Bismillahirrahmanirraheem..
alhamdulillah, i'm back in Malaysia, n we're in a new home now, i named it Baitul Asma, which means High House, or maybe also House in the Sky, n it has my Mum's name in it as well, so i think it's a perfect name for this house~ lol.
this is the view from Baitul Asma. SubhanAllah.. this was taken on a fine day (no rain).. one can actually see the Kelantan River from our windows n verandah. so in the monsoon season such as now, i can monitor the level of the Kelantan River, which i hope you can vaguely see in the panorama image above.
now, referring to my previous entry, about the ni'mah of having lots of free time n how to use that free time as an ibadah to Allah. i know some friends are doing summer school back in NZ, n mashaAllah that's a great thing to do in order to fully occupy yourself with digging into knew knowledge in search of Allah's Greatness n His Pleasure. well to those at home, don't lose hope! don't get bored! there's loads to do!
inshaAllah, i'll be sharing some ideas/projects in this entry and the coming one, which we can do at home with our siblings/relatives/friends to occupy our time benefecially, inshaAllah. apart from the heaps of books n blogs that we can read, there are also lots of activities that we can do in order to fill our time wisely and achieve a lot of other objectives. i will be babbling mostly about artistic activities, as that's my area of interest apart of medicine/science! =]
so, back to the core business, in everything we do, it is really important to purify our niat (intentions), n try our best to have goals/objectives that we would like to achieve, n then try our best to achieve them. in terms of arts, there are lots of activities/projects we can do. alhamdulillah, Allah gave me an idea to do Art Projects with my youngest sister, who also likes arts. our first project is making a 'Tabung Infak' for our house, The 'Tabung Infak' Project. it's a container, where anyone can donate money, which would be given to those in need, in the cause of Allah.. or in other words, to give alms.
in order to do this, i had to explain to her what INFAK is, n why we are doing this project. so you see, the objectives for doing this project are, not just to fill our time beneficially, but also for bonding with my sis, to collect money in the cause of Allah, to educate n create awareness among our family n guests about INFAK, n above all, to gain Allah's pleasure, inshaAllah.. alhamdulillah, we finished the project n i hope we did achieve all the objectives listed! just to share how we made it, i inserted some pics below. enjoy!

using a used container, we just stuck some colourful ice-cream sticks (which i got from a camp i went in Wellington - Mukhayyam Al-Badr ;). my sis also had some too. hehe)
together, we painted a strip of paper, to be lined around the wall inside the container, to make it more colourful n attractive!

i poked the lid of the container using a pair of scissors n it created a nice straight cut in the middle of the lid. as it was too hard to cut a hole through it (for the money to be inserted into it), i used some folded cardboard to hold the slit open. quite spontaneously got the idea to make a cute smiley on the lid, with the folded cardboard being the two 'sticking-out' teeth~ hehe..

the finished Tabung Infak! alhamdulillah~ =]
but wait! we need something that people can read to know what infak is all about.. the 'educate n create awareness' objective! remember?? hurm..
so we painted a piece of cardboard...
...n wrote some important notes about INFAK. with some nice quotes from the Holy Quran, to explain the virtues of INFAK.
"Who is there that will lend to Allah a goodly loan? Then He will double it for him many a doubling. For, Allah receives and amplifies; and to Him you will be returned." [Quran, 2:245]
"The Parable of those who spend their wealth in the way of Allah is like the parable of a grain which grows into seven ears, in every ear a hundred grains. And Allah multiplies for whom He pleases; for Allah is ample-Giving, all-Knowing. Those who spend their wealth in the way of Allah, then do not follow up what they have spent with obligation, nor injury; for them is their reward with their Rabb, and there is no fear on them nor will they grieve." [Quran, 2:261-262]
Alhamdulillah, done! =]
Alhamdulillah, we were satisfied with the outcome, n i hope it would be a long lasting 'Tabung Infak'.. inshaAllah, the money collected would be donated to any mosque/Islamic institution/Muslim in need.. for the cause of Allah..
finally, i would like to say that, anyone can do da'wah (inviting one to Islam.. embracing Islam as a way of life).. one just needs the urge to do it, Islamic knowledge, some brains n a good heart in attracting one's attention to Islam. Allah didn't give brains n hearts to us for no purpose~ so use them wisely! in the case of an eight-year old who likes arts, like my li'l sis, I chose Arts to win her heart.. =D
inshaAllah, you can do it too!
next project, some done n more to go, inshaAllah: The 'Decorating-our-house-with-Zikrullah' Project.. =]