Love Marriage & Fairytales : Islam

War, Racism and Islam

 

*Cover of Dam manga*

Assalamualaikum and peace to all of you :)

I have made a manga showing how today's war, violence, killing, terrorism and racism are contradicting with the teachings in Islam itself, especially in the Qur'an. 

This is including recent events of where our dearly beloved Prophet was insulted in a film; hence causing some Muslims to protest with violence; regardless of what the situation is, killing an innocent soul is still a SIN and NOT PERMITTED by Allah.

You can read it on deviantart:

http://iliani.deviantart.com/art/Dam-pg1-327321188

- Since there is mature content (contains violence/gore) so deviantart has a filter where only those who have an account on deviantart could view it. Just create an account to view my manga; it's free so don't worry :)

If you don't want to create an account, you can still read my manga at my website:

http://ilianimanga.webs.com/apps/photos/album?albumid=13963169

I am not here to say that anyone is 'WRONG' or that I am 'RIGHT'; I am just here to present what I have to offer, and the words and verses of the Qur'an itself. I leave your judgement to come in play once you have finished reading my manga :) 

God-willing, He is All-Knowing and the Most Merciful :)

Feel free to share my manga to anyone to spread awareness if you'd like. 

Thank you so very much and God bless :)

*I will be making a Malay/Bahasa Malaysia version of my manga insya-Allah. Will publish it once it is ready! :)**

Peace and Love,

Iliani <3 :=":" br="br">

Is It Too Late to Fast?

Assalamualaikum! :)

Ramadhan Mubarak everyone!! :D May all of us have a blessed Ramadhan, with lots of patience and courage to strive to do more good during this blessed month, where our rewards are increased many times more! :D

To those who are curious on why Muslims fast in the month of Ramadhan, or even to my fellow muslim brothers and sisters who wants to know more about why do we actually fast, feel free to read this comic at the link below:

http://iliani.deviantart.com/gallery/36356480#/d2z10un

 

*Cover of the Comic :)*

You can zoom the picture by clicking on the images, and you can proceed to the next page using the LEFT arrow key on your device :) (It's to the left because of error in uploading the pages properly, hence I apologize XD) 

This is a comic I made about two years ago for a competition :) but I think I gained more benefits of actually doing the research and making the comic, compared to trying to win the competition, Alhamdulillah! :)

So Enjoy! ;)

-Iliani :)

How To Love?

Another inspiring video for those who are seeking love :) insya-Allah, it will be a beneficial video for you as it has been for me :)

Assalamualaikum :)

Love or Addiction?

This video has answered a lot of my questions on love; how to love for the sake of Allah, how to recognize if your love is for the sake of Allah or not, how Istikharah actually works in contrary to popular beliefs, etc etc :)

Insya-Allah, it will be a very beneficial for everyone out there! Including those who are single, still looking, married, divorced and the list goes on :)

Assalamualaikum :)

Opah

 

*Opah on the right, Tok on the left smiling happily :)*

 

He was a principal of a school in Johor back in the days. Also a teacher definitely sometime in the pass.

Every Raya we would always return to Johor, Serkat in particular to celebrate it with Opah and Omah. Also with other relatives as well, which not all could I actually recall their names and faces. There are just too many of them. Especially when you have grandparents who were teachers; they had many many students coming over, also the whole village were very close with each other. They at least knew who their neighbor was, and hence adding to the confusion XD

Oh and to add to that, most people usually call their grandmother 'Opah', while somehow my siblings and cousins all call our grandfather 'Opah' instead and our grandmother 'Omah'; which some thought I was talking about my grandmother when I used the word opah XD 

Well going back to Johor was usually only during special occasions like Raya or weddings; sometimes for sad events like funerals and or when someone was critically ill.

There was this once when Opah got really2 sick, and he was admitted to the hospital for I think at least a few days. Papa stayed back to take care of Opah over the nights at the hospital. Opah had high blood pressure, diabetes and also a weak heart. I think he had a heart attack which caused him to go into the hospital. Doctors had even told us that we should expect the worst. But Alhamdulillah, Opah miraculously survived and was well after a tough battle :')

My weak memory doesn't allow me to remember the details, but I certainly do remember bits of memories here and there of me and Opah.

I remembered that when I was very young, Opah was taking us siblings around the village with his motorcycle. My siblings and I took turns to ride with him, and when it was my turn I was so very nervous. Hugging my Opah's large back from behind, he drove off slowly with me on his bike. It was definitely one of the most thrilling and exciting ride of my young life, though short, but so memorable :) 

I also remember him occasionally bringing us to his small farm or what we might call as 'kebun' in his huge backyard. There were certainly a lot of trees as it is a forest right behind his house XD there were chickens, chicken eggs and certainly lots and lots of trees :D There was this once where there were newly hatched chicks, and Opah helped us out to hold the little chicks and they were so adorable!! and very warm too to my surprise :) 

Since I am a well behaved-child (yes perasan sekejap :P) I seldom get any scolding from Opah. But I do remember once that I was playing with some of my younger cousins and relatives and they were very very noisy and we got a scolding from Opah XD

It has been a while since the last time I managed to go back to Johor every since I came to the States. It's because Raya was always during my Fall semester classes, which I do not have a chance but to 'skip' going back to Malaysia, celebrating there with family and relatives instead for my education. Alhamdulillah, celebrating Raya here with friends was a very new and fun experience which I will cherish :) however, I certainly do miss celebrating back in Malaysia, with my family, with Johor-ians.

Since then, I was only able to get news of them from my parents. Opah was indeed getting weaker by the day and years even though he managed to get well from the last time he was admitted to the hospital. He was eating a lot of medicine, and he and Omah had to live with my auntie living in Johor for her to keep a close eye on them.

I did go back to Malaysia during my Freshman and Junior year over the summer. But I think I only visited Opah and Omah once during my Freshman year I can't remember for what event (or maybe before I came to the states). I wasn't able to visit them during my junior year because I was back to do an internship in Negeri Sembilan, which really left me only the weekends to spend my time with family and close friends.

Before heading back to the States for my Fall classes, papa asked me to just give Opah and Omah a call, just to let them know I was heading back to the States. I did so and had a nice chat with Opah and Omah. Opah was being cheerful as usual, wishing me all the best in my studies and encouraged me to do my best. He also expressed a little bit of sadness that I wasn't able to visit him during that holidays, and was hoping to be able to see me graduate. But he said something like "entah sempat ke tak ye dapat tengok Yani abiskan belajar..":whether if he could make it to see me graduate. All I could say at that time was (well knowing the optimistic-me) was "insya-Allah, sempat je Opah tengok Yani abis blaja nanti ya."

I usually call my family once a week to keep in touch with them, and one of the calls was when mama told me "We are about to go back to Serkat dear, Opah just passed away." and papa unfortunately was away from home for work, but was on his way back on the very next flight as soon as possible.

*in the mosque/surau*

Alhamdulillah I got to know that Opah was safely buried, and the day was raining lightly; insya-Allah, it will be cooler for him down there.

 

*Prayers recited after the burial*

I was definitely devastated that I wasn't able to visit Opah before I went back to the States last year; I missed my chance to see him before he passed. 

Oh God, this is a tough piece for me to write. Please excuse my tears for a moment.

Of course, I cried after receiving the news, reminiscing on how I should have visited Opah one last time over my last summer. But, after thinking for some time, I think that it might have been better for me to not be able to see him for one last time before I went back. I guess Allah knew that had I been able to see Opah before he passed, I might have cried much more than this. Alhamdulillah, there is always a blessing in disguise no matter how bad the situation may seem to be if you have faith in Him :)

To add to that, I would always say to my friends who have lost their loved ones that we shouldn't be so sad for our loved ones who had passed; we should actually feel a little bit happy for them. This is because their challenges and pain of the temporary world has finally ended, and they have already found peace in the next life. They are one step CLOSER to meeting Allah, to meeting Rasulullah S.A.W. compared to us, still struggling in this world. Insya-Allah, when the day comes, they will also ascend to heaven and be able to meet Allah and Rasulullah S.A.W. :) 

And insya-Allah, we will be able to meet them again, in HEAVEN :) so we gotta work hard to be qualified to enter His paradise :)

Death, is something we shouldn't be afraid of, but something we should be looking forward to :) 

The day that we are free from our worldly affairs finally, and the day that we are one step closer to Allah and Muhammad pbuh. And hey, we could also finally meet the angel Gabriel/Jibril too! :) Wallahu'alam; only Allah knows the mysteries of the afterlife :)

And my dear Opah has gained his freedom from this world.

Wan Shamsuri bin Wan Abidin, I pray that all your sins will be forgiven and you would be within those who are righteous, and the solehin, insya-Allah. Amin :) 

Already missing you,

-Your granddaughter :') <3

What is College for?

My daughter called me last night to celebrate her news. "I got the job!" she said. "I'm going to be decorating cupcakes!"

I cheered. My daughter earned an honors degree in Natural Resources from a major university this past May. This is the happiest I've heard her sound in months.

You think that you know where this blog post is going: oh, no, another parent bemoaning the fact that our nation's newly minted college graduates can't find decent jobs! And why wouldn't you think that? New books like Slouching Toward Adulthood: Observations from the Not-So-Empty Nest are rolling off the presses daily to explain the "shocking truth" behind the fact that 5.9 million people between the ages of 25 and 35 are now living with their parents.

But you would be wrong. This is a very different rant.

My daughter is the poster child for why college matters. She went to a decent suburban high school, finished in the top quarter of her class, played varsity sports. Attending a state university allowed her to continue expanding her intellectual and social horizons. She worked closely with researchers in Natural Resources, learned Spanish, studied and worked abroad, explored electives that enriched her perspective. She continually added to her resume, too, always building toward her post-graduation dream of working as a scientist.

She did everything right, and lo and behold, the system worked. She landed a job with a West Coast environmental engineering company that paid her more money than she had ever dreamed of making right out of college. Hurray!

Slowly, though, things unraveled. My daughter loved living near San Francisco, but even on her hefty salary, she could only afford an apartment in a dire section of Oakland, which led to her being caught in the middle of a mini gang shootout. (She has a nasty bullet wound on her car to prove it.) Meanwhile, her spiffy new job bored her, and her bosses were often negative, even mean-spirited.

For months, she stuck it out. Her student loans were about to kick in and this job paid double what any of her friends were making, plus benefits. As time passed, though, my sunny girl grew more despondent. Every day, she dragged herself into work. And, every day, things didn't get better.

She started looking for work. In California, the unemployment rate is dire -- 11.3 percent, compared to 8.6 percent nationwide as of November 2011. One of her job interviews for a coffee company required four different interviews, plus test taking. My daughter got the job and was thrilled, especially because the position includes health benefits. But the pay was abysmal: minimum wage.

Did she really want to leave her posh job for minimum wage? How could she -- a driven student, a hard worker, a young woman who had always set goals and reached them -- possibly justify making that leap?

There wasn't any rational reason for her to quit. But there was every emotional reason to do so.

"Life is too short to be miserable for money," I told her finally. "Just quit. Take the barista job and figure out something else while you're making lattes."

I can hear the gasps of horror from most parents out there. How could I advise my daughter to join the ranks of the marginally employed, after our family invested so much into her college degree?

Easily. College, you see, is not really about preparing you for the job market. It's about gaining the knowledge and skills you need to seize opportunities -- and that includes knowing when to walk away from something that makes you unhappy.

There's a lot of talk these days -- well, all days, I suppose -- about what good it is to get a liberal arts degree, what majors are most likely to lead to the best-paid and most stable careers, and the importance of building your resume while you're in school so that you have an edge when it's time to enter the almighty job race.

That's all true, mostly. Obviously, you have to eat. But maybe the goal of college shouldn't be so closely linked to employment. Actual life isn't that different from the game of Life, in the sense that there's a point where at the start we all have to choose the college path or the career path. You can earn the same money either way, and the same good (or bad) spins on the dial can send you into a tailspin of debt or misery: illness, accidents, divorce, tornadoes taking your house. College is no guarantee that you'll be rich, or even middle class. In fact, there are some arguments that suggest technical training is a better bang for the buck.

(A handy example: my younger brother never finished his four-year college degree, yet he makes ten times more money than my other brother and I do, and we both have master's degrees.)

College, if you're lucky enough to get there, is really about figuring out your friends and your values as well as your dreams for the future. Nobody -- well, almost nobody -- finds a top-paying position right out of college. Most of us have to pay our dues and climb a dozen different career ladders before we find one that has rungs we can reach -- and a place at the top with a view that suits us. If you land that seemingly "perfect" job with a salary worth boasting about, but then you hate it and are afraid to quit, your wings are clipped. That "safe" job will kill your creativity, drown your enthusiasm, and smother your ability to get up in the morning with a bounce in your step. Why stay?

The answer most people give is "fear." We've all heard the unemployment statistics.

But let's turn those around. The unemployment rate is high -- even upwards of 12 percent in certain U.S. cities. But that means that 88 percent of people have jobs. Can they make a living on their wages? That depends on how you define a "living." Maybe you don't need a new car, or a car at all. Maybe you can find a seasonal rental or roommates.

Jobs are like college courses. Each one you take teaches you a set of new skills and offers a fresh perspective on life. They aren't meant to be permanent, most of them. They are only stepping stones.

In my daughter's case, the barista job led her to have enough free hours to do what she really loves: draw comics. She's thinking about publishing her comics online. In her free time, she also happened to stop by a new gourmet cupcake store, where she chatted with the enthusiastic owner and was hired to decorate cupcakes and work the counter. Again, it's not much money, but combined with the coffee place, it's enough for her to scrape by. Meanwhile, she has moved out of Oakland and into an affordable room in a house near the beach in Santa Cruz. She's happily experimenting with cupcake flavors and thinking about helping this new business owner with social media and marketing. She is learning something new every day. Life is good.

When you quit a job, any job, it can be terrifying. But it's also exhilarating, as you open yourself to new possibilities. So go ahead. Take the risk. Quit that job, if you hate it. You might surprise yourself.

Holly Robinson: Why I told my daughter to quit her job

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/blackberry/p.html?id=1211880

*I completely admire this lady who understands her daughter, and even encourages her to take such a courageous step to quit her high-paying and stable job. Yes, life is too short to be just going after the money.

This is the main reason why I decided not to take up masters in my major 3 years ago. I realized that this is not what I want my life to be about. Insya-Allah, I am going to do what He has made me to do :) What I am good at, what I am passionate about, and make a change in this world. Insya-Allah! :)

I was also fortunate enough to try working in a lab environment last summer. Everyone there were great people and they were very kind and helpful to teach me new knowledge :) but in the end, I do find myself not 'looking forward' to go to the lab everyday; I realized I do not want to do this for the rest of my life. I am meant to do something more meaningful than this, insya-Allah :)

*though my actions may be little, but I know even the smallest things matters, and could possibly one day, change the world :)*