My first steps with Arabic Calligraphy

Salam All,

Here are two paintings that I finished recently, An Nour ( the Light) and Ar Rahman ( the Merciful). They are part of a series on surahs on the Holy Quran, and I hope to make some more soon Insha Allah! They are my first oil paintings after a long long

 break, and I really enjoyed working on them. It is also the first time I use Arabic Calligraphy, and i hope to get better in the future. I'm actually desperately looking for a calligraphy teacher in London at the moment, if anyone can help please drop me a line! 

We are all GAZA

Salams to all, 

A quick message to call all of you to stand by Gaza, please go out and demonstrate wherever you are and show the Palestinians that this massacre won't go unnoticed and let's put pressure on our governments to call for an end to the murders of hundreds of civilians! For those living in London, there will be two important demonstrations in London next weekend, one on Saturday at 2 in Parliament square, and then on Sunday in front of the Israeli embassy in High Street Kensington. In this terrible time for our brothers on Gaza, please give generously to the charities helping Palestinians in their daily struggle for survival, such as Interpal, Islamic Relief, Muslim Hands, Ummah Welfare Trust (UWT)...

By the way, to all Lloyds TBS customers, Lloyds has been blocking its customers from sending money to the British charity Interpal, which has been bringing relief to Palestinians for several years now. It claims that this charitable organization was funding Hamas, a claim that was dismissed following an investigation in the UK. Therefore, I urge you to close your accounts with Lloyds and write a letter to the general manager explaining that this is just an unacceptable move in the current context to block money destined to help impoverished and targeted people. 

And remember, 'Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere' Martin Luther King

Thanks for all the support, this means a LOT to Palestine.

A journey to Islam

Salam! To kick off my blog, I figured out I should introduce myself a bit, so that you people know who you are reading. I came to Islam about a year ago, introduced by several friends, and after long months of study. It hasn't been a easy road, having to put all my beliefs in question and challenge myself to become a better human being, but it's been a rewarding one. I am now a much happier, smiley, stable young woman, blessed with a great husband and millions of amazing beautiful sisters, miles away for my old self destructing ways. I have always been into arts, music and theatre, and Islam made me reconsider my practice. I stopped experimenting with music, an area that I used to love, but I'm now learning calligraphy. I stopped exposing myself as much as I used to, in typical 'tortured artist' and my work is now clearer and more thought through. I also started writing more, and I'm currently working on a short play. Hamdoulillah, I feel really blessed to be part of this Ummah, to have discovered a faith so pure, complete and logical. I still struggle with Arabic and Tajweed though!