Pen Marks

Almost everyone I know is studying for their upcoming exams and finals. Mine are next week and I can’t wait to finish.

If you really want to get some good grades then you’re going to have to sacrifice your time and focus on studying. Don’t leave everything for the last minute! That’s suicide. Get rid of all the things that will cause you to procrastinate  like the computer (I’m sure you can study with out a computer to some degree)Don’t pull an all-nighter the night before your final, get some rest and inshallah you’ll do good.

Here are some duas for studying.

Dua Before Studying

Allahumma infa’nii bimaa ‘allamtanii wa’allimnii maa yanfa’ unii.
O Allah! Make useful for me what You taught me and teach me knowledge that will be benefit me.
Allahumma inii as’aluka fahmal-nabiyyen wa hifthal mursaleen al-muqarrabeen.
O Allah! I ask You for the understanding of the prophets and the memory of the messengers
Allahumma ijal leesanee ‘amiran bi thikrika wa qalbi bi khashyatika.
O Allah! Make my tongue full of Your remembrance, and my heart with consciousness of You.
Innaka ‘ala ma-tasha’-u qadeer wa anta hasbun-allahu wa na’mal wakeel.
Oh Allah! You do whatever You wish, and You are my Availer and best if aid. Protector and the best of aid.

Dua After Studying

Allahhumma inni astaodeeuka ma qara’tu wama hafaz-tu. Faradduhu ‘allaya inda hagati elayhi. Innaka ‘ala ma-tasha’-u qadeer wa anta hasbeeya wa na’mal wakeel.
Oh Allah! I entrust You with what I have read and I have studied. (Oh Allah!) Bring it back to me when I am in need of it. (Oh Allah!) You do whatever You wish, and You are my Availer and Protector and the best of aid.

Dua While Studying Something Difficult

Allahumma la sahla illama ja-’altahu sahla wa anta taj ‘alu al hazana etha shi’ta sahla.
O Allah! Nothing is easy except what You have made easy. If You wish, You can make the difficult easy.

Dua For Anxiety

Allahumma inni a’oodhoo bika minal-hammi-walhazan. Wa’a oodhoo bika minal-ghammi-wal-kasal. Wa’a oodhoo bika minal jubni wal bukhl. Wa’a oodhoo bikal min ghalabatid-dayni-waqarir rijal.
Oh Allah, I seek refuge in You from worry and grief, from helplessness and laziness, from cowardice and stinginess, and from overpowering of debt and from oppression of men.

Dua For Distress

Allahumma rahmataka arjoo falaa takilnee ilaa nafsee tarfata ‘aynin wa aslih-lee sha’nee kullahu, laa ilaha illa anta.
O Allah! It is Your mercy that I hope for so do not leave me in charge of my affairs even for a blink of an eye and rectify for me all of my affairs. None has the right to be worshipped except You.

I love April, mostly because of the rain But with it comes a really bizarre day, April Fools Day. I mean seriously, it’s so annoying. It’s not even Duhr time yet and I already encountered two people playing April fools jokes.

We were all sitting in the classroom a few minutes before the class started waiting for the instructor to arrive. When he came in and said Class is canceled today! So we starting puting away our books and getting ready to leave and he’s like April Fools!

Then as I walked to the library I heard this guy saying to his friend Hey did I tell you my mom got in an accident today and killed this guy? And his friend was shocked and kind of alaramed and the guy tells him April Fools!

Seriously? Why would you joke lie about your mom getting into an accident?

I hope I don’t hear another April Fools joke again today (So if you were planning on doing that, read this)

The Messenger of Allah, (sallallahu alayhi wasallam) was asked, ‘Can the mu’min be a coward?’ He said, ‘Yes.’ He was asked, ‘Can the mu’min be a miser? He said, ‘Yes.’ He was asked, ‘Can the mu’min be a liar?’ He said, ‘No.’

On the bright side, Alhamdulillah my mid terms are over. Now I’m anxiously waiting to see what grade I got. About three or four more weeks left of this term and I’m done! Blah.

As I stood at the bus stop today waiting for my mom to pick me up I caught a woman staring at me. She smiled at me and started to talk to me a little bit about how Portland’s weather is so unpredictable, and how annoyed she was at the wind because it was messing up her hair. “But you probably don’t have to worry about that” she said casually. It took a few seconds for me to figure out she was talking about my hijab.

“But it keeps flapping around in the wind.” I replied back.

“Does it keep you warm?”

“Sure – kind of.”

She had a silk scarf around her neck, she took it off and wrapped it around her head – I thought it was a nice try, her front bangs was spilling out though. She took out a mirror, looked at herself, fixed it so that her hair didn’t show anymore, and smiled.

“This is really comfortable.” She grinned. “I could probably keep this on for the whole day. It works better than when it’s around my neck.”

“I don’t wear it to keep warm.”

“Oh I know you don’t.” She laughed like I said the silliest thing. “I read about why you all wear it a while ago. It’s really for modesty and all right?”

Unfortunately that’s were our conversation ended – her bus arrived just then. I wish I could have spoken to her more, she looked like someone who was really interested in Islam – I mean what non-muslim wears their scarf as a Hijab? May Allah guide her

School started again and I’ve been running around trying to get into classes. There’s 15% more students this term than last term and classes are almost all full. Alhamdulillah I got into most of the ones that I wanted, just have one more Bio Lab to find.

Also a quick reminder, Sheikh Yaser’s Seminar/Ilminar Breads and Threads is tonight. Don’t miss out! (Inshallah I’ll post some notes here so look out for that)

I hate it! Hate it! Do i have to emphasize anymore? I HATE Romeo and Juliet.

Seriously, I glanced at my planner. “4 overdue lessons” 4 English lessons which I haven’t finished. We started on Shakespeare this week and as much as I love reading, this sukz! To add to that, I recieved a phone call yesterday from my school. Of course, since they don’t call much I stood wondering what they’d say.

“Hello, this is Mrs. Weinberg from ORCA, I want to remind you that you have an exam on Tuesday at the ESD at 12:00.”

Oh God! Haven’t I had enough studying? And do they have to inform me about it two days before? Why not a week? Aghhhhh. Now I’m suppose to have a biology book in my face but I’m here posting.

That speech and debate class I’m taking isn’t as easy as i thought it would be. In three days I had to send in 4 portfolio items. I’m starting to dislike school =(

Its finals week, well for the public schools at least. I had my tests last week and yesterday was the beginning of the second semister. For electives this semister I’m taking a Speech and Debate course which is pretty good so far. However I made a big mistake in choosing, “Introduction to Computers and Applications”. Its all beginners! How to use Word, Powerpoint, where the start button is. I mean give me a break! And I have the worst Advisory teacher, “I sent her about 7 emails and she has yet to reply back to any of them.”

Last week’s meeting for our youth group at the masjid didn’t go so well. I thought about the reasons which were,

1. Not many people came due to the fact that they were all busy doing last minute reviews for thier mid-term exams.
2. We didn’t really think about what we were going to do in the meeting, so it turned out that we sort of went in circles and didn’t accomplish anything.
3. Most of us had our own ideas that we thought should be implemented and thus we spent most of our time trying to get our ideas through

Well there’s going to be another meeting this Saturday from 12:30 – 2:00? I’m not really sure of when it ends. I’m planning on calling the other main members before the meeting so we are more organized this time…I’m really hoping this youth group thing will be a sucess. And last thing, we need a name change, ‘As-Sabr Youth Group’ sounds….