What else to purify?

Assalamualaykum readers. Hope this entry finds you well. After quite some time I didn’t manage to write anything good, I sincerely hope that this writing may help us rejuvenate our souls.

Now I know or at least understand the way I am about reminiscing the past. I happened to look back at one family photo album, one of the oldest kept in this house. Some photos made me smile, almost laughing in fact while another some made me feel sudden sorrow and blue.

One question popped in my head weirdly along with its answer. The question is ‘why do most of us feel our childhood, or early years in our life so meaningful and so sacred?’

The answer to this particular inquiry is because we were pure creatures, free from sins and Dunya demands. We looked at our parents with such admiration, we idolised them and we loved them unconditionally too. Our siblings were our pillars in idolising our parents. The bond is so strong. No matter what happened in our childhood, we would always find our flesh and blood first for solutions, for protection and for joy. Some cases are unfortunate where some of us didn’t have parents in the first place or no siblings to relate with or some just came from broken homes so they seek happiness from other sources.

Now that we are all grown-ups and living our life almost exclusively independent from our family, we subconsciously put conditions to our love, we put demands of this Dunya first before them, we don’t necessarily look at our parents with the same awe. Only when we encounter problems then we start to admire our parents on how they used to raise us and made us like we are today.
Blessings come in various shapes and home is where our heart is. Let’s try our best in this last days of Ramadhan to purify our love so our parents get the love as they deserve; UNCONDITIONALLY.
…

Unconditionally and sincere before we pray to Allah “I miss my parents so bad, please The Almighty, reunite us in Jannah, the eternal place”.

Pay for Jannah with a loan

Nothing is free in this world. Even Allah has set up a payment for us to pay to stay in Jannah; with our souls. Well, everything belongs to Him so that is perfectly fine but technically you still have to pay for it. Nothing is ever free.

Follow the light - Spain winter trip

If you feel love, you might get hurt; that means your payment is not successful. If you are loved in return, the payment is successful. Easy, right? Or you can just think like this, you want a good house, you gotta have good money and so you must have a good salary so you must have a decent job, etc. The list continues.

I just lost two persons in one week. They passed away when I am not at their side. It deeply hurts but life happens, doesn’t it? We just need to move on with whatsoever wounds or burdens we have.

Let the tears do the talking - Sheffield 

We become stronger and wiser. Nothing less. We might feel otherwise but it is totally fine to feel that way because we’re humans after all. Over time, we will find our ways to get back up on our feet and live life to the full. Life is indeed short to be overwhelmed by though it happens anyways.

Bloom your heart with love - Sheffield

There is a lot more going on now for me apart from that and so I write today. To let myself know some time later that I might be at my lowest point in my life but there are people whom are willing to help and of course channelled from Allah’s mercy, The Mighty God.

All I want to do now is just to sleep and not waking up and hope that all of my problems will be solved but that is so unlikely to happen. Plus, I want to be with my family so it is pointless anyways. Maybe, I can pray that we all; my family and I will be reunited in Jannah at our best condition, each one of us.

Reflect your lessons so you become your hero - Sheffield

I hope I can pay for Jannah enough with all tests Allah has given me and my family because I am just tired but I know Allah will help me to pay for it by all means. He will. For you too...dear reader. He would definitely will. <3 

Give a hand to someone because Allah will reach for you in return - Sheffield

Snowdonia Mt. -- Because Allah never leaves.

Alhamdulillah.. for the chance we had; to hike at Pyg Trail, Snowdon Mountain, Wales 2 weeks ago.

“The greatest thing you’ll ever learn is to love and be loved in return”

Indeed that is true. For the first time, I was far from prayer mat or Quran yet I felt so close to Allah because love is the air once we acknowledge that He created every single thing in Dunya for us to benefit from.

We are humans with such an amazing gift to accept the responsibility as Khalifah and Abid at the same time. Even the mountains would crash into pieces if these tasks were appointed to them.

I saw beauty and solace beyond our hiking trip and that impacted me till today.

Hike wherever you can, be with Mother Nature as much as you can when you feel lost, when you feel hopeless. It just happened to be that I am now in the UK and I can go to hills and mountains here that seem contrary to Malaysia with its tropical beauty.

Lake of Glaslyn (about 500 metres (1,600 ft) east–west and about 300 metres (980 ft) north–south)

Because…

The point where you feel hopeless, Allah is there, summoning your heart to be with Islam again. Go to Him. Go to Him when you can, not when you think you don’t deserve His attention. He never leaves and so when we feel lost, ask Him for directions again. He always listens. He knows we can get lost and feel hopeless when we are tired, we can rebel when we don’t get answers to our questions because He’s the one who created us, remember? Why seek other wasteful pleasure when we can surely obtain peace each time we talk to Him?

Be not underestimate with yourself or be hopeless with Him, The Almighty.

We are all great people with great minds. He never stops teaching us every day. He is the teacher that gave both questions and answers 1400 years ago to our wonders today; the Qur’an. Examples of exercises in the form of hadiths and sirah, guidelines simplified by scholars and life as examination hall.

Let us reflect upon this matter much thoroughly with open hearts, knowing that He loves us and deserves to be loved in return.

Au revoir.. Salam <3

Sherwood Forest--Dwell ain't like reflect.

Salamualayk ! J

Last time I mentioned that it’s been a while I didn’t go hike. Well, to cheer things up, me and my friend went for jungle-trekking that weekend to Sherwood Forest. Robin Hood spot, I would call it as the forest is maintained by concerned citizens at its best. We were thrilled for the fact that we actually were there for a day, tried to remember bits of the myth from children’s books we used to read before. 

Sherwood entrance-credit to N.N

It was a well-spent day for me.

Most trees are sustained/ supported by metal panels 

Of course, I would elaborate my answer as usual. 

That was a nice day for me because I simply had a not-so-motivational week. This forest has not much difference than others but what makes it so special is because of its well-known history. We often find videos with titles like “humanity restored” or “there’s still nice people living among us”, etc. Basically, kindness never disappears. It got caught up with a number of people who merely understand what kindness really is but obviously there’s still nice people living among us.

Ferns under midday sunlight

Robin Hood’s story is one of many stories we’ve heard about and these type of stories unconsciously made us re-think our judgements in daily lives or as simple as realising that the world is not as cruel as we knew of.  It never does. We just tend to think that it is because of stories we have heard or seen or experienced in which sometimes are not enough for us, humans with humane ability in everything, to say so. Allah provides us time to reflect upon every single life event which could consume one’s whole life or a split second just so we understand what kindness really means. He, The Most Merciful Lord, knows all of course understands all never act cruel to us. 

Stories are for us to learn from not to dwell on. 

Trying my best to capture on my phone what my eyes saw- credit to N.N

That’s it from me now. Au revoir. 

Sheffield --- The Beautiful Autumn

editing 1 

Alhamdulillah… It is now Week 6 at the uni and I am still alive. Am making positive progress, I know and really proud of myself for it.

Its been a while that I haven’t been to any hiking spot but my crave for writing has peaked and so here we are now. :D

I did participate in some activities and went to a park in which it is superbly beautiful in autumn! Not to mention that a building in my uni has a remarkable autumn vibe to it.

editing 2

A new semester at the uni taught me to be productive instead of busy or shall we say, busily productive? I hope you know what I mean. :D

Autumn is a season where there can be a number of perspectives given for a life event or mostly the change in nature such as all trees are shading their leaves falling to the ground to be swept off by cleaners and stepped on by people OR the magical leaves’ colour changing.

I like the second opinion in the above paragraph; the colours in this season. It reminds me to how smooth Allah’s plans on every single thing because autumn will definitely change to winter in timely manner but we just never knew for exactly when or specifically what day and time is the change completely done. We just know that winter is coming, we just believe so. It is automated in our brains. Wouldn’t it be nice if we can put the same subconscious, calm thought to Allah’s calendar? It is indeed unseen or unknown but we have something called ‘faith’ to practise it with, aren’t we?

Planner book 

This is just the way I reflect upon this matter. Please do say yours as everyone’s opinion is count (on any medium; in person/ social medias/etc.)

It is similarly interesting when we talk about daylight time saving. When I first knew about this, I did not understand anything, I just minus an hour from my watch during mid-autumn and whole winter and plus back the hour in spring season. I did feel curious in my own confusion about ‘am I losing an hour every day for several months?’ and ‘does it still 24-hour system emotionally?’ Because since night time is longer than day time for a few months, we can get depressed. There is even a medical condition related to seasons changes.

Fallen leaves

So, emotionally, it can pretty stressful when we can’t get enough sunlight for ourselves as we always do but whining doesn’t do much in getting a better result in any situation, right? Except for the illnesses caused by it, then positivity level can be lowered hence must be upgraded even more.

We will appreciate the sun even better in spring and summer and will learn not to whine about the moon in autumn and winter! Reflection upon a subject is always refreshing for me and to have the chance of writing it and share it with others blossomed my heart.

Broomhall - Sunrise

We overlook things sometimes and it is fine. We learn to look a bit closer once we notice we overlooked at something and that would be great. Life is simple. We live, we adapt, and we die. Adapting in living a life or several lives (e.g.: after an earthquake, moving to a new country) is a whole different topic but I hope you get my point of view about simplicity in living life, even complicated stuff are simple once we been through them because we acknowledged crucial lessons in the process which may be difficult but it will pass and it will look simple sooner or later. We are that amazing to be able to look at our miserable pasts and say ‘if that happens now to me or to someone else, I can do something about it’.

Weston Park - misty autumn

Wouldn’t it be nice to think like this sometimes for a change? 

Cave Dale--Soul Purification

Peak District National Walk #3 is complete!

Alhamdulillah for the unforgettable day ever! I am still mesmerised by yesterday’s whole experience. Everything seemed so majestic and can be simply described as heaven on Earth.

In an entry before, I talked about inspiration and in this entry I would love to highlight on mesmerisation upon an inspiration or in other words retaining the inspiration for permanent impact to our minds and souls. This might sounds a bit fishy at first but if you continue to read the whole article, you may understand my perspective.

Again, Alhamdulillah... Yesterday was a window for me and my hiking partner towards finding inner peace. That is how amazing the scene there! As Nouman Ali Khan (Islam preacher) said in a video of his, inner peace can be obtained if there is remembrance to Allah every second, not to wrong others because wrongdoings give negative effects, not only to the receiver but to our souls too and if that occurs, we can hardly remember Him even when we commit a deed. Well, that’s a shame for a Muslim, right? These too logically can mean restoration of humanity of a person as it reflects self-identity which can be applied to every belief, even atheists.

We all come from various backgrounds; culture, religion, custom, political stand, race, country, etc. But one thing we do understand in obvious is a smile can make one’s day. However, we often overlook on the core of an issue where we now accept smiles as an offensive act sometimes. We haven’t achieved inner peace, this is my opinion. Please do say yours if you think this is not.

You know, when I first saw this place in a website, I was already awed by it and by the time I got there, it felt like my heart just dropped to the ground because suddenly I value life (not only mine) so much more valuable than before. I became completely convinced that Allah is never cruel, mistakes happen for us to learn from them (including others’ mistakes that led to our misery), disasters occur for us to see and appreciate beautiful little things/moments more. This particular hiking spot is scenery enough for anyone, not only hikers and it is at easy level last for 4 miles roughly if you can get a map from Visitor Information Centre so I do recommend you guys to come here and taste the soul sanctification.

Source: Internet

I wonder how many pages I will write if I go for a vacation.

Anyways, every single thing is created for a purpose and so do we, as human beings. No matter how difficult our life paths are, we have Allah, we have our self-identity so make use of that faith to embrace tomorrow. Tomorrow can be happy or scary, that is why positivity is crucial on going through today so that we can sleep tonight and hope that tomorrow will be better. ‘Better’ is subjective too so aim high, dream big and achieve well.

Me, writing all these is not because I am a saint. I am just a person and this blog is a medium for me to remember precious moments and lessons I have learned so that I can apply them in my life. For you readers, I hope my message is understood and so let us be inspired with retaining power towards greatness.

*every hope is a prayer, every prayer is heard.

That’s it for now, Salamualayk. 

Snowdon Mt. Invitation--Better Tomorrow

Allahu! I knew it. Hobbies reflect one’s personality. Maybe in the most subtle way we could imagine.

As I have mentioned in my previous entry, my hobbies certainly are to be around Mother Nature and to photograph her as best as I can.

A friend of mine invited me to visit Snowdon Mountain in Wales this winter and I checked it out on Google just to make sure that this place is as promising as my seniors have told me. It turned out to be my mistake to think like that because it has fantastic view all around.

I know now why I loved both of my hobbies so much. I am a person who uses analogy to make people understand my content while talking or writing sometimes and it clearly shows that this is my thinking pattern for lots of matters.

I love how my hobbies symbolise life, my life specifically. I always see a mountain or a hill from the ground as something so magnificent, so glorious standing on its own. Of course, then I would be intrigued to climb it but a person is vary from another physically and as for me, it consumes a lot of energy and emotions(whenever I feel like giving up halfway up the hill). After reaching the top, I would immediately have my phone in my hands to take photos to bring back home. Once I got home, I would edit them or leave them originally and post them on social media or for my personal file. 

This is exactly how we live our lives every single day! As a child, we see a career or a bungalow as something spectacular, impressive enough to make it as our dreams. We grew to achieve or to be exactly the person we wanted to be and it never gets easier than day 1; we got stronger and more cautious instead. Once we get what we hoped for, we craved for it to last and become our everlasting memory in our minds to tell our families and perhaps future generations. We sometimes post our life stories on social media (or not). Am I right?

Nouman Ali Khan (Islam preacher) once said that if we see the world as we should be, every creature and manmade stuff can be a medium for us to reflect upon our life and our doings.

So, would you want to change your thinking pattern once in a while? Sometimes, change is good for both our souls and bodies. I’m saying this because most of us have changed already. As kids, we imagined stuff, we were more positive than we are today, we were innocent, we practically used analogy if you can recall your childhood? Imagination explains it all! Now, we became more realistic, seeing the world as it is; a cruel planet to live on as can be quoted as “only believe what we can see” even love can be misinterpreted to be the meanest feeling. Guess what? All of us have been through a lot. Me too. But, we should never blame on others for what we have done wrong. We are the cruel creatures, the world is the victim (if we want to discuss about global warming etc.)

You know what I’m talking about. We were born for a purpose. To make peace and it is never too late to start something nice. We might have taken a false corner but we can always turn back around and get on track right this moment. I repeat, it is never too late to change for a better tomorrow, for a better us. We struggled. I know we did though I never knew your terrible stories but I am now trying to convince myself by writing all these down for us to remind ourselves that we are smart and good enough to our own self that we can change for the better. All good things can be done alone but it is much more powerful and effective if they are done by a group of people; a community, a country, every soul in the world.

This reminds me of the victorious era when Muhammad pbuh ruled Makkah. This is a fact agreed by great historians and scientists and economists, not simply a religious point of view.

Please drop a comment if you have something to say or to express an opinion. They would be very useful for me to improve next time.

***I think I will definitely accept the invitation. 

Thanks. Salamualayk.