Please update!

Just a request for anybody who links to this blog or who has the page bookmarked; please update to the new address which is http://strangerinthisdunya.wordpress.com/

All posts and comments from this blog have been imported to Wordpress and I have been making regular new posts at the new address so please come and visit and bookmark!

Look forward to seeing you.

اهلاً و سهلاً و مرحباً بكم

I'm moving! Wordpress...

I've been wishing I'd made my blog over at Wordpress for a while now because I like some of the features that are not offered at Blogger including password protecting selected posts. I discovered today that it is possible to import all old posts and comments from Blogger over to Wordpress which I have now done. I've also added all my links to the blogroll there so please visit:

http://strangerinthisdunya.wordpress.com/

What can you do in 5 minutes?

A few random things that only take 5 minutes. What other suggestions do you have?

• Pray 2 rak'at nafl at any time of the day or night






• Read a page or two from the Qur'an in Arabic or your mother tongue






• Take 5 minutes out from a hectic day putting your feet up and enjoying a cup of tea






• Something that worked for me this week: the bedroom dd10 and dd7 share was m-e-s-s-y and they made no headway on the tidying, I was only hearing whinging. Soooo, I set the timer for 5 minutes and told them to tidy intensively for just 5 minutes and see how much they could do. The bedroom was almost tidy by the time the alarm sounded. 5 minutes well used.






• Make some silent dhikr






• Cyclone clean one room; pick up any things on the floor, quickly dust surfaces, spray some air freshener, plump up the cushions.






• Email a friend you haven't been in contact with for a while






• Read a short story to your child






• Recite As-Salat An Nabi: A person who calls for blessings on me once, Allah sends down mercies on him ten times, ten of his sins will be remitted and he is raised ten degrees.

We often complain that we don't have enough time in the day but there are so many things that require a mere 5 minutes.

Home comforts

For me, it's always nice to get home after being away for any period of time and this time was no exception. I was in Algeria for just over 5 weeks and we were all so happy and relieved to step in the front door last night.

It was a good journey; the first leg of the journey was from Algiers to Istanbul and took just over 3 hours. The airport in Istanbul is fairly cosy but well equipped so the first thing we did was to go to the prayer room and do our Zuhr and Asr prayers. After that we freshened up, changed baby's nappy and then went back to the prayer room to wait 10 minutes for Maghrib prayer and we joined our Maghrib and Isha prayer. After that we made our way to the lounge and it wasn't long before we boarded our onward flight to Riyadh. The plane was almost empty so I was able to move and have 3 seats to myself and lay baby down next to me instead of juggling her and my food when dinner was served. It was a nice meal which I was able to enjoy for once!

Our arrival in Riyadh was smooth too, the airport was quiet, no queues and long waiting at immigration so we got through to baggage arrivals quickly and since the plane was less than half full, the luggage came quickly.

A truly hassle-free journey and I think I have DD12 and DD10 to thank for making so much du'a and reminding me to do so too that day and the days beforehand!

Back to quite a mess and a very warm, dusty house but I am so happy to see my washing machine, tumble dryer, Comfort fabric conditioner that makes the clothes smell so delicious (!) and my bed. Also nice to have air-conditioning and not feel sweaty and melty all the time... Algeria is nowhere near as hot as Riyadh but the humidity knocks me out. Nice not to have 3 brothers-in-law and 2 teen nephews about the place too which means I don't have to live in my abaya and hijab.

It's the little things I appreciate after being away from home. We had a good stay in Algeria, it was nice to see the family but it's nice to be home.

Forwarded email - hoaxes

Forwarded trash in my email inbox from people who really should have enough brain to know better, is one of my pet peeves. These include emails that promise big freebies or cash if you forward the email to all your friends or a specified number of people; bogus health warnings etcetera.

I urge people to read about hoax spotting at the two following websites:

How to Spot an Email Hoax

Guide to Recognising Hoaxes

When I receive too-good-to-be-true emails or emails warning about certain products or giving 'alternative' health advice, I generally pick out a few keywords from the text, type them into the Google search box along with the word 'hoax'. If the email is indeed a hoax, a link to the article at urbanlegends or hoaxslayer will show up in the results.

So people please, stop clogging your friends' inboxes with pointless rubbish and do your homework before hitting the forward button. It only takes up 1 minute of your time!

A poem to share

A poem by Nigerian poet and author Ben Okri that I would like to share. It is a poem I first read back in the early 90's. The beauty of his words and the wisdom contained in the poem have stayed with me. :)

To an English Friend in Africa

Be grateful for freedom
To see other dreams.
Bless your loneliness as much as you drank
Of your former companionships.
All that you are experiencing now
Will become moods of future joys
So bless it all.
Do not think your ways superior
To another's
Do not venture to judge
But see things with fresh and open eyes
Do not condemn
But praise what you can
And when you can't be silent.

Time is now a gift for you
A gift of freedom
To think and remember and understand
The ever perplexing past
And to re-create yourself anew
In order to transform time.

Live while you are alive.
Learn the ways of silence and wisdom
Learn to act, learn a new speech
Learn to be what you are in the seed of your spirit
Learn to free yourself from all things that have moulded you
And which limit your secret and undiscovered road.

Remember that all things which happen
To you are raw materials
Endlessly fertile
Endlessly yielding of thoughts that could change
Your life and go on doing for ever.

Never forget to pray and be thankful
For all the things good or bad on the rich road;
For everything is changeable
So long as you live while you are alive.

Fear not, but be full of light and love;
Fear not but be alert and receptive;
Fear not but act decisively when you should;
Fear not, but know when to stop;
Fear not for you are loved by me;
Fear not, for death is not the real terror,
But life -magically - is.

Be joyful in your silence
Be strong in your patience
Do not try to wrestle with the universe
But be sometimes like water or air
Sometimes like fire

Live slowly, think slowly, for time is a mystery.
Never forget that love
Requires that you be
The greatest person you are capable of being,
Self-generating and strong and gentle-
Your own hero and star.

Love demands the best in us
To always and in time overcome the worst
And lowest in our souls.
Love the world wisely.

It is love alone that is the greatest weapon
And the deepest and hardest secret.

So fear not, my friend.
The darkness is gentler than you think.
Be grateful for the manifold
Dreams of creation
And the many ways of unnumbered peoples.

Be grateful for life as you live it.
And may a wonderful light
Always guide you on the unfolding road.

March 1991 Ben Okri

I think the author pretty much summed up how we should behave as Muslims although I doubt that he realises it. ;)

Bougainvillea

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

Bougainvillea can be seen flourishing all over the Mediterranean and Middle East and with good reason too! This thorny bush with woody, twisted trunks can survive very harsh conditions and times of drought. I have 3 Bougainvillea bushes in back yard which rarely feel the raindrops on their leaves and papery blooms yet they are still going amazingly strong! We have barely had any rain in Riyadh this year and I have a terrible tendency to forget to water plants... the Bougainvilleas were already in flower but not looking particularly spectactular. Hubby did his manly weekend thing of cleaning off the BBQ and outside table and chairs and gave the bushes a good watering too... the results were breathtaking. By the next day the Bougainvilleas were in the fullest of bloom. It's now a joy to stand at the kitchen sink and wash the dishes whilst looking out at this carnival of colour!



They really are wonderful plants; an absolute burst of bright pink which attracts the butterflies, the leaves are a welcome hiding spot for the lizards and the cats gratefully accept the opportunity to sleep in the shade at the foot of the bush.

Blogger problems

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

Aaaargh! Is it my slow internet connection or is it Blogger that is the problem??! When I try to make a new post there are no text editing options available which mean no aligning, coloured fonts, hyperlinks etcetera. Even the 'save now' button is not working so I can't come back to a post later and edit! My ISP drives me crazy at the best of times but today it seems to have become really bad.

Aaaargh again!

The big move...

4 years ago this week I was in the throes of a major move. My husband had already moved to Saudi Arabia 2 months previously and he had been busy during that time sorting out his residency permit so that he could get the wheels in motion for the visa for myself and the children. He had also been house-hunting, car-hunting and of course, the whole reason for being in Saudi Arabia in the first place... starting his new job!

So, I was in the UK with my 4 children: 8 year old (dd1), 6 year old (dd2), 3 year old (dd3) and 4 week old (ds) minus my husband trying to get everything sorted out for our big move. Just 3 days after my son was born I had to drive myself to the register office to register his birth so I could get the birth certificate as quickly as possible so I could apply for his passport so I could apply for the family visa for Saudi Arabia!

Boxes had to be packed and sent with the cargo company, other unneeded items had to be shifted to the loft, the house had to be cleaned from top to bottom ready for tenants and all odds and ends had to be tied up. All this with a newborn!

So my diary for the week beginning 9th February 2004 was like this:

Monday 9th Feb:
Drop 2 older girls a school
Drop younger daughter at pre-school
Phone Saudi Embassy in London
Phone cargo company
Collect some summer clothing I had ordered for kids
Get on with cargo packing, cleaning and sorting out
Collect kids from school
Take girls to swimming class

Tuesday 10th Feb:
Drop kids at school
Phone calls to.... cancel future swimming lessons, cancel dental appointment, cancel tv licence, arrange for gas, electricity and phone to be cut off at correct time and my account to be billed
More packing and cleaning

Wednesday 11th Feb:
Drop kids at school
Wait for health visitor to come and weigh and check my newborn
Wait for company to come and steam clean sofas and beds
Meantime pack some more, laundry too
Collect kids from school
Swimming lesson

Thursday 12th Feb:
Drop kids at school
Take my baby to hospital for BCG vaccination
Packing, laundry etc
Collect kids
More phone calls - council, Inland Revenue, water company, visa company

Friday 13th Feb:
Drop kids at school
Wait for cargo company to come and collect all the boxes that had taken up residence in my lounge
Postnatal appointment with dr
Collect swimming lesson refund from leisure centre
Collect kids from school

Saturday 14th Feb:
Friend of dh came to help me get unneeded items into loft
Go to buy new shoes for girls
Go to friend's house to say farewell

Sunday 15th Feb:
Drop kids at friend's house to play
Friend's mum came to help me clean, clean, clean.... I remember that this was the day that baby had a lot of colic so we had to take it in turns rocking him and singing to him.
Preparing some snacks for kids - I allowed the girls to invite 7 friends for a small 'goodbye' party

The day we had to leave the house at 3am for the airport was such a huge relief! We had spent almost 3 months without my husband, he had not seen his newborn son and I desperately needed my much deserved postnatal relaxation period.

Our flight was at 6:15am and we had a 5 hour transit in Frankfurt. The trouble with that was, we had to stay sitting almost the whole time because dd2's new shoes were rubbing so she couldn't walk! Aaargh! Eventually we boarded the onward flight to Riyadh with much trepidation. Alhamdu Lillah Allah made it easy for us... dd3 slept almost instantly; dd1 and dd2 kept themselves amused with the inflight entertainment and slept when they were tired, the baby slept most of the way and since the flight was virtually empty I was able to lay him on the seats next to me and enjoy the flight myself a little. The Lufthansa staff were wonderful and did all they could to help.

It was very late when we finally arrived at the King Khalid International airport, Riyadh Saudi Arabia and a whole new chapter of our lives was about to begin...

Blogger in Arabic...

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

I wanted to make a new post this morning after a couple of weeks of blogging silence and not really knowing what to blog about. Cold, wet weather in Saudi provided my topic but I couldn't work out how to make my new post. All the links on the Blogger page were in Arabic and none were taking me to where I wanted to be to make my new post. Aaargh!

Eventually I clicked on the little orange and white 'B' logo which took me to yet more Arabic but I noticed a pull down menu of 'lughaa'... languages, alhamdu Lillah and was able to switch back to English.

So the news on the Blogger page is that 3 new languages have now been added: Arabic, Persian and Hebrew. Just my bad luck that living in Saudi made the default for me Arabic and 7am was too early in the morning for working out how to get back into English!

First Post!

Assalaamu alaikum wa Rahmatullahi wa Barakaatuh!

Well, I am new to blogging and am trying to find my way around and work out how to do things.

About me: I am a convert to Islam, married with 5 children and we are living in Saudi Arabia where we have been for the past several years. I was wondering what to call the blog and was trying to think of something Saudi related but, who knows where we will be 5 years from now or even 1 year from now since everything in life is transient. This reminded me of the well known hadith in Sahih Bukhari which gave my blog it's name:

'Abdullah bin 'Umar said, "Allah's Apostle took hold of my shoulder and said, 'Be in this world as if you were a stranger or a traveler." The sub-narrator added: Ibn 'Umar used to say, "If you survive till the evening, do not expect to be alive in the morning, and if you survive till the morning, do not expect to be alive in the evening, and take from your health for your sickness, and (take) from your life for your death." (Volume 8, Book 76, Number 425, Book of Ar-Riqaq)

I'll post my little musings about Islam, motherhood, life in Saudi Arabia and life in general on this blog insha'Allah.