Characteristics of a Muslim Husband

A good friend of mine sent me this a few weeks back via e-mail but I only manage to read it today. Enjoy!

No one ever thinks about the characteristics of a Muslim husband. It is always what a wife should do for the husband...and the list never ends; home management, tutoring, ferrying the kids, caring, cooking, cleaning, washing, working, you name it, she is doing it. so what about the brothers?
Our beloved Prophet SAW was not like this. So,why the men of this ummah? It is quite interesting. so I thought I'd share it with you !!! What a Muslim husband should be like...
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1. Dress up for your wife, look clean and smell good. When was the last time you went shopping for designer pyjamas? Just like the husband wants his wife to look nice for him, she also wants her husband to dress up for her too. Remember that the Prophet (PBUH) would always start with Miswak when returning home and always loved the sweetest smells.
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2. Use the best names for your wife. Call your wife by the most beloved names to her, and avoid using names that hurt their feelings.
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3. Don't treat her like a fly. We never think about a fly in our daily lives until it 'bugs' us. Similarly, a wife will do well all day - which brings no attention from the husband - until she does something to 'bug' him.. Don't treat her like this; recognize all the good that she does and focus on that.
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4. If you see wrong from your wife, try being silent and do not comment!
This is one of the ways the Prophet (PBUH) used when he would see something inappropriate from his wives (R.A). It's a technique that few Muslim men have mastered.
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5. Smile at your wife whenever you see her and embrace her often. Smiling is Sadaqah and your wife is not exempt from the Muslim Ummah. Imagine life with her constantly seeing you smiling.Remember also those Ahadith when the Prophet (PBUH) would kiss his wife before leaving for Salaah, even when he was fasting.
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6. Thank her for all that she does for you. Then thank her again! Take for example a dinner at your house. She makes the food, cleans the home, and a dozen other tasks to prepare. And sometimes the only acknowledgment she receives is that there needed to be more salt in the soup. Don't let that be; thank her!
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7. Ask her to write down the last ten things you did for her that made her happy. Then go and do them again. It may be hard to recognize what gives your wife pleasure. You don't have to play a guessing game, ask her and work on repeating those times in your life.
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8. Don't belittle her desires. Comfort her. Sometimes the men may look down upon the requests of their wives. The Prophet (PBUH) set the example for us in an incident when Safiyyah (R.A) was crying because, as she said, he had put her on a slow camel. He wiped her tears, comforted her, and brought her the camel.
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9. Be humorous and play games with your wife. Look at how the Prophet (PBUH) would race with his wife Aisha (R.A) in the desert. When was the last time we did something like that?

10. Always remember the words of Allah's Messenger (PBUH): 'The best of you are those who treat their families the best. And I am the best amongst you to my family.' Try to be the best!
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In conclusion: Never forget to make Doa to Allah - ta'ala to make your marriage successful. And Allah ta'ala knows best!

The New Year

Everything seems to be getting back on track...im back to work, 'playing' thru the hours with the kids at school, kept reviewing the lesson plans and 'entertaining' the newbie parents at school.

Shadiq in K1 now and already I'm panicking...he got English and Malay spelling next week, juz got the list today. Its five words per day, each word around 3 to 5 letters. And already I am stressing myself whether I should push him to pass everything or let everything slide as per normal, letting him progress at his own pace...Herman flipped over the spelling list, saying its too early and whatever complains....I bought a few exercise books, made him write and spell the words until he groans in frustration....then it got me thinking, "Why am I so kanciong? Let him try and if he doesnt get it, its okay. He will get there someday." I close the books and told him to play....'sigh' Baru K1 I already kanciong like what and me being a preschool teacher should know better, what a role model. Just gonna make him write and spell a few words at a time, he will get there someday.

Siddiq is really into exploring. Exploring includes opening cupboards and throwing out its contents, digging out the pots and pans in the kitchen, anything within his reach will have its contents spilled out or put in his mouth.

Something in My Mind..

Cant sleep, no matter how I toss and turn in bed, trying to count sheep and watching tv, hearing the kids snoring in their sleep, but still wide awake. Something in my head, thinking about it over and over again. Cant blank it out no matter how hard I try. Maybe tried too hard, thats why I am here typing my blog post while others are asleep....

Yesterday, I slept at 1am coz (gulp!) I played the Xbox...no surprise here, I do it sometimes, not really a gamer girl, juz do it when I am totally bored..tried the Xbox live and downloaded some demo games for Shadiq (more for me!) and Herman... I let Shadiq try out the games today, he love it and played nearly 3 hours straight until I had to scream at him to stop. I got dizzy after playing for an hour so I sure dont know how he can do it without stopping....anyway he only get to play the Xbox when Herman is around which is like maybe once or twice a month kind of thing. I am like so laazzyyy to plug the thing in and I can like get so easily addicted to playing games and stuffs so try not to do it....but I lucked out this time coz Shadiq knew I can do it so....he will whine and groan about it, usually I use the excuse of not knowing how to play so cant use that excuse now.

Still dont feel sleepy though my eyes feel kind of heavy...but something still stuck there at the back of my mind....

Photos Galore

Okay finally I got the time to upload the photos..school hols starting from now, just for two weeks then I got to get back to school for the last two weeks of the hols...'sigh' better than nothing, rite? Anyway rumours are going round that from next year onwards, we are only getting 18days leave. So enjoy it while it last.

Oh the pics are like a half-year accumulation so maybe there will be a bit of this and that...like puzzle pieces you know...shows how lazy I can be.

Shadiq and Siddiq - part 1

Something wrong with my memory card, cant upload the photos...anyway will try again soon..when I have the time...
To recap whats up the last few weeks:

1) We celebrated big bro's birthday on the 7th of November 2009 (Saturday). Didnt do much except for the normal cake-cutting, sing-a-long birthday song and makan-makan. Big bro was so shy..he didnt really like being in the spotlight and lil bro suddenly got all jealous and make a lot of fuss. He didnt like the idea of big bro sitting on ibu's lap. He got toy trucks and a toy gun as birthday presents. I got for him unifix cubes. Herman got for him an F1 race car (two weeks later).

2) Our toilet went through 3-days of renovation coz of ceiling and pipe leaks. Got to stay over at my mum's and Shadiq kept saying that the toilet got "pacah". His spoken malay is really bad, so pelat...and there are times when I cant understand what he is trying to tell me in Malay...He is so much better when he speaks in English. I try so hard not to laugh when he speak to me in Malay coz he will get all embarrased and angry. Let me give you an example :
"Ibu toilet pacah. Takda water and toilet so dirty. How abang nak kancing?" (read this as you read melayu baku)

3) The lil bro is into the walking and shouting mode. He will walk around the house and if you leave the gate open, he will walk right out to anywhere and everywhere. He shouts a lot too especially when big bro irritates him. Big bro love to tease the small one and laugh whenever the small one shouts at him. I find it all so annoying coz lil bro can really shout and cry to bring the house down. Nowadays he is so much fiercer like throwing toys or beat his big bro whenever he got annoyed. End up in a fighting match. They can be such little angels when we bring them out coz they sure know how to behave outside but in their own domain, they really rule over everyone with their shoutings, climbing over chairs, jumping on beds and fighting. And the lil bro is so clingy to me, I cant even go to the toilet sometimes without him sitting outside crying for me...

I guess that's about it..oh, Herman is already serving his six-months training with SPF and he sure is hard on it. Starting to lose his paunch and proudly showing off his muscles to me...Got to go now, lil bro is being his annoying self again, being all-clingy to me.

Rights of a Wife

Somebody sent me this via my e-mail with this message:-
We all think Romeo & Juliet is the greatest love story we've ever heard. But why? They tried to marry without their parents permission and ended up committing suicide. We should not look at their example as OUR example. Our example is the single most perfect person in history. Our beloved Prophet(peace be upon him) and the way he loved Khadija(ra) is the example we should be proud of and look up to. Watch this absolutely amazing and emotional video and it will bring a tear to your eye. This is the greatest love story ever.

Dedicated to all the ibus, mamas, mummies, emaks and wifeys out there...
Note to hubbies : Bring your wife out after watching this, hahaha!

The Zoo Trip, Health and Ghosts!

Okay I have been like soooo buuuuzzzzyyyy to update and by the time I sit in front of the computer, I am like so wiped out at the end of the day.

Okay where should I start? Last Sunday we went to the zoo. Kesian si abang Shadiq, merengek nak tengok the 'birds' 'elephants' 'tigers' and 'dinosaurs' (the dinosaur not so sure...) so bila sampai je kat zoo, he was like jumping and running everywhere. We rented the trolley so that we could put both bros in it. Abang was so damn excited and adik juz look like "whatz-all-the-fuss-about" kind of face. He pointed and called out to all the animals, describing their features and the sounds they make, though I not so sure elephants should be 'mooo'...I pointed out the animals to adik as well but he juz look at me, look at the animals and just yawn, sigh... Adik slept after just half an hour but big bro lasted through nearly the entire trip, finishing at kidzworld where he swam and played with the water. After that, we went cruisin' around the rented car that my father-in-law drive.

Me, I was like so busy with National day parades, dinners and school concert preparation so feel like so zombified (whatever that means!)....Herman is so into health these days, taking great care of his diet and going for daily exercises (cycling mostly)...wanted to get rid of his paunch and double chin, intending to lose more weight and keep his fitness up.

Then recently I had this funny and maybe eerie story in school. This kid got a scolding from me coz she did not want to do her schoolwork and lied that she had a tummy ache. I believed her initially and told her to rest. But she played around and disturbed her other classmates who are doing their work. So she got a good scolding from me. She cried to her mummy and told her mummy that she didnt want to go to school. She told her mummy that she didnt like me coz I scold her. Her mummy said okay and told me about it. I told her why and her mum agreed that she had always been quite lazy and always gave excuses not to do her work. The next few days, she still cried to school and this time she told her mummy that she saw ghosts in school.
Wow! Her mummy was on red alert and believe or not, her mother actually placed sweets around the school to so called appease the spirits. My principal got a shock of her life to see all the sweets around the centre.
And she did this for nearly a week until my principal had to talk to her about it coz the other kids actually picked up the sweets after she left and we had to remove them....She agreed but then the next day, we saw her praying outside the centre! With joss sticks and burning hell money, it was really eerie to see her like that... In fact, the girl whenever she came to school, juz cried for a few minutes and stopped after that, playing happily and doing her work. So if you ask me it is just excuses and children sure know where to 'strike' their parent's weakest point. Their family is like very involved in this spiritual matters so they actually believed this kind of story. I had like nearly 100 children in school and they range from two and a half years to six years so dont tell me out of so many only one child can see it...not that I dont believe in ghosts, but I can differentiate an excuse and a truth from a child.
Then today, her mother gave us roti prata to eat which me and my principal is very suspicious of...You never know what they will do right so we didnt eat it but gave it away to somebody else...People sure are weird and even crazy!