Sahar's SURPRISE Bridal Shower Cruiseeee!

Sunday... we had Sahar's surprise Bridal Shower... and we totally got her! She totally didn't see it coming!! (She thought she was jus gonna have brunch with her sis and Seema) Good job Ladies :) Everybody managed to keep it under wraps... altho she was starting to get suspicious earlier in the day. Getting outta halaqa was the toughest part.. cuz she was there also.. and me and Maddy were a lil overdressed for Halaqa (we were hoping she wouldn't notice) and then we had to jet a lil early so we could get to Harbourfront before her. It totally didn't help that it was raining... and our excuse was getting trampled on with every passing second.. thanx Nadia... but we managed to escape and make our way down to the Harbourfront. We subwayed it down... and alhumdalillah we made it... i sooo thought we'd get lost or something... but we did it! Met Shiney & Bushra on the docks. We were all soooo hungry... saving our appetites for the Brunch on board.

So finally Sahar & them show up... and she wouldn't sit still... so finally we jumped out and surprised her! She's sooo cute mash'Allah... she stood there for a good 5 minutes just dumbfounded... gotta love her! The cruise was amazinggggg... man these girls jus keep coming up with better and better ideas for Bridal Showers... limos, niagara, cruises... mine had better be exciting too! The funniest thing happend... there was this other group of desi girls on the cruise for a bridal shower too... what a coincidence! They were hilarious... they had this crazy scavenger hunt thing... where they were going up to random ppl and proposing and stuff. Food was awesome... all that time at the gym literally went down the drain... but 'twas worth it. The scenery was amazing... the Toronto skyline... weather turned out to be gorgeous... danceoffs (go Katieee!) ... ninjaness... serenades... romantic poses...the lower deck... the QUIZ!! That MM and MJ question... was soooo whack.. i still can't believe my bro answered it... she got 9 of 16 correct... not bad... my bro was buggin the hell out of me all week wanting to know how she did.. lol... and i don't normally get opportunities to bug him like that.. so i refused to tell him.. until yesterday, at which point i was completely annoyed out of my mind. Then we headed over to Seema's for some good ol' fashioned Bridal Shower festivities... and opening of presents... Sahar's fave part!! Hope you had a great time Sahar... we all definitely did! 7 weeks to go, inshAllah!!!

Follow up on FTS

Feed the Streets went amazing, Mash'Allah!! Everything went according to schedule (for once!), the weather was arite.. pretty cold in the morn.. but decent, rounded up a good number of people.

Jazakallahu Khairan to all of you that came out today to distribute food and to all of you that prepared food and made donations :) Especially, for getting there on time on a Saturday morning.. I know it was hard... one of the rare morns we get to sleep in... but take comfort in knowing you sacrificed it for a greater cause (insh'Allah)!

We scoured the streets of Toronto for a good 2 hours. There were a lil change in plans... we decided to hit other areas of TO today... instead of the Jarvis/Gerrard area. Alhumdalillah... by 1:00 the food was done. Took a lil more effort this time, as it was morning but all worked out. I had a great time guys... but I know I'll def be feelin it in my legs tomorrow! In the words of Azfar.. "khair".. life goes on.

Next FEED THE STREETS is scheduled for Sunday, October 23rd insh'Allah... will keep y'all posted. Hope to see more of y'all out next time... I was thinking of hitting an area in Mississauga or something next time... will look into it.

One Ummah's Hurricane Katrina Fundraiser BBQ -- this Sunday!

Come join One Ummah for a BBQ at Huron Park in Mississauga this Sunday, insh'Allah and raise some money for the victims of Hurricane Katrina.

Disasters can be overwhelming to deal with, even for those not directly affected by it... and sometimes we don't know where to start. This is definitely a good start... and as I mentioned, in one of my earlier posts, make dua'a (prayer) for our brothers and sisters everywhere.

Me and Maddy are gonna drop by... so save us some burgers Yaseen! I am curious to see what this "MORE" is...

Pray for Our World

I was on my way home last night... after school... and as usual I was listening to some nasheeds. Yesterday, we were listening to Our World by Zain Bhikha (AMAZING album! Check it out for sure)... and it's amazing how some songs can just really make you think.

"Our World" is such an inspiring nasheed... i know a lot of people aren't really into them.. but this one I think really hits people hard... esp in the heart. They played it at MuslimFest in August when Zain couldn't make it as part of the tribute to him... and sooo many people afterwards told me how it was such an amazing nasheed.. probably the most beautiful nasheed they'd EVER heard. The power of prayer and the lengths it can reach... we must pray for our world and not just our families and friends... so much tragedy and disaster has gone on in the world in the past year. We mustn't sit there idly any longer and jus hope that someone else picks up the pieces.

OUR WORLD

Every morning on every news flash
I hear the sorrow of the world
It seems like everybody's lost and scared trying to make sense of it all
And as I travel to and fro, so many faces pass me by
I see lonely hearts living lonely lives just biding their time
And while we call ourselves civilized, many people living empty lives
As they drone their way through day and night

I pray for our world, I pray for every child
I pray for our world to be filled with smiles
Like the colours of a rainbow and not just black and white
I pray for our world to be filled with light
I pray for all of us, to choose the path that's right
To believe in Allah every day of our lives

In the evening on the TV news, I see images of war
I see brother killing brother with no consequence at all
And while those who claim to be leaders, sell us tales of deceit
But Allah alone know in their hearts what they reveal and conceal
And while we call ourselves civilized,
We go on killing human lives
Too caught up in our own web of lies

Every mother, every father, every daughter, every son
Don't you see, that the answer lies only with the ONE

Feed the Streets this Saturday, insh'Allah!

Young Muslims presents Feed The Streets

Come and Join Us to feed the homeless on the Streets of Toronto!

Date: Saturday Sept. 24, 2005
Time: 10:00 am to 12:00 pm
Where: Allen Gardens [Gerrard St. & Jarvis St. (Toronto)]
What to bring: Bring prepared meal bags containing: A water bottle, an apple and prepared pasta or meat sandwich (no tuna please!)

*Carpool leaves Mississauga (Soundvision: Hwy 10 and Dundas) at 9:30 am please RSVP a spot.
*If you are able to help carpool please contact us
*Bring a friend along to help the needy
*Please join us even if you are unable to make food
*Money donations are welcome

Let's get ready for Ramadan a little early and come join us :)

See ya there insh'Allah!

Contact Info: feedthestreet@youngmuslims.ca

2 months!!!

Only 2 more months until Bro's BIG Day, Insh'Allah!! I'm excited but also getting a bit nervous... will everything get done in time?!?! Make dua'a for us :)

Today me and Sahar had this longgg convo bout the wedding and stuff... and it seems everything is under control.. but i think we all jus need to sit down and get it down on paper. I think I will be doing a speech... eeeeeee... I am not a good public speaker :S but seeing as I am his favourite sister I gotta do it! I think I'm gonna bring my niece, Tooba up with me.. and maybe she can do a mini-speech bout her Ahmer Mamu. It'd be sooo cute! Sahar wants to see some tears... but guy, the only tears she'll be seeing are tears of laughter.. haha... what am I gonna cry about? It's not like he's moving out.

But yeah, i do think my relationship with Bhai will change.. I won't be able to jus call him and expect him to drop everything and pick me up or something (Thanks a lot FBI! ur goin down.. hehe) and yeah i think that is the extent of our relationship. Joking... there's more.. everyone enjoys seeing us 'talk' to each other... so I might miss fighting and arguing about petty issues with him... but I am more than certain he will fit that into his tight schedule. Got a hectic coupla weeks ahead of us.. so if i come to you all frazzled and pissy.. just tell me I'm right and that it'll be okay :) And I'll more than likely be asking for a lot of favours.. so be prepared!

P.S. Ramadan in 2 weeks, inshAllah!!

What a day!

So school is back on... grrr... I'm slowly getting back into School Mode as Fall seems to be getting closer and closer... maybe once i break out into my Fall wardrobe I'll be all bout school (i bought this really fly striped green and brown sweater! can't wait to wear it).. for now I am Slacker Sarah. Haven't bought a single book.. dude I still hafta pay off my August Visa bill :S plus the damn lineups at the Bookstore are brutal... I'm not waiting in a line to get into the line to get in the bookstore. Why's everybody gotta be a slacker?! Don't they know everybody buys books at the last minute?! Some people...

So back to today. Started off arite... woke up bright and early at 6 am... did the usual morning routine... it was all rainy and gloomy out...got to school at 8am... me and Roohi hit the gym (YES we really did... and it's so much funner with another person, the time totally flew by! We had some interesting convos.. tee hee) finished up by 9:30. Roohi had to start work at 10.. so we headed to EPUS office. Chilled with her.. OH and that food place FINALLY opened up in the North Building, it's called SPICE (sounds paki to me)... but meat isn't halaal!!! So now the Halaal Hot Dog guy is gone and the North place isn't halaal... that Halaal Hot Dog Vendor Guy (I think his name was Abdul) was the pride and joy of UTM last year... we used to brag about him.. but no more. We took him for granted.. and now he's gone... ok fine he wasn't that big a part of my life last yr... but he was a huge part of my 'moti' issues last year, that's for sure! So anyways, i thought I'd check out the spring rolls at Spice... they were a lil burnt but pretty good. I heard they have parathas and curry one day a week... that is pretty ghetto I must say.. come on butter chicken is where it's at!

Then went to my 2 tutorials... first one was borrrring. I almost fell asleep. The second was really interesting.. Sociocultural Anthro.. so we were discussing Shari'ah Law in Ontario. The TA didn't really know much.. but anyways topics such as Shari'ah or actually anything Islam related are always fun to be a part of. People who don't really know much bout Shari'ah were makin these really dumb comments... like i dunno bout you but if I don't know much about a topic I usually keep my comments to a minimum (makes sense right? don't wanna look like a doofus later). So i dunno, ignorant comments bring out the debater in me... so this one girl goes, those women should've jus stayed in their own countries, like no other religion has their laws supercede our law... like then we could have Irish law, Scottish Law... and kept goin on for a bit. First of all Ireland and Scotland aren't religions! So i put my hand up.. i prob had like a "who is this girl" look on my face.. so the TA picked me. I was jus like, yo there already are other religious tribunals in place in Ontario and besides Shari'ah tribunals would be optional & have the option of opting out and adhering to Cdn law .. so don't go there girlfriend... ok i didn't say that last part. One thing that really peeved me off tho was, how these 2 Muslim girls instantly associated Shari'ah to the "4 wives" issue.. like that's supposed to help the cause? That issue just adds to the controversial nature. It reinforces non-muslims' view of Islam as completely patriarchal and suppression of women's rights bc its taken out of context. Was an exciting tutorial.

Then went to work... the Pharm was psycho! Phone kept ringing off the hook.. ppl lined up on both sides!! So yeah, I got yelled at by this woman... it's not MY fault her mom's Doctor didn't fax us back.. her mom was nicer than her.. she goes to me "are you goan?" ...LOL... i was like nooo... I am indo-paki. I was workin with this highschool guy ... he's a nice kid and all.. but he really doesn't know too much.. so i was having to do everything :S and then at the end of the night I got punked by Ron (the Store Manager) bc we were last to bring our till to the back and apparently he has a life or something. Not only were we late but i had a lot of bills to hand in to him... oopsy..so then he was like you hafta escort me to do the bank deposit... i was like excuuuse me?! He wasn't joking either.. so i went with him and security guard... but i think he felt bad for yellin at me before.. so he was like Thanks for coming. Then finally went home @ 9:30.. still raining at this point.

ICNA-MAC conference @ LAC tomorrow.. thinkin of goin.. maybe helping out with Registration for Bacha Party. =)

The Concert!

Saturday, we all hit up the IHYA Light Rhythms Concert in Toronto! Was quite the day... from getting there to getting back home... was definitely an adventure.

So in morn, me and Ammi made puri and stuff... Mmmmmm... was soo good! Then I had to literally twist my bro's arm to drive me to Anika's... damn guy wouldn't drive me to Toronto (mean Ahmer!)... but anyways, so we all went down together. Bad idea: wearing heels... I'm still feelin' it today! So we got there about 7ish.. early for a change.. and I ran into my friend Iram (I lovvvveee her!) :) and her hubby (he's not so bad.. except he blacklisted me from their house!). It was a pure Mac (McMaster.... not what ur thinkin'!) event... but ran into a few of the GTA people. It was a pretty good turnout.. the floor seats were pretty packed. We ended up having balcony seats... Mfest all over again! The seats were still arite though... right in front of the stage. Here's a shot of some of the girls

So the show started off with some drummers... who were pretty good mash'Allah! The sound system there was a little off... but s'all good. Then there were some local performers, who sounded really good considering they were amateurs and singing live! I think my Dad woulda enjoyed the show... there were so many old school qawwalis and naaths... and he loves them! So the first performance was by Aa'shiq ul-Rasul... lol ... seeing as we're not really familiar with them we thought they were Shaam and we're like hey they sound a lil different from their records... only to later find out that they weren't Shaam and the world made sense again. The one nasheed I know by them (Asmaa ul-Husna) they didn't perform :( but thats okay...

Next came, 786... they came out in black kurtas! So i knew it was Qawwali time!..bc of them, we're all getting into qawwalis... tee hee. They put on a good show, considering half of em were sick :( They're always really interactive with the audience which is tres cool. Started off with the Qawwali from the 1st album, Tajdar e Haram, I dunno bout the rest of em but me and Roohi were singing along. [Roo, I think Tajdar means someone wearing a crown so like a king.. but NOT a king, but like ya know] Then they sang Heaven's Key, Ya Allah (one of my fave) and another qawwali from the new album, Haazir Hain Hum. Pics came out soo bad... it was too dark i guess.

Then came Shaam... i like their urdu stuff! But they performed mostly in Arabic.. still they were pretty good! They came out dressed in white thobes and kufis... it was quite the sight.. i got punked by the security girl tho.. she told me to turn my phone off.. thanks alot goaty. So then i put it on vibrate...

Then me and Roo left a bit before Intermission to meet up with Maddy and Sara... who came a lil late.. to give em tix for the show. Walked by the 786 booth where they were getting mobbed (LOL... they don't think they get mobbed!) for autographs... too bad their new album wasn't ready :(

After intermission, we had a friend get us into the floor level seats... tee hee... don't worry, we left right after 786 were done. :-) But as fate would have it, we ended up sitting behind this Arab Uncle guy who kept giving us dirty looks for talking and laughing... mean Arab Uncle guy! Just tryin to get our money's worth yo! They saved the Nasheed Medley for last... :).. stop laughin Roohi!

Then we jet upstairs to catch the rest of the show... Shaam ... the gora guy in Shaam knows urdu.. haha... it was so funny! AAR - were the finale... played some interesting nasheeds. The Grand Finale had all 3 groups on stage... it was pretty cool. Was a really longggg concert, almost 4 hours! The tix were a bit overpriced tho...

Ohhh ohhh got my programme autographed :) Overall, think we all had a pretty decent time... getting home was another mission and half tho...

Well first of all it was pretty late... but to make things worse, the doors to the building where we parked were locked!! Eventually we made our way in... we had to buzz the guard. Then, we made our way out of the parking lot... to find the flippin' 401 ramp closed! So we drove down to Bayview... CLOSED! What the hell man?! I don't even know where we ended up before realizing we had made one huge circle and were back on Yonge.. in the meantime we made a pitstop to Timmies.. Sara was hungryy! An hour after leaving the Hall.. we finally hit the 404... to be met with psycho traffic on the 401! Got us 3 a chance to catch up on each others' lives... and gave Sara a chance to tell us bout the book she was reading.. "Men are..." what?! Oh.. no, that was her own saying... lol... Sara, Maddy -- you girls are a riot, even that late at night! Alhumdalillah we made it home... i swear at times it didn't look like we would. Next time, lets jus call someone at the first sign of trouble... but then again, what fun is that?!

Crazyyyyy Weekend!

Long weekends are pretty chillin' usually... not this time!

Friday, was Sahar's cousins' wedding! She looked amazing... and sooo happy mash'Allah... which made her look even more beautiful... awwww! And can i jus say, WAH... his sherwani was gorgeous (Sahar's vocabs rubbin off on me :S), it was like Shah Rukh Khan's sherwani in Mahi Ve (except it was a golden-brown)... and trust me not any guy could jus pull it off, but Zubaer totally did. The food was really good.. Mmmmm butter chicken... her bro is jus hilarious, so we all knew when it was time for his contribution to the wedding, it would be worth the wait.. and that it was. He made this video bout Seema, and disclosed all the deep down, dirty secrets... what made this video hilarious was the person he had play her. Their 6'3 bro-in-law, Najeeb with a mustache that can be seen miles away (I'm not hating, i swear!)... btw, Seema is this tiny lil thing bout 5'1... it was hilarious!! Esp, the part where "she" gives a cousin an ass-whupping.. and the interrogation scene at the police station.. LOL.. a classic! Can't wait to see what he's got planned for bro's wedding... [Ahhhh only 2 months away insh'Allah!!!]

Saturday, was Bro's Dholki! Complete and utter chaos... woke up at 9 (yo that's early!) cleaned up the place, finished decorating... the place looked hot!!! The basement was covered with dupattas and saris and streamers... my bro had better work his butt off for my wedding!! All the while sneezing like a maniac... and stupid bro took all the Claritin with him on his camping trip... felt like strangling him!! Anywho, I was still getting ready when the first of the guests showed up :O... got dressed and dolled up finally... Ammi made me wear this lilac and violet Gharara (which was actually pretty hot looking... but i felt overdressed!)... but when i realized i had matching accessories i actually enjoyed wearing it, but that damn dupatta kept getting stuck to my kameez!! I got the hottest ring from Pakistan and it matched sooo well! So the dholki was fun... we sang a lot of songs... my girls from Hamilton rocked the show... sang and played the dholak!

"So do I hit the chamcha now or do i sing first or do i do them both together?!" Me having struggles.. i later had to give up the chamcha banging job to someone else.

Sing it sista's!!

Then they even got me up to dance... Ahhhhhh... was quite the sight to see since I really do not know the first thing about rhythm. It's all good.. I had fun.. but realized that I REALLY need to get started on the dances for the Mehndi!! Shabina, lets get started tomorrow ;) It was great seeing all of my girls (esp Hina, who came down all the way from Montreal!! Love ya!)and missed the rest of ya ...

Me and Farakh :) Next time I'm gonna get u up too!

my girls from wayyyyy back: Ayesha, Farah & Zainab!

next time ALL of y'all are gonna sing or dance or ur outta there!! But forreal, some aunties were so obnoxious, I'm not inviting them next time... some people jus love to rain on other peoples' parades... what pissed me off was that me and my mom never complain or criticize other people or their events.. EVER.. but that doesn't stop other people from doing so. The way I see it, if u can't share in our happiness then u shouldn't be there, plain and simple. Otherwise, I really enjoyed the day.. but was definitely exhausted beyond comprehension by the end of the night. So, Ahmer's wedding festivities have officially begun!

Sunday -- was spent in recovery. Missed halaqa... sorry Naya... i was too tired to move man.

Monday, we went on this BBQ with some fam friends out in Hamilton. I ended up having fun. Initially, didnt really wanna go because was plannin on goin to CNE with the girls, but that didn't work out... so yeah, the weather was really nice. Way too many bees around tho, all the guys were acting like little girls. Chilled with the guys for a bit... then we went canoeing! My arms were killin by the end of the canoe ride (is it a ride?) but it was fun... being out in the middle of wilderness on the water... it's very calming and relaxing. Had a good time.

Ewwwwwww... school in less than a week. :(