Read!

"How many books have you read this year?"

"Err... I can't remember.."

"More than ten?"

"No!..no.. it's less than that"

"Less than five?"

"I think so..I've been busy.."

"You should read more.."

"I have no time.."

"Really?.... Busy people usually read a lot."

"Uhh..?"

"Yes..only busy people will find time to read."



Read!

Read, in the name of your Lord.

They Return to HIM

Fatih Mosque, Istanbul.

Once again, a history of honour and bravery was made. The mosque built by Sultan Muhammad lovingly embraced the bodies of nine activists who were martyred on board of Mavi Marmara.

Thousands of mourners gathered and prayed for the blessed souls.

I had been following the news about the flotilla very closely, and the news about the attack on the ship filled my heart with rage. And reading the subsequent news always left me teary eyed.

The nine activists were finally sent home, in Turkey.
They are the chosen ones.
While their bodies returned to their families, the souls returned to Him.

Palestine is the land of the prophets, Turkey is the land of Sultan Muhammad and the final khalifah.
May Allah bless these lands and the people.
May Allah bless the souls of the martyrs in Palestine, in Turkey and every where in this world.
Ameen Ya Arhamar rahimiin..

"Think not of those who are slain in Allah's way as dead. Nay, they live, finding their sustenance in the presence of their Lord; They rejoice in the bounty provided by Allah. And with regard to those left behind, who have not yet joined them (in their bliss), the (martyr's) glory in the fact that on them is no fear, nor have they (cause to) grieve"
(Aali Imraan:169-170)"

We are Carpenters

There is a story of an elderly carpenter who was ready to retire.
The carpenter told his employer of his plan to leave the house-building business and live a more leisurely life with his wife, enjoying his extended family.
The employer was sorry to see his employee go and asked if he would build just one more house as a personal favour to him. The carpenter reluctantly agreed. He did sloppy work and he used inferior materials.
It was an unfortunate way to end a dedicated career.

When the carpenter finished his work, the employer came to inspect the house. Then he handed the front-door key to the carpenter.
"This is your house," he said. "It is my retirement gift to you"
The carpenter was shocked. If he had only known he was building his own house, he would have done it all so differently.
(Excerpt from: The Power of Giving)

We are all carpenters. We build our life everyday. Whether we do it whole-heartedly with deep passion or not it is our life that we are building.

Life is a journey, in the end we will be held accountable for all the things we did. The day will come when we will be facing Him, alone, to be judged and be rewarded.

From Turkey to Gaza

As I am writing this, the convoy of eight ships "Freedom Flotilla" are still on the way from Turkey to Gaza. The ships are loaded with humanitarian supplies for Palestinians in Gaza who have been under siege for almost four years.
(The photo on the right shows Ismail Haniya, prime minister of Gaza, inspecting the work at the old naval port of Gaza, where aid ships are expected to dock)

One of the ships, Mavi Marmara has about 560 activists which includes eight Malaysians.
After months of preparation they left for this blessed journey while knowing full well that they might not return.

Let us all pray to Him, The Mighty Al Aziz, The Protector Al Muhaymin, that this honorable mission would be accomplished and all of them would return safely.
However, whatever the outcome is, they have nothing to lose. It's either returning to their family or returning to Him.
They are indeed the chosen ones. How I envy them.

Turkish Craftmanship

We stayed for two days in Cappadocia.
On the second day, after the hot air balloon ride we went to visit three places.
The first one was hand made carpet factory. The carpets were made either from silk, cotton or wool.

The silkworm cocoons(left- the white round thing inside the container) had to be 'processed' in a certain way in order to get the thread ( I can't recall how it was).
Yes, the poor worms were inside that white cocoons.
This lady(right) was showing us how to make the double knots, the method used only by Turkish in hand made carpet making, hence you will have a long lasting high quality carpet. Unlike machine made carpet, a genuine handmade carpet takes a long time to finish. That carpet there(right) should be ready in may be two years time.

Then, in the show room, after being served with apple tea and Turkish coffee, it's time to show the carpets. The carpets were absolutely beautiful!
And the ones made with 100% silk were not just beautiful, but they were very very soft.. and silky..of course.
But, just use your own imagination to estimate the prices.Fully hand made, and it took months to complete. Not cheap I must say.


After the carpets, we were taken to see the jewelry. Precious and semi precious stones wrapped in silver. Blue, red, black, green stones... they were all there.
The special one is turquoise. Now I know that turquoise actually originated from Turkey and the word turquoise means Turkish stone or Turkish blue.

Not only the stones were special, the designs were very unique as some of them were fully imitated from ancient Anatolian jewelries.
I was there just to "cleanse my eyes" (cuci mata, that's what we, Malay called it). And yes.. my eyes were totally cleansed all right...

The last one for the day was ceramics.
Before we arrived at the place, I was just thinking that, it's just ceramics, nothing special.
But, once I saw the finished products, I was so impressed. The intricate designs were simply amazing.

The place that we went to belonged to a family, it was a family business which has been around for many generations (eight, if I am not mistaken). It was located in one of the cave houses.

From the carpet, then jewelry and lastly the ceramics.. what I saw was people who took pride in their work. Their meticulous and delicate work requires deep passion. Without passion, it's just not possible to produce such immaculate work.

I felt honoured to have met these people. They've not only shown me their exquisite works of art, but they have taught me about passion, patience and perseverance.

Alhamdulillah...
All praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds.

Cappadocia - 2

Let the pictures speak.
The lady in the photo was our pilot.
Click on any photo to have a better view.



















Alhamdulillah..
All praise be to Allah, Lord of the Worlds.

Cappadocia - 1

Cappadocia is an area not a city.
The landscape of Cappadocia came into being as a result of volcano eruption thousands of years ago. What we saw was an area full of rocks in dramatic shape. This area was an underground city where Christians used as a perfect hideout from the Romans.
They lived in their cave houses (right), all connected from the inside. However, most of these cave houses and churches are now empty, whereas in some places it has been turned into hotels and restaurants.
For more detailed information you can read here.

Cappadocia area is very wide. And the best way to view the area is from above. Yes! You have to fly...like a bird, so you can have the bird's eye view. That's exactly what we did.
It was an optional tour, and only four of us took the challenge. Me and my husband and two other friends.
It's hot air balloon ride!
It was a dream come true for me..
Alhamdulillah..Subhaanallah..
We were taken to the station as early as 5.00 am ( subuh time is 3.50am, by the way). The ride is only done early in the morning when the wind flow is safe for hot air balloon.

The basket has four sections for the passengers (5 per section), and one section in the middle for the pilot.

You don't really feel the movement of the
balloon unless you looked straight down below the balloon. It went up and down depending on the landscape. Sometimes we were taken in between the rocks so that we can have a better view of the cave houses. The highest that we went were 700m above the land.

It was an unforgettable experience. Subhaanallah..
The spectacular and breathtaking view made us speechless. Most of us were quiet, too absorbed with the surrounding.



The ride lasted about one hour. As the balloon started to descend, the ground crew got ready to pull the basket to the landing platform behind a vehicle to be driven back to the station. We were asked to stand in a landing position by holding to the basket while bending our knees. The landing was really smooth.
After getting out from the basket, we were offered with grape juice to celebrate and presented with a certificate by the pilot.

Alhamdulillah..