muslim party picker upper

uncle: beta, what's your name
beta1: yaseen
uncle: oh! what a nice name! can you recite yaseen?
beta1: [recites yaseen]
uncle: mashAllah
uncle: beta, and you? what's your name?
beta1: taha
beta1: but they call me kauthar for short

Never put your picture on the internet.

One of the things I love the most about my job (graphic design) is photo manipulation. It's so fun to do. That's why I found such joy in this. Not only is it very well done, it's hilarious, and the subject of the photo is PERFECT. He's awesome hehe :) Just thought I'd share :)

A Formal Break And Some Majorly Random Thoughts

Hey guys, Assalamu alaikum :) How YOU doin? :P

I realized I haven't been talking too much about my nephews these days, which for me, is very strange. I used to be all, "Oh my nephew this and my nephew that, oh and did you know that my nephew does this and sometimes does that?" Holy jeez that musta been annoying. Well anyways, I'm not saying that my phupho pride has gone down at all, at least I hope not!! I've just been busy I guess. I spend less time with them, isn't that sad? Oh my heart! But I promised myself I'd spend more time with them as soon as I'm done school inshaAllah, and then they'll be like, "phupho, why don't you ever leave us alone?"

heheheh NEVER BETA, NEVER! MUAAAHAHAHAA

So anyways, where did that come from? Holy Jeez. *cough* Anyhow, what was I saying? Oh yeah. So this weekend hamza wet my bed. Yep. In all these years, my bed has magically avoided being sheeshee-a-fied. It was the only one in both houses untouched, or unwetted you could say. Until this weekend. He fell asleep in my bed and I didn't want to bother the little guy, so I had no choice but to cuddle up beside him and fall faaast asleep. Actually, what really happened was cuddle I did, but every hour I'd wake up and ask him, "Hamza beta do you have to go sheeshee?" and then follow procedure and feel the sheet to see if it was wet. ClEARLY he wasn't gonna answer me in deep sleep where he was probably dreaming about being a ninja turtle or something. And I could've easily lifted him up and taken him to the washroom, but I always feel bad doing that cuz I'm somehow disturbing him. I mean, what if he was in a mid-battle scene against master shredder or something? You know? You have to consider these things sometimes... so I let him be. Until the last time I asked him of course...

"Hamza sweetie do you wanna go make shee-... awwwwww mannn!"

heheheh and he's so cool about it too. About 10 minutes later he mutters, shee shee, shee shee and nods. Thanks Hamza, thanks a lot. But I guess it was only a matter of time before phupho's bed finally got hit. BUT, I must ask you guys.. is it normal to have to take a kid to the washroom in the middle of the night? I've been wondering that for a while. I also wonder whether he really does dream about ninja turtles... I've often caught him sleeping in the crouched sajda position with his bum sticking ever so nicely in the air.

But anyways... have you guys seen ninja turtles lately?!?!? It's different man, not like what it used to be. All the characters look totally different... all the turtles have this permanent grimace on for some reason so they actually look evil rather than good, and master splinter is suddenly 3 feet taller. ?!?! Like what's that all about?! And APRIL! Well... april doesn't even look like april. I wonder if she even works for Channel 5 still. Like SeriousLY. Ugh.

Speaking of cartoons though... Transformers is sooooo not Transformers. It doesn't even look the same at all... it's some sort of advanced robot world with more shading on each character. SERIOUSLY! WHy do they need so much shading?!?! FORGET IT! What are these people thinking anyways?!?! They think they can just come on in and cHANGE all our favourite cartoons?!?! Like I don't think so! Like what if Jem all of a sudden had BLUE hair instead of Ausia, or like... the Misfits never existed and were cheesily replaced by a hip hop band?

Oh dude, I so wouldn't doubt if something like that happened. I'd be so disappointed. OH. My Heart!

Anyhow, back to phupho pride... I love my nephews and that is all I have to say. Now here's a pic that explains why this is so.



Oh, here's another one... doesn't this remind you of our own winter adventures?



Okay and while I'm at it, and since this is my last post for a month inshaAllah, here are those funny pics I promised. On the way back from ISNA last year our travelling crew stopped off at the Mall of AMerica and we really needed to pray. So what better place to pray, I thought, than in the No Parking Zone?





hehehe good times good times. But okay that's it for a month inshaAllah. I figure if I make a formal announcement it'll allow me to stick to my plan of not blogging, blog checking, blog surfing, blog commenting... you get the picture. SO yeah, PLEASE please pretty please make du'aa for me because I'm really needing it. Hopefully these pictures made up for my ignored "pick of the week" plan, or more so "Pick of the Year", and my random psychobabble in this post should account for any future psychobabble within the month. ;) I'm sure my fellow 'contributors' will be posting anyways.

HAHAHAHAH yeah right

:P Anyhow that's it for me, I'll catch you soon soon soon inshaAllah.
PEACE and Chicken Grease.
I'm outta here!

Deeds Most Loved By Allah

Over a period of 23 years the Prophet (SAW) mentioned 12 deeds as being the most beloved to Allah SWT:

1 - Praying on time
2 - Respecting your parents
3 - Struggling for the sake of Allah
4 - Believing in Allah SWT
5 - Taking care of your relatives (kinship)
6 - Promoting the good and deterring the evil
7 - Feeding a hungry person
8 - Bringing happiness to your brother's heart
9 - Relieving a hardship or difficulty for someone
10 - Paying someone's debt for them (and yes it's mentioned separately from #9)
11 - That deed which is done regularly and constant despite how small it is
and #12 - *drumroll*
To die with your tongue moist with the remembrance of Allah

InshaAllah. Thank God we have options hey? ;)

Unbelievable

So I caught my first episode of the 'The Apprentice' the other day, and I can't believe how evil those producers are. Well first of all, the girl shouldn't have put herself in such a position to be so easily made fun of (haha hi, that's me!), but oh well, the deed was done. They were discussing why she should be Team Leader for this new project they received, and in convincing her teammates, she used the word "personalness".

"In my opinion, all this personalness is getting in the way of the project..." yadda yadda yadda.

So fine, she said it once, okay, normal human mistake.

But then she says it again. And then again. And by this time, I'm either gawking at the screen or looking at Qamer all weird-like. (Yeah, hello, i'm not any better, but let's not get into all the personalness of this issue ok?)

She got kicked off at the end though, and she was really pretty I must say. That just goes to show that if you look good, you can carry yourself a little farther than the rest. And honestly, if that's true, then I'm DOOMED!

I'll see you in the boardroom.

Well what do we have here!

Check out THIS girl! Well no wait, don't check her out, just read her blog. She's certainly moved up in blog world, this girl. *wipes away tear*

nusraat.com

Count Your Blessings

A man came to our house last week, asking my dad to translate his Wedding certificate into English in order to sponsor his wife from Pakistan. He had just gotten married a year ago and came to Canada to find work and start a new life. This morning we received a call from one of his newly made acquaintances, saying that he had a sudden brain hemorrhage overnight, and due to excessive bleeding, he's surviving by means of life support in a vegetative state. Because he can't speak, nobody knows where his family is, or how to get a hold of them. Doctors were debating whether to keep the life support on or not, for even if he was to survive, it would be under terrible conditions. This morning was spent asking the doctors to keep him alive a little longer, just until someone got a hold of his family. But he's gone now. He was 25 years old.

Imagine his family receiving that phonecall?

Innalillahe wa inna ilayhi rajeoon. So little time You give us ya Allah, yet many reminders. Guide us to the path that is Yours, and help us use our time here efficiently, effectively, while cherishing every moment. Ameen.

I want to...

I want to be a DJ. This is what I want to do. Forget school, forget limitations, forget ultimate jannah-seeking goals, I'm going into MUSIC! I figured there might be a balance between iman and such dunya-related issues, but no, no balance whatsoever. In fact, I wish I could compromise it in a way for me to start my own campus radio station before I graduate from this place (it's free you know??), but that might be an over-compromise.

Okay so then I want to go into entertainment. Let's see... halal entertainment. Bridges TV?? Producing?? MuchMusic?? Oh! There we go again.

What about MuchMoreMusic? It's a little LESS than Much music, ironically, I could very well be neutral and be playing all semi-halal stuff.

But anyhow... this brings me to the matter of compromising. Earlier I mentioned compromising personality in order to fulfill one's duties, and yeah, I guess Islam is the same way. I'm not saying I'm tired of compromising myself for my faith at all, but I'd like to find a medium between somehow BEING myself, and being true to my faith. Is it really necessary to compromise your true character in order to fulfill your islamic obligations? Look at all these various forms of entertainment comin' out now: Muhammad the movie, Adam's World, Real Islam, etc, etc. I could just jump on the bandwagon and add to the multitude of creative talent Muslims are starting to finally accept and display again, but to tell you the truth, I can't see myself doing Muslimized entertainment. Perhaps all I really want, is to have a hobby, and do all my islam-related career mumbojumbo full time.

So this hobby of mine, could it be my radio show? Ever since our campus radio started up I've been wanting to have my own show, featuring all the latest asian fusion hits. (hehehe don't laugh at me, but okay I know it's hilarious so I'll let you laugh a little bit... actually no go ahead, laugh it up.) But how halal of a hobby would that be, and how big of a compromise? Here I am, listening to music on and off myself, after hearing my whole life that music is not really allowed (key word: not really), having read that hadith about getting wax poured down your ears on the day of judgement if you listen to music, and then fully indulging in it AND spreading the love. Doesn't seem so right does it?

So that's what I've been telling myself all these years; then I'd start thinking.. maybe I should use my time more effectively (in this world) and start an Islamic radio show. But I can't get myself out of the idea that that would be completely BOOOOOOOOOOOORINggggg. :P Not to mention, ME? ISlamic Radio SHOw?! Think about it. And if I'm bored in my own hobby, what's the point? Da'wah? Yeah okay, but then it would be work rather than relaxation, and then there goes that whole hobby idea.

So then it's back to my funky radio show hobby. Am I over-thinking this one? Cuz in the end, all I really want to do is to get into Paradise.

*sigh* And there lies the compromise. It's okay though, I guess I don't really have to be this crazy deejay that plays off the hook tracks, wears lightly tinted brown shades, sports leather and an Alicia Keys type frizzy fro. Actually, all this talking about it makes me feel much better. In fact, now I know exactly what I have to do.

Invest in a turntable.

:P jk