How to survive through load shedding

1. Fill a few 2L bottles with water and freeze them. When the power goes off, move 2 or 3 into your fridge and limit opening and closing the door. 

Leave the other frozen bottles in the deep freeze and only take them out once the others are down to about 25% ice. Swap them out for more frozen ones. This should keep your fridge cold enough to preserve your food for at least 8 hours. The ones in your deep freeze should stay frozen at least 12 hours. Remember, don’t open and close the doors unless entirely necessary! 

2. Keep your power bank charged up and ONLY use it when the power is off. If you know you’re in for a few hours down time in a day, put your phone on low power mode ASAP to preserve battery life. 

3. Invest in decent rechargeable camping lights from a place like Cape Union Mart. They last a few hours and are bright enough to read/play board games/shower by. 

4. A car phone charger is a necessity! 

5. Keep groceries in the pantry/fridge that don’t require cooking (if you have an electric stove/oven.) Tapas anyone? If you’re desperate, a little camping gas stove is a good idea for easy meals like scrambled egg, 2 min noodles etc. 

6. When the electricity is on, boil the kettle and fill a flask or two to use for babies bottles/tea/coffee. 

7. Plan outings for your scheduled load shedding time. During the day it’s not so bad, but at night it can get real depressing sitting in the dark night after night. A movie, a date night, a meal out, late night Christmas shopping, hanging with friends on a different schedule to you - all do wonders at boosting your mood and reducing the effect load shedding actually has on you. Don’t be scared to call on your community! 

8. If it’s within your budget, look at getting an inverter system, or generator. Even the most basic system will give you a few hours of the minimum: lights, chargers, tv maybe a fan. 

I know it sucks, and is frustrating and makes you shake your head and swear and rage. But try remember the many wonderful things that you do have as a result of living in SA. And enjoy all the candle lit bubble baths you want!

look up...

The Diamond Necklace

Once there was a king who had presented his daughter the princess with a Beautiful diamond necklace. The necklace was stolen and his people in the kingdom searched everywhere but could not find it. Some said a bird may have stolen it. The king then asked them all to search for it and put a reward for $50000 for anyone who found it.

One day a clerk was walking home along a river next to an industrial area. this river was completely polluted and filthy and smelly. As he was walking the clerk saw a shimmering in the

river and when he looked he saw the diamond necklace. He decided to try and catch it so that he could get the $50000 reward. He put his hand in the filthy dirty river and grabbed at the necklace but some how missed it and didn't catch it.

He took his hand out and looked again and the necklace was still there. He tried again this time he walked in the river and dirtied his pants in the filthy river and put his whole arm in to catch the necklace. But strangely he still missed the necklace! He came out and started walking away feeling depressed.

Then again he saw the necklace right there. This time he was determined to get it no matter what. He decided to plunge into the river although it was a disgusting thing to do as the river was

polluted and his whole body would become filthy. He plunged in and searched everywhere for the necklace and yet he failed. This time he was really bewildered and came out feeling very depressed that he could not get the necklace that would get him $50000.

Just then a saint who was walking by saw him and asked him what was the matter. The clerk didn't want to share the secret with the saint thinking the saint might take the necklace for himself so he refused to tell the saint anything. But the saint could see this man was troubled and being compassionate again asked the clerk to tell him the problem and promised that he would not tell

anyone about it.

The clerk mustered some courage and decided to put some faith in the saint. He told the saint about the necklace and how he tried and tried to catch it but kept failing. The saint then told him that perhaps he should try looking upwards toward the branches of the tree instead of in the filthy

river. The clerk looked up and true enough the necklace was DANGLING on the branch of a tree. He had been trying to capture a mere reflection of the real necklace all this time.

Moral of the story:

Material happiness is just like the filthy polluted river because it is a mere reflection of the TRUE happiness in the spiritual world. We don't achieve the happiness we are looking for no matter how hard we endeavor in the material life. Instead we should look upwards toward ALLAAH  who is the source of real happiness and stop chasing after the reflection of this happiness in the material world. This spiritual happiness is the only thing that can satisfy us completely.

May ALLAAH help us LOOK UP TO HIM.

Eating food brought with haram money

In the name of Allah, the most Beneficent, the most Merciful.

Answer

Eating Halal is a fundamental aspect for one’s worship being accepted by Allah.

Saiduna Abu Hurayah (RA) narrates that the Prophet of Allah (SAW) said: “Allah is pure and accepts only that which is pure. Allah has commanded the faithful to do that which he commanded the messengers.” And Allah (SAW) has said: “o you who believe! Eat of the pure things and do right.” Allah (SAW) has said: “oh you who believe! Eat of the pure things we have provided you.” Then the Prophet of Allah (SAW) mentioned a man who journeyed far and dishelved and dusty and spends out oh his hand to the Heavens: “O lord! O Lord! While his food is unlawful, and he is nourished unlawfully, so how can his dua be answered!” (Sahih Muslim)

From this Hadith we can understand that unlawful income does have an effect on ones worship and acceptance of ones duas.

Saaiduna Abu Bakr Radiallahu Anhu narrated that the Prophet of Allah Sallallahu Alahi Wasalam said “That body will not enter Paradise which has been nourished with Haram” (Sunan Baihaqi)

Saaiduna Ka`b Bin Ujrah narrates that the Prophet of Allah Sallallahu Alahi Wasalam said, “A body nourished with Haram will not enter Jannah”. (Sunan Tirmizi)

Saaiduna Jabir Bin Abdullah Radiallahu Anhu narrates that the Prophet of Allah Sallallahu Alahi Wasalam said, “That flesh will not enter Paradise which has grown from Haram, and all that flesh which has grown from Haram, the fire (of hell) is more worthy of it.” (Musnad Ahmad, Sunan Darimi & Sunan Baihaqi)

With regards to your question, if a person’s majority income is lawful and less than half is unlawful, it would be permissible to eat from the food purchased with such income. However, if a person’s majority income is unlawful even though the food itself is halal, but because it was purchased with haram money that food will also be considered haram. (Ahsanul Fatawa p.104 v.😎

Only Allah Knows Best

🏷 *6 Rights Of A Muslim Woman*.

*1*. The right to accept marriage proposal: The Prophet Phub said:" if there comes to you one with whose character and religious commitment you are pleased, then marry (your daughter or female relative under your care) to him."{al- Tirmidhi 1084}.

*2.* The right to Mahr (Dowry):"And give the women [upon marriage] their bridal gifts graciously. But if they give up willingly to you anything of it, then take it in satisfaction and ease."(Qur'an 4:4)

*3.* The right to considerate and kind treatment:" The most complete of the believers in faith, is the one with the best character. And the best of you are those who are best to their women." {At- Tirmidhi}.

*4*. The right to "privacy" of all confidential matters:" A believing man doesn't despair a believing woman. If he finds something in her character he dislikes, he will be pleased by something else". (Sahih Muslim 1469).

*5*. The right to a peaceful home environment:" The most complete believers are those with the best characters, and the best of you are those who are best to their womenfolk." (At-Tirmidhi).

*6*. The right to financial support:" But the father of the child shall bear the cost of the mother's food and clothing on a reasonable basis" *(Qur'an 2:233)*.

THE EXTRA TEASPOON OF SUGAR: THE STRUGGLE OF SINGLE MUMS

BY Ayesha Desai

Moral of this story:

👜👜 Please go out of your way to support home industries, single mums and those who sell something on the side to make ends meet 

Her hands grasped onto the cool metal bars, and she unwillingly remembered the cool feel of her long-removed wedding band. A memory flashed through her mind, of the day he had placed it on her finger. She remembered the henna designs her sister had patiently applied to her hands. She remembered the way her mother had lovingly helped her adjust her hijab...

And then she remembered the day she angrily pulled the ring off her finger. She remembered how she desperately thrust it towards the landlord, begging he take it in return for a month of rent. She remembered how she pleaded with the jeweler to please, just please give her an extra R100, and then she remembered the tears of anger and frustration as she resigned herself to his offer and shoved the crumpled notes into her coat pocket as she walked out.

"Mama..." The little voice asked. She hurriedly wiped away at the tears threatening to spill, "Yes lovey?" Little arms reached up, wanting to be carried, and she lifted her child onto her hip. The face that looked so like his turned into her neck, chubby fingers twirling strands of her hair, and the soft breath getting deeper as her child fell asleep. She lay him on the mattress on the floor, and returned to her work.

Her hands, once soft and pampered, now expertly measured, cut, stitched and draped fabric. She turned the plain flat sheets into exquisite works for other young brides. She was well known now, and her work sought after. She never made so much as to be considered rich, but Alhamdulillah it was enough to keep the landlord away from her door. It was enough to keep food in their bellies.

When Allah called him home, she felt the earth move, and it was not just a loss of a husband to contend with, but the fear that gripped her. How? How can she survive? For the first time with no man to rely on, and too much pride to return to her parents home, she was on her own.

At first, relying on meager savings, then pawning off the belongings they so carefully chose together to turn their little apartment into a cosy home. Then, when there was very little left even of that, it was finally a choice between 2 gifts that he given her. Sentimentality or practicality... And in exchange for it, she bought determination. She bought strength, she bought resolve, she bought a backbone!

Yes, on that decisive day, it looked a lot like bags of fabric, in different colours. But those bags soon turned into longer lenght burkas, in a range of colours from sky blue to crimson to emerald green. Standing with a plastic packet containing her work, a dua and a prayer in every stitch, she looked heaven wards and prayed her carefully rehearsed pitch would be positively received by the manager of the abaya store.

With a strenght she never she had and a desperation she had never before felt, she summoned every fibre of courage, and walked into the store with a sales talk ready. To her complete amazement, that first batch of burkas was sold, and the profit was enough to hold her landlord off for another week, and another and another.

Then one day for the first time in months there was enough left over for a meal that was more than plain pasta, or scrambled eggs. She even had an extra teaspoon of sugar in her tea, and the sweetness of her small success would linger for weeks.

👇👇👇👇

Never look down on single mothers doing their best to survive financially. It takes a certain kind of strenght and resilience to take all the disappointments in life and keep working through them, to make a life for your children. All home industry entrepreneurs, but especially widows and divorcees, should be commended for their efforts, and as consumers, let us try to remember that these are not the ones we should be 'price bargaining' with.

 It astounds me at times, that people have no issues paying for designer handbags with extravagant dollar bill pricetags and wouldnt even for a second, think about asking for a discount, yet they make it an absolute sport to haggle a price with a small stall owner or the aunty making samoosas. Remember the home industry is where you should be happy to pay fair price for fair products. Dont play off peoples desperation.

May Allah grant us all barakah in our income, and grant us the ability to earn halaal rizq. Ameen.

self care

“Self-care is often a very unbeautiful thing.

It is making a spreadsheet of your debt and enforcing a morning routine and cooking yourself healthy meals and no longer just running from your problems and calling the distraction a solution.

It is often doing the ugliest thing that you have to do, like sweat through another workout or tell a toxic friend you don’t want to see them anymore or get a second job so you can have a savings account or figure out a way to accept yourself so that you’re not constantly exhausted from trying to be everything, all the time and then needing to take deliberate, mandated breaks from living to do basic things like drop some oil into a bath and read Marie Claire and turn your phone off for the day.

A world in which self-care has to be such a trendy topic is a world that is sick. Self-care should not be something we resort to because we are so absolutely exhausted that we need some reprieve from our own relentless internal pressure.

True self-care is not salt baths and chocolate cake, it is making the choice to build a life you don’t need to regularly escape from.

And that often takes doing the thing you least want to do.

It often means looking your failures and disappointments square in the eye and re-strategizing. It is not satiating your immediate desires. It is letting go. It is choosing new. It is disappointing some people. It is making sacrifices for others. It is living a way that other people won’t, so maybe you can live in a way that other people can’t.

It is letting yourself be normal. Regular. Unexceptional. It is sometimes having a dirty kitchen and deciding your ultimate goal in life isn’t going to be having abs and keeping up with your fake friends. It is deciding how much of your anxiety comes from not actualizing your latent potential, and how much comes from the way you were being trained to think before you even knew what was happening.

If you find yourself having to regularly indulge in consumer self-care, it’s because you are disconnected from actual self-care, which has very little to do with “treating yourself” and a whole lot do with parenting yourself and making choices for your long-term wellness.

It is no longer using your hectic and unreasonable life as justification for self-sabotage in the form of liquor and procrastination. It is learning how to stop trying to “fix yourself” and start trying to take care of yourself… and maybe finding that taking care lovingly attends to a lot of the problems you were trying to fix in the first place.

It means being the hero of your life, not the victim. It means rewiring what you have until your everyday life isn’t something you need therapy to recover from. It is no longer choosing a life that looks good over a life that feels good. It is giving the hell up on some goals so you can care about others. It is being honest even if that means you aren’t universally liked. It is meeting your own needs so you aren’t anxious and dependent on other people.

It is becoming the person you know you want and are meant to be. Someone who knows that salt baths and chocolate cake are ways to enjoy life – not escape from it.”

-Brianna Wiest

meetups

I had spent an hour in the bank with my dad, as he had to transfer some money.  I couldn't resist myself & asked...

 

''Dad, why don't we activate your internet banking?''

''Why would I do that?'' 

He asked...

''Well, then you wont have to spend an hour here for things like transfer. 

You can even do your shopping online. Everything will be so easy!'' 

I was so excited about initiating him into the world of Net banking.

He asked ''If I do that, I wont have to step out of the house? 

''Yes, yes''! I said. I told him how even grocery can be delivered at door now and how amazon delivers everything!

His answer left me tongue-tied. 

He said ''Since I entered this bank today, I have met four of my friends, I have chatted a while with the staff who know me very well by now.

You know I am alone...

 this is the company that I need. I like to get ready and come to the bank. I have enough time, it is the physical touch that I crave.

 Two years back I got sick, The store owner  from whom I buy fruits, came to see me and sat by my bedside and cried. 

When u r Mom fell down few days back while on her morning walk. Our local grocer saw her and immediately got his car to rush her home as he knows where I live. 

Would I have that 'human' touch if everything became online?

Why would I want everything delivered to me and force me to interact with just my computer? 

I like to know the person that I'm dealing with and not just the 'seller' . It creates bonds. Relationships. 

Does Amazon deliver all this as well?'''

Technology isn' t life ..  

Spend time with people .. Not with devices.👍

Weddings of today

Today, Nikahs have taken on a distinct mould of a Hollywood or Bollywood style wedding – where the bride is dressed to look like a Christian bride or a Bollywood actress – with no sign of Islam on her; and the groom is dressed in a suit and tie, looking like a typical Christian groom.  

Adding insult to injury is the extravagance and open sin at the time of the wedding and Walimah. One’s mind moves in the direction of the millions and millions who are suffering famine and starvation, who have no home, no water, no food, no clothing – but the Muslim ignores all that suffering just for some fleeting attention and praise.

All those hundreds of thousands of Rands wasted on draping a hall, on dressing the chairs, on wine glasses, on musicians, photography, on wedding cards that are thrown away, etc.  is money, which could have been the means of alleviating the plight of so many suffering people.

One brother handed me an elaborate invitation card for his daughter’s wedding. I enquired as to the cost of the wedding card, and was told that each card cost R50. Advising him, I told him that almost all people throw away wedding cards. People generally dispose of them. So he should regard that as people throwing away hundreds of his R50 notes. Would he throw R50 notes into a bin? No. However, the throwing away of those cards is equal to throwing away R50 notes. That same money could have been used in making the Aakhirah. 

Even those who are known to be religious will waste thousands on halls, on décor, etc. sacrificing the pleasure of Allah Ta’ala and Rasulullah (Sallallaahu ‘alayhi wasallam). Those who were meant to set the noble example of the Sunnah, who we expect are living the Sunnah – knowingly choose to forsake the Sunnah.  Simplicity, which is part of Imaan, is a rare sight in these times.  

Hazrat ‘Ayesha (Radhiyallahu ‘anha) related that Nabi (Sallallaahu ‘alaihi wasallam) said: ‘Verily, the most blessed Nikah is that which involves the least difficulty (expenditure).’

We have a perfect Sunnah – a perfect way of life in the life of our Nabi (Sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa-Sallam) and in the lives of his companions, men and women. We have what is superior to all other cultures yet we consider everything else. It shows great weakness if we give preference to the culture of the Christians, Jews and Idolators over the noble Sunnah of Rasulullah (Sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa-Sallam). We are exchanging diamonds for stones… and what an unprofitable exchange this is! What a great loss!

Nabi (Sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa-Sallam) said: “Whoever emulates a nation is from amongst them.”

In another Hadith, it is stated: “A person is with whom he loves.”

Nabi (Sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa-Sallam) also said that we will be raised on the Day of Judgment with those whom we imitate in this worldly life. (May Allah Ta’ala save us from such disgrace and humiliation.)

 The heart bleeds at this miscarriage of the Sunnah. …Nay, this abortion of the Sunnah. How will we meet our Beloved Nabi (Sallallaahu ‘alayhi wasallam) on the Day of Judgment? How will we show our faces to the one whose entire life was sacrificed so that today we be the reciters of the Kalimah?

May Allah Ta’ala have mercy upon us since we stand to lose by adopting this culture. If we continue in this line and direction, we will lose the pleasure of Allah Ta’ala and we will lose the great rewards for enlivening and practising the Sunnah. 

We also stand to lose the companionship of Rasulullah (Sallallaahu ‘alayh wasallam) at the fountain of Kauthar on the Day of Judgment and even stand to lose the success of our marriages due to having sacrificed the beautiful, noble Sunnah by means of our emulation of the Hollywood and Bollywood culture.

If our allegiance is to Allah Ta’ala and His Rasul (Sallallaahu ‘alayhi wasallam), then there should be no delay in repentance and mending our ways and coming back to what is pure and beautiful – Islam and the Sunnah. In this, is the success of both worlds. 

May Allah Ta’ala grant us the understanding, the concern and the Taufeeq of Aml. 

 

by Hazrath Maulana Yunus Patel Rahmatullah Alayh. May Allaah fill his qabr with Noor.