The good news is, on my way home from uni this afternoon, I discovered my camera in my coat pocket. Thus I was finally able to capture some shots of the Natural History Museum ice rink, which I’ve been eager to do ever since it was set up a few weeks ago.

The last shot is my favourite… I think it would make a nice postcard. Btw, am I alone in thinking ice skating is the most romantic of the winter sports? All that huddling, cuddling and giggling… Sigh.

Happy Eid, everybody!

I now present my – I mean, my blog’s – birthday wish list. And if you think birthday presents are too much of an innovation, then consider it an Eid-ul-Adha wish list instead:

• a Nintendo Wii, with Wii Fit/Active/Sports/whatever makes me sweat and get fit enough in the privacy of my own home, to eventually allow me to return to the kickboxing classes that I so dearly miss.
• a compact DSLR
• a decent haircut (blonde curls are a real possibility – an in-joke for my FB sisters)
• a Maths tutor
• a big ol’ punch bag, like I saw on TV last night. Awesomeness!
• Really good chocolate. I mean, so good that I don’t care that it makes me fat, because it’s that amazing. Cadburys and Thorntons do not fit in that category at present. Maybe Hotel Chocolat?
• a trustworthy builder to knock down the wall that currently separates our two living rooms, so that the middle room can finally have some natural light, and not be so depressing a place to sit in – especially during the Winter.
• a jacuzzi
• someone that makes me feel less ‘bleurghy’
• a good, non-trivial, real life, face-to-face conversation, that doesn’t involve discussion of the weather (unless it’s related to a debate on climate change), or the stupidity of lecture timetables.

List to be updated as and when I – I mean, my blog – decides.

Btw, the above wish list is clearly pure self-indulgence. There are many things that I – and my blog – wish for, that are less selfish, and more altruistic. I am very blessed with what I already have, alhamdulillah, and don’t feel at all lacking in respect to material goodness. I just felt like writing a ‘me, me, me’ post today. :)

What’s on your (or your blog’s) wish list?

I actually took the second one from the back of my friend’s car, on our way home. In fact, I spent more time in the car than I did watching the fireworks! Oh well… it was still an enjoyable evening, masha’Allah. :)

I asked the lecturer what his background was, expecting him to say Computer Science. But he’s actually a Biologist-turned-Comp nerd, like I wanna be! I confessed to him that I had trouble with yesterday’s lecture, which contained a lot of Maths; whereupon he confessed to me that his Maths is quite bad, too. And then, he said that the Bioinformatics service centre where he works, (i.e., the folks who help all the scientists on campus with their research projects), actually has a shortage of people with a good understanding of Biology, and skills in computing.

Yey! I may actually have a job at the end of this, insha’Allah. I am so sucking up to this guy; he might be my future boss! ;)

Seriously, I feel sooo much better today. I understood 99% of what he spoke about. In fact, only one slide didn’t make sense, and it turns out there was a typo: so I wasn’t going crazy, after all.

Day 3 of my course, we haven’t actually touched a computer yet, and I pretty much already know what kind of Bioinformatician I want to be: the kind who doesn’t have to deal with Maths! :))

I reckon that I’ve had my iPod Touch for a couple of years now, and in that time I have discovered some great applications – and some terrible ones! But let’s stick with the goodies for now, shall we?

Islamic Apps

I’ll admit, I haven’t done a proper survey of all the Islamic apps available. However, my most treasured app in this respect, is certainly iQuran Pro. I have been using it for over a year now, and it became especially useful during Ramadan, alhamdulillah. As well as simply displaying the Arabic Qur’an, it also allows you to download a variety of translations, recitations (played ayah-by-ayah), create bookmarks, notes, and has a nifty search function. I purposely went for the Pro version after downloading the feature limited (but still useful) free version. I think it’s important to support quality Islamic products where possible, and so had no problem with shelling out a few dollars in that respect.

In terms of prayer times, and Qibla finder, I downloaded Guidance a while ago. I don’t claim it to be the best, but it works, so I kept it!

Social Apps

Facebook for iPhone and Echofon (formerly known as Twitterfon) are used frequently throughout the day, to keep me in touch with my online buddies. Echofon is free, and does the job, so I haven’t bothered to experiment with the paid Twitter apps.

I also use WordPress for iPhone from time to time. It’s useful for writing short posts on the go, and making quick edits, when you notice a horrible typo that must be killed immediately. It works with both WordPress.com and self-hosted WordPress blogs. Coolio!

Utilities Apps

Light is pure simplicity. All it does upon launch is display a blank white (or colour of your choice) screen, turning your iPhone into a torch. It might sound daft, but I use it almost daily!

Tube Status is an important app for Londoners who are reliant on the Underground network for daily commuting. It simply tells you the status of each tube line, regularly fetching updates from the TFL database.

Air Sharing is a great app for storing files on your iPhone, transferred from your computer via Wi-Fi, i.e., you don’t actually plug in your iPhone to transfer the files. It can display the content of pdfs and certain docs, so it is also useful if you want to read files on the go.

Dictionary by the guys at Dictionary.com is amazing! Especially for someone as vocabulary-challenged as myself. I already have dictionary.com as my home page, so I was very happy to have it as an app on my iPod. It contains both a dictionary and thesaurus, and you don’t even need to be connected to the net for it to work! Useful for iPod T owners when no free Wi-Fi is available.

Wikipanion allows you to easily search for content on the Wikipedia database. I don’t think it’s a ‘must-have’, as I believe the mobile version of Wikipedia that automatically loads in Safari is quite good… but it’s a free app, so no real harm either way, insha’Allah.

Fun Apps

The largest part of the App Store has to be the Games section! I have downloaded several free games, and have even risked buying a few cheap (usually 59p) apps in recent months, as the free ones are usually quite – well – “pants”, is a word!

The exception to the free=pants rule, however, is Sol Free, i.e., a Solitaire app. This is one of the few games that I have seen other iPhone users play while sitting on the Tube. So I reckon it’s quite popular. Anyway, it rocks, and it’s free (last time I checked), so go for it!

Most of the following paid apps have a free version that you can download to trial the game.

The best paid app that I have ever played on my iPod – by far – is Toki Tori. I was freakin’ addicted at one point! It’s basically a puzzle game, where you have to manipulate certain elements on the screen to allow little Toki Tori to collect all his eggs. It sounds lame, but I loved it, and check the App Store nearly every day in hopes of an update! More levels pleeease!

The next best, and one that has been on the most popular download list for a long time, is Flight Control. The basic aim is to land as many planes as possible. They introduced local and global leaderboards, so you’re not just competing against yourself, but a lot of other peeps too. I loved this game initially, but am now kinda bored of it. Once you land a certain number of planes, you realize how much time you’re wasting on such a pointless activity! That’s why Toki Tori is the best, because you actually feel your mind working; it may actually increase your IQ a little bit, as opposed to turning you into a plane-landing zombie.

Harbour Master is similar to Flight Control, but instead you have to bring ships in and out of harbours (wow…). I thought it was even more pointless than Flight Control after around five minutes of game play, but haven’t deleted it as I paid for it!

AirPort Mania (there seem to be a lot of these aeroplane games about!) is actually quite good. Maybe even better than Flight Control (certainly cuter), but it’s a game you can complete, so it’ll lay idle on your iPhone eventually, as it is doing on mine.

Ragdoll Blaster is a recent find, which I quite enjoyed. You have to shoot ragdolls out of a canon, and make sure to hit the target. There are obstacles which you need to shoot out of the way in order to reach the target. The fewer ragdolls you use, the better!

Labyrinth was the first app I ever paid for. It kept me entertained for quite a while, but I haven’t opened it for months. You have to get a little metal ball through various mazes without letting it fall in any of the holes. It makes great use of the iPhone’s accelerometer, and I think the free version is definitely worth a look. There is a database of user-created mazes, so in a way, the fun will never end (unless you are easily bored, like me!).

—

Okay, I think that’s all – for now. I hope you found my list useful, Ammena!

Which are your favourite iPhone apps?

Anyway, one thing you’ll hopefully notice from the pics below is that I actually took a decent camera with me this time, and did not rely on the crummy camera in my phone (which is good, as I still use the same handset as I did back in 2007!). Please click on each image to see the full-size copy. [Flickr archive]

Don

Straighten the Rows: the men line up for the prayer.

Imam gives the Khutbah: Not the most effective design for a partition. ;)

Higher Daddy!: A father pushes his child on the swings during the khutbah.

The brothers sit and listen to the imam.

While the kids quietly play! The advantage of holding prayers in a playground. :)

Playground Springs: I have no idea why they have these little fountains and showers in the kiddies

Curious Child: All the kids were fascinated by the sprinklers... though I

So there you have it: another Eid in the park; another step closer to establishing a personal Eid tradition, insha’Allah.

Where did you pray today?

“Bear in mind that the present life is just a game, a diversion, an attraction, a cause of boasting among you, of rivalry in wealth and children.” Qur’an 57:20

I don’t think I ever really appreciated the sense of rivalry that Allah mentions in the above verse (and elsewhere in the Qur’an), until very, very recently. I’m talking, the last two months or so. It sort of crept up over me, maybe because nearly every singleton in my life has suddenly gotten married, with other newly weds having babies, that I feel somewhat left behind in the personal life department.

A few years ago, I was on a quest to get married – but it was more like an adventure; one that I shared with friends and cousins. Alhamdulillah, one by one, my travelling companions left for the next stage of their journey, and we waved them off happily, so secure in our knowledge that we, too, would be moving ahead very soon.

Returning to the present, it seems that I am one of the few passengers left behind in the waiting room, wondering why my train is running so late. Shouldn’t it have been here by now? Did I miss it? Maybe I read the timetable wrong?

And worst of all, I’ve become one of them. You know… the ‘older’ unmarried women, that the younger unmarried women use to make themselves feel better: “Oh, at least I’m not as old as so-n-so”. They become so shocked when they hear my marital status combined with my age. That is, until they realize the expression of disapproval at their tactlessness on my face, and try to cover it up with: “Oh, it’ll happen soon, insha’Allah”. Yes, thank you. I feel totally reassured now.

Anyway, believe it or not, I’m not complaining about my fate. And if I did, I wouldn’t be complaining to you. Rather, I wanted to share how one’s perspective on the Qur’an changes with new life experiences. Now I actually feel the sting of rivalry in my heart from time to time. But the verse above reminds me of the bigger picture: it’s only a game, Mehzabeen. So be a good sport, and play it well.

Anyway, I don’t have much to say about it all. Partly because I was asked to film it, so I was too busy paying attention to my camera, to soak in much of anything. I can tell you that it was a very mature, rational discussion, masha’Allah; there wasn’t really any kind of ‘debate’ as such, as all the speakers pretty much agreed with one another (even though the panel consisted of Muslims and a non-Muslim, men and women – “Yey!” for social harmony).

However, one tidbit that made a lasting impression, was offered by the entertaining, yet informative, Imam Shahnawaz Haque (Psychotherapist, Teacher and Khatib), in response to an audience member asking why all the attention was being placed on the deficiencies of men – what about women’s deficiencies?

The imam reminded us not to play the ‘blame game’, but instead to take responsibility for our own actions; to look inward and improve ourselves before complaining about the faults of our spouse. To illustrate this, he referred to the following Qur’anic stories:

28 Behold! thy Lord said to the angels: “I am about to create man, from sounding clay from mud moulded into shape;
29 “When I have fashioned him (in due proportion) and breathed into him of My spirit, fall ye down in obeisance unto him.”
30 So the angels prostrated themselves, all of them together:
31 Not so Iblis: he refused to be among those who prostrated themselves.
32 ((Allah)) said: “O Iblis! what is your reason for not being among those who prostrated themselves?”
33 (Iblis) said: “I am not one to prostrate myself to man, whom Thou didst create from sounding clay, from mud moulded into shape.”
34 ((Allah)) said: “Then get thee out from here; for thou art rejected, accursed.
35 “And the curse shall be on thee till the day of Judgment.”
36 (Iblis) said: “O my Lord! give me then respite till the Day the (dead) are raised.”
37 ((Allah)) said: “Respite is granted thee
38 “Till the Day of the Time appointed.”
39 (Iblis) said: “O my Lord! because Thou hast put me in the wrong, I will make (wrong) fair-seeming to them on the earth, and I will put them all in the wrong,-
40 “Except Thy servants among them, sincere and purified (by Thy Grace).”

Surah 15: Al Hijr

19 “O Adam! dwell thou and thy wife in the Garden, and enjoy (its good things) as ye wish: but approach not this tree, or ye run into harm and transgression.”
20 Then began Satan to whisper suggestions to them, bringing openly before their minds all their shame that was hidden from them (before): he said: “Your Lord only forbade you this tree, lest ye should become angels or such beings as live for ever.”
21 And he swore to them both, that he was their sincere adviser.
22 So by deceit he brought about their fall: when they tasted of the tree, their shame became manifest to them, and they began to sew together the leaves of the garden over their bodies. And their Lord called unto them: “Did I not forbid you that tree, and tell you that Satan was an avowed enemy unto you?”
23 They said: “Our Lord! We have wronged our own souls: If thou forgive us not and bestow not upon us Thy Mercy, we shall certainly be lost.”

Surah 7: Al-Araf

Pay attention to the words in bold, as here lies a key difference between Iblis, the accursed, and our blessed ancestors, Adam and Eve (peace be upon them both): when Iblis messed up, he – out of sheer arrogance and ingratitude – blamed Allah, subhanahu wa ta’ala, for his own disobedience – and only a moment after Allah granted his request for respite! However, when Adam and Eve realized the error of their ways, they immediately took responsibility for their own incorrect action, and humbly begged Allah for forgiveness.

So, whose footsteps are we going to follow? The one who has been cursed until the Day of Resurrection, or those whom Allah forgave, and raised in status, to be the best of creation?

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I had never heard this explanation before, and it really brightened my day to have such well-known ayaat presented to me in a refreshingly new light. I pray that the lesson therein remains with me always… Ameen!

I’ll be extracting the audio from the event’s footage, and sending it to the organizers soon, insha’Allah. I’ll let you know if/when they decide to publish it.

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