Dear Dad, on what would have marked the beginning of the 54th year of your life. I know that you will never be able to see this message, but I will still continue to used the 2nd person pronoun to address 'you'. I know you will never be able to see this message, but it could quite possibly withhold the most meaningful words that I've ever said to you, or more so never did say. I know that you will never see this message, but I wish that you could.  Happy Birthday, Dad. Or at least it would have been, had you been here. I remember your last birthday with us in this World. We all came to visit you in the hospice, me, Daniel, Callum, Tasha, your sisters, and more. We thought it would be a good idea to surprise you, Daniel and Tasha set up your room with banners and balloons, I bought some cupcakes and placed candles in each spelling "Happy Birthday". I bought you a comfortable pair of pyjamas, since there wasn't much else that would be useful to you by that poin...

Bismillah.  I think we are all familiar with the tension and dread that daunts us prior to, during and after exams - not to mention that multiplied significantly when results day is close. But why?  I saw a photo on Instagram that said something along the lines of "All I want to do is learn stuff and not have compulsory tests on it, like, I love learning new stuff and reading new books, but when I stress myself out to the point where I'm crying because of exams; that kinda takes the fun out of it".  I think everybody that is studying something that they genuinely enjoy can relate to those words. Thing is, we make it sound as though it's impossible.  Solution 1: Don't go to University.   This was my plan for a long time. Secondary education is compulsory for us here in the UK as far as I know, but any other subsequent means of education aren't. For that reason, there was a time when I didn't want to be sucked into university just because society mad...

Salaam to any of you still reading this abandoned blog! I recently had to write an essay for my University course (Yes. Uni. Me. Later to be explained insha'Allah), and given that it was for Middle Eastern Studies, I wrote about the differences between Sunni and Shia Muslims. I thought that it might be beneficial to post the essay on here, as it is a topic that is very much dismissed, whereas I think that is important for all Muslims, especially reverts, to know the truths and differences. Let's take into consideration that I'm by no means a scholar of any kind, and if anybody notices any wrong information here, please inform me of it. Bismillah.  What are the differences and similarities between Shi’ite doctrines and ritual practices and those of the Sunni’s?   Sunni and Shia are two of the most prominent and acknowledged branches of Islam and although they are both similar in that they testify the Oneness of God and abide by the main articles of faith, there a...

Presence. Something that I've been thinking a lot about recently in the way that we as Muslims dismiss the presence of Allah swt and the Imam of our time, Imam Mahdi (AS). I attended a lecture recently where the speaker made some inappropriate references or made taboo jokes in order to appeal to our generation, mentioning no names as a lot of speakers have started to direct messages towards us in this way unfortunately. I say unfortunately because how have we come to this stage where we can't simply listen to a lecture on our religion that is straight to the point without some unnecessary added humour? Can't we just listen and take knowledge? Is Islam really a topic that we should take so lightly? There is laughter in the audience whilst I find myself gathering these thoughts, no signs of positive emotion on my face, looking blankly at the speaker. Maybe this makes me boring, maybe this simply makes me a little more aware of the presence that is not physical like the rest ...

I mentioned in my Introduction  that I may include some of my photography work on this blog, so that I am doing. I will keep it short as this time the main focus is the photographs, below is a collection of photos taken by myself mostly on my Canon 700D. The photos were all organised shoots using my friends as models, and most of the shots contributed towards my photography work in college.  The first little collection of photographs below are from when I had some kind of floral/nature theme going with my work, hence all of the pretty bright colours as it was a project set in Spring where the sun was on my side of things.  Results of taking a trip to your local park with your wonderful and beautiful best friend, thanks Mash. -    Moving on, below are some images with a slightly darker feel to them, in my first year of photography at college I decided on a fairytale theme for my project. Unfortunately some images from...