Back in His Hands

As I've posted in the some previous postings before, my colleagues and I are enjoying our office hours listening to music while working because each of us was provided a new headphone by the IT team (for skype calls activity). So that's how then I started to add my playlist with new good songs such as this and this and many more, they're such good songs I must confess.

Then I think I was wrong when I accidentally stumbled across a stricking article we all can reflect to. The article tells about a story of a young man who died in a motorcycle accident. He instantly died just after his body touched down the road, his belongings were scattered around him; bag, books, and mobile phone attributed with the earphone that still clinging to his ears. People took him directly to the nearest emergency unit but it was too late, he can't be helped. Later at the hospital, people found that his mother didn't mourn at this dead man at all, she even smiled instead.. You want to know why? That was because she listened first to the earphone after she took her son's mobile phone. Before turning it off, she relievedly said.. alhamdulillah. then she stared proudly to her son, believing that he has gone in peace.. this boy was dead in the companion of his God's words. He listened to a  surah recitation in the last moment of his life. Beautiful moment.

"Return to your Lord, well-pleased and pleasing [to Him], And enter among My [righteous] servants. And enter My Paradise."

~Al Fajr 27-30

And what about me? Or us? Would we want to die in a car accident,  where we are listening to cheesy love songs from the radio while driving? Would we want to die in a second without holding on to any grounds that remind us to God?

Astagfirullah, now I know why it is so hard lately for me to memorize some ayat. It must be because I spell the lyrics of those songs more often than the surah I'm learning. So for now, I think it's better start cleaning my MP3 playlist from even those so-called good music and everlasting songs. Oh could I? :(

Calling All Muslimah Bloggers

Assalamualaikum dear muslimah blogger sisters,

Do you wanna be one of the inspiring blogs written by lovely sisters throughout the world? If yes, please kindly join sister Rabia's blogger directory here. I appreciate her much for initiating this cool idea. And I would really love to see you submitting your blog too, so we can have a place where blogging sisters could find each other and make good friends. :)

Randomly ranting, the end of the month always sounds creepy at work because it means deadline here and everywhere, all projects need to be done quickly before the time is up. I am so tiredly sucked up for being working owl then I think it's such a good idea to have another vacation, no? A real one I mean, not working related or visiting relatives. Any idea where to go now? What about India? Turkey, anyone? Or UK will sound fun, don't you think? hahaha, yes in my wildest dream, I suppose.

Aaah, I super envy this lucky boy for having the chance to study there and ever visited this place. It's Stonehenge! Famous thing usually pictured in wall calendars.

My younger brother would immediately kill me when he finds out his picture was uploaded here.

Across the Universe

So what's been happening now in my dear country? After the fear of subsequent coming of earthquake and tsunami following the one happened in Japan (I send a sincerest pray for the sadness of the victims insyaAllah everyone will be stand strong still there) we are faced to the bombing incident at the place of Liberal Islamic Network community.

Ulil Abshar Abdala, the star of this community once wrote in his social media account that it's ridiculous and amusingly stirred now when people try telling the others to confess their sins and do taubat (an act of asking mercy to God). Okay, I am kind of agree with this thought, because someone's faith to God can not be forced by others, it is only God whose the right to give so. But wait, making wrong understanding about Islam and spreading it out were too way more ridiculous. Yeah now I seem like the holiest person to judge others as the sinner. Sorry, my bad. I've ever written about this a while ago here, and till now it keeps me wondering what were they thinking? if using our intelligence to make reasoning in comprehending the idea of God and the meaning of our creation in this universe, why then the conjugation is so much different with the one firstly narrated by the Messenger? Don't we think that the knowledge we have is just like a little dust in the wind, even almost like nothing compared to Him. Oh dear God please give us all the truest enlightenment of this faith and tie us to it until the day we meet You.

Well, back to my question in the first paragraph, what's the next trending issue now? Book bomb; that has been sent to some other places after the first one. Hmm, I think we should reconsider bringing thick book to public places otherwise people would over suspect us. :)) Anyway, I wouldn't state my opinion about the bombing's aim itself while some friends I know said that this community deserves this as a counter-attack for the hatred that people hold for them. I politely seal my lips about this.

لَكُمْ دِينُكُمْ وَلِيَ دِينِ

(QS. 109:6)

Now I'm currently reading The End of Future, a very tendentious book written by my younger brother. It mostly speaks about environmental problems. Here, he persuades us to rethink about the global warming, deforestation, overfishing, etc that can stimulate environmental conflicts (read: war with weapons), like the ones happened on Afghanistan in 2001, ethnic conflict on Middle East, Eufrat-Tigris water dispute, social and environmental destruction caused by repressive mining exploitation in Papua, Indonesia, etc. 

Would we remain silent and just do nothing? Such a good question, bro.

Crochet Ice

My favorite from aab: Mulberry, Crochet Ice, and Forget-me-knot

Back in August last year, I was a bit surprised when my brother went home from Turkey, he brought me three pieces of Turkish women clothing. But now, hopefully he would love to buy me these abayas, and bring it when he comes back for good to Indonesia later because these UK-based shops have the most beautiful designs I really want :D Hope that he'll read this post! lol

imaan collections

I miss my dear cousins at this moment, even the last time I met one of them is on her wedding day months ago. Being grown-up has made us have our own priorities in life, so it seems like there's no time for having some fun together again just like in our dashing teenage years. Hmm.

 

PS: Above are another pictures from last year's Idul Fitri family gathering.

A Light Bulb

"A friendship between two people is like a house. When a light bulb burns out, you don't go & buy a new house. You FIX the light bulb."

~Islamic Thinking

Hellooow all dear loveliest, what's your plan for the upcoming weekend tomorrow?:) Mine will be seeing my best friend, and I'm so thrilled! =)

Morning Glory

It's GMT+7 time zone in Jakarta, so.. Good morning everyone! :)

Here's a list of some good points about YES that I copied from Stay Blessed facebook fanpage, go follow them and get inspired everyday!

1. when you say yes to something you don't enjoy, you're saying no to things that you love
2. when you say yes to a job you don't love, you're saying no to your dreams
3. when you say yes to someone you don't like, you're saying no to a fulfilling relationship
4. when you say yes to working overtime, you're saying no to your social life
5. when you say yes to unimportant tasks, you're saying no to your high value activities

I know, blogging early morning in the office is not so right.. but it's okay, isn't it?:D Let's do sincerely best everything we should do today!

Salam,
Mustika

Stop and Stare

Frankly speaking,  I always felt more secure to write personal things over here in my blog rather than expressing it in facebook, you may ask why? because there are some professional colleagues I connected with, there are my boss, clients, some acquaintances I don't really know in real life, even though later now I already have a specified friend list to put these professional world people into it so that they couldn't be able to see my post walls, status updates, and limited access to my personal photo albums. But then it becomes unsafe now that some people who intentionally want to know  more could easily bing or google my name and then finally stumble upon here, and.. end up misjudging. Who am I to complaint? I should have known the risks of having a blog and writing personal things online, but do I care?  I  consciously dare to take the risks so far, since writing a blog has been my very best way to pour my feelings out in either joyful or oppressed time, also this is the place where I could post freely about everything to then feel free afterward.

I think I should stop thinking over this unstated dazing thing. 

I've been considering about making my blog private, but in the end I decide to not doing so. People are pleased to think their own way, and there's no need to explain things from my side. Although it  actually made me sad in some extents, I won't state anything. I might seen  as a brainless, money thrower pragmatic Picky girl trying so hard to look highly-maintained and devoutly-pious, but I always appeal myself as genuine as I am here.. I know I am never a high-maintained girl and even not yet to be thoroughly religious. That I still have the chances to get new good and nice inspiring people world-widely throughout this page, I feel happy and relieved. :)

This Jakarta's twilight photo above was originally taken on our latest dinner meeting by a campus friend who turned out to work every weekday in the next cubicle. :D

Take the burden.. girl, inhale a deep breath and exhale slowly. Let's go back to work! Oh no, it's  almost 1 o'clock in the morning at home, and I said "work"!

Hardly Ever Heard

If you search for tenderness
it isn't hard to find.
You can have the love you need to live.
But if you look for truthfulness
You might just as well be blind.
It always seems to be so hard to give.

Honesty is such a lonely word.
Everyone is so untrue.
Honesty is hardly ever heard.
And mostly what I need from you.

I can always find someone
to say they sympathize.
If I wear my heart out on my sleeve.
But I don't want some pretty face
to tell me pretty lies.
All I want is someone to believe.

Honesty is such a lonely word.
Everyone is so untrue.
Honesty is hardly ever heard.
And mostly what I need from you.
.....

Another stress reliever shared by a colleague at office, re-performed Honesty by Beyonce Knowles, an everlasting good song which was firstly popularized by Billy Joel in 1979. 

A song, in which.. I can really relate to now, just realized it after some couples of playbacks. 

Now buddy, tell me where are you heading to, then I'll disclose my destination overtly as explicit as it can be. Otherwise, the time to take it all back is here, because things will not go anywhere, if there's no will to work hard in it together, if you keep moving on that conveyor belt platform. I am not a treadmill machine, mind you.

Haa, a very random post this must be for my fellow bloggers, I know, but it happened to be the same randomness for me too. So please bear with me in this grey-ish circumstance of mine. But  Beyonce's cover version is quite nice, no?:D Take your time while I prepare myself to attend a high school girl's wedding party! Happy sunday, all! :)

original image source.

Shrewdly Screwed

Can you imagine how cool is that I got huge amount of very new knowledge about macro economy, monetary crisis, non performing loan, subprime mortgage, regional recession, fiscal stimulus package, private investment, etc, etc, just within a couple of days by working on the report for a research market survey? And now my brain was like.. BOMB! exploded. Haha, this sounds hiperbolic, I know. But I could say that I am totally got trapped here, really, in this big down dark hole.

:(

I can't wait for this weekend, I hope it will be coming very soon insyaAllah, because I am planning to get myself paper-free for that two precious days and forget about those whole work things. Hmm what about window shopping? having me-time at home reading book? Going to cinema with the friends? or attending Islamic Book Fair at Senayan? Let's see then. But I just want to have fuuuuuun! :)

 

 

Don't you think the costumes wore by the girls above are so lovely and beautifully gorgeous? I have felt in love with abayas for a while and the feeling is getting bigger now, adding the fact that I am no longer really feel comfy being with my jeans. Haha. So it becomes acceptable for me to have big desire concerning abaya dresses. Well needless to say, now I think I am in the urge of going window shopping soon! :))

PS. images are the courtesy of Hijab House & Haya. Oh they indeed have so many stunning collections, would somebody get me one of them, please? Hehe.

She Owns the Night

I was a bit shocked knowing that some colleagues still read my blog. It's more shocking when they said that lately my writings are lot more serious and weight than usual. Hoho. Okay, people who know me in person will find it hard to believe that I am the person behind these words, because hmm..  well maybe I am too cheesy to think of and talk about those so called deep thoughts. Lol. Anyway, after office hour today my colleagues from research division at Jakarta office just had a dinner meeting to celebrate our winnings in the last regional research competition. See, we grabbed 3 ranks of 8 available defeating our  research co-workers from fellow countries.

Firstly, I'd also like to congratulate all the winners from Philippines,Vietnam, Thailand and Malaysia offices:

Oh I know, this will be cheesy, but after more than 2 years working experience here, this is my FIRST lifetime experience to ever win a regional competition (sixth rank is also a remarkable achievement, yes? haha)

 

Please meet my (hungry) research colleagues!:D

Ah.. and that's my tired face.. since I only have three to four hours for sleeping these days, but I am happy! I got the Dollars! :D

Anyway... let's just talking about minor and light things.. and set aside the serious topic for a while. :D To prevent continuous stress in facing abundant loads of works, my colleagues suggest me to listen what they usually listen in hectic time, and then I end up liking most of the songs from their playlist. Such as this one: She Owns the Night by Far East Movement Ft. Mohambi.

 

Oh, could anybody recommend another let's-go-to-the-floor music? LOL.

PS. The latest market research project in which I am involved in requires a lot of economical analysis here and there, and you know what.. now my boss asks me, the project manager, to learn more about extrapolation/interpolation theories which will be used as a method in this project. Oh okay, now I am an engineering graduate dealing with Econometrics. This is wrong. very wrong. :D

Happy Faces

Salam everyone! This is weekend's coming again! The days on previous weekday were running out of my control, that's why I suddenly felt out of the blue :P So when these high school besties asked me to have a lunch together, I can't let myself resist it. I know, being with these funny friends will be fun and entertaining, like always. One special thing I could learn from today's meeting with these people is more or less like this:

If you are expecting the one with whom you will spend your life to reach His bless; please be beautifully patient, s/he won't just come because of her/his attractiveness, wealth, and intelligence. Yet Allah who moves her/his heart. Don't express your inner feeling in haste before Allah  has permitted, we don't know if this one we really fall with is the best for us, do we? Who knows us better than Allah does? So keep with you all of any expression forms of feeling you might want to tell because, in the right time, Allah will answer your pray more beautifully. This is just a matter of time.

I am with a big relief now knowing that I am not the only great believer here in this kind of thing. Thank you so much buddies, for the happy and relaxing day! It's such a nice spiritual insight being with you in the sidelines of my crazy works. :)

PS: I would also send many many thanks to the sisters who gave me spirit to keep strong in faith. Salaam mabrook for all of you. Have a happy weekend with lovely people, ladies! :)

On Getting Back

My life has been very nice, very very nice.. Alhamdulillah .. even some struggles I did to push myself to the limits in every aspects have gave me pretty much valuable experiences in figuring out more and more about the life itself, hence there's slightly no single reason for not being grateful. So far, I have been surrounded by a bunch of good people; my family, my friends, my colleagues, and those people I just know. They can not be considered as too much in number though, but more than enough to be counted. These people have helped me finding the best version of myself, helped me pointing out where I should lead my life to, and helped me realizing that future can be so wonderfully challenging if I want to fight for it.

I don't know what's the point I am talking about, I just feel really scared that I am not good enough, to you, to people around me, and to others. And for any kinds of mistakes I've made I hope Allah would forgive. amiin. I also hope I could be better every day, better as a person.

"Ya Allah, verily I ask Your guidance, devotion, self preservation and heart that always feel enough." HR Muslim, no 2721.

These are the weirdest sentences I wrote as an opening for a photo post for my previous week's work trip. Hmm, I might be just physically and emotionally intruded by my monthly symptoms.  I don't know. So let's just forget it. :(

Anywayyy, I went back home yesterday, and works at the office are waiting like crazy. But I am happy that I somehow could still do something that can give benefit to others by what I am doing, despite the fact that this work has sucked up almost all of my energy..

 

 

The first two pictures above I took when we were looking around Kebun Sayur Market, the third  picture is one of project construction my partner and I visited, a working place of tourism in picture number four and the last one is a picture toward local people housings located exactly in front of our hotel window.

Ah, help! I feel really bad now! :(

Touching Down

Allah (subhanahu wa ta’ala) said:
If you never felt pain or experienced problems, how would you know I’m the Healer?
If you never made a mistake, how would you know I’m the Forgiver?
If you were never hurt, how would you know I am the Comforter?
If your life was perfect, then why would you need Me?

 ~Hadith Qudsi

Life teaches us about the meaning of gratitude in every end of the dawn, about how to work hard during the day, about to smile with relief when twilight comes, also to feel content after which we fall asleep at night. Yet not to forget to wake up at the third part of the night as the sign of faithfulness, touching down our forehead on the floor, asking forgiveness and blessings.

It's March already, people! Means that we have reached the last month in the first quarter of 2011.  The phrase "time flies so fast" has been so common today, right? So have we made the most of our time pursuing best things to really happen in our life? :)