It feels surreal to think that we will be celebrating Ramadhan next week, inshaAllah. I will be spending the first half of this holy month with my family in Kota Kinabalu. My younger sister is still on her maternity leave, so I must settle few work-related tasks before reaching the deadlines. Despite the hectic schedule, it doesn’t kill my spirit of getting the house ready for Ramadhan. So, in this post, I will be sharing few things that I bought recently for our home and for myself, as well as my plans for this upcoming Ramadhan.
For a start, last year around August, I bought a Magnolia book stand from @heas.my. It was a pre-order one, so I had to wait a couple of months for it to arrive. Since I am a fan of Joanna Gaines, I wanted to have something from the Magnolia Home for my kitchen. I thought the book stand would be perfect. The parcel arrived around December last year, and as soon as I have it on my hands, I immediately went book shopping on Amazon. To add the cherry on top, I ordered the Magnolia Table book directly from the United States. It took a couple of weeks to arrive in Malaysia.
I also redecorated the kitchen a little bit. Honestly, I feel like something is still missing though, but this will do for now. The one thing I regret we didn’t do was adding a kitchen island. Before renovating the house, Zaid and I had a conversation about having an island in our kitchen. There were no kitchen cabinets at that time so we couldn’t picture the size and space post renovation. When the kitchen was done, I realized that we have more than enough space to build an island. I was considering of hiring a contractor to do the job, but since we have moved in and already have plenty of stuff in the house, I decided to change my mind. So lately, I have been eyeing on a kitchen island from Ikea. I’m thinking, having this kitchen island would make my cooking task a lot easier.
For myself, I recently purchased the Luna Abaya and Eman Tunic from Duck’s latest Ramadhan Collection. There is a story behind this purchase, and it has caused me an emotional breakdown afterwards. When it comes to spending, sometimes I do splurge on expensive stuff. But usually, it is done intentionally, not impulsively. If I want to spend my money on something expensive, I will plan first before purchasing it, because I hate the aftereffect of impulse buying. Now, what happened was, I did exactly that with these two dresses from Duck. Suddenly, I lost all the rationality in me because I was afraid that these dresses would be sold in the blink of an eye. I guess you can call that panic buying too. That night I couldn’t sleep. I was so mad at myself. Then to ease my mind, I contacted the Duck team to cancel my order but unfortunately, the parcel was already shipped before my email was answered. So, that is another lesson learned. But jokes aside, the dresses are beautiful. If you are considering buying, then you should. In my opinion, with that kind of material used, it is definitely worth the price.
This year, I am aiming to complete the Quran again as I did last year. InshaAllah. To be able to achieve this, we have to read five pages the least after every prayer. So, that would give us a total of 25 pages in a day. As a start, you can read two pages before prayer, and another three after that, or vice versa. Whatever suits you, really. I want to focus on bettering myself spiritually this Ramadhan. It is challenging but that is because Jannah is expensive. I hope I could make the most out of this Ramadhan.
Whoever feeds a fasting person will have a reward like that of the fasting person, without any reduction in his reward.(Al-Tirmidhi)
Every year, my family likes to treat each other iftar especially my parents. I’ve learned this good habit from them, mashaAllah, may Allah reward them. But of course, because of Allah Taala. May Allah accept all our good deeds. Last year, I wasn’t too keen on shopping for Eid because I was very determined to focus on my ibadah, and I think this Ramadhan will be the same too. What has been happening in Palestine changes me on the inside. I feel like this time, this Ramadhan will be a lot different. Each fast will remind us of our brothers and sisters in Palestine.
Honestly, I was not doing well mentally October last year. The news about Gaza hit me hard. I cried almost every night before sleep, to a point where I felt so helpless. It took a whole lot of me to regain my energy and focus so that I can continue with my daily routine. Now, I am taking it one step at a time. I am still reposting updates about Palestine for awareness. But there are times where my mind cannot handle seeing the disturbing images on social media anymore. This experience makes me appreciate my faith even more. When we feel helpless, we are not hopeless, because we have Allah to rely on. My plan now is to continuously reposting updates about them, and recite Qunut Nazilah. If you are a Muslim, please practice this after every prayer. I am thinking of writing another post on Palestine soon, inshaAllah.
If you are celebrating Ramadhan, I would like to take this opportunity to wish you Ramadhan Mubarak in advance. May Allah make this Ramadhan the turning point of our lives, break us free from the deceptions of this world, and indulge us into the sweetness of imaan.
