#i say that he wears it only in the swt after the marriage

[kurakuray]

Karena percaya, jadi seharusnya tidak ada yang perlu dikhawatirkan. Percaya? Percaya!

Mau share e-letter yang kudapatkan di email hari ini. Selamat membaca.^^

"Making A Single Blessed Choice At A Time"

How are you? I pray your Eid was a blessed and joyous one, In Sha Allah! Mine was nothing short of beautiful, filled with love and laughter, Alhamdulillah! On the second day of Eid, my friends and I gathered at my home and as we caught up with one another around my dining table, the topic of marriage came up. One of my friends, who is 42, beautiful, successful and happily single, was sharing how her elders would casually quip to her, "Don't be so choosy and picky about it! Just get married!" and to this, she would charmingly respond, "Subhanallah! I would take my time to choose something as small as what toothpaste or shampoo to buy at the supermarket, what more choosing the man I would make my life-long partner? Of course I would be 'choosy' about it!".

As I finished washing up the last stained tea cup in the sink, I remembered thinking and praying:

"Ya Allah, if life is made up of us making one choice at a time, then please allow me to be "choosy". Allow me to always be care-full, and not care-less with my choices. And allow me to make choices that are not just good, but blessed. Amin!"

However! If we choose (See! Again, making another choice!) to rely on the One who is Most-Knowledgeable, Most-Powerful, and Most-Mighty, then that is the best choice we will be making for ourselves. Because when we place Allah SWT at the core of every decision making, when we base our choices on what He loves and what He is pleased with, then In Sha Allah, that would make our choice a blessed one!

And making a blessed choice is always better than making a stressed choice.

Here are some things I have found useful in making blessed choices In Sha Allah.

1) Making the Istikharah Dua every morning (don't just wait for big things to make this all-comprehensive dua)

2) Relying on Allah SWT to make every decision in our lives, no matter how "small" or "trivial" the thing is. For example: when deciding what to eat for lunch, which outfit to wear for the day, how many emojis to put in your text. I ask Allah SWT to help me with all of these things because it helps build my "tawakkul muscle". Try it!

3) Follow the Sunnah of Rasulullah SAW as closely as possible. Rasulullah SAW's way of life is THE perfect manual to follow if you want to live a fulfilling, blessed, peaceful and joyful life.

Ladies, I fully believe that when we are presented with the opportunity to choose, then know that He will not have brought us to this moment unless we are ready, and prepared, to choose well. So have full faith that with Him by our side, we are more than equipped to be making a blessed decision. Every choice we make not only shapes our lives but will determine our Akhirah as well, so let's all try to remember that although we are absolutely free to choose anything in our lives, we would however, not be free from the consequences of our choices.

Staying up late watching Netflix instead of sleeping early is a choice. Ordering in another fast food meal instead of cooking a simple homemade lunch is also a choice. Opening up the Quran and reading a few Ayahs even though you are extremely exhausted is also a choice. Praying 2 rakaa' today after years of not praying is a choice. Forgiving is a choice. Being positive is a choice. Staying disciplined is a choice. Choosing hope and trying again is also a choice.

So what would you choose today? I would like to end today's letter with a Hadith Qudsi that I absolutely love. Allah SWT says, "My servant draws not near to Me with anything more loved by Me than the religious duties I have enjoined upon him, and My servant continues to draw near to Me with supererogatory works (the Nawafil) so that I shall love him. When I love him I am his hearing with which he hears, his seeing with which he sees, his hand with which he strikes and his foot with which he walks. Were he to ask [something] of Me, I would surely give it to him, and were he to ask Me for refuge, I would surely grant him it." (Bukahri)

Can you just imagine all the blessed choices we can make when our hearing, our seeing, our movement and our walking are all guided by Allah SWT Himself? Subhanallah!

Praying that we will all strive to earn His Love by continuing to do deeds that He is pleased with so that In Sha Allah, we are always able to make a single blessed choice at a time. Amin! 

Love and prayers always

Yogyakarta, 11 Mei 2022

#AAnewsletter

[kawaiichibiart]

Princess and the Pauper AU for ATLA. With Yueki, Zukka and Kataang.

Annaliese is Yue (who has brown hair and a crescent moon birthmark to represent her connection to the moon spirit)

Erika is Katara

Julian is Suki

King Dominick is Zuko

Preminger is Zhao

Madam Carpe is Hama

I'll figure out the other roles later, and I'm basing this off the Barbie movie because that's the version I know best.

But the idea goes as follow:

Yue and Katara look strikingly similar. Yue is a princess, while Katara has no royal status and works for Master Hama at her inn.

Yue is supposed to marry Prince Zuko, the Crown Heir of the Fire Nation. Unlike the movie, they have met, however, Zuko already has a partner in one of her personal guards, Sokka. And Yue is inlove with her other personal guard, Suki.

Suki takes Yue out to get her mind off the arranged marriage that was unwanted by both parties. It's there she sees Katara waterbending and creating beautiful ice sculptures. She's trying to both gain a bit more money and see if anyone would notice she was a capable bender who could be taught to fight.

Of course, Hama sees this and doesn't like it, she's been trying to teach Katara to bloodbend on a regular basis every full moon, but Katara has used it to ensure she didn't have to continue doing it. So, she just takes the money and thanks Katara for helping the inn, knowing she was trying to get it for herself so she could leave.

Yue and Katara realize that they look so much a like and have some fun together, leaving as best friends.

Later on, when Yue is kidnapped by Zhao, Suki goes to Katara so she can take over as Yue temporarily. And Katara has to learn so much about being royalty in less than a day. She does her best and Suki promises to help her.

So, the day comes that Zuko arrives and meets "Yue." He tells her how happy he is to see his bride to be. How he missed her. And Katara returns the sentiments. But she doesn't know he and Sokka are together, so when they're in the Oasis, alone, and she goes in for a kiss, he stops her and asks if she was okay, if she forgot he and Sokka were dating. She didn't, but Yue did, so she tells him that with their marriage, she was nervous about letting others see that she didn't want it. About how she didn't want them to think she wasn't doing her duty.

Katara and Zuko spend a lot of time together. And who shows up with Sokka a few days later? Aang.

Katara had never met the Avatar, but he was one of the nicest benders she had ever met. He let her have fun, told her her bending was incredible and how he would like to learn bending with her. He was still learning and improving his bending, so having someone he could call a friend with him would be better. After all, he did go to the Fire Nation to learn with Zuko, who was his friend apparently. And to the Earth Kingdom to learn from his friend King Bumi and to have sparring sessions with another friend of his, a blind girl named Toph Beifong.

So, then comes the day that Zuko is supposed to present Yue with her bethrotel necklace. But as he's about to put it on her, Zhao storms in and orders her arrest. To prove his claims, he has someone check her shoulders for the crescent moon birthmark. It wasn't there, and upon closer look, Sokka recognizes his younger sister and is shocked about everything. He wants to say something. Anything. But he can't. He's rooted where he stands as his sister is taken away to be locked in prison.

Meanwhile, back with Yue, she had escaped and was on her way back, only to be captured by Master Hama, who took her back to her inn, so she could continue working. Yue wasn't sure about it, until another person in the inn called her Katara. Yue had to then explain to this person who she actually was. And thus, her second imprisonment.

Things seems to go better though, when someone comes for her, having received a message from someone that the princess was at the inn. However, he quickly leads her into a different prison, one where Suki is at, trapping them both in. They escape and had confessed their feelings while doing so. And they head back to the Yue's home, hopefully to stop the wedding and to clear the airs and give Katara her freedom (which they didn't know was an added detail to their list of things to do).

I'm very tempted to have Hahn as a second Preminger. Like, the Chief of the NWT has chosen him as the next in line, and since Yue isn't there and the wedding has to take off (the whole point, which I haven't mentioned, was for the watertribes and fire nation to have a union between two heirs as a way to show they were coming to peace after the Hundred Year War), Zuko has to marry Hahn instead, which was worse, because at least Yue was his friend and that would make the marriage somewhat bearable. But Hahn? Hahn was a bitch in his eyes. And as Zuko is about to say no, he would wait for Yue, Zhao opens his mouth and says the sooner the two were married, the better.

Sokka and Aang sneak into the prison cells and run into Katara, who managed to use her own sweat to break out. Sokka wants to yell at her. For risking her own life, for not telling him. But that could wait. They had a wedding to stop.

And as they make their way there, they hear someone yell "STOP!" and everyone turns to see Princess Yue and Suki. Zuko lights up upon seeing them. And Zhao tries to claim that Katara had escaped, only for Yue to reveal her birthmark, and telling her father that Zhao was the one behind everything. Zhao tries to escape but Sokka, Aang and Zuko manage to catch him. He isn't arrested though, as the ocean spirit ends up taking him.

Yue's father is happy to have her back, safe and sound, and Yue takes the time to tell him she doesn't want to marry Prince Zuko. She gestures towards him and Sokka, the two happy to be have a moment together, not knowing what Yue is doing. And she tells her father that if the watertribe and fire nation were to have a wedding that day, it might as well be for the couple.

The Chief is unsure about this, but Yue keeps on insisting, telling him how she had already fell inlove with Suki. The Chief relents and agrees, calling for everyone to take their seats. They had a wedding to continue. Hahn is taken away from the altar, and Zuko stays there, waiting for Yue to take her place. Sokka sticks by Katara, Aang and Suki. All of them waiting.

And Sokka is surprised, when Yue walks over to him and pulls him over to Zuko, shocking not only the couple but everyone in attendance. Princess Yue wasn't marrying Prince Zuko. Her guard, Sokka of the SWT was.

It's not the way the two thought they'd get married, and honestly, they wouldn't be surprised if they planned a second, more personal, wedding for just friends and family. But the two get married.

After the wedding, Katara walks onto a Fire Nation ship that was heading to the SWT, she wanted some time back home. Her family, aside from Sokka, was waiting there. Aang finds her and asks her to stay with him, to continue their waterbending lessons together. But she misses her home. And Aang understands. And he gives her a necklace. So she can remember him.

And she keeps it on her at all times.

The next time she's at the NWT is for Yue's and Suki's wedding. A lot had changed since her last visit. She sees her brother and his husband and waves to them, they're still happy. She sees Toph, who she had met when she visited Sokka at the Fire Nation, and smiles despite knowing the earthbender can't see it. And then she sees Aang, who waves to her and she waves back. She sits next to him, and his smile gets bigger when he notices she's wearing the necklace he made her rather than her mother's, which was still on her person. She rarely changed the necklace, and she wasn't sure why she chose today of all days to do so, but maybe it was okay.

Eventually, she and Aang get together. The two would practice bending together and would travel to different nations in order to help them. They get married a lot later, but Katara is happy to help Sokka and Zuko with their second wedding, which was simpler than the extravagant one that was their first wedding.

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I'm still going to refine this a bit. I want to work on the characters some more. Like, I want to expand on Hama's role, I'm still not sure about Hahn, like, do I make him a second Preminger, wanting to become Chief to gain power even if it means he has to marry Zuko, or do I make him and Zhao partners in crime. Zhao would get rid of Zuko and Hahn would gain power. I want to include Toph some more. Like, there's a lot I wanna do with this. Will I write it? No. Will I draw it? Very tempted to, so maybe some illustrations???

#avatar the last airbender #avatar: tla #zuko #yue #sokka #suki #katara #aang #zukka #yueki #kataang #princess and the pauper #princess and the pauper au

[samosa-merchant]

It really makes me smile when people say women are oppressed in Islam. Islam gave women 1400 years ago what feminists only started fighting for approximately 172 years ago. The right to vote, the right to marry whoever you want, the right to keep your own surname after marriage, the right to own land etc.

Now spiritually the value of women are immeasurable. In ranks of importance, after Allah (SWT) and our beloved Prophet Mohammad (SAW), your mother comes thrice before your father. When a female is born she becomes the reason for her father to enter Jannah (heaven). When a woman gives birth and she becomes a mother, Jannah (heaven) lies under her feet.

Now financially, things get interesting. When a woman gets married, whatever she asks for as mehr (dowry), whether it be 50k, 7 camels, an estate, once he has given this to her it belongs to her and her only. Nobody else has permission to access her funds etc. And when a husband gives his wife a gift, that now belongs to her. He has to ask permission if he wants to use it and if she says no it's no. She should not even have to feel unspoken pressure in such regards. She can decide whether or not she wants to work, and if she does decide to do so, whatever money she earns is hers and solely hers. If she decides to financially aid her husband it is because she wants to, not because it's her responsibility.

In terms of the niqab which is more commonly known as the hijab (head covering), many people tend to think it's to hide your hair from males, now this may be a part of the reason but the main purpose of it is because we do it to please Allah (SWT). I have men often telling me that our men oppress us and hide us as if they are ashamed. It is the exact opposite actually, we dress modestly because we understand our value. In a society where I get my hijab/niqab (head covering) pulled off by men and women alike because they feel "uncomfortable" with the fact that they cannot see my hair, now you tell me who are the real oppressors ? In a society where it's so common to openly display yourself, we get questioned and made fun of for covering up (even though you argue that women should be able to wear what they want without scrutiny, sexualization etc.), now you tell me.

Where is the real pressure coming from.

Don't get me wrong I do understand that in certain countries women are put through the utmost in the name of religion. But this is not the peaceful Islam that I have come to know and love, but rather an abuse of the misinterpretation of literature and the use of God's word to support their vile and heinous actions.

We as women were created to do everything that men cannot. And honestly women are fighting so badly to outdo men that we're losing our originality as women. There's a reason Allah (SAW) didn't create everybody in the same way. Tawakkul my angel, tawakkul.

[sadiyyanesar]

SISTERs Magazine 76th Issue: “A Woman of High Standards - Khadijah (Ra)”

When reflecting on the life of Khadijah (ra), Sa’diyya Nesar discovers, that our mother’s high standards earned her success in both this life and the Hereafter. We live in a time of capitalism, where the set standards are to get into good universities for high-paying jobs, wear the latest trends, have the fittest body or find any way to get ahead. This may be due to the ‘survival of the fittest’ concept, where the focus is to not just survive, but to get ahead no matter what it takes. The standard of how we treat people can be easily left out as the centered focus. The target is rather to climb the ladder and reach the top of the set standards in this capitalist society.

Islam’s standards are contrary to the ‘survival of the fittest,’ way of life. Muhammad (saw) said, “The people most beloved to Allah (swt) are those who are most beneficial to the people. The most beloved deed to Allah (swt) is to make a Muslim happy or to remove one of his troubles […] That I walk with a brother regarding a need is more beloved than seclusion in a mosque for a month.”

This is very different from the standard of today’s capitalist society, because if you are there for someone, you are momentarily stopping yourself from moving ahead. Islam is not against pursuing the best education that you can get, trying your best with work or looking after your body, but when it comes to today’s society, it is usually thought that to get ahead you have to follow the rules society has set. There is, therefore, the struggle of how to climb without losing one’s standards in terms of how we conduct ourselves. The struggle of how to bring benefit to others in a way that does not compromise our growth in a society where most are pushing to get ahead.

The standard Khadijah (ra) embodied shows how to pursue goals in a way that brings the most benefit to people. How Khadijah (ra) dealt with a situation additionally demonstrates the standards she had. The awareness of these standards should influence our decisions towards growth, not only in personal goals, but in how we treat others.

There are lessons to derive from how Khadijah (ra) comforted Muhammad (saw) when he returned back from Mount Hira—shaken—after receiving the first revelation through angel Gabriel (a.s). Muhammad (saw) feared that he was possessed. Khadijah (ra) reassured Muhammad (saw) by saying that Allah (swt) would never humiliate him, because he maintains ties of kinship, grants coolness to the eyes of his guests, and stands up for those that are weak—Allah (swt) would not treat him in any other way except with beauty. What we can derive from this is that to be blessed by Allah (swt) in this life and in the next is through benefitting His creation. The Prophet (saw) brought the most benefit to Allah (swt)’s creation and because of this, Allah (swt) would never humiliate him.

The reason why today’s capitalist society pushes to get ahead is not just to survive, but to achieve things that would grant honor and status within the community. Khadijah (ra), however, showed that how you treat people is closely linked to whether or not you will be humiliated or raised in honor. Allah (swt), after all, is Al-Mudhill (The Humiliator) and Al-Mu’izz (The Honorer). You get ahead and are given the best of both worlds by Allah (swt) if you strive to bring benefit to people for Allah (swt)’s sake. This, again, is demonstrated when Khadijah (ra) expressed the reasons why she married Muhammad (saw) — Muhammad (saw) was not only trustworthy but the best to people through words and beautiful character. The Prophet (saw) said she was the most honorable and dignified amongst the women of Quraysh. This demonstrates that by being kind to people, Allah (swt) will grant you ideal company that is not only ideal within the standards set by Islam, but also ideal within the standards set by society. Khadijah (ra) received many proposals, including from the future enemies of Islam, but Allah (swt) allowed her to recognize the high standard of the Prophet (saw) from the way he brings the most benefit to people through his character.

The way the proposal occurred further demonstrates how setting the standard of bringing most benefit to Allah (swt)’s creation can actually bless you with standards in the worldly sense. Khadijah (ra)’s friend—Nafeesa—brought up the marriage of Khadijah (ra) to Muhammad (saw) by asking Muhammad (saw) if he would be interested in marrying someone of status, honor, wealth, beauty, and goodness in character. This shows how Allah (swt) has blessed Muhammad (saw) in the worldly sense and how treating others with high standards for Allah (swt)’s sake grants us the best in both worlds. Allah (swt) tested the Prophet (saw) with tremendous hardships, but He also granted him immense victory through the conquest of Arabia. He, therefore, gave success to Muhammad (saw) in both worlds.

Khadijah (ra) did not only comfort Muhammad (saw) after the first revelation, but rather encouraged him to seek high-standard advice from Waraqah ibn Nawful who was an expert of the Gospels and Torah. Allah (swt) granted Waraqah the honor of knowledge of a high standard and chose him to be there for the Prophet Muhammad (saw) and Khadijah (ra).

Allah (swt) blessed Khadijah (ra) with more wealth after she promised Muhammad (saw) double commission if he completed the task of selling goods in Syria. Muhammad (saw) returned back with double the profit by not only selling goods in Syria, but he also bought more goods to sell in Makkah. Khadijah (ra) was, therefore, raised in wealth after her focus shifted to granting additional benefits to those she employed.

Khadijah (ra) continued striving to benefit Allah (swt)’s creation even more after she embraced Islam. She distributed her wealth during the boycott to the extent of being left with nothing. However, Allah (swt) increased her standard in this life by having Gabriel (a.s) extend salaams from Allah (swt) through the Prophet (saw) for Khadijah (ra). A greeting that extends to glad tidings and the promise of a palace of pearls in Jannah (Bukhari).

Standards demonstrated through Khadijah (ra) show that in this capitalist society, it is still possible to climb the ladders of worldly success. However, to truly rise in both worlds, our mindset should be how to benefit Allah (swt)’s creation in the best way we can — a mindset that guarantees the attainment of high standards in both worlds, inshaAllah. .

#khadijah #hijabi #muslimah #woman #writers #sisters #hope #prophet #muhammad #allah #quran #hadith #ayah