Iqamah???

I received some encouraging news yesterday.
Mr.Fouad,our director at work had a meeting with some official in some department and I can finally come back to work with a work permit and residency but its a little bit more technical than that obviously.So my boss and I have to agree to the following terms,some of which I have been briefed on.Some tax issues,insurance and a security deposit.The latter is what my boss would have to incur,which lets just say isn't a small amount.I got word that it seems ok for now,but still waiting for the confirmation.Lets pray it comes through today so that I wont have to go through the agony of waiting the entire weekend.
Oh the waiting.

Tandoori night

I have it in the oven,tandoori chicken,thats right,we're having indian tonight..God,it seemed like it took forever to clean that bird.if it wasn't for the icy water and weather,it might've been fun but my fingers are frozen now so no,it wasn't fun cleaning it.but the smell of it roasting away in the oven makes it all worth it,everytime!Michael and the family are gone for a Naqshabandi gathering,well,its actually girls only,so he's just waiting for them,the gentleman.The house gets really quiet when Michael isn't around,he's always singing and praying,brings the house to life.Dare I say it again but I couldn't have been placed into better hands.Placed i say because God put me here and thanks should be given for that.Alhumdulillah

La ilaha illa Anta, Innee kunthu min-azzaalimeen

Wow,one whole day.It feels like it has been ages since i lasted posted anything.Well,yesterday was just like any other day,almost like any other because everyday isn't really the same,the honest truth is that I just didn't feel up to it.I have been fighting myself,fighting myself to stay positive,to keep my chin up,but it isn't easy sometimes.It just feels like nothing is working in my favour.But alhumdulillah there is alot going on.I think its just the one thing that I want so desperately that isn't happening,but then I have to have patience,and sometimes that word feels like such an enemy.But i know that I should and can never give up for I'm not alone in this.

Yunus (Jonah) was the son of Mitta according to a Tradition quoted in Sahih Bukhari but the Torah states that his father's name was Amittai.
When the prophethood was conferred upon him, he was commanded to go Nineveh for preaching the true faith of God.  Nineveh was situated on the right bank of the river Tigris.  It was the capital city of Assyria.  Its people were arrogant and conceited.  They led sinful lives.  The Prophet Yunus (peace be upon him) tried his best to reform them but they turned a deaf ear to his advice and warnings.  Soon he began to feel disgusted.  Consequently human frailty overpowered him.  He flew into a rage and invoked Allah's wrath on the people of Nineveh.  He became impatient and departed without waiting for further command from Allah.  He imagined perhaps God had no power over him.  The Prophet Yunus (peace be upon him) proceeded towards the sea and took a boat.  Unfortunately the boat was caught in a storm.   The sailors held him responsible for bringing misfortune to the boat.  They decided to throw Prophet Yunus (peace be upon him) into the water but the passengers did not agree to their decision.  Then lots were drawn and the name of Prophet Yunus (peace be upon him) came out.  The Prophet Yunus was thrown into the sea for the safety of the  boat.  When Prophet Yunus (peace be upon him) fell into the water, a great fish with capacious belly drew him in.  He was in extreme distress.   He realised that he had to suffer for committing dereliction towards his duty as a prophet.  Instead of running away he must have relied upon the power of Allah even in the most discouraged circumstances.

This story teaches us above all that we should rely solely on our Lord for He is the only one who can help us.Other people like Mr.F and them are trying but it is only through Allah's will, that one can succeed.

So anyways,last night after esha,Michael brought Taiyo home for dinner,we were talking about life here in Jordan and what's been going on in the Middle East.We also spoke about Berlitz and how he's finding it.It was interesting.Michael's wife prepared steak,eggs and chips.We felt like we were in a restaurant,they way it was presented.SubhanAllah,she goes out of her way every day.I really don't know how to thank them for everything they're doing for me during this unstable time of mine.

We left to get something for Michael's wife to eat,from a mall not far from their place.When we got back,the 3 of us, ie. Michael's wife, Michael and I sat in the kitchen and spoke about Islam and Da'wah till like 2 in the morning.This is our daily discussion.

You know it is the only thing I really want to do in my life.I truly feel its my purpose.
(Remember Allah during times of ease and He will remember you during times of difficulty.)

Duwar-madina to Mjamma3-jdeed

i had been meaning to go to Zarka for a few days now,for no reason but just to visit. i stayed there a few years ago.its situated about 30 minutes outside of Amman,its one of Jordan's biggest cities.i thought if i went there i'd possibly bump into some old faces,get a chance to catch up and also practice some arabic,the Zarka dialect.
so this morning,Michael's wife was saying how mike's dad liked a certain picture they had sent him,so i was telling them that they should also make a blog for Noor and invite me to it so that i can see her progress too.but then i learned that their photoshop wasn't working and they wanted to use it to make the blog look extra cool.and they didn't know where to purchase it from,so this was the perfect excuse for me to go to Zarka because i know a few shops there that sell software programs.
so after asr,at around 4 we had lunch,pasta alfredo,my sister had given me some easy to prepare ones,and i asked mike's wife if she could make it for us,so today she prepared that.it was delicious,i love alfredo,its so creamy.
i got ready after lunch and left for zarka.i walked for a bit then caught a taxi to Duwar Madina.from there i jumped onto a service taxi,which is your normal yellow cab,but you share it with 3 other guys,each person pays a Dinar.its better than the microbus because its faster and cleaner.
the taxi stopped at Mjamma3 Jdeed,and from there i took a walk to the souq.
the souq there is big and full of life,but crowded and smelly is something that you must expect and deal with,its all good.
i found the software after a while and then i left to come back here because i was hungry and desperate for the toilet.i walked back to the Mjumma3 and searched for a taxi but none of them were service taxis so i just got onto a microbus,which took forever to leave because they have to fill all the seats before they leave,so after 10 minutes we departed.35 minutes later i was back at Duwar Madina and made my way to the house,any other time i wouldn't have minded walking because its only about 1 or 2 kilometeres away but today i was so desperate that i had to get a taxi.but obviously i couldn't find one,so i ended up walking up all the way,i felt like i was going to explode.i ran into the bathroom and was crying from the relief i felt.
i then got into the room,read that long email,called you,was so good talking to you for more than 10 minutes,wAllah.
after that i went down and bought some z3tar,labneh,zeitoon,khubz and mawz.felt so traditional,i love it.
had that for dinner and mike's wife also prepared liver curry and rice.i munched that afterwards,i was nice and stuffed.
i chilled with noor for about 15 minutes then she got a bit sleepy so she was taken away.and i immediately got down to this..

samoosa morning

i woke up really late today hey,its becoming a habit,its the jetlag i tell you,its going to be a while for me to get rid of it.

but then i had a lovely surprise,michael mentioned one of my favourites was on the menu for breakfast.samoosas..ofcourse i hadit with tea,they were lovely,i love samoosas,its a subcontinent savoury,its a triangular stuffed pastry,usually mince,potatoes and cheese and sweetcorn but essentially you could fill it with anything you fancy :) ..

it actually always reminds me of Ramadan,because its a must at the time of iftar back home.everyone prepares them.my favourite is cheese and sweetcorn,my mum loves fish filling,God knows why,i cant stand it.

i'm thinking of my mum because she had some samoosas in New Zealand for me,but i asked her not to fry them,God knows why i said that because i so regret it now..

..

Dala'il al-Khayrat

Dala'il al-Khayrat  is a famous collection of prayers for Islamic prophet Muhammad, which was written by the Moroccan Sunni Sufi and Islamic Scholar Muhammad al-Jazuli (died 1465).

Moroccan hadith scholar ‘Abdullah al-Talidi wrote of the Dala’il al-Khayrat: “Millions of Muslims from East to West tried it and found its good, its blessing, and its benefit for centuries and over generations, and witnessed its unbelievable spiritual blessings and light.
The legend behind the origin of the Dala’il al-Khayrat are that Imam al-Jazuli once awoke late for his morning prayers and began to look in vain for pure water to perform ritual ablutions. In the midst of his search al-Jazuli encountered a young girl who was aware of al-Jazuli's famed religiosity and was bewildered on why al-Jazuli could not find pure water. The girl then spit into a well which miraculously overflowed with pure sweet water for al-Jazuli to perform ablutions.
Consequent to performing prayer, al-Jazuli inquired to the means by which the girl achieved such a high spiritual station. The girl replied it was simply by "Making constant prayer for God to bless the best of creation by the number of breaths and heartbeats." Al-Jazuli then resolved to write a work collecting litanies of prayers asking God to bless and show mercy and kindness to the Prophet Muhammad.

So today after the maghrib prayers,some of the brothers here at the centre gather together and recite the entire book,we sat from maghrib until esha and recited it and by Allah as i was reading it,i could feel all my problems and stresses be alleviated.subhanAllah it was a beautiful and calming feeling,i thought to myself why i wasn't doing this more regularly.

It was just yesterday i was thinking about my father and i wondering how he manages to always look so calm and collected through all the adversities that face him and now i know he accomplishes that,well it must be because he recites the Dala'il al-Khayrat daily,there wasn't a day that went by that my beloved father never recited it.How silly i am for not following these things that father who was in front of me all my life.
I love you Abba for the sake of Allah and His beloved prophet (peace be upon him.).
Mummy jaan,i love you too.

sial shareef part 1.flv

flower power

today has been a great day alhumdulillah.i got some really positive news,Maame called me and informed me that i'm not on the blacklist which is so fantastic.that means that i can go back and work because i miss working,and i can pay off my debts,but most of all i can see my Maame once again.

but all of that great news just happened at around 4pm,from teez as subu7 i was awake reading the summarized version of  "I7ya uloomal-deen".then at around 11 michael and i went to get his blood test done at this govt facility so that he could get his work permit,alhumdulillah,all legit here in Jordan.whilst we there waiting for mike to get his blood test done,we saw the nurse give a phillipino passport to a russian woman and do the russian woman's blood test on the phillipino woman's passport,i mean i'm sure these things happen all the time but i just couldn't stop laughing until the nurse gave me a stern look that must've meant that if i didnt stop,she'd stick that needle into my eye..Aaaah..

so after that drama we walked home and on our way we stopped at a nursery because mike thought that he'd start off his garden right away.he has a balcony here at his apartment and had been talking about it for a while. so we purchased some pots and some plants.good stuff,mint,rosemary,and some flowers..

we got it potted then we brought it home.you should've seen mike,he was ecstatic but that was nothing because when noor saw the colours,she was just gleaming,i bet she cant wait to start grabbing them once she can walk.   

michael's wife prepared a lovely meal,french egg rolls,and chicken corn soup,was delicious.just before asr we made a little journey to the bookshop to get something printed and mike bought me a nanggg taqiyyeh..its a handwoven woolen one..its awesome..now i fit right into the karabsheh society. 

TONSA SHARIF PIR PATHAN PIR SIAL

day 6

michael,his wife and noor are making my life bearable

 through the love of Allah and his Beloved messenger peace be upon him.

the moment they're not around,i feel like i'm going to have a proper nervous breakdown,

so today was a quiet day.i was awake quite early but once again

 i had one of those dozing off days.i eventually got out of bed

 just before zuhr azan and made myself a cup of tea,then i chilled with michael.

the nightmare is once i wake up and realise i have to wait for news that may be terrible,

its unbearable.
a definate plus in the day is watching little noor ponder away at why her crab rattle would not talk back to her and have her own conversation with her her little toys

so this evening,after esha,we went to the mall to get some groceries,

and before buying that,we had a burger for dinner at a restaurant called chilis,it was scrumptious

blue mosque-blue day

so cuz,1.that's a recent one of me,3 weeks ago to be precise..
infront of the blue mosque in istanbul..
2.the thing is,i had to compress all my photos because it would take forever to upload,therefore they dont get bigger.unfortunately.
3.there's a problem with my flash card that i had been using in my camera,so i cant access pictures of my nephew presently,but as soon as i can,i'll post them for sure..
ok,so i was stuck in this beautiful place,i was scheduled to fly to new zealand but i missed my flight and was stuck there for 3 days,unplanned vacation.but alhumdulillah,it was the night of the birth of our beloved prophet,peace be upon him,so i got the chance to observe this holy night in one of the most beautiful mosques instead of in seat 29D on Etihad air

you're framed

before you say "ok that looks interesting",stop and think about what you're looking at.
what is it that you're looking at?
if you have any guesses,drop me a post and i'll get back to you on it.
ps.maame,i've been waiting for your suggestions,why didnt you get back to me?

fancy a cup?

above: a cup of tea in the Golan heights,inside a bullet riddled hospital..

above: sharing a cup of tea at the plush Khawali's in Shaam

the Allys

that there is the Ally fam..back in NewZealand.was a few hours before i departed.we had a birthday party for my niece,zahra,actually her birthday had been over for a few weeks by then,but my mummy,the lovely gran that she is,promised her.a few baloons,a little chocolate cake and lots of candles..funny thing happened,my brother in-law spent couple of hours looking for a cake,it took that long because most of the shops were closed by the time they left,shops in Manukau close at around 5 .anyways,they eventually brought home two lovely cakes,then Ahmed goes to inspect the lovely cakes,because he has experience with these things and almost immediately he points out that the cakes contain gelatine in them,which means that we cant consume them,so you can only imagine how happy my sister and Nazir were about this.but no probs,we saved the day with our countdown chocolate cake...

nalain shareef

living space

thats home,my living space in damascus..it was the night i had the Fletchers over for dinner.was little over a month ago.its where i long to be

finally

its been a week now since i've been away from Damascus.i should be saying that,thats where i am supposed to be,but in actual fact,i am exactly where i am supposed to be.no matter what i may think or feel,this is where i have been set indefinately,i realised this the moment i landed in Amman but only today during the tasawwuf lesson was i given the strength to understand this and fully accept it.i also learned that repentance is not only blurting out sorry to God and please forgive me,its understanding what you are repenting for and not just knowing that you wont commit the sin again but knowing why you wont.

ibn batuta meets michael jordan : part 3

so as soon as i cleared customs in Queen Alia International,i tried to contact my dad to get him to cancel the tickets that he got from Amman to Jo'burg,unfortunately,the sim that i had purchased in September 2010,wasn't working,and because i was there so early,non of the kiosks were open for me to find out what was wrong or to even purchase a new sim,anyways,15 minutes later,the Umniah kiosk opened and before even asking the assistant there what was wrong,i started buying a sim,but just when i was about to pay,i don't know what made me ask him if the sim that i already had on me would work,and so it did,so i went to the Zain kiosk,got some units and tried to reach my father but in vain,so i contacted Maame,told her that i had arrived safely and asked her to contact my father which she did.now when my father replied,she was so excited because he had suggested that she refer to him as abba,which is what i call him,Abba..i too was very happy about that,feeling that she had been accepted by my father.i then contacted Michael to let him know where i was and he informed me he was a few minutes away.
10 minutes later,there was michael,with his 'Shukr' hat on,and welcoming smile.i couldnt tell if he was more relieved that i was out of that fix i had been in or that we would be chilling for a few days together,just like the old days.we shared a warm and safe embrace (well it was safe for me) alhumdulillah,something that i really needed.we then took off to the spiritual retreat that God had in store for me.

hopping about

Atop mount victoria,sounds huge doesn't it,but it isnt't really that high up,which is great because the panoramic view thats caught from there is immense.the city of sails,thats what auckland is called,and you can appreciate that title,most,from here.
i didn't have the pleasure of staying longer than half an hour there,but those moments that i did spend up there were overwhelming.you realise how insignificant you are relative to everything thats spinning around you.its some place i would want to go to again,but God willing with my maame..

Lepidoptera Waves

the air new zealand logo,has intrigued me from the moment i set foot in Auckland.it is meant to resemble waves,which i happen to have a passion for but thats not what caught me stuck in kiwi mud,it was the fact that my Maame had done a painting of a huge butterfly,and the wings of the butterfly incorporates these waves,identically..something you have to see,an will be uploaded in the near future.yes i promise!

chilli bites

some call it pakoras some call it bhajias,but whatever they may be called,they're nice and spicy and yeah they're perfect for this chilling Amman weather.where are you aunty Aadila?i want some chilli bites!!!
ps.thank you for introducing me to pavlova,i'll never forget our first fluffy melt in your mouth meeting..

part 2: ibn batuta meets michael jordan...

so previously,paradise was introduced.after finally getting through to michael via our mate Rami,who was so helpful by mediating.i was able to let michael know that i was coming to drop him a visit,a short visit was what i planned..i think it safest for all parties concerned for me to skip a few lines and cut to the chase..so i finally get on to Royal Jordanian,flight was scheduled to depart at 8am from damascus international and land in Queen Alia in amman at 8:45am but you know how these pilots are,they were obviously service drivers before because the guy landed in amman 20minutes after departure,that must be like some world record.i was amazed i tell.
now after all the drama that i was going through over the past couple of days,i was expecting the same here in Jordan but lo and behold,i walked through immigration as though i was wearing the invisible tunic that Harry Potter wears about when he has nothing better to do.it was just incredible,i must have gotten through immigration in under 30 seconds,collected my bag and headed towards the exit.
michael himself wasn't even anticipating such an early exit even though you could say he is an ardent believer of the structuredness of amman.but here i was,9am,bags in hand,awaiting my brother whom i hadnt seen in just over a month and was missing terribly.God had no plans of keeping us apart contrary to our own.smack in the face again,puny humans!!! 

Ibn Batuta meets Michael Jordan

been suffering for 2 days already for what seemed to have been at least 2 months at the immigrations holding cell,which isnt as bad as i make it out to be,but it is terrible.its one of those times where you say you wouldn't wish that on your worst enemy,but trust me,being there for all those hours having nothing to do,i did, a few times think which person i would wish it on..so this holding cell,no bigger than a foul's run,was somewhere in the airport,nasty looking place,about 6x4,covered with distasteful blogs if you may call it,by previous detainees,expressing their love for the sweet and caring officers that were so gracious and hospitable towards them..so anyways,you'll learn more about paradise later on..oh and the handsome gentleman is drago from burkina faso,striking a pose,half an hour before departure.
so i text michael,to a number that was given to me by him,and for some reason i knew it wouldn't work,but i tried in any case..it went something like this: "salam bro,is it possible for me to crash at your place for a few days?i'm in a bit of a fix."..boy was that the understatement of the year.but anyways,as you can imagine,he didnt reply because that number just so happened to be out of service for a while.whats a guy to do in my position?TRY!thats what!!!