THE RADIANT MUSLIM

As humans, we are given a tremendous amount of power.
 

We have this power because we were given free will.
 

Although everything has been predestined for us, how we choose to react has been left to us.
 

It is how we are tested. It is how we are judged.
 

I used to be rather arrogant being an atheist and thinking that I knew everything that needs to be known about the world. Even if I didn’t have the knowledge in my head, I knew I had it at my fingertips...

One of the most unforgettable nights we had together was when I was pregnant and sleeping at my parents’ place. We didn’t have a room there so we had the move the coffee table in the living room to make space for 2 mattresses to be placed side by side.

There wasn’t any aircon but we had 3 fans pointed at us; 1 ceiling fan, 1 standing fan, 1 wall fan. Getting ready for bed meant adjusting the oscillation of the fans for optimal wind flow. “Can feel? O...

First night of terawih and we’re not at the mosque.
 

Just as it was last year, the whole of Aizat’s family travelled to their grandma’s for terawih prayers in her home.

It wasn’t like that the years before that.
 

In the years before that, we would always have to rush through our iftar, perform our mahgrib prayers, ensure our ablutions are intact before rushing off to Aleem Siddique for terawih. It didn’t matter than it was a 20 minute drive away. My fa...

My Ah ma has left us.
 

I've always written about how my father has been so open-minded and non-judgmental in my conversion to Islam. He probably got that from my Ah ma.
 

Many years ago, my uncle converted to Christianity and held his wedding in a church. My grandfather refused to attend it and ordered her to do the same. But she just gave him the biggest eye roll and attended the wedding to give her son her blessings anyway. To her, as long as her chi...

There are people who abhor the notion of converting for the sake of marriages. Whether or not the party who converted truly believes in his/her new faith isn't relevant here; If it was voluntary and a personal choice, great. If not, that's another issue altogether.
 

The bottom line is that these people simply do not believe that two people have to be of the same faith in order to get married. That it is far from the epitome of racial harmony...

This is the continuation to an earlier post of the same title where we explored certain verses in the Qur'an which appears to have been validated by modern science.

While that post focused on scientific miracles relating to the Universe and Creation, this post will explore further Signs in the Qur'an relating to the field of geography.

1. Mountains

The Qur'an draws attention to several important geological functions of mountains that were discovered...

I've always wanted to be scientist. My father and I would always have so much fun dreaming and visualizing about how I would change the world and be featured in TIME magazine's Person of the Year. We would think about how to present our story - my childhood, my parents, our challenges, my influences and journey - to make it sound as inspiring and magical as we possibly could.

All the way up till my third year in University, I was dead sure...

Today I prayed my first Asar prayer in 40 days.
 

Dealing with the birth of my baby, Masha, was challenging to say the least. For awhile, I was just existing as a nebulous cloud of hormones, emotions, and pain; utterly overwhelmed by what motherhood entails.
 

So, a break from prayers, and in my case, Ramadhan, was initially a relief for me. But when I started seeing posts on social media of how magical Ramadhan has been for some, how emotional terawih ...

This is a follow-up to the post 'My journey in science and religion' where I discussed the evolution of my religious beliefs since I was a child. We ended off that post with my interest in Islam being sparked after a conversation with my husband. I was then posed with a dilemma: Science or Religion? Surely they were incompatible; there were scholars who made a living and a career out of debating against one or the other. As a science student who worsh...

At the beginning
 

I was born into a family that was not too religious. My grandmother was Buddhist so that was what we practiced at home – burning joss sticks, joss papers, praying in front of the altar etc.
 

I would tag along whenever my parents were instructed by my grandmother to make offerings at temples and during the Hungry Ghost Festival. They identified more as freethinkers and practiced Buddhism in our home mainly on behalf on my grandmother...

Few years ago, a mailman arrived and dumped a gigantic parcel on my door step.
 

"I didn't order this!"
"Is this your address?"
"Ya."
"Then it's yours."
"Huh? It must be a mistake. I never ordered this!"
"Just doing my job, please sign here ma'am."
 

And I was left with the huge parcel at my door.
 

I gingerly peeled open a corner of it and a human emerged. He was quite short and plumpy with slight curls in his hair. He had a genuine smile and a big hear...

This happened in the Ramadhan of 2015, just after I converted.
 

I was extremely grouchy on this day for 3 reasons:

- Aizat told me that the mosque we were going to had no aircon

- Aizat and I were supposed to have our iftar at a Pasar Malam but he changed our plan at the very last minute to meet at Orchard instead (and I hate Orchard)

- I was craving for vadai (vegetable fritters) to break fast with but again, we were in the middle of Orchard (Aizat stil...

Whenever someone converts to another religion, a lot of assumptions will be made on the circumstances that surrounds the conversion. Was it for love? Was it just to get married?
 

Don't convert for marriage
 

Or to be with someone you love.
 

I've read many comments that assumed that I converted to Islam just to marry my husband. Or that I was forced to convert.
 

I believe that most people (my parents included) have this perception that Islam is one of...

This has been sitting in my draft for the longest time. I initially had the idea of writing this because there appears to be a lot of assumptions being made on the circumstances that surrounded my conversion. So here goes!
 

Not a lot of people know about this but I was pretty unhappy few years back, after I graduated from university. I would have sudden panic attacks where I would be paranoid about my parents meeting harm. One incident was particularl...

This is my grandmother-in-law, in all her cuteness. 

This is the story of her journey to Umrah. And how she did it with two broken feet.
 

An invitation to the Holy Land
 

When she heard that Aizat and his family were planning a trip to Umrah, she wanted to be a part of it. It has been decades since her last Hajj and she was really hoping to return to the Holy Land.
 

Of course, everyone wanted to be supportive and get her there, but there were concerns....