Dessert of the Day ~ Lemon Cardamom Rice-Pudding ~ Kheer

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup of rice
• 1    cup of water
• 4    cups of milk
• 1/2 cup of sugar
• 5 green cardamom pods
• zest of 1 lemon

Yields: 4 servings

Instructions

1. Boil the rice and the water in a small pan until the water has evaporated completely.
2. Now, using a big pot put in the milk, cardamom pots and the lemon zest. Bring to a boil and remember to keep stirring the milk to prevent it from burning. 
3. When the milk start simmering add in the sugar.
4. Once the milk is boiling add the cooked rice to the milk, and keep on stirring. Continue cooking on medium heat.
5. Before the milk start thickening remove the lemon zest and the cardamom pods. Do not forget to stir the milk, otherwise your Kheer is going to burn on the bottom. 
6. It will take about 30 minutes for the milk to thicken, once it is thick remove from the heat and place the rice pudding either in a big bowl or into small serving bowls. 
7. You can either eat the kheer hot or refrigerate it at least for 3 hours before serving. Garnish with chopped almonds or pistachio if desired. 
8. Enjoy!

3 Tips for super gorgeous Hair

Beautiful hair is something we all dream of... Try those hair masks and see how easy it is to make your hair look amazing the natural way, no chmical stuff involved here!\

1) Egg mask

eggs

I know, nobody likes a raw e
gg. But believe me if you want super shiney hair than apply one egg (mixed up) on your hair and scalp for about 15-20 minutes and than shower as usual, you might not want to condition thou, because the egg serves as a conditioner. Super shiney hair for a good price :)

2) Yoghurt mask

Having rough hair? Apply some plain (not sweetend!) yoghurt on your hair and let sit for about 20 minutes before showering. This mask has an absolutely amazing mosturizing effect! Make sure you go for full fat yoghurt and not the skinny version, happy no rough hair day!

Infused Oil

3) Oil mask

Not fancying the egg or the yoghurt? Go for a oil mask, u can either use one oil of your choice (olive oil, mustard oil, coconut oil, almond oil) or make a mix. Choose the oil that suits your hair, if you did never try a oil mask before go for my favorite mix and try it out, My favorite mixture consisnts of 1:1 of Olive Oil and Castor Oil, slightly heat the oil up in the microwave. Apply to your sclap and hair, wrap up with an old towel or plastic wrap. Let the magic unfold for about 30 minutes. You will LOVE your hair once you do this mask on a regular basis.

Hope this masks will give you gorgeous hair :) 

Picture Sources:

http://www.teacher-chef.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/7-19-rosemary-infused-olive-oil.jpg 

http://thejoyfuleater.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/half-egg-on-top-of-eggs.jpg 

A reflection on.... Anger

I often used to wonder what anger is, why do people get angry? And more important what is the purpose if getting angry? Ever since i started the studies of my beloved religion - Islam - there was this one Hadith i kept on stumbling upon again and again.

Narated By Abu Huraira : A man said to the Prophet , “Advise me! “The Prophet said, “Do not become angry and furious.” The man asked (the same) again and again, and the Prophet said in each case, “Do not become angry and furious.” - Sahih Bukhari 

WHY did the Prophet (pbuh) repeated this words three times? What is it about anger that makes it.... maybe "dangerous" ? The Prophet (pbuh) could have given the man three different advises, but he did not. Instead he repeated " Do not become angry and furious".
Anger is something we show as a response when something unpleasant or negatively unexpected happens to us. BUT it is not that we cannot control this response, as the Prophet (pbuh) defines a strong person:

Abu Huraira reported Allah’s Messenger (may peace be upon him) as saying: The strong-man is not one who wrestles well but the strong man is one who controls himself when he is in a fit of rage. - Sahih Muslim

So why do people express anger? Even often in a way, that the whole neighbourhood will be listening to the shouting. Anger happens when we let our emotions take over. Remember a situation when you got angry at someone! What happened? How did you handle the situation? Or maybe you did not handle the situation at all and instead just "got angry" to get over with it.
Expressing anger is actually a way to avoid dealing with either a person or a situation. Because when someone gets angry they shout and maybe trash some glassware and then finally smash the door and hide in a room, case closed - and most times never talked about again... sounds weird but that is actually what happens most of the times when people get angry. It's total avoidance. There is firstly nothing intelligent about it and secondly and more importantly the situation is not dealt with, If we rather stay calm and think about how to tackle our problem, we could maybe even find a solution instead of scaring other people with our behaviour.

Another interesting aspect here is: Whom do we get angry with? Would we get angry with our boss? Our teacher? Shout at our parents? NO! We get angry with people who are WEAKER or YOUNGER than us! Now why would we do that? To show how "powerful" we are and that it US to decide what happens and what not? To tell everybody that it is our law that rules?
Let's think here.. is that even according to the Islamic teachings? Did the Prophet (pbuh) teach us to mistreat the weaker ones and to shout as loud as we can to terrify them?
You know the answer... No.

So why was it the prophetic advise to not get angry.... Let's see a few points of what anger does to us:

1) Anger effects our whole body, out heart rate increases and our blood pressure goes higher which is not good for our health
2) In anger people say things they do not mean. They abuse each other, say nasty stuff - words that they can never take back and which always cause a certain kind of distance between them.
3) Innocent bystanders are getting involved. People who are absolutely not related to the fight get involved because angry people do not speak softly, but the SHOUT. Making everything they say very audible to other people in their surrounding.

So what can we do when we get angry?

Narated By Atiyyah as-Sa’di : AbuWa’il al-Qass said: We entered upon Urwah ibn Muhammad ibn as-Sa’di. A man spoke to him and made him angry. So he stood and performed ablution; he then returned and performed ablution, and said: My father told me on the authority of my grandfather Atiyyah who reported the Apostle of Allah (pbuh) as saying: Anger comes from the devil, the devil was created of fire, and fire is extinguished only with water; so when one of you becomes angry, he should perform ablution. -Abu Dawud

Narated By Sulaiman bin Surd : While I was sitting in the company of the Prophet, two men abused each other and the face of one of them became red with anger, and his jugular veins swelled (i.e. he became furious). On that the Prophet said, “I know a word, the saying of which will cause him to relax, if he does say it. If he says: ‘I seek Refuge with Allah from Satan.’ then all is anger will go away.” Some body said to him, “The Prophet has said, ‘Seek refuge with Allah from Satan.”‘ The angry man said, “Am I mad?” - Sahih Bukhari

SO here are two Hadiths which give us an advise on how to behave when we get angry. Do ablution and say " I seek refuge with Allah from Satan".

Now tell me, what is your valid proof for justifying your anger???

Do not let Shaytan take over, and stay calm when in a difficult situtation. Work on your Iman and know that it is Allah who has control over everything and that anger is not an answer to a problem but rather makes it worse. 

Jazak Allah Khairan and Thank you for taking the time to read this article.

Salma

Purification of the heart - Part 3 - The diseases

Love of the world

There are five classical rulings, which determine how loving something worldly is viewed.

1 - Obligatory (wajib)
2 - Recommended (mandub)
3 - Permissible (mubah)
4 - Reprehensible (makruh)
5 - Forbidden (haram)

Example: We should love certain aspects of the world, like the Quran, the Ka'ba, our Prophet (saw) etc. In regards of wealth we should love helping needy with it.
The Prophet (saw) prohibited to condemn the world. He said: "Do not curse the world, for God created the world, and the world is a means to reaching God. - Hadith

Whether loving the world is good or bad for us, depends on what it leads us to. Does it lead to a arrogance and greed? OR does it lead to goodness? Attaining wealth is not a negative thing per se, it is just the outcome that makes it either bad or good. Does acquiring wealth means you are neglecting religious tasks or falling into sinful matters? Then it is considered blameworthy! But if you use your wealth to do good and it does not preoccupy your thoughts and invade your religiosity than it is considered praiseworthy.
One other illness in this world is the love of praise.


"The world is a bridge; so pass over it to the next world, but do not try to build on it." - Prophet Isa (as) 

Envy

Envy (hasad) is a severe disease and even considered the root of all diseases by some scholars.The Quran teaches us too seek refuge in God from "the evil of the envier when he envies" (Qur'an, 113:5).
The Prophet (saw) said that envy consumes good deeds as the fire destroyes dry food. The evil eye is often linked to envy, thou it is not necessary.
Envy is when one wishes that a blessing may be taken away from someone. This blessing can be anything, a house, wife, or even a dress. A blessing (ni'mah) is something that Allah gives us, envying someone for their blessings would mean actually questioning why God has given them these blessings! This makes envy despicable and forbidden.
Imam Mawlud gives us treatments for envy.
1 - Act consciously against one's caprice. Be objective and not let your caprice take over you.
2 - Do something that will benefit the person you envy.
Envy can damage one's sanity, when they keep on thinking about the things they envy in a person.  One must understand that it is Allah who distributes the blessings and gives us or does not give us the things we have or we would like to have,' Allah is all-knowing and wise and knows whom to give which and how much blessings. A key to getting rid of envy is to establish Taqwa, having a sense of awe of God.

Blameworthy Modesty

Modesty is considered praisworthy in Islam. However if the modesty would prevent us from seeking knowledge, because we would be to shy to ask for questions than modesty is something blameworthy. We also should not be modest in term of denouncing tyranny or corruption. 

Fantasising

Engaging in matters that are of no concern to us is a disease, such as fantasising about a persons beauty one is not married to. If an sction is forbidden then even thinking about it is forbidden too. But also thinking about faults and weaknesses of other people is a widespread disease now-a-days. The prophet (saw) said: "There is a tree in Paradise reserved for one whose own faults preoccupied him from considering the faults of others." - Hadith
It is important for us to focus on our own shortcomings then rather focusing on people's faults as time is short and we should be making the most out of our time.

Fear of poverty

"Satan threatens you with poverty, and he commands you to immorality. But God promises you His forgiveness and bounty" - Qur'an 2:268
The fear to lose one's poverty can be very strong, to the point that people deprive the needy of their share and even do not spent on themselves. A person who has this irrational fear is very vulnerable in transgessing laws to secure and increase their wealth. It is important for us to understand that it is Allah alone who gives us our wealth, and who can take it from us again. Contenment is very important so we will not worry too much about losing our wealth. Be content and happy with what you have and expect the best from Allah.

Ostentation

Purification of the heart; page 44/45

"What I fear most for my community is doing things other than the sake of God" - Hadith
Ostentation means showing off - doing something for the sake of telling it to other people and get the praise or fame for it.
Imam Mawlud tells us about three signs of ostentation:
1 & 2 - Laziness and lack of action in religious deeds: Feeling lazy and unwilling to pray or read Quran at home when no people are around you, but praying and reading loads of Quran once in the mosque among people.
3 - increasing one's action when one is praised and decreasing one's actions in absence of praise

The cure of ostentaion is to remove this four things from one's heart: love of praise, fear of blame, desire for wordly from people and fear of harm from people. To achieve this it is important to nurish the certainty that only God can benefit or harm us. An other thing we can do to prevent ostentation is to pray at night alone, to read the Quran in private and to give charity without telling anybody.

Relying on other than God

When we rely on any other than God, it is a sign of not having enough trust and reliance on God. Everything good comes from HIM, and people can never help us, if it was not for God making them able to be helpful to us. It is among the basis of Islam to have Tawwakul - trust and reliance on God.