From My Collection of Favourite Quotes

"Keep on knocking
'til the joy inside
opens a window
look to see who's there"
-Rumi-

The Feeling of Importance

According to the ‘Big secret of dealing with people’, in Dale Carnegie’s book ‘How to Win Friends and Influence People’, there is only one way to get anybody to do anything and that is to make that person want to do it.

It all ultimately comes down to people wanting to be important.

How hard these people try, and to what lengths they strive to reach their goal: Importance. This book gives countless examples of people in history.

How much research did Dale Carnegie go through to come to this conclusion?

Take this from Mr Carnegie’s book:

“Lincoln once began a letter by saying, ‘everybody likes a compliment.’ And William James said, ‘The deepest principle in human nature is the craving to be appreciated.’”

And I, without even finish reading this chapter wasn’t surprised.

Why?

Islam already gave it to us on a silver platter more that 1400 years ago, by telling us:

Allah (swt) Lord of the whole universe, He is Al-Shakour ‘The Most-Appreciative.’

“And never is your Lord forgetful…” (Qur’an, 19:64)

If Allah (God) is appreciative of our good deeds than who are we? Because God is independent of man, he does not need to be appreciative of our good deeds, but he is.

Not forgetting, and being appreciative, all but sums up where Humans lack. These two qualities if humans adopt with each other, will definitely instill a feeling of ‘Importance’in one another.

And again on the topic of importance, Dale Carnegie says, ‘this desire makes you want to wear the latest styles, drive the latest cars, and talk about your brilliant children.’

Allah (God) told us in the Quran regarding the phases of man in Surah Hadeed (57): Verse 20.

‘Know that the life of this world is nothing but play and pastime, and adornment, and boasting amongst yourselves, and the desire to surpass each other in wealth and children...’

This verse is so great, that human’s entire life, is portioned into 5 distinct phases:

— When you were a child, all that mattered was play

— As you grew into adolescence, just hanging around and wasting time in useless pursuits was everything in life

— As you became a teenager, and entered early manhood,
looking good and adorning yourself took center-stage

— Then came the stage when boasting of achievements in
career and business was commonplace

— As you grew older, your main concern was to rival others in

wealth; and gloat over the achievements of your children

Everything is there in Islam.
We just have to learn 'where' to look, and its a Beautiful journey.

Arabian Nights

I came across this selection of Arabian Nights.
Although the one I have is in hardcover, with a much greater selection,
including the full introduction of the Arabian Nights stories and Princess Shahrazad.

http://www.scribd.com/fullscreen/65111134?access_key=key-22htklt8u8ooefaftoh5

The Qolşärif mosque - Ruusia

Look at this beautiful mosque in Kazan Russia.
Supposedly the largest mosque in Europe excluding, Turkey, of course.

"Although the present mosque was completed in 1996, it was based on the design of the original mosque built by the Qolşärif, or religious leader, who served there in the 16th century. The Qolşärif was martyred along with his students when the city of Kazan was invaded by Russian forces led by Ivan the Terrible in 1552."
It has quite a history too from the little that I've read on wikipedia.
Sadly, it seems that this mosque is not being used as a mosque at the moment, but more of a museum......

Some more pictures of the mosque at night and in the day illuminating the city.

I would love to visit this Qolşärif Mosque one day, Insha Allah.

Blue Monday's Window (I wish)

Your Wondeful Brain

A new start....sort of

Ramadhan is over, and Eid is over.

Get back to square 1!

Yes. But now for us, its not that depressing with the whole 'moving' and all.

Only I wish it was to a nicer place, a larger space place, you know?

Where I could have a greater window to open...