بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
‘Is it just me, or does it feel like Dunya be Dunya-ing extra hard lately?’
I love my twin soul, Sasha. My twin sister. Can people even tell us apart? (/j)
Our housemate Shirley often gets our names mixed up. Plus Sasha and I share an Islam. And an Asia: she’s from Central, I’m from South. We share an England too: I’m from London, and she’s from Manchester.
I hope her future kids, and mine, are friends, In Shaa Allah. It would be great if one of her kids were to end up marrying one of mine too. Knowing her: her children will be beautiful, may Allah Bless them all. Inside and out. And really funny.
Sasha is leaving Cambridge soon. But I hope and want: that this is only temporary. In Shaa Allah.
Lots is going to happen, in coming days. I don’t know exactly how to feel. Sasha will be moving to Bath. Maybe only for a year: maybe she will come back. Distance from one whom the heart knows to love: it can feel constricting. [And ‘love’ is not only the sexual/marital type. Friendship — la amistad, in Spanish. With a Latin root: amor means ‘love’. ‘Friendship’ in English also has a ‘love’ root! Proto-Indo-European!].
How could our house ever feel warm anymore without Sasha, its beating human heart?
It has almost been 8 months since we became housemates and friends. I scarcely ever feel I could be good enough for blessings such as this; for love. And, yet:
My Lord Commands something. He Says, “Be!” and it is.
My Rabb Surprises me. And Sasha has taught me love:
How to… actually like hugs. How to be more put-together and responsible [although: I did spill water on my laptop keyboard yesterday, by accident. And potentially also left the small oven on. And put chips in the oven without putting baking paper on the tray, so: some moderately burnt chips ended up being produced.
But: Sasha to the rescue, for example with that blue cloth; with being the one to have realised that the oven had been on all that time; with placing parchment paper onto the baking trays]. I’ve also learnt, from Sasha: how to navigate feelings, and communicating them, better. How to… be more confident, authentically, really. And, for certain, how better to live, with others in the world.
What is immediately apparent about Sasha, when someone meets her, Maa Shaa Allah: is… her openness of heart. It does not matter whom you are: she has, effortlessly and unassumingly, room for you, in her heart. Raḥmah. And in her uniquely open mind. And in her sense of humour. May Allah Bless my dear and beloved friend. Āmeen.
Sasha says: “Here you go sweetie,” and then offers something of what she herself is having. Snickers ice-cream, chocolate, vegan sausage roll from Tesco…
She is so kind, and vast, in her heart and in her goodness. Maa Shaa Allah; she loves, and is Beloved by, God.
A Resetting, a Purification of Intentions:
Our actions are defined, fundamentally, crucially, and all throughout their foundations: by the Intentions defining and underlying them. So: let them be golden ones. Innit blud.
Innit fam.
*And yes: one can be fully Muslim, and retain one’s personal identity. Just ask Sasha: she a cool girl, Allah hummabārik lahaa.
When things get difficult. And when our ‘Dunya aims’ don’t seem like they always seem to be working. We do things in God’s Name.
Even waiting. Even hurting. Even working. And to do things in God’s Name means, perhaps, to do them beautifully. Excellently: in the best ways in which we can. Everything is happening exactly as they are meant to: don’t you worry, child.
Every Sunday, at the House: we would try and have ‘House Dinners’ together. Different themes: for example, movies. Books. Childhood.
The key word is that we would try, each week, to have as successful a House Dinner as possible: i.e., in this life, we have our ‘idealistic’ ‘visions’ and ‘aims’. We see worth, real value, in them. We try to meet them. And, still: Dunya be Dunya, after all.
Nothing, really, will be Perfect, here.
This is what we have, writ on one side of one of our two fridges. The fridge that would make weird MOOOO! sounds, back when we’d MOOOO-ved in:
Yesterday’s House Dinner — our ‘last’ one, with Sasha, who has been the human heart of our home, Allah hummabārik:
Well: we’d decided to host a ‘McDonald’s’ themed one, and invite friends!
We made homemade Happy Meals (*trademark signs*) by getting multicoloured party bags, and filling them with… chips. Fish fingers. Ingeniously placed in homemade parchment-paper pouches, by Sasha! And some of them had coloured-in (fake) McDonald’s logos on them. Maryam, a friend of mine I met… yesterday… and I had coloured them in.
Sasha and I have been getting good at hosting, Allah hummabārik. Thus far, we have hosted… our friend Tas.
Then: our friends from London, Jade and Naseera.
And: our friends from Cambridge, Aqila and Numa.
And, yesterday: we had…
Maryam from the masjid. Numa and Aqila, whom we’d met at the masjid, in Ramadān! And Shirley, our housemate, who’d pretended to be our manager yesterday. Get back to work! No slacking! [And who, at one point, as a joke: got a roll of Christmas wrapping-paper to whack Numa with. So I asked her if she was being Islamophobic.]
We also had: Ann, there, who is from Taiwan, and who is studying children’s book illustration. She is amazing at drawing, Allah hummabārik! And she’d brought… bubble tea for us!
We had A’iyshah from the Cambridge Muslim College there too, Maa Shaa Allah.
And: what a treat, AlHamduliLlah.
Allah.
He is your Rabb, and mine. He is the Rabb of this Universe, and every single thing: atom, object, flower, pencil, house, and ring. Everything.
“Surely nothing on earth or in the heavens is hidden from Allah.
He is the One Who shapes you in the wombs of your mothers as He wills. There is no god ˹worthy of worship˺ except Him—the Almighty, All-Wise.”
— Noble Qur’an. Surah Al-ʿImran, Vv 5-6.
I’d come across these verses when, during a spot, a patch, a time, of feeling-down-ness (tiredness, uncertainty,) today, I’d gone to the maroon-red, and characteristically peaceful, prayer room at the College [I go to an Islamic College in Cambridge, England, for anybody who’s new here!] and…
I picked up a copy of the Qur’an. Specifically: a really nice and pretty one, Maa Shaa Allah. Really quite nice to [be]hold. A word-by-word translation one! Published by the Cordoba Institute. Sasha mentioned that this Qur’an publication is actually fairly new. And: the CMC (Cambridge Muslim College) is, AlHamduliLlah quite an up-to-date one, in terms of what’s going on in the realms of academia and… the world!
Anyway. AlHamduliLlah. I promise that even amid the darker patches in this life of yours: there’s Khayr in it. Goodness – and blessings – and sometimes momentarily disguised. Wait to see it, won’t you?
There’s meaning to it all, when you have Allah in your life, and care about what He thinks of you.
Yesterday:
Whom you are, and whom you have ever been, and whom you will ever be:
Allah Knows. He Fashioned you, atom by atom, as well as the fundamental immaterial part of you. And your whole life’s story, journey. Seerah ❤
And: He is in charge of your Naseeb. Every single thing that you will ever have, and/or be given, acquire, in this Universe: He is in Complete Control. He is in Charge.
Yesterday, I went to the masjid so as to try to get some work done – studying, Arabic – in the café. And: I’d seen that a Scouts group had been visiting the masjid that day. Kind of recently, I’d also spoken to some women from some sort of ‘Women’s Institute’, who’d been paying this, the Central Masjid, a visit. [Though I’d been shy. But: some things are worth it!]
One lady from this Women’s Group had looked at the side of the book I’d been carrying. A book by Guardian journalist Owen Jones. The lady politely remarked how Owen Jones is a ‘provocative’ writer, isn’t he, and mentioned something, I think, in relation with the topic of the book: ‘social class’. And I returned something like how: it’s an important, and maybe I said the word ‘necessary‘ or highly relevant, topic to talk and think about.
Anyway. Schools visit the Cambridge Central Mosque, sometimes. The masjid has a beautiful garden right outside of it. Frequently renewed, it seems, in terms of the flowers on display in it. Lovingly nourished, and trimmed, and taken good care of.
Inside the masjid: facing where I’d been sitting had been… a family. Maybe they’d been Bengali. #Bengali senses?
And: there’d been a White, American I think, man with them. He had been there with them to take his Shahādah – his declaration of faith, accepting Islam – at the masjid. He seemed quite confident; he seemed nervous. He seemed like he’d been surrounded by family, and I don’t know if these had been his family friends, or…
A story had lightly run through my mind: maybe the man and the daughter of the family, who seemed comfortable around him, want to get married. And maybe the brother had come to learn of the Truth of Islam. Beauty leads us to Truth; it attracts us. It is a gateway to Truth, and this is why I love that the Cambridge Central Masjid, and in terms of the worshippers who go there, is so garden-like. So: a glimpse of Heaven, here on Earth. So: beautiful.
Everything you are: Allah Willed for you to be like this! Inside and out!
And everything, everything you will ever have, and everything everything that will ever ‘miss’ you: by Allah’s Perfect, Undeniable and Inevitable, Will.
“This really is a special house, isn’t it?”
Said Sasha. As Shirley cuts potatoes with one of her new beloved knives. Shirley’d been chanting: ‘We POISON it all, we POISON it all,’ for some reason.
“No, say she’s in her Disney villain era,” said Sasha, after hearing the lines above.
Yesterday: for our McDonald’s House Dinner, Shirley had been in charge of drinks. i.e. the squash.
Sasha had been in charge of fish fingers.
And me: chips, ‘Happy Meal’ bags, and… the toy inside.
I’d been thinking: to go to Tesco, or Sainsbury’s, or Poundland, or… a charity shop [for the toys,] or what?
With Allah’s Help: I’d settled on… B&M. And then maybe check Asda, and Lidl.
Guess what?!
No, no, no. *Guess* what?
Psych. The truth is: you couldn’t! You do not know what – all the subtle and certain… * wonders * – that your Lord has Planned for you!!!!
At the masjid, I saw Sasha. And she had a friend, called Maryam, whom she’d met while volunteering at the masjid in Ramadān. I’ve seen Maryam before, I’m pretty sure.
Maryam shared some (delicious! AlHamduliLlah) Thornton’s hazelnut truffles with us. She is very open, and elegant, and good-natured, Maa Shaa Allah. And then! I’d been wondering, I guess, about which supermarket to go to, and… how to get there. It would take a fair while to walk there, and walk back.
Guess what?! Maryam, and a blue key. She: effortlessly, Subhaan Allah, offered up her bike, her trusted noble steed, for me to ride to Asda/B&M/Lidl. And, although she’d known Sasha: I’d just met her!!!!!!!!
I love Maryam’s smile. Maa Shaa Allah. And her bike:
Wow! I love it. Quite ‘vintage’. White, and ‘old-fashioned’. Somewhat rusty, and the best way. And: a white metal basket!
She gave me – trusted me with – her bike, super kindly, and effortlessly!
- The bike had been locked outside of the masjid, with one of those heavy Oxford bike chain locks. And: the seat had been kind of high for me. Maryam is tall, Maa Shaa Allah, and while I am small. I could not put the bike-seat down: it seemed like it had been secured in place. So I just sat on the elevated leather seat. And it was perfect. My carriage; my camel, my horse. ‘Call the Midwife’ vibes. AlHamduliLlah.
- Maryam offered her bike helmet to me also, but it did not fit over my head. She also told me to use the bike’s circular side mirror.
- But: I lack the road skills to do such a thing.
“Speed provides the one genuinely modern pleasure.”
— Aldous Huxley, a British writer. And I’d come across this quote on the wall when I’d visited the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, London. With my friend, the Naval Officer, Iqra.
Learning happens every day, and ‘most every where. It’s so cool! AlHamduliLlah ❤
Cycling, then. On a borrowed bike, lent by a new, radiant friend. Maa Shaa Allah! A hero, Maryam-to-the-rescue, friend!
On the Road…
[…is the name of a book I’d read for my English A-level (specifically: a Cambridge Pre-U course). For my ‘coursework’: controlled assignments. I highlighted through my books, and there’d been so many little post-it-notes popping out of them.
‘On the Road’ is a book by Jack Kerouac, an American writer, and a pioneer of the Beat[nik] Generation. Ginsberg vibes. More on this, at some point later, In Shaa Allah.]
Anyway. On the actual road, for me, on Maryam’s quaintly gorgeous white bike, Maa Shaa Allah:
So nice!
The theme of Rizq.
Riding a bike in and through Cambridge: with certainty, a good idea.
Currently enjoying, AlHamduliLlah, a good cup of tea (two tea-bags! That’s part of the secret to making a good coopa, as a Northerner might say), with Maryland cookies (classic,) while I write, here in the refectory (lunch room) of the Cambridge Muslim College. I tell you: I am the Cookie Monster. You give me cookies; I will eat said cookies.
Anywhom. This tea-and-cookie combination is reminiscent of my childhood. The small white teacup, and tea and cookies, some mornings. Thank you mum; thank you Allah.
Back when I’d ridden Maryam’s bike to B&M: I could not find what I’d been searching for, there. Yet: Allah Knows exactly where to Take you. And from where He has Assigned your Rizq. I found the chips (£1.65. Cheap ASDA brand; a student’s budget,) and some multicolour-star paper party bags. And: in terms of ‘toys’ for our ‘Happy Meals’: I thought about plastic trophies. Or: stamps, among other things. But I ended up getting shiny paper pointy party hats. And rose-gold paper straws. And also put some stickers in each bag. And I wrote a little note on each ‘Happy Meal’ bag, for each person.
Well, back at ASDA: I had… a problem. Houston, Sadia has a problem.
What’s new?
I’d… left my money in my pencil case, which had been with Sasha, back at the masjid! Oh no! Plus: I’d been rather low on (phone) charge! (Classic me, actually).
Eventually, however, Subhaan Allah, Glory be to God: my friend Aqila drove to ASDA, to help! A real-life hero, she, Maa Shaa Allah. And what a beautiful smile this lady has, may Allah Bless her!
Embarrassing, but, still. And, in any case, something I think I’ve been learning how to do better is… asking for, and/or accepting… help!
The idea is: people have their strengths, and their capacities. And what Allah has Blessed them with. A car, maybe. A good heart. Others have needs, and wants. And so: the ‘haves’ become aids and tools and ways and blessings; the ‘wants’ are opportunities, gateways to Khayr, goodness.
Allah is the Lovingkind, and these: these are His servants!!!!!!!
So, two of the heroes of that day, Sunday, had been: Maryam. And Aqila.
Not too long later, when I’d been back at the masjid returning Maryam’s bike, I found her teaching Qur’an to someone, a sister called… oh man, did I forget her name?! I’m good with faces; not so great with names. Anyway: a revert sister, as far as I know.
In our tradition, we know that the best of people are the ones who… teach Qur’an, and learn it. [ref: a Sahih – authenticated – Hadith (a saying of the Prophet -S-), according to Bukhāri, a highly trustworthy scholar].
Maryam is of the best of people. A real-life superhero!!!!!! Maa Shaa Allah.
Another hero from the day had been: the gentleman who had helped me with pulling my Abaya out of the front wheel of Maryam’s bike. Young Sadia Ahmed: how. How do you manage to get yourself into situations such as these, young lady? How?!
Still: they make life… all the more exciting. And there are golden teaching points nestled within them! AlHamduliLlah!
Anyway. What happened was:
I’d been wearing a (modest, long, flowy) green dress. With a navy blue open Abaya on top. And I figured: let me be responsible. Let me do the responsible, adult, put-together thing, and place my open Abaya into the basket. Lest…
Lest it gets caught in the chains or something. Like it has done, several times before. In London! [I’m sorry, mum!]
Anyway. And what happened, while I’d been on my way back from the superstores, to the masjid? Whoooosh! ZZZZZT.
My open Abaya flew from the basket. Into the front wheel, thus stopping the whole bike. While I’d been in a sort of quiet, residential area, let’s say. My phone had also been resting on top of my Abaya, for directions from Google Maps. I would like to thank Google Maps – the people behind it – for helping to facilitate my journeys, on many an occasion, AlHamduliLlah.
Someone who’d been passing by, a man, asked me if I need help. And I, instinctively, call it ‘pride’, or call it: being afraid that you would be ‘burdening’ a fellow human being. I said something like:
I’m alright, thank you.
Dear Reader: was I ‘alright’? Had I really been ‘alright’?
So, that man left. But: be careful. A person who offers to help you: may well have been Sent by Allah. So be careful. We can graciously accept help, and just be super grateful about it before, during, and after, the help is given!
AlHamduliLlah: another man who’d been passing by offered to help. He was very kind, and respectful, Maa Shaa Allah. He did point out that this could have been dangerous: imagine the bike abruptly stopping if I’d been cycling on a proper road, and at speed.
Thankfully, AlHamduliLlah: she lives on. She (me) and also the bike. I am not sure about the current state of the Abaya, however. Anyway. The garment had been yoinked out successfully.
And, yes, our ‘McDonald’s’-themed House Dinner had been quite a success! AlHamduliLlah!
And Ann had brought bubble tea, and Aqila and Numa brought cake. Which: we. Someone among us, maybe Aqila, (teamwork makes the dream work!) cut up, and arranged on a plate (our gorgeous blue plate, handed over by Shirley). I snip-snipped a white rose, from the bunch in the middle of our kitchen table. And placed it in the middle. And: Maryam had the ingenious idea to: use one of her Thornton’s chocolates, to perch the flower upright! Check it out:
To quote one… Maher Zain:
“I love it, (oh, oh,) I love it.”
Look at it!!!!!! It is gorgeous!!!!!!!! Our Lord is so Merciful!!!!!! ❤
AlHamduliLlah!
“He who is not grateful to the people is not grateful to Allah.”
That is from another Hadith!
I am so grateful: that we made chips. And had a good, good atmosphere in our home, and with good, good, pure-hearted people. Maa Shaa Allah! And Nasheeds. And Ann, doing some art: with her colouring pencils, making a lovely card for Sasha!
I’m grateful for… our party hats. And: for how our Happy Meals turned out! Yes, they’d been meals, and they did indeed make us (or, at least, me!) happy!!
I’m grateful for the doughnuts and the blueberry muffins that A’iyshah brought for us. McCafé!!!!
What is special about the Cambridge Muslim College?
“If someone gave you a hair of the Prophet -S-. But it was wrapped in plastic: would you accept it?” a highly-trained, Maa Shaa Allah, teacher of ours, asked some of the brother students.
Raiyan, for example, really cares about not using plastics.
“Apparently, Henry Ford, when he made plastic, from, like, soybeans and stuff, for his cars… Because [that plastic] was made from natural [sources, biodegradable…]” … [and so on, and so on. In Arabic: wa kadā, wa kadā].” This is what the teacher said next.
He added, a little later, that the tusk of a rhino is chemically, like plastic! I love being here, at the Cambridge Muslim College!
The two slogans for this blessed institution, this blessed place are:
‘Training the next generation of Muslim thinkers’.
And: ‘Faith in Scholarship‘.
Aqila, Allah Bless this woman’s very soul alive:
She’d then picked me up from the masjid (its underground car park) and drove Numa and me to our house, for the House Dinner.
We did: we had a very nice time, AlHamduliLlah.
It was sisterhood; it was people being their happy selves, in a Halāl and therefore, I’d say, blessed way!
And lovely Maryam and A’iyshah had parked their bikes on the bike stands in our back garden. They are so cute, Maa Shaa Allah. May Allah Bless them.
- There are no heavens on Earth: at one point, in the laughing fun and the goodness of our gathering… I feared that everything would fall down. Anxiety: it lies. It can make you misinterpret; overexaggerate [just learned how to spell that, me]; see things in a ‘black-and-white’, ‘all-or-nothing’ kind of way.
- But I need to learn that: one minor ‘mis-happening’… does not ever threaten to take away all of the goodness that is there, and between Muslims!!!!!!!! Between sisters!!!!!
The next day: the day after our Not-McDonald’s House Dinner:
I’d learned just how much Allah is in Complete, Utter, and Perfect Control.
He Fashioned you, in your mother’s womb. He Knows you better than you, or your mother, could ever know you!
And, and, and: He is in Complete Charge; He is in Complete Control.
After CMC, I’d been ‘planning’ to go and cover a lesson for a friend, at the masjid. The girls’ class. But: Allah Had a different plan for me. Plus: I’d been tired, and had not been feeling that great, emotionally and so on. I don’t know.
Allah Guided me. To read those verses of the Qur’an that I did. To find that version, that copy, of the Qur’an with the word-by-word translation!
And I ate chocolate biscuits, and Lotus Biscoff, which Sasha had left for everyone in the CMC lunch room (refectory).
And: I’d essentially dragged myself to the bus stop. Yet: the bus had been delayed. And I’d somehow managed to get on the wrong bus. I’d ended up… going… on a whole adventure. And: I tried to call someone at the masjid, to tell them I’d been running late.
Nobody had been picking up. But eventually, Hafsa did. And cover ended up being arranged for the cover (i.e. me!)
Allah Facilitates. Perfectly, Perfectly, Perfectly.
And: so completely beyond us!
*Sasha, earlier in the day: purchased for me a ‘Day Rider’ bus ticket, Allah Bless her. And so: I could use an unlimited number of buses that day. This fact had come in quite handy a bit later!
Everything that is Meant to be yours: will be yours. And Allah is in Complete Control. This is what travelling teaches us. And, trust me: one can ‘travel’ without even leaving the town one is in. All it takes is:
Being like me: making mistakes. ‘Mistakes’, ‘mistakes’: ‘clumsy’ trip, and human error.
And, yet: we try to make sure we recognise Allah’s Plan through and Above them.
On the way back home (I would like to thank, again, Google Maps, and, always, Allah ultimately,) I’d started off at one bus stop. And the bus would have taken a while to arrive: the Cambridge bus system is not quite the same as the one in London.
I’d tried to walk to an alternative bus stop, but alas: it had been under construction, it would well seem…
Later that evening: I’d been thinking to go out and get a sandwich, for dinner. And: it had been late, and dark. I thought about what my parents had told me: not to go out after Maghrib time, for my own safety.
If you honour your parents’ instructions, and make choices with Allah in mind: trust me, He Will give you better.
And He did. Sasha made me a delicious dinner, AlHamduliLlah!!!!! Pasta with tomato sauce and Quorn mince ‘meat’. And cheese. And I had pink squash, courtesy of Shirley. Through a cute rose-gold straw!
So which of the Favours of your Lord do you deny?
So, what I’ve been learning recently is: whatever is for you… Allah Has already Made it inevitable. Trust me. And: He Facilitates what is Meant for you. Everything that has ever been Meant to be yours: will, will, will, be yours! [Love, wealth, knowledge, experiences. And so on!] While whatever is not Meant for you: will never be yours!
I am so happy that my Lord Brought me to be a student at the Cambridge Muslim College, and a member of this flourishing Cambridge Muslim community, Maa Shaa Allah! AlHamduliLlah!
He is so Merciful; the Most Lovingkind!!!!
Today (Tuesday 23rd May 2023, CE) some students interviewed some potential candidates for the role of Chief Executive Officer of the Cambridge Muslim College. Like a rose tree: we are indeed growing!
We have acquired a neighbouring building, AlHamduliLlah, and I love it so much. I am so glad to be right here, at this very point in time!!!!!!!!! There’s even a spot under the stairs, with a light built into the wall. Oh, I hope it becomes a book nook.
This building is gorgeous. So Perfect for us, and our Rabb, who Loves us, Had Willed it!
We got to hear Joel Hayward speak today, in person! AlHamduliLlah. What a bright and inspiring person, Maa Shaa Allah, and May Allah Bless him! He has a background in the military, and in academia, and in Islam, which he’d accepted back in… America, I think he’d said. Post-9/11. Curiosity, and he’d been an avid reader, Maa Shaa Allah, reading books in, like, 7 different languages. Including Nietzche in its original German, for example. And the Bible in Greek and Hebrew.
But he’d felt ashamed, embarrassed, that he had not yet read the Qur’an. And then: he did. Someone he knew had mentioned that the Qur’an tells Muslims to go and ‘be violent’ and so on. And so Professor Hayward looked into it. And became Muslim. He’d read one Karen Armstrong’s biography of the Prophet Muhammad -S-.
At one point in his life, he has been the academic tutor of Prince William, Maa Shaa Allah. He’s lived an interesting and rich life, by the Grace of his Lord!
Dr Hayward said: ‘Life throws things at you you couldn’t possibly imagine. It’s a wonderful art.’
About the time when he’d studied Classics, he’d said, today: “Every day, my mind was growing.”
And it was wonderful.
“You’re learning things that matter. So: go and change the world!”
I want this man to be our teacher. And: teachers are leaders. To teach is to be ‘in loco parentis’: in a paternal/maternal role. Of course it’s significant.
Mothers, fathers, teachers, leaders: heroes. Maa Shaa Allah.
Heroes in this Life o’ Mine:
- My father
- My mother
- My Nan
- My Sweetie (auntie)
- My baby brother. The way he makes me smile and laugh! AlHamduliLlah! Gift from my Rabb ❤
- Sasha Valshina.
- Shirley Imoagene.
- Aqila.
- That man who super kindly helped with the bike wheel situation.
- Maryam from the masjid.
- A’iyshah Rana.
- The Year Threes at the Cambridge Muslim College. Wow, just wow. Maa Shaa Allah.
AlHamduliLlah!!!
This morning, I’d been running late. What’s new? [Things I would like to work on, In Shaa Allah: having more structure in place, in this life o’ mine. Getting to places early, In Shaa Allah. Going to bed early; rising early. In Shaa Allah. It’s all interconnected: Domino Effect, which is something that Iqra, my Naval Officer friend at CMC, had mentioned today.]
Anyway. I also need to earn more money. And use it in a good, and thus, God-Willing, blessed way.
This morning: since I’d been running late (tired from yesterday; need to sleep sooner rather than later,) I’d resolved to… take an Uber. To make it for the potential-CEO interviews: I, and seven other fellow students, had been on the student interviewing panel. My housemate Shirley, a true hero, by God’s Leave, had helped me. By using her new Uber account, and with the credits she’d had, she’d very kindly booked a cab for me, and then, a bit later on in the day, I’d transferred her back. With some money that my father had sent me!
Any-whom. I think Allah Had Inspired me to take my earphones with me. I’d joined the first (online!) meeting in the cab: a briefing. And had made it on time for the next meeting: our first interview!
Whew! What a day, Subhaan Allah. And: even with its included difficulties and feelings of messiness here and there and there, and spots of darknesses…
What a life!
Sasha, our friend Sana, and I, had eaten together at The Ladz today. My favourite!!! With thanks to my father for paying for my food. Effortlessly. And with thanks to Allah!!!! Ar-Razzāq; the Bestower, the One who Facilitates. The Most Generous and Wise and Lovingkind. Always, and forever.
- I also saw Maah-Noor today. She: is an Oxford University English Lit alumnus, Maa Shaa Allah. Lady Margaret Hall. And: one of her friends is Malala Yousafzai, Maa Shaa Allah. I’d ‘met’ her on Instagram, actually, initially. And then I’d met her in person in Oxford, when I had an interview there, back in 2019. I’d seen her again, since, by ‘chance’ (Qadr) at the East London Masjid (ELM). And I’d seen her again, today, (‘by chance’) outside the Cambridge Muslim College! She and a friend had been visiting Cambridge for a day. And they’d visited the Cambridge Central Masjid, and they also went punting.
Back to talking a bit about Jack Kerouac’s ‘On the Road’. A diary-style book recording the protagonist’s travels. And so: interesting and enjoyable-ish to read. Like the parts when the protagonist — what was his name, again? Ah, yes. Sal. Sal Paradise. Sometimes he just: sits down at a diner and eats apple pie and ice-cream.
Sometimes, he seems to… leer at women he encounters. Sometimes: he seems like he does not really have a sense of Purpose, or Meaning, or Direction. So he really just bounces about, following his whims and fancies. Until the next ‘road trip’; until the next one, and the one after that. And he seems to look for peace, perhaps, in ‘Eastern’ things.
The Beatnik Generation is very interesting. There must have been many who had and have come from Islam via going there. Allah Knows whom best to Guide, and how.
Anyway. There’s been a lot on my mind, lately. And Allah,
Allah,
Allah Knows you, Knows where you are, and have been, and are going. Best.
Here is a super pretty rose I saw here in *location marker* Cambridge: AlHamduliLlah.
And today me and my best friend — whose being in my life I could never ever have seen coming!!! AlHamduliLlah!!! — went to the Tesco near CMC today and got little apple juice boxes. They were 50p each.
[Sasha and I have a funny sense of humour together. For example, once, during Ramadān, I’d asked her, out on the street near the masjid: “Should I PUSH you?!”
She said yes, go on, essentially, and so I did, somewhat lightly. And Ann had been with us, slightly… scared. And, behind us had been: had happened to have been… the manager of the masjid. But he’d been smiling, laughing.
Note to self: Wisdom involves. Knowing where to do and say and place things. The right places, and before the right people. Try not to truly weird anybody out, and/or completely startle them with your sense of humour. Vale? (That’s okay? en español, a language I love! AlHamduliLlah!)]
Words that remind me of Muslims; being a servant of Ar-Rahmān:
Truth. Trustworthiness. Honesty. Courage. Love. Lovingkindness.
Hope. Faith. Prayer: making Du’a. Journeys. Stories. Wonder.
Fascination. Gratitude. Beauty. Patience; struggle leads to truly beautiful and valuable outcomes.
Love. Friendship. Family. Goodness. Blessings. Health.
Generosity. Nobility. Dignity. Humbleness. Wisdom. Learning.
Contentment. Gifts. Care. Structure. Life. Nature. Taqwa.
Salaam!
Journey to the Heart of Islam. 