Seeking His Pleasure Through Patience

Salaam! These are reviews of some books, movies and programmes which I believe represents Islam in a a way we all want (:

Ayat-Ayat Cinta (Verses of Love)

Bismillaahirrahmaaniirrahiim

In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.

Normally

I don’t like to watch a movie because everyone around me is watching it.

However, after reading and hearing rave reviews and recommendations about this movie, I decided to wait until the hype had died down and watch the movie long after it has been shown in cinemas.

It’s pretty darn fantastic. (:

One cool thing about this movie is that it uses a variety of languages: Indonesian, English, Arabic, German.

Another cool thing is how beautifully it has managed to portray Islam.

Some may dismiss this as a typical love story, but if you actually take the time to critically analyse each character, you’ll find the many ways Islam is embedded into the story.

Here’s my little analysis of 3 scenes:

Scenes: Asking Fahri to declare that he loved Maria, asking him to take her as his second wife, the threesome living under one roof, final scenes in hospital

‘Aisha realises that the only way Maria would recover is if she could hear Fahri’s voice and feel his touch. And the only way to allow that was through marriage.

How many women today would willingly allow or even plead with their husbands to marry another woman in order to save her life?

In my opinion, this is the ultimate sacrifice a true Muslimah can possibly make, which makes ‘Aisha a heroine in my eyes.

Think about it: ‘Aisha and Fahri had JUST gotten married, just gotten to know each other, fall in love, and gotten used to each other’s presence.

Then he gets arrested, cruelly separating them. Having your spouse forcibly taken away from you is already painful enough.

Imagine the intensity of the pain she would then feel having to let her husband marry another woman. She had him by her side only for a while but now she’s letting someone else ‘own’ him, thereby allowing her husband to be intimate with someone else.

To me, that requires a whole lot of humility as she has to throw away her pride and her need to have a man exclusively for herself, and has to learn to control her jealousy. And I truly, completely respect and admire that.

‘Aisha tries her best not to make polygamy a burden on Fahri by letting him be with Maria more and reminding him to think of all three of them and not just herself. This is the form of fairness that I am trying hard to emulate in my own life. (:

This is not a movie that you should judge at face value, you have to figure out for yourself just how it manages to connect back to Islam (:

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The Message (1976)

Bismillaahirrahmaanirrahiim

In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, Most Merciful

Na’ima B. Robert is a Zimbabwean revert (she prefers not to use the term ‘convert’) who used to be a party girl, raised in a non-religious household. She discovered Islam while in Egypt, after a chance encounter with an Egyptian Muslimah that intrigued her and motivated her to find out more about Islam.

“I left Egypt shaken: my encounter with the Islamic faith had affected me to the core.”

This book gives a wonderful insight into the world of a Muslimah, and addresses the heated issue of the hijab. It also maps out the author’s journey and conversion to Islam, as well as many other Muslimahs from different backgrounds. This book is best read with an open heart and an open mind.

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Bismillaahirrahmaanirrahiim

May Allah Bless and Continue to Guide the beautiful insaan who gave me this book (:

Believe it or not, this humble effort made me  fall in love with Rasulullah s.a.w. It is not the most comprehensive biography about The Prophet, but for beginners, for those who are curious why out of all the messengers, he’s the one we profess in our Shahadah, and why thousands or even millions of lectures,books, nasyids, du’aas etc are dedicated to him – this is a great book to start off your never-ending journey with.

I say never-ending because his life is so well-documented that I don’t think our limited lifetime in this world is enough to learn everything about him (:

The book starts off with an introduction to Saudi Arabia’s social, economical and ethical situations prior to The Final Revelation. It helps the reader realise the revolutionary and profound impact the advent of Islam had on humanity. If you realise, that impact is still making waves in the world today

Heh, he  isn’t the world’s most influential person in human history for nothing

Allahumma solli ‘ala sayyidina Muhammadinin nabiyyil ummiyyi wa’ala alihi wa sohbihi wassallim.