldest son, they were passing by the hospital road while a guy stopped them. He started to speak to my husband, he looked worried and desperate. He declared not to be a muslim but that his brother was. His poor brother was in the intensive care section at the hospital. He was asking help, he didn’t know what to do in that situation, what to pray and what to say since he wasn’t a muslim. My dh offered to help so later on he went to see the muslim brother.
Well, what to say, he was in a coma subhanaAllah and why? Because he tried to kill himself… ya Rabb! Allahu a’alam but it seemed he wasn’t practicing the religion in that period.
When my dh entered the room, all his family was there. They were all crying next to his bed. Apparently it all happened recently. My dh did what he supposed to do, du’as etc. alhamdulillah!
Dh informed the other brothers at our masjid, since it’s not far from the hospital. They all promised to go and visit insha’Allah!
22 pm that same night, a brother from our masjid called my dh telling him that he went to the hospital with some other brothers but that when they entered the room they found a “priest”! And the family was ready to switch off the machines that were keeping the brother alive! Plus, they said that they were going to bury him as a Christian! Naudhubillah!
Inna lillahi wa inna ilahy raji’oon! When I saw my dh face while talking at the phone, I felt something was going on, I asked him “what happened?” he replied “They have switched off the machines of the brother in coma!… his family!” …. I asked “did you say the shahada for him today?” he replied “yes!” … alhamdulillah! … wa Allahu a’alam!
Sorry to share this with you after a long absence but this story made me think a lot. It made me realize how important is to make hijrah and how it’s important for a revert to practice the deen properly….
My way to the niqab
17 Nov 2009 10 Comments
in In my mind..., Islam, Niqab/Burka
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!
Free travel & Free food
27 Oct 2009 11 Comments
in Algeria, Family, In my mind..., Muslims
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
20 Oct 2009 9 Comments
in Family, Food, In my mind...
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
17 Oct 2009 4 Comments
in Algeria, In my mind...
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.
Recent Comments