WHAT TO WEAR: Casual summer cotton dots-print dress

I really love the red cotton "dots" dress worn by @mariellehaon on her insta account last summer. It makes me want to go search for red dot printed fabric to make a more modest alternative!

The closest online ones I could find were on aliexpress but nothing I would order really. I love the idea of a creamy scarf, instead of an obvious white one.

OOTD: leopard print skirt with abaya

 Abaya: I tailored it myself from fabric I bought here in Oman but I have found the same sort of style on www.aliexpress.com

Skirt: Vintage (and I am wearing it with a cotton black button up top that was from Mango).

Shoes: Vintage

Basket: From Fanja Souq in Oman

WHAT TO WEAR: casual summer with a leopard print shirt and white cotton top

Hello blog. Longtime since you have heard from me, I know.

I am bored tonight, and I decided to say hi again in the most superficial way possible in the form of a fashion "inspiration board"///make it modest type of post. It is 2020 now. Crazy, right? But I don't feel like explaining my absence or my personal life, or my Islam tonight (forgive) so this is the best I have to offer right now.

It is the world of Instagram these days, and Tiktok, and youtube, and blogs seem so old-school...but...I like antique and old things. I browse Instagram though:), and I did love this outfit by a classic European insta-girl @jestem_kasia :

The leopard skirt, basket, and simple white cotton shirt just seemed so fresh and summery! (Of course it is winter now, but I live in Muscat, Oman now, not Canada anymore, and so, winter in Oman is like summer in Canada.

I found the white cotton tunic dress in my inspiration board from Riva (www.rivafashion.com) and I own a long leopard skirt that is vintage that I wear already. I am big on trying to be sustainable these days, and I love vintage, and I love baskets. I don't personally own a French market bag, or a wicker basket like the European insta set, but I do have palm frond baskets from Oman from @alejtyah who hand-makes them.

I would probably still wear an abaya on top of this leaving my yard but:) I do like the look of it. Nice and cool.

Was It for Lust?-An Answer about the wives of the Prophet Mohammed S.A.W

Any of those who wish to attack Islam must first attack the reputation of our beloved Prophet Mohammed (salla Allah alaihi wa sallam), as indeed has been done by the enemies of Islam since the day Allah (Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala) first guided His Messenger to testify to the Oneness of God. To do so in this day and age, they often bring up the issue of multiple wives, to scare us away from seeking out more knowledge of who this man actually was who Allah (Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala) chose to reveal the Qu'ran to and have him worthy enough to guide mankind in its matters.

It has always been easy for an educated historian to reply to that: Christianity and Judaism also allowed for multiple wives as King Soloman had 700 wives and over 300 slaves in the Torah and the Bible. Islam is the only religion to have put a cap on how many wives a man could have [four] and remains the only religion to say it is better to marry only one. Critics of Islam will then ask, why did the Prophet Mohammed (salla Allah alaihi wa sallam) marry more than one then?

The first wife (and first Muslim) of the Prophet Mohammed (salla Allah alaihi wa sallam), was a 40 year old twice widowed woman of great wealth and beauty belonging to the clan of Banu Hashim named Khaidijah bint Khuwaylid (may Allah be pleased with her) who was also the mother of three sons. Khadijah bint Khuwaylid was much sought after as a wife by many for both her beauty, and her wealth. By 585 CE, Khadijah was left a widow and the mother of three sons. Despite having married twice, and twice losing her husband to the ravaging wars to which Arabia was subjected, she showed no inclination to marry a third time, even though she was sought for marriage by many honorable and highly respected men of the Arabian peninsula, throughout which she was quite famous, due to her business dealings.

The Prophet Mohammed (salla Allah alaihi wa sallam) who was 15 years younger than Khadijah, was also of a noble family, but he was an orphan and was not a man of many means. He had made a meager living tending sheep in the hills surrounding the city. Yet, at 25 years old, he had an impeccable moral character, and he was widely known as one of the most honest men around, and his reputation for honesty helped his uncle Abu Talib to convice Khaidjah to hire him on with one of her caravans. She sent him one of her servants, Maysarah, who was young, brilliant, and talented, to assist him and be Mohammed's bookkeeper. She also trusted Maysarah's account regarding her new employee's conduct, an account that was most striking, indeed one that encouraged her to abandon her decision never to marry again. After he came back from his first business trip, she asked her servant, whom she sent with him, about him and his conduct. The servant amazed her by his report: this young man was the kindest, gentlest man he had ever met. Never did he treat the servant harshly, as many others do. Yet, there was more: as they traveled in the heat of the desert, the servant noticed that a cloud had followed them the entire time, shading them from the blazing sun.

With the passage of time, Khadijah's admiration for Muhammad (salla Allah alaihi wa sallam), developed into a deeper affection. Khadijah was by then convinced that she had finally found a man who was worthy of her, so much so that she initiated the marriage proposal herself, sending her sister to speak with him about marriage. She asked him, "Why are you not married, yet?" "For lack of means," he answered. "What if I could offer you a wife of nobility, beauty, and wealth? Would you be interested?" she told him. He replied in the affirmative, but when she mentioned Khadijah, the young employee chuckled in amazement. "How could I marry her?! She has turned down the most noble men in the city, much wealthier and prominent than me, a poor shepherd," he said. "Don't you worry," the sister replied, "I'll take care of it."

The Prophet Mohammed (salla Allah alaihi wa sallam), at twenty-five years of age married forty year old widowed beauty Khadijah bint Kuwaylid, and they remained married for 25 years. In a time when marriage to a woman meant taking over ownership of all her property and taking multiple wives, the Prophet (salla Allah alaihi wa sallam) never took a dinar of Khadijah's money that she did not give in a gift to him and to the cause of Islam, and he never thought of divorcing her and making off with her money to marry a younger prettier entourage (as he was legally entitled to do so in the land but NOT within the laws of Islam [so the argument that he just married her and had to be faithful to her for her money is NULL]). It wasn't until after his death that he began to consider marriage again, and when he finally agreed, it was, he said, it was because he so missed the companionship of Khadijah.

The Prophet Muhammad (salla Allah alaihi wa sallam) mourned her deeply, and even after her death, the Prophet would send food and support to Khadijah's friends and relatives, out of love for his first wife. Once, years after Khadijah died, he came across a necklace that she once wore. When he saw it, he remembered her and began to cry. His love for her never died, so much so, that his later wife, A'isha became jealous of her memory. Once she asked the Prophet if Khadijah had been the only woman worthy of his love. The Prophet replied: "She believed in me when no one else did; she accepted Islam when people rejected me; and she helped and comforted me when there was no one else to lend me a helping hand."

Much has been made and said about Prophet Muhammad's (salla Allah alaihi wa sallam), multiple marriages. There are many who smear the Prophet (salla Allah alaihi wa sallam), as a womanizing philanderer, citing his multiple marriages. This is absolute propaganda. As a response to those who malign the Prophet, as if the Prophet were anything of the sort, he would have taken advantage of his youth to do such a thing. But he did not! At a time when it was a common custom to have multiple wives, the Prophet (salla Allah alaihi wa sallam), did not marry anyone else while he was with Khadijah.

It was only two years after Khadijah died, may God be pleased with her, that he married other women. He was then 52 years old. Let us examine his other marriages. First off, all of them excepting Aisha (R.A) were widows, many with children that he had to struggle to support. For instance, Sawda (R.A), was EIGHTY YEARS OLD and a widow. One woman, Safiyah (R.A) converted to Islam and divorced her husband and no one else offered to care for her. One woman was Christian, and one was Jewish.

As for Aisha (R.A) the Prophet salla Allah alaihi wa sallam asked for her hand from Abu Bakr when she was 8 years old and in the presence of the girl's mother who agreed, and they were married when she was ten. Aisha (R.A) had her period by then (I had mine at eight years of age). One of my grandmothers got married at fifteen in 1913, and the other at sixteen in 1930....Anyways, Aisha (R.A) loved her husband very much, and she is historically documented to have expressed how much in various recorded hadith. People like to call him, astaghfurallah, a child molester, would have to accuse their own ancestors of the same thing, because if you go back a few hundred years, let alone the same century as the Prophet Mohammed's lifetime, your own ancestor's will be marrying very young. Marie Antionette of Austria/France, for example, was married at fourteen years old (as soon as she had her menstruation).

C'mon people that-- astighfurallah--- accuse the Prophet salla Allah alaihi wa sallam of being a pervert: most of these wives were widows, whom the Prophet salla Allah alaihi wa sallam married to care after them, or they were the daughters of prominent Arab chieftains, so that the Prophet could form a cohesive Muslim society out of a fiercely tribalistic Arab culture. While doing so, the Prophet Mohammed salla Allah alaihi wa sallam was very much in his old age and was being persecuted and forced out his land for nine years, tying rocks to his abdomen because of hunger from lack of food, sleeping on straw mats... Sure, he definitely needed another mouth to feed. I'm sure, at fifty+ years and nigh starving to death all he could think about was sex. I don't know if you've ever been hungry, like I mean, you haven't eaten for weeks, well, your sex drive is one of the first things to go... C'MON!!!!!!! The smears against the Prophet salla Allah alaihi wa sallam fall flat on their faces once the light of truth shines brightly upon them.

Ange's Awesome Post about the Wives of the Prophet Mohammed S.A.W

Ange from ﷲӇҿɡɑɓ~Ṙҿɧɑɓﷲ just posted, mashaAllah, this awesome entry (so I had to re-post it):

(based on the Prophet's Life)
The Prophet had 12 wives over his life time.
His 12 wives were:

Khadijah Bint Khuwaylid (first wife - for 25 years until her death)

Sawdah Bint Zamaah (widow)
Aisha Bint Abi Bakr (the only virgin)
Hafsah Bint Omar
Zainab Bint Khuzaymah
Umm Salamah a.k.a Hind Bint Otbah (widow)
Zainab Bint Jahsh
Juwayriyah Bint Al-Harith
Safiyah Bint Huyay Ibn Akhtab (Jewish)
Ummo Habibah Ramlah Bint Abi Sofian (widow)
Mariya Bint Shamoun (Egyptian & christian)
Maymonah Bint Al-Harith

ONLY ONE WAS A VIRGIN (Aisha). The rest were previously widows or divorced. Safiya was a Jew and Mariya was a Christian. He married Khadijah when he was 25 and she was 40 years old. They stayed married until she died, when he was 50 (25 year long marriage). He mourned her for 2 years and remarried at age 52. He married Sawdah, who was 80 years old, in order to honour her for becoming Islam's first widow. It is said that Mohammed the Man married Khadijah, but Mohammed the Prophet married the rest. From the ages of 52-60 he remarried several times for political and social reasons (bring tribes together, political alliances, etc). This was done many times throughout world and religious history.. others who were polygamous (in Islam - Biblical Sources) were Prophets: Ibrahim (Abraham), Dawood (King David) & Sulaiman (King Soloman).

A certain type of woman was not preferred above another: The virginal status of the woman didnt matter - as in it was not important if she was previously married (therefore not a virgin). The age of the wife did not matter, whether very young or very old (as long as she had menstrual cycles a.k.a considered a woman in those days). Many girls, once they had reached puberty, were considered women in areas like Rome, Persia and Arabia. The social status of the wife did not matter. The religion of the wife did not matter (as long as she was from the People of the Book {Jewish, Muslim or Christian}).He married for friendship ties and strengthening relationships: He married Abi Bakr's daughter and Omar's sister to strengthen the relationship. He married his own daughters to Ali and Othman. He married Mariya the Egyptian. Afterwards, the Egyptians sided with him and embraced Islam. After he married Juwayriyah, the people of her tribe, Bani Al-Mustalaq, embraced Islam after battling with the Muslims.

Why am I telling you this????
I write this in the hope of Brothers, who are looking to marry, to stop fussing over whether their prospective bride is a virgin or not. Whether she was married before. Whether she is Christian or Jewish. Many of the mothers of these wanting-to-marry Brothers go crazy about making sure their sons marry 'innocent' virgins, who come from a good muslim family (good usually by their own cultural standings and class - not by islamic standards). They reject and veto any thought of their precious son marrying a girl who is a Christian or a Jew... or even a Muslim girl who was previously married and now divorced. They even prefer a younger girl and subhanna'Allah they will reject a prospective girl just because she is maybe one or two years older than the boy, even though our beloved Prophet married his first wife who was 15 years older! Subhanna'Allah!Sons and Mothers - please think about the Prophet's marital life and experiences and what is really preferred for a husband. Stop fussing over age, virginity, social class and status, etc.Think about what marital life really needs - a caring, devout, religious, kind, devoted, well mannered, respectful, loving wife who will take beautiful care and love of her husband and any children they have together. Because marrying an attractive virgin from a wealthy, well classed family WILL NOT guarantee any man's happiness or a secured Islamic future.