*Q.Q.C.*

Assalaamu Alaikum! :)

Hope everyone is in the best health and Imaan, insha'Allah.

I should have written this post earlier but I have been trying to be good ... studying for my last set of exams. Remember me in your du'as please *nervous*

The day arrived, Squeeky and Weebee met up by Ryerson University so they could both walk to the Student Center together. It was about 10:40am and we knew we would be a little early but realized much later ... that we were about 45 mins too early! We seriously thought we had been at the wrong place because the plan was to meet with a bunch of Ryerson sisters and brothers and a few York sisters, so that we may all get on the SCHOOL BUS (awww yes, we rode on the Magic School Bus!) going towards McMaster for the Qir'at Qur'an Competition. There are random pictures that Weebz and I took during the long wait. We were bored out of our minds because for some reason, the crew decided to leave later than scheduled. The bus ride was long and .... long haha But alhamdulillah, we made it to the University. Oh the giddiness we were experiencing!

It was quite foggy on my way downtown

This picture was to show our confusion at Ryerson. We weren't sure if we were at the correct meeting spot

This little statue man gave me quite the scare while Weebz and I were walking around the streets

When the sister's finally arrived, each of them had yummy smelling Coffee. That was when we too had our cravings for some Hot Chocolate. But to both of our unfortunate luck, the little flap would not snap down. So we had a plan, tape was our friend!

It turned out that we were both losers :(

I had never attended this event, and apparently it was their 8th annual event! I just have to say that I was very impressed with everything ... especially the beautiful arrangments for the competitors. It looked so beautiful! And the colours were co-ordinating so well aww

This was the program for the night

It began first, with the Sister's competition. This was the first year that the sister's had the opportunity of participating and wow ... masha'Allah they were incredibly good! I favoured a few who had the most beautiful Qur'anic recitation. It was just simply amazing, to have the courage to sit in front of a room of people and begin your recitation right at the point where the judges ask you to. I wish I had such beautiful recitation *sigh* Insha'Allah ... we'll see after my tajweed classes haha McMaster sister's won, by the way.

The second part was the Junior competition. One word/expression: Awwww! Masha'Allah, may Allah Swt always bless these little children and strengthen their Imaan. I think they inspired me the most ... children between the ages of 5 to 14 were reciting surah's in front of everyone, without hesitation. And yes, I did say 5 yrs old. He was the cutest little boy ever, masha'Allah. And recited a little surah for everyone. I thought it was funny when he prayed "Bismillah hir-rahman nira'him" and then paused, waiting for the audience to stop "awwing" at him!

Unfortunately, we were not able to stay and listen to the brother's recitation competition. The bus was leaving right after Maghrib salaat so we went to pray and I wanted to make a few purchases before I left. Nope, did not get the chance to buy anything from

Maniac this time hehe

An interesting sign was posted in the room we had our lunch

The duck tape really brings out the shirts :)

Although ... there was one very memorable and surprising experience ;) I will never forget this:

Weebee: Squeeky, I want to introduce you to someone

Squeeky: Aww, okay!

( a sister emerges from behind)

Weebee: This is Asmaa

Squeeky: Oh, Assalaamu Alaikum

Weebee: Asmaa from your BLOG!

Squeeky: Oh! My! Goodness!

It's so nice putting a face to a name :) Masha'Allah.

I had an amazing time at this event and I wish I had taken my family with me. Insha'Allah next year for sure. Oh and my red York sweater definitely did it's job teehehe

IAW

Assalaamu Alaikum :)

It is Islam Awareness Week at York University and I was helping with a friend to direct people to the pretty displays that were up. I didn't have my camera or I would have taken some pictures of it. They provided everyone with free books, pamphlets and two men were there, who were skilled in Arabic Calligraphy :)

That's right. I had my name written in Arabic as well. I needed a sample piece to walk around with and try to direct the students to where the action was.

And yes, when Squeeky begins to go on a blog-a-thon ... it means that she is preventing herself from studying :(

Rice Krispies ... Squeeky Style

Assalaamu Alaikum :)

End of the weekend mubarak!!! ..... umm, don't ask.

So, it was Sunday evening ... and Squeeky had a craving for some dessert. But the unthinkable happened. There was no dessert in the household! Her mind was spinning ... her heart was aching ... what was she to do without evening dessert?

It felt like the world was crashing around her :(

Her brother was too busy on the computer to go out and buy her a hot fudge sundae so she figured, if anything had to be done, she would have to do it herself! After rummaging through the cupboards, she found a packet of halal marshmallows and had an idea! Why not make rice krispie squares? There was more than enough Rice Krispies. So out came all the ingredients and voila, it was made :) Even though it still looked tempting ... Squeeky just had to make it a bit more special. There was still some vanilla icing left so she carefully spread it upon the thick layer of rice krispies and to her satisfaction, it did not look so bad.

It's my cousin's birthday tomorrow insha'Allah so we called him over and offered it as a pre-birthday sweet. He liked it! yay.

P.S. - I'm bored.

Beautiful Weekends

Assalaamu Alaikum my dear brothers and sisters in Islam :)

I have enrolled myself in a 2 year Uloom Program offered at the Brampton Makki Masjid. It is every weekend morning (except for the 3rd weekend in a month, our break weekend) and just for a couple of hours. It started in late January and I cannot stress how thankful I am to have found out about it. I literally feel like a different person, a much more happier person, alhamdulillah.

We have some classes that run for about 40 minutes each. First is Tajweed. I'm in LOVE with this part haha I have been craving to work on my tajweed for a very long time now and I have finally been given the oppportunity. It's so much fun, our teacher, Sister Fatima, had us go over the Arabic alphabets again and each of us have to recite them outloud. A friend of mine has a little trouble with pronouncing her "hah"'s haha So she would have to repeat it over and over again until she got it right awww I like to think I'm Arab so that I can get myself to pronounce it correctly :D Weird, but it works.

We focus on Hadeeth, Hanafi Fiqh, Aqeedah and Seerah of the Prophet Sallallahu alaihe wassalam. It is a nice collection of knowledge that every person should be aware of. I have been learning things that I had no knowledge of before. We think we know so much, but in reality, we really don't know anything unless we take the initiative and further our knowledge. There's a hadeeth I remember which was oh so nice:

The Prophet (saw) says:

If anyone travels on a road in search of knowledge, Allah will cause him to travel on one of the roads of Paradise. The angels will lower their wings in their great pleasure with one who seeks knowledge, the inhabitants of the heavens and the Earth and the fish in the deep waters will ask forgiveness for the learned man. The superiority of the learned man over the devout is like that of the moon, on the night when it is full, over the rest of the stars. The learned are the heirs of the Prophets, and the Prophets leave neither dinar nor dirham, leaving only knowledge, and he who takes it takes an abundant portion. Sunan of Abu Dawud (Book #25, Hadith #3634)

For the longest time, I've been starving to learn more about my religion and our beloved Prophet (saw). It's a blessing to be in surroundings where there is always mention of Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala and Islam because it only strengthens your Imaan and helps you to focus on what is really important in this duniya. I especially think it is very important for me to understand and know my religion as a muslimah because my biggest concern is raising my future kiddies right, insha'Allah. Honestly, that's all I care about haha And finally it feels like I'm doing something about it. May Allah Swt bless my efforts.

Narrated 'Abdullah: Allah's Apostle said:

"Do not wish to be like anyone, except in two cases: (1) A man whom Allah has given wealth and he spends it righteously. (2) A man whom Allah has given wisdom (knowledge of the Quran and the Hadith) and he acts according to it and teaches it to others." Sahih Bukhari (Book #89, Hadith #255)

Fi-aman'Allah :)

NOT from ATKINSON

Assalaamu Alaikum :)

Oh what a lovley day, alhamdulillah!

Even though the weather wasn't, but ... oh well. I acted a bit rebellious today. I know, me from all people. My dear friend Wahiba and I decided to skip tutorial *gasp* I never skip until I really have to but this was just a spur of the moment idea because we had just left the MSA after praying salaat and realized there was only two more minutes for tutorial to begin and the building was quite far from where we were. Since we don't do anything too important during tutorial, we decided ... why not just skip one class? And besides, these are my last few weeks at York, I needed to do something out of the ordinary for myself teehehe

It seems to be election time at York, especially for one of the colleges, Atkinson. So there are students EVERYWHERE representing Atkinson and asking everyone that passes by, "are you from Atkinson?" I was asked this same question about 20 times or more. It was getting annoying! That's when I said "I feel like carrying a sign that says that I am not from Atkinson *grr*" That's when Wahiba came in with post-its! haha As you can see from the image above, we wrote "NOT from ATKINSON" and stuck it on our jackets. So whenever we would be asked that same question, we would look at them, point at our sign, and carry on muahaha. Let's just say, it amused a lot of people.

I have this need to buy a whole bunch of York memorabilia. Just some things I can have to reflect on the good 'ol days *sigh* So we bought sweatshirts!! I really like mine, soo soft. Wahiba and I are planning on attending the Qiraatul Qur'an Competition on March 25th (that is, if anyone from York will represent us) ... perfect time to show our school spirit!

And we cannot forget about Red. Red is my balloon that was floating in the sky, waiting for me to take it. Awwww. And lastly, my Yorkie Water Bottle ... it just looks too cool.