I'm Back!

I Have Been Away For Awhile

Hey everyone! I know, I haven`t posted in a long, LONG time! Well there is good reason, and lots of stuff has happened since then. Let me fill you in!

In Bangladesh

 1.  I am NOT in nursing anymore! Yep! After two years I have realized, it is not for me. It does not make me happy. I am a creative, artistic person, Alhamdulillah! I love crafting, decorating and designing (BIG post on my latest crafts to come! You will LOVE them!). Soooo, I am now doing A business course and working on completing my International Design and Decorating Professional diploma! I love it, Alhamdulillah! I was mean't to do this! I am almost done now and InshaAllah when I save up some money I will start my own design business from home. InshaAllah this will be good for me and my future family. I know that there was a reason I was first in Nursing. It was all part of Allah's plan to guide me to Islam. I was studying in Nursing the development of a baby, and it was when I read Surah Al-Mu'minun, specifically 23:(13-14), I KNEW that Islam is the truth! It was THEN I decided to revert to Islam! Seriously, EVERYTHING happens for a reason, Alhamdulillah! That same Nursing year because of two missed classes in one course I had a 0% on 40% of the course. Although I had 80's and 90's in my other courses and I did very well on the final and practicum, I couldn't pass, and was therefore a year behind. This is the main factor that caused me to rethink my future career plans. This was all in Allah's hands for sure! Thank you Allah! :)

2.  I went to Bangladesh to visit my In-Laws for a month! I got to witness Ramadan in an Islamic country! It was BEAUTIFUL and my Parents In-Law are AMAZING, MashAlllah! I love them so much! They brought us to the most stunning places! I got to pray in the Mosques there! Wow! Could have stayed there forever!

3.  I have some bad news too... Unfortunately, I don't wear the Hijab on a regular basis anymore. I can't explain it, I don't really want to explain it. I love the Hijab, don't get me wrong there, and I wear it almost every second or third days, but there are days when I go without it while still dressing modestly. My faith hasn't faded, Alhamdulillah, if anything, it is getting stronger each day. I am learning to pray five times and day and I am reading Riyad Us-Saliheen. I know this is sad news, but this is what I have decided for now. Sorry. But know that I still believe Hijab is the most beautiful!

4.  That brings me to why I stopped Blogging for a while.... I got some negative comments... I know that when you put yourself out there that there is going to be both positive and negative responses. Alhamdulillah, most are very positive and very encouraging! I want to take this time here to thank each and everyone of the bloggers who have commented! You all have left inspiring, encouraging and heart warming messages that have at times brought tears to my eyes! I want to thank you all! May Allah bless each and everyone of you! It is you all who have left encouraging comments that have made me decide to try to post more, and explain my absence. I took some of the negative ones to heart. I am and have always been extremely self conscious and have had a difficult time as a kid, feeling ugly, worthless and not good enough. I stressed over these things. I got sick, near death sick, and was hospitalized for three months. Allah, gave me a second chance. I don't want to get into that much, but I do know that through it all Allah was with me. I prayed to every night as a Christian. He lead me to Islam and InsaAllah will continue to lead me down the right path. He kept me safe through my childhood, away from Alcohol, Pork and Boyfriends, I have Faith that He is in control of my life and it is Him I rely on. Again, I thank Allah! Thank you for a second chance! So, the reason I left for a while was to avoid negative stress. But I am more confident now, Alhamdulillah. More confident in who I am as a person, and my Faith I have reverted to. :) So, I'll try to be a regular poster! Again, thanks to those who posted nice and encouraging comments! And of course THANK YOU ALLAH! :)

Alhamdulillah for EVERYTHING!

May Allah bless you all!

Baking Brownies (For the first time!)

Jum'ah Brownies

It is FRIDAY everybody! In Islam, Friday is special because we get to go to the Mosque and pray the Jum'ah Salat (prayer) and listen to the Friday Khutba (sermon). Friday is a blessed day of the week and in our house we treat it as a weekly Eid day. I usually cook a special breakfast (if time/school/work allows) and we all sit and enjoy our morning together as a family. Then everyone is out the door and gone their separate ways until we again reunite to go to the Mosque together. Their is a special, peaceful feeling that comes over me when I pray the Friday Prayer with everyone at the Mosque. It is truly beautiful! The rest of the day is family time. We then spend time together home watching movies and playing games, going for walks/hikes, or going to special places such as the movie theatre, a restaurant or shopping at the mall. Khalid and I hope to extend this family togetherness once we start our own family, to have a day of the week everyone can look forward to and cherish. 

Today, as a special Friday treat I decided to make Brownies for the first time in my life! My mom used to make them all the time when I was a kid, along with homemade bread and sugar cookies. I bake a lot, and have made many different goodies, but I have never tried brownies. So today I made my very own low-fat brownie recipe. I call them Jum'ah Brownies! I have to say they turned out amazing! The perfect in-between of fudgy and cakey, with a delicious chocolaty flavor. I will share these delightful treats with you, but don't be upset with me if you end up eating the whole batch in one day... You have been warned, they are tempting once made. ;) 

Jum'ah Brownies Recipes 

Ingredients:

3 med. - Bananas, ripe

.5 cup - Unsweetened Applesauce

1 cup - Granulated Sugar

1 cup - Brown Sugar
 4 lrg. - Eggs  

1.5 cup - Whole Wheat Flour
1 cup - Cocoa, dry powder, unsweetened

1 tsp - Salt

1 cup - Milk Chocolate Chips

*Butter for greasing the pan.

*Used a 9x13 inch. pan.

Instructions:

1.Preheat oven to 350 degree.

2.Mash bananas in a small sauce pan and heat over medium heat. Once heated and mushy, add apple sauce and sugar. Stir until combined. Then add the eggs one at a time, working and stirring quickly to avoid the eggs from cooking due to the heat of the mixture. Reduce heat.

Step 2

3.Mix the flour, cocoa, salt together in a large bowl.

Step 3

4.Grease a 9x13 inch pan.
5.Add the chocolate chips to the heated banana mixture, until fully melted. 
5.Mix the heated banana mixture into the dry flour mixture until fully combined.

Step 5

6.Pour the combined mixture into the prepared pan.

Step 6

7.Bake at 350 degrees for about 28 minutes. Until toothpick is inserted and comes out dry. 

Step 7

Enjoy your Jum'ah Brownies!

This one has a homemade peanut butter-ice cream sauce. Yummy! :D
(I mixed 2 tbsp of ice cream, 50g of vanilla yogurt and 2 tbsp of peanut butter together.)

Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day

My mom and me with the beautiful lantern my husband bought for  our home!

Mother's Day is celebrated on the second Sunday of the month of May, but as Khalid's dad always says, "In Islam, Mother's Day is EVERYDAY!" Isn't that beautiful? The status of women in Islam is amazing! 

"When she is a daughter, she opens a door of Jannah for her father. When she is a wife, she completes half of the Deen of her husband. When she is a mother, Jannah lies under her feet... If everyone knew the true status of a Muslim woman in Islam, even the men would want to be women." ~Shiekh Akram Nadawi

 This Mother's Day we had the family to our apartment and we had a nice day spending time together. I made a homemade Angel Food Cake that I iced with fat-free yogurt (this is my FAVORITE dessert)! It was delicious and was gone by the end of the night. I also made peanut butter cookies and decorated them to look like sunflowers and cupcakes with homemade chocolate-peanut butter icing, topped with smarties! Then mom opened the gifts we gave her. We gave her a frame with a picture of mom and I put in it and a box of white chocolates (because she can not have chocolate unless it is white) and I card. She loved the gifts, especially her card. Mashallah, she was all smiles!

After some goodies, we all played Skip-Bo (a card game). It is a great family game. I used to be the Queen of Skip-Bo but my mom, has definitely earned that title! She won all the games so far! I have to say she is really good at card games, Mashallah.  

Some of the chocolate-peanut butter cupcakes! Yummy!

Mom's slice of cake with one peanut butter sunflower cookies.

Khalid and I with our beautiful Indian hand crafted lantern,
purchased from Winners.

We planned to go see "The Five Year Engagement" at the movie theatre after eating out at a restaurant. But because my little brother was sleepy and was sleeping during all the card game excitement, we had a hard time waking him up to go to dinner. I have a Muslim doll named Amina that I got from a wonderful website muslimbase.com (I will do a post  on this fabulous website and the products I have ordered later.) and I used her to wake him up. She sings many songs and the repeating songs, eventually, woke him up.

Since we missed the movie we decided to drive around for a awhile and then order Chinese food to take back home. We had a good time listening to music and talking and laughing with each other. After we returned home we had our dinner together and I pack left over food and goodies for the family to take back home with them.

We had a great Mother's Day spending time together. It is great that there is a defined day for moms, but we should remember that every day is Mother's Day. They brought us into this world and raised us. They should always be treated with the kindness and respect they deserve. I look forward to having children someday, Inshallah and I hope that I can be mommy that they can look up to, be proud of, love and share their thoughts, fears and joys with.

Happy Mother's Day everybody!
How did you   spend your Mother's Day?

Ramadan Excitement

I know, Ramadan doesn't start for another 87 (Friday July 20th, 2012), but I am super excited! This will be my very first participation in the fasting and praying of this special religious occasion. I observed my fiance and his brother go through the month of Ramadan last year, and enjoyed the excitement, dedication and spirituality that filled our home during that month.
I have big plans for my first Ramadan! I have already started my homemade decorations and crafts. I have also started planning some family activities that will be charitable and religiously educational. I still have a lot of learning to do actually. I still need to memorize the prayers and get the prayer steps right. My darling husband is extremely patient and devoted in teaching me, I love him very much and am so thankful to have him in my life.

I found this great guide to also help me in learning the prayers. The website I got this from (http://www.islamicposters.co.uk/) has lots of great Islamic guides and educational posters!

So back to my excitement for Ramadan!  I have been so very crafty today! I made `stained glass candles`to light during the month of Ramadan and have started some ornaments to hang on a twig tree of some sort as a decoration. The stained glass candles are made from old jars that I had cleaned and saved for projects such as this. They turned out fabulous so far and I plan on making many more but with the help of family and friends as a social group activity as well. I think my husband would enjoy this the most. His eyes lit up when I showed him my finished project and my ideas to make a very special Ramadan and Ramadans to come for our future family!

Beautiful Ramadan Candles

 I have also came up with a couple of cute ideas to start our family off on the right track. One is to help us to develop a better everyday vocabulary (no swearing or vulgar language). It will make us better people and create a better environment to start and raise a family in. I call it the "Swear Jar"! Yep, we have a swear jar! I even made a cute quote to put on the label! It states "If you utter the slightest profanity, the right thing to do is to donate to charity!" I love it! It turned out great and you'd never think it, but EVERYBODY uses it! Even our guests! We plan on donating the money from the swear jar to the local Mosque. The second idea is also a jar project (yeah, I have a lot of jars saved up)! This one I call the "Sadaqah Jar"! It is a voluntary charitable donation jar. So when we have loose change (and we have done a good job in watching our language), we can drop it is the Sadaqah Jar! When that one is filled up we will decide on a relief effort we shall donate the proceeds too (Im thinking the relief effort for Syria would be a good one). Here are our family's lovely jars...

Sadaqah and Swear Jar

Swear Jar
"If you mention the slightest profanity,
the right thing to do is to donate to charity!"

Sadaqah and Swear Jar

Fundraising Goodies

Don't they look so delicious! Yumm!

A few weeks ago the Muslim Students Association (MSA) of our University had a bake sale to help raise funds to help those suffering in Syria. I wanted to volunteer but I had an exam. So I decided to bake some healthy goodies while I made breakfast that morning! It didn't take very long and they turned out GREAT! I made up this recipe for Banana-Nut Muffins on the spot as a cooked, what a coincidence, Banana-Nut Oatmeal. I thought I would further share my fundraiser goodies by posting the recipe! So here it is:

Whole Wheat Banana-Nut

Muffins

Ingredients:

2 Cups - Whole Wheat Flour

1 Tsp - Baking Powder

1/2 Tsp - Baking Soda

1/4 Tsp - Salt

1 Cup - Honey or Granulated White Sugar

1/2 Cup - Oil (I use Olive or Canola) or butter (melted)

3 ripe - Bananas

1 Cup - Peanuts

2 Eggs

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C) and line a12-18 1/2 cup muffin pan with paper liners (I like using colorful ones!).
2. In a large bowl combine the flour, honey or sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and nuts.
3. In a medium-sized bowl combine the mashed bananas, eggs, and oil or butter. Lightly fold the wet ingredients (banana mixture) into the dry ingredients just until combined and the batter is thick. Do not over mix!
4. Spoon batter into muffin tins and bake for about 20 minutes or until when a toothpick is inserted, it comes out clean.
5. Decorate if desired.
6. Share and ENJOY!

Hope you enjoy this recipe and I hope that you will all pray for those in Syria. Currently I am working on Handmade Hijabi Dolls for a craft and bake sale I plan on organizing, Inshallah, in the upcoming months once I finish exams and clinicals. Have a great day! 

My Hijab Story

Who is the cutie dolly in the hijab? That is Meagan! That is the porcelain doll my dad gave my mom when she was pregnant with me. She decided that when I was born she would name me after this beautiful doll. So, here I am! Meagan! Meagan means "pearl", hence my blogger name "Pearl of Islam"!

I haven't always been Muslim. I grew up in a Christian family in a rural community and went to church every Sunday. I have always believed in God and prayed before going to bed every night. Little did I know, my whole life has been leading to the moment I would realize the truth in Islam and find what my life has been missing. 

You see, I have always felt different from my family and friends. I never wore revealing clothing, ever. I never "partied" or drank alcohol, although all my friends and parents would. I never had a boyfriend growing up and had no interest. I was going to get my education and become a pediatrician. I had developed my own morals and way of life that matched that of a by born Muslim girl, although I had no idea about this beautiful religion. 

Pursuing my education, I moved to the city to attend University. My plans had changed at that point though. I have decided to work towards obtaining a Nursing degree and become a pediatric nurse instead. I figure nurses work on a more personal level with patients, and that is what I want most while working in a medical field. While in While in University, I met the man who would change my life for the better. His name is Khalid. He is from Bangladesh, is a twin, studies Engineering, and is Muslim. As a friend, he invited me to a dinner to celebrate the Islamic religious holiday "Eid". I was honored to attend this event and  learn't a lot. My friendship with Khalid grew. He taught me so much, about God (Allah), Islam, and life. He also showed me how to love and to be loved. We had so much in common and soon realized we were mean't to be together. We are soul mates. He proposed shortly after, and we are now happily engaged! (We plan on having the wedding after we both finish school.)

Me and Khalid at a local Museum. 

Khalid has always told me that I am very modest and have a manner about me that matches that of a practicing Muslim girl. He told me so much about the Quran, Allah, and Muhammad(pbuh), and I always seemed to push it off and ignore his words. But I wasn't. I was listening to every word. I was absorbing the TRUTH! I was interested, but pretended to be uninterested in knowing anything about Islam, let alone convert. I read the Quran in my own time and looked up answers to some of my questions about this religion. I was intrigued! The values, conduct, modesty, compassion, and devotion to Allah! It is amazing! How can it not be true!? So, I converted. In my room I sat down, said the defining words "La ilah illa Allah, Muhammad rasoolu Allah.", which means "I testify that there is no true god but God (Allah), and that Muhammad is a Messenger (Prophet) of God". I told Khalid three days later. He was shocked, but so very happy. He was happy for me! Happy I made this amazing live changing decision on my own! I am happy too! I haven't been happier! I found life in Allah and Islam! This was about five months ago. 

I decided to start wearing the hijab maybe a month after converting. It was a difficult decision to make, I can't deny that. I was scared. I was scared what my family would say and think, how my friends and school mates would react, and how my school faculty and society in general would treat me because of this decision. I secretly bought a scarf. It was a beautiful purple (my favorite color) and white one. I tried it on at home, practiced putting it on and got comfortable wearing it. Then one day after I dropped Khalid off at University I went to my classes at the hospital. In the car of the parking lot, I gathered my strength and extinguished my fears and carefully put on my hjab, the symbol of my faith. I was shaking as I walked through the hospital, but I knew Allah was by my side, holding my head up, keeping me strong. The stares, the whispers and the exclamations "What are you wearing?", "What is that?", "But, WHY?"... Khalid was just as surprised when I picked him up, but hid it well by pretending he didn't even notice the scarf beautifully covering my hair. I am thankful for that. He must have known that I had heard enough that day, and didn't need anymore alienation, I needed to be treated normal. I survived that long, scary day and I have continued to wear it with pride since. I love my hijab! I love the freedom it gives me!  It is Allah's way to keep me safe from judgement and degradation. I have to admit though, it has been hard at times. But me and my faith are much stronger. The good days and joy of being a symbol of the beautiful religion, Islam, out weigh the days of prejudice and discrimination. I will continue to wear my hijab, and wear it proudly. Inshallah, when Khalid and I get married and have our own children someday, we will teach them they never have to hide their religion, to be scared of who they are and to be proud they are Muslim because Allah is always with them. For now though, Inshallah, I will finish this semester of Nursing successfully and Khalid will teach me the prayer during the summer. I look forward to praying five times a day to give thanks to our creator, Allah!