Thursday 31 January 2013

benefitting from the blessed early hours

During the last weeks I established a new morning routine for myself. I was planning this for a long time, but I never really had the strength and willpower to put it into action .

I now wake up a lot earlier.To be a little bit more accurate : at 4:30 am .


بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم
“The Messenger of Allah (pbuh) said: ‘O Allah, bless my Ummah in the mornings.’ 
[Abu Dawud, Tirmidhi, Ibn Majah]
No I am not kidding.It is in fact one of the best habits I´ve ever developed! And I recommend it to absolutely everyone out there ! <3

Now lets have a quick look, at what my mornings usually look like :)

4:30 am 

My phone is telling me to wake up with the most nervewracking tone I could find.I take it and there is the snooth-Button.mmmhhhh looks so tempting to press it right now.Just 5 more min! Just 5 min, right?



But we all know, that it is those 5 min in which you either wake up to have a great productive day or just sleep for several hours...

So dont cheat.Get up.
I go to the bathroom, take wudu and go back to my room to pray.There is nothing better to start off your day than with prayer and dua.
Afterwards you should be completely awake. At least I am. ;)

4:50 - 5-30 am 

Now I´ll usually go downstairs and straight into the kitchen.
The first thing I´ll do is drinking a glass o water and then drinking a few drops o black cumin oil, according to the sunnah of our prophet.

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

“The Messenger of Allah (pbuh) said: ‘O Allah, bless my Ummah in the mornings.’ [Abu Dawud, Tirmidhi, Ibn Majah]
Im a huge breakfast-fan and never go out without eating something. So I prepare something nice for myself, which usually is a huge bowl of fruits with oatmeal and milk.
The breakfast is my biggest meal of the day.I just combine every sort of fruit I can find. 
A typical Ayse-breakfast :
1 apple                  10 grapes
1 banana                 handfull of almonds or walnuts
1 Orange                a few raisins
1 mandarin              oatmeal and milk 


Then I will just grab my newspaper or the book I am currently reading and read it.With the oatmeal-fruit-combo I´ll usually have 1,5 l of tea and a few glasses of water.Afterwards Im usually quite full and dont feel hungry anymore.A lot of people told me, that I eat extremely big portions for a girl my size and for that time of the day.Well yes, thats true,but I eat healthy food and am used to eat much for breakfast, so if you arent much of a breakfast-type I can understand your point here. But you should definitely fill in the tanks with some carbohydrates in the morning :)

5.30-6.30 am

Now its time to exercise ! Dont be like the girl on the right, when you read the word "exercise". Its important.It makes you feel great.It prevents sickness and injuries of every sort.
And the most important thing is: Our bodies are just borrowed, they´re just vehicles we use for our souls.So your body has certain rights.And its first right is to be looked after.
Be thankful for your body, it does whatever you would like it to do for you.
And just look how much mercy Allah had, when he created us and arranged it for us, that we would keep our bodies healthy through mere usage of it! Subhanallah ! 

It doesnt really matter which exercise you do , as long as it suits the needs of your body.
I personally like rope-skipping, jogging and every type of cardio. Unfortunately I am injured.My left knee has a whole in the cartilage.Thats the reason, why I cant jogg that much and have to do muscle-building exercises for my legs, to support the injured cartilage. 
I had three surgeries for my knee, it was and is horrible for such an active person like me, so I take care. I really really really dont want to undergo surgery a fourth time. 








6.30-7.30 am

Well after having a good workout I go into the shower. That takes around ten minutes. Then Ill pray one more time and start preparing for the day.It can happen, that I just forgot to do some homework, which Ill do then at this time.After snacking on something little and making dua the last time Ill leave for school :)

 Prepare for the day . Make sure u dont forget your hijab :)




I benefitted so much from waking
 up early. 
I used to be this person :

Never again insaallah! 

When others are still sleepy and tired, I am in a good mood  and awake!


So go ahead and set your clock to an earlier time than usually :)
And tell me what your morning-routine looks like ! Im curious about your mornings ! :)

May peace be upon you <3









Sunday 6 January 2013

To the moroccan menfolk...

Tears...Tears on my face, my skirt, my blouse...Tears running down my cheeks, falling down from the tip of my nose onto the already soaked carpet..Tears on my fingertips, running down my lips and falling on my knees.. Light is falling upon me. I am in morocco. It´s Juma-time. It´s the last prayer I am performing in a muslim country.Outside the mosque, on the Jamaalfna are men standing in rows. They do the Jumaaprayer together in the burnig sun of Africa. The womensection is empty. I am alone.Left on my own with my creator.
Love and greatfulness is overwhelming me.While others struggle to survive I am having nice holidays at schooltime.I am in a muslim country and in less then a few hours I will be getting on board of the airplane, which is going to take me back to the colds, the winds and snowbound landscape of Germany.I am thankful to perform one of the most intense prayers of my life.I cry. I repent.I feel liberated.

Salah is over.I sit there.I think.I make dua.I cry...







As I go out, a few young men are standing in front of the mosque. The men , who showed me and my friend the mosque is in their rows.They are smiling and talking to me and my friend.As you may understand I am not really in the mood to talk to anybody in that moment.My face looks swollen from crying,my sight is still blurry and even for a non-believer it is quite obvious, that I am mentally not present. I feel detached from the world and understand the words the young men is telling me, but not the sentences, when my friend suddenly becomes angry.
They are asking for facebook.If I am looking for a spouse.
A few minutes later, when I am finally able to realize, what happened I decide, that I have enough of it.It makes me angry , and it makes me feel bad about myself.


Wonder what I am talking about ? Molesting women !

Before I  went to morocco I was filled with hope, that this trip would give my spirituality a boost like nothing else.Obviously I was expecting a country full of practicing muslims, where Islam was in the hearts of the people and in their everyday-life.I had forgotten, that for the morroccans Islam was not some decision they someday in their lifes made.It was more like tradition.Selfunderstanding. Nothing special anymore...


So my expectations were up to the sky.There was no other option than disappointment.
But what was the reason for my disappointment?Partly it was the empty mosques at prayertimes.It was the obvious desire of the people to westernize their country, showing on the surface through their clothing, their music, their habits, their eating, their style of talking to each other.It was that I wasnt prepared to hear the short , makamless prayercall in morocco , when I was expecting to wake up to a loud, long, heartmelting prayercall for fajr .  Reality was hard for me : I had to set my clock for fajr, I had to fight against resistances to go to the mosque in the desert or on the way I had to pray on my own. No one there to pray? In a muslim country?! Alhamdulillah there was my friend !


 Koutoubia-mosque in marrakesh


But the most shocking and disturbing thing has been one thing there : MEN and their behaviour towards women.


Men in morocco are incredibly molesting !!! They harass women, whereever they see one.I dont know, if there are good reasons for it, but there are for sure good reasons AGAINST it :

1) Its unislamic

 Nothing much to explain about that point I guess.

2) It makes women feel bad about themselves

Of course, there are women, who feel good, when men stare at them.But most of us dont.We REALLY DONT WANT YOU TO DO THIS.When we shop, we just want to shop.When take pictures, we just want to take pictures.When we go to the mosque, we just want to be with the almighty.We dont want to be asked, if we are looking for a spouse,we dont want you to say "Masaallah" ,"Beautiful" or whatever with a disgusting undertone,we dont want you to walk after us, turn your heads,whistle, beep in your cars,stop in the middle of the street to smile disgustingly or even move your eyebrows OK ? Just STOP IT !
There has been this one street in Casablanca, where I had one of the worst experiences I´ve ever had in public. We just walked down the street, and without an exception EVERY SINGLE HEAD in that street turned around,smiled,called us names.We, as 4 young women, two of us wearing long dresses and being hijabed, felt after 2 minutes as dirty and guilty as if we had done something wrong.

3)Women dont like you , if you act this way

When you ask a young women, who OBVIOUSLY is a tourist, if she is looking for a spouse, what do you think she is going to do ? What do you expect her to do ? She is going to leave your shop,leave the place you are in, and feel uncomfortable.
Women in your environment arenot going to like you, and then, when you become serious in marrying someone,no woman will be there to marry someone, who molested EVERY woman, he saw.

4)She probably is married or going to be married soon

This is just for people, who persist in talking, even if the woman is obviously uncomfortable.




I dont know how to explain , how BAD it feels, when you are molested.It´s  on of the worst situations out there, especially if you are a very kind person and dont want to hurt anyones feelings or raise your voice in public.Its even worse,if you hate to make a spectacular out of yourself.

So PLEASE MEN ! Please, for the sake of Allah  stop it !

May peace be upon you <3


Impressions from morocco

I´ve been to morocco for a week ! It was amazing and gave me so much new impressions and I really liked Marrakesh, where I spent most of my time :) Travelling is such a great way to learn !

 I stayed in the Amani Residence in Marrakech. I can recommmend it without any doubts, it was great. If I ever visit Marrakech again, I will go to the same hotel !


 







 




Casablanca and its mosque Hasan II. ..




   








 Lets LOL together at this pic of me.Looking like walking death.All the travelling obviously got me xD

I also made a trip to the desert...








 There is no better place for praying, than the under the stars of the desert...



 It was not only fun, but I enjoyed it alot.Dont know, why the camera is making the pictures so bright -_-





I want to visit the place again....One day insaallah <3

                                    May peace be upon you <3