Solace for a weary heart

[Bosco 1]

You and me both. I keep envisioning ways I could place them throughout our home.

My husband, despite his thinking otherwise, is quite creative. I am thinking of showing them to him and seeing if it stirs him to make something.

We have done a few joint projects. He will make a kufic calligraphy square or find a pre-existing design with an ayat and graph it for me. I then embroidery it, needlepoint or cross stitch. He has made a square design with our names, but I have been terribly lazy. The kufic is linear so it is amenable to needlepoint and doesn't take a lot of concentration since you are not switching colors often.

I have fallen in love with the 99 names of Allah (swt) tiles. I will find a way to afford them someday! Well, barring that, I will get the dvd. I think it would be perfect for iftar time.

[UmmSqueakster 54]

I have been visiting Qisas during my daily web surface, and have always found an inspiring story or hadith. Here's what popped up for me today:

Abu Umamah (RA) narrates: Rasulullah (SAW) said: Whoever stands up to perform his Wudhu, intending to offer Salah, then cleans his hands; the sins of his two hands fallout with the first drop of water. Then, when he rinses his mouth, and draws water into his nose and expels it; the sins of his tongue and two lips fallout with the first drop of water. Then, as he cleans his face, the sins of his hearing and seeing fallout with the first drop (of water). Then, when he cleans his two arms past the elbows, and his two feet past the ankles; he becomes free of all his offences and sins, just as was his state, the day his mother gave him birth. He (then) said: Then, when he stands for Salah; Allah elevates his position, and if he (merely) sits (without standing for Salah) even then his sitting is free of sins! Source: Musnad Ahmad.

We take bath regularly to clean our body of dirts, but how many of us offer regular prayers daily to clean the real dirts (sins)?