Food Fetish: Pickled Beetroot

So yum. Oh my God. So so so so so so deliciously mouthwatering, saliva inducing yum. I know it sounds like I've become more of a loopy Lou than before, but this stuff is seriously addictive! I'm just munching on a couple of slices right now even though it's lunch time! Sooo good!

For when one is stinking rich...

Src

Note to self:
When you make it big and have more sense than money, this is what you spend your money on. Okay? Yurrp. Until then, look all you like but DO NOT touch the debit card!

29 fasts+1 Eid.

29 fasts later, Eid finally descended down upon us. This Ramadhan was unlike no other and certainly different in every sense of the word. Hope you lovely readers celebrated Eid in the best of spirits with your beloved families like I did. My dad was and is still sorely missed, it's been a month exactly since he was last with us, but inshaAllah, he is now in the best of companies and at the highest station of jannah, ameen :-)

So hey, a big Eid Mubarak to every single one of you reading this. Hope you all made the best of it for this year. I've been super duper busy this week. I started work on Tuesday, day after Eid and have finished today for the week. Watch this space for more random ramblings on working life, heehee (I love it really!)
Much love

Fatty.

Is The Qur'ān A Shapeless Book? [article]

One of the long-standing objections levelled against the Qur'ān by its non-Muslim critics is that it appears to have no regular form or structure. It is said that its verses follow one another with little sense of interconnection and its sūrahs seem to have been arranged in a sequence based on the crude principle of diminishing length, the longest coming first and the shortest going to the end. Almost every sūrah, it is complained, is riddled with unsettling shifts of scene, address, and subject and one cannot with any amount of certainty predict what is going to come next. It is concluded that the Qur'ān is, at best, a remarkable compilation of unrelated passages, or a book of quotations. That though it is full of pearls, the pearls are lying in a promiscuous heap.

The actual words used by those who have raised this objection are much more stern and caustic. We will not quote them, partly because they may be found in any book written on the Qur'ān by any critic of Islam and partly because their pungency does not add to the gravity of the objection. We shall only note that new as well as old orientalists have made the point often and that for all the difference in their approaches to the Qur'ān, they are all agreed that the Qur'ān completely lacks anything of the kind of orderly arrangement. Some of them have actually tried to rearrange the Qur'ān either chronologically or according to some other self-devised principle.

The response of Muslim scholars to this objection has been, generally, concessive. They grant that the Qur'ān does not have the arrangement of a well-planned book, but then, they say, it was never meant to have one. The revelation of the Qur'ān, they point out, was completed in twenty-three years and during that period the Qur'ān dwelt on such a large number of diverse subjects that no act of compilation could have given it greater unity and coherence than that it now possesses. The Qur'ān, they say, dealt with the lives, activities, and problems of a whole nation for a long span of time and so any objection based on the concept of a research thesis is bound to be misplaced. Read the rest here.

Food for thought

Dear recipe writers and readers in general

Thank you to those of you who have been posting fab recipes for some really delish food for iftar and sehri. They really are so inspirational, and it's wonderful seeing a diverse range of recipes from all over the world especially during the month of Ramadhan. We're such a mixed fabulous bunch and there is so much to be learned from each and every one of us, if we want to that is. Remember, to learn is to share. Yaa, I think I just made that one up. So profound hey?! Hah :-P

Anyways, thanks to dear Aimie@The Knot, the hubs and I treated ourselves to a midnight indulgence (that's sehri to be precise actually) a few nights ago. Suffice to say, the recipe was great and the dessert was delishishousness, yeah, just like that (I think hunger is making me lose my marbles, just read the post title!).

Yumminess.

Yumminess with Wall's vanilla ice cream.

Sweetness and Light

A boy after my own heart. I really do heart the source of these beautifully mesmerising images. How adorable. SubhanAllah.

A boy holds candy in his hand as he reads the Quran in a mosque during Ramadan, in Amman, Jordan on August 22, 2009. (REUTERS/Ali Jarekji (JORDAN RELIGION SOCIETY IMAGES OF THE DAY)

Quote of the day:

Do not ask Allah to guide your footsteps, if you are not willing to move your feet. ~ Unknown.

Laylatul Qadr - Night of Power [article]

The Dome of the Rock, or Masjid Qubbat As-Sakhrah, one of the holiest sites in Islam, is seen on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem through festive lights for Ramadan on Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2009. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

On the blessings of Laylatul Qadr

The Night of Power is a very important occasion in Islam. Everyone is asked to live it and to enjoy it. This Night is a night of Mercy, a night of Blessing, a night of Peace and a night of Guidance. It is a night of Unification between the finite world of ours and the Infinite Universe of the Unseen. Anyone who is interested in attaining the Mercy of Allah will strive very hard to look for the Night of Power. Anyone who is interested in receiving the blessings of Allah on the Blessed Night will work very hard to enjoy the Night of Power. Anyone who is interested in attaining peace of mind, peace of body and peace in society, he has to look for this Night and to live it.

The month of Ramadan contains the most blessed month of the year, since it contains Laylatul-Qadr, the night when Allah (SWT) chose to reveal the Holy Qur’an.

“We have indeed revealed this (Message) in the Night of Power. And what will explain to thee what the night of power is? The Night of Power is better than a thousand months. Therein descends the angels and the Ruh (Jibrail) by Allah’s permission with all Decrees. There is peace until appearance of dawn” (Al- Qadr 97:1-3)

Worship performed in this night brings more reward than the worship performed in one thousand months. Allah also says about this powerful night in Surah Dukhan

“Ha. Mim. By the book that makes things clear. We sent it down on a blessed night (the Night of Al-Qadr) in the month of Ramadan. For We (ever) wish to warn (against evil). In that (night) is made distinct every affair of wisdom, by command, from Our Presence. For We (ever) send (revelations), as a mercy from Thy Lord for He hears and knows (all things).” (Surah Dukhan 44:1-6)

Salmaan (RA) reported that on the last day of Sha'baan the Messenger of Allah (SAW) addressed them and said

"Oh people, there comes before you now a great month, a most blessed month in which lies a night greater in virtue than one thousand months; (LAYLATUL-QADR). It is a month in which each day should be observed by fasting, this has been made obligatory by the Almighty Allah."

Abu Huraira related that the Prophet (SAW) said

“Whoever fasts during Ramadan with faith and seeking his reward from Allah will have his past sins forgiven. Whoever prays during the nights in Ramadan with faith and seeking his reward from Allah will have his past sins forgiven. And he who passes Lailat al-Qadr in prayer with faith and seeking his reward from Allah will have his past sins forgiven.” [Bukhari, Muslim]

In search for Laylatul Qadr

Allah (SWT) has hidden the knowledge of its occurrence from His servants out of mercy for them so that they can increase their actions in the search for it during these honorable nights, by praying, making dhikr, reciting the Qur’an and supplicating an so they grow and increase in the nearness to Allah (SWT) and His reward. Allah (SWT) also kept it hidden from them as a test for them to distinguish who amongst them struggles and makes an effort to find it and who is lazy and negligent. This is since whoever constantly strives for something, he will exert himself in his search for it and trouble himself in finding it and achieving it.

The signs of the Night of Al-Qadr include
1. The sun rises early in the morning without rays.
2. Rain may fall either during the night or during the day of that night.
3. During night the sky will be lightly foggy.
4. The sky will be slightly lighted without reflections and without rays.

Allah (SWT) discloses the time of the occurrence of the Night of Al-Qadr to some of His servants through signs and signals, which one is able to see, Just as the Prophet (SAW) saw its sign that he would be prostrating in mud on its following morning. So it rained on that night and he prayed the (following) morning (Fajr) prayer in mud [Shaikh Muhammad Ibn Saalih al-'Uthaimin in his book Majaalis].

Based on the saying of the Prophet (SAW), this incredible night falls in the last ten nights of Ramadan,

"Search for the Night of Al-Qadr in the last ten nights of Ramadan." [Al-Bukhari and Muslim]

And it falls in one of the odd nights more likely than on the even nights, based on the Prophet's (SAW) saying

"Search for the Night of Al-Qadr in the odd nights of the last ten nights of Ramadan." [Al-Bukhari]

And it is closer to the last seven nights, based on the hadith of Ibn 'Umar (RA) that

“Some men from the Companions of Allah's Messenger (SAW) saw the Night of Al-Qadr in a dream during the last seven nights (of Ramadan). So the Prophet (SAW) said: 'I see that all of your dreams agree that it (the Night of Al-Qadr) is in the last seven nights. So whoever wants to search for it, then let him search for it in the last seven nights.” [Al-Bukhari and Muslim]

And it is also based on the hadith in Muslim from Ibn 'Umar (RA) that the Prophet (SAW) said

"Look for it in the last ten nights. But if one of you becomes weak or is unable, then do not let the remaining (last) seven nights overcome him."

Amongst the odd nights in the last seven nights, it is closest to the twenty-seventh night due to the hadith of Ubay Bin Ka'ab (RA) who said

“By Allah, I know which night it is. It is on the night that Allah's Messenger (SAW) commanded us to perform the Night Prayer. It is on the twenty-seventh night.” [Muslim]

The night of Al-Qadr is not specified to one fixed night throughout all the years. Rather, it constantly changes. So one year it could occur on the 27^th night for example and on another year it could occur on the 25^th night, according to Allah's Will and Wisdom. What directs us to this is the Prophet's (SAW) saying

"Look for it (i.e. the Night of Al-Qadr) when there remain nine nights, when there remains seven nights, or when there remains five nights (i.e. 21^st, 23^rd and 25^th respectively without mention of the 27^th)."

Al-Hafidh Ibn Hajr said in Fath-ul-Bari "the most strongest opinion is that it is on an odd night in the last ten nights and that it constantly changes."

11 things to do on Laylatul Qadr

Watch this and learn like I did!