June Update | True Friends & Ramadan
Hello everyone! I hope you’re all doing well. The month of June has been
over-all a much needed wind-down from University and on the whole it has been
wonderful. I want to start this post by kinda redefining what ‘update’ or ‘catch-ups’ are here on TBG. Sometimes I’ll have had a really busy month, and it’ll just be the highlights in a few photos and words. More often than not however, it’s a little glimpse into non-beauty related things in my life and a chance for me to just pour out my thoughts out into a post and be a bit reflective once a month. If it’s not your cuppa tea then I have loads and loads of beauty posts to read instead, but if you do stay and read please do drop me a comment, they’re some of my favourites to read ^_^
Anyways no beautiful flower pictures this month (sadly I broke my memory stick and since my new one has arrived I haven’t had time to hunt down beautiful flowers.) SO I thought I would show you my brand new phone-case instead, pictured on the left HOW CUTE IS IT?!? JFBSFBFEU. It was less than two pounds and the illustration has me going all *heart-eyed emoji* everytime I look at it! Also as much as I loved the glitz and glamour of the gold case, it was rather bulky and not that comfortable to hold due to the size of the phone. This one is soft and though I’ve only had it for a day, I’m already enjoying it more (plus it protects the whole phone). The link is here if you’re interested and they have so many beautiful designs to choose from with bargain prices – highly recommend!
As I was finally off Uni I spent the beginning of the month working a couple of
extra shifts and having catch-ups with my best-friends who are all either living
away from home for Uni, or working full time. I read this tweet about ‘low
maintenance’ friends and it was basically about having those friends who you
don’t have to talk to for months because you’re living your lives, doing what
you need to do, but when you do meet up its nothing but love. I don’t know if
it’s an age thing or if I’m just blessed, but all my close friends (I can count
them on one hand) have this friendship with me, which I feel really relieved
about. Those people who, when you meet them it’s like you were only with them a
few days ago despite it being MONTHS since you last saw them sometimes. I’m not the best at keeping in contact and in some ways quite introverted so it’s just awesome knowing that those who really matter understand that life has to continue – and when we do see one another it’s just so special! ^_^ Good food and
great company is the recipe for a perfect summers day.
Mid-month I took quite a big fall and ended up with bruised legs and cuts to
match, on my feet and hand too. It was one of those W U T moments because as
clumsy as I can be, I haven’t fallen over and actually cut myself like that in
at least 10 years! Thankfully I recovered within a week or two, but it was a
reminder to me about how weak we are, I mean one fall and I was bed bound for
two days and wondering why I wasn’t more grateful for the ability to walk before
this happened. Not a huge event in life, but sometimes it’s the little things
that really make you realise what you have! Alhamdulillah (Thank God.)
On the 18th of June Ramadan began, which as you probably know is one of the
most spiritual and beautiful months in the Islamic calendar. These are pretty
much the longest fasts we will ever do, as Ramadan moves forwards 10 days
annually, however despite the length of the fast, it has been absolutely fine.
The older I get, the more I understand about my religion and the more I
appreciate it. Ramadan is not simply a time of no food and drink during daylight
hours, it is a time to build our connection with God, to detatch ourselves from
the world by cutting out or reducing T.V, Music etc. and to just focus on the
beauty of the month.
Ramadan is also the month in which the Holy Quran was revealed to our Prophet
(saw) – an abbreviation for a term of respect. So most Muslims try to
read and engage with the Quran more. Personally I have a goal of completing the
Quran in both Arabic and English and I have found the Quran
Explorer app incredibly useful so far. I already had a English and
Arabic Quran and I checked the translations between the app and the Quran and
found them to be practically the same so I listen to the Arabic whilst reading
along and when I’ve read a section I will scroll up on the app and read the
English. Of course it is impossible to capture the true essence of every line by
yourself using just an English translation, there are scholars who have spent
their whole lives dedicated to explaining each verse in the most comprehendible
way in other languages aside from Arabic. However you can easily see the
under-lying meaning and I cannot express how emotional it makes me, I feel as
though Allah is having a conversation with me and it never fails to astound me
how these words which were sent down hundreds of years ago, are still very much
relevant and applicable to modern day society. I’ve also loved the Ramadan Legacy app! Highly recommend you downloading it if you want to have a more productive month, you can set goals, keep track of prayers and they have daily duas, hadeeths and ayahs too!
As you can tell this is an
important part of my life and I do sometimes feel a tad apprehensive about
discussing Islam on my blog due to the terrible perception most non-Muslims are
fed through the media. However recently a lovely girl replied to one of my
tweets about Ramadan and it really touched my heart because she said how nice it
was to see someone proud of their religion and I realised that by just being
myself, and adding a little bit of Islam here and there on twitter it didn’t
make me a preacher or annoying, it showed me for who I am and really didn’t
bother anybody. With that in mind I’d like to take the opportunity to say that
if there is something you don’t understand or a misconception you have read or
heard and would like to ask me about it,please feel free to do so. If I am now
knowledgeable enough to answer I’ll ask someone who is, and no this is not
becoming a religion blog, I just want to make it clear that I’d rather be asked
slightly different/awkward questions and be able to clear up some of
the negativity that surrounds Muslims, than be seen as unapproachable and leave anyone believing the rubbish that the media spews out.
If you got to the end of this post, then well done you *hands out Galaxy
cookie crumbles for everyone*