Oh Silly Me..

..and there I was being all skeptical about men only having to cover from the navel to the knee.

Good Deed #1: Smile

Well that's according to 1000gooddeeds.com site anyway. They have written the benefits of smiling and I thought I would re-post, what with hijabis frequenting this blog and all.. :)

27:19 (Y. Ali) So he smiled, amused at her speech; and he said: “O my Lord! so order me that I may be grateful for Thy favours, which thou hast bestowed on me and on my parents, and that I may work the righteousness that will please Thee: And admit me, by Thy Grace, to the ranks of Thy righteous Servants.”

The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said: Your smile for your brother is charity.” -- (Graded authentic by Ibn Hajar and al-Albani: Hidaayat-ur-Ruwaah, 2/293)

Narrated ‘Aisha I never saw the Prophet laughing to an extent that one could see his palate, but he always used to smile only. Bukhari 008.073.114

Benefits of smiling:

1. Smiling changes our moods
Next time you are feeling down, try putting on a smile. There’s a good chance you mood will change for the better. Smiling can trick the body into helping you change your mood.

2. Smiling Is Contagious
When someone is smiling they lighten up the room, change the moods of others, and make things happier. A smiling person brings happiness with them. Smile lots and you will draw people to you.

3. Smiling Relieves Stress
Stress can really show up in our faces. Smiling helps to prevent us from looking tired, worn down, and overwhelmed. When you are stressed, take time to put on a smile. The stress should be reduced and you’ll be better able to take action.

4. Smiling Boosts Your Immune System
Smiling helps the immune system to work better. When you smile, immune function improves possibly because you are more relaxed. Prevent the flu and colds by smiling.

5. Smiling Releases Endorphins, Natural Pain Killers and Serotonin
Studies have shown that smiling releases endorphins, natural pain killers, and serotonin. Together these three make us feel good. Smiling is a natural drug.

Photo source: Vogue

Nakba Day

It both saddens and overjoys me that the Arabs are finally standing up for Palestine. Saddened because of the realisation that if people speak out for justice, bloodshed of the innocent is inevitable.

Israeli troops today. A 17 year old demonstrator is killed:

The sad truth:

May Allah (SWT) help them and give them patience. Ameen.

Check this site out for more information on the history of Israel and Palestine and also the Palestinian Awareness blog on the side bar.

Ethnic Cleansing In Bahrain

A post from the How To Live Like An Omani Princess blog. It's pretty sick what humans have become. I'm starting to dispair :/

"All it takes for the world to go wrong is for a good man to do nothing.

What can I do? Not much from Oman I can tell you that. But I can share this with you.

SUNNI witnesses, from Canadian Sunni students in Bahrain, and others (who ARE NOT SHIA so have NO reason to make this up) state that there is a policy OF ETHNIC CLEANSING OF SHIAs going on in Bahrain by the Bahraini Government with of course the help of Saudi Arabia, and the U.S government knows all about but does nothing, because you know, to weaken Shias in the GCC, is to weaken Iran.

Muslims back in the West we've been sharing this with go, well the Shias have been making problems there.

Guys, these are SUNNI Muslims REPORTING THE acts of killing. What 12 year old Shia girl who was taken off her school bus had anything to do against the government? Why are families being taken form their homes that had nothing to do with the protests?

I am Sunni BTW, saying this. Some say blame the Salafi and Wahabi extremists. Well, I am a follower of the writings of Abdul Wahab and I can tell you... not only would I never ever say this was okay, but I can't...even... begin... to understand it. Just the thought of it left me crying so hard last night but blogger would not post. This is not Islamic extremism btw. It is political ethnic cleansing.

The news says the bloodshed is over. It's not. The news lies.

Bloggers who wrote about it were arrested, University Professors, and Sunni sheikhs who were against it and knew the truth, that is has nothing to do with our religion, are in jail or disapeared.

Please, please this is the truth. It is going on. Somebody help these people. Someone tell Bahrain to stop. I can't imagine if it was my family they were marching off in a mob to go kill and no one would do anything or even say anything because I was a "sunni". The fact that someone is a "shia" or anything else for that matter, is not enough to justify their bloodshed.

God guide your Muslims, for they are divided on the grounds of Nationalism to not even realize that this has nothing to do with You, Allah, at all, but is all about power and control of land & resources and means of controlling history through media to make their own existance excusable(by that last I meant KSA's monarchy as the 'guardians' of Mecca).

Non-Muslims will probably ask me, how can there be a God who lets this happen to His people?

Romeo Dallarie, the UN Commander for the Mission during the 1994 Rwandan Genocide, was asked how he could believe in God still, after having seen what he witnessed in Rwanda. Mr. Dallaire, one of my heroes who stayed to do what he could while the world watched and did nothing, said simply: "I know there is a God, because in Rwanda, I shook hands with the Devil."

Anyone in Bahrain. Allah/God has no wish for mankind to kill eachother in His name. If both sides are claiming God is on their side and they are killing eachother, it isn't God that they are fighting for, but Shaytaan/the Devil.

I wish I could do more. This breaks my heart into pieces. I can never, never, ever understand how men can do this to one another. All I can do I guess, is to teach my children not to hate, and how the world goes wrong, if a good person does nothing, says nothing.

Please get the word out: STOP ETHNIC CLEANSING IN BAHRAIN."

Bored? I Know I Am.

I don't know what it is about having to revise for exams that draws me to YouTube.. GoRemy in particular. He kind of cracks me up :D So anyway, I thought I would share this rap with you. Only thing I dislike is the large quantities of alcohol on the shelf and also the wife walking 10 feet behind him.. That really doesn't happen in real life.

Speaking of Arabs, please keep them in your prayers, they sure do need it right now :(

Square Headscarf Tutorial (& Bin Laden)

(Am I weird for liking the song..?)

You can either make a square hijab look really good or slightly reminiscent of The Secondary School Hijabi Look :( Don't be put off though, I think this one is pretty cool (save the blue thing she put on at the end)

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So.. I couldn't possibly do a post on a square hijab tutorial without also putting forward my view on Osma Bin Laden's "recent death".. I'll keep it short because I could go on about this but does anybody actually believe that they found him in a "million dollar mansion" right by a military base, which he apparently lived in for 10 years with about 25 kids..? The US then arrived in helicopters and killed him because he was shooting at them with an AKA 47.. no actually, he was unarmed.. no, he was indeed armed.. well he had an AKA 47 within reach... (Which you choose to believe depends on the newspaper you read and on the day of the week)

They then offered his corpse to Saudi Arabia for burial, who declined. They then changed their minds and decided he shouldn't be buried at all for fear the site will be turned into a "shrine". So to respect the Islamic tradition.. they weighted him down and threw him into the sea.

All in the space of a day with pretty much no media build up..? All very convenient that the evidence, if there even is any at all, is now at the bottom of the sea or not being released.

I personally don't care if the guy is dead or alive but this ever-evolving story is so half-baked that it basically relies on people believing exactly what they are told without questioning the discrepancies or blatant contradictions in the story. Unfortunately (or not, as the case may be) many people are actually like this, hence the subsequent (slightly uncomfortable) celebrations of average Americans in the US and elsewhere following the announcement of his death.

Anyway, I may be entirely wrong about this (doubt it), but the truth will out. It usually does.