Tile 2 (iPray)

Bismillah.

Master, you've graced this heart with softness. Don't let it retreat back to the rock that I let it become.
Master, let our young carry the message of your deen in speech and deed better than we could.
Master, make my daughters and the daughters of this ummah proud of their Islam yet humbled by Your favor.
Master, grant this ummah's young men maturity and a sense of responsibility to You, to family, to society.
Master, help the women of this ummah find good, loving, worthy husbands to start families that build a life here and in heaven.
Master, let every husband find endless beauty, peace, and love in his wife and let his eyes and heart not wander elsewhere.
Master, help our boys and girls who are emotionally trapped in wrong relationships to get out of them and grant them the strength to repent.
Master, grant parents sensibility, sensitivity, soft hearts, and open ears when making marriage decisions for their children.
Ya Allah, help the good men of this ummah find good wives and make the process free of difficulty.
Master, replace the addiction to useless things with an addiction to things that benefit the self and others.
Master, remove sadness from the hearts that have been hurt and give them happiness to move on with their lives.
Master, take anger away from the ones that were wronged and give them hearts strong enough to forgive and mend ties.
Master, replace fear with confidence.
Master, protect us from the jealous and don't let us become like them.
Master, reward us for spreading good. Even if only on Facebook and Twitter.
Master, make our parents happy with us and make us patient with them.
Master, let the ummah be flooded with righteous, sincere, eloquent, and effective female Muslim scholars.
Master, eliminate narrow-mindedness from this ummah that is based not on sound knowledge but on bias and prejudice.
Master, help us identify our flaws and help us work on fixing them together.
Master, help the kids who get bullied in school.
Master, give our children good friends that can make them better Muslims and keep them from corrupt influences especially at school.
Master, help those that are contemplating suicide cope. Give them hope and save them for themselves.
Master, remove hate from this ummah.
Master, don't allow discouraging words to get us and keep our hearts strong so that we can accomplish great things by Your leave.

Prayers that we may missed from asking our Master, but we needed them nevertheless.

Credits to Ustaz Nouman @noumanbayyinah

Tile 3 (Pending Coffee)

One fine day, a well-dressed man walked into a cafe and made an order,
"Hello, I would like to order one hot coffee and one pending coffee, please."

The bartender gave him one cup of hot coffee.
The man drank his cup of coffee and paid for TWO cups of coffee, then he walked away.

Later, a ragged old man came into the shop and asked the bartender,
"Could I have one pending coffee, please?"

The bartender smiled, and gave the old man a cup of hot coffee.
Thankfully, the old man drank it, thanked the bartender, and went away.
He didn't pay for the cup of coffee.

Because someone else paid it for him.

--- *** ---

Pending coffee.
It wasn't the coffee that made the front cover of this story, but the 'pending' order made.
It wasn't for them. It was for those who needed it. Those who couldn't afford to have it.

Judging by the condition of our society here, we have a looooong way to go to reach that level of courtesy and practice as a whole community.

Cheers, everyone.
Oh, and make that two. One 'pending'.

Tile 1 (Animal Affections)

Miow-car.
He got that name through his amusing habit of sunbathing on almost every car roofs almost all the time. Not only that, he has this unusual tendency to jump right into an open car door, if it is opened before him.
Due to his 'passion' and 'love' towards cars, we named him "Miow-car" (pronounced meo - car).

A sad day it is today.
06 August 2013. Tuesday.
In fact, I never thought I would feel this sad towards the death of just an animal. Our family's pet hamster died due to illness.
Maybe, maybe it isn't just an animal.
Maybe it meant more than that to me.
This affection would never come without reason.

I remembered how I treated kittens during those dark early ages.
I remembered how I always reacted towards resting cats, dogs, and other caged animals when I was a youngster.
I remembered how I saw these animals, domestic and wild alike, as just animals.

And I believe that this change of heart is not just for the animals currently living, but also for those deceased and from the olden age of ours.
And for me too.