A break which is not a break

Assalamualaikum warahmatullah wabarakatuh,

I will be taking a break from blogging until I submitted my thesis. This a break from blogging but not a break for me! Please make dua for me that I will get my thesis done as soon as possible.

Apology for making such a decision and thank you for your visit.

Wassalam.

An Iraqi wedding

Assalamualaikum warahmatullah wabarakatuh,

I went to Birmingham for an Iraqi wedding this time. I didn't know what to expect because I've never been to any Arab wedding before and this time, I am asked to be the official photographer for the bride's family. Of course there is no payment charged because I am not a skilled and professional photographer, not even a part-time photographer, not even a single photography lesson or course. I was very involved on the day, not just taking photos, but also helping.

My friend basically wanted a female muslim who can help take picture on her wedding because it is a segregated wedding. The bride and all the women in the segregated-women-only hall didn't wear hijab and they wore very beautiful dresses. The bride and bridemaids wore proper English-styled wedding dresses. The groom and male family wore ties and suits and top hats. They were in the men hall.

This couple basically have done their nikkah 2 years ago but according to the Arab tradition, that is what they call engagement, wedding is after this kind of walimah. They are legally husband and wife according to Shari'ah but can't live together according to the tradition. They also have yet registered in the UK law. So, this wedding was really well-planned and run smoothly. The groom is an Algerian.

We went to the function hall at 12pm to set up the halls, one for men and one for women. The bride went straight to the make-up room and stayed there. At 3pm, guests started to come and food was served at 4.30pm. At 6pm, when the bride was ready, she came in with the bridemaids to meet the female guests. She is mashaALLAH very beautiful. She sat on a stage and everyone came up to greet her. Later, arab wedding songs were played and they started dancing. There was this one Egyptian wedding song that stuck in my head until today - 'arisna, 'arisna; 'arustuh, 'arustuh - which means our groom, our groom, his bride, his bride.

At 8pm, all the ladies put on their hijab and jilbab except the bride and the groom's family, to welcome the groom entering the women hall. By then, many guests have gone and only close families and friends left. They took photos and went up the stage for cake-cutting. Then, the bride were dressed by the bridemaids with a few pieces of cloth to cover her so that she could get into the groom's car without letting other men notice her outfit and make-up. They then went straight to a hotel.

By the time we got back home, it was midnight and we were all hungry. The bride too had to ask her brother to buy her dinner at the hotel before we went home. Alhamdulillah, everything went so well and halal because these 2 families are very practising and well-known among the arab muslim community in Birmingham.

I thought my job is just there but the next morning, we went to the hotel to take out-door photos for the couple. It was a lovely day and the garden at the hotel was massive and beautiful. In the evening, they went to their new flat. The husband was so romantic that he asked his sister to decorate the flat with rose petals to welcome her to the new home. There is this tradition for the newly wedded couple to drink milk and eat dates. The next day, they went to Morocco for honeymoon.

May ALLAH bless their marriage with happiness until they enter the Paradise with their offsprings. Amin.

Wassalam.

Paris

Assalamualaikum warahmatullah wabarakatuh,

Yes, I went to Paris last week for a conference but didn't have the time to blog, sorry. Alhamdulillah, everything went well. A sister in London whom I met only twice helped me to contact a French sister who kindly let me stay at her house for FREE for my whole time there. May ALLAH reward them all. Another French sister brought me around Paris and organised a dinner with a group of sisters, mashaALLAH, they are all so nice. I met a group of Malaysians too there. The best part was that I get to enjoy halal French & Italian cuisine which I didn't get while I was in Greece. On my way back on Eurostar, I also get to have halal meal! Can't believe how much the muslims have done in the non-muslim world. 

On my way back to Cambridge, I stayed a night in London and my friend brought me around London. This was the first time I have ever walked around London doing sight-seeing like a tourist who has never been to London. Unfortunately, it was just a short visit and we encountered a parade, apparently to celebrate 'Gay Day'. While getting on the train to go back to Cambridge, I met a group of Cambridge sisters who went shopping in London, alhamdulillah, I have some companies on my journey home.

Seriously, without all these great sisters' help, I would have spending a lot of money for this trip. Their assistance includes:

1. A London sister suggested a French sister who is her housemate to help me regarding accommodation in Paris and in searching the conference location.

2. The French sister found me a sister who is willing to accommodate me for my whole stay in Paris. (And this sister just got married 2 days before I arrived!)

3. 3 sisters in London let me stay at their house the day before my departure to Paris and the day after my arrival in London so that I can get a cheap Eurostar return ticket. 

4. A French sister brought me around Paris, showed me how to use the underground (Metro), organised a dinner with a lot of sisters, and basically be there whenever I needed anything or had any questions about Paris.

5. Another French sister who brought be around Paris to get what I want and sent me to the train station on my last day.

6. 3 Cambridge sisters who were on their way back to Cambridge helped me with my bags and accompanied me home.

Alhamdulillahi rabbil'alamin, that's all that I can say and may ALLAH reward them all.

Alhamdulillah

Alhamdulillah

I'm a muslim

And there's nothing else I wanna be...

(Alhamdulillah - Dawud Wharnsby Ali)

ALLAHU'alam.

Wassalam.

Cambridge Mosque is moving

Assalamualaikum warahmatullah wabarakatuh,

The presence mosque in Cambridge, the one and only tiny little mosque in Cambridge which can accommodate no more than 700 congregations now has found a new site on the same street to build a bigger and purposely-built mosque for more than 1000 congregations. Every Friday, if the men came late, they will have to pray on the street. The new mosque inshaALLAH will provide more and comfortable space for the muslims in Cambridge to pray. MashaALLAH Cambridge has more than 4000 muslims including the students. There are more than 5 places in Cambridge that hold Friday prayer weekly to accommodate everyone. Alhamdulillah, the muslims here try their best to make sure that they observe their prayers here even though the facilities aren't as good as in some muslim countries.

The Muslim Academic Trust led by Shaykh Abdal Hakim Murad has successfully gathered money from generous donors and bought a piece of land on Mill Road to build the new mosque, alhamdulillah. However, the development of this new site must first get the support from the local residents. This is how good the system in UK but the weakness is that it will take longer to get approved. So, we had this meeting with the residents of Romsey today.

The residential area is occupied mostly by non-muslims. Building a mosque for some is like building a muslim area or maybe terrorists centre sort of thing for those non-muslims who have been poisoned by the irresponsible media. It was expected to have questions from them about the 'threat' of building a mosque. After a clear presentation by Shaykh Abdal Hakim Murad chaired by the Chair of Romsey Action, the Q & A session started with the problem of traffic and parking. Mill Road is already a very congested street and with lots of parking problems. However, Shaykh Abdal Hakim managed to dissolve this by assuring that it will only happen once a week during Friday lunch time. Other than that, there will be no problem. Other problems like the garden and other facilities at the site were debated at the meeting but they are not real issue.

Then, there was this old man kept on bringing up the racist issue and got booed by the audience (they are mostly non-muslims), shouting 'Shame' when he said about the muslims are immigrants. Shaykh Abdal Hakim said that he is an indigenous of Cambridge. Later, more non-muslims gave their support for the project including the need of diversity, inter-faith and inclusive. Alhamdulillah, we gain the backing of many of the residents. There are only parking and congestion issue left to discuss. More information about the project is here. It would be great if you can help this project by giving donation as instructed on the page. Email me if you want the bank details for online transfer.

This is how supportive the non-muslims to the muslims in a non-muslim country. I wonder how will muslims give their support to charitable works of non-muslims in a muslim country?

ALLAHU'alam.

Wassalam.

The Lake District

Assalamualaikum warahmatullah wabarakatuh,

Last weekend was the only weekend that the mosque was on holidays! So, it was a perfect time to go for a trip. We went to the Lake District, to be specific, we stayed at Langdale near Ambleside, visited Windermere and Kendal. The accommodation was cheap and comfortable but the weather was horrible. I only get to climb a hill on the first day and the next day was raining the whole time from morning till night to the last day, even on our journey home. It was only when we drove near Manchester that the weather changed to sunny day, urgh! But anyway, we planned but ALLAH plans better than us. Probably this is the best that we can get. Alhamdulillah.

One thing I learn a lot in this trip is the speech of En Nazri, the Director of MSD (Malaysian Student Department). I always thought that those who hold high position in the government usually are corrupted people with 'cables' to climb the ladder without much in their brains. Astaghfirullah, I should have more good opinion on them. En Nazri appears to be a very intellectual person. He knows what is he saying and doing. He gave good advice and talked with all the correct facts and figures. I was really impressed at his speech that night. 

Through this trip, there are some people that I gain more respect for them and there are some that I completely, utterly, loss all of my respect to them to the point of disgust. It is so true a hadith by the Prophet Muhammad (saw). We will not know a person (the real side of the person) until we did 3 things with him/her. 1. Stay with him/her; 2. Travel with him/her; 3. Doing business (muamalah - any kind of interaction or transaction) with him/her. Through this trip, I obviously have done all these 3 with them. The thing that really disgusted me is the fact that a sound, healthy, knowledgeable, able adult muslim who has been reminded to make prayer on the journey did not want to do so but chose to delay it and miss it even until we had arrived home after maghrib then had a meal until after isha! I wanted to give good opinion and lots of excuse for the reason of not carrying out the basic duty of a muslim. I just can't scratch anything out of my brain anymore to give any excuse except to say that the person must have prayed somewhere along the journey that I wasn't presence. 

Now I have realised the verse in the Qur'an about ALLAH will not change the state of a nation until the nation changes their own state. There appears to be a lot of muslims who know that prayer is obligatory and there are a lot of facilities in Malaysia to accommodate this form of worship like mosque, prayer room, wudu area in toilets, adhan in public, etc. But many 'muslims' choose to ignore these. Those saying about even if a nation prayed 5 times a day and didn't work hard to build a nation will never be able to change the state of the nation - is a completely rubbish statement! This is a paradox! It doesn't make sense at all for a nation which observe the obligatory act of worship will not gain success because by being perseverance in keeping the daily prayers sincerely, the nation is perseverance in doing anything - from business to government - sincerely. It's like saying muslims are extremists when real muslims are those on the middle way (ummatan wasatan). Many so-called muslim countries, if there are half of the nation who know the compulsories choose not to please ALLAH by fulfilling the obligatory duty, how on earth that ALLAH will change their state?

All these while I thought that Malaysian muslims aren't that bad. If they don't wear proper attire that cover their awrah, they still at least pray 5 times a day. I was wrong. And that's why ALLAH has yet to lift the difficulties, ignorance and poor state of the country because this nation with 60% muslims who have been educated since young that prayers are obligatory upon sound, healthy, knowledgeable, able adults, many of them choose not to fulfill it, how will ALLAH change our state?

All these while I thought that why we still need to put up signboards saying - pray before you are prayed (means make your prayers before you die and get people to make a funeral prayer for you). Now I have realised how important that signboards are. And this is the last thing that the Prophet Muhammad (saw) said before he breathed his last - ummati ummati salati salati. 

As for other nations which have yet learned about Islam and come to Islam, they are still non-believers (they are not kafir because kafir means one who rejects after truth has come to him/her), there is no obligation upon them. So, keep the argument of that verse of Qur'an out of the realm of non-believers. 

ALLAHU'alam.

Wassalam.

Murray Edwards College

Assalamualaikum warahmatullah wabarakatuh,

Yesterday, I attended the New Hall garden party invited by the soon-to-be-retired President of New Hall, Anne Lonsdale. This was meant to be her retirement party too. We were all given by a surprise speech by her, not that she decided not to retire but New Hall has changed its name to Murray Edwards College. The rational and history behind this are all here. And yes, we have a new website too with new logo. When I try to search this new name, it's already on Wikipedia.

There were mixture of feelings among the students and staff. I think I am a very nostalgic person. Tears suddenly rolled down from my cheeks when I heard the speech. I couldn't take the change at that point and was thinking of raising more money in the future, beat this £30 million and rename the college into New Hall again. But that was a temporal feeling. Today, I think I'm happy with the change and think that it is a way forward for the college. Much of the things will remain the same anyway, it's just a name.

I remember having problem when the sisters' emailing list changed its name from skirt to entropy. I was also very upset by it but eventually came to realise myself. It's just the moment.

With such a long name, usually people will only remember part of it. Like Gonville & Caius College is known as Caius, Sidney-Sussex College is known as Sidney, Lucy Cavendish College is known as Lucy and Corpus Christi College is known as Corpus. I hope we will get a nice glamour name. Btw, what are we now? From New Hallers to...?

Wassalam.

English wedding

Assalamualaikum warahmatullah wabarakatuh,

Summer is full of wedding, alhamdulillah. Yet another great sister has fulfilled half of her deen last Sunday. She is half Turkish and half Welsh married to a Gujerati Indian, so the wedding for the female side was very English. Set in an old building (actually a conference centre built upon old building) with big nice garden during this summer time, it was perfect for the big day. She dressed in white dress with white laces and white hijab while the groom dressed in dark grey suit. They matched each other perfectly. This wedding was blessed by the presence of Shaykh Abdal Hakim Murad with speech, poem, dua and burdah. I like the poem made by the shaykh especially when he said that "A Mohsin who lost in the Sahara" (check out their names in the picture above). 

After the brief ceremony with speech by the bride's father, the shaykh and Qur'an recitation by the groom's best friend; we had a light refreshment followed by photography session. Some took the opportunity to wonder around the massive yet serene garden while the kids played on the grass. We had a Mediterranean dinner with the hosts and the wedding ended with a speech by the fathers, friends and the couples. They then headed off to a hotel in a decorated car. They are now in Spain for honeymoon before they come back for the walimah (groom's side).

Unfortunately, I won't be able to attend the walimah next Sunday cause I have to go to a trip organised by the CAMMP (Cambridge Malaysian Muslim Postgraduates). I pray that their marriage will last forever.

Next month, it's the turn of an Iraqi sister. So, stay tune for an Arab-styled wedding.

Wassalam.

FATIN