Mushiness

I felt terribly happy the entire day yesterday - It was one of those days when I felt like the world is all rainbows and lollipops and the butterflies in my stomach would fly forever. I read a status this morning by Navaid Aziz in the morning:

"Every moment of happiness in this life is just a mere glimpse of potential happiness in paradise.

The next time you have happy moment do two things:
1- Say Al hamdulillah, and that way you have thanked Allah for the blessing of happiness in this life and that amazing moment you just had. 

2- Ask Allah to grant you a moment better than it in paradise. Anything we may have felt in this life is just a mere fraction of the happiness and joy we may feel in the hereafter.
That my friends is how you preserve a moment of happiness forever!
May Allah make us of the inhabitants of the highest of paradise. Ameen."

It's so much easier to put the world in perspective when you remember how temporary and illusive this world is, and how permanent and real the hereafter will be. That does not mean that we cannot feel what we feel, it just means that we need to keep ourselves from getting carried away from the end goal. There is room for boundaries to be crossed at any moment - regardless of whether you are happy or not. In sadness, the boundary may be crossed in rebellion to the situation. In happiness, it's easy to cross it out of a "what's the harm?" type of attitude.

Imam Ibn Al-Qayyim said, “There are three types of patience: Firstly, practicing patience to fulfill the obligations and to do righteous. Secondly, abstaining from evil and prohibited acts. And thirdly, practicing patience during times of hardship without complaints.”

When you are happy, the first two types of patience get tested. 

My second summer school subject is nearly finished. There was a bit of a hiccup on my part, but it should be fixed soon. My third summer school subject is something I am desperately hoping I pass - I picked 'everyday physics' on a whim. I thought it might be fun, which it is, but I fun does not necessarily equate to excellence.

School begins next week, which means scripture begins, which means I need to prepare the much promised folder I have been promising my kids since Ramadan. Beginning of school also means that my flow of cash will begin again inshaallah. YAY.

Sum tells me I am being very mushy lately, which is probably true. I am really beginning to appreciate the people around me and their love. I love the way my friends and I look out for each other, making sure our hearts aren't broken by the world, that our eyes are kept on the prize. I love the way my family members love each other, and you can see it in their eyes and actions. 

sheep

Everything in this world is an illusion. Attachment to any of it more than what is Real is always dangerous, no matter how halal it is. Sometimes, we want an attachment to be okay and we fool ourselves into thinking that the difference between being unattached and attached is very little. But the difference is never too little. Everything must be taken back to the one attachment we need to truly have, the only one that will give us constant peace.

I realise I am sounding very YM-ish lately, so I decided to stop sounding YM-ish and return to my resting state of awesomeness. As off... now.

I have sooo many things to do but every time i sit down to do them my mind wonders to a hundred other places entirely unrelated to the things i have to do so i begin thinking that i should get a tea and sit down and start doing things but then i feel lazier than i originally felt my most recent password for my uni account comes from give me a sign because i was listening to it while i set it however ironically i heard the lyrics wrong so the password actually does not come from the lyrics but i don't feel like changing it because every password has a memory associated with it i have horrible self regulation its something i definitely need to fix up as soon as possible i'm super sleepy.

Things that are happening

I went out with a bunch of friends last week - to Wattamolla beach. It was one of those days that I was able to relax and enjoy the beauty, as well as scream, splash, eat and have one of the best times of my life. The people that I went with - I can imagine having most of them in my life for a very long time. I came back home late, with aching muscles, a badly sunburnt face, a cold and an almost empty wallet. But it was still one of the best days of my life.

The following day, I went to an overnight program for little girls, which, should have been fun, but turned out to be more annoying than anything else. Our target audience was seven to fourteen year old girls, but some of the mothers sat very close and talked away. This didn't seem to bother anyone else, but all I kept thinking was that the point is being lost. Anyway, so, I went home, and came back early the next day with Z. Spent the entire day feeling disoriented, and later realised I have come down with the flu. The problem was - Z is under my care now because her mother has some other immediate commitments she needs to tend to. So, as I lay down with a blocked nose, a headache and the occasional cough, all I could think of was that Z wasn't being taken care of by me. And then I started to think how mothers are not allowed to be sick, and even if they do fall sick, they aren't allowed to stop the world and lie in bed. It added to the list of things that mothers do on a daily basis that we so often do not appreciate. 

TA and I have been talking about "wot iz love". I told that girl to start a blog, but she wouldn't, so I shall just praise her in mine and hope she never reads this. She has an incredible mind, an appreciative heart and an honest soul. She is one of those people that would make you smile just by her presence, without any pretence. We share similar tastes in movies and books, and possibly tea (we shall find out about that last one soon!). 

I am going to a friend's nikkah tomorrow inshaallah! The couple finished their first year of university this year. I love the fact that they are keeping it nice and simple at this stage. They kind of fulfil everything that I talk about in terms of marriage: a) both are pretty young; b) they are getting married at the mosque, with nothing fancy; c) both are pure hearted people who try their best to as much good as they can, as far as I see; d) they come from different cultures. They are one of the many examples I see around me of how ideas change people. People like them inspire me to keep working on solidifying my ideas and inspire others to change theirs. 

I don't think I will get much sleep over the next few days. There's 2 hours till fajr. I originally stayed up because I thought something was due at the end of this week, when in fact, it's due at the end of next. So when I realised it wasn't, I started writing here. Now I'm scared to sleep, because if I sleep, I would want to sleep more. But if I don't sleep, I might die from lack of sleep.