Being a Super Busy Bride-to-Be

Hi! Assalamualaikum.

Wow it's November! Time sure flies. Especially when you need it most. Some of you who personally know me may already know that I am tying the knot soon, yay! Well, it's next month *sweats terribly*. Now, I'm going to share my experience being a super busy bride-to-be.

I am a corporate executive currently working in a fast-pace, constantly evolving company. My work requires engaging with stakeholders, brainstorming on the best next medium of delivering citizen-centric public services, uplifting public online services for the nation. Don't get me started on the core business of my department haha. The thing is, I've got people in the company coming up to me saying that my department is one of the most hardcore, kiasu, midnight oil burners. For the most part, they're true. I come to work at around 9.30am and sometimes go off at 9.30pm (that's 12 hours of work), 11.30 pm at most (well at one point, I did go home at 1am). Yes, I do feel tired of having to go home late everyday, but more than that, there's no better satisfying feeling than putting your effort into something that you know will be huge and most importantly will contribute to the nation.

Especially now, a highly important, major meeting is coming up which requires at least 2 months of preparation; and at this point right now, I have my breakfast and lunch at my desk. Phew. I'm juggling with preparations of two important things which will be taking place around the same time: 1) the highly important meeting which will majorly affect the country's public services, and 2) my wedding which will majorly be the next phases of MY LIFE.

Sometimes I really can't catch my breath. But thank goodness I am a self-consulting person haha. I'm always reminded by this verse "Allah does not obligate anyone beyond his capacity. For him is what he has earned, and on him what he has incurred ..." Al-Baqara:286.

Enough about work, now let's talk about the wedding preparation. When I was younger I always had imagined that my bride-to-be planner would look like a cute lacey scrap book with all the illustrated wedding details and magazine cut-outs and my bridesmaids will be all excited for me with their own page in my book. But reality is, I kind of just used a notebook that my future husband's company gave out for free. No laces, no magazine cut-outs, no bridesmaids page (heck, I don't even have a bridesmaid!), just lists of things to do, to buy, calculations here and there, and even some scribbles of notes from a few meetings that I happened to accidentally bring the book in to. Lol.

How I imagined my bride-to-be wedding planner to be (maybe fancier lol)

My actual wedding planner/notebook 

I definitely multitask a lot to get things done simultaneously. At the office, I constantly switch from working on presentation slides on my Macbook, to scrolling through wedding dress designs on my phone. Not to mention having to deal with the people that I hired for my wedding: the photographer, the makeup artist, the caterer, etc. My mom's constantly nagging at me for still not getting the wedding cards printed out (she's a perfectionist so she panics easily which is pretty normal lol), my sisters keep texting me at work asking about the progress of things, my uni girlfriends have their own life and career to handle plus we're all staying so far away from each other, my girlfriends at the office would so love to help out but I don't even have the time to hang out with them anymore to talk about things. The only person I could share all this craziness with is Faris, my fiance. My favourite part of the whole preparation was shopping for our 'hantaran' gifts. Faris and I went shopping at JPO which was 4 hours drive away from my house. It was good because we took some time out of our busy schedule to actually spend quality time together, just the two of us. We got to have meaningful conversations in the car, much-needed laughters, and when we stopped the car and got to our destination, I got to do my most favourite thing of all -- spend. Come to think of it, there's no better or more important job in this world that can compare to making yourself happy. To sum it all to you, my fellow future brides, the whole wedding preparation experience (so far) is full of pressure, laughter, and a sea of emotions all rolled up in laces and sequins in the shape of a brutally used credit card.

My advice is this: never get so busy making a living that you forget to make a life. 

Enjoy the last days of being a bachelor/bachelorette. Have all the fun of arranging your own 'life event'. The highlight is on you! Get enough sleep (while that queen bed is ALL YOURS), pamper your skin, eat healthy, get hydrated, make sure your wedding goes the way YOU want to. 
Thanks for reading, loves.

xoxo


P/s; the theme of my wedding will be 'starry night' -- because it'll be at night. Get it? Haha nvm.

Reality of time

I had a mini gelabah moment at work today because of an issue I had to deal with. I went to see my boss and told him about the issue that was bothering me. All he could do was smile and said "okay..okay.." So cool liddat. Me being the gelabah Een asked him "okay je Boss?" And his reply blew my mind. 

He said, " Een, masa kita kat dunia ni probably 0.0006 secs je banding dgn akhirat nnt. Apa lah sgt kita nak worry about problems yg would take us this little time (compared to akhirat) utk kita selesaikan. Kan?" He's telling me, takpe calm down and just take my time to solve the issue. 

Talk about being positive, right?

Terus teringat time nak pergi solat, time parents mintak tolong or time org mintak voluteer for voluntary work tapi tinggal jek sbb tak cukup masa or "tak sempat". Hmm :/

Anyway, hope you're having a blessed Ramadan and Selamat Hari Raya!

xoxo

I'm in a Relationship with My Best Friend

Assalamualaikum!

Here's the story about me and the most wonderful boy I've ever met, Faris.

I first met him 5 years ago, in the year 2010 when we were both pursuing our Degree in UiTM. He was a dark, skinny, rambut belah tengah, loud and chatty kinda boy. Definitely wasn't my type. I actually thought he was gay. And he's Kelantanese too. Man, I never had any Kelantanese friends and I had no idea about their cultures, if they would have the typical perception towards 'budak KL' as poyo (people outside of KL/Selangor wouldn't generally care if you're actually from Selangor and was never born in KL, they'd still call you 'budak KL'). So I thought it'd be safe to just keep a distance from him LOL.

I don't know what year this was but that hair is long gone now haha

Faris in 2011 HAHA

We started off as classmates. He was the class president and if it wasn't for my best friend Sarah who had to talk to him about class-related stuff, I don't think I'd ever started talking to him. From classmates we became friends who shared a clique of friends (we still do now - best group of friends ever).

Syafea, Sarah, Amir, Drake, Faris & Jupa

And then within that clique of friends, Sarah, him and I became a trio of good friends. Faris used to pick us up every morning to go to class and after class he'd drive us to places and we'd have lots of fun. Ahh~ good old university days.

And then within that trio, Faris and I started becoming best friends. He'd back me up at times, I'd help him out with assignments because I was the smarter one LOL and he'd always be there when I was really sick - a few times he took the trouble to rush me to the hospital and carry me with his own hands to see the doctor. Once, I threw up on his new shirt and all over the car seat and he'd clean up my vomit, no complaints. It was that very moment that I started crushing on him and I knew he was already crushing on me (friendzone alert! haha). I know, it'd be weird to start developing feeling towards someone because he cleaned up your vomit. Omg no haha. It was because he was very helpful and a true, true friend who was not only there at your best times, but there at your lowest too.

So, since then we started going out a lot, just the two of us, and spent A LOT of time together. Of course, at first we had a teeny meeny little conflict because Sarah was feeling left out, but not long after that, Sarah started seeing someone who is now her wonderful husband. And our clique of friends just went along with our relationship development.

And that, folks, is how Faris and I met. We didn't have a specific date on when we started dating, we can't even remember when we 'officially' started being a couple - we just smoothly and gradually shifted from being friends to a pair of people who care and love one another. No anniversary date, no couple date, no first fight date, just a strong feeling of attachment which I am grateful that it's with my best friend.

The trio on Sarah's engagement day :)

When I asked Faris when and how he started to have feelings for me, here's his story. 

He said he started "falling" for me the first time he saw me which was on the very first day of class. It was induction day and we had to introduce ourselves. He fell for me when I said I was a "daddy's girl". But ironically that, he said, meant he had no 'chance'. However he and a few other classmates stalked me on my previous blog which I accidentally deleted a few years back, and read about my post on my nephew's first birthday party. It was an animal costume party and there were pictures I posted on the blog and so he checked me out in my bunny costume LOL (I wasn't hijab-ed yet). And so the friendzone saga began. Hahaha.

I would describe Faris as someone very, very helpful. He is very committed to help his friends, within his capacity, with anything. When we were studying, we didn't have the luxury of money so he'd offer his time and physical capability in helping friends. He'd also cheer up anyone he knows and not let them see his sadness. Till now, wherever he goes, he's known for his ability to make people laugh. And that's also the reason why I fell for him.

May 2015 - he asked his mom to put a ring on me :)

Now, 5 years later, Alhamdulillah we are in the midst of preparing for our wedding just a few months from now. InshaAllah my best friend will be my leader in life. Do pray for our journey before and after marriage. To Faris, I'll never stop learning to be a better partner to you. And I'll always, always love you.

xoxo

Angels In Islam 2

Assalamualaikum!

So this is the long awaited, long overdue, continuation of my previous post in January entitled Angels in Islam, where I briefly described and shared facts and short stories about the angel of revelation, the angel who delivers fortune/rizki, the angel that will signal the coming of Doomsday by the blowing of his blowhorn, and the angel of death. If you haven't read that yet, you can read it here. Now let's continue with six other angels.

Munkar and Nakir

The angels that will interogate a person in the grave about his good and bad deeds. As a child, I was taught that when a person dies, he/she shall be buried in the ground and after the last companion or person leaves the grave, Munkar and Nakir shall approach the newly dead and perform their duty. These angels are stern for severe. And the dead shall only know of fear.

3 questions shall be asked: 

1. Who is your Lord? // Siapa Tuhan-mu? -- the righteous shall answer, "my God is Allah."
2. What is your religion? // Apa agama-mu? -- the righteous shall answer, "Islam is my religion."
3. Who was the man that was sent amongst you? // Siapa utusan yang dikirimkan kepada-mu? -- the righteous shall answer, "that was Muhammad."

Munkar and Nakir will then say, "you are true" and the grave shall be spacious and comfortable. Those that aren't as lucky shall be in terror and fail to answer the questions. They will only say in fright, "I do not know.. I do not know.." and so the walls of their grave shall tighten until their bones are crushed.

I was also made to understand that we do not need to memorize the right answers during our lifetime, we only need to live righteously by doing good and leave the bad and our deeds will determine what kind of answer we shall give to these angels.

Raqeeb and Ateed
The angels that sit on our shoulders and write and write and write. Raqeeb sits on man's right shoulder and records his good deeds while Ateed sits on man's left shoulder and records his bad deeds.

In Surah Qaf : 17-18, Allah says: "Behold, there are two receiving (angels) appointed to him one seated on the right and the other on the left. He utters not a word but there is with him an observer ready (to note it down)."

The word raqeeb means "observer" and the word ateed means "ready". However, it is certainly not the case that the one on the right is an "observer" and the one on the left is "ready". All of the guardian angels are observant and ready.

Raqeeb and Ateed are not like the tiny angel and devil who look exactly like us and and are always fighting each other from each side of our shoulders as portayed in cartoons. They're both angels and they're duty is to record our good and bad deeds in our lifetime.

The angel Raqeeb is very quick and eager at writing all the good deeds one has done, even if the deeds were as small as an atom. However, when it comes to sins, Ateed would carefully track from a man's intentions to his actions. For example, when a person wants to steal something from the market, but he eventually did not steal it, it wouldn't go into Ateed's book as a sin. This is a glimpse of Allah's mercy upon us.

Every year on the night of Nisfu Shaa'ban (meaning "half of the month Shaa'ban"), the angels will send our book of deeds into the heavens and it will be replaced by a new empty book and the recordings will resume. All of our deeds will be calculated on the Day of Judgement. 

Ridwan and Malik

Ridwan is in charge of guarding the gates of Heaven, and Malik is in charge of guarding the door to hell.

It was described that Ridwan has the look that is very calming to the occupants of Heaven and always very welcoming. While, Malik has the look that is so terrifying that when he faces the contents of Hell, the fires eat each other out of fear. But both of these angels are highly loyal and obedient to Allah the Almighty. When the occupants of Hell begged Malik to ask Allah to just take away their lives, Malik says, "no, you will still live (in the Hellfire)" (Az-Zukhruf : 77) in obedience of Allah's order to him.

So there you go, names of 10 angels and their duties in Islam. As written in my previous entry, only Allah knows how many angels there actually are. There might be more than the total number of all human beings ever lived. We never know.

I hope you've enjoyed reading both of my posts on these magnificent creatures, the angels. Keep reading about them! Go on Google, you'll find even more interesting stories about Malik, Malaikatul Maut, how Munkar and Nakir will treat the dead in the grave until Judgement Day or read about the wonderful Jibreel! May we continue being eager to gain knowledge, may we never lose the thirst for learning new things. Thank you once again for reading my humble blog.

xoxo

Tips to Choose a Chic Blouse!

One of girls’ many major issues: Finding the perfect blouse. When searching for the perfect blouse, there are so many different kinds of style to be considered. The style you pick will reflect your personality and bear in mind, whatever you wear should suit the occasion or event that you’re going to. Because sometimes you might need it for a special dinner with someone, an important business meeting, a holiday or for everyday wear at the office. Now, let me share with you 5 tips for buying a stylish blouse for women. 

1.    What’s the Occasion?

First you need to determine for what occasions you will be wearing the blouse because you might need it for only one occasion or for many different occasions. I personally have blouses that are specifically intended for just to the office, or going out on weekends or for attending important events. You need to know what style of blouses you need and from here it would be easier to determine the number of different blouses you want to buy.

2.    S, M, L or XL?

Before you go out and buy a new blouse of course it is crucial for you to know what size is best for you. Try it on before you decide to buy it. Just like anything else, blouses come in different sizes to cater women with different body shape. Get one that flatters your body and make you look amazing effortlessly. 

3.    If you’re not size zero, you’re not size zero!

Do not get a blouse that is too small, ever! Because you want to avoid getting into a mess with it not buttoning correctly or just make your body looks unflattering which sometimes could expose parts of your body (unless if you intend to). 

4.    Collar or no collar?

When choosing a blouse you have to decide whether you want a collar or not. If you have in mind the occasions you need to attend wearing a blouse, this decision will help in determining whether or not you want or need a blouse with collar. For me, I’d go for a collared blouse if I feel I need to look smart and a non-collared blouse for a more relaxed occasion or if the neckline is beautifully beaded or if the weather’s just too hot. But now that I’ve started wearing a hijab, I usually opt for non-collared blouses as it would already be heavy around the neck area.

5.    Plain or fancy?

The final question I always ask myself when buying a new blouse is, if I want a plain blouse or a decorative one with prints of vivid designs with embellishments. Blouses with decorative stitching and ruffles can be very nice and can be worn to work when paired with a nice skirt or a pair of flattering pants and a suit jacket for a complete look. Whereas, plain blouses can be paired with printed hijabs or a fancy handbag. Go all out and mix and match! That’s the fun part of being a girl. J

Now that I’ve shared with you these 5 golden tips, go on to zalora.com.my and have fun shopping! Thanks for reading! xoxo

This article was brought to you by Zalora.

*images are from Google Image

Angels in Islam

I have always loved stories about angels, they're always described as glorious, majestic and all kinds of perfection. I am far from pious, it just happens that I have a huge interest in reading about all the different kinds of creatures that Allah creates. So here goes, some facts about the angels in Islam.

Like humans, the number of angels are uncountable but as Muslims we need to know only ten. Some of the angels in Islam are mentioned not just in the Quran, but in other holy books as well. Don't you think it's interesting that these angels are regarded so highly by various religions that their names are mentioned in scriptures that exist in different centuries and different parts of the world? In Islam, angels are believed to be molded from light, Iblis (satan) from fire and human from earth.

Jibreel / Gabriel

The Archangel. He is the chief of all angels, the angel of revelation. Malaikat yang menyampaikan wahyu. Before Heaven and Hell were created, Allah created Jibreel (hadith Bukhari). When Allah created Heaven, He asked Jibreel to go and take a look at it. So he went and looked at the Paradise and at all that Allah had prepared for its inhabitants. Then he said "O My Lord! By Your Honour, no one who hears about this place would stay away from it." Then Allah surrounded the Paradise by difficulties and hardships and asked Jibreel to go and take another look. Jibreel went again and after looking at it he came back and said "O My Lord! By Your Honour, I am afraid now that no one will be able to enter it." Then after Allah created Hell, He asked Jibreel to go and take a look. When Jibreel came back he said "O My Lord! By Your Honour, no one who hears about it will ever enter it." Then Allah surrounded the Hell by all kinds of lusts and desires and asked Jibreel to take another look. This time after looking at it Jibreel said "O My Lord! By Your Honour, I am afraid that no one will be able to avoid it." 

Jibreel loves mankind the most. It was often him that came down to Earth and meet Prophet Muhammad (SAW) and prophets before him to offer help at times of trouble. He is often described to come to the prophets in the form of a handsome, perfectly symmetrical man. His true form, however, is not human and of course better-looking. He is so huge that he is described to have 600 wings which length covers from west to east. Compared to other angels, there's a lot more to read about Jibreel (AS) from the Quran, books, or you can also simply google him. 

Mikail / Michael

Malaikat yang menyampaikan rezeki. According to a hadith, when Prophet Muhammad (SAW) asked Jibreel "what is Mikail in charge of?", Jibreel replied "the plants and the rain." (At-Tabrani) He is in charge of moving the clouds and winds according to Allah's will. Mikail is a very big deal because in the Quran Allah said, "If someone is an enemy to Allah, His Angels, and His messengers, and to Jibreel (Gabriel) and Mikail (Michael), then Allah is enemy to the disbelievers." (Al-Baqara 2:98). His name is also mentioned in Judaism and Christianity, alongside Jibreel.

Anas bin Malik (RA) recorded that, when prophet Muhammad (SAW) asked Jibreel, "Why do I never see Mikail laugh?" He replied, "Mikail has not laughed since the Hellfire was created."

Israafil / Raphael

Malaikat Peniup sangkakala. He is one of the four main angels (Jibreel, Mikhail, Israafil, Izrail). He has a trumpet/blowhorn which he is tasked to blow at the end of Time. It is described that the sound from his Horn will be the loudest thing anyone will ever hear. The Quran says that at the end of Time, Israafil will make two blows - on the first blowing of the Horn, all those alive will die, and the souls who died before will faint, except the ones that Allah wills otherwise (some angels will die later); and on the second blowing of the Horn, all that has died will reawaken for the day of Judgement; also known as the day of Resurrection. (Az-Zumar 39:68)

I've also read that Israafil is the ruler of music. He always sing songs of worship to Allah in thousands of different languages. Wallahualam.

Not assuming anything, but people in the internet seem to associate the Big Bang theory with Israafil's Horn. Hm. What do you think?

Izrail / Izrael

Malaikat Maut. The angel of Death. He is tasked to take away the souls of all that is alive at time of their death. I would have goosebumps whenever I am reminded of this angel but truthfully, he is one of the most gentle of all angels. It was told that when Izrail was taking the life of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) he was being as gentle as he could but Prophet Muhammad (SAW) told Jibreel who was present at that time how unbearable the pain of death is and that he worries that his people will feel the same pain. Jibreel had to look away because he couldn't bear looking at God's most beloved being in so much pain. Before his last breath, Rasulullah (SAW) whispered, "..ummatii..ummatii..ummatii (..my people..my people..my people)".

Izrail is the last creature to be alive. He is commanded to take away all lives on Earth and in the Heavens upon Allah's will, including his own. Allah said, "..don't you know, all that is alive will experience death?" At the end of Time, when the only ones left are Allah and him, he would take away his own soul and his scream would be so loud that if anyone was alive, they would be shattered away. And he would say, "If only I knew how painful death is, I would have been more gentle to the believers during their time." Wallahualam.



I'll stop here for now, this post is getting longer than I expected! I'll continue in another post that will be titled "Angels in Islam 2". Stay tuned for stories and facts about 6 more chief angels!

Thanks for reading my humble blog. xoxo