by shaz on Thursday, October 05, 2006 at 09:24 AM
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My Love Thursday post is a little off topic today, as I bring you a Ramadhan special… a lesson in history, and in faith.
Hearing the adhan, or the Islamic call to prayer, often makes me weep, often gives me a feeling of such closeness to God, and often fills my heart with the extreme love that I feel for God.
And sometimes, it makes me ponder its origins in this world, when Bilal (ra) called the Muslims to prayer for the first time, and I am filled with love and admiration for this man who was once a slave.
Bilal was an Ethiopian slave who endured extreme torture at the hands of his master because he embraced Islam. Although this burden was so great on him, he never faltered in his faith, and was later bought and given his freedom by one of the companions of Muhammad (saw).
His strength, his character, his faith, and his love for God have earned him such a high status in Islam, and such esteem from Muslims all over the world. This Ethiopian slave.
(clip is approx. 3 mins. my flash skills are somewhat lacking, so if you click on the ‘stop sound’ button, you will need to reload the page to get back the sound… sorry.)
The meaning of the call to prayer.
God is most great.
I testify that there is no God except God.
I testify that Muhammad is the messenger of God.
Come to prayer!
Come to success!
God is most great.
There is none worthy of worship except God.
credits: all photos are from istockphoto.com and remain the copyright of the photographer. the adhan was taken from here.
by shaz on Wednesday, October 04, 2006 at 09:25 AM
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Trinidad.
One of my friends from high school forwarded me an email about a 10 year reunion. Obviously my first thought was ‘10 years’?! *! I am old!
And obviously my next move was to start ‘googling’ everyone on the list! (Oh, you know you would be doing the same thing!)
Now, I am not even thinking of going back to Trinidad with 3 little kids and 50 extra pounds, but just trying to imagine the conversation…
high school classmate: “Hey! I’m a criminal lawyer in London, you can find some of my articles in popular law journals! So what have you been up to?”
me: “Hi! Great to see you! What have I been doing for the past 10 years? hmmm, well, umm, did I tell you that I have 3 kids? Yeah! And you can find some of my articles on my very un-popular blog!”
Somehow, when in the company of former-classmates-that-are-now lawyers, doctors, engineers, people with a masters degrees in their discipline, or even just people who make a lot of money, saying that I am a ‘web developer on maternity leave with my third kid’ just rings of loooooserness!
I love the fact that I had my kids young, seriously, I do, but I often think about the possibilities and opportunities that I missed because at the i-can-be-anything-i-want age of 24, I chose to be a mommy!
My life did not unravel the way that I had anticipated. I had envisioned myself traveling the world, having adventures (not of the motherhood-type), pursuing education to the level of doctorate (funny huh?), and so many other things that just remain aspiring thoughts of an 18 year old. But, even with all my unrealized dreams, this unforeseen life that I share with my beautiful kids is so much more fulfilling that I could have ever imagined.
How do you feel when you meet people that you went to school with? Do you feel accomplished, or like a failure because your life just did not end up the way you intended?
by shaz on Monday, October 02, 2006 at 04:36 AM
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The baby has been getting less and less boob time lately. By his choice. He has started ‘requesting’ different nursing positions, or just refused to do it all together. But he has not been fond of the bottle either, most of time time ‘attacking’ the nipple and then spitting out the warm formula!
But yesterday, in his most spectacular performance ever, well, besides maybe popping himself out of the womb, he took the bottle, held it, put it in his mouth, and proceeded to drink all of the contents before I even had the chance to intervene.
milestone moment: he also got 2 tiny teeth sticking out of his lower gums!!
So, originally, I just wanted a chance to make my site pink, you know, given my testosterone-filled household at all… Turing the site pink was fun, it was nice to be kind of ‘girlie’ for a change, but in all seriousness, breast health is important to all women, affecting 1 in 9 women here in the western world, and also a small percentage of men.
The rethink website has a lot of information on breast health, cancer prevention, and care.
It is also world breastfeeding week here in Canada! It’s the first I’ve heard about it, I don’t really know much, and am not promoting it, but there you go… visit their site for details.
If you did go pink, you can let me know… I already have a whole 2 bloggers lined up for a chance to win that rethink t-shirt!!
Its for a good cause, the dangers of breast cancer is something that all women should be concerned about. And participating here will earn a lucky someone a rethink t-shirt from Roots! (Random Pick)
So my thoughts are that everyone that does a pink re-design of their blog, please leave a comment here, and I will compile a list of all participating “mommy bloggers” (or bloggers who are moms) on October 15th. So start thinking pink!!
