fairest and best adorned is she
whose clothing is humility

James Montgomery (1771-1854)
_

with every difficulty, there is relief
by nur naadiya chia abdullah
pg 52, tudung: beyond face value

i never imagined myself as a Muslim, let alone wearing the hijab as a way of life. i knew it was not going to be easy, but i mustered enough courage to wear it upon embracing Islam. part of me did not want to don the hijab, mainly because i feared family rejection, but yet another part of me knew that i would be doing the right thing.

after much discussion with my Muslim friends and religious teacher, i finally decided to make the commitment from day one. as it turned out, it was not as bad as i feared. my family jested about it, but no angry words were spoken. things got better as days turned into months. my mom even bought me scarves for my birthday only six months aften my conversion. praise be to Allah, my perseverance paid off handsomely.

however, the difficulty of donning the headscarf did not stop there. on my graduation day, i got into an argument with my mother about wearing the headscarf under the mortarboard. again i persevered, at the expense of not having my beloved mom grace the event, which broke my heart.

then there was my wedding day. even as the proverbial wedding chimes were ringing almost a year after i embraced Islam and became a hijabi, my friends and family persuaded me not to wear my hijab as, they reasoned, it was meant to be the day i am at my prettiest. however, i again chose to stand my ground.

the trials and tribulation continued when i kept with the hijab at my mother's funeral. during the five-day wake, my family pleaded me not to wear the hijab, so as to please my mother's soul. but to me, filial piety is more than the public display of not wearing the hijab during my mother's funeral.

indeed, it has never been easy since i decided to be a hijabi. there were many obstacles and challenges but i believ that if one wears the hijab to please Allah, no hurdle will be insurmountable. me family eventually accepted, through my perseverance, that being Muslim and hijabi is my personal choice and nothing will sway me away from it. they have now completely accepted me as i am. as Allah promised,

verily with every difficulty, there is relief - Quran 94:6
_

i dont know if you managed to read the special report on new faces of Islam in Singapore last Saturday. there was a write-up about a FULL-TIME national serviceman, Wilton Sim Chun Kiat whose parents were angry when he told them early this year that he wanted to become a Muslim. His father and mother fretted that their only child would discard his family name, stop eating Chinese food, and 'become a Malay'.. MasyaAllah, reading his reversion (which is the right term to use as opposed to CONversion; but that's a story for another day) to Islam moved me to tears.

i believe it's called iman, faith.

that of any firm believer really moves me. it makes me question my own level of iman and subsequent ibadah in performing my faith to Allah. once, an ustazah taught me that a girl should always banyak beribadah when she's still young; because with age, marriage and all additional responsibilities, things change; if tak start start skrg, biler lagik; betul tak? it's almost always the realization of how minute my efforts are in performing faith that makes me break down.

Astaghafirullah, ya Allah lead me to the Straight Path in Life and dont lead me astray. ameen.

i dont really know what's the point of this blogpost; i guess these are just the things that i'd read recently and find they deemed worthy of mentioned. have faith in Him, my friend and when you have that, bring it to the next level.