That

Pretty much self-explanatory.

صيحات نجاحنا

"زرقة بحيراتنا
و صفاء أحلامنا
علاء أهدافنا و التصميم

و من سمرة جباهنا
و جمال صبرنا،
ثمرة جهدنا
حلم قديم...

و من دموع سواعدنا
ضحكات عيوننا
صيحات نجاحنا حلم عظيم"


Lyrics of some very old cartoon song!
Inspiring enough for me :)

"What Is This Life, Is Full of Care,We Have No Time to Stand and Stare?

Have you no time to ponder wonderingly on the height of the skies?

Have you no time to smile gracefully at the beauty of the dark night stars?

Have you no time to appreciate the sound of absolute nothingness?
The smell of the rain off the highway, as you drive back home on a cold rainy day?
The grimace of a baby following its first breath, ever so peaceful, ever so plain?
The beauty of little school girls rocking their backpacks on their morning walk to school, cuddled together, chatting forever?
The wrinkles of an old man spreading out in a thankful smile as you slow down, making for him a way?
The endearing glimmer of your Mum's
eyes as you come home having run errands for her, all day?
The squeezing hug of a 10 year old sister as she welcomes you, regardless all your dismay?
The muscle strain at the end of your workout, albeit being too much of a pain?


Have you no time to breathe in the morning graceful breeze, as you walk across Gama'a Bridge?

Have you no time to look up at the flock of birds, ever so bold and free?

Have you no time to grasp the pain of others, and wipe it off with a smile of yours?
The misery of mothers bearing sick kids, and lighten it up with a word or two of reassurance that you can feign?
The aching hearts of the homeless, and drop a penny or two before they even complain?

Have you no time to cherish the happy moments with those you love, striving to please them and swelling with pride knowing your attempts weren't in vain?

Have you no time to see the love couples are being driven with, ever so beautifully, ever so swiftly?
The barking of a dog protecting her little babies?
The cracked-up hands of a carpenter, bleeding, yet blessed with contentment for his righteousness?


In the midst of our lives, moments pass by almost like a blur, we're often too preoccupied to notice those little things that are just so inherently beautiful...little things that add contrast to our lives, making us more aware of the blessings we have, and coloring up new portraits to be hung next to the endless tales of our own...

"What is this life, is full of care,we have no time to stand and stare?"
-W.H. Davies

A Splash of Enthusiasm

  

  Every time I set out to jot down some negative nonsense, I recoil and try to splash my blogposts with enthusiastic vibes instead.
 So let me just make today's positive vibe: "God knows what lies in our hearts, He oversees our desires, and He surely is about to bless us with out-of-this-world exhilirating preprations"
Sabr, Patience, is all what we have to hold close.
Oh Grant it, ya Allah <3

Safely Set Ashore

It's late afternoon again.
This time I'm walking on the Gama'a bridge. It's a bit sunny but an invigorating breeze sets the weather just right.
My earphones are plugged in, as usual. I'm listening to this Nasheed, a most serene one, full to the brim of solemn prayers, ones that I have listened to repetitively, repeated too often and cried out in my prostrations.
I turn to look at the Nile. Soothing.
So silent...marching in absolute solitude, purposefully.
I wondered how long has it been since I felt this quiet? So quiet, almost Nile-like, not bothering to swear at the sun rays vaporizing away its water, nor to eye those trashing their empty food wrappers at it...it's been a long while indeed.
I breathe in so deeply, feeling how minute I am in this vast universe. So very negligible, yet out of all those creatures out there, I've been honored by being a Muslim. Out of all the pranksters, I've been destined to join a dead-serious college. Out of all the medstudents, I've been made to marvel on His creation, grasping the beauty in each living being, and appreciating the gift of life.
Flashes of life passed by as I crossed to the opposite side of the road. Five years have slipped by since I came to my own homeland, feeling outcast and forlorn. I kept reminiscing on eclectic memories, my first body to dissect, my first scrubbing into a surgery, my first mattress suture, my first attending normal labor, my very first touching a cyanotic preterm baby, trying to stimulate its breathing, my first time parting from a bestfriend, gosh memories hit me so hard I felt dizzy but SubhanAllah is this how it shall be like my first-and certainly last-time dying?
Shall my entire life be solidified into slides passing by in a blur? Will I be made proud of those little scenes? Will I bite my fingertips off in vain, in shame? Will I have something meaningful and worthy to offer My Lord?
I pray the few breaths I have left on this earth will be spent in pleasing Allah Subhana Wa Ta'laa, I pray that my ship safely sets ashore.

الا رحمةً ترجى؟

"وَخُلِقَ الْإِنْسَانُ ضَعِيفاً"

ما اروعه من كتاب!

كلما تمعنت في قرائته كلما أزددت حبا لرسولي-صلى الله عليه و سلم-بل و ازدت شوقا و تلهفا لأرحم كل من استطعت في حياتي...لم أدر انني كنت سأبكي حينما رأيت الالام الأمهات في مستشفي الأطفال...لم أكن ادرك اني سأشعر بأروع احساس في العالم حينما ألاعب  طفلا مريضا بألعاب صغيرة أشتريتها لهم.

بفضل الله, عشت أسبوعا من أروع أسابيع حياتي...أستشعر ضعف و حاجة من حولي, و احاول ان امدهم بما تستطيعه نفسي الضعيفة, فوالله  أبدلني ربي خيرا من كل ما كنت أتوقعه...ها انا ذا انزل من بيتي كل صباح اتوق لمساعدة من استطيع,  لرسم الأبتسامة على ..

وجه من أقابله, أحاول جاهدة ان أزكي نفسي عن كل ما قد يشوبها...أحاول ان أتعلم, أتيقن, و أن أحيا على منهج الرحمة.

ها انا ذا ارى في قلوب من حولي حبا لا أستحقه...و تقديرا لن استطيع ان اقبله لنفس مثل نفسي, ارى فيهم نعمً انعم الله بها علي...فهم 

حولي  مهما تباعدت المسافات بيننا, هم لي ذخر عند الحاجة و اذان صاغية عند اضطرابي...اراهم يحبون جميل ستر الله علي...

اللهم ارزقني حبك و حب من يحبك و حب عمل يقربني الى حبك

Reach Out for That Which Is Closer

At times of need, we turn around hastily to those around us. We pound on doors and they're slammed shut in our faces. We race uphill and cry for rain to fall down and revive us and we're merely met by the pitch black skies.

At times of need, we turn to that which seems closest, within hand-reach...yet we're deceived by the "apparent" closeness of things, aren't we?

Allah says in the Quran:

"و لقد خلقنا الإنسان و نعلم ما توسوس به نفسه و نحن اقرب اليه من حبل الوريد"
"It was We Who created man, and We know what dark suggestions his nafs (self) makes for him: for We're nearer to him than (his) jugular vein. "

Subhanah Allah...when we reach out for any worldy thing for anchor, let it be man, place, feeling, etc...we're not only seeking refuge in that which is weaker and fallible, we're going right PAST He Who's closer to us than our own jugular vein to that which is way farther.
Man! We're in so much vain.

فصيلة دم أمتنا

"إن فصيلة دم امتنا هي الإيمان، و يوم ان يضعف الإيمان و يتمكن الهوى و حب الدنيا من قلوب أبنائها، فإنها بذلك تفقد مصدر قوتها و تميزها على سائر الامم، و ليس ذلك فحسب، بل ضعف الإيمان و غلبة الهوى من شأنه استدعاء غضب الله عليها، لأنها بهذا الضعف لن تستطيع ان تبلغ رسالته، و من ثم فان العقوبات ستتولى عليها إلى ان تفيق من غفلتها و تعود لايمانها من جديد لتنطلق بعد ذلك حاملة الدواء الرباني، و رسالة الرحمة و الشفاء للمرضى و التائهين و الحيارى في شتى بقاع الأرض."
-مجدي الهلالي

Steal Time Outta Your Own

Steal time outta your life to make those you care about KNOW you do.

Steal time to love your parents, drive them around when you're dead tired yet dead grateful.

Steal time to laugh, pray, and read.

Steal time to write your dreams in the darkest of the nights, sprinkle them with hope dust, and leave them to sparkle.

Steal the time to write a bunch of words that remind you every now and then that you're alive, breathing, loving, and thankful.

Raison d'être

" يا أيها الناس ضُرب مثل فاستمعوا له إن الذين تدعون
من دون الله لن يخلقوا ذبابا ولو اجتمعوا له و إن يسلبهم الذباب شيئا لا يستنفذوه منه ضعف الطالب و المطلوب"

"The message of this verse is deeply profound. Every time you run after, or seek petition something weak or feeble (which, by definition, is everything other than Allah), you too become weak or feeble. Even if you do reach that whic you seek, it will never be enough. You'll soon need to seek something else. You'll never
reach true contentment or satisfaction.
That's why we live in a world of trade-ins and upgrades. Your phone, your car, your computer, your woman, your man, can always be traded in for a newer better model.
However there's is a freedom from that
slavery. When the object upon which you place all your weight is unshaking, unbreakable, and unending, you can't fall. You can't break..."

-Reclaim Your Heart, Yamin Mogahed

So yeah. When our raison d'être( reason for existing) is merely holding on to The Strongest, we won't ever break,
بل ستأتينا الدنيا و هي راغمة.

Utter Silence

Moments of absolute solitude teach me more than any companionship ever did.
Man-free era makes one's soul transcend in the companionship of its Lord...albeit being the best company, its mostly the one drowned in oblivion.

ليه أبدا حياتي غلط مادام ممكن ابدئها صح؟

"ظبط-تعش-تنتعش".
مبدأ يبدو ان معظم الشباب-الا من رحم ربي-ماشي عليه.
يفضل حضرتو "معلق" بنت-بالكلام المعسول و الاهتمام البالغ- في وقت هي أكيد محتاجة الرعاية دي...ما هو سبحان الله ربنا فطرنا على كده، تلين قلوبنا لمن يشعرنا بالاهتمام و يلين لنا الجانب، و بعدين بعد وقت "التسلية" ما ينقضي، ترجع البنت مكسورة الخاطر و هو يدور على فريسة أخرى و هكذا...
بس هو الواحد عمره ما سأل نفسه، إلى اين انتي ذاهبة يا نفسي؟
هو ازاي تتعلقي بأحدٍ و ربنا أصلا وضح لنا الطريق-الحلال بين و الحرام بين...
مفيش في إسلامنا حاجة اسمها "نقضيها كده سؤال على بعض لغاية ما ربنا بقى يكرمنا"
ليه ابدأ حياتي بغضب و سخط من المولى-و أكيد من غير بركة منه- في حياة أتمنى ان تدوم إلى أبد الآبدين...
انبيع انفسنا برخص التراب و بمقابل غضب الله علينا؟


-ده ملخص حديثي مع أصدقائي لما رأيناه في مجتمعنا الجامعي على صغر و الإسلامي على نطاق أوسع، لم استطع الا ان اكتب كلمات لعل و عسى اذكر بها نفسي و غيري...أليست الذكرى تنفع المؤمنين.

و يبقى دعائي أبدا
"اللهم اربط على قلبي برباط التقوى" :)

سجدة شكر-A Prostration of Gratitude

It's late afternoon, my friend and I are gathered around a hepatic failure patient with such a brilliant internist.
He's illiciting different signs of hepatic failure and this lady walks into the dormitory.
A black Abbiyah is most of what I could see of her. She's holding a drug prescription...
"it costs 200+" she mutters, her eyes pleading.
She's been to every single pharmacy. They won't grant it for the few pounds she has to offer. Her husband is dying already expecting the treatment.
Our internist takes a look at the parchment in her hands, instantaneously takes out 200 pounds outta his pocket and gives it to her.
She stares back, unbelievingly.
"The money is not mine, it really isn't." was his answer to her on-the-verge-of-tears-look.
She immediately falls down prostrating...

What was more than touching is the fact that he didn't even question her asking of money...he didn't ponder over the very
possible fact that this might be a prank.
He merely gave out the money, and she prostrated.

My friend and I almost went down to prostrate along with her...for such singular acts are rare. Rare and totally overwhelming...

A Bumpy Ride

Here's the thing about life, we live its ups and downs, laugh at times of happiness and weep at times of misery, we keep tripping...we're scathed, but we still bounce back and get rolling...this whole "mosaic" of life comes to an end one day when our bodies are wrapped up in a white coffin to trashed under the earth with all what we originally belong to...dust.

Can't you see the pity we're in? A baby's first breath is a cry, a mere prophecy of the life lying ahead of him...

I'm no a pessimist, although pessimism might seem only rational to deal with such a life. I'm rather holding bottomless optimism within the little chambers of my heart, a strong belief that it's all worthwhile...that's it's all Allah's plan to get me through such finite world into a splendid paradise...for without grief you can't understand happiness, without ignorance you can't appreciate knowledge and without distance you can't ever value intimacy...

Pave My Way

I know one thing for sure.
When piety paves ones's road, thee shall never go astray.
A dear verse insha'Allah shall be my companion:
"ربنا أفرغ علينا صبرا و توفنا مسلمين"

Unshakable Faith

There are qualities that awe me. Perhaps because I've been trying for so long to possess them, only to end up with an ounce of them, or maybe less.
One very attractive quality is having an unshakable trust in Allah subhanah wa talaa, what's merrier than a belief that no matter how stormy the night becomes, a Lord is up there, sailing your boat through the monstrous sea.
Faith brings about serenity, something I feel I've been running low on lately.
May Allah grant us all an amazingly powerful store of faith, one that could always be replenished at all times, at all places.
Amen.

Cues Everywhere

We get the cues, don't we?
Cues that tomorrow is just so breathtakingly beautiful. That we shall walk down our roads, with the best company ever.
Cues that no matter how much we sin, Allah shall always be Forgiving and Merciful.

We get the cues, oh don't we?
Cues that an end lies to every misery. That happiness shall come barging in through our front doors with no permission whatsoever.

They're just everywhere, patience is all what we need. Simple it may sound...but painstaking it really is.

I get the cues, but do you?