Upon reaching Gold Coast airport, we head down to HERTZ booth to grab our cars and go. But we faced a pretty hard time with them (even after booking online with NO FEES (thank god!)) – so we took our bags and walked to AVIS. I think my kiasu-ness comes in handy at this point of time, I booked both just incase one was giving us problems and ta-da I was right. The travel instinct I suppose? LOL. Avis was so efficient, took us barely ten minutes and they’ve got our car ready (complete with a complimentary upgrade) and we’re all set. 5-seater for 3 days – $373.92 and one time petrol refill – $89.97. Yes unbelievable, we only had to refill our petrol ONCE even after travelling up to Brisbane and back.

First on our itinerary was – Byron Bay. We were buying time since check in was only a little after 5-ish? We arrive Sydney at 0900 – so road trip it is. Driving down the highway was really nice, it was probably the blue skies and good company that made everything complete I was too busy singing and video-ing a whole load of crap while Lynn was driving which made everything look more annoying now when I replay the videos. Haha I am still very surprised how much patience she’s got in her to entertain the energy that I was carrying throughout the trip. Amazing, I’ve never met someone who can actually carry on that long, tho I bet there’s got to be one or two incidents where she feels like punching the hell out of me but too nice to say anything :p Love you lynn for being so patient with me!

Back to where we were, Byron’s like a little town off the highway. With a beach that’s just bey0nd “WOW”! The weather was perfect, so sunny yet the humidity level was low so it was very shiok! Not till I step out of the car and I’m like “HOW DO THESE PEOPLE WEAR SHORTS!!!!?!” – I ran back to the car to grab my cardigan because even with the heat I was still very cold! Lynn is as she is, shivering yet cool only. I sometimes wonder how on earth she can stand that much cold without being noisy :/

We watch the locals as they unpack their picnic baskets, having a good time by the beach and we’re like – LETS DO THIS! So we went to grab our take-aways and head straight for the beach. We had a pretty decent meal, had a good time people watching and just enjoying the moment. It was blissful I really loved this part – so very relaxing!

I reckon lunch would have been perfect if it weren’t for this incident – a guy in his mid-twenties was trying to be funny by feeding ONE of these, some chips and the whole flock came RIGHT IN FRONT OF US! Thank God we were already finishing up our lunch, these guys were just eyeing us like they’re going to eat us or something! 0.0

Laughing away from where we sat, we found ourselves walking down the little streets. So many cute cafes and interesting shops but we got nothing for ourselves – shopping we saved for last (or more like, everything was well for the beach and we didn’t need any of it anyway :p) But if we had more time, I wouldn’t mind staying a night over here at Byron, doing nothing but walk by the beach and being lazy! It seems like the perfect location to get away from the city, really.

After plenty of sightseeing we decided to head for the lighthouse. Whats a trip to Byron without visiting the lighthouse mate? Haha *fail i know! :p But yes we made it and from a distance we were already so awed. I was, definitely. I got more and more excited as we drove closer to the beautiful man-made structure. Wish we could have gone close to sunset, I bet the view would be AMAZING!

The view was just tooo beautiful. We’re so lucky that the weather was perfect really, imagine if it was pouring! But it didn’t and we had one of the best memory here. This just makes me want to migrate to Australia even more. Kept telling Lynn, “I’m sooo going to migrate here, I’m so going to work here I tell you” and we discussed things like “yeah, we can migrate over, have our kids grow up here, and die here even” – ya ya only, but never know eh?

Byron’s really nice, if I could visit again, I would and perhaps put on more weight so I can tackle the cold! Heh watching the locals jump right into the water makes me so jealous! I can barely walk 5 minutes without going “omg so cold la so cooolddd” think what if I get in the water, it’d be HILARIOUS!!!

This is definitely one of the BEST memory of our Aussie trip. I wish I have the video convertor so I can upload our crazy videos up here so you guys can have a sneak peek of what its like travelling with two “minah tudung“! Clearly we don’t act nor sound like one cause for one – I’m not typical melayu (can’t speak without laughing and always end up just speaking in english anyway!) and I rub off alot of my craziness on Lynn which made her more outspoken and confident after the trip so that leaves with just uniquely US There’s a couple more posts and I can hear Lynn screaming at me to update and since this week’s probably one of the free-est, I will draft a few more up and schedule updates right after I post this one up. 2013′s been really busy from day one so pardon my lack of updates but thank you for visiting each time (tho leave disappointed!). I’ll try my best to keep this site up and running – and not wait till WP kicks me out!

Till then, happy weekends

#Throwback Destination – SYDNEY

I’d like to bring you a little back in time during my little trip to Australia with Lynn. Just a brief introduction, myself and Lynn were friends on Twitter for a pretty long time but we never really interacted much so when we finally met during one of the talks that was organized by Darul Arqam, things just sped a little faster and since then we’ve been good buddies. We shared a couple of similarities yet so different on the inside. She’s more introvert while myself, an extrovert. (Yes, she entertains my dramas.) Heading down under with her has been such an interesting experience, one I would never forget (for life!) and one I’d never trade for the world. Here’s Part #1 of our mini adventure – SYDNEY.

SYDNEY is such a beautiful city. I love everything about it. People have been nice to us during our 3 days 2 nights stay so we pretty much had an easy time. As time wasn’t on our side, we did a lot of touch and go through the city. The only outskirt was Picton for Skydiving. In which right after we found ourselves just killing our feet walking down towards the Harbour. There’s really nothing much to highlight about Sydney other than the great weather and how we enjoyed being out of our comfort zone. We also starved ourselves by a little bit, we didn’t have time to search for good halal restaurants around anyway, we settled for kebab picks-ups which were sooo huge it had us filled till the next day. Perks of starting on a salad diet

I know holiday posts can be such a bore, so I cut down a lot on photos which I felt was redundant, like many many shots of the same building from a different angle. Haha I have a bad habit of either doing that, or I enjoy what I have in my hands and forget to take pictures all together! But I’ll be nice and highlight where I can on what to look out for, when and why – if I can recall any.

Any questions, leave them in the comments below okay? I’ll update on our Gold Coast trip next year (;p) till then have a gooood December 30th :)

Changi Airport – excited faces to get away from Home!

Jetting off down under on a 8-butt-aching-hour flight onboard Scoot tho with complimentary seat upgrades! LOL

1 hour later and on a flight to Sunny Sydney onboard Tiger with only 1/4 of the plane filled!

The ticket from the airport to city was mad expensive – If I can recall its AUD 15.40 even to the nearest station! The alternative was getting on a bus but we were too excited to wait for one so we paid our dues and went onboard the double decker train towards the city!

We spent an hour trying to figure both our Aussie simcards by Alfred Street, I actually find it hilarious. Us with heavy backpacks, both on the phones trying to reach our operators. Thank god for good weather, it played a vital role in keeping our temper down! No sweat (literally!!!) Hahaha

We,then, settled for our breakfast+lunch. Fish and Chips – battered and crispy! AUD 31.40 for a meal for two with perfect scenery ;D

We were too tired to find a perfect spot that this was good enough

Our place was across the bridge, a little neighborhood called Kirribilli. And since we’ve got our energy recharged, we decided “Lets Walk” – oh boy we had no idea what we were getting into!

We both had 8kg on our backs, and I had an additional 3kg up front. It wasn’t an easy journey, we were both like hobbits on our mini adventure (Yes I recently caught Hobbits – An Unexpected Journey and I rate it 4/5!!! ) but I think the excitement we had just kept us going and the weight we were carrying wasn’t half as bad till we dropped our bags back at the apartment and realized “OH MY GOD FINALLY!!!”

I chose to share this shot (below) cause I find it “ARTISTIC” – ya, one of those macam-paham shots that I went “BINGO!” Heh

Right after this shot (above), a man came up to me and asked “What did you snap this picture for?” and I went, “well, I am a tourist?”. “Yeah, but what for?” and as I was about to reply that he continued, “are you muslim? what you take that for?”. Taken aback by his questions I just went, “I’m a tourist, I’m taking pictures for the people in Singapore!!” (I had no idea why I said that but I burst laughing after he left!) x) People in Singapore? Seriously, Hana? What were you thinking? LOL and you know what Lynn was doing? She was standing far far away from me, giggling away (cause thats what friends do right?!?!?!)

Night came and after freshening ourselves up, we decided to go for a walk. Enjoying the beautiful lights, the weather and just about everything. It was a moment of just bliss. Blessed to be able to experience this, blessed to be given this opportunity, blessed for everything

This picture have me laughing each time I browse through. WITHOUT FAIL! It’s one of the most memorable moment caught at the right time. Picture perfect! So as you can see from the first shot (top left), we were ready for a self-timed photo of us. The moment picture #1 was shot, we heard someone screamed “SHIT” followed by a loud “PLOP!!!!”. The following #2, #3 and #4 was me watching the camera of a filipino guy, in his mid-20′s, dropped into the water. It was HEARTBREAKING. I was so traumatized I immediately took my camera and told Lynn, “No more self-shots by the water”. We spent the next 20 minutes, just walking and talking about how the guy must have felt. Oh my god, imagine the pain.

So we went to heal our traumatized hearts by walking across the bridge and get some………

Bubblegum flavoured McFlurry with marshmellows! Such bliss. Took our worries away, instantly.

If you’re wondering how we can afford to eat ice-cream at such cold temperature? Beats me! I watched the locals taking on ice-cream like hot dogs and I had the same thought, but no one can ever describe till you try it for yourself. I have no idea where the chills went, the indulgence was just heaven

We decided to take the ferry home, since we’ve got on the train and walked across, so why not try something different at 10pm eh? Yes why not! So we got ourselves two tickets at AUD 11.25 for a one stop (thrilling) ferry ride across, which leads us to the next moment to remember -

We found ourselves at the other end of Kirribili. Turned out, WE TOOK THE WRONG FERRY TO OUR STOP! This was kinda funny cause we ended up walking past the houses that were just pitch dark. No lights were on and we had to depend on our phones to lead us home (thank you GPS!!) and it was a steep walk up the hill to get to our apartment (exercise anywhere, everywhere kan?) but it was not funny trying to look out for stray dogs in the dark. We were blessed to not bump into any!! But it was nice, just pin-drop silence and darkness. I could just sit there in yoga pose and freeze myself in the middle of the road, no kidding! :p

This is the view from our apartment. Beautiful, without a doubt. Both day and night The owner is very lucky to have such a spot.

Rise and shine at 5 am as we head down to Picton all the way from Milsons Point. Our tickets cost us AUD 8.20 per person because we were travelling to the suburbs. I wish I had taken more pictures but the video camera had most of it. I will compile and perhaps do a finale for this Aussie trip with the video, insya Allah. The journey was like in the movies, us in the train, going through the suburbs with a lovely scenery keeping us company! But oh well, you’ve got to wait for that to understand what I mean heh

We had to wait for someone to pick us up as the place was quite a distance and there were no cabs nor buses to take us there. Here’s what its like to drive down the mini suburb, Picton

You have no idea how happy I was at this point of time, it was just incredible. I replayed my video over and over and I can’t help squirming yet laugh at how exciting it was. The whole video I was just smiling and you can tell how happy I really was when I was at 14,000 feet above ground. Everyone thought it was scary, but it was like living a dream, it made me see the world from a different perspective and I can’t help thinking how blessed I was to be able to land safely on my bum! If you love adrenaline rush, like myself, you should totally go for this. There’s no space in your heart for fear cause the thrill is what filled up most of it! You can catch my video here -

SKYDIVING SYDNEY

Back at the city, after an hour’s ride from Picton, we found ourselves STARVING. But we didn’t want to sit in a restaurant cause time wasn’t on our side. So we decided to grab a kebab and walk over to Paddy’s Market and down towards the Harbour.

I don’t want to waste time showing pictures of the market – cause then it’ll be super boring. Not like you can buy off the pictures right? So if you’re curious, go get yourselves a ticket and head down to shop! It’s nothing WOW, but lots of stalls selling souvenirs and boots and hats and costumes, etc. We left empty handed other than a bag of fruits. Like makcik-makcik only ah :p

From Paddy’s Market we walked down all the way to the Opera House No train, no bus, no taxi, no ferry. Just a pair of feet walking us to the famous attraction!

We were just lucky to be here at the right time

This shot was taken at approx 6 in the morning! So so beautiful eh?

We rushed our way to the airport to catch our 7 am flight back to Gold Coast! Our muka so sembab like that :/ LOL Too obvious we were bright and early! Haha

Our trip continues to Byron Bay and a drive up to Brisbane! Catch us on the next post! Hope you enjoyed our mini trip to Sydney!

xx

We took the becak and head to Malioboro – where you can find ideal souvenirs back home. It’s a long stretch but it’s worth walking. There’s street food served with Iced flavoured desserts to cool you down and recharge your body for the next stretch! Oh, if you don’t know already, FOOD HERE IS CHEAP! I love how we can grab 10 sticks of lamb sate, 10 sticks of chicken sate, 2 plates of lontong served with 2 iced teas – all for SGD 3.50! And we ended our night with a superb 90-minutes crackalacking massage for only SGD 6.00! So crazy yet satisfying. *happy sigh*

So tomorrow we’re going to be more ‘adventurous’ and head to the places of interest – I’m so excited to view the historical sites! It’s nothing big but having to work while wandering in a foreign country excites me – double, always! Till then, I need to stop working, head to bed and wake up to indonesian breakfast which I can’t stop thinking of since dinner! Haha Good night you all!

And by the way, it’s pronounced JOGJAKARTA, not Yogyakarta

Before I jump right into the crazy time we had, I’d like to do a Pre-Aussie trip post! TA-DA! Yes, to prepare you for the adventures ahead (who knows you’ll be pulled to go over?) I want to share with you the many things you need to be aware of before jumping right into the plane and bid sunny Singapore goodbye. This is just like pumping fuel in the car before the journey I understand some of my friends have already start making plans, don’t worry I’ll provide you with every cost we had to fork out to help you plan your little trip down under! You ready?

First off, please make sure you DO A CHECK on yourself. Things like consulting your parents, asking your friends around and stuff like that. To me, I feel parent’s blessings are really important, especially when I’m travelling and I am still under their care so the very least respecting their say is top on my priority list. Having someone to travel with is second, for safety reasons and free “entertainment” :p But really, having someone along is crucial especially if you’re a female and you’re not much of an explorer

Second, BOOK YOUR FLIGHTS! Find the cheapest buys by booking your flight few months ahead, even a year would do good! It’s always best to get over a year tho – its cheaper, it buys you more time to save and it gives you time to do your fair share of research. AND please ensure your passport isn’t expiring anytime soon, you don’t want to spend time in the immigrations now do you?

Third, VISA! Yes, we need Visa to enter Australia. I heard rumours we don’t and I heard those who didn’t, had to fork out AUD 50 at the immigration for not applying. So please grab your visas, its as easy as filling out a form and wait for approval. And it’s as cheap as SG$12.90, I got mine from EasyETA and I know it sounds too good to be true and the price may be doubtful to some, but I applied and I received it and I went to Australia and back without facing problems, so trust me?

Forth, INSURANCE! Once you’ve settled your tickets, get insurance right away. I mean, if your trip’s confirmed why wait anyway :/ Try to clear as much as you can so you can forecast the amount you may need to bring during your trip. The cheapest and safest option is NTUC, I booked for the both of us at SGD 51 in total whereas buying a single pass is like SGD 40! Save so much right? See, another reason to travel in a group, you save more!

Fifth, ACCOMODATION! This option depends on who you’re travelling with, your itinerary, your style of travelling and everything else. For my case, we went for Bed&Breakfast where we actually stayed over at local home/apartments for a few days at a really good price. I’ve talked about this, it’s called Air BNB. This site is awesome because you can choose whose house you want to stay over depending on your budget, and how close you want to be to the city. I’ve ditched hotel and resorts after I found this portal a few years ago, and till date I’m so impressed with its services. You get to stay at a good price AND you have the opportunity to live like the locals. I think its good experience, it’s much more rewarding than staying at a pricey hotel. Then again, different people have different perspectives, so if you’re up to explore what the country’s got to offer, you know what to do. Otherwise you can sit and watch deals go up and down over sites that provide good hotel deals like Agoda.com!

Sixth, TRANSPORTATION! So while we were at Sydney, we took public transport because we felt their tranportation system was good enough to get us around the places we need to be. Please don’t muka terperanjat when you’ve got to fork out AUD 16.40 for a one-way train ticket from Airport to City! It is expensive, so if you’re going to stay for more than 3 days, get the 7-days unlimited travel pass by train/bus/ferry at AUD 30++. So much cheaper! Unless you’re staying near the city and prefer to just roam around your comfort zone, theres a free shuttle bus 555 that takes you around for free. Stay away from cabs unless you really need it, it burns bigger holes in your pockets than hailing a cab in Singapore. Besides don’t you not want to eat in the double decker trains? I love it okay! I love how we can turn the seats around! Haha

Unlike Sydney, renting a car in Gold Coast sounds like the best option, considering how tight our schedule was. What I did prior to our trip was to reserve cars from both Avis and Hertz, same pickup point, same package but different cost. Why did I have to do TWO? Well turns out I actually sensed we were going to face some hiccups and I was right! Hertz was being fussy with the documentations, especially signatures, personal details, etc. So after 5 minutes, we turned our backs and head for Avis. Things were so much smoother with Avis, we had our details sorted and paperwork done and we’ve got our keys within 10 minutes. The best part was we even got a complimentary upgrade to a Camry. Inclusive of car insurance and GPS for 3 days we paid only AUD 288 (petrol depends on your usage, half tank for a Camry had us at AUD 70)

Seventh, CURRENCY EXCHANGE! Change your money here in Singapore! And if possible, stay away from changing money from the airport. Go to Mustafa Centre if you must, it saves alot of money! I found an offer at Tanjong Pagar for SG$1.26 – AUD 1, Changi was SG$1.29 – AUD 1 and in Australia? SG$1.35 – AUD 1. Crazy kan? So please do change your money in Singapore before you fly off!

Eighth, ENTERTAINMENT! If you are planning on visiting places of interest or theme parks and all that, get them online. It’ll save you alot of little coins that you can use for other purposes. Like for example, I did a good research on getting discounted tickets for my trip to Dreamworld, per entry is AUD 80, I got mine at AUD 51! With that AUD 30, I can get least 5 rounds of Golden Churros okay! But anyway, if you’re renting a car, Avis provides a discount book that gives you a 1-for-1 ticket, so whichever suits you best

Nineth is something you should do when you arrive at the airport, the most crucial thing ever! Yes, COMMUNICATION! So the sim cards are really easy to find, just grab Vodafone. It provides micro sim as well, so you can either use it on a normal sim card phone or you can break it easily to use as a micro-sim. To get the sim card its $2 at any convenience store. The harder bit is activating it :/ I spent 45 minutes sitting on a bench at Circular Quay trying to figure it out. So upon grabbing the AUD 2 sim, I bought the recharge as well at AUD 29.90. Activating the sim goes as annoying as talking to a recorded operator asking you questions and recording your voice like your name, passport number, female/male, address in Australia, etc and finally to activate it, you will have to wait till the customer service officers are available to assist you. If you’re lucky, you’ll get to speak to them within 10 minutes, my case was pure bad luck Anyway why I recommend the AUD 29.90 package is because with that you get AUD150 free credit (calls overseas, etc) + 500 mb worth of data usage + free usage of facebook and some iphone applications. Lets just say you run out of 500mb data, they will deduct excess from your AUD 150 worth of credit (psst whatsapp, viber, instagram and twitter uses up the 500mb btw)

Tenth, HAVE FUN PLANNING! Sit down with your buddies and discuss who wants to go where and agree to an itinerary to ensure everyone gets their fair share of fun. It can get messy okay unless you have a lovely buddy along (like Lynn who agrees to everything) life won’t be candies and cakes. Haha! I’ll blog about Sydney on my next entry! Look out for it

Anyway something random came up the past few days and it made me realize that number one : problems in life are never going to end and point number two : there’s always a solution to every problem.  Oh yes. No matter how we try to run away from it, all of us will most definitely face trying times that can be such struggle and the only thing we hope for is for it to just end. But really, what’s the point of going to the answer when we’ve yet to find the solution to tackling it the next time? Its no wonder we find ourselves crying over spilled milk again and again. So recently I’ve found something which I found to be useful in my every day life. I just thought I’d share with you

You know, I have friends who tell me they love reading my tweets, my blog posts, my random quotes on facebook and how I can get that much energy to go through it (sidetrack : THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ALWAYS INSPIRING ME!!!)  and whether life threw me any lemons? Well the answer is YES – no one gets out of life without struggling! And the reason why I am able to share such sunshine-like posts is because I’m inspired to do so. I need my daily dose of inspirations too you know? Unfortunately there isn’t a site nor someone in particular that trigger that I can share with you because I am always trying to find something that inspire me and my life and it usually comes  at really random times over really random stuffs. BUT there is one thing I hold onto dearly, the thought of chanelling my negative thoughts to positive!  As we all know, our mind is very powerful, but very little of us know the power of it and thus blame the universe for bad times. And when no inspirations come knocking at my door, I know just the right place for it The Holy Quran! Now each time I face an obstacle, I recall this -

“And We will surely test you with something of fear and hunger and a loss of wealth and lives and fruits, but give good tidings to the patient,”

“Who, when disaster strikes them, say, “Indeed we belong to Allah , and indeed to Him we will return.”

“Those are the ones upon whom are blessings from their Lord and mercy. And it is those who are the [rightly] guided.”

No doubt life does has its hardships BUT Allah SWT promised that He will test us again and again in many different ways. And no doubt sometimes we forget that everything in this world won’t happen unless Allah SWT said YES and sometimes we forget things are really beyond our control. Thats why sometimes its good to always remind ourselves that no matter how much we try to deny, Allah SWT is still our Creator, everything we do, everything that happens is only because of Him. There’s nothing called pure evil in Islam, the only way out is to get closer to Allah SWT. Who knows we have been straying from Him thus He blessed us with a mishap to remind us of Him? You’ve got to agree on this one, at times the only time we really cried to Him is during our hardships.

Everything Allah SWT does is always for a positive cause, He loves us and He wants good for us. If He decrees something from us, know that there is always a blessing in disguise. And if it seems like it’s not working out, try opening your hearts and mind and look for positivity! Perhaps this mishap is meant to teach us somethng, perhaps this mishap is Him trying to increase our rewards, perhaps this mishap is Him saving us from harmful events? Negativity is just us perceiving it, we’ve got to start learning to push that aside and reach out for the positive thoughts thats just right there waiting for us. Clear the dust we must! I hope this helps if not a lot, a little bit and may you be blessed with strength to overcome the struggles that await. Remember, what doesn’t kill, just makes one stronger? I’m not saying I’m damn pro in this, I’m still learning, so shall we learn together to attain success?

Be positive, insya Allah your difficulties will come easy to bear

Have a gooood week!

You see, everyone have their own definition of happiness, and we are no one to judge other’s bowl of happy pills. Happiness, I feel, is about appreciating the blessings our Creator has blessed us with. Happiness for others is being sincerely happy for others blessings and to come to terms with the fact that what’s good for them may not be good for us. It’s not easy, that I know, but it’s all in the mind, that I’ve realized.

Only we have the power to control how we react, how we feel, how we think – the key is within us and we’ve yet to even realize that. We sometimes tend to depend our happiness on someone, on things that we forget who we are, where we come from and who has been guiding us all these while. You’ve got to agree with me, if God is human, He’ll probably feel super under appreciated.

I spent some time alone last night just pondering on the many things in life that has brought me to where I am now. I’ve done some pretty nasty things and I cringe at the thought but the downfalls I faced was probably the reason why I’m sitting here typing this impromptu and totally random post. They say, we never know the value of what we have, till it slips from our fingers, and we can only understand that once we experience it for ourselves. How can we ever be happy if all we’re looking for is something new something that we don’t have? How can we appreciate something we don’t have if we can’t even appreciate the things we already have?

Happiness. I found happiness while counting the many blessings He has showered me with. Starting from the people around me, the experience I struggled through and the miracles He has shown me.

Everything happens for a reason, likewise with this post. Just maybe He’d like for you to find your happiness too?

Happy Sunday!

Anyway, you might have guessed, and you might not know where I’m heading to but what you must know is…..I’m having my bffffffffffffffffff keep me company! Yay! Solo travelling is fun but it can get lonely at times. I’m done with the big countries so this time (though I’ve been here before) I took it up because its somewhere closer to home

So to kickstart our lil getaway, I thought “why not document this”. So yes, here I am for the next couple of days. I heard some of my friends are also heading to where I’m headed so instead of copy pasting what I said to every one, I post, you read. I won’t declare where we’re flying off to now, its supposed to be a sekreettttt but till October 9th, I shall leave it to you to guess

Happy Weekend!

Alhamdulillah, praises be to Allah, for allowing us to experience the beautiful month of Ramadhan and now, Syawal. Fasting (emotionally, physically and spiritually) has been quite a ride this year. They say every day we grow wiser, likewise this Ramadhan, I felt myself more appreciative of this month (full of blessings and rewards) than I felt I did last year. Such an accomplishment though not as well as I expect myself to be.

Every Raya, my family make it a practice to not be seeking for forgiveness rather we wish everyone in the family well.

My dad feels it’s important to encourage this act so that me and my siblings know that we can’t wait for raya to seek forgiveness for things that we’ve done over a year. Always apologize there and then, forgive there and then and let bygones be bygones. Waiting till Eid to seek forgiveness is just like running away from all the trouble we’ve caused one another. Besides we never know if we are given the chance to even meet Syawal – who knows we only make it till the last day of Ramadhan and Allah decides He loves us more? So well, I think its practical and we’ve all grown into it. So this year, to add on to the well wishes, we have the act of appreciation. Telling our family members how we appreciate their presence and let it be known that we’re family and no matter what happens to either of us, we’ll always be together.

To think of this day being with my loved ones - there’s nothing but gratitude that fills my heart.

I hope your Syawal has been a rocking start to a brand new you! They say it takes 21 days to form a habit, and having Ramadhan for 30 days is definitely more than enough. Let’s not waste what we’ve practiced and learnt through this fasting month It has been an awesome one, lets make the rest of our days be as awesome as our Ramadhan (or even better!).

Before I end this post, here’s me apologizing for any posts that may have offended you (without my knowledge) and if I have ever been harsh in my da’wah with my intention to share about Islam. For I am only human and if you must know only the good stuff comes from Allah, the rest are from my shortcomings

And just for the fun of it, I got my cousins to come round to do a short video as a gift to all our loved ones

Click on this link and have a good laugh - Suasana Di Hari Raya

Salam Aidilfitri

It’s 3 in the morning and the only thing in my head is ‘ALLAH IS GREAT’. I’ve been sleeping awfully late past few days watching videos after videos on Islam – trying to catch up on classes and listen to the many beautiful preaches that I know will enlighten my soul. But tonight, it’s different.

After watching ‘Men are from Marwa and Women are from Safa‘, I chanced upon a video which made me cry buckets. For some reason it just happen to touch my heart and I couldn’t help but share with you this youtube video which I really hope will tap on your heart as it did for me. It’s not about a guy who converted, its not about how many people did after him, but the message that Sheikh Yusuf brought across.

Even as a practicing muslim, I sometimes feel I lack so much compared to the ‘new muslims’ (I refuse to use converts). I feel so ashamed yet so inspired by them. Their imaan is so strong, their faith in Allah SWT beats mine hands down and I can’t help but feel a pinch on how much I’ve taken for granted being a muslim all my life. But I’m always thankful for having the opportunity to watch these videos because watching them is like cleansing my soul – it’s like fixing a lightbulb.

I pray that if you chance on this post you’ll take 30 minutes to watch this and give it a shot. I dua that when you do, Allah SWT will open your heart to all that He have allowed this Sheikh to say. I pray that with this video it will enlighten you and I, gives us the motivation to be better servants to Allah SWT and strengthen our relationship with Him. May He guide us and may He give us an opportunity to do so before it’s too late.

Remember it is OUR responsibility to assist those who are new to Islam. It is OUR responsibility as muslims to lend a helping hand in clearing doubts of our sisters and brothers. It is OUR responsibility to ensure that they don’t feel left out. Islam is a beautiful religion, a religion that is full of truth and love. Let’s do our part to reach out and share with them this beautiful religion we’re in.

And even if they don’t want to, RESPECT them anyway. Because Islam does not encourage hate, only Love. Don’t be discouraged anyway because Allah mention in the Quran ;

“Verily, you (O Muhammad) guide not whom you like, but Allah guides whom He wills. And He knows best those who are the guided.”

(Quran 28:56)

He guides whom He wills. That’s very important. This ayat was revealed when Rasulullah SAW was so helpless when his uncle, Abu Talib, refused to embrace Islam. That just goes to show how great Allah is and we are no one to go against that. If He wishes to open the hearts of our family and friends, that is His will.

Ramadhan kareem everyone
Salam Alaikum!

This is a Tafsir BUT it’s no ordinary Tafsir. Why? Because not only do you understand what we’re reading, this book allows us to learn Arabic words as we go along!  Ever since I laid my eyes on it, I’m like ‘THIS IS A MUST HAVE!!!!’. To be honest I can recite, I can memorize the verses, but we’ve got to be honest, wouldn’t it be so much more complete if we actually understand what the Quran’s telling us? Sometimes we kind of forget that the Al-Quran is actually Allah’s words and in it holds the best guide to life (both Dunya and Akhirah).

Qhairul present me with one during our 3rd, and I’ve been reading it religiously. It’s been a very interesting journey and I’m picking up words as I go along. Even if I didn’t memorize it word for word, I roughly understand where each sentence is going to bring me when I read the Quran.

This product comes in A5 size (for now) and it’s packaged with a little handbook on the duas and tasbih that we can read on a daily basis. I find it so convenient to bring it everywhere I go, like a fat notebook but I call it ‘Guidebook to Dunya’. Ever since this came in, I’ve been neglecting alot of my motivational handbooks, I feel this speaks so much more

And with just $28, you get free delivery to your doorstep! YAY! So convenient

So on behalf of Tafakkur.Sg, if you’re interested in purchasing this Tafsir, please email me at turhanazad@gmail.com and I’ll guide you through your ordering process.

Salam Ramadhan